Metamorphosis

The ability of witches, sorcerers  and other magically empowered persons to transform themselves and other humans at will into animals, birds and insects. In witchcraft trials, people testified that the accused witches had appeared before them or tormented them in some nonhuman shape.

For example, in 1663 Jane Milburne of Newcastle, England, did not invite Dorothy Strangers to her wedding supper. Consequently, Milburne alleged, Strangers transformed herself into a cat and appeared with several other mysterious cats to plague Milburne.

In another English witchcraft case in 1649, John Palmer of St. Albans confessed that he had metamorphosed into a toad in order to torment a young man with whom he had had a quarrel.

As a toad, Palmer waited for the man in a road.

The man kicked the toad. After he returned to the shape of a man, Palmer then complained about a sore shin and bewitched his victim.

In areas where witchcraft fears ran high, the sight of nearly any hare or stray dog caused great concern.

Witches were said to transform themselves as they rose up their chimneys on poles and broomsticks to fly off to sabbats.

The most common forms were he-goat, wolf, cat, dog, cow, hare, owl and bat.

Some witches believed that they had done this, perhaps as the result of the hallucinogenic ingredients in some of the ointments they rubbed on themselves.

In 1562 alchemist Giovanni Batista Porta, in his book, Natural Magick, told of how hallucinogenic potions caused two men to believe they had metamorphosed into a fish and a goose, respectively: the man would seem sometimes to be changed into a fish; and flinging out his arms, would swim on the Ground; sometimes he would seem to skip up, and then dive down again.

Another would believe himself turned into a Goose, and would eat Grass, and beat the Ground with his Teeth, like a Goose: now and then sing, and endeavor to clap his Wings.

Isobel Gowdie, a Scottish woman who voluntarily confessed to witchcraft in 1662, said she and her sister witches used incantations to transform themselves into hares, cats, crows and other animals.

Sometimes they were bitten by hunting dogs.

Witches were said to use metamorphosis to gain easy entry into a household, in order to cast an evil spell upon an unsuspecting person. An insect crawling on the floor, or a mouse skittering through the door, might be suspect.

Witches also allegedly transformed themselves in order to escape captors.

According to one story, a husband tried to prevent his witch wife from attending a sabbat and tied her to the bed with ropes.

She changed into a bat and flew off.

Another story tells of a witch brought before inquisitors in Navarre in 1547, who was able to smuggle along her magic ointment.

She rubbed herself down and turned into a screech owl, escaping certain death.

To torment or punish other humans, witches and sorcerers turned them into beasts.

In Greek myth, the sorceress Circe turned Ulysses’ men into swine.

In folktales, wicked sorcerers and witches turned people into frogs or other creatures, who had to wait for the right person to come along and break the evil spell.

One of the most feared metamorphoses was that of wolf.

Man-eating wolves who terrorized villages were sometimes said to be witches.

The man-wolf condition known as lycanthropy, however, is not the same as metamorphosis, since it is involuntary.

According to one 17th-century French tale, a hunter was attacked in the woods by an enormous wolf and was able to cut off one of its paws.

Howling, the wolf fled.

The hunter took the paw to show to a friend.

When he took it from his pocket, he was astonished to see that it had changed into a woman’s hand with a ring on one finger, which he recognized as belonging to his wife.

He sent for his wife, who was missing one hand.

She confessed to being a witch and transforming herself into a wolf in order to attend a sabbat.

She was burned at the stake.

Another version of the same tale has the wife admitting to lycanthropy.

In 1573 Gilles Garnier, an accused wizard of Lyons, France, was condemned to be burned alive for turning himself into a wolf and attacking and killing children, whom he devoured.

Some demonologists such as Jean Bodin and Joseph Glanvil accepted metamorphosis as fact, but others denounced it as fallacy.

The Malleus Maleficarum (1486), the leading inquisitor’s guide, upheld the latter view, citing saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas as saying that metamorphoses were illusions created by the Devil and demons.

Such illusions, said authors Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, were the result of God punishing some nation for sin.

They pointed to verses from the Bible: Leviticus 26, “If ye do not my commandments, I will send the beasts of the field against you, who shall
consume you and your flocks,” and Deuteronomy 32, “I will also send the teeth of the beasts upon them.”

As to man-eating wolves, Kramer and Sprenger said they were true wolves possessed by demons.

If a person believed himself to have turned into a wolf, it was the result of a witch’s illusory spell.

Increase Mather called metamorphosis “fabulous” and wondered in awe at the stories that were believed.

In An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684), Mather says: But it is beyond the power of all the Devils in Hell to cause such a transformation; they can no more do it than they can be Authors of a true Miracle. . . . Though I deny not but that the Devil may so impose upon the imagination of Witches so as to make them believe that they are transmuted into Beasts.

Mather recounts a story of a woman who was imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft and claimed to be able to transform herself into a wolf.

The magistrate promised not to have her executed, in case she would turn into a wolf before him.

The witch rubbed her head, neck and armpits with an ointment and fell into a deep sleep for three hours.

She could not be roused by “noises or blows.”

When she awakened, she claimed that she had turned into a wolf, gone a few miles away and killed a sheep and a cow.

The magistrate investigated and discovered that a sheep and cow in the location described by the witch had indeed been killed.

It was evident that the Devil “did that mischief” and that the witch had merely experienced the dreams and delusions created by Satan.

In shamanism, shamans metamorphose (shape-shift) into their guardian animal spirits or power animals (animals from whom they derive their chief power).

The shapeshifting is done in an altered state of consciousness.

A History Of Witchcraft

Witchcraft probably originated about 25,000 years ago in the Palaeolithic era.

At that time, humankind and nature were seen as inextricably linked.

People acknowledged every rock, tree and stream as deities in the life force, and the Earth as mother, offering both womb and tomb.

Early man used sympathetic, or attracting, magick – in the form of dances, chants and cave paintings of animals – to attract the herds of animals that provided for the needs of the group, and to bring fertility to humans and animals alike.

Hunters would re-enact the successful outcome of a hunt and would carry these energies into the everyday world.

Offerings were made to the Mistress of the Herds and later to the Horned God, who was depicted wearing horns or antlers to display his sovereignty over the herds.

Animal bones would be buried so that they, like humankind, would enjoy rebirth from the Earth Mother’s womb.

Where hunter-gatherers today continue the unbroken tradition that stretches back thousands of years – for example, among the Lapps in the far North of Scandinavia and the Inuits – these rites continue, led by a shaman, or magick man, who negotiates with the Mistress of the Herds or Fish in a trance for the release of the animals.

One of the earliest recorded examples of shamanism is the Dancing Sorcerer.

Painted in black on the cave walls of Les Trois Freres in the French Pyrenees, this shamanic figure, which portrays a man in animal skins, dates from about 14000 BC and stands high above the animals that are depicted on the lower walls.

Only his feet are human and he possesses the large, round eyes of an owl, the antlers and ears of a stag, the front paws of a lion or bear, the genitals of a wild cat and the tail of a horse or wolf.

By the Neolithic period, which began around 7500 BC and lasted until about 5500 BC, the huntergatherer culture had given way to the development of agriculture, and the god evolved into the sonconsort of the Earth Mother.

He was the god of vegetation, corn, winter and death, who offered himself as a sacrifice each year with the cutting down of the corn, and was reborn at the mid-winter solstice, as the Sun God.

The Neolithic period also saw the development of shrines to the Triple Goddess who became associated with the three phases of the Moon: waxing, full and waning.

The Moon provided one of the earliest ways by which people calculated time. Since its cycles coincided with the female menstrual cycle, which ceased for nine moons if a women was pregnant, the Moon became linked with the mysteries first of birth, then of death as it waned, and finally with new life on the crescent.

