Old Forest Craft or Sorgae Craft includes a pantheon of Gods and Goddesses based upon the directions and the elements of the circle. There is a God and a Goddess for each direction. For the primary directions of North, East, South, and West, the Goddess represents the material element such as Earth, Air, Fire and Water and the God represents the metaphysical component of the element such as Being, Knowing, Doing, and Daring. This is reversed for the Cross-Quarters, the directions of North-East, South-East, South-West, and North-West, wherein the Goddess is the metaphysical element and the God is the physical element.
How this all first began was with the Goddess of the North and of the Earth, one of whose names is Ardwena. She is a Goddess of cave bears, of children, of the forest now known as the Ardennes and the Danube River, which She calls the Duna. When this Goddess first began to show up She did not speak any English at all and She had been “asleep” for a very long time, long enough that She knew nothing about the Roman Empire. Very grudgingly at first, She began to learn our language, while She also began teaching us Hers, a language that She calls Vaska.
She woke up those other Gods and Goddesses who had also been asleep and They all began to teach us many things. They led us to explore in new and fascinating directions, giving clues as to how Witches of this path—Witches called the Sorgitza—used to practice and what they used to believe. We took what They had to teach us and used it as a jumping off point in our explorations, including forging a deeper relationship with other entities, most especially those called the Fey or Faery.
Now, we had long known that there was an old and intimate connection between Witch and the Faery. For one thing, we have a heritage of folktale, stories passed down to us that describe the Fair Folk, the Gentry, and the Rushing Horde, just to give them a few of their names. They also play a part in the trial transcripts of various unfortunate Witches. Some of these accused Witches were given ointments or told how to perform healings by their interaction with the Fey. Of old, Witches were sometimes said to have Fey blood and definitely the line between the two was blurred.
What we learned from the Gods of the Sorgitzak is that those we name the Fey or Faery are primarily the spirits/beings associated with the West or with the East, while we, as Witches, are of the South. Those of the West might be called the Unseelie Court or the Rushing Horde, they who take on the form of the hounds led by the Horned Lord of the Dead. They are also the Dark Elves, the Red Caps, the Trouping Faeries, and may equate to the “demons” of ceremonial magick, those who are called upon to build things and carry out the wishes of the magician. You could call them the Little Ones, for they are small and grey with round black eyes, and they always travel in groups. On the Sorgae path, they are of Daring and Water, but primarily of Daring.
On the other hand, the East Faeries are tall and willowy with floating arms, very pointed faces, and large black almond-shaped eyes. They are the Seelie Court, the Gentry, the Light Elves, and the Shining Ones and their magick is based upon whimsy, riddle, and laughter. To the Sorgitza, the Faery of the East are beings of the Air and of Knowledge, but mostly of Air. Their leader is the famed Queen of Elphame also mentioned in the Witch trials, the same title sometimes given to the female leader of the Witches’ Sabbat. They are also kin to Witches, brother and sister to us all.
In Vaska, the Witch language of the Sorgitza, these two types of beings—the spirits of Daring and the spirits of the Air—are called the keriosak and the hurralia. They are two of the eight sets of beings at each of the Quarters, one for each physical and metaphysical element. For example, in the West, the keriosak represent Daring in conjunction with the uartalia, the spirits of Water. In the East, the hurralia are paired with the hostarak, the beings of Knowing. It’s by interaction with these sets of beings and with the God or Goddess associated with them that we can best have a relationship with the living spirits of the Elements.
We as Witches, as Sorgitza, are beings of the South, of Fire and Doing, though primarily of Doing. Another word for Doing is Will, thus Witches are creatures of will and will and action is part of our essence. Witches are also closely linked to the hurralia because when a Witch dies they become one of the Shining Ones, one of the spirits of the Air. In this fashion, we who are Witches flip back and forth between the two worlds of Life and Death. In Life, we are Faeries in Witch bodies and in Death we are Witches in Faery “bodies.”
When we travel to the Otherworld—call it Benevento, Venusburg, or just the Witches’ Sabbat—we go to the First Circle, and there we join with our fellow Witches across all of space and time, as well as with those Witches not incarnated, the Fey, the beings of Air. Together, we form an extended family, famalia, a company that exists and works for the good on both sides of the Veil. For the hurralia are guardians of the Earth as much as Witches are, each in our own way. We come here to carry on the work in the flesh, while the Fey work in the Otherworld, our mirror world.
While in life we are of the God of the South and Doing (Tzahranos) and of the Goddess of the North and Earth (Ardwena), but after we die, we belong to the Goddess of the East and Air (Arien) and also come under the sovereignty of the God of the Dead, the God of the West (Hehren). He and the Goddess of the East are the King and Queen of famed Faery or Elphame and the Fey, both the tall and the small, belong to Them. But as we are also Fey, They are also our King and Queen as much as the God and Goddess of this world. Together, They make up the North, South, East, and West, the building blocks of all worlds.
As Witches, we are part of that circle, one of the beings of the Elements. But in order to be who we are, we must choose and we must do. One cannot be a Witch and not do; it’s part of our very nature and one of the things that draws us time and again to leave the Otherworld and be born to the body, no matter how hard that is. That is courage and that is also what we are about…something we should never forget. Just as we should never forget our greater family, they who wait for us to join them again when this life here is done and when we have accomplished what we came for. For a certainty, they do not forget us. Just as the Gods have not forgotten us, and long to be known again.