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.Clothing, hair, nails, or other belongings of the victim are associated with theeffigy, which is eventually burned or melted, thereby causing the victim tosuffer or die.In other rituals the effigy is pierced with pins or knives, or partsof the effigy are substituted with animal parts, carcasses, or eggs.The decom-position of these items causes the negative effect on the victim.It is believed that the most effective curses are laid on waning-moonnights.The power of a curse can be enhanced when it is performed by peopleon their deathbed, religious authorities, or poor and disregarded persons.See Also: Hex; SpellsFurther ReadingGordon, Stuart.The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends.London: Headline, 1993.Valiente, Doreen.An ABC of Witchcraft: Past and Present.New York: St.Martin sPress, 1973.71DDegreesThe initiation system most widely used in Neopagan Witchcraft is a three-Degree system derived from the three-Degree system of what were called the Blue Lodges of Freemasonry (which also met at the full moons).However,some traditions use a one-Degree system, in which there is only one signifi-cant initiation ritual.There are three initiations the First Degree of initiation, the SecondDegree of initiation, and the Third Degree of initiation.The First Degree ofinitiation is sometimes used to begin the process of training within a covensince, at this stage, there can be some knowledge and practices that thecoven wants to keep  oath-bound, that is, secret.In other covens and tradi-tions, a full year of training in the coven will precede the First Degree initia-tion ritual.The Second Degree of initiation is rather more ambiguous in meaning.As with an M.A.degree from a college or university, it is often difficult to dis-cern what additional privileges or authority it confers.In some covens, par-ticularly Gardnerian covens, a woman is sometimes required to be  of SecondDegree before she is allowed to serve as Assistant High Priestess or to presideover a complete ritual.In other covens, only at the Second Degree can amember be called a Priest or Priestess.The Third Degree of initiation is universally understood in NeopaganWitchcraft to be the Degree of full empowerment.A Third Degree HighPriest or Priestess is fully empowered to operate autonomously, to run hercoven as she sees fit, to begin a new coven, to initiate other Witches whenand how she sees fit, and so on.Among the more conservative Gardnerians,this autonomy is quite restricted in practice by the close ties that may existbetween a High Priestess and her Queen, and High Priests simply are not al-lowed to do many things that they could do in other traditions.TraditionalGardnerian covens have always bestowed much more power on a HighPriestess than on a High Priest.There is also a five-Degree system of initiation, although its existence isnot as widely recognized.This is the system of  elemental pacts that appearsto have originated with the Temple of the Pagan Way in Chicago, Illinois.Inthis system, the initiate spends a year each working on the elements earth,73DEMONSwater, fire, air, and spirit before reaching full empowerment.If a coven uses asystem like this, its lineage probably extends back to the Temple of the PaganWay.See Also: Coven; Elements; Initiation; Pagan WayFurther ReadingMatthews, CaitlÌn, and John Matthews.The Western Way: A Practical Guide to theWestern Mystery Tradition.London: Arkana, 1994 [1985].Waite, Arthur Edward.A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry.New York:Weathervane Books, 1970 [1921, 1898].DemonsThe notion of the existence of some form of conscious, demonic force hasbeen a part of the human imagination since prehistoric times.The belief thatmalicious entities lie behind natural disasters and other unpleasant aspects ofhuman life is still prevalent in certain traditional societies, particularly insuch cultural areas as Africa and Oceania, in the form of natural elements(typically animals or such phenomena as floods), or as spirits of the ancestors.Especially before the development of scientific discoveries that profferedinanimate explanations for the irregularities of nature, demons were believedto be responsible for unexplainable natural disasters and diseases.While sci-entific explanations have gradually supplanted metaphysical explanations,demons and devils presently survive in the mythology of Jung s collective un-conscious and in other schools of the study of the mind that interpret evilforces as projections of human fear and/or as hallucinations.Although associ-ated with the traditional stereotype of Witches, demons have no place inmodern, Neopagan Witchcraft.While often the two words devil and demon are used interchangeablydevil from the Greek dia-ballo,  to throw across, in the sense of an  accuser ;and demon from the Greek daemon,  spirit (originally  soul ) their mean-ings evolved through the centuries and in different religious traditions.TheGreek daemon came to be associated with invisible spirits who occupied theethereal spaces between God and humanity.They were beings flying betweenthe world and the sky the lower and the upper regions connecting whatwas above with what was below.In the writings of Homer, the word daemonrefers to a god or, in a rather vague sense, to a divine efficacy.In a famous pas-sage of Plato s Symposium, Diotima described Eros as a  great spirit dai-mon and like all spirits a being intermediate between the divine and themortal. The Greek notion of daemon as a personal, familiar spirit originallywas derived from similar notions widespread throughout the Near East, fromGreeks to Babylonians, from Egyptians to Persians.The daemon of Socrates isthe most familiar example of this type of spirit.A later variation on this basicidea is that of a guardian spirit who mediated between the spirit world andhumankind, bringing dreams and foretelling the future.74DEMONSThe ancient Jewish philosopher Philo said that air was the region inhab-ited by incorporeal souls, which the philosophers called daemons, but whichthe Scriptures more appropriately call angels [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]