A Witch’s Book

of Silence
A Witch’s Book
of Silence

Karina BlackHeart
Copyright 2015 by Karina BlackHeart
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced or distributed
in any form or format, nor by any means without express written permission from the author.

Published by KBH Enterprises

11020 Bristol Bay Drive
Bradenton, FL 34209
USA
ISBN: 0996922520
ISBN 13: 9780996922524
Dedicated with all of my love to my children.
Acknowledgements
his book could not have been written without the firm foundation in the
T Craft given me by my teacher Mark, to whom I owe so much of who I
have become as a woman and a Witch.

My peers Anaar, Michelle, Thorn, Storm, Kalessin, Happy Dog, Onyx,

Amy, Jason, Margit, Cid, Sean Donahue, Alley Valkyrie, Jad, Kimmie,
ShenTat and the myriad other Feri Tradition and Craft initiates with whom
long conversations and debates were had regarding our Craft. Your shared
wisdom helped give shape to my evolving understanding concerning the role
of silence and secrets in the Craft and other mystical traditions.

Without the endless love, understanding, patience and cheering section

comprised of my children, K and C, there would be no teaching, no training
and no book. You are the loves of my life. You are the beginning, middle and
end of everything meaningful, lasting and real in my world. Thank you for
being my teachers.

To Justin and Travis, Asherah, Bear, Don and Joanna for enabling me to
take time and space away from the demands of my daily round in order to
create the early drafts of this book.

Thanks to all of the students who have worked with me over the years
for teaching me so much about myself, my Craft, the human condition,
silence, discernment and integrity. My black heart goes out to my remaining
students: Ray, Tina, Maya, Joanna, Don, Asherah, Justin, Jo, Dhyana-
Michelle, Kiya, Stephanie, Gerry and Humberto. The honor is all mine.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do my work and to share what I
have with such gorgeous humans and powerful Witches.
 Finally, thank you to the spirits, Gods, Guardians, ancestors, angels,
allies and akua kini who guide my Work and keep pure the intentions of my
heart. Your unending, unconditional blessings are well met.
 CONTENTS

Preface
Concepts
The Practice Of Silence
Embodiment
END NOTES
About The Author
Preface

A Witch’s Book of Silence will help you deepen your practice and increase
the efficacy of your magic. Silence is the space from which creative
impulse flows. In silence we touch the power we call God/dess and become
attuned to wisdom beyond our own. We learn to commune with the spirits of
land, our ancestors and others of the unseen realms. We enter the ineffable
mystery sought by ancient and contemporary mystics alike. Through silent
communion we attain ecstatic union with the Divine.

The book addresses some of the most pressing and controversial

concerns of the Craft as both a modern-day movement and private, religious
system. A Witch’s Book of Silence is a mirror for us individually and
collectively. Here we see reflected our beauty and power as well as our fear
and foibles.

This book is divided into three segments. In the first, terms are defined
and our resistances to practicing silence are discussed at length. The second
segment offers a variety of practices leading us away from fear of silence and
into its heart. The final segment offers a glimpse of what awaits us should we
dare to steep ourselves in the cauldron of transformation.

A Witch’s Book of Silence was born out of decades of studying,

practicing and teaching the art of Witchcraft. During that time, I witnessed
research move from library carrels to hand-held devices. The hand-written
letter (d) evolved to email and text messaging. The Age of Information
ushered in burgeoning numbers of people seeking Craft training.
Unfortunately, the collection of data does not easily lead to wisdom.
Knowledge, will and daring were honed to sharpness while silence fell out of
fashion--a silly and inconsequential relic of the past.
 Within a culture of busyness and constant information sharing of both
public and private details, I observed a growing distrust and fear of silence. A
Witch must confront and overcome such fear, entering the realms of silence
to build power, perform effective magic and engage deeply with the
mysteries.

While written from the perspective of a Feri Witch, I believe the

concerns, practices and resolutions offered will be equally valuable when
applied to any spiritual path requiring the practitioner develop deep self-
awareness, personal integrity, cognizant communication with spirit and the
use of meaningful speech imbued with creative force.
Concepts

Cycles of Power

ertainly, we have all heard of the Witches’ Pyramid: “To Know, to

C Will, to Dare and to Keep Silent.” These four actions form the
foundation, corners, frame and walls of the pyramid which is a sacred
geometric form, a structure and a container.

Hold the image of the pyramid in your mind’s eye. If the structure is to
remain upright, each of the four corners, the horizontal and vertical lines and
the walls must be straight and strong. Silence is not the last nor least of the
powers of the Witch. Without silence, the entire edifice comes crashing down
leaving a chaotic heap of unusable knowledge, undisciplined will and
ineffective daring. Without silence, the other three corners cannot deepen and
mature into wisdom, precision and right action.

While the mind’s eye generates the image of the pyramid, our rational
mind automatically lists and prioritizes the powers--To Know, To Will, to
Dare, to Keep Silent-- from first to last. With barely a conscious thought,
value is assigned according to placement on the list: First being assigned the
highest priority while the last having the least importance.
 Another noteworthy effect of automatic prioritization is the assumption
we must move from the first item to the last on the list in linear fashion,
arriving at silence only after having acquired knowledge, will and daring.

The powers of the Witch, however, are derived from nature. The natural
world is chaotic, messy, rarely linear and most often cyclical. For the
purposes of this work, I’d like to disassemble the pyramid structure in our
mind’s eye and replace it with a circle. Transpose the four powers onto that
shape. Replace the linear structure prioritized from point to point, end to end,
top to bottom, first to last with a circular structure which moves round and
round, cyclically.

The circle is boundary, container and content. It spins, as a wheel does,

shifting and shuffling the mind’s attempt at ordering according to priority and
linear time.

The circle as container combines the four powers within it, creating a
holistic blending of the contents whose sum total is greater than its individual
parts.

Rather than triggering the rational mind to order and prioritize, the
circle suggests a cyclical nature whereby the auto-response is to make
connections to myriad other cycles. For example:
 To confuse (and clarify) things even further: Portions of cycles of
power do not march along in order. Each quadrant of the wheel may intersect,
interrupt and combine with others. Just as all four seasons occur
simultaneously on the Earth, all four powers must also occur in concert
within the Witch. Rather than linear or temporal ordering of any cycle of
power, I will ask that you entertain the possibility that all parts are
intersecting and interpenetrating all other parts of the cycle. It may be helpful
to shift the diagram once more, this time from a circle to a sphere which more
fully clarifies the point.

Within the sphere, silence is present before, during and after

knowledge, will and daring. So too, does each of the other stages dynamically
intersect and interpenetrate the others. Nature is a beautifully, holy, ordered
mess.

Let’s take a look at another example which is better understood and

applied as a cycle with intersecting, interpenetrating stages: Elizabeth
Kuebler-Ross described the Five Stages of Death and Dying as denial,
bargaining, anger, grief and acceptance. How many of us have been tricked
into thinking our grief was ended when we’d attained a few hours or days of
acceptance? How many believed we’d back-slid all the way into denial when
we found ourselves picking up the phone to call our beloved? In realizing the
dead cannot be reached by phone, we became enraged or grief-stricken all
over again! This doesn’t mean we haven’t made progress through the grief
cycle. It only means progression is not linear but cyclical and spherical.

Note what the mind does with numbers and lists. Note also how we
place a positive or negative value judgment on our “progress” through the
stages:

“I should be done with this by now.”

“Why can’t I move past this stage?”
“If I can just get through this horrible sadness, I’ll be on the other
side.
Once I get to the acceptance stage, I can get on with living.”
“Once I get knowledge, will and daring under my Witch’s belt,
then I’ll have what it takes to understand silence.”

When presented with a list, we want to move quickly from beginning to end,
believing that once we get there, we’ll be finished. Lists are helpful in many
areas of our lives for prioritizing importance and checking our progress. Yet,
Witchcraft is best comprehended non-linearly. Check lists, linear-based goal
setting and study geared toward assumed end-results aren’t conducive to the
Witch or the kind of mindful presence necessary to be really good at magic.

The sequential ordering, valuation and assignment of priority by the

rational mind helps us make sense of the world. Yet, this ordering also
confines and constricts, leading us to believe we should march from one to
two to three to four. In reality, we need to slide all over the map making as
many connections as possible. Our processes, when viewed through the lens
of the sphere allow for a more organic and holistic flow. If we stand at the
center of our circle—be it the lunar cycle, the wheel of the year, the stages of
death & dying or the cycle of power—we understand we are being impacted
by the entire cycle all at once.

When we acclimate to the vertigo resulting from this awareness, we are

capable of being much gentler with ourselves, much less judgmental. We
become more grounded and present as we affirm we are right where we
should be. We understand, finally, that if we want any of what the sphere
contains we must be willing to accept all of it. Resistance to embodying
silence is as futile as denying the dark phase of the moon.

We move through and are moved by the cycle of power. From one stage
to another, back and forth and across the spectrum from moment to moment.
We stand in the center, alert to ourselves and the processes we are
undergoing. Close observation teaches us to name which stages are currently
taking precedence. We ride the edge of the wheel, securing ourselves to one
point or another amid all of these moveable parts. Eventually, experience and
contemplation give way to a dawning understanding of our processes.
Knowledge, enables us to predict and plan for what’s coming next. Engaging
will, we propel ourselves forward and dare.

There is a cycle to our activity. In silence we gather knowledge and

develop the will. When these are in alignment, we embody passionate daring
so as to speak and act from a place of unerring truth. Having dared to act and
speak with integrity and honor, we release our act of magic upon the
world(s). We let go. We surrender, returning once more to silence where we
wait, observe and gather information. We pay attention and take note of how
our act of daring/magic is manifesting. How is the outcome aligning with our
vision and will?

In silence we integrate the knowledge, will and power gained during

our ride around the wheel. We become very still, like a seed lying fallow in
the earth during winter. We become very focused as we pause between
periods of outward activity. Our focus may be sharp like a predator ready to
pounce. Or, it might be soft and fluid like a woman spinning fiber in the wee
hours of night.
 As part of the Cycle of Power, silence is akin to the time between
Samhain and Yule: It is a time and a space for waiting. Even as we release
the old, even as we wait, catching glimmers and half-dreams of what is to
come, we rest in this liminal space. Betwixt and between, we sink down.
Going deep into the stillness and silence within, we open to allowance.
Allowing, tiny seeds of inspiration germinate within the womb of silence.
Gestating, we reside within the cauldron of all creation. Without striving or
pushing, we wait. If nothing can hasten the process, we may as well take full
advantage of it: Go deep. Observe what’s there. Be transformed.

The season between Samhain and Winter Solstice requires silence,

patience, stillness. Betwixt and between, we’re no longer caught in death’s
throes but not yet in the pangs of birth. Not inhaling or exhaling; neither
sleeping nor awake, but at rest in the vast vault of space, between tomb and
womb we dream and incubate. Here and now is the space-time of stillness
and silence, the power of the North, the darkest face of the Goddess. Here is
the Black Mother.

The nights grow long and longer. We are left little choice but to stay
indoors, sit and succumb. We watch the last leaves fall from bare branch to
frozen earth. We busy ourselves making slow-cooking soups. We stir the
coals in the fireplace. We awaken well before dawn’s light. We shuffle
around in a half-dream wondering why we are so tired, so unmotivated, so
restless and yet so enchanted by this sweet, quiet pace. There is nothing to do.
Just as there is a pause between inhalation and exhalation, between one life
and the next, there is a pause in all cycles. Within this rest period is stillness
and silence, understanding, integration, dream, gestation and a gathering of
energy for new, forward moving activity.

If we are to court the power of silence, we must be willing to engage

with the powers of the north, the deep earth, the dark moon and death itself.
We must be willing to name and openly confront our fear of these dark
powers.

We recoil because what lies within and beyond them exists in the
Mystery. Maps are useless. Check lists disintegrate. When we step off the
well worn path without flashlight or trail guide, we are left to our own
devices: Instinct, intuition and the Wild Soul’s starlight vision. Beyond these,
there is only the sussurating voice of the Shekinah--our own Divine Nature.
She is the liminal space between waning and waxing, autumn and spring,
death and rebirth, every ending and beginning. She is the pause between
breaths, the rest between notes, the necessary stillness amid all meaningful
activity.

If we are to court the power of silence, we must evoke it from within

while we invoke it from its source. We must travel those unmarked pathways,
increasing our stamina and sharpening our night vision.

Set aside for a while your need to understand, order, make sense of and
know things. Sink into the wild within, like a child drawn to the delight of
danger -- like an animal tracking by scent. Follow raw instinct where it leads.
Go there. Then, call her holy Name:

Hecate, Cerridwen,
Dark Mother enter in.
Shekinah, Kali-Ma,
Dark Mother enter in.
You without beginning or end,
Dark Mother enter in.
Dweller between tomb and womb
Dark Mother enter in

If we are to embody the power of silence, we must bring it inside ourselves,

exuding it from our very pores, the shine of our eyes, the rare pearl falling
from our lips. We must walk the pathways so often and with such surety that
the map of the path and the path itself become embedded within us. We go
back and forth along the trail as naturally as a hawk takes to the sky. Just as
the salmon is part river, we are part silence. We ride the Cycle of Power until
it is undifferentiated from us--no longer something we study, know or do, but
what we have become and are.
 Embodying silence, we also come to personify the Dark One: We
become the liminal spaces between waning and waxing, autumn and spring,
death and rebirth, daring and knowing, every ending and beginning. We are
the pause between breaths, the rest between notes, the stillness amid activity.
We are darkness kissing light into being. Such is the Witch who dares go
beyond wanting, knowing and doing.

When we fail to raise our voices in opposition to injustice, we contribute to it.

When our silence is complicit in obscuring truth, we are guilty of lying. Yet,
as a Witch, I want to unpack the equation of silence and complicity or death
differently.

Silence is a power of the North, of the night sky and the rich dark
compost of earth. The North, in Western magical traditions is associated with
silence, the tomb and womb. The Dark Mother holds both the death of the
lunar cycle and the miraculous birth of the new moon. She is the space
between. She contains the ending of the Year Wheel at Samhain, the birth of
the new year at Yule and the space between.

We are accustomed to ordering our world in pairs: Life and death.

Beginning and end. Night and day. We can expand that ordering to include
triads: Birth, life and death. Beginning, middle and end. Morning, afternoon
and night. Here, I want to encourage us to go a step further, including the
unnamed space or pause between cycles as part of the cycle: Birth, life, death
and the mystery. Beginning, middle, end and a pause. Morning, afternoon,
evening and night. Waxing, full, waning and dark moon.

We remain ourselves throughout our incarnations. We use up our

bodies, discarding them as costumes along with the masks of ego-persona.
We move on. Beyond death and before rebirth lies the Mystery. We can point
toward it by taking time to explore the space between endings and beginnings
in other cycles of nature. Just as silence is not empty but full, so too is death
but another turn of the wheel.
 There is nothing to fear in death or darkness. Likewise, there is nothing
to fear in silence. We may feel fear, but mustn’t allow it to stop us. “To pass
beyond fear is power.”1

It is only our restlessness, our compulsive busyness and our insecure

chatter which cause us to fear shadowy monsters when what truly dwells in
silence is sweet quiet, a perfect pause, the fertile ground of being, our
unadulterated potency.

Silence and Power

“In the school of the Spirit man learns wisdom through humility,
knowledge by forgetting, how to speak by silence, how to live by
dying.” Johannes Tauler

Silence builds power. Silence allows for integration. Silence creates

containment. Silence generates spaciousness. Silence, is sometimes kinder
than speech. Silence is honest. Silence may be wielded as a weapon. Silence
can be utilized as tool of defense or discernment. Silence is a shield. Silence
can rebuke. It can be a comfort and a balm. Silence teaches us to know
ourselves and keep our own counsel. Deep listening requires silence. When
we pause to think before speaking, we hold silence. In Silence, we drop
beneath thought, worry, desire and approval-seeking, sinking into the ground
of being. In silence, we learn to hear the myriad voices of nature: plant,
animal, mineral, land and cityscape, river and sea, heavenly body and the
infinite expanses of space. Through silence we become capable of
communing with the unseen realms and their inhabitants: Devic, faery,
ancestral, astral, angelic, akashic, cosmic, deific. In silent observation we
learn to read signs, omens and sigils--divining all manner of objects, events
and patterns. Silence invokes emptiness as the liminal space of
tomb/void/womb. Silence is the space of rest between breaths, heartbeats,
notes, seasons, lifetimes, and all cycles of nature. It is the still point between
thought and action. Silence is the holy moment that follows the making of
sincere prayer, the sending of the Cone of Power, the pleasure of orgasm. In
silence does the rain of blessing fall from the Aumakua upon the uhane and
unipihili. In silence are our prayers made, received and made manifest.

For all its power, we fear silence. We push against it, resist it, fill it with
busy-ness and chatter. We orient ourselves toward goals and activity rather
than stillness. We solicit the input of others rather than evoking the wisdom
which arises from the well of deep space within us.

Our fear of silence might be defined as Maka’u, a Hawaiian word for

the experience of holy terror or being awe filled. We have and are Maka’u
when we stand before the awe-full power and beauty of the gods.

Silence frightens us because to embrace it means to confront our own

power, wisdom and glory, for we are God. When we turn within and listen,
we are often confronted with a deep seeded distrust of ourselves. To accept
our own divine nature means engaging levels of responsibility and freedom
we can scarce imagine. Silence brings us face to face with our own limitless
potential. To embody the divine is to live in a state of Maka’u.

Embodying and living out our true nature as human-wild-divine beings

requires a thorough examination of our presuppositions, relationships,
complexes and beliefs. In coming to know ourselves so intimately, we begin
culling or cleansing that which will not bear out this great responsibility. It
requires a transformation we fear may isolate us from all we have come to
know and love. Such are sacrifices required of the Witch.

Ultimately, we fear annihilation. It is no wonder we run from Silence.

Only madmen, poets and mystics run toward it.

If you know, will and dare without the power of silence, the question
must be asked: “Are you a Witch?”

Four corners hold up the pyramid. If one is weak, the whole falls down.
If you will and dare to be a Witch, you must do more than gather knowledge
about it, you must keep silent so the work takes root within you. It is the hand
of silence which draws back the veil obscuring the very mysteries we seek.

It’s been argued that silence is an outdated, irrelevant relic of the Craft. The
(better) arguments go something like this:

Now, in the age of information, everything can and should be

freely available. The world’s knowledge is at our fingertips --
accessible at the touch of a hand-held device. Why not the secrets
of the Craft? As we move into the bright and dark future, don’t
more and more people need this information? Isn’t it necessary for
the evolution of humankind and the healing of the world to share
what we know? Shouldn’t we be opening the vaults to our
wisdom? Why shouldn’t we share our practices? Don’t we really
have a mandate to teach the Craft as quickly as possible to as
many people as possible in order to save the planet? Isn’t it selfish
of us to keep these tools to ourselves?

As a Witch, it is within my ability to simultaneously agree and disagree!

The currents of power a Witch deals in are wild. These forces will act of
their own accord if they are wielded by hands untrained to precision for the
work. It is true that the powers the Witch are transformational and can bring
about healing. However, these powers are not human. They do not abide by
human ethics or morality. Without direction they will transform
indiscriminately, without regard for individual health or ability to cope with
the changes wrought.

One of the markers of a skilled Witch is his ability to steer the direction
of such powers, be-friending and/or bending them so as to act in accordance
with his will.

Some of us need to be held and transformed deeply by these powers.

Others need to embody them fully through initiation into the ground of being
from which they arise. But, “most people need only be kissed or brushed
gently by them.”2

Witches wield the power to transform. Worship, practice, ritual and lore
develop in the Witch the ability to wield power with discernment, precision
and adept skill. This is what Witches and their tools are made for. A Witch is
a conduit for real power which she wields with great respect.

Victor Anderson, in The Heart of the Initiate states, “Everybody has a

right to know how they are made and how these things work . . . the
knowledge shouldn’t be withheld from people and we shouldn’t say, ‘We’re
the only ones who have a right for it.’ Everyone has a right to know. But can
everyone handle it? Can everyone know? Can everyone be a doctor or a
musician? No.”3

Not everyone is a Witch. Many people currently using the title have
done nothing to earn it and have little idea of what they speak.. They may
have completed some training and gained knowledge of the Craft but are
incapable of obtaining desired results in their uses of magic. This is a clear
case where knowledge does not equate with power. Though they be called,
“Witch,” the scent of the Craft does not linger upon them.

Not everyone should be trained in the ways of Witchcraft. There are

many paths to power, many roads to spiritual liberation. I have yet to study
any mystical tradition which, if walked long enough, will not lead the sincere
seeker to the same mysteries the Craft does.

Often, Craft training is but a foray for the spiritual seeker who picks up
a few witchy tools along the way to a path which is correct for him. Sharing
limited wisdom with these seekers is a great service if it helps them. Yet, it
can be devastating to both the seeker and the Craft if one is led too far down
the twisted path to turn back safely.

It takes a Witch to recognize a Witch. We are not always immune to the

enchantment of a particularly bright spark within a seeker. We might bring a
student along because of love or desire for them. It can be easy to allow the
ego to convince us how only we might help them where others have failed.

Sometimes, it works out okay in the end. No one is harmed (much)

because little is actually passed aside from words. Sometimes, those who
aren’t Witches are brought through initiation because we’ve convinced
ourselves it would do more harm than good to refuse them . As a result, we
have amid the ranks of all Craft Traditions, Initiates who cannot recognize a
Witch without inquiring about teachers, lineage, lore and liturgical materials.

Because people are initiated as Witches without full comprehension or

embodiment of the Craft, they cannot recognize another Witch. Hence, they
hurry to gather and make more like themselves. It’s an unfortunate state of
affairs when it’s undeniably true that, “There will always be a fool to initiate
more fools.” 4

The Training of the Witch Begins with Silence

“ . . . during my initiation into Witchcraft in this incarnation, the

introduction to the Aumakua was one of the first steps taken after
the vows of secrecy.” Victor H. Anderson5

My introduction to the Craft was pretty straight forward. I called a local

metaphysical shop and asked if they knew of any Witches who might be
willing to speak with me. The man on the phone said he was a Witch and
would be happy to talk. We arranged a time to meet at his store and,
unbeknownst to me at the time, my training began immediately.

When I arrived for our appointment, he shared information with me

about the seasonal wheel of the year and the sabbats. He spoke of goddesses
and gods. He hinted at the magic of spells and rituals as well as real and
potential dangers.
 After several meetings, I was invited to attend a Samhain Ceremony led
by his teachers and coven-mates. This was an “open” ritual which meant it
was open to vouched-for, non-coven members, but not the general public.

I participated as fully as I was able. I was astounded at the heady pulse

of witch blood in the room, the palpable presence of the Ancestors, the
mysterious robed and hooded priests, the low chanting of words I could not
discern. Having no fore-knowledge nor expectation, I was swept up by the
participatory songs and careful, measured dancing which cohered and raised
the Cone of Power.

At my next meeting with my teacher, I was giddy. I was eager to

discuss what had happened. I wanted to tell him all about my experience. I
had prepared a list of questions to ask. I wanted to learn the words and be
reminded of the melodies of the songs. But, when my enthusiasm and
inquisitiveness spilled from my lips, he held up his hand to stop me.

“We don’t speak of these things,” he said, placing his forefinger in front
of pursed lips.

“Why?” I asked, more curious than offended.

“To speak of magic and power diminishes it. You don’t remember
things from the ritual because the experience went deep into the part of you
that is wild. Don’t speak too much of power. Speech will drain it away and
all that you’ll have left will be empty words.”

In the weeks prior, he’d passed me knowledge -- facts and ways of

looking at things, the wheel, the history of the Craft. Then, he led me to
experience during the Samhain Ceremony. Only then, did I have embodied
experience. I was told that I would need to bring together the knowledge
shared and the experience I’d embodied in order to come to wisdom—but it
would require my silence.

I didn’t balk, argue or ask further questions. I simply understood what

he said to be true. Something inside me trusted this was the way. After all, he
was the Witch and I was . . . . It occurred to me then and there I was his
student. Just as the realization dawned on me, his wife walked through the
store. She’d spoken very little in the previous weeks, but this time she made a
point to stop and hold my gaze.

She said, “A lot of people come in here asking questions about Witches.
They’re curious or doing research or want to learn about the Craft. Some of
them are actually Witches.”

She held my eyes with hers a few seconds longer, assuring her meaning
was understood before nodding and walking away. My breath caught in my
throat. Gooseflesh rose along the entire length of my body before my teacher
drew my attention elsewhere -- purposely averting questions or nervous
chatter.

On the first day of training with my Feri Teacher, before anything else
transpired, I was asked to hand-write and sign a statement affirming my
commitment to hold silence regarding my training. There were times when I
faltered in this by showing off as a public priestess, eliciting approval or idly
chatting with pagan friends, carelessly speaking aloud a secret to my teacher
in an empty but public place. In each instance I was reined in quickly and
firmly.

I was often asked, “If someone is truly a Witch, why would they want
anyone to know?”6

Even as I was being groomed to teach the Craft, he took pains to

reminded me, “The world doesn’t need a lot of Witches. It needs even fewer
teachers.”7

These were some of the most challenging moments in my years of

training. They also bore the most lush, dark and delectable fruit.

When all was said and done and it seemed evident that I would, indeed
teach, he challenged me anew, “Why? Why will you teach? Knowing what
you do of the Craft, why would you give that double-edged knife to
another?”

I responded, “People are dying body and soul for this. There are those
who would be Witches, but for lack of training are spiritually sick. They’re
soul sick and soul tired. They have power rising up in them they don’t know
how to handle. I will teach because it is the most responsible thing I can do.”

Satisfied, he gave me his blessing. It is no small thing. I carry it within

me always.

In the traditions of my forebears, when interviewing students for

training in the Craft, I ask pointedly if they are able to keep silence -- and if
they willingly agree to do so. Some agree grudgingly. They understand it is a
condition of training and are eager to “get through training” so they are no
longer under the geis of silence. Some try to negotiate terms with me: “Can I
talk about this? What about that? What if I only discuss this part? I get really
off balance when I can’t process with others. I don’t keep secrets from my
spouse.”

Other candidates agree with the whole of their hearts in respect for the
Tradition, understanding I would not ask this as a trick, a means of
subjugation or a desire to hide what I teach out of shame or impropriety.
There are those for whom the “keeping of secrets” is a great turn on. It
activates in Vivi -- the Wild Soul -- a childlike attraction to the delight of
danger. These eagerly agree.

Once in training and exposed to students of the Tradition outside our

lineage, they are often met with incredulity or pity with regards to their
required silence. In an environment of online communities, student elists and
in-person working circles barring teachers, there is an awful lot of talking
going on: Students of all stripes and levels of training trade information like
baseball cards, advise one another concerning practices they may or may not
have been exposed to, share gossip about teachers and in one case, claim the
responsibility of acting as “the liaison between students and initiates.”

My students come to me with their concerns about these conversations

and I ask mischievously, “What can be done about it? How shall we punish
them?”

In truth, there is nothing to be done. No punishment is worth the energy

required to inflict it. We return to our own practices, do our own work, keep
our own counsel, sharpen our skills and learn the deep secrets only silence
can reveal.

A former student wrote, “Silence for me is a shield protecting me from

outside influence so I can hear my breath and listen more clearly to the voices
of my body, souls and the Gods. Protecting my spells, protecting me from
gloating with what my ego thinks I know before I really take the time to
digest it. Silence protects me from spilling magical and personal secrets.
Silence protects me from revealing vulnerability in unsafe environments. It
protects me from speaking too much, giving me time to listen to myself and
others. It protects me from talking or acting before thinking things through.
Silence protects me from missing the actual experience of Here and Now.”8

When the seeker asks for training, he is requesting an invitation to enter

Cerridwen’s cauldron of transformation. It is an act of will and daring born of
knowledge of the Craft and a particular teacher. Once the dare is taken it
must always be followed by silence. This is the way of nature.

The Witch studies and works within the Laws of Nature.

Agreeing to the conditions of training is an act of willful surrender. The

seeker enters the cauldron of transformation which is subsequently covered
and placed upon the fire to simmer there. Every so often, the lid is lifted in
order to release pressure and stir the ingredients. It’s been said by cooks and
Witches alike that covering a pot speeds the cooking process and makes the
dish more savory.
Secrets. When Silence is Compelled.

In the Craft, the words “silence” and “secret” are often used interchangeably.
For the purposes of this discussion, I want to distinguish silence as a power
freely chosen by the Witch in order that he may deepen his capacities for
knowledge, will and daring. Silence builds power and integrity. It draws back
the veil to reveal the Mysteries, allowing for development of effective
magical work in accordance with strong will and unshakeable personal ethics.

The secrets of nature -- and therefore, the Craft -- are hidden in plain
sight. They reveal themselves when we become capable of perceiving them
through the the practices of silence, stillness, deep listening and focused
attention. These practices enable the Witch to develop relationship with
nature. We “discover” what was always there by offering our respect,
willingness to learn and gratitude.

Secrets between people, on the other hand, involve keeping or hiding

information. Secrecy is utilized to conceal illicit activity, maintain personal
privacy or protect occult knowledge. It often contains an element of coercion
or compulsion to conceal information which might bring about injury to those
requiring their secrets be kept.

When silence is coerced or compelled, there is an implied or overt

threat of harm to the individual being required to keep the secret.

Both silence and secrets involve “keeping.” In silence, we keep our own
counsel, creating a strong container wherein the Witch’s power and that of
the Craft increase. Leaky containers make for weak Witches, as knowledge
seeps out before having the opportunity to steep and transform into wisdom.

To reiterate: Silence is an individual practice entered into freely in order

that the practitioner may come to know herself, develop the capacity to
commune with Nature’s seen and unseen inhabitants, integrate occult
knowledge, strengthen her will, discern her ethics, contain her Life Force and
use her words honorably and precisely.

Secrets are an agreement between two or more people to conceal

information for the purposes of hiding illicit behavior, maintaining individual
privacy or protecting occult knowledge. This kind of agreement is sometimes
coerced or compelled but may be entered into freely. Let’s look at these in
detail, now.

Secrets as Concealment

The craft is nothing to be ashamed of. If your teacher is asking you to do

something you feel is shameful and to keep quiet about it, ask for
clarification. In the Craft we deal with topics the overculture sends very
mixed messages about, such as sex, power, passion and the unseen realms.
That said, do not be convinced by a teacher or another seeker to engage in
activities which run counter to what you know to be right, true and correct for
you.

No teacher has a right to require sexual activity from you in order to

pass the secrets of the Craft. If you need to abstain from using alcohol, no one
should require you drink it. It is not necessary to use drugs to open the
psychic centers. It isn’t helpful to attempt to overcome sexual complexes by
engaging in activities you feel are degrading, abusive or unsavory. You know
yourself better than anyone, including your teacher. First and foremost, do no
harm toward yourself.

The student of the Craft should never be to engage in anything you

aren’t comfortable engaging in. We don’t attack our complexes with a
hammer. We don’t abuse ourselves, our integrity or our self respect in order
to heal our complexes. Healthy sex is what you deem to be healthy. Your
attitudes, opinions and practices may change over time as you become more
and more self-empowered. Ultimately, only you define what is right, true and
correct for you. Do not be mislead by peer pressure from your tribe.

There are ways to push your limits and clear your complexes which
don’t involve placing yourself in danger or degrading situations. If your
desire to do so is born of your true nature, do what you will. However, it is
ill-advised to speak of such practices as a requirement of training in the Craft.

If a teacher is demands you engage in sexual activity in order to further

your training or initiate into the Craft, then she is no longer practicing the
Craft. Rather, he is practicing sexual abuse.

The student-teacher relationship is one in which the teacher has

something the student wants and needs. It is no more ethical for a teacher in
the Craft to require sex from a student than it is for a teacher in any other
position to do so. Consider yourself warned that there are those within our
ranks who are nothing less than predators. Do not keep their secrets.

It is not possible to pass or receive the Witch Power in a rape scenario.

Coercion is rape. Instead of Witch Power, a sickness is passed. Some have
referred to this sickness as a kind of psychic STD. A cursory glance at the
current state of affairs in the Craft will, unfortunately, provide evidence of the
truth of these statements.

The Craft requires silence as a devotional practice which builds and

contains power. The Craft does not require we keep secrets which conceal
abuse, tyranny or illegal activity.

If you suspect there is abuse going on within your Craft community or

you have mentioned it to others who affirm, “Yes, that person has always
been problematic,” tell someone trustworthy immediately. Call upon the
respected Elders in your community for guidance and assistance. Trust your
instincts.

If the abuse involves children, minors or violence of any kind, call the
police. Our vows, if we took any, are to protect the Craft. Harboring abusers
and criminals within our ranks is not protecting the Craft. It has been said that
those who call upon official intervention from outside our ranks are Oath
Breakers. I heartily disagree. Defending criminal activity by maintaining
secrecy about it makes one an accessory to a crime and does nothing but heap
shame upon our religion.

Secrets and the Nature of Student-Teacher Relationship

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only
have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little
peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I
silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if
you love them enough.” George Washington Carver.9

There are stages of love and trust between teacher and student which are
normal, expected patterns in their relationship.

In the beginning, there is the first blush of love. The teacher recognizes
and is intrigued by the spark of power or the scent of the Witch on the
student. At this stage the student is enamored of and wishes to please the
teacher. Soon after, the student may become enthralled with and wish to
emulate the teacher. This may manifest as a crush and include sexual desire
or fantasies. The teacher must never take sexual or emotional advantage of
the student during this or any stage.

As the student matures, she may push against the teacher in much the
same way a teenager rebels against a parent. This is a tenuous time which can
make or break the relationship. When both teacher and student are cognizant
of this phase and committed to evolving past it, the relationship will mature
and the student will be well on her way to accepting her own power and
authority rather than seeking teacher’s approval.

Many a Witch has approached or passed through the gates of initiation

only to become embroiled in negative power plays or, a metaphorical
“killing” of the teacher. This interpersonal dynamic arises when the student
wasn’t trained through this stage or when the teacher insists on continuing a
power dynamic appropriate prior to initiation but fully inappropriate
afterward. As a result, we see a lot of heartache and animosity within Craft
lineages.

As the student reaches maturity, he is able to meet the teacher as a peer.

When this stage arises as a result of hard-won personal empowerment of the
student -- and is not an ego-demand or desire for approval -- it is graciously
reciprocated. The teacher, if emotionally mature himself, will be capable of
recognizing readiness for initiation while discerning the areas where the
student has surpassed him.

Mutual respect arises hand in hand with the “perfect love and perfect
trust” initiation requires.

Both the initiator and candidate must experience love for and trust in
one another. If they do not, the initiation should not be performed as it will
sour in both Witches.

If the student fails to progress through these stages, his relationship with
his teacher will become toxic. Likewise, if a teacher is invested in preventing
his student from progressing or conversely, in pushing her through these
stages too quickly, the magic and quite possibly the lineage, will become
toxic.

When examining the stages involved in any process of growth and

development, it is important to note they may or may not proceed in order.
Often, stages arise chaotically or even simultaneously. A student may wish to
please at the same time she rebels. The teacher may be enamored while
simultaneously managing the potent sexual energies directed toward him by
his protege.

Now we see, clearly defined, how the relationship between teacher and
student is not a relationship of equality. Teacher and student are never on
equal footing until post-initiation. Therefore, it is a blatant breach of ethics
for a teacher to engage in sexual or other illicit activity with the student.

Although both are adults and legally capable of consent, in this

relationship, the teacher holds more power. He or she has what the student
wants and needs. The student cannot obtain what he wants and needs without
the teacher. Whether the teacher is simply too inexperienced to properly
redirect the student’s sexual energies away from her or is willfully exploiting
this stage of the relationship matters not.

We readily agree with the ethical and legal standards concerning sexual
relations between professors and students, coaches and team members,
administrators and assistants, adults and children. In these instances, true
consent is not possible because one person holds power, authority, decision-
making and advancement over the other. The term, “consenting adults” does
not apply because the victim is profoundly influenced by his or her needs
being met. The power dynamics are such that “consent” cannot be freely
given. Even if the student gives verbal consent or is the one to initiate sexual
connection, it is the teacher’s ethical responsibility to decline those advances.

It is not surprising then, that when a Craft teacher engages in sexual

activity with his students, this aspect of the relationship is required to be kept
secret.

An ethical teacher will engage the student through all the stages of his
development without confusing or manipulating love or trust. The teacher
willingly shares appropriate information and points the student toward the
doors to Mystery. The love between teacher and student is fraught with
danger and delight. Both must be willing to walk the edge of the razor
through its twists and turns.

The student who recognizes the relationship with teacher is part of and
not an adjunct to his Training will go far. The teacher who navigates the
relationship cleanly and ethically will share the secrets and mysteries with her
students joyfully. In exchange, she will receive the immeasurable gift of
perfect love and perfect trust between peers during and beyond Initiation.
Losing a student, he gains a brother or sister in the Craft. The Craft will
receive the blessing of another Witch well trained to negotiate power and
magic in all the realms.

A Cultural History of Privacy

One reason we struggle so much with the idea of silence in the Craft is the
lack of clear distinction between private and public spheres within our
cultural milieu. That distinction has been slowly eroded over the past two
generations. To some, silence seems like an outdated idea -- a bit silly, old
fashioned and not really applicable to the twenty-first century Witch.

The idea of caring so deeply about something that you don’t want to
talk about it is utterly foreign. The silence necessary to practice the Craft and
operate as an effective Witch can seem too big an obstacle to overcome.
Thus, it is often ignored to the detriment of the Craft at large and the Witch
herself. Remember how the whole Pyramid falls down when you kick one leg
out?

My teacher was a profoundly private person. Born in the last years of

the Baby Boom, he held his religious beliefs and practices very privately. I
recall him stating how it pained him to share the details of particular prayers
and practices with his students as they felt so intimate to him, so very private.

Let’s take a broad look at the last sixty years. It behooves us to

understand how the once honorable standards of privacy and silence became
degraded as old fashioned at best, dangerous at worst.

Recall, if you will that the early luminaries of the Craft hailed from the
Depression Era or earlier. In the States, the the Craft really began gaining
momentum during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s.
 Let’s harken back just prior to those huge cultural shifts to the late
1950’s when everything was held close within the nuclear family unit. There
were clear and concise distinctions between public and private spheres.
Though the public sphere dealt in religion, politics, finance and sex, these
were not topics considered appropriate, polite or safe for public discourse.
Though the individual had her own religious beliefs, sexual experiences,
political ideas and financial considerations—these were considered so
private, intimate and potentially divisive that they discussion of them was
considered taboo.

People didn’t discuss how much money they made or spent on goods
and services. They didn’t talk about who they were voting for. They may
have attended church services but rarely discussed their personal religious
beliefs. They didn’t bring up marital or health problems in the workplace.
Nor did they complain about authority figures or challenge systems of power.

Likewise, the Craft was a very private affair practiced in the home with
a small group of carefully selected, trustworthy coven-mates.

I mention this era which came to a close during the cultural revolution
of the 1960’s because it is so very difficult for us to imagine keeping our own
counsel in this way. We live in an era which affords little privacy.
Unfathomable amounts of information are available to us and shared at the
click of a button we carry with us everywhere. We share the tiniest, most
intimate details of our lives via social media and in casual conversation with
strangers. We no longer balk that our movements are recorded on video in the
convenience store, the bank and even while driving our cars. We’ve passively
consented to having our telephone and online conversations collected by the
government. In fact, there is no longer an expectation of privacy in anything
we do or say.

The subculture of the bygone era was the nuclear family system. Today,
we create “tribal” subcultures founded upon the most private details of our
lives—sex, gender, religion and politics. There is no clear distinction between
our public and private lives. The most heated contemporary political debates
stem from the push-pull of private vs. public: On the one hand, we argue for
the right to publicly express private opinion and which of those are
“correct.”. On the other, we are concerned with the governmental regulation
of our most private decisions concerning birth control, health care, marriage,
religious expression and sexuality.

Where I grew up, the topics of sex, politics and religion were not
discussed with anyone outside the household. Granted, we were also
compelled to keep quiet about dysfunction in the family: Abuse, alcoholism
and anything else remotely considered shameful--whether real or imagined--
was to be “kept behind closed doors.”

So long as dysfunction wasn’t discussed, we (the individual, the family,

the society) could remain in blissful, ignorance of its existence. No one
would get in trouble. No one would need to get help. No one would take
responsibility for the monstrous goings on within American households so
long as each kept their dirty laundry hidden.

In the private arena, what happened behind closed doors stayed behind
closed doors. Meanwhile, in the public arena, an entire generation was
complicit in upholding discrimination and gross injustice.

Neither seeing, hearing nor giving voice to anything threatening the

cheerful, wholesome facade of 1950’s America, an awful head of steam built
up. Something had to give. The Civil Rights, Anti-War, Anti-Establishment
and Feminist Movements blew the lid off the cauldron. The various strands of
cultural revolution demanded not only honest public discourse but a
transformation of the rotting foundations of a culture dependent upon secrecy
to sustain it.

Issues of race, class, gender, sex, politics, civil and domestic abuses,
money, war and oppression were exposed in dramatic manners. In
courageous protest, people took to the streets. Everywhere, it seemed, truth
was being told. Secrets were being exposed. Walls were being torn down.
The cry for freedom from the tyranny of secrecy rang clear and high. Indeed,
one of the most potent slogans of the time was, “Silence equals death.”

As a culture, a profound distrust of privacy and secrecy developed. If

everything was exposed to the light of day, no festering ills could survive.
We also came to a radical distrust of the authorities we’d once blindly trusted
to protect us. The cultural revolution entered the private sphere, dragging all
our secrets into the light of day. The cultural revolution came marching in the
front door from the streets, wearing bell bottoms and declaring, “The
personal is political.”

Individuals began to recover from systemic and family abuse by giving

voice to their stories of victimization. Telling the family secrets in
consciousness raising groups, therapy, recovery groups and circles of friends
helped heal our shame, fear and guilt. We recognized our stories weren’t all
that uncommon. Sharing them made us feel less isolated. We came to equate
silence with complicity, victimization and death. We found lifting the lid
from the cauldron let off toxic steam and was profoundly cathartic. Speech
became, for us, a kind of medicine.

In sharing the secrets of our victimization, we were able to connect

deeply and emotionally with others. We were relieved to find casual
conversation was no longer limited to news, weather and sports. Instead, we
created instantaneous intimacy by revealing the most painful details of our
lives.

Seeing a therapist, once considered a shameful admission of an inability

to handle one’s own problems, became commonplace. There, we let off more
steam and began to focus on how we might heal from our abuses. A whole
new genre of writing on self help opened up and by the mid-1980’s we were
no longer concerning ourselves with the social and political movements
invested in changing culture. Instead, there arose the Self Help Movement
promising the individual emotional freedom from which all other liberties
would flow. Culture change, as it turned out, was an inside job.

The language of the Civil Rights and Anti-Establishment movements of

the 1960’s was co-opted by the Self Help Movement and sold to the
American people hook, line and sinker. We spent billions of dollars and
untold hours “working on ourselves” so we could overcome our victimization
and attain the promise of personal happiness, self authority and individual
freedom. If we just worked hard enough on ourselves, we could rise above
our oppression, depression, obsession and inhibition. Money would also help
in these endeavors.

Everywhere, therapeutic language combined with that of the cultural

revolution promised the pursuit of happiness could be attained through
personal perfection. If we all faced our own demons and worked hard enough
on our issues, we’d be happy . . . one day. Feminist theologian and writer,
Mary Daly, referred to this phenomenon as the “Therapeutic Culture.”10

In Therapeutic Culture, all the skeletons--real and imagined--were

dragged from closets to be displayed, scrutinized and analyzed both privately
and publicly. Every wound was labeled, every offense examined, every
perpetrator named, every victim vindicated through the power of speech. The
worse your victimization, the deeper your woundedness, the higher your
standing in Therapeutic Culture.

At the dawn of the 1990’s people were introducing themselves not with
the letters of their college degrees behind their names, but the letters of their
psychiatric diagnoses. The therapeutic, self-help culture infected and
influenced every aspect of our society. In one generation we’d gone from
“Father Knows Best,” a television show depicting the artifice of the “normal”
American family to Oprah Winfrey and Jerry Springer displaying as
entertainment every imaginable familial and personal dysfunction.

At the same time, we saw the Self Help Movement give rise to the New
Age: A mash up of spiritual, therapeutic and scientific practices coupled with
watered down revolutionary rhetoric. It promised a “holistic” approach to
healing the individual in body, mind and spirit. In combining all the topics
which had captured our imaginations over the previous thirty years, the New
Age Movement offered a veritable smorgasbord of spiritual practices
combined with science, medicine, magic, aliens, therapeutic culture and
anthropology.

Like the Self Help Movement, the New Age deemed secrets an
abomination, encouraging its adherents to expose, examine and even revel in
their “issues.” In ritualized settings we writhed on the ground moaning and
screaming in attempts to exorcise our pain. We sat in sweat lodges to purify
ourselves, danced around fires to liberate ourselves, went to all manner of
“healers” to clear our bodies, minds and spirits of toxic chemicals, thoughts
and beliefs. We visited “shamans” promising to increase the strands of our
DNA, bring back pieces of our traumatized souls or open portals to distant
galaxies where the true rulers of the earth reside.

We paid tens and hundreds and thousands of dollars to participate in

these transformational experiences. More often than not, the only thing
transformed was the balance in our checkbooks and our ability to see
ourselves within the context of an increasingly oppressive socio-political
milieu.

The purported goals of the New Age Movement were loftier than those
of the Self Help movement. Rather than focusing selfishly on pursuing our
own happiness, we were sold on the idea that each of us was personally
responsible for ushering in the New Age. Self-awareness, would lead to
awakening and enlightenment. The awakened needed to prepare themselves
to guide the masses in the transition into an era promising both terror and
glory at once. People were simultaneously engaging in pseudo- therapeutic
processes to address their issues and spiritual practices designed to enlighten
them. We trained to heal, enlighten, teach and lead more and more people
through what was referred to as the End Times, Earth Changes, the Return of
the Goddess or the Age of Aquarius.

In the coming New Age, so the rhetoric went, the enlightened would be
so pure as to disappear from the earth, sometimes taken up in UFO’s.
Alternately, they would no longer need to consume food--conveniently
solving the food distribution crisis--spontaneously communicate using
telepathy across space and time and no longer succumb to disease or death.

Along with promises of perfected states enlightenment, The New Age

Movement also instilled a lot fear and neurosis, duplicated a great deal of
Christian thinking and catered to a certain privileged class who could look
forward to a golden age amid other perfected (mostly white and middle-class)
beings. Sounds a lot like heaven, doesn’t it?

As I write this, the cultural revolution, Self Help and New Age
movements have infiltrated every aspect of our culture. We are products of
the age and culture we find ourselves in. It is no wonder we want to eschew
Silence. It’s no surprise that Paganism and Witchcraft have taken on so many
Self Help and New Age sensibilities.

I am certainly not advocating a return to the concealment of abuses or

the stifling of personal agency. In reviewing the past sixty years, I’m hoping
to lead us to some answers about how we got to a place where we equate
silence with oppression, abuse and victimization. It’s important to know how
we got where we are. We are not individual units operating outside larger
cultural paradigms. As Witches and Pagans, we’ve been influenced in
profound ways by the major cultural movements of the last two generations. I
want to highlight the ways in which we came to perceive that speech is
always good, right, helpful and healing. How did we arrive at this juncture
where so little is held so sacred as to be kept private?

Indeed, here in the second decade of the twenty-first century we are left
with few remaining legal rights to privacy and a populace who doesn’t appear
to be disturbed by this. After all, when we willingly tell strangers all over the
world about our victimization, sex lives, family matters, financial concerns,
health issues, religious beliefs, the worrisome mole on our left shoulder and
what we are eating for lunch, what difference does it make if the government
listens in, too?

Connecting through our woundedness and oppression is still the norm

in some arenas and especially alternative subcultures like our own. When
once our human connection was confined to the nuclear family and shallowly
based in talk of news, weather and sports, we now reveal our personal pain as
a means of establishing connection with others. Here, we set the ground rules
for relationships based upon understanding and affirmation of our mutual
brokenness.

How, then, with powerlessness and woundedness at the foundations of

our relationships are we to challenge ourselves to heal? How shall we reach
toward our capacity for self esteem, self responsibility, self authority and
power when relationships hinge upon remaining broken?

The process of telling our secrets, our stories of abuse, victimization

and oppression is a necessary step toward personal healing and societal
change. Lifting the lid of the cauldron takes the pressure off so we can move
forward. However, talking and analyzing can only take us so far. As Witches,
we don’t want to empty the cauldron every time a drop falls in. Rather, we
want to fill it with power.

Catch the drops. Savor them. Keep the lid on. Steep. Become power-
full. When you sense the soup contains toxins, use your tools to transform
them into something useful.

There is a reason we call the therapeutic process, “Talk Therapy.”

Analysis through talk helps us answer the question, “Why.” Why are we the
way we are? Why did terrible things happen to us? Why are our relationships
a mess? Why are we having such a difficult time in our adult lives? We can
spend years sussing out the answers on the therapists couch, Twelve Step
Recovery rooms, over coffee with friends and in the pages of our journals.

But, talking is forever and always in the realm of the Talking Self. The
Talker, being rational, wants to figure out why things happened and how we
got to be who we are. Having those answers, however, is only a small piece
of the healing process. There is a point when we have to say to Talker, “I
have told my story. I’ve been heard. I have listened to myself talk. I have
discovered some reasons why I am the way I am. I have used my tools to the
best of my ability to transform my wounds into proud battle-scars and my
fear into courage. Now, the secrets have all been told. Self-knowledge
attained, spoken, named and ordered.

Now, I must choose silence. In the realms of the Wild Self I seek
wisdom. In the care of my Divine Self, transformation.”

The Wild Self communicates nonverbally. She resides in the realms of

emotionality, feeling states, imagery, sensation, impression, chemistry,
instinct and impulse. In silence, we carry our rational understanding of our
woundedness here, instructing the Wild Self to bring forth her embodied
perceptions of it. We begin to glimpse the mythological proportions of our
stories. We identify with the archetypal. The sacred stories of heroes and
villains, adventurers and victims, kings, lovers, warriors and gods lift our
personal dramas to new realms. The human connection we sought through
repetitive telling of our personal stories is transformed and elevated as we
find resonance the stories of creation, the gods and spirits.

In the realm of the Wild Soul, we perceive our self stories as intricately
interwoven with the sacred. Here, we realize our connection is not only to our
immediate surroundings, associates and culture but to the All.

Our tendency is to identify with the sacred and translate it back to

shared language. But, in doing so we release the power of these revelatory
experiences through speech prior to fully integrating their deeper meanings.
At this juncture, it is imperative not to fall back completely to the realm of
the Talker who will file this personal gnosis away as mere information.

True and lasting change can never take place through engaging the
Talker alone. The Wild Soul is necessary for us to embody feeling states. The
Godsoul brings purification to bound up energies and transformation to the
whole self. In Feri Tradition, we call this kind of purificatory transformation,
“Kala.”

Kala is not an eraser for uncomfortable emotional states. We have

plenty of ways to shut down the discomfort of being human—television,
alcohol, drugs, medication, shopping, gambling and any number of other
distractions. Rather than using the sacred rites in this way, sit silently in your
discomfort. Allow it to inform you. Follow its tangled threads through the
Talker so as to discern what the pattern/complex is. Then, bring that
knowledge, along with your emotionality to the Kala cup for transformation.
Kala is a powerful tool for unbinding long-standing patterns which restrict
our access to the Godsoul and obstruct our true Power.

Secrets of the Occult

How can one keep secret what is available in plain sight to anyone who has
eyes to see?

There are infinite ways to learn magic, wisdom, the ways of power, the
laws of nature. Simple observation will go a very long way toward revealing
everything the seeker desires. What is abundantly evident cannot be kept
secret.

However, in order to hear the secrets of nature, to draw back the curtain
obscuring mystery, we must get very quiet, very still, very sincere. We must
engage silence. The mysteries sing, dance, whisper and shout around us
constantly. Busy chattering, distracted, we miss the teaching.

When silence is held, mystery is revealed.

The secrets are only secret to us because we have yet to develop the
capacity to slow down, observe, sense, see, listen and trust ourselves enough
to learn.

We are so busy wanting to know the next thing. We hunt and gather bits
of information, lore, practice or ritual not so we might study them but so we
can feel we own them. We keep pushing, gathering, collecting in a manic
fervor to obtain and claim ownership of wisdom.

But, we’re going about it all wrong: It is in quiet contemplation, in

silent meditation, in consistent and unhurried practice, in the repetition of
questions and prayers that wisdom whispers her mysteries and power reveals
itself. These cannot be won easily, nor can they be owned.

No teacher can unlock the gate to the mysteries for you. She can only
point you in the direction of the gate. You must open it yourself. Alone. In
silence. With patience and sincerity.

No book or workshop can reveal the secrets the Craft. The mysteries
might be spoken but will mean nothing, trapped in the realm of Talker as they
are.

No festival or ritual will plunge you into the realm of Mystery long
enough for much to be revealed. Your experiences may be intense and
memorable but will remain meaningless, caught in the Wild Soul as they are.

The secrets are freely available for exploration and study. They are
embedded in everything from the hair on the back of your hand to the high
cry of the hawk in flight; from the ripple of water over stone to the dust
motes floating in a beam of morning sunlight in the kitchen. These are hard
won through painstaking personal practice and experience, but not hidden.
They are occulted by our own distractibility and addiction to peak
experiences--but not edicts of secrecy. The only obstacle to the seeker’s lack
of knowledge, will and daring is the refusal to enter Silence. The mysteries of
the Craft and, indeed, the Universe are couched in the silence residing
between stars and available to all who remain still enough to perceive.

Chainsaws and Blindfolds.

Some years ago, I was living on fourteen acres in the forest. I lived in a very
humble abode and relied solely upon the wood stove for heat in the winter.
The time to purchase wood for the stove was coming up and I was loathe to
outlay the large amount of money it would take to buy the winter’s heating
fuel. Here I was, living in the forest and as I walked the trails I noticed many
trees were rotting on the ground or dead where they stood and ready to fall. I
was good about collecting kindling from the dead-fall but it occurred to me
that if I had a chainsaw I could easily cut the deadfall into logs for burning. I
could even cut down some of the larger trees. If I worked hard, I wouldn’t
have to purchase wood at all!

I set about finding someone to lend me a chainsaw.

During a casual conversation with a neighbor, I asked if he had a

chainsaw I could borrow.

He asked if I had ever used a chainsaw.

I felt my hackles rise in indignation. I felt certain that had I been a man
he wouldn’t have insulted me with such a question. Instead, he would have
slapped me on the back and said, “Sure, Joe! When do you need it?”

I answered honestly. “No. I’ve never used one, but how hard could it
be? It’s a saw. I need to cut some wood for winter.”

He was quiet for a moment. Then, he offered, “How ‘bout I come over
next weekend with my chainsaw? I’ll show you how to use it and then, when
you learn how to handle it, I’ll loan it to you.”

I agreed, but I was really pissed off. Did he really think I couldn’t
manage a chainsaw? You pull the thing to start it and then you use it to cut
trees into logs. I imagined the hard part would be splitting those logs with an
axe and getting them out of the forest to my woodshed. I was angry and self-
righteous about this for the entire week.

Couldn’t he see I was living out there in the woods and managing just
fine? Would he want to school me if I was a man? Maybe I’d just get a used
chainsaw somewhere and forget about this whole “Macho man shows little
woman how to operate a chain saw.” Who did he think he was, anyway,
making me take a lesson before he’d let me use his saw? Ugh!

Saturday morning came and my neighbor arrived as scheduled for my

mandatory inservice. I came outside into the bright day to meet him. As he
stepped out of his truck, I couldn’t help but notice his attire wasn’t really
appropriate for such a warm, late summer day. He was dressed in a long
sleeved, heavy shirt, long pants and knee high, steel-toed boots. He reached
into the back of the pick-up and pulled out heavy elbow length gloves, strong
plastic knee pads, protective goggles, protective ear wear and a bright orange
hard hat. He pulled an orange vest on over his shirt.

“Hunters,” he said simply. “Gotta make sure they see you when you’re
in the woods. You walk in the woods, right? You wear orange when you do,
right?”

I had a sinking feeling in my belly. I was dressed in cargo shorts, a tank

top and sneakers.

He got out the chainsaw, smiled widely and asked, “Ya’ ready?”

Suddenly, I felt very very stupid. All at once it dawned on me that

running a chainsaw might be a lot more dangerous than the lawn-mower or
the weed whacker. Every ounce of pompous indignation drained right out of
me as I looked down at my bare arms and legs.

“Okay. Um, yes. I’m ready.”

As we walked into the woods he explained conversationally, why he

was wearing the protective gear. Swinging the chainsaw up in front of his
chest, he said, “This thing is sharp. And, it’s fast. It’s heavy and it can slip.
This thing can cut you so fast and deep that you won’t even have time to feel
the pain before you see the blood.”
 I swallowed hard.

“I’m going to show you how to use this, but I’m going to ask you to get
the protective gear you need before you do, okay? Because, if anything
happens to you while you’re using my chainsaw, I’ll never be able to forgive
myself. So, promise me?”

“I promise.”

He walked me through the mechanics of getting the thing turned on.

Then, amid the high mechanical noise, I watched him cut a fallen elm into six
foot lengths. In a matter of seconds, the saw cut through the three foot
diameter trunk like a hot knife through butter.

When he cut the engine off, the silence of the forest was immense. The
silence was a force hammering home to me that we were in the middle of
nowhere. My nearest neighbor probably couldn’t even hear the chainsaw.

I asked myself, “What are you going to do when you’re out here alone?
If you get hurt, how will you get help? Who’ll take care of the kids if you
need to be in the hospital? How will you take care of them if you’re missing a
foot or a leg or worse?”

Suddenly, setting aside several hundred dollars for a firewood delivery

seemed reasonable.

My neighbor was handing me the hard-hat and goggles. “Here. Put

these on. It’s your turn.”

I bit down hard on my false pride and swallowed it whole. I shook my

head. “I don’t think so, Steve. I didn’t realize how dangerous this was going
to be. I thought . . . . Well, I thought I could do it no problem. But, I don’t
think I should be out here in the woods, so far from other people, operating a
dangerous power tool alone. I don’t think I understood the danger. I didn’t
have any respect for it. But, I do now.”
 I was grateful he didn’t laugh then, or lecture me. He just nodded and
asked, “Got any coffee in the house?”

I learned something that day about respect: Just because you want to be
able to do something dangerous, think you should be able to do it or feel
entitled to do it, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

I began to reflect upon how the “power tools” we use in the Craft are
just as useful as that chainsaw. And, just as dangerous.

I share this story to illustrate the power of Witchcraft. It’s not to be

taken lightly. It’s not a game, a fashion show or a parlor trick. Wanting it
doesn’t necessarily mean you should have it.

We cannot really understand how the tools of the Craft operate until
we’ve become accustomed to using them. Sometimes we need to be
frightened or even hurt by them before we give them the respect they
deserve. While they can certainly be used to help us along our path to self
awareness—like a chainsaw can be used in makeshift fashion to hold a tarp
down or a barn door closed—that is only a very small part of what their
intended use is.

The first time I shared what has come to be know as, “The Chainsaw
Story” was in the context of a class I was teaching on Soul Alignment and the
Kala Rite.

One student, having learned the Kala Rite a few days prior, thought it
wise to share this great transformational tool with a friend who was
experiencing intense relationship problems. She thought it would be a useful
way to help her friend deal with the crisis at hand. I was more than a little
perplexed that someone who hadn’t yet learned how to operate this powerful
tool yet had taken it upon herself to put it in the hands of someone else.

If my neighbor had leant me his chainsaw without showing me how to

use it safely, he would have felt responsible if I got hurt. It would have been
correct for him to feel that way.

Now, let’s say he’d given me a quick lesson in the driveway—walking

me through the steps of operating it and left me to my own devices. If I then I
took it upon myself to lend his chainsaw to someone else, telling them it was
so completely safe they could use it blindfolded, who would be at fault when
they got hurt?

We don’t give our tools away unless we can commit to being present to
assure they are wielded properly and safely. If we hand out chainsaws to the
blindfolded--we are responsible for the pain that ensues. If we, ourselves, are
blind-folded due to lack of training, silence or integration, we will be clueless
as to what harm might come to an individual unprepared to wield these tools.

When harm does come, we will not recognize how we, and the tool we
provided, are responsible for it.

To keep your friends and unsuspecting seekers from being hurt by your
good intentions, hold silence.

It’s fairly easy to tell who has respect for the tools of the Craft by how
quickly compelled they are to hand them out to all askers. The problem with
our tools being so widely available without the benefit of a teacher is that
they can and are being used in ways they were not intended. You don’t need
a chainsaw to cut paper, a hammer for a thumbtack or a cement mixer for
cake batter. Use the proper tool to achieve the desired result. Experimentation
is encouraged once you are adept at using the tools as they were meant to be
used.

In response to those who insist these tools and exercises are harmless, I
would argue that they simply do not know of what they speak. If they haven’t
discerned the danger, they haven’t been wielding the tool correctly. Even a
hand-held screw driver -- a very simple tool with limited purpose -- can do
harm. Every medicine is also a poison. Each healing is also a curse. Those
who don’t believe the Witch’s tools are potentially deadly, might ask
themselves whether they believe we are dealing with real or imagined
powers.

Let us continue forward with the assumption the tools of the Craft are
both real and dangerous. From that assumption, we will treat them with
respect and we will not teach what we don’t know.

Remember! Silence is a container within which power is distilled.

Therefore, keep silent and practice. While doing so, pay attention to what’s
happening to you during the formal practices but also in the whole of your
life. The Craft will change us, our relationships and every aspect of our lives.
Sharing the tools of the Craft--even the ones developed in your own personal
gnosis--without knowing from sustained practice and scientific observation
what they are capable of is no less dangerous than the blind leading the blind
in juggling chainsaws

There is truth in the statement, “Power shared is power gained.” But,

it’s equally true of ignorance and idiocy.

To attain knowledge, be silent. To clarify will, be silent. Then,

embodying the powers of silence, knowledge and will, you’ll be fully
prepared for daring -- be it the daring of helping or teaching another,
performing powerful ritual and effective magic, or deigning to re-enter
silence in order that you may deepen still further into the mysteries.
Information vs. Integration

Silence is golden.

The current of power which is the Craft cannot be made diffuse. Nor
can its power be lessened by sharing it. That current, generated by God
Herself, is unlimited and infinite. It does not belong to us but runs through us
if we have been properly prepared to conduct it. We don’t hold silence in
order to protect the Craft or its currents of power, for these are larger than us.
Rather, we hold silence in order to prepare ourselves to be proper conduits
for such power.

We hold silence so we can learn how to keep our own counsel. It’s
imperative that we have first hand experience with the practices we are
learning without unwarranted influence by others. This way, we learn to
recognize our own power without needing it to be affirmed or denied by
others. Outside opinions may muddy or distort the gold we are attempting to
distill through our practices--the treasure of our True Nature.

Sometimes, even our closest friends and circle mates can be intimidated
by the powers we are learning to wield. There can be unspoken agreements
among such companions not to challenge or surpass one another. If we are
more interested in socializing with friends who share common interests than
we are in really propelling ourselves deeply into our Craft, such a circle may
be appropriate.

The Craft has never been a social arena. Witches gather together in
circles and covens to get magical work done. We are martial in that we go in,
get the job done and get out. We then return to our private lives and practices,
our solitary workings, the deepening of our relationships with the gods and
the sharpening of our Craft tools

This isn’t to say Witches don’t enjoy a good party, a night of socializing
or an arena where we can let our hair down with other Witches and cackle
until dawn! These are magic in and of themselves. Rather, there’s a
distinction between a party and a coven or circle. One meets to socialize,
process and talk about magic. The other meets to work Witchcraft together.

Even through the secrets of the Craft may be available to anyone with
internet access, the secrets I ask students to keep are less concerned with
information than they are with personal experience and the hard-won power
gained through committed study. Information is just information. Without
ongoing practice and experience it means little.

Information speaks solely to the Talker who may make an attempt at

understanding or decide belief in magic is delusional. The false value in
collecting and sharing of information can be linked directly to the negative
ego who ignorantly mistakes “having information” with embodying power.
As a result, we have a lot of people regurgitating untried practices, quoting
elders, reciting liturgy and publishing “secret” information in order to set
themselves up as experts in the Craft.

Ask your teachers, “What were your experiences when you did this
practice?” If they don’t have an answer for you or they seem to churn out
new practices every month, I suggest you run in the opposite direction. Find a
teacher who practices what they preach.

Francesca De Grandis writes, “Training and gathering information are

not the same as coming to power . . . . sometimes instead of more training,
one needs absorbtion, practice, application and further personal growth.
Without the latter, one cannot grow in spiritual or magical power. And all of
that is training, whether or not people view it that way.”11

That process of “absorption, practice application and further personal

growth” is what I call integration, which happens in silence. It happens in the
space between knowing and embodying. It happens naturally and gracefully
of its own accord when we take time to stop in-putting and sit with what’s
been accumulated. It is in this period of silent integration that true power is
developed and grounded into being.
 Anyone can repeat what a teacher has said. Anyone can memorize
quotes, liturgy, poetry and lore. That’s the easy part. The hard part is taking
that information, those pithy quotes and lines of poetry and sitting with them
until the jewels encased therein reveal themselves to you. Layer upon
gorgeous layer will open slowly, over time. Power and wisdom cannot be
won quickly.

As words reveal their mysteries to us they take on depth and sheen. No

longer a collection of snippets and flotsam, they become the spell of
enchantment we willingly wrap around ourselves. They glisten with power
and wisdom when uttered into the ethers.

After silence, your own words pour forth, filled to overflowing with
sincerity and depth. These are magic. These are prayers that make themselves
manifest.

In silence does the oyster reveal its pearl. Do not cast such a thing
before swine.

Leaky Cauldrons

Loose lips sink ships.

For information to be meaningful, it must have context. For it to be

powerful, it must have an emotional charge born from proper context coupled
with personal experience. These can be explained or described but will lack
intensity when heard or read.

When we share our personal experiences with others, two things

happen: First, the charge of power built up through having and holding the
energy of experience is diffused. Have you ever been so excited about
something you felt you would burst if you didn’t tell someone? That feeling
of being about to burst is the “charge of power.” We use speech as a means to
relieve the pressure of a built up charge. However, this is counter-intuitive to
what we are attempting to do in the Craft--which is to build power. Rather
than diffusing it through idle speech, we contain it past the point when we
think we might burst. We hold on to that charge. Share it with the God Soul.
Integrate it. Become big with it.

The second thing to occur when we can’t hold power through keeping
silence is that we never learn to keep our own counsel. We don’t come to
trust ourselves because we are desirous of the attention our talking affords us.
We seek the ego-fix of commiseration and advice received from others. We
long for the affirmation the comparison of notes brings. We thrill at the
excitement of telling secrets. But, when it’s all been said and done, it comes
down to a harsh but simple truth:

We talk too much because we cannot stand our own company.

Left alone in silent contemplation, we’re certain to find out things about
ourselves we don’t like. Better to keep talking as fast as we can. Better to
keep telling our stories in hopes they’ll be mirrored back to us in flattering
ways. Better to keep the lid off the cauldron than to steep in our own juices.

This is rough. I know. I’m sorry to strike so quick and deep without
preparing you for the blow. And, I really want to be sure we all hear the hard
truth. If I surround it in soft, flowery language, you might miss the point.
Getting the point is really important because once we get it, once we break
through the wall of denial, we’re suddenly empowered to take action. Having
named the sickness, we can locate the proper medicine.

We can patch the holes in our leaky cauldron and keep the lid on tight-
stretching ourselves to handle bigger and bigger charges of power. And, we
can address our insecurity, self-hatred and our ego-addiction to outside
affirmation. We can begin learning to trust ourselves, our experiences, our
instincts and our magic. We can base that trust upon authentic self-authority
rather than being blown around by everyone else’s opinions or mistaking
ego-gratification for true power.
Chitter-Chatter, Mad Hatter

“ ‘I don’t think . . .’

‘Then you shouldn’t talk’, said the Hatter.” Lewis Carroll, Alice in
Wonderland

When I first attended 12-step recovery programs in my early twenties, one of

the first instructions I was given was, “Sit down. Shut up. Take the cotton out
of your ears and put it in your mouth. You don’t even know what you don’t
know.”

I can scarce imagine the reception that kind of tough love might get
among more sensitive seekers who’ve somehow gotten the idea that in
magical communities no one should ever be offended, no one’s sensibilities
should ever be challenged and no hypocrisy should ever be revealed. I’ll
admit that telling someone to sit down and shut up is rude, but I’ll also assert
that it’s effective. In a program where people are confronting a disease
process hell-bent on killing them, there isn’t a lot of time for coddling
weakness, gigantic egos or an overinflated sense of privilege. Beginner mind
is imperative to the recovery of a newcomer.

When I landed in the Program, it felt like coming home. The only other
time I experienced that sense of home-coming was when I found the Craft.
Suddenly, it was as though all the pieces of a puzzle I hadn’t even been aware
I’d been working on came snapping into place. I’ve heard hundreds of people
describe the same feeling of coming home to the Craft.

While I’m not drawing lines of comparison between addicts and

Witches, I do want to highlight the fact that people arrive at the doors to both
subcultures wounded, isolated, terrified of transformation and yet willing to
embrace change anyway. Both kinds of newcomers arrive with very few tools
and little wisdom in hand. Yet, both are happy to discuss at length everything
they think they know and everything they’re trying hard to learn as quickly as
possible.

When we’re new to the Craft, we really want to talk about. We need to
hear ourselves talk. Talker needs to just talk, talk, talk, talk in an attempt to
work things out. We use speech to convince ourselves we haven’t gone right
over the edge into the deep end where madness lies cackling.

Talking can be a useful way to try and sort out the information we’re
taking in. It’s a familiar way to assimilate new ideas and make them our own.
Like a child memorizing their multiplication tables, this repetition is an
immature but reasonable method for integrating new information and
experience into our world view. As we develop in the Craft, we find more
effective means.

For many, talking can be a compulsion and an obsession. We might talk

to compensate for our discomfort with silence, to disguise our insecurity, to
vampire energy from others or to prop up our ego. Every fleeting thought
moving through the monkey-mind is given voice. We might talk so much we
lose track of what we’re talking about. In extreme cases, we may not even be
aware we’re speaking.

The words of the compulsively verbal have little value. What spills
from their lips needn’t be coherent, thoughtful or true: The most important
thing is to just keep filling every silence with words. Often, the compulsively
verbal will gossip, exaggerate or lie without being cognizant of it. When
confronted, they will be genuinely confused. “I was just talking! I didn’t
mean anything by it!”

Unable to control their own speech, they cannot still themselves long
enough to perceive the power of silence or of words.

As long as we continue to talk “about” the Craft, it will be very difficult

to learn anything new, let alone practice and become the Craft. While we’re
busy trying to convince ourselves and everyone around us of how much we
know, what we think, what we’re learning, what we’re working on . . . we’re
wasting time and energy. We’re dispersing the very power we could be
learning to contain. The serious student of the Craft quickly learns to halt idle
chatter by simply sitting down (being still) and shutting up (practicing
silence). In that silence and stillness we learn what we didn’t know. This is
how wisdom arises.

Vamps and Funhouse Mirrors

“Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively

verbalizing.”12

We seek validation through constant chatter. Those inclined to fill every

emptiness with words and activity tend to be insecure and needy. Convinced
that keeping a steady stream of verbal diarrhea flowing is bound to convince
someone how smart and self assured they are. They have something to say
about everything. Sometimes, the ploy actually works.

We may also seek validation by continually seeking the opinion and

approval of others. Actively seeking input and affirmation regarding every
aspect of our lives from the shoes we wear to the lovers we take, the approval
seeker uses constant inquiry to keep us on a hook she feeds from. In its most
extreme form, the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, the cars we drive,
the meals we prepare and even the traditions we study are chosen not because
we like them but because we like what we think other people will think of us
for liking them.

The opinion and high regard of others is so important to this personality

type that he cannot begin to imagine holding silence, keeping his own
counsel or making decisions for himself. She has no real sense of herself --
no core from which she operates. Her sense of self is founded upon
projecting questions about what others approve of and awaiting their
response. He cannot distinguish their choices from his own, for his peers are
nothing but person-shaped mirrors. He gazes into these constantly to affirm
his sense of self. A kind of psychic vampire, she makes choices based upon
others recommendations and, imagining their approval, feeds on their energy.
Her self-esteem is derived from the approval of others.

Without an array of person-shaped mirrors reflecting what she should

like, how she should present herself, how she should behave, what she should
choose and who she should be, she isn’t entirely convinced she is real. With
all that requesting, projecting and reflecting going on, the suggestion that one
enter a period of silent introspection is met with utter terror.

On some level, we all project and look for ourselves reflected in others.
No one, not even a Witch, is an island. Sometimes it’s helpful to ask a friend
for her honest opinion. Sometimes it’s necessary to get a more objective view
of a sticky situation. These minor narcissistic tendencies are quite common
and normal. It’s important to be aware of them as well as how much weight
we give others opinions of us.

When narcissism is severe, it is described as a disordered personality.

The Narcissistic Personality Disordered person is usually quite

charismatic, charming and intellectually bright. He knows just enough about
a lot of things to make himself welcome in many social arenas. It’s vitally
important to him to be respected and revered or, at the very least, needed and
useful.

Grateful and adoring people-shaped mirrors build her up so she hardly

notices she has no core. He often chooses small, alternative subcultures
where he can rise to leadership easily. Because he has spent his entire life
“reading” other people’s responses, behaviors and attitudes, he is often
thought to have great psychic capacities. A chameleon, he quickly adapts his
appearance, beliefs and ethics to match those of his chosen victim/group. He
easily mimics those in positions of power and authority.

So adept is she, that she gains entrance to the highest echelons of his
chosen subculture without having done anything other than parrot and mimic
the leadership while exuding charm, charisma and flattery. If she has a
natural capacity for any of the Magical Arts, it is the Art of Glamor.

When challenged he has the capacity to become dangerous--publicly,

privately and magically attacking those who dare expose him--in order to
protect his carefully constructed self-image as well as the supply of adoration
he vampiriclly feeds upon.

The Narcissist is utterly dependent upon the unfaltering adoration of

those in his thrall. He will lie, manipulate, steal and abuse in order to protect
his sham of a reputation. I describe this personality disorder here because our
communities are rife with them. Be aware. Listen to your instincts when in
the presence of these fast-talking charismatic leaders.

Keeping Counsel

The ability to be comfortable with silence is the ability to be comfortable with

yourself

One of the many benefits of courting the power of silence is the ability
to keep one’s own counsel. As we turn our thoughts and focus inward,
lowering the volume on our ego, we begin to see ourselves as we really are.
The practice of silence affords us time for introspection.

Imagine, if you will, that everyone you meet, each interaction, every
movement and choice is a piece of information about ourselves. Everything
we encounter is a bright and dark mirror for us -- we who are Witches, parts
of Nature and God Herself.

Imagine now, how easily those reflections become distorted when we

project ourselves, our neediness, opinions, self-righteousness, etc, upon the
surface of those mirrors. We do this when we constantly ask others for
advice, chatter idly or speak powerfully without thinking. If everything is a
mirror and we aren’t slowing down to consult with ourselves, it can begin to
feel as though we are living within the mirrored hallways of a fun-house.
Everywhere we look, we are confronted with another reflection, projection or
distortion of ourselves. How, amid all this varying input do we locate our true
selves? How do we dismiss the vertigo and find our own center? How do we
escape the fun-house and locate our truth?

Close the eyes. Attend to the physical body. Find the breath. Still
yourself. Look toward the ground and open your eyes. There is your path. It
was never lost to you. Keep your eyes on the ground so as not to be distracted
by false reflections or dead-end escape routes. Stay focused in your own
center. Here is your escape. Here is your salvation. The path, always, leads
back to your center, your truth, your power.

Practicing silence is a way for us to drop beneath the layers of the

monkey-mind, beneath the barrage of fears, anxieties and fantasies and
deeper into the place where slow thoughts arise and disperse. We go deeper
still to the pool of presence which is our true mirror. In silence we see
ourselves clearly--in all our power and terror, all our beautiful flaws, all our
messy intensity and imperfect humanity. Here, we come to know -- and also
love -- ourselves in all our parts.

In silence, if we listen long enough, we find our truth: The irrevocable

core of Self. When we know ourselves we are able to move through the world
of funhouse mirrors and noisy distractions unaffected. Operating from our
core, we enjoy the company of others but do not seek or need their approval.

It is from this core that great power is won, breath-taking art is made,
real love blossoms forth, ecstasy is experienced. We return to this core for
our sustenance. It is here, in silence at the pool of presence where we keep
our own counsel.

Keeping one’s own counsel, finding one’s core, owning our own
reflection . . . these are hard won. We are not likely to hand these precious
gems over easily in exchange for another ticket to the funhouse no matter
how alluring the praise and adoration.

Standing on the Dragon

In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the

pattern improves.
— Rumi

If you’ve found your teacher, you’ll need to trust them implicitly. After all,
undertaking training in the Craft means the whole cloth of your life is going
to change. The Craft is not something we do but something we become and
are. The road from studying, knowing and doing to being is lined with jewels
and monsters. A teacher is a midwife to your self-possession. Just as well-
intentioned family, friends and strangers all have stories and advice for an
expectant mother, so too will your peers want to advise you on ways to go
about becoming a Witch. It’s fine to smile and nod, taking into consideration
the opinions of others. But, when you go into labor, you want the midwife by
your side reminding you to breath, rest, ride the waves of discomfort and
encourage you to keep going when you’re convinced you cannot.

If you don’t trust your teacher before other students or seekers, consider
why that is. Perhaps you are with the wrong teacher. Perhaps you have issues
with being in the role of a student. If there are concerns about trust, bring
them to your teacher. Allow him to hear your concerns. Together you will
agree upon the right path to take.

Hopefully, your teacher will have traversed the path herself and guided
others down it many times. He knows where the quicksand is and the fire
breathing dragons. She knows what dangers lurk inside that fairy house that
looks so inviting. He has battled the internal and external demons that rear
their heads along the path and knows where they live, what tricks they play
and how to transform them into allies. She can point the way to the cool
water to bathe in and which mushrooms are poisonous. He can lead you to
the doors beyond which your deepest desires lie but cannot take you through
them. When it’s time to pass through those gates, you must do so naked and
alone.

When you ask your peer group for affirmation and advice you are
asking people who don’t know the path well enough to tell you where it leads
and how to walk it. The best they can offer is conjecture. If you trust your
peers more than your teacher ask yourself why that is.

Are you simply looking to compare notes, and if so, why? Does
gossiping about your training or teacher bring a sense of control? Does
bragging somehow feed your ego? Are you chattering to let steam out of your
cauldron? Do you need your weaknesses coddled where your teacher
demands you address and transform them? Are you struggling with trusting
yourself? Are you trying to develop a sense of community?

The Witch’s path is a lonely one. Our role has always been to dwell and
walk at the edges rather than the center of the village. We commune with
spirits and gods, the soul of nature and the movement of stars in the night
sky. We slip into the darkness, between atoms and the planes of existence
where we gather wisdom, healing and power. These we bring back to the
people so they might be healed and strengthened by the gifts we carry. The
people warily receive these gifts and look upon our kind with respect and
fear, reverence and distrust, honor and disgust.

As such, it is no wonder we seek out our own kind so we might

compare notes, share stories and find succor. For though we be Witches,
aligned in our intellectual, instinctual and divine natures, we are human. We
get lonely. We long to build temples, communes and villages where our own
kind can dwell together. There, we imagine, we will share our magics,
creating a kind of utopia.

Naturally, though, we will also sneak off by ourselves away from

hustle-bustle and chitter-chatter of the center of things. Off we’ll go, back to
the places of silence and stillness where we slip between worlds to listen for
truth. For even in her own village, the Witch is ever the walker of edges,
always the seeker of that which cannot be found among the ego-driven
chatter of human community.

If you would be a Witch, the teacher you need will appear when you are
ready. Shopping on the internet may be expedient but does not always
produce the proper fit. A teacher must be a trustworthy guide. If he is,
commit to yourself and to your Craft for at least a little while, to refrain from
seeking input and information from those gathered at the center of the village.
Step upon the path and follow the instructions given you to the letter. This
journey is yours and yours alone. Even if you find yourself being trained in a
“class” setting, it is your teacher, not your classmates who knows the way
through the Deep Dark Swamp and the Valley of Fire. Follow the map given
you for your journey is your own. The same map in another’s hands will lead
you astray and down a trail which might be amazing for someone else but
deadly for you.

Trust you are being led in the right direction at the right time.
Sometimes you need a rough word when you think you need coddling.
Sometimes you’ll need roses and honey when what you want is a fight and
some iron. It’s the job of the teacher to challenge you to pick up the pace or
slow down to a crawl, to reach soaring heights only to plummet into the
abyss. Such is the tempering of a Witch’s will. If you are lazy, you will not
go far. Too eager and you may deceive yourself into believing you’ve gained
more power than you have or that it’s your teacher who is holding you back.

When your teacher sends you off to slay the demon of self deception,
don’t stomp like a child saying, “I already did that! I’m bored! My friends are
doing really exciting things and I;m stuck here doing Ha and Kala again!”

I once had a student who was very eager. He would receive his lessons
from me and then ask, “But, when are we going to work with Blue Fire?
When am I going to work with the Gods I read about on _____ website?
Thanks for teaching me this, but can I start working on these things that my
friends are doing?”

Not content to do the work before him, he wanted to ingest the

information available on the internet. He wanted to surf the tip of the iceberg
rather than explore the depths and foundations, the outer limits and inner
landscapes of the Craft.

I said, “You are looking out across the endless vista searching for
dragons in the sky. But if you would be still and pay attention, you would see
you are standing directly on the back of a great dragon right now.”

Whether you have a teacher or not, stand where you are. Pay attention.
Learn all you can in that place before taking another step forward. Look hard
and long at the ways you bump up against silence and stillness. Notice how
you rail against it, try to get around it, beg for release from it, cry out about
the perceived indignities of it. This is how you come to know what kind of
Witch you are. Which is the point, after all.
The Practice Of Silence
he practice of silence allows for deep listening so we might hear the
T unspoken nuance underlying the constant chatter of the world. In that
space, the Mysteries of the Universe open to us. In the deep void of
stillness we gaze into the the mirrors of reflection. There, we come to know
ourselves in all our parts; the good and bad, the ugly and selfish, the weak
and insecure, the opinionated and narcissistic as well as the radiant and
beautiful, brilliant and creative, caring and compassionate, strong and
resilient, sexy and powerful. We take ownership of the “I Am” and release
what we are not.

As we become more comfortable with ourselves, we learn the worth

and power of words and we resolve to use them honorably.

These practices are for everyone regardless of your standing as a

Seeker, Student, Practitioner, Adept, Initiate or Master. There is something
here for you or you would not be holding this book.

Most of these practices require more than a few minutes of altar-time

per day. Here, you will be asked to carry your practice with you into every
nook and cranny of your life. A Witch needs to contain and wield Power at
all times, not just within the Circle or ritual. A Witch needs to develop in
herself a core of silence and stillness from whence her wisdom arises. In this
way, her emotions, thoughts, words and deed have the integrity necessary to
consciously affect desired outcomes,

In other words: Do the work to empower yourself for an empowered

Witch is an effective Witch.
Silence and the Powers of North

#1. Silence is a power of Earth: Grounded, still, heavy, dark, fecund. To

know silence, connect with the Earth. When you sense you are grounded, stay
there. Go deeper. Be held.

#2. As you come to experience and embody the powers of the North you will
come into relationship with death. All things change and death is but a point
on the ever turning, ever renewing wheel. Every one of the practices set forth
here require a death of one kind or another, so as you are do this work, you’ll
become familiar with it.

The good news is that every ending, like the moon in its dark cycle, is a new
beginning.

#3. Ask the Guardian of the North, by whatever name you call it-- to teach
you the Power of Silence. Be sure to listen for when these beings are called
upon to teach us, they take it seriously.

#4. Ask the Goddess whose power is full at the Dark of Moon to guide you,
for she knows well the Ways of Silence and will walk with you amid the
night blooming flowers.

Breath of Silence: Formal Practice

Before we can attempt holding silence in the whole of our lives, it’s a good
idea to experience it without distraction.

Do this at your altar or seated in a chair with your spine erect and your
feet on the floor. If you prefer to stand, go ahead. Try different postures until
you find one that works well for you. You should be comfortable so as not to
be distracted by your body but not so comfortable that you fall asleep.
 Set a timer for 15 minutes in the morning and again at night. If you
can’t do fifteen minutes--work up to it. Begin with two minutes. When you
achieve that, work toward five minutes and so on.

Hint: Once you can consistently do seven minutes of any formal

practice, building in additional time becomes much easier.

#1. Begin by taking several long, slow, deep breaths to ground and center
yourself.

Allow your muscles to relax without becoming so relaxed that you slouch,
slump or fall asleep.

Allow your breath to come in and out of the body naturally without
forcing it or counting. Simple observe the breath.

If you notice your thoughts wandering away from observation of the

breath, simply bring your focus back to the breath.

If you notice yourself becoming frustrated, bring your focus back to

observation of the breath.

If you notice yourself giving attention to the small discomforts of the

body, gently return focus to the breath.

If sounds in your environment distract you from focus on the breath,

simply redirect your focus again.

When you can hold focus on breath for your allotted period of time
without distraction of your attention and focus, increase your time. And/or,
try the next practice.

#2. Begin in the position described above. Place the tip of your tongue lightly
against your palette--the area on the roof of your mouth, directly behind your
front teeth.
Focus on the breath, as above.

Continually bring focus back if you are distracted, as above.

When your focus is consistently on the breath--observing its movement

in and out of the body without forcing, give your attention to the space
between breaths.

Notice the pause between breaths when you are neither inhaling nor
exhaling.

Simply notice this interval of stillness and silence.

Notice how rather than seeing the breath as a one-two/in-out pattern, it

has now expanded to a one-two-three-four pattern: In-pause-out-pause.

Continue to observe the breath with your focus emphasizing the pauses.

There is no need to count. Keep focus on the stillness between breaths.

Notice how stillness arises at the beginning and end of each breath.

Notice there is silence and stillness at the point when the breath has
gone out of you.

Notice there is silence and stillness at the point when you are filled with
breath.

Notice the energy and ease of that stillness, that silence.

When you can hold focus on the pauses between breaths for your
allotted period of time without distraction, increase your time. And/or, try the
next practice.

#3. Begin with practices 1 and 2, above.

Now, rather than simply observing, actively expand the experience of silence
and stillness when it arises as the breath leaves the body so you experience it
during the pauses before, during and after. inhalation. The rhythm of your
breath should be slow. It should be deep enough so you feel the sides of your
lungs expanding along your torso.

Do not hold the breath or wait to take the next breath. Simply, expand
the experience of silence and stillness. Stretch, then maintain that stillness
and silence.

Inhale silence and stillness.

Pause in silence and stillness.
Exhale the noise and busyness of your thoughts.
Pause in silence and stillness.
Continue with this rhythm:
Inhale and fill with silence and stillness.
Pause and experience silence and stillness.
Exhale noise and busyness until you
Pause and experience silence and stillness.

When you can maintain this pattern for your allotted period of time without
distraction, increase your time. And/or, try the next practice.

#4. Begin with practices 1 and 2, above.

Now, rather than simply observing, actively expand the experience of silence
and stillness from the first pause, through the exhalation and the final pause.
The rhythm of your breath should be slow. It should be deep enough so you
feel the sides of your lungs expanding along your torso.

Do not hold the breath or wait to take the next breath. Simply, expand
the experience of silence and stillness. Stretch, then maintain that stillness
and silence.

Now, engage the following pattern with with your breath cycle:
 Breathe in the noise and busyness from your environment.
Pause in silence and stillness
Exhale silence and stillness
Continue with this rhythm:
Inhale and fill with noise and busyness.
Pause and experience silence and stillness.
Exhale silence and stillness.
Pause and experience silence and stillness.

When you can maintain this pattern for your allotted period of time without
distraction, increase your time. And/or, try the next practice.

#5. Begin with practices 1 and 2, above.

Now, expand the experience of silence and stillness for the whole of the
breath cycle: Inhaling, pausing, exhaling and pausing. The rhythm of your
breath should be slow. It should be deep enough so you feel the sides of your
lungs expanding along your torso.

Do not hold the breath or wait to take the next breath. Simply, expand
the experience of silence and stillness. Stretch, then maintain that stillness
and silence for the entire breath cycle.

Breathe in silence and stillness.

Pause in silence and stillness
Exhale silence and stillness.
Pause in silence and stillness.
Continue with this rhythm:
Inhale and fill with silence and stillness
Pause and experience silence and stillness.
Exhale and release silence and stillness.
Pause and experience silence and stillness.

Do this for a while--expanding silence and stillness--until the whole of the

breath is contained within silence and contains a feeling of stillness.
Breathe in, pause, breathe out, pause. The whole cycle of breath is silence
and stillness.

Even the activity of the inhalation and exhalation are fueled, strengthened
and contained by silence and stillness.

When you can maintain this pattern for your allotted period of time without
distraction, increase your time or return to previous practices.

Breath of Silence: Life Application

“If I can’t do magic while washing the dishes, what good is it?”13
--Francesca De Grandis

Our ability to bring our practice into our everyday lives is a good measure of
how well we’ve completed them formally. Theory and practice are not
enough for the Witch. In order for the Witch to stand in his power he must
apply those theories and practices in all the areas of his life which take place
away from the altar, the temple, circle or coven. Day to day life is where you
live, move, breathe, work, play, sleep, relate and communicate. It’s where
you have dinner and problems and sex and pleasure. It isn’t “mundane”
because as a Witch, your magic permeates the whole cloth of your life.
Remember, the Craft isn’t something we know or do, it’s who we are.
Therefore, a Witch doesn’t have a mundane life.

#1. Look at the first exercise in the Formal Practice of the Breath of Silence,
above. There is a particular rhythm and energy to this exercise which allows
one to simply be. There is no counting, no visualization, no goal other than to
remain focused on breath.

Where might you apply this in your life? Where else is it required that you do
nothing else but quietly focus on the task at hand? If this kind of focus is
difficult for you in your day to day life, try setting a timer just as you did in
the practice. When you’ve achieved two minutes, try five. When you reach
fifteen, try thirty and so on. Congratulate yourself when you attain a new
level!

There is evidence to suggest that working in short, focused bursts with

frequent breaks is a very effective way to get things done. This is applicable
in the workplace but also with housework, visits with family, running errands
and creative endeavors.

What other areas might you apply this practice? Make a commitment to
do so. Observe and keep a journal of the results so you can observe their
effectiveness.

#2. Look again at the first exercise in the Formal Practice of the Breath of
Silence, above. Notice the continuous gentle return of focus to the breath.
Whether you’re distracted, frustrated or uncomfortable the goal is simply to
return to the breath.

This practice is easily transferable to application in many day to day life

scenarios when we would be wise to bring our focus back to center rather
than reacting. Some examples are:

▪ An uncomfortable discussion at a business meeting.

▪ A confrontation with a boss or colleague.
▪ A difficult conversation with your partner or peers.
▪ An out of control moment with your kids.
▪ An interaction with a rude person.

During your daily round, resolve to return to center. Ground and take a
few long, deep breaths before reacting in tense situations. You can assure
yourself that you can come back to these negative emotional responses later
if you wish to. But in the moment, simply center, ground and breathe.
Continue to do so until your impulse to react or blurt something out subsides.

Observe what happens and compare to what’s happened in the past

when you’ve reacted out of discomfort, frustration, fear or overwhelm.

#3. Let’s take another look at the first exercise in the Formal Practice of the
Breath of Silence, above. In this exercise, the emphasis is on the one-two, in-
out pattern. Breath comes in. Breath goes out. Very simple.

Certainly other bodily functions behave in this seemingly simple manner.

What other natural patterns can you relate to the in-out pattern of breath?

Where else does this simple pattern--input, output--arise in your day to

day life? Perhaps you find money comes in and goes out of your hands like
this. Maybe potential partnerships or friendships come in and out of your life
following this pattern. You might recognize doing this with information or
your Craft training--taking in information and spitting it back out like parrot,
mistaking that for integration. If you notice this pattern in your life, ask
yourself if this is the way you want it to be. If so, move along. If not, find a
way to change the pattern. It can be as simple as shifting your focus.

Finally, try to identify situations and scenarios you may be complicating

by adding extra steps. If all that is necessary is a simple input-output, stop
wasting life force on complications.

#4. Recall exercise #2 from the Practice of Breath and Silence.

Most of us don’t have the option of telling our bosses, lovers or families that
we’ll get back to them with our answers after we’ve had a chance to do a
reading, sit in silence or talk to the gods and ancestors. We are expected, as is
everyone else, to think and act “on our feet.” Rather than falling into the trap
of reacting to circumstances, we can apply this exercise by pausing to take a
breath--touching in to the silence at the ends of that breath. We can hold our
tongue lightly at the palette while gathering our thoughts rather than
responding immediately. You will likely find that those around you
appreciate your thoughtful pause more than a poorly constructed answer
nervously blurted out.
 We can refuse to engage in hectic, crisis-laden energy, choosing instead
to pause in our silence and stillness. In doing so, we deepen our integration
and take responsibility for shifting energies within ourselves and our
environment away from hyperactivity and toward steady and calm focus.

Often, all that is needed to slow down rapid activity or chatter is a

purposeful pause emphasized with a deep breath. Be sure you don’t sigh (a
long, audible out-breath) rather than inhale deeply. The subtle difference is
interpreted in a vastly different way!

You, as a Witch, have the right and obligation to shift the energy in a
group in order that it may flow more effectively and efficiently. You may
want to practice this skill in settings where you are intimate with the
participants before applying it in the workplace or other settings. Once
integrated, you will do this naturally and seamlessly.

#5 Looking at exercise #2 from the Practice of Breath and Silence, notice

once more the pattern of this breath cycle. There is activity and a pause, more
activity followed by another pause and so on.

Notice where this pattern naturally arises in your your daily round. How
about in your weekly cycle? Monthly? What are your patterns of activity and
inactivity during the wheel of the year? In answering this, don’t focus on
what you’ve been told those cycles are. Rather, focus on what they really are
for you.

Where might it this pattern be purposefully applied in your life to bring

about ease, efficiency and effectiveness?

#6. Once more, recall exercise #2 from the Practice of Breath and Silence.
This time, notice there is input and a pause followed by output and a pause.
When it comes to energy, we cannot continually maintain a state of
receptivity. If we hyperventilate, taking in too much oxygen too quickly, we
become over oxygenated and experience light headedness and dizziness. The
heart races in an attempt to pump all that oxygen into the bloodstream.
Some areas where we often receive too much input include information,
media, food, alcohol, drugs, the opinions or approval of others.

What areas can you identify in your life where there is too much input?

Resolve to limit input from those areas so as to build in a period of rest

and integration.

Just as too much input is unhealthy, so is excessive output. We cannot

sustain a constant expenditure of energy. In the respiratory cycle, if we don’t
take on breath after exhalation, we die! We must replace expended energy or
we will find ourselves utterly depleted, exhausted and ill.

It’s easy to identify places where we do too much. We overwork and

overspend. We over-schedule, over-exert our energy, overcompensate for our
flaws and over-do when it comes to caring for others. This results in being
overcome with overwhelm!

What areas can you identify where you over-extend yourself?

Resolve to pull back and retain your own energy. Small changes create
big results, here!

Between inhalation and exhalation there is a pause. Between taking and

giving, a pause. Between action and reception, pause. Between emptying and
filling, pause.

The pause between breath is still and silent, yet it is also a shift between
in and out. Physiologically, there’s quite a lot happening during those pauses:
Oxygen is being transferred to the bloodstream. Oxygen is released and
replaced with carbon dioxide and returns to the lungs. Tremendous
transformation is happening in those seconds between the intake and output
of breath.

Notice where there are naturally occurring pauses in your daily round.
While these pauses are periods of rest, there is also a lot going on during
them. What is being transformed within those periods? You might find it
helpful to list some of those rest periods. Then, as they arise during the day,
pay attention to what is happening.

Some examples are the pause between a question and a response, the
commute between home and work, the long pause between an exchanged
glance between lovers and the kiss.

In Craft training, there is a pause between taking in information and

putting that into practice. Then, there is the pause between real life
application and deep integration. Just as the act of inhaling-pausing-exhaling-
pausing is one breath, so is intake-practice-application-integration one action
during spiritual training. If the cycle of breath is incomplete, the body suffers
visibly. If the cycle of learning is incomplete, the Witch’s magic suffers--
visibly.

Finally, notice where pauses are lacking in your life. Where would it be
helpful to consciously build in a pause to ease transition from input to output
or vice versa.

I found it necessary some years ago to build in a pause after leading

ritual for groups. Facilitating ritual energy requires holding a big container
and paying attention to everything happening in that container. It is a big
output of life force.

Often, ritual participants would approach me immediately following the

opening of the Circle with small talk or questions. I noticed myself becoming
irritated and snappy when this happened. I recognized I needed to pause in
privacy immediately after leading ritual. Then, I could recuperate (input) my
life force and narrow my focus from holding a container for a lot of people to
engaging in one on one conversation (output). When required to output-
output, I responded negatively. I needed to go through the whole cycle of
pause-input-pause before expending more energy.
 Where can you identify similar patterns in your own life?

Resolve to make the changes necessary. Once again, these small

changes create big results.

#6 Recall exercise #3 from the Practice of Breath of Silence. Notice the

pattern: Release noise and busyness on the exhale, sink into silence and
stillness for the remainder of the breath cycle. How does this pattern work for
you as you engage it with your breath? It makes sense, right? Take in silence
and stillness, release noise and busyness.

Where is this pattern already occurring in your day to day life? In the natural
world? In your magic? Find examples. Pay attention.

Where would this pattern be helpful in your daily round, your personal
processes, your magic, your communication with others. Experiment.
Observe. Compare.

#7. Return to exercise #4 from the Practice of Breath of Silence. Notice the
pattern: Take in noise and busyness of the inhalation, then sink into silence
and stillness for the remainder of the breath cycle. Take in noise and
busyness, sink into silence and release it. How does this pattern work for you
as you engage it with your breath? Does it make sense? Did you find this
exercise easier or more difficult for you than #3? Why?

Most people find exercise #3 easier. This is because we connect exhalation

with release of what we no longer need. We work the breath this way to help
undo that assumption. Sometimes it’s necessary to release silence and
stillness prior to taking in noise and busyness.

For example, when waking up or coming out of morning practice and

you are confronted with kids arguing at the kitchen table or a traffic jam on
the morning commute.

Another opportunity arises at the end of the day. Take in all the busy,
noisy energy of the day then pause in silence, release breath of silence into
the personal energy field and pause again in silence.

When else is it necessary for us to take in a lot of energy and unleash

stillness and silence within ourselves or our environment? When might that
be an effective strategy? Experiment in your life. Observe the results.
Compare the times you use this strategy with times you used a different one.
Which worked better? Why?

In the natural world, Spring takes a big, long breath of activity and and
releases the silence and stillness of Winter. When and where else is this
pattern evident in the natural world. Observe.

How else might the pattern, rhythm, take in busy-silence-release

silence-silence, be applied in your life? Experiment!

#8. Recall the final exercise from the Practice of Breath and Silence. In this
exercise, the entirety of the breath cycle becomes stillness and silence. When
does this pattern arise in the natural world?

When does it arise in your life?

Certainly there are times when the best thing to do or say is nothing at
all. This might be because anything we say or do would make things worse.
Keeping still and silent is also appropriate when we are ill or grieving.

Another time when stillness and silence are wholly appropriate is when
we are gestating. Be it a creative project, a baby, a spell or power, we breath
silence. We call this, “holding silence” or “holding power.” It is can be a lot
like pulling back the bow with all your might until it is taut and your aim is
true. Then, when the arrow flies it hits its intended mark with great precision.

When might it be necessary to apply this cycle of silence and stillness in

your life? What might happen if you went still and silent rather than running
around chattering? Try it.
 Experiment. Observe. Compare.

The Craft is a kind of science. Life, in addition to our practice, altar

work and circle work, is the laboratory. If what is learned at the altar has no
real life application, what good is it?

Tuning in to Power

Pay attention to the physical body’s mechanisms for alerting you to power
flowing toward or through you. Some examples are:

▪ Eye or other small muscle twitches

▪ Ringing or pressure in the ears
▪ Dry mouth or eyes
▪ Tears
▪ Excessive saliva in the mouth
▪ Yawning
▪ Shivering
▪ Goosebumps
▪ Tingling sensation anywhere on the body
▪ Sexual arousal
▪ Large muscle spasms

These can range from very subtle to profound physical manifestations

of power. Some of them we are scarcely aware of until we settle down, get
quiet, and listen to the messages the body is giving us.

During ritual, this practice requires focusing attention on the activities

of the rite along with the body. As you practice this, it will become second
nature. In fact, if you do this consistently, you will develop a catalog of
physical manifestations of power and what they mean to you.

A Witch needs to know what’s happening to her. Don’t simply brush

off those teary eyes, attributing them to incense smoke or those numb feet to
standing in one place too long. The body has information to share. Be silent
and listen. When you do, you’ll understand you have personal body-code and
be able to understand it!

Give Attention to your Selves.

Set aside some time when you will be uninterrupted. Begin with fifteen
minutes. Later, when you become accustomed to this practice, you can add
more time.

Turn off your devices. Unplug.

Align your souls and follow your breath (as in exercise #5 in Practice of
Breath and Silence).

When your breath is one continuous cycle of silence and stillness,

feel/experience that silence and stillness filling your entire body. Imagine
your body as a transparent, empty shell. Fill it with silence and stillness.

When you are filled with silence and stillness, ask your Rational Self,
your uhane, what you need to know.

Listen.

Say, “Thank you.”

Next, ask your Wild Self, your unihipili, what it wants you to know or
see.

Be open. Listen with your whole being. Watch with your inner vision.

Feel gratitude and say, “Thank you.”

 Finally, ask your God Self, your Aumakua, if it wishes to share anything
with you.

Again, be open. Listen with your whole being (including those small
muscles and other indicators of power). Watch with your inner vision.

Feel gratitude streaming from your heart and all of your cells. Gather
the power (life force/manna) of that gratitude and send it to the Godsoul on a
breath. Say, “Thank you.”

If you lost track of the silence and stillness within your body, that’s
okay. Otherwise, feel your physical body taking up it’s rightful space, gently
edging out the silence and stillness.

Follow the breath and, if you haven’t already, let go the silence and
stillness of the breath cycle.

Simply follow the breath in its simple in-out cycle.

Take 3 long, deep, invigorating breaths.

Exhale with a sound.

Stretch your body.

Come back to regular time and space.

Take notes and follow through on any suggestions you received, no

matter how disconnected they might seem.

Soul Agreement

It is a beautiful and powerful thing to bring our threefold spirit into

alignment. However, sometimes we find that no matter how much Kala we
make, we cannot seem to come to a clear decision about something. We don’t
trust we know what right action to take. Or, no matter what action we take it
turns out poorly.

In this case, it’s a good idea to gather information from each of our
three soul parts. Use the Giving Attention to Yourselves exercise, above.
However, rather than simply listening or watching, take dictation. You may
find that your handwriting and the rhythm of your language changes quite
perceptibly as you move from Talking to Wild to God Soul.

Give yourself plenty of uninterrupted time to do this. If necessary,

schedule four sessions--one for each soul part and one to review what was
written.

What you will have at the completion of this exercise is a fully formed
instruction manual for solving the problem you came to the Soul Agreement
with. Each soul part may have very different ideas concerning what needs to
be done and how to do it. Look for themes and similarities--often our souls
are all saying the same thing but using different means of conveying the
message.

This is an excellent way to silence obsessive thoughts which take up our

head space as we try to tease out a difficult problem.

It is also a beautiful way to really listen.

Fear and Silence

There are ten thousand things vying for our attention. Many of those are truly
demands from outside ourselves. Many more are generated from within to
keep us shielded from what we fear most--our own internal negative voices
and our own sublimated desires. If these bubble up from the void, they break
loose upon the landscape of our lives causing change.

We fear change. Yes, even Witches fear change. We even fear positive
change because it means, at least for a while, we won’t know what to expect.

We are afraid practicing silence will allow the voices of self-derision to

rise above the din of busyness and chatter. We fear practicing silence might
reveal the places we are broken. Most frightening are the sublimated passions
which might come bubbling to the surface demanding attention, nurturing,
pursuit.

We cannot shy away from anything because of fear. Our knots of fear
take life force (a.k.a. power) to sustain. Witches need all the life force we can
gather. We cannot afford to squander it on fear.

Rumi asked:

Why are you so afraid of silence?

Silence is the root of everything.
If you spiral into its void,
A hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear.14

Why are you afraid of silence? Give yourself fifteen minutes to respond in
your journal.

If you like, bring this question to the Soul Agreement exercise.

It is not enough to ask and answer this question. Resolve to overcome

your fear of silence so you may claim it as one of the rightful powers of a
Witch.

When you are able to enter silence fearlessly and with ease, when you
have learned to listen to and trust the voice of your own Godsoul, begin
listening to other things. You may wish to begin with stones or small plants
and flowers. Show them love. They will speak to you.
 Gradually, move on to larger things like trees and groves, bodies of
water, flocks of birds and even weather patterns. If you listen respectfully,
without projecting your human ideas onto these beings, they may become
willing to listen to you. When relationships (between humans or otherwise)
are built on a foundation of love, trust and mutual respect, each participant
comes to embody the other. This is deep magic.

Media Fast

We are fully immersed in the Information Age. From news programs and
television shows to Buzzfeed, social networks, radio programs, iPods, books,
magazines and--don’t forget--human interaction, we are scarcely alone with
our thoughts long enough to recognize we are having thoughts.

Recall how taking in too much oxygen can make us sick? So too with
constant input from the myriad sources we are exposed to on a daily basis.

Information, entertainment and social networking are all certainly

useful However, we can succumb to addiction to the continual input.

I recently asked my seventeen year old daughter to take a media fast.

She went about ninety minutes without iPhone, laptop. iPod or television
before withdrawal began to set in. She became anxious and hyper. Her
speech and movements were fast and her reactions excitable. At two hours
she was like a junkie looking for a fix, begging, “One, text, Mom! Just one
text!”

It would have been funny had it not been so unnerving.

It’s true that she’s a teenager who grew up while these devices were
coming to popularity. However, I know plenty of adults who have real issues
with shutting the phone off, closing the laptop, turning off the television and
looking up at the real world.
 Obviously, a side effect of our addiction to media is the utter
foreignness of being alone with our own thoughts. Our laptops, phones and
digital readers may not make a sound but they still pull our attention away
from ourselves. They interrupt and obscure the necessity for silence.

For this exercise, I’m going to suggest a time limit you think is a little
bit beyond possible for you. If fifteen minutes is too long without media
input, try to go twenty. If three hours seems outrageous, go for four. If two
days sounds difficult, see if you can get to three and so on.

The reason you want to go past what you think might be a little
uncomfortable for you is so you can go into that discomfort. Go into the
withdrawal symptoms. Listen to what your body is telling you in your
discomfort. What is your fear saying?

This is important information. Fear will tell you exactly why you cannot
go another minute without interacting via your device. Maybe you need to
tell someone you’re doing this media fast so they can congratulate you or
commiserate with you on how hard it is. Maybe you need to check in with
that friend you’ve been advising. Fear will try to convince you to put this
little exercise to rest and get back to interacting with “the real world.”

There is no world more real than your inner world.

While on your Media Fast, open to other forms of communication: Body

language, unspoken/written language, sounds from the environment, patterns
and rhythms, live communication with others in your physical presence,
communication with other realms.

We use noise and media communication to drown out our internal

chatter--the voices welling up within us screaming we aren’t and will never
be enough. Drowning them out or trying to convince them of their untruth by
seeking out advice will not still those voices. In order to silence them, we
must be quiet long enough to hear what they have to say. Then, we can use
our tools to transform the cacophony from what I call, “The Litany of
Doom.”

The Litany of Doom is nothing but phantasms of lies, bad advice, self-
derision, paranoia, judgement, obsession, shame, guilt, whining, self-pity,
unfounded anger and more.

The Litany of Doom cannot and will not be silenced by drowning it out
with constant input. By seeking out and surrounding ourselves with a
constant stream of chatter, information, activity, partners, programs and
goals, we fail to be still. Drowning out those voices in hopes that we’ll no
longer hear or be affected by them, we actually strengthen them.

In silence, allow yourself to hear what they are saying.

In silence, use the tools at your disposal to transform the
messages.
In silence, seed new message until they become integrated.

There is silence between stars . . . and if you listen well, behind that is the
song of creation itself. Imagine what you might be capable of were to you to
sing with that choir!

Turn off. Unplug. Set the devices down. Be still and listen. Use the
Practices for Breath and Silence to help you through your withdrawal.

Do take notes on what your fear tells you. There you will find the
reasons you dislike silence, solitude, stillness and yourself. Remember, if we
don’t know what the problem is, we can’t change it. Resolve to know
yourself. There is nothing so terrible or unique in you that the universe hasn’t
reproduced hundreds upon tens of thousands of times.

Use the other tools you have at your disposal to resolve your self-
loathing or grandiosity. Right sized, fearless and proud, you are on your way!
You may even sense pure, unadulterated Will rising within you, now that you
are still enough to sense it!
Silent Retreat

If we were not so single minded

about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.
Now, I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
Pablo Neruda15

When you can manage two to five days without media input and are willing
to go deeper, schedule a Silent Retreat. You might schedule a solo camping
trip. If you live alone or with partners willing to do this with you, arrange to
stay home.

I offer them on the Gulf Coast of Florida and in New England. Buddhist
and Catholic Monasteries around the United States also make them available
to all seekers. If you attend a Buddhist Retreat, you may be required to
adhere to a strict schedule and do sitting meditation for much of it. At some
Catholic Retreats, you may be left to your own devices or be required to
attend Mass.

The benefit of attending a retreat which facilitates silence is the support

available to you from trained priests and mentors. I offer silent retreats
because I believe retreating among those of your own spiritual leanings is
more beneficial than twisting oneself into a shape acceptable to other
traditions. Whatever you decide is best, I suggest two to four days for your
first retreat.
 Because a silent retreat is sustained over the course of several days and
requires we refrain from speaking or being spoken to, your experience will be
profoundly personal. You will certainly learn a great deal about yourself
when other preoccupations are stripped away. Many have found the silent
retreat to be revelatory and even ecstatic. Willingly entering a period of deep,
extended silence will empower you in indescribable ways.

Stop, Drop and Listen

What do you hear when you stop, drop down and really listen with your
physical ears? Make a commitment to do this for up to five minutes a few
times daily. This practice can take place at your altar. Ideally, once you get
acquainted with it, you’ll take it out into your daily round. Try it on the
subway or city street, the shoreline or forest glen, in a restaurant and the
marketplace. Where else might interesting sound lie in wait for those who
have ears to hear?

Stop. Be Still.
Mute any electronic devices pumping noise into your environment.
Take seven long, slow, deep breaths to regulate your respiratory
and circulatory systems.
Drop down into the center of silence and stillness within you.
Drop into Emi, the Wild Soul, whose senses are acute.
Connect with your wild, animal nature.
Now, open your ears and the sense of hearing.
Pay attention to like a wild animal with ears pricked up and open.
Listen!
Allow what is usually relegated to background noise to come to
the forefront of your consciousness.
What do you hear?
What sounds are in your immediate environment?
What is travelling to your ear from further away?
What voices of nature and mankind, usually ignored, whisper in
 your ear
Be present.
Don’t attempt to connect meaning or perceive messages. Just
hear. Simply listen to what is.
Listen without attaching emotion or judgement to the currents of
the river of sound you find yourself wading in. Just allow sound to
wash into, through and over you.

Like an artist learning to see the shape of empty space before the form, this
exercise trains our sense of hearing so it becomes more acute. This way, we
can enter more fully into the environment we inhabit. Just as we know what
street we live on and what spirits we live with, it’s important to know,
consciously, what sounds you live amid. Knowing the sounds of a place
connect us as intimately to it as knowing its scent or sights.

Done frequently, you will develop an inner catalog of sound. We

already possess an extensive one but this catalog will be consciously
collected. This catalog will come in handy during the Polynesian
Visualization work so necessary for effective spellwork.

When we are still, we are able to notice the crows caw as they fly over,
a ripple of the wind on the water, that the onions have sauteed long enough or
the baby has awakened from her nap. In the silence, our hearing and ability to
read all things becomes more acute and accurate.

Keeping Your Own Counsel

Many of us are accustomed to asking friends, colleagues and peers for advice
or opinions on just about everything. We may find ourselves watching and
listening to others for cues as to how we should behave, dress or speak. This
desire to fit in is normal. We are hard-wired to assimilate into familial, tribal
and social circles. Our survival depends upon it.
 The ego informs us that if we stray too far from common standards we
will be isolated, ostracized or outcast. However, if we become dependent
upon others to affirm our worth, this life-saving impulse can devolve toward
an inability to form one’s own opinion or make decisions without consulting
the tribe. When confronted with practicing silence, we might respond as
though our lives are threatened.

A Witch knows, relies upon, loves and trusts herself. He must be fully
capable of making decisions and taking action based upon his own counsel.

If one cannot decide what to eat for dinner or what shampoo to buy,
how will they be able to stand before the gods or craft the currents of power
necessary for magic?

Your own divine nature will provide the clearest, unbiased and honest
assessment of you if asked sincerely and given the chance to be heard. No
outside source or authority has better counsel than that which is the highest
part of you.

If you recognize you struggle with approval seeking or handing

decision-making power to others, this process will prove well worth any
discomfort it may initially cause. If you recognize this is a major obstacle to
claiming your own power and that this challenge may unhinge too much too
fast, engage it for only and hour. Work toward longer and longer periods of
time as you are able. If you drop the challenge, gently bring yourself back to
it. Ideally, see if you can go a week without seeking the opinion or approval
of others, then build more stamina.

Obviously, it’s necessary to take direction and listen to others’ opinions

in all kinds of situations! Use your discernment.

Here is the Challenge.

Begin by grounding, centering and, if it your practice to do so, aligning

your souls. Make a decision and commit to it, saying,
 “For (amount of time) I commit to refraining from seeking out the
approval or affirmation of others. I will refrain from asking others
to weigh in on my emotions, thoughts, words, deeds, opinions and
choices. I will not ask directly or obliquely what other people think
of my decisions, my appearance, my intelligence or personal
worth. I will refrain from anticipating negative or positive
judgement from others. I affirm I exist outside the gaze of others. I
am a Witch. In silence, I am forging my Will.”
As you enter your period of approaching only yourself for
counsel, be certain to align with your divine nature. You may
choose to stand before a mirror. Pray sincerely to your own
GodSoul that you may come to love, know and trust yourself in all
your parts. If you are familiar with Iron Pentacle practices, this is
a good time to engage with them. It is most important to approach
this as sacred ritual and not punishment.
When your allotted time is over, you may wish to journal
about your experience. Also, pay special attention to what it feels
like when others give their opinions and advice (solicited or not)
now that you are learning to keep your own counsel.

Until we learn to keep our own counsel, our choices and Will will never be
our own. Healthy, functioning adults learn to keep their own counsel. This is
a required function for a Witch. If we cannot make the simplest decision
without assistance or approval, how can we hope to change the consciousness
of self or others, manifesting our desires, using magic to better our lives and
the world?

It is imperative that a Witch come to trust herself above all others and to
keep her own counsel.

This is not to say we never need help, never ask another’s opinion or
don’t appreciate a compliment. Indeed, there are times when it’s evident that
our best thinking got us into a huge mess! We need others to help us see into
the parts of ourselves we are blind to.
 If, upon self examination, you find you are more riddled with blind
spots than not, practicing silence (or the Craft, in general) might open you up
at a pace which is frightening or unhealthy for you. In that case, I encourage
you to seek out the help of a good therapist. Additionally, you may wish
attend an appropriate 12 step group and work the program.

Facing Fear

When our wild nature picks up on danger, it signals an automatic release of

adrenaline into the bloodstream. It’s not until this point --when the adrenaline
is already pumping, that we notice we may have uttered an unconscious
sound or jumped three feet in the air -- that our rational nature becomes aware
of what it labels, “fear.”

Fear is an ally that alerts us to danger. It’s a healthy response to

intuitive awareness that something is wrong and to pay attention!

Unfortunately, we can also experience the fear-adrenaline response

when we are not in any immediate danger. The response can be triggered by
living under constantly stressful circumstances or physiological issues like
low blood sugar or dehydration. Old trauma held deep within the wild soul is
easily triggered by tone of voice, a gesture, a scent or any number of events
and can also elicit a fear-adrenaline response.

Trauma can cause us to build up defenses within ourselves. These are

meant to protect us from revisiting our woundedness. Sometimes these
defense mechanisms are healthy and, certainly, if there is very deep trauma,
one should work with a therapist on how to best to work around them. Most
of us, however, are dealing with defenses, phobias and habituated beliefs
which no longer serve any purpose.

Our fear of silence may simply be a mechanism designed to keep us

safe from particular memories. It may just as easily keep us “safe” from our
own thoughts, desires, passion and human longing for liberty. In this case, we
want to address fear as an ally and do what’s necessary to loosen its grip on
our lives.

Certainly, there are many practices to help us overcome or transform

fear. Some fears are more stubborn than others and the fear of silence is often
one of them. If your regular practice of Kala or other transformational rite
isn’t doing the trick, try this:

Ground and center yourself.

Follow the breath, long, slow and deep for twelve breaths.
When you are ready, call your fear to you.
Feel and sense it in and around you.
Notice your breath, your pulse.
Notice your posture and the clenching of large and small muscle
groups.
Greet your fear.
Sit with it.
Ask what it has been trying to warn you about.
Don’t analyze or debate. Simply listen with your whole being.
Remember to breathe. Slow and easy.
Sit is the center of fear and listen to what it’s been trying to tell
you.
When you are ready, thank your fear.
“Thank you. I am grateful for your vigilant efforts to keep me from
danger.
Thank you. All things--even you, my Fear--are the loving hands of
the Goddess.”
Release your fear.
Come back to the space and time your body is in.
Write down anything you need to remember in your journal.
Now, having gathered information from your fear, you are
empowered to take real world action to lessen its effects in your
life. Continue to make
Kala and perform other rites to lessen fear, but take action in your
 life. If you are unsure what action to take, complete a Soul
Agreement exercise.

Deep Listening

Conversation is an art form. A good conversationalist knows when to be

quiet. He knows when to listen actively, how to draw the speaker into further
detail, when to maintain eye contact and when to look away. He knows how
to hold silence. In that silence, the other can unburden their soul.

Be present and listen as those questions are explored and answered.

This is how you gather knowledge about the person you’re speaking. In
listening, parts of our own story are revealed and that of all people for
individual experience is a microcosm of the human story. From this
recognition, empathy arises.

If you ask questions, people will talk to you. Keep asking. Go deeper.
With empathy and compassion, ask for more information and your
conversation partner will open to you like a flower yielding to a bee. Gather
the pollen. Take it back to the hive--to the place of silence within you
Separate the information from the individual and his particular story. Take
your ego (judgement) out of it. How does this information become part of
your knowledge base about your fellow human beings?

Compare this information to your own story--your own emotions,

thoughts, words and deeds. Use the information as a mirror for yourself. How
is that story the same as your story? What about it makes you uncomfortable?
What parts of it compel you to separate yourself and judge? Watch what the
ego does to cause you to feel better than or worse than the person you were
speaking with. Keep coming back to empathy. Bring the story inside you,
then sit in silence so you can listen for the wisdom being revealed to you.

Deep Listening helps you connect deeply with the person you are in
conversation with. It helps them to be seen, heard and affirmed. Refrain from
interjecting your story as well as advice or suggestion. Mirror back to them
what you think you heard them say. This can feel false and uncomfortable as
you practice. Soon enough it will become part of your nature. You may
become known as a “good listener.”

I am not suggesting you impose a prescribed conversation style. Deep

Listening simply requires that you give your full attention to the speaker with
the ears of a Witch, that you refrain from judgement, find the place where
your stories mirror one another and from that, empathize.

We are all bright and dark mirrors for one another. What brightness
within you is reflected and magnified by the other person’s story? Where do
you connect? Where do you distinguish yourself or reject the other person’s
experience (hint: this is where you want to interject your advice, help or
judgement). What does the other person’s experience teach you about
yourself?

Stilling Gossip

While the evil eye is cast by the wounded ego and the envious heart, gossip is
the most common and insidious form of psychic attack. Cast into the ethers
by the unwitting without a black candle, binding cord, sigil, powder, pin or
poison, gossip hits the target.

As we’ll discuss later, the power of the word is immense. This is true
for any human being but multiplied exponentially in the Witch who uses
words to make manifest her Will. For her, there is no such thing as idle or
harmless gossip. Sticks and stones may break bones but the words of a gossip
can devastate a career, a family, a life.

If this sounds alarmist, try the following exercises:

#1. Listen to Gossip. Really listen like only a Witch can listen. Read the
energy emanating from and surrounding the group of people engaged in
gossip. What is its flavor and texture? Does it shape itself into a cone or
spiral around continuing to stir people up so more energy is added? Where
does it go? Who is being fed by it? Who is harmed?

How does the gossip make you feel about the person being spoken about?
How does it make you feel toward the people doing the gossiping?

What happens to the voices, body language and facial expressions of

people engaged in gossip? Pay attention! You may be astounded by what you
see/read.

#2. What can you do to shape the energy built among a group of gossips?
Can you transform it? Can you still it? Can you transform it? How might you
use your skill to dissipate its power?

Think on these questions. Try out your options. Observe their effects.

#3 If you’re judgmental about someone -- listen to gossip about them. See

what you agree with about the irritating qualities of the target. When you go
home, take time to listen as you mirror gaze.

Do you have any of the irritating qualities? Make Kala and transform them.

How do you feel, knowing you contributed to a powerful psychic attack

on someone?

Remember empathy. Each individual story is the story of humanity. Put

yourself into the shoes of the victim. When have you been here in your own
life?

Call compassion upon yourself and the recipient of the gossip.

#4. There really are some horrible excuses for human beings in the world.
There really are dangerous, predatory, delusional and sick people in the
world. There are so many people who don’t do things the way you (or I)
would. What can be done about it? Isn’t gossip a way of warning others about
these horrible, dangerous, delusional predators?

No.

Gossip is not a way of warning others. Gossip is gossip. Gossip is

talking about others in a derogatory manner with no intention of offering help
to the individual or the people he has or might victimize. Gossip is the weak
ego’s way of making itself feel superior. Indeed, gossips themselves are often
dangerous, predatory, delusional and sick people--just like the ones they
discuss.

So? What can be done?

If the individual at the center of the discussion is, indeed, preying upon
people in some way, gossiping will not stop them. Confronting them will not
stop them. Report to the authorities. If there is nothing to report to the
authorities, re-evaluate the level of danger.

Ultimately, there is absolutely nothing to be done about the way other

people behave or conduct their lives. We can become obsessive about people
who aren’t living up to our standards. If we are tending to our own stores of
life force, however, we’ll note when we are throwing it away by gossiping.
More than that, as Witches, we are throwing our life force and negativity at
them.

The only thing to be done is to refrain. Gossip gives the ego a big boost
and for a while the gossiper can ride the energy of that boost rather than
focusing on more important things like family, health, community and their
own Work.

The very best remedy I’ve ever found to move me past my concerns
about how, what and who other people are doing is this mantra:
 You cannot change people.
Do your own Work.
Live your own Life.
Keep your own Life Force.
It works like a charm.

Be Still. Stew in the cauldron with the lid on. Be Silent so your own
flavor/Self can arise.

Clean your mirror. Clear it once and for all of other people’s opinions,
ethics, likes and dislikes, beliefs and ideals. Then, sit in front of that mirror
unflinchingly --not for me or them or even the Craft, but for the sake of Self
Love.

The result of this work is freedom: The Liberty which arises from the
song of Iron and Pearl. Ask no less of yourself than this.
Embodiment

Uttering into Being

Mother of All the Worlds

In our stillness and silence
Guide us in remembering
The truth of who we are.

n our stillness and silence we remember the truth of who we are and are
I inspired to manifest our divine nature, our godhood, outwardly. The
womb of all creation sparks our own creative impulse. We breathe life
into that spark. Igniting passion, we catch fire and are compelled to create
poetry, dance, ritual, song, art and families. We spin yarn, story and spell. We
weave words, webs, magic and worlds into being.

We manifest our will by thought, emotion, word and deed. As Witches,

it is necessary to be aware of what we are feeling, thinking, saying and doing
at all times, for these influence subtly and profoundly what is made manifest
in our lives.

If we are chattering all the time we cannot give proper attention to

emotion, thought and deed. More likely than not, we’ll find ourselves
wondering why our lives look nothing like we’d hoped. In our talk-talk-
talking, we manifest a tangled mess of relational, financial and health
problems. There is much more to be said on the topic of manifestation magic
but that is for another time. For now, let us focus on the power of sound and
words.

Sound travels on measurable waves in predictable ways. Giving voice

to feelings and thoughts -- which have their own wave patterns and vibrations
-- give them shape, form and a much stronger, more predictable vibration.
These are carried on sound waves which pulse in our physical ears but also in
the etheric ear of the of the Godsoul.

To our physical ear, the sound of thought and emotion shaped in our
mouths and given voice begins and ends abruptly. We are, for the most part,
unconscious of the length of a sound wave, how far it resonates through time
and space or when it might return to us in physically manifest form.

We are all familiar with the biblical concept, “First there was the Word
and the Word was with God.” In that religious tradition it was through the
Word of God that the world was created. In our Craft tradition, I am God and
so are you. Therefore, it is through each of our own words that we create,
destroy, confuse or clarify our world(s). The comfort of “idle chatter” is one
the Witch can ill afford.

Words have the power to make manifest our thoughts, emotions, fears
and desires. There are no such things as empty, meaningless words or
harmless gossip. As Witches it is imperative that our words align with our
true will.

The more aligned we are within our threefold spirit and with power, the
more likely the manifestation of our emotions, thoughts, words and deeds.
Each utterance -- whether we are conscious of it or not -- is a spell sent forth
into the aethers to be made manifest. As power isn’t discerning but will do as
it is bid, the Witch herself had better be very precise in her words.

A mature and adept Witch knows the power of her words and wields
them with precision--casting them out upon the aethers to make manifest her
Will. If we fail to mature in our Craft, believing spells are only cast with
candles or in Circle using specific incantations, we deny the power of our
words and any responsibility for their magic.

If you want to know the magnitude of a Witch, watch and listen to how
he uses words. Does he craft them with care or speak incessantly without
thought? Do his words bless or curse? Does he engage in gossip or argue
frequently? Do the stories he tells help, uplift and heal? Or are they negative,
complaining, accusatory or demeaning? Is his word honorable, truthful and
trustworthy? Or are his words manipulative, dishonest and worthless? It
would behoove us all to ask these questions of ourselves.

As we come to understand the power of our words, we learn to take

responsibility for them and their effects. Words -- their proper meanings and
uses -- are one of the powers of the Witch. To claim this power, one must
first embody the power of silence.

In silence, we study words. We develop the capacity to choose our

words with care, sifting and sorting them, measuring them for truth, honor
and effectiveness. We learn to withhold negative, irresponsible speech,
conserving the power of the word for more worthy endeavors.

In silence we seek knowledge of our true will. In silence, we gather

courage so we might dare utter that truth into being. In silence we await our
words return to us made fully manifest.

Gathering Steam

The first rule of manifestation magic is, “Keep quiet about it!”

When we speak of our magical workings, we damage the spell itself in

several ways: We diffuse power. We pre-maturely and accidentally cast. We
open the door to the spell being tainted by the (often unconscious) complexes
or negative emotions, thoughts, words or deeds of those with whom we share
our intentions.

Earlier, we discussed the steam that builds inside the lidded cauldron.
Magic needs steam, or pressure -- the build up of power inside a closed
container -- to work. It needs tension and momentum to be cast effectively.
We build that steam with our desire outcome honed to deadly precision,
focused will, fully fleshed visualization, the gathering of supplies for our
working, the readying of the space for the work and the closing of doors
against unintended side-effects. All the while, we take care not to speak aloud
our magical intentions, so as not to release the arrow of our will too soon in
casual conversation.

Tender seeds need time to germinate in the darkness of fertile earth. If

you, in your excitement, uncover the seeds to show your friends--exposing
them to sun and air, those seeds may not sprout.

Remember, magic works within the laws of nature. By observing

nature, we know nature life is generated in darkness and silence.

Sometimes, we become so excited about what we intend to manifest, we

cannot help but want to share that excitement with friends and loved ones.
Who hasn’t bragged about joining a gym, getting ready to quit smoking,
thinking about starting a new business or leaving a long-standing
relationship? We reach out to share our enthusiasm and express our
anticipation of positive results. This inclination to talk about our goals and
aspirations is normal. It helps us feel connected to others. We expect to be
congratulated and encouraged,

One unintended result of this premature sharing is that our friends and
family may actually imprint us -- and our magic -- with negativity. This often
comes in the form of loving warnings to be careful or not to over-reach.
Sometimes, we’ll be reminded about previous failures or the listener will
launch into an impassioned monologue about why they could never attempt
what you’re about to do.

Other times, the negativity is more overt, as in being told we’re crazy,
asking for trouble, that we’ll never be able to accomplish what we’re setting
out to do and we should just settle for things the status quo.
 In these instances, seeds of doubt, shame, fear and guilt get planted in
our wild soul -- that part of us where magic germinates. When we send our
magic into the aethers, we inadvertently cast those negative seeds -- fear,
misgivings, shame -- along with our intentions. This makes for spells that go
awry.

I would be remiss if I did not mention another effect of sharing our

goals too soon: Studies have shown that when we excitedly share our
intended goals with others, our subconscious mind can decide the goal has
already been met! (Gollwitzer, et al, 2010)

How many times have we confided in a friend with pure conviction,

“This time, I’m going to the gym every day. I’m really doing it!”

How many public proclamations have we made about our New Year
resolutions?

Our state of enthusiastic conviction signals chemicals in the body akin

to those secreted when we are experiencing victory, celebration and pride in a
job well done. This feels great and we intend to utilize those good feelings to
shore up our will power.

But, on a microbiological level, our chemistry and neurotransmitters

have convinced us that our goals have already been attained! As a result, we
lose motivation. We keep meaning to go to the gym, buy the nicotine patches,
sign up for those classes, but put it off until the goals falls off our radar
altogether.

While I’ve been using mundane examples, the same thing happens with
our magical goals. In these terms, when neurochemistry convinces the
subconscious that our desires have been fulfilled, the wild soul loses interest.
The building of power (or, steam) is lessened substantially without the wild
soul on board. We may go forward and cast the spell but its power will be
substantially reduced and results may be only a lukewarm manifestation of
our original intent.
 It’s useful to imagine our spells and prayers as living beings born of
desire. In the early stages of development, we must tend these beings with the
same care we would any fragile, living thing. Spells must be fed life force,
vision and will. They must also be protected from danger and destruction by
holding them close, away from the prying eyes, misplaced good intentions
and judgements of others. There, in the silence, they grow strong as we craft
them with attention, care and precision. Under our hand, they gather
tremendous power and direction. Then, pulsing with life force, we cast these
magical children into the matrixes of creation, certain they will return to us
fully formed in the image we first conceived.

Word of Honor and the Pearl of Great Price

“Pearl-shell, what gives you your precious contents?”

“Silence; for years my lips were closed’.”
Jalaladun Rumi16

With the practice of Silence comes patience. As we come to claim the powers
of both silence and word we learn to wait before we speak and to consider
before we act. Our speech and actions become measured, filled with purpose
and clear intent. We don’t go off half baked and rambling, No words spill
from our lips so as to simply fill space, hear ourselves talking or hide our
ignorance. Our speech and actions are based in intelligence, honor and self
care. Our words become valuable and well worth listening to.

I recall conversations with a highly respected initiate of the Feri

Tradition. On occasion, I approach her with questions about my life, our
Craft, the Andersons or the inevitable political intrigue which arises when
powerful individuals deign to come together under the umbrella of a
tradition. Each time, she asks me to wait for her answer.

Rather than opening her mouth and spilling forth gossip, judgment,
conjecture or opinion, she goes quiet. She takes time to carefully consider her
thoughts and choose her words. Sometimes her answer takes only moments.
Other times it may take days. When she eventually responds, her answers are
always succinct, clear and clean. This is a Witch who understands the power
of the Word. This is a Witch of Honor. A woman of few words, each pearl is
well worth the price of waiting.

In taking time to consider before we speak, we learn patience for

ourselves and our thought processes. We come to realize our immediate
responses are sometimes far from the wisest or best we have to offer. We
recognize it is best to speak with integrity than with regret. We honor
ourselves and our audience when we pause to gather our thoughts, pray for
clarity and the courage to speak honestly. When our words convey our surety,
integrity and honor they have the added benefit of teaching others both
patience and the value of words.

The Tongue that Cannot Lie,

The wise Priestess discussed above was exhibiting what another Fairy
Tradition refers to as “The Tongue that Cannot Lie.”

In the mythopoetic telling of Thomas the Rhymer17, the Faerie Queen

warns Thomas to hold his tongue while travelling as her guest in the land of
Faerie. If he spoke, she threatened, he would never return to his own country.
She kept him as her honored guest for seven years.

He managed to keep silent and the Queen returned him to our side of
the veil. Before she bid him farewell, she pulled an apple from a tree saying,

“Take this for thy wages, True Thomas

It will give the tongue that can never lie”

Thomas replied in terror:

 “My tongue is mine!
A goodly gift you would give me!
I dare not buy nor sell
At fair nor tryst where I may be
I dare not speak to prince or peer
Nor ask of grace from a fair lady!”

“Now, hold thy peace,” the Lady said

For as I say, so must it be

The story of True Thomas, in its entirety, should be studied as a guide for the
training of the Witches. In it there are many signs and guideposts one might
expect to encounter in such a training.

For our purposes, we see that Thomas was required to hold silence for
the seven years he stayed in the Faerie Lands. He was not to speak a single
word nor ask any questions. Released from that geis at the end of his stay, he
was immediately confronted with another: The tongue that cannot lie.

Upon his return home, Thomas is filled with questions and insights. He
longs to return to the world of men where stories of his travels will gain him
popular favor as a Bard. His false words might allow him to bargain in the
marketplace, compliment the gentry and court the ladies for sexual favor.
But, after seven years he could not exchange silence for dishonesty. His once
silver tongue exchanged for honor.

Such is the doubled edged sword we are rewarded for practicing well
the art of silence. When we do speak, we are compelled to do so with utmost
honesty. We may find we can lie, for we are not physically prevented from
doing so. But, we come to loathe dishonesty in ourselves and others.

The telling of truths is a double edged knife, as are all gifts from the
Fey. She who possesses a tongue tied by truth knows well the ways of
silence.
 Another poet, contemplating the fate of Thomas’ tongue, writes:

“A tongue that cannot lie

Shall cause the meek to cry
Cruel words to cut them through.”

The fear of hurting others with honesty is a common one. We have been
taught to lie as a courtesy to others. We lie to soften the truth, to offer
compliments or flattery. We lie to avoid hurt feelings and arguments. We lie
to uphold denial in all of its dysfunctional forms. We lie to protect and hide
abuses of all kinds. We lie to others to make them feel better. We lie to
ourselves to keep from seeing the truth of who we are stripped down to our
essential beauty and horror.

We tell tiny lies, responding, “I’m good,” when we’re far from it, or,
“I’m on my way” when we haven’t left the house.

We lie to make ourselves and others comfortable, as in, “I’m really

excited to come to your party,” or “I really thought she was into you, too.”

Our social interactions are, more often than not, threaded together with
lies. What kind of relationships could we possibly have if we told the truth all
the time? Certainly, no one could stand to be around us! What kind of people
might we be?

We’d be honest people. We’d have honest relationships. Imagine, if you

will, having utter and complete sureness that the words you speak and those
spoken to you are true. Imagine there is no subtext lying just beneath the
smiling eyes and comforting words spoken to you. Can you sense the amount
of life force which might become available to you if you no longer had to
expend it in courteous falsehoods, remembering your deceptions so as not to
be found, engaging in duplicity, wallowing in guilt or trying to discern the
underlying truth in conversation? The influx of life force alone is enough
reason to be true!
 When our words, thoughts, emotions and deeds are congruent, we
understand what it means to be integrated. Others describe us as, “having
integrity.” Aligned in our truth, we stop accumulating feelings of shame, guilt
and fear of our fraudulence being found out.

Too often, however, when we are just beginning to try on truth to see
how it fits us, we use it to boost our egos or as weapon against others. We
grant ourselves carte blanche to be brutally honest with everyone about
everything. We feel it is our duty to point out the misgivings of others. We
care not how our words affect them but only about the heady righteousness in
our truth-telling.

This is not a responsible use of honesty. If we are to break silence, if we

are to utter words into the aethers to be made manifest, we want to be certain
our words are aligned with our will to bring about healing and wholeness
Even when hexing or cursing, our ultimate goal is healing and wholeness.

In the Feri Tradition we have an ethical mandate to refrain from the

coddling or punishment of weakness in self and others. This ethic, like the
tongue that cannot lie, is often misunderstood: Not coddling weakness
overshadows the part about not punishing.

The word of honor and the tongue that cannot lie are not weapons with
which to slice people to pieces. The refusal to coddle weakness is not an
excuse to bully, abuse or exert power over another. Using truth as a weapon
is not the way of a warrior but that of a bully. The word of honor is not
spoken as a means of silencing others, but as a simple, clean expression of
the speaker’s truth.

We need not tell everyone what we see about them, their behaviors,
their weaknesses or egotism. Unless we are asked directly, it’s safe to assume
the listener isn’t interested in our opinions.

When confused about the wielding of honesty, remember silence. If this

power rises in you like a self-righteous punishment to be meted out upon
those wrestling with weakness, remember love.

When asked directly for an honest insight or opinion, give the

questioner three opportunities to withdraw her request:

“Do you really want my opinion?”

“Are you sure you want to hear what I have to say?”

“I’m going to give you the unadulterated Truth as I perceive it. Is

that what you want to hear?”

Most often, the request for honesty will be revoked. Most people do not want
truth. Rather, they want to commiserate. They want a co-conspirator. They
want to remain attached to drama, weakness, egotism, addiction, etc. Hearing
truth means breaking through denial and taking responsibility for oneself.

As speakers, we must be willing to take responsibility for our words and

then release them. Sometimes the hearer feels wounded or angry. Sometimes
our words fall upon deaf ears no matter how honest and to the point they are.
Yet, once we have spoken truth, we must trust our words will work as they
are meant to. We release the person to their destiny. The goal is not to control
outcomes but to open the way--for self and other--to come to health and
wholeness.

Francesca De Grandis wrote, “The road to Faerie is not civilized, but

kinder.” I like to think she was pointing toward the courage to speak and hear
truth. It may be expected and even considered polite, but there is no kindness
in commiseration, ripping away a veil of another’s denial or conceding all is
well when it is clearly not.

Oh, see you there, that narrow road

So thick beset with thorns and briars?
That is the path of righteousness,
Though, after it but few enquires.
 And, see you there, that broad, broad road
That lies across the lily leven?
That is the path of wickedness,
Though some call it the road to heaven.

And see you not that bonnie road

Which winds about the fernie brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland
Where you and I, this night, must gae

Conclusions

I am darkness
Death’s hand discerning
I am stillness
Cold fire un-burning
I am promise
Sun Child returning
I’m your Mirror
Wheel ever turning.

Be still and know thyself. There is no hurrying this process. The answers are
coming in the silences between breath. They are teasing at the corners of
consciousness, whispering as wind singing through the high trees. Some sink
slow and deep into the ground of being. Some rise from the depths like a
knife clutched between the teeth. Some come unbidden at the end of the day,
sighing. Others, as the hand of compassion soothing the furrowed brow. Be
still and hold silence for love and for power so your words, rare as pearls,
give you honor.

The Witch’s word is powerful because she has studied silence. She
enters it and gathers just the right words so her speech is clear, precise, filled
with layered meaning and distilled intention. She holds her tongue so it
doesn’t go wagging without direction -- words blasting off into the ethers to
do what they will.

Power born and raised in silence twines and couples with that of the
word. When the word is true it is bound with the Witch’s will to transform,
enchant, heal, teach, make manifest.

To attain these powers, go into the well of silence -- your pool of

reflection. You may find it in the forest, the night sky, the shoreline, your
garden, canvas, instrument or altar. There, spend time with yourself, the
spirits, ancestors and your gods. You will find your pool of reflection always,
at the edges of things and in the wild places that stir your soul.

Sit alongside the babbling brook with a quiet mind and listen to the
story it tells of ancient storms, fire, earthquake, glacier and granite. Be with
the plants and ask them to teach you their medicine. Lie down with the four
leggeds that you may exchange understanding. Place your ear to the chest of
your beloved so you might memorize the beating of hir heart and the scent of
hir skin. Be still with your body and listen for its wisdom about your health.

Sit with the words you memorize in your training, your practices, your
rituals, prayers and spells. Do not speak of them with others. Refrain from
comparing notes or exchanging ideas. Let them tumble through the recesses
of your mind, revealing their multi-layered meanings until you have your
own certainty. Trust that. Only then, listen for the interpretation of others.

Let the purity of your prayers arise from that deep well of silence. Let
power and mystery reveal themselves to you. Be patient. Sit with your
questions and wait for the answers from the unseen.

Knowledge is distilled and arises as wisdom from the deep well of

silence. The Wise speak little. What few words they do say, gather together
and string them like pearls. Wear these close to the heart. Like a compass, let
them direct your steps along the path.
 If you would be Wise. Hold your tongue.

Be observant of your emotions, thoughts and deeds. Choose your words

with compassion, sincerity and wisdom so they convey your intent exactly.
For when the Witch breaks silence, her word is all she has.
 END NOTES

1. Anaar, The White Wand. Toward a Feri Aesthetic. April Niino 200.

2. Roblee, Mark, Personal Conversations 1994-1997.

3. Anderson, Victor, The Heart of the Initiate. Harpy Books, Portland OR.
2012

4. Hoffman, Margit, Personal Conversation 2013.

5. Anderson, Victor, The Heart of the Initiate. Harpy Books, Portland OR.
2012

6. Roblee, Mark, Personal Conversations 1994-1997.

7. Roblee, Mark, Personal Conversations 1994-1997.

8. Rose, Gwydion, Written Correspondence 2013.

9. Washington-Carver, George,

10. Daly, Mary, Gyn/Ecology. Beacon Press, Boston, MA. 1990.

11. De Grandis, Francesca, Goddess Initiation. HarperSanFrancisco. San

Francisco, CA. 2001

12. Burroughs, William S., The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs.
Grove Press. New York, NY. 1974
13. De Grandis, Francesca, Goddess Initiation. HarperSanFrancisco. San
Francisco, CA. 2001

14. Barks, Coleman, The Essential Rumi. HarperCollins. San Francisco, CA.
1995

15. Neruda, Pablo, Extravagaria. Translated by Alastair Reid. University of

Texas Press. Austin, TX. 1996

16. Barks, Coleman, The Essential Rumi. HarperCollins. San Francisco, CA.
1995

17. Scott, Sir Walter, Thomas the Rhymer as retold in Mistrelsy of the
Scottish Border. 1804.
About The Author
arina BlackHeart is a Witch, Feri Initiate, Ecstatic, Craft Teacher and
K perpetual seeker. She is the founder of the BlackHeart Lineage of the
Anderson Feri Tradition. She currently teaches via
CraftingtheWitch.com as well as several non-Craft venues. She no longer
accepts students for training in Feri Tradition. She offers personal
mentorship, spiritual midwifery and soul support as well as spiritual retreats,
leadership training, seminars, firewalking and Certified Firewalk Instructor
Training. You can learn about Silent Retreats and other offerings by liking
her facebook pages, “Crafting the Witch” and “Heart and Soul.”

You can find her expertly led guided meditations (including the
Practices from this book), Trance Journey Meditations and digital training
programs at CraftingtheWitch.com and Amazon.com.