A Kitchen Witch is a woman who has placed magick in every aspect of her home, her hearth. She  ensures it is safe, cleaned of negative energies and it is nurtured on all levels.  The kitchen is, after all, the heart and hearth of many households.

A Kitchen Witch acknowledges the magickal energies in her home.  She puts direct magickal focus into whatever meals she makes and the way she cleans house.

A Kitchen Witch attunes with the energies of Nature and incorporates as much of Nature’s energy as possible into and around her home.

When you take the time to put meals together from the basic ingredients, you have a magical opportunity at hand. You can add intent and will to every dish. Making a meal can be a ritual in itself. When you take time to prepare something with your own hands, you lend your own magick to it.

I make all my lotions and potions in my kitchen too, all my herbs for candle magick spells and charms start life in my kitchen.

To me, my kitchen is a magical place, and there are a number of things you can do to enhance the magical atmosphere in your kitchen.

Have a kitchen altar. The cooker is equivalent to the hearth, and it’s where most food preparation is done. Create a small altar, add a statue of a home or hearth goddess, a cauldron, or a candle.

I have a small green man shelf in my kitchen. On it I have a feather for air, a goldstone for fire, a shell for water and a pebble for earth.  In the centre I have a tiny glass vase that I put fresh flowers in, it’s very small, only big enough for one or two buds.

Have your herbs readily accessible.  I have mine on several shelves, try to keep them out of direct sunlight as they will lose their potency and flavour.  I also try and have a pot or two of fresh herbs on the window sill.  I only have a small garden but I have as many pots of herbs outside as I can, as well.

Keep the kitchen space clean and tidy.  Like all sacred space it should be clutter free, keeping your physical space clean means your spiritual space will be too.

If possible and budget allows, paint your kitchen with happy and bright colours.

Cookbooks and recipes should be as organised as possible, maybe even have a folder or file with magickal recipes in too.

Rituals and charms can also be used in and around the home when doing your daily chores and housework as well.

Try and buy or make ecologically friendly cleaning products, not only are they better for you and the planet, they are more cost effective and can have magickal properties and intent.

You can also incorporate magical practices into your cooking. When you are stirring a pot, stir in a deosil or widdershins direction, depending on the goal you wish to achieve.  To banish or expel something stir widdershins, to bring something to you stir deosil. If you are spreading something try spreading a sigil for your intent using the knife your are spreading with. Whatever you are making try add herbs or spices that correspond to your magical intent.

Grab your besom and sweep away dust, dirt and negative energies!

Take your wooden spoon and stir up a magickal dish!

Whip up some herbal lotions and potions!

Join me on a Kitchen Witch journey…

Tansy

x

Indeed, the journey of any spiritual path can be difficult to maneuver.
Whether you are seasoned in your craft or just beginning, questions and self doubt can bite at your heels. Sometimes those pesky creatures create such an imbalance you fall.

Many times those just embarking on their journey feel overwhelmed with the abundance of information (or sometimes lack of information) and feel they must know it all yesterday in order to be where they think they should be.

What do you do?
Call upon your fairy godmother?

If only!

Having someone else do just some of our work takes from our experience of what a spiritual path really is.

So, what is a spiritual path?
Well, a spiritual path means different things to different people.
For me a spiritual path is different than a religious one in that it just requires gratitude which can be practiced in a variety of ways, including intertwining along with a religious path.

One thing however remains constant. We must all make that journey ourselves if we are to learn and grow. This too, may be different for each person. One person may be happy to read a few books on a culture while another may need to take a trip across the world and immerse oneself in that culture.

Method actors for instance become the character while others may use external means.
It all depends on how one hones their craft.

Whatever the path there will be times when you feel stuck.
You can see the glistening path winding its way up the spiritual mountain  but to get there you must tread carefully through  a narrow  bend and you are afraid you might  fall off the cliff if you don’t step just so.

Let go of the fear.

Rest easy then. A block in the path is a good time as any for a spot of tea.
Well, maybe for some but not for others. Not for me you say? You want definitive answers you say?

Reflection and meditation are tools we can use daily but especially if we are feeling spiritually stuck. In the silences one hears many things that daily living drowns out.

So, that’s all well and good but what if that does not work?  What if after all your efforts you are no closer to the top of that mountain in fact, it even looks like you’ve slipped down a bit!

Remember the method actor?
Perhaps your immersion is drowning you.
Reflection and mediation are wonderful tools indeed; however, there may come a time when you must step out of your character.
Instead of being the mountain you wish to climb let the mountain become you.

What about the external actor?
Have you drawn so much outward that your own fire is in need of kindling?
Instead of looking up at the mountain perhaps you are the mountain.

