Skyclad
Historically, Witches worked Naked, and there are many references to naked Witches standing on their clothes. In a few illustrations, the Witches are clothed in the clothing of their time, but examination of the drawings indicates that the artist rarely knew a real Witch.
Gardner introduced the term Skyclad into the Craft in the 1950's with the reference to "Witches worship naked which is called in the East (Indonesia), 'Skyclad'" and the term stuck as a poetic way to refer to ritual nudity. Witches worshipped Skyclad in 1950's and today, but in the 70s, the Welsh and American Celtic Witches began to wear robes, which became the standard way to worship for years. By the late '70s, the Feminist Witches began to experiment with Skyclad worship, so by the late 80’s about half of the American and European Witches worship Skyclad.
There are a number of reasons for nudity, the first being that in the Charge, which was written by Doreen Valiente from older sources, The Goddess said,
"And as a sign that ye be truly free, ye shall be naked in your rites."

This Charge is so beautiful that many Witches who reject the Gardnerian Traditions, retain the Charge as one of the few declamations that, if not directly from the Goddess, was unquestionably inspired by Her. Thus, the argument follows that we MUST worship naked because it is the will of the Goddess whom we love.

This argument is countered by a later version of the Charge that says,
"as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be equal in your rites."
However, this is a later American version not as originally written.
A more convincing counter to the Charge is simply to reject the Charge outright.
Reject all Traditional and Gardnerian ideas, so it is then easy reject nudity as well.

A second reason for ritual nudity is the practical one. Witches all over the world often report that naked is safer.
In rites where I have been robed there have been accidents, incidents where a person stepping on the hem of another’s robe, and causes them to trip. In a nine-foot Circle, if one person goes down, usually all follow.  

Naked people are more aware of their surroundings, so you step more carefully and bang into the Altar and others less than clothed Witches.
You feel the heat of candles, as opposed to not detecting the heat until after your robe is in flames, so it is simply safer to be naked.
At Sabbat where we had three Covens worshipping together in Circle, some were from our Outer Court, so wore robes. During the rite, one woman stood too close to the West candle and set her robe on fire. She did manage to extinguish the flames with little disruption, but I did hear about the accident after the rite ended.

The magickal reason for nudity is that anything worn upon the body will interfere with and change the energy given off by the body. This includes clothes, make-up, perfumes, jewelry, glasses, contact lenses and so on.
This argument is quite logically countered by stating, “energy that can pass through a wall, cover miles of distance, and influence another person would not be stopped by a layer of cloth. “ Consider the greater awareness of your surroundings, being closer emotionally and physicality to the others in the circle. Being able to raise energy without the distraction of avoiding stepping on robes or pulling your sleeve up to keep in out of the candle flame.
Think of the Coven body, mind, and spirit that must generate a tremendous amount of power to send that spell over that distance. Once the Cone of Power is sent the spell won’t be deflected, but it can be deflected at the source by a relatively little. In other words, wearing clothing or non-craft jewelry or non-consecrated materials can easily deflect or alter the power that leaves the Circle. The spell, when it reaches its target, may be different or it may even reach a different target.
Nudity is rarely sexual, after ten minutes the naked Witch becomes bored with seeing bare breasts and genitals and is then free to work. A woman wearing a robe that cuts low in the front and is slit up the side to her hips will introduce into the Coven an attitude of sexual desire to the men as they try to see a nipple or thigh that, by being hidden, is desirable but when revealed by nudity is simply another body part. The men, in this situation, may have difficulty concentrating on the work in an effort to see what is barely hidden. Similar things occur in the female mind when the situation is reversed, though women are often trained to deny these thoughts to others and even to themselves.
There are Psychological factors to Nudity are that the people must accept themselves as they are or change themselves. It is difficult to put on a facade when you are denied a girdle, bra, wig, make-up, deodorant, aftershave, codpiece or other enhancements to your image. Once naked, the individual with their sags, and bulges shines and, becomes themselves and not a mask. 
When working magik, it is vital to know yourself and accept your own good and ill, for to attempt the path with false illusions will cause trouble when your subconscious rebels and forces your work to conform to a hidden truth.
To be naked indicates freedom from conventional mundane thought. When clothed in a suit or dress, you conform to societies expectations and become what they wish you to become. Your style of dress and hairstyle are a reflection, not of your own desires, but of what your peers wish you to be.
Equality between class and gender is assured when naked, as the rich no longer have jewels to show their class worth, and Women must face men as equals, both showing their inadequacies and realizing that the other sex is just as physically imperfect as you are. With this barrier down, men and women can accept each other as equals.
Once naked, you are free to place your mind into a sphere of magickal thought. A place between the worlds where the God and Goddess are not symbols hanging on a wall but REAL DIVINITIES, where all is possible.
It is necessary to be clothed at times; in public or when outdoors in winter it may be necessary to be clothed to allow the mind to concentrate on the goal and not to be thinking that the body is slowly freezing to death.
When this is necessary to wear a robe, it should be one that interferes with magik and mind as little as possible. It is best to wear a plain robe that is exactly the same as all others. To make a personal robe will introduce ego and class or sexual differences into the rite.
There are some uses to wearing robes. The simple act of putting on a robe that is reserved only for Ritual use causes the inner mind to awaken and to develop the attitude that "Now the mundane world is behind me, it is time for the magickal world to appear." This can be very effective to your working and will counter some of the physical drawbacks of wearing robes. If all are wearing identical robes, the attitude of equality within, 'the group' is enhanced, for there is nothing different between the people or sexes.
The robe must also be of a natural material such as cotton or wool since synthetics cause a great deal of interference with the power. A simple list of materials which will interfere with magickal power when worn from the least to the greatest effect is as follows: cotton, wool, conductive metals from silver, gold, copper, iron, synthetic materials such as nylon, or rayon, and Silk though a natural material is a strong magickal insulator.
In today’s world, you will find Witches who work Skyclad, robed, in costumes and even in their street clothes. Street clothes however; bring into the Circle all the influences that have become attached to those clothes over the day. These influences will affect your workings as well as your mind because the subconscious will see no difference between the mundane and the magickal, and as we spend most of our time in the mundane world, it is easy to see which will win.


