Nyx in the House of Night

magic. However, I have heard Wiccans have the feelings associated with magic and it is nonetheless effective to guide them, and heal the mind, body, or soul.
    The point is that although we share the same planet, the worlds we inhabit, which are shaped and colored by our perceptions, are very different. If you’re going to understand how vampyres and Wiccans—
    Ugh. Saying vampyre and Wiccan is already becoming tedious, and I do so dislike tedious things. Therefore, from this point forward I’m just going to say “children of the earth” when I’m referring to both groups.
    Where was I? Ah, yes—if you’re going to understand how the children of the earth think, then the first thing you have to do is quit taking everything so literally. The language used by the children of the earth, especially when speaking about religious topics, tends to be both symbolic and metaphoric rather than concrete and literal. For those of you who need a refresher: a symbol is something that is used to stand in the place of an idea or concept. For example, an eagle might be used to represent liberty or a lion might represent courage. A baby could be used to show innocence, or an owl wisdom, and the American flag stands for all the values of being American. A metaphor, however, is a comparison between two very different things where the comparison is stated as if one were the other. For example, if you were to come stomping down the stairs in your PJs, eyes half closed and disheveled from sleep, proceed to growl at your sister to get out of your chair, and then snatch up the cereal box and start to shake it into a bowl as if she were personally responsible for that embarrassing encounter with that really cute new student when you were trying to act cool in the chemistry lab but forgot that you still had your lab goggles still plastered to your forehead and . . . oh, sorry, I digress. I spend way too much time around teens. Well anyway, if your father peered across the table and asked, “Why are you such a bear this morning?” he would be using a metaphor. There would be no need to shave a suddenly hairy face or to trim your claws. You would not actually be a bear, you would just be playing one at breakfast.
    The children of the earth tend to see their religious practices in terms of symbols and metaphors that instruct people in life lessons. When we ask an element to join us in ritual we are, therefore, not asking a giant mound of intelligent dirt to appear and start a conversation. What we are asking is that the symbolic energy of that element fill us. To do that we identify the manifestations of that element in the outer world—say, the smell of fresh-mowed grass, for earth—and use that imagery to find the power of that element within ourselves. If done correctly you will feel the power, emotions, and energy of that element surround you, well within you, and flow to your extremities, filling you.
    We also view religious stories as mythology, which does not mean we think they are untrue. Our Goddess, Nyx, is very real and tangible. Rather, mythology refers to sacred stories intended to instruct and guide people to a spiritual truth through the use of metaphor. Outsiders who read our stories often make the mistake of interpreting them as historical facts, which they are not. Interpreting myths as facts reduces them to something that happened long ago to people who are long dead, and this makes applying their lessons to our own lives much more difficult. Rather, we interpret the stories as myths, where we are intended to find the strength of the hero within ourselves and to see within our own lives the flaws of the villain and take heed that those flaws don’t contribute to our own downfall. If we read the myths and apply the lessons to ourselves, learning from the virtues of the teachers and heroes while taking warnings from the tragic flaws of the doomed, then the stories become living traditions and are renewed in every age. Learning from the actions of mythic figures gives us wisdom, for while intelligence is learning from your own mistakes, wisdom is learning from the triumphs and failures of others.
    Greek philosophers believed that all things were formed from the elements—earth, air, fire, and water. Add spirit to that and they weren’t too far off the mark. Ah . . . I can hear many of you out there protesting, “What about iron and helium, gold and mercury, what about all the elements on the periodic table from