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MAKING A LIST OF WHAT YOU WANT

Posted by Kate

Outlining Your Intentions The universe is aware of both the concrete goals we actively pursue and the nebulous dreams we have not yet begun to refine. Neither our struggles nor the daydreams that inspire us are beyond the range of universal perception. Yet to manifest our aspirations, we not only need to know what it is we generally wish to achieve; we also need to clearly articulate these aims to ourselves and the universe. When we create a list of what we want, citing each item in as much detail as possible, our aspirations take on new substance. What was once a mere wish becomes real and achievable when put into words. As you pour the contents of your heart and soul into your list, your well-defined ambitions become a part of you, and the universe responds to your new determination by placing opportunities related to your objectives in your path. Whatever the nature of your desires, your list can help you channel your intellectual and emotional power into your efforts to realize them. The list you create should not simply be a record of your individual goals. Rather, it should be a comprehensive, exhaustive catalog of each target you want to reach and your reasons for aiming for them. This may mean that your list will encompass many pages of text, since when you write down and review your ambitions, you empower yourself to more accurately direct your goal-realization efforts. You then also have a framework in place that helps you distinguish success from setbacks. If you keep your list in a convenient spot and review it daily, you will inadvertently reaffirm your conviction to your aspirations, demonstrating to the universe that you are truly devoted to your chosen path while keeping your objectives fresh in your mind. If you have an altar, this would be a great place to keep your list. As you compose your list, try not to edit or judge what you have written. Some of what you want may seem outlandish when considered in the context of your current circumstances. Whether you are destined to fulfill the items on the unique long-term agenda you create in a year, 10 years, or 20 years, if you are free with your ideas and understand that you may not bring these dreams into the realm of reality for some time, your list will attract the universe's benevolence even as it energizes and inspires you.

BACK IN THE DRIVERS SEAT Posted by Kate

The Passenger Its easy to go through this fast-paced world feeling as if you are being dragged through your weeks on the back of a wild horse. Many of us go from one thing to another until we end up back at home in the evening with just enough time to wind down and go to sleep, waking up the next morning to begin the wild ride once more. While this can be exhilarating for certain periods of time, a life lived entirely in this fashion can be exhausting, and more important, it places us in the passengers seat when really we are the ones who should be driving. When we get caught up in our packed schedule and our many obligations, weeks can go by without us doing one spontaneous thing or taking time to look at the bigger picture of our lives. Without these breaks, we run the risk of going through our precious days on a runaway train. Taking time to view the bigger picture, asking ourselves if we are happy with the course we are on and making adjustments, puts us back in the drivers seat where we belong. When we take responsibility for charting our own course in life, we may well go in an entirely different direction from the one laid out for us by society and familial expectations. This can be uncomfortable in the short term, but in the long term it is much worse to imagine living this precious life without ever taking the wheel and navigating our own course. Of course, time spent examining the big picture could lead us to see that we are happy with the road we are on, but we would like more time with family or more free time to do whatever we want at the moment. Even if we want more extreme changes, the way to begin is to get off the road for long enough to catch our breath and remember who we are and what we truly want. Once we do that, we can take the wheel with confidence, driving the speed we want to go in the direction that is right for us.

DIFFICULT TIMES Posted by Kate

Growing Pains It can be very challenging to maintain a positive attitude and a measure of faith when you are in the midst of difficult times. This is partly because we tend to think that if the universe loves us we will experience that love in the form of positive circumstances. However, we are like children, and the universe is our wise mother who knows what our souls need to thrive better than we do. Just as a young child does not benefit from getting everything she wants, we also benefit from times of constriction and difficulty to help us grow and learn. If we keep this in mind, and continue to trust that we are loved even when things are hard, it helps us bear the difficult time with grace. This period of time in history is full of difficulty for a lot of human beings, and you may feel less alone knowing you are not being singled out. There are extreme energy changes pulsing through the universe at every level and, of course, we are all part of the growing process and the growing pains. It helps if we remember that life is one phase after another and that this difficult time will inevitably give way to something new and different. When we feel overwhelmed we can comfort ourselves with the wise saying: This too shall pass. At the same time, if you truly feel that nothing is going right for you, its never a bad idea to examine your life and see if there are some changes you can make to alleviate some of the difficulty. Gently and compassionately exploring the areas giving you the most trouble may reveal things you are holding onto and need to release: unprocessed emotions, unresolved transitions, or negative ways of looking at yourself or reality. As you take responsibility for the things you can change, you can more easily surrender to the things you cant, remembering all the while that this phase will, without doubt, give way to another.

