Outside the Charmed Circle by Misha Magdalene

Author:Misha Magdalene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: CVR03252019;CVR03252019;outside the charmed circle;charmed circle;misha magdalene;mischa magdalene;lgbtq;lgbtq+;gender in paganism;sexuality in paganism;gender and sexuality in paganism;gender in magic;gender in the occult;sexuality in the occult;CVR11042019
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2019-11-25T20:41:01+00:00

The Queer Craft of the Witches

The Ancient Providence

In many forms of Wicca, especially those derived from Gardnerian Wicca, the Goddess and the God of the Witches are seen as complementary halves of the primordial, monadic godhead, referred to by the Anglo-Saxon term Dryghtyn or Drychton (meaning “lord”). This divine being, identified in the liturgical piece known as the Blessing Prayer as “the Ancient Providence,“ is stated to be “the Original Source of all things … all-knowing, all-pervading, all-powerful, changeless, eternal” and is explicitly identified as both male and female.64 While some Wiccans have made much out of the splitting of Dryghtyn into Goddess and God, citing this as justification for establishing gender-essentialist stances within their practice, others have pointed to the genderless/all-gendered nature of Dryghtyn as justification for the inclusion and celebration of all genders and sexual orientations within Wicca. After all, Wicca’s best-known and best-loved contribution to Pagan liturgy is Doreen Valiente’s “Charge of the Goddess,” where she writes, “Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for behold: all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.”65 The “all” in that sentence, as spoken by the Goddess of the Witches, would seem to mandate an enthusiastic embrace of … well, all forms of consensual sexuality and pleasure, wouldn’t it?

The Old One and the Queen of Elphame

Still, while some forms of modern traditional witchcraft have been leery to embrace queer sexuality and fluidity of gender, others have opted to engage more directly with questions of gender and sexuality, surrendering neither one, but rather widening the circumference of their “charmed circle” to include even those “acts of love and pleasure” considered transgressive or non-normative. Within some lines of traditional witchcraft, sexual initiation and magic are neither unheard-of nor restricted to cisgender heterosexual couplings. In The Devil’s Dozen: Thirteen Craft Rites of the Old One, British Traditional witch Gemma Gary is explicit about both the sexual nature of the witch’s mystical union with “the Old One” and the lack of regard for gender or biological sex of the witch who undertakes this rite. She allows that, while this initiation is generally “thought of as taking place between female witches and the Devil in full masculine manifestation,” the sexual mysteries of the Witches’ Sabbat allow for the Old One, manifesting as a woman or a man, to engage in ritual sexual union with male or female witches, or for the Queen of Elphame to join with him in presiding over the sabbat, sexually coupling with witches of whatever gender “in sacred transgression of societal ‘normality’ […] no matter how aggressively adverse some modern expressions of the Craft have been to such things.”66

The Star Goddess

Turning to another line of traditional witchcraft, the heart of Anderson Feri is the super transcendent deity variously known as the Star Goddess, God Herself, and the Black Virgin of the Outer Dark. Similar in many ways to the Dryghtyn of Wiccan theology, the Star Goddess is the all-encompassing, primordial source of all things. While generally referred to

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