Alexandrian Witchcraft Tradition - Is it a Tradition?

 

I read an article written by Maxine Sanders that was passed on by some Alexandrian Witches in a FaceBook comment. In that article, Maxine seemed to be decrying those who have used the traditional Godhead names and words of power with a certain impunity and a lack of deference to the traditional lore given to them. While I do not approve of people abusing what they have received from their teachers and sponsors in a traditional religious practice, what she said also made me wonder to myself what could possibly be sacred about a tradition that was mostly invented by Gardener and later, Alex Sanders? If it was all invented, contrived and cobbled together by a handful of people where only individual gnosis could be considered as original contributions, then what is actually being abused? If a student goes off on their own path and makes use of what they have been taught and mixes it with other material found in other non-traditional or uncanonical sources, then is that not their own business?

Alexandrians initiate third degree witches to be autonomous, and there is no process where any initiatory degree can be recalled or nullified. Gardnerians, on the other hand, can recall or nullify an initiation through their initiating High Priestess, since even after a Gardnerian Witch is initiated to third degree they are not autonomous. Everyone is held accountable to their upstream lineage elders, but this is not so with Alexandrians. That means that an Alexandrian initiate is only accountable to themselves and possibly, to the community at large, but nothing can be done to unmake an initiate. I know this fact from personal experience, yet overall, we are made to realize that mistakes can be made in choosing individuals for elevation who later turn out to be bad actors in their communities. 

People can be banned from covens or community gatherings, but they can still function as High Priestesses or High Priests whether local community covens and groups like it or not. That also means that an Alexandrian Third degree initiate can also determine what their tradition looks like, what they would practice as liturgical or magical ceremonies and operations, and there is no one who has the authority to countermand them or punish them if they do bad things, thereby making them accountable. That kind of authority doesn’t exist, so if someone invents new things in their version of Alexandrian Witchcraft, or appears to abuse their teachings, then even Maxine Sanders cannot really do anything about it. It is what it is, and autonomy means that an initiate can comport themselves however they see fit. Can we as a community criticize their behavior? Yes, indeed, although it will be a kind of toothless criticism unless a large majority agree, and even then there is nothing to disenfranchise an autonomous third degree initiate.

Then there is the issue that what is taught by a High Priestess or High Priest in an Alexandrian coven is somehow sacred. It was always the case back in the days when I was a witchling that the coven and traditional lore had a provenance that made it sacred and magically powerful. We were told that Witchcraft was the old religion and that various elements of that tradition were passed down from witches going back to antiquity. Of course, that was determined to be an urban myth that accurate historical research showed through the writings of academics and initiated practitioners. Gardner invented the rituals of Wicca and plagiarized many sources, including Crowley’s Gnostic Mass and the Masonic initiations for Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft. All of the Deity names and words of power were taken from various sources or just invented. Some of the best liturgical rites were penned by Doreen Valiente, and we owe her a great debt of gratitude. 

So, since nothing actually has an ancient provenance and it was invented at some point in the last 75 years or so, is it truly sacred? Oath bound material is given in trust between teacher and student, but it is not sacred because it is only confidential to that specific traditional line. Since the various Books of Shadows have been either published or exist online, there doesn’t seem to be any secrets except those related to an individual’s personal gnosis and to the confidentiality of the members of a coven and what goes on in that group. That is, as far as I am concerned, the extent of oath-bound boundaries and what they should actually cover. Coven histories, membership, covenstead Deities and group developed rites and ceremonies should be covered by an oath of secrecy, or better yet, of confidentiality. Everything else is already known about the various traditions of Witchcraft by the writings of practitioners and folk religion academics. I have maintained in my various articles that the true mysteries of modern Witchcraft and Paganism are what the many individuals experience first hand in their encounters with nature and spirit. 

This brings me, of course, to my own case. I took what my teachers gave me, adding it to my own personal system of magic and developed, over the years, an advanced system of magic. I did this without any permission from my teachers, and seemingly without any thought to keeping the traditional practices intact in my work. I am guilty as charged as to having no awe or even appreciation for the traditional teachings. This is because my quest was not to either preserve or promote the teachings that I had been given, but to continue its development and evolve it to highest extent possible to me. I still have the traditional teachings kept separate and intact, although they are, for all practical purposes, been replaced with the more advanced lore that I developed. That includes the seasonal Sabbats and the Esbats and all liturgical as well as magical operations. In my current practice, there is nothing of the traditional lore that I had received so many decades ago.

I also have organized and published this lore that I have developed, and my task is to eventually publish it all. That makes me the consummate oath-breaker, although since what I have developed is my personal system and so far removed from what I received when I was freshly initiated as to not be covered by any oath that I made when undergoing my training and initiation. Still, what Maxine said in her article would identify me as one of those individuals who have used the traditional lore as a stepping stone to gain greater glory while supposedly denigrating the tradition that I was given in sacred trust by no longer using it. However, I have a simple excuse that makes what I have done acceptable, perhaps even admirable. That is the fact that this advanced lore which I have developed and published was an obligation I assumed years ago, even before I was initiated, to my personal Goddess who urged and inspired me to greater complexity and who directed me to share what I had developed with others similar to myself. So, I can say that I am an oath-breaker, sort of, and that I have blithely passed beyond my traditional lore, and I am a published author, simply because my Goddess obliged me to do these things. In other words, the Goddess made me do it!

Frater Barrabas   

Witchcraft and Evocation Simplified

Spirit Conjuring and the Legendary Witches

It is a long tradition in the annals and legends of witchcraft that witches performed magic through the agency of demons, fairies and lesser spirits, such as elementals, fetches (created spirits), nature spirits, ancestors (both spiritual and actual), spirits of the dead and various other supernatural servitors. They had a familiar spirit that assisted them in these efforts, but much of their work involved engaging and conjuring spirits in some manner to perform some kind of special or mundane task. The greatest of the legendary witches seemed to work mostly from a spirit model of magick.

The other kinds of workings that some (but not all) performed were various types of spell-craft, such as healing, curses, jinxes, finding lost things or buried treasure, acquiring or returning lovers, getting justice, etc., which required the kind of thaumaturgical magic that hoodoo root doctors today would readily recognize. Pagan religion wasn’t much of a concern or a factor for these lone or family-based practitioners, although they might indulge in calling antique deities along with their collection of other spirits, which could consist of popular Roman pagan gods and goddesses, Christian aspects of Deity, apostles, saints, angels, or even demons. They could employ psalms from the bible or other kinds of appropriated religious texts or use church sanctioned items, such as holy water or consecrated oil (chrism) or even hosts. These workings might also sometimes include various other tropes of the spiritual left hand path including calling upon the Devil himself. Whatever worked for a given task could be employed, and traditional witches seemed not to bother differentiating between Pagan, Christian, Jewish, or Diabolical elements. They seemed immune to any kind of sectarian bias and were, in a word, nearly animistic in their practices. So much has changed in our world since those early days.

Whether witches practiced “white” or “black” magic seemed to be determined by the goal they were pursuing, either for themselves or at the behest of a paying client. Witchcraft has always been the practice of illegal and unsanctioned magic seemingly appropriated from the religious rituals of the group for the benefit of the individual, and it has assumed a kind of grey undefined area between malefic and beneficial works. The status of the legendary witch was also quite ambiguous, which would be a natural outcome associated with anyone who was capable of doing both good and evil. 

