The major craft myths

By major craft myths I mean any mythological figures or stories or objects that
you may come across in craft books or in craft practise. To start off with we will
have a look at the commonest deities associated with the craft. After that we
will have a look at the stories that exist and finally a quick look at some of the
mythological objects that abound in pagan and craft thought.

Craft Deities

The craft has many deities, it is after all polytheistic. But a few have either
special significance to craft and pagan workers or have worked their way into the
craft consciousness somehow. Below I have outlined the most common craft
deities and hopefully given a good enough rundown on them that if you wished
to find more out about them you could do. When I talk about them teaching us
these are just the simplest lessons that they have taught me. You may find they
teach you something different and this is good, after all our faith is based on
personal experience and not someone’s idea of what faith should be.

The triple goddess

This is the archetypical goddess that every witch, pagan and worker of magic
knows about. There are two types of triple goddess that pagans are used to.
There is the single goddess who has three forms or aspects and then there are
three separate goddess’s who belong to a triad of some sort. The second sort is
easier to sort out so we will start there.

Goddess triads are quite ancient an idea. Like many other deities they also
seem to follow a rough pattern throughout history. As an example the following
are all considered groups of three or triads of goddess’s.

• The Greek Moirae, the three goddess’s of fate known as Clotho the
spinner, Lachesis the drawer of lots and Atropos the inexorable.
• The Roman Parcae goddess’s of fate where called Nona the spinner,
Decimal the measurer and Morta the cutter.
• The Norse Norns, the three goddess’s of destiny known as Uror (wyrd),
Veroandi (present) and Skuld (future).
• The Islamic three daughter of Allah known as Al-lat (the goddess), Al-uzza
(power) and Manat (fate)
• The Laplander triad of Sahrahkka (pregnancy), Juksahkka (changer) and
Uksahkka (protector)
• The Hurrians (Mesopotamia) had Gul-shesh, Gulshesh and Gul-ashshesh
who were collectively known as the Hutena.

These are just a few of the triads that appear from different parts of the world.
As you can see although it is easy to find triads who are in charge of fate, there
are other triads of goddess’s around. Although of the triads I found the majority
were to do with fate with protection coming a close second. Why would this be
though?

The idea of fate to a person in ancient Greece or ancient Denmark would have
been slightly different to our idea of fate today. To us, with our technology and
our ability to change the world around us there does not seem to be any problem
that we as a race cannot surmount or get past. So if something is fated to
happen to us who cares. Let it happen and if we do not like the consequences
then we can change those consequences to something we do like.

However to a race that could not change their environment with ease and who
did not have a lot of choices then if something happened to them that they felt
they could not change it would be a terrifying event. Think how powerless and
stress filled you get when something out of your control hits you and then
imagine how these people felt. You can easily see why they would deify fate.

The other type of triple goddess, the goddess with three facets, is a trickier
prospect. Like the Christian father, son and Holy Ghost trinity it can cause some
major headaches when sorting out your own personal faith in your head.
However with a little thinking, meditation and some basic common sense it can
be sorted out.

The triple faced goddess is a goddess who enshrines three aspects into one
being. The one we are most familiar with is the maiden, mother and crone
goddess. There are other type’s goddess’s that represent other triads though.
For our argument we shall concentrate on the one we know best.

First understand that the goddess represents three periods in a woman’s life.

• The maiden phase is everything up to when you lose your virginity.

• The mother phase is when you have children or if you choose not to have
children it’s commonly thought to be up to the point when you can no
longer have children.
• The crone phase is when you can no longer have children until the point
you die.

Every woman goes through these periods in their life but we do not consider you
to be triple faced. The triple goddess also corresponds to the cycles of the
moon, waxing, full and waning, in some traditions. She can also be thought to
be representative of below, centre and above in some feminist Dianic rituals. So
when we talk about the triple faced goddess we talk about a goddess who
encompasses three aspects of one thing, three stages of life, three phases of the
moon, three directions etc.

So why do we use her? Well that is partly in thanks to a person called Robert
Graves, who in 1948 published the white goddess. This book continued the
tradition of Margaret Murray and other authors who stood by the theory that
there was a goddess religion that flourished in Europe.
Robert graves however was the one who specifically brought the idea of the
triple goddess and the stages of a woman’s life and lunar cycles together.

Another author who gave life to the idea of a triple goddess is Jane Ellen Harrison
who brought the idea that there was a goddess who represented the earth and
had three faces; the maiden, mother and she failed to give a name to the third.
It was ideas like this that came into prominence around the early 1950’s and
they found a willing home in the myths and workings of neo witchcraft.

In fact before the 1950’s the triple goddess figure was very rarely used. It
certainly isn’t used in Gerald Gardner’s original writings. The only two goddess’s
who are named in his book of shadows are Aradia, who would have come from
Leyland’s “Aradia gospel of the witches” and Ceridwen who is well known to
mythology readers everywhere.

