Unspirituality: Maya/Illusion

I have always been frantically cynical about what is said about the idea of maya or illusion. I may be caricaturing but generally speaking it's the idea that everything is illusion and by extension nothing matters. It's cognate with the idea that not desiring anything will make us happy. You might as well start saying other people only have power over you if you let them.

I am very sceptical of any philosophy that tries to deflect from the suffering of the world in front of us, while also being very aware that that is sometimes the only coping strategy we have. I am also very wary of any philosophy originating in the East, as peddled in the west. Literally all of the ideas of Eastern philosophies are understood in the west through the prism of Theosophy, because that is how we first came across them. We therefore subtly misunderstand all of these ideas including karma, reincarnation, and so on.

Is it conceivable that an ancient world view would come up with the sort of thing you hear in a workshop in Moseley? Of course not.

Vedanta philosophy refers to the term “Maya” as the cosmic illusion on account of which the one appears as many, the Absolute as the Relative. Adi Sankara in the hymn Bhaja Govinda, also known as Moha Mudgara, cautions people about the power of Maya by which this entire creation is constituted, pointed out Sri B. Sundarkumar in a lecture.

‘The world is only as real as the image that is seen in a mirror,’ says the acharya in the Dakshinamurthy Stotra. When this image of the world is seen within oneself, it is similar to what is seen by one due to an illusion.

In the state of sleep, one sees many scenes that appear real. One might have reacted to a fearful dream and cried out aloud while still in the dream state. 

 So the dream is true to the one who has seen it. This reality of the dream state is shattered when one switches to the reality of the waking state.

So is the dream state true or not? If the dream state is true, what happens to the dream when one wakes up? If the dream state is untrue, then what happens to the experiences felt in the dream state?

In the Advaita viewpoint, the illusory world is known as Mithya. What is seen, what is heard, what is thought by the mind and felt by the heart are all because of Maya. All this appears as Truth, but it is not the truth.

As long as one avoids the question ‘Who am I,’ one lives in this world thinking it is real. Confronting this question in earnest opens the path for the search for the Absolute Truth which a jnani is able to realise, while the ignorant are yet to transcend the veil of Maya. Source

 

So not the caricature I gave above, and at the same time exactly the kind of thing that white people run away with and get all wrong.

I am, however, coming round to the possibility that the realities we experience can consist of multiple layers and need different understandings. I am now aware that the idea of maya which has been peddled to us is an illusion and that is some pretty freaky shit.

One of the things which has made me shift slightly is the study of Kabbalah and tarot, and particularly the idea of the cube of Space, where the major arcana are laid out on a cube rather than the more familiar tree of Life. The outer faces of the cube represent different initiations and hence perceptions or understandings, and the axes inside the cube cannot be perceived.

So I'll just leave it there, because I recognize one of those things you're not supposed to understand when I see one.

Real Asceticism

Honestly I don't know what is wrong with humans: we join things with very clear purposes and mess them up, not excluding religion. For example you can be an evangelical Christian and ignore pretty well everything Jesus talked about while obsessing about two things (guns and abortion) he never mentioned once. And what is with becoming a Catholic priest and expecting to have sex? Did you bother reading the job description?

Incidentally since the world depends on witches to tell the truth the only passage in the Bible coming close to referring to abortion is Exodus 21:22-25 which clearly indicates a foetus is not a person in the law so abortion is fine from that point of view and I think you will find it also tells you not to murder people and the worst thing about this is you all have this book but it took a witch to tell you it.

This human propensity for messing things up extends to asceticism, which didn't originally mean the self-abnegation it now does but meant athletic training. It had more to do with exercise than the monastery and certainly nothing to do with expensive minimalism. It may be related to Marie Kondo because of her urge towards joy. And there's nothing wrong with seeking joy.

In fact training really can only be directed to your heart's desire, because otherwise there is no point. Seeking your heart's desire is the ascesis, the training. It's a prioritisation. Without it we end up with more regrets than we need to have. For example if I had followed what inspired joy I would have kicked my mother out of my life twenty years before I finally did it. I regret the intervening years of having an influence in my life which did not have my best interests at heart.

Nonetheless I have now arranged my life in a more ascetic way. Regular readers will be surprised to hear that I do have a guru in this. It is John Waters and my life is arranged around a very Zen quote of his:

True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks.

 This ascesis is the training that I realise I need and something I work on on a daily basis. It is the yardstick by which I measure everything and honestly I wish I had had the wisdom and balls to do it thirty years ago. 

