Little Manual of Witchcraft
No one person can teach all of the Craft. No one person can learn all of the Craft. The Craft is too big. Every witch specializes in something, and acquires proficiency with three or four other things. This is why the saying declares “You cannot be a witch alone.” It is best to be in a coven, from six to twelve persons plus the high priestess. But people move around the world and it is not always possible for covens to keep together. The next best thing is to associate with one or two witches and keep in touch with others over the internet. Witchcraft and Neopaganism could not survive in the world today without the internet.
No one can compile an exhaustive list of topics covered by the Craft, and everyone’s personal list will be prioritized differently, according to that witch’s practice. For me the Craft includes herblore, traditional handicrafts, farming and hunting lore, divination, dreamwork, trancework, meditation, spellwork, study of ancient religions, study of indigenous religions, local study of nature, ritualwork, and covencraft, but I am proficient in only a few of these areas. I am not proficient in herblore, and moreover I currently live in a country, Norway, where people do not enjoy herbal freedom. It is very difficult to obtain certain herbs here, and people are not supposed to import them. For my herbal knowledge I must rely on friends who live elsewhere in the world and who can advise me over the internet or by telephone or letter. Sometimes these can be obtained in the woods. Except in the cities, there are small stretches of forest throughout the lowlands.
Local study of nature can only be carried out locally. If you have one or more partners in the Craft, you should acquire some guidebooks to local flora and fauna, geology and topography, and go out together in different seasons of the year for camping trips and hikes, to study the locale and familiarize yourself with the animals, plants and minerals of the area. For this topic one must combine book-learning with personal familiarity. I am aware of the animals and plants in my neighborhood, though I am not given to long hikes or to camping anymore.
Every witch will practice some physical discipline and engage in some form of work developing manual skill, in addition to more mental pursuits. Every witch seeks balance, both within and with the environment, including inner and outer spirits. Witches seek freedom in all its forms, and for this reason will not use addictive substances, and will either abstain from habit-forming substances altogether, or at most will use them rarely.
Witches follow the Sun-wheel in all their practices, seeking balance in their use of the powers of elemental Air, Fire, Water and Earth. They align these practices with the directions of East, South, West and North, respectively.
Air contains the power to know. Thought is breath. Every process is begun by increasing knowledge. Witches always seek to know rather than hide from knowledge. A witch is nothing if not practical, and will always seek to make use of knowledge in some way. Knowledge that is purely negative will be buried by a witch, who can draw on its power without letting its negativity emerge.
Fire contains the power to will. Will is inseparable from action. Witches cultivate strings of actions which require regular effort. They take oaths before the gods to fulfill these strings. Some strings, such as learning a language, are ongoing and have no foreseeable end. Strings are cultivated through two forms of action, practice and praxis. A practice is engaged in at particular times and for particular intervals of time. A praxis is engaged in at random moments, whenever one thinks of it. Practice and praxis support each other, and every string involves both forms of action. To establish a string requires some form of sacrifice, for space must be found in one’s life for the new activity. The sacrificial fire was always built traditionally in the south, and it is the means of communication with gods, demigods and ancestors. Witches begin by sacrificing very small things, such as minor habits, which generally tie up large amounts of energy. The ancestors approve of such sacrifices and will send the witch a special form of vigor as a sign of their approval.
Water contains the power to dare. Witches dare to go beyond their current limitations. They examine their assumptions and question them, seeking to think outside the box, as the saying goes. They explore other possibilities, of awareness, of living. They change habits to experience living in other ways. This can also take small forms, such as taking a different route to work on occasion. But they also seek initiation, psychic death and rebirth, and, when it is the wise choice, they will follow their passions.
Earth contains the power to keep silence. Silence is inner as well as outer, and involves physical stillness as well as control of speech and thought. In order to be physically still one must exercise regularly and stay in shape. A witch will practice some form of meditation in order to be inwardly still. Avoiding unnecessary talk is important not just to preserve discretion (very important during the Burning Times and still important today), but as a way of conserving energy. A witch conserves energy and only uses it to accomplish a worthwhile purpose. For this reason, witches are enjoined to overcome and suppress nervous habits. Unnecessary talking, especially expressing negative emotions, qualifies as a nervous habit.
A witch has several names. His or her innermost name is known only to the gods, and the witch uses it in silent prayer or when praying and offering to the gods alone. If a witch is in a coven with a tier of initiations, he or she will have an inner court name, used only among fellow initiates. Among non-initiates or non-coven fellow witches or pagans, he or she can use an outer court name. My outer court name, which can be read above in the byline to this paper, is Quicksilver. This means that one of my gods is Hermes or Mercury; it also means that I tend to spread myself thin in my interests and jump around a lot from one thing to another. I celebrate this weakness light-heartedly and by naming it I keep it within bounds, thus converting it into a strength, or at least into an element of personal style in my practice of the Craft. The inner court name, if one has one, and the innermost name should likewise be meaningful, with the innermost name in some way expressing where one is at in one’s current incarnation, and where one is going. An innermost name can often be the name of an animal or bird.
Witchcraft is both serious and joyful, in this way resembling the play of children. We witches believe in reincarnation, and also periods of rest and recuperation in the Summerland (a pleasant place in the Underworld) between lives. Thus, we are not in a hurry and can afford to enjoy ourselves. At the same time, our play and restful recreations generally involve some form of learning or practice. We are children of the gods practicing being grown up, with a view to eventually engaging in some form of work helpful to the demigods (daimones) and elementals, and through them to the greater gods and goddesses. Laughter and light-hearted glee or zest is an important part of play. Witches come together at Esbats (generally held at the full Moon) and Sabbats (eight per year). ‘Esbat’ is from a Middle French word, esbattier, meaning to frolic. ‘Sabbat’ means a rest. This implies that the real work of the Craft is done between these occasions.
Witches regard all forms of life as equal and worthy of equal respect. Humans are not regarded as higher than animals, and even stones are thought to be conscious in some way. Personal evolution involves harmony within and without, and faculties shared with animals and other forms of life are considered just as important to cultivate as those that seem unique to human beings.
Progress in the Craft is not uniform in pace; it slows down and speeds up at intervals. As with mountain-climbing or attending a university, there are certain levels to be attained, and reaching them requires a period of intensive preparation when one is getting close. In the Craft there are three levels or degrees of initiation. Upon attaining to a new level, the nature of learning in the Craft changes its form. One emerges victorious with respect to old struggles but must now assume more mature responsibilities; this is described in the witch saying “First the victory, then the battle.” Initiations are like promotions in school. Eventually one graduates, and this graduation, lifetimes ahead, is sometimes referred to as the transmutation or transformation. Thereafter, a witch need not incarnate but can stay on the Other Side, performing work useful to the daimones. He or she acquires the ability to visit this surface Earth, at first as a sort of light; later on a material body can be projected temporarily for a particular purpose. This is what the ka was believed able to do in ancient Egypt. Transmutation generally takes place on the Other Side, though accounts from stregheria (Italian witchcraft) suggest that it can occur while in a material body on this side, in which case the experience is said to be excruciating.
Witches are not much concerned with transmutation. It lies far ahead. One goes to the Sun and receives a body of light. If you’re interested you can read about it in the Prasna Upanishad.