In other words, there is no mountain, just you.

Take a few minutes and breathe. Deliver a meal to an elderly person, volunteer at an animal shelter and remember:

No matter the spiritual path, it is best shared with love and kindness.

Sometimes an answer you are seeking shows itself in times of giving.

A spiritual journey has many twists, climbs and turns and at times painfully so.
We are all on this journey together on different levels and yes, different routes winding and circling and meeting friends along the way, with always, the heart at the center.

Inside each of us is a mountain of hope and dreams, love and compassion.
If along your path you shared even one of those, you’ve become the mountain.

Not the definitive answers you were seeking?
Ah, I’m not your fairy godmother, just a friend along the way.

This column is dedicated to all those on the journey.

Blessings and Namaste

I have recently been reassessing my ideas about some thing and thinking very long on my definition of some thing.. Why?? Because I had someone send me a nastygram (well sort of) This person basically stated to me that it takes more than sending out some recipes and green ideas to be a kitchen witch. It takes spells and rituals that involve the kitchen and food. It takes chants and altars and candles.( I am not sending the whole nastygram)

Well all I can say is WOW…REALLY.  So I have studied and talked to some folks and looked deep within… and I disagree strongly with this. My opinion is( and I do hate opinions…) to be a Kitchen Witch you need to be centered on your home and hearth, on cooking with the intent to make your family strong, safe, healthy and balanced, on maintaining a happy environment for God/dess and learning and an open environment that ideas and energy can flow.

I have taught many that being a witch is not all about the spellwork or the cool tools…it is about what you DO with your intentions and energies. When I cook I do not always chant over my sauce or light candle while making a cake.. but the intentions for health and protection goes into my sauce with my basil and my cake it baked with all the love and birthday wishes I can put in.. but I do not do this because I have to.. It is all in the make up of it. I LIVE this life… not just act it out. My intentions do not always NEED to be broadly acted out.. because they are ALWAYS there.

Now I know that I should not allow another persons opinion to bother or sway me. But I also do not want to slight all of you. I have been sending information and recipes that I would like to read about, things that would better my home and hearth and family, things that would make it cheaper for me to take care of my home and hearth.

If you all would like more kitchen spells and chants and spell work.. I can research it and write about it. You only need to let me know. The only requirement I have is that whatever you ask for MUST be kitchen or hearth, food or family. And I will do my level best to bring it to you.

And on that note I have a story to share with you .. It is all about perception… This story was shared with me.. and I wish to share it with you.. as I have shared it with many in the years since I received it. I credit Angel with the writing of this.. even though I have no idea who Angel is.

The Halloween Witch

Each year they parade her about … The traditional witch.
Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair,

and a toothless mouth beneath her disfigured nose.

Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw,
protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs.
Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind, merely a Halloween caricature.

I disagree.

I believe this is how witches were really seen.
Consider that most witches were women, were abducted in the night,
and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under secrecy of darkness,
to be presented by the light of the day as a confessed witch.
Few, if any, saw a frightened, normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room filled with instruments of torture.

To be questioned until she confessed to anything that was suggested to her,
and to give names or whatever would stop the questions.

Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed witch.
As the witch was paraded through the town, en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned, or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love…

All created to free and save her soul from her depraved body.

The crowds viewed the results of hours of torture.

The face, bruised and broke, by countless blows, bore a hue of sickly green.

The once warm and loving smile gone, Replaced by a grimace broken teeth and torn gums that leers beneath a battered, disfigured nose.

The disheveled hair conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence cruel hands had torn away lovely tresses.

Broken, twisted hands clutched the wagon for support.

Fractured fingers locked like groping claws to steady her broken body.

All resemblances of humanity gone.

This was truly a demon, a Satan, a witch.
I revere this Halloween crone and hold her sacred above all.

I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of humanity.

Each year I shed tears of respect and remember her involuntary sacrifice in the name of religion.

Written by Angel 6/99

This story reminds us of those who were persecuted as witches though many were healers and midwives, women who owned land, and those who spoke out against the rules of the time.

This poem is not in any way intended to ‘bash” Christianity, it is simply a reference to the history that is fact based.

With these things in mind I hope you will remember the Halloween Witch, along with all the others who have gone before you.

Until next time

Blessed Home and Hearth

The Hearthkeeper

PS. If there is anything you would like to see here.. please email me at  thehearthkeeper@gmail.com

The English town of Wells in the county of Somerset, England is a few minutes north of Glastonbury.  It is home to the great Wells cathedral and sits in the middle of some charming English countryside.  The whole region is resplendent with Pagan sites, from Glastonbury tor (Wells also has a tor) to the springs of the Goddess Sulis-Minerva at Bath, to the nearby Salisbury Plain with the Stonehenge and Avesbury circles.  It also has an interesting geology, being associated with the same limestone formations that produce the springs at Bath.  Wells also has three “wells” or springs, two of them on the Cathedral grounds.    Limestone also often means caves and that is true of the Somerset region.  The region around Wells has many different cave complexes, the most famous being right outside of town and known as the “Wookey Hole.”

