{"collection":"bos","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bos/msg0020.htm","path":"bos/msg0020.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bos/msg0020.htm","text":"Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999]\n\u2018He Casts the Circle\u2019\nMelissa Seims\nIn August 1959, Gerald Gardner received a letter from Carl Weschcke, owner and CEO of the American occult publishing house, Llewellyn. Carl, having read Gardner\u2019s books, had written to ask him if he had any knowledge about a device called the \u2018witches cradle\u2019 which he had seen mentioned in William Seabrook\u2019s book Witchcraft, It\u2019s Power and Influence Today. The \u2018witches cradle\u2019 was a suspended \u2018cage\u2019 that purportedly heightened psychic sensitivity through the use of restraints, combined with a monotonous swinging motion. Gardner replied that he had not come across such a contraption, or its use in the Craft, and went on to say \u201cI have asked many of the older witches, and none of them had ever heard of it.\u201d After a few more letters had been exchanged, Gardner referred Carl to several other people including Margaret Bruce and Charles Clark, for further discussion.\nCarl first wrote to Charles in 1961, the beginning of an exchange that was to last about 20 years. In one letter from 1968, Charles mentioned to Carl that he had \u201csome copies of the late G. B. Gardner\u2019s Rituals that he sent me [Charles] for opinions from time to time,\u201d and wondered if Carl would be interested in them. When Gardner had still been alive, Charles and he had discussed the publication of material and Gerald had agreed that this may help people better understand the Craft, and what it was about.1 Consequently, Charles packaged the papers up and sent them to Carl in April 1969. Extracts from them were published in Llewellyn\u2019s magazine Gnostica, but they really came to light when Aidan Kelly obtained photocopies and subsequently wrote about them in his book Crafting The Art of Magic, where the term \u2018Weschcke Documents\u2019 was first coined.\nThe \u2018Weschcke Documents\u2019 are a collection of papers consisting of 38 typed pages of \u2018Gardnerian\u2019 ritual material, including all eight Sabbats, \u2018The Old Laws\u2019, three ways of forming the circle, \u2018To Gain the Sight\u2019, \u2018The Eightfold Way\u2019, the three degrees, consecrations, various versions of The Charge and Amalthean Horn, as well as a copy of \u2018The Witches Chant\u2019 (which many now know as \u2018The Witches Rune\u2019). Many of them also have handwritten amendments on them, in what appears in most cases, to be Gerald Gardner\u2019s own handwriting. During the 1950s, documents like these were sometimes sent to new initiates for them to copy into their own personal Books of Shadows.\nThose of you who have seen Gerald\u2019s writing will know what a \u2018scrawler\u2019 he was, and how bad his spelling appears to have been. Aidan Kelly suggests that he was marginally dyslexic,2 Philip Heselton considers Gardner\u2019s poor English and phonetic way of spelling, to be a consequence of his lack of formal education,3 and Ronald Hutton has suggested that Gardner\u2019s \u2018aberrant spelling\u2019 was an attempt by him to make things look more archaic.4 I personally think the latter is unlikely as Gardner displays similar traits in his personal correspondence.\nThese typed documents, whilst obviously easier to read, also exhibit similar poor spelling. A further \u2018quirk\u2019 of Gardner\u2019s (in a time before text messaging) was his penchant for abbreviating words. For example, he would sometimes put \u2018wd\u2019 for \u2018would\u2019 and \u2018shd\u2019 in place of \u2018should\u2019. Furthermore, he had a peculiar habit of using a typewriters\u2019 small case \u2018l\u2019 instead of correctly using a capital \u2018I\u2019; in some instances he even uses a capital \u2018L\u2019 for \u2018I\u2019, and it is not unusual to see a mix of both in the same document. As with so many things Gardner-related, he was never completely consistent in his lackadaisicalness, something that I think is quite frustrating for Craft historians!\nOf the various documents, I think one of the more interesting ones is entitled \u2018All Are Purified\u2019 (subtitled \u2018Ceremony for working with others\u2019).5 This is essentially a way of casting the circle that starts off with a conjuration of the sword. If we look at the following passage, taken from Gardner\u2019s 1954 book Witchcraft Today, I think we can see where the slightly unusual title may hail from: \u201cWhen drawn, this circle is carefully purified, as also are all who celebrate the rites. Witches attach great importance to this, for within the circle is the gods' domain.\u201d6 With regards to what is being implied by the subheading \u2018Ceremony for working with others\u2019 there may be a clue in the crossed-out section which refers to \u201813 candles\u2019. As 13 is the traditional number in a Coven, could the reference to working with \u2018others\u2019 mean working with Coveners as opposed to working alone, or with just a working partner? In view of Gardner\u2019s earlier works (which we will come to shortly) where the focus seems to have been more on individuals as opposed to Covens, this explanation seems to be likely. However, just to discombobulate things further, and for the sake of completion, I should also draw attention to the fact that the crossed-out section bears a strong resemblance to the beginning of the Yule ritual, thus adding a further nebulous dimension to consider in any final understanding of this document.\nALL ARE PURIFIED7 [NB: Bold lettering indicates G.B.G.\u2019s handwritten additions]\nMagus Concecrates Salt & Water ,\nH Ps kneels at Altar, takes up sword .says\n\u201cI conjure thee O Sword of Steel to serve me as a defence in all\nMagical OperationsGuard me at alltimes against mine enemies ,both visa\nble & invisible, Grant thatI may obtain what I desire inall things\nwherin I may use Thee ,wherefore do I bless Thee & Invoke thee in the\nNames of \u2026&\u2026\nGives Sword to Magus , who ^kneeling^ hands her vessel of Salt Conscrated Water\n&Aspergulas, He Casts the Circle, Three circles . She follows .\nAsperging Circle & all present & finely herself. returns vessel\netc to Magus, who places them on Altar, or convinent place. & hands her\nSword H.Ps walks slowly round Circle saying.\n\u201cI conjure Thee O Circle of Space, between the world of Men & that\nof the Dread Lords of the OUTER SPACES, That THOU be clensed Purified\n& strengthend to contain THAT POWER which we so ernestly desireto raise\nwithin thy bounds this night, Wherefore di I bless thee & intreet thee\nto aid me in the endevour in the names of \u2026 & \u2026 Hands Sword to Magus\n--- Magus then summons the Mighty Ones as usual.\nH.Ps stands in front of Altar (which may be pushed back for this)\nH.Ps assumes God ^Goddess^ Possition (Arms Crossed.)\nMagus kneeling in front of her, draws Pentical on her body with P\nHeaded Wand, Invokes, (Drawing down the Moon,)\n\u201c I Invoke and Beseach Thee ,O Mighty MOTHER ofall life and fertility\n. By seed and root, bystem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit,\nBy Life & Love \u2013do I invok Thee to decend into the body of thy servent\nand H.Ps \u2026.. (The Moon having been drawn down,I.E. Link established\nM and all Male Officers give 5 S, All others bow.\nAsembly form a semi circle at north of Altar, (Wh shd be replaced if\nit has been moved,) H.Ps in south, inserts point of Sword or Athame in\ndecorated bundle of 13 candles , saying I [This has been crossed out by hand and \u2018m\u2019s have been typed over it all]\nH,Ps in Goddess Position says Arms Crossed\nI the Mother, Darksome and Divine,\nMine the Scourge and Mine the Kiss,\nThe Five Point Star of Love and Bliss;\nHere I charge ye in this Sign, (Opens out Arms to Pentacle position)\nBow before my Spirite Bright (All bow)\nAphridite Airanrod;\nLover of the Horned God\nQueen of Witchery & Night\n[This looks as it if it continues although the next page is not in the collection.]\nI think that the usage of the word \u2018Magus\u2019 as opposed to \u2018HP\u2019, use of the term \u2018Dread Lords of the Outer Spaces\u2019, the inclusion of the conjuration of the sword, and the circle being cast three times, are interesting \u2018markers\u2019. Identical terminology, and similar practices can be found in Gardner\u2019s 1949 work of fiction High Magics Aid, as well as in Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical (aka BAM), which is thought to be the oldest, extant \u2018Gardnerian\u2019 \u2018Book Of Shadows.