Earth witch, p.6
Earth Witch, page 6
How do you make an offering? Just hand it over. For plants and trees, simply place the offering near their base. For animals, simply place the offering where you know they feed. For ancestors, you can locate your offerings on a dedicated altar or shelf in a sacred part of your home. Offer your gifts to them in the same way that you would offer them to a friend or loved one. Perhaps take a moment to listen after making the offering to see if anything is communicated to you through your intuition, your mind's eye, or other pathways.
Practice: Nature Inventory
This practice will help you get to know the plant and animal kin that inhabit the landscape in which you live, as well as the major features of that landscape and its original stewards. This is something everyone can do, whether you live in the city or in the country. And your first step is right outside your front door, however that looks for you.
So let's gear up and go! Grab your favorite comfortable walking shoes, a pen and notebook (or your witch's journal), and maybe a little pack with some snacks. And don't forget your water! You're going on an adventure. Here's an outline you can use as a guide.
Write down each of these as you encounter them on your walk, or as you discover them through books and learning about your area:
Predominant tree species:
Predominant shrub species:
Predominant herbaceous plant species (“weeds”):
Apex predators:
Large mammals:
Small mammals:
Reptiles:
Insects:
Major landmarks (rivers, rock formations, mountains, hills, etc.):
Indigenous peoples and tribes of your area:
As you become more familiar with the non-human kin who populate the land around you, reach out to their spirits and begin to connect more intimately with them. As you begin to receive messages from them, work to integrate them into your practice in ways that benefit the earth.
Practice: Walking Meditation
Meditation, the act of quiet contemplation, can be a powerful tool for calming the noise of life so you can listen deeply to the earth. A walking meditation can turn an ordinary stroll into a direct experience and appreciation of the land and the life that abounds there. By simply focusing your attention on your surroundings and opening yourself to what you observe, you invite the life force of the earth to flow around and within you.
Walking meditations can be particularly useful to you as an earth witch, because they engage you directly with the environment. With your eyes wide open and moving at a pace that suits you, you can connect to all that surrounds you through your physical body and your senses, and immerse yourself in the present moment.
All you need to perform a walking meditation is a place in nature where you feel safe and can wander undisturbed. This can be a park near your home, a favorite stretch of beach, a nature preserve, a mountain trail, or a forest. It can even be your own backyard. Anywhere where you can connect directly to your surroundings and commune with the spirits of place. The unique benefit of a walking meditation, compared to a seated meditation, is that, rather than focusing on just your breath, it engages your entire body in physical activity and draws on all your senses.
You can even perform a walking meditation in the hustle and bustle of a city. An urban environment may have more distractions, true, but that doesn't mean that you can't be mindful of the world around you. In fact, if you are a city-dwelling witch, your mind is likely to be more stimulated than it would be in the stillness of a natural landscape, so there's even more reason for you to ground yourself in the earth and reach out to your spirits of place.
Before you begin, consider ways that you can heighten your experience. Are there certain trees or plants or animals whom speak to you regularly? If so, bring small offerings to give them in return for their care. Is there specific guidance you seek for your life right now? Are there questions you want answered or specific messages you want to receive? If so, let these guide you.
As you enter the space in which you have chosen to wander, immerse yourself fully in it. Let it interact with your body. Let it penetrate your senses. As you walk, notice how your body feels. Does it feel heavy or light? Stiff or relaxed? Take note of your posture and your gait. Don't try to change them, just observe them. Let the rhythm of your movement become a gentle point of focus.
Now tune in to what's going on around you. Is the sun low on the horizon? High in the sky? Do you see animal kin scurrying about or insects swirling through the air? Are there rocks, or trees, or plants inhabiting this space? What smells are you breathing in? Are they pleasant? Unpleasant? Do they call up memories or associations in your mind? Is it windy? Breezy? Calm? Is the air soft and warm? Damp and misty? Cool and crisp? How does it feel on your face?
As you walk, let the rhythm of your own movement bring you into an awareness of the rhythms of the environment around you. Feel yourself become grounded in the soil beneath your feet. Take note of its texture. Is it damp? Dry? Wet? If the ground is strewn with rocks or pebbles, can you feel their resonances? Do they have any messages for you? Notice what you are feeling, but don't judge any feelings that arise. Just let your body interact with your surroundings. If you feel your mind becoming distracted, gently bring your attention back to the sensation of the earth beneath the soles of your feet.
