Druid Tree Workings: Finding and Working with Grandmother Trees

The Druid's Garden

The Ancient Maple – Grandmother Tree. This grandmother lives in a middle of a rock pile. the three branching trunks signify she may have been cut at one time and regrew. Grandmothers can be stubborn!

A grandmother is a really special person. I remember going to my grandmother’s house when I was a little girl–it was literally my favorite place to go. My grandmother and I would go to the thrift store and buy used clothing, then spend the morning sewing doll clothes and repurposing those old clothes for amazing new clothes for me–skirts that swirled out wide and colorfully printed tops. We’d go out into the garden and pick herbs, and she’d cook up an incredible pot of mushroom soup. She was full of generosity and love and always fostered my creativity and joy. My other grandmother was quite different–she was a bit of a firecracker, sassy and short-tempered…

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Druid Tree Workings: Principles for Establishing Deep Relationships with the Trees, Part I

The Druid's Garden

Trees provide an abundant amount of resources…shelter, food, fire, friendship–but they also as this blog has shown, can work various forms of magic through their energetics, through their lore, through their divinatory meanings. They are some of the most kind, giving, and accessible beings on the landscape, and certainly a place to not only begin a nature spiritual practice but deepen it over time. As I’ve written on this blog, working with the trees must be a matter of exchange–honoring them, treating them as elders, listening to their stories and songs–and if you want to work tree magic, this magic requires us to be in a sacred relationship with the trees. I’ll be doing a short series on how to establish, maintain, and grow relationships with plants and trees.

Powerful Chestnut Tree bearing nuts!

In this first post of this new series, we are going to focus on the concept…

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An Enchantment Spell for this Full Planting Moon

This Full Planting Moon is the first of 4 super moons in a row this year. This is also the first full moon of the astrological new year.

The energy has been intense leading up to this full moon. Establishing order, healing of old wounds and trying to maintain and establish harmony might be some major themes for you right now.

There are some powerful lessons with this moon. It is opposite Venus, trine Saturn and opposite Chiron. The Moon will also make a perfect triangle configuration to both Saturn and Mars, known as a Grand Trine.

This Full Moon is opposite Venus which can increase your need for love and affection, helping us connect to others on deeper levels. Be careful that with this vulnerability you don’t give into things like jealousy or obsession or codependency.

The Moon is trine Saturn, which gives us the patience, inner strength and wisdom to handle any of the obstacles that might come with the intense energies of this full moon.

Chiron, the wounded healer is conjunct the Sun and Venus, and opposite the moon right now too, so there are some unhealed wounds that might be making themselves known to you right now. These might come in the form of new experiences that hold similar energy to a past event.

You might feel like your healing is going backwards, but trust that it is cyclical. Trust in the seeds you’ve planted in the past. Trust in your inevitable period of blooming.

The full moon is also known as the Planting Moon. The Seed has sprouted. Life is flowing and growing wild.

The Planting Moon brings you back to Earth. Prepare your garden so your dreams can grow. Spiritually and quite literally.

For this earthy full moon, we are reconnecting with Gaia- the plant allies, crystal companions and our ritual from last month by completing our witches garden.

If you haven’t planted any seeds yet, no worries! There is still plenty of time. If you did already plant your seeds, they might be big enough to be moved to a bigger planter.

But before we transplant plant our seeds, we are going to create a dedicated planter to hold them and help them grow.

Read full article at: Spirit de la Lune ~ An Enchantment Spell for this Full Planting Moon

Beyond the Anthropocene: Druidry into the Future

The Druid's Garden

Druidry into the future

Druidry today has both ancient and modern roots, and there have been several distinct “phases” of druid practice historically. While it’s not critical that the practitioner of the modern druid traditions know what I share, it is helpful to have a sense of where the tradition comes from and the forces that shaped it–particularly so that we can think about where we are going. I want to talk today about both the past of druidry in order that we might talk about its future. How do we shape our tradition today so that we become the honored ancestors of tomorrow? What is the work that we might consider doing now, as druids, to create a tradition that endures?

