The Starry Cave

Or;  Why this broom is not taking flight… “Witchcraft is something like gardening, something like cooking; it is a little bit of everything starting off with the basic ingredients. We are the stew or potage in the cauldron, the roots, the trunk, the leaves and the tree. It is dependent on ourselves how we flourish or wither with the winter’s storm.” – Robert Cochrane (quoted from Shani Oates: The Star Crossed Serpent) To define traditional witchcraft, a term Robert Cochrane coined, is not an easy task – and making a historical study of its key personage is quite hopeless unless you have access to the total array of the many legacies intended to be studied. Traditional Witchcraft is always followed by an unwritten history – its shadow where truth lies and blossom only amongst those sworn to protect the truth and its light. This factor alone makes the kind of historical account Howard attempts to present here impossible – at best biased and distorted. In ‘The Children of Cain’,...

Poison supports medicine and resistance forges what is good to take a clear shape, light comes from darkness and the river of Dão is constantly flowing with and against to maintain the greater cosmic harmony of flux and movement. As our hand of restraint set limits in our life – either for ourselves or for others – and our right hand gives and bless in abundance, in such way we replicate the cosmic experience and its flux it be daybreak or full moon, new moon or the sojourn of the Sun to the Halls of Death. The exhalation is life and it is supported by the inhalation and death. Contrast is the cosmic experience and this also takes place in our lives – the problematic issue is when we get too obsessed with defining qualities to what emerges in the experience of being. Recognition of blessings is good – but so is the recognition of antagonism because this supports our blessings. In this lies mystery upon mystery.  If we accept this dynamic we will also become aware of God’s signpo...

“… And his father’s fire was quickened in him  & he became god and seed for the accursed race.  The fire running like blood in the silence of night and time…” - The Red Gospel -             Cain’s greatness and importance is not to be found in the lies of his heritage but in the divine blessing given on his brow, which can be equated with a particular form for instant awakening.  Cain’s awakening was the realization of his role in the world, a great task given to him as he realized who he was, whose blood pounded with purpose in his soul.  In Cain a particular blood was found and this blood is popularly referred to as ‘witch blood’. The blood and the realization of one’s Fate mirror each other and for Cain his Fate was to be absence manifested. He had to be to one who marked the other and the one who moved and transformed the stillness of beginning so the world could have motion. By the first sacrifice, by blood flooding the ea...

An interview with Shani Oates, Maid of The Clan of Tubal Cain. In the Isle of Albion midlands, in the shires around Derby that gave birth to D.H. Lawrence the landscape and taverns throbs in memories and history. As we walk the countryside Roman and Saxon remains abound everywhere as we walk the limestone caves at Cresswell Craggs where mound and hill is covered with archangels who drapes the landscape in celestial breath with their golden petals. Here we also find numerous burial mounds from the Bronze Age and quite a few stone circles. It is a magical land, vibrant with blood and memory. Derbyshire is also where the botanical genius Erasmus Darwin (yes, Charles’s grandfather) was born and founded here the Lunar Society and gave the world books like ‘The Botanic Garden’ and ‘The Temple of Nature’ – books many have unfortunately forgotten. This is also the haven of Shani Oates, the Maid of The Clan of Tubal Cain – and it is here in the comfort of her own enchanted garden that w...

Just at the South of the Carpathian mountains where the river Danube flow through the centre of Balkan, Serbia, surrounded by Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and a whole network of history told in these lands and amongst its neighbors. Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman remains still linger on as drafts of a memory remarkably close in this land rich in lore and myth. This is the land of the dragon people and it was here the dragon Lucifer is said to have fallen. The river Danube is the home of prehistoric strains of Beluga and several other emissaries of Dagon himself that keep even the water rich in legend and dragon lore. So, here at the shores of Danube the cunning meeting between two witches took place in the days prior to the summer tide washing over the land scolding people, land and waters with its fiery rays. The shores of Dagon’s veins seems a most proper canvas for sharing some parts of our conversations in the form of an interview with Radomir Rade Ristic , author of the book Balkan...

“Those who cannot walk the path alone will be throd upon by those who can” -            - Andrew D. Chumbley The witch is constantly presented as something from the outside that affects the natural order – itself being a part of the natural order – but who possess knowledge forbidden. This is a true arising from Jules Michelet and his poetic renderings of the perennial themes making up the icon of the witch as from ethnographies and confessions collected both in the pre-modern and modern world. Perhaps the more ill fate has become the people from the outside in modern time where another element has been added to the icon of the witch, namely superstition. George Ewart Evans comments upon this in his exposition of rural folk magic in Britain that this word, from superstant , in the meaning of ‘standing over’ or being guiding principles for cult and culture today invites provocation and violent reactions because it is conceived of as an ...

