There are teachers out there for everyone

When the disciple is ready, the Master is ready also.

In literature, and in many non-fiction occult books, magic is something that is learned directly from a teacher, usually an older, wiser person who is passing on their knowledge before they die. (Many cultures actually believe that a witch cannot die until he or she has passed the ability onto someone else.) Being taught spells at the feet of ones grandmother, learning to pick and prepare herbs by the old healing woman, or being chosen as an apprentice to a wizened shaman are all ideal in theory, but most of us will never have that opportunity. We have to seek out our teachers and learn from them in whatever ways we can.

Certainly in the early days of modern witchcraft, everything was handed down personally from teacher to student. There were few books, and the organized coven was the only apparent model for learning magic. Of course there were always lone witches who weren't part of a coven, but by nature they were usually invisible, while some covens did maintain a public presence through rituals, classes or publications. Most people followed a familiar path of reading what few books were available (Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente, Sybil Leek, Janet and Stewart Farrar or Raymond Buckland if you were lucky; lurid "occult exposé" books if that's all you could find) and stumbling upon a notice of a class or public ritual in a local magazine or occult store. Some people stayed with the coven they first studied with; others moved on through the connections they'd made there, into groups more suited to their own interests and personalities. Eventually they initiated newcomers into those groups and the Craft was passed on.

Everything started to change with the publication of Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner in 1988. Suddenly it was acceptable to learn witchcraft from a book and never be part of a coven at all. Cunningham was an indefatigable writer and produced over thirty books in his short life, most of them written for those pursuing independent study in magic and witchcraft. He was shortly followed by a rising tide of prolific authors, including Ann Moura, Raven Gramassi, Silver Ravenwolf and many others. Every form of magical practice was laid out in how-to guides, from traditional Gardnerian Wicca to Siberian shamanism to casting spells via text message.

Like many of us, I was interested in magic from childhood, and devoured all the books available in our small-town library. There weren't many in the 1970's, and these were all of the "Encyclopedia of the Occult" and "History of Witchcraft and Demonology" type. By the mid-80's I found myself in a Golden Dawn ceremonial magic order, and soon I was attending Pagan festivals and public rituals, meeting Wiccans, Thelemites and other magical folk . But our group broke up after the death of its founder, and although I continued to read widely, and the number of books available grew exponentially, my own practice and interest dwindled and I lost contact with other magically-inclined people.

The growing online Pagan community somehow never had much attraction for me. Witchvox, MySpace, even the growing number of Pagan blogs never really grabbed my attention as I coasted through the end of the millennium. They were useful sources of information, but not something I felt a part of. Then about three years ago I discovered podcasts, and everything started to move forward again. Books and websites were always interesting and good resources, but no substitute for a living teacher. Listening to a podcast, however, gave a personal presence and a real connection to the speaker, and I found I was much more engaged than I ever had been with written material alone. I started studying magic again, and expanding into areas I had never even known of before.

Podcasts

The first podcasts I discovered were fun, chatty programs like The Darker Side of Fay,  A Pagan Heart in Maine, Pagan Hooligans, The Wigglian Way and Pennies in the Well. But each of them carried promos for other podcasts, and as soon as I'd listened to their archived recordings, I branched out to The Spiral Dance with Hawthorne, Media Astra Ac Terra (now Between the Earth and Stars), The Unnamed Path, and Pagan FM. One day a promo on Pagan Hooligans announced the launch of New World Witchery, a podcast exploring something quite new to me: American folk magic. An interview there led me to the grandmother of all Hoodoo podcasts, The Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Hour, then Five-Star Spells (which became Conjure Crossroads), Old Style Conjure and Lamplighter Blues. At the same time I was having my eyes opened to Hoodoo, Voodoo and other African diaspora traditions, I also found Druidcast and The Celtic Myth Podshow and headed back across the Atlantic to rediscover Druidry and ancient Celtic traditions. And my background in Ceremonial Magick wasn't neglected either, because I started listening to The Hermetic Hour, and was finally able to grasp some concepts of Kabbala, Gnosticism and Hermeticism that eluded me when I was younger.