I guess witches at the time, looking for inspiration took on the idea of a triple
goddess and seeing three easily distinguishable phases of the moon paired the
two together. In today’s Wiccan world the triple goddess is used in non magical,
non seasonal rituals. For example initiation rituals will usually call upon and
work with the triple goddess but she is rarely seen or called upon during a
magical ritual or Sabbat. That is of course unless you have been taught in a
tradition that uses the triple goddess exclusively.

What the triple goddess teaches us is about the flow of life, easily going from one
stage of life to another without fear or doubt. She knows that it is inevitable that
she will pass from maiden to mother to crone and she does this easily. She also
shows us that as we pass from crone we inevitably will come to maiden again.
Death is but a change after all.

Finally for completeness sake, you should be aware that one of the great
arguments in the craft today is whether the goddess has three or four faces.
This is something you should think about on your own time and come to your
own conclusions. Just be prepared to defend your decision if need be!

The horned God

The partner of the triple goddess in a lot of covens, the horned god is a strange
figure on the surface of things. After all, a figure with horns and goat feet seems
almost designed to be mixed up with the more prevalent Christian thought of the
devil. But there is a reason why the horned god was used originally to represent
the male side of the craft.

Unlike the triple goddess, the horned god was there from the start being
mentioned in Gardners original writings. He is an especially ancient god who has
history going back to pre Christian times and magically he has many connections
to what people were trying to create when the craft revival started.

The earliest picture of a Horned God in England has been found carved onto a
bone; this was found in Pinhole Cave, Derbyshire. From France we have the
Caverne des Trois Freres in Ariege where cave paintings of horned figures were
found. Even from the gold tombs of Ur there has been found a copper horned
head. The figure of the Horned God clearly has strong connections to all people
and countries around the globe. If you read enough classical mythology you can
see instances of the Horned God appearing throughout.

Some of the more famous horned gods include Pan from Greece, Cernunnos from
the Celts and Faunus from Rome. There are many others though if you read
through the mythology of yesteryear. He shows up in cave paintings and folk
art. In fact he is one of the most recognisable of the Wiccan gods yet to appear.

The earliest known written confirmation of a horned God figure though comes
from around 668AD when Theodore the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time
wrote against anyone “who goes about as a stag or a bull, that is making himself
into a wild animal and dressing in the skin of a herd animal”. What is interesting
about this is that it shows the idea of the Horned God is still very much alive
during the times of the Christians and may have appeared as part of a horned
man cult at the time. However there is very little evidence of this cult so it
cannot be said for certain. What is certain is that obviously people where
dressing up as animals for some reason.

So we have a figure with obvious antiquity behind it. But what exactly does the
horned god stand for? What does he mean? If the triple goddess represents the
feminine then how does the horned god represent the male?

To begin with let’s examine how he looks. Horns which in actuality are antlers,
top his head and his feet are cloven hooves. He is usually depicted as having
shaggy hair and wearing an animal skin of some sort. In short he looks like
either a savage or an animal to our standards today. And that is partly what he
is for he is the primal animal in all of us. Just like men have a little of the goddess
in them so too will woman have a little horned god in them. All those deep
animal desires we all have, all those instincts that we thought we had forgotten
but suddenly shout out at us in times of danger, all those moments of rage that
we cannot explain and those moments of sudden distrust or trust for a person
which comes out of nowhere. All these things are represented by the animalistic
horned god.

And these things work perfectly in tandem with the triple goddess. After all she
represents the phases of life and the flow that we should all work with. However
without our instincts, our passions, our wildness then we would be merely
walking through life without the experience of living it. Take the goddess away
and we experience life without moving on and learning from that experience,
being forever stagnant.

Like the triple goddess, the horned god tends to be used more in religious or
faith ceremonies rather than magical ones. There is a very good reason for this,
as only magicians or practised witches should consider calling upon the power of
the horned god. He is very powerful and he can quite easily overpower the
psyche of an uninitiated person.

The earth mother

This particular deity is known by many different names. Demeter, Ceres, Danu,
Nerthus and many others appear from all the different cultures around the globe.
In fact an earth mother figure is one of the many archetypes that appear in all
cultures. It’s universal in its appeal and universal in its meaning.

The earliest incarnation of the Earth Mother is thought to be in the settlement of

Çatalhöyük in Anatolia. In this settlement was found carefully made pottery
figures of woman are dated to around 7500BC. Add to this the famous Venus von
Willendorf, a statue of a woman with pendulous breasts and a pronounced
pregnancy dated to around 24-2200BC and you can see this goddess is another
ancient deity that deserves her place in craft cannon.

Why the earth mother is used identified with so much in modern day witchcraft is
a tricky question. You can certainly point to Margaret Murray who in 1921
published the Witchcult in Western Europe. Murray's hypothesis was that there
was an underground nature religion in Europe which originated in the Neolithic
and survived well into the 18th Century. This 'cult' (by which she simply means a
belief system without any of the overtones which are popularly assigned to the
word) had a cell structure like most underground movements. Murray believed
that it was not a goddess religion, at least in the form it survived in during the
modern era, although it was not totally male-dominated.

You can also blame Gerald Gardner a little for this as well, if blame is the right
word. In 1954, Gardner published Witchcraft Today, which continued the thesis
espoused by Margaret Murray that witchcraft had existed since pre-Christian
times but had gone underground to escape persecution. In the interests of
fairness though, it should be said that according to many researchers Gardner
pretty much made the whole thing up.

Like many of the gods and goddesses involved in pagan religions like the craft
there are strands of the deity we worship today twisting down throughout the
ages to our earliest ancestors. Finding the truth about these strands is part of
the journey of the craft, annoying though that may be.

At its most basic level the earth mother is in charge of the growing green things
on the planet. Any vegetation from edible to man-eating falls under her sway.
She is also often seen as being a mother to many of the more important deities
in a culture. She embodies the nurturing instinct, whether its nurturing a person
or a plant, they are all important to her.

She is also known as Mother Nature, and in her guise as Mother Nature she is
also venerated as the great female reproductive principle. That biological
imperative that pushes all of nature to procreate and pass on their genes is the
reason we are all here now. Without her would be without growth and without
growth we would all stagnate. Change is inevitable when the Earth Mother is
around.

However the earth mother also has a dark side in which she can take away her
life giving power to the growing things of the earth. There are tales in mythology
of this being done in anger and retribution but the majority of times when it
happens it is usually due to other reasons. However, just as plants can
sometimes wither and die due to the earth mother so to can the baby inside you.
This is the darkest aspect of the earth mother.

This goddess teaches us about nurturing. We all have that part of us which
wants to help something grow, whether it is a child, a plant or even a group of
people. By nurturing something we are honouring one of the ancient deities.
However when she pulls her life giving force away from us she teaches us about
loss. Without loss there would be no appreciation of what you have left.

The earth mother is often invoked during the harvest festivals when giving
thanks for what we have is always a good idea. She is also often invoked during
handfastings to give blessings on the union, usually in the hope that the new
couple will bear fruit soon. Of course if you were doing a spell to help a woman
conceive then you could also call upon an earth mother to help.

The grain god/sacrificial king

The male counterpart to the earth mother is the grain god. While the earth
mother’s story is usually full of produce and gain, the grain god pays for that
growth with his own life. He dies so that new growth can come. In effect he is a
sacrificial lamb but one who goes to his own death willingly.

Originally this was to do with the sacrificial king. A member of the ruling class
who would die periodically, usually once a year to make sure that his land stayed
bountiful. This was first introduced to pagans in “The Golden Bough: A Study in
Magic and Religion” by Sir James George Frazer in 1890. According to Frazer at
Nemi each year a priest-king would be challenged to ritual combat. If he lost he
would be ritually sacrificed. If he won his challenger would suffer that fate. This
was done to keep the land bountiful.

Obviously today we cannot challenge people to ritual combat for the good of the
land so to celebrate and honour this particular act of love for the land we used
what was closest to us, corn dollies. Corn dollies came about thanks to ancient
customs which told us to make these corn dollies and to keep them for a year so
that the corn spirits could rest. They would then be ploughed into the field with
the next planting. You can see the obvious reference to the sacrificial king.

The importance of grain to our culture cannot be underestimated. And if a

harvest failed it could spell disaster for people. An old folk song called john
barleycorn shows just how important grain was considered at the time. This song
is thought to date back to around the 17th century and again you can see
references to the concept of sacrifice.

There was three men came out of the west,

Their fortunes for to try,
And these three men made a solemn vow,
John Barleycorn should die.
They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in,
Throwed clods upon his head,
And these three man made a solemn vow,
John Barleycorn was dead.

Then they let him lie for a very long time

Till the rain from heaven did fall,
Then little Sir John sprung up his head,
And soon amazed them all.
They let him stand till midsummer
Till he looked both pale and wan,
And little Sir John he growed a long beard
And so became a man.

They hired men with the scythes so sharp

To cut him off at the knee,
They rolled him and tied him by the waist,
And served him most barbarously.
They hired men with the sharp pitchforks
Who pricked him to the heart,
And the loader he served him worse than that,
For he bound him to the cart.

They wheeled him round and round the field

Till they came unto a barn,
And there they made a solemn mow
of poor John Barleycorn.
They hired men with the crab-tree sticks
To cut him skin from bone,
And the miller he served him worse than that,
For he ground him between two stones.
Here's little Sir John in a nut-brown bowl,
And brandy in a glass;
And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl
Proved the stronger man at last.
And the huntsman he can't hunt the fox,
Nor so loudly blow his horn,
And the tinker he can't mend kettles or pots
Without a little of Barleycorn.