So, you ask, what does any of this have to do with Pagan theology?  Well…it just so happens that there is a local legend of the “Witch of the Wookey Hole.”  The legend is that a monk, known for exorcisms and such, dispatched a “witch” who lived in the cave by turning her to stone.  This legend most likely is based on the fact that one of the stalagmites in the cave resembles the profile of an older woman, easily interpreted as a “witch” [1].   The actual cave complex is a major tourist attraction, with all kinds of crazy tourist activities, ranging from dinosaurs to the caves themselves [2].   All we would need is an appearance by King Kevin and the whole place would be the perfect kitsch-fest [3].

Clearly the association of a rock formation with the folklore notion of a witch is way off topic for a column about Pagan theology.  But there is more to it than that.  At this point I should say “and now for something completely different…”

The caves around Somerset County have been explored by either professional or armature archeologists since at least the beginning of the 19^th century.  And they have found a lot of stuff, including stuff linked to witchcraft.  We also have a pretty good record of how the legend of the “witch of the Wookey Hole” developed over the years, including when the stalagmite was associated with a witch.  Finally, we have the modern interpretations of witchcraft and magic, and what they imply for the caves and their artifacts.  Through all of this we can begin to understand how our faith is layered in time, and in thought.   This one little example is a kind of excavation of legends and ideas associated with English witchcraft.  Maybe it will give us some insight into the history of our craft and religion.

I had the pleasure to visit the Wells and Mendip Museum [4] when I was in Wells recently and talk with the volunteers who staff the museum library.  They directed me to several very interesting references about the witch and caves. Herbert E. Balch founded the museum in 1893 to house stuff he found in the caves around Wells.  One of those things is a skeleton and associated artifacts thought to be of an older woman.  He found the skeleton near the entrance to the Wookey Hole cave, and dated it as Saxon (it might also be Early Iron Age or Romano-British) [4a].  Associated with the skeleton were goat bones that appeared to be on a tether, suggesting perhaps a goatherd, and several artifacts including a strange alabaster sphere [5].  Because of the provenance of the skeleton it was identified as the “witch of the Wookey Hole.”  The single skeleton, unusual artifacts, and location in the cave may indeed indicate it was a lone individual who lived in the cave and practiced some form of magic.  Since the skeleton was found in the late 1800’s it should not have had any direct effect on the legends or beliefs about the cave until recently.  It is possible, however, that the activities of the ancient resident lived on in local legend, thus influencing later thought about the cave.

Skeleton of the Witch of the Wookey Hole as displayed in the Wells & Mendip Museum, Wells, Somerset, United Kingdom.

In addition to the legend, the skeleton, and the stalagmite there are also marks in the Wookey Hole and other Somerset caves that show they have been associated with Witchcraft during more recent times.   Protection from witchcraft was an important consideration from 1400 to as recently as the early 20^th century.  Charms or protective wards were used to protect buildings from evil, spirits, or witches.  These included burying “witch bottles” containing bent pins and urine underneath doorways, making protective marks (“masons marks”) as the building was built, as well as walling up various things (including cats) during construction [6].  The general idea is that evil powers could not pass a threshold protected by bent pins, or magical markings.  This is similar to the folk/literary idea that vampires must be invited in or else they cannot cross a threshold. The marks took a variety of forms, ranging from plain circles, to crosses, arrows, or a mark with six petals within a circle [7].  Often the marks are on or near lintels, or near chimneys.  In many cases these marks and burials are the best documentary evidence we have about true folk beliefs in witchcraft and magic, as any written documentation was likely to be filtered through the viewpoint of whoever was writing it down (be they magician or witch-hunter).

Protective marks against witchcraft have been found throughout caves in the Somerset region, including the Wookey Hole [8].   Of particular interest in terms of the cave markings is the use of letters such as M or W designed to invoke the Virgin Mary thought the use of her monogram.  The W formed through two intersecting V’s represents the name of Mary, Virgin of Virgins (Virgo Virginum) [9].   Coincidentally the V’s also represent bent pins, but that’s just my non-professional observation.

ifacts found with the Witch of the Wookey Hole skeleton. Comb, milking bowl, two goat skeletons, a billhook, and the alabaster ball.  As displayed in the Wells & Mendip Museum, Wells, Somerset, United Kingdom.

