Can You Hear Your Calling?

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

Am I a Witch? Well this is a very tricky and difficult question. What defines a ‘natural witch’ from a ‘self-taught witch’ or a believer of magic? To answer all this we have to go way back and define the essence of the Witches.

Lore and the Arcane Truth
There are so many things surrounding the lore, the reality and the legends regarding Witches. Sometimes information is deliberately insufficient only because witches have always tried to scare the naive, from messing with their stuff. Only the wise, the brave and the righteous ones were allowed to learn the Craft. Why because with Great Power comes great responsibility!

What is a Witch?
Let’s be clear. When we talk about Witches we are using a genderless term. Witches can be both males and females. Historically, this term has been used to identify the person who uses the Arcane Arts. Moreover, it has been used to falsely accuse women for ‘devil worshipping’ or ‘followers of the pagan gods’.

Am I a Witch?
So… Let’s see the most important traits.

1. Have You heard the ‘Calling’ ?
This is probably the most important of all the Signs. Once you’ve heard it, it’s impossible to un-hear it. Although you can always turn your back at your true nature and stick with the material Realm, you will always know who you are and who you are meant to be.

The ‘Calling’ is a revelation, a moment of extreme spiritual clarity when you somehow realise your are a Witch and get a glimpse of your true Magical Nature. This usually happens by accident, during times of intense anxiety, desperate need for help, sadness or troubles. However, the Calling may be heard in a very young age or when the ‘time is right’. Sometimes it’s a vision, a sure feeling that you are magical, or a dream or someone who enters your life unexpectedly revealing to you the truth. Other times, it’s an actual magical experience, when supernatural phenomena occur, or even an interaction with spirits of nature or ghosts or maybe deities.

2. Do you feel Connected with Nature?
The relationship between you and Nature can easily tell how magical you are. Although there are other sources of Magic, Nature is the most common one. So let’s see if you are familiar with these traits, commonly attributed to ‘Natural Born Witches’ :

You feel the Energy Shift inside you as the Seasons change.
Moon Cycle affects you.
Also, you feel connected to the Woods, the herbs and the trees.
Natural phenomena like strong winds, rain, thunderstorms charge you and raise your energy and awareness.
There is something about you that wants to be around animals all the time.
Likewise, animals are attracted to you.
Since you remember yourself, you loved crystals!

3. Do you have Dreams, Memories or Visions of being a Witch?

Well, this may explain a lot. Unfortunately, many Witches suffer from the suppression of their Witchiness due to the ‘demonisation’ of the term. As we’ve all know, a Witch can be a synonym of an evil and envious person who uses his/her power to manipulate and abuse others.

However, most Witches are actually Empaths who suffer a lot when others hurt. Therefore they suppress their magical nature, denying it strongly for months, years or even their whole lives. However, there are times, when they are relaxed, or asleep, when vision and images of Witchcraft and spellcasting pop up to their minds.

This can also be memories from their early childhood, when you were ‘practicing’ your magic with an innocent mind and heart, before the essence of magic gets corrupted by the ‘system’.

4. Do you Think ‘out of the box’?
Do you despise those who censor your Thoughts? Witches are untamed creatures who love Wisdom and dare to reach for it. If you continuously find yourself doubting ‘the truth’ or the ‘religious teachings’ while you realise there is some truth in them, then this is a Witchy Traits. Witches don’t hate religion, as they believe in the existence of Higher entities. Yet they do like to think for themselves.

One of the great saying of Witchcraft is ‘to dare, to do and to keep silent’. The first two part of this saying mirrors the essence of a true, untamed, uncensored witch! One whose spirit is stronger than shallow teaching and hypocrisy.

5. Do you feel your Thoughts, your Emotions and your Words have power?
Most Witches know deep inside that their emotions and what they say actually shape reality. It’s funny as the first time they realise it is when they lie about something, and then suddenly it becomes true. For example, have you lied to your boss of being sick just to get a day-off, and after a while you indeed raise fever or something?

Witches influence and alter reality as they speak or they feel. And this exactly what defines them from all others. Thy might don’t even believe they have this ability but they discover it as they grow older. Of course, it needs practicing in order to learn how to focus this energy and not get drained.

6. Do you Collect Unusual Items?
One of the most ‘weird’ traits of witches is that they’ve always collected things that others think as trash. For example, seashore pebbles, or feathers or shells washed out from the ocean. Witches somehow sense the energy that surrounds these items and instinctively pick them up. Therefore, in most houses of Witches, you can see collections of these Weird items, which are usually considered absurd or useless by their visitors.

7. Do you frequently Observe Synchronicities?
As i’ve talked before about synchronicities, this is a very clear sign that something magical or spiritual is at work. It’s the language of the Universe. How the Spiritworld affects our Realm. You see repeating numbers, or maybe you repeatedly see animals who act as spiritual messengers. The list is endless. However, in most cases these patterns are acknowledgeable solely from the Witch as the message usually intends to have one receptor.

Defining the Untamed nature.
Although we’ve seen some of the most common traits of Witches, there are many different kinds of witches and there are definitely many different traits. However, Being a Witch is most commonly something we strongly believe and follow. Because it’s not the ‘omens’ that make us witches. It’s our Fiery Passion for Magic!

