E-Book, Englisch, 336 Seiten
Farrar / Bone Lifting the Veil
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-0-7198-3163-8
Verlag: Robert Hale Non Fiction
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
A Witches' Guide to Trance-Prophesy, Drawing Down the Moon and Ecstatic Ritual
E-Book, Englisch, 336 Seiten
ISBN: 978-0-7198-3163-8
Verlag: Robert Hale Non Fiction
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
JANET FARRAR is best known for writing with her late husband, journalist and author Stewart Farrar, some of the classics of modern Wicca, including the best-selling A Witches' Bible: The Complete Witches' Handbook.
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“For mine is the ecstasy of the spirit …”
—The Charge
In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in the subject of trance-prophecy within the neo-Pagan movement. It is probably important to first define what we mean by trance-prophecy, as undoubtedly there will be some reading this book who are unfamiliar with its modern practice. We use the term trance-prophecy to define a collection of methods found in many different traditions, ancient and contemporary. They embrace trance to connect to the divine in its different forms, the purpose of which is to communicate with divinity and ask for guidance. This can take the form of simple visualization exercises, such as pathworkings, all the way to full possession by the deity’s spirit. It can also include ecstatic states on a personal level and as a group experience brought on by trance and ecstatic ritual. This is found in ancient traditions, such as the Dionysian practises of Greece and in contemporary traditions such as Vodoun, where the participant may be “ridden” by a (also spelled or , and pronounced “low-ha”), a deity or ancestral spirit. As we are writing this book primarily for Western neo-Pagans, we decided to title it for several reasons. We decided on as it refers to the red veil of the sibyl and seeresses of ancient times, particularly the Oracle at Delphi, while also being a secondary reference to “The Leviter Veslis”—the piece of prose originating from Gerald Gardner, which was the basis of Doreen Valiente’s “Charge of the Goddess.” We are, of course, not the first to use this as a title. Diane Champigny, one of the contributors to chapter 4, used it as the title of her contribution to the book (edited by Sorita d’Este. See Bibliography) We, therefore, believe that in all fairness we must give Diane credit to this title as much as ourselves. Of course, the “lifting” in the title suggests the intention of this book—to show the face of the sibyl, the face of the mystery of oracular work. While it is our intention to do this throughout the whole of this book, nothing sums up this statement more than chapter 4 where several practitioners of trance techniques “lift their own veils” and share their personal experiences with trance.
Initially we thought about titling this book or even “Hekate’s Children.” At first this may seem odd, but Diana, as Aradia, was present from the moment Gardner (and Valiente) conceived Wicca and gave it birth. Like all good organic works, it evolved beyond its initial working title. This is mainly because trance-prophecy goes beyond any one tradition of neo-Paganism. Our emphasis in this book is on Witchcraft and Wicca because it was the first neo-Pagan tradition,* excluding of course, contemporary traditions such as Vodoun, which has a trance technique built within its ritual structure.
Modern Witchcraft has had several ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ who have assisted its growth. From the aforementioned Gardner and Valiente, through to its rather eccentric Uncle Alex (Sanders), the esteemed Uncle Buckland, and on to the many competent teachers who did not just teach those entering into the Craft but have also guided its development and evolution. What was once Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca has evolved into other traditions of Witchcraft. Some have been more willing to explore and push the boundaries, which includes the areas of trance states. Diana, as Aradia, can be seen as the “Fairy-Goddess Mother” of this evolution. She acted as its inspiration, as well as the spiritual teacher who whispered words of guidance into the ears of her high priestesses during trance. Her inclusion in Wicca was very much due to the fact that the only truly traditional Witchcraft source material existent in the early days was from Leland’s , which was first published in 1899 (although we accept that some still debate its origin and authenticity). Of course, as time went on, those within Wicca have realised that Diana was one of many goddesses of witchcraft. By the 1990s her job was done; now other deities were being embraced, not just those of the Western world, including Isis, Freya, Hekate, and Cerridwen, to name a few, but also those from other cultures: the Durga of India, Kwan Yin of Buddhism, and the loa of Vodou, and orisha of Santeria. After all, spirituality knows no boundaries, and when our beloved Stewart (Farrar) described the world as “a global village” in the early ’90s, he was not just talking about the social and material world but also spiritual. This has, of course, created a dilemma for those who are more comfortable embracing the Judeo-Christian paradigm of “boxing” and labelling the magical traditions of the West. What happens when a priestess of Isis channels an orisha such as Oshun? Should she say, “Sorry, you are not part of my tradition, go away!” or should she recognise that spirit and accept its validity? Some would say, “Well, that doesn’t happen, does it?” But our experience, as well as that of others, is that this does occur. This is an important point to realise for anyone who is planning to study trance-prophecy seriously—it is a tradition of experience rather than one of academia or the human need to apply rules to the higher realms. What happens when the deity has other ideas? Who is right and who is wrong? Our view is that the deity-spirits make the choice, not man, and that traditions should change according to the experience of their practitioners. This is the divine nature of spiritual evolution.
A book based on experience will always have a subjective element to it. To use this book, it is necessary to discuss how we embarked on this strange journey, which, of course, gave us some advantages in understanding the subject. Janet’s journey started from an early age when she began to get spirit manifestations in her garden in Leyton in the late 1950s. For Gavin, it was when he first entered a Spiritualist temple in the early 1980s to learn about healing. We shall go into more detail on this in the next paragraph, but for us, it has been a journey related to what we have believed to be at the core of Witchcraft: the experience of divinity, of God and Goddess; the union, both personal and divine, with the Ultimate, the Divine Spirit, which manifests around the world as the many faces of the divine: the gods and goddesses who gave birth to the cosmos. We independently made a connection with Freya, the Northern European Goddess more commonly known as a goddess of love and beauty. In her older form as Freya-Vanadis, she was the goddess of trance and prophecy, and much of what we know about Norse cosmology comes from one of her or seeresses. In fact, we would have little knowledge of Yggdrassil and its nine worlds if it was not for the one seeress whose words were put to paper as the Voluspa (“Song of the Seeress”) in The Poetic Edda. We are dedicated as priestess and priest of Freya, acting as her servants and performing her wishes; and one of her wishes has been to speak and to allow the other deities to speak. She has not been the only one we have made connections with, although she remains our patroness. Hekate, Brid, and several others including those of Hindu and African origin have made their presence felt and made it clear to us that the old gods are “awakening” and want to communicate with us. This has very much become the focus of our work over the last decade: teaching that the deities of ancient paganism are real and wish to have their say in the world again after a gap of over one thousand years. With this connection comes the ecstatic experience hinted about in the title, an experience more often associated with shamanism. We are not the only ones, though, who have come to realise the importance of this work in the evolution of neo-Paganism: Diana Paxson, Jenny Blain, and Ivo Dominguez are all advancing neo-Pagan boundaries and encouraging reconnection with the divine.
As we mentioned, we feel it is important for the reader to understand our origins and the experiences we have had in dealing with spirituality. As most readers are aware, Janet was originally initiated into Wicca by Alex Sanders in the early 1970s. What most may not be aware of is that she was born a natural medium, although for years she had no idea that this was a gift. Her mother, Ivy, probably had “the sight,” too, but as she died when her daughter was very young, Janet can only go by what her family has told her over the last ten years. It does seem that while she was in her mother’s womb, her mother had an encounter with the spirit of a Druid, who pointed at the Ivy’s pregnant belly and in the process nearly scared her half to death! Such was the furore this incident caused, that the police were called in to hunt for the strange intruder. It is surprising that Ivy wasn’t incarcerated for the remainder of her pregnancy—well, you try telling the police about a bearded man wearing plaid and brandishing a sickle! It is interesting that her mother’s ancestry was Southern Irish and her father was Welsh, traceable back to Owen Glyndwr, the Welsh Prince. Owen was a Druid and, if we are to believe the statement in Shakespeare’s also a magician: “I can conjure devils from the vastly deep” was supposed to be one of his most famous statements. It is known that many of Janet’s ancient ancestors died on the Isle of Anglesey attempting to protect the druidical stronghold against the Roman Governor Suetonius Paulinius in 60 CE. Even today, many modern...
