Really stupid question

[Crystal Raven]

On one of my other posts someone pm'ed me and pointed out that a Recon is just a Kitchen or Hedge Witch within cultural/historical bounds.

Humour me please, just so my poor brain is not so fuddled...and I know each person will have their own definition etc...just the general average concensus

What is a Kitchen Witch
What is a Hedge Witch
What is a Reconstructionist

[Sage Rainsong]

It's certainly not a stupid question. I will warn you though they can mean different things do different people (with the possible exception of recons) But here is my take on it.

A kitchen witch is simply a magic user, who may or may not be wiccan, whoes magic is focused in and around the kitchen. There spells tend to be simple and they use things that are readily available in their kitchen. An example may be that they will use their steak knife for a ritual knife.

A hedge witch is something that Im not too sure about because its hard to pin down. The term seems relatively new. They are witches that tend to be solitary and non-tradition specific. A romantic image that seems to be used often is the image of an old lady who lives just outside the village that people go to for spells. Other than that Im not sure what else to tell you. Maybe there are hedge witches here.

A reconstructionist is someone who tries to reconstruct the religions as well as the rituals of a particular pagan culture as much as possible. There are many kinds of reconstructionists (Roman Celtic Greek ect). Often they don't practice magic.

Hope this helps!

[argento_occhi]

As an added bit to the definition of reconstructionists, I don't think it's correct to say that often they don't practise magick. They may practise their own form of magick, which might be very different to the witchcraft style of magick with circles and emelemts and such things. Kemetic heka is very different to that sort of magick, but that doesn't make it not magick. It just makes it a different way of practising magick. It all depends on how you define magick to begin with and whether the culture/religion you're reconstructing has a form of magick that can be practised. I just thought I'd add that. By all accounts, not every recon will do magick, but the way they do magick for those that do will probably be different to witchcraft style magick. Just my thoughts as a recon myself.

Argent

[David19]

I'm not an expert on the terms but from what i've gathered is:

A Kitchen witch: somebody who uses magic in their everyday lives, not just rituals and will tie it into something in the kitchen, e.g. making food magical, mixing potions, using kitchen tools as magic tools e.g. knives, forks, etc. I think they normally have a kitchen altar too but i'm not too sure.

A hedge witch: At first i thought it was just a solitary practitioner but it seems to be shamanic in practice e.g. going to other worlds/realms. I think some better sites on it are: http://www.thecrookedheath.com/hedgenf.htm and http://www.hedgewytchery.com/.

A Reconstructionist: Someone who reconstructs a ancient pagan religion and worships how it was (mostly) like same sort of rituals, prayers, gods, etc. Usually they're not eccletic(sp) and examples are Hellenic Reconstructionists (like Sannions Sanctuary(sp), Asatru, Kemeticism(sp), Mesopatanian, Canaanite, Aztec (Aztec gateway), hebrew, etc).

I'm not sure if those are right but i think that's what they are.

[Crystal Raven]

second site has a ton of info ty!!!

[Sage Rainsong]

I don't think it's correct to say that often they don't practise magick


I guess my wording was a little off. Sorry about that. I probably should have said that they may or may not practice magic. Magic is essential to be a kitchen or a hedge witch but not to be a reconstructionist. That was my point.

[argento_occhi]

No, that's fine, I was just clarifiying as a recon myself. And, yeah, it isn't always essential to recons, but it depends on their tradition. :) I know not all traditions have magick.

As well, I think the directions of the paths are quite different, in what they try and do. A reconstructionist is bringing a culture/religion back to life, so there's different goals in that path than those of a hedge witch or a kitchen witch. And that makes them all valid paths.

Argent

[Elderbush]

When I hear the term kitchen or hedge witch I connect it with magic-user but not religion. A kitchen or hedge witch can have a religion to my way of thinking or not and it doesn't have to be a pagan religion either. The magic they use is low magic rather than ceremonial magic (high magic).

The recons are always connected to a particular religion.

[DixieWitch]

Here are MY views:

Kitchen Witch works in the kitchen mainly....uses a cooking pot for a cauldron, uses food in spells, etc etc.

HedgeWitch is a garden-type witch. Works with plants and herbs and such.

recon--not sure.

[IvyWitch]

I don't really think it's correct to say that a recon is just someone who's a kitchen witch that's concerned with history. Reconstructionalism is trying to reconstruct the ancient religion of a certain people, for instance the Greeks, or the Romans or the Celts to the best of thier ability. Certainly many of these types may have had practices that we consider to be akin to folk magic, or magic like practices that centered around the home, but that's not the central basis for reconism.

I think everyone has done a fair enough job with kitchen witchery so I'll leave that.
Hedge Witch, from what I understand, is another term for a Green Witch, or a Cottage Witch. This form of witchcraft centers around the home and the hearth, and may include aspects of kitchen witchery, but is more focused on plants (flowers, herbs, and all types of greenery) than on food. I suppose it would be safe to say that it is more focused on the hearth than the kitchen. As was mentioned before, it's like the "wise women" who lived outside the village - the term "hedge" was coined because most of the time these areas outside the village were surrounded by woods.
Here are some good links:
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/greenwitch/enter.html
http://www.branwenscauldron.com/resources/green_hedge.html
http://www.annmourasgarden.com/main.html (plug plug plug)

And, this I think is the best general resource on the recon path:
http://ecauldron.com/reconindex.php

HTH!! :)

[Faelon_Moon_Hawk]

On one of my other posts someone pm'ed me and pointed out that a Recon is just a Kitchen or Hedge Witch within cultural/historical bounds.

Humour me please, just so my poor brain is not so fuddled...and I know each person will have their own definition etc...just the general average concensus

What is a Kitchen Witch
What is a Hedge Witch
What is a Reconstructionist

Here are my own definitions:

What is a Kitchen Witch: a witch who practices low magick. They often do their magickal workings in the form of mundane activities. Cleaning house may just be cleaning house, but it's also a purification. Homemade food isn't just yummy, but also may have healing energies embeded in it.

What is a Hedge Witch: there are now two varieties: rae beth type hedge witches, also so called 'wild witches' which may be similar to kitchen witches. they also do low magick and work very close with natural energies & beings. Hedge wytches, myrk riders, wyrd sisters (http://www.hedgewytchery.com/) are those who work with spirits and spend alot of time "oout and aboot" they do much astral work and cross the veil. They may use flying ointments in their work. the term hedge in this respect refers to the boundary between this world and the astral. they are very skilled in wortcunning, herb use & lore, and are a specific type of traditional witch.

What is a Reconstructionist: they endeavour to accurately reproduce a religion from the past. For example, ancient egyptian, ancient greek/roman. You may want to go visit the recon board in the paths forum for more info from recons themselves.

[Erincelt]

...Kemeticism(sp)...
Watch out! Its a common mistake, but one which can potentially cause confusion. The better term to use is something like Kemetic Faiths or such. The reason: the term Kemeticism was latched on to by a latter day political "back to Africa" movement, which has relatively nada to do with Kemetic religionists (like m'self). Its just one of those little things that sometimes gets someone burned (figuratively, of course). :)

Back on topic: it is certainly a mistake to say any Recon is "just a kitchen/hedge/anykind witch within cultural bounds." That person is.... get ready for it.... a "Kitchen/Hedge/Whatever Witch Practicing Within Cultural Bounds." Wow. I think everyone has pretty well answered your call for definitions though.