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manicspellbook · 10 days ago

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Resolving conflicting magical recommendations (for beginners)

(This isn't reactionary I promise, it's been on my mind for a couple of days 😅)

Idk really how helpful this will be, but if you're a beginner who is confused by a lot of apparently contradicting information, here are some thoughts/ideas that are too basic to have been this hard earned, but I'm not called Fool for no reason.

[All of the following are just my beliefs and aren't universal or applicable to everyone]

Resolving magical conflicts through intent

You can find apparent contradictions in almost any magical action. For example:

Light a candle to charge a crystal with energy

Light a candle to burn away an energy and dwindle it down to nothing

When you light the candle, is it going to fill the crystal with energy?

Or, is it going to burn away energy until nothing is left?

My belief is that this is where the idea of intent plays one of its most basic and vital roles in witchcraft.

When you perform a magical action, "setting intent" can be a vital first step that should not be skipped.

If you are aware that the fire could either charge or burn away, then it is very literally up to you what it does. As the agent of control and/or chaos, it is the witch who determines which facets of power come out to play.

Setting intent can be done inside of your head. Or, speak, sign, or write intent.

Rules about how you totally have to write intent can, for the most part, be ignored (e.g., "your intent must be present progressive tense or the Universe will never let you manifest your goals." Nah, the Universe doesn't even speak human language tbh.)

Setting intent is not the only step to working magic, and sometimes literally doesn't matter. ("It's my intent to honor the spirit of this lake with an offering! *Dumps cigarette butts and beer cans into the water* "The lake is honored because that was my intent 😌")

Having a limited set of beliefs about what a certain power can do is like automatically setting intent. ("It's only possible that candles burn away energy, so when I light it, of course it will have a banishing effect.")

Setting intent in this manner only works to the extent that the power you are working with could already do the thing. If you've got a freezer with an ice dispenser on the door you can intend to store food inside it to chill, or, you can intend to get water out of the door, but it doesn't matter how much you intend to fry a chicken. The fridge does not do that action.

Resolving magical contradictions through tradition

Tradition in and of itself can advise how to resolve contradictions of magical meaning. This includes religious, magical, and cultural traditions.

What's important to remember is that just because one group does it one way, it doesn't mean that their way is universally correct.

A lot of people enter into the world of witchcraft with the concept that there is one universally correct set of methods and rules by which to perform magic. These methods are secret, but written down somewhere, and the key to learning magic is to just find the truest set of rules to magic. Magical truth is mutually exclusive, and contradictory information must either replace current truth, or be rejected as falsehood.

And fortunately for everyone, none of that is true!

This is why someone in one school of magic can make a certain claim ("letting spell vessels touch the earth immediately robs them of their power and the magic becomes inert,") and someone else can make a totally contradictory claim ("bury spell vessels for three days to supercharge them with the power of Nature,") and both people can be equally right.

Which set of rules might be true for you?

Well, whichever tradition you're a part of.

This is why it's really important to understand where your beliefs come from, and also to engage in self-examination about what you believe about the cosmos, our planet, and your role within it.

Entering into a tradition has a curious effect - you tend to be bound to those rules and assumptions, whether you like it or not.

Reflect on whether or not your current traditions and beliefs can resolve conflicting information.

Ask yourself what beliefs must be inherent before an assumption about magical 'rules' can be true.

(P.S. you can learn multiple contradictory systems of magic and flip between them depending on needs)

Resolving magical contradictions through experimentation

One witch may be able to charge excellently by burning candles and using intent to direct the burning energy.

A second witch may discover that they really can't charge jack shit with a candle. The energy seems to slip between their fingertips. When they direct it at something, it seems to have a consuming effect - not an invigorating one.

Setting magical intent is like choosing which path to walk down. But, the paths are unique for each of us. For the first witch, the path of "Charging Through Candleflame" is wide and open, a beautiful paved boulevard they can stroll down.

For the second witch, the path of "Charging Through Candleflame" is like hiking up a steep hill littered with boulders, and also the hill is on fire.

