Cunning Folk?... I think not

So I recently had an experience on Facepook that had me thinking quite deeply.  but first ill talk a bit about myself as I have not posted in a while.

I am a single man.  I have recently dumped my girlfriend as I was not happy with the situation.  We are trying to be friends, but who knows how well that will work out.  Girls are kinda crazy.

I am back in Findlay and already hitting the books hard (or they are hitting me, i should say).  This is going to be a rough semester considering my schedule consists of general chemistry 2 lecture, physics 2 lecture, cell biology lecture, statistics, gen chem 2 lab, physics 2 lab, cell bio lab, and physiology of animal reproduction and growth.  The only class of which I like is repro.  It is going to be a very labor intensive semester for me and I need A's so y'all will know why if I am scarce.

now back to my topic...

I have recently gotten into joining pagan facebook groups in order to meet new pagans and give what i have to offer to those new, starting off witches so as to avoid a whole new generation of witches following the teachings of Silver Ravenwolf or Fiona Horne.  I found one that seemed innocent enough.  There were only a few members and the administrator of the group  seemed to be a well-informed young man who posted a lot of accurate, factual information in his groups feed.  So i read some of what he posted and I posted information about my two favorite shops aswell as a quick bio about myself.

The admin seemed to take a liking to me, and immediately friend requested me and sent me a message outlining what his purpose was with the group.  Honestly, he had me running for the hills at this point.  First of all, what kind of idiot is going to friend request someone just based on their little bio on a facebook group, that seems dumb and careless, but it stopped suprising me the more i thought about and read his message.  What was his plan you ask?

He wanted to collect a group of witches to be his "cunning folk," and people can contact him via the facebook group or email with a problem that needed magickal help and he would dispatch a witch of group of witches in order to perform the necessary magick for a fee to be determined by the witches involved.  He even talked about performing services over the net. ( I sure hope that you are facepalming as badly as I was when I read this crap). So essentially, this man wanted to be a pimp and for us self-respecting witches to be his hoes.  I have a problem with that.

For those of you who dont know what "cunning folk" are, Sarah Lawless wrote a lovely article about them.  http://witchofforestgrove.com/2009/09/17/cunning-folk/.  You can learn a little about the idea of cunning folk if you so choose

Now, I know that in olden times, witches would perform services for people in exchange for some sort of payment whether it be food, animals, shelter, etc.  This was in a time when magick was taken far more seriously and people were far less intent of suing for all that they can get.  In today's times, there are so many people who are afraid of being screwed, and there have been many cases of fraud witches milking naive people for all that they have.  There are too many people out there who could pose for witches and take advantage of the average person out there.  If you ask me, the administrator of this group is putting himself in a precarious position, and he could be quite liable for the witches that he so naively pimps out.

Personally, I do not agree with charging for one's magickal workings.  I have been told that this idea of not charging for ones work is of North American origin, and I feel that it is a very good idea.  I perform tarot and oracle readings for people and I do not ask for anything in return.  I look forward for the ability to practice and work on my abilities and build various skills.  I would glady work magick for people that I know, but i would not charge for it, I just dont agree with such things.

Another issue that was raised in my mind is the fact that magick works best when there is a connection between the witch and the one requesting work.  I am all for the mixing of natural remedies and such, and they are effective no matter who uses them, but magickal work is not so universal.  It is never as strong as when the witch and "client" have some sort of connection.  One would have to be a quite powerful witch in order to work magick on a complete stranger.  This brings up more liability issues for the administrator of the group.

As far as online magick, thats just a whole new issue of stupidity that I do not have space for unless I want to make this blog into a novel.  I think that it is utter bull and thats all you need to know. 

I think that the owner of this group does not realize what he is doing or the trouble that he could get in if his witch-pimp idea comes to fruition.

Honestly, I want to know others opions on this topic.  You know how I feel, and I want to know how you (my whopping two followers (love you guys)) think.

thank you for listening to me bitch
Iolair Stormwing