Happy Halloween!

Sacred Tree Profile: Hawthorn (Lore, medicine, magic, and mystery)

Thank you and wishes for a faery magical day with their most sacred tree. Oak, ash and thorn … see all three and you know the Fae are near!

The Druid's Garden

Hawthorn branches and leaves

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 and Midwestern parts of the USA, exploring their many qualities: physical, magical, herbal, mythological, and so on.  Previous posts have include Eastern Hemlock, American Beech, Sugar Maple, Eastern White Cedar, and Hickory.  Each of these posts takes 20-30 hours to research and write, not to mention the countless hours I spend with the trees to understand them and share their stories as best I can.  And now friends, let’s enter the forest and visit the hawthorn.

There are few trees quite so enigmatic in either western herbalism practice or contemporary druidry as the sacred hawthorn—and this is the first of the…

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A Walk in the Woods

Someone, somewhere insisted I take today off and walk in the woods. Although I had sessions scheduled, every single one rescheduled itself, and the cold, rainy weather cleared. After stopping early at some friends’ garage sale, I found myself not wanting to go indoors, and so I heeded the call of the woods where I found so many purple flowers and pink leaves that if I hadn’t also seen the oranges, reds and yellows, I might have thought for a moment it was spring.

The crisp fall air with its hint of mist got me totally in the mood for tomorrow’s Samhain celebration. In fact, the rare fall sunshine peeking out at noon insisted I whip up a gluten-free vegan Devil’s Food Cake in the Sun Oven to go with the homegrown sweet potato chili, grill-roasted root veggies, and mulled cider. Since I can’t share the yummies with you, I thought I’d share some photos:

delicate purple flowers in autumn

This “T” reminds me of the Book of Kells

no mistaking autumn here

more pink!

The Oak King’s getting ready to stake his claim at Yule.

Is this the road not taken, or the path of secrets?

winter forage for woodland creatures

The Guardian ~ A chef’s manifesto: let’s tackle food waste with good fare

David sent me this great article from The Guardian, in part, because I’ve been making delicious veggie broths before tossing scraps into the compost bin. Why spend $4.50 on a prepackaged, non-recyclable organic veggie broth or use perfectly new veggies to make broth when we’ve got all sorts of garden fresh scraps each week? I make broth now, but in the past, I’ve also used juice pulp to make dehydrated veggie crackers or salad toppings.

Our friends in Elkhart go even further — dumpster diving for anything they can’t grow in their garden. I’m personally not ready to do that, but this Guardian piece shows what’s happening at even the highest levels of elite eaters, including at the recent NYC UN meal. I’m heartened that at least someone at that top down sustainability conference looked towards waste streams rather than SMART technology, toxic fluorescent lights, and carbon taxes. As chef Dan Barber said, “[I]f you think not leaving your plate full of food is the way to deal with this issue, you’re letting yourself off too easy. … We can transform the food system and get to a place where we need to be for the future, before the future’s going to force us to do it.”

Here’s the link to an article that really makes you think — especially if you’re an American.

Multiple sclerosis is Lyme disease: Anatomy of a cover-up

Thank you for gathering all of this information in one place, and thanks to Nancy for forwarding me the link. I’ve known of the connection; however, I did not know that so much research existed (and for so long) to support that connection. This is a well-documented article for anyone wondering about the etiology of MS and how it relates to untreated Lyme disease.

UPDATE: Just a reminder that connection does not always equal causation. I’m just passing this information along since I know many readers have or know someone who has Lyme Disease and/or MS. I’m not diagnosing, prescribing, or anything else! 🙂

Marianne Williamson on women and religion

Yep, loved it! Thanks, Karen. 🙂

Autumn Rituals: leaves, pumpkins, candy apples, scary (true) stories

Happy Halloween, Ann and GANG Garden podmates! We’ll be doing our leafy, festive Samhain celebrations here in Goshen, too. InDiana’s getting some big love and community, isn’t She?!

The Search for Sustainability Summit

For those people who recognize that humanity and each of us as individuals need to change our ways and soon, this new “Search for Sustainability Summit” offers personal steps, tools, and techniques for shifting away from planetary crisis and towards harmony and increased self-reliance.

Unlike top-down “solutions” forced on us via carbon taxes, SMART regulated everything, and nonstop surveillance, this series of talks from November 1-12 shares how true sustainability comes through tuning into and working with Nature, not allowing ourselves to become further isolated from our land, food, air, and water by cramming us into mega-cities and adding even more computerized algorithms to our already AI dominated lives. Things like permaculture, green-living and self-reliance help us to get back in touch with cultures that recognized their own part in the cycles of life and that looked towards the future by nourishing the present and honoring the past.

Rather than completing the communist and fascist top-down tyranny creeping into our lives in the name of “sustainability” initiatives funded by Monsanto and Big Banks, the ideas, information and inspiration in this summit encourage individuals to remember and develop their own skills and capacities to change in positive, productive ways. If you’ve felt discouraged by my various posts on the BS of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Agenda 21, Agenda 2030 and the co-optation of the word “sustainable,” you’ve got 12 days of encouragement and education to remedy that disappointment.

I’m not involved in this summit, nor an affiliate — just spreading the word, because there are some fabulous speakers, movers and shakers participating. If you live on and love our planet, or if you want to blast beyond the current insanity that passes “for the common good,” into territory that instead makes corporate and governmental tyranny irrelevant, then do check out The Search for Sustainability Summit. (Trailer and free registration available at that link.)

Eight Ways To Live a Better Life

Real soul-utions. ❤

Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland

This is not a check-list.

It is not about ways to recycle or buy greener energy.

There is enough advice out there for you to check out.

Lists are good for remembering things in a hurry and ensuring everything is done, completed, bought…

This is simpler and permanent.

It is what I have learned about living as lightly as possible on this beautiful Earth.

These small bits of advice are not in any particular order, but as I think of them and how they have made a difference to my life…

*** Re-claim and nurture knowledge.

Talk with older, wiser people.

Keep a notebook of knowledge.

I have tapes I recorded of my grandmother talking to me about her life and feelings on so many different and intriguing things.

I talked lots with my mother,  pictured above at Bealtaine Cottage.

Mum learned from me too…we exchanged ideas a lot.

Staying…

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This Deceit Is A Gift From Hell … World Deception Or World Freedom? [Part 1]

Thank you, Doreen! This post adds details and supporting evidence to Ann K’s post previously reblogged here. Please pay particular attention to Doreen’s information about required consent. Loving and caring for the Earth and Her People does not require you agree to globalist, elitist, UN, totalitarian, top down goals. Making a real difference requires removing consent from the offered “solutions” AND stepping up with real, tangible, 3D world actions that address these issues on a local, individual level. Many hands make light work. Just make sure you’re working toward what you REALLY want, not what someone tells you you’re supposed to want. Time to grow up, humanity.