Why do people say that there is no such thing as Tradional Witchcraft

[Sekhmet Soul30]

I'm on this group and I posed a question about Traditional Witchcraft. Do they believe that Traditional Witchcraft exists. Here's a bit of what one person said.

I don't understand what you mean by "Traditional Witches don't believe in this whole Merry Meet, Blessed Be, stuff like that". There is no specific "Traditional Witchcraft". Traditional Witchcraft is a whole of systems of Witchcraft that are organized in Traditions. Wicca, Clan of Tubal Cain, 1734 Tradition, Anderson's Feri, Dianics (both McFarland and Z. Budapest ones) etc etc. There is no consensus of Traditional Witchcraft, no central authority, no specific system. Any Traditions of Witchcraft can fall under it, IMO, be them Kemetic, Hellenic, British, American or anything else, as long as they are a Tradition of Witchcraft.

A Tradition is formed after x number of consecutive generations of the core material being passed down unchanged. X number of times because people don't agree on how many such generations there must be before a system is recognized as a Tradition. Some say 3, others say 5 etc although the vast majority consider a system to have become a Tradition after more than 2 consecutive generations of initiates or other means of distinctly defining "generations".


The whole thing about Merry Meet and Blessed Be, he didn't understand. I explained it as that it's Wiccan and thus Traditional Witches don't use it.

[Eyeris]

Blessed be and merry meet are just a turn of phrase, I think it is preference by who uses it.

Is he talking about an attitude that 'blessed be' and 'merry meet' imply figuratively?

So, I think you were attempting to make a separation between "traditional Wicca" and, say, a "family tradition of witchcraft?" That he didn't seem to get?

[kagekarasu]

While there are several traditions of witchcraft and even traditional Wicca, the term Traditional Witchcraft is meant in the manner of people who follow family traditions, whats commonly referred to as Hoodoo, and other traditions that are not heavily ritualistic or ceremonial and not Wiccan. In other words, they base their magic off of their instincts and not what someone wrote down in a book and it's rather freestyle and very similar in manner to that of the cunning people of England and other parts of Europe.

The person who had said response, I don't believe understood the question that was asked. There are actually many people who do not realize that there was witchcraft before Wicca, or they assume that they are the same thing, or the other kind has completely died off and doesn't exist anymore.

[EntwinedScylla]

I don't understand what you mean by "Traditional Witches don't believe in this whole Merry Meet, Blessed Be, stuff like that".

I don't personally truck with those terms, but I won't throw someone out for using them. Craft has a dearth of words which are ritualized 'Yeah, that!' or 'Ditto!' kinda responses. Shouting "Ia!", or "Hail", or "PLACET!" (Latin for "agreed upon") don't sound right to most ears. My mentor and I had a fondness for clapping our hands, or stomping our feet (or pounding the ground with a staff) as our "Blessed be".


Traditional Witchcraft is a whole of systems of Witchcraft that are organized in Traditions. Wicca, Clan of Tubal Cain, 1734 Tradition, Anderson's Feri, Dianics (both McFarland and Z. Budapest ones) etc etc.

TW, un/fortunately, tends to refer to British Craft, specifically like those of the Pellars, Currens, Cunningmen/Women. It's all in etymology. "Witch" is the Anglo-Saxon word for a specific kind of person and their craft, just like "Shaman" is the Tungus word for a specific kind of priest. Unfortunately, in English they've become generalized, like "Kleenex" instead of "Facial tissue".

[Sekhmet Soul30]

Thanks for your comments.