Lesson 1 – the history of the craft

This should more accurately be called a background to the craft since this is
what this lesson is about. Its often said that history is written by the victors, but
more accurately it should be said that history is written by the survivors, and
throughout the ages, magic, witchcraft and paganism have become very good at
surviving hidden and unobserved in the background. This will touch upon many
ages throughout time starting of course with the Stone Age tribes living in caves.

Ancient tribes

The amount of cave paintings that have been found throughout the world is quite
frankly staggering. Not only that but the painted motifs show up again and again
no matter what culture they come from. The major motifs are animals, human
figures drawn with animal heads or horns and hands. As an example of what has
been found consider the following as a rough guide.

In France and Spain over 350 caves have been found with wall paintings, the
oldest being found in Chauvet. This cave according to radio carbon dating has
been dated at over 32,000 years old. In Africa at Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg,
Hargeisa, Namibia and Tassili n'Ajjer amongst others, there are paintings that
have been put at 25,000 years old. Australia has cave paintings in Kakadu
National Park, South America has Serra da Capivara National Park, India has
Bhimbetka rock shelters and south east Asia has rock paintings in caves in
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Burma. In other words, there are cave
paintings all over the world dating back to the earliest times of man.

There are two basic theories to explain what this artwork means. The first is that
they are paintings of the world around them, of celebration of what Ancient
human saw and experienced. If this was the case though why are there only the
very small ranges of motifs that show up time and again? Why are there no
paintings of landscapes or of trees and other plants? And if this is the case, why
did Ancient man who had enough imagination to paint take so long evolving to
the next stage of human evolution?

The second theory, and the one to which I ascribe, is that these paintings were
the very first religious art form. These cave paintings depicted the core of early
humanities religious beliefs. These paintings are found in caves for two very
good reasons. The first is obvious, that they are only found in caves because
caves have kept them safe enough to find.

The second reason is more interesting. Our ancestors were attracted to the
darkest, deepest parts of the cave for a reason. To them it was an entrance to
the underworld. The cave as entrance to the underworld is a really common
symbol in our society. You will find it on tarot cards, in ancient Greek tales and
in the king Arthur legends. Everywhere where symbolism rules you will find the
cave as entrance to the underworld popping up time and again.
We, as humans, have several impulses that are inherently hardwired into our
brain. The flight or fight reflex is one of them as is the herding instinct. Fairly
recently there has been the idea that the religious tendency may be one of these
impulses. We may be inherently hardwired to look at the world around us and
ask the big questions about life. We may feel the need to reach out to
something bigger than ourselves because it is instinctive. If this is the case then
we can begin to understand why our ancient ancestors needed to brave the
underworld to paint their religious icons.

But why is all this important to us as witches? Well for a start this look at the
figures and motifs that show up in cave paintings the world over. Humans with
animal heads or horns are one motif and as witches one of the major craft
figures is the horned god. The horned god is hunter and hunted, protector and
destroyer, lover and killer. This figure has come down to us from 25,000 years
plus in our past and still exists today. Think about that for a moment.
Throughout our history of religious changes, wars, the dark ages, the burning
times and today’s cynical outlook the horned man is still thought of.

Today’s witches see the horned god, along with the oak and holly kings as being
consorts to the goddess. We call to him while doing our spells and invoke him
during rituals. He is a figure that is still very much alive.

Another figure is the mother. This figure is especially prevalent in the Bhimbetka
Cave Paintings in India as well as Mexico. Figures of pregnant woman or woman
with young children show the importance of motherhood amongst the tribe.
After all without children the tribe would wither and die so it’s easy to see their
importance. And again if you look at history, the figure of the mother has come
down to us pretty much without change. It has been subverted, changed in how
it was venerated or worshipped but it still exists.

One example of this is the Sheela na Gig. This carved figure of a female with a
distended belly and prominent sexual organs were thought to have been first
carved in France in the 11th century and then they emigrated to Britain and
Ireland in the 12th century. The figure changes, but the underlying symbolic
importance of what is being venerated is the same.