A Cleansing Ritual Posted by Whispr

A Cleansing Ritual 1 tbls bicarbonate soda 5 drops essential oil juice of 1 lemon 1 tsp good oil, such as sweet almond cup sea salt Stir the soda, essential oil, lemon juice and oil together and then blend in the salt. Dissolve in the bath water. Light 4 candles (colors of your choice) and place at the 4 corners of the tub. Step slowly into the bath water, feeling it envelope around you. Close your eyes. Visualize yourself laying on the surface of the ocean. There is nothing around you, you are alone and at peace. Feel the warmth of the sun beating down on you. Say either out loud or quietly to yourself: Be Comforted, All is well Now you are blessed. You have life to nurture and nurture you. Be calm. Be easy. Be Comforted. You are blessed. Cleansing Ritual Overview This ritual is a self cleansing ritual. It was designed to cleans the body, mind & spirit of residual negativity after being involved in magickal battles (specifically, exorcism).

Components & Tools A tub to draw a bath. A white candle Essential Oil of Myrrh Essential Oil of Frankincense Sea Salt (fine, bath salts) Preparations Place the white candle so that it's light can shine upon you when you are in the tub. Mix 9 drops Myrrh and 3 drops Frankincense into 1/8 cup sea salt. Be certain that you will not be disturbed for at least 20 minutes, preferably an hour. Shut off the phone ringers, etc. Ritual Invoke your sacred space. (using what means is appropriate for your practice) Light the candle. Recite the following: Spirits of Fire do I call upon thee. Send thy divine fire and burn through the darkness. Shed thy light upon me and clear the shadows of my soul. Draw a bath of hot water. (the warmest you can comfortably get into) Recite the following: Oh spirits of water do I call upon thee. Enter this sacred space and lend me thy cleansing powers. From the waters we come and to water we return. As the tub fills (about half way), sprinkle the salt into the waters. Recite the following:

Oh spirits of earth do I call upon thee. Ground and disperse all that is not of light. Mix with me and cleans me of the weight of darkness. Once fill, settle into the tub. Relax and feel the light and warmth. Breath in the vapors of the oils and recite the following:

Oh spirits of ear do I call upon thee. Thou art my breath and my life. Let me breath in thy light and release the smoke of darkness. Breath and feel the energy about and within you. Feel the light of fire burning away that which clings to you. Let the water's warmth wash through you, and lift away the darkness. Feel the salt cling to the darkness and ground it for you. Feel your lungs fill with light and carry out the fog of darkness as you exhale. Remain in the bath till you feel that all the darkness that will release has left you. Stand, or kneel, and pull the plug from the tub. As the water drains, recite the following: As we come from the waters so shall we return. Oh earth and water, take from here the darkness. Disperse it and ground it. Let it weigh upon me no more. Dry off. Put out the candle. Thank the divine and the spirits & open your sacred space

The experience and the child within

Posted by Cynthia G

The experience and the child within Being denied us our truth by those out there who force us to live their lie... How many lifetimes does it take to learn that wisdom is that which blows through quantum realities on the cosmic winds that blow in and out of our time and space continuum? To communicate on the same level as a child, one must first be able to think and feel like a child. Who would be better qualified to know this child more inside and out than the one who embraced this child within her own womb for the first nine months of it's life? I am a child of the Universe, in a place that does not know time and space. I don't truly know if anyone presently living in this finite realty really knows all of the answers, I much doubt it, or at least not in the conscious memory. Although there is a good possibly that to a greater degree much more of our memory is stored in our subconscious mind, I do not believe that the physical mind is capable of containing all of the data within the Oneness of al that is, but we as one may come to know the oneness of all that is. There are those who I would have to admit are truly more advanced in the awareness of their subconscious minds eye then others, This inner knowing is called **wisdom**, The experiencer becomes the experience and the Oneness of all as the experiencers of the manifestation or creation of the spheres within spheres or the (quantum realities, or dimensions ad infinitum). And how far along are we on this journey of awareness? Do we as spirit beings truly choose to loop back to a certain point along this time space continuum to be reborn into this time in this reality once more or could that be for as many times that a soul has or may have experienced life in how many realities since the Big Bang, where hence forth we are assigned to undertake another mission through the vessel of reincarnation? How many lifetime memories does a soul contain?

