Category: Our History

WOTC Extra – Pros and Cons of Solitary Practice verses Coven Practice


Native American Comments & Graphics

Pros and Cons of Solitary Practice verses Coven Practice

 

Pros and Cons of Solitary Practice

 As mentioned earlier, most witches started their practice by working alone. It is most likely that witches who choose the solitary path have long developed their interest in witchcraft even before meeting a coven.

Some of the advantages of solitary practice include: being able to make your own rules and set of ethics; being free to work with anyone regardless if they are a member of a coven or another tradition; being able to follow your own schedule instead of being tied to a fixed schedule of worship and work; and not being obliged or accountable to anyone or anything but yourself and your deities.

As much as there are advantages, there are also disadvantages to working in solitude. These include: having difficulty in connecting with other witches or Wiccans; having the need for a teacher or mentor at some point of your solitary practice especially if you want to grow and learn more spiritually; finding limitations in the quality, quantity, and type of knowledge you acquire; and longing to be with other people to share your knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Pros and Cons of Coven Practice

 The number of witches and Wiccans who have covens is greater than those who prefer to work on their own. Witches and Wiccans with covens say that they enjoy working in a group in spite of the set of rules they follow and quite a share of problems that they deal with. Some of the advantages of coven practice include: having more formal and structured work based on a group setting; having a pre-determined course of study and following specific lesson plans; having more opportunities to meet others in greater witchcraft and Wiccan communities; having more elaborate and beneficial rituals; and having the opportunity to learn and obtain knowledge from seasoned and more experienced witches.

On the other hand, the disadvantages of coven practice include: having to work with the members who may not be very willing to accommodate new members and their needs; having to deal with a member who decide to have a power trip; having to provide your schedule ahead of time to ensure all members are available; and having numerous relationships can cause issues and problems.

Source:

Witchcraft: A Beginner’s Guide To Wiccan Ways: Symbols, Witch Craft, Love Potions Magick, Spell, Rituals, Power, Wicca, Witchcraft, Simple, Belief, Secrets,The … For Beginners To Learn Witchcraft Book 2)

Sebastian Collins

Let’s Talk Witch (Part 2) – Coven Practice


Native American Comments & Graphics

Coven Practice

 

Originating from the Latin word coventus, which means agreement or assembly, the term coven first came about during the 1500s in Scotland. The term at the time stood for a local group of witches or meeting of witches. Yet, people did not use the word often until witchcraft became more popular and public in the modern era.

A traditional coven is usually composed of thirteen members, each representing the thirteen lunar months of a year. Given that witchcraft and Wicca are associated with the moon and its femininity, the number symbolizes the lunar calendar and represents wholeness.

However today some groups prefer to have fewer or more coven also provides the feeling of a community who are able to celebrate significant events and occasions. Furthermore, just like a community, a coven can provide you with acceptance, safety, and the feeling of being valued.

On the other hand, not all covens are in harmony for the rest of their existence. Given that a coven has 13 or more members, the chances of conflicts in ideas, objectives, and opinions are high. In fact, some covens break apart while working through problems and even trivial issues.

Deciding to be a member of a coven will entail responsibilities, which include your devotion for the coven to stay united as well as the need for tolerance, cooperation, and respect for each member and for the coven as a whole.

Source:

Witchcraft: A Beginner’s Guide To Wiccan Ways: Symbols, Witch Craft, Love Potions Magick, Spell, Rituals, Power, Wicca, Witchcraft, Simple, Belief, Secrets,The … For Beginners To Learn Witchcraft Book 2)

Sebastian Collins

Let’s Talk Witch – Solitary Practice


Native American Comments & Graphics

Solitary Practice

 

Some witches prefer to practice alone instead of being with a group of witches. This could be because the solitary practice is more suitable to their knowledge, experience, lifestyle, purposes, and temperament. However, even if these witches practice witchcraft alone, they can still join covens if only for the purpose of celebrating Sabbaths or other occasions. Some witches, on the other hand, may start practicing alone for a certain period of time and then later join a coven.

More often than not, it can be easy to choose the path of solitary practice especially if one is a seasoned witch. However, if you are a beginner, you may find it lonesome to practice alone. In addition, you need to put extra effort into practicing witchcraft properly if you are alone given that nobody will guide you on what you should do.

Conversely, solitary practice allows you to discover and hone your own witchcraft style instead of adopting the ideology of an established coven.

Solitary witches follow some guidelines, which can help them in practicing successfully and safely. These guidelines are also applicable for beginners in the Wiccan way.

When you are practicing witchcraft alone, you may need to gather different resources in order to acquire insights as well as perspectives that may help you learn and become proficient. Resources include books, articles, and other forms of reference. However, it is not enough that you merely study about witchcraft. You need to apply what you learn. As such, it is advisable to set a schedule, which can make witchcraft a part of your daily routine. You have to practice regularly in order to develop your skills.

Solitary practice involves regular meditation for improving your adherence to your higher self and enhancing your mental focus. You can also start with simple spells and rituals until such time that you think you are ready for more complex ones. It is also advisable to keep a manual or diary of your work and experiences so you have something to refer to in the future.

Once you have spent time acquiring the knowledge you need to learn and to practice witchcraft alone, you will have a more accurate idea of the types of magic or skills that appeal to you and suit you the most.

Source:

Witchcraft: A Beginner’s Guide To Wiccan Ways: Symbols, Witch Craft, Love Potions Magick, Spell, Rituals, Power, Wicca, Witchcraft, Simple, Belief, Secrets,The … For Beginners To Learn Witchcraft Book 2)

Sebastian Collins

Let’s Talk Witch – Geomancy

Geomancy

 

Geomancy is the more technical term for earth elemental magick. This form of magick relies on the ability of the practitioner to tap into the energy of the ground or of a given piece of stone. As we have discussed before, geomancy, in a sense, forms the basis for crystal magick.

In order to begin practicing geomancy, you will first have to develop a sense of the energy of the Earth itself. To do this, I recommend finding a secluded, natural setting in which to meditate. Anyplace will do, but it is best to find somewhere that seems energetically unique to you. For me, it’s an outcropping of limestone in a forested area local to me, but I realize that not everyone will be able to find something like this. The only important thing is that it be somewhere reasonable secluded where you can sit on the bare earth for a long period of time without being disturbed. Once you have found such a place, sit down and begin to meditate. You don’t need to get into a particularly deep state of meditation, because you still need to have a high degree of awareness for this exercise.

You will start by sensing the energy that surrounds and comes from your own body. Depending on the amount of energy work you have done up to this point, you may not even need to get into a meditative state in order to do this. However, if you are not yet advanced to that degree, sit down, relax your body and mind, and begin to meditate. Once you have a good sense of energy from these. However, if you look beyond that, you will begin to sense a much larger source of energy that seems to have no clearly defined point of origin. You will be able to feel it flowing all around you. This is the energy of the Earth itself. Once you have found a sense of it, begin allowing it to flow into and through your body. Earth elemental energy is a passive energy, so don’t expect it to surge into you. Instead, you will feel it simply flowing through your body at a slow, constant rate.

