And the winner is …

Some of you have asked who won the Prize.  The Lucky Sod was Rick Derks, of Howling at the Crossroads.  Congragulations, Rick!

As consolation for the rest of you, I’ve added a Witchcraft Take Aways box in the sidebar, and the blank discussion sheets we used for the book discussion are available there for download.  If, down the road, they can be a help to further discussions, please use them with my blessings. 

Thanks to all of you, for a very fine discussion!

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Last chance to enter for the prize

It’s getting time to draw for our prize — a copy of Mastering Witchcraft, which Mr. Huson has autographed with the inscription “you need but ask, the way is open to you.”

I hope you’ll continue to talk about and post your comments to the discussion; each time you do, you’re giving us all new food for thought.  For purposes of the drawing, however, only comments and posts I know about before Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 11:59 pm CST will go into the hat for the prize.

In case you need them again, here are the details — every time you comment (and by that, I mean a substantive comment, not a “me too” type response), I’ll put your name in the hat.  If you plug the online discussion on your site, I’ll put your name in three times (be sure to email me at trothwy at live dot com to let me know about your post, so I don’t miss it). 

So get those posts and comments in by the deadline to be included in the drawing.

Good luck, witches!

More chew for the stew

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The River Daughter at Down the Withywindle adds to the Mastering Witchcraft discussion, with her thoughts on the search for a Craft name:

“… with a name comes an identity, and mental cues are extremely powerful to the subconscious.”

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We make a coven – Chapter 7

And last, but definitely not least, we come to Chapter 7 – The Coven and How to Form One.

Mrs. Drinkwalter has very kindly agreed to answer some questions drawn from this chapter.

As a knowledgeable witch and seasoned coven leader, Mrs. Drinkwalter  brings a thoughtful and pragmatic approach to witchcraft and coven dynamics.   And as her sister once replied when asked if Sybil was dabbling in the occult, “She’s not dabbling, she’s lap-swimming!”

To read more by Mrs. Drinkwalter, visit her “and her little dog, too” (that would be Big Bobby) at North of Berkeley.

For your reading ease, bits from Mastering Witchcraft are quoted below, with discussion points.  The bolded bits are Sybil’s responses.

——————————————————–

 

hapter Seven, in which Birds

of a magical Feather flock together, or

“Behold! A Cackle of Witches!”

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“…a magical operation performed by a group will often succeed spectacularly, whereas a solo effort may achieve only moderate success…This is the occult rationale behind the witches’ coven.  The proviso exists, however, that the group, first, be like-minded, that is sympathetic to one another in basic belief and emotional rapport, and, second, that there be present a certain amount of magical dedication and intensity of purpose.”

Do you see other purposes and benefits to coven work?  If so, what?

I think that Huson is right on target, here. One way that covens get into problems is by becoming distracted from this essential purpose.

Because you get to know each other very well, and because friendships naturally develop from coven work, it easily takes on many of the functions family, or emotional support system. This is fine, but I have learned to be wary when a Witch appears to be leaning on the coven as their only, or primary, family and emotional support system. This kind of dependence will tend to sap energy from the coven’s real work.

Does working with a coven replace solo work?  If not, what effects does a witch’s coven work have upon his/her solo work?

No, I don’t think coven work is an alternative to solo work. There are always things best done alone, and perhaps not even discussed much in a forum like this one, since they are things you do alone. For one thing, you may be willing to take on a heavier karmic load for yourself as an individual than you would wish to ask of others. I am less cautious about karmic backlash than many Witches I work with. My philosophy is that I’m on the wheel of karma for the long haul, and I might as well keep it interesting.

And while a good working group, all of one mind, can ramp up more juice than one Witch, if the group is *not* working well or all of one mind (and every coven has its ups and downs), you can probably ramp up more juice alone.

In Chapter 7, Mr. Huson discussing the coven and how to form one.

What benefits and drawbacks are there to forming your own coven?

The benefits of joining another coven are, of course, that you learn from the experience of your coven leaders. I would caution about trying to learn the art Witchcraft without teachers. Like and other art, it is too deep and rich and filled with varied skills to be easily picked up by trial and error on your own.

But the student-teacher relationship, like all others, is a delicate balance of give-and-take and compromise. Friendships and marriages are the same way. They work as long as everyone involved feels as if they give and take is more or less in balance. When that balance changes, the relationship changes or sometimes ends. And sometimes it means leaving a coven and striking out on your own.

The advantage to forming your own coven is being able to give life to your own vision.

Is there a right time or set of circumstances in which to search for a coven?

Yes, but the Gods probably know more about these matters than you do. Things happen the way they need to happen.

Does learning about various witch traditions help or hinder the seeking process.  Why or why not?

I’ve worked with people who were already elders in other traditions, and I’ve worked with people who literally didn’t know a single thing except what I told them, or told them to read. Either way can work, and either way may not work. Other factors matter a lot more.

A student learning a tradition who is already versed in another one has to systematically unlearn something, but learning often involves unlearning something else–when you learn a new language, for example, you have to learn to put aside the grammar of the language you already know.

I’ve learned, though, to be wary of assumptions when working with a student who has already had other magical training. The biggest pitfall, perhaps, is the topic that doesn’t get covered because the student doesn’t bring it up and you assume he knows about it, and then it turns out that he knows something very different from what you assumed he knew!

“The more magically powerful are the individuals belonging to a coven, the more potent does the coven become as an entity.  And it does become an entity.”

What responsibility, if any, does a coven member have to continue to hone, wield and grow in their craft?

Crucial responsibility, I’d say. It’s one of those things that goes forward or back, but does not stand still.

I’m a teacher in both my mundane and magical lives, and in both parts of my life, I feel that the teacher’s job is to be a resource, and that no meaningful learning takes place unless the student is doing most of the work. At least for adult students, this is true, and that is who I work with.

What other duties does a coven member have to their coven?  What makes for a good coven member?   Are the duties of coven leaders more, less or different from these?

I expect coven members to make coven participation a priority in their lives. The list of reasons why you should miss a coven meeting is fairly short: your work schedule, your family responsibilities, a vacation that nobody should have to say no to, and illness, especially if it is catching.

I expect fairly high standards of adult behavior when it comes to things like kindness, consideration and honesty.

I expect people to help out with mundane things like food and supplies. The coven leader is not exempt from any of the above, but also does a lot of arduous (and not always conspicuous) work of making things work. Social engineering, decision-making, buck-stopping. It’s not an easy job.

Is the coven egregore an automatic process of working together, or is it something which must be purposefully ‘brought to life’?

Either or both can happen. It’s one of the difficult things the coven leader has responsibility for.

We turn to the ‘Dark Side’ – Chapter 6

 And now we get to the very interesting Chapter 6 – Vengeance and Attack.  This chapter is another favorite of mine, for its sheer chocked-full-of-witchy usefulness.   

Robin Artisson – Witch, Folklorist, Renegade Mystic and the author of a number of well-regarded Craft books, including The Witching Way of the Hollow Hill, The Horn of Evenwood: A Grimoire of Sorcerous Operations, Charms, and Devices of Witchery and most recently, The Resurrection of the Meadow – shares his thoughts on the chapter below.

Currently, Mr. Artisson is writing a series of guest posts at American Folkloric Witchcraft. 

For more on Robin Artisson and his works, visit his blog Tracks in the Witchwood,  check out his webpage, A World Unseen, or find his books at Pendraig Publishing, Lulu Press, or Amazon.com.

For your reading ease, bits from Mastering Witchcraft are quoted below, with discussion points.  The bolded bits are Robin’s responses.

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hapter Six, in which Our Hero

‘Turns to the Dark Side’

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“…the means used for effecting destructive ends is exactly the same as those used for constructive purposes.  The only difference lies in the magical intent and the symbolism involved.”

It has been said if, as a witch, you can’t blast, then you can’t bless.  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?

I very much agree with the statement “if you can’t blast, you can’t bless.” Of course, words are magical in and of themselves; a “spell” is, after all “a word, phrase, or form of words supposed to have magic power; a charm; incantation.” We have to be careful with words, and understand that a simple restatement of the issue can change everything about how we’re engaging this topic. What about reversing the negatives in the statement, and making them positive:

“If you can bless, you can blast.”

