The Rise of the Warlock

            For practitioners of Witchcraft stemming from Gardner’s Wicca, warlock1 is a dirty word. There seems to be no a shortage of practitioners who will loudly “inform” those of us who identify as warlocks, that it is an insult, meaning “oath-breaker” and especially the breaker of an oath one has made to their coven. Never mind that this isn’t actually true.

            Warlock used to mean “one who breaks an oath” (a charge first leveled in the 14th century by Christian authorities, so...