Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

[JamesByrne]

Lots of folk cultures seem to have land spirits in some form, det Huldrefolk, La Fata, na Sioga, the fairies. Theyre diverse but the concept seems to be there. Do you aknowledge them at all as a part of your neopaganism? Maybe as something to fear and respect or something disruptive to be banished from circles with magical weapons or maybe just as a nice thing to experience at heritage sites?

Or maybe you dont aknowledge them at all, neopaganism is far more involved in mythology then folklore and some ceremonialism doesnt require any belief in the supernatural...

Personally I go for fear and respect and a nice thing to experience. I dont banish them but they can be a pain in the rear end some times. I made a mistake of making my own tree for offerings to the fairies and that got hairy enough that I eventually moved :shakefist:

[Gardenia]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

Yes, honoring and working with the local land spirits plays a fairly large role in my practice.

[orchestrion]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

I really love folklore and believe somewhat in faeries but I kind of for the most part go with the old superstitions about them being sort of mean spirited and avoid them.

[thalassa]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

Yes, honoring and working with the local land spirits plays a fairly large role in my practice.

ditto this!

[JamesByrne]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

Is anyone comfortable giving more detail then that?

For example I know from ADF druidism and some Wiccan ritual that banishing the landvetter from the ritual circle is standard practice, there are even ritual impliments specific to the job that people try to legitimise by relating them to folklore. Like the black handled knife/athame.

[Gardenia]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

Is anyone comfortable giving more detail then that?

Sure. At least once a month I go out to a shrine, which is made of a pile of small stones, to make offerings. I have shrines in a few locations (all local areas I frequent) to work with different... 'types' of nature spirits. (For lack of better term.) That is, I have one out in the deep woods, one in a meadow, one at a 'crossroads' of bridge and water, one at the border of some farmland. So each shrine has a different feel to it. Unless I have a particular need, I rotate between shrines visited, so none will go untended for too long. The base offering consists of a mixture of cornmeal, milk, honey, and occasionally wine (or mead), which is poured into through a crack in the rocks. That is always offered. Sometimes in addition to that I offer other foods, water, tobacco, portions of dried herbs that I foraged, incense, or other small items - stones, glass beads, coins, found natural items like feathers or shells, little charms I've made, and so on. They all go into the rock pile, or get buried nearby. (Or, some offerings may go into the river.)

I give the offerings just to honor the land and the ones who live on it, just to deepen my relationship with the land and commune with those spirits. In addition, I also give both so the spirits won't hinder the work I do on the land, and so they will be more inclined to help when I request their assistance with a working. I've personally never felt it necessary to banish land spirits from an area (I mean, they were there first and all, it's their home I'm coming into), and I'd rather work with them than try to work against them. Just wouldn't make sense given the context of my path, and the heavy focus on working with nature... That said, there are some places in the woods that feel 'off-limits,' and I respect that, and leave those places alone - although I do make small offerings at their borders when passing by them.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

...Do you aknowledge them at all as a part of your neopaganism?

Sort of - not exactly. But my form of paganism is based on experience and experiment, both of which demonstrate (to me - subjectively) that something is there.

What is there can be used. Keep track of them, get to know what they are like (as opposed to what hey are supposed to be like). Knowledge is useful - sometimes now, sometimes off in the future, sometimes never at all...

What can I say? That's the way it is.

[Ula]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

Leaving offerings for the land and house wights is pretty inportant in Heathen beliefs, so yes it does.

[Ementine]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

For me, spirits, auras and the like are very important. Part of my best friends Aura lays in my room, he watches over me. I also have other spirits that live in my room with me. I don't speak with them often, but I respect them and accept that they are there.
My best friend can speak with them and it's pretty cool. He tells me about sometimes. I also love to walk by cematarys at night because I can feel the spirits there at their graves watching me walk by.

[Yazichestvo]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

Like most Slavic pagans, I hold a belief in land spirits. Belief in land spirits persisted in eastern European folk belief long after the deities had been forgotten, much like the belief in fairies survived in Ireland. The historian Jordanes also describes the Slavs as worshiping "rivers and nymphs".

Slavic tradition places a large emphasis on bodies of water, especially rivers. The famous Rusalka are well-known as river spirits. There were also the polevik (field spirits) and leschi (forest spirits). However, I don't think there were any spirits that were seen as inhabiting the ground itself. The ground, as far as we can tell, was honored as a Goddess.

[Jembru]

Re: Do land spirits play a role in your neoaganism?

Yes, for me, they are important. Although I don't really work with them in the sense of calling them during spell work. I'm far more likely to invent my own imaginary creature to do my bidding, as I see that as just a projection of my will. I will however, take care to respect local spirits and try to be as aware of them as possible. I have a strange 'thing', where if I can make out faces in the balk of a tree, or in rocks, this is a representation of the spirit that lives there. So it's not unusual for me to say a little 'hello' as I pass.

One example I can think of where I did work with a spirit for magical reasons, was last autumn. I was doing my equinox cleaning and I invented a little chant to the spirit of the apartment, asking that one day that place will be mine. I love this home so much, so I hoped that when my roomie moved in with her partner, she'd go to him, rather than move him in here.

Although I'm terrified about how I'll afford it, I am very grateful that the spirit heard me, and the place becomes mine on August 3rd!!

Now I need to think of a way to thank the spirit...