We all experience our own varying personal levels of hell and heaven as we go through life in this reality. It is a learning and growing cycle that refines us to the best us we can be as we learn from the school of life. It is those who will not learn from their turbulent,and contrarian existence who will end up getting caught in the repetitive loop of their own making to endure the same turbulent cycle again. It is of our own choice that we do so. From how science sees it, as it is said that for every action you get an equal and opposite reaction. This Karmic loop is, I believe to be, that whatever one puts out to universe will returned to them in equal portion. If we can manifest our own hell, why not our own heaven? Now, about these sensitivities: some say they are a curse while others call them a blessing or a gift. Why such a dichotomy? As it is said, any vision is all in the eyes of the beholder. And so it is with the experience of living. Thus it it is in the mind and heart of the experiencer, the empathy let us say. We know that as we think negative thoughts, so will we get negative results to our thoughts in return. You cannot expect to continue doing the same errors over and over again and expect a different result. But this process works the opposite as well where positive thoughts can also equally bring positive results, or positive results from meticulous constructive planning and administration. As we continue along out journey we learn much more about the mystery of our inner selves and our own potentials. We find many qualities within that we had no idea were ever there before. We can again begin to see through the eyes of a young child who sees everything as possible. Those same eyes can see with a limitless ability to bring healing and wisdom to an ailing world. Cynthia

The Rhythm Of Magic Posted by Harobed

Hello my Lovelies . Im back again after being out of touch while creating.This time I delved into the world of sacred instruments. I came back with a lot more knowledge and a profound respect for their makers It seems that we with all our technology have lost most of the ancient science of magic, but if there remains any magic that all of us can easily use it's music. Witches have always known what quatum physics is now comfirming.That everything in the material world is made up of vibration. Our world is resonant ,all objects have frequencies that can be detected as sound-waves.

Music of any kind has a magical power, a power that can be accessed by any of us. All of us instinctually realize that spiritual energy can be derived from the trance like state that can be induced by music. Today Im discussing rattles. From our infancy rattles cause our bodies and minds both to respond to them. Rattles are used throughout the world to help keep rhythm during tribal dances and ceremonies.They are often accompaniment to Native American ceremonies. The rhythm they invoke with the rattle and drum during dance is unforgettable. It resonates to the very soul, and changes a simple dance into a spiritual experience. Native Americans hold that the rattle is an instrument of independence . In their beliefs it should contain elements of the three kingdoms or nations. The animal kingdom is represented by the container or feather .In my case I used a turtle shell a friend gave me.

The mineral kingdom is represented by pebbles used for sound or hand ground pigments in their painted decorations.I filled mine with chips of tiger eye, jasper ,rose quartz , regular quartz and jingle bells .When shaken she makes a lovely jingley rattley sound She's also adorned with jade ,unikite ,tiger eye ,buffalo tooth ,oyster shells and vertebrae. The plant kingdom is represented by the container if a gourd is used or the wooden handle of the rattle.

My buddy Shelly took it to a Pow Wow recently and it was really well recieved .It was played with ,fondled and taken into the dance circle by several. This one I believe has found a home with one of them and Im thrilled.When the Grandmother of the tribe asked and who of us made this ,she was told a white Irish Witch ..... her reply was well with work like this she wasnt always white! High praise from a Grandmother !!!!

History of the TOAD... the Toads' relationship to History... in Wytchcraft~and to the Wytch...

Posted by Ye old Village Wytch

History of the TOAD...and the Toads' relationship to History ... in Wytchcraft~and to the Wytch... This is something not commonly known nor a part of many discussions while enjoying a good cup of coffee or a glass of wine with friends... I know many will glance at this : and think ~ "Ummm"? then say ..."What"? The Toad...holds an undeniable true place in History... As well as...in its' relationship with both the lore and facts surrounding wytchcraft and the Wytch... Toads throughout history have been linked with "the darker side" of human experience...such as: *One of the first cultures that associated the Toad "with the forces of darkness" came from Zoroaster:600 BC...a decree was issued forth~to kill all the toads. [[Zoroastrians in Iran are the oldest of local religions with a long history continuing up to the present day...According to Iran's 2012 census results:there were 28,271 Zoroastrians in present day Iran]] *In China~the Toad represented:Yin principle...and they saw the 3 legged Toad as being a symbol of the Moon... *In Alchemy~the Black Toad represents the first matter.....By uniting with the Eagle it transformed into the "winged toad"... *During the Middle Ages : superstitions surrounding the Toad linked the creature to the Christian : Devil [Satan]~whose coat of arms : featured 3 toads...

