Witchcraft practitioner wins Mega Millions lottery
Dude, talk about blessed be. Meet Elwood "Bunky" Bartlett, teacher of Wicca, winner of gajillions:
He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets for Friday night's estimated $330 million jackpot. On Sunday, he said one of his tickets was a winner.Link. If you'd like to up your mojo before buying your next lottery ticket, you may want to visit Mystickal Voyage yourself -- it's in the Walther Shopping Center mini-mall in Nottingham, Maryland, kinda next door to the Food Lion. Link."If it wasn't for this place I wouldn't have won the lottery," Bartlett said Sunday at Mystickal Voyage, the New Age shop.
Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: "You let me win the lottery and I'll teach." Both tickets he purchased had numbers chosen randomly from the computer.
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why did he buy TWO tickets?
It will be interesting to see the amount of traffic the store webpage gets now. The counter is currently at 8221.
i bet he could buy some awesome pewter dragon goblets.
Xeni, why is this news? Suppose he was a Christian who bought this on the way to his church and credited Jesus - would this be a story you'd post? Don't some huge percentage of people who buy lottery tickets credit God? Isn't it statistically inevitable that some smaller percentage buy their ticket on the way to or from their place of worship?
Sorry - I don't mean this critically, I'm just curious. I had to read the post a few times to try to figure out why it was unusual in any way, and I'm still not sure...
It's cool! We don't often hear about practitioners of "alternative" faiths in the news, unless they're accused of molesting or eating babies or whatever. This guy sounds like a normal, nice man, and it's awesome he won the lottery.
"If it wasn't for this place I wouldn't have won the lottery," Bartlett said Sunday at Mystickal Voyage, the New Age shop.
I love the way religious people draw correlations between completely unrelated things.
No... If you hadn't stopped and purchased two tickets, you would have never won. The fact that you won is shear random chance.
He was "teaching" before he won. Why would his gods cause him to win if he was already doing it? Why would they allow other people who had never even heard of them win for all these years? Why would they make someone who's only going to teach win, when they could do better by giving the win to people who live in pain and suffering around the world?
Here's my little prayer to win...
Dear, dear Flying Spaghetti Monster, hallowed be thy noodles. If you let me win the lotto, I promise I'll continue to take care of my special needs daughter. I mean... I'll do it anyway, but you know... I figured that since you're an all powerful entity that can alter reality on request when I bargain with you, you'd like a little extra incentive.
I like it precisely because it's so similar to all those stories that get passed around of Christians praying for some trifle and having their wish granted. Have you ever tried to tell them that having that happen doesn't constitute proof? They're unbudging. Hit them with the exact same story about a Wiccan, and they might start to think about it.
"If it wasn't for this place I wouldn't have won the lottery," Bartlett said Sunday at Mystickal Voyage, the New Age shop.
Actually, he should be thankful for the liquor store where he bought the winning tickets. If that store wasn't there, he'd never have one.
And if his parents had made ever so slightly different movements during coitus, a different sperm cell would have reached the egg, preventing him from existing, much less winning the lottery. Chaos theory is fun!
What Teresa Nielsen Hayden said. :-)
If I were this guy, my new Crowleyan Credo would be "Buy What Thou Wilt, That Shall Be The Whole Of The Law."
Am I the only one here who's primarily fascinated by the fact that there's a warlock out there named "Bunky"?
Oh sure, THEY make the bargain with the gods and all WE get are these 10 plagues.
I think I'll name my next warlock in World of Warcraft either "Elwood" or "Bunky".
Now if only Zoroaster would come through for me.
So what? People win the lotto all the time and to even suggest it has to do with their religion or philosophy or lack thereof is preposterous.