An interesting celebration that seems to ring close to what we do today is Aztec

in origin. Simply put the Aztec grain (maize) was planted at the beginning of the
year. When the maize sprouted into a cane there would be a wild dance around
these canes (early maypole maybe). Then at harvest time some maize cobs
would be picked and carried on the backs of elderly Aztec woman like a new born
babe (early corn dolly) and when the woman got home the cobs would be laid to
rest in a pot outside the house. This was to let the corn spirits rest before next
year’s harvest. To ensure a good harvest the following year a ritual offering of
blood would be poured on the ground before planting (the corn god sacrifice)

So why is he important to us? He is important because he teaches us very simple

lessons. He teaches the Wiccan that sometimes we may have to sacrifice our
own happiness for the good of the earth. He teaches that no matter where we
go when we die there will always be part of us left. Whether it is memories in
people’s heads or our bodies nourishing the earth we will always be part of what
we leave behind.

He also teaches us one of the most important lessons in life. That death is
necessary. Nobody likes to think of death, especially when that death hits a
loved one. But without death there can be no life. If we did not cut the corn
there would be no space for the new crop of corn next year.

This deity is used very rarely in very specialised areas. It should never be used
in spell work unless you are creating a ritual to give thanks for your loved ones
who have passed over and even then use him carefully. There is power in this
deity that should not be tapped unless you really need to.

The virgin goddess/the huntress

These two goddess archetypes are quite often intertwined in modern pagan
thought. They represent a freedom from mans domination of females to some
witches, especially American Dianic witches. This goddess archetype is the
feminist’s poster girl. There is usually more to the story if you dig deep enough
though.

The idea of a virgin goddess goes back to the very ancient culture of
Mesopotamia with the goddess Anat. We also see her in Egypt, Greece, and
Rome and even as far as Slavic countries where she may be called devana. Even
today in India where she is known as Devi Kanya Kumari or Kanya Devi there is a
virgin goddess. It is one of the more enduring goddess archetypes.

It is doubtful though that this goddess was produced during our very ancient past
unlike the mother goddess. When we were still hunting in tribes it is doubtful
that virginity was a wanted trait if the tribe was to survive. It is only when we
became settled farmers and we were no longer in danger of being wiped out by a
marauding elephant that the idea of virginity as something sacred became more
than an idea.

This goddess became intertwined with the huntress during the Greek and roman
times with the advent of Artemis and Diana. Anat was herself a warrior but after
the early roman times virgin goddess’s became a more peaceful lot dealing with
healing people and guarding childbirth or the family hearth. Could this possibly
be because women were no longer seen as being capable warriors or hunters?

It was during the 1970’s that the term Dianic witchcraft came into prominence as
being feminist witchcraft using the virgin huntress goddess as patrons. This was
largely thanks to the mother of the American Dianic movement Zsuzsanna E.
Budapest who founded a female only coven and wrote The Feminist Book of
Lights and Shadows to share her views.

It is easy to see why woman who wanted their own non male biased, non
hierarchical faith would gravitate towards the virgin goddess. The fact that she
was a powerful hunter figure would only add to the love of the goddess that they
would find.

So what can this virgin huntress teach us about ourselves and about the craft?
Well for a start this figure is most useful to woman. It teaches that you are
powerful, protective and above all else your body is your own. It teaches us that
no matter what if you do not wish for someone to touch you in any way then
they shouldn’t. It teaches that you are in control of your own destiny, your own
desires and your own fate. Quite simply it teaches strength.

I should point out that there is a difference between American feminist Dianic
tradition and the English Dianic tradition. The main difference is that the English
tradition believes that Diana’s consort must be included where as the American
tradition allows for the use of all female covens without a consort figure.

The green man

The green man appears a lot in magic literature, especially when the talk starts
towards guided meditations and meeting guides. It is one of those figures who
doesn’t appear to be a particular god or supernatural power and yet hangs
around at the edge of our vision popping up now and again. In short the green
man is a mystery.
The name itself, “the green man” was first attached to the carved faces that you
would find in churches by a Lady Raglan in 1939. This was in her article "The
Green Man in Church Architecture" in The Folklore Journal. Thanks to a
Victorian revival of the green man over 2000 images are alive and well in
architecture in England alone.

He is usually described as a face surrounded by a wreath of leaves and he can

be found in many places, even places that you would not think to look. At one
point it was common to see a carving of the green man in churches and other
holy houses. Even today you can see one at Kinnersley church (Herefordshire).
The carved wooden screen on the altar has a Green Man at the very centre

Why would the church have this particular character carved into it? Well there
are many different theories for that. The most popular is the ever present taking
over pagan symbolism and reinventing it so that the pagans could feel
comfortable coming into a church theory. Or you could ascribe to the idea that
like gargoyles they were put there to frighten away either Satan himself or to
frighten away churchgoers from Satan. Another good theory says that pagan
stonemasons put the mark there in a secret way of keeping the faith alive.
Personally I just think that the figure is so ingrained in our consciousness that
people put them up without knowing why. Just as a decoration.

