Paganicon 2023 - Thoughts and Impressions

The last time I attended Paganicon, in the Twin Cities, MN, was in 2017. At that time, I was living in the northern suburbs and was able to drive and take in some classes and meet folks, but I didn’t plan on staying at the hotel. I only went for a couple of days, did some impromptu book signing because my first book in the “For Witches” was in print. I presented the lecture on the Egyptian Mysteries of the Dead, namely on the contents of the Am Duat with a PowerPoint lecture slide deck. You can read about it here, since I did do a write-up on it for my blog. Needless to say, that was the last time that I attended the convention. I was working and traveling during the following year, and then moved to Virginia. I really couldn’t find the time to make a return visit in 2019, and then the pandemic came in 2020.

During that interlude, I wrote and published two more books with two more manuscripts ready for whenever Llewellyn can put them into production. It was a busy time, but I thought that it would be nice to return this year now that the pandemic has become an endemic disease, more or less. I got emails about what was happening, but I didn’t pay much attention to them. I know that the year 2020, the convention was canceled, and in 2021 it became remote access attendance kind of event, and in 2022, it started to return to a normal convention. Because I had two more books in my series, I felt that it was time for me to return. So, I sent in a lecture request, signed up and then made all of the arrangements to travel to Minneapolis and attend the convention. I also wanted to see the many friends and associates that I had left behind and soak up a bit of the social scene with my pagan tribe. 

Overall, the trip was a big success, although I had to endure a very cold wintry spring, with temperatures nearing zero degrees F. It was very cold, icy and snowy outside, but at the convention center, it was warm and inviting. I had a mini lecture on the nature of a talisman and how to make one at the Llewellyn hospitality suite, and I had a main lecture on the Temporal Model of Magic and the importance of time for celestial types of magical workings. Both went well and were decently attended. I had 25 attendees at the main lecture, because I used up all of the handouts that I had made. My lecture was unfortunately scheduled at 9:30 AM CDT on Sunday, the morning after the ball and extended parties. Those who made it in to my lecture were serious about the topic, regardless of the lack of sleep. Still, the lecture was a success and I even went off script and that made it even better.

While represented my own contribution to the convention, I also attended a number of lectures, and particularly enjoyed those presented by Andras Corbin-Arthen, the found and director of EarthSpirit community, and Kristopher Hughes, chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, a native of Wales and an impressive author. Both of these men presented their own perspective on what could be called a kind of survival of indigenous European paganism. Paganism has survived in obscure rural pockets in Europe, or as in Wales, it has been reconstituted as an integral part of the national culture. Andras, who was born in Galiza in northern Spain, encountered a couple practicing an authentic indigenous form of Witchcraft from the highlands in Scotland when he was a young man and studied with them for over five years. While Andras has deepened and developed his training, and also traveled over much of Europe to discover more remnants of paganism, Kristopher was favored with a cultural foundation for a pagan and magical heritage, revitalized in recent times.

What I learned from these two remarkable men in their lectures is that paganism and witchcraft as practiced by these surviving pockets of Europeans has much in common with other indigenous non-Christian traditions, like the Native American religious practices. There are common threads to all of these groups, and these commonalities can help us modern pagans and witches to be more authentic in our beliefs and practices. Both men showed that it is very important for any pagan religion to include a cultural perspective along with their religious practices. Universal faiths, such as Christianity and Islam, proclaim to be beyond culture or locality, but paganism is dependent on both culture and locality in order to fully function. Witchcraft or paganism are poor faiths if they are stripped of their culture and locality, which was something made abundantly clear in the teachings that Kristopher presented to us at Paganicon.

So, what I learned at this Paganicon was quite illuminating. I learned the following important concepts.

• Paganism or Witchcraft, even as modern practices must have the following qualities.
• Culture - a style of life based on older precedents, whether through emulation of actual pagan survivals, reconstructed or developed with available cultural tropes.
• Location - a typically rural location occupied for centuries with mythic associations, or elected special topographic places where myths are developed, shared with others and passed on.
• Language - an actual language (Welsh, Gaelic, Celtic, Nordic, Germanic, Saxon, etc.) or a specific terminology (borrowed from other languages or academia) to describe states of consciousness, compose invocations, hymns and incantations, names of magical objects and themes, various beings, deities and demigods, and place names.
• Folk Practices - rituals, ceremonies, songs, life event rites and celebrations, lunar and solar cycles, recipes for food and drink, special clothing, special decorations, and folk magic.

Some of the qualities that Andras discussed about what these pagan survivals had in common was even more striking.

• Lack of deities - especially anthropomorphic gods and goddesses. These often assume the guise and nature of animals with only a kind of archetypal representation.
• Belief in an unifying mystery or web connecting all things together into union - a living tapestry where all things appear as one united design. This one-ness has no name, other than naming it “Mystery”.

The word pagan comes from the Latin pagani, which means rural inhabitant, as opposed to the urbani, folks that live in the city. Pagani was also considered a kind of insult, similar to “country bumpkin” or “red neck”. When the Christians later called the Roman polytheists pagani, this considered quite a powerful insult.

