Monthly JMG Book Special

[ecosophia]

As mentioned earlier, the folks at Llewellyn have obligingly given me a set of discount codes for my backlist, one per month, 20% off if you order it directly from the Llewellyn website. For the month of July, the book on sale is The Celtic Golden Dawn, arguably my most innovative magical textbook -- a complete system of magic that uses classic Golden Dawn technique but the gods, powers, and symbolism of the Druid Revival traditions. You can order a copy here; enter the discount code JMG0718 at checkout for the 20% off. 

While you're waiting for it to arrive, if you've got questions about the book, why, I'm the one to ask. ;-)

Comments

Compatibility with planetary magic

[rationalist858]

Is the Ovate material compatible with planetary magic? I was thinking of the following ritual program:

- 3 days a week, Celtic Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram in summoning mode,
- 3 days a week, Celtic Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram in banishing mode,
- 1 day a week, set up an altar, open with a summoning, perform a planetary invocation, experience the contact, close with a banishing.

I really like the Celtic LRP as described in the book, but the planets also call to me...

Re: Compatibility with planetary magic

[ecosophia]

Any kind of serious ceremonial magic should be left until the Druid grade. It's important to get the basics down first before going on to the more advanced work!

[packshaud]

My copy is in my hands for a while, and while browsing it casually I noticed the figure with the four lowest stations of the tree arranged in a tetrahedron, and I know that jumping into advanced lessons is bad, so I'll take your offer and ask, is there something at the center, like Daath in the upper hexagon?

[ecosophia]

In a certain sense, Muner (Tiphareth) is in the center of the tetrahedron of the four lower spheres; in another sense, of course, it's on another plane entirely.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,
I am currently studying the Druid Magic Handbook and the Druidry Handbook. Thanks for both. Is your Celtic Golden Dawn book compatible with my current studies?
Max Rogers

[ecosophia]

No, it's an entirely different system of magic, and I don't recommend studying both systems at the same time.

Reading assignment

[degringolade]

John Michael:

Do you have any recommendations on non-bulls%=: books on "witchcraft". I have tried a couple modern books on Wicca, but have been less than impressed.

Thanks in advance for your kind consideration.

John

Re: Reading assignment

[ecosophia]

Well, a lot depends on what you mean by the W-word! If you mean the practices that witches, i.e., western European working-class folk magicians, actually did in the period from the late Renaissance through the modern era, the best book I know of is Jim Baker's The Cunning Man's Handbook: The Practice of English Folk Magic 1550-1900. Be aware, though, that the material this book covers has precisely nothing in common with what the vast majority of today's self-proclaimed witches do. If you have something else in mind, well, let's discuss the meaning of that much-vexed word "witchcraft" and go from there.

Re: Witchcraft

[(Anonymous)]

While I have quibbles about some of his information I would recommend _Bonewits Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca_. If I recall correctly it has a decent reading list. If you mention the books you have read and give some idea of what you found lacking I could give more guided information. I am 3rd degree Gardnarian with over 40 years in the Craft in various trads.

Rita R

books on witchcraft

[deborah_bender]

John Michael Greer is a very experienced and learned mage; I've never seen him give bad or ignorant advice on any subject related to magic, but if you are looking for recommendations of books on witchcraft, it might make sense to also ask some witches.

If your interest is entirely intellectual, any number of books can give you basic information on what witches do, how they do it, what they get out of it, some of their beliefs, and some basic terminology and jargon. Witches vary a good deal, so that will get you about as far as reading one or two books about Christianity will inform you if you have interactions with Christians.

If your interest is more personal, so would be my recommendations. By personal, I simply mean that you feel drawn to or interested in something that you associate with witchcraft. If that is the case, the books that are likely to appeal to you in the beginning are ones that go into the particular thing that interests you in some depth.

Some people are drawn to witchcraft very early in life, and spend their childhood quietly making little altars in out of the way spots in the garden, or having crows follow them around like Mary and her lamb, or seeing and hearing things that the adults don't notice and learning to keep their mouths shut about what they see and hear. Some people lead completely conventional lives well into adulthood and then one day get a call from the Goddess (either waking or dreaming), and aren't sure what it is or whether it's real, but can't ignore it, and it leads them to other people who have heard the same call. Some people are drawn to group religious ritual and want to do it outdoors, with dancing, instead of sitting inside a building listening to someone talk. Some want to walk in the woods at twilight and listen, or sit by a running stream and feel. Some people feel a little odd, different from their friends and neighbors in some unspecified way, until by chance they encounter a couple of pretty ordinary people who invite them to a ceremony, and all of a sudden they realize that they have come home.

if you have a strong idea or feeling of what you are looking for, and you are able to articulate it, I or one of the other witches who comments here might know the sort of book you would like. I've read a lot of books about witchcraft, and skimmed others, but they keep writing more and different ones, so nobody but a reviewer can keep up anymore. I have sampled a range, written from the late nineteenth century through last year, so I might have a suggestion or two.

Re: books on witchcraft

[ecosophia]

Deborah, I ain't arguing. I've never had even the slightest attraction to modern witchcraft, whether or not it carries the Wicca brand name -- and by "modern" I mean anything in the cultural lineage that descends with or without acknowledgment from Charles Godfrey Leland, and got to him from Jules Michelet's La Sorcière. (The backstory behind Michelet is another matter entirely, and deserves discussion one of these days.) That's why I asked Degringolade what he meant by witchcraft. When it comes to your kind of witchcraft, the sum total of my research was what was necessary (a) to put the relevant entries into my New Encyclopedia of the Occult and (b) back when I was head of AODA, to cope with the same few dozen questions from people who had no clue that there's a difference between Wicca and Druidry. I have nothing against modern witchcraft; I gather that a lot of people find it profoundly moving and fulfilling; but its teachings don't speak to me, and the public Wiccan rituals I've attended did less than nothing for me. Thus if Degringolade had made it clear he was looking for modern witchcraft, I would have advised him to talk to some modern witches...but I also know, from repeated experience, that most modern witches are very poorly informed about what western European working-class folk magicians (i.e., in the language of the time, "witches") did and believed.

Re: books on witchcraft

[robertmathiesen]

Leland and Michelet likely crossed paths in Paris in the years around 1848, when the former was a student at the Sorbonne and a revolutionary, and the latter was a very popular "rabble-rousing" professor at the Collège de France, almost literally across the street from one another. One source (see Wikipedia) characterizes Michelet's lectures at that time as "one of the most popular resorts of the day."

Both men were at heart sentimental levelers, anti-clerical and anti-monarchical, inclining to Pantheism and Paganism and Free Thought. Later in their lives, both men lived for some years in Florence, and may have reconnected with one another there.

There's a lot more to be said about Michelet. It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that he was one of the grandfathers of modern anglo-phone Paganism.

Thank You

[degringolade]

Well, When I read you reply, you made me laugh, I am including a link to the post where I explained my laughter and what it is I am looking for.

https://mightaswellliebackandenjoyit.blogspot.com/2018/07/strega.html

Re: Thank You

[ecosophia]

You're welcome and thank you. Baker's book remains a good source, and there's also quite a bit of historical and anthropological material that might be relevant -- I'm thinking here especially of Carlo Ginzburg's The Night Battles and Ecstasies, and Jeanne Favret-Saada's Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage, though I believe there's been quite a bit more published since the last time (rather some years ago) that I went prowling through that end of literature on magic.

I'm also going to encourage you to read Charles Godfrey Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which was the book that effectively invented modern witchcraft. It has nothing to do with the lore and practices of late medieval and early modern western European working-class folk magicians (i.e., witches), but that's just it: once you know Leland, you can watch for his footprints in the butter in more recent books, and when you spot them, you know you're dealing with the new religious movement that's borrowed the name "witchcraft" rather than what you're looking for.

Re: Thank You

[degringolade]

Actually: While I am waiting for the interlibrary loan department to get a copy of "Night Battles", I ran across this gem.

http://users.clas.ufl.edu/burt/filmphilology/ginzburgmorellifreudholmes.pdf

I think that this article will help me a lot in my rescherches

Re: Thank You

[deborah_bender]

I recommend Carlo Ginzburg's earlier book, The Night Battles, over Ecstasies. In the latter, he's not just extrapolating from fragmentary evidence; he's spinning an entire theoretical cult out of half a spool of thread.

You might find some of what you are looking for in Nigel Pennick's Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition. There are bits of magical technology from the medieval and early modern periods in The Gates of Witchcraft by Christopher Penczak, particularly in the chapters on dance and poison, but you will have to skim a great deal of wiccanate material to get to it, so buy the book used if you buy it at all.

If you are sufficiently interested in history to want some idea of the cultural origins of Cunning work, you might want to read Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas, which is about English popular magic and beliefs in the early modern period.

I agree with JMG about the literary influence of Luciferian witchcraft on contemporary Wicca, from Michelet and going through Leland . The English translation of La Sorciere is called Satanism and Witchcraft. You can read Leland's Aradia for free online here www.sacred-texts.com/pag/aradia.htm. If you want a paper or ebook copy, facsimile editions are available cheaply and used. If you want to spend a little more time with the text (which you probably don't, but other people here might), buy Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches, a new translation by Mario Pazzaglini and Dina Pazaglini. Phoenix Publishing 1998 ISBN 0-919345-34-4. Since I don't read Italian, I can't evaluate the translation, but this edition contains several scholarly articles and commentaries which give some historical context and describe Leland's folklore collecting methods. If anyone likes Luciferian witchcraft enough to read more about it, a later entry into this literature is H.T.F. Rhodes The Satanic Mass from 1954. The Sabbat of the Goat chapter is derived from Michelet.

In Gerald Gardner's two nonfiction books, he cites Neoplatonism as one of the sources of Wicca. In my estimation and that of some Wiccan elders, it is a more important influence than English folk magic. If anyone has an interest in this, Don Frew has written a paper, Gardnerian Wica as Theurgic Ascent, which is published online at http://theurgicon.com/gardnerian.pdf

Re: Thank You

[dfr1973]

The Frew paper you link to is very interesting! Thank you for that. My trad traces lineage back to Gardner, so this is more than just an academic interest for me.

Re: Thank You

[deborah_bender]

Your photo looks very like someone who knows how to get in touch with Don, but I have a deficit in facial recognition ability that leads to embarrassment sometimes. If you don't know how to reach him, and would like to, I may be able to help. Both of you may have questions that the other could answer.

Anyone reading this who wishes to email me may take the second word in my nym above, remove the second "e", put a d in front of the "b" so that you have six letters altogether, add (at) aol.com.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd asked you about e-books - it doesn't appear that Llewellyn sells them directly - right?

- S. T. Silva.

[ecosophia]

Sorry I haven't been able to find the time to get back to you. No, Llewellyn apparently doesn't sell them on their website, and I have no idea why. You probably need to get them from one of the big online sources.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks! ... I'll see what besides Amazon and Google exists. :)