Witches' Haven

The Fallen Angels
Francois-Edouard Cibot

The spirituality of Witchcraft. There is none. Not all Witches have a spirituality, and among those that do have a specific spirituality, there is no agreement. Not all Wiccans are witches and not all witches are Wiccans, is a common refrain.

I practice low magick or witchcraft as it is more commonly known but I am no Wiccan. I have, on occasion, practiced High Magick but I am no Ceremonialist.

In the words of that famous spinach eating philosopher from the seas "I y'am, what I y'am" and that's all I am. I don't believe in the god of the bible, or the Torah or the Q'ran. I don't believe in the mythologies of ancient culture - the Norse, the Greek, the Roman or the Celt.

I believe that man creates their own gods, not the other way around. We create and breath life into archetypes which arise from human need, human despair, human joys and sorrows.

WE give the gods life. We are also god eaters, we destroy them as quickly as we create them. We change them, we adapt them and we worship them. In worshiping them, we are worshipping ourselves, our own desires and dreams.

Not a damn thing wrong with this practice until human beings get themselves involved and start knocking each other off in some kind of "My god is toughter than your god" contest. And lordy, lordy - don't human beings just love to kill, torture and main in the name of their particular god.

Good thing this Neo-Pagan thing is still in its birth caul because I fear we would not be much different. The radical Dianic types would neuter all men if they had their way. The infighting between traditions is enough to turn your stomach - the Odysseans vs the Gardnerians vs Seax-Wiccans...it can be quite appalling.

And quite nonsensical when you sit right on down and check into their histories. Regardless of their ostentatious claims, none of them are older than your grandmother. There are no long lines of witches dating back to the old country. There may be a few great-grandmothers with folk medicine recipes but that doesn't make them witches, just sensible women looking after their families as best they could, lacking in medical care.

My grandmother used mustard water to cure menstrual cramps and read tea leaves, my paternal grandmother taught me how to make a poultice and avoid the faerie folk- the first grandmother I mentioned was an Irish Catholic and the second grandmother was a Methodist. Both bible believing, god fearing Christian women. They weren't witches, they were simply products of the time in which they lived. Pre-penicillin and vaccinations.

Don't let anyone tell you that should you choose to identify yourself as an Eclectic Witch that you are somehow "less-than" High Priestess Golden Farts of the Purple Moon Tradition. That is just someone trying to elevate themselves at your expense, a spiritual bully, if you will. Your path, whatever path you find yourself upon is the only path for you.

Every Man And Woman Is A Star. Remember that and make the phrase your watchword. No one can elevate you in spiritual status. Each door on your path is equipped with a lock and the key to the mysteries behind those doors will be uniquely your own. Forged by you, as you learn, as you experience your life, your connection with whatever lies above, below, ahead or behind.

There are no leaders in spirituality, there are simply pretenders to throne. Don't be fooled.
No one has the right to your soul, your spirit except for you.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Canada License.