Special Edition Series #4 - Tea with Maxine - Historical Accuracy

Special Edition Series #3 - Tea with Maxine - On Initiation

Special Edition #2 Series - Tea with Maxine - Further Clarification on D...

Special Edition Series - Tea with Maxine

All Hallow's Eve Greetings

Laurie Cabot's Book of Shadows

For the first time anywhere, the history, lore, rituals, and majick of the Cabot Tradition of Witchcraft, taught by founder Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts, is collected and presented in a single book.

Laurie Cabot’s Book of Shadows includes the materials of her three-part class series on the Science, Art, and Religion of Witchcraft, as well as guidance for High Priestesses and High Priests of the Craft working on their own or in groups.

The Book of Shadows includes Laurie’s own recipes for incenses, potions, charms, and spells used and taught by Cabot Witches for decades—a treasure-trove of lore at your fingertips! A must for any practitioner of the Craft of the Witch.

MSRP – $29.99 (softcover), $49.99 (hardcover)

Copper Cauldron Publishing

Crossing the Veil

Crossing the Veil

Traditional Witchcraft: A Cornish Book of Ways (CD Audio-book)

 Traditional witchcraft: A Cornish Book of Ways (CD Audio-book)

Book by Gemma Gary. Read by Tracey Norman

Traditional Witchcraft - A Cornish Book of Ways is a 21st century version of traditional Cornish witchcraft, of the kind recorded by Hunt, Bottrell and others. This is no neo-pagan or modern wiccan manual, but rather a deep drawing up into modern times of some of the ancient practices of lore and magic practiced by the white witches, charmers, conjurers and pellars of the Cornish villages. Their presence was still current when the 18th and 19th century antiquarians and collectors recorded them, and, although the 20th century largely put paid to their activities, nevertheless their lore never completely disappeared, and it continues to provide inspiration for practitioners today. Gemma draws on this knowledge, not only from published material, but also from the experiences and workings of ‘wise women’ and country witches living today.

"... this book is very highly recommended. It is essential reading for anyone interested in modern traditional witchcraft as it is practiced in south-west England today or indeed elsewhere in Britain" - Michael Howard, The Cauldron

Running time approx. 4 1/2 hours.  4 CDs

Museum of Witchcraft Diary: Temporary Exhibition

Museum of Witchcraft Diary: A closer look at our temporary exhibition part fou...: Welcome to the penultimate part of our online tour of our current temporary exhibition.  The exhibition title is Witches and Witchlore: the...

Brigid History, Mystery, and Magick of the Celtic Goddess Courtney Weber

"Lady of the Well, the Forge, and the Green Earth, I seek you." --Brigid, I Seek You

 Brigid—mother, daughter, healer, bard, warrior, fire goddess, goddess of the oak, animals, and magic. Brigid of the spring, her festival Imbolc, oversees fertility of all kinds. Brigid is many things to many people. In this enticing book, Courtney Weber offers up a wide-ranging exposition and celebration of all things Brigid, who is arguably the most popular figure in Celtic mythology and religion. Meet Brigid in her various incarnations—Celtic Pagan Goddess, Christian Saint, and Voudon Loa.

 Each chapter ends with guided meditations and exercises that help readers tap into Brigid’s healing powers. Inside you’ll find Brigid-focused spells, blessings, recipes, and rituals for love, harmony, protection, and much more.

“Brigid’s origin myths bring no peace to the logical mind. She appears as an important daughter of a God in one myth, but the mother of that God in a different telling, while vanishing completely in a third version. Which version is the right version? Does any myth from any source even have a ‘right’ telling? The various versions tell us about the storyteller. Brigid’s myths had many tellers and, therefore, many versions. Stories varied widely, circulated through oral tradition in local vernacular. As Christian monks later recorded the myths, characters were often augmented to fit Christian ideals.” —from the book

Courtney Weber is a Priestess, writer, Tarot advisor, activist and practicing Witch in New York City. Her writing has appeared in several publications and she blogs at www.thecocowitch.com and on Witchesandpagans.com (“Behind the Broom: What the Books Don’t Tell You”). She is the designer and producer of Tarot of the Boroughs, a photographic Tarot deck set in New York City. Courtney lecturers regularly around the United States and travels to Ireland frequently, leading tours of the sacred sites.

