Category: Our History

A Short History Of Witchcraft

A Short History Of Witchcraft

 

Witchcraft has been part of the folklore of many societies for centuries. Witchcraft has also come to refer to a set of beliefs and practices of a religion. Its followers call it Wicca, the Craft, the Wisecraft, or the Old Religion. Many people, particularly conservative Christians, do not consider Witchcraft a religion as they understand the term.

Belief in witchcraft exists around the world and varies from culture to culture. Historically, people have associated witchcraft with evil and usually have regarded a witch as someone who uses magic to harm others, by causing accidents, illnesses, bad luck, and even death. Some societies believe that witches also use magic for good, performing such actions as casting spells for love, health, and wealth. People around the world continue to practice witchcraft for good or harm.
Unlike those who practice witchcraft for harm, the followers of Wicca believe in practicing magic only for beneficial purposes. They worship a deity with male and female aspects, but some traditions emphasize the female, or Goddess, side of the deity.

The term witch comes from the Old English word wicca, which is derived from the Germanic root wic, meaning to bend or to turn. By using magic, a witch can change or bend events. Today, the word witch can be applied to a man or a woman. In the past, male witches were also called warlocks and wizards.

Witches also are said to be able to fly. They may fly under their own power, ride tools such as brooms or rakes, or ride magical animals. This is not true, while there are spells and rituals involving brooms, we do not fly on them.

Some witches have great knowledge of how to make herbal potions and charms. A potion is a drink that causes a desired effect in a person’s health or behavior. A charm is a magical incantation (word or phrase), or amulet that helps to bring about the desired effect.
The practice of Wicca–Witchcraft as a religion flourishes primarily in English-speaking countries. Wicca has no central authority. Its followers, some call themselves Witches, are loosely organized in groups called covens. Some covens are made up of only women or only men, and other covens are mixed. Many Witches do not join a coven but practice alone as solitaries.

The practice of Wicca is controversial, primarily because many Christians find the idea of a religion based on witchcraft objectionable. Some Christians associate any form of witchcraft with the worship of Satan. This, however, would be difficult, as Wicca does not acknowledge the existence of a “Satan”. Satan and the Devil are Judeo-Christian inventions. Others fear that Wicca might be tied to modern cults. This is not true. Wicca is a religion, legally recognized as such.
The U.S. Army, with the publication of the Army pamphlet 165-13, A Handbook for Chaplin’s, recognizes Witchcraft as a religion.

Wicca includes pagan, folk, and magical rites. Its primary sources are Babylonian, Celtic, Egyptian, ancient Greek, Roman, and Sumerian mythologies and rites, but also borrows from other religions and mythologies, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and the rites of American Indians. Essentially, Wicca is a religion that celebrates the natural world and the seasonal cycles. It acknowledges the Goddess as the feminine side of a deity called God. Witches worship both Goddess and God in various personifications, including ancient gods and goddesses.

Rites are tied to the cycles of the moon, which is the symbol of the power of the Goddess, and to the seasons of the year. Religious holidays are called sabbats. There are four major sabbats: Imbolc (February 1), Beltane (April 30), Lugnasadh or Lammas (July 31), and Samhain (October 31).

Most Witches practice in secrecy. Some do so because they believe that is the tradition. Others do so because they wish to avoid persecution. Because of secrecy, it is difficult to estimate how many people practice Witchcraft as a religion.

Modern Witches practice magic, both for spell casting and as a path of spiritual growth. Magic for spiritual growth is called high magic and is aimed at connecting a person to God or Goddess on a soul level. They follow the Wiccan Rede, which is similar to the Golden Rule, “An’ it harm none, do what ye will.” Witches also believe in the Threefold Law of Karma, which holds that magic returns to the sender magnified three times. Thus, Witches say, evil magic only hurts the sender.

Witchcraft has existed since humans first banded together in groups. Prehistoric art depicts magical rites to ensure successful hunting. Western beliefs about witchcraft grew out of the mythologies and folklore of ancient peoples, especially the Greeks and Romans. Roman law made distinctions between good magic and harmful magic, and harmful magic was punishable by law.
When Christianity began to spread, the distinctions vanished. Witchcraft came to be linked with worship of the Devil.

In Europe, beginning in about the 700’s CE, witchcraft was increasingly associated with heresy (rejection of church teachings). The Christian church began a long campaign to stamp out heresy. Beginning in the 1000’s CE, religious leaders sentenced heretics to death by burning.
The Inquisition, which began about 1230 CE, was an effort by the church to seek out and punish heretics and force them to change their beliefs. Eventually, the secular (non religious) courts as well as all Christian churches were involved in the persecution of witches. Especially after the 1500’s, most people accused of witchcraft came to trial in secular courts. They were charged with human sacrifice and with worshiping the Devil in horrible rites. Most historians doubt that worship of the Devil was ever widespread, if indeed it even took place. But stories about it created a mood of fear and anxiety.

The witch hunt reached its peak in Europe during the late 1500’s and early 1600’s. Many victims, who were mostly women, were falsely accused of witchcraft. Many accused witches were tortured until they confessed. Then they faced imprisonment, banishment, or execution.
In the American Colonies, a small number of accused witches were persecuted in New England from the mid-1600’s to the early 1700’s. Some were banished and others were executed.

The most famous American witch hunt began in 1692 in Salem, Mass. There, a group of village girls became fascinated with the occult, but their games got out of hand. They began to act strangely, uttering weird sounds and screaming. Suspicions that witches were responsible for the girls’ behavior led to the arrest of three women. More arrests followed, and mass trials were held.
About 150 people were imprisoned on witchcraft charges. Nineteen men and women were convicted and hanged as witches. A man who refused to plead either innocent or guilty to the witchcraft charge was pressed to death with large stones. Today, historians agree that all the victims were falsely accused. The girls pretended to be possessed. Their reasons are unclear, though they may have been seeking attention.

There are also several factors that could have contributed to the general mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Hunts. One interesting factor could have been ergot in rye.
The Puritans made bread with rye, and ergot may have been the culprit in causing lots of the strange behavior exhibited by the witnesses and the accusers. Ergot is a plant disease that is caused by the fungus Claviceps purpurea. Ergot thrives in a cold winter followed by a wet spring. The victims of ergot might suffer paranoia and hallucinations, twitches and spasms, cardiovascular trouble, and stillborn children. Ergot also seriously weakens the immune system. Its victims can appear bewitched when they’re actually stoned.

Another factor that may have contributed to the witch hunts was general distrust and suspicion. In the time leading up to the witch hunts, Salem was splitting into two distinct areas. Salem Village, which was composed of the farmers and original setters, and Salem Town, made up of newcomers, merchants, and people who were more prosperous. These two groups did not like each other in general. The merchants were capitalistic, and this was no approved of by the other Puritans who wanted to create a society of purity and Christian rule.
The witchcraft scare lasted about a year. In 1693, the people still in jail on witchcraft charges were freed. (In 1711, the Massachusetts colonial legislature made payments to the families of the witch hunt victims.)

By the late 17th century, the witchcraft was well underground, as it was illegal to be a Witch, as well as against the Cannons of the church. It wasn’t until 1951 that the last of these laws was repealed, and modern witchcraft surfaced with Gerald Gardener, that all of Witchcraft was able to resurface, in it’s many forms.

Now there are many Covens out in the open and many many more still in hiding and who practice solitary, fearing a resurgence of the persecutions. In the 1960’s Raymond Buckland, Sybil Leek, Gavin, Yvonne Frost followed in Gardner’s footsteps, then more and more Covens came out into the open.

Witchcraft has come a long way, yet, sadly, even though there are laws today which protect an individual’s right to practice a personal religion such as witchcraft, there are those who still feel threatened by imaginary untruths about it.

Reference:

Wicca’s One Universe

Let’s Talk Witch – Sympathetic Magick

Let’s Talk Witch – Sympathetic Magick

Sympathetic Magick and the Law of Similar

To understand how spells work, it is necessary to understand the concept of “sympathy” and what’s known as the Law of Similars. Sympathy, in a magickal sense, means that a designated item, when properly used has the power to affect something or someone because of the symbolic relationship between the item and the target of the spell.