"Nudity establishes a closeness and honesty among conveners and 'is a sign that a witches loyalty is to the truth before any ideology or any comforting illusions.” Starhawk.

MY EARS! I'm going to hell because of you, she devil! GAH! I practiced celibacy and was home schooled to avoid any auditory temptations but now I'm ruined. Raped. Ear RAPED. Fucked in the ears.

And now I have no choice but to become the beast I always feared. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK ME JESUS

Souls! Feed me souls! BLlaefoiugrbsrgbsgrubs -- and now I transform into my final form to destroy the sanctity of life and shatter the world. Laying siege to all holy lands! Nothing is sacred, all life is to be extinguished, and suffering will be endless. ENDLESS!!!!!

Millions, billions, trillions, untold time passes; dimensions crossed, the very meaning of ALL unraveled and laid forth, meaningless. Meaningless! All conflict, all freedoms, all philosophy is now folly; unnecessary as a multiuniversal nihilism cascades across the boundaries of consciousness. The godheads destroyed, their corpses rotting the core beyond ALL.

Blackness.

Void.

Nirvana crumbles and the enlightened turned against the balance. Yahweh screams in horror, corrupted and turned into a tentacle demon to rape its devoted followers. Ra's phallus goes limp. Baal is ground into an all beef hamburger patty. Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Surya and Ganesha warp into a single form, becoming the Eye of Saron. The reptilians of earth devolve into alligators, and the greys become monkeys.

There is no shelter because there is only horror. For all eternity, in all realities.

Sorry, that's just my interpretation of the reporter's reaction.

Your video, Russian Method Of Extinguishing A House Fire., has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 45 Badge!

Back in shop class, when I was about, oh, 12, we were doing some metalworks that involved heating things up with a propane torch. Now some kids noticed a thin metal rod will heat up to a glow quite quickly and looks kinda neat if you wave it around fast. The teacher being at his desk at the time (he was a bit of a dick, to be honest), we spent a good while waving glowing hot metal bits around the propane tank.

The valve on the tank must have been faulty, because suddenly the top of the tank was on flames. You wouldn't believe how fast a room full of 12-year-olds evacuates itself when an explosion seems imminent. Some kids went out the door, others went out the window (we were in a basement with a window right at ground level) and some simply hid behind a sturdy desk far away from the flaming tank.

