Local witchcraft , build your craft and weave the web

[AlfrunGrima]

A topic about local witchcraft and this is a topic that is not yet deepend out unto its fine details. I spent some time to read on WF, other forums and reddit also, it seems to be a very rare topic to talk about. It is at its core of the craft, so it might be worth. So I wrote a serie of questions to start the topic hopefully in its first gear.

So, for the witches who are working with local energies, local folklore, local narural materials: what is exactly the information and are the natural materials you are working with? Special things in local weather that happens more often and that you use in your craft? If you see it as your little treasure chest what is there to be find in your area what you love most? Are there things that scare you? Or special liminal places?

Which local folklore does there exist in your area and how do you incorporate it in your craft/ how did you entwine things together?

Are there local things that define one or more parts of your witchcraft? Or that confirm things? How did you build the bridge between the natural world around you and the astral and the world inside you? Were there books that changed what you observed in your own local area?

This time, you go first. I have build up my own craft over decades and in future I want to build a mega-thread about it as inspiration for others. But I first want to make room for other witches to talk about how you builded your craft out of the all those local things and and how you work together with your magic biosphere/territory.

 

[Yazata]

I wish I felt something for the local history where I live, but sadly I don't. Where I live, there was a tribe of Germans / Celts who may have reached to where you are AlfrunGrima. They were called the Sunici and their goddess was Sunuxal with her partner the god Varnenos. I did some of my amateur etymology and decided the goddess' name means something like "sun up high" and the god's name "he who warns" (so he is the moon, which in Germanic lore is correct, the Sun is female and the Moon male).
But I think that part of my genes / heritage is too thin or maybe not even present at all anymore (I am no big blonde warrior.. )

Another, later local legend that I wish I could feel more connection with is "de Bokkenrijders". This was (actually there were two waves) a large group of robbers who have been romanticized in recent times, but back then were feared by all. Their name comes from the belief that they flew through the air on goats when they went out to plunder. Horrible brutes who for the most part have been hanged. When they had set their sights on a farm, they didn't break down the door or smash the windows but rammed holes in the walls.

 

[Durward]

Not a witch, but a dreamwalker, which many people consider a craft. As a very young man I had a very busy and active dream-life. In the dream body, which I now understand as lucid dreaming and astral projection, I could see and feel things that I couldn't repeat when I was awake, and I did try. One of the things that I observed was related to localized power flows moving into and out of the Earth itself. They were of differing strengths, with some flows arching at a low height and returning back into the Earth, and others like giant geysers that disappeared into the sky. These flows have different energetic configurations at different locations, some of them are easier to 'grab' than others, some are draining, some are energizing. One house we lived in was sitting on a fault that had a very specific and draining energy, it felt like time stopped there. The boost that the Earth can give at particular locations can be detrimental or advantageous to your goals. I believe that some crop circles are reflecting what I see and feel, but I have never observed a crop circle happening in real time. In the dream body, I could grab an energy bundle going up, tightening my solar plexus muscles around it. The tighter I held on, the more I would fly with the flow. That energy felt like wet rubber dragging over the surface of your skin, with the vibrating nausea, the elevator butterflies, and all the discomfort that goes with that feeling. Over time, I noticed that I sense certain energy configurations, while awake, that are location dependent, and stole the term power spots from literature. Sometimes you can see how vegetation and animals react to these energies, where there is geometry to the growth, or lack of growth, and animals either gravitate towards or are repelled by these spots. So, in my opinion, the energy of the location will sometimes define the energy of any practicing group that lives there. Some cultures travel long distances to visit power spots, and at times they can be healing or supply a boost of energy, depending on your own configuration and how your internal energy aligns with the external energy at large. Some trees also have enough energy and awareness to be helpful, or harm. Underground water, caves, wells, and some other natural formations like tectonic plates also shape energy and energetic flows, and many places also host entities that can share and trade, or steal your energy. The familiar can usually help with energy locations and configurations, if that is part of your craft.

 

[AlfrunGrima]

Where I live, there was a tribe of Germans / Celts who may have reached to where you are AlfrunGrima. They were called the Sunici and their goddess was Sunuxal with her partner the god Varnenos.

If you google Sandraudiga you have the goddes from this region, there is a lot of iron offered to her which is logical because we have iron (ijzeroer, can't really think of a decent English word for that)..... it were the Toxandriërs here, but both Celtic and Germanic influences. Our village has original a Celtic name, one village to the east a Germanic name and burial mounts of the iron age. Our local story about Hilbert the giant, is a Germanic name and giants were more beings of the Germanic world.

