The  operations of magic and witchcraft deal with the hidden worlds of spirit and  the powers innate within the natural world; within plant, stone and magical  loci. The ‘Old One’, who in folk  tradition is often named ‘The Devil’ embodies both the ‘rend in the veil’ and  the spanning bridge between the worlds of the material and spiritual, the  revealed and the hidden. It is through union with this entity that witches and  folk magicians gained access to the powers that reside within the hidden realms  and the natural world, and could awaken the potent fire within.                                  In  traditional folk belief, the Devil existed also as an embodiment of the chaotic  forces of nature; a belief quite distinct and separate from that of the Church  with its ‘Satan’ figure. To the witch, he might also represent the ‘darker’  aspects of the divine; the keeper and the revealer of the divine light, the  psychopomp guide of souls, and the sentinel at the threshold unto the mysteries of  death and the Otherworld.                  Something,  it would seem, of the ‘elder divinity’ and the old ‘spirit of the wild’ has  lingered through to the present; permeating regional faery lore, the calendar  of ritualistic seasonal folk-customs, and traditions attached to ancient landscape  features. The themes of untamed, wild  nature; its freedom, its spirits, its power and its magic, so repugnant and  threatening to the Church, were grafted onto the diabolical; affording yet  greater preservation of the Old One for those who sought to stray from the path  of limitation and conformity, and tread instead the hidden ways of the witch  and magician.                  Historical  witch-lore records varied rites of initiatory contact, via which the worker of  magic and witchcraft entered into a close, working relationship and union with  the Old One and the spirit world. Via such union, would the ways unto curing ailments,  exorcising ill influence, the attainment of desires, and the destruction of the  oppressive be known, and the old artes of the circle, the spirits, the knotted  cord, the pierced candle, the witch-bottle, the magical image and the spoken,  inscribed and herbal charms be mastered.                  From  this wellspring of inspiration ‘The  Devil’s Dozen’; a modern ‘gramarye’, or ‘black book’ of thirteen Craft  rites of the Old One has been created and is offered by a present day initiate  of the ‘Old Craft’                  Within  its pages there are to be found thirteen rites – for both the ‘lone’ practitioner  and the assembled companie – of vision, sacred compact, dedication, initiation,  consecration, empowerment, protection, illumination, union, transformation and   devotion.

‘They are my own creations all;   given in hope that they may provide usefulness or inspiration, and each a  personal offering of devotion unto the starlit and smoking altar of the Old  One’ (from the introduction).

For more information, visit: www.gemmagary.co.uk

How does too much power drive someone insane? Well, you don't have to be in control to be crazy, but that can definitely be a cause. In the book The Devil's Dozen and in Macbeth, you will see that when someone feels like they have total control of something, they feel like the own everything and they go psycho. They start doing thing they wouldn’t normally do which could get them into trouble, just like what occurred in these books.