“To bless” means many different things to many different people. It can be as simple as a fond, benevolent wish for the well-being of another, stated out loud, sometimes “bolstered” by the simple names of divine powers that you’d like to witness and add power to your statement; or, it can be as complicated as a true “reaching in” to the level of the Fetch, the Unseen world, and actively adding a specific witching force to the Unseen body of another, to bring about a positive change. Anyone who can do any of those things already necessarily has the power to make a spiteful, hateful wish for the harm of another, stated aloud or written, and bolstered by the names of spirits or divine powers that they’d like to witness and add power to the curse.

Or, if that person already had the ability to reach into the Fetch and implant beneficent witching force, they certainly have the power to reach in and implant a malevolent force. Now, just because someone CAN do these things, doesn’t mean that the person will always have the sort of personality that can stand it- it takes a hard heart to really force malevolent powers into the Unseen aspect of the body or mind of another. Thus, a gentle person who can bless will necessarily have the skill to curse, but possibly not the personality or the inclination. And those things are very important.

What are your personal ethnics for when/if to bind or curse?  What do you believe the dangers to be when you engage in such magic?

When my family, my children, my close friends, the powers to which I am bound, or myself are directly threatened by the deeds of another, I will undertake to bind or curse them, to remove the threat. “Threatened” here means many things- it can mean that our physical harm is a possibility; it can mean that our livelihood may be harmed or taken from us (this includes our homes or our lands); or it can mean that the enemy intends to spiritually harm us somehow. This last threat is certainly rare in this world today, but the possibility must be left open.

A person engaging in such activities as binding or cursing must always bear in mind the astounding range of possibilities implied in the term “cunning”- if you have a cunning enough mind to really bind or curse (and yes, it takes a special person to really pull it off) then you have enough cunning to think of ways to solve the problem that might not have to boil down to “plain old spite”- in lieu of cursing a person, or binding their person, one can work to change circumstances in that person’s life such that they no longer have the time or inclination to continue on hindering you or threatening you. That’s just as effective, and sometimes more so, than the direct attack.

You have to know yourself when it comes to these things. Admittedly, it is easier to just blast an individual most of the time than to really start manipulating causality that surrounds them, and thus, most of us will want to take the easy, fast way. The real danger there is that you are under using the cunning gift of a mind that you have, and it needs to be exercised, used to its full potential, if you want it to grow in power. The fastest, quickest way may get you the most satisfaction, but “fast and easy” doesn’t mean “best”, not always.

Another danger of binding and cursing is the quality and types of powers Unseen that you must invite into your mind and body to perform them. Sadly, those sorts of powers are by nature destructive and dangerous, and while many are easy enough to conjure, not all are so easy to be rid of. The single biggest danger that I face, and which I do my utmost to avoid, stems from the fact that I have a family. When you do those sorts of works, you are changing yourself, at the deep level- and thus, you change subtle aspects of your environment, and you have a real, subtle impact on those who surround you, in your daily system of living.

A person fresh from cursing, from really engaging malevolent powers, is not someone I want around my family or my home. When a person penetrates into the Unseen and finds power there- witching power, or a hex- and then takes it back “here”, to use it, they warp and bend many things: themselves, the target of the hex, and the environment around them. Bad things can begin to mysteriously occur around them, which can be costly to those nearby. Real cursing or binding has to be done away from your home, away from friends and family- in some lonely, distant place, and for good reasons!

And before you re-integrate yourself into your friends and family and home, you need to be certain that you have “un-witched” or un-hexed yourself and your subtle body as much as you can. That can be easier said than done, particularly if you perform a powerful witching. What most people in this field don’t understand- poor amateurs- is that “your” witching activities are never just “yours”- you are part of this world, and of countless systems of interaction, seen and unseen. What you do in witching has an impact, surely and without fail, on many things you might not want it to. Cursing and binding, particularly, are unavoidably dangerous for this reason, even for the very skilled. This is why they are best left as final resorts, and why finding ways around them are desirable.

“The person who knows he has been laid under a curse, whether he believes in the practitioner’s powers or not, is actually in a far more receptive state of mind than he who remains in ignorance of the fact.”

This statement seems to contradict the fourth corner of the witch’s pyramid – to keep silent.  Are there instances in which you would let your target know he’s in your magical crosshairs?  Why or why not?

If my “target” is a fearful person, a weak-minded person, easy to emotionally manipulate, I might consider letting them know what I was doing. The highly superstitious can be very vulnerable to suggestion- they will, if fearing some supernatural attack, begin seeing the supernatural everywhere they look, and then blaming it on me- which is fine by me, because it increases their paranoia, takes away their peace of mind, and makes them worry much- a state of broken mindedness that I wouldn’t mind a person being in, if they really raised my ire. The humorous side of this lies in the fact that one may not even need to go through with an actual binding or curse; the mere threat, implanted in the mind of a particularly weak person, can ruin them by itself. But of course, there really is no “mere” threat- words, as I said before, have an innate magical power to change reality.

It all comes down to knowing your target. A target who doesn’t believe in sorcery or the supernatural- which can sometimes be a function of a strongly skeptical mind (itself a real sort of strength, even if it lacks wisdom) can be harder to reach, despite the long-held belief that they are easier to reach, owing to their lack of preparation to defend themselves.

Belief has a bit of power in it too- and so does lack of belief. I like to think of it like a rusted door. If the door is not locked, as it should be if a threat was about to try to enter, it can still be difficult to open, because of the rust. Skepticism and the denial of the Unseen is like a rust on the mind. Skeptical minds are not locked and barred, as a wise mind is at times; but they can still be hard to force a crack in. Once cracked, they have less ability to deal with what they experience, and so they “fall harder” than people who had open minds before.

“Keeping silent”, like any of those “rules” on the witches pyramid, are really more suggestions than rules. There is a time to keep silent, but it isn’t always. Part of the sorcerous Art lies in the impact you do have on others, and this can’t be denied. The witch alone, with no one to know what he or she is doing, will never have a chance to really get into the interaction system with other human minds and souls. You won’t get business! It’s important that at least one or two people know some tantalizing hints about what you’re up to- and after that, being silent only makes your mysterious reputation grow in their minds, and that does, through some mysterious mechanism, give you an edge.

Like curses, the Art of Witchcraft generally is a serious matter. It is a true and ancient spiritual vocation, and it comes with up’s and downs, pleasures and dangers. We have to take it seriously before other people will.

“The Black Fast method … every mealtime you should, if possible, confront what you would consider a delicious meal … and sternly reject it, in favour of a morsel of food, a glass of water … beginning and ending the fast within a properly cast circle, with the circumambulations performed ‘widdershins’ … and naming your intention in the form of a curse.”

What would be the implications of working the Black Fast in combination with a housle/red meal, to set a feast before the gods and cause Them to fast along with you, perhaps finishing with a consummated housle at the end of a specified time or when the work is accomplished?

Well, the theory here is quite sound, but dangerous. I wouldn’t do this with any spirit who was once worshiped as a “God”. I might, however, do this with familiar spirits and Magistelli who are bound to me through old bonds of affection or business dealing. The only way it might work with them would be if you swore the most fearsome oath you could to really, really satisfy them after the whole nasty business was over with offerings far beyond the ordinary magnitude that you give them. You really would have to make up for this kind of work!

The Black Fast itself is a very potent piece of work because it affects the body as much, or more, than the mind and fetch. The body is a pool of sorcerous powers, and this is something that most don’t really understand. The body is not “mere flesh”- it is power, full of power. To force pain into it, pleasure, hunger, terror, exhaustion- these sorts of things literally conjure powers out of the body and make them available to your will, for use in workings. These sorts of practices- mortifications, ordeals- they are as old as the hills, when it comes to doing sorcery.

That’s the only issue with making spiritual beings “Black Fast” with you- they have different sorts of bodies, so they experience these things differently. But the theory, as I said, is still sound, and it teeters in a region of real potential for power and real danger. Spirits are never 100% predictable. One can’t know when they might go a little bizarre or even turn on you. If I had committed myself to doing this “Conjunctory Black Fast”, I would do divinations for weeks to be sure that I wasn’t going to set off a chain of ill-will that might consume me (or those close to me) fully.

