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Category: Witchcraft

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Spirit Relationships for a Defensible Home, Part One: Outside

I said in my last blog that spirit relationships make up another layer of my home defensibility, and they do — both inside and outside my house. I’m working from an animistic perspective here, because that’s what I do and who I am, but I think there might be some helpful kernels even for folks who aren’t starting from that perspective. In the last blog, I mentioned greeting the spirit of the parcel of land, and the spirit of the house itself, and those are the first two spirits I build a relationship with in any new place I live. Those relationships are usually somewhat less “showy” (at least for me) that some of the others I’ll mention in this blog, but they’re the foundation for everything else. If you’re not on good terms with them and well situated in your property, it will be difficult to make your home defensible, no matter what else you do. Also, if you’re not the property owner, you can still form your own relationships with the house and land, and that will help support any wards you place around areas (like a bedroom) that are specifically yours. You can also make relationships with spirits both outside and inside the property, to support your defenses. For the purposes of this blog, I’m just going to cover spirits that are found outside the property, because I originally had started writing out both “outside” and “inside”, but it became a bit too long for one post!

This is an image from unsplash of Great Falls on the Potomac, which is very similar to an image I took that I almost used – except this one is much higher quality!

Land spirits, (ie spirits of the land itself, not nature spirits more generally) in my experience, seem to be some sort of nesting dolls, in that you can ask to speak to the spirit of a particular property, and one will show up, and ask to speak to the spirit of a neighborhood, and one that feels slightly different and slightly bigger will show up, and the same (slightly different, slightly bigger) for a town, a region, etc. (However, when we start to approach places the size of the state of Virginia, they get a little too big for me to really pin down borders. I find it easier at that point to attempt to contact the spirit of a particular geographic feature, like “the Appalachian Mountains”, or “the land to the east of the Chesapeake Bay”, rather than relying on my memory of a map of human-drawn borders!) For the purposes of A Defensible Home, the neighborhood or perhaps the town should do you pretty well — this is the larger land spirit that encompasses the land you call home, and it is a good idea to get to know them, and to remain on friendly terms. For me, that usually means being a good “citizen” — picking up trash when I see it, making sure my yard has plants helpful to local insect life, not disturbing local animal life, and the occasional offering of water or something biodegradable that won’t disrupt the local ecosystem (no invasive plants, no foods that will harm wildlife, don’t pour alcohol on plants, etc). When we “talk”, it’s more a mind-brush than a conversation in words, and most often I just ask about the weather! The creatures who live on the land this spirit encompasses live in symbiosis with it — and we should strive to, as well. That also means that all your plant and animal and insect “neighbors” can provide omens, should you need to seek them. I have mapped my local birds to the ogham, and that often provides my land and nature spirits with a way to get my attention. I know which birds live nearby, and which are infrequent enough visitors that their presence might be meaningful.

Spirits of your local waterways are likewise important, and also seem to function like nesting dolls, with a spirit of a stream, the creek it feeds into, the river that feeds into, and then around here — the Chesapeake Bay. I really think every animist witch ought to know what watershed they live in, down to the small streams closest to you! At the larger end, your local river spirit can be a very powerful ally, and with the vast number of witchy uses for water, especially running water, I think it makes sense to nurture that relationship. As with the large land spirits, my offerings to my local waterway spirits are mostly “being a good citizen”, and my contact with them is more mind-brush than casual conversation. Interestingly, though — and this is just my personal experience, so your mileage may vary — I do find the river spirits to be more likely to take on humanoid forms and speak to me in words. That may come from my background in Irish Polytheism, where several river names are those of goddesses, because I do tend to address rivers (and the Great Lakes, and the Chesapeake Bay) as deities in their own right.

For both of these categories of spirit, the role they play in the defense of my home is mainly that I can ask them for forewarning if danger is nearby, and for assistance if I attempt to expel something from my property. If I banish something, I don’t want it to take two steps and come right back, and sometimes the land and waterway spirits are willing to help keep it away. They can also ground out or disperse unwanted energies, though I find it best to ask them how to transmute the energies so that they will be most useful. I have even used some of my excess energy as offerings recently: I was running a little hot due to a hormonal problem, and got up early in the morning to go on a cave tour. Inside, I ended up stumbling a bit because of drowsiness and balance issues, so I stopped and greeted the spirit of the cave and asked what I could give, in exchange for sure footing. The answer I received: your heat. So I took off the jacket (which was a little warm anyhow), and let my excess heat float off of me, into the cave. And after that, I didn’t have any more trouble walking over the uneven terrain!

The other main category of Outside spirits just consists of spirits who live nearby. You have human neighbors, and animal, plant, insect, fungi neighbors, spirits of land and water and (perhaps) of constructed things, but also there are other types of spirits who just go about their business mostly unseen in this world we share. For me, the spirits of this category with whom I interact the most often are the Fair Folk. (All the rest of this paragraph is my own UPG, based on my own experiences; I make no claims that others will experience it the same way, even within my local area, and outside my local area I have no idea how things are organized. Understood? Then let’s continue.) There is a fairy court near me that has territory roughly corresponding to the local stream’s watershed, and the Queen of that court has become a close ally of mine. When I banish something, her folk will (often) chase it beyond their own borders, and when there are dangers, she (often) warns me, and when she requests my assistance in her own difficulties, I aid her with my magic as best I am able. As her stream empties into the Potomac River, her court seems to belong to a larger assembly of courts aligned with the Potomac watershed, and then above that, there seems to be a higher authority encompassing the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. I try to nurture relationships with each of the small courts I come into contact with, and with the larger authorities, but the court whose territory I live in is the most important for my home defense. We are very frequently in contact, and I give very frequent offerings, and when there is something I need help dealing with that lies beyond my wards but not beyond her borders, it is usually to her that I first turn, even before my gods. The Fair Folk are fickle though, and so diverse it’s impossible to paint them all with the same brush — the type of relationship you’re likely to have with your local Fair Folk depends on them perhaps even more than it depends on the steps you take to nurture a relationship. It is far easier and far safer to be on pleasantly cordial terms like “you stay out of my home and I’ll not meddle in yours” than it is to be involved in a pact that amounts to mutual defense, but for those who do have Good Neighbors inclined to alliances, for prices you’re willing to pay, they can be very valuable allies.

