Feeks

This, my friend, is my blog I'll be dedicating to my journey within witchcraft. I've dabbled in it during high school, and now several years into college, I've gotten back into it. The peace, clarity and structure the practice has given me is something I deeply appreciate, and now I want to find what works for me.

There are a few aspects of witchcraft that I already know belong in my practice, but that won't be the main subject of this blog. My intent is to post any little thing I can find on dutch, pre-christian magic to perhaps adapt it into my own craft. I am dutch, and have been finding it difficult to find one place that contains all the information I would like to gain. So I've decided to post whatever (verifiable) information I can find on here, and perhaps connect with other witches in the process.

Please do come along on this journey, however long or short it might be. Maybe it'll take months or years to gather everything, maybe there is some site I've somehow missed all this time and this will be over in a day lol.

Boundaries and whatnot:

Knots are used in many different cultures as symbols of life, connection, rebirth, and likely plenty of other things. The 'toverknoop', roughly translated to 'magic knot', is one such symbol.

Though the toverknoop comes in many shapes, it generally seems to be a bigger circle made out of many smaller circles, each smaller circle attached to the other like a knot (images below). This symbol was generally used for protection, and carried the idea of something being 'bound forever'. They were usually made part of a buildings design by carefully laying bricks in a specific pattern, or having an etched stone version of it somewhere on the wall. Place it above your house, and it would capture whatever evil was trying to get in. Farmers would use these to protect their lifestock and storage, even the back of their carts.

Though toverknopen were usually found on buildings, that wasn't the only location. They were also designed onto clogs, or klompen. The husband would carve toverknopenn into the clogs of his bride-to-be, which she would wear from the day of the engagement to their wedding day.

It was also said that you could use this against witches, to subdue their powers. The irony of that is quite funny to me. And perhaps I am not the first person to pick up on this irony, because in the year 1000 the bishop van Worm was outspokenly against the toverknoop usage, finding it a practice for 'heathens'. At the very same time however, one could find these toverknopen etched onto churches.. so..

Anyway, they say that if you were to make this toverknoop, you would utter some sort of accompanying chant, though its contents seem lost to time. I for one will be implementing this into my protection practices, carrying a bit of tradition with me wherever I go.

Sources:

This site which also contains a couple images of toverknopen (which seems to be run by a man with an interest in a specific lightsource and other architectural things. When words collide, I suppose)

This site which contains a few other interesting folklore bits, not all dutch

This site which once again seems to be mostly about architechture

This wood-carving website

Expect a list of plants that can be useful during this upcoming Autumn, But here is how dutch magic users utilized plants:

One cannot just pluck the plant out of the ground. Certain plants have specific rituals dedicated to using them, but every plant must greeted and be informed of your intent before asking to use some of it, unless you want to anger the spirit inside the plant or steal from Mother Earth.

Nighttime, never daytime. You cannot harvest plants for practice during the day, it must be done at night. The moon will strengthen your goals under the guidance of Hekate.

Connection to Christianity. The bishop Burchard van Worms stated in the 11th century; "Have you plucked medicinal herbs with incantations that are not 'credo' or 'onzevader'? If so, you must fast on water and bread for ten days." Then again, later on in history incantations that have included Christian prayers and holymen had been deemed acceptable.

Sources:

I will go into depth about some of these creatures' tales, but do let me know if you are curious about any one of them in particular :)

The mermaid: Prominent since the 7th century. Half human, half fish with great powers. An encounter with one can be seen as bad luck, but it can bring prosperity to a village (when marrying a seafaring person of that village, for example). On the other hand, it can also destroy an entire village when angered or mistreated. A famous ducth folktale says that a village once kidnapped a mermaid, leaving her to die on land while her husband and child watched. The merman then cursed the village and left as storms flattened them. In another tale a mermaid was found after she couldn't find her way back to sea, and was forced to spend her life as a human woman until she died.

The giant: Huge (mostly) men that are known for taunting and killing humans. The giant father and son duo Ellert & Brammert managed to chase away an entire village with their terrible antics. Giants have been credited with building the hunebedden, either by using stones as marbles or when helping humans.

The werewolf: The dutch werewolf is interesting, since it isn't a werewolf like most people know it. Instead it is a (male!) witch, or a seventh son who can shift into a wolf. These witches make deals with the devil for a belt or pelt that allows them to shift at will. In return they must do the devils bidding. Some climb on the backs of wanderers until the sun comes up and their victims' energy has been depleted. a 'werewolf' might have bushier hair, or hair on his palms while he is in his human form. You wouldn't exactly say someone is a werewolf, but rather that they are werewolfing. If his pelt or belt gets burned, the werewolf will feel the pain and try to stop it at all costs. When the material is competely burnt, the werewolf will become a regular man once again. The (night)mare is seen as the female counterpart to the werewolf.

The nightmare: Otherwise known as 'the mare', this witch, spirit or seventh daughter walks out of her human body at night to sneak into the bedrooms of mostly men. She will appear as a smaller woman or hairy creature, and cause paralysis and exhaustion to the man while she sits on his chest or squeezes his neck. Some tales have a spicier tone- where they describe the previous interaction as riding. Mares have also been known to select horses as their victims if there aren't any humans around, leaving them in a similair state of dissaray and exhaustion. One can do many things to keep them out, like throwing a net over your bed, hanging a sieve above your bedroom door or to put your clogs (which I'm sure you own) with the heels against the bed, so she'll fall in. Some have even tried to make a mare his bride. (Mares aren't all bad- however. In Frisia they braid horses' hair and sing beautifully.)

Sources:

Wikipedia; De Zeemeermin van Westerschouwen

Plompetoren.nl; De Zeemeermin

De zeemeermin van Edam

Witches & werewolves

Werewolves

Nightmares