Witchcraft

The actual origins of modern Traditional Witchcraft are, despite the recent history, fairly murky. Though it definitely isn't a continuation of an unbroken tradition dating back to pre-Christian times as so many would dearly like to believe, it's actual age isn't entirely known, thanks to the necessary obfuscations among practicing occultists in early 20th Century Britain, and the oathbound nature of the Craft.

Regardless of its pedigree, however, the Craft certainly evokes a more pastoral time, with its agricultural symbolism and attention to nature, maintaining that the observation of those cycles are just as important in modern life as they ever were in more agricultural times, even if they have different relevance today. Traditional witches gather in covens, based around a High Priestess who is usually aided by a High Priest and Maiden, both of whom she appoints to their positions. Traditional Craft is sometimes criticized for its "hierarchical" nature, but a simple fact dominates the actual interactions of witchcraft: "The High Priestess rules the Circle, but Witches vote with their Feet," goes the aphorism. If her coven doesn't like her style, they leave. Plain and simple.

Traditional Craft generally uses three degrees of initiation, often with the first degree given at the new witch's very first Esbat or Sabbat attendance. It is also oathbound, requiring practitioners to swear oaths of secrecy. This isn't because there are "high secrets of occult power" at play - rather, Traditional Witchcraft is a Mystery tradition, one which includes rituals that should be experienced tabula rasa, without any preconceived notions about what is going on, in order to fully experience the Mystery. As such, witches do not speak about the nature of their rituals, and in witchcraft, a witch is often guided through a process before she fully learns about that process.

One of the central sacred rites of the Craft is the act of Drawing Down the Moon, wherein the High Priestess of the coven and her High Priest perform a ritual to "draw down" the Divine into the Priestess. Unlike with traditions such as voudoun, this is less considered a matter of an outside entity entering the priestess, and more of a matter of the priestess stilling to ego in order to unlock the divinity which the Craft maintains resides within all human beings. Witches will sometimes manifest different "faces" of that Divinity, calling them by the names of pagan goddesses of a variety of cultures.

Though witches do invoke a variety of gods within the context of their workings, the witch-cult is, properly, a spiritual system Dionysian or ecstatic in nature which reveres a lunar goddess and a horned god of lust, the hunt and the natural world (sometimes depicted as a horned hunter at night and a vegetation god during the day). The Craft maintains secret names for these deities, names which are revealed only to initiates.

Prerequisites

Crafts 2, Expression 2, Occult 2, Specialty: Witchcraft in Occult

Tradition Skills

• Animal Ken: Understanding the signs of animals - and the gods of those animals - is a vital aspect of the Craft. Many witches have an animal familiar that grants them insight into certain aspects of their practice.
• Empathy: Understanding the nuances of others is vital to the successful practice of the Craft, and the empathic witch can discover what someone wants from them not from what they say, but from what they do not.
• Expression: Witchcraft is quite poetic, with beautiful invocations, songs and chants enwrapped in its practice. The skilled witch should be passionate in her speech and prayers.
• Survival: Understanding of the natural cycles of the world, herbal recognition, an understanding of the weather and similar knowledges fall within this Skill, and are all vital to an understanding of witchcraft.
• Occult: Lengthy correspondences, an understanding of how the moon, the sun, the stars and the weather affect one's witchcraft, as well as the names of spirits and gods who have established pacts with the practice of witchcraft. This also encompasses the various means of divination witches use: runework, cartomancy and crystal-, fire- or cauldron-gazing.

