On Secrecy

Fencraft was developed for me, by me, and around me; so it's unavoidably also a collection of my biases. And uhhh here we go let's talk about something I loathe

Secrecy is a hallmark of magic and the pagan world. The word occult means “hidden”; one of the oft-quoted witch requirements is tacere - “to keep silent”; all the original covens have very strong secrecy oaths, inhereted from Freemasonry and others. We inherit our secrecy from our witch-forebears - and our unfortunate non-witch ancestors who were murdered as witches all the same; and further back, from worshippers of sacred Mysteries made known only to initiates. To this day, being known as a witch can cause problems.

At the same time, I am a child of the 90s, and of open source culture; I learnt all my first steps off Pagan websites which certainly held nothing back. Secrecy in religion has been the tool of the power-hungry, as long as humans have had faith. I find it abhorrent and exploitative when money is required to advance in a faith, and feel similarly uneasy when status, degrees or similar tools are used. Secrecy concentrates power in the hands of the few, to the detriment of the many. In ideal covens, filled with good people, this is not necessarily a problem - teachers and mentors and elders can wisely guide young Pagans as they are ready to learn. But in the hands of the charismatic and power-hungry? Normalising hierarchies and secret-keeping helps those who feed off those around them and yearn for control. I could require you to write to me, and I will slowly reveal information; or ask you to come and serve under me in person as I teach you - but both of these do an awful lot for MY ego, while putting you in a very supplicanty position indeed. How can you build autonomy, self-reliance and power, if I'm drip-drip-dripping you information?

There are many kinds of secrecy. Here are some secrecies Fencraft does not have:

• Secret rituals. All our key rituals are here on the web for everyone to see.
• Secret symbolism. These, too, are open to all.
• Secret ceremonies. Everyone should know exactly what they're getting in for, upfront.
• Secrets held by human elders. Our elders in the path are our spirits, especially in the retinue of the Witch Queen
• Secret anything relating to other humans. There should NEVER be someone above you in Fencraft withholding information from you.
• Secrets you will learn later, when you progress and/or pay me. There is nothing you can learn from people which you can't better learn from the Powers.
• Secrets of great might, hinted about to gain social capital and followers online. Cut that shit out, mortal.

But here are some secrets it does have:

• Secret workings. We generally don't talk about specific spells, results, or ritual experiences.
• Secrets held by the spirits. We recieve much hidden information from them, often which we cannot share - even with each other
• The Landweird. Everyone knows it's there, even many non-Pagans. But we are a Mystery tradition in the sense that many of our spirits are literally very mysterious.

In doing this, we sacrifice some of the benefits of secrecy. Everyone likes to be part of something hidden and mysterious after all; and it can help our personal sense of power to put on a mysterious air.

This is indeed a loss - no doubt you would be MUCH more impressed and convinced if I was behaving like Crowley, Gardener, La Vey et al, strategically witholding information, claiming divine inspiration, “acting” the part of a mighty prophet. That kind of secrecy and lies can be incredibly psychologically potent. When you read our history page, you can contrast how you feel about Gardener describing meeting the New Forest Coven and being initated in the ancient, hidden ways with me writing “I literally made it up in 45 minutes on the bus”. Perhaps, I too should have made up something dramatic. It's normal to pay upwards of £1,000, sometimes as high as £10,000, for initiatory stages in Haitian Vodou - and once you've invested that way, you certainly feel like you're getting something valuable for it; in the same way you may be subconsciously assuming this path is NOT valuable, because it's very simple, because it's very open, because it doesn't have these artificial markers of value, like prophecies and histories and cash.

So it is a loss - but it's a loss I'm OK to take, in order that this path can strongly challenge the problems which come with that sort of approach. I interpret the idea of “witches as Satanists who hate Christianity” broadly as “witches as anti-organised-religion, anti-abuses-of-religion”. We cannot stand in opposition to organised religion, and the many crimes it has committed against humanity, while also using those approaches ourselves. If at any point you find yourself charging money, setting yourself up as a Leader, witholding information from followers, or similar, you can assume that I am Pissed With You (although - as a non-hierarchical faith - that hardly carries much weight as a threat).

Above all, I must emphasis that anything worth knowing in Fencraft cannot be learned from me, or anyone else. That's why you take your weekly walks. That's when you do your learning.