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The Final Sheaf
In many societies, the cutting of the final sheaf of grain around Lammas time was indeed cause for celebration. People celebrated by making corn dolls, which represented the spirit of the grain. Sometimes these dolls were full-sized, made of the last stalks of corn to be harvested, and decorated with ribbons, streamers and even articles of clothing. Ivy was a symbol of rebirth, and so it wasn’t uncommon to dress the corn doll with a headdress of ivy. In some rural areas, the corn doll was kept in a place of honor at a farmhouse in the village, until it was time to make one the following year. At…
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My Favorite Weird Plant Names
Shakespeare’s Macbeth opens with three witches stirring a cauldron, into which they throw all sorts of vile-sounding things such as eye of newt, toe of frog, and tongue of dog, just to name a few. Where, exactly, does one obtain eye of newt? Well, it as luck would have it, Shakespeare was pretty knowledgeable about the folk magic of his era, and included in his Scottish play a number of ingredients that he called by their folkloric names rather than their botanical ones. There are actually hundreds of plants and flowers called by folkloric names which often make them sound much stranger than they really are. Let’s take a look…
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Nutting Day: Make Your Own Nutella!
Around the middle of September, the nut season starts. Hazelnuts ripen in the hedges, and they have long been connected to folklore and legends. Hazel is associated to the Celtic tree month of Coll, from August 5 to September 1, and the very word Coll means “the life force inside you.” Hazelnuts are connected to wisdom and protection, and are often found near sacred wells and magical springs. Hazelnuts can be used in workings related to divination and dowsing – tie a ripe one onto a string and use it as a pendulum! In the British Isles, September 14 was the day when children would forage in the woods to…
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Woolly Bear Weather Magic
The woolly bear, sometimes called the woolly worm, is a well-known harbinger of weather to come. If you do any sorts of workings involving weather magic, it’s not a bad idea to keep an eye on these crawly critters, which are typically seen during the end of summer and into late fall. Where I live, they’re starting to pop up already — of course, in my neck of the woods, our seasons are Winter, More Winter, Construction, and Football, so take that with a grain of salt. At any rate, the woolly bear, which is the larval stage of the tiger month, has black on its ends, and a brown…
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Bread Folklore and Magic
When Lammas, or Lughnasadh, rolls around, many modern Pagans celebrate the harvest of the grain crops. This is nothing new – for our ancestors, the grain harvest was a cause for great celebration. A successful harvest meant families would be able to bake and store bread through the winter – and that could mean the difference between life and death for many. The word “Lammas” comes from the Old English phrase hlaf-maesse, which translates to “loaf mass.” Today, it’s not uncommon to find a celebration of bread at a Pagan festival during the Lammas season. There are a number of different ways that bread itself can be incorporated into a…
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Country Fairs and Harvest Celebrations
Much like Beltane was a time of gathering and celebrating the spring, the late summer and early fall seasons have often been the times of year when people in rural areas got together with their neighbors to mark the early harvest. In parts of Europe, and particularly the British Isles, Lammas became the season for country fairs. This was partly because the herds were typically rounded up at the end of the summer, so if you had livestock to sell, a country fair was a great place to find buyers. You could bring your herds and flocks to town, pen them up for sale or trade, and enjoy some festivities…
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The Magic of Hedge Apples
The Osage orange, also known as a hedge apples (and in some areas, “monkey balls”), is a tree that grows in North America, and gets its name from the Osage Native American tribes who used its hard wood to craft bows for hunting. The “orange” itself is not a true orange (or an apple, for that matter) but a large, sticky fruit that is completely inedible to anyone but the local squirrel population. When the balls – usually about four to five inches in diameter – drop to the ground, it can create a huge mess, so generally it is recommended that if you plant an Osage orange, unless you…
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Folklorist James Frazer and the Golden Bough
Sir James George Frazer is perhaps best known for his collection of folklore and mythology, The Golden Bough, published in 1890. The work details legends and myths from many different cultures throughout history. Frazer theorized that human belief systems had begun as primitive magic, which was then replaced by religious dogma, which has now been replaced by scientific knowledge. Frazer was one of the first anthropologists to analyze the link between myth and ritual ceremony, so his writing is a fascinating bridge between the past and the present. The Golden Bough is a study of legend and myth and how they are interpreted into ritual and celebration. Frazer’s interpretation of…
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9 Plants With Really Weird Names That I Love
Shakespeare’s play Macbeth opens with three witches stirring a cauldron, into which they throw all sorts of vile-sounding things such as eye of newt, toe of frog, and tongue of dog, just to name a few. Where, exactly, does one obtain eye of newt? Well, it as luck would have it, Shakespeare was pretty knowledgeable about the folk magic of his era, and included in his Scottish play a number of ingredients that he called by their folkloric names rather than their botanical ones. There are actually hundreds of plants and flowers that are called by folkloric names that often make them sound much stranger than they really are. Let’s…