In the present times this legendary Witch and her work seems far removed from the kind of magic that Witches perform today, if indeed they perform any kind of magic at all. Believe it or not, there is a movement out there that seeks to completely erase magical practices from the workings, rites and ceremonies of Modern Witchcraft. This movement seems benignly motivated to create a legitimate and friendly pagan religion that is acceptable to all other mainstream religions and creeds.

I have said previously that I find this disturbing because it does considerable damage to the whole concept of Witchcraft. After all, isn’t the practice of magic the “craft” part of Witchcraft? Take away the magic and all its lore from the traditional witch and all you have left is some kind of modern pagan revisionist religion that is harmless, banal and also, I might add, incredibly dull. In fact, I would go so far as to say that without the magical spells and spirit conjuring there is no “craft” dimension to witchcraft whatsoever. We might as well call it that peaceful, hippie inspired, nature-religion “Wicca” instead of using the word “Witchcraft,” and that is also a change that some practitioners are heartily promoting.

Some have called for the “re-wilding” of the Craft and others have called for a darker form of Witchcraft to replace the apparently castrated and “fluffy” popular version of Wicca. Even the British Traditional Witchcraft (BTW) has apparently succumbed to mediocrity and denied the importance of the legendary witchcraft and its focus on spirit conjuring, spirit-world traveling and poisonous root work. Others have promoted various forms of hoodoo or thaumaturgy, which I would surely find more useful that religious Wicca but not as challenging as conjuring. It would seem that if a person calls herself a Witch and thereby embraces all that such a role implies then it would be important for her to master the art of spirit conjuring at the very least. My argument is that Witchcraft, as a magical religion with an emphasis on the word “craft” consisting of forms of lower and higher ritual magick, should be the basis for a modern practice of Witchcraft. Taking that argument to heart should inspire a practicing Witch to engage in all of the tropes and fetishes of the legendary Witch. We don’t need to make Witchcraft darker or wilder. We just need to be faithful to the concept of Witchcraft as established by the legends of the Witches.

As a mechanism or adjunct to the “wilding” of Witchcraft, some writers have stated that goetic conjuring should be a part of the Witches repertoire. I agree, but I believe that it should be only a part of an overall methodology for entering the world of spirit as well as trafficking with the spirits of ancestors, the unsettled or heroic dead, chthonic deities (all deities have a chthonic aspect or root), elementals, deep earth spirits and demons. A Witch following the path of traditional Witchcraft would learn to master the ability of entering into the underworld or spirit world and also have the ability to conjure the spirits of that domain into the domain of the living, which is the whole point of evocation.

The magic associated with this ability to spirit travel and conjure was known in the Greek speaking world of antiquity as the magic of the “goes,” hence the title of goetic magic that is based on the practitioner or “goes.” (The term “goes,” as I have stated in previous articles, represents the keening and moaning intonations that the witch would use to summon spirits or enter into that stygian world. It is a quasi shamanic technique that has modern precedents, as we shall see.) From my perspective then, the arts of spirit travel, conjuring and the acquisition of a familiar spirit are the repertoire of the traditional Witch. These, and other practices, are the “craft” part of Witchcraft and they are still valid and available for the modern adherent of religious Witchcraft or Wicca.   

However, approaching spirit conjuring requires some source materials and knowledge that won’t be found in any of the books on Wicca (or the standard Book of Shadows, for that matter), unless one digs very deep and comes up with a long out-of-print copy of “Mastering Witchcraft” by Paul Huson. A Witch who aspires to master conjuring spirits can either adopt the whole of the Golden Dawn or Grimoire based ceremonial magick corpus or she can use the tools that she has at hand with a few minor additions. (Allow me to illustrate what those minor additions might consist of for an erstwhile Witch following the path of the legendary Witches.)

I have decided to write this article to provide any Witch who wants to learn the art of conjuring all the necessary tools needed to accomplish that end, and these are readily at hand. She doesn’t have to invest in all of the books and materials required to become a ceremonial magician in order to master this technique. As I have explained in my previous articles, there is a distinct difference between what I call ceremonial magick and pagan-based ritual magick. They are quite different and that difference is based on the concept of immersion vs. isolation.

A ceremonial magician seeks to control and isolate the evocation of spirits so his magic circle functions as a barrier and place of protection. The reason for this isolation is that the ceremonial magician considers any direct contact with spirits to be dangerous and morally contaminating. The goetic triangle placed outside of the protective circle that he uses is to be the focus for the spirit evocation. However, the witch has a completely different model for her work.

The magic circle that she erects is not to protect her from spirits but to establish a boundary between the sacred inner world of spirits and deities and the outer world of the profane. It is a completely different kind of mechanism that causes the Witch practitioner to be exposed to all of the magical workings performed within that magic circle. That would include anyone else who happens to be in that circle when such rites are performed. The erection of a boundary in modern Witchcraft is analogous to ancient Pagan temples or sacred sites having a specific (and sometimes marked) boundary to designate the border between the sacred and profane worlds. The only difference between them is the permanence of the ancient Pagan temple precincts and the temporary nature of the Witch’s magic circle erected wherever needed.

This is the magical process that I have called immersion as set down in several of my previous writings, since the Witch is exposed to everything performed within her magic circle. The only protection that she has at her disposal to control and focus the working is the power of her familiar spirit and her own iron-like will. In the modern world of Witchcraft the familiar spirit is expanded and augmented to include the assumption of a personal Godhead, which represents her higher self and spiritual genius. This powerful godhead assumption is the core of both the witch’s religious work as well as the primary state in which she will perform all higher forms of magic, be they a form of energy work, the conjuring of spirits, or both.

The foundational state that is the precursor to all of these kinds of magical workings consists of the various levels of trance states and through them, the assumption of godhead. Modern Wicca, especially in the BTW, reserves the prerogative of the Drawing Down rite to the chief celebrant, whether that is the High Priestess (represented by the Moon) or the High Priest (symbolized by the Sun or Horned God). However, in Modern magical-based Witchcraft, this rite becomes the necessary step for any kind of magical operation, particularly higher forms of ritual magick such as spirit conjuring. The godhead assumption functions pretty much the same as the acquisition and deployment of a familiar spirit in antique forms of witchcraft. In order to assume one’s God/dess Within, a powerful trance state must be adopted. These two mechanisms represent a single seamless process in the arsenal of the Witch, and it is the most important tool that any Witch worth her salt has mastered and perfected.

Trance levels as adopted by the witch can graduate from mild to extreme, depending on what kind of operation is to be performed. Trance can be induced by any number of traditional or ad hoc methodologies, based on one’s inclination and personal preferences. However, breath-control, intoning with vocalized humming, visual focal locking, repetitive bodily movement, the ingesting of ethnogens, calling or keening wails, barbarous words of summoning can be used to facilitate different trance states. Trance is also employed for spirit travel, divination, spirit conjuring and also for godhead assumption.

