CHAPTER 18

Your Magickal Education Continues

erhaps you are already receiving guidance in your magick- al studies, and this book is simply a supplement to your work. If so, excellent! Perhaps, however, you are working by yourself and have no contact with teachers or teaching groups near you. Of course, it is possible to develop some skill in magick on your own, especially if you are careful and diligent. But if you work with an ethical and experienced teacher, and especially within a group, your progress will be swifter and more sure.

How can you find a teacher, assuming you want to continue in magick at all? You might begin with a ritual: ask your deities or spirit guides for help, meditate on the qualities you seek in a teacher, and charge a lodestone or talisman to draw the appropriate one into your life.

Contact Points

Then, act in accord on the material plane by reaching out. Here are some potential contact points:

Spiritual/Religious Networks

For those interested in Wicca, there is the Covenant of the Goddess (www.cog.org or Box 1226, Berkeley, CA 94704), which can offer referrals to covens in many areas, including some outside the United States.

An international organization of Goddess-oriented folk is the Fellowship of Isis (Clonegal Castle, Enniscorthy, Eire, or P. O. Box 19152, Tucson, AZ 85731; the website is at www.fellowshipofisis.com).

For Pagans, there is the Pagan Spirit Alliance (c/o Circle, Box 219, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572).

And for Pagan women, write to Of A Like Mind (c/o R. C. G., Box 6021, Madison, WI 53716).

Newsletters and Periodicals

Many of these are oriented toward Pagans and other magickal folk. In them, you may read about groups or individuals near you, especially in the classified ad or “contact” sections. Or you may want to place an ad, such as:

“NEW TO MAGICK, seek instruction from an ethical and experienced teacher or group in the area; especially interested in [Wicca, herbal magick, shamanism, whatever]. Please contact Sue, Box xx, this city, state, zip.”

Many newsletters are listed in the Guide to Pagan Resources, published by Circle (see address last section), which also publishes Circle Network News quarterly.

Festivals

Every summer, in most regions of the United States and in some other countries, Pagans gather to share, network, celebrate, and learn. Most of these events include workshops in which you can check out various teachers and topics, as well as rituals, the barter and sale of magickally oriented crafts, drumming and dancing around a fire, and more. Most newsletters or magazines published for Pagans include a calendar of events that lists the major festivals; also look for information at metaphysical bookstores and at the Witchvox website online (www.witchvox.com). Though designed mainly for those of nature-oriented religions, most festivals are open to folk of other spiritual paths, so long as they are friendly and courteous.

Bookstores

Many cities have bookstores or supply shops that can be characterized as “metaphysical,” “occult,” “New Age,” or “alternative spirituality.” Watch their bulletin boards for notices of classes, workshops, or organizational contacts. If you sense that it is appropriate, ask the owners or clerks if they can refer you to teachers.

Internet Contacts

There are thousands, if not millions, of resources on the worldwide web: magickal lodges, covens, metaphysical schools, religious associations, and authors of magickal books all have websites. For those seeking Wiccan or Pagan teachers, Witchvox is a great place to start: it lists groups, festivals, and other resources state-by-state. If you have a specific interest, such as Christian magick, runes, or Golden Dawn teachings, you will need to do a search and keep narrowing or refining it until you have some likely possibilities.

Schools That Teach Magick

Spiritual/Metaphysical Schools and Seminaries

Programs exist that teach magick face-to-face, usually as part of training for the priesthood in various spiritual traditions. Most have occasional weekend seminars geared for the schedules of busy adults with jobs; some are a mixture of independent study with a mentor and occasional seminars at a main campus or satellite center. Some of the more prominent Pagan institutions include:

Ardantane: A school for all positive Pagan traditions, with weekend intensives and certificate programs in Magickal Arts, Shamanic Studies, Healing Arts, Witchcraft, Pagan Leadership, and Sacred Living. Most programs are on-campus, though faculty can travel to present weekend programs for groups nationwide. Ardantane, P. O. Box 307, Jemez Springs, NM 87025. Website www.ardantane.org. E-mail Registrar@ardantane.org. No correspondence or Internet courses (yet).

Cherry Hill Seminary: Professional Pagan ministry education, with programs in Public Ministry and Pagan Pastoral Counseling. Mostly online classes, with some intensives required at the campus. Cherry Hill Seminary, 307 Christian Hill Road, Bethel, VT 05032. Tel. 802-234-6420. Website www.cherryhillseminary.org. E-mail dean@cherryhillseminary.org.

Circle Sanctuary: Circle Ministers’ Training Program and study circles (Shamanic, Craftway, Goddess), primarily at the sanctuary. Circle Sanctuary, P. O. Box 9, Barneveld, WI 53507. Tel. 608-924-2216. Website www.circlesanctuary.org. E-mail events@circlesanctuary.org.

Grey School of Wizardry: An online school of wizardry and magickal teachings at an apprenticeship level, designed primarily for ages 11–18 (middle through high school), though many adults enjoy the program. The school focuses on magic rather than spirituality, and has sixteen departments, each with its own dean, professors, and classes. Website www.GreySchool.com.

Women’s Thealogical Institute: Affiliated with Re-formed Congregation of the Goddess. Cella priestess training, Crone (women over 53) and Guardian (Amazon spirituality) programs. Classes at main center and seven regional centers. WTI/RCG-1, P. O. Box 6677, Madison, WI 53716. Tel. 608-226-9998. Website www.rcgi.org. E-mail rcgi@rcgi.org.

Woolston-Steen Theological School: Affiliated with Aquarian Tabernacle Church. Degrees in Wiccan ministry, primarily ATC Tradition, but open to other Pagans and Wiccans. Woolston-Steen, P. O. Box 409, Index, WA 98256-0409. Tel. 360-793-1945. Website www.wiccanseminary.edu. E-mail Seminary@AquaTabCh.org.

Correspondence Schools

Several individuals and organizations offer instruction by mail in magick, Wicca, or Goddess spirituality. While learning by mail is far from ideal, it can be a helpful method for those living in small towns or rural areas with no groups nearby, or for anyone who has not found instruction locally in a particular specialized field.

Most correspondence teachers make a sincere effort, organize their programs carefully, and follow ethical paths. A few have serious shortcomings: for example, it is wise to avoid schools which advertise their subject as a means to wealth, romance, and the domination of others. Some even misuse the words “Wicca” or “Witchcraft” and teach hexes, curses, and manipulative magick rather than an ethical spiritual path or magickal system.

Others are not as morally flawed, but teach general information available in books everywhere. In these cases you are paying for the accessibility of the teacher in answering written questions that come up as you work. If the teacher is responsive and knowledgeable, the course may be worthwhile even if the printed lessons are lackluster.

One excellent correspondence course is offered by the College of the Crossroads, www.collegeofthecrossroads.org.

Internet Educational Programs

Web-based classes are appearing more and more frequently, such as those offered by Cherry Hill Seminary or the Grey School of Wizardry. Some of the others are sincere and well-organized programs, others are amateurish but free, and a few are in it just for the money. Do not sign up for anything that charges hefty fees unless you can find some very good references vouching for the program’s value.

Evaluating Teachers

There are teachers, and then there are teachers. Some are ignorant, greedy, or corrupt. Others are highly evolved magickal beings full of wisdom, love, and power. Most are somewhere in between, having the common flaws of humanity but doing their best to teach what they know.

How can you tell whether a teacher is worth studying with? Begin by letting go of preconceptions of age, sex, race, or mannerisms. Thanks to the conditioning of fantasy novels, motion pictures, and the patriarchy, most of us carry around a stereotype of a magickal adept as an old man with a flowing white beard, a sonorous voice, and rune-covered robes; usually he is also tall, thin, and white (think Albus Dumbledore).

In fact, competent magickal teachers come in both sexes and many colors, shapes, and sizes. Occasionally they are quite young in years, but have recovered much knowledge and wisdom from earlier lifetimes as an adept. But I wish particularly to emphasize how many women today are magickal and spiritual teachers in America and in some other continents. We are a strong majority in Wicca, for example, and our psychic and magickal heritage is blossoming again after centuries of suppression.