“ … within the altar triangle itself should be your candle of bewitchment … You must now tune your deep mind to the correct wavelength… Allow yourself to be possessed by wrath and fury as you again perform your circumambulations widdershins … Then take your scarlet candle in your right hand and with your left begin to anoint it with Sabbat oil.  Start at the centre of the candle and work first up then down, up again and then down again.  Keep this up for a full five minutes … with each stroke, you should chant a jingle of your own devising …When you have completed the anointing … place it within the altar triangle, and trace a glowing blue circle cross in the air above it with your Athame.  Light it with the words: ‘So mote it be!’ Then settle down to a vigil of concentrated hate or rage.  Keep this up until the candle burns itself out.  (Because of the strain involved in doing this, it is best to employ fairly slender short tapers.)”

Does this method differ from how you usually set candles?  If so, how?

This is a very ubiquitous method of dressing and burning candles for sorcerous practices. Something just like it is found in Louisiana and Mississippi Hoodoo, so I think it’s quite old. I have dressed candles and used them in this way before, always with satisfactory degrees of success.

But these methods- all of them- are very “extrinsic”- very oriented around materials, objects, outward gestures. And while that is fine, and powerful in its own right, my own Craft relies on a far more intrinsic orientation- more often than not, my work isn’t done with what some call my “physical body”, but with my soul or my fetch. I’d rather fly after what I’m seeking, or find spiritual beings to bargain with for a certain outcome, than to try to endow objects with power and manipulate them. Those things are fine and traditional, but I’m just a different sort of fiend.

Would you incorporate some of these elements into your current candle burning practices?

My current “candle burning practice” really only uses candle flames for light at night, or to create doorways of fire into the Unseen world that my spoken incantations can pass through. I don’t keep up a regular “candle burning practice” in the sense you mean. But I would if something came up that inspired me to do it, or convinced me of its necessity.

“The Spell of the Black Cross or Reversed Pentagram … obtain a reasonably recent photograph of your victim… name the photograph by asperging and fumigating it … ‘breathe life’ into the photo symbolically … bear the photograph around the circle, clockwise … chant the victim’s name at each of [the quarters] …draw the circle cross of death or the reversed pentagram on the photograph, very slowly and deliberately … chanting as you do … some statement of intent….Complete the ritual by exhibiting the charged photograph held in your left hand to the north, west, south and east, in that order three times consecutively…Each time you raise the symbol, announce at each quarter: ‘As the symbol dwindles so shall my words prove effective!’ … All that remains to be done now is to destroy the photograph slowly.”

A damned fine curse.  How would you use it, and, if not for cursing, then to what other end?  Are there ways you might change it to make it your own?

A damned fine curse, indeed. I would use it as written, though the substances I would use (the worts and herbs that I might fumigate the photograph in) will be unique to me, as I create unique blends for these purposes. I wouldn’t be just showing the photograph to the quarters generally; I would be calling upon the names of specific familiar powers and magistelli that are bound to me, to recognize the photograph. I might not use a reversed pentagram or a cross of death on the photo; those symbols do have a lot of fiendish power to the minds of our modern folk, but other signs are older and, in a sense, more potent or more deadly, like the hex-sign.

If you had a picture of a tumor in a person’s body, taken by X-ray, you could use this ritual to diminish the tumor, in theory. Even a tumor (theoretically) can be “named”, just as a building can be- this rite could be used to work to the destruction of a place, as well. Of course, when dealing with buildings, or with tumors (to use my two examples) you have to remember that you are also dealing with persons. This may sound odd to some (though not to all of you, I hope!) but no tumor grows without dangerous non-human persons attacking the fetch-body of the cancer patient- the fetch body, or what some anthropologists call “the free soul.” The fetch, in the sense of the subtle body, is the real location where illness originates; what occurs in what we call the “physical body” is a secondary affect. So, the tumor is a sign of the presence of a malevolent power.

This grows even more complicated when you realize that the power causing the tumor can be of many natures, but one sort of power is unstoppable: if the spirit-women, the Pale Women, or the Fetch-ancestresses whose task it is to allocate the outcomes of Fate to each of us (to each individual and each family) are causing the disease, they can’t be stopped. Some say you can bargain with them for terrible cost, but I wouldn’t even bother with that. Sometimes, illnesses, like any other destructive part of nature, have to happen. We can’t know why, really, and we’re wise to be okay with that.

Some, of an even darker- and much older- temperament have said that these sometimes deadly maidens can be convinced to kill another in the place of their original intended, and while there’s some evidence that this was a widespread belief at one point, I always wonder if this was only possible when a spirit of another type was causing the illness. At any rate, “scapegoating” death off onto another is a well-known operation in some parts. I know some of the theory behind it and could likely make a good attempt of it, but it introduces perils that are of a high magnitude.

Just so, places are persons, too. Buildings, particularly older ones, gain a spiritual presence, and sometimes more than one. These come from the land upon which it was built, plus from the presence of human families that have bonded with the place, and live and died there. To destroy a place with this kind of curse is a direct attack on them, not just on wood or stone or mortar. So, one would have to discover, via sorcerous insight, who, precisely, they were, before the naming could be effective.

“…take a small amount of purified salt, coriander seed, and a small carnelian, or sardstone… grind the substances together…Divide the resultant mixture into three heaps…As midnight strikes, scoop one of the heaps into your left hand, and chant the first part of the spell, passing [the heap] from hand to hand, to and fro, as you do …cast the mixture into the thurible fire with your left hand.  As it blazes up, continue …”

Do you reckon midnight as 12:00 am, or calculate the time which is the exact center of the night you are working in?  Do you observe the sun dipping below the horizon and raising above the horizon the night before for yourself, or do you look up sunset and sunrise online?

Traditionally, and most powerfully, you want to avoid clocks. Try to find the “true midnight” from observation of the rising and setting of the sun. This is a crucial, ancient, and powerful activity. It will benefit your workings greatly, and your own soul greatly, as a connection arises between yourself and the world seen and unseen through such close observations of the natural world.

You can go by “clock midnight”, and that’s fine. Just not as strong. Finding sunrise and sunset times in almanacs and doing some math is even better. But for some reason, it’s just not as good as pure observation and deduction. But there’s something even better than midnight, however you find it- there’s the Working Time. I call it that, because no other name suits it; when the familiar powers that help you in the Craft send the chilling call into your soul, there, somewhere in that lonely night, telling you that now is the time to work, that’s when you should work. It’s always inevitably a time when things seem very strange or disturbing, a time at night when you feel on edge.

Again, how could you use this method for work other than vengeance?

By changing the mixture of the herbs, timing the work to some other celestial or natural occurrence, and changing your intention and your words.

“…when you feel sure your enemy is sleeping, cast a circle … visualizing the face of your victim in the altar triangle, and beginning at the east, begin circling the altar and rotating on your own axis counterclockwise.  As you do, chant … whenever you find yourself facing the altar, strike it hard with the switch held in your left hand.”

How would you adapt these methods, say, to bless a baby or a newly-married couple?

By visualizing these people- or this baby- in the manifesting triangle, and rotating clockwise, and sprinkling them with benevolently-blessed water and herbs, from an evergreen bough.

“…powerful practitioners of the occult have generally been credited with powers of weather working…During the Middle Ages, however, in Christian lands, at any rate, this skill, where demonstrated, was seen simply as another manifestation of ever-present Satan’s power.”

Some witches take the concept of ‘harm none’ to extremes, being unwilling to engage in spellwork or to specify an outcome, in favor of raising energy and leaving it up to the gods to direct. 

Are such practices prayer rather than magic?  How do you personally discriminate between prayer and magic?  Is there a place for prayer in the witch’s toolkit?

Such practices are under the assumption that “Gods” are sitting around waiting for raised power to kick somewhere or manipulate on behalf of humans. Even if a group of religiously-oriented witches (the sorts that focus on spirits that were once worshiped as “Gods”) think that they are gaining the attentions and favors of their Gods, you run into problems. Powerful enough spirits aren’t sitting around waiting for astral phone calls from groups of humans. They are busy doing whatever mind-bending things powerful spirits do. They have “lives”, too, though my words here are inadequate to express what I’m really trying to say.

The Universe, this cosmos, is a system, a vast system of interactions seen and unseen. Powerful beings whose very presences go back to the roots of the system- we can call them “Gods” if you like- aren’t passive and waiting for “the next thing to happen”. They are engaged in systemic interactions of a high or deep and profound nature.

Thus, I always believe that the chances of some humans- even powerful humans- gaining the real attentions of spirits that were once called “Gods” is a pretty dim affair. Now, spirits who perhaps serve those other, more powerful spirits, they can be contacted and “contracted” and entered into bonds of relationship with. They can be more “localized”- and are. I recently wrote a substantial work on this very subject. These spirits, these familiars, these “Little Masters” (Magistellus) can be more attentive to the needs of human covenants of witches. If someone told me that a team of witches was just “raising power” and sending it up to “Gods” to do with as they will, and then those same witches reported that they “got what they wanted” from the work, I would never assume that the “Gods” did it. I would assume that fetch-powers local to them, spirits who surround them and work closely with them, were the ones who did it, who manipulated that power (assuming any power was really “raised”) and caused some mysterious changes that brought about good outcomes for them.

I wouldn’t rule out that super-powerful spirits CAN do whatever they want, but I don’t assume it automatically, either- I keep a respectful, realistic perspective on this.

Such a practice as you describe would be a sort of prayer, but more of a devotional action, a raising of a gift of power to a being in the Unseen world, tied up with the hopes that this being will do something they want or need with it. It’s certainly more “religious” in nature than out-and-out sorcery, but in what you describe, we are seeing one of the many places where “religion” and “sorcery” cross boundaries and overlap with one another. It’s a very indistinct place, a place where things mix and combine and it’s hard to separate things out.

Prayer, for me, is simply communication– but communication is hardly ever simple! When I’m praying, I’m saying something, a message, that I hope will reach the spiritual beings to whom I wish to communicate. A prayer may contain a wish; it may contain many things, but it is ultimately just a message, a statement of how the person praying is feeling and thinking at the moment. The value in prayer is that it builds up the reality of communication between the seen and the unseen, in the mind of the person doing it. Such a reality is a powerful ingredient in sorcery- it helps to shape a sorcerous mind- but it is not in and of itself, in my opinion, sorcery.

So yes, to the extent that prayer builds up the consciousness of the reality of “spectral communication”, it has a place in witchcraft.

How likely are such practices to be unknowingly rooted in the Christian paradigms of “God’s will be done” and “God knows best”?

There is some wisdom in statements like “God’s will be done” and “God knows best”. Or, should I say, there is a seed of wisdom in them, something very small and slight, which can grow into real wisdom, if a person’s mind is cunning enough to grasp the subtlety here. Fate is a reality. For centuries, the notion of Fate has been conflated with the idea of the providential will of the Hebrew God. The Hebrew God is the Hebrew God; Fate is Fate, and they are not the same thing. But in the minds of Christians or Jews or Muslims, they are the same thing.

So, you can look through their religious language and gain some value here, if you want- Fate will be what Fate will be, and all of our sorcerous workings fit into that easily- Fate’s system is massive and includes many parts, including magical parts, and the persons who engage the Art. We can’t ultimately know what role we play as sorcerers in the unfolding of things; that doesn’t change the fact that we do what we do because a fire in us burns to do it- if you look around you, you’ll see that not everyone is attracted to these kinds of Arts! We are a real minority!

So, we are strange aspects of Fate, and maybe, through us, Fate makes extraordinary things come to pass, or at least provides herself with a venue of possibilities for things to happen, which adds some life and variety and mystery to the whole system.

In the end, it matters not at all; there is a real, earthy, and ancient wisdom found in realizing that we all live in the hands of greater powers, and that many things just have to happen, and we don’t have to worry over-much about them- like death. None of us chose for death to exist in Nature, in the system of Fate; yet, all of us are subject to it. Not being in our power, it’s not something we should worry over. Being an aspect of Fate or Nature, death is neither good nor evil- it’s just death, just a part of how the basic rules of reality work. It doesn’t have a “moral” value of its own.

We can take it as a good thing, or an evil thing, based on our attachments and hopes and opinions, but that’s just unwise human activity. The wise withdraw those sorts of opinions from the great, fateful powers, and just let those powers be. Because those powers will be, regardless.

There’s something very liberating about just letting the world be the world, and letting things play out. It’s very peaceful, and it gives you rest. There’s no need to do as Christians do and fight death, fight the world, hate the world, call it sinful or flawed, or try to “overcome” death with dreams of bodily immortality. The sort of natural immortality we all have- that of the soul and fetch- is not only enough, but the only immortality you’ll ever have or need. And this sort of existence demands that you negotiate with it, come to terms with it. To accept that is to be mature on every level, and wise!

I would never say that “Fate knows best” because it isn’t clear if Fate is an actual being, with some will, or just a name given to the collection of interacting powers that deeply bind everything together and bring things to their needful end. I will say this, though- “Fate is what must be” and “Fate is how things end.” The end is all that’s ever true, they say; but the witch knows one more chapter in the book of Fate- always one more chapter- because “endings” are never really just endings, after all.

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We protect, and make familiar – Chapter 5

On to one of my favorite chapters, Chapter 5 – Counter Magic and Protection.  Peter Paddon, author, publisher, podcaster and cunning man, shares his thoughts on some of the subjects raised in this chapter.

Mr. Paddon is well known for his Crooked Path podcasts, the Crooked Path Journal and for his book, A Grimoire for Modern Cunningfolk.  He is the owner of Pendraig Publishing, bringing quality books to the pagan community.

For more on Peter and what he’s up to, visit Pendraig Publishing  or The Crooked Path Forum. 

For your reading ease, bits from Mastering Witchcraft are quoted below, with discussion points.  The bolded bits are Peter’s responses.

____________________________________________________________

 

 

hapter Five, in which Our Hero

makes Familiar with the Arte Magical,

instructs us in the Care of Amulets,

and proposes a novel use for the Humble Onion.

 .

“Don’t delude yourself.  The minute you set foot upon the path of witchcraft, a call rings out in the unseen world announcing the fact of your arrival.”

Have you experienced this yourself?

Yes – the act of setting foot upon the Path changes your perspective of the world, and also changes the world’s perspective of you. Working magick is like lighting a campfire at night, and it attracts attention from the equivalent of bugs, and from greater intelligences as well.

“Hertha, be pleased to grant that which I ask, protect this house and home and all who live therein, so shall I always thank you with due faith”

In what circumstances would/do you engage in magical ‘bargaining’?

In some traditions, bargaining is the normal way of working with deities, and even where it isn’t overt, it can take place in the form of offerings. Working with the Bright Gods is simple, because they have a vested interest in us, as they inhabit the forms we create for them, but for the Old Ones, the Dark Gods, they are not so dependent on us for their existence, and we need to get their attention, pique their interest, or get them involved in some way. This can often take the form of bargaining.

“…you should seal the egg into a previously prepared and exorcised black box cushioned within by some dark fabric – a piece of your discarded clothing is ideal.  This box you must now bury deeply and permanently, either as nearly under the threshold of the house as you can manage or beneath your hearth, if you have one….The egg must be incorporated into the basic fabric of the house, if not the foundations … spit thrice into the hole, and then proceed to fill it in solidly and permanently… It is in fact the vestige of an ancient sacrificial earth ritual.”

What function does the egg serve?  The spit?  Any thoughts about the black box and clothing?

The egg is a life, and replaces the animal or human sacrifice that would have been done in older times. The spit is to incorporate the energy and magical authority of the practitioner – all body fluids contain life-force and are linked by DNA signature to the crafter – that is required to activate the working. It is a more personal way of charging the working with energy, and spitting on something was once considered a baptism, making the thing sacred (still true in Yaruba and other Afro-centric traditions). 

Why a part of the house itself, rather than placed inside or outside?

Originally the sacrifice would be laid into the foundations, so the animal became part of the house, and its spirit would therefore eternally guard the house and its occupants.

“These … should suffice to cover any everyday contingencies such as occasional burst of hostile vibrations set up by the family rows over the dinner table, or those set humming by casual ‘overlooking’ of the envious next-door neighbor or visiting friends (probably totally unconsciously on their part).”

Would you consider smoothing family relations and averting envious thoughts to be an important part of protection?  Why or why not?

The peace and quiet to work your art or follow your profession without being interrupted by squabbles, nosey-parkers etc., is to be treasured!

“…in order to be effective amulets, they must first have been formed by natural process … and second, they should also be found by the user rather than bought… don’t pass the [amulet] through fire and water; no purification or charging is necessary.  It is an amulet, not a talisman, and is used au naturel, straight out of the Earth.”

“However, the second variety of witch ball is … a fisherman’s hollow glass net-float.  As this is again an amulet, not a talisman, it should be the real thing.  It receives its ‘consecration,’ or magical charge, during its actual use in fishing.”

