The Inner Temple of Witchcraft: Magick, Meditation and Psychic Development
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About this ebook
Explore your Inner Temple—your personal sacred space where there are no boundaries and all things are possible. With study, dedication, and practice, the lessons and exercises in this book will empower you to transform the repetitive rigors of the daily grind into a witch's web of magickal experiences.
The Inner Temple of Witchcraft is a thorough course of education, introspection, meditation, and the development of the magickal and psychic abilities that are the birthright of the witch. Four introductory chapters present the history, traditions, and principles of witchcraft, followed by thirteen lessons that start with basic meditation techniques and culminate in a self-initiation ceremony equivalent to the first-degree level of traditional coven-based witchcraft.
As you progress through this year-and-a-day course of study, you will explore a wide range of topics that support and inform the dedicated witch:
- Ancient and modern magickal philosophy
- Modern scientific theories supporting a new definition of reality
- "Instant" magick techniques for protection, healing, and serenity
- Energy work and anatomy, including chakras and auras
- Astral travel, dreams, and spirit guides
- Healing techniques for body, mind, and spirit
This book's non-dogmatic presentation encourages an eclectic, personal approach while providing a strong foundation for the practice of witchcraft and magick. Develop your psychic abilities and practice potent magickal techniques as you explore the source of every witch's power—the temple within.
Winner of the 2003 Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) Award for Best Magic Book
Christopher Penczak
Christopher Penczak is a Witch, teacher, writer, and healing practitioner. He is the founder of the world-renowned Temple of Witchcraft and the Temple Mystery School, and he is the creator of the bestselling Temple of Witchcraft books and audio CDs. Christopher is an ordained minister, serving the New Hampshire and Massachusetts Pagan and metaphysical communities through public rituals, private counsel, and teaching. He also travels extensively and teaches throughout the United States. Christopher lives in New Hampshire. Visit him at ChristopherPenczak.com.
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Reviews for The Inner Temple of Witchcraft
36 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I highly recommend this book for beginners to the craft. If you're new to the craft, first, stop buying spell books and learn the basics, which this book does! Also, make sure to get the companion CD (they also have it on Scribd too) with the meditation exercises from the book; that will come in really handy.
I loved this course! So for those who don't know, this book is a textbook for an actual course study of learning witchcraft by the Temple Tradition of Witchcraft. Granted, you don't NEED to be part of the course to read this book and go through the self initiation at the end. You most definetely con go through this alone, like I did. However, some of the exercises in this book do require having a partner, which if you're doing it alone, like I did, can pose to be difficult. You don't have to do all the exercises if you're not able to at the moment; it's ok to come back to the ones you skipped later on when you;re ready. That being said, the exercises in this book are what makes this course especially valuable!
I loved this book. It changed my life by helping me discover my power and connect me with my higher self by exploring my own inner temple. Most importantly, this book shows you how to meditate, develop psychic ability, and how to develop the basics of working with magic, energy manipulation, and gnosis. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved it! This is one the best books I've read to date when it comes to really learning about energy and providing a solid foundation for witchcraft. I loved the exercises in the books and did many of the energy exercises with my family, we had so much fun!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love this book series! ???
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love this book series! ???
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I used the excercises in this book when I did a return to my year and a day lessons. I find reviewing the basics every now and then helps me to go forward in my practices.This book was remarkably clear and helpful when going in detail on the whys and hows of basic magic principles.
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful book (I love ALL his books) that gives you excellent information and tools on meditation, visualization and magick. I don't think I would be as far along as I am today without the exercises in this book. The companion CDs are highly recommended.
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent book for the witchcraft practitioner not bogged down with deities. Sets out the basics, and the accompanying cd is just as good.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Very evil and deadly to anyone who uses it. Beware
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love this book series! ???
Book preview
The Inner Temple of Witchcraft - Christopher Penczak
About the Author
Christopher Penczak (Salem, NH) is an award-winning author, teacher, and healing practitioner. As an advocate for the timeless perennial wisdom of the ages, he is rooted firmly in the traditions of modern Witchcraft and Earth-based religions but draws from a wide range of spiritual traditions, including shamanism, alchemy, herbalism, Theosophy, and Hermetic Qabalah, to forge his own magickal traditions and create educational and community opportunities designed to encourage you to do the same. His many books include Magick of Reiki, Spirit Allies, Ascension Magick, and The Mighty Dead. Along with his partners, Steve Kenson and Adam Sartwell, he cofounded the Temple of Witchcraft tradition and religious nonprofit, drawn from the system found in his popular Temple series of books. Together, they support Witchcraft as a spiritual tradition and a means to transform the individual and the world. They also formed Copper Cauldron Publishing, a company dedicated to producing books, recordings, and tools for magickal inspiration and evolution. Christopher maintains a teaching and healing practice in New England while working in the Temple community, but travels extensively, lecturing, offering rituals and intensives, and leading sacred site retreats across the world. For more information about his work and the Temple of Witchcraft community, please visit www.christopherpenczak.com and www.templeofwitchcraft.org.
