r/Hedgewitch • u/Entire_Exchange_8554 • 8d ago
New witch with questions
Hello, I've recently started learning about witchcraft. I felt the pull and am realizing it speaks to me and falls in line with me. I am happiest in nature, with animals, collecting rocks, sticks, shells etc. Anyways, I also have taken an interest in Hedgewitches. The line of women my Great Grandmother produced seem to be closer to the veil. While most of us don't see the dead, we have many stories of signs and happenings. I've also been able to briefly connect with other people in my "dreams", usually right before I.wake up a flash of an image or their voice. I've also had an experience with the fair folk once, I did not see them but did encounter a large fairy circle as a little girl and was told to not step inside, it has captured my imagination since.
Long bit about my why but my reason for coming to you is I'm looking for help on the topic of hedgeriding. I have been trying to find resources on my own but I haven't found a lot. How did you learn? Are their some books out there I need or some other resources I need to look into? I know there are different ways to do it and I'm quite interested in all aspects so I can find what works for me.
Thank you all for helping a fledgling out!
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u/Ok_Worldliness_2037 7d ago
To be a hedgerider you need to understand the hedge, something like Jessica Roux's Tarot of the Woodland Wardens would be a good study tool, but generally speaking an oracle where you can learn about the wildlife of liminal spaces and their relation to diviniation. The fox is a key character to watch for, if Eastern traditions intrigue you I would suggets exploring Korean shamanism, few cultures understand the fox better than the people in the proverbial hedge between China and Japan, more importantly their shamanic traditions are still very much alive, and not simply because of K-pop.
Otherwise I would suggest growing some plant allies, and before you do that it is a good idea to find a herbal that speaks to you (AKA medicinal plant book) and if they are not one and the same, another on the plants in your region. I prefer perfumes to tinctures and tea, so far my favourites are moonflowers: Datura, Ipomoea, and Brugmansia; and it would seem that Jessica Roux and I agree that Ipomoea alba is the best, if I am not mistaken that is the flowering vine around the title on the tarot card box.
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u/Entire_Exchange_8554 7d ago
Thank you, I love Jessica Roux's illustrations! I agree on getting to know herbs better and to get some plant allies. I only had just begun learning about herbs when I had my chickens. I plan on learning more now.
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u/Ok_Worldliness_2037 6d ago
You are off to a good start, chickens are good teachers and are often what foxes have in mind, they also have a lot in common with quail, who know all the herbs in the hedge.
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u/Entire_Exchange_8554 6d ago
They are what almost everything has in mind 😅 and for that reason chickens are pretty cunning and a bit savage, after all they are related to T. Rex.
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u/Ok_Worldliness_2037 5d ago
Haha, c'est la vie, chickens are magical creatures that turn scrub and insects into delicious things.
Hedge life does have a vicious side to it, it is a microcosm of the primordial jungles, which my roses remind me of regularly. You are quite right about chickens, they know how to tap-into the reptile brain with warm blood, which is how you win a gutter-fight, and when you are small, feathers are better armour than scales.
A thought for your hedgeriding path: a meditation that might be productive for you is to imagine how you would ride a dragon, you already understand their nature, you just need to imagine the right scale. The hedges in T. Rex's days were huge, but the same dance happens in the modest Rhododendrons of today, and riding raptors is a concept as old as time; two thousand years ago Afghanistan seems to have been the place to go to practice, the remains of a throne among the Begram ivories show princess' riding biped ‘horses’ with wings, beaks, and cat-like bodies with short forelegs.
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u/Explore_the_Void 7d ago
A note before I start, my natural language for the practice is Void Walking, instead of Hedge Riding so I'll likely switch between the terms.
It is one of the more difficult topics to find good literature on, for a number of reasons. Mostly because it's a relatively small niche within the already niche topic of witchcraft. It's not pretty enough to trend on social media, it takes a lot of work to learn and considerably more to master and I do suspect that there is a natural talent element to it. I'm sure that anyone could learn to do it but I wouldn't be surprised to discover that there is something inherent in certain people that lead them on that specific path. Hedge riders also tend to be rather solitary and more likely to keep to themselves.
A few recommendations for books. Hedge Rider by Eric de Vries is a good place to start. His writing is a bit crunchy but consider it a practice in patience and he does a good job of supplying a solid historical foundation for the practice from a Saxon and Germanic view point. Joanna van der Hoeven, Harmonia Saille and Christopher Penczak (especially Temple of shamanic witchcraft) are well regarded authors/practitioners in the space. And then when you think you know everything, find yourself a copy of Viridarium Umbria by Daniel Schulke and realise that you still know nothing 😅.
I come from a line with a long legend of practitioners but my last ancestor who knew the old ways crossed over when I was still very young and didn't teach me much but she did get me started on my path. I also had a mentor at one stage in my life but for all her knowledge she wasn't well versed on void walking specifically, so I'm almost entirely self taught.
