Posts Tagged ‘101’

If you are never late for work, yet never on time at an Open Circle?

If you always try to keep your promises, but feel justified in not showing up to help out at Pagan Pride Day like you said you would?

If you will go out of your way to buy that expensive latte at your favorite coffee shop, but never make an appearance at the local Pagan Coffee Meet & Greet?

If you donate to the food bank through work every year at Christmas, but somehow never remember to bring a can of beans when the local Pagan clergy are collecting?

If you spend a fortune on cheap beer and yet have never bought a jug of mead from your local Heathen brewer?

If you always mean to do this or that ritual, but never get around to it for any real reason?

If you’ll spend $200 and a weekend drinking with your buddies, but never show up for Pagan Pub Night?

If you go to the pharmacy and buy up all the bottles labeled “herbal” but have never been to the actual herbalist in town?

If you would always offer to do the dishes after having dinner at a friends house, but never volunteer to help out at a Fest or Gathering?

If you will spend $80 on a ticket for a concert, but won’t spend $20 cover charge to see a Pagan band play at the pub?

If you can make time to play video games, but not to meditate?

If you will stay up late to finish reading that mystery novel, but still haven’t read any of the Witchcraft books you bought last month?

If you buy cheap beer for Odin and expensive wine for yourself?

If you spend $45 dollars on a new blouse you might never wear but you won’t spend $15 at the local metaphysical shop on a candleholder?

If you would rather spend your evening watching reruns of Lost than watch a documentary on the Celts? (or the Viking, or Egyptian burial practices or whatever)

If you can recite whole episodes of the Simpson’s by heart, but can never remember which Element goes with Emotion?

If you will march proudly with your gay friends in their Pride Parade through downtown but won’t show your face at Pagan Pride Day in the park?

If today was your last day
If tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have
If today was your last day?

Going against the grain should be a way of life
What’s worth the price is always worth the fight
Every second counts cause there’s no second try
So live it like you’re never living twice
Don’t take the free ride in your whole life

~ Nickleback

You don’t have to climb mountains
Go through complicated rituals
Or follow some guru around
All you have to do
Is accept that you are part of god
And god is part of you
Failures, mistakes and fuck ups included
To honor the Creator
Celebrate all of Creation
Look around you
The air moves, the trees grow
Cells divide, suns are born
solar systems spin, ants march
animals die, leaves fall
fruit rots, lava flows
You breathe
Everything is always going
Doing, moving, flowing, growing, and changing
Do you really expect all this to suddenly stop and be still and calm and peaceful
Just because you have decided to meditate for thirty minutes?
Do you really expect a spiritual experience to always be a kind of stillness?
You cannot blank your mind
Or stop the growth of your Self
Any more than you could stop the wind
They are all parts of the same Whole
Just be
Breathe with the land
Love what you love
Celebrate all of Creation
Including yourself

Hearth Craft

“An rud a nitear sa chuil, thig e dh’ionnsaigh an teine” ~ What’s done in the corner will come to the hearth.

“No matter where I serve my guests, it seems they like the kitchen best” ~ A decorative plate that once hung in my Great Grandmother’s kitchen.

In these modern times, in Western society especially, the home of today is centered on the television. The furniture is placed strategically around it; the couch or sofa faces it and the faces of the family are also turned towards it. Often our most prized family photos, trophies, mementos and the like rest on or near it. Surely if archaeologists one day dig up the bones of our civilization, they will think the television was our God.

But before primetime TV and soaps operas took over our lives, before Nintendo and Xbox, the household and everyone in it would gather around the family stove, and before that, the hearth. The hearth was such in integral part of European (and Colonial) culture that there was no separating hearth and home, fireside and family. In fact, the word for “hearth” in Latin is “focus”.

Hearthcraft is working with the magick and spirit of hearth, home, kith and kin. In Hearthcraft the entire house and the land it sits on is sacred space, the home the family’s temple, centered on the hearth. Be that hearth a fireplace, a woodstove or modern electric range. In Hearthcraft, the home is hallowed.

Even cleaning can become a ritual. In fact, life is made up of a series of little routines we go about day by day; hearthcraft is the practise of recognizing the magick in every day routines and traditions. There are many spells involving the use of a mop or broom. Many “cleansings” that Pagan practitioners do, involve literally cleaning the space before doing the spiritual cleansing.

The hearth plays an important part in folklore and the traditions of the family home. A large part of most holidays and festivals throughout history is feasting, as well as lighting the hearth.

Hearthcraft is grounded in commonsense and practicality; it is using what is available to you. A healing spell is a bowl of chicken soup; a purification ritual is sweeping the floor; a ritual to honor the gods is cleaning the fireplace.

