The Magic of Mountain Music

Hello all you lovely followers, and everyone else who stumbles upon this little humble blog. It has been about four months since I last updated it. I apologize for my absence. I have had a very busy summer, and even busier fall. I have been teaching a lot which is amazing. So if you have made it out to one of my classes "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" Without you wonderful people who are hungry for real authentic historic teachings I would not be able to do what I love. And that i bring all this information out to the public and share it so that these traditions do not disappear into the mists of the beautiful smoke that pours out of our mountains here in Appalachia.
I would like to say, "I promise to do better with the blogging, and be sure to update once a week, or once every two weeks, or even once month," but I know that I will most likely break that promise. So I won't make you all a promise that I will most likely not be able to see through. I will do my best, however, not to leave such a large time lapse between updates.

Painting by John Haywood, 2014

What I wanted to write about is the power and magic of music. We know that music has a profound effect on our psyches. Turning on the right song or the right instrumental can lift our mood when we are sad, makes us feel sad even when we are having the best day, it can be healing, and inspiring to name just a few emotions. But what about magical?

Singing and playing music has been used by all cultures in all times to express their emotions. Its also been used to worship divinity. There are plenty of verses from the bible stating that song and dance are forms of worship.
1 Chronicles 15:27 "Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. David also wore an ephod of linen."

The original settlers to the Appalachian Mountains brought their songs and dances with them. And those songs continue to be sung today. And while they may not seem worshipful I challenge you to listen to them siting outside in the cool fall air. Allow the words and instrumentation to flow over and through you. Allow the music to meld with your very being, and you will find that you are in a connection with the ancestral people of the mountains. Being connected to them spiritually through their songs, and their instruments (even if you are listening to a modern band) is a form of worship. Allow those tears to fall. Allow shouts of happiness to break free from your throat. Get up and dance if you need to. Even if there are people around. Worship isn't for other people. It is for you and your connection to this place.

Some of the songs I would suggest you sit and listen to are:
Barby Ellen performed by Jean RItchie

High on a Mountain performed by Ola Belle Reed

The Road to Kaintuck performed by Johnny Cash

WIldwood Flower performed by The Carter Family 

Conversation with Death performed by Berzilla Wallin

This past weekend I went back to Wise County, VA to visit my family. In Big Stone Gap they had their 46th annual Home Craft Days which combines local craftsmen and musicians from the area selling their wares and performing their music. I got there a little late, but got to catch the last performance of the day. John Haywood from Whitesburg, KY was playing the banjo and singing the old mountain music. I was mesmerized. I found myself tearing up to almost all of the music. THe instrumental pieces as well as the vocal pieces all spoke out to my hertiage, and to the spirit of Mother Appalachia and Father Alleghany. All the spirits of place were there listening, and I could feel them present. 

Video: John Haywood Playing Banjo and Singing Hook and LIne

You can find more music by John Haywood at Haywood Art and Tattoo

What songs and music stir your soul?

Legends of the Mountains: Woodbooger (AKA Bigfoot)

No one knows where it came from;

its been known 

for generations.

Over the last generation or so the creature has been known as the "WoodBooger". It is said to live in the wilderness of Jefferson National Forest in Wise and Scott County, VA. There are many theories about its beginnings and how it has survived all these years. 

Like any Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or Yeti legend it is believed to be a "hairy man" cryptid left over from some earlier version of man or ape. The WoodBooger lives happily on its own in the mountainous wooded terrain, and tries to avoid humans as much as possible. 

A few years ago a tv show called "Finding Bigfoot" produced an episode in the High KNob area of Wise, VA and the Woodbooger was the creature they hoped to find. 

The first time I ever heard of the creature it wasn't referred to as the "WoodBooger", but just a "hairy creature like the Bigfoot". I was around 7 years old sitting outside on the back porch one summer while my mother sun bathed, and I had just heard about Bigfoot. My mother mentions that we had a Bigfoot here, too! That she remembers hearing her uncles and brothers talking about hearing a terrible screaming sound out in the woods when they would be hunting, and seeing a huge hairy manlike creature running through the woods. It was huge and could jump high and swing from tree to tree using vines and its own long arms. 

From that moment on I started looking out into the woods with high hopes of catching a glimpse of this creature. Every strange sound I was sure was the creature. However, I never did catch a sight of it. 

