Cailleachs Herbarium
Exploring Scottish Folk Practices and Traditions
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The Woven Land Network – Welcome
The Woven Land Network is a Scottish focused voluntary collective network engaging with community in all parts of society to protect, conserve/restore, honour and advocate for Scotland’s community and folk heritage sites. The Woven Land Network focuses on sites intrinsic…
Charring the Old wife
Beyond the Yule breads and celebration Plant lore is the verdant heart of Scottish folk holidays and traditions charring the old wife is a unique Scottish tradition. The Yules are no exception, even though at Yuletide the greenery has all…
Self-Making – Queerness in Scottish Culture. Norse Myth: Queer Magic, Queer Deities, Gay Priest Cults and Cross-Dressing
I am delighted to be able to host a guest writer exploring the subject of Queerness – queer magci and Queer deities in Norse Myth. Please forgive my touch of nepotism as I asked Nate (my other half) to write…
Divination by shoulder blade – scapulimancy–Slinneanachd/Slinnairachd
scapulimancy – Slinneanachd - Slinnairachd - divination by shoulder blade in Scottish Folk magic an exploration of the evidence and method.
Interview Guising traditions : A deeper dive into skekling and Skellers with Professor Terry Gunnell
Recently I have had the pleasure of speaking to the ever hospitable Professor Terry Gunnell at Iceland’s University all about Guising, Skekling and skeklers. As part of the Taibhsear Collective I had the pleasure of hosting him at our event…
Self-making – Disability in Scottish Folk Magic – Gods in Wheelchairs
I ‘m currently obsessed with the idea of parts of the self in Scottish folklore. Not just our bodies but what our spiritual DNA or what our sprit was once thought to be made of. It’s not just a mind,…
Reflecting on Creating – Solstice Musings and the Birth of The Woven Land Network
“The sun will rise and set regardless, what we choose to do with the light while it’s here is up to us”. Chris Bickerton In a world heading toward the dark, bent towards our own destruction, creating anything seems an…
The Ugly One With all the Jewels – A tale of Scottish Appropriation
I’ve been struggling with ideas of Scottish appropriation from our culture for a while now. Some of you may have read Saining Not Smudging. This article explored it in reverse light really. Sadly a lot of hate mail was received…
Saining not Smudging- Purification, Blessing and Lustration in Scottish Folk Magic Practice
Saining is the Scottish Folk magic act of purification – a way of blessing or removing enchantments that uses smoke or other methods like tar or water or written texts (though Mackenzie writes of it as an amulet to make…
A Memory of Water – Folk Magic is Community Magic
The below is the introduction for the event Dreaming Bread and Skyrie Stanes on the 11th of November 2018. I thought I’d share it on the website for folk who can’t make the day. I’m also nervous about public speaking…
Interview – Isobel Gowdie Concept Album – with Stone Maiden Art and Ex Reverie
My folks have always told me I have more a face for radio than I do TV. I also don’t like associating myself with my writing to any great degree. I’m no brand – I think I’m still scarred by the…
When the Spirit Moves You – Moving House and Animism in Scottish Folklore
They say moving house is one of the most stressful things. It’s right up there with death and divorce. Having moved to a new house over the Bealtainn weekend I can agree. Though luckily no one got killed and we…
Sowans (fermented oats) – Scottish Traditional Food Recipe
“Till buttered so’ns (sowens) wi fragrant lunt (lunt – steam) Set a’ their gabs a-steerin (steerin – mouths watering) Syne wi’ a social glass o’strunt (strunt-Liquor) They parted off Careerin’ Fu’ blythe that night” – Burns : Halloween Ah what…
Radicalising the Ancestral Scottish Diet
The ancestral scottish diet is not all haggis, neeps and tatties! Scotland is famous for its food. However, it’s famous for its food for the wrong reasons. Scotland is renowned for its food being deep-fried, covered in fat and having very…
Tallow Rendering – for Cooking, Salves and Enfleurage
Before modern nut and seed oils – expressed by expensive machinery, chemically fractured plant products or petroleum-based products imported into the UK – our ancestors used animals fats rendering tallow from cow and deer tallow and pig lard – to…
The Cailleach – Scotland’s Midwife – Tigh Na Bodach
The struggles and revelations of Scotland’s people are stamped into the landscape, like wrinkles on the palms of old lady history some say put there by the Cailleach herself. Some experiences deep ravines. Other lines the soft touch of poetry…
Youth Without Age and Life Without Death (folk tale)
Ah, the joy of another birthday. This one is a significant milestone. It comes with thoughts on mortality, “time is running out”, the brain says, “there is plenty more time” the heart says, “maybe do more exercise” the body says.…
Scottish Folk magic and the dead (part three) – folk charms, herbs for the dead and second sight
The mist the dew, the dew the mist The mist, the dew, in the eye of my love In the eye of my love, Thou who didst open the young eye Close it tonight in the sleep of death In…
Scottish Folk Magic and the dead (part two) – The dead as a witch familiar
It is the familiar spirit of the place; It judges, presides, inspires Everything in its empire; It is perhaps a fairy or a god? (No, in fact it was a cat, ed) – Charles Baudelaire (the flowers of evil, 1857)…
Scottish Folk Magic and the Dead (part one) – Funerary customs and death related lore.
Introduction I introduced a series of writing exploring the role of the oft neglected dead in Scottish folk magic. If you haven’t read it I suggest you have a wee read. It sets the tone of the rest of the…