Because the Moon was reborn each month or, as it was thought, gave birth to her daughter each month, it was assumed that human existence followed the same pattern and that the full moon mirrored the mother with her womb full with child.

The full moon was also associated in later ages with romance and passion, originally because this coincided with peak female fertility. Moon magick for the increase of love and fertility is still
practised under the auspices of the waxing moon.

It was not until about 3,000 years ago that the male role in conception was fully understood in the West, and only then were the Sky Father deities able to usurp the mysteries of the Divine Mother.

A trinity of huge, carved stone goddesses, representing the three main cycles of the Moon, and dating from between 13000 and 11000 BC, was found in France in a cave at the Abri du Roc aux Sorciers at Angles-sur-l’Anglin.

This motif continued right through to the Triple Goddess of the Celts, reflecting the lunar cycles as maiden, mother and crone, an image that also appeared throughout the classical world.

A Call for Respect of your fellow Witches

I respect the solitary witches who blaze your own trails, walk your own paths, and listen to your own gods. It can be a lonely, yet rewarding, life. It is not for the faint of heart. From the solitary we can all learn self-reliance and how to listen to our intuition.

I respect the witch who chooses a traditional coven. Whether it is Gardnerian, Alexandrian, reconstructionist, or another group, it requires an intense amount of devotion and time to learn a tradition. You have earned your titles and should be recognized by our community. From the members of groups and covens we can learn patience and determination.

I respect the kitchen witches who fill your homes with magick and tend the hearthfires. With the ancient elements you nourish your family and remind us all of our human history. From the kitchen witch we can all learn how to create magick from the mundane and appreciate the domestic arts.

I respect the hedgewitch who works with the spirits that surround us. It can be exhausting and misunderstood work. You have gifts that can help the living and the dead, and I admire that. From the hedgewitch we can learn how to communicate better and how to see different points of view.

I respect the sea witch who walks along the dunes at night and gathers kelp. The energy of the sea is one of the oldest and most powerful forms of magick, and is recognized in many cultures. From the sea witch we can learn to work in harmony with the elements and listen to the pull of the moon and tides.

I respect the gray witches who do not look at magick in black and white. Within magick, as within life, we are often called upon to use our own judgement in a situation. I do not condemn my fellow witches for not seeing things as I see them. From the gray witch we can learn to examine a situation from many points of view and realize that there are no rules but those we create for ourselves.

I respect witches of all genders and sexual orientation. Each person deserves to feel welcomed and comfortable in our community and does not need any more judgement than they already experience. From these witches we can all learn how to appreciate diversity and to practice tolerance and kindness.

I respect witches who are in tune with their local environment. It is important to learn about the creatures and plants who live near us and you have much knowledge. From these witches we can learn how to look closely at what is around us and how to be aware of the land we live on.

I respect the witches who are new to the craft and starting out. Most are willing to learn from elders and need to be guided by those of us who are older and have more experience. They do not need to be bullied or insulted, for we are all constantly learning. From the new witches we can learn to be teachers instead of judges and should remember the joys and mistakes of our youth.

I respect Christian witches. I support anyone’s personal beliefs. Perhaps we should view these members of the community as bridge builders. With their help we may be able to open doors and cross the divide that has separated the religions. From the Christian witches we can learn that religious tolerance applies to all spiritual paths.

I respect the witches who try to adhere to the paths of your ancestors. It is not easy to do that in the modern era and you are to be treasured. You truly connect the generations and help pass on information that would otherwise be lost. From these witches we can learn to honor our elders and ancestors. I respect all members of the pagan community who treat others with respect. It is indeed a circle, and each of us is part of the whole.

For all the paths I forgot to mention, I respect them too, and I will probably add to this as the mood strikes me. Most importantly, respect yourselves.

The Compass Round in Traditional Witchcraft

A lot of traditional witches do not cast a circle at all as this is not traditional witchcraft but some do cast a compass which is not a circle. It is very different.

 

Rituals in Traditional Craft are very different from those that are Wicca and ceremonial based in that they are not scripted, they are spontaneous and spoken from the heart.

There is no circle casting and calling the elements as such but a compass-ring or round is traced widdershins with a stang or besom, and again there is not one way of doing this, it can differ from witch to witch, in fact, some witches don’t feel a need to do it after years of practice.

The witch becomes the compass or the world tree.

The witch becomes the centre point for spiritual work.

 

The Compass-Ring or rounds function is to create a space between this world and the underworld and unlike Wicca, we are not calling the spirits to join us, we are joining them!

A traditional witch is almost very shamanistic in their workings. They travel to see the spirits, they contact the spirits, well sometimes the spirits contact them.

 

The Compass-Ring or Compass-Round is the witches working area for any crafting or power-working.

It is not designed to protect but to enable a meeting place between this world and the unseen world and is a way of descending to the underworld, a reversal or a going left or below.

The compass area occupies space in this world and the underworld where the powers that live in the land can be tapped into.

 

The ring is traced with the stang or besom in a widdershins motion as we are taking the left way road, then ghost or spirit roads are made by circling the ring with water.

A watch fire is then made be it a candle or a bone-fire.

There are no quarter callings as once we have established an acquaintance with the powers of the land and our ancestors we have their protection, however certain items can be placed at the cardinal points that are in harmony with the various directions depending on the type of workings involved.

 

The above is a very physical way to do it, however, it can also be created in an inner way.

Such as imagining reaching down into the earth to meet the energy of the land and joining it with your own, then bringing it through your body to reach up through your crown to reach out to the energy’s above.

Circles are not cast and used to any major extent, at least, not like Wicca, The traditional term for a drawn circle is Compass round and often enough, certain natural places will be best for working areas without any need to draw or make a circle. When compasses must be drawn, they are drawn in a traditional ritual which bears no similarity to a Wicca circle

Canewdon Witches

According to a prophecy by the famous 19th-century cunning man James Murrell, the Essex village of Canewdon, located in England’s “witch country” of East Anglia, would be populated with witches “forever.” Indeed, the village and the surrounding area have been steeped in witch lore since at least 1580, when a woman named Rose Pye was accused of witchcraft, tried, and acquitted.

Legend has it that every time a stone falls from the tower of St. Nicholas Church, one witch will die but another will take her place. At midnight, a headless witch sometimes materializes near the church and floats down to the river. Anyone who encounters her is lifted into the air and let down in the nearest ditch.

Many of the witches of Canewdon were said to keep white mice familiars or imps.

A blacksmith, who became a witch when he sold his soul to the Devil, was given mice familiars. When he reached the end of his life—in fear of his eventual fate—he confessed on his deathbed
that he could not die until he had passed on his powers to a successor.

All of his imps climbed up on the bed and sat before him as he spoke. His wife refused them, but at last he was able to persuade his daughter to accept them, and he died.

Canewdon witches were usually described as old, ugly women with unpleasant personalities, true to the hag stereotype.

In the late 19th century, their bewitchments were countered by a white witch, known as Granny, with such folk-magic charms as a knife or pair of scissors under the doormat, which would keep witches out, and potions made for witch bottles that would break bewitchments.

Esbat’s

An Esbat is a regular meeting of a coven of Witches at which religious worship is conducted, business is discussed and magic and healing work is done.

The frequency of esbats depends on the coven.

Most covens meet at the full Moon, which occurs 13 times a year.

They may also meet at the new moon.

Some meet weekly.

The esbat may take place indoors or outdoors.

A coven may have a regular meeting place or rotate it among the homes of coveners.

The coveners may wear loose clothing such as robes, or they may be skyclad.

Animals belonging to coveners usually are allowed to be present at an esbat and to come and go as long as they do not disturb the energy flow of the rituals and magic work.

Animals are not used as sacrifices.

At the end of the esbat, coveners share food and drink

The term esbat is a modern one.

It may have been coined by Margaret A. Murray, a British anthropologist who wrote about medieval witchcraft as an organized pagan religion.

