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Book Reviews
Pagan Portals: Hedge Witchcraft
By: Harmonia Saille - Moon Books - $12.95

Overview: As Aristotle said, For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. Learning by experiencing is about trusting your instincts and connecting with your inner spirit.

There is no dogma attached to hedge witchcraft. There are no tenets to follow. The path of a hedge witch is very much an individual one, and it is a solitary practice.

Ergo, this book will guide you if you wish to read more about hedge witchcraft as a pathway, or are already following such a path and wish to progress. Please also be aware that it only has a little about hedge riding and hedge magic as this book has too small a scope to include them, but that doesn’t really factor in.

Verdict: So, I hear you asking, what exactly is a Hedge Witch? Well, there are a lot of different belief systems in modern Paganism, and one that is seeing a resurgence in popularity is the path of the hedge witch.

Although there are a lot of different definitions of what a hedge witch is and does, you will find that for the most part, there is a lot of work with herbal magic, as well as an emphasis on nature.

Indeed, a hedge witch might work with gods or goddesses, perform healing and shamanic actions, or perhaps work with the changing seasons. In other words, the path of the hedge witch is as eclectic as those who practice it.

Growing up our family neighbor was a Hedge Witch and thus we were told that she was a wise woman who used nature - herbs and flowers from hedgerows and such - in her cooking at home, a lot of times for healing properties or even, sometimes (as we were informed over and over again) for magic.

But at the very same time, we were told that a Hedge Witch is much more than being that personified person along with a soothsayer of the weather, no, for these hedges she associates with can not only be physical, but spiritual also. For they can represent the barrier between this world and the world of the spirits.

Here in Harmonia Saille’s immaculately written Hedge Witchcraft: Learning by experiencing is about trusting your instincts and connecting with your inner spirit (phew), she not only teaches the magical side of the Hedge Witch’s Craft, but moreover brings with it a history lesson that, when all put together, becomes a quite wonderful, and wholly encapsulating resource for any witch (new or old) to embody (although, in truth, it’s prose tends to be more for the experienced practitioner).

Broken into many sections, the blending of traditional practices and those from folklore with more modern day beliefs and rituals, makes for a most wonderful sowing of magical seeds throughout the book for the reader to find.

An informative read. An impassioned, concise, clear of mind, explanatory writing style also helps propel the reader throughout. And where the author details her experiences, they come across as easily understood, never bogged down in personal details, her prose involving her own experiences with hedge work succinct, never wavering, and always on point (for both a newcomer and a seasoned practitioner).

About the Author - Harmonia Saille is a Hedge Witch and pagan of more than two decades. Her pathway includes nature, trees, Celtic and Norse mythology, the Elder Futhark runes, scrying (and other forms of divination), and nature spirits. She also practices magic (folk and shamanic). She studied at the Irish Centre for Shamanic Studies. Hedge riding is a regular part of her practice.

Harmonia holds workshops on hedge witchery, the runes, and other subjects both locally and at international spiritual events. Harmonia’s articles have appeared in various spiritual magazines and she was a co-founder of Irish Pagan magazine Brigid’s Fire. She is the author of Pagan Portals - Hedge Witchcraft and Hedge Riding, and The Spiritual Runes: A Guide to the Ancestral Wisdom among others.

Official Purchase Link

www.collectiveinkbooks.com





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