The more Im studying myself as a Witch and the Craft, Im finding theres so much more evolution and reincarnation within the craft than I gave it credit for in the beginning. Recently I've been disciplining myself more and more to do meditation and now I've decided to start yoga. I've been fighting taking on meditation so much in the past because I never thought it was something that could be needed within the craft. I never felt there was any cultural or historical connection to the old Craft of the Celts or the West European traditions so I dismissed it. More and more I am realizing how very close hearted and minded this is. Magic and its uses has never been, I believe, about set rules of magic played out against a certain cultural background. Instead, its about evolving with culture and the changes of the people. Its about evolving your skills as the earth calls you to.
I use to have a great idea of what peace and harmony of self was but now that idea is changing into something much more whole and flowing, willing to cut throw challenges in myself as water cuts the rock of the mountains. Magick and being a Witch is about reaching beyond, further and deeper into the very heart of the Mother moon and Father sun. Magic and being a Witch is teaching me that magic does not depend on us as practitioners. We depend of Magick. We depend of it because it much run through us and all that we are both inside and through the world to connect, empower, grow, find the wise dark rage hidden within and not be afraid of its strength it can teach us, and most of all our ability to change as the great Mother Earth much change!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The Sacredness of Old Knowledge
Something has been growing on my mind lately and that is how important knowledge is and whether its right to just share wisdom and knowledge so openly. I've come to the conclusion that its not a good thing. Knowledge, to the ancients and ancestors of the Craft, was held as power and something very sacred. I don't believe they would have just told anyone about how they think or what they do and where the knowledge came from. Witches and wise ones of old were silent about the knowledge they gained and retained. It was knowledge that if released, was put forth from them. Knowledge and information is more than just words, vowels, letters. It was centuries of understanding, centuries of studying handed down. When people write websites on the Craft and tell of how to do things in the Craft they are increasing the chance to abuse such beautiful knowledge every second. A person is either a Witch or not. No one can become a witch by choice, they either are or aren't. To be a witch is to feel every breath of the air, every drop of rain of the earth and every heartbeat of the beasts of the earth.
My father once told me something when I was little that to this day is still teaching me great wisdom. He told me, "Always watch for the quiet ones". I understood what he was getting at then to a certain degree, but it wasn't until recently that I truly appreciated it and found this knowledge important.
I once observed a Native American elder at a pow wow once, and She had proven to me the power of what my dad told me. I realized that the elder never spoke unless they had something important to say and worth saying. Our ancestors had to learn all this information on their own. Once in a great while someone was able to learn from a teacher but not often. We today are trying to write down and learn everything they knew but we're not trying to understand how they figured it out or the wisdom that was gained through finding the knowledge. Knowledge should never be given, but gained. Otherwise, they're just words we stamp on our minds. True wisdom is gain when we realize we must fight for something worth having. This is the same with witchcraft.
When we throw around this ancient knowledge on the internet without realizing who reads it, anyone can take down the info and rip it apart. Is that what our ancestors would have wanted? Is this what they struggled to keep the knowledge secret for?
Indeed the internet can be a grand thing to find things on, but could it also be the end of great wisdom?
My father once told me something when I was little that to this day is still teaching me great wisdom. He told me, "Always watch for the quiet ones". I understood what he was getting at then to a certain degree, but it wasn't until recently that I truly appreciated it and found this knowledge important.
I once observed a Native American elder at a pow wow once, and She had proven to me the power of what my dad told me. I realized that the elder never spoke unless they had something important to say and worth saying. Our ancestors had to learn all this information on their own. Once in a great while someone was able to learn from a teacher but not often. We today are trying to write down and learn everything they knew but we're not trying to understand how they figured it out or the wisdom that was gained through finding the knowledge. Knowledge should never be given, but gained. Otherwise, they're just words we stamp on our minds. True wisdom is gain when we realize we must fight for something worth having. This is the same with witchcraft.
When we throw around this ancient knowledge on the internet without realizing who reads it, anyone can take down the info and rip it apart. Is that what our ancestors would have wanted? Is this what they struggled to keep the knowledge secret for?
Indeed the internet can be a grand thing to find things on, but could it also be the end of great wisdom?
