Drawing Down the Moon (111 page)

An entire chapter could be written on the several definitions of the word
magic
that can be found in dictionaries. The
Oxford English Dictionary,
for example, calls it “The pretended art of influencing the course of events . . . by processes supposed to owe their efficacy to the power of compelling the intervention of spiritual beings, or of bringing into operation some occult controlling principle of nature,” then adds what amounts to a brief historical essay implying that yesterday's magic is often today's science.

C.E. (Common Era) is used throughout this book to replace A.D.; B.C.E. (Before Common Era) is used to replace B.C. This is fairly common usage among scholars. See
Webster's New International Dictionary,
2nd ed. (F. C. Merriam Company, 1958), pp. 540 and 866;
Encyclopedia Judaica,
Vol. I (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972), p. 73.

There is also a huge debate over the term
Wicca,
with some arguing that the term should only be used for British traditional groups. I take a broader view; I consider any group
Wiccan
that is indebted to Gardnerian forms and European sources—that includes most Dianic and eclectic Wiccan groups.

Alison Harlow died in 2004. She was a priestess in the Faery tradition of Wicca.

In recent years, some Pagans are using the word
panentheism
to describe their religious perspective : a belief that there
is
a transcendent source—that divinity is manifest in the material world, but also elsewhere. Some Pagans involved in mystery traditions will tell you they believe in one source, which some could call God, but which embraces all gods and faiths.

Valiente, in her book,
Witchcraft for Tomorrow,
notes with amusement that she is the author of two Craft poems that have appeared in many published (and unpublished, I might add) versions of Craft rituals. She writes that she and Gerald Gardner wrote “Darksome Night and Shining Moon” (a poem used in countless rites that already has numerous spinoff versions) in 1954 or 1955. Her poem “Invocation to the Horned God” has been misquoted in
Lady Sheba's Book of Shadows,
where it appears as part of an ancient rite. Valiente notes that the poem was published in
Pentagram
in 1965 under her name and copyright mark.

Anderson became almost totally blind as a child.

Several lists of Craft Laws—such as those that come by way of Gardner and Sanders—have been published. Several versions of these laws are in Aidan Kelly's “The Rebirth of Witchcraft: Tradition and Creativity in the Gardnerian Reform,” unfortunately unpublished. Published versions can be found in many places, including
The Grimoire of Lady Sheba
and Stewart Farrar's
What Witches Do.

See pp. 92.

Much of Robert Graves's
The White Goddess
is a metaphoric investigation of this alphabet, said to be an ancient druidical alphabet. It has eighteen letters—thirteen consonants and five vowels—and each has a corresponding tree known well in European folklore. Beth is birch, Luis is rowan, Nion is ash, and so on. The consonants are often used for the thirteen lunar months. The covenstead of Morrigana used this system. So do many recent lunar calendars, such as those by Nancy Passmore, published by Luna Press (Boston).

This was written in 1976. Since that time there has been an incredible growth of ritual, music, dance, and drumming within Neo-Paganism.

Not all occultists agree that magic is merely another way of talking about changes in consciousness. In particular, Bonewits has said that these kinds of definition muddy the water; they “pretty-up” magic. In a letter (winter 1978) he writes:

As science gave people more control over areas that, previously, were only controlled haphazardly by magicians and priests, priests began to redefine magic in
religious
rather than
engineering
terms. They began to define it as a change in consciousness. A change in consciousness is certainly
required,
but when magic is really magic it involves changing the world as well as the interior person doing the magic.

Most of the people who emphasize that magic is a system of enlightenment, or a system for spiritual development or changing consciousness, or that it is a way of seeing things, are people who for one political reason or another do not
dare
to suggest that magic can be a way of actually changing the physical world due to the control of psychic energies. It's much safer politically and socially to pretty-up magic as a spiritual development system.

In 1976 eight covens existed in NROOGD and large public sabbats were held often. Sometimes two hundred people would attend. Each coven was autonomous. All members spoke as equals, and issues were talked through until a decision was reached that all could accept. Decisions that involved the Order as a whole were made by the Red Cord Council, which was composed of the members of NROOGD covens who had belonged for more than one year and had attained the second degree (Red Cord). The covens, however, remained autonomous, and Red Cord Council decisions were treated as advisory for any one coven. The council merely suggested guidelines—that each coven observe the basic Craft Laws and keep its requirements for initiation at least as strict as the ones generally in force in the Order. In 1976 the Red Cord Council was dissolved. NROOGD declared itself to be no longer an organization, but a “tradition.”

“How can such a system work? I asked one priestess, who laughed and told me, ‘It took a lot of self-control.'” Aidan Kelly added, “Being a group of friends, we would discuss things the way friends would, until we reached an agreement. Later, we realized that this is what tradition says about how a council has to work, and the information that's available from anthropology says this is how tribal councils work.”

See pp. 158ff.

Truthfully, there is no “correct” way to do the Spiral Dance. There are fast spirals, and slow ones where you gaze into each person's eyes. There are kissing spirals, and a myriad of other forms.

Most of these magazines no longer exist. And sadly, many feminist bookstores have gone out of business.

WomanSpirit
is no longer published, although back issues are still available (see Resources).

The theory that important ancient British sites are aligned, that they are linked by prehistoric trackways (ley-lines), was formulated by Alfred Watkins in his book
The Old Straight Track
(London, Methuen and Co., 1925). More recently, the theory has become well known through the works of John Michell. In
The View Over Atlantis
(London: Sago Press, 1969), a book that has enjoyed the same kind of fame among occultists as Louis Pauwels' and Jacques Bergier's
Morning of the Magicians,
Michell argues that the entire planet is marked with traces of prehistoric engineering, and that the straight tracks, or ley-lines, of Britain are one such form. A British magazine,
The Ley Hunter,
has been devoted to the study of leys, megaliths, folklore and cosmology. Janet and Colin Bord's
Mysterious Britain
(London: Garnstone Press, 1963, pp. 175–206) also takes up the question of leys.

Tim Zell later took the name Otter Zell, and today is known as Oberon Zell-Ravenheart.

Ronald Hutton, in his monumental work,
The Triumph of the Moon
(1999), devotes many pages to the word “pagan” and its use by nineteenth-century English and European romantic writers and poets. Hutton says the first use of the word “Neo-Pagan” was in 1891 by W. F. Barry, a Christian critic who disparaged Neo-Paganism as a corrupting creed, concerned with “a great unceasing festival of flowers and lights and easy sensuous love.”

Originally Theogenesis but changed in later printings for obvious reasons.

In several interviews I was told that the person had refused a promotion for similar reasons.

The word
occult
and the phrase
occult resurgence
are being used broadly. Technically, the word
occult
first appeared in 1545 (Oxford English Dictionary) and it meant that which is hidden or is beyond the range of ordinary apprehension and understanding. Later, the word began to be used as an umbrella description to cover such studies as astrology, alchemy, and magic. A recent (and much quoted) sociological definition of the occult was formulated by Edward A. Tiryakian, in his essay “Toward the Sociology of Esoteric Culture.” He wrote:
Many of the articles discussed in this chapter are directed specifically at various recent phenomena, including the growth of the occult, Witchcraft, “the consciousness movement,” new therapies, and new religious sects. Very few are directed specifically at Witches, and Neo-Pagans have generally been ignored by scholars. It could be argued, for example, that Cavendish's comments on those who enter magical groups apply to magicians generally, but do not apply to members of those religious sects discussed by Larsen, and that the members of those sects
are
bewildered and immature, unlike most magicians. I tend to doubt it, but a plausible case could be made. It could also be argued that revivalist Witches and Neo-Pagans differ in so many ways from the subjects of these articles that these critiques, both positive and negative, just don't apply.

This may be a good argument for a scholarly journal, but most people, and this includes most intelligent nonspecialists, lump all these phenomena together. And many of the writers do the same thing. The article that speaks of the “growth of the irrational” is often talking about many kinds of groups. For these reasons the term
occult resurgence
is used here broadly.

While visiting Neo-Pagans in Chicago, I was led to the studio of Robert Green, a surrealist painter who uses magical rituals to renew his creative energies. Green made a distinction between
religion,
“which relies on belief,” and
magic,
“which is a process to renew the subconscious.” He told me that both magic and surrealist art seek to “liquefy the mind,” to liberate the mind from imprisoning dogmas. He said that the problem with the rational mode was that it imposed unacceptable limits. The purpose of surrealism was “liberation period. Liberation of the mind, but also, of all human existence.” Green told me that surrealists have always maintained a critical analysis of society. They have always been “political.” Magic and occultism in no way contradict this, he said, so long as they are kept free of dogma and fixed beliefs.

For a look at how one Neo-Pagan group, the Church of All Worlds, has adapted, modified, and expanded on the ideas of Teilhard, see Chapter 10.

Drawing Down the Moon
does not include a study of Satanism because it is not primarily a Neo-Pagan phenomenon. Satanists (Bonewits's “Neogothic Witches”) take their myths from Judeo-Christianity. Most worship Satan as a symbolic figure of rebellion against Christianity. Moody's article is relevant here because it answers a broader question: Why are occult and magical groups so appealing?

Moody does not distinguish between Witchcraft and Satanism, a flaw in this otherwise excellent essay.

Part of an unpublished manuscript of rites for women.

From the Hasidic Druids of North America (HDNA); published in
The Druid Chronicles (Evolved),
ed. Isaac Bonewits (Berkeley: Drunemeton Press, 1976).

This was written by Ed Fitch in the late 1960s, and designated to be an introductory ritual for those who are searching and investigating the Pagan path.

Another introductory ritual by Ed Fitch.

This ritual took place on Beltane, 1978, in Central Park in New York City. The four priestesses were members of a group called Manhattan Pagan Way. They wrote the ritual. About thirty-five people attended. This exemplifies the kind of spring ritual a group of city Pagans might attempt.