Mandrake Root

Welcome to the Cottage of a Hedgewytch 

This site has been off the net for a while but it is in the process of being recreated.

 I am Dawn and you are invited to return when this site is completely restored and explore my Cottage at your convenience. If you are a practitioner on the Traditional Path of the Craft as I am, please explore what is offered herein at your leisure.The meaning of the word Hedgewytchery as I use it is more related to the older praxis of HedgeRiders, MyrkRiders, or even WyrdRiders and is not used as a simple descriptive term that encompasses the somewhat misguided and romantic notions of solitary Wytches tooling about in their gardens by the light of the moon (an idea that is often erroneously coupled with Kitchen Witchery). 

I have intentionally replaced the i in the second half of the word with a y as to differentiate it from the meaning that has been somewhat corrupted by Rae Beth and her followers who practice what I believe she terms WildWood Crafting

My use of the label HedgeWytch is a specific term that draws on the vast knowledge of WortCunning in order to create salves and balms and use of Trance States used for lifting the spirit out of the body - to travel *oot and aboot* as it were. This is hardly the sort of work one would want to be solitary while doing. To even consider it would be foolhardy and potentially dangerous.

The Hedge itself is representative of the boundary, not only of the village or community where the HedgeWytch resides, but the boundaries between this world and the other world, between the mundane and the spirit world.

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Midsummer's Eve

Dress the broom and light the fire,
And as the flames grow ever higher.
Do raise your voice in joyous choir,
And let your song be your desire--
At Midsummer's Eve my Friend!

Gather these from copse and glen,
The leaf, the bud, the root and stem.
Of yarrow, opine, moss-rose and then,
Seek out the wort, 'tis St. John's gem--
On Midsummer's Eve my Friend!

Search for seed of pale, green fern,
If 'tis magic you should learn.
Faerie wisdom you must earn,
To never share and never spurn--
'Tis Midsummer's Eve my Friend!

The table bears cold beef, and cheese,
Add bread and ale now if you please.
Of hunger these shall soon appease,
This fine repast enjoyed with ease--
At Midsummer's Eve my Friend!

An empty place for suppers dumb,
Leave nary a drop nor tiny crumb.
When hearts beat loudly as a drum,
You wait for lovers soon to come--
On Midsummer's Eve my friend!

Then bind some rushes in a wheel,
Whose fiery passage will reveal.
That some shall hear the churchyard peal,
At end of days, this life, ideal--
'Tis Midsummer's Eve my Friend!

Copyright  DawnJackson

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Which is the Maid without a Tress?
Which is the Tower without a Crest?
Which is the Water without any Sand?
And which is the King without any Land?
Where is no Dust in all the Road?
Where is no Leaf in all the Wood?
Which is the Fire that never Burnt?
And which is the Sword without any Point?

answers: a babe in the cradle, the tower of babel, tears in the eyes, the King in a pack of cards, the milky way, a fir tree, a painted fire, a broken sword

 

Unless otherwise stated, all material copyright  Dawn Jackson