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Ascribing Methods of Magic

THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BY MIGENE GONZLEZ-WIPPLERPOSTED UNDER PAGAN

Originally written in Spanish, Book of Shadows was intended to present traditional Wicca to an Hispanic audience.Witchcraft in Spanish is translated as brujera. It was brought to the New World by the Spanish Conquistadores who weredeeply steeped in its practices. Spain was one of the European countries where Witchcraft flourished most successfully.This is easy to understand when we realize the Celtic roots of ancient Spain. Witchcraft was so popular in Spain that itbecame the center of the Holy Inquisition. The infamous Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor of the dreaded SpanishInquisition, was aided and abetted by none other than Ferdinand and Isabella, as Torquemada was their personalConfessor. The famous Spanish painter Don Francisco Goya y Lucientes, who was the royal painter of Carlos IV and hiscourt, exposed the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition and the darkest practices of Witchcraft with powerful black-and-whitedrawings he called caprichos. Witchcraft was very much alive and doing exceedingly well in Spain during the Middle Ages.One of Goyas most famous drawings depicts two witches flying on a broom to their Sabbath, which in Spanish is known asaquelarre. Another drawing, equally famous and very disturbing, shows a young witch pulling a tooth from the mouth of ahanged man while she shields her face from the corpse. A hanged mans tooth was supposed to be a powerful shieldagainst enemies and could also be used to send that enemy to the nether regions.

All of these and many other practices of Wicca were brought to Latin America by the Spaniards. There they flourished andblossomed with swift speed. So powerful was the influence of Witchcraft (brujera) in Latin America that the word itselfbecame synonymous with all magical practices of the darker kind. This discredited Witchcraft and made it somethingspurious and sinistersomething to fear. To this day, Latin Americans believe a brujera to be a black magic spell cast byill-intended people. A brujo, or witch, is considered by most of Latin America to be a black sorcerer, often in league with darkforces. These brujeras have to be exorcised and dispelled, and in order to do just that, Latin America has created animmense array of cleansings and counter spells designed for protection and counterattack. From Argentina, Mexico, Cuba,Puerto Rico, and Colombia to Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and Uruguay, Latin America is a seething cauldron ofmagical beliefs and practices; and try as hard as it may, the Catholic Church, which did not succeed in destroying Wiccawith the Inquisition, has equally failed in uprooting these remnants of its erstwhile enemy from its Latin American heirs.

There is no other area in the world so deeply steeped in the practice of magic as Latin America. Magic is not something youscoff at in these countries; it is a way of life. Latin Americans spend millions of dollars every year in the practice of all kindsof magic: magic for love, for money, for prosperity and success, for good health, and, above all, for protection againstenemies and their evil magic.

With the influx of large numbers of Latin American immigrants to the United States, magic is now used to get green cardsand naturalization papers and especially to win big in games of chance like Lotto. The poorest immigrants will not hesitate tospend hundreds of hard-earned dollars they can ill afford to pay for their magical needs. Sometimes they borrow money topay for a magic spell. Everything can be solved by magical means in Latin America. So Wicca had its revenge onChristianity. It has had a magnificent revival in Latin America where people spend more money on Witchcraft than they doon their parish church. But because Witchcraftbrujerais still a dirty word for many Hispanics, I decided to write a bookon traditional Wicca, so that they understood the true meaning of the religion and its traditional beliefs and practices. Iwanted them to know that Witchcraft is not evil. It is a simply an Earth religion, rooted in nature and natural forces, where theintention is to be one with the soul of all things. I carefully outlined the beliefs and practices of Witchcraft, its deities, itsrituals, its initiations, and its magic spells. Although there are many types of covens and practices in modern Wicca, I choseGardnerian Witchcraft as the basis of the book because it is the most conservative and traditional.

In a market overflowing with many excellent books on Wicca, my own offering is succinct and concise. It is Witchcraft at itspurest. I chose the title Book of Shadows, not only because that is the name of the practicing witchs working manual, butbecause it conjures the essence of a belief system shrouded in darkness. It is a book designed to dispel the darksomeimage of a religion that is luminous, innocent, and all-embracing. I hope its message is well received.

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