Emma Kathryn Wild Witchcraft

The festive season feels like it’s in full swing, and oh, aren’t we all so busy. Decorating, buying, cooking, going out for the Christmas work party, the one you’d rather ditch (and I do! I like my colleagues, but I see them all week every week!). I do like the run up to Yule and Christmas, or at least some of it, but it also requires a lot of time, work and effort. All of that is without considering the mental and monetary strain and pressures it can add.

I sometimes think that all this busyness is part of pushing back the dark, perhaps some genetic remembering from when life for humans was less secure. Maybe that’s why we like the lights and sparkle of the season. I also think that January and February, at least where I live, are perhaps the darkest and gloomiest months, with little to look forward to except the cold and the dark, and that Yuletide is one last hurrah before the bleakness of the new year.

As an animist though, I feel we should take our cues from the land. Animism is the core belief that draws together my witchcraft and magical practices. It underpins my spirit work and practical work, and right now, the land is quieting.

In my garden, my sacred space, the cherry tree and lime have lost their leaves, revealing gnarled and twisted branches. These hold their own beauty as they dance against the backdrop of the sky at dusk, framing the orange pink slash of brightness fading to purple as the light seeps from the day. The cotoneaster though, holds its deep green leaves and its blood red berries add welcome colour and a late meal for the blackbirds. The ivy too is thick and green, a safe haven for the sparrows to roost in.

This slowing down that occurs in the natural world encourages the same in us too, and that’s why we can feel out of sorts or even exhausted during the festive period. With all that said, let me share with you a couple of exercises to help you tap into the restive energies of the land. Remember, the longest night brings with it darkness, but that darkness isn’t something to fear, but instead offers us rest and recuperation!

Tree Energy Visualisation

Trees are our ancestors (a view I hold of the land itself). They are guardians of a place. Imagine how long they stand for, all the things they see and hear, the stories they could tell if they only spoke! They also have the power to bring us back to ourselves.

This is an exercise to do outside. Find a tree, perhaps in your garden or a park, somewhere you feel safe. Lean against it putting your whole weight against it. Close your eyes and feel how it supports your full weight, how it is steadfast and anchored in its place. Visualise energy being drawn up from the earth, into its roots and then up through the trunk and into the branches. Feel that energy flow into you, re-energising and refreshing, gentle and peaceful.

Ask the tree to let you remember who you are, to lend it’s strength and steadfastness. Speak the words aloud. Spend as long as you need here.

Winter Foraging

Foraging is a way of living in balance with your local landscape, and also gives you the chance to build your relationship to nature and the land. Foraging is about taking only a little, ensuring there is enough left for the other beings who share that space. It isn’t about stripping a place of everything it has, but instead is about balance, a symbiotic and reciprocal relationship.

Whenever I go foraging, I feel as though I have stepped out of time and space, as though the human world has come to a standstill.

While summer and autumn are the times most associated with foraging because of the bountiful harvests of fruits, nuts and berries, there are still some food items that can be a nice addition to the pot. However, I’m not talking about food here. Foraging for pine cones, spruce tips and seed heads can be a way of decorating your home without filling it with plastic and shop bought decorations. As a pagan, I always feels like it is bringing the spirit of that place into your home, and afterwards, you can return them to the land from which they were taken.

Spellwork: A Protective Guardian

The winter solstice is a good time for working magic for healing, a great time for dream work.

This spell creates a healing fetch and uses items that can be foraged. The idea is the fetch holds the protective spirit of the land and can offer that strength and protection to you and your home. This spell works best if you gather the items from a place you already have built a relationship with.

You will need:

• A range of natural items such as twigs, pine cones, seed heads, fallen leaves etc.
• String
• A candle
• Incense

You can make this a longer spell by ritually collecting the items from nature. This can be done in a number of ways, such as meditating in that space before asking the land to help protect and guide you before leaving an offering (bird seed or even just water makes a good offering to the land).

Once you have your items, there are no hard or fast rules about crafting your fetch, let your creativity guide you. Fasten twigs together with string and use the candle wax for glue by dripping it where it is needed (using bees wax or soy candles is best, but use what you have).

When you have made the fetch, pass it through the incense smoke and chant:

Guardian of Nature, Spirit of the Land,

I call you to me for protection and healing.

Continue this chant for a few moments, and as you do, visualise the energy and spirit of nature growing within the fetch, of it coming alive. When you have finished, blow onto the fetch. This energy exchange links you to the fetch (if blood magic is your thing, you might add a couple of drops of blood, but if that’s a step too far, you can also use other bodily fluid, if you know what I mean!)

Keep your fetch on your altar or somewhere safe. You can use it in further spell work as a protective guardian, or you can hold it and meditate with it whenever you feel in need of healing and protection.

However you celebrate the season, have a blessed and peaceful one! Blessed be witches!