When we were initiated in 1970, we were taught that ‘only a witch can make a witch’. In other words, the only way to become a witch was to be initiated by another witch, of the appropriate degree and of the opposite sex to oneself. That was probably the view of the Craft as a whole at the time, and we accepted it ourselves.
We still believe that it is a good rule to follow wherever possible, because it means that a new witch starts his or her training under the guidance of an experienced initiator, and usually as a member of an existing coven. Mistakes are less hazardous, misunderstandings are more quickly cleared up, and the learning process is much quicker. Anything is better learned by apprenticeship than by lone study.
But we no longer believe, at this stage of the Craft’s history, that it should be inflexible. Moreover, insistence on it is unrealistic; a large section of today’s Craft (and by no means necessarily an inferior section) either is self-initiated or stems from people who were self-initiated.
For example, it is very doubtful whether Alex Sanders was ever ‘legitimately’ initiated, according to the strict rules which he himself taught us. It is known that he tried very hard to get himself admitted to more than one Gardnerian coven, and failed; it seems that finally he somehow got his hands on a copy of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows and on that basis founded his own. (His story that he copied his Book of Shadows from his grandmother’s when he was a boy cannot be true, because that would have been many years before the text, as he had it, was in fact compiled by Gardner and Valiente.) Does that mean that the whole Alexandrian movement (which includes some very fine covens indeed) is ‘illegitimate’ and that its members are not real witches?
Such a claim belongs in the realm of fantasy. Whatever one thinks of Alex himself, many of the initiates who stemmed from him and Maxine, at first, second or third hand, are real witches by anyone’s standards.
Wicca is a way of looking at the world, and of living in it, which has ancient roots but is highly relevant to our own time. As such, it will be practised by those who are naturally drawn to it, and this growth cannot be contained or limited by insistence on any Wiccan Apostolic Succession.1 If you are naturally drawn to it, your best course is to be initiated and trained by existing witches if that is possible. If it is not, you are perfectly justified in setting up shop on your own initiative — preferably with a like-minded working partner and perhaps a small group of friends.
As Doreen Valiente says in Witchcraft for Tomorrow: ‘You have a right to be a pagan if you want to be…. So do not let anyone browbeat you out of it’ — including, presumably, pedantically minded pagans. She goes on to quote Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as published by the United Nations. Article 18 is well worth study; and incidentally, as far as our own country is concerned, the same freedom of religious belief and practice is guaranteed by Article 44 of the Constitution of Ireland.
If you want to become a practising witch (in both the religious and the Craft sense) and have no way of joining an existing coven, you should first study the basic philosophy of Wicca and be sure inside yourself that you are in tune with it. Thirty or forty years ago, that would have been very difficult indeed. Today you have the writings of Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente, Patricia and Arnold Crowther, Justine Glass, Lois Bourne, ourselves and others, which from their individual but overlapping viewpoints will give you quite complete enough a picture to answer the question ‘Is this for me?’
If the answer is a genuine ‘Yes’, you can do one of two things. The first is to take a very simple system of ritual and practice, and to work with it until you feel thoroughly at home with it. By then you will begin to know intuitively whether, and in what way, you want to complicate it. Needs and responses differ; one Christian may get deep spiritual benefit from a Quaker meeting, another from a High Mass; and the Wiccan spectrum is just as wide.
For this approach, the ideal handbook is Doreen Valiente’s Witchcraft for Tomorrow, because that is the purpose for which it was written. In it, Doreen sums up the principles and practices of witchcraft and offers a simple but meaningful Liber Umbrarum or Book of Shadows which includes casting the Circle, self-initiation, consecration, a full-moon esbat rite, a sabbat rite, initiation into the coven, coven spell-working, invocations, chants and dances. Simple, but certainly not childish; there is no witch, however experienced, who could not benefit from studying it.
The second way is to take the whole structure of an established Wiccan system and to work from that. The Gardnerian structure would seem to be the only one which is comprehensively available; and part of our purpose in writing this book and Eight Sabbats for Witches has been to provide the basic material for this second choice, just as Doreen’s Witchcraft for Tomorrow provided it for the first choice.
(To be quite fair, Raymond Buckland’s book The Tree, the Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft also offers an entire system, including self-initiation. It is frankly an ‘invented’ system, which Dr Buckland synthesized himself out of Saxon mythology and symbology and named ‘Seax-Wica’. It is a viable system for those of Saxon background or leanings, and it is none the worse for having been synthesized. Apart from the book itself, more information can be had from Seax-Wica Voys, PO Box 5149, Virginia Beach, Va 23455, USA. But our own books, like Doreen’s, are concerned with the Gardnerian tradition, which is basically Celtic; so we will merely set up this Saxon signpost for those who are interested to follow.)
Having decided on your basic pattern, how do you start?
If you are to be a solo witch, even if you intend to follow the full Gardnerian system as far as possible, you could still follow the self-initiation ritual from Witchcraft for Tomorrow, because the whole of it was conceived for that purpose. But if you prefer to start with a more typically Gardnerian ritual, then use the form we give at the end of this Section.
Every witch must pay continuous attention to the still small voice within, and give it the time and the conditions in which it can speak; that is what witchcraft is all about. It is the voice of the Unconscious, both Personal and Collective; and the more we perfect our sensitivity to its message, the more clearly it becomes the voice of the Goddess and the God as well (and the better we will understand what those words ‘as well’ mean). But for the solo witch it is even more important, if that is possible, because he or she is without fellow-workers to check on mistakes or self-deception. For the same reason, the solo witch should be especially meticulous about magical ethics and about psychic self-defence.
The path of a self-initiated solo witch has many possible pitfalls, of which the loneliness of the expanding psyche is not the least. We strongly recommend that the self-initiate should start on the path with a working partner or as one of a small group. The partnership should be a man and a woman, and if it is a group, it should include at least one woman, for the reasons of polarity which we have already discussed in depth. A two-woman initial partnership would be workable, if no suitable man could be found; but a two-man partnership would tend to be magically unfruitful.
Given a partnership, we suggest that the woman should initiate herself first, in her partner’s presence, by whichever ritual is chosen, and that she should then initiate the man. In the case of a group, a High Priestess and High Priest should be agreed upon beforehand; the chosen High Priestess should initiate herself in the presence of the others, and then initiate the chosen High Priest. Thereafter she will initiate the men, and he the women. In due course, when they feel they are ready, the High Priest should give the High Priestess her second degree initiation, immediately followed by her giving the second degree to him (in this instance, the Legend of the Descent of the Goddess being performed once only, as a climax to the dual initiation). And when the time comes, they will take their third degree together.
The only self-initiation should be the unavoidable first one. Once that is done, each member should be initiated by an already-initiated witch; and after the High Priestess and High Priest have given each other their higher degrees, the whole of the normal rule should be adhered to, that only a third-degree witch may confer the third degree on another. The rule is a good one, with sound reasons behind it, and self-initiation should be seen to be an exceptional procedure to be used only when no other is available.
(The simplified system of Witchcraft for Tomorrow does not include the idea of second-or third-degree witches, so if that is being followed, only the first part of the rule arises.)
One tip for all self-made witches, whether solo or group — keep in touch with current thinking, development and controversy within the Craft and the pagan movement in general. Read such Craft newsletters as The Cauldron — which incidentally contains exchange advertisements for other pagan magazines and newsletters. Involve yourself in any local pagan or occult activities such as symposia, lectures or fairs — but cautiously until you have weighed up their genuineness.
We have composed this ritual for first degree self-initiation to meet the needs of those who have no alternative to self-initiation but who wish to adhere as closely as possible to a typically Gardnerian pattern.
As elsewhere, we have simplified things by referring to the self-initiate as ‘she’ throughout (and her partner, if one is present, as ‘he’), but the changes for a man are obvious.
The tools on the altar (in addition to candles) should at least be the sword, athame, white-handled knife, wand, pentacle, censer of incense, scourge, cords, chalice of wine, anointing oil, bowl of water, bowl of salt and a necklace or pendant.
The Initiate, and the Partner or anyone else who is present in the Circle, should be skyclad — the Initiate completely so; any jewellery which she normally wears all the time, such as a wedding ring, should be laid on the altar for putting on again after the rite. (Some wedding rings have become irremovable with time, and leaving such a ring in place may be forgiven.)
The initiate consecrates the water and salt, casts the Circle (with anyone else who is present already inside it), carries round the water (sprinkling anyone who is present and finally herself), carries round the censer, carries round the candle and summons the Lords of the Watchtowers — doing all this herself.
If her Partner is present, he gives her the Fivefold Kiss.
She faces the altar and raises her arms high and wide.2 She says:
‘I invoke thee and call upon thee, Mighty Mother of us all, bringer of all fruitfulness; by seed and root, by stem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit do I invoke thee to bless this rite, and to admit me to the company of thy hidden children.’
She then stands with her back to the altar and recites the whole of the Charge, but substituting ‘she’, ‘her’, ‘hers’ for ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’, ‘mine’.
She then faces the altar again with her arms raised and her hands giving the ‘Horned God’ salute (forefinger and little finger straight, thumb and middle fingers folded into palm) and delivers the ‘Great God Cernunnos’ invocation.
Now she sits or kneels in the centre of the Circle facing the altar. If others are present, they sit or kneel behind her. She pauses to calm herself completely and then says:
‘Gentle Goddess, powerful God; I am your child, now and always. Your breath is my life. Your voice, Great Mother, and yours, Great Father, speak within me, as they do in all your creatures, if we will only listen. Therefore here in your Magic Circle, which stand between the world of men and the realm of the Mighty Ones, do I open my heart to your blessing.’
She then meditates in silence on the Goddess and the God, and indeed opens her heart to them. She continues to do this for as long as feels right to her.
If others are present, they will envisage themselves as a protection for her, holding back any influence which might interfere with her communication with the Goddess and the God. Her Partner will be aware of his role as her guardian and student and will dedicate himself to that role. If a group is present, they will be aware that their High Priestess, keystone of their new coven, is being dedicated to that position on behalf of them all.
When she is ready, she will rise (and anyone else present will rise too). She will then go to each of the cardinal points in turn, and say:
‘Take heed, ye Lords of the East [South, West, North], that I, — , am properly prepared to become a priestess and witch.’
Then, standing in front of the altar with her right hand on her heart, she takes the Oath:
‘I, — , in the presence of the Mighty Ones, do of my own free will and accord most solemnly swear that I ever keep secret and never reveal those secrets of the Craft which shall be entrusted to me, except it be to a proper person, properly prepared within a Circle such as I am now in; and that I will never deny the secrets to such a person if he or she be properly vouched for by a brother or sister of the Art. All this I swear by my hopes of a future life; and may my weapons turn against me if I break this my solemn oath.’
She bows to the altar and then fetches the anointing oil. She moistens her fingertip with the oil and says:
‘I hereby sign myself with the Triple Sign. I consecrate myself with oil.’
She touches herself with oil just above the pubic hair, on her right breast, on her left breast, and above the pubic hair again, completing the inverted triangle of the First Degree.
She moistens her fingertip with wine, says ‘I anoint myself with wine’ and touches herself in the same places with the wine.
She then kisses her fingertip, says ‘I consecrate myself with my lips’, touches herself in the same three places (kissing the fingertip again before each touch) and continues: ‘priestess and witch’.
If others are present, the ritual is interrupted for congratulations to the newly self-initiated witch.
When this has been done, the ritual continues with the new witch taking up each of the working tools in turn from the altar and giving the following explanations. (She kisses each tool before replacing it.)
‘Now I take up the Working Tools. First, the Magic Sword. With this, as with the Athame, I can form all magic circles, dominate, subdue and punish all rebellious spirits and demons, and even persuade angels and good spirits. With this in my hand, I am the ruler of the Circle.
‘Next I take up the Athame. This is the true witch’s weapon, and has all the power of the Magic Sword.
‘Next I take up the White-Hilted Knife. Its use is to form all instruments used in the Art. It can only be used in a Magic Circle.
‘Next I take up the Wand. Its use is to call up and control certain angels and genii to whom it would not be meet to use the Magic Sword.
‘Next I take up the Cup. This is the vessel of the Goddess, the Cauldron of Cerridwen, the Holy Grail of Immortality. From this, brothers and sisters of the Art drink in comradeship, and in honour of the Goddess.3
‘Next I take up the Pentacle. This is for the purpose of calling up appropriate spirits.
‘Next I take up the Censer of Incense. This is to encourage and welcome good spirits and to banish evil spirits.
‘Next I take up the Scourge. This is the sign of power and domination. It is also used to cause purification and enlightenment. For it is written, “To learn you must suffer and be purified.”.
‘Next and lastly I take up the Cords. They are of use to bind the sigils of the Art, and also the material basis.’
She then takes up the necklace and puts it round her neck, saying:
‘With the Necklace, which is the Circle of Rebirth, I seal my commitment to the Craft of the Wise.’
Finally, she goes to each of the cardinal points in turn and, with her arms raised, says:
‘Hear ye, Mighty Ones of the East [South, West, North]; I, — , have been duly consecrated priestess, witch, and hidden child of the Goddess.’