Course One: Wizardry
Class I: Concerning Wizards
A wizard can turn fear into joy, frustration to fulfillment.
A wizard can turn the time-bound into the timeless.
A wizard can carry you beyond limitations into the boundless.
—Deepak Chopra (The Way of the Wizard)- Introduction: What is a Wizard?
In the 16th and 17th centuries—the height of popu-
larity of the village magician—it applied to a
high magician but also to various popular magi-
cians, who were known by other names as well:
cunning men, cunning women, charmers, blessers,
sorcerers, conjurers and witches. After 1825, Wiz-
ard became almost exclusively synonymous with
Witch, but this usage died out during the 20th
century. Modern Witches do not use the term.
—Rosemary Guiley (Encyclopedia
of Witches and Witchcraft, p. 389)Here is how the word “Wizard” is defined in the dictio-
nary:IZARD—FROM ANGLO-SAXON WYSARD
(m.), “wise one.” A usually solitary
practitioner of magick and reposi-
tory of arcane knowledge. A lore-
master. 1. a sage. 2. a magician;
conjurer; sorcerer. 3. a person ex-
ceptionally gifted or clever at a
specified activity (as in “computer wizard”). Usu-
ally—but not necessarily—a specifically mascu-
line term. Wizards have also been referred to as
“Natural Philosophers.”
In traditional tribal cultures we find shamans, or
medicine men and women, who are both gifted and
learned in talents and skills of augury (foretelling the
future), herbalism, hypnosis, psychic work, and sor-
cery. They are the village teachers, magicians, spirit
guides, healers, and midwives. Among some of the
Celtic tribes of Western Europe, such shamans were
known as Wicce—an Anglo-Saxon word meaning
“shaper”—from which comes our present term
“Witch.” In Renaissance days, men practicing “witch-
craft” were more often called “Wizards.” The term Wiz-
ard first appeared in the 15th century, and was used for
both wise men and wise women. In the 20th century,
most people only knew of Wizards from stories and
fairy-tales. The most famous of these were J.R.R.
Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings, featuring Gandalf the
Wizard, and Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave (andother books), about Merlin. Indeed, during those years,
many people forgot that Wizards had ever really ex-
isted at all! But a few of us still remained, although
largely in remote areas hidden from public view.
In the ways that Guiley noted, Wizards in re-
cent centuries seem to have served pretty much as
male counterpart of the village Witch as she is com-
monly described by modern practitioners of the
Craft: A magickal shaper of reality; a Shaman of
pre-Christian European tradition. In Medieval and
Renaissance times, Witches specialized in herbalism
and midwifery, and were mostly women. Modern
Witches may be both men and women, and their
workings today are directed primarily towards heal-
ing, both of people and the Earth.Virtually every village or town in Britain and
Europe had at least one wizard, who usually was
respected and feared by the local folk. The wiz-
ard specialized in a variety of magical services,
such as fortune-telling; finding missing persons
and objects; finding hidden treasure; curing ill-
nesses in people and animals; interpreting
dreams; detecting theft; exorcising ghosts and
fairies; casting spells; breaking the spells of
witches and fairies; making amulets (charms);
and making love philtres (potions). Because he
was deemed the diviner of the guilty in crimes,
the word of the wizard often carried great weight
in a village or town. —Guiley, p. 389Lesson 2: My Life as a Wizard
Now, I have lived about as rurally as it’s possible to
get, having spent eight years (1977-‘85) living in a
5,600-acre homesteading community in the Misty
Mountains of Northern California. My lifemate, Morn-
ing Glory, and I moved into a completely undeveloped
wilderness, where we built our own houses and barns,
developed our springs, planted gardens and orchards,
dug a pond, raised livestock—all without electricity,
telephones, television, or even radio.
During that time, I served my community in the
traditional capacity of rural Wizard, pretty much asCorrected pages 3rd printing.1.p65 6 6/10/2004, 2:59 PM