In both Wookey Hole as well as several other caves in the area the conjoined V marks have been found.  These marks were most likely made during the 16^th and 17^th centuries [10].  The number of these marks, and their locations near natural chimney (“the Witch’s Chimney” feature) or cold areas in the caverns, suggest they were placed there for protective reasons.  It is also believed that the idea of the stalagmite in Wookey hole representing a witch arose during the mid 16^th to mid 17^th centuries [11].   The legend appears at about the same time the protective marks start appearing, which also coincides with the peak of the witch trial period around 1600.   This legend was reinforced in writings throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries,  and was essentially set in local folklore and writings by the middle of the 18^th century.

So what does all this mean?  I believe that this story illustrates the complex historical, folk, and archeological narrative that Pagans must understand in order to understand our religion and its context.  Layers of Saxon Pagan, Roman, Christian, and modern artifacts and interpretation go into making up the “truth” about the relationship between caves, witchcraft, and magic in this story.

To start at the very beginning we have the skeleton and its associated artifacts.   There are two key parts to the story of the skeleton:  its association with Saxon or Romano-British culture, which may have been Pagan, and the alabaster sphere.   In particular the sphere is made of stone that is not local to the area, and is of a size that it would not have a lot of practical use (too small for a throwing bolo or similar and too expensive and shaped for use as a club).

The Anglo-Saxons believed in witchcraft before they were Christianized [12a].   In fact the Anglo-Saxon word for “witch” is “wiccan.”  In fact the Old English wicce and wicca are often associated with the Latin words for diviner or soothsayer, which, given their emphasis on the wyrd and fate may have been an important function for the Anglo-Saxon witch [12].  This may, and I emphasize this is simply speculation, have been somehow associated with the alabaster sphere, as spheres today are used in scrying.  In reality, however, we know very little about Anglo-Saxon religion or religious practices [13].

The idea of an older person, perhaps a woman, living in the cave, tending goats and practicing magic is a plausible explanation for the single skeleton and the materials found with it.  If that was the case the legend of the resident of the cave might have persisted into early modern times, and fueled the association between the cave (or caves) and witchcraft.  That also implies that the skeleton and artifacts represent one of the first “wiccans” we have on record, including the artifacts they used in their craft.

The next association of the cave with witchcraft comes in the mention of the stalagmite as a witch’s profile in 1628.  The legend grew over the next century with the idea that the stalagmite represented a witch firmly emplaced in literature by the mid 1700s.  It was most likely at this time or immediately before that the idea of a battle between the witch and a monk took hold, with the monk getting the upper hand and turning the witch to stone.  This all was coincident with the winding down of the witch trials, and the time when witchcraft and spell-making were taken seriously in England.

This was also most likely the time period when visitors to the caves began scribing protective marks.  Since these marks occur in many different caves in the region, it is unlikely they were specifically directed just at the legend of the witch at the Wookey cave.  Rather caves may have been seen as magical places in themselves, portals into the underground world from which mischief could issue.  These marks are inherently Christian in nature, and the people making them were most likely protecting themselves from threats they saw in a Christian context, including witchcraft.  Pagan concepts by this time had been subsumed into a Christian mythology, if they had ever been carried over in the first place.

Finally we come to more modern times with the idea of the classical witch of folklore that has been “defanged” by the enlightenment.  Looking at the advertisement on today’s Wookey Hole attraction you can see the cute, pointed hat, Sabrina-like witch that has come to be the folk interpretation of “witch” in popular culture.  This modern layer also includes our neo-Pagan interpretations, with the viewpoint of religious revivalists or deconstructionists, seeking to understand a poorly documented and distant past.  We also project our modern concept of magic, witchcraft, and Paganism onto the past, and attempt to fit it into our concept of how things might work.

To me these layers are an amazing summary, in one location with a few artifacts, of the journey that Paganism has taken over the years.  Rising from the lone worker in the cave, through the persecution and fear of the early modern period, and into the modern era of academia, folklore, and revivalism.   Any claim about our religion is more complicated than we understand and is made obscure by layers of meaning, interpretation, and confusion that have been laid down over centuries.  In this sense we are truly on our own as we construct a modern version of Paganism.  There is no definitive text, or ancestors, we can look back on for a clear historical thread that ties us to them.  There is scholarship, and the ability to reconstruct, but to truly know, to be a part of them, is almost impossible because of the cultural distance that stands between us an them.

[1]  For one, rather hyperbolic, retelling of the story go here: http://www.wookey.co.uk/witch.htm [warning: a crappy sound file will play when you go].

[2]  The whole mess can be examined here: http://www.wookey.co.uk/ [now the crappy sound will be associated with a video advertisement…the taste level here is not high as Tim Gunn would say.]

