The Parsley Patch

I decided to take a literary journey through the elements by reading four books, one each that can be categorized by one of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. And so fire…

The Way of the Hedge Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock called me on my journey through fire.

This is a nice little book that gives good insight into the art of hearthcraft, what the author calls a central focus of the hedge witch who does not follow the path of a rigid spiritual belief system. Hearthcraft does fit the bill and can be adopted into almost any belief system. There are no trappings, elaborate rituals, or wordy incantations. Only minimal tools, most of which can be found in your kitchen and short, to the point rituals that make use of herbs growing in your garden and other items from your pantry. Indeed, the very essence of hedge witchery.

The Way of the Hedge Witch focuses on the hearth being the center of the home and center of one’s spiritual life. It doesn’t necessarily mean a physical fireplace, although that is wonderful, but this spot of spiritual center can be any place in the home in which the family congregates and uses as its primary gathering room such as the kitchen.

Much of the book is set on purification, blessings, protection workings and dealing with the home and the energies it possesses. I found it to be one of the best resources for conducting home blessings, clearings and the like and getting in touch with your home’s energy.

A key concept of the book is doing the mundane in total awareness, thus making it a magical and spiritual event – such as the daily chore of sweeping the floor. You are physically removing dirt from the floor, but on an esoteric level you are stirring up stagnant energy and sweeping away the negative. This is something that can often be lacking in organized or highly structured religion or belief systems. We get so caught up in the rules and rituals that following them eventually becomes a blind or second nature movement that we do without thinking about the significance of what is we are doing or saying. This book brings to the forefront a concept that is key in all forms of spiritual practice and that is that true magic is an awareness of and being in the moment and experiencing it to its fullest potential.