Laurie Cabot in 1978

When I was in high school I went to my first proper Witch shop when one opened in the next town.  I bought two books on my first visit which would be my first two books I’d own that were related to the Craft. One was “Incense, Oils, and Brews” by Scott Cunningham and the other was “Power of the Witch”by Laurie Cabot.  I was 16 at the time and this was the second book on Witchcraft as a spiritual practice as well as a practice hat I read.  At this point I’d read “Earth Magic” by Cunningham and I’d just picked up “Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” by Cunningham at the mall a month or so before but hadn’t read the whole thing yet.  “Power of the Witch” completely changed my thoughts that I already held about what I had been doing and studying for the last few years.  I then began a long love affair with Laurie’s work which, after getting involved with Christopher Penczak and his work, I have been happy to see much of his early time spent with Laurie carried on into his own work.

I’ve met Laurie a few times in Salem and I think she’s lovely.  I’m looking forward to (and hoping to still have) the opportunity to take some of her classes when I move to Salem at the end of the year.

So for this week’s A/V Sunday post I tip my pointed hat to the wonderful Laurie Cabot on her 78th birthday. Here is a short of Laurie talking about the third eye and the process of going into alpha.  It were these ideas that had a huge impact on me in those early stages of my practice and today the alpha process is a part of all that I do with magick and meditation.

Pay a visit to Laurie’s online store and her website.  You can also find the Laurie and the Cabot Temple here on Facebook.

Happy Birthday, Laurie!

And let’s also not forget the idea of history being written by the victors and the fact that the the church was coming into a special place of power in a time where church law was the law of the land.  So as we have seen in other places when those in charge write the history books, in this instance the church, they have a say in the way the information was written and presented.  This is where we start to see warlock as meaning “oath-breaker” and “traitor” really come into use.

First, it’s important to keep in mind the time this was happening and the context in which the word was used.  At this time all a man had was his word.  Your word was gold, it was your bond.  To break an oath, to break a bond, was something that cast a huge blight on a person and could cause them to be ostracized from their communities.  However, when the church was using the term warlock they were using it to refer mainly to the breaking of a man’s oath to God.  We can see the impact of this most clearly through the famous Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of the Witches, the famous witch hunters manual written by Heinrich Kramer who was an inquisitor for the church.

It is suggested here that all evil entered the world through Eve and that all women were inherently evil and capable of evil as a result.  It was believed that women were soulless and therefore couldn’t make or break an oath.  Men, however, were seen more resilient in the soul and spirit.  If a man were found to be in service to the devil through the practice of witchcraft it was believed that they had to have been seduced by a woman into the black arts.  It was here that they were seen to have broken their oath to the church and to the teachings and beliefs surrounding the Christian God and was therefore seen as a warlock.  However, if the man would reveal the woman that got them involved with a coven, they could be absolved and the woman sentenced to torture and death.    As this manual spread so too did this word and it’s implied meaning, one that clearly hearkened from the Anglo-Saxon definition.

From here we see this definition of warlock becoming common place and the more accepted meaning.  If one was Pagan and not accepting the laws of the very powerful church then they were considered to be evil, especially since the church saw the Pagan gods as devils and demons.  Kerr Cuhulain also explain in his 2002 article “Spiritual Counterfits” on WitchVox that the term was also applied heavily to those who had converted to Christianity but then returned to their previous religious practices as Pagans, therefore setting the groundwork for all witches and Pagans to be seen as oath-breakers and untrustworthy.

As this all spread the cunning-folk, magickal people, Pagans, and witches returned to living underground, as it were.  They removed themselves from society once again in hopes of avoiding persecution.

When we stop and consider the times when these words were used, the reasons they were used, and the way the meanings evolved as the church and laws of the land evolved, it’s easy to see where some things became twisted.  It’s now up to us to stop perpetuating these ideas that were established by the church.

In his article “What is a Warlock”, Matthew Sandow gives some interesting and compelling consideration to how the warlock adds balance to the witch.  We see through the transitions in history how the witch evolved from the healers and herbalists but also how the warlock evolved from shamans and warlords.  Each has their own mysteries to preserve, the witch holding the feminine mysteries and the warlock holds the masculine mysteries.  Both lived apart from society, working to honor their specific gods and working with their specific skills while developing their unique spiritual experiences.  And it’s certainly hard to argue against the idea that modern Wicca largely pulls on the Goddess and feminine mysteries.

