Folk Practices

Dondering around the countryside, sauntering through glen, dirt track, woods and burns. Battling the wind and falling leaves. Passed graveyard and sacred stones. An idea presented itself. To write a series of posts embracing the theme of the season. The dead. There’s a lot of information kicking around already about the dead and their relationship to Scottish folk magic traditions and lore. Some populist and modern, others older or academic. Most of it focussed on the dead as a secondary or tertiary concern to Scottish life. However, there is a different role the dead and the Sidhe/Sith play. A more …

I have recently been reflecting about a conference I spoke at a while ago. A few people were discussing a problem they felt they had in getting to know plants. What is plant communication, the delegates were asking? What does it feel like? I didn’t have any answers for them as a lot of this tends to be subjective and I’m not an expert on this area at all. We discussed expectations and experiences though. What did they mean? What was their understanding of communicating with plants? I said in summary “If you’re a herbalist you are already connecting but …

The ever-changing colours of the seasons and hue of the year is something that’s always fascinated me. When I lived in cities it was something that didn’t seem so clear. I would catch the greening and browning of trees and the spectacular autumn hues of leaves. A sign of the seasons in itself. Anything subtler was lost on me. Now I can’t imagine missing the colours of the wild hedgerows. Summer starts turning them foamy white, as they are saturated with Hawthorn blossom. The subtle shades of the amazing purples of the Highland Heather in bloom. The dark purple of …

I have discussed the Frith – Gaelic divination charm practice before but omitted the augury signs which i have included below. Scottish folks had many ways of finding things outside of the second sight. One of these techniques is called the Frith. Frith translates in gaelic “to find”. Macaplpine describes it as “an incantation to find whether people at a great distance or at sea be in life.” The place the objects we see in the person casting the “vision” let us know the outcome or fate of the one we seek. The Frith is religious in character and is …

This post about the fairy faith been a long time in the coming. I can only apologise for that, I have been busy researching for a new book that explores these issues in more detail. I was asked to discuss the idea of the Sidhe or Síth in Scottish culture. During research for the upcoming publication many ideas have come forward. Some of these ideas I spoke about last year at the Scottish Radical Herbal Gathering. This post develops those ideas found in the post Dead to Deity. It’s also a think piece. It presents a different narrative to what …

Sometimes it just feels right. Timings can be calendar based or not. Sometimes you just go with your gut.  So being in Scotland and the weather *almost* perking and my gut this weekend are telling me to get the seeds out and start sowing. We planted seeds of Wormwood, Mugwort and some St Johns Wort indoors on Friday (the day auspicious) with more to come in the following weeks. I started these early as they can be slow and like a bit of rough handling. I also like planting seeds in threes. Both Mugwort and St Johns wort are associated with …