Nature's Teeth & Devil's Marks
The concept of a mark to single out humans rejected by society is not new. Countless cultures have used the marking of individuals as a form of social control. One concept that has its roots in this form of totalitarian control is the concept of the "devil's mark".
Yet despite the hype of medieval church wardens and the hysteria behind using a vaguely defined "mark" as means with which to prosecute victims the devils mark persists in our imagination. Its nature is accurate but the details of its origins, as with so much else, have been perverted by the ecclesiastic authorities.
The priests of old mistook certain moles and blemishes on one's body as the mark of the devil. A physical sign of his signature upon our flesh. But this is merely a misunderstanding of the true scars that reveal our nature. Those of leaf and thorn, talon and horn.
The Devils mark is the mark of nature, the incidental scars we gather in our explorations of the wild. It is the blood kiss of thorn and briar, the sharp teeth of uneven stone underfoot, the lingering stench of bog and fen, swamp and sea, on our flesh. Leaving its traces for years of silver veined scar tissue.
The witch receives the mark not once, but many times throughout our lives. Our journey into the wilderness continues as we advance along our chosen path and we are tempted and tested by the landscape. Each test and temptation of our patch leaves its mark upon us, drawing blood that we sacrifice of ourselves to the earth we are bound.
Our night time revelries through moonlit bracken and barren shore are not without their discomforts. Biting wind, jagged hedge, angered nocturnal prowler, all may take their turn in confronting us in our initiatory discoveries. But it is that very confrontation that means we are learning to see clearly in the darkness.
Witchcraft is a path of limitless discovery. The craft is merely the interface between the witch and the mirror of the landscape. That set of places overlapping our own and yet mutually oblivious to one another, except through charm and ritual.
Go forth into the night and explore with more than eyes that which we seek to see. The scars upon your flesh are a badge of your courage, of the mishaps of learning to see without eyes, to listen in detail and resolution often forgotten in our loud modern world.
Your scars are the pact of your path, a map of your personal journey.