[3] http://www.kevwitch.co.uk/ I have absolutely nothing to say.

[4] http://www.wellsmuseum.org.uk/index.html

[4a]  Jim Hanwell, et al.  Wookey Hole:  75 Years of Cave Diving and Exploration,

[5]  The artifacts include a comb, a “milking bowl,” a billhook, two goat skeletons and the alabaster ball.  Both the artifacts and the skeleton are currently in a tug-of-war match between the owner of the cave/circus and the museum, http://www.show.me.uk/site/news/STO283.html.

[6]  For a great summary of the archeology of magic see:  Ralph Merrifield.  The Archeology of Ritual and Magic, New Amsterdam, 1987.

[7]  C.J. Binding and L.J. Wilson.  “Ritual Protection Marks in Wookey Hole and Long Hole, Somerset,” Proceedings University of Bristol Speleological Society, May 2010 pp.  46 – 72.   C.J. Binding and L.J. Wilson. “Ritual Protection Marks in Goatchurch Cavern, Brurrington Combe, North Somerset,” with an appendix on “The Use of Conjoined Vs to Protect a Dwelling,” by T. Easton, Proceedings University of Bristol Speleological Society, 23(2), 2004, pp. 119 – 133.

[8] Binding and Wilson, 2004 and Merrifield 1987.

[9] Easton in Binding and Wilson, 2004.

[10] Though there is no accurate way of dating the cave markings.  Binding and Wilson, 2004, 2010.

[11] The earliest reference to the stalagmite in 1470 simply refers to it as a “figure of a woman” with the first account of the actual witch occurring in 1628 in the accounts of a lawyer who visited the cave and saw the formation known as the “Witch of Ochies Hole.”  Binding and Wilson, 2010.

[12a] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_paganism#cite_note-Hostile_Witnesses-43 and Thor Ewing.  Gods and Worshippers in the Viking and Germanic World, Tempus, 2008.

[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_%28etymology%29

[13] Ronald Hutton.  The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles:  Their Nature and Legacy, Blackwell, 1993.

What Dreams May Come
A Brand New Hedge…July 2010

Greetings all! I have been away from the friendly confines of Pagan Pages for the past couple of months due to some major developments in my life.
While things did not play out the way I expected, at all, (that’ll teach me to have specific expectations!) they have found a way to bring me unimaginable joy and a sense of completion.
Some of you may remember the big white house I found a year ago in the tiny town I lived in, in California.
It was a house I had dreamt about since I was a teen, and was so astounded to find it, there, on my same street, standing empty and alone.
It pained me to see her without the luxury of laughter and the smell of cooking food, and smoke from her chimney. Houses are meant to be lived in, and loved in, and she had been empty for some time.
Well, because I had dreamed of her, and identified so immediately with her plight, I assumed, too, I was the one to live in her.
It is human nature, I suppose, to want to “own” things.
And I fell head over heels into the trap of yearning to own her.
Well, as the months went by, I meditated hard on having lights fill her windows and activity to go on behind her curtains. And, one day, this is exactly what occurred.
A couple bought her, shortly after the new year, and began an immediate renovation.
After they moved in, I would walk past, at night, so I could see the lights on, and hear the sound of people coming from inside.
Despite the fact it wasn’t me, which of course, gave me some moments of sadness, I was very happy someone had come to give this house a Life.
Shortly after that, all Hell broke loose in my own life.
It began with my husband losing his job.
At the time, it seemed a horrible thing, but I always knew these things come and go. My husband did not take it so well, but he is learning to make friends with his misfortunes.
In time, the economic base of our life was depleted, and we could no longer afford to remain in our home in California.
We debated for many weeks over how to resolve this inevitability, but to no avail. My husband even got a great job, in Oklahoma, but it was not part of our life plan to move there to live. He resigned after 2 days, and came home to the west coast.
For all the years we were away from our original base of operations, the Oregon coast, I had been adamantly opposed to returning. It just didn’t feel like it was time yet.
We had discussed it, but not in a serious manner, as I couldn’t imagine myself being back there again. Or, more accurately, could not imagine myself not living in my quaint, lush, tiny town in California.
Still, one night, completely out of the blue, I was struck with the full force of one single uber-focused thought. “It is time to go back”.
It was as though someone had flipped a switch inside my spirit, and suddenly, I couldn’t get back fast enough.
I told my husband what had happened, in my head, and he just stared at me blankly. “I thought that was the last place you wanted to be!”, he replied.
I know. It was.
But now, not so much.
The very instant I came to this awareness, the wheels of change began turning at full speed.
Everything we needed came into place, and we made the move back to the beach on a shoestring.
Within 2 days, we had a house. An old employer of my husband’s, and lifelong friend had a house he wasn’t renting (had not, in fact, rented out for over 4 years). He offered it to us at exactly half what our rent had been in California.
The house is a cottage, located on the edge of an unspoiled forest. When I say the edge, I mean, you walk out the back door and you are in the forest. You walk out the front door, and you are in the clearing.
It is on the edge. A threshold, if you will.
It is also just outside of town, but just round a corner, perhaps one mile away. It has the appearance of complete seclusion, though, we can see the highway from here.
It is just past the fog bank cut-off, as well, so when it is dreary at the beach, it is often warmer and sunnier here.
There is an orchard which butts up against the forest, filled with ancient apple trees in a sad state of neglect.
Wisteria vines lie on the ground between the house and garage for lack of someone to arbor them.
Underneath every leaf is another surprise someone else planted and is now blooming for my eyes only.
The lower garden is almost an acre, and has provided a glorious spot for the family garden.
I have installed a fire pit under the upper apple trees, and have built sacred fires and thanked the gods from leading me here.
The property is owned by a man who believes only in buying land, never selling it. His son (and presumably heir) is one of my husband’s best friends, and is also of this same ilk. I feel more secure on this land than I have ever felt, anywhere.
Instead of an intense desire to own this land, I feel very much owned by her. As though she has been waiting for me to arrive and begin to make right the wrongs of many years of neglect.
I feel, too, as though I was not the first person to make strong magic in this house, and when I painted the living room, I saw some candlewax which had dripped onto the wall in a few tiny places, and painted over them, allowing those layers of magic to remain.
The sacred plants I keep finding in random places, and the sense that those who lived here before me had been preparing it for me all along.
I have released my expectations, and embraced the unfolding of what was meant.
I have watched my desires make manifest before my very eyes, even before I could fully grasp what was happening.
When I was able to let go of what I perceived to be the “right” outcome, the truly divinely inspired outcome appeared.
Since I arrived 6 weeks ago, I have remodeled the cottage, planted a huge garden, had a chicken coop built, and have procured 6 Australorp chicks, who are now nearly big enough to go and live out in it.
We have reconnected with family and friends, and have settled into our new hedge, right here, a mile from “home”.
I am overwhelmed by my sense of gratitude on a daily basis, and rather than making magic to change energy and circumstances, find myself making most prayers for Thanksgiving, these days.
For years, I dreamed of a house that wasn’t mine, but needed to help. But for all those same years, what I wished for was not a grand home, but a cottage on the edge of the wood. A few hens for laying eggs, a home that is tidy and warm, but off the beaten track.
A garden that will feed us, and herbs which will heal us.
The Universe has seen fit to accommodate me in these wishes, and I am mindfully aware of how grateful I am.
I shall have many, many updates on the Farm Life, over the summer, but know I have taken up enough of your time, already, today!
I pray that your own deepest desires, the true desires of your heart, are making manifest in your lives as well.
Brightest Blessings for an Abundant Summer!

Welcome to the course, we will start looking at the basis of Wicca and try to found origins from facts that we know.  The main reason why it is so hard to find the true origins of Wicca is that very little was ever written   down or have been lost to us.

So let’s look at what we know:

The term Wicca as a Celtic origin wicce, “wise” the Celtics are a very important part of Wicca, which has somewhat been overlook.  The Celtics   social order was one that women could hold power in their own right such Boudicca, Wicca being a strong feminine base belief is important to remember.

The Celtic people were artisans who believed in many gods and goddess, most importantly the Great Mother, from 500 BC they came the major force in Europe and found the many festivals that Wiccans and pagans still honour today Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain which we will look at in a later lesson.

Celtic mysticism understood that all of existence has a repeated nature, and that there is a direct connection between the material world and the otherworld.  Everything exists on several synchronized levels. Human beings can understand things as having three levels: the physical, the spiritual, and the symbolic. Therefore Celtic culture was integrated with nature, and expressed itself through the various possibilities of life itself. Celtic religion taught the reincarnation of all individual souls, and the appearance of divine beings on Earth.  Making very much the bases of the Wicca belief, will the modern founders of Wicca have carried forth in there writing such as Gerald Gardiner .

Before I g on about history that lead on from the Celtics I want us to look at main steams that we have today in Wicca?

The Alexandrian tradition founded by Alexander Saunders

The Celtic tradition

The cymri tradition

The Druidic tradition

The Gardnerian tradition

All these traditions are base in Wicca, and will be looking at them in a later lesson.

Homework.

What I would like you to do is write me a short essay with the title Why Wicca is important to you and we will have a group discussing on your essays in the forum.

