Salt of the Earth Part 3. More salty uses

 

More salty stuff!

Salt in Religion and Ritual

Salt has acquired remarkable religious significance across cultures.

Because salt preserves food and resists decay, it frequently became associated symbolically with purity, permanence and protection.

In ancient Mediterranean religions, salt could be incorporated into offerings and sacrificial practices.

In Jewish tradition, salt has a significant biblical symbolism and is associated with covenants. Salt was also historically connected with sacrificial offerings.

In Christianity, salt became a symbol of preservation, wisdom and spiritual influence. The biblical phrase “salt of the earth” is one of the best-known examples.

In Japanese Shinto practice, salt is traditionally associated with purification. Salt may be placed at entrances or used in purification-related customs.

In folk magic throughout Europe and elsewhere, salt has often been regarded as a protective substance. Circles or lines of salt have been used in later magical traditions as symbolic barriers against unwanted influences.

These magical practices belong to cultural and religious traditions rather than being scientifically demonstrated protective mechanisms.

Salt as a Symbol of Friendship and Hospitality

Salt has frequently represented the bond between people.

In several cultures, sharing salt and food could establish or symbolise hospitality.

The idea of a salt covenant appears in ancient Near Eastern and biblical traditions, where salt could symbolise an enduring agreement.

The durability of salt made it a natural metaphor for permanence.

Even today, expressions such as “worth one’s salt” preserve traces of the extraordinary cultural importance once attached to this humble mineral.

Salt and Trade

Salt’s greatest historical importance may ultimately have been economic.

Because every human community required salt, regions with accessible salt resources could trade it to areas without them.

Salt travelled by:

• caravan;
• river boat;
• coastal ship;
• wagon;
• pack animal;
• and later railway.

Salt routes therefore helped connect otherwise distant communities.

Some towns became wealthy because they controlled salt springs, mines or coastal production areas. Governments recognised this value and sometimes imposed taxes or monopolies.

In several historical societies, controlling salt production was effectively a way of controlling a basic necessity.

Salt Taxation

Salt’s importance made it particularly attractive to governments seeking revenue.

The Chinese state developed sophisticated salt monopolies. European governments also imposed salt taxes.

One of the most famous examples was the French gabelle, a tax on salt that became deeply unpopular and contributed to social tensions before the French Revolution.

Britain’s own salt industry was affected by taxation and regulation at various periods.

Salt therefore provides an excellent example of how an apparently ordinary household substance could have major economic and political consequences.

Salt and Warfare

Salt was indirectly important to warfare because armies required preserved provisions.

Armies operating far from home needed food that could survive transport and storage. Salted meat, fish and other preserved foods were therefore valuable military supplies.

Control of salt-producing regions could also have strategic importance because armies and populations depended upon reliable access to salt.

Salt production itself could become a major industry supporting towns, workers, merchants and governments. More on this in a future chapter.

 in Modern Times

Industrial salt production has transformed the ancient salt industry.

Modern producers can extract enormous quantities of salt through mining, solution mining and controlled evaporation.

Salt today is used not only in food but also in:

• chemical manufacturing;
• water treatment;
• road de-icing;
• leather processing;
• textile production;
• industrial chemistry;
• agriculture;
• and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Much of the world’s salt is therefore never eaten.

The chemical industry uses enormous quantities of sodium chloride as a raw material for producing substances such as chlorine and sodium hydroxide.

In the next chapter I’ll look more at the importance of salt in spiritual practices and witchcraft 

Book time: The Real Witches Craft by Kate West

 

The Real Witches’ Craft 

Kate West

Kate West’s The Real Witches’ Craft: Magical Techniques and Guidance for a Full Year of Practising the Craft is essentially the practical follow-up to her earlier The Real Witches’ Handbook. It moves beyond introductory Wiccan beliefs and simple spells into the skills, techniques and disciplines used to develop magical practice. The original UK edition was published by HarperElement in 2005; later editions were published by Llewellyn. 

West presents Witchcraft as something that requires practice, concentration and personal development, rather than simply collecting magical ingredients or performing pre-written spells.

What the book teaches

The book is organised around a progression of magical skills, including:

• The Elements — Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit, and how they function in magical work.
• Raising and directing energy — meditation, concentration, chanting, movement and other techniques for generating magical energy.
• Developing the senses — exercises intended to make the practitioner more aware of subtle impressions.
• Meditation — different approaches to developing concentration and altered states of awareness.
• Visualisation — using mental imagery to give magical intention greater focus.
• The sixth sense — intuition, psychic awareness and related exercises.
• Spellcraft — particularly how to construct your own spells rather than relying entirely on recipes from books.
• Magical methods — practical approaches to directing magical intention.
• Astral work and pathworking — techniques involving the astral plane and inner journeys.
• Spirit as the fifth Element — spiritual dimensions of the Craft.
• Magical timing — particularly the use of lunar cycles and appropriate timing.
• The darker side of magic — considerations surrounding negative energy, protection and potentially problematic magical practices. 

One of the book’s underlying ideas is that effective magic depends more upon the witch’s ability to focus, raise and direct energy than upon possessing particular tools or ingredients.

The Elements

The opening chapter is particularly important because West treats the Elements as the “cornerstones” of magical practice. She distinguishes the magical Elements from the chemical elements of science and describes them as fundamental forces or qualities of nature: Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Spirit. 

This provides the foundation for later work involving elemental balance, ritual, energy and spellcraft.

Raising magical energy

A substantial part of the book concerns power raising. West discusses methods such as meditation, chanting, invocations, trance, movement and other ritual techniques. She also emphasises grounding and earthing afterwards.

This is significant because the book treats magic as a learnable discipline. The practitioner is encouraged to experiment, practise and observe results rather than assuming that simply repeating a spell automatically produces an effect.

Developing intuition and the “sixth sense”

West also moves into territory familiar from traditional and modern occult practice: intuition, psychic perception, scrying and divination.

The book includes approaches to developing the ordinary senses as a preliminary step towards greater intuitive awareness. Tarot, runes, fire scrying and other forms of divination are among the techniques associated with this aspect of the work. 

Creating your own spells

One of the more useful aspects for an experienced practitioner is West’s emphasis on spell construction.

Rather than treating spells as fixed recipes, she explains the underlying principles so that a witch can construct workings around a particular intention. This fits with her broader philosophy that understanding why a magical technique is being used is more important than simply copying somebody else’s ritual.

Astral work and pathworking

The book also introduces astral work, visualisation and pathworking. These subjects place it closer to the wider Western occult tradition than a simple beginner’s Wicca manual.

West approaches these practices as skills requiring preparation and discipline rather than as something that should simply be attempted casually.

The darker side of magic

The final section is interesting because West doesn’t present Witchcraft entirely as harmless spell-making. She discusses the ethical and practical problems that can accompany magical work, including negative energies and situations in which magic may be inappropriate. 

This gives the book a more mature tone than many introductory spell books.

How it relates to The Real Witches’ Handbook

The two books work particularly well together:

The Real Witches’ Handbook

→ introduces Wicca and Witchcraft, beliefs, Sabbats, ritual, gods and goddesses, basic magic and spellcraft.

The Real Witches’ Craft

→ develops the skills behind those practices: energy, meditation, visualisation, intuition, spell construction, astral work and magical timing.

Contemporary descriptions specifically describe The Real Witches’ Craft as moving beyond the simpler spells and rituals of The Real Witches’ Handbook towards techniques associated with the development that might traditionally occur during a practitioner’s first year within a coven. 

Kate West’s approach

West’s writing sits firmly within the modern Wiccan/witchcraft tradition, rather than attempting to reconstruct an ancient historical witchcraft system. Her approach combines Wiccan ritual structure with practical occult techniques such as visualisation, energy work, divination, meditation and astral practice.

That makes The Real Witches’ Craft particularly interesting as a snapshot of early-21st-century British popular Wicca: practical, accessible and designed for people practising either alone or within a group.