title pageLlewellyn Publications
Woodbury, Minnesota
Copyright Information
The Inner Temple of Witchcraft: Magick, Meditation, and Psychic Development © 2002, Twentieth Anniversary Edition 2021 by Christopher Penczak.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.
Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.
First e-book edition © 2021
E-book ISBN: 9780738717654
First Edition, expanded and revised
Nineteenth Printing, 2021
Book design by Donna Burch
Cover design by Kevin R. Brown
Editing by Andrea Neff
Interior Illustrations © 2002 by Mary Ann Zapalac on pages 21, 32, 89, 231, 234, 239, 242, 244, 262, 289. All other art by the Llewellyn art department.
Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Penczak, Christopher.
The inner temple of witchcraft : magick, meditation, and psychic development / Christopher Penczak—1st ed.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7387-0276-5
1. Witchcraft. 2. Magic. 3. Psychic ability. I. Title
BF1566 P465 2002
133.4’3—dc212002030059
ISBN-13: 978-0-7387-0276-6
Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.
Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites.
Llewellyn Publications
Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.
2143 Wooddale Drive
Woodbury, MN 55125
www.llewellyn.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dedication
To my parents, Rosalie and Ronald, who always supported me on this path.
To my partners, Steve and Adam, for walking this road with me.
To my beloved High Priestess Alix, for holding, tending, and manifesting the dream.
To my first teachers, Lynne and Laurie Cabot, for setting me on the path.
And to that first Inner Temple class in the basement, planting the seed
for all that came after. Thank you.
Steve, Jessica, Christina, Jen, Bridget, and Kat:
Who knew then where it would all lead?
Contents
List of Exercises
List of Figures & Tables
Disclaimer
Foreword to the New Edition by Laurie Cabot
Introduction to the New Edition: The Expanded Temple
Introduction: What Is the Inner Temple of Witchcraft?
Chapter 1
Ask a Witch
Chapter 2
Digging for the Roots
Chapter 3
Flavors of Witchcraft
Chapter 4
The Witch’s Path
Chapter 5
Lesson 1: The Magickal Mind
Chapter 6
Lesson 2: Meditation
Chapter 7
Lesson 3: The Magick of Science
Chapter 8
Lesson 4: The Science of Magick
Chapter 9
Lesson 5: The Art of Defense
Chapter 10
Lesson 6: The Power of Light
Chapter 11
Lesson 7: Energy Anatomy
Chapter 12
Lesson 8: Journey Work
Chapter 13
Lesson 9: Spirit Work
Chapter 14
Lesson 10: The Inner Temple
Chapter 15
Lesson 11: Healing
Chapter 16
Lesson 12: Born Again
Chapter 17
Lesson 13: Initiation
Appendix: Self-Test
Bibliography
Exercises
Exercise 1: Intention Ritual
Exercise 2: Feeling Energy
Exercise 3: Ball of Energy
Exercise 4: Feeling the Aura
Exercise 5: Pushing and Pulling Energy
Exercise 6: Earth Walking
Exercise 7: Total Relaxation
Exercise 8: Candle Meditation
Exercise 9: Counting Down to a Meditative State
Exercise 10: Basic Visualization
Exercise 11: Affirmations
Exercise 12: Programming Your Trigger
Exercise 13: Mental Projection
Exercise 14: Correspondences
Exercise 15: Vibrational Statements
Exercise 16: Polarity of the Earth and Sky
Exercise 17: Heartbeat Control
Exercise 18: Sun and Moon
Exercise 19: Tree Meditation
Exercise 20: Protection Shield
Exercise 21: Showers of Light
Exercise 22: Sending Light
Exercise 23: Aura Gazing
Exercise 24: Aura Clearing
Exercise 25: Chakra Opening and Balancing
Exercise 26: Psychic Travel
Exercise 27: Pendulum
Exercise 28: Muscle Testing
Exercise 28: Automatic Writing
Exercise 30: Clairaudience: Conscious Channeling
Exercise 31: Visiting the Inner Temple
Exercise 32: Psychic Scanning
Exercise 33: Healing Case
Exercise 34: Past-Life Exploration
Figures & Tables
Figure 1: Early Goddess Images
Figure 2: Timeline
Figure 3: Wheel of the Year
Figure 4: Witches’ Pyramid
Figure 5: The Three Minds
Figure 6: The Four Energies
Figure 7: Shapes
Figure 8a: Recording a Holographic Image
Figure 8b: Projecting a Holographic Image
Figure 9: Vesica Piscis
Figure 10: Atom and Solar System
Figure 11: Taijitu (Yin-Yang) Symbol
Figure 12: Polarity Wheels
Figure 13: Scales
Figure 14: Pentacle
Figure 15: Triskelion and Triple Knot Images
