I see Christopher Penczak moved on from Llywellyn to create his own publishing company called Copper Cauldron Publishing. I just got an email advertising his new book, "The Three Rays of Witchcraft:
Power Love and Wisdom in the Garden of the Gods"

I'm not so sure I'm interested. I have enjoyed his other books though so it might be a fun read on a cold winter night. Will have to wait and see.

It's listed on Amazon.com.



Here's their Product Description:

Inspired by a Vision of Awen depicting a spear, a flowering branch, and a horned serpent emanating from three drops of wisdom, surrounded by three worlds, Christopher Penczak received a teaching to reconcile many disparate parts of modern Witchcraft into a cohesive body of magickal lore for personal evolution and enlightenment. Experimented with and expanded upon, this lore is now shared through his book The Three Rays of Witchcrat!: Power, Love and Wisdom in the Garden of the Gods. Striving to weave the diverse threads of his personal practice together, the Three Rays provided Christopher with a powerful framework to bring together modern Wicca, Traditional Craft, Druidism, Theosophy, Qabalah, Shamanism, and alternative health into a greater whole.
The text outlines a model of the universe based upon the forces of Power, Love, and Wisdom. Associated with each is a ray, a path we can travel spiritually and evoke energetically. Known as the Straight Line, the Bent Line and the Crooked Line, each offers different magick, knowledge and mysteries. Each ray is associated with a race of spiritual entities with whom we can partner, including the angels, faeries, animal powers and ancestors.

To each his own, I suppose. I'd be kind of leery about such a huge change in something like that. The Awen doesn't need to be warped, so to speak.

Well, he's just trying to make money selling another book.

I don't know anything about the Awen. I never heard the word before. Sometimes it's interesting to read this stuff just to see what's out there.

I didn't know much about witchcraft at all until Ruth introduced me to Penczak's books. I really like the way he had things organized in nice well-defined sections and lesson plans. I didn't necessarily care for all of his personal ideas, but I did like that as an author he didn't push his personal ideas hard, and he included a lot of ideas and information that he didn't care for, just for the sake of passing that information on to the reader.

It was through his books that I became interested in the idea of the Qabalah. But then, I went on to buy several books by other authors to read more details and ideas on that concept.

Whether I would enjoy this book or not I have no clue.

Do you have any book recommendations for cold winter nights?

I will have to get back on you on that. I'm currently still saddened and disappointed at how even some of the writings on shamanism throw down women into less important roles then they actually were. The whole male-dominated, psychoanalytical patriarchal BS even screwed up historical references there.

I'm not surprised in the least. It happens even in science. Women don't get anywhere near the credit they deserve.

For example, Emmy Noether was a brilliant mathematician and theoretical physicist who made an outstanding contribution to our scientific and mathematical understanding of nature. Her insights paralleled those of Albert Einstein, yet his name is commonly known by everyone, but how many people ever heard of Emmy Noether?

Historically a similar thing can be said about Hypatia of Alexandria, and countless other women as well. Their contributions and insights are barely mentioned as an aside in history and science books.

In fact many woman have probably taught the wisdom of the great sages like Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammad, on an almost daily basis throughout all of history but no one paid them any mind other than to say, "Yes Mother" and then instantly ignore what the woman had just told them.

But let a man speak this wisdom and it's considered to be such an abnormality that he's held up to be a "Great Saint", or even a demigod, and entire religions are build up around him.

It's silly really.

Never heard of the Awen. And, I'm very suspicious of people teaching based on their own personal visions and messages they have received. I think personal visions are generally just that...personal.

I agree to some extent.

I enjoyed Penczak's Temple of Witchcraft series of books because they were simply describing a spiritual archetype, and even in very general terms. I like the way he had it organized, and the fact that it was arranged with lesson plans.

I also really appreciated his position that he does not expect the reader to accept only his views, and I felt that he went out of his way quite often to convey ideas of witchcraft that he personally did not care for, yet he recognized that they are popular among others and so included lessons on those for completeness sake. There were instances where I went further down those other 'paths' myself.

I do confess though that as the series progressed the books became increasingly "opinionated". The last two God and Goddess books are the best examples of that.

This book would even be far more 'individualistic' I think. In other words, this book is really going to be a vision of where Penczak is in his own personal path and how it all 'came together' for him.

It could still be an interesting read. Kind of getting insight into his own shamanic journeys and visions.

I don't think it's intended to be an extension of the Temple series. It's probably not structured as a 'lesson' book at all. I haven't seen it so I don't know about that. But it just doesn't sound like it would be.

Personal visions and experiences can be useful to share. My entire "Labyrinth Garden Path" is my own vision that has evolved over my experience with the occult. Yet I think a lot of people might enjoy seeing the structure of this vision.

It is in that sense that I'm kind of curious what Penczaks "sees" in his visions.



I never heard the term before either. But I found the following definition:

Awen is a Welsh word for "(poetic) inspiration". It is historically used to describe the divine inspiration of bards in the Welsh poetic tradition. Someone who is inspired, as a poet or a , is an awenydd.

By that definition I guess my "Labyrinth Garden Path" is an Awen too. It was definitely divinely inspired during my shamanic journeys.

You are right. Personal visions and experiences are valuable to share. I just kind of feel that Penczack has succumbed to pressure to keep writing when he should have quit while he was ahead. But, that's not really fair for me to say. I'm sure lots of people benefit from his more recent writings and he is very knowledgeable and experienced.

Thank you for looking up that definition. I had never heard that before so I learned something new today.

