Book Review: Magic in the Modern World, Edited by Edward Bever & Randall Styers

September 22, 2023 By Ian Chambers

Magic in the Modern World: Strategies of Repression and Legitimization, edited by Edward Bever and Randall Styers Magic in the Modern World is a collection of essays from leading figures and experts in the field of academic and practical study of magic, both its history and with particular reference to modernity. Brilliantly edited and collated by Edward Bever, Professor of History (State University of New York) and Randall Styers, Associated Professor of Religious Studies (University of North Carolina), these two... Read more

Book Review: By Moonlight and Spirit Flight, by Michael Howard

August 30, 2023 By Ian Chambers

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First published in 2013, By Moonlight and Spirit Flight: The Praxis of the Otherworldly Journey to the Witches’ Sabbath was written by the traditional witch Michael Howard, forming a part of publisher Three Hands Press‘ ‘Occult Monograph’ series. The 2019 publication is, therefore, a second edition of this compact and thorough exposition of the witches’ sabbath. The design of the book is of a standard one would expect from Three Hands Press, with good quality paper of a nice thickness, while featuring superb and... Read more

The Witch Can’t Be Identified

July 11, 2023 By Ian Chambers

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Recently, I made a blog post that gained some traction on social media, got seen by John Beckett who wrote an original piece and things took on a life of their own after that. Within the Traditional Witchcraft and broader Witchcraft communities, the pieces were both well received. Jason Miller wrote a rebuttal of John’s article, whilst BJ Swain took a more measured approach in his considered and well presented piece, and things escalated as the poison chalice that is social media... Read more

Innocent Pope Drinks Children’s Blood?

July 7, 2023 By Ian Chambers

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Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull in 1484, entitled ‘Summis desiderantes affectibus’ (desiring with supreme ardour). In this bull, the pope responded to Heinrich Kramer – a deranged misogynist who would soon be expelled from Innsbrook by Bishop Golser for his distasteful behaviour in persecuting women. The bull acknowledges the existence of witchcraft, and authorises inquisition in northern Germany which allows Kramer to pursue his madness with fervour. Golser ordered Kramer out of the diocese on 1486, prompting the... Read more

Remembering the Witch in Witchcraft

July 4, 2023 By Ian Chambers

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Has modern witchcraft forgotten the Witch? Modern witchcraft is many things — ask a dozen witches and you’ll get two dozen definitions. It’s religion, it’s folk magic, it’s nature worship, it’s seasonal veneration, it’s pagan, it’s Christian, it’s healing, midwifery and rude medicine, it’s alchemy and astrology, it’s basic herbalism, poison mastery, diabolism, it’s goddess worship, it’s hedge-riding, it’s fairyland. Many an apologist has sought to sanitise, make palatable or explain the misunderstandings of witchcraft, where the green fingered old... Read more

The Coal Black Smith…

December 5, 2022 By Ian Chambers

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Tubal Cain, tutelary deity of the craft coterie bearing his name [Clan of Tubal Cain], has a place now in modern Traditional Witchcraft, possibly originating out of a comment in The White Goddess by Robert Graves. In this part of The White Goddess, Graves is talking of the “love-chase” (The Case Song transcribed from the famous trial of Isobel Gowdie) and the transformative procession that takes place between the “Divel” and “Our Lady”. Here, the Divel may be taken to... Read more

Green Man, Earth Angel, by Tom Cheetham – Book Review

October 21, 2022 By Ian Chambers

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Green Man, Earth Angel: The Prophetic Tradition and the Battle for the World Soul, by Tom Cheetham, SUNY Press Series in Western Esoteric Traditions, 2005. Tom Cheetham is a writer whose area of special interest incorporates the imagination in philosophy, religion, psychology and the arts, taking in a broad field while pursuing the common thread to tease out a work of enchantment. Fellow of the Temenos Academy in London and Adjunct Professor of Human Ecology at the College of the... Read more

Mortem Obire – Facing Death in the Wake of the Queen’s Passing

September 10, 2022 By Ian Chambers

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The death of the Queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth realms on Thursday 8th September marked an historical occasion and a seismic shift in the lives of many – most particularly, those of us who reside in the ancient bounds of Britain. There has been a great deal said since the news was announced and following the Proclamation of King Charles III on the morning of Saturday 10th September, and much is yet to be said. There remains... Read more

The Witch Compass – Working with the Winds in Traditional Witchcraft

August 14, 2022 By Ian Chambers

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“The language of symbolism and allegory is important to almost all understandings of magic, accessing a means of depicting and apprehending the more fluid and intuitive, creative modes of experience. Symbols, it should be noted, are words or other means of depiction which convey more than literal understanding. Allegory, further more, makes purposeful use of symbols in a narrativised form to divulge a much richer sense of meaning and perspective. Symbolism works in many fascinating and useful ways, providing us with a more complex, nuanced, and... Read more

Here Oberon presents himself thy friend…

May 27, 2022 By Ian Chambers

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And from that fatal moment, till this time The fairy king has never deign’d to show His native form, but wandering to and fro Now dwells upon the mountain peak sublime, Now hid beneath the forest’s gloomy shade… – Oberon, A Poem, from the German of Wieland, by William Sotheby, 1798. [1] Over the past few years, since the publication of The Book of Oberon, a sixteenth century manuscript grimoire, I have had a curious fascination with the folk magic custom... Read more