Why the Witch?
Sometimes I have to admit & just say I canât do this today, I canât be there, I wonât be able to make it. Thank you, but no. Honestly it is because I donât have the motivation, the Will or the energy. Itâs just not in the cards for me right now.
âââ-
Salutations to Goddess
Spinner & weaver
Of the fabric of my life
I offer this momentâs fate
& place my destiny
in your wise old hands
âââ
In the Sanatana dharmaâ the way of freedomâ this accumulation (sanchita) of favourable energy/circumstances, is referred to as merit that you obtain through service & right action by fulfilling your duty in the creation (dharma).
But this too, has been misconstrued & misused in patriarchy.
In verse 4 of the Vivekachudamani Shankara saysâ
The man who, having by some means obtained a human birth, with a male body and mastery of the Vedas to boot, is foolish enough not to exert himself for self-liberation⊠suggests that Shankara understood that the male form has privileges (under patriarchy?) that the female form is deniedâ but is he suggesting a female birth to be innately an inferior form according to merit, or only unfavourable under patriarchy?
Which is the topic of Bhagavad Gita ch 9:32:
For those who take refuge in Me, Î PÄrtha, though they be of sinful birthâ women, vaiĆyas, and Ćudrasâ even they attain the Supreme Goal.
Suggesting the female form a sinful formâ echoing the judgement of Mary Magdalene as an âunreliable witnessâ & Eve as a âtemptressâ.
Returning to Sanatana dharma (âthe ancient lawâ)â dharma is often interpreted as (religious) duty but is misleadingâ âits meaning is more profound, defying concise English translation. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit root âdhri,â which means âto sustain.â
[A] related meaning is âthat which is integral to something.ââ ie, the dharma of fire [is] to be hot.
According to the notion of sanatana-dharma, the eternal and intrinsic inclination of the living entity (atman) is to perform seva (service). Sanatana-dharma, being transcendental, refers to universal and axiomatic laws that are beyond our temporary belief systems.â Sources âŹïž
Under patriarchy dharma (service, duty) can become expectations, demand, coercion, force, manipulation, entitlement, righteousness etc.
But dharma is another way of sayingâ to know your knowingâ to know what the need of the moment is, to listen & to respond.
Sometimes dharma is thought of as fulfilling your purpose, however purpose is easily appropriated by the ego for its own ends.
Dharma can only be known by deepest listening to the true heart & rising insights that come as felt signatures & whispers. It cannot be proscribed from the outside.
It asks much of us to sayâ no I cannot meet this expectation. Everyone around us may want to convince you otherwise.
Importantly service is not subservience. To martyr & sacrifice your knowing, is self-betrayal.
Women have for long played the role of the pleaser, as a price for patriarchal provisioning. It is difficult to say that first Noâ especially to our selfâ no longer will I entertain these patriarchal games I playâ turning my back on myself for approval to be seen as the good girl, the pleaser, the good wife or good student.
This is how we learn to trust our inner voice & how we become self-dependent (svatantra). We obey our true heart. Our devotion is to Silent knowing, not the institution, teacher or priest.
We may initially be perceived as a Jezebel rebel.
Gradually we will outgrow the need to be seen or perceived at all. I no longer need to be seen by a him, or the nod of patriarchal approval.
I have left the patriarchal cage lead by the Goddess & the witch. Now I look at the trees & the clouds, at the stones & the bones & I scry & divine, for my wisdom to arise.
Even if it means I must burn on the pyre with everyone throwing words like knives of disbelief in my direction.
It is the yet to be exorcised patriarchy in spiritual traditions that pushed me to the edges & the borders of spirituality where I met with witchery (western tantrism, you could say) as a hidden & solitary way into the heart of freedom.
Sourcesâ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalene
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve
https://iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/concepts/key-concepts/sanatana-dharma/