Huson makes a distinction between amulets and talismans, and cautions us not to exorcise the former.  He gives examples of manufactured objects, which are consecrated by their purpose and use.  With tools, he instructs us to buy without bargaining, whereas amulets must be found by the user.     What are your thoughts about these distinctions?

For me, the difference between an amulet and a talisman is that an amulet, whether found or made, is designed to “do its thing” indiscriminately for a long period of time – such as a lucky charm that brings good fortune to whoever possesses it, or a protective pendant that protects whoever wears it.

A Talisman, on the other hand, is usually created for a specific purpose, for a specific person, for a specific time. An amulet will give the bearer good fortune in business dealings, while a talisman will ensure that the person it was made for wins a specific court case.

Some amulets are found natural objects, such as hag stones, some are made, such as jewelry or corn dollies, and some are mundane items that have over the millennia become intrinsically imbued with magick, such as those glass floats, horseshoes, coffin and horseshoe nails, silver sixpences (or Mercury nickels in the US) and rabbit’s feet.

“The [amulets] should be hung or placed as near your hearth as possible.  Failing that … simply hang them in the room you happen to spend most of your time in.”

Fire is a powerful agent of transformation, and the hearth, which captures/contains that force, is a powerful symbol which is woven deeply into our psyches.  What modern substitutions could be made for the hearth, if any?

Some old-school traditions (my own path included) make use of a hearth-stone as the centerpiece of group or family workings. It is often a flat stone found in a dried-out riverbed or from a significant location. As the hearth was both the heat source and cooking place in old times, the kitchen stove can serve in that capacity for solo practitioners (“kitchen witches”).

Some traditions use the metaphor of the forge instead, and forge-fire is good as both a metaphor and as a magical visualization technique for manipulating magical energy.

“They [the amulets] should also be hung up ‘in Hertha’s name.’”

Why in the name of a deity, rather than on your own recognizance?

When you are working direct magick, your own authority, or that of your ancestors/predecessors is frequently enough, but a protective amulet needs to be attached to a constant source of power, and deities fit that need quite nicely.

Mandragores and Alrauns – selecting appropriate plant; feeding it for a lunar month with 13 drops of water/blood or water/milk; carving features of the opposite sex to your own, curing it in vervain smoke, and “looking to it for that night, as the old books put it delicately, ‘as your wife.’”

What is your opinion of this procedure, the symbols held within it, and its effectiveness? 

I haven’t tried this technique myself, though I understand from those who have it can be very effective. It does follow the general principles for creating a magical life-form, though, which would have me leaning towards blood rather than milk. I would personally incorporate elements of the creation of Bloduwedd into it, but that is because I’m Welsh, not because there is anything missing per se.

“Though during coven practice the circle can be left and reentered without impairing its efficiency; when used as a means of magical defense, this is quite out of the question, serving as it does a completely different function, namely, that of keeping hostile currents out.”

“… save for the use of a telephone, which incidentally should be on your list as one of the things to take with you into the circle.”

Does a telephone constitute a pathway in and out of circle?

When working magick, having a phone handy would be the very last thing I wanted!

For purposes of house cleansings and protections, do you attend to electric outlets, toilets, sinks and tubs?  What about telephones, computer lines, attic vents and foundation weep holes? 

I have never felt the need to specifically do anything to these, as they are part of the intrinsic structure of the house, and not specified as doorways. On the other hand, I do pay particular attention to mirrors in the house, as they can traditionally be used as doorways just as much as windows and regular doors.

Is the exhaustive nature of the pathways into a home an argument for placing magical protections into the fabric of the house itself, as with burying of the egg referenced earlier?

Yes – if the structure is protected, then ALL of the structure is protected.

Huson also suggests some traditional protective measures:

Draw pentagrams pointing outwards on your doorsteps

Nail horseshoes or horns upward over any entrances

Hang an old knife or sword on front and pack door, surrounded by wreath of bay leaves

Hammer 3 iron nails into each of the doors – two below, one above, in triangle formation

Bury a witch bottle beneath your doorsteps

Place a saucer of vinegar in every room

Place a newly cut onion half in each room

.

Are these protections familiar to you?  Which, if any, have you used?

I’ve come across all of them – and not just in covens – and have used all of them except the vinegar and onions.

Do you have a favored method of protection that isn’t mentioned in this chapter that you’d like to share?

East Anglian Witches’ Ladder – a length of twine or hemp with black feathers (odd number) knotted into it. It is used mundanely to keep deer out of your garden, but it also deters unwanted spirits and misfortune. Hang it behind a door to prevent malice or misfortune from entering in.

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We fascinate for love and pleasure – Chapter 4

And now to Chapter 4, Spells for Lovers.  Deborah Lipp shares with us her thoughts on love spells and completing the magical circuit.

Ms. Lipp is author of five (and counting) books — The Study of Witchcraft, Elements of Ritual, The Way of Four, The Way of Four Spellbook and The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book.  As she says, “One of these things is not like the other.” Did I mention she’s a movie buff?

Deborah Lipp is also a Gardnerian High Priestess and active member of the pagan community.  To learn more about  her, visit deborahlipp.com, or read what she’s up to at her blog, Property of a Lady.

For your reading ease, bits from Mastering Witchcraft are quoted below, with discussion points.  The bolded bits are Deborah’s responses.

——————————————————–

 

 

 

 hapter Four, in which our Hero

Fascinates us with the Magical Arts of

Heart and Loins, and acquaints us with

Surprising Places from which our Powers emanate

 .

Before starting upon the quotes, do you have a favorite love spell you’re willing to share?

This was a very powerful spell indeed. First, I got the woman in question to describe her ideal man. This worked very well because she has a “type,” and she knew exactly what he should look like.

The conversation was an important part; we got into “girl talk” detail so I had a real feel for her attraction, and I could see the man in my head.

I drew a small sketch of my friend’s face. On a separate piece of paper, I drew a same-sized sketch of Ideal Man’s face. I used colored pencils to get the skin, eye, hair tones accurate.

I cut out the two sketches so they were heart-shaped. I placed them facing each other so that it was one heart, with the two faces touching on the inside—the outside was blank. Then I rolled up this heart into a small tube and tied it with a red ribbon.

I raised power while burning dried rose petals, sending the power into my little packet. At the peak, I burned the packet and mingled the ashes with the ashes of the rose petals. Later, I disposed of all the ashes outside where the wind could take them.

My friend ended up in a relationship with exactly the man I sketched.

“A magical operation will always enjoy a greater chance of success if you complete the circuit.”

The circuit being:

Object link (something belonging to the ‘target’) →

 apply magic →

to make a Power object (object charged with witch power) →

which is returned to ‘target’

Do you agree or disagree that “closing the circuit” gives greater chance of success in a magical operation?

This isn’t “the” magical circuit, it’s “a” magical circuit. There are other ways to close a circuit. If such was not the case, there would be no way to effectively do magic to bring an unknown lover into one’s life, or to bring a lost person, pet, or possession back home, or to do magic on a far distant person, and so on. In all of these cases, it would be impossible to give the charged object to the target.

Suppose we take this circuit as an example, compare it to other effective examples of magic, and extrapolate a broader, more all-encompassing circuit.

Start with an object link. That’s a great beginning. Suppose “something belonging to the target” is just one example of an object link. Remember the fundamental principal of sympathetic magic: Anything that is like a thing, is the thing. Something belonging to me is like me. So is a picture of me. So is a symbolic representation of me.

The principal of magical contagion states that any part of a thing is the whole thing, and that coming into contact with a thing makes you part of the thing. By magical contagion, my fingernail clippings (a part of me) are the whole of me. So is my footprint (which is like a part of me) and so is the dust of my footprint (which came into contact with a part of me).

My astrological sign is a part of me, and a representation of my sign represents me.

A powerful object link can be created without having any possessions of the target, by layering the symbolic, sympathetic, and contagious connections. For example, a picture of me annointed with a magical oil associated with my astrological sign, and decorated with symbols of the magical work being done (a love spell or any other).

“Apply magic (to the object)” is step two of the described circuit. I recommend always having a magical object as a focal point, but if need be, the object can be a mental image. Nonetheless, this step is absolutely necessary.

Step three is, according to Huson, returning the object to the target. In a love spell, this might mean: Gather the nail clippings of the beloved, charge them with a compelling magic, grind them up, bake them into a cake, and then feed the cake to the beloved. This sort of thing is seen all the time in old spell books.

I have had crushes and desires many times in life. Not once was I able to get close enough to the object of my desire to get his nail clippings or to feed him a homemade cake. One wonders if the whole operation doesn’t work psychologically—by making you do all these things that bring you close to the beloved, you naturally become more intimate. It’s a romcom Grimoire!

Seriously, this methodology has a lot of practical problems, but it’s certainly an example of completing the circuit. How else might this be achieved?

Complete the circuit by disposing of the object in a way that sends the energy to the target. For example, burn the object, and bury the ashes, or place the ashes someplace where the wind will blow them away.

When I work magic, I keep two things in mind: My target, and my goal. In the fingernails-in-a-cake spell, the target is the beloved, while the goal is love, romance, or sex. You can do a spell with an object connected to either the target or the goal (or both, but a crowded altar can dissipate focus).

For example, I can skip symbolizing my beloved entirely, and instead create an object that symbolizes true love. Perhaps I will make a magical charm bracelet, charge it up, and wear it every day until my spell is fulfilled. By wearing the bracelet (which is an object of the goal, not of the target), I complete the circuit.

I can also do a spell that brings the two (target and goal) together. Fingernails-in-a-cake does that, if I am careful to bake a cake that is imbued with love or sex (the goal). Once I’ve done that, I need not feed it to my beloved—I can eat it myself. Look at the circuit created there: I’ve brought the target (fingernails) together with the goal (Love Cake™). Magically, I’ve married these two concepts, so that my beloved is already a part of love. Now, by eating the cake, I bring love into my body, and not just any love—love connected to my target person. Clearly I’ve completed a powerful circuit without ever delivering homemade goodies to someone who isn’t noticing me (yet).

Whenever you devise a spell, it’s vital to ask yourself, how will I complete this?

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We consult the oracles – Chapter 3

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Next, is Chapter 3 – Divination.  Hyperion, accomplished diviner and founder of the Unnamed Path – a path for Men-who-love-men, as revealed by their Ancestors – answers the discussion questions and shares his insights with us.

Hyperion’s background includes work as a Priest with the Druidic Craft of the Wise, as a shaman, and as a priest of Shangó.   To (literally!) hear more from Hyperion, check out UnnamedPath.com or visit his online store of magical products at ConjureDoctor.com.

For your reading ease, bits from Mastering Witchcraft are quoted below, with discussion points.  The bolded bits are Hyperion’s responses.

_____________________________________________

 

 

 

 

hapter Three, in which our Hero

calls upon the aid of Mercury,

fashions Devices for Seeing the Unseen,

and conjures Demons and Shades

 .

“Before embarking on any magical operation, perform a divination (a) to diagnose the true nature of the situation, and/or (b) to determine the likelihood of success of the particular magical operation you have decided to employ.  There is no point … in employing a blast of countermagic against some imaginary enemy when in fact a relatively simple amulet of beneficence may be all that is required.”

How important is it to consult an oracle or perform divination before doing magical work?

Divination or oracular work is a necessary and integral part of any kind of magical work. It is akin to looking through a scope before firing off a rifle shot.

Divination should always be performed before magical work so that you can ascertain all of the factors affecting a situation, flesh out the known details, uncover unknown factors at play, and finally used to determine the predicted outcome of your spell work.

Casting a spell without divination is akin to shooting your rifle while pointing in the general direction of your target. Sometimes you’ll hit it, but often you’ll be off the mark. Occasionally you’ll hit a bystander.

“…the operations of divination have always been conducted by means of contact with a power which is symbolized by the astrological symbol of Mercury.  The Greeks called this power Hermes, the Egyptians Thoth, the Scandinavians Odin, the early Anglo-Saxons Woden … The Saxons knew him by the name “Earendel, the Morning Star.  The witch knows him by the name ‘Herne.’”

Can a non-witch become as skilled at divination as a witch or occultist?  Does the type of divination matter?

A diviner’s capacity and skill are wholly unrelated to his initiatory or spiritual path. Some of this world’s finest diviners are people of popular faith (Christianity, Judaism or Islam).

What determines a diviner’s skill are two things – his knowledge of the tool and the relationship he has with his guides/deity. To think that divination is solely the realm of the witch or occultist is arrogant. There are many housewives who can divine the sex of a child with a needle and thread more accurately than anyone calling upon Hermes. There are tea house servers who can read more in a cup of leaves than anyone invoking the names of angels in the Enochian tradition.

To be skillful at divination you must be knowledgeable in the tool and have solid relationships with your guides or gods. That’s all.

The type of divination does matter, however, in cases of access. If it is a divination tool that requires the diviner to be an initiate – like the diloggún of West Africa (cowrie shell divination) then it is the initiation that allows the diviner access and license to use the tool. Their skill with the tool (once they have access to it) is then completely dependent on their knowledge of the tool and their relationships with their deities – confirming my original statement.

When you do a divination, where do the answers come from?  Do they always come from the same place?

That’s an excellent question that I think a lot of novice diviners get hung up on. They doubt the source of the information they are receiving and consequently throw themselves out of the trance-like state required to receive and transmit the guidance they are receiving to the client.

Answers typically come from several sources:

1) Ancestors or spirits of the dead,

2) Guides or other Upper world beings,

3) Gods or Goddesses,

4) Your Higher Self, or

5) Your Shadow Self (gut instinct).

All of these are equally valid and all of them apply. To place guidance from a God as “more valid” than that of an ancestor is a terrible mistake.

Once an oracle is properly opened with prayer, and a proper attitude of humility and reverence, for a sincere need, the answers will always be applicable and valid regardless of where they come from.

“Keep your completed square in a new box or wrapped in a clean linen or silk cloth.”

How do you store your divinatory tools?  Why?

Well ultimately it really depends on the tool.

For my tarot cards a simple silk pouch is sufficient. I use these on an almost daily basis with my clients. They have no power in and of themselves; the power is within me. So the pouch is simply to keep them in good condition.

To attribute some kind of mystical power your cards is blasphemous, for the truth and power is within yourself – you are a divine being. The cards are paper with ink printed on them – nothing more.

My set of bones I use in throwing the bones are kept in a wooden bowl as high up as I possibly can place them in my house. In my case that’s the top of my bookshelf. This is a traditional practice where “the bones” are kept in a non-common place: either on the floor or way up high.

Each bone has a unique energy and tie to an ancestral significance or animal medicine. They therefore are treated with the utmost respect and are kept in a unique sacred place.

My cowrie shells are consecrated parts of my shrines from the Lukumí faith (Santería). These are irreplaceable objects and act as the mouths and ears of the deities in that religion. They are kept in a bag with a tie in a secret place where no one but I can find them – so that no one could ever steal them.

Would you let others handle or use your divinatory tools?  Why or why not?

Yes. Part of a consultation, regardless of the tools, is that the client has to interact with the divination tool. This allows his or her spirit the opportunity to partake in the random shuffling of the tool.

The random element has to be present for it to be divination – otherwise it is either an oracle of seership or scrying. I let my clients shuffle my tarot cards. If they are over the phone I riffle through the cards until they tell me to stop so they can control the randomness of the event.

I let my clients toss the bowl of bones to mix them up as they pray.

For the cowrie shells, I place the shells in the hands of my client so that they can pray to the gods of that tradition for guidance and clarity; throughout the reading they will mix two items in their hands and separate them and I will pick a hand to determine yes or no answers.

Letting a client participate in the divination is not only critical to the process so that their will and soul are engaged in the determination of the random element, but it also engages them on a deeply spiritual level so that they know they are not just a bystander; they are a participant.

“Basically the rune sticks consist of four flat slats of fruit-wood – apple, pear, cherry, plum, hazel, rowan, or any other wood if you cannot obtain these.  But they must be wood.”

“You should carry them about with you for a period of time before you use them to charge them with your magnetism, or witch power.”

Why fruit wood?  Barring fruit wood, why wood?

The rune sticks are a divination tool that draw their meaning and symbolism directly from the world tree. The old legend says that Odin (Wotan, O∂in, etc.) hung himself voluntarily from the World Tree until he received the vision and enlightenment of the runes. Therefore it is important for the runes to be made of wood – it is where they were born and it links them directly to the World Tree.

