Edain McCoy became a self-initiated Witch in 1981 and underwent a formal initiation in 1983 with a large San Antonio coven. She has been researching alternative spiritualities since her teens, when she was first introduced to the Kaballah. Since that time, she has studied a variety of magickal traditions, including Celtic, Appalachian, Curanderismo, Wiccan, Jewitchery, and Irish Wittan, the latter in which she is a priestess of Brighid and an elder. An alumnus of the University of Texas with a bachelor of arts in history, she is affiliated with several professional writers organizations and is listed in the reference guides Contemporary Authors and Whos Who in America . Articles by her have appeared in Fate , Circle , Enlightenments , and similar periodicals. Edain also worked for ten years as a stockbroker with several large investment firms. This former woodwind player for the Lynchburg (VA) Symphony claims both the infamous feuding McCoy family of Kentucky and Sir Roger Williams, the seventeenth-century religious dissenter, as branches on her diverse family tree. Advanced Witchcraft is her seventeenth book.
Llewellyn Publications
Woodbury, Minnesota
Copyright Information
Advanced Witchcraft: Go Deeper, Reach Further, Fly Higher 2004 by Edain McCoy.
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First e-book edition 2013
E-book ISBN: 9780738724072
First Edition
Seventh Printing, 2011
Book design and editing by Rebecca Zins
Cover design by Gavin Dayton Duffy
Interior illustrations by Llewellyn Art Department
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Contents
: The Beginning...
The Air Chapters: Where Our Thoughts Are Born
The Advanced Witch and the Craft
The Process of Living As an Advanced Witch
The Terror of the Threshold
New Initiations, New Invocations
The Fire Chapters: Where Our Transformations Blaze
The Three Worlds... or Four, or More?
How Many Selves Have I?
Advanced Warding and Psychic Self-Defense
Wiccan Shamanism
The Animals and the Shapeshifters
The Water Chapters: Where Our Mysteries Wait
Dark Witchery
The Labyrinth and the Maze
Advanced Tree Spirituality
Augury and Advanced Divination
The Earth Chapters: Where Our Powers Live
Advanced-Intermediate Magick
Magick and Ritual Using the Fine Arts
Advanced Magick: The Art of Wishcraft
The Healing Arts
The Spirit Chapters: Where Our Web Is Woven
The Faeries and the Power in a Name
If You Think Your House Is Haunted... and Even if You Dont
The Dark Night of the Soul
Resources & References: Where Our Work Continues
:... and the Ending
: Resources
: A Request to Other Advanced Practitioners
Acknowledgments
There is no way I could hope to thank every individual who contributed to my thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and practices of Witchcraft over the past twenty-plus years. However, for their belief in this project and their invaluable input, I must offer a sincere couldnt-have-done-it-without-you thank you to some very special people.
Along with my deepest thanks to each of you for just being who and what you are, I wish you all the blessings of love, success, joy, health, and magick in this life and all those yet to come.
Carl Llewellyn Weschcke
Nancy Mostad
Rebecca Zins
Natalie Harter
Llewellyns creative staff
Susan
Timothy Roderick
Michele Walker
Sue Wizzo Wegman
Dagonet Dewr
Don & Billie Taylor
Lady Cheetah
Rev. Breanna WinDancer
Liban
Jack Sullivan
K. C. Valera
Joanie Neff
Mara Cervantes
Dorothy Morrison
Nimue
Mollie Sobhan Malone
Avigail MacPhee
Lupita
Kerr Cuhulain
Gail Wood
Zelena Winters
Maggie Shayne
Charlotte Brisbon
Diane Holmes
Barbara
... and to all my other cherished sisters at Witchesinprint who awe and inspire me with their beauty, talent, and strength
A Special Thank You
I would be remiss not to acknowledge the contribution of one very special man. He was the first to answer my query, What does advanced Witchcraft mean to you? His simple, honest answer raised the bar to a level that set the tone for all the responses that followed, and he changed forever many of my own ideas about advanced practice.
In many ways his response stirred within me memories of my fathers sense of duty and giving to the community he served. My father, a left-wing Protestant minister, allowed me to explore my interest in the Craft when I was a teenager. He was secure enough in his beliefs that he did not have to force others to accept them in order to feel his path was the right path for him.
Therefore, I must send a special thank you to Dagonet Dewr, Chief of Thalia Clan, membership director of the Pagan Project, founder and activist of the Indianapolis Metro Pagan Allied Coalition. In the recent past he held a leadership role and was an active participant in the Indiana chapter of Witches Against Religious Discrimination (WARD).
Thank you, Dagonet. May your unselfish dedication to giving of yourself to others return those blessings to you three times three. Your words and actions set a high standard for anyone wishing to call themselves an advanced practitioner, one that the rest of us should strive to achieve.
Preface
The beginning...
Several years ago, when it was first suggested that I write a book on advanced Witchcraft, I refused to even consider such an overwhelming task. First of all, I had no idea how one would define advanced within a mystery religion, especially one with so many diverse arts under its umbrella. If that wasnt enough to put me off, I also doubted there was a large enough market for an advanced Craft text. In the third place, I felt a book covering so broad a topic would either be too massive to be manageable or too small to be of any use.