Tag: Tree

Daily OM for August 2nd – Trees and People

Trees and People

Children of Mother Nature

by Madisyn Taylor

We can be more like trees opening our crown to the Universe and rooting down deep with our feet into mother earth.
A tree that is beginning to grow sends roots down into Mother Earth even as it reaches and opens to the sky above, seeking nourishment from the sun and the moisture in the air and in the rain that falls. In the same way, we can envision ourselves as treelike beings, imagining that we have roots reaching down into the earth, energetic strands that keep us connected. At the same time, the crowns of our heads lift and open to receive nourishment from above. Just like a tree, we seek the sunshine and water we need to survive and thrive. Both trees and people serve as conduits for the intermingling of the opposite and complementary elements of air, water, sun, and earth. 


We also share creative ways of growing, regardless of the challenges we come up against in our environments. Trees will even grow through rock, shattering it, in their effort to reach the air and light they need to survive. We are similarly resilient, with a built-in propensity for growth and the conditions that promote it. We find creative ways around the obstacles we confront as we move along our paths, moving toward the light that feeds us, just as trees grow around other trees and rocks as they make their way upward. 


Contemplating the ways in which trees and people mirror one another brings us into alignment with the reality that we are part of Mother Nature. Our children, and the trees and their children, will live together on the earth as long as we all survive, sharing the elements and serving together to forward nature’s plan. Walking in a forest can be a meditation, the interweaving lives of all living creatures and the planet on which we all take root and reach for the sky

Calendar of the Moon for July 14

Calendar of the Moon

14 Tinne/Hekatombaion

Day of the Spindle Tree

Color: Pale yellow
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a pale yellow cloth set a vase of spindle-tree twigs, a single pale yellow candle, a pot of soil, seeds of some medicinal or useful herb, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Do some handcraft.
Daily Meal: Vegan

Invocation to the Green Man of the Spindle Tree

Hail, Green Man of the Summer!
Spindle tree of the craftsman’s pride,
You who have been carved and sectioned
Into spools, wands, and many other things,
You who pride yourself on being useful,
Guide our hands as we turn
Things of nature into things of use.
Show us the beauty in pure function
And in pure service,
In the comfort that comes
Of being a worthy tool
And a well-worked object.
Remind us of the satisfaction
In the creation of some new thing
That will please the hands
Of many generations to come.
We hail you, sacred spindle tree,
Green Man of the Summer,
On this your day of labor.

Song: Fashioned in the Clay by Elmer Beal

(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Daily OM for July 10 – The Unseen World

The Unseen World

What We Can’t See

by Madisyn Taylor

 

Exploring the unseen world can be well worth your while as there are many gifts awaiting you there.

 

Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, although this is a common way in which people deny the existence of spirit guides, angels, and other unseen helpers in our lives. However, anyone who has encountered such beings can attest to the fact that they do, indeed, exist, just as our breath exists, keeping us alive, even though we can’t see it. The wind exists, too, but we only know this because we feel it on our skin and hear it moving the leaves on the trees. All around us and within us are things we can’t see, and yet we know they are just as real as the grass beneath our feet.

What we see and don’t see may just be a matter of perspective, like the ladybug who sees the leaf on which she sits, but not the tree the leaf grows on, or the person sitting beneath it. And the person beneath the tree may or may not see the ladybug, depending on where he focuses his attention. Still, all of these things, whether seen or not seen by the person or the ladybug, exist in reality. Some people are more gifted at accessing that which we cannot see, but given an open and willing heart, anyone can tune into the invisible realm and begin to find their way.

Human beings have always done this, and it is only recently that we have fallen into distrusting the existence of what we can’t see. If you have lost touch with the unseen world, all you have to do is resolve to open your heart to its existence, and it will make itself known. Closing your eyes in meditation and visualization, or engaging the unseen through the written word, are just two ways to welcome the invisible back into your life. Whatever you choose to do, cultivating a relationship with that which you can’t see is a time-honored human practice that can greatly enhance your life.

The Wicca Book of Days for July 7 – The Fig Feast

The Wicca Book of Days for July 7

The Fig Feast

 

A festival called the Caprotinia, or the Nonae Caprotinae (“The Nones of the Wild Fig”) took place in ancient Rome on July 7.  Celebrated by serving women, it is thought that this feast day fused an older fig-tree festival with the commemoration of a historical event, when female servants, under the leadership of a caprificus-climbing girl called Philotis played a crucial part in defeating a Latin tribe. During the Caprotinia, the ancillae staged play fights, feasted under fig trees, and offered the fruits to the matriarchal goddess Juno Caprotina.

 

Heavenly Honeysuckle

Go out at dusk to inhale the divine scent of a flowering honeysuckle. Associated with both the Moon and this day’s zodiacal sign of Cancer in astrological belief, honeysuckle has long symbolized the sweet, clinging nature of a young woman’s love.

Hey Y’all, Happy Fourth of July To Ya’ !!!

