By Chris Holly - With this article, I am going to share with you an interesting interview I had with a real Male Witch. It took me some time to locate an actual practicing male witch but I was able to connect with this man via contacts with people who are not part of the paranormal community but are connected with those who do practice witchcraft.
I found this man to be very polite and easy to deal with. He was good enough to share with me what his life is like living as a Traditional Male Witch.
Once our conversation was over we both decided his interview would best be presented in a question and answer form.
Below you will find my question and answer interview with this traditional male witch.
What kind of Witch are you?
I am not a neopagan new age self-studied witch. I also am not a follower of a religion called Wicca invented by Gerald Garner around 1950. I am not a Satanist or devil worshiper.
I am an initiated follower of an ancient wisdom tradition. A tradition handed down through generations from person to person. A tradition translated into different languages and cultures over the millennia. A tradition known in English as Traditional Wicca.
Do you belong to a coven of witches?
There are two types of traditional witches covens. There are training covens, where people regularly meet with a holder of the tradition, where that ancient tradition is once again handed down to another generation (possibly to a different language or culture). There are also “working” covens, where witches who have completed their training agree to meet regularly for a set period of time for some specific purpose.
I was trained for 10 years in a traditional training coven. Since my training with that coven was completed, I now practice on my own, not belonging to any working coven.
Witchcraft is often associated with the term "Wicca". What is Wicca?
It is a modern English term, coined by Gerald Gardner around 1950.
The term is used in two ways: neopagan Wicca, and traditional Wicca.
Neo-pagan as the name infers is new paganism typically made up and invented by the leader of each group. This was the case with Gerald Gardner and is done by solitary witches. They do this without following the set traditions that are handed down from generation to generation. Followers of this type of Wicca often call themselves witches and being without a definite tradition, believe in and practice a random variety of different pagan ideas.
Traditional Wicca is a modern English term for a specific set of beliefs and practices that are handed down from generation to generation.
The modern term of Traditional Wicca refers to an ancient initiated, body of teachings and practices that have been handed down through the generations person to person for centuries.
These practices and beliefs constitute something similar to what is known in India as Hindu or Buddhist tantra, and could be described as "the tantra of the West." Contrary to public misconception, tantra does not refer to sexual practices. The meanings of the word tantra aptly describe Traditional Wicca.
Literally the word means a loom, specifically, the warp or weaving. It also means the leading principal essential part, main point, or characteristic feature of anything. It is a model, prototype, system, framework, doctrine, rule, or theory. Also: a chapter or part thereof, or a class of works teaching magical and mystical formulae.
Is there some organization behind Wicca?
There are some Wicca organizations, such as The Wiccan Church of Canada. Traditional witches normally have nothing to do with any organizations beyond their own coven of 13 or so members. The idea of some organizing body beyond that is foreign and incompatible with the basic tenets of traditional Wicca.
What does a traditional witch do?
Traditional Witches practice prayers, meditations, rituals, and spells. We practice the prayers and spells that are selected, designed or altered by accomplished witches before us that are appropriate to our time and culture.
We learn prayers to watch and develop how we use our minds. We practice meditations, spells, and rituals to explore what it is that we are really doing, and what it is that we really are. We do all of these things, so we can help others and ourselves when the need arises.
What's the purpose of the witch practicing witchcraft?
We are all of One Universal Consciousness. Finding that and identifying with that is our most intimate experience. There are powerful immediate effects that come from recognizing this. Because we can experience firsthand that we are not separate from anything we can be aware by an instinct of self-preservation. It becomes impossible for us to want to harm another. We would be harming ourselves!
At the same time any pain or suffering, we become aware of we experience as our own. Out of the instinct of self-preservation, it is impossible not to want to help heal that pain or suffering. A drive to help others is inherent in the core experience of Existence itself. Abhorrence for any kind of harm or deprivation is our way of life. These are the effects of learning to be a witch in the traditional sense.
We believe it is the union of the God and Goddess that creates the entire universe. Traditional witches place great value in a balance between the two of them and in the equality between the sexes. One can no more have one without the other than one can have a day without night, here without there, or up without down.
Our daily practice is to learn to recognize these truths within us and around us in every moment and everything we do. We have prayers, meditations, rituals, and spells for our own languages, cultures and time that we use as constant celebrations of those truths.
We use prayers, meditations, rituals, and spells to try to reduce the harm we see around us. We use those things to try to help those who are suffering because we can feel the suffering happening to ourselves, as we are all of one Consciousness.
What's an example of a ritual in the daily life of a Traditional Witch?
First thing in the morning, we pay homage (pay attention to)
1. The Gods of Creation
2. The Gods of Destruction (as in renewal, which is the secret of "healing"), and
3. The Gods of Preservation.
We go to a sink, use a special cup acquired for this purpose and this purpose alone, fill it with water and then pour that water in libation, once for each of the above three.
