In a formal sense, first degree initiation makes you a rank-and-file witch. But of course it is more complicated than that.
As every experienced witch knows, there are some people who are natural witches from birth — often maybe from a past incarnation. A good High Priestess or High Priest is used to spotting them. Initiating one of these is not ‘making’ a witch; rather it is a two-way gesture of recognition and acknowledgement — and, of course, a ritual of welcome to a valued addition to the coven.
At the other extreme, there are the ‘slow starters’ — often good, sincere and hard-working people — who the initiator knows very well have a long way to go, and maybe a lot of hang-ups and false conditioning to overcome, before they can be called real witches. But even for these, initiation is no empty formality, if the initiator knows his or her job. It can give them a sense of belonging, a feeling that an important milestone has been passed; and just by giving a sincere postulant, however apparently ungifted, the right to call himself or herself a witch, you are encouraging him or her to work hard to live up to the name. And some presumed slow-starters can take you by surprise with a sudden acceleration of development after initiation; then you know that it has ‘taken’.
In between are the majority, the postulants of average potential and blossoming awareness, who realize more or less clearly that Wicca is the path they have been looking for, and why, but who are still only beginning to explore its implications. For these, a well-conducted initiation can be a very moving and powerful experience, a genuine dialectical leap in their psychic and emotional growth. A good initiator will do everything to make it so.
After all, the initiator is not alone in his or her efforts (and we are not just referring to the support of his or her working partner and of the coven members). An initiation is a magical rite, invoking cosmic powers, and it should be conducted in the full confidence that the invoked powers will manifest.
Every initiation, in any genuine religion or fraternity, is a symbolic death and rebirth, consciously undergone. In the Wiccan rite, this process is symbolized by the binding and blindfolding, the challenge, the accepted ordeal, the final removal of the bonds and the blindfold, and the anointing for a new life. The initiator should keep this meaning clear in his or her mind and concentrate on it, and the ritual itself should impress the same meaning on the mind of the postulant.
In more primitive centuries, the death-and-rebirth imagery was doubtless even more vivid and explicit, and probably enacted largely without words. Patricia Crowther, the renowned Sheffield witch, tells in her book Witch Blood (see Bibliography) how she had an intimation of this during her initiation by Gerald Gardner. The ritual was the normal Gardnerian one, basically the same as we give it in this Section, but before the Oath, Gardner knelt beside her and meditated for a while. Patricia herself, bound and waiting, went suddenly into trance (which she discovered afterwards lasted for some forty minutes) and seems to have experienced an incarnation recall. She found herself being carried, bound and naked, in torchlight procession into a cave by a group of naked women. They withdrew, leaving her terrified in bat-filled pitch darkness. Gradually she conquered her fear and became calm, and in due course the women came back. They stood in line with their legs astride, and she was ordered to struggle, bound as she was, through the vagina-like tunnel of legs, while the women swayed, howled and screamed as though in childbirth. When she was through, she was pulled to her feet and her bonds were cut away. The leader, facing her, ‘offered me her breasts to symbolise that she would suckle and protect me as she would her own children. The cutting of my bonds symbolised the cutting of the umbilical cord’. She had to kiss the proffered breasts, and she was then sprinkled with water and told that she had been reborn into the priesthood of the Moon Mysteries.
Gardner’s comment, when she regained consciousness: ‘For a long time, I had an idea that it used to be performed something like you have described, and now I know I wasn’t far wrong. It must have been centuries ago, long before verbal rituals were adopted by the Craft.’
Death and rebirth, with all its terrors and promise, could hardly be more starkly dramatized; and we have a feeling that Patricia’s recall was genuine. She is obviously a natural witch from way back.
But to return to the Gardnerian ritual. For this, we had not three Gardner texts, but four; in addition to Texts A, B and C, there is Gardner’s novel High Magic’s Aid. This was published in 1949, before the repeal of the Witchcraft Acts in Britain, and before his two non-fiction books Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959). In it, Gardner revealed for the first time in print, disguised as fiction, some of the material he had learned from his parent coven. For example, in Chapter XVII the witch Morven puts the hero Jan through his first-degree initiation, and the ritual is given in detail. We found this very useful in clarifying one or two obscure points — for example, the ‘Feet neither bond nor free’ order, which we knew from our own Alexandrian initiation but suspected was misplaced (see note 5).
The first degree rite was perhaps the one that had altered least by the time the Book of Shadows had reached the Text C stage. This is because, among the incomplete material in the possession of the New Forest coven, it would naturally be the part which had survived most completely in its traditional form. Gerald Gardner would therefore have had no need to fill in gaps with Crowleyana or other non-Wiccan material, and Doreen Valiente therefore did not have to suggest the kind of rewriting that was necessary (for example) with the Charge.
In Wiccan practice, a man is always initiated by a woman, and a woman by a man. And only a second- or third-degree witch may conduct an initiation. There is, however, a special exception to each of these rules.
The first exception is that a woman may initiate her daughter, or a man his son, ‘because they are part of themselves’. (Alex Sanders taught us that this could only be done ‘in an emergency’, but Gardner’s Book of Shadows makes no such stipulation.)
The other exception concerns the only time when a first-degree witch (and a brand-new one at that) may initiate another. Wicca lays great emphasis on male-female working partnerships, and most covens are delighted when a suitable couple come forward for initiation together. One rather pleasing method of carrying out such a double initiation is exemplified by that of Patricia and Arnold Crowther (who were then still only engaged) by Gerald Gardner.
Gardner initiated Patricia first, while Arnold waited outside the room. Then he put the Book of Shadows into her hand and stood by, prompting her, while she herself initiated Arnold. ‘This is the way it is always done,’ Gardner told her — but we must admit it was unknown to us until we read Patricia’s book. We like it; it creates a special bond, in the Wiccan sense, between the two newcomers from the start of their working in the coven.
Doreen Valiente has confirmed to us that this was Gardner’s frequent practice, and adds: ‘Otherwise, however, we did keep the rule that only a second-degree or third-degree witch could initiate.’
We would like to mention here a couple of differences (in addition to small points noted in the text) between the Alexandrian initiation rite and the Gardnerian one which we have taken as our standard. We do not mention them in any sectarian spirit — every coven will and should do what feels right to them — but merely to put on record which is which, and to express our own preferences, to which we too are entitled.
First, the method of bringing the Postulant into the Circle. The Gardnerian tradition is to push him into it from behind, as described in the text. The Book of Shadows does not say how it is done; after the Initiator’s statement, “I give thee a third to pass thee through this dread door”, it just adds cryptically ‘Gives it’.
High Magic’s Aid is more specific: ‘Then clasping him from behind with her left arm around his waist, and pulling his right arm around her neck and his lips down to her, said: “I give you the third password: ‘A kiss’.” So saying she pushed him forward with her body, through the doorway, into the Circle. Once inside she released him, whispering: “This is the way all are first brought into the Circle.”‘ (High Magic’s Aid)
Pulling the Postulant’s right arm round her neck is of course not possible if his wrists are bound together; and pulling his head round with her hand, to kiss him over his shoulder, is almost impossible if he is much taller than she is. That is why we suggest she kisses him before going round to his back. It is the pushing-from-behind which is the traditional essential; Doreen says Gardner’s coven always did it.
‘I think it was originally intended as a sort of test,’ she tells us, ‘because a questioner could say, as in High Magic’s Aid, “Who led you into a Circle?” The answer was, “They led me from behind.” ‘
The Alexandrian practice is to grasp the Postulant’s shoulders from in front, kiss him and then pull him into the Circle, spinning deosil. This is how both of us were initiated, and we feel none the worse for it. But we see no reason, now, for departing from the original tradition, especially as it has an interesting historical meaning attached to it; so we have reverted to the Gardnerian method.
When Stewart visited the Witches’ Museum in the Isle of Man in 1972 (then in the care of Monique Wilson, to whom Gardner had left his irreplaceable collection which she later unforgivably sold to America), Monique told him that, because he had not been pushed into the Circle from behind at his initiation, ‘no real witch would touch you with a bargepole’. She then offered to re-initiate him ‘properly’. Stewart thanked her politely but declined. The catch-question precaution may have had a valid basis in the persecution days; to insist on it today is mere sectarianism.
The second major Alexandrian departure from tradition is in the taking of the measure. Gardnerian covens retain the measure; Alexandrians give it back to the Postulant.
In the Alexandrian ritual, the measure is taken with red thread, not twine, from crown to heel only, omitting the forehead, heart and hips measurements. The initiator says: ‘Now we are going to take your measure, and we measure you from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. In the old days, when your measure was taken, hair and nail clippings would have been taken at the same time from your body. The coven would have kept the measure and the clippings, and if you had tried to leave the coven, they would have worked on them to bring you back, and you would never have escaped. But because you came into our Circle with two perfect words, perfect love and perfect trust, we give you your measure back, and charge you to wear it on your left arm.’ The measure is then tied round the Postulant’s left arm until the end of the ritual, after which he can do what he likes with it. Most initiates destroy them, some keep them as mementos, and some put them in lockets and present them to their working partners.
The ‘love and trust’ symbolism of the Alexandrian custom is clear, and some covens may prefer it. But we feel there is even more to be said for the coven retaining the measure, not as blackmail but as a symbolic reminder of the new initiate’s responsibility to the coven. Otherwise there seems to be no point in taking it at all.
Doreen tells us: ‘The idea of giving the measure back is definitely, in my opinion, an innovation of Sanders’. In Gerald’s tradition, it was always retained by the initiator. Never, however, was there any suggestion that this measure was to be used in the blackmailing way described by the Alexandrian ritual. On the contrary, if anyone wanted to leave the coven they were free to do so, provided they respected our confidence and kept the secrets. After all, what is the point of trying to keep someone in a coven against their will? Their bad vibrations would only spoil things. But — in the old days the measure was used against anyone who deliberately and maliciously betrayed the secrets. Gerald told me that “the measure was then buried in a boggy place, with curses, so that as it rotted so the traitor would rot.” Remember, betrayal in those days was a matter of life and death — literally!’
We would emphasize again — views on differences of detail may be strongly held, but in the end it is the coven’s own decision which matters in deciding on a particular form, or in devising their own. The validity of an initiation does not depend on the small print, and never has. It depends on the sincerity and psychic effectiveness of the coven, and on the sincerity and psychic potential of the initiate. As the Goddess says in the Charge: ‘And thou who thinkest to seek for me, know that thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not, unless thou knowest the mystery: that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without thee. For behold, I have been with thee from the beginning; and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.’
Smallprintitis (if we may coin the word) has been the disease, sadly, of all too many Christian liturgies, including those which had their origins in beauty; witches should not fall into the same trap. One is tempted to say that liturgies should be written by poets, not by theologians.
A word on the names Cernunnos and Aradia, the deity-names used in Gardner’s Book of Shadows. Aradia was adopted from the witches of Tuscany (see Charles G. Leland’s Aradia: the Gospel of the Witches); on her possible Celtic links, see our Eight Sabbats for Witches Cernunnos (or, as Jean Markale renders it in Women of the Celts, Cerunnos) is the name usually given by archaeologists to the Celtic Horned God, because although many representations of him are found, everywhere from the Gundestrup Cauldron to the Hill of Tara (see Plate 10), only one of these bears an inscribed name — a bas-relief found in 1710 under the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris, and now in the Cluny Museum in Paris. The ‘-os’ ending suggests that it was a Hellenization of a Celtic name; the Druids are known to have been familiar with Greek and to have used the Greek alphabet for their transactions in ordinary matters, though in this case the actual letters are Roman ones. Also the Greek for ‘horn’ is κέραζ (keras). Doreen Valiente suggests (and we agree with her) that the name which was thus Hellenized was actually Herne (as in Herne the Hunter, of Windsor Great Park). ‘Have you ever heard the cry of a fallow deer in rut?’ she asks. ‘You hear this all the time in the autumnal rut of the deer in the New Forest, and it sounds just like “HERR-NN … Herr-rr-nn …” repeated over and over again. It is a most thrilling sound and one never forgotten. Now, from the cave-drawings and statues that we have of him, Cernunnos was pre-eminently a stag-god. So how would mortals have best named him? Surely from the sound that most vividly reminds one of the great stags of the forest.’
To which one might add that the interchangeability of the ‘h’ and ‘k’ sounds is suggested by the place-names Cerne Abbas in Dorset, site of the famous hillside Giant. There are quite a number of places called Herne Hill in Britain, as well as two Herne villages, a Herne Bay, a Hern Drove, a Hernebridge, a Herne Common, a Herne Pound, and so on. Herne Hill is sometimes explained as meaning ‘heron hill’, but, as Doreen points out, herons breed near rivers and lakes, not on hills; ‘it seems more likely to me that Herne Hill was sacred to the Old God.’
In the Alexandrian Book of Shadows, the name is ‘Karnayna’ — but this form appears nowhere else that we or Doreen have found. She thinks ‘it is probably — though not certainly — a mishearing of Cernunnos. The actual name may have been omitted in the book Alex copied from, and he had to rely on someone’s verbal recollection of it.’ (Knowing Alex, we would say ‘almost certainly’!)
In the text which follows, the Initiator may be the High Priestess or High Priest, depending upon whether the Postulant is male or female; so we have referred to ‘the Initiator’ as ‘she’ for simplicity, and to ‘the Postulant’ (later ‘the Initiate’) as ‘he’, though of course it may be the other way round. The Initiator’s working partner, whether High Priest or High Priestess, has certain duties to perform as well, and is referred to as ‘the Partner’.
Everything is set up as for a normal Circle, with the following additional items also in readiness:
a blindfold
a length (at least eight feet) of twine or thin string
anointing oil
a small hand bell
three lengths of red cord — one of nine feet, and two of four feet six
It is also usual, though not essential, for the Postulant to bring his own new athame, and red, white and blue cords, to be consecrated immediately after his initiation.1 He should be told, as soon as he knows that he is to be initiated, to acquire for himself any black-handled knife with which he feels comfortable. Most people seem to buy themselves an ordinary sheath-knife (the sheath is useful anyway, for bringing it to and from the meeting-place) and enamel the hilt black if it is not black already. There may not be time for him to engrave the traditional symbols on the hilt (see Section XXIV) before it is consecrated; this can be done later, at leisure. Some witches never put the symbols on at all, preferring the alternative tradition that one’s working tools should be unidentifiable as such to any outsider;2 or because the hilt-pattern of the chosen knife does not lend itself to engraving. (Stewart’s athame, now twelve years old, bears the symbols; Janet’s, of the same vintage but with a patterned hilt, does not; and we have another athame, hand-made by a craftsman friend, which has a deer’s-foot hilt obviously unsuitable for engraving.) We suggest that athame blades and points should be blunted, since they are never used for cutting but are used for ritual gestures in what may be a crowded and skyclad Circle.
The three cords he brings should be nine feet long each. We like to prevent the ends from fraying with Sellotape or by binding (‘whipping’, in the sailor’s term) with thread of the same colour. However, Doreen says, ‘we tied knots at the ends to prevent fraying, and the essential measurement was from knot to knot.’
He should also be told to bring his own bottle of red wine — if only to impress on him from the start that the expense of catering for the coven, whether it be the Circle wine or any food taken before or after the Circle, should not fall entirely on the High Priestess and High Priest!
As for the additional items listed above — any scarf will do for the blindfold, but it should be opaque. And the choice of anointing oil is up to the High Priestess; Gardner’s coven always used pure olive oil. Alexandrian custom is that it should include a touch of the sweat of the High Priestess and High Priest.
Before the Circle is cast, the Postulant is stood outside the Circle to the North-East, and blindfolded and bound by witches of the opposite sex. The binding is done with the three red3 cords — one nine feet long, the other pair four and a half feet long. The wrists are tied together behind the back with the middle of the long cord, and the two ends are brought forward over the shoulders and tied in front of the neck, the ends left hanging to form a cable-tow by which the Postulant can be led.4 One short cord is tied round the right ankle, the other above the left knee — each with the ends tucked in so that they will not trip him up. As the ankle cord is being tied, the Initiator says:
‘Feet neither bond nor free.’5
The Circle is now cast, and the Opening Ritual proceeds as usual, except that the ‘gateway’ in the North-East is not closed yet, and the Charge is not spoken yet. After Drawing Down the Moon,6 the Initiator gives the Cabalistic Cross,7 as follows; ‘Ateh’ (touching forehead) ‘Malkuth’ (touching breast) ‘ve-Geburah’ touching right shoulder) ‘ve-Gedulah’ (touching left shoulder) ‘le-olam’ (clasping hands at breast level).
After the Witches’ Rune, the Initiator fetches the sword, or her athame, from the altar. She and her Partner face the Postulant.
They then declaim the Charge (see Appendix B).
The Initiator then says:
‘O thou who standest on the threshold between the pleasant world of men and the dread domains of the Lords of the Outer Spaces, hast thou the courage to make the assay?’
She places the point of the sword or athame against the Postulant’s heart and continues:
‘For I say verily, it were better to rush on my blade and perish, than make the attempt with fear in thy heart.’
The Postulant replies:
‘I have two passwords. Perfect love, and perfect trust.’8
The Initiator says:
‘All who have such are doubly welcome. I give thee a third to pass thee through this dread door.’
She hands the sword or athame to her Partner, kisses the Postulant and goes round behind him. Embracing him from the back, she pushes him forward with her own body into the Circle. Her Partner ritually closes the ‘gateway’ with the sword or athame, which he then replaces at the altar.
The Initiator leads the Postulant to the cardinal points in turn and says:
‘Take heed, ye Lords of the East [South, West, North] that — is properly prepared to be initiated a priest [priestess] and witch.’9
The Initiator then leads the Postulant to the centre of the Circle. She and the coven circle round him deosil, chanting:
repeated over and over, while they push the Postulant back and forth between them, sometimes turning him a little to disorient him, until the Initiator calls a halt. The Partner rings the handbell three times, while the Initiator turns the Postulant (who is still in the centre) to face the altar. She then says:
‘In other religions the postulant kneels, while the priest towers above him. But in the Art Magical we are taught to be humble, and we kneel to welcome him [her] and we say …’
The Initiator kneels and gives the Postulant the Fivefold Kiss, as follows:
‘Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these ways’ (kissing the right foot and then the left foot).
‘Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred altar’ (kissing the right knee and then the left knee).
‘Blessed be they phallus [womb], without which we would not be’ (kissing just above the pubic hair).
‘Blessed be thy breast, formed in strength [breasts, formed in beauty]’11 (kissing the right breast and then the left breast).
‘Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the Sacred Names’ (embracing him and kissing him on the lips).
The Partner now hands the length of twine to the Initiator, who says:
‘Now we are going to take your measure.’
The Initiator, with the help of another witch of the same sex, stretches the twine from the ground at the Postulant’s feet to the crown of his head, and cuts this length off with the white-handled knife (which her Partner brings her). She then measures him once round the forehead and tied a knot to mark the measurement; once (from the same end) round the heart, and ties a knot; and once round the hips across the genitals, and ties a knot. She winds up the measure and lays it on the altar.
The Initiator asks the Postulant:
‘Before thou art sworn, art thou ready to pass the ordeal and be purified? ‘
The Postulant replies:
‘I am.’
The Initiator and the other witch of the same sex help the Postulant to kneel, and bow his head and shoulders forward. They unwind the loose ends of his ankle and knee cords and bind his two ankles and his two knees together.12 The Initiator then fetches the scourge from the altar.
The Partner rings the handbell three times and says ‘Three’.
The Initiator gives the Postulant three light strokes with the scourge.
The Partner says ‘Seven.’ (He does not ring the bell again.)
The Initiator gives the Postulant seven light strokes with the scourge.
The Partner says ‘Nine.’
The Initiator gives the Postulant nine light strokes with the scourge.
The Partner says ‘Twenty-one.’
The Initiator gives the Postulant twenty-one light strokes with the scourge. (The twenty-first stroke may be more vigorous, as a reminder that the Initiator has been being deliberately restrained.)
The Initiator says:
‘Thou hast bravely passed the test. Art thou ready to swear that thou wilt always be true to the Art?’
The Postulant replies: ‘I am.’
The Initiator asks:
‘Art thou always ready to help, protect and defend thy brothers and sisters of the Art? ‘
The Postulant replies: ‘I am.’
The Initiator says (phrase by phrase):
‘Then say after me: “I, — , in the presence of the Mighty Ones, do of my own free will and accord most solemnly swear that I will ever keep secret and never reveal the secrets of the Art, 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, mindful that my measure has been taken; and may my weapons turn against me if I break this my solemn oath.” ‘
The Postulant repeats each phrase after her.
The Initiator and the other witch of the same sex now help the Postulant to rise to his feet.
The Partner brings forward the anointing oil and the chalice of wine.
The Initiator moistens her fingertip with the oil and says:
‘I hereby sign thee with the Triple Sign. I consecrate thee with oil.’
She touches the Postulant with the oil just above his pubic hair, on his right breast, on his 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 thee with wine’, and touches him in the same place with the wine.
She then says: ‘I consecrate thee with my lips’, kisses him in the same places and continues: ‘priest[ess] and witch’.
The Initiator and the other witch of the same sex now remove the Postulant’s blindfold and untie his cords.
The Postulant is now an initiated witch, and the ritual is interrupted for each member of the coven to welcome and congratulate him, kissing or shaking hands as appropriate. When this is done, the ritual continues with the presentation of the working tools. As each tool is named, the Initiator takes it from the altar and hands it to the Initiate with a kiss. Another witch of the same sex as the Initiator stands by, and as each tool is finished with, she takes it from the Initiate with a kiss and replaces it on the altar.
The Initiator explains the tools as follows:
‘Now I present to thee the Working Tools. First, the Magic Sword. With this, as with the Athame, thou canst form all Magic Circles, dominate, subdue and punish all rebellious spirits and demons, and even persuade angels and good spirits. With this in thy hand, thou art the ruler of the Circle.
‘Next I present the Athame. This is the true witch’s weapon, and has all the powers of the Magic Sword.
‘Next I present 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 present 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 present the Cup. This is the vessel of the Goddess, the Cauldron of Cerridwen, the Holy Grail of Immortality. From this we drink in comradeship, and in honour of the Goddess.13
‘Next I present the Pentacle. This is for the purpose of calling up appropriate spirits.
‘Next I present the Censer of Incense. This is used to encourage and welcome good spirits and to banish evil spirits.
‘Next I present the Scourge. This is the sign of power and domination. It is also to cause purification and enlightenment. For it is written, “To learn you must suffer and be purified”. Art thou willing to suffer to learn?’
The Initiate replies: ‘I am.’
The Initiator continues: ‘Next and lastly I present the Cords. They are of use to bind the sigils in the Art; also the material basis; also they are necessary in the Oath.’
The Initiator says: ‘I now salute thee in the name of Aradia, newly made priest[ess] and witch,’ and kisses the Initiate.
Finally, she leads him to each of the cardinal points in turn, saying: ‘Hear ye Mighty Ones of the East [South, West, North]; — has been consecrated priest[ess], witch and hidden child of the Goddess.’14
If the Initiate has brought his own new athame and/or cords, he may now, as his first magical work, consecrate them (see Section IV) — either with the Initiator or with the person who is to be his working partner, if that is already known, or if (as in Patricia and Arnold Crowther’s case) they have been initiated on the same occasion.