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UNFURLING FERN ~ Gift of Birth ~     “I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different.” ~ T. S. Eliot   Upon the great forest floor, ferns thrive abundantly. They also grow within a wide variety of habitats – from remote mountain heights to arid desert rock crevices, to wetland environs or in sweeping meadows. As an ancient plant, ferns are older than the dinosaurs. They first appear in the fossil record of the Carboniferous geologic period 360 million years ago, and were thriving on earth 2oo million years before the first flowering plants evolved. What can be said about Fern is that it enthusiastically…

Jade Relaxation, gives off peace, calm, and stability.  Aids stomach and digestive tract.  Worn in southeast Asia as an amulet.  Its various attributes include making women fertile, easing the pain of childbirth, curing intestinal upsets, bringing rain, and eliminating thirst.  Also thought of as a good luck stone to ward off evil.  In Asia a jade bracelet is said to have saved its wearer from danger if broken in half.  Health, Wealth, longevity stone.  Ancient Chinese used also for courage, wisdom, justice, mercy, emotional balance, stamina, love, fidelity, humility, generosity, peace, and harmony.  Lungs heart, thymus, immune, kidney and blood detoxification.  Nervous system.  A gentle, steady energy.  Jade helps connect…

Just off the Trail For many of us hiking and walking along nature trails is nothing new. We enjoy the energy and clarity it brings while admiring the plant and animal life around us. But how much do you really see? We know there’s more out there but only see a small portion of it. Some things I’ve learnt from my biology field trips is there’s much more beyond what we initially see and it’s closer than we think. Sometimes all you have to do is look down or just off the trail. Start by walking along one of your favourite paths, one that’s preferably out of the city limits.…

Lughnasadh (Lammas) Blessings! The Magick of Lughnasadh   Oh Lady, your breast is the field.  Your breast is your field.Your broad field pours out plants, your broad field pours out grain. Water flows from on high for your servant.  Bread flows from on high for your servant. Pour it out for me.  I will drink all you offer herbal correspondences for Lughnasadh: frankincense sunflower heliotrope poppies wheat juniper Sandalwood Vervain                                                        Lughnasadh Oils/Incense and Potpourri recipes: Lughnasadh Oil 2 drops peppermint oil 3 drops elder oil 1 drop fir oil 1 drop hazelnut oil corn oil as base *** Lugh Oil 1/4 oz. apricot oil 9 drops lime oil 9…

Ease Those Bug Bites with Easy Herbs     Summertime means insect bites and stings. Ouch! Take a leaf from Susun S. Weed’s storehouse of natural remedies: Soothe, heal, and prevent bites with safe herbal remedies that grow right where you live, north or south, east or west, city or country. The best natural remedies for insect bites are right underfoot.   Plantain, also called ribwort, pig’s ear, and the band-aid plant, is a common weed of lawns, driveways, parks, and playgrounds. Identify it by the five parallel veins running the length of each leaf. (Most leaves have a central vein with smaller ones branching out from it.) You may…

  The homestead is abuzz, quite literally, as I’ve released some three thousand ladybugs in to feast on the gray aphids.  Calendula heads are clipped and their vine-dried seeds harvested. Bunches of oregano, thyme and rosemary are hanging to dry.  Lavender and fennel are deflowered, hibiscus blossoms in their natural wrappers are almost ready for the teapot and honeysuckle flowers are twining their golden arms around each other on the rack. The drying room is filled with intoxicating odors and I have already begun to blend them for next year’s ritual incense.  My favorite season of all is just about here – Autumn. I’m reflecting once again on the year…

Dress code   A few weeks ago I joined a discussion in a pagan Facebook-group about ‘what pagans/witches wear’. Almost at the same time I was asked to do a photo-shoot ‘as a witch’ so to speak. I really didn’t get it. Pagans are normal people that wear whatever they feel like. Do clothes make the witch? I don’t think so. Well, not in my case anyway… In my daily life I don’t dress ‘witchy’, whatever that may be. I’m most comfortable in jeans and a shirt (warm weather) or jeans and a sweater (cold weather). After some reading and asking around I found out what was meant by ‘witchy’…

    Magnetic Meditation Take three slow, deep breaths. Feel warm white light like a sun shining only for you, pouring over your body, burning away stress and fear, awakening love and peace. See the Universe, and yourself in it, as a billion suns of different sizes and colors, sending out flares of energy and receiving flares of the same color in return. Some of the flares are so dark you can barely tell they are light.  Some flares are tiny, others huge.  But they are all returned in kind. What color of energy do you want to attract in your life?  Make your sun send out more of that…

In the Craft we pray to be reincarnated with our loved ones, “that we may meet, and know each other, and love again.”  This refers not just to members of our genetic family, but to those rare friendships we make a few times in any lifetime, when we meet someone with whom we feel an immediate sympathy and a natural trust and openness.  These meetings are very mysterious. They seem to take place between people who have known each other before; there is a déjà vu quality about them.  Sometimes romantic love is involved, and then we seem to have met our soul-mate, the reflection of our inner being right…

I can tell you what is real to me, I can tell you what it is that I see. It may be hard for you to understand, just believe in me as you take my hand.   There’s a power in the bond that we share, there are so many reasons why we care. It may seem strange, even quite unreal, just have faith in what you feel.   Listen to the sounds the silence holds, be aware as knowledge starts to unfold, just sit back, let it come to you, don’t worry about what you have to do.   For each of us has a time and place, we…