I am very new to this site but I would love to mention my personal beliefs and maybe hear about yours?

My understanding of a pagan is someone who loves nature and/or someone who follows an ancient polytheistic path.

My own personal instincts would draw me towards Green Witchcraft. My understanding is that it embraces the use of herbs, uses herb magic; it celebrates the seasonal changes and is ideal for solitary types like myself. I know very little else. I would love to hear from others who believe this too and learn about your experiences. I know no one who is a pagan and it is wonderful to be able to read your comments on this site!

thanks

Patricia

Hiya,

Green witch is I think, similar to hedgewitch, where a person is more involved in herbal lore. If you search Green Witch and Hedgewitch on google you'll get quite a lot of hits some of the sites are naff somea re good.

I like this one, its a shop really, but she does explain a little what Green Witchery is to her, and her products are gorgeous!

The Green Witch

There's quite a few books on the subject too:

Craft of the Wild Witch - Poppy Palin
The Green Witch: Modern Woman's Herbs - Barbara Griggs
Grimoire for the Green Witch: A Complete Book of Shadows - Ann Moura.
The Green Witch Herbal: Restoring Natures magic in the home - Barbara Van Der Zee

and many others, I can actually say if any are any good, as I've not read them myself. Also, reading bog standard herbal books/aromatherpy/ going out into the countryside and observing nature will also bring their own insights. Read everything you can get your hands on, but do it with an open mind, some of the stuff will be utter rubbish, some it will resonate deeply - trust your instincts.

My beliefs are of green witchcraft,herbcraft being the main part of my belief.the books that Very has listed are a very :lol:good, ok sorry,good start.Any books by Ann Moura are very good also,very easy to understand.i own 3 of them,and all very interesting reading.

I've read one of Anne Moura's books too but I really can't get my head around her combination of Green Witchcraft and Catholicism. Very odd....

In my admitedly basic understanding of the term I'd say that Green Witchcraft is to be performing the craft centred mainly around flora (and fauna) and the associated energies of those area's of our natural surroundings. It does seem to be well suited to the solitary and relies little on ritual and dogma. I find a lot of "sympathetic magic" in Green Witchcraft along with a good basic understanding of Herb Lore and Healing.

Plus, if we're working directly with flora and fauna then we're automatically tied in inextricably to the cycles of the seasons.

Exactly how we choose to recognise those cycles is again a very personal element to the craft and therefor very well suited again to the solitary.

Hi Patricia!
To me my path in Green Witchcraft isn't just about herbs, it involves every plant you can think of from Daffodils to Leeks (yes I am Welsh!) or Belladonna to Lavender - the list goes on and on...
It's about using every aspect of nature, being poisonous and healing, and having exactly what you need all year round. Moon gardening is one thing you could do, which doesn't always just involve the waxing and waning phases! And the great thing I find about it is that it doesn't stop at drying herbs, nearly everything can be used - in cooking for an obvious example, or making your own soaps, lotions and witchy potions
I could go on forever but I'll stop now before I bore you to bits, why don't you try reading Garden Witchery by Ellen Dugan, it's a wee bit fluffy but I've adapted parts of it to suit me.

Hope this helps

Lostris

PS Welcome to UKP!

Hello Patricia! Personally don't have a lot of time for Ann Moura, tried to read her but.... no.



Ok, maybe not the place for this paticular rant but -
Loving nature isn't all about plants, everything on this earth that lives in any form is nature. As for the polythesism, most folks would openly admit to following a modern path possibly based around what can be gathered about ancient ones, after all the god/s/goddess/s are still out there and it's fair to assume they might have come on just as we have. Some pagans have lots of gods, some one, some none.

Don't mean to bang on, there's loads out there in this and other forums on these subjects. Have a nosey then smack me for jumping on an innocent comment...

mmmmm.....been thing about Ann Moura ...... to be honest......extreme fluffiness involved there too. A very confused woman I think....maybe it's just me.

Esk!!!.....*smack*

Welcome to the site Patricia - I am sure you will feel right at home.

Just to echo what everyone else has said.... you can do google searches and common sense will tell you which sites are useful and which are not. There is a lot of information to be found out there. Also reading books is a great way to start - Waterstone's stock quite a good selection of Pagan books now and if you're lucky you're local library might even have a few on the go!

Just remember that whilst it's great to ask others opinions, beliefs etc never be swayed by what somebody else thinks is right or wrong ultimately the decision on your path is your own. I know that when I started posting on forums such as these I felt silly if anybody ever questioned what I said or contradicted me and truly you learn not to be affected by it and have an each to their own attitude. That's what you should find here anyway!

Never be afraid to ask!

Well they say everyday is a school day!
Thanks for all your insights....I appreciate your comments. I can't wait to get reading some of the recommendations!

There's a nice ezboard community called The Way of the Green Witch - quite fluffy in places (sorry Flora) but sometimes I like to indulge in the fluff. There's a lot of Americans on the site, but it's run by a lady called Flora who lives on the Scilly Isles and she's got a very sensible head on her shoulders. you'd have to sign up to be able to post on it, but that's not too much of a hardship and there are some lovely people on there. I often lurk on there posting as welshrockchick.

http://p208.ezboard.com/bthewayofthegreenwitch