Written by AM (Xander) Hunter at EarthSong Witchcamp, Australia 2019
Walking the Earth
Ambling around
Following wombat
Under the ground
Through those roots
And over those stones
Brushing by
Those dry old bones
Honouring the Earth
With every breath
We honour this land
With every step
Walking the Earth
Ambling around
Following wombat
Under the ground
Through those roots
And over those stones
Brushing by
Those dry old bones
Honouring the Earth
With every breath
We honour this land
With every step
Walking the Earth
Ambling around
Following wombat
Under the ground
Through those roots
And over those stones
Brushing by
Those dry old bones
Honouring the Earth
With every breath
We honour this land
With every step
Walking the Earth
Ambling around
Following Wombat
Under the ground
I am waiting
For that four leaf clover
I am waiting
For that rabbit foot charm
I am waiting
To come across a lucky fountain
And a golden coin to ‘protect me from harm’
I am waiting
For that bell to keep on tolling
I am waiting
To hear you calling my name
I am waiting
For that door within the mountain
To open on up and let me live again
I am waiting
For your Hell to freeze over
I am waiting
For your Satan to rise
I am waiting
For your hosts of heavenly angels
To rain down justice from the skies
I am waiting
For the Earth to keep on burning
I am waiting
For those oceans to rise
I am waiting
For the World to keep on turning
After Humans have succeeded in their own demise
If you choose to come and linger
Place upon your lips one finger
Hear the wind He knows our secrets
But if you spill them you will regret
We ask for blood and you will bleed yes
If not offered then we will take it
It’s our tithe for you to be here
And if given your sight is freed dear
Before your eyes our vision shimmers
Of our power your knowledge glimmers
On this day the curtains thin dear
And you and I we both can be here
My beating heart lies just beneath you
My teasing laugh is just beyond you
No matter how far or long you reach dear
The edge of me you’ll never breach dear
I am not as the others paint me
I’m not some pretty sugared dainty
If I’m primed I’m sure to thrill you
But if you cross me I will kill you
For I’ve an eye for those who are false
And if you lie then I’ll have your pulse
I’ll poke and prod and beat and break you
For that’s the way that I remake you
I’ll bind you up or spin you about
I’ll give you sight or gouge your eyes out
I’ll lift you high above it all
Then watch you fly or I’ll watch you fail
I’ll wear the form that terrifies you
And then I’ll sneak up right behind you
As you watch these visions streaming
Careful you don’t head home screaming
Beyond our Hills our call we send out
Awaken those whose ears will hear our
Silken voices threading this place
Green grey brown they colour His face
He has you tightly on a leash dear
Won’t let you stray beyond His reach dear
So be careful how you treat Him
Kindness comes from how you greet Him
Beneath your feet treasures await you
But dig them up and they’ll forsake you
For all that golden does not glisten
And all we ask is for you to listen
The ground it hungers for you to feed them
Hungry mouths awaiting seeding
If all you do is just to stand there
Before your eyes all will be laid bare
If you choose to come and linger
Place upon your lips one finger
Hear the wind He knows our secrets
But if you spill them you will regret
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.
Every week I visit a piece of land and work with its energies to purify and, where possible, heal it. My work is very ancestral for me in that I work with a stone circle, with spirits of place, and with energy lines. Visiting and working with earth energies in the UK in 2010 and my studies since then regarding shamanic practice and witchcraft have helped me to realise that everything I do in this landscape my ancestors either did or were capable of doing back in the UK and other areas of Europe. I work with a modern built stone circle, but the land beneath it is old and carries the memories of those who have walked it over the centuries. I work with ancestral spirits, both mine and those linked to the land itself. It is a blending of workings.
Upon arriving at the circle, I cast by visiting and honouring each of the five stones before honouring centre, Grandfather (the Guardian spirit of the place, who is an Australian Aboriginal Elder) and the other guardians of a more feathered variety (magpies and willy-wag-tails). I asked Grandfather what he would like me to bring as an offering and he said bread and water, so I bring seeded bread and fresh water and place it in the centre. Before offering it, I eat some, offer some to Grandfather, and he transforms it into something else which I eat. Sometimes it is a square of meat from an animal, or it might be a worm or bug, sometimes it is leaves, berries, earth, bark. It changes from week to week. Then I drink some of the water, offer it to Grandfather who drinks and transforms it into something else that I drink. Sometimes I can see that the water is from a wonderful waterfall, or from a clear stream, sometimes it is polluted water or has something in it. That changes to. The remaining water I offer to the centre.
My working involves sinking into the landscape to check on the state of the energy serpent that lies beneath it. Sometimes the serpent is yellow, or orange, or red, and I know that healing work is needed. If the serpent is green I know that all is well. Sometimes the serpent is mostly green except for a specific spot, and I will focus my attention on that spot.
With the help of my spirit allies, I search along the serpent energy line, pull out anything that is ‘dirt’ by which I mean is in need of cleansing or healing, and pool it infront of me. We spin the ball of ‘dirt’ until it compacts and becomes hardened and blast it with bright light. It begins to sparkle and shine like a diamond. We then send healing energy into it until the ball glows green. And then we gentle return it to the serpent. Grandfather will often sing while this work is going on. I don’t know what he sings much of the time, but it is a song of power. Just as I do my part in the healing, Grandfather does his. Our workings blend together.
Initiation after completing the Shamanic Apprenticeship required my thinking about what my service was and who I would be serving by my practice. What gifts did I bring that I could contribute to community. I thought about a lot of things leading up to my initiation, but kept coming back to land. It was in Cornwall back in 2010 that I had felt myself drawn to stone and to the vibrations of the land. Once I sat down and really thought about it, everything was drawing me to working with the land in quite specific ways. Connecting, finding serpent energy lines, and cleansing / purifying the lines and energy centres so they were healthy. Working with the spiritual guardians of the land and my own spirit allies.
I decided to make a weekly commitment to a particular place by a nearby river. There was a modern stone circle set up on one side of the river, with painted stones to commemorate the native inhabitants of this land. A mix of Aboriginal and European as it was next to a garden commemorating other groups from different places in Europe.
My first session I called on Mother and she gave me a possum skin cloak to put on to protect me (I didn’t ask from what). She said she would always be with me when I wore it, regardless of where I was, and agreed to act as intermediary between me and the local spirits of place. With me was Bob, of course, and my spirit twin: an ally I had found when working with trance into land-based vision quests, and who was tied to my ancestry or bloodline.
The circle was made up of five stones, which appeared to me to represent water, spirit, fire, air and Earth. In the centre was a young tree to one side of a circle of stones. The ritual was very simple – I brought offerings of cake (from a vegan bakery) and water, which I placed in the centre ring of stones after tracing my way around honouring the elements and guardians. And then I sat so I could be in closer contact with the earth, and opened myself to the vibrations of place. I could feel beneath a powerful energy serpent, not quite aligned with the circle. Already awake and being tended by someone, unlike other areas where the energy slept. To my eyes, the serpent was orange-red colour, which meant that it needed healing/cleansing work. But I didn’t want to act without being in contact with the guardian of the place.
Mother introduced me to an Elder, an Aboriginal male spirit, who guarded the place and who was quite wary of me. I asked if the offering was accepting, and he said it wasn’t. That I should bring bread and water.
That first time was quite awkward as I had not yet found my routine or developed a working relationship with the Elder, who I began to call Grandfather at his request (when I asked what I could call him by). There was a lot of translating going on between my allies and Grandfather to find a way that this could work. The serpent healing did not happen the first time because things were too confusing in my head and it didn’t feel like the right time. But Bob was angry with me and told me off for not doing my duty and healing the serpent when I had noticed it had needed healing. The next time was better.
For several years I spent my time honing my practices and learning new skills; mostly associated with shamanic witchcraft from my teachers, Bob and Gede. I began to understand my strengths and weaknesses, which aspects I preferred to work with and where I fitted in the scheme of things.
Most of my practice is devotional in that I foster relationships and work with various deity spirits. But I also found myself becoming involved with spirits of other varieties. I would delve down into the earthen chambers of passage tombs and climb up into new realms (in my trance work), and when out on the land, found myself continually drawn to communing with stone. Natural stone mostly, which to me often appears as a vision of an opening eye, in skin much like that of a reptile. The spirit of stone that I would speak to may be sleepy, may show me images that it was witness to or sensations it experienced or just blink and ignore me. I would see shapes and colours associated with the stone, which I came to learn was a representation of the stone’s vibration. And I saw serpents in the land.
Bob would give me the task of feeling into the landscape I was in and finding energy lines. Seeking them out, knowing where they were, and describing to him how they looked or felt to me. The lines would often appear as serpents of specific colours; green, being healthy, orange and red, being in need of purification or healing, were the main colours I would see. Sometimes blue, which would be much less dangerous and not need purification or healing.
One time at work, I wasn’t feeling very well and was open when I should have been closed. I felt a probe from below (the land on which my work place is situated is poisoned due to the former occupation the space was used for). I answered, felt my energy draining very quickly, and saw a spherical sinkhole open up around me absorbing my energy. I almost passed out. At the time, I didn’t realise what was happening or why, but it was a very good lesson for me and I learned to shield myself more effectively. I later came to understand that what happened was linked to what I do: my path. The energy was sick, and my energy was used to help to heal it. Of course, it needed more than I was able to give, but the understanding was the beginning for me of finding my path.
Sometime later, at a workshop during trance work, I found myself called by Mother, the spirit of an Aboriginal woman that I met some years previously. The trance experience held me for the duration of the work, and I found myself unable to let go until I was finished. Mother took me through a landscape I didn’t recognise to a cave near water. In the cave were oval shaped rocks. My task was to paint them with wavy lines, eyes, and a mouth, and set them in a circle. Around me in the workshop, energy was being raised. I found myself tapping into and pulling down that energy, using it to charge the painted stones, and to heal or purify the nearby land serpent and send the pulse of healing energy into the land.
It was only after this experience, which left me drained for several days, that I understood Mother was a land spirit and that I was being called to perform some healing work needed by the land itself. Discussing it with Bob I also began to understand that land energy healing work is something witches have always done; that it is in my blood and I have ancestral connections to working with land in this way.
The thing was – Mother is Australian Aborigine land spirit and my ancestry is from England, Scotland and Ireland. To my mind, initially at least, there were issues with the work as a result of this that I needed to resolve. It was more than the possibility that my ancestors were quite probably involved in activities that harmed Aboriginal people and this land. It was also the logistics of how to go about doing the work; how to apply it in a way that would be acceptable.
Upon my initiation from the Shamanic Apprenticeship I had undergone, I found my answer.
Detail from the Uffington White Horse, England 2010. Horse or Dragon?
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.
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.
Green and Grey 
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