Once you have gotten this far, it is time to start practicing real geomancy. The key to all elemental magick lies in combining your own magickal energy with that of the element you are working with. In this case, you will begin to consciously allow your energy to mingle and mix with the earth energy that you have allowed to enter your body. As you work with it, you can start to unify your energy with the earth energy, thus creating a single energetic type. At this point, you can drw upon the energy of the Earth itself to lend power to your spells.

The next step you will want to take is to connect with the energy of a particular piece of stone or crystal. While drawing on the energy of the Earth can be a hugely useful magickal ability, many spells will still require you to make use of only one piece of it. Find a stone, pebble, or crystal that you feel drawn to, and again begin to meditate and try to feel out the energy of it. You may find this slightly more difficult than simply tapping into the energetic field of the Earth at large. The reason is that when dealing with one stone or crystal, you are sensing an individual energy field that is affected by many different things. The energies of individual stones are unique, so make sure you continue working with the energy within whatever you have chosen until you can completely comprehend it. Next, you will again combine your own energy with it. For beginners who have done limited energy work, this will be easier with a crystal or a piece of igneous rock.

You may need to practice these exercises several times. Because humans are all, to some degree, naturally in tune with the energies of the Earth, this is the easiest element to start with. Once you feel that you have gained a decent level of skill in sensing and manipulating earth elemental energy, you can either move on to working with other elements, or simply begin employing earth elemental energies in your magick. I would recommend, however, that you get at least some practice with all of the elements, as it will be a great boon to your own magickal ability to do so.

 

 

Elemental Magick: A Guide to Harnessing the Magickal Powers of the Elements (The Ultimate Guide to Magick Book 3)

Ralph Eicher

 

Let’s Talk Witch – Spells Should be Cast In Harmony with the Lunar Cycle

Wiccan

Let’s Talk Witch – Spells Should be Cast In Harmony with the Lunar Cycle

 

Magic is done according to the lunar cycle. Spells that are done to increase things like love, prosperity, peace and so on should always be done during the full moon or the day just before the full moon. The fullness of the moon will attract abundance, so any spells done to attract good things during the full moon will put out an energy of abundance.

Spells that are done to take away anxiety, take away fear, or decrease stress should be done during the new moon or while the moon is waning. The energy of the moon during this cycle is focused on lessening so the energy of the moon will make the spell more effective. Spells done for spiritual awakening, learning, or divination should always be done only during the new moon.

If you’re not sure when you should do a particular spell ask yourself what the real purpose of the spell is. Clarify your intentions and then it should be clear what phase of the moon will help that spell be effective. You can keep track of the moon phases with a Farmer’s Almanac or just by checking online. If you have trouble keeping track of the Lunar Cycle you can make yourself a calendar and hang it on the wall so that you will always know when you should perform a certain spell.

Wicca: Wicca Mastery: 38 Essential Wiccan Laws and Principles To Live By, The Definitive Guide!

Desmond Blair

Different Kinds Of Magick

Different Kinds Of Magick

What is certain is that whether folk customs or more formal ceremonies are used, the underlying principles of all types of white magick are the same throughout the world, and can be categorised
under the following headings.

Sympathetic Magick

This involves performing a ritual that imitates what you would desire in the outer world, so bringing on to the material plane a desire or need or wish from the inner or thought plane. This is done using appropriate tools and symbols. So in a spell for the gradual increase of money, for example, you might grow a pot of basil seedlings (a herb of prosperity) and light a green candle.

Contagious Magick

This involves transferring and absorbing power directly from a creature or an object, such as an animal, a bird, a crystal, a metal, the wax of an empowered candle or even the Earth itself. This principle is central to the potency of talismans and amulets; for example, traditionally, hunters might wear the pelt of a lion to bring them the beast’s courage and ferocity. So, by the same token, if you wished to become pregnant, you might make love in a newly ripening cornfield (near the edge so as not to damage the crops); alternatively, you might try one of the ancient power sites of Earth, close to the phallus of the chalk Cerne Abbas fertility giant that is carved in the hillside at Cerne in Dorset.

Attracting Magick

This type of magick embraces both sympathetic and contagious magick to bring you something you desire. For example, you could scatter pins across a map between the places you and a lover live and with a magnet collect them, while reciting:
Come love, come to me, love to me come, if it is right to be.

You would then place your pins in a silk, heart-shaped pincushion or a piece of pink silk, also in the shape of a heart, and leave it on the window ledge on the night of the full moon, surrounded by a circle of rose petals.

Banishing And Protective Magick

This involves driving away negative feelings, fears and influences by casting away or burying a focus of the negativity. For example, you might scratch on a stone a word or symbol representing some bad memories you wished to shed, and cast the stone into fast-flowing water. Alternatively, you could bury it, together with quick-growing seeds or seedlings to transform the redundant into new life.

Binding Magick

Binding magick has two functions, one to bind a person in love or fidelity and the other to bind another from doing harm. This may be done in various ways, using knots in a symbolic thread, or by creating an image of the object or person and wrapping it tightly. But all binding can be problematic in terms of white magick, for whatever method you use, you are very definitely interfering with the person’s karma, or path of fate.

However, it is tempting to think that if someone is hurting animals, children, the sick or elderly, you may be justified in binding them. And what if your partner has deserted you on the whim of passion, taking all the money and leaving you and your children penniless? These are very real dilemmas; in dealing with them, I have always performed such rituals adding the proviso”… if it is right to do so.’ I believe that it is essential to include that phrase in all binding magic rituals.

My friend Lilian, a white witch and healer, used to wrap the perpetrators of crimes in a mantle of pink and visualise them in a sea of tranquillity so that they might be diverted from a destructive course of action. However, I usually cast a protective barrier around the victims and I think this is the best answer to a very difficult problem. We must harm none, not even the evil, hard though it is, and we should leave the punishment to natural justice.

In my own experience, few who find happiness at the expense of others achieve more than temporary, superficial pleasure, and in time they do seem to end badly. We should never use magick in order to act as judge and jury. After all, some who do act badly do so only out of unhappiness or ignorance.

 

A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magic Spells
By Cassandra Eason

Folk Magick And Ritual Magick

Folk Magick And Ritual Magick

Whether you are casting a simple spell, using items from your kitchen cupboard, or performing a complicated group ceremony, the source of the power behind it is the same. Every spell or ritual involves channeling the life force that runs through all forms of existence and transforming it into higher spiritual energies. These spiritual powers include our own evolved self, which some say is formed through many lifetimes, and the higher divine cosmic energies, such as a supreme god or goddess, or, more abstractly, some sort of divine light, spirit and goodness.

Magick for healing, it must be said, is not so far removed from the prayers of conventional religions, whose positive influence is well documented. The same effect can be created whatever the focus or faith, and I know from personal experience that positive results can be achieved when a Wiccan coven sends healing light to a sick member or a friend.

