Trees 101: The Willow

My mother and I were talking about trees yesterday and I told her how much I loved to sit beneath the large old willow in the backyard of my childhood home, to which she replied that my father would never have planted a willow tree as it is symbolic of death and when one plants a willow, someone you love will die. While this isn't exactly true, the willow was a popular image engraved on Victorian headstones and along with the nickname of "weeping willow" is frequently thought of when it comes to the subject of death.

Instead of bringing death and misery, the willow can actually alleviate sadness and darkness and when one sits beneath its long embracing branches, will find their energies calmed. Willow is a favored wood for wands due to its flexibility. Native Americans wove their baskets and fishing nets from willow because of that flexibility. Medicinally, willow has been used to treat headaches and fevers by use of the leaves, bark and wood of the tree. To conjure spirits mix ground willow bark with sandalwood. The traditional besom, usually made of birch, is bound with willow branches.

The willow is the third sacred wood for the sabbat fire and, not surprisingly, it represents death. The tree is associated with the moon and thus the Goddess, giving it feminine energy. It's a magickal tree that vibrates to the elements of water and fire. The willow is the traditional tree of Samhain.

A Witch's Field Garden Awakes

We've just begun to get the gardens ready for the season, trimming away that which was dried and dead from the winter, but which I always like to leave for the birds and small animals to cull seeds from, as well as to provide nest materials in early spring. I'm most fond of our field garden behind my studio, the one David and I have spent innumerable hours tending over the last few years. I've carefully chosen the plants that we grow there, plants that serve several purposes: medicinal flowers and herbs, those with magickal properties that have been used for centuries and those that allow us to xeriscape garden for environmental reasons, doing our share to help save Mother Earth and conserve resources. These photos show the garden just starting to wake up. By the time we're in the heart of the season, there will be little mulch and soil showing and the plants will be several feet high and sporting a variety of vivid colors. In no particular order, here are a few of my favorite plants we grow out there:

Yarrow. This is a protective plant and when worn stops all fear and brings courage to the wearer. The flowers can be made into an infusion and when drunk will improve one's psychic powers. It can be used to exorcise evil from a person, place or thing.

Bergamot. This plant brings clarity to any situation. It attracts butterflies and the red varieties will draw hummingbirds to your garden.

Hyssop. This is the most popular herb used for purification. It can be used in any magickal applications for this purpose and can be worn to cleanse a person. It can also be used to purge a home of negative energy. This plant will also attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds to your garden and the flowers and leaves can be steeped into an anise tea or used in any dish that you'd like to infuse with the scent and/or taste of anise. This is a plant that smells wonderful and whose scent can be enjoyed on the breeze while you toil.

Heliopsis. The herbal member of the sunflower and daisy family and also a plant native to American soil. They bring luck to those who grow them and will in theory guard a garden against pests. I haven't noticed this last attribute working, but they are beautiful and I adore them.

Coneflower. This is actually echinacea, which if taken regularly stimulates the immune system and can help to reduce cold symptoms. I love them for their glorious colors from purple to an almost neon pink and orange and couldn't imagine having a field garden without them.

Valerian. This is a purifying and protective plant. It can be worn in a sachet to protect one's person or in the house to guard against that which can threaten the home (even lightning!). It can be used in love charms, drawing men to a woman in droves as well as for what it's best known for today: used as a sleep aid and a muscle relaxant. And the best part of it is that witches from centuries past would refer to dried and ground, powdered valerian as "graveyard dust", which is really very cool.

Catmint. Aside from making your cat go berserk and get really wasted, catmint promotes beauty, happiness and love. Use it in love sachets with rose petals, and hang it in your home to attract good spirits and positive energy. It's said that if you give the catmint to your cat personally, you will forge a psychic bond between the two of you. This is also another plant that smells simply amazing in the garden and can be enjoyed while you work.

