folk

Winter time is always a time for me to ponder on those who have passed. Their missing faces from the celebration table hit pretty hard at this time of year. I don’t mean to be maudlin but it’s a reality we will all encounter at some point. It got me thinking. As this is the darkest time of the year, what those who came before us thought of at this time of year? What were the beliefs of the folks who saw fairies and ancestors as ever-present. Is it animism? Is it fairy faith? This is a thought piece rather…

We have grown up with this myth that broomsticks, athames, crystals and the like are synonymous with witchcraft. However, this is not really the case in folk magic practices and these tools are, if seldom, mentioned in the trials of folk magic practitioners that we have access to. I hope this post might help in understanding where some of these ideas come from and how, in fact, they might not be as synonymous as people think they are to practicing folk magic in Scotland or for that matter witchcraft.

The inspiration for this site and what we are attempting to achieve came from a number of ideas that had been ruminating for a long time. One of these stories is about a Airmid from the Tuatha de dannann.