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Alex. A VERY BREIF [sic] EXPOSITION ON THE CRAFT

The Craft like all Religions possess[es][,] organised around a central kernal [sic][,] the aspects of Philosophy, Dogma including the worship [sic], Pantheon, Ethics and Magic, and an Organisation. The Craft has its origins in the Nature Worship and Sympathetic Magic of prehistory and it has been in a state of constant evolution ever since. The Craft reflects its early origins by throwing emphathis emphasis on the feminine aspect of the Creator. That does not mean that the feminine aspect is the most important[,] but because at some point in [h]istory the people of the Wicca have [sic] decided that the men were not capable of running the organisations and women took over and emphasised the Matriarchal aspects of things so that the Rituals are emphasised toward the feminine aspect of the Creator[,] and in view of its descent of <from> Nature Worship[,] the kernal [sic] of the Craft today is of necessity the Worship of the Creator through Her creation rather than His. Because these are my comments and my notes from my second Book of Shadows I will say His/Her Creation[,] because they are both equally important even when the God is in His Death Aspect (People on the Earth are still fecundating, which only goes to proove [sic] that the God Himself is still fertile in life but religiously and dogmatically He is put out of sight) in its philosophy[,] where <and when> ever creation occurs[,] whether by man or God[,] [t]he Creator puts something of Him[-] or Herself into the Creation to dwell therein. This fact makes it possible to worship the Creator through His or Her Creation and makes the Nature Spirits, worshipped in an earlier phase of the Craft, out to be that aspect of the indwelling Creator manifesting in that part of Creation. Two qualities stand out particularly in the Creation Myths of the Wicca which are mainly in the Charge of the Goddess, of Love manifested, no sacrifice is asked, so that Love is manifested in the sheer bounty and Wonder spread through it, and the fabric of unbreakable Law extending through the physical/mental and sp[i]ritual levels of the Universe[,] as the Goddess Herself states in the Charge where She explains Her spiritual levels that She manifests from. So that give[s] us some idea that there must be a Pantheon and on the top level we will call that the Creator[,] and it can be defined first as Providence, as the Bountiful and [A]ll[-]Loving One that

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provides all things for our benefit[,] and in Her aspect of the Dark Sterile Mother She comes as Fate for She makes dogmatic statements about who She is and about what She does[,] so therefore She is the Maker of Laws and She is the innermost self of every created thing[,] and this Creator may not be known save in the Mirror of the Universe, the things that we see, which are there in our lives every day of our lives, but that thing Itself actually cannot observe Itself directly because it is in manifestation itself[,] so therefore the [W]orship in the Craft, Religious Worship, in the Craft [sic] is therefore [sic] directed toward the next level which brings us to the mundane level of initiation where people just talk about the Goddess and the God ad Beings[,] living [B]eings personified that we can understand and identify with[,] and as Creation comes to the conjunction of male and female the second level consists of the Male and Female Principales, the God and the Goddess. Now about the Goddess, I[’]ve written in this that She has three aspects[,] but over the years I[’]ve discovered factually that She has four aspects but mainly that [sic] three aspects corresponding to the state of the Moon which represents Her first. She arrives as the Virgin Maiden corresponding to the Waxing Moon or the New Moon and second <as> the Bountiful Mother corresponding to the Full Moon and three [sic] [as] the Hag of Death corresponding to the Waning Moon, then the fourth aspect, which I[’]ve discovered over the years, the Dark Sterile Mother corresponding to the Dark Side of the Moon where She does all things secretly and all things go to Her in Death. This is the aspect that the Black Witches use.

Now the God himself has two aspects corresponding to the states of the Sun which represents Him. First He comes as the Lord of Light corresponding to day[,] secondly He manifests as the Lord of Death and Resurrection corresponding to [n]ight[,] and as the balance of night and day alter through the year so one or the other aspect becomes dominant, and since He started out as a Hunting Deity according to our legends He is held to have [h]orns on His head. That is the general belief about the Horned God. But the word Horned if translated back to the Hebrew means the Rayed One[,] so He is not necessarily a Horned God but a Holy and Manifest Being upon the Earth wearing a Halo of Light just as all the Christian Saints have or as [O]ur Lord Himself has, and I am saying Our Lord, I am not saying Jesus because to me He is no different to the Lord of Death and Resurrection[,] He is also the Lord of Light and so His aspects alter through the year. They become d dominant or passive[,] and [sic] as He started out as a Hunting Deity then He rose to 

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Power and became a Sun God in different parts of the World. The Crown of Light or the Crown of Youth was put upon His brow and the Horn’ed One became a Halo’ed One, it means exactly the same and the Universe is created by these two aspects of Male and Female and held in being by the conjunction of them[,] and together with the Creator they lie beyond Creation and they have no comprehension of it, just an acceptance. But the more veils we tear away the less we will know and understand and the more we must accept.

The Legends of the Goddess [say that] when She wanted to know the secrets of life and death, She went to the Might Ones and They praised Her for Her courage after Her struggles and They said ‘Go to those who are Older than Time’[,] and She went to those who were Older than Time and They praised Her for Her courage and They said ‘Go to those who were born before the Oldest Ones of Time’[,] and after these troubles and adventures She arrived and They said ‘Go to see the Great Mothers who were born before all Time’[,] and She went to see the Great Mothers and They said ‘We were born before Dream Time’ and They praised Her for Her courage. The point that I am trying to make is that no matter how many veils you tear away you will always get the Mystery of the Creator Himself/Herself.

Now on the third level you have the Might Ones of the Quarters[, t]he Lords of the Watchtowers, or the Kings of the Elements, or the Angels of the Elements, and these represent the highest principles of Creation[,] being the Lord of Air in the East, the Lord of Fire in the South, the Lord of Water in the West and the Lord of Earth in the North[,] and the fifth Element that makes the Pentagram is the Circle itself lying between the worlds. This represents the fifth Element or the or the [sic] Quintessence of Spirit. In other words the Triad of the Creator, the God and the Goddess.