A deep trance is used for oracular communication with the Gods, spirits or to facilitate spirit travel into their domains, but a mild trance is the basic operating state in which most workings are performed. This is because a truly deep trance is temporarily debilitating and makes performing even a simple operation very difficult. Even so, the first time that a Witch attempts to undergo a godhead assumption the associated trance state should be as extreme as possible. It is also assumed that such a first encounter would necessitate assistants, helpers or a teacher to orchestrate and guide the process. Once such a powerful trance state and assumption have been performed then the Witch should be able to develop a method of readily assuming her Godhead in a more milder trance state. When required, a Witch can easily shift from the mild trance to a deep trance and bring forward to consciousness the full embodiment of the Godhead to bear on any magical event or occurrence.

A personal Godhead is nothing more than a personalized aspect of a Pagan Deity that appeals to the practicing Witch and through which she identifies herself. While this entity might not seem to be analogous to the spirit familiar that the legendary witches sought to acquire, I believe that it does fit many of the functions and attributes associated with such an entity. Ancient sources specified that familiar spirits could take multiple forms including that of animals, and that they were considered to be either demons (malefic) or fairies (good). However, the purpose of a familiar spirit was to bridge the worlds of mankind and the worlds of spirit and thereby act as an aid and a guide to the witch in mastering both worlds. I believe that the personalized deity (as a basis for the higher self) succinctly answers this requirement. Modern witches have delegated the familiar to being a specific pet owned by them. Yet without the magical agency of bridging the spirit and material worlds such a delegation is both misleading and probably specious.

Being able to assume a Godhead completely and thoroughly (although briefly) should be considered a basic staple for any practicing Witch regardless of whether or not she intends to perform any kind of higher forms of ritual magick. There is nothing so profound and empowering as engaging with the rituals and ceremonies while under the trance induced influence of one’s personal Godhead. Trance possession by a Deity is also an important protection as well as an empowerment for the practicing Witch, since the inclusive nature of the magic circle gives her no real spiritual protection other than her own will-power. 

I have recently written an article that details my opinions and perspectives about the nature and importance of godhead assumption and how it plays an important role in the development of a Witchcraft-based form of ritual magick. For those who might have missed this article, I would recommend that they read it and also study the underlying articles that it references. I believe that this rite is a critically important part of the practice of Modern Witchcraft and that a proficiency in the performance of this rite marks the difference between the adherent of a strictly religionist Wicca and the follower of the Witchcraft path. You can find that article here.

Spirit Conjuring - Five Easy Steps

Now that we have covered all of the basic elements that a modern Witch would need in order to be able to perform a spirit conjuration, we can now go over a simple mechanism for spirit conjuration. What I am proposing here is to use a method that is the simplest and most efficient in regards to making use of the techniques and materials that a modern Witch would have at her disposal. (This technique is not the one that I use myself, which is much more elaborate, but it is one that I used in the past and have therefore fully vetted.)

As for magical tools, a Witch would have a consecrated weapon (an athame) and the use of a secluded space in which to perform this working. Those are the primary requirements that a Witch needs to perform a conjuration. Some other basic tools would be cups for lustral water (salt water) and liquid offerings (wine or ale), a pentacle for solid offerings (salt, bread or other food), an incense burner and incense, lamps or candles, a consecrated pointing stick or wand, and optionally, a consecrated sword. An ink pen and some parchment would also be useful. Most modern Witches would either have all of these materials or would be able to easily acquire them, and whatever is used for her craft should be kept apart from mundane tools and implements. Any other accouterments would be considered helpful but not essential to the work. Of course, the most important mechanism is the familiar spirit or preliminary godhead assumption and all of the associated intimate relations between the Witch and her personal Deity, and the ability to assume various levels of trance whenever required.

The five basic steps used for conjuration are based on the age-old, classical method of spirit conjuring, although one or two might not be always necessary or even needed. These steps are, in sequential order, consecration (preparation), invocation, binding, constraining and then releasing. The binding and constraining might not be necessary, depending on whether the target spirit is either emotionally hot or cold. If the spirit is hot, then it can be engaged to perform aggressive or hostile actions for the benefit of the practitioner or her client. Such a spirit might need to be bound and constrained, but even a simple invocation has some degree of binding and constraining simply because the practitioner is calling and summoning that spirit to appear in a focused manner. A spirit that is considered cold is one that is essentially benevolent (or neutral) and doesn’t require any kind of overt binding. Often binding is symbolically performed through the use of magical cords and the actual tying of knots (ligature), but that is a symbolic prop that can be just as readily performed using the power of the will and sharply focusing the intent. Whatever actions the Witch performs within her magic circle are also backed up by the personal Deity that she is operating through. Pragmatism is the actual rule here, that and one’s personal predilections, so determining what works requires a fair amount of experimentation and the use of one’s imagination.

The most important part of these five steps is the consecration and preparation stage. The more effort and time that is put into the preparation for the working will naturally result in a more powerful and successful outcome. This also includes the most important research into the nature of the target spirit and its associated symbology. A Witch conjurer must establish a deep and intimate connection with the target spirit beforehand or the attempt to conjure it will undoubtedly fail. The primary key to invoking a spirit is to know its name. There are many ways of determining the name of a spirit, but it is strategically important to know the name (and the proper spelling) in order to perform a successful conjuring rite.

This brings me to an important consideration. Some writers have stated that all that is required in order to master the art of spirit conjuration, and particularly the conjuration of demons, is to select one of the more reputable grimoires and to use it singularly and consistently. While I would admit that such a practice would produce the desired results, the problem that I have with this approach is that nearly all grimoires have a particular Christian bias in regards to depicting and characterizing angels and demons, and also the kind of dialogue associated with their invocation and the overall methodology for conjuring. There is either an attitude of hostility and suspicion towards demonic spirits (or any kind of spirit) or an avowed inclination towards aligning oneself with infernal or satanic godheads. Either perspective is decidedly Christian and completely at odds with the traditional Witch conjuror who would judge spirits based on actual contact and prolonged experience.

While there might be various elements in the old grimoires that a Witch might find useful or aesthetically pleasing, she must be careful not to accept the underlying Christian metaphysical universe as well. This is the reason why I elect to “cherry pick” useful elements from the old grimoires, but I reject using them as they currently exist because they fail to agree with my pagan spiritual perspectives.

I believe that the best approach is to shed the whole Christian perspective and approach each spirit as a unique individual that has certain qualities. These qualities may be associated with elemental, planetary or zodiacal attributes, but they should not be influenced by Christian morality. So, that means that the various descriptions of spirits as found in the old grimoires are completely useless. The only thing that has any value whatsoever is the identifying sigil or character and the spirit’s name. The overall class of spirits as well as any underlying symbolic qualifications may assist the Witch in developing an image or imago of the target spirit, but the magical techniques and approach to performing a conjuration of such a spirit should be developed separately and distinctly from the grimoire from which they are taken.

This also includes aligning oneself with various infernal chiefs or other such fabulous diabolic entities (Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifuge), since they are specifically associated with Christian or Jewish concepts spiritual duality and are not commensurate with the pagan non-dual spiritual perspectives of a Witch. All Deities are valid and real as are all spirits, but Abrahamic based theology is neither valid nor applicable to the practice of traditional Witchcraft-based magick. Thus I seek to approach these kinds of magical entities in a neutral manner, removing the obvious Christian stigmas and the accretions of misinformation to reveal the spirit’s underlying pagan characteristics. (The apparent monism of Witchcraft can be found in the idea that everything is connected to everything else, and that all of the spiritual entities in the world are united within the One which is purposely left un-named.)