I have also been gifted a mantra by the universe which I chant regularly to ensure I am on track and it is my pleasure to share it with you now. It is:

Eat shit.

And feel the peace wash over you. 

Endless Bullshit

Honestly, some people.
I have commented here before that I semi-regularly read this person's blog, who doesn't half talk some rubbish. I only read it when I can stand to, but continue to read it because she is an interesting person.
Previously I think I have commented that she spouted one day that she had this particular bowl to eat from and how green and wonderful it was because it was reused from a salad.
The salad in question was from Marks and Spencer.
I know so, because she just threw that in there.
She also spouts the wonders of a minimalist wardrobe. This seems to entail fairly frequently giving her current clothes away and starting afresh by buying a new wardrobe on eBay.
But the most ridiculous thing she talks about is the Gerson protocol. One of these days I will do a post about why it's utter nonsense, but suffice to say that it is a quack treatment for cancer. She thinks it will stop her getting cancer. The Hound has news for her, that people who peddle dangerous quackery can find themselves getting a good hard slap from Fate. But anyway, she published some pictures of her kitchen, with its array of expensive foodstuffs, and amongst them was special Gerson coffee. Look online, I promise your hair will stand on end when you see how much it costs. And it's not even for drinking - it's for coffee enemas!
All of these things are only available to rich people. The cost of minimalism is that you have to have money to buy things you need because you don't have them. Poor people tend to own more stuff because they can't afford to replace stuff they have thrown out.
The blogger I am talking about presents all this shit as a'spiritual' thing. The Hound thinks it's just another form of consumerism.
Today she has posted a link to a YouTube channel about minimalism and mindfulness. Each video has an Amazon link to buy the things you see in the video!
Why am I expatiating about this? Consumerism/capitalism have a habit of pretending to be other things. In this case about spirituality and mindfulness (don't start me on that one). Personally I love a good shop. But you won't find me pretending otherwise. My own aspiration is to be right sized, and I think that eiwi not involve disproportionate use of Stuff.
This is one of the reasons I started this blog. I had something to say and didn't want to write a Llewellyn book. I wanted it to be free on the internet and to embody my own do-it-yourself ethic, that you can't buy magic, but once you step on that path, what you need will always appear.
And I suppose this is my witchy version of mindfulness - I have to focus on my intent and do the Great Work without deviation.

Banish Often, Invoke Often

'Banish often, invoke often,' that is one of the major magic(k)al principles of the modern world of sorcery. It may seem uncouth after Uncle Al kindly wrote a guest post here, but I'm afraid my main purpose in this post is to document my great discomfort with the maxim he coined.
For a start, I note that people talking about this practice tend to talk about it as part of a daily magical practice. My own opinion is that id I'm even going to aim for a daily magical pratice I might as well turn Christian and have done with it. You will not that I am talking about myself here only. It may be your will or useful for you to have a dsciplined daily practice which you stick to, but it's not for me: my own will is that my practice is much more freeform and based around the daily experiences of my life. My opinion is that the universe itself will place both the opportunities, needs, and resources to deal with them, in my way when I and the universe are ready.
Don't get me wrong, every day I have my little chat with the Goddess. It will come as no surprise that this is rather opposite from any other approach to praying. It amuses me no end to invoke (I knew I would end up talking about these twin practices the wrong way round) her to cause erectile dysfunction to any rapists around. It gives me no end of joy to invoke her power of death on those who hate the faggots. Even the fact that I can say this means that I have broken free from the societal and familial norms of my past and have entered the liberty and ecstasy of the children of the Goddess. This little chat with the Goddess is therefore as much about me as it is about her.
Of course I am talking about a different sort of invoking from Crowley, or may be I am not. I believe him to have meant the magician to invoke the Holy Guardian Angel (now there's a whole library of books in those three words there) often. I am invoking a divinity, however by that invocation my reality is changed and I come into my own. As we know the ultimate target of magic is virtually always the magician himself, and if the magiician by his invocation comes into his own, well maybe he actually is gaining the knowledge and conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel.
That's the trouble with the magic you will read about here: I havre skimmed the chapter headings so know the jargon, but rarely understand the detail, and certain don't follow the practice. I'm far more likely to throw the book away in boredom and just do my own thing. Come to think of it, this blog is mainly a documentation of my doing exactly that and I would frankly advise any reader to throw away the book and so their own magic.
My problem comes far more with the action of banishing. I will admit to having had at least a go at the conventional banishing rituals. You can find them on t'internet, and if you find yourself awed by the recounting of these rituals, it's possible Uncle Al is playing a joke on you, or else just that the writer you've found online is merely intent on telling you how good he is a magician. So good, in fact, that nobody else can even understand it.
In fact, my own opinion is that banishing as a ritual is of questionable use to the witch. I say to the witch, because what I mean is the use of these rituals to a magician of my sort. My own opinion as a hedgewitch, is that since we aim to find the magic in the hedge we suffer far more by banishing than we can ever hope to gain. If you want to stick to the trad magical system as whole you're going to have to go there, but I feel for the hedgewitch it clears way too much stuff away. I have actually read of people who banish very regularly finding that the rite tends to clear *everything* away, and they can end up with a sense of nothingness and emptiness if they are not empty.
My own experience is that I know when I need to banish, because I start carrying around too much psychic gunk. There are numerous very traditional ways of getting rid of this - having a bath is a traditional one for example. I only really banish when I find I'm carrying too much stuff, and try to avoid getting to that point by a magical act which didn't really have a name until I thought about this post and decided to call this act 'putting things where they should be'. It's rather in a the nature of an examination of self and what is going on energetically around one, and deciding where any 'stuff' belongs. I actually do this quite a lot of the time anyway, by sending any nasties either to a recipient who needs the accompanying lesson, or just back where they have come from. Like this I am literally putting any nasties where they should be, I am lightened myself and I am using the stuff that comes my way as part of the witch's work to give people the opportunity to rectify their lives. Yes, someone whom I've divined is a turd may get a spectacularly bad run of luck, but the nature of my magic is that this will very obviously be set up in a way that clearly points them to examine aspects of their lives.
I'm just hoping that if I ever see a psychiatrist I can either keep this to myself or phrase it as a 'dynamic'.
The act of sending back or rearranging dodgy energies was one that it took me ages to come upon but it revolutionised my life in so many ways. I don't have to carry other people's stuff around, and it is the perfect way for a lazy witch to do the daily work I have to do. No doubt this post will have the fluffies throwing up their hands in horror, but this blog is about real witchcraft which comes from blood and bone, and this post is from the heart.

The Lady will Provide

...and that is one of the ways the witch knows things are moving, when things inexplicably start falling into place. For example in the Acocks Green area of the city (the accent is on the long A, not the O, by the way) today, I not only found the box set of a TV series I've been looking for for ages, but also found my manager (pictured) staring at me in a charity shop window! Of course I had to buy it (the woman closed the zip saying he wouldn't be able to speak, but I closed it again, saying that silence is required) & then some pins from Wilko for the next part. This really is a gift from the universe, a case of more opportunities coming along if you make use if them.

Incidentally, apart from the inane grin & idiotic expression, I hadn't realised how like Zippy my manager is in personality, making it all about her & wanting to be friends, while ignoring other people's views & actual misconduct completely:

'...Zippy claims to be the best at whatever is being discussed, and always claims to be right. He loves to eat sweets, sing songs and tell his favourite jokes, and always has to be the centre of attention. For example, the other characters might be having a discussion, when Zippy would shout: "But I don't want to talk, I want to sing! I'm very good at singing! [starts singing] I'm a little teapot short and stout, here's my handle and here's my spout..."

'Due to his frequently loud behaviour and silly voice getting him into all sorts of trouble, other characters in Rainbow occasionally zip his mouth shut, rendering him unable to talk. On at least one occasion he unzips himself, although he appears unable to do so on most occasions.' (Source

Avoiding Routine

Throughout the experiences which have left me where I am now, I have always accepted the need for routine and discipline. This is a major theme in 'spiritual' traditions of all sorts, and now strikes me as being unbelievably dreary. It is also one which has somehow made its way into the modern witchcraft and pagan milieu. So many of the books advise one to develop a daily practice, one which will become routine by means of discipline. Do the majority of people stick to their spiritual disciplines? No, they don't. In fact people don't stick to 'spiritual' disciplines to such an extent that some religions actually cultivate a sort of elite of spiritual practitioners, whose expertise is assured by their disciplined sticking to their routines. Sometimes this is even called a 'rule of life'. It is not for nothing that the concept of asceticism was born in a Greek gym, and also not for nothing that Christian monasticism arose after the state sanctioning of the religion, prior to which a career in the church had been a simple question of martyrdom.

But here's the contradiction in this: ascetics of all religions will say that they have to belong to these structures of discipline because they couldn't do it on their own. And this is also where my major problem with this starts, that it brings in a question of authority and motivation. At its lowest level discipline implies some sort of authoritative imposition of rules by another: do this because I say so. This takes us straight back to school. On a more exalted level it implies discipline by means of self-imposed commitment to a course of action, which may be helped by other people or by whatever motivation we have.

There is an undercurrent running through the whole history of the modern witchcraft movement, of turning things on their heads. The example I like is undressing for church, for example. So in line with this tradition, what happens if we turn the concept of 'spiritual discipline' on its head? I think we end up with 'embodied inspiration'. When I look at the experiences which have been most formative to me as a witch, I find that not one of them has been planned. They have all been accidental, often hateful. No amount of ritual, routine, discipline, could have made me a witch. I'm really exploring my way towards a concept here, but I would therefore like to think that (this will sound rather Zen) if I just Be, everything that I need can be found in the Hedge. I wouldn't want this to sound too passive, so perhaps I'd better include ideas of exploration and response to life event.

I suppose the key word is embodiment. I don't want to live in a world from which divinity is absent. In fact I believe that I am my Goddess's priest, and hands in this world. It would therefore be a slap in the face to Goddess to make out that my witchcraft can only be accomplished by my own discipline, routine, ascesis, whatever.

That said, if I had to talk about disciplines for the witch, I would have to talk about values. Dealing with integrity. Being prepared to be surprised at all times. Being open to whatever I find in my Hedge. I'll grant you that these things would require a certain clarity of mind, but I would rather go for a walk and see what happens than get into a ritual. If I'm finding my head a bit crowded I will meditate for a while, but even then that can often take place on a bus or in a crowd.

But the greatest discipline, given the tradition of turning normal society on its head, would be the avoidance of routines and rituals. I merely throw this out there – if getting into routines is a 'spiritual' discipline, then a major 'unspiritual' discipline would be the avoidance of those routines as limiting and closing up the opportunities the universe has for me.

Transgressive acts as gateways to the power

I'm still not settled in a permanent address. The upshot of this is that roads, routes, boundaries, & doorways of all sorts are featuring highly in my inner world at the moment. The spell I did last year with the river continues to have its kick-back effect on me, & I'm finding that in one way or another my life is involving endless unplanned crossings of the River Rea & its tributaries.
With magical 'coincidences' - always presented as chances & opportunities - come the challenge of transgressive acts. To me these are a key to the power. Initiation actually never ends & at each step of the way we have to change what we do to enable a new self to arise yet again. So often these initiations present as possible actions which will always transgress personal or societal norms. We are free to ignore these, but that just leaves us exactly where we are until the next one comes up. The sort of actions that I mean are instanced in my own situation by some opportunities involved in buying a flat. Would I gazump people to get what I wanted? Yes, I would. A minor example, but for me it contradicts the inner voice of my mother that you should always put other people before yourself. The point is that that act would transgress that norm for me personally. As it happens it looks as if I'm not going to have to gazump anyone, but I have made an offer on a flat which would mean ending the occupants' tenancy. Again, this would be perfectly my right, but my mother's commentary on this would be, 'You're putting people out in the street,' - this despite the fact they know their tenancy is coming to an end anyway, & we're hardly talking of a South African-style put-their-stuff-out-in-the-street eviction. This inner commentary is also transgressed by the fact that the flat belongs to a company which has gone into administration, so is being sold by the bank, trying to rescue what they can. This is the bit that would particularly send my mother into a dead spin - she would see this as profiting from other people's misfortune. It is only now that I'm realising my mother gave me a world-view in which I should actively disadvantage myself, & has bequeathed me this inner critic that actively stops me doing things which would be perfectly reasonable in anyone else's eyes. The simple fact is that in the world we live in, businesses go bust & their assets are sold off cheap, & if I were not to be involved in that it would still happen anyway. The magical lesson of this is to take it as one of those magical opportunities that sometimes come up: transgressing my historic inner critic is merely changing the way I act, with the immense effect of making my world more open to these opportunities & enabling me not actively to disadvantage myself, which is what my mother expects me to do.
The kind of acts I do not mean in this post are the kind of transgressive acts sought out by some magicians with the idea of progressing. Once you're on the path these things just arise & you can't force them. To set out looking for mores to transgress is to court disaster. Crowley defined 'black' magic as the refusal to accept change, & I think he's right - in this case, though, it may be defined as the insistence on setting the pace of change instead of letting it happen.
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Unspirituality: The School of Witchcraft

'Diana said one day to her daughter Aradia:

"It is true that you are a spirit. But you were born to be yet again a mortal; and you must go on earth & you must become a teacher to women & men who will have willingness to learn your schooling, which will be composed of witchcraft.' (Aradia 1: 1-7, Pazzaglini translation)

I have recently got back into exercising (after hurting my arm, then my knee, then getting verrucas, derp). I'm not starting from a complete standing start as I was before - I have the remains of the muscle I built until I stopped - & after only a few weeks am feeling taller, firmer, better balanced, & more focused. Of course the last one & its relationship to the others is the real purpose of this post.
I wonder how many gym-goers realise the word's ancient, intellectual, & respectably Pagan origins:
'The gymnasium in Ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual pursuits. The name comes from the Ancient Greek term gymnós meaning "naked". Athletes competed nude, a practice said to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body and a tribute to the gods. Gymnasia and palestrae (wrestling schools) were under the protection and patronage of Heracles, Hermes and, in Athens, Theseus.' (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(ancient_Greece))
Tell a lie, some do, & of course it's at this point we begin to recognise ourselves in real witchcraft territory:
'If you dig a little deeper into the word, you find the root word 'gymnos,' meaning 'naked.' Ancient Greek and Olympic athletes exercised, trained, and competed in the nude in order to honor the gods by imitating them (it is, as you know, the sincerest form of flattery). In fact, getting buff in the buff was so beloved that a 6th century attempt to introduce loincloths to athletes was vehemently resisted!' (http://blog.zocdoc.com/the-weird-ancient-history-of-the-word-gymnasium/)
In fact, simply the combination of nude honour of the gods, intellectual pursuits, & developing the concentration necessary to work on the health of the body...hmmm, let's see if it's in a book with a crescent moon on the spine! In fact it's interesting how the word has remained somewhat closer to its ancient origin in English, than its use for a school in some European language.
Because that is actually what a gym is - a school. For example, on Friday I woke up having barely slept because it was so hot. I was in work at 7 & was booked in for an appraisal with my manager (major advantage to being a witch - you can tell what your manager's going to bring up in your appraisal & can spike her guns). I got home knackered, thinking that I couldn't face working out. But I slept for about an hour, & realised I had to do it to keep on track. I actually felt better after exercising than after sleeping. It's something to do with the hormones I think. Some exercises actually feel meditative, & the funny thing is after an hour of exercising I feel the way I do after an incense stick-worth of meditating. I suppose it ought to be better because of the physical health aspects.
The point of the Aradia quote is for me to make a point by deliberately misreading it. Aradia's human embodiment was fated for her & was what enabled her to school the poor in witchcraft. Similarly, if we are looking for true schooling in witchcraft we won't avoid the physical side of it. I'm not implying the Pagan community are big or anything, but...
To my great satisfaction I've found some still-existing parallels of the gym thing, or rather settings where the whole person is not neglected. I'm delighted to find that the same word is used in India for both wrestling schools & some monasteries (one forms the illustration to this post. Picture credit: http://kushtiwrestling.blogspot.com and get the Gods along the wall!):
'Akhara (sometimes romanized as "akhada") is a Sanskrit word denoting a place of practice with facilities for board, lodging and education for a particular sect or order.[1] It can either refer to a training hall used by martial artists or a monastery for religious renunciates.' (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhara)
In fact I'm beginning to think I would personally prioritise 'physical' training over 'mental' or 'spiritual' training - I'm coming to think it is the one of the three that has the most effect on the others. When I was student I met a man who had just left an Anglican religious order, who joked with one of his housemates who was sporty, that he was only interested in spiritual fitness. What was wrong with this picture was that he was grossly obese & could hardly move, so how he could expect himself to be 'fit' in any way, or even able to concentrate, I don't know. Similarly a nun once told me that monasteries of men that don't have manual labour tend to get very petty & queeny - this was certainly the experience I had, & I do feel that physical exertion can give a new level of proportion.
Of course the other example of physical training & meditation combined is the dojo:
'A dojo (道場 dōjō) is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way". Initially, dōjōs were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any Japanese martial arts style such as karate, judo, or samurai, to conduct training, examinations and other related encounters.
'The concept of a dōjō as a training place specifically for martial arts is a Western concept; in Japan, any physical training facility, including professional wrestling schools, may be called dōjō because of its close martial arts roots.
[...]
'The term dōjō is also used to describe the meditation halls where Zen Buddhists practice zazen meditation. It is sometimes used instead of the term "zendo" which is more specific, and more widely used.' (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dojo)
Now, while I'm obviously going to have to face the fact that Aradia doesn't seem to have been running a gym, I can take refuge in the fact that she gave her followers things to do. At no point is sitting in the back room of the local metaphysical shop, listening to a lecture, mentioned. She taught her followers how to do things. And then the specific ways she tells them to hold their meetings are all things to do - how to hold the supper, etc.
On the other hand, it may just be that I'm writing this post to assuage my own [Catholic] guilt at the fact that I am the world's least disciplined witch, have always gone for 'spiritual' exercises on the hop, & have completely failed to establish a daily 'spiritual routine', which all the books tell me is a must. On the other hand I'm one mean psychic & witch, who pays very close attention when I've a mind to! I suppose that's what I'm hoping to do by my commitment to exercise - a honing to razor-sharpness of my concentration & the fruits of meditation. Just, as usual, in a completely unspiritual way!
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What witchcraft is & the avoidance of witch wars

One of the many subjects I keep returning to on this blog is the nature of the modern witchcraft movement. It is broadly agreed that there are a number of people doing fairly similar things & drawing on the witch name, figure & literature (*very* selectively, the group(s) I'm talking about here would tend to exclude Luciferian or diabolic elements - the difficulty is that you can also find them in the witch craft or trials literature) as an inspiration.
The literature of the modern movement keeps returning to the subject of witchcraft as a religion: in my opinion heavily influenced by the idea, dating back no further than 1829, that an ancient Pagan religion was being persecuted in the witch trials. Two things are absolutely clear; the first is that the modern movement calling itself witchcraft is a religion, the second is that it is not a religion. The wonderful Thorn the Witch has written a post on this recently (http://thornthewitch.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/witchcraft-as-religion/) in which she delineates far better than I could, some of what is involved in this matter.
For me personally the most fruitful aspect of the religion thing is the idea of putting things back together, putting things right. To me, being a witch actually involves far more obligations than is perhaps apparent. These obligations are *all* about my personal behaviour & lifestyle. If the essential part of the derivation of witch is to change, then I have to nurture my ability to make that change with my word or my will. If I don't act *right* or in accord with my will, if I just say whatever comes into my head to get myself out of situations, etc, I am not fulfilling my religious obligations.
The second way of seeing the movement is perhaps the one I am least happy with: that of a spirituality. I have written before on this blog about the dis-ease this idea gives me, with its implications of escapism, avoidance, & lack of embodiment.
The third way is that of a craft. In witchcraft terms this can never simply mean something that a person does, although it does mean that. Witches sometimes talk about *the* Craft, & refer to themselves as Crafters. The source for this is one of the 'ingredients' of modern witchcraft, namely Masonry. This legacy most frequently shows itself in our vocabulary, but nonetheless we have inherited a concept of a brotherhood, a union, a circle in which we keep things safe, a society which makes obligations on its members. It is said that witches, on meeting, know each other, & this is very true. We have this 'Freemasonry' of shared experiences, values, language, & so on. This element also brings obligations, what would be called 'horizontal' (opposed to the vertical) in a tradition which less consciously blurs the conventional distinctions. My horizontal obligations take all sorts of forms - the obligation to help all who come (meeting which brings the ability to do so), the reponsibility to right wrongs, generally be a witch, including to other witches. My obligation to other witches means one of help, correction, & keeping an eye on the ones I know to make sure they don't go off their head.
Of course being me, I am quite prepared to see these three ways of seeing witchcraft as each consisting of two poles. Religion, for instance, can on the one hand mean right-acting, but on the other degenerates into legalism & force. The craft thing can be a visible secret society promoting trust & mutual working, but can become shifty, shady, & lean on people in unnecessary ways.
I was going to fall into the trap of saying that witchcraft is much more than all of these things - it is a way of life. Exactly like a religion! However I would like to add another definition: witchcraft is this formless, ever-changing, thing with a life of its own, that has a tendency of becoming anything it likes without warning. This is partly the point of drawing on the witch thing. One religious tolerance website gives fifteen definitions of the word, for example (http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_dict.htm). Given this nebulousness it is no wonder there is such conflict in the witch 'community': I agree with Nanny Ogg that three witches works somehow, & any number over that results in a bloody great row.
Given that we are a 'religion' & 'spirituality' with ties of fellowship to each other in our 'craft', it therefore behoves us not to get into witch wars, & much less start them. For a start they're a waste of time: these turf wars take up energy & don't really achieve anything. This advice is particularly difficult for someone like me to follow - I'm very aware I'm getting to be an even more touchy queen as I get older, take offence easily & almost never forgive. I do however stand by my policy that I only ever give one warning, if that. To me, one of the functions of the witch is to be a warning.
So when someone behaves in an un-witchlike way, I don't really have an answer as to what to do. Recently I've given someone a warning. This person set me up for a horrendous day, by not telling me that the people I would be spending the day with were morbidly frightened of witches. Here's the test: if you knew people were rabidly anti-Semitic, you would not invite a Jew to spend the day with them. A confrontation has occurred about this, & excuses have been made, which I do not accept, because this person could reasonably have foreseen that I would have a hell of a day. In this situation, in addition to the obligations one feels to family, the witch has an obligation to the Craft, & a failure to respect this obligation is a failure in our religious duties, & a giving away of personal power. I also have the distinct feeling of being used by this person: he only contacts me with regard to a gathering we both go to, which he sees as his property.
I don't have an answer to this situation, really. However in the interests of asserting my own self-dominion I have made a point of absenting myself from the position of being used to prop up this person's power. Will you come to this concert that my other half's playing in? No, I won't. Now you may say, But Hound! You're starting a witch war by your inflammatory comments on your blog! This person won't read this. I know he won't. However my avoidance of a witch war will have the effect of leaving him to his own compromised personal power. Give it away & you open a hole through which it will drain. Getting away from these people may perhaps be the only option, because the only place for them to go is psychic vampirism.

