CHRISTIAN MAGICIANS
The number one most important thing you need to know about Cunning Craft is that it is a Christian system of folk magic. Its practitioners were (and are) Christians, some Catholic, mostly Protestant. They were not underground pagans, Witches, Wiccans, Druids, Heathens, or any other current magico-religious movement you care to name. Not that I have anything against any of these paths you understand (in fact, I started out my magical career as a die hard Wiccan, then Druid, then Heathen, before discovering none of them were for me), this is just not what Cunning Folk were. In fact, this modern notion of painting them as pagans who hid behind a veneer of Christianity to avoid detection and persecution, would make them turn in their graves. Of course there were varying degrees of belief, as there are now. Some were extremely devout, regular churchgoers, some were less pious but still active in the church community, and others were Christian but opposed an organised clergy and church, preferring to worship alone. Still others were Christian in name only, rarely attending church or knowing little of church doctrine. But even these last would never describe themselves as pagans or witches.
We have a fine
tradition here in the UK of what I will call secular Christians –
that is, people who tick Church of England on the census, but who
are largely ignorant of all but the most basic Christian theology,
and only ever go to church for weddings, christenings and funerals
(and maybe the odd carol service). I know dozens of people like
this and I expect you do too. Usually this stems from the fact that
they know they believe in something,
but they have never taken enough real interest in religion to look
into it, and after all, Anglicanism is ingrained in British society,
and is probably what their parents ticked on the census too. My mum
is a perfect example of this type of person. If this is you as well,
that's fine!
But,
you say, I'm not even a secular Christian, I am a
neopagan/Witch/Wiccan (choose one), can I still practise Cunning
Craft? The answer is no. The practises are built on a Christian
world view, theology and scripture. The bible, holy family,
sacraments and other Catholic holdovers (often dismissed as 'popish'
superstition by historical authorities) are an intrinsic part of the
work. If you cannot recite psalms or call upon the power of Christ
sincerely and with passion and genuine intent, this path is not for
you. If your appeal to Jehovah is a token gesture, or rushed
through, or mumbled half heartedly, or recited drearily in rote
fashion as a child in school, your workings will fail. How can you
call upon something to aid you if you don't believe it is real?
Your mouth will be saying one thing but your heart and mind will be
thinking 'I don't believe in what I'm saying, these prayers and
scriptures are bull', and this will cancel the effect of any magic
you are trying to create.
Okay,
you say. Well in that case I'll just strip out all of the
Judeo-Christian bits from the practise and either leave them out
entirely or substitute them for calls to pagan gods and goddesses.
Fine, you go ahead. Just take a quick look at a small sample of the
charms, spells and ceremonies in the handbooks and grimoires.
That's a lot of rewriting to do. The
power behind the charms and ceremonies of Cunning Craft comes from
God, the models of much of the spells are ecclesiastical rites, and
the whole framework is based on Christian symbolism. If you strip
all of this away, and I mean all,
because you cannot just switch the word Jesus for Cernunnos, and the
sign of the cross for the sign of Osiris slain and expect everything
to make sense, then you are left with practically nothing, so you
might as well practise something else anyway.
The
short, blunt, perhaps painful truth for some of my readers is this –
if you cannot identify as a Christian, be it Catholic, Protestant,
Methodist, or Quaker, devout, secular or middle of the road, you
cannot practise true Cunning Craft. You don't have to go to church,
abstain from sex before marriage, and fast on a Friday, but you do
need to be able to call on the Holy Trinity and believe in what you
are saying and who you are appealing to. If you can't do this,
Cunning Craft is not for you. If you self identify as a pagan of any
kind, Cunning Craft is not for you. Take up something else because
you will be frustrated in this endeavour. If this offends you, you
might as well stop reading now because it's not going to get any
better.
Sorry
to make this point so long but it has to be said. I see so many self
styled 'Cunning Folk' these days who when you look into their
beliefs, they spout on about the Horned God and the Goddess,
summerlands, reincarnation, rule of three etc., things which have
NOTHING to do with true Cunning Craft. These people are trying to
claim what is essentially a Christian practise as their own and
twist it to make it pagan. As a result, there are so few people
performing real British Cunning Craft now that it is in danger of
dying out, and people are believing nonsense such as historical
practitioners were secretly pagan and were the ancestors of today's
witches. Thankfully a small revival seems to be taking place with
the recent publication of some excellent and well researched books.
I can only hope my writings will add to this revival, keep the
spirit alive, and create some more Wise Men and Women.
SERVICE PROVIDERS
There is so much more to working with clients than just knowing the spells and techniques. You have to have empathy, authority, control, discretion, accounting, marketing and organising skills, the ability to 'read' people's body language, to ask the right questions, timekeeping... the list goes on and on. Having a customer service background is an advantage. Some students are real people persons and really click with clients and understanding their needs straight away. For most people it takes a few years of time and practise. A small few will never manage it. I am going to discuss the 'mechanics' of working with clients in this blog – as in the consultation procedure, how to structure and cost different services etc. - but I will not teach business skills or people skills. Those you will have to learn yourself. I recommend a government funded business basics course, and a customer service course such as those offered to waiters or retail staff.
SEMI PROS
I still have a few more points to make but this is getting quite long and it is past my bedtime, so I will save them for the next post.
To be continued...
Q et I