Burning botanicals for pleasure, ceremony, and medicine is something we humans have performed for millennia. We just really like to light things on fire and the act never fails to bring us a child-like awe and some kind of primal pleasure. Imagine our pyromaniac ancestor’s excited delight in discovering that certain plants smell amazing when lit on fire and the smoke inhaled.  I burn incense on an almost daily basis. I started blending my own loose incenses and making my own smudge wands eight years ago and my passion for knowledge on native plants quickly drove me to research which aromatic botanicals from the Pacific Northwest would be best for incense and smudge. This guide is the result of almost a decade worth of research and hands-on experience.

This short guide is designed for use by those with some wild harvesting knowledge and experience. Please practice ethical harvesting of any of the botanicals mentioned only taking 10% of a plant or colony of plants and 20% of the aerial parts of a plant (leaves, flowers, seeds). Special care should be taken not to harm trees when harvesting resin which should not be confused with tree sap. Resin flows from wounds and is needed by the tree to heal itself – only take the excess drippings around a wound. Many trees can product resins, but the ones listed in this guide are the ones that can be easily found for wild harvesting or for purchasing.

QUICK SUBSTITUTION GUIDE

• Benzoin - Bee Propolis Resin
• Copal & Frankincense - Douglas Fir or Lodgepole Pine Resins
• Myrrh - Poplar Buds
• Palo Santo - Western Hemlock Needles/Resin or Western Red Cedar Wood
• Red Sandalwood - Fresh or Decayed Western Red Cedar Wood
• White Sandalwood -  Willow Bark
• White Sage - Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)

AROMATICS FOR INCENSE MAKING

To learn more about each botanical I recommend a good local field guide to learn how to identify it, where you you can find it in your area, and the best time to harvest it.

Flowers: elderflowers (Sambucus cerulea and racemosa), rose petals (Rosa nutkana, Rosa gymnocarpa), wild violet flowers and roots, Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Conifers: Alaskan Cypress (Cupressus nootkatensis), Juniper leaves and berries (Juniperus communis and scopulorum), Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta), Mountain Hemlock, Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar

Resins: Bee propolis resin (naturally created by bees from tree resins and beeswax), Bitter Cherry (Prunus emarginata), Black Cottonwood balsam (poplar bud resin), Douglas Fir resin, Lodgepole Pine resin

Herbs: Field Mint (Mentha arvensis), Mountain Sagewort (artemisia artica), Northern Wormwood (Artemisia campestris pacifica),  Suksdorf’s Mugwort (Artemisia suksdorfii), Western Mugwort (Artemisia ludoviciana), Silver Burweed (Ambrosia chamissonis), Sweet Flag root (Acorus calamus americanus), Sweet Gale seed and leaf (Myrica gale), Sweet Grass (Hierochloe odorata), Vanilla Leaf (Achlys triphylla), Yerba Buena (Satureja douglasii).

SMUDGING BOTANICALS

When crafting smudge wands, it is best to always do so using fresh botanicals and to make the smudge wands the same day or the day after you harvest the materials. All you need is a pair of garden shears, scissors, and a vegetable fibre string such as cotton, hemp, or flax.

Smudge Wands

There is no right or wrong way to craft smudge wands. Get a nice thick bundle of fresh herbs and tie them at one end with string. Wind the string tightly and evenly around the bundle, tucking in any loose bits as you go. Tie off the string again at the opposite end. Trim any sticky-outy bits with scissors and then allow to dry in a paper bag in a warm, dry place for a few weeks before use. You can light smudge sticks with a lighter, a small blow torch, a burning charcoal, a gas flame, a fire, or even a car cigarette lighter. To extinguish, snuff out in dry sand or dirt until no part is glowing orange or smoking – do not get wet.

Blend red cedar, juniper, western hemlock, or douglas fir tips with white sage leaves or branches of wild sagebrush for a unique spin on the traditional sage smudge wand. Create herbal smudge wands by adding clippings of any of the flowers or herbs listed above under the aromatics section to a bundle of sage or conifer tips. Try wild mint or yerba buena with wild roses, mugwort, and sagebrush. Western hemlock, northern wormwood, and sagebrush would be excellent for attracting benevolent spirits.  Western mugwort, red cedar, juniper, and sagebrush would be good for protection, and yarrow, mugwort, wormwood, and sagebrush would serve you well when burned during divinatory rites.

Sweetgrass Braid

If you can get your hands on fresh sweetgrass, gather pieces of the same length, tie at one end and then divide into three bundles. Carefully braid until you run out of even ends. Tie again and then allow to dry for a few weeks before use.

Witch’s Whisk

A traditional smudge wand from the British Isles. Harvest the tips of fresh blackberry vines, snipping off the leaves and shaving off the thorns with a knife. You can alternately keep the thorns on if you wear heavy leather gloves. Bundle many of the vines together until it is one or more inches in diametre and bind it very tightly with string. Allow to dry thoroughly for a month before use. Remove the string, cut the long bundle of vines into smaller ones and tightly bind only one end of each to create the whisk.  Optional – soak in warmed beeswax for 10 minutes and allow to cool. This will cause the witch’s whisk to burn better. Burn to clear a space of evil spirits. Burn to cleanse a person, place, or thing of a witch’s curse. Burn before rituals indoors or outdoors. Burn in and around your home for protection.

HOW TO CRAFT YOUR OWN INCENSE

There are many different types of incense, but in this guide I will only describe how to craft ambers, compound incenses, and loose incense. I don’t make cone or stick incense myself as I prefer my incense to be more pure and without fillers.

Amber Resin

Amber resin is not referring to the ancient fossilized tree resin we use as beads for jewelry, but to amber incense which is usually crafted from beeswax mixed with solid and liquid benzoin resin and sometimes styrax resin blended with vanilla. All of these ingredients, minus the beeswax, are very exotic (and don’t usually have the most ethical harvesting practices) so I created my own amber resin recipe using plants native to my area. Bee propolis resin is the substitute for benzoin and already contains beeswax so it seemed a natural and delectable choice.

3 parts bee propolis resin, cleaned, dried, and finely powdered
1 part sweet grass, cut, dried, and finely powdered
1/2 part vanilla leaf, dried and finely powdered
local honey

Place the resin in a mixing bowl, put the sweetgrass and vanilla leaf through a seive before adding to it. Blend well. Add a few spoon fulls of local unpasteurized honey. If the mixture sticks together, but is still a bit crumbly, it is ready. If it’s still too powdery and dusty, add more honey.

Line a square or rectangular container with waxed paper and firmly press the amber resin mixture into it. Loosely place another piece of wax paper on top of it and put it somewhere dark, warm, and dry for 1-2 weeks. Remove from mould and wax paper and cut with a serrated knife into smaller burnable chunks.

Compound Incense

This type of incense uses plants, tree resins, honey, and liquid mixed together and pressed into shapes or crumbled. It is only semi-dry and thus not powdery like loose incense. Once example of a compound incense is an Egyptian kyphi – an ancient recipe method we can use today substituting our favourite aromatics.

Wet Base:

• Dried berries or fruit that form a sticky paste when ground. currants, gooseberries, elderberries, hawthorn berries, juniper berries, mountain ash berries, and rosehips all work well.
• Local unpasteurized honey such as clover, dandelion, or fireweed.
• A fragrant liquid that will evaporate when the incense is cured – local wine or mead, rosewater, and hydrosols are best.

Measuring is done by eye based on how much plant matter you have to work with. To your ground fruit, add a few spoon fulls of honey and glugs of liquid and blend with a metal spoon or your hands until it forms a thick, wet, and sticky paste. Place in an air tight container and alllow to rest for one week

Dry Base:

• 1 part tree resin(s)
• 1 part aromatic herb(s)

The dry base is a half and half blend of resins and herbs that can be dried, ground, and powdered. You can use one resin or a blend of many. The herbs can be roots, flowers, leaves, or even aromatic seeds. Powder, blend, and place in an air tight container separate from the wet base and allow to rest for one week to infuse the scents.

After a week is up blend the two bases together adding more honey or liquid if needed. Place back into an airtight container and allow to rest one more weeks. After this time, remove and form into shapes, or press the entirety of the mixture into a wax paper lined baking sheet. Place another sheet of was paper loosely on top and allow to cure (air dry) for 2-3 weeks. Now you can put your incense into a sealed container and burn it a little bit at a time at your pleasure.

Loose Incense

Loose incense is be the easiest method for making incense, easier even than smudge. Simply grind and powder your ingredients until they are all roughly the same size, blend well, and then burn a pinch at a time on charcoal. You can craft loose incense using only resins, only smudging herbs, or a blend of both. The possibilities are endless and up to you. Below are some recipes to play with.

RECIPES

Ritual Incense

1 part conifer resin
1 part poplar buds

Dry ingredients and grind with a mortar and pestle or a coffee/spice grinder. This is a substitute for the traditional blend of frankincense and myrrh. Burn a pinch to cleanse a space for any ritual or spellwork, or to call, feed, or banish spirits and deities.

Temple Incense

1 part bee propolis resin
1 part conifer resin
1 part poplar buds

Burn for tranquility, for prayer and meditation, or rituals. A substitute for the traditional blend of frankincense, myrrh, and benzoin used in churches.

Purification Incense

1 part sagebrush leaves
1 part red cedar leaves
1 part conifer resin

Burn for cleansing people, places, and objects. Excellent for house cleansing or for purifying people before performing a ceremony or interacting with spirits

Ancestor Incense

1 part conifer resin
1 part poplar buds
2 parts white willow bark
pinch of pacific yew needles
pinch of graveyard dirt

Burn to summon the spirits of the dead. Best used on or near the dark moon.

Good Spirits Incense

1 part western hemlock needles, dried
1 part red cedar leaves, dried
1 part conifer resin

Grind and burn to attract benevolent spirits to your magical rites.

Spirit Food Incense I

1 part bee propolis resin
2 parts red cedar wood, powdered (fresh for animal/plant spirits, decayed for the dead)
2 parts western hemlock needles, dried

Burn to give offering and energy to the spirits of the dead or familiar spirits during rites. Make sure the spirits are the ones you intended to call and work with before feeding them.

Spirit Food Incense II (Kyphi)

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 part yew berries, de-seeded and dried
2 parts mountain ash berries, dried
Local wine or mead
Local unpasteurized honey

Dry Ingredients:

1/2 part fly agaric (amanita muscaria), dried (caps/skin only)*
1 part decayed or fresh red cedar wood
1 part conifer resin
1 part poplar buds
1 part bee propolis resin

Grind berries and mix in wine and honey until it becomes a thick paste. Place in an air tight container and let rest for 3-7 days. Grind dry ingredients and blend, place in an air tight container and let rest for the same 3-7 days. After waiting, blend the wet and dry ingredients together, place into a container again and allow to rest for 1-2 weeks. Form into small balls or bricks and air dry for 1 week or place in a dehydrator.

*fly agaric is psychoactive – be careful when burning indoors.

Spirit Banishing Incense

1 part conifer resin
2 parts wild rose petals, bark, leaves, and thorns
2 parts red cedar leaves
1 part juniper leaves and/or berries

Burn to say a gentle farewell to familiar ancestral or other spirits with kind words or to forcefully send dangerous or uncooperative spirits back to their realm with a sharp tongue and help from your spirits or deities. Removes attachments of spirits to people and the middle realm.

Divination Incense

1 parts conifer resin
1 part bistort (polygonum bistortoides / viviparum)
1 part northern wormwood
1 part western mugwort (or substitute mountain sagewort)

Burn to enhance psychic gifts before divining with your chosen method.

Curse Reversal Incense

1 part fern leaves
1 part tobacco

Burn to remove curses and crossed conditions.

Journeying Incense

2 parts conifer resin
1 part juniper berries*
1 part northern wormwood*
1 part western mugwort (or substitute mountain sagewort)*
1 part yarrow flowers

Grind ingredients to an even consistency and blend. Burn on charcoal or a fire and inhale the smoke. Good for trance work, spirit work, crossing the hedge, seership and divination. *ingredients are mildly psychoactive, use caution.

Sweet Love Incense

1 part bee propolis resin
1/2 part bitter cherry resin
2 parts wild rose petals
2 parts sweetgrass

Burn to sweeten your home and the people in it. Burn to promote happiness and love.

Insect Repellent Loose Smudge

2 parts red cedar leaf
2 part western mugwort
1 part yarrow flowers
1 part sweet gale
1 part vanilla leaf

Burn to keep away unwanted insects (especially mosquitoes and flies). Great for outdoor rituals – throw on the bonfire.

HOW TO BURN INCENSE

It may seem like a simple thing to some, but many do not know how to burn resins or loose incense. We are so used to stick or cone incense or white sage leaves which burn so easily and steadily. Don’t worry, there is no need for fancy or expensive supplies. The simplest way to burn resins, kyphi incense, amber incense, or loose incense (powdered) is on charcoal.

To make your own incense censer at home all you need is a small plate and an empty and clean cat food/tuna etc can placed on the plate upside down. You can also use any fireproof container and fill it with sand. A large coffee can, a clay flower pot, an iron cauldron or a small brass or copper planter or bowl with feet all work. Thrift stores often have such useful containers for a dollar or two. You can get sand from a dollar store, garden store, a beach, or your kid’s sandbox.

Now you need charcoal. If you have a fire place or a fire pit you can make your own and take a piece of wood charcoal out of a burning fire with tongs and place it in your homemade censer. The most common practice is to use incense or hooka charcoal, also known as self-lighting charcoal. You can buy a roll of the black charcoal disks for a dollar or four at most Middle Eastern shops. The shop two blocks from my house sells three different kinds. Sometimes you can also find them in Chinatown – especially at shops that sell ancestor worship supplies. Failing that, you can buy them on-line from most large herbal retailers like Mountain Rose.

Light the charcoal round with a lighter or match while holding it (if you’re afraid to hold it, use small metal tongs). Wait for it to spark and for a wave of orange-red sparks to start moving through the charcoal. Place in your censer and wait 5 minutes until the entire charcoal disk is glowing red and hot. If it doesn’t light, try again and hold it for a bit longer before placing it in the censer. If your charcoal is crumbly and won’t light it may have been exposed to moisture. Toss it and use a new package.

Once it is happily glowing, add a pinch of pure resin or a loose incense blend. If it burns too fast, place aluminum foil on top of the charcoal and your incense on top of the foil – this works especially well with amber resins and kyphi incense which should be burned slowly. Need charcoal ready to go for a long ritual? Light one, and once it’s completely glowing orange, place one to two more charcoal disks underneath it. The heat from the first one will slowly light the others. You can do this before, or in the middle of the ritual when your first charcoal is half burned out. Dust off ashes and residue with tongs or a metal spoon each time you are going to put more incense on the charcoal.

Other incense burning options include purchasing an electric incense burner or simply placing a piece of aluminum foil on top of your lit cast iron wood stove and placing a piece of resin or a pinch of loose incense on top of the foil (I wish I had a cast iron stove so I could do this). If you are performing a ritual or a healing somewhere with a fireplace or outdoor fire pit, you can throw a large handful of smudging herbs on the fire once or many times as needed.

Article and photos © 2014 Sarah Anne Lawless.

I hereby release this article’s text (but not the photos) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs License. Meaning, you can share this article on your blog, tumblr, or website as long as I am properly attributed (with my name as author and a link back to the original article on my website) and you do not alter the article or try to make money from it in any way.

 have been asked many times if I had a Scottish book list or if I could recommend some books on Scottish witchcraft. I never did get around to it before now, mainly because so many of the books are rare or out of print that I didn’t want such a list to be discouraging to the serious seeker. Luckily there are so many texts and bits of lore available online now that one can learn about Scottish folklore and witchcraft without emptying out one’s savings.

Much of lore woven into the “modern” folklore of Traditional Witchcraft, Wicca, and Ceremonial Magic originally comes from Scotland. Why Scotland? Because it was so well documented and was a very popular source of material for folklorists and historians. My husband and I both have Scoto-Scandinavian backgrounds so much of the simple every day folk magic we practice is Scottish in origin and I have an entire section of my book collection devoted to Scots folk magic, folk medicine, folklore, and witchcraft.

Much of the source material on Early Modern Witchcraft comes from Scotland due to extensive documents available from witch trials and folklorists. Though there are many books and documents available on Scottish folklore and folk magic, there is also some fakelore to be wary of which was written to create a false sense of cultural heritage and to stir up Scottish nationalism. The two most well known forgeries include The Poems of Ossian, a faked epic by James Macpherson in 1773, and D.A. Mackenzie’s mostly fictional Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth & Legend from 1917. Then there is the more modern, also mostly fictional, Scottish Witchcraft & Magic by Raymond Buckland. When researching, try to go for primary source materials or academic works that use the primary sources.

Upon conducting my own research I found that many of today’s Pagans believe Scottish mythology and lore to simply be a duplicate but localized version of the Irish, but I found Scotland to be rich in its own gods and spirits with a long history of belief in the fairy faith and animism that seem to pre-date any Pagan or Christian religions that have become layered on top of them.

ACADEMIC BOOKS

• A Source-Book of Scottish Witchcraft edited by Christina Larner [2005]
• Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic by Emma Wilby [2006]
• Scottish Witches and Witch Hunters edited by Julian Goodare [2013]
• Visions of Isobel Gowdie:Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland by Emma Wilby [2010]
• Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland edited by Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, and Joyce Miller [2008]
• Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James VI’s Demonology and the North Berwick Witches by Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts [2000]

CLASSIC BOOKS

• The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz [1911]
• The Fairy Tradition in Britain by Lewis Spence [1948] (best source material on Nicneven)
• The Gaelic Otherworld: John Gregorson Campbell’s Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands edited by Ronald Black [2012]
• Rowan Tree and Red Thread: A Scottish Witchcraft Miscellany of Tales, Legends & Ballads ; Together with a Description of the Witches’ Rites and Ceremonies by Thomas Davidson [1949]
• The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies by Robert Kirk (modern translation) [1691]

BOOKS FOR EVERYONE

• A New History of the Picts by Stuart McHardy [2011]
• The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise Woman Healer by Gearóid Ó Crualaoich [2006]
• On the Trail of Scotland’s Myths and Legends by Stuart McHardy [2005]
• Pagan Symbols of the Picts: The Symbology of Pre-Christian Belief by Stuart McHardy [2014]
• The Silver Bough v.I-V by  F. Marian McNeill [1959+]
• Scottish Customs by Sheila Livingstone [2000]
• Scottish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave by Margaret Bennett [2004]
• Scottish Festivals by Sheila Livingstone [1998]
• Vision of the Cailleach: Exploring the Myths, Folklore and Legends of the pre-eminent Celtic Hag Goddess by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine [2008]

FOLK HERBALISM & FOLK MEDICINE

• Folk Tradition and Folk Medicine in Scotland: The Writings of David Rorie edited by David Buchan [1994]
• The Healing Power of Celtic Plants: Their History, Their Use, and the Scientific Evidence That They Work by Angela Paine [2006]
• Healing Threads: Traditional Medicines of the Highlands and Islands by Mary Beith [2004]
• The Scots Herbal: The Plant Lore of Scotland by Tess Darwin [1999]
• Scottish Herbs and Fairy Lore by Ellen Evert Hopman [2011]

E-BOOKS

• Carmina Gadelica vol. I-II by Alexander Carmichael [1900]
• English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child [1882-1898]
• Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz [1911]
• Feuds of the Clans by Alexander MacGregor [1907]
• Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs by James M. MacKinley [1893]
• Folk Lore or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland Within this Century by James Napier [1879]
• Gaelic Incantations, Charms and Blessings of the Hebrides by William Mackenzie [1895]
• Notes on the Folklore of Northeast Scotland by Sir Walter Gregor [1881]
• Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland by George Henderson [1910]
• Popular Tales of the West Highlands v. I-IV by J.F. Campbell [1890]
• Scottish Charms and Amulets by George F. Black [190?]
• Scottish Fairy and Folktales by Sir George Douglas [1773]
• Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies (original wording) by Robert Kirk [1691]

LANGUAGE

• An Etymologcal Dictionary of the Scottish Language vol. I [1808]
• An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language vol. II [1808]
• Dictionary of the Scots Language

POETRY

• Ballad of Tam Lin
• Ballad of Thomas the Rhymer
• Cailleach: The Hag of Beara by Leanne O’Sullivan [2009]

ONLINE RESOURCES

• The Deer in Scots Lore edited by Sarah Anne Lawless
• Orkneyjar (folklore and witchcraft of the Orkney Islands)
• Stuart McHardy (Scottish author, folklorist, historian, and storyteller)
• The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft

It is warty, chubby, clumsy, adorable, and has a very long history of being associated with witches, the devil, and poison. The toad is a beloved symbol and familiar of we witches. I have long wanted a pet toad, just an ordinary little Western Toad (Bufo boreas, pictured), but have not wanted to tame one and keep it in a terrarium instead of its home in the wilds. I have instead been happy just to encounter them in nature whether saving one who was burying himself in the middle of a trail from being stepped on or catching a huge one by a river who was hiding under the large green leaves of false lily of the valley in spring.

“What d’ye lack? What d’ye lack? I can pound a toad in a mortar, and make a broth of it, and stir the broth with a dead man’s hand. Sprinkle it on thine enemy while he sleeps, and he will turn into a black viper, and his own mother will slay him.” ~ Oscar Wilde

“The toad is one of the shapes assumed by a demon when he sits upon a witch’s left shoulder. Thanks to the two tiny horns borne on his forehead, a toad was recognisable as a demon, and witches took infinite care of him. They baptized their toads, dressed them in black velvet, put little bells on their paws, and made them dance.” ~ Grillot de Givry

Once upon a time I heard a hint of a rumour that toads were used in flying ointments. Considering my reputation with flying ointments and my use of animal bits in magic, I of course found it necessary to research this curious idea and found not only documentation but modern scientific and experiential proof that the toxins contained within a toad’s skin and glands can indeed produce a psychoactive substance.

THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

In the Arras witch trials from 1459-60 clerics charged the witches with feeding toads wafers stolen from holy communion and then using the toads to make a sacrilegious flying ointment.

In 1487 the evil Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of the Witches”) was published and listed toads as one of the ingredients of witches’ flying ointments.

In 1606 William Shakespeare includes a toad in his witches’ infernal brew in Macbeth: “Toad, that under cold stone days and nights host thirty-one swelter’d venom sleeping got, boil thou first i’ th’ charnel pot.”

In 1611 an elderly Basque woman named Maria de Illara confessed the devil appeared to her as a mysterious man and taught her to pound toads with water and use the results to make an ointment which she and other witches rubbed on their chests, stomachs, and arm pits in order to fly to their sabbats.

In 1615 French doctor Jean de Nynauld noted in his work On Lycanthropy, the Transformation and Ectasy of Sorcerers that toads were often added to the flying ointment recipes of witches and lycanthropes.