Some of the important guiding points that Andras gave the modern community of Witches and Pagans in the U.S., was to make a conscious break with the underlying culture that promotes capitalism and the exploitation of people and resources, and to build a truly polytheistic culture to underlie our religious and magical practices. We should develop a common language to discuss what we are experiencing and what we believe to ensure better communication and reduce the confusion that an unsupported language might give to a group of people committed to acting outside of the Christian culture. I will have to consider these guiding points, and I am not certain that I agree with them all.

Additionally, it is a sign of extreme foolishness to engage in attacking or discriminating against other pagan or witchcraft traditions when we have more in common with each other than with other faiths that are fundamentally inimical to our practices.

It was an excellent Paganicon pagan convention, and it was probably one of the best that I have ever attended. The Pantheacon convention had its anthropologists and academics giving college level lectures, but that convention is no longer available. We still have Paganicon, and it is good to see that it is evolving and able to present good information to the community at large.

Frater Barrabbas

Musings About End of 2022

 

It was a very interesting year for me, considering my writing endeavors with Witchcraft and ritual magic. I had completed my book “Talismanic Magic for Witches” and started to go through the process of revising it, submitting the final revised form to Llewellyn for production. I also wrote and completed “Sacramental Theurgy for Witches” and I will submit that project to Llewellyn by the end of February, where it will go through its revision process and ultimately into production.

I am presently writing the final book in that series, and that has the working title “Transformative Initiation for Witches,” and I should be done with that manuscript before the end of Spring 2023. There will be, once the last two books go through production and end up in print, five books in the “For Witches” series. The cover colors are related to gem-stone type hues, with the series represented by onyx, amber, amethyst, emerald and garnet. I am looking forward to walking into a lecture or a book signing some day with all five books under my arm. It is quite an achievement, and one that started in 2016.

Why did I write this series of books? I have put seven years of life into researching, developing and writing them, and they are all books with the traditional Witch or Pagan audience in mind. You might ask me the question, aren’t there enough books out in the public for the Witchcraft or Pagan community? Why do we need more of this kind of literature when the publishing world appears to be saturated with this media topic?

To answer this question you have to look at what is out there in the public domain. There are a lot of good books, but none of them cover the kind of advanced magical workings that my series touches on. The areas that I wanted to address in my books has to do with the magical and religious initiative of the individual Witch or Pagan seeking to perform more advanced kinds of magical workings that are just as cutting edge and relevant as what the ceremonial magical community are performing.

These works of mine will allow the Witch or Pagan to either access the work currently occurring in the magical community, such as with newly translated grimoires or historical research in the areas of magic and witchcraft, or to build their own independent comparable magical systems. It was my objective and hope that the reader of my books would work to build up their own magical system extended off of the baseline traditions of modern Witchcraft and Pagan magic. It is the path that I forged back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, and it is very relevant today, because I continued to develop these methodologies over the years. I have not been resting in my imaginary laurels. I have continued to reinvent my magic over the decades so that what I am presenting today is as fresh as it was back 40 years ago.

So, that is the answer to why I worked to write these five books. A deeper reason is that I had the pride and arrogance to believe that what I had started to develop years ago was an important contribution to the practice of Witchcraft magic, despite the absolute plethora of books in print now and for the foreseeable future. It is my legacy to pull together this lore and present it in an organized and accessible media for all other interested parties to examine it, and hopefully, to adopt some of it in their own workings. It is my belief and hope that such a prideful journey is not hopelessly corrupted by my own hubris, as is the case with many human endeavors to capture a lifetime of work in a series of books.

To answer the question of what I wrote, I can elucidate that answer here. There were, in my estimation, five different areas that were missing from the cannon of magical lore in the modern Witchcraft traditions. None of these methodologies are to be found in the traditional Book of Shadows. The five areas are as follows:

1. (Onyx) Spirit Conjuration including the acquiring of a familiar spirit and the mastery of the domain of spirit, ancestor worship, building a shrine of spirits and demigods, communicating with the spirits and accessing the spirit world, appropriating and making use of the old grimoires in one’s magic.

2. (Amber) Advanced Energy Magic - working with the four elements as the 16 Elemental Spirits and 40 Qualified Powers, developing energy structures beyond the cone of power to include the Pyramid of Power, magical Octagon, sigil creation, and other energy model of magic constructs.

3. (Amethyst) Talismanic Magic - working planetary and zodiacal magic, using the septagram to invoke and establish planetary intelligences, developing the mechanism to generate talismans, using the lunar mansions, zodiacal decans and septans, and performing celestial magic within a strict observance of the planetary day, hour and associated astrological auspices.

4. (Emerald) Sacramental Theurgy - enhancing the religious elements of Witchcraft magic to bring them into the ritual workings, godhead assumption reformation and full godhead personification, consecration rites of the mass, the benediction, and the Great Rite, creating sacred magical artifacts, animating statues or paintings with the essence of a godhead, operating within a sacred and magical grove, the assembling and performance of the Grand Sabbat.