Modern druidry is inspired by the Ancient Druids, a group of wise sages who kept history, traditions, and guided the spiritual life of their people. The Ancient Druids…

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Wildcrafted Druidry: Using the Doctrine of Signatures, Ecology and Mythology to Cultivate Sacred Relationships with Trees

The Druid's Garden

A stream in winter

Nature spirituality is most obviously tied to one’s local nature–the trees, plants, animals, landforms, and other features of what makes your own landscape unique. One of the formidable challenges before those of us practicing nature-based spiritualities in the United States and other “colonized” regions is that not only do we not have the right/access to native traditions on local uses of plants, we also have systems that are inherited from other places and may not properly fit. Ogham is a good example of this: if you use the traditional ogham in the US, it is kind of like wearing a pair of ill-fitting shoes: you can get by, but the system isn’t working with what is outside your door.

With that said, I have always been fascinated by the idea of a language of trees, a system that we can use for magical and divination purposes…

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The Magic of the Understory

The Druid's Garden

A path of evergreen mountain laurel at Laurel Hill State Park. Amazing to hike through in the winter, when the understory sings!

As you may have noticed, in the last month or so I’ve been working diligently on my “Sacred Trees in the Americas” series. The truth is, I’ve worked through most of the trees that are well known and form the overstory of most of the forests in the US East Coast. Trees like White Pine, Oak, Hickory, Sugar Maple, Ash, Beech, and Birch are dominant trees. And when you do research on these trees, you find a rich tradition and lore from both the Americas and the Old World. Recently, I’ve moved my attention to lesser-known trees like Ironwood and Devil’s Walking Stick, and have covered others like Witch Hazel (distinct and different from American Hazel) and Spicebush. There is a striking difference between the first group and…

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Sacred Trees in the Americas: Rhododendron (Rhododenron maximum)

The Druid's Garden

A Rhododendron overlooking a foot path at Laurel Hill State Park

I remember the first time I saw the largest Rhododendron Maximum tree. I had recently moved back to Pennsylvania, and I was driving on 422 towards my parents’ house when I looked to the left and did a double-take! An enormous Rhododendron, in bloom, at least 40 feet across and 20 feet high was in full bloom. And, it was dwarfing the house it was growing next to. After doing a little local research, I learned about how famous this rhododendron has been in our region. Ever since then, each time I pass, the Rhododendron and I exchange a little greeting.

As someone who lives in the Allegheny Mountains, Rhododendron has a special place in my heart. It is one of the dominant understory trees (and yes, it often is the size of trees here!), growing both in…

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The Energies of February 2021

Good Witches Homestead

We are now just past the midway point between the solstice in December and the coming March equinox. Daylight hours are now expanding at an increasingly noticeable rate, bringing a welcome reminder that Spring is not so far away again.

Despite the winter cold, aconites, crocuses, snowdrops and the first delicate pink Hellebores are lighting up the corners in our garden and reminding us that it is nearly time for the next round of mother tincture making to begin. It is also a lovely reassuring reminder to us to connect in with the natural world any time we feel in need of a little extra stability and grounding.

As we venture forth into the energies of February there is still plenty of the same volatile intensity in the energy flow that we have experienced so obviously during January.

In general, we can expect a few more peaks of intenseness before…

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Sacred Trees in the Americas: Ironwood or Hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana, Carpinus caroliniana)

The Druid's Garden

Ironwood tree ecoprint from my upcoming Tree Alchemy Oracle!

There are actually two tree species that are known as both “hornbeam” and “Ironwood” along the US East Coast and into the midwest: The American Hop Hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) and the American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana). After doing a lot of research and interaction with both of these trees, I see them as interchangeable. First, they are both in the Beech family (Order: Fagales, Family: Betulaceae). They actually have a very similar growth habit and look to their bark (like muscles), their wood is quite similar, and the hop-looking fruits are similar on both trees. Thus, if you can find either of these trees, you can apply the information I’m sharing. I have primarily focused on Ostrya Virginiana (Ironwood/Hop Hornbeam) in my comments here as it is the more dominant tree in my specific ecosystem.

This post is part of my Sacred…

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Astrorisa Moon Forecaster – Leo Full Moon -January 28, 2021

Video Forecast

Happy Full Moon!
Thursday, January 28 2021, 02:16 PM ET
Moon 9°06′ Leo, in House 2
Sun 9°06′ Aquarius, in House 8
Sun opposite Moon
Moon opposite Saturn
Moon opposite Jupiter
Moon square Uranus
Moon square Mars