AN EXAMINATION OF WITCHCRAFT

SELECTED EXCERPTS AND ENTRIES FROM MELINDA ROSTAVICH’S “WITCHCRAFT: A GUIDE ON THE ABILITIES OF INHERITED HAVOC” (1987).

WITCHES: DAUGHTERS OF THE TWIN SOURCES

The witch is both a product of a bloodline factor and of learnable magics. Unlike the progenic sorcerer, they do not have an intuitive ability which they can freely manipulate, nor are is their potential defined from birth by way of progenic aptitude variance. In the same sense, the witch must also dedicate herself the forms of witchcraft she seeks to master, much like the mundy who seeks to become an arcanist through the acquisition of knowledge. The witch sits comfortably at the crossroads, then, between the sorcerer and the practitioner of the Arts; born with an exclusive access to a specific set of abilities that must be cultivated through time and diligence, and turned into a skill much like anything else.

Suffice it to say, the witch occupies a unique space in our world.
As such, a witch’s perspective is crucial to understanding the various mechanisms and concepts that guide witchcraft as form of occultism—let it be known here and now that I, Melinda Rostavich, am, in fact, a witch. At the time of writing I am currently employed by the Brinehaven College of the Arts, where, in addition to serving on the admissions committee (for witches who intend to pursue witchcraft at an academic level), I am also a professor of divination within the school’s witchcraft program. My purpose for authoring this guide is namely for the prospective witch who intends on enrolling to the institution which employs me, but in the same vein, it is a guide meant for both non-affiliated witches and mundies who may have an interest in learning more about witchcraft in general. This is a generalized document meant to endow readers with information as it pertains to the function of witchcraft, but it will not be delving into the layered histories of witches, witchcraft, and the capacity in which the world has often treated them (which, frankly, is not great). Further inquiries into such a thing should be directed elsewhere.

Now, we will begin with the basics.

First, there is the question of precisely why witchcraft is counted among the practices of occultism. This is due primarily to the fact that witchcraft, much like demonology and thaumaturgy, functions on sources outside of primacy as a means of achieving power. What complicates witchcraft is that it has not one source, but two. For the sake of simplicity, I have included a diagram, which will be elaborated on further. Take a moment to first familiarize yourself with the following:

The witch is unique in that she is born with access to two sources: the Threshold and the Nether.

The Threshold is perhaps best described as an in-between. It is the crossroads of life and death, a purgatory. A place of near-death, but not death itself, from which a vast quantity of occultic energy is stored. A near inexhaustible amount of dark power lies within this place, and the witch is capable of drawing upon it in an intuitive capacity. Such an energy is regarded simply as chaos, which the witch’s soul is capable of channeling as a conduit. It is through this connection to the Threshold and its vast wealth of chaos that the witch can make use of the Trinity Practicum, a collection of spells and rituals (each classified as three distinct practices—which I will address in later sections) that must be learned. Second to this is the specialized usage of chaos to fuel coventry magic, specialized sets of spells contained to individual covens, or collective sisterhoods of witches.

The Nether is a extraplanar realm in and of itself, similar to Hell (or what the Western hemisphere calls Hell, within the context of Judeo Christian practices). Where it differs from Hell is that it contains no demons, and it is instead home to two distinct entities: familiars and sprites. Familiars are beings with particular and variable abilities that will bond to one witch in particular, and can be summoned at-will, while sprites are perhaps best described as small wisps of raw elemental power given physical form.

COSTS OF USAGE

Without question, the witch soul is considered to be particularly powerful compared to the human soul (an already powerful source in its own right) due to its innate ability to seamlessly connect and draw power from these sources. Even so, the witch is still fundamentally human, and subject the same limitations and weaknesses as their mundane counterparts: sickness, old age, and, of course, death. In the same vein, they are incapable of drawing infinite power from their twin sources, and much like the arcanist or the occultist, are confined within certain rules and parameters.

However, due to the varied nature of their sources, their restrictions are distinct.

First, for both coventry magic and spells categorized under the Trinity Practicum, there is the notion of Havoc hysteria.

