Pricticing The Craft Why Young People Are Attracted To Wicca

Book: Pricticing The Craft Why Young People Are Attracted To Wicca by Anonymous

This article first appeared in the Effective Evangelism column of the Christian Research Journal, volume 30, number 5 (2007). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org In April of this year, the Department of Veterans Affairs approved the use of the Wiccan pentacle—a fivepointed star surrounded by a circle—on tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery and other U.S. military burial grounds. The pentacle joins a list of 38 other approved religious symbols including an atom for atheists, the humanist emblem, and various forms of the Christian cross.

Wicca, long considered a fringe spiritual practice, has entered the mainstream and the number of practitioners has skyrocketed over the past decade. According to the American Religious Identification Survey1 conducted every decade by the City University of New York, the number of Wiccans in America was seventeen times larger at the beginning of this decade than it was in the early 1990s. Not only are there military personnel who practice Wicca, but many high school and college students do as well. Wiccans on college campuses have been forming their own clubs for years.

If we hope to engage this growing segment of our society—particularly the young people who practice Wicca—typical Christian tactics such as organizing boycotts, letter-writing, and shunning Wiccan believers, must become a thing of the past. Too often, Christians have refused to treat Wiccans as their neighbors and have been content to remain ignorant about what Wiccans really believe and why they believe it. We know that Paul on Mars Hill and other members of the early church looked with compassion on the pagans in their midst and effectively engaged them in conversations about the gospel. We must do no less with modern-day pagans.

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Anonymous - Pricticing The Craft Why Young People Are Attracted To Wicca

The Moon Phases

At the end of this page is a Module that will show you the current moon phase. If you click on it it will take you to the people whom make the software that you may download so you can have full month calendars. This will help you to plan when to do your Spells or plant your seeds for your Herb Garden.

The Moon phase... The proper Moon phase is one of the keys to success in Spell casting. There are many Spells that I do on the night of the Full Moon for maximum effect and potency just as farmers may plant there seedlings during the Full Moon. The Moon effects everything and can effect our moods and actions. Ever notice that people seem to be more wound up and crazy during the Full Moon? I see it all the time. There are four phases of the Moon... New Moon, Waxing Moon, Full Moon and the Waning Moon. Each of these phases has a 7 day period for doing your Magical workings. If you add these phases up, you come up with the 28 day lunar month. The time period for each phase is... 3 days before to 3 days after. This gives you plenty of time to plan and do you Spell casting. Not everyone can plan on doing magic on one certain day, so this opens the window of opportunity for those of you who have a busy schedule. Here is what the different phases are normally used for in Magic.

New Moon - There are usually two days of the new moon. This phase is very similar to the Waning Moon and used to rid ones self of things.

Waxing Moon - This is when the moon is increasing in size of visibility. This phase is for doing Spells that might increase your gain such as Love, money, power or other material things.

Full Moon - This the phase where I do my most important spells. For my beliefs are that my Magic is much more powerful during this phase. Most people like my friends only consider the Full Moon the actual day that it is the fullest and marked on the calendar. They do not know that the Moon has the same influence for a seven day period. Once again I personally prefer to work on the night of the Full Moon, at its fullest.

Waning Moon - This is when the moon is decreasing in size of visibility. This phase is normally for Spells that do away with things or make things go away. Such as making an enemy go away or a bad spirit or slander along with many other things.

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The Great Cycle

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... The cycle of a year, it's birth and death is mirrored in the lives of all living Things. This cycle is also mirrored by the day/night cycle, and a multitude of other cycles. Many gods are used to personify either the circle in it's entirety, or a specific aspect of the cycle (The Green Man for birth or rebirth, the springtime, growth).

Downloadable books (free):

John Yarker - The Anglo Saxon Chronicle
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Michael Sharp - The Great Awakening

What Does It Mean To Be Wiccan

To be Wiccan is to worship the Goddess and her companion the Horned God, and to follow the philosophies, ethics and practices of the old religion. Originally rooted in Paganism, Wicca existed long before Christianity and long before the Church was founded.

Wiccans honour the Earth as their spiritual Mother (the Goddess) and the Sky and the wildness of nature as their spiritual Father (the Horned God). In practice, this means that they esteem nature and the planet on which we live. They venture not to harm anyone or anything, because to them, everyone in the world are their brothers and sisters with an equal right to exist. Wicca is a tradition that works to harm none in thought, word, or deed. Therefore, anyone who says they are a witch but works otherwise should not be considered an authentic Wiccan practitioner.

Witchcraft is still the only Spiritual Tradition that raises the female above the male, in contrast to patriarchal religions such as Christianity and Judaism. They venerate an almighty male deity, with little positive mention of the female at all. Because of its veneration of a Goddess, Wicca follows the moral values associated with feminine spiritual powers – such as love, peace, and joy – rather than the more masculine religious attitudes of domination, strength, and authority.

Witches work by peaceful means, seeking to unite rather than to divide, to be of service to our communities, and to be the healers, counsellors, and the guardians of all life on Earth. This is because they see themselves as the children of the Goddess and the Horned God that they honour. When this is a truth within a witch, they can only ever love and look after what has been so lovingly created for us.

Downloadable books (free):

Pino Longchild - Wicca Revealed An Introductory Course In Wicca
Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak - The Arctic Home In The Vedas
Judy Harrow - Exegesis On The Wiccan Rede
Ernest Abraham Hart - Hypnotism Mesmerism And The New Witchcraft
Israel Regardie - The Art And Meaning Of Magic

Further Notes On The History Of Witchcraft In Massachusetts

Book: Further Notes On The History Of Witchcraft In Massachusetts by Abner Cheney Goodell

HISTORY OF Witchcraft IN Massachusetts, Containing ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE PASSAGE OF THE ACT OF 1711, FOR REVERSING THE ATTAINDERS OF THE VlTCHES; ALSO, AFFIRMING THE LEGALITY OF THE SPECIAL COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER OF 1692 : WITH A HELIOTYPE PLATE OF THE ACT OF 1711, AS PRINTED IN 1718, AND AN APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS, ETC. BY ABNER CHENEY GOODELL, JR. .

Download Abner Cheney Goodell's eBook: Further Notes On The History Of Witchcraft In Massachusetts

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Allen Greenfield - A True History Of Witchcraft
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Abner Cheney Goodell - Further Notes On The History Of Witchcraft In Massachusetts Orc Version
Abner Cheney Goodell - Further Notes On The History Of Witchcraft In Massachusetts

Silvers Spells For Protection

Book: Silvers Spells For Protection by Silver Ravenwolf

Silver is the first Wiccan author whom I have discovered so far, who has had the focus to dedicate her time and energies writing this "Silver's Spells For..." series. I declare that she is doing quite a good job!

Silver Ravenwolf's Silver's Spells for protection is just the right size. By that I mean that the format of this book makes it an ideal "take along" for purse, backpack, or pocket. This book covers how to handle stalkers, abusers, and other nasties with practical information as well as magickal techniques. It also discusses some of the other irritants in life-like protecting yourself from your mother-in-law's caustic tongue and how to avoid that guy who's out to take your job.

As for the one or two folks who declared that they needed to know Wicca or how to manipulate magickal energies before they used her books, well, you are entitled to your opinion. Considering that EVERY person on this planet has the potential for magick, I dare say that you all are trying to put magick in a box! Naturally Silver remembered to put the usual cautions and admonitions about the laws of magick in the first chapters of her book...so relax, OK?

Of course, unless the information in this book was valuable, there'd be no reason to take it along at all. But since it comes to spells, methods, and technologies for spiritual protection and prevention, this book has everything you need. That's why I started off by saying this is the right size to carry along with you: You're going to want to take it everywhere!

There is a self-blessing ritual and spells to protect your vehicle. There are spells to protect those in your home and ones to uncross yourself when confronted with negativity and setbacks. You'll find techniques to get people to stop lying about you, and others to aid you in court.

In fact, by understanding what underlies the techniques given in this book, you can come up with Protection Spells for any purpose. The appendices give you correspondences and suggestions so you can easily convert the spells given in this book to exactly work with your needs.

What do you do when you discover that your best friend at work sabotaged your promotion? Or if a neighbor suddenly decides that you don't belong in his town? What if a group of teens sets out to make your life a living hell? Silver's Spells for Protection contains tips for dealing with all these situations, and more.

One of the best parts of this book is a basic introduction to magick. Even if you're an old hand at spells and rituals, this section will refresh your memory and give information on ideas you didn't know or might have forgotten. How long should a ritual or spell last? Why didn't my magick work? When should I do this ritual? If magic for evil purposes works, why shouldn't I do it? All of these questions are clearly answered.

This book makes an excellent gift — to a friend or to yourself. Protection from the problems of life and from negative energies is needed by all. You can find answers here.

Anyway, don't let the naysayers put you off-- it is an excellent series, and the wide array of spells, their size and power being in direct proportion to the seriousness of the problems/people/situations at hand, are just what I needed! I live in a big city where there is LOTS of noise, and I used her suggestions for stress. Also, my ridiculous relatives have been harrassing me psychically to contact them (which in and of itself is not magickally ethical), and the "Simple Folk Spells for Little Troubles" worked wonderfully. All of her spells are, as Wiccan ethics go, WITH HARM TO NONE. Blessed Be!

Buy Silver Ravenwolf's book: Silvers Spells For Protection

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Witches And Broomsticks Use And History

The Broomstick...

The traditional companion of the witches was the enchanted broomstick, used for their wild and unholy flights through the night and probably to some distant Witches' Sabbat. This is one of the first images you get to see as a child and this was doubtlessly believed by the prominent rulers of Europe. The number of actual confessions of witches doing so is remarkably small. Usually confessions state that they went to the Sabbat on foot or on horseback.

Legends of witches flying on brooms goes back as far as the beginning of the Common Era. The earliest known confession of a Witch flying on a broom was in 1453, when Guillaume Edelin of St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, stated that he had done so. In 1563, Martin Tulouff of Guernsey said to have seen his aged mother straddle a broomstick and whisk up the chimney and out of the house on it, saying "Go in the name of the Devil and Lucifer over rocks and thorns". In 1598 Claudine Boban and her mother, witches of the province of Franche-Comt, in eastern France, also spoke of flying up the chimney of a stick. The belief of flying off though the chimney became firmly embedded in popular tradition, although only a few people ever mentioned doing so. It has been suggested that this idea was connected with the old custom of pushing a broom up the chimney to indicate the absence of the housewife. The Germanic Goddess Holda or Holle is also connected with the chimney.

Other indications that lead to the popular belief that witches actually flew on broomsticks can be found in an old custom of dancing with a broom between the legs, leaping high in the air. In Reginald Scot's book, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, published in 1584, we find a similar description:

"At these magical assemblies, the witches never failed to dance; and in their dance they sing these words, 'Har, har, divell divell, dance here dance here, plaie here plaie here, Sabbath, Sabbath'. And whiles they sing and dance, ever one hath a broom in her hand, and holdeth it up aloft." Scot quoted these descriptions of Witch rites from a French demonologist, Jean Bodin, who made observations of a kind of jumping dance, riding on staffs. These customs might have contributed to the popular picture of broomstick-riding witches through the air.

In 1665, from the confession of Julian Cox, one of the Somerset coven, mentioned "that one evening she walks out about a Mile from her own House and there came riding towards her three persons upon three Broom-staves, born up about a years and a half from the ground. Two of them she formerly knew, which was a Witch and a Wizard".

Where do these beliefs come from?

Some authors claim that the oldest known source of witches flying on broomsticks is a manuscript called Le Champion des Dames by Martin Lefranc, 1440. This might be one of the oldest images representing a hag on a broomstick, but it is certainly not the first. A wall painting from the 12th century in Schlesswig Cathedral (Germany) shows the Norse deity Frigg riding her staff.

If we really dig a bit deeper into history, we'll find that from the Roman world there are reports that mention witches flying on broomsticks as well as having used ointments, as early as the first century. They were called Straigae (Barnowl) and the Lamiae from Greek culture had similar characteristics. Later in Roman history, the goddess Diana was the leader of the Wild Hunt:

"It is also not to be omitted that some wicked women, perverted by the Devil, seduced by illusions and phantasm of demons, believe and profess themselves in the hours of the night to ride upon certain beasts with Diana, the goddess of pagans, and an innumerable multitude of women, and in the silence of the dead of the night to traverse great spaces of earth, and to obey her commands as of their mistress, and to be summoned to her service on certain nights". (See: Canon Episcopi).

Similar beliefs existed in many parts of Europe. From Norse mythology, we know that the army of women, lead by Odin (Wodan), called the Valkyries, was said to ride through the skies on horses, collecting the souls of the dead. In continental Germanic areas, the goddess Holda or Holle was also said to lead the Wild Hunt and is connected to chimneys and witchcraft. Berchta or Perchta, another Germanic goddess, which can be identified with Holda, has similar characteristics.

Again in Celtic Traditions, the Horned God Cernunnos, and/or Herne the Hunter was leader of the Wild Hunt and the Scottish Witch Goddess Nicneven was also said to fly through the night with her followers. Eastern Europe sources also have a wealth of folklore about witches flying through the air. So flying through the air, evidently, was a deeply rooted mythological theme, associated with the free roaming of the spirit, the separation of soul and body.

Symbolism

The broomstick is a female and male symbol, "the rod which penetrated the bush". Its symbolism and interpretation is therefore purely sexual.

Broomstick Weddings

"To marry over the broomstick," "jump the besom", was an old-time form of marriage, in which both parties jumped over a broomstick to signify that they were joined in common-law union. Also in the Netherlands, one can still find the old saying "over de bezem trouwen" (marrying over the broomstick). At gypsy wedding ceremonies, the bride and groom jump backwards and forwards over a broomstick. A besom used to be placed before the doorway, the married couple had to jump over it without dislodging the broom, from the street into their new home. At any time within a year, this process could be reversed to dissolve the marriage by jumping backwards. All this had to take place before several witnesses.

In folk-belief, like that in Yorkshire, it was unlucky for an unmarried girl to step over a broomstick because it meant that she would be a mother before she was a wife. Light-hearted wags used to delight in putting broomsticks in the path of unsuspecting virgins.

RITUAL USE

Artificial Phallus

There are hints of its use as an artificial penis or dildo. In a curious old book, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant, by Albert BarrSre and Charles Godfrey Leland (1897-1899), we are told that the slang term in those days for a dildo or artificial penis was "a broom-handle", and the female genitals were known vulgarly as "the broom". To "have a brush" was to have sexual intercourse. Noteworthy is the evidence from Witch trials mentioning the "cold hard member of the Devil himself". In 1662, Isabel Gowdie, accused of
witchcraft, made a confession which could suggest that some sort of artificial phallus of horn or leather may have been used:

"His members are exceeding great and long; no man's members are so long and big as they are....(he is) a meikle, black, rough man, very cold, and I found his nature as cold within me as spring-well water...He is abler for us that way than any man can be, only he is heavy like a malt-sack, a huge nature, very cold, as ice."

Broomsticks and Ointments

That ointments used to induce astral projection has been known for a long time. Therefore the belief of witches flying away on their brooms probably has its true origin in this shamanic practice of applying narcotic herbs. There are numerous paintings, engraving and woodcuts from witches, anointing themselves, before flying off to the Sabbat. There are also quite a lot of confessions of ointments being applied to leave the body and fly off. These confessions sometimes show an unawareness that they were not actually flying, but often it is obvious that the witches knew that the ointments they used had the effects requited for leaving the body and making spiritual journeys. These practices we now call astral projection, were obviously known throughout large parts of the world, but especially worthy evidence comes from French and Italian records.

There is also a hint of use of besoms and sticks as a means to insert the witches unguent into the vagina to potentate the aphrodisiac effects and for optimal absorption and effect, while serving as an artificial penis.

The confessions of a woman named Antoine Rose, a Witch of Savoy (France) who was tortured and tried in 1477, stated that "The first time she was taken to the synagogue (Sabbat) she saw many men and women there, enjoying themselves and dancing backwards. The Devil, whose name was Robinet, was a dark man who spoke in a hoarse voice. Kissing Robinet's foot in homage, she renounced God and the Christian faith. He put his mark on her, on the little finger of her left hand, and gave her a stick, 18 inches long, and a pot of ointment. She used to smear the ointment on the stick, put it between her legs and say "Go, in the name of the Devil, go!" At once she would be carried though the air to the synagogue."

Alice Kyteler, a famous Irish Witch of the early 14th century, was supposed to have owned a staff "on which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what manner she listed, after having greased it with the ointment which was found in her possession."

Book and Article Resources:

An ABC of Witchcraft by Doreen Valiente, 1973. De Benedanti: Hekserij en Vruchtbaarheidsriten in de 16e & 17e Eeuw by Carlo Ginzburg, 1966, 1986. Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology, 1974. Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom by Norman Cohn, 1975, 1973. Heksen, Ketters en Inquisiteurs by Arie Zwart en Karel Braun, 1981. Practical Magic in the Northern Traditon by Nigel Pennick, 1989. The History of Witchcraft by Montague Summers, London, 1927. Witchcraft, A Tradition Renewed by Doreen
Valiente and Evan Jones, Phoenix Publishing, 1990. Witchcraft & Demonology by Francis X. King, 1987, and various online resources and articles...

Books in PDF format to read:

Patricia Telesco - A Witchs Beverages And Brews Magick Potions Made Easy
Kathryn Paulsen - Witches Potions And Spells
Alfred Thompson - Magic And Mystery A Popular History

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