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Old vs. Modern Medicine
I've been very much into herbalism lately besides everything else I'm learning of course. Though somehow soon after taking on its great knowledge though I started to figure out that its not just "herbalism" that contains medicine in the world of the Witch. In reality, everything a Witch does on some extent is medicine for either themselves or the world around them. It's very old knowledge that a Witch who wishes to bring pain and suffering to another will only bring three times that onto themselves. This is not just warning.
Modern practitioners of medicine today may have intentions of wanting to help people to some degree but there are simply to many things which keep them from doing so. Money received, insurance, laws, hours of business that limit their ability to reach out, a degree, and even to some extent their righteous role in the community. Healing has become either a form of income or a way to please the family anymore. When a person come to the doctors for help, money is the largest factor. Healing no a days is limited by the bottles produced and the needles available when in truth there is no limit to the supply of medicine a doctor can supply. There have been movies, such as Patch Adams, which try to make clear that for the most part medicine has forgotten the that a doctor is not simply a person full of knowledge and names of the latest brand of pain killer. Instead a doctor is a healer and one that gives them whole self to heal pain and suffering.
The Witch has never forgotten for thousands and thousands of years that it takes the whole being of a healer to help another. A Witch, Shaman, or medicine person looks upon another in pain as not simply a person created in brotherhood but a creature of Mother Goddess. In this can be understood that the Mother Goddess is one of creations, continuation, preservations, rejuvenation. medicine is never determined by the newest knowledge but the oldest knowledge. A Witch can do the same healer to many times a more potent degree without the fancy names and shiniest toys. What we use is the bright Dandelion, the laughing rosemary, the strong tree bark. The more distant the modern medicine world get from the patient the less potent they are. The medicine that the human body needs does not stop at the actual herb, tincture, salve, etc. No, the healer of the old ways never stops with the item they are using, they continue with using their spirit and energy, their whole being to bring healing through spells, incantations, etc. Its obvious that the current day in age is striving to bring our world back to the old knowledge which in all reality is not that far gone, considering that the technology of modern medicine and manipulations that have slowly destroyed healing have only taken off in the turn of the 19th century really. Before then, medicine was, for the most part, still holding onto the old ways. Sadly population has outgrown the number of wise-men, medicine women, witches, or shamans. Hopefully with time and a struggle to take back our humanity, the wise healer of the old ways will take back the honorable and well deserved roll of teacher and healer. One can only hope, for the sake of us all.
Modern practitioners of medicine today may have intentions of wanting to help people to some degree but there are simply to many things which keep them from doing so. Money received, insurance, laws, hours of business that limit their ability to reach out, a degree, and even to some extent their righteous role in the community. Healing has become either a form of income or a way to please the family anymore. When a person come to the doctors for help, money is the largest factor. Healing no a days is limited by the bottles produced and the needles available when in truth there is no limit to the supply of medicine a doctor can supply. There have been movies, such as Patch Adams, which try to make clear that for the most part medicine has forgotten the that a doctor is not simply a person full of knowledge and names of the latest brand of pain killer. Instead a doctor is a healer and one that gives them whole self to heal pain and suffering.
The Witch has never forgotten for thousands and thousands of years that it takes the whole being of a healer to help another. A Witch, Shaman, or medicine person looks upon another in pain as not simply a person created in brotherhood but a creature of Mother Goddess. In this can be understood that the Mother Goddess is one of creations, continuation, preservations, rejuvenation. medicine is never determined by the newest knowledge but the oldest knowledge. A Witch can do the same healer to many times a more potent degree without the fancy names and shiniest toys. What we use is the bright Dandelion, the laughing rosemary, the strong tree bark. The more distant the modern medicine world get from the patient the less potent they are. The medicine that the human body needs does not stop at the actual herb, tincture, salve, etc. No, the healer of the old ways never stops with the item they are using, they continue with using their spirit and energy, their whole being to bring healing through spells, incantations, etc. Its obvious that the current day in age is striving to bring our world back to the old knowledge which in all reality is not that far gone, considering that the technology of modern medicine and manipulations that have slowly destroyed healing have only taken off in the turn of the 19th century really. Before then, medicine was, for the most part, still holding onto the old ways. Sadly population has outgrown the number of wise-men, medicine women, witches, or shamans. Hopefully with time and a struggle to take back our humanity, the wise healer of the old ways will take back the honorable and well deserved roll of teacher and healer. One can only hope, for the sake of us all.
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