Destiny and Doom in the Craeft

One of our earliest articles, Witch Marks, Witch Blood, and the Kuthune, has been a perennial
favorite of blog visitors since Glaux first wrote it in 2011. In it, she talks about the history and folklore of the magical inheritance or birthright -- the idea that some Witches are descended from other Witches and will pass aspects of their power onto their descendants, much as they received power from their ancestors.

There are two really salient points that I think are often overlooked in Glaux's article, judging from some of the comments and questions we receive. Both points are stated very clearly, though, and I think they bear repeating.

"Witch Marks" by Gemma Gary

1. The concept that Witches inherit their power through bloodlines and have a physical birthmark of  this lineage is a folkloric concept that does not bear out in every case. You can absolutely be a witch without having any known witches in your family tree. You can also be a red-head with three nipples and a goat-hoof birthmark on your inner thigh and not be a Witch at all.

2. Witches today most often form a blood bond and take a mark at their initiations. We take blood oaths to our covens and to the Witchfather himself. We tattoo ourselves so that the bond is visible to those who know its meaning.

Witchcraft is a CRAFT. Says so right on the label. It is a work, an action. Whatever may be in your blood is meaningless if you allow it to lie dormant. Yes, you may be a direct descendant of Isobel Gowdy or Alice Kyteler or Sarah Goode. You may even be able to prove it through birth, death, and marriage certificates. (Not likely, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.) You could also be a direct descendant of Charlemagne, but that does not make you Emperor.

If you are descended from Witches, be proud ... and do something worthy of them. Do not wait for witchy things to happen to you. Find your power and learn to use it. I promise that it will not come exploding out of you the way it does for young witches and wizards on television or in the movies -- when you reach a certain birthday or when a particular family member dies and "inherit their power." Your power is yours alone, as are your action. They can be influenced by family and friends, but it is you who must walk the Crooked Path if you ever want to know what secrets lie at the heart of the forest (or upon the empty fields at night).

If you have no idea if you carry the Blood of Qayin, don't fret, my love. He will give it to you himself.  And he will mark you in a way that makes sense to both you and him. This, after all, is what those medieval witch-hunters had assumed anyway. The lore in those trial records claims that the mark isn't a "birth" mark per se, but a mark placed upon the body of the Witch after she made a compact with the Devil -- usually by drinking a concoction made of blood, wine, and herbs.

Along these lines, I had someone recently write to me with questions about their possible "great destiny within Witchcraft." I am not trying to embarrass this person, but I want to use (part of) this correspondence as an instructive moment for others, if possible. I see so many people hoping that there is something inherently magical and special within them that marks them for greatness. To them, I say, "There may be some gift inside you. But YOU will have to do the hard work of digging it out, clearing away the dirt, polishing that gem, and finding a way to share it with the world."

This particular person wrote with the following inquiry:

Some people think I have a huge Wicca destiny due to my birthday, and while you don’t follow Wicca, a folklore insight would be helpful. I do not practice but am researching whether my birthday is a big deal, and if yes probably will. Do you find anything noteworthy of my Samhain birthday 1969?

I replied with the following:

Traditionally (historically), there was no set “date” for Samhain. There have been three different ways for figuring up the date, to my knowledge. Samhain is the final harvest, and it happened before the cold weather claimed the crops that had been left in the field too long. Many rural Pagans simply used weather signs or local signs as their markers for Samhain. The Druids (who were the priestly class of the Celts), marked Samhain astrologically – when the sun reaches 15* Scorpio (which usually puts Samhain between Nov 4 and 7) – as this would have been the midway point between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. And now, contemporarily, we use a set date based on the Julian calendar (which was the calendar of the Church).

Given that Samhain has many more years of history as a floating holiday, it’s hard to see a birthday of 10-31-69 as particularly indicative of being marked for destiny within the Craft. It’s like being born on Easter (a floating holiday in the Christian tradition.) It’s cool, and it can have a lot of personal meaning to someone whose faith and spiritual experience are rooted in the folklore of that religion.

As for your birthday being a “big deal” – it truly isn’t within the Craft, other than as a cool curiosity. However, your birthday is absolutely a big deal in the astrological influences in your life. As is your birth time and place. If you haven’t already done so, I would recommend checking out a free birth chart generator like the one at www.alabde.com/freechart. Every member of my coven is expected to be familiar with their stars. We ALL have a destiny, and we all have energetic patterns. Astrology is a great way to unlock some of the secrets of your life.

