Witch Woman aka Crystal Raven

Last time, in the first of the series What is a Hedge Witch, I covered a lot about what a hedge witch is by definition and briefly touched upon what a hedge witch does. I think, however, that there is more to delve into and so this is Part II of what is becoming The Hedge Witch Series, A Day in the Life of a Hedge Witch.

I will base this day mostly on what used to be typical of mine and what I am aiming to getting back to doing, but I'll make it a bit busier just to give you a better sense of the wide variety activities that could be done. I know point form is not the greatest thing for blogging, but I really cannot think of a better or clearer format for this, I'll refrain from adding bullets too!

Wake up, stretch and make a coffee, stand by the kitchen window, open it a crack (at least) and greet the day with a small prayer, something like:
Good morning Mother Earth,
thank you for another day,
may I percieve all the blessings you have bestown upon me




Sit with coffee and do Morning Pages, which I have mentioned before here, to get all the gookies and negative energy out of one's system.

Have a shower, with a square of cheesecloth filled with lavendar, rosemary and bay, tied off and hung from the shower head, to wash away negativity that might be clinging to the aura and physical self.

Meditate for 15 minutes, set your intentions for the day and say a wee prayer.

Now the rest of the day is filled with regular people stuff, getting kids ready and off to school, going to work, doing housework etc, but the Hedge Witch may be doing a few extras in the midst of it all such as...

a spell and quick ritual for child that is going to camp and requires a pouch:
~grab some herbs from the garden, cupbord or store
~grab three bunches of embroidery thread in the appropriate colours like red for love, green for health and black for protection
~scoop a few stones from the altar
~collect other bits and bobs, a piece of material to wrap it all in, things to consencrate it all with etc
~go to prefered working area, the garden, kitchen, dinig room table, altar and put it all together with prayers and/or chanting ( a chant may go like this:  Earth and Air, Fire and Water, Give Protection, To your daughter! Stone and Wind, Flame and River, Protection now, Be delivered!)

Check existing spells and amulets around the house. Does the garlic in the kitchen window for protecting the house need replaced, do the dream catchers need a dusting, any ritual items like stones or tools that need to be buried, sat in moonlight, or soaked in water, anyones existing pouches need rechaged.

Feed the birds and/or local wildlife.

Recycle.

Do some community service, this could be anything from blogging about recent enviromental issues, donating time to the local animal shelter or even picking up garbage as one walks down the street.

Study or read up on something. Learning is an ongoing process, there are always more Gods or Goddesses, plants or herbs, animals or enviromental issues to learn more about.

Prepare for an upcoming Sabbat or Esbat. Most witches celebrate the Sabbats, which are holy days throughout the year, the Spring Equinox and Fall Equinox would be two examples, and Esbats, which are days when the moon is Full or Dark or New. To prepare most witches at least write down a loose outline as to what they will be doing to celebrate. They may also look up new (or even old) chants or spells, pull out boxes of decorations and make sure the right foods are in the house. Do I feel Part III of the series starting to form?

Make dinner. Now I am going to briefly traverse into Kitchen Witch Territory, but Hedgies do this stuff too. Before I start making dinner I light a candle near my stove and ask for blessings and protection upon my home and family. If there is food to stir I always stir desoile, clockwise, and I may add certain herbs not only for their flavours but also for their magickal properties.

We always say grace at dinner to thank the Divine for all our blessings, which I insist the household does but guests are not required to.

Family celebration of a Sabbat, this may include a fancy dinner, presents, making wishes, telling stories or doing crafts.

Children say bedtimes prayers. This is the second religious thing I insist they do, the most popular one goes like this:
Mother of all things, watch over me tonight,
Hold me in your arms, until the morning light.

Blessed be,
Mommy, Daddy, all my family and me!


Conduct a solitary ritual to celebrate a Sabbat or Esbat, my children are not allowed to participate in heavy ritual until they are at least 14 and there is no sacraficing of animals nor humans, no blood involved in any way nor is there any hexing or cursing unless I burn my finger as I try to put a candle out.

Decharge, this consists of emptying all the excessive and negative energy into a bowl or water, a rock or the dirt.

Meditate

Say my own bedtime prayer.

Well thats about it, not much different from anyone else's day really but I hope you enjoyed the read!

