Beltane Gardening Rituals: Garden Blessings, Standing Stones, and Energy Workings

The Druid's Garden

Here in the Laurel Highlands of Western PA, Beltane marks the start of “planting” season, where we move our indoor seeds out into the greenhouse to harden off, where many seeds like carrots and beans start to go into the ground directly, and where the land is budding and blooming with the joy that spring offers. And so in today’s post, I’m going to share some Beltane spring garden blessing ideas for you, as you can craft your own sacred “druid’s garden”.

One of our amazing sacred gardens here at the Druid’s Garden Homestead!

The concept of “blessing” is quite wide-ranging. In the broadest sense, a garden blessing is any working that offers positive energy and protection to a growing space for a season, ensuring your plants a bountiful harvest, long life, and joyful existence. Blessings can be extremely wide-ranging and pretty much anything you do can have some positive…

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Are You Awakening or Just Changing?

HOW TO TRUST + FOLLOW SPIRIT

Times of great challenge are also times of great reclaiming:

Reclaiming our feelings of resilience, personal power, faith, magic, and healing wisdom.

Reclaiming old ways while adopting new.

Reclaiming our sense of purpose, and conviction in what truly matters.

It is often in times of challenge or recovery that we turn more deeply to Spirit – for guidance, understanding, support.

One could argue that it’s a sign of spiritual evolution when one turns more deeply to Spirit in times of ease, thriving, without need for overcoming great challenge.

One could also argue that we are always facing some great challenge, in one form or another, as we turn each bend in the labyrinth of our lives.

To me, Spirit encompasses many things: God/dess, the consciousness of the stones, ethereal spirits, nature spirits, spirit guides, spirits of the departed, our own spirits or souls.

It’s through being able to deeply listen to my own spirit, my own voice + truth, and that of my Guidance that has gently yet powerfully steered me through some of the hardest challenges in my life.

But I know from my own experience, and that which I witness in others, that being able to truly listen to + follow our own voice and Spirit can be a challenge in and of itself.

How do you listen deeply? How do you hear Spirit? How do you trust what you’re hearing enough to follow?

My friends: I know it takes an enormous amount of courage to surrender and follow Spirit, to say yes to the truth of your soul.

Many of us are neither conditioned nor encouraged to listen to anything other than outside authority.

But when we do take the time to listen to ourselves, to follow the guidance of Spirit, we tend to be richly rewarded.

Read original article at: Krista Mitchell ~ How to Trust & Follow Spirit

Bewitching Maibowle Cream Cake For Walpurgis Nacht (May Day Eve) – Gather Victoria

Good Witches Homestead

Soon May Day Eve will be upon us – so I’m sharing this recipe posted last year at Gather Patreon. (Patrons will see a new recipe coming soon!) This Maibowle Cream Cake – made and…

Source: Bewitching Maibowle Cream Cake For Walpurgis Nacht (May Day Eve) – Gather Victoria

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Welcoming Spring in the Year 1400

The Herb Society of America Blog

By Zainab Pashaei

Haft-Sin table I’m not talking about time travel. Nowruz—the equivalent of the New Year—was just celebrated on the spring equinox in Iran as well as in numerous other countries and among ethnic groups in the Middle East. In Iran, the first month of the year is called Farvardin, which began on March 20, 2021 (spring equinox). Although the year is specifically 1400 in Iran, Iranian traditions for Nowruz are thousands of years old and pre-date the emergence of Islam in the country. In contrast to Western nations, the importance of nature and spring plays a critical role in new year festivities of the nation. Many of these festivities are symbolic and involve herbs, nature, and light (fire).

