Wonderfully Wiccan with Derrick Land – February 2025: Slumber of the Earth: The Importance of Silence in Magickal Work
Bright blessings everyone!
Wow February has flown by! I feel like I blinked and it’s already the end of the month. Out here in the ATX we got more of a taste of Winter weather than usual, and it was amazing! There were no hard freezes, power outages or anything like that, just some cold (for us) temperatures. We are slowly climbing out of that now with daytime temperatures reaching the 70’s and nighttime temperatures dipping down into the 40’s.
For me, it parallels well with Wiccan theology. In my tradition we celebrate the rebirth of the sun/god at Yule, the Winter Solstice. His light and power start to increase a little more every day, which eventually stirs awake the slumbering goddess of the Earth, who is in her guise as Maiden. As we move on towards the Spring Equinox/Ostara their courtship begins as they bring about renewed life of Spring, but we aren’t there quite yet. Thinking of the slumbering Maiden of Earth, my mind wandered to the lesson of Earth – silence and secrecy – and how important that is in magical practice.
The Witches Pyramid
Charmed fans will know that the three essentials of magic are timing, feeling and the phases of the moon. In the real world, however, we recognize four principles of successful magick, first expressed by French occultist Éliphas Lévi, which are “To Know”, “To Dare”, “To Will” and “To Keep Silence”.
“To attain the Sanctum Regnum, in other words, the knowledge and power of the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions: an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken, and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. To Know, To Dare, To Will, To Keep Silence such are the four words of the Magus, inscribed upon the four symbolical forms of the sphinx.”
– Éliphas Lévi in his book Transcendental Magic
Because he equated these with the Sphinx, they are sometimes referred to as the Four Powers of the Sphinx or the Four Powers of the Magus. Aleister Crowley added a fifth, “To Go”, equating it with the element of Spirit, and so had five lessons/qualities total, and this is what what made it’s way into the modern witchcraft revival under the moniker, The Witches Pyramid. Both Paul Huson and Lady Sheba used slightly different verbiage to better define the meaning behind each of these, To Know/Imagination (Air), To Dare/Faith (Water), To Will/Will (Fire) and To Keep Silent/Secrecy (Earth). A more in-depth discussion on all aspects of The Witches Pyramid would take an entire article in and of itself. My focus this time, however, is specifically on the lesson of Earth: To Keep Silent, or Secrecy.
Power Shared is Power Lost: Avoiding the Evil Eye
In the Middle Ages, the need for secrecy was obvious, lest you be accused of heresy and be tried by the Inquisition as a witch, so I’m not going to discuss that here since that’s a no-brainer. In modern times, secrecy has become lax and it more common than ever before for someone to share images of their day-to-day altars, spells and/or workings on social media. Inevitable a decent amount of comments on those post tell them they shouldn’t. But why?
I think it was Lady Sheba in her book, Lady Sheba’s Book of Shadows that I first saw the phrase, “power shared is power lost”. But wait Derrick, you work in a coven, you are sharing power all the time! That is true, and working with a trained group focused on the same goal will most assuredly generate more power than if you were to go it alone, not less. This phrase, however, refers to the sharing of power with anyone that isn’t working towards the same goal – haters, frenemies – anyone that wants to poo-poo on your parade.
Thoughts are energy after all. The evil eye is perhaps one of the most common curses known in contemporary and pop culture. The basic premises is that with just a malicious glare, one can cause misfortune upon its focus. Those blue and white eye beads that you see in shops and at markets, called nazars, are amulets created to protect the wearer from the evil eye. Of course it’s not necessarily the glare itself that causes misfortune, but the thought, the energy, behind it. Normally when someone gives you the stink eye, it coincides with a negative emotion – anger, disgust, resentment, disappointment etc. Many times, people aren’t even aware they are doing it because it is so fleeting. They then move on to something else or get distracted and never think anything of it.