This is a condition born from the repeated use of spells that draw their power from the Threshold; each time chaos is used, the more likely it becomes that the witch falls under its influence. Allow me to elaborate. Havoc hysteria is both an internal and external affliction, impacting the witch’s cognition by way of increased levels of irritability, confusion, delusion, and delirium while also having tangible effects on the surrounding environment by funneling chaos outwards and inadvertently casting hexes. The only means of stopping Havoc hysteria is by ceasing the usage of witchcraft entirely for gradually reduce symptoms, or, via incapacitation¹. In principle, Havoc hysteria mirrors the Theory of Proportionate Exertion found within kinetics—the more powerful the spell (be it via conventry magic, or through the Trinity Practicum), the more chaos is utilized and the more likely a witch is to enter Havoc hysteria.

COVENTRY MAGIC

Coventry magic may best be described as witchcraft’s own version of ritualism; you must first be a witch to make use of it, and you must second be a member of an established coven in order to have access to their specific spells, which are learnable only after once has been admitted and granted access to a coven.

The mechanism, then, which ensures that such coventry magic is expressed only by members of said coven, is rooted in what is known merely as a coventry ceremony—with each one being as varied as the last, and almost entirely dependent on the coven itself. No one coventry ceremony is the same in practice, but they all share the same outcome in the form of the coventry emblem, specific designators of coventry affiliation that will be applied directly over a witch’s mark.

Now, crucially, while one must be granted admission via the coventry ceremony in order to have access to the coventry emblem which enables one to use coventry magic, a witch within a coven still requires mentorship and guidance from senior members of the coven to learn and utilize new spells locked behind to their coven. In short: the emblem allows a witch to learn coventry magic, but it is only through continued loyalty that the coven witch learns more spells. On a closing note, coventry magic is activated through vocal evocations; coventry spells must be announced aloud in order to initiate the coventry emblem, which in effect, is ‘unsealed’ to allow for them to make use of said spell at the time of casting it.

CULTIVATED CHAOS: THE TRINITY PRACTICUM

Within witchcraft there exists the Trinity Practicum, which ought to be described simply as this: fundamental, learnable spells of witchcraft that are not bound and sealed behind Coventry Spells. They are as follows:

Hexes (or, hexology): cultivate unrealized havoc for localized misfortunate, disaster, and accidents; also used to apply curses onto people or places
Diviniations (or, divinaiton): interpretive foresight and prescience, the use of omens and fortunes
Rituals (or, ritualsetting): drawn and symbolic arrays, usually but not always reliant on exterior ingredients or components (i.e candles, blood, salts, etc.)

Within the Brinehaven College of the Arts, you have will find that the majority of those admitted into the witchcraft program will spend the bulk of their studies familiarizing themselves with a vast swathe of the Trinity Practicum². What the Trinity Practicum boasts compared to the exclusivity of coventry magic is the sheer volume of publically accessible spells. There is no shortage of hexes³, diviniations, or rituals to be learned—the difficulty is in becoming familiar with all of them. The especially studious witch will find herself capable, perhaps, of garnering a vast arsenal of the Trinity Practicum, but more often than not, witches excel at one practicum over the other. Much like, say, arcanism, each practicum (hexes, divination, rituals) is a field of study in and of itself. The Brinehaven College of the Arts has a curriculum that establishes a certain base level, wherein witches will be endowed with only the foundations. Further pursuit of such a curriculum would earn a witch a Bachelors General Practiums, versus the specialist who might earn a Bachelors in Hexology, a Bachelors in Diviniations, or a Bachelors in Rituals.

Notably, the Trinity Practicum is not isolated to institutions of higher learning, and therefore it is not necessarily exclusive as, say, coventry magic is. However, the cultivation of knowledge—merely in a general sense—is itself dependent on either an individual or an institutions fervor in expanding their cultivation of said knowledge. In this sense, yes, with the right resources, a witch is indeed capable of developing some level of familiarity with the Trinity Practicum, but they will be hard-pressed to find the same level of material research, resources, and stewardship offered by an institution of esoteric learning⁴.

FAMILIARS

Let it be known, first, that not all witches have familiars (myself included). All witches have the capacity to gain one, but to gain a familiar is a mark of mastery that is reserved for those who have refined their connection with the Nether or, perhaps simply have the natural aptitude towards that source as compared to the Threshold.

