"There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, and to these shall I teach things that are as yet unknown." (from the Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente.)
If you search on the internet for Witchcraft twenty-five and a half million sites come up! If you had the time to read them all, do you think that you would learn the secrets of the Goddess, also called "Sorcery"? Would those internet addresses reveal spells that would bring you love, wealth, health, immortality, riches, power and more? What is Sorcery?
Here's the secret (the unknown): Sorcery is power; power to do whatever you want.
A funny thing happened and I would like to tell you about it. I noticed that all the Witches were developing powers. They were able to read peoples thoughts, see auras, touch people and heal their pain, know what would happen in the future, remember their past lives, speak to animals, hear the voices of those who had passed on and many other things, but most of all they were happy. You might not think that being happy is a magickal power, but really it is the goal of all Sorcery! Why would we be "fain to learn" if it didn't make us happy? When I confronted them saying: "You all have powers!" They said: "No we don't." They didn't realize that their lives were full of magick and power. They couldn't see it because to them it was normal and natural, just business as usual.
But they do have powers and they didn't get them by reading books or the internet! Because of their practice within the Craft the Goddess taught them all they know in a way so gentle and subtle they didn't even realize it was happening. Even though they did not start the practice of the Craft to get powers they were drawn to the path of Sorcery by a Mystery as deep as their souls. Synchronicities called them; strange co-incidences led them to the Circle. They were searching for peace, for transformation and for Her, not for psychic powers. So what happened?
As they began to worship, love and honour Her, they changed. This is the Mystery. Cell by cell and thought by thought they metamorphosed into something different: they became Witches. Witches connect with the Divine in Nature and believe that God is both masculine and feminine, that She/He is present, immanent, in the world. As they practice they awakened to that Divine Spirit. They became their authentic selves. Then the Sorcery manifest, just like seeing, hearing, tasting, and feeling. It was another sense, a natural part of their awakened selves until they became and assembly of Sorcerers.
(this is part of an article first published in Pagan Pages)