The Starry Cave

In his book about Balkan Traditional Witchcraft Radomir Ristic gives us evocative imageries of the nature of the witch as someone who has a relationship or liaison with some spirit vested in demonic clothing. The connection with this spirit enables the spirit to make marvels and wonders, to fly out at night and behave in ways that sets him or her apart from the ordinary world. He or she is someone who sees beyond the veils of day and night and see what is. Ristic is also adamant in disclosing that at the root the idea of the witch we find a Bogomil theological concept. The Bogomils believed in One God, but they also believed in his emissary and vicar, Satanael. Hence we have the concept of the two Tzar’s, the golden Tzar of Heaven and the silver Tzar of Earth. His exposition on these mysteries also found its way to the anthology of Traditional Witchcraft, Serpent Songs where he concludes that the Bogomil influence made the ‘ways of the grandmothers’ to survive – it was this way t

“... ‘witchcraft’ has become static and remote from its original purpose, which was to enlighten the follower spiritually” - Robert Cochrane When Robert Cochrane wrote about the concepts of witchcraft in his day and time in his 1964 article in Pentagram #2 with the title ‘Witchcraft Today’ his diagnostic is remarkably similar to what we find today. He writes: “it would appear the Craft has rapidly become an escape hatch for all those who wish to return to a more simple form of life and escape from the ever-increasing burden of contemporary society. In many cases the Craft has become a funk hole, in which those who have not been successful in solving various personal problems hide,”. He continues this article with emphasizing the mystical dimension of witchcraft, the realization of truth as opposed to illusion. He assumes that any student of the Craft is ultimately seeking Truth and thus sees ‘magic’ as a by-product of the search for Truth, “it is an after-thought upon a

“In what generally passes as witchcraft today there is as much illusion and unresolved desire as there is in the outside world” - Robert Cochrane  (The Roebuck in the Thicket. Capall Bann 2001: 50) It is troublesome this word; “witchcraft”. It is troublesome because it refers to a craft that essentially remains nameless. It is troublesome because the word ‘witch’ have been subject for a myriad of definitions over the ages that is still in transformation. Until the 60’s the understanding of the nature of the witch was shrouded in some degree of danger and ‘evil’. Ambiguity was abundant in this icon tied to the craft of peasantry and the work of land and earth, this figure who knew how plants could cure and kill and could speak with the denizens of ‘the other side’. With the popularization of Wicca the idea of the witch has been yet again reshaped and is today often understood to be someone involved with cults of fertility connected to earth. As time changes so does o

The first encounter the Western readers have with the word ‘Obeah’ is often through Aleister Crowley’s received text, Liber Al vel legis where we can read: “ Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand an d the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach.” (I:37). Crowley defined Obeah as the action potential of the magick of the secret light and understood this to be, together with the wanga, to represent the entire plethora of magical external expressions. I would say, he was in a vague way, quite direct and to the point, because Obeah is indeed a form of secret light that lights up the forest of possibility with the luminousness of sorcerous potency. However, touching the circumference of this secret light, will not invite a greater understanding of what Obeah really implies.     Obeah: A Sorcerous Ossuary is a testament of lineage and secrecy that aspire to reveal some of the shadowy forms and figures of this sorcerous legacy in