Thursday, August 18, 2011

Black, White, Red

Black, white and red are the three most significant colors of the Spiral Castle Tradition. This fact is particular to us, and it is not reflective of Traditional Witchcraft as a whole. However, our practice of finding significance in the interplay between these colors -- indeed, of holding them as sacred beyond all other -- has a long history from the Celtic roots of British Craft.


In Celtic, British and even some American lore, you can always tell when animals are sacred (or Otherworldly) because they are "marked" with the colors black, white and red. Spectral black dogs, red dogs, or white dogs with red ears are tell-tale hounds from other planes. Kine and swine (both sacred animals in their own right) are doubly sacred when colored similarly (solid black, solid red, solid white or white with red ears).

As we write about the Spiral Castle Tradition, you will undoubtedly notice the redundancy of these colors. Surely, you've already seen it in some places:
  • Black Goddess, White Goddess, Red God (Tubal Qayin)
  • athame, kerfane, shelg (3 knives)
  • Triple Soul
You will notice it in others instances, as well. In fact, you will soon start to see both the consistency with which these colors seem to present themselves throughout the Tradition, alongside the complexity with which they are interwoven.

We hope that as insights come to you, you'll share them with us. After all, 'tis a  Crooked Path we walk ... together, but alone.

3 comments:

  1. Our brother Ron mentioned to me that Red, White and Black are the first colors to be given names in most languages. (not just the ones related to Pre-Indo European roots, although the PIE connections and significances that these colors hold is immediately relevant to our tradition)

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my personal workings, red, white, grey and black are the colors I ascribe to the quarters; and of course Glaux will remember that my blackthorn blasting rod has a braid of red, white and black looped through it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. To me white is the light the yang and black is the dark or yin.the red is neutral the blood that runs directly through the middle of both the light and dark its only duty is to sustain life and keep balance as a whole so there is both white and dark/black for one cannot exist without the other or all life would fail and the only thing that would exist is the endless void in which life started and one day will return to. So white, red, and dark are vital for protecting life in both the spiritual/magickal and the physical. They are the key to all the realms above and below and all planes of existance.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...