In the last post, we learned that, while Judaism, Christianity and other western, monotheistic religions are 'against' certain activities that are labeled by the Anglo-Saxon term 'witchcraft', these activities are really not defined very well, and when they are, there are equivalent behaviors in the Bible that show these same activities being engaged, but under 'acceptable' labels. Further, we have discovered that the term 'wicce' in the Anglo-Saxon language eventually became our modern word 'witchcraft' we really are not told, from the dictionary definitions, what exactly an Anglo-Saxon or Celtic Witch does. In fact, it seems that defining the term is 'open', and actually it has been treated as such in our modern world.
In fact, a lot of modern people have spent a great deal of time and effort defining the term to fit their idea of what Celto-British Witchcraft must be, only to find that, later in history, actual historians have debunked a lot of what has been said to define witchcraft in today's world.
For example, in the late 1700's, a man by the name Edward Williams, whose 'pen' name was Iolo Morganwg, 'claimed' to have found ancient documents penned by the Druids of the first century. He was known to collect ancient documents, and so he had a 'trust' factor with his general community. So he decided to do something the catapult him toward fame: The documents he said he found were not real - he 'invented' them, and then pretended to translate them. The result was a slather of documents he claimed were authentic records written by the 1st century Druids which told about their authentic rituals, beliefs and activities. If you read them however, you discover that these documents have a lot of modern Christianity woven through them, in a way that reveals they could only have been written in William's own era. Scholars who later investigated the documents debunked them as forgeries. No matter - a movement began that has since led into our modern Druid movement, as excited individuals gathered to restore the lost Druid rituals that they believed once belonged to the 1st century Druid priesthood. Extensions of these movements still exist today, and are very motivated to bring individuals closer to nature and environmentalism, which is a positive result, even though the movement began based on the fancy of a hopeful writer.
Then, in the early 20th century, a woman named Margaret Alice Murray, who worked as a professor of Egyptology at a British University, wrote a thesis about the religion of the ancient Celtic and British peoples. She theorized that those who suffered during the Witch Trial era were actually remnants of an earlier, pre-Christian religion which embraced a Goddess, engaged in particular rites and rituals, and performed magic spells. She wrote and sold books on this subject with great success. When her book sales increased, other scholars took note and looked into what she had said. They found several errors in her research, and some of these errors were deliberately dishonest. These scholars, who had their backgrounds in Celtic pre-Christian history, declared her work unacceptable, and refused to take her work or her thesis seriously. No matter - the public loved her work and soon, a modern witch movement began.
Finally, in 1950, a man named Gerald B. Gardner, who may have read these earlier writings, claims that he had met a family of elderly siblings, who feared that, because they had no descendants, their religion would die with them, and asked him to learn it and carry it on for him. He agreed, and after their deaths, he went public with what they had taught him, even though this was against their wishes. Scholars have had a very difficult time proving that these siblings had ever existed, and have tracked much of what Gardner claimed to have received from them back to earlier writers, men's fraternal organizations and the work of other writers. Gardner called the religion he was promoting 'The Wica', (spelled with one c), and placed an ad in the news paper, asking others to join him. Soon, he had a functioning religious organization that taught his followers that the ancient Celtic and European people had once worshipped a Goddess and a God, and had engaged in particular rituals and feast days.
Since this time, several university scholars of British and Celtic history have ruled out much of what Gardner taught as history. Even so, many people still adhere to his teachings for many reasons all their own.
The most reliable sources for what actually happened in Celtic and European religious history comes from two sources:
1. Dr. Ronald Hutton, a professor and scholar of British and Celtic antiquities - he has been featured on the History Channel, has written several books on the subject, and works at a large, public university where his work must be accurate in order for him to retain his job; Dr. Julian Goodare, who put together the web page, called the 'Survey of Scottish Witchcraft', a sight which tells what actually occurred during the Witch Trial era (http://webdb.ucs.ed.ac.uk/witches/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.search); Other University scholars of Celtic, British, and European history, especially in regard to their religious beliefs.
2. Individual persons who have historical ties to the era through a hereditary link. While persons such as this may not be capable of telling you the accurate history of this era as a history professor can, he or she can share what has been passed down to her, which reflects the movement as it changed over time, and also as it continued to remain the same, and adhere to certain factors. In the case of this blog, this is me. Most people who have a tie to this type of thing, don't realize it. Their families may practice things that don't seem out of the ordinary to them, and they may have grown up in a church, and in a regular community that seems similar to everyone else's around them, but they have that link because things done in the family have continued on since times past.
So what Witchcraft is NOT, as far as COVEN 1658 is concerned...
1. COVEN 1658 does not teach anyone to 'raise the dead'. The dead have gone on and they must rest. Disturbing the spirits of the deceased is rude to say the least. If they bother us, that's a very different story and we must send them on or exorcise them in one way or another so we can live normally, but we do not 'conjure them'. Even so, we can 'know' that they are safe if a dream or vision is sent to us, but 'calling them up for a chit chat' is not done. We respect those who have crossed the veil. We know that those living on the other side will get in touch if and when they need to and it is not up to us to pester them.
2. We do not call on demonic entities to 'do our bidding' at any time. We don't mess with evil, period. We may be Witches, but we are just as uncomfortable with these forces as anyone else is, and recognize, possibly far more than the average person, just how dangerous these entities can be. We leave them completely alone. Further, we don't claim that 'the devil isn't real' or that 'there's no devil in the craft'. There is - he was center stage in our accusations during the Burning Times. He was real to the Christians, and thus his work was real for us. What I'm trying to say is, that we, as witches, do not lay claims on the religions of any group outside our own - if a particular religion has a history of a particular entity, they have this belief for an important reason. This belief is their history, and we have no right to claim that it is a false belief. It may well be true, and we have no right to disparage such beliefs from other faiths. In the case of Christians during the Burning Times, they genuinely believed in the Biblical Devil, and because of this belief, havoc reigned. Instead of claiming that we have all the answers about the religions of other groups, we respect what they say about their own beliefs. We don't know everything, and should have a healthy respect for the long history of any number of religions, without making a decision that part of their faith 'isn't true'. It may be a belief we ourselves do not choose to embrace or acknowledge, but the entity in question could in fact exist. For this reason, COVEN 1658, does acknowledge that the religion of Christianity does have a Devil, and this entity is real and fierce. We don't renounce the existence of such, but rather, stay as far away from this entity as we can.
3. Coven 1658 members are free to choose the religion of our choice, or not choose one at all - provided our adherents choose a religion or philosophy that embraces no evil at any time, as defined by any religion, any personal invention or by any other means. Our Coven is a healing, helping Coven. However, we do not 'mix up' religion with witchcraft, which we consider an art, science, vocation and culture.
4. We focus on natural energy and its use in creating positive change through spell casting, and we do not define the term 'spell' as 'curse', but rather as 'energy transformation for positive outcome'. We define spell crafting and casting as a means to access natural energy. (it should be noted that the term 'spell' has several definitions, for example to 'spell' out a word, or account for a period of time. But one word that we do not accept is that of Germanic origin which links the term 'spell' with the idea of 'cursing' - we do not use energy work to curse or harm others or ourselves at any time.
In the next post we will get into the specifics of how Traditional Spell crafting and casting operates. And no, its not all about casting a circle...in fact, its very far from it.
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