The topic of ritual attire is within itself quite a misdemeanour because the phrase ritual attire implies special clothing, but in fact the Witch traditionally worships naked as the day they were born. This state is commonly referred to as skyclad by most Wiccans and although the issue of ritual nudity is about as politically incorrect as you can get, it is alive and well in the religion of Wicca.

But why do witches engage in this strange custom? Wicca came to be formed in the early 20^th Century in the environment of very radical thinkers, many connected by one common strand- naturism. Gerald B. Gardner, the grandfather of Wicca was an avid naturist and through this medium met many individuals who would be highly influential in the formation of Wicca. Gerald Gardner found ample evidence in the form of records and pictures from the time of the persecutions that Witches were often (but not always) perceived as going naked.

It is an element of Wicca that shows its roots in the radical subculture of an altogether conservative environment that preaches freedom from these bounds.

This very idea is conveyed in a pillar piece of Wiccan theology which states:

This passage is in turn drawn from Charles Lelands “Aradia: Gospel Of The Witches”, a text he claimed to have inherited from a hereditary Italian Witch of a long line. These claims have not gone uncontested but regardless of the particular background of the book the above words echo a long and often hidden spiritual tradition of nudity.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition is has been there from the very beginning,

In the Garden Of Eden, Adam and Eves nakedness and their need to cover it only becomes apparent to them with the eating of the forbidden fruit which awakens them to their sexual natures and their desire for each other. The basic structure of the Adam and Eve story come from a Babylonian religious text the Gilgamesh where the eating of the fruit gave the corresponding Adam and Eve figures knowledge of a sexual nature, and their covering of themselves is a reaction to their desires turning to wanton carnality.

It is clear that there is a connection between sin and sexual exploitation in Judeo Christianity such as the dehumanising of the human in favour of a role as a sexual object and this view is consolidated throughout the bible. But the sacred nature of the human body is consolidated in Genesis 1:31 in which God states that Adam, and for that matter all creation is good so although the issue of the human body and Christianity is often reduced to flesh and sin, there is a much more subtle and positive teaching in regard to the worth of the person.

Throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament the idea of spiritual revelation and prophecy is intrinsically tied with the naked body as many of Judaisms most influential prophets spoke of the nature of God while nude.

Far later in the institution of Christianity there are continuing practices of religious nudity including the Adamianis, a sect of Christian thought who in seeking to regain the spiritual state man possessed in Eden, lived and worshipped nude.

It can also be seen in the personage of St. Francis Of Assisi who in rejecting material wealth stripped himself of his rich garb and walked away from materialism. He was also known to have walked naked among the woodlands and even to have said mass unclothed.

In Ancient Greece the body was held on an equal par with the development of the mind and young men would go and engage in physical development at Gymnasiums. The term gymnasium comes from the Greek gymnos meaning “naked”. In ancient Greece nudity was an activity of practicality and the Greeks would strip down for acts such as work, dance and athletics.

But the philosophical core of the tradition lay in the gymnasiums around which the major schools of Greek philosophy were based. The gymnasium represented a quest to become as the Gods, to develop the body and mind, and they saw nothing sinful or ungodly about the naked body.

In India the Jain monks engage in complete nudity as a part of their vow to give up all worldly goods and in the religion of Shinto prevalent throughout China and Japan there was nudity in their ritual of purification.

Here in the West the modern naturist movement, as well as providing an environment for safe nudity in an often conservative world, has served as a breeding ground for rich philosophical thought. Such can be seen in some of the nudist ideas in Wicca and their presence are almost certainly as a result of Gerald B. Gardner’s own personal avid naturism, but having said this, the above has shown the practice belongs to a much longer spiritual stream.

The action of ritual nudity is the radical idea of being free from worldly ties and promotes equality. This is also conveyed in The Legend Of The Descent Of The Goddess when the Goddess has to shed all her worldly possessions to enter the kingdom of death.

So firstly the intention of ritual nudity is one of freedom from worldly ties.

Secondly the use of ritual nudity removes all barriers of class and status, allowing for the meeting of all individuals as equals.

The third and most potent reason for ritual nudity is the exposure of self. The sacred space of a Wiccan is said to be one of perfect love and perfect trust, where all are honest and open with each other.

The Greek word persona, from which the word personality derives, literally translates as mask. This mask or external face is difficult to keep on and hide behind when nothing is covered. The persona of a person is built up through clothes, make up, and through this whole constructed external identity, so much so that many people are defined by and define themselves by what is conveyed to and perceived by others.

