Sometimes I write more than fiction. Sometimes I get provoked by the sense of knowing and my words run away from me with a supposed epiphany... I wrote this some time back in 2018 when the coven had picked up again and we were trying to figure out the direction we were going. I totally forgot that I had written it until I came across it this morning and felt the need to share. A lot has been weighing on my mind lately in regards to my practice, my faith, and my spirituality.
I started off as calling myself witch and then Wiccan for lack of a better term (it was all I knew at the time and most of the information found on the internet by 14 year old me revolved around Wicca) and all of that slowly evolved into classifying myself as a Green Witch, a Pagan, and then eclectic Pagan…well, you get the drift. I think it happens to us solitaries a lot: we start off as one thing and as we grow and learn more about our craft and the mythologies surrounding it as well as the pagan paths that often converge with it, we change what we call ourselves. Even when I strayed away from using the term “Wiccan” in my practice, and because it was based on what I taught myself, I was still technically a Wiccan. Most of the traditions that fall under the umbrella of witchcraft and Paganism are inherently Wiccan at this point. Even if they don’t want to be referred to as that (“Oh, I’m not Wiccan, I follow a traditional Celtic witchcraft tradition.”) they still kind of are with a few exceptions (Heathenry, Stregheria, Brujeria, Pagan Reconstructionism, etc.) But even a few of those are more folk witchcraft (centering around the common people of a certain locale or culture) or, in the case of Heathenry and Reconstructionism, they are based on historical references and documentation of ancient Pagan cultures. I hear people claim that Wicca is “traditional witchcraft” as if Wicca has been around for hundreds of years, but as we know it, it hasn’t. Sure there are things in the practice of Wicca that may have basis in ancient traditions, but most people don’t realize that like most major “religions”, Wicca is Syncretic. This means that Wicca is a blend of many things and isn’t “Traditional” in most senses of the word. Its founder, Gerald Gardner, wanted to revive the “Olde Ways” of the craft and Paganism and blended ceremonial magick with fertility cult practices to form a nature religion with the flavor of olde world paganism. He blended many things to create something new, as do a LOT of modern religions. The problem with trying to get back to our roots as Pagans is that there isn’t a lot that we actually know about those practices or people. Sure we have archeologic findings and documentation from Christian monks about our ancient peoples, but a lot of what we know is speculation and theory or written by another religion that is probably partially from their perspective. Pagans don’t have a “Good Book” and didn’t write things down like modern religions do because most of them were probably illiterate or had their own form of language that is long dead and gone. But I’m getting carried away and straying from my point to this. Let’s back up a bit. I see a lot of arguing in the Pagan community about “This isn’t how it was.” from Reconstructionists or “This IS traditional and comes straight from my ancestors.” when in reality we are piecing a lot of things together information wise to form our new religions. Even if you are trying to make it just like our ancestors did, it won’t ever be the same. I wanted to start my own tradition, something that revolved around the Fae and what we know of them, incorporating the olde Gods of Ireland that wasn’t “Wiccan” based, but even after I wrote the outline to it and thought “This seems very not-Wiccan”…it was still pretty damn Wiccan. The way I casted the circle, the way I called the quarters, a lot of the terminology was Wiccan based, because that is what a lot of us know about witchcraft and magick. Our ancestors almost most certainly didn’t do things that way and I started to realize that even in my want to not be Wiccan anymore , I was still holding on to that religion. So, I started doing more research, reaching deeper and learning more about all magickal practices (as I had been doing for years) and realizing that Wicca wasn’t even really what a lot of its practitioners thought it was. Just like I stated earlier that Gardner drew a lot of his knowledge from ceremonial Magick and Aleister Crowley, a lot of what was blended with Wicca is just that. It’s all about ceremony and structure and following these set guidelines and rules. Even when it evolved and other traditions like Alexandrian, Feri, Dianic, etc. stemmed from it, the practices at their core were still very much like Gardner wrote. I was reading the Witches Rune the other day (thinking this was less Wiccan than the Wiccan Rede) but it wasn’t and as I really looked at the real version I saw things that stuck out to me as very NOT “nature religion”. This caused me to have an existential Pagan crisis that was a long time coming and bubbling just under the surface. Let me give the example that caused this total Ah Ha! moment that I am trying to get to. Darksome Night and shining Moon, East then South, then West then North, Harken to the Witches Rune, Here I come to call thee forth. Queen of Heaven, Queen of Hell, With Horned Hunter of the night, Lend your Power unto my Spell, Work my Will by Magick Rite. By all the Power of Land and Sea, By all the might of Moon and Sun, As I do Will so mote it be, Chant the Spell and it be done: (Chant the following thrice) Ecko, Ecko Azerak, Ecko, Ecko Zomelak, Ecko, Ecko Cernunnos, Ecko, Ecko Aradia. The ending in its entirety is actually: Eko! Eko! Azarak, Eko! Eko! Zomelak, Zod-ru-kod e Zod-ru-koo Zod-ru-koz e Goo-ru-mu Eo! Eo! Oo…Oo…Oo! Now, there are some traditions that leave out the Eko! Eko! Part, but a lot of Celtic based Wiccan traditions (which is where I’ve seen this most) use this as a way to raise energy during ritual. Apparently Gardner passed this on to Doreen Valiente who then passed it on to Janet and Stuart Farrar, but there doesn’t seem to be an actual source where it originally came from save for an article published in a 1921 edition of the journal Form by J. F. C. Fuller, on "The Black Arts", reprinted in The Occult Review in April 1926. But I got confused…I know who