Author: A Solitary Pagan
Granny Magick 1
The Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition of Witchcraft is one that is only recently being heard of. Though the tradition is a very old one, dating all the way back to the first settlers of the magical Appalachian Mountains who came over from Scotland and Ireland in the 1700’s. They brought along their even older Irish and Scottish Magical Traditions with them. Those two ‘old world’ Traditions were t...
Granny Magick 2
The Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition, like many of the older ones, was passed on from parents to their children for many generations, and generally was not ‘taught’ outside of the individual family structures. Because of the rural and secluded nature of the Appalachian community, the old customs, wisdom, and practices were not as often lost, forgotten, or ‘modernized’ as the ‘old world’ traditio...
Granny Magick 3
The “Witch Doctors” were still called upon to heal a sick child, or deliver a baby, or tend to the dying, as Witches had been so charged with doing in Europe during ancient times. Since often a mountain community had no medical doctor to call upon, the local Witches continued to work as the only healers, well up until the early twentieth century. The local ‘Witch’ was also called upon to dowse for...
Granny Magick 4
The spirits of the dead are often worked with as well, a lot of ancestral spirit guide workings are passed down through our Tradition, those practices trace back to not only Scotland and Ireland, but the Tsalagi Nation as well. ‘ Haints’ are widely feared as ‘angry’ ancestral spirits, and many spells, charms, and rituals are practiced to keep these troublemakers at bay. One of the most interesting...
Forgetting Humans. The Secret Granary and the Cup That Must Be Broken Part 1
For all of the people out there who are looking to spiritual systems, whether exoteric or esoteric, or who look to sorcerous systems and metaphysical pursuits to make themselves into better people, find peace, increase their overall well-being, to them I say “keep looking and good luck.” Exoteric religions alone among those various interests may give someone the impetus or inspiration they need to...
Forgetting Humans. The Secret Granary and the Cup That Must Be Broken Part 2
In reality, the body isn’t a trap, isn’t a fetter, but until you learn to use your white body, your wind-body, the witch’s flying fetch, your thinking is centered in a very material-seeming sense to a world with a few simple rules- rules that don’t include “tying” gasses or clutching at sounds. In that limited way of seeing, the body seems like a big weight holding you down, and limiting you to sp...
Forgetting Humans. The Secret Granary and the Cup That Must Be Broken Part 3
You have to pay attention to their occurrences- they flow here and there, mostly unpredictable, but sometimes not- and leap into their weird flowing. You have to be ready to have faith- some sorcerous occurrences are signaled by subtle events that lead up to them, and you have to take a chance at them. You have to learn to recognize, to be very aware, very awake, very attentive, with all your sens...
Gardner, Gerald B(rousseau) (1884–1964) Part 1
Gerald Gardner (1884–1964) English Witch and founder of contemporary Witchcraft as a religion. Hereditary Witches and practitioners of family tradition witchcraft object to Gardner being credited as the “founder” of the religion of Witchcraft, pointing out that family traditions have existed for centuries. Nonetheless, there is no evidence that the organized religion of Witchcraft and not simply t...
Gardner, Gerald B(rousseau) (1884–1964) Part 2
The Gardners resided in the New Forest area, where Gardner became active with the Fellowship of Crotona, an occult group linked to Co-Masons, a Masonic order founded by Mrs. Besant Scott, daughter of Theosophist Annie Besant. This group had established “The First Rosicrucian Theater in England,” which showcased plays with occult themes. One member revealed to Gardner that they had shared a past li...
Gerald Brousseau Gardner, (1884–1964) Part 3
Crowley appointed Gardner as an honorary member of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a Tantric sex magic order once led by Crowley, and gave Gardner permission to run an OTO lodge. Gardner had to keep his Witchcraft activities discreet because it was still illegal in England. He camouflaged his book of shadows within a novel, High Magic’s Aid, which he published in 1949 under the pen name Scire. The...
Gardner, Gerald B(rousseau) (1884–1964) Part 4
In 1960, he was honored with an invitation to a garden party at Buckingham Palace, recognizing his exceptional civil service in the Far East. That same year, his wife, who had never been involved in the Craft, passed away, and he began to struggle with asthma once more. In 1963, just before his winter trip to Lebanon, he encountered Raymond Buckland, an Englishman who had relocated to America and ...
What is Death Witchcraft: Is death witchcraft religious?
Yes and no. Considering how much work death witches do with the spirits of a dead, a general belief in the afterlife is necessary. However, I do know some death witches who engage in past life work as an aspect of their craft instead of working with ghosts. Death witchcraft has the flexibility of neatly fitting into most religious beliefs. Is death witchcraft a “dark” path?: If you mea...