Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Her Hidden Children
If some Da'ish thug put a gun to your temple and hissed in your ear, Convert or die: what would you do?
Pagans have faced this choice ever since non-pagan religions gained political power. In our own day, alas, some pagans still face this hideous choice.
Which is better, to be true and die, or to hide and live?
The martyrs get all the hero-tales, it's true.
And indeed, I praise the sacrifice of those who kept (and keep) faith at the cost of their lives.
But ever, they say, the Craft must survive.
So I also praise the sacrifice of those who wrap themselves in the cloak of the conqueror, but keep the Old Ways in secret.
For to be one thing on the outside and another within is indeed a sacrifice, the most intimate of sacrifices. To live thus must of necessity exact a high price, a soul-price, the price of interior wholeness.
Yet again and again throughout history, our people have been willing to pay this terrible price.
Which is the more courageous, to live or to die? Who can say?
But because I am their inheritor, I also praise Her Hidden Children. In gratitude I praise them.
For ever the Craft must survive.
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This is wonderful! So important to remember. I'm gonna link it to Macha's FB page.