Mabon 1999 Newsletter Film Review: Discovering WitchcraftA Journey Through The Elementsby Laren |
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Sothis Films (87 mins)
Distributed in Australia by the Realm of White Magic
The video begins with sweeping vistas of the Irish countryside, with haunting Celtic background music. Perhaps a little cliché but hard to not use such beautiful surroundings. We are introduced to Corina, an artist who wishes to learn more of the Craft and work towards initiation into the Coven of the Farrars and Gavin Bone. For those not familiar with the names, they are the authors of such works as Eight Sabbats for Witches, The Witches’ Way, The Witches’ Bible and many other highly regarded books on modern Wicca. There is some third person narration but Janet Farrar does most of the talking, with help from Gavin Bone, Stewart Farrar and several members of their Coven. The video basically follows Corina’s journey as she participates in lessons about the history of the Craft and is introduced to the background, symbolism and use of the major tools of Witchcraft (a handy part of the video for those unsure of pronunciations!). She is also given a series of practical lessons and demonstrations on other aspects of the Craft such as healing methods, the meaning and symbolism of the Elements, meditation, divination and scrying.
Throughout the video many important aspects of belief are covered, such as the nature of the God and Goddess and our relationship with them; the need to understand the purpose and objectives of a ritual rather than just memorising what needs to be said and done; and the importance of learning being an ongoing process. It is emphasised that learning took place on a variety of levels, emotional, physical and intellectual. The video covers many of the hot topics of the Craft and makes a point of dealing with a variety of the most common misconceptions: (Satanism, tools, cosmology, treatment of animals ie no animal sacrifice, reincarnation, curses/hexes, orgies, drugs, nudity, types of Witches, the law of threefold return, philosophy of witchcraft and its history a belief system with ancient roots but practice/beliefs are modern constructs. Witchcraft is a religion of everyday life, it doesn’t see the sacred and profane as being separate but one). As such, the video makes a potentially powerful educational tool. The final scenes of the video show various aspects of Corina’s initiation, very interesting for solitaries. The film concludes with Janet Farrar reciting to the Charge of the Goddess.
There were some technical issues that detracted from the overall presentation of the video. In a couple of places the dialogue was a little difficult to hear and some scenes appeared to be a bit out of focus. However, the film is still of professional enough standard for broadcast. Overall, this first video in the three part series provides an excellent introduction to Witchcraft. All the major topics are covered in a down to earth and practical manner. The video would also provide an excellent education tool for the wider community in that it deals with the many misconceptions that exists about Witchcraft. I look forward to view the next two films in the series: Discovering Witchcraft: The Mysteries and Discovering Witchcraft: The Wheel of the Year
