About

Grown by Mother Nature, crafted by Spirit of Old

Spirit of Old was born by a love of nature and deeply held Pagan beliefs. We craft Pagan and nature-themed pendants, amulets and ritual tools using decent, earthy materials. The Pagan market is flooded with plastic and resin tat from far away countries that you can buy anywhere. What we make has real soul and is crafted in the Celtic heartlands of Wessex, southern England.

We're very careful about where and how we gather materials for our items. Our aim is to produce finely crafted magickal items from the best materials with the least harm caused to the environment and the entities who inhabit and share the land.

A good part of the wood we work with comes from a large ancient coppiced woodland in Hampshire. Coppiced woodland is grown specifically with the intention of the wood being harvested and cleared regularly. This is a practice which has been carried out in Britain and also within our area of Wessex since prehistoric times. Because of the large amount of woodland around here we can find plenty of windfallen and old wood to craft items from. We don't want to go upsetting any powers that may be present!

We ensure that it is collected over large areas rather than a lot from any particular place to prevent any habitat being affected. Any wood which is collected from within or near to sites of magickal or archaeological importance is gathered with utmost respect and care. This is paramount to what we do.

We also work with bog wood including bog oak, yew, ash and pine. This is wood from ancient times, often many thousands of years ago which has lived, fallen and been naturally preserved in the ground. Much of the bog wood Spirit of Old works with has been found on farmland when drainage ditches are dug and some of the wood comes from peat bogs.

The herbs used for smudging sticks and dream amulets are hand-gathered and organically grown. Many of them are hedge-gathered and they are always dried naturally and slowly to preserve their magickal essence.

Some of our jewellery is crafted from mammoth ivory, bear bone and antler dating from the last ice age. The materials for these have usually been dredged up by fishing vessels, often from Doggerland in the North Sea and then sold on. They are lovely materials to work with, full of interesting textures and energies.

Other jewellery is created using modern-day deer antler, hare and fox bone. We are careful to ensure that no animals have been harmed to supply these materials and, equally importantly that no market is created to supply them. Deer naturally shed their antlers during the course of their life and the antler we use has always been cast off in this way.

We use animal bones found naturally in our local area. We spend a lot of time walking in the countryside and rambling in the woods and chance upon an animal find every now and then. The remains are treated with respect and it seems very fitting for a gift from Nature to be crafted into talismans and charms honouring that animal's spirit and energy.

If you have any further questions please feel free to message through our contact page or email [email protected]. We have a vibrant Facebook page (links are at the bottom of this page) and we're also on Twitter and Instagram too - please come and say hello :-)