Our teacher wasn't quite disinterested enough not to notice the ruckus and went in to extinguish the fire. First he tried to stamp the flames out with his shoe, managing mainly to re-arrange the patterning of his soles, and then got a fire-extinguishing glove which did the job.

As I said, this teacher was something of an asshole, seeming to get his kicks from berating and belittling the kids he was teaching, but this time what followed was a very sober and concise lesson on fire safety. Everyone was left with the feeling we'd all gotten very lucky, and there was this worldess concensus that it'd really be best for all concerned if no-one said a word about what had happened, ever.

How about the moron with the fire extinguisher that was doing about as much harm to the victim as the attacker?

It's very hard to accidentally kill someone with a fire extinguisher. But I'm sure someone is going to go into an elementary school and massacre children with one very soon.

Amazing the lengths people will go to to protect their toys.

Do you have a fire extinguisher in your house? Or do you rely solely upon the fire department?

From Wikipedia
Diesel engine runaway is a rare condition affecting diesel engines, where the engine goes out of control, consuming its own lubrication oil and running at higher and higher RPM until it overspeeds to a point where it destroys itself either due to mechanical failure or engine seizure through lack of lubrication. For instance, a 1800 rpm engine can run to 4000 or 5000 rpm or beyond.
Several ways to stop a runaway diesel engine are to block off the air intake, either physically using a cover or plug, or alternatively by directing a CO2 fire extinguisher into the air intake to smother the engine.[

Your video, How They Extinguish Boat Fires In New Zealand., has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^PlayhousePals:

wtf ... Why the hell are people laughing?


Delayed reaction to potentially catastrophic situation and her relative calm. Her bun was thick enough to protect her scalp and looks like a groomsman was johnny-on-the-spot off-camera to extinguish the fun!!

>> ^Jinx:

Its not just the cute fluffy mammals which are crucial to ecossytems and possible hold the keys to further discovery. I don't feel sorry for the spider, I have no empathy towards it at all but we still have a responsibility to at least study it and its habitat BEFORE we build a road over it and possible extinguish any chance of discovery for good. The road can wait a little longer when concerning an organism that took millions of years to evolve.
Who knows, one day when we're building things out of spider silk you might be glad we took the time to study this rare arachnid


Precisely. Let's not assume that a species is useless only a few seconds after realizing that it existed at all. Moreover, one should not make assumptions when one has zero biological background whatsoever.

You don't know what it eats. You don't know what eats it. You don't know its importance to its ecosystem. It could be a keystone species, an indicator species, an endemic species, or one of a hundred other important parts of a complex network of organisms. Do your research and then make conclusions. Not the other way around.

Its not just the cute fluffy mammals which are crucial to ecossytems and possible hold the keys to further discovery. I don't feel sorry for the spider, I have no empathy towards it at all but we still have a responsibility to at least study it and its habitat BEFORE we build a road over it and possible extinguish any chance of discovery for good. The road can wait a little longer when concerning an organism that took millions of years to evolve.

Who knows, one day when we're building things out of spider silk you might be glad we took the time to study this rare arachnid

Back in school, we had an art project that used burned match sticks, so we had to burn 'em. Strike, extinguish. Strike, extinguish. That sure seemed inefficient, so I got the bright idea to just take a handful of matches--as many as I could hold--and strike them all at once.

I was right about one thing: it was more efficient.

In reply to this comment by radx:
I've never seen Altairs scoop up water in formation, simply amazing. *promote

Thank you so much for the promote!

Do all the haters here not understand the Olympics is not about idolatry it's not about making money it's not even about the sports. It's about the ENTIRE world coming together every 2 years and regardless of our differences, regardless of the petty wars we have started, and regardless of our prejudice. That for the span of time during the games we as a planet engage in a single combined cooperative effort to have fair competition in the spirit of peace and goodwill and not to bicker, fight, and kill each until it ends. The Olympics even got Hitler to stop fighting during the Berlin games. ANY symbolic event that can stop an entire world war is something we should cherish and uphold till the end of time. And if supporting and believing in a symbol of PEACE like the Olympic Flame is idolatry than mark me a pagan and God have mercy on the soul of any moron who would extinguish one of the few true symbols of peace this world as a whole still holds dear. I for one hope they take that moron to the Hague and charge him with treason against the world. I mean really people how can you seriously hate the Olympics unless you hate peace. Are you all war mongers?!