As Wiccans, many of us refer to ourselves as “solitary”; but are we really? As human beings, we crave the companionship of other persons. Someone to talk to about our hopes, dreams, beliefs, desires and to oppose or uphold our opinions. Our egos require some sort of validation of our self worth. If you are as lucky as I am, you can be out of the broom closet and still have that validation come from your family. Especially parents, with whom most of us seek approval for the entirety of our lives.
I was blessed to be born into a family of Celtic and Native American background, many of whom have gifts bestowed upon them by a greater spiritual being. (My other family members are Christians or other religious paths) out of my respect and love for them I speak of “A Greater Spiritual Being” rather than of the Goddess.
My family all has a great understanding of the differences in people; hence we can talk about many of our personal spiritual experiences without fear that our spirituality or our deity will be judged. With them I am free to say that I was born a witch with many gifts given to me by the Goddess.
These gifts given can be very enticing to use for our own gain, once again; our egos at work. Without the support of others to talk with about what we have been charged with, we may find ourselves doing anything we can for our personal gain. Really we should be using them for our spiritual growths as my mother and I were talking about one day not that long ago.
She told me of a day in the restroom at church. One of the women had a terrible migraine and she was asked to help. She said that she went and laid her hands on the woman’s head to stroke her hair and suddenly there was heat burning through her arm and into the woman’s head. The woman stood up and said her migraine was gone. In that instant my mother had to make a choice, all of the others that were watching said that mom had healed her; but my mother understood that this was a gift used by her for that moment and not a talent that she could claim. She praises her God for what she could do for her friend but she says that she is awed and even slightly frightened by the power she has been given at times in her life.
When our gifts are used only for our own gain, we are pushing away the Goddess. In doing so, we are denying ourselves the beauty that shines from within when we are one with our higher being. We can no longer be the vessel of love and knowledge that friends and family look to for wisdom, friendship and companionship.
Our gifts; whether they be big or small, are to be used to assist others when they can be and to glorify the abilities of the Goddess when necessary. The gifts that we are given are only on loan to us to show the world that our Goddess is alive and thriving in us all.
Using our gifts for our own gain will only come back to “haunt” us later on; perhaps with larger and longer consequences, (three fold.) If we truly are, and remain a solitary witch how can we use our gifts to prove the existence of our higher spiritual being? How can we be that beautiful light and testament to the abilities of the Goddess? To do what we are charged, doesn’t it require us to integrate ourselves in society? As it is said in the Wiccan Rede, “Fairly take and fairly give,”…and…”Speak thou little and listen much”. To be able to do these things does it not imply that we must have other human companionship?
As for myself, I will remain solitary in the sense that I am not inclined
to join a coven. However, I do not think; like so many other seem to, that just because we are witches we should not have any interaction with people who do not share our religious viewpoint. I think that the Goddess wants us to spread our love to any and everyone around us.
