Sigils of Mercury and Saturn burned into deer leg bones.
Mercury, for communication between the worlds.
Saturn, for spirit magic, the dead, and conjuration.
Waiting patiently on the last thing I need to finish these tapping bones. This method is inspired by a video showing this method on Instagram, which I fell in love with. I can’t seem to find the video or account now, so if anyone knows the one I’m talking about please comment!
These bones will be cleansed, anointed, and wrapped in iron wire and red thread. They will be used to open and close communication with the Otherworld and spirits. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“Ancient inscriptions record a story of certain angelic dissidents who, in transgression of Astral Law, descended to the earthly plane and there made their abodes. Each among their number served as a luminous benefactor, giving unto man a specific bequest of Light. The ancients called these magnificents "Watchers’. Why were they so named, and what did they watch?
Some say their eyes were captivated by the sight of mortal women, who were fair to behold. Upon seeing them, their desire was roused, and so they courted them, and embraced them as wives. From their union sprung the Giants or Mighty Ones, as well as the great houses of the Art Magical. Such is the Fascinum of Beauty, the Great Encircler, whose quality of Light binds Seer with the Seen, lures stellar power unto Earth, and serves as Mother of the Generations of the Wise.
Others assert that their stations were set on high to observe the progress of Man, and assist them who, humbly entreating the Fire of First Reckoning, aspire to transcend the shell of mortality and be as gods’. This is the power of dream-foretelling, which looks upon all things and perceives their apotheosis, even when their present forms are shackled by temporal constraint.
Adherents of the Doctrine of the One Image maintain that the Watchers were supremely potent shards of the Mirror of All Things, and that their means of observation is eternal:- it is forthis reason they are also known as ‘Vigilants’. According to this teaching, the Watchers cast their sight beyond time and mortal reckoning to the moment The World is at last reassembled, and the Mirror of All Things made whole. In that distant and shimmering reflection, them who watch on high behold in simultaneity all eventuality between the present moment and the instant the final shard of the Mirror is restored. As a result of their ever-open eyes, present and future are bonded, and a sacred trajectory is established.
The knowledge of the Witch, or Heretic, is that the Watchers are their especial patrons, who have bestowed upon them peculiar gifts of power or knowledge. Chief amongst these dispensations is a Hidden Fire burning at the nexus of Flesh and Spirit. Through the light and heat of this eternal pyre they may glimpse the veiled contours of Sheol and the New Jerusalem, and a thousand dominions beyond, even as the common man walks hoodwinked amongst a great labyrinth of illusions. The light of this fire, in addition to the revelatory properties it instills in the eyes, may also be formulated, by way of the Art Magical, to create and destroy.”
“That remarkable native amphibian, the toad or paddock (Bufo bufo), has a longstanding and celebrated association with witchcraft in the British Isles and Europe, especially as a familiar-spirit. The reasons for the importance of the toad in mediaeval witchlore must ultimately be sought in esoteric folk-symbolism, mythopoetics and the psychopharmacology of rural sorcerers and hexe-wives.
The totemic significance of the toad in witchcraft is primarily due to it’s intimacy with the subterranean marshes, caves and dark waters of Annwvyn. Thus the toad is a dweller in the fens of the underworld and is especiall holy to the chthonic divinities. The toad is equally at home in the waters or on solid land, passing at will from one realm to the other just as the witch-shaman crosses the boundaries between this world and the underworld. The toad, therefore is a shamanic creature, considered symbolically, who epitomises passage between the dimensions. In this respect it should be remembered that in the Celtic world-view, marshy pools and linns were entrance points to the lower world, the great below.
At the initiations of Basque witches new devotees were marked by the Devil or Horned God with the sign of the toad or toad’s foot. In mediaeval lore the heraldic crest of the Devil was held to consist of three toads emblazoned on a shield, affirming the link with the powers of the netherworld. A toad hopping over a person’s foot is an ominous sign of impending death. An old Mantuan name for the toad is ‘fada’ or 'faery’, emphasising it’s otherworldly nature. In the Pyrenees it was said that witches could be recognised by an image of a frog’s foot in their left eye.