The reason fruit wood is used instead of any old fruit is that the World Tree is typically depicted as a fruit bearing tree – be it ash or oak – not a conifer. Fruit trees feed humanity, and fruit bearing plants have an intimate connection with mammals. Without us they would not be as biologically successful as they are. Animals eat the fruit and carry the seeds in their guts until they release them at a later location. Animals spread fruit bearing tree seeds better than wind-born seeds.

How dependent are divinatory tools on their proper materials and methods of preparation?

I think the answer to this is completely dependent on the divination system.

In the case of runes they are tied inextricably to the material. The same goes for bones or cowrie shells. But other systems aren’t as tied to the material, like geomancy, horary astrology, tarot, i-ching, or pendulum. The symbols and patterns in these systems are what really matter more than the specific lore tied to the divination system. As long as you can generate the symbols and patterns that’s all that really matters.

In any case fanaticism and extremism in constructing any magical tool puts way too much power in the hands of the physical world versus the spiritual relationships and energy that are really determining the success of the reading.

“…write out your question on the paper provided with the pen of art.”

Do you write out your question before undertaking a reading?  Why or why not?

This depends on the divination system.

In geomancy you want to write out the question because the specific wording of the question can really affect how you read the outcome.

In other systems like tarot or bones it’s not as important to do so because you’re not fishing for a black and white yes/no answer, you’re getting details surrounding an issue.

Creating a “special pen and paper” to write out the question is a silly waste of time. I say focus more on your relationship with your guides and Gods and you’ll get a much more accurate and powerful answer in your reading than they guy with the fancy unicorn horn pen with dove’s blood ink.

Do you keep a record of your readings?

As a professional reader and rootworker, I absolutely MUST keep a record of my readings. I need to be able to go back over a client’s history and know what I’ve recommended for them in the past as well as document what spell work I’ve done for them so that I don’t end up asking the same questions over and over again.

It also gives me a chance to see if they client followed the advice I said and how it affected the magical outcome of the work I did for them.

Do you read regularly, or only at need?  Does either affect the efficacy of your readings?

I read regularly. I give about 5 to 10 client readings a week. I read for myself about once a month.

Of course this affects the efficacy of my readings because I am so familiar with the tool that it’s like reading a newspaper column for me. I can even picture the cards laid out in my head when someone names them off and interpret off of the image in my head (with no cards before me) because I’m that familiar with them.

Think of a divination system as an alphabet. The more familiar you are with the letters the faster you can compose your thoughts and say what you want to say. The same goes with divination.

“…divinations will always go better if you use your square of Mercury first.”

“Say, as you do so:  ‘In thy name Herne, Lord of the Crossroads…’”

            Do you ‘ritualize’ your divination?  If so, how?

This again depends on the divination system. All divinations I perform involve me connecting with my gods and guides and then asking for assistance and clarity before I begin.

Some divination systems (like casting the bones or diloggún) have lengthy prayers where I invoke the presence of the ancestors and rattle off my lineage going back as I can track.

Tarot has far less ritual involved. I just connect to my higher sources and start shuffling the cards as I picture the client’s situation.

“Having now assembled the primary instruments of the greater divinations, you are ready to perform one such operation yourself.  There are basically two varieties of these, one being the conjuration and communication with nonhuman entities, and the other dealing with the spirits or shades of the dead…”

Have you ever conjured a nonhuman spirit to answer questions you couldn’t answer through other means?  Would you?

I have connected with the ancestors of the dead, my higher or shadow self, my guides and my gods/goddesses when doing divination. Anything outside of that is too volatile of an energy to expect clear, dependable guidance.

Conjuring a djinn, goetic spirit or demon to perform divination is ridiculous. Not only are they unstable and undependable entities but they are too risky to summon in the first place for a question easily answered with a set of cards or a pendulum. That’s just hubris.

“The summoning of the dead has always been considered by witches as among some of the most dangerous operations in the book, strangely enough, sometimes even more so than the summoning of demons.  The truth of the matter is that it can be an extremely taxing operation to perform if the motivation is anything other than love…”

Have you ever conjured the dead for matters of intelligence?  Would you?

Absolutely. It is a common thing and isn’t anywhere as dangerous as conjuring a demon contrary to what your book says. Human spirits of the dead are easily controlled, dispelled and are usually willing to work with you especially if you strike a deal with them and offer them libations up front.

The spirits of the dead – especially your blood ancestors – are some of your most dependable and powerful allies in magic. Anyone who is afraid of working with the dead is afraid of magic – period.

I’ve consulted spirits of the dead for guidance, magical assistance with a situation, for details and information surrounding an issue or for assistance when dealing with negative people that need to be bound up from hurting others.

Thinking upon the Dumb Supper, in which you can summon a future shade, would it be possible/ethical to summon the etheric essence of a living person or animal who witnessed something you need to know?

If the person is still living, their conscious will and the threads tying their etheric substances to their physical body are far more powerful than any conjuration or summoning you can ever craft as a witch. So I say it is not only impossible but ridiculous.

It would be better for you to summon your ancestors or guides to look into it and then report back what they discover. Not only that, but the purpose of the Dumb Supper is to commune with the spirits of those who have departed in that year, to offer them food and drink and commune with them one last time before they pass on to the Underworld and rest forever. To use that moment of honor for your personal petty agenda is reprehensible in my opinion. It defiles the occasion.

More discussions pop up

I see more posts on Mastering Witchcraft have popped up.  Teasers included below.  For the full discussion, follow the links:

Rick Derks at Howling at the Crossroad posts about his experiences with the book:

“My first reaction, having only been exposed to Wicca at that point was ‘This isn’t Witchcraft! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ Then I realized this was what I really wanted Witchcraft to be, and I gave it a shot.”

Raven at Besom, Book and Wand shares his thoughts:

“Mastering Witchcraft is a rare gem, a Witch’s “how to” manual written way before the glut of fluffy, anything-goes McWicca books that flooded the market in the late ’80s and early ’90s. This is not a book about a lovely matriarchal Goddess religion, and it doesn’t encourage you to make up whatever you feel like and call it Witchcraft. This book is good, functional, old-fashioned Witchcraft of the kind Witches ACTUALLY practiced…”

Sarah Lawless promotes the discussion, adding:

“Paul Huson‘s Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks & Covens, originally released in 1970, is a classic masterpiece of witchcraft publishing. If you’ve made it this far along the path without reading it (egads, that’s like saying you’ve never read Doreen Valiente!), I urge you to go out and procure a copy immediately.”

I encourage you all to consider the discussion points and post what you think, either in UsedKey’s comments section or in your own webspace.

If you do link back to UsedKey promoting the discussing, email me at trothwy at live dot com so I can put your name in the hat (times three) for the chance to win an autographed copy of Mr. Huson’s book.

We prepare for witchwork – Chapter 2

And now we come to Chapter 2 – Preliminary Preparations.  Sharing his insights with us is Harold Roth, magical practitioner and proprietor of Alchemy Works.  Mr. Roth is also in the process of writing a book on growing and using witching herbs.

Alchemy Works is bursting with oils, incenses and philters which have been developed and blended with Mr. Roth’s exquisite detail and attention to the magical history, properties and effects of the ingredients.  He also offers his handmade traditional talismans, as well as seeds, growing information and herb lore.

Mr. Roth mentioned he would gladly discuss his responses further, and answer any questions that may arise about them.  Post them in the comments section, and he’ll be happy to answer.

For more by and about Harold Roth, visit him at his blog The Alchemist’s Garden or his online shop Alchemy Works.

For your reading ease, bits from Mastering Witchcraft are quoted below, with discussion points.  The bolded bits are Harold’s responses.

___________________________________________________________

 

 

 

hapter Two, in which Our Hero urges us

to make a Name for ourselves, cast a

type of Boiler Tank, Get Naked (or not),

and “Tool Up.”

 .

“Assuming you have embarked on your career as a practitioner of the Black Arts, you will have to take a new, magical name to supplement your old, mundane one.”

“The witch name is basically designed to be an indication of the true nature of you as you really are deep down!”

Is it possible to work effective magic without a witch name?

Yes. A person’s given name is just fine, IMO. I don’t use a magical name, even though I chose one years ago. I thought I really needed one, but I have never actually used it for anything.

How widely do you use your witch name? What are the ramifications?

