The origins of Dawnism go back many hundred years, to the era in
Europe termed the Dark Ages. This is a term that was coined by the
Christians to refer to their ignorance and position of political
insignificance. For the pagans though, there was nothing dark
about this time; it was an era of prosperity and happiness. But
the Christians hated the pagans (and still do) and tried to
exterminate them (and still do). Their efforts were largely
successful; very few pagans still exist. Legend has it, that after
one particularly brutal and bloody massacre, during which a
Christian Earl demonstrated the love and charity of Christ Jesus
by slaughtering everyone in the village he could find, there was
only 1 teenage girl left alive.
Her name was Anaxeldova, and she had been out in the forest
collecting roots for her mother, who was the local Witch. Her
mother had been highly revered, exceedingly knowledgeable, and
wise. Consequently, the village had been thriving under her care
and guidance, which is why the local Christians targeted them for
destruction. When Anaxeldova returned and saw the ruins of her
village, she was devastated and cried herself to exhaustion over
her mother’s body. But in the morning the sun rose brilliantly and
woke her, and upon seeing it she was inspired to new life. The
Dawn reminded her that every rising sun brings with it the
obligation and opportunity to begin a new life. So she performed
the death rituals for the people of her village, and resolved to
make the best use she could of her mother’s teaching and to never
agonize about past events. Then she retreated to the forest and
hid out there to escape the Christian's love.
With the onset of winter she left the northern forests and
traveled south toward a warmer climate. Along the way she met
other refugees from villages which had been demolished by
Christians, many of them women and girls. Because of the knowledge
she learned from her mother about medicinal plants, she became
their leader. Many of her followers believed her also to be a
Witch as her mother was. Anaxeldova taught her people knowledge of
medicine, taught them to carefully observe nature, and to study
and learn everything they could. One of Anaxeldova's earliest
followers was Poltava.
Since then, Dawns have always placed high importance on education
and learning and utterly rejected the non-sense of divine
revelation of knowledge. Over the years, many of the women she
taught dispersed to other regions and carried the knowledge and
traditions of Dawnism with them. Eventually the term Medicine
Mother began to be used for these women. Later when they began to
teach their own students, the term Root Girl was applied to them
in honor of Anaxeldova who was gathering roots for her mother when
the massacre struck.
The name of Dawnism was probably used first around the year
-89,850 though there is no known written record of it until
-89,523. It is derived from the customary saying of our people
when leaving for a long journey “Dawn will come in the morning.”
This is a reminder to always look to the future, as Anaxeldova
did, and not to waste time worrying about what is in the past.
The first known Wise and Wonderful One was Zanita. We do not know
when she was born, but we know that she died on Samhain in the
year -89,610. She was estimated to be about 70 years old at the
time. She is most famous for her opposition to the consumption of
alcohol, and her attempts to forbid its consumption during
festivals. Because of this she was shot in the head and thrown
into the Great Fire. However, history proved her to be right. In
her region alcoholism was a serious problem, and after her death
the economy and vitality of the region suffered tremendously. Most
of her followers died from hunger and privation during the next
winters because they failed to get their work done, and were
nearly wiped out.
The second Wise and Wonderful One was Agnes and she was installed
in -89,587. She lived in Silesia and was WAWO for 17 years. She is
the one who recorded most of the early history of Dawnism,
especially the traditions for Medicine Mothers and Root Girls. She
was probably burned at the stake for being a Witch, although that
hasn’t been confirmed. She certainly was a Witch, and a very
powerful one. When the Christians came to her village to burn her,
she was out in the forest gathering plants, so they went in search
of her. The villagers formed a defense party and went out after
the Christians. However, when they finally caught up, all they
found was the remnants of a big bonfire with the Christians all
laying dead around it. No sign was ever found of Agnes, so the
villagers speculated that the Christians had burned her, but at
her death her spirit struck out and killed them all.
The habitual burning of Dawns as Witches has meant that our
religion was practiced in secret for our entire history, and until
recently we have never kept written records of anything. When any
true public record referring to a Dawn was discovered, we
surreptitiously made sure it disappeared. So when a group of us
decides to make ourselves known to society at large, we refer to
that as a "manifestation". At the same time, we have propagated
and encouraged every manner of misinformation possible about us.
This website is the only time our history has been publicly
displayed, and is the authoritative version.
