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Wicca, an exercise in metaphysics


Wicca, the religion, is an exercise in metaphysics to a certain
degree. As such it progresses through ontology, cosmology, and
espistemoly. How it is percieved by its extremely varied practioners
depends largely on the metaphors they were exposed to. The tool we
use to pass things on is language which is not all that exact. Much
of how we relate to words comes from how they have been used in
context in relation to us personally. A key word in the dialoge that
proceeded this post is "experiential".

Metaphorically speaking I like to consider people to be in two very
general catagories, small and large box builders. The first catagory
likes to create small "safe" mental inclosures where the basic
tenants of a concept will encounter a minimum of resistance and/or
challenge. The second catagory of people work at pushing out the
boundaries of the box they have found themselves inheriting. And,
yes, I believe that Gardner belonged to the second catagory. Within
the magickal meta-paradigm there is an old concept of "The Great Work
of Art". I suspect that Gardner recognized this concept and applied
himself to it.

From an observable point in consensus reality the Universe appears to
be about Change and what that yields, Diversity. Because of this
everbody is unique. This includes how we relate to "Illumination",
hopefully an ongoing cycle stemming from "Initiation". In the
metaphysical sense this can be viewed as a process that goes:
change, crisis, transcendence, tranformation, and predispositon to
further change. How this effects and affects an individual is also
unique. It often lacks metaphors, hence the "mysteries". We are now
back to that key word "experiential".