A New Year

Wow! It's been three weeks since I last posted, which I think is a record. But I can explain...

Holidays.

December was a whirlwind month and toward the end I spent two full weeks (laptop free) in the north country enjoying the snow and cold breeze before heading back down into the warmth of the tropics. My son and I suffered a bout of strep throat at the start of our trip, and when I woke up on the day we departed for home, I once again felt a funny tickle in my throat (not likely to be strep again, though, and for that I'm grateful!).

We've been living in Florida for nearly five years, and I have adjusted to the unique climate. I enjoy that the winters are like a perfect northern autumn, and I appreciate not having to drive in ice and snow. I don't mind the intense heat of the summer months (though I'm not keen on the increase in insects that it brings!). I love the moody skies of the rainy season, especially in contrast to the deep dryness of the fall and winter months, where precipitation is so scarce we often have wildfire warnings.

However on this trip north I remembered just how "right" it feels to be in the snow.

One day we packed ourselves up and drove out to the country side for a romp in the woods (one of my favorite things to do, but something I rarely do in Florida due to the creatures that lurk in the shadows [insert scary music here]).

It was spectacular. It was a rare sunny day, with sparkling blue skies. The air temperature was rather balmy for January, at about 38 degrees.

The trees feel different in the north - good, like home. We do have oaks and maples and even pines in the deep south, but the quality of energy is not quite the same.

There were towering birch trees, which have always been a favorite of mine. As a child I would sometimes peel birch bark to make small baskets.

And the water, albeit freezing, felt so good in the hand. I laid down on my stomach on the damp, muddy riverbank and brought some of the cold water to my face.

Though I brought a deck with me on my trip, I ended up using my mother's Mythic Tarot quite a bit. The 8 of Wands has been following me around for the past few weeks, speaking of travel and movement, and communication.

I purchased a new playing card deck from a favorite local (to Michigan) brewery - Founders - and sure enough, my daily draw on the day we were set to fly back south was none other than the 8 of Clubs!

My husband surprised me with several beautiful and deeply thoughtful gifts. Here is a silver Norse arm ring.

This is a gold ring that he had etched with a portion from one of my favorite Havamal stanzas (57): "Fire is from fire quickened."

This is a Norse vessel pendant that almost appears to double as a mjölnir, complete with Thor's face up top (or, it could just be a person). It is a replica of a brooch found in a grave site in Bornholm, Denmark.

And this is the gold bracelet that was given to me as a baby. He opened it and finished the ends with gold caps and rubies so that I can wear it again (now that my wrists are quite a bit larger!!).

Altogether it has been a beautiful season, and I am filled with gratitude.

May your 2017 bring you all peace, joy, and abundance!

In The Empress's Earthy Embrace

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that during my vacation I became very aware of something that has always been true: that I feel calm, at ease, nourished and filled by nature and my connection to the earth.

When I was a child I spent countless hours alone in the forest picking wild raspberries, listening to the wind rustle the maple and oaks leaves, building living huts (where saplings are used for a shelter, but are not cut down). I saw deer, squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits, and I'll never forget once when a red fox sprinted past me - they are elusive and beautiful creatures. I still have a red hawk feather that I found while picking through the underbrush in a wild wood. I would spend time along the river where I would see raccoon prints in the sandy shore. I would dream of having the opportunity to live there full-time.

Wildwood Tarot - W. Worthington

It's funny how growing up and becoming more deeply enmeshed in society can make those voyages into the wild somewhat more challenging. Not that they cease, just that our modern society as a whole has been structured in such a way that cities have become "cement jungles" where access to raw nature is limited, at best. You must be very intentional about being out in the natural environment...or else live in the countryside!

For years I worked in the center of a city doing neighborhood organizing in underserved communities. Even now, as a teacher, I live in an urban, high-technology environment and am constantly exasperated by the quantity of cars I must navigate through each day, the hurried drivers, and the almost-daily accidents that dot the city. My back yard provides a measure of relief. I have sage, rosemary, lavender, lemon balm, and sweet mint growing in my little garden. We have a maple tree and a towering palm, and an abundance of flowering bushes such as gardenia and hibiscus. Butterflies and lizards abound, as well as the occasional snake and mole. Each morning during the summer I watch the dawn sunlight filter through the vines at the border of our property, which always reminds me of a magical door opening. In early winter I sit outside in front of the fire pit with a hot cup of coffee and welcome in the new year.

Vision Quest Tarot

However there were so many moments during our recent cross-country drive, particularly in Tennessee and Kentucky, where we passed stretches of deep forest - the kind of nature that I'm used to (as opposed to the central Florida climate which is fairly different!), that I grew up with, that always calls to me on a visceral level. My soul always wants to rush out of the car window and roam through those woods and rolling hills. In the far north of Michigan where we have a family-owned cabin house I realized just how much I value that land as a place of retreat. There are wild grasses and wildflowers, red pines and white oaks, ice cold rivers and lakes, deer and elk. And it's all at my fingertips when I'm there. Raw, wild, untouched nature is waiting for me when I simply step over the threshold of the back door.

Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA

Over the past month or more I've been drawing the Empress quite a lot, and I sense her energy nourishing and nurturing me, enveloping me in a comforting, earthy embrace. Being aware of how important nature is to my well-being (all humans' well-being, to be sincere) has allowed me to be more intentional about the way in which I manage my feelings, including stress. Sitting outside and inhaling the breeze, observing the movements of animals and insects, or noticing the growth of our two backyard pineapples becomes a way to channel out dis-ease, and invite in healing and sensuality. I may not always have ready access to the raw wild, but the Empress is all around us, even here in the city. She is present under our feet, and her energy is accessible through the tiles and cement and floorboards that support the structures in which we live. When I feel most oppressed, I simply close my eyes and feel roots sprouting from my feet and reaching down deep into the ground. The Empress, the Goddess, Mother Earth, provides nature-energy like food that sustains me.

3x3x3 Witchy Tag, Or: My Favorite Things

Chloe from Inner Whispers recently posted a video called the "3x3x3 Witchy Tag," where practitioners of the magical arts (I'm casting a wide net here) vlog about their favorite "witchy" things in terms of three categories: 1) favorite herbs, 2) favorite stones or crystals, and 3) favorite "witchy" activities. I enjoyed listening to her discuss her choices, and was inspired to participate by sharing my own!

I will say that, as I'm sure is true for everyone asked to narrow down their preferences, or sum up their practices, this was a difficult challenge. And really this post is just the tip of the iceberg. However I'm going to give this a go, so here we go!

My Three Favorite Herbs

I'm adding a little disclaimer here, because there are so many herbs I love and use that narrowing them down to three is nearly impossible. There are herbs I tend to use more for rootwork, and there are herbs I use more often for making healing teas, or oils. I decided to highlight the the latter for this post. And I'm cheating here, I know, but I'm just going to say that garlic must go at the top of my list - perhaps I'll honor it with being Number Zero. I use garlic for warding off colds and flu by drinking it raw with orange juice and cayenne. I cook with it. It's useful for treating ear infections when combined with olive oil and used as drops in the ear. It's wonderful for the heart. There is just no excuse not to have garlic in your cupboard at all times. Now on to the next three.....

Dried rosemary and lemon balm

1) Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalus)

First of all, rosemary just makes me feel content. The aroma alone is deeply satisfying for me, and I often go out into my garden simply to run my hand through my rosemary bush and inhale the lingering scent from my skin. As with garlic, I sometimes cook with rosemary; I suppose that's a given. But it's also a great tea, especially when dealing with respiratory issues, as it's an anti-inflammatory. Rosemary can help relieve headaches, and as a wash it's great for the hair. You can use it to increase circulation and to help with muscle and join pain (arthritis, for example). This herb helps improve memory and relieve menstrual cramps (it's an antioxidant). In magic it's often used to help increase feminine power, cleansing, and for protection.

2) Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalus)

Lemon Balm smells pretty amazing, too, and is a great herb for calming anxiety, frayed nerves, and mild depression. You can drink it as an infusion to treat indigestion, as well as for colds and coughs. In fact this is one of the core ingredients in my anti-cold tea because it has antiviral and antibacterial properties! I don't tend to use this herb for magical anything, though some do for healing and sometimes love purposes.

Dried elder berries

3) Elder (Sambucus nigra)

Elder berries and flowers form a core part of my herbal medicine cabinet. Both are useful for fighting colds and coughs, and for fighting allergies. With antiviral properties, it's another major component in my anti-cold infusions, and it has such a lovely, subtle flavor. Some people just use flowers for this purpose, or only use berries for tinctures, syrups, or cordials, but I like using them together; the flowers are gentle and light, and the berries rehydrate and release their deep purple essence during the steeping process, which I love. Elder can be used to treat eye inflammation as well as arthritis. It's a diaphoretic and stimulant so it increases the efficiency of the body's systems, and helps increase perspiration which is an effective body cleanser. I feel like Elder is a loving mother, always ready with arms wide open. She's gentle and soothing, which is also why I find this herb a wonderful addition to herbal baths for the purpose of emotional healing.

Dried elder flowers

My Three Favorite Stones/Crystals

Of course I have more than three that I value highly, but these three are definitely core staples!

1) Quartz

Pretty much all quartz, though I do love clear quartz and quartz crystals. I also love snow quartz. Quartz is an amplifier and indispensable for healing and transmitting. Crystals can be programmed for specific purposes, and can hold energy. I found my first crystal at a nature/science store when I was probably thirteen, and I fell in love. I had heard that you should try not to let people hold your crystal because as they hold energy, the ideal situation is that your quartz is imbued with your essence rather than a hodgepodge of random energies. So my crystal has only ever been held by me (since the original purchase, naturally), thereby having accrued about 22 years of Essence of Olivia. Quartz is one of the stones associated with the sign of Capricorn, which was another initial draw for me. Quartz can help amplify the properties of other stones, and in particular I love combining it with black tourmaline, another one on my top three list!

Varieties of quartz

2) Black Tourmaline

I originally bought this stone for the sensations it gave me when I held it. Later I researched its properties and it all made sense! I came across this stone at a witchy shop. I had heard of it before though hadn't thought much about it, but as I was browsing it drew my attention. These dark jewels seemed to be almost glowing with powerful energy. I picked one up and immediately felt my crown start to buzz. The feeling I had was sort of a combination of relief and satisfaction, something like how it feels to lay down on the floor or bed and totally stretch every part of your body. It was awesome. I thought it would be amazing to dive into a bathtub full of black tourmaline and stay a while. Later I learned that  this stone is powerful for protection and deflection of negativity, as well as for transforming ill vibrations into positive ones. You can actually use black tourmaline to protect yourself against the electromagnetic emissions from computers and cell phones due to its natural electrical current. That is pretty amazing all by itself. So even if you're not into magic, here's a really sensible, practical reason to acquire this wonderful stone! Another side effect of black tourmaline's electrical charge is that it helps connect the energy sources/chakras throughout the body, increasing and smoothing the flow. This is great for everyone, really, but especially for healers.

3) Apophyllite 

I wrote about my experiences with this wonderful crystal in September of last year and I've hyperlinked the previous text in case you're interested in reading more about it. Suffice it to say that my dreams are stunning, clear, and educational!

Apophyllite and Black Tourmaline

My Three Favorite Witchy Activities

1) Spending time in nature

I would imagine that this would apply to most people. It has been my favorite thing to do ever since I can remember, and in fact as a pre-teen I spent long hours alone in the forest across the street from my house, picking raspberries, building living-wood shelters, looking for raccoon prints by the river shore, observing deer and fox. It was pretty wonderful. This is still something I can't do without, and one of my regular, favorite things to do is simply stroll around the neighborhood, watching the breeze move the tree leaves, noticing how the sunlight filters through palm branches, taking in the smells of backyard fires, grass, moist earth. This morning I spent about a half hour taking pictures in my back yard; this time of year the sun hits all the sweet spots, so the early hours of the morning are especially lovely. And one way I love interacting with nature is through tending my herb garden!

Gardenia bush in my back yard

2) Helping people via herbs and other natural things

Some of the most satisfying things I do are: make healing teas for my loved ones; do work to help those I care about to heal, attract new opportunities, or repel negativity; create spiritual/cleansing baths for the home or body; and the list goes on! Watching my child laid up on the couch with a nasty virus is difficult, but spending thirty minutes crafting a soothing medicinal infusion and then slowly watching the symptoms ease, is very fulfilling and empowering.

3) Divining

It would be entirely remiss of me not to put this in the top three activities, because divination is an important facet of my life (and hey, it's the main theme of this blog). Not a single day goes by that I don't divine in some fashion, for some purpose, whether with cards or with runes, or sometimes with both. It's an art; it takes patience and dedication, and an open heart. In short, it's wonderful.

So with that I conclude my 3x3x3 Witchy Tag. If you're a witch, rootworker, conjurer, diviner, herbalist, or anyone at all, really.....consider yourself tagged!