Unintentional Land Cult Creation
So I have not been posting any new entries lately, even though I have many in the works in various stages. Instead I have been going back through previous entries as I have time to make video versions for accessibility. I will link my YouTube channel below if that is easier to follow me that way if you are visually impaired or are trying to listen to content on your commute. I warn you I am not a very natural YouTube personality. I am also embedding all the video versions of the blogs right in the old entries. I may not be updating too much more for awhile now though. The next month I have some personal changes in my life and I may not have space to record video until the dust settles, or time. We will see.
Anyways, I wanted to give you a new post at least before I disappear. This post is a true story that I thought you might enjoy.
You may know that I love hiking. I often have formed reciprocal bonds with Land Spirits in places where I frequent. One of these places is a trail in the closest Provincial Park. This trail is popular year round with many people, and often their canine companions as well. In the early Summer the back part of it floods, making it very wet and muddy and less people like to go there, so there is a shorter loop as well. I personally don’t mind a bit of mud, or perhaps it is more than a bit… I may be part bog witch. It is hard to say. In any case, I revel in being out there this time of year when there is much less foot traffic, and I also tend to go somewhat off trail following deer trails and things. The beginning of Summer is loud. The plants all want to raise their voices, shout that they are alive and here. There is so much to see.
But, I must stop my Animist ramblings because I am getting away from the topic, which is the landwights. The wights in this particular area of woods are not all that fond of people. People have carved their names into tree trunks, people have harvested things like birch bark without using Honourable Harvest practices. The forest is uneasy of human visitors. I spent a long time building up my relationship with the landwights there so that they would let me pass through there safely. I have promised them I won’t take anything from that area, and they test me. Often something I very much want will appear right in my path. I have had to check myself many times to strengthen our relationship. And of course I always bring them something. Now they tolerate me. Sometimes they are still mischievous when I off-trail and send me in a few circles before letting me out, even though I have a good navigator usually. The energy does not feel malicious though anymore, they just like to play with me. Still, I will not off-trail in January in that area because I am afraid that I could get exposure. It is a tentative relationship, one in which I have to keep proving myself, but the area is so beautiful that it is its own reward.
Anyways, back in the early Summer of 2020 my relationship with the landwights there was not yet that strong. I was off work at that point as my work place was down to 3 staff. As a result I had lots of free time and nothing to do but hike or stay home because of the lockdown. During that time I hiked frequently. I also ordered a woodcarving kit off of Amazon and because to learn to wood carve. My first project was a gnome, just because I saw a design online and it seemed like an easy first project. I would carve on my balcony in the city. As I got close to completion though, I didn’t know what I would do with the gnome. I hadn’t really had a plan. Then I thought, perhaps if I left the gnome in the woods in that area it might make the landwights happy. So that is what I did. I went out there, off-trail, looking for the right spot. I found a hollow stump and put the gnome inside. It is quite far off-trail, so very few people were likely to find it. I figured if anyone did they would either take it or perhaps turn it into a geocache.
Since then I would go back from time to time just to see if the gnome was still there. For about a year it remained there, untouched. Then in the summer of 2021 I was walking towards the stump and noticed it looked different. I came closer to see that someone had either painted or etched to make the outside of the stump look like a faery home. I looked inside. The gnome was still there. I went back in December 2021 and discovered that in the hollow of the stump someone had placed an LED candle and a little bell. The gnome was still there.
Then it was about a week after the Vernal Equinox that I chanced back that way again and I decided to go check on my gnome. I left the trail and was trying to make my way through the deep snow. It was then that I heard a high-pitched noise. I was not yet in sight of the stump, but when I was I saw two women standing there. They were clearly performing some sort of ritual. I did not want to disturb them in the middle so I walked past to a place a short way away that I knew had a fallen tree I could sit on. It was my intention to wait them out and then talk to them, but it was bitterly and unseasonably cold that day. I sat on the log for awhile, and I could hear liquid being poured out and smell incense wafting on the air. I was a bit too far away to hear clearly what they were saying. It was so cold. I decided I need to move a bit farther away so that I could find a spot not shaded by trees so the sun could warm me. So I did. And then I sat in the sun waiting. The women were chanting and singing for a long time. When it finally stopped I made my way back to the spot, but they were gone. Somehow they had slipped past me.
I hope I stumble across them again this summer so we can talk, but I suspect that they are using the gnome as an idol to represent the landwights. I had no idea my little gnome would develop his own cult following, but I am delighted.