Figure 16: Banishing Pentagram
Figure 17: Protection Symbols: Pentacle, Cross, Ankh, Eye of Horus, Hexagram, Triple Knot
Figure 18: Protective Rings
Figure 19: Invoking Pentagram and Banishing Pentagram
Figure 20a: Damaged Aura
Figure 20b: Healthy Aura
Figure 21: The Seven Chakras
Figure 22: Seven Layers of the Aura
Figure 23: Kundalini Rising, DNA, Caduceus
Figure 24: Symbols of Balance
Figure 25: Tree of Life, or Etz Chaim, of the Qabalah
Figure 26: World Tree
Figure 27: Planes of Reality
Figure 28: Pendulums
Figure 29: Muscle Testing Hand Positions
Table 1: Energy Anatomy of the Seven Chakras
Table 2: Common Symbols for Disease in Psychic Scanning
Table 3: Healing Associations of the Colors
Figure 30: Traditional Degree Symbols
Figure 31: My Personal Degree Symbols
Disclaimer
Please note that the information in this book is not meant to diagnose, treat, prescribe, or substitute consultation with a licensed healthcare professional. Both the author and the publisher recommend that you consult a medical practitioner before attempting the techniques outlined in this book and assume no liability for any injuries caused to the reader that may result from the reader’s use of the content contained herein. All readers should use common sense when contemplating the practices described in the work.
Know thyself.
Temple of Delphi, Greece
Foreword to the New Edition
by Laurie Cabot
I first saw Christopher Penczak in 1993 at my Witchcraft as a Science
class, held in the back room of Crow Haven Corner in Salem, Massachusetts. That very first night, he gave me a look that said, You’re a phony. You’re a phony, I know it, and I’m going to prove it.
Christopher came in quietly that night with his mother, Rosalie, and a family friend, as they were all taking the class together. They looked out for each other, and I later learned that my intuition about that look was right: Christopher was a skeptic. He didn’t entirely believe magick was actual or real at that time. He wanted proof and he wasn’t going to take my word for it.
In our fourth class, the students worked psychic health cases. They each received only minimal information and had to psychically diagnose whatever conditions the subjects might have, along with any physical description or details they picked up. Christopher was 100 percent accurate on all of his cases that night, as was his mother. It was clearly a moment of realization for them both, as it was and has been for many students before and since when they experience the reality of their own psychic gifts.
Then there was the wand-charging class. Students would go into alpha meditation and infuse energy into their wand, one of the primary magickal tools. Then they would cross the tip of the wand over their palm to feel the energy coming from it. The energy from Christopher’s wand after that meditation was palpable and powerful, and it was clear that he could feel it, and that others in the class could as well.
He did first-rate work in ritual and writing papers to demonstrate his understanding of symbolism, the seasons, and the gods and ancestors. Through practice and results, he and other students realized their magickal selves and experienced the reality of magick for themselves, their own magick. They found the proof they were looking for. In Christopher’s case, I think he found his calling as well, as a Witch, and later as a teacher.
Now, decades later, with this book and many (many!) others, Christopher has taken his own study of Witchcraft and connected it to many other cultures around the world and throughout history in search of not only the magick of those cultures but also the underlying reasons for their practices. He finds all of the important aspects of both the science and the spirituality of the Craft and gathers them together for his students. He knows that magick is real, and he practices in that manner, but he also understands skepticism, and that seeing and experiencing for yourself is truly believing. He’s intellectual, he does his homework, and he does his research to show you how he arrives at all of his conclusions. I have no doubt that is why his work on Witchcraft and magick has been and remains so popular, and why he has been so successful as a teacher.
Had Christopher just stopped there, I’m sure his work would be rightly remembered and referenced for generations to come, but he also understands Witchcraft as a religion, and as a community, and the role of the Witch in community. After his Temple series of books was first published, Christopher and his partners and his students started the Temple of Witchcraft, a successful religious nonprofit for Witches, to be a home for that growing community. Now they offer sabbats and rituals and classes and own property in New Hampshire, something they can pass on to those generations to come.
I truly feel that Christopher stands between the traditional world of Witchcraft that I taught him and brought him into and the future of what Witchcraft can and will be, now that we have science on our side, with more and more understanding about how magick is real. While he honors tradition, he has found his own way. He is out there in public when he needs to be, but spends most of the time teaching and building and learning. He understands how to let things go and let them grow and evolve. Christopher has owned every single part of the Craft he has taken on, and he does the work of helping people learn to be sovereign within their own magick, giving them a chance to discover and to choose magick, as he did.
As much as the world is blessed by his work, and as much as I honor and appreciate it, I am also thankful to have Christopher in my life. He has invited me and my daughter, Penny, into his heart like we are family, and I feel like he is the son I might have had—did have in some ways. His mother, Rosalie, was the one who brought him to my classes and to Witchcraft, and although I have been his teacher, to me he has been my guide, my healer, my teacher, and my dear friend.
Although we talk about Witchcraft as a religion,
the truth is that I don’t believe in religion, at least not in terms of worshipping things. To get on your knees and bow and beg for help and for answers isn’t our way. It leaves your own sovereign nature and intellect behind, wanting someone or something else to always intervene for you. We don’t worship the gods who are our ancestors. We honor them and respect them, but we partner with them. We use our magick to find our own answers, and I hope that you will use everything you find in this book to find yours. Be both skeptical and open-minded, like Christopher, and I promise you, you could not be in better hands.
Blessed be,
Laurie Cabot
Salem, Massachusetts, 2019
[contents]
Introduction to the New Edition
The Expanded Temple
The stars have turned around the Earth many times since the publication of The Inner Temple of Witchcraft, and many more times since that first seven-week class I taught in 1997 that formed the seed for all that was to come. Back then, I had no idea of the garden that would grow from that seed.
My original goals for this book were small and, I must admit, not wholly mine. I desired to pass on the things that were most helpful to me to budding, independent Witches and magicians. I like to explore. I like to experiment. And I like talking to like-minded people who are doing exciting things. Yet not too many around me were willing to explore, experiment, or go further. Some of the Witches I knew were content with the limited material they had, and stayed within those parameters. They had no drive to know much more, which I found strange, but I later realized that they were serving the role of keepers of tradition, and I would later meet many who could both explore and keep the roots of tradition. My favorite Witches were those who would dare. Back in those days, if you told me that I couldn’t or shouldn’t do something, that was a surefire way to get me to do it immediately. At least today I ask why?
before jumping into the unknown, as there could be some wisdom to the unforeseen consequences experienced by those who have already done it and gotten burned. Those around me who were the most daring magickally usually didn’t even have a basic understanding of formal magick, but a vague, fantasy-like idea of magick from movies and television, and while there were some gems of magickal technique to be found in popular media, the results of my most daring magickal friends appeared to be illusionary and not progressive in terms of either personal power or spiritual evolution.
Those seeking to get a foundation in magick were hard-pressed to find a way to satisfy their desire to explore new ideas while keeping balance with the older techniques. There were very formal and traditional options, but at the start of this journey, they were often filled with dogmatic-like obedience to initiators or a dysfunctional family style of internal politics. For those of us leaving dogmatic religions, like Catholicism, or dysfunctional families, it was not an appealing option. It took my later travels to find great traditional options where the vessel of training was held really well by the elders without a personal agenda or egomania. Otherwise, it was a time of a great boom in magickal literature thanks to the explosion in popularity of the occult and paranormal in the media, with the rise of the movie The Craft and television shows like Charmed, Sabrina, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A variety of colorful people popped out of the woodwork to declare themselves teachers, readers, and experts, without any clear understanding of their own training, education, or ethics. A lot of wonderful creative things were happening, and lot of not-so-wonderful things as well. The ratio of signal to noise was high on the noise side of things and, in some ways, not unlike the current surge of instant experts in the social media age. To be fair, one could have easily lumped me in with such a crowd of new experts
coming out of nowhere, though I was there reluctantly.
