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

generation produces an "adept" witch of extraordinary power.  This one individual would be capable of feats that would require the entire women's circle to accomplish, and would be able to travel more rarified heights than the others.  This usually occurs amongst the female children, as this gender generally caters best to the intuitive functions than the average male could hope. 

          I need to take a moment here, to define exactly what a matriarchal society is, as compared to a patriarchal society.  In the patriarchal, as most "civilized" cultures define themselves now:  The male or man alone, is the property holder, and head of the household.  Men comprise the priesthood, and women are either second class citizens, or considered as "property" themselves.  However, the matriarchal society is NOT the exact opposite of this.  It is NOT a female, amazonian hierarchy, but one where ANY and all women are on equal footing with ALL males in that society.  Among the ancient Celts, a woman who was the eldest and wisest of her clan, could be its leader as likely as any man.  All witches and druids were priests and priestesses of their respective orders.  However, in OUR peculiar clan:  The women kept the craft, in secret among themselves for many centuries, to protect the Old Ways.  I digress.

         This adept woman would become the next reigning matriarch, to lead this witchclan forward, and the best suited to do just that.  To survive against all odds.  The craftiest of the Craft, to keep the magick flowing  into the world like her life's blood, and procure an orderly balance in the nature of the Earth.  Serving the Earth/Mother/Goddess from of old, when we were known as the children of Danu, or the Tuatha Danaan.

 

          Of the Andersons whom settled in the Union City area in the late 19th century, Ella was a very powerful adept.  She could see the future, it was said.  And her powers of healing, were second to no one in living memory.  As she would scan the timelines, she would always find them converging up to a point where, for one reason or another, hit a "wall".  A point where one could not see beyond.  It was beyond bizarre that Ella could look back through ancestral memory at eons of ancient history, even prior to antediluvian history, and then into the future as many of her predecessors.  But instead of that vague distant future "somewhere out there", this anomaly now looms as a significant landmark about three quarters of the way through the 20th century.  What occurs from that point onward would be anyone's guess.  Ella could see the wall that humanity would hit head on, just a short distance into the future and wondered at what it would mean for the clannadh. 

          Emma and Mary sat wide eyed at her feet as Ella took her daughters through the gazing discipline.  A gazing bowl, half-filled with water, sat on the floor in their midst.  They saw worldwide war with fantastic flying death machines, and a bomb that could destroy an entire city in a single explosion.  A world powered by the very blood and fat of ancient dragons.  The dirty winds carrying their acrid breath until holes appeared in the protective circle around the earth.  They saw rockets circling the earth and sling shot to the moon, and then... the Wall. 

      "Is it the end of the world, momma?" , Mary asked in her little girl voice. 

      "Will everybody die?" asked Emma. 

       Ella stood thoughtful for the moment.  "It could mean the end of the world as we know it now.  But not necessarily the death of everyone... just a major change in times and seasons most likely." 

          Major changes came regularly in history.  The fall of Atlantis.  The rise of Rome.  Anglo-Saxons and then Americans.  For all they had seen, there were prophesies that had yet to be fulfilled, and that meant that either they were erroneous, or to be completed on the other side of the Wall.  But how had the prophets seen past that point or not remarked on the Wall. 

      "Most assuredly, my ladies, we will be living in very interesting times." 

      "But these ARE interesting times!" wailed Mary. 

      "We are positively TROUNCING the Kaiser across Europe this very moment, and with machines that are but poor shadows of those we have seen.  How long will it take us to make the kinds of machines we saw in the scry?" 

      It could be hundreds of years before we develop that kind of technology, but the timeline didn't allow for more than a half century, at this point in time... if THAT.  No, for some reason, knowledge was going to have to jump by leaps and bounds in the next few decades to bring these things to pass before we hit the Wall.  Do we destroy ourselves with all these abominable machines?  Ella wondered herself into a headache. 

      "We who can see, must be responsible to prepare for what the rest cannot." she told her daughters, and promptly dismissed them to finish their chores.

           Mary and Emma studied hard, and before too long they were admitted to the "women's circle".   Indeed, every parish had it's women's circle, usually some sort of ladies auxiliary or bake sale organizers.  But Ella and her girls belonged to something bigger and older.  In essence, it was a "coven".   But these and other such words were forbidden to be spoken, so as not to bring unwanted attention upon them all.  You couldn't proselytize as other faiths, so all your "new blood" came from within the clan.  In this case, it kept hereditary talent active where it served the clan best.  The men folk were usually content to leave the women to their craft, and the women liked it that way.  As they nurtured the "intuitive" talents to a greater degree than the average male, they would brook no interference from the male members of the family in the circle.  Midwives, healers, kitchen witches, dreamers, seducers, clairvoyants, seers, scryers, mystics, wise women, tea leaf readers, tarot readers, crystal gazers, astrologers, numerologists, herbalists, palm readers,.. this list could go on for some time and still miss some of the talents in this family circle.  Together and in agreement, they could be particularly formidable in a clinch.  It was how they survived the hostile centuries, and as a family, all the best got passed down to the next generation to assure it's survival. 

 

          In a witch clan, nothing was left to luck or chance.  You made your own luck, or you were the victim of it.  Every game you played as a child, was intended to help you develop skills and attitudes that would give you an edge over the average human later in life.  When they were expected to sit and play quietly, Emma and Mary would play "Itch".  This game was harmless enough in itself, but what it would develop into later, could send the average person into therapy or worse.  One child would sit and write down a specific place on the other's body, and imagine an itch on their own body in the same spot.  When they could feel the itch, instead of scratching it, they would mentally transfer the itch to the other and wait for them to scratch it.  When they did, the perpetrator would then show the note to tout their success.  Sometimes they would team up and work it on others, but not tell them.  If you could feel it, you could transfer it.  The same was true of love, fear or a host of other sensations.  These feelings would fade when the witch was no longer present or sending.  By the same token, you could learn to spot when you are being charmed or dominated thus, by how you felt when you left the room for a while.  If you found yourself no longer in agreement, you knew the idea was not your own.  When bullies would try to intimidate you, instead of giving in to the fear, you simply transferred it back to them.  They would not always be sure why they were afraid, but they'd be certain to rationalize among themselves, that you had a concealed weapon or a large friend near by.  As by their very nature bullies tend to be cowards, so the "itch" worked well enough for us in our craft. 

        You were also expected to learn the arts.  Be it music, painting or what have you, no part of a young mind was to be left undeveloped.  Witches must be masters of circumstance and never it's victims.  At times, it might seem harsh to learn that no excuses were accepted (reasons, yes... excuses, NO!).  But when weighed in the balance, it was amazing to see what was possible to a witch who would not accept any excuses for failure.  It was not so much what others would say, but what you allowed in yourself that made the gains possible.  In a witch clan, you never stopped learning.  Even the elder crones compared notes on just about everything they'd observed when the women's circle met in any numbers. 

      "Of course red clover tea will keep those hot flashes at bay." 

      "But you mustn't sweeten it with sugar, dear, it will only make your heart palpitate all the more.  Use clover honey instead for a fuller effect." 

        Witches usually kept this information in a "grimoire" or "book of shadows".  This is less the "witch's bible" as the sensationalists might tout, but more like a scientist's notebook.  A witch will not just want to know "what", but "why".  Knowledge is power.   All results in the course of fact finding must be recorded.  Even if the answers are not too clear now, someone later on may get results that will either correlate with or explain the results you've obtained, and a secret of nature unlocked for posterity.  After all, empirical data IS empirical data, no matter what you call yourself.  Any science of any note, is seen as "magick" to those who do not yet understand it.  A true witch is not the ignorant, superstitious dolt that this present dark paradigm prefers to paint us as.

Though any wise witch understands how easily the superstitious among you may be diverted by merely placing a black cat in their paths.  Superstitions, dogmas and bad doctrines and traditions are commonly used to direct "sheep" down a specified and rigidly controlled path, even if it is to the slaughterhouse, for the sake of making mutton.

 

          Sabbats, esbats or sabbaths occurred eight times a year, and everyone was expected to attend unless they were "solitaire" for study purposes.  With an adept matriarch at the head of things, this kept the larger part of clan politics from muddying the waters, and keep the focus where it should be in the ceremonies.  A piece of rural property was kept for such celebrations.  A farm with an isolated section of woods beyond.  A trail leading back into a clearing where a consecrated bonfire would be built.  In general, the ladies would meet at the farmhouse, gossip and exchange notes and findings, and then discuss the ceremony at hand and come to some kind of consensus.  In some instances. fasting was required prior to the sabbath.   As the sabbath came, everyone would bring a  small cauldron with a lid and some meat or fish with seasoned potatoes and vegetables would be set at the base of the bonfire.  In later years this would be foil wrapped food on a metal pie plate.  The ceremonies would begin with singing, dancing and invocations and the likes.  The powers that be, would be aroused by the matriarch, and the directions for the clan would be made clear and things would wind down.