Tag: Wicca

Altar Pentacle

The Pentacle is a Magickal tool that some folks do not use. Their reasoning is
sound since it is obviously an adaptation from ceremonial Magick, as is the
athame. These people use only the wand and the chalice in their work. But I
like the use of the pentacle and athame because Wicca has always been quite ecclectic and drawn from several Pantheons and systems. So it doesn’t make any
sense to me to say we can draw on all systems EXCEPT the Kabbalah as used in
Ceremonial Magick. Also I like the way using all 4 of these main tools that
most traditions and practitioners share brings correspondences to the 4 suits of
Tarot cards and to the 4 elements.

The Pentacle is a flat disk, traditionally inscribed on copper and coated with a
clear finish of some type to prevent corrosion after it has been inscribed with
the continuos 5-pointed star or pentegram. This is not an open pentacle like
many witches wear. It is ENGRAVED on the disk. The reason being you put SALT
on this disk in circle and if it was open all the salt would be on the altar, on
the floor, everywhere but where you need it.

I have also, recently, seen some pentacles inscribed on slices of agate put out
by cauldron Crafts in Maryland that are JUST GORGEOUS. Since the pentacle is
feminine and relates to earth either the copper or the stone is appropriate.
However brass I find less so as it is usually considered a solar metal and
masculine. That is why I also prefer to avoid brass chalices. Copper chalices
are avoided because they give off a metallic residue that is poisonous into the
liquid, if they corrode – and alcohol in wine or ale and acid in wine or juice
WILL do this. But copper is perfect for the pentacle.

What you engrave on your pentacle is entirely up to you. The NeoGardnerian and
NeoAlexandrians (as well as the originals of these traditions) have very
specific symbols that they always use. Other traditions sometimes have specific
symbols they require as well. But others just use a plain pentacle, or tht
pentacle with runic symbols of their choosing or whatever has meaning to them.
I have seen beautiful pentacles – in fact our distributor of jewelry carries
them – that are pentegrams surrounded by inscribings of Celtic knotwork.

I have also seen some gorgeous stained glass altar pentacles – my favorite of
these was one where the points where the colors of the elements. The 4 lower
points were the Red, Yellow, BLue and Green my tradition ascribes to the
elements and the top one was silver for Spirit/Divinity. The center and
background were a lovely violet color. Obviously SOMEONE put a lot of work into
it.

One note – a specific coating I have found to work well on copper pentacles so
that the salt doesn’t destroy them is CLEAR NAIL POLISH. This has to
periodically be reapplied however.

Wiccan Home Altar

Author: Joanne E. Brannan

A Wiccan Home Altar may feature the Magickal Tools Athame, Chalice and Wand. It is used to perform rituals and Magick, and for quiet spiritual reflection.

A Wiccan Home Altar is a very personal place, and should be created to reflect the Magickal practitioner. Although Wiccan Symbolism may be used to guide the choice of items to place on the altar, personal instinct and creativity should always be paramount.

What to place on a Wiccan Home Altar

Traditional Magickal Tools that may be used include an Athame (a ritual blade), a Chalice, a Wand and a Statue of the Goddess. Other items include fresh flowers or herbs, natural sea salt, crystals or carved symbols, but the choice is truly only limited by the imagination!

Use an Altar cloth of a natural fabric such as silk, cotton or linen, perhaps choosing the color to reflect the season and its Wiccan festivals.

Wiccan Athame

It is important to note that the Wiccan Athame is not used for physical cutting! The Athame is a masculine symbol, used to harness and direct power in spells and rituals. As with all Magickal Tools it is important to select an Athame with feeling and intuition. It is perfectly acceptable to order Magickal tools by mail, but do reflect and meditate well on the choice before buying.

Wiccan Chalice

A Wiccan Chalice may be simple, or elaborate, to suit the Magickal Practitioner.

Fill your Wiccan Chalice with a natural beverage to symbolize fertility and the feminine. Suitable choices, dependant on the season, include apple juice or fresh milk.

Wiccan Wand

A Wiccan Wand is a key Magickal Tool. A Wand may be purchased or made by the Magickal practitioner him or herself. See Beverly Hill’s lovely article Create Your Own Magical Tools for detailed instructions on how to make a wand.

Statue of the Goddess

An expression of the sacred feminine, a statue of the goddess may be a focus for meditation and reflection on the enormity of the spiritual world, as well as being reminder of the simple everyday generosity of Nature.

Where to place a Wiccan Home Altar

A Wiccan Home Altar may be a permanent or temporary structure, according to the space available. Possibilities include a shelf, a table or simply a cloth to be laid out on a bed. It is also important to consider the level of support offered by those who share the home of the Wiccan practitioner as it is essential to feel safe, and not to be disturbed, while carrying out spells and rituals.

Size and permanence do not affect the power of the Wiccan Altar; rather it is the intention and will of the Magickal worker while carrying out spells and rituals that manifest the power and sanctuary of this sacred space.

How to Banish

Author: Taliesin McKnight

The first thing that one should learn to do in magick is to banish. This is a simple precautionary measure. Before conjuring things up, intentionally or unintentionally, banishing should be well understood. Banishing can be defined as cleansing an area (or person) of negative energies or entities. There are various hostile forces in the spirit world that need to be warded off at times.

There are three basic ways to get rid of negative vibrations. These techniques are used in virtually all systems of magick: Wicca, Voodoo, Santeria, ceremonial magick, to name just a few. Once the art of banishing is understood, then it can be done for others as well. After all, magick is not just about your base desires and self-glorification (sobering thought, I know!) , but about helping others. You will be a cunning man or woman, an instrument of the Divine. The three basic methods of banishing are the burning of herbs, the sprinkling of holy water, and ritual.

The burning of herbs is a very ancient form of exorcism (exorcism is another word for banishment) . But not just any herbs are used; they must be cleansing herbs! This may include such plants as vervain, onion, patchouli, and hyssop. You may now be asking yourself, do those herbs really have any power in themselves? This issue is highly debated in the occult community. Some are of the opinion that different herbs have various mystical properties, which can be harnessed and employed by the witch. Others, however, think that it is simply the belief in the mind of the practitioner that makes the employment of herbs effective. Whatever the case may be, virtually all forms of witchcraft regard herbs as highly powerful agents to be made use of in magick.

The basic technique involves burning the herbs and allowing the smoke to touch the area (or person) being cleansed. The smoke is said to drive away impurities. Warning: Do not merely use the incense sticks or cones! Many would-be magicians are conned (intentionally conned by the manufacturers) into using these. Typically, there is no herb in the incense at all. It is merely the “fragrance.” Thus, if you buy lavender incense, chances are there is no lavender in it. So try to avoid merely using the incense named after the plant.

There are various methods for procuring your herbs. The plants can be bought or grown. Most pagans like to grow their own so they can incorporate the seasonal practices of planting and harvest into it. They may also be purchased at your local metaphysical store or online. Another alternative is to simply go to the grocery store and just see what you can find. If nothing else then many of the herbs can be found in the “spices” section. Onion, garlic, black pepper, and rubbed sage are easy to find; these are all powerful herbs used for banishing. Tobacco can be blended with such herbs to help them burn. Tobacco is often used to replace sulphur in old grimoires. It is connected to Mars (the god of war) . The herbs may be burned upon charcoals. Smudge sticks are also quite popular. These are often composed of a mixture of rubbed sage and bluegrass.

The concept of holy water is found in many different systems of magick. Please note that this does not necessarily refer to holy water from a church. The use of holy water predates Christianity and is used in virtually all forms of Paganism. At its most basic, it is water mixed with sea salt. Various other formulas exist in which one mixes the water with various cleansing herbs such as sage, hyssop, and vervain. This is all up to the individual witch. The herbs are boiled in water and then are strained. This is how such herbal mixtures are made. Marie Laveau water (highly prized in New Orleans Voodoo) is one such example. It is composed of 1 cup of rainwater, 1 cup of spring water, 1 cup of lavender water, 1 cup of rose water, and holy water from a church.

Holy water should always be blessed in some way, which can be accomplished by an elaborate spell or a simple prayer. The water is then sprinkled in the area to drive away evil and any negative, hostile forces. This ancient practice goes back to the very beginning of magick.

Ritual is the last of the three methods. Of course, sprinkling holy water and burning herbs do serve as rituals within themselves, but there are other more elaborate forms of ritual. One of these is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. This ritual comes to us from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which was a secret society that taught initiates the practices of ceremonial magick. Although this rite is derived from ceremonial magickal tradition, practitioners of many different paths and systems have used it. This is simply due to the fact that the ritual is so effective at cleansing the environment of negativity. Another technique is the ringing of a bell, a method used by a number of cultures.

Those of a Christian background may call on the power of God by invocation and prayer. Another practice is to cut an onion into quarters and to place these in the four corners of a room. The idea is that the onion will absorb the negative “vibes” and is later discarded or burned. Chanting may be employed or various candle spells may be used. Once again, there are countless rituals that can be utilized as rites of exorcism.

Remember, banishing is the first thing that should be learned in the practice of magick. From that point on you may proceed, somewhat safely, on the path of the occultist. The three methods outlined above (the burning of herbs, the sprinkling holy water, and ritual) are used in virtually all forms and systems of magick around the world. They are tried and tested methods that have been successfully employed by witches for many thousands of years. When all else fails, appeal to a Higher Power, however this may be defined.

Always remember that the Ancient Ones are there to aid you upon your path.

My relationship with Yemayá

She Moves in Mysterious Ways

My relationship with Yemayá

by Iris WaterStar

The first time that I saw an image of Yemayá, two thoughts ran through my head; the first one was “Oh, that’s me,” quickly followed by the second one, which ran along the lines of  “What an odd thing to be thinking about a picture on a candle.” This was about two and a half years ago; the candle was one that I saw in a shop on Capitol Hill called Three Furies. I was there looking around with a friend, and this picture seemed to jump out at me. I had absolutely no idea who in the world this was, but I knew that she was wonderful, and so familiar.

It felt like seeing myself, or some part of myself, a part that I wanted to unfold somehow. This candle was one of the tall cylindrical kind; it was green and had a color painting on it. The picture is of a beautiful woman, standing on the waves of a green ocean surrounded by white blossoms. The stars are out in the twilight sky above her; the crescent moon is off to one side. She has long, dark flowing hair and is wearing a long white gown with her arms outstretched. From her hands, golden stars are falling. She has a thin aura above her head and another bright five-pointed star above her head. She is neither smiling or frowning, she simply is as she is.

I had never experienced a candle calling to me like this one did. I picked it up and put it down several times. Each time, I put it down I was aware of the feeling she was meant to go with me. I finally asked the man who ran the store “Who is this?” He wasn’t sure; he said he thought that it was some ocean-type goddess or something, but that some people had come in recently and told him her name. He couldn’t remember it but it was something like… and he pronounced something that I promptly forgot.

He also told me that these people who knew of her said that he had the candle color all wrong, and that it should be blue and not green. I bought the green candle anyway because I didn’t want to wait the couple of weeks it would take to make another candle.

I took the candle home and promptly set up an altar, with the candle as a centerpiece. I had always had shrines but never one that was dedicated to a specific persona. I had some cobalt-blue glass that I put around it, and shells (I am a Pisces so these weren’t hard to come by ); I had an incense burner, and I bought some moon incense. I had seawater and flowers and white candles.

These things just seemed right and felt like what would be appropriate for an ocean goddess. I remember looking at her and being a little in awe of the energy that seemed to be somehow associated with her. At times, I was a little afraid, but then I immediately would get this sense that she had chosen to come home to be with me and so fear wasn’t needed. I still kept a healthy respect for this energy, as well as a growing fondness.

I later went back to the store and purchased another candle with a beautiful turquoise-blue background. I added that to the altar as well. I did a winter solstice ritual in my apartment that year in solitary fashion. I am used to working with spirit guides, as I have worked as a psychic and spiritual teacher for a number of years, and so I wasn’t completely alone in my work that evening. But I was amazed just the same as I did my work and lit the incense and candles. I really felt her yet unnamed presence with me. It was a very powerful night.

It was a few months after this time that a woman came into my life who was soon to become one of my best friends. She came to visit my apartment, and in that visit, I first learned of who this goddess was who had decided to come into my life. Her name, my friend told me, was Yemayá. And I found out I had unknowingly set up my altar with many of her traditional things.

Yemayá has an amazing way of setting things up. I found myself signing up for a drumming class along with several good friends. I had never really been interested in taking a class in drumming, but my friends said that “afoshè,” the rhythm that we would be working with, was really hot. So I went to a couple of classes and found myself not only learning the afoshè beginning drumming technique. By “coincidence,” we also learned a chant in this class; it was one to call up a certain goddess in the Yoruba faith. Guess who? So I ended up learning a song/chant and a rhythm that is traditionally used to invoke Yemayá in the rituals where the orishas “ride” the participants. I had to laugh; how obvious can you get!

I have been aware of Yemayá in many different ways; she speaks to me, and I am aware of her when I meditate sometimes. She is very loving and powerful, and I have an incredible affinity for her. She also has been very respectful of my personal space. In my own private personal magic, I do things that might be considered on the edge. Sometimes my ritual journeying involves extreme sensation, and one such evening, it involved piercing. I had very clear visions and awareness of Yemayá during this session, and it was also somehow associated with my Venezuelan Indian descent. I won’t go into great detail here, since it was quite personal, but suffice it to say that she comes to me very strongly sometimes. Along with working with Yemayá, I have become very conscious of the power of my own blood time and have incorporated this into my rituals as well.

I find it a little odd that I tend to do these things and then find out later that they are already in line with traditional practices. I guess I just do things backwards sometimes. Perhaps it is just as well to not second-guess myself. But nontheless, I am finally gathering written information about her and her traditions.

I am also going through the rite of formally choosing her as the goddess to which I am dedicated. On my altar, these days I have added a lovely statue of her, a new candle with her picture on it, her name and the term “La Diosa del Mar” (the Goddess of the Sea).  I even have some Yemayá oil. I also have an amulet that my good friend made for me (the one who told me Yemayá’s name in the first place) that has many of the things sacred to her on it.

One of the most recent things I read called her the “Queen of the Ocean, First Mother of the World, Queen of Waters, owner of waters both sweet and sour. Mother of the children of the fishes, deliverer of her people.” It seems appropriate from this Piscean perspective.

I have since heard on more than one occasion that an orisha (which is what Yemayá is) tends to choose people, as opposed to people choosing the orisha. This certainly was true in my case. I didn’t know at the time I went into that store on Capitol Hill that I was going in to meet my goddess. And other than my actual experiences with her, nothing means as much to me as the original candles that I bought, when I didn’t know anything about her – just the feeling/thought that “Oh, that’s me, there I am.”

Lighten Up – Bill Gates’s Book On Wicca

1. The book would be called Windows to the Goddess.

2. Iconology was be a major chapter.

3. A revised edition would be released approximately every 6 months without which your magic would no longer work.

4. Your broom would crash at least once a week.

5. Cauldrons would be called recycle bins.

6. A book of shadows would be called the folder of magic.

7. A free high speed connection spell would come with every book.

8. Ever now and then, your circle would collapse and you would have to perform the reboot ritual to get it working.

9. If you used the more powerful MagicNT rituals, the above would happen to all circles within a 5 mile radius.

10. At least once a month, you would have to reinstall your spells into your folder of magic.

11. You would have to use a start ritual to exit your circle. (And cake and wine would only be available after a sign from the Goddess saying it was safe to do so.)

Lighten Up – You Finally Know You are a Witch When

You Finally Know You are a Witch When…

© 1998 Connie Gilbert

You finally know you are a witch when…

1. Your BOS has spots on the pages from spilled brews.

2. When cleaning house you have to specify. “Where is the broom? No, not the broom, where is the one to clean the floor with?”

3. Candle wax has dripped on your keyboard.

4. There are more jars of strange smelling plants in your cupboards than there are cereal boxes.

5. Friends know they can always give you candles and incense as a gift.

6. When watching old re-runs of Bewitched, you find you side with Samantha’s mother Endora.

7. When travelling, stranger and stranger strangers tell you their problems.

8. You find yourself making corn dollies in the checkout line at the grocery store (well, I thought about it).

9.You ask for Halloween off, because it’s a religious holiday.

10. You start answering the phone with “Merry Meet”.

In The End, We’re All Solitary


Author: Chi

I’m not bashing coven practice here – It’s a wonderful spiritual path and way of learning and it works for lots of people. Those people have my blessings and all my best wishes. There are plenty of teens that someday want to be part of a coven, and there are dozens of adults who warn against teen groups (and even several of articles on Witchvox about it) . But if solitary practice is so wonderful, I have to ask myself why no one advocates it, at least not until asked or provoked. That’s what I will attempt to do, to go over some of the things that solitaries have the opportunity for, and even solitary fundamentals that anyone can use.

After all, you are an individual. In the end, you are solitary. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean it in the most glorious way possible. At the end of the day, the Divinity shines down on YOU and recognizes YOU for what YOU are, and takes you into their arms as their child with your own uniqueness and respects you for every ounce of it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. There are many people who consider themselves to be solitary Wiccans or solitary Witches. I almost want to say there is a majority – but I don’t have the statistics on hand to back that up, just my observation.

Most practitioners consider it a long-term goal to be able to get into a coven or other pagan group. Even though there are sometimes degree systems in place for covens, being a solitary is usually considered being “at the bottom of the food chain”, so to speak.

Some people are solitary because they choose to be, they know it is the best for their learning and they know it is better to study alone then with people that have the potential to delay your spiritual definition. Others are solitary simply because they have to be, there are no covens around, they are too young to join a ‘real’ coven, they do not have enough experience, or what have you.

I personally am some blend of the two. I began really studying and dedicating myself to “this path” a few years ago. I knew that I needed to study; I believed I had to have every rule memorized if I was ever to reach the glorious rank of a coven member.

However, since that time I have come to realize many things. First, I am not only a Wiccan. I am also Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Shinto, and a multitude of other things…so joining a group of strict Wiccans would probably drive several of us mad!

Second, I know how I learn. That’s not to say I do everything right, but being a solitary has taught me a lot of things about how to self teach, how to remember, and how to adapt that I don’t think I would get if I was being taught by another sole person (or group of teachers) .

Third, I don’t fit into a category that any degree system or standardized test can put me into. I consider myself to be very well-rounded in many types of practice; I meditate at least once a day, I am very accomplished in divination, plus some alternative and spiritual healing…but at the same time, I had forgotten what a “boline” was a few weeks ago and had to Google search it. You might find some of these apply to you and you may find they do not.

My point here is that self-exploration is essential to your learning. I have been self-exploring and self-coaching myself for long enough that I think if I were to join a coven, it would have to be very flexible at the least. And that’s fine with me.

However, most solitaries, including myself…no matter how much we love our individual practice, we want some sort of structure, some group or support system. This is not a bad thing, if anything it shows us that we are realistic. I myself have daydreamed about starting a teen Pagan study group (notice I did not say ‘teen coven’) before…leading group meditations and having workshops to carve our own wands and such…sounds glorious doesn’t it? But I know that in the end that is not what a group is for.

I have joined many Pagan forums and websites…some of which are like my own online Grimoire. I say almost nothing to members but comb through hundreds of information pages and topics, completely in awe. On others, I have a group of elders or mentors that I ask for help quite often, whether it’s “Can I use this pretty dish my mom gave me instead of a chalice?” or “Who can tell me in detail the exact workings of the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram?” (And to be fair…some of the websites out there are total B.S.) . Many casual groups have the potential to help you.

This is the first rule of being a solitary. Solitary does not equate to being alone. I like knowing that I can plan my own rituals, or re-schedule a Sabbat, and that I can adapt coven rituals to my practice. But I also know that there are always people I can turn to. I might talk to my non-Wiccan parents about finding spirituality in ‘everyday’, or ‘mundane’ life (as I found out in recent months, my sort-of-ex-hippie Dad and New-Age-Spiritual Mum are great for those kinds of things) . I might go on the Internet if I want to construct my own ritual. I might ask some online Elders for their book recommendations or good websites.

The thing about being a solitary is, instead of having a coven Priest or Priestess as your teacher, the whole world is your teacher. You usually have to ask several people about one question and go through each answer until you can combine the facts you need and get your own. You may find spiritual answers in simple social contacts or in the workings of nature.

Not to say that coven members “miss out” on this, but it is often unrecognized. I suspect that since Covens are a quick resource, that problem solving may not be emphasized as much, especially with limited resources.

One of my mottos that I have come to revisit often is this: everyone has something to teach, everyone has something to learn, and everyone is sacred. So even if you’re in a coven, a solitary might be a good person to ask about making up your own rituals. Maybe that seemingly fluffy teenager over there really does have some good books to lend you. If you have no one teacher, you have to branch out to anyone that has the potential to give you knowledge – that means you have to find that potential in everyone.

There are pros and cons to every kind of practice. If you’re in a coven, you still need to be willing to branch out and seek information from people who don’t have the label of a third degree high priestess. Maybe those with less experience do have things to offer you. If you’re solitary, don’t assume that you’re 100% on your own, there are Pagan festivals and new age shops everywhere that are likely to have people willing to teach you a thing or two, and there are plenty of online communities or websites that list meet ups and moots in your area.

In the end, we all have to do our own self-teaching of a few things. No matter what path we’re on it’s always nice to have some sort of mentor to turn to, but keep in mind in the end it is you who decides what is best for your learning, and you are responsible for comparing and gathering information, and adapting to your learning needs.

A good example is taking a hike in a mountain forest. You can take an experienced Guide, or you can go in with your supplies and a map. If you take a guide, you’ll probably get where you want to be without wasting time, and you’ll learn a lot – maybe you’ll be able to become a guide for someone else someday if it’s really your shtick. However… You might go through the path with your backpack, flashlight, and map. This is riskier, because you have less experience. You have tools at your disposal and you need to know how to use them. You might get turned around. You might take longer than the tour group. But there is a potential for you to learn a lot of things that the tour guide will overlook.

Okay, so you might not get the mountain path right off, and that’s okay. But maybe you can learn a lot more about forests in general. You’ll learn the skills in how to find your way through the thick forests, and you might discover wildlife the guides will walk right past. Maybe you don’t know the mountain path so well, even by the time you’re done with your hike. But, by the end of it, you probably know a lot about finding your way when your lost, telling directions without a compass, using your resources, marking your paths, and you’ll even know your own strengths and weaknesses better.