My own teachers, public and private, where not teaching for a time. The first coven I learned from no longer welcomed guests and sort of passed the torch to me, my mother, Rosalie, and my spiritual sister Laura to host public events. The three of us began hosting more public sabbats that welcomed more new people as well as members of the original coven, who could attend as honored guests and enjoy themselves without having to be responsible for running the event. Perhaps unknowingly, we became their outer court, a filter for recruitment. I think they were just tired of hosting events on top of running a metaphysical shop and offering spiritual counsel through psychic readings. Small groups gathered asking me to teach, and a book club turned into a sharing circle and then a formal class. Most of that first class became a new coven. Private, invitation-only classes suddenly received inquiries and became public, and things took off, all as I was attempting to salvage my music career and fulfill a profoundly disturbing and half-hearted agreement to the goddess Macha to focus on teaching. As a variation on the popular saying, be careful not only what you wish for from the gods, but also what you agree to, as it will come true and have many unintended consequences. Though when you have greater clarity about your magickal will, you will find that those consequences are truly in alignment with your soul.
My work represented a balance between the traditional and the innovative. I shared occult ideas passed on to me by my teachers that I later saw presented differently in public books. Were these mistakes or misunderstandings by my teachers? Were they new interpretations by teachers? Some believe that mistakes
in public books are purposeful mistakes, called blinds
by initiates and used to conceal true
secrets from the uninitiated, as an initiate would recognize the mistake for what it was. Perhaps these new ideas were some combination of all three—mistakes, new interpretations, and the revelation of classic blinds—as these teachings became part of our new, growing collective paradigm. We looked to the old works of the occultists and Theosophists, but did not shy away from chaos magicians and New Age techniques. Meditation, practice, discipline, verification, introspection, and spiritual growth were emphasized as the curriculum grew, mostly out of the things that I had researched and integrated into my practice in the years before the original class/coven asked, What’s next?
Without a clear plan, I soon found all the material fitting neatly into a five-level system of training, as if the gods always knew it would come out that way.
At heart, I have a true love for the last point on the Witches’ Pyramid, to keep silent.
While I would have preferred a word-of-mouth secret society, one of my most profound first teachers, Laurie Cabot, is a very public Witch acting as teacher to new Witches and available with open classes, as well as acting as a minister to the community, educator to the general public, and activist for the rights of Witches, women, and the environment. I found my invitations to speak and work publicly and professionally growing and had to take that stance as a public Witch and educator. While not to the same level of media as Laurie, as the Official Witch of Salem, I found myself being interviewed in the paper and on the radio talking about our practices. While some practices still remained mouth-to-ear teachings, I endeavored to share as much as I could, whenever and wherever I was asked, and found myself on the road quite a bit, in part to support my growing body of published work, but mainly to teach the techniques firsthand.
Again without design, I found those around me forming something new. The teaching curriculum of five levels formed a shared inner identity through technique and experience. Current and former students would attend public lectures and sabbat celebrations, but they lacked an outward identity. I didn’t feel a need for one initially, but they did. With the publication of The Inner Temple of Witchcraft and the subsequent books in the series, there was a growing group of people steeped in shared practices. After a few instances of students referring to themselves as Penczakian or Christopherian, in homage to the Gardnerian and Alexandrian British Traditional Wicca lineages named after their founders, I stepped in. To me, it was the practice that was most important, and the exploration, rather than the label beyond simply Witch. For me, Witch is such a broad, all-encompassing word that each practitioner really gets to define it for themselves. So we collectively started referring to it as the Temple of Witchcraft tradition, or the Temple tradition for short, for in the Age of Aquarius, we have enough lineages with names. This tradition started differently, and should be named differently.
So our system morphed into a community, and the community identified as a tradition. As both grew, it became harder to facilitate, with growing expectations of me beyond my public offerings. I lacked a storefront, and truly didn’t want one. I wrote books so that people who couldn’t meet with me in person could learn and practice on their own. Then I received a second profound vision from the goddess Macha in her triple form of the Morrighan. I was offered an opportunity to go back to an ordinary
job, as my main work was done, with the publication of the last books in the Temple series, the two-volume The Living Temple of Witchcraft. Or I could take it to the next level, but I had to do so willingly. As a Taurus Sun sign who prefers routine and safety, the ordinary
was mighty tempting, but I decided to clearly find that point of the Witches’ Pyramid, to will,
and embrace my True Will. Soon I received an inner-world transmission of the material that would become The Three Rays Witchcraft and the foundation for our growing tradition and community.
