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I believe it’s the unexplained energy and forces that can be felt in certain places on the earth, and at certain times of the year. It’s the natural magic that occurs in nature – it’s there all around us but not everyone is aware of it or open to it. It can be tapped into, maybe even used, but should never be exploited or taken for granted. Believing in the existence of green magic does not preclude any established religion. Many religions have their own creation myths and stories. Believers think their god(s) were responsible for creation – green magic is only an extension of this creation. It’s the power innate in the natural world – made by whosever “hand” you want to attribute it to!
Stonewylde Wheel of the Year (© Helixtree)
Pagans divide the year into eight areas, and each has its own festival. These are based on the four fire festivals and the four cross-quarter festivals. The fire festivals, linked to the position of the sun in relation to the earth, are the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes. We know these festivals have been marked for a considerable length of time, as many sacred sites have stones aligned to the sunrise or sunset of these four solar events. The cross-quarter festivals are perhaps more of a rural nature, marking important times in the farming calendar (very necessary to survival for our ancestors). These are Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain, although there are different names given to them depending on the source. There are always six or seven weeks between the eight festivals, so never too long between ceremonies and celebrations.
 By their nature, these festivals are very much part of folklore and rooted in local custom. There is no doctrinal tract that states how they must be celebrated, no set of rules or rituals that must be adhered to religiously. Customs have been handed down through the centuries, and others have been newly invented or discovered. Paganism isn’t about sticking to dogma – it’s about finding your own path and doing what feels right for you. Human nature can veer sometimes towards wanting a set of rules and guidelines. We enjoy the comfort of ritual, and ritual has its own power. But it’s important to remember that nothing is set in stone – other than the stones themselves!
At Stonewylde, the reader sees how life could be if we’d retained the old beliefs and religion, and not been subjected to the changes wrought by invading tribes and cultures. Here the old ways have continued, uninterrupted by events from the Outside World. Naturally ceremonies and rituals have evolved from their origins, and some things have been forgotten or abandoned during the hundreds of years of habitation. For instance, why is there a stone on the hill where the hares dance? Why is Quarrycleave so terrifying, and what is the significance of the great column of stone carved with serpents? Some things have been lost “in the mists of time”. And others have been remembered, such as the lighting of the Bel Fire on the May Sister, and the sunrise ritual in the Lammas Field at the beginning of August.
 The religion at Stonewylde is similar in many ways to that practised by modern pagans, but with some notable differences. Some of the customs are unique to Stonewylde, partly because of the powerful earth magic that lives and breathes throughout the great estate. The energy is particularly strong here – is that because the energy is recognised and nurtured, or did the original inhabitants settle here because they had discovered a very special place where they felt the green magic to be extra powerful? Dorset is renowned for its vast numbers of tumuli, barrows and earthworks. Ancient peoples marked certain places at great effort to themselves – it can’t have been easy constructing a barrow or tumulus with only deer antlers as tools. But they were obviously driven to mark certain significant places regardless of the effort required.
Magus explains this to Sylvie, when she expresses her excitement at visiting the Stone Circle at Beltane, “It’s the heart of Stonewylde, the place where the earth energy is strongest. Not because the Stone Circle’s there, of course. The magic came first. The circle was built by our ancestors to mark the place where the Earth Magic could be channelled.”
The Goddess is in the landscape of Stonewylde; the rocks her bones, the earth her skin, the foliage her hair. She can be seen hidden on the front cover of the first book.
 There are many places at Stonewylde where green magic prevails. The Stone Circle is where the ceremonies take place at festival times. The great standing stones are decorated with special paint made from natural pigment, and the images vary with the festival. There’s always a bonfire,
either in the centre or to one side, and sometimes another special fire such as at Beltane. The only time the Stone Circle isn’t used by the inhabitants of Stonewylde to celebrate is at Samhain. For this one special festival, the ceremonies take place on the Village Green instead, for the Stone Circle is needed for something else (read about this in the third book, Solstice at Stonewylde). The Village Green, according to Professor Siskin, is also a sacred site. He believes it’s the remnants of an ancient woodland temple – the survivor of a clearing in the wildwood, and the site of a wood henge.
Other special places at Stonewylde are the Hare Stone, a monolith on a hill near the woods where hares gather for the Moon Fullness, and where Sylvie feels the moon magic very strongly; Mooncliffe, where the great flat stone sits near the cliff edge, and the place where Magus likes to celebrate the Moon Fullness in his own inimitable style; the dolmen, up in the hills past the heath where Clip stays and indulges in shamanic journeys; Quarrycleave, the place of bones and death, where the high stone labyrinth has a special lure and where the Serpent Stone rises from the cliff face in writhing splendour; and the funerary circle around the Yew of Death. This is reached by a winding path through the woods marked with white standing stones carved with skulls and crows. The clearing in the woods, presided over by the great, ancient yew, is where the residents of Stonewylde are cremated and their souls released to the Otherworld. There are other places at Stonewylde where the earth energy is strong; these will be revealed as the series progresses.
 The green magic at Stonewylde is all-prevailing, and it’s impossible to visit the place and not be touched by it. Even the sceptical Miranda eventually understands; to others, like Yul, who are part of the fabric of the community, the green magic is as natural and necessary to life as the sun and the rain.
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