The wondrous ways of witches. x

I have always been drawn to enquire further, deeper, and wider into all matters of the occult and witchery, and really all matters of relationship and love… I could assign this (blame) to my Moon in Scorpio in the 10th House forming a trine with my Mercury in Cancer and North Node in Pisces… but ultimately from the moment I realised Witchcraft was the road for me - was in fact the most elegant and powerful way to understand myself in the cosmos - I committed myself to study and research as much as I could, through every avenue a witch can do so. This does not just refer to studying books, periodicals, and letters; it includes trance, mediumship, conversations, friendship, love, and the crooked road of initiation.

It’s nearly been a week since the astronomical event of the Equinox, it’s the day after a full moon in Libra and a penumbral eclipse. This morning when I woke up, after a more luscious alignment and meditative morning practice, and fetching coffee, I have spent the last two hours researching and reading (as I regularly do) about Craft elders and figures who inspire and provoke me.

I have often said to people that one of the reasons I have so emphasised the Craft in my life is because originally I wanted to understand the magic and mysteries of my mother’s ancestors. The reason for this is because - like most families of European descent - our ancestral rites, mythos, gods and spirit, have been corroded over time. Many of them probably were integrated or assimilated into Church and Christian practices of the time, others underground and discreet (as several families I know possess those threads) yet nominally Christian on the outside, and others perhaps lost to time. The reality to a witch however, is that those things can be retrieved through the practice of the Art itself. The Spirits and Gods possess their own agency and their own desires, and they will do what they must to re-redden threads that have gone white.*

I don’t have to be concerned about doing this work in regards to my father’s lineage and Balinese magic and mysticism. It informs me of course, is deep within me, and is alive and well in Bali.

I recently said to someone, “If I examine the content and detail of what my actual witchcraft practice consists of, almost all of it can be traced to techniques, lore, mythos, and ideas that have woven together or collided in the British Isles and Ireland. The names of the feasts and indeed the timing of those feasts, the way I engage ritual space and the Otherworld, the Spirits and Gods I work with, the folk magic and lore I hold dear. The large percentage of it, through empire, colonisation, revival, and the quiet and continued practices of a few families and covens (old and new), has been the source of my inspiration and practice.” Of course some of it can be traced to mysticism, magic, and witchery that arises out of Magna Graeca and Italy. And - this has come to me largely because of British colonisation and perspective. Look through the annals of the British witchcraft revival figures and you will find constant reference to Diana, Pan, Artemis, Aradia, Bacchus, and the Roman Isis. Of course many of these Great Ones have been venerated in Britain since before the Romans invaded. As well as this in initiatory Craft names are tricky and mysterious things. Don’t take things on face-value, go deeper, follow the threads.

But the reality is the Craft is older than this world and rides around and through the Earth from core to mountain, from fire in the earth to the stars shining down and around and around. The Craft takes on regional forms and expressions, because of course it does, and those Spirits and Powers of those Places are fundamental and essential. And as a travelling witch, someone whose Craft has lived in itinerancy and wandering often, I have discovered the Craft of my Heart thrives as well in all that constant shifting as well as in rootedness. Each place I go, filled with beloveds and community most of the time, impacts my Craft and reminds me of my roots.

In the Wildwood Tradition we speak of Ara. She is the First Witch and where Ara is, all witches are. Where there are witches, Ara is. To me Ara is not a person, They are a storyscape, a mythic and prescient current that/who is very, very real and can act like a person (perhaps the Gods are like this too), but ultimately I am Her and She is me. We sometimes say - Hail Ara, the Altar of the Living Art and Craft! We open our Crossroads as Her, realising that we are Ara, the key to this gate of power. These is an incredibly rich and potent understanding of our Tradition.

And so because the Witch has been cursed and blessed to wander through the wilds, under the Mark of Cain (if you are unfamiliar with this, research witches as children of Cain), where we go the Craft comes with us. The Craft also guides us.

Recently I shared a blog I wrote two years ago,
https://www.fiogedeparma.com/blog/in-the-name-of-the-blood-on-the-rose

The opening paragraph goes,
If anything - for me - witchcraft is the erotic and intimate praising of the terrible beauty of existence. When I consider the sensual symbols of witches - which are their own living creatures of the Art - the broomstick, the stang, the knife, the skull, the cauldron, the cloud-cloaked moon, the cave, the crossroads... I am drawn into a powerful embrace of the most ordinary landscapes, items, and scenes... they all embody the palpable and unruly presence of the domestic, the regional, the chthonic, the dead.

So you may - as a wandering witch in the wide, wild world - ‘research’ the Craft through the reality that it is encoded and anchored within its creatures, tools, and sites of power. In the broomstick, knife, cauldron, and crossroads as mentioned in the paragraph above.

I mentioned before that for me my Craft practices draw from British and Irish lore and legend and magical techniques that arose in those regions of the world. But the Craft wanders as witches do, and so the Craft dances and becomes so many things over time. Please do not misunderstand what I have written however, or what I am meaning to get across.

The Craft does not belong to one people or place or time. Recently a beloved and I discussed the Craft and its provenance, Pagan, Heathen, Christian, Gnostic? All of the above I would say, and none of them really. The Craft can be so-called Pagan and Gnostic, the Craft can even be largely practised through a heretical Christian lens, but ultimately Witchcraft belongs only to hirself. Just as Ara does, just like you do.

And that witchcraft - for me - is all snakes and stones, crossroads and constellations, silence and song, blessing and bane, initiation and inspiration. I learnt a while ago, to never throw the baby out with the bath-water. If you notice something in your research and communion with folklore, magic, and the history and story of witches that irks you and you’d rather not deal with, I invite you to pause, breathe, and consider, what’s inside of this and underneath this. Why would this be said? What is the historical and cultural context of these ideas? Why would this be considered a fantasy or delusion now, but a reality then or in another country at this time? What is magic if not an endless marvel that may bring us to holy awe?

And remember, inside of you are wonders beyond end. x

*I learnt this terminology from one of my beloved Craft siblings/mentors Lee Morgan. There are red threads - things passed on from human to human continuously and organically - and white threads - that which is passed to the human from the spirits and the otherworld, perhaps which was originally red as well. They are in reality braided threads, they require one another.