A step by step guide to creating a ritual.
Continue readingAuthor: Yvonne Aburrow
Spiritualism and Witchcraft
I am currently rereading The Meaning of Witchcraft by Gerald Gardner. I know I read his book Witchcraft Today about 30 years ago, and I am pretty sure that I read The Meaning of Witchcraft around that time too. His theory of the survival of witchcraft must have seemed pretty convincing to his earliest readers; and provided we do not assume that what survived was a full-blown Pagan religion, or an organized cult, then a lot of his ideas still hold water: namely, the impulses behind the earliest forms of religion and and magic, and how and why people might resort to magical practices even when they were officially frowned upon and then persecuted.
Whilst reading it, I came upon a passage that I found intriguing; it was a reference to a discussion of witchcraft and black magic in Parliament, together with the date and who said what. Here it is (page 13):
As you might imagine, I was curious to find out what was the context of the discussion which gave rise to this attempt to define “black magic”. So I looked it up in Hansard, the official record of the British Parliament, to find out. The interesting thing is that Hansard records other MPs’ interruptions, but it does not record the laughter and ironical cheers; so I would imagine that it was recounted in a newspaper of the day and Gardner must have kept a press cutting. The relevant section is about halfway down the linked-to page, under the heading “House, Brixton (Police Visit)”.
Continue readingBooks I read in February
I started a few books but haven’t finished them yet. I’ve started Terminal World by Alastair Macdonald and Queering Your Craft by Cassandra Snow.
Continue readingBIPOC Tarot Decks
When I did my post on BIPOC Pagan and occult authors, I did Google for Tarot decks, but I did not find much. The amazing @revolutionary_mystic on Instagram has compiled a list of BIPOC Tarot creators.
Continue readingThe Ardanes
I was not passed the Ardanes, so I have never recognized them as part of my Craft. However, they are of historical interest. Not because I believe them to have been written (or at least compiled) any earlier than the 20th century, but because of the light they shed upon the ideas of early Wiccans as to how the Craft could be organized.
It is fairly widely believed that Gardner wrote them, or at least compiled them from a collection of earlier ideas which he presumably picked up from the New Forest Coven, in 1957. Doreen Valiente and other members of the coven had produced a set of Craft laws in an attempt to curb Gerald Gardner’s enthusiasm for publicity, in particular his interviews with some of the more sensationalist newspapers. In response, Gerald produced the Ardanes.
Doreen Valiente et al’s Proposed Rules for the Craft (see Appendix below) are very sensible and apart from items 9, 10, 11, and 12, which would be rather impractical due to the very large number of Wiccans these days, are mostly adhered to in practice.
Continue readingThe Wiccan Rede
The concept of the Wiccan Rede is frequently and widely misunderstood and misquoted. The full version is “An it harm none, do what thou wilt”. (If it harms no one, do what you want / do your True Will.) I have written about this before but haven’t devoted an entire blogpost to it.
Continue readingMore Queer Magic interviews
I’m doing a series of interviews with queer magical practitioners. So far there are eight published: River Enodian, Fire Lyte, Misha Magdalene, Enfys Book, Cassandra Snow, David Dashifen Kees, Soli, and Julian Vayne.
Coming soon: Phil Hine, Matt Wisner of Trinity Tarot, Crow of the Marget Inglis School of Witchcraft, and more. Subscribe to my YouTube channel so as not to miss them.
Continue readingThe Threefold Law
I have discussed the Threefold Law in several previous articles but it’s never had its own post before. Most people get the wrong idea about the Threefold Law. It does not actually say that you get back threefold what you send out.
Continue readingThe Northumbrian Futhark
I have always liked the Northumbrian Futhark more than the Elder Futhark or the Anglo-Saxon Futhark. The extra runes in the Northumbrian Futhark cover some important concepts that are not dealt with in earlier futharks. My own rune set is this futhark.
Continue readingMagnetic poetry
Now you can make fridge poems on the internet. Hat-tip to The Skeptic’s Kaddish.
