Those of you brave, hardy souls who visit my blog regularly will know by now that when I write on magical or pagan topics I'm writing about my own experiences, my own ideas. So here today are a few ideas about things we can do when we fancy giving Magical Journeying a try.

Now magical journeying is one of those things you either love or you loathe. Many people would like to try it, but find it's too difficult. Or they're put off by others who say you must always have 'someone experienced' with you, whenever you take off into the wild blue yonder.

So here are a few thoughts I've cobbled together down the years that you might find useful...

First of all, you need to get to know the world around you. The trees, the sort of stones you find lying around, the birds, insects and plants - all things that will stand you in very good stead when you're starting off.

Don’t panic – you don’t have to turn into a botanist overnight. You can notice without knowing… it’s a very important magical concept… to notice something even though you don’t know exactly what it is or how it works. I do it every day with electricity – no idea how it works, but I use it all the same.

So start looking – really looking – and see what you can find. You might know the names of some things… daisies, dandelions… hawthorn trees… that sort of thing. And look for the insects and birds too. Get into this habit and keep it up for weeks, months even, as the seasons slowly change and our world turns golden with autumn.

My father taught me a lot about plants, and he always used to carry this battered field guide with him. He’d say you’d never be able to remember the plants when you got home and if you had a reference book with you then you could look them up then and there. And of course, the more you learn, the less you need your field guide. This frees up your pockets for important supplies such as polo mints…

Learn to expect the unexpected too…. Mr Penry and one of my daughters were up a mountain a few months ago and reckoned they’d seen a golden eagle. Now there are no golden eagles in my part of Wales. Not one. Not even on a Saturday night. But their description of the bird fitted, they described how it flew, what it sounded like… very convincing. But it couldn’t be a golden eagle. Except….

About a fortnight later, the headlines in our local paper said that police investigating the traffic in illegal birds had raided a house about two miles away from the mountain and found – amongst other things –a golden eagle.

So… my husband and my daughter had really had a treat – they’d seen a golden eagle flying over the mountain for the first time in - well, it must have been centuries.

I'll post some more tomorrow....