For hundreds of years, angels have been invoked in magick, just as in religion, both for protection and to act as vehicles for healing or positive energies. Practitioners of white magick may focus on particular aspects of a god or goddess figure, or benign power, personified through different deities from many age and cultures.

When I began practising magick ten years ago, I found it very artificial to invoke a goddess who belonged to another time and culture. However, I have since found that such symbols do hold a great deal of power and therefore can concentrate specific energies. I have listed in Chapter 4 a number of deities that seem to be especially potent in ritual or as a focus for meditation. But if you do not find them helpful, there is no need to use them.

Most rituals are related to the basic human needs for health, love, fertility and prosperity.

In past time, the well-being of the planet was considered to be the responsibility of peasant as well as king through paying tributes and enacting age-old ceremonies to invoke the necessary energies for the Wheel of the Year to turn. So individual prosperity or fertility was attained both through private spells and charms and by sending positive energies to the Earth and the cosmos and, in a sense, receiving bounty as those beams were amplified and returned to the sender.

Folk or domestic magick was an important part of people’s everyday lives right up until the nineteenth century. In rural areas, the implements used in and around the home and garden could be easily adapted for use in magick; and for town-dwellers, flowers and herbs could be gathered on a day in the country or grown on allotments or in urban back gardens. In the days before central heating systems, the focus of the home was the family hearth. Focus is Latin for ‘hearth’ and from Ancient Rome to China, the household deities have always had their place, being offered morsels of food, nectar and flowers and consulted on family happenings.

It was believed that the ancestors as well as the living gathered around the family hearth, and so it became a natural focus for magick. The witches’ cauldron started off as the iron cooking pot that hung over the fire (such pots are still used in country regions of Europe – I saw one for sale quite recently in the market in Rouen in France).

Herbal brews were not only created to cure coughs and colds but also, with magical words spoken over them, transformed into potions to bring a desired lover, employment or an unexpected helping hand in times of sorrow. A grandmother would put any small coins she could spare into a money pot and warm it near the fire to ‘incubate’ the money into sufficient to mend the roof or buy new coats for the winter.

A young wife eager to be pregnant would secretly prick a fertilised hen’s egg with a needle on the night of the full moon immediately before making love. Such actions were quite a normal part of life, a way of tapping into the same energies that made the cattle fertile and the corn set seed.
Farmers would leave milk for the faeries that they might bring good fortune, young girls recited love charms while planting herbs in soil embedded with a would-be lover’s footprint. On Hallowe’en, housewives opened their windows and placed garlic on the window ledge so that only the good family dead might enter and take shelter from the cold.

This simple folk magick, rather than ceremonial magick, forms the basis for the majority of spells. As above, so below’, the words of the semi-divine father of magick, Hermes Trismegistos, may originally have evolved from popular magick that is practised in many different cultures around the world to this day. They are certainly as applicable today as they ever were.

Whatever the aim of your magick may be, if you look around your home, garden, workshop or even office, you have the necessary tools for the spells you require. What is more, rooted as they are in
domesticity and the daily world, these implements could not be safer: fruit, vegetables, salt, sand, seeds, flowers, coins, pots and jars, together with your crystals, candles, incense and oils, and perhaps a few coloured scarves or ribbons to tie knots. Whether your spell is small and personal, or vast and universal, whether you are working to attract love, harmony in the home, prosperity or fertility for yourself or loved ones, for people in the wider environment or the planet, these are all you need.

 

A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magic Spells
By Cassandra Eason

The Rules Of Magick

The Rules Of Magick

 

Magick is not beyond or above life, but a natural though special part of your world. It is about not leaving fate, your fate, to any guru or deity, but shaping it with your own innate power, the power that emanates from some higher being, goddess or god, energy source, what you will – the divine spark within us all. There are no absolutes in magick, there is only what works for you and enhances your innate wisdom and spirituality. You should use this book as you would any other DIY guide and adapt its suggestions to suit what is right for you. Choose whatever you feel are the most appropriate herbs, crystals or even entire rituals for your specific purpose.

 

There are provisos, however. You must always remember that the form, the words and even ultimately the associations of particular oils, incenses and planetary hours are not what really matters. The truly important thing is that you should keep to the basic rules of witchcraft that are quite as strict and twice as hard as any conventional religion. These are rooted in wisdom, compassion, honesty, honour and common sense and are summed up in one short phrase:
‘An ye harm none, do what ye will’.

 

Put in modern-day language, this means, quite simply:

 

‘Do whatever you like as long as you don’t hurt anyone.’

 

Simple, did I say? It is in practice incredibly hard to harm none, especially if you are seeking promotion, fighting against an injustice or struggling to survive. But it may help you if you remember the other equally vital law of witchcraft, the Threefold Law. This states that everything you do to others, both good and bad, will be sent back to act on you with three times its intensity and strength. So, if you act always and only with positive intent to help and heal, you will automatically receive all manner of good things and you should become truly wise and happy.

According to the rules of magick, as I said earlier, you cannot be angry, mean or cruel and then expect to say sorry to a deity and have the slate wiped clean. Magick is about taking responsibility for your own actions all the time and that is incredibly onerous. But, on the positive side, the results are equally potent, and if you can learn to tap into the source of light and life and joy, you will amaze yourself and others by what is possible. Thus will your psychic powers also spontaneously unfold and guide you in your everyday world, increasing your spiritual power and wisdom.

 

The magick is within you, so let it flow and make the world a better place.

 

A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magic Spells
By Cassandra Eason

Effort And Will-Power

 Effort And Will-Power

Magick is not like the magic a conjuror uses to bring a rabbit out of a hat: that kind of magic is just a trick, which relies merely on the art of illusion. White magick is much more than that. It is intensely exciting because it means that we can extend the boundaries of possibility, recalling the psychic powers of childhood when we could span dimensions as easily as jumping across a puddle. We can increase our personal magnetism to attract love and luck and regenerate the innate healing abilities both of the human body and the planet.

 

What magick does not do is provide quick fixes with a twinkling of Stardust. It does not produce a faerie godmother, who turns up with a shimmering frock and a platinum credit card to pay the taxi fare home if the handsome prince is short of money and the faerie coach has crumpled into a pumpkin.

 

After the candles and incense have burned through and we sit, exhausted but exhilarated after sending our wishes to the cosmos through dancing or chanting, we then have to use every effort, every talent at our disposal, to make those wishes come true on the earthly plane. The psychic kick-start provided by the magick must be used to translate the magical thoughts into actuality. So we must work overtime with new enthusiasm and inspiration to get that project finished, send off to the publisher that typescript that has been gathering dust, do whatever it takes to help ourselves to get the results we desire.

 

My late mother would always say if I asked for extra funds, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’; and this holds true even in the magical world. Money, success and opportunities have to be generated and earned. We need to add our own will-power to the power we have drawn on.