And now the <z [sic] in its> fo<u>rth level. The Universe or the Dogma that it has, is the concept of Law for bathing the Universe implies the causes for observed effect. [sic] The Craft therefore holds the theory of Reincarnation to account for observed inborn talents in certain people[, t]hese being held to have been acquired in past lives[.] Therefore during our Second Degree Initiation we are told that you come to the Craft having felt that you have belonged to them [sic] before, in another life. You come to them in this life. You feel the essential mystery and wonder of life and you want to realise it but you have forgotten the way, and so you come to those who you feel have that Mystery[,] and they say during their [S]econd Degree [Initiation], ‘Without Love you may not be born’[.] And I am not going to give that away because it is in the Ritual.

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The theory of Reincarnation is very, very strong with us. Now our Worship brings us to a logical and sincere method od [sic] worship[p]ing the Creator through Creation[,] and this is the experience of Joy itself in Creation such as one may feel on a good day when the whole world seems to be singing. In one of the most important parts of the Craft Ritual comes the phrase ‘All acts of Love and Beauty are My Rituals’[.] [T]he Goddess states this, and this state should be natural to man. And it can be an exstatic [sic] state in the sex act or in just digging in the Earth, or in just enjoying the Creator’s food or the air that He has given us to breathe. But generally, because we are thought of of [sic – as] being a Fertility Cult[,] it refers to sex, but [the] natural condition of man in our life is much overlaid, so various techniques are used to assist this process, of coming into close harmony and close contact with the Goddess, and so the first thing that we do is to use any means of removing the obstacles between the Initiate and the Universe, and this tends to lead to a joyful state and these usually range from the use of mental exercises to throw the attention outwardly[,] ‘For if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee Thou wilt never find it without thee’ so it is to bring out. And the Ritual nudity, inside the Circle, which helps to release the eminations [sic] from one[’]s body, these things have been proved scientifically, they are not theory, they are fact. The dancing which helps to create the magnatism [sic] of electrical force and sex itself, which obviously leads to a state of joy. But the Rite as of the Great Rite has fallen <mainly> into disuse[,] as nowadays we do the Rite in token for we cannot trust everybody that we Work with even thought [sic] they are Witches[,] and this is sad because it is the impact of the surrounding culture on us. Therefore the main prerequisite that we ask is that each participant should see in the other one the appropriate aspect of the Creator. This is hard for us to maintain in all companions of the Circle[,] therefore we do the Great Rite in token because it is best not to offer any tainted worship. Another way is to call the Goddess or the God to manifest through a member or members of the Circle[,] this we call in the Magic Circle Drawing Down the Moon. We have no name for the Rite of Drawing [D]own the God as we understand it, but we do have a prayer that brings the God to Earth.

Now the Meetings.

The Craft has three kinds of Meetings and they are known as the Major Festivals or Sabbats[,] and these are agricultural celebrations and are therefore of interest to the mass of the people because they provide humanity with food, food of all kinds, and so my [sic] [non?] initiates can attend your Circles or your [M]eetings, but they

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remain outside the Circle except for the Feast when they sh are brought in to share in God[’]s Creation[, a]t the Major Festivals or SabSabbats[,] on Candlemass [sic] on the second of February, which is the [S]owing of the Seed Festival or actually the intercourse between the God and Goddess, the Festival of Conception[, t]hen Beltane on May Eve on the thirtyeth [sic] of April is the Birth Festival, and Lammas on the first of August is the Harvest Festival or Festival of Fruition, that is gathering all the fruit in, and Halloween on the thirty[-]first of October is the Death Festival marking the descent of Winter or the decline of the Power of the God. Now the Minor Festivals or Sabbats are the Solar Celebrations and as non-initiates may be present at Major Sabbats all Initiations may take place at them[,] for [n]on-[i]nitiates are [not?] allowed at the Minor Sabbats[,] and these are Yule, Winter Solstice[,] December the twenty[-]second, to call back the Sun or the God for another Year, [t]he Spring Equinox on the twenty[-]first of March to celebrate the transition of the God from His Death Aspect to the Light [A]spect, [t]he Summer Solstice on the twenty[-]second of June to celebrate the Sun at His height, [t]he Autumn Equinox on September the twenty[-]first to celebrate the transition of the God from His Light aspect to His Death aspect. Now the ordinary [M]eetings or Esbats are Lunar celebrations and take place monthly when the Moon is full[,] and any Craft Meeting consists of the following parts & usually in this order as given: The Casting and Purification of the Magic Circle; Initiations, if there are any to be done; An act of Worship; Works of Magic, if there are any to be done; The Reading of the Charge, the Goddess’s words to Her Children; The Consecration of the new Working Tools, if there are any to be done; The Blessing of the Food and the Wine; The Feast during [which?] the Witches of the First Degree, that of the Inverted Triangle[,] may sit by the High Priestess or High Priest for instruction[;] and last of all Closing the Circle.

Now [as] the Ethics of the Wicca state that it would not seem possible for any part of the Universe Created by a Creator to be [E]vil, the concept of Good and Evil would appear to be invalid among Witches[. F]urthermore the Laws of the physical level of the [U]niverse are immutable and we have no reason to suppose otherwise of the other Laws of the Creator[,] and Sin [sic] the breaking of these Laws is therefore immpossible [sic] and the concept together with the corollary of judgement seems to be an attempt to impose upon the Creator all the peculiar imperfections of Human Law. But man having free will is able either to act in knowledge of, or in conformity with these Laws or knowing or unknowing disregard them. In either

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