The Pict

Magick was always prevalent in Scotland. As far back as history records, the Craft of the Wise was practiced in the place that is now known as Scotland.
One of the oldest known Craft practitioners, lived in the second century, in the Hebrides. She was a woman who was well known for her proficiency in the Craft. It is recorded that the King of the time relied on her expertise to guide him.
At the end of the Third century the place now known a Scotland was inhabited by a group of people called the Picts. The Picts were hunters, and mountain dwellers. They lived in huts and sod houses. Their tools, and weapons were mainly their dirks and staffs, and a small shield called a Targe. The Picts themselves were a small sturdy people who favoured tattoos. The Picts were a seafaring society. They had fleets of large ships, that were like skiffs, each manned by forty oarsmen. The Picts controlled the Orkney islands and the surrounding areas. They continued practicing the Craft of the Wise.
By the sixth century the Picts had a King. The King's palace was on the shore of Loch Ness, and the Capital of the Picts was at Inverness.
By the Ninth century the Picts had united with the Scots through a Royal marriage. The new Scots King, Kenneth MacAlpin, was mothered by a Pict,who was also reputed to practice the Craft of the Wise.The country was now known as Scots Land.
By this time there were a vast amount of Scottish witches who practiced as solitaries. The Solitary Witches would sometimes meet with others for celebrations, but the rest of the time they plied their Craft alone.
Witchcraft was first made legally punishable in Scotland, by an act passed by the Scottish Parliament, in Fifteen Sixty-Three.
Some of the first Witches convicted in Scotland were charged with Witchcraft because they cured someone of an illness. For to cure an illness, or worse yet, to aid a woman in child birth, was interfering with the will of God. The sentence for a conviction of practicing Witchcraft in Scotland was burning to death.
Witchcraft in what is now Scotland itself goes back further than recorded word. Pecti-Wita has many origins in the times of the early Picts. The terms Pecti-Wita and Pictish Witchcraft were coined by Adain Breac (1897-1989).
The Pecti-Witan, or practitioner of Scottish or Pictish Witchcraft is a person who reveres Nature, heals with herbs, and honors the Old Ways. I Believe!