 

What is more, under the cosmic profit-and-loss scheme, if we ask for a psychic overdraft, we must give back, if not immediately, then at a later date. So when your finances are better or your immediate troubles are passed, you should make a small donation or give time to a worthwhile cause connected with the area of the spell. This balances up the account whose cosmic energies you tapped into.

 

Many shamans or witches demand some sort of payment for services, and this is not from avarice, but because all too often if something is not paid for, it is not valued. So be sure that you pay the shaman especially the cosmic one. This is grass roots magick, but it works.

 

A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magic Spells
By Cassandra Eason

Magick And Responsibility

Magick And Responsibility

 

True magick is not like a cake in which everybody must vie for a slice or be left with none: it is more akin to a never-emptying pot. Like the legendary Cauldron of Undry in Celtic myth, the more goodness that is put in, the more the mixture increases in richness and quantity. The Cauldron of Undry, one of the four main Celtic treasures, provided an endless supply of nourishment, had great healing powers and could restore the dead to life, in either their former existence or a new life form.

Located on the Isle of Arran, it could be accessed by magical means or through spiritual quests, and many scholars believe it was the inspiration for the Holy Grail. But when using magick, you should take only as much as you need and perhaps a little more; you should not demand riches, perfect love, eternal beauty, youth, a fabulous job and a lottery win or two.

 

So, magick does not provide a help-yourself time in the sweetshop. The results could be like eating three times more chocolate than you really want and then feeling very sick. You cannot give the gods or goddesses your shopping list and then sit back and wait for Christmas: the divinity is within you to be kindled, and so you need to demand of yourself far higher standards than someone who believes in the forgiveness of sins.

 

If you do wrong, you cannot just say sorry to the godhead and carry on without putting right the mistakes or at least learning from them. Confession may be good for the soul, but magick demands more than that: you’ve got to live with the consequences of your deeds, words and thoughts because the power of a blessing or curse may be even greater on the sender than on the intended recipient. You must also ensure that you cannot harm anyone in the process of getting what you want. If you do spells for revenge, then the effects will rebound on you threefold.

 

A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magic Spells
By Cassandra Eason

Magick And Knowledge

Magick And Knowledge

White witchcraft is essentially the process of drawing on ancient wisdom and powers via the collective mind that we as individuals can spontaneously but unconsciously access in our dreams and visions. In magick, we can use rituals and altered states of consciousness to access this cosmic memory bank at will and in doing so, some believe, draw on the accumulated powers of many generations, especially in healing magick.

This cosmic consciousness – or Great Mind or akashic record, as theosophists call it – is perhaps what made it possible for pyramids to be built at almost the same time in lands as far apart as Egypt and South America, and for shamanism to follow similar patterns in unconnected continents. By accessing this source of power, we may create a ritual or use certain crystals without consciously knowing their significance, only to find out that our invented spell closely resembles one from another time or culture; we know how to heal without being taught.

Gaining such knowledge has been described as ‘inner-plane’ teaching and if you can trust your own deep intuitions, you need very little formal teaching about magick. If you scry at the full moon or during one of the ancient festivals, by looking into water and letting images form, this deep wisdom will offer solutions to seemingly impossible dilemmas.

The practice of witchcraft demands great responsibility, for you are handling very potent material when you deal with magick. The benefit is that by focusing and directing your own inner powers and natural energies you can give form to your thoughts and needs and desires and bring them into actuality. The more positive and altruistic these focuses are, the more abundance, joy and harmony will be reflected in your own world.

A Practical Guide to Witchcraft and Magic Spells
By Cassandra Eason

WOTC Extra – The Magick of Everyday Things

WOTC Extra – The Magick of Everyday Things

 

Our notions of what traditionally constituted black, white, and gray were incorrect. The practitioners of ancient magick were not necessarily working on a specific ethical basis at all. What was once under the guise of “white” magick (like herbalism) is now being usurped by technology, science, and medicine. In many areas of daily life, we find ourselves turning to a reliable procedure and trusting in it, while we overlook the spiritual portion of the equation. For example, a dam might help direct a mighty river, but without putting a spiritual covenant in place with that river, the spirits of that place might break that dam. We can call our technology “good,” and we can call our magick “white,” but unless we honor all aspects of the equation to which we’re applying our power, we will fall short and feel that lingering resonance (kind of like an itch you can’t scratch).

Historical references aside, it would be naïve to say that evil does not exist. The law of balance requires that for there to be “good,” there must also be the proverbial “bad.” Today we say that a person who uses black magick or walks the left-hand path is considered to be working from a selfish or malevolent vantage point. In Lewis Spence’s Encyclopedia of the Occult we read:

To gain limitless power of god, demon, and man; for personal aggrandizement and glorification; to cheat, trick and mock; to gratify base appetites; to aid religious jealousies and bigotries; to satisfy public and private enmities; to further political intrigue; to encompass disease, calamity and death—these were the ends and aims of black magic.

For a person to exhibit this type of behavior externally in any realm of life, he or she would have to have that darkness as part of their makeup (the within) according to this concept. However, the question remains as to what is truly “black” and what’s required necessary to raise that kind of energy. Some practitioners, for example, categorize working with entropy (the tendency of an energy system toward inertness through the breakdown of organized structure and pattern) or chaos energies as “black.” It receives this designation because, superficially, this so-called magick has the opposite effect from white (destroying or decreasing instead of creating). Yet the forces of nature perform these same functions. This makes us ask: if a form of energy exists in nature, can we call it “black”? Nature’s pattern is eat or be eaten, which can seem very cruel. But, again, it is only illustrating balance. Some “black” magicians would reply that they, too, are illustrating the law of nature in becoming the predator instead of the prey, or in being protectively proactive (doing everything possible mundanely and magickally to safeguard that which they hold dear).

Since we are also animals, humans exhibit similar instincts. Yet, somehow we expect that our reasoning nature will suddenly take that instinct and put it neatly away like some toy that we’ve outgrown when we work magick. I’m not sure that’s a wholly reasonable expectation, let alone a truly healthy one. Instead, a holistic approach would be to balance helpful instincts with rational thought and spiritual guidance.

Let’s take this one step further, out of nature and into the divine realms. In the world’s mythologies, we see images of gods and goddesses that take revenge against those who harm their followers (or children). We also see gods and goddesses that destroy to create. Kali (the Hindu Creatrix/Destroyer) comes immediately to mind. If the external divine uses the energy of reversal or diminishing, can that truly be called “black,” or is it merely the universe’s checks and balances? These are not easy ethical questions to consider or answer, but an honest examination of two things may help us gain some perspective—namely, intent (the internal motivating source) and the situation (the externals).

Let’s say someone chooses to cast spells aimed specifically at exacting revenge because their family had been targeted by a person or a group. This would be considered gray magick, because it is a situation when an ill has been done and has not been balanced.

Now, the sender may not enjoy the feeling of that magick. There’s a natural lingering temptation to lash out with unbridled anger and lose all focus. However, if similar circumstances occurred again, many people would be hard pressed not to do likewise. We simply want to protect those we love. Also, it is possible that people would feel inaction on their part would dishonor a sense of inner sacredness, and that sometimes we are the hand of karma (just as anything in life’s network might be).

This is where the lines of black and white get blurred. You’re not alone in facing a struggle between personal and spiritual ethics, potential karmic repercussions, and the natural desire to act . . . to do something, anything, to return the situation to a more equitable equation. It’s part of human nature. If you find yourself in such a place consider the following advice:

Always step back and cool off. Any magickal working is going to go better when you’re thinking clearly.

Ask yourself if there is a mundane alternative that could fix things. You can often use the energy generated by a bad situation to turn things around in your favor.

Always make sure you know (beyond any doubt) the focus of the spell. Otherwise you could harm an innocent person.

Consider using a “universal clause” (like “for the greatest good” or “and it harm none”) so that no one on the edges of the situation gets harmed by the energy you’re creating.

Pattern your response to only visit like for like (no embellishing—think balance).

Continue personal efforts on the mundane level to rectify things and put your life in order. This gives the universe more opportunities to open doors, heal wounds, and provide closure.

For a good book that discusses this subject in more detail than this book’s space allows, try How to Be a Wicked Witch. Let’s talk a bit about action and inaction and situational ethics.

 

 

A Witch’s 10 Commandments: Magickal Guidelines for Everyday Life

Marian Singer

 

Let’s Talk Witch – Black, White, Left, or Right?

Let’s Talk Witch – Black, White, Left, or Right?

 

The universe is our mirror. As we look into the world, something of self and the divine is reflected back to us. Where exactly do we fit in? What is the right or wrong way to walk our talk?

Physics tells us that energy is neutral. The application of energy, however, is not neutral. So humans, seeking definitions, start using terms like “good” and “bad,” “black magick” and “white magick,” and the “right-hand path” or the “left-hand path” to describe the results of applied energy and intention. Generally speaking, most practitioners define black magick as selfish, destructive, and manipulative. White magick, conversely, is giving, creative, and mindful of freewill.

Be aware, however, that black and white are only part of the spectrum. Left and right are only two directions or dimensions. These “extremes,” if you will, are easier to see by the contrast they create and consequently attract our visual attention. But our eyes and souls are capable of seeing a myriad of colors, shades, hues, blends from gray to plaid! We are aware in everyday life of several directions: left, right, backward, forward, up, and down.

Additionally, the terms “black” and “white” do not necessarily properly describe the ethical component of a magus. In fact, historically speaking, “black” implied forcefully interacting with hostile or hazardous beings to try and engender their cooperation. Perhaps it’s the forceful part that gave us modern folk the willies. After all, we talk about nonmanipulation. We’d be hard pressed, however, to find all of the spirits that we encounter willing to help out those in the mortal realm. In fact, many spirits have agendas of their own. White magick was traditionally defined as dealing with those positive energies and beings active and present in nature (like devas), inviting the voluntary participation of such forces even as we continue to do with the watchtowers of the cardinal directions. Interestingly enough, there are no moral qualifiers here – just who the magus invoked. So if an herbal magus evoked a nature spirit to create a lustful potion, it was not considered immoral since nature spirits are neutral.

 

A Witch’s 10 Commandments: Magickal Guidelines for Everyday Life

Marian Singer

 

Let’s Talk Witch – And in the beginning….

The Witching Hour

And in the beginning….

In the beginning, silence was deafening. Darkness twisted and turned relentlessly in an empty, turbulent sea, anticipating the time when it would no longer be alone. No matter Darkness’s wishes, change remained slow and methodical in its movements, seeming to take an eternity. So the darkness waited patiently in solitude.

Finally, after eons, from the depths of the indigo silence, came a whisper. All but imperceptible at first, it grew outward on a wave that transformed the night into an ocean of promise. In the center of the swell, a small spark appeared from which stars, planets, and galaxies poured forth endlessly, gloriously, joyfully filled with potentials beyond compare. Darkness would never be alone again.

Thousands of years later (but a second in infinity), the winds of change blew across a blue planet, and the Wheel of Life began to spin. Molecule to molecule, link to link, web to web, it reached outward. Following its motion, the earliest creatures crawled from their homes in the deep. This had been their safe womb, but another voice above the waves beckoned, the voice of the soil.

On and on, the great Wheel turned. With it, these beings grew and changed, shaped by the hand of time. As their minds expanded, they began to think about the “spirits” in nature; the call of the wind, the strength of the sun, the fury of storms. How could humankind touch such awesome powers? This macrocosm, this superconscious, was vast. Would the cries for insight be heard above the swell?

The Wheel kept inching forward, bringing constant transformation. As philosophers in every culture began walking sand strewn paths, they provided many outlooks to consider. Ardent seekers everywhere listened intently, hoping to find universal truths within the words. Yet, the words were somehow wanting. External truth, it seemed, was illusive and prone to opinion, prone to politics and era, prone to personal consciousness. Nonetheless, undaunted, the Wheel spun onward and another cycle began.

Later still, idealists, dreamers, and visionaries looked within. There they found the same spirits, the same spark that existed without. Symbols were sought to express this knowledge; the cup or grail, the sword, the staff or rod, the coin or pentacle, each provided one part of a greater picture. Yet, again, this picture was incomplete. The tools were lifeless, and unlike the Earth they lay sleeping at the Seeker’s fingers waiting for expression.

When the Wheel moves again, the voices gain volume; the voices from nature that have always been here. It has been millions of years now; years of being deaf to this ageless canticle, blind to the power of the Earth, and unable to express the message in the waves. Yet the symphony sings on, knowing that there will be a few special people in each generation who hear and heed the call. It is time to answer.

Finally, the Fool turns to the world, turns to the time-not-time, lying aside outmoded notions, and ready to make the leap of faith. There, stretched expectantly before the Seeker, are all the secrets, all the power of creation, all the tools ever needed by humankind. In the song of a bird, the murmurs of a volcano, the groan of a sprouting seedling, and yes, the music of the ocean . . . our ancient home.

Today, the Seeker returns to the Monad and to the Sacred Self, listening intently to the voice of eternity. Here to attain vision; here to retrieve truth.

 

A Witch’s 10 Commandments: Magickal Guidelines for Everyday Life
Marian Singer

Eleven Principles Or Codes of Conduct For the Contemporary Druid

Eleven Principles Or Codes of Conduct For the Contemporary Druid:

 

1. Every action has a consequence that must be observed and you must be prepared to compensate for your actions if required.

2. All life is sacred and all are responsible for seeing that this standard is upheld.

3. You do still living in society and are bound by its rules and laws.

4. Work with high standards.

5. Make an honest living.

6. Be a good host as well as a good guest.

7. Take care of yourself. (Health was held in high esteem amongst the Celts so much that a person could be fined for being grossly overweight due to lack of care.)

