As I spend copious time in the outdoors, I often end up covered with poison ivy at least once or twice in the summer. I happen to like poison ivy as a plant a lot–she is beautiful, she is powerful, …
Poison Ivy Remedy: Jewelweed Infused Witch Hazel
Herbalism
Wild Food and Wild Medicine Profile: Wild Strawberry (Fragaria Vesca)
The delicious and delightful wild strawberry just came into season here in Western PA, and I thought I’d share a bit about how to find this plant and why it is worth seeking out both as a wild food and …
Sacred Tree Profile: Magic, Medicine, Folklore and Ecology of Ash (Fraxinus Americana)
I remember the first time I met an Ash tree suffering from the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) in South East Michigan. She was a young ash, about 20 years old, about 4” thick at her widest point typical age, and …
Ethical Sourcing of Medicinal Plants: The Case for American Ginseng
Stalking the Wild Ginseng When I was a child, my grandfather picked wild American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius). I remember him talking about it, and seeing it, and him sharing with me what it looked like. To him, ginseng wasn’t a …
Sacred Tree Profile of Walnut (Juglans Nigra): Magical, Medicinal, and Edible Qualities
I remember when I first met black walnut. My Great Aunt and Uncle lived on a farm, and on that farm was a colonial-era farmhouse. Near their farmhouse sat a massive black walnut tree. I remember going there when I …
Embracing “First Aid Responder” Plants
As I grow ever more in tune and aware of nature’s gifts, I keep coming back to one of the tragedies of our age–our incredible misunderstanding of the natural world, the sacred living earth from which all things flow. One …
Wild Plant Profile: Stinging and Wood Nettle’s Medicinal, Edible, and Magical Qualities!
Grasp, love, grasp thy nettle tight! Beneath the blossom there be stings Which start and stab; but out of sight Within that flower lie folded wings So now, ere these be set on flight Grasp, lover, grasp thy nettle tight! …
Chickweed (Stellaria Media) as a Healing Food, Medicine, and Magical Plant Ally
After a long bout of cold weather, things are quickly warming up. This means we are about at the end of our spring emphemerals and summer is quickly approaching. I would be remiss if I didn’t post about at least …
A Druid’s Primer on Land Healing, Part VI: Working with Sites that Will Be Destroyed
As I’ve mentioned throughout this series, the energetic land healing work that you do is largely based on the situation at hand–what is occurring, what has occurred, or what will occur. Sometimes, you are aware in advance that the land …
Healing from the Hive: Honey, Propolis, Beeswax, and Herbal Practices
The last time I wrote about bees on my blog, I wrote about the loss of my hives from Colony Collapse Disorder back in October. The loss of both of the colonies of bees caused a great deal of sadness …
Wildtending, Earth Healing, and Gathering and Sowing the Seeds
Calling all land regenerators, earth walkers, and friends of the weeds! You can help heal our lands, today, with the resources you have and the love you have to give. What if, instead of doing less harm or less bad, …
Embracing the Weeds: Weedwalking, Weedtending, Weedcrafting
Weeds. The term conjures up images of plants that are unwanted and unloved, the bane of the township “noxious weed ordinances” and suburbanites, and the quiet recipient of so many unfounded assumptions. Yet these are the plants that are the …
Backyard Healing Salve Recipe with Plantain, Chickweed, and Ground Ivy
One of the great things about fall is that so many of our spring ephemeral plants, those who dominate the springtime, come back to us again before the snows set in. This is the case this year with chickweed, one …
Sacred Tree Profile: Hawthorn (Lore, medicine, magic, and mystery)
In honor of Samhuinn, a festival of beginnings and endings, today we’ll explore the most sacred of trees–the hawthorn. This is the 6th post in my “Sacred Trees in the Americas” series where I examine abundant trees in the Eastern …
Making a Reishi/Ganoderma Mushroom Double-Extract Tincture
Most plants are fairly easy to prepare in terms of medicine–you can either tincture them, use them fresh, or create a tea or something similar. Reishi, the most incredible healing mushroom, requires a bit more preparation than a standard tincture …
Sacred Tree Profile: American Beech (Fagus Grandiflora) – Magic, Medicine, and Qualities
When I was a child, my grandfather would often take me and my cousins into the woods to learn about plants, animals, and trees. He had a place he would take us on the edge of an old field and …
The Wisdom of the Elder: Recipes for Infused Elderflower Honey, Elderflower Cordial, and Elder-Lemon Tea
Elderflowers (flowers from the Sambucus nigra plant) are in bloom right around the Summer Solstice (at least where I live), and this is a perfect time to create delightful healing recipes. One of these recipes uses raw honey (from my hives, …
Dandelion Wine Part III: New Recipes and Insights
I’ve posted on Dandelion wine before on this blog, and I wanted to follow up on my previous posts on dandelion wine – making the wine and racking/bottling. I’ve also written more generally about the dandelion as a beneficial plant–so …
Resources to Learn the Inner and Outer Worlds of Herbalism: Plants, Books, Courses, Lore, and More
I have been doing an ongoing series of posts about herbalism: herbalism as a druidic practice, my path into herbalism, and medicine making during sacred times of the year. Given the fact that its early spring, and the herbs are …
Druid Tree Workings: Finding the Face of the Tree
Sometimes the trees themselves share lessons with us about how to work with them, talk with them, and heal with them. These are often presented to me as mystery teachings from the trees themselves–and I’ll be sharing some of these …
Introduction to Wildcrafting and Foraging, Part II: Places to Gather, Ethical Harvesting, Avoiding Pollution, and Foraging as Spiritual Practice
This is my second in a two-part series on how to wildcraft and forage successfully. The first post dealt with supplies for foraging, resources and how to learn the skills, and understanding timing. This post will talk about places to …