Letters from the Devil's Forest Quotes

“Is it any surprise that the Unseen world _might_ have a climate of anger towards humans? That countless disenfranchised and ignored spirits, and the lost souls of countless species driven to extinction in the space of a few decades, and the lost souls of countless forests clear-cut without restraint might make the shadow-world boil with rage?”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“There is no "spirit over matter"- there is only spirit in matter, always, forever. That's what wholeness is, and that's the key to Elfhame.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Be not afraid of the universe. Nothing that has happened is unnatural, fallen, evil, or otherwise a "problem". This is organic naturalism- nothing is "above" nature, and therefore, nothing is "supernatural". It just happens that Nature is so deep, so full of depths and heights, that our range of everyday mind fails to capture much that exists- "for all that is seen, nine things are unseen." Nothing that you will encounter in this world or the next is unnatural, nor is it ultimately alien. Be not afraid.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“After observing animals for millions of years, as our most important intellectual activity, we deformed the messenger itself. We made our animal fellow something to be possessed rather than someone to be encountered as a spiritual being. Our prehistoric “agreements” with the animal nations, our “negotiations” with wild animals, were once the biggest part of human culture. This was not a simple “identification with nature,” as the conservationists phrase it today. It was a lifetime work, to build covenants, or treaties of affiliation, with the nations of the Others.

With domestication wild things became the enemies of tame things, materially and psychologically. The wild unconscious of mankind, its fears and dreams and subconscious impulses, lost their affiliation or representation by wild things, and those were the very things by which, for a million years, we had worked out a meaningful relationship with the sentient universe. The wild unconscious was driven away into the wilderness. We began to view the planet as a thing, rather than a thou.” We began to see our world as an organism to be possessed, rather than a spiritual moment to be encountered."

