What Is the Temple
of High Witchcraft?
Once I had delved into the more primal shamanic arts of the witch and integrated them into my practice, I still felt a gap in my magickal education. My first teachers each had a vast magickal library, with both the popular, modern books and the classic magickal texts, the old grimoires of Solomon and the medieval books of occult philosophies. I thumbed through these old books and must admit that, even though they were written in old-style English, they might as well have been written in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, because I didn’t really understand them. These books contained various alphabets, codices of spirits to summon for a variety of purposes, and the consecration of ritual tools with bizarre and seemingly impractical ingredients. Most of them had a strong Christian slant to them. I didn’t know why my witchcraft teachers had them or how they could be used. The whole topic of medieval magick seemed a little beyond me, yet it fascinated me. It was like a grammar school student picking up a college textbook, knowing there were important things in it but lacking the context to understand it. In witchcraft training, we learned bits and pieces of information associated with the Qabalah, tarot, Rosicrucian breathing exercises, and Hermetic philosophy, but we didn’t understand the systems that wove them all together. I was told that they were “high magick” and that perhaps someday I would take an interest in the subject. At the time, I didn’t think so. But eventually I did.
I got so interested in this form of high magick that I almost put my witchcraft practice on the back burner. I sought out a lot of the classic magickal texts and puzzled over them. Soon I met an amazing man who had much more information and practical experience with high magick, who explained to me the rituals of high magick, also known as ceremonial magick, in terms of my more traditional witchcraft. He introduced me to modern books that dissected the old texts and distilled their wisdom into a more digestible format. I soon noticed the similarities between the workings of the witch and those of the ceremonial magician. The circle, the four watchtowers, the summoning of spirits and angels, and the use of elemental and planetary correspondences are common to both. I could see the influence of high magick on my own tradition of witchcraft in the very structure and words of the rituals. I learned that some initiatory traditions of witchcraft train their students extensively in the arts of high magick. I never had this training, so I sought it out on my own. As I researched, I learned that many of the modern Craft founders had some knowledge of or involvement in high magick, and that the histories of both witchcraft and high magick were deeply interwoven. One might say that the modern forefathers of the Craft relied heavily on the knowledge preserved in the ceremonial manuscripts. It is only natural that one complements the other. Though seen as two separate traditions now, they most likely have a similar spiritual, if not historical, origin.
Older witchcraft books written in the twentieth century—not by New Age practitioners writing for practitioners but by those authors collecting folk history, charms, and esoteric pictures—never fail to include information on alchemy, Qabalah, spirit summoning, tarot, and many notable ceremonial magicians, including Cornelius Agrippa, John Dee, Eliphas Lévi, Aleister Crowley and the members of the Golden Dawn, in their descriptions of the history and practice of witchcraft. These books, not having practical instructions or modern spells, were less popular among new practitioners, but they point out a valuable part of our history that many modern witches ignore.
With this tutor’s help, I began to integrate the practices of high magick into my own spiritual working. Knowledge of the Qabalah, and the Tree of Life, gave me a more detailed framework in which I could place my experiences, correspondences, and theology. This integral symbol of the Western magickal mysteries gave me a working model that detailed the universe with more depth than I had previously understood. It gave me a context for my own spiritual awakenings on the path. I found this new knowledge invaluable, and in the end, it only served to deepen my devotion to the Goddess and God and my practice of witchcraft as a tradition of spiritual evolution.
Ceremonial magick gave me a range of knowledge and understanding that expanded my worldview. The use of many cultural associations, from the mysteries of the East to alchemy and the ancient mysteries of Egypt and Greece, opened me up to a worldview of magick. Even the Judeo-Christian associations helped heal my division from my birth religion and allowed me to recognize and honor the mystic traditions in both of those mainstream faiths, even if they were not for me in this lifetime.
