Becoming a Witch

In the earliest pages of my Book of Shadows are the names of three important women - all Witches - who introduced me to the Craft and the pentacle. I was sixteen years old when I met them, a young girl scouring the Boston Public Library for books that would explain why I felt so different from my friends and school acquaintances. I knew I was different, but I didn't yet know that I was a Witch. I hunted for books that would teach me about metaphysical matters and explain the mysteries of nature and, if such books existed, how spirit and matter cooperate in sustaining the physical world.

A very kind and knowledgeable librarian seemed to understand what I was looking for. She seemed to intuit my inarticulate yearnings. She sensed that my search was for more than just book knowledge, that I was searching for my very self. I trusted her. In time I discovered that she was one of the wise, and that, in some undefined way, which I could not then put into words, she was like me. She directed me to books on nature, history, science, and religion, which collectively transported me back to a time before Christianity. I read Robert Graves' The White Goddess, Sir James Frazier's The Golden Bough, Isis Unveiled by Madame Blavatsky, and many articles on sleep, dreams, parapsychology, and mythology.

I read about eras when people accepted personal visions and experiences like the ones I was having as completely good and natural. I learned about societies where the search for truth was a satanic, not a priestly experience. That is, where individuals seeking spiritual wisdom embarked, like troubadours and knights perilous, on lonely, often dangerous journeys; where quests for spiritual power required physical and psychological crises; where the hero was tested time and again by nature, human challenges, and his or her own deepest fears and longings. It was a search for the wisdom of the cosmos, not the doctrines of an ecclesiastical hierarchy. In short it was not a search for churches. It was a search for castles, hidden in the center of magical kingdoms.

In the course of my reading and study I learned that the powers and longings that seemed so strong in me, and so different from everyone around me, were once long ago valued and respected. My librarian friend guided my reading so that I learned the Old Ways of the Craft from its earliest beginnings. Over the months we developed a strong relationship based on mutual interests, and as I learned that the word Witch applied to me, I realized it applied also to her.

The librarian and two of her friends initiated me into the Craft. Each of them was a remarkable woman in her own right. One was a musician, the other a professor at a local college. The initiation ritual they used over forty years ago is still the one I use today. As I read it over again in my Book of Shadows I see that it has changed very little. And so it is with much in the Craft. Although there is always room for innovation - and Witches are notoriously imaginative in creating new rituals - the Old Ways stay with us and ground us, reminding us that our practice originates deep in human history. I feel privileged that the three Witches who taught me the Craft were themselves grounded in ancient ways; each was a keeper of sacred knowledge and a teacher and storyteller who could pass that knowledge on to the next generation. And each encouraged me to try to understand the scientific basis for the Craft.

That small quiet coven of four was my first introduction to the Craft as a craft, as something one does. The triple nature of the Goddess was perfectly manifested in us for one of the conveners was quite elderly, the other two were mothers, and I was the young girl.

I feel I was very fortunate to be led to these three wonderful women when I needed them, but then that's the way the Goddess works. Most people in the Craft relate similar experiences. When the time was ready for them and they had reached a level of spiritual or intellectual development necessary for joining the Craft, they met the right persons or groups or read the right books that served as their introduction.

Most people find the Craft (or it finds them) at the time in their lives when they need it. Others feel a calling to it for many years. They feel led. Some power or force larger than themselves enters their lives and opens windows for them. A voice calls; they feel challenged to discover higher states of consciousness that go higher and deeper than the social and cultural norms they have grown up with. In my Book of Shadows are the names of many men and women I have been privileged to introduce to the Craft over the years. Now that I am an elder in the Craft I can look back on those who came to me for instruction, and I am constantly reminded how wise the Goddess can be in selecting the individuals she wants to serve her in the Craft. Even now their individual names rekindle in me the same hopeful enthusiasm they once felt - that we all once felt - when the windows were flung open, shutters thrown back, and we saw for the first time the beauty and glory of the world through the eyes of a Witch. Or perhaps I should say the first time we knew that we were looking at the world with the eyes of a Witch.

There are many ways to "become" a Witch - to discover your own Witch eyes, your own Witch soul. In olden times knowledge was passed from mother to daughter, from grandmothers to granddaughters. Learning the ways of the Craft was as commonplace as learning how to cook soup, birth a child, build a fire. Family traditions made up a great part of Witchcraft, and it is through them that most of our knowledge was preserved and passed down through the ages. Today there are very few Witches my age who learned the Craft from their mothers and grandmothers because Witchcraft was illegal in most places until the middle of the twentieth century. But we have moved into a new era. Since the Wicca revival that followed the repeal of the anti-Witchcraft laws, more men and women in the Craft are teaching their children the ways of power. My own daughters, Jody and Penny, and my "adopted" daughter Alice Keegan, are the second generation in a new line of Witches.

Most Witches practicing today did not learn the Craft in their families. They read books, they took courses, they studied it on their own. There is nothing wrong in taking courses or workshops offered by someone in your community, provided she or he is a reputable, initiated Witch, well versed in the Craft. 

Many people are introduced to the Craft through friends or acquaintances. You learn that a co-worker, a neighbor, or some friend of a friend is a Witch, and as you get to know her or him, you grow more interested in what makes the person tick. Eventually you are led to the Craft and at some point you realize that what they do and what they believe has always made sense to you. You know that somewhere in your secret heart you should be doing that too. And at some point you say, "I am ready."

The above piece was received by me through instructional material sent by email.  If you are the original author or know the original author, please notify me so I can give proper credit.