The mother is a figure that is prominent in modern witch culture and along with
the horned god they comprise two of the major craft deities. And these deities
came from our ancient ancestors thousands of years ago. Do you think this was
by chance? Our early ancestors could have venerated anything, the sun, the
moon, plants, the mammoth, anything. But instead they chose to venerate the
mother and the mothers consort the horned god. One brought life; the other
ended it while hunting. They chose these two figures just as you have chosen to
follow the path you are on now.
They chose to do this; because chance does not exist in the witch’s universe.
Everything is happening or has been done for a reason. That reason could be
human fear, hatred, love or compassion. It could be the rules that the universe
lives and breathes by simply happen or it could be the divine powers make
things happen for a reason beyond us. Either way there is always a decision
behind those little things that seem like chance to us.

For example if you meet an old friend on the street who you haven’t seen for
years you may think that this is just chance that you bumped into each other.
However you made that decision to walk down that street, your friend made the
same decision. It was only a matter of time before you bumped into each other.
The numbers from the lottery all come out following the laws of the universe.
There is a pattern there and many people claim to have found it. Scientists are
only now beginning to understand that what they thought was a chaotic universe
isn’t so chaotic after all.

Exercise 1

I want you to write down how you came to be on the path you are on. It can be
as long or as short as you like, but just as our ancient ancestors chose two
figures that are still being venerated today; I want you to see the choices that
have brought you to this point. Just why did you start learning about the craft?
Take maybe 15 minutes for this exercise. Just be aware that it was your choice
and that choice was made for a reason.

Witchcraft in ancient cultures

Ancient Egypt

If there was ever a place or culture known for magic it was ancient Egypt. The
word witch doesn’t exist in the Egyptian scrolls, or if it does I cannot find any
mention of it! However there are so many examples of Egyptian magical
practises in scrolls found that it is easy to trace today’s magical practises back to
that time.

Witches are known for being able to divine the future. The ancient Egyptians
were renowned for their divination. One of the favourites was dream divination.
People would go to the temples and seek the advice of priests trained in the art
of dream divination. There is a parchment called the “Chester Beatty III
papyrus” which includes the following examples of dream divination.

"If a man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his own hand, good: it
means killing his adversary.
"Eating crocodile flesh, good: it means acting as an official among his people.
"Submerging in the river, good: it means purification from all evils.
"Burying an old man, good: it means flourishing.
"Working with stone in his house, good: fixing a man in his house.
"Seeing his face in a mirror, bad: it means another wife.
"Shod with white sandals, bad: it means roaming the earth.
"Copulating with a woman, bad: it means mourning.
"Being bitten by a dog, bad: it means he will be touched by magic.
"His bed catching fire, bad: it means driving away his wife.

As well as dreams, pendulum divination, scrying and augury were just some of
the many different ways that the ancient Egyptians divined the future. While
today having your fortune told is often seen as a kooky weird thing to rely on by
many people (who at the same time don’t mind reading their astrology bit in the
paper!) the ancient people saw it as a part of everyday life.

As well as telling the future the ancient Egyptians relied a lot on amulets.
Amulet magic really flourished throughout the Egyptian empire. This is not so
different from today; after all, a lot of people will wear a St. Christopher, a
crucifix or a pentacle in some fashion. These are not just worn for faith purposes
but also because they represent the protective qualities of your chosen god,
patron or saint. However the Egyptians did not just use amulets on the living but
also on their dead showing a deep belief in the reality of the afterlife.

Going hand in hand with Egyptian amulets were the spells that were spoken over
them. Magic was a real force in Egypt and it was easily affordable to even the
lowliest of people. As an example of the sort of magic spell that would be
spoken, here from chapter 155 of the book of the dead is a spell spoken over a
funeral amulet.

“Raise yourself up, Osiris! You have your backbone once more, O weary-hearted
one (i.e. deceased one); you have your vertebrae. “

Magic or “heka” as it was known was practised mainly by the priests of Egyptian
society. They were guardians of the ancient books of magic that were kept in
the temple libraries. They practised higher forms of magic and were well
respected. However they were not the only people who practised magic.

