How to Become a Witch (25 page)

Plant devas, the collective spirits of each plant species, can also host our consciousness but are especially expert at guiding us in our work with gardens, orchards, vineyards, and farms. They are the spiritual gateways to the kingdom that provides us with beauty, food, medicinal plants, soil retention, carbon removal and oxygen production, materials for building and crafts and clothing, shade, and more. Even the plants normally dismissed as weeds have valuable gifts for us once we begin to understand their mysteries.

Weatherworking is one form of nature magick with a mixed reputation. In ancient times, some Witches were said to control the winds and could capture their spirits in a triple-tied bag. Release one knot, and a gentle breeze would spring up; two knots, and you would have a brisk wind; three, and a violent storm would strike. Today, Witches are very cautious about interfering with natural weather patterns, though our coven has occasionally done successful rain magick to break a drought.

There are many ways to work divination with the aid of nature. Dowsing, or “witching,” for water is traditionally done with a forked hazel stick. Some can read future events in the patterns of clouds, the flights of birds, or by scrying in a still pond. Astrology reveals much by the positions of the stars and planets in relation to the zodiac and each other. The magicks of nature are as varied as Mother Nature herself, and many Witches prefer these powers to the cerebral and abstract arts of the ceremonial magician. Both have their place.

The elder trees

Witches are known for their skill at glamoury, or creating an illusion so they look like something else. Some elder trees in particular are supposed to be Witches in disguise. A famous thorn tree in East Anglia, England, is called “the Witch of Hethel” and was first recorded as “the old thorn” in the thirteenth century. It is the oldest living one of its species. She has been there for more than 800 years and must hold the record for the longest-running glamour. But any tree might be a Witch, so be careful how you treat your tall green neighbors.

Nature and Spirit

“In wildness is the salvation of the world,” said naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. You know already that Witches don’t feel the need to be saved from original sin, but we do think the living earth needs to be saved from human folly and overuse.

Partly, this is a matter of simple survival, since destroying Earth’s ecosystems is a certain road to species suicide for
homo sapiens
. However, it’s even more than that for Witches. Nature, including our home planet, is the body of the Divine for us—the embodiment of the Goddess and the God.

We don’t believe the mainstream notion that all “creation” is just something God made, separate from him, to be wisely stewarded or trashed, depending on whether you believe the Rapture is imminent. We don’t divide the material world (nasty, where the devil hangs out) from the world of spirit (nice, belongs to God). For us, nature
is
the gods incarnate.

B
y the air that is her breath,

By the fire of her bright spirit,

By the waters of her womb,

By the earth that is her body…

This Pagan chant from the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft sums it up. The wind, the rocks, the trees, the critters with fur and feather and scale and skin—all are part of the sacred body of Deity. Nature—which is, simply, everything—is spirit-filled, ensouled, holy, sacred. When you strip-mine, dump toxins in rivers, or pollute the air, you are doing that to your Holy Mother and Divine Father and your sacred self.

Gaia
Alias: Mother Earth

Our bodies are made of many elements and systems, interconnecting and interdependent. And we have company: we are host to living things such as bacteria, fungi, archaea, yeasts, and protozoa. There are a lot of them; though we have about ten trillion cells in our bodies, there are ten times that many bacteria in the intestines alone. Many of our tiny passengers are “friendly”; they compete with pathogens, manufacture vitamins, or remove toxins. Others have no known effect on us. Occasionally some go “rogue,” like cancer cells.

As above, so below. As below, so above.

You have heard of the Gaia Hypothesis, now called the Gaia Theory, first widely noticed when James Lovelock explained it in the 1970s. He suggested that the earth behaves like a giant, complex living organism that could regulate its atmosphere and oceans to create and sustain an environment friendly to life. Lovelock defined Gaia as “a complex entity involving the earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.”
[1]
There was perhaps the implication that Gaia was both purposeful and friendly to life.

Well, yes. In 1971, Oberon Zell, the well-known wizard and author, wrote about “a discovery so vast that its impact on the world’s thinking will ultimately surpass the impact of the discovery of the Heliocentric structure of the solar system. This is the discovery that the entire Biosphere of the Earth comprises a single living Organism.”
[2]

But Lovelock may have been surprised when certain people took the next step and said, “Yes, living, self-regulating, friendly to life—
and
intelligent, conscious, and enspirited.”

“No scientific evidence for that,” said Lovelock’s supporters. “That’s mysticism!” True, but it’s exactly what Witches believe; we are science- and technology-friendly, but are also willing to journey beyond into spiritual matters.

Our relationship with Gaia, the earth, is that of living, sentient, enspirited beings to a greater such being of which we are part. One could also say that we humans, all almost seven billion of us, can be compared to some of Gaia’s bacteria, or cells in her nervous system. Some authors have suggested that the human species is analogous to Gaia’s brain. For Gaia’s sake, we hope she has a better brain somewhere, because
homo sapiens
is not behaving intelligently in our relations with the rest of the planet.

