Magic Mother First published in Diva, December 1997 ©Katrina Fox 2001

©Millivres Ltd

KATRINA FOX is bewitched by pagan priestess Jacqueline Martin

Jacqueline Martin is a friendly, down-to earth, straight-talking dyke. She also happens to be a witch. Born in Cornwall, she has been a Pagan for most of her life: "All witches are Pagans, but not all Pagans are witches," she explains. "There are loads of different traditions - a bit like Christianity, where you have Quakers, Jehovah's Witnesses and so on. Some Pagans are just people of the earth who worship the seasons, and others, like myself, celebrate the Goddess and practice witchcraft and magic."

Training in the "Craft" consists of learning to use and control energies, seeing auras, journeying in your mind to other places, studying herbs and their healing properties, and learning about the mythology and beliefs of the culture. Each coven or circle has different hierarchical structures and Jacqueline is the Priestess or Spiritual Mother in hers: "I am from a Celtic tradition. I teach the religion to others and lead the ceremonial rituals which take place at certain times throughout the year.

"And it's funny, you know," she adds, smiling ironically, "for every Christian festival, a Pagan one runs underneath. When the Christians took over they couldn't get rid of the Pagan festivals and the best way to stamp out something is to build your things over the top. That's why most churches are built on sacred Pagan energy lines."

So, Pagans will be celebrating the shortest day of the year at Winter Solstice while the Christians will be celebrating the birth of Christ. "I never could work out why Christmas is in December," says Jacqueline. "I've heard that Jesus was born in March, June, July, or even September, but definitely not December! A lot of Pagan symbols have been parodied and carlooned, like our Stag God, Herne the Hunter, who has been turned into Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Still, I often wonder - why do you have fairies on top of your trees?"

An even bigger smile creeps across Jacqueline's face as she proceeds to tell me about a rumour that has been going round Pagan circles for years: "I've heard that Mary and Joseph were gay. Apparently 90 per cent of Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary, who isjust another personification of the Goddess. The Christians couldn't get rid of the Goddess, so they desexualised her, made her into Mary and disempowered women's sexuality. If she gave birth, it would be sexualising her, so they came up with the immaculate conception. This only goes to prove the theory that Mary and Joseph didn't have sex. Instead, Joseph artificially inseminated Mary. Oh, the dykes are going to love this," she laughs.

When asked if she's a black or a white witch, she says, "The saying goes that if you can heal you can hex and if you can cure you can curse. Energy is energy, it's what intention you use it for that makes it work and anyone who knows how to use energy and power can use it for good or bad. The difference is that most witches wouldn't use it for bad things. "I perform magic mostly for healing, both for myself and others. Also in my coven we sometimes do healing for the planet. Most witches are ecologically sound, but then there's nothing to say you can't practise magic to make your business go better!"

Jacqueline works as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist in Deptford. "I went to a hypnotherapist myself after failing my driving test three times and after the session I passed it so easily and thought it was great. It seemed a natural progression to me as I'd been learning meditation and trance states in the circle for over 12 years."

One of her Pagan beliefs had to be modified when she started practising as a therapist. "I had always believed in absolute karma - that every little thing that happened to you was because of what you'd done in a past life. People around me were dying of Aids and were accepting it as karma, but when I came to study hypnotherapy I couldn't condone that belief any longer. No child asks to be abused, no one deserves to get cancer. I always tell people now that they can change their behaviour and circumstances using psychotherapy or hypnotherapy."

Pots of different herbs and potions line the shelves of the room used as a temple in Jacqueline's flat. "I make up most of my own herbal remedies, as I was brought up with them. My mum never gave me tablets - she comes from an era in Cornwall where there were no hospitals and you had to gather herbs for medicine."
As a child, no religious doctrine was forced on Jacqueline or her brothers: "I remember my mother hiding us kids behind the sofa when the local priest knocked on the door! She said that when we were old enough, we would decide for ourselves. " By the age of 10 Jacqueline knew she was gay: "I was adamant on going to an all girls school, even though it was a lot further away than the mixed one," she says.

And coming out was a breeze: "I was 19 and remember sitting on the stool in the kitchen while my mum was doing the washing and out of the blue I said 'Mum, you do know I'm gay, don't you?' And she said, very matter of factly, 'Yes, it had crossed my mind, dear.' Every one talks about their big emotional coming out, but I guess I've got a fab mum!"

Yet Jacqueline has experienced some homophobia from within the Pagan community. "Most Pagans are absolutely fine, but there are some - I call them fundamentalist Pagans - who are completely bigoted and homophobic. I was once in a circle of polarity witches. Polarity witches believe that magic only works as a result of the two energies of male and female. One man in the group told me I was unbalanced because I was gay. Now, as far as I'm concerned, a homophobic, bigoted, macho man is far more unbalanced than a gay person who is peace-loving. The individual who is balanced can make magic - you don't need an opposite sex.
"A lot of the Polarity rituals symbolically represent the sex act between a man and a woman because the sex act is how procreation takes place. But nature often donor inseminates - all the time you get spawn and eggs which are fertilised outside the body. And what's even more important for me is that nature is very bisexual."
As if on cue, Jacqueline's female dog, Kunjrie, starts rubbing its genitals against her other dog, Della. "See - dyke dogs!" shrieks Jacqueline gleefully.

"Anyway, this same guy also slagged me off because I had originally trained with a Dianic group. Most lesbian covens are Dianic and worship Diana, the Goddess of Hunting. So not only was he attacking me personally because of my sexuality, but he had no respect for my religion either, even though we were both witches.
"Most polarity witches are against gay handfasting (the equivalent of mar riage), but I've performed several lesbian handfastings. The gay Pagan world is getting a bit fed up with these kind of homophobic polarity witches and are forming their own covens."

Strangely enough, most of Jacqueline's girlfriends have been non-Pagans. "Although I seem to have introduced them along the way," she adds with a cheeky grin. She tends to be open about her Paganism and witchcraft from the beginning and "has never had one freak out yet!"

She believes lesbians are drawn to Paganism because the Goddess is -n powerful: "She gives birth and can also take life away. I don't see how God can give birth to anything if he's a bloke," she jokes. Unlike Christianity, where sex is taboo, Paganism embraces sex as an expression of love and does not consider it to be dirty or nasty. "It had to be a man that thought up a religion where you can do what you want because you can confess afterwards and everything is made all right," says Jacqueline. "And no, we don't have rampant sex orgies," she adds, with a glint in her eye.

I ask her if anyone can be a witch. She ponders for a while and then says: "I believe we have all got latent powers, like our sixth sense, but we've lost them because we call ourselves 'civilised'. I believe primitive peoples are far more spiritual than we are. And the sad thing is that the West is now looking to the East for spirituality, instead of recognising that we have our own traditions right on our doorstep."

For anyone wishing to explore Paganism or witchcraft Jacqueline recommends petitioning (praying to) the Goddess to send a teacher, and if it is the right time in your life, someone will come. "The best time to attract something into your life is the Spring, when everything is growing. And if you want to get rid of something, Winter is the time to do it - so now is the time to do weight loss spells, girls!" she says.

Just as she stands up to get ready for a coven meeting, Jacqueline quickly adds: "Oh yes, and for some reason, love and money spells never work out. If you want love, don't target a particular person, just attract love into your life. And if you want money, buy a lottery ticket. I've chanted over a few tickets, but I'm still waiting for Mystic Meg to announce that this week's winner is going to be a lesbian witch!"

Diva is the UK's national lesbian lifestyle magazine. For subscriptions and back issues visit their website at http://www.divamag.co.uk/diva/