On the lack of need for a witchcraft lineage

Yesterday I came across a video on youtube, showing the initiation of a young male witch into Janet & Stewart Farrar's coven in what looks like the 1970s. Unusually for witches of my stamp I have a lot of time for Wiccans, whether Gardnerian or Alexandrian: it tends to be more that they don't have time for us!

There are several things I love about the video: I always forget how plummy Janet Farrar is, but can never forget that she is a vicar's daughter. I love the way Stewart's smoking a fag while Janet is instructing the initiand in the purpose of the scourge. I particularly love the bit where Janet talks about the question every witch asks from time to time: 'Why me?'. I also love Janet's explanation of ritual nudity as relating to the witch's quest to be truly oneself: one of the more frightening disciplines of the witch is being stripped of everything that is not authentic. Even if unlooked for, this will happen as part of ones progress into the mysteries. Where we hedge witches part from the Wiccans would be in such things as Stewart's horned helmet: the power & significance of horns may be present in the hedge witch's cosmology, but it would rarely necessitate wearing special ritual garb, & in the quest for authenticity a horned helmet could make things difficult at the office.

What I would see the Alexandrian initiate as gaining (how exciting if he's still a witch, reads this & posts a comment!) Is entry into a particular magical current. The authenticity or otherwise of this current is no big deal to me personally. The full implications of this initiation would no doubt take years or even decades in their working out, but he is the inheritor of an established magical tradition involving spiritual entities, currents, & rituals.

This is the - almost - respectable face of witchcraft. There is something doubtful in our society about making something up yourself. The professional's abilities are more highly prized than the amateur's. A long pedigree or tradition is seen in part as the guarantor of something. This is not only in witchcraft: we all know the value placed on lineage & tradition in Christianity. I'm always interested that zen practitioners list their lineage like qualifications. Hinduism has the tradition of the guru. For the purposes of this post I will call this the 'Catholic' tradition: you get it from someone else.

In dynmic tension/polarity/dualism/whatever to this is what I will call the 'Protestant' tradition - I'm plundering Christianity for these words, but you could also call them Wicca/Hedgewitch approaches. In this approach anyone can do it. In some traditions of Vodou you have to be initiated, but Marie Laveau is rumoured never to have been initiated. In Christianity it takes the form of the presence of Jesus in the individual believer.

I feel this is a more authentic approach for the witch: the whole point of modern witchcraft is that it has developed in reaction to the established religions around us & G*ddess help us if we aim them. To say 'only people initiated into X tradition are the real thing' is to my mind a dodgy dynamic. The power relation of saying that anyone can be a witch, anyone can perform magic, anyone can access the 'spiritual' currents, to me is much more healthy.

It it doubtless a more doubtful, less signposted way, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

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