The Real Witches’ Handbook: The Definitive Handbook of Advanced Magical Techniques. Kate West

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СКАЧАТЬ Wild Hunt. The aspects of the God are seen more clearly through the cycle or Wheel of the Year, where the Goddess sometimes appears to take a less obvious role. However, both the Goddess and the God are worshipped equally in both the Lunar and the annual cycles. It may be useful to think of this in terms of two equal partners, only one of whom can speak at a time. The non-speaker may appear to take a lesser role, but in reality it is simply the fact that their partner is the one doing the talking which makes them seem to be more prominent at that time.

      Witches refer to the Goddess and the God by a large number of different names and also as the Goddess and the God or the Lord and Lady. For many people this causes some confusion, for how can you believe in one deity but have a number of names? Earlier I used the analogy of a mirror ball, with each facet an aspect of the divine, known by a different name. On a more human scale, think about an individual, we’ll call her Ann. Ann is someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, wife to her husband, mother to her children. Ann also has a job; to those she supervises she is ‘boss’, to those she reports to she is a worker and to her customers she shows a different aspect yet again. Each of these roles will bring out a different facet of Ann and she may well be seen as almost a different person by all these different people, but she is still just the one Ann. At some point in Ann’s life her parents will die and at this time her role of daughter will reduce until it is almost forgotten, or she may give up work and those working roles will reduce, but should she start work again, they can quickly be revived. Individual Gods and Goddesses may likewise ‘fall into disuse’ but if their worship is revived, then their strength will grow again. For, like each of Ann’s roles, the Goddesses and Gods have personalities which can stand alone and which grow in strength if called upon more often.

      The Gods and Goddesses known to Witches today come from a variety of pantheons and from a variety of times and lands. Knowledge of these deities has been spread by conquerors, invaders and immigrants throughout history and with today’s global communication that knowledge is easily shared all around the world. So you may find that Witches in America, England and Australia share the same deities, though they may follow a completely different pantheon from those in a neighbouring town.

      There is no way I can give a comprehensive list of Goddesses and Gods, their stories or their roles here, but the following are just a few to give you an introduction.

      PERSEPHONE, DEMETER AND HECATE

      This is just one example of the Triple Goddess. The story of Persephone’s abduction by Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, is well known in its modern form but it is well worth researching the fuller tale, including the role of Hecate, who is the third aspect or Crone, and who is often called the Witches’ Goddess.

      ISIS, OSIRIS, NEPTHYS AND SET

      These four Egyptian Goddesses and Gods are perhaps the best known of the Egyptian pantheon. Their story is one of those which have been changed and reinterpreted so that the ‘villains’ seem all bad and the ‘heroes’ all good. However, the full story is much more complex and contains all the ingredients of a soap opera! Nepthys is often invoked as a healer, particularly in more complicated or serious cases.

      VENUS AND APHRODITE

      Originally these were two quite different Goddesses. The Romans were the first to confuse their Goddess Venus with the Greek Aphrodite and both have come to represent love and beauty. Venus is often invoked by Witches who wish to work Magic for forms of self-love such as increased self-respect or personal emotional healing.

      CERIDWYN

      In the story of this Welsh Celtic Goddess, she devours Gwion, who has stolen the potion of inspiration which she has brewed in her Magical cauldron, and gives birth to the great poet and bard Taliesin. Ceridwyn, like Hecate, is also referred to as a Witches’ Goddess.

      CERNUNNOS

      This Celtic God of the Hunt is one of several Gods often shown wearing antlers. Whilst his mythology is somewhat vague, a horned or antlered God is one of the older Gods of northern Europe.

      THOR, ODIN, FREYA, FRIG AND LOKI

      These Scandinavian Gods and Goddesses and many others share a vast mythology which is often referred to as the Northern Tradition. Whilst this tradition has much in common with Witchcraft, it is often considered to be a different path.

      ENKI, INANNA, ERISKEGAL AND DUMUZI

      The Sumerian Goddess Inanna is another, like Persephone, who descends to the Underworld, in this case ruled over by her sister Eriskegal. Again mourning falls upon the world until she is rescued by her father Enki. Her husband, Dumuzi, who has betrayed her, is sent to take her place. The story of Inanna is just one of many which tell us of the Descent of the Goddess, a tale which is very important in understanding the Craft and which features strongly in certain forms of initiation.

      

      This, as I have said, is just a small selection of Goddesses and Gods, and there are many, many more. It is well worth spending some time reading up on them and their legends, for these tales give us the knowledge to select those we feel we can best work with. For example it is only when you know the role of Nepthys in the healing of Osiris that you understand why she is considered helpful in difficult cases. Also, our interpretation of Gods is often coloured by their appearance in modern productions. Anubis, for example, often appears in horror stories as a God of Death. But the ancient Egyptians believed that as the guardian of the gates of life and death, his role was as much to prevent people passing through too early as to speed them on their way when the time was right. For this reason his statue was often placed by the bed of a child as a protector.

      Most Witches have their ‘favourite’ deity or deities. These will be the ones with whom they most closely identify and may even be the ones to whom they dedicate themselves and their Witchcraft. These Gods and/or Goddesses may come from one pantheon or from a mixture, but it is usual to stay within any one pantheon during the course of any one working and not mix, say, a Greek Goddess with a Celtic God, as these deities will not necessarily be in sympathy with each other and the energies they produce may cancel each other out. In any case it is not necessary to ‘mix and match’ in this way as, with a little effort, you can usually discover the name of the appropriate ‘partner’ within the same pantheon.

      As almost all the information about the divine has been handed down since before the days of written history, or in some cases written in a form we cannot fully understand, such as hieroglyphs, there is often more than one way to spell any individual’s name, although one spelling may have become more accepted than others. Additionally, some quite different Gods or Goddesses may have very similar names. These are both reasons why familiarity with their roles and stories is important, so that you know exactly whom you are talking to.

      Many Goddesses and Gods have a non-human form, usually in addition to their human one. This may be animal, as in the case of Arachne, Greek Goddess of weavers, who takes the form of a spider. Those of you who are afraid of spiders may find it interesting to know that meditating on the story of Arachne and making an offering to her (I usually suggest making a small spider by tying four lengths of thread together eight times at their centres and placing it in a tree) is often a large step towards overcoming arachnaphobia. Alternatively, the form of the God or Goddess might be that of a mythological creature, such as the Hydra, or may be part-human, part-‘beast’, as in the case of the Goat-Footed God Pan.

      Many Witches like to have an image of the СКАЧАТЬ