It is spring at last and now is the time to begin thinking about planning your garden. I am the first to admit that I am not the best gardener, especially with arthritis thrown into the mix. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is a bit weak. My mother was a gardener and my grandfather a professional gardener, so some...
Continue reading...January is the Cruellest Month
In the Northern Hemisphere January is perhaps what most of us think of as the cruellest month rather than April, which I doubt very few people see as cruel except perhaps T.S. Eliot in The Wasteland with his talk of the dead land, stirring of dull roots, and a dead tree that gives no shelter. However, in those words is a...
Continue reading...The Magic of Mistletoe
As we lead up to Yule, I thought I’d extol the virtues of magical mistletoe. Some plants really have that feeling of magic, and mistletoe, for me, is one of them. When I moved into my current home, I was delighted to find a large ball of mistletoe in an old apple tree in the back garden. Mistletoe grows prolifically in...
Continue reading...The Importance of Divination in Hedge Riding
I built my own witchcraft practice from the following: hedge riding, working with magic (mostly herbal and with items from nature), nature worship, communicating with spirit, and not least, divination. Although not necessary to be a hedge witch, or indeed any type of witch, nevertheless, learning a divination skill is helpful to hedge-riding hedge witches. So what is the importance of...
Continue reading...Hedge-Riding Technique
Hedge-riding technique, as with their general hedge witchcraft practice, is personal and individual to the hedge witch and there are no set rules. Most hedge witches are self-taught through study. Some witches will attend shamanic practitioner courses as I did with Shamanism Ireland, which I attended along with a pagan friend to broaden and strengthen my general knowledge of journeying, which...
Continue reading...Connecting in the Town or Village
I’ve come to realise that it’s so much harder to spiritually connect to nature in town or village and even semi-rural than it is if you live rural and all you have to do is open the door and step outside. I think having lived rural for a few years I found I had lost the ability to connect well in...
Continue reading...The Magic of Fungi
There has long been an association with fungi and fairies. Tales and folklore suggest you should never step into a fairy ring, as the fairies will be angry with you. This is their territory. Stepping into a fairy ring was thought to bring you blindness or you might become a slave to the fairies in the inner world. (A fairy ring...
Continue reading...Spring is Official
As always I am preoccupied with spring as it’s my favourite season. With the Equinox here, spring it is official. So I’ve rooted out my ornamental eggs to display for the next month. Sprigs of early blossom decorate my altar. Spring, if you haven’t already guessed, is my favourite time of year. This is an extract from my book Pagan Portals...
Continue reading...When Spring Goes Missing
It’s strange what you miss when you’re otherwise occupied. Caught up in worries, mind overloaded. You go for a walk by the river to try to relax, but still the mind is wandering and it’s hard to focus. You think to yourself, “Where are the signs of spring.” But as much as you look, you can’t see a single bud or...
Continue reading...Dog Rose Petals
Our garden has several wild dog roses (Rosa Canina). There are fields and a farm next door, so the roses sit among the wild honeysuckle, elder and bramble in the hedgerow. To collect the petals I took a walk along the hedgerow with a bowl and touched each rose that was wide open and had lost half its petals and knocked...
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