Many magical contradictions can be explained by practitioners simply having different personal experiences, and incorrectly assuming that their experiences must be universal.

One excellent way to learn not only about magic as a whole, but also how magic works for you, is to earnestly experiment with contradictory meanings and discover which ones A) make sense to you, but more importantly, B) actually work for you.

Whether or not you can use a candle to charge, banish, or both; and whether or not that's more or less effective for you than using water, or the sun, or pop culture icons, is something that you'll only be able to discover for yourself through experimentation.

Resolving magical contradictions through technique

If setting intent is choosing what path to walk down, then on the course of walking down that path, there is a chance you trip and fall flat (see: "I'm honoring the lake by dumping trash in it!").

Tripping and falling flat doesn't mean that path of magic is impossible for you, or shouldn't be further explored.

It can really just mean that you need some hiking boots and a trail guide.

Or, in other words: setting intent can be insufficient to actually access and manifest certain types/aspects of power.

I have personal beliefs about sorcerous power that dictate that various powers can be more or less difficult to access depending on a variety of factors. And, a witch must learn techniques to access the power. The more remote or hidden that power is, the more capable or attuned a witch must be to access that power.

That is to say, someone intensely aligned with underworld powers may be able to easily access the facets of death and decay that exist within many natural forces. But, someone without that alignment might instead need capable techniques gained through learning and practice in order to access those same powers.

And someone with neither of those things, who only tries to set intent and starts on a difficult path filled with roadblocks, may falsely assume that something "just doesn't work for me," when in reality, it's just more difficult to access.

This is why one witch can say, "roosters are a powerful source of connection to the underworld," another witch can say, "roosters only connect to the underworld if you use their feathers in a certain ritual," and a third witch can say, "roosters don't connect to the underworld," and all three are speaking from valid personal experience.

Experimenting with different techniques means learning a wide variety of ways to perform magic, including different paradigms, rituals, techniques, and methodologies.

Many systems of witchcraft contain concepts of when power is more or less available (the easiest example is the types of power more freely available due to the phases of the moon). Learning these systems can assist in discovering the accessibility of various powers.

Research is your friend.

In summary,

There are many reasons why witches have different lived experiences with magic (the topic of which would be enough to fill a book or two). As a witch-practitioner, your role in the creation of magic can't be ignored.

It's through your own culture and traditions, your own intent, and your own sorcerous techniques and education, through which you will be able to determine what aspects of magic are true to you - and which do not apply.

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manicspellbook · 21 days ago

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If there's one piece of advice I can give, it's to deconstruct your practice regularly.

How much of it is actually useful, how much of it applies to your spirits or cosmology?

Who or what do you neglect regularly? What areas need more attention, more focus? What flames need to be tended?

Is there anything that no longer serves a purpose? Can anything be simplified to greater effect? How much time do you devote to strengthening your core skills and foundations?

It's about cutting away the dead pieces, so that there is room for new growth to flourish.

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manicspellbook · 26 days ago

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A lifetime of spirituality has taught me a few guidelines that haven't led me wrong so far. These are personal, of course.

Don't summon what you can't banish.

Don't start what you can't finish.

Don't go where you can't return.

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manicspellbook · 27 days ago

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🧹💐 SPRING CLEANING REFLECTION ASKS for your magical practice 💐🧹

You can treat this as an ask game or journal prompts leading up to Beltane – I might do both!

Talk about....

🔥 A favourite ritual 🐉 A deity or spirit you used to work with 🐚 A deity or spirit you currently work with 🌻 A magical encounter in nature ☕ A magical encounter in the city 🌟 A time you improvised with what you had 🌶 A risky offering 🥀 A working that didn't work out 🦉 A mentor or person who's influenced your practice 🌱 A skill you're working on 🍇 An offering you're proud of ⚡ A favourite collaboration 🐾 The furthest you've ever travelled for magical purposes 🏺 An ancestor (blood or chosen) 🐬 A culturally specific belief or practice of yours 🦂 A mistake (that you're willing to talk about) ⛈ An ethic or value that's central to your practice 🌗 One way that your practice has changed 🍁 Something you miss about an older version of your practice 🦀 A bad habit 🌋 A magical gift (either something you're Gifted At, or a gift you've received) 🐝 Your magical/spiritual community 🔮 A memorable divination session 🍄 A dream or vision 🐣 A goal for your practice

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manicspellbook · 1 month ago

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Found it

I need everyone to know that the ship Götheborg, the world's largest ocean-going wooden sailing ship, answered a distress call the other day.

