Folk Magic

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 …

The weave, the weft and wool are part of our Scottish Heritage. It’s no wonder the use of wool made it into our folk magic heritage. The use of using three knots on a thread for the purpose against the evil eye was called a Snaim – the Three Knot Charm. (Compare Snaim with the words snaidhm, a knot, also meaning a marriage and snaidhm ne péiste which literally translate as knot of the worm and also a knotted charm for curing folks and cattle). These were used by folk practitioners and country folk to cure all manner of ills. Often …

Water is life. Water is sacred. The travesties that are happening around ours and others countries right now are many. We have fracking underway in England. We have the Dakota Access Pipeline company attempting to cut its way across the major, central rivers and aquifers of North America, including unceded Native American territory, sacred sites and burial grounds.. We have displaced people from a war torn country homeless and in danger in Calais. All because of one thing. Oil. Democracy and human rights are being overturned in the wake of this monster. It has me thinking. What do our tales, …

Well, the first Scottish Radical Herbal Gathering is almost upon us and I’m very excited to be delivering a talk with them this year on scottish folk magic with a free chapbook provided. The programme for the weekend looks amazing and I look forward to hearing the contributions from others talking with anticipation. For me, it will be the first time I have talked at length about the subject of scottish folk magic and herbalism so I’m excited and perhaps a little nervous about it in equal measure. (Que the chamomile tea and kava perhaps!) As part of the presentation …

Those following along on  social media will know I have been discussing divination for a while and researching the below bit of Audio exploring authentic Scottish Prayers or charms to use as part of my divination practices. I happened across the below recording from 1950’s of a spoken charm from Uist for the Frith (I think). The Frith was undertaken on quarter days and this charm refers to that process at least I think it might do. There are many forms of divination used in Scotland and the Hag of the hills website has some great information about the different forms …

I get asked “what is a Folk Practitioner or what is folk magic?” on many occasions. I also get asked “what is the difference between what you do and what a witch does?”, “Is it witchcraft?”, “Are you religious?”, “Do you worship a lord and lady or speak to the de’il?”, “Do you follow the immanent and emanant mysteries of your gods?” and finally “Do you worship nature? Do you bang your drums and dance around?” This is no fault of anyone. Folk practices have been adopted in a lot of modern magico-religious approaches. This has caused a lot of confusion …