Blog
Hedgewitch: The Magickal Garden of Your Mind
Deep in the forest glen of your mind, where the shadows never quite release the world, sits the ancient establishment of the HedgeWitch Academy. A learning center for young and old alike, this edifice...
The Hedge Craft – The Celestial
The sun, moon and stars have equal importance in the Hedge Druid’s Craft. With the cycles of the sun we find ourselves travelling through the year with agricultural festivals as well as the solstices ...
Hedgewitch Nature: Your Secret Shifter
Nature acts as a secret shifter, gently filling us with the power to change our circumstances whenever we choose. Interacting with Her allows us to switch mental gears in an instant, helping us to ove...
Hedgewitch: The Fertilizer of the Mind and Belief
I’m sure you’ve read many spiritual articles over the past several years that have in one way or another discussed the universal connection of all beings and how we are all an integrated part of the w...
Totem Representations
You may also wish to collect images of the HedgeWitch totem representations for your personal altar. If these totems don’t suit you, simply change them to what you feel best matches your needs and per...
Winter Solstice Rites and Rituals for a Hedgewitch
As this is the time of the longest night, holding an all-night vigil is a great way to attune yourself to the energy of darkness and rest, of winter and the earth. And when the sun rises in the mornin...
The Hedge Craft – Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) – flowers • analgesic, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic (good for arthritis sufferers • thins the blood, is astringent and also works as a diuretic...
The Hedge – The Ancestors
The ancestors are a very important part of the Witches’ tradition. They have a lot to do with moral and ethical frameworks. As we realize the interconnectedness of all things, we come to the point whe...
Hedgewitch: Celebrating Your Personal Environment
Live your own wheel of the year as you feel most comfortable and secure. I have been writing spiritual books for many years, and my work is read all over the world, which means your climate and enviro...
The Hedge – Hedge Riding
Hedges have long been used by Witches in the community, who were often termed “Hedge Riders”. They were those who worked between the boundaries of the everyday and those of the wilderness; the wild sp...
Hedgewitch: Primal Language Exercise
Unchecked mind chatter or verbal communication complicates your life by sending mixed signals to the universe. Superfluous words can actually block your desires. Negative words will bring you things y...
Hedgewitch: Shifting with Nature
The basic idea of manifesting anything you want is to say exactly what you want, visualize it, feel good about it, and as soon as you open your eyes, think of something (anything) that makes you very ...
Starting the Day the Hedgewitch Way
Begin in the morning by reading the affirmation for the day. Today’s segment concentrates on the wind, associating this energy with that of Spirit. Close your eyes, quiet your mind, and allow Spirit t...
The Hedge Craft – Connecting to the Upperworld
In those lofty realms of the sacred bile, the world tree of the Celts, is the realm where the gods are said to dwell. It is often said that the ancestors belong to the Underworld, we are in the Middle...
The Hedge – Boundaries Between the Worlds
Physical boundaries such as stone circles or hedges can also delineate a boundary between this world and the Otherworld. In Witchcraft, Wicca and Druidry it is generally acknowledged that there exist ...
The Hedge – The World of the Hedge Craft
The world of the Hedge Druid’s Craft is one where we take inspiration from nature, and allow traditional folk customs, history and mythology to blend with the powers of nature so that we can better wo...
Hedgewitch: Circle of Influence
No HedgeWitch is an island. We have friends, those we love, perhaps children, significant others, parents, partners, co-workers-people that we allow to exert influence over our lives because we like t...
Hedgewitch: Draining and Irrigating Your Mental Garden Release
We’ve talked about how to enrich the soil of our minds by learning the right fertilizer (primal language) to use. The next step, as in any good garden, is to provide an adequate drainage and irrigatio...
Hedgewitch: Your Personal Primal Language
Discussing the law of attraction and release based on your thoughts, words, and deeds and supported by your belief isn’t new. It is very likely that it has been done for centuries through different ve...
The Hedge Craft – OAK (Quercus robur)
OAK (Quercus robur) Plant family: Beech family (fagaceae) Parts Used: Bark, leaves, acorns, galls (“oak apples” created by gall wasps on leaves and also acorn or knopper gall, on acorn). Soil and Envi...
The Hedge – Ritual to Enter the World of the Hedge Witches Craft
This rite can be used to dedicate yourself to The Hedge Witches Craft, to walking between the worlds. If you can, begin your work by standing in or near a hedgerow itself, looking away from civilizati...
Hedgewitch: Dollars and Cents Aren’t Always Required
Your response to my sofa story may have been, why didn’t you just go out and buy one? Except the kind of sofa I wanted was a large purchase, and that costs money, doesn’t it? In a marriage, you usuall...
The Hedge – Boundaries and Walking Between the Worlds
The term “hedge” in relation to a spiritual path often simply means that one is not dedicated to any particular path or organisation. However, in an earth-based tradition, the word also takes on a dee...
Hedgewitch: Your Key to the Universe
Consider your life as a fertile patch of ground, ready for planting your personal den of potential. Take a few moments, and think of what you’d like to grow there. Success? Good health? Financial gain...
Personal Empowerment for the Hedgewitch
The HedgeWitch guide is separated into fourteen segments, each segment entitled a “night” because that is the time normally scheduled for the rite. Begin in the morning by reading the affirmation and ...
Rite of the Enchanted Woods
There are two ways in which you can perform this rite. You can visit the physical woods (with a friend) in a safe area sometime throughout the day or afternoon, or you can use the magickal wood chosen...
Clutterbuck, Old Dorothy (1880–1951)
The high priestess of a coven of hereditary Witches in the New Forest of England, who initiated Gerald Gardner into Witchcraft in 1939. Little was known about Clutterbuck for many years, prompting som...
CROWLEY, ALEISTER: An Opinion from Doreen Valiente
Aleister Crowley earns a place in witchcraft, not because he was a witch, but because he was not ! This, of course, does not stop Crowley’s name being dragged into every Sunday newspaper’s latest “Exp...
Alex Sanders. A Magic Childhood
Left to himself, Alex might have ended his foray into witchcraft there and then, but family circumstances forced him into contact with his grandmother almost daily and before long he found himself bec...
Margaret Murray (1863 – 1963) Part Two
Murray, seeing parallels with her Egyptology work, started digging through documents, and in 1917 she published “Organizations of Witches in Great Britain” in the Folklore Journal. That dry-sound...
Doctor John (19th century)
Famous American witch doctor, Doctor John (also called Bayou John and Jean Montaigne) was a free black man who owned slaves in antebellum New Orleans. A huge man, Doctor John claimed he was a prince i...
Alex Sanders- The Haunted Hill
In 1939 David was born, the sixth and last of Alex’s brothers and sisters, and soon afterward war broke out. Alex, with most of the other children in Manchester, was evacuated to the country to escape...
Margaret Murray (1863 – 1963) Part One
Margaret Murray was noted Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, folklorist, and first-wave feminist, she is now best-known for a series of books on witchcraft that profoundly shaped the modern ...
Hohman, John George (d. ca. 1845)
Hohman, John George. The most famous braucher in the powwowing tradition of folk magic, spells, hexes and healing. John George Hohman was a German immigrant to America and the author of the widely cir...
Alex Sanders – Calling Down the Spirits
When Alex was seventeen he met a girl who was a keen spiritualist. Learning of his interest in the occult she invited him to a meeting. He was curious to see if it had anything in common with witchcra...
Duncan, Helen (1898–1956)
Duncan, Helen (1898–1956) British Spiritualist whose conviction on flimsy charges of witchcraft led to the repeal of Britain’s Witchcraft Act of 1736, thus clearing the way for the public practice of ...
Bury St. Edmonds Witches
Bury St. Edmonds Witches Of the various witch trials of Suffolk, England, conducted in Bury St. Edmonds during the 17th century, two episodes stand out. In 1645, 68 witches went to their deaths on the...
Alex Sanders – The Young Initiate
There was nothing about the day to suggest it would change the course of his life and influence him until the day he died. It was grey and cheerless, like many other days in Manchester, and Alex was a...
Biddy Early (1798–1874)
Irish seer and healer often described as a witch. Most of what is known about Biddy Early has been collected from oral tradition, and many of the stories about her have numerous variations. Nonetheles...
Gardner, Gerald B(rousseau) (1884–1964)
Gerald Gardner (1884–1964) English Witch and founder of contemporary Witchcraft as a religion. Hereditary Witches and practitioners of family tradition witchcraft object to Gardner being credited as t...
Dafo
The pseudonym or magical name of the woman who initiated Gerald Gardner into witchcraft around 1939–40.The identity of Dafo remains uncertain. She is sometimes confused with Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, w...
Crowley, Aleister (1875–1947)
The most controversial and perhaps least understood magician and occultist of his time, Aleister Crowley has been both vilified and idolized. He was a man of both low excesses and high brilliance. He ...
Abramelin the Mage (1362–1460)
A Jew from Würzburg, Germany, Abraham, or Abramelin, created a body of magical works that for centuries influenced magicians, including Aleister Crowley. An expert on the Kabbalah, Abramelin said he l...
Fortune, Dion (1891–1946)
The magical name of Violet Mary Firth, British occultist and author whose books continue to have an impact on modern witchcraft and Paganism. Considered one of the leading occultists of her time, Dion...
Leek, Sybil (1923–1983)
English witch and astrologer who moved to America in the 1960s and gained fame by publicizing the renaissance of witchcraft in the Western world. Her trademarks were a cape, loose gowns and a jackdaw ...
Cornelius Agrippa
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, 1486-1535, German mystic and alchemist. Agrippa of Nettesheim was born of a once-noble family near Cologne and studied both medicine and law there, apparentl...
