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Enchanted Forest Magazines

These are magazines we put together from articles posted on site by all members.
These magazines are Free!! We have done these since almost the beginning and have
over 70 in our Scribd Library.
On the right side of the Forest pages you will see current magazine covers shown..
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to Thank all those who have supported our magazine through the years.. great read
with allot of helpful information.
Thank you
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We at the Enchanted Forest are honoured to support and host the live chats
given by Susun Weed on a monthly basis. Susun is an expert in her field of
Herbs and this is a great opportunity for all to increase their knowledge
and skills by learning from Susun FREE !!!
To come along to these chats join
http://enchantedforrest.ning.com/group/herbswithsusunweed
Times of classes below
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Central - 6 pm
Eastern - 7 pm
Western 4 pm
Mountain Time 5 pm
Australia (Melbourne) - 11 am
UK - Midnight

MAKING A LIST OF
WHAT YOU WANT
Posted by Kate

Outlining Your Intentions

The universe is aware of both the concrete goals we actively pursue and the nebulous
dreams we have not yet begun to refine. Neither our struggles nor the daydreams that
inspire us are beyond the range of universal perception. Yet to manifest our aspirations,
we not only need to know what it is we generally wish to achieve; we also need to
clearly articulate these aims to ourselves and the universe. When we create a list of what
we want, citing each item in as much detail as possible, our aspirations take on new
substance. What was once a mere wish becomes real and achievable when put into
words. As you pour the contents of your heart and soul into your list, your well-defined
ambitions become a part of you, and the universe responds to your new determination
by placing opportunities related to your objectives in your path.
Whatever the nature of your desires, your list can help you channel your intellectual
and emotional power into your efforts to realize them. The list you create should not
simply be a record of your individual goals. Rather, it should be a comprehensive,
exhaustive catalog of each target you want to reach and your reasons for aiming for
them. This may mean that your list will encompass many pages of text, since when you
write down and review your ambitions, you empower yourself to more accurately direct
your goal-realization efforts. You then also have a framework in place that helps you
distinguish success from setbacks. If you keep your list in a convenient spot and review
it daily, you will inadvertently reaffirm your conviction to your aspirations,
demonstrating to the universe that you are truly devoted to your chosen path while
keeping your objectives fresh in your mind. If you have an altar, this would be a great
place to keep your list.
As you compose your list, try not to edit or judge what you have written. Some of what
you want may seem outlandish when considered in the context of your current
circumstances. Whether you are destined to fulfill the items on the unique long-term
agenda you create in a year, 10 years, or 20 years, if you are free with your ideas and
understand that you may not bring these dreams into the realm of reality for some time,
your list will attract the universe's benevolence even as it energizes and inspires you.

BACK IN THE DRIVERS SEAT

Posted by Kate

The Passenger
Its easy to go through this fast-paced world feeling as if you are being dragged through
your weeks on the back of a wild horse. Many of us go from one thing to another until
we end up back at home in the evening with just enough time to wind down and go to
sleep, waking up the next morning to begin the wild ride once more. While this can be
exhilarating for certain periods of time, a life lived entirely in this fashion can be
exhausting, and more important, it places us in the passengers seat when really we are
the ones who should be driving.
When we get caught up in our packed schedule and our many obligations, weeks can
go by without us doing one spontaneous thing or taking time to look at the bigger
picture of our lives. Without these breaks, we run the risk of going through our
precious days on a runaway train. Taking time to view the bigger picture, asking
ourselves if we are happy with the course we are on and making adjustments, puts us
back in the drivers seat where we belong. When we take responsibility for charting our
own course in life, we may well go in an entirely different direction from the one laid
out for us by society and familial expectations. This can be uncomfortable in the short
term, but in the long term it is much worse to imagine living this precious life without
ever taking the wheel and navigating our own course.
Of course, time spent examining the big picture could lead us to see that we are happy
with the road we are on, but we would like more time with family or more free time to
do whatever we want at the moment. Even if we want more extreme changes, the way to
begin is to get off the road for long enough to catch our breath and remember who we
are and what we truly want. Once we do that, we can take the wheel with confidence,
driving the speed we want to go in the direction that is right for us.