Lower in status were the scorpion charmers, who used their practise of magic to
rid a place of poisonous reptiles and insects. Midwives and healers also used
magic in their everyday jobs and wise woman existed that could be consulted
about which spirit or deity was causing a person trouble. However all these
workers of magic ensured that the common person could always find a little
supernatural help if they so desired.

Ancient Greece

While the word witch does not really crop up that often in ancient Greek myth
there is no shortage of strong female characters who practise magic and
divination. As an example let’s have a look at three of them, Circe, Medea and
Kassandra. All three of them played pivotal roles at some point in Greek myth
and all three used powers that are attributed to us today.

Circe was a minor goddess of magic, although she has sometimes been called a
sorceress or witch as well. Her father was the sun god Helios, and her mother
was the water nymph Perse. Her name in Greek, Kirke, is related to kirkos which
means a circling bird of prey, or a wolf so right from the start you can see this is
a woman who knows what she is after! She comes into play as shown in Book 10
of the famous Odyssey by Homer which was written in the 8th century BCE.

The following passage which nicely shows her effect is written by ovid.

And then the demon goddess lightly laid

Her wand upon our hair, and instantly
Bristles (the shame of it! but I will tell)
Began to sprout; I could no longer speak;
My words were grunts, I grovelled to the ground.
I felt my nose change to a tough wide snout,
My neck thicken and bulge. My hands that held
The bowl just now made footprints on the floor.
And with my friends who suffered the same fate
(Such power have magic potions) I was shut
Into a sty.

With the aid of the god Hermes, who supplied him with a magickal plant called
‘moly’, Odysseus becomes immune to Circe’s magic and so instead of
transforming him into a pig as well, she invites him to become her lover.
Eventually Odysseus persuades her to change his companions back to their
human form, and they all remain living on her island for a year. However,
Odysseus needs to obtain the advice of a famous prophet called Tiresias, (who
unfortunately is dead), to find out exactly how to reach his home to reclaim his
kingship. Circe explains the ritual processes required to enter the underworld so
he can consult with the Seer, and shows him how to get there.

While Circe shows up in the odyssey, her niece Medea, shows up in the voyage of
the Argo, or Jason and the Argonauts as we know it today. Whilst Circe didn’t
actually kill anyone, Medea did. The story goes that Eros the god of love smote
Medea with love for Jason so that she would betray her kingdom and help Jason
get the Golden Fleece. This he does and he returns triumphant, ascends his
throne and marries Medea.

Back in Jason’s kingdom Medea is seen as exotic and foreign and fails to be
assimilated into society. Although she was instrumental in putting him on the
throne and lives with him as a wife, ungrateful Jason later abandons her because
he is offered a chance to marry a local princess for political reasons. Medea
derives her sinister reputation from what she did to punish Jason - she made a
poisonous robe for the princess he was to marry, who dies horribly, and then she
kills her own children.

Finally to my favourite character from Greek myth, Kassandra the prophetess of

Troy. Kassandra is a cursed figure in this tale for she was given the power of
prophecy from Apollo because of her beauty but no one would believe her. She
was raped when Troy fell even after taking refuge in a temple to Athena. Then
she was taken as a concubine by Agamemnon whose wife then killed her when
he went away again.

What do these three characters tell us about the craft? Well several things that
we still do today in fact. Circe shows us that the use of wand or potions
(depending on what story you read), to create a magical effect, the strong willed
individual who is not afraid to ask for what they want and the knowledge of the
underworld and how to either communicate or travel there safely existed then
and we still do them now.

Medea and Circe are linked by blood. This links into our ideas of family traditions
and knowledge being passed down throughout the ages. Secondly Medea
committed murder while under the effect of a pretty powerful love spell. There
are reasons why love spells are the most dangerous spells to cast. Finally
Kassandra shows us about the power of prophecy and how if you speak it you
had better be sure someone will believe you otherwise it can be a curse.

