Now our lady the Goddess had never loved,

but she would know all mysteries, even the mystery of Death,

so she journeyed to the Underworld.

So begins Wicca's foundational story of the Goddess's Descent into the Underworld.

It's an etiological masterpiece, the tale of the making of the First Witch. But for now, I'd like to linger here with this first sentence. Often it gets glossed over in a rush to get to the good stuff, but that's a shame, really. As a first sentence, it's a brilliant set-up, and my gods: talk about rich characterization.

Now our lady the Goddess had never loved... Well, there's your foreshadowing. You know exactly what's going to happen in this story: she's going to fall in love. That's the central mystery, after all. But look at what else it says about her.

She's young. She's inexperienced. There are things that she doesn't know. She changes, and is capable of change. These are truly remarkable things to say about one's deity, and they tell you a lot, both about Who She Is, and about Who She Isn't.

...but she would know all mysteries... She may be young, but she's smart, she's self-aware, and she's curious. As a characterization for a witch-in-the-making, that seems pretty sound to me. Some recensions of the text say here She would solve all mysteries, but that seems to me the poorer reading. This is, after all, the Goddess that we're talking about, not Nancy Drew.

...even the mystery of Death... Holy shite: this is no lightweight newbie. (You need courage to be a witch.) She knows what she doesn't know, and she shrinks from nothing. That's our goddess, all right.

...so she journeyed to the Underworld. She's a doer, our Lady. She wants first-hand knowledge, and she seeks it through experience. For knowledge, she is willing to give everything, even (I can barely bring myself to write the words) her own life.

In her quest for knowledge, she single-mindedly, willingly undergoes death without guarantees.

My gods. What a gambler. What a goddess.

No wonder we love her so much.