#hedgecraft

The custom of "telling the bees" is a charming and ancient tradition where beekeepers inform their bees about significant events in their lives, such as deaths, births, marriages, and other major occurrences. This practice is believed to have its roots in Celtic mythology, where bees were seen as messengers between the human world and the spirit world. The presence of a bee after a death was thought to signify the soul leaving the body. The tradition became particularly prominent in the 18th and 19th centuries in Western Europe and the United States.

To tell the bees, the head of the household or the "goodwife" would approach the hives, gently knock to get the bees' attention, and then softly murmur the news in a solemn tone. This ritual was believed to keep the bees informed and prevent them from leaving the hive or dying. The custom underscores the deep connection and respect that people historically had for bees, viewing them as integral members of the household and community. (The Historian's Den)

when meditating on the breath, focus can be on the head (the nose & throat), heart (the chest), and/or stomach (the diaphragm).

i have been focusing on these zones, taking three breaths, as a simple mindfulness exercise recently.

i've also used this in a sustained form to enter trance.

excerpt from Anatomy of a Witch: A Map to the Magical Body by Laura Tempest Zakroff:

To seek mental clarity and connect with others, breathe into your head.

To gain emotional balance and focus on the task at hand, breathe into your heart.

To foster healing and promote physical well-being, breathe into your belly.

dividers by @strangergraphics

Welcome back, Seekers! In my local coven, we’ve just completed a journey through the mysteries of Spirit, diving into the magick of the Fetch Spirit. Since many of you enjoyed the Spirit House post, I thought it only fitting to share a glimpse into the Fetch Spirit here. This practice was inspired by the wisdom found in "The Crooked Path" book a few years ago. As always, take what resonates with your soul, weave it into your craft, and make it uniquely your own. 🌙✨

What Is The Fetch Spirit?

In the craft of Spirit Work and Traditional Witchery, the fetch spirit is a vital thread in the tapestry of a Witch’s soul. Many paths teach that the soul is a trinity, woven from the higher self, the mid-self, and the lower self. The fetch spirit dwells in the depths of the lower self, tethered to the Underworld and the shadowy realms of the unconscious. It is the raw, instinctual force within us, rooted in primal needs like safety and comfort.

The fetch can be seen as the ID of our being—a wild, emotional current that stirs intuition through gut feelings and instinctual nudges, often acting as our unseen protector. By forging a relationship with the fetch, a Witch may delve into the hidden chambers of emotion, amplify intuitive knowing, and tap the deep well of the unconscious mind.

Skilled Witches often call upon their fetch to walk between worlds or perform workings on their behalf, leaving the Witch present in one realm while their fetch accomplishes tasks in another. This spirit companion may mirror the Witch’s form or manifest as an animal—its connection to our instinctual nature shaping it into the guise of a hare, cat, bird, or other creature. Such shapeshifting recalls the old tales of witches transforming into beasts, yet it is not the Witch’s body that changes but their fetch slipping into an animal guise to carry out the work.

Still, the lore carries warnings: the fetch and the Witch are bound as one. Any harm that befalls the fetch could ripple back to the Witch. Tales of fetches wounded in the Otherworld, with their Witches bearing matching scars, remind us of the sacred balance in working with this primal part of ourselves. Though physical harm may be rare today, the stories caution us to approach this work with reverence, care, and the wisdom of those who have walked the crooked path before us.

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Summoning the Fetch: A Mirror Magick Enchantment

Purpose: Enlist the power of the Fetch Spirit with this enchanted mirror working, creating a portal between realms. Once the mirror is enchanted it can be placed on or above your altar, allowing the Fetch to reflect your magickal workings across the seen and unseen worlds. Let its gaze weave your intentions through the threads of all realms, amplifying your craft with otherworldly connection and power.

Timing: Dark Moon

Ingredients:

A Mirror - I personally favor antique silver-backed mirrors for this work, as they hold a conductive energy, but truly, any mirror will do. It is the intent and the magick you weave that brings the mirror to life.

Candles: Tealights or Pillars

Crossroads Smoke Blend or Spray

Offering

To begin, create your ritual space by arranging the candles in a circle upon the ground, with the mirror placed at the center—acting as a portal to the unseen, where you can see your reflection. Cleanse the mirror thoroughly before use, using either sacred smoke or a spritz of a Crossroads blend to clear and consecrate its surface. For this, I favor a simple but potent, crafted blend:

✨ Mugwort: For consecration, astral travel, and cleansing magickal mirrors. ✨ Wormwood: To summon and open the veil. ✨ Fumitory: To conjure, commune with chthonic spirits, and weave connection with the shadowed realms.

To craft a crossroads spray, steep your herbs in alcohol (60 to 100 proof works best for potent extraction) for at least one full moon cycle before your ritual work.

Once your sacred space is prepared, pause to ground yourself and step into the magickal circle. Take the crossroads smoke and begin circling your ritual space clockwise, letting the smoke weave its power around the candles. Walk the space as many times as feels right—allow the rhythm to guide you deeper into a trance-like state, where the veil between worlds begins to thin. 

Now, light your candles and summon the crossroads, quarters, corners, or whatever energies resonate with your craft. I have my own way of calling these forces, but follow your instincts, trust your practice, and call forth what speaks to your spirit. Let the magick unfold as it will.

Once the Crossroads has been summoned, step up to the mirror and let your gaze fall upon the mirror. Lock eyes with your reflection, peering into the depths of your soul. Hold your focus unwaveringly, let your thoughts fade and your vision soften. Through your eyes, reach into the mirror, descending into the shadowy realms of the Underworld where your true essence lies hidden. When the connection stirs, speak words of power, such as: 

"I summon my fetch on this dark moon night,

My astral twin, shadowed self, and tethered light. 

I call you forth from the depths below, 

Rise through this mirror, let your presence show."

Feel the energy shift as the boundaries thin, and your fetch begins to stir within the liminal space. Whisper words of kindness and praise to your fetch spirit, calling it forth from the shadows, until it you feel that it has stepped into the mirror’s gaze. Let your words weave a bridge, a thread of connection, until the spirit answers your call.

Once you've forged a connection with your fetch, it’s time to lay down your intentions, terms, and conditions for your pact. In spirit work, clarity is everything—be precise about its purpose, your expectations, and how you’ll nourish and honor this relationship through offerings. Spirit dealings can be unpredictable, so taking care to establish firm boundaries ensures a smoother partnership.

Consider crafting a unique signal or calling method, such as a specific whistle, gesture, or phrase, to summon your fetch when its aid is required. By setting these foundations, you not only honor the fetch spirit but also weave a bond of trust and power into your craft. Also, consider writing your pact in your own hand, sealing it with your name, and offering it to the flames. As the smoke rises, it carries your intentions into the other realms, weaving them into the unseen. Again, do what calls to you.

When you feel your Fetch working has reached its conclusion and the connection has been made, step even closer to the mirror and bind the connection by kissing your reflection in the mirror, pressing your hand against its surface, or breathing a sacred breath of life toward your Fetch. Then, speak this incantation, or craft your own words of power, to seal the enchantment:

I am you, and you are me, Bound together, tethered free. Two as one, spirit and form, In sacred union, magick born.

Together we weave, together we bind, Power awakened, paths aligned. By will and craft, let it be, My Fetch and I, in harmony.

When the energy feels settled and the rite is complete, extinguish your candles, place the mirror in its sacred resting place, give thanks, and leave an offering in gratitude.

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May your magick flow with unwavering strength, ever potent and true. As you work with the Fetch Mirror, may the veil between worlds grow thin, and may the power of your spirit and its reflection guide your path with clarity and purpose. Blessed be. ✨

A honeysuckle simple syrup kinda day. 💐

Trance states are used in a lot of witchcraft practices, but especially those for spirit flight. This post will look at how these states translate in brain waves and what we are trying to achieve in our brains to accomplish our goal of spirit flight. Once we have an understanding of the feeling we are looking for it will be easier to use our techniques to get ourselves there.

