Garden Witch's Herbal (10 page)

Keep notes on your Witch's gardens and your magickal plants no matter where you live, and see what the plants are willing to teach you. Pick up a spiral notebook or start a gardener's journal. As you keep your notes and log in your gardening successes and experiences each season, you will gain a treasured keepsake of your garden and your life. Take photos of the plants and of your landscape. Try scrapbooking the journal—make it gorgeous and make it personal. Have some fun and be creative.

In our next chapter, we are really going to get a little wild. Sound intriguing? Let's be daring and walk on the wild side—of flowers, that is. Get ready for wildflowers and witchery!

[contents]

Chapter 4

Wildflowers and Witchery

To see a world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wildflower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour.

william blake

For a Green Witch, the act of growing native plants and wildflowers in the garden connects them to the indigenous spirits of the land. Those plant energies and earth spirits have always been here, perhaps unnoticed and forgotten by us, until now. These elemental energies reside in all of the wildflowers naturally, because they are irrevocably linked together, plant to land and land to spirit.

When you bring wildflowers and native plants into your garden, you are introducing and inviting those harmonious energies and local spirits back into your own enchanting garden space or local sacred grove. Once you've acknowledged their powers or reacquainted them back into your life, the earth spirits are contented, and all their magickal blessings are showered upon you.

Working with wildflowers as a part of your green magick practices can be accomplished by one of two means: either with homegrown native plants (many varieties are readily available at your local nursery center these days) or with the wildflowers found blossoming outdoors. If there is a variety of wildflower that you have growing at home in your own gardens, then you may certainly gather a bit from your gardens for your spellwork. If, however, the plant is growing wild in nature, then leave the plant as you find it.

Do not gather, dig up, or cut wildflowers! Some of our native species are protected. In fact, if you are caught gathering flowers from the wild, you may face a hefty fine from your local conservation department. Gathering a single leaf or fallen twig from a common tree is one thing, but please leave the wildflowers that you encounter in the woodlands alone. Think of it this way: if you pick all of the plants blooming in the meadows and woods, then no one else is able to enjoy the wildflowers. In keeping with that theme, none of the spells in this particular chapter require you to harvest the wildflowers, only for you to work with them where you find them—be it in the garden or in the wild.

As you rediscover the magick of wildflowers, our little jewels of nature, stop and acknowledge their tenacity and beauty. If, for example, you should stumble across a little butterfly weed plant happily growing alongside the woods, then feel free to stop and admire it. Hunker down and take a good look at it. Stroke a finger gently over its orange flowers. Then, while you are there, ask the plant to lend its healing energy to your spellwork. Now, go ahead and be spontaneous: work a quick spell for healing.

The intuitive spellcrafting of the Natural Magician or Green Witch is an art that is almost forgotten. It requires no tools other than the sound of your voice, your personal magickal energies, and your own two hands. In other words,
just do it
.

To seal the spell and to signify that you have performed magick with the plant, take a small twig and trace a circle in a clockwise direction gently around the plant on the ground. The circle does not have to show; this is a symbolic gesture. Leave the area as you found it, with no traces that you were even there. The phrase “walk gently upon the earth” means just that. This is a basic tenant of working magick in the wild. As a Witch, you are a protector of the wild places. All Witches, Pagans, and Green Magicians know better than to disturb, deplete, or harm our natural resources.

The idea of green magick in the wild places was meant to encourage and inspire you. I want to persuade you, the reader, to work your magick quietly and intuitively in nature—whether this happens to be in the glades, meadows, woods, or in a quiet and secret space that you have created in your own yard is up to you.

If you think that you'd like to try growing a wildflower garden to add a little “wild” to your backyard Witch's garden, then check seed catalogs and local nurseries for native plants. You can also check out these websites for wildflowers, native plants, and seeds:

• www.mowildflowers.net
  
• www.grownative.org
  
• www.mobot.org/default.asp
  

In the following Garden Witch's dozen of wildflowers, I have given you both the common name and the botanical name (in italics). In this listing, you will find plant descriptions, approximate bloom times, and the folklore and magickal associations of the wildflower. There will also be an accompanying spell with each featured plant. Now, again, you may either work this in the garden or spontaneously, wherever you find the flower growing. Try picking up a local wildflower identification guide to have on hand, and start to appreciate and recognize your own native flora that are indigenous to your area.

