Reconstructionist Pagan paths seek to copy a religion as it was practiced in the old days. Usually, this refers to a religion like the Greeks, Celts or ancient Egyptians.
We reconstruct traditional witchcraft from the Early Modern Period, as imagined by the popular culture of the last thousand years. Early Modern means the Tudors-Elizabethans-Jacobeans-Shakespeare. Popular culture means - we recognise that some of the history we use is inaccurate or represents stories/ideas of witches rather than a genuine historic witch practice - but that's the kind of witchcraft we want to do. Like Gardener, we are very inspired by Margaret Murray, even if
"Today, scholars are agreed that Murray was more than just wrong – she was completely and embarrassingly wrong on nearly all of her basic premises."(Jeffrey B. Russell and Brooks Alexander). Something doesn't have to BE historic to be meaningful, beautiful, and fit for purpose. It is important to recognise that there IS no surviving witch practice from that time, and our best attempts to reconstruct one will always tell us more about us and our needs than about history. Still. We have needs. We are the witches we wished to be as children. We use brooms, cauldrons, black cats and toads.
We are of the same lineage as Wicca - we are drawing from the same legends and the same questionable archeology. Current and former Wiccans will find a lot they recognise in the faith.
We differ on some key points:
It celebrates the sexual union of men and women as a metaphor for the fertility of the land. In the Court, you can work with this power and imagery too. However, there is no "core" myth - there are the many overlapping myths of England - and you can choose to focus on a different one with equal validity.
The Court recognises many of those faces as powers in their own right - as Robin Hood, Robin Goodfellow, the God of the Witches, Herne the Hunter, Gwyn Ap Nudd, Jack of the Green, the Green Man, the Horned God, Satan, Pan and Odin. A typical Wiccan approach is to see these all as faces of a single God. In the Court, we work with each of these powers as individuals. Some witches may, in time, discover these ARE faces of the same power for them, and that working with these many images as one will empower their craft. Others will not. Both ways are equally valid; though in the Court, it is slightly prefered to look for individuals - as a counterbalance to the "all-gods-are-one-god" approach in other craft.
Because Landcrafting draws from the history of British Witchcraft, deities and concepts from Wicca also have a place in our craft. So it would be valid to approach the Horned God or the Goddess as a Landcrafter. Indeed, you could probably be a Wiccan and Landcrafter simultaneously. Wicca is part of our heritage too.
And neither is Landcrafting. We cannot speak to the past. Our understandings of the ancients will always say more about the present day than about history.
Nevertheless, we strive for many parallel, overlapping reconstructionist approaches to British traditional witchcraft. We reject easy answers, one-true-universal-theory, and recognise that our faith will often be contradictory - as the records we have inherited contradict one another. No, it doesn't make sense to revere Guenevire, Oberon and the Number 28 bus in the same breath. That's OK. We still do it, because it reflects our experience of the world of the spirits. We do not expect these ideas to converge into a single legend. Fake history can be very powerful and have a tug on our magical imaginations, but we try to be self aware about it. (We are open to using pop-cultural figures, such as Robin Hood or King Arthur, in the understanding that they ARE pop-cultural - but nevertheless express something important about the land)
We don't. Landcrafting was developed in deliberate opposition to this approach. Individual witches are welcome to put these elements into their practice, as it makes sense to them. Landcrafting is open to those who just don't want to think about gender, ever, or who don't like using sexual metaphors - or the sorts of sexual metaphors used in Wicca or other paths. If heterosexual reproduction is not central to your life, why should it be central to your craft? This is the key problem Landcrafting hopes to solve.
(Landcrafting is, in some sense, my personal, wannabie-Wicca, using all the elements I liked, and stripping out the bits which troubled me or which didn't ring true.)
Some Landcrafters do. Others worship deities you would probably recognise as Satan. Many don't do anything of the sort.
Landcrafting is drawn from the heritage of British witchcraft, and that includes the imagery of the witch from the era of witch hunts. It's up to individuals how far Christian Satanic imagery is part of their personal witch heritage, and how far devil imagery is a later addition to images of the old gods, or something to be wholly ignored.
Many Pagan paths are wholly separate from Christianity, reconstructing ancient paths. Even Wicca attempts to recreate a world before Christianity.
Landcrafting cannot do that. The lore and folklore of witchcraft is inextricably bound up with Christianity. Beowulf speaks of the power of God, as does Robin Hood and Arthur, and the heroes of the Mabinogion. There are very strong theories that these stories are older than Christianity, and we can reconstruct ancient beliefs from them. Perhaps. But beyond what we can read, we're just guessing - and hoping.
Murray has the tantalising theory that the people persecuted as witches worshipped the Old Gods, and "Satan" was the name given to any god inquisitors saw as false - we can use trial transcripts to learn of the old faith. Again - perhaps. But even if this is true, how do we assess the accuracy of testimonies given under torture?
Witches used the Bible to divine with, and incorporated prayer into spells. They used ceremonial grimoires, which are rooted in Abrahamic imagery. We have been a Christian nation for a long time. Churches are among the sacred places of our land. We have lost direct access to our mysteries and gods, and much must be understood through the lens of Christian monks. We can't simply strip it out and pretend it is not there.
Landcrafters are witches first and foremost. We work with the Powers of the land. The God of the Christians is a legitimate Power to work with here, and using Christian imagery is a traditional way to work. We can find our mysteries in the sites and the carvings of old churches, in graveyards, in hymns such as the Holly and the Ivy. Our texts were written down in Christian times, and we find their echoes everywhere.
But this, too, is highly optional. If you're done with Christianity in your life, you can ignore these ideas entirely.
Yes and no. I wanted to join a group with a lineage, structure, rituals and traditions, rather than being an eclectic; and I wanted to join a group which met my needs, rather than me cobbling together a solitary version of something which was meant to be covenwork. Landcrafting combines aspects of:
Not inherently, no - there are many paths to the divine.
We stand in solidarity with any path which respects the natural world and protects it, and is a keeper for our history. We stand opposed to any path where authority and dominance is rewarded. We feel pretty strongly about the abuses of organised religion, and generally support a secular state alongside a rich multi-faith society. We have a lot more in common with local community history clubs, folk revivalists and local “Friends Of this Woodland” associations than many neo-Pagan traditions, because our focus is on the immediate world around us rather than the supernatural.