-J.T. Winogrond”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Here is home; here is before life; here is afterlife. Here are the sacred powers, appearing as trees, animals, winds, oceans, sunlight. They are persons, too, though they appear differently than human persons, and speak differently. And to them we owe everything. We are of their great family.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Before villages and settlements began "dividing" themselves away from the "outside" world, which could only have occurred when they became permanent settlements tied to agriculture, there was no Hedge dividing the world of humans and animals from the "spirit world." The Hedge is a metaphysical reality only to the extent that we make it so. And we no longer consciously make it so; we unconsciously conceptualize our experience of this world in that way, and thus, a lot of time has to be spent learning to "cross the hedge" or put our minds into a condition that lets it experience *more* of reality, including reality's hidden (to us) reaches.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“When I was a child, I could keep myself busy in the backyard for hours with nothing more than sticks and rocks. Since becoming an adult, I have lost that great power, that intense connection with the heart of things, which blossomed as nothing more (or less) than simple imagination- unquestioned, untroubled, and unbounded.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“There was a time when the mighty powers were enough- to be under the infinity of the circle of the sky, to taste the earth's richness, to see deer running through thicket and wood- to sit around fires and taste meat sizzled over coals, and bread baked directly in clay ovens- for countless millennia, that was enough. To be awed by thunder's crashing display, without the super-safety of modern buildings to shield you, that can be a real "religious" experience, if you catch my drift. One understands what "power" really means when one faces the Storm in that way. To see night fade into day- or see day pale into night, in the way we seldom do- that too, can fulfill a soul, can teach it wondrous things.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“If I went to some spirits and busted my arse for them to help them, and then heard them telling one another "All the humans are really one human", so let's thank Human for what he did!" And then I heard them later saying "I wonder if the Robin Artisson aspect of Human can be called upon for help with anything else?" I think I'd be looking for other beings that were mature enough to take responsibility for actual relationships, and accord other beings the dignity of full personhood.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“The Inuit shaman Aua, in his discussions with his ethnographer Rasmussen, told a different story- a story that has moved me and continues to move me, to this day. Aua told Rasmussen about Sila- the spirit who indwells the wind of this world- and how Sila spoke to people at times, mysteriously, and with a totally non-threatening voice. Sila's repeated message? "Be not afraid of the universe.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“In my perfect world, no one could believe stories of far away "heavens" for the dead, because the dead are always so very close. And no one believes stories of "hells" because hell is only the feeling you have when you think those you love the most are far away.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“To out give another is the heart of social virtue, not to outgain another. Because giving is so prominent, hardly anyone goes without. And those who give more than others couldn't care less if this is so- they have what they need already, and are happy that others do, too. That's all. They don't think about it any further than that. And there is no need to.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“In my perfect world, foot travel is everywhere common, and people don't like the idea of speedily, rapidly getting place to place. To take one's time getting somewhere is an act of wisdom, an act of communion with the Land and the "places between" places. In this world I'm describing, people get together quite often just to talk about the dreams they've had recently. People also have easy access to the solitude of the wilderness. Solitude is one of the most sacred of all powers; it can create sanity or restore it with ease.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“This isn't grim. Life's radiance and intensity wouldn't be there without death. We can make friends with it. It is not contrary to our natures, nor destructive to our ultimate good as beings. It is not a curse from the Gods nor a mistake in the structure of the universe. Death cannot undo anything that is real. Nothing real can ever be destroyed; Great Nature is not so shoddily designed.
Death is Nature's agent of passivity. "Come, rest a while, and understand that "not doing" can do many things.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“By your Owl Ever-Watchful By your Broom that sweeps the Land of souls By your Geese who bark in the Sky By the Deer who are your herd in the wood By your Caudle that boils the dark remains of former worlds, By your loom that weaves dreams and nightmares, By your Black Dog that menaces the wicked, By your Wheel, Key and Thrice Locked Door, Let the cup overflow with your shadow and your ardor- Let me drink and be whole by your mighty leave; Let me greet the stars and touch the earth Made Red by your beneficence.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Odin is believed to have his origin in an ancient storm god- a grim spirit of storms and winds, who was linked to the dead. His name refers to a “wild fury”, as only the winds and storms can deliver- and as only the inspired soul, the soul “in-spired”, or “filled with windy respiration” can understand or manifest.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“He commands winds and spiritual winds that whip the mind into sorcerous inspiration. His voice is the whisper of winds, the calm seduction of the cool breeze, and the roar of storms.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“They move stone to stone, stream course to stream course, star track to star track, fire-flown spark to night above, the screams of bairns they urge on, and the moans of the violently slain. They have no origin but origin itself; they have pale white skin and coal dark eyes, seeing beyond seeing, cruel beyond cruel, sheltering beyond sheltering, giving beyond giving. The elfin knight-lord leads them; cavalier, twirling wand, taming his gray horse, making visions, deceiving eyes, calling away, working baleness, working peace, striking at will, striking at all in unguessable order. He leads hunters; he leads the wild rout, he leads the winds and the storms. It is he the winds all fear; his magic has made men and women to love one another and hate one another.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Merkur's analysis of the highly potent and omnipresent mythology of the Wind Indweller among the various Inuit people is revealing as well. Called Sila by them, or Kaila, or many other versions of that name, he is a helper to shamans because he teaches "magical words"- the wind in their bodies made into sound- and guards the natural order of the world, protecting the world from defilement by enforcing the true natural law which shamans and wise people are privy to. He is master of the weather, the Great Lord of the World-Wind (The literal "great spirit") who animates the whole world, and in conjunction with the Earth Indweller below, brings forth living creatures, animating them with breath.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Some examples from Cornwall are illustrative; the Bucca- a name and term derived from the same source as Puck- is seen as having power over storms, and his "voice" is said to be carried on the wind from over the sea.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Merkur's statement "indwellers are specific in location to the phenomenon whose forms they impart" reveals something immediately- that two specific Indwellers- the masculine-depicted being who Indwells the Wind (and the sky and weather), and the feminine-depicted being who Indwells the Earth itself, are universal Indwellers, to be found at every moment, anywhere you could be on earth beyond being on a boat in the middle of an ocean, on which you would still encounter the Wind Indweller- and, if you went down deep enough, the Earth Indweller's "body", the Earth itself, is still present.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Merkur completes his superb analysis of the concept of "indweller" by stating: Outside the human mind, indwellers are specific in location to the phenomenon whose forms they impart. Like the phenomenon, they may variously be unchanging, mutable, or destructible. In principle, all phenomenon are structured by indwellers. In practice, only a few major indwellers, whose changes have important consequences for Inuit well-being, have prominence within Inuit religion: the Indweller in the Wind, The Indweller in the Earth... the Sea Mother, the Moon Man, and locally, the indwellers in coves, capes, etc. Indwellers are completely autonomous and disinterested in people. Inuit can hurt themselves by abusing indwellers, or derive benefits by being in accord with them. In both cases, indwellers are what they are, with neither positive nor negative ambitions towards human beings. Because the Wind Indweller has a stern personality, Arctic weather is often fierce. In summer, his temper is better. Because the Sea Mother is jealous and vindictive, the sea is dangerous and miserly in its provision of game. Because the Moon Man has a benevolent disposition, the moon casts a benign light during the long winter nights. Neither the basic temperaments of the Indwellers, nor the consequent characteristics of the phenomenon in which they indwell are determined by human activity. However, because indwellers are anthropopsychic, they are not beyond the reach of social intercourse.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Come, Robin Goodfellow, I give you these treats:
A soft ground warmed by straw-burning fire;
A maukin draped with elegant attire;
Honey'd wine, the more to pleasure thee-
A 'mess of white milk and bread' for your standing fee.
Come, Good Master, and make a happy sound:
Stamp your cloven feet 'pon this merry ground.
Your Lady's brow is fair, her face is sweet,
Her mouth is red and her mouth is neat,
For Her love, come to this merry ground.
Come, Robin Goodfellow, and some call Buck-
Whether name they you 'Hobbgoblin' or 'Sweet Puck',
Every day you give them mirth,
And every day you give them luck.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“All Hallows Eve has come. The timeless turning of the Sky has whirled and rushed, creaked and groaned, and finally aligned with a hallowed doorway of Sabbat embedded in the great whiteness and darkness behind it. The day begins to fade; a long Owl-light heralds the hidden season of mists, the ancient winter, the carnival of misrule. Shadows grow lengthy; the sun turns red and then black, and the air is dark. The screaming of insects, the sound of the bullbat, the barks and growls of creatures unseen all begin to permeate the nighted woodlands. The air is chilly, but that cold isn't only the weather; it is the cold of Elfhame seeping out into the human world.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“At the Sabbat-moot, they are not the people their neighbors know; here, under the black sky, on the black earth, before the blazing altar of ancient flame, they are the undying race of the Master Spirit, the children of the White Beast, the children of the generous and devouring Land, the undying double-faced Matriarch. They are the gleeful and terrifying offspring of the Great Dark, the infinite and mysterious origin of all beings, a Perpetual Parent who has no body, no head, no name, only a strange hidden motion and a Fateful presence lost in silence and stillness.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“There can be no doubt- no doubt- that the Krampus-host is another Ancestral-folkloric memory of the actual, objectively-existing Hobbmen. The Hobbs, the Hairy Ones, the Master's goatish and bestial servitors who are indwellers in this very wild Nature that covers the world in forestland and mountains. From the Seirim of the old Semites to the Saytrs of the Greeks, we aren't dealing with different beings, just different human groups remembering those beings in their own distinct ways. Their Master is always the same- Azael as the leader of the Seirim, Pan as leader of the Satyrs- always the "Goatish" God, always the Master.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Morntide is for provoking new situations, and daytide for doing what needs to be done- propelling forces- to bring them into midday. Midday is for adding fuel to already burning bright-fires, as it were. Midday is for sustaining works and healing in the sense of strengthening a sick body or situation so that it can fight and win. Undorne and eventide are for withering things away, changing what is established, and healing in the sense of deleting harmful conditions of an illness. Midnight is for killing things, or fixing or binding things to some end, or ending something about oneself or another to birth a new being in its place- initiation, that is. And Uht... is the weird time, when other works, particularly divinations, perhaps, are best done. Uht is the metaphysical "thirteenth hour.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Every day/night cycle has eight divisions. Here they are, with their rough corresponding times:
4:30-7:30 AM: Morntide
7:30-10:30 AM: Daytide
10:30 AM -1:30 PM: Midday
1:30-4:30 PM: Undorne
4:30-7:30 PM: Eventide
7:30-10:30 PM: Nighttide
10:30 PM- 1:30 AM Midnight
1:30-4:30 AM: Uht

Yeah, it's true. Got a "working to do at midnight?" It can be started as early as 10:30, or go as late as 1:30, and still be "done" at midnight, in the old reckoning.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Her people were once dead, yet they live; they have sloped heads like stones, eyes like berries, breath like breezes, laughter like crows, skin like stream-wet sand, bodies like ghosts, worlds like visions in the night, and yearnings that mortals sometimes share. Their Lordly king is so broad and handsome, so full of strength; the King and Queen's tables are always full of generous portions of fruit and meat, of honey and finest breads. Great and hairy cows cry out and make their frightful noises in the Elf-king’s mighty herd. Look into the hollow places of the earth for their pleasant and darksome land. Look to the bloodstained stone-side and hillside for their old feasting tables. Look to your own hide and innards for their portal and resounding gulf.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism

“Now, let's go one stage deeper. It's a powerful, and potent thought- you make the butterfly "real" in the same way, and in the same moment, it makes you "real"- through sensing. And the eagle, flying high above, looking down on you and the butterfly alike, make you both real. And Earth and sky- together sensing all their many children- make them all real. And those many children, celebrating earth and sky's many environs make them real. The stability and solidity of the world is nothing other than a massive exchange of power through sense.
"Man is the dream of the dolphin", some song once said. There's more to it than you imagine.”
― Robin Artisson, Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism