I am a traditional
witch from Northumberland, England, a place with beautiful landscapes steeped in history, myth and folklore. Let me start by
introducing myself, my path, and why I created this blog.
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| Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland. |
The beauty and primacy of
Northumberland's natural spaces made me feel a deep love for nature from a young age. I have always respected and adored our
Earth.
Eventually, I happened
upon Neopaganism and then Wicca as a teenager – finally, other
people who felt the same way as me about nature!
This path brought me
great joy and comfort for many years, but I started to wonder what
witchcraft was like before the 1950s revival. My research led me to
traditional witchcraft, which is often no less of a reconstruction
than Gardner's vision, but roots itself firmly in folklore and
historical accounts of witchcraft. Traditional craft also refuses to
shy away from darkness and the more unsavoury aspects of witchcraft –
the 'love and light' attitude of Wicca served me well for a time, but
ultimately I found it to be too dogmatic for my liking. I also love
traditional witchcraft's deep and often dark connection to the land –
to soil, blood and bones.
(Disclaimer: I
have no hatred towards Wicca. Indeed I find the pervasive hatred of
Wicca in online tradcraft communities very tiresome, and I have many
friends who are Wiccan! My own journey simply led me elsewhere, to
something that better suited my personal interests.)
My path has become
fairly eclectic over the years; inspired by practitioners such as
Gemma Gary, Cecil Williamson, Nigel Jackson, etc., but I am
simultaneously drawn to Germanic paganism and so work with the Norse
pantheon (sometimes in their Anglo-Saxon aspects – I am from
Northumbria after all!). I do adopt some aspects of Heathenry into my
path – certain festivals and rites such as the modern blót
– but within a 'witchy' framework. My patron deities are Freya and
Odin, and I like to utlise galdr, seiðr and other historical forms of Germanic spellcraft in addition to
British folk charms throughout history. All will become clearer as I
write more about it!
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| My current altar setup. |
So, to the purpose of
the blog. Though I am always reading witchy books, blogs and
articles, my actual practice dipped quite spectacularly over the past
few years owing to chronic depression and a number of difficult life
events. As I slowly crawl back to myself, I am gaining the strength
to perform magic once again. I did write a witchy blog a very long
time ago (when my path was a little different) which ended up
abandoned for the above reasons. I have a sorely neglected Tumblr but
always felt the urge to turn it into a dedicated blog. As I
rediscover this part of my life, I felt it would be helpful to regain
confidence in my path by explaining it to others; furthermore, this will help me to figure out the current shape of my path and how it is
evolving with the knowledge I have gained while 'dormant'.
I also have a fair bit
of knowledge about Anglo-Saxon paganism, Northumbrian folklore, and
various bits of research on witchcraft traditions that others may
find helpful. I did notice that while there is lots of writing on
Cornish and Devonshire witchcraft and various American traditions,
there is woefully little information on the history of Northumbrian
witchcraft, and consequently no modern tradition one can refer to –
perhaps this blog will help my fellow Northumbrian witches who may be
feeling a bit isolated and lost!
Other topics this blog
will cover include book reviews, recipes, some spells and workings of
my own creation, divination, details of how I celebrate festivals and
writings on my own relationship with deity, spirits and the local
landscape. Perhaps even interviews and guest posts if people are
interested! So there should be something to please just about anyone
with an interest in witchcraft. Updates are sporadic as of now (I
work full-time and have a lot of creative hobbies beside
witchcraft!), but I will hopefully get into a regular schedule as
time goes on.
I hope that you will
choose to join me on this journey. If you have any interesting
tidbits of Northumbrian folklore or history that you would like to
share, or topics you would like to see covered, please do let me know
in the comments! I love to research and discover new things.
Have a wonderfully
spooky Samhain and keep an eye out for my next post!
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