The world is a place saturated with hardships, with suffering, and it has always been this way throughout history. Regardless of what myths of a Golden Age may get touted, there wasn’t one. Not in the least. The same can be said about today. Take a peek at your local, national, and world news and it will become instantly apparent, this is of course assuming that you aren’t already well aware.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot in light of the ongoing and continuous onslaught of political upheavals and social tragedies across the world. For example, the recent mass murder/shooting in Los Vegas by Stephen Paddock. This is one example of many. Like most, I don’t have an answer that will solve the world’s problems.
There is a famous line from the rites of the Wicca that has encroached upon the greater Contemporary Pagandom. I blame the early authors. It goes, “art thou willing to suffer to learn?”
The line instantly reminds me of the passage from Charles G. Leland’s Aradia: Or the Gospel of the Witches that would inspire much of the Charge of the Goddess ole great* auntie Doreen wrote. In this section, Aradia the Daughter of the Queen of Witches, Diana, has come to the mortal plane to teach sorcery and witchcraft to the oppressed, and all those whom suffer, at Her mother’s direction and this is what She say’s to Her pupils:
“When I shall have departed from this world,
Whenever ye have need of anything,
Once in the month, and when the moon is full,
Ye shall assemble in some desert place,
Or in a forest all together join
To adore the potent spirit of your queen,
My mother, great Diana. She who fain
Would learn all sorcery yet has not won
Its deepest secrets, then my mother will
Teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown.
And ye shall all be freed from slavery,
And so ye shall be free in everything;
And as the sign that ye are truly free,
Ye shall be naked in your rites, both men
And women also: this shall last until
The last of your oppressors shall be dead;
And ye shall make the game of Benevento
Extinguishing the lights, and after that
Shall hold your supper thus:”
If you take a quick look over a few sections of the Charge of the Goddess and you will see the immediate influence:
“Whenever ye have need of anything, once in a month, and better it be
when the Moon be full, then ye shall assemble in some secret place and
adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all Witcheries.
There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet have not
yet won its deepest secrets: to these will I teach things that are yet
unknown.
And ye shall be free from slavery; and as a sign that ye are really free, ye
shall be naked in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music
and love, all in my praise.
For mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and mine also is joy on earth; for my
Law is Love unto all Beings.”
As Witches we exist upon the fringed liminal spaces of society. For many, they were pushed there by suffering. Perhaps society rejected them for their gender, orientation, economic class, race, etc. Or by some other means they have found their place at the edges that is the threshold between the wild and the tamed. As I don’t know each Witches’ story, I can’t say what called them to the Sabbath.
The Craft teaches us to strip free that which the world of suffering has wrapped us in and lay ourselves bare to learn in the process—to be free. Yet in this, we are empowered by which we find when we are naked in our rites of life.
Depending upon the context, the line “willing to suffer to learn” can mean many different things. Lately though, for me, it has taken up the meaning of being willing to participate in the world, to engage our own suffering and that of those around us. Specifically, to “actively” engage. At the end of it all, everything but our actions can be taken from us. So ensure that your actions are of measured worth.
Boidh Se,
-SM
“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”
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