Some of the members of the court local to me do come in the house now and again, but mostly they stay outside, hence their inclusion here. However, they are the main reason, as I said in the first blog, that I don’t use iron at my property line. That does mean I have to use a little more finesse when it comes to creating wards that will allow emissaries in, for example, but not those inclined to make trouble. I do rely on my agreement with their queen for that, in large part, but I also have some finely tuned interior wards, as I mentioned before, and House Rules, which I will explain in more depth in the next blog. In the meantime, Daniela Siminia has an excellent overview of her own approach to allowing in some-but-not-all, on her own blog, here.

And as that’s already quite a long post, we’ll call that a wrap! I’ll be back with part two next week, hopefully. I’m trying to post a new blog every Wednesday, so check back then!

Edit: Here’s the link to Part 2!

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Warding for a Defensible Home

I first started thinking about writing something on this topic a few months ago, when Irene Glasse posted a very good blog on Set-And-Forget Protection Magic. She touched on things like using iron, witch bottles, and witch balls, and a number of rocks and plants that are known as protective.

That got me thinking about my own methodologies, including my personal reasons not to use iron. I made a few notes, and then… didn’t write the blog. Fast forward to last Dark Moon, and the instruction to make Defensible Homes, and I realized it was time to take this back out. The image below (which is also the one used in the thumbnail) is what comes to my mind when I imagine “defensible”. It’s a strong, tall, castle wall, with a few places for archers and lookouts and other defenders.

I’m not sure what castle this is, as the image was provided by unsplash, but look at that wall! Those crenellations!

In my own practice, the first thing I tend to do in a new house is a claiming. I greet the spirit of the parcel of land, and of the house itself, and I inform them that I will now be dwelling here, and caretaking these spaces. This is now, as I explain, my territory, and I will build a safe nest, and I will defend it against all who wish me ill. Generally, the spirits of land and house are just happy to have been spoken to at all, and they’re willing to allow me to proceed.

Then, I’ll usually walk the perimeter (as best I can) and repeat the claiming there: all that I encircle is my territory, my home. This was traditionally done with burning torches in places like Norway and Scotland, but I’ve done it with a candle, and I’ve done it with sprinkled oats, and I’ve done it with a staff. Clockwise is best for this sort of thing, at least in my personal practice, beginning and ending either at the front door or the driveway (if there is one).

Once claimed, I’ll then sweep and smoke out any stagnant or unwanted energies, and evict any spirits who won’t play nicely with others. You’ll want to do that before you’ve set up the strong wards on a new house, or after you’ve taken down the old wards, if you’re rebuilding them, to make the sweeping out easier.

Next, I’ll refill the space with the sort of energy I want to have in the house – generally I use some kind of a blessing, in water or smoke. You shouldn’t just sweep out the unwanted, without have a clear idea of what should replace it, because otherwise you may create a magical vacuum, which of course will then fill itself with whatever is nearby.

Once the energy I do want is filling the space and spilling out, I’ll return to the perimeter, and this is the part where if there’s land, I’ll sink in a few spikes or nails as anchors. Railroad spikes are very popular and very effective, but my work involves the Fair Folk far too much for me to want to use iron as my ward anchors, so I tend to use copper instead (silver would also work very well for me, but it’s a bit more expensive). I place anchors at each corner, and the edge of each entrance (like the driveway, and the front walk), moving in a clockwise direction. I set part of the enchantment into each anchor before I drive it into the ground, so that I can feel those and pick them back up when I’m ready to weave the warding-walls. (Though don’t think of “walls” as just a fence – you want to block off access above and below you as well.) For my ward weaving, I usually work primarily in trance, with very few props (outside of the anchors I’ve already driven into the ground), but you could also create some sort of object to hold the spell, if that’s the kind of work you’re more comfortable with. You could tie all the anchors back into a jar spell of some type, perhaps.

As I move around the perimeter, I also ask for the help of any trees or shrubs near the property line, near the driveway and front walk, and near any back or side doors. Although I haven’t really lived in a place where I’ve done a lot of landscaping, if you’re considering putting in some new bushes or shrubs in any of those places, maybe do a little research on which plants are considered protective! I have a little baby hawthorn that’s still in a pot for now, but will hopefully one day be placed near my front walk. Some protective plants are already pretty common in landscaping, such as roses and holly!

I also set up zones within the perimeter, to designate whether and when friendly-inclined spirits are allowed in. For example, I generally recommend that children’s bedrooms have an extra layer of warding to keep out everything but allowable humans and pets, and the child’s own guides and guardians. I also usually have tight wards around my own bedroom, and the bathrooms. I try to keep the Folk who are “wandering through” confined to my office (which doubles as ritual space) and not out in the house at large. And while you’re thinking of wards, don’t forget the other types of entrance: water pipes, electricity, the internet. I tend to use sigils or bind-runes above doors and windows, as well as around pipes and conduits, as my inner layers of warding, sometimes literally drawing them in paint. Do remember to paint over or otherwise remove them before you leave, if you move away, though!

In addition to the “zones”, I’ve drawn sigils around my house to create a sort of “flushing” system, so that if I need to clear the house quickly, I can use a sigil on the front door and activate the others throughout the house to flood the area with a deluge of cleansing energy. It’s not as good as a deep clean, but if you’ve ever wanted to smoke-cleanse the whole house after an unwanted guest left and you found yourself too drained to do so, you should maybe try it. It lets me address an issue in the moment, pretty much regardless of my current energy levels, and stops the problem from getting too bad before I can get around to a full cleanse-and-bless.

One thing that I try to do with wards that I don’t see talked about a lot, is I try to create some kind of feedback system, so that I will be aware quickly if anything tries to get past the wards, or if they are damaged. Part of my system for that includes my House Steward, one of the key spirits in my household, who can do some repairs on his own, and is more than capable of grabbing my attention when needed. Spirits and spirit relationships make up another entire layer of the defensibility of my home, but I think that might be best discussed in its own blog, so we’ll do that next week!

