5 Ways of Hagstone Magic

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Morpheus Ravenna, author of the new Magic of the Otherworld.

When I’m asked my favorite magical tool, my answer is something you can’t buy in most occult stores. One of my most treasured allies is a hagstone. Hagstones, also sometimes called witch-stones, mare-stanes, or holy stones, are stones with a naturally-occurring hole worn through them, often found on beaches or in streams.

The hagstone’s magic derives from the hollow, which acts as a little passage between worlds. It’s like carrying a door to the Otherworld in your pocket, but one you have some ability to control. Here are five ways a hagstone can help your magical practice:

Protection: Perhaps the best-known use of a hagstone is as a protection charm, carried in the pocket, worn on a cord, or tied about the home. In Gaelic folk practice they have been used against malevolent spirits, nightmares, or being hag-ridden, and also as a counter-measure against witches stealing the butter and milk of cattle.

Why is the hagstone protective in this way? Wouldn’t a little Otherworld door invite more spirits coming through? My observation is that its faculty as a gateway can misdirect unwanted spirits and send them away back to the Otherworld.

Travel charm: Because of its Otherworld connection, a hagstone is also helpful to carry when you undertake spirit travel. It can help ensure that the pathways you find in the spirit world take you where you need to go and protect against becoming lost. Similarly, you can carry one while walking outdoors, and if you become lost, ask it to help you find your way. The hagstone can also close the ways behind you to help ensure that no unwanted spirits follow you home.

Blessing charm: Placed in water, the Otherworldly power of a hagstone can charm the water, which can be imbibed or sprinkled around a space for blessings. Cures of this kind are recorded in many Gaelic folklore sources. This mode usually involves praying over the stone, enchanting it to draw blessings from the Otherworld into the water so that the water conveys the blessing to whatever it touches.

Offering-stone: The hagstone’s passage can send offerings or messages to the Otherworld. To send a liquid offering, pour it through the hole of the hagstone. Or, for an offering that is burnt, hold the hagstone so the smoke passes through it. Send messages to beings of the Otherworld by speaking them with the hagstone to your lips, so your breath passes through it.

Gazing-stone: The hagstone can also support divination and second sight. Like all visionary practices, this works best with meditation or trance techniques to enter a mantic state. Ask your hagstone to help you see, then put it to your eye and look through it. This works especially well for seeing the hidden truths of people, places, and circumstances. Unlike a scrying bowl or crystal, you’ll be looking at the same scene you’d see without the stone, but with an overlay of Otherworldly insight that can reveal things that are otherwise hidden.

A hagstone is a being of the natural world, but also of the Otherworld. To gather your hagstone, begin with offerings to the spirits of place, land, and water. Ask if there’s a stone who would like to work with you, then walk till you see one that stands out to you. Remember to treat your hagstone as a friend—thank it for its help, and feed it offerings regularly to keep it in good health and alignment.

Our thanks to Morpheus for hir guest post! For more from Morpheus Ravenna, read hir article “Witch Dolls and Clay Bodies: A Brief History of Figure Magic.”