Scottish Witchcraft: Highland Magic

BY NICOLE LAU

Scottish witchcraft rises from the mists of the Highlands, the ancient standing stones, and the fierce independence of a land where the old ways never fully died. From the saining rituals that protect households to the second sight that runs in certain bloodlines, from the Cailleach's winter storms to the selkies who shed their seal skins, Scottish magic is as wild and enduring as the land itself.

The Scottish Magical Landscape

Scotland's geography shapes its magic—dramatic highlands and lowlands, lochs and glens, islands battered by Atlantic storms, ancient forests, and stone circles older than memory. This is a liminal land where the veil between worlds has always been thin.

The Highlands vs. The Lowlands

Highland Magic: More Gaelic in character, preserving older Celtic traditions, emphasizing second sight, fairy lore, and connection to the land. Highland magic is wilder, more connected to nature spirits and ancient deities.

Lowland Magic: More influenced by English and European traditions, incorporating grimoire magic, cunning folk practices, and later, witch trial confessions that shaped modern understanding of Scottish witchcraft.

Sacred Sites

Stone Circles: Callanish, Ring of Brodgar, and countless others. These ancient sites remain powerful places for ritual and connection to ancestral wisdom.

Holy Wells: Sacred springs associated with healing, blessing, and offerings. Clootie wells where strips of cloth are tied to trees as prayers.

Fairy Hills: Hollow hills and mounds where the Sìth (fairy folk) dwell. Dangerous but powerful places.

Lochs: Deep waters holding mysteries, home to water spirits and legendary creatures like the each-uisge (water horse).

Scottish Deities and Spirits

The Cailleach: The Divine Hag

The Cailleach (KAL-ee-ach) is the ancient goddess of winter, storms, and the wild landscape. She shapes mountains with her hammer, herds deer, and brings winter's cold.

Mythology: The Cailleach rules from Samhain to Beltane. At Beltane, she transforms into Bride (Brigid), the maiden of spring, or drinks from a magical well to renew her youth. This cycle represents the turning seasons.

Associations: Winter, storms, mountains, deer, wild nature, sovereignty, ancient wisdom, transformation.

Sacred Sites: Mountains, particularly in the Highlands. Many peaks are named for her.

Working with the Cailleach: Honor her in winter, especially at Samhain. Offerings of milk, whisky, or oatcakes left at wild places. Invoke her for endurance, wisdom, and connection to wild nature.

Bride/Brigid: Goddess of Spring and Fire

Bride (BREE-juh) is the Scottish form of the Celtic goddess Brigid. She brings spring, inspires poetry, governs smithcraft, and protects childbirth and healing.

Associations: Spring, fire, poetry, healing, smithcraft, wells, the dawn.

Sacred Time: Imbolc (February 1-2), when her festival is celebrated.

Symbols: Bride's crosses (woven from rushes), white flowers, candles, wells.

Working with Bride: Celebrate Imbolc with Bride's crosses, candles, and spring cleaning. Invoke her for inspiration, healing, and new beginnings.

The Sìth: The Fairy Folk

The Sìth (SHEE) are the Scottish fairy folk—powerful, dangerous, and not to be trifled with. They live in hollow hills, under lochs, and in wild places.

Types of Sìth:

The Daoine Sìth: The fairy people, beautiful and dangerous. They steal humans, especially musicians and nursing mothers. Time moves differently in their realm.

Brownies: Household spirits who help with chores if treated respectfully. Never directly pay them or they'll leave offended.

Selkies: Seal people who shed their skins to become human. If a human hides a selkie's skin, the selkie must stay on land. But they always long for the sea.

Each-Uisge: Water horses that appear beautiful but drown and devour those who ride them. More dangerous than kelpies.

Banshees (Bean-Nighe): Washing women seen at fords, washing the bloody clothes of those about to die. Seeing one is an omen.

Working with the Sìth:

• Leave offerings: milk, cream, butter, whisky, oatcakes
• Respect fairy thorns (lone hawthorns) and fairy hills
• Wear iron for protection
• Never say "thank you" (creates debt); say "I'm grateful"
• Be cautious—the Sìth are not benevolent

The Ghillie Dhu and Green Man

Forest spirits and guardians of wild places. The Ghillie Dhu protects trees and animals, appearing as a figure covered in leaves and moss.

Scottish Magical Practices

An Dà Shealladh: The Second Sight

The second sight (an dà shealladh) is the ability to see the future, perceive spirits, or witness distant events. It's considered a gift that runs in families, particularly in the Highlands and Islands.

Manifestations:

• Seeing a person's fetch (spirit double) before their death
• Witnessing future events in visions
• Perceiving spirits and fairy folk
• Knowing when someone will arrive or what news they bring

Traditional View: The second sight is often seen as a burden rather than a gift—seers cannot control their visions and often see tragic events they cannot prevent.

Developing Second Sight: While traditionally inherited, modern practitioners may develop similar abilities through meditation, trance work, and opening psychic awareness.

Saining: Scottish Purification and Protection

Saining is the Scottish practice of blessing, purifying, and protecting people, animals, and places using smoke, water, and ritual.

Traditional Saining:

Smoke Saining: Burning juniper branches to create purifying smoke. The person, animal, or space is passed through or surrounded by the smoke while prayers or charms are spoken.

Water Saining: Sprinkling blessed water (often from a holy well) while walking sunwise (deiseil) around the person or place.

When to Sain:

• New Year (Hogmanay)
• After illness or misfortune
• Before important events
• To protect newborns and new mothers
• To bless livestock, especially at Beltane
• When moving to a new home

Modern Saining Practice: Burn juniper (or substitute with rosemary or pine), walk sunwise around your space or person, speak protective prayers or intentions, visualize purification and protection.

Deiseil and Widdershins: Direction Matters

Deiseil (JESH-al): Sunwise, clockwise movement. Used for blessing, protection, and positive magic. Walking deiseil around something honors and protects it.

Widdershins: Counter-clockwise, against the sun. Used for banishing, cursing, or undoing. Walking widdershins around something can break its power or bring harm.

Direction is crucial in Scottish magic—always move deiseil for positive work, widdershins only for banishing or breaking.

Frith: Augury and Divination

Frith is the practice of reading omens in nature, particularly the first thing seen upon waking or when leaving the house.

Traditional Practice: Upon waking, the seer would go to the door and observe what they first saw—animals, people, natural phenomena. Each carried specific meanings.

Interpretations:

• Seeing a hare: good fortune
• Seeing a crow alone: bad news
• Seeing a pair of birds: love or partnership
• Seeing a red-haired woman first: bad luck (old superstition)
• Seeing fire or smoke: transformation coming

Modern Practice: Pay attention to the first significant thing you notice each day. Keep a journal of observations and outcomes to develop your own system of interpretation.

Charm Stones and Amulets

Adder Stones (Gloine nan Druidh): Stones with natural holes, considered powerful protective amulets. Hung in homes and barns, worn as pendants, or used to see through fairy glamour by looking through the hole.

Cairngorm Stones: Smoky quartz from the Cairngorm mountains, used for protection and grounding.

Serpent Stones: Fossilized ammonites believed to be petrified snakes, used for healing and protection.

Silver: Protective metal, especially against fairy enchantment. Silver coins, jewelry, or bullets.

Scottish Herbal Magic

Juniper: The most important purification plant in Scottish magic. Burned for saining, protection, and blessing.

Rowan: Powerful protection against witchcraft and fairy enchantment. Rowan crosses tied with red thread hung over doorways.

Heather: Lucky plant, especially white heather. Used for protection, luck, and connecting to the land.

Thistle: Scotland's national emblem. Protection, strength, breaking curses. The thistle's defensive nature makes it magically protective.

Bog Myrtle: Purification, protection, keeping away midges (both literal and metaphorical pests).

Scots Pine: Purification, protection, longevity. Needles used in saining smoke.

Yarrow: Love divination, courage, protection. Used in love charms and protective sachets.

The Scottish Magical Calendar

Hogmanay (New Year's Eve, December 31)

Scotland's most important celebration. First-footing (the first person to enter a home after midnight brings luck), saining the house with juniper smoke, fire festivals, and divination.