It was also believed that~the Toads were capable of poisoning folks and inhabiting them with the Wytchs' familiar [[a familiar spirit is a supernatural being that helps and supports a wytch]] In some parts of Europe "small toad statuettes" were left at holy sites by women seeking aid in fetility... In Dorsetshire[England]~folklore started stated that:"the greatest care should be taken when removing a Toad from a dwelling or cellar:so it would suffer no injury"~so as not to anger nor to incur the wrath of:a Witch... *Basque[Spain]tradition held that Wytches were marked with the symbol of a Toads foot... *In the Pyreness[a range of mountains in southwest Europe~that forms a natural border between France and Spain] was held in folklore:that the image of a Toad could be found in a Wytchs' left eye... *The Scottish folklore it held that~"whomever carried a dried toads' tongue over their breast would be successful in love... *Cunning-men used toads to cure such sicknesses as:the Kings evil or scofula [a turburculous swelling of the lymph glands] and rheumatism and other aliments... In some instances the toad would be cut in areas comparable to the areas of sickness in people[the rest of the toad was buried]and the toad part[s]were wrapped in parchment that the ill folk would wear around their neck until well again... *The "Cambridgeshire Toadmen"[they were ordinary men 'with the gift' of:controlling horses] there is historical evidence that shows that the services of "the Toadmen"were used on many a farm around Cambridgeshire to help with breeding and other farming matters. It is believed that they drew their "powers" from their esoteric knowledge of herbs and their use of rituals guarded their knowledge secrets.

Toads throughout history have been viewed as a creature who has been able to spend its' life in the water and on land...

Used in rituals to pay penance for guilt of others in spell workings~or to bring on penance to others for their deeds... Even seen as a omen of pending death... Held through the ages as a creature who holds the mysteries of:what is seen as feminine~and calls the rains to the crops... And for centuries: Wytches were associated with toads and incorporated them into their ways they could use them in magickal spells and in their other wytch workings... As do many Wytches "to this very 21st. century and most modern day society" ! So now you see my Friends:that there is indeed a true~"History of the TOAD"...and of the Toad's relationship to History... in Wytchcraft ... "and to the Wytch" )O(

The Real Irish-American Story Not Taught in Schools

Posted by Willowroot

The Real Irish-American Story Not Taught in Schools by Bill Bigelow To support the famine relief effort, British tax policy required landlords to pay the local taxes of their poorest tenant farmers, leading many landlords to forcibly evict struggling farmers and destroy their cottages in order to save money. (Sketch: The Irish Famine: Interior of a Peasants Hut) Wear green on St. Patricks Day or get pinched. That pretty much sums up the Irish-American curriculum that I learned when I was in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing. Sadly, todays high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, despite the fact that it was responsible for unimaginable suffering and the deaths of more than a million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in U.S. history. Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and present. Yet there is no shortage of material that can bring these dramatic events to life in the classroom. In my own high school social studies classes, I begin with Sinead OConnors haunting rendition of Skibbereen, which includes the verse: Oh its well I do remember, that bleak December day, The landlord and the sheriff came, to drive Us all away They set my roof on fire, with their cursed English spleen And thats another reason why I left old Skibbereen.

