Practical Witchery! - John Stormm (best novels to read for beginners TXT) 📗

The cauldrons pulled from the ashes and everyone would sit by the fire for a meal and an afterglow before returning to the house.  The clan would move with a united purpose.  Everyone had their goals to fulfill before the next such sabbath. 

"When No Child Was Truly Left Behind"

 

       There's an old proverb that has stood the test of time over a great expanse of human history:

      "If wish to invest your efforts and see a profit in a year:  Plant a crop.  In twenty years:  Plant an orchard.  In fifty years:  Educate your people."

      For many millennia among the Celtic infrastructure was the practice of "fostering".   As the village witches or druids noticed certain knacks, traits or affinities within the clan children as they taught them in our culture, math, and such; they might notice this lad had a strong build and a fine mechanical aptitude.  When the boy became of age where he could best take on the proper training, he would be fostered out to one of the clan's better blacksmiths to learn his craft.  Everyone was important to the success and survival of the clan, and talents were the "coin of the realm" where we measured our "wealth".  A smart girl or boy with a knack for dreams or such might be fostered as a witch or druid and learn herbology, music, spell singing, midwifery and much, much more.  Long, long before modern politics had ever tainted the waters with false promises, the idea of "no child left behind" was an essential clan practice. 

         Children were fostered to warriors and artisans alike, to optimize the contributions they would then be able to make, to their people as a whole, and still live a long and fulfilling life of their own.  Happy and contented people are easy to lead and the pride, joy and wealth of their chieftains, kings and queens.  In latter times, when the Holy Roman Empire pressed its designs upon all the world's governments, this practice was nearly forgotten by the nobility of the day, but still strong in the memories and practices of the common folk of the clans.  As the matriarchy of Old Ways became more and more demonized by the propaganda of the patriarchal early church fathers, the wise ones moved further afield and out of reach of the Inquisitors, and the clans themselves, looked out for their own and fostered their own children among their skilled relatives, to help better their family's circumstances.

       To this day, it remains a fairly common practice among many Celtic families to send their kids for fostering in summer camps, to teach them archery and various craft skills and wood lore, or with favored uncles on farms or businesses as summer help to learn skills that will help make them more successful adults.  So it was with our witch clan.   For many wise reasons, dreams were discussed at the breakfast table, for the entertainment and edification of the family.  A wise matriarch could notice elements in those dreams, that would define much of what was going on with that child on a subjective or unconscious level, and make efforts to curtail the destructive impulses, and empower the constructive traits, that many other families just left to "the luck of the draw".  You see, that witches don't trust anything of value to "luck", when we are wise to manufacture our own.  When our children showed a certain affinity in certain games, such as "The Itch" or showed a knack for prognostic or interpretive dreaming, they would be set apart to be fostered with an aunt or grannie who would spend the summers teaching them gardening, herbs, dreams, divinations and much more in the ways of the wise women of our lengthy culture. 

"The Truest Functions of Ancient Infrastructure"   

        Karl Marx once noted that a people separated from its roots are easily persuaded, to whatever a newer authority desired of them.  This teaching was not to benefit the masses of common folk, but the rich who ruled over them.  Traditionally witches and druid priests confirmed rulers, but we were never subject to any of them.  When all the clans were designated by the color of their tartans, a witch or druid had forsworn their personal clan tartans, to wear the clan neutral black or white of their respective orders.  We are not subject to taking sides in wars; but in the brokering of peace between the factions and the healing of the sick and wounded of ALL the clans afterwards.  We teach that a witch's power in this world, and other worlds is through their unbroken Will and Word, which cannot be subject to anyone else's authority but their own, except by their own willful agreement for a set time or circumstance.  This was, in essence the function we served among our ancient people as a "balance of power". 

       We kept our wisdom, not as secret but ever before ALL of the clans for the benefit and survival of our people.  This is not say, that there were not secrets of the craft, that were not meant to be shared indiscriminately; but that we served as instructors and teachers of much knowledge and wisdom for the benefit of our people.  In our ancient Gaelic tongue, the word is "witte" (pronounced "Wih tcheh") or "wise one".  It was not necessarily gender specific as any are led to believe today. 

The druids in white represented the masculine and Solar traits in Nature.  The Witches in black, represented the feminine and Lunar traits.  As Pliny the Elder once described us as "two horns of the same bull".  Even as such, druids and witches were not confined strictly to one gender or the other.  There were always known to be exceptions to the rule.  There was a "druidess" that was reputed to have trained the ancient Irish hero, Finn McCumhal in war craft (martial arts).  So, the masculine or feminine aspects of the craft were not exclusive to merely one gender or the other.  We were ALL sworn by unbreakable Will and Word, to serve ALL the clans to the very best of our individual means.  You NEVER expect a people as strongly individualistic as the Celts, to be uniformly cut out of a "cookie cutter".  We each fill our own niches as we are able and inclined to. 

        There were the unscrupulous even among our own numbers, and there was a special term coined to describe them, and it was NEVER intended as a term of any honor:  WARLOCK, or literally "oath breaker".  Those are the men and women of the craft, that we are striving to wrest our power back from, to this very day!  They always met in secret, as criminal conspirators have always been known to do; because their business dealings were always an anathema to the people they involved in them.  It followed suit that their "holy language" of their craft was Latin: the trade language of their day.  And it still is to this very day among their kind.  It is seen and felt as a blow even today in the twisted verbiage of "legalese" and modern pharmaceuticals, which was known of ancient times as the sorcerer’s craft.  This was not to say that ALL sorcery was "evil", but that certain unscrupulous magi used it to prey upon the public, and earned the entire craft the distrust of the populace.  As their foothold in the world's halls of power are so entrenched today, it is especially important that we be all the wiser and stronger, among our own numbers to remove them, once and for all times from their hereditary criminal careers. 

 "The Wittan"

         As I've already mentioned, the Celts were always strongly individualistic and fiercely clan oriented, and often warred among themselves.  But for our infrastructure of the wise, we would have torn ourselves apart many thousands of years before the advent of Christianity and the Holy Roman Empire.  It was not merely a "religion" the witches and druids represented among our people, but our "relationship" with the Earth we lived in, and thus we thrived as Danaans since before the Paleolithic times of history.  We carry the wisdom and craft of a much older race.  Obviously, much of its greatness has been lost to time and warring among the factions.  Libraries get burned by those who would establish themselves as the true authorities of all.  Again, that is NOT for the benefit of those deprived of that knowledge, but for those who lust for power that they are not qualified for.  Without the writings and counsel of the learned wise to say differently; who is there among you all who can dispute their claims, and upon what grounds? 

When a threat became evident in ancient times, the manifold Irish clans would come together as the fingers of one mighty fist, to repel the looters and invaders of their Emerald Isle.  Even among the wise, our propensity for infighting is famous, and not always in violent terms as you might imagine, but always passionately.  The arguments and debates of the learned bards are as legendary as any of Ireland's brawny heroes.  The Wittan, or Council of the Wise, was an ancient august body of the wisest of the wise, who sat at the same table and counseled how best to keep the balances of tribal powers, in such a way that all the clans may benefit and grow to their fullest potentials, or not, as in times when their policies became poisonous to others.  As Christianity became more adamant about destroying the culture and proponents of the Old Ways; self survival and preservation in secret became the priorities, and the Wittan was forced to be dispersed, and became unable to help our own.  Nobles could not allow themselves to be seen in the company of their former witch or druid advisors, and by this lack; they became easier prey for our mutual enemies.

     Among the warlock royal clans of the Anglo-Saxons and others, they became learned in the destructive arts of "divide and conquer".  Our people who would never formerly allow themselves, to be subject unto any others, now without the aid of their own wise counsel, became divided among themselves by their enemies, and unable to defend their common cultures or ancestral lands.  Time and again, this same strategy would be used to enter into many foreign lands and cultures, favoring one faction and inciting another until by means of the divisiveness, they commanded the land and resources of the diverse people they visited and established their "superiority" in how easily they blinded them to their hidden agendas and manipulated them into submission, murdering, raping and ravaging all they could get their greedy hands upon. 

The evil legacy of Rome's and England's tyrannical warlock elite continues in America to this day and shows not a single sign of stopping until there is nothing of value left anywhere for them to covet for themselves and all is destroyed beneath their boots.  BUT... among every people and culture on this planet, ancient blood is stirring and becoming aware of its situation and its proper place in this world.  I am only ONE, but I am speaking to ALL of you.  Not merely the Celtic clans, but every family on earth.  The kings of old had sired their bastards everywhere, and though you may never inherit a golden throne, you will be responsible to use your manifold genetic talents and resources to rule your very own wisely.  You have everything to lose if you do not reclaim your own power, and everything to gain if you do.  You should find this knowledge inspiring!

 

        Scrutinize the actions of your presumptuous rulers against their manifold broken promises, contracts and treaties, and break their power over you.  Cast off their chains and accept nothing with strings attached.  Recognize that the