The Lady watched the Men and Women, looking thru the eyes of a
myriad of Women, children, young girls, mothers, daughters, wives,
lovers....all of the Women there were in the World.
And She saw that, in many places, the Men had forgotten that the
Women were to walk by their side as equals and partners, working as a
team, but regarded Women as not-equal, and as possessions.
"This must not be," she said. "What shall I do to teach them?"
She thought, and remembered that the Fool would teach Men and
Women, in His own way, and that Way might work for Her, too.
She turned, and was the Maiden, and was in the World.
A Man saw Her beauty, and seeing not Her Divinity caught and
raped Her. Another took Her, and put Her in chains, and set Her to
serving him. In the midst of the night, a band of men broke into the
house, killing the slave-maker, and took Her away. They forced Her to
serve them as a prostitute, and took the money she was paid for
themselves.
On and on it went, with humiliation and degradation piled higher
and higher, until, on a still, dark night She spoke, and said, quietly,
"Enough!" And the quiet coldness of the Word was enough to freeze the
Moon in its path, and the singing insects of the night stilled their
song.
And the Maiden turned, and moved to the other side of the Coin,
and became Lillith.
She embodied the pleasures of the flesh, and the animal wildness
of the wilderness; the lust of the bitch-in-heat and the fierceness of a
mother defending her young was Hers, and Her eyes were mad.
And She enslaved the men in Her turn, enslaving them to Lust and
Passion, making them mad to possess Her, She that cannot be possessed,
and fettering them in silken chains of desire.
She showed the women Herself, and taught them Freedom, and
Wildness, and all the secret places where Wildness lives, and the Mystery
of being Woman.
She was Lillith and Diana, Artemis and Athena, Scatach and
Morrigan, and all the Wildness of Woman was in Her.
She took the women to the secret places within themselves, and
looked back out at them with feral eyes.
She ran with the wolves, and howled. She flew with the hawks and
ravens, and hunted with the owl. She crawled with the serpent, and
stalked Her prey with the lioness, and all of this was put into Her
Dance.
"Know you that you are free," She cried to the women, "And let
none put chains upon you not of your own making. Live as you will, not as
another would force you. You are partners with Man, not his slave, and I
am in you forever!"
And the Wild was in the women, singing in their blood, and, so
long as they remembered, they were free.
But when Lillith had celebrated the freedom, and that of all
Womankind, She stopped, and looked, and saw the chains upon the Men. She
saw the same kind of slavery.
She turned, and became the Mother, and She put out Her Hands and
cooled the brows of the fevered males; She kissed the chafed hands and
wounded hearts and helped them stand. She showed them compassion, and
taught them the gentleness of Woman, the strong and beautiful and
cherishable part so that they might see the strength and the beauty
therein, and love Woman and feel -free- in her standing beside them.
And Woman was free, and Man was free, and together they stood and
saw the chains as their own, to slough or shackle as each would, to
themselves but never to the other.
"That was pretty spectacular." said the Fool. "A bit severe for
my style, though."
The Lady grinned at Him, and said, "Well, you're not the only
Teacher around here, You know."
The Fool rolled over on His back and swatted at a stray piece of
dandelion fluff that had settled on His ear, and said, "Never thought I
was!" He seemed a bit huffy.
"I just hope they can handle it," said the Lord. "They sure can
make simple things complicated fast."
"Oh, they'll mess it up a bit, as usual," said the Lady, "But it
will all come out right eventually."
"I hope so," said the Fool. "They sure can get balled up in non-
essentials. By the way, I just invented ice-cream. Want some?"
"Sounds interesting," said the Lord and the Lady.
And They all smiled at each other.
Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so!
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