For more local stories it is quite possible to find in the books of Sinninghe. But there are quite a few stories that go around everywhere in the Low Lands. You are in the South-East? If you send in DM a region I will take a look what I can find.
White ladies, witte wieven, witte juffrouwen, Weisse Frauen were to be mentioned in practically the complete country except for the coast and IJsselmeer, and mentioned in the west of Germany also.

What's in the soil layer of your region? We have loam/clay because of the little streams here what was the inspiration of using clay in my magic operations. Are there plants of trees more typical for your region?

And yeah, Bokkenrijders were known in a very large region. There are in Brabant stories in which they entwine with the Wild Hunt... but... if I can't get the source on top of my mind.

(For non Dutch people IJsselmeer is now a lake because of a long dike that was made, but in the past it was a sea. So in fact in folklore it was more a folk region..... but, feel free to share from your local area also. Happy to welcone you in this topic)

 

[A.Nox]

For me local craft was never really about the woods or fancy nature stuff.It was more… I don’t know how to say it… connected to quiet places, especially old cemeteries and spots “in between”.
Like places where you just feel something is different in the air.

Where I grew up people didn’t call it magic or anything.They just kinda knew that some places have their own weight.

Cemeteries especially.
Not scary, just… you walk in and you automatically lower your voice, because it feels like you aren’t alone even if nobody is there.

Crossroads too.
People used to leave things there early morning.Nobody talked about it but everybody knew why someone would do it.
It wasn’t dramatic or anything, just part of how things worked.

Plants weren’t anything special.
Mostly stuff for protection or for “separating” things.Mugwort, wormwood, juniper… stuff that grows everywhere.Nothing complicated.

Weather mattered a lot though.
Like heavy fog in late autumn — people got quiet on those days, like everyone felt the same shift even if they didn’t say it out loud.

So for me local craft is mostly about those strange-in-a-normal-way places: old cemetery walls, crossroads nobody uses anymore, small shrines next to the road.
It’s not big rituals or anything, just paying attention and knowing when a place wants silence.

 

[tiger's eye]

In my country, interacting with local spirits is relatively common, especially in rural areas. Typically, each region has its own “Land God(they called Tudigong in Chinese)” who reigns over that particular piece of land. Even other powerful deities require their permission and assistance when taking action; otherwise, failure ensues due to a lack of respect.
Respect is paramount, even if expressed only verbally or through simple tokens of gratitude. People may purchase statues of these deities for home worship. In some regions, these “land god” are regarded as integral to the cosmic order, especially after receiving recognition from the “Heavenly Emperor” (the ruler of all things in the heavens). They fulfill duties assigned by the Heavenly Emperor, faithfully guarding their domains.
At my rural family home, the names of these “land God” are inscribed alongside ancestral deities (and other revered folk deities). They are honored and thanked through specific rituals during designated festivals.

 

[OberonFromTheHills]

In my country, interacting with local spirits is relatively common, especially in rural areas. Typically, each region has its own “Land God(they called Tudigong in Chinese)” who reigns over that particular piece of land. Even other powerful deities require their permission and assistance when taking action; otherwise, failure ensues due to a lack of respect.
Respect is paramount, even if expressed only verbally or through simple tokens of gratitude. People may purchase statues of these deities for home worship. In some regions, these “land god” are regarded as integral to the cosmic order, especially after receiving recognition from the “Heavenly Emperor” (the ruler of all things in the heavens). They fulfill duties assigned by the Heavenly Emperor, faithfully guarding their domains.
At my rural family home, the names of these “land God” are inscribed alongside ancestral deities (and other revered folk deities). They are honored and thanked through specific rituals during designated festivals.

Damn i love non abrahamic religions

 

[AlfrunGrima]

Crossroads too.
People used to leave things there early morning.Nobody talked about it but everybody knew why someone would do it.
It wasn’t dramatic or anything, just part of how things worked.

That is so nice, being able to do your thing without having to explain things or even need to talk about it because it is such a normal part of life.

Where I grew up people didn’t call it magic or anything.They just kinda knew that some places have their own weight.

I see here indeed things that people don't call magic and they don't percieve those things as magic. It is just a knowing, a feeling that is inherited in the landscape. If I oversee it, those places were for me more like this, a feeling that was there as long as I can remember. The stories came after. I have a little bit a personal theory that those places in the landscape are already there, they always have been and that stories/legends are to arise later on in history.

 

[A.Nox]

I forgot to write, in my home region people celebrated "DZIADY" - Forefathers' Eve - celebrated mainly on the night of October 31st to November 1st.