The witch-trials particularly highlight the toad’s function as a familiar-spirit. In the Basse-Pyrenees new witches were given toads by the Dark One. At Windsor in 1579 it was reported that "one Mother Dutton dwellyng in Cleworthe Parishe keepeth a Spirite or Feende in the likeness of a Toade, and fedeth the same Feende liyng in a border of greene Hearbes, within her Garden, with blood…..” Similarly in Essex a witch in 1582 was held to own “two spirits like Toades, the one called Tom, and the other Robbyn” which she had inherited from her mother. Seventeenth Century French witches were accused of possessing 'petit Diableteaux’ in the form of toads. The Italian witch Billia la Castagna in 1365 kept a large toad under her bed whose excrement was used in potions. This last detail is very significant as it is actually a cryptic reference to 'toad-stools’ or visionary fungi used in witch-practices, usually of the Fly Agaric species. All across Europe there occur folk-names forcertain mushrooms which link them with toads such as Crapaudin in French.
In Slavic countries inedible mushrooms are called Zabaci Huby - “toad- mushrooms”. The folk-affinities between hallucinatory fungi and toads point to an ancient awareness of the presence of psychotropic toxins in the skin of the latter. Toads secrete a fluid from their skin which contains the indole alkaloid bufotenine. Bufotenine was extracted from the glands of toads in ancient China and the traditional witches of Europe were well-acquainted with the propertiesof this batrachian elixir.
The witch-covens of north-western Spain in the 16th Century used toads’ blood in their flying ointments. In 1525 Maria of Ituren confessed to having concocted a flying-salve from toad-skins and water-plantain, no doubt mingled in an oily base. Swedish witches compounded their salves with toads’ fat and snake-foam along with poisonous herbs. German covens reputedly fried the toads to prepare such ointments and toad-grease salves were also utilised by witches in Hungary and Easter Europe to attain the ecstasy of 'spirit-flight’.
The toad is also famous for bearing within his head the Toadstone, a magical gem which healed all bites and stings and which, when set in a ring, grew paler in the presence of poison. In 'As you Like It’ Shakespeare makes his well known reference to the Toadstone:- “the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head”.
This casts light on the emblem of the Black Toad in later Hermetic/alchemical literature as a glyph representing the 'earth of the philosophers’ or 'first matter’ which conceals within itself the wondrous Stone of the Wise.
In rural regions of England, such as Cambridgeshire, there operated a secret guild of men called the Toadmen who were reputed to exert a magical influence over horses. The Toadmen, like the secret society of the Horseman’s Word, preserved many of the mysteries of the masculine side of the Craft of the Wise, honouring Old Hornie as the Master of the Beasts. To become a Toadman and gain the power a certain bone had to be obtained from a toad which was fixed to an anthill until the skeleton was entirely clean and devoid of flesh. The initiate then carried the bones in a pocket until they dried. On the stroke of midnight on the night of the full moon he cast the skeleton into a running stream: one bone would screech as it separated and floated downstream and this, when secured, conferred the supernatural powers of the Toadmen upon the bearer. Sometimes the new initiate had to take the bone to a stable or graveyard for three consecutive nights on the third night the Devil (Horned God) would appear and make a last attempt to trick the Toadman into parting with his bone as the final test of his shamanic initiation. According to some reports Charles Walton who was foully murdered in Lower Quinton, Warwickshire in 1945, was reputed by villagers to breed natterjack toads and use them in his magic - his garden was apparently thickly populated by them at the time of his death.
Toadmen were known to be practising their arts in Cambridgeshire as late as 1938 and it is not impossible that the cult may have survived clandestinely into the present day under a close shroud of rural secrecy. The toad’s fertility aspects are to be clearly seen in the practices of the Auldearne coven in 1662 who performed a curious ceremony in which toads drew a plough made from the horn of a castrated ram with couch-grass for the harness. The coven went several times round a field with the toads 'praying to the Devil for the fruit of that land’. This seems to be a fragment of an ancient geomantic ritual to enhance telluric fertility. The classical author Pliny described how a toad should be placed in an earthenware pot and buried in a field to magically protect the crops from storms.
The Slavonic vampyre could appear in the guise of a frog and the paddock features heavily in [Romani] lore and tradition as a form of the Devil whose [Romani] name, Beng means “frog-like”. In Transylvanian [Romani] mythology the Queen of the Faeries lives in her remote mountain castle in the shape of a golden toad.
