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.
'What No Man May Tell, Nor Woman Know'
Of Full Disclosure, and the Wisdom of the Ancestors
“Seriously? People have been asking you that?”
I'm talking with the mother of a boy that we'll soon be initiating into manhood. Incredibly, people have been asking her, “What will be happening at the Man-Making?”
Otherwise known as the Men's Mysteries, these are the ancient oath-bound rites by which the tribe's boys become the tribe's men. The traditional answer to this question—just possibly (so old are these things) one of humanity's oldest sayings—would be: What no man may tell, nor woman know.
“What have you been telling them?” I ask her, a little taken aback.
“I've been telling them, How the heck would I know?” she says.
There are no women at the Men's Mysteries, nor men at the Women's. Any pagan should already know this. If it's non-pagans that are doing the asking—there will be a few at the after-party, friends of the boy, and their families—they'll be getting a crash course in pagan culture.
I note that no one has been asking this question of me, the actual keeper of this Mystery for the tribe. A sudden mischief seizes me.
“You have my permission to tell them that we'll be plotting to disempower women and subvert the matriarchy,” I say, grinning.
We both laugh. Really: if they'll believe that, they'll believe anything.
Secrets are important.
These days, full disclosure rules; but the ancestors knew better.
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