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©Michael Howard, 2014 Illustrations© Gemma Gary, 2014 First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Skylight Press, 210 Brooklyn Road, Cheltenham, Glos GL5 l SEA
All rights reserved Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior consent of the copyright holder and publisher. Michael Howard has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work. Designed and typeset by Rebsie Fairholm Publisher: Daniel Staniforth Cover artwork by Gemma Gary. Textured background art by Sascha Duensing.
www.skylightpress.co.uk Printed and bound in Great Britain by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro. Titles set in Newcomen and 1491 Cancelleresca. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-908011-85-5
In memory ofall those witches ofthe Old Craft who perished at the hands ofthe witch-hunters.
�ON�€N�S Introduction
7
PAR'f' ON€: PREPARING- FOR 'f'H€ W:-1£8 chapter one chapter two chapter three
Tools of the Arte Entering the Craft Casting the Circle
21 38 47
PAR'f' 'f'WO: "f
Candlemas Lady Day May Day Midsummer's Day Lammastide Michaelmas
All
Hallows
Yule Twelfth Night
57 64 70 89 97 106 113 126 134
PAR'f' 'f'HR€€: UBER NOX - 'f'H€ W:-1£8 Introduction to
Liber Nox and the
Rites
Hallows: the Rite of the Mighty Dead
143 152 163 167 174 180 184 189 193 197 201
Appendix c.A: Child of Earth Appendix CJJ: Magical Names for the Full Moons Bibliography, references &further reading Index
209 210 211 214
Casting the Circle of Arte Yule: the Rite of Rebirth Twelfth Night: the Rite of Beginning Candlemas: the Rite of the Waxing Light Lady Day: the Rite of Balance May Day: the Great Rite Midsummer Day: the Rite of Faerie Lammas: the Rite of Sacrifice Michaelmas: the Rite of Harvest Home
ODAY
the majority of books written about modern witchcraft
are based on Wicca created by Gerald Gardner in the 1 940s. Gardner, a retired civil servant who had lived in the Far East for many years before returning to England in the late 1 9 30s, was initiated into a 'traditional' witch coven in the New Forest in 1 939. After he had bought the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic at Castletown on the Isle of Man from its owner Cecil Hugh Williamson in the early 1 950s, Gardner was also initiated into a local 'robed coven' of Manx witches who claimed descent from the old cunning folk on the island. In his introduction to an unpublished manuscript entitled
Witchcrcift & Faeries in the Isle ef Man,
Magic,
Gardner said that remnants of
the old historical witchcraft still existed and he was 'a member of several British witch covens'. However Gardner seems to have turned his back on the more traditional forms of witchcraft he had encountered, known collectively as the Old Path, Elder Faith or Old Craft, and created his own version called Wicca. !his he believed would be more acceptable to the public and become a widespread neo-pagan religion. Wicca has sometimes been described by its critics as 'vanilla lite witchcraft'. !his is because in trying to popularise the Craft his critics say Gardner had to sanitise it, removing, ignoring or repressing those darker elements of the old witch ways that he knew the modern age would reject. !he fact is that the witch has always been a spiritual rebel, a social outsider, a reverser and opposer; a magical practitioner who could cure and curse, hex and heal. !hey were also people who literally lived 'beyond the pale'. !his was a reference to the fence or hedge that separated civilisation from the wilderness. Beyond it dwelt the pagani or country dwellers still following the Old Ways, the 'heathens' who inhabited the desolate heath, and the wolfheads or outlaws who hid in the ancient and enchanted wildwood haunted by elves, goblins and faeries. !he hedge or fence was also symbolic of the invisible boundary between Middle Earth and the Otherworld. 'Ihis is why witches were often called 'hedge-riders' and depicted riding through the air on hurdles and fences. Some modern 'traditional' witches claim to follow survivals or revivals of the historical witchcraft that is recorded in folklore and the accounts 7
Liher Nox of the witch-trials. Writing of his own initiation into two streams of the l 9'h century, and probably
Old Craft dating from at least the end of the
earlier, modern cunning man Andrew D. Chumbley ( 1 967-2004) said: 'We have inherited an oral tradition of magical practice, a tradition which relates a path of historical descent to the present day and which leads onward into a changing future . . . each generation in our tradition has maintained certain teachings and principles of magical practice, combining the cultural elements of the time and place according to need and disposition.' (quoted in Hutton 1 999:308). Other traditional witches, probably the majority, belong to revivalist or reconstructionist groups who have recreated the type of witchcraft practised in the past and adapted it to modern times. Both forms are valid. Although traditional witchcraft features 'paganistic' elements, many of its followers do not regard themselves as 'pagans' per se. For instance the traditional witch Robert Cochrane said that the Old Craft was not a historical direct survival of ancient paganism. However, he said it did contain and preserve elements of the pre-Christian mystery cults and in this country the British Mystery Tradition. Many of the beliefs and practices of the old pagan religions did survive in folklore, some seasonal customs, the legend of the Wild Hunt and the popular belief in the so called Little People or faery folk. !here are many accounts in folk"'!':.radition and the witch-trials of mortals travelling to a 'hollow hill' or sacred mountain or visiting a prehistoric burial mound ('faery hill') where, in a form of initiation, they meet and are taught by the Queen ofElfhame or faeryland. Some examples of these 'hollow hills' are Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, Silbury Hill and Cley Hill in Wiltshire (traditionally the home of the king of the faeries), Cissbury Ring in Sussex, The Hill of Tara in Ireland, Carn Ingli (the Hill of the Angels) in West Wales, the Horselberg (Mountain of the Horse) or Venusberg (the Mountain of Venus) in Germany, and Mount Shasta in California. Many aspects offaery lore and pre-Christian mythology also survived in a sublimated form in the so-called 'Matter of Britain' or Arthurian legends, and for that reason they have been adopted by some modern traditional witches. While it has been influenced by Christianity and medieval ideas concerning chivalry, knighthood and romance, the core of the Arthurian mythos and its roots are essentially pre-Christian or 'pagan' in both origin and nature. If Arthur existed as a real historical person then he was not a medieval ruler surrounded by gallant knights in shining armour. He was a Romano-British warrior king leading a war-band at the transition period between the old pagan religions 8
Introduction and early Christianity that is mistakenly called the 'Dark Ages'. At their core the Arthurian legends represent our native British Mystery Tradition inherited from a pagan past. In that context Arthur can be seen as a solar god and divine king empowered by his relationship with Sovereignty - the goddess of the land. In fact the once and future king has been described by the Arthurian writer Caitlin Matthews as 'a resonance of a mythic archetype of ancestral memory' (2002:3). A connection between witchcraft and the Arthurian legends may appear strange to some people, even though two of their principal and most important characters, Merlin the Mage and Morgan Le Fay, are popularly depicted
as
a wizard and witch. In one of the monthly
letters she wrote during the Second World War to her students in the Fraternity of the Inner Light, the Welsh-born occultist Dion Fortune said that the basic sources of the Arthurian legend and the myth of the Holy Grail were to be found in the pre-Christian religions. She traced the medieval Grail romances to a secret mystery cultus in southern France that existed when the troubadours and heretical Christian sects like the Cathars and Albigenses flourished in the Middle Ages. Dion Fortune said this underground esoteric stream brought together survivals of ancient Celtic druidism and the secret worship of a pagan goddess known as 'Qyeen Venus' (possibly a code name for the Central European goddess Holda), the Greek Mysteries, the troubadours with their belief in 'courtly love' and the veneration of women, and most importantly the witch-cult (DF war letters dated January and February 1 943, quoted in Knight 1 9 93). In her book Avalon
efthe Heart, Fortune
also described the native British Mystery Tradition as combining druidic worship, faery lore, alchemy and what she called the 'Hidden Church of the Holy Grail', probably meaning the Celtic form of early Christianity. Dion Fortune's leading pupil Christine Hartley, and her magical partner Charles Seymour, both believed they had been born together in a previous life as Cathar martyrs. In 1 938 Hartley's magical diary 24'h) recorded that
for the significant date of Midsummer's Day (June
she had the idea to combine the old symbolism of "women's mysteries" with the "pagan mysteries ofEngland through to the witchcraft period." A week later she recorded in her diary that when she passed over the threshold of her house there was " witchcraft all round me". She also had a vision of "silhouetted witches in pointed hats and ragged skirts dancing around a fire" and this was followed by the manifestation of a figure Hartley identified with the Babylonian goddess of fertility, love and war, Ishtar (Richardson 1 9 85 : 1 75). 9
Liher Nox As
they follow a form of witchcraft that
is
land-based, and often
associated with the agrarian calendar, whenever the capricious British climate allows it traditional witches prefer to meet outdoors in the countryside. Although occasionally initiations may be performed 'skyclad', or naked, usually traditionals prefer to wear robes or cloaks with hoods. 'Ihis is why such groups are sometimes called 'robed covens'. As to be expected from working outdoors, the 'spirits of place', the
wights (land
genii loci
or
or earth spirits) in Old English, are
acknowledged. Making offerings to these elemental entities and the faery folk before any ritual is regarded as a matter of politeness and helps placate them. 'Ihe mystical concept of the enchanted or sacred landscape is also of importance in the Old Craft. 'Ihis is because, while all forms of traditional witchcraft have similarities, individuals and groups will often relate their beliefs and practices to the region or locality they live in. 'Ihis naturally creates differences between covens, clans, groves and traditions based on the land they meet on and the local spirits they recognise and contact. To quote Chumbley again: 'I learn much through solitary contemplation in wood, graveyard and meadow; that to me is solace'
(2010:15),
and as a result he naturally gravitated to the native
witchcraft and magical beliefs and practices of his birth place in the county of Essex. For many traditional witches a spiritual and magical interaction with the earth, moon and stars, contact with the
genii loci,
and the ritual
acknowledgement of the seasonal festivals of the W heel of the Year is the essence and core of their beliefs and practices. Although Chumbley followed an old witchcraft tradition that was firmly rooted in rural England and practised mostly by country folk, he had also inherited a sophisticated Cainite-Luciferian mythos that underpinned it. 'Ihis possibly came from the rural secret society known as the Horseman's Word or the Toadmen who practised the toad-bone rite that gave them power over animals. Chumbley said that the Old Craft represents a diverse array of aspects from folk magic such as wort-cunning and animal enchanting to learned practices of 'high magic' and mysticism. He claimed however that the more simple magic is, the more effective it can be. Therefore, in his opinion, rites should be derived from the oracle of dreams or dream incubation, use basic fetishes of wood and stone, follow signs and omens in nature and be guided by 'the wisdom in the earth and stars'. Many traditional witches regard themselves as the stewards or guardians of ancient sites near where they live, such as stone circles, 10
Introduc tion burial mounds, standing stones and hill-figures. They meet for rituals at remote crossroads or near the prehistoric trackways, 'green roads' and old drovers routes that often mark the spirit paths, ghost roads, faery paths, dragon tracks or ley lines that crisscross the countryside between ancient power centres. Such etheric paths are used for spirit travel to the Otherworld, hence the popular image of the witch flying through the sky on a broomstick, and are also the routes across the countryside taken by the Wild Hunt and other supernatural phenomena such as the Death Coach. 'Ihere are numerous stories in folklore and local history about stone circles being sinful maidens or witches petrified for dancing on the Sabbath. 'Ihis may be the Witches Sabbath rather than the Christian one on a Sunday. Notable examples of such folk stories are found at megalithic circles like Castlerigg and Long Meg and Her Daughters in Cumbria, the Nine Ladies in Derbyshire and the Merry Maidens in Cornwall. At the Mitchell's Fold circle in Shropshire a witch who was terrorising the countryside was actually imprisoned in a standing stone to negate her powers. There is historical evidence of witches gathering at megalithic sites including stone circles, standing stones and burial mounds (so-called 'faery hills') for ceremonies and to work magic. In the 1ot11 century an English bishop called Aelfric described how witches visited crossroads and 'heathen burials' to practice their 'phantom craft' and call up the dead. Witches meeting at crossroads are mentioned in classical Greek and Roman accounts and in the Middle Ages gallows were erected where several roads met. 'Ihis was to confuse the spirit of the hanged person so they would not haunt the living. In Anglo-Saxon times the Church was forced to condemn people who brought offerings to places where three or more roads met. Several hundred years after Aelfric, in 1 667, Elizabeth Pratt from Bedfordshire said she had attended a witch meeting held at a group of Bronze Age burial barrows called the 'Ihree Knolls on Dunstable Downs. At the Rollright Stones on the Warwickshire-Oxfordshire border there is a legend that a witch turned a king and his invading army to stone before transforming herself into an elder - a tree sacred to the witch-goddess. In Tudor times there were reports by a witch-hunting commission convened in Oxford of local witches gathering at the stone circle. 'Ihen in the reign of King Charles I a woman from the village of Little Rollright was hanged for attempting to kill her niece using witchcraft. She had confessed to attending 'numerous' Witches' Sabbaths held at the Rollright Stones and Boar Hill outside Oxford. II
Liher Nox 'There
is
evidence such traditional meets were still being held at the
Rollrights in the last century.
d On May 12 1 1949, a full moon and May Eve by the Old (Julian)
Calendar, two concealed witnesses watched a modern Witches' Sabbath at the stones. From their hiding place they saw a group of cloaked men and women dancing back-to-back in a widdershins (anti-clockwise) direction around the King Stone. 'They were led by a man wearing a goat-head mask. Persistent rumours of similar rites being performed at the stones in the 195 os led to nocturnal patrols by the local constabulary using a police dog. Unfortunately in the middle of one night the animal became so frightened at the spooky atmosphere that was building up that it ran off and was quickly followed by its handler. Today the stones are owned and administered by the Rollright Trust and do not appear to be favoured by traditional witches for their rites. Followers of the Traditional Craft work as solitary practitioners, in covens, clans, and groves, or in family groups. Most of the old hereditar y witch families are now extinct (although a few survive) and it is probably true to say there are more solo witches working on their own than in organised groups. Historically this was probably the same, with solitary working being the norm. Where solo witches became aware of others in their area they would come together to work communal magic and to exchange information, gossip (always useful if telling somebody's fortune), knowledge, charms and spells or celebrate seasonal rituals. Sometimes, especially in the south-west of England, groups of solitary witches or covens would be controlled and supervised by a witch-master known as the 'Man in Black'
(pers.
com
from Cecil Hugh Williamson,
3i/8/68). Today members of covens often do private devotions and praxis on their own as solo practitioners outside the group they belong to. A common mistake made about the Old Craft or traditional forms of witchcraft is that it is patriarchal or male-dominated. 'This may be because the Horned God in some old-style covens is either worshipped exclusively or takes a more prominent role than he is allowed in modern neo-pagan Wiccan groups. Also, the male leader, the Magister, Grand Master or Devil in the 'old' robed covens initiates both men and women. 'These facts, however, overshadow the fact that in Traditional Craft women are very much 'the power behind the throne', if not sometimes the power sitting on it. 'They have an important role as seers and mediums, but also as magicians and priests with equal status to male Crafters. It is true that today more men than women seem to be attracted to the traditional witch ways, and this is reflected in its representatives
12
Introduction in the public eye. However, those women who are members of the Old Craft tend to be strong, confident, comfortable with their gender identity, individualistic, creative, highly psychic and mediumistic and naturally suited to the practice of the magical arts. These women also find in the female deities revered in the Old Craft, who are often very dark or chthonic in nature, more liberating and empowering role models than the witch-goddess normally represented in modern Wicca. lhe male leader of a coven, clan or tradition in the Old Craft is known as the Magister, from the Latin for 'Master'. He is sometimes referred to in archaic terms as the Devil (not to be confused with the Judeo-Christian bogeyman Satan), the Man-in-Black or the Son of the Morning Star and takes the role of the human representative of the Horned God. The witch-master may have a male deputy called the Summoner, who is responsible for organising the dates, times and places of the meetings and making sure everyone attends. If for some reason the Magister is unable to attend a meet or working, his deputy will 'take the stang' and substitute for him. In an emergency this role can also be taken by the female leader of a coven who symbolically 'straps on the sword'. This female leader is variously known as the Magistra, from the Latin for 'Mistress', the Lady, Dame, or Q.yeen of the Sabbat. Her role is to be the human representative of the witch-goddess in the Circle of Arte and she may have a female assistant or deputy known as the Maiden. In more matrifocal witch traditions and groups the female leader is known as the Maid and takes the prominent position of authority in the coven with the Magister having a secondary role (e.g. Robert Cochrane's Royal Windsor Cuveen in the 1 9 60s). Some Old Craft groups, such as the Cultus Sabbati for instance, may also have a Verdelet or 'Green Man' who teaches herbal and plant lore and 'green magic' to the other members. Other roles in larger groups include the Scribe, the Seer, the Ward (similar to the tyler or doorkeeper in a Masonic lodge), the Mistress of the Robes and officers for each quarter of the Circle of Arte. Today few covens have a full compliment of officers of this type. Within the operative or magical practices of Traditional Craft is found the practice of divination using various methods such as casting the runes and scrying in a crystal ball or mirror, the interpretation of dreams, signs and omens, seership, spirit flight or travel (astral projection),
dream
incubation,
healing
and
hexing,
necromancy
(communicating with the ancestral dead), trance work, spirit ingress or spirit 'possession', mediumship and 'true dreaming'. Spirits of various types are conjured (summoned) into the magical circle and
Liber Nox there
is
communion and communication with the spirit world. 'Ihere
is also wort-cunning, or the use of herbs for healing, and a specialist knowledge of psychoactive plants for attaining psychic vision and travelling between the worlds. 'Ihe latter practice has very little to do with the recreational use of drugs in our modern society, although it can have the same dangers and pitfalls in the hands of the unqualified and inexperienced. For that reason it should only be undertaken under expert supervision or by those who are knowledgeable. It should also be noted that some natural hallucinogenics, such as the so-called 'magic mushroom' and certain herbal substances, are currently regarded by the authorities as illegal Class A drugs. The deities or spirits revered in the Old Craft are dark chthonic ones associated with the powers of creation and destruction, life and death, growth and decay. Although aptly described by Gerald Gardner as 'twilight deities', they do include a god of fire and light and a goddess who has a bright aspect. 'Ihey are spirits connected to the sun, moon and stars yet also to the earth, field and woodlands. 'Ihe witch-god and witch-goddess can bring their worshippers the gifts of prosperity and fertility, but they are also the rulers of fate and death. 'Ihe traditional witch-goddess, who is associated with pagan deities such as Hecate, Artemis-Diana, Freya, the Morrigan, the Norns, the Fates, and Holda, has both bright and dark aspects. Her sacred metals are silver and platinum and she is associated with animals, birds and insects, such as the mare, owl, crow, goose, vixen, hare, cat and spider. When she manifests, the witch-goddess can appear clairvoyantly or physically as either a beautiful woman or a hideous old hag. For that reason she is often linked with the waxing and waning moon and lunar magic, with nature 'red in tooth and claw', with winter and summer, heaven and the underworld. In some representations her face is coloured half black and half white, or is old on one side and young on the other to illustrate her dual aspects. Sometimes the goddess looks fair from the front while her back is rotten like a hollow tree. She has also been described as pale-faced with ruby coloured lips, shining green eyes, and long black hair. In common with the faeries and angelic beings, the witch-god and goddess in their elven form have pointed ears and slanted eyes. The horned god of the witches is also dual-faced like the Roman deity Janus because he rules both life and death. In the summer he is the virile and fertile Lord of the Greenwood or Green Man, whose foliate mask can be seen carved in wood and stone in pre-Reformation churches. As winter comes and the God descends to the underworld he takes on the
Introduction
darker and more sinister persona. He becomes the harvester of deceased souls and the psychopomp or guide to the dead on their journey to the Hollow Hill or underworld. In this dark season he is the Lord of the Wildwood and the Master of the Wild Hunt. His various divine aspects include a solar deity, a vegetation god, the 'king of the faeries', a smith god, and a lord of light and master of fire. As such he can be mythically associated with Herne the Hunter, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Oberon, Baphomet, Bucca, Sylvanus, Pan, Woden, Tubal-Cain, Wayland the Smith, or Lucifer. His sacred animals and birds include the stag, goat, bull, ram, dog fox, snake, wolf, heron, peacock and raven. Physically the witch-god as the Man in Black or Dark Man appears as tall and thin, clean shaven, with a pale skin and dark hair and eyes. He wears old-fashioned dark or blackclothingthat may be ragged, sometimes
Liher Nox with a long cloak, a highwayman's mask and a wide brimmed hat, and carries a forked staff that may have a lantern attached to it. Other times he will appear wearing a black hooded robe like a monk's habit, hence one of his names is the 'Hooded Man'. He is accompanied by a large shaggy black dog, and when visiting his followers in visions and dreams is often also seen in the company or vicinity of horses, wolves, dragons, lizards, large snakes and prehistoric sabre-toothed tigers and cave bears. 'Ihe Man in Black can be encountered at the witching hour of midnight at crossroads, bridges, fords, stiles and gates. In his underworld aspect as the Lord of Death he is associated with precious and semi-precious jewels, gold and quartz. 'Ihese gems and metals may also feature in his symbolism or physical appearance. Some traditional witches prefer not to link their deities with any particular mythology or pantheon from pre-Christian times. Instead they refer to them in neutral or abstract terminology as the Old Ones, the Lord and Lady, the Shining Ones, the Lad and Lass, the Old Man and Old Woman, Old Hornie, the Old Q.yeen or even just as Him or Her, or Himself and Hersel£ Taking this a stage further, there are some traditions of the Old Craft that do not use anthropomorphic images of the witch-god and goddess. Behind the archetypal images of the Lord and Lady, many traditional witches also recognize the Nameless One or Providence, sometimes called Nox or Night, who has no physical form and transcends all the other gods and goddesses, or an unknowable. Cosmic Creator/Creatorix. Central to the mythos ofmost, but not all, forms ofmodern traditional witchcraft is the ceremonial celebration or ritualistic marking of the seasonal cycle known as the Wheel of the Year. 'Ihis is a series of eight or nine festivals in the year, sometimes called 'knots', based broadly on the folk traditions and symbolism of the season. 'Ihey generally follow the agricultural cycle, the passage of the sun and moon through the year and the zodiac signs. Not all traditional witches celebrate these seasonal festivals and they may just acknowledge their symbolism in some way if they are having a meet near to their dates. These festivals correspond to some folk traditions and customs, and there is evidence these may have survived from pagan times. In the 1oth century, Bishop Cormac of Castel in Ireland noted that his parishioners still lit 'great fires' on the dates of the old druidic festivals in February, May, August and November (lmbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain). 'Ihese are some of the same festivals marked by witches. Although it is often claimed that the ritual Wheel of the Year is a modern invention, historically the 17•h century Pendle witches in
Introduction Lancashire met on Good Friday (near the spring equinox in March)
and Samhain (November 1 st), while the Aberdeen coven gathered on 'Hallowmas' (October 3 1 st). In 1 662 the Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie told her questioners that a "Grand Meeting [of witches] was held about the end of each quarter [of the year]". 'These would be the dates of the quarter days in March, June, September and December (Lady Day, Midsummer Day, Michaelmas and Yule). French covens allegedly came
2 3
together on St John's Eve or Midsummer Eve (June
'
.
which may have been a late autumn o r early midwinter festival. Although the Greater and Lesser Sabbaths of the Wheel of the Year follow a similar pattern in traditional witchcraft to the modern Wiccan ones, they can be on different dates. This is especially true if the old Julian calendar is followed, as it is about ten days adrift of the modern Gregorian one introduced in the mid- 1 8th century. Some traditionals only celebrate the four major festivals marking the agricultural year, sometimes known as the 'Celtic fire festivals' or Great Sabbats. Others include the solar solstices and equinoxes, or the dates near them that are the quarter days of the agricultural calendar - Lady Day (March (June
24th)
2 4th),
25th), Midsummer
Eve (June
Michaelmas (September
29th)
2 3 d) '
or Midsummer Day
and Yule Eve (December
or Christmas Day. Additionally Twelfth Night (January 5 th) may
be celebrated. Perversely, traditional witches use the Christianised or secular names of Candlemas, May Day, Lammastide, and
All
Hallows
for the Grand Sabbats instead of the Irish Gaelic ones recently adopted by modern Wiccans and neo-pagans, as mentioned previously.
neo � / PREPARJNG F0R rnE RI�S
�
B
OI:S OF �H€ AR�€
EFORE
proceeding to initiation into the Craft and the casting of
the Circle of the Arte, the working tools or ritual objects used by the traditional witch need to be discussed and described.
Some of these are similar to the ones in modern Wicca, although their
symbolism and use is often different. 'Ihe main tools of the Traditional Craft that will be discussed first are the stang or staff, the ritual knife,
the besom, the cup or drinking horn, the cauldron, the stone, and the cords. The stang or forked staff is the primary and most important tool of the traditional witch. It is usually made from the wood of ash, oak or yew trees. The name 'stang' comes from an Old Norse and Middle English word meaning a pole. In Northern England there was a folk custom known as 'Riding the Stang' used by vigilantes to drive moral wrongdoers and anti-social troublemakers out of the village. In that folk tradition context the stang was a symbolic representation of a horse. In traditional witchcraft the stang is sometimes 'shod' with iron, thus linking it to horses and the aspect of the god of the witches as the divine blacksmith or farrier. In those forms of the Old Craft following the Northern European tradition the 'niding pole' is surmounted by a horse skull and is used for cursing. It is possible that the stang used in the witch-cult came from the wooden implements of agricultural labourers in the past. In fact the stang is often mounted by the ironwork of a two or three pronged pitchfork or is a wooden version of that tool once used in farming. The traditional role of the stang in the Circle of Arte is usually to represent the Horned God. In this respect it can have a phallic meaning as the male aspect of the life-force that permeates and animates the natural world and is depicted as the Green Man. However, that is when it has two forks or prongs like horns. In the old Devonshire Craft there is also a three-pronged stang like a trident representing the witch goddess. When it is a symbol of the God, the stang is carved on the 2I
Liher Nox shaft with the mask or face of one of his sacred animal totems; a stag, ram, bull, goat, dog or fox. The stang also symbolises the
axis mundi or
the World Pillar or the World Tree (Y ggdrasil in Norse mythology) that reaches up through the three realms - the Underworld (the land of the dead), Middle Earth (the material world) and the Upper World (heaven or the realm of the Old Gods) to the Pole Star around which all the stars appear to revolve in the heavens. 'Ihe forked staff is also associated with sacrifice, because it is the Tau Cross of oak branches on which the God or divine king is sacrificed at Lammas. In this role the stang stands in the circle adorned with crossed arrows and a sickle fixed to the shaft. Sometimes a human skull and crossbones will also be placed at its base. If the bones are crossed then it signifies death, but if the bones are straightened they mean birth or rebirth. 'Ihis symbolic arrangement is usually seen at Lammas and at All Hallows, when the God has descended to the underworld. Signifying the presence of the Horned God and the authority of the Magister or witch-master, the stang is placed in the north of the magical circle, a sacred direction in traditional witchcraft. In that position it acts as the 'guardian' or gatekeeper of the entrance to the spirit world and is the link between the material plane and the Unseen and the Other. As we shall see when describing the casting of the circle, the stang indicates that it is truly a place 'between the worlds' linking matter to spirit on the physical plane of being and acting as a portal to other realms or dimensions of existence. In the form of traditional witchcraft practised by Robert Cochrane, the stang was 'processed' around the quarters or compass points of the Circle of Arte for each seasonal festival during the ritual year. This 'processing of the stang' reflects the journey of the God in his solar aspect around the Wheel of the Year and at each festival it was decorated with the relevant flowers, foliage and fruits of the season. 'Ihe plants can be simply tied to the shaft of the stang or alternatively made up into wreaths or garlands to hang on it. These are then burnt on the fire at the end of the ritual. At Yule or the midwinter solstice the stang stands in its usual standard position in the north. It is garlanded with mistletoe, which grows ' between earth and heaven' in the branches of oak and apple trees, and with holly and ivy, male and female plants sacred to the Lord and Lady, the God and Goddess. 'Ihe white berries of the mistletoe have been compared to drops of semen and the phallic power of the Horned One. The red berries of the holly are the blood shed at his sacrificial death at the height of summer. Magically, holly is also a protective plant 22
Tools of the Arte warding off lightning and negative and harmful influences. In folklore the ivy was known as 'the bringer of death' because it strangled and eventually killed off other trees. It represents the dark aspect of the witch-goddess. At Candlemas, the Festival of the Waxing Light in early February, the stang is placed in the north-east of the circle. It is decorated with snowdrops, representing purity in the language of flowers, and, if they are available, crocuses. On Lady Day near the vernal or spring equinox in March, the stang is positioned in the east of the circle, the direction of the rising sun at that time of the year. It has on it spring flowers such as daffodils, narcissus and early primroses, one of the flowers of the faery folk.1he narcissus is associated with the witch-goddess in her aspect as ruler of the underworld and in spring it is traditionally used to decorate graves. On May Day the stang is moved to the south-east and decorated with hawthorn and apple blossom and twigs of birch, hazel and willow. Hawthorn with its feminine musky smell is the tree of Our Lady as the Q!ieen of Elfhame or Faeryland. For this reason in folk tradition it is unlucky to bring it indoors as misfortune will surely follow. The apple is the 'food of the Gods' and in the British Mystery Tradition is associated with the underworld. Hence Afallon or Avalon, meaning the 'Island of Apples' and the old name for Glastonbury, the Isle of the Dead. It is also the 'Silver Branch' of apple blossom that is the passport given by the faery queen to chosen mortals so they can safely enter and, more importantly, leave her realm and return to the material world. Birch is another sacred tree with a feminine influence connected to birth and fertility. In folklore and Celtic mythology the hazel is a tree linked to wisdom, foresight and gnosis or knowledge. Traditionally both witches and magicians made their wands from a hazel branch. Its twigs are also used in dowsing to locate water, oil, minerals, precious metals such as gold and silver, and buried treasure. The willow is another tree sacred to the witch-goddess in her dark lunar aspect. In Somerset folklore it is said to strangle anyone who sleeps underneath its branches. Contrawise the willow was also a healing tree, as its bark was a popular cure for rheumatic pain, headaches and migraine. Country folk also wore crosses made from willow twigs as a protective amulet or charm to ward off evil influences and bad luck. The stang is positioned directly in the south on Midsummer's Day (June
24th).
1hen it bears a garland made of the flowers of St John's
wort, red and white briar roses, honeysuckle, foxgloves and oak leaves. St John's wort was the magical herb thrown on the midsummer
Liher Nox bonfires that were lit on hills in a folk custom that recollects rites of pagan sun worship. It was also placed on the front doors of houses as a protective charm to ward off the lightning flash and malevolent ghosts. Honeysuckle and roses belong to the goddess and the oak tree to both the Green Man and the ancient sky and thunder gods. Foxgloves, a corruption of 'folk's gloves', are named after the faeries. 'lhe oak, the 'king of the wood', protects against summer storms and is the principal host of mistletoe, itself allegedly created by lightning ('the fire from heaven') blasting the tree. 'lhe next festival of the Wheel of the Year is Lammastide at the beginning of August. Before the harvest is gathered in, the stang is in the south-west of the compass or circle decorated with red poppies and if available the first ears of barley, corn or wheat. Today the red poppy is a powerful cultural symbol associated with the fallen in wars, and this fits with the sacrificial theme at this time of year from Lammas to Hallows. Crossed arrows and a sickle are also attached to the shaft of the stang. These symbolise the weapons used by the goddess of the land to send the divine king or sacrificed god on his way to the underworld. At Michaelmas, at the end of September near to the autumn equinox, the stang is placed directly in the west. !his is the direction of the underworld, the Hollow Hill, the Land of the Ever Young, the Fortunate Isle in the western ocean 'beyond the setting sun'. !his festival is called Harvest Home or Harvest End in the folklore calendar when the crops are safely gathered in and stored for the coming winter, and it is celebrated with merrymaking. 'lherefore the stang is decorated with the fruits of the harvest created by humans and nature working in harmony together. It is the time when the God passes through the gates of death, represented by the trilithon at the entrance of the burial mound within the henge, and descends into the underworld for the winter. When All Hallows or Hallowtide is celebrated at the end of October and the Mighty Dead are evoked, the stang is in the north-west. It is the door or gateway through which the ancestral dead pass into the circle, after travelling along the spirit paths or ghost roads led by the elemental spirit of the puckish Jack O'Lantern. 'lhe stang represents the Old Horned God as the Dark Master of the Wild Hunt and is decorated with a garland of periwinkles, yew and elder leaves, rowan berries and pine cones. Periwinkle is also known as Sorcerer's Violet and theElizabethans believed it was protection against 'wykked sprites'. In fact
peri is
an old English word for faery and there is a suburb of
north-west London called Perivale meaning 'valley of the faeries'. In
Tools of the Arte Italy it was known as faire de moire or the 'death flower' and in medieval England criminals were forced to wear garlands of periwinkles on their way to the gallows. Yew frequently grows
in
churchyards
as
a
symbol of death,
resurrection and eternity and in medieval times it provided the wood for longbows. Elder is considered unlucky because its wood was used for the cross on which Jesus was crucified and was also the tree Judas hanged himself on. However in pagan times it was sacred to the Elder Mother, the Germanic witch-goddess Dame Holda. It was considered highly dangerous to cut down an elder or take one of its branches without first asking her permission. Even then it was considered bad luck because cutting the tree raised the Devil, unless of course that was your desire! Elder was known as a 'wicked wood' and in Staffordshire burning it on the hearth was supposed to invite the Owd Lad to come down the chimney into the house like a demonic Santa Claus. Rowan, also known as mountain ash, quicken, quickbeam and witchwood, was widely regarded as an antidote to or a protection from malefic witchcraft, the malicious tricks of the faery folk and the crippling effect of the Evil Eye. An old Scottish saying was: "Rowan tree and red thread keeps the witches from their speed." It is sacred to the pagan thunder gods, and crosses of rowan placed above_ the doors of farm buildings warded off the faeries and stopped witches 'hag riding' horses at night to their Sabbats. When they were returned at cockcrow the horses would be covered with sweat and their mane and tails would be tangled in elf knots. Horse owners today still report this phenomenon although alternative reasons are given for it. Some traditional witches place a candle or lantern between the forks or 'horns' of the stang. Medieval illustrations of witch meetings often show the Black Goat of the Sabbat, Old Nick, the Devil or Horned God, sitting on a throne presiding over the event with a lighted candle between his horns. 'Ihis is a symbol of the Lightbringer or Lightbearer who brings wisdom, knowledge and enlightenment to those who revere him. Although they did not understand its symbolism, the witch-hunters described how the participants in the Witches' Sabbath each brought a candle to light from this central flame. 'Ihis represented the passing of gnosis or divine knowledge from Old Hornie to his human followers. 'Ihe knife is another of the primary magical tools used by traditional witches. Some modern followers of the Old Craft have adopted the word 'athame' used in Wicca and derived from a black-handled ritual knife from the
Key ef Solomon
grimoire. However there are historical
references from Byzantine, Crete, Greece and Ireland of the use of a
Liber Nox black-handled knife in folk magic for exorcising demons, banishing faeries and drawing magical circles. Originally the ritual knife or dagger was a sacrificial weapon used in ancient times to sacrifice animals, and sometimes humans, to the Old Gods. Today it is used to cast the circle and consecrate the bread and wine in the Houzel or sacred communion at the end of witch meets. 'The knife or dagger can also be used to project psychic energy to its desired goal and exorcise or banish malevolent ghosts, elementals and spirits. Some traditional witches will not allow any metal into the Circle of Arte. 'This is because of a magical belief that metal interferes with the 'earth energy' at sacred sites and power centres and disturbs their guardian spirits. This is reflected in the folklore that the faery folk cannot bear iron and it can be used to banish them. Instead they may use a ritual implement made from an antler or a knife with a wood, bone or horn handle and copper, bronze, obsidian or flint for the blade. In ancient times sacrificial knives had blades made from obsidian or volcanic glass, which can be honed razor sharp. Obsidian can also be used as an amulet for magical protection, for contacting the dead and the underworld and as a material for scrying mirrors. 'The famous mirror made from obsidian and used by the Elizabethan magician Dr John Dee is on display in the British Museum. 'The besom or broomstick features in fairy tales and in folklore about the witch where she is ofren depicted either holding or riding upon one. It was widely believed that witches rode through the sky to their meetings on broomsticks, forked staves and hurdles, or on the back of wolves, horned animals like rams and goats, and birds like geese. One of the earliest medieval illustrations of night-flying shows 'good women' or witches riding on forked sticks to a nocturnal gathering presided over by the witch-goddess of the moon, hunting and the woods, Diana. In reality this goddess was misidentified by the churchmen who condemned such activities. She was probably Frau Holda or the 'Bountiful One' mentioned before; the central European female leader of the Wild Hunt. She was also associated with fertility and prosperity, witchcraft, the dark season of winter and the land of the dead. Of course witches cannot actually physically fly through the air and in fact the witch-hunters did not even believe their own propaganda. 'They said that such activities were demonic delusions sent by the Devil to sinners or a nightmarish dream where foolish women falsely believed they flew to the Witches Sabbath. However many recipes and examples were found of so-called 'flying ointments' or 'lifting balm' that the witches smeared on their naked bodies to accomplish their 'night flying'
Tools of the Arte while riding their stangs like horses. 'Ihese recipes included psychoactive or narcotic plants such as belladonna or deadly nightshade, wild parsley and henbane that made the witches fall into a deep trance-like sleep. When they awoke they related sensations of flying through the air at high speed and travelling to a remote wild place. !here they danced and feasted with other members of the sisterhood, a company of faeries, spirits and demons and worshipped a horned bestial figure. In an occult sense the witches were projecting their astral body or practicing 'spirit travel' and using the besom as a symbolic 'steed' or horse to journey to the Otherworld. In traditional witchcraft the besom used for magical and ritual purposes is made from the three sacred 'feminine' woods of ash, birch and willow. These represent the elements of air, water and earth; life, death and birth and the 'Ihree Mothers, Wyrd Sisters or Fates who are aspects of the traditional witch-goddess. Ash for the handle is symbolic of the axis mundi or World Tree, birch twigs associated with fertility make the brush, sometimes seen as representing female pubic hair, and willow withies bind them to the besom's shaft. Sometimes the end of the broom handle is carved in the shape of a phallus concealed in the female brush. !his symbolically represents the conjunction of the male and female energies in the Great Rite, the heiros gamos or 'sacred marriage' - ritualised sexual intercourse. Ritually the besom is used to sweep the meeting ground or the Circle of Arte. Psychically this rids it of any negative influences and physically creates a clean and clear working space. Alternatively some traditional witches will use small ritual sweepers to cleanse the circle. 'Ihese are made from goose feathers or blackthorn twigs bound with wax or string. Sweeping away evil spirits or negative influences with a broom is an ancient magical practice that dates back to Roman times. !he besom is then crossed on the ground with the sword at the northern quarter of the circle and each participant enters the sacred space by stepping over them. !his is the symbolic stile, gate, bridge or 'gap in the hedge' the witch passes through from this world to the Other, from the mundane to the magical and spiritual. !he cup or chalice is a primary feminine symbol associated with healing. However, as the drinking horn it can have a bisexual nature depicting both the phallus and the yoni and the male and female creative principles. It can also be a copper or pottery bowl, sometimes with two handles. !he main use of the cup in Traditional Craft is for the Houzel or communion at the end of seasonal rituals or magical workings, when it is filled with wine, mead or cider. As in the Christian Mass, which
Liher Nox is itself based on the pagan agape or love feast, the wine in the chalice is symbolically believed to be the blood of the sacrificed god and the accompanying bread is his flesh. By partaking of the 'cakes and wine' the communicant is imparting the life-force or spirit of the God in what is basically a cannibalistic rite. Reflecting this symbolism, originally the cup may have been made from the skullcap of the sacrificial victim. Usually, out of common politeness, a small offering of the ingredients of the Houzel are given to the genii loci, the wights or land spirits. In Celtic mythology the cauldron has a multiple symbolism connected with spiritual transformation, initiation, fertility, prosperity and immortality. It also acts as a cornucopia that produces unlimited amounts of food. Archaeological excavations have revealed the importance of ritual feasting in prehistoric religious ceremonies and seasonal observances. Bran, the mythic divine king of the Island of the Mighty (Britain), owned a cauldron that could bring dead warriors back to life. In the rituals of traditional witchcraft the cauldron is not the holder of fire as it is in W icca, but the receptacle or magical vessel for the creation of the aqua vitae or 'water of life' and the potions brewed using psychoactive plants and fungi. It is similar in its occult nature to the chalice because it is 'feminine' and represents the stellar or cosmic womb of the Magna Mater, the Great Mother Goddess, where all life originated. In a Welsh legend the witch Ceridwen owned a famous cauldron. In it she brewed a potion of magical plants and herbs which created the Drop of Awen or inspiration that granted psychic vision and bardic powers. Some writers see Ceridwen's ritual chase of Gwion Bach, who stole the Awen, with its shape-shifting into animals and birds, as an initiation into the Mysteries or the witch-cult. The story survived in the popular folk ballad 7he Two Magicians or 7he Coal Black Smith with a seducer chasing a young maiden. !he smith of the title is Tubal Cain, Vulcan ot Wayland with his face blackened from working in the forge. 'There are also fantastical accounts in the witch-trials of people physically transforming themselves into bestial form. It is more likely they wore masks and costumes to represent the totemic animals of the Craft and the sacred beasts of the God and Goddess. !he early medieval Welsh poem Prieddu Annwn is an account of a raid on the Otherworld by King Arthur and seven of his warriors. !heir mission is to capture a magical vessel in the form of a cauldron guarded by nine maidens. !his legend is a forerunner of the later romances about the quest for the Holy Grail, believed to have been the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and carved from an emerald that fell from
Tools of the Arte Lucifer's crown when he was cast down from heaven to Earth. The Grail, however, no longer exists on a physical level, although many have sought for it in vain through the ages. The visionary sight of this sacred vessel in the Grail Castle achieved by the questing seeker leads to the lightning flash of spiritual illumination and enlightenment. In fact the attainment of the vision of the Grail at the end of the spiritual quest frees the soul from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth and unites it with the Godhead. In traditional witchcraft the Grail also symbolises the mystery of the union between the Lord and Lady and the divine king and Sovereignty, the goddess of the land, which takes place in a greenwood bower under an oak tree on May Day. In the Circle of Arte this ceremony is enacted by a symbolic marriage or the Great Rite between the Magister and Magistra as the human representatives of the solar/sky god and the moon/earth goddess. It also represents the union of the sky world (heaven) and the earth world At a psychological and spiritual level the sacred marriage is the alchemical conjunction between the masculine and feminine aspects of the human psyche - the anima and animus represented as the sun and moon - producing the divine androgyne. lhe stone can be used for different purposes and has several forms in the Traditional Craft. For instance it can simply be a large flat stone used as an altar for an outdoor or even an indoor meet. Some traditional witches have a carved stone head to represent the God and this is known literally as a Godstone. Prehistoric standing stones can be used for this purpose, and examples are the King Stone at the Rollrights in Oxfordshire and the Heel Stone at Stonehenge. A famous one in Brittany is the St Duzaz menhir or standing stone. It is carved with Christian iconography that the traditional witch Robert Cochrane interpreted as disguised symbols of the male and female mysteries of the witch-cult. A smaller Godstone carved or fashioned as a life-size phallus representing the virile power of the Horned God is also used in certain private rituals and sex magic. It can also be a whetstone used to hone the blade of the ritual knife or sword. In the old days it would have sharpened agricultural tools like scythes, sickles and hedging hooks and bladed weapons of war such as swords, daggers and axes. It is symbolically linked with the magical aspect of smithcraft and the millstone used to crush grain. In Northern European mythology the heavenly Mill grinds out the stars at creation and in operative witchcraft 'Turning the Mill', walking, running or dancing around the circle, is a magical ritual technique to raise psychic energy and magical power.
Liber Nox Striking two stones together can also create a spark to light the balefire or needfire and this is symbolic of the divine sparks or human souls hammered out on his anvil by the smith-god in his forge. There are also links with the 'sword in the stone' in the Arthurian legends. It is the removal of a sword embedded in the stone, or significantly an anvil, that first identifies the 'chosen one' of the tribe who is destined to be king. 'lhe esoteric symbolism in this act of choosing a worthy candidate for kingship refers to the arts and mysteries of metallurgy and smithcraft taught to early humans by the Old Gods. Other uses of stones in the Old Craft are crystals or 'shewstones' for scrying or healing and they can also be used to store psychic energy like a magical battery. In some forms of the Old Craft, quartz crystals are used at ancient sites to control and manipulate the earth energy for magical purposes. Hagstones (stones with a naturally made hole in them) are used for warding, protection and dream incubation or 'magical dreaming' for divination or contacting spirits. The modern Essex cunning man Andrew D. Chumbley has described a form of spellcraft using a hagstone to travel in spirit form in the dream world. First a hagstone and a leather thong are procured. Seven knots are placed at intervals in the thong. It is then threaded through the hole in the stone and a loop is tied at one end so it can be held in the hand. When the person doing the spell goes to bed they hold the hagstone in the hand they generally use the most, and wrap the thong around their wrist. !he spirit of the sleeper will then pass through the hole in the hagstone and join the procession of night-walkers travelling to the Witches' Sabbath or the followers of the Wild Hunt, returning safely when they awake. The Troy or Mazey Stone is also used by traditional witches in Cornwall. !his is flat smooth pebble either painted or carved with a spiral or maze, the symbolic path to the Otherworld or the land of the dead. !his symbol is then meditated upon by tracing the forefinger of the left hand along the lines carved in it to the centre. Eventually this practice creates a light trance state that enables the user to obtain clairvoyance or contact the spirit world. An example of one of these witch-stones can be seen on display in the Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle in north Cornwall. !he symbol of the maze or labyrinth is a universal and ancient one. Examples have been found in cave art at Galicia in Spain dating back thousands of years to the Neolithic (New Stone) Age. When traced on the ground with stones or cut out of the turf, mazes were used for rituals, with dancers following the pattern to the centre. !his ritual activity was
Tools of the Arte mentioned by the Roman writer Virgil in the r" century BCE and he described it as 'the game of Troy'. In Scandinavia the mazes were called 'troll circles' and walking them was supposed to bring good luck and create good weather for hunting, fishing and farming. Shakespeare mentions 'the quaint mazes in the wanton green', and how they are in disrepair, in his play A Midsummer Night's Dream. 1he cingillum o r cord is sometimes called the 'witch's girdle' and at a basic level is tied around the robe to secure it. Different coloured cords can be used to indicate the rank of a witch or their initiatory grades in the Craft and can be red, white and black to represent the colours associated with the witch-goddess. 1he cord may have seven, nine or thirteen knots in it with the latter two numbers representing the lunar phases and the thirteen moons (months) of the ritual Wheel of the Year. In the Cochrane tradition a plain hemp cord is worn around the neck like a halter. In ancient times it was the garrotte used to despatch sacrificial victims offered to the Goddess and later became the hangman's noose. Some of the preserved bodies found in peat bogs and dating from the Bronze and Iron Age are such victims and have cords or collars around their necks. In ancient Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals, red, white and blue coloured cords were used to bind images or dolls representing the bewitcher and were then destroyed. The cords in traditional witchcraft symbolise what binds us to lifo, the physical world, Fate and the Gods while we are incarnated. 1hey symbolise the cutting of the umbilical cord at birth that attaches us to our mothers during pregnancy and the silver thread severed at death that releases the soul from its physical vessel. 'These two acts are ruled and carried out by the Norns or Fates and, as Robert Cochrane said, Fate is the true name of the witch-goddess. In Greek mythology it is the thread of Ariadne used by the hero to travel into the centre of the maze or labyrinth representing the underworld. Primarily the cords are a magical tool that allows access to the spirit realm and they also guide the seeker safely back to Middle Earth. Magically the knotted cord can also be used as a 'witch's rosary' for meditation and trance work. Knotted with goose, black chicken or crow feathers in spells the cord also becomes the so-called 'witches' ladder' used for cursing. In fishing ports 'sea witches' once sold knotted cords to sailors and fishermen as a form of weather magic. If wind was needed for their sails of boats the knots were undone one by one depending on the strength required. A painted board on the wall outside the witchcraft museum in Boscastle depicted one of the local witches performing this service on the adjacent harbour. As will be seen later in the book, the
Liher Nox cord is also used in combination with the stang and the ritual knife or sword to mark out the boundaries or perimeter of the Circle of Arte when it is cast or inscribed on the ground. !he conjuring stick or wand has probably been regarded as more important in ceremonial magic than in the Craft. However, there are historical references to it and illustrations of witches and cunning folk carrying walking sticks used for magical purposes. !he wand can be an ordinary stick that is consecrated or charged, or a specially made magical rod. In ancient times it was the sceptre or staff of office carried by a king or queen as a symbol of their divine authority as representatives of the Gods. The wand is ruled by the element of air and symbolises the mind, the intellect and communication. It can be used to trace and cast the Circle of Arte and conjure or summon spirits. It is usually a shortened version of the stang with a forked top, or sometimes it is surmounted by a pine cone to represent a phallus. !he shaft can be decorated with runes or occult sigils that are significant to its owner or the coven. According to tradition the wand should either be gifted by your initiator when you enter the Craft or made by one's own hand. !he wood used depends on the magical purpose of the wand. To make a 'blasting rod' for instance, the witch will use blackthorn. For divining or dowsing and gaining knowledge it would be hazel, and willow for healing. Before cutting the wood the permission of the arboreal or tree spirit should be asked and an offering made in return. This can be a libation of alcohol, a silver coin or some personal item of jewellery buried at the roots of the tree. Opinions differ as to the required length of the wand, but generally it should be no longer than the distance between the elbow and the end of the forefinger of its proposed owner. In biblical times this measurement based on the proportions of the human body was known as a cubit. It is still used in the country craft of laying hedges to mark out the length between stakes. The ritual sword in the Traditional Craft is not as common as the dagger or knife, and its use can be controversial. In fact it has been suggested that it is a fairly recent innovation borrowed from ritual magic. When ceremonial magicians joined witch covens they may have introduced the use of ritual swords. In historical times only the aristocratic elite in society would have been wealthy enough to actually own one. As an expensive weapon it was very much the mark of a nobleman or knight rather than a commoner like a feudal peasant or tenant farmer. Where the Magister of a coven was a gentleman, a local landowner or the lord of the manor, as he sometimes was, he might have introduced his personal sword as a working tool in the witches' circle.
Tools of the Arte However, the sword does have an ancient history. For magical purposes the ritual sword has a phallic/fire/solar symbolism and can be employed for casting or marking the circle on the ground and subduing or controlling any lesser spirits or elementals that are conjured or evoked in it. 'The sword can also banish any wayward or unwanted spirit visitors and direct the power in cursing rituals. Plunged blade tip down in the earth at the end of a ritual or magical working it also 'earths' the energy that has been raised. Crossed with a besom or broomstick it provides the symbolic 'crossing point', the bridge or stile used by the coven to enter and leave the circle. In practice all kinds of different swords such as sabres, cutlasses, scimitars and broadswords are used in the Craft. If a sword is bought from an antique shop, rather than being made by a local friendly blacksmith, it should be magically cleansed of all previous associations. This is very important if a sword has actually been used in anger as a weapon on the battlefield and tasted blood, rather than just being a ceremonial object. 'The last thing that should be done is to bring any of its past negative associations into the circle. As with all the other working tools, the knife and sword have elemental attributes or correspondences, e.g. the stang and wand are 'masculine' in nature and are ruled by the element of air; . the cauldron or cup belong to the element of water and are feminine in nature and symbolism; while the stone is obviously of earth, and the brazier, censer or incense burner belongs to fire. In some Western magical traditions such as the Golden Dawn and Wicca, the athame and sword are assigned to air and the wand to fire. As we have seen, one of the aspects of the witch-god is the divine smith who makes the weapons of the Gods. 'Therefore, as the blade of a sword or knife is forged from the fire of his forge, it is right and proper that they should be assigned to the fiery element. In ancient times the.sword was associated with 'fire from heaven', the lightning flash that comes to earth as a thunderbolt and symbolically represents spiritual illumination. Several of the pagan sky and thunder gods like Zeus, Baal and 'Thor actually used thunderbolts as weapons. It is also the 'Sword of Light' owned and carried into battle by the Pendragon or warrior king to destroy his enemies, and one of the Hallows of the Tuatha de Danaan, the Irish 'People of Danu'. 'Ihey were an ancient race of magicians who with the coming of Christianity were banished into the 'hollow hills'. Some witches compare them with the Watchers or 'fallen angels' in the Bible, who have a significance in some forms of Old Craft. 33
Liber Nox 'Ihe Sword of Light is the symbol of the temporal or earthly power granted to the divine king by Sovereignty, the goddess of the land, and the magical or supernatural weapon used to defeat those who threaten his people. An obvious example of this in British mythology is the sword known as E xcalibur, gifted to King Arthur by the faery Lady of the Lake after his first sword drawn from the stone broke. While he holds the Sword of Light the divine priest-king has the power to rule over the land and its people. When the king dies the sword has to be returned to the realm of Faerie from whence it came and this is also found in the Arthurian legends when the once and future king is defeated in battle. 'Ihe sword's scabbard also had mystical powers and was of a feminine nature associated with the Goddess. After he has received E xcalibur, Merlin the kingmaker asks Arthur whether he esteems the scabbard or the sword most. When the king replies that he prefers the blade, the wizard rebukes Arthur for his choice, telling him that the scabbard is far worthier. In fact he should treasure it, for while he carries it no wound made on his body will bleed. !his refers to the healing power of the Goddess. In the Arthurian legends there is an account of the faery lady Morgan Le Fay stealing the scabbard of E xcalibur from the once and future king, who is her half-brother. !his was in a failed attempt to negate his power over the land and destroy the Fellowship of the Round Table and his kingdom. Conversely it is Morgan who, at the end of Arthur's life on earth, transports his body to Avalon. Once there, she uses her herbal knowledge to heal him of his mortal wounds so Arthur can become the 'once and future king.' It is said that Arthur's sword Excalibur was decorated on its blade with battle runes and two entwined serpents (dragons?) etched in gold. Every time Arthur drew the sword from the scabbard its blade shone with a bright light, and flames seemed to issue from the mouths of the twin serpents. Again this is symbolic of the sword connection with lightning and the 'fire from heaven'. Also of its regal holder's power over the land and the so-called 'earth energy' or 'dragon energy' that flows in the enchanted landscape. !he dragon or winged serpent is also a symbol and mythical beast sacred to the traditional witch-god. 'Ihe weapons forged by the smith-god for the other deities and mortal heroes had supernatural powers, made their owners invincible and caused death by the slightest blow or wound. As we have seen, when the divine king gives up his position, this symbol of sacred kingship has to be returned to the Otherworld or its faery source. !here the Sword of Light is held until the next candidate for king is regarded as worthy enough to own it and wield its power. 34
Tools of the Arte That the sword is only on temporar y loan to the warrior who is the divine king is underlined by the words carved in runes on its blade. On one side of the haft it says 'Take me' and on the reverse side 'Cast me away'. Therefore Arthur, at the end of his earthly reign as the Pendragon of Albion, has to return Excalibur, the Sword of Light, to its faery guardian, the Lady of the Lake. This is also a far memor y of the weapons, including swords, deposited as sacrificial offerings to the Old Gods in lakes and rivers during the Bronze and Iron Ages. While it is known for traditional witches to occasionally go 'skyclad' or naked in their rites, sometimes when they are initiated into the Craft, a form of ritual clothing is worn because they commonly work outdoors. This can be either a cloak, usually with a hood, or a thick robe made of natural materials like wool. Lighter, thinner robes made from cotton are used for indoor meets when the weather is bad or for outside rituals in the summer when, hopefully, it will be warmer. Hooded cloaks are sometimes worn over ordinary clothing, especially when there is a danger of being disturbed by cowans (outsiders) during a ritual, as they can be removed quickly. The type of robe
or
gown worn by a traditional witch is based on
the simple design of an Arab kaftan or a monk's habit with a hood. In trance work or meditation the hood covers the head or is placed over the face if required. Normally the robe is plain black, the colour of darkness and night, but some groups may wear brown or grey ones or different dyed ones for the Magister and Magistra, e.g. red and blue or green respectively. Red is the colour of the life-force and the God. Blue is sacred to the divine feminine and green is the predominant colour of the natural world and the faer y folk. White robes are very rarely seen in traditional witch circles as they get dirty far too easily when working or meeting outside! Traditionally robes are not cleaned, but ifit is deemed absolutely necessar y it should be by hand in a fast flowing stream or river and not in a washing machine or tumble dryer.
In a symbolic or magical sense the donning of a robe or cloak separates the wearer from the outside mundane wor ld. As they represent the night, by wearing a black robe or cloak the witch is 'wrapping herself in darkness' and becoming invisible to the outside world She is also identifying herself with the chthonic gods and goddesses of the witch cult, the so-called archetypal 'powers of darkness', especially the ancient primeval goddess known as Nox or Night. Clothing, especially for ritual, is spun and woven, and in the old days it would have been on a spinning w heel, spindle or loom. This connects the magical robe with the aspect of the witch-goddess as the spinner and weaver of fate, destiny or the 35
Liber Nox Web of Wyrd. In the Old Craft this aspect is represented by the biblical Naamah, sister of Tubal-Cain, the Norns, the Fates, Dame Holda, the 'Ihree Sisters, the 'Ihree Mothers or the three Weird (Wyrd) Sisters of Norse, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon mythology. In Shakespeare's Scottish play they are the triad of witches on the blasted heath with their cauldron who predict the fate of the king. In classical mythology one of the three fate goddesses cuts the umbilical cord at birth, the second measures the thread of life and the third cuts the silver cord at death that attaches the spirit to the body. Today the scourge is a witch's working tool that has become more associated with modern Wicca where it is used for ritual purification and gaining 'the Sight' (clairvoyance) . When it is used in traditional witchcraft the scourge is symbolic of the threshing flail and is made from horsehair, leather thongs or by tying a bundle of twigs together. As the 'lightning whip' or 'spirit whip' it is used by some witches to subdue and control lesser spirits or elementals that are summoned to the circle. More rarely and archaically the scourge was used as a tool of discipline. Scottish witches said that the Devil (the presiding human master of the coven) chastised them if they got out of line, misbehaved or broke the rules. The 1 7•h century witch Isobel Gowdie described in her freely given confession that the Devil beat those who lagged behind in the ritual dances with a whip. Hence the popular saying: '"The Devil take the hindmost". Traditional witches often wear ritual necklaces made from coral, amber, jet, ebony, hagstones, 'elf-bolts' (prehistoric flint arrowheads), acorns, semi-precious stones, snake vertebrae, the bones, skulls and claws of birds of prey or the feet of small animal such as moles, mice, rabbits and weasels. Although it is not as commonplace as it is in Wicca, some traditional witches may wear a copper or silver bracelet. !his is engraved with the owner's witch name written in the magical 'Iheban script or the Norse or Germanic runic alphabet, symbols, images or magical sigils of a personal nature or relating to the coven or tradition. Most witch meetings feature the burning of herbs or incense as a sacrificial offering, to purify or consecrate a working place or to provide the medium by which spirits can manifest or materialise in the smoke. High quality incense is also used to create a magical atmosphere and the right state of mind or altered state of consciousness that is conducive to meditation, trance work, spirit ingress or spellcraft. In ancient times as well as in religious ceremonies and magical rites incense was burnt to mask the odour of animal or human sacrifices and to purify the atmosphere during funeral rites and the disposal of the bodies of the
Tools of the Arte dead. Obviously this use of incense is now out-dated and not applicable to modern times where blood sacrifices (apart from sometimes a small quantity of the practitioner's own blood) are no longer practised. Incenses are usually a mixture or compound of essential oils, dried herbs, flowers, plants, resins and gums. Although various commercial blends of incense can be purchased as joss sticks, cones or in grain form, many traditional witches prefer to make and blend their own or buy high quality incense from church suppliers. Censers on chains can be purchased from ecclesiastical shops, and various types of incense burners from New Age shops or those selling ethnic Eastern goods. Alternatively a fireproof bowl half-fi1led with sand or earth can safely burn joss sticks or incense in grain form on small charcoal blocks. lhe type of incense used in the Craft depends on the type of ritual being worked or the seasonal festival that is celebrated. For example, the witch-goddess may like incenses and perfumes based on roses, poppies, lilies, camphor, Balm of Gilead, patchouli or jasmine. lhe witch-god might prefer honeysuckle, musk, pine and sage. For seasonal festivals the summer ones could feature thyme, fennel and geranium, and in winter laurel leaves, vervain and fir. In necromantic rites henbane, yew and myrrh would be burnt. Magical rituals or spells relating to communication and matters of the mind require incense made from mint, cloves, cinnamon or lemon leaves. However, for a money spell it would be borage, sage and lilac. In love magic, magnolia, musk, violet and essence of roses are used. Genera1ly a high quality incense such as frankincense, sandalwood or the Ancient Egyptian kyphi can be employed for general ritual and magical purposes.
37
€RI N G- �H€ CRAP� 4
I
NITIATION or induction is generally defined as the admission into a 'mystery' or a secret society, usually one of a occult (hidden), esoteric (for the few) or religious nature. It is very much a spiritual 'rite of passage' signifying the transition from one stage of life to another or a change in a person's beliefs and outlook on the world. At its most basic level, initiation is symbolic of death and rebirth. !his is graphically illustrated in some indigenous tribal cultures where the candidate crawls on their hands and knees through the open legs of a standing priestess or wise-woman. By this act he is symbolically being reborn as an embryo from the womb of the mother goddess. !his can be compared to the mortal who travels to a burial mound or 'hollow hill' and is initiated by the fairy queen. In Freemasonry and some magical traditions a coffin or tomb may even be used in initiations. When in indigenous cultures a person becomes a shaman he or she falls into an induced trance and may experience being torn limb from limb by a totem or sacred animal such as a bear or wol£ !he body parts are then reassembled to create a new being. While not so dramatic or traumatic, the 'ordeal' during an induction into the witch-cult is similar, for the candidate is tested and has to pass through it to achieve initiation. Failure will lead to rejection at the edge of the circle. In the Craft, initiation is called 'entering the circle' and even by that act the initiate is changed. In the initiation rites performed by Australian aboriginals, a circular ring of earth (similar to an Iron Age earthwork) is regarded as 'sacred ground'. 'lhe candidate steps into this space and symbolically moves from one world to another, one life to another. In simple terms, 'entering the circle' and the rite of initiation marks the progression from cowan, or outsider, to initiate or insider, the accepted member of a closed, exclusive and often quite elitist group. Obviously taking such an important step brings with it responsibilities and duties that are not found in outside society or the candidate's ordinary life. One important question asked of the initiate is what he or she can offer
Entering the Craft or bring to the Craft in the way of personal skills, qualities or abilities. In the past, initiation or induction into the Old Craft could be gained in several ways. Both the confessions given by witches and folklore records indicate it could be obtained by direct contact with a supernatural or Otherworldly figure or spirit. !his was either a male spirit, described as the Man-in-Black, the Dark Man or a 'black man', or a female entity called the 0!1een of Elfhame or Faerie. Not surprisingly, the Man-in-Black was identified by the Church as the Devil and this name was also used by members of the Craft. However, the witches sometimes described him as the 'king of the faeries', a 'shining angel' or an ordinary man dressed in dark clothing with his true diabolical nature indicated by horns, animal legs or hoofs for feet. 'lhe witch hunters who branded followers of the Craft as 'devil worshippers ' were quick to identify any mention of a shining angelic being as the fallen angel Lucifer. In many cases of course, the Devil or 'Man in Black ' was not a supernatural being or demonic manifestation. Instead he was the human leader of the local coven or the controller and supervisor of a group of solitary witches in the area. When the Man in Black turned up at the prospective witch's front door or materialised in her bedroom at night, he would ask her to renounce her Christian baptism and devote herself to his service for the rest of her life. In exchange, he would offer physical and material incentives such as the promise she would not go without money, food and clothes if she did what he asked. 'lhe popular belief was that the witch signed a Faustian pact with the Devil in their own blood and sold him their souls after death in exchange for material wealth and happiness in this lif e. !here are many folk tales of Old Nick being seen by witnesses turning up to claim his prize when the witch or wizard died. 'lhe 1 7'h century Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie said she met the Devil in the form of a dark stranger while walking near the farm where she lived. He spoke to her in a friendly manner and invited her to meet him after dark at the local parish church. Significantly, ·this stood on prehistoric earthworks that were probably the former site of ancient pagan worship. When the farmer's wife kept the rendezvous the Devil initiated her into the witch-cult. He first asked Gowdie to renounce her baptism into the Christian faith and gave her the new witch-name of 'Janet '. 'lhe dark stranger then placed one hand on top of her head and the other on the sole of her left foot. Gowdie promised the Devil that everything that lay between his hands would hence belong to him and be dedicated to his service. Finally he bit her on the shoulder creating the so-called Diablo stigmata or 'Devil's Mark'. 39
Liher Nox When searching suspects, the professional witch-hunters stripped them and examined their naked bodies for this incriminating mark. It was supposed to be a place on the body that was insensitive to pain, and this was tested with a bodkin. Some of these instruments had retractable points that went back into the handle when pressed against the suspected witch's body, so she felt no pain. Of course any wart, birthmark, scar or skin blemish could easily and conveniently be identified as the Devil's Mark. Possibly if the suspect was really a witch it was also in the nature of a ritual tattoo or brand of a spider, toad, or a magical symbol like three dots or a pentagram given at initiation. Some male witchfinders like the notorious Matthew Hopkins in eastern England employed matronly women as 'witch prickers' because men were not supposed or allowed to see the naked flesh of female suspects. Others were not so prudent, and stripping a female suspect and examining her naked body for a 'witch mark> became a popular spectator sport. 'Ihe ritualistic format for entry into the witch-cult seems to have been common in both England and Scotland. Sir George Mackenzie in Laws and Customs ef Scotland (1699) said: ''Ihe Solemnity confessed by all witches, is the putting of one hand to the crown of the Head, and another to the sole of the Foot, renouncing the Baptism in that posture.' 'Ihe English writer on demonology Joseph Glanvil published several i1lustrations of witch rites in his Sadducismus Triumphatus. One depicts an initiation ceremony, and a woman is going through this rite at the hands of a winged and horned demonic figure in an outdoor location. In a talk given to the Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle in December 2003, traditional Essex witch and cunning man Andrew D. Chumbley listed several different ways a person could receive entry or initiation into the Old Craf t. These included the 'passing on' of magical power or 'virtue' and occult knowledge such as spells, charms, recipes, ritual objects or tools, 'words of power' and magical books and texts, often handwritten and handed down from a witch to the initiate. Other methods were sexual induction, birth or adoption into a witch family, and the consumption of a potion brewed from psychoactive plants and fungi that causes visionary experiences or facilitates contact with the spirit world. !his was usually done as part of a nocturnal vigil and was known in the Cochrane witchcraft tradition as the Rite of the Poisoned Chalice. At the end of this test the would-be witch would be questioned about what they had experienced, seen and heard, and if the answers were satisfactory, initiation would follow. !his ritual is similar to the Native American vision quest, shamanic initiations and
·
Entering the Craft
the solitary vigils in churches by knights in medieval chivalric orders and the Arthurian legends. Traditionally the process of initiation into the Old Craft follows a set pattern. It includes a probationary period of teaching and training before formal admission, that is usually a year and a day in length. The actual 'rite of admission' may include the magical purification of the postulant, a vigil or test and ordeal, an oath ofloyalty and confidentiality, the display or gifting of ritual or magical objects and working tools with an explanation of their significance, symbolism and use, and the transmission orally or in writing to the new initiate of myths, philosophy and teachings they must keep secret from outsiders. It is very similar to an initiation or induction into a Masonic lodge or rural secret societies like the Guild of Horsemen and the Miller's Word. In fact traditional witches believe that there was an overlap in the past between all these clandestine and esoteric groups and witchcraft. In the old days when the Craft was exclusively an underground movement facing persecution, members of covens are supposed to have
LiberNox not known the names of their colleagues in the circle, and worn masks to conceal their identities from each other. This seems highly unlikely in rural areas where everybody knew everyone else. Also the initiate was required to swear a bloodcurdling oath binding them to the coven. !his was to prevent them talking about what they saw or heard and revealing the identity of their fellow witches to cowans or outsiders. During the witch-hunts, as in wartime, careless talk did cost lives. In his classic book Mastering Witchcrcift ( 1 970) P aul Huson recommended that those initiates with a Christian background should recite the Lord's Prayer backwards. !his suggestion caused controversy, but Huson justified it as a hangover from the days of persecution to prevent Christian spies infiltrating covens and expose informers. He also said that in a psychological way it deconditioned people who had once held strong Christian beliefs and was an anti-establishment symbol of defiance against the oppression of organised religion and the state. In the witch-trials there are stories of initiates renouncing the Christian religion, God and the Virgin Mary and spitting or trampling on a crucifix, and that may have been for the same purpose rather then deliberate blasphemy. Initiation into modern traditional witchcraft takes several forms depending on the coven or tradition. It may be carried out only at a specific festival such as May Eve or Hallows Eve and be performed before the whole coven or privately between initiator and initiate. 'Ihe candidate will be hoodwinked or blindfolded and bound with cords, and is challenged at the edge of the Circle of Arte. !hey are then questioned about their motives for entry into the Craft. Even at this late stage they may be rejected as "not worthy". Providing the candidate's answers and attitude are considered acceptable and satisfactory they will be invited by their initiator to enter the 'space between the worlds' in the traditional manner by crossing the 'stile' or 'bridge' (a crossed sword and besom laid on the ground). It is interesting that such a procedure of questions and answers or responses was carried out during the ordination in March 2013 of the new Archbishop of Canterbury as he stood outside the cathedral door waiting to be admitted. It was also practised by the Society of the Horseman's Word and the Freemasons. 'Ihe candidate may be purified or 'exorcised' by the elements, represented physically by a candle, incense, a bowl of earth or salt and a flask of water. !hen he or she kneels at the altar or before the stang. The blindfold is removed to symbolise the initiate's transition from the darkness of materialism and ignorance to the light of spirituality and gnosis. 'Ihe first thing the new initiate will see when the blindfold
Entering the Craft is removed is the horned goat, stag or ram's mask either worn by the Magister or Grand Master as the representative of the Devil/Horned God or attached to the stang. When the initiate looks around the circle they will see their new brethren standing silently, robed, hooded and masked. The Magister then asks the initiate to recite an oath of allegiance to the Elder Faith, the coven, its tradition, patron spirits and sometimes its human leaders. If a sword is used in the circle then it may be held at the initiate's throat or pointed at their heart when the oath is taken. This is to ensure it will not be broken on pain of banishment from the coven and the curse of the Goddess on the initiate. Some covens symbolically adopt the ancient ceremonies of knighthood and chivalry from the Arthurian legends and dub or touch the initiate on each shoulder with the flat blade of the Sword of Light. 'Ihey may be asked to take the oath with their hand on the sword or kiss its blade afterwards. In some covens the 'measure' is taken. 'This is done by measuring the body of the candidate with a thread or cord and pricking their thumb to soak it with a drop of their blood. This is then kept and can be magically used against an initiate if she or he is banished from the coven and decides to reveal its secrets. The M agister then 'passes the power' to the initiate using the traditional ritual gesture of one hand placed on the head and one on the foot. Acting as the middle man, he then 'wills' all the power and virtue of the coven into the initiate. 'This provides a psychic and magical link between the new initiate and the patron, guardian and ancestral spirits of the coven, clan or tradition. Some branches of the Traditional Craft have grades of initiation similar to the three Masonic degrees of Entered Apprentice,Journeyman and Master Mason. It is possible that these grades, degrees or stages of initiation were introduced into the Old Craft by members who were Freemasons in the 18'h century. Alternatively they may have been borrowed more recently from modern Wicca. However, whether these grades are used or not, the initiate will begin a period of learning and practice that both instructs them in the Old Ways and Elder Faith and assesses their qualities, skills and abilities and what they can offer the Craft and the coven. In time this may lead to appointment to one of the officer roles in the coven. Eventually, if they so desire and permission is granted by their initiator and parent coven and they have the necessary qualifications and attributes, the initiate may be allowed to 'hive off' and form their own group. As mentioned before, there are other ways of entering the Craft apart from a ritualistic and formal acceptance and initiation into a 43
Liher Nox coven. One of these is the 'Way of the Book' and is accomplished by a formal transmission of a (usually handwritten) magical text or grimoire or a ritual object. !his from of initiation is sometimes used when, for whatever reason, face to face personal contact is not possible, and it includes the forging of a psychic link between teacher and pupil. A similar process is the passing on of spirit guides and familiar spirits and this features in the accounts of witch trials and the folklore about witches and cunning folk. A famous historical example of the latteris that of the Cambridgeshire witch Old Mother Redcap recorded in 1 9 2 8 . Her neighbours told a reporter from 7he Sunday Chronicle newspaper that she became a witch when a mysterious 'black man' knocked at her door. He asked her to sign a 'black book' and in return gave the witch a wooden box. When it was opened it was found to contain five familiars. Shortly afterwards the old woman was seen out walking accompanied by a rat, a cat, a mouse, a toad and a ferret. Apparently the imps or familiars had previously belonged to another witch in the same village who had died recently. Family traditions of witchcraft have already been mentioned and some people are hereditary witches born into the Craft. Everyone has heard the stereotypical 'granny stories' and read grandiose claims about witch traditions surviving intact since the Middle Ages or even Celtic times. For obvious reasons such tales are often lacking in documentary evidence and are hard to prove. Sadly many are sheer fantasy. However, despite this, genuine claimants to a family tradition do exist, although they are very rare nowadays. Outsiders can join such hereditary groups or clans either by marriage or by being ritually adopted into the family tradition. Hereditary witch clans and families should not be confused with the metaphysical Old Craft belief in the 'witch blood' or 'elven blood' passed down spiritually through incarnations into physical bodies. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of entry into the Old Craft is so-called 'self-initiation', or more accurately solitary initiation, outside the coven system. Although it has been said by some modern writers on Wicca that a witch can only be created by another witch, thereby presumably rejecting the existence of hereditary witchcraft, the solitary initiation or self-dedication to the Craft is a valid process. In fact in the old days the majority of witches were solo practitioners, although they might meet up with others in their area for spell making, exchanging charms and herbal recipes and perhaps working magic together, sometimes under the supervision of the local Man in Black. Also today, despite the Internet and various forms of social media and networking such as Facebook and Twitter, most people do not have access to a coven 44
Entering the Craft in their locality or within easy travelling distance. If they want to be followers of the Craft and walk the Old Path then they have to do it alone as solitary practitioners of the Arte. !he term 'self-initiation' is a bit of a misnomer as any form of initiation involves a symbiotic relationship between a human teacher and their pupil, or on a higher level, a spirit and its follower. If the solitary initiation is as the result of a spiritual revelation, spirit contact or gnosis received from a supernatural source, then it is a legitimate form of entry into the Craft. In such circumstances there is no reason why the person involved could not 'pass on the power' and initiate others. !hat is providing they do not make grandiose and fantastical false claims about the historical origin of their tradition or claim to belong to an existing tradition they have not been initiated into. Historically there are several references to solitary initiation. One classic example found in Wales and the West Country involves the would-be witch going to a church service as normal. !hey attend Mass but instead of swallowing the host they transfer it to a handkerchief or a bag. At the end of the service they walk nine times 'against the sun' around the building i.e. in a widdershins, moonwise or anti-clockwise direction. !he host is then fed to a black dog or large toad found sitting by the lych-gate at the magically liminal boundary of the churchyard. !his animal was said to be the Devil in disguise. !he person who did this rite was then declared to have all the powers of a witch or wizard. W hen the creature was a toad it had to be kissed by the would-be witch for the rite to be successful. 'Kissing the toad' is a cryptic or coded reference in traditional witchcraft to the use of the fly agaric fungus with its distinctive red cap and white spots. !his hallucinogenic and poisonous toadstool (!) which is frequently seen in illustrations to fairy tales increases perception and access to the spirit world and for that reason has been used by shamans and witches through the ages. It also features in some initiation rites into the Old Craft. However it should be noted that under current anti-drug legislation its use is illegal. A folklorist called William Dennison described a solitary witch initiation performed in the 1 8 8os on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. At full moon the person went to a remote beach at midnight - to a magically liminal place between earth, sky and sea at a liminal time. She turned three times widdershins before lying down on the sand in the area between the limits of high and low tide. !hen she stretched out her arms and legs (in the shape of a pentagram or five-pointed star) and placed five stones beside them. !hree other stones were placed at her head, on her chest and over her heart, making the mystical number of
Liher Nox seven in all An invocation was recited beginning "O Master King of all that's ill/Come fill me with the warlock's skill/And I shall serve with all me will that made her a witch. After reciting the invocation she threw the seven stones into the waves. Today anyone seeking solo initiation into the Craft should go to some remote secluded spot in the countryside, such as a wood, a hill, an ancient site like a standing stone, megalithic circle or burial mound, or a churchyard built on the site of former pagan worship, where they will not be disturbed. Graveyards built on pagan sites can be recognised as they are usually circular, may be surrounded by prehistoric earthworks and could have a standing stone in their precincts. A church on the road from Cardigan to Devil's Bridge in West Wales actually has a stone circle built into its surrounding churchyard wall. At midnight on a full moon the would-be witch calls on the Lord and Lady, the Horned God and the Goddess. She then places one hand on her own head and one on her left foot and dedicates everything between to the Old Gods and the guardian and ancestral spirits of the Craft and to their service. Offerings of food, a libation of alcohol, fresh flowers and a few drops of the witch's own blood (menstrual or otherwise) are then offered to the spirits. Bread and wine is blessed and eaten as a sacred communion rite or Houzel to bind and end the rite. "
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W
HEN
celebrating the seasonal festivals, contacting the spirits or working magic, the traditional witch usually casts a Circle of Arte. 'Ihe symbol of the circle is an ancient, universal and archetypal one. It represents such important mystical concepts as wholeness, unity, cosmic and spiritual harmony, the totality of existence, the celestial or heavenly realm, the divine, eternity and infinity. The circle is also symbolic of the ritual Wheel of the Year, the seasonal and agricultural cycle, the power of Fate (hence the Wheel of Fortune card in the Tarot) and the progression from birth to death and rebirth that ends with the attainment of the vision of the Grail. '!he circle with a point in the centre is a sign of the union between humankind and the Godhead, the ultimate goal of the spiritual journey or Grail Q.µest. An equal-armed cross enclosed in a circle used in traditional witchcraft symbolises the sun and the four elements of fire, earth, air and water. The circle can also be a symbol of equality, and one example of this is the Round Table in Arthurian legend where the knights who sat around it each held an equal position in the chivalric fellowship associated with it. In June 20 r 3 the results of a study by Canadian academics published in the journal ef Consumer Research suggested that the use of a round table or a circle in classrooms, restaurants and business meetings prevents conflict and arguments. Sitting in a circle also created positive feelings of belonging to a group and made the participants less aggressive and therefore more like to co-operate with each other. One possible origin for the concept of the Round Table in Arthurian legend is that when the ancient druids met for discussions or ceremonies they sat in a circle. In the r 8th and 1 9th century, antiquarians mistakenly believed that the megalithic circles and standing stones were druidic monuments. '!here is an echo of this in the Arthurian legends where Stonehenge, called the 'Giants' Dance' because it was supposed to have been erected by a race of giants, is said to have been magically transported by Merlin from Ireland to Salisbury Plain. In fact this may 47
Liher Nox be a folk memory of the journey taken by the famous bluestones at Stonehenge from a quarry in the Preseli hills of West Wales, an area in prehistoric times that had a close connection with Ireland. 'Therefore the Arthurian Round Table may also be symbolic of a prehistoric stone circle and their use as communal meeting places. While we now know the druids had nothing to do with the ancient monuments built by the megalithic cultures, although they may have used them ritually and magically, an idea put forward by archaeologists about a form of proto-druidism first surfaced in the public domain in 7he Independent newspaper in June 1 9 8 8 . 'They suggested that there may have been a continuity of religious belief and practice that dates back at least 7000 years. While it is not suggested there was any kind of survival, this pre-Celtic proto-druidic cultus had a number of key elements that can also be found in historical and traditional witchcraft. 1hey include the worship of underworld deities associated with water, sacrificial offerings, the sacred symbolism of weapons, the use of circles and spirals in religious art, astronomical, astrological and calendar observations as part of a seasonal cycle of ceremonies and festivals, the sanctity of fire, the worship of trees and stones, and the magical significance of the number three and its multiples. 'The late Dr Anne Ross also divided the Celtic deities from the Iron Age into categories that correspond to traditional witchcraft, with a horned god personified in bestial form as a stag, ram or bull and sub-categories for the cult of the sacred head and totemic birds and animals. It should also be noted that the different tribes of the Celts also worshipped their own local gods or genii loci, the 'spirits of place' and the land. 'This was a religious practice that continued during the Roman occupation of Britain. It also survived into Anglo-Saxon times when such pagan survivals were condemned by the Christian Church and banned in the same royal laws that prohibited the practice of witchcraft. One of the earliest physical manifestations of the circle symbol, as we have seen, are in prehistoric times with the henges or earthworks, stone circles and round burial mounds scattered across the British Isles and Europe and also found in other parts of the world. Various places in the countryside have always been regarded as contact points, gateways, doorways or portals where the 'veil is thin' and contact or access can be gained to the Otherworld. Many of these are liminal places such as parish (formerly tribal) boundaries, hedgerows (especially where oak, ash and thorn grow together), fords, streams, rivers, lakes, fens, bogs or marshes, and the seashore where water, earth and sky meet; woods and forests adjacent to moors and fields, burial mounds and churchyards, and
Casting the Circle crossroads where leys or spirit paths cross and meet. All these natural places reflect the concept and purpose of the magical circle for spanning or linking the worlds, and are used by modern traditional witches as meeting places for seasonal festivals and magical working sites. Magical circles were used thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia by exorcist-magicians in anti-witchcraft rituals for both protection and retaining magical power within an enclosed space or area. Information on this practice has been found inscribed on clay tablets featuring magical texts. In classical times the Roman writer and historian Pliny described how circles were carved on the ground around plants when gathering them for magical purposes. A dagger or sword was used to make the circle, although the tusk of a wild boar, a deer's antler or the horn of a ram or bull could also be employed. In the medieval grimoire tradition, salt, charcoal, chalk and wood ash were used to physically mark out the circle on the earth. Today flour is sometimes used. After it had been cast or drawn, the magical circle was purified or consecrated with a mixture of holy water and herbs. Although it has been claimed that the magical circle has been borrowed by modern witches from ceremonial magic, it has always been used in folk magic and there are many old illustrations of witches standing or working in circles drawn on the ground and summoning spirits. One famous illustration was published in Rochard Bovet's Pandaemonium or the Devil's Cloyster ( 1 6 84). It depicts an elderly witch wearing a hooded robe and holding a lighted candle and a wand. She is standing inside a small double circle on the ground inscribed with planetary symbols and zodiac signs. In 1 6 1 5 a Cambridgeshire witch was asked at her trial if she had ever "made a circle by charm or enchantment". At Horseheath in the same county it was said witches drew a circle on the ground with chalk. lhey then recited the Lord's Prayer backwards and summoned the Devil to appear and he manifested in the shape of a black cockerel or a mouse, rat or toad. lhe purpose of the Circle of Arte has been described as creating a boundary to enclose the practitioner and protect them from outside, mundane, negative or harmful influences, and hostile presences that might disturb or disrupt their activities. In that respect it can symbolically be seen as a fortress or castle and is sometimes metaphorically referred to in traditional witchcraft by those terms. Its other use is to concentrate, focus and contain any psychic energy or magical power raised within it. Medieval woodcuts depict magicians and witches standing within a small circle drawn on the ground while evoking spirits or demons that appear inside a triangle outside it. 49
Liher Nox Andrew D. Chumbley has said of the Circle of Arte that when you stand within it, 'cast true about you like the horizon itself ', your presence preserves the lineage and tradition of the witch-blood, i.e. those who have gone before in the Craft and those incarnated today who are their magical and spiritual successors. In this way, those who belong to the Craft in modern times are tracing or retracing in the circle the footsteps of their ancestors and ancestral spirits. Chumbley added that this links the circle and the ritual practices in it to a tradition that is native to the land upon which you stand. 'Ihis, he says, is because the power is drawn directly from the earth where the witch performs her rites. 'lhe circle is the gateway that opens between this world and the spirit realm and allows contact with the Otherworld and the power within the land (2010:5 l). As Florence Farr, one of the prominent members of the late l9'h century Order of the Golden Dawn said about the magical circle: ''A circle is nothing to the profane, but to the initiate it is All. When we step into the circle we step into a void and we create everything and our true self within it." 'lherefore in traditional witchcraft the primary purpose for casting a circle is to create a liminal 'space between the worlds' where contact can be more easily made between the witch and the Other. It is an artificial gateway or portal between the spiritual realm and the physical plane and a specially designated place of spirit access and ingress. 'Ihis is represented by the 'point within the circle', for above its centre is the Pole Star in the night sky. 'lhe cauldron and fire are placed symbolically in the exact centre of the circle and the presence of the stang fixed in the ground links the microcosm and the macrocosm; the earth and the sky, the heavens and the underworld, time and space. As the famous Hermetic axiom says: 'As Above, So Below'. W hen the circle is cast it has to be realised that it is not one dimensional. In fact it can be visualised as a sphere that extends equally below the flat circle drawn on the ground and above it. 'lherefore, symbolically and psychically and physically, the Circle of Arte exists in and links three places in a liminal way: the land, the sky and the underground. Like the stang, it connects Middle Earth or the Middle World with the Upper World (Heaven) and the Lower World or realm of the dead. 'Ihree worlds are temporarily connected as one by the casting of the magical circle, and the link is broken when it is closed down at the end of a ritual. In medieval magic, the four quarters of the circle and the compass points were believed to be ruled by demon kings and their attendant spirits. In the more sophisticated type of ceremonial magic practised 50
Casting the Circle by the Golden Dawn, the four quarters were assigned to angelic beings and elemental powers or guardians representing the spiritual essence of fire, earth, air and water. In ancient Zoroasterism it was believed that the four quarters of the heavens were guarded and watched over by spirits called 'watchers'. In the stellar cult of Mesopotamia there were four 'royal' stars known as 'the Lords' or 'Watchers' representing the four quarters of the sky, the four cardinal compass points and the seasons. 'lhese royal stars were Aldebaran in the east ruling the vernal equinox, Antares in the west ruling the autumn equinox, Formahout in the north ruling the winter solstice, and Regulus, the south and the summer solstice. Later in ancient Greece the 'Watchers' became associated with the four winds coming from the compass points and their attendant spirits. 'lhe early Roman Church only recognised four archangels: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel, and they were named as 'Watchers'. These angelic beings entered the Western magical tradition as the rulers of the four compass points of the circle or Watchtowers and their elemental attributes. In Italian witchcraft the Watchers are also the name for the guardians and protectors of the ritual circle. Each one oversees a 'watchtower' or fort and they are doorkeepers or gatekeepers to the realm of the Old Gods. It is commonly believed that the Italian witch-cult originated in the pagan beliefs and practices of the ancient Etruscans in northern Italy. 'lhe Romans adopted many of their beliefs including the fares or household and land spirits. Ovid referred to them as the 'night watchmen' and said they were worshipped by placing small towers before the house altar. '!here were also shrines to these spirits in their outdoor form at crossroads. At the annual festival in honour of the fares, the roads were left open in all four directions to allow them to pass freely. In some forms of modern traditional witchcraft the Watchers feature as the group of angels who watched over humanity and they were known as 'the Shepherds'. In Genesis and the apocryphal Book of Enoch the Watchers took their role a stage further. As mentioned earlier, rebelling against Yahweh they incarnated on Earth in physical form and married the 'daughters of men' or human women to whom they taught the arts and crafts of civilisation, divination and magic. As a result of this illicit union the 'witch blood' or 'elven blood' of a hybrid half-angelic, half-human race of powerful magicians was born. 'lhey were called the Nephilim and are described in the Bible as giant in stature and 'mighty men which were of old, men of renown' (Genesis 6: 1 -4). Paul Huson refers to them as the so-called 'demonic hierarchy' that modern traditional witches have contact with at times. ·
Liher Nox He also refers to the Watchers in archetypal form as the parents of the human race, whether represented as masters of wisdom and love or as benevolent powers of fertility and hunting, and the witch's true deities. Robert Cochrane expressed it in a similar way when he said that in the past the Gods helped humanity, and from this union between the mortal and divine came forth the art of magic. In practical terms the Circle of Arte is delineated on the ground by using the ritual knife or sword to mark its circumference. 1he knife is tied to a length of string, cord or rope that is attached to the stang placed in the middle of the designated circle. In the Cochrane tradition a shallow circular furrow or ditch is dug around the outside of the circle and filled with wood ash, water, vinegar and salt. 1his represents the River Lethe or Styx dividing the physical plane from the spirit world. It also relates to prehistoric earthworks or hill forts that are known in Irish folklore as 'faery raths' and to the concept of the 'hollow hills'. Some witches place small stones around the edge of the Circle of Arte at each quarter or compass point to resemble or replicate a megalithic circle. Banners painted with images, sigils or symbols of the patron or guardian spirits or totem animals of the coven, clan, grove or tradition can also be placed around the circle. If working indoors, the magical circle can be drawn on the uncarpeted floor in chalk or traced with flour. Alternatively, borrowing a practice from magical lodges, a permanent circle can be painted on the floor and after use covered with a carpet or rug. If this is not possible, a circle can be drawn or painted on a square plain piece of carpet, cloth, canvas or lino. After use this is rolled up and stored away until next time. 1he Circle of Arte is usually cast deosil, sunways or clockwise, and closed down in a widdershins or moonways direction. Naturally the Church claimed that witches performed their rituals in a widdershins or anti-clockwise direction because it was a demonic and perverted version of the standard practice of moving clockwise around a sacred building or holy place. Interestingly, considering the astrological, astronomical and cosmological symbolism of the Circle of Arte, in his Primitive Traditional History ( 1 907) J.F. Hewitt claimed that in ancient times moving ritually in an anti-clockwise direction represented the circuit of the constellation of Ursa Major or the Great Bear and the other stars around Polaris or the Pole Star, which as we have seen has an esoteric significance to the traditional witch. In ceremonial magic and modern Wicca the four cardinal points of the compass in the magical circle are assigned to the elements and their ruling powers - air in the east, fire in the south, water in the west, and
Casting the Circle
earth in the north. In the Old Craft in Britain, fire is in the east (the direction of the rising sun), earth in the south (the tropics of Africa), water in the west (the Atlantic Ocean) and air in the north (the polar regions and Arctic circle). In the P ickingill Craft and the Cochrane tradition the four compass points are visualised as being marked with four castles associated with the elements and the four bestial aspects of the god of the witches. Robert Cochrane took this concept ofcastles from our native British mythology, while in the Pickingill Craft, named after the r 9rh century Essex cunning man and witch-master George Pickingill, they are associated with air, fire, earth and water and the traditional aspects of the Horned God as a stag, ram, bull and goat. In Cochrane's symbolism the male rulers of the quarters are four 'kings' i.e. the Divine Child or 53
Liber Nox Lord of Light (Lucifer) in the east, the Lord of Animals in the south, a sea god in the west compared to the Celtic deity Nodens and King Arthur, and the Lord of the Mound in the north who is identified with Cain as the 'man in the moon'. They are complimented at each compass point by the Qlieens or goddesses. !he centre of the Circle of the Arte is usually marked by the fire and the cauldron while the altar or stang stands in the north. Outdoors this altar could be a tree stump or a flat stone. Indoors it may be a small table or a wooden chest in which the working tools can be stored when not in use. On the altar are candlesticks, an incense burner, the witch's working tools, images of the Lord and Lady and anything else required for the rituals. !he circumference of the circle has candles made of beeswax at each of the quarters or compass points, placed in lanterns if working outdoors or in candlesticks indoors.
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CAN E>L€1"AS seasonal festival is celebrated by the Christian Church on February znd as Candlemas or the 'mass of candles' and is also known as the Feast of Lights. Originally it marked the ritual purification in the temple at Jerusalem of the Virgin Mary after the birth of Jesus, a ceremony carried out by all Jewish women. Its popular name comes from the medieval ecclesiastical custom of blessing the new candles used in church. They were placed on the high altar on this day and the priest said a special Mass over them. This Christian ceremony possibly had its origins in the ancient rituals of lighting candles and torches at this time to symbolise the returning sun. It was also to welcome the goddess back from the underworld and greet the first signs of nature's rebirth as winter came to an end. One of the early popes banned this pagan festival and instructed all good Christians to go to church instead and light a candle in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Candlemas derived its Irish Gaelic name lmbolg or lmbolc, 'ewe's milk', from the first milking of the sheep when lambs were born. This was a sign that winter was nearly over and the appearance of new life in the barren fields heralded the promise of spring. Despite this belief: some of the coldest weather is recorded after the beginning of February. As the old saying goes: "As the light gets longer, the cold gets stronger. " In the agricultural calendar Candlemas was important because the weather on that day was an omen of the coming season. If the day dawned bright, clear and dry, and stayed that way, then more cold weather would follow before springtime. A dull and wet day was supposed to mean an early and warm spring. In pagan Ireland and Scotland the festival known as Brigid's Day was sacred to the goddess of the sun and light, Brigid, known as the 'Bringer of Fire', 'Great One', 'Fiery Arrow' and the 'Bright One'. She was the patron of healing, prophecy, poetry, childbirth, marriage, arts and crafts, and smithing. With the arrival in Ireland of missionaries HIS
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Liher Nox such as St Patrick, the goddess was Christianised as St Bridget or St Bride, pronounced Breed, and became known as the Mother Saint of Ireland. Her father was a prince (most Celtic Christian saints were of noble or royal birth) and her mother a commoner, a maid in royal service when he fell in love with her. In popular tradition St Bridget was the midwife to the Virgin Mary and the wet nurse to the baby Jesus. She was popularly known as the 'Bride of the Golden Hair' and the 'Bride of the White Hills'. The pagan goddess Brigid was a deity invoked for protection and help in childbirth and her new saintly role in relation to Jesus provided a powerful link between the old pagan religion in Ireland and Celtic Christianity. According to legend, St Bridget was born at sunrise 'neither within the house or without it'. In fact her mother gave birth to her straddling the threshold with one foot inside the house and one outside it. This strange birth is a strong indicator that the saint was originally a pre Christian figure and a goddess ruling over the liminal 'inbetween', the symbolic and sometimes actual boundary between this world and the Otherworld. 'This is also shown by her festival being on Imbolc and marking the seasonal transition between winter and spring. It is also why the saint was invoked as a protector of houses and their inhabitants. As a young woman, St Bride or Bridget worked as a milkmaid before taking holy orders, becoming a nun and founding a famous religious community at Kildare. The site had already been used for druidic worship, and in Gaelic was known as Kildara or 'the place of the oak. This tree was sacred to the druids and when Bridget laid the foundations of her abbey it was on the site of a great oak venerated by the local tribal people. In another echo of pagan sun worship, the shrine of St Bridget at Kildare had a perpetual fire tended by nine nuns who were under strict orders not to let it go out. It was only finally extinguished in the 1 5 oos when King Henry VIII of England closed down the Irish monasteries and ordered their demolition. St Bridget also is supposed to have travelled to Glastonbury - the Arthurian Avalon - and a pre-Christian healing well there is named after her. Before Glastonbury Abbey was destroyed in the Reformation it was said that several of the saint 's relics were held there. The site of the spring at Beckery just outside the town is called Bride's Mound and there are views across the surrounding landscape to Glastonbury Tor and Wearyall Hill. 'The area was once known as Beckery Island and when the surrounding land was submerged by water it was the western gateway to the Tor. It is now an environmental conservation area and
Candlemas home to a variety of wildlife including deer, hares, barn owls and bats. Archaeologists have also unearthed the physical remains of a small chapel and cemetery dating from Anglo-Saxon times that survived until the Reformation. 1he primary magical sigil of the goddess Brigid and her saintly counterpart was the sun wheel or fire wheel. 1his sacred symbol was known in Celtic art as the triskele and for thousands of years in the Far East it was a sign of good luck and fortune. However if not in its deosil form it represented death and destruction. It was in this negative form that it was adopted by the German National Socialist Party or Nazis in the 1 9 20s as the reversed swastika. 1he Celtic Christian version of the sun wheel was known as St Bridget's Cross and was made from straw plaited in the form of a central square, diamond or lozenge shape with four arms extending from it at right angles. Irish peasants placed it above the doors of their cottages, farmhouses, stables and cow sheds at Candlemas to ward off evil influences and attract good luck and fertility. 1he cross was also hung on a blue ribbon, the sacred colour of the goddess, above the cradles of new-born babies. 1his was to stop them being stolen by the Gentry or Good People and replaced with a faery changeling. In the Scottish Highlands and Islands, as the midwife to the Virgin Mary, St Bride was a legendary figure. Women in labour prayed to the saint, calling on her for relief from the pain of childbirth, a safe delivery and no miscarriages. On Candlemas Day a young woman who had not given birth yet, and wanted a baby, made a female image from a sheaf of wheat from the previous harvest. 1his was then decorated with shells, snowdrops and jewellery. A quartz crystal was placed over the heart of the effigy to represent the Star of Bethlehem that led St Bridget, like the 1hree Magi later, to the stable or cave where Mary was waiting to give birth to the Christ or 'anointed one'. 1his image was known as the 'Bride's Doll' and was carried in procession from house to house accompanied by the chant: "Bride is come! Bride is come! Bride is in the bed!" At every stop each family made an offering of a flower or shell that was added to the image. Finally a small bed or cradle was made for the Bride Doll and she was placed in it. By her side was laid a wand made of the 'feminine' woods of birch or willow. Incense or dried herbs were burnt on the hearth and next morning the ashes were carefully examined for the footprints of the saint. If there was no sign it was seen as a bad omen and more incense would be burnt as an offering to gain the saint/goddess' protection for the house and its inhabitants. 59
Liher Nox Brigid has an important position in some forms of modern Traditional Craft as one of the bright aspects of the witch-goddess. Her associations are with poetry, prophecy, healing, smithcraf t, fire and strangely also warfare. Some writers link her with the Iron Age goddess Brigantia worshipped in northern Britain, or with the Roman goddess of wisdom Minerva. Brigid represents the spiralling 'dragon power' or earth energy detected at standing stones by dowsers that is believed to pass along the spirit paths, ghost roads or leys between natural power centres. At Candlemas it is said that "the serpent comes out of the mound" for the first time after winter and it is supposed to be when adders wake from their hibernation. In an esoteric sense this belief refers to the re-awakening of the winged serpent or dragon force (earth energy) af ter the dark season. ''Ihe mound' is a reference to prehistoric burial places that were believed to mark an entrance to the underworld. In Christian times many of the sacred springs from the pagan period were rededicated to St Bridget or Bride as holy wells and used for healing. In folklore there are many tales of ghostly 'White Ladies' haunting holy wells and 'witches' or wise-women acting as their guardians or priestesses offering healing and divination to local people and wayfarers. To traditional witches who revere Brigid her gifts of healing and prophecy can be gained by her followers if they visit these wells and tap into the leys and ancient power centres at certain times of the year. In bygone days Candlemas was known as 'the quickening of the year' or 'the budding'. 'Ihis referred to the first flowering of snowdrops as an early sign of the spring. Today, with climate change, if by any chance there is unseasonably mild weather this flower is more likely to appear in late December or early January. Although the snowdrop was not introduced to Britain until the r 6'h century it soon became associated with St Bridget and Candlemas. 'Ihis is indicated by its popular names of 'Fair Maid of February' and 'Candlemas Bells'. It was also linked to the Virgin Mary and called 'the flower of purification'. However, it was considered very unlucky to bring snowdrops into the house. 'Ihis was because the milk from the cows would become thin and the butter turn out colourless. A Scottish legend links Brigid or Bride with the Irish and Scottish pagan goddess of winter called the Cailleach, sometimes known as the Old Woman or the Veiled One. 'Ihe Cailleach was the guardian spirit of rivers, springs, hills and mountains, the contro1ler of the weather and the protector of the great herds of deer and giant elk that roamed the Highland glens in the Ice Age. She also ruled over boars, mountain 60
Candlemas goats, wild cattle and wolves. In Celtic times she was supposed to reign over the winter months from Samhain or November I sr to Candlemas, or sometimes from the autumn equinox to the spring equinox. 1he Cailleach appeared as an ancient hunchbacked crone with weatherbeaten and wrinkled blue skin, large fangs resembling boar's tusks and with one eye in the middle of her forehead like a Cyclops. 1his hideous and repulsive old hag was seen walking on the seashore, on the crags of mountains and by holy wells. She could also appear in the shape of a seagull, cormorant, eagle or heron. As a winter goddess she had a bad attitude, a wild nature like the storms and a vicious temper. If angered she would roam the countryside blasting the vegetation with her magic wand so it wilted, stripping the leaves from the trees and raising thunderstorms. Traditionally the Cailleach was supposed to live in a cave on top of Scotland's highest mountain B en Nevis. At Samhain the old hag goddess of winter washed her black plaid skirt in a stream until it turned white. 1his magical act was supposed to bring the first snowfall. Although the Cailleach was said to end her wintry reign on Candlemas Day by turning into a standing stone, she was always reluctant to give up her power every year. In fact she often did not return to her underworld realm until March 2 5 •h. 1his was (Our) Lady's Day, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and known by the Scots as the Auld (Old) W ife's Day in honour of the Cailleach, when there could still be snow on the ground. In fact in the Highlands there can be snow as late as Beltane at the beginning of May. According to one legend, in the spring the Cailleach attempted to extend her reign by kidnapping Brigid and holding her captive on the Scottish mountain Ben Nevis. As in all the best fairy tales the imprisoned maiden was rescued by a handsome young man riding a white horse. In Brigid's case this was her brother Aengus, the sun god who lived in Summerland, a lush and green island in the western sea. As its name suggests it was an enchanted place of constant sunshine inhabited by young and beautiful people. In fact it was T ir-na-nO g or the Land of the Ever Young, the Celtic paradise. Aengus saw Brigid's plight in a dream, rode to her rescue, killed or at least defeated the evil Cailleach and set the bright goddess free. All this allegedly took place on Brigid's Day, lmbolg or Candlemas. Another legend explaining the transition from winter to spring suggests a more symbiotic relationship bet ween the young pagan goddess and her elderly kidnapper. Brigid and the Cailleach appear in this version to be bright and dark aspects of the same deity like the
Liher Nox witch-goddess. On lmbolg Eve the Cailleach travelled to the Land of the Ever Young. In its deep woods she went to the Well of Youth at the liminal time of dawn and drank from the clear water bubbling up from a fractured rock. Instantly the old hag was transformed into a beautiful young woman, the Q1een of Summer. At the same time her black blasting rod turned into a white healing wand. The transformed Cailleach returned to Middle Earth and at the touch of her new wand the grass began to grow, the first spring flowers burst into bloom and leaves appear on the trees. 'lhis story reflects the twin or dual aspects of the Goddess, the bright and the dark, and the transition between their power over nature and the land as the season slowly passes from winter to spring. In Celtic myths the story is also found of a warrior or knight who meets an old woman. She usually asks for a kiss or even asks him to marry her. His initial reaction is repulsion, but because he follows the code of chivalry that includes respect for all women, the knight kisses or agrees to wed her. If the knight complies, the hag turns into a beautiful woman who offers him the keys to the kingdom. In patriarchal times this process was reversed as it was the princess who had to kiss a frog or toad and then he turned into a prince. An example of this story is the Irish legend of a young warrior called Niall and his two brothers, who met a hideous old crone at a sacred spring while out hunting on a hot summer's day. 'lhe hag demands a kiss from the thirsty men in exchange for a cup of cold water from the well. Niall's two brothers refuse, but not only does he kiss the old woman but also makes love to her. 'lhe guardian of the well then turns into the most beautiful woman Niall has ever seen in his life. She informs the warrior he has acted wisely, as she reveals herself to be Eriu, the goddess of Ireland. When they marry he becomes High King of lreland because she is the Land which all rulers must serve. It has been suggested that the sheela-na-gigs, crude stone carvings of an old woman exposing her genitalia found on medieval churches, may represent this hag goddess. St Columba was descended from Niall and the royal family of the High Kings, and sheela-na-gigs are often found on buildings associated with the saint and his disciples. In Irish folk tradition these carvings are actually called 'the hag by the well', 'the hag of the castle' and 'the witch on the wall'. Sovereignty, the goddess of the land, who is often associated with death and sexuality, sterility and fertility, marries or mates with the sacred or divine king. He has solar and underworld attributes and is paradoxically both her son and lover. When he suffers a ritual death
Candlemas and is sacrificed at her hands the king becomes the 'Son of the Veiled One or Widow'. 'Ibis was a term used to describe male initiates of the ancient pagan Mysteries and was adopted by the medieval guilds of stonemasons, who built the Gothic cathedrals and churches, and the later lodges of Speculative Freemasonry. In modern traditional witchcraft:, Candlemas is the Festival of the Waxing Light or the Quickening of the Year and a time for purification and initiation. In both a material and spiritual way it is a period for 'spring cleaning'. There is the hope of new beginnings as the weather slowly improves, the sun rises earlier and earlier in the morning and the waxing light returns with the gradually lengthening days towards the spring equinox. The Old Year is finally exorcised, and some traditional witches mark this by performing a banishing ritual to get rid of unwanted influences and psychically cleansing the covenstead or working site. Candlemas is also traditionally the time for the last outing of the Wild Hunt before it returns again at All Hallows. If the weather is kind enough and the festival is celebrated outdoors, then after the ritual has ended and the circle has been closed, the coven will leave the site to blasts from a hunting horn, making loud noises imitating the Hunt in full cry as it rides abroad harvesting or gathering up the souls of the departed.
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the Christian calendar Lady Day is known as the Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary and is celebrated on March 2 5 'h . It marks the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and give birth to Jesus, the son of God. Until 1 75 2, when the new Gregorian calendar was introduced, Lady Day was known as 'New Year's Day'. 1his is why today if the 1 1 days 'lost' in the calendar changeover are taken into account the tax year ends on April h 5 ' . Lady Day is also one of the quarter-days in the agricultural calendar, coming half-way between Candlemas and May Day. In classical Rome the month of March also marked the beginning of a new year and agricultural cycle at the vernal equinox. As its name suggests, the month was sacred to Mars, an ancient deity of agriculture before he became associated with war. In the spring the god was invoked to avert storms, protect livestock from disease, increase the fertility of the crops, herds and flocks, and look after the welfare of farmers and their families. 1he twelve priests of Mars were known as the Salli or Leapers and they dressed as warriors with pointed caps and carrying short swords and shields. At the equinox they danced in the fields, leaping high up in the air waving their swords aloft to stimulate the growth of the crops. At least from medieval times, New Year's Day was celebrated as it is today, on January 1 ", and was part of the Twelve Days of Yule or Christmas. As Lady Day fell between the periods of ploughing and harvesting it would have been logical for our ancestors to start the new agricultural year at the spring or vernal equinox, which in the northern hemisphere is around March 2orh!z 1 " . Lady Day was also when tenant farmers signed their new annual contracts with the landowners. 1here is no date given in the Bible for the announcement by Gabriel to Mary. 1herefore it can be presumed that Lady Day was probably the Christianisation of a pagan celebration of the vernal equinox around this period.
Lady Day According to the British Meteorological Office that forecasts the weather, March r sr is the first day of spring. In many rural communities and among farming folk the season actually does not begin until the vernal equinox. The spring and autumn equinoxes (equal nights) are the two days of the year when the hours of day and night are supposed to be of equal length. It marks the date when the sun, as viewed from Earth, appears to cross the equator and head northwards. In astronomy it is when the sun crosses the celestial equator, which is an imaginary projection of the physical one into outer space and the constellation of Pisces. Two thousand years ago the event occurred in the constellation of Aries the Ram. On the spring equinox the sun also rises in the sky at dawn due east and sets due west in the evening. This marks a period of ' the year when the hours of daylight start to get longer and the weather gradually warmer as the sun rises in the sky. 'The marking or celebration of the spring equinox seems to have been an important event to ancient people. For instance, archaeologists and astronomers examining the lunar and stellar alignments at the prehistoric circle of Stonehenge in Wiltshire believe that one of its purposes was to mark the dates of the two equinoxes. Other ancient sites worldwide that have alignments to the sunrise on the spring equinox are a Neolithic burial chamber at Knowth in southern Ireland, King Arthur's Seat outside Edinburgh in Scotland, the Great Sphinx at Giza in Egypt, the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, the Chichen Hza pyramid in Mexico, and the T ikal temple in Guatemala. The ancient people who built these sites all over the world recognized that from a spiritual perspective this time of the year was very important. In mythological terms the spring equinox was interpreted as a time when there was a final struggle between the forces oflight, represented by the rising sun, and the fading powers of darkness, the chthonic spirits associated with the winter. When the equinox had passed, people living in the Scottish Highlands said that the Cailleach or hag goddess had finally lost her battle to keep the new growing season at bay. In fact they called Lady Day in Gaelic Latha na Cai/leach or Old Woman's Day. Magically it was a liminal or in-between time and in medieval Sweden it was said that witches 'rode the fence' dressed in a 'troll skin' (mask or ritual costume) 'at the time when day and night are equal.' 'The fence or hedge is the symbolic boundary between Middle Earth and the Otherworld and therefore witches were called 'hedge-riders' because they had the ability to cross from one dimension to another. The equinox is a period when day and night are equal, yet in spring the dark half of the year prepares to give way to the light half of the
Liher Nox year. Today in Britain this is marked in a mundane way by the putting forward of the clocks to British Summer T ime (BST ) on the last weekend in March. In this respect it is a period of balance or equality between warring natural powers represented as dark and bright twins. '1he preceding winter has been ruled over by darkness, death and stagnation. On Lady Day or the spring equinox the first signs of leaves coming into bud on the trees and early flowers like snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils blooming heralds the coming summer. In the Christian calendar, Lady Day is when the Mother of God is impregnated with the Holy Spirit, and nine months later at Christmas or the winter solstice she gives birth to the Lord of Light. '1he vernal equinox is also important because it is the date that the Roman and Protestant Churches use to calculate the moveable festival of Easter, marking the death and resurrection of the Christ. Easter Sunday is designated as the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the spring equinox. '1herefore it can fall any time between March 2 2°d and April 2 5 'h. '1his method of dating Easter was established by the Council of Nicea in 3 2 5 CE and would appear to be an attempt by the Early Church to take over the old pagan rites of spring. Although opinions differ as to the actual origin of the name 'Easter', an 8'h centuryclergyman called the Venerable Bede linked it to Germanic paganism. He claimed that around the time of the spring equinox the pagan Anglo-Saxons in England celebrated a festival dedicated to a goddess called Eostre, who later gave her name to Easter. However it is claimed there is no real evidence that this derivation is historically correct. This information was contained in Bede's book Temporum Ratione or 7he Reckoning efTime, which discussed lunar and solar cycles as the basis for calculating calendars and listed the names the Anglo Saxons gave for their months (moons). The name 'Eostre' is said to derive from 'eos' meaning either 'shining' or 'east' and it may be the archaic name for a solar goddess associated with the sunrise. In his monumental work Teutonic Mythology, the folklorist Jacob Grimm also mentioned a Germanic goddess called Ostara or Eostre who represents the growing light of spring and the waxing powers of the sun. Grimm described special plays performed in Germany around Easter featuring a mock battle bet ween human representatives of winter and summer and accompanied by a sword dance. '1he association between Easter and a possible Germanic or Saxon solar goddess may survive in a British folk tradition that is still carried on today. Traditionally it was believed that at dawn on Easter Sunday 66
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the rising sun can be seen to 'dance with joy', and traditionally people gathered in anticipation of seeing this event. It is supposed to be a reaction to the news that Christ has risen from the tomb. Grimm mentions that on this day girls and young women went out as the sun rose to wash their faces in the morning dew or the water from holy wells and sacred springs. 'Ihis folk magical practice to preserve their youthful looks, which is also associated with the sunrise on May Day, is supposed to have originated with pagan rites to honour the dawn goddess Eostre. Rising early at Easter to greet the sun, whether it dances in the sky or not, is still regarded as bringing good luck to those who actually make the effort to do it. Some modern traditional witches call the full moon that falls in March the Hare Moon. This may be the reason why the goddess Eostre, has become associated with that particular animal. '!here is also the common phrase "As mad as a March Hare" referring to its mating habits
Liher Nox in spring when the males fight a duel over the females that involves boxing with their paws. '1he hare was widely regarded as a powerful and potent fertility symbol because the female can conceive again while already pregnant. It is also, as we have seen, one of the sacred animals of the traditional witch-goddess. Before it was recently banned, hare coursing or hunting hares was a popular pastime carried out on either Good Friday or Easter Monday. Many country folk, however, were very superstitious about hunting the animal as they believed it brought bad luck and misfortune to kill one. '1his fear may be connected with the popular belief that witches disguised themselves as hares or had the animal as their familiars. '1here are many accounts in folklore of a hunter shooting and wounding an unusually large hare. When he follows the blood trail to finish the job it leads to the cottage of a local woman reputed to be a witch. When the huntsman enters the house he finds its human occupant either badly wounded or actually dying from a gunshot. '1his story is found all over the British Isles, and in the 1 7'h century was even exported to the new American colonies. Originally, the hunting of hares was to obtain the eggs it was believed to lay, and this may be the basis for the modern chocolate Easter Egg hunt. The Easter Bunny who brings the eggs to good children who have behaved themselves may be the present-day equivalent of the hare. '1his custom is first recorded in writing in 1 7'h century Germany and it is a hare, not a rabbit, that brings the eggs. '1he concept of the Easter Bunny crossed the Atlantic to America in the 1 grh century with German immigrants. It was originally called the Osterhase or Easter Hare because that was what it was known as in their homeland. In Christian lore the hare was said to be an animal associated with the Virgin Mary, and it appears in some medieval paintings at the feet of the Holy Mother who is holding the infant Jesus. '1his provides an interesting link between Lady Day and Easter. Eggs in general were regarded as symbols of fertility, creation and new life. In fact in some ancient myths all life is hatched from the great Cosmic Egg. Dyeing hard boiled eggs at Easter either red or green represented the virile life force that is awakened in the earth at this time of the year and the foliage that begins to appear from the spring equinox onwards. In the Christian Church eggs were forbidden during Lent, so Easter was a good excuse to start eating them again. Royalty covered the Easter eggs they gave as gifts to their courtiers with gold leaf, and the jewel encrusted ones made by the court jeweller Faberge for the royal family in pre-revolutionary Russia are world famous today and very expensive to purchase. 68
Lady Day Another medieval Easter custom which may be a far memory of pagan rites was the eating of hot cross buns, and this practice survives today. These are glazed buns made with spices, raisins and currants, decorated on the top with a cross and eaten during Lent before Easter and on Good Friday. Because the cross on the buns is an equal-armed one it has been suggested they originated in classical times as offerings made at crossroads to Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting, the moon and woods, or her Greek dark alter-ego Hecate. In Christian times uneaten hot cross buns had a magical significance. '1hey were often preserved as good luck charms and for their alleged medical properties in curing all diseases. In the old days Easter Monday was reserved for sports, fairs, games, dancing, horse and dog races and feasting, as people celebrated the passing of winter into spring. Some of the popular games that were played included an element of subversive social reversal and were mock battles or trials of strength between men and women. If the weather happened to be warm enough, maypoles and Morris dancers made their first appearance on the village green. It was also a day when the hunting of stags and hares began. Farmers walked around their fields with cider and plum cakes and offered up prayers that the crops would grow strong and healthy and there was fine weather in the coming summer. Traditionally the British custom at the beginning of the new season is to have a 'spring clean'. This includes not only physically or spiritually cleansing the house and its contents, but throwing out old clothes and buying new ones for the summer, redecorating and acquiring new furniture. Magically it is a time for getting rid of outworn and unwanted things and attitudes that are no longer wanted and banishing negative influences. These physical and spiritual changes in the household at the spring equinox are symbolic of changes in our self and our relationship to the outside world.
MAY DAY 4
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prehistoric times May Day, or Beltane from the Irish Gaelic for the 'fire of [the sun god] Bel', was connected with rites to encourage plant growth, fertility in humans and animals and a good harvest. Scandinavian rock carvings dating from the Bronze Age show a naked man with an erection ploughing a field and a man and woman making love. Other carvings depict a couple embracing each other surrounded by a hedge or circle of foliage. 'Ihese images symbolise the fertility rituals and 'sacred marriage' or Great Rite between the sky/solar god and the earth/mother goddess that was enacted at this time of the year in prehistoric times. 'Ihe month of May is named after the Greco-Roman goddess Maia, who was one of the 'Seven Sisters' or stars of the constellation of P leiades. She was the mother of Mercury or Hermes, the young god of communication, wisdom and trade, and married to the smith-god Vulcan. 'Ihe Romans identified Maia with Bona Dea, the 'good goddess', wife of the woodland god Faunus, whose main festival was celebrated at the beginning of May. In later times the month was dedicated to Flora, the goddess of flowers. Today w e still use the Latin terms fauna and flora as generic names to describe animals and plants. In British folk tradition the oldest rituals associated with May Eve were the lighting of special fires on hills to ward off evil spirits and negative influences. In the Iron Age it is believed that the druids lit twin fires and drove herds of cattle between them. 'Ihis was to protect the animals from disease and increase the milk yield during the summer season that the Celts believed started on Beltane. In r 740 John Toland, one of the founders of the neo-druidic revival, described seeing these twin fires lit in Ireland at sunrise on May Day and he said they were called 'the eyes of the [sun] goddess' (Aine). In r 83 8 it was noted that following the old druidic practice a farmer in Ulster had driven his cattle between two fires on May Eve. In 1 927, excavations of an Irish hilltop sanctuary at Uisnech revealed a prehistoric trackway and ring
May Day ditch covered with wood ash. !here was also evidence of burnt animal bones and it has been suggested this was evidence of ancient Beltane fires and feasting. Farming communities in southern Ireland made their cows leap over burning straw on May Eve. This was to stop their milk being stolen by witches and the Good People or faeries. It was supposed to be the night when the faery folk moved house from hollow hill to hollow hill and various charms were employed to prevent them causing harm to humans. !his included hanging up bunches of rowan twigs tied with red thread above the doors of the farmhouse, pig sty, barn and cow shed. This practice was still being carried out in rural Somerset in the 1 96os and was witnessed by this writer. May Eve or Walpurgis Night (April 3o'h), named af ter a medieval German female saint, was supposed to be one of the nights when witches gathered for their Sabbaths on holy mountains such as the Brocken. When the Beltane fires had died down, pregnant women leapt over the burning ashes to make sure that their babies would be strong and healthy. Lighting these ritual balefires or needfires was surrounded by magical symbolism and taboo. Nine men were involved and they had to remove all metal from their person and clothing. Anyone who was guilty of any crime, however minor, was not allowed to take part. Also nine different types of wood had to be collected to build the fire. Traditionally in South Wales it had to be lit 'in the old way' by striking two flint stones against each other to create a spark or rubbing two oak twigs together so the friction produced a flame. In the Scottish islands quantities of the hallucinogenic amanita muscaria or fly agaric fungi were collected, dried and used to kindle the balefire. The pagan origin of these Bel fires, named af ter a Celtic solar god, is illustrated by a May Day custom in Wales and Scotland. Oatmeal cakes were cooked on the fire, broken into pieces and placed in a bag. Whoever selected the most burnt portion was regarded as the 'chosen one' who in ancient times would have been sacrificed to the sun god. Afterwards the ashes from the fire were collected as a magical charm and scattered on the fields to bring a good harvest. Generally the Beltane fires offered to those who lit them protection from malefic witchcraft. !here was also a popular custom of getting up early on May Day morning to greet the sunrise, which is suggestive of a far memory of ancient solar worship, and washing in the fresh spring dew. It has been claimed that until the late 1 9 70s or early 1 98os a number of hill farmers in the Peak District of Derbyshire continued the old tradition of lighting ritual fires on May Eve. Offerings of flowers and
Liher Nox foliage were also made at local holy wells and sacred springs that had a reputation for having healing powers and were used for divination. Strangely these folk traditions did not conflict with churchgoing. 'lhey were based on an ancient belief in a symbiotic relationship between farming communities in the area and the land, and the acknowledgement of the genius loci or 'spirit of place'. 'lhere were also rumours of the survival of the worship of a female deity known as Anu, a goddess of the land associated with both Brigid (the summer goddess) and the Cailleach (winter goddess). In her bright aspect Anu was known as 'the Mother' and in her dark one as the 'Devourer of Men'. A horned god with stag's antlers or ram's horns who was the leader of the Wild Hunt was also revered by the local farming families in the Peak District. He was known by the titles of either the 'Lord of the Green Leaves' or the 'Lord of Light'. 'lhe season's fertility aspects were reflected in the preparations on May Eve for the following day. Young people went out into the woods to gather the flowers and foliage that would decorate the village streets and the phallic Maypole and make May Garlands for hanging on the doors of houses. Birch, hawthorn, primroses and rowan were the most popular, and the herbs rue, hemlock and rosemary were also gathered to be burnt in houses on May Day to ward off evil influences. In the Arthurian legends it is said Q.!1een Guinevere rode out into the woods on May Day in a green gown to gather herbs, mosses, hawthorn flowers for the court. 'lhere is an i1lustration by famous Edwardian artist Arthur Rackham depicting this scene. Possibly by this act Guinevere was symbolically taking the role of the goddess of the land and the Q.!1een of Elfhame or the faery queen who ruled at Beltane. Some esoteric writers on the Arthurian mythos believe Guinevere, whose name in Welsh means 'white phantom', was not a mortal woman and came from the realm of Faerie. 'lhis apparently innocent pastime of flower gathering on May Eve was often a cover for more sensual and erotic activities that may have once been associated with pagan fertility or sexual rites. In the 1 7'h century the Puritans condemned the gathering of May Day greenery because it encouraged 'lustful acts' and young maidens to lose their virginity in the woods. In fact so-called 'greenwood marriages' lasting only a magical year and a day were once popular among the lusty country folk. Before the English Civil War, when the P uritans denounced them as blatant pagan symbols, May Garlands made from wild flowers and foliage gathered in the woods were placed by young unmarried women on the altar in churches. 'lhis was in the hope that they would soon be married. 72
May Day The centrepiece or focal point of the May Day festivities was the blatantly phallic Maypole, which was drawn to the place where it was going to be erected by a team of oxen. It was covered with flowers, herbs, leaves and ribbons and was often painted in several different colours. 'Ihe wood used for the Maypole was either birch or ash and both those trees have a sacred symbolism dating back to pagan times. The birch was traditionally associated with fertility goddesses while in the Norse myths the ash was the World Tree or axis mundi. For these reasons the Maypole was often condemned as a symbol of paganism. In the 1 5oos a vicar in London condemned the raising of it as "idol worship". A hundred years later a P uritan writer described it as a "stinking idol". He criticised the country folk who danced around the Maypole "like the heathen people did at the dedication of the idols, whereof this is a perfect pattern, or rather the thing itsel£" Another P uritan writer claimed it was an obscene symbol of the phallus dating from Roman times. At the May Day celebrations in the Cornish village of Padstow today young women deliberately touch the Maypole "for luck". In the 1 640s, during the Cromwellian dictatorship following the English Civil War, the Maypole and its accompanying revels were banned. It was not until Victorian times and a new interest in folklore and seasonal customs that the May Day festivities experienced a revival. Prominently featured in the May Day celebrations was the folklore character known variously as the Green Man, Jack-in-the-Green or Jack-in-the- Hedge, and he was revived by London chimney sweeps and milkmaids in the 1 gm century. Green Jack was represented by a man enclosed in a wicker frame covered in leaves and flowers. 'Ihe involvement of the latter in this custom was connected with the productivity of milk, butter and cream because of the fresh grass at this time of year. 'Ihe sweeps took part because the winter fires were no longer needed and it was a way of begging for money to see them through the warmer months when work was short. W hen a law was passed stopping the employment of small children as sweeps to go up chimneys the custom faded, but it has been revived in recent years. 'Ihe name 'Green Man' was first given to foliate masks, often found carved in wood and stone in pre-Reformation churches, by the folklorist Lady Raglan in an article in the Folk-lore journal in 1 9 3 9 . 'Ihese images depict an elven or human face peering out through leaves and flowers with fronds of vegetation sprouting from their mouths and ears. Some examples in Christian art are in the form of human skulls with leaves and plants growing out of the eye sockets and jaws. 'Ihese forms of the Green Man represent life and death, the Summer and Winter King 73
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and the dual aspects of the traditional witch-god as the Lord of the Greenwood and the Wildwood. '1he earliest images depicting leaf or foliate masks are in fact pre Christian and have been found on temples and tombs throughout the Roman Empire dating from the 1 " century CE and in the Middle East and India. To the people who carved them they were more than fertility images, and symbolised the seasonal cycle of growth and decay, the survival of the soul after death and the resurrection of life. In their pagan form they also represented woodland gods such as Sylvanus, Dionysus, Faunus and Pan who were associated with nature and agriculture. On an early 1 3 'h century font in the Abbey of St-Denis in France, a carving of a foliate mask is actually described as Silvan or Silvanus and has oak leaves growing from its forehead. It seems that the Christian versions of the Green Man were copied from the pagan originals and in the early medieval period became transformed into symbols warning of human mortality, the sin of lust and wickedness. 74
May Day Today Green Jack or the Green Man has been adopted by neo pagans and Wiccans to represent the Horned God in one of his roles as the indwelling spirit of the green world and the Lord of the Forest and Animals. As such he is the protector of the environment and the patron of ecological issues and protests. In traditional witchcraft the Green Man or Jack-in-the-Hedge (who can be quite sinister in nature) is an arboreal and vegetation spirit, the guardian of the natural world and its creatures and the spiritual equivalent of the divine ruler of the land as the King of Summer. '1he Arthurian wizard Myrddin or Merlin can be seen as a form of the Green Man or the Wild Man, the medieval woodwose or tree spirit also associated with Robin Hood, and the ' Lord of Animals'. After witnessing a fierce battle in which several of his companions were killed, the Arthurian wizard reportedly went insane. As a result he became a recluse in the Caledonian Forest in Scotland, living there as a 'wild man' or 'man of the woods' among the animals and birds. It is said Merlin tamed and rode a stag and even shape-shifted into the form of that animal. '1his state of returning to nature and the wilderness after suffering a traumatic experience can be seen as a form of'divine madness' where those affiicted find they can communicate with the Otherworld and exhibit the gift of prophecy. Merlin Sylvester or 'Merlin of the Wood' can also be linked with Rex Nemorensis, the 'king of the woods', the priest-king who was the guardian of the sacred grove of the goddess Diana near Lake Nemi in Roman mythology. Merlin is 'described as 'being without father or mother', a coded term referring to the strange circumstances of his birth and indicating someone who is of an Otherworldly origin. In fact Merlin is said to be the offspring of a liaison bet ween a Welsh princess and a 'tall dark knight' who visited her bedchamber while she was sleeping. Other versions of the birth say that the 'knight' was in fact a daimon or demon of the incubus type who live 'between the Earth and the moon'. It is therefore suggested that Merlin is of the elven or faery blood. In modern traditional witchcraft he is seen as a guardian spirit and magical protector of the Blessed Isles of Albion, a position also taken by King Arthur as the Pendragon (from the Welsh 'head chieftain'). In Welsh this is illustrated by an old name for Britain, Clas Myrddin or 'Merlin's Enclosure'. In the Old Craft 'merlin' is a generic term for somebody belonging to an ancient bloodline of priests who takes that role and is a magician. One of the traditional May Day customs that has survived today despite the onslaught of modernity is the election of a May Qyeen and 75
Liher Nox May King. Although since Victorian times these roles have usually been taken by children, this custom is a echo of the ancient 'sacred marriage' or Great Rite between the Lord and Lady or the God and Goddess. In folk tradition the crowning of the May O!ieen and her consort was also another way of marking the seasonal transition from winter to summer. In the 1 9 80s the crowning of the May O!ieen-was still carried on in the Nottinghamshire village of Wellow. A wooden platform was set up at one end of the village green and was covered with flowers and greenery as a bower for the May O!ieen. Accompanied by Morris dancers, the girl or young ·woman playing the role was escorted to the platform. Once there she was crowned with a wreath of wild flowers by her predecessor. lhe coronation was followed by the villagers dancing around the Maypole led by the Morris side holding up a stag's head on a pole. Some of these coronations . of M ay kings and queens or summer lords and ladies featured elements of misrule, social role reversal and cross-dressing more usually associated with the anarchic Twelve Nights of Yule. In the 1 S'h century on the Isle of Man the M ay O!ieen was opposed by the Winter O!ieen, who was a 'she-male' or man dressed in female attire. Rival groups supporting both parties fought each other and the aim (always frustrated) was for the May O!ieen to be taken prisoner so as to prevent the onset of summer. lhis ceremony was still being practised on the island in the early 1 9oos. In Wales the followers of the 'summer lady' carried green branches while those wielded by the followers of the winter king or queen were bare, leafless ones. In these late spring rituals can be seen similarities with the symbolic struggle between Brigid and the Cailleach at the end of winter and beginning of summer. Sometimes the role of the summer lord and summer lady presiding over the May revels was taken by human representatives of Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Victorian folklorists identified the popular legend of the greenwood outlaw, or 'Robin of the Wood', as a folk memory of the ancient worship of an arboreal fertility spirit and 'divine king' who was sacrificially bled to death. One of the earliest references to Robin and Marian as the May King and O!ieen is in the 1 3•h century. It was said that Robin led the traditional dancing at dawn on May Day morning to greet the rising sun. In the 1 6th century it is recorded that King Henry VIII was out riding near Greenwich when they saw a company of archers dressed in green as the Merry Men. lhey invited the king to the woods, where an arbour had been set up decorated with flowers and a floor strewn with fragrant herbs, 'to feast with Robyn Hode'. This was