I consider myself a Hedge Witch, not a Wiccan, so lets clarify that first. I'll use a well known religion for a comparison; imagine Christianity is a tree, Catholic is one branch, Anglican another branch and Baptist yet another. Now we have the Pagan tree, Wicca is a branch, Druid is another branch and Green, Cottage, Kitchen and Hedge Witchery (though all somewhat different) yet another branch. Pagans refer to the different branches as Traditions.

Now before I go any further, let me say that as with all things Pagan, the opinion and answers you receive will be different for almost every practitioner you ask, so these are my definitions which are probably different from someone else's.

Some believe that certain prerequisites must be met before one can call themselves a Hedge Witch, some of those are:

• one must be initiated by a coven and now be solitary
• one must be able to engage in spirit flight and journey into the Other World
• one must able to go into the Other World and call back the souls of those who are about to die or at the very least be able speak with those who have passed beyond
• one should be associated with a bird, usually a raven, crow or goose

if they are not met, which more and more frequently these days they are not, it is seen as a degeneration of the tradition, however, there are others that do not see a need for these prerequisites at all. Rea Beth is one of those in the latter camp and coined the term Hedge Mystic, a person who studies and practices the Great Mysteries of Nature.

The term Hedge Witch is generally believed to related to the village witches of old and comes from the fact that your average European village, in time gone by, was surrounded by a hedge or woods. Beyond that hedge was unknown land that was beyond their known confines and comforts. The village witches of this era usually lived just beyond or just before this hedge. The hedge was a seen as a barrier, both realistically and metaphorically, between this world and Other Worlds.

Now, I must digress for a moment and mention in passing that a common definition for Shaman is "one who walks in both worlds" or "a walker between the worlds". And there are witches and others who are not Shamans, yet use shamanic techniques, meaning they also do journeys and go into trance states to travel to Other Worlds.

So a Hedge Witch uses shamanic techniques, with the hedge as a metaphor, to travel to other worlds or realms.

This term didn't mean just that though. It also denoted that said witch was an herb worker, a healer, because they spent much time in the hedge or woods looking for the herbs necessary to heal or enchant.

So now you know where the term came from, but what does a hedge witch do?

A hedge witch may learn their trade or craft by word of mouth, some from a family member or another village/local witch or be self-taught. One may learn ways to learn from nature, such as listening to the winds or watching cloud formations or the movement of birds. Studying trees, flowers and herbs may also be done.

One would celebrate the sabbats by the change of the seasons and not by a Wheel of the Year or a date on a calender. More than likely they would have other Holy days besides the sabbats.
They may or may not worship Gods and Goddesses as hedge witches all view the Divine differently. I personally only focus on the female aspects and women's mysteries and worship only Goddesses. I also honour my ancestors by only dealing with the Celtic pantheon, again these are my personal choices and will be different for almost every witch.

Hedge witchery does have some common threads; one being that magick isn't just about spells and potions, it is in your morning coffee, in a gentle touch from your lover, in the complex beauty of a leaf, and in hundreds of thousands of other seemingly "mundane" things. This concept has been phrased as "Life is magick, and magick is life". I do craft spells and potions though, a healing pouch for a friend that is ill, a protective pouch for a family member who is going away or a spell to insure that all goes well and is on time for a move.

Another commonly accepted theme is practicality and simplicity. Hedge witches are a very practical group of people and from that practicality comes simplicity. I think in that simplicity, away from the athames, the pentacles, and silver plated chalices; we are able to connect more fully to the natural forces. All too often people get lost in the symbols and forget their meanings.
I know alot of pagans, when investigating a new path, that first want to know what toys (tools) a tradition uses. In keeping with the hedge witch way, a hedge witch uses a variety of tools, some ornate and fancy but most of them practical and useful.

My personal tool set consists of: an athame (dull knife), a chalice, a boline (sharp knife), a walking stick, and a stone. These tools I consecrated by earth (I buried each tool for a day), air(I left them out above ground during a full moon), fire (I held each in a flame for as long as the materials aloud), water (I submerged each in the bay) and for spirit i asked the blessings of the Goddess and Faeries upon them.

Most hedge witches, my self included, are very ethical people, though most do not follow any one Rede as Wiccans do. They usually have basic lines they, individually, will not cross.

Hedge witches are charmers, healers, and, priestesses and generally considered free spirits. Hedge craft is a very eclectic path, mostly because it depends on each witch as to how it is practiced.