Ancient Rome

It is in Roman times that we see possibly the scariest hint at what was to come
for strong willed females and at times males going against what was the norm
for their faith. And it happened at the Bacchanalia. Ordinarily apart from very
few temples or structures like the temple at Vesta, men ruled the faiths and
woman were seen as minors who needed to be looked after and who needed to
act properly.

It was only at the Bacchanalia that the women were allowed to be the initiators
into the mysteries and to rule their own temple affairs. Godwin states the
following,

“Always in Dionysian initiation scenes, it is women who act as the leaders and
initiators: the women have control of the veiled men or boys who are evidently
the neophytes."

And because of this leading patricians of the city started to see the Bacchanalia
as evil and opposed to their control. Apparently evil omens were seen in rains of
stones, a temple was struck by lightning and a hermaphrodite was found and
killed. All these things played into the leading patricians. Titus Livy states
“... all feelings of shame extinguished, they abandoned themselves to all kinds of
debauchery... not limited to faceless coupling of male and female... also
poisonings and internal murders, to the point that sometimes the body could not
even be found for burial... This violence was hidden by the shouts and noise of
the drums and cymbals so that none of the cries for help could be heard... There
is no crime or misdeed which they have not committed. There is more debauch
between men than with women.”

So the woman priests were rounded up and “questioned” and the truth was
determined through torture. Even worse all this happened around 180 BCE or
180 years before Christianity began and a hell of a long time before the
European witch craze of the middle Ages. But why does this happen? Because
people fear what does not conform to their view.

Aside from trials that follow the pattern of the witch craze to come, what else
does Roman culture hold for us as witches? Well they too had a rich history of
divination and magic to draw upon when times called for it. The Vestal Virgins
where known for prophesy and sooth saying, although you would have more luck
getting an appointment if you were rich!

Also magic had a hold on the philosophers and thinkers of the time. For example
Pliny the Elder, in his natural history, devotes whole chapters to magic and its
operators. He comes to the conclusion that magic is ineffective but contains
“shadows of truth”. One would have to ask how he would know this is if he
hadn’t studied the subject intensively to work out what was truth and what was
not.

Apuleius of Madaura who was actually accused of practising magic wrote one of
the most intriguing books of the time, “The Golden Ass”. This book is about the
adventures of a young man who dabbles in magic, gets into trouble, gets
rescued by the goddess Isis and finds happiness in her mysteries. It’s often been
wondered if this was semi autobiographical! These two philosophers, along with
plenty of other thinkers were writing and describing a tradition that had been
going on for centuries and is still going on now.

Ancient Norse

The Norse people were along with mostly every other culture on the planet
heavily influenced by magic. There were two types of magic in the Norse
culture. There was Galdr and the other was Seidh. Galdr was categorised as
developing one's will and self control of their conscience and environment, Galdr
implements the usage of symbols for communication or divination; these
symbols being Runes, staves etc. This is very much like today’s ceremonial or
high magical practises.

The other type Seidh is more shamanistic in nature. It is about the loss of one's
control of self, conscience, and environment; it is about the inhibited submersion
of one's self into something outside the person’s persona. For those that were
still at the moot when we were talking about calling down the moon, this would
be a good way of looking at it. Oh this type of magic was also, only practised by
woman.

Seidh was taught to the Norse people by the goddess Freya, who was considered
the mistress of the art. It was also, according to the sagas, either passed down
from mistress to apprentice or it was through the family unit being passed on
from mother to daughter. There is no evidence that groups of workers
congregated together. Apart from that you could easily substitute the word Seidh
for witchcraft and be talking about Middle Ages witches.

Another thing we have the Norse to thank for is the use of runes. Although not
as well known as the tarot amongst today’s populace they are still just as good
for divining the future as the tarot. They are especially good for men as the
definitions are more learn by rote than the intuitive nature of the tarot cards.

