Rae Beth - The Hedge Witchs Way Magical Spirituality for the Lone Spellcaster

The Hedge Witchs Way

Magical Spirituality for the Lone Spellcaster

RAE BETH

Illustrated by Poppy Palin

ROBERT HALE

First published in 2001 by Robert Hale, an imprint of

The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury,

Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2017

Paperback edition 2003

Rae Beth 2001

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 71982 687 0

The right of Rae Beth to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Contents

This book is dedicated to my familiar spirits
And to my wise husband, Ashley
And to my mother, Ellen, a natural mystic

The Hedge Witchs Way

Rae Beth is a practising hedge witch and a priestess of the Goddess. She writes acclaimed books on natural magic, from the viewpoint of green spirituality, and is regarded as an authority on the subject of solitary witchcraft. She aims to make hedge witchcraft more accessible to many, seeing the magic in life as everyones birthright. Rae Beth also works as a psychic counsellor and is the author of the bestselling Hedge Witch, The Green Hedge Witch, Spellcraft for Hedge Witches and Lamp of the Goddess.

By the same author

Hedge Witch

The Green Hedge Witch

Spellcraft for Hedge Witches

Lamp of the Goddess (formerly published as Reincarnation and the Dark Goddess)

The Way into Faerie

Introduction

Here is a guide to the spirituality which lies behind the practice of solitary witchcraft. It is a magical spirituality because, to a witch, the boundaries between this world and the spirit realm are not firm. A mystical appreciation of spirit in all things is what makes a witch. So this book is for all the natural mystics the hedge witches, as they are sometimes called. It describes practices which are far simpler than those in my earlier book, Hedge Witch, at least in technical terms. There is much less reliance on magical equipment and ritual and much more on magical prayer and upon inner journeying with our familiar spirits.

It may seem strange that a second book upon the subject of solitary witchcraft should deal with what is less complex than what went before. However, by one of those paradoxes so common in magic, it is true that the inner courts of our tradition are less full of procedure, formality and so on and more to do with our psychic experience and our spirituality.

The full formal rituals described in Hedge Witch can still be very rewarding to enact. By learning the skills of wildwood mysticism (as our inner knowledge may be called), we can come to them with an increased psychic strength and understanding.

All the ideas in this book are drawn from traditional knowledge about the practice of travelling between the worlds, and of relating to deities or spirits from middle Earth, the underworld or the upperworld. Such knowledge is, indeed, at the root of the tree of witchcraft. And when these techniques are allied with everyday tasks or simple ritual acts, we can help to bring back the lost magic to the world and to close the rift between the beautiful otherworld and our own, to the healing of all beings.

The book starts, pedestrianly enough, with a long look at the practice of Pagan prayer, as used by witches. Stay with it and it will fly you to other realms.

Bright Blessings

Rae Beth

Samhain 2000

Bath

1 Prayer and Enchantment

This book is for anyone who wants to follow a spiritual way, and to work natural magic in a style that is powerful and yet informal, like a wild wood; to be a witch who is a natural mystic, and to work alone, solitary, independent of covens, practising a living witchcraft that comes from an awareness of the spirits of nature, and that arises as naturally as a spring from the earth.

Such a witchcraft does not need a complex, intellectual knowledge of the past practices of witches in many lands, rewarding though such a study may be. It is immediate, direct and rooted in a feeling for the symbolic, poetic, spiritual aspects of Earth. What it does need is a sound grasp of the basic principles of magic. This I have called hedge witchcraft, and if it is to be more than an adjunct to other spiritual practices, it must come from experience of deep communion with Goddesses and Gods of Pagan realms. This I have called the wildwood mysticism. From such an experience can unfold a real sense of spiritual guidance, such as is known by many people living in the remnants of tribal cultures, worldwide. This knowledge, for todays Europeans, is based in our own Pagan traditions and direct revelation. It underpins the meaning of witchcraft and gives the witch inner strength.

Becoming a wildwood mystic is not difficult at all. It just needs a sense of the sacred, when faced with natures tides within the land we are standing on. Whether we see mother and father nature as awesome, threatening, beautiful, threatened, or all of these! An attitude of worship, when sensing mysteries inherent in the rocks, trees, springs and hills and wild creatures. Therefore, at the most simple level, this book is about witches prayers.

Why are such prayers so important? Well, they are the easiest way to a profound experience. Not only do they open our spirits to awareness of the deities, but also help us to be in the state of mind in which we can link with familiars and spirit guides. And, to put it straightforwardly, there is no method which is more simple to enable us to transcend the everyday world and be in connection with psychic dimensions and realms of spirit. Pagan prayers, as said by witches, can make psychic and spiritual perceptions of nature come easily, thus creating a real foundation for a wildwood mysticism. This is because Pagan prayers, quite simply, attune our spirits to purely Pagan realms of nature and ancient wisdom.

Any one of the examples given in this book can be used as it stands, or altered to suit your needs or discarded, having been used as a seed idea for your own fresh attempts. Towards the end, I will explain how to create your own entirely new ones, whenever you need to.

There are prayers for all purposes e.g. for things like healing, finding love, gaining in magical strength, coming into harmony with fate, contacting a familiar spirit and celebrating the eight sabbats of the witchs year.

For witches, distinctions between prayers and spells can fade quickly, so the prayers are magical in themselves, as well as being the foundation for magic ritual. This is to do with the way they are worded, and also with the nature of the witches deities. Witches see the Goddesses and Gods as possessing a continuum of powers and qualities, ranging from the elemental (as expressed in a storm, forest, a stags fertility, hunger, the physical effects of the Moon, instinctual route-finding, etc.) to the most divine (like love, compassion, beauty, truth, strength or natural justice). Those whom we worship encompass both the raw powers of nature and all her possibilities of psychic, spiritual and moral harmony, such as those expressed in mother love, the playfulness of a dolphin, heroic courage and the intricacies of a Mozart symphony. Unlike the worlds mainstream faiths, Paganism does not define goodness as distinct from nature, but as contained within or arising from it, like a crystal from rock.