Folk Magic

Folk magic. Some might view acts of simple propitiation as superstitions. These simple folk magic techniques play a part in our everyday life.  Even though we may be loathe to admit it. The practices of community wise women and others were very much wrapped up in the idea of the otherworld and helping to protect folk from unseen harms through acts of folk magic.

In the flooding articles I take a deep dive into a number of different and left field areas. Exploring relevance and intrepidly looking at new ground  not seldom found. Please bear in mind folk magic is and isn’t associated with religion. By that folk magic techniques can fit any belief or you may have non at all but a basis in ancestors veneration and the dead.

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, soul and body we are talking about here. It’s a convoluted and crooked construct with quite a few areas to explore. These conversations seem entirely missing from Scottish folk magic practice forums and debate. Exploring this topic I have allowed my inspiration to take me through the literature trail and reflected on the experience of those who are “othered” through…

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 tomorrow, so if it all goes tits up you know what I was going to say 🙂     I live near a river. The Jed water. It flows right at the bottom of my garden enclosed on all sides by walls. Before it reaches us, it flows past ancient ruins and forest as old as Scotland. Some of the last…

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 kickstarter promotion. So, doing a recorded interview is a step toward bravery for me. However, I just couldn’t pass it up for these two amazing, enchanting and quick of wit folk. I had the great pleasure to bend the ear of the enchanting Julia Jeffery from Stonemaiden Art. Also the captivating Gillian Chadwick (from the band Ex Reverie). About their…

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 are still married. It’s been a maze of solicitors, paper work, travel, packing and unpacking boxes and general DIY until my body ached too much and I had to sleep, stressed pets, stressed people and so many plants to move … I spare you the rest of the gory details. We made it through. All in one piece. Now it’s…

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 skimming the surface like scree. With such deep history surrounding us it can’t help but inspire thoughts about the riddles of these places. Secrets coded in name and metaphor. Dark brooding and inspirational names captured in Gaelic given to desolate munro, shadowy river and unfathomable loch. Names such as Bod an Deamhain – the devil’s penis (point), Dùn dá Gaoithe…

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 the sleep of death – the road to the isles 1927 This series explores our ancestors experience with the dead and folk magic. Veneration of the dead was born from encounters with the Neolithic landscape, dualism of Roman and later Christian thinking and smatterings of Norse fatalism and anglo-saxon pragmatism. All Scottish folk magic stems from this cultural intertwining. The role of the…

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