Hedge Witch

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The Season of Change

The Autumn Equinox is a brief moment in time where we are poised on the knife’s edge, about to tumble from summer into winter. It is a liminal time, where the transition from the long summer days to the long winter nights is keenly felt. The winds blow differently and stronger, the evenings are creeping in, the sun is not as high in the sky and offers a golden slant in the afternoons. The leaves are changing, the green is melting into golds and the riotous season of growth has ended. The deer have shed the velvet from their antlers and are fattening up, preparing for the rut. Acorns begin to ripen and fall from the oaks; beech nuts and hazelnuts too. Jays and squirrels are caching their nuts and badgers delight in the longer shadows and plentiful food.

For us humans, it is also a time of harvest. The apples are ripe and ready, the potatoes and onions form the second harvest after the cereal crops were gathered in August. Tractors rumble through the tiny village streets with loaded wagons full of produce, taking them to large storehouses or shipping trucks to dispense throughout the country. It is a busy time, with lots of dust in the air and the moon and sun often rising red in the lower atmosphere.

In an age when we can get almost any fruit and veg from a large superstore at any time of year, the importance of harvest is often lost to many. Why celebrate a harvest festival when we have supermarkets on our doorsteps? What need do we have to honour this important time of our ancestors? We live in the here and now, some may say. But all the food that is available in the supermarkets and stores comes from somewhere, from a place that had to work with the elements and seasons in order to grow the food, to take in the energy of that land to produce something that will sustain us. This is what is important, and why it is also important to remember this time for our ancestors of the not so distant past. It has only been in the last twenty or thirty years that all sorts of produce has become readily available throughout the year. When we forget the hardships of our ancestors, we forget a large part of their stories and where we came from, taking for granted many of the liberties that we live with today.

There’s a joy to be found in remembrance. There is also a joy in the turning of the seasons, from the light to the dark, from the harvest to the hunt, from summer to winter. Celebrating these turning points helps us to keep moving with the flow instead of getting stuck wishing that it was still summer. We allow the energy of the season to move freely through out bodies, as we should in any earth-based religion or spirituality. Nothing stays the same, and acceptance of that is perhaps the greatest gift that we can give to ourselves.

So honour this wonderful time. Celebrate the shift from shorts to jeans, drink all the pumpkin spice coffee you desire, wear hats and scarves and kick up autumn leaves on the path. Drink in the scent of woodsmoke and decay, feel the fresh breezes on your face. Settle in with a good book on the longer nights, light a candle and let your imagination roam. Think of the ancestors as you bite into that freshly picked apple, and honour all the changes that you yourself have undertaken.

Blessings of the Autumn Equinox, Mabon and Alban Elfed to you all.

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The Mabon Debate

There is some debate in the Pagan community about using the word ‘Mabon’ to refer to the Autumn Equinox. In 1974, Aiden Kelly was looking for a name to put to the Autumn Equinox that had similarities to the descent of Kore or Persephone. He chose Mabon from Welsh literature, the son who was stolen away from his mother and which Culhwch was tasked to find to win the hand of the beautiful Olwen. With the aid of King Arthur he did indeed free Mabon from his imprisonment, as told in the Tale of Culhwch and Olwen in the Mabinogi.

At first glance, it would appear that Mabon’s disappearance and rescue has very little to do with the equinox, and the similarities between his story and that of Kore can appear tenuous at best. However, there are other aspects to Mabon that do very much relate to the Autumn Equinox, which I haven’t seen discussed anywhere (but that may just be because I live in a cave deep in the woods).

I think the most important aspect of Mabon is that it was said that he was the greatest hunter of all time. And when does hunting season begin? For the majority of hunted animals which here in the UK are birds, it is around the Autumn Equinox when the season really gets underway. Deer hunting technically starts at the beginning of August, but the deer are hard to find as they are still hiding away from the summer’s heat until it gets dark. It is around the Autumn Equinox when you are able to see them out again during the day, from late afternoon onwards.

It is also when the constellation of Orion (The Hunter) becomes more visible in the night sky, albeit still in the east before dawn but slowly awakening and becoming more ‘upright’ so that he can stride across our skies followed by his hound during the winter months. As well, it’s when the temperature shifts, and the warmth leaves us as the cold northerly winds begin to blow, hinting at the Wild Hunt and winter’s reign to come. So yes, for me the honouring Mabon as the hunter does make sense at this time of year, though that may not have been the original intention.

