At this time of year when wildflowers are keeping the meadows colorful and we want to spend as much time as possible outside… allergy season comes creeping in. The biggest culprit is ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), but unfortunately ragwort (Senecio jacobaea syn. Jacobaea vulgaris) blooms at the same time and is blamed for hay fever. Having a similar name doesn’t help, either.
Ragwort leaves have deep lobes with uneven edges and an unpleasant odor when crushed. So, the plant’s not perfect and that’s why it has a folk name of stinking Willie. The flower stem is red at the base and branches at the top with a spray of flowers. The yellow, daisy-like flowers grow in clusters. The seeds have downy, white hairs that carry them on the wind.
This plant is also known as fairy horse and in Ireland it is dedicated to the faeries. With a magic word, the fae were said to turn ragwort into golden horses so they could gallop to their midnight revels. Samhain was a favorite time to ride. In the Hebrides of Scotland, ragwort was considered sacred to the fae who used it to ride between the islands.
According to other legends, ragwort and St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) are daytime disguises for faery horses. Stepping on one of these plants after sunset reputedly causes the horse to rear up and gallop off with the unsuspecting human on its back. At dawn they would be left far from home with a sprig of ragwort in their hands. Faeries were believed to take shelter from the rain under ragwort, especially on stormy nights.
As part of a spell to attract wealth and prosperity, place dried flowers in a sachet and keep it with your financial papers. If you can’t find the plant near your house, ragwort flower essence is available to purchase. Counteract any spells sent your way by dabbing a little ragwort flower essence on an amulet. Cut long stems of flowers and position them wherever you need to dispel negativity. When working with the fae, visualize swaying stems of ragwort as golden horses preparing to carry you to faeryland. You can’t do that with ragweed.
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When, on the morning after
the witches' sabbat, the Horned
leads us up out of the woods and,
to the singing of meadowlarks,
mounts the horizon and,
lambent with white flame,
disappears over the edge,
I've always wondered whether
he sinks down into Earth
or walks off into the Sky,
or maybe both;
but now I know.
I, Steven of Prodea,
Steven son of Russell,
with my own eyes have seen
the Gates of Heaven swing
wide to admit him, and lo!
to the sounding of horns
and trumpets he entered in,
and lo! the gates were shut.
This with my own lips I tell you,
and what I tell is true.
Myth meets myth.
Considering that we can't read the Linear A records the Minoans left behind, we know a surprising amount about their religious practices. Much of it is what we would expect from a Bronze Age culture in the Mediterranean and adjacent regions: processions, libations, temples, shrines. The art and archaeology tell us as much.
But some of the Minoans' religious practices were distinct from their neighbors'.
...While vanilla and amber is perhaps my favorite oil combination, I have recently moved into a sandalwood oil phase and am delighting in its powers. Sandalwood oil, ruled by both the sun and the moon, is very suited for use in protection and healing. It can be used as a massage oil and is ideal for friendship magic in particular.
To prepare this oil, stir together six teaspoons of powdered sandalwood and two cups of a neutral oil, such as sesame or almond, in a glass bowl. Heat the mixture gently over a flame, taking care not to bring it to a boiling point. After cooling, place it in a colored glass jar and seal it securely.
...I happened on a scientific paper saying that believing in or sensing the spirit in an "object" was abnormal. How sad it must be to live in a world full of dead things, where everything is inanimate. Worse to evangelize it and say animist religion and fairy tales are pathological.
Animist religion is not something from the dusty past. Many modern religions have animist components, not only modern revivals of pagan and heathen religions, but continuous religions too.
...A carrier oil is a vegetable oil that is used to dilute essential oils without diminishing the effect of the essence. It ensures that essential oils used topically are comfortable on the skin. Each essential oil carries specific vibrations that hold much curative power. These base oils support other ingredients, including essential oils, and can be a vessel for healing in and of themselves.
Apricot kernel oil, with its warmth and resilience, is especially good for women. Apricot protects love and nurtures women at every age and stage of life.
...
How many of us can honestly say that we got our start in pagan ritual from a kid's book?
I can. The book was Zilpha Keatley Snyder's 1973 The Egypt Game.
In an unnamed California college town, a disused storage yard becomes, for a small group of kids, the magical Land of Egypt, “a land of mystery and mud.”
There, in imaginative half-play/half-seriousness, they enact rites for the ancient gods of the Nile.
Then unexpected things begin to happen.
Illuminated by Anton Raible's charming drawings, The Egypt Game tells a large-hearted tale of the lived imagination. It has everything: likeable, flawed characters, mystery, even murder. Oh, and Halloween, too: that patronal holiday of children, which no kid's book would be complete without.
In 1973, assembling a diverse cast of White, Black, Asian, and Latino characters, as Snyder does here, was pretty radical for a children's book. Even at the time, I knew it was the Way of the Future.
And then there are the rituals.
Snyder captures, better than any other author that I know, the excitement, the mystery, the sheer joyful exuberance, of creating and enacting ritual.
You read about what the Egypt Gang does, and you know that ritual matters. You think: “I could do this too.”
So you do.
Modesty is not a pagan virtue; truth, though, is. Fifty years on, I can say truthfully that I'm one of Pagandom's ace ritualists.