Author: A Solitary Pagan

Esbat is a regular meeting of a coven of Witches at which religious worship is conducted, business is discussed and magic and healing work is done. The frequency of esbats depends on the coven. Most covens meet at the full Moon, which occurs 13 times a year. They may also meet at the new moon. Some meet weekly. The esbat may take place indoors or outdoors. A coven may have a regular meeting place ...

A curse is a spell intended to bring misfortune, illness, harm or death to a victim. Curses are the most dreaded form of magic, as curses are universal. They are “laid” or “thrown” primarily for revenge and power but also for protection, usually of homes, treasures, tombs and grave sites. A curse can take effect quickly or may be dormant for years. Curses have been laid upon families, plaguing the...

There is a special connection between the spirit and its possessing location, most often the victim’s bedroom or personal place. Anything that can be moved is taken out, such as rugs, lamps, dressers, curtains, tables and trunks, to minimize flying objects. Only a bed or couch remains, accompanied by a small side table to hold a crucifix, candle, holy water and prayer book. Doors and windows are c...

In contemporary Witchcraft, a powerful, magical rite of sexual intercourse that pays homage to the male/female polarity that exists in all things in the universe. The Great Rite expresses the physical, mental, spiritual, and astral union between man and woman and the union of the Goddess and God. The Great Rite is the hieros gamos, the Sacred Marriage or Holy Matrimony, which is union with a deity...

This name was given to the statue of a mysterious deity alleged to be worshipped by the Knights Templars. The latter, although a powerful and wealthy order of chivalry, came to be distrusted by Church and State at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and were disbanded. They were accused of heresy, of worshipping the Devil in the guise of Baphomet, and of practising homosexuality. The order wa...

In Witchcraft there is no formal priesthood although some witches working in a group or coven will have a High Priestess and High Priests who are leaders of that group. The fact that they are High Priestess and High Priests may not make them better witches, it simply denotes their standing and authority within the group. Having no formal priesthood means we do not reply on others to interpret or i...

The causing of illness, misfortune, calamity and death by the looks of strangers and by envious looks, amulets and incantations  ward the danger off. The evil eye exists around the world, dating to ancient times. The oldest recorded references to the evil eye appear in the cuneiform texts of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, about 3000 b.c.e. The ancient Egyptians believed in the evi...

From the Autumn Equinox until just after the Wild Hunt rides out around Samhain is the Season of the Witch. People all over the United States seem to know that this is true without being told so. The stores decorate for Halloween, reporters develop stories about local Witches, and Witches themselves feel a certain thrill in the chilly autumnal breeze that stirs something wild a...

Magick takes place at what TS Eliot in The Four Quartets called the ‘still point of the turning world’, that moment of timelessness that enables thought to be turned into reality on the material plane. It operates on the principle As above, so below’. This phrase comes from the beginning of The Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismesgistos (thrice-blessed Hermes), thought to be a powerful fir...

Hermetica Forty-two sacred books of mystical wisdom attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus, or “thrice great Hermes,” the combined Egyptian and Greek deities of Thoth and Hermes, respectively. The books, which date from somewhere between the third century b.c.e. and first century c.e., had an enormous impact on the development of Western occultism and magic. Many of the spells, rituals and...

The transformation of a human being into a wolf. There are two types of lycanthropy: a mania in which a person imagines himself to be a wolf and exhibits a craving for blood; and the magical-ecstatic transformation of a person into a werewolf (“man-wolf,” from the Old English werewolves , man, plus wolf), usually accomplished with ointments or magical charm . Werewolf lore has existed since antiqu...