Pow-Wow

Recently i have been study Pow-Wow and thought the coven would like to know a little about Pow-Wow. Most of the information is from HexCraft Dutch Country Magick no this book does not talk about hexes the word hex itself mean the Craft or WitchCraft.


The word "Pow-Wow" normally sparks thoughts of the familiar scene of a group of Native Americans sitting in a circle around a bright campfire. Perhaps Pow-Wow reminds you of a recant visit to a modern Native American gathering at a reservation. Your mind may conjure up scenes of strong warriors, beautiful landscapes, and vibrant American history. The word Pow-Wow does no normally tweak the imagination with the vision of a Pennsylvania Dutch person practicing faith healing. Especially not one who is into casting magick circle, healing the sick, or dealing politely , but firmly, with a nosey neighbor.

Pow-Wow is the oldest of the American magick system created by the European settlers. It stems from Pagan Witchcraft melded with Native American magick. The Pow-Wow system is part of the scientific aspects of the lost Old Religion. It is the root of American Witchcraft.

Pow-Wow is the vestige of a lost religion. It is a healing art. It is a cunning man or wise woman. It is a magickal charm. It is Native American magick. It is a magickal system (no longer a religion) surrounded by a thick fog of mystery. Pow-Wow artist don’t believe in magick but not now were there chant come from. These people don’t want to admit the true basis of what they are doing because they are afraid. They should not be. Life is magick. People are magick. Religion, if supporting positive actions, is magick. The art and science of magick is not evil or nasty. Magick is simply a force that is devoid of positive or negative connotations. It is how you use it, like fire or a knife that designates the ultimate outcome as good or evil.

For one you don’t need to be a Pagan or Wiccan to believe in Pow-Wow. The art of Pow-Wow is to use the Divine to heal or protect. Here is an example of chants in the Pow-Wow system

"Holy Mary
Mother of God
The Body is Whole
The Body is Strong"

"Holy Isis
Creatrix of all
The Body is Whole
The Body is Strong"

"Daughter of Diana
Aradia I call
To heal the body
To strengthen the soul"

"Eir, sweet sister of healing
I invoke thy assistance
To make my body whole
To make my body strong."

The purpose of giving four different invocations it to show that the Pow-Wow system works no matter which positive deity you prefer to call. The first chant is Christian in nature, the second is Egyptian/Ceremonial, and the third is Wiccan/Strega/Dainic. The fourth is Germanic/Heathen influence.

Like the Craft, Pow-Wow was heading down were very few people new what it was. The reason why Pow-Wow is still here is because some one was welling to teach it and someone was welling to learn. You don’t have to be a Pow-Wow artist to past down the idea of Pow-Wowing. Just be simple reacher you yourself can past down the idea and beliefs of Pow-Wow.


If you like to learn more about Pow-Wow i would read this book. I picked out some of the topics but Pow-Wow itself is a big topic. Sorry if there is any spelling or grammer mistakes.

Unfortunately that book by Silver Ravenwolf was rather poorly researched and is full of inaccuracies. So while it might at best be a place to start I would not look upon it as a reliable reference. For instance, Pow-Wow is almost entirely built upon European witchcraft and except for the name has little or nothing to do with Native American practices. It is also important to understand that Pow-Wow was a magical system which was closely tied to the Christian beliefs of its practitioners with many of the spells tied to verses of the Bible.

A better book on the subject is "The Long Lost Friend" by John George Hohman. And some fiction books that give a hint of the flavor of American folk magic are those in the Silver John series by Manly Wade Wellman.

-Lark-

Thank you for the post Lark

I really want to learn more about Pow-Wow and plan to reacher as much as i can

I am unsure if this will help you in your search but I thought I would post the link I have.

http://www.think-aboutit.com/pdf/powow.pdf

Hope it helps a little

thanks for the post lark and Earth, I have to agree Silver RavenWolf doesn't do enough research on some of the subjects she discusses, thanks for making a good clarification for anyone else who reads this.

Hi Earth,

That is a good link. It's the on-line version of the book by Hohman that I suggested.

-Lark-

Lark (& others),

Is it correct that you are saying that what we think of as a pow-wow is a European thing? Is that true?

One of my sisters is Native American so I learned the tiniest bit of the culture... My impression of a ''pow-wow'' was where there is a fire, offerings are made, people smoke, people chant, people pray, people dance, and the whole point was to either contact or honor ancient and/or ancestral spirits. I had never thought about it before, but it does have some similarities to pagan ritual, but...

I thought that the Natives here had passed this knowledge down from their ancestors since long before the white folks from Europe showed up. I thought it was like a case of ''convergent cultural evolution'', where two different cultures on two different continents discovered the same one set of principles separately, and each developed their own myths and beliefs about it. The ''it'' being what we call magick. (I made that term up by the way about convergent cultural evolution, because it's like convergent evolution in biology!)

Are you saying all this is wrong???

I'm just really surprised, and wondering if I might be misunderstanding something here...

Thanks!

Your sister is quite correct in her use of the term "Pow-Wow" in its original Native American context. Many NA tribes hold gatherings called pow-wow's where they honor their ancestors, honor their Gods, and have a grand social gettogether as well. That's one form of pow-wow.

When European settlers cane to America, particular the Pennsylvania Dutch, they brought with them their European folk magic traditions. And somewhere along the line these traditions started to be referred to as "pow-wow magic" even though they had nothing whatsoever to do with the traditional Native American pow-wow.

So pow-wow magic is actually European. But pow-wows in the Native American sense are strictly a part of native cultures and bear no resemblance to pow-wow magic at all.

Does that make sense?

-Lark-