In the mid to late 1600s this flying ointment recipe appeared (likely from a witch trial): make an ointment from belladonna, datura stramonium, monkshood, and celery seeds. Add to it one toad and simmer until the flesh falls off the bones. Strain and rub upon the body, arm pits, forehead, and broom to achieve flight.

Later witch trials tell of Spanish witches using toad blood in their ointments, English witches using whole live toads, Swedish witches using the toad’s fat, snake  venom, and herbs, German witches frying whole toads in oil for ointments, and similar tales reaching into the far corners of Eastern Europe.

This is all only European evidence of the use of toads as a psychoactive and ritual substance. There is much more evidence of peoples from South America and Africa also using toads as poison and entheogen, but for the sake of specificity I will keep this piece focused on European tradition.

SCIENCE (THE BAD NEWS)

Yes, today we know that some species of toad produce an alkaloid called bufotenin which is closely related in chemical make-up to DMT and psilocin (a relative of psilocybin). More interestingly, it is also present in fly agaric (amanita muscaria) mushrooms which may validate our ancestor’s association of toads and toadstools. The bad news is that the common European toad contains only a very tiny amount of bufotenin (0.3% of the dried secretions) and a much large quantity of bufagin, a steroid not an alkaloid, which is an anaesthetic and not a psychedelic. It would still be useful, however, for creating a sleepy, dream-like state when combined with the traditional solanaceous flying ointment herbs. The toads containing the largest amounts of bufotenin are found in the Southwestern USA, Northern Mexico, South America, and China. The only toad which supposedly creates enough bufotenin to be a strong psychoactive is the Colorado River Toad (Bufo alvarius).

As with herbs, the preparation of the toad is very important. Bufotenin does not work when ingested so no amount of toad licking or potion-making is going to show any results. Bufotenin is excreted through the skin of the toad and so the skin must be dried, powdered, and either smoked, snorted up the nostrils, or rubbed on the skin. Researchers report that some remote tribes cut or burn themselves and then rub a live toad into the wound – though I would not  recommend this method for health and safety reasons.

EXPERIENCE (THE GOOD NEWS)

Despite the disappointing evidence from the scientific community, experiential use has shown different results. One amateur researcher Adrian Morgan reports his successful, if unpleasant, experiments using the European common toad and the European green toad resulting in trailed images, light traces, colour saturation, saliva build-up, and general intoxication. Though he reports mild psychedelic effects with more pronounced anaesthesia, it is likely due to the species of toad used and also the sex as female toads produce twice as much bufotenin as males. He also reports that bufotenin and its relatives can survive temperatures higher than 125°C (257ºF) and therefore can survive being heated in a witch’s cauldron to make a flying ointment. This is very good news.

There are also those who have smoked the skin of Colorado River Toads and Cane Toads and have reported much stronger psychoactive effects. If one were to craft a flying ointment using a toad, it may be wise to use the species that have a larger amount of bufotenin over bufagin.

TOAD PREPARATION

European witches and exotic tribesmen most likely scared or pissed off the toad as much as possible to get it to excrete as much toxins as it could before skinning it or boiling it for their concoctions much like the Haitian bokor would do in order to prepare the infamous zombie poison. One can also milk the glands of a live toad for the toxins instead of killing it, though I’m sure the toad is not appreciative of it. Toads are endangered in North America and increasingly rare due to habitat loss. It’s best to leave the living ones alone.

The most humane way to collect the bufotenin is to collect freshly dead toads. This isn’t as hard as it sounds if you go hunting for dead toads during breeding season or late autumn. Due to the way toads mate (in giant gang banging clusterfucking balls of male toads wrapped around a single female in a pond) many of them drown in the process (especially the female who they’re trying to impregnate but end up suffocating). In autumn, sudden cold snaps can kill off toads before they have a chance to hibernate and you can often find their frozen corpses. How do you know if a dead toad is fresh? Go by the smell.

Take your dead toad home, wash it, and carefully skin it. If the skinning is too much to handle, simply cut of the glands on each side of its head instead. Dry the skin completely and then grind it to a powder with a mortar and pestle. It is now ready for smoking, snorting, or infusing into a flying ointment. If you wish to keep the bones too, boiling the toad will be the quickest way, but also the smelliest – do this outside. The slow way would be to bury it wrapped in burlap in a pot of soil that will be left outside and well watered for 2-5 months (depending on the size of the toad). After this time exhume it, pick out the bones, and wash them.

A MODERN TOAD FLYING OINTMENT

Using my own knowledge of traditional flying ointment herbs and their dosages, I have taken the 17th century recipe mentioned above and brought it to life by infusing aconite flowers, belladonna leaf and berry, datura stramonium seeds, celery seeds, fly agaric caps (for the association), and poplar buds in sunflower oil and beeswax and to this mixture adding the skin of an already dead cane toad (which are killed by the hundreds as an aggressive invasive species in many countries today).

The result is an updated and more traditional version of my previous toad ointment recipe that can be used for soul flight, shape-shifting, and to aid in work with a toad familiar or any toad magic or rites. It should not, however, be used by those with a serious morphine allergy due to the belladonna content. If you are interested in this ointment it can be purchased here: Black Arts Foundry.

 RESOURCES

• “Broomsticks and Toad Skins” by the Quantum Biologist, Oct 29, 2010.
• Toads and Toadstools:The Natural History, Folklore, and Cultural Oddities of a Strange Association by Adrian Morgan, 1995.
• Herbs and Things: A Compendium of Practical and Exotic Herbal Lore by Jeanne Rose, 1972.

The Heretic’s Rosary Project was two months in the making. The idea came first; to deconstruct and desecrate antique and vintage catholic rosaries and add talismans, charms, and animal relics that simply screamed folklore and witchcraft. Then it was quite the task to collect the right rosaries and the most interesting pieces, some old, some new, and some I made myself.

There were late nights of sketching ideas and sorting through my beading stash and aptly named “box of dead things”. With thought and care each individual rosary came to life, rebirthed from something old and forgotten to something new and full of talismanic power.

The last step was to have my two handsome friends, a witch and a shapeshifter, drive up from Washington state to stay over for a weekend visit during Imbolc. I fed them and plied them with mead and goodies and in return they agreed to model the rosaries for me. We had a fun visit of late nights conversing on topics of religion, mythology, magic, spirits, and spells. I was sad to see them return home, but know we’ll get into mischief again some time soon.

Below are the final proofs of the rosary photo shoot for my shop Black Arts Foundry. Feast your eyes upon the sexyness… and the rosaries too. Each heretic’s rosary has sold, but never fear, more are sure to come in the near future.

nspired by my recent interview with Midwest man-in-black Steven Posch focusing on my illustration “Lord of the Beasts“, I had a sudden and very strong urge to re-work the five year old piece in my current black and white style. At first I intended to simply redo it as more bad-ass and less cute than the original illustration, but a completely new piece surfaced instead and he became more of a “Witch Father” than the previous “Lord of the Beasts”.

Using only India ink on watercolour paper, the Witch Father appeared with his familiar spirits and his magical Pictish and Slavic inspired-tattoos. In one hand he holds the serpent and in the other the mandragora. He is guardian of the wild, master of plants and animals, and wise in the ways of magic – the bear-faced, horn-crowned Lord of the Wild Wood.

Prints are now available in the shop and I will soon be ordering black t-shirts to be printed with the design as well. It takes two weeks for the screenprinter to make and deliver the shirts so keep your eyes on the shop in the middle of March.

 dedicate this collection to the cause against the white-washing of witchcraft. It is only in the past few decades that some have tried to reclaim the title of witch to mean a loving, goddess worshipping, tree hugging, non-Christian. I do not view this as a service to witches. Despite the efforts of many this definition is only accepted by a portion of the Neopagan community. The rest of the world still sees witches as dark, mysterious, frightening, alluring, and yes, associated with black magic. The dark definition of Witch stretches so far back into the depths of time that it cannot be unmade. We need to accept this part of what we are or our witchcraft cannot move forward.

Despite the popularity of darker forms of sorcery today, cursing is still taboo to talk about and can result in heated arguments even among friends. There are many who would never curse even when put in unbearable situations, there are those who would only curse defensively to protect themselves or loved ones, there are the ones who are all talk about how dark and scary they are but who have never cursed, and then there are some who would curse you just for looking at them sideways (and you hesitate to wonder what they do to those who have actually wronged them).

Each curse has been collected from a different person and is unique. The purpose of this collection is not to glorify cursing, but to show the many varied reasons why witches curse and the many different ways we put our curses into action. Some curses are almost funny, some are directed towards coworkers, some towards fellow Pagans, some are to gain lawful justice, and others are at a level that may disturb you. My intention and the intention of those who have participated is not to upset the reader, but to educate them. Whether you judge the authors of the curse stories or not is your own business; perhaps instead you will find yourself losing your prejudice against those who curse. This is simply a curated storytelling exhibit showing a reality of the witchcraft people are actually practicing today. It is my sincere hope that it will help to foster intelligent discussion about curses and get you, the reader, really thinking about the black, the white, and the grey of magical ethics.

The Corporate Curse

She had lied about me, demoted me without cause, passed off my work as her own, called me into her office to berate me with no rhyme or reason, and would stop at my cubicle for the sole desire to insult me. For four hellish months belittling abuse was heaped upon me from my new boss. Her last act of cruelty was to fire me. My first was to curse her.

I remember mulling through the curse options. She and her daughter had a strained relationship. Romance had died in her marriage. She was a cancer survivor. She was prone to infection as a result. I could have killed her. But death is too easy. There are worse things in the world than death. Besides, she would miss the opportunity to feel the same scourge of indignity and insults she had gifted to me. Better to curse her with living through all that I had endured for the four months I was under her thumb, and the indignity of seeing her career reverse to the same point I had been when I was hired by the company. I was going to turn a Vice President of Marketing into a Marketing Manager. And I did.

I talked with the egregore of the company I’d worked for five years and it agreed to help me. The company was known for high turnover and I had been there the longest. Then I invoked my Gods. I had already conversed with them about the curse and what I wanted to do. My matron, the Morrigan, assisted too. By the end of the first month her team had quit. By the end of the second news of her heinous treatment of other employees and who really was doing the work made the rounds at the company and she was barred from hiring replacement employees. Because of Silicon Valley politics, because the CEO had fought the Board of Directors to hire her, he couldn’t fire or demote her in title, but he could in responsibilities. And he did demote her responsibilities: down to marketing manager. The curse is still in effect. I received a call last month from a friend who works there that she has now been barred from travelling for work.

The curse can be a force for justice. I meted justice as I thought fit. I do not regret cursing her. I never will.

– The Fox

A Twisting of Tongues

Sometimes circumstances need to change, and the change needs to be sped along. In this case, there were two people in positions of power at work who had carried out a great deal of emotional abuse and manipulation against the teams they managed. They clung to their power while acting against the best interest of the organization and those it was meant to serve. For the betterment of everyone and everything they touched, they had to go.

Easier said than done. A great deal of effort and time was invested in knowing the organization’s structure and policies like the back of one’s hand, being professional and impeccable with words, and addressing the problem in a less… esoteric capacity. This is most of the work. I would liken it to this: You tee up the ball, you wind up the swing, you work the bat, you connect with the ball, you aim it just right. The curse is just what you use to make sure the wind is just right so that you knock it out of the park (or open a portal in the sky to send the ball straight to Hades).

Changing the winds, in this case, meant using some otherworldly will to help these two individuals incriminate themselves regarding their indefensible deeds. To inspire in them extreme guilt, bad luck, and nightmares. To make their perception of the situation so twisted in their heads that they betray themselves and suffer a just consequence.

In practical terms, it meant gathering two cow tongues, naming them for each of the two people, and storing a photo of the person inside. Fill the tongues with herbs meant to confuse and twist and sour words. Add a number of other curse trappings and then twist the tongue itself (holding it in place with barbs, nails, and wire on a board). With a magnifying glass, the tongues were burned with sunlight so that they would likewise find themselves burned by the truth. The burn ended up looking like a Hagalaz rune, which was likely no coincidence. The tongues were buried just outside their office.

The home run looked like this: the worst of the two was summarily fired, and the other was given a huge demotion and pay cut, and was not allowed to manage anyone. A few months after, the area where the tongues were buried was turned into a children’s playground. Who knows if they were dug up or if they remain.

If there is any advice to glean from this story, it is this: If you are going to dig a hole, make sure it is sufficiently deep. Also cow tongues are huge and unwieldy, try something smaller.

– The Shape-shifter

The Outhouse

Two people in my Pagan community were making my life a living hell and I wasn’t the only one. I was getting pretty tired of it and decided to do something about it magically. I took a photo of them and went for a walk in my favourite park. It is wild and beautiful and I used to go there all the time. I went to an outhouse in the park, crumpled up the photo and threw it down into the toilet. Then I sat down and had a good long shit, concentrating on my intent to turn their lives to shit. Every time I went for a walk in the park I’d stop by the same outhouse and drop a present to keep the curse renewed. I never saw or heard from them again shortly after that.

– The Musician

The Litter Box

Someone was stealing my hard work and trying to pass it off as their own. I tried to deal with the situation though adult communication, but the person refused to play along. I took the legal action I could, but it only went so far. Their actions didn’t justify anything particularly nasty, so I called my mentor for advice and as a fellow cat owner they gave me a perfect suggestion. I wrote down the person’s full name (I had no photo or personal concerns to work with) and put it in my cat’s litter box for a whole week without cleaning it. The personal lost all their credibility and I didn’t have an issue with them again.

– The Slightly Pissed Off Witch

The Rapist

“He raped her. He raped her, and so I cursed him.

I would go to his place of employment, stand across from his place of working, and hurl all my intent of hatred into him through my gaze. ‘Rapist.’ I would whisper, ‘All shall know you for what you are.’

I took dirt from his place of employment, from the place where he had stepped. I fashioned a doll from wax drippings and squeezed from him his life. I wrenched away his job. I banished him from my sight. From her sight. “Rapist.” I hissed into his ear, ‘All shall know you for what you are.’

He lost his job. He grew fat, and pale. His hair became filthy. His skin caked with grease. Then he was gone. And I have not seen him since.”

– The Voice

The Child Molester

I feel as though the demons that modern witches fight can be all too real compared to the old wood cuts. Some of the best people are too trusting. A friend of my partner and my coven-mate became romantically involved. There was a lot of unrest in their relationship–he was an alcoholic, he seemed cold at times and hit on other women online–single moms like my friend. But my friend wanted to help him heal.

None of us saw how cold he really was to the core. We felt something off, but perhaps in our naivety having never met real evil we didn’t see it. This man molested her children for a year. Eventually her children found the words to tell her what he did to them and she immediately called the police. Officers came and took evidence, but the man heard her call the police and escaped.

The following hours, days, weeks, months and year my coven and I cast a number of curses and called upon a goddess of war and sovereignty. Firstly I called on my familiar spirit to locate him. It assisted us well and we soon learnt that a family member of his put him in a local motel. Then we cursed for him to be arrested. His family member who we thought was helping him was actually plotting on our behalf and brought him into the police.

More curses were cast and the lab found solid DNA evidence on the child’s bedclothes. Yet another curse allowed me to be there as my friend’s child testified and I was able to tell the prosecutor when the defense had confused the little kid by not using a last name for a witness. The whole case could have been destroyed had I not done the magic to get out of work because there were two people with that first name who played different roles in the events.

And finally, the sentencing, another of many rituals calling upon a dark goddess of justice and protection of children. The child molester is in prison and will be for a long time well after our coven children as well as the man’s own children are grown. Cursing in our coven gave us and the children we protect power to witness in court, paved the clearest route for justice, and avenues to repair and build after evil’s aftermath.

– The Mandrake Witch

The Murders

I was a land-tied witch. I took care of it and it took care of me. It was my business to mediate between the spirits and the humans who shared the land. When I learned two young men had gone missing and then turned up murdered in my territory, I wasn’t about to sit on my hands and do nothing. The police investigations went nowhere, there wasn’t enough evidence for them to go on. One body had not been found, but I performed a divination and talked to my spirits and they confirmed he was dead. The other body had been burned before it was buried, unearthed by a stream flooding in the spring. I talked to the spirit of the young burned man. He was angry and he wanted revenge. I collected the dirt from his grave site in the forest and told him to imbue it with his rage and desire for vengeance. I told him I would use it to do a working to get him and the other boy justice. I soothed him with a cigarette and some whiskey. After he calmed I sent him on his way to the other side and undid his ties to the land that were keeping him there. I burned a purification incense and Old Man showed up. I knew what I was doing was right.

I returned home and kept my promise. I printed out photos of the young men. I folded them, tied them with red string, and placed each one under its own seven-day candle. I tied two justice cards from tarot decks to the candles. Around the candles I sprinkled a homemade cursing dust of the grave site dirt, wasp nest, hot peppers, black pepper, and snail shells. Inside the ring of dust I placed a chicken heart stabbed with eight blackthorns. I invoked Old Man and I invoked justice. I asked that the killers of these young men would be brought to justice by the legal system, and if that wasn’t possible, that vengeance would be satisfied instead (no matter how). I anointed the candles and consecrated them to their purpose. I lit them. “In the Devil’s name I light this flame.” I burned those candles every day for the full seven days until they burned out. They burned hot, steady, and true all the way down. I buried the remains of the spell.

The land felt much lighter after that and the restless spirits had gone. I do not know the results of my working other than it made the family of one of the boys feel better. There was nothing in the news from the police. I only know that I felt compelled to do what was in my power to do for the young men as they could no longer speak for themselves.

– The Steward

Under the Influence

In the early 90s my friend’s brother had broken into his place and stolen $10,000 worth of his property. We were in a Thelemic order together and were having a party that night for a friend’s birthday. They told him I was the one to help him out with a curse. I came over with hash, pot, cocaine, heroine, and a cocoa leaf liqueur and got right down to business and asked him what the situation was. I told him as long as he was one hundred percent certain it was a justified action, I would curse his brother. He promised that he knew it was his brother and I discussed what we could do. I asked him what his brother’s favourite drug was and his answer was heroine. I wanted to use his drug of choice to make a direct connection to him by being under the same influence. The group of us from the order set up circle, smoked the heroine I brought, invoked vengeful spirits, read from the third chapter of Crowley’s Book of the Law, and I incited the conjuration of destruction from The Satanic Bible.

We closed the circle and went back to the party, drank and chatted, forgetting the curse. Within an hour the phone rang. It was his brother. He had been driving in a car with friends high on heroine at the same time we were performing the curse. They had bought the drugs with the stolen money. The car crashed and was completely totalled, beyond saving, and the brother was the only one who had suffered any injuries –multiple broken bones and fractures. My friend told his brother he knew it was him who had stolen from him and to return the property or else things would get even worse. The brother freaked out, cried, and apologized over and over. My friends all stared at me with a “holy fuck” look.

– The Frater

Ouroboros

Someone was creating issues like crazy in my local Pagan community and it kept escalating. They were hurting people and themselves and it got to the point I just wanted to get rid of the person but couldn’t do it physically and didn’t want it to be tied back to me. I thought for a while on how I could deal with it and was reading a book and happened upon a page on poppets. The instructions for baptising a poppet with a person’s name and then doing with it what you will jumped out at me.

I didn’t want to make a poppet and at the same time realized I had to feed my black snake… suddenly it came to me and I knew what I was going to do. During a dark moon on a Tuesday night I took a live pinkie (a newborn mouse), tiny and wriggling in my hand, cast a proper circle, exorcised it with salt, and baptized the pinkie with the offending person’s name. I spoke to it of its crimes and told it why I was doing what I was doing.

I put it down on the floor with the snake inside the circle. As the snake was seeking out the tiny mouse I said: “May your eyes go blind, may you loose your ability to breathe, may you feel fear and panic like you never have before, may all your lies and tricks turn against you as long as you live. You are dead to me now.” And that was when the snake took the pinkie, suffocated it, crushed it, and swallowed it whole.

The person’s life fell apart to the point they left the coven we were in together and disappeared from the community completely, falling deep into drug use.

– The Serpent

Trading Souls

This curse really starts with one of the shamanism students that I used to teach. He was in his early twenties and very interested in spirituality. While at a sweat lodge one day, he prayed to be powerful. Asking for power is a terrible thing to ask for, the power given is rarely yours to keep and can often destroy your life. He found this out the hard way.

He called me up, and told me a terrifying story. He had been out in the woods behind the little cabin that he lived in, and suddenly his vision shifted, it felt like he could see hundreds of miles in each direction and could see the energy of the land, the energy of the spirits. His sight focused on a tall, ancient man with moss in his beard and wearing bark clothes. They locked eyes and the shamanism student was filled with terror. Then the vision was over. He went into his cabin, shaken to his core. Within a day or two, he noticed that it felt like someone else was also in the cabin with him. The presence and energy felt just like the old man he saw in the woods. He avoided his own cabin, and his cat which also lived in the cabin was very uneasy and irritable.

“I don’t know what to do, I must have invited the spirit in by asking for power.” He said.
“Well I’ll come over and see if I can ask the spirit to leave.” I offered.
“That sounds great, when can you come over?”

So I went to his cabin, out in the woods. Even walking down the path I felt the intense gaze of this old forest man, glowering, demanding. Many spirits I can take on in a fight, I can trick them or limit them some way. Some spirits are too large, too powerful to do that. This ancient spirit was too much for me to take on. The only chance to was to use diplomacy. The young man told his story again, going over it in greater detail, and sat down in the cabin.

I went into a trance, and the presence of the ancient man was overwhelming.

“Grandfather (I used this as a term of respect), what do you want from this young man? This is his home, and he is impacted by your presence.” I said to the spirit.

“He asked for power, and I’m here to show him power, and to take it away.” The old man’s voice was old, yet strong, rasping but clear. I trembled a bit to hear it.

“Please forgive him, I know he asked for a foolish thing, I know it is your role to take away the lives of those who seek power. Please, I beg on his behalf.” I pleaded, there was really nothing more I could do in the presence of this powerful spirit.

“Who’s soul will you give me in trade?” The old man’s dark eyes sparked in folds of brown, wrinkled skin.
It fell into place, I had the perfect solution to this.

“I will give you the soul of someone else, but not right now. Tonight. But, you have to swear to not follow this man, not impact his life negatively, and to not tell other spirits that he wished for power.”
The old man nodded, and the deal was made.

I came out of the trance. I told the young man that he shouldn’t have any problems with the old forest man again, but that he should try to move out as soon as possible. He told me he was already looking for a new place to live. A week after he moved out.

That night, in the comfort of my own home I went into a trance again. From the trance state I entered the spirit world and walked into the woods. The old man was waiting. We walked over hills, over streams, and to the door of a house.

“I can not go through the door unless I am invited.” The old man said, annoyed.
“I know. I have permission to be here, and I invite you.” I opened the door, and said “Please come in.” and the old man followed.

We walked through the mud room, past the dining area, through the living room, and into the master bedroom. Two people slept in the bed. I brought the old man up beside the bed, where a man was sleeping.

“This man you can claim, his house you can claim, his soul you can claim, his life you can claim. I give you permission.” I announced to the old man of the forest.

