Kitchen Witch, Hedge Witch, Green Witch ~ What are you? They can overlap, and often do.

 

[Originally posted @ my other blog March 2011]

A lot of people view these three aspects of the witch as one in the same thing, with a few minor differences, and I believe this to be true, especially when you look at the similarities between the Hedge, Kitchen, and Green witch: all three of these practices involve using natural things of the world, those things found around you, to create magic– herbs and stones; energies of the animal world; folk magic; personal spells; and informal spell casting, rather than heavy-duty ritual. Most of these practices involve a solitary practitioner, and this practitioner tends to be very independent and imaginative in their magickal endeavors. Simplicity is the bottom line, inter-laced with old world charm.

• The Green Witch…connects with the power and magickal energy found within herbs. Her magic is natural and is often attuned to healing– healing of the body, mind, and soul through the world of herbs and flowers and the abundant magickal power found there. This witch tends to be a solitary practitioner, often tending her gardens, often growing most of the herbs she uses in her practice. She has a unique connection to nature and to the seasons, particularly in the aspect of growing and harvesting.

• Kitchen Witch…her magick lay in the heart of the home, at the hearth fire itself. Her practices will also include using those items around her that are a natural part of her world. The Kitchen Witch has the ability to tap into herbs, stones, as well as other mundane items found in her home, and unleash the magickal energy from within. This witch incorporates this magick in her daily life– in the meals she prepares for her family, the way in which she cleanses and cares for her home, through magickal potions from her own unique recipes, and in her private and simple rituals and spells.

• Hedgewitch…this witch prefers to live close to nature and is strongly connected to the natural world, often enjoying a relationship with the wild things that mundane people may find strange or unusual. The Hedgewitch is grounded, close to the earth and all its elements. She is the most elusive of the natural witches, often secretive about her practices and her magick, protective of that which she holds sacred. Her magick transcends the more common use of herbs and potions, candles and such, and originates strongly from her natural connections to all things in nature and the fundamental energy found there.

[originally posted @ my other blog March 2011]

• The cottage witch/kitchen wytch/hedge wytch– she’s one and the same, and for me, this is the epitome of what I have always viewed witches as being ever since I was a child. It is that unobtrusive and eccentric woman who grows herbs in her gardens and about her house, who has developed a unique and unusual relationship with the wild things that visit her yard and inhabit her grounds. It is the woman who has the ancient knowledge and wisdom to incorporate the magickal use of herbs into her everyday life—in the food she prepares, in the water and solutions that she uses to clean her home, in the incense she burns to smudge her living quarters.

It’s not the flashy publicity oriented media image of a witch that people seek out…it is the quiet Wise Woman in the unusual house down the road, the woman people whisper about curiously amongst themselves, the woman cocooned in ancient mysteries and magickal ways.

• The Kitchen Witch– resplendent in her simple life-style that centers around hearth and home 

• The Cottage Witch…enmeshed in centuries of tradition and mystery 

• The Hedge Witch…creating natural magick in the wild woods using the magick of the green, the magick of the stones, the magick of the Goddess

Amythyst Raine