The Witches

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

I am not silly enough to suppose that everyone, or even a majority among Witches, will agree with everything I will be saying here. However, I have been thinking about this question for quite a while, and I think that some systematic consideration of the issues involved can provide some clarity.

The vast majority of Pagans in America are those who call themselves Witches. But what exactly does “Witch” mean? As linguists know, the etymology of a word often has very little to do with how the word is actually used. Instead, one must consider what people might mean when they use the word.

First, many people do still use “witch” to mean “someone who worships the Devil and/or evil and who engages in gratuitous malevolence.” Present-day Witches generally feel that such a definition of “witch” results merely from Christian politics and propaganda. True, there are now “Satanic” churches, the most prominent having been Anton LeVay’s Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, and its members do call themselves “witches,” which certainly confuses outsiders. However, as J. Gordon Melton has pointed out, the members of these churches are actually atheistic, hedonistic, and egoistic in their ethics. Pagan Witches regard Satanist witches as Christian heretics and not Pagan at all. Setting all that aside, we can look at the more positive usages of the term.

First, “witch” is often used to mean “someone who practices some form of magic.” But “folk magic” is ubiquitous, and those who practice it usually consider themselves to be devout members of the faith community around them, just with a special gift. They very rarely seem to think that their magical practice constitutes a unique religion. Nevertheless, there are quite a few such “magical witches,” and they logically must be considered part of the Craft movement.

Second, “witch” is often used to mean “someone who has and uses unusual psychic talents.” It can thus be applied to Spiritualist mediums, to clairvoyant readers, to diviners, and so on. Again, such people almost always consider them to be members of the surrounding faith community, just with a special talent, and likewise do not regard that talent as constituting a different religion.

Third, “witch” is now (and only recently) used to mean “someone who honors or worships the Old Gods” of whatever pantheon, though “Pagan” is also used with this meaning. Here the self-concept is that one is pursuing a religious path different from that of the surrounding community, but such pursuit does not necessarily involve any use of magic or psychic talents.

It is only within the Pagan movement as inspired by Gardnerian Witchcraft that these three different meanings have been bundled together into the current concept of the Pagan Witch as practicing a unique and magical religion.

At first, before the rise of the festival movement in America about 1980, a fourth meaning of “Witch” was included in this bundle: “someone who has been initiated as a member of an organized group (yes, a coven) that practices Witchcraft as a Pagan religion or as an apprentice of a master teacher of witchcraft.” Once the festivals had evolved to provide people with a way to celebrate the Wheel of the Year, and once enough “how to” books had been published to give people all the information they needed to practice the Craft as a solitary or only within their own families, joining a coven was no longer the only way to follow Wicca or a more generic form of Witchcraft as a spiritual path.

There had been some solitaries even in the 1960s and 1970s, but as a result of the festivals, around 1980 the movement divided into two categories, one being a laity, who now constitute at least 90 percent of all Witches in America, the other being those who have been initiated into and practice the Craft within a coven or equivalent group. However, a First-Degree initiate of a coven is not regarded as having any special authority or expertise, given that anyone can learn from the published books about 99 percent of what that initiate would know. Instead, there is another level of meaning.

The fifth possible meaning of “Witch” is “someone who has attained the highest level of training, ordination, and empowerment in a coven or equivalent group.” This level is generally known as the Third Degree, and those who have earned that degree collectively constitute something like an ordained clergy. Of course, this “clergy” has no way to give orders to or insist on orthodoxy or orthopraxis by the laity. Instead, the recognized leaders in the Craft and the overall Pagan movement are like the coordinators of any voluntary association. They lead by example, by persuasion, and by rewarding the efforts of the members. Hence there is some ambiguity: the terms “Witch” or “Wiccan” can refer to a lay or an initiated or an “ordained” practitioner of the Craft, and the only way to find out which meaning is intended is to ask for clarification.

It is widely (though not universally) believed in the Craft that the three-degree system was adopted by Gardner as part of his revival or reform or founding of Wicca as a modern religion. The three degrees clearly come from Masonry, as do the term “the Craft” and many details of Gardner’s initiation rituals. All the available information indicates that only one initiation was given in pre-Gardnerian witchcraft, followed by a long, usually lifelong, process of learning. One came to be considered an “Elder” or a “Magister” or a “High Priestess” when one had learned enough.

There are some widely known guidelines for how an initiate should be trained in a coven, although they are often embellished, mutated, or simply ignored, and they largely follow the pattern of higher education in European countries. The first step these days is Dedication, roughly equivalent to matriculation, that begins the traditional “year and a day” of training in the beliefs, practices, customs, etc., of that particular coven. If successful, the candidate then receives the First-Degree Initiation at the end of that year, thus becoming an actual member of the coven, a Priest or Priestess, and in that sense a Witch; this is rather like receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

This first initiation then begins a second year of training, now in the more secret or private practices of the coven. At its end, the Second-Degree Initiation is rather like receiving the degree of Master of Arts. As in the medieval universities, this degree empowers one to begin teaching, and in British practice, it is considered the full ordination.

In American practice, the second initiation begins a third year of training, in even more secret and private knowledge and practices. The secrecy is not just mummery. Many Craft Elders believe that the knowledge gained in this third year could possibly be harmful to persons who lack the training needed to use it prudently. I personally believe such caution is salutary, because I do know that there are some things (not very many, but some) known by most Third-Degree Witches that have never been and, one may hope, never will be published.