Jumping During the festivities, which start on the Wednesday before the spring equinox, Iranians will gather and jump over fires and light fireworks in observance of Chaharshanbe Suri (loose translation =…

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Druid Tree Workings: Cutivating Recpiprocity

The Druid's Garden

Norway spruce resin, harvested with honor and reciprocity from the land

When I was still quite young, my grandfather used to take me and my cousins into the deep forest behind our house and teach us many things about nature. One of the fun things he taught us, for example, was that you could use spruce gum or white pine resin not only as a chewing gum (something that gave us endless enjoyment) but also to cover over a cut to help heal it or draw out a splinter or stinger. I remember once day we were walking in the woods and I fell on the ground and scraped my knee quite badly on a rock. He went to a nearby spruce tree and got some of the sticky resin, then carefully spread it on my knee and covered it with a tulip poplar leaf. The resin stuck the leaf…

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The Incredibly Tasty Tulip: Chèvre Cheese Balls — Gather Victoria

I’m not sure about you but Vancouver Island is awash in tulips! From pale yellows, crimson reds, pumpkin oranges, deep purples, lustred pinks and snow-white, their luminous colours are stunning. The most unsung of tulips many spring charms, however, is her edibility. With flavours and textures as diverse as her colours, her blooms offer not…
The Incredibly Tasty Tulip: Chèvre Cheese Balls — Gather Victoria

Sacred Trees in the Americas – Spruce (Picea glauca, Picea pungens, Picea spp.)

The Druid's Garden

The beautiful blue spruce looking across the landscape on a mountain in Western PA

When I lived in a walkable small town, what drew me every day was a line of beautiful blue spruce trees. Right around the corner from my house, they were on my daily walking commute to work. We used to say hello and do an energy exchange each day. One day that following summer, I watched as the city landscaping people came through and ruthlessly cut them back away from the power lines (they were not growing even close to the lines) and I held space for the trees. Over the next few months, those trees began to heal, and they produced copious amounts of amazing tree resin as a first line of defense. In the years that followed, eventually, the resin grew hard and the trees invited me to harvest small amounts that could be…

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New Moon in Aries | Entering The Flower Moon Cycle

Happy New Moon in Aries!

This is our first New Moon of the spring season. The Aries energy offers us a chance to make a brave new start. To some, this might feel like a second chance.

This new moon is also in the middle of a Mars trine with Jupiter which brings in opportunities for abundance, good fortune, and positive energy.

We witness the Flower Moon during this cycle, and throughout the month of April we will feel more of the grounding Taurus energy take over. Though, the energy amps up a bit as we experience our first retrograde since February! This may cause many of us to undergo what feels like a transformation or rebirth.

Each new moon, using our planners and decks we put together the Moonthly Lunar Report to help us navigate the new moon cycle ahead.

A new moon in Aries ignites our imaginations and inspires us to be bold and daring with our intentions, giving us the energy needed to act on our goals.

Set an intention that challenges you to rise up and to grow and watch how much you truly do grow and expand this moon cycle! The new moon week is all about new beginnings and really visualizing new possibilities and opportunities that are available.

On the 13th the Sun sextiles Mars, who is the ruler of Aries, so this transit can really help illuminate your dreams and intentions and bring them into focus! This gives you a boost in your confidence, self esteem and courage.

This new moon is also in the middle of a Mars trine with Jupiter which brings positive energy, abundance and good fortune with it. This can also help you break free from the rut you may have been feeling while helping you make clear intentions you know you can follow through on.

Read complete article at: Spirit de la Lune ~ New Moon in Aries | Entering The Flower Moon Cycle

HSA Webinar: Shedding Light on the Solanaceae: An Exploration of Our Relationship with Nightshades

The Herb Society of America Blog

by Jen Munson, HSA Education Chair

20170811_093151 The nightshade family of plants sounds ominous – how could it not with the use of the words night and shade? The official name of this family is Solanaceae, and these plants are characterized by the shape of the flower, which in some cases feature near perfect pentagrams of petals, sepals, and stamens, and in others the petals are fused to form long tubes.

The Solanaceae features nearly 90 genera and 3,000 species, including some of humanity’s most important plants. You may be surprised to learn that many of our everyday foods fall in the nightshade family. These include hot and bell peppers, potatoes, eggplant, and tomatoes. To learn more, join HSA on April 13th at 1pm EDT when National Herb Garden gardener, Erin Holden, joins us for “Shedding Light on the Solanaceae: An Exploration of Our Relationship with Nightshades.”

Lycopersicon_esculentum_Supersweet_100_0zz by David J Stang Although many…