The final thing I’ll say, though, is that even most set-and-forget wards and protections need to be looked at once a year or so. If you’re using a jar as a focus object, maybe put that jar somewhere it’s not in the way but you’ll still see it occasionally, so that you will notice quickly if it breaks or something else problematic occurs. For anything you can’t see to check on periodically, it might be a good idea to incorporate a check-in into your seasonal practice somehow! Maybe every January (New Year, New Wards) or some time in March when you get sucked into Spring Cleaning. Whatever makes the most sense for your personal practice!

Here are the links for the blogs on Spirit Relationships for a Defensible Home: Part 1 and Part 2.

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Ribbons as Ritual Adornments

Most of the Pagans I know are fond of ritual adornments: robes, jewelry, makeup, even the occasional veil. I have my share of devotional and enchanted jewelry, to be sure, and I own couple of items of clothing that pretty much only get worn to Pagan gatherings, SCA events, and the Renaissance Faire. But I don’t see many other people wearing ribbons, which is a shame because they’re such a versatile item! Since my hair is long enough to put up or put half up, which is my usual preferred style, I usually wear my ribbons in my hair. I have, however, worn them both around my neck and around my wrist in the past, and I find they work just as well in that manner. I usually buy silk ribbons with edging, about a yard long. They are easy to find on Etsy dyed in almost every color and color combination you could possibly want! I own about a dozen, most of which have a ritual or devotional purpose, and the picture below shows three of the ones I use most often.

Three ribbons, folded loosely, laid out on top of a woven cloth. One is dyed in shades of blue/green/magenta. One is ombre beige-brown-black. One is dyed shades of grey.

A selection of my personal ribbons.

The top one, in shades of blue, green, and magenta, is the hair ribbon I usually use for divinatory work. It is a key part of my personal ritual to align my headspace with the practice of intuitive divination, and when I’m rushing that’s sometimes the only thing I do. I find that the act of tying it in my hair or around my wrist has become an effective mental trigger for changing my focus and sliding into trance. Even in my hair, the slight weight and movement of the strands as I move my head is noticeable, and helps me maintain focus. On my wrist its presence is even more palpable as I shuffle and draw cards or cast objects. I don’t always use the ribbon every time I do divination, though. If I’m away from home and am just pulling a few cards on the fly I don’t usually have it with me, but if I’m doing a reading for a client I always take the moment to pull it out and tie it in. It’s as important a piece of my personal preparation as grounding and centering, and when I’m feeling a little under the weather or preoccupied, it helps me to set those aside, and open instead to the work that needs to be done.

The other two ribbons, one in shades of beige, brown, and black and the other in shades of grey, are both devotional adornments. The tricolor one in the middle of the photo above is one I use for rituals to Hela, and to work with the Dead. For me, the colors evoke bones and the dark earth of graves and caves. Like the one I use for divination, this one helps shift my focus, and helps me align myself with the chthonic energies. I use it to help me shift into the oracular headspace associated with the spae tradition I’ve been trained in. While I also place a veil over myself when I am acting as seer, that act moves me through the gates of Helheim. The ribbon primarily helps me begin the journey down, and clarifies messages when the Dead come to me, though it likely helps with clarity in Helheim as well.

The ribbon in shades of grey is a devotional piece for Na Morrigna, and I use it each dark moon in my oracular rituals, but also whenever I am doing Their Work, or attending rituals in Their Honor. It helps me connect with the trio of Goddesses who came to me and named themselves in the plural: Na Morrigna as a collective, not An Morrigan in the singular. I’ve identified them elsewhere as the three daughters of Ernmas — Morrigan/Anu, Babd, and Macha — and so I wear the ribbon as well when doing work for them or attending rituals to them individually, as well.

Others have discussed Pagan veiling practices much better than I could hope to summarize, but I do want to mention ribbons in connection with that, briefly. For those who cannot veil completely, I’ve seen the idea of hair jewelry or other accessories used in place of a scarf, and I think a devotional hair ribbon (for those who can tie it into their hair) would be a great alternative. They’re very easy to style into hair, and they don’t have a religious connotation in US mainstream culture, thus allowing their usage by people whose practices and/or beliefs are sub-rosa*, without posing the threat of being found out.

I have other ribbons I use for healing work, for certain types of spellcasting, and to wear when I honor other entities, and I keep them all in a little accessory bag with my ritual jewelry. In the past I have just taken the whole bag with when I’ve gone to pagan events. Most of the ribbons are multicolored, like the ones in the picture above, and I’ve gotten them from several places but my favorite source is probably Jamn Glass on Etsy, because of the sheer range of hand dyed colors they offer. Or you could buy white ones and dye them yourself!

*Note: I tend to prefer using “sub-rosa” to “broom closet” terminology for a couple of reasons, one of which being that it’s such a lovely phrase! For me, “under the roses” evokes images of lush gardens protecting hushed conversation and midnight meetings from prying eyes, which has a similar aura of mystery and secrecy to my own experiences being a teen with a covert polytheistic magical practice in a staunchly Catholic household.

Hedgewitch: How I Describe My Magical Craft

I mentioned in a previous post that I tend to refer to my magical practice as hedgewitchery, and myself as a hedgewitch, but I thought it would be useful to go into that in more depth in this new blog post.

So, what do I mean when I call myself a hedgewitch? What is it I do ?

This: I practice folk magic to balm and bane, I divine for omens, I truck with spirits, I cross the hedge to walk the worlds, and I dabble in herbs.

FOLK MAGIC

A lot of my magical practice draws on folklore and folk magic traditions, and incorporates the materials I have around me in a way that some might call traditional witchcraft. I use pieces I’ve learned from family and friends, or invented myself, with what bits and bobs I had on hand or could easily acquire: paper or yarn, candle or salt, herb or stone. I read about other witches’ practices, I talk to my peers, and we inspire each other to use materials or magical technologies in ways that solve the problems in front of us. Most of it is highly personal and highly intuitive, often with guidance from spirits. I have a couple of pretty tools (a brass bell, a copper mug, a pillar of quartz, an engraved wooden spoon) but most everything also has a very practical purpose. I love the look of a fancy wand as much as the next magpie, but I’ve never really used ceremonial tools with any regularity, and I rarely do magic in a manner that requires an altar set just-so. In fact, many of my most “complicated” workings are done almost entirely in trance.

BALM AND BANE

Healing and hexing are two sides of the same coin, in my view. I can heal with darkness, I can curse with light, and in fact I have an upcoming workshop for the NoVA Pagan Moot on exactly that. I am trained in several modalities of energetic or spiritual healing, and I combine them intuitively for those who seek my services. But just as poison in the right dosage can be medicine, a medicine in the wrong dosage is often a poison. Non-consensual or inexpertly targeted healing can cause harm, and sometimes a binding or a banishing can twist someone’s fate so that they’re heading in a more positive direction. Magic is complicated, consent matters, and every effective spell has consequences, intended or not. I try to do more good than harm, but if I’m between a rock and a hard place I will use every tool in my arsenal. I see a lot of people who have a very all-or-nothing mindset around banework, and I don’t think that’s nearly as helpful as having actual discussions about ethics and harm reduction, and us each figuring out our own personal boundaries.

DIVINATION

I am an eternal student of divination: I keep learning new forms, and I keep going deeper with the forms I am already proficient with. I practice several types of cartomancy, I read ogham staves and rune stones, I take omens taken in the wild from the flight of birds, and I sometimes even turn to modern technological omens like shufflemancy and the rolling of d20s. Not everything works well for me: I’ve never quite gotten the hang of pendulums or spirit boards, for instance. But I am proficient enough in many forms that I have enough confidence in my skill to offer these services for money, and the reviews I get back are extremely positive. I use my tools to divine the future, the past, the present—to illuminate anything that is shrouded, to look around corners, to answer what-ifs as best I can, knowing as I do that things are always in flux. I use these tools to speak with and to get messages from spirits of many kinds, both for myself, and on the behalf of others.

SPIRITWORK

I have deep relationships with two pantheons of Deities: the Tuatha Dé and the Vanir. I am also deeply entwined with the Álfar and with the Daoine Uaisle, through the Fairy Queen I serve. I maintain relationships with my local Good Neighbors, Nature Spirits, and Land Wights where I live, where I visit and practice, and where I travel. I honor my Beloved Dead, and those Ancestors (of blood or of path) who appear to guide and to help me. There are spirits in my household; they are my allies and my companions, my guides and my guardians. I also maintain cordial relationships and open lines of communication with many of the Deities and other tutelary spirits of my human-incarnate friends and associates. Most of my magical work involves these many types of spirits; I do workings with them, for them, because of them, on their behalf, or at their request.

HEDGECROSSING

Hedge-crossing, hedge-riding, journeying, pathworking, world-walking: whatever you may call it, I use these to refer to the act of travelling in spirit to the Otherworlds. This is a type of trancework, and the one I use most often. I slip between this world and an Other to see spirits more clearly, to converse with them, or to take a look at the landscape and flows of energy. I travel to visit spirits I know; I travel to seek those I have not yet encountered. I go seeking answers for myself and for others, and I bring answers back in words or images, scents or feelings. Sometimes I wander the worlds for the sheer joy of it, the ecstasy of spirit-flight. From time to time I go walking in my dreams, but most of my wanderings are waking visions.

HERBALISM

This is the one area that I most wish to have additional education in. I am familiar with some herbal remedies for common things like colds, scrapes, and bruises; I know remedies for menstrual cramps. I have deeper education in a couple of chronic conditions I am personally dealing with, including migraines, but I would like to take an actual certification programme at some point. For magical uses, I work with herbs and resins a bit more intuitively, mixing flavors and intentions into food, blending oils for scent and resonance. I speak with the plants themselves, and learn what they would teach me. When I need to ground deeply and my usual way is not enough, I go walk the land or else I spend time in my own garden. The cycles of plant growth, of harvest, of weather, of the moon, bring me back into the present, back into balance with the cycles of my own life.

The Importance of Consent in Divination and Oracular Work

Since this came up recently elsewhere, I thought I’d share with y’all my basic guide to etiquette in divination and oracular work! It can be tough to figure out boundaries when you find divination and godphoning come easily to you, and you feel called to the role of a messenger or oracle. But as with most things, the first thing to keep in mind is consent.

So: before you do divination for someone else, make sure you have clear consent to do so. Make sure you’re on the same page as far as who (ex. Bast) or what (ex. their wyrd, The Universe) is being queried, and how the question, if any, is phrased. If you’re using a form of divination that has meanings associated with a symbol set, it’s also a good idea to make sure that you’re on the same page about whether you’re just pulling runes/cards/what-have-you and conveying those, or if you’re also going to interpret them. Also, if you usually charge money or take tips for readings, that should be clear upfront.

If you’re feeling like you ought to do divination on someone else’s behalf in order to offer them advice, that all still applies: don’t ask any spirits what advice to give someone unless:

  • 1) the person actually wants advice (as opposed to space holding or comforting),
  • 2) they consented for you to query these specific spirits,
  • 3) with these specific questions.

Asking your Deities, your Guides, and your Ancestors what your friend should do to fix their life isn’t usually very helpful, because they don’t have solid relationships to draw on, and you’ll need a lot of discernment skill to make sure they aren’t just telling you to tell your friend the advice you want to give. Asking their Deities, their Guides, and their Ancestors, with their permission, is more likely to get you helpful and nuanced answers, because those spirits are more aware of and engaged in your friend’s life.

However, quite a few people who feel called to this path have had an experience where, for whatever reason, a Deity or other spirit asks us to pass on a message, often in a too-real dream, during a journey meditation, or in a ritual. At that point, it’s best to tell the spirit that you will try, if the intended recipient is willing to hear it.

I don’t recommend promising you definitely will deliver the message, because there are times that the recipient is not going to be able to hear it from you, for a variety of reasons. First, we come back to that concept of consent: the best way to start this conversation with the intended recipient is just to tell them you’ve received some insight that is a message for them from a spirit (or name/ describe the spirit), and ask them if they wish to hear it.

Then, if they say yes, do your best to deliver the message as accurately as possible, and gently suggest they verify it again with another source if it’s something potentially life-altering (like changing jobs, or moving out of state, or getting divorced). Even if you practice divination, too, they should ask a different diviner. If they say no, they don’t want to hear it, just move on. You promised to try and you tried and that’s the end of it. If the message was truly important, the spirit will try again in a different way.

