Witch/Craft
Notes made while reading “Children of Cain” by Michael Howard.
Cunning folk. Wizards. Wise women. Sorcerers. Warlocks. Enchanters. Charmers. Fortune tellers. Astrologers. Pellers. Healers. Folk magicians. Seers. Diviners. Soothsayers. Witches.
“A person who perceives vividly the connection between all aspects of life. Witches do not see spirit and matter as separate entities – they worship nature in stream and stone, plants and people. Witches are intensely aware of unseen natural energies which they use mostly to help and heal.” -Teresa Moorey
Witchcraft isn’t a religion, but there are religions that use the Craft as a foundation and paradigm. The various traditions of Wicca are examples of this, but there are also non-Wiccan witchcraft religions.
Traditional witchcraft “refers to a coterie of initiatory lineages of ritual magic, spellcraft and devotional mysticism’ that operate as closed secret societies with formalised rites of entrance, an array of magical rituals, which are Christo-pagan or simply ‘sorcerous’ in their devotional character and have established hierarchies amongst [their] membership.” -Daniel A. Schulke.
“The Traditional Craft is the nameless Way of the Arte Magical. It is the Path of Wytcha, the heart’s calling of avocation to Cunning Man and Wise Woman; it is the Hidden Circle of Initiates constituting the Living Body of the Elder Faith. Its Ritual is the Sabbat of Dream-made flesh, below the feet of those who tread the crooked track of Elphame [the realm of Faerie]. Its Scripture is the Way of Wortcunning and Beast-changing, the treasury of lore re- membered by those who revere the Spirits; it is the gramayre of ear-whispered knowledge, beloved of those who hold the secrets of the Dead and entrusted to they who look ever onward…If any ask about the Traditional Craft, their answer lies in its native land; the Circle of the Arte of Artes.” -Andrew D. Chumbley.
Witches are guardians of the land. Witchcraft is a magical path that ranges from practical folk magic spellcraft to genuine mysticism.
- Genii loci, the spirits of place. The enchanted landscape. Blood, earth and ancestors. The numinous. Serpent power, dragon fire, earth energies. Sacred sites, standing stones, groves, henges, barrows, holy wells, sacred springs, graveyards. Ley lines, ghost roads, spirit paths, faery tracks that crisscross the land and join sacred sites. The Crooked Path. Animistic view of the natural world.
- Communion with the spirit world, realm of Faerie, Otherworld. The Sabbath. Hedge-riding. Between the Worlds. Liminality. Astral travel. Mediumship. Shapechanging. The Circle of Arte as a bridge. Magical dreams.
- Evocation and exorcism of spirits.
- Divination. Astrology, palmistry, card reading.
- Plant lore. Herbalism. Wort-cunning.
- Charm making. Bones. Graveyard dust. Healing and cursing.
- Witch blood and the Mark. Initiation. Passing on of power.
- The Grail as direct gnosis, divine knowledge, of the Godhead.
- Tools include casting of circle, wand, knife, cord, knot, sigil and charm
Sabbatic Craft is described in terms of ‘an ongoing tradition of sorcerous wisdom’ and ‘an initiatory path proceeding from both immediate vision and historical succession.’ -Andrew D. Chumbley
In other words the Craft has beliefs and practices that have been passed down from previous generations of practitioners, but it is ever changing and being informed by an ongoing praxis. It would be wrong to think of modern traditional witchcraft forms as static or totally immersed in the past as they are always evolving and developing to suit changing conditions.