As I’ve said before, writing about witchcraft is easy. Finding the right theme isn’t. Any fool can pass themselves off as a witch but finding an informative and entertaining approach for a new book is a whole different cauldron of knowledge. Personally, I feel there should be a magical purpose behind any book on Craft – otherwise it’s all been said before – and usually better …
It’s often surprised readers that Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival is the fifth book in the series but it often transpires that it’s not until folk have been ‘at it’ for a while that they begin to question the numerous inconsistencies, contradictions and anomalies that occur between the different Traditions. And it’s not until they get to this stage, that they want to learn about where their own Tradition sprung from … and where it fits into the whole scheme of things. When people are shopping around for a particular path or tradition that suits them, their ‘wants list’ only looks at witchcraft on a very superficial basis.
In fact, it’s easier to trace an individual’s ancestral DNA back thousands of years than it is to follow an unbroken line of belief down through the ages. The furthest Coven of the Scales can trace its proven lineage is to the mid-1800s, although coven-lore claims it goes back much further. In truth, if we go back far enough, all our ancestors were pagan – even if not all of them were witches! Pagan Revival attempts to offer an explanation of where these pagan influences crept into our racial subconscious, only to manifest in the 20th-century to such an extent that paganism per se is now the fastest growing belief in the western world.
Traditional Witchcraft and the Path to the Mysteries is the last in the series. Some claim there is nothing new contained within the book, or that there are no great revelations in the text, ignoring the fact that Old Craft learning is about forty percent information and sixty percent intuition; but it’s also about realising when intuition is telling us that we don’t have all the information. There are books claiming to reveal the ‘secrets’ of traditional Craft – but intuition should tell us that if the secrets can be revealed in the reading of just one book, then the author cannot have that much to tell. The real secret is that there are no secrets, only a system of revelation that eventually leads us to a series of enlightening experiences, and the right guides or teachers, to further our progress along the Path to the Mysteries.
Or as one Old Craft witch wrote: “This book, the final book in the series packs an impact, it is as if this book was personally written and directed at myself and my own personal and spiritual journey and my own path to the mysteries. You can tell that the author has navigated the journey personally and the landscape of going deeper and as such is qualified to guide seekers further. It was as if as I read, I was sat with the author and she speaking directly to me and my soul and its journey for the last 15 years. The journey is not for the faint-hearted, there will be twists and turns, stops and starts, fields of flowers and paths of brambles to navigate and ultimately the descent into the underworld as we journey through the landscape of our soul and to the deeper mysteries and if you are felt worthy the door will swing back open for you, if not the path will take you to the state of being where your soul needs to be for that present time.
“The author writes ‘For the traditional witch undergoing initiation into the mystery tradition, it’s a word associated with a solitary life changing (often life threatening) experience. It represents a true test and that cannot be revised for – or cheated at’. I had many moment of putting the book down because I could not believe that the author was so spot on and shaking my head with amazement at the synchronistic points referred in the book, even boxing things away and returning to them when the time is needed or completely ridding oneself external things one acquires along the way and you once thought were important …”
Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival and Traditional Witchcraft and the Path to the Mysteries by Melusine Draco are published by Moon Books. http://www.moon-books.net
Photo: The Guardians of Time is an art project of the Austrian sculptor Manfred Kielnhofer.
Melusine Draco 