The Ramblings and Wanderings

Archive for November, 2008

Where Have All the Happy Witches Gone?

Author: Autumn Heartsong

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ustn&c=words&id=12979

 

 What a wonderful article, good point!
I am no newbie (something in between Neophyte and Elder I suppose) either but when I attend group rituals and say things with emotion, show any emotion really, do more than just stand there shifting from foot to foot, people think I’m either crazy, fluffy or new.
*sigh*
People, magick, and ritual works better if you actualy do it and say it like you mean it. You should freaking mean it if your going to do it. You’re there in the presence of your gods, ancestors etc and you are half heartedly muttering lines you are reading from a script written by someone else?!
You don’t have to dance or sing if you’re not comfortable with that, but people: move, emote, toss that freaking script out the window and follow your heart. Pour yourself into it.
ITS NOT ABOUT BEING COOL

For Parents:

http://www.paganparenting.com/

http://oakdancer.com/

http://barbooch.homestead.com/sitemap.html

For Kids:

http://www.sacredspiralkids.com/story/index.html

http://www.dilsworth.com/serenity/pagankids.html

http://crystalforest3.homestead.com/sabbat.html

http://www.spiralgoddess.com/Kids.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/celts/

More colouring books:

http://www.magictails.com/cbook.html

http://www.coloring.ws/fantasy.htm

http://crystalforest1.homestead.com/coloringpages.html

http://www.junemoon.com/free.html

http://wheeloftheyear.org/downloads/Downloads.html

(inspired by a topic on the forum)

Concerning three things that hide: an open bag hides nothing, an open door hides little, an open person hides something.

Three things by nature cause their possessor to err: youth, prosperity, and ignorance.

There are three things which move together as quickly the one as the other: lightning , thought , and the help of the Mighty Ones.

Three things not loved without each one it’s companion: day without night, idleness without hunger, and wisdom without reverence.

There are three whose full reward can never be given to them: parents, a good teacher, and the Mighty Ones.

Three slender things that best support the world: the slender stream of milk from the cows dug into the pail; the slender blade of green corn upon the ground; the slender thread over the hand of a skilled woman.

Three things by which excellence is established: Taking all things in moderation with nothing in excess; abidance to oaths; and acceptance of responsibility.

Three things which strengthen a person to stand against the whole world: Seeing the quality and beauty of truth; seeing beneath the cloak of falsehood; and seeing to what ends truth and falsehood come.

Three things it is everyone’s duty to do: listen humbly, answer discreetly, and judge kindly.

Three manifestations of excellence : the honoring of parents, the respecting of the aged, and instructing the young; and to this a fourth, defending of infancy and innocence.

Three reasons for supplicating to the Mighty Ones: because it is a pleasure to you, that you may be a friend of those who are wise, and because your soul is immortal.

Three candles that illume every darkness: truth, nature, and knowledge.

Three companions on the high road to Union with the Void: a patient poor person, a reflective wise person, and a tolerant reformer.

Three who are loved by the Mighty Ones: the strong just person, the brave merciful person, the person generous without regret.

There are three things which the happy will gain: prosperity, honor, and the ease of conscience.
Three things which the humble will gain: plenty, happiness , and the love of their neighbors.
Three things which the sincere will gain: favor, respect, and prosperity.
Three things which the patient will gain: love, tranquility, and succor .
Three things which the merciful will gain: favor, love, and the protection of the Mighty Ones.
Three things which the upright will gain: worldly sufficiency, peace of conscience, and unending happiness.
Three things which the industrious will gain: precedence , wealth , and praise from the Wise.
Three things which the law-abiding will gain: health, success, and honor.
Three things which the careful will gain: respect, plenty, and content.
Three things which the generous of heart will gain: joy from their profit, felicity in giving, and a better life to come.
Three things which the early riser will gain: health, wealth, and happiness.

There are three things which mislead the world: the promises of masters, the garments of priests, and the seemliness of a daughter.

Three things which do not profit the world by anything they do, whatever their fame for wisdom, art, and piety: a grasping miser, an arrogant poet, and a kept priest.

Three ways to know a person: by their discourse, their conduct, and their companions.

Three measuring-rods of every person: their dreams, their fears, and their unconcern.

Three hatreds which last for ever: between a mate and their step-children, between dogs and swine, and between Cymry and Saxon.

Three diversions which will surely bring trouble: hunting, war, and dallying with one who is younger.

Three occasions for one to speak falsehood without excuse: to save the life of one who is innocent, to keep the peace among neighbors, and to preserve the Wise and their crafts.

hag
c.1225, shortening of O.E. hægtesse “witch, fury” (on assumption that -tesse was a suffix), from P.Gmc. *hagatusjon-, of unknown origin. Similar shortening derived Du. heks, Ger. Hexe “witch” from cognate M.Du. haghetisse, O.H.G. hagzusa. First element is probably cognate with O.E. haga “enclosure” (see hedge). O.N. had tunriða and O.H.G. zunritha, both lit. “hedge-rider,” used of witches and ghosts. Or second element may be connected with Norw. tysja “fairy, crippled woman,” Gaul. dusius “demon,” Lith. dvasia “spirit,” from PIE *dhewes- “to fly about, smoke, be scattered, vanish.” One of the magic words for which there is no male form, suggesting its original meaning was close to “diviner, soothsayer,” which were always female in northern European paganism, and hægtesse seem at one time to have meant “woman of prophetic and oracular powers” (Ælfric uses it to render the Gk. “pythoness,” the source of the Delphic oracle), a figure greatly feared and respected. Later, the word was used of village wise women. Haga is also the haw- in hawthorn, which is a central plant in northern European pagan religion. There may be several layers of folk-etymology here. If the hægtesse was once a powerful supernatural woman (in Norse it is an alternate word for Norns, the three weird sisters, the equivalent of the Fates), it may have originally carried the hawthorn sense. Later, when the pagan magic was reduced to local scatterings, it might have had the sense of “hedge-rider,” or “she who straddles the hedge,” because the hedge was the boundary between the “civilized” world of the village and the wild world beyond. The hægtesse would have a foot in each reality. Even later, when it meant the local healer and root collector, living in the open and moving from village to village, it may have had the mildly pejorative sense of hedge- in M.E. (hedge-priest, etc.), suggesting an itinerant sleeping under bushes, perhaps. The same word could have contained all three senses before being reduced to its modern one.

*
hedge
O.E. hecg, originally any fence, living or artificial, from W.Gmc. *khagja (cf. M.Du. hegge, O.H.G. hegga, Ger. Hecke “hedge”), from PIE. *khagh- “to encompass, enclose” (cf. L. caulae “a sheepfold, enclosure,” Gaul. caio “circumvallation,” Welsh cae “fence, hedge”). Related to O.E. haga “enclosure, hedge” (see haw). Prefixed to any word, it “notes something mean, vile, of the lowest class” [Johnson], from contemptuous attributive sense of “plying one’s trade under a hedge” (hedge-priest, hedge-lawyer, hedge-wench, etc.), a usage attested from c.1530. The verb sense of “dodge, evade” is first recorded 1598; that of “insure oneself against loss,” as in a bet, is from 1672. Hedgehog is c.1450 (replacing O.E. igl), the second element an allusion to its pig-like snout. Hedgerow is O.E. heggeræw.

hex
1830, from Pennsylvania Ger. hexe “to practice witchcraft,” from Ger. hexen “to hex,” related to Hexe “witch,” from M.H.G. hecse, hexse, from O.H.G. hagazussa (see hag). Noun meaning “magic spell” is first recorded 1909.

hawthorn
O.E. hagaþorn, earlier hæguþorn, from obsolete haw “hedge or encompassing fence” (see haw) + thorn (q.v.). Common Gmc., cf. M.Du., Ger. hagedorn, O.N. hagþorn.
From the online etymological dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/

Two translations of an excerpt from Odin’s Song, from the Havamal:

“A tenth I know, | what time I see
House-riders flying on high;
So can I work | that wildly they go,
Showing their true shapes,
Hence to their own homes.”
~ Henry Adams Bellows

***
“If I see the hedge-riders magically flying high,
I can make it so they go astray
Of their own skins, and of their own souls.”
~ N.Pennick

**

“The Saxon word for witch is haegtessa, which means “hedge-rider”;
the hedge being the boundary between this world and the mysterious
Otherworld which lies beyond the parameters of ‘ordinary’ reality and consciousness.”
- Nigel Jackson, Call of the Horned Piper

Encyclopedias and old dictionaries rock!

Q:
I need to ask what I hope you won’t think of as a stupid question. I have been practising magic, well not practising working with lol for many years. Recently I was introduced to the church and started to question my belief in gods et al…now I believe in magic as I have seen it work and I honour my ancestors and nature, I work alone and up until very recently with little more than a candle and good intent…a friend who is Wiccan thinks I am one to, but reading this I wonder if I am not a witch? I am the person everyone comes to for advise about everything! thank you
- Samantha

A:
Hi Samantha, this is a good question, because it is one any person who has been interested in paganism, witchcraft, the occult etc has probably asked themselves.
Am I a witch? What makes a witch?
So lets look at this.

First of all, there are no stupid questions (that’s an actual rule here at the Hedge). I’d be more concerned about a person who doesn’t question things and/or who is afraid to ask and suffers confused silence instead Better to make a fool of yourself and be enlightened than live life in dark ignorance.

I’m not sure which church you are speaking of? But people generally mean Christianity when they use the word “church” in that manner.
If you are looking for a similar word for witchcraft, the Craft, the Cunning Arts, the Old Ways, are a couple of phrases/words you could use.
If you are referring to Christianity and that you are now doubting your beliefs because of them, allow me to point something out. Christianity, and its jealous god, is bent on world domination. They honestly think that everyone should believe EXACTLY what they do. Part of their whole mode of operation is to make you doubt yourself, to confuse, and shame you and then fill your head with their garbage. Sounds a lot like how cults work doesn’t? Think about it. Really, the Christian god is just a spoiled brat who needs to learn how to play nice and share with other gods.

Anyways…

It is okay to question your beliefs, while there are some faiths that encourage ignorance, witches are supposed to questions things, seek truth, and challenge themselves and their beliefs. You are supposed to find your own personal truths, and this is supposed to be an ever evolving life-long process. You are not supposed to find the answers easily or right away.
It is okay to ask the gods if they are really there or not, its okay to ask them to become more involved in your life. So long as you are willing to do the work to make them involved in your life too. And some witches do not believe in gods at all.
Faith is belief without proof, and even witches must practice faith. Though we may be better able to connect with spirits, energies and gods, we still need to exorcise a little faith once in a while. So long as it is not blind faith.

Part of the definition of a witch is someone who honours ancestors, nature, and works with energies. But it is also a state of mind, a state of being, and to truly be a witch, you have to choose to claim that title for your own. We will get back to this in a moment.

Wicca is a religion. To be a member of a religion, you have to practise that religion. Here are a couple of good links with info on just what Wicca is.

http://wicca.timerift.net/
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/wiccaandpaganismbasics/u/WPBasics.htm
Wicca is but one of many witchcraft paths available to you. While many people nowadays start with Wicca (it is a good starting point) there is a lot more out there. Some are full-on religions like Wicca, while others are more like spiritual paths, and others are more purely magickal – a craft. How deep, how spiritual, you practise is up to you.

I am going to direct you to an article I wrote a while aback that has a series of questions you are to ask yourself and write out, so that you have a list of things to compare the different paths and crafts out there against. This will help you to find the label for your path. Yes, the label. You see, you are already on your path, your life path, your spiritual path. You were born on it, and you are always walking it, even when you are not aware of it. You just simply have not defined that path, you do not have a name for it yet. But at least you acknowledge that your feet are on a path. That’s more than a lot of people do.

http://walkingthehedge.net/blog/2008/07/finding-your-path/

No one has the right to tell you whether or not you are a witch. If they do, ignore them, its not their place or right.
Here is the general criteria for what makes a witch a witch. It is up to you to decide for yourself if you fit this or not.

Witchcraft is more than spells, though magick is an important part of it.
Witchcraft is the practice of folk magick.
Witchcraft is the practice of directing Will, manipulating forces, using magick.
Witchcraft is searching for your own magical path, connecting to and working with the powers in the land, the world and within yourself.
Witchcraft is connecting with the Otherworld.
Witchcraft is making changes by affecting the worlds with your energies, and by working with the energies in the worlds.
Witchcraft is connecting with the ancestors and seeking the knowledge they have to share with you.
Witchcraft is honouring and working with, and for, the energies and spirits of nature.
Witchcraft is connecting with your own spirits and guides and learning from them.
Witchcraft is the continuation of the practice of European native religions and cultural beliefs.
Witchcraft is what comes after being initiated, either by ancestors, spirits, or another witch.
Witchcraft will often accompany arts such as shapeshifting, hexing, conjuring, healing, blessings, charms, herbalism (wortcunning), and soul flight.
Witchcraft is based on nature and all that is within nature.
Witchcraft is walking the Hedge.
Witchcraft is a magickal craft and a spiritual practice that is also a way of life, it is a mindset that incorporates all one does, that permeates all the decisions one makes.

If you do not meet this criteria, or any found in info about witchcraft or Wicca, you need to ask yourself “Do I want to?” I suppose the next question is: Do you want to be a witch?

It is wonderful that people come to you for advise and help. We need more people like that in the world. This does not a witch make. Witches do not have to be nice, friendly, or helpful (though service to the community is a part of witchcraft). Nor even wise (especially young ones).
But it does mean you could have potential as a priestess, teacher, healer or counsellor if you chose to do the work to make that happen.

I hope this helps.

Keep asking questions.

- Juniper

I decided to change up the theme to something a little darker for the darkest part of the year. Cute isn’t it?

Now to answer a few Frequently Asked Questions….

Q: Do you have any lineage?

A: Nope. I have a Grannie who was into paranormal stuff (UFOs, Bigfoot, Astral Travel) back when it was cool in the 80s and 90 but thats as close as I come.

Q: What sort of training do you have?

A: Nothing special. Lots of solitary study, which doesn’t mean anything to anyone but me lol  I have some formal training in Alexandrian Wicca. I’m taking the Bardic grade from OBOD right now.

Q: Do you teach?

A: Not really and certainly not online.

Q: What gives you the right to call yourself “hedgewitch”?

A: what gives you the right to question me?

Q: How come you don’t have any spells posted on the Hedge?

A: There’s plenty of websites with spells and correspondences tables etc on them, why add another?

Q: Would you like to save on your long distance phone calls?

A: Why do these people always call at dinner?

Q: Any tips for a newbie?

A: Get outside, into nature. Practice, over and over. Do stuff, don’t just read about it. Listen to your gut and follow your heart. Say it like you mean it. Don’t just stand there, move! Stop reading from the script.

Cheers!