As is true of any other religion, ours is rich with myths. But we know that our myths are not "true", but are the ways of under-standing the deep mysteries underlying our beliefs. So these myths do not explain how things actually happened, but only the shapes of our attitudes.

In the first beginning, before there was anything else, the Lady was. And she looked into the curved black mirror or space, and there she Saw her reflection, cast by Her own pure silver light, and She was very Beautiful.

Then She fell in love with Herself, and by Her power, she caused the reflection to come forth. And she named the reflection Miria, the wonderful, and made love to her.

Their ecstasy burst forth and became the song of all that was, is, or ever shall be and with the song came motion, waves that poured outward and became all the circles and spheres of all the worlds. Then the Lady became filled with love, swollen with love, and She gave birth to a rain of bright spirits that filled the worlds, and became all living creatures.

But in that great movement, Miria was swept away. And as she drew farther from the Lady, she began to change, and to grow more masculine. First she became the Blue God, the gentle, laughing God of Love. Then He became the Green Man, vine-covered, rooted in earth, the spirit of all growing things. And at last He became the Horned God, the great hunter, whose face is as bright as the sun, and yet as dark as Death.

But always His desire draws him back to the Lady, and He circles Her eternally, seeking to return in love. All began in love, all seeks to return in love. Love is the Law, the teacher of wisdom, and the great revealer of mystery, and the song that binds everything together.

In an ancient land, recalled only by the Wiccae, there lived a wise and generous people. No one stole or cheated; all tried their best to help one another so that each had what they needed. The streets were lined with shade trees and each dwelling was decorated by its family, so that the towns and villages had the perpetual air of a fair or festival.

In the center of the largest town was a Temple where a Priestess taught all who were willing to learn the Mysteries. The people grew happier and wiser, and the land flourished.

Now the Temple had a Great Secret which was privately known to all the people, but never spoken of openly. Beneath the Temple, in a small room without windows, dwelt Death. He had come to the land many years before in search of sanctuary. Everywhere else on Earth He had traveled the people recognized Him and turned away their faces, or worse, sought to harm Him or even destroy Him. The High Priestess had bargained with Death, and in return for sanctuary, He spread His protection over the land, so that its inhabitant's lives were just a little better than they would ordinarily be.

The secret was whispered to children when they were young as a birthright, and rarely mentioned again. As the years passed and the land grew rich, the people ceased to remember a time without peace and plenty, and began to regard the Secret as something shameful and wrong. Finally there arose a generation who saw the secret, not as a Blessing, but as a Problem to be Solved. There were long public discussions and debates. Finally, many of the people approached the Temple, demanding that Something be Done.

The Priestess of the Temple was as wise as her forbears, and know that when many spoke they must be heard. She faced the crowd at the Temple entrance, saying, "What would you have?"

A woman stepped forth.

"Long have we pondered our shame and disgrace in harboring the great criminal Death in our midst. He cuts down young and old alike, and while we would banish or destroy one of your own who acted thus, we lift no hand to stop Him. Great is our disgrace.

Another man stepped forward, saying, "My child is ill, and if she die, how shall we forgive ourselves, who have raised no hand to stop it?" Yet another called "My sister was struck by a rock on the mountainside, and left behind her husband to mourn. Many were the years they hoped to share together. How shall he be comforted?"

One at a time each came forward with his or her complaint, for there was none among them whom Death had not touched in some way. The recital continued on as the Sun sank beneath the horizon. At that moment the Priestess raised her hand, and all fell silent.

"What would you have me do?"

A young woman stepped forward. "Bind this Death hand and foot, that He may harm none, and we will be content."

There were murmurings from the crowd, for many among them sought to see Death beaten like a criminal, or worse, but all fell silent as the Priestess challenged, them saying: "Which among you dares to meet Him face to face to bind Him?"

"I will," the young one replied, "for even now my mother lies ill, ready to leave me forever."

She followed the Priestess into the Temple, past the clean and fragrant Altars to the many Goddesses and Gods, then down a narrow stairway to a cobweb-covered door which seemed not to have been entered in many years.

The Priestess handed the girl cords of silver, saying "Enter and do your will."

Great was the girl's terror, but she thought of her mother, whom she loved dearly, and pushed the door open with a groan. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made out two red gleams, then the outline of a Man. More than man he was, though...a shadowy horned figure crouched behind a crumbling parchment List. On that List she saw the names of all her friends and neighbors in glowing green letters, and even as she watched a new name appeared at the bottom as a child was born. The figure swept His hand across the List, and the letters of another name flashed red, then crumbled like dried brown blood and fell in flakes to the floor. The girl watched as another name came into focus; that of her mother.

With a cry she sprang forward and grasped Death's hand. It burned like ice. She did not loosen her grip, but clung for dear life. He had not seemed tall when she had entered, but as he uncoiled his length, her feet dangled and barely scraped the floor. She felt Death's breath upon her cheek and it was sweet.

"What would you?" His voice pierced her fear-fogged brain.

She wanted to loose her grip and run, climbing for light like a swimmer. "I have come to bind you or die!" she gasped.

"Why? Have I broken My bargain with your people?"

The young girl faced Death, and told her people's tale, as they had told the Priestess.

"They all feel thus, that I am their enemy and destroyer?" Death asked sadly.

The girl nodded.

Then Death sat her back down on the cold stone floor and held-forward his great hands, saying: "Bind me."

Scarce believing her good fortune, the young one bound His massive wrists, and turned as if to go.

"Will ...will You be all right?" she asked.

"That is for you to see. When you need me, you may return."

With those words, the girl's fear returned in a rush and she hurried out into the light, for the thought that she might ever need Death chilled her heart.

She heard a great contentious murmur as she approached the Temple exit, and as she burst into the crowd's torchlight a thousand voices were raised in query.

"It is done. He is bound."

The murmur turned into a roar, then a thousand questions, reproofs and congratulations. The girl felt weary and drained. Through all her fear and anticipation she had not anticipated this feeling of emptiness, almost of regret.

"No!" She turned and pushed her way through the crowd to her cottage where her mother lay waiting.

Days passed, then weeks, and the girl's relief and joy at seeing her mother restored to her turned to unease, then puzzlement and concern. Her mother did not die, neither did she recover. Rather she lingered on the edge of Death as if it were a towering cliff she could not bear to dive from, but which held her with a terrible fascination. The old woman sat for hours, eyes glazed with pain, unable to move or speak, breathing weakly like a wounded bird. The Healers could do nought; their remedies seemed useless.

The girl became restive, and found a thousand small things to take her from her mother's side. The old woman smelled foul; was foul, as though the process of decay had begun before life had license to depart. She who the girl had once loved above all others began to seem a harpy, a devouring vampire of the spirit who could absorb all her efforts for the rest of her life -- and never recover.

The girl went walking the confinement and her self-loathing were too much to bear. She saw movement by the roadside. A cat crawled weakly toward the forest, intestines hanging in a tangle. It had been struck by a cart. She recognized the cat; it had come to her window every day for years for the ritual morning bowl of cream. She had not seen the cat since...

The girl's vision swam and her pulses sounded loud in her ears. How long had the cat crawled on with a that awful wound?

She set her face and crushed the tiny skull beneath her feet. Mindlessly the bundle of rags quivered; mindlessly it moved on. The girl's gorge rose; she fled.

There was a motley crowd at the Temple steps; mostly old people and beggars. The girl had not seen beggars before.

"Who are you?" she asked one torn and tattered, but otherwise healthy young man. "Why are you dressed like that?"

"My family has cast me out. There is not enough food."

"But -- the harvest?"

"How could you not know? Where have you come from? The grain will not ripen, but remains fresh and green." A woman turned with the question; her eyes widened with rage as the fell upon the girl's face.

"It's her, the Destroyer!"

A shout of rage rose from the crowd. Hands which had borne the plow, hands which had borne the burdens of love reached out to rend and tear. Her neighbors were become strangers, and strangers enemies. She felt her tunic rip; claws at her throat. She ran from the darkness of the Temple entrance.

Inside was cool, and dark, and empty. Spectral lights burned at the Altars. She moved towards the staircase down as in a dream. None of it was real.

"Real enough," a voice whispered. The Priestess appeared before her, drawn and haggard.

"What -- what has happened here? My mother has become -- is --"

In a rush of words the girl's story tumbled from her lips; the growing hatred time had made of love, the revulsion and disgust at the thing by the road, the young man's tale of rejection and hunger. "What have I done?"

The Priestess regarded the girl, and her old eyes were as mirrors. In them the answer rang clear. "You have bound Death."

The Priestess pressed something cold into the girls hands. The girl turned and ran, down the stone stairs to the cobweb door and the darkness and terror which lay beyond. Before her loomed the cord, still silver in the darkness, and as she ran it swelled to fill her vision, as the distant ribbon of the Sea expands to fill the universe.

The girl felt the weight of the Priestess' ceremonial knife; a knife which would not tear, but would heal. She drew the blade across the shining snake and it parted red in a thin line, gaping and opening to pour forth life upon the world and loose the hands of Death, the Friend to Humanity.

This is the tale the Wiccae tell of Death's binding and return.

The Lady brought with her a dog, a cat, and a hare. These brought forth young and multiplied upon the Earth. With her, the Lady also brought corn, wheat and honey. When the people had tasted of the honey, they bid the Lady summon the Bees, which she did, and the people cared for them. They harvested the corn and the wheat and from it they made bread and cakes. They put honey upon it and knew that it was good. They people longed for wine, so the Lady waved her wand of VRIL over the sparkling waters and they became wine. The people rejoiced, danced and loved, all in the Lady's name. The Lady taught her people the law of the wise and they brought forth many magicks. The land was happy.

One day the Lady went hunting in the forest with her dog. Beside a Pine tree, She paused to rest and the Great Horned God Pan saw Her beauty and fell in love with Her.

The Lady changed herself into a cat and Pan pursued her as a dog. The Lady changed herself into a Hare, but Pan caught her in his mouth and carried Her to the foot of an old Oak tree. There the Goddess and the God resumed their original forms and made love. The Lady loved Pan and forgot the Moon country until one day when she caught sight of Lucifer blazing across the heavens.

She became restless to follow him, and so She told Her people She must leave; but if they wished to summon Her for any desire, they were to dance and make merry at the full of the Moon.

The God Pan and all the people were sad to see their Lady leave, but She promised to return each Spring and spend six months among Her people.

The people of the Lady became known as Wiccae, or Wise Ones. They kept to the forests and fields and found solace in their God Pan when the Lady was not with them. But true to her promise, the Lady returned each Springtime and Her people set forth great blazing fires to welcome Her.

They became known as the Children of the Light, wise in the ways of the Lady.

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The Legend of Atlantis
from the Coven of Nea Elefsis

All have heard of Merlin, the magician, the secret advisor to King Arthur. All have heard of the wonders and miracles he performed and the deeds of the Knights, aflame with visions of the Holy Grail, the secret heart of the Christ.

Yet who shall listen in the stillness and hear another tale, a story older by far, that tells of the first Merlin that came to these shores and of the first King Arthur. It was not Mary the Mother of Jesus who was Mother of their people, but the ancient Morrigan, the Great White Mother, who was worshipped as the Moon. Neither was She distant from them, but forever with them for She dwelt within the secret heart of every woman.

In the legend, both Arthur and Merlin, at the end of their labors, return to the Fairy-land from which they originally came. Where was this place? It was the Summerlands of Lyonesse, open only to those who had the keys that would unlock its secrets. This was the land we now call Atlantis, where the Great While Mother had Her power, the homeland of Arthur and Merlin, the Garden of Eden where the Golden Apples grew.

The people of Atlantis had two main mysteries, which were of the Sun and of the Moon. The Solar mysteries belonged to the men; while the Lunar, which made up the older cult, belonged to the darkness, the Moon, and to women. It was the Great Mother who was also the Earth beneath their feet that had given birth to the Sun to be a guiding light to mankind and a symbol to which they could aspire.

At the beginning they had risen up within their spirits and yearned to be like the Sun. They yearned that their souls should be with the rays of the Lord of Light. But as their knowledge and power grew, their ways became corrupt and they turned toward sorcery and power rather than Wisdom. They created monsters by the use of alchemy and enslaved the more primitive races by the power of their minds.

The Sun God saw this and determined to destroy the race that so defiled His lands. The Earth would open up and swallow them and the sea obliterate their memory forever.

One of the Great Wheels of Evolution was drawing to a close and with it a land and a people. Yet the Mother would not let their memory die. How could it die, for was not She the eternal promise of Immortality: Out of the many, She chose the few that would transmit the Wisdom to the younger races. These She warned of the coming destruction that they might escape and take Her arcane knowledge with them.

To Egypt they went -- to Greece -- to America -- and to Europe -- to found their Mystery schools. Wherever they went they built temples of worship according to the mind of the people they encountered. The pyramids of America and Egypt and the stone circles of Britain were their handwork; these are the Wiccae, the Wise Ones. Well they know of the coming disaster and of their divine mission to preserve the ancient lore.

The members of this mission were picked according to the symbolism of their craft.

First a King, who was to be as the visible Sun, surrounded by his men at arms who were the days of the year.

Secondly a magician who was to be the secret essence of the Sun and the Hidden One, versed in esoteric lore and sciences. It was he who would lead men through the labyrinthine ways of the Underworld to find the Holy Grail of Immortality that was the source of all life and from which issued the shining inner sun that was the true self of the initiate. Such a man was Merlin whose name means "Man of the Sea"

Thirdly, there was the Priestess, the incarnation of the Great White Mother, to whom all power and magicks were attributed, The woman was the oracle and the medium by which the priest's power took form. She was associated with the Moon and its triple aspect of Birth, Life, and Death.

It was such as this when the first ships came to Britain bearing Arthur, Merlin and Morgana (Woman of the Sea). They landed on the shores of Wales and started to establish the culture which we now know as Witchcraft.

Merlin's life shows as the pattern of the Wicca Initiation, his life in Atlantis governed by Morrigan, the dying Mother. His crossing of the water, the first death... his teaching of the mysteries with the chaste Morgana. His marriage to Ellen and the subsequent disillusionment and finally, his enchantment with the fairy Vivian, the Lady of the Lake, who shows him that Atlantis is not dead, but lives on in a body younger and more beautiful. His task is done; she tricks him out of the word of power that is life itself, and his spirit returns once more to the lands of the West where souls find their resting place.

The land of Atlantis is no more, but men still go there in their dreams and on death their souls still tread the ancient pathways to the Goddess who they thought forgotten.

It is always Vivian who shall raise the Sword of Endeavor above the waters that cover up the past, and to her it is returned when all is done, for she is the spring of eternal youth that shall come again, again and again. She it is who is the Secret Grail that is never empty.

It was the teaching of the Wicca that the pathway of the initiate was to descend into the darkness of Annwyn (the Underworld) beneath the waves to search for the Grail. The initiate may see many things there and learn many secrets, but he must remain silent lest he be trapped, forever unable to return to the world of men. If he follows the instructions, he will find the Grail which is the secret of life, the legacy of the amassed experience of the previous cycle. Having found the Grail he must drink from it the waters of life and return from the Underworld to Abred (the World of Man) to do his will among the living.

He emerges from the waters as does the Sun with all the glory of wisdom and knowledge upon his brow. If the initiate remains true to his acquired knowledge, at death he goes beyond the Sun into the future. He has escaped from the Glass Castle of the Seasons and is free to come and go as he desires. He need not incarnate for many cycles to come but remains as one of the Wise Ones for the Benefit of humanity.

Merlin belongs to the Sea out of which he came. Yet his teachings lived on... they are for us... the forms are different, but the spirit is always the same.

Blessed Be!

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