Absence Makes The Heart…….

… feel reqired to let you know I’m not gone, even if I’m not HERE as much. Some people go through phases of real life and online communities but this is NOT one of those times either, not really.

With some prompting from my best friend, Peter, I have set up a separate blog space for my herbal “stuff” including experiments, identifications, thoughts and finds. You can find it HERE if you are interested, although it is very small now. I hope for it to grow quickly and with the way things are going, I’m sure it will.

Then there is my Graveyard Rabbit one and then I have to sleep and work and, well, I guess life is part of it. LOL

Herbal Identification, The Found And Lost

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been out and about collecting and trying to identify the plants and herbs around me. As I walk through my favorite forest, I see trees with these yellow flowers. It was not until later I realized just how many WITCH HAZEL trees are there. (Hope I can remember which ones they are next time I go back!)

Anyway, along the pond there are Cat tails and also this odd plant which I have now identified. No good uses for it that I can see at this time but who knows:

Bur-Reed, Sparganium americanum

I also found several large patches of the following two herbs which are very useful:

Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens

Squaw Vine (Partridge berry), Mitchella repens

Lastly, I found a small plant that I have not been able to identify. Anyone with any ideas, PLEASE drop me a line.

A Poem From My Poetry Blog

The Wabi-Sabi of Me

September 2, 2009

Look into uneven eyes and see star shine and melting glaciers.
See a wild mane of lion’s hair and find stalks of wheat in the harvest sun.
Gaze upon topographic landscapes of flesh and bone and see the goddess soul inside.
Capture a battered, broken heart and treat it like golden perfection, a thing admired.
Discover imperfections of existence and decide that flaws balance with strengths and together shall be whole.

Sweet October New Moon Mornings

It’s autumn once again and the chill has come to New England air BIG TIME! It even snowed a bit this morning, just a small flurry or two. At home the feeling of fall is surrounding me with lit pumpkins on the counter at night and Peter’s mulled cider. My plants are spending most of the time indoors now and the last of the harvesting hangs drying in preparation. Here you see my mint and chives started as seed this past spring, lavender I picked up at a small nursery and the mullein drying so it’ll be available for those winter coughs.

I just took down and processed some sage I gathered from my mom’s garden before the frost

came and also grabbed the hold-outs off the tomatoes which are ripening on the sill.

I am determined to grow my own sage next year and thyme. The thyme I started with this spring didn’t make it past transplanting unfortunately. I’m not sure if I’m going to try from seed again or separate from my mom’s lemon thyme. I guess TIME will tell. LOL. OK so it was a bad joke.

My cemetery outings have brought forth some nice Autumn scenery pics.

I also want to take this time to wish someone a Happy Birthday. You know who you are.

Old Farmer’s Almanac – October 2009

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

–Emily Brontë (1818–48)

New Discoveries

October 9—Leif Eriksson Day
When the Vikings ventured far out into the Atlantic Ocean, they found a new land and called it Greenland. Shortly thereafter, in the year 1000, Leif Eriksson and his Vikings sailed west from Greenland and reached what is now called Newfoundland. Although Eriksson is not credited with discovering America, Congress has declared October 9 Leif Eriksson Day.

Who is Leif Eriksson? Learn more.

October 12—Columbus Day (observed)
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on a small island in the Bahamas, convinced that he had reached the East Indies. Now, by federal law, Columbus Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October.

A Snowy Forecast

Weather lore warns that every fog in October will bring a snow come winter. Our winter forecast predicts that most of North America will have below-normal temperatures, on average.

Snowfall will be above normal in the northern and Intermountain regions and along the Atlantic coast.

If you have not seen our winter forecast yet, please pick up a copy of The 2010 Old Farmer’s Almanac today. You can also find the newsstand and hardcover editions in our online store.

Bird Wreath
As the weather gets cooler in much of the continent, consider making a treat for the birds in your backyard.

Gather some vines, dried sunflower heads, herbs, tall grasses, and flowers with seed heads. Click here for instructions.

And, enjoy these great bird food recipes, to be used anytime but especially in the cold winter months.

info posted from the FREE Almanac Companion Newsletter. Send the complete newsletter to yourself or a friend Here.

Poke, Sage, Plantain and Thyme …

Not so melodic as parsley and rosemary, but I didn’t pick those today.