As I eventually took on students of my own and began teaching my traditions to others, I struggled to present this material to my circle of modern eclectic witches. The mysteries of ceremonial magick often frighten the witch. They are seen as too male, too intellectual, too complicated, formal, and stuffy. People want freedom and creativity, and I do too, but I found in my study of music and art that when you seriously pursue something and want to know all about it, you have to learn the rules first in order to know how to break them and still be effective. In music training, you learn all the theory, how the classical composers did things, and the evolution of music. In the modern era, we have the freedom to compose anything we want, in any manner we want, but some of the best modern compositions come from those who have studied and integrated the classics. You have to know, as a tradition, where you have been, where your roots are, in order to know where you are going. Then you have the freedom and knowledge to adapt things, and do so effectively. A lot of people do rituals with no rules, no structure, no theory, and then wonder why their spells don’t work. Part of training in any art, if you hope to be a part of its present and future, is having enough respect for the tradition to know where it comes from and how it has evolved. I have studied art, music, and now magick, and have found this to be true of all three disciplines.
When I shared with my peers the books I was studying and working from, I got mostly blank stares or jokes. When I asked if they had read up on ceremonial magick, most had not. They didn’t know what they were missing, even to find out that it wasn’t for them. They didn’t seek out new horizons and challenge their perceptions and understanding of magick. There will come a point in your magickal training when you will want to know about all forms of magick, even if you don’t practice them. I wanted to be educated about magick. I wanted to know why my teachers had the medieval grimoires on their shelves. The wise witches I knew had an understanding of this brand of magick, even if they didn’t practice ceremonial magick as their main tradition.
Many people would not consider ceremonial magick to be under the heading of witchcraft, but the more I studied, the more I realized, using my wide definition of witchcraft, that the ceremonial arts are one of the main branches of the Craft. We can see our ancestors in the ceremonial priestesses and priests of the ancient civilizations. In my own curriculum, I soon included high magick as the fourth branch of training and corresponded it to the element of air, the element of the magician, the Mercury archetype, for it’s all about our thoughts, perceptions, and communication.
The first level, outlined in the first book in this series, The Inner Temple of Witchcraft, corresponds to the fire element and the inner spark of psychic development. The second level of training, found in The Outer Temple of Witchcraft, is associated with the earth element, focusing on the natural cycles, the four elements, spellcraft, and the magick circle ritual. The third level of training, encompassed in The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft, covers the shamanic practices of the witch and focuses on the element of water, reflections, shadow work, and crossing the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds. The book in your hands, the fourth in the series, can be used on its own as a study of high magick in the context of witchcraft or as part of the continuing education in the Temple of Witchcraft series of books. There are some exercises in The Temple of High Witchcraft that require information from the previous texts or that refer to more information in those books for a deeper understanding and connection; these are abbreviated as ITOW, OTOW, and TOSW, respectively, with a chapter or exercise number listed.
The Temple of High Witchcraft is a distillation of my own experiences and explorations in ceremonial magick. It is a workbook for your own study, based on the course I offer my own students. It starts with four introductory chapters, to better understand the background of the lesson material. These four chapters are followed by twelve lessons, each with exercises, rituals, and homework, to be explored in a year and a day, as is traditional for witchcraft training. The thirteenth lesson culminates in a ritual initiation fusing the traditions of witchcraft and high magick through exploring your own views and understanding of the universe.
This fourth level is much like the graduate studies of witchcraft for my students. It exposes them to a larger worldview than what is offered in most witchcraft books, much like higher education exposes students to a diverse range of topics, cultures, and people. This course challenges students’ beliefs, perceptions, and symbolism in their own magick and in their own life. One of the key words of the element of air is life, the breath of life, for it is through our air elemental energy that we perceive and seek to know the mysteries of life.
Each level of training presents a challenge. The Inner Temple’s challenge is to awaken, to realize that life is magickal and you carry the spark of flame within you. The Outer Temple’s challenge is to harmonize with the natural forces, usually through the cycles and seasons, to manifest the life you want. The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft’s challenge is emotional in nature, to find and face the shadow self and take responsibility for all that you have repressed. This fourth challenge is one of intellect, to stretch perceptions and step out of belief systems, and to find which thoughts and beliefs serve your spiritual evolution and which ones must be discarded or transformed. Ultimately, you will see your beliefs and models as tools rather than absolute truth.
The sword, blade, or athame is the tool of air, and in tarot cards, the suit of swords presents the most challenges, at least with only a casual observation. Most of the sword cards don’t look happy. They present challenges, conflicts, and miscommunications. In the outer world, they are perceived as challenges involving other people. In the inner world, they represent the conflict of the mind, of all aspects of the mind—our beliefs, thoughts, images, and preconceived notions that are in conflict with each other. The swords present the most problems because the mind is the inner tool, the gift that presents us with so many challenges. The body, heart, and soul all have their challenges, but the mind can be the most problematic. We learn to quiet the mind through meditation and ritual, and to see things from a different perspective, but as human beings, we still get caught up in our beliefs, in the zones of comfort that our minds hold, and feel threatened and challenged by new ideas or points of view. The job of the sword is to cut to the truth. But your truth is not necessarily my truth. Your truth is only one aspect of universal truth.
It is the job of the guardians of the air element, the Mercurial archetypal beings who often manifest as trickster spirits, to “trick” us out of our minds and see things from a new point of view. We soon realize that a point of view is just that—one way of looking at things—and that there are many ways, all with merit, to look at the universe, magick, and spirituality. It’s no coincidence that many of these trickster deities are also magicians. They are sages, scribes, and tutors in the magickal arts, but they are not always easy on us or kind. In the realm of Mercury we find the Egyptian Thoth; the Sumerian Nabu; the Norse Odin and his more maligned counterpart Loki; the Greek Hermes and the Roman Mercury; Merlin, the wild man magician; the African Legba, keeper of the doorways; and the Native American Coyote and Raven. Each reveals the mysteries, showing us that things are not always as they appear. They are the gods of magick, for the foundation of magick is a change in perception.
One of my favorite folk tales involves a trickster god. One version says this god is Odin, while others give credit to the Nigerian god Eshu. The god walks down the road that bisects the village wearing a special hat. The hat is colored red on one side and blue on the other. He turns his hat around and then walks back through the village. When people gather together and say, “Did you see the god in the blue hat?,” his neighbor responds with, “No, no, he had a red hat on his head.” Then they argue and fight. When two of the men who are brawling are taken before the king for judgment for their crime, the trickster god appears before them all and says, “It’s my fault. I did it, and I meant to do it. Spreading strife is my greatest joy.”
The two different views of god created two different paradigms, one based in blue and one in red. This is a metaphor for how many views we have of divinity. We each connect to the same source, the same power, yet come away with a different impression. Neither is completely correct. The trickster comes by and says, “You’re both right. And you’re both wrong.” You can never have the whole picture of divinity while you are in this life. Spiritual traditions are just a point of view, a perspective on the whole. Our religions, and even our magickal systems, are just like looking at the god in the hat. They are just a model, a point of view, and not the ultimate truth. We have problems when anyone who believes that his or her perspective is the perspective and the only way. We then get into dogma and fundamentalism. Even in paganism, magick, and New Age traditions, we can find the same fundamentalism we see in the mainstream institutional religions. The trickster’s role is to challenge us to get beyond it. His strife causes us to grow, change, and expand our point of view to include both colors of the hat. In witchcraft we have the model of the wheel of life, with forces rising and ascending, creating times of prosperity and peace and times of strife and blight, both of which are needed for the turning of the wheel. The wisdom is found in how we respond to the turning of the wheel.
If you are looking for a tradition to give you the “way,” then witchcraft, or ceremonial magick, is probably not for you. In each, there are many permutations. We honor the trickster, and actively invite his revelations, even though they might come with strife, because it’s in that challenge—to move beyond our comfort zones—that we grow. As for this book, if you are looking for traditional guidance on ceremonial magick in the style of the Golden Dawn, Thelema, or any of the numerous modern lodges, you’ve picked up the wrong book. If you are looking for one book to tell you the way to do a particular ritual, you will be disappointed. If, however, you are looking to understand the rituals of ceremonial magick and their potential relationship to witchcraft, and how you can integrate these practices into your life as a witch, then you are on the right path.
The Temple of High Witchcraft takes a deconstructionist approach to ceremonial magick. In each lesson, we will explore each level of the traditional Tree of Life through intellectual understanding of the correspondences, along with ritual and meditation. The traditional rituals of high magick will be explored in their more commonly accepted forms as practiced in the last century, but each ritual will be dissected, to understand each part and its purpose for the ritual. Then you will be given the option to learn the ritual in its original form, explore alternate versions of the ritual created by others, or reconstruct the ritual using symbolism, words, and images that work best for you. Many witches choose to rework the part of the ritual that contains Judeo-Christian imagery. I know I did. Through understanding the rituals, you will develop the skills to look at any grimoire or manuscript and take it apart and understand its objectives and techniques.
The final challenge of The Temple of High Witchcraft will be to create your own reality map. Magickal systems, cosmologies, and mandalas are all ways through which we try to describe the infinite, but each is only a map drawn from our limited perspective. We see the red hat or the blue hat, but not both. We don’t know what’s going on beneath the hat. The map is symbolic. It’s not the actual terrain, just our best representation of it at this time. When we follow a map, we still get surprised and experience things not on the map. Reality maps, like the Qabalah, or Tree of Life, are helpful guides. Because the Tree of Life plays such a pivotal role in Western magick, we will explore it extensively, making it our primary teaching map. But then we will look at other points of view, other ways of mapping our magickal reality. You will be challenged to create your own map, your own version of reality that incorporates your thoughts, ideas, and perceptions, along with your experiences and creativity. You will be challenged to communicate your point of view to the world in a symbolic way.
Through understanding your own map, and the maps of others, traditional and modern, you will cease to be attached to your own way as being the only way, even for you. Your paradigm will become more fluid. Your mind will become more flexible, and you will be able to explore many possibilities. The intellectual study and expression will create a revelation. This mystery can never really be explained. The purpose of the ceremonial magician’s “Great Work” is to find the balance and union of humanity with divinity through the nature of the universe. One identifies with divinity and the universe. Through attempting to explain the mysteries of the universe, and realizing that all words and symbols fall short of the actual mystery, you will begin to experience the mystery more deeply and come to a greater understanding of yourself and your own divinity.
The path set before you in this course is not an easy one to walk. I’ve had more students have difficulties on this level than any other. Unlike the emotional challenge of the third level, the intellectual challenge is often something we don’t expect in witchcraft. It takes us by surprise, like the swords in a tarot reading. Among those who have completed this course work with me, the repeated sentiment at the last class, after the final project and ceremonies are done, is that in the end, all the hard work was worth it. They no longer feel intimidated by systems of magick that previously they knew little about. And they are more confident that their own point of view has as much validity as any other, yet they are not dogmatic in their approach to witchcraft. They are open to hearing new ideas and ways of doing things without feeling that their own truth is threatened.
In walking this path, you will come to understand that your truth is simply a truth, one of many. It’s a reflection of the great truths told by the world’s mystic traditions, each of which has its own voice, its own point of view. No one tradition has an exclusive claim to spiritual truth. The Temple of High Witchcraft will grant you a new sense of understanding, intellectual confidence, and the ability to express and articulate your truth with a broader spiritual vocabulary. In the end, communication, knowledge, and truth are the gifts of the element of air. Once you delve into this element’s mysteries, you will embody its power.
Blessed be,
Christopher Penczak