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Content:

Brain Waves for Trance States

Tips for ADHD

Conclusion

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The under/otherworld has been attested to in various different cultures in many different ways, most of which stemmed from the Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Mesopotamian religions through not only the blood of the people but the culture as well. This can be seen in indo-european, Greco-Roman, Indigenous North and South American, as well as various Asian cultures. Each one had their own path traveling from Africa to their home continents.

The idea of the underworld being both underneath the earth, closer to the fire core and beneath the primordial ocean, but also in a somewhat different reality than ours where time goes much quicker and things which happen in that world can affect this world is present in many of the cultures I mentioned above.

One of the best examples of this double world effect comes from pagan Irish legends of the fae realm. One would stumble upon a faerie circle and be transported to the otherworld to join in their partying. To them, it would feel as though it had only been hours, but when they escaped, it had been years.

The fae realm is depicted as under the burial mounds and beneath the earth's crust, specifically when dealing with dead humans or animals who became faeries (in the sense of spirits). The god of the dead, depicted as Dis Pater by Caesar in his accounts of the Gauls, was also associated with the faeries. He was said to be the king of the other/underworld and dwell in the dark part of the forest as well as the primordial sea where one would go when death took them. He is often seen as the Horned god in more modern depictions.

Various portals to the under/otherworld exist on the European continent with rich cultural mythology surrounding them. Most of these are caverns leading out to the ocean or into the darkness.

This underworld is where the fae realm resides and all fae creatures, including more contemporary faeries, house spirits, Demons, genii, satyrs, kelpie etc. live.

In the ancient Egyptian belief the Sekhem was the shadow of a person in a spiritual sense. The double living the same life with the same Ka though in darkness rather than the light of the sun. Now where would one live in darkness? Under the earth where the light does not penetrate.

I believe that the Sekhem is the underworld version of the animal or their double in that separate realm.

This had me thinking though, if one is otherkin could their Sekhem possibly be that form? As a dragon the idea of the fae realm feels very close to home and many believe dragons originate from there.

Giant flying lizards are definitely possible looking at dinosaurs but perhaps dragons are similar animals just in a different realm where things work differently. That would mean that each dragon living in a human form would be living half in the underworld, their soul home, and the middle world or this world.

If you compare hominids in the mid world to the smaller and different looking hominids in the underworld, being brownies and the like, you can begin to make comparisons between the two worlds. It is a difference of dimension rather than one of species.

These dimensions do overlap though. At certain times of the year when the veil between worlds is thinnest the dead travel to the underworld and depending on what you believe live out their second life. In my personal belief system when one dies in the mid world they're reborn in a different dimension, either being the underworld, the upper world (or astral plane), or perhaps a different dimension entirely. The world tree map of dimensions in religions such as the pagan norse and celtic show various dimensions on each branch.

Perhaps in some way, death, travel, etc. Otherkin from different dimensions came to this one. For some this is an explanation of their past lives, for others like myself it is their soul travelling to another dimension and deciding to be reborn there for a few centuries.

Regardless, this interdimensional way of viewing otherkinity may explain Bilocation and Aura shifts.

The Blackthorn charm:

The Blackthorn tree or sloe is a shrub native to Europe and several other places in the East. This trees poisonous thorns can cause sepsis, making this thorny hedge a very powerful symbol of protection and setting of protective boundaries.

This potent charm is used to protect the inhabitants of a home from curses, intrusions of any sort, attacks, outside interference, and all general malicious intent.

How to make:

Begin by taking a good piece of white or red string and remember… knots are a symbol of protection.

While tying the thorns to the string, recite the following spoken charms:

By knot of one, this spells begun

By knot of two, it cometh true

By knot of three, so mote it be

By knot of four, this power i store

By knot of five, this spell comes to life

By knot of six, this power i fix

By knot of seven, malicious power i lessen

By knot of eight, i seal the thieves fate!

Finally, pass the charm through a hoodfire/hoodlamp. Then through the smoke of incense three times.Then simply hang it in a window or near your hearth.

Blessed be!

🕯🐐🕯