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Episode 56: Which Witch pt.2- Hedge Witchcraft
719 Plays2 years ago
Welcome back Witches! We hope you're ready for our 2nd Episode in our Which Witch Series because we're going to be discussing Hedge Witchcraft!! Sam and I both jumped into our research without knowing too much on this topic, but by the end of it felt so connect to Hedge Witches based on what we've learned! So get in losers for the second episode in our Which Witch series all about Hedge Witchcraft.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References
- Wigington, Patti. What is a Hedge Witch? Practices and Beliefs. (2019). Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/hedge-witch-4768392
- Spells8 Blog. (2022). Hedge Witchcraft: What is a Hedge Witch? Spells8 https://spells8.com/hedge-witch/
- Teaandrosemary2. (2021). How to be a Hedge Witch: Solitary Practice, Hedge Jumping, & More. https://teaandrosemary.com/hedge-witch/
- Youtube:
- Joanna van der Hoeven
- PrimroseDoe
- Sup Witchez
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft in the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get in Whizzer, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft.
Exploring Hedge Witches
00:00:16
Speaker
So get in witches for the second episode in our witch witch series all about hedge witches.
Personal Experiences with the Unexplained
00:00:35
Speaker
Before we start, I wanted to tell you something that happened to me. Well, I guess I'll start soon. So, you know, I've been like slacking a little bit since we moved here. I'm like meditating and like, you know, working on my mediumship stuff. And on Friday, when I got home from work, I was like, you know, I'm going to like
00:00:58
Speaker
take the time and meditate. And Mike was taking the girls and the dog. They went on a walk. They were going to the park. Nobody was in the house. So I'm upstairs in my room. And all I'm doing at this point is sitting in the power. I'm not even done any sort of meditation to connect with spirit, nothing like that. And I had my AirPods in.
00:01:25
Speaker
when I was doing the meditation. And I kept hearing somebody opening up drawers and closing them. And I'm like, what the fuck? To the point, the first time it happened, I was like, I guess Mike just came in to grab something. You know what I mean? But I didn't hear anything else. And then the second time it happened, immediately I opened my eyes and took out my AirPods because I was about to get pissed. No one was home.
00:01:48
Speaker
No one was in my house, no one was home. My drawers were just like, it was like somebody was like going like that. No, no, no, no sir. I was like, what the hell? But then, so after that, I was like, whatever, whatever. And so after I did sitting in the power, I was doing like a, it was like a 20 minute meditation and it was blending with the spirit by Kay Reynolds. And like halfway through, like, cause sometimes
00:02:14
Speaker
you know, I'll feel like physical sensations, you know, whenever, you know, connecting with the spirit and stuff. And like the room was getting really cold and everything. And I'm just like, okay, you know, I was like getting super deep into the meditation. And then literally, I was like halfway through, I was like, I was so startled. Both of my kids ran through the front door and were yelling for me. And I was like, Oh my God, it scared the shit out of me.
00:02:37
Speaker
Um, I guess Avery just really, like they were at the park and Avery had to pee really bad. And so they ran home like 20 minutes. But then after that, I was like, okay, whatever. I'm going to like start meditating again. I had to restart the meditation two more times because I kept getting interrupted by something. Yeah. And like, it would just be random stuff around the house. And I'm like, it's like somebody really doesn't want me to meditate right now. Like, I don't know if it's like my spirit guides being like, no.
00:03:04
Speaker
because there was another presence I was trying to interact with me or what was going on. Did you ever get through it? No. No. Never get through it. Oh, no. By the third interruption, I was like, you know what?
00:03:21
Speaker
This is obviously not working, because by that point, it was like an hour later. Oh, no. And I'm just like, I still have to figure out what we're going to do for dinner and all this stuff. I don't have time to do this anymore. And now everybody's back at the house.
00:03:37
Speaker
Were there indoors or like cupboards open or anything? I know and that's the thing. Oh my god. And I was looking around to see like could anything have fallen to make that noise? No. I don't know. It was weird. It's been quiet at our house lately. Because Anthony's home. Yeah, I know. He goes the week that we're going to record book club. He goes TDY the same day that I take my brother to the airport.