Reincarnation Dilemma

When I was just shy of two years old, I wandered out of my playroom with a long dark brown colored pencil in my hand and sought out my mother. I then put the pencil in my mouth, took an imaginary puff from my “long black cigarette” and told my mother that before I had died and been reborn I used to smoke these. Naturally, my mother freaked out. She called my aunt and by the time my aunt had arrived at our house, I was no longer talking about my past life. Some people believe in reincarnation and others think it’s a big load of bunk, but just about everyone has a strong opinion about it. Not surprisingly, I personally believe very strongly in it. I only wish that I were still able to conjure up memories of my past life (or lives), but unfortunately for most people, that ability fades away very quickly the longer we remain on this earthly plane, and usually while we are still quite young.

My father passed away in 1980 when I was 16 years old and not a day has gone by that I haven’t missed him more than I could ever express in words. Through these many years I’ve had a great many visitations from him in my dreams. How do I know these were visitation dreams and not just ordinary dreams? Visitation dreams are incredibly vivid in every last detail and stay with you forever, as rich years later as they were the moment you first woke from them. Every single detail of my father’s visitations remain in my mind in super sharp focus, as opposed to just dreams about my father, the particulars of which all faded within hours of my waking. I hold the visitation dreams dearly in my heart, every last one of them.

Back in 2003, I had a very vivid and uncomfortably intense visitation dream from my father and was certain that the purpose of it was for him to say goodbye to me once again as he was preparing to reincarnate. I’ve held on to that dream in my heart and in my mind for six years now and only recently spent some time discussing it with a shaman who agrees with me that it was in fact a reincarnation dream as he was coming back to this plane in another form and he needed to say his final goodbye to me. I have had some very conflicted feelings since I first had the dream and they’ve only intensified since talking with the shaman. While I am happy that my father has moved on to the next stage of his soul’s journey, I can’t help but feel lost and abandoned all over again. I know it’s selfish of me to wish he were still watching over me, but it’s nothing if not completely honest. After all, I have lived my life for the last 29 years believing that when it’s my time to die, my father will be there (wherever “there” is) waiting for me and it’s the belief that I will see him once again that has kept me unafraid of death for nearly three decades and honestly looking forward to that time when I will be with him once more. But if he’s not there anymore because he’s back here as someone I don’t know, what will happen when I die? And when I go there, will I then be alone there too? My talk with the shaman has shattered my personal belief system and I’m now no longer sure what to think or how to feel.

This is one of the dilemmas we face with reincarnation: at some point we all need or choose to come back and where does that leave our loved ones that we yet again leave behind? It’s something that I have occasionally questioned, but without a great deal of concern until now, when someone I love so much is simply gone. Now really gone. I know when we die and when it’s our turn to return, we don’t fret over what or who we have left behind, but how do those of us who have been left behind handle the knowledge that those we have loved have begun a new life somewhere with no knowledge of us and all we shared anymore in their minds or hearts? Reincarnation, like so many other rites of passage in our lives, clearly contains within it a great deal of pain and conflict.

That’s what my heart is telling me, but my head just thinks that because my dad is gone again and really gone for good now, that this sucks more than anything. And now nothing is the same, nor will it be ever again, and I don't like it at all.

Tree Day 2009

Today is Arbor Day, which is always celebrated on the last Friday in April. Although it might not be exactly accurate to refer to the observation of Arbor Day as a "celebration", it is just that for those of us who adore trees and Mother Earth and wish to keep her as healthy as possible and show her all the respect she deserves.

In the words of Julius Sterling Morton, the man who founded Arbor Day (which on the first observed Arbor Day on April 10, 1872, it's believed that one million trees were planted, by the way) “Arbor Day is not like other holidays. Each of those reposes on the past, while Arbor Day proposes for the future.”

You said it, Mr. Morton.

Full Pink Moon

Today is the Full Pink Moon, so named because it heralds the appearance of pinks, or ground phlox, one of the first spring flowers to bloom. I love pinks and have them bordering my perennial bed in enormous clumps. My favorites are the Cheddar Pinks: pale gray-green foliage with cool blue-pink blossoms. And who couldn't love anything with a name like that? Unfortunately, my ducks seem to love them just as much as I do and if I'm not careful, will eat them until there are just a few dirt-covered roots left here and there.

Today's moon is also known by many other names as well: the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, the Frog Moon, the Planter's Moon and among the coastal tribes, the Full Fish Moon. The Lakotas call it the Fast Waterflow Moon. It's neo-pagan name is the Growing Moon.

Take a moment tonight to step outside and bathe yourself in the cool silver light of the moon. Draw down the full moon and as you draw the moon's essence into you, feel both its power and the power of the goddess strengthening you and making you whole.

Trees 101: The Oak

The second tree of the nine sacred woods of the sabbat fire is the oak. The sacred oak is the symbol of strength, of the God at his most virile. The ancient Greeks knew the oak as the "Mother Tree" and believed that man was created from the branches of the oak, a creation myth that I find much lovelier than woman being born from Adam's rib. In fact, many ancient cultures around the globe have myths that have their earliest peoples being born from oak trees. Some believe that acorns were the very first food found by man.

Everyone knows that oak is one of the hardest and sturdiest woods available and thus frequently use it for furniture and home building, but medicinally it can be used to treat sore throats, fevers and skin rashes, uses that are not as well known. Carrying an acorn brings luck to the bearer and acorns can be used in divination as well. Burning oak leaves in your home will help to clear away negative energy and the wood can be used in ritual or on an altar to represent the God. Yule is when the Oak King vanquishes the Holly King and so oak is always the traditional wood for the Yule log. Be sure to save a small piece of it to light the Yule log the next year as tradition requires! Many believe this sacred tree of the God is a doorway to other realms and if you have ever really looked in awe at an enormous oak tree, it isn't too difficult to believe. It is also believed that the roots of an oak tree extend into the earth as far as the visible tree is tall above the ground, increasing its strength.

The oak tree is masculine and vibrates to the elements of both air and fire and is ruled by the planet Jupiter as well as the sun. Oaks are one of the nine sacred woods for a sabbat fire in which it represents the God. Traditionally, oak is burned at Litha as this is the time of the year when oak reaches the peak of its power and strength.

Help for the Spring Cleaning Blues

Uh-oh! Here we go: it's time for spring cleaning once again. I tend to take my sweet time doing it and often find that I end up not finishing it by Beltane, which is a big no-no. I mean, who really enjoys cleaning out their cupboards and drawers? Yes, it feels good afterwards to be truly clean and organized, but let's be honest here. The process that gets you to that point of perfect squeaky-clean joy is not very pleasant. Still, since it must be done, here are some herbs and oils that make for a really clean home to welcome the young God to manhood.

Whether you choose to use homemade scrubs and oils or just clean the traditional way with modern products from your local market and then burn incense to purify when you're done, Mother Nature offers a wealth of herbs that can make your home both physically clean and rid it of any negative energy that's accrued over the dark winter months.

There's a reason why pine is used in so many supermarket cleaning solutions and it isn't just because it smells so good. It has been known for millennia as a plant that purifies, heals and cleanses, as does cedar, which also has the additional benefit of promoting spirituality as well. You can also use in a pinch, from your kitchen cabinet, clove, cinnamon, thyme and sage, all of which protect, heal and purify. These herbs, and many more, can be quickly ground down in a mortar and pestle to make simple incenses that can be burned over charcoal. And don't forget lemons. Lemon juice mixed with warm water makes a simple wash that cleanses all negative vibrations from your home: from the house itself as well as individual personal objects such as jewelry and small items you use regularly. Cleansing with this is most potent at the full moon as the lemon plant's ruling planet is the moon. I always like to add a little lavender to any mixtures I whip up, especially in incense recipes as it not only smells glorious, but in addition to its cleansing and purifying properties, it also adds an element of peace and calm to a home (and who doesn't want to be relaxed?).


AN ALL PURPOSE CITRUS CLEANSING OIL
(can be rubbed onto a candle for burning or a talisman or stone)

1/8 cup extra virgin, organic olive oil as a base
3 drops orange essential oil
2 drops lemon essential oil
2 drops lemongrass essential oil
1 drop grapefruit essential oil
1 drop lime essential oil

In a small glass container with a well-fitted lid, add to the oil base by dropper each of the essential oils. Gently swirl in a clockwise motion between each addition. Cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place. Use only genuine, 100% pure essential oils, not synthetics, as they contain none of the real plant's magickal properties.


A HOUSE PURIFICATION INCENSE
(this is especially potent when burned during the full moon)

3 parts rosemary
2 parts sandalwood
1 parts dragon's blood
1 part wood betony
1/2 part dill
1/2 part basil
a few drops of essential rose oil

Grind all the herbs individually into a fine powder, cleansing your equipment between each, then mix them all together in a clockwise motion in a glass, ceramic or wooden bowl. Lastly add the oil and gently mix once more. Store in a tightly lidded glass container in a cool, dark place. Try to use both of these mixtures before they get too old as the herbs lose their potency the longer they sit.


One small caveat: Please remember that some herbs stain fabrics and surfaces and some herbs are also skin irritants. Make sure you know what you are using and what you are using it on before you leap in and start slathering mixtures all over yourself or your precious belongings. Do your research first and you'll be a happy witch whose clothing and skin stay lovely despite your magickal workings! Happy house cleaning!

Turquoise and Coral

Do you have any favorite stones? Any that really speak to you and you are forever drawn to them again and again? I do. I have been drawn to turquoise since I was a very little girl. Granted, it is my mineral totem for my birth moon in Native American lore, but I had no knowledge of this when I first fell in love with the stone and drew energy from it. My other favorite stone is coral, which not surprisingly perfectly complements turquoise, both with its vibrant color as well as with its properties.

Turquoise is a receptive stone that vibrates to the energy of the element of Earth and is represented by male divine energy, the God. In Native American culture this is the Great Spirit. It’s a stone that offers protection to the wearer as well as bringing healing, courage, and luck. It’s the sacred stone of many Native American Indian tribes and was used to protect them in battle and when placed in tombs, to guard their dead.

Turquoise can be worn to guard against negative magic, accidents, disease and any and all dangers. When worn, it promotes courage and for this reason it makes a valuable amulet for travel.

As a healing stone, turquoise strengthens the eyes, alleviates fevers and reduces headaches. Place the stone against the troubled part of the body and visualize the illness entering the stone. Water into which you have dipped the stone can be drunk for its healing properties.

Like all blue stones, carry turquoise to attract luck and good fortune.

Coral is also a receptive stone but this one vibrates to the energy of the element of Water and is represented by feminine divine energy, the Great Mother Goddess. The stone has the power to heal as well as offering protection, peace and wisdom.

Coral isn’t really a stone, nor is it a plant, but is the skeleton of a formerly living sea creature. Hindus believe that the ocean is where human souls go to live after death and thus coral is a powerful amulet for the living. Coral contains the life essence, the primal energy, of the Mother Goddess, which to me speaks volumes.

It is a very feminine stone and is used to effect inner changes within the person wearing it. It eliminates depression, anxiety, fear, panic and nightmares. I simply love that in ancient times, women wore it to regulate their menses because they understood the link between coral, the sea, the moon and women’s cycles, something that is lost to modern women.

Again, this stone, like turquoise, is a stone of luck, of protection and cures eye issues. It can also cure indigestion and troubles with the blood.

Personally, I prefer the stones to be natural and not polished. I love to see them as nature made them: flawed, irregular and rough. Wear them together and see how powerful they can be: the masculine and the feminine, the God and the Goddess bringing strength, health and luck in all you do, balancing courage and power while giving the wearer the wisdom to know how to use it all wisely.

Religious Intolerance Sucks

Why must people be so intolerant when it comes to spirituality? If the motivation one has actually comes from the Divine, from Spirit, from God, then it wouldn't be cold and evil, would it? The Goddess/God knows no religion, as religion and church are man-made and Spirit is natural and pure. When one follows a religion that follows Spirit in name only, but is in fact merely a group of people who are more concerned with self-gratification and personal gain (including amassing untold riches), in controlling those below them and coercing others into doing their bidding and blindly following their dogma, then one ceases to be spiritual even if one appears to still be "religious." There is a big difference between the two.

A great many people who purport to be good, God-fearing Christians are the single most close-minded, condescending, shallow and mean people I have ever met. They will tell you that by not accepting Jesus Christ as your savior that you are going to go to hell for all eternity. They fear anything different and they really fear anyone of the Pagan/Wiccan persuasion. Any amount of explaining that these gentle earth-based religious belief systems have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with devil worship, and that the pentacle is not a symbol of Satanism or anything similar will fall on deaf ears. And all you get instead is someone with their fingers stuck in their fearful ears saying "badbadbadbadbadbadbad." Pagans are not atheists nor satan worshippers and they don't feel that those who choose other spiritual paths are evil, or inferior to them, nor do they spend their time attempting to convert folks to a Wiccan path because they believe that's the one true path to God. Not everyone who is a member of a mainstream religion is this obnoxious, but the majority of them sure seem to be and that's truly sad.

I can't think of any building more spiritual than a church or a temple, but fill it up with the parishioners and it usually becomes the least spiritual place on earth, with human nature ruining a simply perfect thing. People are inherently selfish, petty, rude and childish and a group of churchgoers is no exception. A Christian flock is really not so different than a group of social-climbing, intolerant third graders out on the playground at recess. To me, the Divine is most found in the wild where earth is at her most primal and her most untouched and there is no one there to ruin the purity of what nature has made. Spirit is in every leaf, every rock and on every breeze. The Goddess and the God are peace and gentleness and compassion. And that's the way spirituality should be felt: in one's soul and with love for everyone, regardless of who or what they are. You have your beliefs and I will respect them with my whole heart, so why can't you respect mine? Oh yeah, that's right: because I'm different from you.

Trees 101: The Birch

I'm in love with trees. I can think of nothing better than spending time sitting beneath a favorite tree, meditating, reading or simply soaking up the tree's energy. Or meeting a new tree while out walking and doing the same. It's amazing how varied different trees' energies are. If you aren't sure about this energy thing, try this: ask the tree quietly if you can draw some of its energy for yourself and if it would mind sharing it with you. If the tree says yes, stand or sit up straight with your back to the tree, making as much contact as you can along the length of your spine. Relax and concentrate. You should within moments begin to feel a tingling sensation at your contact points, such as your shoulder blades. This can also be done with your hands pressed against the trunk too. Be sure to thank the tree when you are done and if possible, leave an offering to show your gratitude, perhaps a handful of birdseed at its base.

Trees have been considered sacred for millennia and one of the many reasons for this is that trees are one of the few things on this planet that dwell in all three realms simultaneously: its roots are in the netherworld, it's trunk is in our earthly realm and the top of its branches touch the heavens. They carry an immense amount of power to heal. My favorite tree is the Birch and so I'll give them the honor of being first.

The birch is a feminine tree, ruled by the planet Venus and the element of water. Birch trees represent the Goddess. They are one of the nine sacred woods used for Sabbat fires and are considered to have both protective qualities and symbolize renewal. Birch wood is an incredibly hard and strong wood and thus is used for furniture, boats and can even be used for food as the sap is used to make birch beer. The traditional besom is made of birch twigs bound together.

The twigs of birch trees have been used for exorcising spirits by tapping them on possessed people to drive the evil out. It is purifying and cleansing.

Birch is the tree of the dead and through renewal, rebirth and new life.