tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6817682567561164198.post8255847328551059136..comments2024-02-20T09:54:37.105-06:00Comments on Talking About Ritual Magick: An Essential Witchcraft TraditionFrater.Barrabbashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11689013897789072360noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6817682567561164198.post-13068989837968009342010-09-10T15:28:47.840-05:002010-09-10T15:28:47.840-05:00What would a tradition of witchcraft contain if it...<i>What would a tradition of witchcraft contain if it never required the invention or borrowing of lore from any other sources</i>?<br /><br />While it's an interesting exercise to think about such a hypothetical tradition, I don't think there's a religious system in the world that doesn't rely to some degree on invention and borrowing from other sources. The Torah includes elements that are very similar to Babylonian mythology, Christianity includes elements from the cults of Dionysus and Mithras, and so forth.<br /><br />I think that the reason this is an issue with witchcraft in particular is that (A) a lot of people don't really understand how religions borrow from one another and change over time and (B) the borrowing that went on in witchcraft happened during the modern era and is thus well-documented. Any Christian who wants to accuse Wicca of being a "made-up religion" should keep in mind that the Pentateuch was only written down after the Babylonian Captivity and thus had to summarize over a thousand years of oral tradition. Anyone who thinks such a text could possibly be the inerrant literal word of God is fooling themselves.<br /><br />Especially in the area of ritual technologies borrowing isn't always a bad idea. The ritual technologies that endure over time tend to be the ones that work, so as I see it the challenge is more adapting those technologies into your ritual framework rather than reinventing the wheel just so that your tradition can be essentially different from everything else.Scott Stenwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.com