The Wood Witch

In the Drip of an Eave

2012-01-27T09:09:00.004-05:00

In the Drip of an Eave, the project I've been working on for the last couple of years, is finally ready for sale. You may order yours via my Google cart below.

This is a limited release of twenty (20) copies. If they sell quickly I may prepare more, but the labor involved has been so intense that it is a distinct possibility that there will be no more when these are gone. In other words, if you've been waiting for this product you should probably order one now.

Again, there are only twenty (20) copies available for sale at $69.99 plus shipping. No two kits are identical (most of what's in the box is handmade, and as the inspiration struck me, I added an extra item or two) but here is the bare minimum that you will get for your hard-earned dollars.

In the Drip of an Eave Contents

* The Black Book of Hope (hardback red letter edition, 142 pages )
* Hope's Journal (wire bound, 100 pages)
* A Little Book of Fairy Tales, Rhymes, & Riddles (handmade and hand-bound, 33 pages)

Assorted clues to the riddles:

* One introduction letter
* One Tarot card
* Two newspaper articles
* One letter from a friend
* One college syllabus
* Two personal notes
* One wooden block puzzle

The Wicked Hitch is Dead

2011-12-16T12:01:00.005-05:00

By now everyone knows that Christopher Hitchens has passed from life. Despite the title of this post, I never rejoice at anyone's death. In fact, even though I disliked his work, I find myself feeling sad.

I have commented before about the general public's inability to discriminate between wit and wisdom. Hitchens is a monument to that lack of discernment. He was an accomplished contrarian with a tongue like a straight razor, but let's not mistake that for true wisdom or even insight.

Hitch was an "anti-theist," a word he coined to better describe his absolute unwavering intolerance of anything remotely religious. He could not be called upon to differentiate between types of religion, taking aim against all equally. In his view, if there was a god, goddess, or gods involved, it was tripe for the trash bin. Had he been more wise or more insightful he might have seen that there is at least one religion absent of all dogma and hierarchy; a religion whose very essence is rebellion.

I'm sad because a man died at age 62 after wasting a brilliant mind on wit at the expense of wisdom. Because he died absent of any experience of the Sacred, by his own admission cosmically bored and spiritually dead long before his cancer claimed him.

Rest ye well Mr. Hitchens. Perhaps now, having begun the final journey that awaits us all, you are at last wiser than us all.

In Lieu of Original Content...

2011-12-12T09:29:00.003-05:00

With my new project in full swing (release planned for the Solstice) and the busy holiday season upon me, no new material this week. But I can re-report some interesting stuff that others have posted:

The Wild Hunt reports that Malkin Tower may have been located. This is the spot where the famous Pendle Witches where said to congregate. Pilgrammage anyone?

New World Witchery presents a fascinating post about dowsing. Does dowsing make any logical sense? Is it provable in a double-blind study? No. But 5 years ago, when the plumbers had to find the underground waste pipe at my parent's house, that's how they did it.

The Old Hedgewytchery Site

2011-12-02T09:09:00.003-05:00

I just found a link to an archive of Dawn Jackson's old Hedgewytchery Site called Cottage of a Hedgewytch. What a great resource, and great to see that it's still available.

New Article: Mystic Witchcraft

2011-12-01T11:25:00.001-05:00

My newest article is now available on Pagan Pages -- check it out.

Rainbow

2011-11-17T08:12:00.001-05:00

Projects, Old and New

2011-11-14T09:57:00.005-05:00

My apologies for relative few posts lately -- I've been really busy...

* I'm finishing the current project which should roll before Yule. This has been my most ambitious project yet -- a traditional witchcraft education in a box. More to come soon.

* And I am still writing my monthly column called Oak-corns & Apple-thorns over at Pagan Pages. If you haven't been over there, by all means go check it out.

* I have also started a personal project to create 28 prayer cards -- one for each of the ruling angels of the mansions of the moon. I have been working with angels for a long time, but this process is reigniting and deepening my relationship with them. Unlike my other projects, which always make their way to this blog, these cards are just between me and the Host.

Please stay tuned and bear with me.

Halloween Mirror Magic

2011-10-29T22:13:00.004-04:00

Hey how for Hallow E'en
A' the witches tae be seen
Some in black and some in green
Hey How for Hallow E'en!

I recently saw the the movie Paranormal Activity 3. As I watched the scene featuring the urban legend of Bloody Mary I immediately thought of the power of mirrors as tools of divination, and of their symbolism as doorways between the material world and the spirit world. I determined to do a bit of research as soon as I exited the theater.

For those readers who haven't seen the movie or who are unfamiliar with the Bloody Mary urban legend, this is how the most common variation goes: Bloody Mary committed some horrible crime before her death, and now her ghost haunts the world. The subject goes into a dark room and, while facing a mirror, repeats the name of Bloody Mary three times, usually on a dare. It is said that the ghost of Bloody Mary will appear in the mirror, often with dire consequences to the subject. Dares like these are rather common this time of year when there is a heightened interested in the supernatural and the macabre, especially among bored youngsters (and apparently among film directors as well).

In any event, what my research revealed is that the origin of this myth could lie in actual divination rituals. A hundred years ago it was a common practice for a woman to sit before a mirror combing her hair or eating an apple by candlelight on Halloween to catch a glimpse of her future husband. Supposedly he would appear in the mirror over her shoulder. The same procedure is sometimes said to cause the Devil to appear (over the left shoulder rather than the right no doubt), and therefore this divination ritual is sometimes changed into a dare. Still others believe that no apple eating is required, that simply staring into a mirror long enough will conjure the Devil.

In ancient times it was common for mirrors to be used for divination by viewing and interpreting the reflections of smoke or rippling water. Many modern witches make black divination mirrors by painting black one side of a glass pane, or create mirrors by partially filling a black bowl with water.

Since the veil between the worlds is thinnest at Halloween, one could use mirror magic in any number of ways. With that in mind, here is a list of suggestions:

To contact a deceased friend or loved one, sit before the mirror eating the decedent's favorite food.
Another option would be to consume a type of food or beverage of a sympathetic nature -- perhaps a piece of cake to see a deceased spouse, a bottle of beer to see an old drinking buddy, etc.
Sip wine while paying respects to the Hidden Company or the Fairy Court and perhaps one or more of them will become visible.

Obviously these rituals should be attempted with the utmost care, caution, and respect. And, as always, any act of divination or conjuration that summons a spirit or entity should be be concluded with a banishment or at least a firm farewell, such as, "I bid now farewell to you all; let each of you return unto his own place, and let there be peace between us all" or some such.

References:

1. Wikipedia entry, Bloody Mary (folklore)
2. Wikipedia entry, Catoptromancy (divination using mirrors)
3. The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore by Charles Kightly
4. The Zingara Fortune Teller by A Gypsy Queen

Lunar Calendar - Mansions of the Moon

2011-10-18T06:12:00.000-04:00

Here is a customizable calendar which is very useful when working with the lunar mansions. Note: the key is at the bottom -- in case you had a hard time finding it as I did.

I checked the Lunarium calendar against a printed lunar calendar I have here at the house and the two matched, so I'm confident that it is accurate. If any of my readers have thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to comment.

Cards of Reverence and Prayer

2011-10-10T08:24:00.000-04:00

Statuary is nice, but who can afford, or even has room to store, dozens of statues? A great solution is a nice collection of imagery on stiff paper. They store easily and work beautifully when you need or want a deity, angel, or spirit representation for your altar.

Holy Prayer cards are available for saints and such, and they are reasonably priced for sure. But what if you're a pagan? There's not much in the marketplace. And what if you don't like the depictions that are available?

Here are some ideas:

Save greeting cards or post cards with images that represent an angel, saint, deity, etc. (on the left is a selection of some of the cards I've saved). Sometime when you feel crafty, get them out, crop if needed, and glue them to a stiff piece of card stock. Many Yule cards depict specific angels (even if the artist wasn't trying to) and you can determine which ones with careful examination and contemplation. Neatly write the name of the spirit on the bottom if the card if you like.
Print color photos of statues you've taken yourself, or other pictures or artwork that you find online, and mount on cardstock. If you feel extra creative, print them in black & white and, using colored pencils or markers, color them yourself to make sure that they fit your personal vision of the spirit more exactly.
If you're even more artistically inclined, create your own by drawing and/or coloring directly on the card stock.
Be sure to cleanse, bless and consecrate your home-made cards before using.

Michaelmas: the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel

2011-09-27T11:52:00.002-04:00

Thursday the 29th is Michaelmas, or the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. For those of us who honor and work with the angelic host, this is an important day indeed.

Background

Michael is a warrior angel, often depicted with a sword. His associations vary depending on the source, but I have always placed him in the East, with fire and the rising sun, and represented him with the color red and the symbolic triangle pointed upward. Seek his aid when in need of strength and perseverance, when purity of thought and deed are in order, for health and exorcism. In literature and legend he is the archangel who physically makes battle against Satan; ironically his feast day is near the Autumnal Equinox, and the length of days decreases after his holiday until the Winter Solstice passes.

Old Michaelmas Day falls on October 11 (October 10 according to some sources). According to an old legend, blackberries should not be picked after this date. This is because, so folklore goes, Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them.(courtesy of Wikipedia).

It was traditional to bake a goose on Michaelmas:

"If you eat roast goose on Michaelmas day, you'll never want money all year...Sauce for a stubble goose: Take the pap of roasted apples, and mixing it with vinegar, boil them together on the fire with some of the gravy of the goose and a few Barberries and breadcrumbs; when it is boiled to a good thickness, season it with sugar and a little cinnamon, and so serve it forth." ~Markham, The English Housewife, 1683 (courtesy of The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore by Charles Kightly)

A Michaelmas Celebration

Few of us cook goose very often these days, but you might try baking a free-range chicken instead. While the chicken is baking, you'll be making a few simple preparations.

Chicken Recipe

1 whole free-range chicken
1 whole apple
Salt, pepper, and spices (rosemary, sage, thyme, savory)

Remove any bagged neck or organ meats from the cavity (cook separately or use them for gravy-making). Soak chicken in a large bowl of water with a teaspoon of salt. After 1 hour of soaking, preheat oven to 375 F.

Remove chicken from water and place in a roasting pan or oval baking dish on a wire rack to elevate it from cooking juices. Place the entire, unpeeled apple inside the chicken to prevent drying of the breast meats (this is much simpler than making stuffing from scratch, and it serves the same purpose). Cross and tie the legs with butcher string. Sprinkle with seasonings, salt, & pepper.

Cover with lid or tented foil. Bake for approx. 1 1/2 hours (about 20 minutes per pound). Remove lid or foil and continue baking uncovered, basting with spoon every 10 - 15 minutes, until brown and internal temperature reaches 165 F. by your meat thermometer (you'll notice the skin connecting legs to breast beginning to stretch). Remove from oven and allow to rest for a few minutes before serving.

A Centerpiece for the Table

During that first hour of baking time, prepare your centerpiece with things you have on hand, in your yard, or by the nearby road or lane: a red leaf or two that may have fallen early, blackberry fruits or sprigs, an orange from your fruit bowl, barberries (or other red berries), a statue, picture, or other representation of Michael or his symbolic animal the lion, a quartz stone, flowers of the appropriate color and association (dandelion, buttercup, marigold), and so on. For a simple centerpiece, attractively arrange your things in a bowl or basket -- or use a tray, surrounding red, orange, and/or gold candles with the items you collected.

As you are gathering materials and putting together your centerpiece, think about Michael, what he symbolizes, and what he means to you. Put together a few words of grace to say before you break bread.

After dinner, burn a pleasant incense and sip a tea or chai spiced with orange and clove as you give thanks for Michael and his blessings of protection, prosperity, and health.

From Death, Life

2011-09-24T15:42:00.002-04:00

Couple Nights in the Woods

2011-09-16T05:49:00.001-04:00

Today my son and I are heading out into the woods for a few days of primitive camping -- no tent, no sleeping bags, and no hi-tech gear. Time for a brief respite from the horrible speed and oppression of the Industrial Way of Death (it can't be called a "way of life" because 120 species/day are disappearing forever in the current mass extinction event that this way of life has caused).

Do any of you camp (primitive or otherwise), hike, backpack, etc.? Why do you go? Please post comments on what your trips mean to you, and what you learn from them.

See you in a few days...

Be Careful What You Ask For

2011-09-13T06:04:00.004-04:00

I don't ask for much in spiritual workings, which I think explains why I always seem to get what I ask for. For example, if a family member is ill, I'm more likely to seek peace and relief from pain than I am a miracle cure. Since my requests are small, I don't usually have much to worry about in terms of repercussions.

Last month I did a working, asking a spirit to help bring about a change in my perspective. At the time it didn't seem like much to ask for, and I couldn't think of any repercussions to be concerned about. To an extent I was right -- there was no visible harm done to me -- but I wasn't fully prepared for what was going to happen.

Yes, my perspective was changed, profoundly and forever. The implications ended up being greater than I imagined. There has been a shift in how I see many things.

I have no regrets -- if I had known how huge the effects were going to be I still would have done it -- but I see now that I should have taken more care and spent more time thinking it through. The working was so powerful I actually stopped the presses and added it to my next book due out in October.

The spirits are powerful indeed.

The Witch's Child

2011-09-02T06:07:00.000-04:00

This post over at Unsettling America captures the rebellion that should be inherent in the practice of witchcraft. It's an inspirational must read.

Dressing a Novena Candle by Brother Ash

2011-08-30T06:18:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine has posted an instructional video you might enjoy. Well done Brother Ash.

Book Review: The Tarot Spellcaster by Terry Donaldson

2011-08-29T06:30:00.000-04:00

The Tarot Spellcaster by Terry Donaldson is a book I go back to a couple of times a year. It has something for everyone from beginner to advanced, and it doesn't hurt that the book is beautiful to look upon.

Before I get into the review, a few words about the author. On the plus side, Donaldson has been writing about the Tarot for years, and is an active and well-respected practitioner. That gives his material weight. On the negative side, he produced the The Lord of the Rings Tarot and the The Lord of the Rings Oracle. I haven't read these, and I suppose they could be good; but I try to steer clear of material that blurs the lines between fantasy and practicality.

The book begins with a short and to-the-point history of the Tarot that touches briefly on the Kabbalah connection. He then provides excellent correspondence charts that include the astrological associations of the Major and Minor Arcana, the areas of influence, elements, and symbols.

Next follows a solid introduction to the basics of magic -- how to consecrate your cards, set up an altar, and prepare for magical work. And there are more practical charts: one that shows the associations of the four compass directions, the element, the associated Archangel, Tarot suit, and so on. There is even a section that explains the basics of meditation and breathing, and of invoking one's guardian angel.

Before moving on the spells themselves, Donaldson provides an index by which the reader can find the proper spell based on need. There are nine sections: Health and Happiness, Hidden Knowledge, New Horizons, Success, Protection, Problems, Self-Development, Love, and Wealth.

The spells are simple, direct, and effective. Each one is accompanied by a practical yet beautiful photo showing the proper altar layout, tools, and so on.

Recommended.

Orion Rose Last Night

2011-08-27T06:33:00.000-04:00

Orion rose last night --
Though long driven off by the Sun,
Today the wind is in the trees,
And clouds glide with his promise
That cleansing cold and long nights will come.

Orion rose last night --
How many more winters
Before I, after my short span,
Fall headlong into his beyonding realm,
To join at last his long and chilly hunt?

Orion rose last night --
And now the wind is in the trees;
Cleansing cold and long nights are coming,
Bringing renewal, possibility, dreams,
And redemption.

Book Review: The Black Books of Elverum by Mary Rustad

2011-08-25T06:30:00.000-04:00

The Black Books of Elverum by Mary Rustad changed my outlook on witchcraft, and it might change yours as well. You see, as far as I know, it is the only actual, bonafide, personal witch's Black Book or Book of Shadows that can be dated prior to the witchcraft revival of the 1950s.

Sure, there are books that claim to be such, but there are always questions. This one is the real deal. The two Black Books revealed between these covers, with actual photos provided, are dated between 1790 and 1820.

The introduction contains a short history of witchcraft in Norway, where the books were found in a dusty attic. There are notes on context, and the tale of how they were found is told in brief. These sections are entertaining and well written.

The spells and incantations that follow are visceral, certain, and voluminous. There are one hundred and ten of them, and there are two helpful indexes, one by first line and another by subject.

What's really striking is that the original owner of the book was completely unashamed to do things that most modern witches wouldn't dream of doing, including invoking the Devil's name and using evil spirits to achieve one's ends. Apparently modern witches have gone a little soft.

Although it might be offensive to the hardcore practitioner of Wicca, this is a great and inspirational book it seems to me every witch should read. There are a few copies out there in the $20 to $50 range, most are $125 and up. And worth every penny.

Review: "The Pale-faced Goddess" by Theresa Lucas

2011-08-19T01:01:00.001-04:00

The August 2011 issue of the Cauldron showed up in my mail box yesterday. Although I always write a review of each issue when I'm done reading, this time the first article stopped me in my tracks.

The Pale-faced Goddess by Magistra Theresa Lucas is without question the best short piece I have ever read on the subject of the Goddess. I knew I was in for a treat when she referred to Her as "Creatrix of All" and said, "There are those practitioners of the Arte who call her 'Night' as she is as endless, unfathomable, and unknowable as the sky full of stars."

Yes, she mentions the things you must expect out of an introduction -- Robert Graves and all that -- but quickly progresses to more substantial fare. She discusses the creative aspects of Her in some detail, mentioning the important symbolism of the Norns: "In some forms of Traditional Craft it is believed that even the Gods themselves are subject to Fate as spun out by the Three Sisters and Their cauldron. Hardly ever in stasis, from the cauldron all things are born - no god, no matter how supreme can deny its power..."

After a very interesting and thorough exploration she moves on to more practical concerns, such as what can be aimed for and expected when working with the Goddess. For those unacquainted with Traditional witchcraft lore this will be particularly valuable teaching; to the experienced, it will be inspirational. It made me want to go to the woods right this minute with my cauldron in tow.

Then, at the end of the piece, she describes what it is like when the Goddess manifests in the circle. For those of us who have experienced it, this is the crowned jewel of the article, proving that this author knows precisely what she is talking about.

Many sincere thanks to Magistra Lucas for writing this, and to the Cauldron for giving it space.

Jenny Wren's Nest

2011-08-16T08:06:00.005-04:00

Jenny Wren made a nest in a hanging basket on my back porch. This morning I watched her carry insects to her babies.

I couldn't catch her with the camera -- she's way to skittish and quick -- so I snatched the photo on the right of a Carolina Wren from Wikipedia. Not sure if my little wren is this exact species, but she sure resembles the photo.

She made me think of the old nursery rhyme...

When Jenny Wren Was Young

'Twas once upon a time, when Jenny Wren was young,

So daintily she danced and so prettily she sung,

Robin Redbreast lost his heart, for he was a gallant bird.

So he doffed his hat to Jenny Wren, requesting to be heard.

"Oh, dearest Jenny Wren, if you will but be mine,

You shall feed on cherry pie and drink new currant wine,

I'll dress you like a goldfinch or any peacock gay,

So, dearest Jen, if you'll be mine, let us appoint the day."

Jenny blushed behind her fan and thus declared her mind:

"Since, dearest Bob, I love you well, I'll take your offer kind.

Cherry pie is very nice and so is currant wine,

But I must wear my plain brown gown and never go too fine."

A Smile for Baphomet

2011-08-14T06:45:00.001-04:00

The other day I talked about the origin of the Devil. I explained that there was no concept of the Devil prior to the arrival of the One God of the Abrahamic faiths, that the Devil was created by the followers of the God of Abraham as an amalgam, and a personification, of all pagan gods. In short, there is a reason that the Devil resembles Pan; everything the Abrahamic faiths loathed and feared became the Devil.

"What if someone expanded upon this idea, and actually created a pagan God around this concept," I wondered. "If such an amalgamation of pre-Christian Gods and Goddesses were created, what would it look like?" And then it occurred to me that other minds must have trod the same ground and made the same leaps as I was making. I couldn't possibly be the first. And then it hit me:

"The Devil does not exist...A devil who had unity would be a God... 'The Devil is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation. He is 'The Devil' of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection... He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty."

~Crowley, Magick (Book 4)

And there you have it. It shouldn't therefore come as a surprise that the mixture known as Baphomet would have such tremendous appeal. It is, after all, a powerful symbol of all that is pagan.

I believe in a Goddess and a God, I have no need for a divine androgyne like Baphomet. I have no desire to condense and conflate all Deity into one being. Whether it is the Baphomet created by Levi and Crowley et. al. or the God and Devil created by the followers of Abraham, it is still the same process.

Monotheism is still monotheism, and it seems to me that humanity's timeline has seen just about enough of that.

And yet, there sits the Divine Androgyne -- provocative but peaceful, devilish yet divine, rebellious yet reflective -- and I have to smile.

Book Review: Charms, Spells, and Formulas by Ray Marlbrough

2011-08-12T06:30:00.001-04:00

I got this book back in 2002, and it's one that I refer back to with some frequency.

Marlbrough draws on his vast experience in Hoodoo and adds in a bit of other material with an eclectic spin. He covers a ton of territory in what amounts to a nice introduction to Hoodoo (at times giving a nods to Wicca and other concepts), providing the basics of poppet making, washes, oils, and so forth.

The altar setups are inspirational, and his recipes are sound. It's kind of book that inspires a person to work.

What I liked:

Easy to read
Authentically and clearly written by someone with real-world experience
Lots of nice correspondences
A complete index

What I didn't like:

Sometimes his blending of Hoodoo is a tad rough, but not overly so.
Other than that, I can't think of a thing.

You might not like it if:

If you're a strict Wiccan
If you're a strict Hoodoo worker
If you're offended by Christian influences and references
If you feel like one reviewer I found who said, "I am new to the craft, and I found it didn't have as many spells in it as I liked. I found it had more rituals. I would rather have a book with spells that you can just say without having to make and oil or spend a lot of money on candles."

Wants vs. Needs

2011-08-10T05:36:00.006-04:00

I'm not big on the whole Eastern philosophy thing, but this fortune from a cookie made me think...

Sometimes what you want is altogether different than what you need. And for a witch, getting to know the difference is essential. It's part of our spiritual growth, part of our worship, part of what makes us good at what we do.

The human animal has tons of wants -- the latest fashions, the coolest gear and gadgets, the newest books, the funnest entertainment, and so on. We tend to seek affirmation of our status in the herd through the quality of our possessions and to seek knowledge through absorption of others' ideas.

But the Goddess and God aren't so big on giving us what we want. They will, however, give us what we need if we ask politely and then get to workin'. The trick is telling wants from needs.

If you are unhappy or depressed, is shopping therapy for a new outfit what you need? Or is it what you want? If you practice second sight, God may show you what is troubling you and provide the insight you need to break through your rough patch and feel better. You've got choices: you can do the real work, go to the mall, or I suppose you could cast a spell and try to bring that new outfit to your doorstep. But I don't think those last two will help. Wouldn't it be better to get down to the essential cause of the unhappiness and dig it up like a weed?

When you search the web, do want to get the news and information that's entertaining, or should you see the stuff you really need to read because it's important? Most search engines are tailored based on your interests, and now show you want you want to see, not what you need to see. Ever given some thought to using a neutral search engine like DuckDuckGo?

It's not just intellectual and emotional health that are at stake. The extraneous and largely valueless possessions we accumulate have environmental costs, so Mother Nature will benefit from our reflection as well.

If you think that the Gods aren't watching, you're wrong. They know when that spell or that prayer is really a request for something you want but don't need. Don't you think They know the emotional, intellectual, and environmental costs, and that They are going to be good parents?

Like children, we often want the junk food instead of the nutrition. But the Gods, like thoughtful mommies and daddies, give out more apples for snack than they do cookies.

Honor your Familiars

2011-08-03T05:55:00.005-04:00

Remember to honor your familiars. After all, they help you in your work, they are your friends and confidants, and they are always there for you.

The word 'familiar' gets tossed around quite a bit, so let's agree now: a familiar is not a pet, nor is it a slave (literally or figuratively). A familiar is a spirit friend and guide, and they come in many forms, appearing as animals, plants, supernatural creatures, demons, imps, fairies, angels, and so on.

And they don't come cheap in terms of spiritual effort. So keep them close, brothers and sisters, and show them your appreciation often.

(If you don't know how to meet a familiar spirit, it will be covered in detail in my forthcoming book. More to come.)

A New Definition of Paganism

2011-07-29T05:30:00.001-04:00

There is always a huge debate when it comes to defining Paganism. Some people struggle with the definition, and wonder if the label fits. Other people just just roll with it. But everybody has their own definition (even Wikipedia) and now I do too.

The other night, after watching an episode of the Discovery Channel TV show Out of Egypt called "The Birth of the Devil" I realized what a pagan is. Intrigued? Before I drop it on you, let's take a walk through some of the more common definitions:

Pagan means "country dweller."

I don't care if the root word from Latin means means countrified. Pagans are not hicks (not that there's anything wrong with that). Lots of them live in the city and only go outside when going between buildings.

Pagans are nature worshipers.

Sadly, all pagans are not. Some couldn't care less about nature. Like this guy.

Paganism means worshiping more than one god.

This is the best of the big three, but still not so good. Let's keep in mind that there are lots of people we'd call pagan who are monotheistic, like some Druids for example. This definition is still off the mark.

So, anyway, I watched this TV show, and Dr. Kara Cooney explained how the old gods of the great polytheistic religions (Hinduism, ancient Egyptian religion, etc.) were a mix of good and bad. There were no deities that were completely good. They all had negative aspects, and vice versa. Even Kali has a nice side, a positive influence on things.

Therefore the concept of a Devil -- a personification of pure evil -- did not exist until monotheism sprang up. The new One God of the Abrahamic faiths was supposed to be 100%-certified-Grade-A-perfectly good, and everyone who wasn't a follower of this 100%-certified-Grade-A-perfectly good deity was a damned and evil.

Thus the Devil was created by the monotheists -- an amalgam of the old polytheistic gods and goddesses who were not 100%-certified-Grade-A good.

And this got me to thinking about the definition of paganism (and about lots of other things which will have to be spoken of another time) and so I came up with this:

Paganism ( noun \ˈpā-gə-ˌni-zəm\): Belief in a God, Goddess, pantheon of Gods, or godlike concept which is neither infinitely good nor infinitely evil. (see also DYSTHEISM).

How's that working for you?

Weeding the Garden

2011-07-27T08:13:00.007-04:00

If you don't have an herb garden to weed you are missing out on some valuable life lessons involving the Goddess.

As you are pulling weeds, the sweet smell of plants and soil filling your nostrils and the dirt covering your hands, you see that most of the plants you are trying to promote are considered weeds by people who don't know what they are. And rightly so. Many of your little green treasures are very invasive, and want to escape the borders as badly as the Marestail and other invaders want to get a foothold within. When it comes down to it, they are all weeds.

As you go about your pulling, gently examining the plants before you, teasing out the tangle of the wanted from the unwanted, occasionally transplanting a wandering herb back inside, and pursuing the roots of encroaching wire grass down deep, you realize something essential.

Maintaining an herb garden is not a war. It is a process. It is not supposed to be simple or straightforward. It is not something you win or lose.

The Goddess doesn't love one weed more than another. Actually, She doesn't even love you any more than She loves the birds or the bats or the Buttonweed. She just wants Her children to play fair with one another. You are not allowed to wage war on the others by plotting their extinction, you are not allowed to pursue what you want with the single-minded intent to eradicate.

She wants you to know that this life is about tending and guiding. She wants you to breathe, and be, and take pleasure in the process.

Through the Rabbit Hole

2011-07-25T08:33:00.009-04:00

I started Sunday morning around eight weeding the herb garden's lowest tier, and after 10 minutes or so sensed someone staring at me. I looked up and saw a bunny rabbit. He chewed, he stopped. His ears turned. He chewed again, stopped again.

"Good morning," I said quietly.

He stared back for a moment, then turned and hopped away unhurriedly.

"Fine, be that way," I said, and went back to my work. A half hour later I had worked my way up to the third and highest tier of my little garden, where the Rosemary grows. And there, beneath the spreading limbs of that sweet-smelling herb, was the little rabbit's sleeping wallow, a clear path leading up and back by the big rock.

I smiled. No doubt my wire grass pulling and yellow stem pruning had awakened the little fellow. He had slipped out unnoticed, stopping only to give me an irate stare.

His little bed I left undisturbed. I grabbed my camera for a quick photo, then contined my work.

When I find wildlife wallows, burrows and tracks I will often gather a pinch of dirt for workings or offerings -- one never knows when the still-warm soil from the tracks of a deer, bear, raccoon, or even a rabbit, will come in handy.

But in this case I thought it best not to defile with my scent his dear little bed beneath the Rosemary.

Summer Bees (a poem)

2011-07-20T05:30:00.000-04:00

Watching bees come and go

On a cloudy day, hot and sweltering;
Where are the zephyrs of Spring
Now that the Old Dog comes wandering?

What sap has risen
That these ladies carry to and fro;
What nectars sweet
And sacred do they know?

The peak of the year,
Now come and gone,
Descends to its cyclic end;
Gather on, my maidens -
Gather on thy hoards of gold,
For soon Sirius will take his leave,
And on his heels the Hunter comes to reive.

Around the Pagan Blogosphere

2011-07-13T09:37:00.005-04:00

Reading a lot more than I'm writing this week -- there are so many cool things on other pagan blogs:

Crossroads of Sorcery is in the middle of a 5 part series called Five Black Saturdays that is a must-read for anybody even remotely interested in Hoodoo.
T his post over at No Unsacred Place is a great read. Who knew there was a "tiny house movement" and that front yard gardens are illegal in some places? Quickly getting hooked on that blog.
This article at the Denver Post website says "Wiccans join the fairies and vampires on "True Blood" on HBO this season. Sitting in a circle, holding hands, picking up messages from beyond, the members of a coven are used mainly as a punch line." Not sure what the author means by that. I think it's nice to see witches performing outside the usual scope of pop witchcraft, practicing necromancy and such. Seems to me that's a pretty loose application of the word "Wicca" and the producers of TB should've just called it witchcraft. But maybe it's just me.

The Omen of the Red Dragonfly

2011-07-08T06:57:00.000-04:00

This rare, red dragonfly, so lightly and brightly flying, bringing me joy, is a beauty to behold. I wonder: what unknown spiritual string within me harmonically vibrates with the hum of his wings? Being red, does he bespeak danger or anger? Lust or love? Courage or shame? What is the meaning of this creature's appearance before me? Is this an omen?

As symbols, bugs and insects are often entropic and negative -- the creeping filth of cockroaches, the rot of flies and maggots, the destruction of termites, the plagues of fleas, the ominous click of the deathwatch beetle, the sucking of ticks and mosquitos, the poisonous bites of spiders, the inescapable doom of the conqueror worm.

Yet they can be extremely powerful symbols of transformation and rebirth, like the scarab, the butterfly, and of course the dragonfly.

He may have been an omen, maybe not. Not everything, even if it's unusual or unexpected, is an omen. Sometimes you must simply experience a moment and let it be. As Walt Whitman said,

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

Paw-paws: Wild Wonder-food

2011-07-06T06:42:00.001-04:00

Paw-paw is the largest edible fruit native to North America. On the right is a young Paw-paw tree from a recent woodland walk. Notice how the leaves radiate like an umbrella. The biggest you will see one is about 30' in height, but most you will see are in the range of 6 - 10', and often they are quite shrubby.

On the left are three small paw-paws growing on a larger tree nearby. The fruit won't be ready to eat until the fall.

"How come we don't see them in grocery stores?"

The fruit doesn't keep very long, making them hard to ship. But they are starting to show up in CSAs. Local producers can get them to your table more quickly, making them viable. And here's the best part -- no pesticides required. The plant's only known pest is the Zebra swallowtail butterfly. Leaves and bark contain natural insecticides that prevent predation on trees and young plants.

"Are there any around here?"

Yep, they can be found across the Eastern U.S., even right here in Richmond (as Channel 12 reported last year). Look in moist shady areas beneath hardwood trees.

"How do you eat them?"

Shake the tree, and if the paw-paw falls off, it's ripe and close to being ready to eat (watch your head, they are as large as a good-sized yam). Check for ripeness the way you would an avocado, and eat them in a similar way. Cut them in half lengthwise and scrape out the flesh, discarding the watermelon-ish seeds. Eat them plain (they taste tropical, like a mix of banana and pineapple) or put them in place of banana in recipes for breads, shakes, ice cream, etc.

"How do Paw-paws stack up against apples, bananas, and oranges?"

More protein and fat content. The protein in pawpaw contains all of the essential amino acids, and the fatty acid profile is excellent. Pawpaw has 32% saturated, 40% monounsaturated, and 28% polyunsaturated fatty acids.
More B Vitamins.
More calcium.
More dietary minerals. Two to seven times as much phosphorus, four to twenty times as much magnesium, twenty to seventy times as much iron, five to twenty times as much zinc, five to twelve times as much copper, and sixteen to one hundred times as much manganese, as do banana, apple, or orange.
More Vitamin C than apple or banana, one third as much as orange.

You can get all of the details here.

Jewelweed: Science vs. Magic

2011-07-04T06:09:00.000-04:00

This is Jewelweed growing in a ditch near my house. It is so named because rain beads on the leaves and sparkles like jewels. It is a famous folk remedy for poison ivy. Some modern studies say it doesn't work, but me, my friends in the primitive skills community, and a hundreds years of documentation in the materia medica say otherwise.

You must apply juice squeezed from its hollow stems immediately after exposure. Was this done in those studies which failed to prove its efficacy? And what of the power of the will? What of placebo effect? Were subjects convinced that Jewelweed would work? Did they ask the plant permission before taking a cutting to test? Did they treat the plant as a living ally, or as a commodity? Has it been considered that the plant didn't help because it wasn't politely asked?

A witch, like a scientist, tests treatments and perfects them over time. But the kinds of influences that scientists attempt to eliminate are just what we witches are trying to pinpoint so that we can include. We witches just want results.

And this is one of the greatest differences between modern science and magic. A wise witch doesn't discount science. He or she just knows that science can only take you so far.

Trumpet Vine

2011-07-02T06:28:00.001-04:00

Campsis radicans, a.k.a. Cow-itch, Trumpet Vine, etc. is often spotted here in Virginia (and everywhere else in the Southeast). Note the paired leaves and the orange trumpet-like blossoms. This photo was taken just last week near my home.

Some people report contact dermatitis from touching leaves and flowers, so handle with care. I'm sure at least some of this is because it often grows mixed with poison ivy. An afternoon spent trimming Trumpet Vine from fence posts and garden borders might result in accidental contact with Poison Ivy. In addition, urishiol (the active ingredient in poison ivy that gives you the itch) may well be transferred to the Trumpet Vine by natural friction brought about by wind, passing fauna, etc.

Correspondences:

Its trumpet-shaped blossoms are orange in color. In Western symbolism, orange is associated with energy and action, and with the throat. One thinks of the Gabriel's Horn.
Leaves on a stem are always odd in number, typically 11. Aquarius is the 11th sign, an Air sign ruled by Saturn (note that the coming age is the Age of Aquarius, whose dawning might be signaled by, you guessed it, Gabriel's horn...and what do horns blow? Air of course).
As a result of associations with Gabriel and Aquarius, West and/or South are logical directional correspondences.

