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land spirits do not have to be dramatic.
sometimes reverence for land starts very simply:
learning the names of local plants. noticing where water gathers. thanking a tree before taking from it. picking up trash. leaving a place better than you found it. sitting quietly long enough to feel the mood of the land.
animism is not always spectacle.
sometimes it is relationship, attention, and care.
Never let anybody ridicule your beliefs. It’s human to find divinity in the mundane. It’s human to turn to the divine for answers. It’s not a matter of intelligence, like some would like to think. It’s a matter of human nature and instinct.
So leave some honey out for the fae, find omens in the patterns of the clouds, or hang wind chimes outside like your grandma used to do. Don’t let anybody call you anything other than human.
How to Work with Nature Spirits
Warning: Long Post under the Cut!!
Before getting into this, I want to preface that this is heavily based on my experiences and UPG. This is intended to be a helpful guide for anyone not sure on where to start but my Number 1 piece of advice will always be: Just go for it. Your experiences will be different from mine and that's a good thing! Be respectable and figure out what works best for you. With that in mind, let's get into it.
Hello Lucien, I hope you're well! About the asks on fae lineages, I understand then that you don't believe the Fair Folk to have been Ancestors of the past, remote Kings and Queens or historical figures ascended into "Godhood", but entirely separate from humans? Where do you stand in relation to that common theory that fairies are the deceased? particularly as it pertains to fairy processions and mounds being burial sites. I would personally be inclined to believe that the term "fairies" include the deceased or spectral images of the past, among them great Heroes and Royals of the distant past or forebearers of great lineages, but certainly not all fairies are deceased humans. And you?
I don’t hold to the idea that the Fair Folk are simply deified human ancestors, nor that they are wholly unrelated to humanity.
Anglo-Celtic folklore repeatedly places the Fae in an intermediate condition—not gods, not ghosts, but a people who overlap the human dead in certain states. Across Anglo-Celtic cultures, you see three consistent threads:
1) The mound is both a fairy dwelling and a grave.
Barrows, cairns, and tumuli are simultaneously síde (fairy hills) and burial places. The dead are placed into the earth, yet afterward lights move there, music is heard, and riders emerge in procession. The living do not say “a ghost came out of the grave”—they say the hill opened.
This implies not haunting but continuation. The person buried does not linger as a shade—they enter a community.
2) The "Faerie Host" often behaves like the dead in the context of mythic pattern.
Night rides, the Wild Hunt, the Sluagh, and the procession of the Good People resemble funerary retinues for a reason. They travel in companies, keep ranks, carry torches, and move along old roads and boundaries—exactly the paths of funeral passage. Encounters are often said to leave witnesses weak, drained, or “taken,” which even mirrors the old belief that the dead draw vitality from the living. Likewise, in several traditions, the newly dead may be seen riding among the Fae within a year of burial.
This similarity to human funerary practices may very well stem from human attempts to understand, mimic, and appease the otherworld, but they may also represent a vestigial continuance of human practices within ranks of fae spirits that once were, but are no longer, human.
3) “Elf” historically overlaps with “the powerful dead.”
In early English usage ælf was not a tiny glittering being, but an unseen causing spirit—responsible for illness, trance, inspiration, and beauty beyond human measure. In Norse belief, burial mounds of notable men became sites of cult, and the dead within were called elves (álfar). Offerings were given to them seasonally as one would to land spirits.
So rather than “humans become gods,” the pattern might be said to look more like this: While the ordinary dead rejoin with divinity, the restless dead become ghosts/wraiths, the settled dead become ancestral spirits, and the potent/integrated dead become elves.
In other words, some fair folk were once human, but not recently human—they have crossed a threshold of belonging to the Otherworld’s society. They are no longer tethered to their humanity, yet not primordial spirits either. They are the assimilated dead. This also explains why folklore insists both that fairies predate mankind and that humans can join them. The host is older than any one people, but continually receives members.
So I would say, the Fair Folk are not merely the deceased—but the dead are one of the ways the Fair Folk are populated. Certain humans, especially those buried in old ways, remembered ongoingly, or who were powerful in life, may enter that company. Beyond the sheer liminality of the sites, Faerie mounds being tied to burial sites is not coincidence; it is mechanism.
The Gloaming Folk are a "civilization" partly "indigenous" to the Otherworld and partly "recruited" from humanity across time—which is part of why various wights feel so uncannily familiar, yet never quite human.
Day 20: Honoring Nature Spirits & Land Ancestors During Samhain
Not all ancestors are blood. Some are place-ancestors, spirits of the land, the dead who lived on it before you, or the genius loci (the spirit of the physical place itself). During October, they are extremely near the surface and far more receptive than in summer.
You do not command land spirits. You behave like a guest on someone else's floor.
Step 1 — Identify Who You’re Addressing
There are two main categories:
Land Ancestors (Human Dead) • buried or lived on the land before you • farmers, builders, indigenous peoples, unknown residents
Nature Spirits (Non-Human) • river, hill, tree guardians • storm, forest, field, or boundary spirits • the governing spirit of the place itself
You don’t need names, you need accuracy of role.
I am TELLING YOU if you have spent months, years, around the same trees, land, etc., they WILL recognize you and reach out to you or not mind if you reach out to them. You don’t need to know anything about them.
A tree in the forest behind my parents house I’ve never spoken to before reached out - I never would’ve expected it. I don’t know what kind of tree it is. But of course this tree knows me. This tree has known me since I was six.
Trust me. This land knows you. These plants know you. They want to speak with you.
Bioregional Magic: Working with Invasive Plants
UPG Time: All information comes from my personal practice.
Within a locally based practice, one might feel compelled to work with only native plants. After all, it makes sense to want to form relationships with beneficial plants that grow naturally in your area.
But what about that enormous patch of 4 foot-tall Mugwort growing in the corner of the yard? Or the huge Rose of Sharon shrub covered in edible blooms? What do we do when native plants are scarce or too valuable to local wildlife to disturb, and the ever-abundant invasives are right there?
We put them to work. Invasive plants are a useful resource that we can collect and utilize without harming (and often benefiting) the local ecosystem.
Invasive vs Non-Native & Naturalized
Remember that not every non-native plant is invasive. Not even every weedy non-native plant is invasive. Invasive plants grow rapidly, have few predators or pathogens, out-compete natives, and harm the ecosystem. Plants classified as non-native don't support wildlife as well as native plants, but do not pose an ecological threat. Naturalized plants are non-native plants that have successfully integrated themselves into their new environment without causing ecological damage.
Additionally, some species are invasive in certain states or provinces but are fine in others, so look up your local invasive species list!
Invasive Species Correspondences
There are a few general correspondences that come to mind when I think of invasive plants. They are weedy with an aggressive growth rate. They out-compete and smother their native competitors.
If you're looking for fast-acting magic, a quick prosperity working, or magic that gives you an advantage over someone else, these are the plants to use. I could also see them being used in workings related to adapting in an unfamiliar environment.
On the contrary, they can be great for curses and hexes, with the ability to choke, smother, overwhelm, and destroy.
Ethical Harvest
All living things deserve dignity and respect. If you are an animist, regularly work with plants and animals, or have a set of "Ethical" or "Honorable" harvest rules in your practice, you probably agree.
Invasive plants aren't trying to destroy our ecosystem. They were introduced by humans and unfortunately do far too well in their new environment. In my practice, if you harvest these plants with contempt or hatred, your magic will fall short.
In terms of safe harvesting practices, it's important to wear protective gear and be aware of potential toxicity. Additionally, one should be aware of how to properly collect different species. Certain harvest or culling methods can actually cause some plants to reproduce faster. Mugwort, which is invasive in some parts of the US, spreads by rhizome and pulling it from the ground will only make it grow faster.
Narrowing Correspondences
While the general correspondences listed above can be very useful, they aren't unique to any individual plant. All invasive plants are native to somewhere, meaning that there is some place where they have their own ecological benefits and rich cultural meaning.
As practitioners, we want to actually get to know these plants on an individual level. A good starting point is through learning about their ecological benefits within their native range, and their symbolism/folkore. The intent here isn't to absorb this symbolism into our paths and divorce it from its original context. The goal should be to learn about these plants so they can be approached from a place of appreciation and respect, and perceived as more than just "invasive".
Once you've learned about an individual plant, you can begin to write your own correspondences. Some things to pay attention to are time of year fruiting, sun/shade tolerance, leaf shape, seed dispersal, growth pattern, and wildlife value (if applicable in your area, otherwise, look into wildlife value within the plant's native range).
Invasive Plant Offerings
If you want to venerate an invasive plant, or are performing a working that requires leaving offerings, it should be done in a way that doesn't encourage outdoor growth. This means no watering or offering things like compost. Here are some ideas for invasive plant offerings:
Bowls of water, compost, or fruit, left for a specific period of time and then removed
Incense
Devotional art and jewelry
Stones and other natural items
Compostable trinkets and art made from materials sourced from the plant (nothing that could encourage reproduction, like seeds)
Utilizing Invasive Plant Materials
Invasive plants can be harvested with virtually no damage to the ecosystem. More often than not, they will just keep growing back, providing a near-endless source of materials and ingredients. This differs from native plants, where harvesting requires great care and should be done sparingly.
Some ideas for utilizing invasive plant materials:
Wands and stangs
Ingredients for workings that require specific plant parts (roots to represent death, flowers for love workings, etc.)
Incense blends and smoke bundles
Wreaths for warding or altar decor
Edible plants: kitchen magic, teas, tinctures, infusions, recipes
Flower petals for strewing
Offerings for associated spirits or Deities
Bath Teas for ritual baths and glamours
Botanical salts for specific workings
Note: If you are applying a plant to your skin, using it for incense, or consuming it, please properly identify the plant and confirm that it's safe for your intended use. Always use a plant reference book, foraging book, or field guide in addition to a search engine. Never rely on plant identification apps. Learn about look alikes too. Never expose yourself, household, or your pets to potentially toxic plants.
my tip to befriending nature spirits is to just like Go There and be around them. maybe sprinkle a few native seeds for the birds, give a squirrel a little pile of nuts, clean up a bit, sing a little, etc. they'll get used to you being around and be like "oh!!! the human who sings to us is back!!" its literally that easy. just do nice things and spend time with them, they'll warm up to you.