8. Serve your community.

9 Maintain a healthy balance of the spiritual and mundane.

10. Uphold the Truth, starting with yourself.

11. Be sure in your convictions, particularly when judging or accusing someone, but also when debating. Ask yourself: are you really sure? Do you really know that this is the case, do you know the whole situation, do you know the whole truth.

 

Nine Elements of the Druids

Nine Elements of the Druids

 

 

The importance/significance of the number three in Celtic mythology and spirituality has been documented in many sources. It makes some sense then, that three times three would be a particularly auspicious number. There isn’t much in the way of documentation to support this, however the speculation has a great deal of support in the Celtic Pagan Spiritual Community. There are probably as many different ways of looking at these nine elements as there are groups who consider them important.

The Nine Elements, and correspondences

Macrocosm

Microcosm

Directions

Sun

Face

South

Moon

Mind

Inwards

Sea

Blood

West

Wind

Breath

East

Sky or Heavens

Head

Above

Green-growing things

Hair

Outwards

Land

Flesh

Below

Stone

Bones

North

Clouds

Spirit

Through

As you can derive from this table, the Celts do appear to have grasped the concept of microcosm vs macrocosm quite well, albeit without the fance nomenclature.

The elements composing the tree principal realms of Land, Sea and Sky; also compose three of the most primary element of human life: Flesh (Land), Blood (Sea), and Breath (Sky or actually “wind”). Actually all nine elements would be considered needful for life, however these three would be the most obvious to our ancestors (with one obvious exception – the head – but we will get into that discussion in a moment. No _Highlander_ correlations yet!)

If a body lacked flesh, or that flesh became diseased or too old, the body died. If the body lacked blood, the body died. And if the body did not breathe – lacked wind – the body died. Simple, and I’m certain quite obvious to the ancient Celts.

The next most obvious fatal deficiency is the lack of a head. Physically, losing one’s head will in fact make you quite irretrievably dead. However, it is rather doubtful that the ancient Celts understood the finer points of neurology (although there is evidence that the ancients did practice some fairly advanced neurosurgical techniques). The ancients believed that the immortal spirit resided in the head: if the head were separated from the body (or in some cases, cut open sufficiently) the spirit of the person would leave – and the person would therefore die. Their ‘fire in the head’ would be lost (Insert _Highlander_ theme music here).

For those of you familiar with the _Highlander_ shows, perhaps their special effects aren’t that far from off. Upon the death of the physical body, the Celts believed that the spirit – the immortal being – was released, to be ‘reborn’ in another form. Contrary to the series, it isn’t re-absorbed by another immortal, but may be reborn as a new person, or into a spirit of an animal, plant or even an inanimate object: all depending upon the lesson needed by that particular spirit. The technical term here is transmutation. We’ll discuss this more thoroughly at another time.

The elements of “sun” and “moon” may seem a bit odd to our modern sensibilities, used to a more “scientific” analysis of the elements. Even for those more familiar with the Pagan (really Wiccan) wheel of elements will find the whole of the Celtic nine elements a bit unusual. In the Celtic elements, the Sun element takes on some of those properties familiar with the Wiccans’ fire element. The Sun correlates with the human face: preservations of this can be seen in common speech. A person’s face may be “shining”, or the Sun may be “smiling”. The moon, on the other hand, has long been associated with aspects of the mind. Specifically, the moon (in folklore) directly affects madness/sanity. Even today, common folklore reflects this: lunacy or lunatic (luna = moon). Superstision holds that the full moon drives a person insane. This may actually be related to superstitions regarding werewolves.

The correlations between the element of “Green Growing Things” and human hair may not be too obvious at first. It may have been as simple as the human hair being likened to the slow-growing English Ivy – they actually grow in length at about the same speed. This outward growth is a clear expression of the direction most associate with this element: that of “outwards”.

Stones were seen as the bones of the Earth: hard, shapable into toods, and maintaining the structure of the “body” (that of the person or the world). Even through the great stone circles pre-date the Druids (and perhaps the Celts), one has to wonder if there’s some relation between these stone monuments and the Celts own belief in the significance of the stones.

 

Source:

Empathy’s Mystical Occult Site

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Druids and Sacrifice

Druids and Sacrifice

As modern individuals walking a Druid path, we are faced with a primary obstacle: How do we construct a way of worship which complements the path already inscribed within our hearts? There are no “Grand Grimoires” of the Druids (or the Wiccans, for that matter!). Little, if anything, exists in ‘ancient written records’ as to the beliefs and practices of the Druids. What records do exist were generally written by outsiders (such as Caesar, Strabos, and Deodorus) – beyond that, zip, zero — nothing. We therefore must go to the origins — the people and cultures which defined the faith of the Druids. By so doing, we may gain enough understanding to construct some semblance of the Druid’s religion.

It is neither practical nor advisable to attempt to recreate the ways of the Druids identically in minute detail (besides, human sacrifices are so inconvenient!) Yes, there is enough evidence that we can say that the ancient Celts did practice one form or another of human sacrifice. There is a great deal of evidence that these sacrifices were voluntary in nature. These were intermediaries, in their deaths they took the petitions of their people directly before the Gods of their clan. Modern pagan clergy takes on this role today (obviously without the death requirement) as intermediaries between the Gods and their grove/coven/kindred. It is generally accepted in modern pagan culture that the greatest pagan principle is to harm none.

Most groups include the self as part of the ‘none’ we are to avoid harming. Taking the life of another or yourself is quite a large ‘harm’, and probably is the most often-used reasoning behind the discontinuance of sacrifice. Actually, blood sacrifices were discontinued long before the tenet of ‘harm none’ was ever placed on paper. There are no authenticated evidences of Druid sacrifice beyond about the first century CE, while the tenet of ‘harm none’ is usually accepted as dating from the late 19th – early 20th centuries (generally attributed to Gerald Gardener, Doreen Valiente, or Aleister Crowley). Today, our sacrifices are herbs, incense, flowers, oils – all wonderfully acceptable to the Gods. Those other supposedly ‘dire’ sacrifices are best suited for cheap horror flicks.

To follow a Druid path in the modern age, it is not necessary to reconstruct any of the ‘exact’ rites of our ancient predecessors. It is equally important to follow our own hearts, as well as the spirit of those ancient cultures. Modern elements and the fancies of our imaginations can be just as appropriate to a ritual than the most arcane sounding lines found in some dusty old tome. What we must not do, however, is try to claim ancient unbroken lineage for something we made up yesterday (this has caused some authors no end of trouble in the past!). An ancient source does not make something more authentic. Although there are those who still insist that the only correct way is the most ancient one possible: intact, with no changes; if it comes from the heart, the Gods know.