Having attained this Sublime Degree, one is now entitled to be known as a High Priest or High Priestess; it is somewhat equivalent to receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Being a very intellectual religion, the Craft often attracts candidates who already have a conventional Bachelor’s degree, and in getting through the three years of rigorous curriculum used by many covens, the candidate often learns far more than some people do in a Master of Divinity program in many mainstream seminaries. During the last few decades, more and more Third-Degree Priests and Priestesses have gone back to school to earn advanced degrees, in order to become pastors of Pagan churches, chaplains in the military, college professors, and internationally recognized scholars.

However, there is more to the Craft than just being a newly respectable religion for middle-class intellectuals. Tell me, you initiates, did you come to the Craft in order to supposedly work magic by reading a script? In order to take a politically correct attitude toward ecology and the environment? Or were you lured in by the Goddess, by the archetype of Aradia as the rebel against corruption and oppression? Or did you find the Craft because you were sick of being lied to by the established churches? If your primary allegiance is to searching out truth, as mine is, then you are a sixth type of Witch, for which there is not yet an established term.

That’s enough for today. I will expand on this concept of the Sixth Witch in days to come.


How to Learn Witchcraft

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

The most important tool in Witchcraft is not the athame or the wand, it’s not the cauldron or the herbs, it’s not even the book or the spell—the most important tool in Witchcraft is the mind.

There are many definitions of Witchcraft, but the one I like most is that it’s a spiritual art rooted firmly in psychology and nature. It involves psychology, because it requires you to have control over the mind—the ability to focus, to enter different states of consciousness, to visualize, to create essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy through positive, deliberate brainwashing (for belief not only that you will achieve your goal, but have on some level, is essential). To utilize nature—which includes learning about and working with things such as herbs, roots, crystals, etc.— requires knowledge. To work with energy—that is to learn how to raise natural energies and direct them toward achieving one’s goal— requires knowledge, skill and developed mental discipline in psychic arts.

It is because of this that a student of The Craft should not begin by seeking spells or by gathering tools. In fact, once you’ve studied you’ll know how to construct your own custom-designed spells. With proper study, anything you have on hand can become a potential tool—and if there’s nothing on hand you can work without them. A student of The Craft should dive into two main activities: studying, and training the mind. This article deals with the latter.

Becoming a Witch
Witchcraft is something you develop from within.
Mindful Meditation
Training the mind all begins with starting a meditation regime. The more consistently you keep up with the routine, the more you will benefit from it. If you’re completely new to meditation, it can begin with just 5 minutes per day of focusing on your breath and putting your awareness in the moment. This is the traditional form of meditation, known as mindfulness. You don’t need to force yourself to clear your mind; you don’t need to think about anything—you simply let yourself be firmly rooted in the moment and let thoughts just drift by, as if you’re a tree at the edge of a flowing river. Acknowledge the thoughts as they go past, just don’t let them carry you away.

You can begin to expand the amount of time spent in meditation little by little over the first few weeks until you can do it for up to 30 minutes.

Creative Visualization
Once you’ve learned to meditate mindfully, you can move on to visualization. For some people, it’s hard to get a mental picture of something, but visualization doesn’t have to be actually visual. If you prefer, you can focus on an emotion, a physical sensation, a sound, a scent or whatever works for you. The key to visualization in magic is being able to experience the expected results of your spell in some way in your mind– to take your mind to that place in which you have your goal.

For example, if your spell is for financial prosperity, you can visualize an actual image of money in your wallet, or just see the color green (or gold, or whatever you associate with wealth). If you are more of an empath than visual, you might conjure up and hold onto the emotion you would feel if you had the money you needed (joy? Relief?). If you are more auditory than visual, you might imagine the sound of your voice counting your money, or paying your bills. If you’re more of a kinesthetic (tactile) person, you can try to hold on to the memory of what money feels like in your hands—or perhaps the feel of something you associate with riches, such as how satin sheets feel on your skin or how lobster and champagne taste on the tongue. Perhaps your strongest sense is olfactory, and the smell evokes the most powerful sensory experience: the scent of money, or the finest perfume you’ve ever whiffed, or perhaps something earthy like patchouli indicates prosperity to you.

Start working on holding on to your visualization (which ever sensory experience you choose to use) for a little more time in each meditation until you can work your way up to 20 or 30 minutes.

Raising Vibrations
One of the most difficult steps in mental training for Witchcraft is to hone your psychic awareness. Namely, you need to reach a point at which you are able to sense energy so that you can begin manipulating it and directing it. Being able to achieve a meditative state will help you raise your vibrations so you’re able to do this.

Another major factor in raising your vibrations is to keep your thoughts positive. Believe it or not, negative thoughts are like an anchor that just drag you down to a lower vibrational frequency. The more you allow yourself to fall into negative thinking patterns, the lower your frequency goes. Hating the world, hating yourself, telling yourself you can’t do it, complaining about everyone, blaming problems on everything, being argumentative, judgmental, fighting with people—this all lowers your vibrations to a point at which it will be difficult to sense energy, let alone control it.

This is where the mindfulness comes back into play, and recent studies confirm this. Being mindful and living in the moment is when we are at our most content. It’s a way to find a center of inner peace.

If you find you have a bad attitude in general, try being mindful during your waking hours, or use positive affirmations while you meditate. This is a way to essentially ‘brainwash’ yourself into having a better attitude, so that you can raise your own vibrational frequency.

