Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

Witchcraft

In traditional tribal cultures throughout the world

we find shamans, or medicine men and women, who

are both gifted and learned in divination, herbalism,

psychic work, and sorcery. They are the village teach-

ers, magicians, spirit guides, interpreters of dreams,

spell-casters, healers, and midwives. Among some of

the Celtic tribes of Western Europe, such shamans

were known as Wicce (WEE-cheh)—an Anglo-Saxon

word meaning “shaper”—from which we derive our

present term “Witch.”

During the centuries of persecution at the hands

of the Inquisition and others, many of these village

Witches were horribly tortured and killed, along with

many people in the communities they served. The 20th

century revival of Witchcraft (often called simply “the

Craft”) can be mostly attributed to Gerald Gardner, a

British Witch who became public after the repeal of

the British anti-Witchcraft laws in 1954. One of

Gardner’s initiates, Doreen Valiente, created beautiful

liturgy (rites, rituals, and prayers), including the much-

beloved “Charge of the Goddess,” which states: “If

that which you seek you find not within you, you will

never find it without. For behold, I have been with you

from the beginning, and I am that which is attained at

the end of desire.”

Witchcraft can therefore be defined as the prac-

tice of magick as it relates to pre-Christian European

Shamanism. The arts of Witchcraft today include

herbalism, divination, magick, ceremonial ritual, heal-

ing, potions, and spirit-world contact. Based on schol-

arly reconstruction, imagination, and some inherited

traditions, Witchcraft (also called Wicca by some) is

now emerging as a distinct spiritual tradition and way

of life for entire communities as well as the solitary

practitioner. Modern Witches are both men and

women—indeed, most of the founders of the major

modern Traditions (or “denominations”) of Witchcraft

have been men. But there tend to be more women than

men in most covens, and some groups, such as the

Dianics, are entirely female. The vast majority of women

in the magickal community today are Witches, though

there are women involved in all other branches and

traditions of Magick as well.

Hypnosis and Guided Meditation

From the Greek word hypnos (sleep), hypnosis is

a sleep-like trance induced by repeated commands and

mental concentration in which the subject acts only

on the suggestions of the hypnotist. In such a state,

subjects are sometimes able to recall long-forgotten

memories and experiences, and hypnosis is a useful

tool in various kinds of therapy. The word hypnosis

was coined in 1843 by Dr. James Braid, who used a

common technique of having his patients gaze steadily

at a bright object. Medical hypnosis can be used to

induce anesthesia (without feeling) for everything from

tooth extractions to minor surgery.

Hypnosis has also been called mesmerism after

Friedrich Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). He thought the

effects were produced by a kind of invisible energy, or

fluid, which passed from the hypnotist to the subject.

Comparing this force with that of a magnet, Mesmer

called it “animal magnetism.”

Hypnosis seems to awaken the same kind of right-

hemisphere consciousness we experience in dreams.

In this state, all critical faculties go right out the win-

dow. Hypnotized subjects are incredibly suggestible—

believing anything they are told by the hypnotist, and

acting accordingly. Old-time stage hypnotists often

used such suggestion to make people believe they

were animals, and people would run around the stage

on all fours barking like dogs to the amusement of the

audience. This is because of the very different types

of logic used by the different brain hemispheres.

Our left brain—in which we experience normal

waking consciousness—operates with deductive

logic, reasoning from the specific to the general. This

is the kind of scientific problem-solving thinking made

famous by Sherlock Holmes and modern detectives.

Our right brain, however, works on inductive logic,

reasoning from the general to the specific. This is the

kind of thinking we often call “suspension of disbe-

lief,” as when we are dreaming, or utterly absorbed in

a movie or novel. No matter how bizarre and prepos-

terous a thing might happen, we just don’t ever think

to go, “Hey, waaiit a minute—that’s not possible!” In

inductive logic we just take whatever comes up as a

given, and fill in all the blanks to back it up. And under

hypnosis, our left brain consciousness is suppressed,

and we operate out of our right brains. This is called

the “Theory of Relative Psychic Exclusion.”

Hypnotism has been known from ancient times

and practiced as a secret technique of magick. Many

The Witch by Hans Weiditz (1532)

24 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

Corrected pages 3rd printing.1.p65 14 6/10/2004, 2:59 PM