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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Other Spiritual Paths:  the Way of the Goddess
Message-ID: <201@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Oct-84 14:44:50 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.201
Posted: Wed Oct 31 14:44:50 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Nov-84 05:46:26 EST
References: <1831@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 37

> 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