Not to say that the tour group missed out, I mean hey, they had their fun too, and they get to do all kinds of stuff in groups that you simply don’t have the energy/time/resources for. But ultimately, it depends on what’s best for you.

In keeping with the metaphor, forests can be dangerous. Some more than others. Some places you simply shouldn’t tread without a guide, at least for a while. And never go in alone without supplies in the dark, when no one knows where you are to a place you’ve never been. You can ask a guide every now and then even if you aren’t in a tour group. And there is no reason members of that tour group can’t go on their own hikes.

Back to spiritual paths, that translates to this: go at it alone, if it suits your fancy. You will learn a ton, I guarantee you. You might not learn as much about traditional paths, but you will learn a lot about what your spirituality means. You will have the chance to dissect it, analyze each piece and synthesize it along with the paths of others. But be wary of where you go, and always be safe. You will need to learn to self evaluate, and other life skills.

Coven members may have these skills and they might be better at it than you, but you still have the chance to grow and explore your own self-definition.

I admit whole-heartedly that I have no coven experience to back this up. I have let several coven members read this and give me their thoughts, and I have spoken to many about coven practice. I am not bashing anyone who is in a coven – it is a wonderful way to learn, and I hope to have a similar experience someday. But I feel the need to stress that somewhere along the line we all need to self teach and self-explore. And if you make that self-teaching and solitary practice part of your everyday life, it gives you a lot of potential in the long run. You can learn things in unlikely places, and I think solitaries know that lesson quite well.

Remember:

Everyone has something to learn, everyone has something to teach, and everyone is sacred.

Blessings.

My Experience: Training in Witchcraft


Author: Rhys Chisnall

It was a long drive up through the dark trees of Elevdon Forest from Bury St. Edmunds to a small village in the North of Suffolk, and none of us in the car knew what to expect from our first session of Craft training; after all we were going to see the Witches. We knew that the training would be one evening a week, three weeks out of four for two years with a break between Halloween and Candlemas. We also knew that it was free of charge (though we were asked to bring biscuits) as apparently, all genuine Witchcraft training was given free of charge. We had been told though that it would be very hard work and they were not kidding, though I did not really know it then.

But as we drove through the forest in mid spring through the dark of the early evening, the leaves just starting to bud, we were not expecting the right rollicking we would get for being late.

A valuable first lesson- you don’t mess with the Craft, you treat it with respect.

It was the start of a great adventure, an adventure that has continued over many years till today, and looks set to continue for the rest of my life. It is an adventure that has taken me to places that I never imagined I would go, within this world and within myself and led to experiences that back then I could not have even conceived of in my wildest dreams. It has been an adventure that has brought me into contact with the most exceptional of people and with complete nutters, though as with any path in the Occult it is a road that had to be trodden by me alone- no one else could have walked it for me.

There is an old saying in the Craft, ‘that a Witch is not usually financially wealthy but he or she will always feel rich, rich in experience, rich in knowledge and rich in the friends that they make along the path’. For me it was the exceptional training that I received that opened up so many doors.

I had found out about the training through a contact organisation called The Green Circle. The Green Circle was a group founded by the magician Marian Green and was an organisation, which amongst other things helped practioners of the Western Mystery Tradition network and make contact with each other. I had been trying to practise by myself, and with a small group of friends for a couple of years and we were not really getting anywhere, several of them had lost interest, and so I had joined the organisation in the hope of meeting real Witches.

I suppose my interest in spirituality had recently been rekindled when I had read a book on Wicca. Even as a teenager I was always a keen reader. I had grown up in the countryside, as my father was the deputy principal of an agricultural college near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. As such my two younger brothers and I had the run of the college estate that included woodlands, ponds, rivers and fields. Perhaps it was this almost idyllic childhood, entrenched in the beautiful Suffolk Countryside that had led to my abiding love of nature and led ultimately to taking up a spiritual tradition that works with nature and its tides and season as a metaphor for its mysteries.

The Training group was run by a couple of Witches called Tricia and Dave. At that time they were the High Priestess and High Priest of a long established country coven in the rural north of Suffolk, a small town tucked away amid the trees of Thetford Forest. They felt that a long period of training outside the coven was necessary, firstly because it gave the coven a good long while to get to know potential members before they could join. Secondly it tested the commitment of the potential initiate (it’s funny how two years filters out the flavour of the month brigade) .

Thirdly a coven is only as strong as it weakest link (as a working coven has the responsibility to ensure that any spell work it undertakes is done to the best of their ability) . Fourthly and most importantly it gives the potential initiate the tools to practise personal development towards self-actualisation, leading to personal transformation making it possible to experience the mysteries and mystical experience.

“It is training for a mystical experience”, Dave said. At the time I had no idea what he was on about.

During that first session we discovered ourselves sitting in a comfortable living room in a pleasant medium sized bungalow in a small rural town in the middle of the forest. We were sat on leather chairs with Dave and Tricia who I guess at that time were in their mid fifties, facing towards us, and their Siamese cat Joss curled up asleep on one of the arms of the armchairs.

Dave has a voice like Christopher Lee while Tricia sat quiet sizing us up, when she spoke everyone listened. There were pictures of birds on the wall, and a carving of the Goddess Freya hanging up between them. There was also an old fashioned besom standing up against the wall- the sort you would expect Witches to have, and a funny looking forked stick leaning up in a corner. They explained to us that attending the training would not be a guarantee of being initiated into the Coven and that we were expected to put the training into practise in our lives.

