Wicca and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

by David Wadsworth (This article first appeared in Children of Sekhmet,
May 1988. It was originally given by Dave as a talk at a Wiccan
Workshop organised by Chris and Vivianne Crowley in 1987)

This talk aims to illustrate the all-pervading nature of Wicca. If a
system of natural laws or beliefs is true, it can be applied to
virtually anything. I intend to try and apply parts of Wiccan beliefs to
my other passion, biking.

There is a peculiar sort of bonding between a real biker and his
machine. The biker will put the well-being of his machine far above his
own. I have seen men cry over a bent bike, or after an accident tell the
driver off for hitting his bike rather than him. I have personally
fought off two ambulence men so that I could hop to my bike to inspect
the damage before being taken to hospital. My theory for this strange
bond is that the motorcycle and rider form a sort of Gestalt being, a
conplete entity, either part of which is incomplete or useless without
the other.

The motorcycle represents the male part of this entity. It provides all
the force and power, but lacks control and direction. It is all
potential, in Wiccan terms, the God force, waiting for the female
aspect, the Goddess, in the form of a horrible grubby motorcycle rider.
The rider takes the force and harnesses it, giving purpose, form and
direction. Controlling the raw male potential, and together, in harmony,
they will be capable of reaching heights impossible to either on their
own.

The motorcycle can be seen as a way through which to tap a source of
cosmic energy. The energy which we in the Wicca use for healing, spells,
divination, as a gateway to alternative universes. Just as a witch
wouldn't attempt to tap this awesome power without protection, neither
would a biker. The biker will put on boots, gloves, helmet and leathers
in a similar sort of way as a member of the Craft would surround
themselves with a protective circle to preserve the power and keep out
undesirable spirits. In the biker's case he is also aiming to keep in
the heat, and protect him from the road, onto which demon car drivers
possessed of evil spirits (gin, vodka, whiskey etc.) would lure him to
his death!

This brings us neatly (?) to the subject of reincarnation. Most of you
reading this will have some knowledge of the ideas of reincarnation;
i.e. that we are born, live in the world, die, and are then reborn to
develop further. Not many of you will realise that motorcycles go
through a similar process. They leave the factory to roam about the face
of the earth, then some parts wear out, and they descend into the dark
underworld of the workshop. Here they are consoled and repaired by the
creative force of the female, who is the biker, to emerge re-born in
Spring, once more blooming with refreshed colour of restored paintwork,
and the cycle starts again. Many British machines go through this every
year. About Yule they are ready, and in the first days of Spring they
roar about in the first flush of youth. Then at the peak of their
power, at Lammas, they are cut down, usually due to some terminal
mechanical problem. They dwell for the remainder of the year in Hades,
the garage, thus mirroring the cycle of the God.

The spirituality of bikes is perceived by man in different forms, and
each has its followers. Here are some of the major religions:

THE CHRISTIAN

This newcomer to the spiritual motorcycle rides a modern Japanese bike.
He pays little more than lip service to his religion. He has few
rituals, all he has to do is turn the key and start the starter engine.
He tends to be into power and speed, tearing past older machines which
he regards with contempt. He cares little for the inner workings of the
machine, running to his priest/mechanic whenever he has a problem.
Should his machine pass on, i.e., wear out, it will believed to be
irreparable, i.e., too expensive, and gone to the great scrap heap in
the sky. The makers of this are the great salesmen and evangelists of
the bike, not to mention the profit makers.

THE MAGICIAN

He will typically be an older bearded gentleman, who rides an immaculate
old British motorcycle. They are into status, and will pootle along at
40 mph all day, imagining themselves the envy of all who see them. They
are into ritual and mystery. The performance required to summon some
older bikes into life is awesome and dangerous. Yet these fellows will
watch in silence as a machine spits at a new initiate and breaks his
shin. They will endlessly pontificate on the correct shade of colour for
the petrol tank, or whether a part is the right year for the model;
mostly that's all they do.