Candle magick often makes use of sympathy. A love spell, for instance, might utilize two candles to represent a couple. To heal a rift between the two individuals, a witch might move the candles a little closer together each day over a period of time until the candles are touching. Poppets embody the concept of sympathy and the Law of Similars. The early Egyptians utilized poppets in spellcraft, carefully forming and dressing the dolls and adding incantations that described the poppet’s desired effec on the person it represented.

The Law of Similars states that there is a divine fingerprint in nature that gives clues to an item’s spiritual function. For example, red plants can be used in magickal cures for blood problems. A heart-shaped leaf might be a component of a love spell. A phallus-shaped stone can be utilized in a spell for male virility.

Like their predecessors, contemporary witches still consider an item’s shape, color, and other physical attributes as indicators of its magickal significance. In this manner, witches believe they are giving greater dimension to the energy of a spell, therefore an outcome will manifest more satisfactorily.

How To Make a Witch's Ladder

How To Make a Witch’s Ladder

By Patti Wigington, About.com Guide

A witch’s ladder is one of those nifty things we sometimes hear about but rarely see. Its purpose is similar to that of a rosary – it’s basically a tool for meditation and ritual, in which different colors are used as symbols for one’s intent. It’s also used as a counting tool, because in some spell workings there is a need to repeat the working a particular number of times. You can use the ladder to keep track of your count, running the feathers or beads along as you do so. Traditionally, the witch’s ladder is made with red, white and black yarn, and then nine different colored feathers woven in.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Varied

Here’s How:

Realistically speaking, it makes more sense to use yarn colors that have a significance to you and your working. Also, finding nine differently colored feathers can be tricky if you’re looking for them out in the wild — you can’t just go plucking feathers from local endangered species — and that means a trip to the craft store and some oddly tinted feathers. I’d recommend using either found feathers of any color, or something else entirely — beads, buttons, bits of wood, shells, or other items you have around your home.

To make your basic witch’s ladder, you’ll need:

Yarn or cord in three different colors

Nine items that are similar in property but in different colors (nine beads, nine shells, nine buttons, etc)

Cut the yarn so that you have three different pieces in a workable length – usually a yard or so is good. Although you can use the traditional red, white and black, there’s no hard and fast rule that says you must. Tie the ends of the three pieces of yarn together in a knot.

Begin braiding the yarn together, tying the feathers or beads into the yarn, and securing each in place with a sturdy knot. Some people like to chant or count as they braid and add the feathers. If you wish, you can say something like this variation on the traditional chant:

By knot of one, the spell’s begun.
By knot of two, the magic comes true.
By knot of three, so it shall be.
By knot of four, this power is stored.
By knot of five, my will shall drive.
By knot of six, the spell I fix.
By knot of seven, the future I leaven.
By knot of eight, my will be fate.

By knot of nine, what is done is mine.

As the feathers are tied into knots, focus your intent and goal. As you tie the final and ninth knot, all your energy should be directed into the cords, the knots and the feathers. The energy is literally stored within the knots of the witch’s ladder. When you’ve completed the string and added all nine feathers or beads, you can either knot the end and hang the ladder up, or you can tie the two ends together forming a circle.

If you’d like your ladder to be more like a rosary string, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Pagan Prayer Beads by John Michael Greer and Clare Vaughn.

Let's Talk Witch – "Knots"

Witchy Cat Graphics & Comments

Knots

In Spellcraft, knots offer a simple way to contain or loosen energy. The obvious symbolism of tying a knot indicates an intention to bind something or someone. If, for example, you wanted to prevent an enemy from harming you, you could create a poppet (see preceding section) to represent your enemy and bind his hands and feet with string. If a witch perceives unwanted energies in a space—especially while performing a spell—she can tie a knot in a piece of clothing or the altar cloth to trap that energy until after the magickal working.

You can tie energy of any kind into a knot. Witches sometimes tie a line of knots of a long cord, placing thought, emotions, incantations, etc. into the knots. These lines are sometimes called a witch’s Ladder. Untying a knot at a later date frees the energy bound therein.

You can use knot symbolism in the following types of spells:

Bindings and banishings (especially illness and negative energy)

Channeling energy into a specific location (the energy can be captured in the knot, and then released when it’s most needed)

Securing relationships (hence the term “tying the knot” to refer to marriage)

“Tying up the loose ends” of a situation

You can tie intentions into knots, too. Let’s say you want to stabilize your finances. The best number for this purpose is four. You could make a money charm and secure the pouch with a gold ribbon. Tie four knots in the ribbon and concentrate on your goal each time you tie a knot. Or tie a ribbon around your bills, using four knots to limit the outflow of money.

The Everything Wicca and Witchcraft Book (Everything®)
Alexander, Skye

 

Let's Talk Witch – The Magick Within You

Let’s Talk Witch

The Magick Within You

In order to use your magic you must be able to meditate and concentrate. You must be able to visualize the magic; see what you want to have happen, happen in your mind. With your concentration, you will be able build a huge amount of energy that you can use for your magic.

Once there is enough energy build up, direct it to the place you want it to go. History says that Wiccans used to make use of “athame” a special ritual knife for directing their magic. If you don’t have an athame, you can use your finger. Remember, the magic is in you, not the tools that you use.

Also keep in mind, never use magic to hurt people, though you could be kidding about turning them into frogs (you wish you could!), but the psychology of the person you teased can really be disturbed. Hence use your finger for the good of people, never point at someone even if you’ve got something uncommon going on.

The change that magic can bring about is not something a person can easily understand. You have so much power within you and with that power you can do so much. Some of us decide to unleash our powers while others, because of lack of proper advice, because of rumours stay back and watch their lives go on without any change…

As a Wiccan, you must follow ethical codes. You should only use your magic for betterment and never to hurt. You must remember this always. The power of magic is so immense, so great that if you master it, people will feel it. Whether they’re close to you or not, they will feel you and your powers.

Try doing this, if you throw a stone in the water, you will see ripples moving away from the centre of where you threw the stone. Now the stone is your magic, you are the centre and the ripples are your energy and power. Imagine your energy moving away from you and as they move out, the affect everything that the come across. You have it in you to change the lives of people.

You do create the magic and restore the health and happiness of people you care for or those who seek you to help them. Like in Spiderman, I’d like to quote that “with great power, comes great responsibility”; the responsibility to adhere to your ethics, towards mankind, animals, the Earth and yourself.

Energy Healing, Herbal Magic & Protection Charms – A Wiccan Practical Guide (The Practical Wicca series) Audrin, Alice F.

A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality


Witchy Comments & Graphics

A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality

I am a Pagan and I dedicate myself to channeling the Spiritual Energy of my Inner Self to help and to heal myself and others. I know that I am part of the Whole of Nature. May I grow in understanding of the Unity of all Nature. May I always walk in Balance.

May I always be mindful of the diversity of Nature as well as its Unity and may I always be tolerant of those whose race, appearance, sex, sexual preference, culture, and other ways differ from my own.

May I use the Force (psychic power) wisely and never use it for aggression nor for malevolent purposes. May I never direct it to curtail the free will of another.

May I always be mindful that I create my own reality and that I have the power within me to create positively in my life.

May I always act in honorable ways: being honest with myself and others, keeping my word whenever I have given it, fulfilling all responsibilities and commitments I have taken on to the best of my ability.

May I always remember that whatever is sent out always returns magnified to the sender. May the Forces of Karma move swiftly to remind me of my spiritual commitments when I have begun to falter from them, and may I use this Karmic feedback to help myself grow and be more attuned to my Inner Pagan Spirit.

May I always remain strong and committed to my Spiritual ideals in the face of adversity and negativity. May the Force of my Inner Spirit ground out all malevolence directed my way and transform it into positively. May my Inner Light shine so strongly that malevolent forces cannot even approach my sphere of existence.

May I always grow in Inner Wisdom and Understanding. May I see every problem that I face as an opportunity to develop myself spiritually in solving it.