Most Witches use the term circle rather than esbat for their regular meeting; esbat is used formally.

Witches Curse

A curse is a spell intended to bring misfortune, illness, harm or death to a victim.

Curses are the most dreaded form of magic, as curses are universal.

They are “laid” or “thrown” primarily for revenge and power but also for protection, usually of homes, treasures, tombs and grave sites.

A curse can take effect quickly or may be dormant for years.

Curses have been laid upon families, plaguing them for generations.

Any person can lay a curse by expressing an intense desire that a particular person come to some kind of harm.

However, the success of a curse depends upon the curser’s station and condition.

Curses are believed to have more potency—and therefore more danger—when they are laid by persons in authority, such as priests, priestesses or royalty; persons of magical skill, such as witches, sorcerers and magicians; and persons who have no other recourse for justice, such as women, the poor and destitute and the dying.

Deathbed curses are the most potent, for all the curser’s vital energy goes into the curse.

If a victim knows he has been cursed and believes he is doomed, the curse is all the more potent, for the victim helps to bring about his own demise, through sympathetic magic.

However, curses work without such knowledge on the part of the victim.

Some victims are not told a curse has been laid, lest they find another witch to undo the spell.

Witches and sorcerers perform both blessings and curses as services to others, either to clients in exchange for fees, or in carrying out judicial
sentences.

As Plato noted in the Republic, “If anyone wishes to injure an enemy, for a small fee they [sorcerers] will bring harm on good or bad alike, binding the gods to serve their purposes by spells and curses.”

The most universal method of cursing is with a figure or effigy that represents the victim.

Waxen effigies were common in ancient India, Persia, Egypt, Africa and Europe, and are still used in modern times.

Effigies are also made of clay, wood and stuffed cloth.

They are painted or marked, or attached with something associated with the victim—a bit of hair, nail clippings, excrement, clothing, even dust from his footprints—and melted over, or burned in, a fire.

As the figure melts or burns, the victim suffers, and dies when the figure is destroyed.

The Egyptians often used wax figures of Apep, a monster who was the enemy of the sun.

The magician wrote Apep’s name in green ink on the effigy, wrappedit in new papyrus and threw it in a fire.

As it burned, he kicked it with his left foot four times.

The ashes of the effigy were mixed with excrement and thrown into another fire.

The Egyptians also left wax figures in tombs.

Waxen images were popular during the witch hunts, and numerous witches were accused of cursing with them.

James I of England, writing in his book, Daemonologie (1597), described how witches caused illness and death by roasting waxen images.

To some others at these times he [the Devil], teacheth how to make pictures of wax or clay.

That by the roasting thereof, the persons that they bear the name of, may be continually melted or dried away by continual sicknesses.

As an alternative to melting, effigies are stuck with pins, thorns or knives. Animal or human hearts may be substituted for effigies.

Hearts, animal corpses or objects which quickly decompose, such as eggs, are buried with spells that the victim will die as the objects
deteriorate.

In Ireland, “cursing stones” are stones that are stroked and turned to the left while a curse is recited.

Gems and crystals are often said to have the power to hold curses; the Hope Diamond, purchased by Louis XVI from Tavernier in 1668, is deemed cursed because its owners have suffered illness, misfortune, and death.

It is against Wiccan ethics and laws of the Craft to lay curses.

Witches believe that a curse will come back on the curser in some form.

Some, however, believe cursing is justified against one’s enemies.

Some witches approve certain types of curses, such as binding spells to stop acts of violence.

Witches from ethnic cultures believe curses are justified.

Repelling curses. amulets that have been made according to various formulas are said to repel curses, as is dragon’s blood, which is used in herbal mixes for protection.

A cloth poppet stuffed with nettles, inscribed with the name of the curser (if known), then buried or burned, also breaks a curse.

Nettles sprinkled about a room add protection.

The oils of rosemary and van-van, and various mixed Vodun oils, placed in baths or used to anoint the body, are other remedies.

Burning a purple candle while reciting a spell is yet another method.

Hindu sorcerers turn curses in the opposite direction, “upstream,” sending them back to slay their originators.

Traditionally, the most propitious time for both laying and breaking curses is during the waning moon.

The Setting of an Exorcism.

There is a special connection between the spirit and its possessing location, most often the victim’s bedroom or personal place.

Anything that can be moved is taken out, such as rugs, lamps, dressers, curtains, tables and trunks, to minimize flying objects.

Only a bed or couch remains, accompanied by a small side table to hold a crucifix, candle, holy water and prayer book.

Doors and windows are closed but cannot be nailed shut as air must be allowed to enter the room.

Doorways must be kept covered, even if the door is open, or else the evil forces inside the room could affect the vicinity outside.

Modern exorcists also employ a small tape recorder to validate the procedure.

The priest-exorcist wears a white surplice and a purple stole.

Exorcists usually are assisted by a junior priest chosen by the diocese and in training to be an exorcist himself.

The assistant monitors the exorcist, trying to keep him to the business at hand and not be misguided by the perversions of the demons, and provides physical aid if necessary.

If the exorcist collapses or even dies during the ritual, the assistant takes over.

Other assistants may include a medical doctor and perhaps a family member.

Each must be physically strong and be relatively guiltless at the time of the exorcism, so that the Devil cannot use their secret sins as a weapon against the exorcism.

The exorcist must be as certain as possible beforehand that his assistants will not be weakened or overcome by obscene behavior or by language foul beyond their imagining; they cannot blanch at blood, excrement, urine; they must be able to take awful personal insults and be
prepared to have their darkest secrets screeched in public in front of their companions.

Rites of exorcism. Rituals vary from a spiritual laying-on of hands by a clairvoyant exorcist, taking the entity into his or her own body and then expelling it, to the formal procedure outlined in the Catholic Rituale Romanum.

Salt, which represents purity, and wine, which represents the blood of Christ, figure prominently in exorcisms as well as strong-smelling substances such as hellebore, attar of roses and rue.

Members of many faiths—Hasidic Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Protestant Christians and Pentacostal Christians— practice exorcism, but only the Roman Catholic church offers a formal ritual.

In India, Hindu priests may blow cow-dung smoke, burn pig excreta, pull their or the victim’s hair, press rock salt between their fingers, use copper coins, recite mantras or prayers, cut the victim’s hair and burn it or place a blue band around the victim’s neck to exorcise the demonic spirits.

Trying another tack, the exorcist may offer bribes of candy or other gifts if the spirit leaves the victim.

Early Puritans relied solely on prayer and fasting.

The official exorcism ritual outlined in the Rituale Romanum dates back to 1614, with two small revisions made in 1952.

Cautioning priests to make sure a victim is truly possessed before proceeding, the rite includes prayers and passages from the Bible and calls upon the demons, in powerful Latin, to depart in the name of Jesus Christ.

While no two exorcisms are exactly alike, they tend to unfold in similar stages:

1. The Presence. The exorcist and his assistants become aware of an alien feeling or entity.

2. Pretense. Attempts by the evil spirit to appear and act as the victim, to be seen as one and the same person.

The exorcist’s first job is to break this Pretense and find out who the demon really is.

Naming the demon is the most important first step.

3. Breakpoint. The moment where the demon’s Pretense finally collapses.

This may be a scene of extreme panic and confusion, accompanied by a crescendo of abuse, horrible sights, noises and smells.

The demon begins to speak of the possessed victim in the third person instead of as itself.

4. The Voice. Also a sign of the Breakpoint, the Voice is, in the words of Martin, “inordinately disturbing and humanly distressing babel.”

The demon’s voices must be silenced for the exorcism to proceed.

5. The Clash. As the Voice dies out, there is tremendous pressure, both spiritual and physical.

The demon has collided with the “will of the Kingdom.”

The exorcist, locked in battle with the demon, urges the entity to reveal more information about itself as the exorcist’s holy will begins to dominate.

