Sunday, September 30, 2012

unfettered wood samhain/hallowe'en giveaway!


The Unfettered Wood Samhain/Hallowe’en giveaway is now open {Until Monday October 15, 2012}!
What is up for grabs:
  • One $20.00 Cyber Gift Certificate
  • Ancestral Graveyard Dirt
  • Corked Bottle with Dried Datura and Poppy Pods
  • Beeswax Samhain Fire Starter
  • Dried Whole Dandelion Root
  • Ancestor Ritual Votive Candle
  • 1/2 oz Dark Daughter Loose Incense
  • 1/2 oz Tech Duinn Loose Incense
  • Beeswax Mullein Taper Candle
To enter and further details head on over to the Unfettered Wood giveaway blog post.
 
Sláinte!

Laurel

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

McFlying Ointment

It has been a while since I have done a ranty post… 

My Dear Fellow Pagans & Magical Practitioners,

I don’t know if it is just me, but I have been noticing a big increase in people selling products containing entheogens that are being marketed towards witchy folks. This bothers me and it scares the shit out of me at the same time.

Before I go into why, let me preface by saying this: I am not someone who “walks the poisoners’ path”. While a good part of my practice involves working with plants {and it might be even fair to say that it is “in my blood”}, my experience working with psychoactive plants is limited. I was lucky enough to shadow someone for a short time who has a rich knowledge and experience working with these types of plants, but I learned quite quickly that it was not for me. Any concoctions I made {such as flying ointment} has been for my own personal use. 

Many poison plants have found a place in my garden and in my apothecary; my relationship with them is just different from proper hedge witches or other practitioners who work with entheogenic plants for altered states. 

Anyways, I am not bothered that people work with these plants in this way or that they are selling products containing them. There are a small handful of people who I have been a customer of and a “fan” of their work who sell them. To me it is quite clear that they have experience and that they have an idea of what they are doing. 

My issue lays with inexperienced people who are making these products and selling them to others. Noobies trying to be “badass witches” by selling this stuff is not just annoying, it is fucked up and reckless. 

Case in point: 

There is a person on Youtube who has an online store that has started to sell items containing these kinds of plants. In a video while bragging that she is going to be selling flying ointments, she was handling potentially fatal plants on camera with very little care. She was rubbing her face up against some of them like it was a fuzzy little kitten and pretending she was going to eat one of them. Fucking stupid. {A rather ironic side note is that she was going on a tangent about people who change spiritual paths like they do underwear, yet one day she is a new age crystal healer, the next she is a necromancer and traditional witch, the next she is a chakra specialist, and now she is a folk magician with tonnes of experience working with “dark plants” and hoodoo.}

I suppose all I can add is that there is nothing wrong with being new at something, just admit that you are, know your limits and keep on learning. Besides, these are probably good tenets to go by for any worthy practitioner, whether they be neophyte or have ages of experiences. So please folks, be careful who you buy these types of products from! 

Below are some sources that I personally think are reputable: 


 If you know of any other reputable sources, please feel free to share them! 

Sláinte!

Laurel

Friday, September 7, 2012

Thursday, September 6, 2012

luverly of the weewoodland corn doll goddess by marla vander meer


Marla Vander Meer has a whole bunch of lovely corn doll Goddesses over at her Etsy shop. Here are a few more that I am particularly fond of:





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Sláinte!

Laurel

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

harvests, chutneys & updates

Howdy folks! I hope that you all have been enjoying September so far!

Things have been extra busy 'round here, which is why I have been especially lax in posting. This is just a wee post about some of the goings-on in my garden, kitchen, and the witchy part of my life.

For the most part things in the garden have been going well, there has been lots of mini harvests and a few large ones.

{purple pole beans}

{black krim, orange blossom, red pear cherry, tigerella and marzano roma tomatoes}

{summer ball & acorn squash, along with some small sugar pumpkins. one of the pumpkin vines got damaged so I had to pick some early}

I have also been doing some herb harvests from the garden and some wildcrafting.

{stinging nettle}
{raspberry leaves}

Most of my kitchen adventures have been dedicated to preserving including trying to find ways to use some nasturtiums and green tomatoes. I made nasturtium honey along with three different types of green tomato chutneys that ended up going to to baggies to stored in the freezer:
{peach & nasturtium green tomato chutney, with some olive oil and nasturtium honey thrown in there for good measure}

{pear & wild ginger chutney with green pear cherry tomatoes, and some chives and olive oil}

{apple & mint green tomato chutney, with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar}

{nasturtium honey}

For more green tomato recipes you can check this post and this post.

The witchy news is that I have opened up a shop on Etsy for Unfettered Wood:

I will only be posting information about the shop if something "big" is going on like giveaways. If are interested in keeping up with it, you can always head on over to the Unfettered Wood blog, Tumblr or Facebook page. I will also link to the odd informational post over there; I think for the most part I will be posting things about my spiritual and magical practices over there along with writing about folklore. This blog will remain one for general gardening & homesteading, politics, opinions and rants.

Sláinte!

Laurel