"The Balanced Warrior"
This chapter begins with a quote about the meaning of the word religion, its roots in Latin. However it only looks at half the word's definition. Religion comes from the Latin Re-Ligare where re means again and ligare means to bind or connect and carried the overtones of duty and obligation. However defining the word religion is very difficult, even elusive. I could write a whole thesis paper on just this very subject. But I won't. It is important only to know that the word carries a sense of obligation to reconnect with the sacred and serve it as one holds to a duty of some sort. It is one aspect of the balanced warrior.
A warrior is thus in body, mind, and spirit. He hones his body with healthy care, exercise, and martial training. He hones his mind with learning and meditation. Religion helps him hone his spirit. And if we are to hold to the Latin origins, then we are to re-connect with that which is sacred.
"Everything is sacred." When you consider everything sacred, important, divine, then you afford it your respect and your love, you attention and your care. You realize that the divine cannot be separated from any thing or act, external or internal. And with that comes a sense of duty and responsibility. Balance within and without. When there is balance, then little energy needs to be expended because very little is wasted. This holds true whether it is martial arts (as Bruce Lee exemplified) or whether it is magic.
It is important to note the fact that no one, not even a Wiccan warrior is immune to failure or error. The important thing is to learn from it. That is a lesson I was taught by my mother. Everything is a lesson. And if you view failings as such, they become a means to grow. An interesting quote that is along the same lines, though I know longer know its origin: "Obstacles are merely opportunities in disguise." Fear and guilt can stop us in our tracks and must be recognized as emotional experiences and not as obstacles. Knowing ourselves will help with this. Know thyself, know your strengths and weaknesses, your assets and liabilities. Replace guilt with responsibility. "If I screw up, I fix it." We are ultimately responsible for our own actions. What goes around, comes around. Three-fold Law. Karma. Call it what you will. These are the lessons of responsibility and respect of self and other.
Leaving the notion of lessons and duty, there is an important aspect of being a Wiccan warrior that also relates to balance. That is the issue of power. There should never be power over when being a Wiccan warrior. There is power with and power within. Some traditions view the sharing of mysteries and training and power is a way to lose that power. I disagree. To share power is to grow stronger as a group and thus as an individual because you have that group who has your back.
Knowing the self means applying the mind before the body. Learn to use your head before your hand. And before both of those... your heart. "The Wiccan Warrior practices honesty and openness." There is no reason to hide knowledge or to keep secrets. We are no longer living in such dangerous times as our forefathers. And besides, if we keep hoarding the knowledge like a great secret, then how are we to teach the next generation? How are people of the public to come to trust us? If we hide things they will think we have something that needs hiding. People are afraid of what they do not know or understand... so let us teach them as we teach ourselves and each other.
Such have been the words and lessons gleaned from Chapter 3: The Balanced Warrior of the book Wiccan Warrior by Kerr Cuhulain.
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