Ritual nudity is nudity in more than one way because without the protective covering of clothes a person is quite without these every day defences and masks, but this is a very positive thing because it allows not only honesty with the other coven members, but also with themselves.

We must also look at skyclad worship in the light of the etheric body and its role in magic. The etheric body is a subtle layer of near matter that is closely tied to the physical body and links it to the subtler realms of manifestations. It has been speculated people who claim to see the aura are in fact seeing the extending etheric body, of which the colours and shape extending from the physical body would be concurrent with the etheric body. Recently the advent of Kirlian photography, which photographs the bio-plasmic/etheric energy surrounding the physical body serves as further proof of the subtle body.

Some witches claim the emanation of psychic energy from this subtle body could be in some way impaired by clothing.

These premises can also be extended to Wilhelm Reichs “Orgone” which is supposed to be the sub atomic energy pervading everything, but this also hastens the question of wouldn’t this include clothing?

There is also the question of chemicals, or more precisely pheromones, hormones released by the body which are intended to attract a mate. As I mentioned, polarity occurs on many levels, and surely this subtle dynamic of inter effecting hormones could in some way contribute to the polarity-based energies raised.

One final point to add is that nudity is a natural impulse. Anybody with a young child, aged up to four will tell you how difficult it is to get that child to stay clothed, and when they eventually do stay clothed it is by merit of being told its wrong to be naked. Nudity is natural, clothing is a device of society.

But in its criticism there are also many points against skyclad worship.

Few people grow up in Wicca, and more often it is a religion to which one converts. So as a Western religion its practitioners have most likely come from a Christian background, a religion which holds a strong connection between the flesh, sex and sin.

A lot of this connection comes from the separation of spirit and the physical body, and the Lutherian school of thought which condemns the entirety of the physical body as wicked. These views are then connected with sex and are seen in Victorian society and the resultant sexual hang-ups of successive generations.

In Wicca the human body is seen as sacred and wholly natural, and although it has a sexual element and function, this is not the entirety of human experience nor is it the sole focus of our ritual. Although it conveys some sexual/ procreative imagery in the ritual, they are often exoteric symbols of esoteric concepts to which there are many more layers, of which sex is only one dimension.

The flesh/sex/sin trinity now rampant in Western society has been recently negatively reinforced by the onslaught of pornography, which conveys the act of sex as a wholly material one, totally neglecting the emotional and spiritual aspects of the sex act.

With all of these issues already inherent in a person coming to Wicca, does ritual nudity really promote love, trust, and intimacy or does it create walls people have to work through?

Equally in this age, many people have encountered some form of sexual abuse, even if not in the form many typically relate to this term, then in abusive relationships and situations of sexual mistrust. With that connection between flesh and sex, ritual nudity is going to be a difficult thing. But it has repercussions beyond that because people who have experienced abuse of any kind, not just sexual, may need these masks and personal protections of clothes and personas. With ritual nudity that option is taken away and intimacy is catalysed and can be perceived as forced.

Another concern for many people stems from their sense of self-image. Is the young woman opposite me looking at my stretch marks? On this point such an outlook will seriously arbour the psychological effectiveness of the ritual. In all likeliness the young woman opposite is either also new to all this and worrying equally about the size of her breasts or her weight, or she has gotten over her personal hang-ups and is focusing on the intent of the ritual.

Eventually most people realise the people they are sharing in themselves with are also working towards a self acceptance and comfort zone in being back in their natural state, in turn moving past the external and working on the mental and spiritual elements of the self that first drew them to Wicca.

But isn’t it cold? As an Irish man I can attest to the fact it is utterly impossible to work skyclad the whole time, or at least not unless a coven works exclusively indoors (or in some place that is perpetually good weathered), and I feel that would be a terrible shame, segregating the earth based spirituality from the earth itself. So perhaps robes for outdoor workings and skyclad indoors?

So are ritual robes a viable option for all of the above, not just outside work? Ritual robes are symbols beyond a person’s everyday life and set aside a special time, which puts a person in a psychological frame for ritual activity.

When robes are used, they are usually all the same so strip the social marking outside society and divides therein, creating an atmosphere of love and trust.

They also promote an honest intimacy, grown over time and in no way forced. Robes allow some masks and personal protections to remain until the ideal of a Wiccan group is achieved in actuality and everyone can be comfortable with one another.

