Suffolk Witchcraft Training

“When is a Witch not a Witch,” wrote Robert Cochrane (aka Roy Bowers) in the 1960’s, “when he or she is a pagan”?   Maxine Sanders also claimed that she was not a pagan at a conference in 2000.  Other long standing Witches have also stood up and claimed that Witches are different to Pagans.  What is it that they mean, what is the difference between a Witch and a Pagan?

 

Initiatory Witchcraft is the mystical side of paganism.  It is a mystery tradition in the classical sense of the word.  Some pagan traditions such as Druidry and Wicca also claim to be mystery traditions, however they mean that they are closed societies with mysteries (i.e. they have secrets).

 

Mystery traditions seek to give the initiate direct experience of the Divine; they give an awareness of connectedness, place within Wyrd.  The word mystery comes from Greek and means, “beyond the mouth”.  Hence they are experiences that cannot be explained only experienced, hinted at only through the metaphor of myth.  They include traditions such as the Sufi, the Cabbala, Tantra; some forms of Taoism and of course the Initiated Craft.

 

Within mystery traditions there is no separation between Nature, Humanity and the Divine (we are using the words Divine, Divinity and Numinous as adjectives rather than nouns).  All is connected, all is one.  The Numinous of nature thus also suggests that Divinity is not just the nice bits.  Training in mystical traditions seeks to give and open up the initiate to the mystical experience, that realisation of ecstasy, of non-separation, of connectedness with Numinous, transcendental experience, and ‘cosmic consciousness’.  “The Divine in which we move and have our being”, to quote Prof. Joe Campbell.  It can never be described directly, if you can it was not a mystical experience.  They can only be hinted at in metaphor such as myth, ritual and symbols.

All religions have their origins in mystical experience.  It is when the metaphors such as the myth and ritual become ends in themselves that religions are formed.  Religions such as those in paganism also see a separation between the Divine (in this case a noun) and humanity.  As such they use a transactional model, the worshipper in the child ego state and the god in the parent ego state.  Many pagans expect things of their Gods such as the answering of prayers and keeping them safe.  They in turn feel that they must do certain things like enacting ritual and living a moral life that will help them get into the Gods’ good books.

 

Mystical traditions meet the Divine on an equal footing, after all we are all part of that Divine, aren’t we?

 

Myths, rituals and symbols are used in mystical traditions, but the initiate never forgets that they are not ends in themselves.  Rather they are tools and a language to help communicate the experience of the mysteries, to celebrate and re-experience them.  The initiate cultivates a sense of profound meaning and relationship within themselves, and as such these meanings and relationships become far more valuable than anything that is ‘externally’ imposed.  The initiate is like an artist, who builds up meanings to the symbols and myths, but understands that they are metaphors or the real experience.  They understand that the signpost to Stowmarket is not Stowmarket itself.

 

Mystical traditions require training from a facilitator who has experienced these things.  How else can the trainer show the neophyte (beginner) the road to having these experiences of numinous for themselves?  The Occult and Western Mystery Tradition of which the Craft is a part are reversed engineered mysticism and training can be a long process.  Tantric and Taoist Masters look at it in terms of decades.  Many in the initiatory Craft say at least two years training before initiation and even then it takes years to get anywhere.  Mystery traditions are not quick fixes, they are life long processes.  They require balanced personalities, as the road to the mysteries is fraught with peril and pitfalls.  Mystery traditions, which used various skills and techniques, are likened far more to an Art or a Craft than a religion.

 

Where Craft differs from other mystical traditions (e.g. Hermetic Cabbala), is that it builds upon a nature paradigm in the myths and rituals that it uses.  Both inner and outer nature; it deals with the mysteries of birth, life, sex and death.  Consider the Wheel of the Year.  Craft initiates do this by participating in the real world, and meeting the challenges of life, it is the path of the Hearth.  The Western Mystery Traditions are not an escape from life; rather they underpin it and provide paradigms to give it meaning. 

 

Remember the Old Craft saying:

 

What is the difference between a Pagan and a Witch?

 

Cut a pagan and he bleeds, cut a Witch and you die!

 

 

I was seed planted in the fertile womb

And my wheel began turning,

My yarn on the loom

For months I was an idea,

Preparations were needed,

A new life was born, I had been seeded.

My life came springing from out of the dark.

 

And the wheel keeps on turning.

 

Out of earth I was sprung into this sphere of a place,

My cells growing daily, as if it a race,

My parents and teachers filling my mind

Ideas passed on were all one of a kind.

My body was growing,

My mind sought knowing,

My summer is here, and the sun it is burning

 

But the wheel keeps on turning

 

As I grow older

My seeds all sown

Passing on thoughts to the fruits of my womb

I sit back and reflect on how these have grown,

The cycles of cells and life and thoughts,

And how they have changed from what was first taught

I reap the harvest of what I have sown

With love for my child like no other I’ve known

 

And the wheel keeps on turning

 

Now the land is all fallow

Life back to the earth

My cells all recycled for plants and the worms

My genes living on through their own spinning looms

Cycles beginning from new fertile wombs

Winter is here, we’re back where we started

New ideas sown and new seeds planted.

 

And the wheel keeps on turning