Once your vibrational frequency is raised, you’ll find you’re able to better open your chakras, your ability to sense energy will dramatically improve and thus you’ll be ready for the next big step: learning to work with energy (for this is what the entire spell is designed to accomplish: raising, manipulating and directing energy toward the goal).

Before you get any book of spells, before you buy any candles or try any ritual magic, start at the beginning. Strengthen and hone that tool that’s going to make the difference between success and failure every time: the mind. These are the first steps on the road to practicing Witchcraft.


The Witchcraft tradition

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

The Witchcraft tradition was explored in essence by the practitioners of Yatuk Dinoih, or Persian Witchcraft of which emerged from the sorcerous shadow-god Ahriman, the darkness which would create flesh. Ahriman is a pitch-black representative of the hidden and the secret, from which the profane should not see. Ahriman and its female counterpart, AZ, are the early fountainheads of the Gnosis of the Sabbat or Al-Zabbat, the freedom from the trappings of flesh and the awakening of the Nightside Consciousness. This is the Primal Gnosis of Sorcery itself, which is the dark well of the elixir of the Adept, the one who drinks of the dual ecstasies of the Sun and the Moon.

The Arcanum of the Luciferian Path is a resounding voice of the King and Queen of Witchblood, being Samael and Lilith. The key to the gnosis of the fallen angels is within their very essence, being of the Sun and the Moon. The sorcerer may seek the sexual union of both within his or her self, allowing the pleasure of the waking and waning Moon to be brought forth through the Sun, which is the gateway for demons and angels in copulation. If one seeks not the sexual genii, the antinomianian path is brought forth by a solitary and capable mind, which is beheld by the Sethian Psyche, or Kingdom of Shadows.

Luciferian Witchcraft

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Luciferian Witchcraft is the very result of sorcery which emerged in ancient cultures and times. The Luciferic linage is traced back to the Fallen Angels of ancient lore, whom tasted from the shadow garden and the pleasures of both the spirit and flesh. That the Watchers and fallen ones, led by Azazel – Lucifer, called later Iblis, understood the immortality of the psyche is between the path of the not-seen, the shadow and darkness which cultivates the Black Flame itself.

The roots of Traditional Witchcraft

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

That the roots of Traditional Witchcraft as they have emerged passes beyond western culture as a cornerstone of middle-eastern origins, while reemerging in Europe to America as time moved forward. What should be understood as a universal approach to Witchcraft, shall the answer lie between the shadow and light, the essence between. The path of the Wise is existent between what is seen and not seen, the very connection a clue to what the potential of the individual can be.

Necromancy

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

Necromancy is believed by some to be the darkest of all the black arts, where witches and alike are able to communicate with the recently departed or by summoning spirits and even resurrecting the dead for evil purposes, but necromancy isn’t as dark as you may think, it is also a form of divination where the diviner will ask the dead questions to obtain information for a loved one, to for tell future events or even discover hidden knowledge from the other side. This is no different from reading the Tarot cards, conducting a séances or using a Ouija board. Like everything in life, it is the way that you use the information received to be perceived as either good or evil.

The 4 Stages of Witchcraft

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

Stage 1 Wicca and the like, all white and fluffy doing nothing but good learning the rules and basic spells, cat naming etc.

Stage 2 Grey Witchcraft, after many years of study you have now found yourself hitting a brick wall and want to learn more but don’t know where to go, so you cross the white line into the grey.

Stage 3 The Dark Side, crossing the line into the grey has opened your eyes, you now realise that there is so much more to learn and now you want to learn the black arts.

Stage 4 True Witchcraft, having practiced both white and black magic you now truly understand balance and see the craft in its entirety, you also see the natural world as nature intended.

Covens

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

A coven is typically a group or circle of witches regardless of gender, so a coven can be mixture of both men and women alike. Just in case you don’t know a male with is still a witch and not a warlock, a warlock is a witch that has fallen out of there coven know as an oath breaker.

There is no correct number of people to make up a coven you may have as many or as few as you like, although some wiccan witches like to have 13 in theirs.

The idea of a coven is to share your knowledge and gain experience with likeminded people or to generate sufficient energy or power for a particular spell or incantation.

There are however many thousands of witches who prefer to be a solitary practitioner so there is no hard and fast rule to join a coven to practice the craft.

Shadow Creatures

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

There is a silent darkness that is attached to witchcraft and a subject that is very seldom talked about within the witchcraft community, seen by few and dismissed my many, known commonly as shadow creatures.

These dark lifeless figures are often seen within the shadows, usually in an open door way or corridor just watching you while you sleep. You may also know them as either watchers or guardians.

It has been said that within the pages of the Opera Omnia written in 1599-1668 is a text that talks about these shadows creatures in one of its eight volumes and that these shadows creatures protect certain witches and that all demons fear these shadows creatures and their power. When a witch is protected by a shadow creature that witch cannot be attacked by demons or other evil supernatural entities. This is said to be true for the living world as well as for the afterlife. As a result, shadows creatures exist in the area between light and darkness – between good and evil just like a True witch.

Medieval texts speak of another entity of neutrality which is neither good nor evil, known by the name of Il Separatio it is not a classed as a shadow creature and this entity actually has no direct connection to the shadows they are however normally seen at the corner of the eye, pass by quickly, and then disappear.

