On Wisdom

Today my tea gave me advice.

It was a sachet of Yogi Tea, and printed on the tag were these words: "Knowing others is smart, knowing yourself is wise."

This fits remarkably well with what I was thinking about the virtue of wisdom. It occurred to me when I sat down to write this that wisdom is something we often think comes from people who have lived longer lives than us, or who have had greater spiritual experiences, or a better education. It is rare that we acknowledge ourselves as a potential source of wisdom.

I have found that wisdom does come from experience, and often from people who have more experience than I do. But I have also found myself capable of producing more wisdom than I ever expected. As a young pagan, I have found that sometimes I lean too heavily on the elders of my community, not trusting my own wisdom because I haven't cultivated it. I haven't always put into practice the wisdom that bubbles up from inside of me like water in a spring, and that's a shame.

In addition to studying the nine ADF virtues, I also study a series of virtue pairs that I created, inspired by myths about Artemis. One such virtue pair is pride and humility. While I believe that pride and humility are a pair of traits that need to be balanced, I want to focus on pride for the purpose of this essay. To me, finding wisdom in yourself requires appropriate pride.

In the CedarLight Grove Mentor Manual, wisdom is defined as "simply the ability to know.  Knowing implies an understanding that exists beyond learning as the ability to recognize." Knowing also implies a degree of pride in your ability to understand. At the grove, I have witnessed many members acting with wisdom and appropriate pride when they took on roles in ritual. Seeing this wisdom in action has left an impression on me. Wisdom does not always have to come from hard lessons. Sometimes it comes from the gentle laughter of the divine. And while I have also seen members of the grove acting with wisdom in times of discord, it is during celebrations of the kindred that I see the wisdom the most.

It would be highly convenient if I received a bit of insight like this every day simply by drinking a cup of tea. I'm grateful for this happy coincidence. It has given me a moment to reflect on wisdom, and how I can cultivate wisdom in my life.