We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see
land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
—Aldo Leopold
The 1997 film Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most impactful movies on the concept of local elements and land spirits that has ever been created. This epic fantasy focuses on the ongoing struggle between nature and human influence. If you haven't watched this film, take note—because now you have homework. I highly recommend this film to all of my students to better grasp the theory of local elements and spiritual empathy.
Land spirits are not specific to any particular culture. Throughout history, every culture has held some type of belief relating to the spirits of the land and the creatures that inhabit it. Native American, Irish, Norse, Germanic tribes, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese all held land spirits in special esteem.
The line between what makes one entity a spirit of the land and another entity a god can be somewhat blurry. Land spirits can also be mistaken for mythological creatures, such as faeries. Spirits of the land can be land gods and rule over the lands that they reside on, or they can be literal attachments to particular features in the land. There are forest spirits, lake and river spirits, plain spirits, rock and mountain spirits.
As land becomes developed, the neighborhoods and cities gain spirits as well. Just because a house is built on land doesn't mean the house isn't part of that living land anymore. Structures not only reside within the spirit of the land, but through time develop their own unique spirits as well.
To understand land spirits, you need to first understand the land and space that you inhabit. What type of land was your property on before it was developed? What types of nature reside there now? How many trees are around you, and what is their general health? As you step outside, do you feel the spirits of nature flow around you freely, or do they feel stagnant and lazy?
I live in a part of South Florida that was once part of the Everglades. Much of South Florida was drained and then built in, allowing for development further west. The natural spirits of the land I live on are swampy, yet have adapted to meet the growing urban culture. Additionally, Florida sits on top of a limestone platform. According to a University of Florida Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation article, during the last Ice Age, sea levels were much lower and exposed more of the Florida coastline. Much of the exposed land became savanna in nature, which is a grassy tropical or subtropical plain with few trees. This savanna is still seen today! Every land has its own unique history waiting to be uncovered. Researching the geological aspects of the lands that we live on allows us to better understand and connect with the spirits that reside there as well.
Nature spirits have roles outside of human understanding and logic. They don't exist in such an obtrusive way that humans are aware of them, yet they work diligently nonetheless. Nature spirits and land spirits help protect the land and the creatures that reside on it. When people talk about hauntings of new structures, and even some older structures, what they are really dealing with is confused land spirits. When people build on land without acknowledging the other creatures, they displace not only plants and animals but spirits as well. Sometimes, these spirits stay on the land and try to rebuild and protect what they can. Sometimes, these spirits are angry, lost, and confused.
The same thing happens in older structures when new owners take over. A new owner might come into an older house and decide that the house is “haunted,” when really the spirits that reside there are confused. These spirits may feel as though their space is being encroached upon by a person who didn't have the decency to introduce themselves and make their intentions known. Flowing with the harmony of the spirits that are already present can solve the issues of land and structure disturbances nearly every time they come up.
Working with and creating a relationship with land, nature, and structure spirits is a wholly intuitive practice. An understanding doesn't typically happen overnight; but when we work on strengthening our intuitive skills, it is something that can easily be accomplished by any witch, regardless of overall skill level.
When I lived in Montana, one of my teachers told me that on every property there is one spirit in charge of balancing the rest. At the time, this was the spirit of a beautiful old weeping willow tree on the property between our garden and house. This old tree stood watch over the property, and kept all the various people, pets, plants, and spirits that inhabited it safe. I am certain that this tree took the negativity from some of the people on the property and filtered it back out in a way that could be managed. It was under the wisdom of this tree that I first became spiritually aware as an adult.
In my current house, this spirit is actually a three-hundred-pound limestone boulder. The garden around it teems with the beauty of life, flowers, and butterflies. The garden is stable and safe because the spirit of the boulder grounds it. The boulder spirit of my yard has helped protect me many times. During Hurricane Irma, the large oak tree above the roof of my room broke and collapsed. Instead of coming through the roof, the branch fell limb-end first, scraping my window but leaving the structure in one piece. At the time, I could literally feel the energy of protection radiating around my space.
Every property has a primary guardian spirit, whether that is a tree, boulder, river, well, or any other element. Building a relationship with this spirit is the most important part of working with your local land spirits.
FIND YOUR PRIMARY GUARDIAN SPIRIT
When you are ready to begin building this relationship, step outdoors and sit in a way where your skin comes in direct contact with the natural ground. Close your eyes and visualize the property, as if you were floating above it and looking down. See each element as it truly is: where the buildings meet the trees, where the sun and shade hit the plants and soil, where there might be strength or sickness in the land itself. Open up your intuition as you are looking down. Can you identify the source of the primary land spirit?