But where did this enigmatic figure come from? We can only guess
unfortunately as the earliest found form of the green man harks back to the
Roman Empire around the first century AD. Unfortunately only the heads have
been found, no written records so we can only guess what his purpose was. That
he still exists in the pagan consciousness can only testify to his mystery.

So why does he crop up as a guide in magical literature? Well as his face shows
he is a hidden power. He appears when he wishes not when you find him. This
leaves him with a certain amount of leeway when it comes to guided
meditations. If he appears you can be sure that it is because he has something
to show you. Add to this that no one knows a lot about him so you come to him
with no preconceived notions of what should happen.

This is completely different to what he symbolises in pagan thought though. To

pagans he symbolises nature or more importantly mankind living in harmony
with nature. He also represents life but life being irrepressible and impossible to
stop. To me he also symbolises the mystery of life and the drive to survive. After
all he is one of the biggest mystery figures in pagan thought and he is still here
even though no one knows where he came from.

Finally I leave you this poem to think about. Some people have said it is a riddle,
but I prefer the idea of it as a poem.

I am born on May Morning - by sticks, bells, and ribbons

I am the sap - in the dark root
I am the dancer - with his six fools
I am the tump - behind the old church
I am the lost soul - under the misericord
I am the oak - against the stars
I am the face - that peers through the leaves
I am the fear - in a child' s mind
I am the demon - on the roof-boss
I am killed in October - and laid on church altars
I am the guiser - on the bright bonfire
I am the old grain - sown with the seed
I am the flame - in the pumpkin ' s grin
I am the spirit - in the kern-baby's bosom

The oak king/holly king

The oak and holly kings, those twins of nature that fight each and every year for
the goddess’s affections. I get asked more questions about these two than any
other figure in Wiccan thought.

Like the green man, these two did not actually exist in ancient myth; rather they
were an amalgamation of many different philosophical trains of thought and
philosophy. They came to prominence thanks to our friends Robert Graves (the
white goddess) and Sir James George Frazer
(The golden bough). While Frazer used a single divine king attached to the year
Graves split his into two. The kings of winter and summer.

So why was the oak and holly chosen for the kings? For that we should thank the
ancient Celts. The oak tree was sacred to the Celts and it loses its leaves during
the winter months and re-grows them during the summer ones. This would be
perfect for a summer god who loses in battle and disappears for the winter
months.

The holly tree is also sacred to the Celts but unlike the oak tree it kept its leaves
all year around. Holly was supposed to bring magical protection against the evil
spirits lurking in the night, so what better king could you have during the long
dark nights than one who could protect you against the evil out there?

There is another strain of wiccan thought says that they do not battle each other,
but rather both exist concurrently. The Oak King is born of the Goddess at Yule,
growing in power through the spring, peaking at Beltane and then weakening
through autumn until he dies at Samhain. The Holly King however lives a
reverse existence, and is born at Midsummer (Litha), increasing in strength
throughout summer and autumn, reaching his zenith at Samhain. His sway then
diminishes until it is his turn to pass at Beltane.

Basically though the two tree kings came about thanks to folklore about the
passing of the seasons and the growing of plants. They were created during a
time when we were more in tune with the passing of the seasons and the nature
of the earth. However do not think that the custom of two kings ruling over the
year are just in England.
In Bavaria On the fourth Sunday of Lent, which is called "Laetare Sunday" in
Catholic areas, there is the custom of "Winteraustreiben" (=driving out of
winter). Winter is sometimes represented by a straw puppet (which is burned
later), sometimes enacted by a youngster who may be disguised as an ugly
figure or is clad in black. Winter is then driven out of the village by the other
participants.
In rare cases after the driving out of winter there re-enters another person who is
wrapped in greenery (The Green Man), embodying summer.

To wiccans this pair symbolises the duality of life. The light from the oak king
and the dark from the holly king. Note I said light and dark not good and evil.
That is because good and evil are relative while light and dark are absolutes.
They must battle because light cannot exist where dark is and vise versa but
neither can they exist without each other. Light without dark or dark without
light lose their meanings, their very nature. Nor can the goddess in the year
myth have two consorts. So battle is inevitable.

The wild hunt

The wild hunt myth is a fairly straightforward one and it is used very rarely in
ritual. There are many different versions of the wild hunt but they all follow the
same basic rules. There is a leader who leads a group of hunters with hounds on
a mad dash over the landscape. Sometimes they will harm you if they catch you
and sometimes they will not. The myth of the wild hunt is common throughout
Europe although it does appear elsewhere on the globe.

The hunt is an old phenomenon with references dating back to around 680AD.
There is even a report of it being seen around the town of Peterborough in 1127.

“...many men both saw and heard a great number of huntsmen hunting. The
huntsmen were black, huge, and hideous, and rode on black horses and on black
he-goats, and their hounds were jet black, with eyes like saucers, and horrible.
This was seen in the very deer park of the town of Peterborough, and in all the
woods that stretch from that same town to Stamford, and in the night the monks
heard them sounding and winding their horns.”

A similar event was seen in Normandy in 1091. Most reports say the hunt is
most prevalent on windy and cold days when the wind blows fierce. It is one of
those events that has creeped into the subconscious and has stayed there ever
since. But just what does the hunt represent?

The biggest clue to what the wild hunt entails is the actual name of the hunt. It
is known as
 • Wilde Jagd (German: "wild chase") or Wildes Heer (German: "wild host")
• Herlaþing (Old English: "Herla's assembly"), Woden's Hunt, Herod's Hunt,
Cain's Hunt, the Devil's Dandy Dogs (in Cornwall), Gabriel's Hounds (in
northern England) and Cŵn Annwn (Welsh: "hounds of Annwn")
• Ghost Riders (in North America)
• Mesnée d'Hellequin (Old North French: "household of Hellequin")
• divoká honba or štvaní (Czech: "wild hunt", "baiting")
• Oskoreia or Åsgårdsreia (Norwegian: "ride of Asgard")

In the majority of these names the main point that comes across is that the
leader of the hunt is a particular or named entity, usually a deity of some sort.
Even more telling is that these named leaders tend to have something in
common. They were all connected to the dead in some way.
Woden was a carrier of the dead, Herla was considered an old English Woden
prototype, Annwn is the welsh for the underworld, Hellequin is a French black
faced demon who takes people to the underworld and the American ghost riders
speak for themselves.

So we have a pack of hunters associated with the dead. What exactly do they
prey on then? Well in Denmark it is thought that the pray of the hunt is a troll or
elf. In Britain they were thought to go after sinners or the baptised (a
particularly Christian viewpoint). Germany meanwhile sees the prey as either
moss maidens (a type of Germanic wood nymph) or “white breasted maidens”
who if caught were not seen again for seven years.

We also have the idea that if you see the wild hunt it is usually a bad thing as it
is a harbinger of some misfortune. However it is not all bad. If the hunt is seen
and the person seeing it reacts badly then misfortune will follow. If however
they react with awe and show proper respect then not only good fortune could
follow but actual monetary gain as well.

So this power is a hunter of spirits, faeries or sinners (or I’m guessing bad people
of any sort). If caught the prey is either not seen again or not seen for a period
of time, usually seven years. As the leaders of the hunt are associated with the
dead it is not beyond the realm of possibility that prey is taken away to the
realm of the dead.

To the witch the hunt is two things. The first is that the hunt is a primal power,
chasing those that should be in the realm of the dead so they can take them
back. The second thing is that the hunt can be seen as an avenger of the
wronged or punisher of the sinner. As a power the hunt is good to call upon if
you want retribution or need a ghost pulled out of your house.

Exercise 1 – the craft deities teach us many things. Write down what they have
taught you so far and then write down what you hope they will teach you. Take
one of those things that you hope to learn and start learning about it right now.
Exercise 2- the wild hunt is the very epitome of wildness. Take some time and
think about what sends you wild. The definition of wild is up to you but try and
just let go and listen to your instincts. You don’t have to do this for long, just long
enough to experience that wildness for yourself. This has a long history of being
used in circle dancing.
Exercise 3 – something practical for you now. Try and come up with a
representation of one goddess and one god as they feel to you. Draw, paint,
model clay, whatever you want. Go mad with macaroni if you feel like it. Try and
put into actuality what you experience in thought.

Craft Stories

The craft doesn’t have too many stories that exist in written form for us to look
over and take our moral, ethical and philosophical ideas from. We are not like
other mainstream religions in that we do not have a holy book or scroll to take
these ideas from. Ours is a mostly an oral tradition that relies on actual
experience of the divine for our faith. However there are a couple of myths that
are written down and have become almost craft cannon.

The legend of the decent of the goddess into the underworld

Now the Goddess had never loved, but she would solve all mysteries, even the
mystery of Death, and so she journeyed to the nether lands. The guardians of
the portals challenged her. "Strip off thy garments, lay aside thy jewels, for
nought may ye bring with you into this our land." So she laid down her garments
and her jewels and was bound as are all who enter the realms of Death, the
mighty one.