Imagine waiting for the coast guard or whatever to show up and instead a replica of 18th century merchant ship pulls up and tows you to the coast.

#beauty of life

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manicspellbook · 1 month ago

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tips for adhd witches!

[[before you expand: LONG text post!!]]

I got diagnosed only a couple months ago, but I have been practicing witchcraft for a little bit now. So in retrospect, here is stuff that I realized I have been doing to cope the whole time, and some new things I'm tinkering with :) Please feel free to leave your own tips or thoughts!

At all costs, avoid promising gods and spirits that YOU WILL uphold a rigid routine.

Just do not promise to give daily offerings! JUST DON'T DO IT. If you struggle with upholding a regular routine, do not promise gods or spirits you will uphold a routine for them. You should only promise things you are confident you can deliver. ((If you identify as a beginner witch it's my personal belief that you should not be promising anyone anything.))

Delete from your mindset that all witches are supposed to uphold rigid routines.

Give yourself breathing room: if you want to give scheduled offerings, maybe do one on the full moon. Or, plan it to coincide with other activities that interest you, and that you're likely to show up for.

Unless you have a few hours a week to devote to your practice, you should probably not be dedicating yourself to doing daily anything.

Rigid routine is not the only way to get regular experience with magic, build relationships with gods or spirits, or improve in your craft! You simply do not have to promise yourself or anyone else that you will do X actions at Y times.

Instead of having "do X for Y minutes on Z days" routines, try developing a streamlined ritual you can fit in anywhere for the really important stuff.

Maybe there are some really important things in your practice that you want to do on a regular basis. Maybe these are things like:

Quick personal shielding

Acknowledging and honoring spirits

General offering

Prayer for guidance

Instead of saying "I'll do shielding for 5 minutes every day after breakfast, then of course my offering ritual-", you can put a streamlined (short, easy) ritual together where you do all four of these things at once.

Deep breaths, acknowledge and honor the spirits, ask for assistance in raising a shield, offering excess raised energy to them, and praying for guidance in the upcoming task.

It should take maybe like, 2 minutes tops.

Then, slot this streamlined ritual in before most practice activities. Like:

Before other energy work

Before divination

Before spellwork

Or, use it as a sort of 'generic' access point of connection and perform this ritual:

When you shower, to calm down from the day

When you're on transit to prepare for the upcoming day

When you're feeling grateful and want to share the moment with the spirits

When you're feeling sad and need support

Instead of forcing important actions into routines that may be hard to follow, find a way to carry these actions around with you in an accessible ritual, like carrying snacks around in a bag. This way you can use other exciting activities, or other life events, as a reminder to practice your ritual of important things :)

Build a clear system of omens for yourself. Omens can intrude on your daily life and get your attention.

Maybe you have alarm blindness, forget to do divination, forget to check in with spells - so asking for omens can be a huge help. They are spontaneous messages that catch your eye. Helpful!

Research cultural omens

Research omens in your magical tradition

Journal and brainstorm personal omens

Write out, for yourself, a short list of personal omens.

Solid black pigeons mean a spirit wants attention. Seeing your favorite tree species means a spell was successful. Three gray dots means a spell failed. The scent of cinnamon buns means fortune is headed your way.

Perform a ritual announcing your chosen omens to the Powers That Be. Invite those Powers, Yourself, Life, the Universe, and Everything to send you true, accurate, and helpful messages through these omens.

Working with omens in this way is a skill that evolves over time. Your personal omen system will evolve over time if you use it. Think of it as another form of divination!

(Tip: Combine symbols with colors for an advanced system that's easy to remember. Oak trees are prosperity, but black means slow movement, red means powerful, and white means failure. After a spell you see a plumbing truck with a red oak tree logo; powerful prosperity. Etc.)

Build all your spells, rituals, and everything with the foresight that you are probably going to forget about it or not return to it for a long time.

Employ foresight and:

Encode retirement/shutdown functions into your spells!! Do you want the spell to burn out completely and leave the vessel hollow so you don't have to deal with the vessel later on? Specify that! Do you want the spell to go to 'power saver mode' and hibernate so you can save the vessel and recharge it later? Specify!

ENCODE OMENS INTO SPELLS TO REMIND YOU TO TAKE ACTIONS! "This spell brings me financial benefit, and when it runs low, I will see my omen of slow growth - a solid black tree."

Assume that you are going to completely forget that you're able to take care of this problem, so encode the spells assuming you will never remember to deal with this again:

Spell for people that will remember they want to deal with Monica (they will also be working with wards, divination, and subtle cunning): "Stop Monica at the front desk from assaulting me with her dark energies, or else limit how much of her energy can reach me."

Spell for people that are going to completely forget this is an issue they can take care of and won't do another spell on it for maybe 18 months: "Stop Monica from assaulting me with her dark energies, or reveal to everyone in the office her dark nature, but if neither of these things is possible, change something in the office so that we never interact again."

Assume you will forget about individual spells, that you will accumulate way to many spells than you can individually attend to, and that you may never take final steps like cleansing and deconstructing old spell vessels.

Build a spellcasting altar, or a spell recharging altar, where you store up all your vessels. Recharge them all at once, as often as you remember to.

Poor plan: "And when this vessel runs down I will recharge it with the waxing moon as I stand under the orange tree-" More tenable plan: "And when this vessel runs down let it drink energy from my altar; let it take up any energy that suits it; let it feed on what is available to it, according to its needs."

Focus on learning how to tie spells to external energy sources so they will stay charged for way longer.

For easy deconstruction, set blanket conditions for every vessel that it be undone and the magic erased if you take a simple action. This is called a kill code. You bake it into spells and it makes deconstruction way easier.

Try developing a barbarous word of undoing and using it every time you want to undo a vessel or a spell; this word will gain power and can become very helpful in other ways.

Once again, plan spells with the foresight that it will be difficult/unlikely for you to re-engage for formal deconstruction procedures. So, anticipate your future needs during spellcasting: "And if I ever open this jar and take out the things inside it, let this spell be released and return to the earth, let it fade away without trouble and nourish anything around it as fallen logs nourish the forest floor." This way, you know that if you accidentally forget about a spell or just take it apart, the magic already has instructions to safely dissipate and you don't have to worry.

Develop a visual language to remind you of what collected objects and spell vessels are.

This folds in real nice with a personal omen system!!

Use a combination of colors, established symbols (planetary, alchemical), and personal symbols to develop a visual conlang that helps you keep track of what things are.

If applicable, decorate or modify spell vessels so you can tell at a glance what the spell is for (violet symbol of Venus next to a paw: a spell to improve relationships with the spirits that help you with psychism)

Build a system that makes intuitive sense to you, perhaps folding in with your color correspondence associations, magical headcannon, or any other mnemonic device:

All the spells in jars are protective

Everything that's tied into a witch's ladder is about prosperity

If it has a red X on it, that's a hex

If it has a 7-pointed star, it involves your dragon guide

If you store it in a bag that has blue on it (blue print, blue button, blue tie-string) then that object is related to cleansing

Your personal visual language will gain its own power over time if used regularly, in the way that egrigores or sigils can gain power if used consistently over time :) It can become a real magical tool, not just a mnemonic device!

During spirit work, just clearly communicate that your sporadic presence has nothing to do with your dedication 🤷

When you conjure/talk to/pray to gods, spirits, or anything, address the fact that your communication/rituals/etc ARE going to be sporadic. Explain yourself and ask the spirits to extend understanding.

Some spirits/gods/etc are going to demand regular routine. AND IF THEY EXPECT THAT, then you guys need to get on the same page ASAP as to whether or not that's possible.

