Internet Book of Shadows: The Story of The Pit

Book of ShadowsHouse Cleansing RitualNeopagan PracticeWiccan Ritual Instructions

This is a short piece of Neopagan devotional fiction from the Internet Book of Shadows (1999), written in the tradition of Wiccan theology featuring the divine triad of the Lord, the Lady, and the Fool — a trickster figure who has incarnated as Dionysus, Coyote, Krishna, and similar mythological avatars across cultures. The central piece is a parable in which the Fool, appearing as a street-corner storyteller, delivers a satirical catalogue of how every ideology, religion, and personality type responds to a man trapped in a pit — each with useless commentary rather than action — before a Good Samaritan arrives with two shovels and simply helps. The humor is broad and deliberately inclusive in its mockery, skewering Wiccans and New Agers alongside conservatives, liberals, fundamentalists, and Satanists with equal irreverence. The story's theological punch lands in its frame: the Fool is revealed to be a divine incarnation whose previous works include the Sermon on the Mount, positioning Jesus as one more aspect of the universal trickster-god. The piece's distinctive claim is a syncretic one — that compassionate action transcends all doctrinal posturing, and that this wisdom has been delivered repeatedly through history by the same divine Fool, largely ignored each time. It will appeal to readers interested in Neopagan theology, religious satire, or the "Man in a Pit" parable tradition; it reads quickly and is more witty than deep.

Internet Book of Shadows: The Story of The Pit

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