5. (Garnet) Transformative Initiation - Differences between the scripted initiation rites and the process of psychological transformation, initiations beyond and below the tradition three, madness and enlightenment, dark night of the soul and its mitigation, the twenty-two stages of the hero’s journey as the cycle of transformative initiation, the stages of the heroine’s journey, harnessing the cycle of initiation to enhance and empower constructive forms of internal and external transformation, the key to spiritual evolution in the Witchcraft tradition.

These are the five areas that I address in the five books that are a part of the “For Witches” series of books. I believe that any Witch from any of the various traditions should be able to make use of the lore in these books and thereby enhance and expand their magical and liturgical work to include areas that are not typically defined in these traditions. The test will be relevancy within the tradition that one is following, the desire for more advanced methodologies and techniques of magic and the need to have a greater magical and liturgical impact within one’s mind, coven or group, or community at large. These books are not for everyone, and of course, some or all of them might not be relevant. However, for the typical magical practitioner who is also a Witch or Pagan, I believe that these books will help to build a more complete tradition, filling in the gaps that may exist in these practices.

While four of the books are under contract by Llewellyn, I believe that the fifth will also be published by them, since it is the last area not covered by the advanced lore that I have learned and mastered over the year. I expect to see all five books together in print by the summer of 2024, and I will then have completed my tasks, as I envisioned them back in 2016. While I did not anticipate five books in total, I knew that this series would fill in the gaps that I had to develop nearly fifty years ago. I am glad that my muse drew me through this intricate maze to help me produce these five books, and I look forward to when I can start writing other books in another series, to build on the legacy that I have established in my literary journey that started in 1992.

Frater Barrabbas

What I Don’t Like About Wicca

This article will undoubtedly upset some people, but I felt that I needed to clearly state my opinions and insights on this topic so there is no confusion as to where I stand. While I am a member of a lineal tradition of British Traditional Witchcraft, also known as Wicca, I feel that there are definite pros and cons to engaging with this tradition. Perhaps what I have a problem with has more to do with how covens and groups are managed than with the actual lore that is practiced by them. My readers should be aware by now that even though I am a member of this tradition, I believe that it should be reformed, revised and constantly updated. My reasons for believing this is because Wicca is a very new religion and it has not yet achieved a level of development or depth required in order for it to take its place with the other world religions. I don’t see that as a bad thing, in fact I see it as an opportunity for the Witchcraft movement as a whole to continue its evolution and development. There is still so much more to know and experience in regards to defining witchcraft and linking what we do know about the past with the present.

First of all, I would like spend a few paragraphs detailing what I like about Wicca and why I think that it is worth reforming and evolving. I haven’t given up on this tradition, but I suspect that my ideas and insights are probably contrary to the way that it is practiced or adhered to in the present times. I don’t disparage my tradition and I don’t like other writers referring to it as the McDonald’s of Witchcraft, or “McWicca,” as some have decided to call it. There is more than enough that is good and useful in Wicca to build a greater foundation over time, but other practices and traditional lore deemed erroneous or irrelevant should be changed, modified or discarded to help further its evolution and deepening its religious significance. Instead of discarding the whole tradition as some in the Old Craft Tradition would have it, I believe that reform, revision and adding new lore would go a long way to making Wicca into a continuing, viable and cutting edge religious tradition.

Here are some of the points that I would like to make in defense of Wicca, showing that there are some things which are very useful and good to be found in that religious tradition. Let me list them here for your consideration.

1. Everyone has to start somewhere. Since the magnitude of books and materials that are available to the general public is quite massive, it would seem that anyone who wishes to engage with a nature-based spirituality as popularly defined in our culture would find themselves involved in Wicca. Many of the people now engaged in Wicca are either solitary practitioners or informally involved in a group. These groups and individuals represent the uninitiated or self-initiated masses who likely represent the larger proportion of the total adherents. Sometimes these individuals will form groups and declare themselves to be a coven, but whether or not they receive recognition from the formal groups and traditional lineages is another matter altogether.(More about this later.)

2. There is a certain consistency within the beliefs and practices that make up Wicca, whether in formal or informal groups. Since much of the general lore of the Book of Shadows (and other sources) is either published or available online, then if a group of practitioners desire to form a coven and practice as a group there is more than enough material to help them build a basic foundation. They might not have an initiatory pedigree to establish their legitimacy, but their overall practices are consistent with vetted individuals and groups within the legitimate coven-based traditions. What this means is that Wiccan training has a certain consistency and conformity whether or not individuals and groups are practicing within an initiatory lineage. The difference, in my opinion, is that those witches who are operating within an initiatory lineage will have a bit more depth, intensity and (hopefully) the advantage of experienced and mature teachers. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

I have found over the years that to discredit a practicing witch because he or she lacks a proper traditional initiation seems more like a terrible conceit and a means of discrimination than really evaluating what that person has actually accomplished. Instead of basing an evaluation of a practicing witch on talent and merit, they are judged by who initiated them and from what lineage, if any. I have met both competent and incompetent spiritual leaders (High Priestesses and High Priests) in my own and ancillary traditions, and I have met some truly gifted individuals who are wholly outside of the traditional initiatory lineage structure.

