THE FOUR PRICES OF FREEDOM

A. As in everything else in the world, nothing is free.

1. There are four prices that a Wiccan must pay in return for the
wisdom and power that they can gain through the Craft.

a. Paying these prices awakens our true potentials and allows us
to be 'as gods', and thus help us to creat a better universe.

(1) Discipline and Responsibility

(a) To awaken the extra-ordinary mode of consciousness is a
natural step in any Wiccan development but it requires a
great deal of practice to develop and train it properly.

(b) Powers and abilities gained through this heightened
awareness must also be used responsibly, for otherwise they
will destroy their possessors.

(2) A Willingness to Play

(a) We unleash a great power when we are willing to let go of
our adult dignity and laugh for no particular reason, without
worrying about looking foolish.

(b) For example, we can make believe that a wand has magic
power, and it becomes a channel for energy.

(c) Humour and play awaken the sense of wonder that
characterizes Wiccans, and is the basic attitude that the
Craft takes into the World.

(3) The need to maintain a balance between the different states
of consciousness.

(a) The difference between magic and psychosis lies in
maintaining the ability to step back, by an act of will, into
the ordinary mode of perception.

(4) A willingness to face the most frightening of all beings,
one's own self.

(a) The depth of our inner selves are not all sunlit.

(b) To see clearly, we must be willing to dive into the dark,
inner abyss and acknowledge the creatures that we may find
there as being a part of what makes us what we are.

VI. ANALYSIS OF THE CREATION MYTH

A. The Creation Myth which is located at the beginning of the Chapter
Two of "The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk, expresses the attitude of
wonder, to the world which is Divine and to the Divine which is the
World.

1. In the beginning, the Goddess is the All, virgin, complete within
Herself.

a. The female nature of the ground is stressed because the process
of creation is a birth process.

(1) The world is born, not made, and definately not commanded
into existence.

2. The Goddess sees Her reflection in the curved mirror of space.

a. Water is the original mirror on earth.

(1) The image conveyed is similar to that of the Moon floating
over the dark sea, watching Her reflection in the waves.

b. There is yet another aspect of the mirror.

(1) A mirror is a reversed image. It is the same but opposite,
of reverse polarity.

(a) The image in the mirror is the embodiment of the
universal paradox.

(b) All things are one yet each is separate, individual and
unique.

3. The Goddess falls in love with Herself, drawing forth Her own
emanations which take on a life of its own.

a. Love of self for self is the creative force of the universe.

(1) Desire is the primal energy that motivates and that energy
is erotic.

(a) It has been expressed as the attraction of lover to the
beloved, moon to plant, and electron to proton.

(2) Blind Eros becomes Amor

(a) The love that is personal, directed towards an individual
rather than the universal sexless charity of the Christian
Agape or indescriminaate sexual desire.

(b) The Goddess' reflection takes on its own Being and is
given a Name.

(c) Love is not only an energizing force but an
individualizing force as well. It dissolves separation and yet
creates individuality. Again, it is the universal paradox.

4. The sense of wonder, of joy and delight in the natural world is
the essence of the Craft.

a. The world is not seen as a flawed creation from which we must
escape, nor is it in need of salvation or redemption.

b. However it may appear from day to day by the nature of its
deepest being, the world fills us with wonder.

5. Divine ecstasy becomes the fountain of creation and creation is
seen as an orgasmic process.

a. Ecstasy is at the heart of the Craft.

(1) During ritual we turn the paradox inside out, and become the
Goddess, sharing in the primal throbbing joy of union.

b. The Craft is a shamanistic religion, and the spiritual value
placed on ecstasy is a high one.

(1) It is seen as the source of union, healing, creative
inspiration, and communion with the Divine.

(a) Ecstasy brings about harmony.

6. By its very nature matter sings.

a. The song is carried forth on waves that become spheres.

(1) The waves are the waves of orgasm, light waves, ocean waves,
pulsating electrons, waves of sound.

(a) The waves form spheres as swirling gases in space
coalesce and form stars.

b. It is a basic insight of the Craft any energy, whether
physical, psychic or emotional, moves in waves, in cycles that are
themselves spirals.

7. The Goddess swells with love and gives birth to a rain of bright
spirits.

a. It is a rain that awakens consciousness in the world as
moisture awakens green growth on earth.

(1) The rain is the fructifying menstrual blood, the Moon's
blood that nourishes life.

(a) It is also the bursting waters that herald birth.

(b) And birth is the ecstatic giving forth of life.

8. The motion or vibration becomes so great that Miria is swept
away.

a. As She moves further and further from the point of union She
becomes more polarized and more differentiated, until She become
mostly male.

(1) The Goddess has projected Herself.

(a) Her projected Self becomes the Other, Her Opposite, who
eternally yearns for reunion.

(2) The energy field of the cosmos becomes polarized.

(a) It becomes a conductor of forces exerted in opposite
directions.

VII. ANALYSIS OF THE MYTH OF THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR

A. The rituals of the eight Solar Holydays, the Sabbats of the year,
are derived from the Myth of the Wheel of the Year.

1. The cycle of the Goddess which occurs on a monthly basis is
contrasted to the slower cycle of the God, which takes a full solar
year to complete.

a. The Goddess reveals Her threefold aspects as--

(1) Maiden

(a) She is the Virgin, Patroness of birth and initiation.

(2) Nymph

(a) She is the sexual temptress, lover, siren, and
seductress.

(3) Crone

(a) She is the dark force of life, which demands death and
personal sacrifice.

b. The God changes -- from Son to Brother to Lover, and eventually
becomes His own Father.

(1) He is the eternal sacrifice who is eternally reborn into a
new life.

(a) All things are divine as manifestations of the Goddess.

(b) The death of the grain in the harvest, or the death of a
deer in the hunt, was considered to be a divine sacrifice
freely made out of love so that life might go on.

VIII. EXAMINATION OF THE ALL AS TWO GREAT FORCES

A. The view of the All as an energy field polarized by two great
forces is common to almost all traditions of the Craft.

1. These forces have been named Female and Male. And Goddess and
God.

a. Which in their ultimate being are aspects of each other.

(1) It is important to separate the concept of polarity from our
culturally conditioned images of female and male.

(a) The Female and Male forces represent a difference, yet
they are not different in essence.

(b) They are the same force, flowing in opposite, but not
opposed, directions.

2. The Female force is seen as the Life-giving force.

a. It is the power of manifestation, of energy flowing into the
world to become force.

3. The Male force is seen as the Death-giving force.

a. This is death in a positive rather than a negative way.

(1) Death is seen as the Force of Limitation that is necessary
to provide a balance to unbridled creation.

(a) It is the force of dissolution, of return to
formlessness.

b. Each principle contains the other.

(1) Life breeds death and feeds on death.

(2) Death sustains life and makes evolution and new creation
possible.

c. They are opposing halves of a complete cycle.

(1) They area each dependent upon the other.

4. Existence is sustained by the on/off pulse, the alternating
current if you will, of the two forces in perfect balance.

a. Unchecked the life force is a cancer whereas the death force
becomes unbridled war and genocide when allowed to go unbalanced.

(1) When held in balance they are in harmony and work to renew
and sustain life.

(a) We see the effects of this balance in the changing cycle
of the seasons, and in the ecological balance of the natural
world.