Okay it’s hard to come across a specific model that covers all covens that practice initiatory Wicca from Tradition British Witchcraft‘s founders: Gerald Gardner and Alexander Saunders.
Both men claim to not be the start of something new, but there is a little written evidence of what came before and it would appear they were a bottleneck for whatever came through so it is to their writings that I search for an answer to the light that has flooded these these traditions.
I tend to avoid too many offshoots because no human alive has the time to study every offshoot of an initiatory tradition and so many offshoots live for so short a time because they failed to capture the light of what was taught before. What I seek after is a core of the tradition which has remained unchanged in the last 50 years. This at least has more chance of holding the light and truth, which inspired so many and continues to inspire.
1st Degree – Birth and Growth
In the triple goddess who featured in so much of Robert Graves writing in the White Goddess this degree would relate more to the maiden, than the mother or crone. The initiate is new and young to the craft, they would have so much potential to bare fruit in their future, but that potential has not yet been activated.
OTO Heritage
Wicca initiations have OTO heritage, which many wiccans try to deny. In the OTO, the I degree is based on birth which is something it in turn takes from Masonry. It follows a Minerval degree where the initiate is “drawn the solar system to incarnate” so there is some relation to the solar system here. Perhaps would could say the initiate is born in a solar system and therefore exposed for the first time to the astrological rays of light from each planet, in particular the sun and moon, which feature so much in Thelema and Wicca. During this ritual, rope is tied around the initiation making a triangle standing on its apex which is the alchemical symbol for water. Since this is water it is associated with receptivity and passivity. I have other knowledge I am bound not to comment on, but it confirms my suspicion that this triangle symbolises the initiate being a receptacle for divine light, like a chalice.
Death and Rebirth
The Farrar’s comment on how every initiation is like a death and rebirth ritual. This is particularly true when consider the Buddhist philosophy that every moment changes us and in doing so our “old self” if there is such a thing is gone and a “new self” if there is such a thing replaces it.
Patricia Crowther’s biography supposedly comments on a vision she had when initiated where she were bound and required to crawl through a tunnel of legs shaped by like vagina once again echoing the symbolism of birth that I mentioned in the previous section.
Acted on not acting by their own volition
In “A Witches Bible” by the Farrars, the author, I think for this part Janet Farrar, mentions that an initiate is pushed into the circle and pushed around deosil. This is consistent with the suggestion above that the initiate is in a newborn state unable to act for themselves at this time.
This initiate also receives the 5 fold kiss. A ritual kiss in multiple places to draw a pentagram and downward pointing triangle. Any qabalist should be able to understand the downward pointing triangle. Sadly my lips must remain sealed. The initiate passively receives this kiss like a newborn being acted upon, but taking no action themselves.
This also occurs in Wicca in the Drawing down of the moon ritual where the moon goddess is drawn down into a priestess. This likely originated with the consecration of the elements (and priestess) in the Gnostic Mass Liber XXV, where the priestess receives a kiss in the centre of her chest and 5 stars over her body in places which are probably relevant to the tree of life, if you permit me to draw inferences. In both these ritual this is done to consecrate the initiate to become a recipient of the downward flow of divine light from the infinite. Again emphasis of the word recipient. This is passive to the flow.
Vulnerability
In “A Witches Bible” by the Farrars, the author mentions that the initiation ritual a measure of the body of the initiate is taken with red string and there is suggestion that some covens might also take a lock of hair. These things could be used to perform sympathetic magic on the initiate putting them in a vulnerable state to the coven. The vulnerability is once again is experienced by a newborn so this is consistent with the hypothesis of the the first degree as a newborn. Also was once common for a baby to be measured in similar ways including height and weight.
The initiate is also bound so they are unable to walk, just like a baby. Eventually the chord is cut and inferences are drawn connecting the chord to the umbilical chord. Like after the birth of a baby.
Courage and Careful
This ritual uses an initiation technique which originated from freemasonry which is to initiate a person on the point of a sword or dagger. So they must have courage to walk ahead, but you must be careful so as not to rush and thus impale themselves on the blade.
Initiated in the East
The initiate is first initiated in the east the place of the rising sun. This is taken from their Masonic heritage through the OTO.
Whips
Some covens give whips to the initiate using a scourge. The initiate is whipped 3 times, then 7 times, then 9 times and then 21 times. I sadly cannot record why I believe the following is so without breaking some oaths, but I believe that these numbers refer to the following things. I might be wrong because they would only be significant first degree and they show up again later, but I can only assume because the numbers provide Gardner an opportunity to present his three-fold law for which I have so little sympathy and demonstrate the movement from passive to active in the ritual (the intiate does some of the whipping in 2nd degree and all of it in 3rd degree).
- 3 sacred “lights” of Wicca and the 3 degrees of Wicca:
- the athame or magic sword,
- the cup, and
- the book of shadows.
- 7 initiates required to initiate (also related to the 7 classical heavenly bodies the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn also when a child is born they are suddenly exposed to the astrological rays for the first time why their birth is so important in determining their natal chart.
- 9 the months for which the baby is gestating in the womb.
- 21 the years until a person could be reasonably be educated and in profession (in 1920s the age of marriage without parental and the drinking age was legal changed to 21 so it was certainly considered the age self responsibility in the early 20th century).
Ritual tools
In this ritual the initiate is given all the tools they need to perform magic, but no instruction in their use.
A Baby Does not a Witch Make
My initiator into a Wiccan circle would not forgive me if I did not leave this last comment. At the end of this ritual a person may call themselves a priest/priestess and a witch, which goes at odds with being newly born. The definition of the word witch is someone who practices witchcraft which a baby cannot. This word is someone who must be active. A baby is entirely passive to everything and while this initiate was passive during some of the initiation which ended with 21 whips with the scourge, which likely symbolise making them a fully grown woman or man of an age that they would be learned in their vocation. It is possible however that the triangle of ropes mentioned earlier is symbolic of the baby like state of receptivity of the initiate.
2nd Degree – Empowerment
I will expand on this at the proper time.
In the Triple Goddess which features in so much of Robert Grave’s The White Goddess this ritual could be considered to be related to the mother. The mother has incredible power which she has demonstrated in the fruit that her actions have bared. This is consistent with the empowerment I see in the rest of the ritual.
The initiate is whipped and returns the whipping to the initiator demonstrating that they have taken a more active role in their craft at this point. The initiator has power to act, but they have power to act back.
Gerald Gardner is so concerned that the candidate can demonstrate actual power that he chooses now to give the threefold law , which I do not believe in. It is as though up till this point he was not concerned about the moral actions of the initiate because he did not see them as empowered. Here he feels the need to caution them about their actions to ensure their actions are moral going forward. The initiate has the power to act magically following this ritual.
In the OTO the name openly used in association with the II degree is “The Magician” which also implies the ability to act magically. This name is
In A Witches’ Bible by Janet Farrar and Stewart Farrar the phrase “I will all my power into three” once again confirms this as the ritual of empowerment.
Also in their version of this initiation ritual the initiate is given instruction of the use of the tools. This is another demonstration that magical empowerment is accessible to the initiate now.
In this ritual the initiate is brought around the four directions and introduced to the “Guardians of the Watchtower” of each Elements. This is likely a reference to the Watchtowers of the elements in English Enochian magic which had such a huge influence on Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ritual and then on OTO magic which Wicca has inherited. This is symbolic of the initiate being introduced to the entire universe and according to Eliphas Levi it “represents the tetradic equilibirum of the elements”. It is from this state of equilibrium that an initiate can perform magic.
This ritual foretells the death to come in the ending ritual, which appears in A Witches’ Bible by Janet and Stewart Farrar. In this story however the ritualist befriends death but does not yet succumb to death’s threats.
To conclude in every way this ritual focuses on the magical empowerment of the witch.
3rd Degree – Death, Unity and Conception
I will expand on this at the proper time.
In this ritual the initiator is whipped and the initiate is not acted upon by the initiator so much anymore. I believe the reason the initiator is so passive to this is likely something taken over from Masonry. In the Masonic third degree your initiator is playing the part of Hiram Abiff who dies in the course of the ritual so can no longer act. You must enact much of the ritual for him. It is at this degree in masonry where you are fully prepared and able to initiate others.
In this ritual the initiate is taught the Great Rite so they act ritualistically and explore the mystery of conception potentially replacing the dead initiator with a baby so the cycle can continue in the same way the ritual word was replaced in the Masonic third degree. The divine child of the symbolic union is however consumed by the circle in the form of the Eucharist.
Importance of the 7 witches present appears in the 1st degree is made clear in the ritual words from the great rite which are taken from the Gnostic Mass, “O Queen most secret, bless this food unto our bodies bestowing health, wealth, strength, joy, peace, the fulfillment of Will, and Love under Will” which equate directly to the classical heavily bodies (all except the sun and moon in order, since this ritual represents the conjunction of these and they form such an important part of Thelema they are kept till last.
- Health – Mercury
- Wealth – Venus
- Strength – Mars
- Joy – Jupiter
- Peace – Saturn
- The Fulfillment of Will – Sun
- Love under Will – Moon.
These must be present at birth so the candidate is acquainted with these powers.
So in conclusion this ritual was about death before it was inherited by Wicca, but since then it had begun to focus on the teaching the Great Rite.