By contrast, Holt McDougals U.S. history textbook The Americans, devotes a flat two sentences to The Great Potato Famine. Prentice Halls America: Pathways to the Present fails to offer a single quote from the time. The text calls the famine a horrible disaster, as if it were a natural calamity like an earthquake. And in an awful single paragraph, Houghton Mifflins The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People blames the ravages of famine simply on a blight, and the only contemporaneous quote comes, inappropriately, from a landlord, who describes the surviving tenants as famished and ghastly skeletons. Uniformly, social studies textbooks fail to allow the Irish to speak for themselves, to narrate their own horror. These timid slivers of knowledge not only deprive students of rich lessons in Irish-American history, they exemplify much of what is wrong with todays curricular reliance on corporate-produced textbooks. First, does anyone really think that students will remember anything from the books dull and lifeless paragraphs? Todays textbooks contain no stories of actual people. We meet no one, learn nothing of anyones life, encounter no injustice, no resistance. This is a curriculum bound for boredom. As someone who spent almost 30 years teaching high school social studies, I can testify that students will be unlikely to seek to learn more about events so emptied of drama, emotion, and humanity. Nor do these texts raise any critical questions for students to consider. For example, its important for students to learn that the crop failure in Ireland affected only the potatoduring the worst famine years, other food production was robust. Michael Pollan notes in The Botany of Desire, Irelands was surely the biggest experiment in monoculture ever attempted and surely the most convincing proof of its folly. But if only this one variety of potato, the Lumper, failed, and other crops thrived, why did people starve? Thomas Gallagher points out in Paddys Lament, that during the first winter of famine, 1846-47, as perhaps 400,000 Irish peasants starved, landlords exported 17 million pounds sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultryfood that could have prevented those deaths. Throughout the famine, as Gallagher notes, there was an abundance of food produced in Ireland, yet the landlords exported it to markets abroad. The school curriculum could and should ask students to reflect on the contradiction of starvation amidst plenty, on the ethics of food exports amidst famine. And it should ask why these patterns persist into our own time.

More than a century and a half after the Great Famine, we live with similar, perhaps even more glaring contradictions. Raj Patel opens his book, Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the Worlds Food System: Today, when we produce more food than ever before, more than one in ten people on Earth are hungry. The hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical first: that they are outnumbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight. Patels book sets out to account for the rot at the core of the modern food system. This is a curricular journey that our students should also be on reflecting on patterns of poverty, power, and inequality that stretch from 19th century Ireland to 21st century Africa, India, Appalachia, and Oakland; that explore what happens when food and land are regarded purely as commodities in a global system of profit. But todays corporate textbook-producers are no more interested in feeding student curiosity about this inequality than were British landlords interested in feeding Irish peasants. Take Pearson, the global publishing giant. At its website, the corporation announces (redundantly) that we measure our progress against three key measures: earnings, cash and return on invested capital. The Pearson empire had 2011 worldwide sales of more than $9 billionthats nine thousand million dollars, as I might tell my students. Multinationals like Pearson have no interest in promoting critical thinking about an economic system whose profit-first premises they embrace with gusto.

As mentioned, there is no absence of teaching materials on the Irish famine that can touch head and heart. In a role play, Hunger on Trial, that I wrote and taught to my own students in Portland, Oregonincluded at the Zinn Education Project website students investigate who or what was responsible for the famine. The British landlords, who demanded rent from the starving poor and exported other food crops? The British government, which allowed these food exports and offered scant aid to Irish peasants? The Anglican Church, which failed to denounce selfish landlords or to act on behalf of the poor? A system of distribution, which sacrificed Irish peasants to the logic of colonialism and the capitalist market? These are rich and troubling ethical questions. They are exactly the kind of issues that fire students to life and allow them to see that history is not simply a chronology of dead facts stretching through time. So go ahead: Have a Guinness, wear a bit of green, and put on the Chieftains. But lets honor the Irish with our curiosity. Lets make sure that our schools show some respect, by studying the social forces that starved and uprooted over a million Irishand that are starving and uprooting people today.

CELTIC FOLKLORE- Playing in the Trees with Faeries

Posted by Willowroot

Courtesy of June McEwan Playing in Woods with Fairies Birch Birch, the 'White Lady of the Woods', is associated with the Mother Goddess, new beginnings, renewal, opportunity and purification. In spring, birch brooms were used to cleanse houses. Birching was the use of the birch rod to drive evil-spirits from law-breakers, and traditionally people would 'beat the bounds' of land, showing younger generations where the boundaries were while setting up protection. Birch has been favoured for Yule logs and for the Maypole around which dancers weave at Beltane, connecting birch to fertility, as well as being burned in Beltane fires. Birch can also protect from kidnapping by the fairy folk (or sidhe), making it a fine wood for cradles. Hazel The hazel tree is often used for dowsing for water and - being very flexible - for making baskets and other containers, as well as being popular for walking-sticks. Hazel staffs signifying authority were common, along with protective and ceremonial shields. Hazel is also very popular for wands and for divination. Like the oak, hazel is associated with wisdom, and Celtic tradition holds that the Salmon of Knowledge ate nine nuts from a sacred hazel - hazel nuts holding knowledge of all arts and sciences. It is also said that two hazel trees growing close together (especially by water) form a gateway to the Otherworld, or fairy kingdom. In the wood where I was working, two hazel trees formed an arch or portal into a tree-ringed area 'guarded' by a moss-covered 'head' stone. There, the ground was darker and covered in clover. We improvised the guardians story, imagining he had been someone bent on an understandable revenge, but then unable to continue in life after he had achieved it. The land engulfed him, and now only his head is visible as he guards the grove where his love was killed.

Oak The oak is associated with midsummer and was one of the druidic sacred trees; its druid name means oak wisdom. There is some sign that the word 'druid' may be derived from words meaning the 'Wise Ones of the Oakwood'. Oak is also associated with boldness and strength, including the strength of endurance, with light'ning-struck oaks, continuing to survive, being considered particularly sacred. Oak nuts symbolize patience, potential and the way mighty deeds can be achieved from small beginnings: "great oaks from little acorns grow". As the King of the Forest, the oak's roots spread to match the size of its branches, relating to the magical / philosophical adage as above, so below. The branches, in traditional accounts, have been roosting places for oracular birds, and oaks have also provided shelter and safety for heroes in many tales: famous oaks include that of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest and the Boscobel Oak said to have aided Charles II in his escape from Cromwells men. An old song says "hearts of oak are our ships, hearts of oak are our men". Rowan The rowan, the 'Lady of the Mountain', is a deeply protective tree and often used for warding purposes against magical attack and enchantments. Supposedly its flowers, berries (which bear the sign of the pentagram) and wood protect against the wiles of elf-folk, yet some say Scottish fairies celebrate within stone circles protected by rowan trees. Maybe it all depends on just what 'wiles' they are pursuing! The rowan's red berries may be why it is also linked to flame and fire, and some say they inspired the red in Scottish tartans. The distinctive berries were still on this split rowan, so it looked as though the damage was very recent. With the rowan's connection to protection - it is often planted by churches - this tree was fine stimulation for my imagination: what caused this damage, and did the rowan sacrifice itself in order to protect some person or thing?

Only later did I read that ancient bards considered the rowan 'The Tree of Bards', bringing the gift of inspiration. Beech There was a magnificent tree house within the wood I played in, built around the trunk of a large beech without damaging it. Beech roots are quite serpentine, and the tree is often associated with snakes, which in the Celtic tradition are creatures of wisdom and rebirth.

The area we were working in belongs to a writer and this tree house seems so very apt: it is said that beech was used to create the first book. The very words 'beech' and 'book' are connected linguistically, as is still apparent in some languages today: in German, 'beech' is buche and 'book' is buch, and in Swedish bok means both 'beech' and 'book'. The French tradition of stuffing mattresses with beech leaves leads to the lovely phrase lits de parlement - speaking beds. Together with the association to writing, where the beech connects with the transmission of lore, this 'speaking' quality shone through for me on the day. I was surrounded by the canopy of a smaller beech tree when a breeze (surprisingly rare that day) rustled through the leaves: it seemed they were messengers and the canopy rose slightly in one direction as if showing me my way / revealing something to me. The beech is connected to revelations of the unknown, and can signify endings and, therefore, the start of something new. In this way, the beech relates to the birch, for new beginnings, and to the hazel tree for going beyond a threshold. Like the rowan, beech has protective aspects, and is often used for talismans, and it is also known as Queen of the Woods, complement to the oak. Celtic Tree Mysteries: Practical Druid Magic & Divination Celtic Tree Mysteries: Practical Druid Magic & Divination Further Exploration There are, of course, other trees with rich Celtic lore - as well as more information available for the ones I have mentioned. The above is really a brief introduction, based on a particular magical wood. If you are interested in knowing more about Celtic tree folklore, you may wish to look up the work of Caitlin and John Matthews and that of Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm

FAERY MOON MAGICK Posted by Willowroot

How to Summon a Fairy - Moon Magic Take care! You can also run around a fairy ring nine times on the first night of the New Moon, and keep listening for the sounds of music and laughter coming up from underground. If all else fails, you can use this powerful summoning but please be very careful. Fairies are not always pleased to be rudely invoked in this way and, if you live in a densely populated area, neighbors are not too keen on the process either. You need a night of the full moon, go out on the stroke of midnight, face east and chant as loudly as you can ... Come in the stillness, Come in the night, Come soon, And bring delight. Beckoning, beckoning, Left hand and right, Come now, Ah, come to-night! Don't forget to let me know if you strike it lucky

Many have asked me...what are you?~what is a Hedge Wytch?

Posted by Ye old Village Wytch

Many have asked me...what are you?~what is a Hedge Wytch?

"Hedge Wytch":comes from the Saxon word "haegtessa"...old English~"haegtesse"...roughly this translates to "hedge-rider" and can also be translated as "hag...witch and fury". From this we have the modern English word Hedge Wytch. Hedgewytchery:or Hedgecraft~"is a combination of Wytchcraft and Shamanism". Hedge Wytches utilize shamanic techniques...working with Spirit Guides and communicating with the spirits "in our Journeying" between the worlds... The hedge is not just a physical boundary~but is also a metaphor:for the line drawn between this world and the next~between reality and dreamscape.It represents the threshold between the worlds... The Hedge...is what many Pagans refer to~"as the Veil"...

Many modern day Hedge Wytches tend to compare themselves to and strive to carry on~in the old traditions of the ancient concept of the village: "Wise woman...Cunning man"[of the cunning folk]...the Seer and Spirit worker...Midwives and Healers..."and as in the past"~are those of great knowledge of the natural world around them...[[I now personally would have to say]] we are those who gather many of our own working and our practical materials from things foraged from Nature around where we live...and~we are of what is in line with also: Traditional Wytchcraft practices... Both Hedge Wytches will often turn things you would never even image into our tools~including also many 'mundane' items around their house....Our tools could be bones.. feathers...needles... rocks... rope etc. etc. etc. If a Hedge wytch can find a way to work it into their craft:they certainly will. A Hedge Wytch is someone who not only makes use of the many 'natural things' in their practice of magick:but also for medicinal purposes~as well as for cooking [[such as I do]]~such as many types of herbs...flowers...spices...the use of crystals and stones etc.etc.etc. of Nature's things found in "the hedge"...from our simple nettle tea to treatments for ailments :) Hedge-groves:have an abundance of wildlife...trees...wild fruits...nuts...flowers...herbs...stones etc. etc. and are common spaces where anyone could forage in times past [[as I and others do to this very modern day]]. There is "no religion involved" in the practice itself... Whereas Wicca is a deeply spiritual path [and is recognized by the Govt.as a religion~which also now allows our USA fallen Troops who have served our Nation and given their lives~the right to have the Pentacle Star on their headstones]and those of Wiccan path they live by their laws stated in their Rede... I respect that~and respect all my Sisters/Brothers (wytches) who practice the Wiccan path...my own Daughter is Wiccan and of a Coven...

As a practicing Hedge Wytch I do not follow Rede of wicca...for I am not wiccan...

As a Hedge Wytch:I do "take full responsibility for all of my actions":and Hedge Wytches do have our own set of morals and ethics in our daily living as well as our practices~that we adhere to and I...also personally~adhere to that old saying of~"A Wytch who can not Hex~Can not heal"... For magick upon 'my own personal' path~is of no color~neither white...nor black nor gray....it is the "energies"that surround us all~for it is the intent of the practitioner that matters in all things of magick... But~there are always individual Hedge Wytches [or Trad's. of our modern times] that may indeed incorporate the Gods/Goddesses:"as they so wish"~ into their own practices "of their personal" path for their own 'personal reasons'...or not...[[depending on what they find on the other side]] and what they chose to do as they so wish it to be..."it is indeed up to the individual"... And Yes~I do have:personally~"a few certain:"formal rituals~that I do~at times"...when I feel the need or the call to do them. I strive to keep the balance of light and dark in my personal practices..."For in all things~there can not be one~without the other"[both the magickal and the mundane]My path encompasses so many things~"which I practice freely..."as I so will it to be". The~Cottage-wytch...Hearth-wytch...Green-wytch or Kitchen-wytch works mostly and in her home and garden...A Hedge Wytch will practice often within the home as well...but [as I do]we "will also assist" when she/he "feels the true call~of Folks of the area who need our help"...and the Hedge Wytch will likely spend much more of [her/his] time in [her/his] in their gathering "of needed things" in the outdoors...and practicing [her/his] craft in rural or the wild places~much more so than the majority of other wytches.... It is said that a Hedge Wytch has what is commonly known upon this Path as~"the Cunning Fire". A few authors of Hedgewytchery are: *Eric De Vries....*Peter Paddon [[on the Cunning Folk]] ...*H.Saille...*Rae Beth...*Arin Murphy-Hiscock...

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