Suffolk Witchcraft Training

What is the Craft, well that’s actually, a rather tricky question to answer. The Craft is a very personal spiritual path (ask 10 witches this question and you’re very likely to get back 37 different answers). So what follows is not to be taken as gospel or exhaustive on the subject; they are purely my own subjective thoughts and feelings about what the Craft is.

I would describe the Craft as a nature based spirituality/ mystery tradition. For most people who would class themselves as pagan, and in point of fact a lot that would call themselves witches, ‘nature’ extends to the green and brown stuff outside the front door and no further. Ask a naturalist and they will tell you something along the lines of nature is everything that exists; for me this also includes thoughts, ideas, and.....imagination. (I therefore don’t believe in the supernatural, if it exists it’s a part of nature, but there are many things within nature that are as yet, beyond my understanding and experience).

The craft is the path of ‘the connection of everything to everything else, an important part of this is marking your own place of connection and balance within this, and within yourself, “If that which thou seek, thou find not within thee, thou will never find it without”. The craft is also called the path to the hearth because it’s not designed to give you an escape route from life, quite the reverse actually; it immerses you in life and wakes up your senses to it. The Craft is life enhancing, not life replacing.

I wouldn’t call the craft a religion, but it does have religious aspects to it such as myths, rituals, symbolism. For example I make use of archetypal symbols like a god and goddess; I don’t literally believe that there is a god or goddess, but I use them as psycho-emotive keys to alter my state consciousness, to throw myself past the symbol (symbols are not the goal in themselves, they are if anything catalysts) in order to feel and experience things I wouldn’t normally.

If I don’t believe in a literal sentient god/goddess, what do I believe? Well there’s a short passage in one on my books by Joseph Campbell which goes something like this, “god is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and circumference is nowhere”. I believe there is some numinous quality to the universe that pervades and connects everything. This immanent ‘in-dwelling’ (think of the force in Starwars) vital force is way beyond my cogitative ability to understand; some things need only to be felt rather than understood. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from asking questions. 

I follow the ‘wheel of the year’ marking and celebrating the changing seasons, but for me it goes much deeper than this, the seasons become symbols, representing different aspect of my own nature amongst other things. You observe and feel the tides of power change throughout the year, but, you also look inside and study how you change and are affected by this process too, and this internalisation then reflects back out and add a whole other layer of appreciation to the world around you; this process never ends, with each turning of the wheel feeling different from the last (changing and eternal). There is a massive emphasis on balance, and in a simplistic sense this is the interplay between masculine and feminine, a constant ebb and flow of energy between the god and the goddess (the goddess is the boss though).

The Training takes as long as it takes, so forget the ‘year and a day’ that appears in most books. The coven I belong to is a well known training coven within craft circles. It starts in March and runs through to beginning of November with 3 weeks on 1 week off, and this is repeated for a second year. The training doesn’t cost you anything other than your time and commitment, (and biscuits). The craft isn’t an easy path to follow. So if you decide it’s not for you, then you just walk away with no hard feelings. The training will give you a foundational grounding in the craft, but it is more designed to make you scrutinise yourself. This can be a very uncomfortable process and should not be walked into lightly.

Just to finish off for now, you will come across things like the ‘Wiccan Rede’ and the ‘Threefold Law’. I think the threefold law is a lot of old guff. I bought a £1 scratch card; I didn’t get £3 back. And the other old chestnut, the Wiccan Rede: ‘Do what you will as long as it harms none’, is very naive. Nothing is ever black and white, but many shades of grey.

My personal edict is this: ‘Accept what you cannot change, change what you cannot accept; and have the savvy to know the difference. But whatever course you choose, accept the responsibility, and accept, whether through action or inaction the consequences of your choices.

(Or: A lesson in Practical Magic!)

More and more these days, I’m practising my Craft through the simple act of gardening.

I believe there is a very clear link between gardening and magic, because for me magic is intensely practical, and what could be more practical than gardening? And both can be very hard work, they can be demanding, frustrating at times, but ultimately rewarding.

Gardening and magic require tools, but the best and most useful tool you have, in both cases, is yourself. Yourself, your two hands and a bit of common sense. You need some sort of lawnmower to cut the grass, but you also need to get out there and operate it, because that grass will not cut itself.  If you want something in which to carry your secateurs and the weeds you pull out of your flower bed, you can buy a hand crafted traditional trug (for £79, and good luck to the person who managed to sell it to you), but you can also go to a cheap shop and buy a sturdy plastic bucket for £1.25, as I did – and frankly, the bucket is a far better bet, because it doubles up as a carrier for all sorts of things including compost and water.

In the same way, you can go to a New Age shop and buy crystals, amulets, sparkly robes and a silver chalice; but all of these are useless if you haven’t thought why you want to use them. In themselves they have no meaning, no matter how nice they look – it’s you, the essential person, who puts the meaning into them. Frankly, you can use a wine glass as a chalice and kitchen knife as an athame if you wish; because above all things magic does not require lots of accoutrements. The biggest and best magical tool you have is YOU.

The rhythm of the gardening year follows the Wheel of the Year very closely, and I don’t think this is a co-incidence. What is the Craft after all but a study of growth and cycles of change, in the world and (crucially) in ourselves?  To me magic simply means the art of bringing about a change; but I think that all change first requires action on a practical level.

This came home to me at Imbolc. I could not attend the Coven meeting, but I carried out my own ritual instead. This was simply cleaning out my greenhouse and tidying it up, ready to start planting my seeds. It was practical, it was necessary and it was bringing about a change ready to sow seeds of further growth. There were no candles involved, no chanting and no wands, but it was as much a ritual, to me, as anything else could be.

I grow my vegetable plants from seed. People wonder why I do this, because it’s so much easier to go out and buy a young tomato or courgette plant. But I prefer to sow the seeds. You choose them, you sow them in the greenhouse, keep them warm, keep them moist, and it is so exciting when the first green seedlings appear. Then you watch them grow, prick them out when they are big enough, put them in individual pots, perhaps move them to bigger pots, a grow-bag, or outside, fuss over them, feed them.........yes, it’s more labour intensive, but nothing beats the feeling of harvesting your own vegetables, knowing that this is something you have created yourself, from scratch. To me, that’s a spell. I’ve put vegetables on my plate by working. I’ve brought about a change. I’ve practised magic.

So in Imbolc I sow my seeds. Through the springtime, I nurture them. At Beltaine, I get my flower baskets and tubs ready. By midsummer I might be harvesting flowers or vegetables, and this carries on until Lammas – sometimes past it. But by Samhain, I’m shutting down the gardening process, ready for the long sleep of Yule. Over the winter, I think about what I have achieved during the year. Which plants worked? Which didn’t? Which will I sow again next year? What new things might I try?

In the garden it is important to cut back some plants and shrubs so that new shoots can appear. I have recently taken a lot of dead wood out of a huge hydrangea bush by my front door. When I did so, I uncovered two new tiny shrubs, neither of which I knew was there because they had been overwhelmed by the hydrangea. The hydrangea looks better too because it now has more room to grow. Inspired by this, I cleared what was a very scruffy little area also close to my front door, and re-planted it with a couple of lavender bushes and three primulas. What had been a boring dry area with a few weeds on it is now a cheerful and welcoming feature. To me this was symbolic of the need, sometimes, to cut away what’s dead in our lives because we just don’t know what treasures we might find when we do.