Spirits can be incredibly forgiving and understanding, but unless you tell them why you are sometimes around and sometimes not, they do not necessarily know what's going on.

Your spirit guide may have not read the DSM-5. Obelon the Fox-Man might not be up-to-date with the 2025 diagnosis criteria for ADHD, and Obelon might not recognize that you are struggling with a disorder that can mimic inattentiveness. Obelon might be asking why you appear to be so enthusiastic, and yet only call for him once every 5 weeks.

Just explain!! Explain what you are comfortable explaining. Give them reassurances and ask them to not misinterpret your ability to be present.

At all costs, avoid making your path a carrot that you dangle in front of yourself to try and force yourself to fix your brain through sheer force of will.

If the way you talk to yourself about your path sounds like someone struggling with unhealthy dieting, maybe it's time to readjust.

"I just need to do my daily offerings, on schedule, for two weeks. Then I will have earned researching tarot spells."

Maybe it's not a good idea to intentionally include witchcraft in a cycle of reward and denial that will ultimately drain joy from the process until your passion is a withered husk.

Witchcraft isn't going to force your brain to change any more than Stardew Valley was going to force your brain to change. Or that time you got super into succulents. If your time spent studying wool quality in heritage European sheep breeds didn't cure your disorder, witchcraft won't either.

Witchcraft, I think, deserves to be something that is a part of your joy - not a part of a system of stressful attempts at making yourself into someone you're not because "real witches" all do such-and-such routine (I assure you, they do not) so you must force yourself to do it too.

(Incidentally, if you have a 'streamlined ritual for the important stuff' and it becomes a barrier that prevents you from practicing, then maybe that's not a good idea for you - or maybe it's not as simple and streamlined as you need it to be)

STOP trying to build a static path. Lean into temporary hyperfixations.

There is SO MUCH to learn in witchcraft. It's never-ending. The more you learn, the more doorways open for you with more things to learn behind them.

This is not college, you do not have to declare your major. You don't have to wait to decide on your 'magic specialization' before you start learning.

This is not college, you don't have to take semesters of boring general ed classes before you're allowed to start studying what interests you.

Unless you are getting into very serious initiations, learning stuff, advancing your skills, and building your path is not going to shut doors and prevent you from getting into something else.

If something excites your interests, GET INTO IT! Don't force yourself to ignore what you're passionate about because you think serious, responsible witchcraft is supposed to be rigid, boring, and tedious. (It isn't!)

Avoid declaring your major. As in, maybe the idea of energy glamours is super exciting, so on day 1 you create a lesson plan that will realistically take you 70 weeks to complete. Based on your history, is it reasonable that you will maintain this specific interest in glamours for over a year?

Avoid making lesson plans that intentionally slow you down and make shit boring for no good reason. If energy glamours interest you, are you (*scrolls up*) using energy glamours as a carrot to force yourself to engage in a tedious magical workout routine? Is the reason the lesson plan takes 70 weeks because you decided to spend weeks slowly moving through each phase so you have time to spam energy work exercises?

You know yourself better than I know you. Maybe wanting to slow down and engage in your focuses in a new way is the goal. Of course, listen to yourself first!

But if you have a temporary burst of energy and focus to learn a new skill, and learning that skill won't require you to make unhealthy personal or financial decisions, why not just lean into it and explore it moment by moment, wherever your interests take you?

I think you'd probably learn a lot more doing and undoing 20 glamours in a week, because you're freaking out about how fucking cool it is, than if you practice 1 basic glamor exercise once a day because that's what real disciplined witches do, and then 11 days later you forget it once and never do it again and now your interest has faded because glamouring is just another boring chore.

Invest some time and energy into figuring out exactly what your bare minimum of responsibility and upkeep actually is.

How often do you need to recharge your wards to keep them functioning normally?

Once you've explained your own needs and limits, how often do your spirits actually request offerings?

Are you 100% sure the spirits you're working with expect offerings in the first place?

Are those offerings expected to be physical, or do thoughts and prayers suffice?

How often should you perform a personal cleansing to keep yourself feeling magically refreshed?

