Plants of Warmer Climes

I have just arrived home to Blighty on this beautiful crisp clear frosty morning of Friday the 13th, from the volcanic island of Fuertaventura. 

Part of the Canary Islands,  located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara . Fuertaventura is the second biggest of the Canaries with a relatively diverse landscape, although also the least densely populated.

The first settlers are believed to have arrived here from North Africa - the word Mahorero is still used today to describe the people of Fuertaventura and comes from the ancient word 'mahos' meaning a type of goatskin shoe worn by the original inhabitants.

Fuerteventura is the oldest island in the Canary Islands dating back 20 million years to a volcanic eruption from the Canary Hotspot. The majority of the island was created about 5 million years ago and since then has been eroded by wind and weather.

The climate on Fuerteventura is pleasant throughout the year. The island is also often referred to as the island of eternal spring. The sea adjusts the temperature making the hot Sahara winds blow away from the island. The island's name in English translates as 'strong fortune' or 'strong wind'

 I have had an amazing 3 weeks exploring this interesting place and discovering new plants in barren, water absent habitats. There has been no rain at all this year in the past the rainy season is from Nov- Feb but the last 7 years the rainfall has been getting less and less.  Now the old reservoirs are the greenest places on the island with mini forests growing!

There are many rare plants on the island that are on a endangered list –most impossible to find outside of the canary islands because of the incredible habitat.

One of the main exporters of Aloe Vera –the island host perfect conditions for this valueable plant medicine –

The name Aloe Vera or True Aloe probably stems from the Arabic word Alloeh meaning "Shining bitter substance". We still refer to "bitter aloes" describing the laxative drug still listed in thePharmacopoeias of today. This drug was made from the sap of the plant found under the hard green rind. It contains mainly aloin, chemically an anthraquinone, which has been known since ancient times to possess very powerful purgative action if used neat.

Aloe Vera has been used by mankind for several thousand years and over the centuries there have been many references to Aloe Vera in many cultures: from the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, as well as in the literature of the Indian and Chinese peoples. Several famous physicians such as Pliny the Elder, Dioscorides and Galen, the father of modern medicine, who first described how the circulation worked, all used Aloe Vera as part of their therapeutic armoury.

The true Aloe has been endowed with such marvellous properties that over the years around the world it has been given many wonderful names such as Burn Plant, Medicine Plant, Wand of Heaven and Plant of Life.
The first reference to Aloe Vera in English was a translation by John Goodyew in A.D. 1655 of Dioscorides' Medical treatise De materia Medica which he wrote in AD 70-90.

Traders first brought Aloe Vera to London in 1693 and by 1843 considerable amounts were being imported to be made up into medicines. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries it remained one of the main popular prescribed and over-the-counter medicines.

Aloe has a huge range of different actions perhaps most famously for skin inflammation and burns, ulcers, digestive disturbalnces …the list goes on and on –there is also research into anti tumour activity –

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=aloe+vera+tumors

and blood sugar regulation so helpful in diabetes

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=aloe+vera+diabetes&hl=en&lr=

I loved the farm we visited and have been taking the fresh aloe juice for the past 2 weeks and using the gel on my face and body –feeling clean inside out!

Another fab sighting was the Deaths-head which feeds on members of the Solanaceae, our favourite - Datura innoxia and Nicotiana glauca which are common weeds all over the inhabited parts of the island.

I love the Islands and am looking forward to one day returning to visit Gomera……..

Sensory Herbcraft- Rootz weekend

We Wild Witches wanna say a massive Thank you to all of our lovely apprentices - What a Full Earthy Weekend!

They shared, shed, dug, buried, tasted, discussed, flew, drew, wrote, designed, consulted, reviewed and created…full-packed witchi work.  From opening the Nu Moon Circle with shedding ol' unproductive bits n bobs through diggin deep whilst protecting our muscular skeletal saturnal bodies, thinking about what stresses our daily lives to Nigella n Delia in the Kitchen making Calendula Balms. 

Seeing the pure connection that’s coming through between the apprentices and their herbs is so brilliant, what a fantastic kru. Seeing the confidence to start talking to people candidly about their health and suggesting small ways in which herbs can enhance the lives of their nearest and dearest…bloody brilliant.   The main aim of this course when we laid it out was to connect folk to the plants in a grounded sensory way and through developing intuitive work and above all to instill confidence in people to use herbs.  This seems to be coming through…woop woop.

The raucous cackling and group dynamic, even through the intensity of the work and length of the days was so refreshing.

