Category: Articles

Interested in Having an Open Witchcraft Chat with Our WOTC Family?

I am wondering if anyone would be interested in attending an open, free witchy chat? It would be hosted on the third Sunday of the month starting around 1:00 or 2:00 PM CDT OR CST depending on the time of the year in a Skype meeting room by me or another seasoned witch if I am not available. I or someone else might suggest a topic to discuss or it could be whatever comes up that day. Why am I suggesting this for our WOTC Family? I would enjoy getting to know you outside of comments and emails. The time it would last depending on how many are attending and how long everyone wants to stick around. If another Sunday would work better for you, please put it in the comments with your “Yes” answer.

If you would be interested, please put “YES” in the comment section. I will tell you I am not going to do this unless a minimum of 10 people are interested.

A Very Brief History of Witches

Between 1482 and 1782, thousands of people across Europe – most of them women – were accused of witchcraft and subsequently executed. But why were so many innocent people suspected of such a crime? Historian and broadcaster Suzannah Lipscomb explores the history of witches…

Witches are everywhere. In fairytales, fantasy and satire, they appear time and again as a versatile synonym for evil and transgression. But, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, men and women of both high and low status believed in witches’ ubiquity in a far more disturbing way. Lord chief justice Anderson noted in 1602: “The land is full of witches… they abound in all places” – not as a symbol or figure of fun, but as a deadly threat to life, livelihood and divine order.

Witches in numbers: how many people were killed?

The large-scale persecution, prosecution and execution of witches in these centuries was an extraordinary phenomenon. It is also an episode of European history that has spawned many myths and much inaccuracy. Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code is one of the purveyors of such erroneous hype, stating: “The church burned at the stake an astounding 5 million women”, which would be astounding if true. The actual numbers are far lower, but still striking: between 1482 and 1782, around 100,000 people across Europe were accused of witchcraft, and some 40–50,000 were executed.

Neither were witches (with the exception of some targeted by the Spanish Inquisition) generally persecuted by the church. Although belief in witches was orthodox doctrine, following Exodus 22.18, the 16th and 17th-century witch trials were the result of witchcraft becoming a crime under law, and witches were prosecuted by the state. In England, witchcraft became a crime in 1542, a statute renewed in 1562 and 1604. As such, most witches across Europe received the usual penalty for murder – hanging (though in Scotland and under the Spanish Inquisition witches were burned).

Male witches

Nor were all witches women – men could be witches too. Across Europe, 70–80 per cent of people accused of witchcraft were female – though the proportions of female witches were higher in certain areas: the bishopric of Basel; the county of Namur (modern Belgium); Hungary; Poland; and Essex, England. But one in five witches were male across Europe, and in some places, males predominated – in Moscow, male witches outnumbered women 7:3; in Normandy 3:1.

Nevertheless, because women were believed to be morally and spiritually weaker than men, they were thought to be particularly vulnerable to diabolic persuasion. Most of those accused were also poor and elderly; many were widows, and menopausal and post-menopausal women are disproportionally represented among them.

In my two-part series, Witch Hunt: A Century of Murder (which aired in October 2015 on Channel 5), we seek to investigate witchcraft prosecution in the British Isles. Although witchcraft trials happened in every county in the country, the best evidence survives from three major witch crazes in the British Isles – in 1590s Edinburgh; 1612 Lancashire; and 1640s Essex and East Anglia, and we focus on those.

James VI and I

Above all, we have tried to consider the perspective of the victims – that is, those who were accused of witchcraft. We consider the circumstances in which alleged witches were accused, and the power of both neighbourhood accusation and elite sanction (James VI and I’s book on the subject of witchcraft, Daemonologie, published in 1597, is a case in point). We examine the way that torture – though illegal in England – was employed in late 16th-century Scotland and during the upheaval of the Civil War. We explore the role of the witchfinder, but also the willing collaboration of ordinary people in ridding the land of witches. And we look at what someone accused of witchcraft experienced as their fate.

It is a sad, sorry and often harrowing tale – but it is one that needs to be heard.

Source: historyextra.com

Kitchen Witchcraft: Find Magic in the Everyday c.2016

Different Paths of Witchcraft: Dianic Witch c.2018

Zsuzsanna Budapest, founder of Dianic Wicca. Z Budapest fought for the right to get paid for tarot readings and WON

Dianic Witch

Origins of Dianic Wicca:
Born of the feminist movement and founded by hereditary witch Zsuzsanna Budapest, Dianic Wicca embraces the Goddess but spends little time on her male counterpart. Most Dianic Wiccan covens are female-only, but a few have welcomed men into their groups, with the intention of adding some much-needed polarity. In some areas, the phrase Dianic Wiccan came to mean lesbian witch, but that is not always the case, as Dianic covens welcome women of any sexual orientation.

Budapest says specifically, “We always recognize, when we say “Goddess,” that She is the Life-giver, the Life-sustainer. She is Mother Nature.”

“There are only two kinds of people in the world: mothers and their children. Mothers can give life to each other as well as to men, who are not able to do the same for themselves. This constitutes a dependency upon the Female Life Force for life renewed, and was accepted naturally in ancient times by our ancient forebearers as a sacred gift of the Goddess. In patriarchal times this sacred gift was turned against women, and used to force them to give up roles of independence and power.”

Cursing & Hexing:
While many Wiccan paths follow a belief system that limits hexing, cursing or negative magic, some Dianic Wiccans make an exception to that rule. Budapest, a noted feminist Wiccan writer, has argued that hexing or binding those who do harm to women is acceptable.

Honoring the Goddess:
Dianic covens celebrate the eight Sabbats, and use similar altar tools to other Wiccan traditions. However, among the Dianic community there is not a lot of continuity in ritual or practice – they simply self-identify as Dianic to indicate that they follow a Goddess-based, feminine-focused spiritual path.

The core belief of Dianic Wicca, as founded by Z Budapest, states that the tradition “is a holistic religious system based on a Goddess-centered cosmology and the primacy of She Who is All and Whole unto Herself.”

Recent Controversies:
Dianic Wicca – and specifically, Z Budapest herself – has been at the center of a few controversies lately. At the 2011 PantheaCon, transgender women were specifically excluded from a women’s ritual hosted by a Dianic group. Budapest’s statements afterwards regarding the incident led to accusations of transphobia against her and the Dianic tradition, when she said, “These individuals selfishly never think about the following: if women allow men to be incorporated into Dianic Mysteries, What will women own on their own? Nothing! Again! Transies who attack us only care about themselves. We women need our own culture, our own resourcing, our own traditions. You can tell these are men, They don’t care if women loose the Only tradition reclaimed after much research and practice, the Dianic Tradition. Men simply want in. its their will. How dare us women not let them in and give away the ONLY spiritual home we have!”

On her group’s website, Budapest states that membership is open to cisgendered women (“Open to women born-women”) only.
Following the PantheaCon controversy, a number of offshoot groups of the Dianic tradition distanced themselves from Budapest and her coven. One group, the Amazon Priestess Tribe, publicly retired from the lineage with a press release that read, “We cannot support a policy of universal exclusion based upon gender at our Goddess-centered rites, nor can we condone disregard or insensitivity in communications regarding the topic of gender inclusion and Goddess-centered practice. We feel it inappropriate to remain members of a lineage where our views and practices diverge significantly from those of the primary lineage holder.”

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The Dianic Tradition

Dianic Wicca, also known as Dianic Witchcraft and Dianic Feminist Witchcraft,[1] is a tradition, or Religious denomination, of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It was founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s, and is notable for its focus on the worship of the Goddess, and on feminism. It combines elements of British Traditional Wicca, Italian folk-magic recorded in Charles Leland’s Aradia, feminist values, and ritual, folk magic, and healing practices Budapest learned from her mother.

It is most often practiced in female-only covens.

Beliefs and practices
Most Dianic Wiccans worship the Goddess only, believing that She is the source of all living and contains all within Her. There are Dianic witches who practice other forms of paganism (possibly including honoring a male deity or deities) outside of their Dianic practice. Some Dianics are monotheistic, some are polytheistic, some are atheist.

Most Dianics worship in female-only (as defined by Dianics usually as cisgender women, which excludes transgender women from their sisterhood) circles and covens, but there are mixed-gender Dianic traditions. Eclecticism, appreciation of cultural diversity, ecological concern, and familiarity with sophisticated concepts of psyche and transformation are characteristic. Originally lesbians formed the majority of the movement, however modern Dianic groups may be all-lesbian, all-heterosexual or mixed.

Most Dianic Wiccans as “positive path” practitioners do neither manipulative spellwork nor hexing because it goes against the Wiccan Rede; other Dianic witches (notably Zsuzsanna Budapest) do not consider hexing or binding of those who attack women to be wrong.

Differences between Dianic and mainstream Wicca
Like other Wiccans, Dianics may form covens, attend festivals, celebrate the eight major Wiccan holidays, Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc (or Imbolg), Lammas, the solstices and equinoxes (see Wheel of the Year) and the Esbats, which are rituals usually held at the full moon or dark moon. They use many of the same altar tools, rituals and vocabulary as other Wiccans. Dianics may also gather in more informal Circles.

The most noticeable differences between the two are that Dianic covens are usually female-only while other Wiccan covens are usually mixed, some aiming for equal numbers of men and women, and that most Wiccans worship the God and Goddess, while Dianics generally worship the Goddess as Whole Unto Herself; or if they worship the God, it is as a consort of the Goddess, rather than an equal.

It should be noted many Wiccans do not consider the Dianic path to be Wiccan at all as they only venerate, and sometimes espouse only the existence of, the Goddess.

Other Dianic traditions
Broadly speaking, Dianic tradition refers to the beliefs, practices, practitioners and history of woman’s mysteries, earth-religion, Neopagan Goddess worshippers. It is synonymous with the Neopagan religious traditions that place emphasis on the feminine divine. The term Dianic is derived from the Roman goddess of the moon, hunting and childbirth, Diana whose companion Nymphs were female.

The three main branches of Dianic Neopaganism are known as:
Dianic Wicca, a feminine tradition of Wicca started by Zsuzsanna Budapest and her 1980s book, The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries.
McFarland Dianic, a Neopagan Fairy lineage tradition started by Mark Roberts and Morgan McFarland. One of relatively few Dianic traditions which accepts male members.

The Living Temple of Diana, an emerging shamanic witchcraft tradition of Dianic witchcraft started by Devin Hunter. The Living Temple of Diana’s practices center around empowerment, sovereignty, and carries the motto “We were created whole” as its creed. The Living Temple of Diana does not recognize gender or gender variation as a point of interest in its worship or witchcraft and as such accepts male, female, and transgendered members. Its lineage pulls from the Cult of Diana and was created as an alternative method of Dianic worship and witchcraft for those who are not concerned with CIS only circles.

(Non-Wiccan) Dianic Witches, who may have been inspired by Z Budapest, the New York Redstocking’s W.I.T.C.H. manifesto, or woman’s spirituality movements, who emphasize self-initiation, womanism and non-hierarchical organization. Most Dianics fall into this category, even if some acknowledge Z. Budapest as a foremother, because they do not participate in the initiation/ordination lineage of Dianic Wicca.
Dianic tradition is difficult to define because it has a limited historical basis and no formally defined doctrine. For some, Dianic Wicca is every day folk religion, hedge-witchery or kitchen-witchery; for others, Dianic tradition is more formal, with highly developed liturgy and cosmology. For most, in its essence Dianic tradition is a Woman’s Mysteries tradition, linked to such traditions across time and across cultures. They are a celebration of woman’s bodies, woman’s experiences, the Divine Feminine, and the biology and culture of womanhood, rather than rejection or dismissal of men and masculinity.

Most Dianic’s conceive of and experience the pagan Wheel of the Year in terms of both seasonal reality and also the life stages of women and of the Great Goddess: maiden, mother, queen, crone and hag.

Some Dianics, like other Wiccans, celebrate together in large-group rituals and spell-crafting on the sabbats (seasonal holy days) or the esbats (full-moon days). There are Dianic covens and circles, however many Dianics are solitary practitioners by preference or circumstance.

References

Patti Wigington, ThoughtCo.com

1.0 1.1 Falcon River (2004) The Dianic Wiccan Tradition. From The Witches Voice. Retrieved 2007-05-23.

J. River (2004) The Dianic Tradition. From The Witches’ Voice. Retrieved 2007-05-23.

Beltane

Beltane

Beltane’s energy is about sexuality, beauty, and manifestation. Make aphrodisiacs, love charms, and potions during this sabbat. Charm your beauty products and makeup and adding botanicals that can boost their magickal properties. Make charms manifesting your goals. Leave them in your wallet, your car, or even every room in your house. Soak orange peels in white vinegar for two weeks, strain, and add the same amount of Moon-blessed water as the vinegar to a bottle. Use it as a mirror cleanser so that whenever you look at your reflection, you see your inner and outer beauty reflected back on you. Make rosewater to add to your laundry wash to imbue your clothes with passionate energies. Put away your winter blankets and clothes. Tuck sachets of cloves, rosemary, and thyme in with them to keep them safe and to ward off moths until you need them again. Place carnelian in any space where you want more passionate energy to reside.

Source: Rachel Henderson Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook 2023 page 71

Brief Look At Different Traditions In Witchcraft – Teutonic c.2015

 

Teutonic Witchcraft

 

From ancient time the Teutons have been recognized as a group of people who speak the Germanic group of languages. Culturally, this included the English, Dutch, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish peoples. This is also known as the Nordic Tradition.

Beltane Explained: How to Celebrate Beltane Like an Ancient Celt

Europeans have been putting on fiery May Day festivals for hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of years.

Whether it’s celebrating Sankt Walpurgisnacht (“Saint Walpurgis Night”) in Germany with bonfires, or celebrating Pálení čarodějnic (“burning of the witches”) in the Czech Republic with the burning of a twenty-five-foot-tall effigy of a witch, or even celebrating Easter in the Netherlands with some Paasvuren (“Easter fires”), these long-standing springtime traditions might all owe their existence to the Celtic cross-quarter day festival of Beltane.

Okay, fine, that’s a bit presumptuous. At the very least, Beltane likely influenced these celebrations, or at the very, very least, Beltane and Walpurgis Night and similar celebrations all share a common prehistoric (i.e., pre-Celtic, pre-Germanic) celebratory ancestor.

According to the World History Encyclopedia, Walpurgis Night, celebrated on the evening of April 30th, is derived from the “merging of the ancient pagan celebration of Beltane with the commemoration of the canonization of the Christian Saint Walpurga (l. c. 710 – c. 777 CE).”

The Encyclopedia goes on to note that the “ancient Celtic Sabbat (religious festival) of Beltane” had “merged with Germanic May Day” and was later Christianized sometime after 870 CE when Walpurga—a British-born Christian missionary and healer known for her ability to combat witchcraft—was canonized in Germany.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, the bishop of Cashel and king of Munster Cormac (d. 908 CE), was writing about Beltane in his eponymous glossary. Cormac claimed the festival of Beltane was named for the “lucky fire” or the “the two fires,” and he described how Irish pagans would drive cattle between two hillside bonfires in order to protect them from disease during their migration to summer pasturelands.

But look at me, getting ahead of myself here, like a bull charging between stacks of yet-to-be-lit firewood on an Irish hillside.

Before we explore all of the rituals associated with the ancient Celtic festival of Beltane, let’s cover the basics, starting with the definition and etymology of Beltane.

What is Beltane? (Definition and Etymology)…

Click her to read the rest of this article about Beltane

Samhain

Samhain Sources: bbc.co.uk

Samhain (pronounced ‘sow’inn’) is a very important date in the Pagan calendar for it marks the Feast of the Dead. Many Pagans also celebrate it as the old Celtic New Year (although some mark this at Imbolc). It is also celebrated by non-Pagans who call this festival Halloween.

Samhain has been celebrated in Britain for centuries and has its origin in Pagan Celtic traditions. It was the time of year when the veils between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be at their thinnest: when the spirits of the dead could most readily mingle with the living once again. Later, when the festival was adopted by Christians, they celebrated it as All Hallows’ Eve, followed by All Saints Day, though it still retained elements of remembering and honouring the dead.

To most modern Pagans, while death is still the central theme of the festival this does not mean it is a morbid event. For Pagans, death is not a thing to be feared. Old age is valued for its wisdom and dying is accepted as a part of life as necessary and welcome as birth. While Pagans, like people of other faiths, always honour and show respect for their dead, this is particularly marked at Samhain. Loved ones who have recently died are remembered and their spirits often invited to join the living in the celebratory feast. It is also a time at which those born during the past year are formally welcomed into the community. As well as feasting, Pagans often celebrate Samahin with traditional games such as apple-dooking.

Death also symbolises endings and Samhain is therefore not only a time for reflecting on mortality, but also on the passing of relationships, jobs and other significant changes in life. A time for taking stock of the past and coming to terms with it, in order to move on and look forward to the future.

Ancient Celtic celebrations

Not only did the Celts believe the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead dissolved on this night, they thought that the presence of the spirits helped their priests to make predictions about the future.

To celebrate Samhain the Druids built huge sacred bonfires. People brought harvest food and sacrificed animals to share a communal dinner in celebration of the festival.

During the celebration the Celts wore costumes – usually animal heads and skins. They would also try and tell each other’s fortunes.

After the festival they re-lit the fires in their homes from the sacred bonfire to help protect them, as well as keep them warm during the winter months.

Fertility Deities of Beltane c. 2017

Fertility Deities of Beltane

Beltane is a time of great fertility — for the earth itself, for animals, and of course for people as well. This season has been celebrated by cultures going back thousands of years, in a variety of ways, but nearly all shared the fertility aspect. Typically, this is a Sabbat to celebrate gods of the hunt or of the forest, and goddesses of passion and motherhood, as well as agricultural deities. Here are a list of gods and goddesses that can be honored as part of your tradition’s Beltane rituals.

Artemis (Greek): The moon goddess Artemis was associated with the hunt and was seen as a goddess of forests and hillsides. This pastoral connection made her a part of spring celebrations in later periods.

Bes (Egyptian): Worshiped in later dynasties, Bes was a household protection god, and watched over mothers and young children. He and his wife, Beset, were paired up in rituals to cure problems with infertility.

Bacchus (Roman): Considered the equivalent of Greek god Dionysus, Bacchus was the party god — grapes, wine, and general debauchery were his domain. In March each year, Roman women could attend secret ceremonies called the bacchanalia, and he is associated with sexual free-for-alls and fertility.

Cernunnos (Celtic): Cernunnos is a horned god found in Celtic mythology. He is connected with male animals, particularly the stag in rut, and this has led him to be associated with fertility and vegetation. Depictions of Cernunnos are found in many parts of the British Isles and western Europe. He is often portrayed with a beard and wild, shaggy hair — he is, after all, the lord of the forest.

Flora (Roman): This goddess of spring and flowers had her own festival, Floralia, which was celebrated every year between April 28 to May 3. Romans dressed in bright robes and floral wreaths, and attended theater performances and outdoor shows. Offerings of milk and honey were made to the goddess.

Hera (Greek): This goddess of marriage was the equivalent of the Roman Juno, and took it upon herself to bestow good tidings to new brides. A maiden about to marry could make offerings to Hera, in the hopes that she would bless the marriage with fertility. In her earliest forms, she appears to have been a nature goddess, who presides over wildlife and nurses the young animals which she holds in her arms.

Kokopelli (Hopi): This flute-playing, dancing spring god carries unborn children upon his own back, and then passes them out to fertile women. In the Hopi culture, he is part of rites that relate to marriage and childbearing, as well as the reproductive abilities of animals. Often portrayed with rams and stags, symbolic of his fertility, Kokopelli occasionally is seen with his consort, Kokopelmana.

Pan (Greek): This agricultural god watched over shepherds and their flocks. He was a rustic sort of god, spending lots of time roaming the woods and pastures, hunting and playing music on his flute. Pan is typically portrayed as having the hindquarters and horns of a goat, similar to a faun. Because of his connection to fields and the forest, he is often honored as a spring fertility god.

Priapus (Greek): This fairly minor rural god has one giant claim to fame — his permanently erect and enormous phallus. The son of Aphrodite by Dionysus (or possibly Zeus, depending on the source), Priapus was mostly worshiped in homes rather than in an organized cult. Despite his constant lust, most stories portray him as sexually frustrated, or even impotent. However, in agricultural areas he was still regarded as a god of fertility, and at one point he was considered a protective god, who threatened sexual violence against anyone — male or female — who transgressed the boundaries he guarded.

Sheela-na-Gig (Celtic): Although the Sheela-na-Gig is technically the name applied to the carvings of women with exaggerated vulvae that have been found in Ireland and England, there’s a theory that the carvings are representative of a lost pre-Christian goddess. Typically, the Sheela-na-Gig adorns buildings in areas of Ireland that were part of the Anglo-Norman conquests in the 12th century. She is shown as a homely woman with a giant yoni, which is spread wide to accept the seed of the male. Folkloric evidence indicates that the figures are theory that the figures were part of a fertility rite, similar to “birthing stones”, which were used to bring on conception.

Xochiquetzal (Aztec): This fertility goddess was associated with spring, and represented not only flowers but the fruits of life and abundance. She was also the patron goddess of prostitutes and craftsmen.

Source: Patti Wigington Published on ThoughtCo

7 Rules of Life, Witchcraft Style c.2018

Various Traditions of Witchcraft and Wicca: The Alexandrian Wicca c.2018

Alexandrian Wicca

Origins of Alexandrian Wicca:

Formed by Alex Sanders and his wife Maxine, Alexandrian Wicca is very similar to the Gardnerian tradition. Although Sanders claimed to have been initiated into witchcraft in the early 1930s, he was also a member of a Gardnerian coven before breaking off to start his own tradition in the 1960s. Alexandrian Wicca is typically a blend of ceremonial magic with heavy Gardnerian influences and a dose of Hermetic Kabbalah mixed in.

However, as with most other magical traditions, keep in mind that not everyone practices the same way.

