#cunningskill

It is often the job of someone who keeps spirits or who lives in service to spirits to mediate between them when they are not sharing space peacefully in your life. Sometimes our spirits have different personalities which can cause discord and upset in the lives of the practitioner. I myself have recently stumbled upon this issue with one of the  spirits I have worked with the longest (Nicnevin) and the newest (Diana).  If you notice a theme here you would be correct, both Witch mothers,keepers of cunning, and mothers of spirits, Fair folk, and Fata etc. 

I keep relationships with these spirits because they help me learn Witchcraft and magic. But what they needed to understand was they had different things to teach me. Nicnevin oversees my study of Scots-Irish Cunning, and Diana, my Italian-American cunning.  I became aware that Nicnevin was blocking interactions between Diana and myself for  feeling a bit neglected, I apologized, and gave offerings and told them my expectations moving forward. And I prayed fervently to them as well as la Madonna. And the situation quickly sorted itself out  after that. 

Normally offerings, fervent prayer, and healthy personal boundaries are enough to sort out this issue UNLESS within your system/tradition there are spirits who canonically don't get along then it would be wise to listen and enshrine them in separate spaces and follow your system/traditions procedures to handle this. So much of the discourse on Spirit work today is just fear mongering, when we could be talking about the responsibility it takes to tend to spirits, And how to troubleshoot effectively without panicking.  

This situation wasn’t dire. It was unpleasant and needed to be corrected in case it escalated. And sure I know of practitioners who had full on poltergeist-like phenomena and curses like Anomalies happening when they let this go for too long, but when you keep up with your spirits check in regularly it's really a non issue. Moral of the story is to tend to your spirits. Also  you do not need to keep a hundred spirits. 

I'm convinced that the Cunning Folk were the Witches they fought against. And the Witch was a moral judgment, who was the cunning person and who was the Witch was only determined by the situation and the work they were doing. if you did the curse you were the witch, if you removed it you were the cunning person. However, that cunning person who removed the curse could just as easily curse someone else. As different as the cunning arte supposedly was/is from Witchcraft they are too similar in philosophy and magic to be distinct systems.

Historical works of Witchcraft that deal directly with the powers of the Land are common. If one has the friendship or alliance of the spirits of the ground or the spirits of the Land in a place, remarkable and potent outcomes can be brought into existence without much effort.

In the dittay written against Andro Man, one of the things he was accused of happened to be a potent Tellurian or Saturnian working in which the local spirit-guardian or spirit-power of a place had a portion of land measured out and devoted to him. It was measured in the form of a square or a rectangle, and four special stones were “charmed” or enchanted, then placed or buried in the four corners of that measure.

This local power was thought of as a “spirit” by Andro Man, but certainly as the Devil by those conducting the proceedings against him. Andro gave the name he called this spirit: the Hynd Knight.

In Scots, Hynd (pronounced “hend”) means “kind” or “gentle”- and the title “knight” is often applied to powerful spiritual beings in certain strains of folklore. The 'Elf Knight' of legend is not only a name given to spirit-beings who fall under the category of elves or faeries; it is a name given to the Devil, as well.

'Hynd Knight' or 'Hynd King' are both titles that could be applied to the Devil or even to beings like Christsonday, alongside any sufficiently powerful spirit-entity."

-Robin Artisson, from "Upon the Rood-Day: The Witchcraft of Christsonday and the Queen of Elphen".

Recently On two separate occasions, i have been approached online by fellow practitioners who wanted to know my experience being a practicing Witch and modern cunning person while being treated for and living with mental illness.

firstly It is not easy, i often go through periods of time where i cant bring myself to practice. it took me three years to get back to my spirits and my craft. All through covid season I found myself unable to connect ( without saying too much, my Covid living situation was less than ideal, and completely retraumatizing) I felt powerless and therefore i was.

I was thankful for my amazing therapist and our weekly sessions via Skype, it was therapy and a strong support system that got me through the lockdown. But i was lost without my magic and the spirits that i have come to get to know.

it wasn't until this year that I started to connect again. stepping back into my personal power as a person, and as a Witch. My Witchcraft demands that I rise when i fall, My spirits demand that I always try again. you can call it ataraxia, apotheosis, or self-individuation but that seems to be what i strive for. never letting myself stagnate, stagnation like my avoidant coping isn't living, it's more like a living death.