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My Lent Book

When we witches borrow practices from the Christians it tends to be at best tongue in cheek. Lent is the season in which the Christians memorialise the time Jesus spent in the desert - I've talked before about the significance of desert & related it to what we would call the Hedge. I'm incredibly late with this since the actual season is drawing rapidly to a close but one of the things they do as an ascesis is give something up. Like murder. Or rape. Or paedophilia. No, seriously, often the things they give up are slightly ridiculous & no great loss. Last year a witch friend borrowed an ascesis from them & gave up alcohol for Lent. *How* we took the piss - 'Another bitter lemon, dear?' This year he's given up chocolate. In reality I think this is a real ascesis because these are seriously addictive substances & living without them would actually be a real loss. In the desert (read Hedge) you do experience real loss & the necessities of life are often missing or in very short supply.

My repeated opinion & experience is that the resources, tasks, & experiences become available to the witch when the time is right. When the witch is ready, the need appears, & when a need arises, a witch appears to meet it. My personal hedge has recently moved - partly volitionally, but also because I'm willing to transplant myself I've put out the psychic feelers to my desired destination, & in turn the spirit of place has reached out to welcome me. The other evening I stood in the old graveyard in Park Street & felt at home (not that I'm a goth). That area in a triangle from Holloway Head up to Millenium Point has actually been my stamping ground since I was a very young faggot cruising for we-know-what round there, so I feel the relationship I'm making with the spirit of place is a development of something that already exists. The majority of that area was, from the industrial revolution, up to living memory almost, either industry or teeming slums. The Park Street area was the Whitechapel of Birmingham at the end of the nineteenth century, dominated by gangs & virtually unpoliceable. If you have psychic ability & should go to that part of the city, be prepared for a shock: the sheer chaos & badness of much of what lies under the surface can be overwhelming. Since the magical hypothesis is that what we see on this plane is the manifestation of other layers of existence, as witches we interact with our hedge on deeper levels than just what you see. I have already made some friends there & helped some problems to their natural end.

My Hedge actually produced me a book to read today : it was actually from a certain shop which I'm not going to name because I don't like the owner. Our mutual hatred has nothing to do with the way I used to go in & look at the jazz mags when the shop was in Hurst Street! - actually I suppose I did buy quite a bit as well.

Anyway the book that leapt to my attention is Clarence Rook's The Hooligan Nights, about a nineteenth-century hooligan in London who recounted his exploits to Rook. This is exactly the same milieu as the Park Street area of the past, so in a sense is from my Hedge & an invitation to go further into my Hedge.

