#folk witch

Sorry I’m just now seeing this ask 😭 but thank you for your question!

The term Celtic Paganism I have… mixed thoughts about. Primarily because of the major lack of historical sources. There really isn’t much evidence to suggest that there was a historical “Celtic Paganism” in the way you see many people suggest online. People online seem to push this idea that there was a historical belief system in ancient Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales that is reminiscent of Hellenic Polytheism, and there just really isn’t any historical evidence to support this. We do have evidence of diety worship, and some records of gods that the Celts may have worshiped, but many of these sources come from Christian scholars and are either incomplete, completely void of any cultural context, have been warped to fit a Christian narrative, or all of the above.

Also, I’ve seen a lot of people talk about “Celtic” Paganism online, but they’re sharing practices that originated with the Gauls, Anglo-Saxons, or the Picts, and not the Celts. Different people groups, different cultures, even different time periods, but they’re often treated as one group in Celtic Paganism spaces.

But probably my main issue with the term Celtic Paganism is that the majority of Celtic Pagan resources (books, websites, etc) are entirely new age stuff parading as authoritative texts. I’ve read some of these books, and the majority of them are either entirely made up, or take from other cultural practices outside of the “Celtic” region (many of these being closed Indigenous North American practices).

If someone wants to practice Celtic Paganism, that is their prerogative to do so. I have no say in what other people practice, it’s none of my business. But I actually started my spiritual practice learning about Celtic Paganism, and a lot of the books and the online Celtic Pagan spaces were speaking as if they had historical and scholarly authority in Celtic Paganism. When I finally listened to my gut feeling and stepped back to look at my practice from a critical lens, I realized that I had essentially been doing a whole lot of nothing, and that the sources I had been using had essentially been pulled out of thin air. There was no ground, no root to my practice because it had been built on a foundation of constantly shifting sand.

Hi, and thank you for your question!

Regarding your first question about if Maritime magic is a closed practice, the answer is actually a little nuanced. My specific cultural practice is more Nova Scotia focused as you could probably tell by my sources list. There are four people groups that have historically made up the cultural fabric of Nova Scotia; The Acadians, The Black Loyalists, The Mi'kmaq, and Scottish Canadians (that's me!). Now, obviously those aren't the only cultural groups that exist in Nova Scotia, but Nova Scotian culture as we know it was primarily created by those four groups. (In other parts of the Maritimes you'll have groups such as Irish-Canadians, English-Canadians, German-Canadians, French-Canadians, other Indigenous groups, etc that are more prominent.) Now, Maritime magic is not a monolith, it's an umbrella term. How you might practise it depends on;

A) What Maritime province you're from

B) What region of that province you're from

C) What cultural group you belong to

For example, an Acadian practitioner from the Northern Cape of PEI will have a very different practice compared to a Black Loyalist living in the Highland region of Nova Scotia, even if they're both practising Maritime magic.

Obviously cultural practices from people like the Mi'kmaq are closed, but Maritime magic as a whole? The answer will really vary depending on who you ask. I will say though, Maritime magic is very land-focused. If you are not living in the Maritimes while trying to practice Maritime magic, you will have a hard time getting anywhere in your practice. Take it from someone who has lived outside of the Maritimes. It's rough.

Now, will I ever share the books that I use for Maritime magic in my specific cultural practice? No. Not online, at least. There's a few reasons for this, I promise I'm not trying to be mean or gatekeepy.

The first reason is the one I mentioned in my original sources post, and that is privacy. A lot of the books & resources that I use relating to Maritime magic are incredibly local. Some of these books even mention some of my family members & ancestors by name, and I don't feel comfortable airing out my family history and information to the internet like that, as I'm sure you can understand.

The second reason, which I didn't name in my original post, is respect for my practise and the culture in which it stems from. I absolutely adore my culture. I love the island, I love the music, the food, the people, everything. That island (which shall not be named for my privacy) is at the very core of my being, as silly as that might sound. I don't want to strip away at everything I love and throw it onto the internet for content. I couldn't do that, it would feel like a betrayal to my family, to the rest of the people on the island, and to myself. And while it may not seem that deep or that serious to an outsider, it really is. Now, the reason I said "No, not online" is because if someone from my island or my region came up to me and asked for resources, I would give it to them, as its their culture as well, and they deserve access to these resources. Everyone else? Tough luck.

My final reason is because I want people to do research for themselves and their own practise, not just copy mine. In the age of the internet, we share a lot. What clothes we wear, what food we eat, we share almost everything about ourselves. And that extends to these online witchy spaces as well. We are so used to being able to learn every inch of someones practise. It's gotten to the point where you could pick a practitioner on the internet and practically copy their practice to a T. I don't want that. For one, because my practise is incredibly important to me and is rooted in a culture and tradition that is at risk of dying out, and two, because magic is incredible. Building a practise from the ground up, as difficult and exhausting as it may be, is SO rewarding once you start putting the pieces together. Your practise should be unique, it's yours. I want to give people resources to start because I know how hard it was for me to find verifiable historical and cultural resources in a world where the majority of "witchy" books and online resources have no scholarly backing and are completely devoid of any cultural significance. I want to give people a foot in the door so that they can build the room themselves.

I’m always harping on about the importance of research, but I have been yet to share any of the actual resources that I use for my practice. Before I get into it though, a quick disclaimer; this is not a complete list of every source I’ve used in my practice. A) That would be near impossible to compile, and B) A lot of my sources regarding Maritime magic are very local to me and the culture I grew up in (books from local authors, museums, cultural/heritage sites, family members, etc) so I don’t feel comfortable sharing them as they are very personal, and I like my privacy. Thank you for understanding.

Books

☕︎ Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread: Exploring Scottish Folk Belief and Folk Magic by Scott Richardson-Read

☕︎ Bluenose Ghosts by Helen Creighton

☕︎ Bluenose Magic by Helen Creighton

☕︎ Folklore of Nova Scotia by Mary L Fraser

☕︎ Songs Remembered in Exile: Traditional Gaelic Songs from Nova Scotia by John Lorne Campbell

☕︎ The Secret Commonwealth: Of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies by Robert Kirk

☕︎ Scottish Herbs and Fairy Lore by Ellen Hopman

☕︎ The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft And Dark Shamanism In Seventeenth-century Scotland by Emma Wilby

☕︎ Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell

☕︎ A Handbook of Scottish Gaelic Culture by Michael Steven Newton

☕︎ The Gaelic Otherworld: Superstitions of the Highlands and the Islands of Scotland and Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands by John Gregorson Campbell

☕︎ Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk Life - Studies in Race, Culture and Tradition by Donald Mackenzie

☕︎ The Anthology of Scottish Folk Tales Vol I & II by History Press UK

☕︎ The Anthology of Irish Folk Tales Vol I & II by History Press UK

☕︎ The Scottish Fairy Book by Elizabeth Grierson

☕︎ Basically anything from Fiona Macleod is worth a read

Websites (with links)

☕︎ Cailleachs Herbarium

☕︎ Helen Creighton Folklore Society

☕︎ Comhairle Na Gàidhlig/The Gaelic Council