#shani oates

[thevirginwitch]

Ramblings on Trad Craft/"Cochrane's Craft", The Clan of Tubal Cain, and Shani Oates

I am so ready to break out of posting "witchcraft 101" content and moving on to more esoteric/occult-related topics. More specifically, I want to start sharing more about all the deep-dives I find myself in these days. So, here are some ramblings about Robert Cochrane, Shani Oates, and "traditional witchcraft" (Cochrane's Craft).

I've been reading a lot on trad craft (Cochrane's Craft) lately, and digging deep into some academic articles and arguments about what trad craft really is about. Some folks argue that it's Wiccan, or a Wiccan offshoot, but others (namely, Shani Oates) argue that it's a more gnostic, Luciferian practice.

My theory? Cochrane wanted people to *believe* that it was more esoteric/gnostic in nature, when in reality, he and his coven practiced something more akin to Wicca behind closed doors. This would make sense considering he bashed Wicca and Gerald Gardner so hard in the past; he would be embarrassed to admit that 90% of his craft came from Wicca.

It's either that, or, Shani Oates highjacked the whole thing and is trying to spin it into something that it never was. To my knowledge, she's the only one purporting the idea that Cochrane's Craft couldn't be further from Wiccan ideology - which is also a valid theory, considering most of her works and writings are almost incoherent babblings where she tries to sound as sophisticated as possible. I can tell she uses a thesaurus religiously. Not to mention her ideas seem to be very influenced by apocalyptic, almost right-wing conspiracy theories. Trying to read through Tubelo's Green Fire is very difficult - I'm only about 20 pages in, but I have to constantly go back to reference other materials just to figure out what she's talking about. She claims a lot of historical "evidence" that tie into traditional witchcraft's beliefs/practices, but... no sources are cited, and half the time the language she uses makes it literally impossible to Google and figure out what she's referring to.

A few months ago, when I was barely getting into trad craft, I actually communicated with Shani directly - and she really tore into one of the main books that *she* contributed to about the subject (Genuine Witchcraft is Explained). She claimed that the other contributors completely high-jacked her work, took things out of context, etc. And then went on to advertise me her own books that she authored herself. A bit odd in my opinion, but, nonetheless, I am trying to get my hands on a copy of Genuine Witchcraft is Explained, but it runs about $200 on eBay and it's out of print. So we'll see how that goes.

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[forbidden-sorcery]

The Wild Hunt is popularly held to be a troupe of spectres and demons, usually depicted as mounted hunters; sometimes accompanied by hounds that trawl the sky at night gathering departed souls, sometimes even to a cacophony of 'rousing and rough musick.' Seeing the Wild Hunt was and often is considered a very bad omen, usually foretelling a Time of strife, misfortune, madness or death. In some story variants, the Hunt directly achieves its end by fright or exhaustion, And according to much folklore the living unfortunate enough to cross its path, are to be seen swept up within its infernal train. This strange and awesome folk belief was particularly endemic during the early Middle Ages, In each region, the spectral rider is often described as dressed in black, occasionally headless and is generally a local figure in folklore, a past hero or mythical figure from legend, Accounts report how 'fire spurts' from the hooves, mouths and noses of phantom horses and hounds, which are often only two or even three legged.                 An appearance of Herne the Hunter in Windsor Forest is often followed by tragedy or disaster, often of national importance, Herne is probably the most famous stag-horned leader of the Hunt and is often linked to the Gaelic deity 'Cernunnos' (who in turn has been tenuously linked to the striking Palaeolithic wall painting of a 'sorcerer' figure at Les Trois Frères cave complex). Although the mythological origins of this cult may be reasonably placed within Iron-Age Europe, there is no tangible association between Herne and the Gaelic deity 'Cernunnos' that should push those origins of the Wild Hunt back into pre-history, Herne is a hunter, 'Cernunnos' is not, Their roles are in fact entirely different. But what is particularly relevant is how the Hunts seem to frequent the same territory: these are generally corpse ways, spirit paths, ancient forests and other liminal places, These processional ways are interstitial points of commune with discarnate forms. Lights, magnetic phenomena and eerie sounds denote places of especial power, profound and subtle points of interaction between the human psyche and its environment, induced by radon gas, ions and sonic vibrations of these geomantic centres. Funeral processions and the Wild Hunt' are also linked in many traditions at sites all over the country. In fact, Saxon spirit paths and ritual causeways named ‘daeda-waeg,' formed the Iater 'corpse-ways'.

Shani Oates - Tubelo’s Green Fire

[blackthornwren]

The Devil's role is a complex one; by default it generates doubt and fear, leading us to question everything we hold dear and believe in. Those things encompass the nature of being, the omnipotence of a god or gods, the causality of interdependency between ourselves and them, but mostly how to gauge our virtues and vices by clear and licit boundaries. Every day we ask at some point if the Devil was a necessary fiction borne of an autocratic dualistic monotheism?

