Following the wheel of the year through the Celtic tree calendar, May 13th begins the time of the hawthorn tree and its ogham character Huath. While the tree calendar is a modern construct, it holds meaning because of the concepts it has come to symbolize and the significance it has for twenty-first century magic, ritual, and everyday life.
Following the wheel of the year through the Celtic tree calendar, April 15th begins the time of the willow tree and its ogham character Saille. While the tree calendar is a modern construct, it holds meaning because of the concepts it has come to symbolize and the significance it has for twenty-first century magic, ritual, and everyday life.
Following the wheel of the year through the Celtic tree calendar, March 18th begins the time of the alder tree and its ogham character Fearn. While the tree calendar is a modern construct, it holds meaning because of the concepts it has come to symbolize and the significance it has for twenty-first century magic, ritual, and everyday life.
Following the wheel of the year through the Celtic tree calendar, February 18th begins the time of the ash tree and its ogham character Nion. While the tree calendar is a modern construct, it holds meaning because of the concepts it has come to symbolize and the significance it has for twenty-first century magic, ritual, and everyday life.
While many plants have faded or died, evergreens live up to their name and this is their time of year to shine. With sacred trees, mistletoe, and other plants taken into the home, it is no accident that this is such a magical time of year. When working with evergreen trees, it’s important to use branches, cones, and needles from the right tree, so you need to know the difference between a pine and a fir and a spruce. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be a botanist to tell them apart; the cones and needles give us clues.
As the earth begins her winter’s rest in the Northern Hemisphere, there are quiet reminders of ongoing life as heather and heath begin to bloom. Although heath and heather are nearly identical and the names are often used interchangeably, there is a simple way to tell them apart. Heath has needle-like foliage (think spruce tree) while heather has tiny, scale-like foliage (think cedar tree).
For centuries in England, September 14th marked an occasion called Nutting Day, which was a family outing to the woods to gather nuts. Sometimes, entire villages would go nutting together accompanied by musicians making it a festive and noisy event. By contrast, September 21st was called Devil’s Nutting Day and people were warned to stay out of the woods because that was when devil took his share.
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...
Victoria
I would say as neopagans we are constructing our futures rather than reconstructing THE future. I'm not sure if we are in the process of becoming a tr...
Steven Posch
Not so sure about "culty," though.Many--if not most--peoples with a collective sense of identity have a term for the "not-us people": barbaroi (non-He...
Mark Green
OK, this is funny.But could we [i]please[i] stop using that word (or, worse, "Muggles")?Having a down-putting term for people who aren't a part of you...
I love Hawthorn, and the one in my backyard is a good 30 feet tall. This year I harvested blossoms and leaves that I'm busy tinctu
ty!
