Secrecy and Witch Development
This cornerstone of the “Witch’s Cone of Power” pyramid requires no arcane skill or elevated mental state. No exercise will improve your ability to meet this requirement. We all know how to keep a secret, and most of us are terrible at it! During the Burning Times, secrecy was key to survival.
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Witches kept nothing about their persons or households that might draw suspicion upon them or their families. Ritual tools were disguised as ordinary items. Instruction in the Craft was passed on orally to trusted family members.
Written records were indeed rare. Those that did exist took the form of arcane poetry, its true meaning couched in myth and hidden in coded verse. Divulging any information, true or fabricated, invited the wrath of the witch hunters.
Many victims of the hunters had themselves acted as informers, the logic being that, since all such knowledge was secret, only a witch would know such things. The viscous lot who fed off the miseries of the persecutions had no intention of running out of targets for their torture. Witches protected their identities and defended their fellows, sometimes by force of arms.
It remains a sad fact that this hysterical destruction of life took ten innocents for every witch. While the witch could prove a dangerous adversary, the unsuspecting old widow did not. The secrecy necessary to empower magic is not the same as that which hides information, however.
The pyramid predates considerably the persecutions and was in place when the witch was a public figure available to all after the manner of the tribal shamans of extant primitive cultures. The power that drives magic and ritual comes from the witch and depends on inner spiritual strength.
While the witch may summon many forces to aid this work, the foundation is the witch’s own constitution, fortified by an indomitable Will, a vivid Imagination, absolute Faith, and the ability to house and hold all the energy necessary to succeed.
The witch acts like a storage battery. An automobile engine provides enormous force to propel the vehicle. Without a charged battery, that engine will not start. Sitting in a parking lot with the motor off, listening to the car radio and leaving the headlamps on will drain the battery.
Forced to share its precious power to nonessential tasks, the battery becomes unable to perform its key function. If you expect to maintain the inner strength necessary to act as a witch, keep that power to yourself.
Follow these guidelines:
1. Refrain from involvement in petty problems, especially those that are beyond your immediate control.
2. Cultivate patience in the face of unexpected disruptions. Is it really so important that your favorite TV show has been pre-empted for an infomercial on the health benefits of sawgrass?
3. Do not bind yourself to unimportant events. Being unhappy when your favorite football team loses is normal; becoming depressed about it is not.
4. Never discuss the details of your work. Your spiritual strength cannot be described in words without being diminished. Try telling a blind person about a color, and you’ll get the idea.
5. Be content with yourself. Do not seek the approval of others.
6. Affirm your own worth. Do not label yourself to achieve status in the eyes of others.
7. In this work, your opinion is the only one that matters. Seek the council of others whom you respect, but make the final decision yours.
8. Accept responsibility for every action without excuse.
9. No one ever told a secret without expecting to improve their own status. In the Circle, you are perfect. How much more status do you need?
10. Finally, SAY LITTLE, DO MUCH!
All people possess magical abilities. Not everyone chooses to use them. To the witch, the ten tenets listed here become second nature, and they do so through hard work. The witch accepts freely the burden that comes with walking between the worlds. Do not let your conscience torture you because you failed to adhere to these ten guidelines.
Guilt creates doubt, and doubt ruins magic. You are on a path of spiritual development. If you wait until you reach inner perfection before trusting yourself to work magic, you will be waiting a very long time, perhaps several lifetimes. Constantly criticize your actions toward improving yourself, not toward crippling yourself with guilt.
All of us carry enough guilt around with us to hinder the most powerful magic. Maintaining the kind of secrecy about your work and beliefs described here will allay the effects of guilt. Mistakes direct us toward the right path. They should not hobble our spiritual progress.
To rid yourself of the damage guilt can do, it is useful to affirm your worth and inner status. The following words are drawn from the teachings of Lady Laurie Cabot.
Say them to yourself daily and know that you are telling yourself the truth:
“I am PERFECT, made of Light and Life, a perfect being living in perfect love and perfect peace, and this is SO.”
These few words will help you to erase the guilt you have carried with you from childhood. You are not born into original sin. You are as perfect as you need to be to follow your spiritual path.
You now have the inner skills you need to proceed with your development as a witch. Practice using these tools often.
