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CHAPTER 1

Wicca, Witchcraft and Druidry

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is the ability to harness and use the powers of nature and one's own personal energy in order to create a desired effect in the world. It is ancient and found the world over, in various forms under different names and titles. It is often seen as an innate ability, something that one is born with and which may be passed down through generations. We often hear the term "Wise Woman" or "Wise Man" (the "Cunning Folk") to describe a witch practising in her or his community. This would have been someone knowledgeable in herbal healing or midwifery, or speaking with animals, or casting spells and charms or being able to divine the future through weather patterns. In the Middle Ages up until the present moment, Witchcraft was demonised as the Christian faith sought to exude total power and control. However, nature is resilient, and so too were/are Witches. Some of the magic and charms performed have been kept and passed down through folklore and fairy tales. Some lucky families may have kept a tradition alive by passing down wisdom through the bloodline. Though there is no "unbroken lineage" of Witchcraft per se, we can still find fragments and use our instinct and intuition, with the help of guides along the way to enable us to recover and redefine what is often called "The Old Ways". Witchcraft in itself was not known as a religion, but a practice or an art.

Druidry

The Druids of old were tied to the Celtic peoples, and are often equated to the role of priests in the Celtic community. They also held the knowledge and history of their people, genealogy of royal families, poetry, the arts and more. They were often treated as separate and special from the rest of the community, such as being exempt from going to war. Druidry evolved from pre-Celtic religion and spirituality; however, we do not know what that religion or spiritual path was called before the Celts, and so "Druid" is the oldest word which we have to describe a priest of the Celtic tradition that evolved throughout Europe and Britain. The word Druid stems from two words, dru and wid, meaning oak and wisdom respectively. And so, the Druids were seen as those who contained the wisdom of the oak, of nature and the natural world, and who were able to service their communities with their knowledge and their skill. They were an organised elite, as opposed to the village wisewoman/man of Witchcraft. Julius Caesar documents that there were three types of Druids: Bards, Ovates and Druids. Bards held the genealogy, songs and stories of the tribe; Ovates were connected to healing and to seership or divination; and Druids were the teachers, philosophers and those who held the law. Druid schools were in existence up until the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century interest in the Druids began to re-emerge, in what is often termed "The Celtic Twilight".

Wicca

Wicca and Modern Druidry began in the 1950s. They have their roots and inspiration in the old traditions of Witchcraft and the Druids, yet were formed in order to create branches of a modern Western Paganism that celebrated Nature in all its glory. Two friends, Gerald Gardner and Ross Nichols met around a decade earlier and shared together their mutual interest in magical lore, history and the occult. Gardner published a book called Witchcraft Today, and the religion of Wicca was born. Nichols introduced Druidry to the world at large in the mid 1960s, based on the Celtic mythology of Ireland and Britain, history and folklore as well as what he had learned as a member of the Ancient Druid Order. Wicca and Druidry held much in common, as you would imagine, as Gardner and Ross shared so much together in the development of their respective but related paths. Wicca, as the modern formal religion and interpretation of Witchcraft, often contained three degrees, much in the same way that the ancient Druids had the three levels of Bard, Ovate and Druid. Both followed a modern "Wheel of the Year", where ancient festivals and holidays were incorporated into the modern calendar, and rites and rituals created around them to celebrate the seasonal and cyclical nature of the traditions. Wicca and Modern Druidry share much in common, and can be seen as different but related "languages" that express a similar reverence for the cycles of nature, the gods, the ancestors and more. Both have their roots and inspiration in an ancient past, and yet were developed for the modern world to bring back the magic and wonder of nature into everyday life, through rituals and prayer, work and dedication. Wicca is a religion that follows a dual concept of deity, a goddess and god.

Wicca and Witchcraft have often been two terms that were used interchangeably; however, this is now occurring less and less as the traditions seek a distinction between themselves for various reasons. While most Wiccans would say that they are Witches, not all Witches are Wiccans. As stated previously, Witchcraft was not a religion, but a practice. As far as we can tell, there was no dual concept of deity dating back to ancient times. This is a modern interpretation of the forces of nature, which works as a good model for many in the Wiccan tradition. The goddess is all important, and it is her relationship with the god that is the basis for the cyclical and seasonal celebrations. Many Wiccans call this the "Old Religion" stemming from an ancient matriarchal society but this is something of a misnomer. It is largely due to the work of anthropologist Margaret Murray that we have this reasoning which cannot be proven or disproven, hence there is much debate. Murray's work was able to state that Witchcraft was based in a pre-Christian pagan tradition, but to hypothesise further and state that it all derived from a matriarchal Mother Goddess culture is merely just that: a theory. The other modern Wiccan concept of "all the gods are one God, and all the goddesses are one Goddess" is a further theory developed from Murray's work in the late 1970s through the 1990s, mostly promoted by feminist Wiccans such as the brilliant Starhawk. Again, this is not something that has factual basis in an anthropological context, and is hotly contested by many Pagans, whether they are Witches, Wiccans, Druids or from any other tradition. Within Paganism, you will find polytheists (believing in many distinct and separate deities), pantheists (all deities are aspects of a divine force), monotheists (such as the Christian Druids who worship God through nature), or even monists (nature is God). How you choose to incorporate religion, should you wish to in your tradition, is entirely up to you.

