Hearth & Horn

And trying to sum up my previous two got-out-of-hand draft responses in bullet points:


0. I am a huge fan of open culture, its a deep-held value for me. I love what comes out of experimentation, play, borrowing, recombining, and making things open and free as far as possible; my paganism has come out of freely available sources and giving myself permission to do this, and I want to encourage others to do the same.

1. Appropriation isn't relevant here; Fencraft is mostly me sat alone in my bedroom watching cheap 1970s television, it has none of the real weight associated with the appropriation of a living tradition

2. The concept that England has forgotten its gods comes out of a particular strand of longing in English pastoral writing, and the reality that we don't have a legendarium as rich even as that in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I think I wouldn't have developed this if I hadn't been in England.

But everywhere has a Landweird, both a hidden something in the landscape that the trees seem to whisper, and a lostness in history of culture that one may long to rediscover. All Landweirds are local, and I think you could find one anywhere. Despite how well attested their mythology is, Hellenic Fencraft would still make sense: it would be focusing on those elements of mystery and lostness and reverence for the sublime and the strange within that culture.

3. You could see Fencraft as a collection of priorities. Nothing in it is new, but it puts particular emphasis on, say, re-enchantment, the sublime in the landscape, the half-remembered-ness of divinities as part of their inherent characterstics rather than an inconvenience to work around.

You can apply that template anywhere

4. "Neo-Paganism" is an international culture, there's never really been an inconsistency for revering Brigit or Isis as an American. A big part of Fencraft is responding to trends in neoPaganism that weren't working for me. It intends to create solutions to problems like:

• Systems of gender-agnostic magic
• Ceremonial magic which does not appropriate from Jewish mysticism
• Spirit-work which does not appropriate from various traditions
• Engaging with pop culture but in a consistent way
• Responding to the landscape and folklore in a way that bridges reconstruction and pop-culture
• Being more than just “esoteric witchcraft”
• Being very disability friendly, with lots of practices which are low-spoon
• Being solitary-first, not feeling like you're constantly missing something by not having a coven
• Being somewhat like traditional witchcraft, but without all the secretive flim flam
• Wanting to create a roadmap for people who wanted to create their own religious tradition. A lot of Fencraft is just breaking down & making clear the processes of Doing A Spiritual, so people can apply them in new ways.
• Wanting a spiritual architecture which feels 100% pagan/fit-for-folklore (not re-skinned Christianity; no angels)

If you've had these problems, they'll be something in Fencraft responding to it, and I'm very supportive of people using the solutions if they also have been looking for them. Even if that's *just* pulling out the solution they need, and gnoring the best.

6. I'm writing this for myself, first and foremost, so it's focusing on British culture. Ultimately, I think I am open to reading more widely and bringing other influences in. But part of the concept of the Landweird is revealed by the Commonplace Book: a collaged collection of personal influences pointing towards something unexpressably divine. It's having had a sense of a pagan spirituality for a long time, and yet not finding a path or deity which really seems to match what I'm seeking.

So the process of creating a Commonplace Book and seeking the Landweird will always be a personal one; maybe a better term would be seeking *a* Landweird, or seeking a personal path to it, or seeking part of it. It's always going to be an ideosyncratic process. I mention cheap 1970s television so often, I think, to highlight that what you place in the Book will be personal, and maybe not shared by anyone else, so long as it's a way in for you.

7. If Fencraft was to spread as a “real” tradition, then it would be made up of individuals each developing their own mythology, united by certain principles and practices - but each person's pantheon would come to look very different. Each person's Reading List would be determined by where their curiosity led them (I don't really expect that anyone else get quite as into niche 70s television or hauntological music as I am, even though they are huge for what I do personally). And in terms of nationality, I imagine that there would be a sort of...consensus for each nation of what the important elements, Powers and texts of their collective Landweird was, but we're nowhere near identifying what that would be. I'd also say that one man's spiritual practices are not, on their own, a tradition - it takes multiple hands and eyes to really develop something that can last; it needs disagreement, experimentation, alternative approaches, to take on its own full life. At this stage, the Golden Dawn & its decendens have had around 100 years of development, and Wicca around half that: if they weren't ancient traditions at their inception, they certainly are now. If I have any hope that in the future, Fencraft will be mentioned in that kind of company, it needs to be more than my vision of the Landweird.