DIFFICULT TIMES
Posted by Kate

Growing Pains
It can be very challenging to maintain a positive attitude and a measure of faith when
you are in the midst of difficult times. This is partly because we tend to think that if
the universe loves us we will experience that love in the form of positive
circumstances. However, we are like children, and the universe is our wise mother who
knows what our souls need to thrive better than we do. Just as a young child does not
benefit from getting everything she wants, we also benefit from times of constriction
and difficulty to help us grow and learn. If we keep this in mind, and continue to trust
that we are loved even when things are hard, it helps us bear the difficult time with
grace.
This period of time in history is full of difficulty for a lot of human beings, and you
may feel less alone knowing you are not being singled out. There are extreme energy
changes pulsing through the universe at every level and, of course, we are all part of
the growing process and the growing pains. It helps if we remember that life is one
phase after another and that this difficult time will inevitably give way to something
new and different. When we feel overwhelmed we can comfort ourselves with the wise
saying: This too shall pass.
At the same time, if you truly feel that nothing is going right for you, its never a bad
idea to examine your life and see if there are some changes you can make to alleviate
some of the difficulty. Gently and compassionately exploring the areas giving you the
most trouble may reveal things you are holding onto and need to release: unprocessed
emotions, unresolved transitions, or negative ways of looking at yourself or reality. As
you take responsibility for the things you can change, you can more easily surrender to
the things you cant, remembering all the while that this phase will, without doubt,
give way to another.

A Cleansing Ritual
Posted by Whispr

A Cleansing Ritual
1 tbls bicarbonate soda
5 drops essential oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp good oil, such as sweet almond
cup sea salt
Stir the soda, essential oil, lemon juice and oil together and then blend in the salt.
Dissolve in the bath water. Light 4 candles (colors of your choice) and place at the 4
corners of the tub.
Step slowly into the bath water, feeling it envelope around you.
Close your eyes.
Visualize yourself laying on the surface of the ocean. There is nothing around you, you
are alone and at peace. Feel the warmth of the sun beating down on you.
Say either out loud or quietly to yourself:
Be Comforted, All is well
Now you are blessed.
You have life to nurture and nurture you.
Be calm.
Be easy.
Be Comforted.
You are blessed.
Cleansing Ritual
Overview
This ritual is a self cleansing ritual. It was designed to cleans the body, mind & spirit of
residual negativity after being involved in magickal battles (specifically, exorcism).

Components & Tools

A tub to draw a bath.
A white candle
Essential Oil of Myrrh
Essential Oil of Frankincense
Sea Salt (fine, bath salts)
Preparations
Place the white candle so that it's light can shine upon you when you are in the tub.
Mix 9 drops Myrrh and 3 drops Frankincense into 1/8 cup sea salt. Be certain that you
will not be disturbed for at least 20 minutes, preferably an hour. Shut off the phone
ringers, etc.
Ritual
Invoke your sacred space. (using what means is appropriate for your practice)
Light the candle. Recite the following:
Spirits of Fire do I call upon thee.
Send thy divine fire and burn through the darkness.
Shed thy light upon me and clear the shadows of my soul.
Draw a bath of hot water. (the warmest you can comfortably get into) Recite the
following:
Oh spirits of water do I call upon thee.
Enter this sacred space and lend me thy cleansing powers.
From the waters we come and to water we return.
As the tub fills (about half way), sprinkle the salt into the waters. Recite the following:
Oh spirits of earth do I call upon thee.
Ground and disperse all that is not of light.
Mix with me and cleans me of the weight of darkness.
Once fill, settle into the tub. Relax and feel the light and warmth. Breath in the vapors
of the oils and recite the following:

Oh spirits of ear do I call upon thee.

