Imbolg 2010
(Click View with PicLens for slideshow effect, the other one doesn’t work. Or click on image for single viewing)
Lady L came early and we did a quick run through of the ritual while I put the scalloped potatoes in the oven. Then we set about rearranging my living room, Lady L prepared Brighid’s throne while I put dirt in the pot to stand my stang in and then we tackled the altar. The gang showed up and after the usual preliminaries we got to work.
We went in procession around my home, placing offerings at each shrine and altar, giving a beer and new adornment to the house guardian as well.
We planted the stang, the World Tree. We called on Earth, Sea and Sky to anchor us. We raised a hedgerow around us. We parted the Veil, creating a Gap in the Hedge, above and below and asked someone special to watch and guard.
We lit the Hearth Fire, thanking it for its warmth and light in the cold winter. We honoured the Well, now frozen and full of ice and snow, but waiting the melting of spring. We sat together and… Continue reading
It’s Not Done Yet
Hedge Witchery
Hedge is a Teutonic term originally meaning any fence, boundary or enclosure, later meaning a specific type of living thicket planted to act as a fence, enclosure or boundary.
Old High German (language used roughly from 500 to 1050 C.E): hegga, hecka
Old Dutch (600 to 1150 C.E.): heggehn
Old Saxon or Old Low German (800 to 1200 C.E) : haeg
Anglo-Saxon or Old English (550 C.E to 1250C.E): hecg, hegge, haga, hecge or hege
Middle English (11th century and about 1470 C.E): hedge, hegge, hedgen, heggen
Suffolk dialect (at least 1300 C.E. to present day): hetch
Modern English (1550 C.E to modern day): hedge
Middle English hagathorn meaning “hedge thorn” becomes the modern hawthorn
Old Teutonic stem haja- meaning “behind the hedge” gives rise to the Old English haja, Middle English heye, haye and thus the English hay. Behind the hedge lays the hay field.
The old words for hedge also gave rise to the words hawk (hedge-bird), haggard, edge and hag (witch).
Old English for hedgerow is heggeræw.
Saxon haegtessa and the Old English haegtesse, roughly translates to hedge-rider, hag-rider, witch and witch-fury.
In a 13th century Icelandic text called the Poetic Edda,… Continue reading
The Square Peg
I have often thought that
If only I had been born into a tribal society
I would have been given a costume and drum
A place and role in society
And happily spent my life as a shaman serving my community
Instead I am stuck working retail
Moving through Western society as awkwardly
As a square peg jammed into a round hole
And practicing my spirituality behind closed doors
To Fly By Night
Hoofprints in the Wildwood
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