(^42) A Wiccan Bible
A Creation Myth
“For if it were a simple fact that insanity is an evil, the saying would be true;
but in reality the greatest of blessings come to us through madness,
when it is sent as a gift of the gods.”
From Socrates’ second speech, as recorded by Plato in Phaedrus
In some versions of the Greek creation story, before there is Chaos (‘Void’) there
is Achlys (‘dark mist’), who is the personification of misery. She is depicted as a pale
woman with cheeks sunken from not eating. Her eyes are swollen and red from endless
crying brought on by perpetual loneliness, those tears going unnoticed because she is
alone in a way that none other could ever know. Think on that for a moment. That
which existed prior to even the void from which existence sprang is misery.
Call it misery, pain, loneliness, or whatever word describes the feeling that comes
when one feels utterly alone—that feeling is a universal concept. Not being able to
touch, to feel, to connect with another being brings on a very special form of mania, the
mania of creation and destruction. A baby who is not touched will certainly die. A
person who feels truly alone will take his or her life. This too is mania. Creation and
destruction, Life and Death—it is the very principle that caused the evolution of the
French phrase for sexual orgasm, le petit mort, which means ‘a little death.’
Who can argue that the world’s greatest creators have not been touched with that
mania? Who can argue that the world’s greatest destroyer’s have not been touched
with that mania? So just what is this mania? The ancient Greeks used the word to
personify madness, calling her the Goddess Mania. The ancient Romans also called
her Mania but connected her to death. The Etruscans used the word mania as the
name of the goddess of the Underworld. The Finnish used the root of the word in the
name of their Underworld, Manana.
I have sat alone, cold and hungry but wanting neither companionship, nor warmth,
nor food. Either would only prolong the suffering. It was in that moment that I under-
stood the note from my Book of Shadows: “Our creator is evidenced by our creativity.”
In that instant of memory, I knew the gods had not forsaken me; I had forsaken them.
They had not given me dreams that I had no hope of fulfilling. In that sacred moment,
in choosing Life, I was reborn. In that rebirth, I truly understood the first mystery of my
religion and the secret of genesis. But before I can tell you of that mystery and share its
many secrets, you must first understand the nature of these words, mystery and secret.
A secret is, simply, something that is not told. Anything can be kept secret. The pin
code for your ATM card is a secret. In a religious context, a secret is a bit more. It is a
piece of information that either supports or leads one to understanding a mystery. As it
is information it can be exchanged, sometimes even when it should not be. But unlike a
secret, a mystery is experiential. It is something that can not be exchanged.
If you have been in that dark place, you will understand my creation story and will
fondly receive the secrets that I share. Those secrets being the names and the expressions
of countless others who have been in that dark place as recorded in the stories of the
h WB Chap 01.p65 42 7/11/2003, 5:48 PM
barré
(Barré)
#1