00:04:04
Speaker
everybody will leave the house and it's just gonna be me and the dogs. And the ghost. And the ghost, yeah. So we'll see. But there hasn't been a feather and nothing's gone missing. Everything's where it should be. We haven't had any lights flickering or creaky. We get in our bedroom, there's a spot on the floor that if you step on it, it's right in front of our bathroom. It's really creaky.
00:04:28
Speaker
And that will creak all the time like if we're laying in bed, but it's like as if someone stepped on it creak. Yeah, not like a house settling kind of noise. It's like, like pressure pressure.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So we haven't like, it's been really quiet. Mm hmm. We'll see I guess in a couple weeks. Yes, hopefully it remains quiet. Yeah, I guess.
Historical Context of Hedge Witches
00:04:49
Speaker
And I just recently cleansed our house. But I guess I'll need to do it again. And I still haven't put up our say had at our last house like crystals at the front door and back door and everything. Yeah, I haven't set those up yet. Because there's
00:05:04
Speaker
really no place unless I... Because the windowsills are sunken into the wall. There's no actual sill up above. And so I have to actually put something up there in order to... I don't know. Anyway, I just need to probably do that because...
00:05:22
Speaker
There's obviously something going on. Yeah, that's crazy. Luckily, it's never drawers and shit opening. I don't like that. I'd be like, knock it off, sir. Ma'am. Yeah. Stop it. Yes, and I'm just like, can you calm it down? I'm trying to meditate here, please. What the fuck? Knock it off. Yeah. But before we start, we have some exciting news. We have a new Supercast subscriber. Wow. And it's our favorite librarian.
00:05:52
Speaker
Yay. Our absolute favorite librarian, Jen. Yes. Thank you so much, Jen, for subscribing to our Supercast. We love you. We adore you. What are we talking about? Oh my gosh, we're talking about head witches. So, okay. This is a term or a type of witchcraft that I didn't really know a whole lot about. And I feel like the only thing that I even like
00:06:19
Speaker
think I knew about hedge witches came from the magicians. I don't know if you ever watched that show, but there was hedge witches in it, but they were seen as the hippie witches. They didn't follow the rules, which I guess I did come across a lot of that in the research that I did. But I didn't really know
00:06:42
Speaker
anything about them essentially. So everything in this episode on my end is just going to be research based. So if I get anything wrong, please tell me. Okay. Yeah. No, I think, I mean, I knew a bit about hedge witches, but I didn't know. Like, so obviously I researched for this one too, because it's like, I feel like
00:07:04
Speaker
sometimes when you know something, you might not know how to articulately say it unless you do research on it too, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. But I feel like with just hedge witches and how you see it, especially in today, it's very romanticized. Like when you think of like the witch that lives in the cabin in the woods, like, yeah, it's like it's such a romanticized version of
00:07:32
Speaker
what I guess it means to be a hedge witch. Yeah. So I guess to kind of start us off, just some history and some background, the term hedge witch is actually one that pays tribute to those women in history.
00:07:48
Speaker
that lived on the outskirts
Spirit Work and 'Riding the Hedge'
00:07:49
Speaker
of villages beyond the hedge rows, and they would fall in line with being healers, cunning, or wise women, and much of their time was spent gathering herbs in the woods, the fields, and the hedges outside of the village that they would in turn use in their craft to help members within the villages historically.
00:08:10
Speaker
Hedgewitches were the person that others would go to when a child came down with a cold, when a husband came home with a toothache, or if you developed a rash and there weren't like doctors or dentists readily available. They were also the ones that a person would go to when they believe that they had received the evil eye or when they needed a charm for luck or love or those types of things.
00:08:33
Speaker
And then something that I found that I thought was kind of cool. Historically in the UK, hedge rows were grown to separate farmer's lands from each other or from neighboring properties. And hedges were also used to separate the town from what was considered the outer wilds. Since these particular types of witches lived outside of the hedge, they were then considered hedge witches.
00:08:56
Speaker
but this term also fits someone who goes beyond the veil or someone who is said to have one foot in the spirit world and one foot in the present world. Hedge witches will use trance states to commune and connect with the spirit world and it's referred to as riding the hedge. They tend to speak to spirits and work with them so in this form the term hedge witch is symbolic and then in that they can travel beyond the veil or ride the hedge.
00:09:26
Speaker
This term actually wasn't officially coined until 1992, and it was by an author named Rae Beth in her book, Hedge Witch, a guide to solitary witchcraft. Hedge was taken from the previous label, Hedge Priest, in this book.
00:09:42
Speaker
And this was meant to describe one who preached from the hedge row, and they didn't have a physical place for a congregation. So these hedge priests would hold open-air services outside the reach of the village authorities, which was like on the other side of the hedge, obviously. And they were considered renegades that didn't follow the rules.
00:10:04
Speaker
I love that. I thought it was kind of funny. Like, they're like, Oh, I can't preach what I'm gonna preach in the village. I'm outside the hedge. What are you gonna do now? Call the forest police. I love that. I thought it was hilarious. Yeah.
00:10:25
Speaker
So when it comes to hedges, just in general, there's a lot of symbolism attached to hedges. And like Tiffany said, it's the border between two different lands, whether that be a village and a forest, whether that be two different cities. The word hedge comes from the old English word for fence, which is interesting.
00:10:47
Speaker
And so as you said, I want to revisit more about hedge being also a border between this world and the spirit world because this is something huge that you see with hedge witches. So according to spells eight, the hedge divides the current world from the other world, the mundane world from the spiritual one. And I love that quote because it just sums it up succinctly. Yeah.
00:11:15
Speaker
A hedge witch is able to cross any hedges present, metaphorically speaking, to interact with the spirit world and come back to the material
Eclectic Practices of Hedge Witchcraft
00:11:23
Speaker
world. And this is where we get riding the hedge or flying the hedge because basically all hedge writing is, is a magical practice involving spirit work or spirit flight. Spirit flight is something that's found in many cultures of the world and
00:11:38
Speaker
It's seen a lot in folk practices in Europe, Ireland, and Scotland, most often tied to Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Greek practices. And it's traditionally been done
00:11:50
Speaker
at great feasts with spirits or deities, ancestors, with their familiars and with other witches. But again, because hedge witches usually practice solitary, it's probably more common that they would commune with the spirits, deities, ancestors, and familiars, as opposed to working with other witches as well in these sort of hedge writing or spirit flight practices. So they would use trances, gateways or doors,
00:12:19
Speaker
They would often use familiars as guards during their crossing into the spirit world. Why they would do these spirit flights or riding the hedge is
00:12:29
Speaker
really just a way to gain knowledge only accessible in the spirit world to gain healing and also to work with protection and one thing that's really big with hedge witches is there's a big focus on ancestral work and veneration and while this isn't the only focus of hedge witchcraft and we're going to talk about the similarities between
00:12:50
Speaker
hedgecraft and other things like green witchcraft, kitchen witchery, animism, those sort of things. It's important to see the differences here because I think a lot of people confuse hedge witchcraft with kitchen witchery more the work of a green witch because there's a lot of overlapping practices. Yeah. Well, and so when I first started researching it,
00:13:12
Speaker
It kept coming up like, oh, they're basically just eclectic herbalists and green witches and kitchen witches. And I was like, oh, I love this. And then the deeper I dug, it became more like.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yes, they use herbs, but they use them in a different way. Yes, they do these things, but it's in a different way. They aren't kitchen witches, they aren't green witches, they aren't herbalist. They use a little bit of things from each of these practices, but it's to serve a different purpose.
00:13:46
Speaker
Hedge witchcraft is often a solitary practice, and it's one that tends to work with herbs with a strong focus on nature. As with any practice, they can work with gods and goddesses, but it's not required, and they may work with healing or with the changing of the seasons. While it's very nature and herbal-based, hedge witchcraft is kind of an eclectic practice overall.
