Melusine Draco - Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival: A Magical Anthropology

The aim of Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival is to provide a sympathetic approach to the evolution of witchcraft as a historical reality, rather than as mere circumspection or wishful thinking. By combining scholarly writing and recent archaeological findings with a quality of fascination, I hope it will prove to be a delight to read and a source of new insight for those who would follow the traditions of the Old Ways. It shows that witchcraft did (and does) exist, and traces the origins and true nature of the many different contemporary pagan beliefs back to their roots. And, what is equally as important, to understand when outside foreign influences were grafted onto indigenous pagan stock.

Generally speaking, todays paganism falls into four different elements, which in turn separate the different approaches and levels of magical practice. A considerable amount of magical writing can be incomprehensible to those who have not been schooled in that particular path or tradition so we begin at the beginning and work ourselves up through the spheres of Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding. And we start by accepting that there is a divide between the various approaches to paganism and magical practice. Such as:

Animistic: The belief that everything animate and inanimate has its own life-force, such as that which forms the basis of shamanism and Old Craft;

Eclectic: Selecting or borrowing from a variety of styles, systems, theories, beliefs, etc., as commonly found in modern paganism and Wicca;

Syncretic: The attempt to reconcile different systems of belief; the fusion or blending of religions, as by identification of gods, taking over of observances, or selection of whatever seems best in each; often producing a seemingly illogical compromise in belief. Found in many aspects of Western Ritual Magic, and the initiatory branches of tradi- tional witchcraft;

Synergetic: Combined or co-ordinated action; increased effect of two elements obtained by using them together. The combining of ancient wisdom with modern magical applications, as in the case of the contemporary approaches of Old Craft, Norse (Heathen) and Druidry.

As I observed in Coven of the Scales: The Collected Writings of A R Clay-Egerton, it should be understood that although Bob and Mrim Clay-Egerton firmly held the philosophy and opinion that all faiths were one, and that all paths led to the same goal, they did not advocate what is now referred to as eclectic paganism. What they did teach was the desire for knowledge and experience, regardless of source. Each new experience was studied within the confines of that particular religion, path or tradition. Each discipline was kept completely separate from another. Only when a student had a thorough understanding of the tenets of each discipline were they encouraged to formulate them into their own individual system.

These sentiments were echoed by Dion Fortune in The Mystical Qabalah:

No student will ever make any progress in spiritual development who flits from system to system; first using some New Thought affirmations, then some Yoga breathing-exercises and meditation-postures, and following these by an attempt at the mystical methods of prayer. Each of these systems has its value, but that value can only be realised if the system is carried out in its entirety the student who sets out to be an eclectic before he has made himself an expert will never be anything more than a dabbler.

This book invites the reader to take the opportunity to step back in time and discover through the gateways of intuition and instinct where their own individual roots can be found. Mlusine Draco Winter Solstice 2012

One of the most striking features of the history of all religion is the way in which people have clung to the holy places of their far-off ancestors. It appears that once a site was sanctified through worship, an incoming people whether aggressive invaders, or the peaceful missionaries, gained prestige by occupying the site. When this was done, the old religion could be overthrown and the area purified with new ritual and religious observance.

Readers Digest, Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain

When we read about ancestral British paganism today, more often than not, it is tinged with the rosy hue of the noble savage and wishful thinking, rather than based on progressive archaeological or anthropological discovery. For the first half-million years after our pre-human ancestors slowly morphed into a recognisable form, they were still primitives who left relatively little evidence of their existence except for a few bones and Palaeolithic tools. The emergence from the hunter-gatherer era to the development of agriculture, the domestication of animals, pottery and weaving, is a mere 10,000 years ago; while civilisation as we understand it, only dates back some 5,000 years.

Unfortunately, in the rush to establish the many different forms of 20th century revivalist paganism, the element of curiosity has often been suppressed in favour of historical ignorance. Anything that is non-Christian in origin is immediately embraced as pagan, despite the fact that much of it had little to do with the indigenous people of the British Isles. It also leads to the acceptance of fakelore and fantasy as the basis for a considerable amount of contemporary thinking. Reviewing one of these pseudo-history books in