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The flesh is the normal flesh-colour for portraits of the period; the hood is mid-green with antennae
and bells; the coat is russet; the background is black. The cat is the true colour for a witch-cat, i.e.
fawn-brindle.'
As Dr. Murray so forcibly stresses, and as I have endeavoured to tell in this book, witches were a very
good and useful class of people. Robert Graves in his novel Seven Days in New Crete shows us an
ideal world where people daringly experimented in all kinds of government and decided to go back to
the type enjoyed by the people of ancient Crete, where they had a king to govern and carry out orders
who was however 'removed' occasionally, while the whole running of the country was entrusted to
witches, who took their responsibilities seriously, no politics being allowed.
If the people were bored or wanted a war, they were quite free to have one, but were only permitted to
fight in certain areas where they could do no damage, and no weapons except quarter-staffs were
permitted to be used; these provided the maximum of fighting and fun with the minimum of expense
and damage. I think that this was not altogether written as a joke but rather as an ideal.
It is believed by witches that by acting a part you really take on the nature of the thing you imitate.
This is really the basis of the cave-man's magic. By making the clay image of the animal you wish to
kill, and by knowing its name, you establish a link between them, so that when he stuck spears into it
it gave him power to kill it when he hunted it.
That these beliefs may seem rather like children's games to some does not alter the fact that primitive
men do behave like this, and so do the witches. By acting the part of the goddess the priestess is
thought to be in communion with her; so the priest, acting as the god, becomes at one with him in his
aspect of Death, the Consoler, the Comforter, the bringer of a happy after-life and regeneration. The
initiate in undergoing the god's experiences becomes a witch.
Witches quite realise that this communion does not occur every time one assumes the goddess
position, but they very soon realise that by doing so they begin to receive thrills which are apt to grow
more and more intense when the trance comes on. They KNOW! It is no use saying: 'This is only
suggestion, or the subconscious mind.' They reply: 'We quite agree; suggestion or the subconscious
mind are simply some of the tools which we use to help to open the Door.'
As indicated before, I have little doubt that in the old days if a party were setting out for a long
journey across rough country they would say: 'We will go as hares,' or some other animal, and would
imitate the animal's movements, thinking that in some mystical way they had taken on that animal's
nature. It may have been partly a game; but whatever it was it took their minds off a long and tedious
journey, and they doubtless found they could go farther and faster with less conscious effort than if
they had walked in the ordinary way. In modern terminology we should say that they had stimulated
the unconscious mind.
It is the old case of: 'Unless you experience it yourself you will never believe. When you have
experienced it, you don't believe, you KNOW.'
And, when you have once known the goddess, does anything else really matter? To attain this state
there are many roads, and dancing is perhaps the easiest; the calls and chants help, the attitude of the
other members is of the greatest assistance - but the true secret is within oneself, and also to some
extent in one's partner or assistant in the art, and it is not a thing that can be forced.
A quiet knowledge that you will do it, and a steady and regular performance of the rites, are all that is
really necessary, although other things help. Short cuts are useful, but you must use them carefully as
they are apt to lead you astray and to involve more work in the end. You must first believe it is
possible; then, use the method, or preferably a combination of the various methods that may be used
together. When you have once attained the ecstasy you know that it exists and may be attained again.
You must banish all feelings of can't, fix in your mind: 'I can and will.' (1)
There are a number of spiritual powers which many people do not recognise as such, e.g. the various
forms of inspiration, music and poetry, clairvoyance and magical awareness; but the greatest of all
these is love. All these aids should be employed under instruction, as there are difficulties and dangers
in their undiscriminating use.
Blood Sacrifice
The first witches I met denied ever using blood in any way and I think they were speaking the truth
according to their lights. I have already quoted them as saying that though freshly shed blood might
give some extra power at a critical moment, it would be wrong or sinful to kill an animal for that
purpose, and that they would not think of doing it. Indeed at that time I did not myself see how it
would fit in with our system of magic.
Lately, however, talking it over with someone, he pointed out to me that it was not at all necessary to
kill anything; that one could draw blood from his own body and that the late Aleister Crowley, as
mentioned above, occasionally performed a rite when he cut his own breast and made use of the
blood. Traditionally this aids materialisation in ceremonies of evocation. Of course it is well known
that in the Great Mystery of Magic the magician is always the victim in a certain sense.
Now the people I know have never attempted materialisation; but mention of such practices does
occur in the rituals, etc. So that these must have been practised in the past, and there are possibly
many covens, of which I know nothing, who may use these methods today: that is, use blood to obtain
certain results.
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[1] See Note 4 (page 189).
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Of course the old stock charge of killing unbaptised babies is ridiculous; it was only invented to scare
people into having their babies baptised and paying the fees. It is impossible for large numbers of
unbaptised babies to disappear without the police asked questions.
The Sabbath
I asked my friends what was the real meaning of the Sabbath and they don't know. They know that
books say that it is from Sabazius, who was identified with Dionysus and Zeus, also said to be the
same as the Jewish Oreb, Lord God of Sabaoth.
Plutarch in Synus, Vol. IV, 6, says that the Jews worship Dionysus and that their Sabbath was so
named after Sabazius, which was one of his forms. My friends agree that the cult of Dionysus had
some connection with their own. This is clear from some of the rituals. They have also read that the
first Jews who settled in Rome were expelled under the law which forbade worshippers of Jupiter
Sabazius to live in Rome; but they cannot reconcile the Jewish worship with their own. Those who
have thought on the matter have a theory that it is simply a word taken from the Christians when
Christianity first came to Britain.
There would be no resident priests in the 'outlands', the witch districts, and services of the revival-
meeting type would be held by strolling priests, possibly on Sundays, and the phrase 'Sabbath
Meetings' would become attached to them. Thus the word Sabbath might be taken by the heathen to
mean a religious get-together of a rather loud-singing type. The term 'Witches' Sabbath' might easily
be applied to their meetings by the Christians themselves in a form of persiflage, adopted as a joke by
the witches, in fact. But my friends do not say that this is necessarily gospel truth, it is only their own
theory as to how it might have occurred.
Can Witches Make Love Charms? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]