Tag Archives: Witchcraft

January 29, 2021 · 6:01 pm

Can I still do witchcraft without herbs or crystals? – Quora

pentacle

© Alex Sumner 2021

Ask yourself: why is there this herb or this crystal in the spell in the first place?

The person who originally came up with the spell didn’t put it there at random, they did so because they had a specific plan in mind – a specific reason. You work out what that reason was, and you may realise – there are other methods of achieving the same goal not necessarily using the original herbs or crystals, or indeed any at all.

So yes, if you can breakdown how and why spells are constructed you could do witchcraft without either herbs or crystals, even to the extent of learning to create your own spells. You might even realise that you know more than the person who originally wrote the spell!

Incidentally, I can offer my opinion about herbs and crystals which may help you. The main reason they are used in magic is because they have Astrological properties which coincide with the purpose of the spell. There is more than one way of invoking Astrological energies, this is the sort of thing which can be researched.

Or of course, you may get to the point where although you technically can work without herbs or crystals, you can make an executive decision that working with a herb or crystal is most convenient for you in a particular instance.

Source: Alex Sumner’s answer to Can I still do witchcraft without herbs or crystals? – Quora

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February 24, 2017 · 3:06 pm

Binding Trump

… and following straight on from my last post…


I read with amusement on Facebook today of apparently there are a load of witches in America who want to “bind” Donald Trump from doing any evil. Hmm! If they are powerful enough to do that to Trump, why didn’t they cast a spell to make sure he didn’t get elected in the first place???

Anywho. What I find most amusing though is how the organiser, a Mr Michael Hughes, attempts to justify his actions. I quote:

For anyone worried about their karma, Hughes writes that binding “seeks to restrain someone from doing harm” and is “differentiated from cursing or hexing, which is meant to inflict harm on the target(s).”

I hate to break it to Hughes, or to any witch that is considering taking part in this event that Binding is itself a form of Cursing. More precisely, they are both Curses, but a Binding is a Curse with an “unless” clause attached, i.e. it usually takes the form of “I curse you, so-and-so, unless you refrain from doing evil.”

If you do not believe me when I say that Binding is Cursing, ask yourself this: imagine that although the Binding spell works, Donald Trump tries to resist its effects as best he can. What do you suppose will happen to him if he does so?

If your answer is “nothing,” or something light and fluffy – then you have not actually succeeded in Binding him.

If however you answer that something unpleasant will happen to him, then that is the very definition of a Curse.

Don’t get me wrong. There is evil in this world, and sometimes one has to take robust measures… but one should not kid oneself that there will not be karmic consequences. If one were being honest with oneself, one ought to man-up and take ownership of the karma that arises from ones binding spells and what not! Binding is most definitely is not good against evil, it is about using evil to fight evil.

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July 16, 2014 · 10:56 am

You Will Not Believe The Advice This Guy Gives About Tarot Cards…

Pat Robertson, comedy televangelist

Pat Robertson, comedy televangelist

Tarot Cards are bad for your health and can give you violent stomach-ache! So you’d better stop eating them! Joking aside for one moment, that would actually have been far more sensible advice than that given by US Televangelist Pat Robertson to a woman who emailed into his show.

Apparently, a woman’s son experienced violent stomach pains when she prayed to him in the name of Jesus. She then emailed Robertson for advice. Now I am no Doctor, but I am a qualified First-Aider, and can tell you for nothing that if someone came to me with stomach pains I would firstly carry out a full Secondary Survey, and then – unless a specific medical condition indicated otherwise – call 111 (NHS Direct) or 999 (for an Ambulance) (i.e. in the UK) depending on how serious the patient’s condition apppeared.

Ah! But does Robertson do any of this? Does he even suggest getting checked out by a doctor at all? Erm no. He automatically assumes that it is caused by one of the woman’s ancestors having practiced witchcraft, or used tarot cards, and then recommends getting in an exorcist who really believes in spiritual warfare to sort this whole thing out.

Let’s just rewind for one second: it was when the woman prayed to Jesus that the boy felt sick. I suppose it would have been beyond Robertson to suggest, “Well stop praying to Jesus, then?”

Robertson is well-known in the USA as a particularly rabid right-wing televangelist. I have had to cause to mention his antics before on this blog in regard to his remarks on the 2010 Haitian Earthquake. Indeed, I noted at the time:

“Pat” apparently is not actually his real-name, but a childhood nickname derived from the fact that as a baby people liked to pat him a lot.

May I suggest that in the future he might consider changing it to Punch Robertson.

Alex’ own Tarot-themed novel, Taromancer, is now available in print and Kindle from Amazon.

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April 27, 2012 · 3:23 pm

Witchcraft: Punishing the Innocent Along With The Guilty Part 2

You can tell it’s been a slow-news day for me when I lower myself to reading something in The Independent, but here here goes.

Not long ago I reported on the successful conviction of Magalie Bamu and Eric Bikubi for the murder of Kristy Bamu. It now appears that in light of this, police are to be given specialist training to help child victims of “witchcraft.”

Well, I can confirm that I will not be the course-tutor for them, but if I were, here is the first piece of training I would give them: you can start by stop calling it “Witchcraft!”.

This is really just irrational “Fear of the Other.” Here is something they do not understand – a belief system from outside what a Middle Englander would call spirituality – so, being impoverished in terms of their vocabulary, the only name they can call it is “witchcraft.” Whereas we occultists know that witches are in fact quite nice people who do not practice any of the behaviours complained about.

Now, I’m no fan of political correctness, but I have to say that the Independent is being remarkably crass in its attempt to turn misunderstanding of a foreign culture into a salacious news story. Worse though: by labelling a violent and illegal activity or set of activities with the term “Witchcraft” they are managing to invent a whole new prejudice: WICCAPHOBIA.

Please, British newspapers! For once in your life try to educate and inform, instead of using every desperate measure to boost your circulation!

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March 2, 2012 · 8:54 pm

Witchcraft: Punishing The Innocent Along with the Guilty

In which I vlog about how the conviction of Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu for the murder of Kristy Bamu has been portrayed in the press.

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February 14, 2012 · 12:58 pm

Live! At The Witch Trials

 

Connie Booth as the witch from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Burn her anyway!

I read today in the Daily Telegraph of how authorities in Germany are reviewing the 400 year old case of a woman burned for witchcraft. What gets me though is that instead of just giving her a posthumous pardon, they are actually “resuming her trial.” 😮

Why??? As I said in a comment to another post, if modern standards of justice were applied to all those of accused of witchcraft in the past, they would all be acquitted, or their cases would never have come to trial in the first place, because (a) their acts would not nowadays be classed as crimes; (b) their confessions were obtained by torture (and hence would be inadmissable as evidence); and (c) it is doubtful that the allegations would be treated with anything other than scepticism anyway. I suppose that because of (stereo)typical German efficiency they have to go through the rigmarole of re-trying the woman in order to exonerate her.

However, before Wiccans start rejoicing, one should note that the present case is taking place not because of the efforts of a pagan activist but those of an evangelical pastor and religious education teacher. Therefore his agenda is not to prove that as a pagan she was not guilty, but as a Christian she was not guilty. The argument being that – like almost all of the 25,000 people accused of Witchcraft between 1500 and 1782 – they were almost all not Pagans, but Christians who had been wrongly accused.

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October 28, 2011 · 10:18 am

Which Witch?

Halloween is rapidly creeping up on us, so I was interested to read to day of a researcher who has collated a list of every single person who was ever tried for Witchcraft in Britain (including the Channel Islands) during the so-called “Burning Times,” (nb kids, most of them were hung!) i.e. from 1289 to 1712. A certain amount of circumspection must be taken with this list, as a significant number of people had their charges demonstrably trumped up: either because they were political enemies of the King of the time; or they were some other Undesirable e.g. being a Roman Catholic in Protestant Britain. However, here are the numbers suitably crunched.

The grand total of people tried was 320.

Of these the total number of people known to have received a “Fatal Sentence” – in which I have included both being executed and dying in prison – was 199 (62.2%). Of these,

  • 108 were hanged (33.8%)
  • 49 were burnt (15.3%)
  • 8 died in prison (2.5%)
  • 1 was hung, drawn and quartered (0.3%)
  • Whilst 33 (10.3%) were executed in an unspecified manner.

Of the remainder,

  • 2 (0.6%) escaped execution by fleeing the country;
  • 15 (4.7%) were given a Non-Fatal sentence (e.g. banishment, the pillory, imprisonment, dismissal from service, miscellaneous);
  • 6 (1.9%) were either pardoned or reprieved;
  • 36 (11.3%) were acquitted altogether;
  • Whilst the fate of 62 (19.4%) is unclear from the records available.

