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Joseph Tomanek - Ateş Dansı
“Our Wish for the End, Me” by Clayshaper
So tired of trying to find good books on different witch paths and beginner friendly stuff but it's all based in/on Wicca.
WICCA IS NOT THE BASE FOR ALL WITCHES
WE ARE NOT ALL WICCAN
WICCA =/= ALL PAGANISM
WITCHCRAFT IS NOT LIMITED TO WICCANS
Did the witch community leave tumblr too?
Where’s everybody at?
Nymphs Dancing to Pan’s Flute by Joseph Tomanek (1889-1974)
Felicem Natalem Christi by Danny Ingrassia
by Anatolych
My ko fi
HEDGE WITCHCRAFT
WHAT IS A HEDGE WITCH?
A hedge witch is a witch who utilizes the practice of hedge riding. This is a magickal practice that involves spirit work and, most notably, spirit flight (astral travel/projection). The history of spirit flight is a long one and one that is found in many cultures throughout the world. The idea of spirit flight is most notably found in folk magick practices from Europe as well as Ireland and Scotland.
The reason this particular practice is called hedge riding, hedgecraft, or hedge witchcraft is due to the symbolic nature of a hedge. A hedge, if you are unware, is generally a border between two different lands. The word hedge comes from the Old English word heċġ meaning fence. The hedge in hedge witchcraft is the border between this world and the spirit world.
The word hedge in hedge witch or hedgecraft indicates a symbolic barrier between this world and the spirit world. The hedge divides the current world from the otherworld, the mundane world from the spiritual one. The hedge is the border between the material and intangible existence.
To put it in simple words, a hedge witch is one who can cross the hedges present in the world through their practices. They are able to move through the veil and interact with the spirit world and then come back to the material world. In fact, this ability of crossing is their most important one. This is often why you will hear the phrase “riding the hedge” or “flying the hedge” which is often shown in images of witches with brooms crossing over the sky.
By riding the hedge, these witches move through the veil between the two worlds. In some practices this is done to attend a great feast with other spirits, deities, familiars, and witches. These journeys to the spirit world involve the use of gateways or doors, trance, and journeying. The reasons a witch might ride the hedge vary greatly. Some employ familiars to act as guards as they cross. Some witches ride the hedge to gain knowledge that is only accessible from the spirit world and the spirits that reside there.
What Sets the Hedge Witch Apart?
People often mistake hedge witches for green witches or kitchen witches. A green or kitchen witch is often known for working with nature, their home, and their surroundings. However, an important distinction is that for a hedge witch, spirit work and work done across the hedge is the main focus of their practice.
Consequently, the hedge witch travels to the other world for their journey and practices. In hedgecraft, the witch leaves the physical world on a spirit flight through a gateway or door into the spirit world. It is highly recommended to travel with a familiar spirit during this process to guide and protect you. By moving to the spirit world, one can seek healing, answers from spirits, protection, knowledge, and even space to rest away from the stresses of the material world. They hold the power to become healers and seers as they work with the astral world to perform their magic.
Dangers
Being a hedge witch can be intense and unpredictable. It is advised for one to be confident in their skills before attempting to practice such witchcraft. It is also heavily advised to contact a familiar spirit that can travel with you. This familiar is then responsible for keeping you safe and guiding you. Just because it is the spirit world doesn’t mean it is free of dangers. One has to have patience as they move through different parts of their learning through trial and error.
On the other hand, being open to experimenting has allowed hedge witches over decades to have their own unique practices to cross realms while staying rooted in the material world. Even more so, with time, one may come to have new favorite spirits, ancestors, or guides that they would want to work with in terms of healing and foresight. There will always be realms that will yet have to be explored!
The journey to becoming a hedge witch is to trust your abilities, your instincts, and to often push your own boundaries to see beyond the veil. The practice of seeing beyond the veil holds the knowledge between the apparent and the unseen, but also all the things in life that are more below the surface. It is embarking on the journey of understanding the layers to the world around us and accessing the knowledge present in our ancestral guides.
HEDGE WITCH PRACTICES
Psychic ability attunement
Spirit communication
Spirit work (deities, ancestors, other spirits or entities)
Astral Travel
Meditation
Herbal work (using herbs and substances for dream/astral work)
Entheogens (mind altering substances to enhance or assist hedge riding - totally optional)
Familiar work
To begin, I recommend working in your home. Invite in a house spirit, cleanse your home, and reinforce your wards weekly. You need to create a safe haven before beginning any type of spirit practice.
Spend time working with the spirits of plants and crystals in your house. If you don’t have any plants, this may be the time to pick out an easy plant to care for in your home as well as some crystals. Speak to the spirit, ask it where it would like to be placed, how much care it wants, etc.
Green witchcraft is a good foundation if you want to be a hedge witch. Do some theoretical study on the properties of different herbs and work practically with the spirits of these plants. Kitchen witchery is also fun and safe to experiment with at home.
It’s also good to infuse a bit of magic into your daily routines. Make cleansing, bathing, warding, and grounding regular activities.
Hedge witches are in-tune with the seasons. Do some research into seasonal holidays and festivals of different traditions and try various activities that correlate to nature.
For example, in the spring, I tend to clean, cleanse, prune my plants, etc. As the natural world wakes up and becomes more active, so do I. In the fall, I do a lot of introspective spirit work that can be a bit darker; I also work with the shadow self and perform rituals.
Many hedge witches like to focus on healing. If you’re interested, you may want to learn about the medicinal properties of herbs as well as the spiritual properties. Start with simple concoctions such as tea or herbs to help you sleep, relax, or ground yourself.
Once you have the basics down pat and are skilled at defensive spells, you can begin attempting to cross into the spirit world. After all, being a hedge witch is all about traveling to other realms!
However, hedge jumping can be dangerous. You intrinsically open yourself up to beings that don’t behave in the same ways as those in our physical world.
Therefore, it’s essential that you know how to protect yourself before beginning your journey as a hedge witch. You should learn how to cleanse, ward, and banish. You should also learn how to cast a circle before you start any spell work or spirit work.
Astral travel, dancing, drumming, trance meditation, sigils, and the use of entheogens are all popular methods of hedge jumping.
Once you feel properly protected, experiment with astral travel. You can find great drumming beats on YouTube to help you travel astrally. The goal is to get into a deep enough trance that you can travel to spiritual realms.
Crystals for psychic development can help you on your journey, especially if you work with the spirits of the crystals. You can also use sigils to both ground you and enhance your psychic sight.
When you’re working with spirits, I recommend that you begin with your ancestors. Most ancestral spirits are very safe and will help protect you from beings who could mean you harm.
Once you have been working with your ancestors for some time, you can branch out and begin to contact other types of ghosts or spirits such as deities, angels, demons, etc.
Work with the spirits in your area. The spirits of the trees, flowers, and water right outside your door are available and are great to contact when you’re just beginning your work as a hedge witch.
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Don’t worry about the “rules” of hedge witchcraft. Try all things and experience, but always protect yourself before beginning something new.
Remember that no two hedge witches are alike. What works for others may not work for you, and that’s totally okay.
Do some experimentation and find your own path. After all, hedge witchcraft is about being authentic and connecting with both the physical and spiritual world around you.
For more information about Hedge witchery or about any other types of witchcraft, come check out the Cobalt Athenaeum discord server!
Working With Tree Spirits
Why would I work with a tree spirit? If you believe in Animism, then everything has a spirit or soul, every blade of grass, every tree, every animal, every breath you and the earth takes contains life. Trees are as old as life itself, so why wouldn't they have spirits?
Do Trees Talk? "Since Darwin, we have generally thought of trees as striving, disconnected loners, competing for water, nutrients and sunlight, with the winners shading out the losers and sucking them dry. The timber industry in particular sees forests as wood-producing systems and battlegrounds for survival of the fittest. "There is now a substantial body of scientific evidence that refutes that idea. It shows instead that trees of the same species are communal, and will often form alliances with trees of other species. Forest trees have evolved to live in cooperative, interdependent relationships, maintained by communication and a collective intelligence similar to an insect colony. These soaring columns of living wood draw the eye upward to their outspreading crowns, but the real action is taking place underground, just a few inches below our feet. “All the trees here, and in every forest that is not too damaged, are connected to each other through underground fungal networks. Trees share water and nutrients through the networks, and also use them to communicate. They send distress signals about drought and disease, for example, or insect attacks, and other trees alter their behavior when they receive these messages.” Scientists call these mycorrhizal networks. The fine, hairlike root tips of trees join together with microscopic fungal filaments to form the basic links of the network, which appears to operate as a symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi, or perhaps an economic exchange. As a kind of fee for services, the fungi consume about 30 percent of the sugar that trees photosynthesize from sunlight. The sugar is what fuels the fungi, as they scavenge the soil for nitrogen, phosphorus and other mineral nutrients, which are then absorbed and consumed by the trees."
Okay, but how do I work with a tree spirit? One easy way is you just talk to it or spend time with the tree. Trees will talk back to you if you listen closely enough. This is much like communicating with spirits, spirit guides, ancestors, or deities. You feel their responses or hear them as a small voice in the back of your head that doesn't sound like it came from you.
It will sound corny, but hug the tree and spend time with it, ask it how it's day is going and ask it about it's life. Admire it and clean up around it if there is any plastic debris. Sit with and Lean up against the tree and let it feel your energy. Get to know it like you would any other person. Trees also love stories. I have found they particularly love heartfelt stories or adventurous ones. You may even hear their deep, low laugh at comedic points in your story or offer you advice. Trees will give the best advice if you can listen and hear them. They are incredibly wise and thoughtful.
As your relationship with the tree grows, you can ask it for help with your spellwork or energy work. If you need to bury a growth/healing/abundance spell, ask it if it will help you and then bury it at it's roots. It's root systems will take the energy to the person needing help. Root systems connect every living tree together, so messages and energy can travel quickly through their intricate root systems.
Spend time with the tree, meditate with it, and listen. They love company and, as long as you have pure intentions, they will like you too. Trees we have grown up around (like if you have a particular favorite tree in front of your childhood home) will protect us and our home from danger.
Tree Spirit Offerings Stories Songs Poetry Fresh Water Quality Time Picking up trash Feeding the birds or small animals Planting native flowers Sitting underneath it's shade and offering appreciation/gratitude Practicing eco-friendly habits Play music Lay in the grass next to the tree and enjoy your time together Learn about different types of trees and their magical properties There's tree mythology, learn about that too! (hint: Yggdrasil)
Houseplant Magical Properties
Pothos
Save stems you trim off to be used in binding or banishment spells.
Like most ivy, growth this plant around the walls or floors of your home can protect it.
Can be used in witch jars as a form of poison magic.
Protection
Aloe
protection
luck
offerings for ancestors
Cacti
Protection
baneful magic to cause harm to enemies
Ferns
protection
good luck
health
Fiddle Leaf Fig
Abundance
luck
fertility
removing and filtering negative energy
Spider Plant
Spider Plants can be used in all kinds or protection magic.
The pups can be cut off and placed in a spell jar to filter out bad spiritual energy.
Long stems and leaves of the plant can be tied into a witch’s ladder for protection.
Placed on your altar the plant can help equalizes the energy of your altar and tools placed upon it.
Monstera
Peace
Prosperity
Happiness
Good Luck
String of Pearls
The fairly fast growing tendrils can be snipped (this does not hurt the plant) and be used in love charms and love magic.
Growing in the home, the plant promotes positive energy and happiness.
Pearls which fall from the plant can be used in divination bags once dried.
When the plant flowers the energy surrounding is perfect to use in all magics wishing to draw something to you.
Orchids
glamours and love magic
magical properties include concentration, strengthening memory, love, intuition, harmony, focus, and will power
They can invite a loving and welcoming energy into the home
Instagram: thefoxandtheivy
Ways to get in tune with nature
Observe which plants grow in your area.
Find out which are native and which are introduced.
Observe when they flower, seed, and die off/go dormant.
Observe the weather patterns. When does it get warm? When does it get cold? When do you get the most rain? Etc.
Observe what kinds of bugs you have. Observe when they appear, mate, die off, etc.
Observe what kinds of birds you have. Observe which are migratory and which are not. Observe when the migratory birds appear and leave.
Pay attention to how sights, sounds, and scents change throughout the year and at different times of day.
Départ pour le Sabbat by Albert Joseph Pénot (1910)
Southern Superstitions #7
Buy a new broom when you move into a new home. Don't bring your old broom, or you'll bring the troubles from your previous home with ya.
This is one I've known of for a while now but ain't sure of its origins. Bringing an old broom into a new home is said to bring all the bad luck and problems you had at your previous home with ya. Buy a new broom when you move to start fresh.