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Traditionalist Witchcraft
(a work in progress)
Over the past 50 years, there have been many works
on the subject of witchcraft, so you may be asking “Why another one?”
The majority of the popular texts on the subject look
at witchcraft as expressed through what is sometimes, in the United States
and Canada, as “British Traditional Witchcraft”
(BTW), which all too often translates as “Wicca”,
a form of modern witchcraft made public by the late Gerald B. Gardner and
Alex Sanders, and subsequently expanded upon by such figures as Doreen Valiente,
Stuart Farrar, Scott Cunningham and many others.
Other than the first two, most of those writing on
the subject of Wicca seem to be speaking of a completely different form
of witchcraft than that taught by Gardner & Sanders. Indeed, many practitioners
of BTW would heartily agree that they are different.
Yet beyond Wicca, there is another form of witchcraft
– also taught in traditional settings and practiced both in groups and alone.
Again, there are many books on the subject of Traditional Witchcraft; the
vast majority of these, however, are written from a Eurocentric pint of
view and focus, which is all well and good, if you are in Europe or England,
Scotland, or Ireland.
While many North Americans have blood ties to Europe,
most are so far removed from it that whatever connection they have is tenuous
at best, and as witchcraft is rooted in the land, the methods and techniques
that arose in Europe do not always translate well in their transplanted
home. It is this Traditionalist Witchcraft which
is the focus of this work.
It is the goal of this work to present a method of
Traditionalist Witchcraft that is applicable to both our modern cultures
and to the North American continent.
“Mark ye well their manner, for it is quiet and assumeth
not. It is in peaceful tones they speak and oft seem abstracted. Seeming
to prefer the company of Beastes, they converse with them as equals. They
dwell in lonely places, there better (as they say) to know the voices of
the Wind and hear the secrets of Nature. Possessing the Wysdome of the fields
and forests, they do harm and heal with their harvests. They concerne themselves
not with idle chatter or fashion, nor do worldly goods hold worth for them.
Be not confused as to think that only Woman-kynd harboureth the gifte in
this matter. Of Men there bee many that hold mickle power."
~~ Edward Johnston, Esq. Sudbury,
Suffold, England 1645 A.D
text © 2007 Nemed Cuculatii,
NECTW: all rights reserved
image "Vitruvian Man" - Leonardo Da Vinci
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