Back when I was teaching Witchcraft 101 to a group of which I used to be part, unfortunately all of my 'student's' thought they already knew all that stuff and really didn't need what I was teaching. It was just a required course to get to Priest/ess grade. I would use different texts as part of my teachings. One particular text is the
21 Lessons of Merlin by Douglas Monroe.
Now, obviously, no one has anything written by or sanctioned by Merlin.. right? I mean, come on.. if Merlin existed at all it was so long ago that any direct access to his work is lost. The 21 Lessons is a work of fiction. Mr. Monroe never makes any bones about it being something written by or written about the teachings of.. Merlin the Sorcerer. It's a teaching tool using parables to teach an idea. (Yeah, I know, this looks like a tangent but I swear I'll get to the point eventually.) It's a group of meditations on WWMD. (what would Merlin do?)
So, one of my students who is a self-proclaimed priestess by dint of having started a group, but completely untrained in the ways of the wise.. hell I'm not even sure how many books she's read because she didn't even have an inkling of how to raise energy.. tells me, "I object to using this as part of our training because it's a complete work of fiction.".
Uh.. Hello? I don't know anyone who has a direct line of witchcraft from the old days except maybe Streghans and some Greek forms of witchcraft.. maybe Gypsy.. anyway.. as far as what we now conceptualize as the 'old' religion is entirely a work of fiction. So, if this work of fiction has no bearing on what witchcraft is or should be.. how does Gerald Gardner, Alastair Crowley, Ray Buckland or Raven Silverweird have any sort of merit? They are all people who had a concept, ran with it, poured enough energy into it that it became. That's what the basis of Magic is anyway isn't it? Taking a concept and making it real? I thought that's what the point was.
This got me to thinking about other books and stories that have helped to mold me into who I am now. Richard Bach... he's not a high holy man nor does he have a more direct link to Divinity than any of the rest of us.. yet some of his concepts have touched me far more profoundly than say the Holy Bible. Dan Brown, he's just some guy who came up with an idea that just happens to challenge all that we have been taught about religion as a whole. Again, they are just stories.. pure fiction.. there is probably no such thing as a Seagull who has conscious thought other than food, sex, food, poop, sex, food; and yet, Johnathon Livingston Seagull touched a generation of readers in ways that could never have been forseen. I doubt that there is a walking on water, no gas using biplane pilot out cruising fields and teaching divine IS ism either... if there is, I've never met him. But again.. the story of Donald the Pilot Messiah (Illusions) touched many of us in ways that were probably never intended. Dan Brown's theories may have some basis in reality, or maybe not... but the point is he questioned the accepted truths and opened an avenue for imagination.
Where the Wild Things Are is based in a child's imagination.. and it led many of us to imagine our own strange universes filled with characters that belong only to us. The Three Little Pigs taught us that it's probably not a good idea to build a house with sticks or straw, when with a bit more work and a firm foundation we can be safer from the Big Bad Wolf. The Little Red Hen taught us the merits of being helpful.. that if you help, you might get a bit of the profit of the endeavor. The Emporer's New Clothes taught us that vanity is not very useful nor will it keep us warm when a cold wind blows.
Hmmm then I think that Goldilocks and Hansel and Gretel taught us that breaking and entering is ok.. except that they got their just rewards for breaking in and taking others' things. (Though H and G committed homicide) Anyway, I digress...
Humanity has a need to quantify and lable things. That's how we deal with the world at large. The stories we tell, and have told for as long as we can remember, those stories helped to teach us of simple concepts and ideas. They have been used as warnings not to do things that might get you hurt, and reminders that good deeds usually are rewarded.
None of the stories I have listed have basis in reality or truth except in how they help us to mold our reality and truths. So never try to tell me that fiction has no merit in learning. Sometimes fiction can open your eyes to reality far better than biographies or historical texts... and it's usually more fun to read as well.