As for the issue of the impairing of energy by clothing, if Witches postulate their magic is so powerful as to bring about physical change, doesn’t it seem implausible that a thin layer of cotton could cause that significant a difference? And there is also the comfort issue because a Witch who is uncomfortable with ritual nudity will have their concentration, and by relation their subtle psychic energies severely impaired, impairing the energy much more than a thin layer of cotton.

Although nudity is “traditional”, it is not without its stumbling blocks and when ideals meet the real world, how can these two often-opposing forces be rectified? I advocate both the traditional way, and the way that can foster religious experience in the modern world with all its problems.

But within groups these issues are further complicated by the question of all skyclad or all robed, or is there a middle ground?

The all robed coven seems like the simplest solution, or does it? Is a purely robed coven conductive of everyone’s personal comfort or is it assuming everyone is comfortable with being robed? Is it being equally constrictive by disallowing the option of nudity for coveners?

More importantly, if a primarily robed coven allows some to work skyclad because it makes them more comfortable, are they violating the comfort of the other coveners who chose a robed coven for their own personal reasons?

Similar problems arise with skyclad covens. Is intimacy being forced through nudity? Is everyone comfortable with nudity? And so forth.

While on the point of the skyclad coven, there are often exceptions to the skyclad rule for practical reasons, for example a menstruating woman is often allowed to wear at least panties if not even a robe for personal comfort as well as sanitary reasons.

These questions of skyclad or robed are prevalent amongst those seeking out a coven but they leave out one key factor, personal choice. Finding a coven and trying to fit into it, that is to say change what you are comfortable with, or trying to change it once you’re a member is a bit of a head against a brick wall approach. How often do we consider that perhaps the first coven we come across is not necessarily the one for us? This is not to say there is anything wrong with this coven, only that it is incompatible with what we are seeking as individuals.

Two options now remain for the seeker, keep shopping around for a group that suits them, or start a group drawing like minded people together to celebrate the Wiccan mysteries together.

But what about the Witch alone- what does he or she wear? Although there are no hard and fast rules as to what you have to wear, ritual nudity affirms the sacredness of the body. At very least this is our stated ideal, but ideals also have to meet the real world and very often people have body issues, be they weight, scars, or the internal scarrings of some form of abuse that has lead to a discomfort with the body. Ideally the body is recognised as sacred, and somewhere along the path healing can start to accept the body, but for the moment nothing is enforced as divine law.

At the end of the day personal comfort is most important because there is nothing spiritual about putting yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable and emotionally vulnerable.

* * *

Attire can extend to other things including ritual jewellery. Most Witches will wear some form of ritual jewellery in the form of a necklace or chain around the neck as a symbol of the eternal wheel of life, death and rebirth, often combined with a symbol pertinent to their spiritual path such as a pentagram or the ankh cross.

The high priestess also wears a necklace of alternating amber and jet beads, representing life and death, Goddess and God respectively, and as an eternal alternation around the necklace it affirms the eternal wheel of life.

Earlier in this article I touched upon the idea of ritual nudity as a stripping away of persona, a disintegration of the personal masks, but now I would like to look at the putting on of masks, the adoption of magickal personas in ritual.

Ritual is amongst many other things a form of dramatics, theatre of the most intimate kind. Anyone who has ever witnessed a public ritual can attest to this fact, but on a coven level this takes on a new dynamic as the ritual becomes a telling of eternal truths that are told through theatrics because of its ability to reach out and touch the psyche of all who witness and participate in it.

This can be seen as the Priestess takes on the magickal persona of the Goddess by tapping into the sacred feminine within. It can also be seen through ritual enactments of the myths as the God dies, as the young God woos the maiden Goddess and so forth.

One of the most effective ways of tapping into these eternal mytic figures is by creating the right mood. This is done through the scent a person wears, their garb, their jewels, and also how they conduct themselves, but the conduct is enforced and helped by the jewellery, scent and clothes. By wearing a crown the priest becomes the divine king, in wearing a black hooded cloak and wearing a torc he becomes the Dread lord of death.

Another way of tapping into a magickal personality is through mask work. I remember as a boy inflating balloons and putting paper mache over them to create masks, painting them in bold colours as I became the stripped zebra or pointy-eared bat. Mask work can be used equally well in ritual to create faces distinguished from that of the coveners ordinary work and worship and that allow them to more confidently project the desired personality mask to the rest of the coven.

The issue of attire, of something we take for granted in everyday life, is obviously one with many layers in Wicca, layers we can strip away to touch the essence of divinity.

The Goddess says in the Charge All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals so we are left trying to foster that atmosphere. Take the form which creates this atmosphere for you.