Eleanor Bone
English Witch, one of the original high priestesses initiated by Gerald B. Gardner. Eleanor “Ray” Bone followed Gardner’s footsteps in the media attention and was sometimes called the Matriarch of Bri...
To be a Witch
A witch is either a woman or a man who knows that he or she is a witch. A witch is a natural. A witch realizes certain powers; represents, rather than worships them; calls them Goddess and God (withou...
Levitation
A paranormal phenomenon whereby a body or object is raised up into the air in defiance of gravity. Levitation has been reported in cases of bewitchment, hauntings and possession; it also is attributed...
Sacred Space in Witchcraft
Sacred space means different things to different people. So really, the only way I can get around that is to tell you what it means to me. Sacred space is an enclosure we create, if you like, an artif...
Witchcraft in Brief
Witchcraft is the ability to harness and use the powers of nature and one’s own personal energy in order to create a desired effect in theworld. It is ancient and found the world over, in various form...
Ill-Wishing in Witchcraft
A curse that is the product of envy, revenge and anger. In earlier times, people commonly blamed their misfortune on the ill-wishing of others. If two people argued and then one suffered a mishap, bec...
The Brocken: A Witches Meeting Ground
The Brocken, also called the Blocksberg, was the most famous meeting place for witches in Europe. An old-fashioned poet, Matthison, wrote of it with gruesome awe. The horn of Satan grimly sounds; On B...
Witchcraft The Key to Manifestation
It is advantageous that you realize just what is accessible through this technique. I have spent many years charting and understanding the concept of thought and the body of the mindscape as a way of ...
Witchcraft & Service
Let’s not confuse the word service with the word servitude. You service the forces with which you interrelate. You are in service to life itself. This is our deity, which we consider both our Goddess ...
Witchcraft Distribution & Disassociation
The term “harm” is perpetrated through either ignorance or intent. Ignorance is a social problem brought about because the flesh we eat is prepackaged and is often not considered flesh; because our fr...
Witchcraft & Self Analysis
The biological animal and the soul that infuses it has an innate ability to handle its own life and transcend both the internal and the external problems that arise through merely being alive (in this...
Contemplation in Witchcraft
Contemplation is a very natural way of focusing and inspiring the mindscape. It is best accessed through an activity (sometimes repetitive) that doesn’t require the mental concentration of reading or ...
Mulengro in Witchcraft
Mulengro is the name of an entity that is like an alien barb; one that has become an out-of-control arrow that pierces generation upon generation with its poison. It feeds on its own likeness, and peo...
Intention in your Witchcraft
Know, at all times, why you are doing what you are doing.Know your own motives well.Exercise caution in your undertakings, as each action, each thought, is to be clearly of your own choosing.Each thou...
What is Green Witchcraft
Green Witchcraft is a term often used interchangeably with the descriptor Hedge Witch. There are certain similarities between the paths but the fundamental core of each path is very different. Where t...
Witches and Witchcraft Moving Forward
Alister Crowley’s “love under will.” When we consider Wilt. The saying goes love under will. But he says do what thou wilt. Turning will…into a verb. This could possibly be of some great importance. I...
A Witches Personal Power
Personal power is a natural growth process that develops as a result of the life you live in the way of the witch. Others will notice you even when you do not desire to be noticed. Therefore, personal...
What is Witchcraft
Witchcraft is the set of beliefs and practices employed by Witches in ritual and spellwork. Often, magical work is incorporated into the Shabbat and Esbat celebrations observed by covens and solitary ...
Some Basic Beliefs of Witches, Part One
One of the witches’ most important basic beliefs, obviously, is the reality and possibility of magic. This involves the idea that the physical world is only part of reality, the part that we are able ...
The Witches’ Darkened Room
Within the corner of a darkened room, a woman sits on a chair and hums a repetitive tune. Her eyes are closed and she rocks back and forth, back and forth, back and forth-seeming to sway in some invis...
Antiquity in Witchcraft
Witchcraft is as old as the human race. It dates from the days when, by the flickering light of a clay lamp, a Stone Age artist worked in the silent depths of a cave sanctuary, drawing upon the walls ...
Cunning Man /Cunning Woman
Village witch or healer who provided cures, remedies, charms, spells and divination, usually in exchange for a fee or gift. “Cunning” comes from the Old English term kenning, meaning “wise” or “knowle...
Witchcraft in the Bible
The best-known Biblical text referring to witchcraft is verse 18 in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus, which states: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” It is printed on the title-page of ...
Crossroads A heavily charged place of Magick
The Greek goddess of witchcraft, Hecate, was also the goddess of the crossroads, and animals were sacrificed to her at such locations. It was believed that Hecate appeared at crossroads on clear night...
Some Basic Beliefs of Witches
One of the witches’ most important basic beliefs, obviously, is the reality and possibility of magic. This involves the idea that the physical world is only part of reality, the part that we are able ...
African Witchcraft
In African tribal traditions, witchcraft is part of the accepted supernatural landscape and is generally something to be feared. Study of African tribal religions illustrates the African ancestry of m...
Metamorphosis
The ability of witches, sorcerers and other magically empowered persons to transform themselves and other humans at will into animals, birds and insects. In witchcraft trials, people testified that t...
A History Of Witchcraft
Witchcraft probably originated about 25,000 years ago in the Palaeolithic era. At that time, humankind and nature were seen as inextricably linked. People acknowledged every rock, tree and stream as d...
A Call for Respect of your fellow Witches
I respect the solitary witches who blaze your own trails, walk your own paths, and listen to your own gods. It can be a lonely, yet rewarding, life. It is not for the faint of heart. From the solitary...
The Compass Round in Traditional Witchcraft
A lot of traditional witches do not cast a circle at all as this is not traditional witchcraft but some do cast a compass which is not a circle. It is very different. Rituals in Traditional Cra...
Canewdon Witches
According to a prophecy by the famous 19th-century cunning man James Murrell, the Essex village of Canewdon, located in England’s “witch country” of East Anglia, would be populated with witches “forev...
Esbat’s
An Esbat is a regular meeting of a coven of Witches at which religious worship is conducted, business is discussed and magic and healing work is done. The frequency of esbats depends on the coven. Mos...
Witches Curse
A curse is a spell intended to bring misfortune, illness, harm or death to a victim. Curses are the most dreaded form of magic, as curses are universal. They are “laid” or “thrown” primarily for reven...
The Setting of an Exorcism.
There is a special connection between the spirit and its possessing location, most often the victim’s bedroom or personal place. Anything that can be moved is taken out, such as rugs, lamps, dressers,...
Great Rite in Witchcraft
In contemporary Witchcraft, a powerful, magical rite of sexual intercourse that pays homage to the male/female polarity that exists in all things in the universe. The Great Rite expresses the physical...
Baphomet, An Explanation
This name was given to the statue of a mysterious deity alleged to be worshipped by the Knights Templars. The latter, although a powerful and wealthy order of chivalry, came to be distrusted by Church...
Granny Magick
The Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition of Witchcraft is one that is only recently being heard of. Though the tradition is a very old one, dating all the way back to the first settlers of the magical A...
Words on Witchcraft
In Witchcraft there is no formal priesthood although some witches working in a group or coven will have a High Priestess and High Priests who are leaders of that group. The fact that they are High Pri...
Evil Eye
The causing of illness, misfortune, calamity and death by the looks of strangers and by envious looks, amulets and incantations ward the danger off. The evil eye exists around the world, dating to an...
The Season of the Witch
From the Autumn Equinox until just after the Wild Hunt rides out around Samhain is the Season of the Witch. People all over the United States seem to know that this is true without...
The Mechanics Of Witchcraft
Magick takes place at what TS Eliot in The Four Quartets called the ‘still point of the turning world’, that moment of timelessness that enables thought to be turned into reality on the material plane...
Hermetica
Hermetica Forty-two sacred books of mystical wisdom attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus, or “thrice great Hermes,” the combined Egyptian and Greek deities of Thoth and Hermes, respectively....
The Theban Alphabet
The Theban alphabet otherwise known as the witch’s alphabet or runes of Honorious is believed to have emerged in the medieval period when cabbalistic practices were prominent among European magicians....
Lycanthropy
The transformation of a human being into a wolf. There are two types of lycanthropy: a mania in which a person imagines himself to be a wolf and exhibits a craving for blood; and the magical-ecstatic ...
Witchcraft & Flying
A belief during the witch hunts, that the Devil, his demons and witches could transport themselves and others through the air. Flying (also called transvection) was done with the aid of a broom, fork ...
Pagan Library
Please Click books for information and Pricing
Calling the Quarters
Also referred to as “drawing the quarters” this is a way of acknowledging the four cardinal directions and their Elemental associations, as well as the chosen deities of the coven or solitary Witch. I...
Blasting
The ability of witches to interfere with or destroy the fertility of man, beast, and crop. This malicious destruction was considered a common activity among witches, and remedies and preventive action...
Caul
The amniotic fetal membrane that sometimes clings to a newborn’s head or body after birth. Being born with a caul, or veil, has significance in folklore related to magical powers. A person born with a...
References to Witchcraft in the Bible
The best-known Biblical text referring to witchcraft is verse 18 in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus, which states: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” It is printed on the title-page of The D...
Flying Ointment
This greasy, trance-inducing substance was traditionally made of hallucinogenic (and often fatal) herbs that had been boiled in pig fat and then strained. It was called “green salve” or “witches’ oint...
The Compass Round in Traditional Witchcraft
A lot of traditional witches do not cast a circle at all as this is not traditional witchcraft but some do cast a compass which is not a circle. It is very different. Rituals in Traditional Craft are ...
The Brocken
The Brocken, also called the Blocksberg, was the most famous meeting place for witches in Europe. An old-fashioned poet, Matthison, wrote of it with gruesome awe. The horn of Satan grimly sounds; On B...