As I roamed around my parent’s yard during a visit, I gathered some supplies for the winter. Goldenrod whose flowers are infusing in oil for those sore muscles after over doing the Yoga. Pokeweed berries and leaves for those aches in the bones from a certain someone’s broken foot last year and a salve in the works for skin ailments. Sage for the anti-viral teas and elixirs to save us from our colds and sore throats. Plantain to boost the already made oil infusion and make a salve for all itches and ouchies. Last but not least thyme to add to the yum and boost the immune system for the sage elixir. If only it wasn’t too late in the season for the Black Walnut husk and Burdock.

note: OK, so it isn’t really too late for Burdock since I can dig up the roots now. I’m just not too sure how keen Mum would be about me digging up around the sheds.

Let my people know…….

A while back my best friend shut down his blog, Angels in the Whirlwind, to take time to pursue personal endeavors. He has been gone about 6 months but has decided to return to the inter-web and share his thoughts and infamous charm.

He is a hard headed, no nonsense, serious magician and if you once followed his writings, you will be glad to find him back up. If you have not had the pleasure, I encourage you to meander over and take a look.

Welcome Back, Mr Vaughn.

Pam A,B,C…Pamela Coleman Smith Deck

Today I became the very proud owner of the Pamela Coleman Smith Commemorative Set. (Thank you very much Mr. Vaughn!)

This special set includes the Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition Pack, Postcards and 5×7 prints of some of PCS’s other artwork, a 5×7 of Pam herself and a book on her life, a non-pictorial Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Waite, and a little organza bag for your cards.

Well, most of this stuff will remain in the box for safe keeping. I will find an appropriate frame for Pam’s picture and put it in a place of honor. Her artwork is a major influence on Tarot readers. It is the standard classic imagery whether you are GD or Wiccan, or just a beginner playing around. She deserves the respect and recognition she failed to receive during life. I will be using this deck now as my regular deck and employing my other in various jobs in helping my studies and my Qabalistic altar.

When I began working with magic, I knew somehow I would need to at least play around with the Tarot. Little did I realize at that time how much of a role it would eventually take on in my studies of the Qabalah and other aspirations for enlightenment and personal transmutation. Although I had an interest in Egypt, I could not see myself starting off with the Thoth deck even though that surprised those that knew me. I wanted to start with the basic, classic deck. This was Pamela Coleman Smith’s artwork on the “Rider-Waite” deck. I found a deck that I liked at the time, the Radiant Deck.

Back then, I didn’t know that there were not only different colorings but different “copies” and “re-drawn” pictures. The deck I got was such a deck. It’s like seeing a Picasso and copying it onto paper in your living room. The picture is not going to be exactly the same, even though it is based on the original. And on top of that I had the pretty colors added, which I still like. Now I know that there are several variations of the actual Smith images due to the printing processes of the time.

In a 1999 article by K.Frank Jenson, I found the best explanation of the differences in what I have read termed “Pam A, Pam B, Pam C”…etc images. He states,

We do not know to what extent Pamela Colman Smith was
involved in the printing process of the tarot deck. In November 1909 in a letter to Alfred Steglitz she, however, mentioned that she had made the illustrations for the tarot deck „a big job for little money“. adding „I’ll send you a pack .. printed in colour by lithography… probably very badly!….“. At the same time she offered Steglitz some of the originals for sale. This indicates that she (and not Waite) was in possession of the originals and also that she had not much belief that the printing process would reproduce her works in an acceptable way. She could have made the material for the printing, by either drawing directly on the stones, or by using the transfer method. If she didn’t, another person had to redraw her illustrations, and add the coloring
tints (by hand or by the mechanical process). The use of a
transcriber would explain the many differences in the artwork
between the editions.

A copy of the entire newsletter including his article can be found HERE (His article starting on the 21st page).

A Day at the Beach

Well, managed to evade the Meter Nazis this time. Figures they are out until October 1st. Still managed to have a great time and some end of the season fried dough at Happy’s Fry Stand.

No fancy video, but I got a few really decent pics and uploaded them into a simple  slideshow HERE.

David Griffin’s Ritual Magick Manual

If anyone happens to own this book and would be willing to answer a few questions and possibly share a particular ritual I am looking for from that book, please contact me.

Thank you.