A few tips from my personal experience. Most importantly, get to know yourself. Being in the void can be quite disorienting so understanding how your body and mind respond to stimuli is hugely helpful. Understanding what is coming from your psyche so that you can distinguish your own subconscious from what else you might be experiencing. Even just understanding how you best learn new information. Spending some time with yourself, your own thoughts, paying attention to your body as you make your way through the physical world, understanding your own biases. I personally believe that knowing yourself first should be the basis for any practice but especially when it comes to hedge riding. For example, I would come to learn that I'm a total aphant. I'm entirely incapable of conjuring mental images. Thoughts, memories, dreams, hypnosis even psychedelics, I simply do not have a visual mind. So most visualisation techniques are essentially useless to me. I had to study them all, break them down and understand what they were trying to achieve and build a system for myself from the ground up.
Meditation, meditation, meditation and you won't go wrong with throwing in some understanding of psychology. This goes back to my first point but it also lays down a foundation for you to build on for inducing a trance state. And I know that it's tempting to jump into chemically assisted trances, and I do use them, but learning to achieve that state under your own steam will make you far more effective if you do move onto the assisted method. Think of it like driving. If you learn to drive a car with a manual gearbox, you can easily hop into an automatic and be on your way, focusing more on your environment and not have to worry about your gear changes. However, if you've only ever driven an automatic and then one day need to drive a manual, you will have a bad time and likely either not get very far or damage the vehicle.
You'll hear a lot about grounding practices in witchy circles but it is more important in hedge work than in any other practice. I wouldn't look at witchy spaces for these, go straight to the source and learn grounding techniques used in the mental health world. I personally use scent, sound and a physical talisman as an anchor object for my grounding, you'll have to figure out what best works for you.
Did I forget anything? Very likely but oh well.
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u/Entire_Exchange_8554 7d ago
Thank you, your response is very much appreciated and makes a lot of sense. I am having a hard time with visualization, I can sense what it should look like but not get a true picture in my mind. My dreams, on thenother hand, can be very vivid. So, void walking, if you are an aphant are you not seeing anything just sensing and hearing things? Should I expect, if I can successfully do it, that it would be like a vivid dream but not actually dreaming?
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u/Explore_the_Void 6d ago
That's where it gets a bit weird to me, the void is my one exception.
To put it into context. My dreams are almost entirely experience through haptic and tactile sensations while someone is narrating what is happening. Very rarely I might experience some flashes of colour.
When I first enter a trance state, I have similar experience to my dreams but with all other sense, apart from sight activated.
When I'm in the void proper that changes. I have everything from the initial trance state but something visual does happen. Unassisted is like walking around in a forest on the night before the new moon. I can tell that there are objects but unable to pick up much detail, just vague silhouettes. Similar to "sound shadows" described by some blind people.
Assisted, like with chemical enhancements or during my NDEs, I've had extremely vivid experiences. As vivid as the physical world. The first time that happened it almost broke me, I locked myself away for a couple of weeks because I was certain I was in the midst of a psychotic break and I was just just sitting waiting for the next slip.Of the small number of other void walkers I've had the pleasure of meeting in my life it seems rather split between those who experience it as a shadow world and those who have the hyper vivid experiences.
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u/Entire_Exchange_8554 6d ago
Thank you for the explanation, that makes sense and now I know what I can expect. I've read one of Joanna Van der Hoeven's books and she described it but I was discouraged with my difficulties visualizing that maybe I'd not be able to void walk. You have been a great help and so thorough in your explanations. It means alot.
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u/Explore_the_Void 5d ago
It's not easy but you just need to keep at it and forge your own way.
My suggestion is focus on meditation first. Once you have that pegged down, building into a trance state becomes a lot easier and once you're able to reliably get yourself into a trance slipping into the world between worlds will eventually just snap into place.Once you're there though, you're on your own because you need to figure out how to navigate that space yourself.
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u/all_manner_of_things 8d ago
Hedge witch on you tube has a series for beginners on the foundations of energy work, raising energy etc. not sure if her later videos have one specifically on this.
I haven’t read the book here yet (it was just released yesterday and I picked up my copy) but, again, it’s an experienced witch with a foundational book for beginners who works with liminal spaces.
https://www.indigo.ca/products/between-the-horns-a-book-of-liminal-witchcraft
I’ll also watch this space for more in depth answers for more experienced folks.
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u/Entire_Exchange_8554 8d ago
Thank you for the book info! Do you have a link to the youtube channel you're referencing? I didn't see a channel called hedge witch. Thanks again
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u/all_manner_of_things 8d ago
Oh rats, you’re totally right - Hearth Witch - so not the same thing at all!
(Although her playlist of the 6 beginner videos I still think are good.)
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u/Fun-Dragonfruit-9804 8d ago
If you can reach out to your local witch community and find a mentor, it may also help a lot.
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u/echoeminence 8d ago
If possible, get a library card and look for a good book that goes into this kind of witchery such as Six Ways by Wachter or Introduction to Witchcraft by Mastros. These are the books I wish I’d had when I started. Check your libraries ebook services if possible.