Thou art my breath and my life.
Let me breath in thy light and release the smoke of darkness.
Breath and feel the energy about and within you. Feel the light of fire burning away
that which clings to you. Let the water's warmth wash through you, and lift away the
darkness. Feel the salt cling to the darkness and ground it for you. Feel your lungs fill
with light and carry out the fog of darkness as you exhale.
Remain in the bath till you feel that all the darkness that will release has left you.
Stand, or kneel, and pull the plug from the tub. As the water drains, recite the
following:
As we come from the waters so shall we return.
Oh earth and water, take from here the darkness.
Disperse it and ground it.
Let it weigh upon me no more.
Dry off.
Put out the candle.
Thank the divine and the spirits & open your sacred space

The experience and

the child within
Posted by Cynthia G

The experience and the child within

Being denied us our truth by those out there who force us to live their lie... How many
lifetimes does it take to learn that wisdom is that which blows through quantum
realities on the cosmic winds that blow in and out of our time and space continuum?
To communicate on the same level as a child, one must first be able to think and feel
like a child. Who would be better qualified to know this child more inside and out than
the one who embraced this child within her own womb for the first nine months of it's
life?
I am a child of the Universe, in a place that does not know time and space.
I don't truly know if anyone presently living in this finite realty really knows all of the
answers, I much doubt it, or at least not in the conscious memory. Although there is a
good possibly that to a greater degree much more of our memory is stored in our
subconscious mind, I do not believe that the physical mind is capable of containing all
of the data within the Oneness of al that is, but we as one may come to know the
oneness of all that is.
There are those who I would have to admit are truly more advanced in the awareness of
their subconscious minds eye then others, This inner knowing is called **wisdom**,
The experiencer becomes the experience and the Oneness of all as the experiencers of
the manifestation or creation of the spheres within spheres or the (quantum realities, or
dimensions ad infinitum). And how far along are we on this journey of awareness?
Do we as spirit beings truly choose to loop back to a certain point along this time space
continuum to be reborn into this time in this reality once more or could that be for as
many times that a soul has or may have experienced life in how many realities since the
Big Bang, where hence forth we are assigned to undertake another mission through the
vessel of reincarnation? How many lifetime memories does a soul contain?

We all experience our own varying personal levels of hell and heaven as we go through
life in this reality. It is a learning and growing cycle that refines us to the best us we
can be as we learn from the school of life.
It is those who will not learn from their turbulent,and contrarian existence who will
end up getting caught in the repetitive loop of their own making to endure the same
turbulent cycle again. It is of our own choice that we do so.
From how science sees it, as it is said that for every action you get an equal and
opposite reaction. This Karmic loop is, I believe to be, that whatever one puts out to
universe will returned to them in equal portion.
If we can manifest our own hell, why not our own heaven?
Now, about these sensitivities: some say they are a curse while others call them a
blessing or a gift. Why such a dichotomy?
As it is said, any vision is all in the eyes of the beholder. And so it is with the
experience of living. Thus it it is in the mind and heart of the experiencer, the empathy
let us say. We know that as we think negative thoughts, so will we get negative results
to our thoughts in return. You cannot expect to continue doing the same errors over and
over again and expect a different result. But this process works the opposite as well
where positive thoughts can also equally bring positive results, or positive results from
meticulous constructive planning and administration.
As we continue along out journey we learn much more about the mystery of our inner
selves and our own potentials. We find many qualities within that we had no idea were
ever there before. We can again begin to see through the eyes of a young child who sees
everything as possible. Those same eyes can see with a limitless ability to bring healing
and wisdom to an ailing world.
Cynthia

The Rhythm Of Magic

Posted by Harobed

Hello my Lovelies .
Im back again after being out of touch while creating.This time I delved into the world
of sacred instruments. I came back with a lot more knowledge and a profound respect
for their makers
It seems that we with all our technology have lost most of the ancient science of magic,
but if there remains any magic that all of us can easily use it's music.
Witches have always known what quatum physics is now comfirming.That everything
in the material world is made up of vibration. Our world is resonant ,all objects have
frequencies that can be detected as sound-waves.

Music of any kind has a magical power, a power that can be accessed by any of us.
All of us instinctually realize that spiritual energy can be derived from the trance like
state that can be induced by music.
Today Im discussing rattles. From our infancy rattles cause our bodies and minds both
to respond to them. Rattles are used throughout the world to help keep rhythm during
tribal dances and ceremonies.They are often accompaniment to Native American
ceremonies.
The rhythm they invoke with the rattle and drum during dance is unforgettable. It
resonates to the very soul, and changes a simple dance into a spiritual experience.
Native Americans hold that the rattle is an instrument of independence .
In their beliefs it should contain elements of the three kingdoms or nations. The
animal kingdom is represented by the container or feather .In my case I used a turtle
shell a friend gave me.

The mineral kingdom is represented by pebbles used for sound or hand ground
pigments in their painted decorations.I filled mine with chips of tiger eye, jasper ,rose
quartz , regular quartz and jingle bells .When shaken she makes a lovely jingley rattley
sound
She's also adorned with jade ,unikite ,tiger eye ,buffalo tooth ,oyster shells and
vertebrae.
The plant kingdom is represented by the container if a gourd is used or the wooden
handle of the rattle.

My buddy Shelly took it to a Pow Wow recently and it was really well recieved .It was
played with ,fondled and taken into the dance circle by several. This one I believe has
found a home with one of them and Im thrilled.When the Grandmother of the tribe
asked and who of us made this ,she was told a white Irish Witch .....
her reply was well with work like this she wasnt always white! High praise from a
Grandmother !!!!

History of the TOAD...

the Toads' relationship to History...
in Wytchcraft~and to the Wytch...
Posted by Ye old Village Wytch

History of the TOAD...and the Toads' relationship to History ... in Wytchcraft~and to

the Wytch...
This is something not commonly known nor a part of many discussions while enjoying
a good cup of coffee or a glass of wine with friends...
I know many will glance at this : and think ~ "Ummm"? then say ..."What"?
The Toad...holds an undeniable true place in History...
As well as...in its' relationship with both the lore and facts surrounding wytchcraft and
the Wytch...
Toads throughout history have been linked with "the darker side" of human
experience...such as:
*One of the first cultures that associated the Toad "with the forces of darkness" came
from Zoroaster:600 BC...a decree was issued forth~to kill all the toads. [[Zoroastrians in
Iran are the oldest of local religions with a long history continuing up to the present
day...According to Iran's 2012 census results:there were 28,271 Zoroastrians in present
day Iran]]
*In China~the Toad represented:Yin principle...and they saw the 3 legged Toad as
being a symbol of the Moon...
*In Alchemy~the Black Toad represents the first matter.....By uniting with the Eagle it
transformed into the "winged toad"...
*During the Middle Ages : superstitions surrounding the Toad linked the creature to
the Christian : Devil [Satan]~whose coat of arms : featured 3 toads...

It was also believed that~the Toads were capable of poisoning folks and inhabiting
them with the Wytchs' familiar
[[a familiar spirit is a supernatural being that helps and supports a wytch]]
In some parts of Europe "small toad statuettes" were left at holy sites by women
seeking aid in fetility...
In Dorsetshire[England]~folklore started stated that:"the greatest care should be taken
when removing a Toad from a dwelling or cellar:so it would suffer no injury"~so as not
to anger nor to incur the wrath of:a Witch...
*Basque[Spain]tradition held that Wytches were marked with the symbol of a Toads
foot...
*In the Pyreness[a range of mountains in southwest Europe~that forms a natural
border between France and Spain] was held in folklore:that the image of a Toad could
be found in a Wytchs' left eye...
*The Scottish folklore it held that~"whomever carried a dried toads' tongue over their
breast would be successful in love...
*Cunning-men used toads to cure such sicknesses as:the Kings evil or scofula [a
turburculous swelling of the lymph glands] and rheumatism and other aliments...
In some instances the toad would be cut in areas comparable to the areas of sickness
in people[the rest of the toad was buried]and the toad part[s]were wrapped in
parchment that the ill folk would wear around their neck until well again...
*The "Cambridgeshire Toadmen"[they were ordinary men 'with the gift' of:controlling
horses] there is historical evidence that shows that the services of "the Toadmen"were
used on many a farm around Cambridgeshire to help with breeding and other farming
matters.
It is believed that they drew their "powers" from their esoteric knowledge of herbs and
their use of rituals guarded their knowledge secrets.
Toads throughout history have been viewed as a creature who has been able to spend
its' life in the water and on land...

