Power and Compassion
In his
published writings Gardner has much to say about the power utilised by the
witches, which he sees as resident in the witches’ bodies, and which can be
‘raised’ by various methods and focussed to effect the witch’s intent.[1] He
does not actually identify this power with the Goddess directly, however is
clear that he sees the power as a power of creation, and also that he sees the
Goddess as the primary power of creation.
The other sense
in which the word power is understood is one which can create problems for
those trying to understand witchcraft, because of the stereotype of the witch
or occultist as a power-hungry deviant who has access to some secret knowledge
allowing him adversely to influence events in the world around him. This view
reaches its extreme in recurring rumours of occult conspiracies and plots to
overturn the world order as we know it. Depending on the viewpoint of the
occultist, a dualistic world-view leads to the polarisation of people into
solely good or bad magicians, and the purpose of the occultist can be seen as
fighting this conspiracy.[2]
The view of
power in the Charge is different from this: the new slant on the material taken
from Aradia and Crowley combats this polarisation by making it plain
that, while the law is not seen as being for all, the power is nonetheless
available to anyone who wants it and is willing to learn our Goddess’s way of
personal power and dignity. Neither the relentless search for personal power
regardless of the cost to others, nor a passive acceptance of whatever happens
to you, rationalised as what God wills, is seen as the ideal for the witch. It
is significant that the only occurrence of the word power in the Charge is in a
context where it is balanced by reference to an opposite virtue, and in the
Craft this balance is what is seen as essential.
The balance is
essential because of the monistic world view of magic, in which all things are
connected and what I do to you I do to myself. The significance of
‘correspondences’ is found in this interrelation of all things. Those who would
only live their life in one domain, whether in that of ‘fluffbunny’ white
light, or in so-called ‘black’ magic both misunderstand the occult
understanding of the world, and, magically, are on a hiding to nothing.
The call to
balance, to an individual power not based on dominance over others, has led in
the years since the Charge was composed, to criticism by witches of the
perceived imbalance in the way power is exercised in the world around us. This
has taken the form of ecological and political work for reform and campaigning.
This reflects the nature of the counterbalance to power given in the Charge:
compassion.
Compassion
implies an understanding and empathy for the other, which if the ‘other’ is
seen monistically as part of myself and what happens to the other as the
counterpart of what happens to myself, cannot have no influence on me. This is
a truly subject-subject relationship, in which what happens to you is as
important as what happens to me, rather than a subject-object relationship, in
which what happens to you is relatively unimportant.
Relationships
with others are therefore important for the witch, and witchcraft is not
something practised as a hobby in the evenings, but something which can only
effect all aspects of life. The compassion practised in practical terms by
witches tends not to appear as such – no collecting envelopes come through the
door for ‘Wiccan Aid’ – and I do not feel it would be justified to criticise
Wiccans for their lack of visible aid to others, since I feel it does happen,
but not overtly under a Wiccan banner.
This balance between
personal power and compassion for the other, or rather a concern to put right
what is seen to be wrong, is perhaps best known in the power dynamic of
Starhawk,[3]
who identifies three forms of power. The first is the undesirable use of
power-over other people: this would equate to the unconcerned acquisition of
unlimited personal power, regardless of the consequences to others. The ideal
is power-with, where the individual power and autonomy of both sides in the
relationship are respected and fostered, and the third sort of power is
power-from-within, which equates to the power as described by Gardner. Starhawk sees the use of the magical
power-from-within as essential to the wearing-away of power-over, leading to
the ideal situation where individuals and institutions have power with others,
rather than over them.
[2] For examples of this
see Michael Howard: The Occult Conspiracy. Rider, London, 1989. Stewart Farrar gives an account
of Alex Sanders’s psychic searches for ‘black’ magicians in What Witches Do
(Third Edition. Robert Hale, London,
1991) and Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self Defense (New Edition. Weiser
Books, Boston MA, 2001) is replete with tales both of
magicians who have gone off the rails, and of ‘black lodges’ which set out to
remain off the rails.
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