Alexandrian Wicca focuses on the polarity between the genders, and rites and ceremonies often dedicate equal time to the God and the Goddess. While Alexandrian ritual tool use and the names of the deities differ from Gardnerian tradition, Maxine Sanders has been famously quoted as saying, “If it works, use it.” Alexandrian covens do a good deal of work with ceremonial magic, and they meet during new moons, full moons, and for the eight Wiccan Sabbats.

In addition, the Alexandrian Wiccan tradition holds that all participants are priests and priestesses; everyone is able to commune with the Divine, therefore there is no laity.

Influences from Gardner:
Similar to the Gardnerian tradition, Alexandrian covens initiate members into a degree system. Some begin training at a neophyte level, and then advance to First Degree.

In other covens, a new initiate is automatically given the title of First Degree, as a priest or priestess of the tradition. Typically, initiations are performed in a cross-gender system – a female priestess must initiate a male priest, and a male priest must initiate female members of the tradition.

According to Ronald Hutton, in his book Triumph of the Moon, many of the differences between Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca have blurred over the past few decades. It is not uncommon to find someone who is degreed in both systems, or to find a coven of one tradition that accepts a member degreed in the other system.

Who Was Alex Sanders?
A Witchvox article by an author listed only as an Elder of the Alexandrian Tradition says, “Alex was flamboyant and, among other things, a born showman. He played the press at every opportunity, much to the dismay of more conservative Wiccan Elders of the time. Alex also was known for being a healer, diviner, and a powerful Witch and magician. His forays into the media led to the publication of the romanticized biography King of the Witches, by June Johns, and later the publication of the classic Wiccan “coven biography, ” What Witches Do, by Stewart Farrar. The Sanders became household names in the UK during the 60’s and 70’s, and are responsible to a great degree for bringing the Craft into the public eye for the first time.”

Sanders passed away on April 30, 1988, after a battle with lung cancer, but his influence and the impact of his tradition is still felt today.

There are numerous Alexandrian groups in the United States and Britain, most of which maintain some degree of secrecy, and continue to keep their practices and other information oathbound. Included under this umbrella is the philosophy that one must never out another Wiccan; privacy is a core value.

Contrary to popular belief, Sanders never made his tradition’s Book of Shadows public, at least not in its entirety. While there are collections of Alexandrian information available to the general public – both in print and online – these are not the full tradition, and were generally designed as training materials for new initiates. The only way to access a complete Alexandrian BOS, or the full collection of information about the tradition itself, is to be initiated into a coven as an Alexandrian Wiccan.

Maxine Sanders Today
Today, Maxine Sanders has retired from the work that she and her husband spent much of their lives on, and practices alone. However, she still makes herself available for occasional consultations. From Maxine’s webpage, “Today, Maxine practices the Art Magical and celebrates the Craft’s rituals either in the mountains or in her stone cottage, Bron Afon. Maxine practices her Magic alone; she has retired from the work of teaching. Her vocation as a Priestess includes counseling those who are in need of kindness, truth and hope. She is often approached by those in the Craft who are not too proud to test the strength of the shoulders of those who have gone before. Maxine is a highly respected Priestess of the Sacred Mysteries. She has encouraged, enabled and inspired students of the Priesthood to take on the conscious mantle of their spiritual potential. She believes the catalyst for that inspiration comes from the Cauldron of the Goddess in all its guises.”

The Alexandrian Tradition

The Alexandrian tradition of Wicca was established in the 1960s by Alex Sanders and his wife Maxine.

Originally, Alex claimed to have been initiated by his grandmother when he was seven years old(reference, The King of the Witches by June Johns), but later admitted that this was untrue. In fact, he was initiated into a regular Gardnerian coven, by one of Patricia and Arnold Crowther’s initiates, a lady by the name of Pat Kopanski.

When Alex began to publicize Wicca, he encountered strong opposition from more traditional members of the Craft. Some saw it as nothing more than a bid by Alex for personal notoriety; others that he was profaning a mystery. Whatever his motivation, the publicity certainly made people aware of his existence; he and Maxine initiated a great many people in the 1960s and 1970s, including Stewart Farrar and Janet Owen.

Janet and Stewart married, and over the past twenty odd years have published several books about Wicca.

What Witches Do, published in 1971 (written during Stewart’s first year as a witch), focuses completely upon the Alexandrian tradition, and remains the best guide to the way in which a typical Alexandrian coven operates. Rare, but perhaps still available in second hand shops, is a record of Janet’s initiation, narrated by Stewart, called A Witch is Born, which also sheds some light on the traditional Alexandrian coven.

It is, of course, hard to quantify just what makes the essential “Alexandrian Tradition,” as covens vary considerably, even within the same culture. I have yet to encounter two covens who work precisely the same way, even from the same line. Generally though, Alexandrian covens focus strongly upon training, which includes 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 weekly, or at least on Full Moons, New Moons and Festivals.

Most Alexandrian covens will allow non-initiates to attend circles, usually as a “neophyte,” who undergoes basic training in circle craft, and completes a number of projects, prior to being accepted by the coven for initiation to 1st degree. Some, though not all, Alexandrian covens will also welcome noninitiated “guests” at certain meetings. My own first experience of Wicca was as a guest of an Alexandrian coven.

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.

That said, over the last thirty years, the two traditions have moved slowly towards each other, and the differences which marked lines of demarcation are slowly fading away. Individual covens certainly continue to maintain different styles and working practices, but it is possible to speak today of “Wicca”encompassing both traditions.

 

Source: Patti Wigington Originally published on ThoughtCo.com

The Fear of Witchcraft c. 2016

The Fear of Witchcraft

Author: Crick

I have often wondered why there is so much fear and hatred of witches and witchcraft in general. For generations, there have been negative and misleading interpretations of witches and the path of witchcraft. And it continues to this very day in a society where folks have had ample time to overcome such misunderstandings and fear of such a viable and interesting path.

Witchcraft has been in existence since the beginning of humankind. It came about as a natural progression in an attempt to understand and influence those forces around us, which in many ways are an extension of what we know as life but which often exceeds our ability to fully comprehend.

As such, fear was often an accompanying component of witchcraft due to the unknowns one had to venture into in order to follow this unique path. Somewhere along the human chain of existence, such fears of the unknown also led to the creation of religions. All religions were/are created by a desire of the few to have in place a structure of understanding the mysteries of life as they, the creators of whatever religion, perceived them.

In order to provide a signature, if you will, to their particular brand of beliefs, they also instituted a rigid format we know as dogma. This format spells out the boundaries that one is required to adhere to, in order to identify with that particular religion. Dogma spells out the way one is to think and the beliefs that they are expected to adhere to. There is very little room for questioning the content of such beliefs within a particular religion. To do so is often considered heresy and can lead to the expulsion of one from the religion that is being exposed to such questioning.

“Faith” is often the word used to deter folks from seeking to find answers that cannot be satisfactorily explained to those seeking a deeper comprehension of their chosen religion. While the majority of the 400 plus religions in the world (the vast majority of which were created by men) are content to display their beliefs/dogma and to let those who identify with such beliefs to voluntarily become members of their flock, there are, unfortunately, some religions which chose to employ apologists to draw members to their beliefs. They also turned to intimidation and in some cases, extreme violence which, at times, led to death of those who chose a different religion or spiritual path.

As a validation of such means, they chose witchcraft as the antithesis of their beliefs and used this as a means to further validate their unbridled attempts to control the hearts and minds of their fellow humans. And this is where religion and the path of witchcraft splits into divergent mindsets.

As already noted, religions of all types share a common ground. They provide a structured means of thought and action in order to approach the unknowns and the uncertainties of life. In short, religions create a sense of security for those folks who are unable or unwilling to face the unknown.

Witchcraft on the other hand encourages one to actively face the unknown. As humans we are limited in our knowledge of the great scheme of things. But as a witch, one is very aware that there are in fact beings, realms and forces that are just beyond our comprehension and at times our awareness. To actively seek an understanding of the great mysteries of life, effectively moves one beyond the control of fellow humans and thus dogma serves as a barrier. By removing such barriers, one becomes free of the fetters of a religion by becoming a free thinker and a true spiritual seeker.

And the removal of such dogmas is seen as anathema to those religions who see control of the human mind and soul as necessary for the validation of their particular religion. Witchcraft involves embracing one’s fear of the unknown and seeking out answers and experiences that are not of the societal norm. As such, I personally see fear not as a impediment but rather as an initiator, a desire to understand the reason for such fear. For knowledge is the key to opening the door of wisdom. This is not to say that religion is wrong for all folks. For those who are content to follow a structured way of approaching life, well, a religion may well be the path for you. But for those that want to expand their consciousness and spiritual experience, then perhaps witchcraft is the path to follow.

Unfortunately, the mindset of this world that we live in does not allow the freedom of choice for two such divergent approaches to the mysteries of life. Why do certain religions need to display such hatred and misunderstanding towards a path that seeks to think outside of the box that they have created for their man-made beliefs?

The insecurities that has led to the creation of religions, especially those religions which rely upon and which need absolute control of the mindset of their members, leaves no room for alternative mindsets such as witchcraft. However, it is ironic to note that those who engage in witchcraft are not focused on attacking members of any particular religions. We choose instead to focus on on pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, which should not be confused with the propaganda and outright lies that have been proffered by those who oppose the mental and spiritual freedoms that witchcraft offers.

As long as such insecurities by certain religions continue to play a dominant role in their dogma, well, the fear and misunderstanding of witchcraft will continue.

In closing, contrary to popular belief, witchcraft is not for everyone. It is not a path that can or should be engaged in superficially. But for those that devote themselves to the desire to understand mysteries just beyond one’s ken, well the spiritual rewards can be many indeed.
But keep in mind as well that such a path can also contain many pitfalls. For a witch is travelling along unknown roads, and it is only through trial and indeed error that one can grow via such a path. Which in turn brings us full circle to the fear factor that lies at the base of the misunderstandings of witchcraft…

Witchcraft

Despite a generation of excellent research, the history of witchcraft remains bedeviled by a host of misperceptions. Ordinary readers often assume that the major witch-hunts occurred in the Middle Ages, that they were conducted by the Catholic Church, and that they reflected the prescientific notions and sexual fantasies of fanatics and neurotics. Elsewhere one can read that huge chain reaction witch trials constituted a “women’s holocaust” accounting for millions of deaths, and that the witch-hunters especially targeted midwives and female healers. All of these conclusions are both wrong and misleading. The great age of witchcraft trials came after 1430, and primarily after 1570. The prosecuting magistrates were almost always secular officials, imbued with the best thinking of prominent theologians, philosophers, and even scientists. The numbers of those executed have often been exaggerated by a factor of one or two hundred. Men made up perhaps a quarter of those executed, and there is little evidence that midwives or healers were singled out for suspicion anywhere. But historical prejudices are hard to uproot.

UNDERSTANDINGS OF WITCHCRAFT

Depending on one’s definition, various histories of witchcraft are defensible. It was once common, for example, to understand the crime of witchcraft as consisting essentially of having a pact with the devil, an agreement in which one exchanged one’s eternal soul for monstrous powers. Such a crime of diabolism had not existed in the ancient world and only slowly emerged from the medieval campaign against magic and heresy, especially against medieval heretics such as the Cathars and Waldensians, groups who challenged both Catholic doctrines and papal jurisdiction. By the late fourteenth century, however, canon lawyers, prominent inquisitors, learned academics, and several popes came to agree that by means of a contract with the devil, whether explicit or only implicit, a magician might work genuine harm in this world. These theorists also gradually worked out a composite view of all the different sorts of crimes and activities their heresy involved. It was increasingly believed that witch-heretics flew off to a “sabbath” where they renounced their Christian faith and baptism, worshipped the devil, danced together, and enjoyed a cannibalistic feast, devouring children whom they had killed while using their fat or other body parts to make loathsome potions. They were also thought to receive instruction in working harmful magic by which they might destroy their neighbors’ crops, interfere with the fertility of their cattle, and with the sex lives of those around them. Most luridly, witches were thought to have sexual relations with the devil or with lesser demons. During the fifteenth century large numbers of heretical “witches” or sorcerers began to be discovered, and increasingly they were women.

Another definition of witchcraft emphasizes the continuity of magical practices that witches had used in the West ever since classical times and the similarities between such practices and those found all around the world. On such an understanding, witchcraft is the belief in and use of unusual, secret, or even supernatural forces in order to force or promote specific desired ends. The ancient Greeks had believed in such magic but had not seen it as much of a daily threat. They originally thought that “magic” (mageia) was the strange, foreign religious practice of Persian priests (the magi) and of beggars or other dishonorable Greeks. Magic seemed both alien and disreputable. In Greek literature, the figure of the witch included characters such as Circe and Medea, women who used destructive magic to express their anger, lust, and frustration, but magic does not seem to have been a prominent fear among the Greeks. With the ancient Romans, however, harmful magic (maleficium) was forbidden in the earliest set of laws (the Twelve Tables, 451 B. C.E.) and was punished with increasing severity. The Roman historian Livy (History 39.41.5 and 40.43.2f) recounts episodes when apparently thousands of persons were executed by jittery judicial officials, and, in the late first century C.E., the Romans began to crack down on fraudulent magicae vanitates (‘worthless magic’), practices that included healing, divination, and astrology. Thus, this understanding of witchcraft did not require a devil or a pact but insisted on the dangers lurking in the hidden practices of lustful and vengeful witches.

A third notion of witchcraft may be found in the injunctions of the Old Testament, in which the authors of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Kings, for example, forbade necromancy and divination, practices that competed with the rituals of the Levites and sacrificial priests while also Click here to read the rest of this article Source: encyclopedia.com

Some of the Most Common Witchcraft Paths c. 2016

Hereditary Witchcraft c. 2015

Hereditary Witchcraft

A reader says, “I met a woman who tells me she’s a hereditary born witch who has been Wiccan from birth. What in the world does that actually mean?”

Well, it could mean a variety of things, but for me personally, it generally sends up a red flag when someone uses the phrase “born witch” or “Wiccan from birth.” I realize I’ll get some hatey emails over this, but let me explain why I say that.

You’re not born Christian or Muslim or Hindu.

There’s no “Wiccan DNA” that makes any one person more genetically witchy than someone who begins practicing in their fifties. You simply cannot be a Wiccan since birth because Wicca is an orthopraxic religious system that generally involves you doing and believing certain things that make you Wiccan. You can be raised by Wiccans – and many children are – but that doesn’t make you Wiccan from the moment you pop out of the womb, it simply means you were born to Wiccan parents.

That said, certainly, there seem to some people who may be more adept at Witchy Things at some point in their life, but there’s no chromosomal or biological difference in these folks as compared to the general population. You’ll obviously meet people that are psychically gifted, and whose parent or grandparent or child also displays these same traits. But if you operate on the assumption that everyone has some latent psychic ability anyway, it may be that these individuals were encouraged to use their talents while growing up, rather than repressing them like the majority of other people.

You may also encounter people in the Pagan community who claim “born witch” status because of some ancestral link to an individual in the past who was accused of witchcraft. We get regular emails here from people who want to know if Salem ancestry makes them special. It doesn’t (for a variety of reasons).

Also, there are certainly hereditary traditions of witchcraft, but by “hereditary” we don’t mean that the practices are biologically inherited. These are typically small, familial traditions in which beliefs and practices are handed down from one generation to the next, and outsiders are rarely included. PolyAna identifies as a hereditary witch, and her family hails from Appalachia.

She says, “In our family, what we do is more of a folk magic tradition. My son and I and my granddaughter – who is adopted – practice the same folk magic as my mother and grandmother did. We’ve done it as far back as anyone can remember. We follow the Celtic gods, and my Granny was nominally Catholic but brought a belief in the old gods with her from Ireland. She found a way to make it work, and we’ve carried on those traditions.”

PolyAna’s family practices aren’t typical, but there are certainly other hereditary traditions like hers out there – and it’s hard to even estimate how many there are, because the information is generally kept within the family and not shared with the general public. Again, this is a family tradition based on practices and beliefs, rather than any documentable genetic link. For families with an Italian background, Stregheria is sometimes practiced in the United States and other countries.

For many modern Pagans – including those in hereditary family traditions – witchcraft is either a skill set that is developed and honed over years of practice, or it’s a belief system that is seen as a religion that one spends a lifetime working towards. For some people, it’s a combination of the two.

So, after all that – could this person be part of a hereditary familial tradition? Absolutely, she certainly could. But if what she’s claiming is some sort of biological superiority that makes her witchier than everyone else, I’d consider it suspect at best.