May Day the name of their chief tain and he invited King Henry to watch his men firing arrows at targets and judge their skills. In May 1 5 0 8 both Robin Hood and his trusty lieutenant Little John featured in the May games held in Aberdeen and an archer dressed in Lincoln green as Robin also attended the seasonal festivities at the Scottish royal court. By 1 5 77 the outlaw had become associated with the role of the Morrice or Morris dancers in the May Day revels. lhe person wearing a Robin Hood costume danced to the beat of a drum around the garlanded Maypole with a woman representing Maid Marian. Although it has been claimed that the concept of a winter king and the summer king is a modern neo-pagan invention, the story of the dark and bright twins is a common one in ancient mythology. Famous examples are the Egyptian tale of Osiris, a god of the harvest, killed by his dark brother Set, and the biblical story of Cain and his brother Abel. As mentioned previously, Sir James G. Frazer in his seminal thirteen volume work 7he Golden Bough describes a ritual in pre-classical Italy where a priest with the title of Rex N emorensis, or the king of the woods, ruled over a grove sacred to the goddess of the moon, hunting and the forest, Diana. Every seven years his role was challenged in combat by a new candidate for the post. Whoever won became the priest of the sacred grove for the next period until they in turn were challenged or replaced. In Welsh mythology, as described in the collection of medieval tales called 7he Mabinogion, Gwyn ap Nudd ('White Son of the Night') fought with a warrior called Gwyther ap Creidaul or Greidyawl. lhis was for the hand in marriage of a maiden called Crieddylad, the daughter of either Llud Silver Hand or the sea-god Lyr and the sister of Bran. lhe combat took place on the first of May each year and was destined to be repeated annually until Doomsday. In the Welsh Triads the contested maiden is named as the mother of Arthur's queen, Guinevere. Indeed it was even suggested that her father was in fact Gwyther. lhis ritual combat 'for all eternity' is the struggle between the twin gods of the dark and light halves of the year that in the Celtic tradition began at Samhain and Beltane respectively. Gwyn is the Master of the Wild Hunt, lord of th� underworld and 'king of the faeries' who in Somerset folklore inhabits the 'hollow hill' of Glastonbury Tor. In the Arthurian legends Qµeen Gwenhyfer (Welsh) or Guinevere was kidnapped by Melwas of the Green Cloak, the ruler of the 'Summer Country' whose kingdom called the Glass City was at Glastonbury, and he may be another aspect of the summer king and the king of Faerie. Ynys Witrin or the 'Glass Castle' was an old name for the area and 77
Liher Nox has underworld assoc1at10ns in Celtic myth. A second abduction of Guinevere was by King Valerin of the Tangled Wood who seized the queen while Arthur was away hunting the mysterious white stag that is a creature of the Otherworld. Valerin may also be a form of the elf-king, as he lived in a shining castle on the top of a mountain surrounded by an enchanted wood infested with serpents. A third kidnapper of Guinevere called Gasozein Le Dragoz claimed Arthur stole her from him. Le Dragoz is said to have spent his nights under a blackthorn tree at a ford singing songs dedicated to the queen. He may therefore also be of faery origin because such a place is a traditional gateway between Middle Earth and the Otherworld. All these kidnapping attempts sound very much like attempts to return Guinevere to her elven homeland. A possible survival of the ancient tradition of twin kings of winter and summer could be found until fairly recently in the Welsh county of Breconshire (modern Powys). Two boys were chosen by the tossing of a coin (i.e. Fate) to take on these roles on May Day. Each was dressed in a costume made of birch twigs, and the summer king wore a wreath of wild flowers while the winter king was crowned with holly. A similar custom was practised at the annual May Day fair in the village of Clun in Shropshire. Each year a Green Man wearing antlers and clad in leaves challenged a rival figure representing the spirit of winter to a fight on the bridge across the river. Of course the Green Man always won. On the Isle of Man the person representing the winter king dressed in a long coat trimmed with fur, and a furry cap. He carried a blackthorn staff and a shield covered in tufts of white wool to represent snow. His rival the summer king wore a white agricultural smock decorated with coloured ribbons and wild flowers. He also had a broad brimmed hat and a willow wand that were both similarly decorated. '1he two rivals then fought a battle aided by their supporters. When the summer king triumphed, as he must always do, he nominated the most beautiful woman present to be the May Q.yeen and took the secondary role of her consort. '1he challenge and combat between the winter king and the summer king not only marks or celebrates the transition between the two seasons but also the transfer of the rulership of the land. As we have seen, some modern streams of the Old Craft draw their inspiration from Arthurian legend and lore, which features several examples of this process. It is usually carried out at magically liminal places such as bridges (as at Clun), fords, causeways across a marsh (traditionally considered one of the entrances to the underworld in Iron Age times), and at crossroads. In the medieval legend of Robin Hood the greenwood outlaw is challenged
May Day by Little John to a fight at a disputed river crossing, a liminal bridge or a ford. It has been suggested that the medieval tale of Gawain and the Green Knight is a disguised account of the myth of the Winter and Summer Kings. The story dates from the 1 4'h century and it is claimed was written by a monk living in an abbey on the borders of Cheshire and Staffordshire. Allegedly it was an attempt by the cleric to revive the Arthurian tradition by drawing on the pre-Christian mythology of the surrounding area. Certainly the Green Knight of the title appears to have pagan overtones as a Green Man type figure and the whole story revolves round a seasonal ritual of sacrificial death and resurrection. Sir Gawain was the nephew of King Arthur and therefore belonged to the royal and sacred bloodline of the P endragons, the rulers of Albion. Gawain is described as 'the hawk of May', an English translation of his Welsh name Gwalchmai and possibly a title associated with the sun god. It is said he was knighted on St John's Day or Midsummer Day and was at his strongest at noon, slowly losing his physical powers as the day grew longer, just as the sun does in the sky. Gawain was not only a skilled and brave warrior performing heroic deeds, but also the king's champion, an upholder of chivalry and the protector of women. However, his connection to the myth of the winter and summer kings relates directly to his close relationship with his royal uncle and his role as Arthur's champion and his substitute in what appears to be a midwinter sacrificial rite. In the medieval romance the Christmas celebrations at Arthur's palace at Camelot are rudely interrupted on New Year's Day by a mysterious gatecrasher. He is described as a giant figure 'of great age' with 'a [red] face as fierce as fire', a bushy red beard and green skin. He wore green clothes, rode a green horse and carried a club made from a holly bough, and an axe. lhe stranger tells the assembled court that he has come to play a 'Christmas game' (known as the Beheading Game) and he challenges all present to take part. When the courtiers are reluctant to accept the Green Knight's invitation, Arthur decides that as the king he must volunteer. However Gawain intervenes and says that as his champion he will take the king's place instead. Apparently the aim of the Green Knight's game is that the players engage in single combat, with each exchanging blows in turn with the axe. Gawain is first and he cuts off the intruder's head with one stroke. lhe court breaks into applause, which is short-lived as the Green Knight stands up and replaces his decapitated head on his neck. He then challenges Gawain to meet him again in a year and a day at a 79
Liher Nox place called the Green Chapel. '1here the knight will have the right of delivering the second blow to the king's champion, which obviously will cause his death as he is not a supernatural being like the Green Knight. As one of the Knights of the Round Table and a man of honour, when the year had almost passed Gawain set off at All Hallows (the old Celtic festival of Samhain) on his long journey to the mysterious Green Chapel. On his way he came to a castle owned by a nobleman called Sir Bercilak, who informed the knight that his goal is only a few hours ride away. However the nobleman invited him to stay for supper and Gawain was introduced to his beautiful wife and her companion, a hideous old hag. Despite her appearance the old servant was treated with great respect and deference by the inhabitants of the castle. '1he next day Bercilak went out with a hunting party searching for a wild boar, and left Gawain in the castle to rest after his arduous journey. While her husband was absent, Lady Bercilak attempted to seduce the knight, but living up to his code of chivalry he accepted only a chaste kiss from her. When the nobleman returned he offered Gawain the spoils of the hunt in exchange for anything the knight might have done in his absence. Gawain admitted to receiving a kiss from the lord's wife and said that was all he could offer. '1his was repeated for two more days, with Gawain receiving two more kisses from the noblewoman and offering them to Lord Bercilak in exchange for the animals he had hunted. Finally, on the third day, Gawain refused the lady's kiss, and instead he was rewarded with the gift of a girdle or sash made of green lace or cloth, which would protect a knight from harm. On the morning of New Year's Day, Lord Bercilak guided Gawain to the Green Chapel. As he approached it, the knight heard the sound of an axe blade being sharpened on a whetstone. '1he Green Knight appeared and Gawain honoured their agreement by freely offering his bared neck for the fatal blow. To his surprise, twice the Green Knight aimed the axe but failed to follow through. On the third blow he gently nicked Gawain's neck so a little blood flowed. He then declared that the third blow has now been struck and the agreement between them has been duly honoured. '1he Green Knight then revealed himself as Sir Bercilak in disguise. His temporary form was the result of an enchantment placed on him by his wife's old servant. In fact she is really King Arthur's half-sister, the faery woman and enchantress Morgan Le Fay, in disguise. It was her plan that the nobleman should travel to the court as the Green Knight and challenge the king to take part in the beheading game so he would be killed. The Green Knight is a supernatural being who can shape80
May Day shift into human form. He is therefore an entity who spans both the Otherworld and Middle Earth and moves freely between them. We can also presume that the beautiful Lady Bercilak who tried to seduce Sir Gawain is another form of Morgan and represents the bright aspect of the witch-goddess. 'Ihe old woman who is her companion is her alter ego representing the dark goddess. One of the most important sacred and mystical animals of the witch goddess as the <2.!ieen of Elfhame is the unicorn found in medieval heraldry. 'Ihe modern traditional witch Robert Cochrane described how he had a vision of the 'White Lady' riding one of these mythical beasts. Although today it has a gentler image in New Age beliefs, in the past the unicorn was regarded as a fierce and wild animal with erotic symbolism attached. It was said that the animal could only be tamed if it 'laid its head in a virgin's lap'. To entice the unicorn into doing this suggestive act, the maiden had to first offer it her breasts to be suckled. In her lap the unicorn is so overcome by her 'maiden's fragrance' that it falls into a deep sleep and can then be easily captured. 'Ihe erotic overtones of this taming of the unicorn are obvious, and in fact with its single phallic horn it represents sexual prowess and virility. 'Ihe writer John Williamson has claimed that in medieval times the unicorn paradoxically symbolised both the Christ and Lucifer. His examination of a r 5 rh century French tapestry called 7he Huntfar the Unicorn, presently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, led Williamson to believe that the unicorn is a pre-Christian image. One that he believed is associated with pagan lunar goddesses, the seasonal rituals of the Wheel of the Year and the ancient myth of the summer and winter Kings. In the first scene on the tapestry, a hunting party stands near a grove of trees that includes ash, birch, oak and a exotic and foreign palm tree. In the second scene the unicorn is shown kneeling to dip its horn into a flowing stream. 'Ihis suggests the stream has been polluted or poisoned and the water is being purified, because in folk tradition the horn of a unicorn was said to be a powerful antidote to poison. In the central panel is a fountain or spring with oak and holly trees (arboreal symbols of the two kings) in the background. Twelve hunters (the Knights of the Round Table, the disciples of Jesus or the zodiac signs of the stellar Wheel of the Year) watch the unicorn in awe. 'Ihe third panel of the tapestry depicts the actual beginning of the hunt with the unicorn fleeing across a stream pursued by a pack of hounds. Again, both oak and holly trees are prominently displayed in the scene. Hawthorn and pomegranates, symbols of the Goddess in
Liher Nox Western and Eastern cultures and religions, are also present. It can be presumed this scene symbolically represents the transition from winter and the powers of darkness to summer and the forces of light. 1he unicorn, having purified the 'water of lif e' so the plants can grow again, leaps over the purifying stream symbolically dividing the two seasons. By the fourth panel the season has passed to Beltane or Midsummer, and W illiamson sees the image of the unicorn defending itself from the hunters and their hounds as symbolic of the 'sacred marriage' or Great Rite between the Lord and Lady, or God and Goddess. 1his is followed by the sacrificed god or divine king's death and the transference of his phallic power of regeneration to a virile successor. In the medieval tapestry this is symbolised by a hound wounded by the unicorn's horn and a red rose representing death and the dark goddess of the underworId. 1he next stage of the unicorn hunt in the tapestry depicts the taming of the mystical beast by a maiden. She sits under an apple tree (symbolic of the Otherworld) and is the Qpeen of Faerie who leads her mortal lover, or the sacrificed god, to her enchanted realm in the Hollow Hill. In some medieval representations of this scene while the maiden holds the unicorn in her lap it is killed by a warrior with a spear, referencing both Jesus' death on the cross and the sacrifice of the divine king. 1he maiden suggestively fondles the unicorn's horn, representing its phallic solar power, while holding a circular mirror above its head so it watches a reflection of its own death. Mirrors in folklore and magic are symbolic gateways to the spirit world. In the Mysteries when the initiate had found their way through the maze or labyrinth and reached the 'inner sanctum' they found themselves facing a mirror. Hence the famous maxim of the ancient Mysteries, 'Know thyself '. In the sixth panel of the tapestry the unicorn has been killed and is brought in triumph by the hunters to a castle where its body is presented as a gift to a noble lord and lady. Williamson interprets the birds, animals and plants in this scene as symbols representing the midwinter solstice marking the rebirth of the solar god and the sun. Behind the unicorn are holly bushes and the castle is surrounded by oak trees. Blood flows from the wound in the animal's side made by the spear. In pagan terms the sacred life blood of the sacrificed god pours on to the female earth and fertilises the land. 1he scene of the unicorn's death is divided from the castle by a river the Styx or Lethe that separates the mortal world from the spirit world The 'noble lord and lady' are the God and Goddess who lead the soul of the unicorn (the initiate into the Mysteries) across the river to their
May Day underworld Castle of Roses. Nearby is a hazel tree, symbolising the attainment of Otherworldly wisdom and knowledge, and in its branches is a squirrel, the messenger of the Gods who runs up and down Yggdrasil or the World Tree in Norse mythology connecting humanity and the heavenly realm. To the right of the hazel tree stand three hounds (the three-headed Cerberus of Greek mythology), the guardians of the Gate of Death who belong to the pack of the Wild Hunter or winter king. 1he final panel on the French tapestry shows the unicorn apparently alive but now in captivity. He lies within a fenced enclosure, representative of the division between Middle Earth and the Otherworld, and the boundary bet ween the human-made environment and the wilderness. The enclosure is also the archetypal mythical paradise or sacred garden, the magical land of the Ever Young, the Summer Land or Eden, where w inter is banished and all creatures live in harmony. 1he unicorn is chained by a decorative collar to a pomegranate tree and the enclosure is surrounded by plants known f or their fertility and power as aphrodisiacs. This suggests the sexual power of the wild unicorn has been tamed, controlled and sublimated by the maiden or Goddess. Morgan Le Fay is regarded in some branches of modern traditional witchcraft as the aspect of the witch-goddess in her role as the Qyeen of Elfhame or Faerie. A r 4t11 century French romance relates how after a long martial career, an elderly knight called Ogier, a cousin of King Arthur, is taken by Morgan Le Fay in her guise as an old woman to her castle on the Isle of Avalon. There he is given the gift of eternal youth that was promised by Morgan at his birth when she was his faery godmother. When Ogier is first taken to the faery queen's realm he finds himself in a large orchard. After eating one of the apples, a fruit of the underworld, all he desires is death. Turning around, Ogier sees a beautiful young woman enter the orchard from the east, and at first the knight mistakes her for the Virgin Mary who he believes has come to rescue him from the wicked Morgan. However, she informs the old man that in fact she is the Dame de Afallon or the Lady of Avalon, Morgan Le Fay herself. She places a magical ring on his finger that restores his lost youth, and a crown on his head that makes him forget about his former life in the world of mortals before coming to the island. Crossing the River Lethe to the underworld was said to erase the memory of the departed. Morgan Le Fay is described in Middle English accounts of the life of Arthur as a 'sorceresse' and 'wytche'. In rural parts of France it was said that any woman who practiced witchcraft belonged to Morgan's
Liher Nox bloodline and was therefore descended from her. As Arthur's half-sister, Morgan belongs to the royal bloodline of the Pendragons. Yet her name of Morgan Le Fay and the French folk tradition suggests she is also of elven or faery blood. She was a shape-shifter, could fly through the air (spirit flight) and both heal and harm, cure or curse. Morgan therefore encapsulated both the dark and bright aspects of the traditional witch goddess. In the early Welsh poem Preiddu Annwn Morgan Le Fay is connected with a sisterhood of nine maidens or priestesses who tend an underworld cauldron sought by Arthur. She is therefore a female guardian of the Grail. In her role as healer, Morgan possesses an unguent or ointment that can treat all wounds, and it is possible she creates it using herbs brewed in the cauldron. In some versions of the Arthurian legends Morgan is seen as an evil figure, plotting to undermine Arthur, his idealistic vision of the Fellowship of the Round Table and the harmony of the kingdom. Paradoxically however, at the end of the king's reign it is Morgan who receives the king into the Otherworldly realm of Avalon and heals him of his wounds. In this respect she personifies both the bright and dark aspects of the witch-goddess in the Arthurian mythos who can grant resurrection and immortality. In 1homas Malory's Morte D'Arthur, Morgan is described as a 'clerk of necromancy' who was taught the magical arts in a 'nunnery', possibly a training college for pagan priestesses. It was said she had been instructed in astrology and sorcery by the wizard Merlin himself. An alternative version says her teacher was the 'king of the elves' who was the 'master of enchantment'. He gave his pupil a magical horn made from ivory, and when it was blown an army of warriors would materialise to do her bidding. Morgan passed this gift to her son Auberon, who has been identified with the dwarf smith Alberich in Germanic mythology and Oberon, the king of the faeries in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Oberon was the name of a spirit evoked by medieval magicians to reveal the whereabouts of buried treasure. In European folklore Morgan Le Fay was sometimes associated with Queen Sybille or Sybil, worshipped by witches in medieval Italy and Sicily. She lived in a mountain cave reached by crossing a stone bridge above a chasm in which there was a fast flowing river. 1he entrance to the cave was guarded by two fierce dragons, and if the seeker could get past them, a crystal door led to Sybil's castle. A German knight managed to elude its dragon guardian and entered her realm. He quickly made his escape when he discovered that every Friday at midnight the Sybil was transformed into a giant serpent that the pious Christian
May Day knight identified with the Evil One, Satan. 1his story is similar to one from France of the faery woman Melusine, who was half woman, half serpent, and is supposed to have been the mother of several sons who were founders of European royal dynasties. Morgan seems to have been brazen enough to have visited Arthur's court. One day when the Knights of the Round Table were feasting in the Great Hall of Camelot, the doors flew upon of their own accord A white stag or hart, an animal that is a messenger or guide from the Otherworld and an animal sacred to the Queen of Elfhame, raced into the room. It was pursued by a baying pack of hounds followed by a strangely dressed woman. She wore a short green tunic and high boots made from brown calfskin, had an ivory horn on a cord around her neck, a hawk perched on her gloved hand and carried a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back. One of the knights drew the hounds away from the stag, and he rode off with them following. The woman demanded that Arthur acted immediately to return her hunting dogs. On the orders of Merlin, the gallant knight Gawain was sent to recover the hounds and he returned with both them and the head of the white stag. 1he Queen of Elfhame was renowned for seducing and luring mortal men, often a warrior or knight, to her realm. Sometimes she sends an Otherworldly creature in her place as a lure, such as a white hart or roebuck, a white boar or a white bird, while her quarry is out hunting. 1he hunter is led by his prey - except of course he is the one who is being hunted - to a river, where there is moored a boat or barge made of glass or ebony. 1his magical vessel conveys him to the realm of Faerie, usually an enchanted island paradise where only women rule. In other versions of the story, the hunter or knight will encounter an unearthly elven woman at a 'faery hill' (prehistoric burial mound), a sacred mountain or at a fountain, spring or holy well in the depths of an enchanted, faery-haunted wood. In one medieval French romance a young knight is out hunting in a forest believed to be the home of faeries. He chases after a larger than normal white stag that darts from a thicket. W hen he eventually runs the animal down, it stops and seems to be inviting him to jump on its back. W hen the knight does so, the stag gallops off and plunges into a nearby lake. Under the water the knight seems to fall asleep and dreams of his lover. W hen he awakes he finds himself in the presence of three beautiful women. 1hey ask him what he is doing in their realm and tell him they are 'nymphs of Diana'. Likewise when the Scottish seer 1homas the Rhymer died, who was seduced by the Queen of Elfhame on May Day and spent seven years in her realm, people reported seeing
Liber Nox a white stag near his house. '1his was interpreted as the faery queen coming in animal form to claim the soul of her 'chosen one' among mortal men and take him home to her realm. In another medieval romance about Sir Gawain called 7he Weddying efSyr Gawen and Dame Ragnellhe is again seen as the helper and saviour of Arthur. '1he king is out hunting in a forest when he sees and chases a white hart. '1he animal runs so quickly that soon the king is separated from his men and finds himself lost deep in the forest. A knight appears from nowhere who is called Sir Gromer Somer Joure, or Summer's Day (May Day or Midsummer Day?) and is described in some accounts as Turkish. He accuses Arthur of stealing his lands and giving them to his favourite knight Sir Gawain. He says unless the king returns in a year to the same spot and has the answer to the question "What do women love best?" he will kill him in revenge for his loss. On his return to the court Arthur confides in Gawain about his experience and explains his dilemma. '1he knight agrees to help, and the two men spend the next year searching for the answer to Gromer's question, without any success. Just before he is due to meet his would be killer, Arthur is out hunting in the forest again. He meets a hideous, humpbacked crone with yellow teeth like boar's tusks strangely riding a very expensive well-bred horse with a bridle made of gold and decorated with precious stones. She tells him her name is Dame Ragnall and seems to know all about his encounter with Gomer. '1he mystery woman says she will provide Arthur with the answer to the question and thereby save his life if he will give permission for Gawain to take her hand in marriage. If the king agrees to her request she will meet him in the forest again on the day that he is supposed to see Gromer. As Arthur has no wish to die yet, he asks his nephew to do him a great favour and marry the old woman from the woods despite her extreme ugliness. Chivalrous as ever, Gawain agrees to the forced marriage, to save his king's life. Arthur travels to his assignment with Sir Gromer and gives him the answer to his question, which has been provided by Lady Ragnall in their earlier meeting. What a woman wants best is not marriage or lots of lovers or to remain young and beautiful; what she really desires is sovereignty over all, especially mastery over men, and her own way. In fact she wants to be independent and lead her own life. W hen Gromer is told this, he realises that he has been betrayed by his own sister, who has interfered by giving Arthur the answer, and thereby spared his life. Arthur takes Lady Ragnall back to the court and Gawain keeps his promise to marry the ugly old woman. Q.yeen Guinevere suggests that 86
May Day the marriage should take place at night in private so nobody can see, but the chivalrous knight insists it is in daytime, in public in a church, and followed by a wedding feast attended by the whole court. On his wedding night Gawain is reluctant to make love to his new bride, but she reproaches him, saying he would if she was beautiful. She asks him for just one kiss, and when Gawain responds she turns into a young woman who is 'the loveliest creature he ever saw, without equal'. However Lady Ragnall says the transformation is only temporary and the knight must choose if she is to be ugly during the day and beautiful in the night when they are alone, or attractive during the day and reverting back to an old woman after dark. Gawain replies that it is not his choice to make, and says that his body and goods are hers to do with as she wishes. At this response Lady Ragnall says that the knight has answered wisely and he will have her as a beautiful woman by both day and night. Unfortunately the marriage is short-lived as she dies within five years, or perhaps more likely she returns to her own realm. Lady Ragnall, or the Loathly Lady as she is called in the medieval romance, is in fact another aspect of Sovereignty, the ancient goddess of the land who grants kingship. Her marriage to Gawain is symbolic of the 'sacred marriage' where the would-be king married the land, represented by a human woman or high priestess of the Mysteries. Not only does Gawain become the consort of Sovereignty, substituting for Arthur, but, like the Italian priest in the sacred grove of Diana, her champion who is destined to serve until he is challenged and defeated by a rival. As both an old crone and a beautiful young woman, Lady Ragnall represents the dual dark and bright nature of the witch-goddess. 'Ihe hierogamos or sacred marriage, enacted in the greenwood on May Day between the Flower Bride and the Green King, Arthur and Guinevere or Robin Hood and Maid Marion, representing the higher powers in human form, is the union of earth and sky, the earth energies with the stellar forces, which regenerates the vegetation and greens the land. It is also symbolic of the alchemical conj unction between the male and female aspects of the human psyche, described in modern Jungian psychology 'as the contrasexual anima and animus. In physical forms these male and female principles are seen in the traditional witch's working tools, as the knife or sword (Excalibur) and the cup or chalice (the Grail) . Sometimes it is the spear and the cauldron. Within every man is the chalice, the anima or feminine aspect of his psyche, while every woman has the sword, the animus or male aspect of her psyche. 'Ihese are the secret keys to sexual attraction and love between the sexes.
Liher Nox It is also through balancing these male and female aspects in the psyche that the attainment of the Grail can be achieved at the end of the spiritual quest. The knight (who can be of either gender) is sent out with sword in hand into the wilderness to seek their purpose in life, to survive the challenges they will face, to learn wisdom and gain gnosis or divine knowledge. lhe climatic vision of the Grail achieved by the pure knight in the Arthurian legends is nothing less then the goal of the magical path and the witch's way, offering union between spirit and matter and spiritual enlightenment or illumination.
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. I DS U1\i.M€R'S DAY 4
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British seasonal traditions and folk customs, midsummer, or the summer solstice in June, is celebrated as the longest day of the year. It is when the sun is at its highest point in the sky and at its maximum strength. W hen the Early Church took over the pagan rites that marked this season, they chose Midsummer's Day, June 24th, as the feast day of St John the Baptist. In the mid-Devon village of Witheridge, whose parish church is dedicated to the saint, an annual St John's Fair dating from the Middle Ages is still held on the nearest Saturday to Midsummer's Day. In folk magic St John was petitioned for good luck, healthy crops, fertility and protection from malefic magic. 1here is an interesting link between St John the Baptist, the Celtic sacred head cult and the medieval name of one of the female leaders of the Wild Hunt, Herodias. In one account of the death of John the Baptist, a pivotal role is taken by King Herod's wife, Herodias. She lusted after the saint, but when he resisted her advances she conspired with her daughter Salome to have John executed by decapitation. Herodias asked to see the severed head, and it was brought to her on a platter by a servant. Although she kissed it, even in death the saint rejected her and his head avoided her attentions by levitating through an opening in the roof. Ever since then St John has chased Herodias through the s ky tormenting her, a s she knows he will never love her in return. According to the legend, two thirds of humanityowed their allegiance to Herodias, who is doomed to ride the night sky until cock crow and sunrise. St John's Eve or Midsummer Eve is one of the rare times of the year outside the winter months that the Wild Hunt rides forth. Referring to this story, the late r 2th century cleric John of Salisbury said that Herodias was the 'witch ruler of the night' and convened nocturnal assemblies where her followers 'feasted and rioted'. She was accompanied by demons called lamias who were half woman, half snake, and were believed to kidnap, kill and eat children. However,John N
Liher Nox of Salisbury added that it was only 'poor old women and simpleminded men' who believed such demonic manifestations actually existed. Midsummer Day was sometimes when people went guising or dressing up in animal costumes. 1his was not as common as it is at midwinter, but it was a custom still practised as late as I 830. In that year in East Anglia a man was charged with causing a public disturbance by terrifying people at midsummer. His crime was that he had walked up and down the street with a pair of painted ram's horns on his head and a green veil covering his face. At the same time he was reported to be making 'strange and frightful noises' that scared the people passing by. Traditionally midsummer folk customs involved the lighting of bonfires on hills. In the 1 6t11 century some people in Aberdeenshire were charged with doing so on 'Midsomer Evin', even though the practice had been outlawed. In 1 66 5 , Presbyterian clergymen condemned those "superstitious folk" who carried blazing torches "through their corns" afrer sunset. Such rituals dated back to Roman times when farmers also lit fires in their fields at midsummer to protect the crops from disease. Such rites are connected with the universal magical belief that fire had a purifying influence and was a protection against the demonic and chthonic powers of darkness. In Ireland, the smoke, embers and ashes from the midsummer fires were believed to have magical powers, and were used with the recitation of Christian prayers to bless humans, livestock and the crops. Torches made from straw and hay tied on poles were also carried around the fields in honour of the sun goddess Aine. It was said that on St John's Eve the faeries came out of the raths (Iron Age forts) and processed across the countryside carrying lighted torches in her honour. Michael Dames mentions a group of young girls who had stayed late on a hill to watch the midsummer fires when Aine suddenly appeared. She thanked them for the honour done to her but wished they went home to their beds because her Otherworldly friends now wanted the place to themselves. Aine was also known as Ana, Dana and Danu as the 'Mother of the Gods' and could appear as either a beautiful woman or an old crone. In the Orkneys the material used for the midsummer fires was a mixture of peat, dry heather and faggots (bundles of dry sticks) collected by the local children. Before each of the fires was lit, an animal bone was thrown onto the pyre, hence the term 'bone-fire' or bonfire. 1his custom may be a far memory of pre-Christian pagan rites of animal sacrifice involving burnt offerings. Any farmer who wanted a good harvest lit his own individual faggot at the communal fire. He then carried the burning
Midsummer's Day bundle of twigs around his fields deosil or 'sunways' (clockwise) and used it to fumigate the cow shed, to ensure his cattle were not plagued with diseases like ringworm or foot-and-mouth. In Elizabethan times young men and women joined hands and leapt over the flames of the midsummer fires accompanied by music played on the bagpipes. Midsummer Eve (June 2 3'd), in common with May Eve, All Hallows Eve and Christmas Eve, was one of the special 'spirit nights' of the year. For this reason it was not only believed that both witches and faeries were extra powerful on this day, but divinatory rites could be performed to tell the future, especially if it coincided with a full moon. In the r 2 rh century the Church condemned those who practised sorcery (originally divination by lots) on St John's Eve. It was also a magical time to gather herbs and plants to be used in charms and for medicinal purposes. As would be expected, it was a good time for picking St John's Wort to ward off the spells of malefic witches and the Evil Eye. 'lhis plant also protected houses and farm buildings from evil spirits, and lightning from summer thunderstorms. Fern seeds collected on Midsummer's Eve were used in divination, and elderberries picked on this day protected those who ate them from witchcraft, and it was claimed even gave them magical powers. The close association between midsummer and the Fey or faery folk is important in its celebration by traditional witches. It should be understood that the faery folk are not the twee, gossamer-winged creatures of Shakespeare, Victorian children's stories or today's New Age books. 'lhey have an amoral nature, sometimes an indifferent or even hostile attitude to humans and can be scary, malicious and dangerous. In r 7'h century Huntingdonshire it was recorded that on Midsummer Day people fired guns in the air to scare away evil faeries. 'lhey had to be respected and bribed with offerings or, like malefic witches, they could cause endless damage to crops and livestock and bring misfortune to the family. Modern West Country folklorist Jon Dathen has recently interviewed several Somerset residents who believe in faeries and claim to have seen them on many occasions. One sighting of a faery is described as being female, about three feet tall with blue skin, long bony fingers like twigs and a round head with a nose like a bird's beak. Other faeries are described as having a physical appearance that is a hybrid mixture of birds, insects and animals, with feathers and fur, spindly knobbly limbs and a gnarly skin that looks like the moss found on tree trunks and branches. Some faerie folk however are not the archetypal 'Little People', but can be either human size or taller. In fact they resemble the elves
Liher Nox depicted in the movie version of ]. R. R. Tolkien's Lord efthe Rings. '1he modern occultist R.J. Stewart, who has written extensively on faery lore, has described ferocious faery warriors who appear wearing leather or metal armour with jewelled helmets, and elven folk dressed in animal skins, feathers and leaves. Others wear more exotic clothing such as coloured cloaks, embroidered robes, leather kilts, tunics with hoods and embossed jackets. According to Jon Dathen's West Country informants, the faery folk live near the 'faery paths' or leys, and the ancient sites associated with them such as stone circles, burial mounds and standing stones. '1his is because they allegedly feed off the 'earth energy' that flo ws along the leys and which is focused at natural power centres in the countryside. Such 'spirit paths' are places where power flows through the land, and they also mark liminal boundaries between the material plane and the Otherworld. When humans interfere with, obstruct or block these lines of power or energy crisscrossing the landscape they often suffer misfortune, illness and even death. '1hese are also the places where traditional witches hold their rites and magical workings. One of the common names for the witch-god mentioned in the trials was 'Robin' (a common and popular derivative of Robert) and this was believed to have come from the English folk character Robin Goodfellow. In popular folk belief he was a small, hairy and mischievous hobgoblin or spirit associated with the hob or hearth. '1his domestic faery would carry out household tasks such as churning the butter, threshing the corn, sweeping the floors, baking the bread, making the beds and even mending torn clothes. He was usually well behaved, but was also notorious as a trickster making mischief, pinching the female servants and playing practical jokes on the household. '1his would usually happen if the hobgoblin believed he had not been treated as well as he should have been or rewarded sufficiently for his work. Robin Goodfellow was also accused of causing old women to have nightmares, blowing candles out to plunge the house in darkness and pulling off bedclothes on cold nights. However, as well as being a supernatural being of the brownie or domestic spirit type, Robin Goodfellow also had a more important and sinister role that may have been diminished by the folklore about him. Hob was also a popular name given by country folk to Old Nick or the Devil. In Robin Goo1fellow: His Mad Pranks and Merry jests published in 1 6 2 9 there is a woodcut depicting the hobgoblin as the satyr-like god of the witches. He is shown as a Devil-like horned, bearded figure with pointed animal ears, a human face, torso and arms. His legs are
Midsummer's Day covered in fur or hair; he has cloven hooves instead of feet and sports an erect phallus. A hunting horn hangs at his waist; he holds a besom or broomstick over his left shoulder and a lighted candle in his right hand. He is dancing in a double circle drawn on the ground and is surrounded by small figures, both male and female, depicting witches who form a ring around him holding hands.
'1he 1 7'h century Puritan writer Robert Burton mentioned Robin Goodfellow in his book Anatomie C!fMelancholy. In it he appears as a 'terrestrial devil' in the company of pre-Christian spirits such as the Roman fares or household gods, the genii loci, or 'spirits of place', fauns, satyrs and wood nymphs. In William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream, Robin Goodfellow appears as the faery P uck. In Anglo Saxon times the puca or pooka (Irish), pwca (Welsh) or bucca was a woodland elf, very much seen in terms of a geni loci or spirit of the land. 93
Liher Nox To be 'puckish' is defined as behaving in a playful or mischievous way and indicates one side of Puck's character. In more modern times this ancient woodland sprite features in Rudyard Kipling's famous children's book Puck efPook's Hill, published in I 906, and its sequel Rewards and Fairies. In the story two children, Dan and Una, visit Pook's Hill (a real place in Sussex near one of Kipling's former homes) on Midsummer's Eve. By reciting part of Shakespeare's famous play in a faery ring they summon up Puck, who tells the children he the last of the 'Old People of the Hills' (faeries) . He points out that he is different from other faeries, however, because they cannot abide salt, horseshoes and rowan berries nailed over the door, running water, iron or the pealing of church bells. In folk magic these are charms that are also supposed to negate the power of witches but they have no effect on Puck. The name 'Robin' also links Goodfellow/Puck with the archetypal E nglish outlaw Robin Hood, who as we have seen was a popular folk character in the May Day revels. In I 846 Thomas Wright suggested, controversially, that the legend of Robin Hood was in fact based on 'Robin of the Wood', an elven and arboreal spirit of the forest who was kin to Robin Goodfellow. '111e evidence provided to back up this claim was the outlaw's choice of Lincoln (faery) green for his clothing, his outlaw role as 'the hooded man' (a nickname for the Norse-Germanic god Odin or Woden, one of the leaders of the Wild Hunt), his habitat in the greenwood, the ritualistic and sacrificial nature of his death by bleeding at the hands of a wicked Christian abbess (possibly originally a priestess of the old pagan religions), and the fact that 'Robin', as we have seen, is a generic name for the Devil or god of the witches. Robin Goodfellow was sometimes said to be the son of Oberon, the king of the faeries. He is another character who appears in A Midsummer Night 's Dream, although he has an older origin that predates Shakespeare by many centuries. Oberon, or Auberon, meaning 'elf king', is found in medieval and Renaissance literature, and as we have seen already he is sometimes described as the son of the Arthurian faery enchantress Morgan Le Fay. As such he owned a magical Grail-like cup similar to the famed cauldrons of Celtic myth that supplied an endless flow of food and wine. Oberon is therefore an entity associated with the fertility and prosperity of the land and is regarded as a witch-god in some Old Craft traditions. Oberon is also related to Alberich, a dwarf smith who guards gold and treasure and makes the weapons of the gods in Norse and Germanic mythology. In this respect Alberich connects with one of the 94
Midsummer's Day aspects of the traditional witch-god as a divine blacksmith. Other forms of the ancient smith-god revered by modern traditional witches are the biblical Tubal-Cain, the Anglo-Saxon Wayland and the Roman Vulcan. It is interesting that in medieval times magicians summoned Oberon as a spirit who could tell them where buried treasure was hidden. In A Midsummer Night 's Dream, Oberon's wife and consort is Titania, the queen of the faeries. It is believed that Shakespeare took this name from one of the daughters of the Titans, the primordial giants in Greek mythology. In the play, Oberon and Titania are always arguing and fighting, and interestingly this affects the weather and the state of the land. 1heir conflict creates fog, high winds, overflowing rivers, diseases in livestock, unseasonably cold weather and failed harvests. 1his very much suggests that Titania is a form of Sovereignty, the goddess of the land, and the relationship between her and Oberon is very much a 'sacred marriage'. When the faery king and queen are at peace with each other then the wasteland flowers and flourishes, but when they are estranged the vegetation withers and dies, the weather is bad and the land becomes barren. In Ireland it was believed that the faery folk had to be respected because they controlled crops and their ripening. 1hose few mortals who have had the privilege of meeting the G.!leen of Elfhame or Faerie are struck by her unearthly beauty that is unlike any mortal woman's. R.J. Stewart has written of his own close encounter with the faery queen. He describes her as a spiritual being of great power, both beautiful and terrible. She had a pale white face, a long and narrow nose, and lips that changed colour from red to purple and black and back again. Her eyes were tawny gold with black pupils like a hawk and her long and flowing hair was red in colour and streaked with black. She wore a green robe interlaced with gold, silver and crystal threads and sat upon a throne made from the stump of an ancient tree. In both European and British witch trials the female leader of the coven was often called the 'faery lady', the 'queen of elves' or the 'queen of the faeries'. As mentioned before, there are historical accounts of mortal beings enticed or taken into 'faery mounds' (Neolithic burial mounds) by the faery queen and taught the arts of seership, divination and herbal healing. In the 1 7th century John Heydon, a London astrologer, magician and mystic who foolishly predicted the imminent death of the dictator Oliver Cromwell, was forced to flee for his life to rural Somerset. 1here he set himself up as a 'cunning man' and healer following a meeting near a faery (prehistoric burial) mound with a strange lady "dressed in green." She took him inside the mound where there was a glass castle and "taught him wisdom". In 1 5 8 8 the Scottish witch and healer Alison 95
Liher Nox Pearson confessed to having been friendly with the queen of Faerie and her court for many years. Ten years later a man called Andro Man was also executed in Scotland after confessing to having sexual relations with the Q.yeen of Elfhame. In return she promised Man he would "know all things" and that his material needs would be supplied by the faeries until he died. Some witches like Andro Man entered into 'faery marriages' with their so-called 'demon lovers'. In return they were granted psychic and healing powers and the knowledge of herbcraft: and the medicinal properties of plants. One classic example are the famous 'faery doctors' or physicians of Myddffai in Carmartenshire, South Wales, who survived into the 1 8 rh century. 'They claimed descent from two brothers who were taught herbal lore in the Middle Ages by a faery 'lady of the lake' who had married a local farmer. 'The belief that the Fey or faery folk are the rebel angels who defied God, or descended from the forbidden mating between them and the 'daughters of man' as described in the Bible, can be found in folklore and traditional witchcraft. 'This connects the stories of 'fairy marriages' and 'demon lovers' with the belief in the Old Craft in spiritual continuity of the 'elven blood' or 'witch blood' from ancient times. Folklorist John Garland has recounted a meeting he had with a modern 'conjure man' or cunning man who lived on Exmoor in north Somerset. His informant told Garland that pixies (the local name for faeries) and witches were "one and the same". In fact he said that witches could traditionally communicate with the realm of Faerie because they were in fact faeries "half-born in human form." 'The full moon in June is known as the Faery Moon and indicates that any rituals in the month should be on that theme. However, a warning should be issued that dealing with the Good People can be potentially dangerous. As mentioned earlier they are amoral. At best their attitude to humans is ambivalent and at worst downright hostile. When dealing with them it is always best to go through the medium of the Q.yeen of Elfhame and the Elf King rather than try and contact any of the lesser denizens of Faerie direct. Midsummer Eve can also be used for magical workings to gather herbs and plants for use in healing and hexing.
IA1".MAS�I D€ HE word 'Lammas' derives from the Anglo-Saxon or Old English hlefmaesse or 'loaf mass' celebrated in the pre Reformation Christian calendar on August 1sr. As recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, this was when a special Mass was said using bread made from the first wheat or corn cut in the harvest. 'Ihe consecrated bread was then broken into four pieces and placed in the corners of the barn to protect the grain that was soon to be harvested from the fields. In Ireland the feast of Lughnasadh at the beginning of August was dedicated to the god of light, Lugh, with his magical 'lightning spear' that destroyed the enemies of the land. In a pagan sense, Lammas refers back to the ancient rite of offering the 'first fruits' of the harvest to the Old Gods to ensure fine weather, so it will be safely gathered in. August Eve (July 3 1 st) was also a time for reinforcing and repeating the protective and warding rites already associated with May Day and Midsummer's Day. Crosses of rowan wood were placed over the doors of farmhouses, cow sheds and barns to ward off the witches and faeries who were believed to be out and about on this Lammas Night causing mischief and mayhem. However the primary purpose of the Lammastide rites was to ensure a good and prolific harvest. In the Old Craft it was a time for sympathetic magic to make sure any threat to the harvest from outside forces was banished or eliminated. In 1 6 1 7 a woman called Margaret Ine O!iane and her young son were burnt at the stake in the market place of Castletown on the Isle of Man. She had been caught in possession of a 'riding pole' with its top end carved in the shape of a phallus. Allegedly Ine O!iane and her son had gone out into the fields before the harvest and 'ridden' on the pole as part of a witchy fertility rite. 'Ihree hundred years later in the 1 94os, witches in rural Buckinghamshire went into the fields at harvest time for a similar magical purpose. 'Ihey 'rode' either a forked stave (stang) or a horse headed rod in a ritual dance to the land to banish the old powers of
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Liber Nox decay and increase the new power of growth. 'Ihis story was told to Andrew D. Chumbley by one of his Old Craft initiators. According to John of Monmouth, in the 1 960s Robert Cochrane's traditional Royal Windsor Cuveen did a similar dance, riding ash staffs or a besom to drive or sweep out 'evil from the land'. It was also danced to 'make the crops grow and avert drought'. In r 9'h century Scotland, the traditional bonfires lit at midsummer in June were transferred to the period around Lammas. 'Ihe last day of July, Lammas Eve, was dedicated in folk tradition to St Margaret, the patron saint of Scotland, even though her official feast day was in November. On St Margaret's Day a large cartwheel was heated in the Lammas fire until the metal rim glowed red-hot, and then rolled down a hillside. In pre-Christian symbolism this fiery wheel travelling down the slope of the hill represented the disc of the sun. In some parts of the country the sun actually appears to 'roll' down the side of certain hills and Glastonbury Tor is one example-:''At this time of the year the sun also begins to drop from its midsummer zenith in the sky to its position low on the horizon at midwinter. 'Ibis can be seen as the descent of the Horned God from his superior summer heights to the depths of the underworld. 'Ihe key theme of Lammastide, and the period of the agricultural cycle from the beginning of August to the autumn equinox in late September, is sacrifice and death. Specifically the sacrificial death of the virile God, or his human representative as the divine king or priest king, that deprives him of his spiritual and temporal power on the material plane. 'Ihis is followed by his transition from Middle Earth to the underworld and the afterlife. On May Day the witch-goddess married the God in the greenwood and by this act she made him her king to rule over the land, in both a physical and metaphysical sense. At Lammastide his reign ends and Sovereignty, the goddess of the land, is the instrument of his death among the red poppies in the corn field. At Beltane the Lady captured his heart, but at Lammas she cuts it out of his body so that his royal and sacred blood fertilizes the land he rules. 'Ihe concept of sacrifice in religious rites is as old as the human race. It originally arose in the superstitious belief that the dangerous and destructive forces of nature could be appeased and even controlled by making sacrificial offerings to the gods and goddesses who represented them. Obviously in the rites in the agricultural cycle associated with the harvest, sacrifices would have been made to ensure the safe gathering in of the crops and that they were plentiful and healthy. Alternatively, if it looked as if the harvest would be poor or _fail, the life of the king
Lammastide himself was offered to the Old Gods in exchange for a good and healthy crop. Although sacrifices are more associated with the old pagan religions, in the Book of Genesis it is recorded that Yahweh ordered Abraham to sacrifice his own son on a stone altar. Just as he was about to obey the divine commandment, the patriarch saw a ram trapped in a thicket nearby and he substituted it as a sacrificial offering instead of the boy. Even in the time of Jesus, the high priests of the temple in Jerusalem still practised blood sacrifice. In modern Christianity the rite still exists in a sublimated and symbolic form as the celebration of the Mass. At its climax the worshipper is invited to partake of the bread and wine representing the blood and flesh of their saviour. Similar rituals were practised in ancient pagan cults such as Mithraism and the Eleusian Mysteries. In Iron Age Europe there were sacrificial rituals involving the depositing of bodies of human victims in the land, especially bogs and marshes. '1his was because it was believed such places were entrances to the underworld. As some of these bogs were rich in peat, many of these sacrificial victims have been excavated in modern times in a semi mummified state. Two classic examples were unearthed in the 1 95 0s in Denmark and have been named the Tollund and Graubelle Man respectively, after the places where they were found. '1he remains of the bodies were so well preserved that their facial expressions could still be seen. Both victims had suffered a ritualistic 'triple death' in the sense that they had been garrotted or hung, had their throat cut and a blow had been administered to the head with an axe or club. '1he most famous of several so-called 'bog bodies' unearthed in Britain in modern times was found at Lindow Moss in Cheshire in 19 84. Archaeologists called him the Lindow Man, although tabloid journalists soon nicknamed him 'Pete Marsh'. After nearly two thousand years in the peaty soil, his body was so well preserved that the local police, called to the scene by the peat workers who made the discovery, at first believed they were dealing with the victim of a present-day murder. The body was of a young man in his twenties and he was naked except for an unusual armband made of fox fur, which may have had some religious or magical significance to its wearer. Possibly it represented his personal totem animal or that of his tribe or clan. Lindow Man had died as a result of several blows to the head with a sharp instrument, and he had also been strangled and his throat was cut. Oddly, either before or after his death, the skin of the body had been painted green using a copper based pigment, thus turning the sacrificial victim into a 'Green Man'. 99
Liher Nox 'Ihe modern hereditary witch E.W. Liddell has claimed that the bog bodies provide evidence for the worship of the Great Mother Goddess in Bronze and Iron Age Europe. He cites the discovery in 1 9 5 2 of the body of a teenage girl in a peat bog at Schwesling in Denmark, who was blindfolded and had a leather collar around her neck. Liddell claims that in Scandinavia and northern Germany, sacrificial victims, male and female, had a halter or leather noose placed around their necks to signify they belonged to the Great Mother Goddess and had been killed in her honour. An alternative form of sacrificial death was the decapitation of the victims, and we have already seen this depicted in the medieval tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with his grisly 'beheading game'. Human skulls were ritually deposited in rivers during the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age warriors of ancient Britain were head-hunters, collecting the skulls of their enemies as trophies to be displayed or for ritualistic or magical purposes. The skulls of those killed in battle or executed prisoners-of-war were often displayed on the entrance gates or walls of Iron Age hill-forts. 'Ibis grisly practice was both a warning to would-be enemies and to magically ward off evil influences that might threaten or harm the tribe. Human skulls were also ritually deposited in the ditches and earthworks surrounding sacred sites or settlements as well as in rivers, marshes and bogs. In prehistoric times there is also archaeological evidence that after the bodies of the dead were interred in burial mounds the skeletal remains were later removed for important rituals and then replaced. 'Ibis custom may well have involved using human skulls as oracular devices to contact and communicate with the dead, the ancestors and the ancestral spirits of the tribe. Today there are still ghost stories about so-called 'screaming skulls' kept in country houses that seem to be the medium for Otherworldly contacts, poltergeist-type phenomena or family curses. Oracular and protective magical practices using a head can be found in the legendary story of Bran the Blessed, the 'Blessed Raven', the High King of the Island of the Mighty, or Britain, mentioned in 7he Mabinogion. Bran gave the hand of his favourite daughter Branwen to the king of Ireland to seal a political alliance between the two countries. When his daughter was mistreated by her new husband and his courtiers, Bran and his warriors launched a rescue mission that resulted in the high king's death. Before he died Bran told his companions to cut off his head and carry it back to Britain for burial. Only seven of the original warriors survived, and on the trip home they used the talking head of the high king as an oracular device. IOO
Lammastide Eventually the skull was buried on the White Hill, now the site of the Tower of London, facing towards Europe. It was said that as long as Bran's severed head remained there in situ, no foreign army would invade the Blessed Isles. However, when King Arthur became the new Pendragon of Albion he ordered the head to be exhumed. I n that way the once and future king was exerting his authority and divine right received from Sovereignty, the goddess of the land, to replace Bran as the new protector and guardian of Britain. However, no good came of the act, as the Saxons invaded England, Arthur was killed in battle and his Fellowship of the Round Table ended in failure as his rule ended. 1he ritual deposit of severed heads or skulls was also associated in prehistoric times with wells and springs. When these sites were Christianised the symbolism oftheir connection with the sacred head cult appears to have survived in the legends of the Celtic saints. For instance, in the 6th century CE when St Dewi or David arrived in the area on the coast of south-west Wales that now bears his name he came into conflict with a local tribal chieftain. His wife is supposed to have decapitated her own daughter as a sacrifice to the Old Gods in the hope they would get rid of the saint. Where her blood fell on the ground a fountain or spring appeared, whose waters were reputed for many centuries to possess healing powers. It was still being visited in medieval times and the I 2 th century chronicler Geraldus Cambrensis or Gerald ofWales mentions it in the written account of his travels around the country. In North Wales the legend of St Winifrede may possibly have echoes of the Celtic cult of the severed head. She was a young virgin pursued by a prince who was desperate to marry her. When Winifrede refused his overtures in his sexual frustration and a fit of anger the nobleman drew his sword and beheaded her. Where the young woman's blood flowed into the earth a spring bubbled up out of the ground. Today people still visit St Winifrede's Well on the site of her death seeking cures. Another early Celtic saint called Teilo established a religious community at Llandeilo in West Wales, where there is a holy well in the churchyard dedicated to him. Another well named after St Teilo can be found at Maenclochog in present-day Pembrokeshire. In the Middle Ages, pilgrims visited the site to drink the water from the well in a cup made from a human skull said to be the saint's. 1his bizarre drinking vessel was in the ownership of a local family who acted as the hereditary guardians of the shrine. 1he practice only died out as late as the I 92os when the last of the family died, and the skull cup disappeared from sight. Some years ago it was recovered from a relative of the family living abroad and is now displayed in Llandaff Cathedral near Cardiff. IOI
Liher Nox The Celtic head cult seems to have survived in one version of the medieval Grail Mysteries. 1he Estoire de/ Saint Graaf or History �f the Holy Grail, based on a 1 3 th century work by Robert de Boron, describes how one of Arthur's knights, Sir Perceval or Parsifal, visited the castle of the wounded Fisher King. 1here he saw the Grail carried in a procession by young boys and girls accompanied_ by a bleeding lance and a severed head on a platter. In the Christian Mysteries the Grail in question was the cup from the Last Supper, and the lance is the spear used by a Roman centurion to pierce the body ofJesus on the cross. Known as the Spear of Destiny, it is no ordinary weapon, for its point is made from meteoric iron and it was forged by the biblical smith Tubal-Cain, who Paul Huson has described as one of the aspects of the witch god. 1he Holy Grail was allegedly brought to Glastonbury, the Celtic Otherworld, by Jesus' uncle, foster-father and disciple Joseph of Arimathea and in some legends is hidden in the vicinity of the Tor. It has been suggested that the Grail Hallows is of a faery or elven nature. Once used in the mortal world, such supernatural objects are returned to their place of origin, as in the story of Joseph hiding or burying the Grail at Glastonbury Tor, Avalon or the Island of the Dead, would indicate. 1he sacred objects of spear or lance and the platter are used in a special Grail Mass, and it is tempting to see this as referring to a far older sacrificial ritual. 1his is also indicated by the Fisher King or Wounded King suffering a wound 'in the thigh' which renders him both lame and infertile. As a result, an area surrounding the Grail Castle becomes a wasteland. It is only returned to its fertile state when a brave and pure knight attains the vision of the Grail and the king is healed. 1he knight then replaces the king as the next guardian of the Grail. It has been suggested that because the Fisher King's injury is 'in the thigh' this is a polite euphemism for the genitals and possibly even castration. 1he king's loss of virility mirrors the infertility of the land, for he is an example of the divine priest-king married to the goddess of the land, whose symbol is the Grail. Although he does not actually die, the Wounded King can be compared to the Lammas sacrificial victim whose blood fertilises the land and ensures prosperity for his tribe or subjects. In the Arthurian legends the Wounded King is the first guardian of the Grail. This role is taken in the Christian Grail Mysteries by Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph is allegedly present at the crucifixion, where he collects in the cup used at the Last Supper the sacred and royal blood of Jesus that flows from the wound in his side inflicted by the Roman soldier's spear. Eventually this cup, the Grail, is taken by 10 2
Lammastide
Joseph of Arimathea to Britain and hidden somewhere in the environs of Glastonbury Tor, the 'hollow hill' that was sacred to the Iron Age people, and possibly the Bronze Age folk before them, and reputed to be one of the entrances to the Otherworld in the physical landscape. Echoes of the Celtic sacred head cult still survive in the Peak District where pagan rites were said to have been practised by local farming folk as late as the 1 97os. Stone heads excavated in the area have been associated with the Brigantes, an Iron Age tribe who once inhabited the area, worshipped the goddess Brigantia and were notorious head-hunters. An archaeological survey in the 1 990s identified at least 250 carvings of heads in the Peak District, Cheshire and Lancashire. Although it has been claimed they date back at least two thousand years, the majority have now been classified as dating from Victorian times when the art of making them was revived. Others are of modern origin and may be evidence of a local folk or magical tradition that still persists today.
Liber Nox Some of these stone heads can be seen displayed on the outside of buildings, usually above the liminal entrances of doors and windows, or inside on fireplaces. '1heir primary purpose seems to have been as protective devices or 'house guardians' to ward off witches and evil spirits. Stone heads in a Celtic style have also been found embedded in the stonework around holy wells and on bridges. '1hey were believed to be cursed, and anyone who damaged or removed the heads would suffer misfortune and illness. In the 1 9 70s the Celtic historian Dr Anne Ross was told by local people that stone heads were also buried upon the moors in the Peak District. On 'special days' they were exhumed and used in a rite where a lamb was sacrificed to the Old Gods. When Dr Ross was sent one of these 'Celtic heads' to examine and comment upon, she and her family experienced psychic manifestations of a half human, half-animal entity. Today witches do not practice human or animal sacrifice, but it remains a powerful symbolic and metaphorical image and act within Craft workings. Sacrificial offerings are still made to the spirits, and they can include small quantities of blood, either obtained using a sterilised needle or a medical instrument to prick a finger, or if the giver is a pre-menopause woman she can use her own 'moon blood' or menses. Not all spirits require blood, and other suitable offerings are perfumes and essential oils, food (especially sweet items like chocolate and cakes), honey, milk, fresh flowers, alcohol, tobacco, eggs, coins (especially currency that is no longer legal tender), small personal items such as jewellery and the burning of high quality incense. Magical fountains, holy wells and sacred springs often appear in the Arthurian legends as entrances to the Otherworld, guarded by witches, 'White Ladies' or mysterious faery women. '1hey also have a connection with Lammastide because growing crops need water to sustain them. On the nearest Wednesday to August r o'h (probably originally corresponding with Old Lammas in the pre-Gregorian Julian calendar) the folk custom of well-dressing is still carried out in Derbyshire. Although it is said that it began as a thanksgiving for deliverance from the bubonic plague in the 1 4'h century, it may also be a far memory of the pagan veneration of sacred springs with sacrificial offerings. In earlier times the wells were just 'dressed' with bunches or garlands of wild flowers. Then in the 1 Soos the more sophisticated practice arose of creating mosaics made of leaves, berries, pressed flowers, bark, glass, coloured sand and pebbles. At Droitwich in Worcestershire there was an ancient custom of dressing a local well with 'green boughs and flowers' every year.
Lammastide 'lhis custom was interrupted by the Civil War and the Cromwellian dictatorship, when the Puritans banned it as a heathen practice. It was then reported that once the custom stopped the well dried up. Despite the Parliamentary soldiers attempting to stop the villagers from carrying it out, the custom was revived, and immediately the water came back into the well. In modern traditional witchcraft it is the goddess of the land, the spring bride of the sacrificed god or divine king who is responsible for his death at Lammas. He has to die at the climax of his seven year reign so that the fertility of the land can be revived and continued into the future. Often a good harvest was linked to the prosperity of the tribe. On those occasions when the harvest failed, the tribe lost in battle or their livestock sickened and died, it was believed the chieftain or king had to be sacrificed for the good of the people so as to restore the natural order of things. In a mythological sense, the sacrificial death of the God heralded both his transition from the world of the living to the realm of the dead and eventual replacement by his dark twin, the Lord of the Wildwood and the Wild Hunt who rules over winter. 'lhe motif of the battle between twin bright and dark gods is found in the Lammastide struggle between the Celtic god Lugh, the Lord of Light, and Crom Dubh, the 'black bent one', who is the Lord of Darkness and a form of the corn -spirit worshipped at the end of summer, as we will see in the next chapter. Although the Lammas myth and its accompanying ritual is one of sacrifice and death, it is also one of transition into the afterlife and spiritual transformation into a new state of being. 'lhis is represented by the crossed arrows and a sickle fixed to the shaft of the stang at this festival. 'lhe Lord of the Waxing Year goes into the earth or descends to the underworld and becomes the hidden Lord of the Waning Year. Lammas is a period of intense sadness illustrated by the dying or waning power of the sun from its zenith at midsummer. 'lhere is the gradual fading of vegetation, the loss of the leaves from the trees, and the drawing in of the nights as the light fades towards the autumn equinox when day and night are equal.
IOS
M I �HA€LMAS o
the
pagan Anglo-Saxons, September was
known
as
halegmonath or 'holy month', reflecting the fact that it was an important time of the agricultural year when the harvest was gathered in. In the Christian calendar, Michaelmas (September 2 9'h) is the feast day of S aint Michael the Archangel. It is also known as the Feast of St Michael and All Angels or the Feast of the Archangels. '1hese archangels are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, who in ceremonial magic and some forms of traditional witchcraft are the rulers of the quarters or four compass points in the Circle of Arte. I n Christian mythology St Michael was supposed to offer protection from the powers of darkness, so early churches dedicated to the archangel were built on sites of former pagan worship. Astronomically his festival coincides with the autumn equinox, when in the northern hemisphere the sun crosses the equator and heads towards its lowest point at the winter solstice in December. A special meal was prepared on Michaelmas Day from a goose that had been fattened on the stubble from the harvest. It was said that anyone who ate the bird on this day would not want for money in the coming year, thus connecting the meal with the attaining of prosperity. I n Scotland a special St Michael's bannock was baked and eaten. '1his was a scone-like cake made from the cereals grown on the farm mixed with sheep's milk. Again it was supposed to bring wealth to those who ate it, as well as the protection of St Michael, who may have replaced an ancient sun god to whom offerings of the harvest were once made. In the agricultural calendar, Michaelmas was one of the quarter days when tenant farmers paid their rent and outstanding bills were settled. It was also the day by which farm workers should have safely gathered the harvest in. I n fact the full moon in September is popularly known as the 'Harvest Moon', and work in the fields went on by its light. Today harvest is often a few weeks early as farmers take advantage of any good weather in August or early September. At Harvest End or I06
Michaelmas Harvest Home, various seasonal customs were observed that appear to date back to ancient rituals connected with the twin themes of fertility and sacrifice and life and death. Prominent among these folk customs was the ritualistic cutting of the last sheaf in the harvest field. 'lhis was believed to symbolise the dwelling place of the corn spirit, who could take male, female or animal form. Sometimes the last sheaf was called the Old Woman, the Old Wife, the Old Witch, the Old Hag, the O!ieen, the Maiden, 'lhe Old Sow, the Mare, the Bitch, the Hare, the Goat or the Gander. 'lhese were either forms of the bright and dark goddess or the totem animals sacred to her. In Scottish folk tradition two 'corn dollies' were made from the last sheaf and called the Cailleach and the Maiden, representing the aspects of the Goddess in transition at this time of the year. In the Highlands the last sheaf was known as the Maiden before Samhain (November l st) and the Cailleach after that date, when the dark half of the year began. In Ireland the ancient god ruling the period from Lammas to Samhain and the harvest was Crom Cruach or Crom Dubh ('the bloody dark' or 'black bent one' or 'crooked one of the [burial] mound'). He was an underworld deity who was supposed to have invented the plough, and his myth may date back to Neolithic times. He was depicted carrying the Kern Baby (the last sheaf) on his hunched back, and was accompanied by two large black hounds. On Lammas this dark god fought a ritual combat with the god of light, Lugh, who gave his name to the festival of Lughnasadh. Crom owned a huge pet bull that was a danger to the harvest, and the supernatural beast had to be killed by Lugh's magical spear before the crops could be safely gathered in. Offerings offirst-born humans and animals, milk and grain were made to stone images of Crom on Samhain Eve (October 3 1 ••). It is claimed that St Patrick destroyed one of these idols that was being worshipped by pagans, with a blow from his crosier. When the demon inhabiting the stone left, the saint consigned him to perpetual punishment in Hell. In this story Patrick seems to have taken over the former role of the god Lugh in banishing the dark god Crom to the underworld. In 1 9 2 l an image believed to represent this harvest deity was excavated near a prehistoric stone circle in County Cavan, southern Ireland. It was lucky for a young woman to be responsible for accompanying the last sheaf back to the farmhouse, and she was called the Lady or O!ieen of the Harvest. In the late l 6'h century a pageant was presented to O!ieen Elizabeth I featuring a wooden effigy of the Roman corn goddess Ceres described as 'riding in a cart like a harvest queen'. When
Liher Nox the last sheaf arrived back at the farm it was woven into a corn dolly and dressed in female clothing with ribbons and wild flowers. This effigy would be hung up over the hearth until Plough Monday. Then it was taken down and buried in the first furrow of a newly ploughed field as a fertility charm. Alternatively it was kept above the fire until the next harvest and replaced with a new one.
1he male farm worker chosen to cut down the last sheafwas given the title of Lord of the Harvest. O n English farms this custom was known as 'Crying the Neck', when the reapers threw their sickles at the last shea£ It was considered unlucky to be the one who actually cut the sheaf down. Sometimes the man who was responsible was violently jostled by his fellow workers or had corn stalks thrown at him. There was also a tradition that if the 'neck' was cut by an older man, a younger farm worker would seize it from his hands and run back to the farmhouse with his trophy. O nce the last sheaf had been cut and the crops safely gathered in, a Harvest Supper was arranged by the farmer and his wife for the workers. If all had gone well this was a sumptuous feast where joints I08
Michaelmas of roast beef, sides of bacon, chicken, goose, cheese, home-made bread, plum pudding and ginger cake were washed down with large quantities of home-brewed cider and beer. On the Scottish island of Orkney the Harvest Supper featured the slaughter, cooking on a spit over an open fire and eating of a whole sheep, in a custom that is believed to date back to Viking times. 1he supper was presided over by the Lord and Lady of the Harvest and, in a reversal of the normal social rules and norms, the man was regarded as her consort and took a secondary role in the proceedings. After everyone had eaten their fill there was country dancing accompanied by music from a fiddle and the bagpipes. 1he corn spirit or corn king is celebrated in the popular English folk song John Barleycorn dating from the 1 6'h century, where the central character is a personification of barley and the alcoholic drink brewed from it. 1he academic Kathleen Herbert has claimed that 'John Barleycorn' is a reference to a mythical Anglo-Saxon figure called Beowa whose name in Old English means 'barley'. He was the son of a mysterious ancient king called Sceafa, descended from the Germanic god Woden, and appeared from nowhere as a baby, adrift Moses-like in a small boat. Other writers on folklore identify John Barleycorn with the Celtic god of light, Lugh. 1he folk song traces the life story of John Barleycorn who is killed by "three men out of the west" and buried in a field using a plough. When the rain falls, "little Sir John" raises his head on Midsummer's Day, grows a long wispy beard and becomes a man again. He is then cut down where he stands, pricked all over with pitchforks, bound to a cart and beaten with sticks "to cut him skin from bone". His remains are then taken to the miller so he can grind his bones between two stones to make brandy for the huntsman and the tinker. The lyrics of the song about poor John Barleycorn feature the dark and sinister seasonal theme of sacrifice and resurrection from the dead. 1his is carried forward from the previous festival of Lammas and the death of the divine king among the ripening corn. We have already seen how the person who cuts down the last sheaf in the harvest field was often badly treated by his peers. In fact if the farmer or his wife entered the field on the last day of gathering in the harvest they could be threatened, have a rope tied around their arms and be bundled into a shea£ In some European countries any stranger who accidentally wandered on to the threshing floor was beaten with the flail used to separate the grain from the husks. 1his sacrificial theme can also be found in folk traditions relating to the scarecrow as the spirit of the harvest or corn king. In several
Liher Nox English counties the scarecrow was known as a mawkin, an old dialect name for a ghost or ghoul. In Yorkshire, Warwickshire and Devon it was called a mummet or mommet meaning a spirit that walks at night. In Old Cornish a bucca can refer to a scarecrow, ghost or goblin and in northern England and Scotland it was known as a tatty-bogle. Tatty means potato and bogle is derived from bogey meaning any evil spirit or malicious faery, hence the bogeyman used to scare naughty children. In Shakespeare's play 7he Merry Wives of Windsor the scarecrow is called a Jackalent or Jack of Lent. 'lhis refers to the old and rather curious custom of pelting any stranger visiting the area with sticks and stones. By the 1 9'h century a puppet or scarecrow had replaced a human victim. It was beaten with sticks in a folk ritual to increase the fertility of the fields and ensure there was a good harvest. Originally the mawkin was the name for a bundle of rags on a stick used to clean out bakery ovens. After use it was placed in the fields to symbolically promote the growth of the grain used to bake the bread. When it was windy the rags fluttered in the breeze and were seen to scare off crows and other birds attacking the new crops. Sometimes in the old days a man desperate for any work was hired to be a human scarecrow and stand all day in the field warding off the birds. Some folklorists trace this custom and indeed the origin of the scarecrow back to human sacrifices in pagan times to protect the crops and livestock from disease and bring a fertile harvest. In this respect it could be a more socially acceptable and civilised substitute for the divine king ritually murdered so his blood fertilised the land. Dr Jacqueline Simpson of the Folklore Society believes the scarecrow may have originated in the ugly or aggressive effigies once placed in the fields to drive away evil spirits. She has linked them to the puppets in European folk customs that were destroyed in spring fertility rites as symbolic representations of winter and death. After the coming of Christianity, farmers in Brittany in northern France placed a life sized wooden image of the crucified Jesus in the fields instead of these puppets, as they believed it would produce a good harvest. Everywhere in folklore there is evidence of the association of scarecrows with the supernatural, ghosts and the spirits of the dead. In North America there was a folk belief that scarecrows came alive on the night of Hallowe'en (October 3 1 ") and roamed the countryside. The popular American author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story based on this belief; which was common knowledge in his home village of Salem, famous for its witch-trials. In the story, which is similar to the Italian fairy tale of Pinocchio, an old witch called Mother Rigby made 110
Michaelmas a scarecrow from a broomstick and used a spell and a tune played on a pipe to bring it alive. In some forms of the modern Traditional Craft this time of sacrifice between Lammas and Harvest End is also for thanksgiving for the fertility provided by the land. While thanks are given for what has been achieved and received during the summer and the successful gathering in of the harvest, it is also a time for sorrow. 'This is because the long bright days are giving way to the coming dark season with its hardships and terrors. 'lhe Horned God also leaves the world of the living and descends to the land of the dead or the underworld. 'The period around the autumn equinox marks the time when the sacrificed god undergoes a transformation. He descends through the trilithon or stone gate in the mound to the realm of the Old Queen in the underworld. Just as at Candlemas, where the dark goddess of winter gives way to the bright goddess of summer, as All Hallows approaches the summer king is replaced by the winter king in a reversal of roles. In 7he Mabinogion, Pwyll, the prince of Dyfed in West Wales, lefr his court at Arberth (modern Narbeth) to go hunting in Cwm Guch. He became aware of another pack of hounds chasing down the same stag as his own hunting dogs. However, they were brilliant white with red ears, and the prince realised they were Otherworld animals. 'Their master, dressed in grey and astride a grey horse, rode up to Pwyll and introduced himself as Arawn, the king of Annwn or the underworld. To win his friendship the prince agreed to change places with him for a year and a day, and as a result united both their kingdoms. Following the sacrificial death of the God in the cornfield, his body is either cremated and the ashes spread, or he is dismembered and the parts are scattered to the four quarters of the land. 'The modern occultist R.J. Stewart has written about the sacred priest-king being buried in the land, where he dies so that his spirit merges with the local environment. In this way the discarnate king remains earthbound, quite literally, and close to the tribe. In this position, halfuray between the material world and the spirit world, he acts as a teacher, guide and link between his people and the Otherworld. United in death, the sacrificial king and the land become one. 'The idea of the dead buried in the ground has an interesting link to agriculture and fertility, as the anthropologist Mircea Eliade saw corpses as symbolic of seeds buried in the womb of the earth awaiting rebirth. He said that the dead come under the jurisdiction of the Earth Mother or the Great Goddess, who rules fate and fertility. In folklore, Arthur takes this role of the 'sleeping king' slumbering in a cave with his company of warriors. He awaits the blast from a III
Liher Nox hunting horn that will awaken him in Britain's time of dire need, to once more rule over the land and fight its enemies. 1he most famous example of this legend of the Sleeping Warriors is associated with the ancient wooded ridge of Alderley Edge in Cheshire, a place known for the practice of traditional witchcraft in the zoth century. According to a local folk tale, a farmer crossing the Edge on his way to Macclesfield Fair with his prize white mare was accosted by an old man dressed in a flowing robe and holding a staff. 1he stranger offered the farmer a large sum for the horse, but it was refused. In response the old man predicted that nobody would buy the horse at market, and he would be waiting when the farmer returned. At market no one was interested in purchasing the horse, so when the farmer returned home via the Edge and found the old man patiently waiting, his offer was accepted. 1he man said that if the farmer followed him he would get paid. 1hey walked for a while and came to a rock face, which the old man tapped with his staff. A vast door appeared and opened, and the farmer found himself in a cave where a group of armed. warriors lay as if asleep. 1here were also several piles of gold in the cave and the old man invited the farmer to take his payment from one of them. 1he mysterious stranger then explained that he was Merlin the wizard and that the sleeping warriors were King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. When the time came they would awake and fight a great battle to save their country. 1his story underlines the magical roles in traditional witchcraft of Merlin and Arthur as guardians and protectors of the British Isles. During the Second World War it was reported that a group of students from Manchester University visited Alderley Edge and attempted to awake the sleeping warriors in the hope they would rise up and defeat the Nazis. Magical rituals using Arthur and Merlin as guardians to protect Britain from a German invasion were practised during the war by the occultist Dion Fortune and members of her Fraternity of the Inner Light.
II2
AEL HALL0WS
A
LL Hallows Eve or Hallowe'en, also known as Allantide or Hollentide, is celebrated on October 3 1 ", the day before All Saints Day in the Christian calendar. In Celtic times this was Samhain (pronounced 'Sow-in', from the Irish Gaelic for 'summer's end' or 'summer's rest'). Hallows was known in Wales as Nos Galan Gaea or 'Winter Night's Eve' when the spectral 'White Lady' could be seen walking the country lanes accompanied by a phantom white sow. It marked the beginning of winter and a new year and was a festival associated with the waning strength of the sun. It was a time to remember, honour and commune with the ancestral dead. In the agricultural calendar it was when the flocks and herds were driven down from the hills or in from their summer pastures. Livestock were also slaughtered and the meat preserved for the coming winter. In - the gth century C E the clerical writer the Venerable Bede said the pagan Anglo-Saxons called November blodmonath or 'blood month'. 1his was because it was when the blod or blot, the blood sacrifice of animals, was practised. As well as having a practical function for storing food it was a ritual petitioning of the Old Gods for a mild winter. Requests were made to the spirits that not too many of the elderly members of the tribe would die before the following spring. Hallowe'en is also one of the 'spirit nights' in the year when traditionally the veil between the worlds is thin. It is therefore a liminal or marginal time when spirits, ghosts and faeries roam the land, and this is still reflected in the secular celebration of the festival today. Because of its old Celtic reputation as the beginning of a new year and its association with the spirit world, Hallowe'en was traditionally a time to carry out rites of divination to foresee the future. Again this can be found in popular folklore and customs associated with the festival. When the new religion of Christianity replaced the old pagan beliefs and practices, Samhain became the Feast of All Saints or Hallowmas. 1he original date of this Christian festival was in May, until in 8 3 5 CE
Liher Nox Pope Gregory IV transferred it to November r ". All Saints Day celebrated those members of the Roman Catholic Church who had been canonised after death and joined the blessed company of saints. In 99 8 cE, February 2 1 st was designated as the Feast of All Souls, a special day set aside for the remembrance of the faithful dead and prayers for those unfortunate souls stranded in limbo. On that day people went to church to pray for the dead and visited the graves of their relatives and ancestors. It was eventually transferred to November 2nd, and in Catholic countries like Mexico is still celebrated in this way as the annual Day of the Dead. 'Ihe spirits of the departed were believed to revisit their old homes or their relatives and descendants at All Hallows. For this reason candles were left burning in the window to guide the dead home. Also the fire was left alight in the hearth all night, and food, drink and tobacco were left out for the spectral visitors. Special 'soul cakes' were sometimes baked for the dead. An Irish custom was to leave the front door open or unlocked, set an extra chair at the table and put out a bowl of porridge for any ghostly visitors. It is difficult not to see this practice as a relic of ancestor worship and the sacrificial rites associated with this time of the year in pre-Christian times. While it seems strange that the departed would require physical sustenance, it was widely believed that spirits took the life-force or vitality from any offering that was either food and drink or an animal sacrifice. From this folk custom of sustaining the dead came the magical ritual practised in traditional witchcraft known as the Dumb Supper. 'This is a necromantic rite for calling on the spirits of the dead to manifest, although it can also be used on Hallowe'en for divination. It features the laying of a table with cutlery and food and inviting the spirit of the person you want to contact to attend. 'This rite can be used to evoke a dead loved one or to call up and identify the wraith or spectral apparition of a future lover or partner. If a young woman wanted to find out who her future lover or husband would be, she went out into the garden at the first stroke of midnight on All Hallow's Eve. If she picked a cabbage from the vegetable plot it was said that the wraith of her destined loved one would appear. Alternatively that night she would have a dream in which he made his presence known. Hemp seed was also scattered at crossroads, sacred to the goddess of death, and in churchyards at midnight for the same purpose. 'Ihe traditional Hallowe'en game of apple-bobbing also probably originated in ancient divinatory rites to predict future events. A large bowl was filled to the brim with water and several apples were placed
All Hallows in it so they floated. 1he aim of the game was for a single person to attempt to bite a piece out of one of the apples without using their hands. Whoever was successful was said to be destined to marry or enter a long-term relationship by the same time in the next year. Another popular form of divination was for a young woman to sit in front of a mirror at the witching hour of midnight. It was said that if she looked in the mirror she would see either the face of her future partner or an apparition of him standing behind her. 1his folk custom is based on the use by witches of mirrors for scrying or contacting the spirit world. Often the magical practitioners known as cunning folk used a magic mirror to identify those who had stolen goods or to find the location of missing or lost property. Many people in Britain today mistakenly believe that the controversial tradition of 'trick or treating' is a recent import from America. In fact it was widely practised by our ancestors and ironically was probably introduced into the United States by Scottish and Irish migrants. In the north of England and parts of the Midlands, Mischief Night was once celebrated on the eve of Bonfire Night (November 4'h). On that night young people ran riot, letting off fireworks in the street, splashing front doors with paint, smearing door-knobs with treacle and stealing any wood that was lying about for their Guy Fawkes bonfires. Before the First World War, Mischief Night was actually celebrated on Hallowe'en and it was only later transferred to November 4'h. In Somerset the last 1hursday in October was known as Punkie Night when children roamed the streets with lanterns, called punkies, made from hollowed out mangold-wurzels. 1hey chanted: "It's Punkie Night tonight/Give us a candle, give us a light/Ifyou don't, you'll get a fright." In the Peak District of northern England, November 1" was known as Cakin Neet or Caking Night and was marked by guising and masking. Special 'soul cakes' were baked from butter, treacle and oatmeal and left in churchyards as offerings to the dead. Hill farmers would also carry blazing torches from the traditional Hallowe'en bonfires and throw them on the fields as a fertility charm. In more recent years the custom of lighting of these fires at Hallows was transferred to Guy Fawkes Night five days later. However, a memory of them survived in naming the effigy of the mastermind of the 1 7'h century Gunpowder Plot as 1he Lad or the Old Lad, both local names for the Devil. The 'guy' on the bonfire was also regarded as a scapegoat type figure who went up in flames to absorb the bad influences in the community. A prominent feature of 'trick or treat' was the wearing of masks and costumes to disguise the wearer and conceal their day-to-day identity.
Liher Nox '111is tradition of masking or (dis)guising also had a deeper meaning because the participants represented the dead and the chthonic spirits of winter and darkness. Coincidentally, Dis was the name of an ancient Roman god of the dead. In North Wales in Victorian times, masked men roamed the streets wearing ragged clothing and sheep fleeces. Irish guisers processed from house to house with one of their number dressed in a white sheet surmounted by a horse's skull. Today's children are more likely to wear masks representing horror film characters such as Count Dracula, Baron Frankenstein's monster, Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street, the Joker from the Batman movies or whoever is a current cultural villain. However, beyond the blatant commercial aspects of the modern secular celebration ofHallowe'en, by dressing up in scary outfits, today's younger generation are unconsciously recognising the chthonic powers of darkness and the underworld who rule the season as autumn gives way to winter. Instead of the pumpkins later imported from the States, originally lanterns were made on Hallowe'en from turnips and swedes. In fact in America pumpkins had been associated more with harvest festivities, and carving them into lanterns at Hallowe'en is only first recorded as late as 1 83 4. '1hey were hollowed out to take a candle, and eyes and a nose and a mouth was carved into the flesh to represent a demonic or goblin face. In Britain they were called a Jack O' Lantern (Jack of the Lantern) and were carried around the streets mounted on poles. Sometimes these improvised lanterns were placed in the windows of houses or on gateposts to ward off the evil influences. '1hey also represented the Otherworldly spirits who were out and about at this time. Jack O' Lantern was originally associated with the will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus (fool's fire), a ghostly ball of light often seen hovering over graveyards, bogs and marshes after dark. '1hey were also called 'spook lights', 'corpse candles' and 'ghost candles', and were associated with a mischievous spirit who led travellers astray. In some folktales the lights were said to be the souls of wicked people who have been forbidden entry to Heaven, and are doomed to wander the Earth for eternity. Alternatively they are those who have sold their souls to the Devil, and after death their shades remain earthbound, haunting remote places. In Cornwall, Jack O' Lantern was a mischief making pixy. He had similar attributes to the hobgoblin Robin Goodfellow who pestered maid servants working in country houses with his tricks. In Cornwall and Devon, Jack and his female consort Joan the Wad are the king and queen of the piskies or pixies and local representations of the witch-god and witch-goddess. n6
All Hallows
In the old days, peasants locked their doors and shuttered their windows on Hallowe'en because it was believed that spirits roamed the countryside. In Wales stiles, crossroads, churchyards and other liminal places were avoided because on this night they were haunted by the White Lady and the Old Black Sow, possibly folk memories of the hag goddess. 1he sow was an animal associated with the Welsh witch Ceridwen, and Merlin was sometimes symbolically represented as a swineherd. In Ireland there was a similar belief and Hallowe'en was known as Puca Night or Goblin Night. 1his was because it was the
Liher Nox night when troops of faeries paraded from hill to hill playing music. Scottish people believed it was the time when trolls attacked livestock and crops, and God-fearing people stayed indoors. 1he traditional Hallow fires to keep witches and the 'green and black faeries' away were lit in Ireland, Wales, northern England and Scotland, and for a short period in the 1 6'h century the Church banned them. 1hey were lit by young people to the sound of hunting horns as dusk fell. Everyone danced in a ring around the fire holding hands, and when it died down the young men leapt through the Hames or ran over the burning embers. Sometimes people blackened their faces with the wood ash as a protection against malefic magic. In Ireland a cold ember from the Hallowe'en bonfire was placed under children's beds to protect them from being stolen in the night by the faery folk. When Q.veen Victoria was in residence at Balmoral in Scotland on Hallowe'en a huge bonfire was lit in front of the castle and an effigy of 'an old witch' (the Cailleach?) was burnt on it. All the royal family attended the mock witch-burning and were said to enjoy it immensely. In Lancashire, large candles were carried into the hills. If their flames went out on the journey, the person holding it was destined to become a victim of the powers of malefic witchcraft. In this custom the candle Harne symbolised the immortal soul. All Hallows Eve was also traditionally when the Wild Hunt rode out from the 'hollow hills' lived in by the faery folk. In fact it was said that this was when it made its first outing, which connects it with the traditional witch-belief of the Horned God descending to the underworld at this time. It was said that anyone who was out and about after dark on Hallows Eve could be taken away by the spirit host. It was led by the faery king and the elf-queen, a pagan god or goddess like Woden or Holda, and in Christian times by the Devil. In localised folklore some famous or infamous personages like Cain, Herod, or even a national hero such as the Emperor Charlemagne, King Arthur or Sir Francis Drake were its leaders. 1he mythos of the Wild Hunt is an important aspect of traditional witchcraft, as it represents a symbolic link between Middle Earth, or the material world, and the spirit realm. 1he legend of the Wild Hunt can be found all over Europe and was even taken to North America by the early colonists. In the mythology of the Old West it was commemorated in a country and western song made popular in the 1 95 0s called Ghost R iders in the Sky featuring phantom cowboys driving a herd of spectral cattle. In European countries the Wild Hunt is known by many different names such as Wotan's Army (Scandinavia), the Family of Harlequin (France), the Furious Host 118
All Hallows (England), the Rade (Ride) of the Sidhe (Ireland) and the Slaugh (Host) of the Dead (Scotland). lhe Wild Hunt has been described by witnesses as a cavalcade or procession of spectral beings including witches, faeries and the spirits of unbaptised children, suicides and those who have suffered a violent death either by accident, murder or execution. Although there are female leaders such as the goddesses Diana and Holda, it is usually led by the Wild Hunter or the witch-god in his wintry aspect. He is described as a black or grey-clad man wearing a broad-brimmed hat or hood, and a long cloak. He rides a black, grey or white horse and is accompanied by a pack of black hounds with fiery red eyes, and breathing flames. If a mortal has the misfortune to meet the Wild Hunter riding along one of the ancient trackways they should throw themselves face down on the ground until he has passed by. It was believed that if a mortal actually saw the Wild Hunt they would die and be carried away to join its retinue for eternity. lhe Wild Hunt is recorded in English folklore in the legend of Herne the Hunter, who is still supposed to haunt the grounds of Windsor Castle, formerly known as Windsor Great Park, which is mentioned in Shakespeare's play 7he Merry Wives ef Windsor. It is said that many centuries ago when the park was a royal hunting ground its steward and gamekeeper was a man called Richard Horne or Herne. One day he was accompanying the king on a hunting trip when they wounded a large stag. Enraged with pain, the beast charged at the king. Herne bravely threw himself in its path to save his regal employer. The stag was killed in the collision, but Richard Herne was also mortally wounded. As he lay on the ground dying with his blood seeping into the earth, a mysterious stranger suddenly emerged from the surrounding trees. He told the distraught king he was a wizard and could save Herne's life using his magical powers. lhe stranger then told the king to cut off the stag's antlers and attach them to the keeper's head. lhis he did, and Herne miraculously recovered from his fatal wound. After this event, depending on which version of the tale you read, Herne either lost his hunting skills, which was the price he had to pay for being resurrected from the dead, or was caught poaching the king's deer. Although Herne had saved his life, the king did not want to show the hunter any special treatment because the other servants were already saying he favoured the gamekeeper over them. lherefore the king was forced to dismiss Herne from his employment. The distraught hunter then committed suicide in the Faeries' Dell in Windsor Forest by hanging himself from a 'blasted oak' that had been struck by lightning.
Liber Nox It is interesting that in their modern Wildwood Tarot, actor Mark Ryan (from the Robin �f Sherwood televisions series) and Arthurian writer John Matthews have transformed the major arcana card The Hanged Man into 1he Blasted Oak. Esoterically the lightning flash or 'fire from heaven' is the light of spiritual illumination or enlightenment associated with the aspect of the witch-god known as Lucifer the Lightbringer. 1he oak is also known as the 'king of the forest' and was sacred to the druids. In Sherwood Forest the Major Oak was associated with Robin Hood, the greenwood outlaw who some folklorists have identified as an arboreal spirit. Allegedly Herne's Oak was on a ley that passes through the Round Tower at Windsor Castle, a nearby church, Roman remains and a prehistoric burial mound and earthworks. 1he tree was cut down in r 796 on the orders of King George III but a new oak was replanted on the site by (h1een Victoria. When that in turn was removed in r 906 yet another 'Herne's Oak' was planted by King Edward VII, suggesting an ongoing interest in the legend of Herne by the Hanoverian royal family. Ever since his violent death it is said the ghost of Herne has haunted Windsor Great Park in the traditional guise of the Wild Huntsman. In W. Harrison Ainsworth's Victorian novel Windsor Castle, Herne is described as wearing a deer skin as a cloak, a helmet made from a stag's skull complete with antlers, and an iron bracelet on his left wrist that glows with an unearthly light. A large owl flies above him as he rides on horseback with two black dogs through the woods, blowing his hunting horn. 1his owl is the totem bird of the witch-goddess in her dark winter aspect. Sometimes Herne is accompanied by snakes and a swarm of grotesque imps. Although this description is in a fictional work it is based on local folklore and corresponds to eye-witness accounts of the Wild Hunter. Sightings of Herne the Hunter, which still occur today, were usually reported during the winter months and especially during the liminal Twelve Days from Christmas to Twelfth Night. Herne has a connection with royalty and these sightings often coincided with times of national crisis or tragic events surrounding the royal family. Old Herne was also regarded as a general omen of misfortune, and in 7he Merry Wives �f Windsor Shakespeare says that when Herne rides out in the winter at the magically liminal time of midnight he makes the milk of cows run with blood. 1here have been several sightings of the Wild Hunter in recent years. Local people claim to have often heard the sound of a hunting horn and dogs barking in the park after dark. In 1 9 26 a local 120
All Hallows justice of the peace, Mrs Legge, reported that she and her daughter had heard the baying of hounds near the Castle. Another version of the Wild Hunter whose appearance is also seen as an omen of national disaster is Eric Silvanus or Wild Edric who haunts the Shropshire hills near the Stiperstones and the Forest of Clun on the Welsh Border. Edric was a real historic person, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who owned land in the area during the 1 1 'h century. When the Normans invaded England in 1 06 6 it was Earl Edric who led the brief English and Welsh resistance against their occupation. 1he legend says that Edric was out hunting in the Clun forest and when he met a beautiful woman called Lady Goda. Edric was so captivated by her unearthly beauty that he kidnapped her and took her back to his castle. She remained silent for several days before telling the nobleman she was in fact the (h1een of Elfhame. She eventually agreed to marry him, providing he treated her well according to her status, and never mentioned her elven origins. 1he earl was so besotted with the faery woman that he gladly agreed to her conditions. Edric and his faery bride lived happily together for many years until one day the earl lost his temper and broke the conditions Goda had placed on him at their marriage. When Goda was late preparing his breakfast Edric said: "I suppose you have been cavorting all night with your sisters in the woods". Immediately the faery lady left him and returned to her own folk. Edric was heartbroken at his loss and gradually pined away and died After his death it was said that Earl Edric and Lady Goda were reunited and now lead the Wild Hunt together across the Shropshire hills. Some modern traditional witches revere the couple as local aspects of the witch-god and witch goddess. Goda is identified with the Germanic goddess Dame Holda, the female leader of the Wild Hunt. In ancient Greek mythology Hecate, the goddess of the underworld and witchcraft, was said to have a pack of'swift hounds of Hades [Hell]' who were described as 'death spirits' and 'cleavers oflife'. 1hese demonic creatures were said to hover in the air like hawks over the death bed and then swoop down on the dying to take their souls to the underworld. Hecate herself sometimes took the form of a black dog and even when she was in human form it was said she howled like a hound. In the 1 o'h century Canon Episcopi, the Church condemned the 'wicked women' who allegedly rode at night in the company ofDiana 'the goddess of the pagans'. 1his female deity was probably not the Roman goddess at all, but Dame Holda. A late medieval account of the Wild Hunt describes it as 'the wild host, very strange, horned, beaked, tailed, moaning and shouting, behind, on a black wild steed, Frau Holda, the 121
Liher Nox Wild Huntress, blowing into the hunting horn, swinging the cracking whip, her head-hair slaking about windy like a true wonder-outrage.' '1he night-riders who accompanied her were described as 'good women', i.e. witches. In Dion Fortune's anthology of short stories 7he Secrets efDr Taverner ( 1926), a story called 'A Daughter of Pan' features an example of the Wild Hunt. '1he occult adept and psychologist Dr Taverner and his assistant Rhodes are consulted by the mother of a feral young girl called Diana because she is totally out of control. On the night of the vernal equinox Diana runs away to join the Wild Host and they are described as 'an undisciplined army passing across the sky' with 'ragged banners' flapping' and discordant music, 'furry snouts on human faces, clawed paws on human limbs' and 'green, vine-like hair falling over flashing eyes'. Eventually Rhodes comes to understand that Diana is no 'daughter of Eve' but a faery changeling who belongs to the 'Dark Lilith', and at the end of her story she meets and marries her soul mate. In Celtic mythology, as we have seen, the entrances to the underworld, Summerland or Land of the Ever-Young were either a cave, underwater in a river, lake or marsh or the sea, in a hollow hill, or on an island in the western ocean 'beyond the setting sun'. Physical places in the landscape such as fords that cross rivers were also access points and secret entrances to the spirit world, where contact could be made between the living and the ancestral dead. Such places were said to be haunted by a banshee (beansidhe or 'faery woman of the mound') type figure known as the 'Washer of the Ford'. She appeared as an old woman washing in the river the bloodstained armour or shrouds of warriors killed in battle and is a folkloric version of the dark goddess of death and the underworld. In the Bronze Age and Iron Age period, Avalon or Glastonbury Tor was regarded as the Isle of the Dead and one of the primary entrances to the underworld. '1his was when the Tor was virtually an island separated from the surrounding countryside by marshes and lakes. An underworld castle or fortress, four-sided or with four doors, situated on an island in the sea or surrounded by a moat or river is a motif that can be found in modern traditional witchcraft. It was to Avalon that the mortally wounded Arthur was carried on a barge by three queens - Morgan, Guinevere and Nimue - to be healed of his wounds and thus become 'the once and future king'. After his death Arthur also became one of the traditional human leaders of the Wild Hunt. A popular legend still known in the district is that on Midsummer's Eve the king and his knights ride out from beneath the Iron Age hill fort of Cadbury Castle where they have been sleeping, 122
All Hallows and travel along the spirit path that links it with Glastonbury Tor. 1hey each carry a spear or lance whose point shines with a bright blue light. In the 1 960s excavations by archaeologists for a BBC television programme identified Cadbury as the home of a high status Iron Age chieftain. They even speculated it was the site of the legendary Camelot. Glastonbury Tor was ruled by the Welsh god Gwyn ap Nudd, the king of the faeries and lord of the underworld, who is still said to ride out from this archetypal hollow hill leading the Wild Hunt. 1he enchantress Morgan Le Fay and her priestesses also guarded the sacred spring that lay in the shadow of the tor and can now be found in the Chalice Well Gardens. Dion Fortune describes this spring as 'the dark blood well of ancient sacrifice' and, linking the old paganism and Celtic Christianity in the mystical realm of Avalon, the place where Joseph of Arimathea hid the Holy Grail before he passed to the spirit world (Fortune 1 934). Gwyn ap Nudd is a neglected form of the witch-god, although he is still revered by traditional witches in the West Country. He is mentioned by the l 9'h century writer Lady Charlotte Guest in her collection of medieval Welsh tales published under the title 7he Mabinogion. She refers to an account in the Life ef St Collen concerning the Celtic saint's close encounter with Gwyn. After being a missionary in 'foreign countries', Collen settled down and became the abbot of Glastonbury Abbey. Afrer several years in this position he decided to lead a more austere life as a hermit or recluse, and retreated to Glastonbury Tor where he built himself a stone cell. One day when he awoke, Collen heard two local men conversing outside his door. 1hey were talking about Gwyn ap Nudd and saying he was the king of the faery folk and the ruler of Annwn - the Welsh name for the underworld. On hearing this conversation the saint poked his head out and admonished the two men, saying that the one they spoke about was merely a devil. In response the men turned on Collen and told him to "Hold thy tongue or thou shall receive a reproof from him [Gwyn]". 1his suggests the Celtic god was still revered in the area. 1he next day Collen heard a loud knocking on the door of his cell. When he opened it there stood a stranger who said he was a messenger from Gwyn ap Nudd, the king of Annwn, and his master commanded the saint's presence at the top of the Tor at noon. In reply St Collen slammed the door in his face. 1he next day the messenger appeared again and repeated the command. Again the saint ignored it. Finally, on the third visit, the messenger told Collen if he did not obey the king's demand "1hou wilt be the worst for it."
Liher Nox !his time Collen reluctantly obeyed, but before setting off he concealed a flask of consecrated holy water under his monk's habit. The saint struggled up the hill through the mist. When he arrived at the top of the hill he was amazed to see the fairest castle he had ever beheld, bathed in sunlight and guarded by an army of the finest and fiercest warriors. !here were also minstrels with wonderful voices playing fine musical instruments, handsome youths and beautiful maidens and all the trappings of a wealthy king. Collen entered the palace and saw Gwyn sitting on a throne made of the purest gold. The king offered his guest every type of food his mind could desire and any drink his heart wished for. However, Collen rejected the feast saying: "I will not eat the leaves of trees". !his is a reference to the prohibition on mortals eating faery food, because if they do they will be trapped for ever in the Otherworld. !he saint condemned Gwyn's realm as an illusion and a hellish place pretending to be paradise. He then threw the holy water over the assembly, and the king, his courtiers and the castle vanished into thin air never to be seen again - although of course they were. Gwyn's role as the king of Annwn is underlined by the name of his favourite hunting dog, Dormarth, which translated from Welsh means 'Death's Door' and suggests he was the canine guardian of the entrance to the underworld. Some writers have associated Gwyn with the constellation of Orion the Hunter because it appears in the sky near Hallows in October and remains there until the end of April (Beltane). We have already seen Gwyn's role in the ritual combat on each May Day for the hand of a maiden and therefore he can clearly be seen as a representative of the Winter King who leads the Wild Hunt during the dark season. In medieval times a church dedicated to St Michael or the Archangel Michael was erected on top of the Tor. In Judeo-Christian mythology he was the angel who led God's army against the rebel Lucifer, banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden with his fiery sword and guarded the gates of the underworld. Many churches built on former pagan sites of worship across the West Country were dedicated to St Michael because he was the vanquisher of the powers of darkness. Unfortunately the Old Gods had the last laugh as St Michael's church on Glastonbury Tor was demolished by an earthquake in the Middle Ages and only a ruined tower remains today. Paradoxically some streams of modern traditional witchcraft revere Lord Michael as a solar god figure and angelic intermediary with the Lord of Light. Today in our modern society the majority of people are rightly opposed to hunting as a so-called 'blood sport'. However, to our ancient
All Hallows ancestors hunting was not a leisure pursuit carried out for pleasure. Instead it was a matter of daily survival and life and death, because the survival of the tribe relied on the skill and expertise of its hunters. If animals were not hunted down and killed then the tribe would starve and this was a fact of everyday life. Also the ancient hunting people had a different attitude to the animals they pursued. In some cases they asked their quarry permission to kill them and afterwards ritualistically placated their spirits. Today, the nearest most urban dwellers come to hunter-gathering is visiting the local supermarket. To accept the myth of the Wild Hunt, its role in traditional witchcraft and connection to the festival of All Hallows, its magical and spiritual significance must be understood. The primary role of the Wild Hunter in esoteric terms is to harvest the souls of the departed. In fact as the lord of the underworld he acts as a psychopomp or guide on their journey to the afterlife. Death is the final frontier of life and the Wild Hunter is the guardian of the border and the gatekeeper between the realms of the living and the dead, who aids our transition from one to the other. Yet, paradoxically the hunter and the hunted are one. !hat is the central mystery recognised and acknowledged at this time of the year as the dark closes in. Hallowe'en or Hallows is one of the special times of the year when witches communicate with the spirit world and specifically with ancestral spirits. On this night they will call on the Mighty Dead or the Hidden Company; the spirits of discarnate witches and warlocks who have chosen to remain earthbound as teachers and guides to those left behind. Two circles are cast to represent the land of the living and the realm of the dead, and during the Hallows rite the celebrants will ritually process or pass from one to the other. !he spirits of the dead are then invited to travel along the spirit paths or ghost roads and join in the celebrations and participate in a ritual meal with the living. The Magister of a traditional coven that met in Windsor during the 1 9 7os described the festival in the following terms: 'The Wild Ride of Samhain crosses the gulf that is The Day Between the Years'. In this group the priestess led the rite because the God was in the 'other lands'. !he balefire was lit and it was a time of'sad and happy memories, skulls, cobwebs, ghosty and gouly.' !he Dumb Supper or magical feast where the living and spirits meet marked the end of the coven's ritual year. It is this unification of the mortal and spirit worlds that is the special significance of this festival marking the turn of a cosmic tide. ( T#zx & �ne magazine ofthe Mystery Faith ofWitchcraft No 1 , Autumn 1 975).
YB L€ H E time of the year when Jesus was supposed to have been born is not recorded in the New Testament. However the fact that the shepherds who first received the news of his birth from angelic beings were, according to the popular carol, 'tending their flocks by night' suggests that it may have been in the early spring rather than midwinter. In fact December 2 5 •h seems to have been selected as the Christian messiah's birthday in the 4'h century CE to replace pagan rites of sun worship at the winter solstice ('sun standstill' or the shortest day) that falls either on the 2 1 st or 2 2nd of the month. It is known from archaeological evidence that this time of the year was important to the megalithic culture of prehistoric Europe because of the number of stone circles, standing stones and burial chambers aligned to the solstice sunrise or sunset. Although it was not so significant to the people of the Iron Age, midwinter or Yule (from ]ol or 'wheel') was important to the Germanic and Nordic tribes of northern Europe and possibly also to their Bronze Age predecessors. At this time, temples, shrines and houses were decorated with evergreen foliage such as holly, yew, laurel and ivy to represent longevity and eternal life. Although the traditional Christmas tree was a 1 9•h century innovation introduced into Britain either by immigrants from Germany or <2.!ieen Victoria's German consort, Prince Albert, decorating fir trees at midwinter was a common pagan practice in Northern Europe. 'There is a story that the missionary St Boniface ordered the cutting down of the sacred trees revered by the Germans. He replaced them with the Christmas tree, and allegedly then the pagan tribes quite happily converted to the new religion. In fact there is a reference in the 1 5 th century to a tree decorated with holly and ivy set up at Cornhill in the City of London to celebrate Christmas. It was considered noteworthy at the time because it was destroyed in a thunderstorm on Candlemas Day, the traditional day when Yuletide greenery was taken down and burnt.
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Yule Another midwinter custom that probably dates back to the old days of paganism was the Yule Log. This was a relic of the balefires lit at dawn on the winter solstice to greet the rebirth of the sun. Traditionally a large branch of oak or ash was collected by children and dragged home, or sometimes horses were used to pull it. Passers-by who encountered the log on its journey were obliged to raise their hats or bow. If they neglected to do so it was said bad luck or misfortune would soon follow. Once safely in the house a libation of cider or ale was poured over the Yule Log before it was placed in the hearth and lit from a remnant of the branch from the previous year. It was expected to be large enough to be relit each evening, and burn during the Twelve Days of Christmas. After Twelfth Night (January 5 •h) the ashes from the log were scattered in the newly ploughed fields as a fertility charm. In Scotland the branch was carved into a representation of an elderly female and called the Cailleach, the hag goddess of winter, and in Wales it was similarly known as the 'Old Wife' or 'Old Woman'. In urban districts the Yule Log was substituted by the Yule Candle, made ofpure beeswax and decorated with gold and silver paint or lacquer and holly leaves. This was lit at dusk on Christmas Eve and burnt until dawn. If it went out during this period then the household would be cursed with bad luck for the next twelve months. !he remnants of the Yule Candle were kept because it was regarded as a potent charm. On Plough Monday it was melted and the wax was smeared on the blade of the plough to bring healthy and plentiful crops. Despite the general atmosphere of celebration, merrymaking, fun and games and good living at Christmas, there was a darker side to the festival, associated with supernatural happenings and the telling of ghost stories around a blazing fire. While it has been suggested this was largely due to the publication in r 843 of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in fact he was drawing on a pre-existing folk tradition long before his novel was written. Since ancient times, midnight on Christmas Eve was regarded as a spooky and sinister time when the gates of the Otherworld opened and the dead communicated with the living. In Anglo-Saxon times the Venerable Bede said it was still observed in the pagan way as the 'Night of the Mothers' when people attempted to communicate with the ancestral dead. In more modern times, as in Dickens' novels A Christmas Carol and 7he Chimes, Christmas Eve was when restless ghosts wandered abroad as 'night walkers' and haunted the living. However, the novelist turned this theme into a tale ofredemption based on his own views about the social conditions and treatment of the poor in Victorian England.
Liber Nox 1his belief in wandering spirits on the night might be one of the reasons the Church decided to hold a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. In West Wales until the outbreak of the Second World War, young men holding blazing torches formed a bodyguard to escort the vicar through the dark lanes to the church for the service. A late r 9 'h century writer commenting on this custom claimed it was a survival of 'the superstitious rites of the heathen Britons.' In Shetland, lights were burnt in the houses throughout the long night of the winter solstice when the powers of darkness were at their strongest. An iron blade was also left on the threshold to ward off the trolls and other supernatural creatures that were believed to be abroad just prior to the birth ofJesus. Midwinter was also a time when all over Europe people called guisers dressed up in animal costumes or ragged clothes and masks to represent the spirits of the winter and darkness. Again this is a throwback to pagan times, and in the 7'h century, 1heodore, the Greek archbishop of Canterbury, condemned superstitious and heathen English people who still dressed up in animal skins and impersonated beasts at midwinter. Mumming plays with a theme of death and resurrection were also performed, and still are today. 1hese featured folk characters such as St George the dragon slayer who fights and kills a Turkish knight, Old Father Christmas (not to be confused with the modern Santa Claus) and a shamanic doctor figure who has the necromantic power to revive the dead. One of the overtly pagan midwinter practices of animal masking that seemed to have survived as folk customs was the Christmas Bull, found mostly in the West Country counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. 1he most famous example of these was the Dorset Ooser. 1his was a wooden mask depicting a bearded human face with bulging eyes and real bull's horns. 1his ritual mask was in use until the end of the r 9 'h century when it mysteriously vanished from the local family who were its guardians. Many years later the mask was found stored in an attic but unfortunately it was in such a dilapidated condition it could no longer be used. In recent years a new Dorset Ooser has been made and the custom has been revived by Morris dancers in the Dorset village of Cerne Abbas, famous for its hill figure of an ithyphallic giant holding a club. In South and West Wales the equivalent to the Christmas Bull was the Mari Lywd, or 'Grey Mare', which may be a relic of pagan horse goddess worship, or associated with the legend of the Wild Hunt as the steed ofWoden. 1his was a real horse's skull with pieces of coloured glass for eyes and a hinged jaw that could open and snap shut. 1he skull was
Yule
mounted on a pole held by its operator who was concealed from sight beneath a white sheet. 1he Mari travelled around the parish bringing good luck and fortune to the houses it visited. 1he horse's attendants were rewarded with mince pies and mulled wine while it was invited in to play the trickster by chasing the women of the household and playfolly biting their bottoms. In England the similar hoden or hooden (hooded) horses were sometimes referred to as 'Robin Hood's steed'. Animal masking features in modern traditional witchcraft, and can be associated with most ofthe seasonal festivals ofthe Wheel ofthe Year. The animals and birds can include totemic beasts of the coven, clan or tradition, those associated with the Lord and Lady, and with witchcraft in general. Popular examples, as we have seen previously, include the hare, cat, badger, owl, raven, boar, fox, goose, stag, ram, goat, bull, mare and hound. In practice the use of such masks connects the wearer with the group soul of the animal concerned. Also their symbolism and its attributes may have significance to the person who chooses to wear a mask representing a specific totem animal. 1he wearing of spirit masks is a universal way in many cultures worldwide of representing or impersonating or connecting with Otherworldly beings, and as such is a useful aid for trance work and spirit ingress or possession. Of the animals listed above used in masking and guising, the hare is a popular form taken by the fetch or spirit double of the witch when it leaves her physical body and is 'out and about'. As we have seen, it is an
Liher Nox animal associated with the spring equinox and Lady Day representing fertility, physical activity, sexuality and 'divine madness' e.g. the Mad March Hare. It is also a lunar animal, and in East Anglia the new moon is known as the 'owd [old] hare'. The poet Robert Graves affirmed that the animal was the special totem of the 'White Goddess' of the moon and witchcraft. The cat is a lunar animal, although some 'big cats' like lions can have a solar attribution. In the Middle East cats were said to originate from the moon and were regarded as sacred in Ancient Egypt, where wild African cats were probably first domesticated, and associated with such feline goddesses as Bast and Sekhmet. Ancient people may have revered cats because they were the natural predators of mice and rats, who threatened granaries. In the Middle Ages it was said that black cats were the familiars of witches, although the real traditional witch's cat is a brindle. Because of this association and the common belief they were creatures of the Devil, in medieval France cats were burnt on pyres. In Britain many old houses have been found to contain mummified cats ritually deposited in walls so their spirits either ward off malefic witchcraft or protect from infestations of vermin. In traditional witchcraft the cat is sacred to the witch-mother Lilith and Hecate, the goddess of death and the underworld. 1he badger, although a legally protected species, is currently under threat in England from a government cull because it is believed to be a carrier for bovine tuberculosis. Country people called it the 'earth bear' although it belongs to the same family as weasels, and Brock, from the Celtic word broc believed to mean 'grey'. In Scotland, old-time witches boiled up badger fat to use in their flying ointments and the animal's foot was carried as a lucky charm. 1heir bones and tufts of hair were worn in small leather bags as a protective amulet against malefic witches, although they were also said to take badger form when they shape-shifted, so this might have been sympathetic magic. To change, the witch had to acquire the skin of a badger and wear it. A popular country belief was that badgers and owls were linked, and hunt together. 1he owl is also sacred to the witch-goddess, especially in her lunar forms, and is connected to the acquisition of wisdom, awareness and clear-sightedness. It is often regarded in folklore as a bird of ill-omen or doom, misfortune and death. In Scotland the bird is sometimes called the Cailleach and it belongs to the hag goddess representing the winter and death. 1he owl is supposed to be a bird that protects the faery folk when they are out at night, and for that reason they wear costumes made from its feathers. Cornish people claim that the owl can be a
Yule baby killer. It also takes infants from their cots and replaces them with faery changelings. However, it is also one of the shapes taken by the witch when she is 'out and about' in her astral form. In those streams of modern witchcraft that follow a Luciferian tradition the sinister and frightening 'Owl Lady' is associated with Lilith. !he raven was also a bird of ill-repute, a trickster and an omen of death, sacred to the Cailleach and the sinister Washer at the Ford. However it was also a bird of prophecy, foresight, and intelligence and is also associated with battlefields and the fallen dead. A raven's tongue kept in a leather bag around the neck with hagstones and dried gorse flowers was said to grant the wearer the power of the Second Sight. In its protective or guardian role it is associated with the old Welsh god and mythical king Bran the Blessed. !he boar or wild pig was sometimes an animal that was associated with the moon because of its crescent-shaped tusks. However, it was also an animal that was sacred to the witch-god in his sacrificial role. A popular custom at Christmastide was the Ceremony of the Boar's Head. In medieval times in large country houses the severed head of a boar was carried to the dining table on a large platter garlanded with sprigs of bay, rosemary and holly. In Scandinavia the last sheaf from the harvest was baked into a loaf in the shape of the animal called the Yule Boar. It was kept until it was time to sow the fields, then was broken up and the crumbs were mixed with the seed in the furrows. Female pigs were associated with the Welsh witch Ceridwen, who was called the sow-goddess, and the role of Merlin as a swineherd has already been mentioned. Prohibitions against eating pork are known from Ancient Egyptian religion and appear in Judaism and Islam. !his taboo may be for health reasons but possibly it has something to do with its pagan role as a symbol and sacred animal of both the sacrificed god and the Great Goddess. In one Arthurian legend the king and his knights went out from Camelot to hunt a giant enchanted boar, called Twrch Trwyth in Welsh. !his beast had once been human and was a man who had been transformed into a pig for unknown sins. !he fox is an animal of the master Cain and the Devil or Horned God and associated with the Magister, Man in Black or witch-master as his human representative. Its attributes include cunning, craftiness and trickery. In Finland the Northern Lights are known as 'fox fire'. !he sacred bird of the winter goddess Dame Holda, as the female leader ofthe Wild Hunt, is the goose. In the old nursery rhyme she is 0ld Mother Goose and snow falls from her wings as she flies through the sky on the first real day of winter. Geese were once kept as watchdogs to
Liher Nox guard property and warn their inhabitants of intruders. For that reason the bird is associated with protection, both physical and psychic, and the guardianship of secrets or forbidden knowledge. In Cornwall, witches were sometimes called 'geese women', possibly because they took this form when spirit travelling, and the magical symbol of the pentagram used in traditional witchcraft is sometimes known as the 'goose foot'. Goats, rams, bulls and stags are obvious animal forms taken by Old Nick or the Devil. Stags, as we have seen, are messengers from - or guides to - the Otherworld, and the sacred animal of the sun god. In the Arthurian legends the king and his knights went on a hunt for a rare white stag. When it was killed its decapitated head was offered as a special gift to 'the fairest lady in the land', which was C2.!,1een _Guinevere as Sovereignty or the C2.!,1een of Elfhame. Today albino stags are still highly prized by poachers. 'Ihe hound is represented by the phantom Black Dog of folklore, the black dogs that were owned by Cain, Crom Dubh and Merlin, the white-coated, red-eared faery dogs and the canine pack that accompanies the Wild Hunt. Finally the (night) mare is another sacred animal of the Goddess in her underworld role as the Old Queen or ruler of the realm of the dead. It is associated with equine goddesses such as Epona and Rhiannon. According to Robert Graves in The White Goddess, the 'night mare' made her nest from the bones of dead poets. Ofcourse the most famous folk figure associated with the Christmas festivities is Santa Claus or St Nicholas, named after an early saint who gave gifts out to children. His popular image is very much a modern invention based on a series of famous advertisements in the 1 93 os for the Coca-Cola drink company and featuring its corporate colours of white and red in his costume. However, in the 1 7•h century he was a far more uncanny and eldritch figure known as Old Father Christmas. As the spirit personification of the midwinter season he wore a green robe and a holly wreath on his head. In 1 809 the American writer Washington Irving represented Father Christmas or Santa Claus as a jolly fat man in a fur robe and cap, riding through the night sky on a sleigh drawn by reindeer and distributing presents to children. In this way he represented the leaders of the Wild Hunt, like Woden or Holda, who also rode through the sky as midwinter gift-bringers to their followers. In European countries, Santa Claus' pagan origin is preserved in his dwarf assistant, known in Dutch as Swart Peit or Black Peter. He appears in the form of a black-coloured demon and punishes young children who have been naughty during the year and do not deserve presents
Yule from the jolly white-bearded gentleman. Another pagan hangover is the popular belief in elves associated with Father Christmas, who toil in his workshops at the North Pole making toys. At Christmas 2 0 1 3 a Danish priest hanged an image of an elf on a gallows outside his church, allegedly because elves "belong to Satan". 'Ihe feast day of St Stephen on December 26'h is now secularised in Britain as Boxing Day, when people carrying wooden boxes used to go from house to house begging for alms. 'Ihe day used to feature a cruel folk custom of killing a wren, which has been identified with druidic rites, the sacrificial god and the summer king and winter king. The ancient druids regarded the bird as a symbol of the human soul and its survival in the afterlife. Despite its small size, the wren is known as . the 'king of the birds'. It gained this title because it flew higher in the sky than all the other birds in the woods. It did this by an act of trickery, riding on the back of a soaring eagle. 'This Boxing Day custom was known as the Hunting of the Wren and was mostly found in the Celtic fringe regions of Wales, Ireland and the Isle of Man. In the ritual a wren was hunted down, killed and then given a mock funeral during which the dead bird was processed through the streets in a specially made 'wren's house'. 'This was a box with glass windows, surmounted by a wheel whose spokes were decorated with coloured ribbons, possibly representing the ritual Wheel of the Year. At the end of the procession the wren was solemnly buried, but before interment its feathers were removed and kept by the so-called 'wren boys' as good luck charms. When the cruelty of wren-hunting was criticised, public opinion forced the participants to capture the bird, imprison it in a cage for the street procession and then release it back into the wild.
€ EF�H N I (l-H� Twelve Days of Yule or the Ember Days are a magical liminal period usually lasting approximately from Christmas Day to Twelfth Day (January 6'h). It is known as the 'inbetween time' because it spans the dying days of the Old Year and the beginning of the new one. Although the Twelve Days were recognised by the early Church at the Council of Tours in 5 67 CE, and Twelfth Day (Old Christmas Day) was designated as Epiphany in the ecclesiastical calendar, when the Magi visited Jesus in the stable, the customs and festivities associated with it resemble those of the Saturnalia celebrated in classical Rome. 1his was a festival held for seven days over the winter solstice and was marked by misrule and anarchy when social norms were reversed, subverted or ignored and masters waited on their slaves. 1his is a custom still practised in the British Army, where officers serve the lower ranks Christmas dinner. A mock king was also elected to rule over the Saturnalian revels. If he refused to play the role then he could be offered up as a sacrifice to the gods. 1he Twelve Days was a period of anarchy, subversion, social inversion and anti-establishment customs featuring cross-dressing and masking. In our more politically correct time, outsiders who have attended folk rituals at this time of year, such as the carrying of blazing tar barrels through the streets, have criticised the aggressive nature of these local events for local people. In the past, some of these customs have been stopped by the police or banned because of their lawlessness, vandalism and anti-social aspects. Elements of folk rituals, such as men dressing up as women, the wearing of masks and the blackening of faces to disguise identity, were also adopted by anti-establishment political protestors in the early 1 9'h century. 1hese included the Luddites in the north of England, campaigning against the new technology introduced into mills and factories, and 'Rebecca's Daughters' in West Wales who objected to the taxes on toll roads. Today anti-capitalist and pro-environment HE
Twelfth Night demonstrators frequently wear plastic masks representing Guy Fawkes based on the graphic novel and movie Vfar Vendetta written by occultist and magician Alan Moore. Following the association of Christmas with ghosts, in the post Christian period the Twelve Days had a spooky and rather sinister ambience. It was when the Wild Host came out of the 'hollow hills' to hunt the souls of the departed, werewolves roamed the woods and forests, the undead rose from their graves to haunt the living and the faery folk were out and about looking for mischie£ Following the shortest day and the longest night, the Twelve Days were temporarily the darkest part of the year. In the old days before electric lighting, work virtually stopped on the farm and people stayed indoors huddled around the blazing hearth scaring each other with ghost stories. Twelfth Night (January 5'h) is only remembered today as the traditional time to take down the Christmas decorations and pack them away for another year. However, even that custom is changing because decorations are put up as early as November, instead of Christmas Eve as in the old days, and people often take them down immediately after New Year's Day. In the past the winter greenery such as holly, ivy and mistletoe was often kept hanging in the house until Candlemas Day. Special fires were lit on farms on Twelfth Night called the Twelve Apostles. As the name suggests, these were twelve small fires in a circle with a larger one in the centre or nearby. 1he farm workers gathered around the Hames to toast their employers and make wishes for a good harvest in the coming year. Although a Christian veneer was put on this ritual, with the 'Apostle fires' supposed to be symbolising Jesus and his disciples, those who participated in the custom firmly believed that without it the fertility of the land would be diminished and the crops would fail. Elements of the ancient pagan Saturnalia survived into Christian times with the election of a Lord of Misrule or Abbot of Unreason who organised and presided over the Twelve Days and Twelfth Night revels. 1he Lord of Misrule or Lord of the Games was popular in Tudor times, and King Henry VIII appointed a 'Master of Revels' to oversee the celebration of Christmas at his royal court. In the r 5 5 os King Edward VI also had his own Lord of Misrule with a personal heraldic symbol that was a holly bush. The custom of the Lord of Misrule was briefly revived at the end of the r 9'h century by a Gloucestershire music teacher called D'Arcy Ferrers, who claimed to be descended from the one appointed by King Edward because they shared the same surname. He organised Christmas pageants where an actress dressed as Q..µeen
Liher Nox Elizabeth I elected Ferrers as her Lord of Misrule. 1hese celebrations included Morris dancing, hobby horses and animal-masked guisers, and Ferrers was also responsible for reviving the Morris in the area. 1he Lord of Misrule was usually elected by baking a pea or bean in a special Twelfth Day cake. If a man received the piece of cake with the bean in it then he became the mock king. However, if it was a woman, she had the right to choose any man she liked or fancied to be the Lord of Misrule. 1his practice may have survived in the popular custom of placing a silver coin in the Christmas pudding mix. 1he person who found it was said to be blessed with good luck for the year ahead. 1he old tradition of the Lord of Misrule is preserved in a new folk custom in London every year on January 5 •h. A figure dressed up in a costume of holly and other evergreen foliage with a green coloured face disembarks from a cutter on the River 1hames at the S hakespearian Globe theatre on the South Bank. After he makes a toast in mulled wine to everyone present, a traditional mummers' play is performed and a Lord and Lady of Misrule are elected from the watching crowd by the selection of a bean or pea. 1hey then lead the procession of various folklore characters associated with Yule and the Twelve Days through the nearby streets. Another figure that was associated with the Twelve Days and the Lord of Misrule, as the fool, clown or jester, was the Harlequin or Hellequin found in France, Spain and Italy. He was a black-faced emissary of the Devil wearing a red and black domino or half-face mask ofwood or leather, a fox-tailed cap and a multi-patterned or patchwork costume of many colours. 1his resembles the clothing of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who lured the town's children away into a hollow hill, and the attire of Sufi masters in the Middle Ages. In French folklore Harlequin is said to lead a band of demons around the countryside chasing the damned souls of evil people into Hell In that respect he is an aspect of the male leader of the Wild Hunt, and in France it is called the 'family ofHellequin'. In Italy, from just being a clown in a travelling troupe of Italian players, the harlequin took on the attributes of a scary figure who was a magician and shape-shifter capable of transforming objects by striking them with his magical baton - hence the wand of the stage conjuror. He was a jester and trickster figure who could not be trusted, and a symbolic representation of the phallic life force that had the power to overcome death and revive the dead. In German folklore the harlequin figure was identified with the Harlenkoenig or Erlking - the king of the elves - and also with Woden as a leader of the Wild Hunt.
Twelfth Night 1he Harlequin and the Wild Hunt has also been connected with the folk custom known as the Charivari in European countries and the 'Rough Band' in Britain. D uring the Twelve Days, and especially around Twelfth Night, people processed through the streets hitting pans, pots and other household utensils, beating drums, blowing horns, shouting and making animal noises. Some pretended to be clergymen and wore monk's habits, turned their clothes inside out and donned masks and false beards. As they passed, the mob played tricks on passers-by, broke windows and threw animal manure at people in a public display of anarchy and misrule that was generally accepted and tolerated. Twelfth Day was Old Christmas Day, and in some rural areas continued to be observed with a special service. It was also the day when the ashes from the Yule Log were taken out and scattered on the fields to increase the fertility of the land. In European folk tradition the Twelve Days and Twelfth Night are associated with female folk characters known as the 'Christmas Mothers', 'Christmas Aunties' and 'Good Ladies' who traditionally bring gifts at this period, and may be
Liher Nox aspects of Dame Holda. 1hese spirits are a leftover from pagan times, when at this period of the year sacrifices were made to the dead, the 'good ancestors' and the bright elves for a peaceful and prosperous year. The Celts dedicated the Twelve Days to a trinity of mother goddesses known as the Matronae, while as we have seen in Anglo-Saxon times, Yule or Christmas was called the 'Night of the Mothers' afrer the goddesses who ruled fate and had the power to grant fertility to their followers. 1he 1hree Mothers were identified with the classical Fates, Dame Fortune, the Norns, Disir (female spirits) and Valkyries ofNordic myth, the Weird (Wyrd) Sisters of Anglo-Saxon paganism, faery godmothers and female leaders of the Wild Hunt such as Diana, Frau Holda, Lady Goda, Dame Habondia and Perchta. However, these triads of deities should not be confused with the historically and mythologically incorrect triple goddess of Maiden, Mother and Crone invented by Robert Graves. On the Night of the Mothers, people left food and drink out in exchange for gifts, just as today children leave milk and cookies for Father Christmas. It was said that the nocturnal visitors consumed the offerings without reducing them in quantity, which suggests they were just extracting their vital life-force. 1he most famous survival of the belief in the Mothers is the Italian folk character known as Befana the Christmas Witch. She is depicted as an old woman in a black dress, wearing shoes whose points curl up and a long cloak. Witch-like, she has long grey hair down to her waist, a large beaked nose, is hunchbacked and carries a sack of toys. Befana sometimes appears with a blackened face, and that clearly links her to the witch-goddess in her dark aspect as the ruler of winter. On Twelfth Night children leave their stockings above the hearth, and during the night Befana arrives riding a broomstick or on the back of a goat. She is usually seen as a 'good witch' and a faery godmother or ancestral spirit. It has been suggested by Italian folklorists that she could be a far memory of a pagan goddess of the grain and agriculture associated with the dead. During the reign of the tsars in pre-Soviet Russia, the winter goddess who brought gifts at midwinter or on New Year's Eve was personified in folk tradition as Old Mother Babushka. She appeared in the form of everyone's favourite grandmother with a round face, rosy red cheeks and twinkling eyes behind round spectacles perched on her nose. She wore the traditional garb of a peasant woman, carried a large sack stuffed with toys, and was ofren accompanied by her pet bear cub. Babushka lived in a highly coloured log cabin deep in the woods, with a weather vane on its roof in the shape of a rainbow.
Twelfth Night !he period between New Year's Day and Twelfth Day was usually when the custom of wassailing was performed. Wassail comes from the Anglo-Saxon was ha/ meaning 'be whole' or 'be in good health'. A large wooden bowl decorated with ribbons and sprigs of evergreen foliage was filled to the brim with a hot drink such as mulled wine or beer, or cider laced with spices and roasted apples. The contents of the wassail bowl were either consumed at home in a family setting or it was carried around the streets from house to house. Wassailing carols were sung, wishing the residents good health in the coming year, and in return the singers were given small amounts of money or food and drink. In parts of south-west England (Devon and Somerset) cider apple orchards are still wassailed around Twelfth Night, and also on Old Twelfth Night (January q•h). After dark the wassailers process from orchard to orchard carrying lanterns or blazing torches, shotguns and hunting horns. !he most prolific or oldest tree in the orchard is selected for attention and a libation of cider is poured around the base of its trunk. Pieces of toast or fruit cake are also placed in the branches and offered to the tree, while a special wassailing song is performed, wishing for a good apple harvest. Finally the horns are blown and the guns fired into the air to 'scare away evil spirits' who might damage the trees. Sometimes plum and pear trees were also wassailed. During the Twelve Days of Yule only a minimal amount of work was done on farms. Even the farmer's wife did not knit, sew or spin. !his may be because of the short days and inclement weather, or a throwback to pagan times when it was forbidden to spin and weave during the Twelve Days in case it incurred the wrath of the goddess of winter Dame Holda. The first Monday that fell after Twelfth Day was called Plough Monday and it marked the resumption of serious work on the farm after the midwinter festivities. In fact it was actually a day when various folk customs were carried out before work began in earnest. On this date an actual plough was decorated with ribbons, greenery, jewellery and horse brasses and dragged around the streets by a group of young farm workers disguised with soot blackened faces and some wearing women's clothing. They were known variously as Plough Colts or Horses, Plough Bullocks, Plough Jacks, Plough Boys or Plough Witches. They begged for money and in pre-Reformation times part of this collection was used to pay for the Plough Light, a large candle that was lit in the parish church and kept burning every day until harvest time. If money was not forthcoming then the event could turn ugly, with the Plough Boys digging up people's lawns or throwing stones through windows. In Cambridgeshire in the 1 8 5 0s the police had to
Liher Nox intervene several times to restore order and deal with complaints from people who had suffered the displeasure of the Plough Boys. Today in many country areas a plough is actually taken into the church on the nearest Sunday to Plough Monday. It is blessed by the vicar while the congregation offer up prayers for a good harvest. On this day farmers would also place a piece of fruit cake in the first furrow they ploughed in a field. 1his was a far memory of the sacrificial offerings or bribes made in ancient times to the wights or land spirits. It was to make sure they did not interfere with the ploughing, and helped produce a plentiful harvest.
LI B€R N OX 'Il-E RI�S OF 'Il-E BLACK B GD K OF S HAD ES -
HE following rituals in Liber Nox - the Book efNight have been especially written for this book. 'Ihey are drawn from various traditional witchcraft sources and the writer's inspiration, and are broadly based on the esoteric and exoteric symbolism of each season on the Wheel of the Year and its folk customs. Rather than following any specific form of Old Craft, or any of its traditions, they are basic rituals designed to give an overall idea of what it represents. They have been written primarily for group working, although with a few changes and a little imagination they can be adopted for use by solitary practitioners of the Craft, or couples. 'Ihese rituals are not 'written in stone' and they only provide a guide, structure and template. 'Ihey can be changed, adapted and added to as necessary for individual and group requirements. Also, radically, you can reject them and write your own rites based on the material in the earlier part of this book. As we have seen, dancing is an important aspect of many folk rituals and seasonal customs, and range from clog and sword dances to the Morris. 'Ihese dances are often associated with former pagan festivals such as Yule and the Twelve Days, Plough Monday, the vernal equinox or Eostre, Beltane or May Day, and Samhain or Hallowe'en. 'Ihe dances also feature folk characters such as Robin Hood and Maid Marian, the Fool and a 'she-male' or Bessy/Old Woman (a man wearing women's clothing) who may have pre-Christian overtones. 'Ihis is confirmed by the elements of sacrificial death and resurrection or rebirth or pagan imagery associated with folk dancing and customs, e.g. the Padstow Obby Oss on May Day, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance in September (originally midwinter) and mumming plays at Christmas and New Year. Dancing was also important in the historical witch-cult, and the most famous example was the back-to-back dancing at the Witches' Sabbath. 'Ihis was either performed by couples with linked arms or in a circle with the participants holding hands and facing outwards. In fact Reginald Scot, author of the Discoverie ef Witchcrcift ( I 5 8 5 ), quoting a Continental witch-hunter, claimed that the popular dance known as La Volta was brought to France from Italy by 'night-dancing witches'.
Liher Nox Some renegade Catholic priests were supposed to say mass in the day and dance at the Sabbat at night. These dances seem to have been performed as a social event for the enjoyment of the participants at the end of witch meetings. They were accompanied by music played on a pipe, drum or fiddle. However, the ritual dance can also be used as a means of raising psychic energy or magical power, achieving by self hypnosis, a trance state and accessing spirit ingress or possession. In modern traditional witchcraft there are various forms of ritualistic dance performed at seasonal festivals. !hey include the Round Dance, representing the turning of the Wheel of the Year and the Wheel of Life, the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, and the circulation of the stars around the Pole Star and the planets around the sun. !he Chain or Snake Dance features a line of dancers weaving around objects such as the central fire, cauldron or a standing stone, and twisting and turning back on themselves. !he Pole Dance as mentioned by Robert Cochrane is performed with stangs or besoms to drive negative influences from the land, bring rain and sunshine and stimulate the growth of the crops. !his has been discussed earlier, in the chapter on working tools, in relation to the Manx witch and the Buckinghamshire circle of wise women. Cochrane also mentions riding the stangs in a dance to imitate the Wild Hunt at Hallowe'en. (John ofMonmouth 20 1 2 : 3 9 5 and 3 9 7). There i s also the Spiral Dance performed at Beltane or All Hallows. It is started by the Magistra or Magister who leads the dancers in a widdershins or anti-clockwise spiral. Once the leader is at the centre the dance is then reversed into a deosil or clockwise spiral. !he Maze Dance is similar and is also performed at All Hallows following as its name suggests the traditional maze pattern. As such it represents the journey to the land of the dead. !he Crane Dance or Dance of the Lame God (the smith-god) is a way of raising power and is performed by the Magister in a shuffiing, limping fashion dragging one leg behind him. Other dances include the so-called Chase Dance or Shapechanging Dance based on the popular folk song known either as 7he Two Magicians or 7he Coal-Black Smith. As mentioned before, it is probably based on the Welsh legend of the witch Ceridwen and her Cauldron of Inspiration, and is believed to be a symbolic description of initiation into the native British Mysteries. It can be combined with the donning of the appropriate masks or costumes representing sacred or totem animals. An example of the words as chanted by the Magister and Magistra during the dance is given below.
Introduction to Liher Nox and the Rites Cunning and art he did not lack, But aye her whistle would fetch him back. 0 I shalt go into a hare With sorrow and sighing And mickle might, Aye I shalt go in !he Devil's name, Till I be fetched home again.
Hare, take heed of a grey bitch hound, Who shalt harry thee All these fells around, For her come I In Our Lady's name, All but to fetch ye home. Cunning and art etc. Yet I shalt go into a fish With sorrow and sighing An mickle might, A show ye a merry game, Aye I shalt go in the Devil's name Till I be fetched home again. Fish take note of an Otter lank will harry thee Bank to bank, For here come I In Our Lady's name To fetch thee home. Cunning and art etc. Yet I shalt go into a bee With mickle horror and dread of thee, And flit to hive In the Old Un's name, Ere be fetched home again.
