Introduction 3
aspects of witchcraft have survived in part, much of the original material surrounding witchcraft has also been lost to the fires of the Inquisition. Despite all that was lost to this unholy war on witches, the people who stepped out of the broom closet and into the public eye in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were not without their resources. By turning to Eastern spiritual traditions and practices like yoga in order to augment what remained of Western occultism, witches (and other occultists) were able to regain some of what was lost in the West with an unbroken line of accumulated wisdom from the East. Though the concept of combining witchcraft and yoga may seem revolutionary to some people reading this book, the truth is that witchcraft and yoga have been yoked together for well over a century. As early as 1875, the Theosophists were turning to Buddhism and yoga for inspiration.1 In the early twentieth century, Aleister Crowley compared the classical elements of the West to the practice of yoga. In his Eight Lectures on Yoga, Crowley said, “Fire represents the yogi, and water the object of his meditation.” 2 Meditation’s fluid nature might account for why it is often so hard for new students to gain traction in their practices. Think about that age-old metaphor of trying to hold water in your hand. If you struggle and try to grip the water, you’ll displace it, sloshing water this way and that. However, if you cup your hand and hold real still, you’ll be able to hold on to the small amount of water that fits within your cupped palm. Meditation, like gripping water, can definitely be an exercise in frustration when starting out. Crowley’s comparison seems appropriate. Meditation is not the only thing that Western occultists have borrowed from the practice of yoga. Even the chakras themselves were not originally part of any Western magickal practice. Those colorful whirling vortexes of energy came directly out of the yoga tradition. Though the Upanishads talk about them as psychic centers and they play a more prominent role in tantra, they are first mentioned in the Vedas. There are
1. Debra Diamond, ed., Yoga: The Art of Transformation (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2013), 97. 2. Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga (Las Vegas: New Falcon Publications, 1992), 48.
