fear

Now I'm Pagan, more specifically, Wiccan; well I say now, in reality I have been learning and following the craft and the traditions for about 5 years now. In that time I've noticed a great many things. One of them is ignorance, a lot of people, on seeing a pentagram (five pointed star) say one of two things. The first is devil worshiper, personally I blame Hollywood for that one. If you did any reading you would come to realise that for many in the craft there is no acknowledgment of any form of devil, beast or other ever-present malevolent being. Rather, evil is seen in the actions of man, just look at current affairs, Syria, Lybia and the whole Arab uprising could be seen to be caused by evil actions of men. The other thing I hear repeatedly is 'I didn't know you were Jewish'. That just annoys me because I am just a little bit pedantic, a Star of David has six points and cannot be drawn in one single movement, a pentagram on the other hand has five points, and can be drawn in one single movement, it's simple maths and simple shapes for crying out loud. Like my name, Tomas Buzer, the number of people who pronounce it (and this is vaguely phonetically spelled) Toemass Buzzer is incredible. One, the h in Thomas is silent, so it doesn't bloody matter if it is there in the spelling or not, it has no bearing on the pronunciation of the word. Secondly, my last name has only one z in it, so stop saying it buzzer, thats just bad English right there, which does piss me off, because I am pedantic, but also because I am a writer and i consider a comprehension of the English language a basic skill. But anyway, thats enough ranting for one post, I haven't even got onto the point why I am writing this blog.
My point is that even after 5 years, I still have a little voice in the back of my head telling me not to openly wear a pentagram, not because I may offend someone, not because I may scare someone, but because I'm afraid of being discriminated against because of my faith. I'm afraid because even though I belong to an established religion, one following traditions that predate almost anything else out there, people don't see it as such.
Yes we live in a tolerant society, but exactly how tolerant? From past experience it seems that many preconceived notions about Paganism in general come from depictions in media, usually unfaithful depictions based on preconceived notions from yesteryear. All this negative press has fed into our collective schemas (psychological term) to the point where a pentagram is almost always considered evil, even from first glance. True, shows such as charmed may be the crest of a building wave that could reverse this trend, but even then, it isn't really a true depiction. If you say magick to someone, they're more likely to think pulling a rabbit out of a hat, or Harry Potter, rather than the redirection of energy towards a physical goal. But this is all off topic, again. (Note to self, must stop going off topic).
The point is, I still have that fear, that voice forever and continually screaming noooooooooooooo at me. And I want to know if anyone else has that fear, that voice, even the same thoughts as me; well maybe not the same, but similar.
And I would like to close with a thought, next year the census results for the UK come out, my hope is that with any luck, Paganism as a whole will have reached the threshold to be fully recognized, so that these fears I have can be calmed, and that voice can finally be given a rest.