Cernunnos and Aradia are, but who the hell are Azerak and Zomelak? There are many versions of the Eko! Eko! Chant that use various known Gods like Isis and Osiris in place of Cernunnos and Aradia, but upon further research, I couldn’t find any deities named Azarak or Zomelak (and there are various other versions where these names have different spellings, but are still very similar.) Out of curiosity I did some more research and found several articles claiming that these names were possibly Arabic in origin and were related in context to something that was most likely used in High or Ceremonial magick and were possible names of Arabic or Middle Eastern deities or entities. This is a prime example of syncretism in Wicca, but do people know who they are calling upon when they use this chant to raise energy? I asked a friend about the names and she told me that they were deities of old, or part of the “Ancient and Shining Ones”, but there is no information about them anywhere save for this specific chant. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am not going to call upon some entity that I don’t know anything about and I don’t know what/who will come if I call them. But I have seen it in traditions where this rhetoric is taught and there is a heavy emphasis on book learning from Wiccan authors, memorization, and going through the structured motion of rituals. That is all well and good, but for me it leaves something lacking. And here we finally come to my point of this whole article/post/rant… I think we as witches, we as practitioners of magik, we as Pagans tethered to nature have forgotten about what all of this really means. Let’s throw witchcraft out the window for a moment. Witchcraft will always evolve and is different all over depending on your location, culture, and the evolution of information and the addendum and blending of crystals, chakras, karma, etc. into the common practice of the witch as of late. Instead, let’s get down to the roots of being a Pagan. Being a Pagan could definitely mean different things to different people and we are as varied and vast as the sands in the ocean and the stars in the sky. I have encountered many a Pagan at this point in my life. I’ve come across those that are hardcore traditionalists, strict Wiccans, and many an eclectic and I find that those who are eclectic are the ones I connect to. Why? Because usually the eclectics use their gut, their intuition, their sixth sense when it comes to their practice more than they rely on what a High Priest/Priestess has taught them. Not that being taught by someone who knows their stuff is bad, but sometimes our minds and instincts are the best teachers and we tend to ignore that in favor of swallowing loads of information that is fed to us without fully questioning what we are imbibing and sometimes not really digesting the information, but instead regurgitating what we have been taught without really feeling it, without really knowing. Here’s an example that I have run into being a Lokean. In the Heathenry community (not so much seen in Asatru and things are changing) Loki is a taboo. Your “average” Heathen will brutally insult and make fun of those Pagans who have an affinity for Loki, even resorting to calling names and being plain nasty. On the nicer end, they will claim that there were never any cults of Loki (historically, but they aren’t entirely correct as some evidence may have been found) and that worshipping him as a God is silly and that Lokeans are Lokeans because of Tom Hiddleston…wrong. These sorts of groups tend to rely on historical documentation to recreate their modern paganism and usually have no use or love for UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis), but I think that is absurd and silly. I believe that long ago before we wrote everything down, before the days of the internet and self-proclaimed adepts, we had UPG. Our relationships with the Gods were personal, even if we were part of a large group or “cult”, we all still have a personal relationship with the Gods and I think that is a HUGE part of being a Pagan. I used to have to look up anything and everything when it came down to my practice: what makes a good offering for this God/deity, what correspondences go along with this certain God, what attributes are they associated with, etc. All of this information is compiled on the internet, but where did it come from? How do I know that it is accurate? I can look at multiple articles about the same deity or herbal correspondence and get varied answers depending on the person who wrote it, and most likely depending on the UPG. I know that Loki likes when I give him whiskey and candies, other Lokeans are asked for different offerings from Him because it depends on the relationship they have. I think what I’m trying to get at is that, while modern tradition is nice, I think the true tradition is innate in those of us that are called by the Gods or drawn to Paganism. The rituals and traditions of old are running through our veins, our blood, our heart and soul. We know how things once were; we know how to connect with the Divine even without fancy books or teachers. We have to trust our gut, listen to our intuition. If you feel like an offering needs to be made to a Deity, but it isn’t in any sort of text…do it. If your gut tells you to do your ritual differently from anything you have ever experienced before, do it. If you feel like you need to do ANYTHING that isn’t the way that it is done in the books…do it. You are a vessel for the divine. These instincts, these gut feelings and intuition are nudges from the Divine, from spirit. They are guiding you internally and I feel like we get lost a lot in strict structure and tight frameworks when we need to let go a little and let chaos take over a bit. After all, chaos is where we came from when the Worlds came into existence. It’s ok to question things, it’s ok to do things differently from others, it’s ok to resist tradition and do your own thing if that’s how you feel. And it’s ok not to as well. It’s ok to be traditional or eclectic. But make sure to stay true to yourself and continue to question things, continue to learn, and continue to grow. That’s the message I am getting from the Divine and I plan on living my truth…will you?
0 Comments
|
E.M. MoonStories from the World Wide Weird Archives
December 2021
Categories
All
|