Walking the Hedge

What’s your Path?

I am a Hedgewitch. Meaning I am a shamanic practitioner of folk magick (that’s the short explanation). My spirituality is Celtic/Anglo-Saxon Paganism. I started in Wicca like many do, but have moved further away from it more and more of time. I am not however a Wicca-basher like many non-Wiccan Witches are.

Do you have an altar?

Sometimes I use an altar and sometimes not. An altar is simply a workspace to me. I have laid out elaborate altars on tables, simple altars in dirt, and none at all. Sometimes I use my stang as a kind of portable altar, but that is not its only purpose.

A shrine?

I have shrines, many in fact. I like them. One in each room of the house, some simple and small. The main one in the living room is the largest and has the most “stuff”, it also receives the most attention. Right now I have no shrines outdoors, partly due to it being winter and partly due to being trapped in an apartment. Which I hate, I miss the country life so very much!

Do you believe in deities?

I believe in the gods as surely as believe in the air we breathe and land beneath my feet. You could call me a poly-animist (which I suppose is rather like pantheism but it just doesn’t quit fit the bill)

What form of spellwork do you do?

Whatever is needed. Folk magick, low magick, whatever you wish to call it. I am not a big fan of categories.

What tools do you use?

Many and varied. The longer I practice the simpler they become, trading in fancy crystal for plain rocks, silk ribbon for homespun thread.

Who is your favourite author when it comes to your chosen path?

Most of the books out there on Hedgewitchery are crap.

Nigel Jackson, Eric de Vries, Owen Davies, Nigel Pennick, Andrew Chumbley (to name a few) have some books that might interest.

I do enjoy some of the more Wicca-ish books sometimes, and there are a few good Kitchenwitch and Greenwitch books out there that are worth reading as well. I like Arin Murphy Hiscock.

I also enjoy books on Shamanism, nature of any sort and folk lore; I’m a big history and eytmology nerd as well.

Related posts:

1. The Course of My Studies Part One
2. The Course of My Studies Part Two
3. Horned God Devotional