 The moment I feel the first small chill in the air something inside me shifts, and whatever seeds I planted in the spring will have grown within me and I know that now is the time to harvest! This year it is a course that has been with me to grow for some time now, although one can not harvest before the time is right, and so it has waited, and waited With the first chill floating in the late August evening air, I understood that now was the time for it's creation.  It all started with the Rowan tree really. As I take my daily walks through our lush neighbourhood I noticed that the rowens in the area were bursting, and very ripe and ready for harvesting. Well before I knew it I found myself out in the woods, basket and offerings in hand looking for the rowens I had a feeling were in that area. Fortune was with me that day, but very much guided by a large owl who showed me a small grove of Rowan trees waiting for me! You see although I felt sure intuitively that there were rowans in the area I had chosen, I really had no idea, and so after quite some time walking around and tromping off the beaten paths and not finding a single one, I headed in a different direction, and just as I began to think I would be going home empty handed, something up high in a tree caught my attention, a large barred owl! I stopped abruptly in my tracks and stood there for some time, both me regarding this large powerful creature and he watching me mindfully. This went on for quite some time, but eventually he tired of me, and flew off into the woods as magically as the moment I first noticed him. After he left I noticed something that looking like a snake draped over the branch that he was on so I went closer to inspect, and see if perhaps he left me a feather as a gift as it is getting close to moulting season. Instead however, as I moved under the tree he was sitting in I realized that now I was standing in a small grove of Rowan trees!! The fact that if it were not for the owl I would have walked on by was not lost on me, because honestly if I had not stopped or tromped under that tree I would have probably come home empty handed!  I spend much time singing to the Rowans, asking for permission to harvest their berries and leaving offerings and in the end came home with a basket full to brimming. As I worked old folk tales and magical recipes kept running through my mind, and finally I headed home with great excitement, as this time in the forest brought the understanding that now was the time to finally share my love of of folk lore and herbal medicine making with the trees with others...  At the Mystery School the priestess work shamanically within a grove of trees, and within that realm there is powerful medicine, healing's and teachings for them. as well as a few trees that are not covered in the new course. However I thought it would be fun to really dig into the history and folk lore as well as magic and recipes of each tree in a way that I have not written about before, and so the making of this course have come together quite organically with video tutorials and tree identification as well as magic making... Of course Mystery School students will have access to all of the juicy new information, but the new course will also be available to anyone who wishes to learn more about the magic of trees, and step into the forest with me!  I leave you now with another blog post which also serves as a small sample of the first tree in the Magic and Folklore of trees course course, the Rowan tree or Witching tree as it is called in many places......
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 The rowen is the first tree in the new course I am working on about the Folklore and Magic of sacred trees and I could not be more excited about this offering! Right now it is Rowan berry harvesting season, and I wanted to share a little bit about my love for all things rowen along with a wee bit of folklore, a recipe for Rowanberry Jam, and some basic house protection magic using rowen berries strung on Red cording.... Shall we begin...  Owl Box, Rowen cross, crescent, and staves all made and gifted to me by my dear friend Sarah Lawless. www.banefolk.com With her red or sometimes orange berries the rowan is as powerful as she is beautiful with large amount of folklore and magic surrounding her berries and wood. In ancient times all throughout Europe, but most especially in Ireland and wales the Rowan was viewed as food of the fae. Rowan berries were seen as the magical food that, should you ever stumble into the hill of fae and should they offer you food, beware, for one rowen berry is said to have the power to sustain a human for nine meals, and eating three berries would keep you the same age for over one hundred years! Thus the saying that if one enters into the land of the Tuatha de Dannan, while they think it has only been three days actually 100 years passes in the land of the humans! Conversely, it is said that you can pull a person back from the land of the fae using a rowan branch by placing one of if it into the middle a faerie ring. Then holding onto the top of the other end, and waiting until the feeling of a tug happens on the other side, two large men should pull with all their might, thus pulling the person from the other side of the fairy land onto the side of the humans! However, although the berries were very much liked by the faeries, the wood was not, and so carrying, wearing or having a rowen cross made of wood was a protection such dealing with the fee such as the capture of changlings and other such shenanigans. My way though has always been to give respect, and so far there has been no need of protecting. Now humans and other beasties on the other hand, well I have my rowen strings over all doors in my house.. I go into more of this kind of folklore in my upcoming course The Magic and Folklore of the Sacred trees... Stringing Rowan berries for house Protection: Another old piece of folk lore is the use of Rowan berries for protection by stringing them onto a piece of red strong and hanging them over each of the doors to your home. This will protect your home from unwanted visitors be they human or fae... This is a fun activity for kids to do as well as adults and I did this a lot when my children were little, Now a days I make a new set every two years or so to renew the workings. I also like to work with sets of three as that number is a magical number for any spell working and it is often finished with a small and simple incantation: Three by three, by three, so mote it be... This year I had both red and orange berries, with the red berries coming from a tree that had grown out of an old cedar log making it doubly auspicious! I strung 9 red berries in amongst the orange ones, and always on red string as red is also a strong colour for protection, especially for women. Some practical tips for stringing rowen berries: Use a thin but longish needle so that it is easy to get a thicker thread through it like embroidery thread. If you have very ripe berries stick them in the fridge for 3 hours or so to firm them up, this makes the stringing much easier. Also ideally harvest as soon as you see them ripe late august early Sept is the best time!   Rowanberry Jam recipe:
This Jam is essentially food medicine, for no matter how much sweetness you put in, or how many apples you use, the bitter astringent aspect of the rowen comes through, ands this is how it is meant to be. The rowan berry is a good digestive, but if too much is taken it can have the opposite affect. {Not that anyone wold ever accidentally over eat too many Rowan berries!} It has been used to get rid of worms, ward off scurvy and as a blood cleanser. However I like to share and eat small amounts of it in the fall with rich cheeses and meats. This is a recipe I created this year and it worked like a charm, much better then any recipe I have used in the past and it is as simple as it is powerful! I also added dried Hawthorn berries from last years harvest, as well as honey from my hives and rosehips for added medicine--and I encourage you to do the same, as what we have in our back years and forests can be always added to create an even more nourishing food medicine. Here is the recipe: 4 cups of chopped apples--any kind. 4 cups Rowan berries--best after a frost or even frozen and then thawed for a bit. Red berries tend to be sweeter then orange, but either will do. 1 tsp cinnamon 1 finger length of ginger. 4 cups of granulated sugar Process: Pick the Rowan Berries from the little stalks and wash them. Peel and cut the apples. Put both into a pot together with some water enough to cover--I used 3 cups. Cook the fruits until everything is soft about 1/2 an hour, stirring a bit here and there. I also added cinnamon and a finger length of ginger which I highly recommend doing! {I also at this point added my extra medicines, such as the dried hawthorn berries etc..} In the meantime prepare your jars by either boiling them or running them through the dishwasher. Pour everything into a blender or food processor and blend it all up. Now pour it all into a cheese cloth--ideally after it has cooled a bit. Now press everything through the cheese cloth leaving behind only the seeds and peels etc... I used a small food processor and did it in 3 batches. Now pour the puree back into your pot and add your sugar and keep boiling until everything starts gets thick and jammy. The apples have natural pectin and so it will firm up in no time--I promise! Once this is done you can pour your Jam into jars, seal, and enjoy! |