Secrecy in the Old CraftBy Niklas GanderApril 3, 2005

“Hey, let me show you what I got just the other day,” my friend of 16 years told me in his living room. “It’s really complete, and it’s been edited with footnotes by this guy named Niklas!”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked. My mind was racing, as I knew there were precious fewtraditional Crafters that shared my name.

“Yeah! Here. Check this out,” he said. I thumbed through pages that I was alltoo familiar with, since I was the person who had originally compiled theversion of the (non-Feri) Book of Shadows that he was exhibiting to me. Howdid this Book get out of my control? How did it make it into lineages that I’mnot even connected with? How did it even make it out of my own personalcoven? Questions for another day, I’m afraid. It seems in this day ofinformation technology, this kind of situation is endemic. Books of Shadowscan be downloaded from the internet by folks who aren’t even initiated, nevermind affiliated with the traditions that I have worked.

But, you may ask, what’s the big deal? Aren’t we past the days of persecution,when having someone’s personal Book of Shadows would incriminate both theholder and the writer? Isn’t it wonderful to be able to share freely the lore thatwe have, to enrich the greater Craft community?

That’s what I’d like to address in this little missive to my Feri community. If weare indeed past the Great Persecution, then why not share our Secrets widely?If the True Mysteries cannot ever really be told, only experienced, then what’sthe big deal about sharing rituals, initiations, transformative rites with anyonewho happens to show an interest? On the other hand, who does it serve toshare lore indiscriminately with people ill-equipped to handle that lore, andunable to appreciate the years of work and ritual intimacy that it takes toprepare one for that lore? How can we be certain that those we share lore withare of the type of people that we can trust with it, that we can trust that theywill know how to hand it on with integrity and respect for its power, who cantruly even understand its power apart from wherever else they may have“read” it?

I remember when Janet and Stewart Farrar published the dual volumes TheWitches’ Way and Eight Sabbats for Witches. I thought at the time that it wastremendously daring that traditional Witches would publish what they claimedwere secret passages from their own Book of Shadows. At that time, it waspurely from a perspective of oath-keeping that I held this attitude.

Then I saw the result it was having in the larger Craft community. People werereading these books and thinking that they indeed understood the experienceof this material without ever having undergone any of it. It was all based on acursory reading of it, and not an experience of it. As a result, many “eclectic”(book-based) practitioners were left with the idea that they knew enoughabout Traditional Craft that the experience of it was left redundant. Theyalready had “the idea” of what the ritual was all about. Why bother toexperience it in a larger traditional context, when they could rewrite it andcreate an all-new and improved version that no one had ever seen? As aresult, many have “adopted” traditional material without the experience oftraditional ritual to inform it. Many have developed such overwhelmingconfidence in their “knowledge” that Wicca and Witchcraft generally threaten tobecome just as monolithic as Christianity has been during the last millennium,when doctrinal knowledge squelched the mysteries to be found in personalritual experiences.

I’m troubled. I feel I can no longer share my secrets, my passages from myBook of Shadows, with someone with whom I do not share an initiatory andinstructive tie. Why? Because too often (read: Always) it becomes a file folderor a section in a three-ring binder, a curiosity, that then gets handed onwithout any attempt to understand either the experience or the spirit in whichit was handed on: from closely-held and treasured tradition to profaned,commercial-grade curiosity.

And what about those folks whose interpretation of their oaths permit them toshare more liberally than I would myself? How long does it take for me to getto know someone’s intention before I can actually share in good conscience?How long does it take to prevent my friend (who has no Craft initiatoryconnection with me) from having a closely held BoS carefully redacted by meand showing it to me in all ignorance?

Then there’s that sticky wicket called “ego-gratification.” How many times arewe tempted to share with others something that is “just so cool?” Do we wishto impress someone by sharing with them lore that we might have created, orperhaps that we might have redacted? I remember talking to a Craft HighPriestess in New York who once told me that she wanted to share traditionalmaterial with a particular someone only because he was a Big Name in thecommunity, and wanted his adulation. She regretted it later, just as I haveregretted sharing material with some folks before I knew thoroughly theirintention.

What is it that is to regret? The loss of the opportunity for someone toexperience a rite without preconceptions about what it is “supposed” to be; themisunderstanding of the written word when the experience within ritual would

have clarified its intent; the revelation of lore outside of a training context,thus making that lore just one more piece of lore for a file cabinet or three-ringbinder, not even grasping its original meaning or intent. And finally there isregret at making a chance for the satisfaction of real intimacy into some kindof intellectualized informational commodity.

Perhaps more than any other tradition, Feri is an Oral Tradition. What’s thatmean? I personally think that it means that in order to really grok the“information” you’ve got to undergo the “experience.” That’s not somethingthat is possible just by reading a book, or some poetry, though that mighthelp. Ultimately, there’s a relationship with the lineage that is made with theconnection to a teacher, one whom you’ve evaluated and found wise andcareful.

So, I’m thinking that sharing lore is vastly overrated. The real truth comesfrom our interactions with God Herself, and with our own Holy Guardian Angel,our personal Muse. If we find that we have connections with Feri brothers andsisters, then we can circle together and get to know each other and shareaccordingly. But I no longer feel any expectation to share the lore that I havewon through hard work and sweat with someone just because they claimkinship or just because they ask. That is not helping my brothers and sisters ofthe Craft. That is only harming them.