The old man grew in presence, leaning over the resting form of the man. Then he drew back.
“This one, his blood smells like you.” The old man stated, somewhat shocked.
“Yeah, that’s my dad. He’s yours now.” I replied, matter of factly.
The old man of the woods just stared at me for a moment.

“I am serious, he is yours. He is a pedophile, he preys upon children, he pins them down and rapes them. Just because he is related to me does not make him sacred to me.” My words were sharp now, and with anger behind them. The old man of the woods softened a bit, and nodded.

“Thank you so much for accepting this trade.” I bowed to him, and left the house before returning to my body, and coming out of the trance.

I do not know what has happened to my dad since then, I have not talked to him in years for obvious reasons. I have heard that he doesn’t look well from a distance. However, the power of the spirit, the old man of the woods, I have trust in that. It was a good trade, and I have no regrets in my dealings.

– The Green Shaman

RELATED POSTS

• The Ethics of Malevolence
• How to See in the Dark: A Practitioners’ Dialogue on Working with Darkness in Magic

This post is a brief overview of the presentation I gave to the Pagan Society at Simon Fraser University on March 10, 2015. The talk was not recorded, but I am able to provide the power point slides as well as links to articles and resources for those who missed the presentation and wish to learn more about Traditional Witchcraft. All links in bold will take you to my more in-depth writings on each subject.

For a more detailed over-view of the definitions please read: Traditional Witchcraft Definitions

For an in-depth discussion on what Traditional Witchcraft is please read: Traditional Witchcraft

MORE IN-DEPTH ARTICLES:

Cochrane-Based Witchcraft Traditions

Cunning Folk

Fairy Traditions or The Fairy Faith

Grimoire Tradition

Hedge Witchery

Hereditary Witchcraft

Kitchen and Green Witchery

Luciferian Witchcraft

Sabbatic Witchcraft

MORE IN-DEPTH ARTICLES:

Horned God Reading List

The Man in Black

Medea’s Ritual of the Mandrake

Tales from the Gathering: The Witches’ Sabbat

RECOMMENDED READING:

Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath by Carlo Ginzburg

Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the 16th & 17th Centuries by Carlo Ginzburg

The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans-Wentz

The Eldritch World by Nigel Pennick

Operative Witchcraft by Nigel Pennick

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies by Robert Kirk

Witchcraft and the Shamanic Journey by Kenneth Johnson

Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead by Claude Lecouteux

Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages by Claude Lecouteux

FURTHER READING:

Ancestor Altars & Rituals

Ancestor Worship in Modern Witchcraft

Cursing: The Ethics of Malevolence

Disclaimer of a Traditional Witch

Drinking the Divine with Sabbat Wine

Hedgecrossing Ritual

How to Use a Stang

Introduction to Animal Familiars

Introduction to Flying Ointments

Is Witchcraft Shamanism?

On Circle Casting and the World Tree

On Shape-shifting: A History & Guide for Shifters

Seer’s Reading List

Spellwork or The Road to Hel is Paved with Good Intentions

My list of forbearers will not be the same as other people’s. I think each witch has their own handful of heroes and influences who they believe fall under the category of Traditional Witchcraft.

I adore Leland and strongly believe he should be required reading, especially Aradia. Many of Charles G. Leland’s works are available for free on the internet. I highly recommend The Sacred Text Archive which hosts many of his books including: Aradia or the Gospel of Witches of Italy, Etruscan Roman Remains, and Gypsy Sorcery & Fortune Telling. If you wish to purchase a physical copy of Aradia, the best version is the new translation by Mario Pazzaglini.

Here is an example of one of the folk magic spells he collected for Gypsy Sorcery & Fortune Telling being put into practice today: Evil Eyes Who Look on Me

For more information and resources on Robert Cochrane and the traditions that stem from his teachings, please see the article: Cochrane-Based Witchcraft Traditions

Commonly written off by Traditional Witches for being a Wiccan, Doreen Valiente actually left Wicca behind when she quit Gardner’s coven. She was a member of Robert Cochrane’s Clan of Tubal Cain for a time and was a non-Wiccan witch for much of her occult life. As her passion was research, she did all the work for us, and we have only to read her books to catch up with her decades of research and experience. She is a great no-nonsense starting point for beginners. If you dig around Youtube you may just find some video interviews.

I love her and consider many of her books must-reads. Though many of her books are out of print, they have been reprinted so many times that it is easy to find inexpensive copies on the second-hand market (with the exception of Where Witchcraft Lives).

Feri is likely the first and only tradition under the Traditional Witchcraft umbrella that originates from North America and incorporates localized magic. This makes it accessible to those in Western North America who wish to join a physical group or have a physical teacher. Please see the Fairy Traditions or The Fairy Faith article for more information and resources on the Feri Tradition.

Another famous witch who, like Doreen Valiente, is often ignored because many assume she was Wiccan. She rode the Wicca wave to gain her popularity, but her own beliefs came from Traditional Witchcraft which she practiced mainly in secret as a member of the Horsa coven in New Forest, England. Some of her occult books are sketchy (Diary of  Witch is mostly fiction), but she was a good astrologer and her one work The Complete Art of Witchcraft is where she stashed most of her actual beliefs, practices, and secrets.

Paul Huson, now a US resident, is most well known for his classic work Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens. It is a tested and nostalgic favourite of many traditional witches and perhaps one of the first openly Luciferian works which is revealed in the introduction. Read more about it here: A Discourse on the Introduction of Mastering Witchcraft.

Andrew Chumbley and Daniel Schulke of the Cultus Sabbati

Michael Howard – Author & Magazine Editor

Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold of The Starry Cave

Gemma Gary – Cornish village witch, author, and illustrator

Cassandra Latham – Cornish village witch and author

Peter Grey and Alkistis of Scarlet Imprint

Nigel Jackson – Traditional Witchcraft author

Shani Oats of The Clan of Tubal Cain

Nigel Pennick – Traditional Witchcraft & folk magic author

FURTHER READING:

The Horned God Reading List

The Poison Path Reading List

The Scots Reading List

The Seer’s Reading List

The Witch’s Recommended Reading List

Text, slide images, and artwork © 2015 Sarah Anne Lawless. Do not copy or use without the express permission of the author, but sharing the link is very welcome. 

“The first cup moistens my lips and throat.
The second shatters my loneliness.
The third causes the wrongs of life to fade gently from my recollection.
The fourth purifies my soul.
The fifth lifts me to the realms of the unwinking gods”

Chinese Mystic, Tang Dynasty

y Scots-Canadian Grandmother taught me how to read tea leaves. I now possess her tea cup collection of bone china, gold paint, delicate handles, and endless colours and patterns. Sitting at her dining room table, which sits now in my kitchen, she showed me how to brew with just the right size of loose leaf tea. To let it steep and to drink it without eating the leaves, filtering them through your teeth. She taught me how to flip the cup onto the saucer with just enough force to cause patterns. Then she would carefully turn the tea cup upright again, full of spiralling shapes of dark tea leaves from far away lands. With great solemnity she would look at me and say “and now you bullshit.”

At first I thought she was being mischievous, but after years of reading tea leaves I realized that she was indeed quite serious.  Tasseomancy, or reading tea leaves, is an act of scrying. There is no book or list of meanings that can truly help you, though they may get you started. You are your own dictionary of symbols and your own interpretations. No two diviners will see or say the same things about the same tea cup of messy wet leaves. Even though the words that fall from your lips may sometimes sound like bullshit to you, you will often be amazed at how those you are reading for react – “how did you know!”

The handle is the present, the future a year ahead in sections of months clockwise around the cup. Leaves close to the rim are things close to the surface, obvious things, things you are or will soon become aware of. Leaves at the bottom of the cup are the unknown, surprises, secrets, your subconscious. You can see anything in the leaves; animals, insects, plants, symbols, objects, letters, numbers… maybe the whole cup is one image with one big meaning or maybe the leaves are broken down into tiny ones with many fortunes to tell.

Tasseomancy is a divinatory art to be practiced in person with the subject in front of your eyes. It is a tactile art. Touch the cup, turn it around in your hands and view it from every angle. Look at the person you are reading for. Are they eager and excited to hear their fortune or are they sad and defeated before you’ve even spoken? Each person’s cup you read for will be completely different. I remember reading tea leaves at the local Pagan Pride Day and having a formidable line-up of people awaiting their fortunes. Each pattern of leaves was completely unique and no two fortunes were the same.

You don’t find too many witches or seers who read tea leaves these days. Maybe it seems too quaint and not authentic or hardcore enough. The funny thing is that tasseomancy is closer to ‘traditional’ than many of our witchcraft practices today. It and reading playing cards rather than tarot cards.

It’s how the back alley folk magicians, East Coast kitchen witches, old snaggled toothed grannies, and the neighbourhood spaewives of the past few centuries would have divined people’s fortunes. Not with fancy tools or elaborate methods, but simply what was on hand: a cup and a teaspoon of tea or coffee, a pack of playing cards, a pot of water and some melted candle wax…

Why not take up reading tea leaves? Practice. Have friends over for a tea party to make it fun. Up the ante. Have friends over for a spiked tea party of hot toddies or fun pairings of loose leaf teas and sweet liqueurs. Sometimes a little booze makes divination come more naturally. What a fun coven night that would be!

Whether you interpret the leaves for friends or strangers, remember that tasseomancy is also a social art which blends well with charm, kindness, empathy, and of course, wit. The best and most practiced tasseomancers will put you at ease, draw you in, sound assured, and relay your fortune like a talented storyteller or poet.

Now come on into the kitchen and I’ll put on a pot of earl grey with lemon and honey.

* Tarot deck shown is The Wooden Tarot by A.L. Swartz.

“Up on their brooms the Witches stream,
Crooked and black in the crescent’s gleam;
One foot high, and one foot low,
Bearded, cloaked, and cowled, they go.”

- Walter de la Mare

he metaphorical witch’s broomstick is forgotten in the back of an old closet, covered in cobwebs and shrouded in darkness. No one has touched it in so long that it has forgotten its purpose. Those who have not touched it have forgotten how to use it, have even forgotten why they would ever want to. You could break your neck after all, falling from a broomstick oh so high in the sabbat-black sky. Thus the broom is often grounded and most of today’s witches no longer fly. Let us open that forgotten closet door a crack and let a beam of light shine in. Let us illuminate a past much more interesting than our present.

If today’s witches no longer leave their bodies in the ecstasy of soul-flight then it is fair to say they also do not believe in the soul, in hosts of spirits, in old gods, in other worlds, or in magic. Without such beliefs and first-hand experience of them, witchcraft becomes a farce of empty rituals with empty words performed in crushed velvet robes. It all becomes a role-playing game no more real or impressive than a group of acne-faced teens rolling dice in their mother’s basement.

Witchcraft is not neoPagan goddess worship, it is not secular weather worship, it is not tree-hugging, and it is not New Age fuckery. Witchcraft is not safe. Witchcraft is not good and kind. Witchcraft is the domain of the trickster, the outcast, the wanderer, and the crooked.  It belongs to those who know every light casts a shadow; who have looked into the depths of darkness in their soul and accepted what they’ve seen along with all that is good.  Witchcraft requires cunning, manipulation, self-awareness, adaptable morals, and dash of madness. Witchcraft is sharp pins pierced into a waxen image of an enemy, a lover’s hair plaited with one’s own, a Saturnine root harvested at midnight, blood spilled for hungry spirits, magical pacts made with daemons, a handful of dried henbane leaves burned and inhaled to talk to shades, an ancient incantation sung to become a wild hare, and witchcraft is sabbat wine imbibed while dancing wildly, intoxicated in the woods on Walpurgisnacht.

What is a witch without a host of familiar spirits? What is a witch without knowledge and experience of the otherworld? What is a witch who has never changed form? What is a witch who cannot reach ecstasy? What is a witch who cannot fly? Some would say no witch at all.

If you want to be a witch, you first must die. Just like the child you were dies when you become an adult, your human self must die to become Witch. The initiated are half alive, half dead. We are souls stuck in between – not quite spirits and not quite human. We shapeshift between forms – now human, now animal, now spirit, now elemental force, now otherwordly being. We drift between past, present, and future knowing that time is a non-linear illusion and all is accessible.  We travel between worlds knowing they are all one and we are present in all of them at all times. We are possessed by spirits and the ones who possess others with our spirits. We are the dream-walkers, shape-shifters, psychopomps, seers, mediums, mystics, visionaries, and miraculous healers. We see the unseen, hear the unheard, travel to unreachable places, and experience the impossible. We dwell in paradoxes within the suspension of disbelief. We dance on the dagger’s edge between life and death, waking and dreaming, magic and insanity. We are unnatural. Supernatural.

So few today achieve such a state with fear being the number two reason, coming after ignorance. We are afraid to fly because magic might be real. We are afraid to fly because it might not be.  We are afraid to fly because we think the methods to achieve it are all dangerous. We are afraid to fly because we are afraid to die. Sleep is like death, a slight mimicry of death. Soul-flight is the little death. Your body lies as if dead, dead to this world, while your soul travels to frightening or wondrous places. Have you ever woken from vivid dreams exhausted, unrested? Perhaps you weren’t dreaming at all. I have heard the practice aptly named death walking and have been called death walker myself.  I simply call it travelling. I leave my body, each time knowing that there is a chance I may not make it back – that my soul might get lost, stolen, trapped, eaten or collected by something or someone more powerful and dangerous than myself. I do it anyway. Sometimes of my own free will and other times I am taken places by spirits. It is always worth it and the more it is done, the easier it becomes, and the easier it is to remember your adventures and visions.

CROSS YOUR HEART AND HOPE TO DIE

“I shall say sooth, I shall fly
By horse and hattock
Through the Sabbat-black sky.”

- Giles Watson

Where does the soul go and what does it do when it leaves the body in ecstatic rites? Sometimes it visits other witches — seeking individuals for knowledge or groups to celebrate in sabbatic revels of intoxicants and passions.  Other times it takes up residence inside another person for a hag ride, or an animal, or a tree – for the experience or to spy or to travel by land, air, or water. Who doesn’t long for flight feathers or an eagle’s far-seeing eyes? Perhaps your soul takes pleasure in riding the wind and the lightning instead or maybe it prefers to journey to the underworld to keep company with the dead and their secrets. Other witch’s souls keep company with stars, some of whom will whisper mysteries while others only respond with cold alien silence.

A seer’s soul will travel into the future and sometimes the past. A healer’s soul will travel inside the body of a patient to find the cause of an illness so it may be removed. A shape-shifter‘s soul will possess the physical forms of animals, insects, and plants or their soul will take their form in the otherworld. A dream-walker will travel into the dreams of others to deliver messages, send blessings or nightmares, or to lay a curse. A psychopomp will traverse the path between our world and the underworld, leading souls to the great below and bringing messages back to the living. There are even dark sorcerers who leave their bodies to steal souls, bring them back and bottle them up, bound into a fetiche to strengthen their own power with black magic. Presently such practices largely exist only in folk and fairy tales, unread by today’s witches.

How does one achieve soul-flight? Some have to work at it for weeks, months, or years. Some do it as naturally as breathing, without aid, and simply can’t help themselves. One witch beats a drum to mimic a fast heartbeat and falls into a waking trance. Another sings an incantation faster and faster to quicken the breath and flood the blood with oxygen.  A group of witches rub themselves with a flying ointment and dance and sing all night around a fire more and more intensely until reaching ecstasy.  Yet another calls her spirits, whispers her intent, and falls asleep under a bear hide holding a rowan wand, leaving her body through the world of dreams.

Transvection chants:

“Horse and hattock, horse and go, horse and pellatis, ho ho!”

“Thout, tout a tout tout, throughout and about.”

There are words and herbs and postures. There is music and dancing and singing.  There is fasting and swaying and praying. Stand on one foot, close one eye, and raise one arm. Eat this mushroom, soak this herb in wine overnight, and infuse this fat with belladonna leaves and mandrake root.  Sing these words, scream them, mean them.  Beat this drum and shake this rattle until your wrists hurt, until you cannot feel your hands.  Dance around the fire until you sweat and sweat, until you forget you are human. Shroud yourself in complete darkness until there is nothing but the world of visions.  All these things and more can lead to the little death and transport you to the otherworld’s door.

It all sounds rather romantic until someone loses an eye, or a soul, or their life. Some don’t make it back, some don’t make it back in one piece, but most will never go at all because they fear death above all else. And we should fear it – we should respect death and fear. We should not be fools stumbling in the dark. We should know the danger that lies ahead, the pain that will come, and walk into it knowingly always pure of intent and heart. We should know why we choose to die. Is dying worth gaining power? No, it shouldn’t be about striving for power. We die to serve. Once we die we do not belong to ourselves. Spirit workers are servants to greater spirits than themselves and will always be haunted and hunted. Every spirit serves another and we too are spirits. Erase any romantic notions from your head – this is not about you or being special – you are one of many. Your body is on loan, a temporary vessel. As long as you serve, the vessel is protected from harm and from physical death. If you make it about you or about power there is no guarantee you’ll be safe or come back.

Do you really want this? Is it worth being able to see and hear spirits, to travel between the realms? Why do you want it so badly? Be honest with yourself and the spirits and maybe one day you will die and come back — joining this host of revenants called spirit workers.

STICK A NEEDLE IN YOUR EYE

“Anything worthwhile is dangerous.”

- Victor Anderson

An important question is not how one can fly, but how does one land? How does the witch protect themself during soul-flight and how do they ensure a safe return? Shamans of old would protect their abandoned body with blessed talismans and with a human or spirit guardian who would watch over their flesh until their soul returned from its journey.  If there were signs of danger or they were gone for too long, a human guardian would try to rouse the shaman by burning special herbs such as yarrow flowers, by repeating an incantation, or by stimulating the body in the hope that it would cause the soul to return and the shaman to awake. Shamans and witches of old would also have familiar spirits who would travel with them in the otherworld and serve as various lookouts, protectors, and advisors. Disguise is another protection and one still documented in folk tales and myths: ashes rubbed on the face to mimic the dead’s appearance in the underworld, an animal’s hide worn to blend in among its kin, herbs rubbed on the body to mask the smell of humanity among soul-eaters.

Danger doesn’t just come from outside influences during soul-flight – a major challenge one may face is not wanting to return or forgetting to. If the witch decides they do not like the restriction of corporeal form they may knowingly or unknowingly cut ties with their flesh and lose the chance to return. The witch may get lost or trapped, finally returning to our realm to realize they are too late, a century has gone by and their body and all their loved ones have perished.  The witch may lose themselves when shape-shifting and forget altogether that they are human and end up a wild hare in a fox’s mouth. When the soul does not return, the body can be left a vegetable, or worse, something else may take up residence inside it if it was not protected well enough.

Souls may be currency in the otherworld, to be stolen, collected, or eaten by more powerful spirits, but bodies are also much desired by noncorporeal spirits. Imagine a long-dead shade who yearns to taste the sweetness of wine and richness of food once more, who yearns to feel the softness of a woman’s breasts beneath his hands and all her other pleasures. Such a spirit may steal or kill to attain his desires. One must not be too trusting in the otherworld and not take spirits at face value or their word for nothing is as it seems. Trust your familiar spirits who have proven themselves time and time again and no others and they will do their best to keep you out of the lion’s maw.

Protect the room or space you will fly from, no, over-protect it.  Weave a barrier with spirit traps, witch balls, witch bottles, mirrors, sigils, bindrunes, runestaves, conjure bags, strung herbs, and animals skulls, teeth, and claws. Paint protective sigils on your body or have them tattooed on if you are one who flies involuntarily, naturally. Always wear one protective talisman even if it is as simple as the innocuous ring, pendant, or earrings you wear every day that you have consecrated. When you wish to fly, call your spirits to you and have their fetiches close if they are not wearable so you can take them with you. Hold a wand or staff in your hand to protect your body and to take with you to the other realms. The Gaels and Norse believed Rowan gave one power over spirits – to enter their homes, to stop them from causing harm, and to blast, banish and bind them if need be.

To return from your adventures of witches’ sabbats, shape-shifting, and travelling sing or speak  aloud an incantation that acts as a trigger to pull you back to your body.  Tap your wand or staff three times. Stop beating your drum, stop swaying, stop chanting – stop whatever action you perform when straddling the worlds. Have someone watch over you and instruct them to touch you gently or shake you if need be to signal you to return from your spirit’s flight. If you are alone set an alarm to go off or play an album and train yourself to return when the music stops. When you return, eat and drink, touch a plant, touch a tree, touch the earth. Talk, laugh, sing. Do something ordinary and of this world to help ground you in the present and bring you fully back to yourself. If you are worried a spirit may have followed you back or your experience was not pleasant, take a bath with herbs and candles and spiritually cleanse yourself from your toes to your head to the depths of your soul and watch all the worry wash down the bathtub drain afterward. Lavender, rosemary, cloves, mullein, sage or yarrow will aid you. If they are not on hand, the needles from the nearest evergreen tree will do in a pinch whether it be cedar, fir, or pine – especially when combined with salt.

One either flies or one does not. It cannot be forced and can rarely be taught. The secret is in one’s ability to let go; to let go of expectations, of the body, of life, of the world you know and the people you love. Can you jump off the cliff into the unknown abyss with faith in yourself and your spirits? If not you will fail or you will fall. Do not leap until you are sure.

Originally published in “Pillars III” by Anathema Publishing, January 2015.

© 2015 Sarah Anne Lawless. Do not copy or use without the express permission of the author, but sharing the link is very welcome. 

Featured artworks are by Luis Ricardo Falero, 1878-1883.

“Raise no more devils than you can lay down.” – German Proverb

Let us be honest. There are endless ways, spells, and rituals to summon spirits, gods, and demons but when it comes to safeguards or banishing one when things go sour, our collective knowledge as modern witches and pagans is quite lacking. What do you do when a haunting, an escaped spirit, or a possession is out of your ability to handle? When so many of us barely believe any of this is real, it leaves us poorly equipped to help ourselves let alone other people when something wicked this way comes.

Let’s get serious. Let’s assume the supernatural is natural, real, palpable. Let’s admit to ourselves that most spirits, aside from our familiars, do not have our best interest in mind and the intent of most is to deceive or harm us. You’d better believe I’m including deities in there too. “Yes puny human, give me all the offerings and do my bidding without question.” Not such a good idea. You read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, didn’t you? No? Time to head to the library. Pick up some Russian and German fairy tales while you’re there too – they’ll help.

If you are summoning anything, whether it be a god, a spirit, or a shade, do so within protected space. This includes ouija boards. It is the true point of our magic circles, to make sure that when we open the door between worlds, nothing escapes into our world that does not belong there. That nothing comes through the door without being invited. Cast a “real” circle. Make it tight, make it true. Have a weapon on hand whether it is a steel knife or a rowan staff. Have banishing herbs or incense on hand and ready to use (rosemary and salt from the kitchen will do in a pinch). Have offerings at the ready, but never feed a spirit before you first confirm its true identity, for offerings give spirits power –power to hurt you and power to escape. Make sure all you may need is inside your sacred space before you cast the circle.