I never use my magical name. It is an unused tool, and as such, I think it has no power. I sometimes have used my Hebrew name in rituals. This I think actually has more power precisely because it is a recognized name in one community in a particular context. I guess you could say it’s a spiritual name, because its purpose is to identify me in a spiritual community. So it has more power to me than the magical name I chose and haven’t used. But honestly, I have not found much use of any name. I feel like the spirits know who we are. I have this idea that they can identify us fairly easily (if they want to).

Some witches believe to know the “true name” of something/someone gives power over the named.  How much power do you feel is given over to those who know your witch name?  Does knowing your legal name give folks the same amount of power over you?  Why, or why not?

Well, knowing someone’s social security number gives someone a great deal of power over someone else in the mundane world, so I can imagine that knowing someone’s name in witchcraft or even their legal name would give someone power over another in the magical world. But I don’t think it is that important. I think it is more important to have in one’s mind the image of the person, their themness, their who-they-areness. Even better if you have an item of theirs.

Is it possible to change your witch name?  What are the effects of doing so?

I have not changed my witch name, but I have changed my legal name, and it had profound effects. I would imagine that changing a magical name could have the same possibilities. I don’t see why one couldn’t grow out of one name and into another.

“All witches and warlocks usually possess items that are often known by occult ritualists as jewels … They usually serve three purposes … providing a means of recognition between members of different covens; a talismanic ‘link’ with the collective mind of their own group … and third, sometimes as a means of ‘Fascination,’ that is to provide a reflective surface of the same sort often made use of by hypnotists when they wish to throw their subjects into a trance.”

As the pentagram and other symbols of witchcraft become more widely recognized, do they become less or more useful as jewels of recognition?

I think they are helpful, although I am aware that some people will wear a pentagram, for instance, just to look outré to their schoolmates. But does the image of the Goat of Mendes being sported by every wannabe badass high-schooler diminish it? I don’t think so. I think it remains a powerful image. For me, more often the pentagram has become a Wiccan symbol, which is a whole nother ball of wax than plain witchcraft. It’s not a symbol that I personally make use of for that reason. Not that it’s no longer powerful due to its use, but that to me, it has become a Wiccan symbol, and I am not a Wiccan.

Does wearing a witch jewel daily lessen or heighten its magical effect?

I would think that continued contact with one’s body would heighten the magical power of any object. I used to be in the habit of wearing rings for magical purposes, especially rings dedicated to particular planetary energies, and I know that the more I wore them, the more powerful they became. They seemed to store quite a bit more energy, to the point where I quit wearing them except when doing rituals, because I felt like they had too much of an effect.

“Many practitioners claim that the best way to work magic is the traditional way: nude.  Others, equally tradition-minded, claim that this is not necessarily the case … The rationale behind nudity … is that clothing inhibits the emanation of your witch power.”

Does working magic naked affect the outcome?  How so?

It can. There is something incredibly thrilling about working naked outside on a windy, rainy black night. It seems easier to build energy. But most of the magic I do is clothed. I think clothing cannot inhibit the emanation of power, but not having it on can make you feel both more powerful and less so. Depends on the circumstances.

“In order to perform any act of successful ritual witchcraft, you must have your set of basic traditional working tools…. The magical act is a cumulative one.  You start from scratch with newly purchased substances, ritually purify or demagnetize them with salt water, and incense, and then recharge them with your concentrated witch power.  From these charged substances, you then fashion your implements, and with these implements, you cast your first spells…. Buy, without bargaining over the price …”

Some witches argue that a kitchen knife can be a household tool during the day, and an athame in circle.

Not in my world. I could more easily pick up a stick and use it for a magical purpose than to use a kitchen knife. I think of it this way—we use a kitchen knife like it’s our slave. We don’t work with its spirit. We don’t cosset it. We don’t imbue it with energy. We throw it in the drawer or it sits in the sink with the dirty dishes or we use it to crack open a jar and it gets nicked and dulled. We don’t ask its permission or aid, and generally we don’t treat it with respect. This is not the way to treat a magical tool, IMO. A magical tool should want to help you, if that makes sense. Maybe I have too utilitarian an attitude towards kitchen implements.

For purposes of magic, do separate witch tools work better than tools in mundane use?  How so?  Why not?

I think so, but I also have few witch tools. One thing I remember from when I first got interested in magic was Aleister Crowley describing how he would banish by using his thumb in the “fig” position (British fuck you symbol). I thought this was a great idea and I have always banished nasties that way. OTOH, I have used a particular wand I carved to send out negative energy when it is called for. I think it works better than using my hands. It felt like it was a focus. Like a laser. I would not use it for any mundane purpose.

Would such tools need to be consecrated before each use?

Yes, in whatever way you consider consecration to be done.  I like to use incense or rub the item with herbs.

Why would it be important to not bargain over the price of an item intended for magical use?

I think this comes from the idea of not being cheap. If you are cheap with your magic—not frugal, I think that’s different—than it is like you are not giving it your all. You have more important things to devote your money to, like your cable bill or music downloads or some new clothes, etc. That doesn’t mean you have to spend big or even spend at all on magic tools. I think tools you make or get from the woods or even your yard or have the capacity to be more powerful than a purchased tool, especially when I see some of the wands I see for sale that look like junk. I don’t know how people can do magic with some of the stuff I see.

Does marking a ritual tool make it more effective for purposes of working magic?

Anything you do to a tool to make it more particular for the task will, IMO, make it more effective. Marking, censing, washing, rubbing, etc.

In Mastering Witchcraft, the directions for preparing an Athame are much more elaborate than for the other tools — mix drops of our own blood into the  consecration water, temper the blade (heat it, then plunge it into water), magnetize the blade, bury it point down in earth for three days and.  Why is this tool different?

Probably because it is essentially a tool of protection, on the one hand, so you want such a tool to be especially powerful, But also because as I recall, knives and swords were thought to have a possibly bloodthirsty history which had to be cleansed away before they were used for magic, otherwise the user might be harmed—as if the blade, in fact, had a will of its own that came about because of its past uses.

“To those familiar with Cabalistic sorcery, the magic circle is generally viewed as a means of defence against hostile spirit entities; to the witch, however, though it may serve this purpose … it has a far more important function … to serve as a lens to focus the witch power…. A magical boiler tank in which the steam is compressed in order to channel it”

How does a cast circle feel to you, personally?

I do not cast a circle with an athame. I use a modified version of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram to draw up energy in and around me and/or to clear a space of bad stuff prior to and after doing magic. I guess you could say that the ritual serves as a lens to focus power, but I think of it as more a drawing up of power that then fills the magic worker and can be directed to a task. 

Are all cast circles similar, or is each one different?  Why?

As mentioned, some people use circles for protection when working with demons. I have not worked with demons, so I don’t know.

“You must [move] in a clockwise direction (known as deosil to witches) always turning to the right?

Why move deosil?

Some would argue that deosil would be for working with positive energies or rituals for protection, money, love and widdershins with negative energies or cursing. I do not believe that things are that clear cut. I usually go widdershins if I am doing any ritual action because I feel closer to more chthonic entities like Hermes, and to me, widdershins is the underworld direction.

What would happen if you moved right, but spun left?

You could do such an action to build energy, IMO, like winding yarn on a spindle.

“Try to keep all your magical things together, preferably locked away in a safe place”

Why together?  Why locked away?

I think it’s a good idea to keep them together and if not locked away, at least put away. I keep mine in an old record cabinet I got at a used furniture store (and tarot cards in a separate wooden box). I consider that by being together, their energy is less likely to be negatively affected by things around them. Just feels like a good idea. I also keep them put away because I would not want someone else handling certain of the implements I use, like my ritual clothing. It feels too private. Not so much a magical concern as a private one. This is even though I felt perfectly okay about keeping a magical staff outside by the side door, where it was regularly seen by strangers and friends alike. I felt that staff was impervious to anything. And yet what happened to it? It fell and cracked in two. J

Do you allow others to handle your magical tools?  Why or why not?

I let people shuffle and cut my tarot cards. I would not even show them some things, like ritual garments. I guess with the ritual garments, I feel like it is too personal an exposure. I remember when I saw a photo of Aaron Leitch in his Abramelin robes how I thought he was quite brave to have such a picture taken and then up on the net. I have sometimes seen folks in their ritual garments looking foolish. So there’s that. But even though I would not mind if someone borrowed an item of personal clothing, with ritual clothing, I would feel like the item would be compromised magically. I would never thenceforth feel it was quite all mine. Probably a silly superstition. It has not come up.