The Witches and Faeries who could do so escaped to lands where the Inquisition did not reach. Some may have come to America. It is possible that a genuine coven was meeting in the woods of Salem before the trials, which actually marked the end of active persecution in this country. Some scholars believe that the family of Samuel and John Quincy Adams were members of the megalithic "Dragon" cult, which kept alive the knowledge of the power of the stone circles.[14] Certainly, the independent spirit of Witchcraft is very much akin to many of the ideals of the "Founding Fathers": for example, freedom of speech and worship, decentralized government, and the rights of the individual rather than the divine right of kings.
This period was also the time when the African slave trade reached its height and the conquest of the Americas took place. The same charges leveled against the Witches-charges of savagery and devil worship-were used to justify the enslavement of the Africans (who were brought to the New World, supposedly, to Christianize them) and the destruction of cultures and wholesale genocide of Native Americans. African religions took on a protective cloak of Catholic nomenclature, calling their orishas saints, and survived as the traditions of Mac.u.mba, Santeria, Luc.u.mi, and Voudoun, religions that have been as unfairly maligned as the Craft.
Oral tradition tells us that some European Pagans, brought over as indentured servants or convict labor, fled to join the Indians whose traditions were similar in spirit to their own. In some areas, such as the American South, black, white Pagan, and Native American elements combined.
In America, as in Europe, the Craft went underground, and became the most secret of religions. Traditions were pa.s.sed down only to those who could be trusted absolutely, usually to members of the same family.
Communications between covens were severed; no longer could they meet on the Great Festivals to share knowledge and exchange the results of spells or rituals. Parts of the tradition became lost or forgotten. Yet somehow, in secret, in silence, over glowing coals, behind closed shutters, encoded as fairy tales and folk songs, or hidden in subconscious memories, the seed was pa.s.sed on.
After the persecutions ended, in the eighteenth century, came the age of disbelief. Memory of the true Craft had faded; the hideous stereotypes that remained seemed ludicrous, laughable, or tragic. Only in this century have Witches been able to "come out of the broom closet," so to speak, and counter tne imagery of evil with truth. The word Witch carries so many negative connotations that many people wonder why we use it at all. Yet to reclaim the word Witch is to reclaim our right, as women, to be powerful; as men, to know the feminine within as divine.
To be a Witch is to identify with nine million victims of bigotry and hatred and to take responsibility for shaping a world in which prejudice claims no more victims. A Witch is a "shaper," a creator who bends the unseen into form, and so becomes one of the Wise, one whose life is infused with magic.
Witchcraft has always been a religion of poetry, not theology. The myths, legends, and teachings are recognized as metaphors for "That-Which-Cannot-Be-Told," the absolute reality our limited minds can never completely know. The mysteries of the absolute can never be explained-only felt or intuited. Symbols and ritual acts are used to trigger altered states of awareness, in which insights that go beyond words are revealed. When we speak of "the secrets that cannot be told," we do not mean merely that rules prevent us from speaking freely. We mean that the inner knowledge literally cannot be expressed in words. It can only be conveyed by experience, and no one can legislate what insight another person may draw from any given experience. For example, after the ritual described at the opening of this chapter, one woman said, "As we were chanting, I felt that we blended together and became one voice; I sensed the oneness of everybody." Another woman said, "I became aware of how different the chant sounded for each of us, of how unique each person is." A man said simply, "I felt loved." To a Witch, all of these statements are equally true and valid. They are no more contradictory than the statements "Your eyes are as bright as stars" and "Your eyes are as blue as the sea."
The primary symbol for "That-Which-Cannot-Be-Told" is the G.o.ddess. The G.o.ddess has infinite aspects and thousands of names-She is the reality behind many metaphors. She is reality, the manifest deity, omnipresent in all of life, in each of us. The G.o.ddess is not separate from the world-She is the world, and all things in it: moon, sun, earth, star, stone, seed, flowing river, wind, wave, leaf and branch, bud and blossom, fang and claw, woman and man. In Witchcraft, flesh and spirit are one.
As we have seen, G.o.ddess religion is unimaginably old, but contemporary Witchcraft could just as accurately be called the New Religion. The Craft, today, is undergoing more than a revival; it is experiencing a renaissance, a recreation. Women are spurring this renewal, and actively reawakening the G.o.ddess, the image of "the legitimacy and beneficence of female power."
Since the decline of the G.o.ddess religions, women have lacked religious models and spiritual systems that speak to female needs and experience. Male images of divinity characterize both Western and Eastern religions.
Regardless of how abstract the underlying concept of G.o.d may be, the symbols, avatars, preachers, prophets, gurus, and Buddhas are overwhelmingly male Women are not encouraged to explore their own strengths and realizatiions, they are taught to submit to male authority, to identify masculine perceptions as their spiritual ideals, to deny their bodies and s.e.xuality, to fit their insights into a male mold.
Mary Daly, author of Beyond G.o.d the Father, points out that the model of the universe in which a male G.o.d rules the cosmos from outside serves to legitimize male control of social inst.i.tutions. "The symbol of the Father G.o.d, sp.a.w.ned in the human imagination and sustained as plausible by patriarchy, has in turn rendered service to this type of society by making its mechanisms for the oppression of women appear right and fitting." The unconscious model continues to shape the perceptions even of those who have consciously rejected religious teachings. The details of one dogma are rejected, but the underlying structure of belief is imbibed at so deep a level it is rarely questioned. Instead, a new dogma, a parallel structure, replaces the old. For example, many people have rejected the "revealed truth" of Christianity without ever questioning the underlying concept that truth is a set of beliefs revealed through the agency of a "Great Man," possessed of powers or intelligence beyond the ordinary human scope. Christ, as the "Great Man," may be replaced by Buddha, Freud, Marx, Jung, Werner Erhard, or the Maharaj Ji in their theology, but truth is always seen as coming from someone else, as only knowable secondhand. As feminist scholar Carol Christ points out, "Symbol systems cannot simply be rejected, they must be replaced. Where there is no replacement, the mind will revert to familiar structures at times of crisis, bafflement, or defeat."
The symbolism of the G.o.ddess is not a parallel structure to the symbolism of G.o.d the Father. The G.o.ddess does not rule the world; She is the world. Manifest in each of us, She can be known internally by every individual, in all her magnificent diversity. She does not legitimize the rule of either s.e.x by the other and lends no authority to rulers of temporal hierarchies. In Witchcraft, each of us must reveal our own truth. Deity is seen in our own forms, whether female or male, because the G.o.ddess has her male aspect. s.e.xuality is a sacrament. Religion is a matter of relinking, with the divine within and with her outer manifestations in all of the human and natural world.
The symbol of the G.o.ddess is poemagogic, a term coined by Anton Ehrenzweig to "describe its special function of inducing and symbolizing the ego"s creativity." It has a dreamlike, "slippery" quality. One aspect slips into another: She is constantly changing form and changing face. Her images do not define or pin down a set of attributes; they spark inspiration, creation, fertility of mind and spirit: "One thing becomes another,/In the Mother ... In the Mother ..." (ritual chant for the Winter Solstice).
The importance of the G.o.ddess symbol for women cannot be overstressed. The image of the G.o.ddess inspires women to see ourselves as divine, our bodies as sacred, the changing phases of our lives as holy, our aggression as healthy, our anger as purifying, and our power to nurture and create, but also to limit and destroy when necessary, as the very force that sustains all life. Through the G.o.ddess, we can discover our strength, enlighten our minds, own our bodies, and celebrate our emotions. We can move beyond narrow, constricting roles and become whole.
The G.o.ddess is also important for men. The oppression of men in Father G.o.d-ruled patriarchy is perhaps less obvious but no less tragic than that of women. Men are encouraged to identify with a model no human being can successfully emulate: to be minirulers of narrow universes. They are internally split, into a "spiritual" self that is supposed to conquer their baser animal and emotional natures. They are at war with themselves: in the West, to "conquer" sin; in the East, to "conquer" desire or ego. Few escape from these wars undamaged. Men lose touch with their feelings and their bodies, becoming the "successful male zombies" described by Herb Goldberg in The Hazards of Being Male: "Oppressed by the cultural pressures that have denied him his feelings, by the mythology of the woman and the distorted and self-destructive way he sees and relates to her, by the urgency for him to "act like a man," which blocks his ability to respond to his inner promptings both emotionally and physiologically, and by a generalized self-hate that causes him to feel comfortable only when he is functioning well in harness, not when he lives for joy and personal growth."
Because women give birth to males, and nurture them at the breast, and in our culture are primarily responsible for their care as children, "every male brought up in a traditional home develops an intense early identification with his mother and therefore carries within him a strong feminine imprint." The symbol of the G.o.ddess allows men to experience and integrate the feminine side of their nature, which is often felt to be the deepest and most sensitive aspect of self. The G.o.ddess does not exclude the male; She contains him, as a pregnant woman contains a male child. Her own male aspect embodies both the solar light of the intellect and wild, untamed animal energy.
Our relationship to the earth and the other species that share it has also been conditioned by our religious models.
The image of G.o.d as outside of nature has given us a rationale for our own destruction of the natural order, and justified our plunder of the earth"s resources. We have attempted to "conquer" nature as we have tried to conquer sin. Only as the results of pollution and ecological destruction become severe enough to threaten even urban humanity"s adaptability have we come to recognize the importance of ecological balance and the interdependence of all life. The model of the G.o.ddess, who is immanent in nature, fosters respect for the sacredness of all living things. Witchcraft can be seen as a religion of ecology. Its goal is harmony with nature, so that life may not just survive, but thrive.
The rise of G.o.ddess religion makes some politically oriented feminists uneasy. They fear it will sidetrack energy away from action to bring about social change. But in areas as deeply rooted as the relations between the s.e.xes, true social change can only come about when the myths and symbols of our culture are themselves changed. The symbol of the G.o.ddess conveys the spiritual power both to challenge systems of oppression and to create new, life-oriented cultures.