Feeling anxious or guilty over whether or not you're supposed to be taking certain actions is NO FUN.

It is much less fun if you don't actually know how often you need to do these things. Then it's just all guessing, all the time, and nothing is ever good enough.

If at all possible, avoid putting yourself into a situation where you feel that you are supposed to be doing something responsible in your practice, but you're never sure exactly what it is.

Spend some practice time, learn some skills, and make notes, to discover whether or not you do have any minimum engagement requirements in the style of practice you want. And most importantly, having clear 'deadlines' so you don't have to keep guessing at what you're forgetting about this time.

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manicspellbook · 1 month ago

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Low energy land spirit work

Please note that I would recommend properly greeting land spirits before talking to them, or making offerings to them. If you're intrested in reading about my thoughts and experiences with land spirits, give this previous post a look!

Open the window and let the outside air in. If your window is equipped with a screen against bugs, you can place a drink at the window for a few hours to serve as an offering

Taking a walk around the block, spotting the nearby trees, gardens, flowerbeds, rock formations...

Journal about your personal relationship with local natural spots, indigenous plants, wildlife...

Become interested in local birds! Birds are among the most common types of wildlife to be observed in urban areas, which makes it all the more relevant to do so. Setting up birdhouses also makes for a great offering!

Limit the amount of processed foods in your diet

Read up on plant identification in your area

Engage in artistic activities in order to depict nature! It might seem silly, but it's a good visualization exercise, and any time spent meditating upon the land spirits may be considered devotional. Drawing, painting, writing... no matter your activity of choice!

Reflect on what local issues might affect them, especially concerning environmental protection

Leave a bowl of clear water outside as an offering

Do your part to respect nature: composting, recycling, saving water and the like make perfect devotionals

Talk to them regularly, if only once a week. Spend a moment outside to tell them of your appreciation for their presence and protection

Use natural elements to decorate the house: get flowers when available, pick up the acorns or fallen leaves that strike your fancy...

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manicspellbook · 1 month ago

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manicspellbook · 1 month ago

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lowkey what is the point in delving so deep into old religions. do u do it for fun because i struggle to see how a like idk 400 year old monastic sect relates to modern understanding of religions. this isn't an attack btw i get delving into stuff that interests u but like. is there any more behind it? also you are cool and smart

400 years ago, in the 1600s, in what is now Germany there was a guy named Phillipis Aurelius Theophrastus Bombastus Von Honenhiem. But he was a big asshole, so his classmates at university called him "Cacaophrastus" which literally means shit-talker.

He hated how medicine worked. See, even up until 1600, medicine hasn't changed much since the ancient world. The most up-to-date medical textbook, the core of physicians teachings in the 1600s, was a book by Galen. Galen was from ancient greece. People had invented guns, but they hadn't really improved on how Galen thought medicine worked.

Theophrastus, who called himself Paracelsus, was a bit of a rebel. He saw alchemists doing all this fantastic stuff with manufacturing new types of dyes and cosmetics and metal alloys, and he thought, why not use all that stuff for medicine? So he got to using cutting edge knowledge for the purpose of healing the sick. Which he did.

Do you know what the pre-paracelcian prescription for a musket wound was? A poultice made of cow shit and feathers. Paracelsus said to keep the wound clean, and let the body do it's thing. This saved uncounted lives.

He performed experiments, giving the same substance, in the same dose, to different people, and even testing on animals with different phyiologies, and observing how the same amount of the same substance can affect bodies didferently. He wrote "The dose makes the poison" thus inventing the occidental science to toxicology. Every time you go to the doctor, and don't get poisoned, you have this 1600s wizard to thank.

And he was a wizard. Medical knowledge at that time involved the construction of astrological talismans, made of magically imbued metals which counteracted the astral forces thought to cause illnesses. Along with inventing the foundations of modern medicine, he also engaged in the construction of magical amulets and potions, the theories of which all informed his work. Work which formed the foundations of modern medicine.

It's important to know that ideas don't just manifest out of thin air. Everything you do and think is built on vast ziggurats of human ingenuity and failure, and shaped by the history entombed within. I've just decided to learn about my favorite few bricks.

