A Busy Witch

Juniper — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:49:47 +0000

I’ve been a very busy witch! Mostly work related stuff, getting used to the new routine.

I am going in a million different directions with writing and bringing back the podcast. I’d like to hear from you, dear readers/listeners: what I should focus on more. For the blog, for No Unsacred Place and for the podcast. So, ask me a question (I might answer it) or give me a suggestion. Shameless begging for encouragement and redirection, I know.

If you’ve emailed me or are waiting to hear back from me for some reason, I’m sorry. I am really terrible at never getting back to people. I’ll try to get caught up!

Cheers

To Answer Some Questions

Juniper — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:08:11 +0000

What are you up to?

Getting ready for Yuletide; I found tree ornaments that look like fly amanita mushrooms! Writing, working, unpacking, playing Skyrim.

Is the podcast going to keep going?

Yes. Bren put up an episode recently and we hope to get back into the swing of things with the new year.

I am interested in casting objects and divination as spirit communication. Can you recommend some books?

I recommend that you look for books on the divination and spirit communication systems that appeal to you.

My main sources of inspiration were the FUTHARK and the Ogham. There are people who cast personal sets. I come across them from time to time, usually online. Not always though. I lead a workshop on it for Fest one year and a lady showed up with her casting cloth based on Hoodoo concepts.

I’m really rusty in some areas, tarot seems so long ago. I moved on from tarot (because it just wasn’t a good fit) in my early twenties, so about 7 or 8 years ago? I am amazed at what I have forgotten. It’s weird. Or not, since I never really clicked with it. It’s silly but somehow all the imagery, connections and correspondences didn’t make sense coming from a beautifully painted card.

I look at a sea shell and I see much more *shrug* Maybe it because the sea shell is much more tactile?

Any how, here a couple of books:

Wyrdwalkers: Techniques of Northern-Tradition Shamanism by Raven Kaldera

Taking Up the Runes: A Complete Guide to Using Runes In Spells, Rituals, Divination, And Magic by Diana L. Paxson

The Way of the Oracle: Recovering the Practices of the Past to Find Answers for Today by Diana L Paxson

Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism by Jenny Blain

Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic Edred Thorsson

I would also suggest you get a book or two on the Ogham and possibly other divination methods that interest you. You might want to have a look at some of the books listed in the answer below as well.

What books should I read?

As well as the books listed to answer the previous question? Mostly it would depend on what you have read before. Plus some books on whatever particular subjects are interest to you. And probably a bunch of stuff that I forgot to mention.

In no particular order:

Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations from the Gaelic by Alexander Carmichael

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans Wentz

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade, Willard R. Trask and Wendy Doniger

Galdrabok: An Icelandic Grimoire by Stephen E. Flowers

Understanding the Galdrabok by Greg Crowfoot

The White Goddess by Robert Graves

The Sea Priestess & The Goat Foot God by Dion Fortune

Trance-Portation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World by Diana L Paxson

Shamanism: A Reader by Graham Harvey

The Book of English Magic by Philip Carr-Gomm and Richard Heygate

Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul by Ross Heaven, Howard G. Charing and Pablo Amaringo

Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic by Emma Wilby

The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy by Ronald Hutton

Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination by Ronald Hutton

Herbs of the Northern Shaman: A Guide to Mind-Altering Plants of the Northern Hemisphere by Steve Andrews

Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants by Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Christian Rätsch and Wolf-Dieter Storl Ph.D.

The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates

To Fly By Night: Craft of the Hedgewitch edited by Veronica Cummer

The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition by Evan John Jones, Robert Cochrane and Michael Howard

The Myth of Eternal Return by Mircea Eliade

Hoodoo, Herb and Root Magic by Cat Yronwode

The Well And The Tree World And Time In Early Germanic Culture By Paul C Bauschatz

Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath by Carlo Ginzburg

Singing With Blackbirds: The Survival of Primal Celtic Shamanism in Later Folk-Traditions by Stuart A. Harris Logan

Do you own a lot of books? I mean a lot? How do you read all of them?

Yes and no. I have a large portion of my books in storage out west still, as books are heavy and hard to move. If everything was together (especially me fiction, which at this point I think Mom has absorbed into her own collection, sigh) my book collection would be large-ish but by no means massive.

No, I have not read every book from cover to cover. Many to most of my books are reference books, like encyclopaedias. You might skim and browse to know where to find what, but you don’t generally read the whole thing in one sitting.

I’m sure there would be some that I read only partway and put down. This is why you own books, so that you can take you time. I own that book; I can take as long to read it as I please.

Having or reading a lot of books doesn’t mean much. Maybe I barely understand what I’m reading. Maybe I’m human and can’t possibly know everything in a book with one reading *grin*

What’s going on with the prayer shawl, we haven’t heard about it in a while?

It keeps growing. I want it to be fairly large and long and deep hooded. So, it’s going to take a while to crochet. I try not to work on it just randomly but primarily during meditation or prayer etc.

A major part of my spirituality is devotional practice and a major part of my craft is spirit work. A big part of both is ecstasy. Therefore, I spend a lot of time holding vigil. Crochet is something I can do with my hand whilst I hold vigil.

Update on the Updates

Juniper — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:29:11 +0000

Full backups have been made of everything. We are ready to start the upgrading. Which mostly will occur in the middle of the night as I don’t sleep. Related posts: ADMIN NOTICE: Major Updates!! Updates Related posts:

ADMIN NOTICE: Major Updates!!

Juniper — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:01:26 +0000

Hi guys, just giving you a heads up that the Hedge will be undergoing major updating starting July 11 and it might take a week to get it all sorted. We are going from Joomla (the program) 1.5.x to Joomla 1.6.x in anticipation of switching to Joomla 1.7.x sometime later. We will also do some upgrading of the forum, user access, themes and so forth.

If there are any features you’d like to see for the site (better profile or PM-ing), now is the time to make suggestions. I can’t make any promises though.

The forum program has switched from freeware to $80 US a year! So we may be switching to a new forum platform, but don’t worry, we won’t lose any content.

Updating has Begun

Juniper — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 05:24:08 +0000

Updating the whole Hedge has begun (it’ll take a while). I stared with the blog, since WordPress is pretty straightforward. Related posts: ADMIN NOTICE: Major Updates!! Updates Related posts:

Updates

Juniper — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:09:30 +0000