The Ramblings and Wanderings

Archive for June, 2009

Water, water, not everywhere
How many cups of tea do you drink in a day?
How many times do you wash your hands?
How much is every drop worth to you
When you have to carry it on your back?

I have no running water in my home
I lug it up a mountainside
A ¾ km walk
Most of it up hill, of course

Water, water in my sled
Dragging through blinding snow
How much do you weigh, oh jug?
How much mass is this?
Yes, oh yes you can melt snow
For the toilet and the dogs
But thanks to all our pollution
I would rather haul the water for drinking

Wrapped in many layers
Some I crocheted myself
Wool and cotton wrappings
And leather boots in the freezing
Dragging food and water up the mountain

And then we come to Summer’s heat
When water is much more needed
Once I crest the steepest part of my journey
I come to the long flat spot
Open, with no trees
Open to the Wind
Exposed to the Summer Sun
Beating upon the mountain

I feel the thirst in mouth and throat
I stop for just a moment
I pause and I listen
To that tiny voice within

I slip out of my Earthshoes and leave them in the dirt
I place the jug high upon my head
Steady now, balance it … Ready … go
Walk upon a stony dirt road at Summer’s peak
Balance oh so carefully your precious drink
Ah, yes this why they carry it this way
My arms tired and sore
A-resting now are they
Though I must say
This is much harder on my back and neck

I walk along as stones dig in
And a jug of water upon my head
Gently sways and slightly sloshes
I think of my sisters in other parts of the world
Carrying their own burdens
How many woman today, and yesterday and last millennium
Carried water from their well, or whatever
And with sheer grit and determination
Did they each day make the trek,
For themselves and their loved ones?

Water, water, not everywhere
How many cups of tea do you drink in a day?
How many times do you wash your hands?
How much is every drop worth to you
When you have to carry it on your back?

Juniper,  Summer 2009

I have just as much issue with thoughtless Pagans who blindly follow whatever they are told or read, who run off into the bush to do some spell or ritual without properly understanding the whys and wherefores and meaning behind them, as I do with armchair Pagans who only read, think and theorise but never get off their ass and DO something.

Because both, in my not-so-humble opinion, are missing out on half the equation.

If you practice and pray and ritualise lots without understanding the theory behind what you are doing, you don’t know shit.

And if you theorise and philosophise endlessly without actually practicing, you also don’t know shit.

There is a balance that must be achieved. And yes, so long as there is a balance, you can lean more one-way than the other (I’m more of a practice girl myself)

The Pagans and Witches who run off and, just as an example, go out into the woods and cover themselves with flying ointment hoping to get that deep spiritual experience without doing their research, without understanding the whys and the wherefores, will almost always at some point learn the hard way. (Yes, I am speaking from experience here)

But those armchair pagans, what happens to them? Other than their ass growing fat that is. Do they ever learn the hard way? Maybe so, when they one day find themselves with nothing but ideas, can you be spiritually fulfilled by just ideas? I dunno, but I don’t think so. Not really, deep down.

Now don’t get me wrong, both camps have something to offer. The thinkers give us the material we work with after all, and the practitioners give the thinkers somebody to actually try out their theories and research. You can’t have one without the other.

It’s all about balance.

I’d like to see more armchair pagans come out and play in the woods, and I’d like to see more practitioners sitting in the library. I’d also like to see more actual cooperation, dialogue, discussion and sharing between the two camps. Folks who are in the middle make great bridges as well.

Imagine how fully and maturely Paganism and Witchcraft would grow then … beautiful isn’t it?

“If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.”
~ Rachel Carson

What the Heck is a Hedgewitch Anyways?

Hedgewitchery, or Hedgecraft, is a kind of combination of Witchcraft and Shamanism. This Path is based on the Traditional Witchcraft and Cunning Folk traditions of Europe from ancient to modern times. It is an something of an “eclectic” tradition, but just how much so depends on each individual practitioner.

The shamanic aspect being the most important, in fact to call oneself a Hedgewitch is to call oneself a shaman, with out having to steal a word from another culture (should you be a white-skin not from Siberia like me). With herbalism, healing, and a deep love for, and understanding of Nature added to the mix.

Hedgecraft is loosely based on the old wise women (and men), cunning folk, herbalists, faith healers and actual witches throughout history.
If you think “Hedgewitch” and picture the strange old lady who sold herbs and magickal charms, acted as midwife and healer in the ancient times, you are not far off. Nor are you far off if you picture the wise sage who would cast bones to divine the future or journey in the Otherworld to heal members of his community.

Throughout history “medicine man” or “wise woman” type traditions have risen and fallen all over the world. These kinds of traditions never truly died out, and in recent years, more and more modern people in the Western world are turning to them and adapting them to modern times. Modern Hedgecraft is the study, adaptation and practice of these ancient nature-based, spiritual and healing traditions in our modern lives.

Most Hedgewitches look to their own heritage to find inspiration, lore and knowledge. Hedgewitches can come from any background, but the majority of Hedgewitches seem to come from a European ancestry. Meaning that most Hedgewitches will practice based on the folklore and traditions of the ancient Celts, Vikings, Roman, Greeks and such.
While most study the traditions of their own ancestry, some may be drawn to the traditions of other cultures. Or they may seek to learn from other cultures to gain a better understanding of their own heritage, as well as a greater respect for others.
Hedgewitches are not opposed to the study of modern tradition as well, for they strive to bridge the gap between old and new. To blend old traditions with a modern lifestyle in a workable and practical manner is a hallmark of Hedgecraft.

The word “hedgewitch” is, as far as we can tell, a fairly modern term. Though its true origin may never be known, it likely comes from Great Britain and may have started to be used in its English form only within the last 100 to 50 years. It is, as far as we can tell a “modern Anglo-Saxon” word.
“Hedgewitch” most likely comes from the Saxon word haegtessa, which translates to “hedge-rider”. The Old Norse lay Havamal refers to “hedge-riders, witching aloft”.
Although Hedgewitch is a modern word, that does not make it illegitimate, just a modern word, for a word does not have to be old to be legitimate. English is still a young language; it is changing and growing all the time. Our ancestors had their own names, in their own languages, for such traditions. Hedgewitch is for our culture, in our language.

The basic modern definition of Hedgewitch would be comparable to another ancient culture’s definition of wisewoman, cunning man, medicine man, shaman, herb or faith healer etc.
There is a fair bit of variation in spelling, such as “hedgewytch”. A few other names often used for this Craft: Hedge-Rider, Night Travelers, Myrk-Riders, Gandreidh (wand-rider), Cunning Folk, and Walkers on the Wind.

For the Hedgewitch, “the Hedge” is a metaphor for the line drawn between this world and the next; between reality and dream, between the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds. In short, the Hedge is what many Pagans refer to as the Veil.
It is also simply the boundary between civilization and the wild.

This concept of a boundary hedge in a spiritual and magickal sense is from the European (especially British) tradition of hedgelaying. Going back even to the Iron Age, the European landscape has been crisscrossed by hedgerows. Hedgerows are carefully grown and landscaped intricate layers of plant-life. These often-large rows of shrub, bush and tree were boundaries for farmsteads, pastures, villages, ditches and such. Often times, at the very edge of a human settlement was a sturdy hedgerow keeping the wilderness and wildlife out of field, pasture and garden.
Crossing a hedge often meant crossing a boundary of some sort, such as walking into the wild, going from wheat field to cow pasture, or entering another person’s property. A hedgerow is not just a boundary but is also a protective home and shelter to all kinds of wildlife, such as rabbits and birds, as well as providing shade and acting as a windbreak. Hedgerows were also very important in keeping the herds in and the predators out, as well as marking the territorial boundaries of human settlements. Often berry and fruit bearing trees and shrubs are grown in hedgerows, making them a source of edible and healing plants for both animal and human alike.
The more one learns of the tradition of laying hedgerows and the tradition of Hedgecraft, the more the use of “hedge” for this Craft becomes clearly appropriate.

Throughout history and in many cultures the “Hedgewitch” (wisewoman, cunning man, shaman etc) lived at the edge of the community, often amongst the outlying hedgerows. They scratched out a living through herbalism, understanding nature, prophecy and divination as well as magick and healing. They served the community in many ways including but not only; midwifery, healing, protection spells, house blessings, crop and livestock blessings, through the selling of magickal charms and even curses.
A “Hedgewitch” might sell one member of her community a small curse or ill-wish one day, and then charge its victim a fee to break the curse the next. Therefore, people who followed such traditions were respected, and likely a little feared, because of these abilities, and because they had such a close relationship with nature and the spiritual world.

In modern times, a Hedgewitch is usually (but not always) found outside the city, perhaps on an acreage or farm, often practicing by her self or within the family. They work much as the Cunning Folk of old, helping neighbours, friends and family with ailments, shamanic healing and even blessing the odd field. Hedgewitches will work a lot in cultivated fields, gardens and farmsteads, but often prefers time spent in the woods and other wild areas.

A Cottage/Hearthwitch, Greenwitch or Kitchenwitch works mostly in her garden and in her home. Hedgewitch will practice largely in the home as well, but will likely spend more of her time gathering her herbs and practicing her craft in rural or wild places than many other Witches. A Cottage/Hearthwitch, Greenwitch or Kitchenwitch may use some trance or shamanic techniques in her practise, but has probably not have received the call from her spirits to Shamanize. A Hedgewitch has “fire in the head” also commonly known in this Path as the Cunning Fire.

Although many of the traditions that a Hedgewitch draws from have changed, after all lore is lost and knowledge changes over the centuries, you will find most Hedgewitches prefer to practice as close to traditionally as possible but still in a manner practical for these modern times. Hedgewitches are very adaptable. You may find a Hedgewitch casting an old-fashioned prosperity or fertility spell on a modern tractor as a favour to a neighbour, for example.

Hedgewitches use herbs and herbal concoctions known as flying ointments, as well as shamanic techniques such as drumming and meditation, to induce altered states of consciousness. They work with familiar spirits, their ancestral dead, plant and animal Totems and the like, to assist in their Otherworld work.

Hedgewitches often refer to shamanic journeys as “Walking the Hedge”, “Riding the Hedge”, “Oot and Aboot” or “Crossing/Jumping the Hedge”. They also have a tendency to spend much of their lives with one foot on either side of the Hedge, which makes them eccentric to say the least.
A Hedgewitch walks freely into caol ait (Gaelic), the “thin places” between one world and another. More experienced Hedgewitches learn not only to find such places, but how to use them effectively and how to open them even when the Hedge, or Veil, is at its thickest between the high days.

Spirituality in Hedgewitches varies and depends on the individual; usually they look to their own heritage and ancestry. The only tradition Hedgewitches typically follow is a reverence for Nature, though some may come from a more formal Pagan path originally.
Some Hedgewitches will also practice a form of Traditional Witchcraft, such as those based on the work of Robert Cochrane, while more and more Wiccans are also taking up the work of a Hedgewitch.   Hedgewitches commonly do practice some form of Paganism, but many make no claim to any practice but that of Hedgecraft or Hedgeriding.

The main distinction between Hedgewitchery and other forms of Witchcraft is that Hedgewitches often have less interest in the religious/ceremonial aspects of coven or group Witchcraft, having an individual and often unique way of relating to life, spirituality, magick and Creation.
A Hedgewitch is less likely to perform scripted magickal workings, preferring the freedom and joyfulness of spontaneous workings that come from the heart. For the Hedgewitch there is no separation between normal life and their magickal one, for their normal life is magickal.
They avoid complicated, ceremonial, scripted and formulated ritual, practicing an earthy and simple form of ritual and magick. Some Hedgewitches do not cast Circles in a Wiccan sense, and may either have other methods to mark sacred space, or not bother at all. Hedgewitches believe that all space is sacred.
Hedgewitches do what ever comes natural to them; they follow their instincts, and their heart.

