The Heart of Wicca: Wise Words from a Crone on the Path

Introduction

I sit and grit my teeth. I read an article in a newsletter put out by a Norse pagan organization in which the editor comments that Wiccans are, shall we say, careless in their mythology. His example was that many Wiccans refer to Freya as a Moon Goddess when She so obviously was not. I sit and grit my teeth when I read in this article that all Wiccans only believe in one God and one Goddess, while other pagans see the Gods and Goddesses as individual and separate.

I sit and grit my teeth when the same writer states that Wiccans seem to have a political agenda, rather than a religious one. I sit and grit my teeth when I see all the pop Wicca books that mention the Gods and Goddesses only in relation to what They can do for us.

I sit and grit my teeth when, on the computer bulletin boards, someone speaks of a group that wears turtleheads and does their rituals in Klingon. If anyone dared to comment that this didn't strike them as real Wicca, they were accused of being bigots and how dare they judge what was real and what wasn't? I sit and grit my teeth when a friend of mine tells me he sees Wiccans as crystal-hugging, air-headed vegenazis.¹

I nearly broke my teeth when I was informed that not all Wiccans were witches, that if they didn't do magic they weren't witches. When I pointed out that casting a circle was an act of magic, I was informed that you could honor the Lord and Lady without ever casting a circle.

I grit my teeth because there's very little else I can do. I have no right to tell people what Wicca is and isn't. I'm painfully aware that some Wiccans see every Goddess as a Moon Goddess, whatever the mythology may say to the contrary. I am aware that many Wiccans only see two Deities, and all others as faces of those two.

I am aware that a lot of people don't understand the difference between myth and fiction, nor do they understand what myths truly are. And I am horribly aware that a lot of Wiccans are crystal-hugging, air-headed vegenazis who believe (at high volume) that their way is the way all pagans should be.

I can't do much about it. It's all true! All I can say is, I'm not . . . don't . . . wouldn't. My Wicca, my path is not any of these things, doesn't do any of these things, doesn't hold to any of these ideas.

I cannot say that my way is the only way, but I can, in this book, describe a way of Wicca that isn't any of the above—a Wicca that is an initiatory Mystery religion. As you will see, in the excellent article included here by Skytoucher, that it is quite different from the social, political, or support group types of Wicca you may have seen.

I am, thank all the Gods and Goddesses, not alone. While we are in the minority, there are those of us who are preserving this initiatory path, each in our own way. You'll see some of them represented here in articles, quotes, or brief mention. I call us the Preservers of the Path. It is my prayer that we are not the only ones, and that others are out there, practicing, living, and teaching our vision of Wicca.

It is likely you haven't come across this view before. It may appeal to you, or not. To be honest, I expect very few middle-of-the road responses to this book. You are either going to be fascinated by what we have to say, or you are going to throw the book down. And that would be a shame.

To those of you who are intrigued by the material here, welcome! You are probably one of us at heart! It is for you that this book exists. We are few, and have looked about us in dismay, realizing that other kinds of covens have proliferated (reasons for this will become obvious later) and that most newcomers to the Craft are not aware that our type of tradition exists. I am very active in computer networking (see page 128 for my favorite sites), and it distresses me to realize that so few share my view of many aspects of the Craft.

None of our covens are large, and again, the reasons for this will become obvious later. We will never have a proliferation of daughter covens. Our kind of Craft will not appeal to many who come to this religion, and it is often difficult to know who wants what we have to offer, because they often don't know themselves.

To be perfectly honest, it is extremely difficult to wade through the mass of newcomers, looking for those who will gain from our tradition. We've all been fooled, and paid for our foolishness in wasted time and effort, not to mention more than a little heartbreak. We hear from people around the country who might be one of us, but, because part of what we stand for is stringent training, we cannot help them.

I hope, however, to inspire you to seek what you need. I hope to let you know that there is more to Wicca than you may have seen, that this Mystery religion still exists, that the Craft, as we see it, is more than a hobby, a social club, or a political movement. I also hope that the information in this book will help you follow, whether solitary or covener, this spiritual path.

If you had hoped it might be so, if you haven't been fulfilled by the Wicca you've seen and keep hoping that what you want exists, perhaps you've found a home here. Perhaps you, too, are a Preserver of the Path. If so, read on!

1. Okay, I confess I only gritted my teeth twice. The third time he said it, I stood up and told him that he was wrong, I was tired of him insulting my path, and if he didn't stop it, he'd have me to deal with.

CHAPTER 1

What Is Wicca?

I am not going to try to give a hard and fast definition of Wicca other than it is an initiatory, Mystery religion. The Wicca I love and practice contains a great deal that the best known types of Wicca don't practice. It contains a great deal that isn't found in all the Wicca books that are so popular today. While the majority of these books are written by sincere people who are sharing what they've learned, for me they seem only to scratch the surface of the path.

I'm not going to say my Wicca is right and theirs is wrong. I'm going to discuss the various aspects of the traditions I consider important in the Wicca I practice, things I don't usually see in many Wiccan groups or books. These aspects include: covens and coven leadership, tradition, initiation, training, the sabbats and my approach to, and view of, the Deities, as well as the importance of symbology and mythology.

There are two covens where I live whose practices reflect the ideas I'll write about. (There may be more, but I'm not aware of them.) By today's popular definitions, they are not Wiccan, but according to the ideas of Wicca I've held since 1975, they are. (One of them seldom even uses the word Wiccan to describe their tradition.) My own coven (Sothistar) and Coven Ashesh Hekat do not follow the same tradition, have no family connections that we know of, and practice very differently. What we have in common is our view of what Wicca is. I have drawn from the experience of Ashesh Hekat's coven leaders as much as from my own.

Let's begin with an article by Skytoucher that appeared in Enchanté.¹ If the word Wicca is read where Skytoucher uses the word Paganism, this article expresses many of my thoughts, hopes, and fears, as well as showing an attitude and an approach to Wicca that is very close to my own. It will also give you some definitions to help you understand the rest of this book.

Paganism at the Crossroads

by Skytoucher

These are tricky and dangerous times. Paganism has grown in size to the point where we no longer enjoy the luxury of obscurity. We now face a choice that all initiatory paths face at some time in their development: Whether to remain a viable initiatory path, and if so under what circumstances; or to devolve into a mere religion.

I'd better backtrack—some readers may not understand what an initiatory path is, or how it differs from a religion. Others may think paganism is a religion already, and wonder what I mean by suggesting it is or could be something else.

A defense often used against fundamentalist Christians and others who attack paganism on a religious basis is to say, We are not like you, only different in a few not-so-important ways. We are a religion, like you, another belief system, harmless, ordinary. We worship the Earth, the Goddess, the same way you worship your abstract God. You should extend tolerance to us for the same reason you extend it to Muslims or Buddhists or Catholics or Jews. When you single us out as something weird, you are exhibiting hysterical paranoia. It's an effective defense, but somewhat disingenuous.

We are different. We aren't just a religion. We are at present, and in my view should try to remain, a path of initiation. It may be inevitable that a religion grow up around us. It may even be desirable to employ such a religion as a cloak, or a doorway, to both. But a Pagan religion is also a threat to the Pagan path of initiation. We need to ensure that the growth, if it occurs, is that of a tree from a seed, not of a pearl from a grain of sand.

A tree produces more seeds.

A pearl only hides the sand to

save the oyster from discomfort.

What is an initiatory path? And what, then, is initiation? We touch here upon a word badly misunderstood by many Pagans. Initiation is one thing; an initiation ritual is another. A person is not an initiate, in the sense I mean here, just because he or she has passed through an initiation ritual. Initiation is a personal experience in which one becomes aware of mysteries—realities that were previously hidden, that cannot be communicated by one person to another in words or symbols, that must be experienced directly, firsthand. This last point is crucial. One finds mysteries communicated in coven initiations or even at festivals, but these are only hidden meanings of symbols and tools used in the Craft, or of stories told about the Gods. The fact that they can be communicated makes them not true mysteries, only secrets.

A body of teaching, practice, and ritual that facilitates initiation is an initiatory path. Most religions start out as paths of initiation. Religion tends to be conservative. Initiation, however, is always revolutionary.

Initiation transforms a person's life, bringing inner peace, greater insight into the workings of fate, and awareness of the connections linking all things, as well as magical power. If it were a commonplace event, if people went through initiation as surely as they go through puberty, we would have a far different and better world.

Even if the circle of initiates included a significant minority of the population, the magical effect of such a number of altered minds on the world would be profound and positive. Of course, this very fact means that initiatory paths will be opposed by those interests, both human and non-human, that are opposed to positive change. The opposition is not really a conspiracy; it seems more than an automatic reaction, a law of nature.

Initiation is not an instantaneous event, but one that occurs through years of effort and devotion. It seems likely that there is no end to the process, and that the idea of there being a fully enlightened being is a peculiar Oriental fantasy. There are times, it is true, when revelation comes in a flash like lightning, but such moments are exclamation marks punctuating a story that unfolds chapter by chapter.

Many tools and methods for achieving initiation have evolved over the ages. Some are intellectual, aiming to