May I always act out of Love to all other beings on this Planet – to other humans, to plants, to animals, to minerals, to elementals, to spirits, and to other entities.

May I always be mindful that the Goddess and God in all their forms dwell within me and that this divinity is reflected through my own Inner self, my Pagan Spirit.

May I always channel Love and Light from my being. May my Inner Spirit, rather than my ego self, guide all my thoughts, feelings, and actions.

SO MOTE IT BE!

Zealous or Thorough…What Kind of a Magickal Person Are You? (Part 2) : Revelry or Reverence?

Zealous or Thorough…What Kind of a Magickal Person Are You? (Part 2) : Revelry or Reverence?
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Author: Kestryl Angell

There are, periodically, bashing periods on the “fluffy bunny” set of Paganism. This form of intolerance is rather bothersome to both the Zealous and the Thorough practitioner in us.

On the one hand, those that are “light and fluffy” in their beliefs do very much so have as much right to their beliefs…and their dancing, sparkling, fairy-dusted, tinkling bells and moonlight-tastes-like-ice cream! .. sort of joy in their beliefs and newfound spiritual freedom as we all do to our own.

On the other hand, we also have the “right” to the peace and quiet that is found when our “sparkly, naked dancing days” come to a close and we realize that robes were given to us to keep the human being in us attuned to something higher than the basic sexuality that most of us have spent years trying to overcome the genetically coded pre-occupations that nudity often inspires, especially in one’s beautiful pagan youth.

No, I have nothing against dancing naked in the moonlight! I have done it for years! But, not every single person is as delighted with my nudity as the God/dess and I are, and thus I respect other’s right NOT to see what I only offer to the Gods who love me without the judgments held so often behind human eyes.

Is either side “wrong”? No, of course not, they are simply what are known as “mutually exclusive.” Can they co-exist side by side peacefully? Yes, as long as everyone is grown up enough to keep basic boundaries of respect for the other’s viewpoint… which is why there are often skyclad areas and non-skyclad areas, skyclad and non-skyclad rituals at pagan events and such. So everyone can have what is right for THEM and their view of “respect to self, others and Deity.”

It is appropriate to always do checking if you’re going to a public event or even a circle held by a coven other than that you’re studying or bound to. This way, if there are any issues that might come up for you, you’ll know about them ahead of time and be able to plan accordingly or bow out gracefully before it will cause any undo stress to you or others present. I’ll give an example from my own experience.

I was acting as High Priestess for a public gathering ritual. The theme of the gathering was “Finding the child within.” So, my then partner and myself planned a light-hearted ritual filled with playful revelry and imagery designed to help our inner children emerge and feel comfortable in a space of worship and kinship. We decided that using Kool-aid for our “wine” and animal crackers for our “cakes” would be a delightful expression and memory inducement for many there, as well as being a good tool for some of the shamanic portions of the ritual.

We had bubbles and sparkles and it was all sorts of kiddy fun…the fluffy bunnies LOVED it! Even the older, tried and true elders enjoyed rekindling their inner children over bubbles and Kool-aid and animal crackers.

But after the ritual, my partner and I were soon faced with a small, but very stern looking group all dressed out in their highest, brightest, most intricately machine embroidered ritual garb, all of whom were scowling mightily at us and holding their animal crackers reverently in the palms of their hands with a look of disgust that couldn’t be comprehended immediately by either of us on the receiving end of it.

When queried as to how they liked the ritual they said, “If we had known there was going to be animal effigy sacrifices in this ritual we would NEVER have attended! We will be praying tonight that the animal spirits that you sacrificed for your “kiddy playtime” will forgive you!” and they stalked off in a hufflepuff of righteous indignation and “ritually appropriate” gear.

I will be honest about our reaction. At first we were totally dumbfounded that we had insulted someone so deeply with animal crackers.

Secondly, we were thinking to ourselves “uh… animal effigy SACRIFICE?!?!?… OOkayyyy… Right! It’s an ANIMAL CRACKER, idiots! Open your MINDS!”

Then, we had to realize that we had indeed deeply insulted their personal practice, and though totally unintended, had obviously affected them very strongly to the negative. So, later that evening we got all “appropriately attired” for a visit to such a camp and made our way into it with all the appropriate ceremony that their “age-old practice” demanded and made formal apologies both to their teachers and students and to the spirits we may have offended in the process of our “thoughtlessness.”

Now, did WE feel we’d made the animal spirits angry? NO! Our perception of them was pleased with our efforts to have fun and connect with nature. But, in the spirit of not wishing bad blood for future times or opportunities that paths might respectfully cross between students of my world and students of their path, we chose to make the appropriate moves to secure mutual understanding and to restore respect on both sides.

The acts that we make in the name of reverence to the right of every person to believe and practice as they will are those that most often are the strongest ones we can make. It shows compassion, understanding and a desire to learn that is often respected even if your beliefs and practices vary widely from those you seek to understand.

In all of paganism, one thing stands true of every practice I’ve ever had the honor to learn much about. There is a time and place for everything. There is a time and place for starched, detailed, immaculately planned and executed high ritual magick and there is a time for complete and utterly beautiful silliness and light-hearted play with the Gods.

There is a time to smile, perhaps even dance a few steps and get some glitter in your hair from a passing “fluffy bunny” newbie and there is a time to put on your finest gear and go get humble in front of the elders of another path in the name of peace. There is a time to “let Pan rule!” and there is a time to remember with complete gratitude and utter reverence our Elders, Ancestors and the Gods.

The key to really good magickal living, on this note, dear readers, is learning to navigate the difference between the two. So remember, “moderation in all things…including moderation.” Learn to smile and dance with the fluffy bunnies and remember when your practice was new and sparkling sweet like summer wine…and hold reverence for how far you’ve come in your practice, or in the age of your soul which “demands” more reverent and detailed study of your path than being a fluffy bunny might give you personally.

Learn to be tolerant and compassionate, to be both filled with revelry and joy in your beliefs, your practice and your direct, beautiful connection to Deity, yet also be reverent of the past and where it has brought us. Be both! Be it all! Be zealous and passionate, detailed and thorough in your lives, your loves and your faith-practice.

It is the only way to be truly magickal! For magick, like love and life itself, exists in all the shades of grey between black and white. Which shades detail your particular view, your particular palette of expression, are entirely up to you and Deity as you see It.

Zealous or Thorough…What Kind of a Magickal Person Are You? (Part 1)

Zealous or Thorough…What Kind of a Magickal Person Are You? (Part 1)
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Author: Kestryl Angell

When seeking our own personal balance, both as human beings and as practitioners of a variety of magickal paths, it is always wise to ask ourselves several questions about the nature of what we seek to become by their working. For instance, do we wish to be zealous? Passionate almost to the point of losing ourselves entirely in the belief or practice!

Or do we wish to be thorough? Paying all attention in the world to every minutest detail of a rite or practice and being completely bound by its structure, nearly without individual thought or expansion being allowed or accepted.

Do we wish to lean toward revelry or reverence? What are we truly seeking to accomplish by using magick for the task before us? Could the goal be accomplished another way that might not include magickal “pushes” from us or do we need to do the working to illustrate the act of creation for ourselves? Let’s look even a bit more closely at the first of those ever-telling questions above.

For the first, do we wish to be Zealous or Thorough?

We’ve all met our friendly neighborhood Zealot. He’s the one that bashes you over the head with his bible in trying to get you to “share the word of God” or “hear his Testimony!” She’s the one that shoves endless volumes of empirical evidence up your nose to the contrary of what you are trying to share with her in discussions of faith vs. science rather than seeing that, to those that look more closely, science is only the proving of magickal theories that have been called “magick” for so long due to our ignorance that is now being disproved to find so much of what is called “supernatural” is actually just a part of the “natural” we hadn’t seen before.

He is the one that believes only in numbers when it comes to business and not in expanding a “vision” of an overall company outlook. She is the one that staunchly stands on long-disproved “facts of life” as being “correct” because it is all she’s ever been taught and she’s afraid to see anything past her own truncated viewpoint.

