It has finally happened — I’ve been ‘secretly’ outed at my workplace. It’s not like anyone has asked me about my beliefs, but someone finally did a Google search and found my so-called alternate life.

I found out by accident — a comment overheard, a whisper misdirected, and I can put 2 and 2 together to get the right answer: I’m being whispered about. Worse, my ability to function as a person is being criticized — not because I’m doing a bad job, but because I am a witch.

Fundamentally, witches and Christians have a wildly different view of the universe. In one, God is all-powerful and singular. In the other, there are many ways the Divine expresses itself. That, from my POV is the beginning and the end of the discussion.

The Christian’s ’10 Commandments’ are a worthy collection of rules to live by:

Text of the commandments

The following is the text of the commonly accepted (by Christian and Jewish authorities) commandments as found in the book of Exodus 20:1-17, New Revised Standard Version. Because Jewish, Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic traditions divide the commandments in different fashions, they are presented as verses below, without itemization.

(1) Then God spoke all these words: (2) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; (3) you shall have no other gods before me. (4) You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, (6) but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. (7) You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. (8) Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. (9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work. (10) But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. (11) For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. (12) Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (13) You shall not murder. (14) You shall not commit adultery. (15) You shall not steal. (16) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (17) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Exodus 20:1-17  (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments)

Certainly far easier than the rules according to Leviticus.

My own code of ethics is simpler, but stricter: Harm none. I’m not about to get into a debate about meat-eating, but living a life where I do my best, my utmost at all times to harm none is stringent.

Like the Christians, I don’t lie, cheat, steal, kill, commit adultery, or covet (because that harms ME). I honor my parents. I try to take time, regularly, to worship the Divine.

But, somehow, because I do not believe in a single, male, God I am a bad person. That hurts. It hurts that people are making jokes about ‘don’t cross the witch, she’ll turn you into a toad’ and insinuating that clients will not contract our services because there is a witch workign in thsi company. Never mind that I don’t appear anywhere on our website or in our marketing materials. Nor that I have never, not once, told any single person in this company that I have religious beliefs at all.

And yes, when people have had hard times I’ve asked them if I may pray for them. And when they said yes, I did pray. I prayed for the best outcome, for the return of health to them or their loved ones. Of course I pray: its directed energy towards a specific outcome, asking for the intervention of the Divine. No, I never did a spell — that would be harmful, even if they never found out.

So, now I wonder: who will be the first to tell my boss, the owner of the company? Who will try to harm *me* all because of a label, a difference of attitude, a disagreement over a specific point of view?