As mentioned above, there is a direct link between the entity and place, as each spirit wants a place to be.

For such spirits, habitation of a living victim is preferable to hell.

6. Expulsion. In a supreme triumph of God’s will, the spirit leaves in the name of Jesus, and the victim is reclaimed.

All present feel the Presence dissipating, sometimes with receding noises or voices.

The victim may remember the ordeal or may have no idea what has happened.

Great Rite in Witchcraft

In contemporary Witchcraft, a powerful, magical rite of sexual intercourse that pays homage to the male/female polarity that exists in all things in the universe.

The Great Rite expresses the physical, mental, spiritual, and astral union between man and woman and the union of the Goddess and God.

The Great Rite is the hieros gamos, the Sacred Marriage or Holy Matrimony, which is union with a deity or godhead.

It dates to the Neolithic era. Ancient kings required the hieros gamos, a union with a priestess representing the Goddess, in order to rule.

The hieros gamos also was part of ancient women’s mysteries, in which women sacrificed control of their feminine power to the Goddess and were renewed by her.

It was part of the Mysteries of Isis and reportedly was part of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

The Great Rite represents the inner marriage of thesoul and spirit, Ego and Self.

As an initiation, it represents the gateway to individuation, or becoming whole.

It also releases great power, which may be directed for magical purposes; it is one of the Eightfold Paths to magical power in the Craft.

Depending on the tradition, the Great Rite is performed within a magic circle at initiations (such as the third-degree initiations in the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions), seasonal festivals and handfastings.

The high priest and high priestess may perform the Great Rite together.

As part of an initiation, the rite is done between the initiate and a high priest or high priestess.

It is done either “in token,” that is, symbolically with ritual tools (such as an athame inserted into a chalice), or “in true,” as a sexual act.

If done in true, the participating couple usually are intimate partners.

An outer portion of the rite is done with the coven, and the sexual portion is done privately.

Baphomet, An Explanation

This name was given to the statue of a mysterious deity alleged to be worshipped by the Knights Templars.

The latter, although a powerful and wealthy order of chivalry, came to be distrusted by Church and State at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and were disbanded.

They were accused of heresy, of worshipping the Devil in the guise of Baphomet, and of practising homosexuality.

The order was put down with the utmost severity, and its Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, burned at the stake.

The accounts given of this mysterious statue, by the accused Templars when they were brought to trial, are confused. Some of their evidence
was extracted under torture, by people who were determined to get evidence that the Templars were secret devil-worshippers.

Sometimes the image was said to be simply a head but of terrifying aspect, and sometimes merely a bare skull ; but another account told of the figure being worshipped by kissing its feet.

Sometimes it is described as bearded, and “like a demon” ; but it is also described as being like a woman.

It was generally agreed, however, that the image, or what it represented, was worshipped, and that it was regarded as the giver of abundance and fertility.

In 1816 a distinguished antiquarian, Baron Joseph Von HammerPurgstall, published a book entitled Mysterium Baphometis Revelatum,
in which he gave his opinion that the Knights Templars really were secret heretics, or “Gnostics” as he called them.

He based this opinion upon certain very curious relics of thirteenth-century art, consisting chiefly of statuettes, coffers and cups or goblets.

These contained mysterious figures, which are evidently pagan, and correspond to the descriptions of ‘Baphomet’ secretly worshipped by the Templars.

That is, the figures are androgynous, bearded but with female breasts, or otherwise showing the characteristics of both sexes, and often with a skull at the feet, and displaying the magical sigil of the pentagram.

Sometimes inscriptions in Arabic accompany the figures ; but their sense is deliberately obscure.

These images have certain things in common with the deities of the witches.

They are sources of life and fertility, and they are associated with the symbols of the skull and the five-pointed star.

Their sexual characteristics are emphasised, as were those of Pan and the goddesses of Nature.

Their generally pagan appearance would certainly have caused the medieval Church to regard them as devils.

Thomas Wright, in his “Essays on the Worship of the Generative Powers during the Middle Ages of Western Europe” (in Payne Knight’s Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, privately printed, London, 1 865), gives his opinion that : the comparison of facts stated in the confessions of many of the Templars, as preserved in the official reports, with the images and sculptured cups and coffers given by Von Hammer-Purgstall, leads to the conclusion that there is truth in the explanation he gives of the latter, and that the Templars, or at least some of them, had secretly adopted a form of the rites of Gnosticism, which was itself founded upon the phallic worship of the ancients.

An English Templar, Stephen de Staplebridge, acknowledged that ‘there were two professions in the order of the Temple, the first lawful and good, the second contrary to the faith’ .

He had been admitted to the first of these when he entered the order, eleven years before the time of his examination, but he was only initiated into the second or inner mysteries about a year afterwards.

The existence of an inner circle within an order or society of some kind, is a frequent means of occult organisation. Many such ‘orders
within orders’ exist at the present day.

In medieval times, the Devil was often regarded as being androgynous.

The card called ‘The Devil’ in the old pack of the Tarot de Marseilles represents him thus; and the Old English word ‘scrat’ meant both a devil and a hermaphrodite.

‘The Old Scrat’ is still a dialect term for the Devil.

The distinguished nineteenth-century French occultist, Eliphas Levi, declared Baphomet of the Templars to be identical with the god of the
witches’ Sabbat ; it was not the figure of a devil, however, but of the god Pan, or rather a pantheistic symbol of the whole of Nature.

The word Baphomet, when written backwards “Kabbalistically”, reveals three abbreviations : TEM, OHP, AB, which stand for Templi omnium hominum pacis abbas, “The father of the temple of universal peace among men.”

This explanation may sound somewhat far-fetched ; but Eliphas Levi was in touch with secret occult fraternities which preserved traditional knowledge, though he often wrote in an obscure and devious style, being anxious not to give too much offence to the Catholic Church.

There is a very curious and interesting carving in the church of SaintMerri in France, which is traditionally said to be a representation of
Baphomet.

It is a horned and winged figure, bearded but having female breasts; and it sits cross-legged, rather like the old Gaulish figures of the Celtic Horned God, Cernunnos.

The idea that God, containing all things, was therefore androgynous, is a very ancient and widespread one.

It occurs in the collection of magical legends of the witches of ltaly, which Charles Godfrey Leland published as Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches.

In this, the legend of Diana states: “Diana was the first created before all creation ; in her were all things; out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided.

Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.”

The same idea occurs in the mystical symbolism of the Qabalah. The Sephiroth, or Divine Emanations from the Unmanifest, which are
arranged as the Qabalistic Tree of Life, represent the attributes of God ; and of these some are male and some female.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers, in The Kabbalah Unveiled (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1957), has pointed out how the translators of the Bible have “smothered up” and glossed over every reference to the fact that God is both masculine and feminine.

This was, of course, done to establish the patriarchal conception of God the Father, with femininity regarded, after the Pauline fashion, as something inferior if not actually evil.

However, in the Ancient East the highest deities were sometimes represented in androgynous form.

Such figures were called Brahma Ardhanarisa, or Shiva Ardhanarisa.

The Syrian god Baal was sometimes represented as double-sexed ; and old accounts tell us that his worshippers called upon him thus : “Hear us, Baal ! Whether thou be god or goddess!” Mithras was sometimes referred to as androgynous; and the Greek Dionysus even more frequently so.

One of his titles was Diphues, meaning ‘double-sexed’. The Orphic Hymns sing of Zeus, the supreme god of nature, in the same way ; as man and as virgin eternal.

Goddesses, too, were sometimes regarded in the ancient world as double-sexed ; in particular, the most supposedly feminine of them all,
Venus or Aphrodite.

In Cyprus, a strange image of Venus was worshipped, bearded and masculine, but dressed in female attire.

