The Second Degree Initiation ritual in the Gardnerian Book of Shadows contains a priestly monologue in which the initiate is instructed about the Mysteries of Life:
“For there be three great mysteries in the life of man — love, death, and resurrection in a new body — and magic controls them all. To fulfill love you must return at the same time and place as the loved one, and you must meet and know and remember and love them again. But to be reborn you must die and be ready for a new body; to die you must be born; without love you may not be born — and these be all the magics.”
The text is dated, using genderized language for humanity and presuming that love is a necessary component of reproduction, but the seed of spiritual truth in the words stands the test of time. On the surface it makes sense that love, death, and rebirth are a sacred triad. It even makes sense that they are Mysteries, for they need to be experienced in order to be properly understood. But what are the Three Great Mysteries really? And how does magick control them all?
I am a traditionalist; I believe in the value of things passed down from teacher to student and upheld through the generations. As such, I have spent a lot of time going through the extant writings of early Wiccans to see what spiritual truths they were trying to convey and working with those writings to bring those truths to those I work with. So, having read the initiation rituals as they were practiced in the 1940s and 1950s, I had an awareness of the Three Great Mysteries as a concept in Wicca. But the first time I saw them referenced outside of primary sources was in the Hidden Path oracle deck by Raven Grimassi and Stephanie Taylor with art by Mickie Mueller. These cards are a pathworking deck designed to give insight to those on Wiccan and Wiccan-adjacent paths through symbols and concepts of the religion. The card illustrates the Three Great Mysteries as Birth, Life, and Death, in contrast to the original text of Love, Death, and Rebirth. The difference in the interpretations confused me at first, but after time and study I realized they were related.
Birth/Rebirth
The first Great Mystery is that of birth/rebirth. Some Wiccans prefer to focus on the word rebirth in order to remind themselves and others that this is not the first life they have lived, a truth that offers a great deal of insight when reflected upon. The creation of life is both a spiritual and a scientific mystery. The earliest forms of life on Earth, single-cell microbes, arose in the waters of the oceans 4.5 billion years ago, but scientists aren’t exactly sure how life arose from lifelessness. Spiritually speaking, not only is there the mysterious Divine Spark of life that enlivens each living thing, there is also the mysterious fusion of body, spirit, and soul to create a unique life. We believe that magick governs these mysteries.
Life/Love
The second Great Mystery is that of life/love. Some Wiccans prefer to focus on the word life because the experience of love, particularly romantic love, is not guaranteed to or desired by everyone, whereas the experience of the many lessons of life is a given. Love is just one of the mysteries of life, and life encompasses a vast array of experiences and mysteries. The process of life, of learning and experiencing and failing and trying again, is how we grow as people and as spiritual beings. It is during life that we learn to work with magick and understand how it operates in the universe.
Death
The third Great Mystery is that of death. Death is the inevitable end of our lives, but it is not the end of our existence. Our body will return to the Earth. Our spirit will travel to the Summerland. And our soul will be made ready for a new body and a new life, and we will return again. Magick is at work during the entire process of death to help us transition from one realm to the next. And magick, through the exercise of cosmic love, makes us ready to be reborn.
And Magick Controls Them All
Magick, at its core, is the realization of divine love at work in the universe. That love is more than a sexual union, more than a romantic attachment, more than a platonic involvement. It is all-encompassing, ardent, powerful, and most importantly kind. Cosmic love is the spark which animates life, the fire which keeps life going, and the embers from which new life can emerge.