Such was her beauty that Death himself knelt and kissed her feet, saying:
"Blessed be thy feet that have brought thee in these ways. Abide with me, but
let me place my cold hand on thy heart." And she replied: "I love thee not. Why
doest thou cause all things that I love and take delight in to fade and die?"
"Lady," replied Death, "'tis age and fate, against which I am helpless. Age causes
all things to wither; but when men die at the end of time, I give them rest and
peace and strength so that they may return. But you, you are lovely. Return not;
but stay with me." But she answered: "I love thee not." Then said Death: "As you
receive not my hand on your heart, you must receive Death's scourge." "It is
fate, better so," she said, and she knelt. Death scourged her and she cried: "I
know the pangs of love." And Death said: "Blessed be," and gave her the fivefold
kiss, saying: "Thus only may you attain to joy and knowledge."

And he taught her all the mysteries, and they loved and were one; and he taught
her all the magics. For there are three great events in the life of man--love,
death and resurrection in the new body -- and magic controls them all. To fulfill
love you must return again at the same time and place as the loved ones, and
you must remember and love her or him again. But to be reborn you must die
and be ready for a new body; to die you must be born; without love you may not
be born, and this is all the magic."

This version is the Gardenarian one and constitutes the first version that we
know of. To be honest it’s not the best written one but as one of the first it
should really be the one we look at.

This may seem like a strange tale. After all in myths that tell about other gods or
mortals travelling to the underworld there is usually a very good reason to go.
Rescuing a loved one for example but here in our myth it is pure curiosity and to
my mind a little stubbornness as well. But it does show us several ideas that the
craft holds dear.

For a start it shows that you cannot feel love without feeling suffering as well at
some point. It tells us about how when we die we are reborn and when we are
reborn we die. This is integral to the crafts view of the afterlife. It shows us that
you cannot enter the underworld unless you go naked. This is a spiritual
nakedness, not literal loss of clothing of course.

There is also a smack of Christianity about this tale. Christ suffered so we could
be redeemed and in this tale the goddess suffers so that we can learn magic and
love from her later. To my mind this is not so much a telling point about Gardner
but rather that suffering is necessary at some point if you wish to help the race
of man. This is also shown in Odin’s myth of how he got the runes and many
others.

Like many craft ideas, death in this tale is not frightening. Stern maybe, but not
frightening. In fact he makes sure to let us know by telling us that “when men
die at the end of time, I give them rest and peace and strength so that they may
return”. So not only will we be reborn, but we will also spend some time resting
beforehand. This has deeper implications if you think about it.

The yearly myth

In the myth of the holly and oak king, at Samhain the goddess enters the
underworld to seek to communicate with her lost love the oak king. She has to
tell him that she is pregnant with his child. The goddess has picked this time
because of the ease of communicating with those that have passed at this time.
The veils are thin and traditionally this is the one-day of the year that fairies can
come and go, as they will from their world to ours.

At the winter solstice the goddess having not been able to communicate with her
lost love the oak king, takes shelter with the holly king. The holly king is the
king of the underworld. He is the lord of death and rebirth and the master of
time.
Following our myth, at Imbolg the goddess, feeling the first pangs of childbirth
sets forth from the underworld and gives birth to the oak king. In this way the
oak king is reborn to his lost love and follows the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Now that our goddess has given birth to her lost love at Imbolg, it is now that he
must first grow before he can become her champion once. So now our oak king,
although only a child, goes out into the world to experience and grow.

Now the oak king has returned a man at Beltaine and the goddess welcomes him
as a lover and they consummate their relationship and the goddess becomes
pregnant.

Now the goddess and the oak king have consummated their relationship and the
goddess is pregnant, they perform the sacred marriage on the summer solstice.
This was normal in olden times, since a fertile woman was better than a non-
fertile one!

Now is the time that the oak king, after impregnating and marrying the goddess,
goes to challenge his dark twin the holly king. The holly king being the god of
birth and rebirth wins and the oak king falls down mortally wounded. He is
sacrificed for the land at Lughnasadh.

Finally our goddess after seeing her consort the oak king fall dead at the hands
of the holly king performs the funeral rites for her love at the autumn equinox
and the wheel of the year starts again.

Unfortunately I had to use my own myth because I found it impossible to find one
anywhere else. I will at some point dress the myth up and make it more of a
story but for now it will do. It tells us the basics of the yearly myth and together
with the notes about the oak and holly king tells us why they must fight each
other.

The yearly myth is designed to make sense of the eight festivals that wiccans
celebrate. You may find that at certain times of the year you will feel slightly
strange or at least stranger than normal! You may feel extra emotional or extra
nervous. These things are normal for witches believe me. You will find that as
you learn more and more about the world around you then you will start to react
to that world in ways that you may find strange.

Each festival has a “tide” that ebbs and flows with it. So for the two weeks
before and two weeks after the festival you may find that an emotion attached to
the festival will become more or less pronounced. For example at Samhain you
may find yourself nervy or at the summer solstice more alive.

The yearly myth should help you to understand just why you are feeling what
you are feeling. It explains what the goddess is feeling and doing at a particular
time. If you read between the lines it also explains how ancient man saw each
time of the year.
Exercise 4 - I want you to take some time and write a myth for the goddess. This
myth should be personal and it should impart some of your knowledge or ideas
about the goddess. This will be a great benchmark for later years.

