Diana’s Darling Crew

Diana’s Darling Crew

Links & Resources

Diana and her Darling Crew shall pluck your fingers fine.
And lead you forth right pleasantly to sup the honey wine.
To sup the honey wine, my loves, and breathe the heavenly air,
And dance, as the young angels dance. Ah god, that I were there.

(Apparently 16th Century version of a hymn to Diana. It is sung to the tune of ‘Jerusalem my Happy Home’, a tune which may well have belonged to it in the first place. ~ T.C. Lethbridge, Witches.)

Diana’s Darling Crew refers to the Sons and the Daughters of the Old Faith and the various links below where you will find websites that offer more information about Traditional Craft and other topics that have interested me.

Friends of the Cottage

• monastery of st. blamensir — an immersive medieval-style site with content spanning art, history, and Victorian curiosities.
• The Satyrs’ Forest — a vast forest neighboring the Cottage. A personal site containing articles on history, Paganism, and other cultural topics.
• Arkm’s World — a large Victorian house neighboring the Cottage, home to an extensive library of interesting weblinks.
• capstasher — a Victorian curiosity cabinet containing personal articles, scans, links, and more.
• Funch’s Book of Shadows — a public resource for Paganism, Witchcraft, and the Occult.
• Hekate’s Homepage — a collection of fun resources, including a quiz for finding out Which Greek God/Goddess Would You Be?
• Lady of the Sea — a cabin by the sea neighboring the Cottage, with a kitchen of delicious recipes and library of books.
• Yarrow’s Webpage — a slice of internet containing information on Witchcraft, spirit companionship, book reviews, tarot decks, and more.
• Esper 16 — a multilingual gallery of photography, paintings, links, and reviews.

<!-- Copy this button code to link back to the Cottage --> <a href="https://spells.neocities.org/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://spells.neocities.org/images/tradcraft.gif"></a>

Faith

Now, it might seem a strange thing for a Witch to concern herself with, but it is quite true to say that all magical power is largely dependent on this, whether it be wielded by people calling themselves witches or saints, as the case may be. Whether you cast a spell for the sake of a church, yourself, or any one else makes not a jot of difference. A spell is a spell, whether it sounds like a prayer or invocation.

Paracelsus put the matter in a nutshell when he wrote: “Through Faith the Imagination is invigorated and completed, for it really happens that every doubt mars its perfection…”

Unless you possess a rock-firm faith in your own powers and in the operability of your spell, you will not achieve the burning intensity of will and imagination which is requisite to make magic work. Faith is the vise in which you hold steady your crucible will, into which you pour the molten metal of your virulent imagination. If you reflect on it, you will see in effect that imagination and faith are both very intimately connected with the will. Faith is that which sweeps away all remaining objections and clears the decks for immediate action. It is one of those valuable props which support you temporarily, in the course of your magical operation, and allow you to believe in the inevitability of the success which is bound to be attendant on it. It is one more means to attaining that special state of self-imposed and hopefully temporary megalomania which is the sine qua non of all true acts of sorcery.

Ritual

All ritual in every religion is a form of magic. It is performed in an attempt to persuade some God or other to do something for the people concerned. For thousands of years the peoples of most the world performed a ritual for one main purpose. They wished to persuade the moon and the sun to continue the work of ensuring the fertility of man, beast, and field. For this the sun and moon had to be badgered into returning to their courses round the earth, so that summer and winter did not cease; seed time nor harvest fail. The stone rings on our hills and the wild dances of the Witches were all designed for this great purpose. All over the ancient world it was the same. The magic power was generated, or so it was thought, by these dances, and it was kept in and directed to its object by the stone circles which were put there so the power would not drift away and be lost in the countryside. Men and Women were persecuted and burnt for doing what seemed to them to be an entirely necessary action. If they stopped, the seasons would not return. There would be nothing to eat. Better that some of them should be sacrificed for the good of everybody they thought, and they were willing to do it. Then suddenly, like one of the Cailleach’s own thunderbolts, it was learnt beyond any possibility of doubt that it was all in vain. The whole idea was wrong. The earth went round the sun and the moon round the earth. How could anyone believe in the magic anymore? The moon was a tupenny-ha’penny little thing and the sun unapproachable. No wonder the remnant of believers, who clung grimly to their old beliefs, concentrated on a Lord of the Underworld. Who knew? He might still exist.