\u2019 Ye Bok is currently in the possession of Richard and Tamarra James of the \u2018Wiccan Church of Canada\u2019 and is generally thought to have been compiled and written by Gardner, during the 1940s. In this case, Gardner\u2019s handwriting is actually quite legible and displays a calligraphic style which he appears to have reserved for his magical writings. Ye Bok contains several sections which are readily identifiable as being typical of BOS material, as well as a pastiche of rituals and notes on Ceremonial Magic. For example, there are pages of sigils taken from The Key Of Soloman (S.L. \u2018MacGregor\u2019 Mathers\u2019 translation), plus passages taken from the works of Aleister Crowley, and the Rites of Freemasonry, to name but a few. Similarly, High Magic\u2019s Aid is also a mix of recognisably \u2018Gardnerian\u2019 material with a generous helping of \u2018high magic\u2019. It has been asserted by W.E. Liddell that: \u201cGardner was sponsored into a cunning lodge in 1941 by a New Forest male colleague and was exposed to a quasi-Masonic organisation which combined ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, Paganism and Witchcraft. Exposure to this lodge reinforced his focus on the God and the magus.\u201d8 Whilst this scenario seems to fit the facts, I think it is just one possible explanation why Ye Bok has more of a ceremonial magic overtone when compared to the sort of material that Gardner distributed to initiates in the 1950s.\nIn Ye Bok the words \u2018Magus,\u2019 \u2018Master,\u2019 or simply \u2018M,\u2019 are frequently used to indicate the male role. However, roughly a decade later in Gardner\u2019s magical writings of the 1950s, this term appears to have been generally superseded by the term \u2018HP\u2019. This later material also typically has the circle being cast only once, not three times, and then asperged and censed. Additionally, the phrase \u2018Dread Lords of the Outer Spaces\u2019 can be found \u2018hidden\u2019 in plain sight (another idiosyncrasy of Gardner\u2019s) in High Magic\u2019s Aid:9 \u201cBlindfold and helpless he stood in the Triangle, outside, and cut off from the Protecting Circle, medium between the pleasant world of man and the Dread Lords of the Outer Spaces.\u201d Later circle conjurations more commonly have the phrase \u201c\u2026Realms of the Mighty Ones\u201d instead. By the late 50s, the conjuration of the sword is also something that is no longer part of a typical circle opening, although a similar passage is usually given for the consecration of one. This document made me wonder if, when Gardner mentions casting the circle with a \u2018duly consecrated\u2019 sword or athame, he had perhaps intended at one point for this consecration to be done every time. Certainly this would be understandable in view of his love for swords and weaponry.\nOverall, it seems to me that the use of certain terminology, the conjuration of the sword, and the thrice cast circle, is more in keeping with the style of Gardner\u2019s earliest extant penned works. Due to these similarities, I therefore consider the \u2018All Are Purified\u2019 document to be one of the earliest papers in the Weschcke collection. However, the fact that it ends with the quatrain verse version of \u2018The Charge\u2019, written by Doreen Valiente, indicates that it has to be post 1953 after Doreen had been brought in. Charles himself was initiated about a year later and so I think the date of this document is probably contemporary with that.\n\u2018All Are Purified\u2019 is interesting not only for the textual dating clues that it gives us, but also because it shows more of an equality, if not an actual bias, towards the Magus, instead of the High Priestess. It is he who first \u2018casts the circle\u2019 and he who appears solely responsible for the consecration of the salt and water, and summoning the Mighty Ones. Interestingly enough, the first degree initiation ritual that is given in Ye Bok appears to have a Magus initiating a \u2018Priest & Witch\u2019.10 However, the copy of this ritual that Gardner typed up several years later (almost certainly from Ye Bok) to give to Doreen Valiente, has been amended so that the Magus is now initiating a Priestess and Witch.11\nOn reflection, I think that the \u2018All Are Purified\u2019 document can also tell us something about the development of the Craft, and its material, and could represent a transition point from Gardner\u2019s earlier, more male-orientated writings which included a lot of Ceremonial Magic, to the more High Priestess orientated Covens that seemed to come out of the 1960s. I am not sure what may have brought about this shift but it could have stemmed from the change in cultural ideology which was moving away from the fear and restrictiveness caused by World War Two, to the women\u2019s movement and general liberation that epitomized the 1960s. I would also wager that the ever diligent Doreen Valiente could have had something to do with it, especially as she had, with Gardner\u2019s permission, already set about rewriting parts of the first BOS that he had given her, in order to disguise traces of the Crowley material in it.12\nIf this \u2018All Are Purified\u2019 document had managed to find its way into more Books of Shadows, our Craft may have ended up with a slightly different \u2018feel\u2019 to it. It could perhaps have been more common to see High Priests consecrating the salt and water, and summoning the Mighty Ones \u2018as usual.\u2019 Instead, there are at times lengthy debates on subjects such as this. My own conversations with Charles Clark gave me the impression that things were much more egalitarian in the 1950s, and the Wica of that time felt free to adjust the rituals to better suit the people in the Coven, using the rites as a basic framework and \u2018springboard\u2019. A concept that is echoed in Fred Lamond's book Fifty Years of Wicca, where he quotes Gardner as saying \u201c\u2026as you gain experience discard those spells that don\u2019t work for you and substitute those that you have thought of yourselves.\u201d13\nIf we now turn to look at the eight Sabbats that are included in the \u2018Weschcke Documents\u2019, we see the seemingly \u2018later\u2019 term \u2018HP\u2019 consistently used instead of \u2018Magus\u2019. Furthermore, the similarity of all the Sabbat documents, strongly suggests that they were all typed up at the same time. Fred Lamond tells us in his aforementioned book, \u201cwe [the Bricket Wood Coven] liked our feasts, so after Gerald\u2019s return to the Isle of Man in the spring of 1958 we decided to celebrate both the cross-quarter days and the solstices and equinoxes with feasts.\u201d14 With all this in mind, it would seem likely that the Sabbats from the Weschcke Documents were written at some point shortly after this date.\nWhat I enjoy about researching and comparing these original writings of Gerald Gardner is the insight that they can show us into the thoughts and mind of old Gerald himself. I don\u2019t believe that you can look at these things in isolation, and I think it is imperative to view them as part of a much wider puzzle that included not only Gardner\u2019s life and upbringing, but also the political and social climate of the time. These things, along with the fragmentary rituals and teachings that are thought to have come to him from the New Forest Coven, would have affected the way Gerald, and others, wrote these rituals and developed our practices. In turn, this has all contributed to the growing spiritual movement that the Craft has become today.\nFootnotes\n1: In a letter to me from Charles he writes: \u201cI remember Carl Weschcke said he would write about those papers given him [the \u2018Weschcke Documents\u2019], GB [Gerald Gardner] agreed with me it would help a lot.\u201d\n2: Aidan Kelly, Crafting the Art of Magic (Llewellyn 1991: Page xv)\n3: Philip Heselton Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration (Capall Bann 2003: Page 281)\n4: Ronald Hutton. The Triumph of The Moon (Oxford 1999: Page 227)\n5: The subheading \u2018Ceremony for working with others\u2019 appeared in Charles Clarks BOS, and is not given on the actual document itself.\n6: Gerald Gardner Witchcraft Today (Arrow Books 1970: Page 28)\n7: Transcription of the original document with spelling, grammar and line structure as written on the original. Transcriptions of this document can also be found, albeit inaccurately, in Gerald B Gardner Witchcraft and the Book of Shadows (I-H-O Books 2004: Page 60) and Aidan Kelly\u2019s Crafting the Art of Magic (Llewellyn 1991: Page 109) as well as on various websites.\n8: W.E. Liddell The Pickingill Papers (Capall Bann 1994: Page 158)\n9: Gerald Gardner High Magic\u2019s Aid (Pentacle Enterprises 1993: Page 3)\n10: Gerald Gardner Ye Bok of ye Art Magicial Page 96 (viewable by arrangement with Richard and Tamarra James of the \u2018Wiccan Chuch of Canada.\u2019\n11: Doreen Valiente The Rebirth of Witchcraft (Phoenix 1989: Illustration 12)\n12: Doreen Valiente, The Rebirth of Witchcraft (Phoenix 1989: Page 61-62)\n13: Frederic Lamond, Fifty Years of Wicca (Green Magic 2004: Page 14)\n14: Frederic Lamond, Fifty Years of Wicca (Green Magic 2004: Page 20)\nMany thanks to three \u2018Messengers of the Gods\u2019 namely Paul Greenslade, Philip Heselton and Ken Rees for their helpful comments and advice.","title":"Internet Book of Shadows: 'He Casts the Circle'","type":"page"}