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Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times
Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times for February 2020 Bright Blessings! I write this on January 10. We’ve not had a real winter yet in my hometown, but my garden is sad. We have decided to gear up to list this place for sale, and that means I had to start dismantling my garden. My patio garden I worked years on. All of it has to go. Friends wanted my soil, and came with tubs to fill with the black, rich loam, and then toted away all my pots, stakes, tomato cages, and even my roses. Another friend came to take the box away today. I have another box…
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Notes from the Apothecary
Notes from the Apothecary: Celery Celery (Apium Graveolens) is an easily recognisable vegetable, available in most supermarkets or grocery stores. It’s a relative of carrots and parsley, part of the apiaceae family. It’s loved by dieters thanks to its high water content and low calorie content, plus it’s amazing for dipping into hummus or salsa. But is celery a medicinal or magical plant? Let’s take a look. The Kitchen Garden Celery can be grown from seed and in fact can be planted at this time of year (February-March-April) as long as it’s kept warm until frost has gone. It needs to be kept moist so is ideal…
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Book Review – Witches and Wizards: The Real-life Stories Behind the Occult’s Greatest Legends by Lucy Cavendish
Book Review Witches and Wizards The Real-life Stories Behind the Occult’s Greatest Legends by Lucy Cavendish 178 pages I cannot begin to tell you just how much I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I read it from cover to back in one sttiing in an afternoon. I was captivated and enchanted by these stories. The book is beautiful. It is a hard bound book with a ribbon for a bookmark (so helpful, don’t you wish every book had this feature?). It is illustrated with images from Flickr, Shutterstock and Lucy Cavendish. The images help the characters come to life. The beginning chapter is devoted to Merlin, the well-known wizard…
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Book Review – The Hidden History of Elves and Dwarfs: Avatars of Invisible Realms by Claude Le Couteux
Book Review The Hidden History of Elves and Dwarfs Avatars of Invisible Realms by Claude Le Couteux 240 Pages I am fascinated by the subject matters that I find when I read a book on a new subject. “The Hidden History of Elves and Dwarfs” by Claude Le Couteux is a new subject to me. I could see that Le Couteux’s book was unraveling the web that had long been placed by the clerics of yesteryear. The web (Loki’s name in Swedish is locke/lock. Loksnät {spiders web}) around the elves and dwarves was put in place to replace the belief in beings that once had a seat next…
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Book Review – Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult by Peter Levenda
Book Review Unholy Alliance A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult by Peter Levenda 464 Pages Bright Blessings, readers! My editor offered this book, and I JUMPED at it! As a daughter of Odin, I have spent time speaking with plenty of different Heathens who come from a plethora of groups and belief systems, and let me tell you- there is a very strong influence from Nazi Germany even in modern Heathenry. I feel it is extremely important to be aware of this, and know the difference between genuine devotion to the gods, and devotion to being a racist. So, I was over the moon to hear I…
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Notes from the Apothecary
Notes from the Apothecary: Cow Parsley Anthriscus Sylvestris or cow parsley is a member of the Apiaceae family, just like the carrot and hemlock. It has tall, hollow stems topped with a flurry of delicate white flowers. In Europe it is a common hedgerow plant, and a familiar sight to walkers and foragers. It’s one of the first flowers to appear by the roadside in spring. With many common names including the grand “Queen Anne’s Lace” and the morbid “Mother Die”, this plant is a piece of living history and an intriguing part of the British countryside. The Kitchen Garden Encouraging cow parsley into the garden would…
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Book Review – Fairies Plain & Simple: The Only Book You’ll Ever Need – An Introduction to The History and Mystery of Their Magical Realm by Ralph Harvey
Book Review Fairies Plain & Simple: The Only Book You’ll Ever Need An Introduction to The History and Mystery of Their Magical Realm by Ralph Harvey 144 Pages This 144-page book opens with a beautiful piece of Poetry and then quickly moves into 3 parts. Part one consists of an Introduction to Fairies. The author goes over different versions of the term Faeries and tells a little about where the Fae come from, different classifications as well as different names they may go by depending on culture and region. From the beginning I noticed the photography though only in black and white, is beautiful and can be seen…
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Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times
Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times for December 2019 (Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash) Bright Blessings! The Winter Holidays are upon us, and it seems there are as many different celebrations as there are different kinds of people circle in our Pagan Communities. No matter what you celebrate, though, it is undeniable that Christmas somehow influences you at this time of year. Whether you are like me and get sick to death of it all very quickly, and decry the fact it lasts so long, or you are somebody who enjoys it all, it is very much a part of our culture. One thing that strikes me is…