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.
Thinking in Circles
Thinking in circles.
Imagine: some people think that's a bad thing.
6000 years ago, the Mother Language had a word: *serk-. It meant “make restitution, compensate.”
It also meant “make a circle, complete.”
Restitution is an important cultural value. When you screw up, you need to make up for it. People are going to hurt one another, and restitution helps heal the wound.
So what does restitution have to do with circles?
This: in pagan societies everything comes down to a circle.
Likewise, in pagan societies everything comes down to relationship.
And a healthy relationship is a circle.
It's called “reciprocity.” You give, I give. Do ut des, they say; a gift for a gift.
Thinking in circles? The ancestors thought in circles.
Pagans still think in circles.
We think that's a good thing.
J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams, eds., Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (1997). Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, p. 123.
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And what goes around comes around, also a circle. Do unto others, as the saying goes, (And be sure it is what you would like done unto you--if you were they) or you will get done unto, as your own comes back to you. Don't you love it?