In the modern era there are two very distinct types of Witchcraft. The first of these is the shamanistic witchcraft of the witches in the woods. These witches are integrally connected with the legends of Robin Hood and Robin Goodfellow. There is, however, a second type of Witchcraft, Babylonian Witchcraft. This has come to use through the filter of the early 20th Century magical group, the Golden Dawn, however it has antecedants.
The same split that we see within Wicca in the current era is also seen in the Elizabethan era. The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot defines these two different types of Witchcraft. One of these is defined as the magic performed by John Dee, the other is the Witchcraft that he has heard of that is practised in the woods. The issue faced by Witches is that the high magic of the grimoires is infused with Christianity and Christian terms. In the new age where we are moving away from Christian traditions this is generally not acceptable to Wiccans. Despite genuine antecedents from those of dual Christian/Witchcraft faith in the middle ages it seem dissonant to call upon Christian deities in rites and this is not acceptable in Wicca. When we look back to the pre Christian period we might expect that the ancients would only practice shamanic traditions, however this is not the case. When we look at the myths of ancient Britain we see both Babylonian and native elements. There is a fusion the ancient Witchcraft lines and the ideas of astronomical magic from Babylon. This can be seen in the Mabinogion. The core issue which was faced by the ancients when the Babylonian traditions came to Britain was how to deal with the different elements. The Babylonian Witchcraft that arrived had a different elements to it. The first of these was the understanding of astronomy. This understanding allowed astronomer-astrologers to predict events in the heavens, for example the days of eclipses and the procession of the equinoxes. This gave them a position of authority in spiritual matters. The second element was the form of the creation of temples. These were laid out with chessboard floors. These represent light and dark, the passage of the moon and also the ceilings are laid out to reflect the passing of the astrological eras. The Magi or priests saw themselves as more advanced that the witches in the woods because they understood this, and indeed this was the case in the sense that they were able to get control of spiritual aspects of the state and oppress the witches in the woods, ultimately engineering a situation where their spiritual opponents could be put to death. There was, however, a third element, which is the three degree structure. The Babylonian tradition brought this type of hierarchy with it. This was alien to the British shamanic tradition. The grail legends define this struggle, where the knight overcomes the magician Klingschor, a representation of the Babylonian tradition and creates freedom for all. This is the Wiccan approach. Of course some Wiccans do promote a three level hierarchy, however the original proponents of the Wiccan Rede, the Thames Valley Coven proposed only a single level of initiation and that remains the position of the Wiccan Traditionals who derive from Traditional Witchcraft lines. The problem that is faced by Wiccans is that they need to define whether they are purely woodland based or whether they will adopt the ideas of Babylonian traditions. At the end of the age of Aries many rural Witches did not adopt the Babylonian traditions or appear to understand them clearly. They did not recogise the coming of the Age of Pisces, which ultimately led to the destruction of large parts of our tradition. In the current age we need to recognise that we are going to see changes in religion as we enter the new Age of Aquarius. Witches need to recognise these changes in their ritual practice. This year it was recognised by the use of chessboard floored temple to perform initiations. Although we can draw our traditions through Freemasonry as was the case for this temple we do not necessarily need to draw this through the filter of Masonic traditions. When we look back into the ancient traditions of Britain we see the creation of these temples. In the Mabinogion it is written, "And Peredur proceeded towards the Castle, and the gate of the Castle was open. And when he came to the hall, the door was open, and he entered. And he beheld a chessboard in the hall, and the chessmen were playing against each other, by themselves. And the side that he favoured lost the game, and thereupon the others set up a shout, as though they had been living men. And Peredur was wroth, and took the chessmen in his lap, and cast the chessboard into the lake. And when he had done thus, behold the black maiden came in, and she said to him, 'The welcome of Heaven be not unto thee. Thou hadst rather do evil than good.' 'What complaint hast thou against me, maiden?' said Peredur. 'That thou hast occasioned unto the Empress the loss of her chessboard, which she would not have lost for all her empire.' " In this myth we can see that Peredur goes to the magic castle as we do in our rites when we cross the water to get to the Castle of Magic. When he enters he sees a chessboard. This is reminiscent of what we see in a temple of the Western Mystery Tradition. He throws the board into the water that surrounds the castle, however this upsets the ruler of the castle for whom her temple is more important than anything else that she owns. There are further developments to this story which reflects our understanding of Witchcraft, including the killing of the stag, and the explanation of the grail, however within all of this is an apparent mixing of British and Babylonian magical traditions in order to free the practicioner from the power of others. As Cochranian Wiccans when we go to the magic castle to practice magic we can lay down a chessboard floor to represent our mastery of the knowledge of astronomy and of the dates associated with ritual practice. In this sense we too free ourselves from others who would control religion through this understanding. Our connections through the legends allow us to do this without the need to pass through the filters of Christian mysticism or freemasonry to achieve this. In the new age Wiccans can do this directly through reference to the old mythos. Through this we declare our understanding of the astronomical basis of our traditions.
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AuthorThe Horse's Mouth is a conglomerated blog with multiple authors. It is a voice for Cochranian Wicca in the UK. It is linked to the website wicca.org.uk and a large number of Wiccan groups on Meetup.com Archives
December 2016
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