Summer Wellbeing: Summer, The Season of Becoming

Good Witches Homestead

Summer has arrived, filled with a joyful abundance of all the sweetest of things. It makes me want to run barefoot and wild, as I listen to the sounds of the forest: the chirping birds and crickets, the rush of leaves when a gentle breeze comes to play. I fill my lungs as long and as wide as I can, dancing upon the warm winds of this season of flourishing.

Here we are met with the season of being alive — of letting go of all fears. Of letting the sun heal us with her gentle glow: restoring our hopes and our dreams. By now we are full-grown, in full bloom, but are also all still children with dirty feet and sparkling eyes. Summer is the season of starlight, of hikes through the forest, of a mountain lake, swims, bursts of laughter, long books of poetry, long days by the…

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2nd Moon of Summer 2019

A Druid’s Primer on Land Healing: A Healing Grove of Renewal

The Druid's Garden

Reishi growing from a stump in my sacred forest

Many years ago, I shared the story of the “mystery of the stumps“, which was my path into druidry. I grew up spending all my days in a forest that was rich, full, and bountiful. When I was 14, that forest was logged. My heart broke, and afterward, I tried to enter the forest but it was horrible: downed trees everywhere, so much damage, so many friends that had been cut and taken away. I thought the forest would never heal. I withdrew not only from nature, but from my spirit and creative gifts, and spent a time in numbness and mourning–a period that lasted almost 10 years. I didn’t return to the forest till I was 24. When I finally went back in, so much had changed–the land was regrowing. Large thickets of birch, blackberry, and cherries were…

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Growing Edible Flowers in Your Garden

Good Witches Homestead

While gardeners love flowers for their beauty outdoors in the garden and indoors in a vase, few raise them to eat. That’s a shame because many flowers are edible and bring lively flavors, colors, and textures to salads, soups, casseroles, and other dishes. Eating flowers is not as exotic as it sounds. The use of flowers as a food dates back to the Stone Age with archeological evidence that early man ate flowers such as roses.

Of course, flowers have been used to make teas for centuries, but flower buds and petals also have been used from China to Morocco to Ecuador in soups, pies, and stir-fries. Rose flowers, dried day lily buds, and chrysanthemum petals are a few of the flowers that our ancestors used in cooking. In fact, many of the flowers we grow today were originally chosen for the garden based upon their attributes of aroma and flavor, not…

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The Magic of Chamomile

Good Witches Homestead

German Chamomile – Matricaria chamomilla
Roman Chamomile – Anthemis nobilis

The chamomile herb is another well-known plant, used in making effective herbal remedies for the treatment of a variety of illnesses. The herb has a great relaxant action on the nervous system and the digestive system. The herbal remedies made from this plant are considered to be a perfect remedy for the treatment of disorders affecting babies and children. The main action of the chamomile is that it brings about relaxation in all the smooth muscles throughout the body of an individual. The herb acts on the digestive tract and rapidly brings relief from any muscular tension and spasms, it alleviates disorders such as colic, and it can reduce the amount of abdominal pain, and remedy excess production of wind and abdominal distension in patients.

The other major effect of the herb lies in its ability to regulate peristalsis along the…

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Fresh Peas, Pasta and Feta

Hedgerow and Hearth

We are well on our way to July now, and the peas are ready to harvest. This is a really easy recipe using fresh peas, and garden mint, all you need to add is pasta, lemon juice and pepper.

Ingredients;

350g penne pasta (I used spaghetti as this was all I had in the house)
150g fresh peas
100g fresh broad beans if you have them
2tbsp olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lemon
150g baby spinach if you have any ready to harvest – or you can add a sprinkle of fresh mint
200g feta cheese, crumbled

What you need to do:

Cook the penne in a large pan of boiling water for 5 mins. Add the peas and broad beans and cook for a further 5 mins until the penne is just tender. Drain and return to the pan.
Add the olive oil, lemon zest and juice…

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Health Benefits of Slippery Elm

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Slippery Elm is a perennial tree native to the central and eastern United States and Ontario, Canada, and can reach a height of 60-80 feet. They can live up to 200 years. Slippery Elm is also called Red Elm or Indian Elm. Native Americans used the inner bark for its soothing effect on the digestive tract and to heal wounds. Today, Herbalists use Slippery Elm for its mucilaginous and nutritive properties, for a sore throat, and for soothing the mucous membranes lining the stomach and intestines. The inner bark is the only part used for therapeutic purposes. When it is moistened, the gummy mucilaginous substance surrounding its fibers swell, producing a soothing softening remedy. This gooey ingredient is very similar to Flaxseed. Slippery Elm is known by Herbalists for its soothing effect on whatever part of your body it comes into contact with. Slippery Elm has also been used during times of stress. Given that our mental…

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The Halls of Amenti – An Ancient Egyptian Goddess

Relativity

secretsoftheserpent

Relativity is how things have significance to you in relation to what you know or how you think. Relativity goes way beyond physics and is a big factor in Magic. Everything you know and understand is all relative.This physical world is not the same for everyone.How you have been brought up, where you live, and your beliefs are all relative.You only know things compared to other things.You can not know things without being intimately involved.When you were a kid you did not know the difference between hot and cold or big and small?You had to experience it.Everything is relative.

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