That might sound like unusual advice, but I believe we really do have agency in our relationships with Deities and other spirits, and I think one of the most important ways to use our agency is to make sure our actions are in line with our own ethical codes. Deities certainly have ethical codes as well, but they have a different perspective, and it’s important to remember that even if you’re given a divine message, you still have to be responsible for your own actions. Our personal relationships should be maintained with good boundaries and mutual respect, allowing us all to exercise our own agency. (Excepting in extreme circumstances, of course – sometimes agency is restricted for good reason, as when the individual presents a clear danger to themselves or others.)

Mostly what I have discussed above is about specific messages for specific individuals, but I also want to briefly touch on the type of oracular work my blog followers have probably seen before: monthly messages from certain Deities. With those kind of open community-wide messages, the consent exists in whether or not the person reading it wishes to consider themselves part of my community.

I’m usually pretty upfront about these messages probably being more relevant to people who have similar practices and beliefs to my own, and to people who are located in the same geographic and political region as me. People who aren’t nearby sometimes tell me that something resonated strongly with them, and I occasionally get similar comments from people who have very different practices and beliefs. And that’s okay, too! People can read it and take from it whatever they want.

Or – and this is really key – they can read one and decide it really doesn’t resonate or apply to them at all, and they can avoid my writing in the future! That’s perfectly fine with me. I’m not trying to convert anyone to my way of thinking; I’m just sharing a message I was given, and hoping it might be helpful for a couple of others who find themselves in similar situations.

As with the individual oracular messages above, if the message seems to be suggesting some sort of change, it’s a good idea for other practitioners to verify community oracular messages that seem to resonate with them. They could do their own journeywork, or turn to divination. If the message is verified, that will also give them a bit more nuance about how it applies to their specific situation!

Hopefully this was a helpful (or at least an interesting) little excursion into how to apply consensual boundaries to divination and oracular work. If you’d like to discuss more, or to ask a question, please feel free to leave a comment below, or to send an email.

Crow Folks: A Divination

Imbolc is usually the end of my run of Dark Moon rituals to Na Morrigna, but this year, as with last, I’ve been asked to continue. This month the journey did not leave me with succinct quotes or a rough poem, but rather I was called to draw a few cards and then discuss the themes therein. I tend to use the Archeon Tarot deck for “Morrigna Stuff”, and lately I’ve been incorporating ogham in as well, so here’s what I drew:

The Ace of Pentacles, The Two of Pentacles (reversed), The Eight of Cups (reversed), and then nGetal.

For most of us, the beginning of a new secular calendar year brings with it a lot of reflection and change, as we lay out plans for the rest of the year, hopefully improving things that didn’t work out well in the last one. This year, there’s still a lot of uncertainty regarding the pandemic, and for those of us in the US, the political changeover associated with the new President and the outcomes of recent elections. We are gathering up what we can of our lives, though, and we’ve taken the first few steps on our journey through the new year. Many of us are bringing more unresolved issues than usual into the new year, and while January is somewhat liminal, February often brings harsh realities into focus, as we truly settle in. New problems will arrive soon (if they haven’t already) and will begin to exacerbate old problems we’ve carried over from last year, leaving us feeling like we’re juggling too many things, and in many cases, struggling with burn-out. Organization and mini self care breaks will help some, but ultimately it looks like this moon will be one of struggle as we decide how many difficulties we can actually juggle, and what me might need to let fall. One of the things we must prioritize is our own health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Many old wounds, never quite totally healed, have been reopened in the past year, and these need true healing, although it is likely the process will be exhausting and painful. Boundaries may need to be drawn sharply; things that drain us but provide no value should be excised from our lives like a scalpel removing a tumor. The last year was hard – this one will be harder still if we lose our footing.

Despite the somber tone of the conversation and reading, however, I felt nothing but warmth and encouragement from Na Morrigna Themselves. They are here to help us, and we are here to help each other, as we go through this month – and this year – together.

Riders on a Baleful Wind, and a Charm to Keep Them at Bay

This time of year, between the autumnal equinox and Samhain, is when I notice the most activity from a loose grouping of spirits I’ve begun to refer to as Riders on a Baleful Wind. I’m referring both to the Wild Hunt ⁠(or, really, Hunts, plural) and also to some of the Fair Folk⁠—trooping fairies who travel near these dates*, and groups like the slua sí, who are also associated with wind or storms, and overlap somewhat with the folkloric Wild Hunt.

As a folklore motif and a mythological archetype, the Wild Hunt is prevalent across much of Northwestern Europe, and the Hunt of each region has its own leader. Often these leaders are Pre-Christian deities associated with war or death, like Odin/Woden and Gwyn Ap Nudd. Other times they’re figures associated with the aos sí, like Manannán Mac Lir, or they’re said to be famous ghosts, like Herne the Hunter. These folk tales came with European Immigrants to the Americas as well, and here the Hunt is sometimes known as the Ghost Riders. (Some of you will be familiar with the song, I imagine.) Besides the leader, who or what exactly the rest of the company is varies from tale to tale. Sometimes they are human dead, sometimes they’re said to be fairies or demons, but most frequently these groups seem to be something of a motley crew. The overlapping circles of the Fair Folk, the Gods, and the Dead are difficult to pick apart, and it’s especially difficult to draw any clear lines when we’re looking at the Wild Hunt and related groups of weather-riding unfriendly otherworldly beings.

Unfriendly and intimidating though they may seem, not all of them are actually malevolent. That’s why I term them “baleful”, not “baneful”, and each individual group poses a different type and level of danger. Malevolent or not, however, they’re generally not spirits most witches want in or around their homes or places of business, and with that in mind I’ve been working on a charm object to add a little additional protection to whatever wards you already have in place.

Warding Charm

The charm itself is fairly small and would easily blend into an autumn wreath. The ingredients are pretty simple as well: a sweetgum ball, some red yarn, and iron water.

SWEETGUM BALL: One per charm, dried, preferably with the stem attached.