Modern Witchcraft is a rich kaleidoscope of traditions and orientations. Covens, the small, closely knit groups that form the congregations of Witchcraft, are autonomous; there is no central authority that determines liturgy or rites. Some covens follow practices that have been handed down in an unbroken line since before the Burning Times. Others derive their rituals from leaders of modern revivals of the Craft-the two whose followers are most widespread are Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders, both British. Feminist covens are probably the fastest-growing arm of the Craft. Many are Dianic: a sect of Witchcraft that gives far more prominence to the female principle than the male. Other covens are openly eclectic, creating their own traditions from many sources. My own covens are based on the Faery tradition, which goes back to the Little People of Stone Age Britain, but we believe in creating our own rituals, which reflect our needs and insights of today.
The myths underlying philosophy and theology (a word coined by religious scholar Naomi Goldenburg from thea, the Greek word for G.o.ddess) in this book are based on the Faery tradition. Other Witches may disagree with details, but the overall values and att.i.tudes expressed are common to all of the Craft. Much of the Faery material is still held secret, so many of the rituals, chants, and invocations come from our creative tradition. In Witchcraft, a chant is not necessarily better because it is older. The G.o.ddess is continually revealing Herself, and each of us is potentially capable of writing our own liturgy.
In spite of diversity, there are ethics and values that are common to all traditions of Witchcraft. They are based on the concept of the G.o.ddess as immanent in the world and in all forms of life, including human beings.
Theologians familiar with Judeo-Christian concepts sometimes have trouble understanding how a religion such as Witchcraft can develop a system of ethics and a concept of justice. If there is no split between spirit and nature, no concept of sin, no covenant or commandments against which one can sin, how can people be ethical?
By what standards can they judge their actions, when the external judge is removed from his place as ruler of the cosmos? And if the G.o.ddess is immanent in the world, why work for change or strive toward an ideal? Why not bask in the perfection of divinity?
Love for life in all its forms is the basic ethic of Witchcraft. Witches are bound to honor and respect all living things, and to serve the life force. While the Craft recognizes that life feeds on life and that we must kill in order to survive, life is never taken needlessly, never squandered or wasted. Serving the life force means working to preserve the diversity of natural life, to prevent the poisoning of the environment and the destruction of species.
The world is the manifestation of the G.o.ddess, but nothing in that concept need foster pa.s.sivity. Many Eastern religions encourage quietism not because they believe the divine is truly immanent, but because they believe she/he is not. For them, the world is Maya, Illusion, masking the perfection of the Divine Reality. What happens in such a world is not really important; it is only a shadow play obscuring the Infinite Light. In Witchcraft, however, what happens in the world is vitally important. The G.o.ddess is immanent, but she needs human help to realize her fullest beauty. The harmonious balance of plant/animal/human/divine awareness is not automatic; it must constantly be renewed, and this is the true function of Craft rituals. Inner work, spiritual work, is most effective when it proceeds hand in hand with outer work. Meditation on the balance of nature might be considered a spiritual act in Witchcraft, but not as much as would cleaning up garbage left at a campsite or marching to protest an unsafe nuclear plant.
Witches do not see justice as administered by some external authority, based on a written code or set of rules imposed from without. Instead, justice is an inner sense that each act brings about consequences that must be faced responsibly. The Craft does not foster guilt, the stern, admonishing, self-hating inner voice that cripples action. Instead, it demands responsibility. "What you send, returns three times over" is the saying-an amplified version of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." For example, a Witch does not steal, not because of an admonition in a sacred book, but because the threefold harm far outweighs any small material gain. Stealing diminishes the thief"s self-respect and sense of honor; it is an admission that one is incapable of providing honestly for one"s own needs and desires. Stealing creates a climate of suspicion and fear, in which even thieves have to live. And, because we are all linked in the same social fabric, those who steal also pay higher prices for groceries, insurance, taxes. Witchcraft strongly imbues the view that all things are interdependent and interrelated and therefore mutually responsible. An act that harms anyone harms us all.
Honor is a guiding principle in the Craft. This is not a need to take offense at imagined slights against one"s virility-it is an inner sense of pride and self-respect. The G.o.ddess is honored in oneself, and in others. Women, who embody the G.o.ddess, are respected, not placed on pedestals or etherealized but valued for all their human qualities. The self, one"s individuality and unique way of being in the world, is highly valued. The G.o.ddess, like nature, loves diversity. Oneness is attained not through losing the self, but through realizing it fully. "Honor the G.o.ddess in yourself, celebrate your self, and you will see that Self is everywhere," says Faery priest Victor Anderson.
In Witchcraft, "All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals." s.e.xuality, as a direct expression of the life force, is seen as numinous and sacred. It can be expressed freely, so long as the guiding principle is love. Marriage is a deep commitment, a magical, spiritual, and psychic bond. But it is only one possibility out of many for loving, s.e.xual expression.
Misuse of s.e.xuality, however, is heinous. Rape, for example, is an intolerable crime because it dishonors the life force by turning s.e.xuality to the expression of violence and hostility instead of love. A woman has the sacred right to control her own body, as does a man. No one has the right to force or coerce another.
Life is valued in Witchcraft, and it is approached with an att.i.tude of joy and wonder, as well as a sense of humor.
Life is seen as the gift of the G.o.ddess. If suffering exists, it is not our task to reconcile ourselves to it, but to work for change.