I for one would like to live as much as i can, experience as much as i can, learn as much as i am able, and accomplish things i have always wanted to accomplish. my Sever Dissociative disorder has hindered much of my life and now at 31 years old im finishing my associate's degree, and looking forward to my BA program and in the future grad school ( for a MA in clinical psychology).

Witches don't bow, we don't surrender, and our Will and Desire is made manifest by our work and arte. no one is a fault for enduring trauma and mental illness we are all innocent, however, all people are responsible for the healing of that trauma, and for Witches, mystics, cunning folk, etc that work is a must, it connects us to our will. As people and as Witches We must always become.

And yes, its easier said than done. but nothing worth doing is easy , magic itself is not an easy task. But for us to have honest spiritual experiences those of us who experience mental illness must work toward healing, it is important. now read what i said, we must work towards healing, not be healed. in my opinion, the journey seems far more important than the destination. ever moving to self-betterment as much as one is able.

That is how i practice magic and live with mental illness, with empathetic and compassionate radical self-honesty. therapy, magic, and spirit work. This is not a perfect process healing is not linear,  "healing isn't a task, it's a practice"

Before I get into this I want to say that this post is not to cause debate or argument. this is only to give facts and useful sources, that debunk popular myths about what Wicca is and what it is not.

Wicca is predominantly influenced by The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which one who has read anything about ceremonial magic will see in the Wiccan ritual structure. most of what you all think you know about Gerald Gardner is from TikTok as all the talking points remain the same, and still prove to lack any real historical knowledge of the man or the religion of Wicca. Now keep in mind i am NOT an initiate in traditional Wicca, and i do NOT practice the Wiccan religion. However, I have met some very intelligent Initiates.

you may know one of them Dr. Cory Thomas Hutcheson PhD author of New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic (Llewellyn Worldwide 2021) which is an OUTSTANDING book if you don't already have it. I have had the pleasure to sit on a presentation of Cory's at the University of Pennsylvania ( A university with global renown) another name you might know is Thorn Mooney who is currently in her PhD program. I have never had the pleasure to meet Thorn in person but have spoken with her a few times on social media. ( I would like to add that both Cory and Thorn have graduate degrees in relevant topics. Thorn's is in comparative religion focusing on modern religious movements, and Cory has his Ph.D. in folklore you can see the focus of his work on the back of New World Witchery.

Both of these highly educated people are initiates in traditional Wicca. Now Thorn writes and vlogs exclusively about trad wicca, she is an outstanding resource. She has 2 books currently out, and one she is currently writing, she also has YEARS of content on her youtube and tik tok.

so let me get to what brought me here, someone on here shared a post that said "Wiccan beliefs are not witchcraft rules. That's all. Carry on." the replies got kinda spicy. which fundamentally I agree with, we are not bound by the traditional ethics, creeds etc of traditions of which we are not a part of. However their is a lot of misconceptions about Wicca here is a short but sweet article by Thorn Mooney. that clears up a few misconceptions very briefly. https://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2702.

Trad Wiccans ARE in fact Witches, if you are a none initiate you know nothing of actual Wicca. Formally Wicca is a mystery tradition and therefore keeps its secrets closed to outsiders. the neo-wicca you all know and hate is an amalgam of new age thought and outer court wicca, which occurred in the 70s when the hippy movement met the Wiccan religion which was migrating to the States at the time. This is to ALL pagans, Witches, Wiccans, folk magicians, occultists etc know your history before you have an opinion. “A fool is known by his speech, and a wise man by silence.” — Pythagoras I only say this to you as someone who needed a good slice of humble pie myself at one time.

oh btw, another source for trad wicca is a YouTuber by the name of Jack Chanek. he's knowledgeable, well-spoken, and formally initiated into Trad Wicca.

so in conclusion let's be careful of where we get our information on topics related to this stuff, while it's all worth hearing it's not all correct. also, i understand that some of what i said was critical but i did not mean it maliciously, I too once thought I knew it all. we all have to be gathered in at times. i hope this can lead you to better sources to understand real Wicca.

Best Wishes.