At the festivals of this worship, transvestism was practised, women wearing men’s clothes and men dressing as women. Similar festivals honoured the goddess Astarte ; and it is interesting to note that transvestism was condemned by the Christian Church, which associated it with witchcraft.

There seems no particular reason why transvestism should be regarded as wicked, when one comes to think of it.

It is probable that the real cause of the Christian and Old Testament denunciations of the practice, lies in the fact that it was a custom carried out in honour of pagan deities.

The figure of Baphomet, therefore, is connected with worship of great antiquity, the depth and widespread nature of which have been little
realised, on account of the veil which has been drawn over these matters.

Only in the present day has this veil of pudeur begun to be lifted, when people have come to realise that the ‘obscenity’ of the old Nature
worship was mostly in the eye of the beholder.

Granny Magick

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 then blended with a dash of the local tradition of the Tsalagi (Now, called the Cherokee Indians.)

The recipe for the Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition was then complete, though this potion simmered on a low boil for many generations before anyone dubbed it with the name, ‘Appalachian Granny Magic.’

 

The Witches of the Appalachian Mountains called themselves ‘Water Witches’ and/or ‘Witch Doctors’ depending upon whether they were personally more gifted in healing, midwifery and such realms of magic, or if they were more in tune with dowsing for water, ley lines, energy vortexes and the making of charms and potions.

Often a Practitioner called themselves by both titles if they were so diverse in their Magical practices.

 

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’ traditions that came over to other, more urban areas of the ‘new world.’

Therefore, one will often find that ancient Irish or Scottish songs, rhymes, dances, recipes, crafts, and ‘The Craft,’ are more accurately preserved in Appalachia than even in Ireland or Scotland.

 

Many of these old Scot/Irish traditions, as well as the Tsalagi traditions, both magical and mundane, were carried on in Appalachia until modern times.

Some songs, spells, and such have been passed down for many years that way, though sadly, sometimes only by rote, with the original meanings beings lost in the shifting sands of time.

 

In the secluded mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, the Virginias and the Carolinas, this denomination of the ancient religion of Witchcraft continued right on through the decades of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and the early twentieth centuries; a time when Witchcraft elsewhere was being nearly forgotten and abandoned by the increasingly modern and monotheistic world.

The people of the mountains still relied upon Mother Nature in a way, that ‘city folk’ did not anymore.

The fertility of the crops, the livestock, and of the people themselves was as paramount to the Appalachians of 1900 as it was to the early American colonists in the 1600’s.

Therefore, fertility, and the worship of Mother Nature, Jack frost, Father Winter, Chloe, Spider Grandmother, Demeter, and such varied deities continued in the Appalachian region, staying a current part of the people’s faith, rather than becoming a mythic memory as such ‘nature worship’ did elsewhere.

In fact, we still see “Lady Plenty and Lady Liberty” Goddess of the harvest, with cornucopia in hand, and Goddess of freedom, on the official North Carolina State seal.

Amazingly, even the terms “Witch””, “Witchcraft”, “spells”, “charms” and such never became taboo in the modern Appalachian culture.

Nearly every mountain top and ‘holler’ community had their local ‘Witch’ who was openly called such, as a title of honor, not as an insult or a charge of crime, as the term came to be used in other more urban American cultures of the seventeen, eighteen and nineteen hundreds.

 

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 water, ley lines, and energy vortexes when one was digging a well, planting a new garden, burying a loved one, or doing any other work with the Earth. Thereby, the term ‘Water Witch’ arose, though, it is misleading, as these Witches dowsed for more than just water, and one did not have to be a Witch to dowse, though most dowsers of that era and location were, indeed, Witches.

 

The fairy folk, leprechauns, and other ‘wee people,’ followed the Scots and Irishmen to Appalachia, it seems, as the Witches of this tradition continue to work closely with these beings. Of course, the Tsalagi people had their own such beings, here when the Scots and Irishmen arrived.

The Tsalagi called their magical being neighbors; ‘Yunwi Tsunsdi,’ which translates to ‘The Little People.’

Offerings are still commonly given to the wee people daily in Appalachia.

To this day, you will find a granny woman leaving a bowl of cream on her back door step, or throwing a bite of her cornbread cake out a window, before placing it upon her families’ table.

 

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 and common haint related spells requires that the doors of a home be painted ‘haint blue.’

Haint Blue is a bright baby blue with a periwinkle tinge, very close to but about one shade darker than the Carolina Tarheels’ Blue color.

This color is believed to repel the spirits and keep them out of the home.

 

Music is a large part of the Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition. Many of the oldest spells are sung and danced.

Clogging, as Irish Step-dancing came to be called in Appalachia, as well as reels, gigs, lullabies, and chants sung in rounds are all very common magical ingredients in Appalachian spells.

 

Another example of the old world musical roots of Appalachian musical magic is the locally common use of the song ‘Auld Lang Syne’ for Samhain and Funerals, as well as the secular new year.

 

Divination is popular among Appalachian Granny Witches.

Many read Tarot, and regular playing cards, tea leaves, and clouds. Scrying in bowls of water, dirt, or sand is also common.

Spider webs are scrutinized for messages from the Cherokee Spider Grandmother Goddess, a Goddess of fate, magic, weaving, art and storytelling, who is said to weave magical messages into the webs of her creatures. (In Tsalagi, She was called; ‘Kanene Ski Amai Yehi.’)

Words on Witchcraft

In Witchcraft there is no formal priesthood although some witches working in a group or coven will have a High Priestess and High Priests who are leaders of that group.

The fact that they are High Priestess and High Priests may not make them better witches, it simply denotes their standing and authority within the group.

Having no formal priesthood means we do not reply on others to interpret or intercede with our Gods for us, we are each entitled to make our own connection with the divine in our own way.

This might be through ritual, mediation or Magic.

Most witches will use a combination of different techniques at different times.

As Pagans and witches we do not have a book in the way the Christians have the Bible of Muslims have the Koran.

Books are plentiful on the subject of the craft, however it is up to those who wish to read some of these to make their own personal decisions and choices as to their relevance.

Each individual can has the right to choose the complexity of their rituals and the form their path will take.

For some this may mean working in a group or coven, where as others may choose a solitary path.

Some will seek to work with formalized Magic whilst others will prefer working closely with nature and using herbs to achieve their magic.

Witchcraft is a non proselytizing belief system in that most would feel that there is no need for every one to believe as we do in order to feel secure in our faith.

There is plenty of room in this world for everyone to find their own way of relating to the Divine.

In fact all religions have as much , if not more , in common than in difference. Bearing this in mind there is no reason not to encourage and celebrate a diversity of beliefs.

It is possible that it should be encouraged for people to experiment with different paths and make their own decisions based on their own needs.

There is generally not a need to convert or indoctrinate others to our beliefs.

Evil Eye

The causing of illness, misfortune, calamity and death by the looks of strangers and by envious looks, amulets and incantations  ward the danger off.

The evil eye exists around the world, dating to ancient times.

The oldest recorded references to the evil eye appear in the cuneiform texts of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, about 3000 b.c.e.

The ancient Egyptians believed in the evil eye and used eye shadow and lipstick to prevent it from entering their eyes or mouths.

The Bible makes references to it in both the Old and New Testaments.

It is among ancient Hindu folk beliefs.

Evil-eye superstitions have remained strong into modern times, especially in Mediterranean countries such as Italy and in Mexico and
Central America.

There are two kinds of evil eye: deliberate and involuntary.

Most cases of evil eye are believed to occur involuntarily; the person casting it does not mean to do it and probably isn’t even aware of it.

No revenge is sought for this hazard.

The malevolent, deliberate evil eye is called “overlooking” and is a form of witchcraft that can bring about misfortune or catastrophe: illness, poverty, injury, loss of love, even death.