Magic, the art of sensing and shaping the subtle, unseen forces that flow through the world, of awakening deeper levels of consciousness beyond the rational, is an element common to all traditions of Witchcraft. Craft rituals are magical rites: they stimulate an awareness of the hidden side of reality, and awaken long-forgotten powers of the human mind.
The magical element in Witchcraft is disconcerting to many people. Much of this book is devoted to a deep exploration of the real meaning of magic, but here I would like to speak to the fear I have heard expressed that Witchcraft and occultism harbor fascist tendencies or are linked to n.a.z.ism. There does seem to be evidence that Hitler and other n.a.z.is were occultists-that is, they may have practiced some of the same techniques as others who seek to expand the horizons of the minds. Magic, like chemistry, is a set of techniques that can be put to the service of any philosophy. The rise of the Third Reich played on the civilized Germans" disillusionment with rationalism and tapped a deep longing to recover modes of experience Western culture had too long ignored. It is as if we had been trained, since infancy, never to use our left arms: The muscles have partly atrophied, but they cry out to be used. But Hitler perverted this longing and twisted it into cruelty and horror. The n.a.z.is were not G.o.ddess worshippers; they denigrated women, relegating them to the position of breeding animals whose role was to produce more Aryan warriors. They Were tne perfect patriarchy, the ultimate warrior cult-not servants of the life force. Witchcraft has no ideal of a "superman" to be created at the expense of inferior races. In the Craft, all people are already seen as manifest G.o.ds, and differences in color, race, and customs are welcomed as signs of the myriad beauty of the G.o.ddess. To equate Witches with n.a.z.is because neither are Judeo-Christians and both share magical elements is like saying that swans are really scorpions because neither are horses and both have tails.
Witchcraft is not a religion of ma.s.ses-of any sort. Its structure is cellular, based on covens, small groups of up to thirteen members that allow for both communal sharing and individual independence. "Solitaries," Witches who prefer to worship alone, are the exception. Covens are autonomous, free to use whatever rituals, chants and invocations they prefer. There is no set prayer book or liturgy.
Elements may change, but Craft rituals inevitably follow the same underlying patterns. The techniques of magic, which has been termed by occultist Dion Fortune "the art of changing consciousness at will," are used to create states of ecstasy, of union with the divine. They may also be used to achieve material results, such as healings, since in the Craft there is no split between spirit and matter.
Each ritual begins with the creation of a sacred s.p.a.ce, the "casting of a circle," which establishes a temple in the heart of the forest or the center of a covener"s living room. G.o.ddess and G.o.d are then invoked or awakened within each partic.i.p.ant and are considered to be physically present within the circle and the bodies of the worshippers. Power, the subtle force that shapes reality, is raised through chanting or dancing and may be directed through a symbol or visualization. With the raising of the cone of power comes ecstasy, which may then lead to a trance state in which visions are seen and insights gained. Food and drink are shared, and coveners "earth the power" and relax, enjoying a time of socializing. At the end, the powers invoked are dismissed, the circle is opened, and a formal return to ordinary consciousness is made.
Entrance to a coven is through an initiation, a ritual experience in which teachings are transmitted and personal growth takes place. Every initiate is considered a priestess or priest; Witchcraft is a religion of clergy.
This book is structured around those elements that I feel are constants among all the varied traditions of the Craft. Interest in Witchcraft is growing rapidly. Colleges and universities are beginning to feature courses in the Craft in their religious studies departments. Women in ever greater numbers are turning to the G.o.ddess. There is a desperate need for material that will intelligently explain Witchcraft to non-Witches in enough depth so that both the practices and the philosophy can be understood. Because entrance to a coven is a slow and delicate process, there are many more people who want to practice Craft than there are covens to accommodate them. So this book also contains exercises and practical suggestions that can lead to a personal Craft practice. A person blessed with imagination and a moderate amount of daring would also use it as a manual to start her or his own coven. It is not, however meant to be followed slavishly; it is more like a basic musical score, on which you can improvise.
Mother G.o.ddess is reawakening, and we can begin to recover our primal birthright, the sheer, intoxicating joy of being alive. We can open new eyes and see that there is nothing to be saved from, no struggle of life against the universe, no G.o.d outside the world to be feared and obeyed; only the G.o.ddess, the Mother, the turning spiral that whirls us in and out of existence, whose winking eye is the pulse of being-birth, death, rebirth-whose laughter bubbles and courses through all things and who is found only through love: love of trees, of stones, of sky and clouds, of scented blossoms and thundering waves; of all that runs and flies and swims and crawls on her face; through love of ourselves; life-dissolving world-creating o.r.g.a.s.mic love of each other; each of us unique and natural as a snowflake, each of us our own star, her Child, her lover, her beloved, her Self.
CHAPTER 2. The World View of Witchcraft 1.
Between the Worlds.
CREATION.
Alone, awesome, complete within Herself, the G.o.ddess, She whose name cannot be spoken, floated in the abyss of the outer darkness, before the beginning of all things. And as She looked into the curved mirror of black s.p.a.ce, She saw by her own light her radiant reflection, and fell in love with it. She drew it forth by the power that was in Her and made love to Herself, and called Her "Miria, the Wonderful."
