(^262) A Wiccan Bible
of other religions. Maybe it should not have surprised me that everyone I spoke to
advised me that being right with God was in order. Maybe I should not have been
surprised because I have always felt that living as a Wiccan is a harder path than that of
other religions. Why would facing Death as a Wiccan be any different? “Thou are god,”
thought I. What about being right with yourself? How does a Wiccan face Death?
I thought long and hard on the subject, and then I remembered the circumstances
that once caused me to be in that dark place with a twelve gauge in my mouth. I was sick
and had given up on life. I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing I could to
do to change the eventuality of my death. But I am only able to recount this story to you
now because something happened to me that would forever change the way I live, thus
changing the way I hope to face Death when it finally finds me. In that moment I re-
ceived a simple message. If I wanted to live, then I should not support death. Of course,
with the illness that ravaged my lungs and the belief that inaction is an action unto
itself, that message meant one thing: Fight!
That is how I now hope to meet my death—not in peace, but in combat. Not in a
battle against Death itself—no, Death is the natural conclusion to Life—but in a battle
against the same forces that I combated during my lifetime. I hope to die combating
those forces that stand in opposition to what my Spirit dictates. While I have been told
that when death is seemingly imminent, one should comfort folk and convince the dying
to accept that eventuality, I cannot in good conscience do so because I am living proof
that some times death is only seemingly imminent, and the very thing that may cause
Death to turn and look the other way is how we accept Life, not how we accept Death.
So what does someone say to someone that is on death row for a crime that he says
he did not commit? One says the same thing one would say to anyone that is facing
Death for whatever reason: One should face Death in the way one faces Life, by recog-
nizing that which one’s Spirit demands and fighting anything that would oppose those
demands. One tells him that if Spirit demands that he scream his innocence, then he
should do just that until the very last moment. For it is the very act of living at the
moment one thinks he might die that may well be what is necessary to postpone that
moment of death for many, many years to come. One tells him to never, ever give up or
give in!
The Afterlife
Thus far, Wicca has not developed much of a detailed afterlife concept. As none of
us have been there and returned to tell the tale, no one really knows. If the belief in
reincarnation is a fact, then folk don’t tell that tale much because they do not remem-
ber it to tell. In truth, I do believe firmly in reincarnation. The thing is, I do not gener-
ally believe folk when they tell me their wild tales. I have lost count of the number of
folk who claim to be Hitler and Napoleon reincarnated. Okay, maybe Napoleon had
some good points, but Hitler? I am reminded of the song Industrial Disease by Dire
Straits: “Two men say they’re Jesus. One of them must be wrong.”
y WB Chap 16.p65 262 7/11/2003, 6:04 PM
barré
(Barré)
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