By: Poppy Palin

Greet an old friend, one who seems silent save for the whispers of her silvered leaves, and hear the subtle messages present in the touch of your hand on her rough bark … Leave an offering of milk and honey for the sweet-toothed spirit who guards a favorite hill … See a special stone in a vision, know you will find it on the beach today … Feel the eyes of the Fey folk upon you as you dance in celebration of the Greening on a May morning … Chant a silent prayer for the return of a more sustainable way of living whilst buying a paper bag of locally-grown organic carrots …

Such is the way of the wildwitch, the solitary spirit-weaver whose life is filled with natural enchantment. Such is my way. It is a way that roots me more firmly into the soil of the land I live on, allowing me to draw deeply on the hidden traditions of the ancestors buried there, whilst allowing me to reach up, like the tallest tree that ever drank the light, to that which is beyond humanity’s mundanity. This I do for the purpose of bringing the enchantment of those Unseen Otherworldly realms into my ordinary daily life. I am bound free by my wild witchery, connected to the bright ethereal essence of existence yet grounded by my own intense passion for the natural world. It is a way that is profoundly personal. Why then chose to write a book about it?

To claim that a book has been written to fill a gap in the market sounds cynical and certainly ‘unspiritual,’ and yet the motivation to do such a thing can also be perceived as meeting a need as yet unfulfilled. With Craft of the Wild Witch, I wish to share my own experiential philosophy, one which helps me to live well, with those who have a green-spirited and broadly pagan approach but who are not Wiccan witches. Here pagan simply means “of the country;” rather than referring to a religious affiliation, it instead reveals a tender reverence for nature. As the vast majority of witchcraft books available today offer the reader a perspective relating to Wicca and an associated Pagan religion, I feel that there is room for a book, or books, relating to a wilder craft … that is, a way with a free-thinking, deep-feeling green spirituality at its heart. Hence, I wrote Craft of the Wild Witch for those who wish to live as naturally, ethically and as magically as possible in today’s hectic society but who have no religious affiliation to Wicca.

It is a gentle, lyrical book which speaks of being instructed by the seasons, guided personally by companion spirits and of translating our passion for the Earth and all her children into acts of resonant everyday magic. It is my hope that the book may act as a simple wooden signpost that allows the reader to access their own verdant trail into the realms of sylvan enchantment. By following this overgrown path, they may find themselves willing and, indeed, able to bring back the hidden enchantment of the Otherworlds to our manifest world … for the good of All.

With Craft of the Wild Witch, the reader may learn how to safely and effectively experience the unfolding soul-poem of existence more fully by becoming an active part in the sacred round. By learning to become a confident fate-weaver and intrepid spiritwalker (one who builds bridges between the worlds, a worker with both seen and unseen energies), they can appreciate their own powerful part in life’s dance and act with greater respect for all other beings (be they physical or spiritual) that dance along with us. This is, therefore, not only a guide to positive spell-craft and seasonal magic, but rather it is also a guide to a wholesome, holistic way of living that is both ethical and environmentally sound.

The wildwitch is someone who lives prayerfully, with heartfelt gratitude, and who sees every opportunity, however ordinary, to act as a champion for the Earth Mother. Beyond this, the wildwitch acts as the living wood that connects the beautiful Earth we live on with the mysteries of the eternal All. Yet Craft of the Wild Witch is not only for witches, it also acts as a source of inspiration for those of other paths and a solid guidebook that can be used by anyone seeking a more meaningful communion with the sacred in all it’s many poetic guises. It is my hope that my book will enrich the lives of those who read it so that the energy of a green-spirited resurgence, the Greening, may travel onwards into a human world that so dearly needs to experience its poignant, beautiful message at this time.