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Crafter of magick, intent on expanding your realm beyond what you ever imagined possible. This blog is about what interests me. If you are easily offended or sensitive to certain issues discussed here please do not read. This is about me and what interests me. Welcome to one and all, hope you enjoy your time with me.

Friday, 15 November 2013

Natural Witchery ( I put a spell on you> Final) - Born A Witch

Just about anyone can become a witch as magic is inherent in all of us. Some more than others but just about everything can be learnt. It all comes down to belief; belief in the natural power of the world around you and a belief in the deep power within yourself.

It was once believed that woman was the gateway to heaven, and it was only through her that man could connect with the Goddess and during the sexual act a man would experience a taste of that other perfect plain. It is only the newest religious that see the creator as fully male or as a father if you will and as being one i.e. Christianity, Judaism, Islam and a few others. For the most part older religions that died out centuries ago all speak of The Mother or co-creators, that the universe and all its contents where created by male and female coming together. As is the duality of all things, one requires the other to exist and thrive.

Being a witch is so much more than spells and potions and the hype that television and fantasy writers give it. To be a witch is a way of life to honour and respect everything around you and to understand that every facet of life is important. To see the beauty of things were others do not, and to realise that we are all connected in some way.

Since this is to be the final instalment of “I put a spell on you”, definitely not the last you’ll hear of it but for this group of pieces it will be the last.

I do want to clear something up though, I mentioned in a previous blog the invoking of the elements and I feel that it necessary to be a bit clearer on this particular topic as most do not understand or realise that there is a difference between doing somethings as a group (coven) and as an individual. When you invoke you call something into yourself, you take it into your body the every essence of what you call enters you. Whereas evoking is simply calling the deity or the elements or whatever you are working with to power your circle, protect and bless you.

A single person cannot hold that amount of energy, by invokation, you’d be so hyped up that you’d look like a jitterbug. When there is a full coven or even four people it is safer for invoking as they surround the protective circle or position themselves at the corner. Energy is then evenly dispersed between the participants. When on your own it is safer and better advised to evoke the elements or the deity in question as all your are asking is that the join the circle to lend their power and protection. To watch over your work and to bless you in your endeavours. If and should someone attempt to invoke the deity to take the essence of the deity into themselves it might not be the best thing. This would change the person, as they would be filled with the essence of that which is the deity. Heightened clarity, understanding and most people are not equipped to deal with anything of this magnitude, there is a ceremony called “Calling down the Moon” this is where you call the moon Goddess to enter and empower you but this is not advised for those who are inexperienced, one as to be metally prepared for a ceremony of this kind. Even the invokation of a spirit is not good as you take it into you. In other words, it possess you. A spirit is nothing like a deity and they are note benign, often you have no control over what they will do. So be warned know the difference between invokation and evokation. This is were people make the mistake of calling on spirits when they play around with a Ouija Board. Instead of calling a spirit for information they invite the spirit into themselves with out knowing what they are doing. Any witch will tell you, even inviting a spirit is dangerous. It leaves the gateway open to other things, especially if you do not know what you are doing there are specific process to protect yourself, your mind and in banishing them back to were you have called them from. The amount of energy it takes to call, hold and banish a spirit back to whence it came can drain you energy dangerously.

Defining Deity



Now for something that I could never not mention, in truth I have been itching to get into this particular, lets call it idea; as it is the most controversial and “war causing” topic. There are few times in any ritual where the God or Goddess will not be invoked, this is after all how they are worshiped. Throughout your life you may invoke various deities depending on the ritual you are performing, before invoking the Deity you must first know what it is you are invoking. There are thousands of God forms and entire books have been writing on individual Gods and Goddesses.

What is divinity and why are the so many Gods?

The majority of people will not agree with me but this is how I see Divinity. For as far as there have been people there have been Gods. When man saw lightening flash through the sky or strike a tree causing it to burn he needed to be able to make sense and explain to himself what he had just witnessed, so a God was born. Even though today we have in some form or another a scientific explanation for most events the presents of a God or Goddess helps us deal with more complex moments (especially emotional ones) such as illness, birth, death and many others.

Man (well men as in males for the last few thousand yeas or so) have been obsessed with Divinity. This is the one part of Witchcraft that requires belief without any real proof. We do not know exactly what it is that we worship, in truth no one in any religion knows (no matter what they might say). Most Pagans believe in re-incarnation, life after life, to learn, but what are we learning and why are we learning it? A single cell is just that it has no awareness no sense of being, but combine billions of cells working together in concert and you have a person, who is self aware and who has intelligence.

Pagans view the earth as a living Entity, she is alive and aware. But she is not a Deity, but simply a single cell in the mass construct of it all. When you take Earth with all on her and in her that lives, all the planets, the solar systems; the universe as a whole- then you are reaching toward Deity. Deity is so immense and complex that we could not possibly hope to understand it. We see a small part of Deity and label it, God, or Aphrodite, or Jehovah, or Yahweh. That significantly small part of Deity is all that we can hope to understand with our limited human sense. The ancients may not have understood what it was they were doing by creating entire pantheons of Gods, but if you take any pantheon, the Gods and Goddesses of that pantheon encompass all the supernatural elements that were important to that culture. This view point also allows us to realize how there can be more than one God. Newer religious groups would have us believe that they understand the form of Deity, and therefore they have a lock on what Deity wants and requires. When in fact they are only looking at a small part of Deity which is no more important than any other part. So we understand that all Gods and Goddesses are one, as when each person looks upon Deity they see a side that they can comprehend. We all see a different part of Deity, yet the different parts are of the same whole.

All that we truly need to know is that Deity is self aware. Deity understands that it exists, and what it is. Deity is everything and all. Deity is forever. It does not understand linear time, as we know it. Deity will always exist, and therefore does not understand what it is like to have a limited lifespan. In order to understand something, it must be experienced. The spiritual goal for most Modern religions is to return to divinity as they separate themselves from it, even though Christ and other religious teachers of that time period taught differently. The spiritual goal of the Witch is to experience life. For Witches, the goal is and always will be the journey. As a Witch, when you invoke the Gods you are invoking a part of yourself. You are recognizing the conduit that connects you to the rest of Deity.

Let go of all the troubles of the day. Everything happens for a reason, no matter how bad life seems at the moment, realizing that you are part of a much greater whole will allow you to understand that nothing is permanent. Everything changes.

The WITCH



When you think about a witch the first image that comes to mind is that of an ugly cackling hag riding a broom stick. Right?

In the Christian bible there are passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy alluding to God’s displeasure with witches or “sorcerers”. Yet looking at the ancient cultures of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans just to name a few the perceptions was quite different. It showed that any one blessed by the Gods and Goddesses with gifts where to be admired rather than reviled. Their powers were believed to include shapshifting, visions and the ability to create potions and elixirs that had the ability to change the physical appearance and emotional outcomes. It was believed that those blessed could use their abilities for negative or positive therefore they were to be respected

In the code written by the ancient Babylonian king, King Hammurabi (dated to 1750 BC) that still exists, there are references to casting spells but only speaking about using it unjustifiably against someone. The craft is ancient but the misconceptions and myths began when monotheistic (belief in one God) religions need to gain mass control.

The term witch came from?

There is the Old English “wicce” (sorcerer). Looking beyond that into the into the Indo European and Germanic origins, there are words such as “weik” (to bend or fold) and “weid” (to see or to know) that have supernatural connotations believed to have been translated into Old English then into the Modern English word “witch”. What it comes down to is that the word itself is derived from many several words and meanings to label those who had abilities that were beyond the norm. When monotheistic beliefs came into being many where unwilling to just walk away from the old ways. The blanket term pagan (which actually means country dweller) was coined to describe anyone who did not believe in only one God. Tales began to be told of these “creatures of Satan”, usually female, who would make pacts with the Devil to live a life of sorcery and magic.

Witches where reputed to be marked naturally as a witch and then again by the devil as his mistress. The common mark of a witch was an extra breast (polymastia) or teat (polythelia) (just about anywhere on their body) from which the Devil would suckle. He then marked his followers, the devils mark (stigmata diaboli) or a Devil’s seal (sigillum diaboli), in some hidden part by scaring them. So any birth mark or scar was seen as the mark of the devil. It was even taken one step further when dermatologists published works stating that the witches mark when pricked did not bleed. Scar tissue and some moles when a pin or needle is stuck into it do not bleed. The “questioner” then proceeded to torture the person (usually female) into confessing. Constant walking barefoot for as long as three to four days straight until they confessed in exhaustion others where tortured in more conventional ways. Hot iron nails pushed under finger nails, breasts dipped in hot oil and so on.

For those where questioner could not find a visible mark the dermatologist spoke of the invisible mark. Which required that the accused be picked all over to determine where he/she did not bleed from.

Today when we look at this form of reasoning we think that it is ridiculous. The woman who was once sought after to help heal all ills and aches, who helped women in child birth now became reviled because one group of men suddenly decided that a different religion would be better and it was all or nothing.

A Chovihani is a witch born into a family of witches. You cannot choose to become a witch you can only be born into it. They a respected within their Gypsy tribe and feared outside of it. A Chivihani is powerful for as long as she practices her skill.

In her new book, Natural Witchery: Intuitive, Personal & Practical Magick, Ellen Dugan defines a “Natural Witch” as a practitioner who intuitively senses the magick and the spirit inherent in all things. Natural

Witches are practical, down-to-earth, and keep their magick personal by adding a little something extra to the spellwork. What’s the little something extra? It’s intuition. It’s the spark of their own personalities, and a celebration of individuality.

A natural witch is born with the ability to feel the power around her and within her, she does not have to learn and practice as hard as those who come to the craft although a natural witches abilities are often not controllable. A witch is in tune with the “Magickal Trinity” so to speak : Earth, Sea and Sky.

Earth is the physical level and body sensations, Sea emotional love and feeling and last Sky intuition, thought, ideas and images.

The concept of a Natural witch is not something new, it is highly debated on the signs of how a Natural witch can be found. What has become evident in my reading is that a natural witch often will not even be aware that this is what they are. Many characteristics of a natural witch seem to boarder on the psychic realm. Some find that they are randomly able to predict events for no apparent reason. Psychic dreams are also common among them. They do not dream in a symbolic manor, what they “see” happens as they dream it, it might not happen immediately it might be weeks, months or years later but it will happen as they dreamed it. A phone might ring and they will know who is on the other end or they might badly wish to hear from someone and the phone will ring. Often if a Natural Witch will find herself wishing very much for something she will get it, maybe not exactly the way she wanted but she will get it, eg. Wishing for money only to find change somewhere.

They have natural divination skills, with the tarot cards, astrology, being able to find lost things and knowing. Just knowing things about events or even people, just by hearing about someone or meeting them just once a Natural Witch will know exactly the type of person they are dealing with, and unnervingly be able to read their future actions.

It might be that the witch will find their mood changing in accordance to the rising of the full moon, feeling restless and excitable and of course there will be a pull in them toward nature. Having a taste for gardening and having a green thumb to boot is another trait. Animals are also usually attracted to them and spaces around them.

Most importantly being a natural witch will be a family trait even though it might not be apparent to them. Aunts, cousins grand parents on at least one side of the family will have been able to “see”. Divining dreams, seeing parts of that other realm (death) and a history of knowing. It is in the blood of a natural witch her gift and abilities.

The Natural Witch works intuitively she has no need for spells and potions, they might make her more powerful, but the skill is born within her. She naturally draws it from around her without even knowing what she is doing or capable of and often she draws others to her. A Natural witch exhibits traits of being able to heal others. People feel better after being touched and mentally they also have the ability to lessen your troubles and fears.

Most witches of this kind have no control of what they do as they do not know what they are and their abilities cannot be schooled and exercised. But are they there, strong blessing us without knowing what they do for others. Their strength of character and control over their emotions is inherent and fearful in the way they are able to do this without thinking. As I said you do not have to be born with the talent it can be learned. The Craft is a way of life, a moral path and just in case you were wondering those of the craft do not believe in the devil. (They know and believe that there is evil in the world but the Devil as he is seen in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism do not exist for those in this faith).

There was once a time when a woman would enter a room and you could feel something in the room change. It was a feeling that you could feel, something about her would simply attract and command attention. Men would be drawn to her like flies to honey. And people would whisper witch, it was not believed that there could be a natural way that a woman could command the attention and respect of men.

Today there are those men and women who are still able to do so, over course for women another word is used, we should keep in mind that not all women need to put out to draw others to them. There is just something there that “pulls” others in their direction.

Maybe that person is in a witch but we would never know.

Blessed be, merry meet and merry part as the Goddess wills it so mote it be.

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