Moonflower

Posted in Entheogens, Folk Magic, Folk Medicine, Gardening, Herbalism, Witchcraft & Magic with tags , , , on July 24, 2010 by Sarah

Datura inoxiaI finally caught it blooming late tonight under an almost perfectly full moon. I’d only found mysterious fallen brown flowers beneath the leaves before.  It is definitely datura inoxia – Moonflower – the night-blooming datura. This type has a trumpet within a trumpet. The flowers smell absolutely divine like the richest perfume. If only I could bottle it…

Moonflower is the friend of shamans, healers, and Saturnian witches. She breaks spells sent to harm you and protects you from evil spirits. She’ll even let you borrow her wings to fly and take you to extraordinary places. But she’ll also show you things you wish you hadn’t seen and she’ll make you afraid of her. Sometimes it’s better to to view her from afar and not touch the Moonflower. Sometimes it’s better just to wait for her to bloom on a cool summer night under a full moon and deeply inhale her beautiful scent… and then quietly go back to bed.

The Night Garden

Posted in Entheogens, Folk Medicine, Gardening, Herbalism with tags , , , , , , , on July 23, 2010 by Sarah

Fulling Moon

Last night I watered my garden in darkness by the light of the moon and the stars.  I whispered to their spirits and burned tobacco leaf as offering to each one – my Saturnian solanaceae, the subtlely narcotic catnip, my ever growing mullein and great avens, my small grove of rowan, cedar, elder, and oak…

Henbane in flower and fruit with bittersweet nightshade behindHenbane in flower and fruit with Bittersweet Nightshade behind

Orange and White Tree DaturasOrange and White Tree Daturas

Rowan in darknessRowan in darkness

Blackthorn Hedgewitch Wand

Posted in Trees, Witchcraft & Magic, Woodworking with tags , , , , , , , on July 21, 2010 by Sarah

Blackthorn Hedgewitch Wand

This wand carved from the traditional hedge wood of blackthorn has been hand carved with a toad, two types of fern, bittersweet nightshade, a branch of blackthorn, and a serpent spiraling around the tip. The two sigils underneath the toad are the ogham character straif for blackthorn and a symbol of the world tree to reflect the wand’s use for walking between worlds. The carvings have been painted with eco-friendly wood stains. The wand is finished with raw linseed oil and the witch’s homemade woodbalm made with beeswax, linseed & almond oil, cedar oil, and blessing oil. It is the traditional length of 17 inches from the crook of the elbow to the tip of the index finger.

Details of the Blackthorn Hedgewitch Wand(Click to enlarge images)

This Hedgewitch wand can be used for hedgecrossing, protection, and sending forth spells or curses. Blackthorn was the traditional wood of UK cunning folk for their canes and wands. A person with a blackthorn staff was often feared by the locals, but despite the misconceptions blackthorn has many more uses than just baneful ones. (Sorry Sold)

Camping with Coyotes

Posted in Wildcrafting, Woodworking with tags , , , , , , , , , on July 19, 2010 by Sarah

Tents being set up

As I type this one of my creepier eight-legged familiars keeps edging closer and closer towards me… as long as they don’t jump on me all should be well and this post finished. This past weekend I went camping deep in the forest with chatty ravens, feather-dropping barn owls, a pair of mouse-hunting eagles, and a very large and loud pack of coyotes. Oh, and there were plenty of witches there as well passing bottles of homemade mead around the campfire of fragrant cedar logs.

Chopping cedar

Fir resin

The massive fir tree near the fire was oozing golden sticky resin which I collected and put on log in the fire so it melted and smoked to release its scent. Talk about fresh incense! I had lots of time to carve sitting under a canopy of trees in the sunlight.  I finished a wand as much as I could with just my knife and some sandpaper and then started on another. I have a bunch of things to make for friends before I can get back to carving for the botanica.

Blackthorn and cedar wands in progress

Wands with a robin's egg

I also got to talking with one of the lovely witches about my feather collection and she graciously gifted me with goodly amount of blue heron feathers for my crafting. They are large and lovely and soft and will make a beautiful smudge fan. My sweetie also found a robin’s egg shell in the woods which may end up inside another familiar vessel. I found a massive felled hazel branch already split into two staff-sized lengths which I of course took home. What a beautiful relaxing weekend of carving mixed with rituals of drumming, chanting, a tambourine and a flute — just lovely.

Blue Heron feathers

Here she is now, my eight-legged friend half a foot away from my computer when she started off on the other side of the room… she’s now throwing herself off the shelf and then dangling in the air from a thread like a bungie jumper over and over – it looks kinda fun.

Jumping Spider reads the tarot

New HedgeFolk Tale: The Witch of Lok Island

Posted in Folk Magic, Podcast, storytelling with tags , , , , , , , , , on July 15, 2010 by Sarah

"Ran" by Thorskegga ThornIn this episode, the Witch of Forest Grove tells the tale of “The Witch of Lok Island”. This folktale was collected from oral sources by Elsie Masson in 1929 and translated into English from the Breton tongue and included in her work Folk-Tales of Brittany. Now that I’ve covered the bigger mythological themes, I’d like to delve into the realm HedgeFolk Tales was original intended for – the ream of fairy and folk tales. After reading this tale, journey with me through the folklore and fairy tales of Brittany and the mythology of the ancient Celts and Norse to discover the Pagan roots of “The Witch of Lok Island” and how, as modern magical practitioners, we can take knowledge away from the tale and add it to our spiritual practice. (The painting is by Thorskegga Thorn)

→ Episode IV: The Witch of Lok Island