One account of an interaction between man and the WoodBooger  was recounted in the Kingsport Times News (July 26, 2013; reported by Greg Peters):

"William Dranginis heads the Virginia Bigfoot Research Organization. Based in Aldi, Va., he takes reports of sightings, does interviews and even goes onsite looking for the elusive “hairy man.”Dranginis works full time for defense contractor Northrop Grumman and had little or no interest in Bigfoot until 1995.In March of that year, Dranginis and two friends were trying out a new metal detector in Culpeper County, Va. The three were looking for treasure in and around old gold mine shafts in the area. The mines were active during the Civil War.After a long morning of searching with no luck, they were returning to their vehicle on a country back road.“The two guys with me were FBI agents, one of them did three tours in Vietnam. Suddenly he threw up his arm and stated that there was a man behind a tree up ahead,” said Dranginis.Both agents drew their guns and pushed Dranginis to the rear.“I was looking in the area where a man’s head would be and then about three feet above that a black hairy face came out from behind the tree,” Dranginis added.The creature then moved across the road from left to right and made its way into the forest.“It moved with a fluid motion, it was covered in black hair. The shoulders were huge and you could see an area of gray on the upper back.”That event led him down a new path and into his current role as VBRO director. A search of his website found several reports of sightings in and around Southwest Virginia.Currently Dranginis is working an active case in Washington County near Saltville.A couple from North Carolina bought remote property in the area and were using it for camping. “The area is remote and can only be accessed by ATV. Their first night camping, they began to hear screams close by and got scared. They jumped on their ATV and left everything at the campsite,” said Dranginis. “As they drove off the husband turned around and saw something dark and close to 8 feet tall running behind them.”The couple waited over a week before returning for their equipment."

Since the episode of "Finding Bigfoot" aired Norton, VA has hosted a WoodBooger festival. It is a yearly event in October, and is slowly finding a larger audience. The City of Norton has also named the Flag Rock area of High Knob as a Bigfoot and Sasquatch Sanctuary.

Does the WoodBooger really stalk the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia? I like to think so. Growing up with stories and having my own experiences with boogers, haints, witches, and everything else that goes bump in the night I wouldn't disbelieve in this creature. 

I honestly think there might be a small clan or tribe of these creatures still living in relative anonymity in the almost impossible to reach areas of the wooded mountains. Just every once in a while man gets too close or one of the WoodBoogers wanders to far, and a glimpse is caught.

Just look at this small section of the mountain area that they can hide in!:

What do you think? 

Do you think there are WoodBoogers living in the mountains? 

Have you ever ran into one?

Appalachian Magic and Witchcraft: Introduction to Ancestors, Prayers and Cleansings

               The mountain I grew up on lay in a betwixt space. It lays between two towns, and the old home sits atop a mountain with a steep drop off behind it. Driving down the road about a mile and half if you turn left you will head down the state road into the small town of Coeburn, VA, and if you turn right you will drive about five miles and find yourself in the town of Wise, VA. Not only does my family home lie between two towns, but I grew up in a betwixt time. For well over a century coal reigned supreme in the small Southwest Virginia towns (and FYI Virginia does continue south past Roanoke). However, near the end of the 1970s coal began to lose its hold on the economy. More and more coal companies lay off the men, and closed up their mines. the economy of the 1980s for the Appalachian people was not a boom as it was for other areas in the country. Trickle down economics was a farce then, and continues to be a bane on my home land.

(source: family picture. Do not use without verifiable written permission from Ian Allan) 