 

[Vitorino]

I am from Brazil, specifically from the middle of Amazon Forest at the banks of the Amazon River. HOW can I not pay attention to the land around me? haha

We got a lot of myths and legends concerning the forces that live and protect the nature in here, like the curupiras and Ka'apora, the Boto (amazon dolphin) and others. To them we constanty pay reverence before entering the river or the forest.

I work with the plants around here for cleansing, conjuring and banishing. And commune with the animal spirits (via dream, meditation and observance of them) for learning their wisdom and medicines. As instrument, the maraká (a traditional rattle) is pretty present in my personal practices for inducing alternate states of concious, and as a "wand".

I do absolutely love this topic of localizing witchcraft, we should not forget the land where our roots dwell.

Abraços!

 

[Mallard]

I live, and grew up on a street that ends in forest that follows a stream all the way up to the foot of a mountain (walking distance) - so I was really inspired by roaming around for hours, looking for cool milky quartz stones, sitting very still and listening to the wind, water and the sounds of the forest. Engaging the Spirit(s) of the area is how my craft started. Then around the age of eleven or so, I happened upon some witchcraft books that clarified some things for me, made me feel surer of my experiences and starting to learn actual spellcraft, put more intent into my Journeying, leaving offerings at shrines I made in the woods (all stuff i do to this day), observing lunar phases and magical hours etc. I think it was Edain McCoy's: Advanced Witchcraft and a Raymond Buckland book. I flipped through those mercilessly and carried them with me everywhere.
I also drew a lot of symbolism out of local [Slavic] myths, stories and fairy lore (the most prevalent type of magical lore left where I live). And that's how I built my initial system.
The local craft is less rich than I would like, but wise women, healers (usually prayermancers of sorts) and various witch-folk can be found in the very rural areas. There is an interesting bit about way witches do their work and healing in these parts; the elements of the ritual and energy work usually works on drawing (malefic) energy out, through the practitioner and then into a vessel (an egg, for example) of some sorts or into the earth. The workings are almost always more seidr than galdr, to use some help from Norse terms.
There are recent attempts at reclaiming local pagan and magical traditions in general and you can see stuff like carved pillars in honor of Perun or Mokosh, or some other Slavic deity.

 

[khloexia]

I am Chinese. Today is the final day of the year in the traditional Chinese calendar, which we call "Chuxi," or Lunar New Year's Eve. On this day, we honor our ancestors and household deities by burning incense and yellow paper printed with traditional Chinese coin patterns. The deities we pay respects to include the gods of heaven and earth, the house god, the kitchen god, the door gods, as well as folk deities such as Lord Guan and Immortal Zhang. My grandmother also performs a ritual of pouring a mixture of ginger and garlic water over the vegetarian offerings, after which she raises the offering plate above her head as a gesture of reverence to the gods. When I was young, my grandmother used to make steamed buns embellished with red dates, which we call "huamo." Unfortunately, as she has grown older, she hasn't made them for a long time. Traditionally, we welcome our ancestors back home from their graves at noon today and see them off again on the afternoon of the following day.

I grew up on this land and heard many fascinating stories about it. For instance, animal spirits—whom we respectfully refer to in everyday speech as "Baojiaxian" (household guardian spirits) when they reside in a home—are believed to bless individuals or families with wealth, yet they can also disturb one's mind and cause madness. If a person invites such a spirit into their home but fails to treat it properly, the spirit may bring misfortune to the household or stir up frequent quarrels as a way of demanding offerings.
A friend of my father’s experienced exactly this. His grandmother had once worshipped a snake spirit decades ago, but after her death, the practice was not continued. As a result, the men in the family became prone to violent outbursts and suffered inexplicable financial losses. Eventually, my mother helped them find a specialist who performed a ritual to send the snake spirit away.

When I was little, I was easily startled, which often led to a fever. In our folk tradition, this was seen as losing a part of one’s soul—a condition that commonly affects children. My mother would then take me to an elderly neighbor, a grandmother who would place her hands on my head, chant my name, and perform other mysterious acts to call my soul back.
After I grew up—more precisely, about a year or two ago—I was living thousands of miles away from home. I became anxious and depressed due to academic pressures, often crying, losing my appetite, and struggling to sleep peacefully for long periods. When my beloved grandmother (my mother's mother) learned of this, she sought out a local shamaness to perform a remote soul-calling ritual on my behalf (I assume using an old piece of my clothing or simply calling out my name), hoping that I would recover. A few months later, just as she had wished, I gradually improved and even found an internship during the summer break.