Rethinking The Watchtowers Essays - Wicca, Witchcraft, Magic

Reconsidering the Watchtowers Reexamining THE WATCHTOWERS or then again 13 Reasons Air ought to be in the North ======================================= by Mike Nichols copyright 1989 by Mike Nichols (affectionately devoted to Kathy Whitworth) Presentation Everything began 20 years prior. I was 16 years of age at that point, and an ongoing start to the religion of Wicca. Like most novices, I was anxious to start deal with my Book of Shadows, the customary original copy ceremonial book kept by most rehearsing Witches. I duplicated down ceremonies, spells, plans, sonnets, and tables of correspondences from each source I could lay hands on. Those by and large fell into two wide catagories: distributed works, for example, the numerous books accessible on Witchcraft and enchantment; and unpublished works, for the most part other Witches' Books of Shadows. Twenty years prior, a large portion of us were traditonal enough to duplicate everything by hand. (Today, copying and even PC modem moves are getting de rigueur.) Always, we were scolded to duplicate each speck also, comma, making a definite translation of the first, since any variety in the function may mess major up for the performer. Sometimes, if at any point, did anybody interruption to consider where these ceremonies originated from in any case, or who created them. The majority of us, too bad, didn't have the foggiest idea also, couldn't have cared less. It was sufficient just to follow the rubrics and do the ceremonies as recommended. Be that as it may, something got me to a sudden end my replicating free for all. I had obediently duplicated customs from various sources, and out of nowhere figured it out they contained clashing components. I ended up looking at the two forms, pondering which one was correct, right, legitimate, unique, more established, and so forth. This offered ascend to the more broad inquiries about where a custom originated from in any case. Who made it? Was it made by one individual or many? Was it at any point modified in transmission? In the event that all in all, was it unintentionally or plan? Do we know? Is there ever any approach to discover? How did a specific ceremony get into a Coven's Book of Shadows? From another, more established, Book of Shadows? Or on the other hand from a distributed source? Assuming this is the case, where did the creator of the distributed work get it? I had scarcely started to expose what's underneath, but then I could as of now observe that the inquiries being raised were mind boggling. (Presently, every one of these years after the fact, I am more persuaded than any time in recent memory of the overwhelming multifaceted nature of Neo-Pagan ritualistic history. What's more, I am similarly persuaded of the extraordinary significance of this point for an intensive comprehension of present day Witchcraft. It might well be a female horse's home, yet envision the worth it should future Craft students of history. What's more, you are unequivocally ensured to see me fly into a enthusiastic tirade at whatever point I'm defied with such hackneyed over-improvements as Crowley is the REAL creator of the Third Degree inception, or Everybody KNOWS Gardner INVENTED present day Witchcraft.) Clashing TRADITIONS The first occasion when I saw clashing ceremonial components was the point at which I was welcomed as a visitor to go to another Coven's esbat festivity. When the opportunity arrived to conjure the Watchtowers (a custom greeting to the four bearings), I was astonished to discover that this gathering related the component of Earth with the North. My own Coven likened North with Air. How odd, I thought. Where'd they get that? The High Priestess revealed to me it had been duplicated out of various distributed sources. Further, she said she had never observed it recorded some other way. I hustled home and started tearing books from my own library racks. Also, sufficiently sure! For all intents and purposes each book I counseled gave the accompanying assoications as standard: North = Earth, East = Air, South = Fire, West = Water. At that point where the hell did I get the possibility that Air had a place in the North? After much idea, I had replicated my own basic/directional relationship from another Witch's Book of Shadows, her Book speaking to (so she asserted) an old Welsh custom. Maybe I'd duplicated it down wrong? A fast significant distance call set my psyche straight on that score. (At the point when I asked her where she'd gotten it, she said she THOUGHT it was from an even more seasoned Book of Shadows, however she wasn't sure.) At this point, I felt miffed that my own traditon appeared to be at fluctuation with most distributed sources. All things considered, my own ceremonies didn't appear to be unfavorably influenced. Nor were those of my kindred Coven individuals, every one of whom put Air in the North. Further, throughout the years I had amassed loads of affiliations and correspondences that appeared to REQUIRE Air to be in the North. The