He is the one that feverishly swears that “this new product will remove those unwanted pounds in DAYS instead of weeks, months or years, without the need for invasive surgical procedures!” when he knows its really just a vitamin supplement with trace minerals that often help relieve common ailments and inflammations with “miraculous” ease.

They are the Salesmen and women of Hype.

Regardless of whether it is on a magickal path or simply on a path of learning, whether it is about personal moral and ethical belief structures and practices or whether or not science supports or refutes the supernatural as truly “existing” within our sphere of understanding, you will know a zealot by the uncanny fire (see crazy swirls spinning madly in the glistening wideness of their eyes, revealing a depth of passion with little spin on the fullness of what reality might be) in their eyes and their unswerving devotion to their own viewpoint.

You may say to yourself, “but pagans are loving, wonderful, non-judgmental people that would NEVER do to them what others have done against their beliefs after suffering so much difficulty at the hands and beliefs of others!

Oh yes, boys and girls, there ARE most definitely pagan zealots-haven’t you had any visit your local gatherings lately? -Look for some of your wilder nudist types that insist that to wear robes in circle is “sacrilege” or those who staunchly feel “EVERY pagan should stand up in this modern day and age, regardless of personal risk to life, family structure, livelihood, etc. and speak up for the practice of their faith ’til someone acknowledges their RIGHT to practice it publicly without ridicule!”-There are other examples, and this is by no means a “slam” to those that choose to have those beliefs strongly for their personal practice. However, your right to do as you feel is correct is just as important as mine is to me.

Guess what? The time when all people simply have the smarts and compassion to just let one another BE what they are without judgment or ridicule will be a wonderful day-and those guilty of DEMANDING their RIGHT to be heard when they already HAVE these things not only by national law, but by Constitutional Right-in fact, they are exercising them in the very moment they are ranting about someone else’s repression of their beliefs or practices-they are just as guilty of judgment of another’s beliefs and their right to state them freely as those they are rally-crying against for supposedly repressing them.

The general idea of balance in the face of an overly zealous person, regardless of their personal belief structure or practice, is to not necessarily practice yourself what they believe or practice, but simply to ALLOW them to do so. You don’t have to agree. Tolerance is not about supporting some one else’s beliefs or practices by doing it ourselves. Tolerance is about allowing them the God/dess given right to do, be, feel, think and say what they feel is correct or incorrect about the running of the world around them-just as it is ours.

However, in an effort to study balanced practice, which is what we started out to do, we must also look to the other polarity of common practice. Those, that rather than choosing to be purely zealous about their practices, beliefs and such, choose to be thorough in how they study it and use it in daily life. These folk are often studious, sometimes to the point of being reclusive. They often have huge libraries that they have read repeatedly, usually cataloging in extreme detail all along the way so that all their references may be at a moment’s touch.

They are the ones that are drawn to proving what is and isn’t “historical fact” and what is simply the growing mythology of a collective set of belief structures caught under the mutual “umbrella” called “Paganism.” They are what in my old days in the Society for Creative Anachronism were called, the “period police.”

They are the ones that look for just the right number of folds in that Tudor crinoline collar and make certain that you hand pressed every single one of those 50, 000 petticoats before stepping into your period appropriate undergarments and all the other properly stitched and beaded layers that you wish to sit uncomfortably beautiful in for the next 3 ½ hours of court that await your already aching ears.

Now I do not wish to appear here to be saying that an attention to detail is not important. When studying the various paths of magick, I am the first to advocate those that choose to do so with the greatest of possible detail.

However, just as pure zealous response can lead to an opposite response to what we are seeking, so too does too studious an approach lose our purpose, at times, in the seeking to line up all the appropriate signs, sigils, times of day, week, month and year, the appropriate herbs, incense, oils, candles, sabbat oil, blessing oils, and more to the point where the original reason and the passion for it is lost in the expectation of perfection in the tools being used to accomplish the goal.

Magick should always, regardless of the tools available at the time, come from within the worker of it, for it will never come from the tools they use it if did not first come from them…nor will the magick return to them, but to the tools.

For some workings, having all portends correct and every type of power available aligned just so is not only appropriate, but completely necessary to the working’s success.

However, as with the difference between needing a picnic lunch and a full seven course dinner, there is a skill to learning what is what and what to use when…and when you’re just going for complete and total overkill in the details department. Keep in mind, you can ruin the best soup with just one too many spices. The same is true for magick.

Simple is good for many things. Use “complicated” when you must. Don’t use magick at all, if it can be accomplished in another way.

Now I can already hear those out there who are of paths that consider personal gain to be an “awesome and totally acceptable reason to use magick whenever possible!” starting to kvetch and gripe that they “don’t believe in the three fold law so it doesn’t effect them!” and I say if you haven’t seen karma as a Universal Rule on your own, you aren’t looking closely or clearly enough.

It doesn’t have to read in your mind or book of shadows as “the Three-fold Law” or the biblical ten-fold references. But the simple Universal Law of Averages and of “what goes around comes around” are concepts so obvious to enlightened human beings that if all you’re arguing over is the numbers or the particular path stated (i.e. you’re “not a WICCAN, I’M a (enter your chosen path emphatically here—and don’t forget the “!!!” at the end!!!)

In this case, you’re being too detail oriented and not seeing the Universal Brickbat for what it is. That is just one of the lovely ways the Gods find to tell us every time we stumble in our oh-so-human way…”Nope, you don’t have it yet, pup. Keep trying though, you’re very amusing!”

The Key we’re truly trying to discuss here, however, is the balance between being Zealous and being Thorough in our practice and, one hopes, in our overall response to the world at large. So, first and foremost remember, “moderation in all things… including moderation.”

This means pick the appropriate tools or lack thereof for the job. Don’t overdo. Give reverence to the past for bringing us to where we are now in terms of our knowledge and our powerbase in connecting with Deity. But do not be so bound to the past and its rules-which were made for another time, place and set of people’s lives than those we live now-that you cannot take what is beautiful, good and strong from the past and make it into something even deeper and more meaningful to you and to your future generations.

Part of the beauty of our faiths-in my humble opinion-is that they are, generally speaking, growing and living faiths. They are growing from a past that is deep and vast, regardless of whether we carry on family traditions that have been passed down through the eons…or whether our path just became a recognized belief structure 15, 20, 50 or 100 years ago.

Whether they have been passed from blue blood witch to blue blood witch for generations or whether it was practice by our grandfathers and grandmothers, whether it was brought to us by an anthropologist or was channeled in sweat lodge, whether it existed when cavemen painted their sacred images on the walls of their sacred places or whether it was woven together only within your own lifetime of experiences-no one has the right to tell you that your practice is any more or less “Valid” than any other.

That is not their call, nor is it their right.

That particular “mystery” is between you…and Deity.

It is not a viewpoint’s age that makes it valid. Nor is a viewpoint all there is to beliefs of faith. But in matters of faith and religion it is our belief that, for us, how we see things being organized and connected to is the way things are for us that matter.

We’ll look at the other questions in Part 2!

Let's Talk Witch – Your Personal Code

magick21

 

Your Personal Code

Every magickal tradition, from the Druids to Wicca to Santeria, has its own code— principles that guide the practitioner, boundaries that he or she won’t cross, a core of beliefs that permeates everything he or she does. These core beliefs define the parameters of the magickal practice. In Wicca, the primary principle is to harm nothing and no one.

But individuals also develop their own personal codes. Have you defined yours As previously noted, cultural differences have a hand in sculpting a particular individual’s beliefs. In the end, however, each of us must refine our own code as we evolve from children raised in the belief systems of our parents to adults who decide for ourselves what we believe.

This is not to say that any of us is omnipotent, that any of us has all the answers or even a good chunk of them. We’re all seekers and we all have a need for some sort of belief system. Your belief system may include an adherence to an organized religion or to some other spiritual discipline, or it may not include any sort of spiritual ideas at all. But at the heart of any belief system lies a code by which you live your life, and it may not have any connection whatsoever to other people’s concepts of good and bad. After all, even thieves have codes.

