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Turning to the Dark – An exclusive poem for PaganPagesOrg by Mabh Savage
Turn to the dark, my love, Shield your eyes from the dying sun’s glare Give me your weathered hands, here Thrust them into my darkening hair Stroke my locks, my love, Twine them in your fingers tight Now you may look, open up, Take your first step into the night. Walk with me, my love, Take each faltering step Seeks the stars, the moon, Find where the secrets are kept. Take a breath of this air, so chill, Watch the ghosts in your steaming sigh, Turn again, this way, up the hill, Let us strive toward the sky. Feel the heart of the cooling Earth Feel the thrum of…
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Notes from The Apothecary
Notes from the Apothecary: Petunias Petunias: Both a beautiful garden flower and a star of the RNA-focused scientific community. Way back in the 1990s, scientists tried to create deep purple petunias by inserting the gene associated with this colour. Instead, the flowers just came out white! Further studies into this led to big discoveries concerning RNA interference and gene silencing, for which scientists Andrew Fire and Craig Mello received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But it all started with the petunias. Petunia is not a single species, but a genus of flowers that contains around 35 distinct species. They’re all in the Solanaceae family, which also includes…
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Book Review – Icelandic Plant Magic: Folk Herbalism of the North by Albert Björn
Book Review Icelandic Plant Magic: Folk Herbalism of the North by Albert Björn Publisher: Crossed Crow Books Pages: 306 Rerelease Date: June 27, 2023 There are, without a doubt, plenty of books out there on magical herbalism or green witchery. However, this is the first I have spotted specifically singling out the herbs of Iceland in a magical context. As the author notes, while the mysterious-seeming country of Iceland offers many folk tales and hidden beings, the plants of the island aren’t usually picked out as a point of interest. Albert Björn Shiell has neatly corrected that oversight with this animistic, practical, and beautiful book. This book is laid…
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Learning Lunar
Moon Magic and Mystery The Waning Gibbous Moon Welcome back to Learning Lunar, our regular column looking at different phases of the moon and how you can work them into your spiritual practice. For this Samhain edition of PaganPagesOrg, we’re looking at a waning phase of the moon for the first time: The Waning Gibbous Moon. What Does Waning Gibbous Mean? A waning moon is one that appears to be getting smaller each night, eventually culminating in a dark moon or new moon. As soon as the moon becomes full, the days beyond this are considered the time of the waning moon. A waning gibbous moon falls between the…
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Road to Runes
Road to Runes: Making a Rune Set Runes have been used for divination for many years, and are often incorporated into Norse-inspired magic and spiritual practices. While there are many digital tools for drawing runes, it’s normal to want to have a physical set of your own if you want to use them regularly. That way, you can draw a rune wherever you are, even if you’re in the middle of the woods or high up a mountain—although perhaps don’t go as far as to try and use them while hanging from a tree! One of the cheapest and most satisfying ways to get your own runes is…
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Book Review – Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs
Book Review Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs Publisher: Andrews McMeel Pages: 384 Rerelease Date: August 23, 2023 Storyland is a collection of tales about Britain, from its origins to much more recent times. This book started as a collection of illustrations, then became a series of articles for Country Life magazine. Those original illustrations have made it into the book, and what illustrations they are! Striking images of otters and boats and giants hauling rocks make this volume a stunning visual feast. Unsurprising, considering that in the introduction the author explains how her experiments with linocut printing were inspired by illuminated medieval manuscripts. I agree…
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Poetry – Exclusive for PaganPagesOrg by Mabh Savage ‘Summer’s Last Hurrah
An exclusive poem for PaganPagesOrg by Mabh Savage celebrating the last heady days of Summer before the Autumn Equinox and the final harvests, via the wanderings of a lone witch. I say hi to the crows Perched on slate roofs Raucously gossiping I admire the bees Purposeful in purple Claiming the lavender I dodge the ants Single minded march Carrying more than I I nod to the magpies Superstition on wings Black and white made grey I shiver in the breeze Late summer caress A promise of fall (But someone to catch) I sigh in the sun Warm honey-pour bright The last, loving light…
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Road to Runes
Two Runes Together In the last issue of PaganPagesOrg, we looked at the power of a single rune reading. As I learn the runes myself, slowly it has to be said, I love to look at the different ways the runes can be read together. Just as a single rune can give a fast, intuitive answer to a simple question or circumstance, two runes together could provide either more detail or perhaps two polarized viewpoints on the same situation. Ways to Draw Two Runes There are plenty of different ways to either draw runes yourself or get them drawn and explained by an experienced reader. You can purchase physical…
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Learning Lunar: Moon Magic and Mystery
First Quarter, The Waxing Half Moon The 2023 Autumn Equinox falls late on the 22nd or early on the 23rd September, depending on exactly where you are in the world. This year, the Equinox begins while the moon is an almost perfect half, the first quarter phase. The Equinox is a time of balanced light and dark, so it feels very mystically charged to have the moon half lit and half in shadow, providing a physical and highly visible representation of this festival. What Does First Quarter Mean? The cycles of the moon are often referred to as quarters, with the second quarter also being the full…
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Book Review – Culpeper’s Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper, Annotated by Dr. J.J. Pursell
Book Review Culpeper’s Complete Herbal By Nicholas Culpeper Annotated by J.J. Pursell Publisher: Andrews McMeel Pages: 384 Rerelease Date: October 2022 Nicholas Culpeper was an extraordinary figure of the 17th century. Frustrated with the lack of medicine and treatment available to those with no money, Culpeper, a fairly well-to-do gentleman, abandoned his studies at Cambridge University and went to become an apprentice at a London-based apothecary. From there, he set up his own pharmacy and went on to publish “The Complete Herbal” in 1652/53. This was despite twice being accused of witchcraft, tried, and acquitted. Culpeper went against the grain and didn’t let the authorities dissuade…