No matter to me that the veracity of the tales in the book has been questioned - the whole point of the Hedge is to divide, cross, or traverse the barrier between the real & the unreal. The majority of our sources for the modern witchcraft movement, or even the witch figure are either this mixture or at best shoddy history. I note that Rook may have had a more colourful life than you would think, since for over twenty years he had a symptom of tertiary syphillis (http://oxfordsociology.blogspot.com/2013/10/clarence-rooks-hooligan-nights.html?m=1).

I'm calling it a Lent book to borrow another Lent discipline of the Christians - I mean if it's good enough for the Archbishop of Canterbury, I suppose I can slum it. I've written before about the tensions I see in witches' relationships with the written text - we don't have scriptures but end up creating them or 'canonising' texts ('That's not in Doreen Valiente!'). Christianity has several approaches to reading as 'spiritual' exercises, & this taking a book for Lent is one of them. The older way of reading is called lectio divina, a ruminatory, repetitive way of reading aimed at the contemplation of God, also characteristic of the monastic tradition. I remember when I was a Benedictine novice the prior giving out the Lent books in the chapter house. There was an old lay brother whose book remained firmly unopened in his place all through Lent - I remember noticing a book called 'All About Pigs' in his room, but no 'spiritual' reading.

So my taking this book as a Lent book is a very real witchification of the Christian practice, in the inversion of normality vein so characteristic of the witch figure. I'm going to leave it by the loo - it's a man thing - & look forward to seeing how my Hedge speaks to me in the desert.

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Unmeditation

I have a real problem with the modern 'spirituality' or 'mind, body, spirit' approaches to non-empirical science-based things. I didn't when I was much younger: I think for me as a teenager it meant engagement in other layers of reality than the concrete physical world, only without the dogma of religion becoming involved.

Now, however, I feel the alarm bell that the word 'spirituality' rings in me is that the word *could* refer to some fluffy, self-indulgent unreality that leaves the reality of our lives behind. I suspect this is really what it meant for me in the past - my own approach was probably more feel-good than was good for me. I think it is also a witch thing - if my engagement in other realms than the visible one does not bear visible fruit, I'm doing something wrong.

Meditation is a practice which has rather crept up on me against my own inclinations. In fact it's taken me a long time even to call what I do meditation, although it plainly is. I knew people involved in the World Community for Christian Meditation in my youth, & some of them were frankly turds, which I think put me off the word as well as the idea of the practice.

How would a hedge witch approach meditation? For me it is an ability which has just happened after many years of journeys in & around my personal hedge. Sometimes I make an effort to do it consciously: old school as I am in some ways I do it in front of the altar, with candles lit & time it with a joss stick. The timing it without using time is an important thing for me, because it means a suspension of normal time for a different sort of time. I sit on a chair rather than the various cushions & stools suggested in the literature. The point to the posture is that your spine is aligned in a certain way, & you are therefore aligned with the earth in a certain way. This is where it really begins to cross over into witchcraft: if you read Starhawk's description of the Tree of Life exercise in spiral dance, the exercise is almost exactly what is being done in sitting meditation.

And what you do then is, well, you meditate. Like magic, it is one of those things you just have to do. There is a lot of nonsense written about it, but for me it is a non-linear time of existing differently. A time of not having to do or think anything. Speaking as someone who just found himself doing it then realised what it was, I think there's no point reading the books, you just have to do it - mind you, I'd also say this about magic. If you can allow yourself to forget that you can't do it, all of a sudden there you are, doing it.

The other major similarity it has with magic is the mindset where you both have to will something completely single-mindedly, & yet at the same time not do it. Perhaps this is meditation's (& magic's) greatest effect, that it enables the practitioner to think in this way that is the sole requirement of magic. I certainly can't think of many ways of developing a single-minded will, which yet does not keep drawing back that which is willed by scratching at it.

Do I perhaps need to say that (again like magic) you don't need any of the equipment in the books & websites? If you think you are doing magic you are, & one of the most classical set-ups for zazen meditation requires nothing more than a cushion & a wall.

For my next strange experience... For some time I have wanted a chicken brick of the sort that used to be sold by Habitat. Then Habitat closed & the desire went into remission, but has resurfaced recently. Some weeks I was looking online for one, only to find that they were ruinously expensive, & I was very wary of entrusting something that delicate to the post. That night I dreamt that I was talking to the cat about this, & in my dream he was telling me how he likes chicken too! Then today an unused Habitat one turned up in a charity shop for only a fiver. Well done, familiar!

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