The usual excuse is that Wicca draws its “secret” knowledge from the Orto Templi Orientis and/or its alleged masonic roots. What they do not tell you is that the O.T.O. is Rosicrucian, thus its adherents not allowed to join a “regular” Lodge, no matter how much they may “borrow” from masonic practices. These are two entirely different cups of tea, one about sacred geometry, the other about hermeticism. In the late Victorian Age, when technology made world travel much easier for the common man, there were all kinds of secret societies, full of eccentrics and adventurers looking for some rich bastard to sponsor their wildest dreams of avarice- Samuel Liddell Mathers, his prodigy Edward Alexander Crowley, and his ally Alphonse Louis Constant (notice I removed the bogus names) no exception. That was the popular trend of the times. The truth is that neither Crowley nor Gardner ever got accepted into a regular Masonic lodge, Ancient Scottish rite or otherwise. Constant (Eliphas Levi) had studied to be Jesuit priest until he came across the grimoires, which sparked his interest in Hermeticism. The only Freemason was Mathers but he had to give it up when he joined the OGD and that is where he translated the Key of Solomon.
The problem with all this aspiring to be a pagan witchcraft tradition is the biblical assumption of ancient Babylon as the root of all human civilization. Too bad that DNA studies and recent archaeological findings in Anatolia and the lower Danube prove otherwise, but then the favourite argument against that is that “there are no scientific proofs, just opinions”. Conversely, any lack of “written evidence” tries to imply that either countless inquisitions and witch persecutions destroyed it, or that it was simply too primitive to qualify as anything intellectually challenging. Ironically, the witch craze of plague ridden Europe, was not so much suspicious of pagan folk practices as it was of close knit Jewish communities. Like most Christians even the mystics took the Levant for rife in black magic ever since the Crusades. Necromantic tales like Lilith and the Witch of Endor appealed to their darkest fantasies...and so the whole popular misconception of what defines a witch, was born. Despite all this, pagan folk practices simply carried on under the veneer of Catholicism, masking over the old spirits, their sacred places and feasts, with the trinity and names of saints. In feudal times they did not have the privilege of literacy, so much of their knowledge remained an oral tradition. It also preserved the identity of clans and craftsmen. Gardner tried to bridge this historical gap by alleging having met such a group in the New Forest. He liked to invent his own folk-legends, drawing on a Scottish heritage he never had. This was also a popular trend among latter day eccentrics and adventurers. Oh the ever so mysterious Celtic race! They will tell you little is known about them because they didn't write it down. Heaven forbid ever mentioning that Scots Gaelic is in any way Germanic.
Folk magic bears no resemblance to hermeticism. It is agrarian, arboreal, not a temple craft. Its roots are tribal and lives on in the sacred groves and springs of clans that have been around for countless generations. Their paleolithic roots were not matriarchal as Margaret Murray tries to suggest. Like with most tribal societies, men and women generally had each their own discrete secular circles. “Venus” figures were not alone among phallic symbols. While churches were built on ancient mounds and circles in the course of Christianization, they still remain portals to the otherworldly. This is why the Christian taboo of the widdershins walk around churches. On the other hand, people raised on strict Christian academia tend to poo-poo folk magic as primitive superstition, yet regard temple/ceremonial craft as summoning such cosmic potential, the power trip simply appeals to a lust that the frugalities of evangelism cannot satisfy. No surprise that figures like Crowley and Gardner had quite a reputation of sexual profligacy.
So if you are privy to certain hereditary psychic skills, do you really need the label “Wicca” to justify it? Even if you apply it to the systems suggested by these people, it does not make Wicca a hereditary craft, let alone an ancient tradition. Give or take, most natural talents prefer to be solitary because they can't be arsed by individuals who aspire to confuse the issue with too much hierarchical role play for supremacy. It's the difference between lateral and vertical development in dispensing one's creative juices, thus why most Hedgewitches are women. Is it matriarchy, partriarchy or just plain natural order at work? Think about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment