Gemstones are a great way to help me relax, gain focus, and ground myself. No better surprise than to find the gemstone you slipped into your pocket as a little good luck charm when your eyes were barely open at six AM, giving you that afternoon boost you need!

Gemstones are special because they each hold specific unique powers that can aid you with your own, likewise specific needs. Sometimes you might be drawn to the beauty of their color, or weight for no particular reason; that’s awesome too! The connection may come later as you spend time familiarizing yourself with your new gems!

When I wear gem jewelry I feel a sense of comfort and protection, a magnetic beauty and confidence. Most of all I love the feeling of first slipping my bracelets onto my wrists and letting the cool tranquility of their weight ground and calm me.

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Incense

Luck

5 Magical Binding Plants

Cultivate Deep Respect for Mother Earth

Good Witches Homestead

The Wolf Moon also brings another interesting astrological movement— Uranus moves into Taurus. This pairing can mean a few things, but most expert astrologers conjecture that it means we will experience some extreme weather events in 2018 that will likely be sudden and unexpected. On a more energetic level, Uranus in Taurus also brings our connection to nature into awareness. Taurus has to do with agriculture, food distribution, and finances, so look for lots of innovation and growth in this space. On a more personal level, we may also experience a distorting of technology and ourselves. How have cell phones and addictive apps impacted human connection, mental health, and physical health? While you may already feel the effects of this in your life, this theme will be explored more in 2018. With it hopefully comes to a renaissance of getting dirty in nature and understanding how plants can heal the…

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First New Moon of Winter

Sacred Tree Profile: White Pine’s Medicine, Magic, Mythology, and Meanings

The Druid's Garden

White Pine Towering in a Conifer Forest at Parker Dam State Park, PA

In the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) legend, there was a terrible conflict between five different nations of people. This conflict was rooted in cycles of pain, revenge, and chaos. A messenger of peace sent from the Great Spirit, the “Peacemaker,” sought to unite the five warring tribes. After convincing them to unite, they came together to make peace, but they still carried their weapons. The Peacemaker uprooted a White Pine tree and had them throw all of their weapons into the hole. He then replanted the tree, and the underground waters carried away the weapons. On the tree, the needles grew in clusters of five, to represent the five nations who came to find peace. The roots of the tree spread out in four directions, to the north, south, east and west; the roots are called the roots…

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Holly Wood

A Bardic Storytelling Ritual for Empowerment

The Druid's Garden

Everyone has a story to tell, and some stories are worth their weight in gold. How we retell past events, through the bardic art of storytelling, can help shape our present understanding. Thinking about stories as acts of empowerment in this way is particularly important in an age where so many of us feel disempowered. One of the things I’ve noticed a lot lately is that people, of all ages, are really down, feeling defeated, and feeling burned out. They feel like they don’t have a lot of agency or power. And so, using ritual and spiritual practices to help us find our power, and better understand it, is an extremely useful practice. Storytelling is a form of magic, in this case, through a bardic storytelling ritual, to help empower us and bring us hope. So today’s post, in line with my larger series on the bardic arts, will…

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