The six books in the Temple series were the foundation of technique, but the mythos, ethos, imagery, and mystery grew deeper. To avoid repeating past mistakes of doing it all alone, I invited a group of former students, some of whom had been with me since that first seed of a class, and shared some of my vision, and asked them what they wished to create. Together we proceeded to find ways to be open and transparent and public yet still retain the mystery and magick, and we did so through founding a nonprofit religious organization, the Temple of Witchcraft. We attracted the attention of a number of seemingly disparate spirits and gods, and saw our order as a cooperative venture with the spirits. We had the idea of being a rooted, land-based tradition, which is Pagan at heart in the most mystical sense of the word. So few of us have land dedicated to a tradition where we can practice without fear, so property became our goal. Power-sharing models that rejected the notion of one or two people with absolute authority and little guidelines beyond the traditional ardanes (laws) came into being. Opportunities for ministry, for true service, that were not focused exclusively on running a coven, teaching, leading a sabbat, or doing psychic readings—the role of the professional Witch
—were created, including work in environmentalism, pastoral care, art, mediation, and prison ministry, all around a system of twelve ministries using the zodiac wheel as its foundation. Our teaching model is based in academics, a school structure, yet is deeply rooted in the mysteries and sharing your evolutionary process while receiving guidance and feedback on techniques and ways to integrate them. The original five degrees have been expanded to inspire new exploration, new daring, and new sharing with the body of like-minded Witches working together.
After these many years, I am delighted that people are still using The Inner Temple of Witchcraft as a valuable teaching resource and textbook. This updated edition reflects the expansion of the material, often described as wisdom lectures, as it has developed not only by me, but by our community and other teachers in our school setting. The original text remains, but has been expanded upon, drawing from our growing body of new techniques, mythos, and parts of the tradition’s initiates-only Book of Shadows, to help express the flavor and direction our community has taken since the original six-book series. While the core techniques remain unchanged and are part of a progression of skills developed, some of the growing culture is a reflection of how not only the Temple of Witchcraft but also Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, polytheism, and occultism have changed in the last twenty years. Words that once had one fairly strict interpretation in the community, such as Warlock and Wiccan, are now open to greater interpretation and critique. This anniversary edition reflects such changes of thought and culture, to keep students as up-to-date as possible. With future updated editions of the entire series of Temple books, I look forward to sharing even more of our evolution, culminating in the long-anticipated seventh and final book in the series, The Key to the Temple of Witchcraft.
In Love, Will, and Wisdom,
Christopher Penczak
Salem, New Hampshire, 2019
[contents]
Introduction
What Is the Inner Temple
of Witchcraft?
I never thought I would be teaching classes on Witchcraft, much less making it the focus of my life. But here I am, now writing books on it, too. When I started out, I was not even looking to get involved in Witchcraft. A longtime friend introduced me to the topic, and I thought she was kidding. I made bad Wizard of Oz jokes simply because I had never heard of a person calling herself a Witch and being serious, even reverent. This was quite a few years ago, and the notion has gained a bit more media attention since then. My friend is a very intelligent person, whose opinion I respect, so I asked her all sorts of questions. We discussed European history and art influenced by the pre-Christian cultures. We explored philosophy and symbols. Since we both have a love of art, she truly got my attention by showing me Egyptian symbols, such as the Eye of Horus and the ankh.
The more we talked, the more I thought this Witchcraft thing might be something I would be interested in pursuing. I had come from twelve years of Catholic school, and although at one time I felt a spiritual connection to something, I was no longer sure what it was, since I did not feel a connection to the Catholic Church. I could not agree with many of their views, so I released that spiritual connection with some guilt and anger. When my friend told me about the Craft and how it stressed individual and personal connections, I was intrigued. Perhaps it was what I had always been seeking but never knew existed.
The final piece that started me on this path was my first ritual. I was invited to a Full Moon ritual and given the opportunity to do a spell. I wasn’t sure I believed in it, but I thought, Why not try?
Another friend of mine was having a difficult pregnancy. She was not getting the prenatal care she needed, and the doctors thought she and the child were both in danger. Making matters worse, she had a difficult relationship with her divorced parents, and, as a senior in high school, had hidden the pregnancy until the last few weeks. Although I don’t remember the exact wording, my spell basically intended that she and the baby come out healthy, with as little pain as possible, if this was for their highest good. Later I found out they were both healthy, and I was happy. Then I discovered that her labor had lasted less than two hours and was almost pain-free. I was shocked and thought back to the spell. I’m sure she’d had many people praying for her, but at that point I thought that spells and Witchcraft were more real than I had previously believed.
Soon I started studying Witchcraft with a well-known local teacher, Laurie Cabot. My mother and my best friend came along, half out of interest and half out of fear that I was joining a cult. The experience was life-changing. The most important aspect of the course was the empowerment. We learned basic meditation techniques to open to our intuitive and psychic powers. By the end, we had completed several different exercises with a certain amount of real-world verification. The skeptic in me loved this, because it was like a scientific experiment. In a short time, I learned to do things that I’d believed were truly impossible. Now I was doing the impossible! This empowering tradition stressed the ethics of Witchcraft regarding personal responsibility. I truly understood that I was responsible for my own life and my own happiness. Before this class, I’d had bouts of depression and anger, but I always thought it was someone else’s fault, not my own. Through this process, I learned how I make my own reality and that I’d better start taking responsibility for it because no one else would. Empowerment and responsibility are the heart, and true lesson, of magick.
In the next few years, I finished college and pursued my music as both a performer and a businessman. I got my life in order and accepted myself and my own personal power. I studied Witchcraft and related topics such as shamanism, tarot, healing, and runes to further my education, but my practice of Witchcraft was a very personal, private affair. Gradually I grew more relaxed and came out of the broom closet,
as many Witches like to say.
A group of friends really noticed the changes in me and became interested in Witchcraft. My small coven invited them to rituals and celebrations. These newly interested friends would ask me to do spells for them, but I declined. I’d rather do a spell with them and teach them the skill than have them rely on me. They asked to learn some meditations and healing work. Soon my friends asked me to set up a formal class. I agreed, and that forced me to rediscover the most important aspects of Witchcraft.
My life-changing event was my discovery of personal power and responsibility. It was about finding the sacred within myself, my center, my peaceful core. We each have a sacred space within us, a part of us. This sacred space is a temple, a temple to our inner power, our intuition, and our connection with the divine. Discovery of psychic powers, spells, and meditation are all things that lead us to the temple. They help us find the road within and walk our path to the inner temple.
For me, Witchcraft is the building of sacred space in myself, my life, and my environment; I decided to make that the focus of the class. I wanted to help others find their own sacred space, their own inner temple. The information and exercises would build up to that experience. I owe a great deal of thanks to all my teachers for giving me the tools necessary to do this work. I am also thankful for those first friends and students who set me on this path.
The class went well and, like the old telephone commercial, They told two friends, who told two friends, and so on.
I started getting calls from strangers to teach the class. At that point in my life, I was still working in the music industry and didn’t have much time to devote to teaching Witchcraft. As strange as this may sound to those unfamiliar with spiritual journeys, I had a visionary experience. In meditation, my patron, the Celtic crow goddess Macha, came to me and told me to teach more. After some debate, I finally promised I would teach if she could get me more time. It was an easy promise to make, because I knew my schedule was full. A few weeks later, after I’d forgotten about the promise, the situation at work deteriorated and I was laid off. While meditating for guidance, the only advice I received was, Now you can teach.
I did teach after knocking on numerous office doors that would not open for me. I couldn’t get a job answering telephones, but when I put up a flyer for Witchcraft classes, my phone rang off the hook. Evidently people needed to find their own inner temple.
I refined the material of my course Witchcraft One: Building the Inner Temple, and subsequently designed four additional courses. Each one is based on one of the five elements: fire, earth, water, air, and spirit. Witchcraft One is based on the element of fire, for fire helps you feel your own personal power. Fire is the light of guidance, purifying yet protecting. The experiences and exercises of that course are the basis of this book.
After teaching full-time for a few years, I discovered that many people really want to study Witchcraft, but they have difficulty laying the foundation. Such people jump right to love or money spells, and have some success following a spell by rote from a book, without understanding why it works. They jump into the material needs of the tradition before laying the groundwork for both an intellectual understanding and a spiritual experience. Anyone can do a spell, but not everyone experiences a life-changing event. The Inner Temple of Witchcraft lays that foundation.
This course is unlike many traditional Witchcraft 101 books. I will not focus on rituals, altar building, circle casting, and how to celebrate the Wheel of the Year. Those are the tools of the priestess and priest. I’ve found that students who have not experienced energy and psychic abilities, the foundation stones of magick, have a less profound experience with ritual. They do not understand the subtle mechanics and opportunities interwoven with it. Symbols and ceremonies not understood and personally experienced have a danger of becoming dogma rather than spiritual expression. When students dive right into traditional spellwork, they don’t understand their inherent abilities and lack a perspective of the long history of Witchcraft.