Demon Witchcraft

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

Rarely heard of, never spoken about and practiced only by witch who has nothing to lose or live for. It is said to be the most deadly of all the dark crafts.

Rituals & spells like Evocation, summoning, possession, life sacrifice and self harm are favoured by this witch and there only goal or purpose in life is to be possessed by a Demon in the hope to become a Demon. A word of warning to my fellow witches, no matter how low or depressed you think you are, do not go down this path. The few attempts that I have heard of through the grape vine, of all them ended in a Psychiatric hospital.

Advice from a Witches Coven Mystress

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

In honor of Woman Day: i give you advice from a Witches Coven Mystress :

De Lady Marie Ro: Fathers and Mothers are equals in the seeds of nature, one gives birth the other maintains its direction, it is easy to find faults in each others company, but know nature prizes life and falls ill at the idea of new death, what can one say about growth but the hope and love that is shared and given from one world and the next, but when this freedom to be the giver and taker is removed without the process of transformation, then the illness that wells in the sour hearts of those who live goes quiet in the night and creates fear and loathing and hatred…… and as the keys to both the rewards and pains we can blame not anyone but ourselves and the futures these seeds and fruit will suffer within……… so i ask those of magical heart to know that the future was born without the denial of……and not in the control of….. and the future is born not in the womb but in the invisible gateway of time and freedoms.. who are ye who would deny that which the universe freely gives… thee will never be their maker.. but their loss……..

Witchcraft Old School

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

Old school, what is that.. well its a schooling that exist longer then any other schools now defunked, it is a school of thought, learning that has accepted the natures and rules of its awareness and make up that have allowed it to continue as the only if ever deemed education still available… so is it just idle thought and backward notions, If it was then why have those who claimed to be its equal have closed their doors and schooling…. if they have or had all the education and answers then why are they no more?

and Yet we are still here.. and the same without changes to anything that was addressed as Reality?

Old school to me is , studying the ways that last and promote the freedom of its messages and skills to do the same. even in times where its more safe to just vanish…

Reality unlike fantasy will never fully be outdone, by those who want to create what they will never master…

What is a Chaos Witch? Exploring the Practice and Beliefs of Chaos Magick

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

A Chaos Witch is a practitioner of witchcraft who embraces chaos magic as their main practice. Chaos magic is a form of magic that emerged in the 20th century and is characterised by its emphasis on personal experimentation and individualism. It is a practice that encourages practitioners to create their own rituals and spells, and to draw from a variety of magical traditions and belief systems.

Unlike other forms of witchcraft that follow a set of rules and traditions, Chaos Witchcraft is more fluid and flexible. Practitioners of this craft believe that magic is a force that can be harnessed and directed towards any purpose, as long as the practitioner has the will and intention to do so. This means that Chaos Witches can draw from a variety of sources, including other magical traditions, pop culture, and personal experience, to create their own unique spells and rituals.

What is a Chaos Witch?

Chaos witches are practitioners of chaos magic, a form of magic that emphasizes the use of personal belief and willpower to create change in the world. Unlike other forms of magic, which rely on specific rituals and traditions, chaos magic is highly individualized and adaptable, allowing practitioners to create their own unique rituals and spells.

Origins of Chaos Magic

Chaos magic emerged in the late 20th century as a response to traditional forms of magic, which were seen as too rigid and dogmatic. The principles of chaos magic were first outlined in the book “Liber Null and Psychonaut” by Peter J. Carroll, which was published in 1978.

The central idea behind chaos magic is that belief is a tool that can be used to shape reality. Chaos witches believe that by manipulating their own beliefs and desires, they can influence the world around them. This makes chaos magic highly adaptable, as practitioners can draw from a wide range of sources and traditions to create their own unique spells.

The Principles of Chaos Magic

There are several core principles of chaos magic that are shared by most practitioners. These include:

Belief is a tool: Chaos witches believe that belief is a tool that can be used to shape reality. By manipulating their own beliefs, they can influence the world around them.

Personal experience is key: Chaos witches rely on their own personal experiences and intuition to guide their practice. They do not rely on external authorities or traditions.

Magic is subjective: Chaos witches believe that magic is subjective and that there is no one “right” way to practice it. Each practitioner must find their own path.

Results are what matter: Chaos witches are focused on results. They believe that the effectiveness of a spell is determined by its ability to achieve the desired outcome.

The Role of Chaos Witches in Modern Society

Chaos witches play an important role in modern society as agents of change. They are often at the forefront of social and political movements, using their magic to promote positive change in the world.

Chaos witches also provide a sense of community and support for those who feel marginalized or oppressed. They offer a space where individuals can explore their own beliefs and desires without fear of judgement or persecution.

Overall, chaos witches are an important part of the modern magical landscape. Their emphasis on personal belief and adaptability make them a powerful force for change and transformation.

Leek, Sybil (1923–1983)

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

English witch and astrologer who moved to America in the 1960s and gained fame by publicizing the renaissance of witchcraft in the Western world.

Her trademarks were a cape, loose gowns and a jackdaw named Mr. Hotfoot Jackson who perched on her shoulder.

She always wore a crystal necklace, passed on to her, she said, by her psychic Russian grandmother.

Leek claimed to be a hereditary witch and also to have been trained by Aleister Crowley. Probably much of her witch biography was embellished, intended to create publicity.

