Archive for the ‘Herbal’ Category

You say that you feel the most connected with the divine and the land when you are working in your garden.
You’re happiest when you are doing things like repotting your geraniums.
But you are frustrated when standing in front of that altar, candles burning and all, while trying to pray because it has no real meaning to you, you just don’t feel it.
So
Why aren’t you praying when you are repotting your geraniums?
Why are there no geraniums on your altar?
Why isn’t your altar in the garden?

~ Juniper

Correspondences: Figuring it Out For Yourself

Many years ago, people had no microscopes or laboratories to tell them what to use a certain plant for. They relied on shamanic practitioners and their own daring to discover the properties and uses of the plant life that grew around them.

Here is an exercise to help you see what it must have been like for early humans learning about our world.

 

Choose one culinary herb, your choice, fresh if possible but dried is fine. It will be best if you choose a herb you do not know much about, just head on over the grocery or fresh greens shop and choose a bundle of fresh (or dried) herbs that strikes your fancy.

You will want your notebook handy. Take a moment to clear your mind and relax. Gently touching the herb, feel free to say any prayer, blessing or charm in gratitude for this gift from the earth. Now take some of the herb in your hands and close your eyes.

 Breath slowly and deeply until you are relaxed. Try to turn as much of your focus and attention on the herb. With respect, ask the herb to share with you its nature, it’s energies, its purpose. Be still and calm and just let any feeling impressions and such drift across your consciousness for a while. Remember to keep your attention focused on  the herb. Write down any thoughts, feelings and impressions you have about the herb.

Put some of the herb in your hand and just look at it for a few minutes. Go ahead and write single words, anything that goes through your mind about the herb. Feel free to draw if your are an artist.

Spend sometime considering what the lifecycle of this plant must be, where it might like to grow, what sort of soil it would prefer?

Rub a few leaves against your cheek and through your fingertips. Write down any thoughts, feelings and impressions you have about the herb.

Now smell the herb a few times, taking slow deep breaths. Pinch some and rub it between your fingertips as you smell. How would you describe the smell? Any feelings associated with the smell, or when breathing in the herb’s scent?

Put some of the bruised herb on your tongue, and move it around your mouth. Focus on how it tastes. (You can rinse your mouth and spit it out if you want) How would you describe the taste? Any feelings associated with having the herb in your mouth?

Crush some of the herb and mix it with a small amount or warm water. Mix into a paste. Now rub that paste on the inside of an elbow. Leave there for as long as you like (at least a few minutes), and concentrate on that area with the herbs on it. Then wipe off. Feel your skin there, your energies there. Write down any thoughts, feelings and impressions you have.

Boil a small amount of water and then add your chosen culinary herb to the water, making a tea. You can use a tea ball or some such thing, or just let a small amount of the herb float in the cup. Once the tea is steeped, drink it. Going through the same observations, as before, how does it taste, would it be better with honey or sugar? Would you ever drink it again? Write anything down.

Thank the herb for sharing its lore with you as its last act. With the remnants, you may eat them, compost them, give the back to the land in some way, make incense etc…

Now go and research this herb! Compare what you felt in the exercise with what you discover as you research.

Can you find it growing or planted anywhere? From your backyard, to the woodland outside the city, to a planter in a garden store …

 
Need some ideas of what sort of info to look for? Below is a list of suggestions, you can go as in depth as you’d like. A good place to start is just by putting the chosen food and the info you want such as “Peach parts used” or “Rice Cultivation” into a search engine.