“You will change, ” we were warned, “if you don’t change then the Craft is not working. Do you want to change? What about loved ones, will they want you to change, have you the right to inflict that upon them?” Blimey they were certainly right. “You will become and activist“, he said, “not the kind of activist who demonstrates outside of Greenham Common, but an activist within your own life.” He also warned us very gravely that we would only get out what we had put in.

Dave said that he would play devil’s advocate to see if we were really thinking for ourselves. We were expected to give our own ideas and opinions; we were not being told what to believe. We were not there to parrot back what Dave and Tricia was saying but to say what we really thought, what we really felt and what we really believed. They were not at all interested in what we thought they wanted to hear or what was written in some Farrar Book. Dave challenged everything we said (even if he agreed with it) . “If something doesn’t stand up to challenge then it is not worth keeping”, he said. It was certainly tough, but then anything worthwhile is earned and is not easy, you value it more, however it was also going to be really good fun and rewarding as well.

There was a huge amount to get through in two years. It wasn’t about how to cast a circle, nor doing rituals and casting spells. These are the kind of thing that may be taught after initiation in coven. Nor was it naff thing like tables of correspondences, what tool is used for what, what colour candle to burn or how to make a magic wand. Nor were we being told about the Wheel of the Year, or myths about the Gods- we could find out all that from books on Wicca. Likewise it was not about being told what to believe or towing the party line. Rather it was learning and practising the skills required for magic, meditation, visualisation and concentration. We looked into the function of Altered States of Consciousness and how to achieve them, of the functions of myth and ritual, not just in the Craft but also in religions and spirituality in general. We were asked to write our own personal myth to help us find patterns within our own lives, and thus change it if we wished. How can you change something if you unaware of it within yourself? Also we were taught how to write our own effective rituals.

Much of the training was about our self-actualisation and personal development. In particular we looked at Maslow’s model of self-actualisation and peak experiences. Dave and Tricia suggested that Witches were self-actualisers or at least were working towards it. We also spent a lot of time examining Carl Jung’s Depth Psychology. We looked at his model of the psyche, at owning our shadow, coming to terms and accepting and integrating those parts of ourselves that we dislike and often project onto others. We looked at our contra sexual side, that part of our psyche that is feminine if we are male and masculine if we are female, but at the same time realising that these are often culturally determined.

It is the path to individuation to identifying more fully with the whole of our psyche rather than just with the ego- giving us a more balanced personality and thus picture of the world. In that way we can deal with the world more wisely and act with self-determination. It wasn’t enough just to talk about it or to learn about it; rather we had to put it into practise in our own lives. This meant that we had to be very honest with ourselves; a process that continues throughout our lives.

Dave and Tricia said that it was a life long process of personal transformation, and self-knowledge, the start of which is initiation leading to individuation, and the identifying of self with the whole- pure mysticism. This was part of a mystery tradition; after all it was written above the temple of the mysteries, ‘Know thy self’. What isn’t so well known is what is written on the inside and is only seen by initiates, ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch!’

All this was tied to the myth of the wheel of the year. During training we discovered that the Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year had little to do with Celtic festivals as is often mentioned in Pop Wicca books. Rather the Wheel of the Year was like a big onion, multi layered. On the one hand it referred to the tides and season of the year, on another they referred to the mysteries of birth, sex, life, sacrifice (i.e. as in being a parent, putting your children first) , and death. On yet another it might refer to planning, putting into action, achievement and reflection forming a virtuous cycle, and so on and so on. We were encouraged to apply it to our own lives on the inner and outer levels.

We didn’t shy away from some of the topics that are often seen as taboo in Pop Wicca and Paganism in general. We learned about sacred sexuality, a quality very hard to define in words. Dave and Tricia spoke about the anima and animus our contra sexual sides, cultural memes of masculinity and femininity and how both need to be equally valued within us. We discussed the Lady and the Dark Horned Lord, within and without as metaphors of life, fertility, death and change.

We looked at the reasons for working sky clad that is ritually naked. This is something that is guaranteed to cause upset amongst Pop Wiccan, who sadly seem to have a fear of sexuality and sharing their whole selves (warts and all) within a coven. And who can blame them? Sexuality can be a very scary thing. But if we cannot truly love ourselves how can we truly love others? Craft is also about self-actualisation and self-empowerment, and sexuality is the fuel of the Craft. However it was also mentioned many times by Dave and Tricia that Witchcraft is not for everybody.

Another potentially upsetting subject was the subject of death. We were encouraged to learn about the nature of grief and how to help others and ourselves through it. We were also asked to write our own funerals. There were some really good reasons for this. It made us confront our own inevitable mortality in a healthy way. By directly thinking about our end gives more value to the present and allows us not to put off those things we would like to do. For me, it makes me extremely grateful that I am alive and have the opportunity to experience the wonder of the World, both ‘good’ and ‘bad’. It also gives loved ones something less to worry about in what is already a difficult time for them. By planning your own funeral and letting loved ones know what your plans are, means that they can just carry them out with little stress placed on deciding on what the deceased would have wanted.

However we had to bear in mind that funerals are not for the person that has died but for the people left behind. Sadly this was put into practise as in the training group after mine, a trainee tragically died. Since he had planed his own funeral and discussed it with his wife, a lot of the stress of preparation was taken away from her. He had done a good job of planning it and had put a lot of ‘fun’ back into ‘funeral’, there were a lot of tears of sadness and laughter that day.

It was all pretty practical stuff that we were being trained in, stuff that needed to be applied to our own lives. We also looked at plant identification and their uses for herbal medicine, magic and myth, at wine making and dowsing.