And so, Witchcraft is using your wits and intelligence, your own personal power and the powers of nature in order to change the world around you, to affect and effect change. It uses charms and potions, herbal, animal and weather lore, as well as an innate sense of the spirit or energy that dwells in all things. It has an animistic outlook, similar but yet different to Wicca and Druidry.

Wicca focuses on the turning of the Wheel of the Year, often symbolised by the relationship between dual deities, the Goddess and the God. This relationship is reflected in the natural world around us, in the changing of the seasons, in nature and also in human nature. It is a religion as well as a practice.

Druidry focuses more on inspiration, on questing the awen, seeking to find one's place in the human world and the natural world, to live in balance and harmony. It is about becoming a functioning part of an ecosystem, where we understand that all lives are connected; that we are a part of a whole. Some say that Modern Druidry, in relation to Wicca, focuses on the product of the union of the Goddess and God, rather than the relationship between the two.

It is beyond the scope of this work to provide a full and detailed history and all relevant information pertaining to Witchcraft, Wicca and Druidry. To learn more about these traditions, please see the Bibliography and Further Reading at the end of this book, which includes my introduction to Druidry, The Awen Alone: Walking the Path of the Solitary Druid.

Re-enchanting our lives is the very reason that Witchcraft, Wicca and Druidry can blend so easily together. Whether you view any of the above as a religion, a philosophy or simply a way of life is irrelevant; what we must acknowledge is that at their core they attempt to honour a pre-Christian tradition, spirituality or practice of Europe and the British Isles. This has been handed down in fragments for us to investigate and reinterpret in order to create beautiful traditions that help us to reweave our connection to the natural world. In today's modern society, we can so often drop the threads of connection, as we live in high-rise apartments, cope with new pressures and stress from a modern society, working eight hours a day while raising our children, and so on. Wicca, Witchcraft and Druidry help us to reconnect to the past while envisioning a future that holds the powers of nature in the highest regard. It is about honouring the cycles of life and death, of transformation and rebirth. It is about re-enchantment, and learning to bring the magic back into our lives. It is about dropping the boundaries between the sacred and the mundane, and truly living magical lives.

The Hedge – Boundaries and Walking Between the Worlds

The term "hedge" in relation to a spiritual path often simply means that one is not dedicated to any particular path or organisation. However, in an earth-based tradition, the word also takes on a deeper meaning. In a community, there were certain boundaries between the human world and the rest of the natural world. Though we know that we cannot ever be truly separate, still there were and are physical boundaries that we have created over millennia to delineate "our" space from that of others, whether human or non-human. The Hedge Druid's Craft crosses these boundaries and works in both worlds, in all worlds.

Physical Boundaries

Henges and hedges, dill heaps, stone walls and more have marked the edges of a community. In my own little parish, a couple of years ago we re-established "beating the bounds", a tradition of going around and adding soil and sod to the "dill heaps", little mounds of earth that mark the parish boundary. We have two boundaries, one for the lower common and one for the upper common. Looking at old maps, we determined that there were 35 dill heaps for the lower common, and established a day when members of the community could walk the boundaries and search for these little heaps of earth, to reinstate them and to take care of them every two years. It was also the custom to bounce the youngest child on top of each dill heap: why I have no idea! Our vicar blessed the community, the farms and fields, the crops and gardens, the shop and school and then we headed out on a four-mile trek through the landscape. At each dill heap I left an offering of seeds for the local wildlife and the Fair Folk (more about the Fair Folk later).

To walk a boundary is to find where edges meet. In permaculture, the place where two environments meet, such as forest and field, is where there is the most diversity. Where we find our edges meeting with another, we can gain inspiration, called the awen in Druidry. This is what relationship is all about: the give and take, learning and working together, finding out how you fit in your own local patch. The threads of awen shimmer where the edges meet. These are liminal places, where one energy merges with another, such as at the seashore, or on a mountaintop between earth and sky, at the edge of a lake or in a park in the middle of a city.

Hedges are often places that delineate boundaries, and here in Britain there are some hedgerows that are hundreds and hundreds of years old, places of great bio-diversity in an ever-increasing mono-cultured world. Where I live in East Anglia, it is mostly farmland or grazing pasture, and the hedgerows mark the boundaries of the farmer's land. They are also incredible habitats for nature, wonderful "corridors" that allow animals to travel many miles in search of food or places to live. Hedges that link with each other can stretch for miles, and are places where wild birds, mice, snakes, toads, insects of all kinds and more can thrive.

Hedges are also places that can mark the boundary between our garden and the wilderness beyond. I have a hedge all around my back garden, and at the bottom of the garden the hedge marks the spot between me and a small patch of a wild and wooded area that flows along the small valley's depression. Often wild creatures come through holes in the hedge to visit my garden: fallow deer and muntjac deer, badgers, foxes and pheasants. It's also a highway for local cats to pass through into the "wilds" beyond. Yet the hedge is not only a boundary in this very physical sense; it is also a boundary between this world and the Otherworld.

Boundaries Between the Worlds

Physical boundaries such as stone circles or hedges can also delineate a boundary between this world and the Otherworld. In Witchcraft, Wicca and Druidry it is generally acknowledged that there exist beings that are separate from us, yet which also live alongside us in parallel worlds. These beings are often called the Fair Folk, Faeries, the Fey Folk, The Good Folk, the Tuatha de Danaan, The Little People, The Gentry and more. These are creatures often connected to a place, or sometimes seen as nature spirits. They are even more vast and diverse than the human race. They live in a world that straddles ours, and here in Britain there are certain times of the year when it is said that the veil between the worlds is thin. These are times when we can easily cross over into the Otherworld, and they can come in to ours. The tides of Beltane and Samhain, (May Day and Hallowe'en) are when the boundaries are at their most "open". Other times of the year, such as the solstices, have folklore and legends too regarding portals between this realm and the realms of Faerie.

One Beltane a being of the Fair Folk came through the hole in the hedge at the bottom of my garden. The energy of our Beltane ritual still hung in the air, shimmering in the light of the full moon. I was now alone in the garden, tidying up the lanterns and getting ready to put the fire to bed. As I walked down the garden steps, my offering of milk and honey in my hands, I made my way across the lawn to where the altar and offering place lay beneath the canopy of an old beech, its leaves just beginning to bud. I said a quick prayer as I entered that sacred space, with nine small stones delineating the boundary of this "faerie circle", a "minilithic" stone circle I had built for meditation and ritual purposes.

As I walked into the circle, I felt the air thick with the magic of the evening. I knew something was about to happen. I laid the food and drink upon the altar, and gave my thanks to the spirits of place, and to the Fair Folk. No sooner had the words left my mouth than a rustling in the hedge all around me began. It was as if some strange wind was shaking just the coniferous boundary of my garden, or a small army of badgers were all coming through the little holes in the hedge at the same time. My heart pounded in my chest as the moon shone through the branches of the beech above me. Frozen in place, both excited and frightened to see what happened next, I tried to see into the darkness of the hedge, shadowed from the moon's light, but I could perceive nothing but the inky blackness.

The rustling all around me stopped, and I found I was able to move. I knew that something had come through the hole in the hedge, but I could not see it. Slowly I walked towards the firepit, hoping to see what had come through by the light of the fire. I cautiously approached the dying flames, and peered into the shadows about ten feet away. I could see very little, but I felt a presence, someone – male – standing by the birdfeeder and the hole in the hedge, shoulder-height to me, dressed in shades of brown. Suddenly, even as I looked and felt his presence, he moved without a sound like a dark shadow in the blink of an eye back into the hedge, and there from the depths of the green and black two eyes shone a whitish/green, reflecting the light of the fire. Whatever that being was, he had changed into the form of a badger in the blink of an eye, to watch me from the depths of the back hedgerow.

"Beltane blessings," I murmured. Unsure of what to do next and still very much afraid and alone, I curtseyed and then covered the firepit with its iron mesh guard, walking back slowly towards the house. I had wanted to ask for his friendship, and for that of all the Fair Folk, but my courage failed me on that night of the full moon, as the powers of Beltane and the Otherworld flowed through the land.

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Excerpted from "The Hedge Druid's Craft"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Joanna van der Hoeven.
Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
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