When you are able to identify the spirit of land, introduce yourself. In your mind, visualize what this spirit might look or sound like. Giving the spirit an association will allow you to build a relationship and connection with them. The more you honor and work with this entity, the stronger your bond will become.
All witches have a place of origin. This place ties our living blood with the living land and spirit of a particular place. Our magick is more easily focused in these places and connects freely with the spirits of nature. Throughout the course of history, people have moved away from their lands either by choice or by force. Humans are flexible, adaptable, and forward-thinking. However, like plants, when we are separated from our roots, we begin to wither.
The topic of ancestor work often sparks questions for people who do not know where exactly they came from. Not everyone is blessed to come from a line of people who definitively knew who they were and where they originated. While some people have a family Bible passed down through generations, keeping track of who came when, others have just heard word of mouth things such as, “I think your grandmother came from ____ .”
This tends to be primarily an American problem. People have immigrated all over the globe from various places, but no place is as much of a melting pot as modern-day America. For those who don't know where their family comes from, it's easy to claim, “I'm an American”; but what is an American really? A blend of cultures? A dark history built on the backs of other cultures. Is it perhaps a more modern interpretation of immigrants choosing to come over in recent years?
As modern technology has advanced, genetic tests like those by National Geographic and ancestry.com have offered a solution. Using these tests is as simple as paying for them, sending in some DNA, and waiting for your results. Even growing up fortunate enough to know exactly where my blood comes from, I decided to take an ancestry DNA test a few years ago. In my experience, the test was completely accurate, giving me the exact results I was expecting, but specifying how much of what came from where.
It should be noted that taking a DNA test and learning you're 1 to 5 percent of anything doesn't give a person free rein to appropriate that culture or those people. For ancestry that ranges from 1 to 5 percent, that would mean the ancestor was most likely between six and eight generations away from you today. The energy of that culture is in your blood, but it is not the dominant factor in your current ancestry. These cultures should be treated with respect and reverence as you build the connection over time. In my own ancestry, there is just over 70 percent Irish/Scottish/Welsh, with 2 percent Spanish. I'm not sure when this occurred in my tree, but I feel fairly confident in the assumption that I am not in fact Spanish at all but that somehow that small piece was related to the Gauls, who were a Celtic people.
Over the years, ancestor magick has become bigger and bigger in the witchcraft community. I rely heavily on my ancestors in my personal craft. Ancestor magick is more than just connecting to your ancestors—it is connecting to the spirit of yourself, your blood, the energy of your physical body, and the land. What this means is that it's not simply your ancestors, but everything that envelops them.
Someone who has Irish ancestry is going to have a different connection to the land than someone with Native American ancestry, or Russian ancestry. These ancestors connected to the land and the local spirits in a way that connects our blood to that same land and those same local spirits. It's important to recognize where you are and where you came from when working with your ancestors in their magick. Sometimes it might feel a little silly if you aren't sure of pronunciation, but it is a good practice to incorporate the native tongue of your ancestors into your magick when working with them. Your ancestors will recognize your spirit and your intent, but they will always have an easier time relating to what was familiar to them.
This is not to say that you have to learn a foreign language to perform this kind of magick. But you can pick up a few words here and there and incorporate them into your spells and rituals. The modern Irish language is such a mix of different influences that I'm pretty sure my ancient ancestors wouldn't really understand it. But what I can do for them is incorporate some of the gods that they knew, some of the written language and the music of the land. I can also include the land, the dirt, the trees, the water, and the essence of the land that they inhabited when they were here.
Connecting this piece to our magick is especially important for Americans who do not claim Native American ancestry, which is the majority of us. Your ancestors are not going to have the same connection to this land as they would if they were native. Going back to the roots of our culture, even if we were not raised with those roots, we can help create a spiritual depth and bond between our spirit and our flesh. Learning about and participating in the traditions of your ancestral heritage will strengthen the connection for your ancestral and blood magick.
Blood magick is one of those things that has been closely guarded by those who practice it and shunned by those in the witchcraft community who do not understand it. If someone were to mention “blood magick,” you might think of sacrifice or sex magick—but I promise that is not all it is. Blood magick both invokes and evokes the bond between the “heavens” and the earth, where spirit meets flesh. It is our most primal form of magick, and our most powerful tool.
Blood is the sustainer of all life and the creator of death. While blood doesn't actually create death, it understands the duality better than any other piece of our physical body. Remember, you are not just a body, but a spirit within a body. After this life is over, what will you have to show for it? Our blood is a sacred source of magick. We are unable to exist without it, and problems in our blood cause decay of the physical, mental, and spiritual bodies we own as well. While we are in the flesh, our spirit is joined with our physical body. It is necessary to take care of each element of life in order to feely work with the magick harnessed within our DNA.