 

 

Source:

Empathy’s Mystical Occult Site

 

 

Druidic Ritual Basics

Druidic Ritual Basics

Delineating sacred space

In the Druidic faith, all ground is sacred ground, so it is impossible to ‘create’ sacred space. Instead, we choose to delineate a portion of already-sacred space to ritual use either permanently, or for a certain period of time. Permanent sacred areas may be established on private land, and include such amenities as the planting of a grove of sacred trees, or the erection of a henge or similar structure. Temporary sacred space delineations are accomplished by means of focussed energy and various ritualized movements. One of the simplest forms of this type of ritualized movement consists of circumambulation of the given area while:

  • holding a lighted candle
  • wafting incense
  • sprinkling charged water

Further temporary demarcations may be visually set up with torches, ribbons, or other simple visual markers.

Once the ritual area is appropriately delineated, the ritual participants must be prepared for the upcoming activities. These preparations are completed via the pre-ritual briefings and meditation. The pre-ritual briefing is just that: a briefing to organize everyone’s thoughts to a specific purpose. Questions in regards to timing, organization, and general ritual purpose can be cleared up at this point. Following the briefing, participants use a grounding and centering meditation to bring themselves into a sacred mindset and into harmony with the other participants. This may be accomplished either as a group or separately, with separate meditations being the most commonly used. Often with the individual meditations, a specific focus of meditation may be assigned to the group as a part of the preritual briefing.

After a set period of time, the meditation period will be brought to a close and the participants will be summoned to the ritual area. This summons will take many different forms, the most common two are discussed here. The summons to the ritual area may be made by a musical que: drumming, horns, bells, or a particular piece of music. There is considerable historical precedent for this kind of summons. The other most common summons is a personal one: a designated individual, similar to the Gardnerian/Wiccan “man in black” or “summoner” would verbally announce that ritual was to commence and that persons should assemble.

Once participants have been summoned to the ritual area, they will enter through pre-determined ‘gateways’. In permanently erected ritual areas, these may be physical gateways, or breaks in the boundaries such as hedgerows or tree plantings. In less permanent settings, they may be delineated by some physical indicators, or may only be a position agreed upon by consensus. As the participants enter the gateway’s), they receive a preliminary blessings and/or anointing by either the senior druid or a designate.

Depending upon tradition and circumstances, various symbols may be used in the anointing of the individuals: the forehead may be anointed with the symbols of the three rays of Awen (inspiration), or perhaps the sword-and-chalice imagery of the Celtic Cross. Other sigils may be traced on hands, foreheads and the like. Participants may be sprinkled with sacred water or smudged with the smoke of sacred herbs.

Another special blessing that may be administered to entering participants is that of a blessing cup, or shared hospitality. Each participant sips from an offered common cup of blessing, and ceremonial words are exchanged. This blessing cup may be used with or without the other forms of blessing mentioned above. All methods described aid in establishing a common mindset and focus for the ritual work to come.

Once the participants have entered into the ritual area and settled into their places, the initial welcomes are pronounced. The first offering follows thereafter. This first offering is to the spirits of the place and of the Earth Mother, in acknowledgement of their blessings and in thanks for the use of the ritual area. These may be offering to a sacred fire, but would more commonly be one of cornmeal (or perhaps herbs or even birdseed) scattered to the periphery of the ritual area. An additional thought would be to also pour a libation from the blessing cup used in the entrance ritual.

An additional offering is also made to the “outsiders”, any potentially disruptive entities or energies not desired within the confines of the particular ritual. Many different items may be used for this offering, however the preference would be for sweets and/or alcoholic beverage, as these items appear to be particularly preferred by those types of energies. Out of habit, these offerings are placed in the south of the ritual area, simply because of it’s associations with such totem entities as Coyote and Loki (some of the most ‘chaotic’ and ‘trickster-ish’ entities).

Once these items are settled, the main elements of the ritual can commence. The first major elements of ritual comprise the acknowledgement of the three Celtic realms of existence. The first realm to be so acknowledged is the realm of the Land. In the Celtic cosmos, the Land is the realm of substance, where the clans exist in harmony with the natural world. The second realm, the Sea, is the gateway to the other worlds. Land is seen to float on the surface of a great, spiritual sea. The Sky is a realm of mystery as well as of many Gods – it flows above that of the Sea and the Land. As each realm is acknowledged, an offering is made to the realm, it’s gatekeepers, and its native spirits.

Once the realms have thus been acknowledged and offerings made, the gateways are summoned (or conjured) open, permitting the three worlds/realms to simultaneously exist within the ritual space. This bears resemblance to the Wiccan ritual effort of creating a time and place within the ritual circle that is completely removed from ‘ordinary’ time and space: “a time that is not a time, a place that is not a place”. However, in Druidic practice the opposite is the case. Druidic sacred space and opening of the realm gateways, is practiced to place the participants within all time and all places (the appropriate quotation for this then becomes “all time is now, and all space is here”). There is no true linear time in Druidic practice. Time is seen as circular, or even web-like: no beginning, no ending, and myriad different permutations. The methods of “anchoring” and traversing these three realms lies within the context of the Sacred Tree. This tree is an axis between the three realms, via which the trained practitioner may journey to experience other realities. Within and around the Sacred Tree (or Tree of Life, if you prefer), exists the essence of the Divine Spirit: the sacred Fire, the manifestation of the Sacred Dragon Energy.

At this point, any special magical workings would be inserted into the standard ritual format. The ritual processes should be inserted smoothly into the balance of the ritual format. The activities will segue without difficulty if written in a similar tone.

After these specific ritual elements are completed, the next appropriate step is that of the giving up of offerings to the Gods. These offerings may consist of many items such as herbs, foods, oils and other items. Generally these items will be offered to the ritual fire, previously established using the nine sacred woods. Omens may be taken from how these offerings burn; the movements of the flames themselves or of the smoke. Omen-takings are not limited to the sacred fire, but may be taken from any appropriate source available at that time. The final offering given up to the Gods is considered to be the ‘dire offering’, that of blood or flesh. In ancient times, this would have involved the sacrifice of a live animal, or in some cases a human being.

This type of sacrifice is not acceptable today because of the multitude of different offerings available to modern Druid practitioners. The blood sacrifice offered upon the modern Druid’s need-fire is a simple offering of meat. Anything from hotdogs to steaks/roasts is acceptable and appropriate. After all other sacrifices have been burned, the fire is “brought up” quickly – that is, caused to burn quite hot for a brief period of time in order to burn off all residue, then a grill or spit is place appropriately over the fire. The meat offering is then ritually placed on/over the fire. When the meat is cooked, or durring the cooking process, a portion of meat is dropped completely into the fire, to be consumed by the flames entirely. The balance of the meat is given to the celebrants as a portion of the feasting after ritual. This process has great precident in many cultures, including the Judaic faith (‘kosher’ foods are ritually processed, and actually offered in sacrifice to their God). This method of sacrifice to the fire (what really amounts to a sacrificial Barbeque) also helps to aleviate problems realted to the open fire. While many localities regulate the use of outdoor fires, or entirely prohibit outdoor burning, if the fire is for the purpose of cooking, many areas permit such fires without restriction.

