(^80) A Wiccan Bible
Mother and Father, and it is their Daughter and Son. It is the sacred marriage in which
one Mother and Father are united with another Mother and Father. It is that which we
find sacred and the path by which we find it. At its very core, it is the number of re-
union. And with that reunion, we remember and truly become as we were before sepa-
ration, one people.
We live in a three dimensional world. But until relatively recently, we mostly moved
about it in only two dimensions. Prior to the use of airplanes and submarines, one
could move forwards, backwards, to the left and to the right, but neither up nor down
for any appreciable distance. At a very early time, humanity must have felt the need to
offer directions to others to assist them. Maybe someone found a really good apple
tree, took a few apples, and brought them home for his wife and him to enjoy.
A second man saw the first and his wife enjoying those mighty fine apples and
wanted one for himself. The first man knew there were plenty of apples back at the
apple tree, so he didn’t see any reason to fight over those apples, and he gave the
second man an apple. A third and fourth man saw the second man eating one of those
mighty fine apples and asked him where he got it; he told them he received the apple
from the first man. So the third and fourth man went to the first man and told him they
each wanted an apple.
Something had to be done. He couldn’t just point to the apple tree because there
were obstacles in the way. So he told the second and third man to go to the first ob-
stacle, turn to the left, walk to a landmark, turn to the right, walk forward and there is
the apple tree. The men went off to fetch some apples but did not return for a long
time. When they finally returned, they were mighty put off. They had found the apple
tree just fine, but then he turned around and tried to follow the directions in reverse to
return home. They went back to that final landmark and again turned right, leading
them in the wrong direction. It became obvious that to describe directions, they needed
a fixed reference. Fortunately, they had exactly what they needed already provided.
Morning after morning, one could face the East and witness sunrise. Evening after
evening, one could face West and witness the sunset. Because the sun always rose and set in
the same place, those first four principle directions could be situated to either the sunrise or
sunset. Using the constant direction of either, one could easily refer to the four key
directions with a reference that all could relate to a single point. Because most jour-
neys would be taken during the day, the logical choice to reference was sunrise. Our
simple concept of forward, backward, left, and right become universal references in
direction.
Facing sunrise, those directions are:
Description Direction
Before me East
To my right South
Behind me West
To my left North
k WB Chap 04.p65 80 7/11/2003, 5:50 PM
barré
(Barré)
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