Traditions:

• Cleaning the house thoroughly before midnight
• Saining with juniper smoke
• First-footing with gifts of coal, salt, whisky, and shortbread
• Staying up to see the new year in
• Divination for the coming year

Imbolc/Bride's Day (February 1-2)

Celebrating Bride's return, making Bride's crosses from rushes, lighting candles, spring cleaning, and preparing for spring.

Beltane (May 1)

Fire festival marking summer's beginning. Cattle driven between bonfires for blessing and protection, saining performed, fairy activity at its peak.

Traditions:

• Lighting bonfires on hilltops
• Saining livestock
• Gathering May dew for beauty and luck
• Protecting against fairy mischief
• Decorating with rowan and flowers

Midsummer

Gathering herbs at peak potency, bonfires, divination, and watching for fairy activity.

Lammas/Lughnasadh (August 1)

First harvest, making corn dollies, baking bread from new grain, honoring the harvest.

Samhain (October 31-November 1)

The Cailleach's reign begins. The veil thins, ancestors honored, divination practiced, protective measures taken. Turnip lanterns carved (precursor to pumpkins).

Scottish Witch Trials and Their Legacy

Scotland's witch trials (1563-1736) were particularly brutal, with an estimated 4,000-6,000 people accused and around 1,500-2,000 executed. The trials left a complex legacy:

Common Accusations

• Making pacts with the Devil
• Attending sabbats
• Causing harm through magic (maleficium)
• Possessing familiar spirits
• Having the Devil's mark

The North Berwick Witch Trials (1590-1591)

Famous trials involving accusations of attempting to kill King James VI through weather magic. These trials influenced James's book Daemonologie and shaped witch trial procedures.

Modern Reclamation

Contemporary Scottish witches honor those persecuted while reclaiming the word "witch" and the practices that survived.

Building Your Scottish Practice

Practice Saining

Learn to sain your home with juniper smoke. Walk deiseil around your space, speaking protective prayers or intentions.

Honor the Cailleach and Bride

Observe their seasonal cycle—the Cailleach from Samhain to Beltane, Bride from Imbolc to Samhain.

Work with the Land

If you have Scottish heritage or live in Scotland, develop relationship with the land spirits. Leave offerings, observe natural cycles, respect sacred sites.

Respect the Sìth

Learn fairy lore and traditional precautions. If working with the Sìth, approach with respect and caution.

Practice Frith

Pay attention to omens and first sightings. Keep a journal to develop your interpretive skills.

Celebrate Scottish Festivals

Observe Hogmanay, Imbolc, Beltane, and Samhain with traditional practices adapted to your circumstances.

Learn Scottish Gaelic (Optional)

Many traditional charms and prayers are in Gaelic. Learning even basic phrases deepens connection to the tradition.

Study the Carmina Gadelica

Alexander Carmichael's collection of Scottish Gaelic prayers, charms, and blessings provides authentic traditional material.

Ethical Considerations

Cultural Respect: Scottish witchcraft belongs to Scottish culture. If you're not Scottish, approach with respect and acknowledgment.

Clan and Heritage: Some practices are specific to certain clans or families. Respect these boundaries.

The Sìth Are Not Safe: Don't romanticize fairy folk. Traditional lore emphasizes their danger for good reason.

Highland Clearances Context: Remember the historical trauma of the Highland Clearances when working with Highland traditions.

Conclusion

Scottish witchcraft offers a path as wild and enduring as the Highlands themselves. From the Cailleach's winter storms to Bride's spring fire, from the second sight that runs in certain bloodlines to the saining smoke that protects households, from the dangerous beauty of the Sìth to the ancient wisdom of standing stones, Scottish magic connects us to a land where the old ways never fully died.

This is magic that tastes of whisky and heather honey, that smells of juniper smoke and peat fires, that sounds like the wind through the glens and the crash of waves on rocky shores. It's the magic of a fierce, proud people who never forgot that the land itself is alive and that the veil between worlds is thin in the places where mist meets mountain.

Beannachd leat (Blessings upon you). May the Cailleach grant you endurance, may Bride inspire you, and may you walk safely in the liminal places where the Sìth dance.