Kelden - The Crooked Path: An Introduction to Traditional Witchcraft

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

The Crooked Path: An Introduction to Traditional Witchcraft 2020 by Kelden.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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First e-book edition 2020

E-book ISBN: 9780738762081

Cover design by Shannon McKuhen

Interior illustrations by Llewellyn Art Department

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kelden, author.

Title: The crooked path : an introduction to traditional witchcraft /

Kelden.

Description: First edition. | Woodbury, Minnesota : Llewellyn Worldwide.

Ltd, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: A primer

for readers new to the practice of Traditional Witchcraft, which is

rooted in folklore and history. Shares hands-on tips and techniques for

establishing a practice that is based on your own location and natural

landscape. Explains how to work with the tools, rituals, and spells of0

Traditional Witchcraft and explores connecting to ancestors, familiar

spirits, and deitiesProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019037498 (print) | LCCN 2019037499 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738762036 (paperback) | ISBN 9780738762081 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Witchcraft.

Classification: LCC BF1566 .K455 2020 (print) | LCC BF1566 (ebook) | DDC

133.4/3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037498

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037499

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

To Veles, my soul-friend and

constant companion along this Crooked Path.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this book derives from historical and folkloric sources, as well as from personal experience. It is in no way meant to replace qualified medical care, including that provided by mental health professionals. The author and publisher are not liable for any injury or ill effect caused by the application of information provided in this book. Do not ingest poisonous or unfamiliar plants, and take care when handling them. Please use your common sense when utilizing any of the practices discussed and consult the advice of a trained medical practitioner when necessary.

Acknowledgments

The book you are about to read simply would not have been possible to write if not for the wonderful people in my life. First and foremost, Id like to thank my familyMom, Dad, Breanna, and Colton. Family is everything to me, and the love that we share is the most powerful magic that I have ever experienced. Second, Id like to thank my friends Diana, Maggie, Dana, Sara, and Marina, who have always had my back and supported my dreams. Additionally, Id like to thank my fellow writers at Patheos Pagan, who continuously inspire me to be a better Witch and writer. Id like to thank the team at Llewellyn Publications for believing in me and my vision for this book. Id also like to thank Gemma Gary for graciously writing the foreword to this book. Finally, as always, Id like to thank the Witch Father and Witch Mother, the spirits of my ancestors and those of the land, the Fair Folk, and my familiar spirit.

Contents

List of

by Gemma Gary

: What Is Traditional Witchcraft?

: Defining Traditional Witchcraft

: The Historical Development of Traditional Witchcraft

: Working With Magic

: Magical Basics

: The Traditional Witchs Tools

: The Rituals of Traditional Witchcraft

: Spellcraft

: Working With The Otherworld

: The Witch Father and Witch Mother

: Ancestors, Familiars, and Fetches

: Into the Otherworld

: Working With The Natural Landscape

: Engaging with the Land

: Plants, Stones, and Animals

: Seasons, Weather, and Planets

: Reflecting On The Crooked Path

: Establishing Your Own Traditional Witchcraft Practice

Exercises

PART I

PART II

PART III

PART IV

PART V

From the Black Book

FOREWORD

The origins and lore of todays Witchcraft are a tangled thicket, and its traditions and variants a skein of many strands. In following our way back along the elder threads, we find the old Witch beliefs, giving rise to those considered beyond the pale and feared for their uncanny powers to curse (and sometimes to cure), powers long attributed to encounters and relationships with the Devil, familiar spirits, or some other envoy of the Otherworld. So too do we pick up the threads that lead us to the old-time white witches, conjurors, and Cunning Folk of both rural and urban communities, whose Craft was one of operative magic, of divining and blessing or blasting, according to the needs and wants of a paying clientele.

Here might be perceived a heritage of sorts, for whilst some Cunning Folk drew their knowledge and power from apparent possession of magical texts, accounts tell of others dealing with familiars and having had encounters with spirits and otherworldly beings from whom they gained their ability to provide cures, perform divinations, and counter the ill influence of the malevolent Witch.

In Britain, this particular strand of Witchcraft reached its height in the nineteenth century, gradually fading and having all but disappeared by the 1930s. However, beneath this apparent decline, shifts and changes had long been afoot. The rise of clandestine initiatory fraternities, group occultism, and popular spiritualism through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries may well have provided an environment and a confluence of ideas in which once-solitary practitioners of cunning traditions and Witchcraft evolved working lodge and coven structures in which to consolidate, nurture, and continue their artes and mysteries.