
Many individuals would observe my practice or read about the ways in which I practice and use the word “eclectic” to describe it and they would be accurate. I am eclectic. I believe that many newly initiated Witches identify as eclectic. Often
The problem I have witnessed with this process is that there seems to be a balking or rejection of traditions or anything that appears to be traditional in nature, which in my opinion is a disservice being done not only to The Ancestors, but to the newly initiated Witch. I am not one to belittle the fact that there is a benefit in personal gnosis and revelation, which are necessary for transformation and growth, but to completely disregard traditional ways is to impede us as Witch. Why would any Witch be eager to ignore or throw away all the work and effort that our Ancestors put into something instead of tapping into that well of energy when it is readily available to us and our Craft? Sometimes “new and improved” isn’t always the best option.
An illustration of what I mean by this well of energy is as follows. A Witch, I shall call him BlackStar, is looking to procure a ritual blade for his Craft. BlackStar was offered the blade that was used in numerous rituals by a fellow Witch, AzureMoonStone, who no longer desired it. Does BlackStar accept this gift or purchase a new blade from a local metaphysical shop? The benefit for him in accepting the used blade is that the item has absorbed the energy of AzureMoonStone who had presumably used it with her own practice so that when BlackStar holds the handle it in his own hand and uses it within his own Craft, he would be aligning and tapping into not only his own energy, but also that of AzureMoonStone, who had used that specific blade within her own practice. That particular tool was imbued with her energies and would be available to BlackStar. We can also take this a step further and recognize that when a specific item or tool, in this example with it is the ritual blade or athame, is used in the same way that previous Witches have used it there is an energy stream that was established and feed by every other Witch who did the same over the years creating a well or specific energy frequency that other Witches are able to tap into and use within their own practice. This is the power of tradition.
Things such as elements, colors, herbs, days, trees, crystals all have traditional correspondences, which may vary depending on the heritage, culture, or present physical location of the Witch. These associations were created by the earliest healers, Witches, shamans, and priests, when a relationship between the energy frequencies of two seemingly unrelated things or concepts was discovered whether through the doctrine of signatures, the physical appearances, or other meaningful similarities between the two were recognized. These correspondences create symbolic magickal links, which aid in strengthening and amplifying the power of any magickal working and when the Witch utilizes these traditional correspondences they provide the same power that BlackStar would benefit from if accepting and using the ritual blade offered to him by AzureMoonStone; they allow the Witch to tap into well of energy of all those magickal practitioners who lived and practiced using the same correspondences that are available to each of us, the modern Witch. And that, my Brothers and Sisters is a part of the power of 10,000 Witches that I speak about. Why would you not want to embrace that?