This blog is based on my own Druidic and Witchcraft practices, following a Celtic-Gaelic-Irish tradition.
Who I am? Firstly, I must admit that my parents raised me as a Catholic. However, I do not remember my parents being so much into religion. They followed the habits of a Catholic society without questioning the suggested, or rather imposed, rites of passage we were told to have through education. All children from my school were baptized and received their first communion and confirmation, simply because it was the norm. Then, I think I accompanied my mother, my sister and my aunt to four religious celebrations, but no more. My family was not going to the church, and I wanted not to go either. At thirteen years old, I declared myself an atheist because I was not connecting to the Catholic religion at all, a religion that I constantly questioned. I had read the Bible in its entirety, and I never found the answers to my questions. Nothing seemed to have a meaning for me. I was not comfortable in that religion so I rather escaped it.
I started my magickal journey in 1994, when I was fourteen years old. I wandered into intense researches about Witchcraft, Sorcery, Theurgy, Spiritism, Necromancy and Goëtia as the Dark Age of Magick mainly interested me at the time. I was curious about the hidden secrets from the occultism, the secret societies and the old unnamable grimoires. I was also strongly influenced by supernatural stories from Howard Philips Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, and all the others gothic authors. I learned that even the dreaded Necronomicon from Lovecraft was not real, but I was fascinated by the power of that occult imagery. Through the following years, I slightly shifted my study towards Astrology, Cartomancy, Scrying, Parapsychology, Cryptozoology, and Natural Magick. During these years, I was still an atheist, but I was strongly interested by mythological stories, myths and legends all around the globe. At this time, I must admit that I knew almost nothing about Wicca. To me, it was more or less something that I associated with New Age communities at the time. Then, even if I were still interested in the paranormal subjects, I was not seeking a religion or a spiritual development of any kind. I was reading a lot, without really wanting practicing any ceremony.
Many years passed that way, and in 2013, I separated with my girlfriend and went to live alone. Having spent the last seven years with the company of my girlfriend, I was now in a situation where I had to live completely alone. I was rediscovering a solitary life and the freedom to do anything I wanted without being judged. I joined a social Pagan group in Ottawa and was later admitted and initiated by a Druidic grove. The grove followed the ADF tradition and, even if I was interested, I left the grove in 2014 for personal reasons. After I left the group, I felt draw back to the spiritual path of Wicca. Combining learning’s from the ADF Druidry tradition with Wiccan practices, I then paved my way towards Druidcraft or what many calls Druidic Witchcraft or Celtic Wicca. I’m not Wiccan thought, more a Polytheist Pagan, following a Celtic Irish modern tradition which mix Druidry and Witchcraft.
After a “Year and a Day” full of new studies and researches, I felt that now was the perfect time for me to condense the learned information into one grimoire. The book counts 898 pages and took me another year and a day to complete. That book is the result of my learning and the outcome of what I consider my right to give myself the title of Initiate, or the second degree in a Wiccan system of learning. It is imperative to note that, even if this book is mainly about Celtic culture and ideology, it also contains eclectic ideas from other cultures like Ásatrú, Shamanism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Voodoo. The addition of these practices is often included in many Witchcraft traditions and I feel that they should not be omitted.
I hope you will find this blog interesting!
Patrick Soucy (Morsoth)
