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…

Inner Witchcraft Working with Elementals Introduction These chapters were originally presented as information supplementary to that provided by the High Priestess of a coven I was advising over in Colorado.  Since I could not be physically present among them, I provided more private aspects of my practice, some part of which would surface at times were I with them.  My contention throughout has been that most magical energy is locked up within the human body and therefore preparation for witchcraft must attempt to remove some of these blocks so one can experience and make use of one’s native magical energy.  By ‘magical’ I mean here ‘capable of producing unexpected effects.’ …

Time and Perception: Elementals are described in stregheria and other Craft traditions as existing at a frequency of vibrations close to those of our own physical dimension, but slightly higher.  This is why they can interact with witches and help them elevate their energies somewhat, gaining access to the astral plane.  They do this by elevating the witch’s rate of perception and sense of time. In order to understand the relationship between perception and time, let us consider old-time silent movies.  These were called ‘flicks,’ because they had fewer frames per second than later sound pictures.  The illusion of movement produced by motion pictures, as we know, is caused by…

Redeployment of Energy To say that all of our energy is already deployed is of course an exaggeration.  If that were so, we would be like puppets, unable to move on our own.  It is true, however, that, compared to the energy we could enjoy, we presently have practically none at our disposal.  All that we have is renewed each night by sleep, so that when we awake in the morning, or later in the day from a nap, we are in the best position to find our energy leaks and plug them. Habits are our energy leaks, as has been mentioned, and they run in cycles.  As they siphon…

Keeping Silence Witches avoid careless talking for several reasons.  During the Burning Times, secrecy was necessary for survival.  Whatever was said in circle had to stay in circle.  Though we are no longer burnt (the last witch burning on record took place in Mexico in the 1940’s), indiscretion of this sort can lead to people losing jobs, child custody battles, and various forms of social persecution, especially in ‘the Bible Belt’. Secondly, although knowledge is air, and like air should be shared freely, esoteric knowledge taught to initiates and candidates for initiation needs to be kept confined within the teacher-student relationship.  It was a rule in the groups being taught…

From Silence to Will Habits run in cycles like waves, and on the level of inner talk we ride the waves and are tumbled by them.  At certain points in the cycle we seem to be more in control, but when the habit builds up to the peak of its cycle we have very little control.  These cycles consume a great deal of energy that the witch would like to have available for work in the quarter of Will.  Long-standing habits become the hangouts of inner spirits who live off the energy they waste.  These entities resist the dismantling of the habit and it becomes necessary to struggle with them. …

The Power of Stillness The northern quarter of the circle is the quarter of Earth, and its inner or elemental power is traditionally called the power to keep silence.  It would be more accurate to call it the power to keep still, because the quarter of Earth includes the material body.   The Watcher of the north is Ghom or Ghob in ceremonial magic, and his elementals are called gnomes or ghobelins (goblins).  In the related tradition of Tuscan witchcraft, the Watcher is named Taga or Tages, the Divine Child of the Etruscans.  Tages sprang from a furrow a farmer was plowing early in Etruscan history, and presented that people with…

Three Kinds of Knowledge in the Craft Three kinds of knowledge concern us in the Craft.  These may be called knowing about, knowing by acquaintance, and knowing without words.  They belong to the Maiden, Mother and Crone, respectively.  There is also nescience, the sublimation of knowing, which belongs to the Goddess in her dark aspect.  Although the power to know is assigned to the eastern quarter of Air, each element involves a form of knowing, and these are quite distinct. Knowing about is what we commonly consider knowing.  It is knowing a subject, knowing something from the outside.  It is the only type of knowing considered scientifically viable, for it…

Elements of a Personal Cult There is a sense in which the favorite deity has already chosen the devotee, and an early step in establishing a devotional relationship is to examine any unusual dreams or waking experiences that seem to be messages from someone.  Think back through your past, looking for experiences that preceded important turning points in your attitude and approach to life.  The experiences themselves need not have been unusual in any obvious sense, making their influence on us all the more mysterious.  I can remember one morning long ago when I was up at dawn walking to breakfast.  I had had a personal disappointment the night before,…

Principles of Paganism Mid-Term Examination The mid-term examination of the Principles of Paganism course covers the first six monthly lessons.  One or two questions per lesson will be askedm ten questions in all.  You must give satisfactory answers to six out of the ten questions, and in addition you must include a one-page, minimum three-paragraphs statement giving your feedback on the course thus far.  The feedback can be positive or negative, but it must be backed up with examples.  In other words, I want constructive criticism.  Include in the feedback page some suggestion(s) regarding what you like to see presented in the second half of the course.  I will try…