Liher Nox Bee take heed of A swallow hen, Will harry thee butt and hen, For here come I In Our Lady's name To fetch thee home. Cunning and art etc. Yet I shalt go into a Wee grey mouse, And haste me to 1he miller's house 1here in his corn to Have a good game, Ere in the Devil's name I shalt be fetched home again. Mouse take heed Of a grey tabby cat, For I'll crack thy bones In Our Lady's Name Till ye be fetched home. Cunning and art He did not lack, But aye her whistle Would fetch him back In Our Lady's name. 1he ritual Wheel of the Year in the modern Traditional Craft basically follows the journey of the Horned God through the seasonal and agricultural cycle, symbolically from his birth to his death and rebirth. It reflects his dual or twin roles as the Lord of Light and Darkness and of Life and Death and his relationship to the Goddess, the Magna Mater (Great Mother) or Supreme Creatrix. 1he God walks the solar path of the year with its thirteen moons following the changing seasons and the weaving pattern in the sky of the sun -;nd stars. At Yule, the midwinter solstice, the time between time, when the sun stands still at bull's noon, the witching hour of midnight when the clock chimes thirteen, the God is Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun or the Lord
Introduction to Liher Nox and the Rites of Light. At this magical time of the year he is born - or reborn - from the womb of the Great Mother as the Horned Child of Promise. He is Arthur of Avalon, the once and future king, and Lucifer the Lightbearer and Lightbringer, saviour and redeemer of humanity. In the midwinter darkness of the longest night, the Morning Star shines bright as a sign of hope and redemption for both those of the elven or witch blood and the day-born. On Twelfrh Night, at the end of the liminal Twelve Days ofYule, the Young Horned God temporarily adopts the mask of the jester, clown and the trickster. He is the Master of Misrule and the Lord of the Revels, the Harlequin, mock king for a day, presiding over the darkly subversive and anarchic rites of the season. In the apple orchards the wassailing song and loud noises scare away any malicious sprites that might harm the crop, and cider and apple cake is offered to the good earth. 1he God is initiated into the mysteries of manhood, the path of the warrior and sacred kingship by Our Lady. It is she, as Sovereignty, the goddess of the land, who instructs the Young Horned God in the ways of a king and the just rulership of the folk. It is the Lady who arms the young warrior with her deadly gifts of the Sword of Light, the Spear of Destiny, the Shield of Protection, and the Bow and Arrows he must use to defend the land and its people. She is the faery Lady of the Lake gifting Arthur with Excalibur, the symbol of his kingship, and he is also Robin Hood with his longbow defending the weak and oppressed from the corrupt rulers of the State and Church. On Plough Monday the Young Horned God is Cain the Ploughman, first Blacksmith and Master of Horses. In the sacred circle of standing stones, now often under the shadow of tower and cross, the plough is blessed anew by priestly hands. Cake is buried in the first furrow ploughed in the field, alongside the old corn dolly kept safe from the previous year's harvest, to promote the fertility of the crops and appease the spirits of the land. As Candlemas, the festival of the waxing light, draws nigh, cold and bright with snowdrops and snowflakes, the Young Horned God is the roebuck who bears the rising sun between his antlers. When the icy mist and frost melt away in the late dawn's early rays, the Maiden overcomes the Old Hag as winter starts to give way to summer. Lady Day is when night and day are in equal balance and the earth is slowly awaking from its wintry slumber with the first spring flowers. 1he Young Horned God as Arthur or Robin accepts the offered hand of the faery woman Guinevere or Maid Marian and is betrothed to his 1 47
Liher Nox bride-to-be. 1his love pact is sealed on May Day in the maze dance in a faery ring under an ancient oak, the 'king tree' of the woods. 1hen the Horned God becomes the Summer King ruling until All Hallows. He dons the foliate mask and cloak of green leaves of the Green Man and the Lincoln green of Robin Hood as the Lord of the Greenwood. 1he God is the Green King, Robin Goodfellow, Jack-in-the-Hedge, the Lord of Animals. In his sylvan guise he celebrates the Great Rite in the greenwood bower with the Maid, who is now the Lady. She is the May (h1een, the (hieen of Elfhame, the mother of elves, faeries and gnomes, and Sovereignty, the primordial goddess of the land whose wedding gift in this sacred marriage is kingship. She can appear as either a beautiful young woman or an old crone. It is for the candidate to the throne to choose which she should be by day or night and by that choice is the kingdom won or lost. Midsummer comes with faeries, owl feathers and elderflowers. The Bright Champion is at the zenith of his solar and phallic power. As the longest day comes the Horned God is the king stag with seven tines on his rack of antlers. He stands proud and erect on the hill overlooking the land. Yet in the corn fields below the flowering red poppies are a dark omen of his waning power and eventual wyrd. Yet this is still only a bad dream because the sun shines bright and hot in the noonday sky. On Midsummer's Eve as dusk sweeps across the hollow hills and through the enchanted wood the king and queen of Faerie, the Lord and Lady, Oberon and Titania, wearing crowns of wild flowers, dance in wild abandon with the Good Folk. A balmy wind blows and the night air is filled with the heavy perfume of wild roses, night scented stock and honeysuckle. By Lammastide the powers of the Horned God are wilting in the summer heat and waning with the ever decreasing light in the evenings. Harvest is coming and with it the time of sacrifice approaches like a dark shadow across the land. 1he barn owl hunts across the fields at dusk. 1he dog fox stalks its prey in the woods.1he washerwoman is seen at the ford and the banshee cries on the wind. 1he smell of death and blood is on the air. As the harvest is gathered in the days are shortening quickly and they herald the fall - the falling of the autumn leaves and of the Lord of Light. 1he Horned God becomes the sacrificed Roebuck in the 1hicket, the Hunter and the Hunted. He is drugged with a potion made from deadly nightshade and mandrake root and tied by willow thongs to the Tau Cross of oak branches. 1hree iron nails are hammered into the cross to hold him fast. His blood, red as the petals of the poppies in the
Introduction to Liher Nox and the Rites harvest field, is spilt by the Dark Mother with her silver crescent sickle and flows to the earth to fertilise the land. 'Ihe Horned God is Old Father Cain and John Barleycorn, the scarecrow and the Corn King whose blood and bone is mixed and ground to dust to enrich the earth. "The Old King is dead! Long live the King!" As the nights silently and relentlessly draw in after Lammas, so autumn comes creeping onwards with mists and fruitful mellowness. 'Tis Michaelmas or Harvest Home, and corn dollies are made from the last sheaf to hang above the hearth until next year's ploughing. 1he Horned God faces his final initiation. He stands alone in the circle of sacred stones and passes through the trilithon or stone portal of the dolmen or mound. He is Arthur journeying to Annwn, the underworld, to seek the Cauldron of Inspiration or the Grail. The God is now the Dark Lord of the Mound who descends to the realm of the Old Qiieen, the Dark Lady, the witch-goddess of fate, death, transformation and rebirth, guardian of the cauldron, who initiates mortals into the Mysteries. As the dry leaves turn to autumnal colours and drift down from the branches heralding the onset ofwinter's icy grip on the land, the Horned God makes his final journey. In Our Lady's barge in the form of a silver crescent moon he travels like the mortally wounded Arthur across the water to mystic Avalon, the island in the western ocean beyond the setting sun on which stands the Hollow Hill. On the Isle of the Dead the once and future king crosses over the bridge of alder branches spanning the river of forgetfulness. He follows the thorn-hedged path that leads to the Castle of Roses beyond the grave, the home of the Old Qiieen, the castle with four doors that spins between the worlds. As winter approaches with swirling fog and early frosts, the Old Horned God prepares to don the silver mask and starry cloak of the Winter King. He will be Old Father Christmas in his traditional green gown crowned with holly, mistletoe and ivy leaves and Jack Frost with his long thin fingers like icicles scratching at the window pane. Before then it is All Hallow's Eve, Winter's Night or the Night of the Dead. 1he spirits of the ancestors are always with us, but this is their special time when they are at their most powerful and dangerous. It is also the time when the Wild Hunt rides out from the Hollow Hill to harvest the souls of the departed. Black candles gutter in turnip masks, restless spirits and the undead wander the cold land, and scarecrows come alive in the barren fields to become night-walkers. It is the time of the Dumb Supper and the calling of the ancient ancestral dead into the homes of the living. Jack O' I 49
Liher Nox Lantern or Will o' the Wisp is evoked to open the spirit paths or ghost roads in the enchanted landscape so the Mighty Dead can travel into the mortal world to meet, feast and dance with their kin. 'The transformation from the Child of Promise, the Young Horned God, to the Old Horned God - the summer king to the winter king is now complete. He is the dread Lord of the Wildwood, the Devil, the Dark Rider, the Man-in-Black, Old Herne, the Wild Hunter with his hell hounds and the owl of the Goddess flying before the demonic pack to lead the way along the spirit paths. He is Azrael, the Angel of Death, who flies swiftly on shadowy wings, the Grim Reaper in his black cowled robe with skull face and scythe whose skeletal fi nger beckons the chosen to their fate. He comes when he is least expected, the Masked and Hooded One who rides the Night Mare from dusk to dawn when the cock crows. In his dark aspect the Old Horned God wears a cloak of shadows and the goblin mask or stag skull of the Terror by Night and the Harvester of Souls. He is also Grim (the Masked O ne or Hooded Man) or Woden on his eight-legged horse accompanied by black, fiery eyed faery hounds howling at the gibbous moon as they hunt down their human prey. He is the ruler of the Mighty Dead, Cain as Master of the Hidden Company of discarnate witches, and Azazel as the Black Goat of the Witches Sabbath and leader of the Fallen O nes or Watchers, who mated with the daughters of men and taught them the forbidden arts of the Old Magic. 'The Great Wheel of the Year slowly turns again at Yule and once more the Morning Star shines in the night sky to herald the birth of the Lightbringer. In the stygian darkness of the longest night, the Horned God comes forth from the Cauldron of the Goddess. As he is born anew, the 'sun shines at midnight' and the stars dance and sing as the Lord of Light once more walks the land among his people. Always behind the skull mask of the Old Horned God is the green foliate mask of the Young Horned God, and they are twin aspects of the same power. As mentioned before, the god of the witches represents several different forms of masculine energy and divine force. He has multiple faces and is a solar deity, a god of vegetation, agriculture, phallic fertility and the seasonal cycle of nature. He is also co-ruler of the underworld and the guide to the dead, master craftsman, architect and blacksmith, tamer and controller of horses, king of the faeries, cosmic trickster, lord of the animals, sacrificed god, teacher of wisdom and occult knowledge, and paradoxically both the son and lover/consort of the Great Goddess.
Introduction to Liher Nox and the Rites At his most elementary level the Horned God, the Owd Lad, Scat, Hob, Old Nick, the Devil or by whatever name he is known to humankind, is the ruler of death and resurrection. He is represented by an erect phallus, symbolised by the Maypole at Beltane, as the Lord of Life and by the skull and bones resting at the base of the stang at Hallows as the Lord of Death. He is the dying and sacrificed god, the divine priest-king, the sacred warrior, the redeemer and saviour of humanity. The initiatory experience of birth, life, death and rebirth in the Old Craft is represented in symbolic form by the journey of the God around the Wheel of the Year, as we have seen. Physically it is represented by the annual cycle of growth, death and renewal in the natural world. For that reason the Horned One is sometimes called the Lord or Prince of the World. Although the Wheel of the Year is based on the solar journey of the God through the seasons of the year and his relationship to the Great Goddess, through enacting the themes and symbolism of each festival the celebrant also becomes a player in the Game of Life. He or she is a Cainite figure, the Wanderer who walks the stations of the ritual Wheel of the Year in the form of a mystic spiral and then stands at its hub or centre. !he point within the circle is represented by the axis mundi or World Pillar, the Nowl or Nail, the North or Pole Star in the night sky called Polaris with the other stars revolving around it. It is below the starry heaven and Lilith's Lantern (the full moon) that the initiates of the Old Craft enter the Circle of Arte and celebrate the Mysteries as their ancient ancestors did before them.
HE following is a procedure for casting the Circle of Arte, and like all the rituals in this book it can be adopted for indoor or outdoor practice. When all are assembled, the tools and other magical objects required for the rites are placed in the working area or meeting ground in their proper positions, or on the altar. 'Ihe quarter lights (in lanterns or candlesticks) are placed around the circle at the compass points and lit, and if it is used, the fire is prepared. Suitable offerings are first given to the faery folk and the genii loci, the wights or land spirits, to placate them so they will not disturb or disrupt the rite. All those taking part are to be 'properly prepared' i.e. they are to be robed and will have cleared their minds of all mundane thoughts and worries by a period of silent contemplation. '!hey will also privately recite charms of psychic protection, offer prayers to their patron spirits and meditate on the meaning and significance of the rite before entering the Circle of Arte. When all are ready the Magistra/Master or Magistra/Mistress takes the besom and sweeps the working area, to symbolically clear all mundane and negative influences. Depending on the season, the Master or Mistress will then cast the circle. 'Ihe stang is placed in the ground in the middle of what is to become the circle. A cord or rope of sufficient length to mark out its required diameter is tied to the stang. To the other end is attached the ritual knife or the sword and the point of the blade is used to mark out the circle on the ground. While this is being done a circle of blue light or flames is visualised being created by the moving blade. Indoors, obviously, the point of the blade does not touch the floor. 'Ihe Master then blesses and consecrates a bowl of spring water by making the sign of an equal-armed cross over it. '!his sigil represents the sun and the four elemental forces or powers of earth, air, fire and water, plus the fifth element of ether or spirit. He then says:
Casting the Circle ofArte
I bless, puriJY and consecrate this water, In the Names efthe Great Horned One, Lord efthe Forest Master efthe Wild Hunt, and Our Lady Witch-Mother, Veiled One, Old Fate, Queen efthe Night and Darkness. 1he water is then sprinkled three times around the boundary of the circle using either fingers, a goose feather or a small bundle of herbs or twigs. 1hen the circle is consecrated with fire, earth and air by a candle or lantern, incense burning in a censer or a sage bundle and by sprinkling salt three times around it. As this is done the Master says:
By the elementalpowers, Fire, earth, air and water 7hree times three, 7he circle is purified and blessed, 7he Castle is raised, Cast and bound, So Mote it Be, So Sha!t it Be. Once the circle has been cast and consecrated, the other participants in the Rite, who have been waiting silently outside, enter through the 'gateway' in the north, passing over a 'stile' created by the crossed besom and sword. 1his represents the entry into the Otherworld. Once everyone has taken their appointed position in the circle, the Master or Mistress calls upon and summons the spirit guardians of the compass points in whatever form they take. 1his is done in a deosil direction beginning in the north:
Black spirits and white, Grey spirits and red, Come ye, Come ye, Come ye, I S3
Liher Nox
7hroughout and about, Around and around 7he circle is drawn, 7he circle is bound, 7he Castle is raised All good come in! All ill stay out.' Black spirits efthe north, I summon and call theeforth, Arise ye powers efair and wind, Guard our Circle efArte And all who stand in it From bane and blast. All members of the coven facing north repeat the evocation substituting 'I' for 'we'. A small bell is rung, a ringing bowl struck or a silver whistle
or hunting horn is blown to summon the spirits. The Master or Mistress then moves to the eastern quarter and evokes its guardian spirits.
Red spirits efthe east, I summon and call theeforth, Arise ye powers effire and.flame, Guard our Circle efArte And all who stand in it From bane and blast. !he coveners repeat the evocation and the bell is rung three times. !he Master or Mistress then goes to the southern quarter and evokes:
White spirits efthe south. I summon and call theeforth, Arise ye powers efearth and stone, Guard our Circle efArte And all who stand in it From bane and blast. !he coveners repeat the evocation and the bell is rung three times. Finally the Master or Mistress moves to the western compass point and evokes its guardian spirits:
Casting the Circle ofArte
Grey spirits efthe west I summon and call theeforth, Arise ye powers efmist and water, Guard our Circle efArte And all who stand in it From bane and blast. The evocation is repeated by the coven and the bell rung three times. 'Ihe Master or Mistress returns to the centre of the circle and declares:
7he Circle efArte has been cast By proper rite and rule, 7he Guardians have been called, Uninvited wights wend away, Old Ones draw near. 'Ihe bell is rung three times and the Old Ones, the Lord and Lady, the God and Goddess of the Wise Ones, are invited to attend, witness and participate in the Rites. 'Ihe Master or Mistress invokes:
Lord efLight, Lord efShades, Lord efAnimals, Great Horned One, Witch Father if Cunning Grim efface, Black efattire, By stag's tines, By goat's skull, By ram's horns, By badger'spaw, By raven'sftather, By toad bone, By standing stone And ancient oak T# do honour thee. Come, come, Rule oer our Rites, Within this circleJane Power and cunning T# would gain. 155
Liher Nox
Black Goat efthe Sahhat Master efthe Fallen Ones, Bearer efthe Inner Light, Be a watcher at our Rites, Old Hornie Protect and guide Allgathered here. The bell is
rung
three times.
Queen �fthe Night Lady ifMists and U'aters, Bright and Dark Lady, Witch Mother �(Wisdom, Mistress �(Fate, Weaver �fdestiny, Wrapt in the cloak efnight Shining with moon's waxing light, By hare's skull, By cat'spaw, By goosefoot, By owl's claw, By hawthorn, birch and willow We do honour thee. Come, come, Rule oer our Rites, Within this circlefane Love and Wisdom We would gain. Ancient Veiled One, Pale-faced Goddess, Old Queen efthe Dead, Queen efFaerie, Be a watcher at our Rite, Protect and guide All gathered here. Old Ones come nigh, By chanted voices And charms efpower, In the old tongue spoken
Casting the Circle ofArte
We call on thee, By offerings ofblood Freely given We honour thee, Drtl'W near.' Drtl'W near.' Drtl'W near.' Before the Rite begins proper, the Master or Mistress purifies and blesses each member of the coven in turn with the elements. 'This is done using soil or salt and then spring water to mark an equal-armed (solar or elemental) cross in a circle, a pentagram or a Tau cross on their forehead, by censing their body and wafting a goose feather around it. While this is being done the Master or Mistress says:
Child ofthe earth, Whose true home is the starry heavens, Be blessed andpurified In the Names ofthe Old Ones, Our Lord and Lady, 7he Old Lad and Lass. 'Ihe Master or Mistress then announces the intention of the Rite, e.g.
Brethren gathered here, Brothers and sisters Ofthe Coven/Clan of . . . . . [insert coven or clan name] We meet this night Beneath the summer/autumn/winter/spring stars In the light ofLilith's Lantern To revere the Lord and Lady and Celebrate the Mysteries ofthe Festival ofAll Hallows, [insert alternates] Calling upon the Ancestral Dead And the Hidden Company [insert alternatives] . .
.
'Ihe fire is then lit and becomes the focus of the next part of the Rite. 'Ihe Master or Mistress says:
7he circle is cast, 7he circle is bound,
Liher Nox Well and true, 7he castle spins and turns Between the worlds, 7hree times three Around the point we turn, Onefor the Lord Onefor the Lady OneforAncient Providence Who has no name. The circle is trod with everyone walking silently about the fire led by the Master and Mistress. Hoods on robes or cloaks are raised and the meaning of the Rite is contemplated before it commences.
TI.�
1·"z:!
The Rites generally end with the Houzel or sacred communion. The Master or Mistress bless and consecrate the bread by making the sign of the equal-armed solar and elemental cross or a pentagram over it, saying:
I bless and consecrate this bread In the name efthe Old Ones, 7he Lord and Lady, Witch-Father, Witch-Mother. '1he Mistress kneels or stands holding the chalice or drinking horn while the Master plunges the ritual knife into it, saying:
7he Knife is to the Cup, 7he Spear is to the Cauldron, 7he Lance is to the Grail, 17Je Stang is to the Horned One 7he Horn is to the Great Lady Spirit to Flesh, Sun to Earth, Lover to Beloved, As Two become One United they are blessed
Casting the Circle ofArte With this sacred bread Ui> renew our bodies And our souls, With this sacred wine Ui> renew Our pledge To the Old Ones And the Elder Faith, Blood to blood Our ancient heritage Passed down, For in life is death And in death the promise �frebirth, 7hus we become one With Our Lord and Lady. 'Ihe Mistress passes around the bread or cake saying:
Eat this bread in Old Hornie's name, With great terror andftm:ful dread. For he is the God who dies But is never dead, And the bitterness �fdeath is the Sweet promise efrebirth. The Master passes around the wine, saying:
Drink this wine In Our Lady's name, And she willgather Ye home again. A libation of the wine and an offering of the bread are made to the wights or land spirits.
To the Shining Ones, 7he Faery Folk, Good People Ofhill and wood and stream, Blessed be one and all. I S9
Liher Nox
After the Houzel, the Circle of Arte is formally closed and bound in a widdershins direction, beginning in the sacred quarter of the north. !he Master or Mistress says:
Black spirits efthe north, Powers efair and wind, T# thank theefar thy ward Andprotection this night, Return to thy midnightplace, 7he castle in the north With our thanks and blessings Now our Rite is ended. So Mote it Be, So Shaft it be. All repeat the words of dismissal and the bell is rung three times.
!he Master or Mistress moves to the west and says:
Grey spirits efthe west Powers efmist and water, T# thank theefar thy ward Andprotection this night, Return to the great waters Ofthe western ocean And the castle in the west With our thanks and blessings Now the Rite is ended So Mote it Be, So Shaft it Be. All repeat dismissal and the bell is rung three times.
!he Master or Mistress moves to the south and says:
White spirits efthe south, Powers ef earth and stone, T# thank theefar thy ward 160
Casting the Circle ofArte Andprotection this night Return to the earth From whence ye came, And the castle in the south With our thanks and blessings Now the Rite is ended So Mote it Be So Shaft it Be. All repeat dismissal and the bell is rung three times.
Finally the Master or Mistress goes to the east and says:
Red spirits efthe east, Powers effire andflame T# thank theefar thy ward And protection this night, Return to thyfiery abode And the castle in the east With our thanks and blessings Now this Rite is ended. So Mote it Be So Shaft it Be. The dismissal is repeated and the bell rung. !he Master or Mistress moves to the centre of the Circle of Arte and says:
Brethren, the hour efour Gathering draws to a close, In peace we came Inpeace we depart Go to your homes Disturbing nothing Ofthe substance efthe world May we go.forthfrom 7his sacredplace 7he Circle ef our Arte With wisdom increased,
Liher Nox Our strength renewed Andfurther understanding For wisdom is the gift Given to the Wise. As we close this Circle efArte 7he sacred space between the worlds, li£-e call on the Old Ones, Our Lady and the Horned One, 7he First Parents From the Dreamtime before time, To keep usfrom harm, Watch over us, Protect and guide us In the Old T#lys and on the Crooked Path Until we meet again In this Circle efArte.
All: So Mote it Be So Shaft it Be Amen.
HE altar or stang is decorated with holly, ivy and mistletoe. A garland made of the same plants, a bowl of holy water (consecrated or from a sacred spring), red candles and the cauldron are present. Also bread and elderberry wine for the Houzel. Red candles on altar and at the quarters of the circle, plus a special large red Yule Candle and images or icons of the Lord and Lady as Old Father Christmas and the Snow Qyeen. If performed indoors, a decorated Christmas tree is present with coloured electric lights and baubles and a faery or star on its top. Outdoors (or indoors if there is an open fire) the fire is not lit at the beginning of the Rite as is usual. The Mistress casts the circle and the Master performs the rites. !he intention of the meet is announced.
Master: 7he knell ef inbetween
Has been struck 7he bell ifmisrule has rung At Bull's Noon Echoing between the worlds, At the gap in the hedge 7hrough the stone stile Over the gate 7he spirits come amid Grey icy mist and snow. Aligned are star and mound In the ring efsacred stones, 7his blessed night, Comeforth Upright Man Shadow Man, Stag-masked one, Sharp eftine, Hard efhoof, Strong efsinew, Comeforth
Liber Nox Master efMisrule, King efFools, Dark Lord ef Wights, Peacock Angel, Blessyour children Gathered here This blessed holy night. The Master places a cross with spring water on the brow of each of the coven.
Queen �(the Night, Queen �(the Moon, Queen �(the Stars, Bring to us the Child ifPromise 7he Young Horned God, It is the Witch-Mother who Gives birth to him, He is the Lord �fLight Born anew, Darkness is set aside, 7he sun rises in the east To shine oer the land, Illuminating all. The Master gives each celebrant a red candle from the altar. Master: This is the night ef
The 7hree Mothers, 7he Lord efthe Morning Star Is born at bull's noon When the clock chimes thirteen, Reborn againfrom the Cauldron �fCreation In Annwn's dark depths. 1he bell is rung thirteen times. 1he Yule Candle is lit on the altar. Master:
U-1! light the Yule Candle solstice bells ring out U-1! tend the sacredflame 7hrough midnight 's vigil To praise the Witch Mother's name
As
Yule: the Rite of Rehirth And the Lord ofLight Lux Mundi. 1he coven light individual candles from the Yule Candle on the altar and position them in a ring around it.
All :
We light theflame that Heralds the dawn, Weftar not darkness Nor dread deepest night For the dark bears 7he shining light Within it, 7he Sun at Midnight. 7he Wheel ofthe Year Stands still this day, 7he sun rises again, Brightly shines 7he Morning Star, The Star in the Stone, Light ofthe World, The gate ofcreation opens The shadowsflee Death is conquered As lije is exalted
1he holly, ivy and mistletoe garland is taken from the altar and processed around the circle. 1he Master takes the Yule Candle and holds it aloft. 1he coven take the garland and place it over the candle so it is in its empty centre. Holding it, they walk slowly deosil around as the Master stands still in their centre with the candle. Master says thrice: Sacred is thefire-seed
Ofthe Lord ofLight Scattered oer the earth Flowing through the land, Sacred is the witch-blood From the watchers ofold, Blessed are the Children ofthe Light And the Elder Faith
Liher Nox !he Master lights the central fire in the circle using the flame of the Yule Candle and says:
7hefires efwinter blaze Bringing light to the dark Conquering the shades efnight, Banishing the shadows. Round spins the wheel, Fires ef winter bring bliss In the witches' dance And kiss. When the fire is ablaze the Mistress places the cauldron half filled with wine either in or over the flames. !he circle dance a merry round, stamping, clapping and chanting. !he Houzel. Wine is shared from the cauldron. !he Mistress takes sprigs of greenery from the garland and gives one to each of the celebrants to take home. Mistress: May the blessing ef
7he Lord efLight 7he Horn Child, Child efPromise, Be upon you andyours, May your homes and hearts Be blessed, 7he Light is in the Darkness! 7he Darkness is in the Light.' All hail the Lord efLight Rebornfrom the darkness!
All :
Hail Lux Mundi! Hail Lux Mundi! Hail Lux Mundi! Lord efthe World!
!he cauldron is removed and all leap the fire holding their sprigs of Yuletide greenery alofr. Circle closing. !he remains ofthe Yule Garland are kept until Candlemas and used to kindle the balefire at that rite. I6 6
HE altar or stang is decorated with holly and ivy. Crossed arrows are fixed on the stang shaft. Images or icons of the Lord and Lady, a bowl ofspring water, a sprig ofthe herb rosemary, a single tall white candle, a long cord of hemp or jute, a platter of homemade bread, fruitcake and mead are present. Red candles on altar and at the quarters of the circle, plus extra candles so each celebrant has one.
!he Mistress casts the circle and the Master celebrates the rites. !he intention of the meet is announced as !he Dressing of the Stang. Master: 7he Twelve Days efYule
7he Ember Days Draw to a close, 7he time Between time At the turning Ofthe year, When the Wheel turns anew 7he Horn Child Born in the midnight darkness Shines as a bright star In the light ofthe dawn. A stang is raised at the north-east compass point of the circle. !he white candle is placed between its forks and lit. !he coven gather around it. Master: Now is the time,
7he young lord's calling, As the callow boy drew 7he swordfrom the stone, 7he anvil ofthe divine smith, To claim his right To rule the land As its king.
Liher Nox The ritual knife is placed by a celebrant to the right of the stang at its base with the blade in the earth. Another blesses the arrows thrice with holy water using the sprig of rosemary. A third celebrant takes the cord and fastens one end to the left fork of the stang so the rest of it hangs to the ground. !he Mistress passes a cup of wine around the circle and it is placed at the base of the stang with the bread on the platter. !he coven join hands and circle the dressed stang slowly nine times. !he Master takes the extra candles from the altar, lights each at the light in the forks of the stang and gives one to each of the coven saying:
Hail Lux Mundi, The Light Ofthe World! Master: As the archer drew back
Hisyew bow In the greenwood wild To vanquish evilfrom the land And restore the Rightful king. So the Horn Child Grows to manhood, A mighty warrior becomes Armed by Our Lady. He is the Lord ifHosts, Arthur and Lugh, With Sword ifLight Lightning Spear efDestiny Shield efProtection, Guardian efland andfolk, A mighty helmeted warrior Clad in spiritual armour Shining bright, Travellingfrom sea to sea Along the spiritpaths Carrying the weapons Ofhis calling. Count ye the weapons ef the Wise, Make and master them well, Stang and Rod, 168
Twelfth Night: the Rite of Beginning Knife and Sword, Cup and Horn, Shield and Cord Empowered by their making And the Old Magic Taught by Mer/in To Arthur. 7he Stang efForce Is the circle's ward, 7he watcher at the gate, 7he door whose key is a star. 7he Rod efPower Is the ruler and measurer efkingship To guide and guard. 7he Knife efEqulibrium Is the holder efbalance, Death is in its blade Engraved with runes efblood It cuts the umbilical cord At birth, 7he silver thread At death.
7he Sword efLight Is the bringer efjustice Power wisely used By the warrior king Ofthe Blessed Isles OfAlbion. 7he Cup efJoy Is the giver efvisions Andgranter efdeath, Drink deep See what is hidden From mortalgaze.
Liher Nox 7he Horn �fPlenty Provider effertility, Physical and spiritual, Both male andfemale. 7he Shield efProtection With goosefoot inscribed Is the protector ef the Wise Folk And the Old Uizys. 7he Cords efFate Are the binders efsouls Bound one to another 7hrough eternity And to Our Lady 7he Weaver and Spinner Ofour destinies. Mark well these weapons Respect them lest they Turn agin ye.
All :
Uk give thanksfar the Young Horn Child, Now warrior and man May he wisely rule 7he Land and thefolk Blood and earth joined as one In spirit and kinship Beneath the sun and stars May wise leadership And a brave heart Bringpeace and harmony, Mayjustice replace Strife and c01iflict, So peace rules the land, May our brothers and sisters Ofthe Old Crcift Draw together in sacred circles In harmony and concord, May the brightflame ef
Twelfth Night: the Rite of Beginning Love and truth burn in every heart and home for now and evermore. It is Twelfth Night 7he Wheel turns anew Blessed Be the Children �fLight Blessed Be the Elder Faith and 7he Lord and Lady. So Mote it Be So Shall it Be. Coven dance around the dressed stang and the fire in a figure of eight pattern while the Master repeats the following Charm of Beginning:
7he year is turning From the long night efYule 7hrough spring, Midsummer andfall, Hear the Old Ones calling us On hillside and mountain, In wood and brake, In meadow andfield, On moor and wasteland, By spring and stream Mere and marsh. 7he stars circle around The point in the sky The Pole Star, As the warrior-king Ridesforth with his host, Hunting the white hart And the sacred boar In the enchantedforest. In the greenwood He marries his Lady, Maiden and Bride They leap thefire
Liher Nox 7hat on May Day Burns bright With the light Ofthe sun. On midsummer's watch 7he sun stands still, 7he elven queen rules As thefaeryfalk dance, Owls hunt at dusk, Nemesis ofthe twilight Phantoms ofthe night, Witches clad in.feathers. 7he hot sun at noon Turns the corn into gold, 7hefalk slay the king Hoarding his yield Weepfor the Bright One Lord ofthe Corn, King ofthe Harvest Cut down in his prime, Dance and be merry For the king he is dead In the blood soakedfield. At thefall ofthe year 7he leavesflutter down, 7he sun is sinking In the west ofthe sky, As the Horned One Descends into the earth, Lord ofthe Mound He now becomes, Lord ofthe Hunt Master ofthe Shades. On winter's dark night 7he dead come alive And walk in the night, Skulls are enjleshed
Twelfth Night: the Rite of Beginning Bones that are broken Become whole again In the smoke ef 7he b01ifire. 7he Wheel turns anew As the sun stands still, Frost andfire Rule the season, Bright in the sky 7he winter moon is burning, 7his is the tale ef 7he Old Year's turning. The Houzel. Circle closing
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0
N the altar are placed the necessary ritual tools, a large white candle, a large glass bowl, elderberry wine or mead and bread or fruit cake for the Houzel. If the rite is held indoors there are white or blue candles in holders on the altar or if outdoors in lanterns. Each celebrant is also given a candle. 'Ihe altar or the stang is decorated with snowdrops, primroses and crocuses. An image of the Goddess as a maiden draped in a white veil is placed on the altar.
The circle is cast and in some covens and traditions this is done by the Mistress and the Master performs the ceremony. 'Ihe Mistress then sweeps the circle with the besom saying:
With this act I cleanse 7he working ground, Ofall banejUl io/luences, Dark elves and wood goblins Evil spirits and shades, Ghosts and wraiths, Casting them awayfrom this place Never to return.
All:
So Mote it Be So Shall it Be
'Ihe purpose and intention is announced as the Rite of the Waxing Light. Master says: Our Lady efMoon, Earth and Stars,
Bright One efthe Wt:ixing Light, Virgin and maidenfair, Great Goddess Ofthe sacredfire, Rufer eftides and all things growing, I 74
Candlemas: the Rite of the Waxing Light May yourpower aid us, Grant us your blessings, Protect all here, Andfit!fil our needs Now and evermore As the circle we do tread
All process around the circle three times in silence. Master says: As the Wheel efthe Year turns
So the Light increases, Come back to us Bright Lady Across the dark waters From the mists efAvalon, Mystic Isle efApples, Return this Candlemas Day To the Land and itsfolk. Shining One, Maid and Bride to be, 7he Sign efthe Mark Ute make on our brows, Saluting thee as Our guide andprotector For all the days to come.
All make ritual gesture of placing three fingers to the middle of forehead where the psychic ''Ihird Eye' is located. A candle or lantern is lit on the altar as a symbol of the waxing light as the days lengthen. Master: As darkness comes befOre the light,
Night befOre the dawn, Winter befOre the spring, Let there be light to show 7he way ahead, As this sacredflame is lit So the dark is banished By the rising sun, May its light burn bright In our Circle efArte I 75
Liher Nox And within our hearts, To illuminate the Path And our way ahead Celebrants light their own individual candles from the central flame saying: T# light thisflame 7he_ symbol ef 7he waxing light efthe year, As the sun rises 7he dark efwinterflees, 7he Old Woman returns To her cave, 7he Bride comesforth With the serpent, From the mound, T# invoke herpower Over all things that grow From the dark earth.
Within theftrtile ground Stirs the seed eflife, Asflowers spring From deep roots In the earth's Cold womb So grow seeds Ofhappiness andjoy In our hearts. From the Witch-Mother T# are born Into the Light, And to her we Return at death To tread the spiralpath Oflije again. As the seed grows T# reach maturity,
Candlemas: the Rite of the Waxing Light When the harvest comes are cut down, So in old age 7he Lady ofFate and Death Reclaims us all. ne
When the silver cord is broken, Across the alder bridge M-e do go, Over the dark waters Ofmemory lost Into the Rose Castle, To be reborn again As Our Lady wills it. By many names She is known, Demanding her due In blood andflesh and souls At rings ofstone And infields ofcorn. There in sacred circle cast, Time and space are one Present andpast Are dulyjoined, To create thefoture, Three mystic worlds The alder bridge spans, From earth to spirit And i�finity. 'Ihe coven circles the fire nine times holding their lit candles. Master says: Awake Bright Lady
From your slumber Trangorm the wasteland, This barren earth, Frozen in winter's icy grip.
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Liher Nox From the Cauldron Of Creation Life dothflow, Seeds burstforth, 7he grass grows, Leaves urifUrl, 7heflowers bloom, Animals lie togethe7; 7he dead land comes alive And is greened anew. Great Lady, Flower bride to be At summer's coming, Stirfrom thy dreams Melt the snows, Banish ice andfrost, Lighten the darkness Restore the green world With thy holy breath oflife. Standing around the fire, all present in the circle turn to the person next to them. Holding the lit candle aloft they perform the Blessing of the Light upon each other in turn as follows. Moving the candle to the right hand of the person saying:
7he Light is in the Darkness. Moving the candle to the left hand of the person saying:
7he Darkness is in the Light. Moving the candle to the heart and then the 'Ihird Eye of the person saying:
And they are one For all eternity. !he candles are then taken to the altar and are placed on it in a group. A glass bowl of water from a sacred spring is held so that the glowing
Candlemas: the Rite of the Waxing Light candle flames are reflected in it. All gather around the bowl to witness the shining light of Brigid's Fire. !he Round Dance or S nake Dance is performed around the fire and the altar or stang in a figure of eight to awaken the sleeping earth with the stamping of feet. When the dance is finished a member of the coven takes the Bowl of Light to the edge of the circle. !he water is poured on the earth outside the circle. If there is no other magical work to be done, no spirit ingress or oracles to be heard, the Houzel follows, and then the Circle of Arte is closed in the traditional way. If circumstances allow it, the coven leaves the meeting ground imitating the Wild Hunt with the blasting of horns and loud cries.
f
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N the altar are placed the necessary tools of the Arte with images or icons of the Lord and Lady, mead or elderberry wine, bread and fruit cake and a platter. Spring flowers decorate the stang and/or altar. Pale green or silver candles are used. 1he Circle of Arte is cast by the Mistress and the Master declares the intention to celebrate the Rite of B alance.
Master says:
Now is the time when Day and night are equal, 7he sun waxes ever stronger Giving light to the earth and all living things. 1he Mistress brings forth an equal number of black and white cords or ribbons, enough so each member of the coven has either a black or white one. 1hey are mixed up on the platter and she calls each person forward so that with closed eyes they can select one. When all have either a black or white cord they tie it around their waist. 1hen they circle the fire with those wearing a white cord alternating in place with those who have a black one. Now the Dance of the Bright Lady and the Dark Lord can begin. Master: Green bud the.flowers
In meadow and wildwood, Tread we the primrose path Ourfaery queen has trod, Bringing herpower At this witching hour. Dark Horned One Out efthe brake 1 80
Lady Day: the Rite of Balance All our homage take, For in the witches' dance ue seek ecstasy and trance Celebrants dance around the circle, weaving in and out with black and white corded celebrants crossing and re-crossing as they go round the fire. Before the rite each person has written down on a piece of new clean paper something they want to remove or banish from their life, a situation they want resolved or an obstacle removed. In turn they approach the fire and throw their pieces of paper into the fire.
All :
ue cast these words, Written true Into theflames efthe Sacredfire, May all negative i1ifluences Be banished As the ashes scatter On the.four winds So our cares and worries Go with them, Begone dark thoughts And actions Never to return In the name ef 7he Lord and Our Lady So Mote It Be! So Shall it Be!
1he Master holds the cake and the Mistress the wine while another celebrant holds the platter. !he cake is placed on the platter and wine is poured on it. 1he coven gathers around the platter and raises it to the sky.
All :
0 Great Witch-Mother And wights efthe land Accept our sacrifice Freely given
Liher Nox Withoutftar orfright By our sacred right As those efthe witch blood. 1he coven now turns a circle with the raised platter. Master says: Gracious Lady
Bountiful Lady, Fertile Lady, Prosper all things By your care. In thy bounty Let us share, Bright Maiden Make all seeds grow Bless all living things Under thy dominion. A libation of wine and a sacrificial offering of moon blood (menstrual blood) is also made. If working outdoors a member of the coven digs a furrow in the ground with the blade of the ritual knife. 1he wine soaked cake is cast into the furrow and the earth is replaced. If indoors it is offered on the altar to the wights or spirits of the land. Master says: As the Great Plough
Shines in the heavens above So on earth also Does it reign. May the plough run true In thefarrow As its blade cuts the earth, A blessing be on the plough and all who use it. As day equals night And night equals day Balanced in harmony Are theforces eflight And the powers efdarkness, Each partaking efthe other In equal measure.
Lady Day: the Rite of Balance 7he Light is in the Darkness 7he Darkness is in the Light 7hat is the Great Mystery. Lord and Lady T1;e ask you to bless us One and all, In the name ef the lowliest 7hing that lives, And in the name efthe Highest efthem all 'Ihe Houzel follows in the traditional way and the circle is closed. 'Ihe coven keep their ribbons for use at the Michaelmas meet.
HE ritual tools are placed on the altar with apple cake and elderberry wine or mead for the Houzel. The stang is decorated with a garland of hawthorn, birch, willow and primroses. A second garland is placed on the altar along with green and red ribbons of various lengths. A large bowl of mead and a long pole or stick at least six feet in height and tapered at one end or fashioned in the shape of a phallus. Dark green candles are on the altar and in the lanterns around the circle. Images or icons of the Lady as the Spring Maiden and the Lord as the Green Man are on the altar.
The Master casts the circle and the Mistress performs the rites. The purpose and intention of the rite is announced before the Invocation. Mistress says:
Lady of Wild 7hings, Green Mistress, Bride-to-be We ask our rite Be blessed this Merry May time. Lord ofthe Wood, Master ofAnimals Green One, We ask our rite Be blessed this Merry May time. Leef-masked Lord, Flower-faced Lady, Queen ofthe Sabbat, Wild Man and Wild Woman, Robin and Marian,
May Day: the Great Rite Arthur and Guinevere, We ask this rite Be blessed and hallowed Horned One Enter this sacredplace In the name efoak, ash and thorn As weprepare to honour 7he Lord and Maid efSummer joined together in Mystical union. !he Rite of the Crowning of the O!ieen of the Sabbat is performed: Four male celebrants come forward and present the Mistress with a lighted candle (representing the power of fire), a cup of spring water and some bread (earth). !he Master anoints the forehead of the Mistress with perfumed oil, water and wine, and censes her. He places a crown of real wild flowers on her head and says:
Witch andpriestess Mistress efthe circle I crown thee As the Queen efthe Sabbat, May Queen efthe bower, Flower Bride to the Horned One. In the name efthe Green Lady efNature, Mistress efthe Wildwood, Guardian efthe Seashore, Protector efAnimals, May this Rite be blessed. If thought suitable or appropriate, the sacred marriage is enacted by the representatives of the Lord and Lady, the Master and the Mistress. He wears antlers, a foliate mask and animal skins and the symbol of the sun disc. !he O!ieen of the Sabbat is dressed in a green gown with a green leafed, half-face mask and a crown of wild flowers and she wears the symbol of the crescent moon.
Liher Nox !he Mistress takes the bowl of mead from the altar. !he Master holds aloft the ritual knife and plunges it into the vessel. Mistress: In greenwood wild
7he king embraces his queen, A sign eflovefar all to see, Joined together Two become One, Earth and sky, Sun and moon, All worlds Unite together In Middle Earth Two as One. !he bowl is held aloft and then returned to the altar. The second garland is brought forward and each of the celebrants ties a ribbon to it. !he garland is attached to the top of the pole but so it can revolve around it. !he Maypole is then firmly embedded in the earth as the coven say:
Earth and sky, Sun and moon, Beloved and loved All worlds Unite together Conjoined as one Like Our Lord and Lady. The Round Dance of Life begins. !he coven dance around the Maypole, each holding a coloured ribbon and weaving in and out. !hey then turn about and dance around the Maypole in the opposite direction to unwind the twisted ribbons.
All say: Summer is a-coming in With the May King and Queen, With merriment andjoy, By seed and root, Fruit andflower, By oak, ash and thorn.
May Day: the Great Rite From the distantpast, In the present time To thefature yet to come In the Elder Faith we live, In the Elder Faith we will die, In the Elder Faith we will be reborn, So it was and ever shall be. Amen !he dance continues until all are exhausted and sink to the ground. Spirit ingress may take place and oracles may be spoken. !he garland is taken down from the Maypole and passed around the circle deosil. Each person in turn places it on their head and asks a boon from the Lord or Lady before passing it on to the next. !hen the garland is thrown over the top of the Maypole so it slides down to the ground to represent the union of the phallus and the yoni. All cheer, shout and stamp their feet.
All :
7he earth has awakened! Love is broughtforth anew In the greenwood wild
Master and Mistress say:
7he sap rises In the trees Powers eflight and life Entwined as one In the embrace eflove. A blessing be on All living things. T# have danced here In circle cast around, As those who went before us, By standing stone and elder tree, Hawthorn and blasted oak, 7he blessings eflove T# seek to have
Liher Nox 7he old lore is writ In the purity effire, In the depths �(water, In the endurance efstone, In the stillness efair, In the wind in the trees. So shall we keep the Old Wilysfor ever more. Mead for the Houzel is now taken frc.°""'1 the bowl and the cake is dipped in it. !he circle is closed. !he sacred marriage may be enacted by the coven privately afrer the closing of the circle or when they return to their homesteads.
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HE necessary tools are placed on the altar together with images or icons of the Lord as the Green Man and of the Lady as the 0!,1een of Faerie. Bread and elderflower wine for the Houzel and two bowls, one filled with milk and the other with honey. A long red ribbon, cord or thread long enough to encircle the fire and a tealight for each member of the coven. !he altar or stang is decorated with briar rose, honeysuckle and vervain. Two extra stangs are placed in the circle to form a gateway to the realm of the Fey. Green candles are on the altar and at the four quarters of the compass circle. No iron or any other
metal is allowed inside the circle at this festival.
!he Master casts the circle and the Mistress performs the rite. !he intention of the Rlte is announced before the Invocation. Mistress: Owl-faced Lady,
Fox-masked Lord, Fair Queen efE!fhame, Elven King, Horned One, Lady efBeasts, Lord efthe Wood, Great Enchantress, Oberon and Titania, Mer/in and Morgan Robin and Marian, T# gather this Midsummer's night To do ye honour. As the sun rises high in the sky T# invoke the power efthe King Stag with seven tines, 7he Lord on the Hill Lord efLight,
Liher Nox Come into this world As you did in days ofold, Walk on the high places, Lift up thy Sword ofLight, Thy blazing Spear ofDestiny, Put toflight all Dark elves, Woodgoblins, Barrow wights, Ghosts and the undead. Protect this sacred land, Merlin's Enclosure, The Island ofthe Mighty, 7he Blessed Isles ofAlbion, Britannia's holy realm, As King Arthur once did, From all enemies andfaes, Cast away the darkforces Ofmaterialism andgreed Threatening our sacred land And itsfalk. Give us green woods, Flowery meadows, Blossoming orchards, Ripening.fields, Open spaces andparks, Clear waters, Fresh wind, Clean ai1: Old Hornie's Time is nigh His power waxes at This mystic hout; Bright shines hisface In the heavens above Yet the shadowsgather, Soon to the Hollow Hill He must away,
Midsummer Day: the Rite of Faerie By Fate's behest, Descend to darkness To rest in PeacefUI sleep. As the Lord ofLight Is reborn at the Turning ofthe Wheel From the sacred cauldron, So the Lady leads us 7hrough the Gate ofLife, Other lives shall be 7hat we may learn anew and the true Path seek once more.