Glyph
In Witchcraft and magick, glyph is a term used to describe a powerful symbol that represents a person, place, or thing. When the glyph is consecrated, and/or acted upon, it can ward off psychic attack...
The Black Fast
This ritual was one of fasting to aid concentration, for some particular purpose. It was alleged to have been used by Mabel Brigge, who was executed for witchcraft at York in 1 538. The fast involved ...
Traditional Witchcraft
Traditional witchcraft is an umbrella term that includes many traditions. Essentially traditional witches are practitioners of forms of witchcraft that pre-date Wicca and new age practices. Some of th...
Some Basic Beliefs of Witches, Part Two
Between earthly incarnations, witches believe the soul rests in the Land of Faery, a pagan paradise like the Celtic Tir-Nan-Og, the Land of the Young. Many references to this pagan otherworld can be f...
Guazzo, Francesco-Maria (17th century)
Guazzo, Francesco-Maria (17th century) Italian friar who became well known as a demonologist and opponent of witches. Francesco-Maria Guazzo is best known as the author of Compendium Maleficarum (Hand...
Your First Steps to Witchcraft
Our first steps on the path of Witchcraft require us to connect to the earth and at least wonder about its inherent value. Could the earth, its seasons, and the natural realm really have value beyond ...
THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT 1.1
It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect...
Different Types & Traditions of Modern Witches
Alexandrian – Founded in England during the 1960’s by Alexander Sanders, self-proclaimed “King of the Witches”. An offshoot of Gardnerian, Alexandrian covens focus strongly upon training, emphasizing ...
Witchcraft Theory & Practice – Self Analysis exercises Two
This exercise makes use of what is called the Book of Elements. It’s going to be one of your primary grimoires. The technique is commonly used by most of the occultists whom I have known (myself inclu...
Witchcraft Theory & Practice – Self Analysis exercises one
Exercise 1 1. Choose a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. If you are working the technique alone, you will need pencil and paper. If you are working with someone else, they will need the p...
To Be a Witch
A witch is either a woman or a man who knows that he or she is a witch. A witch is a natural. A witch realizes certain powers; represents, rather than worships them; calls them Goddess and God (withou...
The Witches Cauldron
The cauldron, like the broomstick and the black cat, is one of the features of any scene of witchcraft as pictured in the popular mind. Some of the belief derives from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, wher...
Witchcraft – The Four Fire Festivals
The Fire Festivals interweave themselves with the lesser Sabbats of the solstice and equinox, but whereas the solstices and equinoxes mark the transitions of the Sun in its association with the Earth,...
Witchcraft The Disciplines
Hallowed Be Thy Name Hailed, and walled, with garnet and with topaz The Temples of my Family! Deep in scarlet velvet and in black Come lay with me Entwine and sweat and softly moan before the Fire; Be...
Witchcraft, The Law of Congruity
The Law of Congruity is the law of cause and effect: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That does not imply that the effect is either relative or recognizable in any human evaluation-it ...
Chimes outside your Door
Try hanging a set of chimes outside your door or a bell. Ringing bells and chimes are said to ward off and dismiss those negative energies that may wish to imprint themselves on your life.
Witches Besom with Bristles Up
Try placing a besom or a broom with its bristles up near the entry of your home. Any spirits with the intention of harm will have to pass through the bristles in order to get to you.
Magnetic Oil Charged Water
Try placing a bowl of magnetic oil-charged water in your rooms to soak up negativity. Float candles in it to make it a little less obvious and use black stones or black glass marbles to purify.
Guardian Totem
Place a small guardian totem such as a dragon or gargoyle and explain it’s duties. People will just think you like statues of animals, usually.
Witchcraft Supplies & Tools
The most important thing to note when getting into witchery is that supplies are anything at your disposal. You don’t need fancy materials. A simple candle or a small necklace is more than enough. Wha...
Witchcraft, Wicca and Modern Druidry
Wicca and Modern Druidry began in the 1950s. They have their roots and inspiration in the old traditions of Witchcraft and the Druids, yet were formed in order to create branches of a modern Western P...
Glyph
In Witchcraft and magick, glyph is a term used to describe a powerful symbol that represents a person, place, or thing. When the glyph is consecrated, and/or acted upon, it can ward off psychic attack...
Witchcraft Focus
Focus is rather difficult to describe in a linear fashion. It is achieved when you link emotion and intellect in one function for the purpose of actualization, by will, of the desired outcome. It does...
Witchcraft Preparation
The preparation required of you when working magic, as well as ritual, if possible should be done with the idea of excellence kept clearly at the forefront of your thoughts. Should you be preparing a ...
Forgetting Humans. The Secret Granary and the Cup That Must Be Broken
For all of the people out there who are looking to spiritual systems, whether exoteric or esoteric, or who look to sorcerous systems and metaphysical pursuits to make themselves into better people, fi...
