Welcome to All The Wild Magic
All The Wild Magic is stories and correspondences direct from a little house by the woods in England’s north.
Join me for a wander on foot along the wild edges, or gather for a story around the fire. Magic, myth, nature-connection, ecology, folklore, otherworldly portals, and life on the wild edges will be explored.
This Substack has weeds in its heart and dirt under its nails, travelling slowly on foot and following Mary Oliver’s instructions for living a life:
About Me
Hello, I’m Sophie, an apprentice to the woods and the wild. There I am always learning; tracking stories across the landscape, and listening for them in the wind and the water. Find me picking herbs by the edge of the river, splitting wood out back, or at my desk putting pen to paper, joyfully distracted by the little birds outside.
The edge is often where my adventures begin and I have long been drawn to these liminal places. For over a decade I lived a travelling life on boats along England’s waterways, and for several years my home was an off-grid cabin in an ancient wildwood.
Remote beaches and islands, pre-historic places and old ruins also draw me in, and are likely to make an appearance on these pages.
Why Subscribe
All the Wild Magic is a woodland mailbox found in the realm of deep imagination. Subscribers are invited to wend their way to it whenever they hear the call, and find a new correspondence waiting for them.
The Invitation
You are walking in a wild greenwood and notice a rusted mailbox at the side of the path, overgrown with honeysuckle and roses. Open Me, reads a little note attached to the mailbox, and so you do.
When you look inside, you find an envelope and a posy of wild flowers, and know that these things have been left there for you. You have arrived exactly at the right time; precisely when you were meant to.
The envelope is sealed with gold wax. You break the seal, and open the envelope to find a hand-penned letter. Perching on a mossy knoll you sit for a while to read, and perhaps find something of interest, of beauty, of strangeness there.
By subscribing, you let me know that you have indeed arrived at the right time, and that you have found something of value in these pages. For this I dearly thank you.
Reciprocity
Your visiting here is greatly appreciated and the regular correspondences come to you for free.
If you have the means and desire to leave something in the mailbox for me in return, that is also very welcome. As a paid subscriber, you will receive a real, physical correspondence in the post from me every year in winter, with a hand-penned letter direct from the woods. To that end, paid subscribers can privately message me with their mailing address. I shared some photographs of my letter writing preparations, and my desk in this correspondence.