Part of the work I’ve been doing with the Ogham for the past two years (or more, really, but I think it was two years ago that I really started diving in deeply in a structured way) is finding local plants that have similar energy to the plants of the tree ogham list.** Sweetgum, a tree indigenous to my area, has an energy that I think is similar in some important ways to Blackthorn. While it doesn’t have thorns, it does have spiky seed balls, and its sweet-scented sap, like blackthorn sloes, is actually very bitter tasting. Additionally, it’s a favored food of luna moth caterpillars, an insect I have long associated with nocturnal fairy beings. Blackthorn is sometimes said to belong to or to ward off the Othercrowd, and I find Sweetgum fits that niche as well. I have since learned that sweetgum balls are also used in hoodoo for protection, which dovetails nicely with both my experience of the tree, and this charm.

RED YARN: Or thread, I suppose. Enough to wrap around the sweetgum ball twice at perpendicular intersections, and tie off to leave tails for hanging.

I decided to spin my own yarn. I’ve wanted to learn to spin for a long time, but until recently thought I was allergic to wool. It turns out, I’m probably reacting to a chemical used in the commercial processing, because I did a test with a friend’s fleece-to-homespun and had no redness, no itching, no bumps, no hives! Excited, I borrowed a drop spindle and purchased some red-dyed roving from an artisan supplier. They included a sample of some other colors and I used that to figure out a technique for spinning. That way, once I started on the red roving, I could focus more on spinning my intent and my power into the yarn, instead of still figuring out what the heck I was doing. If you don’t spin, I recommend braiding embroidery floss as a good alternative for adding your intent and power to the string. Something like: I’m a badass witch and I protect this space; I decide who enters and who the wards keep out.

Iron Water: Soak some nails in water with a little splash of apple cider vinegar for a few days. When it’s ready, dip the sweetgum ball, yarn and all, into the water and let it get saturated.

I doubt I need to tell most of my readers that iron is known to ward off the Fair Folk, but just in case you need the refresher: that’s why we’re using iron water. You could also stick those very nails into this charm if you wanted, but that’s a bit stronger than I wanted for my personal charms, and it would be a little too strong for some allies I don’t want to keep out. I wanted something vaguely iron scented. Enough iron to say that I know what I’m about, but not enough iron to deeply offend those who are welcome across my threshold.

This is also probably a good time to tell you that this charm, as I’ve made it, is basically a “No Tresspassing” sign. It’s not going to do much good if it’s your only line of defense. If you have decent house wards, though, and gods or allies you can turn to in times of need, that sign will be enough to make those Riders more inclined to go around, rather than through. There are fewer obstacles elsewhere, and easier prey to be found. As with most predators, that’s usually enough, as long as you don’t provoke them.

* Though the ones who travel near the autumnal equinox may be following the Pleiades, not the equinox. See Morgan Daimler’s recent writings on that for more information.

** Nota Bene: The Ogham is an alphabet, and it’s not just about trees. Trees are one of the ogham lists. There’s also word ogham, skill ogham, bird ogham, even dog and waterway ogham. Eventually I’ll make my own local herb and bird and waterways lists, too, and maybe a modern skills ogham. But a lot of my general witchy practice includes work with plants, so trees seemed like a good place to start.

Absolute Beginner Meditation Exercises

I’ve already blogged about Grounding/Centering and Shielding, and while those are prerequisites to journeywork, they are not required for the following short meditation exercises. These are also a prerequisite for more complicated forms of meditation, but they are designed to be done basically anywhere with anything, though I’ll be using two specific examples.

Open Attention: A Cup of Tea

I call this a tea meditation because I like tea, but you can do it with any flavored beverage (or soup, or water if you can tell what water tastes like, but it works better with flavor).

First, prepare your beverage to your taste, and an appropriate drinking temperature, and find a mostly quiet and calm place to sit. It doesn’t need to be perfectly silent and it’s probably better for your later progress if it isn’t, but a too-distracting environment isn’t great, either. Background music may help.

Once you’re ready, what you’re going to do is hold your beverage, and begin to notice EVERYTHING. Drop your attention out of your head and really notice everything in your body, first. What can you feel? Do you have aches and pains, discomfort? Allow yourself to move slowly if a change of posture might relieve those, and really feel the sensations of movement, each muscle tensing and relaxing. Can you feel your clothing? Your hair? Any jewelry or other adornments? Can you feel the ground, or what you’re sitting on? What about sunlight, or air currents? What do you see? Without moving your head around too much, what is nearby? You’ve probably already noticed large objects, but what about the tiny details? Imperfections in paint or tile if you’re inside? Slightly wilted leaves outside? Really try to take in all the details, as though you’re trying to memorize the scene. But don’t feel pressured, there’s no quiz. The goal is simple awareness. Can you take in visual detail and still remain aware of the tactile sensations we went over earlier? On top of that, can you add smells? Humans have a pretty good sense of smell, on average, we just don’t pay as much attention to it as our canine friends do. But now that you are paying attention, what can you smell? Your beverage, probably. But what else? Can you smell yourself? Are there other ambient odors? Once you think you’ve become aware of the smells near you, take a moment to really focus on your beverage. Notice how the smell changes, gets stronger, as you lift it up to your face. Take a drink, and see how much you can taste. What ingredients are in your beverage? What sort of notes can you detect? Can you catalog them while not losing awareness of your other senses? Swallow and then return to trying to integrate all sensory input, and just letting it flow in and through you. Catalog it, but don’t judge what you notice, and don’t judge yourself for noticing or for losing focus. If you lose focus, just take another sip and calmly return to cataloging, until you’ve hit your time goal.

Then slowly return to normal awareness. I recommend finishing the beverage if you have not, and then perhaps having a little snack or doing a little physical movement – shaking yourself out, or a couple of stretches, maybe – to bring yourself back into mundane consciousness.

Focused Attention: A Single Candle

First, find a candle and a flat and safe place to set it down to burn. A jar candles on a wood table would be perfect. Taper candles and candle holders might work if there’s nothing that may knock it over and if there’s nothing flammable it can fall on. It will work best if the area you’re using has a calm and mostly quiet. It doesn’t need to be perfectly silent and it’s probably better for your later progress if it isn’t, but a too-distracting environment isn’t great, either. If there’s too much intermittent noise, try headphones and some kind of white noise or background music. (Check out these generators.)

