The Granny Phenomena!
by Faerie K.

Grannies are in and popular, especially among many a Pagan. Preferring grannies already has a venerably long tradition, which seem to be still continuing.

Some Characteristics of the Granny Phenomena

One of the most important characteristics of the Granny Phenomena is, of course, a granny. This "granny" isn't necessarily always a grandmother. "She" can also be a grandfather or some other (old or elderly) relative. Grandmothers are the most common relative in question, so in this article the words "granny" and "grandmother" are used to denote other possible relatives popping up in the Granny Phenomena.

The Granny is usually left unnamed. She isn't "my grandmother Mathilda Smith from the Pineside house in the village of Millwither", but simply just "Granny". The reasoning behind leaving the Granny unnamed is often said to be duty to keep certain things secret/oaths of secrecy, responsibilities of not revealing an elderly person to witch hunters, and "this is how it's always been". The better known the location and the person in question, the more likely it is that the Granny is said to be long dead. There are practical reasons for leaving the Granny unnamed and/or declaring her dead: if the name isn't known or the person in question is no longer among the living, nobody can go and check with her the truth behind the claims. Nobody can possibly reveal the person riding on the Granny Phenomena to be a fraud, either. You can't, of course, ask the friends of the said Granny - the family secrets weren't revealed to any outsider at all.

This secretive Granny has either taught the family traditions to her grandchild, or even initiated her to the family mysteries. For some strange reason, one generation is always skipped. Furthermore, the one being taught or getting initiated is, most often than not, the only one in her generation deemed fit enough to carry on the traditions. If you ask any details about the actual initiation or training, you won't easily get any kind of answers. Furthermore, you won't be told about the details of the teachings. For goodness' sake, these are things that are part of the family tradition and therefore no outsider has any business knowing them at all! However, for some strange reason, it seems to be rather common that teachings and mysteries which actually get published are misleadingly similar to material published earlier. The Books of Shadows of those "Family Tradition Witches" who came out of the woodwork after Gardner went public contained teachings interestingly resembling those of Gerald Gardner, while the secrets of "countryside Witchery" can be read in folklorists' books dealing with folk traditions. Sometimes including the folklorists' possible misinterpretations and/or with the geographical area of the traditions described in the books being different from where the famtrad claims to originate.

The Granny story is used to build up a personal history: to stretch the roots of one's Paganism to way back to the beginnings of history and at the same time, to something that is a "better, more genuine" Paganism than the versions "everybody else" are practicing.

The actual motives vary from one representative of the Granny Phenomena to another. For an ordinary everyday Pagan a Granny story brings along a feeling of belonging to something and of having a long history - instead of having been converted to Paganism and learned from books. At the same time, somebody with a Granny can look down on everybody else, building her ego. "Anybody can read books and learn from them, anybody can log on to the Net and download information. Anybody can claim to be a Witch/Pagan after doing the reading. I am not `anybody'. I have Family Tradition background and skills I've inherited from my lineage. I'm special and better than all the others." Or, to put it shortly: having a Granny gives some a reason to belittle all those poor souls without a Granny of their own.

For Pagan authors and those striving to teach others, the initial reason for riding on the wake of the Granny Phenomena may be more driven by plain old monetary reasons. Advertising yourself and your teachings as "the unbroken continuum of ancient traditions kept secret for decades and countless of generations - and with my help you will be now able to tap into these mysteries" can win much more interested seekers (and bread on the author's and/or teacher's table) than another type of approach, albeit a more honest one: "I took bits of teaching from here, bits from there, smaller portions from many other sources, cooked it all up to a whole I spiced with some of my very own ideas", or even: "I copied this so called tradition from group X, but as I don't want to be just one of the many teachers of said tradition and instead want to have my name written down in Pagan history with a much bigger font size, I put a `Family Tradition' label on everything I copied and elevated myself as the highest teacher of my very own tradition."

To put it in other words: it is quite possible to sell a greater number of books and/or to get larger amounts of students with a Granny story. The most appropriate target for people spreading Granny stories are relatively new or naive Pagans, who haven't as yet read enough Pagan literature (or interacted with other Pagans) to notice that there could be something fishy with certain claims of ancient traditions, or who are under the illusion that somebody being Pagan somehow makes her automatically more ethical than the rest of humanity and therefore incapable of committing fraud.

Yet another reason for assuming a Granny is wishing to get status within the Pagan community - a status you otherwise wouldn't be able to get. It may be quite difficult for a beginner to get appreciation among fellow Pagans - depending on the Pagan community, of course - when you're still in the phase of relatively little knowledge, skills or practice. By utilizing the Granny Phenomena, you can try to gain admiring looks and at the same time cover your own greenness. After all, somebody carrying on a Family Tradition is not allowed to share her information with outsider. However, hinting about possessing secrets nobody else can get their hands on isn't forbidden at all.

Complete article: http://www.ecauldron.com/granny.php