Post by michele cryer on Jun 14, 2005 2:51:44 GMT
I believe we have one amongst our little community, and was fascinated to find out the difference between Hedge Witches and other Witches...so I did a google search and came up with the following...if our resident Hedge Witch disagrees with this particular person's definition, perhaps she would like to give us her definition for comparison...
What is a Hedge Witch?
In the past three years or so there has been a huge surge of interest in in Hedge Witchery. Alot of this I accredit to Ann Moure's Green Witchcraft series. I will say her books are good,however they do not reflect the path of a hedge witch, in my opinion.
However, it can be said that if you ask five different hedge witches what a hedge witch is, you may get a dozen different answers (maybe even a dozen per witch!)So what fallows is this little witches humble opinion of a hedge witch.
What fallows is a "working" definition, meaning it is not static. Each turn of the Wheel I learn and change and as I do so my definition changes. So what follows is the definition I am currently working with.
A hedge witch is very much a free spirit. Hedge witches are also related to the village witches of old. The term, hedge witch, 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, beyond their known perseption... i.e. the Other World. The village witches of this era usually lived just beyond or just befor this hedge. The hedge was a metiphore for some one who practiced shamanic arts, a walker between the worlds.
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 looking for the herbs nessesary to heal or enchant. So now you know where the term came from, but what dose a hedge witch do?
A hedge witch would have learned their traid or craft by word of mouth. More than likeyl they would have learned it from a family member or the former village witch. Once the person left, they would be on their own. So they would have been taught ways to learn from nature such as listening to the winds or watching cloud formations. They would have celebrated the sabbats by the change of the seasons and not by a date on a calender. More than likely they would have other Holy days besides the sabbats.
They may or may not have worshipped gods.But I digress, this is a definition not a history lesson. Hedge witches all view the divin differently. Personally I worship a God and a Goddess. I feel they are the parents of all life.
Hedge witches are shamans, charmers, healers, and, priest/esses, Rea Beth coined a great erm Hedge Mystic. A person who studies and practices the Great Mysteries of Naure.
Hedge craft is a very eceltic path. Mostly because it depends on each witch how it is practiced. Most hedge witches, my self included, are very ethical people. Most do not follow any one Rede as wiccans do. They susually have basic lines they, indavidually, will not cross. For most, such things are very privet, I am no exeption.
Hedge witchery also has another commen thread; that magick isn't just about spells and potions, it is in your morning coffee, a genteal touch from your lover, the complex beauty of a leaf, and in hundreds of thousands of other seemingly "mundain" things.
Tp respressent this conspet i use they phrase "Life is magick, and magick is life"
Another commenly 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 penticals, and silver plated chalices; we are able to connect more fully to the natural forces. All to often people get lost in the symbols and forget their meanings.
I know alot of pagans, when investigating a new path, want to know what toys..errr.. tools a tradition usues. In keeping with the hedge witch way, hedge witches use a variety of tools, most of them baises in practicality and usefulness.
My personal tool set consistes of: a humble clay chalice,a sharp knife,a walking stick, and a stone. These tools i consecrafted by earth(I burried each tool for a day), air(I left themout above ground, hung in a tree),fire (I held each in a flame....for as long as the materials aloud), water(I submerged each in a creek) and for spirit i asked the blessings of the Gods and Faeries upon them.
Some of you may not know what a Stang is. A stang is a staff with a fork at the top. It usually is planted in the ground and is used as a vertical alter. It is commenly ised in traditional witchcraft, it repressents the Horned God and is used at the northern gate.
Personaly I didn't like the vertical format of the stang (yes,I did try it before making this decition) so I don't use one.
So now you know my definition of a hedge witch. Fo further reading pick up the fallowing books or go to the other hedge witch sites I used for research:
A witch Alone by Marion Green
Wild witchcraft by Marion Green
Natural witchcraft by marion green
Hedge witch by Rea Beth
Hedge Witch's Way by Rea Beth
Natural magick by Doreen Valiente
A Floral Grimoire by Patricia Telesco
Green Witchcraft I,II,II by Ann Moure
The Rebirth of Witchcraft by Doreen Valiente and John Evan
also visit the fallowing sites: Rea Beth's website
Realm of the Hedgewitch www.knibb.org/rae/index.htm
if you live in the UK here are some hedge witch courses
House Shadowdrakes definition www.sallymorningstar.com/
www.angelfire.com/folk/greenwitch/sacred.html
What is a Hedge Witch?
