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Wicca = Simple Sweetness and Light?

To: alt.pagan,alt.religion.wicca
From: mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner)
Subject: Re: Wicca = "Simple Sweetness and Light?"
Date: 20 Nov 1995 23:39:01 GMT

In article  acelt@netcom.com (Felis Uncia) writes:

>Yet the queston must be asked, nontheless:  *Is* Wicca focusing upon the 
>creative/generative/daylight aspects of life and magic(k)al practice to 
>the detriment and/or exclusion of the destructive/nullifying/midnight 
>ones?  Has it become a religion concerned more with the expressive 
>and intellectual 'positive' elements of fire and air, rather than the 
>quieter and more mysterious 'negative' elements of water and earth?  Has 
>this happened in _spite_ of all the rhetoric spouted by Wiccans about 
>"harmony" and "balance"?  If so, how?  And what, if anything, should be 
>done about the situation?

>---Ounce (Felis pondering)

I think a couple of things are involved here:

(a)  The desire for good PR.  Mainstream society is relatively accepting
of the "light" elements of Wicca, and not nearly as accepting of the
"dark" elements.  I once had a long, earnest talk with an interested
Christian which went exactly nowhere until I realized that the statement
"I worship darkness" was being interpreted as "I worship evil."  (He
could see that this was not the case, and therefore found my statement
simply inconsistent.)  So our publications and public statements tend to
emphasize the light and downplay the darkness.  This may be getting
worse precisely because the Craft is more public, and therefore PR
issues are more pressing.

(b)  Uncritical acceptance of symbolism.  The symbol system most of us
were raised with makes very strong light==good equations, and those are
right there in our minds ready to leap out when we are designing rituals
or thinking about theology.  It's an interesting exercise to rewrite
many Wiccan seasonal or passage rituals in a non-light-centered idiom.
Often the words are difficult to find.  You can't just substitute
"darkness" in something like "a ring of pure and endless light/guards
this meeting place of souls".  You need to find new metaphors and new
ways of looking at the ritual if you want to preserve the same emotional
impact.  It's hard work, and we often don't do it.

(c)  Fear.  It's much easier to stick to the daylit side if you are not
sure of yourself, or if you are harboring things you can't deal with.
I am not a traditionalist; but one of the things traditions are useful
for is saying "Now it's time to look at this other stuff--you know, the
part you've been avoiding because it makes you so uncomfortable."  For
many of us the dark aspects of Wicca are uncomfortable, and in the
absence of strong internal or external pressure we can easily sidestep
them altogether.

As for what we could do about it, (a) is tied in with the whole issue of
religious tolerance.  Ideally we should not have to downplay parts of
our tradition in order to be safe; but the situation is far from ideal.
I don't think we'll succeed in balancing our public statements until
we've succeeded in getting a little more balance in our place in
society.  However, we can try not to let PR influence what we say among
ourselves.

(b) just demands careful, thoughtful ritual design.  I've been writing
darkness-oriented rituals for my public ritual group, and there is no
apparent barrier to doing them--it's just that few available rituals
follow that pattern, and many ritual writers don't even think to try.
I'd be really happy to see more general attention to this point--I've
sat through one or two too many guided meditations at public rituals
which did things like "Now the Light drives all shadow out of you" or 
"All those who are not Children of the Light, begone!"

(c) is, of course, the kicker.  This is not something we can do as a
community; only support each other in doing as individuals.  It's
important, however, to get a grip on (a) and (b) so as not to make the
work harder, and to give a clear message to all of us that a faith
which is only daylight may well be incomplete.

Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@genetics.washington.edu
-- 
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