All :
At this time ofsun triumphant, We give thanks to the Old Ones, 7he Lord ofLight And the Green Lady For the bright rays of 7he golden dawn and their blessing on our rite
Mistress censes the 'gateway' to the land of Faerie with incense, fire and water. Takes up red cord or ribbon and hands other end to the Master. Celebrants also hold the cord with their right hands, standing between the Master and Mistress, and everyone paces around the fire imitating the planets circling the sun. When exhausted they keep dancing, holding on to the cord whatever happens, or whatever they hear or see. Mistress: On this Midsummer Night
May the gates ofFaerie Open wide, Morgan Le Fay Queen ofFaerie, Oberon, King ofFaerie, Bring us to stand On the Hill of Vision, 7he Hollow Hill
Liher Nox Show us with the Sight the secret world Ofthe Fey.
All visualize the gates to Faerie opening in the Hollow Hill and the Lord and Lady as the <2.!ieen of Elfhame and the Elven King standing in the gateway formed by the two stangs. When the dance is completed and all have recovered from their visions, oracles may be given of what has been seen and experienced. All then take a tealight from the altar and light it. 'They are placed around the circle in a ring leading to the bowls of milk and honey. A libation of wine or mead is made on the ground with offerings of the milk and honey to the faery folk.
All:
Blessings to the Good People, 7he bright sprites of U'Ood, stone and stream, Dwellers in the hidden mounds, U'atchers in the trees, Riders on the hill, Blessings on the Shining Host The Lordly Ones Ofthe Hollow Hills This magical night T# ojjer ye this libation Good Folk all, May ye in turn Bless andprotect Our homes andfields, Farms and cottages, Valleys and dales, Bringing no harm To us or ours, In the name ofthy King and Queen, The Dragon Mother and the Lord ofElves.
The Houzel. Circle closing. At the end of the rite all leap the fire.
�":'""s:
t
HE altar or stang is decorated with red poppies and if possible a sheaf of early wheat or barley, plus images or icons of the Lord and Lady. Crossed arrows (bought in a sports shop or made from sticks fixed with copper points) and a sickle is fixed to the shaft of the stang. At its base is a human skull with crossed bones. A cauldron, platter, a large spoon or ladle, a pestle, rock salt and apples are present. All members of the coven bring an apple and seasonal red soft fruits. Bread and elderberry wine or mead for the Houzel and apples are on the altar. Yellow candles are at the quarters of the circle.
!he Master casts the Circle ofArte and the Mistress celebrates the rites. !he intention of the meet is announced. Mistress: It is Lammastide
7he golden time efyear, Great are the Old Ones, 7he Lord and Lady efthe Harvest Who gave us tools To till the earth, And seed to.fertilise it As harvesting approaches � give thanksfar nature's bounty 7hefirstfruits efthe earth. Offerings of apples, wine and bread are made to the Old Ones.
All :
Lord and Lady Bright spirits Ofharvest time � offer the Firstfruits ef Our labour.
Liher Nox
Grant us in return Fine weather So the harvest Is safely gathered in. Health, prosperity, And thejoys oflife Tofarm andfalk Corn King, John Barleycorn, Master Cain, Lord �fthe Harvest Show us yourpower As the light begins To wane. Your blood stains 7he cornfield As redpoppies bloom, 7he lightfades Summerflowers Wilt and die, 7he last sheeffalls, Our Lord is the Shadow on the hill, The whisper on the wind, The ghost at the crossroads. All bring their apple and other fruit to the altar. The soft fruit is placed on the platter and crushed by the Mistress using the pestle. 1he apples from the celebrants are given to her one by one. She cuts them in half with her ritual knife displaying the pentagram concealed within their cores. Using some of the juice from the crushed fruits she marks an equal-armed cross on the forehead of each celebrant. The Master then gives one half of the apple back to each person. Fruit juice is poured or smeared on the arrow points, the blade of the sickle and the skull to represent the spilt blood of the Sacrificed God. Mistress says: To the darkness
Thou must descend 0 Lord, Yet we await thy return. Before ye go
Lammas: the Rite of Sacrifice
Grant us a store efwisdom Against the dying efthe light As the nights grow longer, Autumn days beckon Withfrost, ice and rime. Lord efLight and Dark 7hough we mourn thy departure, Powerful spells we know To bring thee back, Runes carved in wood and stone, Cast in circle round, 7he Old Magicfrom sunken lands And lost races Evoked once more, As the Wheel efthe Year turns So the sun rises once more. 7he old king dies So that the new king lives, 7he king is dead, Long live the king! All :
7he king is dead! Long live the king!
Mistress: Blood unto blood,
Flesh untoflesh, Spirit unto spirit, His seed lives on. In winter's dark and cold, 7he Hidden God is Ever with us, Concealed in golden seed In the womb efearth, 7he starry seed In the night sky, 7he Star within the Stone. 1he halves of the apples kept by the Master are given to the Mistress and she places them on the platter with the reminder of the soft fruit. She holds the platter aloft to show the assembly. Pours mead into the
Liher Nox cauldron and tips the contents of the platter into it. !he vessel is placed over the flames of the fire and the Mistress stirs the contents with her ladle.
All :
7he old king dies 7hat the new king lives, Old Horned God, Young Horn God 7he king is dead! Long live the king!
!he coven dance around the fire with the Mistress leading, holding the ladle alofr. When all are exhausted spirit ingress and oracles may follow. Bread from the altar is broken and dipped in the salt, and pieces are distributed to the assembly (the salt should give the bread a bitter taste). Master: Eat this bread
In the Old One's name With great terror And.fearful dread Mistress then ladles the potion from the cauldron into the ritual cup or drinking horn and passes it around the circle. Mistress: But Our Lady
Gathers ye home again !he apple halves given back to the celebrants are held aloft and then thrown into the fire. Circle closing.
HE altar or stang is decorated with oak leaves and acorns, wheat and a corn dolly. Images and icons of the Lord and Lady are present, and bread and elderberry wine for the Houzel. Each celebrant brings a candle or a lantern, and the cords they used on the Lady Day rite. These are placed on the altar. A 'winnowing flail' is made by tying black and white cords on the top of a small stick. Orange coloured candles at each quarter of the circle.
Master casts the Circle of Arte and the Mistress celebrates the rites. !he intention of the meet is announced as the Rite of Harvest Home. Mistress: It is Harvest Home
Nature's bounty is gathered in, Silver Queen, Corn Queen, Hallow this rite. Lord oflife and Death, Corn King, Bedye down on yonder corn, Your red blood drawn Andfreely given Come ye all.folk With cheerjUl tread Good men and women all, 7he corn is ground Within the Mill, � have bread Tofeed the Mighty Dead.
Liher Nox
By the yellow light Ofthe harvest moon, 7he Lord has sown his seed And raised the crops, Let him now To his rest away. Sacrificed One, Dying God, Pass into the Ring efstones, 7hrough the dolmen gate Into the burial mound, 7he Hollow Hill Beyond the setting sun 7he golden land In the western sea. With song and dance And lanterns bright 1# light the merry way, 1# give thanks to 7he Green-faced One. Restye well Beneath thefrosty weald, Return to us With the waxing light. 1he coven gather before the altar and each takes a cord. 1hose who wore a black cord on Lady Day change it for a white one. 1he Master presents each celebrant with a candle or lantern from the altar. 1he coven then process around the altar in a widdershins (moon wise or anti-clockwise direction) with their lanterns raised up.
All:
Farewell 0 sun, Light efthe World, Hidden god in seed and corn, 7hrough the gates efdeath, Guarded by the Trusty black houndye go, Now Lord efthe Mound To become.
Michaelmas: the Rite of Harvest Home Mistress: � weep no tears
As Our Lordpasses to 7he Otherworld, 7he realm ef the Old Queen Sitting on her throne efbones, He will return to us At the turning efthe year With the Midnight Sun And the Morning Star. As the days grow shorter 7he shadows are darker, � give thanksfar Allgood things efthe earth, 7he harvest and itsfruits, Bounty efthe Corn Mother and Corn King. � thank yefor the Food on our tables, 7he lijC-giving water, 7hefire that cheers and warms, 7he air we breathe, 7he earth our home, Flax and.fodder, Flags andfrigg, 7he sun by day, 7he moon at night, 7he stars above. 1he coven place their lanterns at intervals around the circle and the Dance of the Bright Lord and the Dark Lady begins. 1hey circle the fire with those wearing a black cord alternating with those wearing a white one. 1hey dance, weaving in and out, crossing and re-crossing around the fire. 1he Master takes up the flail from the altar and beats the ground with it, left to right. Eventually all dance around the fire in a widdershins direction with the Master hindmost chasing the celebrants as he flails the ground until the dance ends. 1here follows spirit ingress and oracles.
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Liber Nox All :
Dark days cometh Withflying leaves And gathered sheaves, 7hrough the winter be long May the Old Ones Bless us, Ifdark the path May their light shine on it Lord and Lady biess us.
The Houzel. Circle closing.
200
HE altar or stang is decorated with yew, elder and pine cones. Images or icons of the Lord and Lady of Death are present and a human skull rests at the base of the stang. Black candles on altar and at each quarter of the circles. A single candle or lantern is fixed to the top of the stang and another candle or tealight is placed in a hollowed out pumpkin or turnip lantern carved with a goblin face. A small votive light can also be placed in the skull if it is safe to do so. Extra candles. A small metal or pottery bowl. Enough small silver coins for each of the coveners to have one. Bread, an apple and elderberry wine for the Houzel.
The Mistress casts two circles to represent the land of the quick or living and the realm of the dead. 'Ihe second circle is directly to the north of the first. In its centre is placed the bowl containing wine. No fire is lit in this second circle because it is the realm of darkness and the Ancestral Dead. The Master celebrates the Rite.
All assemble as usual in the first circle. 'Ihe intention of the meet is announced. Before the Rite proper begins the Mistress gives one of the coins to each of the celebrants as payment for the Ferryman to cross the River Styx or Lethe. Master: Dark Lady
Pale-faced Goddess Elder Mother Old Queen, Mistress efthe Boneyard, Guardian efthe Dead, Chooser efthe Slain Ruler efthe Netherworld, Ule call on thee 7his Hallows Night.
20I
Liher Nox
Dark Lord, Pale Rider, Stag-masked Master Ofthe Spirit Hunt, Dweller in the Mound, U-1! call on thee And thy Hounds ofHell U'i!lcome all here this Hallow's Eve As the dark season begins 7hefires burn bright In the hills, With candle andflame U-1! callforth 7he Mighty Dead A candlefor the Lady A candlefor the Lord [light two extra candles]
Lighting the way Down the low road Master processes around circle widdershins or anti-clockwise, holding aloft the skull for all to see and meditate on. Each person contemplates their own mortality and death while looking at this symbol of death. Master: White Lady,
Owl-faced one, Night Mare, Elder Mother, She who brings birth and death, Cutter ofbirth's cord and life's thread, Dread Spinner ofthe U'i!b ofWyrd U'i!aver ofFate Reveal to us 7hefinal mystery 202
Hallows: the Rite of the Mighty Dead
Let us speak to the dead And our spirit guides Now the veil is thin Between the worlds Ofmen and spirits. 7his Hallows night Gwyn ap Nudd, Wild Hunter, Lord ofthe Mound, Lord ofBones, Black:faced God, Masked one ofthe night, Rides the wind, Both hunter and hunted, �your children Born ofyour dark blood Call upon you. 7he Wild Host rides out From dolmen and t01; Riding the secret Circle ofHeaven, 7he spiritpaths open And the dead walk again With the spirits ofthe unborn Along ancient trackway Andgreen road, Past ancient circle and standing stone, Over stile and hedge, 7hroughfield and wood 7he Wild Hunter rides, Death is but a doorway 7hrough which all must go. When the winds are high, And the moon sails by, 7he horn ofthe Hunter Is heard on high Cover your ears, Cover your eyes,
Liher Nox
7hefaery hounds are Crossing the sky. 7he Old One rides by Clad in cloak efblack Speak to him once And never come back. Mistress holds aloft a lantern on a stick. 1he Master stands at the place where the two circles meet or intersect, holding the skull. 1he coven process from the first circle to the second, led by the Mistress and following her light. Master: Follow OldJack O' Lantern
And his guiding light His is the low road 7he crookedpath 7he spiralpath � must all travel, Into the Maze, Land efthe Dead, 7he Land efApples, Realm efthe Old Queen and the Old Gods. As they pass into the land of the dead the coven offer their silver coins to the Master, who refi1ses them. They circumambulate nine times widdershins around the second circle with the Master in the rear holding aloft the skull. He then places it on a mound of earth and stones that has been previously placed in the north of the second circle. 1he coven process around the circle widdershins to the skull. 1hey bow to it and place their silver coins at its base. When all have done this they gather around the bowl of wine. Master: 7his is the Netherworld.
7his is the place efashes, 7his is the place efbones, 7his is the place efwaiting 7he dark place Between the worlds 7he Land efShades
Hallows: the Rite of the Mighty Dead
Where hunt the Faery hounds Curse not the Dying ofthe light Tis a kindly light Shining in the dark, Calling ye home Promising rebirth among 7hy kith and kin. All :
Old Queen, Ruler ofthe tides and the unborn, � ask to hear the voices ofthe dead And see theirfaces Once more. Masked Hooded One, Dark Rider God ofLife and Bringer ofDeath, Dread master ofthe Living and the dead Unlock the gates 7hrough which all mustpass. Grey King Heron King E!fKing Open the spiritpaths And ghost roads So the dead may come. OldJack Lantern Light the way betwixt Hill and mound, Crossed roads And corpse roads.
205
Liher Nox
A blessing on the Ancient dead and the ancestral spirits, "Welcome here to attend Our gathering "We call on those Who have passed this way before Come ye back Across the alder bridge Over the dark waters To the land efthe living All the celebrants think of their deceased loved ones and friends and gaze deeply into the bowl. If aught is seen, it should be spoken of in a whisper. Visions of the spirit world should be sought. Master: Tonight we drink the dark draught
From thepoisoned chalice In memory ef Our departed kin, The Mighty Dead And the Hidden Company. When our time comes, As it must one day, When the Dark Rider Comesfor us, "We will stand bravely To be embraced In his dark wings Tojoin happily 7he Company efShadows And the Sabbat Feast at Midnight, Until then we toast And remember our departed kin And the ancestral spirits Of our clan. A libation is made to the dead and a toast is drunk in their honour and memory.
Hallows: the Rite of the Mighty Dead
All :
To the Owd Lad, The Dark Master, To the Owd Lass, The U'eaver and Spinner, Old Fate, To the Mighty Dead, To Providence Who has noform Or name, May we always Remember those who have passed To the Hollow Hill And the Castle efthe Rose.
Meditation and silent communion with the shades of the dead. Spirit ingress and oracles. Master: Ye ancient dead
Now your leave take, Passfrom here with Silent steps along 7he low road, Disturbing none and Nothing as you go. Return to the Isle efApples, 7he Isle efthe Dead Beyond the setting sun, In the western sea, Along the spirit paths go As we light a beacon To show the way home. Coveners stand and process nine times widdershins around the circle before leaving it and returning to the first circle. A votive candle is lit by the Master and placed at the point between the two circles and it is left to burn out. Celebrants gather around the fire in the centre of the first circle. Candles are lit from the fire by each person. 'Ihey are held aloft and the name of somebody who has passed to spirit should be spoken by each celebrant
Liher Nox and remembered with the words:
Blessings upon [name] Peace be withyou In the name efthe Lord and Lady So mote it be! . . . .
The Houzel is celebrated and a portion of the bread, apple and wine should be left on the ground next to the votive candle between the circles. Circle closing. Before leaving the working site or meeting ground the skull is collected from the second circle, but the coins are left as an offering to the Mighty Dead.
APP€N E> I X A
Do you understand Child of Earth, Your heritage of old? Have you seen The blasted oak, 'Ihe Shining Ones at dawn? Is the night a dark cold tomb, Or the Lady's silver womb? Have you walked 'Ihe woodland ways, Spoken to the trees? Is your heart a magic centre, 'Ihe kingdom of the Gods? Do you hear the Wild Hunter's horn, See the hounds a-following, Kiss the stone that blesses all, The merry sign of Puck, Can you cast the circle round, To watch the rites ofjoy? Are the leaves your resting place The stars your guides above? 'Ihe Hollow Hill your chosen goal 'Ihe Good Folk your kith and kin? Do you understand Child of Earth Your heritage of old? M.H.
APP€N EJ I X
B
In traditional witchcraft each of the full moons of the year has its own magical name reflecting its attributes, influences and the seasonal weather. Examples are given below: January February March April May June July August September October November December
Ice Moon Snow Moon Hare Moon Seed Moon Merry Moon Faerie Moon Mead Moon Barley Moon Harvest Moon Hunter's Moon Fog Moon Frost Moon
When there is the rare event of two full moons in a month, the second one is known as a Blue Moon. Hence the old saying: "It only happens once in a blue moon."
!2 I O
B I B LI 0GRAP HY, R€F€R€NC€S & FUR�H€R R€AB ING All titles have been published in the U K unless otherwise stated.
Aldcroft Jackson, Nigel. Call efthe Horned Piper (Capall Bann Ltd l 994) Ashe, Geoffrey. Mythology efthe British Isles (Methuen l 990) Allen Paton, Dr L. Studies in the Fairy Mythology efArthurian Romance (Ginn & Company, USA 1 903) Artisson, Robin. 7h e Witching Wily efthe Hollow Hill (Owlblink USA 2005) Baker, Margaret. Folklore and Customs efRural England (David & Charles 197 4) " Discovering Christmas Customs (Shire l 994) Discovering the Fdklore ifPlants (Shire Publications 2008) Barber, Richard. 7he Holy Grail· 7he History efa Legend (Allen Lane 2004) Basford, Kathleen. 7he Green Man (D.S.Brewer Ltd l 978) Berg, Wendy. Red Tree, White Tree: Faeries and Humans in Partnership (Skylight Press 2 0 1 0) Gwenevere and the Round Table (Skylight Press 2 0 1 2) Billingsley, John. Stony Gaze: Investigating Celtic & Other Stone Heads (Capall Bann Ltd 1 998) Burrow,} (ed) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Penguin Classics 1 972) Chumbley, Andrew D. Azoetia: A Grimoire efthe Sabbatic Creft (Xoanon l 992) " Opuscula Magic: Vo/ I. Essays on Witchcreft and the Sabbatic Tradition (1hree Hands Press USA 2 o r o) Clarke, David. Supernatural Peak District (Robert Hale 2000) Cochrane, Robert. 7he Robert Cochrane Letters (Capall Bann Ltd 2002) Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland (1hames & Hudson l 996) Danaher, Kevin. 7he Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs (Mercier Press l 972) Darrah,John. Paganism in Arthurian Romance (1he Boydell Press l 994) Darthen,Jon. Somerset Faeries and Pixies (Capall Bann Ltd 2 0 1 0) Davies, Sioned. (trans) 7he Mabinogion (Oxford University Press 2007) Deveraux, Paul. Haunted Lands (Piatkus 2 00 1 ) Fairy Paths & Spirit Roads (Vega 2003) De Vries, Eric. Hedge-Rider (Pendraig Publishing USA 2008) Dixon,Jeffrey John. Gawain and the Grail Quest (Floris Books 20 1 2) D uerr, Hans Peter. Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary between Wilderness and Civilisation (Basil Blackwell 1 98 5 ) Duffy, Martin. 7h e Devil's Raiments (1hree Hands Press USA 2 0 1 2 ) Eliade, Mircea. Rites and Symbols ifInitiation (Spring Publications USA l 994) Patterns ef Comparative Religion (Bison Books USA l 996) Fernee, Ben. 7he Society ef the Horseman's Word ( Society of Esoteric Endeavour 20I I ) Fitch, Eric L . In Search ifHerne the Hunter (Capall Bann Ltd 1 994) Fitzgerald, Robert. Arcanum Bestiarum; Ofthe Subtil and Occult Virtues efDivers Beasts (1hree Hands Press USA 2 0 1 3 ) "
2II
Liher Nox Fortune, Dion. 7he Secrets ef Dr Taverner ( 1 9 2 6 . Llewellyn Publications USA edition 1 962) " Avalon efthe Heart ( 1 934. Aquarian Press edition 1 9 7 1 ) Frazer, J.G. 7he Golden Bough (Macmillan 1 9 2 2 ) Garland, John. Haunted Somerset (Tempus 2007) Gary, Gemma. Traditional Witchcraft: A Cornish Book �fUtays (Troy Books 2008) Glob, .P.V. 1be Mound People: Bronze Age Man Preserved (Faber & Faber 1 973) Graves, Robert. 7he White Goddess (Faber & Faber l 948) Gray, Miranda. Beasts �fAlbion (Aquarian 1994) Gray, William. 7he Rollright Ritual (Helios Books l 97 5 ) Green, Marian. A Witch Alone (Aquarian Press 1 9 9 1 ) Grigsby,John. Utarriors efthe Utasteland:A Questfor the Pagan Sacrificial Cult behind the Grail Legend (Watkins Publishing 2003) Gwyn. Light From the Shadows: A Mythos efModern Traditional Witchcrqft (Ca pall Bann Ltd 1 999) Hartley, Christine. 1be U'estern Mystery Tradition ('The Aquarian Press 1 968 Hole, Christine. English Custom & Usage (B. T B atsford Ltd l 94 3) " British Fdk Customs (Hutchinson l 976) Howard, Michael. 7he Sacred Ring; 7he Pagan Origins �fBritish Fdk Festivals & Customs (Capall Bann Ltd 1 99 5 ) Children �fCain:A Study efModern Traditional Witches (1hree Hands Press 2 0 1 2) Huson, Paul. Mastering Witchcrqft (Rupert-Hart Davies 1 970) Hutton, Professor Ronald. 7he Stations �f the Sun: A History �fthe Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford University Press l 996) 7he Triumph �fthe Moon (Oxford University Press 1 999) Jones, Gwyn and Jones, 'Thomas (trans) 1be Mabinogion (J.M. Dent 1 949) Jones, E.O. Seasonal Feasts and Festivals (1hames & Hudson 1 9 6 1 ) Jones, Evan John. Witchcrqft: A Tradition Renewed (Robert Hale 1 990) " Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance (Llewellyn Publications USA l 99 7) 1be Roebuck in the 7hicket; An Anthology �f the Robert Cochrane Witchcreft Tradition (Capall Bann Ltd 2 00 1 )
Kiesel, William. Magic Circles in the Grimoire Tradition ('Three Hands Press USA 201 2) Knight, Gareth. 1be Secret Tradition in Arthurian Legend (Aquarian Press l 9 8 3) " Dion Fortune and the Magical Battle efBritain (Golden Gates Press, USA 1 993) Merlin and the Grail Tradition (Skylight Press 20I I ) Larrington, Carolyne. King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition (l.B. Tauris 2006) Lecouteux, Claude. Phantom Armies �fthe Night (Inner Traditions USA 20 l l ) Leitch, Yuri. Gwyn.· Ancient God �{Glastonbury ('The Temple Publications 2007) Lewis, Ralph Ritual Sacrifice: Blood and Redemption (Sutton Publishing 200 1 ) Long, George. We Folklore Calendar (Philip Allan l 934) Loomis, Roger Sherman. 1be GrailFrom Myth to Christian Symbol ( 1 9 2 6 Constable 1 963) Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance ( 1 9 2 7 Constable 1993) 2I2
Bihliography, references &>further reading Lyon, Russell. 7he Questfor the Original Horse Whisperers (Luath Press 2003) Kerven, Rosalind. Arthurian Legends: Retoldfrom Medieval Texts with Extended Notes (National Trust Books 2 0 1 l ) Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte D'Arthur (William Caxton l 48 5. Penguin Books edition l 969) Mann, Nicholas R. 7he Isle q,fAvalon: Sacred Mysteries ifArthur and Glastonbury (Green Magic 200 1 ) Markale,Jean. Merlin: Priest ifNature (Inner Traditions USA 1 99 5 ) Matthews, Caitlin. King Arthur and the Goddess ifthe Land (Inner Traditions USA 2002) Matthews, John & Caitlin. 7he U't?stern l#ly: A Practical Guide to the U't?stern Mystery Tradition. Vo/ L· 7he Native Tradition ( Penguin Books l 98 5 ) Ladies ifthe Lake (1horsons l 992) Matthews, John. Sir Gawain: Knight ifthe Goddess (Inner Traditions USA 2003} Matarasso, Pauline (trans). 7he Quest ifthe Holy Grail (Penguin Classics l 969) McNeill, F. Marian. We Silver Bough Vols I-III (William MacClaran l 96 l ) Monmouth, Geoffrey 0£ History ifthe Kings ifBritain translated from the Latin by Sebastian Evans (J.M. Dent 1 904) Monmouth,John 0£ Genuine Witchcrefi is Explained: 7he Secret History ifthe Royal Windsor Coven & the Regency (Capall Bann Ltd 201 2). Murray, Margaret Alice. 1be Witch Cult in U't?stern Europe (Oxford University Press 1 9 2 1 ) Naddair, Kaledon. Ke/tic Folk & Faerie Tales (Century-Rider 1 9 87) Nennius. Historia Brittonum (History if the Britons) translated from medieval Welsh by J.A. Giles (].Bohn l 841) Pearson, Nigel. Treading the Mill· Practical Craft fVorking i n Modern Traditional Witchcrefi (Ca pall Bann Ltd 2007) Pennick, Nigel East Anglian Magic (Robert Hale Ltd l 995) " Operative Witchcraft (Lear Books 2 0 1 l ) 7he Toadman (Society of Esoteric Endeavour 201 l ) Rankine, David and D'Este, Sorita. 1be Guises q,fthe Morrigan (Avalonia 2005) Richardson, Alan (ed). Dancers to the Gods: 1be Magical Records q,fCharles Seymour and Christine Hartley I937- I939 (1he Aquarian Press 1 9 8 5 ) Roberts, Andy and Clarke, David. Twilight if the Celtic Gods (Cassell l 996) Robins, Don and Ross, Dr Anne. 1be Life and Death if a Druid Prince (Rider 1 9 8 9) Roh-Wheeler, Francis. Mystic Gleams from the Holy Grail· 1be Legend if Spiritual Chivalry, the Mystery ifits Divine Origin, its Secret in the WOrld ifFaeries and its High Initiation (Rider and Company n.d.) Ross, Dr Anne. Pagan Celtic Britain (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd l 967 Stewart, R.J. 1be Underworld Initiation (Aquarian Press l 98 5 ) " We Living WOrld q,fFaery (Mercury Publishing USA l 99 5) Troyes, Chretien de. Arthurian Romances translated from medieval French by W.W. Comfort (JM.Dent & Sons 1 9 1 4) Wells, Deborah. 7he Dark Man (0 Books 2 0 1 0) Weston,}essie L. From Ritual to Romance:An Account ifthe Holy Grailfrom Ancient Ritual to Christian Symbol (Cambridge University Press l 9 5 7 ).
i N E>€X Abbots Bromley Horn Dance 143 Aine 70, 90 Alderley Edge 1 12 All Hallows 17, 22, 24, 80, 1 1 3 ancestors 50, 64, 100, 1 14, 1 15 , 125, 138, 149, 201
Anu 72 anvil 30 apple 23, 139, 184, 193-96, 201, 208 arrows 22, 24, 105, 167, 168, 193 Arthurian legend 8, 9 , 28, 34, 35, 4 1 ,
47, 48, 72, 75, 78, 88, 1 0 1 , 104, 1 1 1 , 1 12, 122, 1 3 1 , 132 ash (tree) 21, 27, 48, 73, 98, 127 Avalon 23, 34, 58, 83, 84, 102, 122, 123, 147, 149 Awen 28 badger 129-30 balefire 30, 71, 125, 127 barley 24, 109, 1 93 Befana 1 3 8 beheading game 79 belladonna 27, 148 Beltane 16, 70, 71, 77, 82, 98 Bercilak 80, 81 besom 26, 27, 33, 42, 93, 98, 144, 152, 153, 1 74 birch 23, 27, 59, 72, 73, 78, 1 84 black cockerel 3 1 , 49 black dog 16, 45, 107, 120, 1 2 1 , 132 blackthorn 27, 32, 78 blasting rod 32 blindfold 4 2 boar 49, 6 1 , 80, 85, 86, 129, 1 3 1 Boscastle 30, 40 Bran 28, 1 00, 1 0 1 , 1 3 1 Brigid 57-6 1 , 72, 76, 179 British Mystery Tradition 8, 9, 23 broomstick flying 1 1 , 26, 1 3 8 bull 1 5 , 22, 4 8 , 4 9 , 5 3 , 107, 128, 129, 132, 146 Cadbury Castle 122-23 Cailleach 60, 6 1 , 62, 65, 72, 76, 107, . 1 1 8, 127, 130, 1 3 1 Candlemas 1 7, 23, 5 7 , 6 3 , 126, 1 3 5 cardinal (compass) points 50-54, 106, 152, 153
castle 49, 53, 122, 124 cat 14, 44, 129, 130 cauldron 28, 33, 54, 84, 87, 94, 144, 150 censer 33, 37, 153 Ceridwen 28, 1 1 7, 1 3 1 , 144 Cerne Abbas 128 Christmas Bull 128 Chumbley, Andrew D. 8, 10, 30, 40, 50, 98
cider 27, 69, 109, 127, 139 Circle ofArte 1 3 , 2 1 , 22, 26, 27, 29,
32, 42, 47, 49, 50, 52, 54, 106, 1 5 1 , 152 Clun 78, 121 Cochrane, Robert 8, 13, 22, 29, 3 1 , 40, 52, 53, 81, 98, 144 Collen 1 23-24 copper 26, 27, 36, 99, 193 cord 3 1-32, 43, 52, 152, 167, 168, 180, 1 89, 1 9 1 , 197-99 corn dolly 107, 108, 147, 1 97 corn spirit 105, 107, 109 Crom Dubh 105, 107, 132 crossroads 1 1 , 16, 49, 51, 69, 78, 1 14, 117 crow 14, 3 1 Cultus Sabbati 1 3 cup or chalice 27, 2 8 , 3 3 , 87, 102, 1 5 8 Dance of the Lame God 144 Dathen, Jon 91-92 Dennison, William 45 Diana 26, 75, 77, 85, 87, 1 1 9 , 1 2 1 , 1 3 8 divination 1 3 , 30, 5 1 , 60, 72, 9 1 , 95, 1 13-15 Dorset Ooser 128 dragon energy 34, 60 druidism 9, 16, 47, 48, 70, 133 Dumb Supper 1 14, 125, 149 Edric, Earl 1 2 1 elder (tree) 1 1 , 24, 25, 9 1 , 148, 163, 1 74, 1 80, 1 84, 1 89 emerald 28 Eostre 66, 67, 143 Excalibur 34, 35, 87, 147 Faerie 8, 10, 23-26, 34, 39, 59, 71, 72, 85, 9 1 , 92, 96, 130, 1 3 1 , 1 9 1 , 1 92 Farr, Florence 50
Index Fates 14, 27, 3 1 , 36, 1 3 8 Faunus 70, 74 Ferrers, D'Arcy 135-36 Fisher King 102 fly agaric 45, 71 flying ointment 26, 130 Fortune, Dion 9, 1 12, 122, 123 fox 14, 22, 99, 129, 1 3 1 , 136, 148 foxglove 23-24 full moon 45, 46, 96, 106, 1 5 1 furrow 52, 108, 1 3 1 , 140, 147, 1 82 Gardner, Gerald 7, 1 4 Garland,John 96 Gawain 79, 80, 8 1 , 85-87, 100 Glastonbury 8, 23, 58, 77, 98, 102, 103, 122, 123, 124
goat 12, 1 5, 22, 25, 26, 43, 53, 6 1 , 107, 129, 132, 138, 150
Goda, Lady 1 2 1 , 1 3 8 Godstone 2 9 Good Friday 17, 68, 69 goose 14, 26, 27, 3 1 , 106, 107, 109, 129, 1 3 1 , 132, 153, 157
Gowdie, Isobel 1 7, 36, 39 Great Rite 27, 29, 70, 76, 82, 148 Green Chapel 80 Green Jack 73, 75 Green Knight 79-80, 100 Green Man 13, 14, 2 1 , 24, 73, 74, 75, 78, 79, 99, 148, 1 84, 1 8 9
greenwood marriage 72 Grimm,Jacob 66-67 Guest, Lady Charlotte 123 guisers 90, 1 15 , 1 1 6, 128, 129, 136 Gwyn ap Nudd 77, 1 23-24 hag riding 25 hagstone 30, 36, 1 3 1 hare 14, 67-69, 107, 129, 130 Harlequin 1 3 6-37, 147 Hartley, Christine 9 harvesting 64, 97, 98, 105, 106, 107, 1 1 0, 1 1 1 , 1 3 1
hawthorn 23, 72, 8 1 , 1 84 hazel 23, 32, 83 head cult 79, 1 00-03 Hecate 14, 69, 1 2 1 , 130 hedge 7, 27, 48, 65, 70 hemlock 72 henbane 27, 37 hereditary witches 12, 44, 100 Herne the Hunter 15, 1 1 9-20
Herodias 89 Heydon,John 95 Holda 9 , 14, 25, 26, 36, 1 1 8, 1 1 9 , 1 2 1 , 1 3 1 , 132, 1 3 8 , 1 3 9
hollow hill 8, 1 5 , 24 , 33, 3 8 , 5 2 , 71, 77, 82, 103, 123, 135, 1 36, 149, 1 92
holly 22, 78, 79, 8 1 , 126, 1 3 1 , 135, 136, 163, 165, 167
Holy Grail 9, 28, 29, 47, 84, 87, 88, 102 Hooded Man 16, 94 Horned God 12, 1 3 , 14, 2 1 , 22, 25, 29,
43, 46, 48, 53, 75, 98, 1 1 1 , 1 1 8, 1 3 1 , 146, 147 Horseman's Word 10, 42 horse's skull 1 16, 128 hounds 8 1 , 82, 83, 85, 107, 1 1 1 , 1 1 9 , 1 2 1 , 1 2 9 , 1 3 2 , 150 Houzel 26, 27, 28, 46, 158 Huson, Paul 42, 51, 102 Imbolc 16, 57, 58, 6 1 , 62 incense 36, 37, 42, 59, 104, 153 lne O!lane, Margaret 9 7 initiation 8, 10, 28, 38, 40-45 iron 2 1 , 26, 94, 102, 120, 1 8 9 lsle ofMan 7, 76, 78, 9 7 , 133 ivory horn 84-85 ivy 23, 126, 163, 165, 167 Jack-in-the-Green 73 Jack O'Lantern 24, 1 16, 150 Joan the Wad 1 1 6 John Barleycorn 109, 149 Joseph ofArimathea 102, 123 king of the faeries 15, 39, 150, 1 92 knife 25, 26, 32, 33, 52, 152, 168, 1 82, 1 86, 194 knotted cord 30-31 Lady Day 17, 23, 6 1 , 64, 130 Lammastide 17, 22,24, 97 Liddell, E. W 100 Lilith 122, 130, 1 3 1 , 1 5 1 Lindow Man 9 9 Lord ofDeath 1 6 Lord o fMisrule 135, 136, 147 Lord of the Greenwood 14, 74, 148 Lord of the Harvest 108, 109 Lucifer 10, 1 5 , 29, 39, 54, 120, 124, 1 3 1 , 147 Lugh 97, 105, 107, 109 Lughnasadh 1 6 , 97, 107 Mabinogion 100, 1 1 1 , 123 Mackenzie, Sir George 40
Liher Nox Magister 12, 1 3 , 22, 29, 32, 35, 43,
125, 1 3 1 Magistra 1 3 , 2 9 , 35 Man, Andro 96 Man in Black 12, 1 5 , 16, 39, 44, 1 3 1 Mari Lywd 128, 129 mask 12, 42, 43, 65, 73, 74, 1 15, 1 16, 128, 129, 134-36, 144, 1 85 Matronae 1 3 8 May Day 17, 23, 29, 67, 70, 1 4 8 maypole 6 9 , 7 2 , 73, 7 7 , 1 5 1 , 1 86, 1 87 May Qµeen 75-76, 78 maze 30, 3 1 , 82, 144 Maze Dance 144 mead 27, 167, 1 74, 180, 1 84, 1 86, 1 8 8 measure 43 Merlin the Mage 9, 34, 47, 75, 84, 85, 1 12, 1 17, 1 3 1 , 132 Michaelmas 1 7, 24, 106 Midsummer's Day 9, 17, 23, 79, 89, 109 mill 29 Miller's Word 41 mirror 82, 1 1 5 mistletoe 22, 24, 163, 165 moon/earth goddess 29, 70 Moore, Alan 135 Morgan Le Fay 9, 34, 80, 81, 83, 84, 94, 122, 123 Morris dancers 69, 76, 77, 128, 136 mummers' play 128, 136, 143 Museum ofWitchcraft 7, 30, 40 Myddffai 96 myrrh 37 Nameless One 16 Nephilim 51 New Forest 7 Niall, High King oflreland 62 niding pole 21 Nodens 54 Norns 14, 3 1 , 36, 1 3 8 Nox 1 6 , 35 oak 21 -24, 48, 58, 71, 74, 8 1 , 82, 1 1 9, 120, 127, 148, 197 oath 42-43 Oberon 1 5 , 84, 94, 95, 148 Ogier 83 Old Father Christmas 128, 132, 163 Old Hornie 1 6 , 25 Old Mother Babushka 138 Old Mother Redcap 44 Orkney Islands 45, 90, 109
owl 14, 120, 129-3 1 , 148, 1 50 Padstow 73, 143 Peak District 71, 72, 103, 104, 1 1 5 Pearson, Alison 95 peat bog bodies 3 1 , 99-100 Pendle witches 16 periwinkle 24-25 Pickingill Craft 53 pine cone 24, 32 ploughing 64, 70, 107, 109, 127, 139, 140
Plough Monday 108, 127, 139, 140, 143, 147
Pole Dance 144 Pole Star 52, 144, 1 5 1 pomegranate 8 1 , 8 3 Pook's Hill 94 poppy 24, 37, 98, 148, 1 93 Pratt, Elizabeth 1 1 Prieddu Annwn 28, 84 Puck 93 Pwyll 1 1 1 quartz crystal 30, 59 Qµeen of Elfhame 8, 23, 39, 72, 8 1 8 5 , 9 5 , 96, 121 , 1 32, 148, 192
Qµeen ofthe Harvest 107, 109 Ragnall, Lady 86-87 ram 15, 22, 26, 43, 48, 49, 53, 65, 72, 90, 99, 129, 132
raven 1 5 , 100, 129, 1 3 1 robed covens 10, 1 2 robes 3 5 , 1 5 2 , 1 5 8 Robin Goodfellow 92-94, 1 1 6, 148 Robin Hood 1 5 , 75-78, 87, 94, 120, 129, 143, 148
Rollright Stones 1 1 , 12, 29 rosemary 72, 1 3 1 , 167 Ross, Dr Anne 48, 104 rowan 24, 25, 71, 72, 94, 97 Royal Windsor Cuveen 13, 98, 125 rue 72 sage 1 53 salt 42, 49, 52, 94, 153, 157, 1 93, 1 96 Samhain 16, 6 1 , 77, 80, 107, 1 1 3 , 125 Saturnalia 134-35 scabbard 34 scarecrow 109-1 1 , 149 scourge 36 Scribe 13 Seer 13 self-initiation 44-46
Index Seymour, Charles 9 Shapechanging Dance 144 sheela-na-gig 62 shewstones 30 sickle 22, 24, 29, 105, 1 94 silver 14, 36, 201 , 204 silver branch 23 Simpson, Dr Jacqueline 1 10 skull and crossbones 22, 1 5 1 , 1 93, 194 skyclad 10, 35 Sleeping Warriors 1 12, 122 smith-god 15, 2 1 , 30, 33, 34, 70, 95 Snake Dance 144, 179 snowdrops 23, 59, 60, 66, 1 74 solar/sky god 29, 70 soul cakes 1 14, 1 1 5 Sovereignty 2 9 , 34, 62, 87, 95, 9 8 , 101 , 132, 147
spear 82, 87, 97, 102, 107, 123, 147 Spiral Dance 144 stag 15, 22, 43, 48, 53, 69, 72, 75, 76,
78, 85, 86, 1 1 1 , 1 1 9, 120, 129, 132, 148, 150 St Andrew's Day 17 stang 1 3 , 2 1 -25, 32, 33, 42, 43, 50, 52, 54, 97, 144, 151, 152, 163, 167, 168, 1 74, 1 79, 1 89, 1 93 , 197 St Duzaz menhir 29 Stewart, R.J. 92, 95, 1 1 1 stile 27, 33, 42, 1 1 7, 153 St John's Eve 1 7, 89-91 St John's wort 23, 91 St John the Baptist 89 stone (as ritual object) 29, 30, 33, 45, 46, 52, 54 stone circles/megaliths 10, 1 1 , 46-48, 60, 92, 107, 126 Stonehenge 29 St Winifrede 101 Summoner 1 3 sun wheel 5 9 sword 29-35 , 42, 43, 52, 87, 152, 153 Sword of Light 33-35, 43, 147 Sylvanus 15, 74, 121 Tau cross 22, 148, 157 Thomas the Rhymer 85 Tir-na-nOg 6 1 toad 10, 40, 44, 45, 49 Toadmen 10 Toland,John 70 Tuatha de Danaan 33
Tubal-Cain 15, 28, 36, 95, 102, 1 3 1 Turning the Mill 2 9 Twelfth Night 120, 127, 134 unicorn 81, 82, 83 Venerable Bede 66, 1 1 3, 127 Verdelet 13 virtue 40 Vulcan 28, 70, 95 wand 32, 33, 59, 6 1 , 62, 78, 136 Ward 1 3 Washer of the Ford 122, 131, 1 4 8 wassailing 139, 1 47 Watchers 5 1 -52, 150 Wayland the Smith 15, 28, 9 5 Way of the Book 44 well-dressing 104 Wellow 76 wells and springs 60, 6 1 , 67, 72, 1 0 1 , 104, 123
wheat 24, 59, 97, 1 93 White Lady 8 1 , 1 1 3 , 1 1 7 white sow 1 1 3 white stag 78, 85, 86, 132 wights 10, 28, 140, 152, 159, 1 82 Wild Hunt 8, 1 1 , 1 5 , 24, 26, 30, 63,
72, 77, 83, 89, 94, 1 1 8-25 , 128, 1 3 1 , 132, 136-38, 144, 149, 1 79 Williamson, Cecil Hugh 7, 12 Williamson, John 8 1 , 82 will-o'-the-wisp 1 1 6, 150 willow 23, 27, 32, 59, 78, 1 84 Windsor Castle 1 1 9-21 wine 27, 28, 136, 139, 159, 166, 174, 1 80-82, 1 84, 201 , 204, 208 witch blood 44, 50, 5 1 , 96 witches' ladder 3 1 witch-god 14-16, 3 3 , 74, 8 1 , 92, 94, 123, 1 3 1 witch-goddess 1 4 , 16, 2 1 , 23-26, 3 1 , 60, 83, 87, 120, 130 witch's girdle 3 1 Witheridge 89 Woden 1 5 , 94, 109, 1 1 8, 128, 132, 136, 150 woodwose 75 wort-cunning 10, 14 wren 133 Wyrd Sisters 27, 36, 138 yew 2 1 , 24, 25, 37, 126 Ynys Witrin 77 Yule 17, 22, 126
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