The third WAWO was Regina, and she was installed in -89,556 and
died of natural causes in -89,544. Regina developed our calendar
in its present form. The fourth WAWO was Dawn Daisy and she was
installed in -89,539. She was the first Medicine Mother who was
not a female. She was born in Italy as Vincente Marcellus and sent
to the Vatican to be a member of the choir. At that time the
Catholics would customarily castrate young boys so that their
voices would not change when they got older, and this is what they
did to young Vincente. After years of sexual abuse from the Pope,
Vincente was able to escape to Bohemia. There he was hidden and
protected by the Dawns, and he decided to start the Root Girl
training. As his talisman, he changed his name to Dawn and used
only female pronouns. This began the traditions of: changing ones
name to Dawn; use of female pronouns for Root Girls and Medicine
Mothers regardless of gender; preference for males to be castrated
if they are in leadership positions; and adoption of a talisman
when entering Root Girl training. Dawn Daisy died from an illness
(possibly malaria) that she contracted while tending sick people
in Greece in -89,523.
The fifth WAWO was Dawn Bedilia, who was Irish. It is said that
Dawn Bedilia was a prostitute, and the scanty evidence does seem
to support that. We do not shrink from that heritage, we embrace
it honestly and proudly. She adapted many of the traditional
Celtic celebrations to Dawnism by disposing of the superstitions
and realigning the event with our positive attitudes of continuous
improvement. Her seventh daughter, Dawn Magdalena was burned at
the stake as a Witch, and after that all the land for seven miles
in each direction was barren for seven years. Nobody is really
sure whether that was a spell cast by Dawn Bedilia, or the spirit
of Dawn Magdalena wreaking her vengeance. But most of their
contemporaries report that Dawn Bedilia was a kind, generous and
giving person; whereas Dawn Magdalena was a calculating,
ambitious, powerful, and uncompromising cunt.
Dawn Magdalena warrants her own entry in our history. Probably
she would have be been WAWO after her mother, had she not been
burned at the stake. At the age of 5, she declared her name to be
Magdalena, which was not the name her mother gave her; it is the
name of Anaxeldova's mother. We have no explanation for that; it's
anecdotal evidence for reincarnation but impossible to prove. Her
father is believed to have been the Bishop of of the area. When
she was 8, she told her mother that she must leave Ireland and go
to Bulgaria for her training. Well, their family had no known
connections in Bulgaria so instead they sent her to Scotland to
study under Dawn Morag.
Dawn Morag was an ascetic and uncompromising perfectionist, who
taught Dawn Magdalena to be precise, calculating and unforgiving.
These characteristics led to Dawn Magdalena being judged as an
"uncompromising cunt." But during her life she embraced this term
and used it as a source of her power.
On the day of the wedding Dawn Magdalena wasn't there (though
reportedly various parties were dispatched to collect her and
compel her attendance). And then a sudden and random thunderstorm
happened, and lightning struck and killed the local parish priest
who was carrying the Parish Bible. Well, such an affront on the
Parish Bible cannot be forgiven, and so Dawn Magdalena was
declared a Witch.
Her exceptional healing powers, honesty, incredible intelligence,
and deep insight, spread her reputation far and wide and she came
to the attention of the local nobleman. He claimed to be in love
with her and wanted to marry her, even though he was already
married (of course). She knew that really he just wanted to take
advantage of her, but since her mother was a prostitute, Dawn
Magdalena knew a thing or two about that subject. So she agreed,
in return for a small parcel of land as payment. The nobleman
thought he was smarter than her and could trick her out of it
later so he agreed. But he was nowhere near as smart as she was,
and also she could read and write whereas he could not. So he
agreed to pay her a parcel of land that was a rocky hillside
bordered by a small stream. And when she wrote up the agreement,
she specified that the boundary would be the centerline of the
main channel of the stream. Well the stream had an oxbow just as
it approached her land. So when she took ownership, she arranged
rocks along the bank of the stream and gradually redirected the
channel further out. Then when the spring flood came, the stream
cut through the narrow neck of the peninsula leaving several acres
of beautiful bottom land on her side of the main channel.
Well the nobleman was mad about that, but he was even madder that
she always got better crops and higher yields from her land than
any of his serfs did. But that was because neither he nor his
overseer knew anything about agriculture and just kept doing
things the same way it had been done for centuries. It was just a
matter of time before word got around, and everyone figured out
that she was the Witch who was responsible for the death of that
parish priest. So at the age of 31 she was burned at the stake.
The sixth WAWO was Dawn Toexhiaya who was Ecuadoran. She gave us
the tradition of jumping into a volcano at the end of life. And
she introduced many of the native american traditions to us. We
know nothing about her original religious traditions because all
records of those were destroyed by the Conquistadors when they
raped and pillaged the native peoples of the western continents.
She became a Root Girl under the guidance of Dawn Xoachitala, who
rescued her from a mission where the local priests had decided to
make her their sex slave. Dawn Xoachitala heard of her plight, and
burned down the mission
At the time of this writing (-89,473) there is not a WAWO
currently installed.