Used in rituals to pay penance for guilt of others in spell workings~or to bring on
penance to others for their deeds...
Even seen as a omen of pending death...
Held through the ages as a creature who holds the mysteries of:what is seen as
feminine~and calls the rains to the crops...
And for centuries: Wytches were associated with toads and incorporated them into their
ways they could use them in magickal spells and in their other wytch workings...
As do many Wytches "to this very 21st. century and most modern day society" !
So now you see my Friends:that there is indeed a true~"History of the TOAD"...and of
the Toad's relationship to History... in Wytchcraft ... "and to the Wytch" )O(

The Real Irish-American Story

Not Taught in Schools
Posted by Willowroot
The Real Irish-American Story Not Taught in Schools
by
Bill Bigelow
To support the famine relief effort, British tax policy required landlords to pay the local
taxes of their poorest tenant farmers, leading many landlords to forcibly evict
struggling farmers and destroy their cottages in order to save money. (Sketch: The Irish
Famine: Interior of a Peasants Hut)
Wear green on St. Patricks Day or get pinched. That pretty much sums up the IrishAmerican curriculum that I learned when I was in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the socalled Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing.
Sadly, todays high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, despite the
fact that it was responsible for unimaginable suffering and the deaths of more than a
million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in
U.S. history. Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and
present.
Yet there is no shortage of material that can bring these dramatic events to life in the
classroom. In my own high school social studies classes, I begin with Sinead
OConnors haunting rendition of Skibbereen, which includes the verse:
Oh its well I do remember, that bleak
December day,
The landlord and the sheriff came, to drive
Us all away
They set my roof on fire, with their cursed
English spleen
And thats another reason why I left old
Skibbereen.

By contrast, Holt McDougals U.S. history textbook The Americans, devotes a flat two
sentences to The Great Potato Famine. Prentice Halls America: Pathways to the
Present fails to offer a single quote from the time. The text calls the famine a horrible
disaster, as if it were a natural calamity like an earthquake. And in an awful single
paragraph, Houghton Mifflins The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People
blames the ravages of famine simply on a blight, and the only contemporaneous
quote comes, inappropriately, from a landlord, who describes the surviving tenants as
famished and ghastly skeletons. Uniformly, social studies textbooks fail to allow the
Irish to speak for themselves, to narrate their own horror.
These timid slivers of knowledge not only deprive students of rich lessons in IrishAmerican history, they exemplify much of what is wrong with todays curricular
reliance on corporate-produced textbooks.
First, does anyone really think that students will remember anything from the books
dull and lifeless paragraphs? Todays textbooks contain no stories of actual people. We
meet no one, learn nothing of anyones life, encounter no injustice, no resistance.
This is a curriculum bound for boredom. As someone who spent almost 30 years
teaching high school social studies, I can testify that students will be unlikely to seek to
learn more about events so emptied of drama, emotion, and humanity.
Nor do these texts raise any critical questions for students to consider. For example, its
important for students to learn that the crop failure in Ireland affected only the potato
during the worst famine years, other food production was robust.
Michael Pollan notes in The Botany of Desire, Irelands was surely the biggest
experiment in monoculture ever attempted and surely the most convincing proof of its
folly. But if only this one variety of potato, the Lumper, failed, and other crops thrived,
why did people starve?
Thomas Gallagher points out in Paddys Lament, that during the first winter of famine,
1846-47, as perhaps 400,000 Irish peasants starved, landlords exported 17 million pounds
sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultryfood that could have
prevented those deaths. Throughout the famine, as Gallagher notes, there was an
abundance of food produced in Ireland, yet the landlords exported it to markets abroad.
The school curriculum could and should ask students to reflect on the contradiction of
starvation amidst plenty, on the ethics of food exports amidst famine. And it should ask
why these patterns persist into our own time.

More than a century and a half after the Great Famine, we live with similar, perhaps
even more glaring contradictions. Raj Patel opens his book, Stuffed and Starved:
Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the Worlds Food System: Today, when we
produce more food than ever before, more than one in ten people on Earth are hungry.
The hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical first: that they
are outnumbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight.
Patels book sets out to account for the rot at the core of the modern food system. This
is a curricular journey that our students should also be on reflecting on patterns of
poverty, power, and inequality that stretch from 19th century Ireland to 21st century
Africa, India, Appalachia, and Oakland; that explore what happens when food and land
are regarded purely as commodities in a global system of profit.
But todays corporate textbook-producers are no more interested in feeding student
curiosity about this inequality than were British landlords interested in feeding Irish
peasants. Take Pearson, the global publishing giant. At its website, the corporation
announces (redundantly) that we measure our progress against three key measures:
earnings, cash and return on invested capital. The Pearson empire had 2011 worldwide
sales of more than $9 billionthats nine thousand million dollars, as I might tell my
students. Multinationals like Pearson have no interest in promoting critical thinking
about an economic system whose profit-first premises they embrace with gusto.
As mentioned, there is no absence of teaching materials on the Irish famine that can
touch head and heart. In a role play, Hunger on Trial, that I wrote and taught to my
own students in Portland, Oregonincluded at the Zinn Education Project website
students investigate who or what was responsible for the famine. The British landlords,
who demanded rent from the starving poor and exported other food crops? The British
government, which allowed these food exports and offered scant aid to Irish peasants?
The Anglican Church, which failed to denounce selfish landlords or to act on behalf of
the poor? A system of distribution, which sacrificed Irish peasants to the logic of
colonialism and the capitalist market?
These are rich and troubling ethical questions. They are exactly the kind of issues that
fire students to life and allow them to see that history is not simply a chronology of dead
facts stretching through time.
So go ahead: Have a Guinness, wear a bit of green, and put on the Chieftains. But lets
honor the Irish with our curiosity. Lets make sure that our schools show some respect,
by studying the social forces that starved and uprooted over a million Irishand that are
starving and uprooting people today.

CELTIC FOLKLOREPlaying in the Trees with Faeries

Posted by Willowroot

Courtesy of June McEwan

Playing in Woods with Fairies
Birch
Birch, the 'White Lady of the Woods', is associated with the Mother Goddess, new
beginnings, renewal, opportunity and purification.
In spring, birch brooms were used to cleanse houses. Birching was the use of the birch
rod to drive evil-spirits from law-breakers, and traditionally people would 'beat the
bounds' of land, showing younger generations where the boundaries were while setting
up protection.
Birch has been favoured for Yule logs and for the Maypole around which dancers weave
at Beltane, connecting birch to fertility, as well as being burned in Beltane fires. Birch
can also protect from kidnapping by the fairy folk (or sidhe), making it a fine wood for
cradles.
Hazel
The hazel tree is often used for dowsing for water and - being very flexible - for making
baskets and other containers, as well as being popular for walking-sticks. Hazel staffs
signifying authority were common, along with protective and ceremonial shields. Hazel
is also very popular for wands and for divination. Like the oak, hazel is associated with
wisdom, and Celtic tradition holds that the Salmon of Knowledge ate nine nuts from a
sacred hazel - hazel nuts holding knowledge of all arts and sciences. It is also said that
two hazel trees growing close together (especially by water) form a gateway to the
Otherworld, or fairy kingdom.
In the wood where I was working, two hazel trees formed an arch or portal into a treeringed area 'guarded' by a moss-covered 'head' stone. There, the ground was darker and
covered in clover. We improvised the guardians story, imagining he had been someone
bent on an understandable revenge, but then unable to continue in life after he had
achieved it. The land engulfed him, and now only his head is visible as he guards the
grove where his love was killed.