Like radio shows, podcasts can include lessons, lectures, personal essays, panel discussions or phone-ins, but many also feature a lot of Pagan music. Some, like A Darker Shade of Pagan (now Numinosis) and The Magick Jukebox, are purely music shows. (Thanks to podcasts, my awareness and appreciation of modern Pagan music has grown exponentially over the past three years! )

Most podcasts have a home site where you can download or listen online to current and archived episodes. Some post a new episode monthly or even weekly, but most are more occasional. You can use "subscribe" to favourite podcasts using iTunes or another podcatcher utility (I use Juice) so that new episodes are automatically downloaded for you whenever they appear. I download them to my MP3 player and listen at work; lots of people listen in the car or while doing chores. You can also just listen at the computer while you're doing other work.

Some of My Favourite Magical Podcasts

• The Spiral Dance with Hawthorne: a weekly hour of essays, stories, spells, mythology, meditation and information, with a lot of great music, from a very eclectic Pagan perspective.
• The Wigglian Way: Sparrow and Mojo, two lovable and crazy Canadian Wiccans, host a more-or-less monthly program of chat, essays, Pagan politics and music.
• Druidcast: The monthly podcast of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Hosted by musician Damh the Bard, it includes some teachings of the Order, but is mostly lectures (always fascinating), interviews and of course lots of music.
• Ariel's Druidic Craft of the Wise: A long-running but occasional series of teaching lectures on spellcraft and magic.
• Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Hour: A weekly 90-minute phone-in show where hosts cat yronwode and Conjureman Ali use divination and traditional conjure magic to help solve callers' personal problems. cat yronwode is a bottomless source of knowledge, and I've learned more about Tarot from this show than from thirty years of reading!
• Conjure Crossroads: A panel discussion and general gabfest between four fabulously knowledgeable hoodoo practitioners: Susan Diamond, Starr Casas, Sindy Todo and Orion Foxwood. The amount of spells, charms, magic and folklore that pours out of these four, and host Shimmering Wolf, forces me to listen to each episode at least twice to take notes of it all.
• New World Witchery: My absolute favourite podcast on traditional magic, mostly because the hosts Cory and Laine are just so adorable. But they have a lot to share, especially on the intersection of magic, folklore and popular culture. New episodes have become less regular, but it makes them more of a treat when they appear.
• Between the Earth and Stars: The archived episodes of Oraia Helene's podcast are well worth listening to because of the long series she did of very informative programs on stones, crystals, astronomy and astrology. Plus lectures, personal essays and some music. Less frequent than in the past but always worth it.
• Many podcasters use their shows to document their own ongoing exploration of Paganism and magic.  Scarlet Paige's Lakefront Pagan Voice is a good example, with personal essays, interviews with family members, meditations and accounts of personal magical experiences. 

 

Online teachers and mail-order classes

Mail-order magical training has been around for a long time, with groups like AMORC, The Society of the Inner Light and Fraternitas Rosae Crucis advertising their correspondence courses through ads in occult magazines. But the Internet has made it easier to find correspondence courses in astrology, witchcraft, ceremonial magick and other occult subjects, and now many online courses have been established to take advantage of the many benefits of online communication. For those who don't have access to teaching groups in their area, or who have trouble finding time to go to classes and meetings, this kind of distance teaching is very valuable. Much more in-depth than any book can be, correspondence classes are usually structured to ensure that the student has mastered each topic before moving on to the next. Courses can usually be completed at the student's own pace and schedule, while email, chat, Facebook and other social media groups allow for ongoing interaction between students and teachers. Fees for online and correspondence courses vary quite a bit, from just enough to cover the operating costs to commercial schools that teach classes for profit.