Hearthcraft is finding the sacred, the spiritual and the magickal in everyday things. It is bringing that “special something” into a house that makes it a home.

I came across this old reading list on Mysticwicks the other day. I like the MW Magazine (I have a couple of articles in early editions) but have neglected the forum for a while now. Anyways it seems 4 years later people are still using this reading list and I realized its not on the Hedge!

It used to be, back in the early days when the Hedge was lavender, pink and pastel green … written by hand in novice HTML code. Remember those days? hehehehe

So for old times sake, here is an old reading list. Not sure if all these books would be on this list today, and I wouldn’t be so bold and arrogant as to separate things into categories such as Beginner or Advanced. But I will let it stand as it was some 4 years ago (or however long its been, has it been that long???)

You can find a somewhat updated list here.

Some Book Suggestions for a Nature Witch

* Books with an asterisk are on Juniper’s favorite list.*

I would recommend reading at least one book in each subject group before moving on to the next level (beginner to intermediate, intermediate to advanced) as an absolute minimum.
Beginner

Identification, Science & Research

* Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places – Steve Brill *
* National Geographic Field Guide to Trees of North America – Keith Rushforth, Charles Hollis
* North american wildlife: trees and nonflowering plants field guide – Reader’s Digest Editors
* The Basic Essentials of Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs – Jim Meuninck
* Trees of North America: A Guide to Field Identification, Revised and Updated – C. Frank Brockman, Rebecca Marrilees
* American Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants – H. Marc Cathey
* Flora: A Gardener’s Encyclopedia – Sean Hogan *
* Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide – Thomas Elias
* Peterson First Guides: Trees – George Petrides, Olivia Petrides , Janet Wehr *
* Earth Science – Edward J. Tarbuck
* National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers (Eastern Region) – William A. Niering, Nancy C. Olmstead, Susan Rayfield, and Carol Nehring

Propagation & Cultivation (Gardening & Growing)

* Growing Herbs from Seed, Cutting & Root: An Adventure in Small Miracles – Thomas Debaggio
* Jerry Baker’s Giant Book of Garden Solutions: 1,954 Natural Remedies to Handle Your Toughest Garden Problems – Jerry Baker
* Let It Rot! the Gardener’s Guide to Composting (Down-to-Earth Book) – Stu Campbell
* Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening – Anna Kruger

Herbal & Natural Health

* The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety – Simon Mills *
* The Dictionary of Modern Herbalism: A Comprehensive Guide to Practical Herbal Therapy – Simon Mills *
* The Herbal Medicine Maker’s Handbook: A Home Manual – James Green
* Jeanne Rose: Herbal Body Book: The Herbal Way to Natural Beauty & Health for Men & Women – Jeanne Rose
* The Way of Herbs – Michael Tierra

Magickal & Spiritual

* The Wicca Garden: A Modern Witch’s Book of Magickal & Enchanted Herbs & Plants – Gerina Dunwich
* The Magical Garden: Spells, Charms, and Lore for magical Gardens and the Curious Gardeners Who Tell -Sophia and Denny Sargent
* The Green Witch Herbal: Restoring Nature’s Magic in Home, Health, and Beauty Care – Barbara Griggs
* Magical Herbalism – Scott Cunningham *
* Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs – Scott Cunningham
* Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up – Ellen Dugan
* Real Witches Garden – Kate West
* Earth Power – Scott Cunningham
* Natural Witchery: Intuitive, Personal & Practical Magick – Ellen Dugan
* Herb Magic For Beginners – Ellen Dugan
* The Elements of Natural Magic (Elements of) – Marian Green
* Craft Of The Wild Witch: Green Spirituality & Natural Enchantment – Poppy Palin
* Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore & Herb Craft – Aoumiel, Ann Moura
* Grimoire For The Green Witch: A Complete Book of Shadows – Ann Moura
* Green Magic: The Sacred Connection to Nature – Ann Moura

Incense, Oils & more

* Wylundt’s Book of Incense: A Magical Primer – Wylundt
* Incense: Crafting and Use of Magickal Scents – Carl Neal *
* Complete Book Of Incense, Oils & Brews – Scott Cunningham *

Lifestyles & the Environment

* It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living – Crissy Trask
* Living Green: A Practical Guide to Simple Sustainability – Greg Horn

Home & Hearth

* Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen – Scott Cunningham
* Cottage Witchery: Natural Magick for Hearth and Home – Ellen Dugan
* The Magical Household – Scott Cunningham *
* Clean House Clean Planet – Karen Logan
* The Naturally Clean Home: 100 Safe and Easy Herbal Formulas for Non-Toxic Cleansers – Karyn Siegel-Maier

Folklore & Mythology

* The Meaning of Herbs: Myth, Language & Lore – Ann Field
* Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees (Dover Pictorial Archive Series) – Ernst Lehner (Author), Johanna Lehner

Well Rounded (or a little bit of everything)

* The Complete Book of Herbs: A Practical Guide to Growing and Using Herbs – Lesley Bremness *
* Herbs & Things – Jeanne Rose *
* Your Backyard Herb Garden: A Gardener’s Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More – Miranda Smith
Intermediate

Identification, Science and Research

* Green Pharmacy: The History and Evolution of Western Herbal Medicine (Paperback) – Barbara Griggs
* The Healing Power of Celtic Plants: Their History, Their Use, and the Scientific Evidence That They Work (Paperback) – Angela Paine
* Botany for Gardeners – Brian Capon *

Propagation & Cultivation (Gardening & Growing)

* The Secret Garden: Talking Beetles and Signaling Trees: The Hidden Ways Gardens Communicate – David Bodanis
* Making an Herb Garden: Beautiful Designs, Plantings and Ornamentation -Catherine Mason
* Growing 101 Herbs that Heal: Gardening Techniques, Recipes, and Remedies – Tammi Hartung
* Burpee : The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically – Karan Davis Cutler, Cavagnarok David, Barbara W. Ellis, David Cavagnaro
* Bud, Blossom, & Leaf: The Magical Herb Gardener’s Handbook – Dorothy Morrison
* Herb Garden Design – Ethne Clarke
* Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture – Toby Hemenway *
* Introduction to Permaculture – Bill Mollison *

Herbal & Natural Health

* Wicca Herbal: Guide to Healing Body and Spirit with Magickal Herbs -Jamie Wood
* Mastering Herbalism: A Practical Guide – Paul Huson
* Healing Wise (Wise Woman Herbal Series) – Susun S. Weed *
* Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (Wise Woman Herbal Series) – Susun S. Weed
* New Menopausal Years, The Wise Woman Way: Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90 (Wise Woman Herbal Series) – Susun S. Weed
* Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (Wise Woman Herbal Series) – Susun S. Weed, Alan McKnight, Christine Northrup

Magickal & Spiritual

* The Nature Path – Starhawk *
* The Magical and Ritual Use of Herbs – Richard Alan Miller
* Wild Witchcraft: A Guide to Natural, Herbal and Earth Magic – Marian Green
* Natural Witchcraft: The Timeless Arts and Crafts of the Country Witch (Natural Way) – Marian Green
* Natural Magic – Doreen Valiente *
* Green Witchcraft II Ann Moura

Incense, Oils & more

* 375 Essential Oils – Jeanne Rose *
* Aromatherapy Book: Inhalations and Applications – Jeanne Rose
* Jeanne Rose’s Kitchen Cosmetics: Using Herbs, Fruit and Flowers for Natural Bodycare – Jeanne Rose
* Magick Potions: How to Prepare and Use Homemade Incense, Oils, Aphordisacs, and Much More – Gerina Dunwich
* A Dyer’s Garden: From Plant to Pot Growing Dyes for Natural Fibers – Rita Buchanan

Lifestyles & the Environment

* The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It – John Seymour
* Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth James Lovelock *
* The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth – James E. Lovelock *

Home & Hearth

* The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Solar Power for your Home, 2nd Edition – Dan Ramsey

Folklore & Mythology

* Celtic Tree Magic – Elizabeth Pepper

Well Rounded (or a little bit of everything)

* Herbs: Gardens, Decorations, and Recipes – Emelie Tolley
* The Herb Society of America’s Essential Guide to Growing and Cooking With Herbs – Katherine K. Schlosser
* The Wild Plant Companion: A Fresh Understanding of Herbal Food and Medicine – Kathryn G. March *
* The Meaning of Trees: Botany, History, Healing, Lore – Fred Hageneder
Advanced

Identification, Science and Research

* The Secret Life of Plants – Peter Tompkins, Christopher Bird *
* Seed to Seed: The Secret Life of Plants – Nicholas Harberd
* Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine – Daniel Mowrey *

Propagation & Cultivation (Gardening & Growing)

* The Medicine Wheel Garden: Creating Sacred Space for Healing, Celebration, and Tranquillity – E. Barrie Kavasch
* Herbal Tea Gardens: 22 Plans for Your Enjoyment & Well-Being – Marietta Marshall Marcin
* Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs, Cultivation, Conservation and Ecology – Richo Cech
* The Self-Sustaining Garden: A Gardener’s Guide to Matrix Planting – Peter Thompson *
* The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals – Barbara W. Ellis, Fern Marshall Bradley
* Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual – Bill Mollison *

