If you are interested in becoming a Traditional Crafter, a Traditional Witch, here is where to start. With all the misinformation drifting around about this topic it is best to start with some basic essentials. When I was first starting out I wanted to get into the “fun stuff” you know, when do you get to work with tools? And rituals? Spells? Those are all interesting aspects of the Craft but you really must learn some central skills and techniques that will be useful in all those activities later on. Fortunately it is easier than you may think.
Let me share some of my own experience. I can vividly remember visiting an old family friend in the woods to the north of where I lived, it was a small home he owned and built himself. For as long as I can remember he had been a Crafter and I was always interested in what he practiced. I would always knock three times and then he would answer, the smell of aromatic dried herbs hit you as you walked into his small cottage. The first time I visited him I was not sure what to expect, would he teach me a spell, or some sort of ceremony?
I could not have been more mistaken. When I got there he took me out the back door that opened directly into the forest. We walked deep into the woods where the ancient trees grew. Finally he stopped and told me to sit on an old stump. He told me to sit perfectly still, to close my eyes and calm my mind. After a while I became very aware of my surroundings and sensitive to nature itself. I could feel the sway of the trees and the breeze that moved them; I could hear the flutter of even the tiniest of winged insects, smell the amber colored leaves as they fell from the trees, and even tastes the lingering moistness left over from summer rains. It was peaceful and wonderful, nothing had even felt this real to me.
He explained afterward that the lesson he was trying to teach me was to “Go Within,” to focus the mind, it is what some might call meditation. Being in the forest is a great place to Go Within, and to grow closer to nature. These are the first two steps a new seeker should take: Go Within, and become closer to nature.
You can Go Within in your home, outside, or anyplace. The idea is to focus, to turn off all the distractive thoughts that race through the mind every second of our lives. This “mental noise” prevents us from seeing clearly; but if we can focus on just one thing we can tune out all the other distractions. This is a vital ability in the Traditional Craft, and is a basic skill used in Traditional Magic. Our modern society has become dominated by industrialization and commercialization; too non-thinking, hectic, and automatic. nature is often an afterthought, but getting close to nature is exactly what a new seeker needs to do.
Free eBooks (Can Be Downloaded):
Howard Williams - The Superstitions Of WitchcraftSwain Wodening - Anglo Saxon Witchcraft
Alexander Roberts - A Treatise Of Witchcraft
Michael Bailey - Historical Dictionary Of Witchcraft
