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The Witchcraft
WE ARE THE WITCHCRAFT.
We are the oldest organization in the world. When
man was born, we were. We sang the first cradle
song. We healed the first wound, we comforted the
first terror. We were the Guardians against the
Darkness, the Helpers on the Left Hand Side. Rock
drawings in the Pyrenees remember us, and little
clay images, made for an old purpose when the world
was new. Our hand was on the old stone circles,
the monolith, the dolmen, and the druid oak. We
sang the first hunting songs, we made the first
crops to grow; when man stood naked before the Powers
that made him, we sang the first chant of terror
and wonder. We wooed among the Pyramids, watched
Egypt rise and fall, ruled for a space in Chaldea
and Babylon, the Magian Kings. We sat among the
secret assemblies of Israel, and danced the wild
and stately dances in the sacred groves of Greece.
In China and Yucatan, in Kansas and Kurdistan we
are one. All organizations have known us, no organization
is of us; when there is too much organization we
depart. We are on the side of man, of life, and
of the individual. Therefore we are against religion,
morality and government. Therefore our name is Lucifer.
We are on the side of freedom, of love, of joy and
laughter and divine drunkenness. Therefore our name
is Babalon.
Sometimes we move openly, sometimes in silence and
in secret. Night and day are one to us, calm and
storm, seasons and the cycles of man, all these
things are one, for we are at the roots. Supplicant
we stand before the Powers of Life and Death, and
are heard of these Powers, and avail. Our way is
the secret way, the unknown direction. Our way is
the way of the serpent in the underbrush, our knowledge
is in the eyes of goats and of women.
It is our own force that sometimes shifts jeweled
coils and creates mighty pinions in the breast of
man; our Power is one with the Power that causes
the God to stir in the heart of the seed, and the
bud to burst into blossom and fruit; and whenever
a man and a woman are united in one substance, our
power is that substance.
Merlin was of us, and Gawain and Arthur, Rabelais
and Catullus, Gilles de Retz and Jehanne d'Arc,
De Molensis, Johannes Dee, Cagliostro, Francis Hepburn
and Gellis Duncan, Swinburne and Eliphas Levi, and
many another bard, Magus, poet, martyr known and
unknown that carried our banners against the enemy
multiform and ubiquitous, the Church and the State.
And when that vermin of Hell that is called the
Christian Church held all the West in a slavery
of sin and death and terror, we, and we alone, brought
hope to the heart of man, despite the dungeon and
the stake.
We are the Witchcraft, and although one may not
know another, yet we are united by an indissoluble
bond. And when the high wild cry of the eagle sounds
in your mind, know that you are not alone in your
desire for freedom. And when the howl of the wolf
echoes in the forests of your night, know that there
are those who also prowl. And when the ways of your
fellows about you seem the ways of idiocy and madness,
know that there are also others who have seen and
judged - and acted.
Now know that the power that we serve lies in the
heart of every man and woman as the tree lives in
the seed. And to be with us, you have but to call
upon that Power, and you are as one of us. And when
our Power and Joy have come upon you, you may go
forth and do your will among men, and none shall
say you nay. And if it be your will, you shall do
your will secretly, and if it be your will, you
will do your will openly, as your will.
Therefore lift up your hearts saying, "I am
a man" or "I am a woman, and the Power
of Life is mine!" And in the Power of Life
you shall live and love, accepting no restriction
and placing no restriction, freely and granting
freedom. And it may be in the bounty of life you
shall see the love of life shine in the eyes of
another, and the lust of life burn upon his brow,
and thus you shall take great joy together. And
it may be in good fortune you may find a number
such; and share your joy in secret feasting and
rejoicing and all manner of lovemaking and festival.
Or it may be that at hazard and danger you will
teach the joyous power to men; as your wills move
you.
And this is well so long as you remember one thing.
There can be no restriction. The Power of Life is
not restricted; it knows its own way, but no mind
knows that way. Therefore in yourself practice all
the giving and taking of freedom that is consistent
with life, for thereby alone can you remain in our
joy.
Pain is. Terror is, loss and loneliness and agony
of heart and spirit, even unto Death. For this is
the gateway to the kingdom of Pan.
Our way is not for all men. There are those who
are so constricted and sick in themselves that the
thought of their own freedom is a horror, and that
of others a fierce pain; so that they would enslave
all men. And these you should shun, or, if you must,
destroy them as you will know how, for this also
is bounty.
Nor think the life power should manifest in those
who have no trouble or turmoil, for these may be
mere dumb cattle, innocents out of season. Rather
does the power often show the most where conflict
rages, since at any time, and especially in a false
civilization, the way must be won through. Surrender
is disaster. The other side of the coin is a song
in the sunlight and a dance in the moonlight, where
all mists are dispersed. But the way must be won.
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