9 - Witchcraft And You

"Around the world thoughts shall fly ... in a twinkling of an eye ..."

(Martha "Mother" Shipton)

Now that the secrets of witchcraft have been revealed, and explained, you can see that there is magic there, and it is none the less mysterious or powerful because you can understand what makes it work. People have always feared that which they do not know, so it may be of some comfort to realize that there is at least a possible explanation for even the strangest of things.

We have looked at the false ideas about witchcraft and witches stemming from the past, and we can see that it was fear - fear of mysterious occult powers and the ultimate of terrors among superstitious people, fear of the devil - which led to innocent people being hung and burned as witches in a panic spurred on by individuals using witchhunts for their own selfish and evil purposes.

The solid, serious foundation of witchcraft from its earliest practice by men of medicine and science also has been pointed out. And it has been noted that the churches, too, employed similar objects and rituals to achieve the same effect as witches do: the flame of candles, the ringing of bells, the Book, soft music, chants, statues, soft fabrics, and flowers were part of a whole experience that people ages ago first discovered in their churches and were keyed up into feeling the full awe of religion.

What the witches did, of course, was take these objects and influences home, using them in their own private lives to achieve a fullness of respect for life, and to attain their own hearts' desire - with a few personal prayers or chants thrown in along with several little things and rituals the churches never thought of. But in the same way that religion gears itself to an after life, witchcraft aims to improve this one.

The close relationship between witchcraft and human emotion is inescapable to any student of the art, which cannot be called a black art unless you call all emotion evil. What most people want most is an emotional experience, and whether they seek it on the sexual level or in some pure, spiritual and romantic sense, witchcraft can open up the way to finding it. Encouraging your own innermost emotions whatever they may be, fanning the flames of your inner self is part of the principal business of witchcraft.

Freeing your own untapped powers through spells and chants, and glancing into the future and changing it to suit your wishes, these are the ways of a witch. Recipes, fortune-telling systems, the whole pattern for a better life through witchcraft is in your eyes and on your lips.

Those who find dealing in witchcraft strange, something that will set them apart from their fellow man ought to review the widespread observance of superstition among all peoples of the world, rich and poor, young and old. All superstitions are traced back to meaningful ideas or customs. Like witchcraft, they survived because they did have meaning. Unlike witchcraft, most of their true meanings have been lost down through the generations.

You don't have to look very far to find some phases of witchcraft used in today's world. Even the Pennsylvania Dutch, who are considered very good, highly religious people, use a form of witchcraft. They use strange writings and hexes on their barns and over their doorways to protect them from things considered evil, and to promote good.

Everything changes in time. There is nothing that exists today that existed in the same exact form a few hundred years ago, and witchcraft is no exception. In the same manner that ancient fortune-telling cards have become an alluring gambling game that whets men's appetite for money in the instant future - with the turn of a card - the rituals and spells of witchcraft have been altered by time.

Once you become powerful enough in casting spells that other witches have found successful in the past, you will find yourself able to adapt them more to your individual needs. It must be stressed that it takes a very strong personality to create variations on the tried and true, but so long as the principle is there, the clear self-assurance of what is going to happen as the result of the spell and the repetition, it will work.

The witch has always been an innovator, ahead of her time, able to see things that others did not see, unafraid to explore a source of power beyond normal comprehension. But normal comprehension and normal powers have changed with time, too. For instance, think about colours.

The colour concept is a comparatively new one. Ancient man did not understand colour as we know it today and was unable to respond to the high-frequency electromagnetic pulsations. Certain shades of brown, red and black were lumped together. White, pale blue, pale green and yellow were frequently confused with each other. And all the while, grey skipped merrily across vibratory barriers and passed for everything.

Historical researchers have noted that man's earlier writings are almost completely devoid of colour descriptions, which would seem to indicate a certain lack of sensitivity in this area. And it may be that an ancient Greek man gazed up at a bright blue sky, and let his eyes sweep over the jade and maroon horizon studded with mauve-tone Rosemary bushes. Unlike William Wordsworth, however, the Greek's heart did not "leap up" when he beheld a rainbow in the sky. Colour awareness became a sophisticated development only in mankind's most recent history.

The colour vibrations always existed somewhere, but man did not have the intellectual capacity to distinguish between the colours. Youngsters of today can handle colour perception with more aplomb than most educated early royalty could have maintained. However, in earlier moments, as is still true today, an occasional "freak" was born. He may have been frightened by unusual "sensations" his modern eyes detected. And he probably remained silent most of the time rather than admit to such an undesirable abnormality. But if one waits long enough, the rest of the world catches up.

Pumpkin yellow, passionate pink, azure blue and psychedelic green have now left the poets, the dreamers and the schizoids and have turned on the bourgeoisie. Cavemen angels from way back in B.C., who had experienced extra sensory perception, now sigh in relief at their own vindication, and straighten their persimmon-tinted halos!

It has only been in the last hundred years or so that the aware and hungry eye was given the chemical conditions needed to transform fantasy into reality. The Dutch masters, with their monochromatic paintings, may not have been suffering from a lack of intellectual understanding, but rather, from a lack of the chemically produced "Prussian Blue." Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" was not only a charming portrait, but also a unique colour experiment that was the most successful of its kind at the time.

As the vague longings of man took on a definite form, he was able to create the proper environment needed to perpetuate his particular "freakishness," and comprehension accelerated. The ordinary lipstick counter of today is an example of how many ways man has devised to understand, to see, and then to categorize ... PINK!

Sensational evolution rapidly expanded! All about us, more and more people are born who claim to see sights normal eyes never see, hear sounds normal ears never hear, know truths normal hearts never know. They are the 20th-Century Freaks, the cavemen of the Aquarian Age. They are the new pioneers. While it may be lonely out there in the lush wilderness, one thing is certain: The colours are vivid in the sparkling clean air, and there's got to be an unbeatable excitement attached to stalking dinosaurs.

They used to laugh at people who spoke of ghosts in their houses, but today many universities have a department to investigate reports of the supernatural, extra sensory perception and other strange happenings that long have been spoken of but never satisfactorily explained. Those who scoffed at the idea that man might fly were replaced by descendants who were certain man would never travel to outer space. And now, what's beyond that?

Witches employ a strange power that they think they have explained to themselves. They know witchcraft works, but how much untapped power there is in the human mind, and where it comes from, may be things beyond explanation in terms of mere supernormal energy forces. The mysteries of the mind are as vast and unknown as the farthest star in the darkest skies. And it is only recently that man has learned to fly.