Their ecstasy burst forth in the single song of all that is, was, or ever shall be, and with the song came motion, waves that poured outward and became all the spheres and circles of the worlds. The G.o.ddess became filled with love, swollen with love, and She gave birth to a rain of bright spirits that fitted the worlds and became all beings.
But in that great movement, Miria was swept away, and as She moved out from the G.o.ddess She became more masculine. First She became the Blue G.o.d, the gentle, toughing G.o.d of love. Then She became the Green One, vine-covered, rooted in the earth, the spirit of all growing things. At last She became the Horned G.o.d, the Hunter whose face is the ruddy sun and yet dark as Death. But always desire draws Him back toward the G.o.ddess, so that He circles Her eternally, seeking to return in love.
All began in love; all seeks to return to love. Love is the law, the teacher of wisdom and the great revealer of mysteries.
"The Sioux idea of living creatures is that trees, buffalo and men are temporary energy swirls, turbulence patterns . . . that"s an early intuitive recognition of energy as a quality of matter. But that"s an old insight, you know, extremely old-probably a Paleolithic shaman"s insight. You find that perception registered so many ways in archaic and primitive lore. I would say that it is probably the most basic insight into the nature of things, and that our more common, recent occidental view of the universe as consisting of fixed things is out of the main stream, a deviation from basic human perception."
Gary Snyder [2]
The mythology and cosmology of Witchcraft are rooted in that "Paleolithic shaman"s insight": that all things are swirls of energy, vortexes of moving forces, currents in an ever-changing sea. Underlying the appearance of separateness, of fixed objects within a linear stream of time, reality is a field of energies that congeal, temporarily, into forms. In time, all "fixed" things dissolve, only to coalesce again into new forms, new vehicles.
This view of the universe as an interplay of moving forces-which, incidentally, corresponds to an amazing degree with the views of modern physics-is a product of a very special mode of perception. Ordinary waking consciousness sees the world as fixed; it focuses on one thing at a time, isolating it from its surroundings, much like viewing a dark forest with a narrow flashlight beam that illuminates a lone leaf or a solitary stone.
Extraordinary consciousness, the other mode of perception that is broad, holistic, and undifferentiated, sees patterns and relationships rather than fixed objects. It is the mode of starlight: dim and silvery, revealing the play of woven branches and the dance of shadows, sensing pathways as s.p.a.ces in the whole.
The magical and psychic aspects of the Craft are concerned with awakening the starlight vision, as I like to call it, and training it to be a useful tool. Magic is not a supernatural affair; it is, in Dion Fortune"s definition, "the art of changing consciousness at will"-of switching the flashlight off and on, of picking out details, of seeing by the stars.
Ordinary consciousness is highly valued in the Craft, but Witches are aware of its limitations. It is, in a sense, a grid through which we view the world, a culturally transmitted system of cla.s.sification. There are infinite ways to look at the world; the "other vision" frees us from the limits of our culture.
"Our fellow men are the black magicians," Don Juan, the Yaqui shaman, tells his student Castaneda in Tales of Power. * "Think for a moment. Can you deviate from the path that they"ve lined up for you? No. Your thoughts and your actions are fixed forever in their terms. I, on the other hand, brought you freedom. Freedom is expensive, but the price is not impossible. So fear your captors, your masters. Don"t waste your time and your power fearing me.
In Witchcraft, the "price of freedom" is, first of all, discipline and responsibility Starlight vision is a natural potential inherent in each of us, but much ork is required to develop and train it. Powers and abilities gained through heightened awareness must also be used responsibly; otherwise, like the Ring of Sauron (in Tolkien"s Lord of the Rings), they will destroy their possessors. Those who would be free must also be willing to stand slightly aside from the mainstream of society, if need be. In modern Western culture, artists, poets, and visionaries, let alone Witches, mystics, and shamans, are often somewhat alienated from their culture, which tends to devalue intangibles in favor of the solid, monetary fruits of success.
But the final price of freedom is the willingness to face that most frightening of all beings, one"s own self.
Starlight vision, the "other way of knowing," is the mode of perception of the unconscious, rather than the conscious mind. The depths of our own beings are not all sunlit; to see clearly, we must be willing to dive into the dark, inner abyss and acknowledge the creatures we may find there. For, as Jungian a.n.a.lyst M. Esther Harding explains in Woman"s Mysteries, "These subjective factors ... are potent psychical ent.i.ties, they belong to the totality of our being, they cannot be destroyed. So long as they are unrecognized outcasts from our conscious life, they will come between us and all the objects we view, and our whole world will be either distorted or illuminated."
Perhaps the most convincing way to present the Craft conception of the self is to examine some of the recent experimental findings of biologists and psychologists.* and ** Robert Omstein, in The Psychology of Consciousness, describes experiments with brain-damaged and epileptic subjects, demonstrating that the two hemispheres of the brain appear to specialize in precisely the two modes of consciousness we have discussed.