So, it would seem that having a good pedigree and an iron clad vouch doesn’t determine whether a witch is capable or competent. I sometimes think that pedigrees appear to be more of a status symbol or a place to harbor the markings of an elitist cadre within the larger group of adherents rather than an indication of any amount of actual superiority. Having access to great teachers and working within a coven of experienced and spiritually mature individuals would doubtlessly further any beginner’s spiritual growth. Yet there is no guarantee that any traditional coven operating within a verifiable lineage will be more capable of providing this kind of quality guidance than a group that is outside of any verifiable lineage. One the best covens that I have ever had the grace to work with consisted of individuals who were not part of any established lineage-based tradition whatsoever. They managed to make traditional lineage based witches and covens look poor by comparison.

3. Classical witchcraft establishes a good foundation for the acquiring and adopting of both high and low forms of magic. Even though some religionists within Wicca are seeking to erase magical practices from their liturgical work, witchcraft is fundamentally a system of working magic as well as a system of pagan nature worship. They seem to go hand to hand. I have found that witches make really good ritual magicians once they are able to make the transition from performing initiations, esbats and sabbat rites to experimenting with different kinds of energy based or spirit based ritual formulations.

4. Wicca is grounded in earth-based religious beliefs and practices. Witches learn to love and venerate nature, and they have an innate grounded-ness that is often missing from ceremonial magicians. Nature is also the source from which they acquire an understanding of the meaning of life and the mysteries of birth and death, whether in plants (and the seasons), animals or humans. The cycle of light and darkness represents the changing diurnal cycle of night and day, the lunar and the solar cycles, and the oceanic tides. These cycles represent the basic and most fundamental pattern that is used to establish an overall spiritual and magical discipline, and this pattern is likely the oldest known to humanity.

5. Feminine based spirituality has its natural roots in classical witchcraft, and a woman’s power to create human life is regarded as one of the greatest and miraculous occurrences in nature. Thus, women in witchcraft are given a special honor and veneration that is rarely found in other western religious organizations. There seems to be a natural connection between women, the earth, the cycles of the moon, tides and the seasons, and the magic of sustaining and maintaining all life where required. Life and death are seen as just parts of the greater cycle. The concepts of evil, sinfulness, or that nature is somehow bad or corrupted, causing the modern stigma of conscious duality are completely absent from this creed. There is no devil nor is there any hell. Worshipers are not held in ransom to otherworldly punishment, and that all of the positive elements of life are seen as the grace of the earth perfectly balanced and imbued with spirit.

6. Believe it or not, Wicca does offer an authentic portal into the earth-based mysteries of life and death, light and darkness, and the spiritual evolution of all living things. This earth-based spirituality defines life and the greater world as a living part of the manifestation of the Deities who are fully invested and integrated into the material world. Spirit and matter are joined together to formulate the powerful mysteries that operate in the earth. Sacred sexuality and sacral nudity are the required tokens for admittance into this domain. Darkness is the veiled shroud of the mysteries and the underworld, marked by the Stang, is the place where they are depicted in myth and ritual allegory. The key that opens the gateway of the mysteries is, of course, ecstasy, and there are an unlimited number of ways of achieving that sublime state (and all of them are holy). In that underworld are to be found all of the treasures of the earth, the potentials of individual and collective fate, the revered ancestors and their hidden teachings, and the source of all life, which is known as the well or grail-cauldron of our spiritual and material beings.

Now that I have covered all of the things that I consider to be important and authentic in Classical Wicca, let me now discuss those things that I consider to be either erroneous or counter productive. From the list of six things listed above you can see that there is a great deal which makes Wicca relevant, beautiful, inspiring, and also empowering. However, we have just started our journey and there is so much more to this religious and magical tradition than what has been determined so far. Obviously (at least to me), we have many more discoveries and advancements to make before Wicca becomes a fully matured religion.

What I don’t like about Wicca:

1. Covens are usually organized into a hierarchical structure where one or more individuals rule (whether benignly or tyrannically) over the rest. In traditional lineage based covens, these positions would be held by a High Priestess and a High Priest. However, this traditional structure was put into question (in the late 1970's) by the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft, and also by many individuals who are currently working through informal groups or as individuals. There is something to be said for an egalitarian approach to organizing a group, where consensus rather than rule by fiat is practiced. Since I have been really burned in the past by having to deal with either incompetent or power-crazy coven leaders, I have decided that the only group structure that I will tolerate is one that is based on consensus. I have defined how such a group would function, and I have given it a name - a Star Group. (You can find where I have previously defined this kind of group in one of my articles here.)

2. Classical Witchcraft, or BTW Witchcraft, tends to be conservative and inflexible in regards to managing and maintaining their lore. While it’s good and marginally useful to document one’s core tradition and distinguish it from additions and modifications, ultimately, this historical exercise fails to keep a rigid distinction between core based lore and innovations. Also, considering that the supposed “core” was someone’s innovation developed at some time in the recent past, religiously maintaining that core becomes an exercise wholly irrelevant and prone to errors. I know for a fact that many of the witches of late 60's and early 70's weren’t really very careful when it came to documenting their lore, especially the Alexandrians, so what is being conservatively maintained now was someone’s innovation just a mere 40 years ago or less.

However, what I think is really important is based on authenticity rather than legitimacy. Does the lore work and is it sensible? Can you explain it simply and easily to others. Does it require some convoluted narration or has to be bolstered by the excuse “we have always done things this way - it’s our tradition.” If the lore works, where it can be easily explained and there isn’t a better way of doing it, then it should remain as part of the core; but if it doesn’t work, then it should be replaced or discarded. You can keep an extensive record of everything that is kept or put aside if that is your desire, but what is practiced should be powerful, elegant, useful and relevant. In this guise, revisionism and reform are not only possible, they are most desirable.

3. High Priestesses and High Priests for life. In the BTW, when someone is elevated to the third degree and becomes an officiating priest or priestess, then it is expected that they hive off and form their own coven and group. Their elders have vested in them the privilege and the responsibility to be a spiritual leader over their own group. Now, whether those elders made this judgement based on a real insight into their students’ personalities, or ensured that they would behave appropriately through rigorous testing and training, or that the elevation was merely given due to excessive flattery, obsequiousness or forms of bribery would be completely unknown to those individuals who decided to be members of that coven. It’s often like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’ve got until you take a bite, and by then it’s too late to put it back. You either chew it up and swallow or spit it out.

According to the by-laws in Classical Wicca, coven members are supposed to vote with their feet if they find their coven leaders to be wanting. Yet no one seems to talk much about the pain that they have endured, the overall bad feelings they have towards the system, or even that they can get black-balled out of their tradition by vengeful and unscrupulous leaders. In my opinion, hierarchy should be abandoned in Wicca for consensus and the flexible role of facilitators acting for the group instead of authority figures. Mentors or teachers should be temporary arrangements, and every member of a group should be considered equal regardless of their achievements.

4. Part of the theology of Classical Wicca is dependent on a Goddess and a God, and this can be quite limiting. This is a religious formulation that has been called a Duo-theological system. Some have tried to argue that this deity pairing is quite ancient, but it is actually a very recent and modern rendition. Ancient pagans believed in many deities, both named and even unnamed. Their religious practices had three levels of activity that consisted of state sanctioned deities and rites associated with the city-state or mystery traditions, family deities, ancestors and spirits associated with the home and hearth, and personal deities associated with the individual. A pagan might be devoted to one specific deity (called henotheism), but seldom was he or she strictly devoted to two deities, or a male and female pair. Additionally, the triple goddess was never mother, maid and crone, and there is no ancient record of the oak king battling the holly king to mark seasonal transitions. 

These are modern adaptations, and while they might serve a useful purpose, the more ancient and historically verifiable facts of western paganism are more compelling and likely more powerful. I have found the duo-theology of wicca to be a useful model for defining a kind of monism, which consists of the union of all being. This is because the Goddess and God are in perpetual sexual union and thereby through their ecstasy, they are perfectly emulating the One. However, the ancient pagan deities were typically omni-sexual, representing a richer and more complex model that more accurately emulates nature and human behavior. What modern witches need to do, in my opinion, is to incorporate more of the actual ancient practices into their modern core praxis.

5. When I started my religious career of becoming an initiated witch back in the 1970's, the historical gospel was that Witchcraft was the “Old Religion.” We believed that we were engaging in an ancient practice more venerable and legitimate than Christianity itself. We saw the burning times as the attempted unsuccessful conquest and persecution of pagan witchcraft, even though it was much more complex than that. Yet over the years, this belief in an ancient providence has been pretty much shown to be erroneous by historians, especially in regards to British Witchcraft. Ronald Hutton has shown in his book “Triumph of the Moon” that witchcraft in the U.K. is a recent creation, and that witchcraft as a religion didn’t exist in the previous ages. What did get transmitted down from antiquity to today are the artwork, folk traditions and the occult and magical practices, but even these have been modified and revised over the long centuries.

Wicca is a modern religion although it has pretensions of being based on antique pagan spirituality, but in some cases, actual antique lore is only now finding its way into the modern practices. What I would like to see is a lot more of this activity occurring, perhaps even rivaling what has been going in Heathenry for the last 20 years. Also, if Wicca is a modern religion, then witches acting as conservative religionists in these still formative times would seem to be highly misplaced and misdirected. In my opinion, our work has only just begun, and there is much that we can learn from studying and researching history as well as experimenting with new lore in a coven setting.