Once you’re set up, light the candle, and focus on the flame. As you do so, begin to count your breaths. Count slowly as you inhale, and then as you hold briefly, and then as you exhale, and briefly hold again. It may take you a little bit of trial and error to figure out what counts work best for you, but many people suggest square breathing, where each portion is a count of four. 1, 2, 3, 4, in; 1, 2, 3, 4, hold in; 1, 2, 3, 4, out; 1, 2, 3, 4, hold out. I personally find that a count of 7 in, 3 hold, 7 out, 3 hold works better for me to shift my state of consciousness, so feel free to experiment. Just keep focusing on the candle as you breathe.

If your mind starts to wander or you lose count in your breaths, just gently come back into the pattern. If you find that the candle flame is not enough to occupy your mind, consider adding a short phrase that you repeat either quietly in your head, or with every exhale. Alternatively, get something for your hands to fiddle with to help you direct your focus elsewhere. Try to maintain this focus, but do not be hard on yourself for losing focus. Just keep practicing.

If it becomes too difficult to continue focusing, or if you have reached the end of your target meditation length, thank the candle for its help and put it out. Slowly return to normal breathing and normal awareness. You may need to get up and stretch and have a snack to accomplish that.

Practice makes Perfect!

These are short, and doing them just once isn’t really going to help you. Instead, it’s best to build a practice around both. Doing both of them (at different times of day, not back-to-back) every day for three weeks would be ideal, and you’d notice a lot of progress in that time. However, that’s not something I’d probably manage without dropping some of the other balls I’m juggling, and I know that’s not realistic for some of you, either. So instead, I suggest doing either of them 5 times a week for four weeks, instead. Some days you can do two to make up for a missed day, but don’t do more than two in a day, and don’t go more than three days in a row without doing one exercise, if you can help it. If you can’t avoid that, you may want to continue for an extra week at the end of your month.

If you find as you go along that you can sit for longer than the 5 minutes, by all means do so! Ideally as you get more comfortable with these and the mental state begins to come naturally, you will be able to sit in it for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. That may take another few weeks, though after you feel more solid in your practice you can back off to doing it just a couple times a week without losing progress. More practice still means faster progress, however!

I also suggest journaling the experience, even if it’s just a couple of brief words in a note on your phone: “7/11/19. Candle meditation. Went well.” Or “7/12/19. Coffee meditation. Couldn’t keep focus.” It will be clearer to you that you’re making progress, and you won’t have try to count how many times you managed already this week.

Building a Witchy Go-Bag

Ever since Witches’ Sabbat last year, I’d been thinking about easier ways to bring the majority of my tools and bits and bobs with me, in the event I want something while I’m away from home (like at an event at a campground in a whole other country). I began compiling a list of things I might want, but I kept getting stuck with a list too long or too short and I couldn’t figure out what sort of container to put it in. I wanted something structured and weather-resistant, but beyond that I wasn’t really sure.

Then, about a month ago, both Seo Helrune and Morgan Daimler started talking about their go-bags, and I went scrolling through types of bags on the internet and ran straight into a bag type I hadn’t realized existed: structured makeup travel bags. (Yeah, I’m not that into makeup. But then, if you’ve seen me in person you probably already know that.)

ta-daaaaa!

So I looked around and ordered one that was black and water resistant and had what looked to be a good layout, and I waited. When it arrived, I started gathering things and moving them around and revisiting my list and adding more things to a shopping list and taking things out and looking for the perfect notebook and now… Here it is!

The main compartment, anyway.

The Final Kit:

  • Mirror (came with bag, not pictured)
  • slim A5 notebook and mechanical pencil (in outer pocket, not pictured)
  • 3 plastic quart-sized zip bags (in zipper pocket, not pictured)
  • 1 white cotton handkerchief (also in zipper pocket)
  • a small bottle of whiskey
  • a ceramic folding knife
  • a corked test tube
  • a mini rattle
  • 3 biodegradeable plastic 5 gal bags (green, tucked around jars)
  • a jar of sea salt
  • a jar of pipe tobacco
  • an empty jar
  • a spice shaker of my ash salt (not quite the same thing as black salt)
  • a compass
  • a crystal pendulum and a silver ring in a small jewelry box
  • a roll of washi tape
  • an electric tealight
  • 3 tealight candles
  • a small box of matches
  • an incense cone and a metal stand, that will be swapped out for incense matchsticks once I acquire ones I like
  • a leather pouch with a few important crystals (this is sort of a divination set and sort of a set of tactile anchors for trancework)
  • a tiny sewing kit with some different colored thread and a mini scissors
  • a set of finger cymbals (in lieu of a bell, because I like them better)
  • a tin with a mini tarot deck, the Radiant Rider-Waite-Smith
  • an altoid tin, containing white chalk sticks, black birthday candles, and a number of bright candies
  • some of my business cards (hey, a witch has got to self-promote)

This is the out-of-town bag, and as such it doesn’t contain the things I always have in my purse, which includes most of my enchanted jewelry (if I’m not wearing it), a number of small personal charms, and a set of oracle cards of my own devising, as well as my phone, calendar, pens, sunglasses, tylenol, hair ties, etc. If I’m wandering about a witchy campground, those things will likely also migrate into here or into my pockets (or, gods-willing, the apron I will finally sew for myself).

I’m glad to have finally made this, and it’s usable now even if there are still a few little things that need tidying. It might seem like a lot of stuff, and it is, so I may need to think about making something scaled down just a touch, something between what I carry everyday and this whole bag, but then again… As much as I love my tools, most of the time, most of what I do uses very few tools at all. This bag is a safety net, for when I can’t just pop home and grab something, for when the closest store is farther away than I can easily walk. I’ll take it to events and I’ll take it to house calls, and as I do the work, I’ll learn what I use most and what I can replace with something I’ll use more.

Shielding

There are nearly as many approaches to shielding as there are paths in paganism and witchcraft. Some of the more popular include:

  • Carrying objects or materials known to be protective (such as certain types of plants, certain crystals, hag stones, or iron)
  • Using sigils or bind runes, inscribed either on yourself (in lotion, as a tattoo, etc), on a belonging (like clothing, shoes, jewelry), or on something small enough to carry with you (like a notecard, business card, or guitar pick put in your pocket, bag, or wallet)
  • Spoken spells, used daily or whispered when extra help is needed
  • Enchanting jewelry, clothing, or something you carry with you, like a keychain or charm bag
  • Spirit protection, provided by a familiar, a guardian spirit (often an animal, mythical being**, or ancestor), or a constructed thoughtform or servitor
  • And finally, by energy work, using energy to construct shields that aren’t anchored to anything but the practitioner themselves

As the last one is the way I create my own shields, that’s the way I’ll be focusing on in this blog.