Witches were said to give anyone who crossed them the evil eye and to use it to bewitch judges from convicting them.

The involuntary evil eye typically occurs when someone, especially a stranger, admires one’s children, livestock or possessions, or casts a lingering look on anyone.

Unless immediate precautions are taken, the children get sick, the animals die, the possessions are stolen or good fortune in business turns sour.

If the evil eye cannot be warded off, the victim must turn to an initiate—usually an older woman in the family—who knows a secret cure.

Besides envious glances, the evil eye comes from strangers in town, or anyone who has unusual or different-colored eyes—a blue-eyed stranger in a land of brown-eyed people, for example.

Some unfortunate souls are said to be born with permanent evil eye, laying waste to everything they see.

High-ranking people such as noblemen or clergy sometimes are believed to be afflicted like this. Pope Pius IX (1846–78) was branded as having he evil eye shortly after his investiture as Pope in 1869.

Driving through Rome in an open car, he glanced at a nurse holding a child in an open window.

Minutes later, the child fell to its death, and from then on, it seemed that everything the Pope blessed resulted in disaster.

Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903) was also said to possess the mal occhio, as the evil eye is known in Italy.

The evil eye is most likely to strike when one is happiest; good fortune, it seems, invites bad fortune.

Small Hand positions to ward off the evil eye children and animals are especially vulnerable.

In many villages, it is considered unwise to show children too much in public or to call attention to their beauty.

Likewise, it is not advisable to display possessions or brag about successes.

In 19th-century Ireland, animals who were under the influence of the evil eye were said to have been “blinked.”

In order to save such animals, local wise women were sought for ritual cures.

The primary defense against the evil eye is an amulet, which may be fashioned from almost any kind of material.

Common shapes are frogs and horns, the latter of which suggests both the powerful Mother Goddess (a bull is her consort) and the phallus.

Another popular amulet is the “fig,” a clenched fist with thumb thrust between the index and middle fingers, which also suggests a phallus.

The roots of the phallus amulet go back to the ancient Romans and their phallic god, Priapus.

Another name for him was Fascinus, from fascinum, which means “witchcraft”; the evil eye is sometimes called “fascination.”

Romans employed phallic symbols as their protection against the evil eye. In Italy, it is still common for men to grab their genitals as a defense against the evil eye or anything unlucky.

The ancient Egyptians used an eye to fight an eye. The udjat eye, also called the Eye of God and Eye of Horus, appears on amulets, pottery and in art, warding off the forces of darkness.

Other defenses include bells and red ribbons tied to livestock, horse harnesses and the underwear of children, which divert the attention of the evil eye.

Gardens are surrounded by protective jack beans.

Other plants act as amulets—the shamrock in Ireland and garlic in Greece.

In Hindu lore, barley, a universal remedy supplied by the gods and the symbol of the thunderbolt of Indra, god of war, thunder and storms, will avert the evil eye.

Without an amulet, quick action is important when the evil eye strikes. One should make gestures such as the “fig” or “horns” (holding up the index and little finger).

Spitting is a powerful remedy, a hold-over from the ancient Romans and Greeks.

Cures for the evil eye usually involve reciting secret incantations, which typically are passed on from mother to daughter within a family.

In Italy, an initiate diagnoses the evil eye and performs the cure with a bowl of water, olive oil and, occasionally, salt.

A few drops of oil are dropped into the water (sometimes salted).

The oil may scatter, form blobs or sink to the bottom.

These formations are interpreted to determine the source of the attack.

The initiate drops more oil into the water while reciting incantations and making the sign of the cross on the forehead of the victim.

If that fails, the victim is sent to a sorceress for further treatment.

The Season of the Witch

From the Autumn Equinox until just after the Wild Hunt rides out around Samhain is the Season of the Witch.

People all over the United States seem to know that this is true without being told so.

The stores decorate for Halloween, reporters develop stories about local Witches, and Witches themselves feel a certain thrill in the chilly autumnal breeze that stirs something wild and magical within them.

We honor this season by flying out as much as possible during this time, in preparation for the Wild Hunt.

We also begin our Samhain season preparations, which include: changing over to black robes from white, ancestor contact, a dumb feast, pumpkin guardians, deep divination, and, of course, flying to the Sabbat.

“Beware the autumn people.

For some, autumn comes early, stays late,

through life where October follows September and November touches October and then instead of December and Christ’s birth,

there is no Bethlehem Star, no rejoicing,

but September comes again and old October and so on down the years, with no winter,

spring or revivifying summer.

For these beings, fall is the only normal season, the only weather,

there be no choice beyond.

Where do they come from?

The dust.

Where do they go?

The grave.

Does blood stir their veins?

No, the night wind.

What ticks in their head?

The worm.

What speaks through their mouth?

The toad.

What sees from their eye?

The snake.

What hears with their ear?

The abyss between the stars.

They sift the human storm for souls,

eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners.

They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters.

The spider-web hears them, trembles—breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.”

– Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Our totems for this time of year reflect the themes of this dark tide.

The Autumn Equinox is the time we honor the early face of the Black Goddess: The Grail Queen.

We see her as the Silver Queen of Castle Perilous, whose treasure is the Holy Grail, the Cauldron of Cerridwen to which we must all return.

It is also the bloody Cup of Babalon, who collects blood offerings of sacrifice and transmutes them into magic.

Her totems are the swine, the chicken, and the grapevine, all of which offer forth their flesh and blood to feed and nourish us.

Early October’s totems are those of deep wisdom: the salmon, the hazelnut, and lapwing.

These symbols of sacrifice and wisdom prepare us for our journey into the underworld to seek the heart of all magic at Samhain.

Samhain’s totems are the toad, the crane, and the elder tree.

It is the time when we honor Tubal Cain in his dark aspect as the Lord of the Dead, keeper of the Quench Tank, the Deathhelm, and the West Gate.

Witches all, we hope to see you at the Sabbat, be it atop the Brocken, under the Walnut of Benevento, at the hill-top cromlech, or around the well-worn Mill Grounds.  Celebrate the coming of the Season of the Witch!

The Mechanics Of Witchcraft

Magick takes place at what TS Eliot in The Four Quartets called the ‘still point of the turning world’, that moment of timelessness that enables thought to be turned into reality on the material plane.

It operates on the principle As above, so below’.

This phrase comes from the beginning of The Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismesgistos (thrice-blessed Hermes), thought to be a powerful first-century Egyptian sorcerer who became worshipped as a god after his death.

This tablet is said to contain all magical knowledge as well as the principles of alchemy, and states that human action and events reflect what occurs in the heavens. And so by releasing magical
intentions into the cosmos, as I said earlier, they will be reflected back as actuality.

Since time immemorial, humans have called upon the power of higher beings to help them, whether it be to deliver them from enemies, to bring rain for their crops or to cure their children’s illnesses.

Every religion and every culture believes in a divinity of some sort, whether it be god, goddess or spirit, good or evil.

Evocations were performed by medieval practitioners of magick to summon up angels (and sometimes demons) and bind them to perform tasks, rather like the Middle Eastern djinn, or genie,
who, in faerie tales, would appear from a magick lamp or corked bottle and grant wishes.

Incense would be used to give substance to the etheric form of the angel or demon concerned. (Modem magick tends to be a little wary of calling up spirits, however, whose malevolent energies may cause harm.)

In contrast, invocations were used to endow the practitioner with the power to carry out magical purposes through a form of possession, with the angel or god acting directly from within the
practitioner’s body.

Elementals have also been associated for hundreds of years with more formal magical traditions.

Elementals, rather than having a permanent form themselves, are the forces or energies that give shape to living things.

They also bring thoughts and desires into actuality, invoked by symbols.

Thus medieval occultists sought mastery over the elemental beings that they fashioned by their incantations.

Sometimes, if practitioners used the elemental forces for negative purposes, they would create a tulpa, or thought form, that became an elemental demon.