This book begins by covering some basic definitions of Witchcraft and then guides you into the ancient history up to the modern traditions of the Craft, to help you find the path that suits you best. The rest of the book is divided into thirteen lessons, with practical exercises and homework for a year-and-a-day course of study. Topics include meditation, instant magick, ancient philosophy, modern science, protection, light, energy anatomy, astral travel, spirit guides, and healing, culminating in a solitary initiation ritual. Some of the exercises ask that you find a partner, so be on the lookout for a friend to help you in these studies. Having a partner can keep you focused, and it is also great fun to have a peer with whom to share your experiences.
Once you have created this foundation of light and guidance, the tools of the priestess and priest are learned with a deeper appreciation and understanding. The second book of this series, The Outer Temple of Witchcraft, is a detailed course for this level of study.
I have discovered that people who take this course generally fall into three categories, and all three are welcome. Sometimes it is best to know what your own motivations are. The first group are those who are really interested in Witchcraft and other Neopagan traditions and seek an experience or training to help them on the path.
Second are those who come with an open mind and later discover that the material really resonates within them. I was in this category. I didn’t want to become a Witch until I had already become one. I only had to claim the name.
The last group are those who are interested in building a spiritual foundation, a meditative or psychic practice, but do not go on to pursue Witchcraft. A few even harbor a stigma associated with the word Witch and ask me why I call the classes Witchcraft
instead of New Age
or psychic development.
Many traditions of the New Age come from the history of the Witch and healer, and this information is the foundation of Witchcraft.
Members of this last group sometimes go on to become healers, psychics, mediums, shamanic practitioners, and magicians. Some do not follow any specific tradition, but take the foundation stones of the inner temple and build their own house. In essence, that is what we all do with such material. I come from quite an eclectic tradition and encourage others to follow their heart and use what resonates with them. Understand the basics, but use what speaks to you. Some choose not to reclaim the word Witch because they do not resonate with it. That’s fine. I think the teachings of the Craft have something to offer all of us, whether we use the word or not, as we enter the New Age.
Many like myself feel it is important to bring the word Witch into the twenty-first century without the stigma attached to it. Modern Witches must live by example to show people that our traditions are loving, healing, and spiritual.
I would like to thank many people without whom this book would not have been possible. I would particularly like to thank my first students who pushed me into teaching at the Goddess’s prompting, provoked me with questions and challenges to refine the material, and allowed me to use their stories as examples in my work. I thank my first teachers in the Craft for opening this world to me, and I thank Laurie Cabot for her classes based in the science tradition of Witchcraft and her demand that all magick must start with self-esteem and self-love. Without that, my life wouldn’t have so completely changed. I thank my friends, family, and coven for their support. I thank Ginella, Scott, Amanda, Lena, and Patti. I thank Nicole for her input and suggestions, and I thank the many authors, teachers, and healers who have built the foundation of modern Witchcraft and mysticism.
Blessed be,
Christopher Penczak
Salem, New Hampshire, 2000
[contents]
1
Ask a Witch
What is a Witch? What is Witchcraft? These two questions don’t have easy answers. The word Witch is very emotionally charged, bringing up conflicting images across the centuries. It is hard to understand which image, if any, is correct.
For most of the Western world, the word Witch evokes the villain of many fairy tales. We watch the old hag giving the poisoned apple, brewing harmful potions, eating children, and casting curses. At Halloween, stores sell decorations of Witches, old ugly women with green faces and pointed hats riding around on broomsticks. Although these are familiar portraits, they are not the first. Because of humanity’s fear of that which is different and mysterious, the Witch was resigned to the world of children’s stories, the realm of make-believe, to make the folk stories of Witchcraft impotent. If the only people who believed in Witches were children, then the power of the Witch would no longer be a reality, but a fantasy. Unfortunately, fictionalizing Witchcraft was not the only way people dealt with their fear.
If you turn back a few hundred years, you can see the word Witch throughout the records of one of Europe’s greatest holocausts, the Witch trials. Men and women were persecuted and killed for being different. Some call it the Burning Times, because many were put to death by fire, burned at the stake. Typically, history books gloss over this particular bit of history, but it is every bit a part of us, as relevant to our modern cultures as wars of conquest.
At the top of the list of victims were those accused of practicing Witchcraft. The ruling powers of the time had their own ideas about Witchcraft, spreading stories of black masses, sacrifices, and contracts in blood signing souls over to the Devil. These stories are the roots of the children’s fairy tales. The vast majority of the condemned were not practicing true
Witchcraft. Some held the