In the past three years or so there has been a huge surge of interest in in Hedge Witchery. Alot of this I accredit to Ann Moure's Green Witchcraft series. I will say her books are good,however they do not reflect the path of a hedge witch, in my opinion.
However, it can be said that if you ask five different hedge witches what a hedge witch is, you may get a dozen different answers (maybe even a dozen per witch!)So what fallows is this little witches humble opinion of a hedge witch.
What fallows is a "working" definition, meaning it is not static. Each turn of the Wheel I learn and change and as I do so my definition changes. So what follows is the definition I am currently working with.
A hedge witch is very much a free spirit. Hedge witches are also related to the village witches of old. The term, hedge witch, 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, beyond their known perseption... i.e. the Other World. The village witches of this era usually lived just beyond or just befor this hedge. The hedge was a metiphore for some one who practiced shamanic arts, a walker between the worlds.
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 looking for the herbs nessesary to heal or enchant. So now you know where the term came from, but what dose a hedge witch do?
A hedge witch would have learned their traid or craft by word of mouth. More than likeyl they would have learned it from a family member or the former village witch. Once the person left, they would be on their own. So they would have been taught ways to learn from nature such as listening to the winds or watching cloud formations. They would have celebrated the sabbats by the change of the seasons and not by a date on a calender. More than likely they would have other Holy days besides the sabbats.
They may or may not have worshipped gods.But I digress, this is a definition not a history lesson. Hedge witches all view the divin differently. Personally I worship a God and a Goddess. I feel they are the parents of all life.
Hedge witches are shamans, charmers, healers, and, priest/esses, Rea Beth coined a great erm Hedge Mystic. A person who studies and practices the Great Mysteries of Naure.
Hedge craft is a very eceltic path. Mostly because it depends on each witch how it is practiced. Most hedge witches, my self included, are very ethical people. Most do not follow any one Rede as wiccans do. They susually have basic lines they, indavidually, will not cross. For most, such things are very privet, I am no exeption.
Hedge witchery also has another commen thread; that magick isn't just about spells and potions, it is in your morning coffee, a genteal touch from your lover, the complex beauty of a leaf, and in hundreds of thousands of other seemingly "mundain" things.
Tp respressent this conspet i use they phrase "Life is magick, and magick is life"
Another commenly 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 penticals, and silver plated chalices; we are able to connect more fully to the natural forces. All to often people get lost in the symbols and forget their meanings.
I know alot of pagans, when investigating a new path, want to know what toys..errr.. tools a tradition usues. In keeping with the hedge witch way, hedge witches use a variety of tools, most of them baises in practicality and usefulness.
My personal tool set consistes of: a humble clay chalice,a sharp knife,a walking stick, and a stone. These tools i consecrafted by earth(I burried each tool for a day), air(I left themout above ground, hung in a tree),fire (I held each in a flame....for as long as the materials aloud), water(I submerged each in a creek) and for spirit i asked the blessings of the Gods and Faeries upon them.
Some of you may not know what a Stang is. A stang is a staff with a fork at the top. It usually is planted in the ground and is used as a vertical alter. It is commenly ised in traditional witchcraft, it repressents the Horned God and is used at the northern gate.
Personaly I didn't like the vertical format of the stang (yes,I did try it before making this decition) so I don't use one.
So now you know my definition of a hedge witch. Fo further reading pick up the fallowing books or go to the other hedge witch sites I used for research:
A witch Alone by Marion Green
Wild witchcraft by Marion Green
Natural witchcraft by marion green
Hedge witch by Rea Beth
Hedge Witch's Way by Rea Beth
Natural magick by Doreen Valiente
A Floral Grimoire by Patricia Telesco
Green Witchcraft I,II,II by Ann Moure
The Rebirth of Witchcraft by Doreen Valiente and John Evan
also visit the fallowing sites: Rea Beth's website
Realm of the Hedgewitch www.knibb.org/rae/index.htm
if you live in the UK here are some hedge witch courses
House Shadowdrakes definition www.sallymorningstar.com/
www.angelfire.com/folk/greenwitch/sacred.html
