The first of these, and one of the inspirations of this blog entry, is dandelions. Not the cheery yellow flowers, but the wispy star-like seeds that float in the wind. A lot of children (at my school, at least) would make a wish and blow the seeds from the plant itself. The seeds would spread far and wide and make their wish come true- not too different from the birthday candle tradition.
When I was really young, I remember seeing the seeds floating in the air (the full circular ones) and my mum would tell me that they're faeries. Should I be lucky enough to catch one, I should make a wish and send it on it's way. Then it would do what it could to make my wish come true. To this day, I still do this. Those of you who met me at the Artemis Gathering may have seen me do this a couple of times. Doing it so often as a child means it's now firmly ingrained in me and I do it even now. Or, if they're far away, I will point them out to my husband and say "look, there's a faerie!" (yes, that was greeted by a blank look the first time I said that).
Another thing my friends and I did was start a coven. No, really not joking! Except we never called it that, because we didn't know what a coven was at age 8. My two closest friends at the time and I were really into investigating the nature around the playground. The gravel part was fenced off and the bushes grew through it, so we got to see lots of interesting plants, bugs and berries. My best friend (who, side note, is still my best friend now) and I discovered a seed that had been growing but had been uprooted somehow. We felt so bad for it that we decided we had to save it. We collected some berries, grass and some sand that lined the area. We mixed it all together and cupped our hands over the seed, projecting all of our energy into it and willing it to grow again.
At the time, we were absolutely convinced that we helped it grow a little. Looking back, we probably did nothing considering we didn't attempt to replant it. But that inspired us and our other friend to create our own little group dedicated to this kind of stuff, and we called ourselves "Princesses of the Sand" (nah, don't actually remember how this name happened). Admittedly, it didn't actually last that long- we started a band a week or two later and everything else got left behind (although the band finally admitted that we weren't any good by about Year 8).
Looking back, it does amaze me how different elements of Paganism were present in my life as a child without really realising it. Sometimes I think life throws hints your way until you eventually reach the right time to receive the message.
The comments section of my blog is looking a little sparse- don't be afraid to leave a comment or thought. I would especially like to hear your stories of little "witchy" things you did as a child or beliefs you picked up when you were younger and then held onto as you got older.
Blessings,
Raegan Shanti