Here is some basic Samhain correspondences to work with

Oct. 31st – Samhain (All Hallow’s Eve)

Altar Decorations: Pumpkins, gourds, seasonal fruits and flowers, a statue of the Triple Goddess in her Crone phase, broom, acorns.

Herbs:, dittany, flax, heather, mandrake, mullein, oak leaves, sage and straw, mugwort.

Spices: Thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper,  poultry seasoning

Incense: sage, apple, mint, nutmeg

Gods & Goddess’: The Crone, Hecate (fertility, moon-magic, protectress of all Witches), Morrigan (Celtic Goddess of death), Cernunnos (Celtic fertility God) and Osiris (Egyptian God who represents death and rebirth).

Colors: Black, Orange, Red, White

Gemstones: onyx, obsidian, hematite

Food: Apples, Pumpkin pie, nuts, cranberry(scones or muffins), ale, cider, mugwort tea, mead and meat

Tree: Birch, oak, alder and walnut

This Sabbat as well as the whole month of October is a time of change. The veil is thinning and contact with our ancestors is becoming easier and divinations of all kinds seem to work better now. It is customary to set an extra place at your supper table on Samhain Eve in honor of the departed. This is not a scary time, rather a time when the veil is thin and we can spend time with the spirits in warmth and love.

But this is also a time for the living. A time to prepare for the cold season, harvest the last of the summer crops and save them for next year, a time for family and friends to become closer, planning inside activities to enjoy while it snows; a time for cleaning and settling in, for putting away the summer and storing for next year.

So we will start here… contacting the ancestors and go on from there

Samhain Meditation

To prepare for this meditation, have your cauldron or bowl ready.

If you will be outdoors have small sticks that you can light for a fire in the cauldron.

If indoors, a votive, and a fire brick to put under your cauldron.

Place paper and pen near the cauldron.

Visualize yourself walking in a place of nature. This may be a place you already know, or it may be somewhere you create in your mind. Be aware of the crispness of autumn, the chill in the air, the changing colors of the leaves, the seeds that fall from dying flowers, the pine cones and acorns underfoot. As you walk, you come to a stone circle with a low stone altar with a large cauldron sitting on it in the center. On the altar you see articles that you know belonged to, your deceased ancestors, family members, and friends.

Next to the cauldron is a small collection of wood ready to be lit. Light the fire. (Or candle, if indoors).

This is your opportunity to contact anyone from your family, or among your friends, that you wish. Think of why you want to contact them. Is there any unfinished business with anyone that you would like to take care of now? Do you wish to ask forgiveness of anyone? Is there someone you need to forgive? Do you want to tell someone how much you love them and miss them? Do you wish to ask for help or guidance?

Next to the cauldron you see paper and pen. Sit quietly, take your time, and write letter. Allow yourself to experience any emotions that arise as you do this. When you have finished your letter or letters, burn them in the cauldron. As the flame turns them into smoke, know that as the smoke rises it carries your message. (If indoors, be careful).

Take a few more minutes to sit quietly before the cauldron. The cauldron represents the womb of the earth,  to which we return in death to await rebirth. Gaze into it. This is a time to receive messages. Take your time. You may have a thought, or image, come into your mind. You may receive the answer to a question, or be given some wise advice. You may not get your answer right now, it may take a few hours or even days for you to understand.

When you are ready to leave thank your ancestors for the help they have given, tell them you love them and know they will be there for you always.. Leave the circle, returning by the same path you took before. Take the blessings of the cauldron of life and rebirth with you.

Samhain for Family & Friends

This is a non-ritual way to celebrate Samhain, and children can join in.

You will need:

A candle for each individual to be remembered (small birthday candles or tea lights to be very effective)

A cauldron or other fireproof container filled with sand

A photograph or other mementos, or the name of each individual written on

paper

Apples

Food including pumpkin soup, pie, and so on

Tarot cards, scrying tools, and other divination tools.

Push each candle into the sand-filled container ,light a candle for each individual to be remembered. Place the name, photos, a poem, or other memento against the container of candles. When all are done, welcome the family members that have passed to come and share the feast with you.

After, when everyone is full, read poems, play music, sing, or whatever you like to entertain each other. Any children present may want to put on impromptu plays or read their own poems aloud.

Read tarot cards or practice other forms of divination.

Children may want to use an apple cut in half to make pictures, when dried you can place the names of each remembered family member in each apple..

Here is a Blessing for this sabbat.

Samhain Blessing
May the ancestors deliver blessings on you and yours…

May the New Year bear great fruits for you…
May your granted wishes be as many as the seeds falling from the maple…

May the slide into darkness bring you comfort and peace…
May the memories of what has been keep you strong for what is to be…
May this Samhain cleanse your heart, your soul, and your mind!