I found some more information on the Awen:

http://www.neopagan.net/DruidSymbols.html

~~~~

I'm familiar with the Sanscrit aum and I use that symbol in many of my rituals now. In fact, I've created a symbol of my own that actually represents this same basic concept. This is popular in various Buddhist traditions.

~~~~

Also the following:

http://www.druidry.org/obod/druid-path/awen.html

I read the introduction to The Three Rays of Witchcraft on Amazon today.

Penczak is quite open and straightforward about his purpose and goals. He makes no secret about it, and I think he explains himself quite well. In the introduction he speaks of various formal branches of Witchcraft, for example, Gardner, Crowley, Alexander, and others. People in history who have been a very powerful influence on perpetuating witchcraft. Gardner is basically given credit for being the inspiration for modern "Wicca". Alexander and Crowley sparked other branches of Witchcraft, etc.

It's Penczak's personal goal and purpose in life to offer ideas and paradigms that recognize and incorporate all aspects of all witchcraft. His stance is that as a human species we should be working toward a unified consciousness and global unity, and not moving toward diverse specialized, or even divisive branches.

So it is with these dream in mind that he does all of his work.

He clearly states in his introduction the following:

The The Three Rays of Witchcraft is my contribution to a new body of lore, synthesizing past traditions into a new, modern view of the craft.

I fully understand what he's attempting to achieve here. He's not attempting to 'redefine' witchcraft, nor is he attempting to start a new branch of witchcraft, he's simply sharing his visions for whatever they are worth for those who can appreciate the visions and insights of others.

In fact, in his Temple of Witchcraft Series, this is precisely what he is attempting to teach his readers. If you've read the High Temple of Witchcraft, you know that the final challenge he offers the student at the end of that journey is to create their own "Reality Map", and PUBLISH IT.

The idea is not to redefine witchcraft or a creation myth, but rather to share your own intuitive visions of these things. This insight holds value for others. It provides them with food for thought, it sparks their visions as well, and most importantly it's ultimately a sharing and melding together of the human consciousness on a much deeper level that would be 'shared' if you keep everything to yourself. Obviously!

Sharing our insights, visions, and dreams is precisely the type of thing that brings them into the collective consciousness.

Penczak's stance, or position goes like this: Here are my visions for whatever they are worth. May you draw upon them, add to them, or use them for inspiration to go off in a totally new direction. Whatever the case may be. I does not matter. What matters is that we collectively share our thoughts and visions.

So that's where this book is coming from. It's not a book intended to say, "Here's a model of witchcraft that is more truthful or more accurate than some other model". That's not even close to where he's coming from. He's basically just saying, "Here's my visions and inspiration for whatever they are worth".

And yes, of course he feels that his visions and inspirations are 'divine', but that doesn't automatically mean that they need to be carved in stone for everyone. They are 'divine' for him and his experiences in the perception of life. Others may indeed have visions that differ quite a lot. Some will find similarities between Penczak's spiritual experiences and their own, and others will not. But even in those cases it can sometimes be valuable to hear of the experiences and visions of others.

Some people who teach witchcraft or write about it are very strict and stern in their approach claiming that spells, rituals, and even their creation myths and pantheon must be acknowledged and adhered to in great detail, because they believe that they hold the one and only 'truth'. The only accurate and correct folklore, if you will. But doesn't that sounds a lot like some other religions that we have grown to less than love?

Penczak's main thesis it to not become dogmatic. So his book is intended as a sharing of thoughts, not as a strict manual intended to describe a particular practice. Although it may seem that why when reading it, because he does offer this vision yet again in a 'lesson book style'. In other words, he has meditation exercises to invoke and interact with the spirits he envisions. So to just read the book it may sound like he's saying, "This is what you do". But I think if you actually stand back and look at the bigger picture you'll see that what he's really saying is, "This is what I did, and I hope you find some value in it too"

I'm not trying to sell his book. I truly don't care whether anyone reads this book or not. I'm not even sure that I'll bother reading it. But I'm just trying to point out where he's coming from.

Thank you, James. That puts a very interesting perspective on it and I can see how it would be a more worthwhile endeavor to read it than I originally thought.

Actually, there is some belief that Einstein's first wife may have been behind all his writings and theories, not so much him. Then she was institutionalized convienently, and he was free to marry her cousin.

You are write, I know. I think its an appallingly sad history of women who were killed, demonized or downplayed in what they did to satisfy and elavate men. It just tends to bother me on occassion.

Ooooh, Agora about Hypatia is coming out on Netflix very shortly. Can't wait to see it.

I know of the Awen through Caitlin and John Matthews books on Celtic Shamanism. Their research seems to have a lot of older historical background for it.

I'm like you Ruth. I don't mind solid information, but a lot of the personal stuff seems to be just about making money.

Abra, will you ever actually formalize and sell your Labyrinth Garden Path?

Probably not because I don't have a good woman behind me to motivate me.

I've been doing other things too. I've been writing music and songs, and practicing various instruments. I'm also cutting trees down and making lumber right now and that's been taking the bulk of my time and energy.

I "use" my Labyrinth Garden in my meditations and journey work, and because of this it continues to evolve. Although much of what has evolved lately is in the inner circle. The pantheon there has become quite dynamic.

It would be nice to see it in print. I really should set aside a 'studio' just for the purpose of working on that book. To do it right I'd like to have quite a bit of artwork in it. That's really the hold up. I don't want to print it just as a bunch of words. I'd like to have colorful illustrations to go with it.

Is that a documentary? I'd like to see it.

Looks like it's a movie, and a really good one too.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186830/

Yes, I'll be looking forward to watching that too. The story of Hypatia has always intrigued me. It's be great seeing it in a movie format.