Some of the well-established online and correspondence schools I know of today are the OBOD Druidry Training Course, cat yronwode's Hoodoo Correspondence Course,  the Correllian Tradition's Witch School, Cherry Hill Seminary and the Aquarian Tabernacle Church's Woolston-Steen Theological Seminary. I'm sure there are many others, both here in North America and in Britain and Europe. As well, many Pagan bloggers, authors and individual teachers offer online courses and workshops. These can be harder to find, and although many are listed on Witchvox and other Pagan sites, lots are not. For instance, Australian musician Wendy Rule and her husband teach an interesting-sounding online course called Living a Life of Magic, which I know about only from her fan newsletter - I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else.
 

Festivals and Conferences

Most Pagan authors and teachers, even famous ones whose books you probably have on your shelf, teach individual classes and workshops at Pagan festivals and conferences. Often the workshops are included in the festival admission price, though some conferences charge separately for each workshop. As well, local stores and groups sponsor workshops and classes by visiting Big Name Pagans. Many workshops and classes include handouts, and sometimes even books, magical supplies and spell kits. There are annual Pagan festivals and conferences throughout Canada, the US and Britain, though I don't know of any one site that lists all of them. Any local Pagan or occult store or publication in your area will have information on upcoming festivals and workshops. While the cost and time to attend a festival can be daunting, the amount you can learn from even a few hours with a very knowledgeable teacher is worth it; one good class can revitalize your magical training and practice.

Here are some to look for:

Pantheacon: This is the big western US Pagan conference, held in February each year in San Jose, CA. The list of workshops and presentations reads like a Who's Who of Paganism and witchcraft.

Starwood: It bills itself as "the largest Pagan/Magickal/Consciousness gathering in North America (perhaps the world)." Held annually each summer for 33 years, now each July in Ohio.

Gaia Gathering: The Canadian National Pagan Conference, held in a different host city each year on the May 24 long weekend. The 2013 conference is in Ottawa.

Sacred Space Conference: Held in March in the Washington D.C. area.

Traditional Folk Magic Festival: A relatively new conference on hoodoo, conjure and American folk magic, held in New Orleans in November. This year's festival will coincide with the Pagan Podkin Supermoot, an annual gathering of North American Pagan podcasters.

Wic-Can Fest / Harvestfest: Canada's oldest Pagan festivals, held annually in southern Ontario for 32 years. Wic-Can Fest is in mid June and Harvestfest on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

Hoodoo and Rootwork Training Workshops: Sponsored by the Missionary Independent Spiritual Church and hosted by the Lucky Mojo Curio Shop in northern California each spring.

Druidcamp: Held every July in the Forest of Dean, England.

Pagan Pride Days:  There are Pagan Pride Days held in cities throughout North America every fall. And while their focus is more on music, rituals and fun than workshops and lectures, there are usually at least some classes, sometimes by big-name guests.


So don't let being "isolated" keep you from finding teachers and continuing to learn first-hand about magic and Paganism. Books and websites just aren't enough - you need to hear real voices too!

Magic from rags

This photo of Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Around the world, people have traditionally used rags, small flags, torn strips of clothing and other bits of cloth to anchor and reinforce their prayers and magical petitions. In this post we'll look at some of these traditions and how we can use cloths in our own magical working.

Holy Places

When people make a pilgrimage to a sacred site to make a petition to the resident deity, saint or spirit, they often leave behind a token to mark their visit and as an offering. In some places these will be statues, small ex voto charms, written petitions or even stones, but at many holy places around the world, visitors leave strips of cloth. This practice is found among cultures as diverse as Native American, Celtic, Tibetan and Japanese. Usually the cloth is more than just a marker to say "I was here" - it embodies a prayer and leaves it at the site to continue its work long after the petitioner has returned home.

