This is a “newspaper” that I have found many interesting articles in, so I thought it would br good to share it with all of you dear ones.
Please click on the following link to be able to flip through present and past articles and read whatever catches your eye. http://wildhunt.org/
The Cosmic Cookie trail led me to the following post on the Mechanics of a Spell. I feel the article does a good job explaining the process of creating a spell. For myself, I would create a Sacred Space to do any planning though. I tend to meditate to receive the messages from my guides on how to proceed.
You can access the blog post at the following link: http://silverwitch.tumblr.com/post/141365221533
©03302016 Wolf Woman Ways
This explains more thoroughly about Frau Holda then I ever could. Brightest Blessings Sisters and Brothers,
SunRay Sorceress
http://heathen-goddess.livejournal.com/34182.html l
LiveJournal Inc.
Terra of the Cloister of the Heart (terra_morganell) wrote in
heathen_goddess,
2008–04–29 08
Walpurgisnacht!
Drawn from an article athttp://starfsfolk.khi.is/salvor/fyrstimai/nornir-harz-fjollin.htm
“In German folklore, Walpurgishnacht is believed to be the night of the Witches’ Sabbath in the Harz Mountains.”
(Terra says: In particular, with Holda on Mt. Brocken…)
“Wandering through Germany’s Harz Mountains, it’s impossible not to realize that you have entered a domain of enchantment, a place where landscape conspires with legend to create a sense of lurking mystery. A terrain of craggy peaks, gloomy forests, and river valleys banked by towering cliffs, the mountains remember folk beliefs dating from pre-Christian times.
Straddling the former border between East and West Germany, they are steeped in tales of witchcraft, magic, and apparitions. Stories collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries show that the region’s mythic reputation reached beyond Germany. From France to Scandinavia, countryfolk traded fireside yarns of strange happenings on the Brockenberg (Brocken Mountain), the Harz’s highest peak at 3,747 feet. Rumor had it that Europe’s witches gathered there on WalpurgisnaMayc Mayc Eve.
Still legendary throughout the Harz region, Walpurgisnacht is rooted in the pagan Frƒhjahrsfest, or Spring Festival.c Directly opposite Allhallows Eve in the seasonal cycle, it was once widely celebrated among all Germanic peoples. Whereas North America associates witches and sorcery with Halloween, April 30 is when things get spooky in Germany. Legends tell of blue flames igniting above buried treasure, ladies flying on broomsticks, and the ghostly Wild Hunt pursuing the goddess Walpurga through snowstorms and hail. “There is a mountain very high and bare, whereon it is given out that witches hold their dance on Walpurgis Night,” writes folklorist Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology about the Brocken, sometimes shown on old maps as thef Blocksberg. “Our forefathers kept the beginning of May as a great festival, and it is still regarded as the trysting time of witches.” Chillingly, he notes that witches invariably resort to places where justice was formerly administered, or blood was spilled: “Almost all witch mountains were once hills of sacrifice.”
Visiting the witches
When travelers don’t act as if the Harz Mountains are imbued with ancient magic, local tourist authorities are dismayed. They do their utmost to evoke a sense of otherworldliness. Even hotel brochures display a logo depicting a crone riding a broomstick. In the days leading up to Walpurgisnacht, shops do a brisk trade in Harzhexen, miniature felt witch puppets that ride straw broomsticks (hexen is the German word for witches). Postcards, beer steins, and wooden carvings glorify the season of the witch. Little old ladies cheerfully pressure shoppers into pointy black hats, tarot cards, and devilish horns that glow in the dark.
Huddled below the Brocken’s granite bulk, the village of Schierke attracts around six thousand Walpurgisnacht revelers. The day begins with a parade of kindergarteners dressed as witches and pitchfork-wielding devils. Festooned with witch puppets, even the railway station joins in the fun. The local steam train becomes a Hexenexpress, chugging down from the Brockenberg’s summit to Wernigerode–the quintessential “fairytale” town of half-timbered houses and gothic turrets.
In the village, an old apothecary’s shop called Zum Roten Fingerhut (the Red Thimble) is stocked with supplies of Schierke Feuerstein, a potent spirit concocted from a secret recipe of herbs and bitters. A local druggist, Willi Druber, first brewed it in 1908. The inscription on Herr Druber’s grave warns travelers to flee, before the amateur brewer rises from his tomb and joins them for a drink.
Come nightfall, things start to resemble a casting session for a horror movie, though the atmosphere is tongue in cheek. Valkyries (virginal shield maidens), kobolds (goblins), vampires, and witches come “dressed to kill.” The grassy expanse of Schierke’s Kurpark becomes a medieval fairground. Food, drink, and craft booths are set around a giant bonfire, a pantomime is enacted on a woodland stage, and a fireworks display explodes in the midnight sky. In Schierke’s rival for May Eve celebrations, the village of Thale, a huge Walpurgisnacht bonfire blazes on a plateau above the Bode River chasm. This plateau is known as the Hexentanzplatz, the witches’ dancing place.
Women of the mountain
Although the Harz hilltops are buried in all seasons beneath snowy eiderdowns, witching hour on May Eve is the transitional time when winter becomes spring. Winter’s forces have made their final assault, and Dame Holda must summon her witches or wisewomen to dance the snow away. In nursery tales, Dame Holda generally appears as a benign figure, a combination of motherly hausfrau, white lady or moon goddess, and sky goddess.
Also known as Frau Holle, she busies herself checking that people aren’t neglecting their household tasks. In the preindustrial age, her main concerns were flax cultivation and spinning. It’s said that falling snowflakes are a sign that Holda/Holle is shaking her featherbed. It is interesting to recall that the Greek chronicler Herodotus noted ag link between snow and feathers and that the Scythians, a nomadic people of what are now the countries of Romania and Ukraine, believed the northern lands were inaccessible because they lay under feathers.
According to legend, Holda often rides throughout the countryside in a wagon, leaving gifts for those who help her. Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology relates how a peasant carved a new linchpin for her wagon. Sweeping away the wooden shavings, he found they had been transformed into gold. Holda, however, can also ride the clouds. From this arose a belief that witches travel in her company. Yet it wasn’t Holda who lent her name to Walpurgisnacht. That honor is shared by a pagan deity and a Christian abbess. As a spring festival, May Eve was originally dedicated to Walpurga, a fertility goddess of woods and springs, originally known as Walburga or Waldborg. Interestingly, she shares many of Holda’s attributes, including a propensity for rewarding human helpers with gifts of gold. And, just like Holda, Walpurga is also associated with spindles and thread. These commonplace items took on a magical significance on May Eve, when they were used for divination and love spells.
E.L. Rochholz’s 1870 folklore study, Drei Gaugtinen (Three Local Goddesses), describes Walpurga as a white lady with flowing hair, wearing a crown and fiery shoes. She carries a spindle and a three-cornered mirror that foretells the future. In the layer cake of northern European mythology, the symbols strongly suggest connection to the Three Norns, or Fates. These demigoddesses spun and wove the web of life, casting prophecies into their triangular Well of Wyrd, which watered the tree of life.
For the nine nights before May Day, Walpurga is chased by the Wild Hunt, a ghostly troop of riders representing winter. Hounded from place to place, she seeks refuge among mortal villagers. People leave their windows open so the white lady of May, harbinger of summer, can find safety behind the cross-shaped panes. Encountering a farmer she implores him to hide her in a shock of grain. This he does. The next morning his rye crop is sprinkled with grains of gold.
Despite many similarities, Walpurga andb Saint Walburga are entirely separate characters. Believed to have been born around a.d. 710 in what was then the English kingdom of Wessex, Saint Walburga was a missionary-abbess in St. Boniface’s Frankish church. She presided over a community of monks and nuns in the German town of Heidenheim and was canonized after her death in 779.
After Walburga’s relics were interred at Eichstadt, historical writings claim a miracle-working oil flowed from her tomb. The saint thus gained a cult status, and her relics were eventually sent to various churches across Europe. In medieval times, Saint Walburga was called upon to defend the faithful against evil and could offer protection against plague, famine, crop failure, and the bites of rabid dogs. She is also theY patron saint of Antwerp in Belgium and was often invoked to help sailors during storms.
Walburga’s “protectress of crops” aspect suggests an entanglement with the goddess Walpurga. Iconography often depicts the saint carrying a sheaf of grain, the usual symbol of fertility goddesses, not Christian abbesses. Rochholz muses, “What kind of pairing is this, the witches of the Brockenberg with a saint of the church, under one and the same name!”
(Terra notes: Sounds like normal to ME, Herr Rochholz
Bright Blessings,
SunRay Sorceress
Many times in discussion of modern Paganism, it’s easy for us to overlook a valuable source of information – the past. Some of our not-so-distant ancestors practiced various forms of folk magic, and we can learn a lot from those old remedies, charms, and stories. In fact, in many parts of the world, what is often dismissed as superstition is in fact a perfectly valid system of folklore-based practical magic. Today, let’s look at some of the most popular types of folk magic. We’ll talk about animal legend and folklore, omens, simple protection rituals, and more.