One of the Highlights for us was the individual Presentations on Trees…

Hatty introduced us to her mum, Hazel, the sustainer…the first arrival after the ice age and responsible for the survival of man in these regions!!!

Ingrid to her rosehip, sexy temptress of pain and pleasure with her puppy filled rosy bosom, the dagger in her garter.  Pure womanly medicine.

Yvette to her weeping Urtha Willow, used to bind sacred handles and weave the stories of the world with her bracnches.

Dan introduced us to his neighbour Birch, a delicately pressed leafy twig, a memory of the changing seasons, yellows and greens.

Trini took us on a journey through time next to her mountain Rowan, the feather blossom and compact orchard, feasted on by the local giant.

Sue brought us through the path of her ancestors and memories held in each conker from the horse chestnut tree.  Milky potion, driving horses...earth connection.

Janice moved us to tears with her friend the Ash living in her back garden. Felled after neighborly abuse in the name of safety but to rise again to live happily ever after…phew.  Straight Ash twigs, foundation for our knot magic.  Thank you to Janice for the use of her wonderfully moving and funny plant dream of lavender. 

Margaret, also saying hello to Fraxinus excelsior told us of this fantasic Tree of Life and the Viking men of Ash.

Ame accidently found her naughty whisperer, the Poplar, with its thick skin and zest for life.  A tree with lessons for us all.

Joyce and her ancient Holly tree, feeling everlasting, when found in a hedge you know that hedge has been nourishing with its medicines for lang lang time….

Freya found Captain Walter Jupes, the walnut trees residing where she lives.  We heard of his swashbuckling adventures on high seas while we sampled his many fruits, wiled away from the squirrels.

Daisy found her sisters, the cradling hands of Lime blossom in her local graveyard.  Light emitting, honey nourishment, beauties.  And what was the name that came to you after your fabulous flighty dream?

Dawn found her yew and her intuition in the back garden just through the gate.  Her protective friend for birth and love, another tear shed in the class by us weeping witches…In birth and death our great protector.

And Michelle with her Elder world of magic and dark witch mayhem.  Fabulous drawings, photos, elder-bling, a whistle and sacred beads for us all to ware.

You wild, wicked, creative, wonderful witchi wonders…

Roots down, homework to go…big up witch wanderers everywhere, lets get making costumes!

GREEN PARENT ARTICLE

 I have been making ‘skin healing medicine’ with my three-year-old daughter Elektra.  It’s a herbal ointment we use for her dry skin that is a mix of the delightful sunny Calendula officinales also known as marigold, the intriguing Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s Wort), and the fragrant lady Lavendula officinales (lavender) with her famously calming blooms.

Harvesting the flowers from the garden over the summer months is a total joy.  Elektra is extremely observant of every plant and cuts each flower head so carefully (with her Hello Kitty scissors) all the while singing little ditties to the world.  Hypericum’s yellow flowers stain your fingers deep, dark, red as they are picked, we try to harvest as close to the full moon as possible on sunny dry days.

Once we have our floral crop they are individually placed upon newspaper in the airing cupboard to dry out for a couple of days. We do this because if we were to infuse them in oil straight away they can be more prone to moulding. Once dry we fill three glass jars with the flowers and cover them with organic Almond oil (that a friend sends from her yield in Southern Spain).  The herbs are then left for one lunar cycle.  We leave the Hypericum oil in the full sun of our south facing front garden so all visitors are met with the alchemical process, it is truely amazing to watch the yellow flowers colour the pale almond oil a deep blood red within days.

The Latin name Hypericum is derived from a Greek word meaning "over an apparition" and the plant was believed to ward off evil spirits.  This highlights its modern use as an anti-depressant since depression is often described as ‘being taken over’, ’loss of control’ or ‘feeling low’.  Perforatum signifies the perforations or little dots on the green leaves that you can see if you hold them up to the sun.

The name Calendula stems from the Latin kalendae, meaning first day of the month, presumably because pot marigolds are in bloom at the start of most months of the year.  Early Christians named the flower "Mary's Gold" marigold and offered the blossoms in place of money at the foot of her statues.

Applied externally to the skin Calendula is primarily a wound-healer, but it also has anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial effects.  The yellow and orange flowers of our Calendula plants dye the oil a brilliant yellow. This one is also left for one lunar cycle.