Grt, jst wht ths wrld nds, ltl fndng fr th pgns t thr. Mr wccn hll t g rnd. t s nt jdgng, fr y ll wll b jdgd, nd lt's s, mny s th rt f ll VL, s t gt nt th hnds f th rght mn!! Wccn, pr vl. Y hv n Gd nd y r gng t s yr mny t d n tchng bt fls r fls gds! Y wt, y wt ntl th Jdgmnt Dy cms fr ll wh d nt blv n Chrst wll b tssd n th fry lk fr TRNTY. TRNTY s frvr... y brn yr hnd n stv, t hrts, wll mgn tht t yr whl bdy bt mr pwrfl frvr!! Y hv chc nw t ccpt th Lrd r t cld b t lt. Y d nt knw whn y gt nthr scnd s y bttr ll thnk bt t, tht s ll f y wh d nt knw th Lrd, bt ntl thn, yr mny wll plt vl, yr mny wll crt mr hvc, mr thn ths wrld lrdy hs. Hlp th pr, fd th hngry, tk cr f th sck, bt N... y wnt t hlp ppl blv n wckd thng.. bt y yr j brds y wll smdy drp t yr kns whn th Lrd rtrns nd bg fr nthr chnc.
Ths jst n . . . Pr drnk wht trsh wns lttry. Bbb Hcks pckd p lttry tckt wth th chng h rcvd n br rn.
"f hd mr mny wld hv bght mr br. s t ws, nly hd ngh fr ltt. S, plyd th nmbrs n th sd f th cs."
skd wht h plnnd n dng wth th mny, Mr. Hcks rpld, "'m pttng th mny nt dg fghtng. Wth Vck t f th wy s n pnng."
Does the Lord play poker???
@Anonymous16, please: Hecate and Demeter are listening.
Anonymous #16...the only EVIL I see is the hate and judgement in your post
Re: #16
A certain brother came to Abbot Poemen and said: What ought I to do Father? I am in great sadness.
The elder said to him: Never despise anybody, never condemn anybody, never speak evil of anyone, and the Lord will give you peace.
- The Wisdom of the Desert
I think the gods arranged a win for Bunky so that we all might have this holy chuckle.
And the Almighty said: "Don't act like a jerk. Nobody's obliged to listen to you when you're being a jerk."
Ohhh, I see, you pagans even know how to remove the vowels!! Let me guess, your gods did that one, too....
M TH WY, TH TRTH, TH LGHT!!!! LL PGNS WLL B DMD T HLL!!!!
That kind of money can buy a lot of babies. How ever will they eat them all?!
Must be how the anti- christ decode things. They take away the aeiou...Perhaps you would like to buy a vowel- lol.
I am absolutely elated one of us Magickal folks wins it big! I know so many people will benefit, now that he'll have more time to dedicate to his students. :)
And, I'm also glad to see the money went to a relatively young guy, and not some 90+yo, so he can enjoy the money ;)
"Crazy fundie" anonymous #27, 26, 25 etc - you are becoming very tiresome. Is that all you learned in evangelical school - to spew hate and evil at everyone not like you?
Big news flash - there is NO hell or devil, but damn us to it anyway if it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Whatever you need to do to make youself feel good inside, but remember:
"do what you will, but harm none"
Maybe your teachers can include that little tidbit in this year's lesson plans.
Blessed be.
Shhhhhh. That's a troll. Don't feed him.
The thing that amuses me (as a pagan myself) is that the story seems to be this guy "made a deal" with unnamed deities. He doesn't even appear to know himself which ones. So...what happens if Eris, or Loki or Kali Ma feels like Bunky skipped out on his end of the bargain? Just because someone calls himself a witch doesn't mean he's learned to think before acting, that much is clear!
i believe s/he was kidding (anon 26, that is).
still, teresa for teh win.
seriously, though, what is up with the lack of vowels?
Disemvowelling. You can still read it if you want to work at it, but you don't read it automatically. I prefer it to deleting posts that have objectionable material in them. Sometimes, if it's just a phrase or sentence or paragraph that's the problem, I'll disemvowel that and leave the rest in plaintext.
I wonder how Jerry Fallwell would explain this!
Actually, financial and material 'winnings' are a quite common result of Reiki healing also.
This is particularly the case when extra healing work is done on the root chakra. The root chakra relates to everything material: job, $$$, abundance of an Earthen nature.
And so, numerous clients of mine have realized new jobs that are perfect for them or have received windfalls, albeit not in the millions. Often it seems that Reiki is bringing about a set of circumstances whereby desired outcomes are all of a sudden achievable.