Legend of the Witches; the first of many halloween rambles

Halloween is coming. In early celebration of it (and another funky new icon)*I copy down here a legend of modern Wicca, in answer to a question asked of me recently. I was asked kind of what my problem is with death: the question was gently formed and indistinctly answered, but it proves a fine excuse for the story below.

There's plenty to lift eyebrows at, in this mishmash of bits and pieces from Inanna's descent to the imprisonment of Persephone, and the bambi-isation of sophisticated goddess into fluffy bunny lover. Others might laugh at the references to scourging and bonds, and still others might wince at the cheesey dialogue. I regard myself as pantheist, and this story, central as it is to Wicca, is a new invention, not exactly classical paganism. But it is pretty in itself, and there is something magical about it. Anything that triggers the search for the divine must have some strength at its heart. Re-enactment of this story, transcending it and facing what lies within, is the challenge of the second degree of initiation into Wicca.

( Death and the Lady )

* I now have many icons. The time for a paid account has definitely arrived.