Witch Powers

Witches draw their powers from a variety of sources. Contrary to popular imagination, none involve Satan. The following includes a list of just some of those abilities.

 

 

Personal Powers

Includes the energies generated by the body, mind, and soul. Sometimes these are called “psychic” powers. Types of personal power include chakras, the aura, and bio-spiritual and neutral energies. 

 

Metaphysical Powers

These are the metaphysical forces that underlie the various geological, biological, and mechanical forces that make up and sustain the natural world. These forces are immediately apparent in the rotation of the seasons, the cycles of the moon, the behaviors of animals, and the life-giving processes of the natural world. Throughout history, Humans have invented and worshiped various gods based on their observations of the natural forces and the assumption that such forces are conscious in the way that we are conscious. According to animistic principles, these forces do possess a “spirit” but they are not conscious, thinking beings. This is why prayers to the gods tend to go unanswered while magic is highly effective in producing desired results.

 

Cosmic Powers

The Earth is but one tiny planet amidst a sea of galaxies, stars, and other planets. While we can only glimpse the surface of the cosmos by reflecting on our night sky, it is our window to the greater reality which governs our world. Such observations allow us to conduct magic at opportune and appropriate times.

 

Archetypal Powers

Archetypes are universally understood human concepts or symbols which pervade our collective consciousness, regardless of time and culture. In other words, archetypes are the fundamental essence of a concept. Examples of archetypes may include the wise sage, the warrior, the king and queen, the devil, the saint, love, hate, maidenhood, fatherhood, motherhood, ghosts, angels, and, most appropriately, the Witch. From a magical perspective, it is believed that archetypes exist as spiritual entities which embody and govern specific human qualities.

 

As with the forces of nature, Humans have long created gods from their observations of the archetypes based on the idea that the archetypes (gods) are the sources of our human virtues and ideals. However, the opposite could also be true. The archetypes may simply be the psychic creations of our observations of human nature. This becomes the old argument concerning which came first; the chicken or the egg.

 

Regardless of their origins, magical people assume that the archetypes are real entities. But it is essential to understand that they are not the “gods” that our ancestors thought them to be. While the archetypes are somewhat sentient, they are not conscious, so they can not relate to us the way we would expect them to.

 

It’s best not to think of Archetypes as Gods but more like energies or “powers” that can be “tapped” and utilized. Much like an electrical current. In order to possess the qualities of a desired archetype, and gain the benefits thereof, one must learn to embody the essence of that archetype. This is accomplished through psychological and spiritual association with it.

The most important archetype for Witches is that of the Witch herself. It is the initiating power that indoctrinates the witch into the hallowed institution of witchcraft. It is our shared link to our ancestors’ knowledge, wisdom, and power.

 

Spirit Companions

Perhaps the most significant element of traditional witchcraft is also the most forgotten and neglected by modern attempts to recreate the tradition. In her book, The Witch cult in Western Europe, (1921) Margaret Murray presented overwhelming evidence for the practice of erotic spirituality in the form of companionship with “familiar spirits”. Murray presented freely given trial testimonies wherein accused Witches admitted to having life-long romances with espoused spirits and that their powers of divination and magic were directly attributed to this relationship.

 

Despite widespread abandonment of Murray’s overall theories, these testimonies can be corroborated by well-known ballads and romances predating, and contemporary with, the trial testimonies themselves. Significant examples include True Thomas or Thomas the Rhymer, Tam Lin, and Cupid and Psyche.

The overall theme of the tradition is that every Witch has a spirit companion who acts as a guide and interface to the spirit world.

 

‘Their spirits usually have knowledge of their bodies . . .

She also said that men Witches usually have women’s spirits, and women witches have men’s spirits…

 

Testimony of Margaret Johnson:

The courtship and romance of the spirit companion is the distinctive mark of authentic traditional witchcraft and perhaps the most rewarding. This subject is discussed at length in the book entitled, Authentic Traditional Witchcraft, by Kenneth A. Brennan. You can also learn more about this topic in the Heritage Witchcraft Academy community.

 

Ancestral Powers

Ancestral lineage, written and oral histories, bodies of literature, and cultural traditions surrounding the practice of witchcraft are sources of power unto themselves, and all of these things are intricately related to the archetypal powers discussed above.

 

Anthropologists recognize that the most ancient form of human spirituality involved ancestral worship. Long before the first gods were ever conceived, deceased ancestors were invoked and petitioned to grant knowledge, power, and favors. A fundamental tenant of ancestral worship is that the living inherits the virtues of their ancestors. Upon death, we join our ancestors and add our own unique achievements and personal power to that legacy.

 

Spiritual ancestry is not limited to lineal descent. A person can be spiritually “adopted” into an ancestral lineage and gain the full advantages thereof. Recently, Scottish archaeologists discovered mummified human remains consisting of bones, from several different bodies, integrated to form complete human skeletons. One theory as to why the ancients did this, 3000 years ago, is that the ritual combination of bones from different families could tie the ancestral lineages together, somewhat like a marriage ceremony for the deceased. This meant that the living descendants of those ancestors would then be considered related. In the traditional witchcraft tradition, a similar rite involves the addition of the name of a newly initiated witch to a scroll containing the ancestral lineage of his or her mentor.

 

Animal Totems & Helpers

Witches are widely understood to employ the services of companion animals to do their bidding undetected. In fact, many animistic Witchcraft traditions from around the world utilize both wild and domestic animals much in the way the military now uses unmanned drones to observe activity at a distance. It is believed that Witches and Shamans are able to consciously occupy the bodies of animals in order to travel covertly or obtain materials that would be difficult for humans to obtain. The use of familiar animals is a defining aspect of authentic witchcraft.

Divination

I have adopted many theories about how divination works, ranging from psychological to pseudo-scientific. But traditional forms of divination always relied on communication with various kinds of spirits in order to predict the future or obtain information. Traditional Witchcraft divination may include scrying, Tarot reading, numerology, reading tea leaves, and observing cloud formations and the shapes of flames. However, most commonly, information was obtained through trance work, altered states of awareness, and intimate communion with one’s spirit companion.

  

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