Perhaps some of the most powerful and personal spirits with whom I have trafficked were known only to me and my personal magical process. They are not names of spirits found in books, and the lore associated with them is what I developed myself, so it is quite personal and intimate. We are surrounded by spirits and some of them are associated with the place and location wherein we reside or work while others are associated with our genetic lineage, spiritual lineage or our personal magical pantheon, which is always far greater than we realize. Ignoring all of these entities while cultivating the spirits found in the old grimoires is probably a very one-sided approach to Witchcraft-based magick, and it is not one that I would recommend.

I believe that the Witch conjuror should develop her ability to conjure these spirits first before engaging with spirits of the old grimoires. This will engage the Witch for a time, since she will have to determine the names, qualities and build up their images in order to conjure them and develop a lengthy and intimate relationship with them. In fact, a Witch could go far just working with the spirits in her own domain without having to traffic with the spirits listed in the grimoires. Still, the real challenge is to engage with both sets of spirits (personal domain and legendary) and master all of them in turn.

Keep in mind that to a modern pagan we have around us many Gods, Goddesses, Earth Spirits, Deities of place and location, ancestors, cultural heros, the unsettled spirits of the dead, demons, fabulous creatures and a host of lesser or even unknown deities and spirits. It is a very crowded spiritual universe and it is important for the Witch to build up a pantheon of meaningful Deities and Spiritual Sponsors, not to mention the most important of all spirits, which is her familiar spirit. This is the first task (in my opinion) that faces the Witch who aspires to be a conjurer. Once she is well vetted with the conjuration of spirits in her own domain then she can take on the spirits of legend as they occur in the various old grimoires. 

I have based this inclusive spiritual perspective of many Gods and Spirits and rejected the bias of my Christian upbringing because it was a source of my own previous confusion and lack of clarity when it came to dealing with these entities in a practical and pagan manner. I discovered that this confusion was completely resolved the moment I rejected the dualistic notions and tendencies associated with Christian theology so imbedded in our world and saturating our cultural values.

These spiritual biases suffuse the old grimoires because they were written by Christians, although some of those authors did display a pronounced predilection for diabolism in their practices. I discovered the hard way that it is better to base one’s spiritual beliefs on a pagan perspective (even if it is modern in scope) and only to that add the various spirits and entities associated with any of the old grimoires rather than attempt to emulate the mind-set behind them. In this manner, the Witch as conjuror doesn’t take on all of the baggage associated with the various classes of spirits, be they angels, demons, chthonic deities, infernal chiefs or whatever. With this in mind, the traditional Witch can appropriate various spirit lists, sigils, characters and other attributes and tropes from the old grimoires without any trouble, but she should keep her spiritual beliefs and alignments completely intact and not forget her own personal spiritual contacts. This is particularly true regarding her familiar spirit, which consists of her personal alignment to a personal Deity and all of the associated liturgical obligations and spiritual connections that such a relationship entails.

In order to engage in conjuring the legendary spirits, the Witch will appropriate various spirit lists, characters/sigils and associated zodiacal attributes (if feasible) and select one of these spirits as the target of a conjuration. While the descriptions might be highly misleading, the functional attributes (what the spirit can do if it is successfully conjured) are a basic starting point. As the Witch conjurer becomes more experienced and familiar with the various spirits associated with a particular grimoire or class then the descriptions and details of each spirit will be filled out to include a great deal of detailed experiential knowledge. The most important task in preparing for a conjuration is to develop a personal connection or alignment with a specific target spirit. Perhaps that spirit is a specialized gate-keeper for access to a whole class of spirits (such as Scirlan in the Grimoirum Verum) or it might just be one of a distinct class. Regardless, the Witch approaches this spirit with a powerful emotional desire to summon and to experience a thorough engagement with it.

The preparation work requires a period of preliminary summoning where the Witch creates the consecrated parchment with the spirit’s name and its character or sigil and makes the association between the symbol on the parchment and the entity itself a powerful reality in her mind. The act of fashioning this consecrated talisman for the purpose of conjuring it will be the first step in successfully evoking it. This is because the consecrated talisman is a physical link for that spirit. Other things can be used to augment the conjuration of the target spirit, such as the use of colored altar cloths and candles, incense, oils, herbs, gems, precious metals etched with the spirit’s name and character; all of these are based on the symbolic qualities associated with the spirit, but all of them are merely supplemental when compared to the consecrated parchment sigil.        

While the grimoires have quite a number of items that need to be consecrated and prepared for the working, such as vestments, weapons and other tools, the Witch already has all of her tools consecrated and ready for use. She only needs to fashion and consecrate the parchment sigil, and once that is done, she will spend many hours or even days focusing on the parchment character and internally call and summon the spirit. I could well imagine that the Witch sits in her dark sequestered temple holding the consecrated parchment in her hands before a lit candle specially made and consecrated for that use, whose light is dimmed by the clouds of incense smoke. Within that twilight stygian atmosphere she is whispering the name of the spirit over and over again, thereby powerfully reinforcing her intention to invoke this spirit. (I typically perform this same action days prior to a scheduled invocation and I have found it to be a potent tool for reinforcing the invocative working, even though I use a much more elaborate ritual lore.)

A Witch might also use this preparation time to gather and prepare any other ingredients that she might need, such as bitter or aromatic herbs or other items that are a regular part of her work. She will pick an auspicious night for the planned invocation based on the cycle of the moon and planets, but all of this will be a normal part of her cyclic work. It will also depend on the class and type of spirit that she intending to invoke, but the cycle of the moon will be sufficient to complete her task. The actual effort of preparation, though, is the fortification of the mind and the will to successfully accomplish the work, since these will be the most essential elements used in the invocation.

When the scheduled time for the invocation working arrives then the Witch will sequester herself in her temple domain for the duration of the working. This domain may be a permanent location or it might be a room or outdoor area temporarily reserved for that purpose. Regardless, the Witch will perform her usual circle consecration rite, empowerment and godhead assumption in order to begin the working. She will have the charged and consecrated parchment sigil that she has focused on for days and this will be the central focus for the working. If she is employing planetary hours or timing the working to specific astrological aspects then once the circle is consecrated the perception of time within that barrier becomes locked or frozen for the duration of the working.

Performing an actual invocation, that is calling and summoning the spirit to appear and using various authorities and words of power to make it emphatically so, is something of an acquired artistry. Certainly, the invocations written in the grimoire might suffice for a model or example of how to proceed with an invocation, but of course, the tone and the principalities or authorities cited should be completely changed. Many invocations found in the old grimoires establish a hostile relationship to the spirit being summoned, and they also use obvious Abrahamic attributes of Deity in order to reinforce or legitimize the summoning. A Witch doesn’t need either authority or legitimacy to summon a spirit. She uses the invested power of her will fortified with her personalized godhead that is consciously present within her.

However, she does need to pepper her invocation with various words of power, such as those purloined from the Greek Magical Papyri or other grimoires, or she can use words made up for the occasion (talking in tongues). She should call upon the powers of all of her spiritual alignments so as to have the proper weight or “gravity” to draw the spirit to her. She will also practice and perfect the technique of intoning her words when she speaks them, or she could add a keening wail or screeching sound for effect. She might even sing or chant her invocation while playing a drum or a bell. We can assume that a practiced Witch will develop her own unique way of speaking and resonating verbal intonations when summoning a spirit, but it will sound powerful and even frightening to an outsider. This is because when we seek to get the attention of spirits, otherworldly vocal sounds and intonations can greatly empower an invocation.

Perhaps the simplest of all spells associated with spirit conjuration is to use of what I call the ceremony of naming and un-naming. The ceremony of naming is where the syllables of the spirit’s name are built up from the right to the left until the full name is expressed. It begins with a single letter and joins to it the first syllable and then the second, and so on. Here’s an example.

Ceremony of Naming for the spirit Nogorathes:

S

ES

HES

THES

ATHES

RATHES

ORATHES

GORATHES

OGORATHES

NOGORATHES  

Likewise, the ceremony of Un-naming for the spirit Nogorathes:

NOGORATHES

OGORATHES

GORATHES

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The Witch conjurer can use the ceremony of naming and un-naming to summon a spirit and also to dismiss or release it. It is an antique method and a really good one. I still use it myself, although I usually add to it other invocative techniques. You can slowly and sonorously step through each syllable and either build up or redact the spirit’s name, and you can do this once or three times, depending on your inclination. 

The content or verbiage of the invocation used by a Witch is neutral. It names the spirit and summons it to appear in a repetitious manner. Unlike the old grimoires, she doesn’t threaten or insult the summoned spirit nor attempt to angrily coerce it, thereby assuming a haughty superiority to the targeted entity. If anything, she uses her magnetic power to seduce and draw the spirit to her, employing bribes or the promise of bribes (offerings) to accomplish her end. She also seeks to draw the spirit into her sacred circle domain to be with her and her personal godhead.

Once this task is accomplished there is an immediate connectivity between the conjuring Witch and her target spirit. This is a decidedly different methodology than either invoking a spirit into a triangle that is exterior to the magic circle or for that matter, performing a scrying session from the safe confines of one’s sacred space. The invocation is performed in an iterative manner until the Witch receives direct contact and communication from the spirit, and once accomplished she can move to the next step. (The invocation will likely be successful because the Witch has spent many hours and days with her preliminary summoning and establishing a link with the target spirit.)

How do you communicate with spirits, or sense or somehow perceive them? It is a mental process that one has to develop over time and a solid trance state is the best foundation for communication and perception. I believe that it is impossible to “talk” to spirits unless one has undergone quite a lot of trance work and deep meditation. (Those of us who can readily talk to spirits have built up quite a bit of experience and can quickly shift our state of consciousness into that of a mild trance state.) We all have to learn to listen with our spirit ears and talk with our spirit voices in order to engage properly with spirits. Admittedly, these actions take quite a bit of practice and preparation. However, the assumption of the godhead working should give the erstwhile Witch a much needed foundation for being able to communicate with spirits, since this rite allows a full conscious link to be developed between the Witch and her familiar spirit. Also, I have found that the assumption of godhead mind-state acts as an effective mechanism for communicating, translating and even allowing one to see a spirit assuming a recognizable shape in it’s own domain. 

What occurs next in the conjuration is a dialogue between the conjuror and the invoked spirit. This is referred to as the process of establishing a “quid pro quo” relationship with that entity. The conjuror tells the spirit what he or she wants (supposedly that is within the domain of the spirit’s capabilities) and then asks what the spirit wants in return. This can go on for a while, but at some point either an agreement is reached or not. When an agreement has been reached, then the spirit and the conjuror are “bound” together for a mutual task. If there is no agreement, then the conjuror politely releases the spirit. Still, I don’t subscribe to developing a legal style document or pact and then forcing the spirit to agree to it, usually with an underlying threat. If a spirit is “hot” to begin with, then coercing and threatening it will only create a stressful and hostile relationship, which is subject to the problematic issue of dominance. Such a relationship may even work for a time (as it does in human interactions), but in the end it will unleash the putative retribution of a very pissed-off spirit. It could even cause the invocation to completely fail. Let me give you an overly simplified example of how this works. 

Did you ever get a phone call from an obnoxious and pushy salesperson interrupting whatever you were doing? Were you inclined to listen indulgently or did you instead insult the caller and then hang up? You might not even have bothered to answer if you knew that the caller wasn’t someone whose number you recognized. The same is true with spirits, although the mechanism is considerably different. Unless you subscribe completely to the mental outlook that all spirits (except angels, saints and Jesus Christ) are inherently bad or untrustworthy, then it behooves you to take a much more positive and open attitude to the spirit that you intend to invoke. It is for this reason that the binding and constraining of an invoked spirit takes on a completely different tone when the conjurer has a positive and open attitude towards the invoked spirit. It also has the effect of making one’s relationship with all spirits positive and rewarding. Such an attitude is more typical of a pagan spirituality than one steeped in the Abrahamic faiths. Binding can be done with the art of ligature, and the binding or sealing of the partchment sigil is a good example of how that might be accomplished, that is, if it’s even necessary.

However, I have found that there is no real need to constrain a spirit to physical appearance nor to bind it to some kind of irrevocable pact if the conjuror has instead established a positive and empowering relationship with that spirit. Such a relationship can and does become an active part of the Witch’s personal religious cult (whose central Deity is the personal deity associated with one’s higher self) and so the spirit, once invoked, receives regular offerings like the other deities and spirits associated with her pantheon.

If you want a spirit to perform certain actions at your bequest whenever needed then you will need to develop a relationship with that spirit and give it regular offerings, much as one would do with the ancestors and the Gods. However, for a spirit that is invoked for a specific purpose with no inherent need to continue the relationship, then the agreement is the bargain that briefly binds the spirit and conjurer together. I make it a point to give an initial or partial offering and then when the agreement is fulfilled by the spirit, the rest of the offering is made. Once the spirit fulfills its part of the bargain then the conjurer is obligated to make the final offering very soon afterwards. Not fulfilling a bargain with a spirit may not seem to be worse than skipping a car payment or a mortgage payment since the repercussions to such a miserly action are more subtle and less outwardly legal, at least initially. It’s particularly bad for a conjuror to get the reputation of being a “welcher” because then few spirits would even entertain the notion of appearing when being invoked.

When I speak of making offerings to spirits what am I actually referring to? Offerings are the items given to the spirit as part of the agreed upon relationship (also known as the binding and constraining factors). The relationship might be short term, thus necessitating a formal release, or it might be long term, which would entail that the Witch gives regular offerings to that spirit. In fact, she might even have an idol fashioned for that spirit, consecrated, charged and ensconced upon her shrine with the other statues, tokens and fetishes of her personal religious practice. Offerings normally include some kind of food and drink, or other substances as requested and negotiated with the target spirit. It is here that I need to say a few words about the offering of one’s own blood or the blood of a sacrificial beast.

Blood offerings are sometimes required, but they are really based on one’s tastes and practices. If a spirit required me to give it blood I would negotiate for a surrogate, such as a bloody piece of cooked meat or perhaps some blood-red wine (or a concoction of dragon’s blood). Because the binding and constraining really consists of a negotiated exchange and an agreement over time, there is always the possibility of arriving at an offering that is satisfactory to both parties. I reserve blood offerings to very special rites and I always use my own blood instead of that of some hapless creature, unless the offering is for food, specifically, cooked meat. Still, I have found that nearly all of the spirits that I have worked with only require a token offering instead of some onerous sacrifice. The real hard sacrifices are typically required by Deities, even so, no God or Goddess that I have worked with has ever asked me to take a life in their name. It is with Deity alone that I have shared my blood in an offering, and thankfully, it is a rare event.

If the negotiated agreement between the conjurer and the target spirit is for a specific desire in exchange for a singular offering, then once the invocation has reached a satisfactory conclusion, the conjuror should make a partial offering, thank the spirit for appearing and then courteously dismiss it. This is called releasing or in the old grimoires it is called “giving a license to depart.” If there is no need nor desire to make the spirit a regular part of one’s spiritual shrine, then it is very important to release the spirit. A Witch conjurer can use an elaborate and official method of releasing or use instead a simple and fond farewell, and, “till we meet again someday,” sort of closing.

The various information that a conjurer receives through the performance of an invocation of a spirit, including the consecrated parchment sigil or talisman used as the link, are assembled together a put into the pages of a book specially made and consecrated for that purpose. It is called a Liber Spiritum, or Book of Spirits. This book would include such information as the log or diary of the invocation, what transpired, the image or imago that the spirit assumed (if any), the nature of the agreement and the intention of the invocation, anything that the spirit imparted specifically to the conjurer (the giving of a mark - part of the constraint), and the ultimate outcome.

Obviously, if the spirit becomes a part of the conjurer’s pantheon, then a veritable book could be assembled to contain all of the material passed on between the spirit and the conjurer. Also, a spirit that has been previously invoked and put into the Book of Spirits can be more easily accessed by using the sigil pasted to a page of the book as a connecting link. This is where the term “Bell, Book and Candle” can be used by the Witch conjurer. All she has to do is to take the book into sacred space, open it to the page where the sigil of a specific spirit resides, light a candle and ring a bell to summon and reconnect with a previously invoked spirit in the Book of Spirits. I would also add lighting some special incense and quietly intoning and summoning the spirit to appear. I would call such a rite used to re-establish a previous working to be a “macro-rite” and I use these shorthand processes wherever possible to make my magick more efficient.

You can imagine that over time a Witch would assemble quite a repertoire of invoked spirits in her Book of Spirits, and such a book would be far more important, powerful and useful than any common Gardnerian Book of Shadows. Additionally, the Witch could also write up her rituals and techniques into the book and use it as a focus for her spirit conjuring work. The book also has the quality of being transportable, so she can take it with her wherever she goes, and it only requires a shift in consciousness for her to mentally erect the proper sacred space. While the book would be important to the singular Witch who owned it, it would be far less useful or valuable to an outsider. An outsider wouldn’t have spent the time and effort in summoning and evoking the spirits named in it, and so he or she wouldn’t be able to establish such a connection simply by possessing the book. This is because what is in the book is powerful and meaningful only to the Witch who produced it, and all of the spiritual connections illustrated in such a work would be indelibly represented within the sphere of her mind and soul. The book would only function as an outward artifact of her own personal power as a sorceress, and then, only in her possession.

Witch As Conjurer - Recap

We have briefly covered the various elements and techniques needed for one to function as a Witch conjurer. I wrote this article so that any experienced Witch could quickly assemble her tools and techniques and become a conjurer of spirits. I believe that it is a distinguishing characteristic of what it means to be a Witch to have the capability of conjuring spirits, and I think that it is part of our legacy and innate nature. This capability does indeed require a lot of practice, and like any skill, the more effort that one puts into it, the more proficient one becomes in doing it. However, a Witch can become a conjurer without having to adopt one’s practice to either the Golden Dawn based system of magick or the techniques and tropes associated with one or more of the old grimoires. It is my belief that modern Witchcraft already has all of the essential elements needed to master the art of spirit invocation and evocation. You can pursue a simple path or develop an elaborate one, but you don’t have to change what you are already doing.

Typically, a follower of Wicca is engaged in the modern pagan spirituality of nature, celebrating the changing seasons and the cycle of the moon. She engages with the natural mysteries inherent in life itself and feels the pulse and power not only within her body, but also within her soul and the core of her being. She may have learned how to perform thaumaturgy from books or teachers, and she will have an effective knowledge of sensing and engaging with the various Gods and Goddess of her cultural heritage as well as the Deities of place, location, and geophysical topology. However, she will have to master certain techniques in order to begin the process of learning spirit conjuring. These techniques are:

• Mastery of Basic Witchcraft Rites (Consecration, Sacred Space, Raising Power, Sigil Magic, Lunar and Solar mystery rites, Initiation Rite (self or tradition))
• Mastery of Trance States
• Mastery of the Godhead Assumption Rite (the Draw)
• Development of the Familiar Spirit (Personal Godhead)
• Development of Spirit Listening, Talking and even Seeing - also Spirit Traveling

Once these techniques reach a certain degree of competency then the Witch Conjurer can focus on the following tasks.

• Develop a spirit summoning rite - basic pattern/outline
• Develop techniques of the preliminary summoning
• Develop techniques of Invocation (methods and verbiage of summoning)
• Focus on the Personal Domain of Spirits - develop spirit lists and build a personal pantheon
• Build a personal shrine for Deities and Spirit
• Consecrate a Book of Spirits
• Collect specific examples of the Old Grimoires and develop a methodology for conjuring spirits from the various spirit lists
• Build up an expertise in Spirit Conjuration over many years of experimentation and practice.

I have written articles about many of these subjects already, and you can find them in the index on the left hand side of the blog below all the rest of the blog-based doodads. Sometimes using this index is a pain in the neck, but the discovered articles found using this tool are well worth the effort.

So what you have to do to become a spirit conjurer is to add some additional techniques to what you already possess and practice. All it takes is time and a willingness to develop new lore and to experiment, which I do believe is the really fun and interesting part of being a Witch.

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

Definitions of Religion - Legitimacy vs. Authenticity

My previous article brought up some interesting side issues that caught me quite by surprise in regards to the question of Strega lineages, something which I had to beg forbearance from my readers, since I know very little about that particular topic. Still, I often find these discussions and arguments fairly useless, since they often confuse and conflate two very different processes that are active in religion, and that is the difference between legitimacy and authenticity. While these issues have less of an impact in larger community religions, such as Christianity, they are quite hotly contested in the much smaller religious communities of witchcraft and paganism.

First of all, lets look at the definition of these two terms, starting with the dictionary definitions and then look at them in regards to sociological and psychological definitions. We also need to keep in mind that there are two very dissimilar viewpoints characterizing religion, that of exoteric or public religion and that of esoteric or occultic religion. Depending on a person’s or group’s perspective, the terms of legitimacy or authenticity can have a far greater weight and importance.

If we look at the dictionary definition for the word “legitimate,” we will find amongst the expected definitions the term “lawful” and “conforming to accepted rules, standards, etc.” Since we are not talking about a legitimate birth, we won’t go into the definitions that are concerned with how one was born, although sometimes the terms associated with legitimate and illegitimate in regards to birth do get conflated when discussing religious organizations. This is why some groups may be referred to as legitimate or illegitimate, where the proper term would be sanctioned or unsanctioned in regards to rules and protocols - a concern specific to spiritual and religious legitimacy. 