Truthfully, nobody is marked for greatness within any branch of the Craft unless they choose to walk this path. Wicca, Stregha, Rootwork, or Traditional. This can be a grueling, ordeal-based path. On a mundane level, we can (and do sometimes) lose our jobs because we are Witches, lose our children because we are Witches, lose our families because we are Witches. Glaux and I both lost jobs (good jobs) in the name of the Craft. I have friends who have fought court battles over the right to parent their children within this religion. One won that battle. Another is still fighting with tooth and claw just to have basic rights to SEE her kids on a reasonable basis.

This isn’t a path where you can go shopping to see which one has the highest potential for bringing you power and glory. If those are what you crave, you will likely not find either here within the Craft – in any branch of it. The Power comes from within. Glory isn’t something worth seeking. Not for Witches. Not as a Witch. It’s bad for our health. (There are plenty of famous Witches these days, but most of them are famous in their Trade – not their Craft.)

The Line of Cain

Are Cain, Tubal Cain, and Azazel the same entity?  Yes!   And no...

Cain, Son of Eve

Cain/Qayin is the son of Eve through the serpent, Ha-satan. In Genesis when Eve says "I have begotten a man with the Lord" she is referring to Lord Satan-Lucifer.  His brother Abel was the son of Adam and Eve, a creature of clay made flesh, whereas Cain was a creature of spirit made flesh.

Cain was the first to till the earth and harvest plant matter. For this reason he is known as the Lord of the Green Kingdom.  While Cain harvested plants, Abel shepherded flocks of beasts.  When the time came for Cain and Abel to make offerings to Yahweh Abel's offerings of blood pleased Yahweh, but Cain's offerings of burnt plants did not.

It was for this slight in the eyes of Yahweh that Cain killed Abel.  Cain offered forth his most cherished gift of blood (his own brother) to Yahweh.  Abel's blood watered the field and made it fertile. The Necrosophic tradition claims that the blood of Abel that 'watered' the garden also empowered it, making the plants within linked to the bloodline of Cain. This is also the origin of plant spirits or the "Black in Green."

Because of the fact that Cain was the first murderer of man, he eventually became the reaper.  He is the Lord of the Western realms, and the guide of the dead.  Cain was also marked for his crime, and it is this mark (the Witches' Mark) that all children of Cain carry, though in diluted form.

Azazel and Tubal Cain

Azazel was chief among the angels in the story of The Fall of the B'nai Elohim in the Book of Enoch.  The B'nai Elohim is a term that refers to angels. It occurs four times in the Old Testament and is rendered "Angels of God" in the ancient Septuagin translation. These fallen angels, or Watchers, descended to the realm of matter (earth) where they took the descendants of Cain as human vessels. They took women as their wives, taught them, witchcraft and other skills. Azazel took Tubal-Cain, the blacksmith, as his vessel and further improved the arts of smith craft and witchery. Naamah was the human vessel of Nahema-Lilith (Lilith the younger or Lilith's daughter).


The Nephilim

The children of the watchers were the giants known as the Nephilim, which derives from the Hebrew naphal (to fall), or the Fallen Ones. (The Greek Septuagint renders this term gigantes, which actually means "earth-born." This is often misunderstood to mean "giants".  They were marked by extra teeth, extra fingers and toes, double crowned skulls, giant-ism, and other traits that future generations would interpret as witch marks.

The Watchers were originally the four stars Aldebaran (the East), Regulus (the South), Antares (the West), and Fomalhaut (the North).  Witches then, are those who can trace their bloodline to Cain -- the Red Thread -- and are the children of the stars.

For more information:
http://theisticsatanism.com/CoEvan/arguments/henotheism/Devil.html
http://www.ixaxaar.com/

Charm of the Spiral Castle

In a silver castle
far beyond the sea
grows a golden apple
on a silver tree.

On the Isle of Apples
through the pearly mist
stands a spiral tor-mound
on which the castle sits.

Waters flow upon the isle,
pools of life-in-death.
A sacred river circles it
the ancient stream of Lethe.

The castle spins between the worlds
to touch the vault of heaven.
Stars dance around its towers four
two Bears, one Crown, the Sisters Seven.

Upon the highest tower
with linen at her feet
spins the castle's Lady
in her uneasy seat.

Down below the castle
iron touches fire,
where Cain pounds at the anvil
all that we desire.

The Mighty Dead reside within --
Ancient, wise, and brave --
for those who walk the Crooked Path --
seek Rose Beyond the Grave.

Seek the turning castle
by right of Scarlet Thread.
It won't be found with mortal eyes
but ones hallowed by the dead.

~Natalie Black, Imbolc 2012

Cords as Markers of Admission

One of the Robert Cochrane (Roy Bowers) "writings" that  you'll want to read is titled "On Cords." It first appeared in issue 3 of The Pentagram in March 1965. In it, he discusses two aspects or uses of the traditional Witch's Ladder.

The first is the piece of magical craft that we'll be covering soon. It involves using the cord for spellwork.

The second use of cords is that of the devotional ladder. While many of us will make and use multiple devotional ladders for trance and meditation work related to a variety of focal objects, a great many Witches receive their first ladder as a cord (or set of braided cords) that marks their admission to a curveen.

The cords are usually a length of silk or wool rope, braided yarn, or upholstery cord, whose thickness, length and color vary by tradition. They are versatile, as they are used for cinching ritual robes, indicating rank or degree, measuring the circle, and sometimes for binding blood flow in certain circumstances. When used to control blood flow, they may also be called the cingulum.

Cords used as a cingulum help alter consciousness and they are often employed in initiation rites. There are a few different ways to tie the cords to act in this capacity, but the most common is shown below. However they are used, a cingulum should be administered with care to avoid causing damage or harm.

Cords can also be used as a meditational or trance tool in much the same way as a Catholic rosary. Because they are usually braided and knotted, often with multi-colored fibers, they bind together symbols and imagery that is important to the Witch who wears them. Meditating on a particular knot, strand, or other element of the cord will produce a focused experience on the symbol set contained therein, while working through all the knots (climbing the ladder) produces a transcendent state.

The Spiral Castle Tradition uses a specific progression of cords as markers of admission to the curveen. Each strand of cording that we use is made of a 3 hand-braided strands of wool yarn.

Greening -- single green cord -- This cord represents new growth, the beginning of the learning process and the budding interest of the green Witch in the curveen and Tradition. The purpose of the ritual is to form a magical link with loose bonds between student and cuveen and to establish the beginning of a learning period of at least three months. The Green Cord serves as a physical reminder of that link. Aside from interested adults coming to the Tradition, children of the curveen are eligible to wear the Green Cord (and thereby to acknowledge their relationship to the Craft of the Family) at the Age of Reason. This cord is cut and burned at the time that a Witch progresses to Adoption.

Adoption -- single red cord -- This cord represents the umbilical cord, the blood of birth, and the fire of Tubal Cain. It is a manifestation of the Red Thread. The purpose of the Adoption Rite is to forge a formal magical link between the student and the coven and to establish a formal training period of at least a year and a day. Again, the Red Cord serves as a physical reminder of the link between the Witch and the curveen, but it also reminds her of her link to all Children of Qayin. Children of the Family may be adopted within the Craft at the Age of Puberty.

Raising -- single black and single white cord braided together with existing red cord -- This set of cords is the final set that a Witch within our Tradition will use. The cords are fashioned so that there is a loop on one end, and a long set of tails on the other where the cords remain unbraided. The knot that hold the loop fast is the White Goddess knot. The knot closest to the tails (which somewhat resemble three flails of a scourge) is the Black Goddess knot. A knot is tied in the middle of the braided section -- the Tubal Cain knot. A Raised Witch is a full member of the curveen and Trad, and she wears the most potent symbols of our Craft when she dons her cords. Children of the Family are eligible for Raising, provided that theire knowledge and practice of the Craft is sound, at the Age of Majority.

The Red Thread (and the Initiatory Process)

I have the sense that the Red Thread is one of the deeper Mysteries of the Craft as we are coming to know it. This sense is based on the fact that both Glaux and I find ourselves referring to it regularly in symbolic ways and during Craft discussions, but I am having difficulty putting my thoughts together in any coherent manner in this blog entry. The fact that we are able to point to the symbol as a deep point of connection for our magic, but verbalization seems to fail on some level, tells me that "here be a grave Mystery."

Perhaps in order to approach the Mystery, we should only look at one aspect of it in this post. The Red Thread and the Initiatory Process. 

The "Red Thread" is the moniker we use to refer to the line of Witch Blood that connects us to Tubal Qayin. A few of us come to this Tradition with ties to Qayin, bonds or possibly even Witch Marks that we reinforce through charms or the process of admission into a curveen. Many create that link through specific ritual.

Our system of admission is actually quite simple. We have a beginning level which we call Greening. I'll reserve full discussion of this level for another post, but I'll say here that this is the level for "children" within this path -- whether literal or figurative.

Next is Adoption, and it is at this time when the Red Thread is linked. This Tradition is linked very intimately to flow and nature of the family, so the Adoption corresponds to the time of puberty. When a child has come into physical, mental and emotional maturity sufficient for the study of basic magic, she may be brought into her Craft family. When a Seeker, regardless of physical age, has passed the period of initial giddiness and done some serious work and review of his aims as a Witch, he too is eligible for adoption into the Craft family.

The goals of the Adoption Rite (which you can also think of as a Dedication) are to forge a formal magical link between the student and the coven and to establish a formal training period of at least a year and a day. (This period is until the age of adulthood, in the case of family trad practitioners performing the Adoption with teens and tweens.)

This rite can happen at any of the Gates or Castles. In other words, it can happen at any Sabbat.

During the course of the ritual, the candidate is challenged and queried by the curveen members. Provided that she meets with approval at the end of all challenges, she will take blood oath on the anvil. There are two points to make note of here: 1) participation in the ritual doesn't guarantee success; and 2) the anvil is the "oath stone" of the Tradition and is intimately linked in symbolic terms to Tubal Qayin. 

The candidate is given a Red Cord to wear at the waist, which is a reminder of the Red Thread itself, the umbilical cord, and the fire of Qayin's forge. He is also given a bone and silver ring, which is symbolic of the bone soul (intimately related to the Red Thread and the Ancestors). The ring should be fitted to the Witch's index finger in his power hand, as this is the ultimate location where he will be tattooed with the Stang (or Witch's Mark) at his Raising.

Links and Link Cutting

Magical links are threads of energy fed through the astral that connect each of us and affect us in diverse ways. Links can be formed through repetitive action, great emotion, or an act of Will or magic.

While we were in the womb the first link, the umbilical cord, was formed. At birth that first cord is cut, and we become an independent life. As children we have other links, such as those to our parents and our parents to us. As we develop the links are broken or cut and new links form. As we grow into adults our links with our parents evolve into a basic heart link. As we form relationships new links form, and if they are heart links they are almost always healthy. Heart links make us more caring and give us a feeling of connection.

Some kinds of links are not as healthy. In most people there is often a tangled mess of links weighing them down,  hindering them from life. Links to our hands and feet prevent us from acting of our free will. Links to the back, knees elbows, and navel are some of the links that remain from over protective or manipulative parents. There are links from lovers past and present, If these are heart links they are good but most are there to control or manipulate us. We can and do form links to the people we fear or dislike most either by accident or in misplaced efforts to control them. Remember that all links go both ways. Negative links are draining on us and can hold us back from our potential. Link cutting is a powerful and transformational ritual in which we dispose of all negative or unnecessary links.

Every time we do spell craft or send a thought form we are connected to the work by a link. It is through this link that magical returns travel, be they good or ill. These links can be formed purposefully to weave fate.

A blood link is permanent and cannot be cut. Blood links cannot be created without your knowledge and consent. They are used for some handfasting rites and for initiation into the lineage of certain traditions of the Craft. The blood link, or red thread, connects a witch to the ancestors, gods, and mighty dead of the tradition.

The Rite of Link Cutting

You will need: The black handled knife, salt and water, a besom.  You must be skyclad.  It is best to do this ritual with a partner, who can assist you with hard-to-reach links, and act as a second set of eyes for any lingering links.

To begin cast a lay the compass and cast a circle.  Sit quietly and breathe deeply.  Sense your etheric body.  Feel and/or see the links in your energy field.  Some links may be heavy cables, others may be as fine as spider webbing.

When you are open to sensing the links, you may begin by taking up the athame and dragging it like a razor just over the surface of your skin.  Imagine you are shaving away the links.  When the athame gets too full of psychic sludge, simply shake it off and rinse it in the salt water.

You may find that certain links are too thick to cut through cleanly.  These will require you to pull them out by the root, just as you would pull a stubborn garden weed.  If after pulling a deep link you feel a psychic tear in your energy field, simply cleanse the area with salt water. This will patch up any holes in your aura left by links.

Link cutting can be stressful and emotional work.  Remember, each of these links is there for a reason!  Some of them may have been draining you for years.  You may feel a great catharsis after cutting a particularly deep link.  This is another reason it is best to perform this ritual with a trusted partner. They may be able to help you through your potential emotional upheaval.

The final link to be cut is the one leading out of the mouth and down into the digestive tract.  This link is kept for last as it is a very painful and exhausting link to remove.  Gagging and nausea are common side effects.

After you have completed the business of link cutting you will notice that the circle you are in is filled with psychic sludge that you have cast off.  Take up the broom and sweep up the sludge.  You will notice that, remarkably, the sludge does not adhere to the besom. Sweep it right through the boundaries of the circle and though your home out the back door.  Toss the salt water after it.  Return to the ritual area and take the circle down.  Rest.  The ritual is complete.

Note: After this ritual you will want to do immediate blade care on your athame, as the salt water can damage the blade.