This was hard to banish, even though the magicians worked within a square enclosed by two magick circles -hence the origins of warnings about magical effects coming back threefold.

Hermetica

Hermetica Forty-two sacred books of mystical wisdom attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus, or “thrice great Hermes,” the combined Egyptian and Greek deities of Thoth and Hermes, respectively.

The books, which date from somewhere between the third century b.c.e. and first century c.e., had an enormous impact on the development of Western occultism and magic.

Many of the spells, rituals and much of the esoteric symbolism contained in Witchcraft folk magic, and contemporary Witchcraft and Paganism are based upon Hermetic material.

The Hermetica may have been authored by one person—according to one legend, Hermes Trismegistus was Hermes Trismegistus (Jacques Boissard, De Divinatione et Magicis) 160 Hermes Trismegistus a grandson of Adam and a builder of the Egyptian pyramids—but probably was the work of several persons in succession.

According to legend, the books were initially written on papyrus.

Clement of Alexandria, a chronicler of pagan lore, said 36 of the Hermetic books contained the whole philosophy of the Egyptians: four books on astrology, 10 books called the Hieratic on law, 10 books on sacred rites and observances, two on music and the rest on writing, cosmography, geography, mathematics and measures and priestly training.

The remaining six books were medical and concerned the body, diseases, instruments, medicines, the eyes and women.

Most of the Hermetic books were lost with others in the royal libraries in the burning of Alexandria.

According to legend, the surviving books were buried in a secret location in the desert, where they have survived to the present.

A few initiates of the mystery schools, ancient secret cults, supposedly know the books’ location.

What little was left of the surviving Hermetic lore has been handed down through history and has been translated

into various languages. The most important of these works, and one of the earliest, is The Divine Pymander.

It consists of 17 fragments collected into a single work, which contain many of the original Hermetic concepts, including the way divine wisdom and the secrets of the universe were revealed to Hermes and how Hermes established his ministry to spread this wisdom throughout the world.

The Divine Pymander apparently was revised during the early centuries c.e. and has suffered from incorrect translations.

The second book of The Divine Pymander, called Poimandres or The Vision, is perhaps the most famous.

It tells of Hermes’ mystical vision, cosmogony and the Egyptians’ secret sciences of culture and the spiritual development of the soul.

The Emerald Tablet. Also called the Emerald Table, the Emerald Tablet is one of the most revered of magical documents in western occultism.

Hermes Trismegistus was portrayed in art as holding an emerald upon which was inscribed the whole of the Egyptians’ philosophy.

This Emerald Tablet was said to be discovered in a cave tomb, clutched in the hands of the corpse of Hermes Trismegistus.

According to one version of the legend, the tomb was found by Sarah, wife of Abraham, while another version credits the discovery to Apollonius of Tyana.

The gem was inscribed in Phoenician and revealed magical secrets of the universe.

A Latin translation of the Tablet appeared by 1200, preceded by several Arabic versions.

No two translations are the same, and little of the Tablet appears to make sense.

The significance of the Emerald Tablet, however, lies in its opening: “That which is above is like that which is below and that which is below is like that which is above, to achieve the wonders of the one thing.”

This is the foundation of astrology and alchemy: that the microcosm of mankind and the earth is a reflection of the macrocosm of God and the heavens.

The Theban Alphabet

The Theban alphabet otherwise known as the witch’s alphabet or runes of Honorious is believed to have emerged in the medieval period when cabbalistic practices were prominent among European magicians.

Theban was first published in a book called the Polygraphia in 1518.

This book was written by Johannes Trithemius. Before the first book was published, there were other evidences of the Theban Alphabet in the 14th century.

This was in the Sworne Book of Honorious or the Liber Juratus.

Most of these evidences attributed Honorius as the creator of the Theban Script.

However, Honorius was not a witch, but a mogus.

The language also appeared in the 16th century in Cornelius Agrippa’s book know as the Three Books of occult philosophy.

Agrippa was Trithemius’ student and his book was first published in 1531 in Antwerp.

According to Agrippa, the Theban script was initially attributed to Honorius by an Italian magician in the 13th century.

The Theban Alphabet is also believed to have been in existence in the 11th century as a Latin cipher.

Compared to the Latin alphabets, there is a one to one correspondences between the alphabets with the exception of the letter I, v and w.

When writing the Theban script, the letter I is represented by the same symbol as j, while letter v is represented by the same symbol as u and w.

Despite the origin of the letter-forms being obscure, the evidence of the script’s origin is consistent with an early cipher alphabet believed to have been influenced by Avestan.

Some magicians also believe the language to have originated from the book entitled The Mogus written by Honorius II. HonoriusII was the pope between 1216 and 1227.

The Theban script was used to lend an air of mystery to witchcraft writing and often referred to as the Witches runes.

Runes were often inscribed on various items worm by a person for varying reasons such as wearer’s protection.

This alphabet is popularly used in witchcraft as it enables witches to communicate among themselves and write their spells translating from their native languages.

The script was used in writing the Book of Shadows used by witches to maintain secrecy.

Since the alphabets and symbols used in writing Theban script were not familiar to the native languages, the witches could effectively write their spells without other people reading them.

The Alphabets used in Theban script corresponded to the Latin alphabets with the only exceptions being for the letters I, J, V, and U.

The symbols used to represent letter j were similar to that of letter I while the letter v and us used a similar symbol.

Pagans have also been recorded to have used various alphabets in their rituals and often in-scripted those on items used in magickal rituals such as candles and stones.

Runes were also used in rituals by the Wiccans.

Runes were often used for person protection and were similar to the modern Christian crucifix or the pagan Thor’s hammer. Ancient literature on various rituals recorded the runes as rune sticks.

In Iceland and Norway, the runes were recorded in the form of scorn poles.

Today, the Theban alphabet is primarily used for talismanic inscriptions and magickal spells.

The letters and symbols are also carved on stones candles for candle spells as well as on stones as amulets.

Besides spells, the Theban script is also used for charms in addition to creating a magickal feels to texts and writing.

Lycanthropy

The transformation of a human being into a wolf.

There are two types of lycanthropy: a mania in which a person imagines himself to be a wolf and exhibits a craving for blood; and the magical-ecstatic transformation of a person into a werewolf (“man-wolf,” from the Old English werewolves , man, plus wolf), usually accomplished with ointments or magical charm .

Werewolf lore has existed since antiquity. In some legends, the werewolf is a person born under a curse, who cannot prevent himself from his hellish metamorphosis, which happens on nights of the full Moon.

The person, usually a man, but sometimes a woman or a child, acquires the shape of a wolf and all its attributes, and roams about the countryside attacking and eating victims.

In most tales, the werewolf is wounded, and the wound sympathetically carries over to the human form and reveals the identity of the werewolf.

 

In other legends, the werewolf is a sorcerer or witch who deliberately transforms himself at will to do evil and lay waste to his enemies.

In South America, shamans, like sorcerers, turn into werewolves and attack and drink the blood of their enemies.

Sorcerers also turn into other were-animals (man-animals), including serpents, leopards, panthers, jackals, bear, coyotes, owls, foxes and other feared creatures.

But it is the wolf who elicits the most universal fear and is the most dangerous of were-animals.

Navajo lore holds that witches become werewolves and other were-animals by donning animal skins, which enables them to travel about at night at great speed.

Were-animal witches are said to meet in caves at night, where they initiate new members, plan ritual killings-at-a-distance, practice necrophilia with the corpses of women and eat their victims.

 

Werewolf beliefs were strong in medieval times in Europe and the Baltic countries.

Later, in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was believed that werewolves, like witches, became servants of the Devil by diabolic pacts , and trials of accused werewolves increased.

The cases were characterized by murder and cannibalism. In 1573 in Dole, France, Gilles Garnier was tried and convicted for the murder of several children.

