317 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
317 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
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From: L.a. Hussey
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To: J_Random Folksinger Msg #101, 25-Jun-88 00:13
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Subject: The Laws
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I am disturbed and disappointed. "The Christians are our enemies." "They
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will torture you to make you talk about the Craft." "Lie about the Craft."
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"Covens splitting up makes for bad feelings."
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What depressing garbage. This is the 20th century, and this is America, this
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is not Inquisition days. The more we keep secret, the more the ignorant will
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assume that we have horrible secrets to keep. The true secrets of the Gods
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cannot be given away, because they cannot be spoken -- they are beyond all
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language. And as for bad feelings when covens break up, maybe that is how it
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is where you are, but around here, there is rejoicing when one coven becomes
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two. Seems to me like my best possible response to your "Laws" is the
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following song:
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BURNING TIMES
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The songs are sung to rouse our anger of martyred Witches gone to the fires,
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But what is served by righteous singing, if all we do is stew in our ire?
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Nine million dead in four hundred years;
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More in that time simply died of disease.
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Why do we dwell on long past dead
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When we are alive in times like these?
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(cho)
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Rise up, Witches, throw off your masks
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And cease crying guilt for ancient crimes.
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Earth and all Her children need us
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For ALL face now the Burning Times.
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In the face of that hostile power, how did the old knowledge stay alive?
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How have we still a Craft to practise? Our ancestors knew how to fight and
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survive!
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How do we honour our blessed dead?
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Slavery threatens us all but few.
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We must teach their cunning ways --
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EVERYONE needs the skills they knew!
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(cho2)
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Rise up, Witches, gather your strength,
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And let your power spread and climb;
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Earth and all Her children need us
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For ALL face now the Burning Times.
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I will not cast off Science's works -- Witches all forces to Will can bend;
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I'll not accuse for war and waste some patriarchy of faceless men.
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Men do not cast the only votes;
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Women alone do not demonstrate.
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Rather than shut out half the race,
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Who if not we will change that state?
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(cho2)
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I will not blame a Father's Church -- blame and guilt are their tools, not
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mine,
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And even in the shuls and churches, allies there will I seek, and find!
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I will not answer hate with fear,
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Nor with a smug, cheek-turning love.
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I will not answer hate with rage;
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By strength alone will I not be moved!
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(cho2)
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(cont'd next msg)
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---
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* Origin: ThelemaNet - Hail Eris! * (415) 548-0163 (Opus 1:161/93)
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*** Part of a conversation.
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From: L.a. Hussey
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To: J_Random Folksinger Msg #102, 25-Jun-88 00:36
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Subject: Burning Times, cont'd
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I will not hide in my sacred grove -- the fact'ries and cities yet ring me
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about;
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I will not climb my ivory tower -- the real world exists tho' I shut it out.
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I will not work for Church nor State
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Who serve themselves while they serve us lies,
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Nor only for my Witchen kin,
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But for the family of all alive!
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(cho2)
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So if rebellion means to fight a State lost sight of why it was built,
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If heresy's to reject a Church that rules with force or fear or guilt,
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Then let us all be rebels proud,
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And shameless heretics by creed --
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A tyrant's hand subjects the Earth,
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More heretic rebels are what She needs!
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(cho2)
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(copyright 1988, Leigh Ann Hussey)
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Did it ever occur to the writers of your antique laws that the Craft might
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actually be WELCOMED by a great number of people? That there might actually
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be more of us than of those who wish us ill? That the only reason those who
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fear us are so active nowadays is because they see us becoming more and more
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welcomed by more people? As I say in another song, "When folk in sorrow turn
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away/ From paths that lead to misery/ And seek new ways for wholeness' sake/
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Then waiting, ready shall we be."
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All I can say is, I'm Goddess-glad I'm not in your tradition.
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B*B
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Leigh Ann
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---
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* Origin: ThelemaNet - Hail Eris! * (415) 548-0163 (Opus 1:161/93)
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From: L.a. Hussey
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To: All Msg #103, 25-Jun-88 00:38
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Subject: The Darkness
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As Pat suggested, I'm posting this here from the Magick subsection...
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From: L.a. Hussey Rec'd
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To: Peri Andren Msg #109, 07-Jun-88 14:33
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Subject: Re: How do you KNOW ?
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No, Hugh is right. Modern Wicca is indeed a life-affirming religion, and
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life-sacrifice of any kind is looked on as repugnant. But it is
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unquestionable that old paganism did involve sacrifices of both animals and
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humans.
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And completely aside from that, the Goddess is not just the nurturing Mother.
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She is the Black Sow who devours her own young, she is the scouring wind that
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whips away all decay, She is the refiner's fire (to snatch a phrase from the
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Bible). The Craft ain't all sweetness and light, because life itself is not.
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Life lives off of death, as the ancients knew, and that's why She is Demeter
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Enraged, and Erishkegal, and Kali. She is the Crone who has heard every plea
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and throws you in the Cauldron anyway.
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We work with symbols and images and archetypes, and these come from the human
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subconscious -- wherein, if we're healthy, dwell all manner of dark and
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uncontrollable forces. The difference between the yogi and the schizophrenic
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is the difference between a swimmer and a drowning person. We all have our
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dark side; the way to sanity is to accept that power and channel it into
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constructive uses, rather than to deny it and close it off entirely. Shut out
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the dark, and you may find it imploding on you, sucking you, helpless, into
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it. Indeed, we are not an ascetic religion, and that means that the
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unconscious, the body, the irrational, sensuality, and all the accompanying
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things which Christianity embodied in their Devil, are for us an important
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part of ourselves, to be integrated with and not cut off from the rational
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mind, the intellect, and so forth. At one time, Apollo and Dionysos (or if
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you prefer the Celtic pantheon, Lugh and Cernunnos) were one God. The
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darkness is there, and it is welcoming, not forbidding. We need no longer
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make human sacrifice, but we also need not sacrifice our humanity.
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B*B
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Leigh Ann
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---
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* Origin: ThelemaNet - Hail Eris! * (415) 548-0163 (Opus 1:161/93)
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