Info Outline

Common Name:
Botanical or Scientific Name:
Other Names:
Genus and Species:
Type (tree, flower, herb etc):
Leaf/Needle:
Form:
Flower:
Fruit:
Twig:
Bark:
Wood:
Climate and Habitat:
Soil Preference:
Places Commonly Found:
Places I have Found In Wild:
Parts Used:
Poisonous Parts:
Safety and Warnings:
Bouquet (aroma):
Flavour:
Magickal Gender:
Elements:
Celestial Bodies/Zodiac:
Special Date or Holidays:
Medicinal Uses:
Medicinal Actions:
Magickal/Ritual Properties:
Aromatherapy and Essential Oil:
Culinary Uses:
Cultivation:
Preparation:
Storage:
Mythology and Folklore:
Constituents:
Other Uses:
Other Notes:
Feel free to share folks ~ Juniper

Concerning Wildcrafting

Hints & Tips 

Also some common sense, and not so common sense, rules

 

Make sure you have all the tools and equipment you need before you head out.

Get to know as much as you can about your area, the weather, climate, the plant and animal life etc. It is very important you have intimate understanding of the land you gather from.

Take the time to learn about the area/land you will be gathering from, in all seasons. Also, get to know the plants at different phases of their lifecycle.

Start with only a few plants and learn them well before you begin to study and gather more.

Make sure you have the permission or the permits that might be needed for collecting at the site.

Keep a journal (and/or a map) and make sure to carefully note where you gathered each plant. Refer to this to ensure you do not gather too much from the same place. This also makes sure you can find again where you gathered a certain plant.

Taking pictures of each strand of plants before you harvest, and each time you revisit, can help you to keep track of how your gathering is affecting it.

Make sure to study any poisonous plants in your area, so you can recognize them easily.

Make sure to study any endangered plants in your area, so you can recognize them easily

NEVER gather an endangered plant.

If there be ten, leave seven. If there be five, leave three. If there be three, leave two. If there be less than three, leave them be.

Never take the best plants, leave those to seed the next generation.

Double and triple check every plant you identify. Many dangerous plants look a lot like harmless or medicinal ones.

If you can return the gift by spreading seeds (you can also replace crowns and plant roots) from nearby or from same-type seeds from your garden, please do.

Make sure the area you wish to gather from is not sprayed or chemically treated in any way.

Do not gather from fragile ecosystems, such as places that are protected or in danger of dying out.

Gather from places that are soon to be bulldozed and destroyed etc. You can re-seed nearby if possible, or let the strands live on in your garden, rituals and herbal remedies.

Take from the largest strand you can find, this will have less effect on the area.

If you find evidence of wildlife grazing on the strand, try to gather from elsewhere, or take much less. Those who rely on the strand for food get preference over us.

If you have noticed a decline of the plant in your area, go elsewhere.

Do your research on any plant you wish to gather, so that you collect at the right time and gather the right part of a plant. Make sure you know how to handle the plants and transport them properly.

Try not to disturb the native soil anymore than you have to.

Try not to disturb any sites that you know have endangered plants or wildlife there.

Be careful and respectful of the plant.

It is best to ask permission and give a gift or offering of some sort.

Explain your purpose for harvesting and give thanks.

Pay attention to what you are doing; be careful.

Clean up after yourself, do not leave trash and fill in any holes you make.

Do not be wasteful of your harvest.

Gathering in the City

So you live in the city and/or an apartment eh? Don’t despair!

It is harder to walk a nature path if you live in an urban area, or in an apartment, but there are options available to you. Waiting for the once a year chance to go to a campground takes a lot of patience. Let us also not forget most parks and campgrounds are nature reserves, national parks and the like, meaning you cannot gather there, not even ONE stick! If you are in the city, you will have to get quite creative in looking for places to gather or practice wort cunning and wildcrafting. Here are a few suggestions:

• Vacant lots. Do check for “No Trespassing” signs first!
• Ditches. I know, icky, but you will be amazed at what you can find growing in a ditch. Looking out the window of my RV, I see sunflowers & tansy growing tall in the ditch across the street, and that is just at first glance.
• Schoolyards, playgrounds, neighborhood parks. Some cities do not mind a certain amount of picking in such places, so check local bylaws.
• Do you have family or friends who hate to work in their yard? Every time you go over for a visit, you cringe at the sight of the unruly mess that is their backyard? Are you open about your path with them? They might just be wiling to let you scout around in their overgrown garden!
• The beach, as well as stream and river banks are a great place. If there is a creek or something along those lines in your area, you might just get lucky, and wet.
• Offering to help an elderly neighbor weed her garden of unwanted plants can be fruitful. Go visit Grandma and offer to do some yard work for her. You’ll be doing a good deed, and get those rosehips you were hoping for.
• Construction sites will often have plants, shrubs and trees tossed out like trash to the side. The men working there might give you a funny look if you ask to go through the pile, but they will likely let you.
• Keep your eyes peeled for when the guys from the city are out trimming trees and tending local gardens, parks, roadsides and museum grounds, asking them to let you go through their discards is worth the raised eyebrows.
• Volunteer at local gardens, reforestation projects, nature reserves and arboretums, likely they will not mind if you take a few sprigs home with you after a few hours of work.
• Railroad tracks. Walking along these tracks, I find all sorts of plants growing along the shoulder on either side of the tracks, along and in the ditch beside, and reaching up in the center of the tracks.
• Go walk the dog, or go for a jog. You might just pass by someone pruning their birch tree or find a pile of clippings on a neighbor’s curb.

These plants may need a bit more washing than ones found in the wild, and you may not know if they have been sprayed with fertilizer or weed killer. It can be worth it to check local bylaws concerning spraying weed killers and such, many cities do not allow it, or only certain kinds. If you are unsure if something you gathered has been sprayed, just do not ingest it. Use if for a smudge stick, or incense, or to dry and decorate your altar instead.

Gathering in the city means you may have to be bold, and charming. It can take some guts to ask the guy down the street for a branch of his oak tree, since he is trimming it anyways. Just give them a big smile and say you need it for arts and crafts…it’s the truth after all; it’s for the magickal ARTS and for witchCRAFT! Telling the guy weeding the lawn at city hall that you are an amateur herbalist and collecting weeds from around the area IS the truth after all.

Keep one of those handy canvas shopping bags from the grocery store in your car trunk, with an extra pair of pruners or strong scissors, just in case you happen by something. You never know what you might find, and where!

~ Juniper for walkingthehedge.net
Permission to reproduce is granted, so long as this disclaimer and the author’s name is attached.

Juniper

 

Common Name: Juniper (common)
Botanical or Scientific Name: Cupressaceae Juniperus communis

Other Names: Western Juniper, Rocky Mountain Red Cedar, Dwarf Juniper, Mountain Common Juniper, Old Field Common Juniper (there are many names, for many species of Juniper)

Genus and Species: Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae.

Type: An evergreen coniferous shrubby tree of the cypress family. There are many different junipers in the world.

Physical Description: A wide and low tree with an irregularly rounded crown. A knotty, twisted trunk. Often has a “bonsai” look to it.

Needle: Small (1/8 inch), scale-like and tight against the branches. Backsides of needles bear inconspicuous glands. Pale, yellowish green when young, greyish-green, green or blue-ish when mature. Appear in pairs, overlapping but covering the twig in four rows.

Form: Small tree or large shrub; shape is variable but often short with a round crown.

Size: Rocky Mountain Juniper can reach 13 metres in height

Flower: Dioecious; both male and female flowers are small (1/8 inch) and occur at branch tips; males oblong and females nearly round. Males are nearly yellow, females greener.

Fruit: Round, bluish berry-like cones (1/3 inch in diameter), covered in glaucous bloom, mature in two seasons. Green when young, bright to dark blue with a whitish bloom when mature, located at the ends of the branches

Twig: Covered in green scale-like needles, later turning light brown.

Bark: Thin and quite scaly with long narrow ridges, reddish brown but turns gray when aged and weathered.

Wood: Reddish colour, hard, durable, fine-grained, often knotty, distinctive “cedar-ish” odour.

