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Ø₳₮Ⱨ ฿ØɄ₦Đ ₴Ɇ₵ⱤɆ₮₴

@oathboundsecrets

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Folklore, Witchcraft, Druidry, Matriarchy <o>
📍Dorset, Britain
🌱 Vegan

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Community care is inherent in nature and matriarchy is as natural as it gets 🫂 This Women's History Month we are celebrating the power of women and the role of feminism in building a more green, joyful, and just future.⁣
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Water Wednesday Livestream with Annika of @oathboundsecrets

We chat about...
- Dorset
- Sacred Wells
- Spirits of Water
- Sea Priestessing
- and we laughed alot!

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Doreen Valiente has been one of the most influential Traditional Witches in the modern movement of witchcraft "revival". She had a lifelong fascination with the occult, and her introduction to Wicca (the Witch Cult) was through Gerald Gardner and the New Forest Coven. She is thought to have been initiated by Ernie Mason, a hereditary witch or "cunning man". She was told that the power of the wise was traditionally passed between man and woman, in a lineage of ancient origin.

Ever an enquiring mind, Doreen wondered "who initiated the first witch?" and concluded that at some point, it must be acceptable to initiate yourself. She was one of the first to talk about starting your own Tradition, either as a solitary witch or as a couple who could go on to form a coven. Starting your own Tradition became possible because withcraft was no longer as secretive as it had been in the past, and anyone could read about it and educate themselves. Suddenly, covens were popping up everywhere and solitary practice started to become the most common form of Wicca.

Traditionalists who claimed an ancient lineage began to sneer at the "eclectic" witches who created a practice based on a hodge podge of books and websites. I can understand why a lot of frustration grew out of constant arguing and misinformation among witches. The further development of Wicca was an attempt to homogenise the Craft, and create some sense of unity out of the chaos.

What happened next was a backlash against the Traditionalists as "frauds". Academic research was exposing witchcraft as more modern than ancient, and all the claims of hereditary power came into question. People began to balk at the idea of Traditions going any further back than the 20th century. Wicca was deemed a modern invention, and as such, totally open to creative innovation.

Back and forth fighting between witches has been going on for decades, all seeking validity as a truly powerful practice. Everywhere you turn, there is a cry that so and so is a fake.

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I enjoyed this article about "passing on the power" in Traditional Witchcraft. There is this old belief that "the power" can be passed on through a family, from mother to daughter, father to son, or through initiation by a man to a woman, a woman to a man. There is an old belief that magick works like sexual reproduction, and that magick must be "fertilised" with power. The wand becomes a fertilising instrument, the cauldron becomes a womb of creation. If your magick doesn't work it's because it's infertile, you haven't inseminated it with your power.

The power of creation, the power of nature, is all about fertility. It's not just a metaphor, it's a matter of fact. You were created by the sexual activity of a man and a woman. It doesn't matter if you are gay or straight, cis or trans, you still have a biological mother and father.

This is why so many covens operate with the idea of gender balance or polarity. It's because the power is seen as a force of nature.

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When I was a young little witchling, everyone was talking about Margaret Murray and her Witch-Cult in Western Europe. That, and Charles Leland's Aradia were the fundamental texts of Wicca. We took those things seriously, it was like Gospel to us.

It took me some years to learn that not everybody believed in the Witch-Cult hypothesis. The more criticisms I read, the more betrayed I felt. It was like I had been lied to, as if Margaret had purposefully deceived me.

Later on I realised that it's OK to be in love with a fantasy of witches gathering beneath the full moon to dance and sing their praises for the old gods. It's OK to love this idea and know that it may not be historically accurate, so long as we are honest about it.

There are a lot of kooky ideas out there, but I think it's safe to say that while some scraps of pagan belief survived centuries of Christianity, there was no Witch-Cult in the shape of Wicca before the 20th century. We have accepted that Wicca is a new religion, and not a continuation of something ancient. That being said, everything in Wicca was formed out of a very real tradition of magick.

The practitioners of spells and charms were real. Casting a circle was real. Calling up spirits was real. Using a wand or a staff was real. Ritual blades were real. Gathering herbs was real. Burning incense was real. Keeping a grimoire was real. Celebrating the seasons was real. All of the ritual content of Wicca has a real history in Britain and the rest of Europe. The only thing that changed was people started identifying themselves as witches, and forming covens to practice together.

The craft has evolved over time, new flourishes have been added, overtly Christian content has mostly been removed, and a lot of creativity has been used to write new poems, songs and spells. Things are allowed to change over time. We don't need to reconstruct a historical practice for our methods to be valid.

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Seriously, can someone help me out? As much as I Google and scroll through blogs, reddits and whatnot.... I just can't seem to find any legitimate sources.... Where did this phrase "closed practice" come from exactly? I feel like it's one of those terms that tiktok invented. I just want to understand what people are actually talking about, like I just want a dictionary definition or an encyclopedia entry..... Please 😩

Somebody said to me, closed just means initiatory. So any religion that has an admission rite is a "closed practice"? In other words, a mystery religion, like joining a church or a coven, they have certain rituals that only the initiated/baptised take part in. Is that what people are talking about?

Because I've heard other people say no, that's not closed, because closed means its only for people of a certain ethnic/cultural group. So, which is it? Wikipedia seems to say a closed community is one that you're born into, without options for outsiders to join, except in rare circumstances.

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Guardians of the Quarters

East: Aquarius, the cup bearer, St Matthew
South: Taurus, the ox, St Luke
West: Leo, the lion, St Mark
North: Scorpio, the eagle, St John

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🖤

"And thou shalt be the first of witches known;
And thou shalt be the first of all i' the world;
And thou shalt teach the art of poisoning,
Of poisoning those who are great lords of all;
Yea, thou shalt make them die in their palaces;
And thou shalt bind the oppressor's soul (with power);

"And when ye find a peasant who is rich,
Then ye shall teach the witch, your pupil, how
To ruin all his crops with tempests dire,
With lightning and with thunder (terrible),
And the hall and wind....

"And when a priest shall do you injury
By his benedictions, ye shall do to him
Double the harm, and do it in the name
Of me, Diana, Queen of witches all!

"And when the priests or the nobility
Shall say to you that you should put your faith
In the Father, Son, and Mary, then reply:
"Your God, the Father, and Maria are
Three devils....

"For the true God the Father is not yours;
For I have come to sweep away the bad,
The men of evil, all will I destroy!"

Charles Leland's Aradia, Gospel of the Witches

Thank you for this image @devils.acre

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According to the Cambridge dictionary,

Patriarchy means "a society controlled by men, in which they use their power to their own advantage"

Feminism means "the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men"

This is just the basic definition, of course we can go into more depth with these topics, but please, at least learn this first.

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A large portion of Britain was ruled by the Roman Empire, from 43 CE to 410 CE. Almost 400 years of Roman colonisation meant that the native Britons developed a syncretism of their ancestral Celtic faith and the polytheistic Mysteries of Rome. As Christianity grew in popularity, paganism was increasingly mocked as superstitious nonsense, befitting the peasant classes.

In an effort to assert greater spiritual legitimacy, some affluent and well educated pagans were embracing an increasingly more sophisticated species of polytheism, by fusing it with Mysteries and philosophies from Asia and Africa (a process which had been ongoing for centuries). The Egyptians were particularly praised for their wisdom, having developed a technologically advanced culture long before Europe. For this reason the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis spread as far as Britain.

Christianity was a strange and politically dangerous cult to begin with. It spread like a whisper through the back alleys of Roman cities. Congregations were held in secret, down in the catacombs beneath the city. Occult symbols were drawn on the walls to indicate the presence of the cult. But secret religions were not uncommon in the Roman Empire. There were many rivals, such as the Eleusian Mysteries and the Cult of Isis.

The Golden Ass, aka The Metamorphosis of Apuleius, is a text written in the 2nd century that describes the worship of a Great Goddess known by many names. She is the creator of the world, mother of all. In an attempt to gain popularity among pagans, Christianity adopted the idea of a feminine saviour, elevating the Virgin Mary to fulfil the role of the Cosmic Mother.

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From the coast of Dorset, England, I bring you....

~ bottle of sea water
~ copper chalice
~ drift wood
~ hand made candle
~ hand made wand
~ found feathers (gull and swan)
~ a stone from the beach
~ rosemary
~ brass pixie bell
~ bottle of storm water
~ petals from my garden
~ hemp string
~ shells from the beach
~ found lump of seaglass
~ oh and the tablecloth is a gift from my grandfather.

#regionalwitchcraftchallenge #seawitchcraft #westcountrywitchcraft #seawitch #dorsetwitch #witchregionchallenge
@viahedera

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There are theories that the Cerne Abbas giant may be Romano-Celtic. There is evidence that the chalk hill figure may date as far back as 700 CE, but could his image stem from a much older cult? In the early middle ages, his name was recorded as Helith. It was speculated at the time that this name could be derived from the Roman god Heracles. Looking at the club wielded by the giant, and evidence that the figure may have been previously carrying a cloak on his outstretched arm, has an uncanny resemblance to Roman statues of the god. Even then, the Romans may have melded their Heracles with an indigenous Celtic deity. All we know is that a strong folklore tradition continues to promote the power of this chalk figure to bestow fertility.

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