The recondite arcanae of toad-lore can be seen to illuminate the moste esoteric recesses of the Craft of the Wise as one of it’s cardinal totemic symbols. It is thus fitting that the contemporary seeker again learns the marshland lore of the paddock as the People of the Toad did in times
past. It would seem prudent to hearken once again to his oracular croaking amidst the reeds at twilight and to pay heed to the chthonic wisdom from the haunted fens of Andumnos.“
“There are more ghosts prowling between the Thames at Canvey and the Roman walls at Colchester than any other equivalent area in England. Generation after generation of Essex families have recounted the stories of these ghosts of the reclaimed marshlands.”
“The intimate associations between the worlds of witches, witchcraft and plants can be likened to an ancient fabric draped upon bony shoulders. Like a verdant shroud, the clandestine power between witch and plant serves as a well-worn cloak connecting dreaming and waking. In both their revealed and concealed powers, plants have long held secrets which manifest at the interface between human and spirit power. The plants carry the stories if only one will take the time to listen.”
‘Concerning the Holy Virtues of Waybread, Chaplet of the Tortuous Track’
“Our Herb is patient and wise, for many tread upon it, and it sustains little damage; as a Companion on the Path it is ever present, having adapted its place of growing to waysides of the road. It is identified by its prostrate growth and rosetted, parallel-veined leaves, which give rise to stalks tipped with brown, spikelike inflorescences having tiny white blossoms. Its botanical indication is the genus Plantago, of which there are numerous species, the best-known of which are Ribwort (P. lanceolata] and Greater Plantain [P. major]. Both are nutritive and medicinal, good friends to afflicted skin, and powerful against the bites of vermin.
As a protection for the Wayfarer it stands as Ward of the roads a Walking Charm readily available in most lands; providing medicine, nourishment and protection against noxious spirits. Leaves placed into the shoes and hat afford protection from robbers or venomous beasts; a pillow similarly stuffed protects the sleeper from harm during the night, be it from the realm of Nesh or spirit. Leaves which be gathered on Midsummer Eve are of especially potent virtues, and are made into an ointment which aid the traveller in difficult passage, and shields its wearer from attack. Owing to its knack for rendering the most noxious venoms less harmful, the Herb may also be used for particularly difficult cases of Exorcism. Waybread leaves are renowned for relieving irritating skin complications, including cuts, bruises, Nettle or insect stings, and burns, and may be applied directly to such afflictions, even in severe cases. It is one of the best rapid-healing bandages Nature has gifted us with, and does not fail. Juice of the leaves has been used successfully to cure the bite of the rattlesnake.”
—
Viridarium Umbris:
The Pleasure-Garden of Shadow
3: ‘The Book of Going Forth into the Field of Cain’
A depiction of three traditional ‘Riding Poles’ used for particular agrarian rituals, as illustrated by Gemma Gary in ‘Liber Nox: A Traditional Witch’s Gramarye’ by Michael Howard.
“As the word abides in silence for that which must be spoken, so the Book abides in emptiness for that which must be written, mirror of the Tablet of the Heart, the masque of the Great History written in the rings of the Spirit-Tree. For those called to the Work of Trees and Herbs, a sanctified Book of Leaves is useful for the field notation of plant species, samples of pressed leaves or flowers, observation of dreams or omens arising within the Wood, and certain prayers or charms needful. The patient and judicious commitment to text of one’s Work will, in time, prove fruitful and give needed insight, often providing such counsel as is wholly relevant and can be gained by no other confidence.
Its corpus is best construfted to be resistant to the elements, and of paper, ink, and binding revealed as Veil of the Spirit’s arcana. As the Book is protected from seepage, mildew, and filth; so too shall it be well warded against the human and spiritual emanations of these contaminants. For as the Wild is the Holy Sanctum of Worship, so the Book is an extension of the Temple of the Heart, a most personal refraction of the Waking Dream.
As the written record may be a valuable artifaft of working, so too there is power to be gain’d by abstinence from the Work of the Pen. For the Memory may serve in many capacities that the Book may not, tempered by the good Intercessor of Time, and kindled by the fire of immediate descent of spirit. Herein lies an eternal arcanum of both gnosis and enchantment, potent counsel unto all who would stand before the gates of the Immortal Gardens at the end of their Wayfaring.