Keep Out – Only Humans Allowed

Have a closed door policy when it comes to spirits. Nothing comes in or out of your home without your say so. Is the Night Hag bothering you? Is a spirit torturing you in your dreams? Is a pervy ghost spying on you in the shower? Lock them out. Burn a banishing herb or incense first and walk counter clockwise around your entire house getting every nook and cranny, every shelf and closet. Shout: “get out unwanted spirits, you are not welcome here, get out, get out, GET OUT!”

Make some holy water and sprinkle it on every “entry” to your home. This includes mirrors, faucets, drains, laundry vents, bathroom fans, windows, doors, stove hoods… get it all. Dip your finger in the holy water and mark your windows and doors with an equal armed cross. Consecrate everything you have touched with the water as locked. State out loud, loudly and with confidence, that all the entryways are sealed and that nothing may come through without your express permission. If you have any boundaries you would like to set with the spirits or even your familiar spirits, state them now. Think long and hard on them and word them VERY carefully before you speak them.

Make yourself a charm to hang in the house that acts as the lock. This can be an old key strung to a holey stone, a red charm bag with st. john’s wort and rowan in it, protective runes or symbols over your front door, a carved Icelandic runestave nailed over the door, and so on. There are endless ideas for apotropaic devices from history. It is the consecration of the item for its purpose that gives it power. Consecrate it on your altar. Sprinkle it with holy water to cleanse it, cover it with a dark cloth to mimic a womb, lift the cloth and birth it into its new life by naming it to its sole purpose. Anoint it with oil. It is done. Hang it or hide it. Five minutes of magical work for a year or more of protection is more than worth it. Resetting your wards at least once or twice a year is recommended.

Ask For Help From Someone Bigger Than You

Start with common sense. As the proverb says, do not summon anything if you do not first have the knowledge and ability to cast it out, send it home, or trap it. This includes deities, but you won’t have much luck trying to banish them or trap them. They are too old, too big and too powerful for you. Don’t get cocky. They’ll just laugh at you while they suck on the bones of your corpse. However, the deity who acts as bouncer to the realm of the gods can give them a boot back through the door to where they belong and keep them there. Every pantheon usually has one. I call them gatekeepers. If you are going to practice spirit work the first thing you should do is make friends with one, preferably one from the cultural context you already practice within. Some of them include Papa Legba, Hekate, Hermes, and Heimdal. They are usually tricksters themselves; no one’s getting by them. They are also usually the ones other gods are scared of or defer to. And using their names to threaten spirits with often works better than just shouting unpleasantries and waving garlic around. “Baba Yaga’s going to eat you!” sounds so much scarier than “I’m going to burn this incense if you don’t leave.”

Gatekeepers can also do your dirty for you and send back troublesome spirits to where they belong. They can aid in depossession if a benevolent deity or ancestor won’t leave a ritualist’s body. They can also make sure you summon the correct spirit and send the right one through and then back again.  Gatekeepers don’t fuck up, we do by using the wrong words in our invocations. Be incredibly specific. Choose a gatekeeper to the right realm. If it is a spirit of the dead, call upon one who guards the entrance of the underworld. Is it an unseelie nature spirit? Call upon the King or Queen of Fairy. You will need to drag the spirit to their door and you will need to pay them handsomely for their services. Each one has their own preferences, you will need to do the research if you are going to build a relationship with a cosmic bouncer.

Summon the gatekeeper, out loud with a strong voice. Give them an offering. Ask them to open the door between worlds. Ask them to take the spirit or other being back to where it belongs and shut the door locked behind them. Leave them another offering and clearly state your thanks for their help. Clearly say your farewell after so they know you no longer need them.

Hold Your Own (aka Stab and Devour)

There will be occasions when a unwanted spirit is “small” enough for you to handle. These you can banish, bind, trap, enslave, or eat. Yes eat. Bigger spirits do it, why not you? Just grab it tight and shove it in your mouth and swallow. Mmm souls are delicious. Not only have you dealt with it, but you’ve absorbed its power as well. Eat a few spirits and it becomes more likely you’ll get left alone when traversing the otherworld, like a man who has shanked a few fellow prisoners and now eats his lunch in peace. Sure, you could bind and enslave those spirits harassing you to do your bidding, but if they ever got free they’d call for backup and gleefully play with your intestines. It’s always better to have willing and happy familiar spirits.

There may be a time when you need to kill a spirit. Yes kill. You can indeed kill something noncorporeal. How? Fairy and folk tales are rife with instructions. If it is too big for you to eat or banish and you are in its own realm rendering a gatekeeper useless, you can try to destroy a spirit. You must find the source of its power –often the trapped souls of its victims or their “heart” (read that as “soul”) hidden somewhere you must find and destroy. What, you thought J.K. Rowling made up the idea of a horcrux? No, she got it from old European folk tales of evil sorcerers and heartless giants. Get your familiars to help you find the evil spirit’s secret stash and destroy it with your magic and your tools. Yes, you can bring your knives, wands, staffs, etc with you to the otherworld –attach them to your body, hold on to them, or put them by you.

Basic Banishing Steps for Hauntings or Possession

To prevent involuntary possession be very specific in your evocations making sure you are requesting the presence of a deity or spirit and not to be ridden by them. In ritual, be very exacting about who you are calling. The ancient Celts and Norse would give a deity or ancestor’s entire lineage using very specific names and titles for them in their evocations. Also, do not attend or perform a ritual where there will be invocations or evocations when you are ill, drunk, high, or emotionally exhausted unless you have taken precautions to protect yourself from possession.

Some precautions one can take from the lore of cultures worldwide include wearing multicoloured clothing consisting of seven colours or more, wearing mirrors sewn into clothing, dusting your bare skin with powdered white eggshell, carry a rowan cross in your pocket or wear a string of the berries around your neck, wear bold red clothing, or wear an amulet consecrated to protect you from possession. If you are someone who frequents graveyards, make yourself a spray or a hand rub you can apply as soon as you leave the gates so no ghosts try to follow you home. Lazy? Just buy some lavender water or Florida water.

Find a banishing or exorcism incantation that works for you. One you like and, more importantly, one you will actually use. If you feel silly saying it, it’s not going to work. You need to come off as confident and scary as fuck. Look in Aradia, in Mastering Witchcraft, in the Carmina Gadelica, or in grimoires old and new. Look through your book collection and those of your occulty friends.

To extract or exorcise a spirit unwilling to leave a person, place, or object different steps may be taken. If incantations, exorcising incenses, or a purification baths do not work then attempt to extract the spirit in the following order:

• Ask the spirit to leave, tell it that it is time to go and remove itself from the person/object/place. If it refuses move on to the second step.
• With utmost confidence, threaten the spirit with exorcism and banishment and throw around a scary deity’s name or two. If they still refuse to leave move on to the next step.
• Make good on your threat and attempt to exorcise the spirit by repeating an incantation firmly and willfully over and over until they leave. If this is not enough also cleanse the person/object/place with holy water, salt, and/or herbs, or fumigate them by burning exorcism herbs or incense while continuing to recite the incantation. Once the spirit has left, do not forget to banish it so it doesn’t return to the person/object/place once you’ve left. This is the mistake many exorcists make.
• Banish the spirit. Banishing is the act of sending spirits back though the gate to the underworld and then closing it behind them – do so with force and strength of will. If you do not know how or do not have the ability ask a gatekeeper of the underworld to do so.
• If you are unable to banish the spirit you can resort to trapping and binding it – but always keep in mind this is an absolute last resort. Always try banishing first, but if it keeps returning after and causing harm, then it’s time for trapping and binding it.

Okay, now you’re thinking “but how do I trap and bind spirits?” Good thing you asked, the next blog article will be all about spirit traps. How to make them, use them, and destroy them properly. Stay tuned. Same witch-time, same witch-channel.

“Black spirits and white, red spirits and grey, come ye and come ye, come ye that may! Around and around, throughout and about, the good come in and the ill keep out.”

~ Doreen Valiente (based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth)

here are many ways to catch a spirit and many different styles of traps to do it with. What is a spirit trap? It is a device used to trick a spirit into ensnaring itself much like a mouse trap baited with cheese or peanut butter. The idea behind a basic spirit trap is fascination. The trap is meant to distract the spirit from its mischievous or malevolent purpose by tempting them with something they cannot resist.

In the folklore of many cultures, it is believed spirits cannot resist or are compelled to follow a thread from one end to the other with some believing that spirits have to travel in a straight line. This belief results in spirit traps intricately woven with colourful thread such as the ojos de dios or “God’s eyes” of Central America, the elaborate ghost and demon traps of Tibet incorporating ram skulls, the cross charms of Rowan and red thread from Scotland, the spirit traps mimicking spider webs used by hunters in some regions of Africa, and even the dream catchers of North America (before they became items to sell to tourists). The most common colours used are red, blue, and yellow as they each have a very long history of being used for protection across cultural boundaries. The creation of them can be a highly meditative and spiritual act with the intent being protection and blessing –especially when they are made for children. A main rule of such spirit traps is there must be no knots in the thread. These traps are hung on the roof of a house, in trees, or over the bed. The spirit is extracted from the thread by burning it, putting it in a place where the sun’s rays will touch it to symbolically burn away the spirit, or by carefully removing the thread and placing it in a well-sealed bottle, jar, or box which is then either burned, buried, or hidden somewhere safe.

Some spirit traps are made from hollowed out wood, usually two matching pieces that are placed together (or a box), sealed with wax or resin, and then bound with string or a leather cord like the shamans’ spirit trap of Burma/Myanmar. The bottle trees or “haint” trees of the American South were originally spirit traps based on the belief that the spirit, much like a wasp, could not resist going into the bottle but would not be able to come out again. Blue bottles are the most commonly used which makes sense as blue has been a powerful colour of protection for millennia. Some people place items in the bottles to lure spirits – binding herbs, string or thorns for them to become entangled in, or seeds for them to get distracted counting (in folklore witches and spirits are compelled to count seeds, beans, or grains when laid before them). Bottle spirit traps are believed to have their origins from slaves who came from Northern Africa and the Middle East where blue is a prevalent sacred colour. Bottle trees or bottle spirit traps can be found in Europe as well.

Tsimshian soul catcher, 1879

Some Native tribes of the Pacific Northwest once used carved hollow bones called “soul catchers” to trap spirits by sucking them into the bone and then sealing the two ends with moss or lichen. These, however, were mainly used to trap human souls stolen by supernatural spirits so they could be returned to their owners in healing ceremonies. The medicine man or woman would blow the soul into the ailing person’s mouth to put it back in their body. Some were made of wood, but bone seems to have been much more common. I am quite enamoured with the idea of using a hollow bone due to a similar tool found in Scotland, but there it is used for cursing by pouring the blood of a sacrificed animal through it (not really the same, but cool).

Another spirit trap is the well known witch bottle of Europe which is used as a decoy and a spiritual alarm system on top of catching spirits. A witch bottle is first filled with the decoy which can be a combination of hair, nail clippings, blood, saliva, or urine. This fools a spirit into thinking it has found its target (you). Then nails and/or bent pins are added to bind the spirit and keep it in the bottle. Lastly, broken glass or broken mirror pieces are added for protection, to reflect away the evil intent. Then the bottle is corked, sealed, and buried under the front step of one’s house. If you live in an apartment it can be hidden in a wall or a forgotten cupboard, or buried in the soil of a potted plant. It is better for the witch bottle to be outside though to keep the spirit from crossing your threshold. If the bottle breaks, it means it has worked, and caught a spirit with the intent of harming the maker. It should then be burned, the ashes buried or released into running water, and then replaced with a new one. Witch bottles were not originally made by witches, but were used by ordinary people to protect from a witch’s magical attack. The spirit caught is often a witch’s familiar.

If you are using a spirit trap not just for protection but to capture a specific spirit or soul, the trap must be consecrated to that purpose and used in a ritual with that intent. If your intent is bind and keep a spirit it must be transferred from the trap to a spirit vessel. If it is a thread trap the thread must carefully be unwoven and placed into a jar, bottle, box, poppet, stone, or skull. If it is inside a bottle, bone, or wood trap it can be sucked out of the trap and blown into the intended spirit vessel. Once in a vessel, a ritual is performed to consecrate the vessel to bind the spirit to it (a basic, customizable consecration ritual for objects is a must have in your magician’s bag of tricks). The spirit vessel can then be well sealed with wax and bound with more thread or covered in sigils or symbols of binding and protection.

Once, I turned an entire hallway into one big spirit trap. It was the entry to my apartment with every doorway coming off of it. I put a mirror on each end along with protective amulets and woven spirit traps above each door. I knew it was time to empty the trap when the talismans or the pictures on the walls fell. Or if the trapped spirits decided to slam someone around in the hallway. The same oak picture frame fell and was broken half a dozen times due to this and scared my friends. I learned if you’re going to turn a hallway or a mudroom into a spirit trap, don’t hang anything of value in the space and clean it more regularly than you think you need to.

This practice is often a last ditch effort to get rid of a troublesome spirit for which banishing did not work or for a spirit that is too powerful to handle and too nasty to leave running free. If it is a malignant spirit it is usually buried by running water or a crossroad where it won’t be disturbed. If the spirit vessel is to be buried, it should only ever be done with a container that won’t decay easily or quickly. Glass and ceramic are best, then metal. Wood is not a good idea. If the vessel decays or is destroyed or broken, the spirit is set free. Sometimes bound spirits are kept safe by the magician who trapped it, who don’t trust nature or other people and want to keep a close eye on it. If you are going to keep a particularly nasty spirit I recommend some seriously potent sigils and a ring of salt around the vessel wherever you store it. There have been many instances of family and students going through a dead magician’s house and finding bound boxes and bottles sealed with wax and string – never open them! They should be left as they are and given to another magician to look after or to properly dispose of it they have the knowledge and skill to do so.

As with most magical practices, trapping and binding spirits is neither good nor evil. It is dependent upon the intent of the magician. They can be used as a preventive measure, as protection, or for healing in the case of PNW medicine men. It can also be dark magic used to bind spirits to steal their collective power to add to one’s own. Other times a dark sorcerer will use this magic to steal and bind the souls of their human enemies to both steal their power and stop the enemies from working against them. There are a very large number of folk tales all over the world where a hero defeats an evil sorcerer or spirit and sets free all the souls they have trapped over years, decades, centuries, or even millennia. If this theme sounds familiar it is because this has carried forward today into horror movies and fantasy TV shows.

Any time you desire to bind a spirit make sure it is the right decision over banishing as if it ever manages to get free you are the first person the evil spirit will attack afterward. Good intent is not enough for this to work. You have to have knowledge, skill, and experience behind it to be certain it is done properly. If you cannot see spirits or tell they are in your traps, it is also unlikely to work. Always think carefully before trapping and binding a spirit and, if you yourself are not an advanced practitioner, it is recommended to have one present when doing so in case anything goes wrong.

If you are new to this, I recommended starting with a witch bottle, rowan cross, or a god’s eye style spirit trap as they can simply be burned. As you burn the thread or the trap, you can ask your familiar spirits or a deity to carry the spirit away back to where it belongs. I also like to burn a purification incense afterward like pine or frankincense resins mixed with cedar or juniper tips. As a maker of rowan crosses and god’s eyes I’ve found they simply and mysteriously start to fall apart when they’ve been overburdened trapping spirits. If your protective trap falls down or breaks, it is time to burn it and make a new one. I recommend checking your traps every dark moon. If they are full, it is the perfect time to get rid of the spirits.

Text and images © 2015 Sarah Anne Lawless. Do not copy or use without the express permission of the author, but sharing the link is very welcome.

“Witchcraft is already dead as a hag, as barren as the moon, as contaminated as the tar sands. Yet Witchcraft is born again in this sacred despoiled landscape, and will be despised as an abomination by those who cannot navigate by the candlelight of guttering stars. Those who seek to escape the fates and furies will learn that they are inexorable.”

~ Peter Grey, Apocalyptic Witchcraft

odern witchcraft is changing its stripes. I need only to talk to elders and attend long-standing events to see this clearly. The young people are upsetting and delighting the older generations with their newly evolved beliefs and practices. One old-timer is horrified by an ecstatic ritual at a festival full of nudity, body paint, drumming, trance, possession, and ecstatic dance. They complain loudly to everyone and try to get nudity banned at an event that’s been clothing optional for twenty years because they don’t know how else to deal with their extremely uncomfortable reaction to the ritual itself. Another elder’s eyes shine with joy to see young people hosting a ritual the likes of which they haven’t participated in since they were taking amanita caps in the woods with their friends from college in the 1960s. They clap loudly in glee and ask for more.

An elder, trained in a well-known and well-lineaged witchcraft tradition, comes to my city to train students and form a serious practicing coven. They have good connections and intentions, but can’t get a single student. They lament to me over lunch how much things have changed in the past forty years and how surprised they were that no one wanted a serious commitment. They give up and go home and my local community doesn’t realize what it lost. As a member of the younger generation they were fishing from, they ask me why, what has changed?

The biggest issue of the previously mentioned elder was that they were trying to form a coven based solely on controlled external rituals, not wanting anything to do with internal process or personal gnosis. They did not approve of the path of the mystic and all the internal processing the younger folk were up to in ritual and were very vocal about it. I see this attitude more often than not in elders from the 60s and 70s. The younger generation did not agree with this attitude and were not interested. They wanted a spiritual path that would challenge them on a psychological as well as spiritual level, heal them, and help them face their fears and demons. They didn’t want to sing the same songs and perform the same actions at every ritual and have that be the extent of their group activity. It’s fun, but it’s not enough anymore. The new generation wants to go deeper and they want it from a group just as much as their individual practices. In other words, they don’t want a square dance, they want an ecstatic dance.

The elder mentioned above wanted to use the same ritual format for every type of ceremony performed in the group. Imagine the same ritual at every esbat and sabbat rite, every spell-working for the coven, and every handfasting and baby blessing performed by that coven. I’ve seen many Wiccan covens get stuck in this habit. A long, drawn out circle-casting method becomes the go-to for every single rite and it becomes similar to a Catholic service performed the same every Sunday with everyone droning the same words. It loses its magic and meaning over time becoming a formula, a procedure devoid of spiritual connection and experience.

“Without an experiential dimension any set of magical beliefs, however sophisticated, becomes little different from a scientific procedure – a manufactured means through which to manipulate nature and the objects within it.”

~ Emma Wilby, Cunning Folk & Familiar Spirits

It is good to learn a circle-casting ritual and learn it well, it will keep you out of a lot of sticky magical situations, but if it’s all a group does, people are going to start to get bored and frustrated and believe that’s all the group has to offer in the way of magical training. I’ve known a good handful of folks who have left covens and Wicca because of this. I’ve also known people who were kicked out of covens because they wanted to change up the static circle-casting ritual and the leaders believed they were no longer in keeping with the tradition and therefore were no longer members.

These are things we are going to have to deal with and consider if covens and traditions want to keep their members, gain new ones, and keep evolving and growing to continue on instead of fossilizing and dying off. It’s not going to be easy to break our habits and traditions in order to preserve it, many are going to fight it, but it’s something I believe is necessary and part of nature.

The big name initiatory traditions are no longer the be all end all of witchcraft. Younger generations of witches are putting less and less importance on lineage and formal initiation choosing personal gnosis, mysticism, direct ecstatic experience, and spirit initiation over the customs of previous generations. Many of them would rather follow a personalized spiritual practice than follow the dogma of a set tradition. Many of them do not agree with the hierarchical structure of witchcraft covens and the many interpersonal problems it can create. Many consider strict traditions to be as divisory to witchcraft and Paganism as the different sects of the Church are to Christianity (i.e. witch wars). Others don’t like the polytheistic restriction or the inexplicable focus of only the ancient Celtic and Greek cultures within traditions. They want more options, more flexibility, and a more involved, hands-on style to their craft.

I have heard all of these from many mouths, but when it really comes down to it, most are devoted to their families, schooling, and careers and are not in a position to give their time to training in a formal coven. Their spirituality becomes an important part of their life, but not its sole or even major focus. They have to opt out of the formal traditions of the older generations because those traditions don’t fit into their lives. Employers are no longer as generous with vacation time and holidays and many people now work on weekends. I have known so many who left formal training in witchcraft traditions because they couldn’t devote the time needed and had given up trying to juggle the training with their family and job. The world has changed since the heyday of our elders and, because of our current seemingly endless access to information thanks to the internet and globally connected libraries, individuals no longer need to rely on private covens for training, lore, and resources. The personalized path and/or an informal group become some of the most viable options.

Due to the vast amount of knowledge easily available today, modern witches are now aware of the huge body of fakelore existing in the beliefs, teachings, and traditions within modern Paganism. This has led to the abandonment and scorn of Wicca and its NeoPagan offshoots by the younger generations who know that the burning times, ancient Wiccans, ancient matriarchal goddess-worshipping cultures, and the maiden-mother-crone are modern myths propagated throughout the magical community by misunderstandings and insufficient research. Many belonging to this disillusioned younger generation are angry because these myths are still being taught as historical fact today. Leaders of witchcraft and other traditions have not kept up with contemporary research in the academic fields related to our beliefs and practices resulting in our elders continuing to teach fakelore that has been debunked in the twenty-first century.

This has created a large divide between the old and new generations of witches and prevents much fruitful discourse and collaboration. The younger generation needs to understand that many of their predecessors simply stopped reading and researching new material after a certain point along their spiritual paths. I know of too many elders and leaders who don’t know the sources of large portions of their teaching material, have never read The White Goddess, The Key of Solomon, or the works of Aleister Crowley, have never heard of Carlo Ginzburg, Éva Pócs, or Emma Wilby, and have never read Ronald Hutton’s game-changing Triumph of the Moon. The older generation needs to recognize that they must keep up with the research and works of contemporary authors just as a music teacher would keep up with modern music instead of staying stuck in the power ballads of the 1970s and losing their students because of it. When we don’t continue educating ourselves and increasing our standards we become a sad joke to our peers and students as well as outsiders.

“We are used to being unwelcome, hunted, blamed, raped, tortured, dispossessed, disappeared. Now we are an irrelevance, a harmless eccentricity, a fairy ball sporting stick on ears and dressing up box deviance, a social joke. Yet as witchcraft is filled with the spirit of the age we will become dangerous again, because witchcraft will have rooted meaning.”

~ Peter Grey, Apocalyptic Witchcraft

Witchcraft is no longer synonymous with Wicca like it once was, modern witches are no longer all Wiccans, and Wicca’s structure and beliefs have instead become equated with NeoPaganism, lay-Paganism, and New Agers even though this is not true for those who have preserved Wicca as an initiatory, oathbound witchcraft tradition. It is sad to witness the decline and dilution of Wicca and all it accomplished, to see it reduced to a target of bashing and ridicule, but it is natural, it is evolution. The young mock their elders, ignorant to the battles they fought so the youth could enjoy freedom. The younger generations have forgotten the witchcraft laws that had to be repealed, the previous lack of religious rights and freedoms, the stones thrown through windows, the hateful words spewed like venom, and how hard it once was to find information on anything to do with witchcraft. They don’t know that Wicca was once seen to be as dark, dangerous, primal, mysterious, and appealing as the newer forms of witchcraft being practiced today. They weren’t alive at the time – how could they remember? So few read our history and pick elders’ brains as I love to do. It’s not bad and it’s not good, it simply is.

