ellen@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/26/84)
(Green Bud Leaf/Bud Leaf Bright/Leaf Bright Flower) The following is a passage quoted from the book `The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess - Rituals, Invocations, Exercises, Magic,' by Starhawk. Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco & New York (1979). (p. 7) "Witchcraft has always been a religion of poetry, not theology. The myths, legends, and teachings are recognized as metaphors for "That- Which-Cannot-Be-Told," the absolute reality our limited minds can never completely know. The mysteries of the absolute can never be explained - only felt or intuited. Symbols and ritual acts are used to trigger altered states of awareness, in which insights that go beyond words are revealed. When we speak of "the secrets that cannot be told," we do not mean merely that rules prevent us from speaking freely. We mean that the inner knowledge literally CANNOT be expressed in words. It can only be conveyed by experience, and no one can legislate what insight another person may draw from any given experience..." "The primary symbol for "That-Which-Cannot-Be-Told" is the Goddess. The Goddess has infinite aspects and thousands of names - She is the reality behind many metaphors. She IS reality, the manifest deity, omnipresent in all of life, in each of us. The Goddess is not separate from the world - She IS the world, and all things in it: moon, sun, earth, star, stone, seed, flowing river, wind, wave, leaf and branch, bud and blossom, fang and claw, woman and man. In Witchcraft, flesh and spirit are one..." "The symbolism of the Goddess is not a parallel structure to the symbolism of God the Father. The Goddess does not rule the world; She IS the world. Manifest in each of us, She can be known internally by every individual, in all her magnificent diversity. She does not legitimize the rule of either sex by the other and lends no authority to rulers of temporal hierarchies. In Witchcraft, each of us must reveal our own truth. Deity is seen in our own forms, whether female or male, because the Goddess has her male aspect. Sexuality is a sacrament. Religion is a matter of relinking, with the divine within and with her outer manifestations in all of the human and natural world. "The sumbol of the Goddess is `poemagogic', a term coined by Anton Ehrenzweig to "describe its special function of inducing and symbolizing the ego's creativity." ["The Hidden Order of Art," 1967, p. 190] It has a dreamlike, "slippery" quality. One aspect slips into another: She is constantly changing form and changing face. Her images do not define or pin down a set of attributes; they spark inspiration, creation, fertility of mind and spirit..." [ coming soon: Why the Goddess Is Important to Men. (it seems obvious to me why She is important to women, but i'll post some of that part, too.) ]
mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) (10/31/84)
> The following is a passage quoted from the book > `The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the > Great Goddess - Rituals, Invocations, Exercises, Magic,' by > Starhawk. Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco & New York > (1979). > (p. 7) > "Witchcraft has always been a religion of poetry, not theology. > The myths, legends, and teachings are recognized as metaphors for "That- > Which-Cannot-Be-Told," the absolute reality our limited minds can never > completely know. The mysteries of the absolute can never be explained - > only felt or intuited.... I find this stuff fascinating. I get the impression that we're witnessing the invention of a new mythology of the roots of a currently popular fad religion. Much like the story of the golden tablets that the Mormons cooked up. Given a lack of documentation, modern "witches" (in quotes because their relationships to any past witches are vague) seem to be engaging in a typical form of historical revisionism designed to support whatever interpretation will currently sell. I'm sure we'll also see made-up geneologies for oral traditions-- another unprovable form of "substantiation". Personally, I feel that witchcraft has seldom been any more a religion than any other systematic fraud designed to increase the wealth, stature, security, or importance of the claimant. Sure, every now and then some dewey-eyed innocent will follow the illusion of substance that individual frauds want to maintain, the same way others have looked for enlightenment in eastern religions, scientology, etc. And they'll probably find as much looking in that direction as they might in any other. This implies to me that the substance of enlightenment lies in the process of looking, rather than in the mumbo-jumbo of religions, fads, pseudosciences, etc. (Note: while the same enlightenment can be found as a spin-off of the pursuit of science, science has the benefit of producing confirmable knowledge. The others listed don't.) -- Mike Huybensz ...mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh