In the hedgerow...any hedgerow
We associate hedgerows with long winding country lanes but actually a lot of cities and towns have hedgerows even if it is just the one outside the front of your garden or alongside the local school.
...Hedge Witch: Into the Wilds…
Let me take you on a journey through the wilds of nature and back to the roots and bones of witchcraft, a natural witchcraft that works with the seasons and all the natural items that Mother Nature provides drawing on magical folk lore with a dash of hedge witch and gypsy magic too.
Rachel Patterson
Rachel is a witch...has been for a very long time, not the green skinned warty kind obviously...the real sort - but she is also a working wife and mother living in Hampshire, England who has also been lucky enough to write and have published a growing stack of books on the Craft. She loves to learn she loves to study and continues to do so each and every day but has learned the most from actually getting outside and doing it. She regularly gives talks and workshops at pagan events. Rachel is also founder and an Elder at the Kitchen Witch online school of witchcraft. She likes to laugh...and eat cake...
At this time of year Mother Nature makes preparations for autumn; the air in the mornings and evenings begins to get a slight chill and not long from now the leaves will start to change colour and fall...but there is magic in 'them there' leaves...
Mother Nature provides a dizzying array of leaf colours and shapes which change throughout the year in some cases.
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Horseshoe Magic
You may be lucky enough to find a horseshoe when you are out and about on your travels but what is all the fuss about them?
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How to harvest: Flowers, seeds, bark, roots, berries & leaves
If you are picking flowers or plants for magical workings then here is a basic guideline:
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There are a heap load of folk songs that tell us the devil resides at the crossroads but we don’t really need to worry about him…what we are more interested in is the belief that the crossing of two roads is a powerful spot. The crossroads is the centre of the four winds and the four directions. The centre point links the two worlds, that of the living and the dead – it is an ‘in between’ place. In some traditions you would go to the crossroads at midnight to meet Eshu/Elegba and in others it is the place sacred to the sun god Ra and the godsBhairava, Hermes and Mercury and the goddess Hecate. The crossroads is also a place where Hoodoo tricks take place and where spells can be buried to ‘do their thing’.
You may find in your local woods or even parks that there is a place where two dirt tracks cross or even where a bridge goes directly over a straight run of river or stream. That centre spot is an excellent place to work magic. It is also a good place to dispose of magic tricks and workings after you have finished with them including candle stubs.
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Offerings
When I collect anything from the wild I do like to leave an offering of some sort. If I am in the woods or fields I don’t often have anything to hand so I give the plant or tree a blessing and a thank you.
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Shells
Living near the sea I am lucky enough to be able to collect sea shells easily, I love walking along the beach and always come back with pockets full of shells and hag stones.
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