INTRODUCTION

The sea has been at the heart of witchcraft, magic and mythology since the beginning of human time. We evolved, like all life on earth, from simple organisms living in the primeval sea. Ever since we emerged onto the land, the ceaseless ebbing and flowing of the tides of sea, moon and sun across days, weeks, months, years and aeons have shaped our beings in the most fundamental ways, psychically as well as physically. These great rhythms affect everything from our bodily time cycles and physical feelings to our dreams and visions. The sea is the source of all life, but also a power to be feared and propitiated. For thousands of years we have lived in harmony with the sea and have sailed the oceans and harnessed the strength of the tides.

The moon Goddess, great mother and source of all life, the lady of the sea and its tides, is the very essence of witchcraft, and has been a vital part of Pagan religions since ancient times. She was honoured down the centuries, and her myths and ceremonies can be found in many cultures around the world to this day, and also survive in folk customs and superstitions. In our own times there has been a resurgence of interest in witchcraft and the worship of the older Gods, and witches and Pagans are rediscovering the magical power of the sea and the love of the Goddess who presides over the moon and tides. Much of the witchcraft practised now includes veneration of ancient Pagan deities that were honoured before religion became dominated by patriarchal monotheisms. This has been especially important for women who feel excluded by the idea of a single male deity, and for all those who feel that our understanding of deity should include the female as well as the male, and who want to work with Goddesses in their spiritual practice. The witchcraft in this book is avowedly Pagan; at its heart is the veneration of the Goddess of the moon, sea and tides. She has had many names at different times and in different places, and is loved by Pagans and witches under many guises. To the Greeks she was Aphrodite, born from the sea, and Thetis, Leucothea and Britomartis. To the Egyptians she was Isis, adopted later by the classical world, and named by the Romans Stella Maris or Star of the Sea. In West Africa, the Caribbean and Brazil, she is Yemanja, and in the Celtic nations, Morgan. In Japan she is Izanami, and to the Maori she is Rona, the ‘tide controller’. To me she has many names and attributes. She is Isis, the great moon-mother, the Welsh deity Arianrhod (‘silver wheel’) whose castle lies submerged in the sea between the island of Anglesey, where I grew up, and the mountains of Wales, and also Levanah, the Goddess of the depths and the dark moon.

My own witchcraft has been bound up with the sea from the very beginning. Ever since I can remember, the sea, the tides and the moon have been at the centre of my life. I spent my early childhood on the island of Anglesey; then a remote part of North Wales. We lived very close to the shore, and some of my earliest memories are of being lulled to sleep by the constant roar of waves on the shore on windy nights. As a little child, I became aware that I could feel the effect of the tides in my body. The rising tide produced energy and a feeling of excitement, as if everything was possible. The ebbing tide induced a calm, peaceful state of stillness. This tide sense has never left me and is something I cherish. It has become a central part of my magic. The high tide is used for active magic, for making things and casting spells, and the inner silence and stillness brought by the low tide brings me into contact with the spirit world.

In those days Anglesey was remote; the internet had not yet been invented and there was no television. As children we were raised on the stories of the old Welsh Gods and Goddesses; of witches, enchanters, warrior heroes, drowned lands and voyages to magical islands, and we acted these stories out in our games. Every day the receding tide revealed a smooth pavement of unassuming black rocks, worn down and smoothed by the tides over millennia where we played our games. I learnt that these rocks, that seemed so ordinary to a small child, w