Leek was born in the Midlands in England.

Her family, she said, came from a long line of hereditary witches that could trace its roots in the Old Religion to 1134 in southern Ireland on her mother’s side and to occultists close to the royalty of czarist Russia on her father’s side.

Leek’s mother sported red-gold hair, a color said to be common among witches.

Psychic ability ran in all members of her family.

Her most famous ancestor, she said, was an English witch named Molly Leigh, who died in 1663.

According to Leek, Leigh was buried at the very edge of the local church graveyard. Some time afterward, the vicar and others went to open Leigh’s cottage and were shocked to see Leigh, or her apparition, sitting in a chair with her jackdaw perched on her shoulder.

The vicar and his company allegedly reopened her grave, drove a stake through her heart, threw the living jackdaw into the coffin and reburied it.

Leek, who claimed an IQ of 164, said she was taught at home by her grandmother until local officials required her to be enrolled in school at age 12.

She stayed four years and left at 16.

Leek was nine years old when she met Crowley, supposedly a frequent visitor to the household. She said Crowley would take her out climbing in the rocks and recited his poetry, which encouraged her to write her own poetry.

He also gave Leek instruction in the importance of words of power and the power of sound. According to Leek, Crowley announced to her grandmother that little Leek would someday pick up where Crowley would leave off in occultism.

The last time she saw him was in 1947, shortly before his death.

However, Crowley left no records indicating that he was acquainted with Leek or her family.

When Leek was 15, she met a well-known pianist-conductor who was 24 years her senior and fell in love.

They were married shortly after her 16th birthday and traveled about England and Europe. He died when she was 18. Leek returned home.

Leek said she was initiated into the Craft in southern France, in George du Loup in the hills above Nice, an area that was populated by Cathars in the Middle Ages.

According to Leek, her initiation was to replace an elderly Russian aunt, who had been high priestess of a coven and had died.

Returning again to England, Leek went to live in Burley, a village in the heart of the New Forest.

She lived among Gypsies and joined the Horsa coven which claimed to have existed for 700 years.

She eventually became its high priestess. She successfully ran three antique shops. At some point, she married a man named Brian and had two sons, Stephen and Julian, who inherited the family’s psychic gifts.

In the 1950s, she experienced a mystical vision one spring day while walking alone in the New Forest.

She became enveloped in a bright blue light that instilled in her a great sense of peace and the realization that her purpose in life was as an evangelist for the Old Religion.

It was not until 1962 that she began to promote herself as a hereditary witch and coven leader, and by 1963 the press was giving her attention.

The death of Gerald B. Gardner in February 1964 created a vacuum for witch personalities—Gardner was a lover of the media limelight—and Leek stepped in.

She announced the founding of the Witchcraft Research Association (WRA) with herself as president.

She also received a lot of media attention in 1964, when she challenged the academic Rossell Hope Robbins, who had written an encyclopedia on witchcraft and was lecturing against Margaret Murray and her assertions that witchcraft was an ancient religion passed down through generations.

Leek attended at least one lecture by Robbins and verbally sparred with him, with her jackdaw giving hoots as well.

The media lapped it up and dubbed Leek “Britain’s Number One Witch.” The publicity brought tourists and more media to her village.

Business at her antique shop declined in the wake of autograph seekers, and her landlord refused to renew her lease unless she publicly denounced witchcraft.

She refused, closed up the shop and left the New Forest.

Leek’s career as a witch in Britain came to an end in 1964.

In 1963–64, churches in Britain were victims of ritualized vandalism, including a Sussex church not far from Leek’s home.

She claimed that the symbols that defaced the church were directed at her and that the attack had been led by a black magician whom she had healed of illness.

Despite her condemnation of the vandalism, the link she made between herself as a witch and black magic cost her supporters.

In July 1964 she was forced to resign from the WRA. She moved to the United States.

Leek lived first in New York, but found it a depressing city, and particularly gloomy during the winter.

She moved to Los Angeles, where she became acquainted with Crowley’s onetime secretary Israel Regardie.

In her later years, she divided her time between Houston and Florida.

She worked as an astrologer, becoming editor and publisher of her own astrological journal.

In 1968, her first book, Diary of a Witch, was published.

The book described what it was like to be a “modern woman” practising witchcraft, and it unleashed an enormous public response.

Leek made frequent appearances on the media circuit. She met with mixed success, as some of her interviewers expected her to reinforce the stereotypes of witches as evil hags.

One of her greatest trials, she said, was learning patience and tolerance in dealing with such situations.

In all, Leek wrote more than 60 books, plus an internationally syndicated column.

She liked to say that she never “preached” witchcraft, but sought only to explain the holistic philosophy of the religion and how it differed from satanism.

She did not approve of nudity in rituals or of drugs.

She believed in cursing, which set her apart from many witches.

Leek wrote and spoke a great deal about reincarnation, guided, she said, by the spirit of Madame Helena P. Blavatsky, cofounder of the Theosophical Society.

One night as she stood at a lectern to give a talk on psychic phenomena to an audience of the Theosophical Society in St. Louis, Leek was overcome with a shining light, in which she could see the face of an elderly woman.

The light seemed to penetrate into Leek. She began her talk, but it was not her original speech, but on reincarnation.

She said later she had no awareness of what she was saying.

Afterward, Leek saw a photograph of Blavatsky and recognized her as the woman in her vision.

For the rest of her life, Leek said, she felt that Blavatsky had become part of her, using her as an instrument to finish her own work and educate others on reincarnation.

Leek had a particular fondness for snakes and birds.

The jackdaw accompanied her to all coven meetings until his death in 1969.

Leek had a pet boa constrictor named Miss Sashima.

Leek suffered from illness in her last years and died in Melbourne, Florida, in 1983.

To be a Witch

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

A witch is either a woman or a man who knows that he or she is a witch.

A witch is a natural.

A witch realizes certain powers; represents, rather than worships them; calls them Goddess and God (without it being a fixed, or boxed, ideology) and invokes them; fuses with them emotes and lives them; recognizes them in the vast forces of nature and beyond that (within other frames of reference).

Witches are priestesses or priests, initiates to these powers, and are never laity.

They are secretive in their undertakings and do not proselytize.

There is an admirable shade of gray in most witches.

A witch may be answerable to those powers to which he or she is oathed and to the axiom.

They are things you may want to know about these powers at some time or other, whether the need to use them arises or not.

Two common expressions that may be associated with what constitutes a witch are: “A witch may be born, not made,” and “It takes a witch to make a witch.”
On the other side of the coin, all people have the ability to be a witch.

Witchcraft is in the blood, no matter how many generations it may not have been acknowledged

Self-preservation may very well have been why seven or ten or fifteen or more generations ago your ancestor kept silent about their knowledge and did not pass it down the line.

For during certain periods in time, a witch passing down their knowledge could have been dangerous to the point of deadly.

Like a dormant seed, this knowledge could wait until the season is fertile for it to germinate.

Some witches will be willing to embark on a process of initiation when the magic calls.

They will actively, consciously, and with free will, walk across the line to live in the world

However in order to do this a witch does not need to be initiated.

It may well be your powers are ready when you feel they are ready, not when others say so

Witches work sacred rituals to Earth and Moon and Sun and Star as a means of removing the barriers of separateness that are at times the current blindness of our species.

As a way of keeping the powers strong within our pattern as a people of the Earth, the pattern is of the cycles of the seasons of Earth and Moon and Sun and Star.

Some may feel they have a  responsibility to develop our deeper talents of psychic capacity and the ability to cast enchantments; to study and come to know and understand the ways of the sacred of other people

to constantly strive to broaden our capacity to learn in whatever areas life presents to us and in whatever areas we choose;

to treat the whole thing as the art that living most assuredly is, and to perpetuate and project that art as the gifts we can give to life.

Levitation

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

A paranormal phenomenon whereby a body or object is raised up into the air in defiance of gravity.

Levitation has been reported in cases of bewitchment, hauntings and possession; it also is attributed to saints and holy persons. In 1550 in Wertet, Brabant, a group of nuns reportedly levitated into the air, climbed trees like cats, and were pinched by invisible fingers.

A townswoman was tortured into confessing she had bewitched them. In other cases, beds are said to levitate off the floor. In hauntings, witches, poltergeists, and fairies have been blamed for levitating people, animals and objects.

Levitation also has been accomplished by Western psychics and mediums and was a common occurrence— often done fraudulently—at séances in the heydey of Spiritualism.

The best-known levitating medium was Daniel Dunglas Home (1833–86), a Scotsman who was expelled from the Catholic Church on charges of sorcery.

Home was reported to levitate many times over a 40-year-period and to control his flights, which were done in trance.

On one occasion, witnesses said he flew out of one third-story window in a home and returned through another window.

Home was suspected of trickery, but he was never convicted of any fraud.

Sacred Space in Witchcraft

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

Sacred space means different things to different people.

So really, the only way I can get around that is to tell you what it means to me.

Sacred space is an enclosure we create, if you like, an artificial bubble in mundane reality, inside which we create an environment that is conducive to whatever type of ritual work or crafting
work we plan on doing.

Now there are a lot of different methods in different traditions on creating sacred space.

A lot of different names too.

For the average Neopagan Wiccan, circle casting is the term that springs to mind.

But circle casting is not exactly what the traditional Witch or cunning folk or traditional crafter would call the setting up of their sacred
space.

The reason for this is down to good old fashion history, and the fact that Crafters are not likely to use terms that have been borrowed from other places.

You see, circle casting is technically a ceremonial magic technique, and as Wicca borrowed quite a lot of its ritual structure from ceremonial magic, from the Golden Dawn, courtesy of Gerald Gardener and even more so Alex Sanders, who got even more ceremonial than Gerald did.

So the circle casting that you have in most Wiccan covens is very ceremonial oriented.

It uses the classical elements or the Watch Towers as they’re often called.

Even the phrase that is used when drawing the circle, in Gardnerian and Alexandrian circles at least, is taken straight out of the Key of Solomon:

“I conjure thee, o circle of power, that thou be’est a boundary between the world of men and the realms of the mighty ones; a guardian and protection that shall preserve and contain the power that I shall raise within thee.

Wherefore do I bless thee in the names of the Lord and Lady.”

Or words to that effect.

So, it’s very much about creating a barrier, a boundary within which you can work.

And perhaps the most significant difference from the point of view of a crafter between the ceremonial or Wiccan circle and the sacred space created by non-Wiccan methods is that in a Wiccan circle, in a ceremonial circle, the aim is to set up an environment.