The name lavender derives from the Latin lavare, meaning, “to wash”.  The Romans who brought this lovely herb to Britain used it to scent their baths.  As well as smelling fabulous it has wound healing, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties.  We bury the lavender and almond oil infusion at the bottom of our garden in the vegetable plot – we found this technique for infusing oils in an old herbal and have had fantastic results.  The cooling earth energies are exactly what we wanted buried deeply amongst the roots of our Fig tree this infused oil took on a dark green tinge and a still quality – prefect to counteract itchy irritated skin problems – we left this on in the ground for 3 lunar cycles.

Once all the oils are ready we strain the herbs out and store the oils until we are ready to create our magic ointment

Equal amounts of each oil are poured into a Bain-Marie and then melted with beeswax and organic fairtrade Coco/Shea butter to form a creamy ointment.

The beeswax is from our local beekeeper, Michael, and it arrived as a big round cake of deliciously honey waxy smelling beauty – He cleans out his spent hives and filters the wax with rainwater.

 It was quite tricky chipping bits off this cake of wax to weight for the balm, as it is a very sticky consistency, so we used a little knife to literally chip away little flakes of wax. It is so much nicer than using mass prepared snow white pellets of wax than one can buy from wholesalers and some chemists.

Beeswax is the natural wax made by honeybees in the hive and its Latin names are Cera alba and Cera flava. A wide variety of cosmetics use beeswax as an emulsifier, emollient, and moisturizer.  After processing, beeswax remains a biologically active product retaining anti-bacterial properties. It also contains vitamin A, which is essential for human cell development.  Throughout time, people have used it as an antiseptic and for healing wounds.

Beeswax is added to the herbal infused oils to "set" them giving the ointment its consistency.

The Coco or Shea butter (both from Africa) give the ointment a soft creamy consistency.  Shea butter contains more vitamins and is said to have superior healing capabilities than coco butter.  In the past Europeans would have used lard or egg yolk.

Recipe

50ml Hypericum

50ml Calendula

50ml Lavender

25ml Coco/Shea butter

15ml beeswax

It is a good idea to do a spoon test when all the ingredients are melted together to get the consistency perfect.  Drop a little of the mix onto a plate and leave for five mins, then mash it up with your fingers.  If it’s too hard add more oils, too soft add more beeswax.

As we dispense the ointment into jars we add lavender essential oil (about 3-5 drops into each 60ml jar).  A brilliant book that I have used constantly for recipies is Herbal Remedies by Chris Hedley and Non Shaw, full of useful creative ideas.

Since birth Elektra has had very sensitive skin with a predisposition to eczema. I was quite perturbed by this as I am not a sufferer myself and my eldest Harry has never had any kind of sensitivity reaction, but Elektra has a different dad to Harry and he is a classic allergy type, meaning he is prone to eczema, asthma and has sensitivities to dust, animals and pollen.

The healing balm has been amazing on Elektra’s skin really helping to clear the eczema.  We have also cut out all dairy and wheat products from our diets, mine whilst breastfeeding, and now hers.  She loves drinking almond, rice and sometimes soya milk.  I recently stayed with a friend with a hemp seed milk maker and I now want to invest in one, because I am concerned at the sugars and additives in the packaged ones.

The digestive system is where a lot of skin problems and allergies originate so I have always used Chamomile with both kids to aid digestion brewed from the fresh flowers out of the garden. Chamomile is a mild bitter and herbal bitters have profound actions on the guts stimulating appetite and digestive processes she happily drinks unsweetened chamomile tea and now eats the flower heads right off the plants!!

Chamomile is totally safe for Babies and young kids and it is important to get children into drinking herbal teas and use to the many diverse flavours so that when they are ill administering herbs is easy. As a herbalist I see many parents wanting to give natural treatments to their children for specific health problems and my advice for getting children to happily take their medicine is to make herbal teas your daily family drink, making a pot of different delightfully coloured, aromatic smelling herbs is magical and a form of healing in itself.

I am a Karen Lawton, a Green Witch living and working with plants in Hertfordshire, over the summers I tour with Sensory Solutions’ Witch theatre, dress up in Witchy costumes and teach folk about the joys of Herbs through practical sensory workshops around festival and fayres all over the U.K.

www.sensorysolutions.co.uk

The Witches Blog…

 What a delightful twisted and intense journey that led Us Witches to This Our first ever weekend of our Herbcraft apprenticeship.  

This has been in the pipeline for many years, and to realise sections of the Dream is so very exciting. There are so many of you herb-lovers, earth walkers out there who have energised us on our walk. Thank you for your support and love. 

Thank you too to John P Rogers with your cementing and Inspiring Words which form a foundation for our work–

Exhortation

• Be mindful!
  Husband the earth
  Protect her from greed and violence
  Build humbly, plant trees, grow flowers and food
  And clothe her with dignity
  Respect all her creatures
  Honour her natural laws and the universe which cradles her
  Above all, heartily worship the source of all that is.
  