 

How y’all doing on this wonderful Fourth of July? Are you planning on shooting off fireworks tonight? I hope you are some place you can. Around here, it is so dry they have banned fireworks tonight. They even said on the News, you could go to jail for shooting off fireworks. Now I think that is just a little extreme, but that’s me, of course…..

Well l got up early this morning and actually stayed awake for a change. I got on the computer, I had wonderful intentions. They all got shot to hell in a handbag. I was going to put up another slideshow page. Did I? No! Then I was going to work on the Contact Page. Did I? No! If you haven’t visited the Contact Page, please don’t. But I know now you will, lol! You know how all these other sites have a list of rules about contacting them, well ours don’t. All it says is contact us and then a button. I don’t want to put a list of rules on there. To me, that sounds mean and trying to discourage people from contacting them. I mean if you read a list of items and at the end of each one is, “Don’t Contact Us!” Then you get the idea in your head that you really didn’t want to contact these people to start with, lol! I don’t know but I will eventually put some wording there. The button does work and I have received 4 comments so far. What they say? I have no earthly idea. I was trying to edit the form page and saw were we had received 4. So that is the only way I know we received them. I’m awful, I know!

I took a break from all this hard work I have been doing this morning, ha! I went to the kitchen and looked out the window at my big Willow tree. Last night during the Full Moon, I went and place my first set of wind chimes on it. The Willow tree is my tree. It holds very special memories for me from my childhood. It is also one of the most magickal trees I have ever been around. I did a little ritual last night to bless the wind chimes. Then I also said a prayer at my Willow right before I placed the chimes on it. Then afterwards, I placed both of my hands on the bark of the tree, you could feel the life’s blood of the tree. Oh, it was absolutely magickal. To feel the Willow’s life force flowing and throbbing through it. I drew strength and power from it myself. Then this morning, looking at the tree I got swept away. It was like the Willow had reached inside the house and wisped me away. I was at a place where it was just the Willow and myself. I could hear thousands of chimes on the giant tree. I would see its’ long, sweeping branches flowing in the wind. Each time the branches swayed, the chimes would sing. Oh, it was beautiful. Then I was back in the kitchen. The Willow had told me what it wanted. It truly wants to be a very magickal tree for me. Now I know what I must do to make it so. But I love that tree and would do anything to keep it happy and healthy. It is strange how a bond can form between you and nature’s wonders. But after that bond is formed, no telling where you will go, what you will seek, what gifts you will behold. It also teaches us, no matter what it is, a tree, a rock or a piece of sand, it is a creature that the Goddess has created. It has a life form of its own and we are to hold it sacred, care for it and most of all protect it. For this is our calling, as we are children of the Goddess.

Calendar of the Moon for Monday, June 18th

Hawthorn Tree Month

Color: Purple
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a cloth of purple place a vase of the budded hawthorn twigs, a knife, incense of gardenia and marjoram, and a figure of the Goddess.
Offerings: Contemplate something that is both beautiful and painful.
Daily Meal: Serve fruit juice with the food.

Huath Invocation
Call: Now is the time of the flower’s blossoming.
Response: Now is the time when the hand reaches forth to pluck.
Call: Now is the time when we struggle with our instincts…
Response: To take beauty for ourselves, or to leave it in its place.
Call: Now is the time when we must remember that all plants are not ours.
Response: We did not plant the forest, and it does not belong to us.
Call: We were not the first beings on this earth.
Response: We have come young and late, and the trees look down upon us.
Call: They groan from the centuries of our meddling.
Response: They grow thorns to protect themselves.
Call: Now is the time when the hawthorn goddess steps forward.
Response: Now is the time when the heartless lady lifts her hand.
Call: Now is the time of great beauty in the world.
Response: Now is the time when Nature protects her beauty.
Call: The hawthorn goddess stabs us to the heart with beauty.
Response: She reminds us of our place in the world.
Call: She reminds us that we do not own this green planet.
Response: She reminds us that our grasping fingers can still bleed.
Call: She makes the hedges that our animals cannot cross.
Response: She sets the boundaries that no man may cross.
Call: She makes our hearts beat faster or slower.
Response: Her berries are sweet, but she protects them.
Call: We must respect her as we respect the Earth….
Response: The Green Man falls before her, heedless and headless.
Call: She is the blade of all trees, and we shed our blood for her.
Response: She is the teeth of Nature, and we give way before her might.

Chant:
Cauldron of Changes
Blossom of Bone
Arc of Eternity
Hole in the Stone

[Pagan Book of Hours]

The Herbs Of The Sabbats

To be used as decorations on the altar, round the circle, in the home.

Samhain:
Chrysanthemum, wormwood, apples, pears, hazel, thistle, pomegranates, all 
grains,  harvested fruits and nuts, the pumpkin, corn.

Yule:
Holly, mistletoe, ivy, cedar, bay, juniper, rosemary, pine. Place offerings of 
apples, oranges, nutmegs, lemons and whole cinnamon sticks on the Yule tree.

Imbolc:
Snowdrop, rowan, the first flowers of the year.

Eostara:
Daffodil, woodruff, violet, gorse, olive, peony, iris, narcissus, all spring 
flowers.

Beltane:
Hawthorn, honeysuckle, St. John's wort,  woodruff, all flowers.

Midsummer:
Mugwort, vervain, chamomile, rose, lily, oak, lavender, ivy, yarrow, fern, 
elder, wild thyme, daisy, carnation.

Lughnasadh:
All grains, grapes, heather, blackberries, sloe, crabapples, pears.

Mabon:
Hazel, corn, aspen, acorns, oak sprigs, autumn leaves, wheat stalks, cypress 
cones, pine cones, harvest gleanings.

Calendar of the Moon for June 11th

Hawthorn Tree Month

Color: Purple
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a cloth of purple place a vase of the budded hawthorn twigs, a knife, incense of gardenia and marjoram, and a figure of the Goddess.
Offerings: Contemplate something that is both beautiful and painful.
Daily Meal: Serve fruit juice with the food.

Huath Invocation
Call: Now is the time of the flower’s blossoming.
Response: Now is the time when the hand reaches forth to pluck.
Call: Now is the time when we struggle with our instincts…
Response: To take beauty for ourselves, or to leave it in its place.
Call: Now is the time when we must remember that all plants are not ours.
Response: We did not plant the forest, and it does not belong to us.
Call: We were not the first beings on this earth.
Response: We have come young and late, and the trees look down upon us.
Call: They groan from the centuries of our meddling.
Response: They grow thorns to protect themselves.
Call: Now is the time when the hawthorn goddess steps forward.
Response: Now is the time when the heartless lady lifts her hand.
Call: Now is the time of great beauty in the world.
Response: Now is the time when Nature protects her beauty.
Call: The hawthorn goddess stabs us to the heart with beauty.
Response: She reminds us of our place in the world.
Call: She reminds us that we do not own this green planet.
Response: She reminds us that our grasping fingers can still bleed.
Call: She makes the hedges that our animals cannot cross.
Response: She sets the boundaries that no man may cross.
Call: She makes our hearts beat faster or slower.
Response: Her berries are sweet, but she protects them.
Call: We must respect her as we respect the Earth….
Response: The Green Man falls before her, heedless and headless.
Call: She is the blade of all trees, and we shed our blood for her.
Response: She is the teeth of Nature, and we give way before her might.

Chant:
Cauldron of Changes
Blossom of Bone
Arc of Eternity
Hole in the Stone

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for June 10

Hawthorn Tree Month

Color: Purple
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a cloth of purple place a vase of the budded hawthorn twigs, a knife, incense of gardenia and marjoram, and a figure of the Goddess.
Offerings: Contemplate something that is both beautiful and painful.
Daily Meal: Serve fruit juice with the food.

Huath Invocation
Call: Now is the time of the flower’s blossoming.
Response: Now is the time when the hand reaches forth to pluck.
Call: Now is the time when we struggle with our instincts…
Response: To take beauty for ourselves, or to leave it in its place.
Call: Now is the time when we must remember that all plants are not ours.
Response: We did not plant the forest, and it does not belong to us.
Call: We were not the first beings on this earth.
Response: We have come young and late, and the trees look down upon us.
Call: They groan from the centuries of our meddling.
Response: They grow thorns to protect themselves.
Call: Now is the time when the hawthorn goddess steps forward.
Response: Now is the time when the heartless lady lifts her hand.
Call: Now is the time of great beauty in the world.
Response: Now is the time when Nature protects her beauty.
Call: The hawthorn goddess stabs us to the heart with beauty.
Response: She reminds us of our place in the world.
Call: She reminds us that we do not own this green planet.
Response: She reminds us that our grasping fingers can still bleed.
Call: She makes the hedges that our animals cannot cross.
Response: She sets the boundaries that no man may cross.
Call: She makes our hearts beat faster or slower.
Response: Her berries are sweet, but she protects them.
Call: We must respect her as we respect the Earth….
Response: The Green Man falls before her, heedless and headless.
Call: She is the blade of all trees, and we shed our blood for her.
Response: She is the teeth of Nature, and we give way before her might.

Chant:
Cauldron of Changes
Blossom of Bone
Arc of Eternity
Hole in the Stone

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Elder’s Meditation of the Day June 6

“We need to save those Elders who cannot speak for themselves — the trees.”

–Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders

The trees are the Elders of the Earth. Go to the forest or to the mountains and find a young tree. Then find and old tree. Spend time with each. Sit by the young tree and listen to your thoughts. Then move to an old tree and listen to your thoughts again. Just being in the presence of an old tree, you will feel more calm. Your thoughts will contain wisdom and your answers will be deeper. Why is this so? These old trees know more, have heard more and are the Elders of the Earth. We must ensure these trees live so we can learn from them.

