Walking the Hedge

 

From these translations we can infer that a Hedgewitch or Hedgerider is thus a person with some shamanic qualities. They can ‘ride’, as in travel through and over, the boundary of this world and into the Otherworld. They can leave the “enclosure” or “hedge” of their own body, experience soul-flight and send their spirits to wander in the night.

 

Odin brags that he can interrupt a Witch mid-flight and confuse her, even send back home and trap her within her body. No crossing the Hedge for you, bitch!

 

But how would we go about this? How would we render another Witch incapable of Flight?

 

We know that the spell Odin speaks of is “the tenth”. The tenth rune in the Elder futhark is Naudiz (also known by many spelling, including Nauthiz, Nauðr and so forth). This rune is often said to mean need, want, desire and reverse-ably distress, confinement, compulsion, deprivation.

 

Let’s a take a look at a couple of rune poems where Naudiz is mentioned:

 

Naudhr (old Norwegian)

Constraint gives scant choice;
a naked man is chilled by the frost.

 

Naud (old Icelandic)

Constraint is grief of the bond-maid
and state of oppression
and toilsome work.

 

Nyd (Anglo-Saxon)

Trouble is oppressive to the heart;
yet often it proves a source of help and salvation
to the children of men, to everyone who heeds it betimes.

 

Constraint, being left in the cold, oppression … yep, Naudiz seems to be rune for our purpose.

 

Another useful rune would be Raidô, the 5^th rune. (10^th and 5^th, how convenient) this rune is the one that speaks of riding, travel, horses and so forth.

 

Now armed with our appropriate runes, let’s get to work.

 

We start with some symbol, rune or image that symbolizes our victim. Perhaps a photograph, a piece of hair, or a rune stave of their name. This is our indicator and we place it in the centre.

 

Then we want to surround the indicator with a circle to symbolize their body. We might want to go with something like sea salt for this. Since salt water is one of the main components of the human body. Or perhaps some nice blood (got goat?), or red magic marker, or red lipstick, maybe add a few additional strands of hair or fingernail clippings or some such if have you them.

 

To add to our enclosure, we can utilize Mannaz, which is commonly used to denote a person, a man or the body.

 

Now we want to create a crossroads emanating from the enclosure we have created. Four directions are good, but six or eight might be better. We want cover all our bases.

 

Upon our crossroads, we want to place Naudiz and Raidô. For added effect, we might want to cross or scratch out Raidô, since we are trying to avoid travel.

 

Adding a nice stopping point to the end of our crossroads is also a big help. Something circular, that symbolizes being sent back they way they came.

 

Outside of all this, we can add one more enclosure. Redundancy can be your friend when working magick.

 

Placing this onto some kind of threshold can add that extra oomph. How about a window or mirror? Not only a threshold but also reflective. Very nice.

 

Now it’s time to empower our spell. I really shouldn’t need to walk you through energy raising, visualization and all that stuff. If you don’t have magick 101 down, you shouldn’t be throwing around shit like this.

 

One could try a few things like swearing, getting angry, stomping your feet, or spitting. If you can do it without breaking into a fit of giggles, you could thump your staff or stang a few times and shout “You shall not pass!”

 

Remember we’re using runes for this. They have names, and names have power.

 

You’ll want to keep this one active for some time. It’s not as if a Witch tries to jump the Hedge everyday.

 

 

But Juniper, you say, what if someone uses this against ME? Well, I have a plan for that my dear. Or rather, a challenge. Put on your thinking cap and figure out how you would go about releasing yourself from the tenth rune spell. Work it out, it’s not that difficult and there’s more than one way to skin a cat (or break a curse). Once you have it worked out, post it on your blog and then put a link to that post in the comments for this post.

 

I’ll give you a month to do it. At the end of that month (deadline is March 25) I will put the names of the participants in a hat and randomly draw one name. The winner gets a free copy of “To Fly by Night: Craft of the Hedgewitch”

 

Sound like fun? Okay … go!

 

 

The tenth Rune-spell I do know

Is to gaze deep into the murky night

And spy the Hedgewitches flying high,

Sending their spirits far and wide

I see their true forms

I can confuse their wandering souls

Then turn them ‘round and send them home

Back into their bodies, back within their own skins

Update: the winner is

http://witchingstepford.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/breaking-spells-and-kicking-arse

Yay! Email me your mailing address, please!

 

Related posts:

1. The Tenth
2. The Song of Spells
3. It’s Not Done Yet