With all books of paper beware: let the Wise of Art also behold therein the verity of dead remains: for the respective vessels of Letter, Word, and Page each hold their own empty-hearted glamours, not the least of which is mummification: voice deprived of breath, body without blood, fuel well-fit for the funeral pyre. For verily, a relic of Art recorded in text becomes but frozen in impress of mortal matter, and the fascination binding it to both Scribe and reader rests in the morbid fallacy of eternal preservation. Thus, let the Dead Letter give rise to the Living Word, and in power beget the Living Deed, the Deed to weave the living Web of Art. For herein is the True Glory of the Pleasure Garden, ever in motion, the Ophanim ever pinning out the Wisdom Dendritic, aflame with the green witch-fire that creates and conquers all.
Forsooth, turn not the eyes in worship to the meagre hide-bound husks of the written word, but rather to all that which remains unwritten and shall ever be so, the Mysteries inscrutable. For the True Grammaryof Art writes and unwrites itself in perpetuity, read by no man, possessed by no library, and bound by no stain of ink!”
—
Viridarium Umbris:
The Pleasure Garden of Shadow
3: ‘The Book of Going Forth into the Field of Cain’
“The Witch, like the faerie, was a feared bringer of contamination, and a divine healer bringing salve from a land flowing with milk and honey. It is this very ambiguity that originally made faeries and Witches both so unpredictable and fearful to the average hedge-bound mind. The process of remov- ing this ambiguity, infantizing faeries and making Witches into kind herb wives, has been the process of defanging and declawing the Otherness, a breaking up of a whole. It does nothing to readdress the imbalance created when Witchcraft was made the black repository of all undesirable faerie characteristics, but instead damages both sides of the divide it creates. Of course it is not actually possibleto declaw the Otherworld, we only ever neuter our own awareness of it.
In Italy the mistress of the magic witch mountain, flowing with milk and honey, was called “wise Sibillia.” It was said the ancient sibyl of mount Cumae had taken refuge in a cave at the crest of the Appenines. In Reductorium Morale (c. 1360) Pietro Bersuire wrote about her Underworld paradise entered through a grotto in the mountains of Norcia, a region famed for its Witches. Nearby was a magical lake fed by water from a cavern. Whoever stayed longer than a year could no longer leave, but remained deathless and ageless, feasting in abundance, revelry, and voluptuous delights.
Sibillia was regarded as Goddess of the Witches. In Ferrara people said “wise Sibillia” led the cavalcade of Witches in their flight. At the end of their feasts, she would touch all the bottles and baskets with her wand, and they would quickly refill with wine and bread. They would then gather the animal bones into their skins, and at the faerie wand’s touch, the animals recovered their flesh and returned to life.
This archaic-sounding tradition of a faerie woman inside a mountain hitting dead animal bones and reanimating them is suggestive of the themes of initiation. Just as the faerie Witch’s bones are taken or counted and put back in, and the Witch is resurrected from a death-like sleep where they have journeyed beyond the grave, so the animal’s bones recover from death due to faerie magic.
But true to the archaic ambivalence we’ve discussed above, Sibylla is not only associated with golden wands and beautiful paradises, but with a half-serpent body and ordeals that involve being covered in snakes and even having to have sexual intercourse with them. No matter what country the narratives of faerie come from there is never any making it to the land of milk and honey without a harrowing of hellish proportions first, but in some areas the faerie creatures contain more obviously archaic mixed natures. Sibillia is one of these beings. We will encounter Sibillian traditions of the Craft later in this book, as she appears both in the English Robin Goodfellow faerie traditions as Sib, and as the faerie Sibylla in Reginald Scot’s grimoire of faerie magic. From the Sibillian mountain and the Witchcraft associated with it we can see that in Italy Witches and faeries were very closely connected, just as they were elsewhere. The fairy mountain was the place you went to learn your magical arts.
One of the most striking ritual connections between the faerie seer and the Witch in Britain, as opposed to the continental examples, is the “all that lies between these two hands practice,” which we find originally in faerie material and later as a British Witchcraft initiation posed in the trial records. As early as Robert Kirk we hear of the faerie seer putting one foot under the foot of the one to be admitted to the secrets of faerie seership and the other on the head whilst looking over the wizard’s right shoulder, thus sponsoring them with their own power.]
We see a similar ritual repeated in trial records of the Wincanton Coven who supposedly adopted a kneeling version of this posture at their initiations. The woodcut of a Witch in this position is drawn from Joseph Glanvill’s Saducismus Triumphatus. But the traditions of Witchcraft and faerie were often quite chronologically parallel rather than one developing off another, as Kirk admits to the fact that the posture has an “ill appearance” which implies the surrender of what is between the hands, suggesting that he already knows that such postures might be used in relation to the Devil. We have already said that Robin Artisson, whom Alice Kyteler was devoted to, was a demon by the estimations of the times but most likely also a kind of faerie. In many cases the true “religion” of Witches, if they could be said to have religious feelings that come through to us from the records, is toward their familiar spirit, who was sometimes but not always associated with the Devil when they were probably often a devil.
The Witch’s faerie familiars present us with a scene of great variety. The faerie Witch Bessie Dunlop seems to have maintained a business-like platonic relationship with her faerie familiar Tom. John Walsh of Dorset mentions working with faeries as though going out to the faerie mounds were a natural part of Witchcraft, but he never mentions a deep bond with any of them. But there are many other than Alice and her Robin who do, such as Isobel Gowdie’s sexual passion with her “devil” and Andro Man’s ongoing relationship with his Faerie Queen and almost worship for Christsonday who sounds angel-like. Ann Jeffries not only experienced romantic love with her faerie man but was bravely defended by him when she was threatened and Thomas the Rhymer was treated with affection by his Faerie Queen at the very least. Alison Person, also a faerie Witch, had an almost religious devotion to a deceased cunning man who now lived among the faeries, one William Simpson, who she said protected her from the worst intensities of the coming and going of her faerie visions by warning her when they were afoot. And Isobel Haldane, a Scottish Witch, acquired her powers after she was saved from an unwanted faerie abduction by “he that protected me from the faerie folk,”’ who was himself a faerie.
In this way a traditional abduction and blighting narrative was transformed through the agency of “he who protected me” into an initiatory ordeal from which the person emerged a Witch of power. Her devotion to “he who protected me” was no doubt almost religious in its intensity. Yet despite the obvious correlation between Witches and faerie familiars those intent on painting Witches as pure evil were loath to associate them with faerie seers. Even King James with his almost pathological fear of Witches claimed in his Demonologie that “those people whom spirits (faeries) have carried away and informed they were thought by the common folk to be the soniest [wisest] and best of life.”
Emma Wilby has taken note of this religiosity that Witches often felt towards their faerie familiars:
“[The witch] Alice Nokes (1579) claimed, when reprimanded before a church congregation, that ‘she cared for none of them all as long as Tom (her familiar) held by her side.’; … an unnamed Cambridgeshire witch (1653), being 'on the point of execution. declined to renounce the faithful friend of threescore years (that is, her demon familiar) and ‘died in her obstinacy.’
If there could be said to be an observable religious impulse behind historical Witchcraft it is not the Pagan fertility religion of early Wiccan and Neo-pagan projections, it is the animistic faith shared with faeries, and sometimes the worship of particular powerful faeries. It is a religious faith both infaeries and the knowledge, shared with faeries and perhaps given by them, that the stars and all things in life have spirits in them from the largest to the smallest and many microcosms are in each with everything moving forever in cycles. The Faith that there is an inalienable sanctity in the relationships between those that mutually nourish each other, including the relationship between a Witch and familiar spirit.
Other examples of the theme of mutual nourishment can be found in relation to the powerful hobman and witch-devil, Robin. We have already mentioned a "Robin” familiar in relation to Alice Kyteler and her Robin Artisson but this name for the witch-devil reoccurs elsewhere, including in the Robin Goodfellow story and in Somerset during the trial of the Wincanton Coven.
The “Robin” of the Wincanton Coven appeared to the principle Witch ten years before the trial as a handsome man, and later as a black dog. He promised her money and pleasure in this life if she would provide him with some of her blood that he might suck it, thus giving her soul (as in virtue rather than spirit) to him and observe his laws. This she did, pricking the fourth finger of her right hand between the middle and upper joints. He gave her a magical sixpence in return and vanished.
Although the Wincanton trial involves plenty of maleficium and they don’t directly make references to faeries, interpreting their “Robin” as a faerie man, much like Robin Artisson, has other support within the evidence. The Wincanton Coven were those who claimed their initiation involved placing everything between their two hands and thus mimicking the logic, if not the exact posture, of the faerie seer posi tion. After her pact with this mysterious man Elizabeth Styles was fed “bread and wine,” much like the sacrament Thomas the Rhymer engages in.
This simple act might seem common enough but this repast that we’ve previously called the host also carries echoes of the “faerie food.” The provision of food by faeries is given as a sign of great love from a faerie man to a woman he has impregnated. One very potent story to this effect is that of the birth of Robin Goodfellow, fathered by the Faerie King Oberon (or Obreon in older sources) upon a mortal woman. As a sign of his love for the human mother of his child he continuously feeds her. Mutton, lamb, pheasant, woodcock, partridge, quail, a never- ending supply of food is laid before Robin Goodfellow’s mother by her faerie lover. He also provided her with fine wines of many types.
The Wincanton Coven received very similar faerie food from their Robin, including a wide variety of meats and fine wine they discuss frequently, presumably because such high quality victuals would usually have been far out of their price range. At their Sabbats the Coven’s “devil” Robin, “the man in black,” would “play on a pipe or cittern” and they danced. This image of Witches dancing with a man called Robin whilst music plays is very evocative of the famous image of Robin Goodfellow, a book poster from the 1600s called “Robin Goodfellow and his mad japes” and further suggests we consider these “Robins” to be the same powerful faerie patron.
This pattern of a faerie man piping for dancing Witches is also seen quite vividly in James Hogg’s poem The Witch of Fife, where Hogg writes this particularly evocative piece of poetry about the experience of a Witch (1835) which I have transcribed outof Scots English and into standard English for ease of reading.
“And then we came to Lommond Height
So lightly we touched down;
And we drank from the horns that never grew,
The beer that was never brewed.
Then up there rose a wee, wee man
From beneath the moss-grey stone;
His face was wan like cauliflower
For he had neither blood nor bone.
He set a reed-pipe up to his mouth
And played it bonnily
Till the grey curlew and the black cock flew
To listen to his melody.”
He then speaks of how all the animals answered the faerie man’s piping and faerie, Witch and animal dance until dawn. Later in the story (which she is relating to her husband) they fly on their hemlock as far as Lapland, were they find the local faeries all in array, for the “geni of the north” were keeping their holiday. Hogg then writes:
“The warlock men and the weird women
And the fays of the wood and steep,
And the phantom hunters all were there,
And the mermaids of the deep.”
Here we see faeries, Witches /Warlocks, the phan tom hunters of the Wild Hunt and mermaids linked together in a Sabbat narrative, which is so explicitly a Sabbat narrative that it involves the Witches ending up in the arms of the Warlock men, but like many faerie Sabbats no diabolism occurs. Although they do learn how to “throw the faerie stroke,” but here it is unequivocal that Witches are learning their skills from faeries who are not labeled demons. If we consider these links between the “Devil’s piper” or the “Devil as piper” as a faerie man, then the figure of Robin Goodfellow is strongly suggested by Style’s “Robin.” What we have in the form of Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, is a particular faerie figure who is connected over a wide area with teaching, piping or having an off-sider who pipes for Witches, and even possibly animal charming.
Just as there was a Puck (the other name for Robin Goodfellow), there was a Poucca of Wales, a Puca of Ireland and a Bucca of Cornwall, the alternative “Robin” as the name of a prominent faerie man might have been equally widespread in Britain and Ireland. Even the Welsh prophet and conjure man Black Robin (Robin Dhu) exhibits some Puck-like qualities suggesting he may be connected withthis figure. As of course does the English Robin Hood with his leveling trickster qualities and his almost exclusive Mary worship. If Robin is indeed the name for one well-known tutelary faerie who teaches Witches—not just the “white” ones—then the link between faerie familiars and the genesis of Witchcraft is quite explicit.
Given how clearly we can see British and Irish Witches learning their skills from faeries, it must have been very familiar to our forebears when they heard the “Watchers” had been the ones to teach Witchcraft to mankind. It seems increasingly obvious why the connection between faeries and fallen angels would have been forged and remained strong in Old Craft traditions, long after the threat of church persecution diminished. Dual faith observance, it seems, may have been about more than hiding the Craft in plain sight, but also to do with intrinsic intersections between certain aspects of the two stories, particularly between the Faerie Faith and some of the apocryphal material.
Given that the earliest testimony about a deep committed relationship with a familiar is Alice Kyteler’s “demon worship” of Robin Artisson, it might behoove us to more deeply explore demonology and whether we find any faerie-like characteristics in prominent demons. We have already noted earlier that Reginald Scot’s work draws together both faerie beings and demons without really specifying too much difference between the two. Like the powerful hobman Robin/Puck, the faerie woman Sibylla mentioned by Scot or as Sib by Shakespeare, lives inside a mountain teaching Witches all the way over in Italy and yet also emerges in England and Scotland.
Some faerie entities were so powerful that they had numerous Witch familiars and were linked to more than one location. Here the line between “faerie” and “God” or “Goddess” becomes very blurred. But in the Faerie Faith, which seems to display a continuous sliding scale of power, rather than clear distinctions between human, faerie and God, this is not to be thought unusual.
The Testament of St Cyprian the Mage by Jake Stratton-Kent discusses how the Goetic tradition and its demon-teeming grimoires are influenced by Witchcraft and folkore relating to the Wild Hunt. His reference to the Hunt is particularly interesting after Hogg’s poem and his phantom riders participating in the Witch’s Sabbat.
There are also many famous witching animals like toads, owls and black dogs among the forms the grimoire demons take and plenty of references to objects from European folklore, such as the hazel wand. So whilst demonology certainly overwrote the witchcraft narrative in certain ways, the realm of faerie and folk sorcery also colonised demonology in return, as Paul Carus explored in his History of the Devil, quoted above. Many of the darker faerie attributes—those connected with the Underworld, dark elf, Wild Hunt, nightmare or winter hag figures—became attached to demons and then back into Witchcraft.
The picture that begins to emerge for the intuitive observer is not a history with a universal “white sabbat,” associated with faeries and full of goodness and light, overcome later by a “black sabbat” imposed from above via demonology and persecution. What we see instead is the suggestion, the smallest echo, of an early Faerie Faith replete with all the characteristics of both, layered on by emerging demonology that was itself already colonized by folkloric sources. It seems as if the so-called “white sabbat” of faerie magicians that Henningsen postulates is actually just a different layer of Otherworldly experience, the “black demonic sabbat” having its place in relation to initiatory ordeals in particular and the dark elf beings who preside over such powers.”
I think, oftentimes, we are prone to emphasize the cruelty of the witch. A misplaced prayer, perhaps, that our cruelty will be what makes us strong.
In my experience, it is quite the opposite. Softness and cunning are the ritual swords of the powerful sorcerer. To be one of virtue, of strong adurand stronger word. Those who have made themselves, or more accurately been made, up into elementals. Clouds and mountains, a whitethorn, those with eyes of fire and others who reflect the stars.
Knowing yourself, and your craft, and cultivating the spark of yourself and your name… It will get you so much further in the world of spirits than the boisterous acts of wickedness this community often encourages.
Green is my favourite colour and so I thought about doing a post to discern it and figure out its applications in personal craft. The thing about it, though, is that it seems to be an incredibly multi-faceted colour. I couldn’t pin it down to one single energy or face because it seemed to represent a lot of things without being confined to any of them. Every shade of green brings up new images when I look at them but one thing I did notice was this:
The Lighter the Green, the younger the archetypes. So a light green would be more representative of the maiden, the virgin, Persephone and so on and so forth. It has a sense of purity yet it still has a deep profoud wisdom behind it that is characteristic of the spirit of green. Even with that, let’s take Persephone, she’s not a unifaceted character but has a lot of aspects tied to her.
The Darker Shades of Green split up into two as well. Both of them seem to exhibit the same profound wisdom but one, what would be perceived as the more earthy type of green, is closer to nature whereas the more cultivated and clean type of green seems more tied to civility. The Earthier Greens seem to paint more of a feminine aspect of the Serpent, more tied towards the esoteric aspects of nature with an emphasis on flora. The Cleaner Greens seem to hold more potency over the powers of wealth, luxury, diplomacy and politics. All three of them bring up images of women but in different fields of power.
Earthier Greens bring up the image of a Lady garbed in green bearing a blade, at her feet is a coiling serpent and her clothes seem to be made of leaves. Cleaner Greens brings up a picture of a lady wearing black, her hair done in a regal fashion, sitting on a throne. Lighter Greens bring up the image of a young woman with flowers in her hair, wearing a white smock and holding a bundle of wheat in her arms. So you can imagine the confusion that I felt when it came to this.
So, here’s what I could at least figure out when it came to this colour.
Earthier Greens are best for workings when it relates towards herbal medicines, healings, working with the Serpent Force in relation to plants, working with the genius loci, nymphs, dryads and the like. She is also a good colour to work with when it comes to divination, especially through means that are rustic or natural such as bone reading, divination through the rustling of leaves and travelling in the Green. I couldn’t pin her down because she had a chaotic energy, much like the earth that she represents. The blade she holds could be a symbol of nature’s ability to create and to destroy. A certain aspect of her is very firmly grounded in psychopomp and chthonic virtues.
Cleaner Greens seem to correspond well to workings of honour, dignity, personal development, envy, jealousy, politics (in whatever way one may interpret that) and power. I keep seeing the image of a green jewel so it seems that this colour is also suited towards works of finances and the more luxurious aspects of Venus. The woman I see in relation to this colour is intimidating, potent but seems to be the more cunning aspect of the snake. So I would assume that this colour also serves well for works of Veneficium.
Lighter Greens correspond to fertility, youthfulness, beauty, healing, growth and abundance. It seems to have the optimism that the other two colours don’t really have, so I would also see this as a colour suited to emotional healing. She also seems to correspond well to workings of creativity and love. A sense of personal freedom accompanies her wherever she goes so I would also find that this colour relates well to self love, healing of issues relating to the self and to glamouries. That same ancient and aged wisdom of the other two aspects still shines through so, well still being optimistic, she is still a very practical and deep thinking individual. So, as a whole the colours could correspond to psychological work and the facing of one’s own issues.
Some other aspects I picked up on were transformation, rebirth, sorcery (in every means and aspect of the word), underworld travel, spirit work, working with the genii of plants, working with the feminine aspect of the serpent that relates to flora and psychic ability, I keep seeing a divination bowl in relation to this. Alongside this, sociability, friendliness, intellect and cunning.
As a colour of Venus, she also relates to the signs Taurus and Libra and thus takes on some of those aspects.
IF A HUMAN BEING OR ANIMAL IS BEING ATTACKED BY EVIL SPIRITS, HOW TO RESTORE THEM AND MAKE THEM WELL AGAIN:
Thou arch-sorcerer, thou hast attacked (name of person); let that witchcraft recede from him into thy marrow and into thy bone, let it be returned unto thee. I exorcize thee for the sake of the five wounds of Jesus, thou evil spirit, and conjure thee for the five wounds of Jesus of this flesh, marrow and bone. I exorcize thee for the sake of five wounds of Jesus, at this very hour restore to health again N.N, in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (said three times)
*As general practice, I do invoke God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit by way of the Cross and so can recommend this same usage by signing the cross over the person or anointing their head with holy oil, rowan ash, holy ash or the ash of an appropriate psalm or prayer.
FOR FRESH WOUNDS
Fresh is the wound, blessed is the day, happy the hour I found soon to stop and arrest thee so that thou will neither swell nor fester until mountains meet +++ (+ signifies the point on which the person signs the cross over the wound)
A REMEDY FOR COUGHS
When cherries are in season, dry the stems of black cherries between two sheets of paper (to prevent them from becoming dusty) and save them in a (paper) box. Draw tea therefrom, for every drawing use four saucers worth of water and as many stems as can be taken between three fingers (assuming it is the thumb and the index and middle). Boil it like any other tea and drink until the cough stops. (it is said that even the most violent cough can be cured by this remedy)
FOR A PUTRID MOUTH
Take blackberry leaves that have been boiled in water and wine, put a little alum to it. A mouth that is rinsed therewith will have a good effect.
(Extra note: I’d like to say that the same remedy, excepting the alum addition, was prescribed in Gemma Gary’s Black Toad. It’s primary usage was to aid in cankers in the mouth. Research was done on alum to find out that it was fairly non-toxic and had a significant reduction of plaque and gingivitis. I’d still take precautions of adding a proportional amount of alum to the mixture.)
