by: Rick Johnson 
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com
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Life very much operates on symbols that are easily understood by humanity, though this understanding may be unconscious. Take the maze below (fig 1) which is a simple child's game that applies to our lives, both mundane and religious.
Take up a pencil and trace the maze from the entrance on the left to the exit on the right. Once begun, do not remove your pencil. If you make a mistake or take a wrong turn, simply trace back and continue along another path until you finally exit the maze. In this situation, it is important for you to see where you made a mistake and how many times you took a wrong turn. You will not be graded so take your time.
Now think of this maze as a religion. You join the religion and seek the goal expressed by that faith. If the religion is xianity, the entrance is your baptism and the goal is heaven. But notice how many dead ends there are in the maze. Some are false prophets or teachers (see the news and history for their names). Some are poor teachers who cannot properly instruct you. Some are bad churches who are more interested in money and power than in salvation. Some are incorrect translations or interpretations of their holy book and some are simply your own misunderstanding of the religion. If you take a wrong turn, you may end up in a place like Jonestown or Waco. You may end up dead or impoverished. You may end up in the religions bad place like hell or limbo or so on. There are a number of choices and most are bad. This is why it is vital in xianity to choose a proper guide and why this is so difficult. After all, EVERY guide, be it messiah or prophet or priest or teacher claims to be the 'One True Way' so which is true? The religion itself specifies bad choices and the punishment for making these choices.
Think of this maze as your life. You are born and eventually die. During the time between, you have a number of choices to make. School or work? College or the army? Marriage or not? You see some cute person across the room and you have to choose the path that leads to that person or not. Who do you marry, and what kind of a life did that give you? How many dead ends did you traverse and how often did you retrace your life's path?
In England there is an artificial hill called Glastonbury Tor. This hill is terraced and on the summit stands the ruins of an old church. The Tor has always been sacred to the Craft but few knew why or how. For years, modern Witches have climbed the Tor, working their way straight to the top. The terraces were a nice, flat place to rest, or so they thought.
Now look at the Labyrinth below (fig 2). Start at the bottom where the entrance is and work your way to the center star. Again, the same rule applies. Do not remove your pencil and if you make a mistake, retrace your path and continue.
Did you notice something different about this Labyrinth? There are no dead ends or false paths. Notice that as you trod the Labyrinth, your path was sometimes close to the center and sometimes farther from the center, but if you remained on the path, you finally reached the center. It was inevitable.
Look at that Labyrinth as Wicca. You join the Craft and eventually you reach the goal or the center or the Goddess. This is inevitable once on The Path. Sometimes it seems that you are wasting your time and sometimes it seems that you are racing to the goal. But eventually you reach it simply because in Wicca, there are no dead ends. The only way that you can miss the goal is to leave The Path. You don't need some priest clad in a $500 suit or reversed collar to tell you 'the way'. You don't need to blindly follow the words of some dead person or some ink on paper. You only need to decide on the goal and start to walk The Path. The only way you can get lost is to leave The Path.
So, how can you be certain that you are actually on The Path? How do you know what the Wiccan Path is? How do you know that you are not in a maze? How do you remain on The Path when it all so often appears to be hidden in the hedges of simile and metaphor? I don't know all the answers to these questions. Some I can answer, some I cannot. There are many paths and only you can tell if you are on the right one for you.
If someone tells you to hand over your money or goods, you may be on the wrong Path. If someone tells you of drugs and sex and devil worship. You have left The Path. If your teacher tells you lies about themselves, their past and their accomplishments, then they have left the path and if you follow, so will you. If you follow blindly, then you may be off The Path. If you ban books or knowledge, then you are probably off The Path. If you break your word, make empty promises, then you may be off The Path. If your teacher professes infallibility or you look to your teacher as a guru, then you both may be off The Path. If you or your associates appear to be more into sex and spells and money and power and ego, then you are probably off The Path and your followers will be dragged along with you.
There are many Labyrinths with many goals and there are many mazes as well. Not all religions possess a Labyrinth. Some are happy with a maze. But, not all labyrinths are the same. Not all have the same goal. The goal of xianity is not the goal of Wicca and the goal of Wicca is not the goal of Asatru or Amer-indians. To mix these faiths will create a maze with no goal. You have to choose your goal and find the religion that helps you to reach that goal. And sometimes, people who claim Wicca set you on a maze instead of a Labyrinth. Maybe they just don't know. Maybe they, themselves, are lost in a maze and want company. Insecurity and fear are powerful forces and lead many off The Path and into a maze from which there is no goal or exit.
One day, some Witches decided to celebrate a Rite on the Tor. But, instead of trying to climb the side of the Tor, they decided to take the easy path and follow the terrace to see where it led. Eventually, by remaining on the terrace, they reached the top of the Tor. They had trod the Labyrinth without even knowing. Years later someone took an arial photo of the Tor and when they took a good look at the shot, they discovered that Glastonbury Tor had been carved or built in the shape of a Labyrinth. The path led on and was there for all to see.
So, keep pure your ideals and follow The Path with your eyes on the Gods; but take care that you occasionally watch your feet to see that you remain on The Path.
To contact me or to request topics to be covered, send to RikJohnson@juno.com
by: Rick Johnson
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
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