Climate and Habitat: Rocky canyon bottoms, dry rocky southern facing ridges, and along lakeshores and streambeds. Rocky Mountain juniper often occurs in pure open groups of trees, but it can occur mixed with ponderosa pine on south and west facing slopes, or with Douglas fir on north and east facing slopes.

Soil Preference: Dry rocky or sandy soils

Places Commonly Found: Juniper grows wild throughout the northern hemisphere.

Places I have Found in Wild: Okanagan Valley, BC. Near Jasper, Alberta. Traveling through Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Washington and Oregon.

Parts Used: All but roots

Poisonous Parts: n/a

Safety and Warnings: Juniper is an irritant, and best used with other, more soothing herbs, and should not be used during pregnancy or when suffering from a kidney disease or infection. People with asthma and breathing conditions may not want use it in incense. Handling the needles can cause a slight irritation of the skin, allergic reactions are common, as such they are not recommended as Yule Trees.

Bouquet: Peppery, woody, almost fruity, some people claims its smells like cat piss, and others say it smell of violets. Fragrant and flowery, combining the aromas of gin and turpentine.

Flavour: Bittersweet and peppery with some pine flavour

Magickal Gender: Masculine

Elements: Fire

Celestial Bodies/Zodiac: Sun

Sabbats: Samhain, Yule

Medicinal Uses: Juniper is primarily used in the treatment of urinary tract infections such as cystitis and urethritis. It is a useful remedy for gastric conditions and gastrointestinal infections, inflammations and cramps. The bitter action aids digestion and relieves flatulent colic. Juniper is often used in the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis and gout. Applied externally, the diluted essential oil penetrates the skin to help relieve joint and muscle pain and neuralgia. It warms the tissues by encouraging blood flow.

Medicinal Actions: Antiseptic and diuretic properties, improving digestion, stimulating the uterus and reducing inflammation. Diuretic, increasing the elimination of acid metabolites; urinary antiseptic, carminative, stomachic, antirheumatic, uterine stimulant, anti-inflammatory.

Magickal/Ritual Properties: Protection, love, purification, underworld, manifestation, and prevention of theft.

Aromatherapy and Essential Oil: Clears the mind and is a good detoxifier, especially of uric acid, making it an excellent choice for treating arthritis, rheumatism and gout. The scent and heavy smoke is excellent for creating a ritual mindset.

Culinary Uses: The berries are used to flavour pickling brine, sauerkraut, stuffing’s, game, ham and pork. Juniper extracts are used to flavour gin, beer and liqueurs. Traditionally used by Native Americans, and by Ancient Europeans as a famine food.

Cultivation: The berries are harvested in the autumn of their second year when they are bluish-black in colour.

Preparation: Juniper berries are at their best when they are still moist and soft to the touch, squashing fairly easily between one’s fingers. They should be dried carefully to preserve the volatile oil. The fresh berries can be made into a syrup. It is possible to make a purée from juniper berries or to extract the flavour and aroma by macerating them in hot water, but as all parts are edible and the texture is agreeable, it is usually just as well to use the entire fruit, split or crushed.

Storage: I have found air drying on a screen and storing in a glass jar is most effective for both berry and needle. Whole branches are stored in a paper bag or wrapping to catch the dried needles as they fall off. The plain wood stores just fine on a shelf in a dry room.

Mythology and Folklore: It is said that ‘he who cuts down a juniper will die within the year’. Planting a juniper by the front door discourages thieves. There are some theories and myths connecting juniper to the world tree. Juniper was burned in the Middle Ages to ward off Plague.

Constituents: Contains phenolics, flavonoids, catechol tannins and polysaccharides, as well as an essential oil which contains a- and b-pinenes, sabinene, limonene, terpinen-4-ol, borneol, geraniol and sesquiterpenes.

Other Uses: Carving, cooking, disinfectant, air freshener, in sweat houses, smoking hides, tea, cooking. Juniper branches were a popular strewing herb.