Do you believe in an afterlife In a supreme being In good and evil Do you believe that reality is exactly as it appears, that what you see is what you get Do you believe people can’t be trusted, that all Dobermans are vicious, that it’s every man for himself, that you’re a victim and there’s nothing you can do about it Then your experiences will confirm those beliefs.

If, on the other hand, you believe that nothing is fated, that your free will and your innermost beliefs effect your reality, then your experiences will confirm that, too.

Because you have picked up a book on magick and spells, you probably already believe that you can shape your own destiny and are looking for practical information on how to do it more efficiently and pragmatically. Magick is one route. But there are hundreds of ways to get to where you want to be. The bottom line of any exploration is defining what you believe and what works for you.

 

The Only Book of Wiccan Spells You’ll Ever Need (The Only Book You’ll Ever Need) Singer, Marian; MacGregor, Trish (2012-08-18).

Always Remember

Gothic Comments

Always Remember

To KNOW:  Know yourself, know your craft. Research your spells, apply all your knowledge

To WILL:  Focus your mind, your power and inner being.

To DARE:  Believe in your spells and all you do with Positive thought and intent. All this is energy you place in the universe.

To REMAIN SILENT:  Speak not of your spells….for every thought placed into your magick, your magick is affected.

Indications of What Type of Magic You Should Practice

Indications of What Type of Magic You Should Practice

Indications of White Magic:

  • Your practice uses White Light energies.
  • There is a tendency for self-purification before and/or during a spell.
  • You have an affinity to cleanse your area, target, and self.

Indications of Black Magic:

  • Dark essences are being used, primarily.
  • You find power in the emotional negativity of yourself and others.

Indications of Magecraft:

  • Your primary concern is in social politics or what people think.
  • You are constantly trying to understand what people think and feel.

Indications of Nature Magic:

  • Your practice tends to beckon you to nature and the use of natural forces.
  • You can feel a higher presence in things that most would call inanimate.
  • Your magic is an extension of the natural world, not a conflict with it.
  • You feel a different kind of power in nature and feel prone to harness it.

Indications of Necromancy:

  • Your practice centres around degrading health and physical well-being.
  • You find power in the physical suffering of yourself or others.
  • You use servitors but totally control all of their actions at all times.
  • You can sense if a person will die or if they are becoming ill/diseased.

Indications of Healing:

  • You can feel your own internal energies.
  • You can realign your internal energies if injured.
  • You can feel the aura of others and can realign it as well.

Indications of Celestial Magic:

  • You put your situations in the hands of a higher being.
  • You believe in a god or gods and want to, or know how to, communicate with them.
  • Your mystic practices incorporate the use of higher intelligences.

Indications of Satanic Magic:

  • Your power comes from yourself.
  • You are not interested in ever letting power out of your own control.
  • Your methods often include blessing/enchanting yourself.

Indications of Elemental Magic:

  • You are primarily concerned with physical manifestations.
  • Your art works heavily with controlling the environment.
  • It seems natural to you if you change the weather through mystic exertion.

Indications of Enchanting:

  • You are interested in the mystic potential of items.
  • You can sense mana in items that have been handled by another magician.
  • You try to magnify or nullify the powers put into objects.
  • You have skill in imbuing normal things with special powers.

Indications of Summoning:

  • You do not want to use higher powers to control summoned spirits.
  • Your power focusses on calling out to spirits, but not gods.
  • You see or work with demons, yet do not feel afraid.
  • You want servitors but also want to let them think on their own.
  • You can talk to spirits of the dead by feeling their thoughts.

Indications of Divination:

  • You frequently experience Deja Vu.
  • You see hidden meanings in atypical events.
  • You can predict events spontaneously with a high degree of accuracy.

Indications of Wizardry:

  • You tend to see “the big picture” where everyone else is worried about trifles.
  • You have the ability to move outside your body.
  • You use magic to change small things which drastically effect larger things by “domino effect”.
  • Your can project yourself or thoughts of your own design to manifest on this level.
  • Your art seems like a “pure” sorcery.

Indications of Sorcery:

  • You tend to see even mundane things from a mystic standpoint.
  • Your practices are fervent and full of emotion.
  • You step into a dark plane to practice your most potent skills.
  • Your art seems like a “dark” wizardry, or some form of “shadow magic”.

INDICATIONS YOU DO NOT YET FIT INTO A SINGLE ART:

  • You rely on a variety of mystic abilities.
  • You do not have a desire to commit to one path.
  • You feel confined rather than empowered by using a single discipline.
  • You see no need for devotion to extreme mystic abilities.

Note: This is not necessarily a reason to panic. There are times when the practitioner is legitimately not prepared to take on the discipline strains of studying through a single caste. At first, in fact, it is recommended that things be taken slowly and that all paths are given a fair trial to ensure that there is no reminiscing or regret in the future. This is not a problem, nor a sign of weakness. It is a reality that many casters face. Using whatever seems appropriate for a situation and recording it in a journal (Book of Shadows) will eventually reveal trends in your casting that will allow you to see where your talent or need lies.

INDICATIONS YOU DO NOT NEED MAGIC AT ALL:

  • There is a physical solution to your problems.
  • You couldn’t be bothered to study if there’s no immediately achievable results.
  • You already know of a few normal solutions to a problem without resorting to the occult.

Luna’s Grimoire

Types of Magic Practitioners

Types of Magic Practitioners

 

White Magician Expert of Protective and Purifying Spells. Forwarded most notably by the New Age movement, it focusses on the use of the “White Light”, protection, protective auras, stasis, cleansing, suppression of discord, and working on the mystic level to sustain and strengthen ethereal structure.

Black Magician Master of Manipulating Entropy. Grounded in the application of the laws of thermodynamics, the nature of decay, radiation, the effect of emotion on the body, and civil engineering and/or anatomy.

Psi Mage Expert at Psychic and Mental Control. Studying recommendations include telepathy, telekinesis, magnetism, secular and occult empathy, general psychology, emotion, motivation, hypnotism, cognitive processing, consciousness, states of awareness, sleep deprivation, learning, decision making, group dynamics, “Zen” concept, and other aspects of psychological classification and analysis.

Nature Mage Master of Nature and Natural Forces. Stressing the relationship between sound and plant growth, holistic medicine, botany, ley lines, earth spirits, photosynthesis, and astrological, minerological, and magnetic influences on earth.

Enchanter Expert at Enhancing Objects, People, or Areas. Employs a working understanding of vibratory rates, radioactive decay, music, energy impressions, quantum and magnetic resonance, body conductivity, and Ayurvedic philosophy.

Elementalist Expert of Controlling the Four Elements, and Influencing Weather. Studies the nature of natural phenomenon (electricity, heat, cold, wind), biochemistry, composition philosophies (Heraclitus, Anaximenes, Thales, Empedocles, Xenobius, etc), body composition, thermodynamics, natural entropical disarray, and physical laws of attraction and repulsion.

Diviner Expert of Future and Fortune telling. Heavy study in the mathematics of randomization, probability, chance, psychology, deja vu, precognition, instinct, sixth sense, visions, dreams, self-fulfilling prophecy, chaos theory, game theory, sociology, group psychology, identification and interpretation of patterns, and free-energy theory.

Summoner Expert at Summoning Spirits or Entities. Academia for this art includes telemetry, attempts at long-distance telepathic communication, vibrational states, dimensional theory, multiple personalities, schizophrenia, possession, multiversal theory, the Ethereal realm,thought-forms, and the nature of the Mind. There are a great many ritual texts worth reading as well.

Life Mage Expert at Manipulating and Sustaining Life Force. Emphasis on anatomy, biology, kinesiology, alternative healing methods, herbology, theories of life force, chakras, meridians, acupressure, acupuncture, reiki, ethereal body, medicine, Breathism, and chi as vitality.

Necromancer Expert at Manipulating Death Essences. Focussing on dim mak, animal biology, study of chi, toxicology, viriology, bacteriology, immunology, the Kreb cycle, phosphorylation, free radicals, anatomy, psychological effects on the body, the nature of hallucination, auric poisoning, “miasma” concept, acupuncture theory, lou channels, chakras, life meridians, medical biochemistry, and death deities.

