So who is "Traditional"? What is "Tradition"? Our trusty online dictionary can help us again:
TRADITION:
Etymology: Middle English tradicioun, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French tradicion, from Latin tradition-, traditio action of handing over, tradition
1 a : an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom) b : a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable
2 : the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction
3 : cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions
4 : characteristic manner, method, or style
There you have it: four very concise and simple definitions, which cover every use of the term "tradition" that a person can imagine. It is correct to say that you have a tradition if something was "handed over" to you, imparted to you by demonstration, example, or verbal teaching. But it is also correct to call something "traditional" if it is a manifestation of cultural continuity, a social attitude, a custom, or an institution.
When I have used the term "Traditional Witchcraft", it is the second meaning of tradition that I have normally referred to. Witchcraft is "traditional" if it is a manifestation of some sorcerous practice which is found in the cultural continuum of a group of people, or if it based on real, authentic customs of sorcery that we know existed, or still exist.
There are modern living traditions of sorcery and witchcraft in which people are "handed" instructions for sorcerous practices from people who were also taught them by others. The arts of the Mambo, the Houngan, and the Bokor in the modern Vodoun religion are taught by word of mouth and example, and are very much "traditional" in the first sense of the word. There are also Europe-born traditions of witchcraft that are taught today by word of mouth and by demonstration, and they too, can claim to be traditional.
The controversy begins when some of these "traditions" claim to come from a much earlier date than they really do. As I mentioned before, people have a natural need to seek verification from age, custom, and antiquity- they are willing to believe that something must be legitimate if so many people had practiced it or believed it and kept it alive. This is a double-edged sword; on one hand, yes, age does add a certain venerable air to a tradition, but at the same time, some traditions can be wrong, false, actively harmful, and in need to be abandoned. People's need for tradition (as we have seen) can lead them to invent falsehoods.
In most cases, "Traditional Witchcraft" existed for centuries as unaligned, diffuse customs or mystical practices embedded in the cultural continuum of a given people or country, which were at some point gathered by a person or person and taught to others. From that point, these gathered sets of customs or practices continued to evolve, sometimes changing shape, but being passed down nonetheless in a cohesive tradition. This is the pattern, the true history, that I have uncovered from interviews and research regarding modern traditions.
All extant "traditions" of sorcery or witchcraft, as far as I can see, were for a long time not "handed down" traditions; their roots were in traditions and customs of cultural continuity (some of great age) that were finally gathered and given direction by a person or persons. Most "traditions" who "hand things down" in the modern day didn't begin "handing down" by word of mouth before the 19th and 20th century. Before that, some of their practices and patterns may have existed, but not as bodies of lore being taught from one person to another with the intention to teach and practice sorcery specifically.
The sorcery and sorcerous patterns of practice and belief from Pagan times entered into the cultural continuum of many peoples all over Europe. Later, sometimes much later, those same atavistic and mostly forgotten patterns were regenerated through the genius and efforts of a person or persons, who reclaimed them and began to hand them down as "tradition". They were "traditional" both before and after their regeneration, but in two different meanings of the word. This is the final and unalterable truth about "tradition", especially with respect to the occult world of "Traditional Witchcraft".
Gardnerian Wicca, born in the 1940's and 50's, teaches its initiates by word of mouth and demonstration, "handing down" their tradition in that way, and so can be called "traditional"- but to what extent they may be called "sorcerers" or "witches" is up for debate. Do they operate chiefly by calling upon spiritual powers other than themselves to bring about supernatural effects? Do they work with familiars? Do they believe that their "magic" is some innate ability that humans have to themselves, without needing recourse to spirits, such as their Gods or familiars?
The extent to which I (and the dictionary and history) would call them "witches" can be found by answering these questions. Different Gardnerians I have met have different ways about them, but they agree on all the important points. They always perform magic in the name of their Goddess or their God, and even though I believe they stray a bit in the direction of "magical power is found chiefly in us", I think they are Witches. It was a Traditional Witch named Roy Bowers who stated this case better than I had ever heard- he mentioned in his letters to Joe Wilson that witches are never the source of power, only the vessels or vehicles of divine power that they invoke.
At any rate, regarding tradition: if you were to read a folkloric account of an ancient practice that was done for healing at a holy well near your home, and tomorrow you were to rise and go and perform this rite, you would be engaging the folkloric current of your land. If you were to then study the custom further, and teach it to someone else in a workable form, then you would have created a tradition- a handing down- in the most authentic sense of the word. You would have reclaimed and regenerated the practice, through your mind and body and the mind and body of the person you shared the practice with.