As Craft is a practical spirituality that deals in real life rather than fantasy, we also had ‘Tricia’s Topics’ every week. In this part of the evening we would discuss a current event, a life problem, a coven problem etc. The idea being that Craft needs to be grounded in the everyday world of real life- ‘Feet firmly on the ground and head among the stars’. Thank goodness there was no talk of fairies or how to make a wand with a crystal on the end.

Now I have heard Crafte training criticised, usually by people who have not undertaken it. One of the arguments put forward is that surely you do not need training to join a religion, after all who has ever heard of a Christian or a Muslim being trained. If you are talking about a religion I would one hundred percent agree with you, and for many Witchcraft and Wicca is seen as a religion. However we were not being trained in a religion, but rather an occult and mystery tradition. In the same way that Hermeticism, Cabbala, Tantra or Sufism are not religions, neither was the Craft I was trained in. Like all occult traditions one of its functions was a kind of reversed engineered mysticism. By understanding the metaphor of myth and ritual, by attuning to the changing seasons and re-experiencing and celebrating the lesser mysteries as contained in the metaphor of the Wheel of the Year, and working with certain techniques, we would come in time to have mystical experience which is a life transforming event. As such the trainers need to have undergone this process and have the necessary skills to practise magic, and had mystical experiences and experienced the mysteries themselves, how else could they pass them on and facilitate them on others? In the Craft, second best is never good enough. However, I should add that many people have spontaneous mystical experiences without any training.

As I came to the end of my training Dave and Tricia put me in touch with a Gardnerian Coven in East Anglia, whom I promptly contacted and asked if I could join (you are never invited to join a genuine coven- you have to ask) . Having had recommendations form Dave and Tricia they were happy to take me on, and I was initiated into the Gardnerian Witchcraft. I stayed with that Coven for five years and learnt an awful lot from them. However it became clear within the last couple of years that they were moving in another spiritual direction to myself. Therefore I decided to go back to Dave and Tricia to do their High Priestess and High Priest awareness course, which was also two years long. At the end of the course Dave and Tricia asked me if I would be happy to take over their training course for them, as they felt that they had done their bit for king and country, and I was happy to agree. As such I left the Gardnerian Group though we are still good friends and was initiated (after asking) into Dave and Tricia’s country coven in the north of Suffolk. I have been there for ten years so far and really love it. Every meeting I learn something new, and the people in the coven are exceptional; our HPS is the best I have ever worked under- who brings the rituals alive with a magic all of her own.

So now I have come full circle, I have been training potential new Witches for nine years some of which have joined the coven. I love doing it for several reasons. The most important ones being that over the two years trainees become really good friends. I also learn so much from the trainees myself and it really helps to keep my skills and ideas fresh. One of the greatest things about it is there is nothing more rewarding or satisfying than to see people work with the Craft, to see them use it to transform their lives and themselves, starting them on their own greatest adventure of their lives.

A Witch’s Calling


Author: Moon magik

From the moment we are born into this learning experience called life, most of us have our spiritual paths chosen for us. If your parents are Catholic, you’re going to be Catholic. If your parents are Baptist, you’re definitely going to be Baptist. Children have no choice to their own beliefs, because their parents require them to follow family tradition. We then grow up doing the same thing to our own children. There are very few people that grow up and just decide after 20 or 30 years that they do not believe what they were raised to believe. There are also some that grow up with absolutely no spirituality in their lives at all.

My mother and father were divorced just 8 months after I was born. My father raised me, because my mother was young and irresponsible and he wanted me to grow up in a good environment. During the first seven years of my life, we lived with my grandparents. My grandparents were Lutheran, so naturally my father was Lutheran as well. There was a Lutheran church conveniently located just a few houses down from our home.

I knew from a very young age that I did not belong in a Lutheran Church. Most Witches’ have a calling to the old ways and earth traditions at some point in their lives. I hated bible study and had no interest in learning about Christ. I didn’t know anything about Witchcraft, or have a clue that I would one day find myself casting spells in a circle on my bedroom floor. I just simply didn’t care for church. It wasn’t until I was about 11 years old when I started having dreams that I was magical.

It began sporadically and then eventually became an every night dream. In my dream I was standing in the middle of the woods during the peak of fall season. I was spinning in circles and dancing around trees. Every time I had the dream, I notice I had a wooden stick in my hand. I now realize the wooden stick was my wand. I went to the library one morning to check out a book on Diana Ross, because I had a book report for school due on the following Monday.

When I sat down at the table in the library there was one small paperback book left behind by what I’m assuming was a lazy citizen. The book was about Witchcraft. I was extremely intrigued, so I decided to check it out and bring it home to read.

When my father saw the book, he was very unsure whether he wanted to allow me to read it or not. I used my charm and wit to persuade him, plus he was the biggest push over ever. The strange thing is, my father told me just a few days ago, that a few years before I checked out that book, I was scolded for drawing pentacles on my bedroom door. He said he couldn’t figure out where I got the idea to draw pentacles. He said he would have not been so freaked out by the action if the drawings were only stars without circles around them. He understands a bit more now that I am 27 and he knows about my spiritual practices.

As I grew older my dreams became more vivid and lucid. I started having dreams of things before they would occur. My first prophetic dream was about my mother. In my dream, the doctor called me on the telephone and told me that my mom was going to die, because she had a tumor in her stomach. About two weeks later my mother had to go to the doctors, because her premenstrual cycle would not end. The doctors ran some test and then found that she had a large mass, the size of a baseball growing in her uterus. They advised her that she needed surgery immediately to get the mass out. My mother called me on the telephone afterwards to talk to me. She was astonished how similar my dream was to her situation.

The second dream was even scarier. I was blind. The only thing I could do was listen to the sounds that were around me. I heard screaming and arguing and then a blast of gunshots so close like the gun was going off next to my ear. The next morning I went to work and received a phone call from my mother in the middle of the day, which was very uncommon. When I answered, she was frantically crying. She proceeded to tell me that one of my closest friends was shot in the head in the middle of the night.