Craft Objects

There are many objects that witch’s use. The questions are why. Why are
broomsticks attached to witches? Why do we use a cauldron? I will try and
quickly explain some of the more common ones here for you.

The broomstick

This comes from the myth of witches flying to the Sabbat during the night on
their broomsticks. Why would they use broomsticks, which let’s face it are not
the most aerodynamic of things is obvious. Every household of the day would
have a broomstick so they were easily accessible to woman. Add to this that
there where many folk customs involving a broom and you can easily see why
the broomstick was involved in the middle age witch trials.

Add to this that the media during the early part of the twentieth century always
had witches either carrying broomsticks or riding on them. The wizard of oz,
bewitched, any hammer house of horror film featuring witches will all have
broomsticks in them at some point. So we have media and the reports of the
witch trials to blame for the idea of using a broomstick nowadays.

The symbolic nature of the broomstick is different to most other tools in that it
has attributes of masculine and feminine in it. The broom handle is obviously
male in its phallic shape while the bristles are thought to be feminine in nature
due to them being traditionally birch which is a female tree.

Today we use the broom mainly to act as a boundary. In handfastings the broom
is used as a boundary for the couple to jump over. Some traditions use the
broom to sweep the circle, using it in effect to cleanse an area.

The cauldron

The cauldron is one of those things that witches were supposed to use to brew
potions up in. A proper cauldron is different from a normal cooking pot in that it
is large enough to stand over a fire and usually has three legs. A cooking pot
usually hangs over a fire and has no legs. However apart from using a cooking
pot, it is doubtful that any middle age witches would have used a cauldron. For a
start they are way too big to use just to brew one potion up in.

The link between cauldrons and witches can best be laid at Shakespeare’s door
thanks to his little “hubble bubble toil and trouble” speech in Macbeth. After that
any time you wanted to show a person plotting evil it was natural to show a
bubbling cauldron. This is a far cry from what they used to be seen as.
Symbolically the cauldron has always been seen as a symbol of regeneration,
rebirth and plenty. It is seen as being completely feminine in nature looking like
it does like a womb. A good example of this is the legend of Ceridwens cauldron
which brought the dead warriors back to life and fed them at need.

Today the cauldron is used mainly for two purposes. This is partly thanks to the
ability to buy smaller versions of a cauldron which any witch can now fit into
their home. The first purpose is to use it as intended to brew potions in.
However the brewing of potions is a dying art. So its second purpose is as a
divination vessel. You can use it to scry in and for this reason the cauldron is
becoming more and more popular again.

The twin knives

Witches now count two knives as part of their ritual kit. This is a black handled
knife called an athame and a white handled knife called a kervaine. The white
handled knife is also called a booline in some traditions.

Historically the witch of yesteryear would have used a knife for the cutting up of
herbs and other mundane tasks. The knife itself would almost certainly be a
normal household knife used for every single task possible. So to be honest the
use of a black handled knife in rituals is something that isn’t historically accurate
or comes from any media influence.

The use of knives in magic though is historically old and it is from other magical
traditions that Gerald Gardner took the idea. The knife is known to be a smaller
version of the sword which is well known in traditional magical practises.

Symbolically the knife is a male implement. It is thought to be an extension of

the power of the mind. It is also phallic and can be used as part of a symbolic
great rite by dipping it in the chalice (a smaller version of the cauldron).

For the modern witch the black handled knife is used purely for magical
purposes. You use it to direct and interact with energy. The white handled knife
meanwhile is used for purely mundane purposes, the cutting of herbs etc.

Exercise 5 – try and come up with another object that a middle age witch would
have had and think of any way you could use it in the craft or in a magical way.

Things to take away

• The triple goddess either represents three faces of the same thing, or
three separate things drawn together into a group. She is the flow of life
itself.
• The horned god is the instincts within us, our passions and desires and like
ourselves is as old as we are.
• The earth mother represents the feminine power of nature and growth.
• The grain god/sacrificial god represent the power of necessity in our lives
and the ability to sacrifice ourselves in any way for the greater good.
• The virgin goddess/huntress represents strength within yourself and the
ability to choose your own fate.
• The green man represents survivability, the ability to survive trouble and
come out the other side.
• The oak/holly king represents the duality of nature and need to accept our
own nature and flow with it rather than fight against it.
• The wild hunt represents chaos and the wildness that exists within us all.
• The underworld myth shows us that we cannot accept love without the
possibility of feeling the pangs of sorrow as well and when we die we will
be stripped of all pretence when we meet the lord of death.
• The yearly myth shows us how our ancestors saw the year in stages and
how the goddess interacts with her two consorts, the oak and holly kings.
• Not all instruments that we use today were used by the middle ages
witches. Some of them are new and some of them are borrowed from
other magical traditions.