My Creator, help me to protect the trees and listen to them.

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*

Calendar of the Moon for Friday, June 1

1 Duir/Skirophorion

Day of the Oak Tree

Color: Black
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a black cloth set a vase of oak branches, a single black candle, a pot of soil, seeds of some tree or strong plant, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Stoke fires.
Daily Meal: Vegan

Invocation to the Green Man of the Oak Tree

Hail, Green Man of the Summer!
Great Oak Tree of grandeur,
Tree of the gods of kings,
Royal emblem of Zeus,
Lightning’s tree, struck from above,
Exploder of wrath, dying in flames,
Green shaft of the colossal Dagda,
Mighty-thewed as jovial Thor,
Fuel of the midsummer fires,
Stout guardian of the door,
Throne of two-faced Janus,
Your roots extend as far beneath
As your branches spread above,
Living avatar of the cosmic reflection.
Oak king, you who give your life
Every year at the midsummer,
Teach us when to stand strong
And when to gracefully yield.
We hail you, sacred Oak King,
Green Man of the Summer,
On this your day of greatest triumph.

Song: Oak and Ash and Thorn

(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Daily Feng Shui Tip for May 30 – “Water a Flower Day”

It’s ironic that today would be ‘Water a Flower Day’ since everybody knows that April showers bring May flowers. The floral most associated with this month is the regal magnolia, a tree native to the southern United States. It’s generally acknowledged that spring doesn’t begin until the magnolias bloom, and that splendid beauty and dignity accompanies every opening bud. This flower has long symbolized beauty, perseverance and nobility. Feng Shui has always believed that the white magnolia represents purity, and that a single magnolia tree planted in the front of the house will bring pure contentment and joy. A magnolia tree grown in the back garden is said to symbolize hidden jewels or the gradual accumulation of wealth. But the single greatest Feng Shui cure for using this beautiful flower is to bring a mate or partner who will also bring love everlasting. Placing a pair of magnolia flowers in the Romance area of the main floor or bedroom is believed to attract a mate for life, and a union that will forever bloom and grow. There’s hope worth watering!

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com

A Charm To Turn Aside Evil And Ill Fortune

A Charm To Turn Aside Evil And Ill Fortune

 
The mountain ash or rowan tree has long been honored for its power against evil forces. It should ever be treated with respect, that its favor be not turned against the one who employs its strength. In late summer, when the tree is heavy with red fruit (the yellow variety is of a weaker influence), seek out one branch that leans toward the south, and shake it gently until it shall let fall four berries. Gather these up, and also take four of the leaves, carry all indoors, and soon build a fire of good birch or apple wood upon your hearth. When the blaze is ripe and golden, cast one of the rowan berries into the flames, along with one of the leaves, saying this:
 
Virtue is mine, as of this tree
Beware the fire I cast at thee
 
Cast in the second berry, and a leaf, saying:
 
Wisdom is mine, as of this tree
Beware the fire I cast at thee
 
Cast in the third, both berry and leaf, saying:
 
Power is mine, as of this tree
Beware the fire I cast at thee
 
Take then the fourth leaf and fruit, and roast them slowly in an iron pot over the fire until they are dried and blackened. Cool them, and wrap their remains in a red cloth, which charm should soon be buried in the Earth near your threshold. Thus it shall protect the house and those who dwell therein from whatever evil emanations might dare to stray too near.
 
Crone’s Book Of Charms & Spells
Valerie Worth
ISBN 1-56718-811-7

Calendar of the Moon for Tuesday, May 1

Calendar of the Moon
1 Saille/Mounukhion

Day of the Willow Tree

Color: Yellow
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a yellow cloth set a vase of willow branches collected earlier and forced to bud, a single yellow candle, a pot of soil, seeds, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Stoke fires.
Daily Meal: Vegan

Invocation to the Green Man of the Willow Tree

Hail, Green Man of the Spring!
Willow tree of the silver moon,
Bending with the wind,
You teach us that flexibility
Is a great virtue
As we fall before the hurricane
Of our circumstances.
Mountain of the Nine Muses,
Tree of river and dew,
Tree whose gentle roots
Penetrate all things without trouble,
Cage of the sacrificial king
Whose fire burns every year,
Bending, twisting, making charms,
Persistent one, deadly one,
Beautiful one, magical one,
Hawk on the cliff whose cold eyes
See and swoop upon the prey.
We hail you, sacred willow tree,
Green Man of the Spring,
On this the time of your springing forth.

Chant:
We turn and spin
Come out and in
We twist all time
In this green sign

(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Seeking Shelter in the Trees

Seeking Shelter in the Trees

 

by Catherine Harper

I have always been fascinated by the forests and mountains–the architecture, it seemed, of the earth itself, which rose around me and held up the heavens. From the house I grew up in, I could see the peaks over the lake, and I watched the sun rise first behind one, then another, through the progression of the year. Those mornings, it looked as if someone had ripped away darkness from the sky, making way for dawn but leaving a ragged edge of night–the mountains–clinging to the land.

When I was a child and dreamed, as children do, of running away, I dreamed of running to the Cascades, and of living in the woods by myself. The details of the story I would tell myself changed; one time I might do so as a child, another as an adult. Sometimes I would imagine myself in a tiny cabin, with a woodstove against the cold, other times living in a burrow camouflaged by trees and bushes.

While my fascination with the idea of living off the land has not changed, my ideas regarding its practicality certainly have. I couldn’t fit all of my books into the tiny cabin, and Internet connectivity would be chancy. Living at higher elevation shortens the growing season, lengthens the commute and leaves one far from the urban centers of liberal culture… I won’t even go into the logistical problems of living in a burrow. I haven’t entirely given up on the idea of a cabin in the woods, but if I ever achieve it, I suspect it will be a tamer and less permanent retreat.

But the seed of my childhood stories is still with me. As long as I can remember them, mountains and forests, in my mind and heart, have been a place of refuge.

When I was in college, I studied Kazakh language and culture and ran into a similar theme of mountains as places of safety. “My heart to the mountains…” went the saying, as I remember it. The Kazakhs were a nomadic people who did not shelter behind walls or fortresses other than those that nature had provided.

There is a story of a tribe that was being chased by enemies intent on killing them who fled–families, herds and all–into the Altai Mountains. On they went for days, but still their pursuers came behind them. Finally, they saw before them a she-wolf, and perhaps in memory of the long stories of friendship between wolves and their people, or perhaps just out of desperation, they followed her.

She led them into what seemed a narrow cleft, but on entering it they found a sizable cave, stretching back deep into the bowels of the mountain. Quickly, before their foes could catch up enough to see them, they and their animals all followed as the wolf led them deep inside.

On and on the cave went, and so they continued for days in the dark except for the small lights they could carry with them, straining always to see the sliver glints off the coat of the wolf ahead of them. In the darkness the children cried and the parents comforted them, but in the quiet of their own hearts they despaired of ever seeing the day again. And yet, what could they do but go forward, when behind them was certain death?

But at last the darkness of the long cave began to fade, imperceptibly at first, like the sky lightens before dawn. By stages they walked into dusk and then twilight, and then into dawn as they could see ahead of them an opening filled with daylight. When at last they emerged, they found that they had come to a long valley around a lake, lush with thick grass and sheltered on all sides by the mountains, a place where they and their children and their children’s children could live.

My mountains are not the rocky faces of the Altai range above the steppe, but always-green places, netted with rivers and frosted with snow, roofed with the green canopy of cedar boughs held aloft on their straight and sturdy pillars. Almost instinctively, now that I am grown and can drive myself, I go to them when I am troubled and the human world around me seems too turbulent.

There is a point, whether I am in a car or on foot, where I stop and look back behind me and see mountains there, too–mountains on all sides. And at such times it is as though I can cease to strain to hold a great weight, because I have no fear of falling with the mountains around me to hold me up. The very ground cradles my feet. The mountains are ancient and vast. Bigger than me, older than me, they were born of fire and molten rock and survived the advance and retreat of glaciers. There is nothing they do not know about enduring.

Compared to the bony ridges of the earth (if not to me) the trees are more fragile, and yet more brightly alive. They have sunk their roots into the land and know always which way to grow–dancing, sometimes, in the wind and singing their long, slow songs. Trees live a span that is closer to that of human years, and yet how differently they use space, how differently they consume and grow.

And so I come, one afternoon, to an impromptu hike in the sleet. There is symmetry in walking up toward a waterfall that is coming down toward you. Where the sun reaches the ground, the Siberian miner’s lettuce (a wonderful salad green, and good source of vitamin C) is leafing out, and the salmon berries are opening their early magenta flowers.

Before me, behind me and all around are the mountains, though the trail I’m hiking is relatively low and free of snow even this early in the year. In the thick woods there is less ground-level greenery. This is old growth. About me there are wooden columns that three of me could not reach around. They stretch toward the heavens, and fallen trees draw diagonal lines, caught by their living neighbors in their fall.

On the ground is a thick carpet of dead, gray fallen needles and branches, and the contours of trees that have completed their journey to the ground, some adorned now with saplings that draw nourishment from the rotting wood. A forest that is at once imperceptibly but inexorably springing into life and collapsing back into decay.

When I was a child, I imagined the forest to be a place of physical refuge that would hide me, feed me, supply my needs and protect me from the outside world. As I have grown, my relationship with that outside world has changed, so perhaps it is only expected that the nature of the refuge I seek has changed as well.

When I go to the mountains and into the forest, I am setting aside for a while the mental structure of all the things in the world to which I am tied; giving up for a space my name, my calendar, my shopping list and due dates, my friends, family and acquaintances, the model in my head of all the places that are part of my world and that I return to so often that they are mapped into my mind. I am not seeking to cut myself free from this web, but to step aside from it and its demands and see it from another place. In the forest, I am confronted with places where the touch of human hands and feet has been slight, where the cycles are not set by our minds. Not my project, or process, but the fundamental reality of rock, twig, puddle and tree.

Calendar of the Moon for April 14th

Calendar of the Moon
14 Fearn/Elaphebolion

Day of the Elm Tree

Color: Dull green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a dull green cloth set a vase of elm twigs collected earlier and forced to bud, a single dull green candle, a pot of soil, seeds, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Use your physical strength to do a task.
Daily Meal: Vegan

Invocation to the Green Man of the Elm Tree

Hail, Green Man of the Spring!
Elm tree of the spreading limbs,
Great in strength and stature,
Tree planted amid the grapevines
To be a living trellis
To support the uncounted
Legions of the Vine-God.
Backbone of Dionysus,
Patient and enduring,
Tree who takes its burdens quietly,
With trunk so great
The hardly can we reach around it.
Grandmother and protector
Of the new year’s wine,
In whose branches robins call.
We hail you, sacred elm tree,
Green Man of the Spring,
On this the day of your strengthening.

Chant:
In strength I rise
In strength I reach
In strength I touch the sky

(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Depression Healing Ritual

Depression Healing Ritual

Go outside during the daytime and find yourself a large tree.
Oak is the best choice, but any large tree will do.
(Deciduous trees are better than evergreens for some reason; go figure!)
Place the palm of your projective hand (right if right handed,
left if left handed) upon the trunk of the tree and say something like this to the tree:
“Blessed tree, my brother (or sister) of wood, I am in great need of your healing.
I feel hollow inside, as my depression
grips at my very heart. I ask that you aid me, assist me in healing myself of this.
Please assist me to feel strong and solid
inside, assist me in being happy again.”
Now, sit down facing the sun and lean your back against the trunk of the tree.
As you become more relaxed, feel yourself melt into the trunk, becoming one with the tree.
Feel that you have become a branch, full of leafy foliage.
Feel the Sun beat down upon you. Drink in the Light of the Sun God.
Feel His Love fill you, pushing your sadness into the tree.
Fill yourself with the energy of the sun, and allow this to pass through you into the tree as well.
You are now part of the tree; you are the tree.
Feel the overwhelming Wisdom locked into your wood, your leaves.
Feel all that it is to be a tree.
Now, slowly, feel yourself separate from the tree, becoming human again.
Lean forward, and stand. Face the tree, and thank it. If you feel like it, give it a hug!
You and the tree are now one; you are the tree, and the tree is now you.
Love the tree, and care for it. The better the tree is cared for, the happier you will be in the long run!
And become one with the tree as often as you need to by performing the above ritual and enjoy!
If you ever need to move far from the tree, explain this to it, and give it back the woody feeling
inside, and it will give you back the human feeling it has.
When you move, find a new tree. Also, if you can, whoever moves into the place you
were in, if at all possible, ask them to take special care of this tree because it has meaning to you.

A HEALING MYTH

A HEALING MYTH

By “Nihasa”

This story can have a powerful healing effect when read out loud (or recorded
and then played) to someone suffering from a phobia or other effect of childhood
trauma. While names, settings, and style can be varied to suit individual
tastes, the sequence which the apprentice describes, the sequence the princess
goes through, and the vagueness of the “bad thing” descriptions should remain
unchanged and no element of the story should be left out.

|—————————————————————|

Once, in another time and another place, a kingdom of magic and beauty knew a
time of peace. No armies threatened its boarders, no bandits plundered its trade
routes, no plagues sickened its people. Yet even in such peaceful times, bad
things could happen: accidents, misunderstandings, even good people doing bad
things.

The third daughter of the king was a bright and cheerful sort. She wasn’t the
strongest or the prettiest of the royal princesses, but she did have the nicest
wings of anyone her age. She loved to fly around the countryside and explore the
groves and meadows she found…they were always full of surprises.

One day she found a particularly pretty grove, with a pond glistening in a
little clearing in the middle. As she went in for a closer look, she saw images
start to form. She saw her own reflection, and as she lightly touched the ground
she saw that her reflection was watching reflections of her own…dim watery
reflections from her past.

“So you can see the pictures.” The voice from among the trees made her jump.
“Don’t worry,” continued the young man as he stepped out from among the trees,
“nobody else can see the same images, Princess. It’s part of the magic.”

“How…?” she asked, looking him up and down. He was a young man, no older
than the princess herself, dressed in the rough tunic of a wizard’s apprentice.
“Who are you? How did you know who I am, what I saw?”

“I am apprenticed to the Court Wizard. Everybody knows who you are, Princess…
and besides, I have seen you at the palace when I have been there with my
master.” He paused, glancing at the ground and lowering his voice. “As to the
images…well, at one time I had need of their magic.”

“When I entered the Wizard’s service, I had a great and secret fear.
Something… bad…happened to me when I was younger. It hurt to even think
about, and after time I didn’t think about it much. But ever since that time, I
had lived with the fear. When my master learned of this, he taught me the magic
of this pool and its stream.”

“The pool reflects images from your mind…scenes from your past, dreams of the
future, even fantasies of the present. The stream flows like time itself,
upstream into the past, and downstream into the future. If I followed the ritual
he described, these magics could wash clean the fear.”

She made a face. “I suppose this ritual involves deep magics usable only by
Wizards?”

“Not really. All the magic is in the waters, and anyone can use the ritual. Even
a lowly apprentice.” He grinned. “It’s pretty simple. After he told me about it,
he brought me here and then stood back by the trees. He said that he would
answer any questions I had but otherwise I was on my own.”

“I stood where I could see my reflection in the pool, and then thought about my
fear. As I thought, my reflection watched a reflection of my thoughts…like a
stage where dimly lit actors played out the scene against a colorless backdrop.
I looked up and saw that I was still here, in the glade.

I looked back at the water, holding on to a small part of the special feeling of
fear it had given me. As I turned and looked back upstream, I saw more
images…each earlier than the last. I relaxed and let the feeling guide me back
to the earliest image. When I had that, I turned back to the pool and found my
reflection watching the same colorless players in their dim reflection of the
memory. As my reflection watched, the image went from a time shortly before the
bad thing happened, through the whole thing, and on to a time when it was all
over. When it passed the ending that way, it stopped… like a drawing. Then the
drawing faded away, and I was just looking at my reflection. The Wizard had told
me that if I stepped into that last part of the image, it would run very quickly
backwards, with full color and sound and me living backwards through it
all…all the way through to the part before the beginning. It sounded very
strange. As I looked at my reflection again, it was watching the image go
forward again in its dim, colorless way. When it reached the drawing at the end,
I stepped into the image and was plunged into a world going backwards! It went
clear through to before the beginning in less than a second, then stopped.
Startled, I let the water carry me downstream, through all that had happened
since, with the fear gone and the memory unable to hurt me. When I reached the
here-and-now, I got out and just stood there, knowing that the fear would
trouble me no more. ” He stopped, and suddenly seemed to remember where he was,
and who he was talking to. “That was over a year ago, and the fear is still
gone. The Wizard says it is gone for good.”

She thought for a moment. “So all there is to this ritual is think of the
problem until your reflection sees it, follow a part of the feeling upstream to
my earliest memory of it, wait for my reflection to see it all the way through,
step into the ending, and live it backwards quickly? What kind of magic is
that?”

He thought for a minute, shrugged, and said “Effective? If you wish, I will
withdraw to the trees while you try it.”

“What makes you think that I NEED it?”

“Because the images only come to those who do. ” His voice faded to an embarr-
assed silence as he realized what he had said. “I’ll go now.”

“Yes, do.” She said absently, already thinking. Then: “But not too far, in case
I need you.” She was remembering an incident a few days back which had set off
her special fear, and just as the apprentice had described, her reflection in
the pool was watching a dim and watery scene of the memory. Startled, she looked
up again. Yes, she was in the clearing, with the trees all around and the
apprentice all but lost among the closer ones. She could still feel a part of
that fear, so she kept that feeling while she looked back up stream at all the
images from the past that the feeling had touched…until she found the earliest
of them all. She brought that memory back to the pool and released it as her
reflection started to watch it unfold in its dim and watery way. Her reflection
seemed to have a life of its own as it watched the pale scene start before
anything happened, run through the bad parts, and then pause at a time when it
was all over. She watched her reflection shift as she prepared for what she
would do. Her reflection settled as it watched the scene unfold again. The dim
scene passed through the beginning, through the bad time and on past again. When
it stopped, she jumped in to it. Suddenly, she was there again: back where and
when it had happened. Everything was moving backwards, and in a flash she had
lived backwards through it and past the beginning. Shocked, she let the water
carry her down stream, forward through all the rest of her yesterdays without
the bad times for company. When she got to today, she stood up. There she
was…standing, dripping in a stream in the clearing. She looked around for the
apprentice, half expecting him to be laughing at the soggy mess she must be. He
was there, by the trees…not laughing, just smiling in an understanding way.

In the years that followed, they became friends. Although they went their
separate ways…he, as wizard to one of the King’s high lords and she as wife to
a neighboring prince… they valued that friendship to the end of their days.
And from that time on, neither was ever again troubled by their great fears.

Tree Magick (Earth Magick)

Tree Magick

 

Since the time of the ancient Druids, trees have been an important resource of the Earth. While they are valuable in monetary ways, they have a decidedly more spiritual history. Trees are believed to have wise spirits residing within them, and forests and groves are considered sacred place of worship.

While not every type of tree possesses the elemental attributes of earth, the practice of tree magick is a natural for the Earth Witch. She draws much of her strength from the spirits of the plant kingdom, of which trees are the largest members.

The most common methods for performing tree magick are simple to do, yet pack a powerful magickal punch. To incorporate the magick of trees into your practice, you can:

1. Soak up the energy of the tree by sitting beneath it.

2. Mark symbols on the leaves and ask the tree for help.

3. Tie items onto the branches.

4. Carry a bit of the wood with you.

5. Make use of a corresponding wood in spell work.

6. Bury things at the root of the tree.

There are many old spells that direct one to harm the tree by stripping bark from it, driving nails into it and breaking off branches. Please do not do any of these things, and always talk to your chosen tree before trying to use if for a magickal purpose. It will often gift you with a branch or bark–if you remember to ask first.

The magickal properties of trees are as follows:

Apple: Healing, love, honor, youth

Beech: Goals, strength, wisdom

Birch: Protection, purification

Cedar: Prosperity

Cypress: Protection, past-life regression

Elder: Healing, protection prosperity

Elm: Protection

Fig: Fertility, strength, energy, health

Hawthorn: Love, protection, cleansing

Hazel: Protection, reconciling

Hickory: Endurance, strength

Juniper: Protection

Maple: Love, divination

Oak: Healing, strength, prosperity

Olive: Peace, security, fidelity

Palm: Strength, abundance

Pecan: Prosperity

Pine: Purification, health, prosperity, spiritual growth

Rowan: Protection, strength

Walnut: Healing, protection

Willow: Healing, protection, wishes, enchantments, gracefulness

How to Pet-Proof Your Christmas Tree

How to Pet-Proof Your Christmas Tree

  • Nicolas, selected from petMD

Winter holidays are especially exciting, with all the sparkly lights and streamers, delicate ornaments and brightly colored garland, and don’t get us started on the candies and treats! All of these things are great fun, and no less so for our pets. So, before you start taking out the decorations, take a few minutes to consider how their placement will affect your pets.

Ornaments

Just to protect your pet and yourself from excitable accidents, hang your delicate and treasured ornaments on the uppermost branches of the tree, and secure them to the branches tightly. In general, it is easier on the whole household if you select tree ornaments that are not likely to shatter. For delicate, glass or treasured ornaments, you might consider creating an area where they can be displayed that is out of reach for your dog or cat, such as from a garland that is hung across a mantel or window. Tinsel, for all its glittery prettiness, is one of the most dangerous tree decorations you can choose. If your pet ingests even a few strands of tinsel — and pets do this more often than you might guess — she is highly likely to suffer the ill, and even deadly effects of an intestinal obstruction. Same goes for edible ornaments, such as popcorn and cranberry strings and candy canes. Leave these things off your tree or your pet will be climbing the tree to get to them.

 

Lights, Plants and More

Christmas lights should be positioned away from the very bottom of the tree unless you are sure that your pet has been successfully trained not to chew on the cords. Electric cord injuries are very damaging to the mouth tissue and can lead to long term problems with eating, amongst other issues. Check the electric light cords frequently for signs of chewing.

Other tree decorations that can be hazardous to pets (and children, for that matter) include angel hair — a spun glass or pvc decoration, garland, lit candles, mistletoe, poinsettia plants, and holly berries. Decorations that are not a part of tree trimming, but that are also worth mentioning are advent calendars, in which candy is placed in the small numbered cubbies; and liquid potpourri, which can be spilled or ingested.

It is safest to stick to artificial plants and plastic or unbreakable ornaments, just to be on the safe side. When you can rest in the knowledge that you have done everything to make sure your pet cannot be harmed, then everyone can share in a happy, healthy holiday season together.

 

More Christmas Tree Tips

It can be very difficult to keep a young, still-in-training pet away from the Christmas tree, particularly if this is his or her’s first Christmas. Even for an older pet, who may have learned not to jump on the tree — either because it fell on him last year or because your admonitions worked — you will still need to be cautious with the ornaments you place within his reach.

A live tree can be especially hazardous. Dogs and cats like to chew on sticks (i.e., limbs) and greenery, and the fir tree oils can be irritating to the mouth tissue causing such symptoms as drooling and vomiting. Also, if your pet is chewing on the branches, there is a good chance he is also swallowing some of the needles. If enough needles are swallowed they can get caught in the intestinal tract, puncturing the lining or bunching together and causing obstruction. Both can have deadly consequences.

A popular tree decoration called flocking, an imitation snow product, can also cause serious problems when significant amounts of it are swallowed. If you are going to have a tree in your home, it is best to at least get a non-flocked tree.

In addition, some trees are treated with chemical preservatives to keep them fresh longer. These chemicals leach into the water in the feeding dish, making the water poisonous to drink — which pets will do if the water is left uncovered. If you do not have a tree skirt to cover the water dish with, you can use towel, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil.