Counsel To An Elder

If you don't know who you are by now, then choose whom you desire to be.

Listen much. Speak little.

When the teacher is ready to learn, the students will come to teach.

You can affect the lives of others, but in the end, their lives are their responsibility.

Coyote has a standing invitation to your life, issued by Himself.

You may live to be a hundred, but will you have lived a hundred years or the same year a hundred times?

Always have a rubber trout or its spiritual equivalent on the altar.

We are by nature a young and frolicsome species. Never consider yourself too old to play.

All you have seen or sensed in every God/dess is within you.

Bless all about you. Blessed Be.

(Author Unknown to me..If you know please let me know and I will be delighted to credit him/her.)

Bertrand Russell's 10 Commandments

1. Do not be absolutely certain of anything.

2. Do not think it worthwhile to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.

4. When you meet with opposition, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority,
for a victory dependent upon authority is fleeting and illusory.

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think to be pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement,
for if you value intelligence as you ought, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool would think it to be happiness.

Thirteen Commandments for Witches

I. Keep your word

II. Mind your own business

III. Think before speaking. Words cannot be unspoken.

IV. Judge, don’t be judgmental. There’s a difference.

V. Tell the truth. If a Lie is the only way to keep from doing harm, keep silent.

VI. Care for the Earth

VII. Honor and nurture all life.

VIII. Feed your mind, body and spirit equally

IX. Observe, don’t interfere.

X. Take a wide view of others’ behavior, a narrow view of your own.

XI. Pay attention. The Gods are speaking to you.

XII. Remember, you are not the God/dess

XIII. Remember, you are the God/dess.

Beginner's Bibliography

So..reading about Wicca or Witchcraft, hmmm...? Here is a "Basic Craft 13" list I give my students...good places to start out right...the ISBN number is all you need to order the book from any bookseller of your choice.

A Witches' Bible Janet and Stewart Farrar ( ISBN: 0-919345-92-1)
An ABC of Witchcraft Doreen Valiente ( ISBN: 0-919345-77-8)
Ancient Ways Pauline Campanelli ( ISBN: 0-87542-090-7)
Myths To Live By Joseph Campbell ( ISBN: 0140194614)
The Way of the Goddess Ly Warren-Clarke ( ISBN: 1-85327-006-7)
The Practice of Witchcraft Today Robin Skelton ( ISBN 0-8065-1674-7)
Witchcraft: The Sixth Sense Justine Glass (ISBN 0-87980-174-3)
A Wiccan Bardo Paul Beyerl (ISBN 1-85327-036-9)
Drawing Down the Moon Margot Adler(ISBN 0-8070-3253-0)
The Western Way Caitlín and John Matthews ( ISBN: 0-14-019462-2)
The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries Z. Budapest ( ISBN: 0914728679)
The Spiral Dance Starhawk(ISBN 0-06-250814-8)
Positive Magic Marion Weinstein (ISBN 0-919345-00-X)

Needless to say, there is now, unlike the sixties when I began doing my Craft, a VAST amount of available literature out there. So it is a good idea to check the bona-fides of the authors and the texts you choose to base your knowledge on, in order to weed out the dreck and the absolutely unethical. Here are a few guidelines for doing that.

Aisling's Bookshit Detector

It's bookshit if:

The author lists a full appendix of hir titles, degrees and other self-egoboo

All the bibliographical "references" are either other books by the same author or written by hir students or covenkin

In flipping through the book (before purchase, natch!) you find two-thirds of it to be "spells" for various supposed needs or afflictions. The other two-thirds is other people's writing (BOS quotes, etc.)

The author tells you in the first chapter that by using hir method you can become an HPS and found your own tradition after chapter two.

It's a cookbook magickal tome, which instructs you word-for-word how to do everything and invites no spontanaiety

It tells you there were nine million witches killed during the Burning Times

It asks you to renounce your present religion

It tells you you must do things that would make you uncomfortable to do--in fact it's bookshit if it tells you you MUST do anything

It has whole chapters on love spells, revenge spells, protecting yourself against psychic attack, and summoning spirits

It is historically inaccurate

It claims to have been copied for the first and only time from an arcane and hidden Book of Shadows to which no one else except the author has ever had access

It tells you to do sacrifice, ritual or otherwise, or any kind of manipulative magic

It promises you power over other people

It does not quote sources or attribute information

And Along with Bookshit, comes WitchCrap....

