The Modern Guide to Witchcraft (9 page)

Want to take a trip? Invite Mercury to help you plan your itinerary. Need some extra power on the gridiron? Consider adding Mars or Mithras to your team. You can develop a personal relationship with the gods and goddesses, no matter what their origin, and learn more about yourself through working with them.

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with a number of gods and goddesses, you may opt to petition one or more for help with a specific task. If you are facing a big challenge or obstacle, you could call on the Hindu god Ganesh to assist you. Perhaps you admire a certain deity’s attributes and want to add them to your own character. If you’d like to be more compassionate, say, you could align yourself with Kuan Yin, the Asian goddess of mercy. Many witches believe that gods and goddesses are willing to help us if we ask and show them due respect.

Most witches believe we share this universe with all sorts of nonphysical beings—not just gods and goddesses—including lots of good guys who are willing to help us. They guide, protect, and aid us in our daily lives. When things go wrong, we can call on them for assistance.

Some people envision these divine helpers as angels. Others prefer to think of them as sages, guardians, or parts of their own higher consciousness. Native Americans often look to revered ancestors and spirit animals for guidance. We’ve already talked about teaming up with fairies, nature spirits, and elementals. These supernatural beings can be tremendous assets in magickal work—indeed, they could be essential to a spell’s success.

When working with spirit helpers, certain rules of etiquette apply, as is the case in any personal or business relationship:

• Ask for assistance—guides, guardians, and deities recognize your free will and might not intervene unless you invite them to do so.
  
• Show respect—treat spirit helpers as honored teachers and allies, not servants.
  
• Don’t try to micromanage deities—if you seek aid from spirit beings, turn over the reins and allow them to carry out your request as they see fit.
  
• Don’t seek help to do harm—although some evil entities lurk out there, you don’t want to join forces with them, and the good spirits won’t get behind a bad cause.
  
• Express gratitude—remember to thank the beings who assist you, and perhaps give them an offering.
  

How can you go about connecting with deities? They might come to you in a dream, meditation, or vision. Countless people throughout history have experienced visitations from divine beings. Myths and legends from many cultures speak of gods and goddesses interacting with humans in this way. Such appearances aren’t just a thing of the past—they can happen to anyone, any time.

But if that doesn’t happen to you, don’t despair. You have other ways to catch a favorite deity’s eye. Consider these suggestions:

• Learn as much as you can about the god/dess you wish to attract. Read myths, spiritual literature, and folklore. Many websites and blog sites provide in-depth information about deities, from the best known to the most obscure.
  
• Set up an altar and dedicate it to the deity of your choice. In
  Chapter 9
  , we’ll talk more about creating altars and shrines.
  
• Collect artwork depicting the deities you want to petition. Again, you’ll find lots of images online, but New Age stores and some religious shops also sell spiritual artwork. Display these images in a prominent place where you’ll see them often, such as on your altar.
  
• Find out what things certain deities like. Many of them have preferences for particular plants, foods, stones, etc. Place these on your altar or in a special place outdoors as offerings to the god, goddess, or other spirit.
  

Keep an open mind and an open heart when you’re working with deities. Trust your intuition—when you’re dealing with forces beyond the mundane world, you need to rely on a type of knowing beyond your everyday awareness, one that will let you tune in to higher frequencies. Finally, believe that the spirits will speak to you, in one way or another. Doubt slams the door between you and magickal beings. When you’re dealing with other realities and supernatural forces, remember this: You’ll see it when you believe it.

Now that you have a better understanding of the magickal universe in which you live and perhaps have met some of your spirit helpers, it’s time to start thinking about how you might like to proceed along your journey as a witch. Just as musicians approach their craft in very personal ways, so do witches. Some musicians are classically trained and perform complicated pieces in concert halls or with orchestras. Others can’t even read music and prefer to jam in a more casual manner. Witches, too, may choose to tread a simple path or an incredibly complex one. Kitchen and hedge witches, for example, generally practice uncomplicated, natural magick. They usually don’t belong to a coven—though they may join forces with other witches for special purposes. Solitary practitioners, they depend on self-study, insight, creativity, and intuition as their guideposts. Their practice usually includes plant and herbal magick, often for the purpose of healing.

Other witches perform magick with more ritualistic overtones, drawing inspiration from various mystical and spiritual movements, such as the Qabalah (a body of Jewish mysticism and magick). They look at every aspect of a spell or a ritual as part of a huge picture. Each piece must be in the right place for everything to turn out as it should. For instance, the astrological phase of the moon during which the spell is performed should be suited to the task. The witch might wear special clothing and move in carefully choreographed patterns. Every part of the working should be designed to build energy toward a desired outcome.

Which path you choose depends on your personality, preferences, and talents. Do you enjoy group activities and working with other people toward a common goal? Perhaps you’d like to join a Wiccan coven. Or are you a loner and a homebody? You may be a natural hedge witch. Do you feel a strong connection with the earth and love the outdoors? If so, green witchcraft might be your thing. If you have a flair for the dramatic, ceremonial magick might appeal to you. Where you live could be a factor too. In the Southwestern states, shamanism influenced by Native American traditions is popular; in Salem, Massachusetts, you’ll find plenty of Wiccans. Let’s look at a few of these different practices now—you may find one that intrigues you enough to investigate it further.