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manicspellbook · 2 months ago

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Mood board for the Goddess Holle or Holda. She is a deity of hearth and home, of spinning, magic, snow, and winter. She is also the leader of the Wild Hunt and the Queen of witches and alves.

Sources: [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] [X]

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manicspellbook · 2 months ago

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Fraw Holt or Dame Holda, the northern witch-goddess travelling upon her sacred goose through the night.

—

“Frau Holda , Venus Mountain and The Night Travellers

From the 10th Century c.e. onwards Frankish clerics and churchmen such as Regino of Prum fulminated sourly against the devilish ' belief of 'certeine wicked women that in the night times they ride abroad with Diana, the goddess of the pagans, or else with Herodias, with an innumerable multitude upon certeine beasts. This was echoed in the fourteenth century law-code of Lorraine which censured those who rode through the air with Diana. The image of the Wild Ancestral Goddess had a powerful influence upon the mediaeval imagination; the author of ‘The Romance of the Rose' wote that a third of the people have dreams of nocturnal journeys with Dame Habondia.

In Northern Europe, the sect of night travelling witches were held to fly through the sky in the retinue of the goddess Herodias or Holda, who leads the ancestral spirits of the Furious Horde in the winter months around Samhain and Yule. Like the Cymric goddess Cerridwen, Frau Holda is the archaic underworld Earth Mother, mistress of death, initiation and rebirth, who rules over the chthonic realm of Hel or Annwvyn. In Scandinavia she is known as Hela, the daughter of Loki, of whom it is related that half of her is fair and half black with decay. This signifies her bright and dark aspects as Freyja/Holda mistress of life and death. The Veiled Goddess encompasses the cosmic dualities of day and night, growth and dissolution, radiance and shadow. Her association with the Wild Hunt is strong in Germany where the ride of the death powers is sometimes called the Heljagd and in Normandy, Mesnee a Hellequin. The Indo-European original of this Witch Goddess is *KOLYO, 'the Coverer' the funereal Otherworld Queen of the Indo-European peoples from which figures as diverse as the Celtic Cailleach and Greek nymph Kalypso are descended.

The life/death aspects of Dame Hela were referred to by the German wizard, herbalist and crystal scryer Diel Breull of Calbach who confessed in 1630 that he had travelled to the pagan holy mountain, the Venusberg, 'four times a year, during the fast.' He had no idea how he got to the mountain. He then confessed he was a night traveller and 'the Frau Holle (to whom he travels) is a fine woman from the front but from the back she is like a hollow tree with rough bark. It was in Venus mountain that he came to know a number of herbs.'

This description corresponds with the female forest spirit called the Skogfru in Old Norse and the woodwife, birch maiden and wild damsel elsewhere who are beautiful women from the front but hollow behind like a rotten log. The woodwives are associated with the Wild Hunt, sometimes being pursued by Woden . (‘Woodwife’ and ‘woodwose’ both stem from the Saxon root-word ‘Wod’ - ‘wild, furious, enthused’). Like many native European initiation sites, the Hurselberg was regarded as the gateway to the underworld, the domain of Frau Venus, the classicized Freyja/Holda. From the Hurseloch cave on the mountain eldritch voices and wailing could sometimes be heard, for it led down into the magical realm of the goddess.

The mediaeval tale of Tannhauser is based upon this initiatory lore for he was a knight minnesinger (troubadour) who while riding past the cavern of the Hurselberg at twilight encountered the beautiful and entrancing Frau Venus, who took him below into the Otherworld regions to be her consort for seven years. In Scottish tradition a related pattern is exemplified by Thomas the Rymer, the thirteen century seer who met the Queen of Elfame beneath the Eildon Thorn and went with her into the world of Faery for seven years.

She gave Thomas a golden apple to eat which conferred the prophetic gift upon him. This is reminiscent of Woden's descent into the heart of Suttungr's mountain where he sleeps with the giantess Gunnlodd to attain the mead of poetic inspiration.

