Witches, both Traditional and
Wiccan, tend to agree that SATAN
is a corruption
of old Animal gods: most would be affronted at the very idea that
witches worship Satan. Those aware of the history of the
Christian church in the middle ages are aware that modern ideas
of Satan stem from the rise of a cult within church thinking,
that gave a place of prominence to Satan and his supposed work on
earth – a cult that has shaped how Christians think of their
religion ever since. You might be surprised to know that
early Christians differed from their Jewish ancestors on this
very issue, the lack of emphasis on the devil/demonology!
However, Christ’s message of active good has been subverted
by subsequent theologians into a battle of good - polarized as
Christian- versus Evil - polarized as everyone else. Of
course, most world religions share this “them and us”
view!
In witchcraft, one has to talk about Wiccan and traditional attitudes towards evil separately, because of one very important issue. Wicca is a religious philosophy and witchcraft is an occult art; Witchcraft is practiced by people of different religions, or by those of no religion at all. Their attitude towards the concept of evil is bound to be different to the attitude of those who are avowed followers of a religion, and who use witchcraft as part of that religion.
Traditions vary, but as a general rule the following points inform our beliefs about good and evil.
These rules have shaped the traditional witch’s attitude in the following ways.
Because, we believe that natural forces are neutral there is no left hand or right hand path, no good or bad magic: A witch will do both in her lifetime. Therefore what are the consequences of our choice, for good or evil, at any time? We believe that every thing we use magic to gain is paid for in some sense. This means the REDE and also the Rule of Three) has no relevance for traditional witches. Whatever we choose to do we base on our ability to pay the price…not on its morality. We may choose to do something underhand in a good cause, perfectly resigned to the consequences. We make decide to exact revenge: to punish a wrongdoer: to avenge an insult. When we are young and hot tempered we make different choices than when we are older and temperate. But the fact that we make these choices is, we believe, essential to our journey and growth and also to the great narrative (i.e. to the divine plan! - if you accept the divineJ)
Because we believe that life belongs to the living, we do not fear the dead, nor the spirits, nor the elementals. We do not ascribe to them powers that can rape our souls against our will. No, the traditional philosophy admits of no such easy blame shifting. We are not “taken” against our will and/or subject to torments and temptations. Rather we tempt ourselves. Our own unenlightened natures, our failures in knowledge, our pride or hubris, is the only serpent in our world. This directly affects our relationship with the other worlds: we meet the spirits as nearly as possible as we would any other human. They have many different personalities, and should be approached with respect: some have a warped sense of humour and delight in tricking humans. But they see things from a different perspective from us, that’s all. Immortality tends to give you a different viewpoint.
Which leads us to point four. If you are brought up to think of spirits as evil, or capable of possessing your soul, you may unwittingly give them permission to do so. The subconscious mind is a strange thing and may invite all kinds of trouble. This is why people should be trained to analyze their feelings towards the spirit-world, to recognize superstitious and polluted thought patterns, to weed out the prejudices planted by Christian theology. Once one feels, really feels, the truth of the statement, “we own our souls” then no ethereal force can harm or subvert us. We can however still be led by our own failures, anger, pride arrogance etc to allow spirits to trick us, or mislead us. This is not serious and should happen at least once a year, no one teaches a good lesson like a mischievous spiritJ
All of which leads us to the last statement, that there is nothing unnatural in the occult world, it is merely hidden knowledge, what Agrippa pointed out as the knowledge we do not yet understand. Just that as there is cause and effect in the material world so too in the occult. Just as we expend energy in order to function in one, so too in the other. This approach also reinforces our belief that we should know the cost of any action, decide whether to pay it and go ahead accordingly, and reinforces our opposition to the Rede.
However, Traditional Witches do believe in
EVIL, as opposed to “Satan”.
There is good and bad in all living things, and in sentient
beings, such as man, one can consciously
feed the bad out of all proportion to the good. One can
choose evil: and one can give over the soul to evil.
My tradition does not accept of possession, or any involuntary
taking over of a soul: active and persistent choice can turn a
person "evil". (Although, superstition and muddled
thinking about the occult can lead to nasty little incidents as
well)
Why do we after all I’ve said above believe in Evil?
In our perspective, the error made by Christianity and other orthodoxies has always been that they observe the natural, and declare it evil and unnatural. If one observes the world one realizes that if a rock is turned over, there is usually something nasty beneath and if a corpse is observed, how loathsome the worms and maggots appear. But every one of these things serves an invaluable purpose, vital in the cycle of life. Far from unnatural or evil all of the nasty things we tend to avoid have their place in the world. They are, by and large, far less loathsome than the average human.
