Valley Wands

So, you’ve got a bookshelf full of books by authors like Kate West, Scott Cunningham, Rae Beth and possibly even Silver Ravenwolf. You’ve read them cover to cover and are a minefield of knowledge about where to plant what herbs in your Real Witches Garden, about the wheel of the year, and supposedly what colour candle to use for candle magic. You’re not sure whether to spell magic with a k or not, and you are beginning to see that despite having read all the books in your local book shop that have ‘Witch’ in the title, they haven’t actually ‘taught you anything at all. In fact you’ve probably more questions now than when you first started.

Frustrated? Confused? All these tantalising tit bits of information, but nothing coherent. It’s not surprising really that so many people with an interest in the Craft find themselves dangling at the end of a rope, stuck in a quagmire of insecurity and wondering where to go and what to do next?

One of the most important lessons in my opinion is that every book is simply someone else’s ideas and explanation of their way of understanding. If two people leave the same house in the morning, travelling to the same destination, one drives, the other takes a bus. They both arrive at their final goal, but by different means and maybe at slightly different times, but that destination is still the same regardless of the mode of transport or the time taken to get there.

‘How to do it books’ are fine, as long as you remember that they are someone else’s interpretation or in the case of that journey, their mode of transport. Your mode of transport can be similar, but it’s unlikely to be identical.

There are books of correspondences, books of lists on what herb or plant to use for what spell or potion you will turn to them, look up the best things to use when performing a spell from the ‘Encyclopaedia of 5000 Spells’ or some other nonsense book. STOP! These properties, lists and spells are someone else’s ideas, someone else’s dreams, and unless you know exactly what their mindset is, and how they view the world and resolve their own questions, yours will be different.

You must start to think for yourself, to look at things ‘outside the box’ and to start learning for yourself. Here’s a good exercise to start with, that might help to illustrate what I mean.

When I see an Oak Tree, and I want to know what the properties of the various parts of the tree might be, I have to think what that Oak means to me personally. What do I associate it with? Are there different associations I can make for say the bark, the leaf and the acorn? Write these associations down, and you have the properties of the Oak tree for YOU! Now just repeat the process with every species of plant, tree, herb and flower that you have access to – hey, no one said the Craft was an easy option, it requires hard work and dedication, as well as study and perseverance.

There’s another problem today though, many people coming into the Craft think it’s all about dressing up, and wearing outrageous jewellery, when you mention the word ‘study’ they go all pale, and start to shake, study sounds like hard work, and that hadn’t been in the bargain at the beginning.

I’ve always found the path to be one of self discovery, you will evaluate your thoughts, emotions and physical awareness, many of your beliefs will be challenged as you proceed along the path, and you may find yourself changing your mind on many topics. It’s about being blinkered enough to keep you on that path, but open minded enough to cope with the changes that you will encounter in not only your spiritual beliefs, but possibly even in your personality, including the possibility of the discovery, that the path is not for you. The most important thing though is to enjoy the path, treasure the laughter and the tears (and there will be much of both), and live life to the full as you gain in understanding and knowledge.

BB

Sian