The amazing popularity of the Craft in the years since I began practicing (late 1960's) is in one way a very good thing. Many people have been brought to know the Goddess, and those who do not worship or revere Her are at least aware that there are folks out there who do. It has had a positive effect in many arenas on public sensitivity to diversity of belief and lifestyle. But the downside of that is that with popularity comes dumbing-down, and the Craft has experienced a disproportionalte amount of that, because we have no Logos, no required Dogma...follow the Rede, or at least some standard of personal Ethics, and that's enough for many people. So there is a proliferation of self-styled Elders out there, many of whom have even read a whole book. And what they teach and propound as the Way of the Craft is often the Weigh of the Crap.
It's WitchCrap if...
You are told that the way you are being taught is the One True Wicca and all others are counterfeits.
You are encouraged in separatism ( "...we don't mix with THOSE Witches...") and in Tradition-bashing.
You are taught it is OK to bash other religions as long as they are Christian, fundamentalist, or bigoted.
You are discouraged from sharing ritual or attending open public classes with others not in your own training program.
You need to get permission from your HPS or HP before becoming friends with, or doing magic with, other people.
You are taught or even required to refer to your teachers as "Lord..." or "Lady..." in public, secular venues.
You are forbidden to read anything not assigned.
You are discouraged from questioning the authority of your Elders.
You are threatened that if you do certain things you will lose your cord, and there is nothing obviously wrong with the things so cited.
You are paying money for initiations or elevations. (This does not include paying reasonable fees for the materials of a training class or the time of a visiting guest speaker).
Your HPS or HP has a lot of "enemies" in the community, and many people in your community are referred to by them as "warlocks."
You are required as part of your apprenticeship to sleep with, or grant sexual favors to, the HPS or HP.
Your training deals more with "spells" and "potions" than it does with inner work on changing and improving your Self and your life.
You are taught to work magic whose results would be illegal or criminal if the same thing were done mundanely.
You are encouraged or required at coven meetings or rituals to partake of substances which are illegal, or which you would rather not use.
You are threatened with magical retaliation for disobedience.
You are taught to curse or harm or bind the will of others by magic.
You are discouraged from disagreeing, questioning, or thinking for yourself.
You are taught to see only your own Elders as mucky-mucks, and are well on the way to seeing yourself as one.

Recommended Reading

There are, however, many reputable authors out there on a variety of subjects. Here are some:


*CELTICA* *John and Caitlin Matthews* *R. J. Stewart* *Janet and Stewart Farrar* *Nigel Pennick* *Alwyn & Brinley Rees* *Jean Markale* *Philip Carr-Gomm* *Emma Restall Orr* *Ellen Evert Hopman* *Peter Beresford Ellis*	*GENERAL CRAFT* *Starhawk* *Pauline Campanelli* *Margot Adler* *Marion Weinstein* *Z. Budapest* *Justine Glass* *Doreen Valiente* *Gerald Gardner* *Raven Grimassi* *Francesca di Grandis* *Paul Beyerl*	*TAROT & DIVINATION* *Mary Greer* *Rachel Pollock* *Angeles Arrien* *Eden Grey* *Dion Fortune* *Gail Fairfield* *Ellen Cannon Reed* *Dion Dolphin*
*PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS* *Joseph Campbell* *Robert Graves* *Teilhard de Chardin* *Riane Eisler* *Jean Shinoda Bolen* *Carl G. Jung* *Pythagoras* *Bruno Bettelheim* *Mary Daly* *R. J. Stewart* *Robin Wood* *Judy Harrow*	*WORTCUNNING* *Paul Beyerl* *Scott Cunningham* *Ellen Evert Hopman* *Pattalee Glass-Koentop* *Terence McKenna* *Roisin Carroll* *Steve Blamires*	*ASTROLOGY* *Sydney Omarr* *Alice Bailey* *Julia and Derek Parker* *Maria Simms* *Michael Bayley* *NIcholas Campion* *The Rosicrucian Order*
*HISTORY* *Joseph Campbell* *Colin Wilson* *Stephen Hawking* *Daniel Boorstin*	*LORE & LEGEND* *Alwyn & Brinley Rees* *John & Caitlin Matthews* *Bruno Bettelheim* *W. B Yeats* *Charlotte Guest* *Lady Augusta Gregory* *WYE Evans-Wentz*	*VARIOUS (books for the well-rounded Pagan)* *The Pythagorean Sourcebook* *K. S. Guthrie* *In Search of Schroedinger's Cat* *John Gribben* *The Masks of God (all volumes)* *Joseph Campbell* *Truth or Dare and Dreaming the Dark* *Starhawk* *Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom* *J. & C. Matthews* *The Chalice and the Blade* *Riane Eisler*

I'm Not Done Yet....

Here is a collection of diverse, but interesting and useful, online resources for Wicca, Witchcraft, Mysticism and general weirdness:

Wicca 101 @ Red Deer's & Elenya's
The PaganPath
sidri 's Home Page
Onyx Dimensions
Raven's Flight
Moonstone Circle
The Witches' Voice
A Mystickal Grove -
Circle Sanctuary
Pagan Web Resources
Wiccan Links/ Celtic Connection
Welcome to Gypsy Moon Emporium
The Wiccan & Faerie Grimoire of Francesca De Grandis
Sun Dragon Wicca Page
The Celtic Connection
Covenant of the Goddess

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