The Healing Grove

Welsh Tradition Lecture

by

Ed Buczynski

Introduction

by

Carol Bulzone of Enchantments

[This article was originally published in the Oct. 2001 column An Elder Speaks, on the Enchantments Inc. website. It is republished here with the gracious permission of Lord Tuan.]

YOU ARE IN FOR A RARE TREAT!

In the early 70’s, Eddie Buczynski brought our coven’s Gardnerian Book of Shadows to New York. The book originated in Perth, Scotland, then went to England—then to Kentucky and finally to Eddie in New York (via Ray and Rosemarie Buckland and their off-shoots.) Eventually, the Bucklands moved to the States too. Because he was entrusted with this secret knowledge, Eddie was often referred to as “The Messenger of the Gods.”

Eddie took his research and combined it with the structure from our original Scottish books and with the divine inspiration of the Gods—created (with Carol Bulzone of Enchantments Inc.) an outline for the “MINOAN TRADITION” - Sisterhood and Brotherhood. Now, Gay Witches—both female and male had an original, ancient tradition of our own!

The groups were predominantly Gay. The Minoan Sisterhood delved into secret women’s mysteries. The Minoan Brotherhood delved into sacred male mysteries.

LORD TUAN was gracious enough to provide us with a recently found copy of a audio tape recording of Eddie Buczynski made somewhere in the early 70’s. We do not have an exact date or even location where Eddie gave this “live lecture” on the Welsh Tradition (somewhere in NYC). The Welsh Tradition was Eddie’s first tradition. He was a Welsh High Priest long before the concept of starting the Minoan Tradition was ever thought of. As you read this transcript of his lecture bear in mind that he was very young when it was delivered and many - not all - of his belief system changed and evolved in his later years. We extend our heart felt gratitude to Lord Tuan for providing us - and now you - with this rare glimpse into the profound teaching of Eddie Buczynski - when he was still “Lord Hermes” - from the early 1970’s.

Welsh Tradition Lecture

Lord Hermes

(transcript from a audio tape)
Buczynski: Good evening everyone and Merry Meet—as the Witches say. My name in the Craft is Hermes and I’m the High Priest of a Welsh Traditionalist coven. Tonight I’m going to talk to you about traditional Witchcraft. Now the term traditional Witchcraft can really mean anything. Each section in England, each section of the continent, each section and country of the world has its own traditional Witchcraft. I’m going to explain to you my tradition and try to co-relate it with other traditions—to clear it up. Before I can explain traditional Witchcraft, let’s ask a question “what is witchcraft?” Well, we, the Witches call Witchcraft Wicca or Wicca craft. And, in ancient Anglo-Saxon, Wicca craft meant the Craft of the Wise. Wise not meaning book learned or extremely intelligent, but people with the know how. We know how to do things. Wicca is a pagan religion. We worship the forces that are within nature—symbolized in a Goddess and a God—which are symbolic of the universal female and male which exists in all living things. The Wicca celebrate Life as opposed to the death orientation of the major religions of today. Now, by death orientation I mean people going around worrying too much about where they’re going to go when they die. Now, it’s a shame that Christianity which was originally a celebration of the “birth” changed into a crucifix worshipping religion. The crucifix being something symbolic of a very, very horrible and disgusting death. Torture. It would be nice to see Christians going around wearing symbols of the “risen Christ” which is symbolic of the rebirth—rather than the symbol of his death.

And, of course, the Wicca use magick. What is magick? Magick is many things. Magick is the art of doing things in conformance with one’s own will. That, I think, is a pretty good definition… definition of Magick. What is a Witch? I’m a Witch and some of you out there are Witches. A Witch is a properly prepared and trained priest or priestess of the Gods of nature.

All the Wicca are Priests. Everyone in a Witch coven is a Priest or a Priestess. There’s no congregation as in all the major religions of today. Now, why is this? Well, we the Traditional Witches, the Traditionalists, believe that when the persecutions, the Burning Times which we call them began the Priests and Priestesses of the Pagan cults throughout the countries, throughout the regions that people were being burning in, banded together and hid in the hiddles and woods—in the rough country. They hid in order to retain the teachings and the secrets of their religion. The beauty of their religion. And, these became the “Wicca Covens.” Originally, Witchcraft was nothing but paganism. Witchcraft doesn’t exist until the Middle Ages, until the Burning Times actually begin. Before that it was just paganism. It was the religion of the people—the general religion. Ok, so these became the Wicca Covens and this is how we’ve managed to survive and keep our religion going until today.
Naturally, a Priest of a religion, would be the last one to defect from it… dedicating one’s own life. A priest of a religion dedicates one’s own life to the religion. So, only those prepared to accept the responsibilities of the Priesthood were permitted to “join” the Wicca and join into the covens. And this was continued on and has been continued on until today. And, it still is continued. We’re still a little shaky about having a congregation. We can’t “come out” to the open. Not all of us. Some of us do.

This is also the main reason why the rituals and the names and the spells are kept so very secret. Up until very recently, Traditionalists were completely underground. There are many revivals—Witchcraft revivals which rose to the surface but we’re sort of the “conservatives” of the groups. And, we stayed underground for a long time. My own coven—up until 3 years ago was underground and any time I asked one of my elders if I could “go public” and come out into the open, I was told that if I didn’t remain underground— perhaps the persecutions would begin again. This might sound ridiculous but these people were taught by their parents and their parents were taught by their parents in an unbroken line from the Burning Times. And, the biggest fear was burning—hanging, the persecutions.
Now, what is Traditionalist Wicca? Traditionalist Witchcraft? It’s the way the old religion was practiced during the middle ages—in the different regions of England, Wales—the continent. And, the teachings and rituals were passed down from mother to child—from father to child—down and down and down. And, that is why they’ve survived today. I was taught myself by a High Priestess who has an unbroken line in her family of High Priestesses going back to the 12th century. Perhaps farther—but the records only show 12th century—as far as that.

Most Traditionalists worship robed. Unlike many covens that worship nude - which they call “skyclad.” Personally, I can’t see any reason for Witches to ever have worshiped nude. Especially in England. If anyone’s familiar with the climate in England—it’s a quick way to get pneumonia, rheumatism or what have you. However, they’re doing their own thing. Ok. We worship this way—we worship robed so that we’re equal within our circle, within our rites, we’re all equal. I’m a High Priest and my High Priestess is here tonight. Some of my coven are here tonight. In the circle, we’re all equal. A High Priest and a High Priestess are just figureheads—sort of like the Queen of England. They’re present to do some of the rites to lead some of the rites but we’re all equal within the circle. Within my coven we wear robes of red cloth. Red was the most sacred color amongst the ancient Welsh. I know many covens who wear black robes. Black being a good color for anonymity. Another reason for being equal. Now we believe in and worship a Goddess. Now this Goddess is representative of the female forces within nature.

She is the Great Mother of all living. We call her the Great Mother of All Living and the Queen of Heaven. And, She’s symbolic of earth—which is our Mother which is the Mother of us all—the earth. And, she is reflected as the moon—which controls most of the powers on earth, the natural powers on earth. The phases of the moon make her a triple Goddess. The waxing moon is the maiden, the maiden aspect—the young woman—the young Goddess—the lover. The full moon is the Great Mother. And, She is the principle object of our worship. The waning moon is the wise old grandmother aspect. But sometimes she has a very terrible aspect symbolic of the dark mystery that is “woman.” In places you’ll hear her referred to as “the sow who eats her own young.” But, this has very esoteric meanings. Though it sounds so shuttering and horrible—it isn’t quite that horrible.

Her names. Her names are kept a very close secret. Amongst covens the names of the Goddess differ. Each coven usually has their own name for the Goddess. Their own names for the Goddess. We use these names as mind triggers to power. For example, say you belong to a Witch coven… and you’re driving out in the woods late at night—no one around—far from a phone—and you have an accident with your car. And there you are. You manage to get out of the car and you’re lying on the ground—and you can’t move and you need help desperately. It’s not your time to go. You want to live. You love life.

So you call upon the secret names of your coven. You call upon the Goddess with the name secret to you and your coven alone. And, this triggers the subconscious—the superconscious of your mind and helps you to get help. At least to give you the strength to walk and try to help yourself. Now, I’ve seen this done. Many people have seen this done. I wouldn’t be surprised if every Witch has seen this and used this at one time or another… perhaps, many times.