Oak
The oak is associated with midsummer and was one of the druidic sacred trees; its druid
name means oak wisdom. There is some sign that the word 'druid' may be derived
from words meaning the 'Wise Ones of the Oakwood'.
Oak is also associated with boldness and strength, including the strength of endurance,
with light'ning-struck oaks, continuing to survive, being considered particularly sacred.
Oak nuts symbolize patience, potential and the way mighty deeds can be achieved from
small beginnings: "great oaks from little acorns grow".
As the King of the Forest, the oak's roots spread to match the size of its branches,
relating to the magical / philosophical adage as above, so below. The branches, in
traditional accounts, have been roosting places for oracular birds, and oaks have also
provided shelter and safety for heroes in many tales: famous oaks include that of Robin
Hood in Sherwood Forest and the Boscobel Oak said to have aided Charles II in his
escape from Cromwells men. An old song says "hearts of oak are our ships, hearts of
oak are our men".
Rowan
The rowan, the 'Lady of the Mountain', is a deeply protective tree and often used for
warding purposes against magical attack and enchantments. Supposedly its flowers,
berries (which bear the sign of the pentagram) and wood protect against the wiles of
elf-folk, yet some say Scottish fairies celebrate within stone circles protected by rowan
trees. Maybe it all depends on just what 'wiles' they are pursuing!
The rowan's red berries may be why it is also linked to flame and fire, and some say
they inspired the red in Scottish tartans. The distinctive berries were still on this split
rowan, so it looked as though the damage was very recent. With the rowan's connection
to protection - it is often planted by churches - this tree was fine stimulation for my
imagination: what caused this damage, and did the rowan sacrifice itself in order to
protect some person or thing?
Only later did I read that ancient bards considered the rowan 'The Tree of Bards',
bringing the gift of inspiration.
Beech
There was a magnificent tree house within the wood I played in, built around the trunk
of a large beech without damaging it. Beech roots are quite serpentine, and the tree is
often associated with snakes, which in the Celtic tradition are creatures of wisdom and
rebirth.

The area we were working in belongs to a writer and this tree house seems so very apt:
it is said that beech was used to create the first book. The very words 'beech' and 'book'
are connected linguistically, as is still apparent in some languages today: in German,
'beech' is buche and 'book' is buch, and in Swedish bok means both 'beech' and 'book'.
The French tradition of stuffing mattresses with beech leaves leads to the lovely phrase
lits de parlement - speaking beds. Together with the association to writing, where the
beech connects with the transmission of lore, this 'speaking' quality shone through for
me on the day. I was surrounded by the canopy of a smaller beech tree when a breeze
(surprisingly rare that day) rustled through the leaves: it seemed they were messengers
and the canopy rose slightly in one direction as if showing me my way / revealing
something to me.
The beech is connected to revelations of the unknown, and can signify endings and,
therefore, the start of something new. In this way, the beech relates to the birch, for new
beginnings, and to the hazel tree for going beyond a threshold. Like the rowan, beech
has protective aspects, and is often used for talismans, and it is also known as Queen of
the Woods, complement to the oak.
Celtic Tree Mysteries: Practical Druid Magic & Divination
Celtic Tree Mysteries: Practical Druid Magic & Divination
Further Exploration
There are, of course, other trees with rich Celtic lore - as well as more information
available for the ones I have mentioned. The above is really a brief introduction, based
on a particular magical wood.
If you are interested in knowing more about Celtic tree folklore, you may wish to look
up the work of Caitlin and John Matthews and that of Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm

FAERY MOON MAGICK

Posted by Willowroot
How to Summon a Fairy - Moon Magic
Take care!
You can also run around a fairy ring nine times on the first night of the New Moon, and
keep listening for the sounds of music and laughter coming up from underground.
If all else fails, you can use this powerful summoning but please be very careful. Fairies
are not always pleased to be rudely invoked in this way and, if you live in a densely
populated area, neighbors are not too keen on the process either.
You need a night of the full moon, go out on the stroke of midnight, face east and chant
as loudly as you can ...
Come in the stillness, Come in the night,
Come soon, And bring delight.
Beckoning, beckoning, Left hand and right,
Come now, Ah, come to-night!
Don't forget to let me know if you strike it lucky

Many have asked me...what are

you?~what is a Hedge Wytch?
Posted by Ye old Village Wytch

Many have asked me...what are you?~what is a Hedge Wytch?