THE WITCH

The bike will most likely be filthy, not from lack of care, but from
constant use in all sorts of conditions. The rider knows and understands
the inner workings of his machine, its every click and whistle. He
relies on no guru for his understanding, he is not afraid to try things
out and see if it works. Not for him the search for power or acclaim. He
is just out to explore the universe and glean its mysteries. He will get
there in the end, there's plenty of time. He will rebuild bikes time
after time, not sticking to rigid formulae, but with whatever comes to
hand. he enjoys his bike and is in-tune with it.

As a biker-witch, I am now going to use two useful tools to explain my
theory of Life, the Universe and Everything: i.e., the Kaballah and the
four-stroke cycle.

Firstly the act of invocation and the four-stroke cycle. For those of
you who are not mechanically minded, I'll try and keep this simple.
Officially the four-stroke cycle is referred to as Induction,
Compression, Power and Exhaust. I prefer the much more evocative Suck,
Squeeze, Bang, Blow. There are a few parts that really matter: the crank
shaft, the con rod, the piston and the inlet plus exhaust valves.

1) Suck: Initially the piston is at the top and both valves are closed.
As the crank shaft turns, the inlet valve opens, the con rod pulls the
piston down which draws air and fuel in. At this point in an invocation,
the invoker is opening his chakras and drawing the cosmic energy which
surrounds us into his body.

2) Squeeze: The crank shaft continues around, the inlet valve shuts, and
the piston is pushed up, squeezing tha gases together. This is when the
invoker says the invocation and passes the power to the invokee.

3) Bang: The fuel/air mixture ignites and pushes the piston down. The
priest/ess takes on the aspect of God/dess being invoked.

4) Blow: The exhaust valve opens and the piston pushes the charge into
the exhaust pipe. The God/dess charges and shares his/her power with
those assembled.

And now - motorcycles on the Tree of Life:

Kether - traditionally the godhead from which all energy flows. It is
formless. This is the high tension spark which ignites the fuel and
without which the bike is naught.

Chokmah - Formless, directionless energy, raw untamed power. In the
engine this is the burning fuel mixture.

Binah - this takes the raw force and starts organising and forming it.
The piston, conrod and crankshaft takes the power of the expanding gases
and converts it to rotary motion.

Chesed - Takes the potential energy of Binah, gives it order, and makes
it more solid and usable. In the engine, the gearbox and final drive
take the power from the crank shaft and make it usable to the whole
machine.

Geburah - An essential breaking down. Where there is life, there must be
death. In an engine when you have got two lumps of metal thrashing about
in violent motion, they must wear each other away.

Tiphareth - This is the image of the godhead, the wayshower, Lucifer,
Prince of Light. In the bike this is represented by the electrical
system and the ignition system, and the lights, which on British
machines are provided by Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness!

Netzach - This is the spirit of nature, intuition and sexuality. This is
more concerned with what bikers do. They are in tune with nature and
tend to get drawn to ancient sites, eg Stonehenge, Avebury and Wayland
Smithy, or just standing around in a muddy field communing with nature
and the local brewery. This is also the source of the sexual bond
between man and machine.

Hod - Communication, intellect and travel. It is also where your will
produces power. The travelling aspect of motorcycles is fairly obvious,
and hordes of despatch riders fulfil the communication role. This is
where we get the knowledge of the workings of the bike. It definitely
takes Hodic willpower on a cold, wet morning, along with highly verbal
expletives, leaping up and down on the kickstart to get the bugger
moving.

Yesod - This is the lunar aspect of biking, linked to Tiphareth on the
Middle Pillar (refer Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness). Many bikers will,
by the light of the Full Moon, switch their lights off and ride by
moonlight in their lunatic hunt for the local hostellry. In the event of
a biker meeting his death through this ridiculous activity, look into
the sky. For there you will espy, on his silver machine, the spirit of
the biker riding across the astral heavens. Scientists tend to think
these are meteors. There is also the illusion of security one gets from
riding around with one's head in a goldfish bowl, colloquially known as
a blood bucket.

Malkuth - The concrete world, reality. On a bike you are cold, wet,
tired, frequently uncomfortable, and very vulnerable, and no-one in
their right mind would do it if it wasn't for something else......

Despite Malkuth, biking opens up other realms, other worlds (Birmingham,
London, Glasgow, etc) and puts you in tune with the inner and outer
universes. The End.