Meet the author is a series of articles intended to introduce you to our wonderful authors. Learn about the books they’ve written, the spiritual pathways they’ve traversed and some fun little tidbits… introducing Doug Bewick.
- Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Doug Bewick. I was born in Glasgow (Scotland) and was brought up in a typical working-class, Presbyterian family. I’m a shipwright by trade, a structural designer by profession, and desperate to retire. I look forward to the day that I can abandon the Canadian prairies and the brutal weather that goes with it, and although I’ll miss the incredible prairie skies, I long for the day when I own a narrowboat and can cruise the canals of England and Wales. Being a practising witch, I can think of no better way to connect more closely with nature and the spirits of the land.
- What books have you written?
Although ‘Wicca: The Way of the Wise’ will be my first publicly available piece of work, I have been writing for years, but have only recently felt the desire to have my work published. I am currently working on a shorter piece for Moon Books’ upcoming anthology ‘Pagan Death’ entitled ‘Into the Aether’, which I’m truly excited about, as I spent 19 years of my adult life working within the paranormal field teaching the living how to co-exist with spirits.
Other current works of mention are a manuscript which currently resides with Llewellyn. This 86k co-authored project (‘A Crafting of Shadows’) is a book based on a 12-part course in eclectic witchcraft that my partner Angie and I wrote and regularly present.
My next major project, which I’ve tentatively titled ‘From Craft to Craft’, is a journey into the past to unearth the pagan roots of Freemasonry. Over the years I have presented much to demonstrate the antiquity of the organization and its Pagan roots while struggling against a wave of Abrahamic ignorance. Over the years I witnessed the good, the bad and the downright ugly within the organization, to the point where I walked away after 34 years of involvement. During my sojourn within ‘the craft’ however, I had many of my lectures and papers on the subject published within some of Canada’s most popular Masonic periodicals. Material which will be revised and rewritten to support this new project.
- How would you describe your spiritual pathway?
Although initiated as a Gardnerian 11 years ago, my spirituality is not traditionally Wiccan. If I were to describe my spiritual pathway, I’d have to describe myself as a ‘spiritual realist’.
Perhaps this phrase is new to many readers, so let me try to explain.
To me, the supernatural world does not exist, as I believe that everything that currently exists is simply part of nature. What we tend to class as supernatural are happenings that we can’t explain, or beings that (although we can subconsciously sense) cannot yet be proven to exist either by natural or by external, mechanical means.
This, however, does not make them any less real!
There is a line from ‘Hamlet’ that springs to mind whenever I dwell on this subject.
Found in Act 1, Scene 5, it reads…
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
In her book ‘Witchcraft for Tomorrow’, Doreen Valiente expanded upon the notion when she wrote…
“We know too, that matter, and energy are interchangeable terms; that everything we see around us is energy, manifesting in such a way that we perceive it as a three-dimensional world. Occult philosophy of both east and west maintained this for ages; now science says it! What is this energy? What sustains it? What is its source? What indeed can it be, but the One Divine Life?”
I believe therefore that the answer to the quest that I’m on lies in further understanding the energy that we cannot naturally experience. For within the full range of frequencies lie the answers to all the mysteries.
Take the elusive ‘aether’ for instance. The alchemists of old referred to it as a substance, but lately scientists such as Oliver Lodge believed it to exist within the electromagnetic spectrum, and therefore, as a field of energy, it must exist within the natural realm.
Lodge concluded his life’s work by stating that…
“… that they (the dead) are all around us in what we call the Æther of space rather than in matter; that intercommunication is still possible …”
To this end, I believe that the deities and the fae, as well as the dead, are all part of that same energy field. I could expand on some of the finer theological notions regarding this, but to keep it short, I’d sum up my spiritual pathway by saying that I am being guided by the energy of the ancients which lie within the aether. An energy field that surrounds, permeates and binds us all together. A notion that George Lucas stumbled upon in the 1970’s when he introduced the notion of ‘The Force’ in his Star Wars movies.
- What is something fun and quirky about yourself?
From 2016 to 2018, I was employed as an historical worker at a living museum in Edmonton, Alberta. I portrayed an Orcadian boatbuilder in a Hudson’s Bay fur-trading fort in 1846. As a costumed interpreter, I helped maintain a 30-year-old, 40-foot wooden ‘York Boat’ known as ‘Methuselah ’, and as a qualified shipwright I spearheaded the construction of a new 37-foot version, which we called ‘Joseph’s Folly’. What I thought was amazing about this project, apart from the fact that we could only use the tools and materials available in the Canadian wilderness in 1846, was that here was a Scotsman teaching Canadians about the history of their own country.
- Where can people find you?
Before I can get my website up and running to support the release of my upcoming Pagan Portals publication, my only means of contact are through…
Facebook: Doug Bewick
Instagram: MacIain the Witch
Email: Celtic.Oak.Witches@gmail.com
- What tips do you have for folk beginning their spiritual journey?
One of the first things I tell all my students is to question anything that they are told. Blind faith should never exist when it comes to finding your path.
There are way too many would-be gurus out there who are only interested in one thing, and rely on the gullible to feed their own egos. My advice therefore is to read, research and always trust your own intuition. Your path is just that ‘your path ’, and no one knows your spiritual needs better than you yourself.
- Which deity or deities would you love to have dinner with?
I’ve always been drawn to nature’s caretakers. The eternal Green Man, the Scottish Ghille-Dubh, Cernunnos, Freyr and Gaia, but hands-down ‘Herne the Hunter’ is the deity that I’d love to have dinner with most.
I love the folk-tale of this hunter who turned protector and was hanged for his disobedience, only to return as the spirit of the woods. Now deified within pagan circles, his popularity grows with every passing year. Even before I was initiated into witchcraft, I knew of his tale and honoured his sacrifice.
Obviously any meal with Herne would have to be meatless.
- What magical items would you take with you if you had to live on an island for a year?
The only magical items that I’d need if living on an island would be my white-handled knife, my book of shadows and a pen. The older I get, the more connected with nature I feel. I no longer feel the need for the magical accoutrements that I once required to help me enter the necessary mind-state to work my magic. I no longer need my rituals to make me feel safe. I need only a book and pen to record my thoughts, and my knife to help me exist.
For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/
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