Here, I insert a ‘nod’ not only to the ancient progenitors of our faith, but also to the more recent impetus for these ideas. DragonHart Coven, a British-traditional group with whom I practiced years ago, used an open fire pit in the back yard of their covenstead for rituals. In that locale, ‘open burning’ was prohibited. So at every ritual, cooking forks and marshmallows became a familiar – if never used – addition. If problems arose, those articles could have been produced as evidence that the fire in the fire pit was for cooking – a non-restricted fire use. In keeping with the Druidic Code of Ethics, when we incorporated this particular fire offering into the rituals, we would truly be using the fire for those reasons.

The closure of the ritual follows a similar, albeit reversed, path as that of the construction. The sacred tree is once again reverenced, the previously conjured gates are closed, and appropriate honours are paid to any personal or clan divinities previously called upon. A clear, concise closure of the ritual is made, and any surplus energies are grounded in an appropriate manner. The ritual participants are then dismissed to the feasting area (which of course is centre pieced/highlighted by the previous meat offering) for feasting and merriment.

The preparation of the ritual feast involves somewhat more than just the presentation of the fire offering as the main course. Ideally, most of the items for the ritual feast will be provided “pot-lick” by most or all of the participants. Foods may range from simple to more complex: there is very little that would be considered inappropriate for a ritual feast. Common items will always include fresh fruits and vegetables, and various baked goods – both sweet and savoury. With outdoor rituals, particularly in warm weather, it is probably best to avoid foods which must be kept at a certain – very cold- or -very hot- temperature to avoid spoilage. These would most particularly include such things as products containing mayonnaise, or cold cuts. By observing these few cautions, it is possible to have a grand feasting without food poisoning.

 

Source:

Empathy’s Mystical Occult Site

 

 

Practical Druid Paganism – Gods and Goddesses

Practical Druid Paganism

Gods and Goddesses

Patron deities are a part of any ritual, as well as a part of everyday life. People who are familiar with Wiccan rituals are used to the invocation of “The Goddess” and “The God” in circle: either by a specific name, or just a “Goddess and God”. While many people who practice a Druid path have a patron Goddess/God or both, they are not limited to just one or two divine beings in a ritual. Nor must they always use the same divine beings. We may refer to one, two or twenty God/desses in the coarse of a single ritual. After all, the more the merrier, right?

Actually, it is just slightly different than that. As we see it, Druidry has many Gods and Goddesses: all different, and all equally valuable and valid. Where most Wiccan groups believe that “all Gods are one God, all Goddesses one Goddess”, we see many different divine beings, with many different relationships with both humans and with each other. We many honor one or several different God/desses in a ritual: as patrons of differing sacred precincts, as workers of specific energies, or as representative of particular relationships on the earthly plane. Aesclepius might be asked to aid in a healing work, within the same ritual where we have called upon Demeter, Persephone and Hades (celebrating the change of seasons as well as the sacrifice of love); and seek Charon’s aid for a meditative journey. Of course, the Gods and Goddesses should come from the same pantheon, as the interrelationships are already established. It may not be impossible to work with Isis, Cernunos, Kwan Yin, and the Corn Maiden in the same ritual, but it would be infinitely confusing.

Separate and unique from the Gods and Goddesses is an all-encompassing sacred energy. Separate, yet intrinsically connected and part of each other. The Christian concept of the Holy Spirit is similar: an immense, genderless, sacred “being”, which our particular tradition (and a few others) refer to as the Dragon. The Dragon is quite literally beyond true description: it is without gender and flows through all things, places, and people. John Boorman touches briefly on this concept in his movie Excalibur. The Dragon is unseen, yet can be seen all around us: it’s breath in the wind, it’s scales in the bark of trees. It is said that the Dragon’s energy can be felt in the ancient holy places (which may contribute to the fact that the mysterious energy lines which connect ancient sacred sites are called “Dragon Lines”.

If you have ever experienced this ‘Dragon Energy’ at one of it’s focus points or along one of the ley lines, you may have some difficulty describing the experience. Of course, each sacred site has it’s own “feel”. It has been reported that particularly sensitive individuals can tap into the ‘energy’ of another sacred site while working at a site along the same energy line. In theory, this seems entirely possible, although I don’t personally know too many individuals who have experience this phenomenon. However, it is this mysterious Dragon Energy along with the myriad of Gods and Goddesses who make our world what it is to the Druid: alive, breathing, and powerful.

 

Source:

Empathy’s Mystical Occult Site

 

 

History of Modern Druidism

History of Modern Druidism

Modern Druidism, that is, modern Pagan Druidism, owes a debt of gratitude to the monotheistic fraternal Druid orders that comprise their not-so-direct predecessors. Some of these organizations still exist: many continue today as fraternal orders (much as the Elks Lodge and similar organizations), others have developed into more Pagan groups, as has occurred with the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD). More groups seem to appear on a regular basis, some lasting only a brief time, others leaving a lasting mark on society.

Probably the oldest purely American Druid Organization is the RDNA (Reformed Druids of North America). Originally, this group seems to have been almost anything but Pagan. However, some offshoots are quite Pagan in nature. The Major offshoots of the RDNA are Ar n’Draiocht Fein and Keltria.

Ar n’Draiocht Fein (ADF) was founded by a former member of RDNA, and at one time boasted the largest “Neo-Pagan” Druidic membership in the United States. ADF strongly advocates the “Indo-European” theories behind their spiritual traditions. Many local congregations maintain a traditional Celtic focus, while others strive to promote Norse, or even Greek, Druid systems.

Partially as a result of this broad spectrum outlook, and partially for other reasons, the Henge of Keltria was formed by members dissatisfied with ADF’s brand of Druidry. Keltria follows a narrower focus, that of purely Celtic origins.

Other Druid Groups and organizations appear to have come forth out of other organizations and other traditions, as well as many which came forth from the love and inspiration of a few devoted members.

The Druid Clan of Dana originated within the Fellowship of Isis. These Druids cling closely to not only Celtic, but also Irish roots and structure.

The Divine Circle of the Sacred Grove (DCSG)is an organization which calls itself Druidic and Pagan, but displays a decidedly eclectic basis. It also claims to have lineage to British Traditional Orders that are decidedly non-pagan fraternal groups. Some of the early history of the organization has some questionable entries, but it is unclear if the organization currently follows such practices.

The American Druidic Church was formed by dissatisfied members of the DCSG, but is little heard of outside of their California community.

The Druidic Association of North America (DANA) is a fledgling organization of Druid groves, based in the New England area. The Grove of the Golden Leaves is the founding and most substantitive of these groups. DANA places a high emphasis on scholarship and study in the traditional disciplines. The Celtic Traditionalist Order of Druids is discussed in depth in another article. While members of CTOD have been, and continue to be, involved in other organizations, CTOD does not claim to be ‘descended’ from any of these groups.

 

Source:

Empathy’s Mystical Occult Site