Introduction: The rites of witchcraft, whether performed alone or with others, are a form of magic theatre. One goes to them not to sit in the audience but to participate in the performance. Audiences can arrive tired, perhaps somewhat dispirited, prepared to relax and, if possible, receive some form of uplift from the spectacle. This is not the case with performers; they must be vigorous, well-balanced in their energies, with energies pitched high and practically electric. The rite itself should, if performed well, both deepen and further heighten those energies, but one goes to the magic theatre to give and share energy rather than to be lifted out of some…

Part Two: Following the Moon   While reverencing the Sun and the Earth, polytheistic witches identify the Moon as the special Goddess of witchcraft, a view borne out by that classic of the modern Craft, Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, recorded by Charles G. Leland and published in 1890.  Additionally, the witch Goddess (called the Lady and regarded by Wiccans as the personification of all Goddesses combined) has three visible aspects, corresponding to the waxing, full and waning phases of the Moon, known also as the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone.  She also has a hidden fourth phase, the Dark of the Moon, which corresponds to her monthly renewal…

Part One: The Wheel of the Year Whereas non-pagans are guided by sacred books, pagans are guided by nature. Nature guides us through the course of the seasons. We take our moods, our goals and the way we pursue them, from the seasonal round, which is called ‘The Wheel of the Year’. Witches of our Celtic tradition follow three interlocking paradigms throughout the year. The course of the Sun throughout the year is plotted by the Wheel of the Year. The course of the lunar month is plotted by the phases of the Moon and their meaning. And the sequence of lunar months through the solar year is plotted by…

Ngetal, Ruis and the Nameless Day   Ngetal: From Mabon to Samhain, as we have seen, the comings and goings of the dead serve to thin the veil separating Middle Earth from the Underworld. Now at Samhain the Holly King sends the rest of his youth into the final harvest, his spirit descends once more to the gates of the Summerland, and this time he throws them wide for all spirits, human and non-human, to come up the World Pillar for that liminal time between times, the Celtic New Year. The cosmic order is relaxed for a season and Herne the Hunter, the Holly King’s Underworld aspect, bursts forth into…

When the invading sons of Mil defeated the Tuatha de Danaan and the latter went into the land, controlling the fertility and weather of Eire, the conquerors submitted to the new powers of the conquered. Thereafter. dealings with the Sidhe, that is, the people of the mounds, had to be conducted in terms of the laws of that world. The world of Faery is just next door, but it differs from our own Middle-Earth in certain important ways. For one thing, the spoken word has much more power there. Though they are free to be tricksters, the fair folk are constrained to always tell the truth. There is no such…

A while back, I advertised my services for teaching witchcraft on the Witchvox site. I maintain contact with a coven in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but for a number of years I have been a solitary. Currently I live in Norway, a retired witchcraft elder. The witchcraft I teach is the tradition my HPS, Wendy, and I have developed over the years. As she is still active as high priestess of the coven we founded, our approaches have somewhat diverged, though I think we still agree on most issues. At this time I have three active students. One is in Norway, and I see her in person from time to time.…

I became interested in Wicca and Neo-Pagan Witchcraft early in 1994, when my mother had just been diagnosed with unlocalizable cancer and given three months to live. When a loved one will shortly die, your feelings about the future are compromised. You want her to live as long as possible, without suffering, but at the same time you feel guilty for wishing the grey pall hanging over everything were lifted. Many will take up a new interest at such times, one which can be projected indefinitely into the future, lending it a little color. That was the immediate cause impelling me to investigate this new-old religion. But the choice of…

On Modranacht, which is variously celebrated on December 24th or, in northern tradition, a bit earlier, the Three Maternae or Mothers name the newborn Oak King, the Child of Promise. Giving him a name involves divining his destiny for the next half-year, for the waxing year is the time of his reign. This illustrates the connection in traditional cultures between names and destiny. In our modern cowan 1 culture, we receive names that are little more than noises, but which might reflect sentiment on the part of our parents. Often a favorite aunt or uncle’s name is reproduced in the first or middle name of the newborn child. But the…

A witch works with the Watchers of the four quarters and their attendant elementals to cultivate the four powers of the witch, also called the four powers of the magus. When these have been developed sufficiently in a balanced way, the fifth power emerges, the power of aether. These powers and their associations are as follows:   Direction: East Element: Air Power: To know Watcher: Paralda (Celtic), Alpeno (Stregheria) Star: Aldebaran Elementals: Sylphs   Direction: South Element: Fire Power: To will Watcher: Djinn (Celtic), Settrano (Stregheria) Star: Regulus Elementals: Salamanders   Direction: West Element: Water Power: To dare Watcher: Nicksa (Celtic), Meana (Stregheria) Star: Antares Elementals: Undines   Direction: North…

People interested in the Craft nowadays generally regard it as a set of skills and formulae of words whereby they can lure magical energy to themselves, as it were, and so be empowered to gain their desires through casting of spells.  When one book of recipes fails to satisfy them, they do not lack a dozen others to choose from, and if none serves their purpose, most will repudiate the Craft as superstition and turn to other pursuits.  But some few seem to have developed the knack of achieving some sort of results, though what these are appear to be subtle and difficult of description, and moreover to have little…