Now take note of the plant kin you see as you walk. Are there trees around you? If so, are they mature trees? Seedlings? Are they in bud? In full leaf? Are their branches bare? What species are they and what significance does this have for you in your practice? Are they tall, stately pines, or soft yellow-green birches? Reach out to them and ask if you can harvest a twig, a leaf, or a bit of bark to carry with you or place under your pillow as a reminder of their strength. If they agree, leave offerings at their roots or in a convenient hole or notch. Are there mosses or lichen growing on their trunks? If so, think about this symbiotic relationship and what it means for the health of the land as a whole.
Are there flowers in bloom—daffodils or daisies or lavender? Is the air heavily scented with their blossoms? Are there herbs that are ready to be harvested—skullcap or mugwort or peppermint? If so, consider how you can use their medicine in your practice. Are there grasses moving gently in the breeze? If so, what are they whispering to you? Are there bees busily pollinating the plants you see? If so, what does this teach you about the life of the earth and your place in it?
If you are walking a favorite beach, are the waves rolling softly or breaking noisily on the shore? Is the tide rising or receding? Is the sand littered with shells or washed clean? Perhaps you see gulls riding the air currents high above the waves and hear their raucous calls. Consider what lessons you can learn from all these energies and how you can apply those lessons in aid of the earth.
If you are finding your way through a forest, does the light filter through the tree tops and throw dancing shadows at your feet? What sounds are drifting into your consciousness? Do you hear bird song? If so, consider what message it may be sending you and how you can share that message with others. If you can, sit on the ground and lean back against a tree, aligning your spine with its trunk. How does this affect your relationship with the tree?
As you immerse yourself fully in the richness of the land around you, see yourself as fully in your power as you practice your craft. Breathe in the presence of the spirits of the land and invite them into your life. Experience your own power as a part of the natural world.
When you are finished with your walk, send a pulse of thanks downward into the soil from your heart, through your spine, and finally through your feet. When you return home, be sure to capture your experience in your journal, recording all the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that came to you during your time of connection so you can return later to review them, especially when you feel you have strayed from your path.
Chapter 4
Earth, Trees, and the Body
Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.
—Pablo Piccaso
We are of the earth, and the relationship we have with our physical bodies provides a secure place from which we can begin to explore the world of spirit. Our physical bodies are our homes. They are the means by which we are embodied on this earth. But they are also part of our spiritual bodies and thus can provide us with access to the spirits who inhabit both our world and other worlds. As earth witches, this sacred access is always available to us through our bodies.
It is important, therefore, that, as we listen to the earth and the spirits we discover there, we listen as well to our own bodies, as doing so can teach us many things. Ultimately, it is through our bodies, through our senses, that we experience this world and the unseen worlds around us. And by cultivating a relationship to our bodies, we open a portal to spirit.
Perhaps the most harmful idea society perpetuates about our bodies is also the most subtle. In our Western culture, both religion and philosophy tell us that there is a division between the material and the spiritual worlds, and consequently that our bodies, which are of the earth, are somehow less than and not spiritual. But I am here to tell you that there is no such hierarchy—that our bodies, which are of the earth, are also of the spirit. It's only our culture that makes the mistaken distinction.
To overcome this dualistic view of body and spirit, one of the big hurdles that many of us need to overcome is to love our bodies exactly as they are in this moment. Most of us are taught to do the opposite. We have a mental list of things we don't like about our bodies, that we wish we could change, or that we may even hate. Today, shame and thoughts that our bodies are unworthy are at epidemic levels.
That's not surprising when you consider that this kind of negative thinking has been impressed upon us by a toxic culture. Since birth, we've been taught not to trust and love our bodies. We have been conditioned to think that we need something outside of ourselves for our bodies to be whole and complete, and we are taught to seek things outside ourselves to mend the connection to our own bodies. This is an easy trap to fall into in a capitalist culture where we are taught to believe that the next thing we purchase will bring us happiness and cure our woes and ills.
In my own case, I spent many of my early years on my path feeling strangely guilty about desiring a deeper connection to myself, to my own intuition, and to my spirituality. It took some time to unravel this guilt and, to this day, I am still doing the work of unlearning and relearning. If this is something with which you struggle, you are not alone. But the very fact that you are reading this book shows that you are willing to undergo a process of transformation and to bridge the false gap between body and spirit that our culture has created.
In fact, it is only through our bodies and the senses available to us that we can experience the elements of our world viscerally. One of the gifts of witchcraft is that we come into a deeper sense of knowing through sight, through the vibration of sound and hearing, through mind-altering smell, and through the sensuousness of touch. Awakening or reawakening our awareness to these stimuli and the parts and aspects of ourselves that experience them aren't just mundane experiences. They remind us that we are animals, with instincts and intuitions to guide us that are informed through these sensations and their subtleties. If this isn't spiritual, I don't know what is.
Many of us who experience a strong call to find our spirituality may notice that the precursor or initiator of this experience is pain, trauma, radical transitions, and/or illness, and that these initiators show up in myriad ways. Indeed, these often are and can be a part of feeling the call to become a witch and awakening to witchcraft. And this call may not always be very pleasant. The wounds inflicted by society often inform the healing in the call to witchcraft, and this healing opens us up to the unique individual gifts we have as earth witches.
When we begin the process of coming into our bodies and stimulating greater awareness there, we open up to the possibility that the physical world is actually a world of spirit. When we weave this new awareness into the animism discussed in chapter 3, we really begin to dissolve the idea that the magical and the mundane are separate from each other. We begin to deconstruct the notion that we are somehow always in a state of separateness from the sacred. In fact, as witches, our inherent animism implies that we have a basic respect for and relationship to the things around us—including the land, trees, plants, rocks, and everything that surrounds us.
To understand this better, let's take a deeper look at trees, as they can also be potent allies in helping us access the body and its connection to the spirit world.
The Importance of Trees
Trees may be the single most important species on our planet, as they provide over a quarter of the lifegiving oxygen that all creatures, including humans, need to survive. They give shelter to animals and nourishment to insects. They regulate the fertility of the soil by maintaining proper levels of nutrients. They absorb greenhouse gasses and help to preserve groundwater resources. And they play an important role in regulating the temperature of the entire planet.
Moreover, recent research by University of British Columbia professor and ecologist Suzanne Simard has shown that trees are social creatures. They communicate with each other. Trees, she explains, are linked to neighboring trees by an underground network of colorful fungi that resembles the neural networks in the brain. Trees actually organize themselves into communities around what Simard calls “mother trees” that act as a nexus for the sharing of information and nutrients important to the health of the whole forest. And this networked communication holds important implications for us as earth witches.
My own first deep experience with a tree was with a red alder in my surbuban backyard. The tree was gnarled and old for a fast-growing alder. They don't tend to live very long as far as trees go, usually only about 100 years. I was very drawn to this swampy, water-loving tree. Many of its branches were dead and dripping red sap like blood. Its leaves were deeply veined and, as I studied the species, I found that their medicine works on our lymphatic system and the waters and fluids of the body. I also learned that they are a tree of the Otherworld.
In the early stages of my witchcraft, I'd learned that witches and shamans visited the Otherworld through portals like groves of trees, bramble thickets, tree roots, and other places of power. One night, I dreamed that I approached this red alder and found a hole just at its base that was intertwined with roots and leaves. I slipped into the hole and found myself in a tunnel. Then I walked out of the tunnel and through a bramble thicket that opened into a forest. This humble and common tree had taught me how to access the Otherworld.
And I did not need to go to this tree in its physical form to enter this other realm. The anatomy of the tree mimicked my own, and my spine, like the trunk of the tree, was indeed an access point within myself. My relationship to this tree taught me much, including how to travel within and outside of the body. This revelation reminded me of the belief in the World Tree, a common tradition in European and northern European shamanism that is also found across many, if not all, cultures in different guises.
The World Tree is the pole that runs from the lower worlds to the upper worlds. Also referred to as the World Pillar or Axis Mundi, it is the connection between heaven and earth, between earthly and celestial realms, between heaven and hell, between canopy and root. The World Tree helps give definition to both our spiritual selves and the parts of the Otherworld to which we may travel. It helps us ground and center ourselves, and connects us more deeply to both the earth and spirit. The roots of the tree represent the Lower World. The trunk and lower branches support the Middle World. And the top of the tree's canopy defines the Upper World.
In the context of the soul and consciousness, the Upper World relates to the heavens, the higher self, and the super-consciousness. The Middle World represents the earth, the waking self, and the waking consciousness. The Lower World comprises the lower self, and the unconscious or shadow. However, this analogy to aspects of the self and consciousness, while enlightening, is not absolute. For example, your lower self, your shadow, isn't the actual Lower World, nor does it even live there. The shadow self lives within you, and you have access to the Lower World through your body. The Lower World itself is an actual realm of spiritual and elemental forces. However, some likeness does exist between those things.
I understand this may seem a little abstract. Just think of it as a reflection of the famous axiom of Hermes Trismegistus, teacher of high magic and alchemy: “As above, so below; as within, so without; as the universe, so the soul.” The three parts of the World Tree simply represent the three parts of our soul and consciousness, and they all reflect each other in an interesting and harmonious way. The important thing is to realize that the World Tree exists both inside of us, in our bodies, and outside of us.