Familiars are beings capable of what we might consider intuitive magic, where they are capable of utilizing specific abilities without ever needing formal instruction or guidance. Each of them a specific ability, sometimes two or three, and varied physical advantages depending on their size and specific anatomies. On that note, all familiars are different, with varied levels of effectiveness.

*The method in which a witch acquires a familiar*

It must be said that it is impossible for any corporeal form to enter the Nether; such a thing has never been accomplished and, due to whatever laws and principles that dictate the very state of reality within the Nether, it never will. The human body is simply incompatible with such a place, but the human soul, particularly a witch’s soul, is not.

The Rite of Observance is a particular ritual which suspends a witch’s consciousness and allows for their soul to venture into the Nether itself by way of astral projection. In doing so, they expose themselves to an extraplanar realm occupied entirely by familiars and sprites (further insights into sprites will be disclosed in further sections).

Unlike the demon, the familiar does not seek to harvest souls, but to bond with them. As soon as a witch enters the Nether, their soul will function somewhat like a beacon, attracting non-bonded familiars towards them—where the familiar will seek to initiate what is known as the Rite of Pairing, which bonds the familiar to the soul of a witch. Now, what makes the Rite of Pairing a particularly irregular process (it is, after all, what makes the acquisition of a familiar so difficult) is the notion of bond compatibility. While the familiar is by its very nature compelled to the witch, it will often enter the Rite of Pairing without bearing the idea of bond compatibility in mind. As such, rejection rates are high, and it may take a witch years before a familiar recognizes them as compatible.

Upon a successful Rite of Pairing, the witch is capable of summoning their familiar at-will. While they themselves are not demons, they function similar to them in that the soul of the witch (and thereby their physical form) essentially becomes their tether. When a familiar is ‘killed’, it does not truly die, but rather, returns back to the Nether, in which case it may take anywhere from several days or weeks before the familiar can be resummoned.

THE ART OF SPRITEBINDING

Spritebinding is, without a doubt, the most layered and complicated aspect of witchcraft, so much so that it is rightfully considered to be its own derivative form of magic; much like skinmasonry is to sigilmasonry. All witches are capable of being spritebinders, but few are capable of doing so effectively.

While certainly, the spritebinder is a witch who must have access to certain components of witchcraft in order to perform their duties, one will rarely encounter a spritebinder who is also, say, proficient in the use of advanced variants of coventry magic, or even the more complex spells classified within the Trinity Practicum.

It must also be said that spritebinding is perhaps the most dangerous variation of witchcraft. It is an art that regularly puts the soul of a witch at risk due to the sheer amount of time that must be spent in the Nether, and the complications that may yet be yielded during the process of trying to bind a sprite. In the same vein, it poses an immense threat to the body of the witch.

Within spritebinding, there the following steps must be followed in an exact order known as the Precepts of Binding:

Precept of Entrance: entrance into the Nether via Rite of Observance
Precept of Pursuit: exploration of disaster instances in the Nether to finds sprites
Precept of Bewitching: witch’s soul charms and binds sprite via Soulcapture Bewitching Method
Precept of Delivery: witch’s soul consumes sprite via Nether Consummation
Precept of Transference: witch’s physical form delivers sprite from womb into the corporal world

*The Precepts of Binding, followed step-by-step*

At every turn, there is risk to the witch. Allow me to elaborate.

Once the witch’s soul has entered the Nether via the Rite of Observance (the Precept of Entrance, as it is called) they must journey towards the nearest disaster instance—areas within the Nether that exist in a perpetual state of natural calamity, often entirely avoided by familiars. Domes of fire, blizzards, thunder storms, never-ending earthquakes are examples of such disaster instances. The Precept of Pursuit, then, is the journey which must be undertaken by the witch’s soul wherein their astral projection explores these dangerous areas. Though their astral form cannot be damaged, the longer the witch remains in the Nether, the more damage may come to their soul itself.

Sprites of various elemental sources call these disaster instances their homes, and assemble within them at high frequencies, often content and still living within the annals of tornados, the flicker of flames and the crackles of lightning strikes. To draw them out of their elemental homes, the witch must initiate the Precept of Bewitching by utilizing the Soulcapture Bewitching Method, a chant capable of drawing out the sprite.

