Pan’s Pipes: Whole in Body to be in Perfect Pitch?
A déjà vu moment smacked me at silly o’clock one recent morning. I was scrolling through my FB feed when the topic of none other than — male circumcision, leapt out. More specifically, about whether a cut male can serve the Gods.
I suddenly found myself vortexed back a quarter of a century to Tokyo where my husband of 25 years and I started our newly married life as expats.
Expat life in those days meant that many of the foreigners took the opportunity to start or expand their families, the ‘trailing spouse’ usually not being permitted to work. Although ours was not the case, the circumstances dictated, as it often does in such a confined community, that one’s social circles are not necessarily what they would otherwise be in one’s homeland.
Our friendships were forged over dinner invites and at parties with other expats. Conversations were peppered with talk of toddler playgroups; suitable obstetricians; birth plans; epidurals; breast feeding; and— male circumcision.
Reverberations from the thud of my conversation bomb rippled through the assembled guests at one such event when I nonchalantly stated that if we had sons, they would be circumcised.
Our Australian hostess shrilled in horror combined in equal parts with anger at my outrageousness. We were deluged with what is now termed ‘intactile’ arguments and cultural stats — it was apparently more the norm for Americans to opt for it than Australians.
Then followed dire warnings with examples of particular mothers, mostly American, who were excluded from the expat enclave of coffee mornings and playgroups, purely on the basis that they had had their son(s) circumcised — no, religious reasons were not excused. I was not only to take heed should we birth a son whilst in Tokyo, but I was skating on thin ice already for even contemplating such ‘child abuse.’
My magical life had not awakened yet and so the incidents (there were more) were muted deep in the back closet of my memory collecting dust over the decades as we ended up having three girls — until my reading of the current unfolding furore.
My lawyer-logic brain kicked into action and applied the principles I’d been instilled with when considering initiating someone who has had say, a mastectomy or hysterectomy; or has gone through early menopause and is now infertile, or any variation (inc FGM) — indeed, such was a raging discussion several years back about whether the removal of female body parts, internal or external, renders a Wiccan, in particular, an Alexandrian Priestess ineligible to represent the Goddess.
That highly emotive question I believe, however, misses the point. Rather, for our purposes, ascertaining whether, and if so, to what extent the individual is in the grief process about their loss or feeling of emptiness or unfulfillment, is the crux of whether they are at a stage in their own Soul progression to be able to work in our coven — bearing in mind all covens work differently.
In short, the basic question to myself is ‘are they happy in the skin they’re in?’ If so, and they are otherwise suitable to included in our group mind, matters will sort themselves out.
Until now, however, it never occurred to me to contemplate whether the absence of the male foreskin should be considered along with missing body parts for purposes of initiation and hence, it never formed the basis of my asking a prospective male initiate whether he was circumcised and if so, whether he is happily accepting of his condition or in a state of grief about it.
