The Flame in the Cauldron: A Book of Old-Style Witchery

INTRODUCTION

The Origins of My Witchery

I was influenced by traditional witches on both sides of the pond, meaning those in America and in England. However, I do not want to imply that all of my material is old or traditional, though some of it is. It was highly influenced by family and folk practices, but also reflects contemporary work that I developed into what I believe is a cohesive and workable practice. Any sound and ethical old-style witches that I know would never claim all of their work to be entirely old or from ancient unbroken lineages. In fact, most of us feel that the power that is passed through us is old, and so is the philosophy, but each witch must have their own direct relationship with the spirit world and power of witchery. For this reason they should develop their own grimoire (or as one my teachers called it, her notes). In witchery, no two witches have the same grimoire, even though they may have been trained and even initiated by the same person.

The path into the spirit world and the characteristics of each witch's power make each witch unique. I have found this aspect of witchery to be both daunting and exciting. It challenges the teacher to be more concerned about igniting the witch-flame (magic) in the student than in being right or orthodox. My formal step into this world was when I was about seventeen years old and working as a busboy in a restaurant in Winchester, Virginia, and I met an old couple from Brentwood, Essex, England. They had a son that lived in the area whom they visited often. Initially, our talks were only about things that I thought were cool, like coins, ancient places, and other stuff, until they disclosed that I was born with the veil and raised around some southern conjure and root-work practices. They said they sensed this and that they grew up similarly, but were raised around some old country witch practices that were simple and powerful.

They somewhat referred to themselves as witches, but were also members of the Church of England. Their marriage, as I recall, was predetermined by their parents, as both families had some old blood in them. They never inferred that these practices (witchcraft) were religious in any way. They were practical ways of working with the spirit world and the dragon fire in the land through workings that they called mills, which opened out potent power in the land and hidden roads that entered and exited our world. They never used words like traditional or Wicca, though they were respectful of them when I used them. They never spoke of initiations or anything like that. They did speak of witch-blood and its awakening using quickening techniques.

The only way I knew these witches were genuine was that their techniques worked every time. The techniques and teachings were passed on orally with no material written down. Once the techniques were passed the final time, that person (me) could never be in touch with them again or this disturbed the power and confused it as to who owned it. As I have grown in witchery and other magical practices, I have become convinced they were genuine. Later in my life, when I moved to Maryland, I learned from a witch who said he was initiated in Wales. Though his concepts did influence my magic, he was a brief chapter in my growth as a witch. In my journey through living witchery, I was also initiated into Alexandrian Wicca, a tradition of fine witches that is dear to my heart. But again, in the interest of vows of secrecy, I will not disclose specifics about where this happened or who was involved. Though I honor and cherish the teachings, initiations, and familial bonds I have and hold in these traditions and lineages, the bulk of my work in the craft has continued in the lineage I discuss below.

During my long life in Maryland, I have been privileged to learn from and be initiated by other witches who were more adamant about the secrecy of their identities. I will refer to the next witch and High Priestess who trained me as being from the Fox Clan (as she called it). Through her I met her initiating High Priestess, Lady Sintana of Ravenwood Church and Seminary of the Old Religion in Atlanta, Georgia (my spiritual grandmother), who in turn introduced me to Lady Circe of Toledo, Ohio, a fifth-generation hereditary witch and my great-grandmother in the Foxwood lineage of witchcraft. Lady Circe became my final teacher in this line, and I am honored to be one of her mantle carriers for the witchcraft lineage that descends from her. Lady Circe's material was oral, for as she said, What is spoken fades away, but what is written may hang you someday. There were no specific books of shadows in her work, though there were core teachings. She was always concerned that her teachings (and in fact, none of the witchery teachings), become too written down and orthodox. She often said, We are not people of the book; for people of the book know not what is in their book but are most righteous in their unknowing. Rather, We are people of the heart. In the 1970s, she incorporated elements of modern Wicca into her hereditary practices. For clarity, as you read this book you will note that I refer to all people who taught or deeply influenced me, except Lady Circe, on occasion, by initials such as LC (which may be for Lady Circe or people with those initials), LA, etc. to preserve their anonymity per tradition. I also use the prefixes of Lady and Lord before some of the names in the acknowledgments section because many traditions and covens in and out of my lineage use these forms of titles for their leaders, teachers, etc. All of the people in this section of the book, plus many unnamed, have contributed to my development since my formal training and initiations into witchery started in the early 1980s.

Some of the final products of the teachings, techniques, and lore of my teachers and my experiences form the foundations of what I am sharing in this book. Though this book is not a full compilation of my teachings or information specific to post-initiatory training of witches trained by me in my tradition and lineage, it is a solid introduction to some of my discoveries along the way. At the end of the book, I have provided information that will be useful to the reader specific to all three of the paths I walk. I feel that this is both useful and important because it reflects the path-specific insights I have gained and core insights inherent in all three of them. In this way, the later chapters of this book invite the reader into integrating their own paths into core understandings and self-development. It also honors the fact that all paths have insights to offer to the seeker that truly apply to their growth. But, there is one overarching insight that I know about the oldest forms of witchery. I have developed the language for this as follows:

Witchery is a chthonic paradigm and practice that leads to a revelation of truth, mediation of power (magic), and personal gnosis with the intelligent spiritual, mystical, and magical forces of creation.

Since this insight undergirds all of the revelations of the information given in this book, I will also provide my working definitions for gnosis and chthonic, for they may be terms that are less understood or utilized by many readers. Wikipedia gives us the following definition:

Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge. In the context of the English language, it refers to the word's meaning within spheres of Christian mysticism, mystery religions, and Gnosticism where it signifies spiritual knowledge in the sense of mystical enlightenment.

Chthonic is from the Greek chthoniosi, meaning in or under the earth and subterranean. It typically refers to the interior of the soil rather than the living surface of the land.

So, in the context of this book, I mean that witchery, its wisdom and its power, can only truly be revealed by direct experience of the forces within creation itself. Though the information and practices I share in this book can begin to induce these two states, specific to witchery, the actual experiences and insights encountered are unique to the seeker. No two witches are alike, yet we share in a sacred union of spirit and magic that is beyond time, space, and any defining differences that we could create to separate us. Yet, when witches come together heart-to-heart in the spirit of witchery itself, then we are an ancient family that cannot ever be broken or destroyed. For we are connected by an ancient blood, and eternal fire, the first breath of creation and the directive of nature itself to keep humanity in balance with the world we live in and the world that lives through us. And, in my opinion, that connection reaches between and beyond all cultures.

One

A VIEW ON TRADITIONAL WITCHCRAFT AND ITS PRACTICES

How do you destroy that which was never created?

—LC

This quote was shared with me when I was seventeen or eighteen years old and still living outside of Winchester, Virginia by a witch with whom I studied briefly, along with her husband who came to Virginia to visit their son who also lived there. Their practices were similar in feel to some of the spirit work I already knew from the conjuring, spirit-doctoring, and root-doctoring of Virginia and further south, and so it was easy for me to understand their philosophies and even some of their techniques. But at my young age, they were fascinating since they were the first people I'd ever met who said without any doubt or hesitation that they were witches. I found their clarity and genuine spirits to be just the inspiration and permission I needed to release the witch within. I had been drawn to the concept of a witch for years, and I had practiced forms of localized folk magic and the witchery I had gleaned from books, but this was the beginning of encountering something that felt old, connected, powerful, and life-altering. They initiated my journey beyond the intellect and into my spirit through the heart and soul of witchery. For this I am eternally