The Court is our term for our pantheon, and refers to all possible gods and spirits we may encounter - from mighty deities, to personal familiars.
The Court are not omnipotent, not omniscient, and they don't like you. They are individuals, with their own agendas, prejudices, foibles and powers. They are not comparable to figures such as the God of the Christians or the Wiccan Goddess. They are closer to the lwa of vodou - a number of local spirits, of various degrees of power, who you can work with on a one-on-one basis. The term god carries overtones of all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, with-a-plan, gives-a-damn-about-you, which are not necessarily true of the Powers. Instead they are very powerful (within their sphere), somewhat capricious, and don't always consider the peasants when making their decisions.
Powers are not constant, but constantly in flux: waxing and waning, growing and diminishing, ascendent and retreat. These tides of power shift across the year, responding to the seasons or replaying ancient cycles; as well as in response to long-term changes in the world around them.
It is important to remember that the Court is a kind of metaphor for the ways different spirits of different magnitudes interact with each other, the land and you. There is not a literal Court where Sulis Minerva, Sir Lancelot and Titania meet to chit chat. It's a way of recognising the many Powers of Britain, and the way they might interlock with each other. You may find them interacting, acting in alliance, or even opposition, like a cluster of nations each claiming similar soil - we have many stories, such as the Tuatha de Danaan defeating the Fir Bolg, or the Aesir interacting with the Vanir, where two courts of mighty gods negotiate or war together. Nevertheless, different courts may also not even recognise the existence of others and each may require their own paragdim to work with them.
You can certainly engage with it very literally, by working out how your spirits all fit together in one court, but if I were to do it it would become the sort of overarching theory Landcrafting seeks to avoid. Landcrafty isn't especially keen on one core truth - it recognises the existance of many mighty Queens, each in their own kingdoms, who you can approach, ignore, or be summoned by. I may serve Morgana, and you may serve Maid Marian, but we are of one path because we can see these two Powers have different spheres, different kingdoms - our faiths do not contradict.
How can you and I both worship a different Goddess Of Water, and yet be members of the same path? How can deities intimatley tied to the land not be aware of multiple, parallel deities with the same responsibilities? The Powers are very strange; it often seems as if they exist in parallel timelines, or on a slightly different plane. I am most reminded of ghost literature: the way a ghost can continue its existence, not realising the house has entirely changed, still walking through walls where there used to be doors, still repeating actions though their meaning is long gone. Our Powers are, in a sense, land-memories: the land itself dreaming or remembering.
Politely.
A witch should think of themself as a minor Baron, serving under a King with many fiefdoms. The King offers protection and resources in exchange for a promise of aid in times of great need. That Baron may have lesser Knights beneath her in turn. This should guide your behavior in interacting with the Court. Terms like Queen, Lady and Prince are preferred over god or goddess, to convey respect, and teach witches the correct relationship to have with the Powers.
The Powers want reverence and respect, rather than worship per-se - although this may look the same in practice. Making pacts and deals, following the correct ettiquette, and offering respect and support in times of need are more appropriate actions than prayer. You may engage with spirits who serve you, or whom you serve, or who you work alongside. You can oath to a specific Prince, work as an individual, work with many different Princes, just as a knight of old might be a wanderer, a mercenary, on his own quest and seeking shelter at the castles he finds on the way, be in service to the Queen who owns his land, or be a member of a King's close court and personal bodyguard. Keeping promises, and developing a reputation are key to your position in the Court, as they would be in mortal courts.
Powers often appear "in retinue". When we summon or invite the Fairy Queen, for example, she rarely arrives alone: she is accompanied by guards, servant-spirits, courtiers, friends and so forth, and depending on the time of year can arrive with quite a parade. This is useful for us as solitary-workers, often providing us with more people to complete large coven rituals; and helping us meet many minor spirits. Once we are working closely with particular Powers, we can often think of as PART of that retinue. We may be summoned in sleep to attend a Queen's other duties, and work as part of a group to accomplish her goals.
In short: working with any Power means becoming part of a complex social hierarchy in the Otherworld. It's important to recognise your place within it, and act appropriately; and your work will bring you both rights and responsibilities. You can act ambitiously, to please a Greater Power and to "work the Court" - slowly moving up the ranks of power and influence. Or you can work with minor spirits, who are usually no less powerful and come with less pageantry, but one must always try and be aware of how a spirit fits into a greater court, and what other loyalties - and allies - they may have. You may find yourself working as part of a band, coven, or other small unit of spirits; you may be knighted, or banished; you may even marry.