It is also worth noting that the book is not simply a collection of spells. Its real subject is the development of the practitioner—the idea that magical ability comes through discipline, repetition, awareness and experience.

In short: if The Real Witches’ Handbook is the introduction to West’s Witchcraft system, The Real Witches’ Craft is the training manual for putting that system into practice. 

One of the most interesting things about The Real Witches’ Craft is that Kate West treats witchcraft as something that is developed through practice, rather than something that simply comes from knowing the right spells.

The book’s central philosophy

West’s approach can be summed up as:

learn → practise → develop awareness → experiment → develop your own Craft.

She encourages the reader to become increasingly independent rather than permanently relying on published rituals. This is particularly apparent in her discussions of creating personal spells, working with energy and developing intuition.

Magic as a skill

West places considerable emphasis on visualisation and concentration. In her approach, being able to hold a clear mental image is an important magical skill.

For example, rather than simply lighting a candle for prosperity, a practitioner might:

1. Establish the magical intention.
2. Relax and concentrate.
3. Visualise the desired outcome.
4. Raise emotional and magical energy.
5. Direct that energy towards the intention.
6. Close the working and ground themselves.

The candle, incense, wand or other tools then become supports for the magical process, rather than being the source of the magic themselves.

Energy work

Another important theme is the idea of raising, directing and releasing energy.

West discusses techniques such as breathing, movement, chanting, visualization and ritual. These have parallels with practices found throughout ceremonial magic, modern Wicca and other Western esoteric traditions.

She also stresses the importance of grounding after magical work. This gives her approach a practical quality: magical work isn’t regarded as finished simply because the spell has been spoken.

Developing psychic awareness

West’s treatment of the “sixth sense” is especially interesting.

She encourages practitioners to pay attention to intuition and subtle impressions and to practise distinguishing genuine intuitive impressions from ordinary thoughts, expectations and imagination.

This connects Witchcraft with older occult practices such as:

• scrying
• divination
• dream work
• meditation
• clairvoyance
• symbolic interpretation
• sensing magical atmosphere

Importantly, these are presented as abilities to practise, rather than something a person necessarily possesses automatically.

Pathworking and astral work

The book also ventures further into traditional occult territory through pathworking and astral techniques.

Pathworking involves deliberately entering a richly visualised symbolic landscape—often associated with a particular magical symbol, deity, element or spiritual concept—and exploring it through meditation.

This has strong connections with Hermeticism, ceremonial magic and the Western magical tradition, as well as later Wiccan practice.

The importance of the Moon

West also gives attention to magical timing.

The lunar cycle provides a framework for deciding when certain kinds of magical work might traditionally be undertaken—for example, using the waxing Moon for growth and attraction and the waning Moon for release or banishing.

This is less about claiming that the Moon mechanically causes magical results and more about using natural cycles as symbolic and ritual frameworks.

Ethics and responsibility

Another worthwhile feature is West’s discussion of the potentially darker aspects of magical practice.

Rather than presenting Witchcraft as an unlimited means of getting whatever one wants, she asks the practitioner to consider consequences, responsibility, protection and intention.

That reflects a recurring theme in modern Wicca: magical ability is accompanied by responsibility for how it is used.

Why the book is significant

I’d place The Real Witches’ Craft within the second-generation popular British Wiccan literature that helped make practical Witchcraft accessible to solitary practitioners.

It isn’t an attempt to document an unbroken ancient tradition. Instead, it represents modern Witchcraft as it was being practised and taught in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, drawing together Wiccan ritual, folk-magic ideas and techniques inherited from the broader Western occult tradition.

And that’s perhaps what makes it particularly interesting alongside books you’ve asked me about such as Stewart and Janet Farrar’s The Witches’ Way and West’s own The Real Witches’ Handbook: you can see how practical modern Wicca evolved from coven-based ritual traditions into something increasingly accessible to the solitary witch.

Recommended as are all of West’s books.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780738713748/Real-Witches-Craft-Magical-Techniques-0738713740/plp