The most sacred space I have is my garden. It’s not big, but it gives me endless pleasure and joy. Most of my pleasure comes from knowing that this is something that I have created myself. My vegetable patch, my herb box, the bulbs I’ve planted; all these are the result of my work. I feel that “I” am very much in my little garden and that this is where my best magic is performed. I’ve put my hands in the soil, I’ve cut back overgrown areas, discovered what might be there and thought about what I can create. I’ve got my hands dirty because I have used them to help bring about a change. But none of this would have happened if I hadn’t made it happen. This is what I call my practical magic.

            There’s nothing wrong with candles and spells and sparkly gadgets, but to me they are the outside demonstration of an interior process, not the process itself. The real work is done beforehand when you think about what you are seeking to achieve. So with gardening, a lovely display of flowers or a wonderful crop of vegetables are the results of a lot of hard work. They are not the work in itself, but without the work they would not be there, and the work would be useless unless you knew what outcome you wanted……tomatoes, courgettes or carrots!

Right now, my favourite book about the Craft is “Wintersmith” by Terry Pratchett. My favourite part is where the heroine, Tiffany, goes home and scrubs her family’s kitchen floor, and her mother observes that she thought that Witches cleaned floors by “waving their hands about”.  Tiffany replies that “That works, but only if you wave them about on the floor with a scrubbing brush!”

Lois

13/4/08

Set the world of darkness against light.

If you look for your spiritual path then you will meet your dark side.

In meditation the dark side is brought to the surface.  To deal with it you need morals, strength, knowledge and learning.  Education is necessary to deal with it.

We repress the shadow so we rarely see it.  But you must experience your own dark side to deal with it.

Nothing is more unreliable than a superstitious witch.

Ageing and death are a part of the dark.  We all contain some Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde.

Freud called the shadow the personal unconscious.

Jung said that we cannot see the shadow.  All these are just below the surface and are known by Jung as the personal shadow.

The shadow is the person who we think we are not and are the things we deny we are.  Things we know we don’t like are part of the Ego.  The shadow is things we do not consciously know about. 

The Freudian slip is a classic shadow!

Five ways to recognise the shadow

J      Exaggerated reaction in others – don’t know why – but it reminds you of you.

J      Negative feedback of others in your mirror.

J      Impulsive inadvertent acts i.e. don’t know why you said that.

J      Humiliation and embarrassing behaviour.

J      Exaggerated anger of other peoples faults i.e. homophobia & laziness.

Meeting the shadow can be shocking to your self-image, and little things are harder to deal than the big things.

You want to believe that it’s never you fault, maybe hunger that’s pushed into the shadow then we may be more likely to over-eat.

By blaming others, we are giving up our responsibility for our lives.

By being aware of our shadow we can help to ease off projecting our shadow onto others.  Because we know that we can deal with it and you can be less harsh on yourself!

Owning your shadow can be useful and can be portrayed in arts etc.

To see your shadow ask friends – but be selective as they may advise you because they see you at one time in your life.

Try to understand what you strongly like and dislike in other people or you may just dislike a person.  Also look at inadvertent behaviour or reaction.  Try to examine strong negative emotion, look for patterns in your life.

Shadow dreams – the shadow figure of dreams is usually same sex as you or doing something you normally wouldn’t do or it could be an animal that chases you.

One of the homeworks that I give to my trainees at the start of their two years of out of coven pre-initiation training is,  ‘what are the qualities of a Witch?’  This is a good question to ask as it gets the trainees thinking about the less tangible and often more important sides of the Crafte, i.e. their own development.  It is all very well getting excited about rituals, myths, Gods and Goddesses, magic wands and magic spells, but the initiated Crafte is a long and hard process and requires certain qualities and traits to even begin to take the first steps along this path.

However, there can also be no right or wrong answers the question, as each person that is asked comes up with different answers, and perhaps that is only right and proper.  After all the word Witch means different things to different people.  Still, as I have asked the question of my trainees (as it was asked of me many years ago), I suppose that it is only fair that I have a stab at answering it as well.   I have decided to base my answer to this question on some of the Witches that I know, both within the coven that I am a member of, and other covens that I know as well.  I have also decided to steer away from the traditional Witch qualities of, ‘to dare, to know, to will and to keep silent’, as these qualities have already been written about by other people.

Perhaps the most important starting quality the ‘would be Witch’ should have is to possess good adult life coping skills.  They need to be a mature and well-balanced person, capable of dealing with the pitfalls that life inevitably places in their way.  How can someone be a Witch when the slightest mishap sends him or her into a bubbling mess?  How can someone balance their psyches if they can’t even balance their bank balance or pay their bills on time?  How can they invoke power safely when they can’t deal with their own emotional intelligence?

I know that sometimes life can be a bit horrid and sometimes things happen to us, like a bereavement that are beyond our control, but how we deal with these problems is very much within our control, and it helps to define who we are.  I agree with the psychological illusionist Derren Brown when he says, how we deal with life and with others, to large extent helps to define who we really are. 

Witches within initiatory traditions do not see themselves as part of the victim culture.  As such they don’t tend to get worried and upset about the ‘Burning Times’.  They don’t go in for new age therapies as, being well balanced and able to cope and direct their own lives, they don’t feel the need for healing, even when they are poorly.  Witches tend to have an abundance of self confidence, self respect and self esteem, which comes from having good adult life coping skills and working on, knowing and accepting themselves.

All the Witches within Initiatory Crafte that I know have good adult life coping skills.  I know one High Priestess who juggles bringing up a daughter who is on the Autistic Spectrum, a Born Again Christian husband and Witchcraft without a word of complaint or excuse- she just gets on with it.  All the Withes I know also hold jobs, are in Higher education, are full time mums (the most important job in the world) or retired.  There is very much the feeling in the Crafte, that by claiming unemployment benefit you are still playing a child’s role and are not a coping adult as in effect the Government and the State are providing for you like a parent.

The next quality I would like to examine is that of integrity.  If we examine the Oxford English dictionary we would find that integrity means, “The condition of having no part or element taken away or wanting; undivided or unbroken state; material wholeness; completeness; entirety; the condition of not being marred or violated; unimpaired or uncorrupted; a condition of soundness”.

Integrity requires three things.  It requires you firstly to be able to determine what is right and what is wrong for yourself and in Witchcraft this requires reflection, thought and effort.  Being an Occult and Esoteric Tradition, Witchcraft has no rules or laws governing morality.  It does not offer black and while solutions or easy answers despite what many Popular Wiccan books try to tell us.  You as a Crafter need to take responsibility for your own system of ethics and morals and you have to decide for yourself exactly what form they take.  Whether there is such a thing as absolute right or wrong is doubtful, however a sense of morality is wired into us by evolution and that helps us to live together as a gregarious species.  So our sense of right and wrong should to a large extent be based upon fundamentals of consensual morality, which helps us to live and interact in the world about us and not cut us off from it.  However, the possibility that they may be wrong may make people feel that they are unable to take a stand on anything.  This is where the hard work and introspection comes in.  You may honestly hold a view or a belief and be honestly wrong about it.  This is where self-honesty and flexibility comes in.  By doing the preparation work, by knowing what you believe, what is right and wrong you will be protecting yourself from the manipulation of others.

Integrity also means acting on what you have discerned even at personal cost.  This means sticking to your guns, doing what you know to be right even when you may you lose out because of it.  Supposing you spent years finding and then joining a coven, later to find out they expected you to curse someone over something trivial.  What do you do then, you may not agree with them, but it took you ages to find this group?  The answer is that we never know whether we have personal integrity unless we are tested upon it.  But, personal integrity doesn’t mean that we can’t be flexible, and put others before ourselves.

This brings us to the fact that integrity means that we must keep our promises.  Witchcraft, before the advent of popular Wicca was a tradition that was respected.  One of the reasons why it was respected was that Witches kept (and keep) their promises.  They delivered what they said they would deliver and would not make promises that they could not keep.  To many people make promises in haste that they can’t fulfil, and then justify to themselves why they broke their promise, just this once, because of “circumstances beyond their control”.  There are always excuses, many, many excuses, again and again; the reality is that they just did not consider whether they could keep their promise before making it.  The truth of the matter is that in Witchcraft, there are no more excuses.  As Crafters we are supposed to be running our own lives and not letting life run us.  By not keeping our promises, we undermine not only other people’s faith in us, but also our own self-respect and self esteem, if only unconsciously.  How can we perform magic, shape the world about us, bend Wyrd if we cannot keep our own promises and deliver and do what we say that we will?

Funny enough integrity is not the same thing as honesty.  Honesty is not necessarily a quality that is of much use in the Crafte.  I know that this will shock many people, buy bear with me.  There have been times, sadly, when I have had counsel people who are suffering bereavement.   At those times I go out of my way to support whatever belief system that person holds.  So if they are Christians, for example, I will talk to them as a Christian and support their belief in Heaven.  Consider how heartless and tactless, I would be if I told them that there was no Heaven, and I didn’t believe in it.  I wouldn’t be helping them; rather I would be using the situation to prop up my own ego and belief systems.   By supporting their beliefs, I am in a way being dishonest, but my integrity is still intact. 

Another quality that I believe is of great importance in Witchcraft, especially these days, is an open sceptical mind.  All the Witches in the initiatory Crafte I know personally are extremely sceptical of alternative medicine, psychicism, fairies, pagan gods, spiritualism and the like.    Initiatory Witchcraft does not offer easy answers, but is a questing tradition such as Hermeticism, Buddhism and the like, where the initiate is supposed to find answers for his or herself.  As such Witches, who are part of a long esoteric tradition in the West called the Western Mystery Tradition, will look much deeper into things than perhaps people in the New Age and Popular Wicca.  They are not afraid of science, which is based upon actual evidence, when looking at so called inexplicable occurrences, and will accept scientific explanations where they are presented.  Witchcraft was, and should be a tradition that is rooted in the real world.  It is something that should be used to enhance life, not to escape from it.  I was recently reminded by a friend within the Crafte of the quote from Terry Pratchett’s “Wee Free Men” when the trainee Witch Tiffany Aching was asked to ‘close her eyes, open her eyes and then open them again’.  Witches try to see the World, as it is, try to see the bigger picture, to try to see the World in accord with what we know about it, rather than how we would want it to be.  I have heard it said in Popular Wiccan books and on their forums, that in Wicca, ‘if it feels right then it is true’.  Well I am very sorry to say that this is a life avoidance and escapist philosophy that encourages people to live in a fantasy world.  Crafte needs to be based within the real world, otherwise we arrive at the situation where many people who call themselves witches believe in all sorts of nutty things like fairies, the healing power of crystals and dead people being able to ‘come back’ and chat to us.

We need to have a good knowledge of the world about us, to be able to separate Logos (the objective facts about the world) and mythos (the stories we tell ourselves about it, i.e. metaphors such as myths and symbols) and appreciate the value of both.  We need to ask searching difficult questions of purveyors of so called ‘supernatural’ to ensure that we don’t fly off into the world of fantasy, or that they separate us from our well earned cash for ineffectual cures and dubious philosophies.  Open minded scepticism and knowledge is our best defence against such people and keeps us grounded within ‘real’ life. I was taught that a Witch has their head amongst the stars but their feet firmly on the ground.

Here then are three other qualities that I would add to the list of qualities of a Witch, perhaps to go alongside the traditional and important, ‘to know, to dare, to will and the keep silent’.  It is very easy to overlook the qualities of having a good grounding in life coping skills, a sense of integrity and an open and sceptical mind, but they are very important and foundational qualities within initiatory Witchcraft.  I daresay that you (and I) can think of many more, and that different people would have different qualities to add to the list, after all, in a question like this, there are no rights and wrong answers.

“What the thinker thinks the prover proves,” so said Dr Timothy Leary of the 60’s LSD infamy, when speaking about belief.  Belief is fundamental as to how we experience the world about us; it influences our perceptions of ‘reality’, moreover, we unconsciously go out of our way to prove to ourselves that our beliefs are right.  We embrace those things that support our beliefs and ignore those things that prove them wrong, selective perception.  Belief can be seen as one of the most powerful influences on humanity, leading to tragedies such as religious wars, acts of terrorism, as well as altruism, such as famine relief (belief in the commonality of all mankind).  It can influence the political course taken by nations, and even put a man on the moon.  A belief in “that it can be done” can leads to it in actualisation.  80% of the effectiveness of antidepressants derives from the belief in the patient that they will work (Motluck:  2006).  Belief impacts on every corner of our lives, from science and a belief in scientific paradigms, to a belief in the character of your next door neighbour.

According to the concise Oxford English Dictionary, a belief is “1. An Acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof, a firmly held opinion or conviction, a religious conviction.  2.  (Belief in) trust or confidence in”.

Karen Armstrong (2005), in an article in the New Scientist 20^th August 2005,       suggests that the word comes from Old English and means ‘to love’ something.  Certainly there are similarities with the Dutch word ‘Lief’, meaning love.  This would suggest that originally the word belief has similar connotations to the word love, and what was meant by believing in something was that you loved something.  It could be that originally there was not so much a belief (in the modern sense) in God (or Gods), but rather a love for them.

However in modern times belief could be viewed as an acceptance in the ‘truth’ of something without objective evidence as to its reality.  However, as in Dr. Leary’s statement, we tend to interpret ‘reality’ in ways that support our beliefs.  As such, how we interpret the world around us, and how we experience it, is largely subjective, right down to the amount of pain relief we get from placebo treatment.   (Motluck:  2006)

Even the interpretation of the world via our senses can be coloured by what we believe we will experience, and may not necessarily give us an ‘actual’ interpretation of what is out there.  For example, more nerves run from brain to ear than from ear to brain.  We are also culturally ‘programmed’ to hear some sounds and not others.  The Japanese as a culture, for example, have trouble distinguishing between the sound of ‘l’ and ‘r’.  (Stewart and Cohen:  2002) 

The colours that you see are ‘qualia’, interpretations made by the brain of ‘frequencies’ that come into the eye.  What is more there is a huge gap in our sight where the optic nerve leads to the brain, a blind spot that our brain fills in. 

What you are seeing now is only a small part of what is out there, your brain makes up the rest, by what it expects to see, and from memory.  This is why we sometimes see things which are not there.   For example, if you are driving and you see out of the corner of your eye a person just about to cross the road, and when you look again what you actually see is a ‘road sign’. 

When listening to music we can often mistake what we expect to hear in the lyrics for what is actually sung.  Some people find certain smells offensive, some people like those same odours, whilst others do not smell them at all.  The point is that we experience the world, even with our senses, subjectively, and that belief can play a role in that interpretation/experiencing.