Photo taken in Bhutan by Jean-Marie Hullot,  via Wikimedia Commons

In some places, like the Himalayas, this is made more explicit by using small flags with specific prayers printed on the cloth. The idea is that, as long as the prayer flag continues to flutter, the winds will carry the prayer to the gods. In Ireland and other Celtic countries, visitors to holy wells will often dip a cloth into the water as they make their prayer (formerly to local gods, goddesses or water spirits, now usually to saints) and tie it to the branch of a nearby bush. Often this bush is a hawthorn, one of the sacred trees of the ancient Celts. The Scots and Irish call these rags "clooties" (from the Gaelic for "cloth") and the wells at which they are left are known as "clootie wells". Sometimes the well is long gone, its place now marked only by the continuing presence of a "clootie tree" still being visited by the local people to convey prayers and wishes to the spirits.

You can have a clootie tree in your own yard, and tie strips of fabric to it as you make a wish or speak a charm. Use lightweight cotton or other natural fabric, so the clooties will decay quickly. You can also hang charms, papers and other small objects from the branches along with the cloth. Your clooties can also be hung as offerings to fairies, elemental spirits or just the genus loci or spirit of the place. There may even be a spring in a park or natural area near you; look for small streams of water and try to follow them back to their origin. You may find one that just comes from a tiny pool that isn't fed from any other water source. This is probably a natural spring, and you can pay your respects to its resident water spirit by hanging a clootie from a nearby branch. This is also a way you can honour a special tree or bush in your neighbourhood.

Rags in spell work

Cloth has many characteristics that makes it especially good to incorporate into spellcraft. Colours can be chosen to correspond with the type of spell (green or gold for money, red or pink for love, etc.), a deity whose aid you're requesting, or the zodiacal or planetary correspondence. You can write a petition, name or sigil onto a cloth and either use it to contain herbs or other elements of the spell, or incorporate it into the spell as you would a paper. Rags can be pieces of new cloth, bought specially or taken from your stash, or they can be remnants of old clothing or other possessions, in which case they are a powerful magical link to the original owner. Traditionally, rags with the strongest personal connection come from shirts or undershirts (because they're worn against the heart), underwear (because it contacts the genitals) or scarves (because they're worn on the head), but any piece of clothing will retain a link to the person who's worn it. Even leftover scraps from fabric have a connection to the rest of the fabric and therefore to the person wearing the garment made from it.

You can work backwards from this idea too, and perform a spell onto a piece of fabric that is then incorporated into a garment or other item for someone. A protective charm can be made and sewn inside a shirt, for example, or a love charm into a bag.
Quilts are a perfect place to include magically-prepared cloth, for example. And incorporating scraps from the clothing of loved ones and ancestors has always been a traditional practice of quilters even when there was no overt magical intent.

Poppets

The use of poppets as magical stand-ins for specific people is extremely ancient. Its most well-known form is in cursing or causing harm, but poppets are very often used in magic for healing, protection and especially love and relationships. Of course poppets can be made of any materials, including wood, wax or straw, but are most often sewn out of scraps of fabric. This allows them to be stuffed with suitable herbs, charms and other materials, and most significantly, to be made out of fabric that was once worn by the person represented. This creates a uniquely powerful connection that will amplify any spell worked with the poppet.

If your poppet is made of wood, clay or other material, you can still use a personal scrap of fabric to dress it. The ideal, of course, is to use fabric from the clothing of the person represented to make similar clothing for the poppet, so it will resemble its subject even more closely. But even just a scrap of personal fabric tied on as a sash or scarf will greatly enhance the power of the poppet.

A poppet could be used for ancestor work, too. We often have small scraps of fabric, handkerchiefs, lace or odd garments from our great-grandparents or even more distant ancestors. You could create a poppet to represent either a specific ancestor from whom you have a piece of fabric, or simply "my ancestors known and unknown". Dress the doll in a style that suggests the right period of the past (it doesn't have to be historically accurate - just a few period touches is enough) and incorporate any bits of actual ancestral fabric you have. Add an inherited button, hat pin or brooch to finish it off. Give your poppet a place on your ancestral altar, and treat it as an honoured member of the family.

