How to Become a Hedgewitch
Course coming in 2023
Sometimes, you've been someone your whole life without ever knowing it.
Then, suddenly, your eyes are opened, misconceptions fall away and things make sense at a whole new level.
In 2015, that was for me realizing that I'm nonbinary. And this year, discovering that I'm a hedgewitch.
Shouldn't it be enough to be a writer, musician, Tarotist, spiritual director, life coach, and divinely guided with a dollop of psychism?
Well, it seems not.
There is that special concern for, and connection with plants, trees, birds, bees, and bugs and all the other creatures, great and small. And passionate love for rivers, lakes and ocean, mountains, fields and forests that none of these modalities account for. Yet, when they're central to your being, you want to account for them.
Hedgewitchery or hedgecraft, says enacademic.com, is a spiritual path and is considered a form of European witchcraft. I recommend following the link and reading the whole, well-made article.
Encountering hedgewitchery isn't so much a learning process as it is a discovery in part because I'm German born, raised and educated. Most everything about hedgecraft is familiar. The cut-open onion goes on bees stings. Bitter Wermut tea by the spoonfuls promotes sweating to express a cold. (Science says it doesn't work but it always helped me during my childhood. ) A paste of eucalyptus, lavender, thyme, and wintergreen applied to the neck to help a sore throat heal.
More metaphysically, encouraging plants grow by greeting them with a reverent bow. And meeting the whole natural world with a sense of connection.
One of the most wonderful things about getting witchy with the hedges is that its spiritual practice readily incorporates panpsychism which understands that all of life is sentient and self-aware in that "it has a subjective experience," as philosopher Philip Goff (Durham University, U.K.) writes in Philosophy Now.
Thus, a panpsychist has a sublime respect and love for, and attachment to life in all forms, all the way down and all the way up and may, for that reason, find a welcoming home in hedgecraft.
A hedgewitch is a more modern re-creation of an old form, such as folk-healing, shamanism, and wort wortcunning. People have had a special feeling for the land and its creatures for as long as there have been people.
But especially now, when Mother Gaia needs us to mend our ways, hedgewitchery is more called for than it has been in a long, long while.
It's not enough for humans to try to wind-power our way to a healthy balance with nature. We also need a spiritual renewal. We need to learn to ride the hedge, that is to ride the edge where the physical world blends into the larger, unseen world of spirit.
Sometimes, you've been someone your whole life without ever knowing it.
Then, suddenly, your eyes are opened, misconceptions fall away and things make sense at a whole new level.
In 2015, that was for me realizing that I'm nonbinary. And this year, discovering that I'm a hedgewitch.
Shouldn't it be enough to be a writer, musician, Tarotist, spiritual director, life coach, and divinely guided with a dollop of psychism?
Well, it seems not.
There is that special concern for, and connection with plants, trees, birds, bees, and bugs and all the other creatures, great and small. And passionate love for rivers, lakes and ocean, mountains, fields and forests that none of these modalities account for. Yet, when they're central to your being, you want to account for them.
Hedgewitchery or hedgecraft, says enacademic.com, is a spiritual path and is considered a form of European witchcraft. I recommend following the link and reading the whole, well-made article.
Encountering hedgewitchery isn't so much a learning process as it is a discovery in part because I'm German born, raised and educated. Most everything about hedgecraft is familiar. The cut-open onion goes on bees stings. Bitter Wermut tea by the spoonfuls promotes sweating to express a cold. (Science says it doesn't work but it always helped me during my childhood. ) A paste of eucalyptus, lavender, thyme, and wintergreen applied to the neck to help a sore throat heal.
More metaphysically, encouraging plants grow by greeting them with a reverent bow. And meeting the whole natural world with a sense of connection.
One of the most wonderful things about getting witchy with the hedges is that its spiritual practice readily incorporates panpsychism which understands that all of life is sentient and self-aware in that "it has a subjective experience," as philosopher Philip Goff (Durham University, U.K.) writes in Philosophy Now.
Thus, a panpsychist has a sublime respect and love for, and attachment to life in all forms, all the way down and all the way up and may, for that reason, find a welcoming home in hedgecraft.
A hedgewitch is a more modern re-creation of an old form, such as folk-healing, shamanism, and wort wortcunning. People have had a special feeling for the land and its creatures for as long as there have been people.
But especially now, when Mother Gaia needs us to mend our ways, hedgewitchery is more called for than it has been in a long, long while.
It's not enough for humans to try to wind-power our way to a healthy balance with nature. We also need a spiritual renewal. We need to learn to ride the hedge, that is to ride the edge where the physical world blends into the larger, unseen world of spirit.
***
Keep an eye out for my hedgecraft course coming in 2022.
In the meantime, for those whose interest has been piqued, here is another fun article about hedgewitchery.
And if curiosity about panpsychism is just positively raging in you, here is a deep video podcast with one of its proponents, philosopher, Philip Goff.
In the meantime, for those whose interest has been piqued, here is another fun article about hedgewitchery.
And if curiosity about panpsychism is just positively raging in you, here is a deep video podcast with one of its proponents, philosopher, Philip Goff.
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