Source: Patti Wigington,Paganism/Wicca Expert Article found on & owned by About.com

Solitary Witchcraft c. 2015

Solitary Witchcraft

There are many reasons for performing witchcraft alone: your personal circumstances or the location of your home may mean that you cannot travel to a group, or you may live in an area where there are few others who share your interests. Many witches like myself choose to practise alone, drawing in my family and close friends to celebrate with me on the festival days. Most solitary witches initiate themselves, though some traditions, such as the Saxon Seat Wicca founded by Raymond Buckland in the USA, do admit solitary witches.

Indeed, solitary practitioners are said by some to have been witches in seven previous lifetimes and to possess within them all they need to know about the Craft. Truth or myth, no one should underestimate the number of private practitioners who do work alone, some coming together occasionally in small, informal groups.

Solitary witches can use ceremonial magick very successfully, but many do follow the less formal folk magick, linked to the land and the seasons, that was practised by our ancestors in their homes. For this reason, some call themselves hedge-witches, from the times when a hedge, often of hawthorn, bounded the witch’s home, and it is sometimes said that they are walking on the hedge between two worlds. Such a witch may be in the tradition of the village wise women who knew about herbs and about the cycles of nature and used the implements of their kitchens rather than ceremonial tools.

She may also be gifted in divination, in spell-casting and in astral projection. Usually a woman, but occasionally a man, the solitary witch practises eclectic magick drawn from a variety of traditions.

Those expert in brews and potions are also called kitchen witches. Indeed, many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers who possessed a remarkable intuition, read the tea leaves and made herbal concoctions, were jokingly called witches by their own families – and were just that!

You have your choice of groves, stone circles, the ocean shore, your garden or balcony, where you can connect with the powers of nature and work unobtrusively. Whether you are working alone, or in a group, or coven, you will share the same aims and will need much the same equipment.

Source: A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magic Spells By Cassandra Eason

Talking To a Loved One Who Has Died

What to know about communicating with the dead

Talking to your loved one after their death is a common experience, and many people feel that the connection goes both ways.

Grief experts say these conversations can be a healthy coping tool and a source of comfort.

The desire to communicate with the dead is deeply human; cultures throughout history have practiced it in different ways.

In grief, we see the world a little differently. Try to be patient with what you’re observing and not to control it.

Remember that this is your own experience with your loved one—beware of anyone promising to intercede for a price.

When someone close to you dies, one of the most painful things is the idea that you’ll never speak with them again. You’ll never share another inside joke. You’ll never again have a late-night heart-to-heart, or get to ask them for advice.

If you feel like you still want to continue the conversation with them, you’re not alone. It may take your mind a while to catch up to the painful finality of death, and it is not unusual to continue feeling their presence. It may thus feel natural to talk to your loved one when… Click here to read the rest of this article

Some Ideas for Office Witchcraft

A JOURNEY INTO WITCHCRAFT BELIEFS (One Person’s View)

The history of witchcraft is complex, and often raises more questions than it answers. Where did witches come from? And did they always arrive on broomsticks? We asked Professor Diane Purkiss to take us inside the minds of ordinary people and intellectuals in medieval and early modern England to reveal how the figure of the witch was born.

Travel with us from the pre-Christian world to the burial mounds of the English landscape, where an underworld of elves, demons and familiars came alive in the popular imagination. Out of these murky beginnings, we discover how the witch became the subject of the chilling persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Most people think that witches are a Christian invention. But the idea of the witch who flies in the night and draws power from dark cosmic forces to work her ill will on others pre-dates Christianity, probably by many centuries. 

In Homer’s Odyssey (c.800 BC), Circe – who turns men into animals – is described as a witch, and Plutarch refers to witchcraft in his treatise On Superstition (c.AD 100). Illicit magic features heavily in Roman law statutes, some of which are passed down to the Christian world. However, many of those early laws were really laws against sorcery, which unlike witchcraft can be beneficial, and which requires special skills, tools and words.

Archaeologists have found hundreds of ancient Greek curse tablets, which the Greeks called katares, ‘curses that bind tight’, and they appear to have invented them, with a great number focused on sporting competitions or legal contests. The inscribed tablets were left in graves, wells or fountains, where the dead could better work their magic.

How did the figure of the witch emerge? Click here to read this rest of this article

Witchcraft Correspondences: What They Are and Why You Need Them for Your Spells

Sarah is preparing a love spell for herself. The dating scene has been a bit of a desert recently, and she wants a little romance in her life. She’s dusted her altar, cleared her working area, and had a scented bath. Now, she carefully lays out a small collection of objects: a pink candle, a rose bud in a glass of water, two tarot cards (the Ace and Knight of Cups), a photo of a turtle dove, and a rose quartz crystal.

A few streets along, Tanya is also preparing to cast a spell. She needs money to get her car repaired. She has also prepared herself and the room where she does her energy work. Her collection of objects include a green candle, a favorite pebble, a sprig of oak leaves, a small china toad, two tarot cards (Ace and Six of Pentacles), and a chunk of malachite.

These items are commonly called ‘correspondences’.

What Are Correspondences in Witchcraft?

Correspondences are objects that are connected to, and representative of other things, intentions, desires and outcomes. They can be such things as candles, crystals, jewelry, household objects, ornaments, plants, herbs, and images of anything. As well as tangible objects, they can be deities, angels, scents, colors, symbols, numbers, and words. Even your own visualizations can be termed correspondences because they are an abstract mirroring of your desire. All spell ‘ingredients’ are correspondences. The elements of earth, air, fire, and water are correspondences. So are the cardinal directions. Each of these has its own distinct kind of energy.

Their purpose is to create a matrix to help focus the mind and Click here to read the rest of this article