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    New name for an ancient path ?

    norseman
    norseman
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    New name for an ancient path ? Empty New name for an ancient path ?

    Post  norseman Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:12 am

    A new name for an ancient path ?


    Hedge witchery, or Hedge craft, is a kind of combination of
    Witchcraft and Shamanism. This Path is based on the Traditional Witchcraft and
    Cunning Folk traditions of
    Europe from ancient to modern times. It is something of an “eclectic”
    tradition, but just how much so depends on each individual practitioner.



    The shamanic aspect being the most important, in fact to call
    oneself a Hedge witch is to call oneself a shaman, without having to steal a
    word from another culture. With herbalism, healing, and a deep love for, and
    understanding of Nature added to the mix.



    Hedge craft is loosely based on the old wise/cunning folk,
    herbalists, faith healers and actual witches throughout history.
    If you think “Hedge witch” and picture the strange lady who sold herbs and
    magickal charms, acted as midwife and healer in the ancient times, you are not
    far off. Nor are you far off if you picture the wise sage who would cast bones
    to divine the future or journey in the Otherworld to heal members of his or her
    community.



    Throughout history “medicine man” or “wise woman” type traditions
    have risen and fallen all over the world. These kinds of traditions never truly
    died out, and in recent years, more and more modern people in the Western world
    are turning to them and adapting them to modern times. Modern Hedge craft is
    the study, adaptation and practice of these ancient nature-based, spiritual and
    healing traditions in our modern lives.



    Most Hedge witches look to their own heritage to find inspiration,
    lore and knowledge. While most study the traditions of their own ancestry, some
    may be drawn to the traditions of other cultures. Or they may seek to learn
    from other cultures to gain a better understanding of their own heritage, as
    well as a greater respect for others. Hedge witches are not opposed to the
    study of modern tradition as well, for they strive to bridge the gap between
    old and new. To blend old traditions with a modern lifestyle in a workable and
    practical manner is a hallmark of Hedge craft.



    The word “hedge witch” is, as far as we can tell, a fairly modern
    term. Though its true origin may never be known, it likely comes from
    Great Britain and may have started to be used in its
    English form only within the last 100 to 150 years. It is, as far as we can
    tell a “modern Anglo-Saxon” word.
    “Hedge witch” most likely comes from the Saxon word haegtessa, which
    translates to “hedge-rider”. The Old Norse lay Havamal refers to “hedge-riders,
    witching aloft”.
    Although Hedge witch is a modern word, that does not make it illegitimate, just
    a modern word, for a word does not have to be old to be legitimate. English is
    still a young language; it is changing and growing all the time. Our ancestors
    had their own names, in their own languages, for such traditions. Hedge witch
    is for our culture, in our language.



    The basic modern definition of Hedge witch would be comparable to
    another ancient culture’s definition of wise woman, cunning man, medicine man,
    shaman, herb or faith healer etc. There is a fair bit of variation in spelling,
    such as “hedge wytch”. A few other names often used for this Craft:
    Hedge-Rider, Night Travellers, Myrk-Riders, Gandreidh (wand-rider),
    Cunning Folk, and Walkers on the Wind.



    For the Hedge witch, “the Hedge” is a metaphor for the line drawn
    between this world and the next; between reality and dream, between the Upper,
    Middle, and Lower Worlds. In short, the Hedge is what many Pagans refer to as
    the Veil. It is also simply the boundary between civilization and the wild.



    This concept of a boundary hedge in a spiritual and magickal sense
    is from the European (especially British) tradition of hedge laying. Going back
    even to the Iron Age, the European landscape has been crisscrossed by
    hedgerows. Hedgerows are carefully grown and landscaped intricate layers of
    plant-life. These often-large rows of shrub, bush and tree were boundaries for
    farmsteads, pastures, villages, ditches and such. Often, at the very edge of a
    human settlement there was a sturdy hedgerow keeping the wilderness and wildlife
    out of field, pasture and garden.



    Crossing a hedge often meant crossing a boundary of some sort,
    such as walking into the wild, going from wheat field to cow pasture, or
    entering another person’s property. A hedgerow is not just a boundary but is
    also a protective home and shelter to all kinds of wildlife, such as rabbits
    and birds, as well as providing shade and acting as a windbreak. Hedgerows were
    also very important in keeping the herds in and the predators out, as well as
    marking the territorial boundaries of human settlements. Often berry and fruit
    bearing trees and shrubs are grown in hedgerows, making them a source of edible
    and healing plants for both animal and human alike.
    The more one learns of the tradition of laying hedgerows and the tradition of
    Hedge craft, the more the use of “hedge” for this Craft becomes clearly
    appropriate.



    Throughout history and in many cultures the “Hedge witch” (wise
    woman, cunning man, shaman etc.) lived at the edge of the community, often
    amongst the outlying hedgerows. They scratched out a living through herbalism,
    understanding nature, prophecy and divination as well as magick and healing.
    They served the community in many ways including but not only; midwifery,
    healing, protection spells, house blessings, crop and livestock blessings,
    through the selling of magickal charms and even curses. A “Hedge witch” might
    sell one member of the community a small curse or ill-wish one day, and then
    charge its victim a fee to break the curse the next. Therefore, people who followed
    such traditions were respected, and likely a little feared, because of these
    abilities, and because they had such a close relationship with nature and the
    spiritual world.



    In modern times, a Hedge witch is usually (but not always) found
    outside the city, perhaps on an acreage or farm, often practicing alone or
    within the family. They work much as the Cunning Folk of old, helping
    neighbours, friends and family with ailments, shamanic healing and even
    blessing the odd field. Hedge witches will work a lot in cultivated fields,
    gardens and farmsteads, but often prefers time spent in the woods and other
    wild areas. A Cottage/Hearth witch, Green witch or Kitchen witch works mostly
    in their garden and in their home. Hedge witch will practice largely in the home
    as well, but will likely spend more of their time gathering herbs and practicing the craft in rural or
    wild places than many other Witches. A Cottage/Hearth witch, Green witch or
    Kitchen witch may use some trance or shamanic techniques in her practise, but
    has probably not have received the call from their spirits to Shamanise. A
    Hedge witch has “fire in the head” also commonly known in this Path as the
    Cunning Fire.



    Although many of the traditions that a Hedge witch draws from have
    changed, after all lore is lost and knowledge changes over the centuries, you
    will find most Hedge witches prefer to practice as close to traditionally as
    possible but still in a manner practical for these modern times. Hedge witches
    are very adaptable. You may find a Hedge witch casting an old-fashioned
    prosperity or fertility spell on a modern tractor as a favour to a neighbour,
    for example. Hedge witches use herbs and herbal concoctions known as flying
    ointments, as well as shamanic techniques such as drumming and meditation, to
    induce altered states of consciousness. They work with familiar spirits, their
    ancestral dead, plant and animal Totems and the like, to assist in their
    Otherworld work.



    Hedge witches often refer to shamanic journeys as “Walking the
    Hedge”, “Riding the Hedge”, “Oot and Aboot” or “Crossing/Jumping the Hedge”.
    They also have a tendency to spend much of their lives with one foot on either
    side of the Hedge, which makes them eccentric to say the least.
    A Hedge witch walks freely into caol ait (Gaelic), the “thin places”
    between one world and another. More experienced Hedge witches learn not only to
    find such places, but how to use them effectively and how to open them even
    when the Hedge, or Veil, is at its thickest between the high days.



    Spirituality in Hedge witches varies and depends on the
    individual; usually they look to their own heritage and ancestry. The only
    tradition Hedge witches typically follow is a reverence for Nature, though some
    may come from a more formal Pagan path originally. Some Hedge witches will also
    practice a form of Traditional Witchcraft, such as those based on the work of
    Robert Cochrane, while more and more Wiccans are also taking up the work of a
    Hedge witch. Hedge witches commonly do practice some form of
    Paganism, but many make no claim to any practice but that of Hedge craft or
    Hedge riding.



    The main distinction between Hedge witchery and other forms of
    Witchcraft is that Hedge witches often have less interest in the
    religious/ceremonial aspects of coven or group Witchcraft, having an individual
    and often unique way of relating to life, spirituality, magick and Creation. A
    Hedge witch is less likely to perform scripted magickal workings, preferring
    the freedom and joyfulness of spontaneous workings that come from the heart. For
    the Hedge witch there is no separation between normal life and their magickal
    one, for their normal life is magickal.
    They avoid complicated, ceremonial, scripted and formulated ritual, practicing
    an earthy and simple form of ritual and magick. Some Hedge witches do not cast
    Circles in a Wiccan sense, and may either have other methods to mark sacred
    space, or not bother at all. Hedge witches believe that all space is sacred.
    Hedge witches do whatever comes natural to them; they follow their instincts, and
    their heart. They do not typically follow one particular moral code, but rather
    their own personal ethics and often some version of the credo to “do only what
    is needed” and/or “Know Thyself”.



    Hedge witches walk the Crooked Path, the Path that winds and
    twists its way between the right-hand and left-hand Paths. Hedge witches walk
    all borders, and prefer the grey areas, having little interest in all black, or
    all white, magick or spiritual workings.



    Most use few synthetic objects in their spells and rituals. Their
    tools are typically very practical, such as a walking stick, often they will
    use a stang, or even pruning shears, and their tools are hand made by them as
    much as possible. Most Hedge witches use only what is needed, meaning they do
    not clutter an altar (if they should use an altar at all) with items that will
    not be actively used during a working or rite.



    Hedge witches usually study herbalism, wildcrafting and
    wortcunning with gusto, as well as seeking knowledge and understanding of the
    ways of Nature. Such as the cycle of the seasons and the wildlife and
    plant-life in their area.
    Hedge witches may know how to grow herbs in a garden, but are more likely to
    study where and how they grow in the wild and how to gather them. They usually
    have a great deal of lore on trees and plant life, animals and the wilderness
    in general.
    Healing, divination, the use of trance inducing herbs and all manner of
    fertility and shamanic rites are also a part of this Path.



    Hedge witches tailor their Path to suit themselves, some may focus
    on herbalism, others study midwifery, some may practice something like reiki,
    they may focus on animal husbandry, and others may be well versed in healing
    with crystals. Many Hedge witches may choose to be a jack of all trades, but a
    master of none.



    While Hedge witchery is typically a solitary path, this is not
    always so. Even the most hermit-like Hedge witch can still be found at the odd
    local Pagan event. While others may even belong to a Coven, Kindred or Grove.
    Hedge witches are unlikely to become involved with Witch Wars within the
    community, and depending on the individual’s personality are more likely to
    prefer maintaining friendly relations with the majority of the Pagan community.
    Some may have friends or domestic partners who follow another Pagan or Heathen
    path, and they will often happily join in any ritual or activity if invited.
    Also, some of their practices, especially the shamanic ones, require a trusted
    friend or group to watch over their body while their soul is elsewhere.
    While most Hedge witches may just be plain old rebels and rabble-rousers, this
    is after all, an Outsider Path.



    The daily spiritual
    practice of a Hedge witch will be adapted to their individual abilities,
    interests and life style. One Hedge witch may start mornings offering up
    prayers of thanksgiving to the different goddesses as they collect eggs from
    the chicken coop. Another Hedge witch may spend the mornings in quiet
    meditation on the patio; sipping tea and watching the deer graze in the lawn. A
    third Hedge witch may say a quick prayer at the household shrine before racing
    off to work. The fourth Hedge witch spends the day fasting and preparing for a
    rite and a trip across the hedge that night.



    Some people may prefer rural and/or wild settings and be a little
    wild themselves. They may be looking for a tradition that is adaptable and
    practical, one that combines “old school” Witchcraft and a modern life, a
    tradition that adds a focus on European-based Shamanism and the practical
    application of folklore to the mix.
    They may be looking for a tradition that leans heavily on natural magic,
    understanding the Land and the practice of healing lore. They may want a
    tradition that focuses on personal experience, experimentation and
    doing-it-yourself. They may wish to blaze their own Path, like the Cunning Folk
    of old. They may have that Cunning Fire burning in their head, heart and soul.
    Violet
    Violet
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    New name for an ancient path ? Empty Re: New name for an ancient path ?

    Post  Violet Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:55 pm

    Thanks for this Norseman I know a little about this but not much New name for an ancient path ? 821538



    Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
    mia
    mia
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    New name for an ancient path ? Empty Re: New name for an ancient path ?

    Post  mia Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:00 pm

    Very, very interesting!
    Thank you very much for this information norseman!



    norseman
    norseman
    Member


    Male
    Number of posts : 318
    Location : Ancient Viking Kingdom of the North
    Job/hobbies : Striding the hedge
    Registration date : 2010-01-27

    New name for an ancient path ? Empty Re: New name for an ancient path ?

    Post  norseman Wed Feb 09, 2011 10:32 pm

    It is the path I follow. There are no teachers, no books of any merit. It's a path that you have to learn and it starts with becoming immersed in the Land. There is a basic framework from descriptions of the old Cunning Folk but, from that point, it has to be a personal development. Less factual, more emotional.
    millergrls
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    New name for an ancient path ? Empty Re: New name for an ancient path ?

    Post  millergrls Sat Nov 03, 2012 10:09 am

    Thank you. For some reason, this pulled to me. When I was younger I had felt pulled in this direction but stopped because of stigma, but I alway seemed to pulled back in this direction. Interesting.New name for an ancient path ? 35484

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