Sorcerer Expert Manipulator of the Twilight Realm. Focussing on interpretational abstractions, geometry, Jewish “hell” concept (abyss), pre- and post-Christian “hell” concept (both Greek), the nature of emotion, multiversal theory, lucid dreaming, astral projection, the nature of physical interpretation (the five senses + sixth), Eastern “void” concept, dimensional theory, meditative trances, trance states, and physics related to holographic reality models.

Wizard Expert Manipulator of the Astral Planes. Focussing on non-Euclidian geometry, geometry, mathematics, multiversal theory, astral projection, astral forms, dimensional theory, the nature of perception, meditative trances, trance states, and physics.

Celestial Mage Calls on Deities to Intervene. Relevant studies include history of religion, cultural sociology, historical sociology, anthropology, history of religion, theology, High Magic, the bible, the koran, the Keys of Solomon, the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, John Dee’s Angel studies, Johannes Trithemius, shamanism, Intelligent Design theory (ID), and examinaton of other various holy writs and mythologies.

Satanic Magician Expert of Manipulating and Expressing Internal Forces. Pertains to LaVeyan “Satanic Magic”, Luciferianism, thought-forms, chaos theory, mind over matter, nature of perception, chakras, cause and effect principles in open systems, “crimson” magic as per CoS, self-fulfilling prophecy, and specific emphasis on microcosmic effect on macrocosms.

Luna’s Grimoire

Tips for the Solitary Practitioner

Tips for the Solitary Practitioner

 

There are many more self-initiated Wiccans and Witches out there than practically any other variety of Pagan. While a valid and legitimate spiritual path, self-initiation and working solitary pose a few unique challenges to those who would follow this particular path to the Old Gods. By its very nature, the solitary path doesn’t have a lot of guidance available–usually you strike out on your own to discover it all for yourself.

So why self-initiate? Why be a solitary practitioner? These are questions you have to answer for yourself. No one has a monopoly upon wisdom, nor on the Mysteries–these are not things that you can own, only experience on your own terms, and even then they keep moving, changing and growing. Anyone who approaches the Gods with sincerity, respect, and integrity can and will discover their own way to commune with these essential forces of Nature. It means hard work, requires creativity, persistence and determination–it is a challenging path to take.

If you decide to pursue self-initiation and build your own version of spiritual practice based upon the Wiccan model, here are some tips to help make the process go a bit more smoothly:

1) Clarify your intent. Ask yourself “Why am I doing this?” Examine your motivations–pursuing any particular spiritual path is a serious commitment. Setting out to explore things on your own as a solitary practitioner is not something to do on a whim, nor is it a “fun” hobby. It’s work, and plenty of it. It can also be worth it.

2) Gather your resources. You need to establish a set of ground rules for what you want to do. This will require reading everything you can get. Try to read a variety of authors, and don’t read just about Witchcraft. You’re not going to learn very much from restricting your reading to pop-Wicca books that gleefully extol the virtues of playing at mediocre, misinterpreted folk traditions of dubious vintage. You’re setting out to acquire some wisdom, not superstitious twaddle and bogus hokum. Take classes and get calluses–go out and learn something, then put it to use in your life and the community around you. If it dies on the vine unused, it’s a waste.

3) If you find something that you like, adapt it; don’t just lift it out of its context. Once you have a basic framework within/upon which to work, rewrite everything to fit your emerging vision, after you’ve tried it out, tested it, and given it a chance to teach you what it has to reveal on its own terms.

4) Draft a statement of your core beliefs. Sign it, date it, and place it in your journal or Book of Shadows. Forget about it for a while and just work on doing it. Choose a time each year to re- examine it and amend it if desired. Sometimes this is a good thing to do during the winter months, perhaps Candlemas/Imbolc? You decide. When you do check it out, don’t beat yourself up if you’ve gone off in a completely other direction. Spend some time contemplating what you meant when you wrote that piece and look at what you’ve learned in the time since then. What would you change about it, or yourself, now that you know what you know now?

5) If you do happen to fall prey to the social disease of writing, please be sure to make every reasonable attempt to document your sources. Give credit where credit is due. You have nothing to gain by trying to pretend that you invented Gardner’s or Crowley’s books. Keep yourself honest. Given time, and effort, you will develop your own rites. When you do, you don’t want to dilute the meaningfulness of the moment by that nagging little voice that reminds you that you didn’t really do it. Respect your creativity, maintain personal integrity, and let things develop naturally.

6) Remember that within most established traditions of the Craft, the term ‘degree’ generally refers to experience, not rank. As a solitary you don’t have any rank to worry about. If you do, well, then I hope you’re enjoying yourself. As a solitary you get the opportunity to focus upon the personal experience and to drop the distractions. It’s similar to the monastic approach to mysticism, only less ascetic and more fun.

If you do wind up creating or adapting some sort of degree system for your personal Work be sure to take your time working through those degrees. Learn all you can and work with the Gods and Mighty Ones–as you progress, the doors of perception will open, the way will be found. Besides, if you’re going to pursue an experiential approach to an already experiential path, why deny yourself the benefit of having those very experiences that are part and parcel of the whole darn thing in the first place? It’s absolutely about quality, not quantity.

7) Do it for the right reasons. Why are you doing whatever you’re doing, and why alone? If you’re solitary because of some sort of insecurity or negative reaction to past happenstance…be prepared for circumstances to change as you grow and mature. If you’ve withdrawn to focus upon certain aspects of your personal spiritual development, don’t lose track of that, even if you do decide to take a break and go hang out with a group for a while. Your solitary practice should serve as a firm foundation for your day-to-day life. A viable, healthy spiritual practice will offer you a way to recharge your batteries, cope with stress, resolve crises and guide you as you grow. If your solitary path doesn’t offer you these things, what are you doing?

8) Solitary work can be ideal for self-transformation and personal healing. As you progress, as healing occurs, as changes take place, you will find your practice likewise changing. Consider this a form of sympathetic magick. As you become more fully integrated and whole, your rituals will become more balanced and holistic as well. The Craft is a healing path, so why not approach it as such?

9) Keep in mind that the only way to gauge progress is to challenge it in some manner. How you decide to challenge yourself is one thing. How the universe around you, let alone the Gods & Ancestors, will test your progress is another matter. There will come a point where your focus upon the self-chosen, self-directed things will be intruded upon. You are a human being, not an oyster. If you’re going to heal, then heal and get on with life. If you’re going to deal with something, deal with it and move on. Life is in motion. Whatever tries to remain static will encounter friction and eventually will be torn loose by the tides of change or the teeth of the trickster.

10) We all learn at different rates and in different styles. Working alone makes it possible to modify everything to suit your needs. Creativity and sincerity can guide you in making your Craft practice a viable and vital part of your life. Don’t waste time measuring your progress against other people. They do not approach things from your perspective or background, nor do they share your personal circumstances.

11) No matter what disabilities, hindrances, or restrictions you may have in your life, you can practice Wicca–if you honestly desire to do so. Indeed, the only thing holding anyone back from the Craft of the wise is their own sense of self. Sure, you may not be able to jump around a circle waving a letter-opener or perhaps you can’t mumble out a mournful dirge of dubious ecstasy like some of the other folks on the path. So what? As you will and you harm none. Get it?

12) Even solitaries aren’t alone anymore. With all of the resources available on the Internet–go check out http://www.witchvox.com or http://www.circle.org or http://www.avatarsearch.com or http://www.twpt.com or just do a search on Wiccan, Pagan or whatever your heart desires. There’s an incredible amount of information and opportunities to connect with a vast array of fellow seekers out there.

13) Consider sharing the fruits of your labors, but don’t be in a hurry to share the secrets of your success. Solitary work is very personal and what worked for you may not work for another. Respect the freedom of others to pursue their own path into the Silence as you yourself did. If you find that others come to you, or that you are asked to share more details, then you are being confronted by the task of becoming a teacher or guide or mentor.