You may wish to look for a teacher who:

• approaches magick from an ethical and spiritual perspective (possibly a priestess or priest in a religion you find compatible with your own beliefs);
• encourages the use of magick for healing and self-knowledge;
• is filled with serenity, joy, and love much of the time;
• is attentive to the special needs and strengths of each student;
• honors each student, respecting their dignity, worth, and
  experience;
• encourages hard questions and free discussion;
• insists on experiential exercises and constant practice, and
  mastering skills instead of merely wading in theory;
• freely networks and shares with others outside the group, and encourages students to do likewise; and
• has a great deal of knowledge and experience, and can refer
  students to resources in fields outside their expertise.

Are there certain kinds of teachers to avoid? Most of us would not wish to study with an individual who:

• uses magick to dominate, manipulate, or curse others;
• emphasizes wealth, luxury, and material possessions over spiritual growth and harmony;
• treats students as servants or inferiors to boost an inflated ego;
• demands control of students‚Äô personal lives, sexual favors, or
  exorbitant amounts of money in return for teaching;
• is unable or unwilling to interact freely with other practitioners of magick;
• is filled with anger, pain, hatred, bitterness, or cynicism;
• seems more willing to discuss their own powers and exploits than to actually help students develop their own strengths;
• insists that the use of addictive drugs is an appropriate path to power or fulfillment; or
• becomes impatient or obscure when faced with hard questions.

Unfortunately, there are a few unscrupulous occult “teachers” who project an air of mystery and power, and draw naive seekers into their orbit to be used and fleeced. If you ever encounter such a one, get away as fast as you can and sever all contact. If they try to force you to stay or return by threatening magickal curses against you, do not give in: you can shield yourself from magickal attack, and if they try it, then they will suffer the consequences of the Law of Return. Stay away, surround yourself with white light, and focus on developing your own spiritual strength.

The Question of Fees

Should you expect to pay for instruction in magick? If Wicca is the spiritual path you are exploring and you begin training with a coven, you should not expect to pay for teaching (minimal dues for ritual supplies or photocopies of handouts are another matter). On the other hand, if you sign up for a correspondence course or perhaps a workshop on tarot that is open to the public, you will generally pay a modest fee.

Sometimes it is difficult to say what is appropriate, because there are questions of motivation and accessibility. If a teacher teaches so as to get rich rather than to impart knowledge, the teaching will be tainted. And if a fee is so high that some people are excluded, say, from learning about the spiritual aspects of magick, that is not right. If a fee is charged and you are unsure whether it is appropriate, talk it over with the teacher—then follow your inner guidance.

If no fee is charged, yet your teacher generously shares knowledge with you, then consider making a free-will donation. Even magicians and priestesses usually need to eat.

Learning Magick from Books

Books are an important resource, if carefully chosen. A list of recommended works is included in appendix IV. Most of them are currently in print, so any bookstore should be able to order them for you, or your library can obtain them through interlibrary loan. Also, mail-order suppliers of occult books frequently advertise in the major Pagan periodicals. Write and ask them for their catalogs.

In shopping for books, avoid anything full of hexes, curses, or spells to compel others. Nor should you invest much in magickal “recipe books,” which imply that you can get great results simply by burying three beans and reciting a couplet at the new moon. Books that explain how magick works and give exercises to help you develop new skills and disciplines are far more valuable than those that imply magick is supernatural or easy.

In building your magickal library, it might be wise to focus at first on really good books about one system or path: shamanism, Western ceremonial magick, the Qabala, Wicca and nature magick, Huna, or whatever approach strikes a deep chord within you. The alternative—picking up a variety of books on every conceivable facet of magick as you run across them—is tempting but can get very confusing. Focus on one aspect or system until you are well grounded in it, then move on.

When you are considering any given book, learn as much as possible about the author. Have they had extensive experience in the field covered, or is this a popular writer or hack journalist doing some superficial or sensational reporting? To take “Witchcraft” books as an example—I have read some written by crusading clergymen who knew nothing about the Craft but had a theological axe to grind, and others written by non-Wiccans who breathlessly promise to “reveal the secrets of witchcraft” and gain the reader instant wealth, power, and love. Others merely seek to titillate readers with an unrelated hodge-podge of magickal spells, medieval tortures, demons, devil worshipers, and hints of naked orgies. Such books are not worth the time of any serious seeker. Look for books by respected priestesses, priests, and magicians who have some stature in the magickal community, or classics which have stood the test of time.

Learning from Nature

Perhaps the greatest teacher of all is nature, the source of all magickal power. A day outdoors puts things in perspective, sorts the true from the false and the important from the trivial, and cleanses the spirit. Without the counsel of nature, a magician may turn fanatic, “redoubling his efforts when he has forgotten his aim.” With it, we remember who we are and what magick is for.

So give yourself a gift of contact with nature often. Walk in the woods; closely observe the different herbs and trees and the signs of animals. Stroll on the beach or lakeshore, and see what treasures the tide has swept up at your feet. Seek out caves and experience their silent mystery. Climb a rugged cliff and watch hawks soar over the roof of the world. Explore the life of the marshes, meditate on an Indian mound, touch the tiny wildflowers on a mountain meadow.

Such activities are not to be rushed: they are not “time away from” your important tasks. They are important in themselves: important to your growth as a magician and as a human being living on this planet. And though you may come back from your expeditions with nothing more tangible to show than a dried wildflower or an agate pebble, what you carry in your heart will be a far greater treasure than anything you carry in your hands. In fact, when I think of the most magickal moments of my life so far, few occurred at indoor rituals. My most magickal experiences were where the spirits of nature taught me what I could never have learned within walls.

Among the first I remember: I was eight or nine years old and lived in a big house with several great old oaks around it. These were more than “just trees,” they were Strength, and Solidity, and they held in their wood a hundred summer suns and winter snowstorms. The house stood in front of one especially vast Grandfather of Oaks, whose branches shaded the entire back yard, as well as my bedroom window on the second floor. At night the moon goddess rose and shone through his vast crown of dark and rustling leaves, creating patterns of light and shadow on the walls of my room. I felt a holy presence then: I knew that at night the theologies of men were tucked away and the church doors safely locked, but the powers of nature lived and moved in the darkness still.

My favorite tree was a huge and ancient Great Grandmother of Willows. In size she rivaled the oaks of Sherwood Forest that I encountered years later, where Robin Hood could hide his whole band in a single tree. The lane before our house twisted agilely to miss the tree (who had claimed her place generations before the old lane came to be) and passed inches from her trunk. A child could, with a boost, shinny through a crevice where two of her mighty limbs crossed and nestle in a large cup surrounded by them. Occasionally a car wound along the lane and passed below, its driver oblivious to the hidden, watching child overhead. There I began to absorb some of the peace and long perspective of the willow, who was immersed in the experience of being—her rugged roots drinking cool water from the rich, moist soil, her enormous crown of withies soaring to dizzying, windswept heights in the sun-filled sky. My endless summer hours in her branches were just a flicker in the venerable story of her existence, yet I felt more a part of her than kin to the drivers in their closed machines beneath us.

Years later, I walked the beach of Puget Sound at a Pagan festival in the state of Washington. The sky was gray, the waters rough and choppy, and a fine, cool mist hid the farther shore. I watched the dark heads of seals bobbing and could feel the cold water sliding over me, the dark depths beneath, the stormy skies above; the wildness in my soul. The sensations spoke to the Dolphin Spirit within me, and I knew the kinship of the ocean mammals. When I returned to the beach, I discovered wonderful stones at my feet: some pale green, some the milky white of foam, and some patched black and white, which I named “orca stones” after the whales that range these waters. The power of the sea and shore was in the stones, and some returned home with me. They are the bones of our Sea Mother.

Once I sought bones of another kind on the hills and high plateaus of Colorado, in the Morrison Formation. Two hundred million years ago and more, dinosaurs walked here, and their bones encrust these dry slopes. I dug for their bones, but most that I found were black, rotten and crumbling—more like charcoal than ivory. Squatting there in the sun in those bleak hills, what was I really digging for? I had no need of bones. No, I was seeking a talisman of sorts, a magickal link that could enable me to reach across eons and understand a creature very different from my species—yet perhaps ancestral to it in a sense. I could not stretch that far that day; I found more magick in the wind and sun and solitude than I ever did in the fragments of bone.

Sometimes there is more mystery in the ancient places of humankind than in the immeasurably older relics of an extinct species. There is a mesa in the mountains of northern New Mexico, only minutes’ walk from a tract of modern homes. There is one trail onto the mesa, along a steep and narrow spine of rock; the path has been worn three feet deep in places by the sandals of the Ancestral Puebloan peoples who once lived a mile or two away. Their potshards litter the valley floor; their dwellings pock the cliff faces not far from here—but on the mesa are no shards, no petroglyphs, no single stone set upon another as a sign that this place was known and used. Only the deep grooves in solid rock, worn by thousands and thousands of feet passing over many generations. A ritual site perhaps, but one that demanded neither altar nor temple. Here I found a glimpse of the magick of living lightly on the earth, strange to a daughter of a race of engineers and city-builders. The Ancestral Puebloans are not so distant from us as measured by the span of Earth’s life, and perhaps their hopes and fears were not so different from ours, yet they created a wholly other way of life . . . and if we could but see the world through their eyes, that magick might spell survival for our species.

That silent mesa in the Jemez Mountains may have been a special place of power for the ancient Puebloans; Greywethers in England certainly is a place of power even today. I visited Dartmoor, where Greywethers is located, because of its wild and lonely beauty, and because a Bronze Age culture had flourished here four thousand years ago. I had been hitchhiking through Europe with a friend, who chose to spend several days in London. I preferred to walk the moors. Dartmoor is a rolling, heathery land, inhabited now by a few wild ponies and the stone remains of long ago. Here a stone “clapper bridge” crosses the River Dart; there a beehive-shaped hut has endured long past its memories and drowses empty in the summer’s warmth. No one knows much of the people who lived here, not their legends nor songs nor the names of their gods. But we know that they understood the energies and currents of the earth, and apparently could shape and direct them in ways we no longer know. Greywethers consists of a pair of large stone circles that intersect or touch at one point; the stones are evenly spaced several feet apart, but they are not as tall as the great stones of Stonehenge, nor are they shaped. I first saw them as I trudged up a long slope; as they came into view at the top of a ridge, they, rather than I, seemed to be marching and bobbing rhythmically over the rise in time with my steps. As they appeared and I drew close, thunderheads swept in from the sea, and the sky grew dark. Thunder rolled; I kept walking. As I set foot between the stones, the clouds opened and a deluge engulfed the moors. I had miles to go before I could expect to find shelter, so I kept moving, across the first ring and then the second. About me was a sense of limitless power, concentrated and shaped and well-nigh eternal. As I stepped from the second circle on the far side, the rain abruptly stopped; and as I swung away down the side of the ridge, the clouds moved off and the sun reappeared.

There is power on the earth and in it. You can feel it in caves, the wombs of the Mother from which are born silence and patience. With my coven I have climbed and crawled into a long and rough and wet tunnel, and found a deep chamber lined with clay. We sat in the dimness of our lights and fashioned earth goddesses, speaking softly and sometimes chanting low songs to her, there at the end of a long journey. Or was it the end? There was a place back there . . . and just around there . . . through which one might just slither further into the darkness, if one had strength enough and courage. Cave tunnels twist and turn, stop suddenly and then offer an unexpected crevice meandering off in another direction. They are as surprising and unpredictable as life is, but with an underlying logic and pattern that speleologists are just beginning to appreciate. And often, beauty. We can look and murmur at cave formations, at towering columns and creamy stalactites, at sheets of sparkling flowstone and delicate gypsum flowers; our glimpses are snapshots of a process that has been happening for echoing millennia. I have seen the looming pinnacles of cave onyx, but I have also seen incredibly tiny crystals of calcite forming within a single drop of water—the crystals that built that magnificence. She is so patient to build such enduring beauty from such tiny tools; one drop of water, one fragile crystal at a time over the ages. We can learn from this magick.

Practice and Experimentation

Whether you learn from human teachers or from nature, from books or past-life memories of magick worked long ago, effectiveness will come with repeated practice and careful experimentation.

If you are working with a group under the guidance of an experienced teacher, then you will doubtless build a foundation of basic skills and then move on to more unusual and challenging magick. One day you might find yourself investigating the effects of ritual drumming patterns on the human nervous system, or working to contact cetacean intelligences, or searching out past-life connections in ancient civilizations, or exploring the astrological energies of the outer planets, or redesigning the tarot as a transformational and healing tool.

If you are working basically alone, or perhaps trading ideas and experiences with a magickal pen pal, then you should proceed slowly and focus on foundational skills: grounding and centering, concentration, casting the circle, raising power by various methods, and spellcasting. In addition, divination provides a huge and fascinating field of study: look into tarot, I Ching, runes, astrology, and so on, and choose one to explore more fully.

There are other forms of magick and psychic activity that are best avoided by the beginner, at least until you have the support of friends and teachers as well as some experience in the basics. Do not attempt advanced forms of raising power (such as kundalini yoga) that are likely to have a major impact on your energy field or heartbeat; indeed, do not try to tamper with any of your natural physiological rhythms unless you have training and supervision from an experienced teacher. Do not do out-of-body work, such as astral travel or shamanic journeys to the underworld, without teaching and support. Do not attempt to do major healing work on anyone else without responsible supervision and, of course, the permission of the recipient. Also, if you seek direct contact with astral intelligences or otherworld entities, have a trusted companion, experienced in magick, at your side.

How can you obtain a broad and thorough magickal education? Many people have read the Harry Potter books and dreamed of attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. What fun to register for Potions 101, Ritual Drumming 206, Runecraft 118, and a seminar on the Care and Feeding of Magickal Creatures!

The good news is that the various schools and seminaries mentioned earlier offer courses in the magickal arts now. Thanks to the re-emergence of the nature-based spiritual paths such as Druidry and Wicca, new research into ancient cultures, and technologies such as the Internet, there is more to teach every day and more opportunities to learn it.

But for many, learning is more likely to come in bits and pieces, from many different teachers over a span of many years. Much of the world’s magickal knowledge is lost or fragmented, and while we have wonderful communications networks through which we can share what is known, it is still the task of a lifetime to even begin to learn the field.

But whether you aspire to become an adept or simply want to master a few simple skills to help you through the rough places in life, you will probably find magick one of the most intriguing and enjoyable subjects you have ever explored.

Exercises Toward Mastery

1: Metaphysical Bookstore

Find a metaphysical bookstore within traveling range, preferably one you have never visited before, and go there when you have a couple of hours to spend. Browse a while, and tell the staff about your interest in magick. Find out what books they recommend, and ask them if there is any well-respected organization in the area that offers classes. If they have a bulletin board, look it over and see what other resources there are in the community.

2: Internet Quest

Go online (use a public library computer if you don’t have one at home), and start doing searches on the topics that interest you most. For example, if you are drawn to Norse runes, do a search on that. Then narrow it down: try “runes + classes” and the name of your town or city. Or search for “runes + recommended books + beginners.” Choose one book, organization, class, or whatever, and follow up on it.

3: Internet Quest—Schools of Magick

Another time, go online and visit the websites of the major schools that offer magickal training. Check out Ardantane . . . Cherry Hill Seminary . . . Circle . . . Woolston-Steen . . . College of the Crossroads . . . Women’s Thealogical Institute . . . the Grey School of Wizardry . . . and any others you run across. Consider whether you might get involved in any of these programs.

4: Nature as Your Teacher

Think of a place outdoors, within fairly easy travel distance, that you consider remarkable. A mountain . . . a beach . . . a waterfall . . . a desert . . . it can be any kind of environment, as long as it intrigues you. Plan an expedition to that place, and figure to spend a day there (and either take a friend or at least let someone know exactly where you’re going and when you expect to return). If it is a rugged or wilderness area, take all other necessary safety precautions: water, warm clothing, cell phone, first aid kit, etc. Once you get there, spend most of your time opening yourself to the spirit of that place; ask what magick it has to share with you. Take a notebook or your magickal journal, and discover what you can.

Blesséd be.

To follow this path further, read:

The Well-Read Witch by Carl McColman (New Page Books, 2002)