It is a pattern I see: something new and wonderful is born into witchcraft — maybe it’s a tradition, a belief, a practice — it is taken up with a frenzy to its furthest extent. Over time it becomes overdone, stale, static, diluted, outdated, and forgotten. It dies or is killed. The newer generation abandons it and starts again with a new idea, a new frenzy. We are currently at the crossroad with both the old and new witchcraft generations co-existing. We are experiencing the death of what was and the birth of what will be simultaneously. The Witch is the sacred Yew Tree, never dying, always shedding her skin like the serpent so she may ever live on in one form or another. There is no unbroken lineage, no unbroken witchcraft tradition in history. There is only Witchcraft itself, a wild thing that can never be caught and contained but insists on its wildness and on constant transformation, constant death and rebirth (as with all things in nature). We beat our fists bloody trying to redefine it into something harmless and innocent, but Witchcraft doesn’t care. Witchcraft is a survivor. Witchcraft mocks our definitions, divisions, tidy boxes, and white-washing, leaving a trail of feathers and bones through forest and city alike.

We are breaking tradition. All of us, right now. After we are done with our axes and sledgehammers, Witchcraft will still be there, waiting patiently for us to finish our destruction. It is the tree that is ever cut down but ever springs forth again from the earth because its roots grow so deep. Now to see what form it grows into this time…
_______________________________________________________________________

This piece stems from long conversations I often have with a good friend and elder about the death of modern witchcraft. He bemoans the changes, losses, and white-washing while I try to cheer him up by telling him all the new and exciting things the young folk are up to and taking him to their rituals to see for himself. He is always surprised and delighted by how well-educated and experienced the younger generation is and how much they challenge and push the boundaries of the witches who came before.

From our long talks and attending and performing many rituals together, I’ve changed his attitude about the uselessness of young people and he’s changed mine about the stuffiness of the older generation of witches (oh, the crazy stories of witches in the 60s!). In the past few years of young and old mixing in my local community, I’ve seen us share our collective knowledge and experience and create rituals and events beyond what each generation would’ve accomplished separately. It’s funny what happens when we stop assuming and talk to each other and work together — magic happens! I hope it’s happening in your community too.

© 2013, 2015 Sarah Anne Lawless – Printed in “The Thirteenth Path” occult journal issue #1 published by Aeon Sophia Press. The journal essay is an extended version of the one published on the blog years ago. Do not copy or use any portion of this text without the express permission of the author, but sharing the link is more than welcome.

“I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.”

~ Aleister Crowley

am about to get heretical here. I’m going to admit to you why I do not take on students. It’s because I do not believe in gurus. I’m not talking about the original meaning of guru as counselor or mentor within Hinduism. I’m speaking of our tendency to seek out “perfect” teachers who we perceive as enlightened, above us, all-knowing, wise, infallible –all the things we believe when we put someone on a pedestal and give them complete power over our spiritual path. When we do this within modern magical systems we create cult leaders. I have no desire to become a cult leader and I have even less desire for the asshat I’d become because of it (I’m a Leo, I would so end up wearing my ass as a hat). If you already think I am an asshat, you may be confusing it with situational bitchiness. “Mess with the bull, you get the horns. Mess with the witch, you get the bitch.” I don’t know about you, but I haven’t met too many people yet who couldn’t be corrupted by being treated like a guru. It can happen to the best of people and they often don’t notice the change in themselves until it is too late. “Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.” If you come across a teacher who very obviously wants to be worshipped and who desires to have a cult of glassy-eyed  unquestioning followers at their feet, you should run in the other direction. Not sure? Try poking the dragon and see if fire comes out.

What if instead of creating and joining hierarchical organizations teaching one dogma originating from one mouth, we created groups where everyone shared their knowledge with each other? What if instead of creating and fostering a guru-worshipping spirituality we were all seen as equals with something of value to offer? Where each individual would take turns teaching a lesson based on their expertise or leading a ritual with a purpose they specialize in? Imagine how much experience each person would rack up from teaching and leading rituals? Imagine how much the whole group would gain from learning from not just one teacher, but from many?

From Wikipedia: “Open source refers to a computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design. Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community. Typically this is not the case, and code is merely released to the public… Others can then download, modify, and publish their version back to the community.”

I know it’s a bit of a utopic idea. The reality, like open source code, would likely be individuals just giving away their magical knowledge and time for nothing in return while the recipients run off with it and change or corrupt it before passing it on under their own names with a fake origin story. This is pretty much what happens in every forum, facebook group, email list, and blog and also countless times among traditions and teachers throughout the history of neopaganism (I’m looking at you Herman Slater). Other times it would be like hosting a free workshop that four people turn up to, but four thousand people download the recorded video of. Despite this, I think it’s still worth it; that the idea and the ideal is more important than the possible disappointments. I’ve had my writings stolen with someone else’s name put on them numerous times, but I still keep writing and releasing articles and stories to the public for free. I’ve had people tell me I should stop doing this and monetize all of my writings and I’ve alternately had people tell me I should stop because I suck and they hate me, but I don’t listen to either opinion.

Let’s take this open source idea further. What if we admitted we magicians have been magpies all along, both today and throughout history. We are only the sum of our influences, inspirations, books we’ve read, people we’ve met, events we’ve attended, paths we’ve dabbled in, and things we’ve done. We are all eclectics –every one of us. Even members of a strict tradition will have variances in belief, opinion, and experience among them because they are all individuals. We are not the Borg. We are not a hive mind. We are imperfect humans. We are unique snowflakes… just like everyone else.

If we admit this to ourselves it becomes much easier to strip away dogma and the need for fundamentalist segregation and perceived righteousness. Why can’t a traditional witch, a wiccan, a hoodoo practitioner, a thelemite, a Greek reconstructionist, a shaman, and a chaos magician all get along and all learn from each other? Why can’t they do magic and ritual together? I’ve seen it happen, I’ve seen it work among my friends. We all know and have experienced things others have not. We all have a skill or two others do not. It doesn’t make one better or more superior, it makes us different and it allows us to fill in the blanks, the gaps of knowledge and skills, that we and others may be needing for our personal practices. If we can get over the hurdles of prejudices and insecurities, so much magic would happen.

We are animals who will always naturally try to establish a pecking order in physical groups, but members could be expected and encouraged to prevent one person from trying to dominate the others or stop members from having wand measuring contests simply by calling bullshit in a brutally honest, but humorous or kindly meant way. There would also be the opposite danger of members trying to appoint someone the leader so they don’t have to do the organizing or decision making. In that case, the unwillingly appointed person should call bullshit or walk away.

Most interpersonal drama and gossip in groups is caused by insecurities, but if those insecurities were communicated, and the group environment fostered that communication regularly, others would be more likely to have empathy and understanding when issues arise. If we’re not all busy clamouring to one-up each other or tear each other down, we’ll sure get a lot more done.

“I am not a priest, minister, or spiritual leader of that nature although I have performed their functions when I have had to. I do so only until I can find someone appropriate that I can assist to fill those roles. When I find them I gladly give the tasks of priest, minister, saint, and spiritual leader over to them. Those jobs are not my calling; they are not my specific and primary purpose. I am not that kind of an Elder. I am especially not an avatar and if anyone expects me to behave like one they are going to be shocked and disappointed. I am not an Elder of that kind.”

~ Joseph Bearwalker Wilson

A group of magicians really is like a herd of cats… okay more like a herd of ornery, opinionated people who don’t want to be told what to do. The medicine men and women of the Pacific Northwest coast did not practice in groups, but every now and then they would all come together from near and far and share their skills with one another and perform rituals to speak to the spirits. Tool makers would bring custom pieces others had requested, medicine makers would bring medicines for those who didn’t make their own, and others would share knowledge and practices. They were all individual practitioners in their own villages, but they shared what they knew and what they could do with one another. Their collective knowledge, experience, and skills was their grimoire. An encyclopedia made of living people; of open source magic.

Maybe Suzy is a natural medium whose skill allows her group to directly communicate with spirits and deities. Maybe Johnny is gifted at helping others achieve trance and their objectives while in an altered state. Sally is the herb, garden, and wildcrafting expert whose knowledge has allowed the group to harvest their own plants and make their own incenses, oils, and flying ointments. Joan knows all the chants, their rhythms, their purposes, and the instruments that can be played with them, making rituals that much more awesome. Tom is the group’s resident tool maker and thanks to him the others have wands, staffs, knives, talismans, and can learn how to make their own.

Why not start a movement of open source magic or, if you see it as already existing, why not aid in its continuation? Of friends and strangers coming together to help and support each other to gain the knowledge and experience they seek. Of people sharing their stories so others can learn from their triumphs as well as their mistakes. Of workshops, classes, and open rituals instead of closed traditions. Of online groups and real life groups who share instead of bicker over who is right or wrong. Of practitioners being open to change, growth, and new additions to the traditional bodies of lore. Of individual bloggers and authors who share what they know for the sake of sharing alone rather than for personal gain or to be seen as a guru. We don’t need a hundred more websites copying and pasting Cunningham’s herbal lore without citing the source. What we need is individual practitioners sharing their personal experiences and their hard-won skills and knowledge. Let us make ourselves and our unique knowledge available too. You all have something of value within you.

Writing and hosting workshops is how I pass on the knowledge and skills I’ve gained from years of experience and practice. I’m not good at what I do because I’m just naturally awesome at it, but because I studied hard and practiced over and over until I became good at magic, writing, herbalism, and art. I became knowledgeable because I read and read until I my brain hurt and eyes stung and then spent years applying that knowledge. You have to use a muscle for it gain bulk and muscle memory. Flex those muscles! You earned them! There are enough “gurus” in the world. Some of us just want to be people because really, it’s all we are. All of us. Even the gurus and big name pagans. Now who wants to go to the pub and shoot the shit?

Related Posts:

• Breaking Tradition
• Ducking Pigeonholing

I am very much a “consecrate all the things” type of magician. I consecrate altars, ritual tools, divinatory tools, fetiches, talismans, charms, idols, candles, holy water, and even herbal preparations. To consecrate simply means “to hallow or to make sacred.” To me, it means to cleanse and bless something and charge it with a purpose. A skull is just a skull, but when consecrated it becomes a spirit house. A statue of Odin is just a statue until you consecrate it to be a vessel for deity. A candle is just a candle until it is anointed with oil and its purpose for a spell stated aloud. A stick is just a stick, but if you carve it, sand it, oil it, sprinkle holy water on it, smudge it with smoke, name it’s purpose as your wand of art, and imbue it with the desired powers of blasting, protection, and blessing then it becomes a potent tool of magic. To further the process of consecration, the more the object is actively used for its named purpose, the more power it will wield and the more it will simply “be” that sacred tool. There are as many ways to consecrate as there are witches. The following are my own practices and thoughts.

BASIC CONSECRATION GUIDELINES

This can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. It can take five minutes, or it can take an hour. You can do it at midnight on a full moon on your altar with candles lit, incense burning, and chants sung while your loosed long hair cascades over your bared breasts glowing in the candlelight… or you can do it in the morning on your kitchen table with some water, salt, and olive oil and be back to watching Ellen before your blueberry bagel pops out of the toaster.

Step 1: Cleansing

Clean physically if possible with soap, water, and purification herbs (lemon, evergreens, rue, hyssop, mugwort). Then clean spiritually with incense smoke or smudge. If the object cannot be washed, sprinkle it with holy water then smudge with smoke. Move the object around in your hands so the smoke touches every nook and cranny. While cleansing the object think cleansing thoughts, or say out loud “I cleanse you”, or sing a purification or washing chant or song (pagan or from the top 40, it doesn’t matter).

Step 2: Anointing

Oil all the things. You don’t need to have a fancy oil as olive or sunflower oil will do just fine. Essential oils work great too, just dilute them a bit with olive, almond, sunflower, or jojoba oil first. You can use fairy or flying ointments to anoint with too, depending on what you are consecrating and to which purpose. Dip your index finger in oil and from the centre of the object swipe your finger up once. Go back to the centre and swipe your finger down once. You can use an equal armed cross instead. Ta da! Anointed! This works well with candles, jewelry, skulls, bottles, boxes, wands, staffs, statues, chalices, candle holders, etc.

Step 3: Rebirthing

Get a black cloth or piece of leather and wrap up the object. This will serve as tomb and womb. Your ritual goody is about to go through a magical initiation (I got this idea from Nigel Pennick who is awesome). Its old self will die so its new self as your ritual tool or fetish can start. Unwrap the cloth and welcome the object as a new born. Sprinkle earth on it, sprinkle holy water on it, pass it over a candle flame and through a plume of incense smoke –blessing it with the elements of earth, water, fire, and air.

Step 4: Charging

Now you name the object and charge it with its intended purpose. It is best to make it up so it can be completely customized to your needs and the particular purpose of the object. A protective ring and a tarot deck aren’t going to have the same purpose. “I charge you ring with the purpose of protecting my body, mind, and spirit from harm whenever I wear you, that I may be invisible and impenetrable when my enemy sends forth an attack, that I am safe when travelling in this world or in others, and that you send me warning when I am in danger by sending an itch to the finger you sit upon. I charge you to do my will. Let it be so!”

Simplifying Consecration

Don’t feel the need to do anything so elaborate for a candle, a bottle of sabbat wine, or a herbal sachet? No worries, keep it simple. Sprinkle water on it, anoint it with oil, or just blow on it. Then whisper a prayer of intent so the breath from your prayer touches it. Done. I consecrate my holy water with just a holey stone, a silver ring and then I blow on it three times “by silver and stane may the water be sained”. Boom, it’s instantly ready for me to sprinkle on people who forgot to take their glasses off. I consecrate new altar candles of beeswax by just rubbing some olive oil on them and lighting them while I say: “I consecrate thee in the Devil’s name, by oil and by flame may the candle be sained.” With the new candles quickly in place, I can get down to the business of a rite or a tarot reading.

Aftercare Tips

Well after your sacred objects are consecrated and used for their purposes, you should still clean them now and then. Make a gentle magical wash for items that can get wet and give them a bath – this works well for talismanic jewelry, skulls, swords, knives, stangs, staffs, statuary, and some divinatory tools. Things build up dust and grime over time. About once a year I will wash my altar and everything on it, shaking dust out of animal hides and off of feathers, and cleaning up any candle wax buildup and guck in the incense censer.

Wooden ritual tools that aren’t varnished will need some love throughout the year; altar patens, wands, staffs, stangs, carved statues, cups, boxes, etc. Wipe them down with a damp cloth, let them dry and then oil them with linseed oil or Danish oil. You can also rub them down with some beeswax or a wood balm like Clapham’s beeswax polish. Have any leather goods? Same deal only use a leather dressing or saddle balm after wiping an item down and massage it into the leather like you would with lotion on your skin – this will not work with synthetic leather. For wood or leather, let the oil or balm dry overnight before putting your ritual tool back on your altar or back to use.

For hides, furs, rugs, etc sprinkle a dusting of baking soda over them, let it sit for 15 minutes and then shake our and/or vacuum. This will both clean and deodorize the item. You can mix essential oils into the baking soda before use to make them smell lovely too as well as adding magical cleansing properties from oils like lemon and lavender.

For tarot decks or wooden runes a good smudge of smoke works well. I energetically cleanse mine by pulling out the energies from past divinings and letting it absorb slowly and naturally into the earth. Others place crystals on them and let them rest and charge for a week or a month. Others may even bury them or dig them back up.

Once or twice a year, replace sachets, charms, and talismans that are meant to be temporary. Brighid’s crosses are meant to be burned every year at Imbolc and a new one made and hung up for blessing and protection. Spirit traps can only take so much and are meant to be burned and made anew as well. Keep this in mind when making charms of protection or blessing for a room, house, or person. Don’t make them too nice or elaborate, as you’re going to have to dispose of them and craft another.

A Note of Caution Regarding Spirit Fetiches

I’ve quoted the German proverb “raise no more devils than you can lay down” before, but it also applies to “create no more fetishes than you can responsibly look after.” Fetiches should be kept clean, fed offerings, go with you when you travel away from home, and be honoured and worked with often. One ancestral fetiche plus seven animal familiar fetiches plus four plant familiar fetiches later and suddenly you have a dozen spirit houses to look after and take everywhere with you. It all escalated rather quickly. You might want to create one medicine bundle with a token for each spirit that is not fetishized instead. Or you could create one for ancestors, one for animals, and one for plants. Keep the tokens small, keep the container small and you’re good to go. Hold the token in your hand when you want to call and work with that particular spirit – this way it acts as an aid in spirit alignment rather than creating a permanent spirit house that will take up a lot of your space and time.

DESECRATION

Consecration is pretty common knowledge. Most of us have our ways. But what do you do when you need to get rid of a fetish, a ritual tool, or a sacred item that has broken or needs to be thrown out? You’ve probably guessed right, the garbage can isn’t really an option. Your sacred items deserve ritual desecration as much as they deserved being consecrated in the first place. Again, there are many ways to accomplish desecration, here are some traditional methods and ones that I was taught.

Salt, Moon and Earth

This method I learned from first teacher who I’ve not-so-affectionately nicknamed Baba Yaga. To undo an unwanted consecration or a spell on an object that is not a curse: place it in a canning jar full of sea salt. Screw on the lid. Let it sit on a windowsill and soak up the light of one full cycle of the moon. Or, bury it in the ground for one full cycle of the moon. This is best for objects you do not wish to destroy, but either repurpose or undo someone’s good or not so good intentions. I’ve done this for a tarot deck that was gifted me with a love spell put on it. It also works for fetiches of skulls, bones, claws etc. which you no longer want to use as spirit houses. It’s also perfect to use for spelled jewelry, keys, or crystals and stones. Maybe you got a better one, maybe you want to use the item for something else, or maybe you want to gift the item to someone else.

Break, Burn and Bury

This is the classic method of desecration and coincidentally of how to leave votive offerings. Prechristian European and Mediterranean cultures believed if you broke and burned an object (including the cremation of the dead), it would go to the otherworld or the underworld. The Chinese still burn all their offerings today believing this sends them to their beloved dead. So, consequently, if you smash and burn a fetiche or spirit house it both destroys the object and sets free the spirit associated with it. Smash the spirit bottle, the spirit trap, the statue… snap in half the wand, the staff, the stang… take apart the knife, the necklace, the herb sachet. “I unmake thee, I unname thee, I set thee free. Bear no ill will against me and be released.” Throw it in a fire and let it burn up. Don’t have access to a fireplace, fire pit, or even a barbeque grill? Try an incense charcoal placed in a large stainless steel bowl which is resting on bare earth or cement. Add some sticks and newspaper to get a flame and then add the object of your desecration. It’s okay if some bits don’t burn up. Glass and metal aren’t going to turn to ash. Simple gather up any remnants as well as the ashes and then bury them –by a crossroad, by a stream or river, in a hollow tree, under a bramble patch where no one will disturb the grave. Are you an animist? Ask the place permission first before you bury your remnants. Ask for a sign that will signal a yes like a crow’s caw or a robin’s whistle.

Go Away / Get Lost Box

This method I found mentioned by Ray T. Marlborough, but haven’t found info on it anywhere else except some folklore of trapping evil spirits in boxes. If you have a ritual tool, talisman, or fetiche you don’t want to destroy or can’t destroy, you can make a go away box. Find any box that will fit the item and on each of the six sides draw a protective talisman. You can make them up, use ones out of old grimoires, or simply draw an equal armed cross on each side. I prefer to use red paint as it protects from spirits or magical interference, but black, blue, and yellow are suitable as well. Consecrate the box on your altar to its purpose: to seal in your ritual tool or fetiche so it no longer has any power and no being can use its power. That when the box starts to decay, so too will the object decay and lose its power. Wrap the item to be desecrated in a natural fabric like silk, linen, cotton, or wool and place it in the box. Seal the lid of the box with wax dripped from a candle (again, red is best) and then wrap thread (also a natural fibre) around and around the box and knot it up tight. Now bury the box by a crossroad, a stream or river, or somewhere it won’t be disturbed (farmlands and development sites are a bad idea).

Self Aftercare

After you perform a desecration rite you should cleanse yourself. Take a bath with sea salt and oils, smudge yourself with smoke, or spritz Florida water on your self and your hands and also clean your altar or work area with it where the rite was performed. Lemon water with salt consecrated as holy water will do in a pinch if you don’t have access to Florida water.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Bone Collecting: Cleansing & Consecration
• Crafting Spell Candles
• How to Make Pagan Holy Water
• Magical Ink Making
• Witchcraft on the Day of Saturn

Text and images © 2015 Sarah Anne Lawless. Do not copy or use without the express permission of the author, but sharing the link is very welcome.

I bathe thy palms
In showers of wine,
In the lustral fire,
In the seven elements,
In the juice of rasps,
In the milk of honey

– The Invocation of the Graces, Carmina Gadelica

talk a lot about the spookier sides of witchcraft because those things to me are witchcraft and I am one among others trying to paint a full-bodied picture of an old word we too often use as a catch-all for anything smacking of magic. Dark moons, poisons, bones, and talking to shades are not the only sides to me and my practice, however. I am also an animist, a practitioner of divinatory arts, a folk herbalist, and a folk magician. These things to me are separate from my witchcraft but I do admit to occasional overlap. The roles of herbalist and folk magician have often put me in the role of healer as well. Those who have stuck with me through the years may remember my troubles of not desiring to follow the path of a healer. Well, life had other plans (as it often does). I keep being reminded of the saying “a witch who cannot hex cannot heal” which is really about the need for balance. Yes, I make spooky flying ointments and know a lot about poisonous and entheogenic plants, but I also have a wealth of knowledge about medicinal herbs and native plants and their preparations. In making flying ointments to cater to the arts of witchcraft, the byproduct was the creation of some of the most potent and effective medicines I have ever made. Most of my patrons, even if their intent was to use the ointments for flying, instead end up using them to treat migraines, insomnia, arthritis, and damaged muscles (including myself). I discovered when you combine the arts of folk herbalism with folk magic, they very often naturally lead to folk healing whether it was your intent or not. This, of course, led me down the road to healing via spiritual cleansing —for myself and for others.

Spiritual Cleansing is a practice not restricted by culture, because so many cultures share belief in the evil eye. The concept behind the eyil eye is not just one of intentional cursing stemming from anger and envy, but a belief that our environment, the people around us, and our own attitudes can affect us negatively —emotionally and spiritually. This drains us of energy, luck, health, confidence, self-esteem, happiness, and faith –everything that can make life so wonderful. If you do not actively cleanse yourself in some way, everything you see and do every day that affects you negatively will build up inside you. Think of it like needing to take your car to the car wash after too much dirt and grime has built up on it.