Other Notes: Juniper often develops massed outgrowths of branches called Witches’ Brooms.

 

The Turning of Spring to Summer

 

The most amazing thing, for me at least, about coming home is returning to the rhythms of the place where I first began to study Paganism, and thus the Wheel of the Year. As a smart-a**ed teenager, I didn’t pay much attention as I followed along behind my garden obsessed Mother. In fact, it took living out in the country, on a small acreage in Alberta, to make me pay proper attention to the turning of the seasons. At first, this was little more than annoyance at the drifts of half-melted snow stubbornly clinging to the shady bottoms of the trees at Beltaine. When I look back, I shake my head at the fact it required snowstorms for Ostara to make me really and truly pay attention to the cycle of the Seasons.

Returning to the Okanagan, a large lake valley in British Columbia, Canada, after nearly 7 years, I was looking forward to learning the rhythms of a much warmer climate. I came back not long before Litha, and with Beltaine almost here; I have now spent nearly a full Turn of the Wheel here. And I have discovered I did not need to learn the rhythms and cycle of the land here. I already had learned years ago, even if I failed to realise it for what it was. For honoring the changing seasons is more than noticing when the first robin appears, or tying pink ribbons on tree limbs. It goes much deeper than lighting a fire at sunrise, or even weaving grain into a dolly. The seasons are a part of us. Childhood memories are full of walking in the Autumn fog, jumping into leaf piles, playing in the warm Spring rain, waiting for the first big snow storm, and sunburns in Summer. The rhythms of life dance in harmony with the seasons, even if we do not recognize it as such.

Spring has arrived when the family cats stop spending most of their time indoors. Summer is on its way when they take up spending their afternoons sleeping in the lavender patch, even before it has bloomed. There is a bald spot in the big patch of English lavender from years of my mother’s, now elderly cat sunning himself in the same spot, year after year. How glorious a place to catnap!

I know that summer is fully upon us when, during the heat of the day, the cats move from the lavender to the sheltering shade of the maple-wall. Roughly 6 feet high, 8 feet long and 5 feet thick, a gang of young Maple trees have been shaped into a wall-shape by my tenacious Mother. Just before bud-burst, we trim them back, never allowing them to become more than shrubbery. Providing shade and a dividing line between two areas of the yard.

We live in a dry region, and with many old Western Red Cedars towering abouve the property; other plant-life must be carefully managed. Cedars are thirsty trees; they are often the first to die when there is drought. We lost 2 large Cedar trees and a few smaller cedar shrubs last year, when construction on the hills abouve changed the course of underground streams. If we allowed the Maples to grow overmuch, they might kill off the Cedars. Natural selection, perhaps, but still costly to have 20 foot dead trees removed, and dangerous to leave a large dead tree to fall on its own.

If the Cedars died, much shade would be lost, causing catastrophe for Mom’s garden, and many plants that grow under their sheltering limbs. The greenery they give to us in winter would be gone, the shelter from wind and rain lost. I have a special fondness for the Cedars in Mom’s yard. Especially the one growing closets to the maple-wall. This Cedar has kindly provided materials for smudge sticks, and one besom handle, over the years, only ever asking in return that it get enough water to thrive.

Between the maple-wall and my favorite Cedar is a lovely patch of grass, clover, and Canadian thistle. A few times over the decade-plus my mother has lived here, a fairy ring of mushrooms has grown up (always seemingly overnight) in this patch. Mom now makes a point of leaving birdseed in this area, along with hanging birdfeeders nearer to the house. Clippings from grooming the dogs are left here in the Spring and again before Winter, providing insulating material for bird nests. This is where I left my very first Offering when I was just 15, this is where I leave them now. The thistle and clover are greening but not flowering yet. When they do, you can see why the Old Ones favour this spot.