Herbal & Natural Health

* Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healing – Stephen Pollington
* Veterinary Herbal Medicine – Susan G. Wynn
* Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy: Modern Herbal Medicine – Simon Mills *

Magickal & Spiritual

* Herbs of the Northern Shaman – Steve Andrews
* Psychedelic Shamanism: The Cultivation, Preparation & Shamanic Use of Psychoactive Plants – Jim Dekorne
* Psychedelics Encyclopedia – Peter Stafford
* The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications – Christian Ratsch
* Ecoshamanism: Sacred Practices of Unity, Power and Earth Healing – James Endredy *
* Planetary Herbology – Michael Tierra
* Green Witchcraft III: The Manual – Ann Moura
* Gaia Eros: Reconnecting to the Magic and Spirit of Nature – Jesse Wolf Hardin

Incense, Oils & More

* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils: The Complete Guide to the Use of Oils in Aromatherapy and Herbalism (Illustrated Encyclopedia) – Julia Lawless
* The Book of Incense: Enjoying the Traditional Art of Japanese Scents – Kiyoko Morita
* The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy: An Herbalist’s Guide to Preparing Medicinal Essences, Tinctures, and Elixirs – Manfred M. Junius

Lifestyles & the Environment

* The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Energy Independence, Off-grid And Sustainable Living – William H. Kemp
* Sacred Gaia: Holistic Theology and Earth System Science – Anne Primavesi *

Home & Hearth

* Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House: Bringing Your Home into Harmony with Nature – Carol Venolia, Kelly Lerner
* The Homeowner’s Guide to Renewable Energy: Achieving Energy Independence Through Solar, Wind, Biomass And Hydropower – Daniel D. Chiras

Folklore & Mythology

* Ancient Herbs – Marina Heilmeyer

Things

Trees are good for you.

Everyone is the hero of the story in his or her own mind.

Chances are, no one is out to get you.

A spiritual path wouldn’t be worth it if it were easy.

There are many approaches to everything.

Please yourself first, but not exclusively.

The sort of people who set up a yurt on the beach and spend a summer cleaning up oil spills, without pay, are amongst the least respected in our society. No good, longhaired, tree-hugging, hippy, eco-terrorists!

If there is a way off this crazy merry-go-round only Buddha knows it.

You can tell the difference between a curse and a run of bad luck, but I couldn’t explain it.

Education does not equate intelligence.

The majority of white people will be pagan again someday, but not any time soon.

Thou art God (really).

But don’t get full of yourself now; most of the entities in the universe can kick your ass.

There is a trend to claim to be god owned in pagan culture right now, this is not something you should lie about kids. The gods are real and not all cupcakes and bunny rabbits.

No one has any patience any more, especially in the city.

Paganism has always been somewhat different in the sticks than in the towns. It always will be that way.

Head Six is the Devil.

A mother should be proud her son grew up to join the Sea Shepherd Society, but will rather wish he became a small time lawyer for petty crooks.

Some day we will again have stunning marble temples built to our gods. Only in the future temples will be built of reclaimed marble and other recycled materials, also they will have green roofs and run on solar, wind, or hydro power.

School (as in the modern school system in our part of the world) is not for everyone and everyone is not for school, but everybody ought to give it their best shot and go as far as they can.

I don’t care how much money you make, how big your house is, I don’t care if you’re hard working or a lazy bum, I don’t care if you are wise or ignorant, I don’t care if you’re a “real” Witch or not.

What I care about is whether or not the world is a better place for having you in it.

Play to your strengths, and remember not everyone has the same talents and abilities as you; they must play to their own strengths.

There are as many different kinds of intelligence as there are people on this earth.

Your personality is only a small part of you.

There is a trend  to be using flying ointments and such as shortcuts in pagan culture right now, this is not something you should play with kids. This is something that should be taken seriously and researched first. Please.

In order to Be Yourself, you must first Know Yourself.

The first step to knowing yourself is coming to the understanding that you (and everything else) are always changing.

How do you want to BE always changing?

Grow

Love

There is more than one way to gain knowledge and experience in this world.

Ability, knowledge, experience, understanding, and wisdom; all fingers and a thumb upon a palm called enlightenment.

What is the wrist? Where is the arm?

There is a difference between infatuation and love.

Wouldn’t bliss get boring after a while?

Once having achieved nirvana, would you want a nice greasy cheeseburger?

Nothing separates you from nature or the divine except for your belief that you are.

It seems to me that people complicate spirituality needlessly. I’m not sure exactly why?

There are no do-overs.

You cannot play this game without screwing up sometimes.

I write with more humor in mind than people think/read.

I broke my keyboard.

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