‘Perfect Love and Perfect Trust’: diluted Self-made Perfect or Profaned Purity?

We were at the point of Magic in the ritual when our teacher said ‘this is where ‘Perfect Love and Perfect Trust’ comes in.

She is also the Witchcraft teacher who instills the counter-intuitive maxim ‘Never trust another Witch —either outside or inside a Magic Circle.’

So where does that leave the oft-quoted and much-recognised Wiccan phrase ‘Perfect Love and Perfect Trust’, colloquially known by some as ‘PLPT?’

When taking their higher degrees, Wiccan Priesthood learn the secret names of the God and Goddess.

Why secret?

Simple.

So the names don’t become profaned.

Witchcraft of all derivations is constantly comparing the evolution of our traditions, movmements, religion — call it what one wants, to Christian history and we are quick to lament when we see things going the way of Christianity or relieved when we can distinguish ourselves from the rigid structure it has become today.

If the day comes, however, that the Wiccan secret names for the God and Goddess become commonplace, Jesus is going to have some unhappy company at the altar whilst peering out at the Christians and Wiccans sitting side-by-side in the pews.

Thankfully, we have not gotten to that point and let’s hope we don’t. I do wonder though, how many Wiccans are scrambling to gain their footing against the slippery slope of the free-flow of passwords and Wiccan praxis flooding social media threads.

Am I missing something or is there a clear and present danger lurking in that abyss of potent phrases like PLPT becoming infected with mundane and shallow meanings, the consequences of which are their superficiality becoming the magical norm?

Alex Sanders exposed much of what was considered at the time ‘secrets’ of the witcheries on the basis that even if it was read by non-occultists, it would not be understood; that the individual Soul would only absorb that which it was ready to; thus, the Mysteries were protected.

That was before the demon of social media infiltrated our collective consciousness though, and the in-built protection mechanism of the Mysteries had to transmute into a mundane shield of defence.

Take the much bandied-about ‘PLPT’ concept and apply it, for example, to the most mundane and perhaps profane aspect of humanity — money.

Now consider whether its face-value interpretation lulls Initiates of any Wiccan derivation into a greater sense of trusting other Initiates when it comes to lending and borrowing money.

In particular, whether an Initiate is more inclined to borrow from or lend money to other Initiates with a greater sense of trust than they might otherwise if they were dealing with non-initiates, and if so, whether this is a mistaken application of PLPT.

The consequential issue to be explored is when it all goes wrong and the PLPT concept becomes corrupted into a relationship of coercion and control — e.g. the HP/s borrowing from one of their students thereby giving rise to a possible abuse of position by the HP/s — student feels too intimidated to ask for repayment and also feels thwarted from leaving the coven for fear of not being repaid; the reverse also being a possible scenario, HP/s or say, a coven elder has lent money to one of the Initiates.

Which brings me back to the Circle and the point of Magic, cords taut with tension which symbolises not only the immediate physical connection between opposingly positioned witches but also the allegorical representation as mundane rivals; and herein lies the Mystery.

Never Trust another Witch.