Blood Spirit Craft

Blood of our blood
Bone of our bone
We honour thee
You bring us home

Spirits of our
Minds and our hearts
We honour thee
Abound in these parts

The mighty dead
Those of our craft
We honour thee
You’re in our hearts

Ancestors of
Blood Spirit Craft
We welcome you
Come witness us

[Ancestors of
Blood Spirit Craft
We thank you for
Witnessing us]

Listen to the song

© 2015 A M Hunter

A Path of Karmic Healing

Working with Grandfather on cleansing and healing the energy lines or vibrations of the earth (the serpent Ngulla-Gulla) led me to wonder about the nature of our relationship. It seemed to be a little one sided in that I found my path to be linked to earth energy healing, I worked in the way of my ancestors and with my spirit allies, and I found it very satisfying. But what of Grandfather?

I asked him after a working whether there was anything I could do to help him and the next time we worked, he led me to a vision spot where I knew I had healing work to do. I began to feel into the land to see what was needed and found myself pulling together fragments of something that had been shattered. I pulled them together and found that they were oval rocks with squiggly lines on them and faces made up of dots and lines. There were five, including one large one in the middle and four at the quarters. When I had finished I noticed that Grandfather was crying. He said that the place had been broken by ancestors of my blood, and that they needed to be healed by those who broke them. Now he could sing them back to power.

The next time Grandfather led me to another spot that looked like an overgrown clearing in a heavily wooded place near water. I felt and began my working as per last time, but this time a skeleton emerged. As I worked flesh began to fill out the bones and then there was an angry faced man looking at me with such hate it scared me. But I could feel that my work was not done. I pulled and two more skeletons began to appear; a woman and a child. I reached out to Grandfather and asked him to help me as I was draining and they were not fully formed. He took my hand and together we helped Borong’s wife and child to emerge. The following week when I visited, Borong (who seems to be a bird man) threw a spear at me. My spirit allies protected me, including Grandfather who knocked it away with a shield of bark and gave me the spear-head.

My most recent working was very harrowing and only partly finished. Grandfather led me to a place that was partially enclosed by rock. It had designs painted on it, including handprints and something I couldn’t quite make out made up of swirling lines. Part of it was obscured so I never saw the design fully. There were two groups of people there; Europeans and Aboriginals. The Europeans were all male but the Aboriginals were a mixed group. I saw terrible things happen that I won’t go into here. I just thank my spirit allies for protecting me from the worst bits. It is a tainted place because of it. I pulled the colours that symbolised the harm – yellow for the urine; red for the blood; white for the semen and black for the death. I pulled it up like the dirt from Ngulla-Gulla and with my spirit twin’s help did a cleansing very similar to the one I do for the serpent. The colours mixed, then were filled with light and then healing energy and the healing energy was returned to the land. But it still felt tainted and I know I will need to go and do more work. It was terrible and draining but necessary.

It is my karmic debt in some ways for living and working here. Although I have no idea how much my actual ancestors were responsible for the terrible things that happened to the Aboriginal people and this land, people of my blood were and continue to be responsible. I feel like I have to do something to help the healing; to waken the sleepers and restore that which was broken where possible. Work I’m only just beginning to understand. I don’t know where it will lead and I began with work with a loving heart but this last working has made me realise how dark the work could become. I only hope that I keep my heart loving and compassionate.

Returning Home a Stranger

Shortly after my return home, I ventured to the first ever Reclaiming Witchcamp held in Australia. I knew nothing of Reclaiming and wasn’t sure what to expect. My return had confused me on a number of levels as the way that I had connected to land was different somehow. Harder to connect with and foreign. I hoped to find something that I could use to help with connection and understanding.

In Boscastle, Cornwall, Bob and I walked in the early morning beside the stream, through paths strewn with holly and oak and along the cliff paths. As I walked I felt my roots go deep into the soil; it was sometimes hard to move my feet. It felt like home, despite being my first ever visit and to my knowledge I had no Cornish ancestors.

Back in Australia, even though I was born here (as were my parents and their parents) and lived here, it felt alien to me. I had no roots in the soil when I walked; just an emptiness of being far from home. I couldn’t explain it and found it hard to understand.

The path I chose to explore at camp was called Earth Song and it showed me several things: connecting with land can result in emotional turmoil due to environmental damages caused in recent times that needed to be addressed (or at least considered); that I was not alone in my connections to land and the vibrational energies that I had encountered in England and Ireland; and that different people worked with these energies in very different ways, yet there were also similarities.

Wandering around at camp on my own, I found myself reflecting on what was missing and realised that it was in many ways spiritual connection. But this caused considerable conflict within me as the spiritual connection with the land on which I lived I saw as being linked with the Aboriginal peoples who were here long before my people arrived. And with that guilt at what part my own ancestors may have played in the terrible crimes that were inflicted upon them as the land was cleared by my people for farming and towns. How could I connect with a land and spirits that my people most probably helped to harm? I sat at the side of a track and poured out my conflict to the land and was answered by a spirit of an Aboriginal woman (she appeared as a disembodied head at first). She said that she had heard me and could feel my anguish. And that she would be willing to act as a ‘go-between’ for me in connecting with land. She said to call her Mother, and called me by a new name. Her totem was the blue wren, which I have in the heart of my home now in her honour.

I didn’t realise at the time that Mother was a land spirit, or how important she was to become in my learning how to connect and work with earth energies in Australia. But that is for another post.

Those wanting information on the Australian Reclaiming Witchcamps please explore their website: http://australiareclaiming.org.au/

Please note that the Featured Image photo is from a later Camp, held in a different area from the first one as I don’t have any photos from the first camp.
Photo of Superb Fairy Wren from the Birdlife of Australia Website: http://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/superb-fairy-wren
Photo of Superb Fairy Wren from the Birdlife of Australia Website: http://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/superb-fairy-wren