As far as we know, human beings are the only animal that makes up stories and beliefs about the world to any sophisticated degree, although some animals, especially animals that plan or use team work must have a sense of narrative to predict the likely outcome of their activities, i.e. hunting chimps, dolphins or squirrels burying their nuts.  However, as far as we know, rabbits are not kept awake at night in their warrens worrying about foxes.  According to Dunbar (2006), religious belief is often dated back to 25,000 years ago, when we have the first evidence of burials, which suggests a belief in some kind of after life.  However Taylor (2003) suggest that belief may go back much further than this, as archaeological evidence point to widespread cannibalism before 10,000 years ago to the days of Homo erectus, some of which may have been reverential funerary cannibalism.  Dunbar (2006) also suggests that the brain capacity for fourth order intentionality, which is essential reasoning to envision social religion appeared 500,000 years ago, and fifth level intentionality appearing 200,000 years ago with the appearance of anatomically modern Homo sapiens.

It can be argued that people live in different ‘realities’ which are shaped by what they believe.  Belief may be considered to be stories that we tell about the world. 

‘My next door neighbour is an idiot’, and ‘if I put money in the bank at a high interest rate, I can buy a boat in a couple of years’, are both stories and both beliefs which may, or may not, be true since interest rates can drop, or the bank be robbed.  It could be argued that a devout Christian may live in a different ‘reality’ to a dyed in the wool atheist.  The Christians ‘reality’ revolves around the “Will of God”, and the likely conclusion of moral transgression which may impact on his or her day to day life, or the chance of a pleasant after-life.  The atheist ‘reality’ might revolve around a deterministic universe and a degree of human agency whose consequences are entirely human.  Both are never likely to agree on any shared sense of ‘reality’ that would satisfy them both.  And funny enough both are true or at least true for them.  The Christian will actively seek out experiences that support his or her belief, such as how they felt in prayer, or when they had a prayer ‘answered’.  The atheist might look at human suffering in the world, and the vastness of the universe, and use these to support his belief that there can be no personal God.  The Christian may ignore the times that their prayer were not ‘answered’ how they would want them to be, or say that perhaps it was not God’s will.  The atheist may ignore a spiritual experience, again selective perception, because both ignore that which does not fit into their world view, their belief system.

Perhaps a more down to earth example might be that you believe that your next door neighbour is an idiot and remember the time that he planted those conifers next to your fence, but his mother thinks he is an angel for paying for her to go on holiday for her birthday, c.f. “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

It goes deeper than that, as we have beliefs about ourselves, such as that we are worthless, intelligent, stupid, successful etc.  These beliefs have a profound effect on our lives and even on how others may perceive us; like other beliefs, we tend to interpret experiences in ways that support these views.  Therefore a person who believes that they are successful is far more likely to succeed than someone who believes that they are worthless.  The worthless believing person will forget any successes that they have, or may not attribute them to their own talents.  What you can certainly say is that someone who believes that they are successful will be happier than one that thinks they are unworthy.

Where do beliefs come from?  As I said before, human beings are storytelling animals.  Stewart and Cohen (2003) suggested that the scientific name for mankind should not be Homo sapiens (wise man), but Pan narrans (the story telling chimp).  The theologian Karen Armstrong in her book ‘A Short History of Myth’ (2005) suggested that there are two types of knowledge and using Plato’s words she called them Logos and Mythos.  Logos represents factual demonstrable knowledge, such as how long a whale is, or the strength of an earthquake.  Something that can be measured empirically, factual or scientific knowledge. Mythos refers to more subjective knowledge such as why people gave lots of money to the tsunami appeal, or their religious knowledge, what we believe about ‘reality’ and the people who inhabit it.   Mythos refers to belief, and as has been shown, belief is the stories we tell about the world, other people and things.

We live in a world of Mythos, of stories and beliefs that shape our lives.  These stories arise from the culture in which we are raised.  They come from the influence that our parents, peers and culture have upon us.  The most obvious example of this is religion.  If you were born, and raised, in a Muslim country the chances are that you will be a Muslim with a Muslim outlook on life. Of course this does not always ring true, as many in Craft will attest to, Craft being a system of “beliefs of choice”. 

Experience is also a great factor in shaping our beliefs, and our general state of mind.  This seems most obvious in beliefs that we hold about other people and ourselves, although personal beliefs will also colour our personal interpretation of our experience. 

There is an interesting model, first proposed by Richard Dawkins in the 70’s, in his book, ‘The Selfish Gene’.  The model is that of memes, a meme being an idea, a piece of cultural information that replicates itself by non-genetic means.  Meme is a deliberate play on the word gene, with which we are all familiar.  Memetics looks at how memes; ideas, or beliefs spread, by a kind of natural selection.  Successful memeplexes such as religions, advertising campaigns or political ideologies do well and spread far and wide, and others do not do so well and die out.  Dr Susan Blackmore (1999) went further by suggesting that we are “meme machines” (perhaps taking the model a little too literally), and suggested that some memes were like viruses of the mind; an example of which being was religions. 

Anyway, that aside, memes themselves have no agenda, (though the people who set them off, may do), they just spread from one person to another, or animal to animal (think of chimps fishing for termites), usually via communication and imitation.  Memes can perhaps be though of as thought forms, something that occultist have known about and used for years.  Remember memes are not ‘real things’ they are a model of how ideas, culture and beliefs spread and work.  They are models of intelligence and culture, paradigms.

This philosophy and theory is all very well but does it have any practical application in Craft?   I would suggest that it does since, first and foremost, if we know what we believe is a belief, and is not set in stone, gospel or fact; this may stop us being too precious, or protective, about our beliefs and so stop us falling into the trap of fundamentalism.  After all Craft like all other spiritual traditions deals in mythos.

 Secondly, it follows that if our beliefs can influence us; perhaps we can influence them, and thus change our reality and the world, which I suggest, is one of the things that Craft is about.  It is especially useful in our beliefs about ourselves.  Perhaps if we believe that we are worthless people we could change that belief into something more constructive, and thus change our attitudes to the world, to how people perceive us and our own personal ‘reality’. Vivianne Crowley said in her book, Wicca the old religion in the new age, “the most important magic we do is on ourselves.”  It is also the hardest involving, honesty, commitment and character and so is a long process.

It is said that Wiccans move between the worlds. By communicating with people in terms of their beliefs, by temporally “buying into them”, we are moving through ‘realities’, if only metaphorically.  This is a process for effective communication often used in Neuro Linguistic Programming. By talking and communicating to people in their own terms we can communicate far more effectively and have greater influence. 

Beliefs then are hugely important and influential to our lives, as by honestly changing them, we change our ‘reality’.  By accepting what we believe is not fact, but a belief, perhaps we can be more tolerant of other people’s believe systems.  A wise friend once told me that life is a story, and a Crafter is someone who not only can change the story, but also, more importantly, knows when to change it.