6. In the BTW, coven politics, self-glorification (Queening), and divisive inter-coven witch wars have marked the community pagan turf of a number of large cities. All of this can be shown to be rooted in the cult of personality that lies in the foundation of the hierarchical coven structure. When there is one or two absolute rulers in a group, then the members of that group jockey with each other for status and power. It seems like a common behavior amongst us hominids, and Classical Wicca tends to bring out the worst in some people. Over time, I found that I learned to hate the internal politics of such groups because it always got in the way of getting anything done. This was true even when I was supposed to be the High Priest, since like parenting, it required the consistent agreement between the two leaders in order for something to get done. Decisions from the defacto leader were usually ram-rodded into place regardless of the opinions or feelings of the members, which the leaders could ignore if they thought it prudent to do so. Believe it or not, ruling by consensus is actually so much easier because everyone is eagerly united in the work that must be done.

In some traditions of Wicca, it is proper for a High Priestess who has hived off at least one coven from her own to wear a garter with two buckles, representing her own coven and the one that hived off from her. Over time and with the accumulation of more buckles, a High Priestess could be elevated to a Witch Queen, and such an elevation included a kind of coronation, called a Queening. Of course, there is always a lot of politics involved in a coven hiving, such as strings attaching the new coven to the old coven hierarchy. In the domain of a chain of seeming ownership, no one is free except for the highest ranking Queen, and the individual initiates in any of these linear covens don’t even own their initiatory grades and spiritual progress.

The High Priestess has become a surrogate mother who coddles or punishes her brood as she sees fit. She has the habit of treating her initiates as children regardless of their previous knowledge or experience. Of course, what goes along with this overweening pride is a greater estimation of personal worth and authority. Ironically, when such egotistical individuals deal with each other in the greater community outside their organizations then the potential for conflict is greatly magnified, since each is striving to be a greater power and authority than the other. At some point something has to give, and the results are often an acrimonious exchange occurring over many months or even years. This conflict is called a “witch war” and it is often a sad and tragic event in the life of any community. Yet such conflicts occur only because of the oversized egos of the local coven leaders.

Some of the towns that I have previously lived in had a history in its pagan community of some witch war that had occurred between the leaders of different groups. What remained afterwards was a splintered and shattered community of opposing groups who would never have anything to do the other factions. Pagan community gatherings were segregated by faction, and each would spend a lot of time vilifying the other faction. It was all a terrible waste of time and effort, and instead of having a wonderful unified pagan community, that town had instead two or more bitterly opposed factions. Still, the source of the conflict was usually just a few individuals or less, and I believed at the time that if the rest of the community rejected them, then there wouldn’t be any conflict or factions. It was all based on self-glorification, which I think is inherent in hierarchical organizations that don’t have any kind of accountability to its members. If there was anything that I would change in BTW Wicca, it would be this fascination with hierarchy and self-glorification. In my eyes, all witches are equal, and all witches are just witches, nothing more.

Self-glorification can also create a barrier between a coven of initiates and a group of students who are studying and preparing to be initiates. I am referring to the so called inner and outer court structure, which seems to be a way of extending and glorifying the grade of initiate. Back in the 1970's there was no inner and outer court as far as I am aware. You were either initiated into a coven or you weren’t. Uninitiated members could be invited to attend sabbats and lore sanitized esbats; but usually a person was either elected to be a member or rejected within a lunar cycle. The first degree was a trial initiation, and if someone found that Wicca wasn’t their cup of tea, then they could leave with no harm being done.

From what I understand, an outer court is a holding area used for training dedicants and keeping an eye on them for a year and a day to make certain that they will turn out to be proper witches. Someone could spend a year and a day preparing themselves and then get deferred or rejected when it came time to be initiated into the coven, perhaps just because of politics or someone’s ill will. I have heard arguments from some High Priestesses that the outer court is necessary to ensure that an initiate doesn’t embarrass or shame the coven leadership with bad judgment or outrageous behavior. Of course that assumes that the reputation of the coven leadership was a sacred commodity to be maintained at all costs, and that the initiate wasn’t capable of being responsible for themselves.

What it really says is that the initiate doesn’t even possess his or her own initiatory process. They are treated as children, and in the case of an outer court, there is even a kindergarten or pre-school level to undergo. Needless to say, if I were starting all over and was presented with an outer court requirement in order to join a coven, I would just tell them thanks but no thanks. If they didn’t think I was good enough to be an initiate, then I would find some group who would want me to be a member of their tradition. I could also remain solitary and not experience any huge loss or missed opportunity. Being solitary is far better than being in a bad coven, and trust me, I know this to be true. This might also explain why so many witches are solitary and self-initiated, since there is little to be gained by the possibility of being degraded and dis-empowered by some overly self-important coven leader.

Anyway, I have discussed in detail what I don’t like about Wicca, and I have balanced that assessment with those things that I do like. I still consider myself a Witch in the BTW arena, but I greatly doubt that I would ever be a member of a Classical Wiccan coven. I would be happy to help facilitate a Star Group anywhere and anytime, but not a hierarchical coven structure. I believe that human nature being what it is, there is just too much temptation to abuse the absolute authority inherent in the priest/ess role associated with Classical Wicca. These are, of course, my opinions, and you are free to agree or disagree with them. However, these opinions are based on many years of experience as well as experimenting with different kinds of group structures. Since I am at heart a revisionist, I have felt that experimenting with different group structures and dynamics was just as important as trying out new magical techniques. I believe that I have profited by these experiences, and I seek to share them with you so you might profit as well.