              Why am I discussing this on a blog about Appalachian Witchery? Well, betwixt and between times are an important area in witchcraft. They allow the veil to open a bit more, and energies to seep through into the physical realm of humans. There are many places that between and betwixt at all times. Cemeteries, doorways, gallows (or sites where the gallows or executions took place), and church bell towers are just a few places that are liminal spaces. There are times and dates that are liminal, as well, these times are dawn, dusk, noon, and midnight and the dates are spring and fall equinoxes and May day and Halloween (Samhain). During this times, dates, and spaces it allows for the shifting of time and space. An old practice that I was told is that if you stand behind a door and look through its crack (where the door meets the hinges) at dawn, dusk, or midnight you can see into the other side, and you might see the dead or you might see the Fae. Liminal spaces can also be created when a society or a community is going through a shift. Usually these sorts of liminal spaces aren't as obvious as the other times, and they react with the time and space a little differently.
               I was born in 1983 about 5 years after the coal companies started having problems. I am not the only person born in the community that have had these experience that I am about to describe, but I am the only one (to my knowledge that has continued to learn and adapt control over these experiences). From a very young age I would have dreams about the past or about the future. It got to the point that in the morning my mom, sister, and I  would talk about our dreams just to see if there was anything in them that was important. It wasn't just dreams either. I started being visited by spirits. One spirit identified itself as Mary Magdalene (and I go into more detail about this in my essay that is included in the book (Finding the Masculine in the Goddess' Spiral). But then there were other spirits that would sit on my bed, and talk. I would walk into homes, or funeral homes and see people that no one else saw. Growing up during this time there was a rush in the area to distance themselves away from the "hillbilly" image, and all the connotations that came with it. However, there was also a deep desire to continue the old ways, and beliefs that had sustained the Appalachian region for so many centuries. I came of age during this betwixt time of learning in secret through stories, gossip, and just doing what I was told in the ways of Appalachian Folk Magic, and on the other hand I was being taught everything secular by the community about how to act and fit into the world at large. To say there was an identity crisis is a bit of an understatement. At the age of 13 my family took a day trip to Salem, MA while we were visiting family in Connecticut, and I purchased my first deck of tarot cards. This was also the first time I heard people calling themselves witches, and no one being shocked by it. When we got home I became fevered with learning everything I could about modern Wicca and Witchcraft. I decided that I would leave all of my culture behind (because what did they know?!) During this time I found some answers as to how to control my clairvoyance, clairsentience, and answers to other spiritual questions I was having at the time.
               I have began to write small 30-40 page booklets about the spiritual folk practices in the Appalachian Mountains. I hope to have the first booklet printed and ready to ship by the end of July. Below is an excerpt from the introduction to the booklet. I hope you enjoy it.

(source: self drawn. Do not use without verifiable written permission from Ian Allan) 

Introduction

I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains. Born and raised on the outskirts of a small town called Wise. Wise is situated in the coal country of the Appalachian Region. Just down in the southern most tip of Virginia; a short 30-minute drive to Kentucky, an hour drive to Tennessee, and an hour and a half drive to West Virginia.

I was born in what I can only describe as a betwixt and between time for that region. Coal had been king for nearly half a century, and suddenly its reign was falling. However, coal was not fully dethroned then (or now). Currently, the coal industry is in its last phases of life in the area that I grew up in and around. Coming of age at the time I found myself living in a very small community that desperately clung to the “old” ways, and parts of the community desperately trying to find to save and move the community into the 21^st century. To say the least myself, as well as, a good number of my peers found ourselves having cultural identity crises by the time we graduated high school. We fought hard not to be too Appalachian. We struggled to find ourselves in “modern” society of MTV, the WB channel, and the movies that permeated our TVs and psyches. Wise County was not our future. The future was out there in laces like New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Miami. These mountain towns were dying, and we better get out while the getting was good. Most of them did get out. Some of us left and returned. Some, like me, never left. I now live about an hour away from my hometown of Wise, VA in a small college town in the northeastern part of Tennessee.

It wasn’t until my sophomore year in college that I discovered just how lucky I was to be born and raised in these mountains. I am eternally grateful to my composition professor, Amy Clark, who had the class collect oral histories and write it out. I met with my Great Aunt Fern who shared so many stories, memories, recipes, and more with me. Many of the stories I remembered hearing growing up, but had forgotten over the years. After that class and assignment my love affair with my home and mountains was in full bloom. To this day 15 years later my love for this area is still going strong.

I grew up on the top of a mountain surrounded by many aunts, cousins, uncles, and other families who lived there as long as my family had; they too were considered family as well. It was a very close-knit community out on the mountain. It was also impossible to get away with anything without getting into trouble. It’s always a very fond memory to think back to those times, and everything I learned. My sister and I spent a lot of time at my mamaw’s house, and she was either visiting someone or someone would be visiting her. On the days it would just be us we would have lunch made, usually boiled chicken legs and a diet mountain dew. Mamaw would share stories from time to time about growing up, and how things had changed. My aunts, who were actually my great aunts, would visit often. They would bring food, stories, and most importantly medicine and tonics, and pure moonshine. When the family got together or when the neighborhood would get together this was the primetime to hear all the stories the children weren’t supposed to hear. I grew up on ghost stories, witch stories, salvation stories, moonshine stories, the “bless her heart” stories, and the “ I can’t believe so-and-so did that” stories. But the ghost and witch stories were always my favorite. As I’ve gotten older I’ve discovered how much power and magic are in all the other stories as well. Especially the church and salvation stories. It is impossible to extricate faith from the folk magic, and “witchcraft” of the Appalachian region. For many neo-pagans, wiccans, and other types of earth based practitioners the Christian faith has left many of them hurt, wounded, angry, and scarred. While that has unfortunately been the new brand of some Christian churches it is not the type I encountered in my family’s home growing up.