References

Armstrong, K, (2005), ‘A short history of Myth’, Canongate

Armstrong, K, (2005), ‘The Trouble with Faith’, The New Scientist, August 20th

Blackmore, S, (1999), ‘The Meme Machine’, Oxford University Press

Stewart, I, and Cohen, J, (2002), ‘The Science of the Discworld II’, Ebury Press

Taylor, T, (2002), ‘The Buried Soul - How Humans invented Death’, Forth Estate

Dunbar, R, (2006), ‘We Believe’, The New Scientist, January 28th

Mortluk, A, (2006), ‘Particles of Belief’, The New Scientist, January 28^th

Anton-Wilson, R, (1983), ‘Prometheus Rising, New Falcon

Crowley, V, (1989), Wicca, the Old Religion in the New Age’, Aquarian Press

1.       EXPERIMENT 1:  EARLY RESULTS INDICATE THAT MANIPULATING THE DIRECTION AND DESTINATION OF CLOUDS USING MIND CONTROL HAS MET WITH ONLY PARTIAL SUCCESS; IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THIS IS DUE TO THE MINDLESS NATURE OF YOUR AVERAGE CLOUD. HOWEVER, THOSE RARE INDIVIDUALS THAT ONE COMES ACROSS IN LIFE WHO SEEM TO REVEL IN DWELLING UNDER THEIR OWN PERSONAL CLOUD HAVE BEEN EXPRESSING A COLLECTIVE URGE TO TRAVEL A LONG WAY AWAY FROM ME.

2.      EXPERIMENT 2: CANDLES MAGIC: GAVE UP AFTER THE CANDLE BLEW OUT FOR 73^RD TIME; BLOODY WEATHER!

3.       EXPERIMENT 3:  TRAVELLED TO THE AMAZON RAIN FORREST LOCATED AND CAPTURED BUTTERFLY. ARRIVED BACK HOME TO VIOLENT THUNDER STORM. THE BUTTERFLY, AFTER A VERY STIFF TALKING TO ADMITTED THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY HIS BROTHER NIGEL I SHOULD BE  AFTER. RETURNED TO THE AMAZON FOUND THE SNEAKY LITTLE SHITE. GOT HIM TO SIGN MY AUTOGRAPH BOOK BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT SUCH A HOOT THAT I’D HAD TO FORK OUT FOR TWO TRIP TO THE AMAZON ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER EXPENSES, WE WERE LAUGHING SO HARD ABOUT IT ..................I SHUT MY VERY HEAVY AUTOGRAPH BOOK. NIGEL NOW LIVES BETWEEN PAGES 265 AND 266........OOPS.

4.      EXPERIMENT 4: WORKING SKYCLAD OUTSIDE: AFTER 12 HOUR WORKING SOLIDLY ON GUIDING THE ELEMENTS, SPENT UNCOMFORTABLE NIGHT IN CASUALTY BEING TREATED FOR HEAT EXHAUSTION, DEHYDRATION, AND A SEVERE ALLERGIC REACTION CAUSED BY INSECT STINGS. (NOTE TO SELF WATCH WHERE YOU TREAD ESPECIALLY WHEN NAKED). CAN’T REMEMBER WHAT THE EXPERIMENT WAS, OR IN FACT WHAT THE RESULTS WERE.DUE TO THE COLLECTIVE AMNESIC EFFECT OF THE PHARMOCOLOGICAL COCKTAIL I WAS ADMINISTERED IN HOSPITAL; BUT THE SMALL PURPLE DRAGON WITH THE GINGER AFRO WAS VERY FRIENDLY. THIS EXPERIMENT IS NOT RESCHEDULED FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE.

5.      EXPERIMENT 5: VISUALISATION:  VISUALISING THE DESIRED WEATHER PROVED VERY EFFECTIVE; APART FROM THE INCIDENT WITH THE LOCAL VICAR. NEWSPAPER REPORTS STATE THAT HE SHOULD MAKE;...... ALMOST A COMPLETE RECOVERY; BUT WON’T BE ABLE TO USE ANY ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES FOR ABOUT SIX MONTHS. I DIDN’T REALISE THAT THE HUMAN BODY COULD CONDUCT THE ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE OF 17 LIGHTENING STRIKES IN HALF AS MANY SECONDS.

6.       EXPERIMENT 6: CHANTING: ALTHOUGH VERY EFFECTIVE AT ALTERING THE STATE OF MY CONSCIOUSNESS FOR THE PURPOSE OF GUIDING WEATHER, I AM CURRENTLY HIDING IN THE FIELD AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN WAITING FOR THE AUTHOURITIES TO GET BORED AND LEAVE. THEY ARE APPARENTLY INVESTIGATING THE SUPPOSED “STRANGE GOING ON’S AT No. 2” INTERFERRING BASTARDS.

7.       EXPERIMENT 7: CLOUD BUSTING: VERY EFECTIVE TECHNIQUE OF USING THE MIND LIKE A SCALPEL ON THE WEAK POINTS IN A CLOUD; BREAKING THEM UP INTO MUCH MORE MANAGABLE PEICES YOU CAN CONTINUE USING THIS PROCESS UNTIL NOTHING IS LEFT OR IF YOU ARE RESTRICTED FOR TIME AS I WAS, SEND THEM ABROAD..........VIVA LE FRANCE.

8.      EXPERIMENT 8: EVIL EYE: THIS IS AN UNCEREMONIOUS TECHNIQUE, WHICH INVOLVES WALKING OUTSIDE AND SUGGESTING TO THE WEATHER HOW YOU WOULD LIKE IT TO PRESENT ITSELF ON A CERTAIN DATE/TIME/PLACE..........OR ELSE. (SPECIAL STANCE REQUIRED: STAND VERY ERECT WITH ARMS FOLDED IN FRONT OF YOU AND ONE FOOT TAPPING SLOWLY).

9.      EXPERIMENT 9: ACCEPTING WHAT YOU’RE GIVEN: RAIN OR SHINE, HOT OR COLD, THERE IS WONDER TO BE SEEN IN THE ELEMENTS HOWEVER THEY CHOOSE TO REVEAL THEMSELVES TO US. IF IT RAINS YOU’LL GET WET.......DEAL WITH IT; IF YOU STAY OUT IN THE SUMMER SUN YOU’LL GET BURNT.....DEAL WITH IT. HAVE YOU REALLY CONSIDERED THE RAMIFICATION OF BUGGERING AT WITH THE WEATHER? IT’S ALL VERY WELL SAYING “I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY ACTIONS”. BUT WHAT IF ONE OF THE RIPPLES YOU MAKE SO YOU CAN SEE THE MOON REFLECTED IN A CUP, INADVERTENTLY RUINS SOMEONES LIVELYHOOD ON THE OTHERSIDE OF THE COUNTRY, OR IS PERHAPS, PARTLY OR TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR DESTROYING HOMES AND SCATTERING FAMILIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD. ARE YOU GOING TO GO THEM AND HELP THEM REBUILD THEIR LIVES? OR ARE YOU JUST GOING TO SAY “SORRY, MY BAG”, AND WALK AWAY WITH A WARM FUZZY FEELING IN THE PIT OF YOUR STOMACH, SAFE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT YOU’RE IN CONTROL OF YOUR EGO. IF YOU MAKE A MESS CLEAR IT UP, BETTER STILL DON’T MAKE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. ACCEPT WHAT YOU CANNOT CHANGE, AND CHANGE WHAT YOU CANNOT ACCEPT (BUT REALLY TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, DON’T JUST MASSAGE YOUR EGO AND PAY IT LIP SERVICE). DO YOU REALLY NEED TO SEE THE MOON REFLECTED IN THE CUP TO FEEL IT THERE? IS’NT THAT GREY AND WHITE SQUIDGY THING BETWEEN YOUR EARS VERY GOOD AT FILLING IN THE BLANKS?

