Walking the Path Between Light and Shadow

Just what does it mean to be pagan, wiccan, or to call thyself a witch? Are we devil-worshiping, hedonistic people with no reverance for the divine? Are we only old, wrinkly women with green skin and warts on our noses and are dressed in black? The answer, as many other wiccan authors have tried with their books to explain, is no. We walk the path between light and shadow.

"Wiccans love life. The Craft is not a passive spirituality of self-denial and asceticism; on the contrary, it approaches life with gusto, seeing goodness in nature and affirming that the purpose of life is to love ourselves and one another, and enjoy the pleasures of existence," states Carl McColman in the beginning of his book The Well-Read Witch. We do not believe in the devil or the Christian idea that the world is some sort of battlefield between good and evil, God and the Devil. We DO believe in every being's responsibility for their own actions.

The purpose of life is to live it. To be. To love and be free to love. To exist is everyone's right. To walk the path means to seek to live our own lives without harming others. (See the Rede.) But no one is perfect, least of all witches. Everybody slips up from time to time. Even if we may strive to keep balanced the light and dark, creation and destruction, not every word that comes from our mouths is loving or helpful. It's more than just saying that you're pagan or wiccan. Being pagan isn't an automatic thing, it takes practice and it's a lifetime thing. It's what we strive for.

Blessed be in your walk

The above content was written by Heather Kleinberg a.k.a. ArielMorgan with due regard to Carl McColman.