Witchcraft : a tradition renewed PDF
Preview Witchcraft : a tradition renewed
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 http://www.archive.org/details/witchcrafttrad1tOOvali WITCHCRAFT A Tradition Renewed ............... ...._...._...._...._....._'--• 1 Ex Libris t ) Timothy Curtis Wayne I I Alexander William Jung r I ,b, memento quocumque ,bes l!r!s ( ~ ~ f .................... -...,._ -.. -... -..... --.... -.... --....- In Memory of Robert Cochrane And to Doreen, Jane, Bill, Mike, Peter, Ann, Dave and The Roebuck, And Valerie for all her help. WITCHCRAFT A Tradition Renewed DOREEN VALIENTE & EVA N JOHN JONES PHOENIX PUBLISHING INC. Copyright © Doreen Valiente & Evan John Jones 1990 All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book. or portions thereof. In any form whatsoever. For Information contact Phoenix Publishing Inc. This edition printed 1990 PHOENIX PUBLISHING INC. Portal Way P.O. Box 10 Custer. Washington USA 98240 ISBN 0-919345-61-1 Cover design by Rick Testa Printed In the U.S.A. Contents Preface by Doreen Valiente 7 Introduction 15 I Rudiments of the Craft 21 1 The Faith 23 2 The Nature of the Rites 47 History and Myth 52 II The Coven 69 1 The Coven 71 The Lady 71 North 72 South 72 East 72 West 73 The Membership 73 The Initiate 74 The Man in Black 76 The Summoner 77 2 Coven Oaths 79 The Initiation Oath 79 The Oath of Full Membership 81 The Oath of Office 83 The Oath for the Lady 87 III Tools and Regalia 93 1 The Working Tools 95 The Knife 96 The Cord 99 The Stang 102 Consecrating the Tools 107 6 WITCHCRAFT 2 The Coven Regalia 110 The Cup 110 113 The Coven Knife The Coven Stangs 116 121 Shadding with Iron The Besom 121 The Coven Sword 126 The Cauldron 130 The Skull 134 IV The Rituals 147 1 Beginning the Rituals 149 Casting the Circle 150 Dedication of the Cakes and Wine 154 2 The Four Great Sabbats 158 Fasting and Purification 160 The Royal Cairn 165 Candlemas (2 February) 170 May Eve (30 April) 176 Lammas (1 August) 179 Hallowe'en (31 October) 183 The Rite of Handfasting 188 Appendix: a List of Sacred Woods and Trees 191 Bibliography 195 Index 199 Preface by Doreen Valiente This is a deeper and more serious book about witchcraft than most of the books on this subject on sale today. In fact, some readers, accustomed to a less profound view of the Old Religion, may find it disturbing. It is indeed unlike the rather airy-fairy view of 'Wicca' which has become prevalent today, with its merry ring-dances in the nude and its insistence on a bland attitude of universal optimism and love towards alJ. This is the view which was promulgated by Gerald Gardner from the 1950s onwards, and continued by Alex Sanders. There is no doubt that 'Wicca' has brought much enjoyment and enlightenment to many people; but there is an older witchcraft, and it is the latter that this book is about. From those who are disturbed by some of its contents, I ask only calm consideration and a recollection of the text quoted by Margaret Murray on the title page of her famous book The God of the Witches: 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.' The roots of genuine witchcraft are very ancient. They go down into the deep places of human consciousness and into the prehistory of human society. Hence those roots are of necessity primitive. I have known the author of this book, Evan John Jones, since he and I both belonged to the coven headed by Robert Cochrane in the 1960s. I have described some of the workings of this coven in my recent book The Rebirth of Witchcraft. Robert Cochrane was a remarkable young man, whose fame has lived on after his tragic and premature death in 1966. He claimed to be a genuine hereditary 7 8 WITCHCRAFT witch, drawing his teachings from a long and secret tradition. To what extent this is true, we shall probably never know. I have described my experience with his coven in my book mentioned above. As may be seen from that account, some of it was rather equivocal. However, there is one thing I know for certain. Robert Cochrane 'had something'. Call it magical power, charisma or what you will. He may have been devious; but he was no charlatan. Very little of the workings and beliefs of Robert Cochrane's coven has penetrated to the outside world, and what has been heard has usually been garbled. However, I am told that there are a few people in the United States who have been working along his lines, using as their basis some old letters of his. Some of his old coven members in Britain also have attempted to continue his tradition. Of these, Evan John Jones is one. However, he makes no claim that he has published the rituals used by Robert Cochrane. Indeed, it would not be possible for him to do so; because, as I remember them, most of Cochrane's rituals were spontaneous and sham anistic. He did not work from a set 'Book of Shadows', previously written down, but from a traditional way of doing things, upon which improvised rituals could be based. It is this which has been the inspiration for this book. My task in helping to produce this book has been to edit John's manuscript, to rearrange its contents and here and there to add what I felt were some points of interest. I have also put some of his incantations into verse. However, the ideas and rituals in this book are mainly his. I have been glad to help it find publication, because I feel that it is an important book and unlike any other which has appeared on this subject. In fact, it is the only book I know of which is devoted entirely to traditional witchcraft, as opposed to more modem versions of the Old Religion. Nevertheless, as the author admits, it is a re-creation of the old ways. In these present times, it cannot be anything else, because so much was lost in the days when witchcraft was actually a criminal offence. We often forget that those days ended only in 1951, when the last of the Witchcraft Acts was repealed. Even after they had stopped actually hanging and
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