“STEP SOFTLY UPON THE EARTH AND LEAVE NO TRACE OF YOUR PASSING”, PERHAPS I MISUNDERSTOOD THIS BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS NOT ABOUT HIDING AWAY FROM THE WORLD BUT ABOUT BEING CLEVER, CUNNING, AND CRAFTY, WORKING IN HARMONY WITH THE NATURAL RHYTHMS THAT ARE IN YOU AND AROUND YOU ALL THE TIME. AS A WITCH ARE YOU NOT SELF AWARE, SELF ACTUALISED. DOES’NT THIS MAKES YOU, AND I KNOW THIS WILL SOUND POMPOUS, A WOLF AMONGST SHEEP. IF YOU CHOOSE TO YOU CAN TAKE WHEN AND WHAT YOU LIKE FROM THE FLOCK.

I’VE MADE MY CHOICE, I CHOOSE TO GUARD AND PROTECT THE FLOCK AS BEST I CAN; I KNOW VERY WELL THAT I CANNOT SAVE THEM ALL, OR THE WORLD. BUT I WILL STILL TRY TO DO WHAT I CAN. I DON’T PARTICULARLY LIKE SHEEP THEY ARE A SILLY ANIMAL AFTER ALL. YET, STILL I CARE ABOUT THEM, AND IF I DON’T TRY TO LOOK AFTER THEM, WHO WILL? WHY SHOULD I EXPECT SOMEBODY ELSE TO DO IT? THE POINT I’M TRYING TO MAKE IS THIS: YOU HAVE A CHOICE. IF I EVER DO ANY SORT OF WEATHER MAGIC IT WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH MY OWN INVENTIVENESS, AND IT WILL HAVE TO BE FOR A BLOODY GOOD REASON; AND NOT FOR THE SAKE OF GLAMOUR, NOT SO THAT I CAN SAY “OOH LOOK WHAT I DID, IN’T IT PRETTY, AREN’T  I CLEVER”. PERSONALLY IF I WANT SELF GRATIFICATION I’LL GO AND PLAY WITH MYSELF.

IS CHANGING THE WEATHER SO YOU CAN SEE A REFLECTION IN A CUP, REALLY A WORTHY USE OF YOUR TIME AND EFFORT? YOU MAY ARGUE THAT YOU’RE ONLY MOVING A COUPLE OF CLOUDS; OF NO MORE CONSEQUENCE THAN THROWING A STONE INTO A SMALL POND TO WATCH THE RIPPLES SPREAD OUT ACROSS THE SURFACE. BUT, WHAT IF A MILLION PEOPLE THROW THEIR STONE INTO THAT SMALL POND ASWELL, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE POND? WHAT HAPPENS TO THE LIFE IN THAT POND?

 The myths of Craft are not exactly the same as those of our pagan ancestors, who were on the whole far more concerned with appeasement of ‘supernatural’ forces or the buying of their favours. The pagans of the past were more interested in buying favours of their ‘gods and spirits’ with prayers and sacrifices that would give them a head start in an uncertain and dangerous world.  Rather Craft myth is a reinterpretation of the common experiences of humanity, put into a context that is meaningful to us today.  They evolved or have been designed (depending on your point of view) with the intent of celebrating and helping us experience the mysteries.  And the real beauty is that because Craft is non dogmatic, they are evolving all the time to meet our needs.  In the Craft it is you and I who are writing the truly important ‘books’ now, based upon what we need, and based upon the things that were important to those Witches who have gone before.

This metaphor of myth; this ‘sideways’ description of the Universe, and ourselves is often expressed in Craft as well as in other spiritual traditions in the world, through ritual.  An effective spiritual ritual should contain myth.  Ritual among other things is a way of communication or a language that groups of people can use to experience the myths, as we are, after all, like many other creatures on the planet, ritual animals.   Most vertebrates (and an enormous amount of invertebrates) are ritual animals, for example think of the head bopping rituals of courting grebes, the territorial ritual fights of elephant seals; rituals of marking a boundary with scent not to mention the mating rituals of Chavs in a nightclub.  In other words ritual is a form of communication in which, in spirituality we share myths and a connection with Numinous, and share participation within the mysteries.  Ritual quite literally is ancient, far, far older than even the earliest hominids

The Wheel of the Year, along with the Myth of the Descent of the Goddess, the Cycles of the Moon, Initiation etc., is one of the main myths of the Craft.  How it varies, how it is perceived and how it is expressed must depend a great deal on the Craft tradition that you follow, or the individual coven that you belong to.

The Wheel of the Year operates on many different levels, like the layers of an onion, peel one layer away and there other layers underneath.  In particular it can operate on an inner level, pertaining to feelings, experiences and life of the individual Witch.  By this I mean that the Witch uses the Myth to experience the mysteries of Birth, Life, Sex and Death, in a spiritual way.  Applying the myths of the Lady and Dark Lord to our own lives can help us do this.

Essentially the Wheel of the year is a mythological version of the year that centres on four to eight festivals called Sabbats depending upon the tradition.  Each of these Sabbats is a ritual occasion and celebrates certain mysteries for which the myth of the Wheel of the year is a metaphor.

Many traditions, such as the Alexandrians and post Farrar traditions do this by interweaving the story of the Lady and Lord throughout the year, the Divine couple making their path through the wheel, interweaving between the two, throughout the year.  Vivianne Crowley in Wicca the Old religion in the New Age describes this beautifully.  She describes the myth of the Wheel in terms of the Horned God who is born as the Child of Promise at Yule, the festival of the mid winter and the shortest day.  He grows to be the young Phallic Lord at Spring Sabbat then the Lord of the Greenwood and lover of the Goddess at Beltaine, where they consummate their union in the Hieros Gamos, the scared marriage and great rite.  At the Midsummer festival he has to assume responsibility for his land and people, as he is now the Sun King, married to the Goddess.  But nothing lasts forever and he becomes the sacrificial king, the corn king who lays down his life for the next generation at Lammas.  After death he wanders the highways and byways of death through autumn till he takes on the mantle of the Dark Lord, death himself, the comforter and consoler at Halloween.  He becomes the Lord of Death and Change the initiator of life, the Goddess herself; he teaches her the mystery.  From there Vivianne Crowley has him assuming Godhead and transcending the collective unconscious as the cycles closes at Yule.

Within this myth of the Wheel of the year, with its emphasis Horned Lord you may notice the similarities between it and the hero myth of Prof. Joseph Campbell.  Here the myth is a pedagogy and description of our own lives, leading to the transcendental and the mystical as we like the Horned Lord, by buying into the myth, transcend ourselves and experience the mysteries.

Some traditions such as the one that I practise prefer to place more emphasis on the Horned Lord in the winter and the spring, and on the Lady in the summer and autumn with the crossing points being Beltaine and Halloween.  So within the Sabbats of Halloween and Candlemas there is more emphasis placed upon the Dark Lord of Winter and during the Sabbats of Beltaine and Lammas there is more emphasis placed on the Lady of life, and sexuality.  The reasons for this myth originally as far as I know (and I may be wrong) come from Gerald Gardner’s Brickett Wood coven, which had this emphasis, and it may also be down to winter being traditionally the hunting season and during the summer there is more agricultural activity.  It may also be due to the fact that statistically more people die in the winter months than the summer months.  However as it dates back to at least Brickett Wood, this version of the myth seems to be the older one, though of course it doesn’t necessarily make it any better than the other model- horses for courses.

