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While I was reading Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes, a too much neglected classic of witchcraft fiction, I was struck by a rhyme Lolly's Nannie Quantrell had taught her as a child, which she had learned from her grandmother:

If they would eat nettles in March

Who is Mary Magdalene? We may never know, historically. 

But I might have met her one day last spring in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Thistle Stop Café.

The energy in and around this breakfast-and-lunch spot was overpowering, literally. I felt as if an archangel hovered, as if some sky-high bird sheltered this place within its indestructible wings — guarding, protecting, sustaining.

What’s so special about this storefront café? It’s one of several enterprises run by an outfit called Thistle Farms. It fronts the slogan “Love Heals.”

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today our Earthy Thursday edition brings your the Pagan Environmental Coalition, fracking Stonehenge, the wonders of plantain, and an excursion to coastal Maine and an all-vegan ecosystem.

Will "the public interest" lead to fracking of British world heritage sites? The Independent thinks that's where we're headed.

My study of magic and metaphysical healing has emphasized magical herbalism from the beginning. The first pagan book I bought for myself was Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. I knew nothing about plants at the time; I couldn't even identify lavender or rosemary, and I was a little shaky on dandelions. Sometimes figuring out which herbs to use in a spell was very difficult.

I hadn't yet learned to hear my intuition, much less trust it. So I usually chose herbs off the lists of correspondences in the back of the Encyclopedia and hoped I could buy them from the botánica in my New Orleans neighborhood, or from the bulk section of the Whole Foods across town.

Signatures of Plants – Learning Nature’s Alphabet

In a time when bees are threatened by the use of nicotine based pesticides and fungicides we need to learn all we can to protect them. For thousands of years humanity has relied on bees and their honey for food, medicine, and to pollinate crops. Before you buy any plant be sure to ask if it has been pre-treated with bee killing pesticides, and never spray poisons on your own garden!

 (photo of Burdock plant by Christian Fischer)

It is early October as I write this. Farm stands and store shelves are groaning with local produce; glowing pumpkins of all sizes and colors, varieties of apples, apple cider and pies, jams and jellies made from local fruits and berries, broccoli, garlic, fennel and grapes, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, beets, cauliflower, chard, celery, kale, leeks and lettuce, mushrooms of all kinds, onions, parsley and pears, potatoes, peas and turnips. Local fruits and vegetables displayed in rows like rough jewels to be taken home to be cut, refined and processed.