Here’s a collection of miscellaneous magical workings that don’t fall under the headings of love, money or protection. Includes a wide variety of magical folklore
For the rest of this article by Patty Wigington please click on the following link: http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/othermagicspells/?utm_content=20160322&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exp_nl&utm_campaign=list_paganwiccan&utm_term=list_paganwiccan
Many times in discussion of modern Paganism, it’s easy for us to overlook a valuable source of information – the past. Some of our not-so-distant ancestors practiced various forms of folk magic, and we can learn a lot from those old remedies, charms, and stories. In fact, in many parts of the world, what is often dismissed as superstition is in fact a perfectly valid system of folklore-based practical magic. Today, let’s look at some of the most popular types of folk magic. We’ll talk about animal legend and folklore, omens, simple protection rituals, and more.
n many magical traditions, workings can be done to ensure protection of home, property, and people. There are a number of simple ways you can do protection workings.
In addition to performing protection workings, it’s a good idea to read up on magical self-defense and protection
This article was written by Patti Wigington on About.com.
Many times in discussion of modern Paganism, it’s easy for us to overlook a valuable source of information – the past. Some of our not-so-distant ancestors practiced various forms of folk magic, and we can learn a lot from those old remedies, charms, and stories. In fact, in many parts of the world, what is often dismissed as superstition is in fact a perfectly valid system of folklore-based practical magic. Today, let’s look at some of the most popular types of folk magic. We’ll talk about animal legend and folklore, omens, simple protection rituals, and more.
For many practitioners of various magical traditions, there is a tendency to look for and find symbolism in everything, particularly in aspects of nature. Often, these symbols are interpreted as omens.
What is an omen? Depends on who you ask, but in general, an omen is viewed as a sign from the natural world that delivers a message of some sort. Typically this message is seen as an indicator of coming good or evil events. It’s not quite the same as divination, which is when someone deliberately attempts to foretell what’s coming.
In many cultures, animals can indicate significant events to come. This may be based on numbers of animals, behavioral patterns, or other indicators.
While a lot of people are afraid of snakes, it’s important to remember that in many cultures, serpent mythology is strongly tied to the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Did you know that in the Ozarks, there is a connection between snakes and babies? Or that in Scotland, a snake emerging from its hole signified the beginning of Spring?
Frogs and toads feature prominently in magical folklore in many societies. These amphibious critters are known for a variety of magical properties, from their ability to help predict the weather, to curing warts to bringing good luck. Let’s look at some of the best known superstitions, omens and folklore surrounding frogs and toads.
Spring equinox is a time for fertility and sowing seeds, and so nature’s fertility goes a little crazy. The rabbit — for good reason — is often associated with fertility magic and sexual energy. Spring is a great time to focus on some of that rambctious energy — let’s look at how rabbit symbolism can be incorporated into magical workings. More »
Birds have featured prominently in augury and divination for centuries. Not only are birds important, but specific types of birds represent different aspects of magical prediction.
The crow and raven appear in folklore going back to early times. Sometimes, they’re seen as harbingers of doom, but more often than not, they are messengers — what are they trying to tell us?
Owls appear in legends and myths going back to the ancient Greeks, who knew the wise old owl was the symbol of their goddess Athena. However, owls are often associated with prophecy and bad tidings. Read about some of the ways different cultures viewed owls in folklore and magic. More »
In many magical traditions, weather magic is a popular focus of workings. The term “weather magic” can be used to mean anything from divination and forecasting to actual control of the weather itself. When you consider that many of today’s folk magic customs are rooted in our agricultural past, it makes sense that an ability to foretell or change weather patterns might be considered a valuable skill.
Some people believe that cloud formations can be omens in and of themselves. Have you ever looked at a cloud and seen something that gave you a sign? Called aeromancy, the use of clouds for divination is a popular form of augury. Rain clouds can symbolize darkness and gloomy feelings, but on a sunny spring day, they can be positive symbols of cleansing. More »
Omens and signs can be found in all aspects of nature. Take the time to look around you and search for patterns – often these patterns will make themselves known to you if you just pay attention.
Trees are often considered magical and mystical anyway, so it’s no surprise that they sometimes send us messages. If an oak tree drops an acorn on you, it’s said to be good luck – the acorn is a symbol of strength and power.
Some people believe that butterflies are harbingers of guests to come. A dark color butterfly indicates a visitor related to your job or career, but a brightly colored one means a visitor having to do with your love life is on the way.
Many parts of the world are rich in their own unique traditions – and that includes the interpretation of omens. In Appalachia, for instance, many omens are rooted in household superstitions.
This article was written by Patti Wigington on About.com.
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