As you are part of this hierarchy, your status can rise and fall, and it seems theoretically possible to BECOME a Power over time. There's no inherent punishment for pride or ambition on our path, although my perception of the greatest Powers is often as a kind of trap or stagnation point. Many powers - including the Witch Queen herself - started as essentially, a very powerful ancestor. My current best understanding of Fencraft's afterlife is that one becomes a permanent part of a retinue in reward for work done in life. And you will likely gain subservient spirits or work-mates, as you move through the Court, meaning you are no longer at the bottom of the food chain or without power
A Personal Court is the collective name for the Powers you believe exist, some of which you work with. Developing one takes time, but there isn't anything "special" or "difficult" about identifying your Court. If you're drawn to an image or a concept, or when I talk about a dawn goddess you feel a really strong mental image of her, she's in your Court.
There are lots of different "types" of Powers in Landcrafting, and you will likely interact with them all over time. Your Personal Court will probably include:
I hope to make Landcraft as wide as possible, a framework for people frustrated with Wicca to clamber around in and build their own thing. I am wary of introducing too many "thou shalts", and am unsure as I write what is crucial/core to Landcrafting, and what is just my personal court.
I follow a strongly Sabbatic variant of Landcrafting, and work with specific Powers as part of a spirit-coven. I think this is a fairly core part of Landcrafting if you want to do witch-work; but it's also valid to be more deity-focused, work with intuitive magic over structured ritual spells, or be a witch who draws from different imagery and traditions. You do you, and then come back and tell me what is working.
Here is a separate section on witch/coven related Powers
Landcrafting is a path which embraces messiness. As we follow ancient gods and heroes, we recognise that their stories are often jumbled together with other, older stories, or remembered wrongly. Is Merlin Sylvestris the same Merlin as Arthur's Merlin? Is Mordred Arthur's son, or his nephew; and did he kill Arthur or merely wound him? Is the Irish Nuada and the English Nodens the same god - or seperate?
A "face" or "aspect" of a Power is them at a particular point of their legend. "Merlin, teacher of Arthur", "Merlin, imprisoned in the tree" and "Merlin Sylvestris" are three different faces of Merlin. In Greek Polytheism, we read about Athena Axiopoinos - the Avenger; Athena Chalinitis - the Horsetamer. In British history, we have Nuada of Ireland and Nodens of Britain, who may be the same figure known as Ludd, and of King Lud.
The same goddess was worshipped under a hundred different names. Or perhaps a hundred different goddesses were worshipped under the same name. It can be hard to tell.
Landcrafting seeks to keep this in mind as we work. We acknowledge that Merlin at two different stages of his life may not even be the same Power, but may be two surviving legends meshed into one. Merlin the Teacher and Merlin Sylvestris may appear to us as two different Lesser Powers we will need to treat with separately, or as two different "faces" of the same Greater Power called Merlin. Invoking or meditating on particular aspects of a spirit can bring insight, and help witches work with spirits when there is so much information missing, and we will never see the big picture.
Landcrafting also rejects a simplistic, ahistorical, all-gods-are-one-god approach to the Powers of ancient Britain. We interact with the Powers as indiviuals. Nevertheless, we are alert and ready if they do turn out to be faces of the same god; memories of different traditions which have found similar ways to say the same thing. Because they often do.
The Greater Powers are huge and overarching. If you try to work with the Greater Powers, you will often discover you are working with an intermediary, or a fragment of the whole, a "safe" face that Power has put on to speak with you. Rather like the Queen of England - if you were to write a letter to her directly, it would likely be answered by one of her secretaries. You can understand these intermediaries either as aspects of that Power, or as literal underling spirits.
Powers often have a "chain of command" - by working with a local knight who is buried in the churchyard, you may find a connection through that spirit to the Knights of the Round Table, to Arthur himself. Perhaps the knight serves as an image for you connecting you to the High King - or perhaps the spirit literally acts as a go-between and provides introductions.
You may discover a spirit you are working with is a face for another spirit - Jack of the Green and Robin Hood are not necessarily the same god in Landcrafty; but you may discover that they are as you work. This is especially true for the Greater Powers, who are often easier to approach as aspects of a greater whole. You may also discover that working with two similar spirits will empower your work - they may not be the same individual, but they share interests and ideas.
Landcrafting is open to the messiness and complexity of combining centuries of different practices and traditions into one single tradition. Our focus is on experiencing, rather than cataloguing or archiving. Embrace the ways it makes no sense. Don't seek for easy answers. You won't ever have one pantheon of gods, with clearcut identities and skills, and a step-by-step guide to revering them. You'll have a mess. That mess is where we thrive.