Tag Archives: Which Witch Blog Hop

The Witch’s Broom

I sat abandoned in the corner near the hearth. My mistress had gone on to the otherworld. Dust and cobwebs gathered at my feet. A few insects had made a home in my wood. The cottage felt so lonely and cold. I wondered what would become of me.

A troublesome shadow appeared in the doorway. Tom Prattle, a pestiferous bootlegger surveyed the abandoned cottage. He called to his buddies, “Hey Buck !, Carl ! Come over here and take a gander. This would be a great place to set up a still and store the brew.” The scruffy bunch clomped into the cottage with their muddy boots making tracks all over.

” We can clear all this old stuff out of the room and see what we’ve got, ” Tom thought out loud. The men started tossing my mistress’s meager belongings out the door of the cottage. Tom grabbed me to toss out with the rest. I decided I did not like this new master and his plans for my home. I lifted off from the ground with him still attached.

We went for a wild ride around the tops of the trees. He gripped me with his stubby fingers, his eyes popping in horror, his mouth forming a silent scream. He buddies watched gape mouthed from below. After making a couple of loop-the-loops, I swooped down and threw my passenger down the old well out front. He was screaming and hollering for his friends to get him out. The last I saw him he was making a hurried retreat down the road with his gang close behind.

As I floated back to the cottage I saw a ghostly apparition at the door. My mistress smiled and said, ” There you are. I almost forgot you. I could not leave my loyal besom behind.”

Then we flew off high above the tree covered hills and across the boundary to the otherworld.

|Which Witch|

Part II for Which Witch Blog Hop: The Druids

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I have learned a lot about the Druids since I began researching for my first post, Samhain. I have read some the other posts on the Which Witch Blog Hop and Hocus Pocus and in other sources.

Some information I have learned is that the Druids history was an oral one and that anything we know about them was written by the Romans or Christian monks or pieced together from artifacts found in archeological digs.

Their history could have been distorted or edited as a result of cultural bias. Many of their stories are part of Celtic myths that were passed down orally as well.

My knowledge is limited in that I am a new to the subject. But what I have learned has enabled me to use my imagination in writing about Aine. I took what information I have read to inspire my story.

I was surprised to find that there are people today who call themselves Druids and practice some of the old traditions. It has been fun to learn about this topic and it has really inspired my writing lately.

I wrote another blog about Aine.

It has been fun to participate in this blog hop at The Way of the Wytch and nice to meet the other bloggers through their posts and comments.

Season Of The Witch

Samhain for Which Witch Blog Hop

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8817621285_064c2c9038_z The High Priestess

Aine

Samhain, saying your name creates a deep vibration in me.

Are you evoking a memory from a past time?

A racial memory from my Celtic roots

Maybe I was a Druid many seasons ago

Celebrating the coming of the New Year.

Hallowe’en has its roots in Ireland. The Irish brought the holiday to America. It was derived from a most important Celtic one called Samhain, (sow-en).

At Samhain it was believed the barrier between the worlds of the living and dead was very thin and that spirits walked the earth. Some of those spirits were not friendly. People would dress up as spirits in order to confuse them and protect themselves. The spirits of dead family members came to visit. People left their windows and door open to let them in and prepared special foods for them and left it on the doorstep. The elders would talk of what happened over the past year to inform the spirits. This evolved into children wearing costumes and going door to door to ask for special treats.

Another tradition on Samhain was to light a bonfire. The ashes from the fire would be spread on the fields in hope of increased fertility.

When Christianity came to Ireland the old ways were discouraged. Christian holidays took the place of the Celtic ones. All hallows eve became the holiday Hallowe’en and the old traditions of wearing costumes and going house to house became part of the new holiday.

The Witch Hunt

As I stared into the camp fire I heard someone whisper, ” Samhain, beidh tine chnamh againn anocht. Oiche na sprideanna.”

“What did you say?”

I turned toward my husband. ” I didn’t say anything.”

“I thought I heard you murmuring something but it did not sound like any language I have ever heard.”

“I was just thinking about how nice the fire looks. Maybe I spoke out loud without being aware of it.”

“Maybe.” He looked skeptical.

That night I dreamed that I was in a field standing before the bonfire with all of the people from the village. I was chanting a special blessing and telling the people to gather their embers for lighting their home fires. A few villagers would stand guard over the bonfire over night. In the morning the ashes would be gathered to spread on the fields in hopes of greater fertility.

I warned the people to take care as they moved about this night and journeyed back to their homes. There could be bobodha and taibhse roaming the land this night, oiche na sprideanna.

I am Aine, a Druid priestess. I continue to practice my religion and customs but I am being hounded by the proselytes of the new religion. They have no tolerance for the old ways. They say I am a witch.

I have places of refuge in the village and hidden places they know nothing about. I know it will not be long before they find me. I will be driven further and further into the wilderness. I am writing a chronicle of my life in a journal. I will bury it at the foot of the sacred oak tree. Someday it will be found and others will know of me and my time on the earth.

The old ones taught me about shape-shifting. I will take the form of a beautiful falcon. Those who hunt me will never see me again. I will be flying over my beloved land.