BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there

Subject: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 08:42 PM

Job vacancy for a witch at Wookey Hole

You have to wonder what sort of performance targets they set.

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Peace
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 08:43 PM

Gonna be one in Alaska soon, too.

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: GUEST,romany man
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 06:04 AM

want te job , ill turn em into toads ifn i don get it a ha

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 06:38 AM

You'd better be careful, I have sent the piece to a genuine practising hedgewitch.

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Amergin
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 07:01 AM

Can think of a few women that fit the bill....

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 08:35 AM

Why is it for Pagans? surely that would be against any equal opportunities policy?

:D (eG)

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Micca
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 08:46 AM

What they want is a pretend "Witch" that looks like the image in Walt Disneys Snow White.Or The images from the Wizard of Oz,
If you want to know what a REAL witch looks like go to a crowded place , look around, very likely there is at least one in your line of vision. I think this ad is a PR gimmick and if they suceeded in what they are pretending to do they would be in the same position as my friends Yorkshire terrier that chases Volkswagens, " What would they do if they GOT one"?

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 11:39 AM

Well, Micca, I am not a witch (or warlock) but I think that there are probably at least three different categories involved:

People who join "covens" and play about
People who have no idea and may play dressup as Disney-style "witches"
People who actually do practise.

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Micca
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 11:57 AM

Richard, I agree with you,but some join real"covens" and do not "play about" but work with serious intent within The Rules. also
amd you didnt mention the "Fluffy bunny " pagans (often known among Pagans as "Buffys because there "knowledge " of the Craft comes from popular TV shows) that dabble in spellcraft witout a clue of what they are dealing with.
I think the JD for this job is aimed at the first 2 categories in your list! and mabe the Buffys as well, as all seem to tegard it as being a game of makebelief as done at Halloween and not a Nature belief system that tries to put the individual into contact and synergy with the Earth and her energies and rhythms.

Q "How many witches does it take to change a light bulb?"







A "into what?"

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 12:42 PM

These days, museums tend to hire people who know what they're talking about. A lot of tour guides have postgraduate history degrees; mining museums employ ex-miners, prison museums employ ex-lags. Having a real clue what the original Witch of Wookey Hole was doing there could only be an asset.

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Emma B
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 12:55 PM

sounds like a good career choce to me as the original witch is permantly stoned :)

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Jeanie
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 01:05 PM

Here is the actual job advert and link to the application form from the Wookey Hole website: http://www.wookey.co.uk/witch-job.htm

The job description starts with:
Job Title: Wookey Witch
Job Category: Entertainer
Dept/Group: Promotions

So that's what they're looking for. More important than being any kind of "real" witch, the candidates they are looking for need to be good actors, able to do enough research to provide facts and keep people interested and entertained, whether they are being a witch, a pirate, a Tudor courtier...whatever. They should have advertised in "The Stage" - would have got hundreds of replies. At least, now, with this publicity, they will get the kind of people they are looking for.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 01:08 PM

There are quite serious revival 'traditions' of witchcraft (utterly unrelated to Wicca, which is a fully modern syncretic religion), which draw from what historical information there is, about practical folk magics in order to recreate contemporary equivalents.

One of the most interesting things about Traditional Crafters, is that they will often not shy away from the use of native hallucinogens (poisonous and narcotic herbs) as a form of trance induction - which is of course, possibly one of the most central elements of what would have been "real" Medieaval witchcraft.

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Jeanie
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 01:13 PM

I've just looked at the application form, and everyone who turns up for the audition has to agree to being filmed for a TV documentary - all good publicity for Wookey Hole, eh ?

No - I'm not going to apply ! The crucial thing:- forget the £50,000 per year pro rata, what is the actual hourly rate of pay ? Madame Tussauds pays around the minimum wage for their live scary inmates in the Chamber of Horrors, ditto the people who work at the London Dungeon, and I doubt if Wookey Hole will actually pay very differently.

Will look forward to watching the eventual TV documentary, though.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 01:14 PM

Like this: first-hand account of trying witch salve.

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 01:21 PM

Some worthwhile background reading:

Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Mod

Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History

How Do Witches Fly?

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 01:36 PM

There are a lot of ripoff merchants out there in shamanistic training. No, I haven't tried it, but I know a woman who did...

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 01:43 PM

Blimey, some of those volumes have got a bit rare! I aught to take greater care of my books...

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 02:01 PM

"There are a lot of ripoff merchants out there in shamanistic training."

Yeah, you mean some balding hippy, lifelessly banging a drum while encouraging you to "Discover your Power Animal"? Just google for "Guru-U-Like!" & lay down £500 to discover the 'secrets of the ancient ways' TM.
Haven't been there myself either, but I know that picture...

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 06:51 PM

I'll send you a link, Crow SIster, if you think you can handle














The sexual power of the bee!!

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 08:45 PM

Don't quite get why the "witch" has to agree to live in the caves overnight..... surely they only need to be a "witch" for the daytime tourists!

Subject: RE: BS: job vacancy for the pagans out there
From: Jeanie
Date: 10 Jul 09 - 11:03 AM

I guess, Sue, it might be for occasional special events - rather like the events that they stage at the Science Museum or Natural History Museum, where parties of children (schools, boy scouts etc.) have sleepovers amongst the dinosaur models and so on.

- jeanie