But the energy was still focused. The intent was there, even if for just a moment, and that means that it could hinder the outcome of your work. Post about a spell you are actively doing online, and you expose it to anyone and everyone that has access to it. If 50 people see it and all roll their eyes, thinking negative thoughts about it, how do you think that collective energy will affect your outcome? What about 100 people? 1000? You get the idea. Furthermore, if you have some sleeper agent haters out there and they want to be vindictive, what’s to stop them from doing their own spell just to counteract yours? Not all magickal people are ethical people after all. In these cases, power shared IS power lost. Obtaining a successful outcome can be hard enough as it is, why put in unnecessary hurdles? What I recommend to my students is if they want to post something or even just discuss it casually with someone, to wait until after the spell has run it’s course and they have received the outcome.
Secrecy in Initiation
I think many people confuse gatekeeping with understanding what a closed tradition is. Gatekeeping is intentionally picking and choosing who gets access to what, but that is from the perspective of broad resources that are open to the general public. That is different than a closed practice or closed tradition, which is only accessible to members that have been brought in, or initiated, into that practice or tradition. Initiatory priesthoods are not new. The passing of secret and/or specialized knowledge from initiator/master to initiate/apprentice is found in ancient cultures from all around the world, from the Eleusinian Mysteries to freemasons. It’s no different than any other specialty.
I am not a surgeon, so I have not been trained in surgical techniques, nor is intricate knowledge on how to perform surgeries readily available to the public on Google. To obtain that specialized knowledge, I’d have to be accepted into medical school and learn from an existing surgeon. If I flunk out of medical school, I don’t get to be a surgeon. Is that gatekeeping? No. Because the requirements are standardized. If you want to learn the secret knowledge and practices of a particular priesthood or magical order, you have to be accepted into that group and study under their version of a master. It is one of the duties of every master/initiator to determine the readiness, aptitude and qualifications of potential students in accordance with their tradition or group. Like with medical school, there is usually some kind of broad standardization, and the simple truth is that not everyone will meet those requirements.
Knowledge is power, especially when dealing with “the magics”. It gives us specific ways to commune with deities and spirits, to focus and/or manipulate subtle energies to cause change and make the seemingly impossible, possible. Passing on magickal knowledge can be likened to passing someone a weapon. We want to make sure that we can trust them with it, that they will respect it and not abuse it, and that they have the competency to wield it. So, secrecy when it comes to initiation and the passing on off specialized knowledge that you were entrusted with is a very wise thing. I wouldn’t give the key to my house to just anyone and I would hope you wouldn’t either!
Secrecy in Current Times
Before I close, I wanted to touch on the mundane aspects of secrecy and magickal practice. Growing up in the 90’s in Central Texas and many other areas of the United States, anything other than mainstream religion was taboo, plain and simple. Several friends of mine had their personal altars destroyed and magickal objects thrown out once their parents discovered them. It was still hard for metaphysical shops to survive and they often were vandalized or shut down by the city for some bogus reason. You were made fun of and discriminated against. People lost their jobs and even custody of their kids. There is a reason why the trend of using magickal or craft names as a public persona became so popular. It simply was not safe to be publicly Pagan. Secrecy was important then, and it’s important now.
I am out here in the wider Pagan community, so it’s no secret that I’m Wiccan. I don’t use my magickal name usually, but my real name. That’s a choice I made a long time ago. However, you’ll never see me post photos of my coven members or tag them in posts. If I do, it is always with their express consent. They have a right to keep their identity and their involvement in Witchcraft a secret. It is the expectation of everyone in the coven to respect that choice.
Given the current state of affairs, I urge everyone reading this to please be safe, wise and careful. If it is better for you to keep your involvement in the occult secret for safety, please do so! Even still, take some time to contemplate the lessons of Earth and how secrecy can benefit your practice overall. If you regularly share active workings, maybe try not doing it to see if or how it changes your outcome. You just might be pleasantly surprised!
Until next time, blessed be!
Derrick Land is a third-degree High Priest in the Rising Phoenix Tradition of Wicca. Operating out of Austin, TX he serves as the High Priest for his coven, Shadow Wolf Coven, and is the event organizer for the annual Austin Witchfest festival.
