I like this description of a hedge-witch. I hadn't imagined Mina in quite this way before, but much of the description seems apt for her role in the early chapters of Book One.
Edited, from Wikipedia:
"The term hedgewitch is a source of controversy due to its idiosyncratic nature. In 1992, the modern pagan author Rae Beth released a book entitled Hedge Witch: A Guide to Solitary Witchcraft, redefining the term for the modern era. Rae Beth proposes that "The work of the hedge witch is to take the insights of the wildwood mystic and apply them in the service of life, through spells that help and heal the land, other people or creatures, or our own selves," and that the hedgewitch is a solitary individual. The inspiration for the term as employed by Rae Beth seems to have been the idea of a solitary and individualistic practitioner, paralleling the old term 'hedge-preacher'for an itinerant preacher with no fixed living.
By looking at the word "hedgewitch," we can learn that it comes from the Saxon word for witch, haegtessa, which translates to "hedge-rider". The Old Norse lay Havamal refers to "hedge-riders, witching aloft".
In physical terms, the hedge separated the town from the wilderness. Crossing the hedge was considered dangerous, due to the fact that the forest was regarded as a locus of uncanny happenings, including witchcraft. To the hedgewitch and witches alike, the hedge was not thought to be a physical boundary, but a mental barrier to be crossed in trance work. It is the line drawn between this world and the next; between reality and dream.
Other names for hedge-riders are myrk-rider, Wyrd-rider, and Gandreidh (wand-rider).
Hedgewitchery is a path, usually within the context of the traditional path of witchcraft, and which (as stated above) perhaps once used psychotropic herbs and mushrooms to achieve a trance state, compared to those who use blood control and dancing to achieve the same desire.
Shamanic practice is common, and sometimes considered the hallmark of a hedgewitch. From this perspective, if the hedge is the border between a village and the wilderness, the hedgwitch walks the border with a foot in both worlds.
Spirituality in hedgewitches varies from almost none to Wiccan to Abrahamic, but is almost always neopagan."