Congratulations. Hopefully your time spent in solitary practice has garnered you some measure of wisdom that can help you to meet this new challenge with grace and dignity. Or at least with a good head start as you run away.

by James Garrison

Luna’s Grimoire

How to Practice as a Solitary Pagan

How to Practice as a Solitary Pagan

By Patti Wigington, About.com

In modern Paganism and Wicca, there are far more people who practice as solitaries than there are people who have joined covens or established traditions. Why is this? It’s partly because most people who want to learn about Paganism develop the interest long before they meet a coven or trad that they’re interested in joining. It’s also because even if you decide you want to be part of a coven or group, it’s not always easy to find one. Wiccan covens and Pagan groups don’t exactly have a listing in the Yellow Pages, so you may have five covens right up the street from you, and you’d never know it.

Certainly, practicing as a solitary can have its rewards. After all, you can make your own guidelines and follow your own set of ethics. Worship can be done at your convenience, rather than according to a schedule dictated by others. As a solitary, you’re really under no obligation to anyone but yourself and your gods. Many people spend their entire lives practicing as solitaries, and never feel a need to join a coven or group.

Occasionally, you may find some drawbacks to practicing as a solitary Pagan or Wiccan. You might sometimes feel alone, like you have no one to network with or share ideas with. You may at some point feel like you’ve stagnated — it’s hard to figure out what the next step is if you don’t have someone to compare notes. Sometimes, it’s nice to just get feedback from like-minded people — someone who can help you when you’re wondering about what to do.

If you’ve decided to practice as a solitary — either temporarily, or in the long-term — here are some tips on how to have a successful experience:

Try to establish a daily routine. It’s easy to let your studies go by the wayside if you’re all by yourself, so establishing a daily routine will help you keep on task. Whether your routine includes meditation, reading, ritual work, or whatever, try to do something each day that helps you work towards achieving your spiritual studies.

Write things down. Many people choose to keep a Book of Shadows, or BOS, to chronicle their magical studies. This is important for a variety of reasons. First, it allows you to document what you’ve tried and done, as well as what works and doesn’t work for you. Secondly, by writing down your rituals, prayers, or spellwork, you’re laying the foundation for your tradition. You can go back and repeat things that you find to be useful later one. Finally, it’s important to keep track of what you do magically and spiritually because as people, we evolve. The person you are now is not the same person you were ten years ago, and it’s healthy for us to be able to look back and see where we were, and how far we’ve come.

Get out and meet people. Just because you’ve chosen to practice as a solitary doesn’t mean you should never come into contact with other Pagans or Wiccans. Most metropolitan areas — and a lot of smaller communities — have informal Pagan groups that get together regularly. This offers solitaries a chance to network and chat with each other, without having to form specific organized groups. Take advantage of resources like Witchvox and Meetup to see what’s in your area. If there’s nothing around you, consider starting a study group of your own for like-minded folks.

Ask questions. Let’s face it, we all need to start somewhere. If your read or hear something and you want to know more about it, ask. If something isn’t clear, or contradicts something you’ve already read, ask. Don’t accept everything at face value, and remember that just because one person had a particular experience doesn’t mean that you’ll have an identical experience. Also, keep in mind that just because you read something in a book doesn’t necessarily mean it’s valid — learn to ask whether a resource is worth using or not. Don’t be afraid to be a skeptic sometimes.

Don’t ever stop learning. Ask other people in the Pagan community — either online, or in real life — for recommendations about books and other resources. If you read a book that you enjoy, check the back for a bibliography and see what other books that author suggests. Remember that learning can take place by reading, but it can also develop from personal experience, and from speaking with other people involved in Paganism.

Luna’s Grimoire

Learning Anything

LEARNING ANYTHING

One of the most important skills you will ever learn in your life is learning
which questions to ask and when to ask them.

You will never learn how to do much of anything in your life if you do not learn
how to ask questions, and not only that, but to question the answers you get in
return.

For instance, “I want to learn about wicca,” is not a question. It is a statement.

“Teach me about wicca,” is also not a question. It is a command, even if you add
the word please.

Think about what you really want to ask. “Can you teach me about wicca?”

Ok, you’re getting closer to the question you really want answered. “Will you teach me about wicca?”

Even closer, but the topic at hand is a large one.

Look for where you actually want to start learning.

Good questions to start working with are “What makes wicca different from other paths?” or perhaps, “What is the first thing I should learn to start my journey of learning about wicca?”

These last two questions are good questions because they are specific and and
give the person you are talking with an idea of what you are actually interested
in learning.

Here’s another example.

I want to learn how to bake bread.

First of all I find someone that knows how (the right person).

Then I wait until they have the time to help me and a place ready to show me how to bake bread.

I try to read up a little ahead of time if I can and show up well rested and
ready to learn hopefully without any preconceptions (the right time).

Now I could ask them what the chemical structure of bread is, or why it browns
when it bakes or what type of butter to use on it, but none of these are very
good questions to help me towards my goal of learning how to bake bread.

True it might be useful information, but I can always learn the answers to those
questions later once I have learned the basics.

So my first questions are, “What are the ingredients we use?” and “How do we
start?,” two specific and useful questions.

A good question asked at the right time to the right person helps the person answering it almost as much as it helps the person asking it.

If the person you are asking questions to has no idea of your level of knowledge of the subject or your specific area of interest at the moment they cannot help you nearly as well as they could if they knew these things.

Good questions are one way of helping a person understand what you want to know and what level of difficulty you want it explained at.

The Four Rules and The Law of White Witchcraft

The Four Rules and The Law of White Witchcraft

 

**Notice**

This document may be distributed freely so long as it is not altered, edited, or changed in any way from its original form. A copy of this document in its true original form may be gotten from our home page.

In order to live a full and successful life as a ‘White Witch’, one must first understand what the rules of the game are. The principles which are put forth below are intended to be a very simple, basic way to remember the way of the White Craft.

The total idea may be visualized as a four legged stool. Each of the Rules can be seen as a leg and The Law may be seen as the seat. The Rules without The Law are uncomfortable and nigh on to useless in their function. The Law without the Rules gives you a comfortable place to be, but it is rather impractical and again, nearly useless. However, when all of these are brought together they make a highly stable, functional, and enjoyable life.

The Four Rules

Live – Live each day as if it were your last, for one day you will be right.

Love – Love yourself first and foremost. For when you truly love yourself, loving those around you will come as easily as breathing – and we all must breathe.

Learn – Learn your life’s lessons – each as it comes – for that is the reason we are here.

Enjoy – Enjoy your life, because if you do not most likely someone else will enjoy it for you… and then your time here will have been wasted.

The Law: Harm None.

Explanations

Live

The first Rule put forth sounds pretty straight forward at first. Then you actually try to live it! 🙂 Living each day as if it were your last means maximizing your potential for every moment that you have been given.

If you are let go from your job… that is an opportunity to face truth and see what you can do to make yourself more marketable and go get a BETTER job. Or, if you are highly motivated, dedicated, and a risk taker you can take that chance to start your own company.

When I first began to follow these principles, my business was not very successful, my marriage was only tolerable, and I often felt depressed about my situation as a whole. Then I began to live each moment.’Carpe Diem’ (Seize the day) became my motto. I began to maximize every moment and live in the moment, not for the moment.

This does not mean that in order to be a good witch that you have to work like a rabid squirrel on ‘speed’… but it does mean that you have to be honest with yourself to see what your situation really is and to make the most of it. I believe that if I can go to bed at night and think to myself that I had done the very best I could that day with the information I had at each moment of opportunity, then the day was a success. But if I go to bed thinking that I had let an opportunity slip away I do not beat myself up over it. I simply say to myself, “Gee Torin, that was one you missed. I’ll get it the next time it comes along.”

Love

What is life without love? Honestly, I can’t imagine what that would be like. Yet many people live their lives without the most important form of love there is – the love of the self. If you truly understand yourself and are willing to take responsibility for your own actions you will suddenly find a great love for yourself.

In order to give free and unconditional love to another person you must first have that kind of feeling for yourself. This is all this means.

Learn

One of the cornerstones of The Craft is the belief that our souls are here on this plane of existence at this point in time to learn lessons. Your lessons are different from (although probably quite similar to) my own. Learn what life teaches you. It is no more difficult than this.

