The various Witchcraft Traditions are mostly comprised of converts. Not everyone fits this bill, but most do. So regardless of which branch you subscribe to, whether it is BTW*, TIW*, TW*, or DRW*, it is by choice. I am of course speaking about those forms of Witchcraft that are religious in nature, there are folk traditions but those are a different beast. Granted, a beast that sometimes we ride around the corral.
Our devotion is by choice.
It is ridiculously easy to just exist in the world of form and pursue only the mundane. Instead, the choice was made and continues to be made every time our decision is engaged through action. This action is inward. The choice could be made to only worry about the tangible and minimal spiritual requirements for existence. Why bother claiming the title then? It is the work, the inward work of the initiate that is the approach of the Witch. Ours is the path of the mystic digging into the depths of what is hidden, to see what mysteries may be learned.
Tasting the seeds of truth that the mysteries offer is for many, enough to ensnare them, but to tend only to the spiritual will leave the profane world barren.
If though, one is only concerned with the mundane, the heart crowned in the holy will not only long for integration into our life but will in a crisis of neglect bring winter to our lives. Surrounded by untamed shadows that were feed by denial of their existence, the innocent folly will find itself the bride cloaked in darkness, with reign over a heart in ruin.
The extremes of living solely in the profane or the sacred will defeat the Witch and every step forward will leave the other leg anchored or at best dragging. It is via devotion to living fully in both worlds that the Witch finds they are able to walk with both feet.
How do you do at walking with both feet down the thorned path?
Boidh se!
-Spanish Moss
"Lost in a thicket bare-footed upon a thorned path."
*BTW: British Traditional Wicca
*TIW: Traditional Initiatory Witchcraft
*TW: Traditional Witchcraft
*DRW: Dedicatory Religious Witchcraft
4 comments:
Absolutely wonderful post, and one that is so, so relevant for most witches I know.
Do you think balance of this sort is achievable? Or rather, what denotes balance? Is it hovering in the center, steadily, or is the pendulum swinging from one side, then to the other, embracing one extreme after another, over and again consistently, also a kind of balance?
I think of it less as balance and more neglecting one over the other, effort in one only, is neglect. I have found that success at work makes my magickal/spiritual life stronger and likewise time spent in devotion yields results at work.
Usually though, the best that can be achieved is to make the swing of the pendulum less wide. Which is easier said than done.
I've come to call this being "two-eyed" - engaging the sacred in life out of one "eye" and the mundane out of the other simultaneously. It's probably easier for me as an MT because what I do is fully mundane and yet fairly "woo" (as they call it) as well. Staying grounded, engaging the world of form as it is, while keeping ever mindful of the larger cycles and unseen forces behind the world of form.
I veer completely off the path occasionally, and i'm sure that i have a dragging foot, and thorns pierce every toe.... I hope that I will always have such a Wise One in Spanish Moss to assist me in keeping focussed. As usual, awesome post!
Post a Comment