The ritual year begins with the Sabbat of Candlemas, which is celebrated at the start of spring, usually around about the beginning of February.  Candlemas is a much misunderstood and under celebrated Sabbat in the sense that it is often overlooked in many Popular Wiccan books, which put the start of the ritual year at Halloween.       

The word Candlemas comes from the Roman Catholic festival on the 2^nd of February that celebrates the purification of the Virgin Mary after the birth of Christ.  Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, birth like menstruation was seen as an unclean act that required rituals that would purify the woman so that she would be fit to re-enter polite society.  The festival of Candlemas also celebrates the introduction of Jesus into the temple and also his naming.  The name Candlemas derives from the rite in which a priest would bless all the candles for use within the church that year.

Candlemas is celebrated to mark the return and the strengthening of the sun and the start of spring.  At this time of the year the snowdrops and primroses have begun to flower and the catkins are just about out on the hazel trees.  The sheep will be starting lambing and, everywhere, despite the cold the first signs of spring are beginning to show.  However, the last throws of winter are not entirely over, as Candlemas is the traditional the last time that the mythological wild hunt rides forth- perhaps the last throws of winter storms or the migration of geese as they head back towards the arctic after over wintering in the UK.

For Witches Candlemas is a time of renewal, of rebirth, of saying goodbye to the old and looking forward to the new.  It is a time of ‘purification’, in the sense of letting go any baggage physical, mental or emotional that we have accumulated in the previous year that may be holding us back.  It is so we can cast it off and go forward into the new ritual year, renewed and unencumbered.  It is a time of change; hence there is an emphasis on the Dark Lord of death and change, a time to start after the long break between the end of the ritual year at Yule and Candlemas. 

It celebrates the mysteries of birth, starting, changing, letting go of the old and moving on ahead to the new.  It is the sowing of seeds, planning for the New-year, what needs to be done, our hopes and our dreams.  The Perennial Lady is always present as it is through her that we are born into the world.  It is about remembering and learning from the old and planning and preparing for the new.

The second of the Greater Sabbats is May eve, which marks the start of summer.  Traditionally this Sabbat is celebrated when the May blossoms on the hawthorn trees come out and it is warm enough to make love out of doors (taking care not to frighten the horses of course).  The World outside has fully awoken and things change within the countryside on a daily basis.  Leaves are beginning to grow on the trees, the bluebells and wild garlic are just coming out in the woods and all of nature seems to be stretching upwards, growing at full tilt to take advantage of the waxing sun.  Wild flowers line the hedgerows and the days grow longer.

Within Roman Catholicism the 1^st May is traditionally a day celebrating the Virgin Mary, but it’s connection with socialism and international workers day that it is better known.

Within the Craft, May Eve is the great Sabbat of sexuality and the Lady.  Between the Sabbats of May Eve and Halloween there is greater emphasis on the Lady than the Dark Lord.  She is the Lady of life, fertility and sexuality who rules over the tides of nature.  She is the secret Goddess who dwells within and without us all.  For witches this is a celebration of the mysteries of sex and sexuality, the means by which life overcomes death and continues.  It is also one of the means by which we approach and experience the mysteries in ways that ordinary language simply cannot describe.  It is about togetherness, experiencing the mysteries of each other as reflected in the mythical marriage of the Lady and the Lord that occurs on May eve.  Death bows down before the inevitable continuation of Life though sex.  Though there can be no death without life and no life without death, each is bound within the other, there is no separation both are one, both are part of the whole.

It is also the time to celebrate the tides of the Lady, as spring gives way to summer we acknowledge and celebrate the ebbs and the flows of secret tides within ourselves and within the world about us, the flow of life and the unfolding of Wyrd.  May eve along with Halloween is perhaps one of the two most important of the greater Sabbats.  It is about change, the change of tides, the change and transformation that is brought about within us by sexuality, the acknowledgement and integration of our contra sexual side within our own psyches, our own ‘Hieros Gamos’, the ‘chymical wedding’ which is part of what the myth of the union of the Lord and Lady represents.  This leads to greater balance within us, helping us deal with the world in a wiser way, and leading us to the experience of the mysteries through sexuality.

The third of the Great Sabbats is the Sabbat of Lammas, which is celebrated usually around about the start of August and marks the beginning of autumn.  Within the Christian calendar the first bread from the first of the harvested corn would be brought in to the church on the 1st August.  The word Lammas probably comes from Loaf Mass, though it seems that in medieval times this festival was known at ‘Gule of August’.  Among Witches it is also know as August eve or Earth Labour, and is usually celebrated with the first harvest- though that seems to be getting earlier and earlier. 

It is a time of scarlet poppies amongst the yellow stalks of corn, the poppies being the symbol of self-sacrifice, representing the mythical sacrifice of the corn king so that the people can eat and also to provide for next year’s seeds.  As a symbol, the poppies in the corn field is a powerful one for me, and reminds me of my responsibilities and fills me with admiration for those that I know that sacrifice their own desires and wishes for other peoples’ benefits- which is part of growing up and being a parent.  It is a time of late summer roses, the flower and the thorn a potent symbol for the great goddess who is celebrated at this Sabbat.  It is a time of the first fruits within the hedgerow, the promise of haw berries, blackberries and sloes to come later on in the month.  Yet is also time to commemorate the fall and sacrifice of the Corn King and give thanks for the produce of the Earth that sustains us, even though few of us these days are directly involved in working towards it.  We also know at this time that the year is waning and we are heading towards the autumn and winter.  Therefore it is also a time for reflection, of achieving our goals, our own harvest gained through our own sacrifices and hard work, after all nothing comes from nothing.  There is something of a melancholy feeling about this Sabbat, especially amongst those witches that live in the countryside, the potential of the year has been reaches and it is well into waning.

The mysteries celebrated at this time of year is one of sacrifice, not the sacrifice of the ancient pagans who killed animals in order to buy favour with the gods, but rather the sacrifices we make as adults.  These could be the sacrifices of time and resources that we put into raising children, when perhaps we truly do become adults, or it could be the sacrifices we make in order to work, to provide for ourselves as opposed to being a perpetual child and living off the state.  It might be the sacrifices we make for other people, for loved ones, for people we care for who perhaps cannot look after themselves.  This is part of axial consciousness, that great awakening of sublimating our own need for the needs of others which according to Karen Armstrong occurred in the Axial age and gave rise to world religions such as Judaism and Buddhism and philosophies such as Confucianism and Greek Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.  This putting others before yourself found its enduring forms in myth in the post axial religions of Christianity and Islam, though sadly is not always put into practise by their followers.

The last of the Greater Sabbats is Halloween, which is usually celebrated around about late October, or the start of November depending upon the moon and other factors.  It is the time of the raising of the Stang, the changing of the tides and the beginning of the emphasis upon the Dark Lord within ritual.  Halloween has a complicated past, but there seems to be no evidence to support the Pop Wicca idea that it is the start of the ‘Celtic’ New Year.  Also the pop Wiccan name Samhain is the Gaelic name for November rather than a ‘Celtic’ festival.  However, there does seem to be some evidence to support the idea that there was a Gaelic festival in pagan times at this time to celebrate the end of the harvest.  The Romans also had a festival at this time of year called Feralia, which honoured the Goddess Pomona whose symbol was an apple.  Pope Gregory IV moved all saints day, which fell at various dates but most commonly on the 13^th May to 1^st November, the day after Halloween, and of course we all know Halloween as a time for Ghosts, Witches and Spirits in popular tradition.

For Witches Halloween marks the start of winter, the nights have drawn in and there is a chill in the air.  The fields are all harvested and ploughed over and the fruits of the hedgerows are past their prime.  The leaves are all falling from the trees and overhead at night are the ghostly cries of high flying Brent geese, as they fly in from the arctic to over winter on our shores- the wild hunt of legend.   It is the change over between the time of the Lady of the Witches and the Dark Lord, where the Stang is raised and the Horned God Invoked.  It is a Sabbat that celebrates death, of which the Dark Lord is the mythological symbol.  It is a time of change; a time to consider the mystery of our own mortality and the continuation of life, beyond our own lives.  That is not to say that Witches necessarily have a literal belief in an afterlife, as many witches find the concepts of afterlives inadequate, childish and a purely mythological mechanism for coping with death and mortality.   Rather it is the realisation that we are all parts of the larger pattern that continues to play out after our individual lives are spent.  Crafters are not afraid of death, but rather they celebrate it as a mystery, a part of our lives that is an inevitable outcome to us being born.  It is something that defines who we are, and fills our lives with a finite sense of self that can drive us on to achieve and experience.

However, it is not just physical death that is celebrated in the mythic cycle at Halloween, but also change, which after all death is.  The Dark Lord is also change, it can be change form one season to the next, a change within our lives and situation or it could be the change that comes about through the use of magic.  Change is something that most people fear, but to the Witch it is their very bread and butter as they seek to change themselves and their lives.  Many of the symbols associated with the Craft are symbols that are to do with change and transformation, and change is something that Crafters embrace.

As this is a time of change and the mysteries of death, many Witches use this time of the year for divination on the year ahead.  This could take the form of tarot or runes, and in many covens the quarter candles are left to burn down on their own accord, the last one to go out being an indicator for the up and coming ritual year which begins again at Candlemas.  Because this is one of the darker rituals of the year, the Sabbat is usually finished off with a big party and games.

Although it is not one of the greater Sabbats I would just like to mention Yule, which is perhaps the most important lesser Sabbats as it marks the end of the ritual year.  It is often the case that the lesser Sabbats reflect the mysteries of the greater Sabbat on each side and it is the same with Yule, which deals with Death and rebirth- Halloween and Candlemas and sits in that in-between time of the year, between the old and the new.  It is a time of darkness and a return to the light.  A still and quiet time of the year as any walk in the countryside at this time will confirm.  For Witches it is a time of reflection before the coming of the new ritual year, reflection on what has gone before, of hopes, fears, achievements and failures and what is to be achieved in the next.  Yule brings us full circle in exploring the myth and the mysteries of the Wheel.

In each case, whether it is the newer or older version of the wheel of the year myth, one of its primary focuses is on the life of the Witch.  It is a story about the individual Witches life, very much in the vain of Campbell’s mythic interpretation.  It is human life written large and looks to celebrate, re sanctify and fill us with awe about events in life that makes us human, that which we all share.  It is about birth, sexuality, adulthood and death, and not (for Witches at least) about worshipping pagan gods in a religious way.  It is a myth that fulfils all of Campbell’s four functions of mythology. 

It inspires a sense of awe in the mysteries within it as we witness the changing tides and seasons and wonder about our own existence.  The myth inspires within us a sense of mystery at our own life, at our birth and death and other significant factors within it.  It engenders a perennial awe at nature and the turning seasons, connecting us with the mystery of numinosity that permeates all of creation, finding it within nature (as it is) and within ourselves.  By buying into the myth and experiencing it within the yearly round of ritual, meditation and participation within the mysteries of life we are awed with existence.

The myth also provides a cosmological foundation for the Witch although Craft not being a religion in the strictest sense of the word has very little need for creation myth.  Instead the cosmology implied within the Wheel of the year is one on how the universe operates, and in the case of this myth is implies that the universe operates in cycles.  Much of Craft can be interpreted in the light of Hermetic philosophy, of which the most famous principal is the quote, ‘as above so below’. Again it should be borne in mind that this is mythos knowledge rather than logos knowledge, it is poetic and metaphorical rather that the way the Universe can be demonstrated scientifically to be.

The cosmological poetry is however, quite beautiful as it states that the microcosm, the human being is the same, and undergoes the same processes as the macrocosm, the universe.  This means that as the galaxies and stars spiral in cycles, so to the planets of the solar system.  As the seasons follow their annual cycle as the Earth orbits the sun so do we follow our own cycles, on a yearly basis and the basis of our own lives.  It is this cycle as expressed and celebrated within the seasonal rituals of the tides, seasons and mysteries of the year.  These cycles are also expressed within Craft in the mythic cycles of the moon and their connection to the Lady relating symbolically to our own cycles, most especially the menstrual cycle in women.

Cosmologically speaking viewing the universe in terms of cycles means that the universe is always in a state of change as it moves from one mode of being to another, till it completes its cycle and begins again.  As Craft acknowledges importantly, that one cycle is never the same as another, hence a difference emphasis within rituals as the years turn, this adds to the overall transformation.  This is where the Hermetic mythic poetry comes in, as the Universe is a metaphor of Human life, so we too are in a state of constant change- the magic and alchemy of transformation.

The sociological function of the Wheel of the year is perhaps it’s weakest, as it tends to say very little about supporting the Status Quo within Craft.  This perhaps can be put down to the fact that Craft being a spiritual practise and occult philosophy rather than a religion has little to say or do with society as opposed to fully formed societal religions such as Christianity and Hinduism.  The myth says nothing about the role of Craft within the world; it doesn’t even justify the roles within covens, other than the having of a male and female leader.  Perhaps the only sociological role the myth plays is to support the expression of human sexuality, but that could rather be seen as falling into the pedagogical function of myth. The Wheel of the Year as a myth tends to be a myth that is directed towards to the individual and that individual’s development.  As Maxine Sanders once said at a conference, the Craft can be a selfish tradition, and she is right as Occult traditions do centre on the development of the individual rather than being an influencing factor within society.

Perhaps far more important than the sociological function is the pedagogical function of the myth.  The pedagogical function of the wheel of the year is to provide a template or a model for how the Witch can live his or her life.   In this respect the Wheel of the Year bears many similarities to the hero myth, the mono myth suggested by Professor Campbell.  In essence the wheel of the year contains in its mythic poetry the aspects of life, of being a human, in the written large drama of the interactions of the Lord and the Lady, as we have already examined.  It teaches us to place value on our own lives, to re-sanctify ourselves.  More than this though, it gives us a model for life.  By this I do not mean a moral model, as Craft does not directly concern itself in moral issues.  That is for the individual Witch to decide based upon the consensual morality of the society in which he or she lives and their own ethical code of behaviour.  Rather it teaches us what to expect in life, what events are coming our way and importantly it teaches us to accept our own morality in a dignified way and not surrender to wishful thinking about an afterlife.  It teaches us to accept life as it is and to marvel in it.  On a smaller scale the pedagogical function of the wheel also provides us with a model for achievement based upon the tides and season that follow the annual round of the cycle.

In each case of the Wheel myth, by participating within the myths celebrated at the Sabbat rituals, we are putting value on those very human mysteries as expressed in the mythical Divine couple.  This in turn leads, Zooetically to the re-sanctifying of humanity, to experience of Numinous within ourselves and the World about us, the greater mystery and the mystical experience, which surely is one of the goals of the Craft.