She explained to me that he was still alive, but he was in a coma and the doctors said we should come in and say our goodbyes, because they did not expect him to live through the day. We all gathered at the hospital for which turned out to be a week while he struggled to survive on life support. Finally, he woke up from the coma.

He could not speak, because he had a trachea tube in his throat, so none of us knew if he could hear us or not. A bandage covered his eyes, so we did not know if he could see us. The bullet in his head traveled back down the path in which it entered and actually fell out into the bandage that was wrapped around his head. The doctors did not have to perform any surgery because of that. Unfortunately once the bandage was removed we found out that he was blind.

I have accepted the fact that I am not a psychic. I cannot read tarot cards. I cannot read runes or tea leaves or make use of any other divining tool. The only thing that I have is my dreams. Therefore, I call myself a dream witch. I love witchcraft. I love the freedom of being solitary eclectic and choosing beliefs that make me feel comfortable.

I love the art and beauty of casting a circle and uniting myself with the Lord and the Lady to mold the energies of the universe for my intentions. I love herb magick and candle magick. I love every aspect of earth traditions and wish that more people would discover the beauty and mysticism that surrounds it.

I wish more people would give their children the knowledge and independence to explore different beliefs to decide what or whom they want to worship. Children continue to be lead into their predecessor’s political, social and religious views. I am not saying that I want everyone to follow the path of the ancient traditions; I am just concerned with the limited freedom we give in a country founded on freedom.

 

My Body is a Temple.

Author: Aiko Ren 

I write this to express my gratitude. I have always felt ‘less than’… something was missing. At a very young age, I turned to drugs to fill my void. I was a dirty junkie who could care less about myself. The statement ‘the body is a temple’ made no sense to me. I don’t want to get explicated but, in order for someone to understand my bottom, I have to share it. I had horrible hardships in my life. Some were a direct consequence of my drug use; others were because I was a victim. I would bruise my body injecting drugs and I would sleep around to obtain the next hit. I was raped several times, which caused me to lose faith in everyone and everything. I didn’t understand how there could be any good in the world if such horrible things could happen. I was always looking at things negatively. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was at the end of the road. It was either get clean and change, or die.

My clean date is May 11th 2010. When I surrendered my addiction, I started to look for a higher power. This was hard for me at first because my views were so different then everyone else’s’. I felt like no one understood my beliefs. I started to read about the Craft, first out of curiosity. The more I learned about Wiccan ways, the more I learned about myself. I started to understand the saying my body is ‘a temple’. I started to see all the good in the universe. I started to meditate and became driven to better myself. Today, I do the next right thing because that is the right thing to do. Wicca has brought hope into my life.

Even though I am new to living this path, I feel like I found my home. The feeling I received when I got clean is very similar to finding my higher power. I love myself today. I am a loyal girlfriend. I am a respectable daughter. I am a good friend. I am a witch. When I started to dedicate my life to the Craft instead of just reading about it, I was nervous about what others would think. This is a character defect of mine. I am a people pleaser. Once again I was thinking about what others wanted instead of what I wanted.

In the beginning, I was hiding it from everyone I knew; similar to how I hid my addiction. I was telling people I was at my friend’s house when I was really at my local metaphysical shop. I took out library books on Wicca and hid them from my family. I hid my ritual supplies under my bed. I felt guilty about this. I felt like I was ashamed of something. I have read about how society views Wicca and how some choose to hide their beliefs… but I didn’t want to be one of them. (I wasn’t going to tell random strangers, ‘hey I am a witch’ but I at least wanted to tell my family and my close friends.)

I finally came to the decision that a Wiccan was what I wanted to be and I started to take steps to become one. I began to read books in front of my family. As I continued to learn, I also educated them about Wicca. When they finally got over the whole, “why are you reading that devil worshipping stuff, ” and realized what Wicca really meant, they were accepting. This allowed me to practice the craft without feeling like I was lying to the world. When I finally shared it with my family and my close friends, it opened new opportunities. I started to search passionately for guidance. I shared with a close friend my newfound life and found out that she too follows the same path. I started e-mailing other people on this website to start building a support network.

I want to share a little bit more about how my family’s perspective on Wicca. At first, they were completely clueless about anything. They were afraid, thinking that I was dabbing in evil things. Then they believed that I was going to put spells on the family and try to make them turn to toads or something. The more they saw how happy and dedicated I was though, the more accepting they became.

I do not know much ‘about’ Wicca, but I ‘feel’ Wicca. (If that makes sense) I understand there are fundamentals, however I also believe it’s up to one ’s self to figure it out. I believe in practicing on your own, even though the joy of sharing it with someone seems so powerful.

I am writing this article not only to show my gratitude towards my newfound path but also to give a “newcomer’s” view. I am sharing my experience, strength, and hope to maybe touch someone else who is struggling. Maybe I will find someone who can help me. All I know is I had an overwhelming desire to write this article, and usually that means something.

Since I decided to follow the Craft I have a new perspective on life. I find gratitude in the small things. I have a renewed sense of the universe. Nature looks greener to me. Things that were once puzzling now make sense. The desire to find myself has always been a struggle for me, even before I picked up drugs. By following this path, by collecting knowledge, and by practicing, I am finding myself. I could continue on and on about how my life has changed since I made the decision to become a witch, but I know as you are reading this you are probably looking back on your life and feeling the same way. Our stories might be very different, but the feelings are the same.

I believe there are many paths to the same destination. Everyone can follow a different path and have a different story, but the universe brings us together for a reason. And that is powerful stuff.

Blessed be. Let the Goddess and God be with you.