"The left hemisphere (connected to the right side of the body) is predominantly involved with a.n.a.lytic, logical thinking, especially in verbal and mathematical functions. Its mode of operation is primarily linear. This hemisphere seems to process information sequentially." Like our flashlight beam, it focuses on one subject at a time, excluding others. It perceives the world as made of separate things, which we may fear or desire, which can be manipulated to suit our purposes. "It seems to nave been evolved for the primary purpose of ensuring biological survival."
The right hemisphere (again, remember, connected to the left side of the body) seems specialized for holistic mentation. Its language ability is quite limited. This hemisphere is primarily responsible for our orientation in s.p.a.ce, artistic endeavors, crafts, body image, recognition of faces. It processes information more diffusely than does the left hemisphere, and its responsibilities demand a ready integration of many inputs at once." This is the starlight vision, which sees the universe as a dance of swirling energies, which "does not postulate duration, a future or a past, a cause or an effect, but a patterned, "timeless" whole."
This mode of awareness is vital to creativity. As Anton Ehrenzweig states in The Hidden Order of Art, "The complexity of any work of art, however simple, far outstrips the powers of conscious attention, which with its pin-point focus, can attend to only one thing at a time. Only the extreme undifferentiation of unconscious vision can scan these complexities. It can hold them in a single, unfocused glance and treat figure and ground with equal impartiality."
The following exercise, used to train artists, is helpful in learning to experience the mode of awareness just described.
EXERCISE 1: SHADOW PLAY**
Take a blank sheet of paper and a soft pencil or stick of charcoal. Sit down and observe a scene that interests you. Forgetting about objects, names, and things, observe only the play of light and shadow over various forms.
Block in the shadows, not with lines but with patches of broad strokes. Do not be distracted by local color; do not worry about reproducing "things." Let the patches of shade create forms. Spend at least ten minutes on this exercise. Remember, the point is not to create a "good" drawing or to prove your artistic talent (or lack of it); the point is to experience another way of seeing, in which separate objects disappear and only pattern remains.
People who are less visually oriented may find themselves more comfortable with the following exercise. M.V EXERCISE 2: RHYTHM PLAY.
Close your eyes. Listen to the sounds around you, forgetting what they represent. Be conscious only of the vast rhythm they create. Even in the city, forget that the whooshes, thumps, clacks, chirrupings, rumbles, and bangs are pa.s.sing cars, workmen"s hammers, footsteps, sparrows, trucks, and slamming doors-hear only the intricate, organic pattern in which each is a separate beat.
As we have said, both modes of perception are valued in the Craft, but the holistic vision of the right hemisphere is considered to be more in touch with underlying reality than the linear vision of the left hemisphere. This view is borne out by experiments with biofeedback, which gives people visual information about their involuntary body processes, allowing them to monitor and eventually control such functions as heartbeat or brain waves.
Barbara Brown, New Mind, New Body, describes experiments showing that "long before conscious recognition, the body and its subconscious substructure both recognize and make judgements about what goes on in the environment." Subjects were monitored as "naughty" words were flashed on a screen, too briefly to be recognized consciously. Their skin, heart rates, brain waves, and muscles all showed reactions to the "unseen"
words. The subconscious can respond correctly to reality even when it is given incorrect information by the conscious mind. In one experiment, subjects were told that they would be given a series of shocks that varied in intensity. Consciously, they perceived that the shocks grew weaker; in reality, the shocks were of the same intensity each time. Skin reactions proved that the subconscious was not fooled-monitors recorded exactly the same skin response to each shock, even when the conscious reaction was different."
In the Faery tradition of Witchcraft, the unconscious mind is called Younger Self; the conscious mind is called Talking Self.** Because they function through different modes of awareness, communication between the two is difficult. It is as if they speak different languages.*
It is Younger Self that directly experiences the world, through the holistic awareness of the right hemisphere.
Sensations, emotions, basic drives, image memory, intuition, and diffuse perception are functions of Younger Self. Younger Self"s verbal understanding is limited; it communicates through images, emotions, sensations, dreams, visions, and physical symptoms. Cla.s.sical psychoa.n.a.lysis developed from attempts to interpret the speech of Younger Self. Witchcraft not only interprets, but teaches us how to speak back to Younger Self.
Talking Self organizes the impressions of Younger Self, gives them names, cla.s.sifies them into systems. As its name implies, it functions through the verbal, a.n.a.lytic awareness of the left hemisphere. It also includes the set of verbally understood precepts that encourage us to make judgments about right and wrong. Talking Self speaks through words, abstract concepts, and numbers.
In the Faery tradition, a third "self is recognized: the Deep Self or G.o.d Self which does not easily correspond to any psychological concept. The Deep Self is the Divine within, the ultimate and original essence, the spirit that exists beyond time, s.p.a.ce, and matter. It is our deepest level of wisdom and compa.s.sion and is conceived of as both male and female, two motes of consciousness united as one. It is often symbolized as two linked spirals, or as the the infinity sign, the 8 on its side. In the Faery tradition, it is called Dian Yn Glas, the Blue G.o.d. Blue symbolizes spirit; the Deep Self was said to appear blue when psychically "seen." The Picts stained themselves blue with woad, according to our traditions, in order to identify with the Deep Self. "Dian" is related to both Diana and Tana, the Faery name of the G.o.ddess; also to Janicot, the Basque name of the Horned G.o.d, and to the given names Jean, Joan, and Jonet, which Margaret Murray doc.u.ments as being popular in Witch families.