Déesse

Déesse means Goddess, in French. It's the name I use when I think of what's holy and whole in this world.

The Goddess is in everything. She's everything.

 She is the light in the sky, and the blackness surrunding them as well.

She breathes with the trees, and walk every steps we take.

With us.

Within us.

She is the connexion with everything that is.

Every spiders I avoid to crash with my feet.

Every golden leaf I humbly appreciate.

Every nut that could have become a tree, 

but instead feeds me, and my growing belly.

The lightest laugh and the most painful tear.

That urge to live, 

Every second.

That spinning, overwelming sensation

When you close your eyes

And feel.

Feel that everything you do has an impact on another living

That every choice you make

Leads you to your next choice.

That certainty that you'll end up right where you were meant to.

And realize

That the path is not yet at its end.

The Goddess is in every crossroads.

Coin magic

Coins are among the oldest manufactured artifacts of human civilization, and they have possessed magical properties from the earliest times. Ancient coins were often stamped with images of deities to invoke the power of their protection, or with magical mottoes or charms that would empower or protect anyone who possessed or handled the coin. As late as the mid-20th century, before the introduction of decimal currency in Britain, the florin coin was still marked with a cross, and many people made sure to always keep a florin in their coin purse “to keep the Devil out.”

“Lucky pennies” are still common charms and souvenirs (a friend brought me this one in a tiny ‘witch bottle’ from a visit to Salem many years ago) kept for luck, prosperity and gambling success. Some coin amulets are special “lucky coin” medallions, but usually an ordinary coin is used, either worn as a pendant or bracelet, or put in a “mojo bag” with other magical ingredients. Besides being used for luck, coins can also be used for personal magical protection against malign witchcraft or the Evil Eye. Silver coins are especially used for this purpose; when a silver coin charm turns black, it is supposed to have successfully turned away something sent to harm you.

Although any coin can be used as an amulet or charm, the variety of images stamped on them means that some are believed to possess more magical power than others, and some are especially suited for particular uses. In the US, two coins traditionally used for gambling luck and protection were the Indian Head penny and the Silver Mercury dime. The dime (shown above) was doubly effective because it was solid silver - a protective metal - and because it showed a figure of Mercury, the Roman god of the crossroads, gambling and communication. (Actually the coin was meant to depict “winged Liberty”, but nobody has ever seen it as that.) Additionally, coins with significant dates - leap years, your own birth year, etc - are especially potent.

These two coins, of course, haven’t been minted for almost a century (though they’re easily available from coin dealers for only a few dollars each) but there are lots of modern coins whose images make them very suitable for magic use. The US has two one-dollar coins still in circulation, both depicting strong women whose image would be useful to invoke in magic charms or spells: Susan B. Anthony for political action, protection of civil rights or perhaps sobriety (she was a leader of the temperance movement) and Sacagawea for travel, finding your way, or even clarity of understanding (although she's known as Lewis and Clark's guide, she mostly acted as a translator). As well, the dollar shows Sacagawea holding her newborn son, giving it a correspondence to motherhood, family and childbirth. In Canada, the mint has just issued two quarters commemorating the War of 1812 that will be very good for protective magic; one shows General Isaac Brock and the other the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who together defended Canada from the invading US forces. The red enameled maple leaf on some of the quarters could make them even stronger magically, as red is a colour traditionally used for magic charms.

So what can you do with these coins, magically speaking? Well, the simplest and most traditional thing is simply to keep them on your person, either made into a piece of jewelry or just kept in a pocket or purse. A coin can become a protective amulet simply by your recognizing it as such, but most people will want to do some ritual to “magic it.” This can be as simple or elaborate as you prefer, but will usually include cleansing to remove any existing energies from the coin, consecrating or blessing it, such as with holy water, incense, condition oil or moonlight, and charging it with your intent. The longer you wear the coin or keep it on your person the more it will become part of your magical personality and respond to your needs.

But coins are also often incorporated into mojo bags, talismans or other magical artifacts. In traditional American witchcraft, silver Mercury dimes were often included in witch bottles, mojo hands or other protective creations, along with herbs, roots, stones, spell papers, animal parts or other ingredients. If the charm being made is very small, sometimes only a sliver or a few filings from the coin are included, but it is still enough. Usually the coin is just sewn into a packet with the other materials, but for protective amulets I like to keep the coin visible, as on this little house protection charm I made. Because coins are shiny and round, they have long been used to deflect the Evil Eye and other malign influences, so by featuring the coin on the outside, you get extra magical value from it. Coins can be drilled and sewn on like sequins, but one excellent way to attach a coin to a fabric pouch is to sew it on like a shisha mirror. Here is a simple tutorial on this, from Joyful Abode. I’ve used a tiny Swiss coin with an image of an armed woman carrying a shield, and filled the packet with three protective herbs: basil, rosemary and elderberries.  This would be a good charm to hang over your door, with the coin facing out to anyone approaching your home. 

B is for Books

I have always found books to be magical. Well before I began my path as a pagan I was an avid reader, and found the escape and wonder that books can provide. Through books I could travel to magical lands, find answers to questions, and learn what kind of person I wanted to be.

So, when I was 16 and I began looking into wicca/witchcraft the first place I turned was books. I bought my very first books from the walden books in my local mall. The books were the witches almanac and True Magick by Amber K. The almanac went over my head in many ways. The correspondences meant nothing to me. True Magick, was a more interesting story. I read the book clear through multiple times, and truly related to many things about the religion she described, but she talked also about having to have specific tools, and only wearing natural fabrics, and not eating meat, and suddenly I wasn't at all sure about this new religion. Let me say clearly that True Magick is not a bad book, but it was not the book I needed as a seeker.
I never gave up on this new religion, but I became a dabbler for several years until I signed up for a class called Wicca 101 at a local metaphysical bookshop in my hometown. I remember that first day, feeling like an impostor, and being so nervous that everyone would be able to tell how green I was. But instead I found a group of great people, and a teacher named Heather, who explained everything, and made the religion more real, and the things more unnecessary. Over the course of the class, which was once a week for a month, she walked us through making holy water, finding a magical name, basic spell work, and it all culminated with a beltane ritual that included a may pole dance. It was amazing. I knew I had found my place.

Heather had book suggestions, and for a brand new witch she advised To Ride a Silver Broomstick by Silver RavenWolf. This book, and it's two accompanying books, To Stir A Magick Cauldron and To Light a Sacred Flame, would become my lifeline for years. They would also lead me to find Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, and many other famous authors.

Having been a practicing witch now for 13 years (wow, that's a shocking number to me) I now have a list of favorite books and authors for different subjects and studies. Here is a list of some of my favorites. If you have something to add or have any thoughts, please comment on the post and let me know. Otherwise here is the list.

Animal Magic and Totems: Animal Speak by Ted Andrews
Herbs: Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham
           Garden Witch's Herbal by Ellen Dugan
Stones: Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic by Scott Cunningham
Books for Beginners: see above, plus
            Witch by Fiona Horne
            The Witch's Guide to Life by Kala Trobe
Spells: Everyday Magic: Spells and Rituals for Modern Living by Dorothy Morrison
Sabbats: Season's of Witchery by Ellen Dugan
              Lewellyn Holiday Series by various authors

I could keep going on and on and on, but I am going to cut myself off here. I will also add that I love pretty much anything written by Ellen Dugan and Scott Cunningham, but there are also many other amazing authors out there. I find the best thing to do is go to your library or local bookstore and get reading to find the authors who speak to you the most.

Blessings
AlphaBetsy