Honourable companions,

The beliefs and ideas that comprise a spiritual path may take many forms. Perhaps the most significant is the form of the mythic narrative for life, in which the explanation of life and reality takes the form of a group of connected symbols, essentially a story, that features you as a central character. This is how a spiritual path situates a person's life in connexion with a larger context; indeed storytelling is the very method by which we select what gets counted as divine. A simple example of a mythic narrative for life is the common refrain, "Jesus died for you". It is a simple sounding sentence but it entails important and complicated ideas. We may think of the Christian narrative as the spiritualisation of compassion and sacrifice, to name but a few of its better virtues.

The mythic narrative for life offered by contemporary Wicca may be summarised thus: In the distant past human beings lived in idyllic egalitarian societies, engaged in economic activity that co-operated with nature rather than exploited it, and were ruled by wise priest-kings, and/or by women. This society was conquered or displaced by iron-age horse-riding barbarians, or Christians, or some other invasive and environmentally destructive group. To preserve the wisdom, the priesthood went "underground", adopted secrecy laws, substituted pseudonyms for their real names (so that if one member was captured she could not reveal the identities of her companions), assembled in hidden places, transmitted the teachings from parent to child, and generally stayed out of society's way. During the time of surpression, the insult-names 'pagan' and 'witch' came to be applied to them. The pagans of today, especially the tradition-initiated priesthood, regard themselves as the inheritors of the wisdom of the ancient, pre-Christian and pre-iron age society. The decline of Christianity and the repeal of secular anti-witchcraft laws made possible the re-emergence of the practicioners of the old ways.

This is a variation of the 'golden age' myth familliar to students of mythology. In particular it is the version of the myth proposed by Marijta Gimbutas in The Language of the Goddess, Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough, Charles Leland in Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches, Gerald Gardiner in Witchcraft Today, and Margaret Murray in The God of the Witches and The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Most professional academics today tend to dismiss the historical value of these works. For better or worse, however, the ideas expressed in them are a part of the contemporary pagan narrative for life, in part because they had not yet been rejected by the academic establishment at the time that modern Paganism was forming (late 19th - early 20th century), and in part because the sense of meaning that they can inspire is appealing to pagans and consistent with their principles.

Sadly, there is no evidence whatever for the survival of ancient wisdoms in family traditions or perpetual lineages of teacher-student relations. As far as the ancient Druids go, through the efforts of Romans, Saxons, Christians, and Englishmen, classical Celtic paganism in its institutional form was thoroughly extinguished, and so the case for its intact survival is very weak. Through internet communications, however, I have encountered a great many people who claim possession of perpetual Druidism or a perpetual witch-craft, and I have invariably found their teachings little different from Wicca or neo-Platonic Christianity, or their history unverifiable, or their intentions dishonourable. Indeed it is claimed that the unverifiability of the perpetual transmission of the teachings is evidence for the success of the secrecy method! Some say their teacher had access to the perpetual tradition, and it may be the case that the teacher was the one whose purpose was to impress or deceive (or, in some cases, to reap a money profit!). This is the case not only of "The Prairie Druid" who I encountered as a lad, but also the authors of popular books on the subject. Moreover, the "secret people" myth enables white, middle-class educated folk to regard themselves as a marginalised, discriminated minority .

If the wisdom taught by the inheritors of a perpetual lineage is truly wise, then it does not matter if it comes from a tradition of secret transmission. A claim for Truth carries its own verification, in a sense. A claim for history, on the other hand, does not. A claim for history demands eyewitness accounts and material evidence. But attaching one's truths to claims about history has an effective persuasive power. It grants to the ideas an impressive and attention-getting pedigree. And, what is more, it communicates the ideas in the form of a mythic narrative for life. The "secret people" narrative makes good mythology, but bad history.

There is another mythic narrative for life that pagans profess, which is innocent of objection on historical grounds. It is the environmental narrative, which situates pagans in place rather than in history. This is the narrative which I think will grant to contemporary paganism a stronger foundation. The "secret people" narrative, while aesthetically appealing (even to me), and capeable of fulfilling our need for meaning, is a tribal myth, perpetuating a division between "us" and "them". The "secret people" narrative teaches where a pagan comes from, whereas the environmental narrative is a vision of global unity. Its concern is not merely with the pagan tribal camp nor even with the human species alone. It may be summarised thus: Human beings are connected to all other living beings, in part by exchanging vital nutrients and energy by means of elemental cycles in the envionment, and in part by sharing with all other living beings the same physical dependancy on the nutrients of the Earth and the energy of the Sun. This is called the Law of Connectivity; "All things are one", or "we are a circle, within a circle, with no beginning, and never ending". This is also why the Earth is regarded as Mother Goddess and the Sun as Father God. Particular units of whole systems, such as the cells of a body, or an animal in an ecosystem, and so on, may be thought of as small-scale, microcosmic reflections of the complete system, which is the macrocosm, the whole body, the whole ecosystem. An atom is the microcosm of a solar system, or a galaxy. This is the Law of Correspondance: "As above, so below" Perhaps because of connectivity and correspondance, one's actions will eventually affect you, as a member and participant in the endless web of connectivity affected by one's actions. This is the Law of Returns: "For good or ill, all things return in threes". Therefore, the prudential style of life would seem to be a kind of intelligent self-interest: to promote goodness and do no harm. This is the Wiccan Rede: "'An It Harm None, Do What Thou Will".

The environmental narrative is personal, because each of the "Laws" are phrased as instructions for invoking magic. Using them as the basis of spells and meditations serves the apparent purpose of giving one power over the world, but also serves the more real purpose of understanding the world and one's place in it not just intellectually but in a personal, emotional and meaningful way. The "Laws of Magic" are a kind of ruse, in a way, which get people to think about themselves and the world in an abstract, philosophical way. In particular, they get people to think about their place and purpose, and also the consequences of their actions. There are more "laws of magic" than these four, and they have more correspondances than what I have described here, but these form the basis of what I believe to be the environmental mythic narrative for life. It may therefore be said of paganism that it expresses certain basic environmental facts in a way that may be readily apprehended by our psychology, and thereby used as a means to fill our need for meaning.

Cathbad
Out of the grove,
In the season of Autumn Equinox, the year 2000.