So there's this knighthood

A while back I noticed something new popping up on my FB feed-an ATC knighthood. I'm intrigued but I haven't 'liked' the page yet. I'm wary, honestly. The only other knighthoods I'm familiar with are the Knights Templar, and the Salvation Army. Matching faith with the sword, metaphysical or otherwise, has historically lead to a lot of death and destruction. Knighthoods are a Christian thing, a way of pushing the faith and defending it (I'm guessing from people who didn't take kindly to being forced to convert). I know that the ATC's knighthood is not going to be pushing anything because that's simply not the Wiccan way of doing things, and yes, Wicca does need defending. But a knighthood?

The ATC already is borrowing a couple of things from Christianity in order to lend itself mainstream credibility; tabernacle and church. A tabernacle is literally a dwelling place of the divine and comes from Hebrew. It's morphed in Christianity to the place where they store the body of Christ aka the communion wafers. And well, church? The word is laden with it's own baggage. From Wikipedia: A church is technically a term for a gathering of citizens in a town (origins from ancient Greek), but is commonly understood by the Christian adoption of the word as gathering of Christians in a building or structure to facilitate worship and the meeting of its members, specifically in Christianity." Many Pagans don't like the word and are uncomfortable with it. I've spoken to not a few since coming to the island and, upon hearing about the ATC and the Circle's association with it, said they were hesitant to join because of that word. We talked about this a bit one night with the Arch Priestess, Bella, and with others, and the thinking is that because Paganism, and particularly Wicca, is so new, and still so misunderstood, it's better to have that protection, that legitimacy, than not. That was the thinking 30-ish years ago, and while Wicca has come a LONG way since there, there's still a long way to go.

Another thing, for me, is the difference between 'warrior' and 'knight'. I asked my other mentor about it, the difference between the two, because I knew there WAS a difference, but I couldn't articulate it. This is what she said (posted with her permission): A knight holds loyalty to a system, to a ruler or a structure. She is bound to act a certain way in accordance with a certain code, and honor is defined by adhering to the code no matter what the circumstance. When she leads, she does so by fiat and in accordance with the law.

The warrior's loyalty is to a community or a people. Her duty is to protect those people as well as she is able. The only code of the warrior is loving service, so that circumstance may prompt actions outside the expected law, so she can't have loyalties to structures or leaders. When she leads, she does so by example.

That's it, in a nutshell. My clan is that of the warriors of the Ojibwe peoples; the marten. My names, both in Anishnabe and my secret Craft name, relate to the eagle, leader of the Bird clan. In Pathfinder and D&D, while I'm drawn to the paladin class, I've always felt the rules and oaths too confining. In my heart, I'm a warrior. My loyalty is to my community of friends and family, and to women and children who need protection and whatever loving service I can provide. I'll be watching to see what the knighthood *does*, but I'll be staying over here in the shadowy place where the forest meets the edge of the battlefield.