Enjoy

The life of the witch does not require you to live your life in suffering nor poverty. There are no mandates for pain, unhappiness, or unpleasantness. We do not see suffering as the ‘key’ to getting into Heaven (or the Summerlands as some of us call it). Indeed, we see such things as exactly what they are… unpleasant! This does not mean that we never have unpleasant things happen to us, nor that we walk around in a constant state of denial.

We see suffering as either the result of an action we took (i.e. going to jail for robbing a bank) or the way that The Unknown (see “The Deities of Witches” by Torin W.) has chosen to teach us a lesson which we need to learn but have not done anything consciously to bring about the circumstances (i.e. the totally unexpected death of a close friend).

Witch Craft allows you to reap all of the happiness and prosperity from your life that you can muster… so long as you stay within the accepted boundaries. For instance, if you work hard at an honest job you like to do then there is nothing which says you should feel badly for being more successful than others. But if you rob a bank, you may be happy with the things that the money can buy for a short period of time, but eventually you will suffer far greater than if you had simply worked for it. (I know this may sound somewhat like a contradiction to what I said earlier, but I do not believe in keeping a job which does not give me enough pleasure, satisfaction, and money to make up for the difficulties I endure.)

The Law: Harm None

I have been asked to explain this statement more than all of the previous ideas combined. I often describe ‘Harm None’ as “the Law which must remain unbroken, but cannot remain whole at all times.” Think about it, you can’t do it as a human being.

In order to actually harm none you would have to be in total and complete harmony with all things int he Universe at exactly the same time. Your immune system would not kill bacteria and other infections (because that would be harming them). Nor would you allow the bacteria to infect you because that would cause harm to yourself. You would not eat meat, nor vegetables because it would cause the destruction of either. Neither would you not eat because that would harm you. Do you see how this is simply an impossibility?

What I teach my students is to take great pains to Harm None and to think out the results of any act as far as possible ahead of time. I also stress that whenever magics are being worked that the free will of any individual or group should never be infringed.

I have been asked specifically about the use of various types of drugs in witchcraft and their relationship to the ‘Harm None’ principle. I believe that The Bright Ones gave us a sober state of mind for a reason. They also gave our brains some of the most potent chemicals known to man for achieving altered states of consciousness. Therefore i see no reason to alter the chemistry of the brain in order to ‘gain enlightenment’. Ask any recovering drug addict… he/she will tell you that the drugs lie to you.

Because of part of the training I give, I require that no illegal drugs are used while under my tutelage. In fact, if a student becomes sick during training and requires a prescription strength pain reliever, the training schedule is reworked to allow for the purging of the body before training resumes.

One of my students used to do a good deal of psychotropic drugs (i.e. LSD, mushrooms, etc.). Then he and I began to work together. After a few months of training, we worked a circle to allow him to develope his psychic senses (i.e. clairaudience, clairvoyance, etc.) When he left the circle he related to me a feeling such as none he had ever known. His words were, “It was a hundred thousand times better then the best acid trip I had ever taken.”

In short, I personally feel that drugs can be a great hinderance and only cause damage to your soul. But I also recognize the free will of the individual. I can only tell you that in my own perception, drugs do cause harm to you.

Merry Part and Blessed Be

Torin W.

A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality

 

A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality

I am a Pagan and I dedicate myself to channeling the Spiritual Energy of my Inner Self to help and to heal myself and others. I know that I am part of the Whole of Nature. May I grow in understanding of the Unity of all Nature. May I always walk in Balance.

May I always be mindful of the diversity of Nature as well as its Unity and may I always be tolerant of those whose race, appearance, sex, sexual preference, culture, and other ways differ from my own.

May I use the Force (psychic power) wisely and never use it for aggression nor for malevolent purposes. May I never direct it to curtail the free will of another.

May I always be mindful that I create my own reality and that I have the power within me to create positively in my life.

May I always act in honorable ways: being honest with myself and others, keeping my word whenever I have given it, fulfilling all responsibilities and commitments I have taken on to the best of my ability.

May I always remember that whatever is sent out always returns magnified to the sender. May the Forces of Karma move swiftly to remind me of my spiritual commitments when I have begun to falter from them, and may I use this Karmic feedback to help myself grow and be more attuned to my Inner Pagan Spirit.

May I always remain strong and committed to my Spiritual ideals in the face of adversity and negativity. May the Force of my Inner Spirit ground out all malevolence directed my way and transform it into positively. May my Inner Light shine so strongly that malevolent forces cannot even approach my sphere of existence.

May I always grow in Inner Wisdom and Understanding. May I see every problem that I face as an opportunity to develop myself spiritually in solving it.

May I always act out of Love to all other beings on this Planet – to other humans, to plants, to animals, to minerals, to elementals, to spirits, and to other entities.

May I always be mindful that the Goddess and God in all their forms dwell within me and that this divinity is reflected through my own Inner self, my Pagan Spirit.

May I always channel Love and Light from my being. May my Inner Spirit, rather than my ego self, guide all my thoughts, feelings, and actions.

SO MOTE IT BE!

Your Year & A Day Studies Should Include….

Your Year & A Day Studies Should Include….

  • Know what magick is.

  • Know different ways to raise, direct and ground energy.

  • Know how to cast a magick circle.

  • Know how to open a circle.

  • Know the basic outline of a spell.

  • Know the Intent or Purpose

  • What is it you are trying to do? Heal an illness? Increase your concentration? Bring love into your life? Sell a house? Celebrate a Sabbat? Before you begin any magickal working, you should have a firm grasp on what outcome you are seeking.

  • Know the Best Time to Work the Spell

  • Do you know what type of magick should be worked during the waning moon and what type during the waxing moon?

  • What type of magick is best worked on the full moon? The new moon?

  • What days of the week are best for what types of magick?

  • Learn how the moon phases and days of the week affect magickal workings so you will know when to work your spell.

  • Know Correspondences

  • Learn which colors will bring what results.

  • Learn a little about herbalism, which herbs can be used for what magickal purposes.

  • Learn about image magick and how it works.

  • Learn about elemental magick, which elements can be used for what types of magick.

Gardnerian Traditional Witchcraft –B.14. Skyclad (1953) c.2013

Gardnerian Traditional Witchcraft –B.14. Skyclad (1953)

B.14. Skyclad (1953)
It is important to work naked from the start, so it becometh as second nature, and no thought of “I have no clothes” shall ever intrude and take your attention from the work.  Also, your skin being so accustomed to unconfinement, when power is given off the flow is more easy and regular.  Also, when dancing you are free and unconfined. . . .
And the greatest of all, the touch of the body of your beloved thrills your inmost soul, and so your body gives out its utmost power; and then it is most important of all that there is not the slightest thing to divert the attention, for then the mind must seize and mold the power generated, and redirect it to the desired end with all the force and frenzy of the imagination.
It has been said that no real knowledge may be gained our way, that our practices are such that they can only lead to lust; but this is not really so.  Our aim is to gain the inner sight, and we do it the most natural and easy way.  Our opponents’ aim is ever to prevent man and woman from loving, thinking that everything that helps or even permits them to love is wicked and vile.  To us it is natural, and if it aids the Great Work it is good.
‘Tis true that a couple burning with a frenzy for knowledge may go straight to their goal, but the average couple have not this fire.  We show them the way, our system of props and aids (i.e., magic ritual).  A couple working with nothing but lust will never attain in any case; but a couple who love each other dearly should already be sleeping together, and the first frenzy of love will have passed, and their souls will already be in sympathy.  If the first time or two they do stay a while to worship Aphrodite, ’tis only a day or two lost, and the intense pleasure they obtain only leads them again to the mysteries of Hermes, their souls more attuned to the great search.  Once they have pierced the veil they will not look back.
This rite may be used as the greatest of magics if it be done with both partners firmly fixing their minds on the object and not thinking of sex at all.  That is, you must so firmly fix your mind on your object that sex and all else are naught.  You inflame your will to such an extent that you may create a strain on the astral such that events happen.