LESSON 4:  Pages 13-16

I do not want to get too much into the issue of what makes us different, but one thing that keeps striking me is that we are, and it is not entirely by our own choice.  We are outsiders, maybe even rebels.  Long before I learned to relate to the wolf as my own totem, I was very prone to thinking of myself as a lone wolf wandering through the world around me.  With the Craft I discovered a remarkable sense of belonging that has never left me, even though my active involvement has varied over the years.

All right, I am speaking for myself, and possibly you do not have such feelings.  But in the case that you do, I am going to play out a few more ideas about this witch identity of ours.

In the previous section of the book I talked about the practical need for secrecy, even deception.  The "burning times" are not completely over--and in case any of you have never read this, I would most strongly recommend The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood as a book that could too easily be prophetic.

However, there is another side to this.  Through the Craft we are free to remake our identities.  Most of us do this right off by taking on an alternate name that ideally expresses either how we see ourselves or how we wish to be linked to magic's world.  In my dedication I mentioned the two women who first brought me into the circle, Aislinn and Kishli.  These were Craft names, chosen in part as a disguise (both were fairly well-known writers and one worked for a public agency that might not be too happy about one of its people being into, ugh, witchcraft) but also because of the symbolism that they had for them.  I have one layer of secrecy with my use of a writing name, but I also have a Craft name that I do keep generally unknown but which I chose for its symbolism.

Could you--or should you--change your Craft name or add another one?  If you think about tribal practices--even those reflected in the Book of Genesis when Jacob is renamed Israel--this might be something you want to do at a period of transition.  I would suggest that if you are going through any type of intense soul-searching, selecting a new name is a helpful technique for focusing your energy.

How secret should your Craft name be?  One outlook, explained by Sir James Frazer in this linked section of the Golden Bough, is that names are seen as a source of power.  Much of the old magic centered on this concept when we might be talking about the names of angels or even about the secret names of God, sometimes representing them in certain designs called sigils.  If you are not already familiar with the use of sigils as a particularly interesting way of linking names and numbers in the occultist teaching of the Renaissance, you might find this updated use of sigils of interest.  (One task you might set yourself is to form a sigil for your own magical name based on the techniques presented in this website.)

However, I find that most Craft people these days have no reluctance in being identified by the same name that I assume they use in a circle.  Of this is true of you, then one thing you might do for your journal is make a list of associations that also carry over into your semi-public life outside the circle proper.  For example, what kind of clothing or jewelry or even home decorations reinforce the energy you wish to see involved with your name?