Some argue that our ancient ancestors did not care about the autumn or spring equinox. To that, I would say look to our ancient megaliths.  In 1966, C. A. ‘Steve’ Newham found an alignment for the equinoxes at Stonehenge by drawing a line between one of the Station Stones with a posthole next to the Heel Stone. The equinox sunrise is beautifully framed by the Gossan Stones in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland. Callanish in Scotland has an alignment with the equinox, and so does Newgrange in Ireland. Most of these places are famed for their solstice alignments, but they also do have other alignments which are not only solar, but lunar as well.

At the Autumn Equinox here in the rural British countryside we are also in the thick of harvest season, which begins at the start of August and runs through to the end of October. As such, some people argue that we should be celebrating Harvest Home. I love that name, but the origins are unclear. It may have been derived from Germanic Pagan traditions that have since been co-opted by the Christian Church, but we can’t quite be sure of its Pagan roots. Harvest Home services are held in many local, rural churches including the one in my own little village on the Suffolk Coast in the East of England. Today Harvest Home is now very much associated with Christianity. That’s not to say that we can’t incorporate it into our own festivals, because it’s what traditions from all over the world have done and still do over time. We learn, borrow and make stuff our own all the time. The Romans were masters at it. But that leads us to the argument of cultural appropriation.

The cultural appropriation argument against Mabon is that it is using a Welsh word/cultural hero and throwing it into ritual without awareness or regard for where it came from. And this is a wholly important thing to consider. However after you’ve done the research, and you find Mabon is known as the greatest hunter then the correlations to this time of hunting and harvesting make more sense, and seem less tenuous. As well, if we believe that we shouldn’t be using Welsh words in our Wiccan, Witchcraft, Druid [insert name of Pagan tradition here] then we really shouldn’t be using Samhain, or Beltane, or Imbolc, should we? We are using the words that have lasted through the years, but if we are not Irish or Scottish for instance, should we even be using these words in our traditions? I think of how many people today still say that Samhain is the Celtic New Year. On the flipside of that, I wonder how many people honour the god Belenus at Beltane? These are all Gaelic words that have been co-opted and given a different flair for various rituals in different Pagan traditions today that sometimes retain very little of the original source.

So should we rewrite all our traditions’ rituals and give them all new names?

Maybe.

But I still like Mabon.

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Witching Around Podcast

This month the Witching Around podcast features…. me! Do check it out, I had a great time with these lovely ladies 🙂

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She Sings to Vultures

It’s another hot but dry day, without humidity for the first time in weeks. I am so grateful for the respite from the oppressive, thick air that makes it hard to breathe. And so I am outside, having wandered the hills and down the forest ridge to the middle of the valley below. The wildflowers are blooming all around me, the bees buzzing and the brilliant blue sky stretching out all around me.

I notice a bird, circling over the edge of the valley. I study its flight, and see that it is a turkey vulture. These birds have been moving northwards into Canada for the last 50 years, as the climate changes and the mass use of pesticides has been banned. Their silent, lazy, teetering circles on the thermals and the breeze are now a common sight in the area. But for many they are still an enigma, a threat, or even mistaken for eagles.

I have always welcomed these birds, though they are feared and mistrusted by others. I spent a long time in that valley, watching the flight of the bird, thinking about how it teaches us of the things that we would rather ignore in our lives. As carrion feeders, they teach us first and foremost about death.

In Canada, there aren’t any First Nations stories about these birds, as they are a recent addition to our landscape. There are a few from further south in the US, both positive and negative. But anyone with a little time can do some research to find out how they fit into the landscape, and how they can teach us their knowledge and wisdom of being.

They aren’t pretty birds, though in flight they are certainly imposing, and even majestic, with their long wingspans. They eat the flesh of animals that have died, and so are like nature’s clean-up crew, saving the spread of bacteria and disease by disposing of rotting corpses. The acid in their stomachs is strong enough to kill harmful bacteria, and so they are very much an important part of the ecosystem by taking care of things that would be harmful to other living creatures, ourselves included.

Their bald, red heads can look menacing, but are well-adapted to eating rotting corpses. Feathers would get in the way and be difficult to clean of harmful bacteria, and so their featherless heads make it much easier to get in and eat the flesh and then be cleaned afterwards, in rivers, lakes or streams as they drink, or in the rain. They defecate on their legs, which for many people is quite disgusting, however they are not the only birds who do so. The reason that vultures specifically defecate on their legs (bird poo and pee comes out together from one orifice, by the way, which saves water loss) is so that they can kill bacteria on their legs with ammonia after feeding on corpses and walking over them.

Their sense of smell is what alerts them to food. They have the largest olfactory system of any bird. They can smell carrion from over a mile away! Very handy to mother nature’s clean-up crew. They can also spot carcasses from up to a mile away, though they have trouble seeing in the dark and so are daytime flyers. Incredible birds.

And yet they are feared, or mistrusted, or reviled. I stand in the middle of the valley, watching the vulture’s flight. A chant bubbles up in my mind, one that I had created early this year. The tune seemed to reflect the soaring freedom of the bird’s flight, and my happiness at its existence. I sang, watching the circles it made in the sky, willing the bird to hear my voice and my songs of praise.

And it came nearer. Immediately responding, it heard me and came, following the notes of my song. I felt that it could feel the love that I had for it, the wonder and joy of its existence and the freedom of its flight. I poured my emotion into my song, letting it know of my joy in its flight. Closer and closer it came, lower and lower, listening to me and drinking in my love. Over my head it came low, and circled beneath the sun, in a dance of light and darkness that reflected its very being. I raised a hand to my eyes, sheltering them from the light of the sun to watch the bird glide in the white brightness of the sky right overhead. The long, dark wingspan stretched over me, and my heart touched that bird with joy and love and peace, and that emotion was returned to me from this incredible bird.

It made one final low circle around me as I stopped my song. It then bid me farewell, and thanked me for the song as it moved over to the other side of the valley, find new thermals and a new vista. The experience of the vulture is something that I will cherish and carry me throughout my lifetime.

As the bird flew off, I spoke these words from my heart:

Your flight is my inspiration

And the knowledge that upon my death,

You will take care of my body

Is my sanctuary

For in death there is life,

In life there is death

So has it always been

So shall it always be

I will always sing to the vultures.

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New Video!

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New Video: Self Belief

Between downpours I finally managed to get some filming done for a new video! Here you go 🙂 To see behind-the-scenes footage of all my videos, please consider joining my Patreon page 🙂

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New book now available for pre-order!

Well, that was quick, wasn’t it? My next book is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Here are the links:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Old-Ways-Witchs-Living-Magical/dp/0738775517/ 

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Old-Ways-Witchs-Living-Magical/dp/0738775517/ (may take a few more days to get the pre-order link on there)

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Old-Ways-Witchs-Living-Magical/dp/0738775517/

Pre-orders really help an author, as it shows the publisher that there is interest in a new book and helps them to have more faith in it. So, if you can, please place your pre-order whenever you are able to, as these help just as much as reviews. The more pre-orders there are, the more the book will be bumped up in sales rank, and the more it will then appear in people’s feeds, etc.

It is coming out 10 March 2025 in the US, and 31 March in the UK (kindle versions may arrive sooner). So, here’s looking forward to March, 2025!

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New book coming out March 2025!

We have a cover for my new book coming out in March 2025! This is an advanced guide to Hedge Witchcraft, and follows on nicely from my previous book, The Path of the Hedge Witch: Simple, Natural Magic and the Art of Hedge Riding (currently on sale today!). This will be my third book with Llewellyn Worldwide, and it’s been a pleasure working with them again. I will let you know when it is available for pre-order! #hedgewitch #hedgewitchcraft #pagan #witch #witchy #witchcraft #witchcrafting #wicca #druid #druidry

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New Video: When No One Is Watching

What does your spiritual practice look like when no one is watching? 🙂

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Wicca Bashing

Okay, this is perhaps the longest blog post I’ve ever made! Here goes…

I’m noticing a growing trend of Wicca bashing on social media. I don’t have a lot of contact with other Pagans in the flesh out here on the rural coast of the North Sea, so I can’t really say what people are talking about face to face, if at all, about this phenomenon. But what I’m seeing online does make me uneasy.

Many people who are now in their forties and fifties started out on the path of Wicca. Some stayed, some moved to traditions and practices that better suited them. But at that time when Wicca was really starting to boom (late 80’s early 90’s) the majority of Pagan reading material centred around Wicca. And so, for the next twenty years, Wicca had the loudest voice in the Pagan community. With the arrival of the internet, things began to change, as information about other traditions spread more freely. You weren’t limited to what you could find at your local bookstore. More and more books were being published on other Pagan paths, and you could now buy them online without having to leave the comfort of your home. A whole generation of Pagans now had a ton of information literally at their fingertips.

And so the backlash begins.