They do not typically follow one particular moral code, but rather their own personal ethics and often some version of the credo to “do only what is needed” and/or “Know Thyself”.

Hedgewitches walk the Crooked Path, the Path that winds and twists its way between the right-hand and left-hand Paths. Hedgewitches walk all borders, and prefer the grey areas, having little interest in all black, or all white, magick or spiritual workings.

Most use few synthetic objects in their spells and rituals. Their tools are typically very practical, such as a walking stick, often they will use a stang, or even pruning shears, and their tools are hand made by them as much as possible. Most Hedgewitches use only what is needed, meaning they do not clutter an altar (if they should use an altar at all) with items that will not be actively used during a working or rite.

Hedgewitches usually study herbalism, wildcrafting and wortcunning with gusto, as well as seeking knowledge and understanding of the ways of Nature. Such as the cycle of the seasons and the wildlife and plant-life in their area.
Hedgewitches may know how to grow herbs in a garden, but are more likely to study where and how they grow in the wild and how to gather them. They usually have a great deal of lore on trees and plant life, animals and the wilderness in general.
Healing, divination, the use of trance inducing herbs and all manner of fertility and shamanic rites are also a part of this Path.

Hedgewitches tailor their Path to suit themselves, some may focus on herbalism, others study midwifery, some may practice something like reiki, they may focus on animal husbandry, and others may be well versed in healing with crystals. Many Hedgewitches may choose to be a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

While Hedgewitchery is typically a solitary path, this is not always so. Even the most hermit-like Hedgewitch can still be found at the odd local Pagan event. While others may even belong to a Coven, Kindred or Grove.
Hedgewitches are unlikely to become involved with Witch Wars within the community, and depending on the individual’s personality are more likely to prefer maintaining friendly relations with the majority of the Pagan community. Some may have friends or domestic partners who follow another Pagan or Heathen path, and they will often happily join in any ritual or activity if invited.
Also, some of their practices, especially the shamanic ones, require a trusted friend or group to watch over their body while their soul is elsewhere.
While most Hedgewitches may just be plain old rebels and rabble-rousers, this is after all, an Outsider Path.

The daily spiritual practice of a Hedgewitch will be adapted to her individual abilities, interests and life style. One Hedgewitch may start his mornings offering up prayers of thanksgiving to his gods as he collects eggs from the chicken coop. Another Hedgewitch may spend her mornings in quiet meditation on her patio; sipping tea and watching the deer graze in her lawn. A third Hedgewitch may say a quick prayer at the household shrine before racing off to work. The forth Hedgewitch spends his day fasting and preparing for a rite and a trip across the hedge that night.

So what the heck IS a Hedgewitch anyways?

Some people may prefer rural and/or wild settings and be a little wild themselves. They may be looking for a tradition that is adaptable and practical, one that combines “old school” Witchcraft and a modern life, a tradition that adds a focus on European-based Shamanism and the practical application of folklore to the mix.
They may be looking for a tradition that leans heavily on natural magic, understanding the Land and the practice of healing lore. They may want a tradition that focuses on personal experience, experimentation and doing-it-yourself. They may wish to blaze their own Path, like the Cunning Folk of old. They may have that Cunning Fire burning in their head, heart and soul.

They may just be ‘Hedgewitches’.

This started as a response to an emailed question from a friend, but I think it will make a good blog post.

 

Crash is a 9 year old blue heeler and she is my familiar, in the fact that she is often involved in my rituals and such (and much more). Though her main job is to protect me. I can head on out to the woods, wrap myself up in a blanket and go ‘oot and aboot and she will lay down beside me, with all the protectiveness and patience of a herding breed. Anyone tries to come near me in that state and she is all hackles raised, teeth bared, barking her head off “back off buddy!” and “wake up mommy!”

