Practical Witchery!, John Stormm [ap literature book list txt] 📗

of knowledge with other esoteric teachings, and is a bit more eclectic, over the purist forms. As we ALL learn from each other, I do NOT see this as any “lesser” form of the craft at all. I am also, quite beholden to their public stance, and to the degrees, that they have been so vocal in objection to the Church spawned, Satanic propaganda towards witchery. In all due respect, I offer a tip of the pointy hat to Gerald Gardner and his craft.

Mage - magi (plural), generic form for magicians, wielders of magic in ritual, paranormal practitioner, tribesman of Media, Iran

Dianic Witch - a matriarchal and more specific sect of Lunar Witch. A priestess, or follower of Diana, the Huntress. There are essentially, two forms of Dianic witchery: The first is Female ONLY, and worships the Divine Feminine aspects of the Triple Goddess, as portrayed in the Maiden, Mother and Crone. As can be expected, lunar cycles in women, such as menstruation and such are observed and understood in the deepest possible ways. This is very awkward territory for a man to be in. But it is not without its male practitioners either. The Arcadian forms of Dianic witchery includes male energies in its practice, where in some rituals, a man can even become Consort to Diana, in certain rituals. There are still certain rituals, that are going to segregate the women from the men, out of necessity. Face it guys: You’re not going to feel the need to cleanse so, after your period. But they will, and the end results of that is very good.

Danaan Witch - A priest or priestess of Mother Danu, Gaia, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, for whom the Danube River Valley was named after in Paleolithic times. One of the Children of Danu, or the Tuatha De Danaans, a practitioner of Nature or Earth Magick.

Hereditary Witch - A “witch of the blood”, a genetic descendant of one of the 200+ original Wyrding Clans. A passed down family tradition of craft, though not ALL members of said families are practicing witches, or even fully talented as such. But the genetic proclivity for certain talents or perceptions beyond the dogmatic Five Senses, gives many members of such families the tools and the curiosity they need to get them to look deeper into the secrets of magick and esoteric teachings.

Wyrd - Yes. It’s the root form of “weird”, or strange. Wyrd women, wyrding folk, wyrding clans, the runic symbol, or Blank Rune, “wyrd” that represents the Unknowable.

Sage - A kindly, wise person.

Seer, seeress - A visionary witch or wizard.

Shaman - witch or wizard of a particularly nature based spirituality, a hedge witch or wizard, a.k.a. a green witch.

Wizard - a.k.a. - Cunning Folk. One whose academic studies of things, has moved beyond the average on all levels.

Conjurer - One who calls up spirit entities with some measure of authority.

Solitaire - a solitary practitioner or student of the arcane, as opposed to those who practice commonly in covens. Many times, either by nature, or due to too much politicking and distractions offered in covens, a witch or wizard will prefer to study and practice their craft alone. Many do this for limited periods of time, for a deeper study, a rejoin with their favorite group or coven later, or simply for sabbats and esbats.

Pow Wow Witch - a practitioner of Pow Wow, a hybrid Pennsylvania Dutch and Algonquin form of witchery , also called “seekers of visions”. One of the chief traits that I’ve noticed in this form, was the extravagant attention given to the details, of obtaining one’s spell components in their forms of spellcraft. It all has the nature of a quest, wherein the witch will learn some deeper aspect of life or its circumstances in the gathering of these items.

Augury - or an augur, specializes in signs, omens, and indicators of unseen forces or influences.

Necromancer - One who studies or communes with the dead. A forensic scientist, a student or doctor of anatomy,

Crystal Witch - A witch who largely utilizes the effects of crystals in their spell workings. The energetic, peizo-electric qualities of many types of crystals, are helpful in effecting frequency changes to effected areas, and personal E.M. (electro-magnetic) fields of their bodies (aka -aural fields).

Sabbats - There are Eight Sabbats, in the Wheel of the Year and they are solar, seasonal and represent the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. They are Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh, and Mabon. 

Esbats - Are lunar in nature, and fall upon the 13 Full Moons of the Celtic calendar year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Non-Corporeals 101

Identifying Non-Corporeal Entities…

There are LOADS of aspects of this topic that we need to cover in this chapter. First is identifying these, not simply the names they may go by, but the SPECIES and types of entities that we are dealing with. Most people, when they believe that their homes are being occupied by some form of invisible entity or spirit, will immediately determine that it is by a ghost. And when we say ghost: there is the nearly automatic assumption that it is the spirit of a departed human being. Some of the more dyed-in-the-wool religious fanatics, will automatically assume that they are dealing with a demonic spirit, in their home. Both of these may be quite sincere in their beliefs, but are easily as likely to be sincerely wrong, in their identification of their problems.

This problem in identifying species of non-corporeal life and activity, begins with a very basic misperception, that the whole universe can be measured and identified in ONLY FOUR DIMENSIONS. This being THREE dimensions of space: Length, Width, and Depth, and an additional ONE dimension of Space/Time. This being illustrated in concepts such as: Light years: the distance of which light is known to travel in one year, or smaller increments like: Kilometers or miles-per-hour. Everything in our universe is known to move in space/time at some speed. This by itself, renders the ideas that something that cannot be seen, perceived or measured by these four dimensions alone, cannot possibly exist. This is the root error of that kind of thinking. Quantum physicists and mathematicians understand, that there may be as many as ELEVEN DIMENSIONS, or possibly even more, that are completely unperceivable in such a state as we are. And if the idea of an infinite universe, is mind boggling to you: Consider that these same mathematicians determine, that we do NOT live merely in a single universe, but a MULTIVERSE, of near infinite strings of parallel universes and dimensions, all of these occupying the same space as we are now.

Once you get a handle on that not-so-simple truth: It opens up a whole realm of possibilities, to consider for phenomenon that are currently “impossible” or unexplainable by the partial list of rules, that we are perceiving, that we believe represent the sum total of our reality. Wizards and witches understand that ALL magick is perfectly natural, and not “supernatural”. Some of these happen to be wizards of mathematics, and not uncommon in our natural world either. In the same way that a primitive human, understands enough physics to understand the law of gravity: What goes up, MUST come down… FAST and HARD! The wizards who have mastered aerodynamics, understand a mathematical precept that does not BREAK the law of gravity, but supersedes it: in how it utilizes other factors or influences, of Weight, Thrust, Lift and Drag to create a controllable and sustainable flight, of a much heavier than air vehicle. Airplanes do not fly because of “supernatural” forces, but natural forces that are manipulated to accomplish this act. This is NATURAL.

Just the same as your current naturally known world, has many different types of denizens and species; such is also true of the expanded reality. For instance: You hear a strange scratching, and thumping sounds coming from your floors, walls or ceilings at night. Something is active in your house that your eyes cannot readily see, but they have a physical effect on the reality of where you live. These may be due to “natural occurrences”. There are many such creatures that you can identify in your “natural” world. They can be squirrels in the attic, birds in the rafters, skunks, rats, or raccoons under the house, mice in the walls, or death watch beetles clicking out of sight. It explains the phenomenon in terms that are readily understood by anyone.

Now, once these factors have been ruled out; our research begins to fall into the range of “paranormal phenomenon“. We have a MUCH broader spectrum of worlds, and denizens of those worlds to consider, and they are quite “natural” or “normal” in their own scope of existence as you are. If you’ve read all of my chapters on Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection, or even Demonology, you’ve already become aware, that there’s another, very real and natural dimension of your own soul and spirit, that is NOT bound by the limits of the commonly known Fourth Dimensional aspects of this present paradigm that we live in. The limitations of Time and Space, do not apply to them, as they seem to do for your physical form. The more dimensions we bring into play; the greater degree of freedom of movement that we can enjoy. You’ve already learned that *some* ghosts, don’t necessarily HAVE to be the ghosts of the dearly departed. We’ve learned that some are the ghosts of living people, asleep in another physical location. And *some* are not “human at all“, and never have been so.

When I was a young and upcoming witchling in my Grandma’s household; it was explained to me in terms of Negative, Neutral and Positive realms of one sort or another. Some of this explained in terms of evil, demonic, or dark fae entities, which are subject to the reign, of the Devil, or some such dark ruler. Then there were the more neutral, nature spirits, or fae folk, which are subject to yet another royal court, or hierarchy as such. And finally, the holy angels, bright fae, and positive muses, that serve a beneficent God or even the Mother Goddess. My own studies have found this to be considerably more complex than just these alone, but they were a great place to begin, to notice a few commonalities of our mutual existences.

The first commonality is, that we ALL live and interact with each other, within some form of hierarchy. As a physical boy, I was subject to the authority of my Matriarch (my grandmother) in the realm of our home and clan. And it doesn’t just end there: There are community, metropolitan, state, local and federal authorities that have some say in how we all are bound to interact with each other. There are laws, regulations, rules and pacts that we all honor, in order to exist well with each other. Things may appear to be chaotic in such a large world, but there are always some underlying rules governing many things, that keeps the imminent self destruction of this effect in some kind of check.

I’m going to further complicate all of this, by affirming that I am also a spiritual entity. We ALL are, to one extent or