Source: http://www.fancydress.com/content/Witch_List

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June 4, 2011 · 10:30 am

“San Quentin, May You Rot and Burn In Hell.”

Is there a link between the Man In Black and the "Black Man" of traditional witchcraft sabbats? Of course not, I just made it up to get traffic!

Alas for Wiccans currently residing in California’s correctional system! It appears that a court has ruled that the state is not obliged to employ a Wiccan chaplain to minister to their needs. So says a number of news sources including, e.g. Courthouse News Service.

However, examining the story in detail it appears the truth is more complex – in fact most of the news sources seem to have misreported the judgement, for the sake of coming up with a lurid headline. What appears to have happened is that an enterprising Wiccan (not incarcerated), observing that  the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not currently employ a Wiccan chaplain, and the fact that there are 598 prisoners designated as “Wiccan” currently languishing in jail, sued the prison service for not employing him as a chaplain on the grounds that it breached the prisoners’ rights.

The court however recognised him for being a chancer, and pointed out that it would be for the prisoners to sue to vindicate their own rights – he did not have standing to do so himself. Hence he was not entitled to sue himself.

This has variously been summarised in the headlines as “California Prisons Don’t Have to Subsidize Wicca” but in fact the court ruling established no such thing. The court only ruled on a technicality – i.e. that one particular person was not entitled to sue – but not the general principle, which remains undecided – until Wiccan prisoners themselves sue the CDCR, which may yet happen.

Incidentally, I note that the Court has adopted a definition of Wicca which diverges from what most witches would recognise, to wit:

“faith groups consisting of Wiccans, Goddess worshipers, Neo-Pagans, Pagans, Norse Pagans (and any other ethnic designation), Earth Religionists, Old Religionists, Druids, Shamans, Asatrus, and those practicing in the Faery, Celtics, Khemetic, Gardnerian, Church of All Worlds, Reclaiming, Dianic, Alexandrian, Iseum of Isis, Reconstructionist, Odinist or Yoruban Traditions, and other similar nature-based faiths.”

In other words, the Court conflates “Wiccan” with “Pagan.” I am guessing that the reality of the situation in California is that those prisoners who have been labelled “Wiccan” are in fact members of different pagan traditions who have been bundled together under an arbitrary (and technically inaccurate) blanket tradition. In that sense it is unfortunate but probably wise for CDCR not to appoint a “Wiccan Chaplain,” as only one such Chaplain would not be able to cater to the spiritual needs of all the different pagan prisoners.

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February 11, 2011 · 1:40 pm

Voodoo Economics Part 2

The Sumner family Brain-cell has worked out a cunning plan for how the Witches in Romania can get back at their government. One of the Witches needs to get herself put on trial. She then offers to demonstrate to the court that she is genuine. Assuming the Judge is gullible, he says yes, whereupon the Witch delivers the punchline: “I predict that I will be found guilty and convicted.”

Remember the proposed new law threatens to punish fortune tellers if their predictions turn out incorrectly, this will cause the Judge’s brain to explode as he tries to work out the paradox. Moreover, the Witch will not be stuck in an endless Groundhog Day loop or pantomime of “You’re guilty! Oh no you’re not! Oh yes you are” etc because of the double-jeopardy rule.

Another witchy problem solved by Yours truly! 😉

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February 8, 2011 · 3:48 pm

Voodoo Economics

News today that after the Witch population of Romania attempted to put a hex on the government there for making witchcraft taxable, the legislature is retaliating by proposing a new law. If passed, it will punish soothsayers and fortune tellers if their predictions don’t come true. Needless to say this has grossly offended the local Witch population, with one even exclaiming of the proposed new law: “I will fight until my last breath for this not to be passed.”

Now let’s examine this in more detail. On the one hand, the Romanian government is saying to these women that they have to pay income tax whereas they did not before – if their predictions are correct. However, if their predictions are false they can be fined or sent to prison! Trial by ducking stool would be fairer than this.

Moreover though, consider this. The advice of a professional racing tipster or stock-market analyst is just as much conjecture as that of a Witch – with the possible difference that one conjecture is less superstitious than the other. However, neither the tipster nor the analyst goes to jail if he makes a mistake – so why should the Witch?

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