> Been doing a lot of research lately into
> eclectic/witchcraft . With so much written about it,
> everwhere I look keep getting more info, way more
> than I can digest. Its not an easy subject to
> grasp, and that's ok with me... but I was hoping
> someone could guide me as to what I should be
> focusing on now. It seems like a lot of "scattered"
> and wasted energy, not fruitful effort.

First of all I'm going to warn you of a couple of
things; I happen to be one of the "old farts" on here
so some, if not most, of my opinions may be considered
way "old school". That being said, you should also
realize that "truth", in a Craft sense, can be
somewhat relative, i.e. my "truth" may not exactly
match your "truth", so you should always search your
heart for what works for you. There can also be a bit
of confustion when it comes to terminology; certain
words and phrases may have different meanings
depending on the context in which they are used. If
you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

That being said the following is my interpretation of
the Craft.

You mentioned that you had read quite a few books.
That, in itself, is not a bad thing. What you have to
be aware of, however, that there are a great many
books on the market nowadays that can only be
described as "witchcrap". They are written - if you
can call it that - very often by people with little or
no training, who may or may not have actually little
practice as well. The main purpose of these types of
books is to separate the unwary buyer from his or her
hard earned cash.

The written essence of the Craft can easily be found
in about four or five good books. After that there
tends to be quite a bit of repetition as it is mostly
the same material being re-hashed. It gets even worse
when the author doesn't really understand the material
- which is where most of the "witchcrap" starts to
creep in.

Beyond a certain point the Craft becomes a spiritual
Path, as opposed to a religious one. The reason I
make that distinction is because a religious Path is
most often one where a body of dogma is handed down
and people are required to follow it without question
as a Path to Divinity. The spiritual aspect of the
Craft lies in the fact that it is necessary at some
point to reach a "gnosis" wherein the Seeker comes to
direct terms with Divinity. Usually that means as
much of the Divine as the Seeker can handle, so there
is considerable diversity along those lines because we
can only see one tiny fraction of the immense Whole.

Another implication of the spiritual Path is that each
person is required to think for him or herself, and
not blindly follow what another says. The role of a
Teacher, or mentor, is to guide the Seeker along and
empower that person at every step so he or she is
ready to enter the Mysteries when the time is right.
It is not absolutely necessary to have a teacher, but
it does make the Path quite a bit easier because it
takes so much more work to get there without one.

You also have to be wary of anyone claiming to be a
"teacher" or "elder". Along with the advent of the
"witchcrap" books we have also seen a great many
self-professed "teachers" who, again, have had little
or no training who have set themselves up as
"teachers" and/or "high priest/esses" . Their
motivation to do so usually stems from three different
areas; ego, sex and money. To be a true Teacher it
takes many years of work and training, and most of the
"witchcrap teachers" I've mentioned don't want to put
the time and effort into it. They would rather give
themselves a title and collect a large number of
fawning students to stroke their egos. There are also
predatory types who charge exorbitant fees to - again
- separate the unwary from their money.

What you, as a Seeker upon the Path, should be working
on right now is to become empowered within yourself.
To grow and develop as much as you can, and to seek
your Truths along the Path. The greatest secret of
the old Greek Mystery schools was written right above
their doors; "Know thyself". It is part of Craft
belief that each and every one of us contains within
ourselves a spark of the Divine, and part of our
"gnosis" is to work towards finding that spark and
becoming reconnected with who we truly are.

This will probably raise a few more questions -
assuming you've had the time and/or patience to read
all of this! :-) - so please don't hesitate to ask.

B*B,
Ken