  This world needs secret heroes!
  Be brave, speak the truth, heal the sick, make peace
  Be strong, serve patiently, love generously, live simply
  Enjoy fellowship, eat and drink modestly, celebrate the festivals
  Breathe deeply, sing and make music, walk often, cycle and recycle
  Be thrifty, prefer cash flow to possession, give good measure
  Let your work be your prayer.
  
  Put on the whole armour of light!
  Unearth the beauty in everything
  Inhale the Spirit of goodness
  Kindle kindness, especially towards yourself
  Embracing the sweet silence of your soul
  Fear nothing
  Accept what you are
  And – while you have breath – give thanks.

15 slightly frazzled, travelers arrived to the Cheshunt Youth Hostel to land and find their accommodation for the weekend while 2 excited witches waited in the Robinson lair, their base for the weekend. 

Listening to the introductions, seeing the openness, feeling the warmth was indeed nectar that we all enjoyed supping into .  

Where does conscious perception lie? (Our starting point ) 

‘In my skin’, ‘all over’, ‘I feel like a lightening rod sometimes’… 

Our Hearts are the seat of our perceptions here, dropping our attention down and being ready to receive.   

15 warm and open hearts relaxed into what was to be a busy, experience-filled time.  In these hearts, the processes of intuition and observation were being interpreted into some useful form of interpreting information.   Observation. Intuition. Interpretation - the key to all our work and movements -Grounded Healing deeply connected to the Source. 

It seemed right we start with the heart.  We looked at how to approach a patient with a heart condition and what may have led them to it in their lives, saw patients and shared our observations and intuitions to find out how we might approach them, designed questions to consider during a consultation. 

Sensory Herbcraft -Smell, Study, Taste, Feel, Sing, Dream, Create. 

Weave together and meet your Guides your Plant Allies. 

We had the blessing of being introduced to Hattie Hawthorn, Old Timothy, Mr Fit Guy, Emlyn Redfire, Maggie Crategy, Rex and the Craggy Crone, to name but a few.   

These personifications of the blood red-berried hawthorn all had common themes.  Loving, Tough, sharp talking, eccentric, hard to reach but nourishing if you dare to delve into its realms.   

Witches waiting to dance, waring a green leather coat that tastes of greenery.  Health in its fundamental self.  Hawthorn was our major heart herb, a masterful tonic.  

Always bringing it back to Movement -Circulation -Fire -Smash stagnation. 

Horsechesnut Gellified and Nettle Iron Tonic…mmm 

Saturday nightlife,

What does it mean to be a witch?

To study witchcraft?

Who are we all and what are we doing?

We’re here with this physical plane how do we work with it to blossom and become. We looked at practicing ritual in an intuitive way and moving away from dogma. We looked at the history of medicine and some lesser-spotted female influences on it….who was Lily the Pink?

 As the Moon Moved into Gemini on the Sunday we began with Seed --- Air 

The midpoint of it all, the space between life and death, potential, patience.   

What is seed?  Fertilised and ready.  How do we make seeds as humans and what conditions could get in the way of this process or what complications can arise from these complex and sensitive systems?  Rosehips and nettle root were the focus of the day.  And with the herbs we need get even more movement…get the circulation flowing through our loins.  Releasing our hips, opening, yoga and massage.  What old old stuff is lurking in our hips preventing that release… 

Stress is all around us, daily, we are in constant flux to try and regulate our position in the external environment.  It was clear that stress is a major factor in all dis-ease (looking at the heart and reproductive systems) and that we can help our bodies to be more adaptable by removing extra strains such as caffeine and nicotine.  There was a few caffeine withdrawals by Sunday which some felt got in the way of their studies.  It was a good challenge to be able to stay focused and a big lesson that something like caffeine or a lack of it can affect you so much and impinge on your enjoyment!  Our bodies relying on other substances to wake them up and get going…..lets be free from unnecessary constraints. 

What a pleasure to have walked this 1^st weekend with such open, intuitive and up-for-it folk…a truly magical experience. 

We are Planets Earths Secret Service and we all need Costumes…..


We have a couple of witchy days coming up and a couple looking into the birth warrioress artemis, also known as mugwort...


Witching Herbs Workshops:
22nd October @ Crews Hill, HERTS
www.triple-moon-apothecary.co.uk/visitus.html


and


29th October @ Bowden House in Totnes, DEVON
www.woodshedcollective.co.uk

Mugwort workshops:

Saturday 19^th November in Bedfordshire 

http://www.clophillcentre.co.uk/classes/mugwort-day/

Saturday 3rd December @ 5 Penny Farm, DORSET 

Inula helenium/ Elecampagne New Moon Harvest

The Sept Nu Moon was exciting -I had been planning the uprooting of a particularly large patch of Inula/ Elecampagne for the past month. Waking up several times from dreams about this statuesque pungent beauty.
 She stood 9 feet tall at her highest and looked very junglefied indeed.
 It was a warm clear day and Dieter Elektra and I set off with buckets and large spades! Luckily the soil was very sandy and so the heavy digging back work was made considerably easier. I had read that the plant should be at least 3 years old to harvest the roots this one was 4 years old and Massive.

Inula is part of the Daisy family recognisable by her composite flower heads. I have used this plant for many years as my Son Harry was diagnosed with Asthma @ 2 years old. I put him on a mix of Inula, thyme, hyssop and liquorice and his asthma soon disappeared. This mix along with some others now forms the basis of our Lung Tonic Tincture. This tonic along with a Breathe Easy tea, has help loads of folks to get rid of their inhalers. Woo hoo.
Inula is a relaxant so is also indicated when there is a nervous component in a cough. Harry’s original cough was really persistant, I remember going to see a film with him and he literally did small half coughs throughout! The plant’s bitter tonic properties stimulate the appetite and digestion, increasing the flow of bile, so used in IBS and other digestive complaints as well.
.It is also an emmenogue promoting menstruation and can be used to treat anaemia
The Roots looked like Stone Aged Clubs and we had some fun waving them around!
We filled the bath with them and showered the excess mud off then began the mammoth chopping task.......

I think I need a shredder......

Artemis my love

A Waxing Lammas Moon, found me in obsessing over mugwort, everywhere I had driven over the past couple of months she was waving at me from the roadsides lining these highways and byways with her tall, willowy ways.

Us witches have found out that although all of our medicinal remedies are illegal due to not being licensed under the new regs, our smoking mix is perfectly legal -slightly ironic!

We have decided to try and promote and sell this product and fund our land project literally by smoke......Lady Artemisia Vulgar a.k.a Mugwort is one of the ingredients of this heady mix -she works her magic in our dreams, sending us, both coded and clear insights, to grasp onto as we wake from slumber.
Anyways I had an idea in my head where I had seen some Mugwort away from the road, Dieter and I made our way down there and by chance came across a whole massive patch of pure mugwort interspersed with a smattering of creamy white blossoming, yarrow-

I felt blessed and as though the universe had put it all there just for me. We spent about 20 mins harvesting, marvelling at the bounty and filling the whole back of the land rover with HERBS and probably countless crawlies too.

Today the logistics of how to create the energetic power of our dreams is hurting my head –there is too much death and destruction in the air, the only thing I am certain of is that I must keep walking forward on this path of mine and tell all who I know about my love for Mugwort.

Dem wise ol chatterboxes...

The chance of moment of tranquillity, a canoe trip to a wild camping spot, a chance to breathe and relax.  Met-check promises of steady rain didn’t deter us as we set out with Ziggy-May to a beach not so far away. 

The rain held off and after pitching up I wandered off to find the most exquisite moorland path of heather I think I’ve ever seen.  At east 3 or 4 different kinds all at varying stages creating a patchwork of pinks, purples, oranges and brown, magically lit in the fading golden light of the day.

As I trimmed this years 1^st heather harvest off the tops of the mounds they became chattering women in the hairdressers.  Wisdom wrapped in humour they chatted as I trimmed their purple rinses, delighting at the scene.

Heather, Calluna vulgaris (one of Elektra’s lovely middle names) and the Ericas (including bell heather), are little used but powerful remedies.  She is indeed connected to the later years of life…to wisdom and moving into the crone phase of the moon.  She is loved by the bees and connected to all things related to community (even if its just a revealing chin wag down the hairdressers).

It is anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, diuretic and has traditional uses for coughs and colds. The tops are infused and used as a tonic to treat consumption, coughs, nerves, depression and heart complaints. 

We use her dried in our Joint Juice and Piss Ease teas.  We also make an oil from her and use as one of the main ingredients in our Ache Ease Balm.   And the tincture we use in our Kidney Cleanse tonic and in our Clear Vision Drops which are for action not reaction.  For really seeing clearly what is going on in any given situation.

She is so magestic and useful as a herb we should all use some heather magic from time to time.