He confessed that he killed one victim, a 10-year-old girl, with his teeth and claws, then stripped off her clothing and ate part of her.

He took the rest of her flesh home to his wife. He strangled a 10-year-old boy (he did not specify how a wolf can strangle), then bit off a leg and ate the boy’s thighs and belly.

He was identified when he attacked another victim but was interrupted by several peasants, who thought they recognized Garnier’s face, despite his wolf form. He was sentenced to be burned alive.

 

One of the most celebrated werewolf trials was that of Peter Stubb (also Stube or Stumpf) in 1589 at Bedburg near Cologne.

Put on the rack and threatened with torture, Stubb made a lurid confession.

He said that he had practiced the “wicked arts” from the age of 12 years and that the Devil had given him a magic belt that enabled him to change into a “devouring wolf.” By taking the belt off, he returned to the shape of a man.

For 25 years, Stubb terrorized the countryside at night, stalking children, women, men, lambs, sheep and goats. He was an “insatiable bloodsucker,” taking great pleasure in killing.

He killed his own son and ate his brains.

He killed lambs, kids and other livestock, “feeding on the same most usually raw and bloody.” He murdered 13 young children and two pregnant women.

He confessed to incest with his daughter, Beell (Bell) and sexual escapades with various mistresses, including a “gossip,” Katherine Trompin. His lust remained unsated, so the Devil sent him a succubus.

Stubb was finally exposed when some hunters chased him down in wolf form, and he slipped off his belt and was recognized.

In his trial, his daughter and Trompin were judged accessories in some of the murders. Like many condemned witches in Germany, Stubb was sentenced to torture and execution.

 

One unusual werewolf case resembles that of the benandanti of northern Italy: the werewolves were men who left their bodies and in spirit assumed the shapes of wolves, descending into the underworld to battle the witches.

The case was tried in 1692 in Jurgensburg, Livonia, an area east of the Baltic Sea steeped in werewolf lore, and involved an 80-year-old man named Thiess.

Thiess freely confessed to being a werewolf.

He testified that his nose had been broken by a man named Skeistan, a witch who was dead at the time he struck Thiess.

His story of how it happened was this: Skeistan and other witches prevented crops from growing by carrying seed grain into hell.

Thiess was a werewolf, who, with other werewolves, attempted to protect the crops by descending into hell and fighting with the witches to recover what was stolen.

Three times a year, on the nights of St. Lucia, Pentecost and St. John (seasonal changes), the battles took place.

If the werewolves delayed their descent, the witches barred the gates of hell, and the crops and livestock, even the fish catch, suffered.

The werewolves carried iron bars as weapons, and the witches carried broom handles. Skeistan had broken Thiess’s nose with a broom handle wrapped in a horse’s tail.

 

The judges, naturally, were shocked to hear that werewolves, who were supposed to be agents of the Devil, could not tolerate the Devil and fought against witches.

Asked what happened to werewolves at death, Thiess replied that they were buried like ordinary folk, and their souls went to heaven—another shock for the judges. T

hiess insisted that the werewolves were the “hounds of God” who served mankind, preventing the Devil from carrying off the abundance of the earth.

If not for them, everyone would suffer. He said werewolves in Germany and Russia likewise fought the witches in their own hells.

 

Thiess refused to confess that he had signed a pact with the Devil, despite the efforts of the judges.

Even the parish priest, summoned to chastise him for his evil ways, failed to sway Thiess.

The old man angrily said he was a better man than the priest and that he was neither the first, nor would be the last, werewolf to fight the witches.

The judges sentenced him to 10 lashes for acts of idolatry and superstitious beliefs.

Witchcraft & Flying

A belief during the witch hunts, that the Devil, his demons and witches could transport themselves and others through the air.

Flying (also called transvection) was done with the aid of a broom, fork or shovel, according to lore; some witches were said to ride demons who were transformed into animals such as goats, cows, horses and wolves.

The Devil had the power to pick people up and whisk them through the air with no visible means of transport or support.

While a popular belief, flying was not accepted universally during the centuries of witch-hunting in Europe.

As early as the 10th century, flying was disputed as impossible.

The Canon Episcopi said that if witches flew, it was in their imaginations. But in the late 15th century, the Malleus Maleficarum, the bible of witch-hunters and judges, lamented this “erroneous” view, saying it allowed witches to go unpunished.

The Devil reputedly could transport whomever he pleased at whim.

Stories tell of children and adults beWitch takes flight on demon fivefold kissing picked up in their sleep and flown through the air for miles.

One 15th-century German priest claimed he saw a man “borne on high with his arms stretched out, shouting but not whimpering.”

The fellow, the priest said, had been drinking beer with friends. One of the men went fetch more beer, but upon opening the door of the tavern, saw a mysterious cloud, became frightened and refused to go.

The man who was picked up and flown said he would go instead, “even if the Devil were there.”

Witches, sorcerers, and necromancers were said to be able to fly with the help of magical ointments consisting mostly of baby fat that had been boiled off the limbs of a young child who had been killed before baptism.

Such ointments also contained various herbs and drugs, which doubtless put witches into hallucinatory states in which they really believed they were flying.

One witch in Italy in 1560 rubbed herself with ointment and went into a trance.

When she came out of it, she said she had been flying over mountains and seas. In 14th-century Italy, necromancers reportedly made beds fly with magical incantations.

The speed of flight was great, and novices were prone to fall off their forks or broomsticks.

Sometimes the demons who rode with them pushed them off.

One storey tells of a German man who convinced a sorcerer to fly him to a sabbat.

En route, the sorcerer threw him off the broom.

The man fell into a strange country that was so far away, it took him three years to get home.

Church bells were supposed to be able to ground brooms, and in some towns, the church bells were run constantly during witch festivals to prevent witches from flying overhead.

While some demonologists and inquisitors did not believe that witches could actually fly, they accepted confessions of it, reasoning that if witches thought they could fly, it was just as incriminating as if they actually did so.

Many witches did confess to flying. Some said it was possible to fly either bodily or by imagination.

If a witch wanted to observe a sabbat without actually being there, all she had to do was lie down on her left side and breathe out a blue vapor, in which she could watch the activities—a medieval version of clairvoyance.

Flying is not mentioned much in English cases of witches.

The various witchcraft acts in effect between 1542 and 1736 outlawed many witchcraft practices but did not prohibit flying.

Magical and mystical flight. Various magical and spiritual disciplines place importance on the ability to fly.

The act of flying is not as important as what the flying signifies: the soul’s breaking free of the bonds of earth and soaring into the cosmos, accessing realms that others reach only through death.

Flying is a transcendent experience, a flight of the spirit.

Magical and mystical flight is attributed to alchemists, mystics, sorcerers, shamans, medicine men, yogis and fakirs, as well as Witches. In many shamanic rites, the shaman identifies with, or becomes, a bird in order to take flight.

Each magical/spiritual system has its own techniques for achieving the ecstasy of flight, though breathing, meditation, contemplation, dancing, drumming, chanting and/or hallucinogenic drugs

Mystical flight is attained by many modern Witches, many of whom blend Eastern and shamanic spiritual elements into contemporary Witchcraft.

Calling the Quarters

Also referred to as “drawing the quarters” this is a way of acknowledging the four cardinal directions and their Elemental associations, as well as the chosen deities of the coven or solitary Witch. In a coven, either the High Priestess, the High Priest, or another coven member will walk around the circle, stopping in each cardinal direction to invoke the presence of its associated Element and, if applicable, god or goddess. (It should be remembered here that not all cover structures involve hierarchy—some covens simply have each member take turns performing this and any other necessary roles in ritual.) Specific words are usually spoken to invoke the specific powers and blessings of the element and/or deity being called. Once this is complete, the space is ready for the heart of the ritual.