Gradually the idea of self initiation is spreading in the format of initiating oneself to a given cult, faith or tradition. In particular this is common in forms of eclectic wicca and witchcraft. It is a curious idea that at the same time as it enters the core bounces off from it. As I perceive the nature of self-initiation, it is about a person that feels a certain calling and administers the rites of induction himself with no intermediary or teacher present. It is an offering of servitude and dedication to a power one desire to evoke. On the good side it denotes a personal choice, and affirmation of belief where the chosen spirit host is evoked to witness the act. It is a symptom of mankind feeling spiritually lost and seeks to reconnect with what they perceive as lost. They want to re-ligare, to re-link their faith, they want to do religion.  Quite often what is happening is actually what the crude term self-initiation entails, that you initiat...

Micha Brusilovsky (2000) - Garden of Eden/night Paganism, neo-paganism and witchcraft are all labels that seem to be difficult to define and keep separate. In many ways, I do like things to be fluid and flowing in as tides and moon moves – but it can also be confusing to understand where the waters crosses the boundaries if we don’t really mange to separate the duck from the swan. Robert Cochrane who defined himself as a witch, or more correctly a pellar defied the label pagan given upon him. He not only commented upon the fluidity of the Craft itself but also defined it as a faith. He said: “The Faith is a belief concerned with the inner nature of devotion, and finally with the nature of mysticism and mystical experience” (The Roebuck in the Thicket, 2001: 56). In addition we should also remark his very pragmatic attitude towards rite and ceremony. This inner dimension of devotion is a classical trait in many religions who places importance on i...

  Art: Audrey Melo In my book Invisible Fire (2010: Capall Bann) I stated in the preface to the book the following: “The mysteries of Seth will prove to be provocative for many children of the modern spirit... The spirit of the modern world is marked by a high degree of individualism” . I summarized later on page 162 the objective with this book as it transforms into practice in the following way: “This is ultimately the goal with all these practices. Through Wisdom the mystery is revealed and man is drawn one step closer to the Promised Land and the return to the Golden Age is enabled. By Wisdom revealed man can understand how to approach the world of matter and use it as a medium for ascent and thus bring the Divine Kingdom upon Earth and in this way restore the original flow of the axis mundi.” This is of course a provocative proposition, as I stated. I just did not know exactly how the provocation would take shape in the passion rid soul ...

Art by:  Felicien Rops The Idea of transmission of a lineage as viewed from within the wise Craft proper is one of complexity.  It is a transmission in the original and traditional sense and not simply one of transmitting customs developed in a social conclave. The transmission itself is the conferring of power and memory as it relates to a particular consciousness that hearkens back to the origin of creation. The lineage lies in the blood and the memory that is passed on by virtue of the blood is of the same order as the divine wisdom held by angels and given to the women. This memory comes with a creative power that set the wise apart from the mundane and profane. A rebellion comes with the power of the blood, not a rebellion on antinomian premises – but a rebellion against the profane and vulgar. It is in this the wise goes against the grain as a rebellion against the modern ideas of progress. To be subject for an authentic transmission o...

Traditional Witchcraft is a term subject for a series of misconceptions that in fact stems from the term itself. For one, the whole idea of witchcraft is a category immensely wide across history and geography and counts a whole array of concubines, prisoners, astrologers, beautiful women, seedy people, criminals, heretics and so forth. It is a pejorative term denoting what defies civic social order and boundaries. This means the whole idea of ‘the witch’ is a term developed by the profane social order and as such it is only natural that the idea of the witches’ craft invites equally invites those who desire to restore the intent at the heart of the matter as much as lost souls living in alienation of the Craft that seek to impose their gospel upon the witches’ Craft.  Given the diversity the word itself have been subject for it is only natural and true that the Craft is subject to diversity in faith and rite – but this never changes the doctrine a...

6th of January, the Day of the Magi Kings announcing the epiphany is a most peculiar day. It announces the end of the 12 days of Christ Mass and thus it celebrates the zodiacal signs and the truthful apostles of Jesus. Confusion reigns whether the day of kings commences on the 5 th or 6 th of January which brings in the wild card, Iskariotes – the element of motion and transformation that made the theophany possible.  It is the day of illumination, declaration and manifestation of promise made possible by the three magi-kings. It is also the day sacred to ‘the old one’, Befana in Italian folk beliefs. Befana takes the form of the well known broomstick riding witch-hag who in the likeness of St. Nick and Krampus crawls down the chimney to reward and punish children.  In Haiti it is the day of Simbi – a class of spirits associated with magic, the woods and miracles appearing in the obscure corners of creation. A day when the woods reveal t...

You feel the pull and the thrust of something out there that drives you, by desire, to a meeting in a glare in the wood, intoxicated by something undefined that calls you. You go to the glare to unite or you perform some arcane ritual promising a certain connection. You believe you are following a calling, the whispers of the ancient ones calling you back to their fold. At times this can be right and true, but quite often this perceived call speaks of sentimentalism and nostalgia, a longing for something real. This is by all measures a good point of departure, but still we have to, as Andrew Chumbley commented make a distinction “between those with Vision and those without”.  The Vision is the token of inner guidance, that a true and real connection is obtained. The Vision is always augmented by portents transcendental and equally real. If the blood recognizes the blood should not deny. And herein lays word and key. ‘Traditional Witchcraft’ has been accused of elitism, but it is a...