Skyclad
by Rick Johnson
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Many, but not all, Witches worship naked.
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This Charge is so beautiful that many Witches who reject the Gardnerian Traditions, retain the Charge as one of the few declamations that,
if not directly from the Goddess, was unquestionably inspired by Her. Thus, the argument follows that we MUST worship naked because it is
the will of the Goddess whom we love.
This argument is countered by a later version of the Charge that says that "as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be equal in your rites."
However, this is an American version and not at all as originally written, so is suspect.
A more convincing counter to the Charge is simply to reject it outright.
Those Traditions that reject all Gardnerian and most Traditional ideas can easily reject nudity as well.
In these cases, they prefer to worship clothed, about which we will cover later.
A second reason for ritual nudity is the practical one. At one Grand Sabbat where we had three Covens worshipping
together in a nine-foot Circle, some of the guests were from our Outer Court and so wore robes. During the rite,
one woman stood too close to the West candle and set her robe on fire. She did manage to extinguish the flames
without disrupting the Sabbat too much and I didn't even hear about the accident until after the Sabbat had ended.
On those rites where I have been robed, there have been many incidents of one person stepping on the hem of the robe
of the person next to them, thus causing the unfortunate Witch to trip and fall into another.
In a small nine-foot Circle, if one person goes down, usually all follow. So safety is a prime consideration.
Experiences of Witches all over the world often report that naked is safer. You are more aware of where the
candles are when you begin to feel the heat as opposed to not detecting the heat of a fire until after your
robe is engulfed in flames. Naked people step more carefully and bang into the Altar and others far less
frequently than clothed Witches. So it is simply safer to be naked.
The magickal reason for nudity is that anything worn upon the body will interfere with and change
the energy given off by the body. This includes clothes, make-up, perfumes, jewelry, glasses, contact
lenses and so on. This argument is countered by the quite logical statement that any energy that can pass
through a wall, cover miles of distance, penetrate another wall and then influence a person will not be
stopped by a layer of cloth. To counter this statement, we have to digress into Martial Arts.
Consider a person trying to hit you. That person chambers his fist at his waist and throws their entire strength
into a punch to your jaw. If it connects, you will be damaged or, at least, knocked off your feet. But to place
your hand before your mouth and attempt to catch the punch an instant before it teaches you is, to say the least,
presumptuous and dangerous. You simply do not have the power to stop a full punch when it has developed that much inertia.
The way to protect yourself is to reach out when the punch is thrown and with little effort, lightly brush the punch away.
You haven't stopped it, you deflected it a few degrees and it misses you completely. No real effort is involved and you are safe.
To apply this to magick, and I admit that I am applying physical force to psychic power but energy is energy,
consider that the body and mind and Coven and spirit must generate a tremendous amount of power to send that
spell over that distance. Once the Cone of Power is sent, the spell cannot be deflected save by a greater force,
which is unlikely. BUT, it can be deflected at the source by a relatively small power. In other words,
wearing clothing or non-craft jewelry or non-consecrated materials can easily deflect or alter the power
of the spell before it leaves the Circle. So the spell, when it reaches its target, may be a different
spell or it may even reach a different target. It takes years of practice before the Witch can learn to
compensate for external influences.
Some of the psychological factors in Nudity are that the person MUST accept themselves as they are or
change themselves. It is difficult to put on a facade when you are denied a girdle, bra, wig, make-up,
deodorant, aftershave, codpiece or other enhance- ments to your image. Once naked, the individual sags,
bulges, shines and, in effect, becomes themselves and not a mask. When working magick, it is vital to
know yourself and accept your own good and ill, for to attempt the path with false illusions will cause
trouble when your subconscious rebels and forces your work to conform to a hidden truth.
To be naked indicates freedom from conventional mundane thought. When clothed in a suit or dress, you
conform to societies expectations and become what they wish you to become. Your style of dress and hair
style are a reflection, not of your own desires, but of what your peers wish you to be. Once naked,
you are free to place your mind into a sphere of magickal thought where anything is possible, where
the God and Goddess are not symbols hanging on a wall but REAL DIVINITIES, where magick and Psychics work.
A place between the worlds where all is possible. Clothes tend to limit your thinking to that period and culture,
thus to wear your best clothes restricts you to the modern world and your subconscious feels foolish
chanting with candles. To wear a medieval costume restricts you not to your concept of the past but
to the real past without our modern advancements in magick or ritual. To wear robes, will limit you magickally,
but will aid the mind in its freedom towards the goal.
Equality between class and gender is assured when naked as the rich no longer have jewels to show their class worth.
Women must face men as equals, both showing their inadequacies and realizing that the other sex is just as physically
imperfect as you are. With this barrier down, men and women can accept each other as equals.
ROBES
Even though most Witches work robed, it is necessary to be clothed at times. If in public or when outdoors
in winter it may be necessary to be clothed to allow the mind to concentrate on the goal and not to be thinking
that the body is slowly freezing to death.
When this is necessary, it is best to wear a plain robe that is exactly the same as all others.
To make a personal robe will introduce ego and class or sexual differences into the rite. Though nudity
is rarely sexual, after ten minutes the naked Witch becomes bored with seeing bare breasts and genitals
and is then free to work for a woman to wear a robe that cuts low in the front and is slit up the side
to her hips will introduce into the Coven an attitude of sexual desire to the men as they try to see a
nipple or thigh that, by being hidden, is desirable but when revealed by nudity is simply another body part.
The men, in this situation may have difficulty concentrating on the work in an effort to see what is barely hidden.
Similar things occur in the female mind when the situation is reversed, though women are often trained to
deny these thoughts to others and even to themselves. Thus the robe must be sexless and plain to behold.
The robe must also be of a natural material such as cotton or wool since synthetics cause a great deal of
interference with the power. A simple list of materials which will interfere with magickal power when worn
from the least to the greatest effect is as follows: cotton, wool, conductive metals from silver, gold, copper,
iron, synthetic materials such as nylon, rayon, orlon and then silk (which though a natural material is a strong
magickal insulator).
So if the Witch must wear a robe, it should be one that interferes with magick and mind as little as possible.
There are some uses to wearing robes. The simple act of putting on a robe that is reserved only for
Ritual use causes the inner mind to awaken and to develop the attitude that "Now the mundane world is behind me,
it is time for the magickal world to appear." This can be very effective to your working and will counter
some of the physical properties in wearing robes.
If all are wearing identical robes, the attitude of equality within, 'the group' is enhanced,
for there is nothing different between the people or sexes.
Historically, Witches usually worked Naked and there are many references to naked
Witches standing on their clothes. In a few illustrations, the Witches are clothed in the clothing
of their time but examination of the drawings indicate that the artist rarely knew a real Witch.
Gardner introduced the term Skyclad into the Craft in the 1950's with the reference to
"Witches worship naked which is called in the East (Indonesia), 'Skyclad'" and the term stuck
as a poetic way to refer to ritual nudity. In the 1950's and '60s, most Witches worshipped Skyclad
though by the 70s, the Welsh and American Celtic Witches began to wear robes, which became the standard
way to worship for years. By the late '70s, the Feminist Witches began to experiment with Skyclad worship
and by the late 80's, about half of the American and many European Witches worshipped Skyclad.
In todays world, you will find Witches who work Skyclad, robed, in costumes and even in their street clothes.
If the latter, you will bring into the Circle all the influences that have become attached to those clothes over the day.
These influences will effect your workings as well as your mind because the subconscious will see no difference
between the mundane and the magickal, and as we spend most of our time in the mundane world, it is easy to see which will win.