The history of Wicca becomes widely known. The history of its founders. The misinformation that they had taken as gospel to use in the creation of their traditions. Their blinding mistakes became convoluted into something that was planned, exploitative even. They were liars and willing to create a false history to authenticate their claims. It was all bullshit.

At least, this is what people’s opinions on the internet seem to say.

There are several problems and issues at play here. The first is that people are far more inclined to listen to other people’s opinions on stuff rather than do the research for themselves. Yes, I realise the hypocrisy of this statement while writing this blog. But hear me out, and disagree with me if you feel like it.

Yes, there are problems with the founders of Wicca and what they created. There are issues of cultural appropriation, of discrimination and also of the sheer gullibility of some of these people who were willing to believe everything that they were told.

Is that so different to what is happening with social media today?

Those who are involved in Wicca are now questioning their past, and looking critically at these very issues. Wicca today has changed, has evolved. It’s just not the same as it was 30, 40, 50, and most definitely not 70 years ago. New writers are coming out every year, pointing out the difficulties and the way that they are dealing with and overcoming these issues to make the tradition appropriate for the modern day. And thank goodness for that! Because a religion or spiritual tradition that does not evolve with the times is one that creates dogma that quickly becomes outdated and which doesn’t appeal to modern folk.

We are now in a situation where we are told what to think, mainly through the avenues of social media. We are not told or taught how to think critically. If we do so, we can avoid the muck-splashing that results from (mostly older) authors (or AI bots) still circulating a lot of nonsense about Wicca and concentrate on the brilliant Wiccan authors who are currently addressing these issues today. I know, I know. I just wrote a review that stated that Raven Grimassi’s Wiccan Mysteries should never have been re-published. I stand by my opinion. That book needed to remain in the past, to allow for more modern authors to talk about what Wicca actually is today, correct historical inaccuracies and to discuss their various traditions, whether solitary, Gardnerian, Alexandrian, green, whatever.

This poses another problem. There are newer books out there (or old books that have gone out of print being re-released through different publishers) that only compound the difficulty around the debate. Some of these new books are simply AI written, rehashing the older books and making it appear new and available for all beginners to pick up and start their Wiccan journey. With the re-publication of older books, you have to look very carefully to see if this is a re-print from another title that was released 30 years ago, for example. Just buying a book these days requires a lot of research, to find out if the author is really a human being, or whether the work is old pretending to be new. The information at the beginning of the book (you know, where all that copyright stuff and ISBN details is on the left-hand side of a physical book?) can really help you out here. And then go and check to see if it’s a real author. Do they have a website? Click on the link to check that it’s an actual, working website. I was nearly fooled a couple of days ago. It’s not unknown for people to steal the identities of others to create Facebook pages to make themselves appear as real people. I came across an “author” doing just that a recently. Check on Amazon and look at their paperback books. When you look at the paperback versions, the release date is right there next to the title. Check out several of their books. Did they release six books last month? Chances are, it’s an AI programme writing the books, or a team of people who really have very little to do with the actual spiritual path they are currently writing about.

Then we come to the issue of what is real Witchcraft and what isn’t. I see Wicca as one of many traditions of Witchcraft. Because, well, the word Wicca means Witch. When I see people fighting over what is “real Witchcraft” I just have to sigh and go make a cup of tea. Because all this really is, deep down, is an ego issue. Wicca isn’t the cool kid anymore. Wicca isn’t edgy. It’s not dark, or dangerous, or even modern. It’s fluffy bunny crap, right?

I know plenty of bad-ass Wiccans out there.

Just because someone isn’t creating YouTube videos or Instagram posts with dark filters, skulls surrounded by roses and peeing in witch bottles doesn’t mean that their tradition isn’t real, valid or meaningful. The responses to Wicca as being white-lighter fluffy bunny New Age nonsense comes from those who are most likely feeling threatened because others are practicing differently. It’s easy to put someone else’ practice down to make yours feel better, edgier, whatever. But it serves no purpose whatsoever except to inflate one’s own ego. It has more to do with that person’s own issues of self-worth than it does with anything anyone else is doing in their own spiritual tradition.

There are so many misconceptions about Wicca. That it’s all about harming none. That what you do comes back to you threefold. Yes, there are some Wiccans who believe this, but then there are many, many traditions who don’t. It isn’t writ or ancient lore. I myself have been guilty of conflating these ideas with Wicca, but after doing a little research finding it to be false. The Wiccan Rede, for example, is not part of the first strands of Wicca that came out in the 1950’s.

Wicca has fallen out of fashion. Literally and figuratively. Check out social media spaces, channels, whatever, and you will find lots of “darker” stuff out there. The witch aesthetic, whatever that is. The filters. Don’t get me started on the filters that make everything darker. These seem to be reactions to a perceived and incorrect notion that Wicca is all love and light. So many of them are trying so hard to be edgy, cool, harder, more bad ass. The Wiccan author, Thorn Mooney, wrote in her blog post “Screw Your Aesthetic” for Patheos Pagan: “What good is infighting over authenticity when we spend more time sneering than practicing?” Too often people are spending their time bigging themselves up, rather than actually practicing a Craft.

I’m the first to admit I don’t look or act particularly witchy. My house isn’t filled with skulls and potion bottles and bones and dead flowers and lots of black. It’s more Scandi than anything else. I’m a pretty normal, well-adjusted person. In fact, I often get mistaken for a muggle in certain places because I’m not dripping with pentacles or loudly proclaiming my spiritual path through fashion. If that’s your choice, go for it, but I’ve never felt the need. But humans are visual creatures, and that’s what we respond to first and foremost. I’ve walked into Witchcraft shops in Glastonbury wearing hiking books and a good waterproof raincoat (because, well, it was raining and horrible outside!) and taken for a complete tourist who had no idea about anything, sometimes by well-intending shopkeepers and sometimes by sneering ones. Meh.

Wicca and other forms of Witchcraft do not have to compete. There is, in fact, no competition, no winners or losers. Assumptions are not helpful. We have to learn for ourselves, and develop our own opinions on things. How can we be certain that we are more knowledgeable than others, based solely on how someone looks, or what spiritual tradition they follow? Unless you really know them, it’s all about putting someone down to make yourself feel better. My facetious examples of “dark witchcraft” in this very blog post very likely should be included. But they help to make my point. That there is no “real Witchcraft” or no tradition that is more real or authentic than another. Over the last 1,000 years Witchcraft has changed, adapted and incorporated so many other traditions because it needed to in order to evolve and fit with modern times. And that process is still ongoing.

What someone thinks I do in my own Hedge Witch practice or Hedge Druid practice means absolutely nothing until they stand in ritual with me. That’s where you will get a real feel for what it is that I do, what I believe, and how I work with and communicate with the gods, the spirits of the land, the ancestors (and how they respond). You would have to spend weeks with me to see the real ins and outs of my practice, from my daily practice to how I use my spiritual path to deal with crisis, or joy, or day to day issues that arise in everyone’s lives. Making instant assumptions about someone because of the label that they use or what they look like is not helpful in the slightest.

This brings me onto the notion of those who believe that they know everything that there is to know about a tradition. If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve been there too (I did, in my 20’s. Boy, was I wrong). We’ve all been there. What we realise with time and experience is that there is always so much to learn, and that we are constant students in life. If you think you know more or know better than someone else, and feel the need to lord it over someone, then you are totally missing out on the wonders of being a student of life. We are all learning.

I think that bears repeating. We are all learning.

The person who is further along that path up the mountain isn’t better than the person who has just started out. They are just in a different place. If they are constantly turning around to shout advice or insults at the person starting out, they might not notice the loose stone under their foot until it too late, and down they tumble on their asses.

I think that a lot of the Wicca-bashing stems from inflated ego and a sense of one-upmanship. Some people think that Wicca is a starting point, and then you grow up and move on from there. If that’s your choice, fine, but that doesn’t make that correct for everyone. There are so many who have been in Wicca for absolute decades, because they have found a spiritual home there. It’s not because they have blinders on, or are ignorant, lazy, stupid or whatever. No, it’s because it is right for them. And if that upsets you, that’s your problem, not theirs. One Wiccan’s tradition or way of living in the world will vary widely from another person’s. As Wicca itself has now become an umbrella term, we need to acknowledge the wide and varied traditions and possibilities that this path holds.

Today’s Wicca is not your grandma’s Wicca.

So let’s stop coming down so hard on Wicca. Let’s stop parroting other people’s opinions simply because they make us feel cool. Let’s do the work and find out for ourselves about other people’s religious and spiritual paths before we start with the sneers. Let’s take responsibility for our opinions and our research. Let’s be sovereign in ourselves so that what we say and do comes from a place of authenticity, instead of from a place of shadow where previous experience, other’s opinions and self-denial rule. Let’s be our own judge, and use discernment wisely.

Let’s live and let live, if nothing else.