Then write up a few of your own spells and flower fascinations for the wildflowers that grow in your neck of the woods. Dare to embrace the unsung art of the Green Witch. Be spontaneous and intuitive; create your own green witchery and natural magick.

Bewitching Wildflowers

First flower of their wilderness, star of their night,
Calm rising through change and through storm.

samuel gilman

Please take a moment and look over these directions for the wildflower spells. The following spells require no more supplies than the plants themselves, your voice, and your intentions. This is as basic and as practical as you are going to get. Oh, I imagine somewhere somebody is clutching their chest in horror and sputtering in disbelief. “Heavens above, there isn't even a mention of astrological timing! No charm bags, no candles, no accompanying crystals … is she actually suggesting that no magickal tools be used at all?”

But perhaps there is an excellent reason for what I am teaching here. Do you have an inkling of what that might be? I am instead promoting the use of the most powerful “tools” that any Witch possesses. These tools would be your heart and your mind. After all, the most powerful accessories that any Witch owns are their intention and a desire to create a positive change.

Here is where you are going to stretch your wings a bit: the sky will not fall if you work magick without fancy wands and accessories, I promise you. Instead, I want you to sit down next to the chosen magickal plant, and spend some time with it. Hold your hands over the wildflower and see what sort of energy you experience from the plant. Then ground and center yourself. Next, you should raise your energy high and then repeat the spell verse.

As was suggested previously, in order to close these wildflower spells and to signify that you have performed magick with the plant, take a small twig and trace a circle in a clockwise direction gently around the plant on the ground. The circle does not have to show; this is a symbolic gesture. Ground any extra energy back into the earth, and leave the area as you found it, with no traces that you were even there. Trust that your green magick will work. And now, on to the wildflower spells.

Prairie Anemone
(Anemone caroliniana)

This plant grows about twelve inches tall. The flowers are borne singly on a stem. Typically the five petals may be tinged with pink or pale purple. The leaves are deeply divided into sections about halfway up the stem. Its habitat is prairies and fields, where it prefers to grow in acidic soils. Bloom time is March through May.

A folk name for this flower is the windflower, from the Greek word
anemone,
which means “wind.” In the language of flowers, the anemone signifies truth, honesty, and faith. Magickal associations are health and hope. The anemone is also associated with the planet Mars and the element of fire. If you grow anemones at home in the garden, they will protect your property and your family.

A Windflower Protection Spell

The anemone is often called the windflower,

Now surround my home with your protection and power.

A Witch's wildflower and magickal tool,

Aligned to fire and Mars so strong and true.

Close the windflower spell with these lines:

This protective wildflower spell is spun from the heart,

Worked for the good of all with a Green Witch's art.

Note:
You can easily change the words in the second line to “now surround me with protection and power” if you so choose.

Bluebell (
Mertensia virginica
)

These fleshy, showy plants can grow to two feet in height. Flowers are arranged in clusters, hanging bell-like, and are about one inch long. The buds start out pink and then change to blue as they open. The leaves of the bluebell are a bluish green in color and oval shaped. They grow in both sun and shade in bottomlands and hillsides of woods. Bloom time is April through May. The plant goes dormant in the month of June.

Flower folklore tells us that the bluebell stands for constancy and declares that “I am faithful.” It was, at one time, the national flower of England. The English variety of the bluebell is identified as
Hyacinthodes non-scripta
. It was also known as the wild hyacinth and grew abundantly in the medieval woodlands of England.

The bluebell is a faerie flower, and if you make an unselfish wish when you spot the first bluebells of the spring, the faeries are sure to grant your request. Magickal associations are good luck and truth. The astrological correspondence is Venus. Plus, it's good to note that all true blue flowers are sacred to Venus and Aphrodite, the Greco-Roman goddesses of love and desire. If a person wears a bluebell, they are compelled to tell you the truth.

Garden Witch Tip:
A friendly warning—working magick with the bluebell will show you the truth in any matter. Just remember you are asking for the truth, and you may discover more than you wish. With this spell, you are not asking to see what you want, you are asking for the truth, so keep that in mind.

Bluebell Spell to Know the Truth

Bluebell, bluebell, lend your power to mine,

Please show me the truth, here, now, at this time.