The Hermetic Principles
Witchcraft can be said to employ the Law of Attraction in a sense, though magic can be much more complex than simply focusing one’s thoughts on the desired outcome. It might be more accurate to say th...
No Turning Back from Witchcraft
Once you have chosen to take upon yourself the obligations of the practice of Witchcraft, then the effects, or the immanence, of this way of life will be bestowed on you from aligned intelligence, and...
Learning Witchcraft
Whether reading grimoires or studying under a teacher, it can be difficult to truly know how to discern true value from innocent babble or even outright deception. As such, when one is Seeking out the...
Types of Witchcraft
Witchcraft is the magical manipulation of energy to bring about change. The energy used by a witch may be environmental, from herbs, stones and other natural objects, or it may come from the witch her...
Witchcraft Awareness
Don’t miss anything. In all of your undertakings, have all your senses working at their fullest potency; this is necessary in your magical, ritual, and personal activities. Of primary significance is ...
Understanding The Terms of Witchcraft
The Terms of witchcraft are meant to transport the practitioner into the heart of life itself, where words are ultimately limitations and qualifiers. More specifically, they can guide practitioners to...
Cauls use in Witchcraft
The amniotic fetal membrane that sometimes clings to a newborn’s head or body after birth. Being born with a caul, or veil, has significance in folklore related to magical powers. A person born with a...
Exorcism
The expulsion of evil spirits by commanding them to depart. The expulsion is often done in the name of a deity, saints, angels or other intercessory figures. Exorcism comes from the Greek horkos, mean...
Lucius Apuleius
Lucius Apuleius is best known to us as the author of The Golden Ass, one of the most famous romances in the world, containing as it does the story of Cupid and Psyche. His importance to the study of w...
Blasting in Witchcraft
The ability of witches to interfere with or destroy the fertility of man, beast, and crop. This malicious destruction was considered a common activity among witches, and remedies and preventive action...
Mathew Hopkins
Hopkins, Matthew (?–1647?) England’s most notorious professional witch-hunter, who brought about the condemnations and executions of at least 230 allegedwitches, more than all other witch-hunters comb...
Fairy Witch of Clonmel (1894)
Fairy Witch of Clonmel (1894) A young woman named Bridget Cleary, of Clonmel, County Tipperary, who was tortured and burned to death because her husband believed the fairies had spirited her away and ...
Hibbins, Ann (d. 1656)
Hibbins, Ann (d. 1656) Prominent Boston woman convicted of witchcraft and executed. Her chief crime as a witch seemed to have been a bad temper, which was disliked by her neighbors. Ann Hibbins was ma...
Graves, William (17th century)
Graves, William (17th century) Connecticut man accused of witchcraft over a dispute with his daughter and son-in-law. Though no legal action was taken against William Graves, his case indicates how ea...
Bamberg Witches
At the center of the worst witch tortures and trials in Germany was Bamberg, a small state ruled by Gottfried Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim. The Hexenbischof (Witch Bishop) von Dornheim, as he wa...
Hawkins, Jane (17th century)
Hawkins, Jane (17th century) Massachusetts midwife and healer expelled on suspicions of witchcraft in the delivery of a deformed, stillborn fetus. The witchcraft accusations were mixed with a religiou...
The burning alive of Father Louis Gaufridi
The burning alive of Father Louis Gaufridi for bewitchment of the nuns at Aix in 1611 formed the legal precedent for the conviction and execution of Urbain Grandier at Loudun more than 20 years later....
Gruber, Bernardo (17th century)
German trader accused of sorcery by Pueblo Indians in northern New Mexico. Bernardo Gruber was imprisoned. He escaped but died a strange death. In 1668, Gruber arrived in New Mexico with a pack train ...
Arras witches (1459–1460)
A mass witch hunt in Arras, northern France. The accused were brutally tortured and promised their lives, then burned at the stake. The incident roused the ire of the duke of Burgundy, and eventually ...
Ladder
Widely held superstitions that it is bad luck to walk beneath a ladder are related in part to fears about witches, especially during the witch hunt times in colonial America. Not all witches were burn...
Chelmsford Witches
Chelmsford witches Four major witch trails in the 16th–17th centuries that resulted in numerous convictions and executions. The first trial occurred in the summer of 1566, under the rule of Queen Eliz...
Corey Giles (d 1692)
Executed in the Salem Witches hysteria of 1692–93 by being pressed to death for not acknowledging the right of the court to try him on charges of witchcraft. Giles Corey was a well-to-do man of Salem ...
Butters, Mary (late 18th–early 19th centuries)
An attempt to cure a cow of bewitchment with white magic ended in disaster for Mary Butters, the “Carmoney Witch,” who narrowly escaped a trial in Carrickfergus, Ireland, in March 1808. Butters was a ...
Corey, Martha (d. 1692)
The fourth person to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witches hysteria of 1692–93, who was tried and executed. Martha Corey was the wife of Giles Corey, who also was executed. The Coreys were wel...