Praxis

• Raising Power & Polarity: One of the central concepts of witchcraft is that of "raising power," generating the energy that fuels the witch's magic. Almost without exception, this is performed through the use of polarity - the interplay between two opposite but complementary forces, acting as alternating positive and negative charges to build that power. Generally speaking, when in groups, traditional witches use the polarity between genders to build that charge, gathering in pairs of "working partners," one male and one female each. In solitary workings, the polarity is generally between physical symbolism and mental exercises, creating polarity between the physical world and the unseen world. Witches may use dancing, chanting or other methods to raise this power, with the high priestess or high priest monitoring the levels of power and calling for them to be released before the witches reach a point of exhaustion, and the "power output" starts to wane.
• Drawing Down & Aspecting: Traditional Craft teaches the divinity is both immanent and transcendent - that is, that divinity is both part of the human experience, and beyond it. The core of ethical behavior in the Craft amounts to discovering and nurturing that inner divinity, and recognizing and honoring it within others. Witches also develop trance techniques meant to allow them to "draw down the moon" (or, in rarer instances, "draw down the sun"), wherein the high priestess enters a trance state and her high priest raises energy between them, figuratively pulling the light of the moon down into her and allowing her conscious ego to be overtaken by divinity, which often manifests itself in a tendency for oracular revelations, often uncanny observations and advice, as well as blessings and benedictions.
• Cycles: Cycles play a major part in understanding witchcraft's occult praxis and theology.
  • Reincarnation: The Craft teaches that reincarnation of souls occurs within mortals. Indeed, it teaches that initiation into witchcraft is something that remains with the soul - those who feel strangely compelled to seek out the Craft and join a coven are often thought to be such "wandering family," and are joyously embraced. Reincarnation is not assumed to be a karmic punishment of some sort - witchcraft does not teach that people's souls become animals or anything of the sort. Rather, people continue to reincarnate until they have learned what they need, gradually enlightening their souls through a variety of life experiences, until they have experienced enough to fully awaken inner divinity, and join with/become the Divine after death.
  • The Wheel of the Year: The cyclical nature of the seasons is the macrocosm for the microcosm of the lessons and travails that people go through all the time. Spring is a time of awakening to the sun, and of contemplating new growth, both personally and in the land. Summer is a time of work, a time to love and to celebrate while the land is rich and blood runs hot. Autumn is a time of gathering in the fruits of one's labors, of storing away goods in preparation for lean times, and for anticipating the coming of death, as well as remembering those who have already gone to meet it. Winter is a fallow time, a time of quiet and stillness that promises the rebirth of the next year, and provides time for contemplation of one's past.
  • The Threefold Law/"Karma": Often misrepresented as some sort of "triple boomerang," it is perhaps best understood in metaphor: through that of the window. Witches believe that sending out certain things into the world - healing, blessings, anger, curses - is like shining a light through a colored window. Where the energy one sends out is the light, the coloring on the window is the Resonance of that energy, for good or ill. Threefold Return is simple: it just means that if you "color your windows" with the color of anger or ill-will, any light that shines back through the window from the other side will be colored by it as well. The angry perceive anger best, and react first to it, while those who act with compassion will see the kindnesses of others foremost.
• Initiations: Traditional witchcraft uses a series of initiations - generally, three of them, corresponding to old European trade-guild grades of Apprentice, Journeyman and Master - to reflect training in the Craft as well as willingness to sacrifice one's time and energy in leadership functions for one's coven. Certain secrets of the Craft are only revealed through advancement through its degrees. Generally speaking, a first degree witch is a member of the coven, a second-degree witch is one of its leaders (or leaders her own coven with the blessings and advice of her high priestess) and a third-degree is the wholly autonomous leader of a coven, a consecrated high priestess or high priest.
• Oathbound: Part of the initiation process involves the taking of oaths to aid one's fellows and to not reveal the secrets of the Craft to outsiders. Other aspects are also considered oathbound, including identifying the members of one's coven to someone outside of that coven, revealing where the coven meets and where it practices, and similar pieces of secrecy. One of the euphamisms for witches is "Hidden Children of the Goddess," and while the world is filled with pentacle-wearing witches of all stripes, most people would never guess when someone is a traditional witch.
• Mystery Tradition: As mentioned above, witchcraft is a Mystery tradition, and so does not reveal everything to its members, to say nothing of outsiders. This is because certain aspects of the faith are best experienced without having any idea or preconceived notions of what is going on, allowing the experience of ritual and symbolism to speak directly to the subconscious without the "chatter" of the conscious mind's expectations.

Correspondences

• Moon: The symbol of the Goddess of witches, of witchcraft itself and of all things feminine, the phases of the moon are often used in performing certain kinds of magic. Spells intended to gain or cause something to grow are best performed on the waxing moon, while the waning moon is favored for those intended to banish or reduce. The new moon is considered best for hexing and other black magics, while the full moon is a time for truly powerful workings, aided by the Goddess.
• Sun: The sun sits as one of the masculine symbols in witchcraft, particularly with regards to the solar-based Sabbats of the witches. The male divinity of the witches is sometimes depicted as a sun god (though more often as a horned god, given the typical Dionysian focus of the Craft).
• Sabbats and Esbats: Traditional witchcraft observes two kinds of celebrations or ritual working times: the Sabbat and the Esbat.
  • The Sabbat is based on the solar calendar and celebrates the equinoces, the soltices and the points directly inbetween those events, referred to as the Quarter Festivals (with the equinox and solstice referred to as the "Cross-Quarter" festival. Each of these celebrations (which bear different names, based on the specific traditions in question) carries with it a theme - generally an agricultural significator that is carried over to one's personal growth. For instance, Samhain - a festival celebrating the dead and the culling of the herds in preparation for winter - is used to look into the past, to celebrate what has gone before, and one's roots.
  • In contrast, the Esbat is lunar, a gathering of the coven during the full moon. Where Sabbats are primarily celebrational, the Esbat tends towards more "work oriented" ritual - gathering with the purpose of Drawing Down the Moon, and the performance of magic in a group context.
• Stones and Herbs: Like many Western Occult Tradition magicians, witches use the sympathetic qualities and symbolism in stones, crystals, plants, trees and herbs to perform their magic. Different stones and plants have different correspondences, from healing to blessing to cursing to fertility to wealth.
• Witch's Tools: Witchcraft uses a selection of tools to facilitate the working of magic. The four primary tools are the athame, a black-hilted knife, symbolic of Fire and the Masculine Principle, used to direct energy in magical workings; the pentacle, a disc of wax or metal inscribed with specific symbols, symbolic of Earth and used to command certain spirits or ground out energy; the wand, a length of sacred wood, symbolic of Air and used to call up and command other spirits; and the chalice, a cup that holds wine or consecrated water, symbolic of Water and used to represent the Feminine Principle. Other tools include:
  • Boline: The white-handled knife, used for actually cutting or inscribing tools; the "working knife."
  • Censer: A dish or hanging thurible used for burning incense.
  • Scourge: A short handled whip-like device made up of multiple leather strands, the scourge is used in purification and consciousness alteration, particularly when combined with binding of the limbs by cords.
  • Cords: Also called the "witch's ladder," cords and rope are used for a variety of purposes. Given at initiations to represent new degrees, used in "cord magic," and often worn as a belt or cingulum, cords find a great number of uses in witchcraft.
  • Besom: A besom, or broom, is used to symbolically brush or sweep negative energies out of the ritual working space or home. It is also a symbol of sexuality in certain sects, and riding a broom is a piece of fertility sympathetic magic.
  • Cauldron: Symbolic of the Goddess' womb/tomb, wherein souls enter after death to be reincarnated, the cauldron often features in rites of witchcraft. Sometimes the cauldron is filled with water, with a mirror in its bottom, for scrying purposes, while in other instances a flame is kindled in it to represent new life in the womb.
  • Stang: A staff or rod with a forked piece at the top, stangs serve a variety of functions. In some, they act as the center of the altar, placed behind it, forks upward, representing the twin powers of masculine and feminine divinity merging into one whole. In others, they serve the same function in ritual as a witch's broom, likely hearkening back to agricultural times when the woman's implement was likely to be a broom, and the man's a hay-fork. "Riding the stang" has the same connotations as riding the broom, above.
• The Magic Circle: Unlike ceremonial magic, the witch's circle does not exist to keep things outside of it. Rather, the witch's circle acts to contain and gather the power that is raised within it, acting as a focus to concentrate it before it is released into the world. Not all magic in witchcraft is required to be worked within a circle, though many prefer to do so anyway. All of the Craft's sacred rites are required to be performed within a circle. The act of creating a circle is essentially the creation of sacred space, wherein both Divinity and the attention of four entities (called the Watchers, with stellar, elemental and sometimes other attributions) who symbolize the entirety of the occult world drawn to witness the workings within the circle.

Higher Mysteries

• Herb & Stone Lore (•••): As users of extensive symbolism, witches that use appropriate correspondences in spontaneous or Traditional rotes above and beyond what is called for by the working can receive tangible benefits. Utilizing at least three correspondences can gain a Correspondence Points, while using at least five can gain 2 Correspondence Points. These points can be spent to negate dice pool penalties applied to spellcasting at one point per die. They may also be used to negate Paradox dice at a rate of one point per die. The witch may also spend two points to negate the effects of including one additional spell as combined casting (negating the increased Arcana requirements or -2 penalty), though this doesn't offset the Gnosis required to perform such a feat in the first place.
• Cone of Power (••••): When performing ritual spellcasting for either Tradition rotes or spontaneous magic, a witch may raise a cone of power to enliven her spell. Additionally, other witches (that is, Sleepers, Sleepwalkers and other Awakened with the Magical Tradition: Witchcraft Merit) may also aid her in this. The first interval of extended spellcasting uses a Stamina + Expression +[Arcanum] +1 per witch assisting in the roll rather than the normal roll, and involves dancing and chanting the entire time. Everyone participating must spend 1 Mana or 1 WP to grant their bonus. Successes on this roll are applied to the Target Number of the spell as normal for the spell in question - this ability simply grants a different first dice pool and permits the assistance of other witches. Subsequent rolls use the normal dice pool for the spell inquestion, but the coven may continue to assist, rolling Stamina + Expression at a penalty equal to -1 per ten minutes of dancing and chanting. Failing this roll means that witch's personal energy has lagged, and she ceases to contribute anything for the rest of the rite.
• Poppets & Sigils (•••••): A witch working her Craft on a far away target may draw on the deep primal links of sympathy with an innate understanding of such things, rather than the knowledge that comes with Space magics. When using Tradition Rotes in extended spell casting, and using a sympathetic link of at least Known intensity, the witch does not need to use Space to cast the spell sympathetically. This also negates the 1 Mana cost for sympathetic spells.

Typical Witchcraft Rotes

The following are some of the most commonly taught witchcraft rotes.

Sense of Strangers (Fate •)

• Spell: Interconnections
• Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Fate
• Factor Bonuses: Speaking to the target for one minute +1, for ten minutes +2
• Tradition Rote: The witch must provide some kind of nurturing for the person in question, whether splitting a dessert, sharing tea or helping them perform some task.

Figa & Spittle (Fate ••)

• Spell: The Evil Eye
• Dice Pool: Presence + Occult + Fate
• Factor Bonuses: Makes the figa at target one turn before +1, Spits on target one turn before +1
• Tradition Rote: The curse must be laid on the new or waning moons to be considered a Tradition Rote.

Cat's Eye (Forces •)

• Spell: Nightsight
• Dice Pool: Wits + Animal Ken + Forces
• Factor Bonuses: Cat whisker or fur +1, Looking into a cat’s eyes +2
• Tradition Rote: Cat must either be a Familiar (if using Factor Bonuses) or spell performed ritually

Kiss of the Horned Lord (Life •)

• Spell: Sense Life
• Dice Pool: Wits + Survival + Life
• Factor Bonuses: Idol of the Horned One +1, piece of deer antler +1
• Tradition Rote: This must be performed in a wilderness setting, or during the night of the full moon to be considered a Tradition Rote.

Witch-Flesh (Life ••)

• Spell: Organic Resilience
• Dice Pool: Wits + Occult + Life
• Factor Bonuses: Bloodstone +1
• Tradition Rote: Cast during the summer or during a full moon

Song of Healing (Life •••)

• Spell: Healing Heart
• Dice Pool: Presence + Expression + Life
• Factor Bonuses: Singing healing chant for one turn +1, For one minute +2
• Tradition Rote: Cast as an extended Ritual spellcasting.