Sounds a bit new agey until you think about it; do you have to be around people every day who make you feel anxious and stressed? Do you take public transit? How many people are on the same bus every day that you come into contact with, how crowded is it, are people rude or shoving all the time? How crowded was the mall for Christmas shopping last year? Was it stressful? Has it been a hard year? Did you lose loved ones? Divorce? Family fights? Did you do anything to relieve the stress from any of these experiences you’ve had? From any of the feelings and emotions others are putting into you? Do you often feel stressed, anxious, nervous, nauseated? Do you suffer from an upset stomach, cramping, bloating, irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, or constipation and the doctor can’t really tell you what’s wrong? For many people the build up of stress and heartache can lead to digestive problems, for others it can lead to migraines, and for others yet it can lead to incapacitating anxiety where the mind and body simply shut down.

To reverse and prevent this psychic grime and its physical symptoms, spiritual cleansing is practiced. Spiritual cleansing is an act of folk healing that can involve bathing, smudging or burning incense, or anointing/sprinkling/asperging. I also include jumping over bonfires and diving into freezing cold streams and oceans. This action is usually accompanied by some form of meditation or chant to relax and soothe the mind. Bathing involves making a warm bath and adding either spring water or sea water and a magical water such as Florida Water.  The bather then submerges themselves completely in the water while praying, chanting, or being full of intention. The submersion is usually repeated in sets of sacred numbers such as 3, 7, 9 and  the bath can be repeated for days as well for a more lasting effect on the bather. Some instructions for such baths often involve performing them at sunrise, sunset, or a specific hour. It’s always practical to clean your bathroom first and give it a good blessing before performing any spiritual work within it. Sweat lodges are another example of spiritual cleansing with water, in this case steam is used and for those who aren’t weak due to illness, a dip in a cool lake or river right after is incredibly purifying.

I have performed skyclad ceremonies which involve jumping in a cool lake at the end and I have often cleansed myself by making pilgrimages to mountain springs, glacier fed lakes, and the ocean and bathing in the very cold, but purifying waters. I try to do this at least once a year as a form of renewal and cleansing of the self. The shock of the cold water seems punishing at first, but it is also thrilling and exhilarating —a way to test and challenge myself. If I’m willing to jump in the freezing cold ocean, then I know I am also willing to do the work needed to keep my life and my health on track.

When I was studying with my teacher, who put a big focus on spiritual cleansing, I was reading a lot of Draja Mickaharic whose writings I fell madly in love with. His books of folk magic and folk healing are nondenominational and can be used by Christian, Catholic, Pagan, and rootworker alike. It was he along with my teacher who led me to be fluent in the practices of spiritual cleansing which fused so easily and beautifully with the Scottish methods of folk healing I already knew. Scottish scholar and folk healer Stuart A. Harris-Logan was also a big influence on me at the time and still is. I skilled myself in making my own holy water. I magically cleaned my house, I took spiritual baths, I made floor washes, incenses and floral waters, and I collected rain water and spring water from the mountain and blessed it under different full moons. Friends started knocking at my door asking for spiritual cleansings, a very involved practice of folk healing that requires trust between the healer and recipient and the recipient to be fully committed to healing themselves without the expectation that the ritual itself was a magical “fix-all”.

Spiritual cleansing is an important technique to protect yourself from external harm as well. I had another friend with a shamanic background who confided in me about his constant and brutal nightmares. Of the night hag, of spirits trying to steal his soul or feed off his fear. Of spirits getting into his home, haunting and trying to hurt him. He had a good teacher, but had not yet been taught what to do when spirits seek you out with ill intent. He’d only ever gone to benevolent spirits himself in protected space. I showed him how to cleanse his home, chase out all the uninvited spirits, seal off all the entrances and exits, and protect his bedroom and his body with a charm and a consecration. I had him set boundaries with his spirits. Who was welcome inside and who was to be classed as an outdweller and locked out but still given offerings of propitiation. He consecrated a key charm with these boundaries that the welcome spirits may use the key to come in. He slept much better after that.

One friend wanted aid in healing their broken heart from a messy divorce, one was having health issues which refused to go away, and another wanted help letting go of trauma from their past. I helped each person individually on different days by performing a tarot reading to better see the heart of the problem and see if a spiritual cleansing would actually help. I would meditate and ask my spirit helpers what herbs and waters would be best to use for each person and received very straight-forward replies. Then I would draw a bath blessed with spring water, sea water, sea salt, oils, flowers, fragrant herbs, and light a candle at either end of the tub for the person to pass through. They would meditate and  focus on their intent and on what they needed to let go. I got them to take three deep breaths, the last time sending out their intent with all their will, and then submerging themselves completely in the water. While under the water, they kept the focus of their will sharp in their mind for 9-30 seconds before coming back up for air. They were to imagine that which they wanted to let go of as being absorbed by the water and leeched out of the mind, body, and soul. With three being the most sacred number in Scots lore, I would get them to repeat this action three times. When they were submerged, sometimes I would see smoke coming up off the water even though the bath water wasn’t hot enough to produce steam. I took this as a good sign, that it was working. The last time they submerged themselves I would recite a purification prayer from the Carmina Gadelica over them:

Power of moon I have over it,
Power of sun I have over it,
Power of rain I have over it,
Power of dew I have over it,
Power of sea I have over it,
Power of land I have over it,
Power of stars I have over it,
Power of planets I have over it,
Power of universe I have over it,
Power of skies I have over it,
Power of ancestors I have over it,
Power of heaven I have over it,
Power of heaven and God I have over it,
Power of heaven and God I have over it.

When they resurfaced, I would have them pull the plug to let the water drain and to stay seated in the tub watching the water swirl down into the darkness, asking them to picture all the psychic waste being sucked down the drain as well. As the water drained I recited another prayer from the Carmina Gadelica, this time one of banishing:

A portion of it on the grey stones,
A portion of it on the steep mountains,
A portion of it on the swift cascades,
A portion of it on the gleaming clouds,
A portion of it on the ocean whales,
A portion of it on the meadow beasts,
A portion of it on the fenny swamps,
A portion of it on the cotton-grass moors,
A portion of it on the great pouring sea–
She’s the best one to carry it,
Oh the great pouring sea,
And she’s the best one to carry it.

When the water was gone, they would gently pat themselves dry so the herbs and oils were still on their skin. Then I would take them to the kitchen to give them a full body smudging with smoke as the final act of the cleansing ritual. Using Mickaharic’s instructions I would wrap a bed sheet around the person to be cleansed, leaving their head free, while they were sitting in a chair and allow the smoke to blow up under the sheet to smudge their entire body for about 10 minutes.  If the person wanted to, they could duck their head under the sheet so the smudge could touch it as well. For this part I most often used local wild sagebrush. To smudge a person with herbs or incense, light the smudge stick or add a loose purification incense and fan the smoke around the body of the person to be cleansed with your hand, a feather, or a smudge fan. Make sure to get under the feet, between the legs, and under the arm pits too. It doesn’t always look so graceful, but it’s effective.

After all this I’d sometimes send the person home with a protective charm or a talisman customized to help them achieve their goal. Sometimes I’d send them home with herbs and medicines instead if healing needed to continue. Heartsease, bleeding heart root, hawthorn, and rose are my go-to herbs for healing emotional and spiritual hurts. For physical pain I’d share a cup of vervain tea with a friend. It is so very bitter, but it works fast to make you forget your aches and anxiety. Tea can be seen as an ancient and beautiful way to perform an internal spiritual cleanse due to its proven soothing and calming properties.

The cleansing worked for my friend going through the divorce. Shortly after her mind game ex-husband finally signed the papers, she cut all ties to him, her negative reactions to her ex stopped, her depression lessened, and happiness beamed from her like sunlight. Years later she is still doing well and is in a much healthier relationship. A loved one who I performed a prayer drinking ritual with needed help because they had let themselves be ruled by depression, defeatism, and suicidal thoughts after a lifetime of terrible experiences. Their life had suddenly changed for the better and was full of happiness, but they couldn’t believe in it, couldn’t let themselves be happy, and couldn’t let their dark thought patterns go. But they did that night, with tears falling into a glass of water and banishing their old dark self who was no longer wanted or needed. They stopped sabotaging their happiness and embraced it.

I wasn’t always successful, for myself or for others. I learned the hard way to make sure to cleanse myself after the rite was over and the person or I went home so none of their psychic grime stuck to me. There were a lot of tears, emergency midnight prayer drinking rituals when emotions exploded, hands held, hugs given, and sadly, failures leading to broken friendships. I tried to help a woman who though her home was haunted and wanted a house cleansing ritual. My two friends came with me, one a shamanic practitioner and the other a healer of alternative medicine. We performed the ritual despite the lack of any ghosts, if just to soothe her. She called the next day, worse than before thinking the imaginary ghost was possessing her young children. They were just teething. The woman was beyond our help. She was a war survivor likely suffering from severe PTSD due to the trauma she went through and who was alone all day with her children in a foreign country with no friends or family. She needed a therapist, not a ghost buster. She wouldn’t listen to us, paranoid and convinced her problems were external and paranormal. We walked away when another would have taken advantage of her circumstance and taken her for all her money.

The friend with health issues did not do well either. My card reading and my chat with spirits revealed the health issues were due to them overextending themselves by taking on too many obligations. If they didn’t simplify their life, the spirits warned the body’s reaction would be severe. I shared this insight with them and they agreed, they had been feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. The spiritual cleansing rite helped to refresh them, but they didn’t heed the warning and only cut out obligations that took up an hour of their time a week. It wasn’t nearly enough. Shortly after, their life came to a complete halt due to a severe back injury resulting in them not being able to do anything but lie down and stay still for months on end. It was brutal and frustrating. But they learned from it and years later they have incredibly simplified their life, followed some dreams, and seem happier than ever. I understood what this friend was going through as similar situations have happened to me. I didn’t listen to my soul or body more than once and I suffered for it. It was a hard lesson on both occasions. I’ve stayed in unhealthy relationships much longer than I should have even though I knew I was wrong to. I overstayed my welcome at jobs that were hurting my body or sucking away my soul. I promised myself to not fall into those traps again, but of course it happens when we are so busy we do not pay attention.

I learned spiritual cleansing is about listening carefully to our bodies and our hearts to seek the source of our suffering, whether it be physical or emotional, and then to take action to remove the cause and the environmental factors that surround it. This is not often easy. What we truly need to heal ourselves can lead to breaking up a marriage, quitting a job, giving up passions, moving to a different town or country, leaving a coven or pagan community, losing friendships, conquering addiction, confronting an abuser, or taking other actions that scare you to death. Being frozen in fear is often how we make ourselves ill and prevent any form of healing from working. This is why it is so important to truly be aware of what is wrong and have full intent to do whatever is necessary to overcome it before you undergo a spiritual cleansing. It is why the healer may repeatedly ask you if you are sure and if you are ready before they will perform the cleansing. A cleansing can seem a simple thing, but its effects can run deep and cause profound change in us and our lives.

Spiritual cleansing is not always so heavy and serious. It can also be used for when you just feel gross or tired. Maybe you feel icky after interacting with someone skeevy in your pagan community and you just want to give yourself a quick cleanse or smudge before you see them and when you get home. Maybe your mother-in-law is a psychic vampire whose drama sucks the life out of you every time you talk to her and you find yourself taking a shower after a phone call or a visit. Or, alternately, maybe a purification bath is something you do every full or new moon or before you perform a major ritual. Some people aren’t bathers and prefer to shower. If you don’t need the serious, healing spiritual cleansing I like to recommend filling a muslin drawstring bag with a mixture of purifying herbs, olive oil, and sea salt and then hanging it over your shower head. The water coming out of the shower will contain the blessing mixture and coat you in holy water. Gently pat dry, smudge yourself with smoke, and you’re ready to take on the world… or that sabbat ritual tonight.

Sprinkling waters or oils can work great for a quick cleansing method or if a bath isn’t viable. Uplifting scents with purifying herbs, oils, and resins are usually used. This comes from an ancient practice of blessing called asperging which involves dipping branches of sacred herbs or trees in spring water and flicking it at people, livestock, objects, or a home to bless them. This act stems from the ancient pagan practice of flicking blood from an animal sacrifice at the ritual participants to purify and bless them. Florida water or rose water are much sweeter smelling alternatives to that ancient practice!  I put rosewater in a spray bottle and spritz myself before I go out, when I feel run down, or before people come over to visit. I also love to give rosewater or Florida water to people at group rituals to rub on their hands, faces, and necks to cleanse themselves before we start. I’ve noticed people are pretty fond of this —even the manly men like to smell nice.

Sometimes, holy waters are spat upon the person to be cleansed. I know it sounds gross, but stay with me. In Scotland and South America, the folk healer’s saliva is considered sacred and as having the ability to purify any substance. A Scottish folk healer would often put water in their mouth and then spit it out into a bowl before using it for blessing if they were in a pinch or weren’t someone to use sacred stones or silver to consecrate the water. Scottish, South American, and Haitian folk healers would put holy water or alcohol in their mouths and then spit it in a fine spray over the body of their client who asked for a cleansing. Whenever I attend the local shamanic conference, I usually end up covered in a fine spray of rosewater and mead with a layer of tobacco smoke and sacred herb dusts on top.

In my folk magic practice I don’t just use these spiritual cleansing techniques on people, but also on animal skulls and bones, on the plants in my garden, new furniture or used objects brought into the home, my house itself, my altar, my ritual tools, talismans I create… whether by smoke or water, I cleanse them all. Why not cleanse your car, your office, your new computer, or any used or antique furniture you bring home? Cleanse them of past influences, past owners, negativity, the evil eye,  and then bless them with protection. In rural Scotland any new cow brought home was always sprinkled with holy water or made to drink holy water before it was allowed to join the rest of the herd. Why not do the same with our skull collections or ritual tools? You never know what happened to an object before it came into your possession.

Whatever form of spiritual cleansing works best for your needs, I hope it helps you heal your body, your mind, your soul, and your life. May the waters bless you and carry you, may fire cleanse you, may the wind blow away your worries, and may the earth support you and caress your feet upon the sacred path.

Further Reading:

• Complete Book of Baths by Robert Laremy
• Protection & Reversal Magic: A Witch’s Defense Manual by Jason Miller
• Psychic Self-Defense: Protecting Yourself Against Paranormal Attack by Dion Fortune
• Spiritual Cleansing: A Handbook of Psychic Protection by Draja Mickaharic

© 2013  Sarah Anne Lawless – Originally printed in Serpent Songs: An Anthology of Traditional Craft curated by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold and published by Scarlet Imprint. Do not copy or use any portion of this text or its images without the express permission of the author, but sharing the link is very welcome.

kulls line the windowsills. Skulls float in jars on top of cupboards. Bones boil in pots on the stove, the flesh melting away. Hidden among the drying herbs and roots there are hearts and tongues and eyes. It is not Baba Yaga’s hut I describe, but my kitchen. Bone collector, bone washer, animal necromancer, deathwalker, shapeshifter, poisoner, witch… these are the words people whisper of me and my practices. Some whisper with fear and others with desire. I am an animist, a folk magician, and a rootworker. It is not just herbs I work with in my folk magic, but also skulls and bones, hearts and tongues. I practice the lost art of working with beast, blood, and bone in order to rebirth the ancient nature of Witch as a wild and primal creature; surrounded by spirits, anointed with blood, dressed in hides, and adorned with talismans of bone, tooth, and claw.

The magic of beasts is sympathetic magic, fetiche magic, and death magic, but it is also sensual magic. It is the feel of the Saturn finger dipped in warm blood, of softest fur on barest skin, of sharpest tooth and talon biting in, of a raw heart on the tongue, and the scent of decay deep in the lungs. It is the rendered fat of a flying ointment like smooth silk across the brow, and it is the tactile, dirty, grounding sorcery of the here and now. It is an amoral, carnal, fleshly, and sensory feast of visceral magic combining the sacred and the profane. The magic of beasts belongs to the wild sorcerers who are part human, part spirit, and part animal; the ones who dance the knife’s edge between the worlds of life and death, the incarnate and disincarnate.

It is only practical to work with the animals and spirits who share the land where I live, for they have a closer relationship with me than any romanticized exotic animals across the sea. On my altar you will find the spirits of the Pacific Northwest: Orca, Salmon, Black Bear, Black Wolf, Mountain Lion, Mountain Goat, White-Tailed Deer, and wings of the birds who haunt our skies and the tree tops of Hemlock and Red Cedar. Old Woman and Old Man of the Woods whispered to me their names in dreams and one by one the beasts came to me. On my altar are their antlers, horns, bones, skulls, teeth, hides and feathers. The ones I did not find myself ended up in my care through bone collectors, shamans, and hunters.

It is important to state that I do not kill the creatures who come to me; instead, they are brought to me after death by conservation officers, hunters, taxidermists, and from friends as road kill. This is my choice and yet in the future I hope to go with my animist friends who hunt in a sacred manner and help them skin and butcher and then take of the bones and flesh they will not eat or use. When I receive dead beasts, plastic is rolled across the table, knives laid out, and gloves and a mask are worn. The still bodies are smudged with fragrant herbs, anointed with holy water, and blessings of cleansing and release are whispered over them. The bodies may be still but their spirits are not. Sometimes it isn’t enough and the animal’s spirit must be bargained with; some demanding to be buried whole with nothing taken, some who will only give up a few parts for sacred work and no more, and some who demand an offering or a working before you may proceed. It is best to respect their remains and their demands for they can curse you better than any witch if you anger them. Folly alone will lead you to curse yourself: butchery and preservation require training as dead animals carry disease, bacteria, parasites, and legal issues –it is not something to walk into blindly.

This path is not for everyone; it is not for the weak of stomach or for those who think it is immoral. I grew up with hunters and fishers. I’ve lived by the sea, I’ve lived on a farm raising livestock, and I’ve lived deep in the wildest forests. I was once a professional butcher and cook. It is how I can do what I do. Why follow this path? It should compel you and feed your soul in some way. What is the reward of such bloody work? It is simple, if you want to be a shape-shifter and a walker between worlds, if you want to learn the tongues of beasts, if you want to align yourself more closely than you could ever believe with your animal familiars and the genius loci, then you will also need to work closely with death, blood, and bone. Our ancestors were not soft or squeamish and we must not white-wash their memory by imagining they didn’t kill the deer used to make their ceremonial costume, the raven for their feathered headdress and cloak, or the bear for its hide to craft their drums and rattles. We must approach our Mighty Dead in full knowledge they killed the swans buried in their sacrificial pits, they killed the mare buried beneath the feasting hall, and they killed the hornless bull for its hide to wrap around their seer so he may dream of invaders’ ships. Long have we as the human race worked with animals, their deaths, and their spirits in our rites and ceremonies. Long will our descendants do so after we are dead.

Death will show you a side of your character as yet unknown and your reaction will either gladden you or horrify you. We are so far removed from death in our modern, sterile, clinical world that it is more important than ever as spirit workers to reconnect ourselves and others with death, blood, and bone. I work with death so I can be close to it. Being close to death reminds me I too am a spirit, walking around in a suit of flesh which I may come and go from as I please. When you are close to death you are close to spirits and more easily able to see and commune with them. When you are close to spirits, you are closer to the other worlds where they reside and therefore more easily able to transverse them.

FORMULARY OF THE BEAST

I share my ancestors’ belief in sympathetic magic and, when I wish to work more closely with an animal spirit, I need to also work with its remains whether it is a claw, its hide, or its whole skeleton. To practice this magic one must be able to seek out death; for bone collectors and necromancers can sense bones and remains when they pass nearby, be it in the forest or the flea market.

You are what you eat. Sympathetic magic takes this common phrase to a deeper level. To acquire the keen hearing, quick reflexes, and agility of a deer, one would eat venison. To acquire keen eyesight or the ability to fly like a bird, crossing between the other worlds, one would eat poultry. Our ancestor believed to eat a thing is to absorb its powers, spirit, and knowledge into yourself to making you more powerful or wise. To kill a thing is to take its spirit. Hunters of old would usually let the spirit go and return the bones of a fish to the river it was caught and the bones of a deer to the forest of its death as a sign of respect so the creature could be reborn again and eaten again.

Not every animal was let go. Some animals were hunted solely for their spirits: for their hides, their bones, for their claws and teeth, for their power, and for their help as an ally, totem, or familiar. Such spirits are asked to willingly offer themselves and stay with you until it is your turn to die. Our ancestors asked permission, not merely of the animal spirits themselves, but of the ruling genius loci, before they hunted or harvested as is evidenced in the hunter’s invocations in the Kalevala, ancient Latin spells petitioning Artemis, and oral Scottish tales of disrespectful hunters being found dead, killed by a wild shape-shifting crone.

When you bring home any part of an animal with the intention of enlivening it as a fetiche, keep in mind that like any living creature you would have be your pet, you must also be responsible for any spirit you take home – you must accept its wildness and instincts, sate its hunger and thirst, clean it when it becomes soiled, and give it of your love, your energy and your time. The respect, reverence, and care you give a familiar spirit and the fetiche it inhabits is what you will gain in return.

Each part of an animal can be used as a fetiche, a spirit house, a ritual tool, and as a spell ingredient. As a bone collector I save the bones, but as a witch I save the blood, eyes, fats, feet, hearts, skins, teeth, and tongues as well.

He layeth corpses at my feet;
not dead slain by warrior’s hand
or creatures fit to eat,
but brings me tongue and heart,
skull and bone, tooth and eye
– all to work my grisly witch’s art.

BONES

Fresh bones wet and greasy with fat and blood, smooth white bones stained with earth, dry rough bones eroded by wind and water… no matter their condition the bones and skulls of a dead animal connect us directly with the creature’s spirit and the spirits of all their kind, living and dead. Collect the bones and skulls of animal familiars to ease communion and interaction with them. Gather the bones of animals each from the realms of land, sea, and sky if you wish to better transverse between the worlds and shift between shapes. Become an osteomancer by throwing the bones to divine secrets, foreknowledge, and the keys to your questions. Carve and paint the bones with runes and sigils. Become a charmer and wear a baculum for fertility, virility, sexual prowess, and protection.

The empty eye sockets of skulls watch and guard, apotropaic and undead they never tire of their duty. Hang the skulls of sharp-toothed predators over garden gates and chicken coops to keep out unwanted beasts. Hang them over your own door to keep out unwanted spirits and energies and let them be your fanged bouncers, your hunting hounds. Hang the skulls of horned beasts above a stable, outbuilding, or gate for protection and also to ensure the health and fertility of any livestock or wild game on your land.

The skull is where awareness and the senses dwell. Skulls are the most suited part of a skeleton for a spirit house. Magically cleanse your skull in a ceremony and ask if its spirit wants to continue to dwell in it or if another beast of its kind wishes to volunteer. I prefer the spirit the skull once housed as the connection between the two is much stronger. Consecrate the skull to its purpose as spirit vessel and a tie for that spirit to our middle world. To summon and work with the spirit you can chant:

Black is the colour of womb and tomb;
we meet at night on the dark of the moon.
White is the colour of bone and ash;
to speak to the dead we bathe and fast.
Red is the colour of blood and death;
we rub the bones and give them breath.

Clean the fetiche and leave its spirit offerings on a regular basis for the rest of your life until you pass it on to another or you die. If you must, you can desecrate a spirit vessel in ceremony and release the spirit from the bone.

BLOOD

Blood is a sacrifice that feeds the hungry spirits and the insatiable earth. Blood ties us to life and death for we are born in blood and we die when our blood flows through the earth instead of our veins. Blood is holy water, life force, heat, and metal. The spirit dwells in the blood and when you drink of it you are possessed by it, bound to it, and it to you. The earth hungers for blood; the ancient battlefields long to be soaked in red, the mountains cry out for human sacrifice, and the herb garden hungers for dead crows. How they flourish when painted red, how green and juicy the plants grow when fed off of the blood of mortals and beasts alike. The whole of nature feeds off of death and decay. Leave out offerings of blood or raw meat to the genius loci, to the plants, to the black earth, and see how greedily the spirits claw and bite and devour it. The hungry earth is the easiest way to clean bones. Bone collectors learn to feed their gardens the unwanted flesh of their work so only pure osseous matter is left.

Blood will tie you to living beasts, it will cleanse you like holy water, protect you like an amulet, and lend you increased power and life force for your ceremonies. Blood can heal – trading a life for a life, sickliness for health. Blood can bring you closer to death and your ancestors. Blood can curse too; spilled and spat upon, a life taken in an enemy’s name.

“Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of a Christian man,” says the giant. “I smell Russian blood,” says Baba Yaga. The spirits can smell our blood and by it know that we are human. They will want to drink your blood like the hungry earth for not all spirits are amicable towards us mortals. Animal blood will distract them from your scent and feed their hunger… for the moment. Blood spilled on feather down seems to be a favourite. Is it not why we bathe in cold spring waters, rub and smudge ourselves with fragrant herbs, and adorn ourselves in animal hides? We disguise ourselves as forest creatures to safely travel in and out of the territories of dangerous spirits..

CLAWS AND FEET

Claws click, dig, and bite deep, shedding blood. Sharp claws and talons have long been worn as protective amulets – wear them about your neck to prevent attacks from the familiar spirits of other magicians and to chase away the evil eye like an owl hunts down a mouse with its eyes upon a corn field. In a trance straddling the worlds shamans use a sharp-clawed bird foot to tear illnesses or elf darts out of a patient’s body, to chase away the evil eye, to shield and protect, or to send forth biting curses to rend apart a rival or enemy. Keep the feet, toes, and nails to walk in a beast’s footsteps and wear them about your neck for rites of shape-shifting.

EYES

Save the eyes to see the unseen, to have visions, and dream dreams. Preserve them and keep them to see like the animal and better shift your shape into feather, fur, or silver skin. Eyes to spy: wear them around your neck or place them under you head to see through the eyes of their living kind far away.

Eyes to send the evil eye. Eyes to bind and blind. Eyes to stab and curse. An eye to repel the evil eye. Add to a protection talisman to carry or hide in your car or home. Eyes to watch and warn of dangers. Hang over your door for the worries of this world and place on your altar for dangers from the otherworld. Eyes as offerings to seer spirits and deities of the divinatory arts. Burn them and bury them, the eyes to see the future.

FAT

Creamy, luscious, succulent fat – it makes such a good and pleasing offering to the gods and spirits. The rendered fats of beasts can be transformed via alchemy into flying ointments, tallow candles, protective ritual grease paints, and potent medicines. Hallucinogenic plant poisons insidiously infuse more thoroughly into animal fats and into your bloodstream than through a vegetable medium. My ointment of bear fat and henbane seed serves me well in my rites of shape-shifting and seership. When I use it I anoint my bear skull as well as myself. I do the same for my crow and owl skulls with my ointment of bird fats infused with feather ashes, the dust of bird bones, solanceae and artemisias – it aids me in spirit flight and travelling through the worlds in the form of a bird.

Burn down a tallow candle of bear to invoke its spirit or to give offering to a deity or nature spirit whom bear is sacred to. Fat is the food of the gods; burn the fat of pig, goat, deer, bear, cow, and bird as a grand offering. Bury it raw in the woods for the spirits of the wild. Rub fat on a statue to feed its inhabiting spirit.

Mix rendered fats with potent magical herbs, charcoals, and natural pigments to create grease paints to protect your body and soul for your rites of spirit work – especially those of possession and shape-shifting. Rub sacred fats into your untreated wooden ritual tools to feed them, darken them, and strengthen them.

FEATHERS

Feathers lend us wings to fly out of body and between the worlds, tucked in the hair or stitched onto the collars and sleeves of cloaks. Feathers connect us to the world of the spirits and can deliver messages between them. Feathers tied to staffs, stangs, wands, ritual pipes, drums, and rattles used in spirit work. Feathers to slice and cut or feathers to caress and heal. Feathers hung for protection when travelling and feathers tucked under the mattress to receive true dreams. Wings to sweep away what doesn’t suit us and wings cleanse our bodies and souls. Wings wash away emotions and parasitic spirits like a fierce wind. Smudge with a tail fan to help redirect energies so things flow smoothly once more.

HEARTS

The heart is one of the seats of the soul. A poet would say a soul is not free from the body until the heart rots, eaten by the earth. To keep a heart is to collect a soul and its power. To hide one’s heart like a sorcerer in an ancient tale is to cheat death. To wrap a poultice around a heart is to heal a heart that still beats. To stab a heart is to tear into a soul and let darkness in.

Bake a heart into a salt dough poppet. It is your choice whether the dough contains healing or baneful herbs and whether you cover it in healing poultices or stab it with ill intent. Give a heart the name of your enemy and feed it to your pet or eat it yourself to gain power over them. Prick a fresh heart with pins, needles, or thorns to curse another or to reverse a curse laid upon you. Burn a heart on a fire or bury it in a pit as an offering to your gods or spirits whose currency is souls. Hearts can be dried and saved for later use like any herb in an apothecary. Reanimate a dried heart with red wine and red ochre until it is swollen and bloody once more.

HIDES

Our ancestors wrapped themselves in fur hides to bring on prophetic dreams, to shape-shift into an animal, to journey into the other world, and to call upon their familiar spirits for their power and aid. Bear hides for dreaming, deer hides for transvection, wolf hides for hunting and battle, and seal hides for navigating the mysterious ocean. Furs are tools of magic and can be used as altar cloths, ritual costumes, and sacred blankets.
The rawhide of beasts is the body of our ritual drums and our rattles. We transform skin into musical instruments so the spirits will hear the song of their own flesh and come to us in our time of need. Any creature with skin can become a drum. The hide of each beast sings a different song in a different tune: deer and elk are high and resonant, bear is a deep and thundering roar, and cow and buffalo are soft and deep like their dark liquid eyes.

Save the leather for ritual costumes, for binding your book of arte, and for the crafting of amulets, fetiches, and sacred medicine bundles. Save the skin of a bird to craft from it a crane bag where you will store all your tools, fetiches, and talismans you wish to take with you into other worlds and other forms.

TEETH

Teeth to bite and gnaw and scare. Teeth to devour curses, attacking spirits, and meddlesome folk. Teeth to chew and spit back out. Teeth to warn an unruly cub and teeth to put a trickster back in line. Teeth to rip and rend and bloody an enemy. Teeth to give bite to those who lack it and need it. My what big teeth you have, bigger than mine, predator to my prey. A fool stands against one armed to the teeth, but a wiser beast runs away. A tooth carved with a sigil and sung with a rune, carried to protect one from harm. A tooth dipped in venomous herbs to energetically stab and dig in like a serpent’s fang – the tooth of a bear, lion, whale, shark, or wolf.

TONGUES

Tongues to speak benevolence or malevolence, tongues to bind or cut out, tongues to sweeten others to your cause or to ruin another’s. Are there tongues in the crane bag on your altar that you may speak and understand the languages of beasts of land and sea and sky? Do you possess tongues to exchange for your own in the otherworld so the animal spirits will understand you when you speak? I collect the tongues of birds, messengers between the worlds and ferriers of souls, that my own tongue may speak prophecy and knowledge from the other side and that the spirits may hear me when I call out.

CONCLUSION

I offer this knowledge to those students of the mysteries who truly wish to deepen their relationship with the animal world. Animals have a lot to teach us about magic and wisdom. Long have they been viewed by the human race as guardians, protectors, and teachers proficient in magic, shape-shifting, and communication with the supernatural world. Animals are our familiars, our messengers and intermediaries, our dream companions, our omens, the skulls and feathers on our altars, the skin of our drums and rattles, the antler and bone of our tool handles, the tooth and claw of our fetishes, the tallow in our candles, and the leather of our crane bags. They are furred and feathered gods in the trees, on our dinner plates, and in our homes deserving of our respect, reverence, and a change in our attitudes towards them.

Further Reading:

• Bone Collecting: Cleansing & Consecration
• Dem Bones: Skulls and Bones in Magic & Ritual
• Introduction to Animal Familiars
• On Shapeshifting: A History and Guide for Shifters

RESOURCES

Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. 1992. Princeton University Press.

Ellis Davidson, Hilda. Roles of the Northern Goddess. 1998. Routledge.

Harris-Logan, Stuart A. Singing With Blackbirds: The Survival of Primal Celtic Shamanism in Later Folk Traditions. 2006. Grey House in the Woods.

Johnson, Buffie. Lady of the Beasts: Ancient Images of the Goddess and Her Sacred Animals. 1990. HarperCollins.

McIntyre Jorgensen, Grace Miri. A Comparative Examination of Northwest Coast Shamanism. 1970. University of British Columbia Department of Anthropology and Sociology.

Here there is a constant chorus of tree frogs, crickets, and birdsong that never stops, even in the darkness when the bats fly over the creek  to hunt mosquitoes. I see the black and white flash of a skunk ducking into a hollow, a fat black and yellow garter snake hunting frogs and field mice, scores of tiny brown and black toads leaping away from my feet as I walk, and blue jays, woodpeckers, robins, and grackles zip over my head without fear.  A red fox runs through the brush, a mother deer and her two fawns munch on tender greens in a meadow, porcupines scrabble up trees, startled wild rabbits dart out in front of you, and gaggles of wild turkeys roam freely.

I am not in the wild, I am not in a nature conserve or a provincial park. I am in a small town of 600 people in rural Ontario with a house and garage on a 1/3 of an acre. I can walk to every  shop in 2 minutes that people have to drive to in the city. Other times I am at my parents’ 83 acre farm which is only ten minutes away and surrounded by other farms. This place is called Killaloe, after the small town of Killaloe in Ireland. Founded by Irish settlers in the 1800s, it now hosts a mixture of people with Irish, German, and Polish backgrounds. Hippies moved in the 1960s and started farming. Thanks to them, people are pretty open minded and liberal here. There is a local accent and a required local attitude of friendliness and hospitality (my neighbour admitted he gives the finger to people who don’t wave hello back to him because it’s such a great offense). The town and surrounding farms are filled with pockets of wildness. The people here didn’t see fit to “civilize” every inch of town or even their farms, especially since most are hunters who understand they need the wilderness to be healthy homes for turkeys and deer to hunt to take home for food over the winter. Just look at the view below. I am standing on the footbridge in the middle of town, I can see my house across the creek, but it is so very green and full of trees it doesn’t look like I’m in a town at all.

It amuses me to no end that I now live in “cottage country”. This is where the people of Ottawa and Toronto come every summer to escape the city and enjoy nature. When they do come, the town’s population triples (okay, it’s more the number of cars in town that triple). You can tell a cottager apart from a local because the city-dwelling cottager won’t return your wave hello, but instead ducks their head and runs. It took a bit for it to sink in, that I will live year round where people go to vacation. Sometimes I wonder if they ever think of moving here permanently?  A handful of retirees do, but most only come in the summer after black fly season.

Why am I here? To be close to family for one. What a difference to be 10 minutes away from my parents, instead of thousands of miles when you have a child –especially a little boy who loves his grampa and gramma so dearly. I am two hours away from my father’s parents and his brothers and their wives and their children and their children who all live in the huge capital city of Ottawa. I am four hours from Maxville, an early Scottish settlement where my mother’s father is from, I am six hours from Montreal where both my parents are from and where I lived for a time in my early 20s (I’ve lived in Ottawa, Toronto, Barrie, and on Lake Simcoe too), and I am six hours from Toronto where my sister and my mom’s siblings live.

Tearful Lament of the City Dweller

If you love the city, the art, the culture, the food, the events –I am happy for you and for my good friends who feel the same. This piece is not for you. This piece is for those who, like me, long to live near nature and experience a healthy ecosystem on a daily basis instead of seeing a once contained city eat up every nearby town, and crawl up every mountain until everything is a suburb and there is no space left between. It scares me a bit that it can take hours just to drive out of a city to reach nature.

I am here because I could not live in the wilderness in my beloved British Columbia. I couldn’t take the city anymore or the rudeness of the people and the extreme overcrowding. Any cool event I tried to go to was ruined by the thousands of people trying to fit into a space meant for 200. It’s my own theory that when you get millions of people living elbow to elbow in a city, they stop thinking of and treating other people as humans. We can only remember a few hundred faces, and we were only ever meant to live in social groups that large. Take public transit for a week in a large city and find out how considerate people are. I didn’t think it was quite that bad (okay, Toronto was) until I was pregnant and had a baby in a stroller while taking public transit. I was never given a seat and people actually tried to kick and push over the stroller on multiple occasions with me screaming “what’s wrong with you?!” and no one intervening, but instead looking away or pretending they were asleep. The last time I took public transit in Vancouver before I moved it was so bad I broke down crying before I even reached my destination and just went home.

Mayne Island is so lovely, I really wanted to move there…

After months of researching and scouring listings, I realized I could never afford to buy property where I wanted to live. After I wiped away the tears shared by many of my generation who realize they can never afford a home and land of their own, I looked into renting where I wanted to live instead. I was immediately stopped by the ‘vacation rental’ roadblock. It seemed like everyone renting out houses in the rural small towns and islands outside of the Lowermainland was trying to make big money from tourists instead of looking for long term renters. I did not like the idea of having to move once or twice a year because a landlord kicked me out to rent the property to tourists for three times the price instead.

Maybe there were some more tears. Then I moved on to Plan C (a girl’s got to have multiple back up plans). Move back to my beloved Burnaby Mountain and live in co-operative housing near friends and lots of local pagan and shamanic events. I would technically still be in the city, but my son would grow up surrounded by woodland and a huge nature conservation area that I love dearly. It was not to be. Along came Kinder-Morgan and a federal government who removed the protections on the nature conserve so they could build an oil pipeline through the mountain to fill tankers in the inlet on the other side to send to China. Because nothing says “build an underground oil pipeline here” like a wild mountain that is a massive natural aquifer and wild salmon habitat. Yes there was a great uprising of locals and environmentalists protesting, but the overall attitude of the city dwellers was “put those hippies in jail and build the pipeline already.” It was heartbreaking, there were more tears.

The Farm

This spring I was in Killaloe visiting my parents at the farm for a month, trying to catch up on writing while getting a much needed break. My father took my son and I on a walk around the farm. He took me to see his chair. Of course it wasn’t a chair –this is the man who regularly beats his bounds as if his old Irish soul is performing ancient magics he doesn’t realize. In the centre of his property on a hedge of  stone and trees between two fields, on top of a massive granite stone, he had build a wood platform. I laughed, it was Odin’s high seat and it was the high seat of the kings of ancient Ireland. He climbed up, I handed him the baby, and I climbed up. You could see the entirety of his property. The fields, the forests, the pond, the marshes, and the rolling hills in the distance. It was beautiful. “I like to drink my coffee here in the morning and look at my land. One day this will all be yours, your sister’s, and your son’s.”

As I climbed back down into the field it hit me like a ton of bricks: why was I looking for land out West when my family already owned land in Ontario? Why had I been stubbornly insisting on staying in British Columbia for so many years? My father had been trying to convince me to move to town since he bought the farm a decade ago when he retired. I looked at my son and I wanted him to have the croaking frogs, the fireflies, the hooting owls, the deer, the incredible swathes of green space, and the creek to go fishing in. I wanted him to have all those things now dead and forgotten in the cities. Sometimes there are bits of nature, but we tell our children to look and not touch. I realized I could transport my animism and bioregionalism to this place. I could pull up my roots and transplant them to a new home. As we walked back to the house I half-jokingly said to my father and mother “if you find me a house with air conditioning, I will move here.”

The New House

Well, they obviously took me quite seriously because here I am. A friend of my mother’s from church had died in March. She was elderly and it was sudden. Her children put the house up for sale themselves. My mother remembered one time when we were driving through town and we stopped to see the house. I took one look at the land and fell in love. The price helped too. My monthly mortgage payment is half what I paid for rent in the city for a tiny low-ceiling basement suite. The same German family had lived in the house for the past 50-60 years. The two sons and the daughter were so happy to sell it to a family. There was only one beautiful hydrangea in the yard planted for beauty alone, everything else was edible or medicinal. My yard is full of pear, apple, crabapple, and wild plum fruit trees. There are rose and currant bushes and wild violets everywhere. There is a huge raspberry patch, two giant garden plots, and a big compost. Birch, linden, maple, cedar and fir trees were strategically planted around the house for shade. The trees do their job so well we’ve only had to use the air conditioner twice since moving in this summer. It all happened so fast and unexpectedly this summer. Suddenly I had a house and land and was out of the city.

The view from my kitchen table

The house needed fixing up, but mostly just cosmetic since it was built in the late 1950s. Some putty, some paint, some new flooring in a couple rooms, and it looks just lovely now. There’s a great big oak kitchen with a wood cookstove and a beautiful view of the yard from the table. There’s a big livingroom, a big bathroom, and smaller bedrooms upstairs. Downstairs is your typical dark and scary basement – it even has a dirt floor root cellar. It will just be used for food storage and for overwintering cold sensitive plants. It’s pretty typical for the houses in town, though they range from being built in the 1800s to the 2000s. I think it’s amazing that it’s completely normal here to have a wood cook stove and/or a wood stove in your house.

My house has its own well, which is also pretty typical in town. My water smells and tastes like cold, clean, deep dark earth –no chlorine in sight. I can’t wait to brew mead and beer with it. The house is also set up to collect rain water, and I can pump water from the creek to water the gardens. I have a back up generator as the power goes out in both summer and winter due to storms. The garage has space for one car, but the rest is a huge functional wood shop. The bandsaw, scrollsaw, edge planer, and flat planer all came with the house. The garage attic has a solid wood floor and a metal roof. It is so warm in the summer that it is perfect for hanging herbs and foods to dry.

Renovating the new house

I have the vintage wood cook stove as well as the electric and its been set up to partially heat the house while you cook. I can wild harvest in my own yard. Let me say that again: in my own yard. Or, I can step across the creek using the quaint covered footbridge and I’m right in a section of wild forest. I can see that footbridge from my front porch and have watched the laughing children swim under it where its dammed up and deep. The children are all nut brown here from playing outside all day. I saw a fourteen year old girl beg her father to go fishing. Packs of children roam the town and play until after sunset. They are part wild here and it is so beautiful to see. Yes, it is so ideal and green and lush in Killaloe and yet I live behind the town’s grocery store and the post office is a two minute walk away.

Realistic Rewilding

Rewilding isn’t just about living off grid, camping off grid, living in a yurt or  a tree house. Rewilding can be realistic and attainable. Yes cities are unsustainable and their constant growth and construction is incredibly damaging to wild ecosystems, but rewilding would not be sustainable either if every city dweller suddenly decided to leave their life behind and move to the wilderness. Yes, I just said that rewilding would be unethical if everyone did it. Suddenly the forests would start to resemble suburbs. The same would happen if every city dweller decided to hunt or forage for food. Rewilding yourself is not as easy as picking berries and feeling connected to Mother Earth, there are just too many of us to make the mainstreaming of foraging for food viable or ethical. There are simply too many of us. We are locusts; fine in small numbers, devastating en masse. You know what there are also too many of? Small rural towns who are forgotten, abandoned, or in danger of being so due to dwindling populations. I hear the same story over and over from the old folks in town: “Everyone moved to the city, no one comes back. My children don’t want to farm, my children don’t want to take over the business, my children couldn’t wait to move away…”

If you are serious about rewilding yourself and your family, but do not have the skills, knowledge, or desire to live hard core off grid (or it’s stupidly illegal in your state), why not move to a small town instead? They are already established with homes and infrastructure. They have already claimed the land from nature. There is no need to buy “empty” plots of land in the wilderness and intrude on the wildlife by building there. If you want to build your own house, there are many affordable opportunities in Canada’s small towns: 9 Canadian towns giving away free land. The United States sure has its fair share of dwindling and empty hamlets due to outsourcing and the mortgage crisis that caused a massive recession from 2007-2009. There is also the much bigger example of Detroit. Who’s to say your city isn’t next?

When young people, families, and retirees move to small towns, they add tax revenue to those towns, they add services, they add beauty and life. When you move to a small town it isn’t just good for you, it’s good for the town –whether it has a population of 20 or 2,000. So many are in need of rejuvenation, even just a few families moving in can make all the difference. There are empty homes and empty commercial buildings waiting for you and a town council who doesn’t know how to get you to move there, but who may be willing to give you a break if you do. The kind of growth that happens is the healthy kind, a town becomes a functioning community with a sustainable population. Sometimes they even become great stewards of the land creating eco-villages and farming collectives. For a good example listen to this CBC radio piece about the rejuvenation of Palmer, Saskatchewan by young people from Ontario.

Let’s be honest though, the main reason stopping people from leaving the cities for small towns is work. People are terrified they won’t be able to make money because they are so used to it costing so much money just to live in a city. My friends seldom had time for each other in the city because they were all too busy breaking their backs trying to earn enough money to live in the city. Everything costs less where I live: houses, rent, taxes, groceries, liquor, gas, and even commercial properties. Research first, find the town you can afford to live in. If your cost of living drops significantly, your need for income does too. You could support a family with a part-time job where I am. If you have a lot of savings and credit to work with you could buy a business or multiple business, or buy up real estate and make your income that way. It can seem impossible to get a job in a small town, but moving to one is still a more realistic form of rewilding, it just requires thinking outside the box and maybe being willing to work outside of your chosen field. If you are self-employed, a tradesperson, work online, or have the ability to open your own viable business in a town, you are set. Small towns are always in need of a business or service that disappeared. I work online as a herbal retailer, but I can also take my products to the local farmer’s markets and craft fairs. I know I am lucky. If I need other ways to make an income they are available. Thanks to the size and fertility of my land I am going to grow herbs and produce to sell next year.

I also have a background as a professional cook and this town is in dire need of a restaurant, cafe, or pub as they’ve all closed down for various reasons (though mainly due to retirement and having no one to take over). Some of the seniors in town found out I was a cook and have been trying to talk me into at least opening a breakfast cafe. I didn’t think I’d be able to afford to, but one day while I was admiring an old empty storefront in town for its stamped tin ceilings, an old hippie drove by and said the whole building could be mine for the low price of $35,000 and that I could rent out the top floor as it’s a big apartment. Well… it’s a dream to keep in mind once I’m more settled here and can rebuild my savings.

The lesson to take from my experience so far: your money will go so much farther and your dreams are so much more attainable in a small town as long as you are willing to do the work. Here is my last reality check: in Canada you can buy a crappy run down house in Toronto or Vancouver for a million dollars, or you can buy an entire abandoned small town. You don’t need a million though; did you know there are small towns in rural Canada selling plots of land for $10 just to get people to move there? There is even land being given away for free in the Yukon. For those of us who don’t already live there, leave the wilderness alone, let it stay wild, visit its beauty, but live right next door to it in a space already set up for the needs of humans. Small towns aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if you find one that is the right fit, happiness will abound.

I’d forgotten about calendula. I used to grow it years ago. I buried grandmother crow under its roots and it flourished into a massive bush of fuzzy green leaves covered in the brightest orange flowers. I put it in my salves and magical oils. The flowers reminded me of gold coins so I used it to draw money in spells of folk magic. But then I lost my garden and I forgot about this plant many herbalists consider an essential medicine. And then, there it was again, growing by the door of my new house. It’s hardiness impresses me. We’ve had many frosts and snow three times now, but it still blooms.

I decided to do something with it before the old winter hag finally kills it off with her icy touch. I plucked the flowers along with those of toadflax and evening primrose and combined it with sweet violet leaves in jojoba oil. Like many people, I get itchy dry skin in the winter and the plants who are supposed to help all happened to be growing in my yard. After a couple weeks the flowers and violet leaves are strained out and a little vitamin e oil and a few drops of rosemary essential oil are added to preserve it. Now it’s ready to massage into dry, cracked skin or to add to a lotion recipe.

The raspberry patch has been incredibly hardy, still producing flowers and fruit after hard frosts. The berries still sweet and lovely. I dug up so many ash tree saplings from the untended patch that I am convinced it contained more baby ash trees than it does raspberry canes! I am hoping that with more sunlight and root space, the patch will be productive next year with lots of new growth. I planted garlic cloves from my mother’s garden next to the patch because garlic and raspberries are supposed to look out for each other.

I am sweet on a friend of my mother’s. She is a gardener like me and thinks herbalism is fascinating. Her name is Lily and she is ninety years old with a thick German accent. She lives alone in the woods. Her husband passed away ten years ago and her kids are long gone, busy with their own grandchildren now. She invited the whole family over for lunch last Sunday and I couldn’t very well say no. I was excited to get to know her better. My mother winced when I told her the news.

“You never know what you’re going to get when you eat at Lily’s, it could be squirrel or worse!”

“I don’t mind, I’m hoping for venison!”

So we dressed up the wee man in the coat his great grandma made him and all of us hopped in the car and off we drove down the beautiful country roads past the colourful poplars and maples, farmer’s fields, and marshes full of dead trees and bushy native willows. We drove up a very long dirt drive, half wet from a marsh, and came up a hill to a beautiful view of silver lake and there was Lily’s home, an old converted cabin with a green sun room lush with plants.

The wee man was completely in love with her birds. She has fat chickens, a regal goose named Georgina, and a family of peacocks. He chased them all over, but wasn’t fast enough to even get close. The goose was the most tolerant of him. I asked Lily if I could take pictures and she told me to take as many as I wanted as long as they weren’t of her. She told me she didn’t think she was pretty enough. Despite her killer cheekbones and beautiful smile, I couldn’t talk her into a portrait. She is small and spry with short cropped grey hair and a hooked nose, very funny and full of mischief. She was frying onion dumplings when we came in and the house smelled amazing.

There was no squirrel, but there was melt-in-your-mouth slow cooked venison and delicious candied black bear ribs served with endless vegetables and salads from her garden; raw kale salad, red cabbage, fresh herbed carrots, boiled potatoes, tomato and garlic brushcetta, and of course the onion dumplings (which were amazing with the bruschetta). For dessert Lily had made an apple crisp with apples from her trees. We ate the fruits of her harvest and we ate well!

I am glad to have a found a friend who also walks the green path and has many decades of wisdom and practical gardening advice to share. When I am ninety and wrinkled and grey, I hope I am as full of energy and wit as Lily with all my marbles and a massive jungle of a garden.

These herbs are easy to find for most and can be bought, foraged, or grown. Maybe you are trying to learn ways to work with spirits or maybe you are looking to incorporate plants into the spirit work you’re already a badass at. We all have our own favourite go-to herbs for specific purposes, here is my top six list of botanicals to aid in spirit work– not including ones specifically for working with the ancestors (which would need another list!). There are other herbs that work just as well, but with these lovelies I can just walk outside my front door and harvest, minus the tobacco which I can get from a local farmer or from the nearby Pikwakanagan reserve.

1. Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale

The forager’s friend, but also the witch’s friend, dandelion is used in folk magic to summon spirits. Although most would use it to summon the spirits of the dead, I believe it can be used to call all number of spirits. Use the root to summon chthonic spirits, the leaves to summon nature spirits and spirits of the middle realm, and the flowers and seeds to summon gods, spirits of the sky, and the heavens. Make a wish out loud and blow the seed fluff off a dandelion head. Maybe the spirits will hear you and answer your prayers, each seed that grows furthering the chance your wish will come true.

Dandelion is used to enhance psychic ability– especially divinatory prowess. Use dandelion before you read tarot cards, cast runes, practice seidr, seership, or wrap yourself in a bear hide to have prophetic dreams. Ingest dandelion concoctions or burn dried dandelion before you speak with your familiar spirits whether they be animal, plant, or ancestral. Sunny dandelion, beloved by bees, can aid us in connecting with nature, the earth, and her denizens. Dandelion is bitter, digestive, blood-cleansing, detoxifying the liver, and acting as a tonic for your whole system. Besides being good for you and full of vitamins, nutrients, and medicine, it can help bring us closer to our gods and our familiar spirits.

Ideas: add the powdered root or dried flowers and leaves to smoking blends or teas, infuse the petals in honey to eat by the spoonful, batter and fry whole flowers as fritters, make a tincture from the whole plant when it’s not flowering, use the roasted root as a coffee substitute with cream and brown sugar, stuff fetiches and poppets with dandelion fluff, or lastly, ritually consecrate a dandelion root into an fetiche used to act as a go-between for you and spirits.

Dandelion Root Elixir Recipe

This is pretty much medicinal chocolate-tasting booze that gets better with age. You’ll want to make a lot of it! If you feel fancy try adding spices too, like a cinnamon stick, 3-5 cardamom pods, or a vanilla bean.

125 ml roasted dandelion root
750 ml good brandy
250 ml dandelion honey

Place all ingredients in a 1 litre canning jar, put on the lid, and then shake it up. Give it a shake every day for 2 weeks. Strain through cheesecloth or a coffee filter and pour into a clean canning jar. Allow to settle for three days to a month and then rack the clear liquid off of any bottom sludge (I use a turkey baster to slowly remove the elixir without disturbing the sludge). Bottle and take 1-3 droppers full as needed. This recipe makes for excellent digestive bitters when taken before meals. It’s also good in coffee, black tea, dandelion coffee, or in cocktails involving whisky, bourbon, brandy, coffee and cream.

2. Mallow

Althaea officinalis – Malva Neglecta

Mallows are fairly common in the wild. We often step on them or pull them out of walkways and gardens as a weed without even realizing it. Common mallow grows all over my parents’ farm and they never noticed until I pointed out how prevalent it is. To me, mallow is THE herb for attracting benevolent spirits and grounding them to our realm for better communication. Having a random jar of marshmallow root on your altar or shine is always a good idea. It’s a great herb to tuck into spirit houses, spirit vessels, skulls, and medicine bundles. Within the practice of folk magic the humble mallow is considered a potent exorcism herb and is used to banish spirits, prevent possession, and protect a person from curses. The best ways to use mallow is to make a cold infusion steeped overnight with the fresh roots, or to make an ointment from the dried leaves.

Ideas: crown yourself in mallow like a flower crown when performing outdoor rituals invoking the genius loci, cook with mallow leaves for your sacred feasts, smoke the dried leaves, make a syrup or codial with the roots, add one large dried root to your medicine bag or ritual kit, or use the flowers to decorate spirit food offerings.

Althea Ointment Recipe

mallow leaves
vegetable oil
beeswax
rosemary essential oil

Pick a big fluffy bundle of mallow leaves and hang to dry for a week to remove moisture. Pack the dried leaves into a 500ml canning jar and pour enough oil over top to completely cover the plant material– olive, sunflower, grapeseed, almond, and jojoba oil are all great choices. Allow to infuse in a dark cupboard for 1-3 months. Strain and measure the oil infusion. Pour into a double boiler (a stainless steel bowl over a pot of water on low heat) and add 30 g (1 oz) of beeswax per 250 ml of the oil infusion. Right before you pour it into jars add 15 drops of rosemary essential oil as a natural preservative and for its protective properties.

Anoint yourself for protection and to summon spirits before performing trancework, soul-flight, shape-shifting, necromancy, and other rites involving spirit work. In your mundane life it can be used to help heal wounds, sores, inflammation, bruising, and angry-hot-itchy skin issues.

3. Poplar Buds

Populus – Populus balsamifera – Populus trichocarpa – Populus tremuloides

Not everyone loves the smell of the sticky sweet buds from trees in the poplar family, sometimes called balm of gilead, but I think it is the most divine perfume; the distilled essence of spring. The essential oil is worth more than gold, and its medicinal properties are priceless. When dried, ground, and burned the buds make a very good substitute for myrrh resin which can be used for smudging, purification, blessing, and consecration. The uses of poplar buds in folk magic are many, and usually centered around love magic, but the applications that matter the most to me are their uses for achieving soul flight and their ability to aid in the physical manifestation of spirits. Poplar is one of the many plants in the magical gardens of Hekate and Artemis according to myth. It was considered a funerary tree by the ancient Greeks meaning they likely used it as wood to burn offerings for the dead, to cremate the dead, and the branches in ceremonies to honour the dead.

Ideas: use the branches to decorate your altar or ritual space, make a crown from a thin branch to wear during ritual, infuse freshly harvested poplar buds in oil for a powerfully perfumed anointing oil, carry the buds in your medicine bundle, perform a steam inhalation to soothe the throat and lungs and absorb its magical powers before ritual, or add it to flying ointment recipes, fairy ointment recipes, and spirit summoning incense blends.

Incense Recipe

dried poplar buds
pine or fir resin
dried rosemary

Using equal parts of these three herbs, grind together with a mortar and pestle or in a coffee grinder (clean afterward with rubbing alcohol and salt). Allow to age for 1-3 weeks before use so the fragrances have time to mingle. Burn on self lighting charcoal disks, a coal from a fire, tin foil on a wood stove, or in an electic incense burner. Use when invoking/evoking spirits for any reason: communion, offering, soul flight, shapeshifting, divination… This incense is also very protective and will keep malevolent spirits from ruining your best magical plans.

4. Rowan

Sorbus aucuparia

I am definitely one of the many people on the rowan bandwagon. It has been used for magic and held very sacred for so many hundreds if not thousands of years that I believe it is extra powerful just for how long it has been used by humans for the same magical purposes over and over again. Instead of looking for largely non existent unbroken magical traditions, it’s much better to use your time seeking out the unbroken living traditions of the magical uses of sacred plants. Rowan adds power to any magic or rites, it turns the amp up to 11 (yes, I’m making a Spinal Tap reference). It protects from possession and attachment, it gives control over possession making it useful for hedgecrossing and shapeshifting. In folklore and old stories Rowan protects from spirits and allows one to have sway over spirits. In an old Irish tale a woman stands at a grave with a rowan distaff and summons a spirit. With the staff she compels the spirit not to lie to her and then compels it back into the grave where it belongs when she is done her questioning.

If you have troublesome pixies, unwanted ghosts, or find yourself dealing with dishonest or dangerous spirits, rowan will have your back. The two most traditional charms are the cross of rowan wood and unknotted red wool, hung in the house or stitched into one’s clothing, and the necklace of strung rowan berries. Wearable rowan is the best charm when you are trying to avoid pixies and ghosties in the wild wood. Did you know many of the Icelandic magical staves from the Middle Ages were carved out of rowan wood? The Norse were known for making endless magical tailsmans and runestaves out of rowan, considering it incredibly sacred, powerful, and protective.

Ideas: Carve yourself a rowan wand, a rowan staff, rowan crosses, a rowan berry necklace, make yourself a rowan flower crown in the spring or a berry crown in the fall, bake the berries into bread and apple pie, and brew cider or mead with them. If ingesting rowan berries note that they must be fermented or cooked to be safe for eating.

Rowanberry Jelly Recipe

ripe rowan berries
sugar
water

I can’t give better or more thorough instruction than this recipe by The Homemade Company. Rowan berries are bitter so don’t expect the jelly to be sweet. It’s best served with meats and cheeses. I need to try it with venison. If you harvest the berries after a few frosts they are supposedly sweeter or you can freeze them before processing into jelly. Let the jelly age a month to mellow the bitterness before eating – don’t give it to guests right away!

5. St John’s Wort

Hypericum perforatum

If you have some serious boundary issues with unwelcome spirits in your home or on your property, St. John’s Wort is your rescuer. Simple talismans of red cloth stuffed with st john’s wort can be hung above the front door and tucked under your mattress to protect from dark fairies, ghosts, malevolent spirits, and a witch’s curse. It is a great house cleansing herb. Make your own holy water with spring water, st. john’s wort and salt and sprinkle the water in every room of your house, every doorway, window, mirror, water pipe, ventilation duct (stove hood, dryer vent, stove pipe)… while you whisper or shout Valiente’s “around and around, throughout and about, the good come in and the ill keep out.” I make an equal armed cross too and recite a charm of exorcism, protection, and the sealing of doorways. You are essentially kicking all the unwanted spirits out of your house and then locking all the “doors” with the holy water and the st. john’s wort sachets act as the locks.

For super duper protection from spirits: hang by your front door a red sachet of st. john’s wort on a rowan cross woven with red thread with no knots tied in the weaving. Sprinkle holy water on the talisman every dark moon to keep it cleansed and it its best working order.

Ideas: st. john’s wort can be used in sachets, herbal holy waters, burnt as a non fragrant smudge, made into an oil for medicine or magical anointing, blended with mint and honey for a tea.

St. John’s Wort Oil Recipe

St. John’s Wort flowers
oil (olive, grapeseed, sunflower, jojoba)

Harvest st. john’s wort flowers in the early morning, spreading them out, dehydrate or dry them. Stuff as many as you can into a canning jar and top it up with oil so that all the plant material is covered. Put on the lid and leave in a south facing window for 3 weeks until the oil turns red. Strain and bottle the oil. Use for anointing or for medicine to help heal cuts, burns, bruises, and muscle pain. It is a great multi-purpose addition to your home’s first aid kit and its always good to have some of the oil on hand to make a quick ointment from.

6. Tobacco

Nicotiana tabacum – Nicotiana rustica

Tobacco is not just cigarettes, smoke, and carcinogens. Tobacco is a beautiful plant with beautifully scented flowers which has been held very sacred by the Native peoples of North and South America for longer than we likely have written record of. In my mind, the abuse and disrespect of this sacred herb is the source of its harm.  Tobacco is spirit food, it is god food. The ichor that fuels the gods but kills the mortals. It is why we are so easily addicted to it; we eat smoke instead of food and think we are full, but it is the invisible spirits circled around us who are feasting. You smoke it for the spirits to feed on, not for yourself. Good tobacco, the good stuff, is like a kick in the head, it can hurt and you may vomit if you inhale too much.

It is left as an offering at altars, shrines, in earth-dug offering pits, and is given by many cultures as a gift of respect to elders, leaders, healers, shamans, and wise men and women. Tobacco is a potent tool for working with the dead. A ritual supply of cigars, wormwood, and yew would serve you well. It is smoked during ceremonies to attract spirits, to nourish them, to ground them in our realm that we may speak with them and that they may be present for our rites. The nourishment of the thick smoke gives them power. Do not feed spirits if you do not know their intent, do not give power to those who would do you harm. After you have created your sacred space and set up your protections, then burn or smoke tobacco in offering to the spirits and to each other in hospitality and kinship.

Tobacco Reversal Smudge

tobacco
dried wild fern leaf

Like its sister Datura, Tobacco is a potent herb for breaking curses. Mix equal parts of dried tobacco leaf and fern leaf together. Burn it on a fire or charcoal and smudge yourself to break a curse and reverse any spells back to the sender.

There is a forager in town who lives a two minute walk from my house. We kept running into each other because small towns are small which led to conversations over local beer about medicinal mushrooms, wild harvesting, and beekeeping which led to me purchasing super fresh chaga and turkey tail mushrooms from him, which then led to me hiring him to help me make and ship products for the shop. As an extra bonus, he was raised by a Wiccan mom so nothing I do or make is weird to him, yay. Everyone give a warm hello to Alex! He could very well be the one who bottled and labelled your elixir or packaged your order to mail out.

Witches’ butter – jelly fungi

Foragers are always looking for more places to forage, so when I told Alex about my parents’ 83 acre farm, half of which is wild forest, he was intrigued and wanted to see if the land would be good for harvesting wild mushrooms. Last Tuesday we drove out of town to Lawless Lane Farm and off into the woods we went, him with an axe in his pocket and me with my foraging basket, antler knife and shears. The first thing we found were spruce tips covered in sticky, sugary resin which just screamed to be infused into good whiskey with maple syrup.

It was very cold out, but just brushing aside fallen leaves on the forest floor revealed endless amounts of fuzzy white networks of mycelium. It is a very good sign of a healthy forest with a balanced ecosystem. The farm will most definitely be a mushroom foraging hot spot next spring! We did find some mushrooms, but none were good enough to harvest due to the cold; witches’ butter (Tremella mesenterica), ancient turkey tails (Trametes versicolor), birch polypore, and some small, clustered brown ones we couldn’t identify growing on a dead fir log.

The highlight of the hunt was finding some chaga growing on a very tall and still living yellow birch tree. Alex’s favourite word of the day was sclerotia, which is a mass of mycelium growing like a keloid or scar tissue over wounds in trees. Chaga is the sclerotia growing on birch trees and can be found across the Northern Hemisphere, though it is best known for growing in Russia, parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Boreal Forest of Canada where it has been prized as a medicinal mushroom for boosting the immune system. Humans have been using it medicinally for thousands of years so I figure our ancestors were on to something. It has an earthy chocolaty flavour which makes it great to mix into hot chocolate, coffee, and chai recipes. I’ve made chocolate ice cream with it and have found it added to raw brownie and bliss ball recipes– raw because any temperature over 125°F supposedly kills its medicinal properties. I know it doesn’t seem as if a tumour-like growth on a tree would be very tasty, but it can be!

We took a break to sit on a fallen log and share some sausage and cheese roughly cut up on the spot with my knife. My mother’s border collie (who looks like a black bear) happily ate some, convincing me it was totally cool for her to accept offerings on behalf of the forest spirits. When the food was gone she ran off back into the woods, she’s mostly wild and has free reign on the farm.

Hiking through the bush once more we harvested spruce tips, grand fir, and Eastern hemlock to make conifer herbal goods for the shop. I snip some tiny-needled hemlock branches with my shears and then remove some dead fallen branches and large clusters of dead leaves from its boughs as a thank you offering. Alex helps me and then feels free to talk to the trees without feeling silly about it.

Wandering onward I found some beautiful, large club mosses. The Ground Pine (Lycopodium obscurum) looked almost like heather instead of moss and the Running Ground Pine aka Stag’s-Horn looks like the fuzzy stag antlers it is named for. The latin name for both club mosses translates to mean wolf paw. This pleases me greatly. Can you believe that millions of years ago they were as tall as trees?! The ground pine is made into a medicinal tea by Natives and carried as a talisman to ward off disease and likely evil spirits too. Medicinally the Running Ground Pine seems to be used for everything under the sun. The coolest fact I found out about it is that if you gather a high enough concentration of the spores they become explosive, creating you own wild harvested flash powder for magical effects.

Ground Pine Club Moss – Running  Ground Pine Club Moss

At the pond in the forest we ran into the cows my Irish-Scots-Canadian father has kind of stolen from his neighbour after they broke into his hayfields on a weekly basis. He simply fenced them in on his property, informed his neighbour, and then proceeded to name them all. My father used to raise an Irish heritage breed of cows called Dexters. I think he’s really missing his days of raising cattle… enough to take in a whole herd like they were stray cats. The cows were friendly and curious, if a bit shy, and tried to make off with my foraging basket. I’ve always loved cows. They are like the fattest, stubby-legged deer you could imagine. You just know I’m going to go nab all that manure for my compost.

Happy with our chaga and conifer haul, we returned to my house and set about processing the chaga while it was still fresh. If you let it dry it becomes very hard to break up and process, I know because I have three pounds of dried chaga I am not looking forward to chopping and grinding! Alex broke the large hunks into smaller pieces with his axe and I chopped them into even smaller pieces with my garden shears. Then I ground it all up in my nut and spice grinder until it resembled coffee grounds. Once ground, it becomes a nice even chocolate brown colour. It sounds like it all went smoothly, but the reality was that Alex almost sliced off a couple fingers with the axe and went home with a couple bandaids, I cut myself with the shears, and there was chaga flying all over the kitchen counters and floor. Next time I need to build a wood box to do the cutting in to prevent chunks from flying everywhere.

We decided to use the fresh chaga to make a tincture. Chaga tincture takes a long time to make and requires a lot of plant material compared to other recipes. If you do make it, make a big batch. I filled up a 2 litre jar with the ground chaga mushroom and added 1 cup of freshly ground cocoa nibs, leaving 2 inches at the top of the jar. Then we topped it up with half and half brandy and vodka. An alcohol that is 40% is acceptable, but higher is always better. It will be left to infuse for 2-3 months and then it will be strained and the leftover chaga will be made into a decoction which is then mixed in with the infused alcohol. Here is a link to recipes for chaga tea and tincture. Really this ends up being more of a liqueur! Mmm chocolate chaga liqueur… sounds like it would be pretty good in coffee or just mixed with cream and drunk as is. And now we wait.

I have good hopes for more collaborations in the future. Alex is teaching me all about the local mushrooms, and words like sclerotia, and I taught him to identify trees and small plants. This coming week we’ll be making a lot of herbal goodies for the local christmas farmers’ market and also for this month’s CSW collection. I’m excited to make things after two weeks straight of shipping!

Wishing you wintery blessings from the woods.