So where do we go from here? How do I practice an authentic form of Traditional Appalachian Witchcraft? Truth is there is no one type or tradition in the Appalachian Mountains. Let me repeat that THERE IS NO ONE TRADITION IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS. However, the different styles of practice were similar. It is very important to note here that there is also no calling on foreign deities of Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, Mesopotamia, or any other foreign and ancient land. Anyone teaching a version of Appalachian magic including foreign pagan pantheons is not teaching an authentic form of Appalachian Magic. There was devout faith in the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. While deeply protestant ranging from myriad types of Baptists to Methodists, to Pentecostals, and to holiness there was not a lot of love or acceptance of Catholicism or Catholics. However, many homes contained a lot of Catholic art because it was pretty and inspired faith.

It is important to state here if you can’t disassociate magical and spiritual workings from an antichristian prejudice you probably want to put this book down now. But if you can separate them, and see the beauty in the old ways you can be assured to find inspiration and guidance. I firmly believe to read and learn from as many sources as possible, and take what you need and leave the rest.

In this first booklet you will discover the beginning steps to incorporating an Appalachian practice into your life. As I stated previously the people of Appalachia were usually devout Christians in some form or fashion. Their practices, prayers, and spell work are usually down through and using a Christian theology. They did sometimes work with the spirits of the land, and the hidden invisible spirits of faery and other creatures. However, by and large their workings are through a Christian filter. I present them here as they were handed down. Feel free to adjust and use whatever cultural and spiritual context you are comfortable using.

 What I present to you here is one family’s way of working. Gathered from my time seeing, being taught in person, gathered from family stories, and a little from what my taught me often after they passed on to the other side.

So let’s begin. Come on in, and sit a while. Grab yourself a cup of coffee, a cathead biscuit and sop up the gravy. 

Oral History

“Nothing is ever over, nothing is ever ended, and worlds open up within the world we know.” 
― Lee Smith, Oral History

Poem found in my Mamaw's bible

Oral history is defined as "a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies." (Source)

The importance of collecting oral history can not be stressed enough. Without collecting oral history we will lose the knowledge, the stories, and lessons that the previous generations have gathered and learned. Oral history is a collaborative interview between a source and the collector. It does not include things such as wire tappings, recorded historical events or speeches, etc. It is a specific experience of collecting usually through recording the interview a person's personal stories, ideas, and opinions. 

The idea of collecting oral history may not seem to be terribly exciting or even beneficial. I used to think that as well. Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains during the 1980s and the 1990s I wanted nothing more than to escape the area that seemed to want to smother and oppress me. The future was "out there" in the big cities and other countries. That is where the important things were happening and the important people were doing things (important things, or famous things, you know the thoughts that teenagers have about how anything not of their place of origin is better than what they have always known.) And so I was determined to distance myself from my home place and land. 

Cue my freshmen or sophomore year at the local college (University of Virginia's College at Wise). Like all college freshmen I had to take english composition, but my professor had a different assignment for the class. We had to collect oral history from someone either in our family or someone from the community, and transcribe the recording. All of the oral histories were then bound in a small booklet, and we were all given a copy. This assignment changed my life. 

Louisa Hall Nash
Matriarch of the Nash Clan of Wise County, Virginia
My G-G-Great Grandmother

I interviewed my Great Aunt Fern about anything and everything she wanted to share. I started with ghost stories, witch stories, and then just allowed the conversation to flow to the memories and thoughts as Fern wanted to tell them. As I transcribed the interview I started to realize how important this assignment truly was to me, the community, and to society at large. Aunt Fern shared a history that normal history books would never gather or know or report. A history of family and community, a history that included beliefs of the supernatural, the natural, the spiritual, and beyond. She shared funny stories about teachers coming to school in sleds, and mournful stories about infant mortality. 

"Perhaps any life is such: different stories like different strands, each distinct in itself, each true, yet wound together to form one rope, one life.” 
― Lee Smith, Guests on Earth

By gathering these stories I not only learned about a silent history, but I learned about family and myself. I also fell in love with my Appalachian Mountain home. 

Poem found in Mamaw's bible

It is vital that the information from our elders is gathered, collected, and remembered. There is so many vital skills, knowledge, memories, and music among others that are at a risk for being lost to time. Once the elders die that is it for their memories. Their stories, their memories, their skills, etc will fade away never again to be gathered. 

I encourage everyone to start collecting their family's oral histories, and transcribe them. Save the digital copies on multiple devices so that they are not lost. 

