Draconian Pictish Witchcraft Answers

PART I: (CLICK to go there) The Hidden Kingdom, published in 1984 in The Star and the Snake. It addresses various doctrinal issues in a scientific tone faintly laced with an air of mystery or depth that I would rather not attempt to edit and interweave into the less formal remarks given in Part II below.

PART II: Aside from such specific delineations of doctrine or lore as are addressed in PART I above (the question of "what are you?"), the other important aspect of defining the tradition would be purely historical or anecdotal in nature, that is, "Where did you come from?" That is an issue which I will now address herein, albeit in the tersest, briefest terms.

Simply and bluntly, on June 19, 1977, at the Pagan wilderness sanctuary called Coeden Brith in the mountains of California's Mendocino County, I was initiated and made a Witch according to the rites of what has been variously called the Fairy, Faery, or (most recently) Feri Tradition. That was the culmination of a very long apprenticeship beginning in Texas in 1971 when I was attending Junior High School and began corresponding with Victor Anderson (and later Caradoc ap Cador) through the mails. Later, in 1976, at the age of eighteen, I left home to move directly into Caradoc's house in California for the sole purpose of studying the Feri Tradition.

During the late Seventies and early Eighties, after Caradoc moved to an apartment in San Francisco and I moved to West Oakland, my growing involvement with performance poetry and my musical group E.L.F. in Berkeley and the East Bay drew me further and further out of contact with my old coven and the concerns of Caradoc (who was by then teaching under the name Gabriel) and his associates across the Bay in The City. By 1984, various disagreements between Caradoc and myself that were being published (or refereed!) in Pagana newsletter became so vicious that Victor Anderson, Caradoc, and all his students (most of whom have never met me) placed an announcement in the magazine saying that I was no longer in the Feri Tradition, a traitor, a liar, an oathbreaker, and that whatever I may have taught or might ever teach was not the Feri Tradition, nor was any initiation that I might pass to be construed as initiation into the Feri Tradition. Due to that published position on their part and in consideration of the several members of my own new coven, most of whom I had initiated personally, it was obvious that some sort of new nomenclature was needed to differentiate between our various groups.

Primarily, "Draconian" merely designates the current of thought and initiation proceeding directly or indirectly from me, Dragon/Brian Dragon/Tony Spurlock. I won't go into any of the esoteric significance of the Black Dragon Head (Pen Draig Duu) of Pictland's eternal officium of King, but refer readers to Arthurian literature for discussion of the term Pen Draig or Pendragon.

"Pictish-Elven" is meant to signify a subset or offshoot of the so-called Feri or Fairy Tradition as taught by Victor Anderson and represented by the late Gwydion Pendderwen, Starhawk (especially in the first book), and Francesca De Grandis, author of Be a Goddess. Although it is a word strongly rooted in Germanic and Scandinavian pagan belief and language (fairy is more common and older in the British Isles and where English overlays a Celtic substratum as with Ireland, Scotland, etc.), "elven" is meant to carry a higher, nobler, more awe-inspiring nuance than "fairy," even while doing the job of a synonym. Also, carrying forward a trend that was begun in my first coven with Caradoc, I lay much emphasis on the genius of Tolkien's Silmarillion (as far as I'm aware, the greatest book ever written in the English language) and acknowledge that legacy by choosing the word "Elven." The "Pictish" element is meant to bring back to the fore one central thread of the Tradition -- as taught by Victor -- about which, for some reason , none of the aforementioned authors has deigned to whisper so much as a single word. I refer to the legend that the Feri Tradition carries on and embodies the legacy and lineage of the pre-Christian mystery cult of the Picts (the pre-Scottish inhabitants of what is now Scotland). Francesca De Grandis, in her book Be a Goddess does (briefly) discuss the Blue God "Dian-y-Glas," but does not point out that the name is supposed to be in Pictish or address any of the issues dependant thereof. For a discussion of how the Picts could possibly impact the Witch cult, see Margaret Murray's Witch Cult in Western Europe. For proofs of a matrifocal "Fairy Cult" in historical Scotland, see A Midsummer Eve's Dream by A. D. Hope.

Morgaine la Fey by Frederick Sandys. Note Pictish symbols on Morgan la Fay's skirt. She is here shown in the midst of casting a spell.
One of Victor Anderson's (May 21, 1917 - September 20, 2001) most reliable and impressive powers was his almost instantaneous telepathic grasp of a person's soul or, on a smaller scale, a person's current obsession. These insights were the inspirations upon which he built the custom-fitted themes of Witchcraft that he taught. One example of this was with the brilliant and creative scholar and singer Gwydion Pendderwen (the sorely missed victim of a fatal 1982 automobile accident). When Victor taught Gwydion, the focus was on the poignancy of the myth-cycle of the so-called Dying King and the Sacred King who, for some short while on earth, is a vehicle for that myth-cycle -- deriving from the approval of the beloved Muse Goddess a status higher than mortal man, but never so high that Youth and Springtime can be held forever against the innevitable toll of Age and Winter. A separate example with Caradoc: the exploration of the points of interface between freedom and taboo, the mating game both as liberator and as jailer, such were the concerns of the Witch world Victor showed Caradoc. As for me, the first letter from Victor to me -- a letter for which I had waited for several months (so long that Cynthia, a third party, had sent me a note along the way telling me to be patient, that he really was intending to write me) -- finally arrived two days after I finished reading an exhaustive collection of all Robert E. Howard's short stories concerned with or featuring the ancient Pictish people of Scotland, published together under the simple title Bran Mak Morn. Even though I had never once heard of Picts prior to reading that book, not even from my father's family lore, I found myself succumbing instantly to that very condition that Howard, himself, admitted to in the introductory pages of the anthology with these words: "There is one hobby of mine which puzzles me to this day. I am not attempting to lend it an esoteric or mysterious significance, but the fact remains that I can neither explain nor understand it. That is my interest in the people which, for the sake of brevity, I have always designated as Picts." It was precisely during the first delirium of this psychic fever that letter from Victor finally arrived. Of course, with that uncanny insight, Victor began serving up the "Pictish" Witchcraft World upon which I was destined to feast; and it was a heady fantastic stew so laden with rich meats and exotic spices that my dish seemed heavy like as if laden with heaps of pouting yellow gold. A world where the very languages of the world's most forgotten peoples were still alive in the mouths of keepers of the world's most well-kept secret... and even that would be only one secret in an endless sea filled to every horizon with the many-colored gleaming, floating jewels of secret Witch Crafts. As I read that first letter from Victor, I fell into a kind of love that has never wavered since, and never will till an end is come of time and tide and all the world is unmade -- and perhaps not even then.

The ancient romance of the Spurlocks and the Picts can first be discerned in the ancient Irish tale of the boyhood deeds of Finn mac Cumhal. Afraid to reveal his true identity for fear of the veangeance of the sons of Morna, the son of Cumhal takes the name Desmne and goes to work as an apprentice in the compound of the Blackmith King Lochan (cf. Speur LOCK). Loch's beautiful daughter falls in love with Desmne/Finn. And her name is CRUITHNE, signifying Lady of the Picts (the Picts are called CRUITHNI in the Irish language). Lochan declares, "I cannot guess who you really are. But I know my daughter, and she loves you best in all the world. So I give her to you to be your wife, though I don't know your name." Finn instructs the smith to fashion for him two great spears. These are indeed the SPEARs of LOCH and can be seen carved on Pictish symbol stones throughout the northeast of Scotland, the so-called "Crescent and V-Rod" symbol. It is with these that the youth slays a gigantic murderous boar that infests a desolate stretch of nearby road. This menace is changed through boldness, strength, and skill from a terror to a trophy; a trophy gift from the young Desmne/Fionn to Lochan as bride-gift acknowledging the tremendous value of Lochan's blessing and Pictish Lady Cruithne's love .

Inasmuch as my ancestors in my father's patrilineage, the Spurlocks, have retained the use of the Pictish king name Brude/Byrdei/Bruide as a male firstname at least ever since arriving in America from Scotland in the 1630's (as well as having marriage links to the suspiciously Cruithin-like families surnamed Cruthis, Crider, and Craft), and I having taken onto myself the unshirkable Doom of Morn in 1984, the reader may rest assured that this is one Witch and one website that are in no wise "embarassed" to speak of our Pictish heritage at length, any time, and with the utmost seriousness.

WitchEye Magazine - A real paper magazine made by the Feri Tradition for the Feri Tradition! For details, go to their website

Here are two of my oldest initiates as they looked just two days ago (August 21, 2006) at my house (notice my calligraphy, upper center frame, and the picture of Jim Morrison, a little lower to the right). They were initiated back around 1979 or 1980 (I don't have my records with me as I write this) and they've been holding a public May Day Pole Dance celebration annually in Berkeley for over 20 consecutive years. After they heard I would be posting this photo, they suddenly became uncharacteristically shy and required that I conceal their names. For that reason, the woman may be thought of as Lillith-Lash and the man is Taliesin Tongue of Lucifer. Both the Lash and the Tongue have been deeply involved in the live poetry scene in the Bay Area for decades and the Tongue is also known for his painted portraits and eldritch sculpture which have been displayed in several galleries in San Francisco and Oakland. Deirdre was published in the poetry compilation book Bitch, Butch, Black and Bad and has numerous writing credits from magazines and newspapers. Tongue has several publishing credits, including the poetry book When There's No More Room in Heck, the Darned Will Walk the Earth. He also has the distinction of having been a personal friend of the late Anton Szandor LaVey. Here's another of him from a small independent film:

What is Draconian Pictish-Elven Witchcraft?