Spiritual journeys in tending the living earth, permaculture, and nature-inspired arts
It is hard to deny both the increasing challenge of climate change nor its impact on local ecosystems, local people, and all of us living in this age. While both druidry and Wicca (and many other neopagan practices) share the …
The Fall Equinox is a time of no time, a time of balance between the night and day, of balance between the physical and metaphysical. Thus, it is a good time to seek balance and communion with the spirit world, …
The Fall Equinox is traditionally about harvest, harvesting the fruits of your labor and the fruits of the land in preparation for the coming of winter. This model of the wheel of the year focuses on earned outcomes: you’ve planted …
With the cooler temperatures of September and October, the abundance of the Oaks come forth. In my area, we have abundant oaks of a variety of species: white oak, chestnut oak, eastern red oak, swamp oak, and much more. Each …
I don’t know about you, but 2020 has been a hell of a year. Usually, the Fall Equinox and the coming of the dark half of the year is a time for celebration, as Fall is my favorite season. But …
Over the summer, I spent the weekend at a beautiful farm with my family for a family reunion. That land had gifted me, and all of us, much that weekend. I had found some stunning new stones for pigments, I …
The moonlight shines through the window in my kitchen as I carefully use a mortar and pestle to grind dried herbs for making tea. Candlelight softly illuminates the space, and I have my recipe book with me, ensuring that I …
A field of goldenrod, nettle, and aster greet me on this warm post- Fall Equinox day. As the moon comes up with a sliver in the afternoon sky, I joyfully take my basket and harvest knife into the field for …
“Nothing gives more yet asks for less in return, than a tree: particularly, the apple” –Johnny Appleseed “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my loved one among the sons. I took my rest under his …
In the 1990’s, now Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, Gordon Cooper, developed the idea of “wildcrafting your own druidry”; this practice is defined as rooted one’s druid practice in one’s local ecology, history, legends and …
I can’t get enough of autumn olives. I wrote about them, honoring them, around this time last year and shared my autumn olive jelly recipe. In my area, the sacred time of the equinox is the sacred time to go …
When I was a new druid, many moons ago, I celebrated my first holiday with another person at the Fall Equinox. During that celebration, my friend had the idea that we could do a holiday craft, what we ended up …
Humans evolved in alignment with the movement of the sun and the moon. As the sun moved, so did human camps of hunters and gathers. As the sun moved, so still move many birds, fish, and mammals as they migrate …
Note: This post is directed at those who live in the northern hemisphere; for my readers in the southern hemisphere, you can see my post on the Spring Equinox for activities appropriate to you! As the days shorten and we …
About the Autumn Olive Autumn Olive (also called Autumn Berry, Japanese Silverberry, or Spreading Oleaster) is a bush that is native to China and is considered an “invasive” in the USA. In a good part of the 20th century, it …
This is the fourth year of the OBOD East Coast Gathering, (which I have reviewed before on this blog) and if anything can be said for certain, its that a tribe has now been firmly established. In the four years …
When we think about the practices that various groups and cultures did on a yearly cycle, agricultural holidays are some of the most prominent. The modern Wheel of the Year in the Druid tradition seeks to re-establish a set of …
For our grove’s spring equnox / Alban Eiler celebration, we also had a Druidry workshop that focused on introducing some of our grove members to the wheel of the year. I thought the workshop went quite well, and the information …