On reflection, I feel I may have been a little hasty in calling this my "Craft Name". Makes an excellent descriptive online alias when "Hedgewitch" feels too generic though.
I've been reading through the message boards at Paganbrum.co.uk (link's in the Blogroll) and there seems to be a general sense that a person's Craft Name is something personal and secret to be shared between the practitioner, coven and the Sprits. Never having been in that situation, I can only bow to their greater experience.
As a solitary "novice", I have thoughts of my own on the subject:
Names, those private titles we share with the Divine, have a certain power. Knowing the name of someone gives you a powerful sense of familiarity and responsibility to that person or entity. A name is a special thing you only give out to those who really deserve to know it.
It's also been said that certain practises and titles help to set the Witch apart from the world around them and helps prepare them for the Pathworking or Spellworking they are to embark on.
Fair enough. My feelings - and these are only my particular feelings on the subject and not a judgement on the way others practise their Craft - are somewhat different, or at least similar, but from a different angle.
I hold the world around us as being a vessel for the Divine, each thing, animal mineral or vegetable contains an element of Deity within it. When I want to commune with the Divine, the last thing I feel like doing is shutting part of that Divinity out of the conversation. I embrace the World as my temple and Deity. As a result, I don't feel I'd be doing the right thing to alter the conditions or settings when I want to conduct a ritual, celebrate a Sabbat or Esbat or meditate on a subject.
I'm fascinated by how much or how validly one can integrate Pagan practises into one's daily life: For example, I hadn't gathered the materials I wanted to build an Altar at Samhain last year, so instead, we carved a pumpkin together and I made a display of candles and Pagan-themed objects on the mantel and kept it there (minus the pumpkin after a week or so) until Imbolc, when I swapped the display for fresh flowers, pot plants and blossom scented incense. I'd look at these displays, light the tealights and big candles and sit thinking about the meaning of the festival it was supposed to represent.
As happens in an imperfect house, the mantel now is a little cluttered, but I've reserved a shelf in our living room for our Pagan supplies - Tarot Deck, Divination cards, books on interesting subjects and a symbol of each of the elements. This kind of thing appeals to my distrust of formality and ritual.
Call it a crisis of faith, but the longer I go without finding like-minded people, the more I find myself questioning whether I should be using the title of Hedgewitch, even though it's the one I find most comfortable using.
