(^22) A Wiccan Bible
There are other instances where the Rite of Wiccaning and Dedication can be
conducted for the purpose of Rededication. Consider the effects of rape. I am sorry to
say that in the greater community, the victim is sometimes blamed and treated as if
dirty. A Wiccaning might be performed such that the immediate community can tell
the victim that we do not accept the ways of the greater community. That our eyes are
open to the horror and that we support that person in our community now more than
ever, because that person probably needs the immediate community now more than
ever.
On the Rite of Self-Dedication, consider the Wiccan who strays not only from his
or her religion but from the nature of one’s soul discovered in the mysteries that are
found in the path of Wicca. Now and then, we all do incredibly mindless things, things
we would rather forget. But in forgetting them, we cannot learn by them. So the Rite of
Self-Dedication is sometimes performed again to reaffirm one’s dedication to the prin-
cipled of one’s own heart.
The Rite of Wiccaning
Born with that beat
The trembling voice
Listen to that beat
You have no choice
Contrary to popular opinion, Wiccans are not made. Nor are they born. Born with
potential and born with a Wiccan soul, yes, but neither made nor born Wiccan. Instead,
Wiccans are discovered, and that discovery is the process by which the Wiccan discov-
ers his- or herself, as well as the process by which the greater community discovers him
or her and also that process by which he or she discovers the community. The Wiccan is
born with that beat, that trembling voice, and no matter how one tries to deny it, one
eventually has no choice but to listen to it.
It is the cycle, the power, and the energy (for lack of better words) of the very world
in which we live. I say for lack of better words because if I told you it was a pattern you
might not understand the depth of what I mean. It is the rhythm of all that lives, all that
has lived and all that ever will live, a voice that beckons the Wiccan soul and while it
pains me to say it, a voice that beckons none other. This does not mean that none other
than Wiccans hear this voice, but none without the potential of becoming Wiccan can
hear the voice, and those who do have that potential have no choice but to listen to it.
For this reason, the Wiccan community is charged with making itself available to
the seeker. Not because I say this here, but those who are truly Wiccan will remember
what it felt like when they heard that voice and did not know there were others who
heard it, too. The Wiccan community is charged with making itself available to the
seeker because we have compassion for the seeker, we know what that seeker must be
feeling. We know that being lost in a dark place feeling utterly alone is horrific and we
wish it on no living thing.
g WB Chap 0.p65 22 7/11/2003, 5:47 PM
barré
(Barré)
#1