In fact, some argue that we are now a cancer on the Gaia organism. Oberon Zell said: “When in the human body some cells start multiplying all out of control and excreting toxins into the bloodstream, we have a cancer….At this moment, humanity…is multiplying wildly out of control and excreting vast quantities of deadly pollutants into the air, water and soil…If our own cancerous population growth is not halted—indeed, drastically reduced—our numbers and poisons will severely cripple or kill our planetary organism, Gaea.”
[3]

Scientists from global research programs meeting in Amsterdam in 2001 noticed the problem. They stated that

Human activities are significantly influencing Earth’s environment in many ways in addition to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Anthropogenic changes to Earth’s land surface, oceans, coasts and atmosphere and to biological diversity, the water cycle and biogeochemical cycles are…equal to some of the great forces of nature in their extent and impact. Many are accelerating…Human-driven changes cause multiple effects that cascade through the Earth System in complex ways…that are difficult to understand and…to predict…Human activities could inadvertently trigger [abrupt] changes with severe consequences for Earth’s environment and inhabitants…that may prove irreversible and less hospitable to humans and other life…The nature of changes now occurring simultaneously in the Earth System, their magnitudes and rates of change are unprecedented.
[4]

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a four-year study of the world’s ecosystems by 1,360 scientists:

The Condition and Trends Working Group found that over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth. In addition, approximately 60 percent (15 out of 24) of the ecosystem services it examined are being degraded or used unsustainably, including fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water purification, and the regulation of regional and local climate, natural hazards, and pests.
[5]

The Earth Policy Institute spotlights just one of the problem areas: “Three quarters of oceanic fisheries, a major source of protein in the human diet, are being fished at or beyond their limits, and many are headed toward collapse.”
[6]

Fifteen of the earth’s twenty-four primary “ecosystem services” are being “degraded or used unsustainably.” Things like forests and fresh water. That’s no way to treat your mother.

If we are acting as a disease instead of an organ or a symbiotic species, the possible outcomes are pretty limited:

We may damage the earth to the point where it cannot sustain human life. In the process, we will kill many other innocent species, but Gaia will eventually rebalance and life will continue without us.

We may damage the earth to the point that climate change and other disasters take an enormous toll in human life, as well as on other creatures. The process may cull millions or billions of humans from the gene pool, but our species would survive and have another chance at learning to live sustainably on a changed planet.

We may change our ways and learn to live sustainably and responsibly on the earth before more irreversible damage is done. This would mean great changes in our way of life: food production, energy, manufacture, transportation, housing, more birth control, you name it.

The authors would prefer to see our species survive and grow up, but instant action is required. For most Witches, this is a sacred duty as well as a pragmatic strategy.

Green Consciousness And Hope

There is great cause for alarm, but there are also hopeful signs that people are waking up to the dangers. We have come a long way since the 1950s, when environmental concerns were on the fringe of public awareness. In 1962, Rachel Carson warned about pesticides and pollution in
Silent Spring
(Houghton Mifflin). On April 22, 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson organized the first Earth Day demonstrations. In 1990, Earth Day mobilized over 200 million people in 141 countries around the planet. By 1997, the Kyoto Protocol on climate change was first launched, and a total of 184 nations have now ratified it—the United States being one of the few holdouts. In 2009, the Climate Conference at Copenhagen passed resolutions that may lead to binding treaties and will certainly lead to increased cooperation between the developed and developing nations on green policy issues.

Today, people are mobilizing. Corporations are responding to public demand with hybrid cars, energy-efficient appliances, and household products free of toxins. The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has created more than four hundred miles of bike paths in the last few years. Texas now generates enough electricity from wind turbines to power about 1,760,000 homes. High-school students in Hingham, Massachusetts, built a greenhouse and learn about organic gardening, locally grown produce, composting, and endangered plant species. A man in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is organizing his community to plant twenty thousand trees. The Brazilian government has set ambitious targets for reducing deforestation and carbon dioxide emissions, and four of the world’s largest meat producers have agreed not to buy cattle from newly deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest. Wildlife corridors are being organized: the Paséo del Jaguar in Central and South America, a wolf corridor in Alberta, eighty-eight identified elephant corridors in India, and many others.

We could fill a book with stories of individuals and organizations who are taking action for conservation, wildlife, alternative energy, green building, and other facets of environmental sustainability. Many Witches are on the front lines of ecoactivism, but more importantly, people of many faiths and cultures are acting together to protect our common home. Maybe you are one of them.

It’s a beautiful world out there. Experience it, savor it, appreciate it. Resolve to live in harmony with the earth and her living creatures. Become active in the quest to make our whole civilization and species more aware, more caring, and wiser in our relationship to Gaia. You don’t have to be a Witch to do all this; but if you don’t, you can hardly claim the title priestess, priest, or Witch.

Deepening Your Practice
Exercises in Nature

• Find a secluded square foot of grass—on a lawn if you must, but wild is better. Take your Book of Shadows with you. Watch this area until you can describe the life within it. Describe it in your book—thoroughly. Offer your blessing, and leave without touching it.
  
• Walk the land around your home until you begin to feel more than acquainted. Describe it in elemental terms in your Book of Shadows, and tell how it has changed your view of the world. For example, Ardantane is a place of earth (rocky mesas and canyons) and fire (bright sun). Yet occasionally air appears in the form of fierce winds driving a thunderstorm before them, water comes roaring down Cañon Cercado, and the dry arroyo is suddenly a turbulent river!
  
• Visit places where each element reigns almost supreme: a windy mountain peak or windswept grassy plain; a desert, volcano, or hot spring; a stream, river, lake, or seashore; and mountains, rocks, or a forest. Take time to just
  be
  there.
  
• Do meditations in which you seek out the spirits of a favorite animal, tree, and herb or flower. Give them energy and blessings, and record their messages in your Book of Shadows.
  
• Go on a meditation quest in nature for several hours up to a couple of days. (Make sure you are properly equipped for the terrain and weather, and tell someone exactly where you are going.) During this time, ask Gaia/Mother Earth what is the best way that you can help her. Work against air and water pollution? Lobby for laws to preserve wilderness? Replace your vehicle with something more eco-friendly? Put solar panels on your roof? Give time and money to save an endangered species? Make a commitment, and fulfill your promise.