The Witch's Ladder

I have known about this topic for some time, but I failed to realize that it has become an over-rated and misleading issue within the Craft and the pagan community. There is no doubt that Wica is one of the most secretive religions and many times there is a lot of misleading and corrupt information that falls into the hands of neophytes (new comers) and others who wish to learn about the Craft. In this article I hope to clear up one of the most debatable topics within the Craft and the pagan community; the use of prayer beads.

The reason I decided to write on this topic is because over the last couple of years some individuals within the pagan community have decided to “adopt” what they would like to call the “pagan rosary”. It is obvious that the term “rosary” was borrowed from the Catholic Church’s teachings of the “Holy Rosary”, which was established by St. Dominic in the fourteenth century and was based on the teachings of the Gospels of the early Christians. The term rosary comes from the Latin “rosarium” meaning “garden of roses” or “bouquet of roses”, and referred to the spiritual offerings of roses to Mary and Jesus when the Holy Rosary was recited or prayed. Why this term was borrowed from the Christian tradition is unknown, unless some pagans are referring to Mary as a Goddess. Which isn’t even a teaching within Christianity. To refer to Mary as a Goddess means that one would have to believe in Mary as the Mother of God, and therefore must believe in the teaching of the Catholic Church. Wica is a religion in itself and is very much complete. You can’t be a follower of two religions, which brings me to another term that I have heard and that term is “Christian Witch”. That term within itself is an oxymoron.

However, there is an aid or tool used within Traditional British Witchcraft and some other Traditional branches of the Craft, called the Witch’s Ladder. When one looks at the terminology of the “Witch’s Ladder”, it makes much more sense than that of the “pagan rosary”. The term ladder comes from the Middle English term “laddre” and refers to “a means of rising” or “a series of stages or levels”, and within Traditional British Witchcraft the Witch’s Ladder is a string of forty beads, or a cord of forty knot, used to aid in concentrated repetition without the need of counting. This concentrated repetition elevates the consciousness of the Witch. It is sad to say that even this practice has been corrupted with individuals adding such items as feathers and other objects to the Witch’s Ladder. This isn’t the original design or structure of the Witch’s Ladder, as some would have you to think and I hope that this article will clear up this corrupt and misleading information.

Take a look for yourself, when one takes the time to search this topic in truth; you will find that the “pagan rosary” isn’t pagan, but Christian in nature, and some have even gone as far as to adopt the “prayers” of the Catholic Church and reword them to make them “pagan”.

Adam Gray, 3*