Dear Gods - MAKE IT STOP!

[trystinn]

Yet another Aquarian Tabernacle Church member on A&J touting the fraudulent British Tradition Wicca claim of theirs. Not only is it still on their website, it appears to be still making the rounds via their teachings. Eddie is probably way past getting tired of this - its now what? an annual discussion?

It is far past time for the ATC Elders to be honest about their origins. I can actually appreciate why Daniel hasn't done it, given the treatment he got when he claimed the ATC was "American Gardnerian" on LJ, but Debbie's known about this bogus claim for years and certainly Pete knows his BTW credentials are inaccurate. Which may be part of the problem right there, granted.

The ATC stands on its own, for its service to the pagan community - constantly disrespecting themselves with such erroneous claims is absolutely ridiculous.

Comments

[dolmena.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether it can be stopped.

Ja did a report once on Pete Pathfinder as part of a generic-pagan-clergy-training thing we were doing. He hadn't been keeping track of PP or ATC for years. He was, um, sourly amused at the origin story he found, which differed from what he had known many years ago; he made a point of mentioning the inconsistencies in front of our "teacher" and fellow students. Locally, some ATC people whom I liked have confused me by apparently giving out different stories about what they do, as well as other stuff...

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

There are many origin stories on the ATC, several of which come from more trustworthy sources than the ATC itself. Given that Daniel (Prince Kermit) is rather notorious for white-washing the history of the ATC and Pete's (lack of) credentials, this is very confusing. A bit of objective research on his part would do a world of good - there are several very prominant BTWs in the area that are much better sources of information on Pete and the ATC.

The three stories I have been given by Pete as to why the ATC considers itself BTW:
1) Pete was a Kingstone.
Rebuttal: He only obtained initiation to the first degree.

2) Pete was recognized as a Priest through a "Recognition Ritual" by Raymond Buckland.
Rebuttal: No such ritual can confer BTW status.

3) Pete was trained and Eldered in the Dorpat Wicca tradition.
Rebuttal: Dorpat is not a recognized BTW tradition. Frankly, no one has ever heard of it.

The whole situation is very, very confusing and I'm saying this as an inactive ATC Initiate - especially when they keep re-writing the ATC history page. BTW: The Internet Way Back Machine is hysterically informative when researching this.

[dolmena.livejournal.com]

Ja was working from a book with interviews, whatever was the current internet story, and what he remembered from his former partner/HPS's correspondence with Pete/Pierre, and I think some meetings in person, which was apparently in the late '70s or early '80s.

[dolmena.livejournal.com]

Oh, re: the DorPat tradition: I noted that in the reference Ja had for this story, the tradition name was capitalized in a way that was very uncommon until after the spread of internet use by commercial interests-- say, the 90s. It doesn't look like a name that was made up when the reference implied it was.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Very interesting, thank you.