Secrecy

Clandestinitas

Everyone has their secrets, but there are few that time won’t ultimately reveal. Some things must be kept secret for one’s own or another’s protection. If someone trusts you with a secret, keep it. Confidentiality may be an issue, at this time. Gossip cannot survive honest questioning.

Shame, it is an ugly thing.

Within, fear hides its face.

It buries freedom and innocence,

And truth sinks without a trace.

Yet secrecy can treasures protect,

Can yield a protective spell.

We hold back what is most precious,

So what is precious may not dispel.

It has been said that there are no good secrets, but in Aradia’s time, secrecy was necessary if one followed the ancient ways of the Goddess. Women who were found practicing the old religion were subject to criticism at the least, and, at worst, might be imprisoned, cast out-and even tortured or killed.

And so it became common for practitioners of the old ways to do their working under cover of darkness and within the protection of secrecy. Many “covens” (although that term was most probably not in use) would meet secretly at night or in hidden places so they could practice their rites in safety. These early witches also reserved secret recipes and techniques for those members who were prepared spiritually and mentally to receive them. Because not all members of a oven had the same information at one time, if any were caught, not all the knowledge belonging to the group could be tortured out of them.

Thanks to Aradia’s followers, who were so diligent in their secrecy, while much of the old wisdom was lost, some, at least, survived, particularly within hereditary families.