00:14:10
Speaker
Because their practice is a solitary one, it's unlikely that you'll find two hedge witches that practice the same way. Much of what they do within their craft is handed down from their own family, or it's learned through their own experimentation and research, which is within this practice will follow their own paths. Yeah, and following like
00:14:29
Speaker
what's been handed down from their family is something that you often see in European hedge witches. But that's not always the case and obviously anyone can decide to follow this path. This isn't a closed practice and it's not something that should be gate kept by any means. But with that being said, a lot of hedge witches do possess psychic abilities and they continuously work on honing their abilities through things like dream work and meditation, astral projection, and working in trances. But also, hedge witch is something that requires a lot of trust and patience.
00:14:59
Speaker
in order to be successful in your practice you have to have a level of competence and competence in your abilities as a witch because of the high levels of experimenting beyond the veil so this isn't something i'm not saying that like this isn't a beginner's practice but
00:15:13
Speaker
If you are interested in pursuing this path when it comes to witchcraft, you need to be very comfortable and confident in your abilities, especially when it comes to things like working with spirits, working with trances, doing astral projection, because those can be very dangerous things if you don't have practice with it and if you're not comfortable with it.
00:15:37
Speaker
And a lot of times like, and where we always say like, make sure you're doing your research and like really know what you're getting yourself into before you just jump into something like that. Absolutely. And this would be, even though hedge witchcraft is a lot of, there's a lot of solitary work there and a lot of them are solitary practitioners.
00:15:56
Speaker
this is definitely I feel like a subsect of witchcraft where having a mentor or somebody that you can like work with even if it's somebody who's not a witch but is somebody who is a psychic medium or something to help you
00:16:11
Speaker
build a connection with your spirit guides, build a connection with your ancestors in the spirit world to be able to make sure you have that protection and understand how to use that protection, understand how grounding works, especially when it comes to astral projection. Those things are so important. So even if you know nobody else who's a hedge witchcraft or you know nobody else who's part of the craft, building a connection with somebody who has one foot in the spirit realm would be absolutely appropriate in this instance, I think.
00:16:39
Speaker
And so a lot of hedge witches, as we've talked about already, solitary practitioners, they put a lot of emphasis on instinct when working their craft. And you'll see this a lot on the spells that they craft. Working alone may be because they don't conform to any one tradition and their practice centers on practicality rather than on ritual alone. And so as an example of this, we've talked about Wicca in the past and how a lot of that is very ritualistic.
00:17:08
Speaker
I love your explanation when it comes to like Catholicism relating it back to witchcraft. And I always forget exactly what you say, but you're like- There are twice removed cousins. Yes. Because there is so much ritual work when it comes to that. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that because I think there is a time and a place for ritual work and it gets you into that mindset to perform rituals. But there isn't that emphasis when it comes or when
00:17:37
Speaker
you're talking about hedge work. There might be some ritual practices, but for the most part, it's like, okay, how am I going to do this? What is the best way for me to get from point A to point B instead of doing this whole ritual to get there too? Something that I came across a lot on pretty much every resource that I read or watched on hedge witchcraft was that
00:18:00
Speaker
it's about keeping things simple to the point and without all of the flashy or showy things. So what do I have around me? What's on my land? Connecting with the spirits of the house, the spirits of the land that you live on, maybe the spirits of the woods that are near you or a park or whatever. It's not about buying all these things and building this ritual and making all these
00:18:27
Speaker
connections with other people to do these things.
Personal Reflections on Hedge Witchcraft
00:18:30
Speaker
It's very just like, okay, what is simple enough for me to do on my own every day? I don't have to go out and buy all these things. It's in my yard or it's in the woods near my house or I already have XYZ in my cabinet kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely.
00:18:50
Speaker
So because of the way they choose to work, hedge witches have often been referred to as anarchists, which I thought was hilarious. I saw that come up multiple times and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so funny. They tend to think differently. They talk to plants and animals. They walk their talk. They take full responsibility for what they do.
00:19:11
Speaker
while also carefully choosing their path based on their own beliefs, their thoughts, and their own needs. Outside influence will often not affect the path that they walk because the focus is one that comes from within themselves and stems from their own outlooks.
00:19:26
Speaker
their craft holds this no frills attitude overall. And a lot of what would be considered influence for them would be what's being passed down to them from family above them, whether it's a mom or a grandmother, that also practiced. So it's very much so. This is how I feel. This is what I believe. If you don't like it, that's cool. This is how I practice. And I actually really liked that about what I learned about them.
00:19:55
Speaker
Yes, I absolutely love that. One thing I read about when I was researching this was that a lot of connections for hedge witches are genuinely focused on working with their familiar and any spirits that they interact with while working across the hedge. And so there's not that big emphasis on let's work in a coven, let's work in a circle, let's do meet up with a bunch of other witches. And they might do that for any other sort of purpose or just to have connections with other human beings.
00:20:25
Speaker
they don't often work in a group and I really like that because there is such, I feel like a divide with certain sex of witches where they feel like you're better if you work in a coven, you're better for your practice if you work in a group and that's not always the case and it doesn't have to be the case. No. I don't like people.
00:20:52
Speaker
I read so much too is spent building relationships with their land, their home, their plants and gardens and their familiars. It's not a people connection. It's a self connection to nature and where you live and where you practice and sleep and eat.
00:21:18
Speaker
It's just, I don't know. I feel like it's, it's more my speed when I was reading and I was like, Oh man. Yeah. This is me.
00:21:26
Speaker
yes absolutely yeah i mean i'm not saying that you have to like any of our listeners or us we have to define ourselves or put labels on what we do but i absolutely think i'm a hedge witch same every time i read this i was like oh man it's like yeah one foot in this world in the spirit world and i'm like hello ghosts right check yeah well and then like i came across the whole you know like
00:21:54
Speaker
And I think I talk about this later. I think I put it in my notes. If I didn't, I'll talk about it now too. So they connecting with the spirit of their house, you know, like they say hello to
Mindful Nature Connection
00:22:05
Speaker
it. Good morning to it. Goodbye. When they leave, they let it know like, this is when I'll be back kind of thing. And we have talked about this. I don't remember if this was when we were reading our first book club book. I cannot think of the name of it right now. The folk magic one. Yes, by Corey.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yes. So when we were reading that there was a portion in that in like old folk magic where it was like connecting with spirits of the house. And I have this like epiphany like, Oh my gosh, my grandparents did this, like the house, it was always like, hi, bye, like they always talk to the house. And sometimes I do stuff like that. So I was like, look at me.
00:22:43
Speaker
Look at me being a little hedge witch without even knowing it. So we've already mentioned this, but hedge witchcraft is often thought to be related to kitchen witchcraft and green witchcraft. Much of the practices can be considered a sort of eclectic collection of these two. And hedge witches see the earth and home as being a sacred space. Nature is seen as being the root of that space. So while it's not like,
00:23:10
Speaker
they aren't necessarily green witches or kitchen witches, like we said earlier, sometimes they do use pieces of those crafts eclectically for a different purpose and hedge witchcraft. And something it's also been linked to frequently is animism. And with animism and just
00:23:29
Speaker
relating it back to green witchcraft and kitchen witchery. Animals, plant spirits and nature spirits are important to hedge witchcraft because they all bridge the gap between the physical and the spiritual world. And they're often noted for creating astral spaces solely for grounding and protection and the big focus of their craft centers on
00:23:50
Speaker
protection and cleansing as they frequently interact with the spirit world. So these are the type of witches that will be very well versed in things like sigil magic, anything to do with crystals or really anything that helps keep them grounded and protected when they work within the spirit realm.
00:24:07
Speaker
For the hedge witch, magic can be found in the simple day to day. So everything's done with intention. And just some examples that I came across in multiple different things that I was reading, like something as simple as brewing a cup of tea isn't just brewing a cup of tea for a hedge witch. So what is the purpose of the tea? Like what are you trying to address? What herbs can help serve that purpose? Sweeping is something that we've discussed as a way to like clear energies, as well as just a form of mundane cleaning.
00:24:37
Speaker
The intentions that we use here were ones that were initially used by hedge witches in the past. Healing, again, they're looking at what ailments are the focus and what do we know like that we can heal or what can we use to prevent that ailment. Their work is natural and herbal focused in this aspect, so it's not like
00:25:01
Speaker
They're not trying to be like, let me learn everything medicinally and be an herbalist. But it's like, if somebody comes to me and they have this problem, let me think about it. Let me see what what is the problem? What do I know can be used for that problem? And they usually are going to have whatever they need to make that thing. Because again, they work with like the spirits of the land, the spirits of the plants, you know, they're they're learning these things without the intention of using them for that. But they do have that.
00:25:31
Speaker
if they need it. Yeah, and even just something as simple as watering their plants. This allows them to bond with the plant spirits in their home or outside of their home. This is something we've touched on already, but doing things that require trial and error, changing something small in their home to see if that changes the energy of their home or
00:25:54
Speaker
trial and error when it comes to spell work just to see if that changes how a spell is manifested in their actual like reality. These sort of things are something that they do often. It's something very small. Speaking to spirits in the trees, spending time with animals or insects, and they will do whatever they can to bond with the earth around them. The seasons and the cycles of nature are important to them. So this is
00:26:17
Speaker
I mean this is the type of person that you'll see that they know when the full moon is. This is someone who's gonna know when the equinoxes are, they're gonna know when the solstices are and this is something that I think this was like exactly when I had the epiphany of like I think I'm a hedge witch whenever I was researching this because something that I frequently do and I was recently called out on this by my daughter the other day is we're outside and we're just talking with
00:26:39
Speaker
neighbors right and I just had one shoe off and I was like grounding and my oldest daughter was like why you always do that every time we're outside you'll just like take off one of your shoes and like
00:26:51
Speaker
I put it in the dirt and I'm like, oh, well, I'm grounding. And so I explained to her what that was, but I didn't realize that was something that people were picking up on or noticing. Anthony just tells the neighbors I'm feral because I never have shoes on. I'll be like outside. I'll walk down to the neighbor's house, no shoes on. And she's witchy too. And so Brian will be like, oh, just like her seat as I'm walking in without my shoes, handing her herbs.
00:27:20
Speaker
I don't, so here's my thing. I like doing that on the grass. I cannot do it on the gravel. I do it everywhere. I don't like the way it feels on my feet, but if it's on the sand or the grass or the dirt or something like that, I don't mind it at all. I'll walk down the street without shoes on. People, if anyone brings it up, Anthony is like, oh, she's just feral. She's just feral, yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
But something else that I found interesting about hedge witches, and this is also another thing that I know me and you both can relate to, but they find powers that are drawn to borders, whether that be borders between cities, between the wilderness and a neighborhood, between water and land, and also with cemeteries. And this is something that we both are like, I want to go to a good cemetery. Like, oh, let's go check out the cemetery. I love cemeteries. I love being in cemeteries. I love just like sitting in a cemetery.
00:28:11
Speaker
and soaking up all the energy there. Yeah. Well, and like, especially out here, like overseas, I don't know about Japan, but I know like the UK, Ireland, Germany, there's so many like just cool cemeteries. But out here, there are so many cemeteries and they'll just be like,
00:28:28
Speaker
clocked in the middle of a neighborhood or just, you know, you'll have two neighborhoods, cemetery in the middle. It's not like gated. It's just open. I absolutely love it. I feel like whenever you come out to visit, Julia needs to come down and we can go sit in cemeteries all night like little creeps. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. My favorite pastime. 10 out of 10. We recommend.
00:28:54
Speaker
So this type of practice is for practitioners that want to further their knowledge in folk magic or in what is known as the country ways if they want to learn more about weather patterns, herbalism, animal husbandry, and just so much more. Practicing hedge witchcraft could be something of interest to you if you're drawn to the natural world
00:29:16
Speaker
If you feel more at home in the outdoors and in nature, if you have a strong connection to herbs, trees, and plants, and if you enjoy solitary work, if you enjoy folklore, research, experimentation. It was like reading all of these. I was like, wow, look at me. So now that we've given you a little bit of history and background on it, how do you practice like a hedge witch?
00:29:43
Speaker
Much of practicing hedge witchcraft requires you to live both mindfully and magically. Hedge witches look at their practice through the sacredness of what they're trying to accomplish, and they practice a slow but conscious way of living. Your
Daily Integration of Hedge Witch Practices
00:29:58
Speaker
home is a place of magic. So many hedge witches will speak to their house, like I was saying earlier.
00:30:04
Speaker
So, like, they treat it as if it's a living being. They greet their house as they arrive. They tell a goodbye before they leave. Their home serves as their magical nerve center and they treat it as such. And if you can hear little puppy yelping, I apologize, but Anthony ran to the store and they're screaming down there. He's like, we're alone.
00:30:28
Speaker
because there's so much reverence to their home and the spirits that live in their home, whether they be actual spirits or just the house itself as a spirit and embodiment of the energy that you're putting into your home, they will cleanse their home and reinforce wards weekly. So if this is something that you're interested in, get comfortable cleansing your home and reinforcing your wards, making it the safe, comfortable, wonderful place that it needs to be.
00:30:57
Speaker
Many hedge witches will get to know the spirits of the land that they live on and of the places surrounding them. We've mentioned this already throughout this entire episode, so I'm acting as a broken record here, but...
00:31:13
Speaker
They often incorporate these spirits into their own practices, building and working relationships with them. And the belief is that the more you open yourself up to them, the more likely they are to offer you protection, gifts, and peace within your home and property.
00:31:29
Speaker
And if you have taken my last tidbit of information about cleansing your home and reinforcing words to heart and you do this and you're comfortable with this, this is a way that you can invite a house spirit into your home. But again, you need to be making sure that you know what you're doing when it comes to working with spirits. And if you need some, uh,
00:31:51
Speaker
cleansing, vanishing, and protecting tips, we have gone over that. Yeah, we have a whole episode. So go back and listen to that. A hedge switch will study the native plant life either on their own property or in public areas that they can access to do so. They spend time getting to know what's available to them locally and then the plants that are in season. Forge responsibly when you can and work
00:32:18
Speaker
these plants into your own craft, I would highly suggest buying a local book or going to the parks services to get information on what you have locally and what is not safe locally because there are a lot of unsafe plants, so please don't poison yourselves. But I also highly encourage you to learn and forage when you can because I absolutely love doing that.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, and something easy to do too if you're like, I don't know about the plants around me and and I really don't have the time to learn about them, which you should if you want to be a hedge witch. But if you want to start out small, something that you could do is just work with the spirits of the plants and crystals in your house. So get you a little house plant, even if it's like a succulent or something, name it, take care of it, get a couple of crystals or rocks or sticks or whatever it is that calls to you.
00:33:10
Speaker
and work with the spirits that inhabit those objects in your home.
00:33:16
Speaker
We name all of our plants and we have joked about getting them the hi my name is name tags to put on their little pots. Yes, all of my plants are named as well. Yeah, yeah. And we Anthony even like we go and like pet their little leaves. Especially like with the garden. He's like, I gotta go tickle the tomatoes because that was something like my grandparents and I did when I was a little kid, you go out and like tickle the tomato plants to make them happy. So they produce more tomatoes. And when Anthony and I got married and we
00:33:46
Speaker
our first garden, he was like, what are you doing? And I'm like, you have to take all the tomato plants so that they're happy. Even now, he's like, oh, I got to go take all the tomato plants. Yeah. Oh, Anthony, you're so cute. Precious. So with all of that, herbal medicine is highly practiced by hedge witches, and often they will spend time learning and growing each of their plants
00:34:08
Speaker
that they use. They go through the stages of herbalism from growing and learning the plant to harvesting and drying the plant and then storing it for later use in their practice. They learn the properties and the uses of each of the plants along with appropriate ways to prepare them for their effectiveness and when someone comes to them with ailments they'll know just the herb and preparation to help. Hedge witches will often have a remedy for everything under the sun and these remedies will have been prepared by them too.
00:34:35
Speaker
And while I, like I said, like really didn't know a whole lot about hedge witches, I see a lot of their form of practice in my day today. The more that I work with herbalism and like gardening and just being like out, we spend a lot of time out in our yard now, like, you know,
00:34:53
Speaker
We, before we bought this house, we lived in a townhouse and it was a shared backyard and it just wasn't enjoyable. And now that we have like our own space, we spend so much time outside barefoot growing plants and taking care of our property. And I just like reading everything. I was like, man, definitely feel like this is me.
00:35:17
Speaker
I do want to point out though that herbalism is not necessarily like practiced by all hedge witches and not all hedge witches that do practice herbalism use it as a practice with a focus on healing but more in the form of being able to ride the hedge and entering trance states or having a heavier focus on spirit work. So while there may be some use of herbs or green witchcraft in a hedge witch's practice, some of them like really only focus
00:35:46
Speaker
on the herbs that can enhance the hedge writing experience. So I know we keep saying this, they do take things from herbalism or green witch or kitchen witchery, but it's not always in the same way. So I feel like it's really important to differentiate that. Yeah, I do too. I
00:36:09
Speaker
I think that, again, as we said before, you don't have to put a label on your practice, but understanding how different witches work is really the focus of this whole series, being able to understand what these things are. And then if you decide to put a label on it, being able to know what to research whenever you are trying to figure out what it is that you are doing or what it is that you're trying to do. And we've already said this too. I absolutely...
00:36:38
Speaker
if I had to put a label on what I do, it would be hedge witchcraft because my work incorporates a lot of spiritual practices, hedge jumping, which I would never have even thought to call it that until this ancestral work. I'm one of those people who will walk around and touch the trees and rocks around me, talk to the flowers, name my plants, talk with them when I water them, ground when I'm outside. If
00:37:03
Speaker
And I know that this is something that you do as well, Tiffany. And so just knowing a little bit more about that and seeing how exactly our practice aligns with that, because I feel like in this space, in just our world in general, there is just this need for everybody to need to put a label on everything. And so we've been in situations too where other people have asked to basically define our practice.
00:37:29
Speaker
not everybody has something that they can use to define your practice and you shouldn't have to. But seeing how this perfectly aligns with this trajectory, I'm just like, Oh, well, there you go. That's basically what I do. And like with that, like, I know, you know, and I've talked about it on the podcast, I didn't know growing up that
00:37:52
Speaker
a lot of what I was learning from my grandparents or things that I just did all the time because I thought it was normal. I thought that's what you did was like pagan things or witchy things. And, you know, like being an adult and learning that and I feel like I'm like so far behind, like trying to figure everything out or, you know, like it comes down to like, sometimes I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what I am. You know, if people ask me, this is my life now, like obviously it's just that
00:38:22
Speaker
I didn't know for so long. So for me, these things were just normal everyday things. And when it was like, well, you don't do that. And people are like, no, what is that? That's weird. Yeah, I agree. I think that it's frustrating whenever you feel like you have to put a label on everything that you do.
00:38:39
Speaker
when really it's just, we're just trying to live in this world together and we're trying to be the best humans that we can. And so yeah, but yeah, I love this.
Conclusion and Preview of Next Topic
00:38:49
Speaker
I love learning about, like now I just, I want to even try to focus even more of my work along this line because I just love it so much. So if that is you too, then hello friend. We're happy to have you on this podcast.
00:39:05
Speaker
And let us know if you already identify as a hedge witch and this is something that you have a lot of experience in and you've been doing this for a long time, let us know. We would love to talk to you about it. Yeah. This was a fun episode to research and a fun topic to learn about and then realize that it's like, oh, these are things that I do. Yeah, I do all of this. Weird. Weird.
00:39:34
Speaker
But that's it. Yes. See you on the flip side. Peace out. Peace out, secret.
00:39:52
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives like getting episodes early, shout-outs on the show, access to our Ask Me Anytime
00:40:22
Speaker
for our monthly newsletter of promo code for merchandise for more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at given witches or email us at we'redoingwitchcraft at gmail.com. Check us out next week where we will discuss shadow work. Until then, blessed be witches.