After some 9 years of it, we are well practiced, and once Crash is comfortable with someone I can invite them to join us in ritual. Its something to see, she howls or barks along when such things like “So mote it be!” are shouted, she pads along beside me as I Plow the Furrow or Raise the Hedge (sorta like Circle casting but not so Wicca-Ceremonial-ish) she watches offerings be placed and knows not to eat them, she waits eagerly for her piece and drink during the Housle (ritual meal), she stares intently at my Stang as we plant the World Tree and part the Veil etc etc

When I attend group rituals I don’t bring her along because she takes a while to warm up to people and then gives off nervous energy, but I do feel naked without her.

When we beat the bounds, I trust her to find the best and easiest path through the bush (trails, who follows trails? Boring!) and is always alert for animals, people and such. She has lead me to water more than once, and pointed the right way home as well.

This dog trusts me completely, and there is no dog more loyal, in my humble and biased opinion. She would literally run herself to death beside me if I let her. If I didn’t feed her, she would starve by my side rather than go off in search of food.

She has licked my wounds clean, when we were in the bush and there was nothing else to clean them with. She has supported my weight as I stumble down a wooded slope with a sprained ankle or broken foot.

When we visit someone’s house and they expect me to put her outside, she find the sliding glass door or window where she can spot me and sits there and waits, she does not go off and do doggy things. If she cannot see me, then she will sit and stare at the door I went into, for hours. If I tie her up outside a store she will kill herself trying to get free of the leash and get to me.

People see the way she looks at me and follows me and say “remind me to never make a sudden move in your direction”

Once (some 6-ish years ago), when my relationship with Jay was reaching its end, he had a severe diabetic episode and he went crazy. I walked through the door, coming home from work, and Jay screaming at the top of his lungs, he rushed me.

As I tried to open the door and back out, all while hollering at Jay, Crash leapt out of nowhere (the other two dogs were cowering behind the couch) and put herself between me and Jay, she snarled and barked at him. He didn’t stop but kicked her in the ribs, sending her flying to my feet. She hit hard and I screamed “Oh gods!” but Jay was still coming at us, angrier than ever, hollering that he was going to “kill that fucking dog”.

I grabbed my 50 pound dog by her scruff and backed out the door with her, dragging her as she whined in pain. I got the door shut just as Jay hit it, and like those knights in movies holding a door being battered, I fell back from the force of him hitting it. Even though the door opened inwards and did not open into me, the vibration, the impact was enough to knock me over.

I scrabbled to my feet “Crash, get up Crash, we gotta go” she almost screamed as she heaved herself to her feet, me pulling her up as well.

Counting on the fact that a diabetic in that state will struggle with things like doorknobs, I ran back to the truck, pulling Crash to her feet, she limped along beside me as fast as she could, crying in pain.
Crash couldn’t jump in with broken ribs, so I heaved her up as fast as I could, sobbing and apologizing because I didn’t have the time to worry about hurting her in the process.

My hands were steady as I put the keys in the ignition and backed out the drive, thanks to a hard life and tough childhood, I can think and act FAST in these situations.

Jay got out the door and fell down the deck stairs trying to reach us as I turned the truck around and sped off.

En route to the veterinary hospital, I called the local fire department and had them come out to take care of Jay. Then I called his Mom and told her to go get her son and keep him at her house for a few days.
That was the beginning of the end of our relationship.

As we drove down the bumpy country road to town, I looked over at my girl, her head in my lap, her eyes full of pain and I said “Thank you”

That’s a familiar, not this stupid bullshit where dumb little witches think their cat is their familiar because it jumped on the altar once.

I really need everyone to understand that if I don’t get back to them or am not around as much its because I have some serious shit to deal with, like finding a home for a whole freaking farm and move said farm in under 2 weeks!

Oh, and with very little money too… and no help from anyone.

The next person who gets pissy with me because I’m not emailing or phoning or IM-ing as much, after I have explained my situation to them, is going to get a smack down.
GRRRRRR!

The more we get together,
Together, together

The more we get together,
The happier we’ll be

When your friends are my friends
Then my friends are your friends

The more we get together
The happier we’ll be

~ Traditional Children’s Song

And in case you missed it, because I’ve been blogging lots … Pagan Values: Catch Phrases

(PS I am still searching for a home, will keep you posted folks. Thanks for thinking of me!)