Modern [pagan] Witchcraft and the Origins of Reaching Between



John Duncan's 'Deirdre of The Sorrows'



The "Craft" is a term used to describe the interaction from this mundane reality to "otherworldy" beings/realms/spirits/forces/entities, etc. "Practicing the Craft" acknowledges an active [not passive] participation in and exploration of these matters on a firsthand level. There is danger with this. There is joy with this. There is risk with this. There is power with this. There is beauty with this.

It is a choice that is made for each individual entering into those places in between, behind, and before this one. Once that path has been set upon firmly--it is not so easy to step back. Because quite simply, things are never quite the same again, and you cannot turn you eyes away from what has been shown to be true enough and amazing enough to believe beyond the limits of mundane perception.

There are many forms of Crafting in all cultures--whether it be the Eastern Zen monk, the African witch doctor, the North American shaman, etc. In the renaissance and the reclaiming of European [neo] paganism in more recent years there has been a great deal of writing on the subject of witches and witchcraft. A lot of this writing is biased and has been written for a commercial audience, boiled down to basics and in many ways devoid of real experience or authentic resources.

There is a great debate in the modern neo-pagan community today in regards to the origins of witchcraft and what is and is not legitimate in terms of historical accuracy, genuine traditions, and authentic experience. This in and of itself is a [??intentional??] distraction from what really matters.

Much romantic notion and strength has been developed and cultured around the idea of the modern revivial of witchcraft and pagan traditions stemming from unbroken lines of family witchcraft traditions and practicing covens stretching back hundreds and even amazingly thousands of years to a time before the advent of patriarchy and to the age of worshipped goddesses and fertility cults. This has neither been proven or disproven beyond a reasonable doubt --and given the nature of the Craft it never will be.

The point is simply this:

The very nature of what is sought through witchcraft and things
of the like is something that is NOT meant to be accessible
through a general and public medium and available to the masses.

Witchcraft or methods of going "in between" were never meant
[let alone permitted] to be accessible to the average person--
because of the sheer power and potency of what could be accessed.

Knowledgable Crafters speak of "the mysteries," and anyone who is well versed enough in these matters knows that these are never defined, and only mentioned in passing as something that those of the Craft eventually teach their students if they are capable of learning and them and then bearing the weight they can result in.

The modern witchcraft revivial movement, Wicca, founded by Gerald Gardner claims lineage from a line of covens in the New Forest area of Britain and descent from those practicing the "Old Religion." Unfortunately, there is no cut and dry proof of Gardner's claim of a line of witches and those who would be able to validate it have either passed on as it were decades ago or those who are still living are unwilling [and wisely so] to speak of it. Although the characters that Gardner recounted in his story of belonging to a long-standing British coven such as Dorothy Clutterbuck, George Pickingill, etc., are actual historical figures with documentation to prove it --there is no "valid" proof that ties them to an Old Religion. Many claim that Wicca is not a valid religion because it was simply "made up" by Gardner--that it has elements taken from the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, and the Key of Solomon is unmistakeable. But those who argue this point are missing the point, quite simply that there is no need to establish an authentic earthly "line." There is no need to trace lineage through anyone or anything for something as ethereal as the Craft to be real[ized]. The Craft is real to those who practice--and permit their reality in essence to be transformed "back" to one where magick and myth exist, but in essence never really went away, but rather only became shrouded in the deceptive definition of "lore" and "myth." But to those who have not stepped into this frame of mind, they require cold, hard "physical" proof for such a thing as the Craft to exist.

The problem with this historical, mundanely grounded approach to the Craft and the great desire that is so obviously based in needing to be physically validated is that it presumes that the Craft is based here and that it is sanctioned here--on this earthly plane. Powers flow in and out of this place--through wells, stone circles, and other physical manifestations, we may call upon them through these means, but they are not confined to such places and nor are they born of them. Rather, they are not from here:

The Powers That Be that respond to the cries of a Crafter exist
indepedently of this place that we reside in right now, and were
there before, during, after the existence of this plane and will
continue to be there when it finally fades into obscurity.


The term witch has become something that almost anyone in this day and age can claim as a title who owns a tarot deck, any books by Raymond Buckland or a Llwellyn calendar. And to question this usage is to deny their "right" to call themselves a witch.

And perhaps in more modern times this usage of "witch" is acceptable as the world gets big, larger, and more informed. But, historically, the definition of witch is "a woman claiming or popularly believed to possess magical powers and practice sorcery." Or for that matter, anyone who has lived in-between or tapped into magick and learned [or rather recalled how] to harness it for their own use.

Such as a (n):

adept
astrologer
augurer
benandanti
channeler
charmer
clairvoyant
conjurer
cunning folk
crone
diviner
druid
empath
enchantress
faith healer
fortune teller
haegtessa
hedge witch
hellsehererin
hexe
mage
magician
magus
medicine man
medium
mystic
necromancer
occultist
otherkin
palmist
priest
priestess
prophet
psychic
seer
sensitive
shaman
siren
"the sight"
soothsayer
sorcerer
sorceress
spiritualist
thaumaturge
"touched"
vodooenne
warlock
witch
witch doctor
wizard

.....etc.

There, is quite clearly, an obvious record of this behavior throughout human history. The existence, or at the very least belief, of this is established.


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