The dictionary definition of the word “authentic” gives the associated terms “genuine” and  “real,” which I believe are important for our discussion. Interestingly, the word “authenticate” has the associated phrases “to make valid, to verify, to prove to be genuine.” It would seem that authentic would represent a religious system where genuine and real experiences are held in high esteem as opposed to lawful decorum or conforming to doctrines, practices or rules. So it would seem that the word authentic is concerned with inner experiences and legitimacy is concerned with outer practices and established rules.

These two terms, when used to define a religious group or organization reveal the fact that they refer to different and opposed dimensions. Legitimacy defines a horizontal dimension that represents social integration, cohesion, group identity and order (rules, doctrine, practices). Authenticity defines a vertical dimension that is more focused on the individual and upon personal transformation and transcendence. Just this simple differentiation of terms reveals two very starkly different approaches to religion. One is exoteric, socially integrative and is concerned with communication and accessibility, and the other is esoteric, insular, and is concerned with mysteries, paradoxes and methods of inducing ecstasy. The former is engaged with translation, the later, with transformation. As you can see, these two dynamics in religion have contrary goals and directions, and confusing them can make communication between adherents of the same faith nearly impossible.   


To further clarify this discussion, I want to present a distillation of some of Ken Wilber’s perspectives and ideas on this issue. It was while I was reading and studying some of his ideas about religion that I had an experience that changed the way I look at religion in general, and more specifically, people’s engagement in their own chosen religion. After reading and digesting what Ken Wilber has wrote on this topic, it was almost as if a light turned on in my mind. I finally realized how easy it was for individuals and groups in witchcraft and paganism to get into passionate disputes with each other, forcing schisms and breaking up groups and spiritual families. I discovered that it often came down to whether one chose to follow the path of religious legitimacy or religious authenticity. The recent schism in the Faery/Feri tradition would seem to represent this particular distinction and how it can push individuals to follow one path or the other. They are not mutually exclusive, and in fact many have found a religious path that incorporates a certain degree of both, but they do represent diametrically opposing directions, and one can’t fully and wholly engage in one without diminishing or nullifying the other.

Let me continue with my discussion about my studies and what I discovered. Ken Wilber has written a book entitled “A Sociable God” (Shambhala Publications, 2005) to help define religion and religious phenomena using the latest theories in both the social sciences, as well his own theories regarding Integral Psychology. I have found this work to be extremely important and ground breaking, since it reduces down to a simple set of definitions what is a very complex multi-disciplined set of theories which contradict each other and are hotly debated between scholars of the same or different disciplines. Ken Wilber has offered this simplified and systematic approach, thus unifying the different perspectives and eliminating contentious points of view. I might also add that these opposing views have done more to confuse the various issues about the nature of religion than clarify them.

The greatest problem in defining religion is that it is many things to many people. There is, as yet, no single uniform perspective embodying all religious viewpoints, or at least none that would make any sense. This is precisely the point that Mr. Wilber made in his work. I will present Wilber’s ideas distilled from his book in the paragraphs below for the sake of efficiency and brevity. I also wish to present this information in manner that cuts to the core of the issues surrounding religion, assisting us to succinctly understand the spiritual and religious beliefs involving witchcraft, paganism and magick.

In his book (see chapter 5, pages 98 -102), Ken Wilber presents seven distinct perspectives based on a general  definition of religion, using a combination of the various social and psychological theories. He identifies seven basic areas, and includes two more that help to determine the depth and breadth of any one single creed (vertical and horizontal dimensions). We will cover each of these in the order that Wilber presented them in his book. Keep in mind that some previous theorists have written whole books on just one of these seven perspectives.

1. Religion is a non-rational engagement. By labeling it non-rational, religion is therefore defined as belonging to or originating out of a dimension that is “other” to reason and rationality. This would indicate that the nature of Spirit, of which religion is principally concerned about, is something that can’t be either quantified or even qualified, thus making it wholly transcendental and paradoxical.

2. Religion is an extremely meaningful or integrative engagement. This definition perceives religion as being an entirely social phenomenon that brings people together, teaching them to resolve their differences and live peacefully for the common good of all. Therefore, religion is concerned with making collective meaning and searching for collective truths that further the integrity and stability of the communal organization.

3. Religion is an immortality project, which is created to deal with the insecurities associated with the ephemeral quality of human life. This theory defines religion as a powerful social belief system that bolsters the confidence of the individual member, giving one a sense of being an elite participant in the collective destiny of the group. This has the effect of assisting individuals to cope with catastrophic loss and death (as well as the potential for such) by causing them to focus instead on the guarantee of a spiritual afterlife.

4. Religion is a mechanism for evolutionary growth through conscious transformation and spiritual evolution, so that by applying oneself to its discipline, one can fully apprehend the spiritual dimension of the self. As Wilber so adroitly put it: “[E]volution and history is a process of increasing self-realization, or the overcoming of alienation via the return of spirit to spirit as spirit.” This whole process represents the drive for transcendent self-realization and personal transformation.

5. Religion represents a social phenomenon of collective psychotic fixations and is therefore, inherently regressive, pre-personal and pre-rational. Wilber says that this perspective has a negative opinion about religion: “[R]eligion is childish illusion, magic, myth.” This perspective represents the typical attitude of empirical science and academia towards religion in general, and is a major part of the creeds of social secularism and atheism. Sigmund Freud held this opinion about religion, and so did Karl Marx and many others.

6. Religion is an exoteric social institution, and its mysteries and paradoxes are understood through the periodic and continual practice of liturgy and the study of sacred scriptures, shared by all members of a specific doctrine or creed. Religion is a public organization where everything is determined and explained in great detail, and nothing is left to chance or self-determination. Exoteric religion consists of the basic and fundamental principles of any religious organization. As Wilber has said in his book: It is a “form of belief system used to invoke or support faith,..preparatory to [an] esoteric experience and adaption..”

7. Religion is esoteric and occultic, and its mysteries and paradoxes are obscured and buried deep within the core belief system that everyone else takes for granted. These mysteries are typically not realized by the general adherent, but requires a deeper and inner exposure to that spiritual system, often acquired through the agency of a teacher and an individualized spiritual practice. The goal of esoteric religion is the obtainment of mystical experiences and a direct realization of spirit in all manifestation.

After having written down these seven different perspectives on the nature of religion, Wilber then examines the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the scope of religion, which brings us to the polarization of the two terms, legitimacy and authenticity. Notice the contrast between translation and transformation, which particularly characterize the breadth and depth of a particular religious practice.

8. Religion is only legitimate when it validates the particular “translation” or perspective established by a given doctrine or creed, usually providing its members positive reinforcements (“good mana”), and helping them to avoid social taboos (“bad mana”). This confers upon individuals a powerful emotional and social sense of being a member of a spiritual community, thereby providing personal meaningfulness, group destiny, and eschatological symbols of immortality.

Legitimacy in religion represents a horizontal dimension to qualifying a religion, and it incorporates the above definitions 2, 3 and 6. Legitimacy is concerned with the smoothness of translation (that it is readily understandable and rational) and the integrity of its social values.

9. Religion is authentic when it validates the particular “transformation” or deeper inner experience of a spiritual system. An authentic religion cuts through doctrine and dogma, giving its adherents the tools and methodologies to achieve a direct experience with the core of that religious system, and is less concerned with the outer trappings and the exegesis of liturgy and sacred scriptures.

Authenticity in religion represents a vertical dimension to qualifying a religion, and it incorporates the definitions 1, 4 and 7. Authenticity is concerned with the degree of personal transformative power and intensity associated with religious experiences, and the internal realization of truths that are paradoxical and irrational. Authenticity challenges individual spiritual seekers, forcing them to move beyond belief and faith, so as to directly experience the spiritual dimension.

So you can see from the above discussion that legitimacy and authenticity are two very different dimensions that will produce, when used exclusively, two very different religious organizations. However, most religions in the world are actually a hybrid of both of these dimensions, although as I have said, a religious group will tend to emphasize one over the other. This is also true when examining the different groups and organizations of witchcraft and paganism. Some of these groups emphasize social integration and communication, others emphasize personal transformation and occultic practices. You can see that when individuals of a greater organization who don’t agree on which emphasis should be used attempt to communicate with each other, they will not only fail to agree, but that they will not usually be able to understand the other person’s perspective. Arguments that involve legitimacy pitted against authenticity will almost always fail unless someone has the enlightened perspective that both approaches are correct, and that there is no one true way.

This also leads us to consider the nature of legitimacy within religious organizations. It would seem that it is a kind of social consensus, an agreement between members of the group. This agreement becomes part of the accepted doctrine, and therefore, is never questioned. For instance, Catholics believe that the Pope’s authority, vested in him from God, is legitimate because he represents an unbroken line of reverent individuals going all the way back to the apostle Peter. The Pope is, therefore, a representative of the apostle Peter, and all of the vested belief in Jesus Christ, his apostles and the doctrines and liturgy of the Church has been mystically translated into his very person. Does the Pope really represent an unbroken line going back to the apostle Peter? Historians would probably disagree with that claim, since for a period of time there were two opposing Popes. There is, additionally, the question of the personal integrity of some Popes in history, which might negate the idea of continuity. Also, the church hierarchy has always been the arbiter of the selection and crowning of the Pope; it is not something intrinsic in the individual, but an important role. Yet it is the consensus amongst faithful Catholics, from the lay person all the way up to the Curia of Cardinals, that the Pope represents an unbroken line, whether or not historians are willing to agree, or even that others outside of the faith would agree to its significance.

We can examine this logic and also apply it to some specific considerations in the British Tradition of Witchcraft (BTW) as it is perceived and practiced in the U.S. I am an Alexandrian witch, properly trained and initiated through all three degrees. I possess my Book of Shadows as it was given to me to be copied by my teachers, and I have papers, rituals and other lore that was passed down to me by my teachers. I have also initiated a score of women over the three decades of my practice. So one could say that I am unquestionably a legitimate witch of the BTW. Right? Not necessarily. Because there is some dispute as to whether Alex Sanders was properly initiated through all three degrees in the Gardnerian tradition, and given the sanction to promote his own initiatory line, some Gardnerians believe that all Alexandrians are not legitimate members of the BTW. Some have even said that Alexandrians aren’t even witches! (Of course, we won’t even get into a discussion of whether or not my teachers, who broke their oaths and became fundamentalist preachers, would be considered posthumously illegitimate, and therefore, negate my claim to legitimacy.)

I have personally experienced Gardnerians who were unwilling to allow me to circle with them or to even talk with me about any of their secrets because I am not, in their definition, a properly initiated Gardnerian witch. I am treated as an outsider, or perhaps a better term, as some kind of “spiritual bastard.” These same Gardnerians will admit that I am kind of a witch and a pagan, but not a legitimate member of their lineage. I have been shunned and treated as if I were the love child of some base relative. Yet my Book of Shadows and my core teachings are nearly identical to the same material used by Gardnerians. There are minor differences between the different initiatory lines of the BTW, and the unique lore of my line is no different in that respect than any other. Still, I am treated by some as an outsider.

Does this treatment bother me? Not in the least! I am not affected by this condescending behavior because I don’t need the consensus of the greater witchcraft community to validate the fact that I am indeed witch and a ritual magician. However, it does bother some witches, and I have known Alexandrians who have gotten themselves a Garderian pedigree in order to be more legitimate in the eyes of the greater witchcraft community. Why does this circumstance bother some and not others? The reason is the distinction in the emphasis between legitimacy and authenticity. For me, the most important perspective is to be authentically a witch. It doesn’t matter to me what the overall social consensus of the witchcraft community thinks is right or proper. What is important to me is that the magick I practice and the liturgical rites that I perform are effective and fulfilling for me as a spiritual person. Also, the most important goal that I am seeking is to unify myself with the One - to be enlightened and illuminated through transcendental transformation. I do work with my community as a teacher, spiritual elder and leader, but the focus of my practice is on the individual rather than the group. One could easily say that my emphasis is almost wholly towards being authentic rather than legitimate, and ritual magick probably has had a powerful effect in pushing me in that direction.

When I read or hear individuals arguing about their initiatory legitimacy or its lack, I understand and know why such a controversy is occurring. It is, in fact, a dispute over social consensus and membership credentials. Is it a valid discussion or argument? That depends on one's overall perspective, but from the standpoint of the tradition of witchcraft, authenticity must outweigh legitimacy. There are some very important reasons why this is so.

An individual’s claim to be a witch should never rest exclusively on the integrity of their supposed initiatory lineage. My tattered and questionable lineage is a case in point. I have also known a few individuals who had impeccable initiatory lineages, but who were also either completely incompetent or totally corrupt. I have also known individuals who had no exoteric initiation in any kind of reputable organization, but who were probably some of the most powerful witches I have ever encountered. Having a pedigree is no guarantee that one is a competent and capable witch, in fact sometimes it would even seem to guarantee a certain degree of fallibility and hubris. As I have stated previously, initiation is not the same thing as transcendental transformation, but for someone who seeks to emphasize authenticity over legitimacy, it becomes critically important that both occur simultaneously.

In my humble opinion, a witch should be first and foremost measured by his or her ability to function as a witch. A proper initiation and the reception of the lore of a particular line may confer legitimacy, but can’t guarantee that one is even truly a witch. What this means is that a witch is a witch because they practice witchcraft and worship the old gods. Does this negate traditions, lineages and families of witchcraft? No, it doesn’t negate them, but it also doesn’t make them a requirement for being a witch, either.

When someone comes to me and says that they are a witch, then I have the right to test them in a magick circle. If they pass that test, then I must respect that they are indeed a witch. Do I break my oaths and share the lore that was handed down to me by my teachers? Of course not! But I will also not exclude them from circling or practicing magick with me. This also means that all of the lore that I know and possess that is not covered by my initiatory oath is available for sharing with that person. Not only that, but I will believe them if they tell me that they are a witch, and I will consider them a sister or a brother - perhaps of a different line than my own, but still kindred seekers on the path of magick and mystery. Eventually, perhaps the distinction of lineages, traditions and families will melt away in the practice of witchcraft, thus we will all be of one overall greater tradition, and we will also be individual seekers after the same goals. I look forward to that time, where authenticity will rule and legitimacy will be considered a quaint affectation.

Frater Barrabbas