I've heard over and over again through the years that blood magick is “dangerous” or “evil.” I don't think anything that comes from our own bodies can inherently be evil. I am also not of the opinion that the use of my blood makes me any more vulnerable for a psychic or spiritual attack. If that were the case, I would have to be concerned about the amount of hair I am constantly shedding or coughing/sneezing during a ritual.
While I feel as though I use blood magick a little more liberally than many modern witches in regular practice, I had the unique experience to dedicate myself to my god in a place of spiritual significance recently. I was in Ireland with my partner for a wedding, and our route to the venue took us through my family's ancestral lands. The second we crossed into that territory, I could feel the energy within myself begin to shift. This was the first time I decided to dedicate myself in blood to my calling as a witch.
I have been practicing my American Irish folk-based craft since 2001. My mother was an Irish Catholic folk practitioner, and everything I know I learned from the basic principles she taught me. Eighteen years later, after multiple trips to Ireland, I was finally visiting where my family had lived for hundreds of years. At a random point on the side of a little Irish highway, in hills that probably have no modern name or significance, I reclaimed myself as a witch.
Two days later, we were packing up to leave and come back to America. We had about twenty-four hours before our 4:00 a.m. flight and nothing to do for the day. I had been feeling a strange calling throughout the trip to visit the sea. Not only did I go out of my way to visit it in Dublin, we visited it in Galway and Northern Ireland as well. I had recently accepted Manannán Mac Lir (“son of the sea”) as my primary god and felt as though he was trying to tell me something.
So with a few hours and a rental car, I convinced my party that we should drive from Dublin to the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland and then back for our 4:00 a.m. flight. Thankfully, they obliged and we got there just as the sun was beginning to set. Among the rocks and in the presence of Manannán Mac Lir, I reclaimed myself as a witch. I walked alone down among the rocks to a small mossy area that was as much part of the land as it was the sea. I made a small cut on my finger with a pin and said out loud:
Between sand and sulfur,
Stone and sea,
This blood, I give,
For all time, and to thee.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting to happen, but what did happen fundamentally changed the way I view and practice my personal craft. A large bird flew by and landed a few stones over. It made this loud calling sound, which was answered by other birds. Up until this point the causeway had been completely quiet, with only me and probably five other people (all photographers) spread throughout it. This is the moment I was reborn.
If you haven't found a god to devote yourself to or are not sure how to find one, don't fret. After eighteen years of working toward my personal path of witchcraft, I only came into contact with the god that I would devote myself to by accident.
My recommendation for those still searching for a deity is to close your eyes and imagine the place you feel most at peace. Where do you feel whole? What are you doing? For me, this place has always been on a boat or by the beach. It took me eighteen years to make the connection between my safe place and the god that was drawing me to it.
Once you have realized where you feel most grounded, connected, and safe, research gods that match the description. You might be attracted to forests or mountains. You might find that you are attracted to storms or graveyards. Whatever it is that brings you a sense of fulfillment is the right place to start reaching out. While reading mythology books and studying what other witches are doing is good in theory, a book cannot offer the same feeling of fullness you experience when you have a connection to a god or goddess.
BLOOD MAGICK RITUAL
In preface to this ritual I would like to make it absolutely clear that I am not encouraging self-harm. If you feel uncomfortable using your blood, you can skip whatever parts you are uncomfortable with. Blood magick doesn't have to hurt, and I am absolutely not encouraging you to harm yourself in any way. Most gods don't typically care how you devote yourself, just that you do.
Once you have found a god, goddess, spirit, or guide to work with and are ready to dedicate yourself to your craft, assemble the following:
• An object to make a small incision (a sterile knife or lancet is best OR, if you are experiencing your menstrual cycle, you can use this blood
• A candle or assortment of candles (I like to use a taper candle for the gods and goddesses, plus four seven-day jar candles: one for land spirits, one for guides, one for ancestors, and one for my spirit.)
• A lighter
Light your candle(s) and stare into the flame, invoking the spirits of the land, guides, ancestors, gods, and goddesses to join you as you reclaim your right as a witch.
With your object, make a small incision on your hand, just enough to get one drop of blood. Put this blood directly into the flame and visualize your body and spirit aligning through a bright white light. As you do this, invoke the land, calling it in and thanking it for being with you on your journey. Release the land spirits back.
Focusing on the flame, invoke your personal guides and thank them for being with you on this journey. Release your guides back to the flame.
Lastly, with intention, invoke your spirit through your blood. Offer yourself to the gods and goddesses present with you. Allow yourself to be comforted into the presence of their knowledge and power. When you are ready, release your gods and goddesses and thank them for being with you.
Allow the candle to burn down completely before closing the ritual.