Practical Witchery! by John Stormm (ebooks children's books free TXT) 📕

So, I stood up and voiced my opinion of this in the church council, and since they were determined anyway to do this: I broke off and withdrew my membership. My wife was certain that I was wrong to do so, and continues to this day, to attend and support this church. My decisions created divisions in my own household. But, in my own conscience: I could not relent. Then there were the prospective employers that insisted that my long hair would tarnish their image, and insisted that if I cut it short, they would be happy to hire me. People would look at me, and figure my political and moral leanings by the length of my hair. And they all truly could NOT have been more WRONG about it. Many figured me to be a biker dude. I drove a car, or I rode my mountain bike everywhere. I never owned a motorcycle. I knew a great many bikers, and they knew me, they had either been for or against me in a good many altercations that I wound up in the middle of. But I wasn’t “one of them”. Nor was I a member of every witch’s coven or psychic tea parties that I counseled with. As lovingly and as conscientiously as I knew how: I was helping them through their problems, and educating them to not fall victim to those again. Nothing more, and certainly nothing LESS!

In short: Long hair was a problem that I had to learn to surmount. There were a good many other problems and personal lessons that I had to learn, BECAUSE of my vows. But I became wiser and stronger, BECAUSE of how I keep my unbreakable Will and Word, before ALL powers, principalities and dominions. It was never intended to be easy on me. Strength, even physical strength, does not come by laying about thinking about having it... but by effort and resistance to opposing forces.

Using Runes in Divination...

Runes have been used by many ancient cultures. Even the Chinese I-Ching is but an Asian variant on the same theme. Numbers, letters, pictures (as in Tarot cards), ideograms, runes and sigils are used on some medium, to add some meaning or specific significance to drawing it out at random, and a fortune is cast, as it were. Many will use a leather or cloth mat, with sectors or quadrants inscribed upon it, to determine whether the runes signify past, present or future influences, or to whom they might be ascribed to in the equation. As there are so many, that many will swear to their efficacy: I will let you determine for yourselves, what to set up for this, or not at all, as you like. I’ve even used little glass bead runes, that were invisible when wet, in my Wizard’s Fountain. The methodology here was, to think of a question, reach into the fountain and draw out a rune, allow it to dry and determine from it’s meaning, the answer to your question. Many visitors to my apartment back then, loved to draw their own runes from my fountain. Many had visited me, specifically for that purpose alone sometimes. You can examine ALL the aspects of various divination systems to determine what, if any of them that you prefer best.

Now, as there are no fonts, and few pictures of many of the runes and sigils used for these, I need to take much of the rest of this directly out of my own “Book of Shadows” for your study and perusal. Indeed, I have already encouraged many of you to print yourself out, color copies of this book. Punch holes in them and put them into your own ringed binder, along with some notebook paper to add your own notes for your own grimoires, or witch’s notebooks. Such have always been jealously guarded in the past. But then, possessing such a tome could also be the most gruesome of death sentences back then. Not so much now though. So you’ll have to excuse some of my handwriting in the notes I’ve taken over the years. I include here a side-by-side comparison of different culture’s runes. Notice the extreme similarities of the Celtic and Norse Runes in this chart! It shows the common roots of BOTH cultures. The Tuatha de Danann (Children of Danu) had settled in Paleolithic times in the Danube River Valley, from whence it gets its name. We were once, ONE people!

There is MUCH contention, by various archeologists and academia about the use of “Blank Runes” and whether or not they were ever used or “valid” in rune readings. I need to point this out, at the beginning of this study: They ARE indeed VERY “valid”, and I will explain why as we go here.

First: If you are digging in ruins for artifacts of any kinds, and find a set of stone or tile runes; you can determine that they are “runes”, because runes are inscribed upon them. Obviously, people used them, or they would not be there. If, in the course of this digging; you found a stone or a piece of tile with nothing written on it: You *might* determine that it is either “just a stone”, or just a piece of broken tile, or perhaps an extra piece of either that can be used to make a new rune, if one of the others gets lost. But nobody, who does not use these for themselves and understand the relationships that these things need to signal to the readers, will ever likely know that it is also a rune. I will start our study with this Blank Rune.

The BLANK or Mystery Rune

WYRD - The Unknowable : The Hand of God Advice: This rune represents the unknowable, the musings of Divinity that you are not privy to, but may well be effected by for good or ill, as the case may be. It is telling you that certain aspects of what you are seeking are the direct result of God’s Hand moving in and about you. It does NOT mean that you are defenseless in a thing, but that you are required to stand in your own faith and seek your resolutions as such.

There is no Reverse to this Rune.

You’ll also note that these runes do not exactly follow the Roman Alphabet. There may seem to be letters missing, that were expressed in these ancient cultures in different ways among the Celts and the Norse.

In the process of teaching my own witch clan children their runes, along with their ABCs; as they began to learn to read and write with BOTH, we came up with our own secret, clan code or cypher that we used for each other, or to keep information we needed to be kept secret from snooping “muggles”. I included a copy of our old cypher here, for your entertainment and use, as you will.

     The point of this chapter is that there are a myriad of ways to "divine" something that intrigues you.  Every person has their own preferences.  Even if you're into Tarot Cards, you'll find ALL sorts of special decks that are tailored to the user's preferences.  No matter what you choose:  Don't go out "half cocked" over every little reading.  Try to confirm what you saw, using other methods.  My personal favorite way is:  To keep it in the back of my mind as a posibility.  When I see by watching the events and patterns around me, that this reading is coming to bear upon me:  I already have some idea of how I will deal with it, to circumvent any problems it may bring.  If we call ourselves "witches", "wizards" or other variants of words signifying "wisdom", then it stands to reason that we should be exercising such at all times.

Making Your Own Book of Shadows, or Witch's Notebook.

Due to failing health and multiple other time constraints, I won't be able to add as many other chapters to this book that I'd love to write for you. I could write for another ten years, and STILL have more to speak on.  "Practical Witchery!" is barely a taste of what there is to learn of ALL there is that will add to your knowledge and power. It is meant only to be a good starting point, that sets you OUTSIDE of the illusions and delusions of this present paradigm, where you can BEGIN to really see what is around you, and the true nature of what you are dealing with.

However, I think maybe we should discuss a bit about how YOU can craft your own Grimoire, Book of Shadows, or Witch's Notebook here. You can start by buying a simple spiral notebook, to leave by your bedside, to record some notes of what you were dreaming, just before you awoke, while still fresh in your mind. This will allow you to jot down some impressions, that will make them easier to recall later on. It will also create more neural pathways in your brain, between the Left and Right hemispheres, and amping up your I.Q. a little. Any worthy "doctor" or "scientist" will keep such notebooks handy, for ALL of the same reasons. Next, you may want to get a couple Three-Ring Binders, some ruled notebook paper to record things on. And some unruled notebook paper to draw diagrams and illustrations upon, for your personal grimoire. A hole puncher, to allow you to add other pages, pictures and illustrations for your future reference will help also. Some colored pens, pencils and such, will help you illustrate and highlight important notes and items. You may also wish to paint or decorate your notebook cover to suit your own taste and personality.

While you're at this: A color printer and the use of Adobe Reader or such, will allow you to print yourself out a color Hard Copy of "Practical Witchery!" that you can punch and put in such a binder, to add to your bookshelf for use in those times your technology may fail you. It would "normally" be a dubiously "illegal" thing to do, as some may feel you have violated their copyright laws, by not paying them more, every time to wish to read their works. But in THIS case: You have the Author's express permission... mainly *ME*. As I have dedicated ALL of MY written works to the edification and enlightenment of ALL of my earthly siblings (that's *YOU*). Within the illustrations of this book, you'll find a good