Burroughs George (d. 1692)
Burroughs, George (d. 1692) Minister accused of witchcraft and executed in the Salem Witches hysteria in Massachusetts in 1692 to 1693. George Burroughs served as minister of Salem Village from 1680 t...
Gowdie, Isobel:1662
Scottish witch whose stories of wild sexual escapades with the Devil titillated and shocked her stern neighbors and reinforced the prevailing beliefs in witches as evil creatures bent on destroying th...
Cole, Ann (17th century)
Accused witch in Hartford,Connecticut, who was believed to be under demonic possession. The case was recorded in a letter written by Reverend John Whiting, which in turn was published by Increase Math...
Greensmith, Rebecca (17th century)
Hartford, Connecticut, woman accused of witchcraft, who confessed and was executed. Rebecca Greensmith and her third husband, Nathaniel, lived next door to Ann Cole. The couple was reasonably affluent...
Good, Dorcas (17th century)
The youngest victim of the Salem Witches hysteria of 1692–93. Dorcas Good was the daughter of Sarah Good, one of the first persons to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Only fo...
Burning Times
A term used by Witches and Pagans to refer to the period in Western history of intense witch-hunting and executions, generally the mid-15th to mid18th centuries. Burning, one of the most extreme forms...
Bodin, Jean (1529–1596)
Bodin, Jean (1529–1596) French demonologist and political theorist who encouraged the vicious persecution of witches and helped fan the fires of the Inquisition throughout Europe. Jean Bodin said that...
Bishop, Bridget (d. 1692)
Bridget (d. 1692) The first victim of the Salem Witches hysteria in Massachusetts in 1692–93. Bridget Bishop was the first to be accused and examined, and the first to be tried and executed. Bishop wa...
Women who Burned
“It was not witches who burned. It was women. Women who were seen as Too beautiful Too outspoken Had too much water in the well Who had a birthmark Women who were too skilled with herbal medicine Too ...
Burning at the Stake as a Punishment for Witches
Contrary to popular belief, witches were not burned at the stake in England, after the Reformation. Instead, death sentences were carried out by hanging. In Scotland, however, the sentence of burning ...
The Persecution Of Witches
In medieval times, there were possibly many issues, political, religious, and otherwise, that brought about the persecution of witches. Amongst other things, These issues included the religious emphas...
Witchcraft Theory & Practice – Solstice and Equinox
The Wheel of Solstice and Equinox is as follows: Winter Solstice (known as Yule); to Spring Equinox (known as Ostara); to Summer Solstice (known as Litha); thence to Autumn Equinox (known as Mabon). T...
Problems with the Climate
Are you troubled about traipsing through the chill of the night? Do you get singed in the sun or think an icy downpour is a downer? Witchcarft is a spiritual tradition that includes many practices tha...
Weather Magick
Witches were once believed to be able to raise the wind at their pleasure. In a confession made at Auldearn in Nairnshire in the year 1662, certain women accused of sorcery said, “When we raise the wi...
Weather Lore
The local Wise Woman or Cunning Man would have a pretty good grasp on predicting the weather. So would local farmers, if they paid attention to their landscape, which, given it was their livelihood. G...
Visualization in Witchcraft
Proficiency in visualization is most important to all occult training. The receptacle of the imagination is integral to the processes of creation. Change through intent begins with inspiration, passin...
Pentacle Tarot
● Ace- material gains, growth, happiness; (R) immobility, empty wealth● King- sensible, worldliness, manifest ideas; (R) inability, corrupt● Queen- stability, culture, plans become reality; (R) neglec...
Tarot Cards ( Breaking in a New Deck)
When breaking in a new deck, you may wish to do so with a dedication using incense. Maybe you could use incense-like Frankincense, and sprinkle an herb (such as rue, betony, cinquefoil, burdock, elde...
Symbols Of Magick
Although you can carry out rituals using absolutely anything, you may like to create a special set of symbols for a variety of rituals. These you can keep in a separate box within your main store of m...
Ostara Blessing
Ostara Blessings to all. Today is the Spring Equinox when night and day are both at equal length. If you go out late afternoon you might just catch the rising Moon in the sky at exactly the same time ...
The Spring Equinox / Ostara, Explained
The Time of The Spring Equinox is From sunset on or about 20th March for three days Its Focus is The triumph of light over darkness, resurrection, new beginnings and opportunities; spring cleani...
Earth-Centered Spirituality
A long time ago in the ancient days of our ancestors, when human communities were more a less tribal and before the introduction of any religion, there were earth-centered practices. Unlike religion, ...
How to Write your own Spells
While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using other peoples’ spells — and in fact there is an entire industry devoted to publishing books full of them — there are times when you may wish to use yo...
To Cast a Spell
Probably the most obvious characteristic of a Witch was the ability to cast a spell. A spell being the word used to signify the means employed to carry out a magical action. A spell could consist of a...