This brings us to this question; if it’s acceptable and commendable to work hard to take back the word witch and work to return it to the meanings it originates from, why is that not OK for the word warlock?  Why does this word still seem to deserve to be treated like a horrible curse?  Why do we feel the need to still let the word carry the church imposed meaning?  Why should we not see modern day warlocks as male magickal practitioners, sorcerers, spell singers, defenders of faith, communicators with the dead, and guards between the worlds?  Why not allow, and most of all support, those men in the Craft that wish to take that word back and heal it in the way we have the word witch?

Just like not all woman (and men. to be fair) who are Pagan or Wiccan identify as Witches because they still feel the negative energy of the word, it’s also going to be accepted that some men will not want to identify as Warlocks.   But the truth is we are completely unfazed by someone calling themselves a Witch today.  But if a man in the Craft calls themselves a Warlock, many get their feathers ruffled.  How one chooses to identify is their own business, but we owe it to those people to hear their reasons for doing so and honoring their choice, just as they honor our own. I liked the way one individual going by the name Taliesin defined it for himself at the end of his article “The ‘Warlock’ Question – And an Answer”.  He said:

A Warlock is a male Wiccan Warrior- a defender of the Faith – who does everything in his power to ward off evil spirits and to lock or bind them up, keeping the sacred wisdom safe.

This is not to imply that this is a definition that he was trying to impose on others, but just for himself and his path, which is what is most important.

Sometimes the short answer isn’t the right one, it’s just the easy one.  Sometimes we just need to dig further.

And with all that said I say KUDOS to Christian, and all the other men in the Craft who are out there trying to take back this word the same way others, though especially woman, have worked to take back the word witch for all these years.  May your explanations not always fall on deaf ears and closed minds.
Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A4123946

http://www.boudicca.de/warlock-e.htm

http://www.paranormality.com/warlock.shtml

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/warlock

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usva&c=words&id=8551

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlock

http://www.paganspath.com/magik/witches.htm

http://www.vinlandsvolva.com/vardlokker.html

http://walking-on-fire.blogspot.com/2010/06/vardlokkur.html

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/contemporaryissues/a/Warlock.htm

http://www.erulian.in.rs/English/MagijaAsatru.html

Teen Witches and Teen Vampires…. do any of you know a group of cool teen witchlings and/or vamplings? I am helping cast a very cool new TV show produced by an Emmy and Golden Globe award winning company. It has to be about a group of teens living extraordinary lives so ideally 3 or more friends who have magical interests. If you have any ideas let me know (Must be in USA!) Cheers!

Earlier in the week I saw this email floating around a bunch of sites:

Now casting an exclusive search for young people who practice witchcraft, and paganism

Are you a modern day female or male Witch? Do you consider yourself a modern Vampire?

Do you and your friends want to set the record straight by sharing your stories and experiences as the “real” Twilight or the “real” Craft?

Searching nationwide for a group of friends who will allow cameras to capture their extraordinary lives and set the stage of youth, mystery, love and laughter in a new docu-series that stars sexy, interesting, outspoken personalities who are part of the occult.

Please email: occultcasting@gmail.com

Remember: mention Fiona Horne suggested you to be responded to immediately

Well, I’ll just leave it at that for now. So if you’re a “sexy teen witch” or a “sexy teen vampire” and you’re looking for shot at the big time being a glittery vampire in the sun, just like in Twilight, here’s your chance.

Mood: not so sure about this…

According to The Mirror, Carla Calamity, the character name that Carole uses, isn’t much of a people person.  The former real estate agent turned “professional Witch” (and I use that all very loosely given the context here) may need to go back to her day job selling houses once the Witching Hour passes on Halloween night.  While the attraction owner, Gerry Cottle, says that she isn’t right for the job Carole has said she felt it was going well.

“I have given it my best effort. People were saying I was doing a good job.”

 It will be interesting to see what happens next for the attraction.  Will they take a runner up to fill her place once Halloween passes?  We shall see!