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Plan a Goddess Garden
Last summer I bought a little cottage in the woods that has a decent sized yard. After three years of renting a house, and two years of apartment living before that, I am SO ready to plant a permanent, long-term garden. I’m already mapping out my raised beds along the fence, with a few nice arches for trellised plants like squashes, cucumbers, and the like. I’ve got cattle wire along my fence to keep the dog contained, but it seems like it might be a good place to add a few grapevines as well. There will be a spot for all the kitchen herbs – and of course, the magical…
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Yo, Don’t Eat That Plant: Dangerous Herbs
I get messages all the time from people who want to know what kind of herbs they should use to heal various sicknesses and ailments, and I always need to point out that I AM NOT an herbal medicine expert, and therefore am unqualified to offer any kind of recommendations for medical herbal usage. Honest. There are people out there with far more botanical knowledge than me. That said, what I do know a lot about is the magical and folkloric use of herbs. If you have questions about the use of an herb in a spell or ritual, I got your back. I’m more than happy to help out…
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The 9 Herbs Charm
About a thousand years or so ago, some clever soul sat down and wrote, in Old English and Latin, a collection of folk medicine, charms, and prayers. Later named the Lacnunga by a nineteenth-century editor, this text included what has come to be known as the Nine Herbs Charm. In addition to referencing Woden himself, the Nine Herbs Charm lists—wait for it—nine different medicinal herbs, which translate into the modern mugwort, betony (although some scholars say it’s cockspur), nettle, plantain, thyme, fennel, crabapple, lamb’s cress (or watercress), and chamomile (mayweed). Ben Slade over at Heorot has a great translation of the text, so I won’t rehash it here, but suffice…
