The Symbolism & Magic of the Hedgerow

In this week’s community class (which you can watch for free on my YouTube channel along with over 100 other classes), I chatted a bit about the hedgerow or hedge and what this physical landmark means in my practice both symbolically and practically.

Hedges are natural of human-planted oases of wildness that are used to demarcate boundaries between lands, crops, or towns. They act like natural fences that help grid the land with boundary and intent. Within the wilds of the hedge, we find a bustling ecosystem of animals, birds, insects, and the occasional human adventure. Since hedges often criss-cross cultivated lands such as farms, gardens, or meadows, they act as a crucial safe space for wild animals to find refuge.

The physical nature of the hedge has its potent symbolic meaning, too. While the hedge separates the cultivated from the wild, this side from that side, they also act as a boundary between our world and the other world- in my tradition of practice, this is of course the world of the Fayerie (Fairy, Fae). By working with the hedge symbol, we can perform feats of spirit flight whereby the traveling part of our souls is able to leave the physical nature of our world and step over into the ways of the spirit world, the world of otherness.

This is crucial for the plant spirit sorcerer because we work hard to learn directly from the plant spirits and their guardians and stewards while also working to gain dual citizenship in our world and theirs. The otherness of the plants is rooted in this Fayerie realm- one that runs parallel to our own world, existing as the spiritual matrix or substrate from which our own familiar world arises and is given power.

Here’s the video for this week’s class on the symbolism and magic of hedgerows… I hope you enjoy!