Notes from the Apothecary: The Rose   I’ve temporarily veered away from my series on trees as I was inspired to write about the rose. There are some beautiful rosa rubiginosa which have been flowering in the grounds of my son’s school for several weeks before I wrote this article, and they are so beautiful. (image left: rosa rubiginosa, source Wikipedia). My six-year-old boy has been enchanted with these gorgeous flowers, and I have had to plead with him not to pick them all as he decided ‘they are all for mummy’! Walking through Hamsterley forest we came across several varieties of wild rose, and again in woods local to…

Originally written as a talk for the Pagan Federation Online Lughnasadh Festival 2016. Feel free to view the whole talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE5fPKOmp2k Lughnasadh is more or less the mid-point between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, and as such a point of transition, of change and of transformation. I’m going to talk to you a little bit about my own experiences with pregnancy, motherhood, and how my spirituality transformed alongside my own transforming body and mind. It was a complete shock to me, finding out I was pregnant. I had experienced a few odd symptoms; dizziness, alternately low and high blood pressure, not wanting to smoke or drink any…

Raven Grimassi: Communing with the Ancestors I was sent a copy of Raven Grimassi’s latest book, Communing with the Ancestors: Your Spirit Guides, Bloodline Allies and the Cycle of Reincarnation, and was immediately intrigued by the beautiful style of writing and the inclusive nature that encompasses people of all paths. A full review of the book will be available on Pagan Pages next month, but in the meantime, I was lucky enough to get the chance to ask Raven some questions about this fascinating volume. Mabh Savage: Tell us about Communing with the Ancestors. What was your main aim with the book, and what type of reader will get the…

Notes from the Apothecary: The Elder Tree     We’ve always had elder trees in the garden, for as long as I can remember. As you get to my parents’ house there is one hanging over the privet hedge into the street. The branches home to birds ranging from tiny tits to massive woodpigeons; the roots threatening to burst through the tarmacadam of the pavement. As you walk through the gate there are four more elder trees guarding the side of the house, and every year there is an enormous harvest of both flowers and berries, and still plenty left for the every-hungry birds. When I was quite small, a…

Notes from the Apothecary: Hawthorn What would May be without May Blossom? The sweet yet pungent, delicate creamy petals that appear as if from nowhere; a pale messenger of summer’s imminent return. Since I was a little girl we have brought hawthorn flowers, or May Blossom, into the house at or around Beltane, of course always asking the trees permission, and thanking it for its gift. The smell would hover around our hearth for days, and the resulting bare branches once the blossom had died would be burnt on the next bonfire. Hawthorn has more folklore surrounding it that any tree I know, and is particularly mentioned in Celtic and…

There must be a dozen books on the subject of trees and the Celts so I’m not going to go into massive detail here. There is a good list of different trees and the Irish texts that mention them in my book A Modern Celt: Seeking the Ancestors which may be useful for those seeking more detailed information. Debateable it may be, but I seriously doubt there was ever a Celtic tree calendar, nor do I believe every tree cited in the calendar created by Robert Graves in 1948 (The White Goddess; London; Faber and Faber) was necessarily held as a sacred plant. However, it is clear from numerous texts…

Rebecca Beattie: Nature Mystic   Author of Pagan Portals: Nature Mystics, Rebecca is also a regular contributor to the UK’s premier Pagan magazine, Pagan Dawn, and is in the process of writing another book called Urban Nature Mystic. I had the chance to find out a bit more about Rebecca, and about nature mystics. Tell us a bit about Pagan Portals: Nature Mystics. Who are Nature Mystics? Nature Mystics are people who connect with Nature as a part of their spiritual lives, and experience mystical epiphanies in nature. A mystical epiphany is something that brings knowledge from outside of yourself, something you would not have otherwise known. They might have…

Notes from the Apothecary: Birch Image: A silver birch from my own garden, hung with fat balls that feed birds and squirrels alike. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called the birch the ‘Lady of the Woods’, and I am inclined to agree. I have always found this tree to have a very feminine presence. At a sacred wood that I visit from time to time, there is a crossroads of tracks and on one side there are great, old oaks, and on the other slender but gnarled, ancient birch trees. This place always feels like it is a meeting point for male and female energy. Not a point of balance exactly; more…

  A Witch on a Celtic Path Celtic Triad: Three things to be avoided by the Wise: expecting the impossible, grieving over the irretrievable, fearing the inevitable. Witchcraft is often described as a new age religion, especially with the emergence of Wicca, the religious practice strongly associated with modern witchcraft, in the 20th Century. However, you only need to look as far as the nearest fairy tale anthology to realise the term witch has been with us for millennia, in many different forms. The Old English words wicce and wicca were used for female and male magical practitioners as far back as 890 CE. This shows us that witchcraft is…

Notes from the Apothecary: Rowan   Image: ‘Flying’ Rowan at Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire, UK. Copyright Chris Gunns 2006 via Wikimedia, some rights reserved. As well as what we traditionally think of as herbs, every apothecary should be stocked with some other items. I’ve already spoken about bulbs such as garlic, and spices like cinnamon. Now I’d like to move on to the largest of our green cousins; the trees. I’ve chosen the Rowan, or mountain ash, as my first tree to explore as it is well known as a sacred and magical plant in many different cultures. I am most familiar with the Celtic tales of the Rowan…