Barking Up the Wrong Tree

First of all I think it should be known, that witchcraft as an elite religious society of political influence in Europe began with the “Völvas” and “Seithkonas” of the Scandinavian Norse; just as the sibyls were to the Greeks and Romans. Before then such practices were largely shamanic and quite secularly tribal throughout Europe. While communities had their masters of ritual ceremony, this should not be confused with the practices of the Derwyd (wild man) or the Wicce (wise woman) who resided in sacred groves. What distinguished them apart from the rest was not some grimoire of ancient secret magical spells and rituals handed down through the ages. Sorry, but that is just pure Medieval fiction. It is not the spell or the instrument that carries the power, rather, how it resonates with the user and vice versa. In essence, these were people born with any number of outstanding psychic skills apt to be seen as quite advantageous to the community. As these skills are usually hereditary, that’s where the idea of the hereditary witch really comes from. To this, any oral traditions that accompany it, are second nature; as any true Seith carries the ancestral memory. As for what we aspire to define as “covens”, these were meant to be a mutual bond of people to collectively enhance the influence of the channeller. Nonetheless, this is not something you can instruct to people, especially when neither you or they have the ability to begin with, no matter how much they may agree or even exalt you as an “authority”. It has sod all to do with authority, rather, the ever so slightest ripple that makes the tsunami, the flap of the butterfly’s wings. A question of time and place.