When I was still quite young, my grandfather used to take me and my cousins into the deep forest behind our house and teach us many things about nature. One of the fun things he taught us, for example, was …
spruce
Sacred Trees in the Americas – Spruce (Picea glauca, Picea pungens, Picea spp.)
When I lived in a walkable small town, what drew me every day was a line of beautiful blue spruce trees. Right around the corner from my house, they were on my daily walking commute to work. We used to …
The Allegheny Mountain Ogham: An Ogham for the Northern Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern USA
By Dana O’Driscoll, The Druid’s Garden Blog (thedruidsgarden.com), Copyright 2020. The Ogham is an ancient alphabet, used to write early Irish and later Old Irish. The inscriptions that survive of Ogham, some 400 or so primarily on stone, are found …
Using an Oracle or Tarot Deck to Establish Sacred Space
As some of you may know from my posts on Facebook and Instagram, in early 2020, I’ll be releasing the Plant Spirit Oracle as my second self-published divination deck (if you want to support the project, see link in the …
Home-Grown and Wildcrafted Smudge Sticks: Plant List and Recipes
Creating homemade smudge sticks with local ingredients is a wonderful activity to do this time of year. As the plants die back, you can harvest whatever you aren’t using for other purposes and create a number of beautiful smudges that …
Tree Alchemy: Hydrosols and Essential Oils from Sacred Trees
Nature can provide tremendous wisdom and healing, especially when we work with our local ecosystems and ecologies. One of the most powerful ways of working healing with nature, I believe, is to combine the innate healing properties of plants with …
Wildcrafted Winter Solstice Decorations with Conifers, Holly, Ivy, Bittersweet, and More
Part of the fun of the holiday season is “decking the halls” and decorating for the season. By bringing the symbols of the season into our homes, for festivity and communion, we are able to deeply align with the living …
Tree Resins from Eastern North America: Harvesting, Crafting, and Incense Making
Burning incense, particularly the burning of tree resins has been known throughout the millennia as a sacred activity. Incenses are offered to the spirits, the land, the gods, the ancestors as a way of seeking communion and blessing. Today, most …