The simplest way most people learn to make shields with energy is to imagine* an egg of bright light surrounding them. Most people will have heard this before, and you might have heard that it should be white or gold, but I’m here to tell you that it can be any color, or a combination of colors, or no color, and it can be bright or dark, provided that whatever color or not-color and brightness or darkness you choose is something you associate with the thing you want the shield to do. That is: to protect you.

But what kind of protection are you looking for? I think it’s important to be clear on that before we go any further. Do you want to keep every single type of energy that is not yours out? Probably not – that will keep out blessings and interpersonal connections and all sorts of things you probably want. Do you want an impassable barrier between you and spirits? Strange ones maybe, but gods are spirits, too, and if you’re a devotee I doubt you want to completely shield out the object of your devotions. Do you want it to keep out negative energy? But what counts as negative? Do you want to be completely unaffected to the point of apathy about the suffering of others? Do you want to be unable to tell when other people are anxious or angry? Again, probably not always. There are probably some things you always want to keep out, like intentional malevolence and non-consensual energy feeding, but other things you probably only want to keep out sometimes, or only keep specific types out. For example: it might be good idea to shield out angry or anxious energy coming off of strangers, especially in tight spaces like a commuter train, but you might want to be able to feel some of the same energies off your romantic partner sometimes, to help you empathize with them. Once you identify what you what you want the shield to do, at least in broad strokes, I have another tip for you.

It doesn’t have to be light.

You can make a shield with any type of energy. Light, darkness, void, elemental energy (using whatever element system you like), plant energy, crystal energy, WHATEVER YOU WANT. Promise. It just needs to be: 1) a type of energy with which you’re familiar enough to imagine clearly and work with accurately, and 2) something you think will be useful for protection.

So, pick something, imagine it, and then try to feel it. Build it the same way every day until it gets easy. I recommend trying to build it in the morning as you start your day. Maybe right after your alarm goes off, or in the shower, or right before you start your morning commute. Do it the same time every day and it will become routine, and as it becomes routine it will get easier and easier. Don’t worry if you forget one day – just do it when you remember, and try to be as consistent as possible. Once it gets easy (and I recommend waiting until you’ve been doing it for at least three weeks), you can try something more advanced.

Once you’ve mastered doing a single layer shield with one type of energy, you can try creating a sort of composite energy material from other types, or build up multiple layers, each with different types of energy. Let’s say someone, and we’ll call them A, decided to stick with white light for their three weeks of practice, but now A is thinking it would be nice to have something that would slow down the energy of their partner’s outbursts, without completely keeping it out, and something else to mask their presence from spirits, because A noticed that the white light seems to make them more visible. So, A thinks about it for a while, and decides that they’ll keep the white light, but make it the inner-most layer, and then outside that they’ll put a layer of charcoal for filtering, and then outside that, a layer of salt water. Now, they’ll spend three weeks focusing on building all three layers, until that gets easy, too.

As you experiment with other materials, you may also think about using reactive materials. In our mundane lives, we’re familiar with things like glasses that get dark when you walk into sunlight, or liquids that react in the presence of magnets. You can work with or create those types of energies, too. One I like to use is sort of a liquid one-way mirrored glass, that can get darker/lighter and more/less mirrored as I tell it to, or according to its programming. Programming is another thing you might consider: you can create shields with certain pre-sets, like “increase filtering of other people’s energy when I am in a crowd”, or “filter out spirit activity while I’m at work”. You can also think about programming in shortcuts so you can adjust the layers without having to rebuild the whole thing.

This, too, you’ll have to practice daily for a while: including all the programming. Once you’ve really set up the shield the way you want it and the building is both solid and easy, you can set it up to function permanently on a low or medium setting, and then just walk through the building once a week, and eventually once a month, as it learns to stay for longer periods of time. Because it is taking hits for you in its protective role, it will eventually degrade and need patching and cleaning, so I do recommend you release and rebuild it once a month, perhaps on the waxing crescent moon. If you find yourself forgetting, you should at least try to make an effort to clean and patch quickly every time you use your shield intentionally at a high level, as part of the wind-down process afterwards when you’re in a safe space and can lower your shields a bit. That might be best to check and do before bed. Left alone – unpatched and uncleaned – for too long, even the best shield will disintegrate and you’ll be left unprotected. But if you rebuild and patch and clean regularly, the whole process will become fairly automatic, and it will take less focus and less energy than it did when you first created your shields.Helpful tips for blindspots: build an egg not a wall. Fill it up with something. Different layers can fill each other’s loopholes.

Some final tips on shielding:

  • Make sure you’re building something that goes all the way around you, not a wall. Things can go over or come under walls. It doesn’t have to be egg-shaped, but it will work better if it goes around your energy bodies, too, instead of being skin-tight (though someone else entering your space should cause it to retract to the space between you, even if that space is microscopic).
  • Related: make sure your shield is consistent. That is: make sure you’ve got it just as thick at the small of your back and under the soles of your feet as you do in front of your chest. Try not to have seams or weak areas. Pay equal attention to all areas when patching and cleaning.
  • If you really want to use a type of energy but it seems to have a loophole or blindspot, pair it with something else that fills that lack.
  • You can definitely include weaponized elements in your shield (for instance, spiky protrusions or acid), but make sure that your shield isn’t all weaponry – you need purely defensive measures, too.

That’s all for now. Hopefully it helps! If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below!

* By “imagine”, I mean you should attempt to visualize or feel [tactilize?] or hear [auditorize?] the energy, or even smell or taste it. Use whichever sense is strongest and most accurate for you when you’re sensing energy.
** That is to say, a being from myth, like a gryphon or a dragon. I don’t mean “mythical” in the sense of “fictional”/”doesn’t exist”, but if you’re a witch, pagan, or spiritworker working in a pop-culture paradigm, fiction is your myth, so go ahead!

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