by: Rick Johnson 
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com
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Many, but not all, Witches worship naked.
There are a number of reasons for this, the first being that in the Charge which
was written by Doreen Valiente from older sources, The Goddess said,
A second reason for ritual nudity is the practical one. At one Grand Sabbat where
we had three Covens worshipping together in a nine-foot Circle, some of the guests were
from our Outer Court and so wore robes. During the rite, one woman stood too close to
the West candle and set her robe on fire. She did manage to extinguish the flames
without disrupting the Sabbat too much and I didn't even hear about the accident until
after the Sabbat had ended.
On those rites where I have been robed, there have been many incidents of one
person stepping on the hem of the robe of the person next to them, thus causing the
unfortunate Witch to trip and fall into another. In a small nine-foot Circle, if one person
goes down, usually all follow. So safety is a prime consideration. Experiences of
Witches all over the world often report that naked is safer. You are more aware of where
the candles are when you begin to feel the heat as opposed to not detecting the heat of a
fire until after your robe is engulfed in flames. Naked people step more carefully and
bang into the Altar and others far less frequently than clothed Witches. So it is simply
safer to be naked.
The magickal reason for nudity is that anything worn upon the body will interfere
with and change the energy given off by the body. This includes clothes, make-up,
perfumes, jewelry, glasses, contact lenses and so on. This argument is countered by the
quite logical statement that any energy that can pass through a wall, cover miles of
distance, penetrate another wall and then influence a person will not be stopped by a
layer of cloth. To counter this statement, we have to digress into Martial Arts.
Consider a person trying to hit you. That person chambers his fist at his waist and
throws their entire strength into a punch to your jaw. If it connects, you will be damaged
or, at least, knocked off your feet. But to place your hand before your mouth and attempt
to catch the punch an instant before it teaches you is, to say the least, presumptuous and
dangerous. You simply do not have the power to stop a full punch when it has developed
that much inertia.
The way to protect yourself is to reach out when the punch is thrown and with
little effort, lightly brush the punch away. You haven't stopped it, you deflected it a few
degrees and it misses you completely. No real effort is involved and you are safe.
To apply this to magick, and I admit that I am applying physical force to psychic
power but energy is energy, consider that the body and mind and Coven and spirit must
generate a tremendous amount of power to send that spell over that distance. Once the
Cone of Power is sent, the spell cannot be deflected save by a greater force, which is
unlikely. BUT, it can be deflected at the source by a relatively small power. In other
words, wearing clothing or non-craft jewelry or non-consecrated materials can easily
deflect or alter the power of the spell before it leaves the Circle. So the spell, when it
reaches its target, may be a different spell or it may even reach a different target. It takes
years of practice before the Witch can learn to compensate for external influences.
Some of the psychological factors in Nudity are that the person MUST accept
themselves as they are or change themselves. It is difficult to put on a facade when you
are denied a girdle, bra, wig, make-up, deodorant, aftershave, codpiece or other enhance-
ments to your image. Once naked, the individual sags, bulges, shines and, in effect,
becomes themselves and not a mask. When working magick, it is vital to know yourself
and accept your own good and ill, for to attempt the path with false illusions will cause
trouble when your subconscious rebels and forces your work to conform to a hidden
truth.
To be naked indicates freedom from conventional mundane thought. When
clothed in a suit or dress, you conform to societies expectations and become what they
wish you to become. Your style of dress and hair style are a reflection, not of your own
desires, but of what your peers wish you to be. Once naked, you are free to place your
mind into a sphere of magickal thought where anything is possible, where the God and
Goddess are not symbols hanging on a wall but REAL DIVINITIES, where magick and
Psychics work. A place between the worlds where all is possible. Clothes tend to limit
your thinking to that period and culture, thus to wear your best clothes restricts you to the
modern world and your subconscious feels foolish chanting with candles. To wear a
medieval costume restricts you not to your concept of the past but to the real past without
our modern advancements in magick or ritual. To wear robes, will limit you magickally,
but will aid the mind in its freedom towards the goal.
Equality between class and gender is assured when naked as the rich no longer
have jewels to show their class worth. Women must face men as equals, both showing
their inadequacies and realizing that the other sex is just as physically imperfect as you
are. With this barrier down, men and women can accept each other as equals.
ROBES
Even though most Witches work robed, it is necessary to be clothed at times. If
in public or when outdoors in winter it may be necessary to be clothed to allow the mind
to concentrate on the goal and not to be thinking that the body is slowly freezing to death.
When this is necessary, it is best to wear a plain robe that is exactly the same as
all others. To make a personal robe will introduce ego and class or sexual differences
into the rite. Though nudity is rarely sexual, after ten minutes the naked Witch
becomes bored with seeing bare breasts and genitals and is then free to work for a
woman to wear a robe that cuts low in the front and is slit up the side to her hips will
introduce into the Coven an attitude of sexual desire to the men as they try to see a nipple
or thigh that, by being hidden, is desirable but when revealed by nudity is simply another
body part. The men, in this situation may have difficulty concentrating on the work in an
effort to see what is barely hidden. Similar things occur in the female mind when the
situation is reversed, though women are often trained to deny these thoughts to others and
even to themselves. Thus the robe must be sexless and plain to behold.
The robe must also be of a natural material such as cotton or wool since
synthetics cause a great deal of interference with the power. A simple list of materials
which will interfere with magickal power when worn from the least to the greatest effect
is as follows: cotton, wool, conductive metals from silver, gold, copper, iron, synthetic
materials such as nylon, rayon, orlon and then silk (which though a natural material is a
strong magickal insulator).
So if the Witch must wear a robe, it should be one that interferes with magick and mind as little as possible.
There are some uses to wearing robes. The simple act of putting on a robe that is
reserved only for Ritual use causes the inner mind to awaken and to develop the attitude
that "Now the mundane world is behind me, it is time for the magickal world to appear."
This can be very effective to your working and will counter some of the physical
properties in wearing robes.
If all are wearing identical robes, the attitude of equality within, 'the group' is
enhanced, for there is nothing different between the people or sexes.
Historically, Witches usually worked Naked and there are many references to naked Witches standing on their clothes. In a few illustrations, the Witches are clothed in the clothing of their time but examination of the drawings indicate that the artist rarely knew a real Witch.
Gardner introduced the term Skyclad into the Craft in the 1950's with the
reference to "Witches worship naked which is called in the East (Indonesia), 'Skyclad'"
and the term stuck as a poetic way to refer to ritual nudity. In the 1950's and '60s, most
Witches worshipped Skyclad though by the 70s, the Welsh and American Celtic Witches
began to wear robes, which became the standard way to worship for years. By the late
'70s, the Feminist Witches began to experiment with Skyclad worship and by the late
80's, about half of the American and many European Witches worshipped Skyclad.
In todays world, you will find Witches who work Skyclad, robed, in costumes and
even in their street clothes. If the latter, you will bring into the Circle all the influences
that have become attached to those clothes over the day. These influences will effect
your workings as well as your mind because the subconscious will see no difference
between the mundane and the magickal, and as we spend most of our time in the
mundane world, it is easy to see which will win.
To contact me or to request topics to be covered, send to RikJohnson@juno.com
by: Rick Johnson
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
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