You will not be sorry that you spent the time and energy doing this. I can say once your grandparents and parents pass away you will be sorry that you did not collect their stories. Because once they are gone they are gone. 

Part 1: A contemporary Appalachian Working Perspective

Appalachian practices can be applied to your life wherever you live. You do not need to be present and living in Appalachia to benefit from the earth based practices that were taught, shared, and lived by the Appalachian people.  Just as you do not have to be living in Norway or Sweden to benefit from working with the Norse Gods, nor do you have to be living in Scotland or Ireland to benefit from working with Brigid or Caileach, etc. 

I have been contemplating the idea of teaching some of the practices that I follow. I have had no qualms about offering history of Appalachian practices, and the folklore of the many nationalities of people who settled within these hills. However, the idea of offering up parts of my own practice has been at times a battle in my head. I feel there is a great need to dispel a lot of beliefs and myths that are connected with witches, and some of these ideas are more recent inventions than some writers and practitioners would have you believe.

So with all that said I am not going to set down and write a long wordy lengthy essay on how my way of practicing is better than any one else's way of practicing. What I am going to say is my path and practices work for me, and I have tweaked them and thrown some out in order to better connect with the way of Wyrd, and the earth in a meaningful exchange.

The first thing you should do is begin a conversation with nature, the old gods, and the land spirits (spiritus loci). It doesn't have to be some great lengthy dialogue filled with thee's and thou's. Just talk normally.

Introduce yourself to the air and wind, to the rain and water, to the sun and flame, to the earth and trees. Let them know that you are desiring to work with them.

It is still al title cold here in the mountains cold, but there is just enough warmth for the next step. Slip your socks and shoes off, and plant your feet into the ground. Press down into the dirt allowing the grass and dirt to push back into your arches and between your toes. Feel the coolness and possibly coldness of the earth as it is beginning its awakening for the Spring. Speak your introduction out and into the wind.

Make it sincere

Make it heartfelt

Make it honest

When you start to speak your introduction allow the spirits to know your name. Let them know you seek and desire a working a relationship with them.

The next step is to begin to walk. Take a short trip through the land. It can be a local park, your own property, a cemetery (my personal favorite), the woods, the desert, just some quiet place where you can be alone with nature.

As you walk begin a dialogue with the spirits again. Acknowledge them by speaking your name again, and reminding of the precious introduction. Continue walking, and ask the old gods and the Spiritus Loci to give you an amulet to show that they are willing to work with you. Gently sweep the landscape with your eyes and heart open. The gift could be as simple as a stone, a feather, a branch or limb of a tree. It could even be more than that; you may stumble upon a bone from an animal or a wing from a bird.

Once you find this gift pick it up, and hold it close to your heart. Offer your thanks to the Spirits and the old gods. Tuck it away somewhere safe until you can get it home.

The most important part of this ritual is to give thanks to the old gods and the spiritus loci. The gift and acknowledgment must match the amulet. If you were gifted a bird's wing or feather then an offering of bird seed may suffice. If it was a bone perhaps offering some of your own blood back to the earth would be the most appropriate. Whatever gift you receive you need to think long about the appropriate offering to give back in exchange for the gift that you were given.

This amulet will be very powerful and useful throughout your walk along this crooked path of traditional witchcraft. It is the old gods and spiritus loci's acknowledgment that they are willing to work with you, and they are accepting of you as you presently are to walk the path with them.

Once you have the amulet/gift home once a day take at least 10-15 minutes to mediate with the item. As you meditate with the item visualize a protective color emanating from around the item and surrounding you in a sphere of color. Allow this light energy to fill your space. You are creating a protective shield around yourself with the Old Gods' power.  

Practice this mediation daily for at least a month. 

Now what if you don't feel that you have found your amulet on this first go around?

Do not be disheartened. Perhaps you just need to spend some more time talking with nature, the spiritus loci, and the old gods before they feel ready to begin a relationship with you. Think about it like any other relationship that you will have or have had in your life. You like to take some time to get to know a new person before taking them into your house, and showing them your possessions and telling them your secrets, right? It is the same with the old gods and the local land spirits.

Give offerings to both the local land spirits and to the old gods. Talk with them daily. Sit in quiet contemplation outdoors, and when it gets too cold to be outdoors; sit quietly near a window or with pieces from nature surrounding you concentrating on these spirits.

Then after a moon cycle of these practices take another stroll through a place of power out in nature, and talk to the spirits again.

Allow the magic of the land to guide you.

Next Month I will post

Part 2: How to use the gift as a protective amulet, and how to use it to connect to the Old Gods' wisdom.