Spell crafting exercise
Exercise1. Do not do the following exercises in bed until you are used to the technique, as it is likely that you will fall asleep. 2. Have a soft, dim lamp or a lighted candle behind you somewhere, a...
Rune in a Witches Home
You can inscribe a rune of protection into your doorway, or place a rune somewhere behind something if you want to be secretive. Talismans such as the Sator Square work well for this.
A Ritual To Wash Away Negativity
Infusions can be made, using lemon, peppermint, pine or tea tree oil, to wash away negative feelings. Use 12 drops of essential oil to a bucket of hot water. Alternatively, add two peppermint tea bags...
Winter’s End Ritual
You Will Need A White candle A Corn dolly A Fireproof receptacle Either the sticky burrs from a cleavers plant (which has a cleansing effect) or several pieces of paper on which you have written your ...
A Spring Equinox Cleaning Ritual
Use this ritual to welcome the winds of positive change You can perform it on any of the three days of the rising equinox energies that precede the equinox. Alternatively, it can be adapted for cleans...
Ritual and Spellwork
It might be said that Witchcraft, recognizes the laws of the Universe symbolically through the Goddess and God, the Wheel of the Year, and reverence for all living things. Rituals performed in celebra...
Rituals in Magick
Ritual magick is no different from any other activity that you may carry out in a systematic way. Yes, it is true, it is more formal than folk magick: you are using special tools and following a serie...
Rite of Wind
Light incense. Pass over working area. Place the representation of your magick key near your other supplies for this night. Close your eyes, and envision yourself surrounded by white light. Take ...
Samhain Rites and Rituals for a Hedgewitch
As this is the time when the veils between the worlds are thin, the Hedge Druid’s Craft concerns working with the ancestors and the Fair Folk at this time of the year. She can travel to the Lower worl...
Rite of Celestial Power
Places your calendar on the center of the altar, along with your magickal key. Ring your bell or chimes eleven times. If you can, go outside and light your favorite incense. If you are confined inside...
Rite of the Mountain
Light incense. On a purple candle, inscribe the word mountain with a pin, nail, or clay inscribing tool. Place the candle in a safe holder, and light. Intone the following mountain charm: Herbal magic...
Rite of Stone
Arrange your thirteen chosen gemstones around your dedication candle. You will not light your dedication candle tonight; instead, we are preparing your altar for the final ceremony. Put your magick ke...
Rite of Thunder
Arrange the white candle, the bowl of aromatic herbs, and your magick key on your altar near the black and white plate project from last night. This particular rite is mostly mental, so relax and take...
The Hedge Craft – Rites and Rituals
We previously looked at the word, enchantment (en chantement, “to sing into”) as that which brings the songs of magic and the universe together so there is a flow, balance and harmony as well as a gui...
Rite of Silence
This ritual is dedicated to pampering yourself, which means you won’t be working at your altar. You may visit a gym or a spa, or take a long, luxurious bath followed by a personal hygiene regime. You ...
Summer Solstice Rites and Rituals for a Hedgewitch
The time of the greatest light, this is a good time of the year to harness the energy towards your goals. Riding the tide, we can stand in the heat of the noon-day sun and allow its energy to flow thr...
Rite of Starry Sky
Tonight we are not using incense but enjoying the aroma of the Florida water and the fresh flowers. Sprinkle yourself with the Florida water. Go outside (or look out a window), and count the number of...
Rite of Rain
Place your magick key and the special glass bottle filled with the listed herbs beside your pebbles on your altar. Fill the bottle with blessed water. Swirl the bottle nine times, intoning the followi...
Essential Healing Salve Recipe
When it comes to healing salves, there are a couple kinds that prove their need most often. Though everyone has different preferences and different recipes for those salves, these are ours. Sore Muscl...
Elderberry Syrup Recipe
This homemade elderberry syrup can be taken at the first sign of a cough, cold, or flu. It’s also great as a daily immunity booster. For cold and flu. Adults, use 1 tablespoon every 2-3 hours. For chi...
The Best of Elderberries
The elderberry recipes here are what will make the bounty of your foraging a real prize. A recipe is what brings surprise to all you’ve gathered. There is much to learn from bringing your abundance in...
What is A Psychic Attack?
A spiritual or psychic attack is when someone intentionally sends negative energy your way. All that’s really required is for someone to think negative thoughts or wish you ill for that energy to affe...
Symptoms of a Psychic Attack
Below are a few of the many examples of what can be experienced by a psychic attack Having nightmares: Having frightening and unpleasant dreams Seeing the attacker front and center: Seeing the at...
Herbal Poppets
This is also known as the “voodoo doll,” although it has been in magical use at least 4,000 years and was only lately associated with voodoo. Though they have been made out of roots, potatoes, lead, b...
Herbal Poppets And Sachets
Traditionally, empowered herbs were used to fill either sachets or featureless dolls called herbal poppets. They were made for love, protection, prosperity, fertility, healing and success and could co...
Water Lilly
Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains five genera ...