Grove of the Wild Goddess

Some recent snapshots of a few babies in my garden…

New planting of baby bee balms! These were only two containers from the store, but I think I got my money’s worth, lol.

The coneflower is doing very well.

A shot of my purslane, half in sun, half in shade.

The new wee pepper plant is settling in nicely (I’m always worried about veggie plants I buy from a store), and is starting pepper buds.

My current idea is to convince roomie to let me get/create a small greenhouse in the back yard, so that I can start lots of herbs for next spring. Ideally, I’d like to grow extra medicinal ones to sell at a local farmer’s market (and perhaps some herb-infused honey & vinegar). Also, as I’ll be starting one of Susun’s courses soon, I want to be able to grow—or at least attempt to grow—as many of the relevant plants as possible. So we’ll see!

I’m still keen to try making a batch of nettle ale very soon, and as a new fan of kombucha, I just finished reading about how easy it is to make your own. That’s now added to the list of upcoming experiments.

Last week I went looking for a few new herbs to plant in my little herb garden, just the usual stuff that my local Home Depot carries. I want to eventually grow a few “uncommon”—to the typical suburban gardener—herbs, but until I have seedlings, I’d like to fill my space with some more green beauties. So I went looking, hoping for a sage, maybe another thyme. And I found…bee balm!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen bee balm for sale there. I’ve been reading on various herbalist blogs about it, but for some reason didn’t think that it was a plant that would grow in this heat. And then ta-da, there she is, in Home Depot of all places, waiting for me. I promptly bought two, brought them home, and ended up expanding my herb space to plant her. I looked her up online to see how big she can get…big! I’m so excited. I might even go back and buy all the remaining ones.

I planted her along the back of my little bit of garden, and so far she’s looking perky and happy. I can’t wait until she gets big & blooms, which I know won’t likely be until next year, but I’ll enjoy watching her grow.

I feel like she’s whispering to me more so than other herbs I currently have, so I will listen. Perhaps she’s to be my first true ally? I’m going to start getting to know her, and might order some bee balm items from other herbalists to start getting to know her medicine.

Pics to be added a bit later.

Things like this give me hope for the world:

Thanks to Joanna, on whose blog I found it.

It rained here today. I came home from work, poured a glass of elderberry mead, and went outside to visit the plants. I’ve got several more coneflowers about to bloom, and I wanted to see if any of the black swallowtail caterpillers, recently working their way through my parsley, were still around. It had been a typical hot day, but the moment I stepped outside, I knew rains had come through.

This part of Florida oddly enough never seems to see enough rain. Rain will fall every day in places east, south, and sometimes north of here, but this little spot? Usually dry as a bone. Big fat drops had pelted me as I left work, but as I drove north, nothing but sun and heat. I kept thinking, please rain, follow me! Yet I arrived home to the typical heat & humidity with no thunderclouds even close.

But the plants gave it away. Once I stepped out back—and I’d already been at the front of the house, when I got home—I knew. Rain, and lots of it, had indeed blessed the plants today. I could sense it, smell it. And when I looked more closely, I saw the telltale signs: dampness around the bottom of pots, wet soil, bunched-up mulch where a small torrent had flowed. I thought I heard a faint hum in the air, a buzz of delight, a whirring of life. The rain had fallen some hours before, leaving enough time for the sun to have dried out most evidence of it, but not the green joy.

I love days like this. I love feeling so connected, so in touch with the world around me. And I don’t mean “the world” as in people-centered politics, but “the world” as in Gaia and the subtle yet vital streams of life that are always there, always pulsing.

I had a lovely Litha. It was a wonderfully relaxing day that led to a beautiful ritual and fun chats afterwards. I am currently studying toward my first degree with an online group, and I am very glad I decided to do it. I’ve been pagan for most of my life, but had never done any “formal” training. I was always a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-cloak kind of witch. But I went through grad school in my mundane life, even taught college for a few years, and over the past year or so got thinking that I wanted/needed that kind of structured training in my magickal life. So I found the school that fit best (one I’d considered joining back when I was still in grad school, but thankfully didn’t—I definitely wasn’t ready), and jumped in. I’m glad I did, as it is opening up so many doors.

