The thoughts of a folklore witchcraft practitioner.

Hello Everyone. Merry Samhain festivities to all and as the winters nights draw in I hope all have had a wonderful and prosperous summer. As the Calleach rises for her reign we are reminded that with life must come death and with death there is rebirth . I suppose this is what this blog is about death rebirth and reflection. Such a poignant time of year with pagans returning from festivities all over the country. Myself included, after a small hiatus to the magical lands of Cornwall for the dark gathering at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle. I had seen videos on YouTube from last year and something called to me and my partner that we just had to go, and we did. Well I can safely say that an afternoon of border Morris was what I needed. watching the wonderful Beltane Border Morris, Wytchwood Morris and Catseye Morris in the afternoon after a Cornish cream tea was amazing to say the least. The energies these dancers brought were immense and if you ever get ...

Hello everyone. After some time away and a busy lammas, I am back and hoping to bring you more blogs over the coming weeks. I have had a wonderful holiday with my family from a pagan camp in Yorkshire  to the mountains of the lake district. And the wheel of the year turns once more as we have reached the Autumn Equinox. Many Pagans call this time of year Mabon also. It is the time for the second harvest, of fruits and the last of the crops grown over summer. A time to make beer, cider, wine and mead. Fruit Preserves and foraging as the trees turn from green to brown before their inevitable slumber over the winter months. Equinox is a time for balance as the days and night become equal for three days and the focus here is on balance. Not to take too much so the animals have food also and to save and reserve foods for the winter months. The Norse Celebrated this time of year with a festival known as the Haustblot, a time when the sun goddess Sol begins...

Hello Everyone, Greetings to all on this Lammas week and to those who had festivities and camps I hope you all had fun on the first harvest of the year. This Blog will look at folk traditions over the British Isles and customs of old and also stories associated with the harvest and celebrations of Lammas/Lughnasadh. Lammas or the first harvest is on the 1st August and differs from place to place on the British Isles, where in Scotland they may harvest the crops early. The word Lammas comes from the Saxon word halfmaesse  or   loaf mass and it refers to the first offerings to the God of the fruits of the harvest. In Celtic times this time of year was known as Lughnasadh and dedicated to the God Lugh, which was a time for merrymaking, feasts and honouring's to Lugh's foster mother the goddess Taitu.(Howard, p100-102) Christian faith however took this festival for their own, knowing the importance of the agricultural year and the blessings given to...

Hello Everyone, I hope you enjoyed my last post. This post we will be looking at the Summer Solstice, folk lore, traditions and new concepts of this midsummer pagan festival. Solstice, or Litha means a stopping or standing still of the sun. It is the longest day of the year and the time when the sun is at its maximum elevation. Sumer Solstice lands on the 21st/22nd and sometimes 23rd of June, gracing us with the shortest day of the year. Many Neo Pagans celebrate this time of year with various rituals, camps and public ceremonies. The Earliest Midsummer festivals were that of the Celts who worshipped the sun god Belinos. They would light fires to add energy to Belinos and honour him. The Norse also celebrated midsummer when the goddess Sol is at the height of her power. Again the lighting of fire was the main focus of this time of year for the Norse. Also using the runes and honouring the god Tyr and goddess Sol. In the 1900's, Druids have been welcoming th...

Hello Everyone, So since I last wrote in my blog, the weather has been amazingly warm and we have had some amazing storms also. On my day off, myself and my partner Raven went walking and found somewhere close to where we live in the West Midlands steeped in mystery, murder and lore. This place is Hagley Wood and the famous graffiti obelisk of Wychbury hill. On the 17th century obelisk in white graffiti is the sentence ' Who put Bella in the Wych Elm Tree?' After seeing this for myself I knew I had to research this to find out. The story starts in wartime Britain, four teenagers were passing through Hagley Woods and came across the body hidden in the hollow of a tree. Stories of Witchcraft, black magic, espionage and murder mystery ensued on the back foot of this horrific find.  Many Scholars on the craft including Owen Davies and Prof. Ronald Hutton have quashed the claims it was ritualistic or anything to do with 'The Nazi Cone' - a series of ritu...

Hello again and sorry! Sorry for my lateness in writing this as I have been busy reading new books, visiting new places and helping many people with their needs. So I aim to by the end of this post delve into a book I am reading at the moment and recap a magical place and Beltane festival before the summer solstice. Also meeting the amazing Anna Franklin at the Staffordshire Pagan Conference which is an amazing day out for all. Anna Franklin is an author of many subjects from hearth witch to shaman an has an amazing book on hand fasting also. Her talk on cunning folk and wise women was very interesting and well researched. I loved how she talked about every aspect of folk magic and it has inspired me to write more and learn the ways further. Since my last blog I have been reading and writing more and also there was Beltane festivities. Beltane is the time of year to welcome Bellinos and the sun god back to the land, to watch the seeds sprout and gr...

Hello, As this is my first post, I will give a short introduction about myself. My name is Karina I am in my 30s and I have been pagan now since I was around 15 years old. I have followed many paths searching for what was right for me which include Wicca, Druidism, Heathenry, hedge witchery and Buddhism. It wasn't until meeting my amazing partner that I found the path of folklore magic, cunning folk, wise men and women of old and the term Traditional Witchcraft, a term I will explore further in the future and what it means to me. I have joined a coven which before was never an option as I found most covens or groups very political, dogmatic and heavily hierarchical. I was always looking for what was the right path for me for many years as many pagans do. A kind of soul searching and realisation of one's self,  as a person within the craft. I made many friends and used to assist in the running of a local moot until I experienced pagan camps. Pa...