Amulets and talismans were also incredibly important to the Norse people. A lot
of these symbols were put down in a 17th century Icelandic grimoire called
Galdrabók (‘magic book’). These symbols were drawn on with blood onto the
body rather than worn as a pendant but the practise is still the same. In fact
today some Norse magicians actually have these symbols tattooed on as a
modern way of following ancient practises.

Now admittedly these are just snapshots of cultures taken to prove a point.
That point is that magic is not new, wasn’t new during the Middle Ages, wasn’t
even new during the start of the church. As soon as people gathered in enough
numbers there began a strain of magical thought or practise that lived in a
certain section of society. At times these people were revered and at other
times they were feared but they were always known about and accepted as
useful and necessary. It wasn’t until the Christian church became a major power
that this changed.

Exercise 2

Pick a mythology that you like or feel close to and make a rough list of all the
magical acts you can find in its mythology. Again don’t spend too much time on
it, maybe 30 minutes or so, longer if you wish, but just have a look at how
prevailing magical thought and acts are in other cultures.

The Witch Craze of the middle ages

For this I am only going to be using information about persecutions of people

specifically charged with witchcraft. From around the year 1200 the church has
been persecuting offshoots of Christianity which they did not agree with but it
was not until the start of the thirteen hundreds that people were accused
specifically of being witches and being executed for that crime. The first person
who died due to being accused of witchcraft was Peter of Albino, who died in
prison whilst awaiting trial in the year of 1310. This was to happen to a lot of
people accused of being a witch since jails at that time were not the most
hygienic and safest of places.

And if you were found guilty of witchcraft then you could expect only one
outcome. Being found guilty lead to death and that death was usually by
burning alive at the stake. In England witches were usually hanged and quite a
few witches died in prison whilst waiting for a trial. Sometimes if they were very
lucky the guilty witch would be beheaded which is a lot quicker and cleaner than
the other methods.

In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull that would have far reaching
effects. Summis Desiderantes Affectibus as the papal bull was known basically
preached against the evils of witchcraft and gave his full support to the
inquisition in their hunt for heresy and evil. This gave Heinrich Kramer and Jakob
Sprenger, two inquisitors of the church, permission to write the book that would
kill more witches than any other book, the Malleus Maleficarum. The Malleus
Maleficarum or the hammer of the witches described all the crimes that were
supposedly committed by witches. It also provided ways to detect witches and
how to gain a confession. In fact this book was used by judges between the time
of 1486 and 1520 and ran to fourteen editions. Even today it is seen as such an
important book that you can buy an English edition of it although it is more to
show how evil and sadistic the times were than a useful book on witchcraft lore .

Some of the tests that people had to do to prove they were not witches were so
loaded against them that there was no way to win. Possibly most famously there
was ducking where a supposed witch was tied to a stool and ducked in a pond.
They would be left underwater for the space of time and if they drowned they
were innocent and if they managed to hold their breath long enough then they
obviously had evil magic and was proclaimed a witch.

One of the most inhumane things to do was to walk the witch. The supposed
witch was walked around a room for anything up to an hour and then asked if
they were a witch. If they refused the accusation that they were a witch then
they would walk for another hour. This would be kept up sometimes for up to
seventy two hours straight. This is really an early form of brain washing and it is
no wonder many people confessed they were witches. In reality they were
people who had made enemies of some local dignitary.

Apart from the Christian inquisition who had designed most of these inhumane
tortures, specialised witch hunters appeared and started to go from town to town
hunting witches. They would be called in when the local magistrate thought
there may be a case of witchcraft. The big problem with this is that the witch
hunter would only be paid when he found a witch, so it was in their interest to
actually make sure someone confessed.
The most famous witch hunter of all time would have to be Mathew Hopkins. He
is so famous that a film was made of his life, although to be fair it was a typical
shlock horror film so it wasn’t exactly accurate. But Mathew Hopkins life is
fascinating and gives some insight into the period at the time.

Witch finders were not licensed by law to practise their craft but a lot of town
councils still used them. Mathew Hopkins called himself the Witchfinder General
and many people who called upon his services thought that he had the law on
his side. A great many people thought he had a special commission from
parliament.