Shani Oates, The Devil’s Supper, pg. 62

[eiruvsq]

Artist & Illustrator:

Lupe Vasconcelos

"Hekate"

Tempera Gouache Illustration for the book "Crafting the Art of Tradition"

By Shani Oates (Anathena Publishing, 2016)

http://www.lupevision.com

[skepticaloccultist]

The Devil’s Supper

"The Devil's Supper" Shani Oates

The devil's history is a forking path, one that has wend its way from times of yore through a maze of cultural conditioning, folkloric interpretation and whole cloth fabrication. The Devil has been many things to many people and fits a service of ideas across a span of time now into millennia.

Shani Oates is a well known author of contemporary traditional witchcraft and the Maid of the Clan of Tubal Cain, that path of traditional witchcraft that finds its origins in the writings and teachings of the late Robert Cochrane. Her previous works have given considerable shape to contemporary craft practices, and her insight into the practicalities of craft practice is immeasurable.

Her latest, "The Devil's Supper", is a superb journey through the narratives that have shaped our modern idea of the Devil and his role in society, theology, and witchcraft. Oates' gives us a tour of the fables and legends, from the Mesopotamian through the Graeco-Roman, into the middle ages of Europe, it is a tale of manipulation, speculation and theological propaganda.

In the Devil's Supper Oates provides a context for the slow shaping and reshaping of this figure "The Devil" and those accused of worshipping and having relations with this being. From a "being of the air" to the eventual physical materialization in the form of succubi and incubi the Devil and his supposed followers come from a long narrative of theological suppression, historic revisionism and cultural appropriation.

There is in the work a particularly British perspective, a line being drawn so directly from the ancient past to the English countryside, which makes sense given its author is a leading figure of a well respected British tradition. It treads concepts laid out by previous authors, and gives the reader an astoundingly detailed and compact history - each chapter could nearly be expanded into its own volume.

The volume itself is another spectacular binding by Anathema. A shimmering slightly metallic looking cloth black cover with a devilish impression to the front board and silver lettering to the spine. Rich cadmium red endpapers with a fabric texture highlight the similarly deep red ink highlights used throughout the design.

The pages are of a vellum-like smooth, just slightly off-white, paper and the entire work is heavily illustrated throughout in historic black & white images, woodcuts, and etchings as well as beautiful illustrations by artist Lupe Vasconcelos. It is a wonderful design top to bottom, for which Anathema should be commended. (Though I must ask, why no index? Such a wonderful bibliography and no index leaves an, albeit tiny, blemish on this otherwise perfect volume.)

Shani Oates is herself part of a living current of traditional British Witchcraft and will, I am sure, continue to add to the dialog and development of Craft practice. "The Devil's Supper" is a delightful romp through the historiography of that figure who has haunted European thought for centuries - the Devil.

Find a copy of The Devil's Supper here:

"The Devil's Supper" Shani Oates

[unfetteredwood]

An interview with the amazing Shani Oates. While not really an influence on my practice anymore, certainly a huge inspiration in the past. 

[forbidden-sorcery]

Pazuzu, an early Sumerian wind daemon, is an important prototype we should consider in the cumulative mask we have come to accept as typical of the Devil. His monstrous countenance induces terror; complete with knobbly horns, talons, and wings, his visage is truly frightful. Nonetheless, from within his dedicated cultural framework, he and other winged spirits were strictly ambivalent, originally called upon for judicious protection and revenge in matters of the living, rather than the dead. Many hundreds of years later, Pazuzu and several other arcane wind spirits were effectively demonized under the uncompromising Hellenization of Mesopotamia. We should understand therefore, that when it did change, he became a needful parallel catalyst within humankind to provoke ambivalent causality through a higher will, albeit one masterfully disguised as an embodiment of evil, presenting his historiography with a supreme paradox.

Shani Oates - The Devil’s Supper

[forbidden-sorcery]

Several thousand potential places bear association with otherworldly beings in a negatively enchanted way, and always in areas of mounds, hillocks and knolls, sometimes, an inlet to a spring, or outlet to a larger estuary or river. Also perceived as grave mounds of the fey, they were left wild, unattended, neither mown nor harvested or tended, to avoid angering the wights and landvættir who dwelled there for fear of inducing gross misfortune, or curses against life, limb, and property, storm and blight. Scottish mounds were popularly named as Goodman’s Croft, Halyman’s Rigg, Clootie Croft, Deevils Fauld or Black Faulie, and no spade or plough may rent them sunder, nor stone or twig be removed. Guarded by huldukona, the mosswives are otherworldly inhabitants of the Álfhóll (elf hill) whose counterparts in the fairy fort traditions of Ireland were known as ráithes and siheán. Rising out of natural ditches beneath hawthorn or single trees, such mounds became prime sites for gallows construction. Their foreboding presence certainly discouraged intruders; subtle warding against willful desecration of land deemed the preserve of the dead buried there beneath the sod. Those foolish enough to venture further might find themselves hag-ridden by forms rarely seen, except in haunting dreams.

Shani Oates - The Hanged God: Odinn Grimnir