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 I
received the brief in the usual Monday morning flurry - the
normal boring interviews with the café society, and then….interview
high priestess darkwolf for….. I gulped down the necessary
wake up coffee and read the brief. Yes, definately cultic stuff.
Self-acclaimed high this and that. Yet again the creation of a
niche in the cheap market of South African spirituality. I
decided that I would like to use this opportunity to be more
than the investigative journalist I was. So I determined to read
the odd few things I could find on her.
I was astounded. She has
appeared in all the country's newspapers, sometimes several
times: the Star, Weekly Mail and Guardian, Natal Witness, the
Citizen, the Argus, the Cape Times, Beeld, Burger; top women's
magazines: Elle, Marie Claire, Fairlady; Citi Life, Outright;
she has been published in dozens of magazines. She has been on
Felicia's show, Penny Smythe, Live at 5, Take 5, Issues of
Faith, Crossing the Divide, Carte Blanche, Free Spirit, Tabloid,
a two part documentary on death. Talk shows are too numerous too
mention.
Definitely charismatic I decided.
'Publicity seeker' comes to mind. But these programs carry too
much weight to allow a mere publicity seeker to manipulate them.
The fact that she has sustained such attention over a number
of years indicates that this is no fly-by-night. I start to
rethink my strategy. I noted she has her own chapter in the
acclaimed Eccentric SA by Pat Hopkins. I see she has also published
the first book on Paganism and Wicca in SA (Struik) called,
Dancing
Under an African Moon. I get wind of the fact that she
will soon appear in a new book on famous South African 'esoterics'
in a book entitled "Out of this World" by Alexandra
Levin.
 I
arrived at her comfortable cottage in Durbanville to be met by a
delightful (white - "typical" I think to myself) bull
terrier complete with black leather studded color, and a pink
bow! I am informed that it is not only because he supports
breast cancer day, but the fact that he loves living in the pink
city with her. Borg was obviously a kitten in previous
incarnations and successfully esconsced himself in my lap.
I carefully scanned my eyes over
this women. Above average height, slim, she had a presence I
could not put my finger on. She offered me chamomile tea or
beer. I chose chamomile tea. She morphed into a comfy chair and
took up what look like rolled dry cabbage leaves. She attempted
to light it and when she coughed and spluttered loudly I asked
her why she was attempting to smoke if she was a non-smoker.
"Because" she said, "this is an act of ritual for
my goddess". At my puzzled expression she went on:
"The goddess loves
cabbages. She has proportioned little patches to all her
priestesses and requests that they till their own cabbage
patches first before they get involved in the mud of others. To
this end I try to smoke these leaves and every time I choke I am
reminded to obey this caution. But I think I will start drinking
cabbage tea instead".
The goddess loves cabbages…we
all have our own cabbage patches…..definitely a kaon of sorts
I thought.
I asked her why she was not in
the 'ceremonial' gear that I had expected. She guffawed loudly
and said that when she was a witchlet she felt she had to do the
stereotypical witch thing. When she became a witchling she
started to see merit in blending into society as well. Now that
she has graduated from witch school she sees the ultimate magick
in blending with society. " It's easy to stick out"
she says. "Its not easy to be a chameleon". I look at
her….she is wearing jeans - of sorts, they appear to be some
sort of designer stuff. Even the ordinary black polo sweater
appears different on her. She wears the latest fashionable high
heel boots, but somehow they're worn with attitude.
 I
secretly wondered if she had cut her very long black hair -
surely a witch's trademark- in the effort to blend in. She read
my thoughts. "I shaved my hair two years back. I wanted to
relinquish the definitive power of a woman - her hair. I was
forced to find inner power, inner strength and not hide behind
the mask, the mane of gorgeous hair. Besides, now that I am
forty I need to be taken more seriously. Instead of being a
blond bimbette, I was becoming a witch bimbette". I smiled
as I observed the very chic haircut that set this woman apart
yet again.
Nowhere does she utter
statements preposterous or presumptuous. She does not smile
easily. But she cackles loudly, often. She tells me that this is
how you identify a witch in a shopping centre or a pub- that
cackle. Donna Vos was born in Cape Town and at the age of 4
moved to Worcester. She took to the forest and the caves
naturally and headed what can only be described as a little gang
- that allowed or disallowed entry into the forests. Her parents
adored her and gave her the intellectual freedom she needed to
formulate her very early theology. She took to mainstream
Christianity with the zealousness that has so far typified her
whole life. She moved back to Cape Town at 11. She was popular
at school, and excelled at sports, academics, and was a prefect.
Attempts to get the young Donna
to study law or psychiatry failed. She became a theologian,
doing a 3-year biblical diploma at a local college and a masters
in theology (UNISA). Disillusioned with the hypocrisy (which she
quickly discovered is in every religion and spirituality) and
the patriarchy, she 'left' the church. She studied Library and
Information Science at UCT as a stop-gap. She meandered for a
few years down the zen path, a path she still holds dear to her
when confronted with existential dilemmas.
The true awakening to the divine
feminine came as a result of the onslaught of several traumatic
incidents.
And then began the next phase of
this visionary's life. She formed an alliance of Pagans,
spearheading the public Pagan movement through the Pagan
Federation of SA. After 6 years she handed over the reigns to
forge further ecclesiastical links through the first Wiccan
church in SA.
She gesticulates overtly, then
sits quietly. She is quite shy. She is formidable, she is
confusing, perplexing. Clearly one hates or loves her. Having
done my research well I know she faces a lot of opposition, and
I am tempted to ask her about the famous witch wars I have heard
of. It reminds me of the divisions of Gaul, the wars of the
Huns, but having done my research well I know there are more who
love her.
I ask her what drives her.
"Seeing little birds fly. I cannot tell you what joy I get
out of pushing a little bird out of the nest when it is time for
it to fly. It turns to look at me with absolute horror and fear,
and then….when it realises it can fly … they tend to turn
into vultures."
She adores men, and women,
animals, children, shrubs, ants. She tells me she currently has
a thing for ants and asks if I have read the Soul of the White
Ant by Eugene Marais. I wondered why she wasn't pumping some
Wiccan book instead. The men in her life are her father, lawyer,
psychiatrist, gynaecologist, her dog. The matriarch - her
grandmother, her mother chose to pass on last year. darkwolf
seems to have truly grasped the neo-Pagan philosophy of Jungian
shadow. Her own interaction with depression, and that of the
many she counsels affords her insight into a dimension few even
dream about.
I am spellbound. I do not want
to leave. I am distressed at the fact that I still want to find
'the missing link', that I have such a desire to 'read' her. I
eventually accept a beer while she sips chamomile tea and ask
for a book on Wicca to read when I go home.
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