This week, I’m visiting my sister, Briel, in Philadelphia and checking out some of the things that are happening here on the sustainability front. She’s cooked up a quite ingenious way of adding “brown” material that to her compost bin, …
Living in Harmony
Ecological Footprints and the Road Ahead
One of the more simple ways to measure your overall impact on the planet is to use a carbon footprint calculation. There are a number calculators out there; I like the Center For Sustainable Economy’s “Ecological Footprint” calculator/. Your ecological …
In Praise and Honor of the Snow: Understanding and Overcoming Cultural Challenges
In January, this year, we’ve gotten record amounts of snow (somewhere above 50″ since the new year). This is true of much of the midwest and eastern seaboard in the USA. Snow holds a very convoluted position in modern American …
Vermicompsting II: The Evil of Plastics and “there is no such thing as ‘Away'”
Earlier this week, I talked about vermicomposting and how to build your own worm bin. In this post, I want to talk more about the spiritual side of working closely with worms in a vermicomposting system and what gets “left …
Sustainability as Sacred Action
The common bond that unites druids, and other earth-centered spiritual paths, is a deep respect and reverence for the living earth. We celebrate the turning wheel of the seasons, we revere the plants, and we speak to the forest spirits. …
Sacred Tree Profile: Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) – Magic, Mythology, and Qualities
This is the second in my series of posts about magical trees native to the Americas. In this series of posts, I explore the lore of sacred trees, and describe their magical and mundane uses, edible qualities, and medicinal qualities. …
Introduction to Permaculture: Terminology and The Ethical Triad
Sustainability means “the capacity to endure.” I use the concept of sustainability broadly in introducing the work that I’m doing as part of my Druidic path—people understand that term, what it means, and are immediately able to have some idea …
Sowing the Seeds of the Future: Spiritual Insights on Seed Starting and Growth
There is so much magic in a tiny seed. Dormant, still, silent, the seed speaks of unimaginable potential. The seed is the first—and last—step in the cycle of most plant life; they complete the circle of life. Seeds can lay …
Shifting away from Materialism and into the Sacred: Alternatives to Typical Holiday Gift Giving
We find ourselves, yet again, in the middle of the “holiday season” where the emphasis has drifted away from families and is now on cheap deals, plasma televisions, and the amassing of various piles of stuff. Against the cultural push …
Making Hydrosols (floral waters) Without an Alembic
What is a hydrosol? A hydrosol, also known as a floral water, distillate, or hydroflorate, is water that has been imbued with the essence of the plant through a distillation process. They are similar to essential oils (in that they …
Garden Update & Permablitz: Many Hands Make Light Work
I wanted to post another update from my garden and update from our Permaculture Meetup, which blogged about some time ago (Here’s our meetup group site: Oakland County Permaculture Meetup). Recently, I hosted what we call a “permablitz” or a …
Strawbale Studio and Tar Sands Oil Pipelines – The Clash of Worldviews, Part I
As I’ve discussed a few times on this blog, we have an oil pipeline going through our immediate area in South East Michigan. The first “phase” of the project went 1/2 mile north of my home in 2012-2013. This was …
Community and Connectedness: Extending our understanding of “tribe”
Sociologist Geert Hosfede* has a set of cultural dimensions (which you can look at here) that helps us understand broad differences in culture. These aren’t absolute by any means, but they do give us some baseline indications of how cultures …
As Within, So Without: Blight and the Magical Garden
There is an old magical adage, first written by Hermes Trismegistus, that goes “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul…” I’ve spent a long time in trying to understand this statement, see it …
Finding the Balance in Providing One’s Own Sustenance: The Time-Intensive Example of Canned Corn
I’ve not been blogging as much as I did a few months ago for a simple reason–the harvest is upon us. Starting with the black raspberries in June to seeking out wild mushrooms the start of apple and autumn olive …
Embracing the Sacred and Understanding the Druidic Garden: Growing and Preserving Your Own Food
When I was a child, I used to read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. In her books, Laura spends a lot of time talking about food preservation–slaughtering the pig, making maple sugar, making “head cheese”, sowing crops, cutting hay for …
Garden Trellising – Bedframes, Sticks, and other Repurposed Items!
This year in my garden, I focused on growing “up” rather than “out” and spent a lot of time finding and using trellises. Last winter, I purchased and read a book called “Vertical Gardening” by Derek Fell; after reading it, …
Wild Medicinal Plant Profile– Reishi Mushrooms (ganoderma tsugae), or, The Mystery of the Stumps Revisited
In a post I wrote about over a year ago, I told the story of the “mystery of the stumps” where I described my relationship to the forest where I grew up, the forest to which I belong. I told …
Township Ordinances and Front/Back Lawn Battles – My Own Story
In my post a few weeks ago about what I called the “Garden Resistance Movement” (where people are converting their yards to gardens, etc.), I alluded to the fact that I was now on the front lines of this particular …
Barn Raisings: Building Sustainable Structures and Communities of the Future
I’ve been blogging a lot about sustainability and community–and this is for good reason. I’ve come to understand, as I worked my way through the AODA’s 3rd degree (where I investigated the relationship of druidry as a spiritual practice and …
The Garden Resistance Movement – Replacing Front Yards with Gardens and Food Forests
Note: I have been composing this blog post for quite some time. This past week, I received a letter from my township about the “state of my lawn” and now find myself in a similar position to those I was …