Mathew Hopkins had an assistant called John Stearne and together they travelled
throughout Essex and East Anglia for two years from 1644 to 1646. He used
methods that I have detailed above and was so good at his job he even managed
to find a witch who had been masquerading as a vicar for fifty years! The vicar
in question was called John Lowes and was eighty years of age at the time but
I’m sure that had nothing to do with it.

It is thought that during the two year period that Mathew Hopkins practised he
was responsible for more than two hundred supposed witch deaths. That’s a
remarkable number of witches in such a small area of land. Fortunately several
judges found his methods too brutal and started to ask some very awkward
questions. Because of this Hopkins was forced to publish a book in 1647 called
the Discovery of Witches to defend his methods.

His assistant was no more liked and in 1648 was forced to publish his own book,
Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft. Thankfully by the time Mr Stearne’s
book appeared Hopkins had died of consumption and Stearne himself decided
that being a witch finder was too dangerous and retired.

The most famous example of the burning times or witch persecutions started in
the now infamous Salem, Massachussis in America. It is a really strange, sad
time in history where a few children playing up for attention caused one of the
biggest religious persecutions in history.

It started with the family of the Reverend Samual Parries. Reverend Parries had
a daughter, a niece, an ailing wife and two slaves who were a husband and wife
team. The original settlers of Salem were strict conservative Christians and no
free time was allowed to the woman folk in the town. But during the winter the
female slave Tituba regaled the two children with tales of her homeland and the
two children started messing with divination. This was just simple household
divination that any child would mess with at that time. Peeling apples and
throwing the skin over their shoulder to see what shape it makes, that sort of
stuff.

Reverend Parries daughter Betty started having odd symptoms and when the
local doctor came in and couldn’t find out what was wrong with her he suggested
that she may be under a bewitchment. Betty then began to have fits and along
with her cousin accused the slave Tituba of bewitching them. Tituba was then
beaten until she confessed to witchcraft but not before she accused two other
women in the village of helping her.

And from this small beginning a mass hysteria seemed to hit the village. People
were being accused all the time and between June 10th and September 22nd
1692, 19 people were hung in the village for the crime of witchcraft. And from
this the craze spread to neighbouring towns and while it died out over time, in
Europe at least, the craze continued.

The craft revival

From around the eighteen hundreds belief in the craft as an evil law breaking
practise started to die away. Judges were more inclined to start asking intelligent
logical questions to try and find out what was going on rather than immediately
jump to the conclusion of witchcraft.

Finally in 1951 the last law in England against witchcraft was repealed and
replaced with the fraudulent mediums act. This forbade the prosecution of
anyone for the charge of witchcraft. However it doesn’t stop any one being
charged with making money fraudulently from witchcraft.

Modern day witchcraft though can be traced back to the start of the 1900’s. In
1899 a very important book was published by a man called Charles Godfrey
Leland. This book was called Aradia, Gospel of the Witches and for the first time
it purported to have actual witchcraft spells in it.

Of course magic in general had been in vogue for a while thanks to the Order of
the Golden Dawn, Freemasons and other magical groups. The magic these
places provided was a very mentally focused highly intelligent type of magic that
just was not practical to everyday men and woman.

So when Aradia came out it gave those people who were not dedicated enough
to for the more formal magical training available and those people who felt more
drawn to the countryside than the city something to learn. Aradia was about
fifty pages long and the spells contained within were quite religious in the
Christian sense and nothing like the spells we have today. The main attraction of
the book was the fact that it held stories of the Goddess that we could read and
meditate on and create our own meanings from.

The next major help to the craft was the publication of the Witch Cult in Europe
by Margaret Murray. Murray was an anthropologist who through this book came
up with the idea that there was a uniform pagan religion throughout Europe until
the seventh century. This pagan cult was a fertility cult focused upon the Horned
God. This would show us where the Christians got their idea of a horned devil
but unfortunately writers and researches into craft history tend to agree that the
arguments put forward in this book are flawed. However for the craft movement
at the time it gave a fantastic boost.