Such goddess forms are comparable to the shamanic Clan Mother of the nether-world in Siberian mythology. And we may note that the worship of the Northern Earth Mother Jord/Hlodyn was carried out at hills and mounds, symbols of the womb of the earth. The Furious Horde at Samhain is esoterically linked with the rune Haegl whose primal form ‘*’ represents the snowflake. This makes sense as Holda is traditionally held to shake down the snow onto the countryside; in the Channel Isles snow showers occur when Herodias shakes her petticoats. Her holy bird, the goose, is also connected with the Wild Hunt, and snow crystals are said to drift from its feathers as it flies overhead. The nocturnal cries of migrating geese are interpreted as the yelping of ghostly Gabriel hounds in Celtic lore and are symbolised by the Bird-Ogham Ngeigh at Samhain. The mystical Ninth Mother-Rune symbolises the nine nights the post-mortem soul takes to travel the Hel-Way, the prototypical Spirit-Road which runs northwards into the Underworld of Helheim.

Frau Holda is the heathen original of Mother Goose, who is remembered at winter tide, and the goose is the magical steed upon which Arctic shamans travel in visionary flight to the Otherworld. The witch Agnes Gerhardt confessed in 1596 that she and her fellow initiates used a vision-salve in order to fly to the dance like snow geese', and went on to describe how she prepared this hallucinogenie ointment by frying tansy, hellebore and wild ginger in butter mixed with egg. Such flying salves' (or Unguentum Sabbati) feature prominently in the worteunning of the night travelling witches.

In fact Styrian witches were still using them in the 19th Century. Hartliepp, court physician of Bavaria, gives a formula used by 15th century Northern witches which involves procuring seven herbs on the appropriate days of the pagan week - heliotrope on Sunna's day, fern on moon day, verbena on Tiw's day, spurge on Woden's day, houseleek on Thor's day, maidenhair on Freyja's day and nightshade on Saeter/Hela's day. This magical operation would ensure that the salve would be empowered with the energies of the principal heathen deities.

In 1582 the Archbishop of Salzburg's counsellor, the erudite mathematician and astrologer Dr. Martin Pegger, was arrested under the charge that his wife had flown with the night travellers to the goddess Herodias in the Unterberg. Within the mountain she had seen Herodias with her mountain-ladies and mountain-dwarves and the goddess is said to have come to Frau Pegger's house by Salzberg fish market on a later occasion. The mention of the goddess' mountain-dwarves is significant for they are sometimes known as the Huldravolk; the folk of the Elder, Frau Holda's holy tree.

The association of cats and hares with witches and night travellers may indicate that they inherited many of the magical techniques from the cult of Seidr, the shamanism of 'inner fire' sacred to the goddess Freyja which included trance journeys and communication with the elves and other entities. According to Saxon lore, Freyja sometimes appears amidst a company of hares and she is known to roam the meadows of Aargau with a silver-grey hare by her side in the night hours. The hare is famed as a totem form in which shapeshifting witches travel.

Freyja, the Teutonic goddess of love, sexuality and mantic sorcery riding a Siberian tiger.

It is know that a strong subterranean current of Freyja worship survived in mediaeval Germany. Closely related initiatory Mysteries existing in the British Isles usually centred on the Faerie goddess, the Queen of Elphame.

An interesting late case is the astrologer and Hermeticist John Heydon in the 17th century, who having imprudently predicted Cromwell's death was forced to flee from London to Somerset. There he claimed to have encountered a green- robed lady at a faery hill. She took him within the mount into a glass castle where he learnt much wisdom and mantic lore. This experience obviously took place in an altered state of shamanic perception.

Frau Holda is the feminine counterpart of the Master of the Wild Hunt, and she is essential to a balanced appreciation of this area of pagan spirituality. The night- travelling witches of the Northern Lands, far from being demonically deluded as ignorant and vindietive churchmen said, were in reality the preservers of a hoary Wisdom Tradition and magical world view which is now accessible to us again at the dawning of a new heathen aeon.”

—

Call of the Horned Piper

by Nigel Aldcroft Jackson

274 notes · View notes