Searching for Traditional Craft

Should I only call myself  Witch if I have had a tradition passed on to me, or if I have been initiated by someone in the traditional craft?

I can't claim this. But 'Witch' is a state of being for me. It's a name that seems to have attached itself to me rather than one I have chosen. Following the path is something I know I have to do, as if I have no choice.

That's how I feel about it. It has nothing directly to do with specific rituals (though I'm not averse to learning them) or knowing any particular formulas. But although no-one has passed on any hidden secrets to me, I do have an experience of absorbing what feels like secret lore from my meditations and visionary journeys, and I have learnt something in getting advice about ways of doing this. But most of all I feel a personal and instinctive connection with things that are DEEP, something within me rather than something learnt or passed on.

For a long time 'Witch' was a title I aspired to but did not feel I could claim.  But experience and practise in communion with spirits and also learning things about herbs and  other lore has made me feel I can own the title.

But I'd love to know what any traditional practitioners out there think.

Change of Life

It’s a long time since I last posted. Since then my life has taken a new direction. Looking back at my last posts I can see the clues that I didn’t see then. Now I can see that the things that were happening to me then were the beginning of a change in my life. I’m also now adrift from close relationships that have comforted me for the last few years, adding to a feeling of upheaval.

That’s just background to some of the deep experiences that have made me think about who and what I am. I’ve always vaguely identified myself as a pagan but I’ve never felt the need to involve myself in pagan activities and I’ve kept away from formal rituals or magical practices. But things have happened to me that mean I have to change. Listening to the spirits and the elementals in the wild wood has always been my life. Doing something with what they say to me is the challenge now. Somebody told me the things I do alone qualify me as a ‘hedge witch’ and I thought about calling myself one, though I think ‘wood witch’ says it better.

I’m now ready to identify myself more publicly. I hope this blog will help me share some of my private practices and make contact with others on the same path. I know I’ve got to me more outward looking and less introspective. I have some skills as a botanist and want to extend them I into herbalism and share my skills.

So this blog will change as I become stronger in my identity as a witch, or, perhaps when I’m a bit older, a wise woman. I wonder if I will be able to make contact with others on the same path? Link up with other lone practitioners for co-operative work .

For a while last summer some might have thought that I was going mad. My ordinary life went on and wasn’t affected. But my inner life was so intense that it frightened me. Now I’m through that and I have to build on it.