Likewise, the world of the soul and spirit has many things in it we do not understand, that reflect more the uncompromising reality of the natural world than our idealistic assumption about souls and spirits, and the orthodoxies rush to call these evil. Pan in his grove, Diane in her temple, Cernunnos on the hill, Danu or Lugh, they represent facets and aspect of the world we are entreated to despise, and reject. They also represent aspects of our psyche that we are told are unholy. When we obey, repression and degeneration usually result, along with perversion and warped development. But still people tend to see the world from this viewpoint of Christian morality, which in turns warps and wilts all their soul should take joy from.
But there are things that are “unholy”; they are just not the things we are taught to see that way. Whatever one’s religion, the true and enlightened study of the Occult can free one from these spurious moral judgments: but it begs the question, what then IS evil? This is a harder question to address than the one of what is not evil - and more concerned with the esoteric rather than the quantifiable. But as there actions unequivocally evil, there are forces similarly evil. Evil action does not spring from error but from choice. Evil consequences spring from choice. All else is tragedy.
The seeds of evil are found in an untrained nature – i.e. lack of discipline, selfishness, no sense of obligation or gratitude, no respect for elders and teachers, no sense of ones place in the world – which runs selfishly amok throughout the world taking without giving, abusing rather than using. From personal relationships to ones relationship with Earth herself, the untrained nature is a force of evil, thoughtless, heedless, unaware and unawakened.
But these faults spring mainly from thoughtlessness and lack of training. If checked by a sufficiently thought-provoking life experience, the effects can be reversed, (although the more entrenched this pattern of thought, the more likely that even the search for enlightenment will be conducted in an undisciplined manner.) However there are other natures, undisciplined and fascinated by power, which utilize others’ weaknesses to exploit them. These are low-grade, petty evildoers but perhaps the worst and most irritating: they are the bullies, the bad bosses, the unscrupulous landlords, cruel to children, torturers of pets, racists and sexists. They detract a little from the world each day they spend in it: they add untold stress and unhappiness to innocent people each day, and teach all who come into contact with them, to be like them, to be cowardly rather than draw
their ire down upon them.
After this we have the criminal, selfish, unfeeling, and violent: souls upon whom greed, selfishness sand power-hunger have taken such a hold that they can no longer extend mercy, or love. They can kill women and children and rob and steal and deal drugs and they can see no reason why your well-being should interfere with their business. They burn crosses, plant bombs, oppress, and debase. How does a soul reach this state? Only by unending and persistent choice: always choosing self over others, immediate gratification over long-term goals, material good over spirituality.
The evils of violence, tragedy and death brought to us by these souls corrupt and destroy our peace of mind, innocence, childhood: whatever background they point to as the source of their evil, remember the souls born into the same or worse who choose the opposite path: the persistent and deliberate choosing of spirit, morality, growth and good! However, these violent souls can often change around their lives….they often learn lessons on the edge of life that enable them, if they decide to change to be useful in opposite degrees to their previous uselessness.
And then there are the perpetrators of big evils. These are the figures of our nightmare, the psychos and socio-paths, those who have no empathy, no love. Truly chilling, one wonders what point they serve. Are they freaks of nature, in the grip of a medical condition of insanity? Had they a flaw, a fault-line in their psyches that collapsed under strain? Or did they too give over step-by-step, inch-by-inch, to the unholy and unclean?
The truth probably is yes to all these questions, depending on which monster of life you are considering! Some feel Hitler was evil; jack the Ripper was a madman. I have always thought that quite a good yardstick, but then again who can be sure? At least we can say with certainty, one can look to certain acts as evil, without a doubt. All that remains to ask is, what punishment for evil?
Reincarnation, hell, limbo or heaven? Or oblivion? What awaits us as the result of our lives? Traditional witches, concerned for the sensitivities of the various religions of our practitioners have long chosen to look at the question from a different perspective. Rather than worry about what happens to us, which is a matter of personal belief anyway, but takes a different criterion, based on the impression left by a souls energy on the world. Who mourns us? Who loved us? Whom did we leave better off? Whom worse? What gave we to our community? What did we learn? The criteria of the old Celts, the triads of the Seanchas Mor, that tell us the things that a person should do, Uphold the Truth, Pursue knowledge, Be honorable. We hear the importance of truth to the Druids, to the Kings; how being false, literally or metaphorically can destroy the kingdom, break faith with the land. Therefore we look to our deaths as the moment of reckoning, it is good not to have brought evil into the world, but it is better to have actively fostered good. Of course the definition of Good can be a just as hard to grapple with but that, I am pleased to say, can be a subject for another time.
Note:
v
I am going by the conversations I've had with wiccans, but most
seem to believe in a Supreme Deity and in evil in general,
although I don't think they have
an anthropomorphic figure for evil, like a devil. Wiccan concepts
of evil would usually reside more in a view of morality and of
its consequences than in the traditional witch’s application
of effect. This is just a gloss, not a definitive!
v All comments on Traditional witches are by definition, generalizations: these comments can only refer with authority to traditional Irish witchcraft: these are the philosophical beliefs of a culture, practiced by a subsection of the population, whose occult practices are the focus of their vocational attitude.
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