Frater Barrabbas

Questions About the Future of Modern Witchcraft and Paganism

(Dance of the Dead - Modern Witchcraft and Paganism?)

 

One of the things that has most captured my imagination and inspiration is how both Gardner and Alex Sanders experimented and tinkered with their traditions, as if they were never really satisfied with what they had and were always on the lookout for new and interesting lore. Back in the 1960's, the practice of Witchcraft and Paganism was so new that the various leaders of these traditions engaged in a flurry of creative experimentation and investigation. Yet the focus was not so much on the religious liturgy, although that did play a part, but on the whole basis or foundation of a modern praxis of ritual magick. Lineages and initiatory affidavits were not very attractive to those “spiritual spelunkers,” but entering into the reality of Spirit and the domain of the mysteries was critically important. It was a time of discovery, experimentation and personal development. Arcane studies and antique knowledge were being rediscovered, as if they had been completely lost and not temporarily forgotten. It was a chaotic but very fruitful time for those various pagan and wiccan traditions who were the founders of the overall movement, but it promised so very much to even the most superficial faddist.

In a word, what was important to witches and pagans in the halcyon days of the 1960's was authenticity rather than legitimacy. Young people who followed their urges for this phenomenon wanted authentic experiences of what would be called natural religion and magick, and they were less interested in established organizations. These people didn’t flock to the Masons, the Theosophical Society, spiritualist churches, or other such organizations; instead they fashioned their own groups and organizations. This is also why eastern religions became so popular during that time because they offered their adherents authentic spiritual experiences in a startlingly different cultural context. To young people starved for actual experiences of the occult world and the supernatural, these new avenues represented what they called “the real deal.”

Contrast that time with today and we can see a very different world, and I would urgently state my opinion that it is an apparent time of diminishment and decline. It is also a time for a whole new focus and a division between two divergent groups. When witches or pagans of any tradition become more concerned about stridently preserving their tradition and establishing their lineage bonafides instead of continuing to experiment and develop their personal and traditional approach to pagan beliefs, ideals and occult practices, then I feel that a corner has been turned, and unfortunately, for the worse. Orthodoxy has the terrible effect of not only preserving a tradition but also making a permanent edifice out of it, where change is anathema and strict adherence is the only possible direction. While there might be a certain diversity even in established traditions, they are rigidly held as if they were unassailable holy writ. This sort of mindless dedication belies the fact that differences and variances in Pagan and Wiccan lineages were developed only a short time ago, and they emerged because someone was tinkering with the tradition that they had received.

Ossifying the founding traditions of the Gardnerian and Alexandrian craft, and their various offshoots, is a sure sign that they are in decline since no further development is either desired or even possible. The emphasis has changed from discovery to one of preserving protocols and purifying the sources of one’s liturgical praxis; in other words, focusing on legitimacy instead of authenticity. This process of sanitizing a tradition is actually quite deadly, in my opinion, since it eliminates the possibility of experiencing the mysteries of the natural world outside of the stated and sparse liturgical lore. It also cordons off these traditions in a manner so that they are immune from revision, experimentation, or even developing new lore. They focus on a kind of nebulous religious paganism instead of magical practices and its various associated lore. As the ranks of witches and pagans become ever more elderly and religiously conservative, the actual numbers of young and new adherents also diminishes as well as the vibrancy and relevancy of the tradition itself.

This is really a very sad event, considering how young the various traditions of witchcraft and paganism truly are. Sixty years is hardly enough time to formulate a comprehensive spiritual and magical tradition. It would seem to me that what is really needed is a lot more experimentation and a lot less emphasis on lineage and liturgy, since otherwise these traditions will become dormant before they can even mature. I wrote a past article on legitimacy vs. authenticity representing, as it does, the divide that faces modern paganism and witchcraft, and that the difference between the two is quite distinct. You can find that article here.

A crucial dividing point between the vibrancy of the 1960's and today is the monumental work of Ronald Hutton, entitled “Triumph of the Moon,” which changed the whole perspective of modern witchcraft and paganism. It quickly transitioned from being a form of intense social and religious rebellion allied with an antique heritage to one that is a wholly modern creation. What Hutton did was to set the historical record straight in regards to the actual history of witchcraft and paganism in Britain, but it also had the effect of turning these new creeds into a harmless and socially friendly religious sodality. So much effort has been put into reclaiming and mainstreaming the word “Witch” that it would seem much of the real power and fascination the word has in our culture, and the rather ambiguous connotations that it has in folklore, appear to be lost. I would caution that “defanging” Witchcraft and making it analogous to other mainstream faiths is certainly a way to drain it of it mystery, awe and imagination - the very things that drew me to it so many years ago.

(A similar event occurred to the Catholic church through the auspices of reform. Vatican II eliminated at a stroke the power and magic of the Catholic mass and the veneration and worship of the Saints, and so it robbed the church of everything that made it uniquely authentic. That form of antique religious magic passed on to the followers of the African and Hispanic diaspora, where the “true” magical church is still alive and thriving.)