Until next time

Blessed Home and Hearth

The Hearthkeeper

Working Witch

Ever since I was a child, I have been a Healer. It began in my youth, fostered by programming from the church that it is our right to lay hands on the sick and they will be healed. I had never looked at the process any other way.
When I reached my teens, and money was slim and none, I discovered herbs and began ferreting out their secrets. Having a new weapon against dis-ease, I knew I would be a far better Healer, having both spiritual means, and physical means to help people.

Later, when I discovered my inner-witch (who clearly had been working her own magic for years, unbeknownst to me, consciously) I expanded my worldview, but my mission remained the same.
I just found that I had the ability to make change happen in other areas, as well as physical and spiritual healing.

Discernment became divination. An exorcism, cleansing and blessing. Prayers were chanted and candles and incense were lit. Energy was transferred and nothing had changed, except I now felt personally connected to the Divine, and no longer needed to attend church to fellowship, worship or petition my gods.

I had always been the sort of spiritual warrior who was called upon when someone moved into a new house, and became fearful about sprits and paranormal activities. As a Christian, my duty was clearly to remove the spirit, and restore the home to order. So, it really isn’t that different now, when I cleanse and bless. Except that I have respect for the spirit’s needs, as well.

I have been working as a part time witch for a good many years. I make medicines, read cards, run a small shop and do workings for friends of various sorts.
I never charge for my magic, though, occasionally, I will charge for some materials if I don’t have them in stock (rare. I have an extensive magical cupboard). It goes against my personal ethical construct to charge for magical workings, however I am always happy to accept token offerings from the client, as they are led.
I feel magic has been given to me, freely, and I am happy to share. I have always felt I “worked for the Universe”. And, while the paychecks aren’t steady, the benefits are out of this world.

I always insist on participation (on some level) by anyone I work or read for. Magic is best when engaged in by multiple focused partners, and this always aids in the results.

When someone I know has a problem they cannot manage on their own, through mundane channels, they come to me.

I have done UnCrossings for unfortunate friends. I have unhexed some who had been interfered with. I helped a friend find true love. I have healed numerous friends and family members and have cleansed and blessed countless homes over the years.

But, I have never felt that I was working full time, until lately.

Most recently, several serious situations have arisen in my life where I have been called upon to render magical aid. Some so serious that days worth of layers of magic have been required to remedy them.
I have been working round the clock for a week on a particularly dangerous situation, and while we have come out on the right side of it, it has been nearly all-consuming.
Today, I have been given my next assignment, and it is every inch the doozy the last one was.

It is vital that I remember to remain in my body and feel the sensations as they occur. I have been besieged with fatigue after long periods of energy transfer. I have had to remember to put some energy back. My dreams have been loaded with powerful images, so even while I am sleeping, my spirit is working these things through.
I have been trying to be mindful to eat when I am hungry and to keep my husband fed, during the course of things.

I can tell things have changed on some deeper level, because my husband has asked me for the help on one very specific occasion, and this is completely out of character. He knows I work for people, sometimes. He also knows that there are altars and candles in places, and that this means something. But he never knows what, and we don’t discuss it at all.
He just finally came to a place where he could not solve a serious problem through mundane means, and believed that I could help him with this one. He believed that there was some bad magic afoot and knew that I can help with things like this.

It was a amazing thing, to have him ask me to help him using my magic. He has not made a peep about the incense which burns nearly round the clock. He hasn’t mentioned the strange collections of things on the coffee table out in plain sight. He has been enormously supportive of the work, and has respected the sacred space.
It is its own miracle in the life of a working witch, married to a pagan-friendly but not pagan mate.

My work in his situation has been successful, and he is a believer more now than ever of my “hocus pocus” (to his credit, he did finally stop calling it that the first time I made a healing salve that cured absolutely everything it touched, including a major second degree burn he suffered).

With some spells coming to an end, and new ones being formulated, and worked, I find my life has changed. I am working full time for the Universe. Just as I sort of always wanted to.
As I said, the paychecks aren’t steady. But the benefits…who can argue with miraculous abundance?! Not this witch.

I know the life of a working witch is not for everyone. But I believe if you have a gift, it is up to you to share it with those who do not. Even if you are in a place where the idea of someone asking you to help them through magical means seems absurd, just wait.
People tend to notice what we can do. And even the pooh-poohers come around when they need some help they can’t ask anyone else for.

If you are open to this life, it will find you, and you will have more work to do that you have time for. I only know this, because it has happened to me.

Praying you all are finding work for your magical hands to do!
Bright Blessings!