Monday, December 24, 2018

(Book Review) Besom, Stang & Sword: A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & the Hidden Landscape


I recently bought a book on Witchcraft and although that is not surprising, it is the first one that I have bought in years.  For a number of reasons but mostly due to digging into local landscapes and enjoying the Craft that develops therefrom.  After seeing lots of praise for the book Besom, Stang & Sword: A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & the Hidden Landscape by Christopher Orapello and Tara-Love Maguire, I decided to pick it up. Especially since it is all about the Craft and the local.

Up front, let’s be honest.  It’s a Witchcraft book.  I have mixed feeling about it thus far.  From each sentence to the next I am swung from heights to depths, from complete agreement to boiling frustration.  Because Witchcraft does that and as said, this is a Witchcraft book.  All and all, it’s a good book and worth the read.  Go buy it HERE.  However, due to the roller coaster ride nature of the start of the book, or at least my read of it, I have decided to journal/review along as I reread the beginning.  However, I'm only going to publicly review chapter 1, for reasons.  I've included page numbers along the way, for ease of referencing.

I like the overall design of the book, the symbol on the front is simple and yet conveys the nature of the work to be unraveled.  Furthermore, the color scheme of black, red, and white is always a good Witchcraft color combination.  I didn’t bother reading the back, since I bought it based on word of mouth and not while sitting on the bookstore shelf to be discovered the first-time.  I only bothered to read Gemma Gary’s praise amongst those listed in the front of the book.  A long time ago I preordered a signed copy of her first book, after following her blog, which may or may not still be around.  It never showed up signed and the cover fell off fairly quickly, but I’m happy with the content.  I skipped the others.

Only a few things really popped at me in the Introduction.  Specifically, I saw a late friend’s name and missed them.  Mostly though, I enjoyed that this book was the result of the authors' own pursuit of their Craft.  As all Witchcraft should be on the personal level.  Coven-wise things tend to be a bit more structured so that many can practice on the same page without reinventing the wheel every time they meet, but on the individual level, we are all constantly exploring.  On to the meat of the book...

Chapter 1: Traditional Witchcraft

Here is where the roller coaster ride begins.  So, sit and maybe scream and throw your arms in the air occasionally. 

“Traditional witchcraft is a wild beast with many parents and even more children.” (5)

110%.  Witchcraft is not a practice for the faint.  It is liminal, feral, and transgressive.  But I’ve said all of these many times. So, all and all, it’s a good start to the book by laying it out on the doorstep before entering the tomb.

Yet, in the same paragraph… what the hell?  I love me some Feri Tradition Witches, but I’m pretty sure their Craft is their own, just like the Craft of the Wica belongs to those of the Wica, and is not commonly, especially by them, folded under the modern umbrella of Traditional Witchcraft.  I would argue that their traditions and history are distinctive from other forms of Witchcraft found here in the West. 

This same minor annoyance is carried over into the next paragraph where the net that is cast in defining Traditional Witchcraft is so wide that it is almost meaningless in understanding what it is.  I love that the authors point out that many of those whom they list herein as being Traditional Witchcraft practitioners would not call themselves such.  In fact, some of them, I believe, would be offended.  This is something that I believe the authors and I agree on and I like that they made the effort in saying such. 

The thing about Witchcraft without specific context is that it can include almost anyone that practices magic depending on how the line is marked in the sand, and by whom. 

Following this wide-reaching opening, we learn that the book is about what the author’s dub Blacktree Witchcraft, and that it is largely derived from the works and craft of Robert Cochrane, but is heavily influenced from a plethora of other practices.  This makes me happy as my own personal craft has had Cochranite tendencies, meaning that I’ve enjoyed the symbol set of lore found within his various letters and the books of those whom descend from his influence.  I would count amongst them: The Clan of Tubal Cain and the 1734 Tradition.  Again, distinct Traditions that have family resemblances in some of their traditions.  If the rest of this book is in said vein, I’m going to have a good read through.

The next short section about looking to the present, immediate surrounding, and local spirits in the formation of their praxis is gold.  Every time that I move across country, which is every 2-4 years, I have to go through such a process and briefly blog on it.  I am thrilled that such appears in a book, because although Contemporary Pagan Witches across the world do so regularly, I can’t recall having seen it spelled out in a book of practice before.  This is where the worth of this book lay, I believe.  If your craft does not already involve these things, get the hell out into to the mud and get dirty in the local landscape.

“This book contains a new approach to witchcraft.” (7) 

Not even a little bit.  Maybe the final painting  is new, but the approach to making it is not new.  It’s is called Natural Theology.  See it even has a name.  Furthermore, the approach of local expression is as old as religious and spiritual practice.  None of the Witchcraft Traditions today, that I am aware of, practice in a bubble devoid of their location.  Look and you will see this is true. 

I, however, largely agree with their definition of Witchcraft.  It’s a horribly difficult thing to define because every definition has exceptions.  It’s like defining the word religion from a Religious Studies standpoint—good luck on that one. 

“It’s about living in the world, for better or worse. It is raw. It is dirty. It is a skillset, a discipline. It is an art. Witchcraft is dwelling in the woods where people rarely go…”  (8)

All of this.  All. Of. It.

Then we stumble upon the Six-Fold Path as they explain it, which is what the whole book is about.  If there were a six spoked crossroad, witches love crossroads and using them symbolically/magically, then the individual paths would be the six aspects that join together into forming the praxis around which this book is formed.  No spoilers from me, if you want to know what they are, go buy the book.

“Magick, diving, working with and growing herbs, having visions, flying out of body, and consorting with ghosts of the dead. Witchcraft is all of these things.” (9) 

Yep. Widely so. 

“It consists of no religion or dogma.” (9)  

Except when it does.  

“It has no need for clergy.”  (9)  

Except when it does.  

“It worships no deities.” (9)  

Except when it does.  

“It celebrates no intrinsically holy days.” (9)   

Except when it does.   

“Witchcraft is a practice that is focused on successful function, [usually] rather than being beholden to the aesthetics, symbols, and affectations of 19th-century occultism.” (9)  

You know, except when it does.

“Witchcraft is secular…” (10).   

No.  As a practice that engages with the spiritual world, however one defines that, the practice is one that is religious in nature.  This is called orthopraxis in the Religious Studies world and simply means that if, religiously, one does the spiritual practice thereof then they are themselves thereof.  It’s kind of like the Forest Gump quote, “Stupid is as stupid does.”  Well, witchcraft is as witchcraft does.  As such, witchcraft as a practice cannot be secular.  It is religious by the sheer nature of the practice of the Craft.  Everything I’ve seen in this book thus far is the opposite of secular.  It is religious.

The whole following section on the Devil and the Craft is interesting.  Largely though, I am interested to see how they took the lore found in the Witch trails, and other medieval folk lore, and applied it to their Tradition.  None of it is new information, just a repeat of things found in other books on Traditional Witchcraft.

I’m happy to see the section on animism, which is a lovely religious worldview, in my own opinion, especially when combined with forms of polytheism.  Because this is all right up my own alley in how my craft is practiced.  Often, I am steeped in animism, sometimes though, like all multidimension beings, say humans, I am steeped in other religious world views.  As a Witch, I see no contradiction here.  Orthopraxy, not orthodoxy.

“All witches who ever were became so through their own doing—by deciding to practice witchcraft.” (14)

This is a powerful sentence, actively choosing to practice the Craft is powerful.  It is a good point to emphasis.  However, it should be noted that of those Traditions that are in fact group oriented, it is the group, not the individual, that defines membership to the whole.  There are many types of witches though, witches all, and so I agree with the authors here that practicing Witchcraft is first and foremost a step taken by the individual and that the rest is left up to where their path leads them.

In this same section the book, the book has it's first practice, a short rite to introduce the individual aspiring Witch to the Witch Lord.  

“This ritual actually consists of four parts—stepping onto the path, creating a crossroads, hailing the Witch Lord, and creating the Cord of Sovereignty.” (17)   

I haven’t read the ritual yet but the form of it is familiar.  It was either Gemma Gary or Jackdaw (are they still around?) that wrote a dedication rite to the Horned Androgyny, the male & female Witch deity of their approach to Cornish Witchcraft practice, whereby one braids together their Cord as part of the rite.

So, it looks like a red cord, kinda like the white and red threads that Peter Paddon talked about as adapted from Robin Artisson’s red and silver threads.  However, the red thread alone is an old concept found within British Traditional Wicca as well as a symbol of shared tradition.  I, however, like Peter’s version of dying the white to red at a certain time in practice. Anyway, just because lore appears elsewhere does not mean it cannot make a good part of one’s own practice. 

Before I regress back to the cord, because that is the part of the rite that I’m finding the most fascinating at the moment, I’m just going to say that the crossroads creation method is fun and I wish that the “Hailing the Witch Lord” invocation included names.  Titles are great and all but I like names.  I can see no reason one can’t adapt such though.  This is just a note on personal preference.

Back to the cord.  

“It is made by tying knots along the cord, from foot to head.” (21)   

It’s kind of like the ole Witches’ Ladder or that one spell that uses nine knots.  But also, it is kind of like the sacred measure.  Oh look, they even say that.  Nice.

“the Wiccan Measure…” (22)

I really don’t like things being called “Wiccan.”  Pet peeve.  The measure of the Wica, whom are of the Wica, not Wiccan…    

“…is a physical object (generally a rope used to measure candidates during their actual initiation) kept by the High Priest/ess of the coven that creates a spiritual link between initiates and their coven mates.” (22)

As an initiate of the Wica, I would not describe it thus.  Though with some practices of some of those of the Wica, I would completely say this fits their practice.  The Craft is like that, varied in expression.  Regardless, the measure is taken and sometimes it is a link, sometimes it a cable-tow, sometimes a host of other things, sometimes it is kept, and sometimes it is returned.  Wide strokes of the brush are not really appropriate when talking about a group of different Traditions, or even one Tradition for that matter, because of coven sovereignty.  In fact, the Blacktree method of returning the cord, is one of the non-oathbound hallmarks of Alexandrians. 

I am super happy that their rite ends with the leaving of offerings.  Offerings are under stressed in large parts of Contemporary Pagan practice.  I am glad to see that this is something we agree on. 

The suggested reading list is a good one.  I have read them all, except for the Grimm’s Fairy Tales Book, I have a different compilation.  Go read them too.  

There we have chapter 1, in review.  I really don't expect everyone to agree with every aspect of my assessment, at all, but hopefully my review has given folks an idea of what to expect. 

Boidh Se,

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”