In the esoteric Judaism of the Cabalah, the Deep Self is named the Neshamah, from the root Shmh, "to hear or listen": The Neshamah is She Who Listens, the soul who inspires and guides us. In modern occultism, the Deep Self often appears as the "Spirit Guide," sometimes in dual form, as in John C. Lilly"s account of his LSD experiences in an isolation tank, where he reports meeting two helpful beings: "They say that they are my guardians, that they have been, with me before at critical times and that in fact they are with me always, but that I am not usually in a state to perceive them. I am in a state to perceive them when I am close to the death of the body. In this state there is no time. There is an immediate perception of the past, present, and future as if in the present moment."
Lilly is describing the holistic, right-hemisphere awareness linked to Younger Self. The Faery tradition teaches that the Deep Self is connected to Younger Self, and not directly linked to Talking Self. We do not, fortunately, have to be nearly dead before we can perceive the Deep Self, once we learn the trick of communication. It is not the conscious mind, with its abstract concepts, that ever actually communicates with the Divine; it is the unconscious mind, the Younger Self that responds only to images, pictures, sensations, tangibles.** To communicate with the Deep Self, the G.o.ddess/G.o.d Within, we resort to symbols, to art, poetry, music, myth, and the actions of ritual that translate abstract concepts into the language of the unconscious.
Younger Self-who can be as balky and stubborn as the most cantankerous three-year-old-is not impressed by words. Like a native of Missouri, it wants to be shown. To arouse its interest, we must seduce it with pretty pictures and pleasurable sensations-take it out dining and dancing, as it were. Only in this way can the Deep Self be reached. For this reason, religious truths have not been expressed throughout time as mathematical formulas, but in art, music, dance, drama, poetry, stories, and active rituals. As Robert Graves says, "Religious morals, in a healthy society, are best enforced by drums, moonlight, fasting, dancing, masks, flowers, divine possession."
Witchcraft has no sacred book. Its allegiance is not to "The Word" of the Gospel of John, but to the power of symbolic action that unlocks the starlit awareness of Younger Self, and opens a free flow of communication between all three selves at once. The myths and stories that have come down to us are not dogma to be taken literally, any more than we are meant to take literally statement that "my love is like a red, red rose." They are poetry, not theology - meant to speak to Younger Self, in Joseph Campbell"s words "to touch exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of vocabularies of reason and coercion.
Aspects of Witchcraft rituals may sometimes seem silly to very serious-minded people, who fail to realize that ritual is aimed at Younger Self. The sense of humor, of play, is often the key to opening the deepest states of consciousness. Part of the "price of freedom," then, is the willingness to play, to let go of our adult dignity, to look foolish, to laugh at nothing. A child makes believe that she is a queen; her chair becomes a throne. A Witch makes believe that her wand has magic power, and it becomes a channel for energy.
Of course, balance is necessary. There is a difference between magic and psychosis and that difference lies in maintaining the ability to step back, at will into ordinary consciousness, to return to the awareness that, as my high school health education teacher used to affirm in the height of the psychedelic era, "Reality is that when you jump off a roof, you break your leg." Drugs can open the holistic awareness of Younger Self, but often at the expense of Talking Self"s survival judgment: If we "play" at flying in the body, we may smash a femur. But a trained awareness has no quarrel with ordinary reality; it flies further, in the spirit, and gains insights and perceptions that can later be verified by Talking Self.
Humor and play awaken the sense of wonder, the basic att.i.tude that Witchcraft takes to the world. For example, last night my coven held a May Eve ritual, the central action of which involved winding a "Maypole," and weaving into it those things we wish to weave into our lives.** Instead of a pole, we used a central cord, and instead of ribbons we had strings of colored yarn, anch.o.r.ed to a central hook on the ceiling of our meeting room.
We also had eleven people in the circle. Of course, we knew perfectly well that it is impossible to wind a Maypole with an odd number of people, but we did not want to leave anybody out. So, with a cavalier disregard for ordinary reality, we went right ahead.
The result, to begin with, was chaos and confusion. Everyone was laughing as we dodged in and out, creating a tangled knot of yarn. It was scarcely a scene of mystical power; a ritual magician would have blanched pale and turned in his wand on the spot. But an odd thing began to happen as we continued. The laughter began to build a strange atmosphere, as if ordinary reality was fading away. Nothing existed but the interplay of colored cords and moving bodies. The smiles on faces that flashed in and out of sight began to resemble the secret smiles of archaic Greek statues, hinting at the highest and most numerous of Mysteries. We began to sing; we moved in rhythm and a pattern evolved in the dance-nothing that could ever be mapped or plotted rationally; it was a pattern with an extra element that always and inevitably would defy explanation. The snarl of yarn resolved itself into an intricately woven cord. The song became a chant; the room glowed, and the cord pulsed with power like a live thing, an umbilicus linking us to all that is within and beyond. At last the chant peaked and died; we dropped into trance. When we awoke, all together, at the same moment, we faced each other with wonder.
The Creation myth that heads this chapter clearly expresses the att.i.tude of wonder, to the world, which is divine, and to the divine, which is the world.* and **
In the beginning, the G.o.ddess is the All, virgin, meaning complete within Herself. Although She is called G.o.ddess, She could just as easily be called G.o.d-s.e.x has not yet come into being. As yet, there is no separation, no division, nothing but the primal unity. Yet the female nature of the ground of being is stressed-because the process of creation that is about to occur is a birth process. The world is born, not made, and not commanded into being.
The G.o.ddess sees her reflection in the curved mirror of s.p.a.ce, which may be a magical insight into the form of the universe, the curved s.p.a.ce of modern physics. The mirror is an ancient attribute of the G.o.ddess, according to Robert Graves, in her aspect as "the ancient pagan Sea G.o.ddess Marian . . . Miriam, Mariamne (Sea Lamb), Myrrhine, Myrtea, Myrrha, Maria, or Marina, patroness of poets and lovers and proud mother of the Archer of Love. ... A familiar disguise of this same Marian is the merry-maid, as "mermaid" was once written. The conventional figure of the mermaid-a beautiful woman with a round mirror, a golden comb and a fish-tail-expresses "The Love-G.o.ddess rises from the Sea." Every initiate of the Eleusinian mysteries, which were of Pelasgian [the indigenous, matrifocal people of Greece] origin, went through a love rite with her representative after taking a cauldron bath. . . . the mirror did also form part of the sacred furniture of the Mysteries, and probably stood for "Know thyself.""16 The same mermaid/ocean mother is named Yemaya in West Africa and Iamanja in Brazil.
Water is the original mirror; the image conveyed is also that of the moon floating over the dark sea, watching her reflection in the waves. A faint echo can be heard in the opening of Genesis: "The earth was unformed and void, and the spirit of G.o.d floated on the face of the water."
There is yet another aspect to the mirror: A mirror image is a reversed image, the same, but opposite, the reverse polarity. The image expresses the paradox: All things are one, yet each thing is separate, individual, unique.
Eastern religions tend to focus on the first part of the paradox, holding the view that in reality all things are one and that separation and individuality are illusions. Western religions stress individuality and tend to see the world as composed of fixed and separate things. The Western view tends to encourage individual effort and involvement with the world; the Eastern view encourage withdrawal, contemplation, and compa.s.sion. Witchcraft holds to the truth of paradox and sees each view as equally valid. They reflect and complete each other; they do not contradict each other. The world of separate things is the reflection of the One; the One is the reflection of the myriad separate things of the world. We are all "swirls" of the same energy, yet each swirl is unique in its own form and pattern.
The G.o.ddess falls in love with Herself, drawing forth her own emanation, which takes on a life of its own. Love of self for self is the creative force of the universe. Desire is the primal energy, and that energy is erotic: the attraction of lover to beloved, of planet to star, the l.u.s.t of electron for proton. Love is the glue that holds the world together.
Blind eros, however, becomes amor, the love that, in Joseph Campbell"s terminology, is personal, directed to an individual, rather than the universal, s.e.xless charity of agape, or indiscriminate, s.e.xual desire. The G.o.ddess"s reflection takes on its own being and is given a name. Love is not only an energizing force, but an individualizing force. It dissolves separation and yet creates individuality. It is, again, the primal paradox.
Miria, "The Wonderful," is of course, Marian-Miriam-Mariamne, who is also Mari, the full moon aspect of the G.o.ddess in the Faery tradition. The sense of wonder, of joy and delight in the natural world, is the essence of Witchcraft. The world is not a flawed creation, not something from which we must escape, not in need of salvation or redemption. However it might appear from day to day, by the nature of its deepest being it fills us with wonder.
Divine ecstasy becomes the fountain of creation, and creation is an o.r.g.a.s.mic process. Ecstasy is at the heart of Witchcraft-in ritual, we turn paradox inside out and become the G.o.ddess, sharing in the primal, throbbing joy of union. "The fundamental characteristic of shamanism is ecstasy," according to Mircea Eliade, and although he interprets the state somewhat narrowly as "the soul forsaking the body," he admits that "in all probability the ecstatic experience in its many aspects, is coexistent with the human condition, in the sense that it is an integral part of what is called man"s gaining consciousness of his specific mode of being in the world. Shamanism is .not only a technique of ecstasy; its theology and its philosophy finally depend on the spiritual value at is accorded to ecstasy. Witchcraft is a shamanistic religion, and the spiral value placed on ecstasy is a high one. It is the source of union, healing, native inspiration, and communion with the divine-whether it is found in center of a coven circle, in bed with one"s beloved, or in the midst of the forest, in awe and wonder at the beauty of the natural world, ecstasy brings about harmony, the "music of the spheres." Music is a symbolic expression of the vibration that is a quality of all beings. Physicists inform us that the atoms and molecules of all things, from an unstable gas to the Rock of Gibraltar, are in constant motion. Underlying that motion is an order, a harmony that is inherent in being. Matter sings, by its very nature.