I’d posted a bit ago about the call (once again) to be a healer, and how I wasn’t sure exactly how I would go about it, although I did want to incorporate Reiki somehow. Well…a few days after I’d posted that, I found a beautiful post about a new Reiki attunement available called Brighid’s Flame Reiki. To say I was stunned and awed is an understatement! And the symbols came to its founder the same day I made my post. I still get goose bumps thinking about it. I wrote to Joanna & made arrangements to get my attunement as soon as I could. As of this past Thursday night, I have received my Brighid’s Flame Reiki attunement, and let me tell you, it was powerful. Joanna offers other attunements, and I plan to get the Celtic series as well as the Cerridwen empowerment. I’d never known there were such things available, but ask and the Goddess leads you…

At this point I am eagerly looking forward to the rest of the turning of the year. Through my first degree study I am getting more deeply attuned than I’ve been before with the Sabbats and with ritual in general. I don’t know why it takes formal study for me to be so engaged; I’d done ritual and study and such on my own for years and years, but for some reason I seem to be a “book learnin’ witch” in that while I can easily connect emotionally and intuitively with the Goddess and other energies on my own, getting my head around specifics & history & lore takes a more formal learning environment. Go figure.

Happy summer!

The Wheel turns…it is almost Litha, aka Midsummer, aka Summer Solstice. The Sun is about to reach its peak, and folklore tells us the Fae are ready to come out and dance among us.

On this Herb Evening, I’d like to show off something blooming in my herb garden. I’m such a proud mama! My first echinacea plant, planted some time ago, finally became robust enough to sprout up and form a bud…and as of the other day, petals:

Looks like there could be 3-4 more blooms, and I eagerly await them. Now to find room to plant even more of these beauties.

May your Midsummer Eve be magickal!

Yesterday as I ate lunch at work, I had a pang of guilt for eating the two slices of delicious cheese pizza. Pizza isn’t organic or a “health” food, and I like to feed my body as much good & organic stuff as I can. But I also like pizza, and I really like it from this particular place, where they add sesame seeds to the crust and mold the crust into the perfect thinness. But after the guilt pangs, I remembered a few details. I remembered that I buy the slices from a family-run business just a few doors down from where I work–which means I walk there. When I go in, they remember me, say hi, ask how I’m doing. Everyone is genuinely friendly. As I wait for my order, I watch the men in the back measuring out dough for each handmade pie, then kneading and tossing the dough, then dressing them with whatever each one’s flavor will be. This isn’t fast food; this is real food made by real people each day. Basic ingredients combined into something special by people who care to do a good job of it.

And the girl who took my order was not only very warm and friendly, she was wearing a pentacle.

There’s magic(k) everywhere.

I just read one of the most beautiful articles I’ve come across in a long time. It is in the current SageWoman issue, titled “The Wild Maiden,” by Kiva Rose (it is posted near the bottom of that linked page under the title “The Medicine Woman’s Path”) of the Anima Center. In it she talks about what it is/means to be a Medicine Woman. It really resonated with me on many levels today. In the past, I’ve had callings to explore healing, and have been called a “lightworker” as well as healer by people who have no idea of my spiritual ideas/ideals. I even have my 3rd Reiki attunement…but due to particular events, I have not done anything with it. I’ve been called a “healer” yet do not heal. Well, I do not heal in any sense that I would call “healing,” when “healing” means actively working to bring about wholeness/health. But I suppose I have healed myself, although not completely, but I’ve come very far from my lowest point a few years back. And I regularly bring plants back from the brink of death–it’s a become a bit of a joke that my roommate might be ready to toss out a plant, but if I sense one speck of life in it, I snatch it out of her hands, repot it, and nurture it back to as much health as possible. I’ve even saved them out of the garbage can. But no matter what I do, I’ve shied away from thinking of myself as a “healer” and have just accepted that I’ve got a strong nurturing streak in me, one that is called to nurture the plant and animal worlds.