So I have been brooding over these various opinions and issues that I have with modern witchcraft and how it is practiced today, and I have stated them in some of my previous articles for others to read and ponder as well. However, it seems that until recently, no one has really stated the obvious conclusion that all of these disturbing changes seem to imply. The really dreadful issue that everyone seems to be tip-toeing around is that modern witchcraft, in regards to established traditions, is more or less dead or dying. Perhaps the bravest writer out there who has eloquently and clearly stated this forbidden conclusion is an author named Peter Grey. He wrote an article on the Scarlet Imprint blog entitled “A Forking of Paths,” and you can find it here. Peter not only has affirmed my suspicions and opinions, but he has brought out in a very clear and unequivocal manner what I have been thinking for quite some time. He has stated that modern witchcraft has already passed a fork in the road between those who espouse a gentle and socially affable modern pagan religion with those who continue to seek authentic experiences in the domain of nature mysteries and witchcraft based magick. 

One of the most compelling things that Peter has said in his article, and that I have witnessed myself over the last couple of decades, is that “initiatory” witchcraft traditions seem to be populated with far more older established members than younger new members. I have not only seen this phenomenon in regards to covens, groups and organizations, but also at local social gatherings of various types. Our local COG organization consists of mostly middle aged adults with very few young people. There is a reason for this dearth of new and youthful members, particularly since the emphasis of these older traditions and groups is more on a stultifying legitimacy than authentic experiences. A single quote from Peter’s article more than makes the point that what we are seeing is a movement in decline as opposed to one that is growing and continuing to evolve.

“Far from being healthy, the argument could be made that modern pagan witchcraft is already on the wane. The lack of fire is evident in the dearth of young people at this, and many other events. Modern pagan witchcraft seems irrelevant to the concerns of their lives, it is tangential to their struggles, which are about to become immeasurably harder.”

Another fascinating point that Peter has made is to compare the modern witchcraft traditions to another slowly disappearing esoteric tradition in American culture, the Masons. I found this statement to be quite profound and even a bit alarming.

“Initiated Wicca will follow the same arc of decline that Masonry has.”

So if Peter is stating that traditional Witchcraft or Wicca is facing an immanent decline into obscurity and death, does that mean that the whole theme of earth-based spirituality, including the natural mysteries and earth-based magick, is in decline as well? I think that the answer to that question is to be found in wherever the energy and development is still occurring in the area of earth-based spirituality, and particularly, where the young people are still flocking to find authentic experiences. It is in the arena of what could be called the alternative traditional witchcraft, or those traditions that are completely outside of the Gardnerian model that became popular Wicca. These groups would include both European as well as Carribean and South American witchcraft traditions, which only recently have become accessible to outsiders.

In my own town, the cutting edge of witchcraft is to be found in the ongoing discussion meeting known as the “Old Craft Discussion Group,” or in certain experimental groups, or groups presenting a new cultural matrix altogether. What is exciting to these people is not the Gardnerian based traditions, but in forms of witchcraft that are to be found in Brazil and the Carribean, as well as in West Africa and other locations. It is in these places that witchcraft is still defined as a praxis of magic as opposed to a pagan religion, and where the term “Witchcraft” represents someone who has the power to kill as well as to cure. These groups are the ones that are being sought, and they represent the melding of the old world with the new to fashion a truly viable authentic tradition. 

The key to this revelation is that ecstasy, magic, foreboding darkness, mystery, and even a bit of awe and fear produce a more authentic experience of witchcraft than anything a traditional coven could produce today. Wherever a tradition has systematically eliminated its own magic, mysteries and the full immersion of its adherents into the numinous world of the Gods and the dead ancestors then that tradition has thoroughly and completely lost its way. This is my opinion and I am sure that some will hotly contest it; but I believe that magic and the mysteries, as well as ecstasy, are fundamentally important to a true practice of witchcraft. I make no apologies for stating this opinion.

Making an authentic experience of the mysterious and tenebrous domain of Spirit available to anyone who desires it (instead of catering to an elite or exclusive clique) will not only engage the young and the old, but will also continue the process of discovery and personal development that is so integral to a healthy religious and magical movement. While the staid traditions of Gardnerian Wicca will slowly die out and pass away into oblivion, the new impulses and cutting edge experiential practices will be taken up by others.

Certainly, as the post-industrial age becomes more apparent and starts to profoundly effect more of the population, a spiritual philosophy and magical technology based on earth centered spirituality will become much more attractive to the masses. Rigid orthodox religious practices will continue to lose popularity, and their membership will dwindle down to a fringe minority over the coming decades. Yet, the mysteries, with that hair-raising magic which so haunts us all, and the ecstatic forays into the domain of Spirit; these will remain the proclivity of a small group of people, all of whom are self-elected, self-directed and self-motivated. It is my opinion that these individuals are the true hidden children of the Goddess of Witchcraft, and the carriers of that tradition into the far future.

Frater Barrabbas