Green witches are the original “tree huggers.” The green witch walks the path of the naturalist, the herbalist, the wise woman, and the healer. Earth is her primer, the natural world her classroom. The natural world offers many gifts, but comparatively few people in today’s technology-driven society embrace them. With the resurgence of nature-based practices and environmental awareness, however, green witches are once again emerging as guardians of nature and of humanity’s relationship with our planet.

The green witch uses nature’s gifts to improve the well-being of the physical body, the spirit and soul, and the environment. In earlier times, many people practiced green witchcraft, whether or not they called it that. Midwives, herbalists, shamans, and other healers knew the powers of plants—both medicinal and magickal—and tapped botanicals for all sorts of purposes. They also felt a strong connection to the earth, the seasons, and the cycles of life. In fact, their very lives depended on existing in harmony with nature.

Today’s green witches follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. They honor the earth and all its inhabitants—rocks, plants, and animals. They utilize ingredients from nature to concoct remedies and in spellcasting, particularly herbs and crystals. (You’ll learn more about this in
Chapters 11
and
12
.) They work to protect the environment and try to live in harmony with all of creation. They may interact with the devas, elementals, or spirits who guard nature. Using their intuition, they create a channel of communication between the natural world and the human one.

A green witch usually works alone with nature as her partner. Historically, green witches lived apart from the community. Those who needed the services of such a witch traveled to see her, perhaps high into the hills or at the edge of the forest. She used the properties of the plants and trees around her to heal others. These days, you’re more likely to find a green witch living in the middle of a city or in the suburbs, and her garden is likely to be small—maybe just some containers on a porch or a kitchen window “greenhouse.”

She might work in an office or in sales or in the service industry. Perhaps she’s in the medical field. Or she’s a teacher or a full-time parent. Today’s green witch understands that she can’t restore nature’s balance by isolating herself in the wild, she must bring her knowledge and gifts into the rest of the world. Cities, superhighways, and deforested areas—places where humankind has damaged nature—need the green witch’s healing powers.

A green witch isn’t defined by where she lives or what she does to bring home a paycheck. Nor is she limited to working with flowers, trees, and herbs. What makes a green witch is her relationship to the world around her, her ethics, and her affinity with nature. She doesn’t merely practice green witchcraft, making potions and lotions, healing salves and teas—she
lives
the green path.

The path of the green witch combines aspects of both witchcraft and shamanism, but is wholly neither. It is an intensely personal path that integrates ability, likes and dislikes, the climate of a particular geographic location, and interaction with the energy of the environment. Healing, harmony, and balance are all key to the green witch’s practice and outlook on life. These concepts embody three distinct focuses:

1. The earth (your local environment, as well as the planet)
   
2. Humanity (in general, as well as your local community, friends, and acquaintances)
   
3. You
   

Whether you choose to grow your own garden, install solar panels on your home, pick up trash by the side of the road, or get involved in a movement to protect wildlife is totally up to you. Although rooted in the ancient past, green witchcraft isn’t a tradition so much as a personal adaptation of an ideal. No body of formal knowledge is passed on through careful training, no established group mind to which you are connected by sacred ceremonies performed by elders.

The green witch’s power comes from participating in the miracle that is life, from attuning yourself to the energies of the environment around you. Instead of striving to amass power, you tap into the flows of energy that already exist in and around the earth. The challenge is how to walk a green path today, in a time of environmental stress, mass industrialization, and urbanization.

The terms
hedge witch
and
kitchen witch
can refer to someone who follows a home-based, freeform spiritual path that can’t be clearly defined or identified as an existing Neopagan path. In some circles they connote a person who engages in a shamanic practice involving spirit journeys or trancing (more about this later), often with the aid and support of herbal knowledge. A kitchen or hedge witch can also be someone who pursues a solitary nature-based spiritual path. In earlier times, wise women, cunning men, and other such practitioners were sometimes called green witches or hedge witches; they worked to heal individuals, communities, and any malaise in the natural world.

Similar to green witchcraft, hedge witchcraft is nature based. Hedge witches are often solitary practitioners, meaning they work alone rather than with a coven or group of other people. They may be self-dedicated, but they are rarely publicly initiated into the field—they’re more likely to have learned the Craft at Grandma’s side or eased into it as an extension of growing herbs in a backyard garden.

Hearth and home occupy a central place in their spiritual and magickal work—often kitchen witches work out of their own homes, making those homes places of healing energy and knowledge. Their homes provide shelter and nourishment, for both the body and the spirit. The hedge witch’s home is her temple and her sanctuary, which she tends in order to keep energy flowing smoothly and freely. She seeks to support, nurture, and nourish her family (and extended community), both spiritually and physically. That neighbor who always makes you feel comfortable and peaceful in her home, who serves you soothing herbal teas and healthy, homemade meals might be practicing kitchen witchery, even if she doesn’t call it that.

We find the concept of the home as a spiritual center in many cultures and throughout many eras. The home, and in particular the hearth, has often served as a point of connection for god/desses and humankind. In China, the Kitchen God is viewed as an important domestic deity, and families hang paper images of the god near their stoves. In the West, kitchen witches use two symbols as joint keystones: the cauldron and the flame. (We’ll talk more about these symbols in later chapters.) Traditionally, the cauldron represents abundance and hospitality. In magick, it also symbolizes rebirth, mystery, creation, fertility, transformation, and feminine power. The flame is a symbol of life, activity, the Divine, purification, inspiration, and masculine power, making it an excellent partner for the cauldron.