Once drawn out, the witch will make contact with the sprite via her astral projection; effectively consuming the sprite into her soul through via Nether Consummation, which will transfer the sprite to the physical body of the witch and store it in her womb⁵. Such a process is regarded as the Precept of Delivery. Immediately following Nether Consummation, the witch will return to the corporeal realm.

The Precept of Transference, then, refers to the final act performed by the witch to insert the sprite into the world of the living. The delivery of a sprite is often invasive and traumatic, not unlike a standard pregnancy. Some witches will stay in labor longer than others, during which their body will often flow with occultic energy correspondent to the type of sprite they have consumed (fire, wind, lightning, and so on).

Notably, the sprite will remain as a spiritual entity until it has been fully delivered from the witch’s body—meaning that the witch’s womb (while certainly very resilient in its own right) is not directly harmed, nor is the witch’s vaginal canal. During the act of labor itself, however, the body of the witch suffers temporary ailments typical of a standard birth: pain, discomfort, muscle aches, and excessive bleeding. Much like real pregnancies, there is risk of complications, unsuccessful deliveries, and outright rejections as well. In such cases, the aforementioned occultic energies (correspondent to the type of sprite they are delivering, yes) will swell and intensify at varied rates before inevitably killing the witch in question.

CONTAINMENT & FUNCTIONS

It should be noted that the sprite’s eye will remain closed at the time of birth, and it will not open unless dictated by the witch itself. The witch will not do so unless the sprite has first been contained within a sprite cage made at the behest of an adept artificer; such a cage is capable of containing the sprite in a smaller, weakened state.

Upon the witch’s vocal decree, the sprite will open its eye and it will bind to the first person it sees⁶.

How sprites function when perceiving danger

The sprite exists in a reduced form, or weakened state, unless it detects danger that poses a direct threat to the person whom it has binded itself to. The sprite will issue what is known as a cursory blink if it perceives danger, in an effort to warn the human whom it has binded itself to within its weakened state. It is only after the sprite is released from its sprite cage that it will expand to its true size (which is often varied), in which case it will utilize its active blink to release correspondent elemental energy (depending on the type) to attack what it perceives as dangerous towards the person it has bonded with.

Sprites will intuitively seek out new individuals to bond with if said their original bondee has died; otherwise it will remain loyal across any distance and for an indefinite amount of time.

WITCHMOTHERS & SPRITEBINDER BROODS

A brood is the term used for a collection of sprites bound to a singular individual; this is only possible if said individual is the spritebinder who brought them into corporal world. In essence, their witchmother. Every witchmother is a spritebinder, but not all spritebinder’s are witchmothers. The witchmother, however, boasts three crucial capabilities:

The capacity to freely manipulate and bend sprites to their will
The capacity to alter a sprite’s shape and form
The capacity to have multiple sprites bind to them as a brood

While the standard sprite who is bound to a non-witch is limited to the use of cursory blinks and active blinks, sprites bound to their own witchmother are indeed capable of far more utility and are varied in their uses and applications, while also retaining their innate ability to detect and cast harm towards perceived danger.

Generally speaking, older witches are more adept at controlling their symptoms of Havoc hysteria. Though they are not immune to it, years of practicing witchcraft undoubtedly strengthens one’s connection to the Threshold and grants a greater tolerance towards chaos. ↩︎
The total volume of spells included within the Trinity Practicum is vast, so vast that the number of spells available to learn—excluding the fundamentals, of course—can often vary between institutions. A comprehensive list of spells has never been officially published, only variants of pamphlets, guidebooks, and instruction manuals authored by various witches over the course of many years. ↩︎
The use of curses, which are contained within the use of hexes, is known as ‘cursesetting‘; a complicated process which involves physical contact, recital of the curse conditions in Latin, and specificity in order to be considered effective. Typically, only hex specialists are capable of cursesetting. ↩︎
The Brinehaven College of the Arts is merely one example. There are, of course, more specialized schools that cater exclusively to witches, and sister-universities to the Brinehaven College of the Arts in other occult-mundane sanctuary cities such as San Catalina. ↩︎
It should be noted that the womb of a witch is, in fact, extremely resilient. Blackmarket alchemists view it as a highly sought after ingredient. ↩︎
When outside of their cages, the sprite will hover close to the person they have bonded to regardless of whether or not there is any perceived danger. ↩︎