Druidry for the 21st Century: Plant-Based Spiritual Supplies and Global Demand

The Druid's Garden

Can you even imagine druidry without plants or trees? Plants and trees are some of our strongest allies for the work that we do, and are often connected to almost everything that we do spiritually. Plant spirits are teachers, guides, and allies. From before we had recorded history in any culture, the plant spirits were there, growing with us, guiding us, healing us, and supporting us on our journey. Today’s modern druid practice continues that tradition: we burn plants for smoke cleansing, clearing, and helping to energize spaces. We use trees as part of divination and sacred rites. We use plants as healers, for magical healing and physical healing, and to connect with on deep levels. Plants have long been friends of humans–and have long walked beside us, hand in hand, as we do our sacred work. And today, we’ll explore ways we can offer that same kind of honor…

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Aromatic Herb for March; Spring Herb: Cicely {Myrrhis odorata}

Good Witches Homestead

Also, Known As:

Anise Fern
British Myrrh
Cicely
Cow Chervil
Garden Myrrh
Shepherd’s Needle
Smooth Cicely
Sweet Bracken
Sweet Chervil
Sweet Cicely
Sweet Myrrh

The plant called the sweet cicely is a hardy and robust herb. The cicely is an aromatic perennial herb indigenous to the mountainous areas of Europe and Asian Russia – growing originally only in these regions. The cicely when fully mature can reach 0.6 to 0.9 m or 2 to 3 feet in height. Sweet cicely is one of the first herbs that come up when spring arrives; the sweet cicely is a pretty plant and makes a beautiful backdrop to a perennial border in mountainous regions where it grows.

In older times, people would usually grow this old cottage garden perennial at a site near the door to the kitchen. The site would be chosen so that the pretty divided fern-like leaves could be easily…

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Spring Cleaning! The Magical Besom — Gather Victoria

Happy Spring Equinox! Blue skies and blossoms, what a day to welcome the official coming of spring! I was up bright and early today with a mission. To craft one of the most hallowed objects of spring cleaning – the Besom. I’ve been so busy with my cookbook and creating rewards for Patrons, my home…

via Spring Cleaning! The Magical Besom — Gather Victoria

Medicinal and Culinary Uses for the Shy Violet

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

While violets’ delicate blossoms are a treat only for the observant, the plant has enjoyed a long history of medicinal and culinary use.

Leigh Hunt, an English Romantic essayist, and poet is the first known author of the phrase “shrinking violet.” In 1820, he published a passage describing a bit of woodland in The Indicator, a poetry magazine: “There was the buttercup, struggling from a white to a dirty yellow; and a faint-colored poppy; and here and there by the thorny underwood a shrinking violet.”

Hunt was almost certainly referring to the native English, or sweet, violet (Viola odorata). This shy plant can often go unremarked underfoot, and it carries its small, slightly recurved flowers level with or just below its leaves. The phrase “shrinking violet” took a few decades to catch on — but when it did, it spread rapidly, much as its parent plant does…

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The Plant Medicine Summit March 18-22, 2019

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Free Online Event
The Plant Medicine Summit
March 18-22, 2019

In our fast-paced culture, we’re becoming increasingly disconnected from nature.

And in doing so, we’re losing touch with our symbiotic relationship with the plant kingdom… a vast life-giving resource for healing our bodies, balancing our emotions, and awakening our consciousness.

Our environment is suffering too. As a result of our failure to recognize our biological and spiritual connection with the natural world, destructive agricultural practices, and climate change are destroying the Earth’s ecosystems.

However, as you’ll discover during the eye-opening sessions in The Plant Medicine Summit, by honoring plants as our sacred evolutionary allies, we have great potential to heal not only ourselves but our beautiful planet as well.

Esteemed speakers joining for this life-changing, 5-day event include our host, David Crow, plus, Mark Blumenthal, K.P. Khalsa, Lupo Passero, Pam Fischer, Sara Crow, Nicholas Schnell, and many others.

Here’s just a small…

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The Druid’s Garden: Principles of Sacred Gardening

The Druid's Garden

Part of my own Druid's Garden! Part of my own Druid’s Garden!

One of the greatest blessings of gardening and growing things is the deep energetic connections that you can develop with plants. When I grow a pepper in my garden, I have developed a relationship with that plant from the time I planted the seed in February, where I tend it and keep it sheltered from the winter weather, to the planting and mulching of that small pepper in late May. This relationship continues as I nurture it into maturity throughout the summer, where flowers and the actual peppers start to emerge. I monitor that pepper plant for insects and disease and do what I can to ensure its success. Finally, I watch the peppers grow large and fat in the heat of the summer. At that point, I have an eight-month relationship with that pepper plant. When I eat the pepper in late August, I know…

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault: The “Noah’s Ark of Plant Diversity” protecting the world’s seed resources

The Sleeping Giant of Mediterranean Herbal Medicine: Helichrysum italicum

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Helichrysum italicum (Roth.) Don. (Asteraceae) is an iconic plant of the Mediterranean area (Figure 1), but the use of its essential oil in glamorous perfumes and personal care products has turned it into a veritable icon of luxury. However, just like the geographical distribution of Helichrysum species extends beyond the Mediterranean region, the properties of H. italicum are not limited to fragrance as they can benefit human health as well. In this context, H. italicum can be viewed as the sleeping giant of Mediterranean herbal medicine, and its extracts have the potential to be developed as dietary supplement ingredients just like its essential oil has been used successfully in perfumery and aromatherapy. Waking this giant will not be simple, but recent studies have provided the basis for a Helichrysum renaissance. This article outlines the fascinating ethnopharmacology of H. italicum in the light of modern molecular investigations of its…

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The Bee Friendly Trust transforming station platforms into habitats for honeybees to thrive

Little Lavenders in the Landscape

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

As spring approaches we get anxious to start planting our garden! In March, we have time to plan which lavenders we want to add or replace in our garden. In late March and into April and May, after the weather and the ground have warmed up, we can usually tell which lavenders need to be replaced. After we do spring garden pruning and clean up, we have a better idea of how much space we have to plant. There are also more lavender plants available from local growers at that time of the year.

English lavenders, Lavandula angustifolia cultivars, are the hardiest lavender plants to grow, but eventually, they do need to be replaced with new plants. Some lavender plants that are over 10 to 15 years old are very woody and parts of these plants may no longer produce new leaves or flowers. As long as a garden space…

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