Oath

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

An oath is a solemn promise or statement of fact calling upon something or someone that the oath-maker considers sacred, usually a god, spirit or ancestor as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath. An oath is only ever an oath where there is an appeal to a sacred witness.

A person taking an oath indicates this in a number of ways. The most usual is the explicit "I swear", but any statement or promise that includes "with N as my witness" or "so help me N", with N being something or someone the oath-taker holds sacred, is an oath. Many people take an oath by holding in their hand or placing over their head a book of scripture or a sacred object, thus indicating the sacred witness through their action: such an oath is called corporal. However, the chief purpose of such an act is for ceremony or solemnity, and the act does not of itself make an oath.

To break an oath is to forswear and forsake the sacred witness upon whose reputation & importance the oath was sworn, and as such it is to disgrace & sully the reputation of the witness. Accordingly, to break an oath is a most terrible offence. Implicit in this is the importance of honesty in Germanic cultures and the bond forged by giving one's word.

The word oath comes from the Middle English ooth, from Old English Ath; akin to Old High German eid, meaning 'oath'.