(^244) A Wiccan Bible
answer is that Wicca is more Goddess focussed than the ancient Pagan religions, I
won’t even argue that Wicca is a balance between the feminine and masculine, I will
just point out that Cartimandua was female.
Taking up arms is the third rite of passage of Llew Llaw Gyffes, who was initially
forbidden the rite by his mother who demanded that he not be allowed to take up arms
until she armed him. Arming him later became exactly what she did when she was in
fear for the safety of her community, and that is exactly what we do when we take up
arms. We defend our community.
Now this does not mean that Wiccans have an initiation rite where guns and am-
munition are distributed. Instead, it is the point on the path of Wicca when one realizes
that no matter how much one detests conflict, it is sometimes not only the best choice,
but also the only choice. If we learn anything from the burning times, it is what happens
when one does not stand against oppression. If we learn anything from the persecution
of the Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany, it is what happens when one does not stand
against oppression. Have we learned anything?
The mystery of how Wicca can be a religion and yet mandate absolutely no specific
morality or ethics is conflict. This is the natural order of our world, survival of the
fittest. At its core, it is the science of Darwin. This is not to say that the Wiccan religion
promotes war or bloodshed, but it does promote conflict in encouraging individual
thought and the expression of that thought. Someone says Wiccan rites should include
child molestation, I say child molestation is an abomination to a fertility religion, and
you decide who is right and who is wrong. This is the taking up of arms. So interwoven
is this to Wicca that, long before we became an industry standard religion given into
the mass media’s desire to market books, we did not use the word tools to denote the
props of our sacred theater (ritual). Instead, the athame, chalice, censor, pentacle, and
other props in sacred theater were called weapons. That term fell out of favor because
it was feared someone might misunderstand the word and think our religion presented
a danger to the larger community—and that fluff bunny stuff seems to sell a great deal
more books (read that it makes more money for Wicca’s ‘secret chiefs’). But it is in not
recognizing those props as weapons that there is a danger, for it is in doing nothing,
allowing the world to slip into disaster that we are all in danger.
Should we do nothing as the rate of extinction exceeds that of the dinosaur? Should
we do nothing as entire lines of plants are destroyed? Should we do nothing as animals
are needlessly made to suffer? Do we actually have a choice? We do. Having a Wiccan
soul, we do not have a choice but to feel the pain of these things, but we have a choice
in what we do about it. We could recognize these things and allow them to cause us to
sit and cry, or we can turn that pain into rage and bring about the manifestation of a just
world by taking up arms by the expression of thought, putting that rage forth into the
world, thus seeking conflict with the forces that oppose such expression, and praying
that our convictions prevail.
Yes, it is tempting to scream ‘Make love not war.’ But in that scream, still there is
conflict, or there would be no reason to scream it. In that scream there is war, there is
the demand that ones perception of that which is right be put forth to challenge that
w WB Chap 14.p65 244 7/11/2003, 6:03 PM
barré
(Barré)
#1