ISBN: 9781578635672

Book (Paperback)

Weiser Books

$18.95

256 pages

The Devil's Dozen - Thirteen Rites of the Old One - On the Blackchair

Published on Jun 12, 2015

The operations of magic and
witchcraft deal with the hidden worlds of spirit and the powers innate within
the natural world; within plant, stone and magical loci. The ‘Old One’, who in
folk tradition is often named ‘The Devil’ embodies both the ‘rend in the veil’
and the spanning bridge between the worlds of the material and spiritual, the
revealed and the hidden. It is through union with this entity that witches and
folk magicians gained access to the powers that reside within the hidden realms
and the natural world, and could awaken the potent fire within.

In traditional folk belief, the Devil existed also as an embodiment of the
chaotic forces of nature; a belief quite distinct and separate from that of the
Church with its ‘Satan’ figure. To the witch, he might also represent the
‘darker’ aspects of the divine; the keeper and the revealer of the divine
light, the psychopomp guide of souls, and the sentinel at the threshold unto
the mysteries of death and the Otherworld.

Something, it would seem, of the ‘elder divinity’ and the old ‘spirit of the
wild’ has lingered through to the present; permeating regional faery lore, the
calendar of ritualistic seasonal folk-customs, and traditions attached to
ancient landscape features. The themes of untamed, wild nature; its freedom,
its spirits, its power and its magic, so repugnant and threatening to the
Church, were grafted onto the diabolical; affording yet greater preservation of
the Old One for those who sought to stray from the path of limitation and
conformity, and tread instead the hidden ways of the witch and magician.

Historical witch-lore records varied rites of initiatory contact, via which the
worker of magic and witchcraft entered into a close, working relationship and
union with the Old One and the spirit world. Via such union, would the ways
unto curing ailments, exorcising ill influence, the attainment of desires, and
the destruction of the oppressive be known, and the old artes of the circle,
the spirits, the knotted cord, the pierced candle, the witch-bottle, the
magical image and the spoken, inscribed and herbal charms be mastered.

From this wellspring of inspiration ‘The Devil’s Dozen’; a modern ‘gramarye’,
or ‘black book’ of thirteen Craft rites of the Old One has been created and is
offered by a present day initiate of the ‘Old Craft’

Within its pages there are to be found thirteen rites – for both the ‘lone’
practitioner and the assembled companie – of vision, sacred compact,
dedication, initiation, consecration, empowerment, protection, illumination,
union, transformation and devotion.

‘They are my own creations all; given in hope that they may provide usefulness
or inspiration, and each a personal offering of devotion unto the starlit and
smoking altar of the Old One’ (from the introduction).

Original idea and Concept by Karagan Griffith (c)2013

"On the Blackchair" Opening and Closing theme music: "Holiday
Road" by Alex Collier and Joshua Lee Somak (http://goo.gl/f2qCpr),
Executive Producer: Karagan Griffith

RedBird/Logios Publishing (c)2013 All Rights Reserved

AMETH: The Life & Times of Doreen Valiente with Jonathan Tapsell

“Within Doreen’s teachings, one feels she is conveying a message to all, of a gateway to the Goddess and personal enlightenment” – Jonathan Tapsell

The Witch's Mirror - with Levannah Morgan

Levannah has been working as a witch for over thirty years and for most of that time has lived in Devon, in the south west of England with a wealth of magical traditions which are still observed in some of the more rural areas, it has shaped her witchcraft over the years and made it what it is. Magic is something that should be lived.

Much of the magic in this book is about apparently simple things, it is the author’ belief that these things, experienced with all the senses, and done with intent, can be deep forms of magic and have the most profound effect, and be just as powerful as complex rituals, if not more so.

Levannah was fortunate to have two wonderful magical teachers: Hereward Wake, had a lifetime’s experience of both witchcraft and ritual magic which he shared generously teaching how to worship the gods in ritual and how to voyage into the spirit world; how to look and to listen and to work with the hidden senses; when to act and when to be still and do nothing. The other, Cecil Williamson, who founded the Museum of Witchcraft, spent his life learning the ways of the traditional witch. He taught about the old witchcraft that was used in Devon: spells, charms and a myriad of ways of interacting with the spirit world.

A WITCHE'S MIRROR - THE ART OF MAKING MAGIC

The aim is for this book to be used rather like a recipe book to create your own magic and that it will help you to develop your own ways of working. It contains simple but profound magical techniques and plenty of practical projects for you to take and let the spirits guide you to make your own magic. You do not need any specialist art or craft skills, just enthusiasm, dedication, and a desire to work magic. A visiting witch once commented jokingly that a meeting of Levannah’s coven resembled an alternative Women’s Institute meeting, and she has always rather cherished that description. This book aims to pass on this experiential approach to witchcraft. All the craft and making activities described in this book are reasonably safe and they have been tried and tested, they are intended for adults.

