Beauty in Death

We have a choice in life, to do what we must, to abide by the Law of Three, to adhere to our hearts' calling, "And Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will." The ascended ones in this world know instinctively that this is both immense freedom and binding at the same time, and forces us to see all things as far as we are able in the limited wisdom we have here in our present realm.

Not even the wisest of us all can possibly see all ends, to know where all things must be, and where all things will be at the end of our Paths. Within this life we have the choice of leading our lives by our five senses, or to ascend beyond our senses and to live by our hearts, and above all, by Love.

Love is our Gift, our Path, and in that Love we can accomplish wondrous things. Our senses are but tools in this realm, tools to help us in our journeys, and when we ascend beyond our senses, the Goddess forever changes our hearts. She does, can, and will always changes what She touches. That is an immutable fact, present in every Pagan, every Witch, no matter what your Path may be. You have been changed irrevocably by Her. Our lives are intertwined with the threads and weaves of Magick, we are in the weave of Nature, of all things, and of the greatest, Love.

Some of us can see into this weave, and we soon see that all are Magickal beings. The choice to wield or to ignore Magick is our choice, but Magick is a part of us all, a Goddess-given right to every last person breathing on this planet.  Some burn brighter than others, others seem to be blessed with extraordinary gifts, and yet others blessed with an understanding of Love. Love is always our gift from our Goddess, always.

To ascend here is almost the same as ascending once you cross the Veil. We must see beyond ourselves, to rise above our senses and to realize that all of it, down to the first star ever born, was a Gift to us all from Her.

She did all things in Love, and that Love is what we must learn above anything else. When that Love is learned, everything makes sense, all at once. You will see with Her eyes, and Love as you have never known.

Ascension is a very hard thing to convey.  To put it in its simplest form, it's seeing and knowing that you, no matter how great or small, are loved by Her. The hard part is getting past yourself, getting past the very idea that a Goddess has any time for a small soul. You have no idea, if you haven't ascended, just how important all of us are to Her. All of us are loved. When that love is realized, anything is possible, including the understanding that She loves us so greatly that we must be happy, and that to be happy we must be complete. That process takes a great many lifetimes, many more than we could really imagine.

In some lives we remember who we are as Her children; in others we don't or deny it altogether. The lives we remember are wondrous ones, where we can accomplish a great deal before we return to Her.

True peace comes when as a spiritual being we realize that death itself has no sway, no hold over any of us. When we lose the fear of death itself, peace will overtake you, and you soon learn to see that all the things that happen in our lives are nothing more than learning experiences. We learn that all things are connected, that we are part of that connection, and that time loses its importance as does the mundane distractions. Then we begin to learn of completeness and to carry that lesson with us as we go, and to remember it before we return.

Because, if you so choose, you will return here again.

This subject is well beyond the few points we have looked into here, far beyond any one mortal, nor do I believe that even collectively we could piece together the entirety of the Summerlands and our journeys. We are all individuals, part of a collective, and forever Her Children.

I don't deign to speak for the entire Pagan community on this subject. This is what I have learned, what I have seen, and what She Herself has taught me (I love you, Hecate!!!).  Maybe, just maybe, this will help others along their own Paths, that is my true hope.

This article was first published at Witchvox.com and is reprinted with permission.

Elwin Shadowstrider is High Lord of Ravensgrove Coven, a coven Solitary Witches, of which the Ladies wished to have me join their ranks as a contributing Elder. He is an Eclectic Witch, a Witch of the Heart, not of Traditions, of the Blood lines, a Witch of Hecate. Visit his profile page and see other articles he has written at Witchvox.