And to follow this up Murray in 1933 published the God of the Witches that
reinforced the ideas that were posited in the first book. So here were two
people, Leland who was a folklorist and Murray an anthropologist who were
coming out with ideas that the craft was still around and indeed was worthy of
study. This indeed gave a great boost to the craft at that time. But although in
literature and academia the craft was getting a boost from some people it was
not until Gerald Gardner came along and started pushing the craft that ordinary
people in the street became aware of it and started thinking that this was an
accessible idea.

In 1936 Gerald Gardner, a man of many talents, moved to the New Forest at the
age of 52. There he, being a sprightly middle aged man, went about the village
and joined an amateur dramatics group. There he met several friends including
the person who was to change his life and the history of the craft forever. He
met his teacher in the craft.

After meeting his teacher he spent several years learning until in September
1939 he was initiated into the craft proper. There he obviously spent time
researching magic and writing because in 1954 he published Witchcraft Today.
This was the first book that really caught the public’s imagination and started the
whole modern day craft movement off. Now Gerald published this book when
he would be 70. That is quite a venerable age to enter the publishing game but
Gerald did just that. Not only that he started acting as possibly one of the world’s
first media witches giving interviews and reports to any reporter who asked for
them.

At first this seemed like a good idea since it gave coverage to the religion that
Gerald had adopted and brought it into the light. However thanks to the gutter
press doing a lot of sensational stories that linked the craft to any number of
scandals however loosely it ended up bringing as much negativity as it did
positively. However I and many other witches are thankful for the effort Gerald
put in.

I should point out that the majority of information about Gerald’s magical career
came from Gerald himself in his autobiography. There is very little to no
confirming evidence that he ever met a group of witches that trained him in the
craft and no one to my knowledge has ever come forward with a book of
shadows that predates any of Gerald’s rituals. So take his version of events with
a pinch of salt and be thankful that the man with a flair for the dramatic brought
to a head an undercurrent of spirituality that the common people had been
searching for.

From Gerald’s information though a huge tree took root and flourished. The first
branch that took from this tree was Doreen Valiente. Doreen was under the
tutelage of Gerald and worked as one of his priestesses. Doreen’s great strength
was her ability to take the rituals that Gerald wrote, streamlining them and
giving them a poetry that was simple and at the same time sublime.

She managed to publish quite a few books that gave the reality of witchcraft at
the time and was easy to read for everyone. Add to this the countless
contributions to various magazines and her patronage of various groups and you
can see that her contribution to the craft as a whole was a big body of work that
is well worth reading.

Another branch that took root from Gerald’s work is the idea that you can take
the base rituals of the craft and rewrite them so they suit your own needs and
ideas. From this came what are called traditions. Traditions are a particular set
of rituals, spells, ideas and myths that groups of people use.

The third really important branch that took root was the exposure that the craft
received from Gerald’s antics. This was either good publicity and resulted in the
explosion of large amounts of groups dedicated to witchcraft and pagan religion
in general. From these groups possibly the two largest in the UK are the Pagan
Federation and the Children of Artemis. Unfortunately though there was a large
amount of bad publicity as well. This resulted in newspaper exposes, churches
being vandalised and an influx of people exploring the craft just for the power
and the prestige that calling yourself a witch can bring. Remember being
different can be quite exciting to naive people.

Witchcraft in other faiths

Do you know there are about nineteen official English translated versions of the
bible? That’s some serious propagation of a book. However the word witch does
not appear in all of them. When the translators went back to the original
wordings and re-translated them for new additions they changed witch to
sorceress, poisoner or woman who does evil magic. In fact for the famous
quotation “you shall not suffer a witch to live” I only found two bibles who still
printed it that way. Two out of nineteen!

However it can be said that the most intolerant faith to ours is still Christianity.
That’s not to say all Christians are intolerant because there not. I know a couple
that I would consider majorly tolerant. However whenever a witch gets
discriminated against or abuse shouted at them or suffers any other
discrimination you can bet it’s not going to be a Buddhist.

This attitude is a throwback to Roman times. Remember Romans were already

beginning to crack down and punish woman for trying to be priestesses and the
Romans did eventually enact several laws against the practise of magic. So
when the bible was written it was only natural that they would follow the stream
of thought at that time.
In fact the bible itself is more concerned with the practise of “evil” magic. The
trouble is “evil” is only ever really defined as being “opposite” to God, therefore
any magic that goes “opposite” to God is punishable. This is the problem with
faith; one person’s faith will always butt up against another persons and cause
trouble!

Going to the opposite of Christianity, Satanism opens its arms to any religion
that is ok with them. After all when you are out for yourself if someone ignores
you, you ignore them. If someone however attacks you, then you crush them
according the Satanists. Satanists and witches are interchangeable in a lot of
people’s minds. Why? The media mostly, thanks to Dennis Wheatley and the
horror films of the 1970’s + 80’s.

Satanists haven’t exactly helped us out either since there are satanic witches out
there. Books, teaching circles and materials of all sorts are out there teaching
people how to be a “satanic” witch. After all if people are going to pay for it,
then why not put it out there? However the satanic witch is more about gaining
power for powers sake rather than service to the land or the Goddess.

The Quran has things to say about witchcraft. Magic in all its forms is accepted
but banned from use. Look at the following passage.

“[2:102] they pursued what the devils taught concerning Solomon's kingdom.
Solomon, however, was not a disbeliever, but the devils were disbelievers. They
taught the people sorcery, and that which was sent down through the two angels
of Babel, Haroot and Maroot. These two did not divulge such knowledge without
pointing out: "This is a test. You shall not abuse such knowledge." But the people
used it in such evil schemes as the breaking up of marriages. They can never
harm anyone against the will of GOD. They thus learn what hurts them, not what
benefits them, and they know full well that whoever practices witchcraft will
have no share in the Hereafter. Miserable indeed is what they sell their souls for,
if they only knew.”

However in that passage the people were warned which goes with Christianities
view of evil magic. It seems that you can learn and be taught but if you use it
then you will be in trouble! The punishment for being found guilty of using
witchcraft was death by stoning. It seems the only way you can use magic in the
Islamic faith is through the use of “ruqyah”. This is the speaking of verses from
the quran to deal with evil or malicious spells.

Buddhism while not containing witchcraft does allow that magic exists. One of
Buddhism’s primary goals is the denial of all things physical because they are
temporary and therefore false. Witches while knowing that this life is temporary
still sees it as a learning experience and that it should be accepted, participated
in and enjoyed.
Tibetan Buddhists have a rich occult history though. Magic exists in many forms
including the creation of “tulpa’s”. The tulpa is a thought form created to carry
out healing or any other magical act through the act of willpower alone. This is a
practice that has made itself over to our shores and is widely accepted in the
European magical traditions.

You see whenever you get a major religion you will always get some sort of
magic as well. Occasionally you will get witchcraft talked about by name, usually
negatively, but magic will always be mentioned. Of course if you believe in the
supernatural, which you must if you believe in a deity of any sort, then magic is
only a logical step away.

Exercise 3

Take a couple of days to think about what you want to do. This whole section
has been about the past and where the craft has come from. Take a moment to
think about where you want to go from here. Do you want to just learn the
basics of the craft and magic and that’s it? Do you feel a higher or deeper calling
and want to be a priest or priestess? Take some time to think about it.

Overview of lesson 1
(Or what I want you to take away from reading this)

• Nothing in history is by chance. Everything has happened because

someone chooses for it to happen and chooses for it to be documented.
• Witchcraft or magic is not new. There has been magic practised
throughout the ages by different people and if you look hard enough you
will find more than you expect.
• Magic is real. More cultures, religions and people believe in it more than
you would realise.
• Ideas last. Details may change throughout time, but the focal idea if
strong enough will last the ages.