Pax Deorum – The Formula of Do ut Des & Making of Offerings

Last updated on: November 27, 2020 at 7:15 pm By Ian Chambers

Pax Deorum Being the First Book of the Wanderer (previously unpublished © Ian Chambers 2018) The following is taken from the privately published work Pax Deorum, and introduces the philosophy behind the working relationship between deity or spirit and operator in the Classical Roman period which informed early medieval Europe. The formula is further expanded upon throughout the book and leads elegantly into the subsequent (and as yet unpublished) companion and follow up, Pax Diaboli. All that is gold does not glitter,... Read more

Cain – The Witchfather in Traditional Witchcraft (Part 1)

Last updated on: November 25, 2020 at 10:23 pm By Ian Chambers

Traditional Witchcraft has become rather popular among the neopagan and occult milieu today, allowing freedom to explore through personal experience and learning. A decade or two ago, things were a little different and there were certain phrases and sayings you might hear in studying this area. One example is the Crooked Path, a reference coined by the late Andrew D. Chumbley in reference to a particular aspect pertaining to Sabbatic Witchcraft embodied in the outer through the conclave known as... Read more

Castles in Traditional British Witchcraft Lore

Last updated on: September 5, 2020 at 4:50 pm By Ian Chambers

…the distribution of the castes in the city exactly follows the march of the annual cycle, which normally starts at the winter solstice. (Guenon, 2004, p. 97) The origins of the Castle in the witchcraft of northern Europe incorporates the spectacular mythologies of the Grail, Celtic legends, medieval Christian mysticism, and the most ancient cosmological systems. An oft misunderstood concept, the Castle informs a large part of Traditional Witchcraft since the 1960s, made popular perhaps through the subsequent publishing of... Read more

Warwickshire Witchcraft – Long Compton Coven and Murder

Last updated on: January 30, 2024 at 12:26 pm By Ian Chambers

From the birthplace of the world’s most famous modern magician, Aleister Crowley, Golden Dawn founder William Wynn Westcott, as well as playing home to the coven of Bob Clay-Egerton in the early-late Twentieth-Century, Warwickshire has been a host to stories of magic and witchcraft for many years. With the mysterious death of Charles Walton on Valentine’s Day 1945 at the ancient and wind-swept Iron Age camp of Meon Hill, Scotland Yard’s premier detective descended, as did the media. In the... Read more

Review: The Devil’s Noctuary – Being The First Song of Qayin

Last updated on: August 7, 2020 at 5:23 pm By Ian Chambers

The Devil’s Noctuary: Being a Prophetic Fragment of the First Song of Qayin, is the latest offering by author and artist Gavin Semple, contributing an intriguing and fascinating addition to the Sabbatic Witchcraft current. The latest addition of Semple to the stable of writers at Atramentous Press, founded by husband and wife team of Peter and Carolyn Hamilton-Giles, is a welcome one and injects with this piece another work of spellbinding brilliance. We spoke with Peter Hamilton-Giles previously and it is evident... Read more

Sympathy for the Devil

Last updated on: July 21, 2020 at 11:45 am By Ian Chambers

The role of the Devil in the early Medieval period incorporated mostly a capacity similar to, and reflecting, early Christian and late Jewish ideas of the 'Adversary'. However, as the church matured and scholasticism increased, demonology progressed and the Devil's image shifted too, including Free Will in witchcraft. Read more

Apocalypse Then: Reflections upon Gnostic Expressions of Revelation

Last updated on: June 16, 2020 at 9:53 pm By Ian Chambers

Myths of the flood represent the crisis of the soul when the psyche plumbs the depths of the abyss, abandoning the crutches of the ego, experiencing fate. Read more

Losing Your Head At Midsummer – An Ancient Rite Revisited

Last updated on: May 23, 2020 at 10:00 am By Ian Chambers

The following is an extract from Pax Deorum – A Modern Witchcraft Primer, 2018, by Ian Chambers …Sir Gawain is himself the Verdant One, then he himself becomes the Green Knight. Symbolically, his transformation is effected by the act of cutting off the head of the Green Knight; for in mythic initiation, what we overcome we become. (Howard, 1995)⁠ Headless Midsummer Midsummer is a time of mirth and merriment and it is believed to be as old as our... Read more

St George – A Cainite Myth?

Last updated on: April 14, 2020 at 11:06 pm By Ian Chambers

The legend of St George may be an initiatory myth in which a ritual enactment may convey some of the meaning. As George slew the dragon, so must we come to terms and assimilate the old; but ever beware that yesterday's hero is the dragon of tomorrow. Read more

A Journey To Spiral Castle in Traditional Witchcraft

Last updated on: March 25, 2020 at 11:46 pm By Ian Chambers

In Britain the tradition of Spiral Castle survives in the Easter Maze dance of country villages, the mazes being called ‘Troy Town’ in England and in Wales ‘Caer-droia’. (Graves, 1997) Situated between the poles, on our journey through the spherical vortex, we see at either end our source and goal. We are pulled in both directions, since the longing of the womb, described by psychologists, has its counterpart in the passionate longing of the mystic for union with God.... Read more