Potential Uses:

In spells that require a new beginning or ending
For aid in getting the attention of a powerful spiritual being (especially Gabriel!)
To "blow your own horn"

The Zingara Fortune Teller

2011-06-28T06:03:00.001-04:00

The Zingara Fortune Teller by A Gypsy Queen (David McKay 1901) is is one of my favorite books and well worth your time. Several scans are available on the web, or you might find one used for $50 to $100.

It contains a mix of the really old and valuable and some populist material whose authenticity I question (such as the so-called "Cabbalistic Charts" and the cards and dominoes chapters). But the section on tea leaves is good, and the sections dealing with charms, reading tea leaves, omens, and palms are all excellent.

There are a number of delightful tidbits. Take, for example, this little rhyme for reading the white marks on nails. Starting at the thumb, recite the rhyme until the white mark is reached to reveal it's portent:

"A gift, a friend, a foe,
A lover to come, a journey to go."

I remember the day I first fell upon a copy of the original 1901 printing at a flea market (where I purchased it for a staggeringly cheap price of just $3.00!). As soon as I read the preface I was hooked:

"Loving, as we gypsies do, the meadows and the woods and the flowers, and living far from the haunts of men, it is not to be wondered at that we get nearer to the heart of nature, and have been able to lift the veil from the future and learn a thousand secrets that the dwellers in cities wot not of. It is not easy to convince everybody that there is truth in what we tell them, but it is for the men and women who are open to conviction and are unprejudiced that this little book has been compiled.
I have written down many things that are matters of personal knowledge, and besides these I have consulted numerous ancient manuscripts, and have also added certain deductions from modern sources. In this way the art of divination has been brought down to date, and the "Zingara Fortune Teller" may be regarded as not only authentic but complete."

By all means consider giving "Zingara" a read.

Swimming Upstream

2011-06-26T05:45:00.002-04:00

One of the great things about witchcraft is the idea that we are in charge of ourselves. Through witchcraft we can change our destiny, improve our health, learn to make our own stuff, and solve our own problems.

This work cuts our ties with the idea of salvation. And to some extent (it varies individually of course) we may also begin to sever our ties with a bunch of other "-ations" as well, like industrialization, corporation, mechanization, globalization, militarization, sterilization, colonialization, and so on.

But sometimes I get that little feeling. What if I'm crazy? What if the priests and pundits, the talking heads and ticker-tape readers, are right and I'm wrong? What if, by taking control of my own spiritual well-being and withdrawing from mainstream religion (and perhaps even mainstream politics and mainstream economics) I'm signing my own spiritual (and/or intellectual, economic) death warrant?

But then I read a quote like this one, and I'm more determined than ever to keep swimming against the current:

"Because we believe that everything is sacred and that there’s nothing wrong with the universe and there’s nothing wrong with you, we have no concept of original sin, no need to be saved from our own flaws, nothing inherently wrong that needs to be corrected, and no need to escape from any endless cycles of suffering." ~Cyndi Simpson

I'll read a gem like this one, and my desire to live, work, and pray differently is fortified:

"The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death. From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of human corpses. ” ~Edward Abbey

Do you have moments of doubt? What is it that fortifies your will, that inspires you to swim against the current? What is it that drives you to live and pray differently than the other 90% of the world?

Off the Grid

2011-06-24T06:56:00.000-04:00

I will be off the grid for a couple of days -- no cell, no email. Please allow extra time for order processing.

A Cool School Makes the Paper - Twice

2011-06-22T06:49:00.000-04:00

A fellow member of MAPS Group, a super guy named Tim MacWelch, made the newspaper twice last week. Tim runs Earth Connection in Somerville, VA and is a great survival teacher. He has also been spotted, at one time or the other, in Rolling Stone Magazine, Men's Journal, Outdoor Life, The Washington Post, and was seen busting a fire with a bow drill on Boyd Matson's Wild Chronicles on PBS. He also hosts the Drive to Survive Radio Show.

Way to go Tim!

Pranked by the Wee Folk

2011-06-20T05:14:00.009-04:00

Sunday wasn't very sunny, and as the rain came down in fits and starts, I kept having the feeling that it would be a good day to spot one of the wee folk.

The frustrating thing is that, while I feel like I have a touch of the second sight and see many things other don't see, I still haven't I seen a faery. I've made faery huts, left offerings, you name it. Still nothing. I've felt like I was being watched and I've had the sensation that a little faery something was nearby; but that could have been imagination, small animals, or who-knows-what. I really want to see a faery.

So, yesterday, just before dusk, into the suburban wilds I went a-hunting.

A few miles from home I came to a little creek -- actually more of slow-moving drainage ditch for residences -- where I found tiny minnows swimming and plenty of evidence of crawdads and other critters. It seemed like a pleasant place. The air was still and area silent. I was sure I could sense the presence of faery.

Leading uphill from the water I found a tiny trail, so narrow I had to walk with my feet in line as if on a balance beam to follow it, but I did. There were a few turns, and a few small crossroads.

As I went along ever so slowly I felt as though I was getting nearer and nearer to something. The tiny path led into a dark area beneath large old trees. Faery country for sure! Fearing my camera would put the little fellows off, I turned it off and stowed it away.

The fences of the housing subdivision were up ahead and my anticipation increased as I sensed that the faery road would soon be ending. As I stepped off the path I saw it, and I knew I had been tricked.

I laughed aloud as I produced my camera and took a photo of the small statue standing by a post that greeted me. I have the feeling that they lured me from my home with the knowledge that my desire to see them would be more than strong enough to lead me on a wild goose chase.

But the joke's on them. For a lover of all things faery, getting pranked by wee folk is only slightly less fun than seeing wee folk.

The Riddle of Daring

2011-06-16T06:24:00.000-04:00

The everyday, the pedestrian, the typical, the trivial, pulls the spirit down into dullness. Its entropic force is like a cold iron that, once swallowed, settles in the stomach.

Many of us scarcely notice the ballast. Though our wings are spread, and our spirit may feel light, we do not soar.

Do not accept the impossibility of a thing because of what is written in books, broadcast by wireless, and repeated endlessly by those who have swallowed the anvil of triviality and dullness.

The chicken-or-the-egg question: is it because a witch can achieve the impossible that he is able to go places where others cannot? Or is it because he ventures to forbidden places that he is able to achieve the impossible?

The old riddle is a trick question. It seems insoluble because of linear thinking; but the world works in circles and cycles not in straight lines. Chickens lay eggs, which become chickens, which lay more eggs. This is the lesson of the riddle.

Dare to go where others will not and you will achieve the impossible; those achievements will spawn more daring, which will result in more achievements. Otherwise, if you do not dare, the chicken will not lay, and the cycle is stalled.

Brave that tangled patch of woods, wade that lonely tarn, hike that mountain, read that forbidden book, and journey to that fearful crossroads. See what achievements these eggs will beget.

Crossroads of Sorcery

2011-06-15T18:36:00.000-04:00

There aren't many practictioners whose services I can recommend without reservation. That's why, in the six years I've been blogging, I've never plugged anybody until now.

When it comes to sorcery, Brother Ash at Crossroads of Sorcery is the real deal. And his blog is a good read too.

Check it out.

Wilding Workbook Now Available

2011-06-15T06:58:00.002-04:00

Even though the entire workbook has been serialized here on the blog, I have had several requests for printed copies. As a result I'm offering handmade ones.

Here's a sample of what you might expect to receive.

It's an exercise-filled guide designed to help you build a stronger relationship with Nature and improve your witchcraft skills. Approximately 100 pages, it is printed on recycled paper, signed and hand-bound by the author using cords or rings between covers made of recycled, reclaimed, re-purposed, or scrap materials.

If you'd like a copy, visit my Google Checkout Store and order. Please allow 2 weeks for production and shipping.

I also have blank books available.

Prizes for Pagan Pages

2011-06-14T05:43:00.001-04:00

On the right are a few items handmade by yours truly: a hand-bound copy of my book Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook and a weathered barn-wood keepsake box filled with my special homemade potpourri. Also in the picture is a blank leather journal that was gathering dust around the house.

I shipped it all off to Pagan Pages, who will be offering them as contest prizes over the coming months. If you like anything you see here, browse over and check it out.

And while you're there, check out my monthly column Oak-corns and Apple-thorns.

Altar to the Departed

2011-06-12T17:01:00.010-04:00

I was so inspired by Ash's post that I decided to wander out to my shack and put together a permanent altar to my ancestors and deceased loved ones. The finished product can be seen on the right.

Here are some simple instructions for those of the crafty persuasion.

Start with a wooden box (I used a large wine crate). Width doesn't matter much, but you'll want about 24" of height if you intend to burn a short votive candle or tea light inside without overheating the cloth and burning down your house. Never leave burning candles unattended, especially near cloth & paper!

Select some cloth that you like, and plenty of it. I used an old black tablecloth that I got for $2 at the thrift store. Staple the cloth inside the box. Just a few, one in each corner, should be sufficient to hold it in place.

Flip the box on its side, pull the cloth behind the box, and staple it in place. Yes, there will be folds. Just be loose and creative, and make them even and artistic. They will actually add dimension and make it more attractive. Leave one short side free of any folds or gathers -- both inside and out -- so that the box will stand up without being wobbly, and so that any decorations resting inside will stand up straight.

Cut away the extra cloth and you're done. The entire process shouldn't cost more than $5 or take more than 15 minutes.

Put the box on a shelf or table, or attach it firmly to a wall. Consecrate it with a few words and some blessed oil before adding photos, cards, letters, symbolic items, memories, and anything else you find appropriate. Make sure that you firmly tack any photos or other objects to back and walls of the box. If one should fall off onto a candle it won't likely go well.

Blessings to the departed in whose steps we shall follow.

Wax Seals on the Cheap

2011-06-10T06:07:00.008-04:00

Wax seals add a finished touch to envelopes, letters, documents, sigils, and so on, but made-to-order wax seals and store-bought sealing waxes can be an expensive habit. Fortunately there are alternatives.

Here's what you'll need to do it on the cheap:

a small tin pot or cup (or equivalent) to hold your wax mixture

an oil warmer and candle (or alternative)

a crayon

a bit of candle wax about the same weight as the crayon

a seal

Before I get started, let me remind you that hot wax is, well, hot. Make sure that your burner and the wax-melting container are stable. Use care and caution when working with fire.

As you can see in the picture, I made a miniature tin teapot by attaching a block of wood to a small tin can. I added a pouring dimple to the edge of the can with a pair of pliers, punched a hole in the can, and attached the block with a single screw. If you aren't that handy, use a metal measuring cup and an oven mitt, or some other small metal container.

The pentacle oil warmer in the photo works great, but anything that will allow you to melt the wax is fine. Again, make sure that you choose something stable so that you don't spill.

To make a simple wax seal, find a brass button, an interesting coin, etc. and affix it to the end of a wooden dowel with epoxy or other all-purpose glue. The seal in the photo was made by whittling a dowel to match the diameter of a brass button. I used a pocket knife to make a cavity in the end of the dowel just big enough to accommodate the button shank (the little thingy the thread goes through). An enterprising friend of mine named Ash once carved a beautiful wax seal by hand. If you are so inclined, get carving.

Once you have everything laid out, add equal amounts of candle wax and crayon to your little pot. Give it the occasional stir as it melts. When it's thoroughly melted, pour a small amount of the wax mixture on a scrap of paper. You'll want to make a test seal so that you can familiarize yourself with the process before moving on to something valuable or important.

Allow the puddle of wax to become semi-solid before pressing in your seal. Hold the seal still until the wax is solid (this may be up to two minutes depending on the quality of the wax, the density of your seal, the depth of the wax, etc. etc.) Gently rock the seal left and right and lift to free it from the wax.

The set up in the photo is virtually free, especially since I had a small bucket of mismatched, broken, and/or paperless crayons around the house. If you don't, ask a friend who has kids to give you a handful. Parents with young kids know that busted crayons actually breed like cockroaches in all places frequented by children. They find crayons behind furniture, ground into the carpet, in shoes, laundry hampers, up noses, in diapers, you name it. They'll be happy to get rid of a pound or two.

Match the respective colors of crayon and candle was as closely as you can if you need a particular color, or experiment with various mixtures to arrive at new shades. White crayons make very interesting pastel-colored seals.

Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Dawn, Dawn, Where Have You Gone?

2011-06-06T06:26:00.001-04:00

No updates to her blog and her old site now links to a non-witchcraft blog with little activity -- I hope she's well.

The Cottage of the Hedgewytch site was an priceless resource and a true work of Art. If anyone knows what's going with that wise hedgewytch Dawn Jackson, please comment.

And of course, if you are out there Dawn, please let me know. I'd love read something you've written lately.

Review: The Cauldron #140, May 2011

2011-06-04T14:12:00.001-04:00

For those of you who don't subscribe to The Cauldron, let me say that I don't know what I was thinking about putting it off for so long. Now that I have a subscription I'll never let it lapse.

This thing is edited by Michael Howard. But if that doesn't speak to you, here's a sample of what's in Issue #140:

Old World Witchcraft by Raven Grimassi
Fairy Lore by Gareth Knight
Puck of Pook's Hill by Peter Kane
1734 and Traditional Witchcraft by Stuart Inman
Memories of Gerald Gardner by Bev Richardson
Weird Tales of Dartmoor by Tracy Bovey
Myths, Magic and Folklore of Michigan by R. J. Thompson
The Old Sod by Alan Richardson
Interview with an Exorcist and Magician (Josephine McCarthy)
Seeking Roman Paganism by Radford Hargreaves

All of this and more than two dozen book reviews that will save you a bundle. You know what I mean -- we've all wasted money on disappointing books now haven't we?

It's crackin' really. Are you daft? Get off your arse, mail out your $50, and Bob's your uncle! (as they say across the pond, at least in movies anyway.)

Eat What You Get

2011-06-02T08:45:00.000-04:00

Back in '09 I posted a simple foraging exercise. I hope some of you actually worked that exercise. Foraging is important because eating what you find encourages you to accept what the Goddess offers. It builds a connection with Her, with Nature, with your surroundings.

I'd like to be a full-time forager, but that just isn't practical. The foremost problem is that there's nowhere to forage! And even if there was, foraging would take up all my leisure time after getting home from work (welcome to industrial society).

So I get my produce from Fertile Crescent Farm. If you don't know about CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture), the idea is that you buy shares in a local farm. You pay either in full up-front or by-the-month (depending on the CSA), and each week during growing season you get a bag of fresh veggies.

It's kind of a foraging exercise. You have no idea what you're going to get in your bag each week. You figure out what it is and how to prepare it. You learn to deal with the unexpected, to postpone your desire for that certain something, and to expand your food choices. You eat what's in season, and that puts you in touch with the Wheel of the Year.

Anybody have a good recipe for kohlrabi?

The Anarchy Debate

2011-06-01T12:52:00.000-04:00

I accidentally touched off a debate over Green Anarchy when I commented on an article over at The Wild Hunt. Since that debate was only tangentially related to the main subject, I invited Eran to continue the debate here. Recap below.

Take it away Eran!

----------------------------------

Modred • 1 day ago
What is it exactly that we should be uniting together to fight for? Rights? Rights are for prisoners. Do the truly free have need of them? For acceptance? The qualities that make our faiths appealing to us are precisely what make them unacceptable to the majority. If acceptance was ever our goal we chose the wrong path.

Scorpivs • 1 day ago
So, you are saying that the least harmful path, which by comparison is pagan, is too cliquish to become mainstream? I certainly hope not. I wish paganism to be the primary path of the planet, so we can all get along and work towards leaving this planet for other worlds.

If 'being green' and caring about the planet was just a fad, and not the best path to pursue, then why do more and more people accept it as a good idea? Paganism, like 'being green', is more than just a fad -it's a genuinely good way to live...as such, we should welcome as many to it as we possibly can!

Crystal7431 77p • 1 day ago
Tell that to a single parent who's losing his/her child in a custody battle because he/she is Pagan. Tell that to someone who just got fired because somehow he/she was outed for being Pagan. Mainstream doesn't have to like me. Hell, for the most part, I don't like the mainstream, but as a citizen the mainstream needs to realize that I and anyone else who calls him or herself Pagan deserve equal treatment under the law.

Modred • 4 hours ago
I'm not saying discrimination doesn't stink. And I certainly think that paganism is more than a fad. I just wonder if it makes any sense for pagans (and other minorities for that matter) to fight to be accepted players in a game that is inherently flawed.

"Mainstream" is precisely what is wrong with the world. Civilization is a 10,000-year-old failed experiment, and we should be fighting to get everyone out of the game instead trying to get into it. If there were no laws there would be no custody battle. If there were no jobs, there would be nothing to lose.

Eran Rathan • 4 hours ago
Modred wrote:
If there were no laws there would be no custody battle. If there were no jobs, there would be nothing to lose.

Laws are there to protect the weaker from the stronger; to make for clear duties and responsibilities between parties, and give a way to settle disputes without going to the knife.

Look at it this way: if there were no laws, the strongest would impose their will, creating law by whim - and you end up back at the days of absolute monarchs and warlords. And look at how great those days were for things like science and medicine. *rolls eyes*

And if there were no jobs, everyone would starve.

Modred • 1 hour ago
Laws were invented by monarchs like Hammurabi and Urukagina circa 2,000 BC to maintain the status quo, which they still do. For the previous million years there were no laws and no jobs, and we made it just fine.

I apologize for touching off a mini-debate on Green Anarchy. This isn't the place for that, and I'm sorry.

My point is simply that for some pagans there is no desire to become an accepted part of the mainstream because what attracted them to paganism in the first place is that it comes from outside the religious/industrial/military/civilization complex. Every day I'm fighting for a way out -- not for a way in.

Eran Rathan • 51 minutes ago
Modred wrote:
Laws were invented by monarchs like Hammurabi and Urukagina circa 2,000 BC to maintain the status quo, which they still do.

Yes, as well as provide, in barest sense, a framework from which to enact the functions of government: 1. to provide for the common weal and defense, 2. to provide remediation of wrongs, and 3. to define contracts. One could add in define currency, but thats not technically necessary.

Modred wrote:
For the previous million years there were no laws and no jobs, and we made it just fine.

Who makes the food? Who get the best spot next to the fire in the cold months? When there is only enough food for half the tribe, who decides who gets to eat and who dies? When one person attacks another, what is their punishment to be? Even if the responses are enculturated, they are still laws (Look up 'common law', its a good place to start).

Modred • 8 minutes ago
Eran, I respect your viewpoint, but let's continue this debate elsewhere. It really isn't relevant to Jason's topic. I'll create a post to my blog called "The Anarchy Debate" and you can comment there.

Stick 'em up

2011-05-31T09:45:00.000-04:00

The other day I ordered some stickers from a sweet outfit called Peace Supplies. The stickers are quality and they arrived fast. If you want to advertise your feelings, be they political, environmental, or social, dodge on over and check them out.

Their sister-site is called World's Best Bike Stickers (www.worldsbestbikestickers.com). Why not sticker up your meat-powered two-wheeler?

Make your friends laugh and your detractors scowl. Their stickers are vinyl and are holding up nicely despite the rain.

A Prayer for Serenity

2011-05-30T07:27:00.000-04:00

Everyone knows, or has at least heard, Reinhold Niebuhr's famous Serenity Prayer. It's a mainstay in 12-step programs and the spoof-ready object of comedic skits ("Serenity now!"). The question is: why is it so all-fired popular?

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

The go-to argument in a popularity debate is the classic "it's popular, therefore it must be good" defense. I hope I don't have to point out examples -- like fast food -- to prove that the taste of the general public is far from discerning. Just because you can say "over 4 billion served" doesn't mean you're selling a quality product.

And surely everyone must realize that not every #1 artist on the Billboard charts is the next Mozart. Sorry Taylor, but Do I Make You Proud back in '06 made my ears bleed. That being said, sometimes the public gets it right. Like The Beatles' Hey Jude in '68 (and at least one other #1 hit every year from '62 to '70).

So is The Serenity Prayer a rare case of the general public getting it right, or is it popular because it appeals to the lowest common denominator?

I'm going to go with the former. The average person doesn't spend much time thinking about when it's right to change something and when it's wrong. A little prayer for insight would have been time well spent just before starting the quest for the atomic bomb, the logging of the Amazonian forests, and so on.

But something like the Serenity Prayer is especially important for us witches because we attempt to wield magic to effect change. We have to know when it's right and when it's wrong, we have to possess the courage (read "the Will") to make it so, and we may have need of a bit of serenity during those times when we simply must leave things alone.

I'm not saying you should copy the Serenity Prayer into your Black Book or Book of Shadows verbatim, just give some thought to writing a prayer of your own with a similar sentiment. It will be time well spent.

In the Drip of an Eave

2011-05-28T02:08:00.000-04:00

My next book, entitled In the Drip of an Eave, is now being proof-read and reviewed by my trusted cabal of confidants. I know I announced it would be ready in March, but it won't be available until later this summer. The reason for the delay is simple.

To say I have high hopes for the project is an understatement. My intent is to create more than a book -- to create for the reader a true witchcraft experience -- and it must be perfect.

So you might as well get barefooted and dig in your heels now, because this project is going to knock your socks off.

Virginia Tick Alert

2011-05-26T13:27:00.000-04:00

I was just outside on lunch break for 45 minutes, walking and working out in mown grass. Pulled off three ticks in the men's room when I was done. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is a record year for ticks.

One Ohio expert is predicting it will get worse and stay that way into high summer. It might be that way in Virginia as well.

Remember that Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne illness, is most often transmitted by blacklegged ticks, which are common in Virginia.

For resources, such as tick identification, tips, and prevention visit the CDC Lyme Disease page or use the widget below. Enjoy the outdoors safely!

CDC Lyme Disease Widget.
Flash Player 9 or above is required.

Half Hour Walk

2011-05-24T05:46:00.000-04:00

It's amazing what you can see on just a short walk in a suburban park. I took a half-hour walk and came across some fascinating things -- like this feather from a Red-tailed hawk.

Before I get started, let me say that this is a rough spring for ticks in Virginia. Everybody in the primitive skills community is talking about it. I've pulled off more ticks this spring than I have the last two springs combined.

Ticks will drop from trees overhead and cling to your shoes when you walk even in mowed grass, so even if you are walking in developed areas, still make sure to check yourself over -- and your dogs too -- when you come in from outside. I once got Lyme from a tick that my dog brought in. I washed up and checked myself over, then curled up on the bed with the dog. Woke up with a tick bite on my leg that had a big red ring around it. Check those dogs! And try to fall in love with a white dog (as if you had a choice, right?)

Anyway, the blackberries are in bloom, and they are everywhere. Between them and the honeysuckle (which is an Asian invasive species by the way) the air was sweet with perfume.

This is Dogbane, with the oval leaves. The split stalks yield great material for cordage. Make sure you harvest it in winter when it's dry, or cut it and let it dry before working with it (the juice can irritate your skin).

Deer tracks. If I had the time I would have followed him to his or her day bed. They are pretty fresh.

Here is a spiderwort, with the blue, three-petaled flowers. Many varieties are edible (not sure what type this is, so I didn't take a nibble).

And some wild grape. The leaf shape is a dead giveaway. You can't see it in the picture, but the vine is very woody at the base, just like the dried stuff they use to make wreaths and baskets.

See there? Just a short walk -- a half-hour investment is all -- and you can learn and see so much.

Wild & Dirty Witchcraft

2011-05-23T13:38:00.000-04:00

How wild and dirty are you getting this Spring?

Okay, get your mind out of the gutter. This blog is about witchcraft and experiencing wildness! And I'm so convinced that witches who don't spend much time outside would benefit from a change of venue that I'm going to put my handcrafts where my mouth is.

If for the next 30 days you spend at least one hour outdoors, and if you comment below expressing what you learned from the experience, I'll send you a hand-bound copy of my book Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook free of charge.

That's right. To get a free book, printed and bound by the author with his own two hands, all you have to do is spend an hour a day outside for 30 days, comment on your experience below, and send a self-addressed stamped envelope.

There's so much to do outside, so much to see, and the connection to nature is an integral part of witchcraft. If you think about it, every hour you spend outside is practically an hour spent practicing witchcraft.

Case in point: the May 2011 issue of The Cauldron features an article by Raven Grimassi called Old World Witchcraft: The Path of the Thorn-Blooded Witch. In it she discusses (among other things) the connection plants have to the shadow realm and the role they play in initiation. Really a great article, and one that makes it even more clear why experiencing wild places (and the plants and animals who live there) is so very important.

So get started. Earn a free book. And don't say I never gave you anything.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 57

2011-02-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

Fear, Intent, & Time (part 4)

How peculiar it is that so many people who claim to revere Nature and try to be at one with it will mark the solstices and celebrate the harvest festivals and planting times. They study and idolize monuments such as the pyramids of Egypt and South America, amazed their ancestors were able to construct such things to mark the time. Many consider them sacred places just for this reason. Some have even tried to attribute timekeeping capabilities to the arrangement of Stonehenge, as if this would somehow lend the place more power or significance. If you’re in touch with Nature, what do you need with a timepiece?

Timepieces are only essential if you need to know when to plant and when to harvest. Most of the great megalithic monuments were constructed during the Bronze Age, well into the Agricultural revolution. Some of them may have been, or may still be, massive and ancient timepieces. If true, they are the earliest versions of the chains people used to shackle themselves like slaves to the plow. They are nothing more than elaborate and beautiful versions of modern time clocks where workers punch in for work, out for lunch, back from lunch, and out for the day.

By now you should see that the concept of time is intertwined in every aspect of civilization and domestication. Transcend time and you will strengthen your relationship with Nature and solidify your intent.

You will be truly fearless and truly wild.

----------------------------------------------------
Well, that's the final post of Woodwitch: A Wilding Workbook. I'm all done now, and will be moving on to new adventures and new topics. I hope you've enjoyed the workbook and that you'll continue to come back often.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 56

2011-01-30T13:02:00.000-05:00

Fear, Intent, & Time (part 3)

Vengeance is a particularly strong form of premeditation that is destructive to true intent and does not exist in the natural world. If you think of your intent as a knife sheathed at your hip in case of need, then vengeful thoughts, lingering fear, anger, aggression, and premeditated acts of spiritual and physical violence can be seen as rust upon that knife. As you plot and stew and envision ultimate vengeance, you lose touch with what is present in the here and now. You aren’t keeping that knife clean, dry, sharpened, and oiled. True intent is generally associated with immediacy. Farmers slave away in the fields today because they fear and dread the future. Agriculture has stolen the resources of the future to promote today’s plenty. It takes a lot of food to feed armies, and those farms mean forests need to be cut down to make room for those fields. If you are forever thinking of the future or dwelling on the past you can’t possibly have your intent focused on the present. Leave the future to Mother Nature, practice your skills, and true intent will exist when needed.

Take for example a simple case of gift-giving. A man gets the idea to make a jewelry box as a gift for his wife. She very much needs and wants one. The design is beautiful and enchanting. He is so taken with the idea that he’s brimming with excitement. In his enthusiasm he tells her that he is going to make it and describes the design in detail. His wife is thrilled; she kisses him and praises him for his thoughtfulness. She awaits her box with anticipation. Now he’s drained. He begins to doubt if he can actually build what he has imagined and begins to fear that it won’t live up to her expectations. Every few days she asks him how it’s coming. Now he is all at loose ends. What had once been a productive, thoughtful, and uplifting project is now a chore. If he had kept his mouth shut his intent would have remained intact. He would have had no worries about the box living up to her expectations, and the possibility of her being disappointed with the final product would have been much lower. If the box had by chance not turned out as he imagined, he could have easily scrapped it and started over. He also would have had the option of giving up entirely on the idea without disappointing her. By opening his mouth he has added the chains of time. Now his wife is waiting anxiously. Saying "I am going to..." is rust upon the knife of pure intent. It robs from the present and loans to the future.

This is not to say there should be no consideration of the future whatsoever. A certain amount of planning is healthy and normal. People living in step with Nature dry meats and berries when they are plentiful in order to stay fed in lean times; squirrels lay up nuts for winter; bears store up fat for hibernation. If you really think about it, some of these activities are reactions to immediate problems like “All these berries are going to rot on the vine – I had better dry some of these and prevent them from going to waste!” or “The salmon are running now and soon they’ll be gone – I better eat as many as I can hold and store up some fat!” These days the future of our world is a real concern. Mass extinctions, global warming, and pollution are deadly issues. Ironically, if we all lived day to day and worried less about our own futures, we wouldn’t have to worry about the future of the Earth so much.

Care should be taken to distinguish between normal considerations and the kinds of obsessions and fears that put the spirit of the individual, and even the world, at risk.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 55

2011-01-23T12:57:00.000-05:00

Fear, Intent, & Time (part 2)

When you are in a tight spot, either physically or spiritually, there are varying degrees of danger. This may be obvious at times, other times less so. You can be miserably cold or dangerously cold – but is there a storm coming? “I could strangle you!” sounds a lot different when your brother says it than when a stranger does – but then again, what is the context?

Let’s go back to that big old bear example again. She could kill just about anything in the forest if she wanted to, but she doesn’t. She uses only as much force as she needs to. Of course there are a few examples of animals that are just plain mean, like the stories I’ve read about honey badgers and killer bees, but these are rare. A witch has to be a good judge of actual danger, because she works not just in the physical world but in the spiritual world as well.

The wide world of witchcraft has its never-ending debates, and they often revolve around the oft-quoted Wiccan Rede (“An it harm none do as thou wilt” or some other variation) or the Rule of Three (the idea that, for good or ill, what you give you get back threefold). There are those who say that The Rede resembles the morality of other religions because it is a universal truth, and others who say it is a shoddy imitation of The Golden Rule. Some say hexing is always wrong, others say magic is magic whether it’s black or white, and that there’s no such three-fold return. Let’s apply a little common sense to these issues by returning to the example of the bear.

If stalked by a hunter, the bear uses all of her skills to avoid danger. If she feels the hunter’s intent escalate, let’s say he fires a shot at her, her intent may flow out like a flood. She may turn on the hunter and launch an attack of her own! But there is no premeditation on the part of the bear. At each turn the bear responds immediately to what is known about the intent of the hunter. When the threat has passed, she does not dwell on what happened.

The powers of magic are subtle and slow, so using magic to defend against a physical attack is plain silly. But if you are attacked spiritually, is there a situation where it would be acceptable to launch a spiritual attack of your own? In order for you to launch an aggressive spiritual attack, you must first conceive of a ritual or spell, plan and execute a journey to the spirit world, or such like. Isn’t this kind of premeditation at odds with natural laws? I really doubt that many witches will ever find themselves in a situation where energies aren’t better spent doing something constructive in the material world instead of cursing and hexing. Better to be as the bear. Take all due precautions to avoid danger of all kinds, use contemplation and second sight to stay spiritually fit, keep the body strong to prepare for physical threats, and strip away as many layers of civilization and domestication as you can so that your natural instincts and true intent can pour out of you when needed.

All that being said, if there are situations where physical violence is justified, there must be situations where hexing and cursing are justified -- but the use of physical and spiritual violence should be equally rare. In my adult life I have had to defend myself from a serious physical attack only once. I haven’t ever felt the need to defend myself using a hex. A person who spends a great deal of time planning physical violence against others is easily seen to be sick and depraved. The same can be said of someone who spends a great deal of time contemplating spiritual violence. But if you had to defend yourself with your fists against a real threat, wouldn’t it be downright silly to suggest that you could expect a three-fold beating somewhere down the road?

In short, if you keep the Rede and refrain from cursing and hexing, do so because it makes good common sense, not because it’s a rule or because you fear a three-fold return. Show me a person who has the skills and the desire to commit malicious acts but is only held back by a couple of flimsy rules or the fear of punishment and I’ll show you someone who is in sorry spiritual shape. Make an effort to truly understand right from wrong and to live in a way that leaves your conscience clear and your heart light. That’s the witch’s way.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 54

2011-01-16T12:52:00.000-05:00

Fear, Intent, and Time (part 1)

It’s easy to say “I’m not afraid of death” when you’re young and healthy, to believe in your woodland skills when you’re in a familiar patch of woods, and so on. Things change when a real test comes along. It’s best to set up a few little tests to fail, so that you can build up more than a few layers of success and failure, failure and success. This is where real confidence comes from.

A good example is starting a fire with wet wood. Put a little dry tinder in your pack, some matches, and maybe a little of the papery outer bark from a birch tree. After a rainstorm, when the rain has stopped, get out your materials and gather what you need to start a fire. If you fail, try again. If you succeed, this time try and do it without the dry tinder from your pack. Keep working on it and eventually you’ll be able to find what you need to make a fire with a bow drill in wet woods (I’m not that good yet by the way). A time will come when you will be absolutely certain that you can start a fire at any time and under any circumstances. And you’ll be right.
I’ve used the terms “failure” and “success” loosely here to make a point. In reality there is no failure when you’re attempting a “dry run.” If you’re practicing your skills and things don’t go as planned (they rarely do), you’ve learned something at least. Next time you’ll do better because you know what went wrong and what to avoid. Now, if you’re dangerously cold and wet and you don’t get a fire started, and as a result you go hypothermic and die, that’s failure. Skills that haven’t been tested are not skills at all, but fantasies. Cycles of failure and success spiraling ever deeper are a firm foundation for unshakeable intent.

You may love this blog, understand it intellectually, and quickly get a sense of being in touch with natural laws and processes. This is a wafer thin connection to Nature that is likely to shatter quickly if next week you get stuck in the woods and have to forage for food. Queen Fay is as cruel as she is kind. She just might let you starve. You stand a better chance of earning her favor if you expose yourself, a little bit at a time, to ongoing phases of failure and success.
This holds true not just for woodland skills like starting fires, but also for subtler skills like second sight and divination. Building up layers of successes and failures one upon the other will give you the foundation you are looking for.

A witch who has braved the wear and tear of failure, success, failure, and success again, is forging true intent. Would anyone be shocked to see a captive-raised bear incapable of defending itself, unable to hunt, failing to reproduce, eating its young, or pacing madly behind the bars? Humans today are captive-raised. How difficult is it to re-introduce a captive-raised animal to its natural environment? How can you expect to possess pure and true intent, or even function normally, after reading a few books or taking a few classes? Fear of Nature and disbelief in the supernatural are taught in the schools of civilization from birth, and it’s going to take a fair amount of time and effort to unlearn it.

A big old bear of the undomesticated kind doesn’t sit and worry about her ability to defend herself or her young. If she survives an attack she doesn’t harbor vengeful thoughts. During her day, as she goes about her daily tasks of gathering food, playing, and resting she is perfecting the skills she needs if threatened. So it should be with a witch. Unfortunately your connection to your natural instincts and drives may be disconnected. As painful as it is to admit, we have all become domesticated and we have plenty of work to do in order to re-connect. If you are properly trained you’ll be able to keep yourself safe and sound without fear or hesitancy and yet be capable of accepting injury or even death without bitterness.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 53

2011-01-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

A Further Note on Holidays

There’s no doubt that many modern holidays are tied to agricultural practices like planting, harvesting, shearing, slaughtering, etc. So much of what is celebrated is in the spirit of domestication -- the exact opposite of wildness. But there’s no need to be rude and avoid the holidays that your friends and family are celebrating just because they don’t see the world exactly the way you do. You can have your own private holidays on your own time (see last week's post for details) and still participate courteously in theirs. I’m sure you can see something in them that you haven’t seen before if you make an effort. Research and learn the origins of some of the popular holidays and you may be able to appreciate them more. Even very commercial holidays, like Valentine’s Day for example, may have fascinating origins making them more than just moneymakers for greeting card companies. With a little care you can breathe sacred life into holidays that at first glance may just seem like arbitrary dates on the agricultural calendar.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 52

2011-01-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

Holidays for the Upcoming Year

This is a new year, and you might want to give consideration to creating some new holidays this year -- perhaps acknowledging some important days from the past year. I have some holidays that are important to me but no one else -- and you may enjoy doing the same.

I wait for the first frost of the Fall, and the next full moon I celebrate Halloween. I connect with the spirits of the dead, pay homage to deceased loved ones, and always connect with the spirit world. My private Yule celebration is after the first snowfall, or whenever I sense the time is right. Hunters are coming in with venison, there are plenty of stored nuts and dried fruit to enjoy, and the wine I made in Summer is aged enough to drink. This is a time for me to reflect on the sacrifices made by plants and animals to sustain me through the winter (especially the sacrifice made by Old Buck), to feast and enjoy cozy comforts to counteract the cold air and gray Virginia skies. The moon or so between the falling of the Red Maple’s flowers and the falling of the whirligigs or “keys” is the period of my Spring-time observance. Far from being a time of fertility (although the promise of returning growth is worth acknowledging), this is a somber and reflective time for me. In times past, people would have been running out of stored foods, yet plant life was not yet in its splendor. During these weeks I concentrate on solidifying my intent, pushing myself with physical tests, setting aside time for solitude and contemplation, and making do with what is on hand even more than usual. I usually don’t practice my second sight much during this period. For me it is a time to ground myself and experience the physical world. When the blackberries ripen it’s time to celebrate returning life and fertility, which I do on the first full moon after I notice the purplish-black tartness. On the first new moon after the bats return, I take this night to connect and thank my familiars in a special way, to celebrate the night, to practice divination, and to let my spirit fly.

I could relate more, but my concern is that you will make my observances into your rules and regulations, which would be a very bad thing for you! You need to create your own holidays and festivals based on your land, your life experiences, your contacts with the spirit world, and your folkways. Do things that make sense to you. Look for the return of lightning bugs, mosquitoes, and crickets after their absence in the winter. When do the holly berries turn red? When do the hickory nuts fall? Have you noticed the crayfish spawning in the shallows? When is the season’s first thunder storm? When do the birds fly south, and when do they return? Which birds stay for the winter? Should you acknowledge things that happen out of turn, like snowfalls in Spring, thunderstorms in Winter, nuts that fall earlier in the year than usual? Did you come across a rare creature, plant or stone, or did you spot a material counterpart of a familiar?

You must ask yourself questions like these and determine the real importance of what you observe. Certainly you see that it makes no sense to copy a holiday celebration out of a book about some ancient time or place that has no real connection to you. Take the time to notice the world around you and to make your holidays relevant. In this way you can make the kind of connections in your holidays and festivals that reinforce sacred experience.
List below the makings of some personal holidays: milestones of your spiritual life, seasonal events that are important to you, etc.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 51

2010-12-26T12:38:00.000-05:00

To Learn, or Increase Affinity for, The Tarot

At the same time every day, light a candle on your altar, take the top card from your Tarot deck, and stand it up against the candle so that you can clearly see it. Sit and regard the card carefully, considering the symbolism that is apparent in the artwork, and thinking about the possible meanings. When you’re done, extinguish the candle and put the card on the bottom of the deck. For the remainder of the day, see if you can spot images in the world around you that mirror those on the card, and if you dream that night, see if you can find parallels between the images on the card and those in your dream. Repeat this each day for 78 days until you have completed the exercise once for each card in the deck.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 50

2010-12-19T12:36:00.000-05:00

To Build a Connection with Plants

Go for a walk and find a naturally occurring plant and remember its location. If you like, promote its continued survival by clearing space around it to grow. Do not harvest any of the plant unless you are in serious need. If you do, use care and caution and do no harm. Before harvesting any plant always ask if you may have a clipping or two, “listen” carefully for an answer, and heed the reply. Return on foot to check on it every day or week depending on how far it is from your home. Establish a relationship, give it a name, and remember it in your prayers, blessings, and offerings.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 49

2010-12-12T12:35:00.000-05:00

A Ritual To Build Confidence in Your Witching Skills

Find a small stick and carve hashes in it each time to practice a skill. See how many hashes you can put in it over the course of moon cycle. Store your stick in a safe and secret place (see the Arts and Crafts section for instructions on making a Box of Secrets). When you are feeling disconnected spiritually, get out your stick and hold it, letting your fingers play over the carved ridges, recalling the endeavors that the marks symbolize. If you feel the need, do the ritual again, this time making your marks starting on the other end or on the other side.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 48

2010-12-05T12:31:00.000-05:00

Rituals and Holidays

The word “ritual” implies a regular and repetitive act, something that you do over and over again at certain intervals, like the nightly ritual of brushing your teeth before you go to bed, the weekly trip to the grocery store, and so on. But it also implies a spiritual component, which explains why it’s used humorously in expressions like “his hourly hair-combing ritual” or “her weekend car washing ritual.”

Doing something the same way every time and at regular intervals has a profound effect on the mind and the body. When the ritual has to be broken due to something unexpected, you experience a sense of being off balance, as though something isn’t right. But when you add a spiritual component you engage yourself intellectually, spiritually, and physically, and create the ideal ritual. Rituals of this kind are powerful indeed.

The difference between a ritual and a holiday can be a little blurry. Often we celebrate holidays and festivals in the same way each time at about the same time each year. Holidays and festivals only have an objective in the vaguest sense – to celebrate something, to have fun, or to express thanks – and are relatively infrequent. A ritual, however, is set apart from the others by two important things: a more frequent interval and a specific goal. When these significant differences come together properly a unique power results.

Create your own rituals to suit your needs. But when you do, make sure they involve and engage you on all levels and that you repeat them at intervals that you can measure without a clock or calendar – at a specific time each day, before meals, every full moon, at each of the four moon phases (new, first quarter, full, and second quarter), etc.

There are times when a ritual has been followed for so long that it ceases to carry any weight, and it degrades into dogma, as empty of significance as avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk or having the same thing for lunch every day. To prevent this, change your rituals slightly after a time. Keep them fresh and new in small ways. And remember, a ritual doesn’t have to go on forever. It might run for one moon cycle, or for just one season of the year. A really intense ritual that is packed with energy sometimes can’t be maintained and doesn’t need to be. Rituals should be the most fun, rewarding, and practical activities you enjoy.

Next time I'll give you some sample rituals.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 47

2010-11-28T12:30:00.000-05:00

A Bag of Bones

Gather things that you find on your frequent visits to the woods or on your long walks. Take your time and accumulate a small bag of items over a period of months – a colorful stone or two, an empty snail shell, a tiny scrap of driftwood, a coin, a little plastic toy, a screw or nail, or the like. You should be able to remember where and how each object was found. The day after a heavy spring storm, I was on a walk and came to a place where a creek had overflowed and pushed a wide swath down through an adjacent gravel lot. As I was coming up the muddy wash I saw jutting out of the muck a skull and crossbones charm made of purple plastic. What a peculiar find, and how ripe with symbolism! You may prefer natural things like shells and stones as I do, but don’t turn up your nose at man-made items that have been blown about by wind and kissed by rain. Mother Nature has put her mark on them, and they may be there for a reason after all. And there’s also the fact that you are relieving the world of another bit of litter.
The entire bagful should be able to fit in your pocket. Make sure that the count of the items is odd in number, not too few or too many, say 9, 11, or 13. Before you add an item to your bag, make sure that it is roughly equivalent in size and weight to the other objects, that you cleanse it physically and spiritually before putting it in, and that you spend ample time contemplating its deepest symbolism first.

To practice divination, place the contents of the bag into your hand and think about the subject you wish to inquire about. Clear other subjects from your mind and open up your second sight. You may want to ritually clear the area or spend some time in contemplation first. When you are ready, toss the objects before you so that they are spread out into an area about the size of a serving platter.

Study their relationships and see what impressions you receive. You may see a pathway or pathways between the items, or see one item overlapping another. For example, if you have in your kit a snail shell resting partially atop a tiny toy soldier you may be avoiding a confrontation. Consider what the items mean to you and use common sense. A screw might mean work, pain, a slowly progressing situation, or something else entirely depending on context.

Once you have taken your time and put together a divination set as outlined above, contemplate a problem, situation, or course of action on which you’d like to get some special insight and “roll the bones” as the saying goes. Sketch the layout of the objects in the space on the next page and record your interpretation. Be open and intuitive, be cognizant of context, and practice often. In time you will find your divination skills are better than you thought possible.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 46

2010-11-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the break in posts -- let's get back on track with the next part on...

Divination

Divination is the art of using second sight to gain new perspectives of the past or present, or even glimpses of the future. Once again, keen observation skills are your greatest asset. In order to practice any form of divination you need to have some affinity for what colors, numbers, and various symbols mean to you. Obviously different things mean different things to different people – a spider might be an object of terror to you, but to me a spider is an omen of good luck, especially when you are looking for some spider webs to help you staunch the flow blood from an annoying cut as the old folks used to do. Most importantly, a witch needs to be open to all of the signs that can be detected using all of the senses. This means being open to signs and symbolism, not just when you have divination tools spread out on the table top in front of you, but at all times. I shudder to think how many times I have been sent an important sign but was too engrossed in something like writing this book to pick up on it. If you allow yourself, you can learn to practice divination of a sort anytime you feel the need to, and with no tools at all.

Vision is powerful, but how about hearing? What feelings does it evoke when you hear cats mating in the alleyway? A coyote’s call? The whizzing of cicadas? Smell can be the most evocative sense of all, and the most variable by person. You might catch a whiff of pipe tobacco and be moved to think of your beloved grandfather while a friend beside you might be revolted to nausea. Scent is crucial in the animal kingdom, and it likely was a sense that humans once relied upon heavily in the days before human noses were hardened by perfumes and deodorants. And what about touch? I was recently sick in bed with a fever, and my youngest daughter came in, unafraid of catching my cold, and placed her cool hands on my face. This is great medicine, the best there is. Open yourself to all of the things that come your way and you will further your divination skills beyond measure.

There are many ways of practicing divination – by cards, pools of water, crystal balls, throwing tiles or stones, and so on. Later I’m going to propose a special way to use divination, but first things first. Below you will find helpful lists to use as a starting point for your study of symbolism. Read through these lists, contemplate and study them. Cross out or change the ones that you disagree with, and write in any other associations that make sense to you.

Colors

black: banishing, hexing, death, rebirth, darkness, sorrow, the night _______________
blue: water, calm, openness, flexibility, afternoon ___________________________
brown: earth, rest, stillness, silence, fall ___________________________________
green: success, growth, fertility, the morning, summer_________________________
grey: wisdom, old age, balance, patience, approaching storms ____________________
orange: energy, excitement, activity, sunrise ________________________________
pink: friendship, love, peace, happiness, beauty ______________________________
purple: power, strength, leadership, courage, sunset ___________________________
red: lust, anger, zeal, and other powerful emotions, fire _________________________
white: purity, hope, birth, marriage, cold, winter ______________________________
yellow: contemplation, sunshine, youth, noon, lightning, spring ___________________

Numbers

1. Individuality, completeness, independence___________________________________
2. Couples and pairs, duality, balance, confrontation ______________________________
3. The holy number, blessings, destiny_______________________________________
4. Stagnation, stability, justice, uniformity _____________________________________
5. Enlightenment, perfection, mystery _______________________________________
6. Dogma, control, organization, law _________________________________________
7. Luck, hope, material success ____________________________________________
8. Infinity, entropy, curses, fate ___________________________________________
9. Thrice blessed, healing, joy, rapture _______________________________________

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 38

2010-06-18T08:25:00.000-04:00

Perception Exercise #2

After you have worked the previous exercise a few times, try it at night without the blindfold in a familiar spot as before. Do so several times, say several times over the course of a couple of weeks. Gradually begin to expand the range of this practice – do it farther from home in less familiar places, while walking instead just sitting, on nights of the New Moon when it is dark, and so on. Start with baby steps and progress. Again, never try to explain away what you experience. Your experiences are real and they are what make your life wondrous, mysterious, and sacred. As always, record what you sense in your journal, Black Book, or Book of Shadows.

The children of Queen Fay -- drought, flood, fire, ice, doldrums, storm, fortune, catastrophe, privation, and plenty -- are all lurking in the skirts of Queen Fay, ready to come out for play in our world at any time. She may hold them back and make them stay home until after lunch, but sooner or later she will let them run wild. If you find her in some lonely place she may have a smile or a frown for you depending on her mood, the care you take while in her company, and your ability to listen to what she is telling you each and every day.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 37

2010-06-11T08:18:00.000-04:00

Perception Exercise #1

During misbegotten moments late at night, those times when most people would tell you that you have no business being out of bed, we have all experienced something unexpected: a movement sensed more than seen, a swish at the corner of your eye, an exhalation of breath that is not your own, the impression that someone is sitting next to you. Children have these impressions often. Modern parents tell their children it is all imagination and encourage them to ignore their instincts and think pleasant thoughts while slipping back between the sheets. You may have told your children this, or even yourself, just to try and force an unexplained experience back into the mold of the expected.

For people living in a time before sturdy doors, central heat and air conditioning, or even window screens, blurry echoes and vague inklings could not be ignored, and the sounds of the night could not be shut out even if it was safe to do so. There were predators, scavengers, and potential meals to be aware of. Children had to learn from their parents not how to ignore the world around them but instead how to tell the ominous from the harmless, the rustle of leaves from the bustle of The Dark Madonna’s dress, the crack of a stick from the snap of elfin fingers. I don’t believe that the ancients could conceive of an imaginary sight, sound, or sensation, or that they made statements like “I thought I heard something.” How silly and in the face of common sense it is to try and convince yourself that you did not hear the thing you heard or feel the thing you felt! Nothing has changed since those days except the viewpoints and skills of the observers. For them the line between the material world and the spiritual was blurry if they even differentiated at all. Everything was real and important. And still is.

Rather than turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to what Mother Nature is saying to us, begin today to heed the communications that are coming your way. Impressions like the ones described above are to be had during the day as well as at night, although they may be less frequent during the daylight hours when there is so much more distracting activity and light. Experience is all around you begging to get into your head if you will only open up.

Obviously you should begin by no longer trying to explain away all of the little things. But one beginning exercise is to go outside and have a comfortable seat in a protected area such as a balcony, porch, or patio during the day. Cover your eyes with a scarf or bandana. Since it is daytime in a relatively safe and familiar spot, you will have taken out the element of fear and freed up some brain power for concentration. You will have also reduced the amount the information coming at you, allowing you to more easily focus on senses other than sight. Sit and try to make sense of what you detect. What is going on around you? Do this anytime, and make notes in your journal or Black Book.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 36

2010-06-04T08:13:00.000-04:00

Spiritual Tracking Exercise

One evening about sundown, light a candle and sit facing away from it in a comfortable chair. Imagine you are a living in a simpler time when your life depends on the flesh of Old Buck -- the biggest and most elusive and beautifully racked buck in the forest -- a time without markets and cars, without farms and guns, when your understanding of his habits and behaviors would have been essential to getting close enough to him in order to strike with your simple weapons.

See yourself in the woods and conceive of the conflicting feelings caused by the urgency of your need for food and the necessity to remain calm and patient or risk spooking him. Imagine all of the sights, smells, and sounds of the forest. See him before you as you draw an arrow or cast a spear.

Now he is wounded – imagine how your heart races as he starts and runs. You have to follow without making any errors in judgment or the meal that you and your family are depending upon will escape. When at length you finally come upon his lifeless body in the thicket, how do you feel? Is there conflict in your heart knowing that you have silenced a life, yet at the same time you have provided nourishment for yourself and others?

Now imagine that you have dressed your game and that you and your family have filled your bellies. You have lain down next to your loved ones for some well deserved rest. Tired from your day, you fall asleep.

You dream the strangest dream…your spirit has descended deep into the Earth, and wandering there for a time you come upon Old Buck standing all alone in a patch of tall grass and the netherworld. It seems to you that he could almost speak; he is unafraid, and doesn’t run away as you approach. The closer you get the more you sense that he is intelligent, more so than you ever could have guessed. He tosses his head lightly, and to your surprise, you can hear his voice inside your head. What does he say to you?

You stir from your waking dream and find that you are back in the present. Jot down your experiences, thoughts, and feelings in your journal.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 35

2010-05-28T08:08:00.000-04:00

The God (cont'd)

Building on the tracking exercise, when you've spotted a wild buck take three pinches of soil from the base of his tracks and place them in a small cloth bag. Tie it shut with red yarn or thread. This little bag will have many uses as a powerful reminder of what you observed and experienced. Place it on your altar during holiday celebrations that involve the God, or put in under your pillow with a sprig of dried vervain to dream of him.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 34

2010-05-22T08:06:00.000-04:00

Physical Tracking Exercise

This exercise centers involves observing a wild buck in his habitat. You needn’t be far out in the country for this. I once found deer tracks and spoor in an urban park no more than an acre in size! During your daytime walks look for tracks near streams and ponds, on trails near mud puddles, or anyplace where prints can be easily spotted. Everyone knows what deer tracks look like; the two semi-circular shapes stand out very clearly in soft soil, clay dirt, or snow. Make a note of the location and come back before dawn.

If it’s cold outside dress very warmly with plenty of layers. As I’ve said before, if your feet, head, and hands are warm and dry then you are warm and dry. Pay special attention to these three parts of your body when going about in the cold and wet. Also be careful not to dress so warmly that you perspire and become wet on your way to the location. Hypothermia is no joke, and you will get cold very quickly if you’ve gotten yourself soaked in sweat beneath your clothes. Take a backpack with emergency equipment with which to start a fire if need be, and shed layers if you begin to sweat as you walk (stowing them in your pack as you go).

When you get near the location where you spotted the tracks, get in a comfortable position and remain perfectly still – unless of course you get cold. If so, add the layers of clothing you removed and stowed in your backpack. You can sit with your back against a tree for example. Try to place yourself downwind from the tracks so that your smell doesn’t blow across the spot where you saw the tracks.

You may need to perform this exercise many times before you catch sight of him, but when you do it will be worth the wait. Record your observations and thoughts here.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 33

2010-05-14T06:25:00.000-04:00

The God

One of the most powerful and readily seen symbols of the God is the wild male deer. In days gone by humans got their meat and its life-giving fat from hunting and scavenging. As they began to domesticate animals, meat was herded and raised. This was a far cry from hunting, but still nothing at all like the supermarkets in which most people shop these days. We are so removed from the hunting process that we may have a little trouble appreciating some of the subtle symbolism of the buck, but if we think deeply we can reconnect to the way our ancestors felt about him – ancestors for whom venison of one species or other was life itself.

He starts his morning in the East, meandering slowly in the direction of the westward waters. We track him and stalk him all day but he is elusive. We catch a glimpse of him in the morning light. How his antlers present themselves like the rays of the dawn, resembling the flames of ever-reaching fires! Finally, just before sundown, we loose an arrow and he is wounded. We track him until he falls, and by the bright red splash of sunset he gives up his life that we might live through the nourishment of his flesh and learn from the example of his sacrifice.

Those parts of him we cannot consume, feed to the dogs, or make use of in some way are tossed into the very fire over which his flesh is cooked. By night his spirit rests far underground in places where fires always and ever burn. During this time, those of us who can traverse the barriers between worlds can venture there, sit by his side, and hear his secret teachings. Tomorrow he emerges, re-born and whole, alive to be hunted again.

Spend some time thinking about the similarities between the description you just read and the Gods, Devils, and other powers that are a part of religions past and present. Record your thoughts in your diary or journal.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 32

2010-05-07T06:18:00.000-04:00

A Box of Secrets

You will need:

A sturdy cardboard box with a lid
Assorted craft paints and brushes (or sponges)
Decorations if desired
Enough cloth to cover the inside of the box (and lid if you wish)
Glue (hot glue if you have it)
Scissors

A hiding place to put special treasures, a home for sacred items, a nest for delicate things to be kept safe – that is a box of secrets. Every wood witch can make use of one. When made yourself from what you have around the house it becomes the perfect sanctuary for small and hallowed belongings.

Start by putting your hands on a sturdy cardboard box with a lid. A shoebox will do nicely; mine is made from the box my boots came in. Paint the outside of the box and the lid any way you like using brushes, sponges, stencils, etc. Express yourself fully and make the box’s appearance appealing to you. Let it dry thoroughly and if then if you like you can add other decorations of course: beads, feathers, bones, sequins, dried or paper flowers, paper or cloth shapes, twigs, leaves, or what-have-you. Apply some kind of clear-coat on top the paint to prevent wear and tear.

The next step is to cover the inside with cloth (Fig. 1 below). You can use any kind of material, but you will find it easier to work with something that does not stretch and is heavy (so that glue doesn’t absorb fully and come through to the front side). An old shirt, dress, or pair of pants that are ready for the trash heap would be good. You can also purchase something from a yard sale, like drapes or a tablecloth, and cut that up to line the interior. First you are going to flip the box over and proceed as though about to cover it with your cloth. Drape the cloth over the box wrong side out. Fold and trim the cloth and glue it to itself but not to the box (Figs. 2 & 3).

When the glue is dry, remove the cloth, turn the box right side up, and put the cloth inside. It should fit rather nicely with only a little puckering. Glue the cloth the inside of box around the top edge (Fig. 4). You may paint the inside of the lid, cut a rectangular piece of the cloth the same size as the inside of the lid and glue it in place, or leave the inside of the lid plain.

There may be a residual odor of glue or paint inside the box for a few weeks. You can remedy this by putting a bundle of mint, lavender, rosemary, or other dried herbs inside. Before you use it, have a ceremony to bless and consecrate the box, and give thanks for the blessings you receive.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 31

2010-04-30T06:09:00.000-04:00

A Coiled Basket

You will need:

* Clean, dry pine needles (or other suitable material)
* A good heavy needle
* Sturdy thread
* Scissors

Whether you are out and about gathering herbs, foraging for berries, or you just need something to put on the table to hold your fruit or some seasonal decorations, a nice basket is hard to beat for beauty and practicality. Coiled baskets are especially good for small items as they are tight and sturdy. A finely constructed coiled basket made of pine needles will even hold water. Not that you have to use pine needles of course. Anything that will compress, flex, and allow itself to be coiled and stitched will work. I have a basket that’s a real conversation starter – it’s made from a mixture of pine needles, scraps of cloth, string, yarn, and ribbon. It looks like a bird made a nest out of scraps from a seamstress’ floor!

A coiled basket is nothing but a spiral of material sewed to itself as you go along. A flat bottom is coiled first, then sides that slope upward until a bowl is formed. When the desired height is reached, the coil is looped to make a handle and the basket is done.

Start by threading a needle with strong thread. Take up a bit of material (say 5 to 10 pine needles or the equivalent) about the diameter of a pencil. Fold it into a “J” shape (Fig. 1). Wrap the free end of the thread around the folded end of the material. This “knot” will be the center of the bottom of the basket (Fig. 2). Tie it off neatly and you are ready to begin coiling (Fig. 3).
Keep the material bunched in a nice round tubular shape as you wrap around the coil and run a stitch through the center knot (Fig. 4). As you progress, make sure that you align your stitches and that you grab just enough of the previous row’s material to be sturdy without making the stitches sloppy (see square inset to the right of Fig. 1). Your needle will pierce the previous row at an angle so that the thread enters and exits at just the right spot to be lined up perfectly.

The illustrations, for clarity’s sake, exaggerate the distance between stitches; in actuality you will need to place your stitches very close together at the start. Why? Because since your stitches are lined up, the bigger the basket gets the greater the distance between them! If you start with your stitches wide apart, by the time you finish there will too much distance between them and the basket won’t be held together tightly. Fig. 5 shows what your basket will look like after a few rows. Notice how, with each stitch lined up with the one before it, there is a lovely spiral pattern to the threadwork.

To add new material to the coil, just get another pinch of whatever you are using, overlap about a bit, and keep on coiling. You can shuffle the material together to hide the transition, or you can make it stand out in a striking way if you like. Either way, it’s rather important to make sure that the width of the coil is consistent. If the coil gets fatter or thinner in some places the basket will be lopsided.

When the coil is big enough to be the base of the basket it’s time to begin sloping upward to make the sides. Fig. 6 shows how the coils should be progress upward to make the sides slope, and also a cut-away view of the stitching.

Once your basket has reached the desired size and shape you will add the handle. Refer to Fig. 7 for the proper direction to loop the handle. At “A” the coil leaves the basket to turn up and over, making the first half of the handle. During this phase, wrap the thread around the material as tightly as possible to hold the material in place. At “B” your coil rejoins and basket and goes about the rim; at “C” it once again leaves the basket and is stitched to the first half of the handle, thereby completing it; and finally, at “D” it comes back to the basket itself and is stitched in place. Fig. 8 and the drawing at the top show the finished basket with and without detail.

Your first basket will probably be a little rough around the edges, but later you can make one that is even better. A fine coiled basket will take many hours to make but will be a long-lasting and beautiful work of art that you will treasure for years to come.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 30

2010-04-23T05:55:00.000-04:00

Leaf Stamps

You will need:

* Rectangular scraps of wood a few inches across
* Dry leaves (the more texture the better)
* White glue

Match the leaves to scraps of wood that are big enough to hold them. Put a thin layer of white glue on the leaf and a thin layer on the wood as well, then put the leaf in place. If the leaf is a bit too wavy, turn the stamp upside down and place a stone on top to keep it flat until dried. Once dry, buy or make an ink pad and use your stamps to decorate your diary, journal, plant book, Grimoire, Book of Shadows, etc. Below are some impressions made by leaf stamps I made using this method. Helpful hint: moisten your stamps with a damp sponge before pressing them to your ink pad – the leaves will absorb less ink and the impressions will transfer more easily.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 29

2010-04-13T06:02:00.000-04:00

Paper Making

You will need:

A rectangular basin
An old wooden picture frame that fits inside the basin
A scrap of screen wire big enough to cover the frame
A staple gun or tacks and tack-hammer
Paper scraps
A blender
Plenty of clean dry towels

Cover your picture frame in screen wire and staple along the edge as shown (Figs. 1 & 2 below). Make sure that it fits neatly in your basin (Fig. 3). Tear used paper of various kinds into confetti-sized bits and mix it with water in the blender, adding dyes made from local plants if desired. When the mixture (“pulp”) is smooth and colored to your taste, pour it into your basin. It should be rather thin, more like chicken soup than gravy.

Place the picture frame in the basin, lifting and sifting until the screen is covered in a layer of pulp (Fig. 5). Remove the screen from the basin and press out the water with a cloth (Fig. 6). Peel the pulp from the screen (Fig. 7) and allow it to dry for a few hours between layers of towel with a weight on top. This will keep the sheets flat and press out any lingering water (Fig. 8). After a few hours, take them out and lay them to dry on fresh towels. If they aren’t flat when completely dry, stack them up and weight them for a few days.

You will appreciate the paper you make this way, and the trees it came from, more fully than ever before.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 28

2010-04-06T05:57:00.000-04:00

Arts and Crafts

Making things – all kinds of things – isn’t just a cute way to pass the hours. It’s more efficient than buying things that have to be manufactured and shipped, it sharpens valuable real-world skills, builds independence and self esteem, and it’s a great way to get involved and bond with friends and family. Most importantly, arts and crafts will get your head and hands working together in creative and spiritual ways.

Taking a basket you made yourself and filling it with symbolic things to decorate your table for a holiday makes the occasion so much more personal and wondrous. Picking up a walking stick you carved with your own hands gives you an extra physical and spiritual leg to stand on instead of the purely physical aid you get from a store-bought one. Even if you aren’t very crafty and what you make doesn’t turn out just the way you imagined, whatever it is will be yours alone and will be directly tied to you.

Obviously this isn’t an arts and crafts book, but the crafting experience is so central to the idea of witching that I felt I should include some projects you might readily benefit from and enjoy.

Making Blessed Oil

Making blessed oils with a pleasant scent from natural materials is challenging only because there are so few wild plants that give up their aromatic oils without having to resort to distillation with chemical apparatus. However most places have at least a few wild plants that you can easily find and use for this purpose, and you can also use plants and flowers from your flower or herb garden. Taking the time and effort to make your own blessed oils builds confidence, focuses intent, and breathes life into the rituals and spells whenever they are used.

The stronger the smell the better. I generally choose plants in the mint family, especially spearmint and bee balm. Bee balm is especially nice because it so good for the skin. Mints are easily identified by their distinctive smell, square stems, and leaves in opposing pairs. As always, consult a couple of good field guides for sure identification of wild plants, or better still, take a class in wild plant identification. You need to absolutely sure that whatever plants you use to make your oils are safe for external use. Many public parks and recreation departments give free wild plant walks. Ask a park ranger about upcoming walks, or inquire if there is someone on staff who has the time to take a walk with you.

Wild flower blossoms such dandelion, honeysuckle, clover, violet, and chicory can be used, as well as garden flowers such as marigold, rose, lavender, carnation, jasmine, and lilac. You can also use culinary herbs such as rosemary.

Test for allergies before using the oils you make. Rub a drop of the oil on the inside of your wrist and wait three days. If irritation or rash develops, you are either allergic or if you have incorrectly identified the plant, flower, or herb that you used! Never consume your homemade oils you make – they are for anointing your body and blessing objects only.

Gather your plants when the moon is full, and hang them in a cool dry place where the air circulates. Note that many flowers will quickly lose their smell when dried, but making oils with fresh un-dried materials will often make your oils prone to going rancid. When they are crisp and dry, place the plant materials in a jar. You can use whole flowers or buds (they look very pretty in the oil as well), or you can crumble, crush, or even chop your materials to fit more into your jar.

Cover them with oil. Olive is best, but you can use another if you like. Your grandmother would have used lard, goose fat, or chicken fat, and you can too if you want to do it the old-fashioned way. Animal fats need to be rendered first to remove water and impurities (consult a good cookbook for instructions on how to render various fats). Once rendered and cooled, warm the fat or lard until it can be stirred easily (not too hot, no hotter than you can tolerate by touch) and fold in the dry plant material, then pack by spoonfuls into your jar. Put the jar in a cool dark place and allow it to steep for at least two weeks.

After two weeks your oils will be ready to be blessed. Prepare your altar as you would for any important ceremony – select an appropriate altar cloth and candles, statuary, open a circle if you like, and so on. Tailor the specifics to the type of oil you are consecrating. If you are blessing a flower oil to be used for attraction or arousal, you might choose red or pink cloth and candles; for high oil to be used on a holiday, gold or silver altar dressings, etc.

Place the jar of oil on your altar and spend some time in quiet prayer and contemplation. You are going to need the help of a higher power or powers in order to bless your oil, so again, tailor the divine power whose aid you request to the type of oil you are blessing. When you feel a connection to divinity say some simple words to accomplish the task. For high oil you might say something on the order of,

“Lord and Lady, I pray this oil is suitable in your sight, and beg for your aid as I bless and consecrate this oil for use in my workings. May it may be free from the influences of evil forces and carry with it your divine presence and grace. By your might and by my will it is so.”

Give verbal thanks for the help you received, and also make an offering of burning incense or scattered food for birds and squirrels. Sprinkle or pour three drops of oil on the ground to share the blessing you received with the Earth. Close the ceremony in keeping with your own traditions.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 27

2010-03-30T05:47:00.000-04:00

A Fitness Ritual

The following ritual program is designed to be used when you feel as though you are out of physical and spiritual shape and want to get yourself on track. Perhaps you are on a fitness plateau and want to break through to a higher level, or it has been awhile since you’ve exercised and you need to get back in the swing of things. Or maybe you’ve never even tried to get in shape and you want to get started. If you’re new to exercise, always be sure to consult a qualified health professional before beginning an exercise regimen. And be prepared for soreness – if you are unaccustomed to exercise you will be sore after exercise.

Wait until you sense the time is right to begin this program. For example, you might want to start when the moon is in new so that your strength waxes as the moon does; or, if you need to lose weight, you may want to start when the moon is full and encourage your waistline to wane in unison with the face of the moon. If there is something on your schedule that could interfere with the program (an upcoming vacation, holiday, or a trip perhaps) you may want to wait and start after these are behind you.

What you are going to do is make a commitment to exercise every other day for 18 days, and you are going to perform a ritual to insure that you have what it takes to stick with the plan to the end. You will need:

* Three candles (blessed and dressed if that’s how you do things): purple, white, and red.
* A piece of slender cord about two feet in length
* Blessed oil

Place the candles on your altar in a triangular configuration, white in the rear, red on the left, and purple on the right (white for purity and devotion, red for passion, flesh and blood, and purple for power). If you do not have an altar, use a clean cloth such as a scarf or placemat, or other sacred space. Coil the cord and place it in the center of the triangle formed by the candles.
Light the white candle, and as you do so, think about how much better you will feel after 18 days of this new exercise routine. Imagine the cleansing sensation caused by the exercise, the feeling of your body being rung out like a wash rag. Explore this line of thought thoroughly before moving on.

Light the red candle, and as you do so, think about why it is important for you to finish this program. Think about the sacrifices you will have to make in order to succeed -- time, discomfort, sweat, etc. -- why you are willing to make them, and how vital it is to you. Explore this line of thought thoroughly before moving on.

Light the purple candle, and as you do so, visualize yourself as being powerful, able to complete your program without difficulty. Imagine how you will feel when you have reached your goal. Enjoy the sensation and explore this line of thought thoroughly before moving on.

Pick up the cord. Imagine yourself completing the first workout easily. Visualize your spiritual power increasing, and tie a knot near one end saying, “With this attempt my prowess waxes – may it be so.” Anoint the knot with a tiny dot of blessed oil, and then touch the knot to your forehead between your eyes. Imagine yourself completing the next workout more easily than the last, your physical and spiritual power increasing even more, and tie a knot a little farther down the cord saying, “With this attempt my prowess waxes – may it be so.“ As before, anoint the knot with a tiny bit dot of oil, and touch the knot to your forehead between your eyes. Take your time.

Continue until a total of nine knots have been tied in the cord, each one anointed and touched to your forehead, each one symbolizing the intent that you are building up and binding for release later.

Contemplate the significance of the ritual and enjoy the experience. Do not rush. Allow the candles to burn for a short while before extinguishing them (do not leave candles unattended).
Keep the cord in a safe and secret place. After each exercise session, untie one knot. When all the knots are untied you will have been successful, or you will have at least set a firm foundation for success in the future. If for some reason you miss a session due to something beyond your control, an illness, an emergency, etc., exercise the next day and keep going until all of the knots are untied to release the bound up energy; but definitely repeat the ritual and try again.

Once you have successfully completed the program – exercising every other day for 9 workouts in 18 days, keep the cord as a reminder of what you achieved.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 26

2010-03-23T05:44:00.000-04:00

Fitness Trails and Trail Running

When you reach a point where you are getting bored and aren’t challenged by several hours of walking or by an hour climbing and descending stairs (with your weighted pack of course), seek out a park or recreation area with an outdoor fitness trail. There are several of these in my city, with periodic stations to stop and do various exercises and calisthenics. If there is one near you, walk the fitness trail with your backpack on, performing the exercises at each station as directed. If calisthenics are new to you it might be a good idea to start working your chosen fitness trail with an empty pack, increasing the weight slowly as outlined in the previous section.

One of my favorite things to do is trail running. I often pick a trail through the woods with interesting features and obstacles. First I walk it carefully several times and note all of the details. I poke around with my stick and find any holes that are covered by leaves and debris. Once I have the route fixed in my head, I then run the trail as fast as I can, jumping or vaulting over logs, ducking under limbs or swinging on them to get over barriers, hopping stones over creeks, practicing balance by skipping lengthwise along logs, and so forth. When I get winded I walk until my breath comes back, then run again, going back and forth on the trail and alternating walking and running. This is fantastic exercise and good practice for anyone who wants to be fit for woodland trips.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 25

2010-03-16T05:35:00.000-04:00

Fitness

Fitness, to most people, means looking good in your bathing suit. Everyone cares about how they look to some extent, and there’s nothing wrong with that within reason. But unless he or she is a professional model or actor, a witch should be focused on practicality. To the question “Are you fit?” a witch’s definition should sound something like “Fit to do what?”

What are the activities you want to be fit to do, and what can you do to prepare yourself for them? At a minimum, a witch needs to be able to cover ground outdoors for a reasonable distance, to hike and carry what’s needed while doing so. A little strength and endurance is needed in order to be safe and to enjoy outdoor activities like hiking to sacred and scenic places, making shelter, gathering wild herbs and plants, hunting and fishing, and so on. And like any healthy animal, a witch should be strong enough to defend herself if need be.

Here are some things you can do to prepare yourself for these activities. Always consult a health professional before beginning an exercise program.

Hiking practice

Collect a dozen or two used one pint (500 ml) plastic drink bottles. Begin walking with a backpack several times each week. Every second or third walk, fill one of the bottles with water (make sure the lid is on tightly!) and add it to your pack. Over the course of a couple of months you will gradually prepare yourself to hike while carrying a considerable weight on your back.
A full pack for a one or two day trip (depending on the resources of the area and your foraging skills) should weight in at about 20 pounds.

When your strength has increased to a point where walking several hours with a pull pack is easy, find some stairs outdoors, perhaps in a park or around a public monument or building. Practice going up and down at walking pace until it’s not challenging anymore. Then try going up and down at a jogging pace or on all fours (“bear-walking”) while wearing your pack. Be careful when bear-walking down stairs. You get tired quickly, and it’s easy to reach muscle failure unexpectedly and fall face-first down the steps.

If you can’t find any stairs, just locate a steep hill. Even if it’s short, say only a hundred yards from bottom to top, you can get a great workout by getting up and down it as many times as you can as fast you can.

Of course, the best thing to do is to get that pack on your back and get out into the woods!

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 24

2010-03-09T06:59:00.000-05:00

Whenever you put a bite of food in your mouth it is a potential doorway to sacred experience. A plant or animal’s life has been taken, or at least a potential life or lives, even if it is just a small berry. Remember, that berry might have fed a bird if it had been left where it was, or might have fallen and sprouted another bush. Give thanks for your food and avoid gluttony and waste. I understand that it’s sometimes difficult to be efficient and respectful with regard to food, especially in the United States where I live. Waste and excess are an epidemic.

This might be the hardest part of being a respectful wood witch. I can say this because twenty-five years ago I was eighty pounds overweight, and I was glutton of the most wasteful kind. I know it’s not easy, but it will be more difficult if you feel like you are denying yourself something. The opposite is true, so change your perspective. You have an opportunity to honor and respect the lives you take for nourishment, and your reward is improved physical and spiritual health. Begin by taking only what you need. It’s about connection and thanks, not denial.

If you cook a dish too large for your family to finish, give a portion to a neighbor. Everybody loves a free meal, especially that single student or lonely widow next door. Better yet, invite them over to share it with you at your house. Or take it to work for your coworkers to enjoy. They’ll appreciate not having to run out for lunch that day. Of course there are times when something spoils before you can finish it all off, but I can assure you that it isn’t too spoiled for Nature to enjoy. Feeding wildlife actually endangers them, and us, because animals become dependent on our garbage. But make an effort to get your waste back into the ecosystem. Start a compost pile, or do something. Almost anything is better than seeing nourishment go into a landfill sealed in a plastic bag.

Memorizing a pat phrase and reciting it before a meal is not giving thanks. And neither is celebrating an extravagant holiday feast under the pretext of thankfulness. Better to say or do nothing at all but actually feel thankful, or to simply show your thanks with your everyday actions.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 23

2010-03-02T06:51:00.000-05:00

To make your knife, fork, and spoon, find a stout stick about the size of your wrist and start carving. If you notice, a spoon and a fork are generally both flat on top and curved on the bottom. If you split your stick lengthways you will be well on your way. Get a fork and spoon from the kitchen and lay them where you can see them while you work. You can even put them up against the wood and make marks to guide you as you carve.

When you’re done making your utensils wipe them in walnut oil or beeswax. This will need to be redone occasionally to keep them clean, sound, and moisture repellent.

Notice how your homemade tools affect your mood at mealtime, enhance your appreciation of the meal itself, and encourage you slow down and relax. Record your thoughts and observations in your diary or journal.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook - Part 22

2010-02-22T06:39:00.000-05:00

I apologize for being absent for so long. I had a bit of an accident, and there were some other distractions as well, but I am back to putting the book up. ~Modred
-----------------------------------------
Eating Utensil Exercise - Part 22 (the bowl)

Carve a knife, fork, spoon, and shallow bowl or plate from hardwood. Take all your meals using them (see illustration below). Some woods may be too soft or impart taste, such as cedar and pine. Others may be unsuitable because they are inedible, such as holly, ash, mulberry and willow. I’ve had the best success with oak, maple, and the wood of fruit trees.

A section of downed log not too freshly fallen will work fine for your bowl, as long as it is well seasoned, free of cracks, fissures, and decay. Select a length of about two feet and carefully split it in half along the grain. If you like you can use a handsaw. Next cut a depression of about two cups measure toward one end of the flat side. If a chisel is the only tool you have available, make a square trencher; but if you have a gouge on hand you can try your hand at a round bowl.

The best option is to burn out the hollow. In a safe place outdoors, with care and caution, place hot coals on the log by scooping them up with a long handled metal serving spoon or trowel. Careful – a metal tool that has held coals will be hot, so place it on a flat stone or other nonflammable surface when not in use and do not touch. Gently blow on the coals so that they do no scatter. They will glow red and burn down into your wood. Periodically stop, dump out the coals back into your fire, and scrape off the char with a knife to check the depth of the burn. Add coals again and repeat until the depression is done to your satisfaction. Thoroughly scrape away the char. Use a saw to liberate the bowl from the log and sandpaper or a stone to smooth it inside and out. The smoother the bowl, the easier it will be to keep clean.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 21

2009-12-23T21:17:00.000-05:00

A Fishing Exercise (cont'd)

Now that you've made your rod and hook, you’ll need some worms for bait. Go turn over some stones and logs. Gather half a dozen worms and put them in your jar or tin. Cover them with a little dirt and make sure you keep them cool and dry. If at the end of the day you haven’t used them, be sure to put them back where you got them. Bless and thank them for the sacrifice they are about to make; though sightless and slimy, their days and nights have been spent in the damp and dark bosom of the Earth, and they possess knowledge of a kind we can never hope to comprehend.

Bait your hook by sticking the hook into the worm, first one end and then the other. Worms are a little stretchy, so you should be able to make your baited hook look like the illustration (Fig. 6.). If the worm is a lot longer than your hook, you can cut the worm and half and save the other half to bait the next one. Fish steal worms like crazy, so you’ll be re-baiting many times during your fishing expedition. This is where the rag comes in. You’ll want to wipe off your fingers after you’ve put a slimy, muddy worm on the hook.

You can get fancy and add a weight to your line a short distance above the hook so that it sinks more readily to the depth where the fish are. Or where you think the fish are. For this you can tie a small screw or bolt to the line, or pinch on a store-bought line weight. You can buy or make a cork bobber to add to your line which will set the depth to which your bait will sink. Wine corks work okay for homemade floats (Fig. 7). Pass the hook and line through a rubber band doubled over several times, then add a cork a ways up.

With your tackle arranged you’re ready to go (Fig. 8). Find a spot where the fish can’t see your shadow on the water, a place where you have easy access to the shore, and put your line in (Fig 9.). If you’re fishing without a bobber you’re going to have to hold the pole in one hand and the line in the other until you get a bite. Be patient, be still, and don’t make noise. When there’s a nibble on the line you’ll feel it – give the line a light tug to set the hook. The type of hook you’re using goes in lengthways and turns sideways when tension is on the line. It won’t set the same way as a steel hook, and it’s less efficient, but it works.

If you’re lucky enough to get a fish on the line, use the pole to lift it up onto shore. To remove the hook you can push the hook straight using a little stick, then gently ease it out. Some folks bring a pair of needle-nosed pliers so they can reach in, straighten it by pushing a little deeper, and then pull it out. You can just pull the hook free by force, but the hook may snap in half, forcing you to carve another, and it’s cruel to the fish. Empty your bucket, half fill it with water from the pond, and put in your fish to keep them fresh until you get home.

Always eat what you catch. In my opinion, catch and release for sport is selfish, spiteful, and painful to fish. When you fish it should be for food. If you’ve never cleaned a fish, here’s how.
Put the fish on a cutting board outdoors – cleaning fish is a yucky process. To dress the fish, sever the head just behind the gills (Fig. 1). Next insert the point of your knife into the belly between the anus and tail and cut forward (Fig. 2). Most of the entrails will spill out. Anything still sticking to the inside you can pull out with your hands or scrape free with your knife. Some folks remove the scales first and dress last. To remove the scales, place your knife on the skin perpendicular to the surface and move back and forth (Fig. 3). The scales will fly off in all directions. If you like you can cut off the tail also. If you’ve never done it before the cleaning process will feel awkward at first, maybe even brutal, but you’ll get the hang of it once you’ve cleaned a dozen or so.

That’s the basic mechanics of the exercise, but beneath the mechanics there’s a spiritual dimension. The preparation, the patience required in the waiting, the thrill of the catch, the cleaning and cooking process, and the giving of thanks for the nourishment you receive, all come together to create a unique understanding. This is especially true when you make as much of your tackle as possible, whether you catch anything or not.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 20

2009-12-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

Fishing Exercise

Learn how to hunt and/or fish, and how to clean and prepare what you take. A wide world of sacred experience will open to you when you begin to learn these ancient skills. If you have a friend or relative who is a hunter or a fisherman, have him show you the ropes. Consider joining a hunting club. You may even find a primitive skills group in your area where you can learn to hunt without modern weapons using instead snares, handmade bows, spears, and darts.

I’m not qualified to write on the subject of hunting, and anyway, it’s a bit complex to undertake on your own. But a basic fishing exercise is simple enough, and there I have a bit more experience. In most places you can go to a bait and tackle shop and buy a fishing license, a cane fishing pole, and a little tub of worms, all for less money that you’d expect to pay for a pair of shoes. You’ll get a lot more comfort and relaxation from the former! Better yet, collect some fishing tackle from yard sales or grandma’s attic, dig your own worms, and get started. Or just buy the license and some fishing line and try the following exercise.

You’ll need a bucket, a pocket knife, a snack, a water bottle, your fishing line and fishing license (if one’s required in your area), an old jar or soup can, a rag and a hat. Any fisherman will tell you that the hat’s the most important part. Put everything in the bucket except the hat (which by the way goes on your head) and set out in the early morning for a freshwater fishing hole.

Once you get to the area, look about for as strong and as slender a stick as you can lay your hands on. That’ll be your fishing pole. If there’s bamboo around use that. If not, any stick will do. Look around for one that’s already on the ground. If you have take a cutting, always ask the tree first and heed the answer. Mulberry is a nice choice, often grows near water, and it grows back quickly. You’ll want a piece that’s about as big around as your finger and roughly your height.

Next take up a hardwood twig and using your knife whittle a toothpick the length of one finger digit or shorter. This will be your hook. The smaller it is the smaller the fish you can catch, so better smaller than bigger (See Fig. 1 below). Lay your “hook” down flat on a log or stump and roll your knife back and forth to make a groove all the way around. Use the same action you’d use if you were going to cut it in half, but don’t. Just a groove is all you need.

Tie your line around the hook so the line is in the groove. Tie once, like the first step of tying a shoelace (Fig. 2). A square knot won’t hold in fishing line, so you’re going to have to tie a noose. Start by making a loop (Fig. 3). While pinching the whole mess between your fingers with one hand, wrap around the main line and loop several times, then feed the free end of the line through the loop (Fig. 4). Pull the knot tight and your hook will be attached to the end of the line by a little noose (Fig. 5). Pay out enough line so that you can stand on the bank and droop the line into the water. There will be no reel, so you won’t be able to cast. This will limit the spots you can fish, but this a learning experience, not a fishing tournament. A few yards or meters will do. Much more than that and you’ll get yourself tangled up in it. Score the skinny end of your pole as you did your hook and use the same noose-like knot as before to fix your line to your pole.

So far so good. Time to rest and enjoy that snack you brought and drink some water! More next time...

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 19

2009-12-09T20:59:00.000-05:00

Rainy Day Foraging Exercise

Dress appropriately for the temperature and go for a walk in the rain. Use your common sense, and don’t go out if the weather is severe, if you have heard thunder, or if it is below 40° F/5° C. If the weather is cold, be sure to wear wool or acrylic clothes which retain their insulating properties even when wet (cotton is very cold and heavy when soaked). If your feet, hands, and head are warm then you are warm. Wear sturdy footwear, and wool or acrylic socks, gloves, and hat. Don’t wear plastic, nylon, or anything else that makes a distracting rustles or swishing noises when you move. Your destination will be a place where you know there are some long-needled pine trees.

As you walk, shut down your mental dialogue and just observe the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations with a light heart. If you aren’t used to being outside in the rain you will be distracted by the feeling of being wet at first. But if you relax and allow yourself to be playful you’ll be having fun soon enough. Stomp in mud puddles, squat and put your hands into rushing rivulets, and generally experience the water fully. Have fun!

When you reach the trees that are your destination, seek out a pine tree with a low-hanging branch and ask her for some needles. Spend a moment really asking the tree for the gift of her needles and sincerely listening for her answer. If the answer is “yes,” pluck a dozen or so needles and smell their fragrance. Stroke them in both directions and note their texture. Are your hands sticky now? Did the stickiness come from the branch or from the needles? Put them in your pocket and begin your return home the way you came.

When you get home, wash the pine needles you gathered and cut them in short lengths so that they will fit into in a mug. Add hot water, cover, and let them steep while you change into dry clothes. Once you’re dry and snug, spoon or strain out the needles and add a teaspoon of honey to your pine-needle tea (all long-needled pines are safe for tea-making). Sit in a favorite space and sip. Contemplate what you learned. Enjoy the sensation of being warm and dry. Was it fun to play in the rain like a child? How does the experience of being warm and sipping tea contrast with your walk? What did it feel like to talk to a tree and drink tea made from her needles?

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 18

2009-12-02T20:54:00.000-05:00

Foraging

If you observed an animal in its natural environment, and this animal could not find food on its own, wouldn’t you recognize immediately that the poor creature was doomed, fundamentally flawed, and dysfunctional? If a creature is incapable of the most basic function – getting a full belly – how can we be sure it isn’t dysfunctional in some other way? How can we be sure that it isn’t suffering in some other physical, psychological, or spiritual way?

Can you feed yourself?

Foraging and hunting for wild food is healthy for your body and enriches your connection to Nature. But for your own safety, and for the safety of the ecosystem, make sure that you learn how to forage properly. Otherwise you will be running the risk of either poisoning yourself or doing harm to your environment. This should go without saying, but never take endangered species of any kind, and do not gather wild plant foods unless there are plenty available. The rule of thumb that I was taught is, don’t take a plant unless you see at least seven of the same type in the immediate area.

Trying spending a day or two as an urban “forager.” Don’t tell anyone what you are doing – keep it to yourself. For the duration, go without purchasing, preparing, or begging for food. Eat only what is offered to you by others without asking, the leftovers remaining on your family-member’s plates when they are done, etc. Observe afterward how enjoyable it is to cook and eat the things you like.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 17

2009-11-25T20:48:00.000-05:00

Food (cont'd)

So, to summarize, what does a wild human eat? Basically whatever can be found within the five food groups: meats, nuts, vegetables, fruits, and insects.

But what about all of the other things that humans eat in “captivity”? Like milk for example. Some people are lactose intolerant, but many people tolerate milk and cheese quite well. Maybe this is because our prehistoric ancestors enjoyed the milk they took from the prey they hunted, or maybe some of us are just lucky enough to be able to tolerate the milk of another mother. One thing is for sure – a wild human doesn’t drink much milk if any.

The list of bizarre things that modern humans eat expands on a daily basis – artificial sweeteners, chemicals, flavor enhancers, preservatives, syrups, dyes, etc. Think about what a wild human eats in her natural environment. Think of the consequences of agriculture and animal domestication – clear-cutting of forests for farm land, obesity and diabetes from too much sugar and starch in the diet, the diseases unleashed through domestication like influenza from pigs, tuberculosis and smallpox from cattle, bird flu from chickens, and so on. Allow these to inform your food choices.

You should also keep in mind several other important factors. Active modern life requires more calories than a primitive lifestyle. Primitives spend only about four hours per day working, but if you are like myself, working a job forty hours per week, getting plenty of exercise, stomping around outside as much as possible, playing with the kids, staying up late writing like this one, plus doing all of the other things that today’s society demands, it’s easy to get stuck between ravenous hunger and junk food. Don’t be too hard on yourself when you have to eat something you know you shouldn’t. Hunger is a primal urge that’s impossible to resist, especially under the pressures of the civilized world. Also take into account that very few of us indeed can forage for all of our food (even if we have the skills) because there is so little undeveloped land available.

If this afternoon everyone on Earth decided to forage for all of their meals, within a week or two every undeveloped place would be trampled, stripped and destroyed and we’d all have groaning bellies. You’re going to have to eat things from the local market. And everything you buy there is raised using agricultural practices of one kind or another. At the present time civilization is unavoidable. Perhaps a day will come when, either by choice or by necessity, humans will go back to doing things the old-fashioned way. For the time being just do the best you can to eat the simplest foods possible.

Eating a healthy diet is the first step to maintaining your health and happiness. The next time that you don’t feel well (upset stomach, headache, etc.) make a note of what you ate in the preceding twenty-four hours. Are there certain foods you can connect to feeling great? Are there certain foods that you instinctively feel are bad or good for you? What are they? Do they really make you feel especially good/bad, or do you just feel that way because some piece of propaganda or other has told you what to feel?

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 16

2009-11-18T20:29:00.000-05:00

Food

Putting something into your mouth is as intimate as it gets. You are literally accepting this thing into yourself. Not just consuming it, but making whatever you are eating a part of yourself. The foods you eat are converted into energy and become the building blocks of your body. Isn’t the old saying “you are what you eat” pretty close to the truth? Add to this the fact that something gave up its life so that you could live, and you have an activity that is jam-packed with symbolism and importance. Eating is a powerful ritual that most people perform at least three times a day, making it the ritual that you will carry out more frequently than any other. For this reason it is downright essential to get it right. But what is the right way to eat? Allow me to begin with a little story.

A man has a pet cougar and he feeds her spinach. The cougar, of course, refuses to eat the greens. The man, although confused by the cougar’s behavior, keeps feeding the cougar the spinach and hoping that her appetite will pick up. A short while later the cougar sickens and dies. The man is shocked and saddened. "Spinach is a very healthy and wholesome food," the man declares. "How can this be?" Can’t this man see that spinach is a healthy food for many creatures but not for cougars? What if a human was a pet like the cougar in this story? The cougar is a predator and a carnivore that requires fresh meat -- this much is clear. What would you feed your pet human? You are a pet afterall – a pet of Civilization that is. Image you have left the city to spend a few days in the woods. What do you see around you that you can eat?

You aren’t going to see any wild corn or wild potatoes, and very little in the way of wild grain. If you do find some wild grain while foraging, you’ll discover that the energy and calories spent gathering, winnowing, and milling them are better spent on other food items. I once gathered enough wild sorghum to yield about a quarter cup of grain, which I ground into meal and cooked in water to make porridge. It took hours. In that amount of time I could have caught a string of fish, gathered a bushel of nuts, or done any number of things that would have netted me far more calories and nourishment. I think more calories were spent making that porridge than it contained. Starches are hard to come by outside farming communities.

There isn’t much in the way of sugar, salt, or vegetable oil in the natural world either. Only large scale agriculture, manufacturing, and processing yield sugar, corn syrup, salt, and corn oil. A wild human in search of vegetable oil will be looking for nuts and seeds, unless he lives in the Mediterranean, in which case he might be searching for olives; but even olives give up surprisingly little oil by weight. Lack of oil leads to serious health problems. Without enough fat in your diet, it won’t take long for you to start to suffer from confusion and weakness. Fat, not bread, is the staff of life.

Without access to supermarkets and farms there is one type of fat that is available during part of the year at least. Eggs, like every food item that is consumed today, are a product of agricultural industry, but they were a staple of the human diet long before the animal domestication. Eggs are just about the easiest animal protein and fat to obtain -- they don’t have to be chased down and killed. They just sit there, so you don’t need tools or weapons. I’m guessing people have been eating as many eggs as they can find for a couple of million years. Problem is, they aren’t available all year long.

You will find some fat in insects. There is reason to believe that insects were an important part of human diet prior to the advent of agriculture. Wherever there are humans still living a pre-agricultural lifestyle, insects are usually being consumed.

There just isn’t that much fat sitting around waiting to be picked or poured. The most common source of fat that’s available all year long is walking around on four legs, flying around on two wings, or swimming around with fins. It’s meat. The debate goes on as to the whether meat is truly healthy food for humans, and it can’t be settled here. I was a vegetarian for many years, and I respect that choice. But the facts are that in most places on Earth you would not be able to survive as a vegetarian in the wild.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 15

2009-11-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

Cemetery Exercise

On a pleasant day when you have no pressing matters to attend to, find a bench or other comfortable spot in a cemetery that is open to the public. Sit there for an hour or more, moving as little as possible and doing nothing. Does the place seem dark or light to you? What do you see, feel, and experience? Record your thoughts in your journal or diary.

If you can safely return to the same cemetery at night without running afoul of the law, do so. Repeat the above exercise in the dark.

How is the experience different?

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 14

2009-11-04T04:41:00.000-05:00

A Night Alone in the Woods*

Anytime of year is a good time to spend a night alone in the woods, but spring and summer are probably best depending on where you live. If in your climate the summer is really hot, you might prefer spring. On the other hand, summer nights are alive with sound and animals are at their most active. At any rate, in spring and summer you won’t need to carry much equipment to keep you warm. You don’t even have to have a fire if you don’t want to bother.

Avoid going to an overly populated campground where there will be people within earshot. If you know someone who owns some wooded property, ask them if you can spend a night there. Some localities maintain undeveloped wildlife management areas that are open for hunting and camping, and most state and federal parks in the U.S. allow backwoods camping. You want to be where it will only be you and the living woods. Take the bare minimum of equipment in order to complete the exercise safely with the skills you have under your belt. If possible take only a few liters of water, a little food, matches, a knife, and incidentals. If you know how to make shelter from forest debris and litter do so, and bed down for the night. If you do not, keep vigil and don’t sleep at all, staying up all night and observing the natural sights, sounds, smells, and impressions that await you.

Plan to leave home early enough to find a good spot before darkness falls. Make sure that you pick a location where there are no dead trees that might fall on you in the night, no dangerous beehives or anthills nearby, piles of stones that snakes might call home, etc. You’ll also want to avoid anything that may attract predators – bed down next to a blackberry patch and you might have bears padding through your little spot. Any food that you bring with you should be hung by a rope from a tree at least 50 yards/meters from your camp so that the food itself is at least 4 yards/meters off the ground and a few meters from the trunk. Just throw one end of a rope over a limb, tie your food bag to one end the free end to the tree trunk. Also make sure that you check the weather forecast and don’t go if there’s a good chance of bad weather (at least on your first few trips of this kind). As always, before you take a trip make sure your friends and family know where you are going and when to expect you back.

Once you have picked a spot, settle in and relax. How do you feel as the light gradually fades? What happens to your sensibilities as the day gives way to dusk, and the dusk to night? Are your ears more sensitive, your nerves more jumpy, your mood altered? Sense how much life is around you – insects, plants, creatures of all kinds – and really get in touch with it. Breathe it in, tasting the wind like a snake and feeling the pulse of the Earth under your buttocks. Do you feel insignificant and small, or do you feel larger than life, brave and empowered? How do you feel when the moon rises and turns your nighttime world into day? When the sun rises in the morning?

When you return from your trip, give some thought to whether or not you want to record what you experienced in writing. Sometimes writing things down distances you from the experience as if you have pulled what you recorded from your mind and transferred it to paper, moving it from the spiritual world to the material or digital world. Leaving an experience unrecorded and unspoken allows it to fully retain its spiritual power and sacred force, and can actually encourage you to commit as much as possible to memory.

At a party I once met a member of a local vampire group. He was pleasant, very smart, well-spoken, and likeable. He was particularly interested in chaos magic, the left-hand path, and black magic. I wondered what his views were regarding darkness, how he interacted with it, how he would describe it based on his experiences.

“Have you ever spent a night alone in the woods?” I asked. He looked at me wide-eyed, as if I was loopy, and said he had not. I can’t remember my exact words, but said something along the lines of, “It’s easy to love the darkness when you’re within two steps of a light-switch or walking around under streetlights. You should go out into the woods, not a campground where there are people around, but someplace remote, and spend a night alone there. A simple matter for a vampire. Let me tell you, darkness will seep through your eyes and ears into your very skull. You’ll be able to feel its true weight, its incredible power. You’ll be able to taste it. By morning you will have a new understanding of what darkness is, and you may find that you really do love the darkness. On the other hand you might realize that you are actually a moon or a sun worshipper!”

Since that night we’ve become friends. He's still planning his solo, and I can’t wait to hear how it goes.

Consider carefully every aspect of this exercise, from preparation, through realization, up to and through the choice to record or not record your experiences. This is the most powerful exercise in this book. If you’ve never spent a night alone in the woods nothing can prepare you for the impact of what is to come. You will learn a great deal more about yourself and your relationship with Nature than you thought possible.

* Contemplate your trip at length before you go. By all means make sure that you choose a location appropriate to your woodland skills, that you are properly prepared physically and spiritually, that you select and pack equipment based on your skills and abilities, and that you leave no trace of your presence.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 13

2009-10-28T04:37:00.000-04:00

Darkness and Light

The physical and symbolic difference between light and dark is too often taken for granted. You might say without even thinking that two opposite things are “like night and day,” but do you really appreciate the difference on a deeper emotional level?

Scientifically speaking light is a stream of photons and darkness the relative lack of such a stream. But what is the device used to measure how many photons are bouncing around at any given moment? A light meter and a naked human eye are very different things. The latter sees very little on a cloudy night during the new moon. But what does the owl’s eye see on the same night? Is it night to her? Not hardly! While we are sleeping she is hunting, singing, and moving about, and she goes to bed when we begin to start our activities. Isn’t our “night” her “day”? What is night and what is day, and without a clock, how can we tell them apart?

On the other hand, there is a reason for the prevalence of popular phrases like,

“I’m afraid I’m in the dark on that subject.”
“It finally dawned on me that…”
“He survived a dark night of the soul.”
“She never allowed her true feelings to see the light of day.”

…and so on. There is a difference between night and day, even though the exact measure of it may appear arbitrary.

To learn about Darkness and Light, see if you can pinpoint what makes one so different than the other without relying on clocks, photometers, and other devices. Learn to define them emotionally and metaphorically by using the exercises that follow in the coming weeks.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 12

2009-10-21T04:31:00.000-04:00

The Moon (cont'd)

The sky holds a calendar and a clock for anyone who cares to look up from the furrows of civilization into the immortal skies. A witch ought to have the Moon phase in mind when doing most things. For example, gathering herbs and roots for healing and consumption should always be done on a full Moon. It should be second nature to say to yourself, “I’m running low on Bee Balm, so I best plan on gathering some the day after tomorrow when the Moon is full. There’s no way this little bit will last until the next one.”

Here is a chart showing the phases of the Moon. When the moon is New she is completely dark. She immediately begins growing larger at the right side (“waxing”), reaching half (“1st Quarter”), then Gibbous, then Full. She then begins to losing her right side (“waning”) until she is New again. An easy way to tell if the Moon is waxing or waning is to remember that if the left side is incomplete, she is waxing; if the right side is cut, she is waning.

You should always know about when the moon rises each night as well. Let’s say you are planning a contemplation ritual, and you’d like to gather some Evening Primrose blossoms (which are only open from evening until morning) in order to decorate your altar. If you know that the Moon is currently gibbous and waning, you need to plan on being up quite late if you’re going to see where you’re going without a lantern! You may find this little rhyme useful in remembering roughly what time the Moon rises:

When the Moon is halfway round,
She will rise as noon bells sound;
She rises full at sunset’s gloaming,
And nights are truly right for roaming;
When halfway gone she leaves her bower
And joins the sky at midnight hour;
But when Her face is dark and new,
Rising with the morning dew,
Nights afoot you may well rue!

As the poem says, the New Moon generally comes up some time around sunrise. Each day she comes up about an hour later than the day before. The first quarter Moon rises about noon, the full Moon rises about sundown, and the last quarter at around midnight. This fact should be enough to convince a skeptic of the Moon’s mystic power. Is it a coincidence that when she is at her fullest and brightest she takes to the heavens when she can be visible for the most number of hours? And that when she is least visible during the New Moon she rises in the morning and stays in the sky only during the day when the Sun would make her practically impossible to be seen even if she were Full? It is no accident that her cycles are structured so as to make her as visible to us as possible during the nighttime hours.

For the next 29 days, make an effort to get in the habit of tying your activities to the Moon. List in your journal the things that you have done with consideration of her phases.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 11

2009-10-14T04:25:00.000-04:00

The Moon

If you listen to the scientific crowd, they’ll tell you that the Moon has as much gravitational affect on you as a pebble in your pocket. Therefore, the logic goes, since only forces that can be measured are important, it isn’t possible for the Moon to affect you in any significant way. I reckon none of those fellows have ever been alone out in the country on a dark night without a lantern. If they gave that a try, I’m here to tell you that that they’d feel the powerful affect of a moonrise. I believe if we put them in the back of my pickup truck and dropped them off about sundown in a remote place with nothing but their clothes they’d be singing a different tune when she started climbing into the night sky.

Gravitational forces aside, the Moon has a powerful affect on our spirit, and therefore on our bodies. It’s ironic that many of the same skeptics who debunk moon lore believe that stress is bad for health, and understand that psychosomatic illnesses are real even though they are “all in your head.” Clearly the mind affects the body and vice versa. How many times have you seen the full Moon rise at sundown, coming up so round and orange that you thought the Sun was setting on the wrong horizon? What does that do to your heart, your mind, your body?

Start by keeping a little diary of your relationship with the Moon. Each day, note her phase and your mood. If you have a powerful or special dream or nightmare, note that too. Another option, if you already keep a dream diary or journal, is to note the Moon phase there so that you don’t have too many projects going. See if you find a relationship between the phases of the Moon and your moods. It’s very important to completely avoid relying on a calendar or a website for the phase of the Moon – you must use actual observation and internalize her phases.

Bombing Moon Gives New Meaning To Lunatics

2009-10-09T20:05:00.000-04:00

This afternoon on my ride home from work I was fortunate enough to hear Andrei Codrescu's comments on NASA's latest thing on NPR. My fantasy is to someday write something as brief, precise, and eloquent as this.

Andrei, I have always respected you and enjoyed your NPR commentaries.

But now I love you.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 10

2009-10-07T04:18:00.000-04:00

Fall (cont'd)

Try your hand and making acorn bread. If you like the taste of buckwheat (which is actually much closer to a nut than it is to a grain) you will love the rich and nutty flavor.

Gather acorns with shells that are intact and healthy-looking. Remove the caps and place them on a wooden cutting board or picnic table, etc. three or four at a time. Take something weighty such as a flat, heavy stone or an iron skillet and hit them once or twice, hard enough to crack the shells into several pieces but not so hard that you pulp the shells and meats together. Flake the chunky meats into a pitcher and discard the shells.

Put enough water into the pitcher to cover the nutmeats and let it sit overnight, stirring occasionally. Next day the water will be brown and tea-like as a result of the tannins leaching out. Pour off the water and repeat until the water comes off clean. This may take a few days. Our ancestors would have done this by placing the nutmeats in fine baskets or cloth bags immersed in a rushing stream.

Once the tannins are out, spread them to dry in a single layer on cloth or screen wire. When they are dry as dust, pulverize them between two stones or in a blender until they are in the form of course flour.

Preheat your oven to 325° while you combine a cup of acorn flour, a tablespoon of olive oil, and two eggs in a bowl (if you must have it leavened, add a half teaspoon of baking powder). If the mix is too runny, add a little more acorn flour or other nut flour until it is thicker than batter but thinner than dough. Nuts obviously don’t have the same makeup as wheat, so this bread is a bit crumbly. You can remedy that by adding a few tablespoons of arrowroot or wheat flour if you like.

Pour your mix into the center of a greased baking sheet and cook as a loaf, or drop by spoonfuls to make rolls. Bake until a toothpick or a broom-straw poked in the center comes out clean. You can even cook them like pancakes. Whatever their form, serve your acorn bread with fruit preserves, or my personal favorite – plenty of raw honey.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 9

2009-09-30T04:12:00.000-04:00

Fall (cont'd)

What are the first trees to lose their leaves in fall? Which ones shift into the most spectacular colors? Which are the first to drop their nuts? Which are the last? Look for answers in your neighborhood, not in books. Write down your observations in your journal.

When a person is in touch with their surroundings, answers to questions like these should roll off the tongue like the Alphabet Song!

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 8

2009-09-24T08:02:00.000-04:00

The Seasons: Fall

Why do we call it “fall” anyway? Because that’s the time of year when deciduous trees lose their leaves which fall to the ground in a colorful crunchy carpet. And it’s also when the nuts drop, although some begin doing so in late summer in my area. This is the original harvest time, the one that came before farming was even a twinkle in the eye of the human animal, the harvest time that was with us before houses, before writing, before spoken language, and even before we learned to make fire. Nuts were and are a valuable addition to your diet, although nowadays they are generally thought of as more of a snack item than as a main course. Time was when a store of nuts might have made the difference between survival and death.

In hot climates like the American South, fall brings relief from the stifling summer heat. This alone is cause enough for a great giving of thanks! What are some of the reasons that you can think of to be thankful for the arrival of the season known as fall? Write your answers in your journal.

Wood Witch: A Wilding Workbook Part 7

2009-09-17T04:00:00.000-04:00

Continuing Study

In addition to this workbook, try taking some classes to further your connection to Nature. Clubs and organizations and even state and local parks often provide classes for little or no charge. Primitive skills groups, of which there are many, are a great place to start looking. Here are a few ideas:

Take foraging or herbalist classes from a qualified person. Learn to responsibly find, gather, and use wild plants native to your area.
Learn the skills necessary to go on a solo camping trip for a few days taking only a knife, water, and snacks.
Study the calls of local birds. See if you can watch them sing their songs.
Study the tracks of animals, insects, and other creatures and learn to identify as many as you can. If you can’t find a tracking class, get a book from the local library. Better still, try to physically observe animals so that you can be sure to what animal certain tracks belong.

There’s so much to learn and experience – pick a subject you enjoy and get started!