Please do try this at home!

Original idea and Concept by Karagan Griffith (c)2013

"On the Blackchair" Opening and Closing theme

music: "Holiday Road" by Alex Collier and Joshua Lee Somak

(http://goo.gl/f2qCpr), Executive Producer: Karagan Griffith

RedBird/Logios Publishing (c) 2013 All Rights Reserved

Museum of Witchcraft Diary: Window display for Summer Solstice

  Museum of Witchcraft Diary: Window display for Summer Solstice: The Museum has always displayed information about the Wheel of the Year in the window.  This year, we have moved it from the shop window to...

Faun - Walpurgisnacht (Director's Cut)

The Witches' Chant

Darksome night and shining Moon,

Hell’s dark mistress Heaven’s Queen

Harken to the Witches’ rune,

Diana, Lilith, Melusine!

Queen of witchdom and of night,

Work my will by magic rite.

Earth and water, air and fire,

Conjured by the witch’s blade,

Move you unto my desire,

Aid ye as the charm is made!

Queen of witchdom and of night,

Work my will by magic rite.

In the earth and air and sea,

By the light of moon or sun,

As I pray, so mote it be.

Chant the spell, and be it done!

Queen of witchdom and of night,

Work my will by magic rite.

© Copyright Doreen Valiente Foundation

Cochrane Inspired Rite

Click: Roebuck in the Thicket for the full ritual courtesy of Patheos.

A Cornish Book of Ways - an interview with Gemma Gary

Traditional Witchcraft - A Cornish Book of Ways is a 21st century version of traditional Cornish witchcraft, of the kind recorded by Hunt, Bottrell and others. This is no neo-pagan or modern wiccan manual, but rather a deep drawing up into modern times of some of the ancient practices of lore and magic practiced by the white witches, charmers, conjurers and pellars of the Cornish villages. Their presence was still current when the 18th and 19th century antiquarians and collectors recorded them, and, although the 20th century largely put paid to their activities, nevertheless their lore never completely disappeared, and it continues to provide inspiration for

practitioners today. Gemma draws on this knowledge, not only from published

material, but also from the experiences and workings of ‘wise women’ and

country witches living today.

Topics include the Cunning Path, the Dead and the Underworld (Fairy Faith), the Bucca, Places of Power in the villages and landscape, the Tools used by Cunning Folk

(working versions of what can be seen, for example, in the Museum of

Witchcraft), Village cunning, substances and charms, and Rites of the Year’s

Round. This book gathers much material together, some of which has not been

seen in print before, and thus provides a sourcebook of magical workings in

Cornwall today, which will be an invaluable reference.

Cheryl Straffon - Meyn Mamvro

Original idea and Concept by Karagan Griffith (c)2013

"On the Blackchair" Opening and Closing theme music: "Holiday Road"

by Alex Collier and Joshua Lee Somak (http://goo.gl/f2qCpr),

Executive Producer: Karagan Griffith

RedBird/Logios

Publishing (c)2013 All Rights Reserved

A Very British Witchcraft

Documentary on Gerald Gardner & Wicca

The extraordinary story of Britain's fastest-growing religious group - the modern pagan witchcraft of Wicca - and of its creator, an eccentric Englishman called Gerald Gardner.

Historian and leading expert in Pagan studies Professor Ronald Hutton explores Gardner's story and experiences first-hand Wicca's growing influence throughout Britain today.

Born of a nudist colony in 1930s Dorset, Wicca rapidly grew from a small New Forest coven to a worldwide religion in the space of just 70 years.

It's a journey that takes in tales of naked witches casting spells to ward off Hitler, tabloid hysteria about human sacrifices and Gerald Gardner himself appearing on Panorama.

Museum Renovation

.Work has gone well this past week at the Witchcraft Museum, with everyone joining in to help with the cleaning, sanding and painting in the shop and so...

http://museumofwitchcraft.blogspot.com/

Aradia

Aradia, referred to as the Gospel of the Witches, a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland published in 1899, contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy.  Disputed by various folklorists and historians that such a group existed; it remains influential in the development of the contemporary Wica movement beginning in the 20th century. 

A Discovery of the Impostures of Witches and Astrologers

  First published in 1680, A Discovery of the Impostures of Witches and Astrologers by John Brinley is an important example and contemporary account of the establishment’s ideas, beliefs and debate surrounding the practices of witchcraft, magic and divination that lay behind the approved persecution of witches and other practitioners.

Revealed is an acceptance of the existence of witches, the reality of the Devil and the position of magic as deeply integral to everyday life, alongside a denial of the powers possessed by witches and the abilities claimed by magical practitioners such as the Cunning Folk. Belief in them is asserted to be the product of superstition, and the efficacy of their operations is attributed to the delusions and trickery of the Devil or the deceptions of the charlatan.

With kind permission of the Museum of Witchcraft, this edition, presented by Troy Books, is transcribed from an original copy held in the Museum’s research archive. As closely as possible, the appearance and feel of the original text is carefully reproduced, alongside photo-plates of selected original pages for reference.

The present edition is issued with foreword by writer, researcher and assistant curator at the Museum of Witchcraft; Joyce Froome.

Troy Books

Visualization: Traditional Witchcraft Series by Peter Paddon

  Visualization is a skill that is used in many forms of spell-crafting, as well as other esoteric practices, and many people find it difficult to learn how to visualize effectively. In this book, Peter shares exercises and tips that will help those who are seeking to improve their visualization skills, even if they believe they have little or no ability to start off. Less

The Traditional Witchcraft series is a collection of small books on practical subjects of interest to Traditional Witches and other practitioners of Magick. Written by Peter Paddon, Magister of the Y Ffordd Wen Tradition of Witchcraft, they aim to provide solitary practitioners with simple exercises and techniques to help them develop skills and abilities needed in the practice of their Craft.

Visualization is a skill that is used in many forms of spell-crafting, as well as other esoteric practices, and many people find it difficult to learn how to visualize effectively. In this book, Peter shares exercises and tips that will help those who are seeking to improve their visualization skills, even if they believe they have little or no ability to start off.

About the Author:

Peter Paddon, a Brit of Welsh extraction, whose passing in October 2014 stunned the community, lived in Los Angeles, where he taught Traditional Witchcraft both in person and using streaming online video to hold workshops worldwide.  The author of several books on the subject (A Grimoire for Modern Cunningfolk, Visceral Magick, and Enchantment), as well as the CreateSpace DVD series on practical spellcrafting. He also hosted the popular Crooked Path podcast.

Having many years of experience in various forms of Occult Studies, including Alexandrian Wicca, the Egyptian Mysteries, Rosicrucianism and Enochian magick, Peter finally found what he had been looking for all his life in the two Traditional Covens he became a member of in the US. The first was the Roebuck (1734, Clan of Tubal Cain), under Ann and Dave Finnin, and the second was Wildewood Grove (Welsh Celtic Tradition), under its Mistress, Raven Womack.

Letters from the Devil's Forest - On the Blackchair with Robin Artisson: Episode Two

The latest book by Robin Artisson.

Robin Artisson has been studying folklore, mythology, sorcery and traditional witchcraft including spiritual ecology, occult history, herbalism and wort-cunning.

Robin lives in the countryside of Downeast Maine.


Interviewer Karagan Griffith: Occultist, Alexandrian High Priest, Host of the Witchtalk and On the Blackchair Show.


Note: For those of you unfamiliar with ON THE BLACKCHAIR, the intro lasts a couple of minutes with dialogue and music running simultaneously then proceeds with dialogue only. 

Letters from the Devil's Forest - On the BLACKCHAIR with Robin Artisson...

From the maker of "Witchtalk" Karagan Griffith comes another fascinating interview from "ON THE BLACKCHAIR - CONVERSATIONS ON THE OCCULT".  


Robin Artisson has been studying folklore, mythology, sorcery and traditional witchcraft including spiritual ecology, occult history, herbalism and wort-cunning.

Robin lives in the countryside of Downeast Maine.


Interviewer Karagan Griffith: Occultist, Alexandrian High Priest, Host of the Witchtalk and On the Blackchair Show.


Note: For those of you unfamiliar with ON THE BLACKCHAIR, the intro lasts a couple of minutes with dialogue and music running simultaneously then proceeds with dialogue only. 

New Year Poem

To leave the old with a burst of song;

 To recall the right and forgive the wrong;

 To forget the things that bind you fast

 To the vain regrets of the year that's past;

 To have the strength to let go your hold

 Of the not worthwhile of the days grown old;

 To dare go forth with a purpose true,

 To the unknown task of the year that's new;

 To help your brother along the road,

 To do his work and lift his load;

 To add your gift to the world's good cheer,

 Is to have and to give a Happy New Year.

- Author Unknown