But last week I received a reading from a sister in my online group, and what came up? That I am a healer. To go forward as one, to develop that part of me. And yesterday, a friend asked me for a favor…to light a candle for her as she just found out that she is facing a small health challenge that could become a large one.

I don’t believe in coincidences. It seems Goddess is nudging me. It seems it is time to embrace my healer-self.

I’m not sure yet what “kind” of healer I am/will be; I will use Reiki, but I consider Reiki simply channeling energy and not something that you can only tap into if “attuned” by another. So, if I’m not an adherent to what Reiki defines itself as, does that mean I’m not “doing it?” And does it matter? I feel like perhaps I shouldn’t say I’m doing Reiki if I’m not doing it the way people think it’s done. I did have wonderful experiences at my attunements though, so perhaps that process simply opened up my channels more. I’m not sure; I’ll have to mull this over for awhile.

As the article mentioned, I think that “healing” means making whole, giving love. I would like to learn herbalism in depth, to know what to suggest to people to take in to “nourish,” as Susun Weed so lyrically puts it, the body and its systems. I’m also curious about stone healing, and using Tarot…I have this idea to use Tarot readings as a guide to where to focus healing, instead of as a life oracle. I’m about to start a more in-depth study of Tarot, as I’m very image-oriented and want to get to know the cards. I am on the lookout for a green/nature-centered deck that would suit my path.

I suppose I will just keep brainstorming and see what emerges.

As for the land stewardship mentioned in the title of this post, a line in the article caught my eye: “A Medicine Woman knows…the land she lives on …as an extension of her own body and cares for it as such.” This struck a cord because just yesterday, as I was watering new plantings that my roommate had done, I was thinking about all the work I had done and want to do to really transform my roommate’s yard…and then I thought, wow, it’s a lot to do for a house that isn’t mine, for a garden that isn’t mine. I have a very, very deep desire to acquire my own home & bit of land (even if that bit is really small, as in a back & front yard), but I can’t not garden this one while I live here. Then yesterday the thought came to me that while I’m here, I’m a caretaker of this bit of land, and should love it and nurture it as if it were my own…and when it is time for me to move on, what I’ve sown will have taken root and can grow and develop for years to come.

So for now, this little bit of land is mine, mine to nourish and love and bring back to green fullness. Already it is a haven not only for the plants I’ve brought to it but for toads, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, a squirrel, a snake, and whatever other beings I don’t regularly see.

I am here now, and that is what matters.

I am eager to branch out and turn my kitchen herb garden, full of the typical herbs one finds there, into a very magickal, witchy garden by growing as many traditionally-witchy plants as I can. I decided to start with mugwort, and went looking for seeds. I found a *wonderful* site called Alchemy Works, which sells nothing but witchy seeds & related goodies! I’ve only barely begun reading all the info she has posted, but now I’m thinking I’ll try not only mugwort, but also climbing nightshade, elfwort, henbane, belladonna, witch’s broom, and others. As I start to read about them and how they prefer to be sown, I’ve decided to draw up a planting schedule for the rest of the year. For example, the mugwort I think I will plan to sow at midwinter, although I’ll have to do some finagling to make the seeds think they’re actually in winter (heh). I’m going to try to start, grow and harvest my witchy herbs in a much more aware & traditional way than I’ve usually done with plants.

I am currently working toward my first degree in a specific tradition (I’ve been pagan for years and years but never did any “formal” study or training until now), and I will use the rest of my year-and-a-day to create this magickal herb garden. Growing things does teach patience, I must say…

I’d completely forgotten about this…a poem I wrote & posted on The Witches’ Voice back on April 13, 2006!

Meditation on the Full Moon

above my head
she is, she guides.
dancing, living, moving.
she rains down sight
on those who see.