At the edge of this special spot, a great old patch of yarrow trails over the retaining wall. Here is one of the first herbs I ever planted, still growing strong. In fact, it has now become cause of much frustration for my Mother, as the hardy yarrow tries to take over much of the garden and the lawn. There are areas of the one acre yard where yarrow, mint and scotch moss vie for dominance of the formerly-all-grass-lawn. Ah well, I would rather walk on fragrant mint and flowering yarrow, with soft moss underneath my feet than grass.

There are half a dozen types of mustard growing wild and unchecked in the corners of the yard. Right now they bloom in yellow, white and purple. I keep threatening to make a salad of them, along with other gleanings from the garden. Pansies perhaps? The nasturtiums have not bloomed yet; will not for a little while.

Mom was quite annoyed when I identified a much-hated weed as wild ginger. Native Americans used the root to flavour foods much as real ginger is used (This plant is not related to the ginger you can find at the local grocery store). In addition it was thought to protect those who ate spoiled meat or food that might be poisoned. It was used for many medical purposes including the treatment of digestive disorders, especially gas, and in a poultice on sores. The dried powered leaves were used to promote sneezing. Often it was used to promote sweating, reduce fever and for coughs and sore throats. In other words, I have chosen a patch of it Mom cannot kill off until I have made good use of it, and ensured at least one patch will come back next year.

My favorite tree in the yard stands guardian by the front door. Planted when the house was first built over 50 years ago, she stands wide and taller than the house she shelters. A beautiful Western Yew, who would have been comfortable in any ancient Druid grove or old-time churchyard. This special lady provided me with my first wand, before I knew how some Pagans are uncomfortable with the Yew in Circle, due to its associations with Death and the Underworld. When I first began to study Shamanism, I would visualize her as my connection to the World Tree, making it one of my entrances into the Otherworlds. When a strong wind or storm blows a limb from her body, I reverently gather it up. Her lost limbs have become wands, her leaves collected and use in “flying” incense. Whatever remains is lovingly placed in the balefire. Even when I lived far away, if I came to visit, I often brought pieces of her (rescued from the compost pile) back to Alberta with me. This fine lady Yew shelters many birds year round in her arms. The robins are especially fond of her. The birds eat her red berries, immune to its poison, as I try to keep my curious dog form doing the same. When I first started my path, this lady was my secret Yule tree. Knowing that we will be moving, and leaving her behind this Summer, I have endeavoured to pot some of her young daughters, in hopes of taking some of her essence with me. I know Spring is here when I see robins building nests in her arms, and jays squawk bossily from the very crown of her.

Summer comes with the blooming of the lavender patch, when the last of the Canadian violet has lost its flower. Summer comes when the last lilac bush drops is fragrant purple blossoms and the wild roses are in full bloom. Summer has come when the Cedars thirstily drink every drop of water we give them. When the Tamarisks are fully green and they prepare to bloom in a delicate light pink. Summer has come when the heat drives us to stand in the slow and low flowing stream, under the shelter of the shrubby Birches who grow on its banks.

I shall miss this Land more than I can say, when we leave next month, headed for a new valley. I look forward to learning the cycles of a new place, but I know that the rhythms of this place will forever stay in my blood and bone. The Yew is a part of my Soul, as are the Cedars, the yarrow and the cooling stream.

O, glorious Spring, Oh magnificent Summer.

Gazing at the beauty that is the home of my teen years, I look up upon the sheltering mountains so close to my Mother’s home. There the mountainside is scarred from a forest fire years ago, caused by a combination of poor forest management and lightning. I strain to hear a stream that once ran through the property all Spring, but now often runs dry due to construction changing the waterways. I walk along the edge of the property, picking up trash commuters have tossed from their car windows. I gaze sadly at a neighbour wasting litres of water on his great grass lawn. I fight with my Mom to save the trees and plant life endangered by changing water tables, pollution, and climate change.

I wonder what the cycle of the Seasons will be like here in another ten years. And I worry.

 

~ Juniper