'Forest Path' - Woodville Forest, southern Cape

Witchcraft and mythology: a personal encounter by Graeme Shackleford When I first discovered Wicca about twelve years ago, what excited me the most was that the myths I'd loved since early childhood were no longer nice stories from forgotten religions. Instead, they are mysteries in which people share, in which Witches share.

When I first discovered Wicca about twelve years ago, what excited me the most was that the myths I'd loved since early childhood were no longer nice stories from forgotten religions. Instead, they are mysteries in which people share, in which witches share.

For a long time before that, I had recognised that there was a value in mythology relevant to the here and now – only I could not quite figure out what that value was. The book I had read, "The Life and Times of a Modern Witch" by Janet and Stewart Farrar, didn't really bring much clarity to the value of myth (at least not to the mind of a high school scholar in a small coastal town in South Africa), but it certainly confirmed what I'd suspected.

Even though the Farrars' book made what turned out to be a lasting impression, I did not embark upon the spiritual path that is Witchcraft. I had a dream I was compelled to follow: after converting to Catholicism from a fundamentalist Protestant tradition, I entered the religious life and began training as a monk in an active-contemplative Order with an incredibly rich mystical heritage.

My love for the Wheel of the Year (I did not use the term at the time, but celebrating the seasons came naturally to me since the age of ten) was deepened through observing the Liturgical Year of the Catholic church in a monastery in the Oxfordshire countryside, England. The Pagan roots and links in the Christian festivals became more apparent than ever before.

That, combined with my growing interest in Feminist Theology, became a contributing factor in the discernment that led me out of the monastery and back into the world.

The sudden death of a dream plunged me into a 'dark night of the soul'. I descended into the Underworld, where I had to truly begin to face the 'other side' of my Self. Prayer and meditation became having a cigarette and looking up at the starry skies and following the phases of the Moon over a period of three months.

Towards the end of that time, I read Joseph Campbell's "Pathways to Bliss" and "The Power of Myth". His wise, loving words provided me with the key to mythology I never thought I'd find. I remembered then how taken I had been with the use of myth in Wicca and I knew that the time was ripe for me to consciously begin a new phase of my spiritual journey. I had begun to ascend from the Depths!

After work, in the cool of the day, I would walk to the beach, sit on the huge rocks at the water's edge, and read Doreen Valiente's "Charge of the Goddess" to myself. My eyes were opened to the fact that the Great Mother has held my hand all my life and before, and that I could now truly begin to live and walk in relationship with Her and the God of All Life.

After moving 1000km from the Eastern Cape to Pretoria, I continued to immerse myself in the myths, and using the writings of Joseph Campbell to guide me in tapping into the Great Symbols which attempt to describe the human being's encounter with the Transcendent.

Witchcraft is continuously becoming for me a spirituality of immense value. Various practices, including meditation, ritual, and being taught by the Book of Nature, allow me to enter into and discover the ageless, transformative power of the Old Stories; stories which are all facets of the Great Human Story – the pilgrimage each one of us takes into Union with the very heart of the Goddess, She Who Is.

Learning to dialogue with the myths has not been easy. Many times I've hovered in between the over-simplified view of the myths merely being ways of explaining things before the advent of science, and glibly using the term archetypes... True, at surface level, some of the stories (for example, that of Demeter and Persephone) do explain macrocosmic phenomena, like Seasonal change. But at a deeper level, that same story might deal with the inner seasons of the human experience – on a microcosmic level. Further still, could the heart of that myth not be the experience of something much greater than the person, through that person's experience of the natural seasons when living in harmony with them: a moment both of profound ecstasy (being taken out of oneself), and connecting with the Ground of All Being?

Mythology does not tell me how to do things. It is not a worldwide library of Divine Revelation. My encountering the Divine comes partly through my openness to the ebb and flow of Life, the many formative experiences that have moulded me, self-discipline, moments of joy and love, a receiving of Self through Others (ubuntu), and prayer. The opportunities for allowing oneself to be caught up in the adoring gaze of perfect love and perfect trust between Lover and Beloved, are myriad!

What mythology does for me is that it gives tips, it confirms, it allows me to consider and learn from the experiences of others. Powerful symbols are brought into my life. New aspects of the Divine glitter and twinkle like countless stars, prompting and urging me on my quest of blissful union with the All.

Mythology never dictates to me. Instead, the Old Stories are like an ever-growing circle of good friends, in which I find laughter, love, joy, passion, sorrow, and anger.

My hope is that Pagans and Witches everywhere will come to cherish and explore the Great Stories of the past (as well as some of there modern re-tellings. They are perennial!) as something of a travel guide to finding one's bliss and following it; a guide that gives many options for the most exquisite scenic routes, as well as the most helpful of helpful travel tips!

May we enter into our mythologies in our times of meditation, ritual, and magick. May be be worked upon by them, and may we work upon them, that we may all of us come to encounter the Divine ever more fully as both the Absolute Other, utter transcendent, and as more intimately personal than any lover, parent, or sibling.