Witchcraft

Traditional Witchcraft vs Wicca

Traditional Witchcraft vs Wicca

HERE have been a few articles and YouTube videos that claim that ‘Traditional Witchcraft’ is ‘the original religion that was introduced by Gerald Gardner’. This is a misleading and incorrect conclusion, based upon the fact that ‘the original forms of western witchcraft had died out because of the witch-hunts’. Now there are several reasons that this was never the case:

  • During the Witch-hunts that formally began with the introduction of the Maleus Malificarum (the Hammer of the witches by Heinrich Kramer & Jacob Sprenger). Scholars found out that there were no ‘real witches’ persecuted, but rather old and suspected women that did not fit the required role of submissive women and thus were suspected of being witches. Most of the were christian
  • Those men and women that didn’t conform to standard church doctrine, they also could be priests, ministers and/or were from other denominations.

Those witches, wise ones, druids, folk healers and pellars (a Cornish term for those who can provide counter curses) where still held in high regard and were protected by those who needed their services, some of them were persecuted, but quite a number escaped and survived.

The notion that the original form of witchcraft died out and thus Wicca is the only remaining form of western witchcraft that remains until today is therefore totally wrong. Families and individuals that kept their traditions survived because of secrecy and still exist in UK regions like Cornwall, Devonshire, Dartmouth, Exmoor, Wales, Scotland etcetera.

Other forms of magic like Rootworking (Hoodoo/Voodoo) Shamanism, Gipsy Witchcraft (Romania etc), Guna Guna (Indonesia), Seidr (Scandinavia) survived the wheel of time.

Now I notices a number of articles and videos where people suggest and claim that ‘Gardnerian Wicca in its original form is Traditional Witchcraft. One should study books, among those published by Troy Books Uk to see that Traditional Witchcraft is still alive and kicking

Witchcraft

There’s nothing like forbidden knowledge

IT was monotheism, in all of its controversies, that gave way to ‘holy’ scriptures that forbade humankind to acquire any kind of knowledge outside of the parameters that clergy prescribed. What is: many scripture passages, like the Garden of Eden story, that warned humankind to gain knowledge. Now that’s only an explanation that men in power used to subdue the masses that were held in ignorance. A littoral explanation of, mainly, fundamentalistic christianity, ignoring the huge amount of interpretations commonly known within Judaism. All for the upholding of christian dogmatics, hermeneutics and theology.

Then cane the Middle Ages, with the, still held in high esteem, Maleus Malificarum , which set the tone for persecutions of ‘so called’ witches, the majority of them being christian, women or just being a persona non grata, old or demonized simply for not fitting in.

Yes, the wise ones, healers, expellers (pellets in Cornish), wayside witches and folk magicians were always there. Just as everywhere else the good had to suffer because of the bad ones, but just look at church history that killed around 600 million innocent people.

The clergy raised there finger, working about, what the deemed to be ‘forbidden knowledge’. A lot of these ‘forbidden books’ are still under lock and key within the Vatican. But many of these books like the Picatrix, the Red Dragon, the lesser and greater key of Salomon, the Kymbalion, the works of Abramelin the Mage, High Magic by Eliphas Levi and later works, inspired by the former, by Aleister Crowley, Anton Szandor LaVey (like the Satanic Bible ao), Michael W. Ford, found there way into the bookshelves and practice of many.

With the popularized Wiccan movement also came works from the Clan of Tubal-Cain and books about Traditional Witchcraft (British from the publisher Troy Books UK and books about the American Appalachian Witchcraft. People can find out Magic for themselves without restriction.

Witchcraft & Magick

Betwixed the Worlds

Traditional Witchcraft has always worked with ‘otherworldly creatures’ like Pixies or Piskies, Elves, the Fae (Fairies), Brownies (not the chocolate cookies), Goblins and other so-called Fairytale-creatures, ghosts, Spirits. This comes natural to people like me, hereditary witches, Wise, Cunning Folk, Pellars, Folk & Wayside Witches.

For me it where just the first sights of the Gifts to reveal themselves and for me, my mother already saw the inevitable sighs just after my birth and when I started to speak I already worked with the Netherworlds and familiar spirits as a second nature.

My mom started asking questions as a part of initiations. Working on my own cane naturally, I only corporately on rare occasions, seldom to none.

I think non-hereditary witches can learn the art of working with the otherworldly powers, but guided by a accomplished witch and only when they’re ready to work on their own when they’ve become accomplished themselves.

Witchcraft can seldom do without the guidance of the otherworldly power, otherwise it’s nothing else than COSplay or LARP, it looks nice but is hollow and powerless

Religion · Witchcraft

No christian influences

Sone traditional witches have incorporated christian influences and portions of the Bible. I come from a tradition free from those influences, because of the harm Christianity has done and because in our villagers who encountered us used to spit on the ground when they saw us. We never went to church, though my mom sometimes went on Christmas Eve or when the Mattheus Passion was preformed with the Dutch opera singer Marco Bakker.

My father, not in any way a witch, but a socialist pur sang, just hated christianity , because of his own past with his father and stepmother. I never set foot in a church before 1985, when I was lured into the Pentecostal church and stayed there until 2015 and left with aversion and hatred because of their attitude against LGBTQIAPQ people and other religions.

Because of my past I swore to remove all remnants of christiany and the bible and never incorporate any influences into my practice. I researched on Wicca also and the Cult of Tubal-Kain and the influence of christianiy in Traditional witchcraft and Folk Pratices and found to many biblical influences and couldn’t understand why this religion still had so much of an impact, for me it’s a ninefold NO.

I went back to my roots, for my any name of the Jewish and christian god has any significance to me, no charm, blessing or curse with these abominable names of the biblical god has any relationship with my practice. It took me years of rituals to get rid of those remnants, so for me any circle, coven of grove that has some relation with the bible would ever fit in my life.

A few years i was with the Satanic Temple, but they are very much against the supernatural, and it was just too much of the same and often just make belief fakeism for me

Am I a black witch? There ain’t nothing like that in traditional witchcraft, though there are benevolent and malevolent witches, but nothing like white witch Wicca and the ‘Wiccan Rede’. It’s hard to explain, because I don’t share my practice, only to the seekers who are already familiar with the Craft. I do respect Wiccans, though, but it’s not my path.

I hold my practice free of the evil bible and any christian influence and that has healed a lot of wounds that were inflicted upon me in 30 years of Pentecostal influences. I studied church history and the influence the Maleus Maleficarum had, which even today influences the ‘Satanic Panic’ and ‘Witch Panic’ caused by fundamentalistic religions.

For a life without ‘biblical influences’ is a great life.

Witchcraft

What does Witchcraft mean?

tymologically speaking the word Witch means: someone who has knowledge, from the Germanic/Anglo-Saxon ‘Wit’, what ‘question, quest or a thing (ding) that needs to be answered’ means. Also the Germanic word ‘wet’ what ‘law’ of ‘outcome of a (legal) matter’ means.

When someone had a burning question, or something that needed to be answered as a law about a matter, they went to the ‘ding’, a wise one usually set under an oak- or other holy tree to speak out on the matter, the one who was the spokesperson (woman or man) than decided on the ‘wit’. So that’s why that wise one was called a witch or wizard, both fro the same root word ‘wit’

Knowledge was transferred from parent to child or if the child was unfit to another family member of a student. That took years.

One thing was knowledge of wisdom in various matters like fertility, cattle, crops, scrying, counseling the spirits, ancestors etc. There were family ‘covens’ or ‘groves’, circles, but in traditional witchcraft we often find solitary practitioners with are specialists in matter. We also provide solutions to determine if someone is cursed at provide a counter curse. Specialist in counter curses are called ‘pellars’ in Cornwall and neighboring regions.

There is nothing like ‘black’ or ‘white’ magic, because that’s a dualistic concept that is alien to the Old Craft.