In doing so, we start each day aware of the on-going living dream that we are immersed in. This is a very simple and ancient ritual shared by many cultures through many ages.
What are Witches Sabbaths?
They are eight festivals each year: four festivals of fire (including Halloween), and four festivals of the Sun (solstice and equinox). In the year, defined as one complete revolution around the sun, we see nature go through an entire cycle, and then repeat. This cycle is for us a huge Reminder and Celebration of our own cycles of Awareness.
This cycle is the cycle of birth, death, and re-birth, as traditional witches firmly believe in reincarnation.
While the Sabbaths are sacred to the Horned God, being celebrations of Awareness the Full Moons are sacred to the Great Mother Goddess being celebrations of Life.
What do witches believe about sin and the devil?
We have no concept of sin. We also do not believe in any absurd concepts such as the devil, nor of hell. These are all relatively new and manipulative concepts of the Sons of Abraham, which are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Instead of the idea of sin, we have a more ancient idea, something very similar to the Indian concept of Karma: we believe that what you do comes back to you (because it's all You in the ultimate sense anyway).
Instead of the idea of the devil we have the idea of ignorance and ill intent, which are everywhere we look, but certainly not as an organized force or single mythical entity like a devil.
Instead of hell we have the idea of self-created bad dreams that we experience right here, right now, depending on what we are dreaming. We deliberately go to hell by immersing ourselves in a hospital of needy people, or by visiting a battlefield. We can make our own lives into a living hell by making poor choices of behavior. It is certainly not everlasting though as by simply shifting our attention we can focus on the fact that it is only a dream and not take it seriously or we can dream something better by simply seeing things differently. By changing our habits and behavior we can decide not to visit that hell again or deliberately return to help others out of it.
Traditional witches cannot knowingly practice evil black magic or black witchcraft because everything one does comes right back at them. Traditional witches believe that any form of imposing one’s own will or opinion on another is a form of black magic. For this reason, traditional witches learn to never argue religion, politics or philosophy with others. They never try to recruit or convince others of their beliefs. For these reasons, when political forces seek to impose their will or beliefs on others, to persecute and eradicate the beliefs of others traditional witches end up hiding instead of openly arguing or fighting. Instead, they work quietly in their meditations, prayers and in their magic circle arranging opportunities for people to see the evil in their actions even if it takes centuries for them to accept these opportunities.
What does Halloween mean to you?
Of the 8 Sabbaths that traditional witches celebrate each year this one, in particular, is called the Grand Sabbath. It is the most important of all to a traditional witch.
Mythological- this is the day that our goddess descended into the underworld seeking the Great Mystery. It is a day when witches do the same. At this time, the veil between the worlds reaches its thinnest point in the fluctuations of the year. It is a time when we can contact the dead, and for the dead to contact us. It is also a time when the veil between the worlds being so thin allows us to be aware of all kinds of nonhuman living entities and them aware of us.
These entities might include any from the whole spectrum of life including spirits, angels, gods, ghosts, etc. Our Grand Sabbath is held at this particular time because it is a time when our Awareness of so many things occult can be so easily opened.
What is a Witches Familiar?
Part of our training is to experience the dream-like nature of reality and the relationship of imagination to it. To do this we are taught how to move, live and work outside of our bodies for brief periods of time. Think of the way you develop a close bond with a husband or wife. At times, you sometimes feel like you can see through their eyes, or tell what they're thinking. A traditional witch can learn to deliberately build such a relationship with a loved pet such as a cat, dog, raven, or owl.
There are techniques for you to actually move out of your body and share the body of your pet. You are able to see through its eyes, walk or fly with its legs or wings. The purpose for being taught this is to see for yourself firsthand that you really do share the same Consciousness that all other beings do. You see for yourself that you are one with every creature in the most absolutely concrete sense. You realize that your own human body is just a witch familiar: it is an animal that you share consciousness with.
You walk with its legs, talk with its mouth, but you are not human. So you get a firsthand experience that you are and always have been something far beyond human.
That completed my time interviewing this man. I did not have any knowledge about this subject and realize after interviewing this male witch that I still do not clearly understand this area of thinking and living but do fully grasp the fact that what I thought I knew was completely wrong. I also know this is not an area to take lightly and one that to become involved with unless you study and educate yourself fully about it.
I appreciate the time this man shared with me and hope his words gave you a better view of what is means to be a Traditional Male Witch
Witches site below
http://dreaminghades.com/
♥ Copyright © 2008-2016 Chris Holly - All Rights Reserved
Chris Holly’s Endless Journey with the Unknown
Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner
Grimoire for the Green Witch: A Complete Book of Shadows
- I highly recommend. LonWicca Elemental Magic: A Guide to the Elements, Witchcraft, and Magic Spells
Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation
