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                                             History 
       
                                  (c) 1988, by Weyland Smith and 
                                 The Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal 
       
                     "Mommy, how old are we?"  Does our faith come down to us in 
                Apostolic succession from "that time whereof the memory of man 
                runneth not to the contrary", or was our religion dreamed up in 
                          the nineteenfortiesbyaretiredBritishcivilservantwiththe
                      collaboration ofa dyingheroin addictandpoet? Does itreally 
            matter? 
       
                                    To
                                     whatextent
                                              themodern
                                                      practitionersof
                                                                    paganismmay
                                                                              lay
                      ajust claimto themantleof theirpredecessorsfrom thetwelfth 
                    centuryhas beena matterof greatdebate bothwithin andwithout  
            the Craft community almost from the moment Gerald Gardner 
                published _Witchcraft Today in 1954.*1*  Though the debate is 
                continued with somewhat less fervor today than it was in the 
                          1960s,ithasnever whollyceasedanditcontinuesto beaCrisis
               of Faith which besets many practitioners of paganism every year. 
       
                                    Itcan
                                        beatroubling
                                                   questionto
                                                            face,especiallyif
                                                                            one's
              early teachers tried to justify their credentials by claiming 
                that what they taught had great antiquity.  The question isn't 
                any easier to answer with truth or objectivity when there is a 
                          bunch
                              ofradicalfundamentalistsrunningaroundseekingtoclaim
              that we aren't really a religion and so of course we aren't 
                entitled to protection under the First Amendment. 
       
                     It is a sign of progress, I think, that there seems to be 
                less of that sort of teaching today than there was when I began 
                my studies.  Today most of the teachers that I know are secure 
                enough in their religion that they can face the staggering 
                thought that the ethical and philosophical system that guides 
                their lives may indeed be younger than some of them are.  The 
                plain fact is that we simply don't know. 
       
                                    Gerald
                                         Gardnerand
                                                  CharlesLeland*2*
                                                                 mayhave
                                                                       triedto
                                                                             palm
              fiction off on the world as fact.  It's certainly been tried 
                before--and since.  On the other hand, they may each have been 
                reporting the truth as they found it.  It certainly is a fact 
                          thatnoone Iknowhasever comeacrossany BookofShadowsthat 
              dates before the beginning of this century.  Presumably, if one 
                          exists,sayintheBritishMuseum, itwouldhavebecomeknownto 
              scholars looking into the subject over the last half century.  
                          GrantedthattherewaslessburninginEnglandthan elsewherein
              Europe, but there was enough that surely some physical evidence 
                would have survived in the hands of the government if nowhere 
                else. 
        
                                    The
                                      VaticanLibrary,of
                                                      coursemayyet
                                                                 turnup
                                                                      sucharelic.
                          Theirfailure todosoat thistimecanbeexplained aseasilyby
               the lack of such a document as by a possible desire to suppress 
                it.  We may never know that one, but when push comes to shove, 
                does it really matter? 
       
                                    Thomas
                                         Jefferson,
                                                  speakingon
                                                           the
                                                             questionof
                                                                      whether
                                                                            black
              colonial slaves were Americans or not is said to have remarked 
 
 
                                                                              788
 
                "They're people and they're here.  If there's any other 
                          requirement,Ihaven'theardofit."Perhapswemightparaphrase
               Jefferson a bit and remark that the modern practitioners of 
                Witchcraft are undeniably here and a large number of them are 
                          sincere intheirbeliefs. Thatinitselfshouldqualify usasa
              religion. 
       
                     Perhaps as important as the legal question is our own self 
                image.  Would a "real witch" from the middle ages recognize or 
                          disownone ofhersisters oftoday? Wouldshewant togowith a
              "New Age" circle, a Dianic grove, a Gardnerian coven, or would 
                she laugh hysterically at the bunch of us and walk off into the 
                sunset? 
       
                     While the antiquity of our current practice of witchcraft 
                shouldn't be a matter of serious concern, to us _or to our 
                          detractors,itsauthenticityshouldbe.Thesearchforourroots
               must continue to be pursued by serious scholars and magicians 
                alike in order that we may come as close as possible to the 
                          ideals andpurposesofourancientpredecessors.Thereisavery
              practical reason why this is so.  That reason is tied up in 
                          somethingcalledan_egregore. Onthesubjectofan egregore,I
              would like to quote extensively from a recent article in _Gnosis 
                by Gaetan Delaforge: 
       
                ..."An egregore is a kind of group mind which is created when 
                          peopleconsciouslycometogetherforacommonpurpose.Whenever
              people gather together to do something and egregore is formed, 
                          butunlessanattemptismadetomaintain itdeliberatelyitwill
                        dissipaterather quickly.Howeverifthe peoplewishtomaintain
              it and know the techniques of how to do so, the egregore will 
                continue to grow in strength and can last for centuries.   
       
                An egregore has the characteristic of having an effectiveness 
                greater than the mere sum of its individual members.  It 
                continuously interacts with its members, influencing them and 
                being influenced by them.  The interaction works positively by 
                stimulating and assisting its members but only as long as they 
                          behaveand actinlinewith itsoriginalaim.It willstimulate
              both individually and collectively all those faculties in the 
                          groupwhichwillpermittherealizationoftheobjectivesof its
              original program.  If this process is continued a long time the 
                egregore will take on a kind of life of its own, and can become 
                so strong that even if all its members should die, it would 
                continue to exist on the inner dimensions and can be contacted 
                even centuries later by a group of people prepared to live the 
                          livesoftheoriginalfounders,particularlyiftheyarewilling
              to provide the initial input of energy to get it going again. 
 
 
                                                                              789
 
       
                If the egregore is concerned with spiritual or esoteric 
                activities its influence will be even greater.  People who 
                          discoverthekeyscantapinonapowerfulegregorerepresenting,
               for example, a spiritual or esoteric tradition, will, if they 
                follow the line described above by activating and maintaining 
                          suchanegregore,obtainaccesstotheabilities,knowledge,and
                      driveofall thathasbeen accumulatedin thategregoresince its 
                    beginnings.  Agroup ororder whichmanages to dothis can,with  
           a clear conscience, claim to be an authentic order of the 
                tradition represented by that egregore.  In my view this is the 
                only yardstick by which a genuine Templar order should be 
                measured."*3* 
       
                                    Mr.
                                      Delaforgewas
                                                 writingabout
                                                            theKnights
                                                                     Templarand
                                                                              the
                      various groupsclaimingto representitin moderntimes, butthe 
            parallel with ancient witchcraft and the many diverse groups 
                          claimingto representittodayisobvious. Ihopethebenefitto
               be gained by reconstructing as faithfully as possible the 
                attitudes and goals of our ancient brethren is equally obvious. 
       
                     In her books "The Sea Priestess" and "Moon Magic", Dion 
                Fortune was demonstrating this technique.  Vivien LeFay Morgan 
                          wasattemptingnothinglessthanthe
                                                        reactivationoftheegregore
               of the Atlantean priesthood. 
       
                     When Gerald Gardner published "Witchcraft Today", he 
                embarked upon the outward steps of his part of the reactivation 
                of the egregore of the old witch cult in western Europe.  The 
                inward steps were probably begun by one or more of the magical 
                          lodgesof
                                 theearlytwentiethcentury,mostlikelyDionFortune's
               Society of the Inner Light during its "pagan phase" in the late 
                          twentiesandthirties.*4*Gardner'spublic
                                                               worksservedtobring
               the reactivated egregore into contact with an increasingly 
                receptive populace where it could gather unto itself the 
                          additionalpsychicenergyitneededtobecomeonceagainaviable
               force in the world.  How well it has achieved this end is to be 
                observed by anyone with the eyes to see.   
       
       
                     I personally think that our job in this generation is to 
                deepen and strengthen our ties with this newly reawakened force 
                in the world; to learn from it and to draw inspiration from it, 
                and to bring the Craft back from the status of a "cult" to that 
                of a genuine religion.  To do this we must learn more of the 
                          goals,ideals,andambitionsofourbrothersandsisterswhohave
               gone before--as they really were, not as we would like them to 
                have been. 
 
 
                                                                              790
 
                                    Please
                                         notethat
                                                theidea
                                                      isnot
                                                          necessarilyto
                                                                      recreatethe
               _practices of our predecessors, particularly if we are talking 
                about things like blood sacrifice.  One should note that this 
                          practicewasfollowedby thejewsinbiblicaltimes,but thatin
                      moderntimes theydon't doit. This doesnot keepthemodern jew 
                    frominteracting withthe egregoreof hisancient faith. Judaism 
            has surely progressed since the time of the Ceasars, so has the 
                Craft.  The idea, when activating and interacting with an 
                egregore is to re-create the _goals and _attitudes of the 
                founders.  That doesn't freeze the practitioner into practices 
                which have long since been outgrown. 
       
                                    WhatI
                                        thinkweneednow
                                                     ismorerealscholarship.
                                                                          Whatdid
                        Samhainreallymean toourpredecessors;or Beltane;orImbolc? 
                    Not only howdid theycelebrate it,but how didthey _feelabout  
                it? Platitudes about"fruitfulness and fertility"are simplytoo    
              superficial. This is not madeany easier by the factthat these      
        observances were pastoral and agricultural while most of us are 
                city dwellers who do well to keep a potted plant alive through 
                one summer. 
       
                     An attempt in this direction was made by the Holy Order of 
                          SaintBrigitnearFortMorgan,Coloradoabout tenyearsago.The
               farm is gone now and its residents are scattered, yet it cannot 
                be said to have entirely failed of its purpose.  Many of the 
                former participants in the experiments can be found today, 
                quietly practicing the Craft. 
       
                This is not to say that we all should sell our goods, quit our 
                jobs, and move out into communes somewhere, but we must at the 
                          leastestablishcloseenoughcontactwiththeharshrealitiesof
              this world that we can appreciate how frightening the onset of 
                winter must have been to those who had no central heating, food 
                          storesorwelfare tofallback upon.Whenwe havedonethis, we
                      will,perhaps,be ableto recapturethemindset ofthePriestess  
            at Samhain. 
       
       
                     These truths are not to be found in the Fantasy fiction 
                          sectionofB.Dalton's,butinthehistoryandanthropologylibr-
               aries of our local universities.  The reading is much dryer and 
                          lessfun,but ittalksaboutthe peopleasthey reallywere.It 
                      isn't afantasy worldto hidefromreality in,but neitheris it 
            a dead end.  It can take us back in time and forward in our 
                          understandingsothatwemayreallycontacttheancientreligion
              of witchcraft as it was, learn from it, and pass it on, 
                rejuvenated and strengthened to our children. 
 
 
                                                                              791
 
 
       
                                              Notes 
       
                1.   Gerald B. Gardner, _Witchcraft _Today, (London: Rider and 
                     Company, 1954) reprinted (New York: Citadel Press, 1971) 
       
                2.   Charles Godfrey Leland, _Aradia, _or _Gospel _of _the 
                     _Witches, (London: David Nutt, 1899; reprinted (New York: 
                     Samuel Weiser, 1974) 
       
                          3.GaetanDelaforge,_Gnosis,"TheTemplarTradition:
                                                                        yesterday
                     and today", No. 6, (Winter 1988), pp 8-13. 
       
                4.   Alan Richardson, _Dancers _to _the _Gods, (London: The 
                     Aquarian Press, 1985) 
 
 
                                                                              792
 


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