What is Landcraft?

[haptalaon]

I am ready to launch the first stage of the Landcraft correspondence system, which organises all things in terms of the Solar, the Lunar and the Stellar.

The purpose of the Landcraft correspondence system is to be an alternative to the four classical elements, the gender binary, and the Tree of Life, an underlying system of magic for people who do not wish to use the standard correspondence systems for various reasons;  a system of correspondences which, additionally, feels earthy and pagan, organic and authentic to the land and the folklore beneath our feet. It is an open system: you may combine it with any other pagan tradition, not only Fencraft; as well as re-mixing and hacking it for your own purposes.

Now available:

• An overview chart of the correspondence system, summarising its binaries and contrasts
• The Wanderer's Map, the way that the three celestials* come together to make a map of our world, our cosmology, our folklore and the otherworlds
• A summary of what each of the three represents: the Solar, the Lunar, and the Stellar.

I hate the term "celestial", hate it hate it hate it, and very much welcome other suggestions.

These parts of the system have been fixed and certain for around two years now. The next step for Landcrafting is to release the fuller correspondence charts (colours and so forth), pin down how the dual-celestials work (concepts like the Solar-Lunar, the inbetween elements), and how they interact with physical elements (like Fire, Land, Water, and so forth). And then finally - the big bit that's still missing - how you actually *use* them in ritual and magic, which is still eluding me.

I've also written a first masterpost of Rural Psychogeography, works exploring the hidden mysteries of the land. I am now obsessed with Chanctonbury Rings.

Mood? A deep, relaxed, mellow breathing-out of satisfaction, completeness and success.

Comments

[annofowlshire]

> it seems Landcraft is for English people, or at least people who are in England.

I am obviously not Hap, but I can empathize with a similar identity crises when it comes to pretty much all neo-pagan things. (I think a lot of people can.) I’m half Korean and half white American Euro-blend, and I’ve immigrated to the UK. So I guess I have that last bit of living in England now, but I have a mixture of other things going on, too. How do I resolve East and West? I always felt really out of sync with the heavily Celtic aspects of Wicca and mainstream paganism when I was in America.

That said, I think the 3 practices and concepts of local spirits and gods are elements of Fencraft/Landcraft which can be applied anywhere and so you could view yourself as using “elements of Landcraft,” in your personal practice, if not the English-centric tradition. In my identity crises mentioned above, I mostly just have nameless local and family spirits I work with. I move often, some travel with me, some stay behind.

(That said, I have no idea how Hap feels about that. I just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone.)

[ilthit]

Heh, the question of local spirits is kind of broad in Belgium. There are medieval manuscripts of priests in my neighbourhood complaining about worship of Hecate at the crossroads, does that make her a local spirit? That's why I like the idea of carrying gods with me rather than finding them here under the layers of floating faith, folktales and sheep-trampled history that this place has.

And thank you! I appreciate that. <3

[haptalaon]

Hecate at the crossroads is matched by similar uses of Diana, and also Herodias/Salome, as Biblical/Classical names given to a queen of the witches, or sometimes, queen of the fairies figure.

It's this part of folklore that really gets me fired up, like that crossing-place between reconstruction and pop culture. You could call it...medieval pop culture, almost. You could relate it back to the actual worship to these Greek/Roman deities, OR you could use the Murray hypothesis and say, these were actual ancient deities of place which were called by these names by learned academics of the era, divinities that were closest to Hecate out of all the Greek pantheon but ultimately their own thing, their uniqueness lost in the passage of time; OR something entirely made up by paranoiac aldermen and lawmakers that was nevertheless believed to exist, and which still have a hold on the imagination today.

There's something, in the middle of all that not-knowingness, which I find extremely crunchy and compelling. Far more than anything that can be proved with actual history.

[ilthit]

That's the thing, mythology and folklore both are LAYERS of sometimes conflicting versions of the same thing, or different things under the same name. Ideas travel and transform. I may still be trying to justify taking up any kind of practice at all... or to understand how to do so, how to be authentic while allowing for the mutability of ideas.

[haptalaon]

I'd agree with all of this :)


And a big part of what I'm putting together is focusing on that "nameless local and family", with a real focus on the divinity of the "nameless" part. Its less about where a spirit is or comes from, more about emboldening people to be OK with not-knowing and not having a clear named historic figure or pantheon, and that being a Real Thing, not just rootless eclecticism.

[ilthit]

I love that!