And then bring everything you need into that environment.

So you call upon your deities and bring them into the circle with you, drawing down the Moon, drawing down the Sun, invoking, bringing things in.

This is very much the modus operandi of the ceremonial magician.

He stays put and everything comes to him or her.

In traditional crafting, it actually works the other way around.

The space is warded, or set aside if you like.

And then the crafter takes the space and themselves to where ever it is the entities or energies that they want to work with happen to be.

So, there’s a definite difference in feel, if nothing else.

There’s also a difference in names.

Most traditional crafters try to avoid saying “casting circle” unless they really have to, just because they want to emphasize the fact that it’s different from what a Wiccan does.

Names that you might find being used for creating sacred space, warding the space, laying a compass, ploughing the bloody acre, raising the hedgerow, lots of different terms like that, which tend to be very physical-sounding descriptive terms.

And each of them has a particular technique associated with it.

Some are use predominantly by a particular tradition, and some are more generic.

Warding the space is probably the most generic term.

It covers all the techniques for doing this. And it just involves essentially — and there are traditional crafters that are going to hate me saying this — casting a circle by another name.

It is making the space in which you’re standing something special, set aside from the mundane world.

Laying a Compass is a little bit more technical than just warding space, because what you’re aiming to do is to set out the lie of the land, which is a very old fashioned sort of phrase, but it involves basically setting out things that are specific to your tradition and establishing their relationship to each other within the space and  placing yourself in the centre or fulcrum-point, so that you’re able to bring about the changes that you want.

And it takes a little bit of practice. Laying the Compass is not something you can learn from a book.

It’s something you really have to either get a light bulb moment about, or have somebody who is skilled at it work you through it.

Like most traditional crafting techniques, it’s all very experiential.

You have to actually learn it hands on.

So I’m not going to try to explain it in detail here, except basically what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to superimpose your tradition’s map of the universe upon the land upon which you’re working.

Ploughing the bloody acre is more of an outdoor term.

It often involves the traditional image of dragging your left leg or your right leg, usually left leg, as you work your way around the perimeter of the circle space to
establish a boundary marker, if you like.

And the bloody acre is the area that is covered by the river of blood.

It’s a nice technical term, as used in fairy faith as well as several other old crafting traditions, that it’s basically the current of magic or crafting that the practitioner is part of, so you’re talking about immersing yourself in the current, in the tradition itself.

“Ploughing” is working the land quite literally, and making the two one and the same, because all traditions, all currents come out of the land in one form or another, because they’re tied into the Ancestors.

So do we do this indoors or outdoors? Well, as I was taught, if you can’t work your magic stark naked in a concrete bunker, then you can’t work magic period.

So ultimately it doesn’t matter.

But obviously sometimes you’re going to be working indoors and sometimes you’re going to be working outdoors.

Does the technique change?

Yes it does, mainly because traditional crafters tend to see all of the land outdoors as sacred to a greater or lesser extent.

So you don’t really need to make the land sacred — it is already.

So when working outdoors, you just basically set up your boundary markers and you do your work, and usually at the end of it, rather than taking it all down again, you just walk away from it, because you’re not going to desanctify the land, any more than you’re going to make it more sacred than it started out to be.

Indoors is a different matter.

If you work in a temple, then you’re going to build up a similar sort of effect over the years in your temple space as well.

But if you have to use the living room or a corner of your bedroom, then you’re basically going to put it up and take it down each time as completely as you can so that you don’t have any issues with using that space for mundane purposes at other times.

Witchcraft in Brief

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

Witchcraft is the ability to harness and use the powers of nature and one’s own personal energy in order to create a desired effect in the
world.

It is ancient and found the world over, in various forms under different names and titles.

It is often seen as an innate ability, something that one is born with and which may be passed down through generations.

We often hear the term “Wise Woman” or “Wise Man” (the “Cunning Folk”) to describe a witch practicing in her or his community.

This would have been someone knowledgeable in herbal healing or midwifery, or speaking with animals, or casting spells and charms or being able to divine the future through weather patterns.

In the Middle Ages up until the present moment, Witchcraft was demonized as the Christian faith sought to exude total power and control.

However, nature is resilient, and so too were/are Witches.

Some of the magic and charms performed have been kept and passed down through folklore and fairy tales.

Some lucky families may have kept a tradition alive by passing down wisdom through the bloodline.

Though there is no “unbroken lineage” of Witchcraft per se, we can still find fragments and use our instinct and intuition, with the help of guides along the way to enable us to recover and redefine what is often called “The Old Ways”.

Witchcraft in itself was not known as a religion, but a practice or art.

Ill-Wishing in Witchcraft

Posted on by A Solitary Pagan

A curse that is the product of envy, revenge and anger.

In earlier times, people commonly blamed their misfortune on the ill-wishing of others.

If two people argued and then one suffered a mishap, became ill or had other problems, the other party was suspected of ill-wishing them.

Remarks such as “You’ll be sorry” were taken seriously as a form of negative witchcraft.

If someone enjoyed a great deal of good fortune or prosperity and then suffered a setback, they believed themselves to be the victim of the secret ill-wishing of envious neighbors.

The remedy for ill-wishing was to seek out a witch, a pillar, or a cunning man or woman and have the ill-wishing broken or neutralized with a charm.

If the identity of the ill-wisher was not known, magic or divination was performed to expose them