Shani Oates

Robert Cochrane – a name synonymous with Traditional Craft – is perhaps one of its most controversial figures of the 20th century. Scores of articles, books, blogs and webpages claim much in his name, each a pastiche of the other, and though they are a testament to his popularity, they offer little substance regarding his work, and even less in terms of factual information.

Óðinn’s identity as the Ecstatic God of the Tethers of Law and Death, is least recognised through his Skin-Turning and Shape-shifting techniques as gifts of the highest craft he imparts to a shamanic warrior elite.

Óðinn has been scandalised and deified in equal measure by medieval churchmen, demonising pre-Christian beliefs, and more recently by the romantic idealists and nationalists of the 20th Century, who glamorised them, to the extent that the genuine historical persona of this popular figure is saturated in complex, confusing mythology.

Studies of the Sagas invariably focus upon the events conveyed in Havamal as either a supernatural occurrence, a construct devoid of historical facts, or, as an historical piece separated from magical elements.

Always, the Devil is presented as a beacon of decadence and indulgence, whether fair or foul. And, whether droll or tragic, he does – in spite of his bad press – appear always to have our best interests at heart.

Tradition is about Folk Magick and community customs – it thrives as a Faith, both lived and applied in Craft, and realised in Arte. Crafting the Arte of Tradition bares its soul while explaining its engagement of the ‘Other’ found in Wind-walkers, Wights, Covenants and Kings, Ancestors and Fools, Old Gods, Law and Lore, custom and culture, Fate and Magick, Divination and prophecy, tools of Craft and of Trade, and finally, Mysteries and Mysticism.

Serpent Songs is an anthology of the voices of traditional craft: the words and works of those who remain untamed, cunning folk, exorcists, pellars, sorgin, witches and mystics. A collection of fifteen essays, introduced and curated by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold.