Treading the Path of the Traditional Witch

 

The Crooked Path

By Kelden

 

Great book for those wanting to practice Traditional Witchcraft. This is seriously one of the best. It makes entrance into the craft easy and comprehensible. You still have to do the work though. The first part of the book covers history and compare the traditional craft to wicca.  Many witches have been introduced into both traditions so there might not be too much difference between the two. Yet on many level’s there are. Both Wicca and Traditional Craft borrowed from grimoires and folk magic. While both have rituals, Wicca tends to be more celebratory where as the traditional craft is more about low magic or sorcery using magic to manifest things in your life . In Wicca they primarily work with the gods while in traditional craft they honor the witch father and mother. Which is the goddess and the God and the god is still the horned god of old with symbolism and all. In the Traditional Craft also work with familiars, ancestors and the fetch. They may work with it in Wicca but not as much in the traditional craft.

 

In Wicca you cast a circle whereas in traditional craft they call it laying the compass. It involves the use of the stang, representation of the Horned God and laying the altar at its feet or having one set up. In traditional craft they charge tools and consecrate them for nothing else. In traditional craft your tools are used everyday cause back in the day ceremonial tools were too expensive and regular tools could be charged and used for ritual and mundane purposes. Wicca is more of a religion whereas Traditional Craft is not but still a form of spirituality.

After discussing history and development of the craft the author gets into the meet of the book. There are chapters on spell craft and rituals. Traditional Craft is more about working with spirits and working in the other world. The Other World is the world outside of our physical world. This could be the underworld where the dead reside and maybe our ancestors. The Mid World has a spiritual side that we could explore and then there is the upperworld where the deities dwell. There are mediations in the book that tell one how to cross the hedge and access the axis mundi to access the other world.

Traditional Craft has the practitioner call on other spirits besides the deities. Once could call on one’s ancestors. Ancestors can be blood or family ancestors, or they could be craft ancestors who were the leaders of the given tradition. A third set of ancestors are the people who lived and died on the land before we did and their spirits are still connected to the place.

Traditional Craft is about being connected to the land. Kelden talks about asking the spirit of a plant, tree , rock or Genius Loci (Guardian of the area) for permission and making sure to receive it before taking things out of nature and using them. One has to make a thank you offering for what they were allowed to take.

The book has a slew of exercises that has the reader do rituals , make tools, craft spells  and everything you need to get started.  Meaty book and easy to read and digest the material.