The Core Of Witchcraft Is Transgression
Article by Georgina Rose.
“The Witches Sabbat” by Francisco Goya.
Witchcraft, despite what people seem to believe in popular culture and online esoteric milleus, is a rather specific form of magick. Throughout human history, magick has been divided into two camps by societal legal systems, the good magick and the bad magick. The good magick performed by righteous holy men turning the eucharist into a sacrament of Christ and the bad magick performed by women in the woods dancing naked with the Devil. Even before the rise of the Abrahamic faiths, this dichotomy existed, there were the pious theurgists and miracle workers, then those who defied moral law with their craft, the sorcerers, the witches.
To take on the term witch is to take on a mantle of oppression that has lasted since the dawn of humanity. The witch has always been associated with defying the law, defying moral order, and crossing the line. Witch is an adversarial term, one that inherently possesses an air of defiance. It has never been acceptable to be a witch, until now. In modern times, many people identify with the term witch, and many practitioners who do not claim this title are called it. While it is amazing that being a witch does not result in any severe penalty, this does dilute what witchcraft really is. Witchcraft does mean something, it is not just all magick, and while it is great that witchcraft is more acceptable, diluting down the essence of witchcraft into nothing is a spiritual travesty.
Witchcraft, despite the stigma, is not inherently evil. This is one of the greatest lies of human history. Witchcraft is demonized, because it provokes fear in others, as it crosses boundaries, crosses thresholds, and steps into spiritual subjects that most people are afraid of. That does not mean it is evil. Not at all. In spirituality, there is divinity, there is God, in many places, not just places that we perceive of us “traditionally sacred”. God exists everywhere, God flows through everything, and there is no place that is without the divine essence of the Godhead.
Witchcraft is based around a few fundamental principles, these are what distinguish it from other esoteric disciplines: transgression, liminality, a connection to the folk, and a reverence for the land. The first principle is the most important one, the one that the vast majority of similar esoteric traditions lack. To transgress is to go against, to defy. In a spiritual context, transgression is any ritual action that goes against established boundaries, norms, and mundane expectations. A common example of transgression in witchcraft is the utilization of poison plants in a ritual context. The infamous verse in Exodus, in the Bible, Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Witch To Live, does not actually use the word witch in its original translation, it uses the word veneficia. This term literally translates into English as poisoner.
Poison plants are deeply woven into the history of witchcraft. In Christian Europe, the most common accusation against alleged witches was that they would take a poisonous salve, apply it to a broom handle, insert the broom vaginally, then they would fly out of their bodies to a mountaintop in Germany, wherein they would dance with the devil, making evil deals and plots. It is worth noting that this story is told by accusers, not witches themselves. This salve, or flying ointment, was made out of a few plants such as: datura, henbane, mandrake, and belladona, though some recipes did use other plants. This ointment was entheogenic, or able to induce spiritual experiences through intoxication. The idea of using poison plants, plants that we associate with death, for something spiritual is inherently transgressive. Humans are designed to fear these things, to run from them with every cell of their body, yet the witch does not. The witch embraces these plants, sees the light within them, the spiritual potential they hold, and embraces them.
The most extreme form of transgression that a person can undergo is to escape the body, our mortal tether to the earth. The idea of sabbatic flight, or leaving the body for spiritual communion, is an extreme form of this. In truth, any form of astral type work, a common feature in witchcraft-based practices, is deeply transgressive. We are not supposed to exit our bodies, and these practices are known to hold many spiritual perils, yet the witch does this.
In modern witchcraft traditions, particularly British Traditional Wicca, nudity is used in a spiritual context. In most spiritual traditions, it is typical to cover up when invoking the divine, to put on long sleeves and veils. In witchcraft, the opposite is done. In many rituals, the practitioner chooses to be naked, to be skyclad. This forces the practitioner to face their naked self, to face what they are afraid of, and pushes them to be willing to do something fundamentally uncomfortable to get closer to divinity. As well, it forces the ritualist to question our human-centric spiritual tendencies, to question why we see ourselves as so above the animals and the trees, connecting them back to the earth. It is worth noting not all witchcraft traditions utilize such practices, but that to do is transgressive.
The spirituality of witchcraft is a dionsyian approach that allows for dancing, screaming, and singing. The witch does not simply silently meditate, they fully allow release. There is a reason why many witchcraft traditions utilize dance, chanting, and even screaming. It is transgressive to worship in a way that does not seem contained, controlled. In our modern society, our idea of spiritual practice, of spiritual enlightenment, is a path of control, of this stereotypical asceticism, the witch does not go this way. As well, the witch does not reject the material, while the witch may leave their body, they do not reject the material at all. They sense there is God here, even in the ground.
Witchcraft is an earth-based tradition. It is one of the land, of this place, and of this moment. It is about honoring the spirits of the land, aligning with the powers of nature, and involves Gods and Goddesses that relate to such themes. As well, witchcraft is folk magick, it is of the people. While these themes overlap across traditions, there are regional traditions, national traditions, and traditions of each people group. Witchcraft connects to where the person is, even if the underlying current is universal. Each place has a specific witchcraft with specific practices. Witchcraft is unstructured, unorganized, and does not require being adjacent to any established or elite groups. There are some modern witchcraft traditions, such as Wicca and Sabbatic Witchcraft, that are structured though.
Witchcraft exists within the realm of the liminal. The liminal is the place between places, the in between. This is typically avoided by esoteric traditions, but is a fixture of witchcraft. Witchcraft sees the power in this and embraces it. This is why witchcraft is so associated with locations such as the crossroads, or hours between midnight and dawn, because these moments are liminal. Within any liminal space, there is a profound spiritual power that intensifies the impact of any particular spiritual working. Everything amps up in those places, and in those moments, and witchcraft does not cower from this.
Witchcraft is specific. It may have many forms, and many variants, but the underlying current remains the same. This current is not present in the vast majority of magickal systems, even within other earth-based folk magick systems. To call oneself a witch is to take on the full weight of one of the most historically loaded archetypes. It is to reclaim a title that many people died over. To do such a thing is heavy and the first art of spiritual transgression that a witch undertakes. This is not to be taken on lightly or without care, and practitioners who do not fit these criteria should not do such a thing. Witchcraft does mean something, despite what modern spiritual spaces seem to believe.
