one What Makes a Witch? MAKING YOUR OWN MAGICK IS the essential tenet of being a witch.We do not sit around waiting for the world to offer us our dreams on a plate, knowing as we do that this will never happen.We are proactive, and seek to manifest our heart''s desire, even when the odds seem stacked against it.We use the concentrated power of our Will,we Dare to be Different,we seek the Knowledge we need for autonomy, and about our beliefs we are Silent in the company of outsiders.This does not make the witch a dysfunctional member of society. On the contrary, the witch is always ready to help others, he or she is conscientious as to the cause and effect of her powers, and the knowledge she gathers from every religion and every walk of life makes her about as well rounded as it is possible to be. Her mind is always open. She respects all cultures and the essential teachings of all other religions (though their practises may at times test her patience).
She is acutely aware of the smallness of her place in the Universe, and in this world, she is grateful to the elements that bore her--and all of us--into being. Earth, air, fire, water, and spirit are never far from her thoughts. She is consequently ecologically aware. She loves nature; not as other people "love" chocolate or skiing, but with the real love of a daughter for her mother. She feels for the cosmos. Though aware of her minuscule significance in the scheme of things, the witch is not afraid to make waves. She sees the making of her own magick as essential. This is partly because all action is a kind of magick, and if we make no moves, we may as well lay down and die, and partly because her expanded awareness makes her conscious both of what needs to be done, and how it might be possible.
She knows that everything is linked by an invisible (to normal vision) electricity, and realises that she is a storehouse of this energy. She learns to accumulate and direct it in order to effect the changes she desires. This requires knowledge of yearly cycles and phases of the moon (see chapter 9, "The Wheel of Death and Life"), and the ability to strongly visualise and will a situation into being. It also means being semiotically aware (see chapter 10, "Myth and Symbolism"). Witches do not have to go around in long black cloaks and pointy shoes (though it can be fun) to feel empowered. Being a witch is still not a popular life choice. People may want to burn you and chase you out of town. Normal clothing and demeanour is a handy way of throwing people off the scent.
After all, if a rumour starts that there''s a witch living down your street, and she turns out to be that woman in jeans and sneakers, you''re hardly going to believe it, are you? Even when stripped of dignity in the outside world, however, the witch knows she has power and grace within. Because she Knows,Wills, Dares, and is Silent, nothing can penetrate her inner sanctum of confidence. She can be as plain as a pikestaff and still know how to captivate lovers; she can be useless at math and still excel in intelligence. A quick spell and some applied will could turn her grades around and make her a straight-A student, as well as the most entrancing girl in town. She also realises that there is more to magick than the mere fulfilment of petty ambitions. Films like The Craft emphasise the selfish possibilities of being a witch, and bear little resemblance to the type of person she wishes to be or become. A teenager using her psychic powers as a bludgeon is a scary thing indeed, and she does herself no favours either. Following the example of Nancy in The Craft, we stumble into the mire of unpleasant consequences (see chapter 5, "Karma Drama").
The best policy of all witches--white, grey, and black--is "To Know, to Dare, to Will, and to be Silent." Aleister Crowley''s Thelemites are renowned for following the principle "Do What Thou Wilt shall Be the Whole of the Law." For them, magick comes first, morality second. Crowley is, of course, infamous for his lack of scruple both in the Circle and outside it. His "diabolical" behaviour provoked wide condemnation in late Victorian England (see chapter 15, "Who Influenced the Witching World?"). Wiccans and ethical occultists adhere to the creed "An'' it Harm None, Do As Thou Wilt." Easier said than done. To truly follow this spiritually watertight method, all motives must be analysed and possible consequences assessed.
Is your ceremony or spell really for the good of all concerned? Is it definitely not going to harm anyone in any way, however slight? If both of these questions can be answered with confidence, go ahead and cast your white spell. If not, don''t forget that other rule of the "Craft of the Wise": the threefold return. All that we send out will return to us tripled (more or less); so cast good magick if you want to revel in good vibes, and send out hate if you wish to battle your way through this life feeling paranoid. There is no better way for a witch to destroy herself than to attempt to destroy another. It is a popular belief that we reap what we sow, but some witches would not agree with the concept of threefold return, or with various other commonly accepted aspects of the Craft. Each of us is unique. Definitions vary and are often self-created, and aspects of belief vary with them.We are all individuals with perceptions of equal validity, and there are, in my eyes, no rules except the conscience of the practitioner.
A witch, as I see it, is anyone who is aware of the Divine in the midst of daily life, who casts spells, and uses magick. There is a difference between a Wiccan witch and a non-Wiccan witch. This book deals with the witch as an individual rather than as a product of specific schools of thought. Most of us are influenced by a host of philosophies, and every witch is unique and operates differently.However, a few basic guidelines on the differences between the main schools of witchy thought may be found in the following section, "When Is a Witch Not a Witch?", as many people like to belong to particular traditions or schools of thought. So, the key points of modern witchcraft are inner strength, resulting in the confidence necessary to change one''s circumstance, and spiritual and ethical awareness. Will power combined with effective ritual and moral conscience does not, however, differentiate the witch from any other positive religious person. What, then, makes a witch a witch? There are several answers to this.
One is that the witch does not merely ask for help, but she makes positive moves to bring the desired change to pass. This is a classically Pagan stance. As Hugh Lloyd Jones says of the ancient Greeks: "Faced with a difficulty, a Greek will first pray to a god; but he must then reinforce the god''s action on the divine plane by applying on the human plane whatever action he is capable of making." Likewise, the witch. Secondly, she admires and employs the aid of ancient deities from a huge array of pantheons. Many of these deities have remained dormant for long periods of time owing to the decline of certain empires, the growth of Christianity and other now orthodox religions, and the destruction of the cultures from which they arose. Modern magick has resuscitated many an arcane deity. She may take her pick of which to contact, supplicate, and work with.
Thirdly, at least in the case of Wiccans (Alexandrian, Gardnerian, and solitary practitioners), the emphasis is on the nature gods and the Goddess--both of which are usually held in equal reverence. If, however, there is discrimination, it will be towards the feminine, as the Goddess ultimately presides over the cycles of life and death. This reflects the fact that Wicca is predominantly a nature religion. It must be remembered, however, that witchcraft, like any other spiritually effective path, is merely a means to an end. That end? Spiritual ascension. The witch realises that she is placed here, in this particular set of circumstances, for a reason. That reason is to grow and learn. The outer planes are manifestations of inner circumstance, and the goal is to see through the illusion and transcend it.
Ultimately, we are aiming for reunion with the Creative Intelligence, the Ultimate Deity. This God is not thought to be cruel or punishing--we inflict suffering on ourselves rather than have it inflicted on us--but is loving, magickal, and perpetually sending us opportunities to grow closer to the Truth. All spiritual paths may be included in this. All apparently random events come under the same category. The witch, with her awareness of symbolism, is well equipped to understand and rate her spiritual progress. Her stumbling block is being glamoured by lower psychism. Spells and magick are excellent tools when intelligently applied, but they can lead to terrible karmic tangles when meddlesome or ill thought-out. It is the first test of the witch to combat the lust for personal power and prestige.
Many fail at this early stage. However, with constant application and interaction with earth and cosmic energies, she will accumulate power. If she uses this power for healing (when asked), blessing, helping (but not interfering), and, most importantly, for bringing light and love and positive energy down through the planes to earth, she is doing what she is meant to be doing on the path of witchcraft. This leads us to another essential factor: the After-and-Beyond life. The witch''s very nature dictates that she believes in life after physical death. The witch recognises the perpetual presence of other planes and the entities that inhabit them. She is adept at seeing behind the Veil of dense matter to the subtle etheric and causal levels, and she is acutely aware of the crossovers between leve.