Blasting

The ability of witches to interfere with or destroy the fertility of man, beast, and crop.

This malicious destruction was considered a common activity among witches, and remedies and preventive actions circulated in folklore and magic.

Blasting is the antithesis of rituals to enhance fertility, and accusations of it date to the second century c.e.

Witches also were credited with the power to produce abundant harvests and ensure healthy offspring of livestock and humans, but during
the witch hunts this ability was largely ignored in favor of maleficia; witches could not be prosecuted by inquisitors for good acts.

Since fertility was vital to prosperity, it was believed that a witch who wanted to harm a neighbor would cast a spell on his generative ability or that of his livelihood.

If cows didn’t calve, if the corn failed to sprout, if the wife miscarried, then the household had been bewitched.

The bewitchment could be done with a look or touch but usually involved incantations and magic powders.

According to the church, God allowed the Devil to have power over the generative act because the first sin of corruption was sex; a serpent
tempted Eve; therefore, witches—the alleged agents of the Devil—could use snakes to impair fertility.

To blast crops, witches were said to take a flayed cat, toad, lizard and viper and lay them on live coals until they were reduced to ashes.

From this, they made a powder and sowed it in the crop fields.

To disrupt conception and cause miscarriages, stillbirths and the births of deformed young, they placed serpents under barns, stables and houses.

A medieval male witch named Stadlin in Lausanne, France, confessed (perhaps with the aid of torture) that he had for seven years caused miscarriages in the wife and animals of a certain household simply by placing a serpent under the threshold of the outer door of the house.

Fertility, he said, could be restored by removing it.

But the serpent had long since decayed into dust, and so the owners excavated an entire piece of ground.

After that, fecundity was restored to humans and animals alike.

In a story recounted in the Malleus Maleficarum (1486), a pregnant noblewoman in Reichshofen was warned by her midwife not to speak to or touch any witches if she ventured outside her castle.

She did go out and after a while sat down to rest.

A witch came up and put both hands on her stomach, causing her immediately to begin aborting the fetus.

She returned home in great pain.

The fetus did not come out whole but in little pieces.

 

Witches reportedly could blast generations of a family with such curses as “a heavy pox to the ninth generation” or “pox, piles and a heavy vengeance.”

With regard to humans, the Devil and witches also were believed to interfere with fertility by obstructing the sex act in several ways: by preventing bodies from coming together by interposing a demon in a bodily shape; by destroying desire; by preventing an erection, and by
shutting off the seminal ducts so that no ejaculation occurred.

These bewitchments were directed mostly at men because, it was said, most witches were women who lusted after men.

The Devil preferred to work through witches rather than directly because that offended God more and increased the Devil’s power.

The “removal” of the male organ by a witch was explained as illusion, though the Devil was said to have the power actually to take the organ away physically.

A spurned mistress, for example, might be a witch who cast a spell to make her lover believe he had lost his penis—he couldn’t see or feel it.

The only way to restore it was to get the witch to remove the curse; if she didn’t or couldn’t, the effect was permanent.

One story attributed to a Dominican priest tells of a young man who came to confession and proved to the father that he was missing his penis by stripping off his clothes.

The priest could scarcely believe his eyes.

The young man convinced the witch who’d bewitched him to remove her curse, and his penis was restored.

This type of bewitchment allegedly affected only those persons who were “sinful” fornicators and adulterers.

The Devil, apparently, could not disturb the organs of the pious.

Some witches were said to collect male organs and keep them in boxes, where they wiggled and moved and ate corn and oats.

 

The Malleus Maleficarum also tells of a man who lost his member and went to a witch to ask for it back:

She told the afflicted man to climb a certain tree, and that he might take which he like out of a nest in which there were several members.

When he tried to take a big one, the witch said: You must not take that one; adding, because it belonged to a parish priest.

Given the prevalence of folk magic in daily life in centuries past, and given the jealous and vengeful aspects of human nature, it is likely that individuals cast or paid to have cast blasting spells against neighbors and Witches
brewing up trouble to competitors.

The Inquisition used blasting to its own ends, as one of many justifications for the crushing of pagans, heretics and political enemies of the Church.

 

In Modern Paganism, Witchcraft, and especially Wiccan blasting and all other acts of harmful magic are considered unethical.

In Wiccan blasting  is viewed as a violation of the law, “An’ it harm none, do what ye will.”

According to tenets of the Craft, Witches must use their powers for good, to help others, and work in harmony with nature
.
In many tribal cultures, however, such ethical distinctions are not made, and blasting continues to be among the acts of sorcery carried out against people, animals, crops and possessions.

Caul

The amniotic fetal membrane that sometimes clings to a newborn’s head or body after birth. Being born with a caul, or veil, has significance in folklore related to magical powers.

A person born with a caul was believed to have psychic gifts such as the ability to see ghosts and spirits and to divine the future. In seafaring lore, such a person can never drown. In earlier times, cauls were brought on board sailing ships as good luck charms against sinking. Cauls were traded and sometimes sold for large sums of money.

In certain parts of Europe, a person born with a caul was believed to be a natural vampire. To prevent this, the caul was broken immediately, and prayers were said. In areas where the caul was considered to be a good omen, it was dried and placed in a flask that was worn around
the person’s neck. Sometimes it was mixed into an elixir that was drunk when the person reached a certain age, in order to initiate the magical powers.

In northern Italy, the cult of the benandanti included people born with cauls who could see invisible witches and fight them.

References to Witchcraft in the Bible

The best-known Biblical text referring to witchcraft is verse 18 in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus, which states:

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

It is printed on the title-page of The Discovery of Witches by Matthew Hopkins, the notorious Witch-Finder General.

His book was published in 1 647, “For the Benefit of the Whole Kingdome”.

This supposed portion of the word of God has been the pitiless death-warrant of thousands.

Yet it is nothing but a false translation.

The Authorised Version of the Bible was produced in the time of King James I, a monarch who fancied himself as an authority on witchcraft, while at the same time being much afraid of it.

To gratify the King, numerous references to witchcraft were worked into the translation, which the original does not justify.

This particular text, the most useful of all to the witch-hunters, does not in fact refer to witchcraft at all.

The word translated as ‘witch’ is the Hebrew chasaph, which means a poisoner.

In the Latin version of the Bible called the Septuagint, this word is given as veneficus, which also means a poisoner.

Another well-known supposed reference to witchcraft in the Bible is the story of the so-called ‘Witch of Endor’ (I Samuel, Chapter 28.)

However, the actual text refers to her simply as “a woman that hath a familiar spirit”.

She seems to have been a clairvoyant or medium, and a genuine one ; though we are not told precisely how the apparition of the deceased prophet Samuel took place.

Apparently, the woman saw him first, and then his message was conveyed to Saul ; but it is not clear whether Saul could see him too, or
whether he “perceived that it was Samuel” from the woman’s description.

The whole episode is reminiscent of Spiritualistic practices today.

It is notable that the woman had been driven into hiding, and was in fear of persecution when Saul consulted her.

She may have been a priestess of an older, pagan faith, outlawed by the monotheistic, patriarchal creed of the followers of Yahweh.

Hence the two most famous references to witchcraft in the Bible, though often quoted, do not in fact have quite the meaning usually given to them.

Flying Ointment

This greasy, trance-inducing substance was traditionally made of hallucinogenic (and often fatal) herbs that had been boiled in pig fat and then strained. It was called “green salve” or “witches’ ointment” and it some of the stock ingredients (solinicaeds) caused a “flying” sensation as the hallucination began — hence the popular image of the flying witch.

Great care had to be taken in preparing this ointment, though. Traditional ingredients included such components as henbane, monkshood, deadly nightshade, belladonna, hemlock, and mandrake — all lethal in too large a dose. In some cases, that does could be quite small. One witch learned from another how to properly prepare the salve and how to administer it to herself, and I’m sure it was still “At your own risk.

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. I have written much about this such as the witch’s foot. And in grounding techniques.

 

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.

The Brocken

The Brocken, also called the Blocksberg, was the most famous meeting place for witches in Europe. An old-fashioned poet, Matthison, wrote of it with gruesome awe.

The horn of Satan grimly sounds;
On Blocksberg’s flanks strange din resounds,
And specters crowd its summit high.

One wild story even claimed that here on Walpurgis Night (30th April or May Eve), was held the Grand Coven of all the witch-leaders
of Europe.

Because in Germany the activities of the witch-hunters, both Catholic and Protestant, reached a degree of frightfulness which exceeded that of anywhere else in Europe, the name of the Brocken as an alleged site of witches’ Sabbats became notorious.

In later years Goethe brought the tradition of the Brocken into his famous work, Faust, describing a fantastic Sabbat upon its haunted heights.

In the eighteenth century, German map-makers usually added to any map of the Hartz Mountains, of which the Brocken is the highest
peak, a few witches flying on broomsticks towards its summit.

One of these old maps, drawn by L. S. Bestehorn and published at N Nuremberg in 1 751, is particularly interesting.

This map also contains a short description of the Brocken, which states that at the summit of the mountain is the famous ‘Witches’ Ground’, where the Sabbats take place, and close to it is an altar, which was formerly consecrated to a pagan god.

There was also a spring of water here, and both the spring and the altar were used in the witches’ ceremonies.

 

This explains why the Brocken was so famous as a witches’ meeting ground.

It is evidently an old sacred mountain, on the summit of which pre-Christian rites took place.

The scenery in the Hartz Mountains is among the wildest and most beautiful in Germany.

Hence the Brocken’s remoteness added to its aura of mystery and terror.

The famous ‘Spectre of the Brocken’, though a natural phenomenon, was frightening enough to deter a lonely traveler.

When the atmospheric conditions are right, the ‘Spectre’ will appear, as a huge shadowy giant, looming up before one.

Actually, it is caused by the climber’s own shadow being projected by the sun’s rays upon a bank of mist.

On paper, this explanation sounds very matter-of-fact and reassuring; but to be confronted, in the silence of some lonely mountain, with this gigantic apparition, can still send a shiver down one’s spine.

A curious episode took place on the Brocken in June 1932, when the late Harry Price staged a reconstruction of an alleged black magic ritual there.

Accounts of what, if anything, happened are hazy and contradictory.

Apparently, a goat was involved, which was supposed to turn into a human being at midnight, but failed to do so.

This was certainly one of the oddest phrases in the controversial career of this famous psychical researcher.

 

The Brocken in the Hartz Mountains was not the only witches’ meeting-place which was known as the Blocksberg. Other hills and mountains which bore a similar reputation, also acquired the same name.

In Pomerania, there were several high places known as the Blocksberg; and the Swedish witches called their meeting-place Blocula.

Glyph

In Witchcraft and magick, glyph is a term used to describe a powerful symbol that represents a person, place, or thing. When the glyph is consecrated, and/or acted upon, it can ward off psychic attack, illness, and bad luck. Most glyphs are a combination of an individual’s name and birth date. These are inscribed upon a piece of parchment with special ink and corresponding astrological symbols. The glyph is worn for protection by the person for whom it was made.

Personal Protection Glyph

To make the protection glyph, you will first need to work out your name numerically. Use the chart below to change the letters in your name into numbers

Add numbers together
Add numbers together to get a single digit:

 

To make the glyph, you will need a small round metal disk, a black marking pen, and a pouch to place the disk in when you are finished. On one side of the disk, write the single digit for your name. On the other side, inscribe this symbol:

As you draw the symbol, visualize a protective shield surrounding you, protecting you from the negative thoughts of others. Seal the disk by inscribing a pentagram in the centre of the symbol. Place the disk in the pouch and carry for protection.

The Black Fast

This ritual was one of fasting to aid concentration, for some particular purpose.

It was alleged to have been used by Mabel Brigge, who was executed for witchcraft at York in 1 538.

The fast involved abstaining from meat, milk, and all food made with milk.

During the period of the fast, the witch concentrated all her mental energy and will-power upon some particular object.

This was usually to cause misfortune or death to some person; hence the rite was feared and called the Black Fast.

 

Mabel Brigge protested at her trial that she had only used this method to compel a thief to restore stolen goods, and hence its purpose was a
righteous one.

However, a witness against her claimed that she had admitted using the Black Fast to bring about a man’s death and that the man had broken his neck before the period of the fast was completed.

She was accused of attempting the lives of King Henry VIII and the Duke of Norfolk by this means, and she was found guilty and executed.

This case is interesting because it shows that witchcraft has always involved practices that are not mere mumbo-jumbo but are based upon the power of thought, and the occult potentialities of the human mind.

Traditional Witchcraft

Traditional witchcraft is an umbrella term that includes many traditions. Essentially traditional witches are practitioners of forms of witchcraft that pre-date Wicca and new age practices. Some of these traditions may be passed down as family traditions, whilst others are cultural, where witches follow the traditions of their own or a specific culture.

Traditional witchcraft is based on the traditions of the old wise women and men, cunning folk, herbalists, healers and witches. Today some witches may work as part of a coven but most traditional witches are solitary workers. In fact, traditional witchcraft places a lot of importance on working alone and is also usually based on nature alongside shamanistic practises and techniques. The traditional witch will utilise the natural world, often wildcrafting, growing herbs and collecting natural materials and objects found in nature.

Some traditional witches do buy tools if they feel they are needed. However, mainly it is felt that specific tools are not needed in traditional witchcraft. The witch will use tools that he or she will feel benefits their craft. In fact, some witches prefer to use only a few tools or none at all, preferring instead to stick with tools that are very practical in nature such as the pestle and mortar for herbs or the staff when walking which can also be then used to connect to the spirit world.

In ritual and spell work the craft is not scripted and is not ceremonial at all. Rituals and spell work is usually spontaneous and spoken from the heart. There is no circle casting as the traditional witch feels that all space is scared. Sometimes a compass round is created, which is very different from a circle. This can be traced with a broom/ besom or a stang /staff. Some witches will simply use their bodies to do this such as using their heels and hands to create the compass, whilst others will prefer to do this within using visualisation techniques.

Above is only a very basic definition of traditional witchcraft. Overall traditional witchcraft is a very deep craft. The witch embraces everything in nature and within. This means that the witch will walk both into both the dark and light aspects of nature. However, usually the two are irrelevant, as the witch will simply see the two as a whole and not as two separate things. There is deep inner knowledge to be found in working this way and in this tradition, the witch will strive to find this knowledge. This mystery can not found in any book. In fact, many traditional witches will give up the pagan and witchcraft books, and instead read books and information that is relevant to them. For some this will be to find out everything about herbalism, making potions, practising spellcraft, while for others this will be to find out about working with spirits, reading religious texts, different types of spirits, shamanism etc. And then another witch may be interested in history and will research the folk traditions of different cultures. Whatever the witch is interested in you can bet that he or she will somehow include this in their craft, because the witch will incorporate witchcraft into every minute of their lives. It’s part of who they are.

Some Basic Beliefs of Witches, Part Two

Between earthly incarnations, witches believe the soul rests in the Land of Faery, a pagan paradise like the Celtic Tir-Nan-Og, the Land
of the Young.

Many references to this pagan otherworld can be found in British and Celtic legend.

It is a very different place from the Christian heaven, involving no harps, haloes nor golden gates, but a country like the old dreams of Arcady.

It is conceived of as being, not somewhere ‘up above’, but in another dimension co-existing with the world we can see with mortal sight.

Sometimes, say witches, we visit this other dimension in our dreams, and can bring back fragmentary recollections of it.

 

Another implicit belief is the power of thought, for good or ill. Truly, thoughts are things, and the realisation of this is one of the fundamentals of magic.

We have become accustomed to this idea as it is put forward in the modern world by the exponents of various movements, such as the
so-called ‘New Thought’ , practical psychology and so on.

But as long ago as the beginning of the fourteenth century, Robert Mannying of Bourne wrote of the power of thought in his tale “The Wicche, the Bagge and the Bisshop”, an episode in his long poem Handlyng Synne.

This story tells of a naughty witch who made a magic bag of leather, that went about of its own accord and stole the milk from people’s cows.

Eventually she was arrested and brought before the bishop, together with the magic bag.

The bishop ordered her to give him a demonstration of her witchcraft, and she obliged by making the bag rise up and lie down again.

The bishop thereupon tried the charm for himself, doing and saying just as the witch had done ; but the bag never moved.

He was amazed, and asked the witch why the magic would not work for him.

 

She replied,

“Nay, why should it so ? Ye believe not as I do,”

and explained to him that

“My belief hath done the deed every deal.”

 

Whereat the bishop, rather set down,

“commanded that she should naught believe nor work as she had wrought”

 

This story is notable in that it ascribes the powers of witchcraft, not to Satan, as it would certainly have done in later centuries, but to the
hidden abilities of the human mind ; and the bishop, instead of ordering the witch to be burned at the stake, simply tells her to go away and not do this again.

In Thirteen three, when this poem was commenced, the great illusion of ‘Satanism’ had not yet bedevilled men’s minds to the exclusion of
reason.

 

Practitioners of magic have always emphasised that, although there are techniques to be acquired and the uses of magical accessories to be
learnt, in the last resort it is the mind that holds the power of magic.

Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa, two famous adepts, said this in the sixteenth century ; and at the end of the nineteenth century Miss Mary
A. Owen, telling of her investigations in America in Among the Voodoos (International Folk Lore Congress, London, Eighteen Ninety One ); said :

‘To be strong in de haid ‘-that is, of great strength of will-is the most important characteristic of a ‘conjurer’ or ‘voodoo’.

Never mind what you mix-blood, bones, feathers, grave-dust, herbs, saliva, or hair-it will be powerful or feeble in proportion to the dauntless spirit infused by you, the priest or priestess, at the time you represent the god or ‘Old Master’.”

This is the same as the witch belief, although it comes from the other side of the world.

 

There are two museums in Britain today which are devoted to showing the beliefs and practices of witches.

One is at Boscastle in Cornwall, and is run by Mr Cecil H. Williamson.

The other is at Castletown, Isle of Man, and is run by Mr and Mrs Campbell Wilson.

Your First Steps to Witchcraft

Our first steps on the path of Witchcraft require us to connect to the earth and at least wonder about its inherent value.

Could the earth, its seasons, and the natural realm really have value beyond material or monetary advantage?

Could it be (as indigenous people across the globe say) “sacred?”

What does sacred mean?

In Witchcraft, the term refers to something that is holy or that has a direct relationship with the deity.

In pagan spiritual paths, practitioners come to a mystical, intuitive understanding that all things are manifestations of an underlying energy or spiritual force.

Each of us must unveil these mysteries for ourselves.

The path of the Witch involves this slow process of unveiling the power of the earth, particularly as it manifests in our own lives.

This process moves at the pace of the seasons themselves.

Like the seasonal turnings, this process does not culminate in abrupt changes.

Understanding the truth of our existence and our connections to all is gradual, like standing in a cool-mist that eventually soaks you to the bone.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT 1.1

It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect—the fact that the belief in witchcraft is no longer existent among intelligent people and that its history, in consequence, seems to possess rather an antiquarian than a living interest. No one can tell the story of the witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century England without digging up a buried past, and the process of exhumation is not always pleasant. Yet the study of English witchcraft is more than an unsightly exposure of a forgotten superstition.

There were few aspects of sixteenth and seventeenth-century life that were not affected by the ugly belief. It is quite impossible to grasp the social conditions, it is impossible to understand the opinions, fears, and hopes of the men and women who lived in Elizabethan and Stuart
England, without some knowledge of the part, played in that age by witchcraft. It was a matter that concerned all classes from the royal household to the ignorant denizens of country villages. Privy councilors anxious about their sovereign and thrifty peasants worrying over their crops, clergymen alert to detect the Devil in their own parishes, medical quacks eager to profit by the fear of evil women, justices of the peace zealous to beat down the works of Satan—all classes, indeed—believed more or less sincerely in the dangerous powers of human creatures who had surrendered themselves to the Evil One.

Witchcraft, in a general and vague sense, was something very old in English history. In a more specific and limited sense, it is a comparatively modern phenomenon. This leads us to a definition of the term. It is a definition that can be given adequately only in a historical way. A group of closely related and somewhat ill-defined conceptions went far back.

Some of them, indeed, were to be found in the Old Testament, many of them in the Latin and Greek writers. The word witchcraft itself belonged to Anglo-Saxon days. As early as the seventh century Theodore of Tarsus imposed penances upon magicians and enchanters, and the laws, from Alfred on, abound with mentions of witchcraft. From these passages, the meaning of the word witch as used by early English may be fairly deduced. The word was the current English term for one who used spells and charms, who was assisted by evil spirits to accomplish certain ends. It will be seen that this is by no means the whole meaning of the term in later times. Nothing is yet said about the transformation of witches into other shapes, and there is no mention of a compact, implicit or otherwise, with the Devil; there is no allusion to the nocturnal meetings of the Devil’s worshippers and to the orgies that took place upon those occasions; there is no elaborate and systematic theological explanation of human relations with demons But these notions were to reach England soon enough. Already there were germinating in southern Europe ideas out of which the completer notions were to spring. As early as the close of the ninth century certain Byzantine traditions were being introduced into the West. There were legends of men who had made written compacts with the Devil, men whom he promised to assist in this world in return for their souls in the next. But, while such stories were current throughout the Middle Ages, the notion behind them does not seem to have been connected with the other features of what was to make up the idea of witchcraft until about the middle of the fourteenth century. It was about that time that the belief in the “Sabbat” or nocturnal assembly of the witches made its appearance.

The belief grew up that witches rode through the air to these meetings, that they renounced Christ and engaged in foul forms of homage to Satan. Lea tells us that towards the close of the century The University of Paris formulated the theory that a pact with Satan was
inherent in all magic, and judges began to connect this pact with the old belief in night riders through the air. The countless confessions that
resulted from the carefully framed questions of the judges served to develop and systematize the theory of the subject. The witch was much
more than a sorcerer. Sorcerers had been those who, through the aid of evil spirits, by the use of certain words or of representations of persons or things produced changes above the ordinary course of nature. “The witch,” says Lea, “has abandoned Christianity, has renounced her baptism, has worshipped Satan as her God, has surrendered herself to him, body and soul, and exists only to be his instrument in working the evil to her fellow-creatures which he cannot accomplish without a human agent.”

With the earlier period, which has been sketched merely by way of definition, this monograph cannot attempt to deal. It limits itself to a
narrative of the witch trials, and incidentally of opinion as to witchcraft, after there was definite legislation by Parliament. The statute of the fifth year of Elizabeth’s reign marks a point in the history of the judicial persecution at which an account may very naturally begin. The year 1558 This was the final and definite notion of a witch. It was the conception that controlled European opinion on the subject from the latter part of the fourteenth to the close of the seventeenth century. It was, as has been seen, an elaborate theological notion that had grown out of the comparatively simple and vague ideas to be found in the scriptural and classical writers.

Different Types & Traditions of Modern Witches

Alexandrian – Founded in England during the 1960’s by Alexander Sanders, self-proclaimed “King of the Witches”. An offshoot of Gardnerian, Alexandrian covens focus strongly upon training, emphasizing on areas more generally associated with ceremonial magic, such as Qabalah, Angelic Magic and Enochian. The typical Alexandrian coven has a hierarchical structure, and generally meets on weekly, or at least on Full Moons, New Moons and Sabbats. Rituals are usually done skyclad. Most Alexandrian covens will allow non-initiates to attend circles, usually as a “neophyte,” who undergoes basic training in circle craft prior to being accepted for the 1st degree initiation.

Alexandrian Wicca uses essentially the same tools and rituals as Gardnerian Wicca, though in some cases, the tools are used differently, and the rituals have been adapted. Another frequent change is to be found in the names of deities and guardians of the Quarters. In some ways these differences are merely cosmetic, but in others, there are fundamental differences in philosophy. Over the last 30 years, the two traditions have moved slowly towards each other, and the differences which marked lines of demarcation are slowly fading away.

Appalachian ‘Granny’ Tradition: A tradition dating back to the first settlers of the Appalachian Mountains who came to the United States from Scotland and Ireland in the 1700’s and who brought with them their “Old World” magical traditions. Those traditions were then blended with the local tradition of the Cherokee Tribes into a combination of local herbal folk remedies and charms, faith healing, storytelling and magick. The ‘Granny’ Witches will often call themselves ‘Doctor Witches’ or ‘Water Witches’ depending upon whether they are more gifted in healing and midwifery, or if they are more in tune with dowsing for water, lay lines and energy vortexes. This tradition is termed ‘Granny’ from the prominent role played by older women in the mountain communities.

Asian Traditions: In Japan, the Shinto religion is itself a shamanistic religion and thus the Japanese do not attach negative connotations to witchcraft. The word “witch” is actually used with positive connotation in the Japanese language as a female with high skills or fame. Asian witchcraft generally centers on the relationship between the witch and the animal spirits or familiars and in Japanese witchcraft, witches are commonly separated into two categories: those who employ snakes as familiars and those who employ foxes; the Fox Witch being the most commonly seen witch in Japan. In China, witches employs books, staffs, and other implements, similar to the western traditions of witchcraft and the witches are often accompanied by familiars in the form of rabbits, which are universally associated with the Moon, with fertility and with the Goddess. The witches of China are notable for their extensive knowledge of the occult properties of plants and herbs, as well as for clairvoyance and the study of astrology.

Augury Witch: Similar to a shaman in practice, the augury witch will help to direct those on a spiritual quest by interpreting the signs and symbols the traveler encounters. The term derives from the official Roman augurs, whose function was not to foretell the future but to discover whether or not the gods approved of a proposed course of action by interpreting signs or omen such as the appearance of animals sacred to the gods. It is important to note that augury witches are not “fortune tellers”, as their gifts are of prophecy and not divination. In the context of prophecy, in his Scottish play Shakespeare’s witches appear as augury witches.

British Tradition: Primarily a mixture of traditional Celtic and pagan beliefs from the pre-Christian era. They often train through a structured degree process and their covens are usually compromised of practitioners of both sexes

Caledonii (Hecatine) Tradition: A denomination of The Craft that comes from a Scottish origin which preserves the unique rituals of the Scots. A fairly secretive tradition, not much is known of their rituals by outsiders.

Celtic: The Celtic path is really many traditions under the general heading of “Celtic.” It encompasses Druidism, Celtic Shamanism, Celtic Wicca or Witta, the Grail Religion, and Celtic Christianity or Culdees. Each path is unique and stand alone meld together with another and still be part of the Celtic tradition. It is primarily derived from the ancient pre Christian Celtic religion of Gaul and the British Isles. As it is practiced today, most of the Celtic paths are part of the Neo-Pagan revival, focusing on Nature and healing with group and individual rituals that honor the Ancient Shining Ones and the Earth. Most are very eclectic, and hold to the Celtic myths, divinities, magic and rituals. Celtic paths are some of the more popular traditions. Goes by the elements, the Ancient Ones and nature. They are usually healers or respect them highly. They work with plants, stones, flowers, trees, the elemental people, the gnomes and the fairies.

Celtic Wicca – Celtic Wicca focuses mainly on Celtic and Druidic gods and goddesses (along with a few other Anglo-Saxon pantheon). The rituals are formed after Gardnerian traditions with a stronger emphasis on nature. Celtic Wicca also puts much emphasis on working with elementals and nature spirits such as fairies and gnomes. Gods and Goddesses are usually called “The Ancient Ones.”

Ceremonial Witchcraft – This tradition is very exacting in its ritual. All rituals are usually followed by the book, to the letter and with much ceremony. Little emphasis is put on nature. This tradition may incorporate some Egyptian magic, Quabbalistic magic, and derived from the works of Aleister Crowley. They may use a combination of disciplines drawn from the Old Ways, but will often employ more scientific precisions such as sacred mathematics and quantum mysticism as well. They will also call upon an eclectic blend of spiritual entities, leaning towards archetypal figures representative of the energies they wish to manifest. They are more spiritually centered than most ceremonial magicians, using an Earth-centered path with focus on the Divine within.

Cornish Tradition: The traditional magic of Cornish Witches commonly includes the work of the making and provision of magical charms, simple rituals and magical gestures with muttered incantations, the healing of disease and injury and divination.

Dianic Tradition: A mixture of different traditions. Its primary focus is the Goddess who is worshiped in her three aspects of Maiden, Mother and Crone. A “divine feminine tradition”, its covens are mostly for women only. To an outside observer, Dianic Witchcraft may appear as a single tradition, but actually it is an intertwined group of traditions that have influenced each other over the centuries and millenia. This is the most feminist Craft Tradition. Most Dianic covens worship the Goddess exclusively (Diana and Artemis are the most common manifestations) and most today are women only. Rituals are eclectic; some are derived from Gardnerian and Faery traditions, while others have been created anew. Emphasis is on rediscovering and reclaiming female power and divinity, consciousness-raising, and combining politics with spirituality. The Dianic Craft included two distinct branches: The first Dianic coven in the U.S. was formed in the late ’60s by Margan McFarland and Mark Roberts, in Dallas, Texas. This branch gives primacy to the Goddess in its theology, but honors the Horned God as Her beloved Consort. Covens include both women and men. This branch is sometimes called ‘Old Dianic,’ and there are still covens of this tradition specially in Texas. Other coven, similar in theology but not directly descended from the McFarland/Roberts line are sprinkled around the country. The other branch, Feminist Dianic Witchcraft, focuses exclusively on the Goddess and consists of women-only covens, often with a strong lesbian presence. These tend to be loosely structured and non-hierarchical, using consensus decision making and simple, creative, experimental ritual. They are politically feminist groups, usually very supportive, personal and emotionally intimate. The major network is Re-Formed Congregation of the Goddess. Z Budapest founded the Susan B. Anthony Coven in 1971, declaring Dianic Witchcraft to be “Wimmin’s Religion”. The Women’s Spirituality Forum was Founded by Z Budapest in 1986, and is dedicated to bringing Goddess consciousness to the mainstream of feminist consciousness through lectures and, retreats, classes, cable TV shows, and rituals in the effort to achieve spiritual and social liberation.

Arcadian Tradition: A form of Dianic witchcraft, except that Arcadians place greater focus on the divine masculine along with the divine feminine. Unlike most Dianic groups, this Tradition allows both male and female members.

Draconic Wicca: Draconic Wicca is the utilization of the powers of the dragons. There are as many dragons as there are people. They are as varied as humans are also. We work with these dragons to achieve the results that we seek. In doing so, we have to deal with the unique personalities of each type of dragon. The dragons have no real hierarchy other than age, except for the case of The Dragon. The Dragon is the combined powers of the God and the Goddess. The Dragon is invoked or evoked during Sabbats and in times when great magick is needed (not when you can not find your keys). Invoking means to call into you the power of the dragon that you name i.e. a fire dragon. You ask that this dragon assume himself/herself into your spiritual body. To evoke means to call a dragon to you, to join you in your magickal workings.

Druidic – Neo-Druids are polytheistic worshipers of Mother Earth. Very little is known today about ancient Druidism and there are many gaps in the writings that have been found. Modern Druids practice their religion in areas where nature has been preserved – usually wooded areas. Druidic ritual often employs sacrifices to the Mother Goddess. These sacrifices often include grain, sometimes meat. These ritual sacrifices are often accompanied by a verse not unlike the following: “Earth Mother, giver of life we return to you a measure of the bounty you have provided may you be enriched and your wild things be preserved.”

Eclectic – Refers to groups and individuals who do not fully adhere to one specific form of Paganism. They choose to incorporate some beliefs, practices, rituals etc, of a few, or many paths to form a unique one that suits their spiritual needs. They do not follow a particular religion or tradition, but study and learn from many different systems and use what works best for them.

Egyptian – Believed that with Heka, the activation of the Ka, an aspect of the soul of both gods and humans, (and divine personification of magic), they could influence the gods and gain protection, healing and transformation. Health and wholeness of being were sacred to Heka. There is no word for religion in the ancient Egyptian language as mundane and religious world views were not distinct; thus, Heka was not a secular practice but rather a religious observance. Every aspect of life, every word, plant, animal and ritual was connected to the power and authority of the gods. In ancient Egypt, magic consisted of four components; the primeval potency that empowered the creator-god was identified with Heka, who was accompanied by magical rituals known as Seshaw held within sacred texts called Rw. In addition Pekhret, medicinal prescriptions, were given to patients to bring relief. This magic was used in temple rituals as well as informal situations by priests. These rituals, along with medical practices, formed an integrated therapy for both physical and spiritual health. Magic was also used for protection against the angry deities, jealous ghosts, foreign demons and sorcerers who were thought to cause illness, accidents, poverty and infertility. Temple priests used wands during magical rituals

Faery Witch: An eclectic witch who seeks to commune with faery folk and nature spirits in their magick workings. They have no organization or tradition and it has developed of its own accord through common practice. (Not to be confused with the ‘Feri Movement’ )

Faery/Faerie/Fairy/Feri: Victor and Cora Anderson are the original teachers of the Feri Tradition. Victor is universally recognized as the Grand Master of his order of Feri. He was initiated in 1926 by a priestess from Africa. He is also one of the last genuine Kahuna. His book of poetry, Thorns of the Blood Rose, is considered a contemporary Pagan classic. In 1959, Victor initiated the late Gwydion Pendderwen (age 13 at the time), who later became a leading voice in the Feri Tradition. Gwydion concentrated on the Welsh Celtic aspects; whereas Victor and Cora still practice the tradition as it was originally, with Huna and African diasporic influences, primarily Dahomean-Haitian. The Feri Tradition honors the Goddess and Her son, brother and lover (The Divine Twins) as the primary creative forces in the universe. The Gods are seen as real spirit beings like ourselves, not merely aspects of our psyche. It is an ecstatic, rather than fertility tradition, emphasizing on polytheism, practical magic, self-development and theurgy. Strong emphasis is placed on sensual experience and awareness,including sexual mysticism, which is not limited to heterosexual expression. This is a mystery tradition of power, mystery, danger, ecstasy, and direct communication with divinity. Most initiates are in the arts and incorporate their own poetry, music and invocations into rituals. The Tradition is gender-equal, and all sexual orientations seem able to find a niche. According to Francesca De Grandis, founder of the 3rd Road branch: “Faerie power is not about a liturgy but about one’s body: a Fey shaman’s blood and bones are made of stars and Faerie dust. A legitimate branch of Faerie is about a personal vision that is the Fey Folks’ gift to a shaman.” Initially small and secretive, many of the fundamentals of the Tradition have reached a large audience trough the writings of Starhawk, the most famous initiate. Some secret branches remain. While only a few hundred initiates can trace their lineage directly to Victor Anderson, many thousands are estimated to practice neo-Faery Traditions.

Gardnerian – Gardnerian witchcraft was begun in England and is Wiccan in nature. It was formed by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s. Gerald Gardner was the first to publicize witchcraft in an effort to preserve the “old ways.” Further developed by Doreen Valiente and others. Gardner was initiated into a coven of Witches in the New Forest region of England in 1939 by a High Priestess named ‘Old Dorothy’ Clutterbuck. In 1949 he wrote High Magic’s Aid, a novel about medieval Witchcraft in which quite a bit of the Craft as practiced by the coven was used. In 1951 the last of the English laws against Witchcraft were repealed (primarily due to the pressure of Spiritualists) and Gardner published Witchcraft Today, which set forth a version of rituals and traditions of that coven. Gardner gave his Tradition a ritual framework strongly influenced by Freemasonry and Crowley and ceremonial magic, as well as traditional folk magic and Tantric Hinduism. The Tradition was brought to the USA in 1965 by Raymond & Rosemary Buckland, who were initiated in 1964 by the Gardner’s High Priestess, Lady Olwen. Gardnerian covens are always headed by a High Priestess and have three degrees of initiation closely paralleling the Masonic degrees. Worship is centered on the Goddess and the Horned God. The tradition emphasizes polarity in all things, fertility, and the cycle of birth-death-rebirth. Eight seasonal Sabbats are observed, and the Wiccan Rede is the guiding principle. Power is raised through scourging and sex magick (“The Great Rite”), as well as meditation, chanting, astral projection, dancing, wine and cords. Designed for group/coven work, through solitary workings have been created. Covens work skyclad.

Green Witch: A practitioner of of witchcraft whose focus is on the use of natural items and places. The goal of the Green Witch is upon achieving magic through communion with Mother Nature and using Her energies.

Gypsy tradition- It uses simple spells and rituals to harness the power of nature and of the elemental spirits that are all around us. evidence strongly demonstrates that they actually originated in India, and moved west, migrating through the middle east into Europe. Although the Gypsies call themselves ‘Rom’ and their language is known as’Romani’, the Romani language has nothing in common with the language known as Romanian (which is a Romance language, derived from Latin and kin to French, Spanish, Italian, etc.). Romanibeen shown to be closely related to groups of languages and dialects (such as Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Cashmiri) still spoken in India and of the same origin as Sanskrit. They were often described as dark-skinned magicians, entertainers, smiths, horsebreakers and other skilled tradeworkers. There is a good possibility that they originated belly dancing. They lived in tents. Gypsy wagons are a recent introduction. The wagons date from the late 18th early 19th century. Before that, they travelled by foot and horseback, setting up tents by night. The classic gypsy caravan wagons were usually built by commercial carriage shops for the gypsies, since they took a lot of woodworking and other equipment. Reliable period info on gypsies is sadly lacking- the only people writing about them were the ones who wanted rid of them at all cost. I think it was in the fifteenth century that the pogroms against them really got rolling…Because gypsies have remained very secluded and secretive, cultural “tainting” has been comparatively low, and modern practices may well reflect medieval practices. In France it was thought that these same people came from Bohemia and thus they were called ‘Bohemes’…. [thus began the English word “bohemian”]. There are Elizabethan laws against dressing or acting “as an Egyptian,” which from the descriptions seem to be what we would call ‘gypsies.’ It is quite possible that the word “gypsy” came into use as an abreviation of “Egyptian” somewhat later than the actual arrival of the Rom in England. The Romnichels, or Rom’nies, began to come to the United States from England in 1850. Their arrival coincided with an increase in the demand for draft horses in agriculture and then in urban transportation. Many Romnichels worked as horse traders, both in the travel-intensive acquisition of stock and in long-term urban sales stable enterprise. After the rapid decline in the horse trade following the First World War, most Romnichels relied on previously secondary enterprises, “basket-making,” including the manufacture and sale of rustic furniture, and fortune telling. The Rom arrived in the United States and Canada from Serbia, Russia and Austria-Hungary beginning in the 1880s, as part of the larger wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Primary immigration ended, for the most part, in 1914, with the beginning of the First World War and subsequent tightening of immigration restrictions. Many in this group specialized in coppersmith work, mainly the repair and refining of industrial equipment used in bakeries, laundries, confectioneries and other businesses. The Rom, too, developed the fortune-telling business in urban areas. The Ludar, or “Rumanian Gypsies,” emigrated to North America during the great immigration from southern and eastern Europe between 1880 and 1914. Most of the Ludar came from northwestern Bosnia. Upon their arrival in North America they specialized as animal trainers and show people, and indeed passenger manifests show bears and monkeys as a major part of their baggage. Only a handful of items covering this group have been published, beginning in 1902. The ethnic language of the Ludar is a form of Romanian. They are occasionally referred to as Ursari in the literature. Gypsies from Germany, generally referred to in the literature as Chikeners (Pennsylvania German, from German Zigeuner), sometimes refer to themselves as “Black Dutch.” (While the term “Black Dutch” has been adopted by these German Gypsies, it does not originate with this group and has been used ambiguously to refer to several non-Gypsy populations.) They are few in number and claim to have largely assimilated to Romnichel culture. In the past known as horse traders and basket makers, some continue to provide baskets to US Amish and Mennonite communities. The literature on this group is very sparse and unreliable. The Hungarian (or Hungarian-Slovak) musicians also came to this country with the eastern European immigration. In the United States they continued as musicians to the Hungarian and Slovak immigrant settlements, and count the musical tradition as a basic cultural element. The Irish Travelers immigrated, like the Romnichels, from the mid to late nineteenth century. The Irish Travelers specialized in the horse and mule trade, as well as in itinerant sales of goods and services; the latter gained in importance after the demise of the horse and mule trade. The literature also refers to this group as Irish Traders or, sometimes, Tinkers. Their ethnic language is referred to in the literature as Irish Traveler Cant. The present population of Scottish Travelers in North America also dates from about 1850, although the 18th-century transportation records appear to refer to this group. Unlike that of the other groups, Scottish Traveler immigration has been continuous. Also unlike the other groups, Scottish Travelers have continued to travel between Scotland and North America, as well as between Canada and the United States, after immigration. Scottish Travelers also engaged in horse trading, but since the first quarter of the 20th century have specialized in itinerant sales and services. Much of this information came from the Gypsy Lore Society.

Hinduism – The Atharva Veda is a veda that deals with mantras that can be used for both good and bad. The word mantrik in India literally means “magician” since the mantrik usually knows mantras, spells, and curses which can be used for or against all forms of magic. Tantra is likewise employed for ritual magic by the tantrik. Many ascetics after long periods of penance and meditation are alleged to attain a state where they may utilize supernatural powers. However, many say that they choose not to use them and instead focus on transcending beyond physical power into the realm of spirituality. Many siddhars are said to have performed miracles that would ordinarily be impossible to perform.

Hedge Witch: Hedgecraft is a path that is somewhat shamanic in nature, as they are practitioners of an Earth-based spirituality. These are the ones who engage in spirit flight and journey into the Otherworld. They can, in this capacity, be very powerful midwives and healers. A bird of one kind or another is usually associated with the Hedge Witch, most commonly the raven and the goose. The term “hedge” signified the boundary of the village and represents the boundary that exists between this world and the spiritual realm.

Hereditary Witch: Also known as a Family Tradition Witch, it is someone who has been taught “The Old Ways ” as a tradition passed down through the generations of their family. Though you may be born into a family with the tradition, you cannot be born a witch, a conscious decision and acceptance of “The Craft” is necessary to become a witch. Born into a witch family and brought up learning about witchcraft. Many witches claim to be hereditary witches when in fact, they are not. You must be brought up in a family of witches to be a hereditary witch.

Kitchen (Cottage)Witch: A practitioner of witchcraft who uses the tools at hand to work their spells and create their rituals and who deals with the practical sides of religion, magick and the Elements of the Earth. Some who hear the term “Kitchen Witch” may think it is a magickal art confined only to the kitchen or cooking, but it is much more. It is about the finding of the sacred in everyday tasks, no matter how mundane they may appear to be. An increasingly popular type of witchcraft, it is about working with the energies of nature to make the hearth and home a secure and sacred place.

Pictish Tradition: Originally from Scotland, it is a “solitary witch” form of “The Craft”. Pictish Witchcraft attunes itself to all aspects of nature; animal, vegetable, and mineral and it is more magickal in nature and practice than it is religious with little emphasis on religion, Gods, or Goddesses.. Pictish witches perform solitary and rarely, if ever work in groups or covens.

Pow-Wow Tradition: (from the Algonquin word “pauwau”, which means literally “vision seeker” ) Comes from South Central Pennsylvania and is a system based on a 400 year old Elite German magick. They concentrate on simple faith healing. Its principles encompass shamanic like rituals of healing through visions and the application of traditional medicines, which are often accompanied by prayers, incantations, songs, and dances. The word pauwau (pow-wow) was came to be used for Native American ceremonies and councils because of the important role played by the pauwau in both. The Pow Wow Tradition places great significance on the vision seeker as the nexus of group (coven) activites and rituals. Though some claim that the Pow-Wow Tradition is German in origin, it is more of an amalgamation of local Native American traditions with those traditions of the German/Dutch immigrants of pagan heritage who settled in the Pennsylvania region of the United States.

Seax-Wicca – This tradition was begun in 1973 by Raymond Buckland. Buckland and works on Saxon principles of religion and magic.

Shaman – Shamanism puts no emphasis on religion or on pantheon. Shamans work completely with nature: rocks, trees, animals, rivers, etc. Shamans know the Earth and their bodies and minds well and train many long years to become adept at astral travel and healing.

Shamanic Witchcraft: This term refers to practices associated with those of tribal shamans in traditional Pagan cultures throughout the world. A shaman combines the roles of healer, priest (ess), diviner, magician, teacher and spirit guide, utilizing altered states of consciousness to produce and control psychic phenomena and travel to and from the spirit realm. Followers of this path believe that historical Witchcraft was the shamanic practice of European Pagans; and Medieval Witches actually functioned more as village shamans than as priests and priestesses of the Old Religion.” Shamanic Witchcraft emphasizes serving the wider community through rituals, herbalism, spell craft, healings, counseling, rites of passage, handfastings, Mystery initiations, etc. The distinguishing element of Shamanic Witchcraft is the knowledge and sacramental use of psychotropic plants to effect transitions between worlds. The theory and practice of Shamanic Witchcraft has permeated widely though out many other established Traditions.

Solitary Witch (Solitaire): This is one who practices alone, without a coven and without following any particular tradition. Sometimes they are among that class of natural witches whose skills have been developed in previous lifetimes. Often, solitaries choose to mix different systems, much like an eclectic witch. Solitaries can also form their own religious beliefs as they are not bound by the rules of a coven. There is a legend among witches that after practicing for several lifetimes, the knowledge of “The Craft” is awakened upon passing puberty.

Satanic Witch: “They are not witches” Witches do not worship Satan..

Stregheria: Stregheria is the form of witchcraft native to Italy; there are several distinct traditions sharing common roots, in various parts of Italy. Also called, La Vecchia Religione, Stregheria is a nature-based religion, it’s followers worship the forces of Nature, personified as gods and goddesses. The witches of La Vecchia Religione are called Streghe (plural), with the title Strega (for a female), Stregone (for a male). Stregheria is rooted in the folk religion of the Latins (the Romans being one Latin people) and the Etruscans. In the particular tradition, taught by Raven Grimassi in Ways of the Strega, the pantheon is different from the urban gods of the Romans, though some of those deities were shared with the Latins, and the Etruscans, most notably Diana, whose worship was focused at a temple at Lake Nemi in the Alban Hills. There are however other traditions of Stregheria in Italy, who may worship the urban gods of the Romans. The particular tradition taught by Raven Grimassi in Ways of the Strega, is derived from a renewal that occurred in the 14th century brought about by a wise woman from Tuscany called Aradia. This does not imply that witchcraft in Italy began in the 14th century. La Vecchia Religione is an evolution of pre-christian religions in Italy. The tradition taught by Aradia was a revival of the Old Ways during a time of extreme persecution of the peasants of Italy.

Teutonic (Nordic) Tradition: From ancient times the Teutons have been recognized as a group of people who speak the Germanic group of languages. A Nordic tradition of witchcraft, that includes beliefs and practices from many cultures including Swedish, Dutch, and Icelandic. A Teutonic Witch finds inspiration in the traditional myths and legends and in the Gods and Goddesses of the areas where these dialects originated.

Welsh Tradition: Originating in Wales, Welsh witches believe themselves to be one of the oldest traditions. Members are “awakened” to their calling and pass through 9 levels of attainment. It is hereditary, but you can “convert”.

Wicca – Probably the most popular form of witchcraft. Wicca is highly religious in nature and has a good balance between religion/ceremonial magic and nature. Wiccans believe in a God and Goddess who are equal in all things, although some may lean more toward the Dianic form of Wicca, worshipping only the Goddess or lowering the God to an “assistant” status. Wiccans commonly form covens and rarely work alone.

Wiccan Shamanism- Founded by Selena Fox in the 1980’s. Ecumenical and multicultural focus. Combination of Wicca, humanistic psychology and a variety of shamanistic practices from around the world. Emphasis on healing. Uses traditional shamanistic techniques to change consciousness, such as drumming and ecstatic dancing.

Witchcraft Theory & Practice – Self Analysis exercises Two

This exercise makes use of what is called the Book of Elements.

It’s going to be one of your primary grimoires.

The technique is commonly used by most of the occultists whom I have known (myself included), and it works on the premise that practitioners will consistently work at erasing any mundane
conditioning complexes that inhibit their ability to concentrate on, and control, whatever they do within their Craft.

The self (the circle) is divided into four somewhat equal parts (I say somewhat because although they are, in essence, equal, it is usually the case that the section dealing with emotions takes the most practice to balance.)

The four parts are Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.

The qualities of these elements are as variable as the manifest elements themselves, so I prefer to present the manifest expressions prior to relating them to personality expressions.

Manifest Expressions
Fire
• Flame (all-from the flame of a candle through hearth fire to raging,
out-of-control forest fires)
• Electricity
• Fission
• Friction
• Combustion
• Light
• Brilliance
• Heat
• Transformation through interaction with other elements
Water
• Lakes, rivers, oceans, dew, rain
• Aqueous bodily secretions
• Moisture (condensation, dampness, steam)
• Wetness
• Liquid
• Nonconforming limitlessness
• Mutability
• Magnetism
• Transformation through interaction with other elements
Earth
• All things solid
• That which is tactile
• Tangible reality
• Subject to the transformative function of decomposition
• Ground; both in its electrical sense and in its relativity to that which
supports life (as we understand it)
• Structure and form
• Dimension
• Time
• Existence (as a sensate phenomenon)
• Transformation through interaction with other elements
Air
• All things atmospheric
• Gases
• Space
• That which is celestial
• Theory
• That which is ethereal or etheric
• Frequency
• Noumenon
• Sound and the medium through which it travels
• That which is invisible
Personal Expressions
Fire
People display the qualities of Fire when they are:
• Spontaneous
• Optimistic
• Lusty•
• Impetuous
• Blatant
• Outspoken
• Demonstrative
• Combustible
• Ruthless
The qualities of creativity, self-expression through the spoken and written word, enthusiasm, aggression, and, often, boisterousness are demonstrations of a Fire-dominant individual.
Water
People display the qualities of Water when they are:
• Artistic
• Empathic
• Passive
• Feeling
• Sensual
• Confused
• Unpredictable
• Dreamy
• Indecisive
• Doubtful
• Inscrutable
• Enigmatic
• Romantic
The qualities of intuitiveness, inventiveness, responsiveness, nurturing, and the use of innuendo, self-pity, and victim-consciousness because of a lack of personal boundaries are demonstrations of a Water-dominant personality.
Earth
People display the qualities of Earth when they are:
• Productive
• Precise
• Calculating
• Sexual
• Determined
• Stubborn
• Aesthetic
• Petty
• Belligerent
• Brave
• Predictable
The qualities of perseverance, administration, fixety, strategy, and orthodoxy are demonstrations of the Earth-dominant personality.
People display the qualities of Air when they are:
• Changeable
Inspirational
• Logical
• Intellectual
• Idiosyncratic
• Exacting
• Unpredictable
• Challenging
• Abrasive
• Solitary
• Musically inclined
• Expansive
• Explicit
• Technical
• Scientific

The qualities of rhythm and harmony, quick-temperedness, rigidity, and the tendencies to analyze, get caught in the past, and to display either too much emotion or be unable to express emotion are all demonstrations of the Air-dominant personality.

To work the Book of Elements, you will first need to purchase a notebook and divide it into four equal parts.

Title the first section Fire, the second section Water, the third Earth, and the fourth Air.

Divide the pages of each section into two equal columns, one side titled Acceptable and the other titled Unacceptable.

Down each side, list your own qualities and habits relative to those headings.

This is a process of self-observation, and it quite often takes several weeks or months, as you will not be aware of many of your traits without accompanying experiences to trigger them.

Once you are finished with your lists, look over the attributes of Earth, Fire, and Air and determine how many so-called unacceptable self-judgments are actually Water- or emotion-based.

Rearrange accordingly.

Then decide how many, or which, of the unacceptable aspects of yourself are socio-culturallv inclined (i.e., conditioned by your upbringing), and adjust your opinion according to your own standards, based on determining ethics, and which of those attributes can be eradicated or transmuted into more comfortable alternatives.

Consider two things:

1. Witchcraft is a way of life for individuals, not the masses, and there’s no point in you coming toward the Craft if you are a wimp, a follower, a coward, or a fool, as sorcery is both a practice and a priesthood, and it is not a garment that can be discarded when the going gets tough.

The main emphasis of the above technique is to understand your own nature well enough to get clear of fear based on speculation rather than actuality (we will cover fear later in this section) and to weave your webs accordingly.

2. Your aim is to get to the center of yourself and your motivations, and to find the big issues that undermine your capacity to respond in true will, after first having eradicated the blinds to those big issues (e.g., self-justification based on the opinions of others).

When you have completed your Book of Elements and have gone over it
and over it to see if vou can add or subtract anvthing, I suggest vou get rid of
it!
As long as you allow yourself to be conditioned to entertain the
expectations of others, as long as you allow yourself to w
r
allow in a lack of
control and self-respect, as long as you allowr
s others to direct the states of
your emotional and physical w
T
ell-being, you are unable to truly develop any
abilities of a psychic or occult nature, as you will be constantly living in some
state of anticipation or stress, under pressure from yourself. In this state,
you are ever seeking to please others for their attention or seeking to
dominate them for fear of “Not.”
Mulengro
I know your Name now, you Liar!
You, the killing machine of the soul!
I’ll tell!
I’ll tell!
If they can hear me they will know your Name also!
Too late! You are known: “Divide and Conquer”!
YOU ARE THE LIE THAT CLOSES OFF THE GATE!!
Your Faces, they are 7!
Your essences, they are 7!
Your Powers, they are 7!
And together they are you! Mulengro!
You are Greed!
You are Envy!
You are Guilt!
You are Deceit!
You are Denial!
You are Expectation!!
You are Assumption!!

Witchcraft Theory & Practice – Self Analysis exercises one

Exercise 1
1. Choose a quiet place where you will not be interrupted.

If you are working the technique alone, you will need pencil and paper.

If you are working with someone else, they will need the pencil and paper.

They will question you and record the replies.

2. Write at the top of one side of the page, What I Want.

Under that, write the numbers one through twenty down the page.

3. Write at the top of the other side of the page, What I Need.

4. Fill in all twenty lines of the first side with anything you want. Be honest with yourself. Say the things aloud as you write, and list twenty things (you can write more, not fewer).

5. When you have completed side one, turn the page over and write twenty or more things you need. Write until you have exhausted your answers.

6. Now compare your two lists.

7. Take another piece of paper and write at the top, Why? Go ahead and ask yourself, honestly, why you want what you want.

Then do the same, on the other side of the paper, for your list of needs.

Contemplate, for all answers, what would really happen to you if you didn’t get what you want or need, and what you would really feel if you did (some people I have worked with have included in their “need” list things they already have-pav attention to the question).

Gauge for yourself how important these things are to your well-being.

If they really are not that necessary, then clear them from your mind because they are excess baggage, but if you could fill in twenty lines in the first place, then the excess was already there and your self-esteem would have been consistent with it.

Advertising, concepts of what is deemed successful, and concepts of what is deemed acceptable are all effective means of manipulating the individuality of a person or a people into conformist models.

It’s okay to do what you do because you want to, and sometimes it’s a matter of necessity to don the mask, but it’s honorable to know who you are within the whole of it all and to don the mask only when it is expedient to do so-never forgetting that it’s a mask!

To Be a Witch

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.

The Witches Cauldron

The cauldron, like the broomstick and the black cat, is one of the features of any scene of witchcraft as pictured in the popular mind.

Some of the belief derives from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, where the witches’ cauldron is introduced on the stage, with its accompanying dances and incantations.

Actors regard Macbeth, because of the witch-scenes in it, as an unlucky and uncanny play.

However, the connection between the cauldron and witchcraft dates back to a long time before Macbeth; back, in fact, to the days of Ancient Greece.

Greek legend contains the story of Medea, the witch of Colchis, whom Jason married in the course of his search for the Golden Fleece.

Medea was a priestess of Hecate, the goddess of the moon and of witchcraft; and not only did she have a cauldron, but she also had a coven too.

According to Robert Graves in his Greek Myths (Penguin Books, London, 1957 and Baltimore, Maryland, 1955), Medea was attended by twelve Phaeacian bond-maidens, who assisted her in her horrible plot to kill King Pelias with the aid of her magic cauldron.

In Ancient Britain and Ireland magical cauldrons featured largely in religious mysteries.

Heroes went into strange enchanted realms of the Other World to win a wonderful cauldron as a prize for their adventures.

It is the writer’s belief that a far-off echo of this survives in folk-memory as the custom of giving ornamental cups, usually of gold or silver, as the reward for sporting contests.

The delirious excitement of the Cup Final, when the victorious team raises the great, shining, hard-won Cup to the cheering crowd, has its origin far off in ancient myth.

The transformation of the cauldron into a cup is evidenced by the legends of the Holy Grail, which has its roots in pre-Christian Celtic myth.

With the coming of Christianity, the Cauldron of Inspiration and Rebirth, for which Arthur and his followers sought in perilous and uncanny realms of the shades, as sung of in bardic poetry, became the Holy Grail, for which the Knights of the Round Table rode forth upon the quest.

The witches, however, kept the old pagan version, and the cauldron, originally that of the Druidic moon goddess Cerridwen, became their symbol.

A cauldron is an all-embracing symbol of Nature, the Great Mother. As a vessel, it represents the feminine principle. Standing upon three legs, it recalls the triple moon goddess.

The four elements of Life enter into it, as it needs fire to boil it, water to fill it, the green herbs of earth to cook it, and its fragrant steam arises into air.

The cauldron in fact represented a great step forward in civilization.

Before man was able to make metal cooking pots, which would withstand fire, they had to be content with thick earthenware pots, which were heated by the laborious process of dropping very hot stones into them.

The metal cauldron, over which the woman as head of the household presided, gave men better-cooked food, more plentifiul hot water to cleanse themselves,

Witchcraft – The Four Fire Festivals

The Fire Festivals interweave themselves with the lesser Sabbats of the solstice and equinox, but whereas the solstices and equinoxes mark the transitions of the Sun in its association with the Earth, the Fire Festivals mark the transitions of the seasons of Earth, the initiation of the transitions that are actualized and obvious at solstice and equinox.

Both Goddess and God are representative of all of the eight Sabbats of the Wheel, but, like day follows night, and as inherent in the day is the night (and vice versa), one face of this dual force will seem more manifest than the other in either the Fire Festivals or the Solar/Earth Sabbats.

The Wheel of the Fire Festivals progresses as follows: Samhain (also known, more recently and as a result of the Christianizing of this festival, as Halloween, or All Hallows); the Feast of Bride (also known as Imbolc); Beltane ; and Llughnassad (also known as Oimelcand, resulting from the Christianizing of this Sabbat, as Candlemas).

Witchcraft The Disciplines

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Hailed, and walled, with garnet and with topaz

The Temples of my Family!

Deep in scarlet velvet and in black

Come lay with me

Entwine and sweat and softly moan before the Fire;

Beneath the Veil of candles

Lit to show the Way

But slightly, darkly

Unto the music of ghosts;

Unto the ringing of bells within the Shrine

All-hallowed in the rapture

Of the Legend of the Vine

Saved from bleak mortality

By drinking from the Chalice

Of the twice-born; blood turned wine.

And so the Light and Dark were joined for a while

just long enough for each of Them to remember that their purpose was not to hate each other, nor disdain each the other, but to love each of the other simply because they were not each other.

Somehow it all got so messed up, so complicated, so confusing; they were never meant to be enemies

whatever gave us that idea?