"Hedge Wytch":comes from the Saxon word "haegtessa"...old

English~"haegtesse"...roughly this translates to "hedge-rider" and can also be translated
as "hag...witch and fury".
From this we have the modern English word Hedge Wytch.
Hedgewytchery:or Hedgecraft~"is a combination of Wytchcraft and Shamanism".
Hedge Wytches utilize shamanic techniques...working with Spirit Guides and
communicating with the spirits "in our Journeying" between the worlds...
The hedge is not just a physical boundary~but is also a metaphor:for the line drawn
between this world and the next~between reality and dreamscape.It represents the
threshold between the worlds...
The Hedge...is what many Pagans refer to~"as the Veil"...

Many modern day Hedge Wytches tend to compare themselves to and strive to carry
on~in the old traditions of the ancient concept of the village: "Wise woman...Cunning
man"[of the cunning folk]...the Seer and Spirit worker...Midwives and Healers..."and
as in the past"~are those of great knowledge of the natural world around them...[[I now
personally would have to say]]
we are those who gather many of our own working and our practical materials from
things foraged from Nature around where we live...and~we are of what is in line with
also: Traditional Wytchcraft practices...
Both Hedge Wytches will often turn things you would never even image into our
tools~including also many 'mundane' items around their house....Our tools could be
bones.. feathers...needles... rocks... rope etc. etc. etc. If a Hedge wytch can find a way to
work it into their craft:they certainly will.
A Hedge Wytch is someone who not only makes use of the many 'natural things' in
their practice of magick:but also for medicinal purposes~as well as for cooking [[such
as I do]]~such as many types of herbs...flowers...spices...the use of crystals and stones
etc.etc.etc. of Nature's things found in "the hedge"...from our simple nettle tea to
treatments for ailments :)
Hedge-groves:have an abundance of wildlife...trees...wild
fruits...nuts...flowers...herbs...stones etc. etc. and are common spaces where anyone
could forage in times past [[as I and others do to this very modern day]].

There is "no religion involved" in the practice itself...

Whereas Wicca is a deeply spiritual path [and is recognized by the Govt.as a
religion~which also now allows our USA fallen Troops who have served our Nation
and given their lives~the right to have the Pentacle Star on their headstones]and those
of Wiccan path they live by their laws stated in their Rede...
I respect that~and respect all my Sisters/Brothers (wytches) who practice the Wiccan
path...my own Daughter is Wiccan and of a Coven...
As a practicing Hedge Wytch I do not follow Rede of wicca...for I am not wiccan...

As a Hedge Wytch:I do "take full responsibility for all of my actions":and Hedge

Wytches do have our own set of morals and ethics in our daily living as well as our
practices~that we adhere to and I...also personally~adhere to that old saying of~"A
Wytch who can not Hex~Can not heal"...
For magick upon 'my own personal' path~is of no color~neither white...nor black nor
gray....it is the "energies"that surround us all~for it is the intent of the practitioner that
matters in all things of magick...
But~there are always individual Hedge Wytches [or Trad's. of our modern times] that
may indeed incorporate the Gods/Goddesses:"as they so wish"~ into their own
practices "of their personal" path for their own 'personal reasons'...or not...[[depending
on what they find on the other side]] and what they chose to do as they so wish it to
be..."it is indeed up to the individual"...
And Yes~I do have:personally~"a few certain:"formal rituals~that I do~at
times"...when I feel the need or the call to do them.
I strive to keep the balance of light and dark in my personal practices..."For in all
things~there can not be one~without the other"[both the magickal and the
mundane]My path encompasses so many things~"which I practice freely..."as I so will
it to be".
The~Cottage-wytch...Hearth-wytch...Green-wytch or Kitchen-wytch works mostly and
in her home and garden...A Hedge Wytch will practice often within the home as
well...but [as I do]we "will also assist" when she/he "feels the true call~of Folks of the
area who need our help"...and the Hedge Wytch will likely spend much more of
[her/his] time in [her/his] in their gathering "of needed things" in the outdoors...and
practicing [her/his] craft in rural or the wild places~much more so than the majority of
other wytches....

It is said that a Hedge Wytch has what is commonly known upon this Path as~"the
Cunning Fire".
A few authors of Hedgewytchery are:
*Eric De Vries....*Peter Paddon [[on the Cunning Folk]] ...*H.Saille...*Rae Beth...*Arin
Murphy-Hiscock...

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