Ellen Cannon Reed - The Heart of Wicca: Wise Words from a Crone on the Path

First published in 2000 by

Samuel Weiser, Inc.

P.O. Box 612

York Beach, ME 03910-0612

www.weiserbooks.com

Copyright 2000 Ellen Cannon Reed

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Samuel Weiser, Inc. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Reed, Ellen Cannon

The heart of Wicca : wise words from a crone on the path / Ellen Cannon Reed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-57863-174-2 (alk. paper)

1. Witchcraft. 2. Neopaganism. I. Title.

BF1566 .R37 2000

133.4'3dc21

00-040809

KP

Typeset in 10.5 Palatino

Cover art copyright 2000 Ronnie Leckie, Walter Holl Agency, Aacher, Germany

Printed in the United States of America

07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

Material written by Sandy Kopf and Skytoucher used by kind permission of the copyright owners. Material quoted from Joanne Hauptin-Mayer used by kind permission of author.

To Sandy Kopfmy sister, my soul-friend

Your love, your encouragement, and the many things you taught me are among the greatest treasures I have been given. I would not be who I am if I had not known you. I will never cease to thank the God and Goddess for the privilege of having had you in my life.

Rest well, anam cara. I love you.

I sit and grit my teeth. I read an article in a newsletter put out by a Norse pagan organization in which the editor comments that Wiccans are, shall we say, careless in their mythology. His example was that many Wiccans refer to Freya as a Moon Goddess when She so obviously was not. I sit and grit my teeth when I read in this article that all Wiccans only believe in one God and one Goddess, while other pagans see the Gods and Goddesses as individual and separate.

I sit and grit my teeth when the same writer states that Wiccans seem to have a political agenda, rather than a religious one. I sit and grit my teeth when I see all the pop Wicca books that mention the Gods and Goddesses only in relation to what They can do for us.

I sit and grit my teeth when, on the computer bulletin boards, someone speaks of a group that wears turtleheads and does their rituals in Klingon. If anyone dared to comment that this didn't strike them as real Wicca, they were accused of being bigots and how dare they judge what was real and what wasn't? I sit and grit my teeth when a friend of mine tells me he sees Wiccans as crystal-hugging, air-headed vegenazis.

I nearly broke my teeth when I was informed that not all Wiccans were witches, that if they didn't do magic they weren't witches. When I pointed out that casting a circle was an act of magic, I was informed that you could honor the Lord and Lady without ever casting a circle.

I grit my teeth because there's very little else I can do. I have no right to tell people what Wicca is and isn't. I'm painfully aware that some Wiccans see every Goddess as a Moon Goddess, whatever the mythology may say to the contrary. I am aware that many Wiccans only see two Deities, and all others as faces of those two.

I am aware that a lot of people don't understand the difference between myth and fiction, nor do they understand what myths truly are. And I am horribly aware that a lot of Wiccans are crystal-hugging, air-headed vegenazis who believe (at high volume) that their way is the way all pagans should be.

I can't do much about it. It's all true! All I can say is, I'm not... don't... wouldn't. My Wicca, my path is not any of these things, doesn't do any of these things, doesn't hold to any of these ideas.

I cannot say that my way is the only way, but I can, in this book, describe a way of Wicca that isn't any of the abovea Wicca that is an initiatory Mystery religion. As you will see, in the excellent article included here by Skytoucher, that it is quite different from the social, political, or support group types of Wicca you may have seen.

I am, thank all the Gods and Goddesses, not alone. While we are in the minority, there are those of us who are preserving this initiatory path, each in our own way. You'll see some of them represented here in articles, quotes, or brief mention. I call us the Preservers of the Path. It is my prayer that we are not the only ones, and that others are out there, practicing, living, and teaching our vision of Wicca.

It is likely you haven't come across this view before. It may appeal to you, or not. To be honest, I expect very few middle-of-the road responses to this book. You are either going to be fascinated by what we have to say, or you are going to throw the book down. And that would be a shame.

To those of you who are intrigued by the material here, welcome! You are probably one of us at heart! It is for you that this book exists. We are few, and have looked about us in dismay, realizing that other kinds of covens have proliferated (reasons for this will become obvious later) and that most newcomers to the Craft are not aware that our type of tradition exists. I am very active in computer networking (see page 128 for my favorite sites), and it distresses me to realize that so few share my view of many aspects of the Craft.

None of our covens are large, and again, the reasons for this will become obvious later. We will never have a proliferation of daughter covens. Our kind of Craft will not appeal to many who come to this religion, and it is often difficult to know who wants what we have to offer, because they often don't know themselves.

To be perfectly honest, it is extremely difficult to wade through the mass of newcomers, looking for those who will gain from our tradition. We've all been fooled, and paid for our foolishness in wasted time and effort, not to mention more than a little heartbreak. We hear from people around the country who might be one of us, but, because part of what we stand for is stringent training, we cannot help them.

I hope, however, to inspire you to seek what you need. I hope to let you know that there is more to Wicca than you may have seen, that this Mystery religion still exists, that the Craft, as we see it, is more than a hobby, a social club, or a political movement. I also hope that the information in this book will help you follow, whether solitary or covener, this spiritual path.

If you had hoped it might be so, if you haven't been fulfilled by the Wicca you've seen and keep hoping that what you want exists, perhaps you've found a home here. Perhaps you, too, are a Preserver of the Path. If so, read on!

Okay, I confess I only gritted my teeth twice. The third time he said it, I stood up and told him that he was wrong, I was tired of him insulting my path, and if he didn't stop it, he'd have me to deal with.

I am not going to try to give a hard and fast definition of Wicca other than it is an initiatory, Mystery religion. The Wicca I love and practice contains a great deal that the best known types of Wicca don't practice. It contains a great deal that isn't found in all the Wicca books that are so popular today. While the majority of these books are written by sincere people who are sharing what they've learned, for me they seem only to scratch the surface of the path.