What is Friulian Witchcraft?
Friulian witchcraft is an ecstatic form of witchcraft, which means that a lot of the work is done in altered states of consciousness or during out of the body experiences.
It is also an initiatic form of witchcraft: it requires initiation, it has secrets shared among initiates and is orally transmitted from witch to witch.
Loosely using terms that are borrowed from other traditions, we can say that Friulian Witchcraft is a combination of hedge witchcraft, fence crossing and some shamanism.
“Hedge” is an old name defining the land in between two villages: a liminal place like swamps and caves that marks, symbolically speaking, the space where the world of the living and the world of the dead meet.
Being a hedge witchcraft means taking care of that space and being able to communicate with both.
Medium activity is therefore a key subject in the tradition, and so is helping the dead cross over: the gift of talking with spirits always comes with obligations (I’m going to dedicate more time to the subject in future lessons).
Fence Crossing, also called “hedge riding”, refers to the ability to travel in other worlds and has deep roots in the history of germanic tribes.
There is in fact a passage from the Poetic Edda called “Havamal”, possibly written around the year 900, in which Odin lists the spells he knows, one of which being the following:
“A tenth I know: when at night I see the witches (fence crossers) play in the air, I can so arrange it that they go astray from their proper shapes and proper thoughts
Being able to cross the fence also comes with the huge responsibility of being a keeper of the “border”: taking care of it, knowing what else crosses and why, but also know where something ends and something else begins.
It requires a great consciousness: there are dangers in every world and even more so where worlds connect and reality is thin.
Friulian Witchraft also includes aspects that can be traced back to Siberian prehistoric shamanism, which is tightly related to North American Native shamanism, possibly due to people migrating from a continent to another during the ice age.
We can therefore say that Friulian Witchcraft has a deep relationship with the land, both physical and spiritual.
Agricultural festivities, taking place around the same dates of wiccan solar sabbats, are still very much felt and celebrated under a thin layer of Christian sincretism, with solstices in particular being still celebrated by lighting bonfires in a way reminescent of old celtic and pre-roman traditions.
This lesson will introduce you to its complex history and unique way to magic and spirituality through a video recording and printable material.
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