In today’s post, I share an approach to herbal formulation that basically combines western magical systems (like the seven-element system) with herbal formulation and crafting herbal blends. This is essentially a synthesis of magical frameworks and herbal practices. A version …
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Land Healers Network Launch!
One of the things that I’ve realized in doing the work of a land healer is how little support and information is available. When I wrote Land Healing, I decided to create a supportive community in addition to the book …
Land Healing – New Book Announcement!
Today I’m very excited to announce the upcoming release of my new book: Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical, and Ritual Approaches for Healing the Earth. The book is now available for preorder and will be released on March 28, 2024 from …
Soul of the Soil: Soil Honoring and Dirt Worship
There is something magical about putting your hands in the soil. The cool, damp feeling, the smell of earthy loam, the crumbling of the loam between your fingers. Touching soil, the building block of life, grounds you in a way …
Secrets in the Soil: Understanding the Soil Web of Life
Soil is one of the most sacred things on the planet–the soil is the foundation of all life on earth. The soil, including the living organisms in the soil, provides the basic conditions for plants to be abundant, to resist …
An Animistic Garden, Part II: Gardening Strategies
A garden full of life, joy, wildness, and spirit–where the vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts grow fat with the joy of being nurtured, where the spirits are working with the gardener for the good of all, and where all is …
Building an Earth Oven, Part II: Insulation, Finish Plaster, and Cob Mosaic
In last week’s post, we began exploring the build of an earth oven. An Earth Oven is a simple structure, made of clay, sand, straw, stone, and fire brick, that you can use to cook foods in a traditional way. …
Building an Earth Oven Part I: Foundation, Dome, and Structure
An earth oven is an oven made of cob (a mixture of clay, sand, and straw) with insulating features (firebricks, bottles). It is an extremely efficient and sustainable method of doing any baking you might need to do. One firing …
Bringing back the Hearth: Ancestral Fires for Protection, Connection, and Comfort
Fire is one of the most ancient tools that humans have and one of the things that separates our species from others on this beautiful planet. Humans have an incredible ancestral connection to fire. Think about how a fire draws …
Standing Stones at the Summer Solstice
Ancient peoples set standing stones in various places in the world. In places, such as in the British Isles or Iceland, you can still often find these standing stones, trilithons, stone circles or stacks of stones. While their many uses …
The AODA’s Seven Element System: Above, Below, Within, Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Perhaps the first thing to think about in any system of spiritual or magical practice is the way in which a practice offers a framework to understand reality. These frameworks vary widely based on the spiritual tradition: some use a …
A Framework for Land Healing
In the next few months, the forest that I grew up in is going be cut and torn up to put in a septic line. A 40-60 feet path, at minimum, will rip a tear through the heart of it. …
Building with Cob, Part II: Soil Tests and Mixing Cob
In a meadow under the summer sun, a group of dancers laugh and fling mud. Beneath their feet, clay, sand, and water become mixed together, creating a sticky earthen blend that sticks to their feet, their legs, and, after some …
Building with Cob, Part I: Project ideas and Honoring Earth
Connecting with the earth can mean a lot of things–and today, I want to talk through how to create a simple building material that can be used for a wide variety of purposes: cob. Cob is an ancient building material …
A Druid’s Primer on Land Healing: A Healing Grove of Renewal
Many years ago, I shared the story of the “mystery of the stumps“, which was my path into druidry. I grew up spending all my days in a forest that was rich, full, and bountiful. When I was 14, that …
A Seed Starting Ritual for Nourishment, Connection, and Relationship
All of the potential and possibility of the world is present in a single seed. That seed has the ability to grow, to flourish, to produce fruit and flowers, to offer nutrition, magic, and strength. Seed starting offers us a …
The Samhain of our Lives
Just last week, we had our first hard frost. After homesteading for a number of years, you grow to be vigilant for the signs of the first frost. The air smells different somehow in the two or so weeks leading …
A Druid’s Meditation Primer
In this time as the light is coming back into the world, the time surrounding Imbolc, I find myself often going deeply inward for healing and strength and turning towards meditation as a guide for spiritual balance. This deep winter …
Ecoregional Druidry: Adapting and Localizing Symbolism
To follow up from two posts a month or so ago on ecoregional druidry and the wheel of the year and celebrating rituals, observances, and activities, I want to continue thinking about how druids can adapt basic practices of druidry …
Permaculture Principles for the Inner Landscape (Mind, Spirit, and Heart)
Let’s start today’s post with a short exercise. Take a look at your hand–look at the patterns of veins under the surface. What does that remind you of in nature? Now, look at the creases on your fingers, again, looking …
Permaculture for Druids: Design Principles through the Five Elements
Humans throughout history have looked to nature as the ultimate teacher; nature is the sacred text from which all wisdom flows. As druids, we know the more time you spend in nature, the more you align with its rhythms, and …