Using Botanicals to Dye Magical Textiles

{I had originally posted this over at the Unfettered Wood blog, but I figured some of the nefaeria readers might enjoy it too.} 

A few days ago I did some natural dyeing, so I thought that I would share a wee bit about that in case other folks would be inspired to give it a go. Please keep in mind that there are different ways that one can dye textiles with botanicals, this is just they way that I have been comfortable with.

There are a few things that all methods have in common:

1. Extracting colour
2. Fixing colour
3. Transferring colour

I would highly recommend people going through the resources that I will put at the end of this post to get more ideas to see what works for them.

The whole purpose of me doing this was to infuse the magical properties of the plants into the textiles, as well as obviously leave some colour on them as well.

  

For this batch the actual magical properties of the plants were of more importance to me than the colour. I wanted something that could be a good general purpose textile and wasn't quite sure how the colours would turn out. In one of the extra resources at the bottom of this post, there is a list of different plants and the colours they give off.

For fresh ingredients this is not necessary, but berries apparently benefit having a soaking in vinegar before simmering. This is a good time to do a blessing over the plant materials should you wish to, or to "charge" them with intent.

Using cold water is best to add for the vinegar, and after simmering giving the fabric a good rinse in cold water {water it runs clear} is needed. Other methods call for the fabric to be wet before putting it in with the dye wash, so this takes care of both the fixative and that step. Other fixatives are sometimes added to the actual dye wash or used to treat the textile afterwards. Learn more about fixative in the resources below.

Other methods call for a lower simmering time, depending on the materials being used. Sometimes fixatives, such as salt are added at this stage.

This is probably not a must, but it will make stage six a whole lot easier. As you will see in the follow photos, I did not strain all of the plant material out; some of it stuck to the fabric, which I just shook off outdoors once I was finished drying them out. I put the strained off bits into the compost.

The textile I used was a natural coloured cotton linen and I left it in the dye wash for a couple of hours. I shifted it around every once and a while with a pair of tongs. If handling, it is best to used a pair of rubber gloves so you don't dye your hands!

Before removing from the dye bath, carefully squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. To get the concentrated veins of colours, I left my fabric bunched in a pile on a dish drying rack {made black rubber, no risk of it staining!} over night. Then I dried out flat on our clothesline.



Extra resources:

Using Natural Plant Dyes by Kate Aimson {from White Dragon Magazine}
Natural Dyes: Their History and How to Make Them by Varenya
Making Natural Dyes from Plantsfrom Pioneer Thinking {has a great list of plants and the colours they give off}

*********

a comparison of my linen before dyeing {top} and after dyeing {bottom}

It was exciting to see what the finished product would be and I am quite fond of the yellows, rusts and browns that came out in the linen. I will be using some of it in an upcoming project that I will post about later, as well as using some for charm bags and pouches.

For those who don't want to make your own, but would like some magical textiles, I will be listing some of this batch in the Unfettered Wood shop and I am happy to take custom orders.

Sláinte!

Laurel

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: 

Alchemy Works  

Stang & Cauldron 

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

Sláinte!

Laurel

Luverly of the Week: ThePlantEncyclopedia.Org

The Plant Encyclopedia is a website with a treasure trove of information of over 300,000 plants, which are neatly categorized:


I have just began to explore the website, and I can see myself spending a lot of time on there. It is quickly becoming one of my favourite online resources! :D

Sláinte!

Laurel

With the Stirrings of Spring Comes Mirth & Work

Happy Spring to you in the North & Happy Autumn to you in the South! :D

We got hit by a real warm spell last week and the snow is all gone. It seemed like just over night all of feathered friends were back and our green friends in the garden were starting to wake up.

{sweet woodruff, unidentified fern, lemon balm and comfrey}

In mid-March I started the first of our seeds including two different types of poppies, balloon flowers, white and blue and double pink columbines, scotch thistle, datura, swamp rose mallow, pink and double hollyhocks, and sweet williams.

All of the them {save the columbines} started germinating ahead of schedule. I will be starting another batch at the end of March and another in the beginning of April. I haven't quite figured out where they are all going to go as all of the prime window sill real estate is almost gone.

{"light purple" datura}

The inevitable Spring cleaning has been going on around here too. We have started to tidy up the yard and get it ready for the new beds to be dug out. The house has not escaped The Great Cleansing either.

During the waning of the Moon I made another batch of a "clearing wash". I am pretty sure that I shared the recipe here before, but I can't seem to find it. So, I will post it again for those who might want to give it a whirl.

{Herbs steeping in water}

This recipe calls for a tablespoon of each:

Sweet Woodruff
Rowan berries
Birch bark {please only harvest from fallen trees or naturally shed bark!}
Juniper berries
Cedar
Lemon Balm
Peppermint
Sweetfern
Thyme
Dandelion root
Witch Hazel
St. John's Wort
Sage

Boil 3 cups of water and pour over ingredients in a glass mason jar. Let it steep for 3 hours. Drain liquid through cheesecloth {I dispose of the plant material in the compost once I am done with it}. Put tea mixture in with cider or white vinegar into a clean glass jar that has a non-metal lid. Keep in a refrigerator {should last to 3 months with no issues}. To use mix with 3 parts water in a spray bottle or mop bucket.

*********

Recently I have added some new contented over at the Unfettered Wood blog that may be of interest to some of you:

Wonderful Maple Syrup: Some Lore & Customs

&

Poetic Weather Forecasting

I am also currently working on some other posts for that blog including one on traditional charms to ward off nightmares and on lunar and astrological gardening.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Full Moon Herb Harvest

The day after the beautiful full moon we had last week I got busy harvesting herbs in the garden. A good part of the morning was spent getting offerings ready and conducting rituals, with Airmid being the focus.

{makeshift altar to Airmid behind the shade bed}

I like to harvest herbs for fertility, healing, blessings, and general protection around the full moon whenever possible. By the end of it all I had almost six baskets full of various herbs.

{spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, chives, lady's mantle, sweet woodruff}

After prepping herbs for later use {mostly hanging or in paper bags to dry}, I made a few different concoctions.

{herbal honeys & vinegars}

I made a few other pretties besides the pictured ones, but that will be another post. The pictured ones are dandelion vinegar, chive blossom vinegar {I got the recipe from a local dietitian Nancy Guppy of Chapman's Landing Cooking Studio}. Also pictured is a lemon balm/hawthorn/heather sedative honey {lemon balm from my garden, the hawthorn was wildcrafted last year, the heather from Richters, and the honey from Board's Honey Farm} and an elder flower & berry anti-viral honey {both the flowers & berries from Richter's and the honey again from Board's}.

If you have never made an herbal honey before and want to give it a try, check out this helpful video by Susun Weed.

Sláinte!

Laurel

A Few Nifty Field Guides {& Happy Belated Earth Day Too!}

I hope all you folks had a wonderful Earth Day and had a chance to get out to the great outdoors. :)

I was inspired by our friends over at Plant Trees, It's Self Defense to dig out the field guides that the hubby and I like to use on our outdoor travels and share them with our readers.

Flora

Edible & Medicinal Plants of the West by Gregory L. Tilford

The Wild, Wild Cookbook by Jean Craighead George

Trees in Canada by John Laird Farrar

National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Mushrooms

Old Man's Garden by Annora Brown

Poisonous Mushrooms of Canada: Including Other Inedible Fungi

Ontario Wildflowers: 101 Wayside Flowers by Linda Kershaw

The Forest Trees of Ontario by J.H. White

The Book of Swamp and Bog by John Eastman

Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada by George Barron

Native Trees of Canada

Ontario Weeds: Descriptions, Illustrations and Keys to Their Identification

Fauna

Birds of Algonquin Park

Mammals of Algonquin Park

Animal Tracks of the Great Lakes by Ian Sheldon

Bird Feathers: a Guide to North American Bird Species by David Scott & Casey McFarland

Mammals of Ontario by Tamara Eder

Birds of North America

{And an honourable mention goes to The Robin Hood Hand Book by Bill Kaysing for few identifications it has in it. It is more of an overall bushcraft book.}

Sláinte!

Laurel

A Slight Change in Plans

Well, it may just be our last growing season on the property we are currently living at. My friend and landlord might decide to sell the place after the final harvest. Nothing has been decided yet, and we might still stay here if she decides to sell it as a duplex/rental property or if she decides to rent the house out instead of selling.

We are of course going to still go ahead with our 2011 gardening season, although I have made some changes.

I did want to expand on our witchy plants, which are mostly perrenials. I already have a whole bunch that will be dug up and brought with us if we are moving, so I don't want to add more to that list just yet. I am placing a rather large order to Richters with a group of local friends, but in lieu of getting the plants, I am going to be ordering seeds, which will be planted next year, where ever we find ourselves.

There are a couple that I will be planting this year, such as wild tobacco {which will be used mostly for making offerings to local land and nature spirits} and red clover {for our garden path experiment}.

This is what I am planning to order:

allheal, aconite, bergamot, calamus {sweet flag}, wild chicory, red clover, common comfrey, echinacea, elecampane, purple foxglove, black hollyhocks, joe pye weed, munstead lavender, marshmallow, milkweed, meadowsweet, motherwort, mugwort, scullcap, soapwort, wild tobacco, toloache {angel's trumpet}, wallflower, vervain, valerian, wormwood, and woad.

It's a good thing we have a chest freezer! ;)

Sláinte!

Laurel

Consecrating Seed

Royalty free photo

Last night I dusted off my little book that I write my gardening rituals and the like in to yank out this simple adaptation that I made a few years back of The Consecration of the Seed found in Carmina Gadelica Vol. 1.

Traditionally "three days before being sown the seed is sprinkled with clear cold water, in the name of Father, and of Son, and of Spirit, the person sprinkling the seed walking sunwise the while."

So on the Tuesday before I plant seeds outside on Friday, I will do a little ritual like this. I will lay all my packages of seeds that will be planted at that time, and take one of each type of seed out as a "representative" and sprinkle spring water on them. {If I have any seedlings that will be going out at this time, I will add them to the ritual too.} Instead of doing this in the name of the Christian Trinity, I do it in the name of my Gods, Ancestors, and local Land Spirits.
I should mention that this is a ritual that was probably carried out mostly on cereal crops. I do this with all seeds that are being planted directly in the ground, so this is a ritual I generally do 3 times: the first time around the beginning of April, the second around the end of May, and the third time around mid August.

On the Friday before planting the seed, I will say the following incantation:

I will go out to sow the seed,
In names of Them who gave it growth;
I will place my front in the wind,
And spread a gracious amount on the ground.
Should a seed fall on a bare rock,
It shall have no soil in which to grow;
As much as falls into the earth,
The dew will make it to be full.
Friday, day auspicious,
The dew will come down to welcome
Every seed that lay in sleep
Since the coming of cold without mercy;
Every seed will take root in the earth,
As the Rulers of the elements desired,
The braird will come forth with the dew,
It will inhale life from the soft wind.

I will come round with my step,
I will go rightways with the sun,
In name of the Gods that are mine,
In name of the Ancestors and the Nature Spirits kind.

Gods, Ancestors, and Nature Spirits
Be giving growth and kindly substance
To every thing that is in my ground,
Till the days of harvest shall come.

You can see the full original Consecration of the Seed here.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Wildcrafting Cattails

If you have never wildcrafted cattails, you don't know what you are missing! Here is the start an excellent series of videos by HerbMentor on how to harvest and prepare cattails. Sláinte! Laurel

Half Way 'Til Spring

I was hoping to do a post on the lore behind Imbolc, but I guess that will have to wait til next year. Instead I have been really busy the last little while painting, cleaning the house, and do all sorts of other things in preparation for and in celebration of Imbolc.

While across the pond the first stirrings of Spring must be happening by now, we are only half way through the deep freeze of our Northern Ontario Winter.But according to a few groundhogs, including Shubenacadie Sam and Wiarton Willie, it might just come early this year. If you ask me, it can't come soon enough!

I painted my kitchen, which was a pain in the arse, but the new colour is luverly, methinks.

I also cleaned the house from to to bottom. I made a "spiritual cleaning tea" with a mix of plant pretties that have excellent magical cleaning and protective properties. Below is the recipe:

Sweet woodruff, rowan berries, birch bark {fallen!}, juniper berries, cedar, lemon balm, peppermint, sweetfern, thyme, dandelion root, witch hazel, st john's wort, and sage. Boil water and pour over ingredients in a glass jar. Let it steep for a few hours. Drain liquid through cheese cloth {and I put the plant stuff in the compost after}. Mix tea in with cider vinegar and keep in a clean jar. It can be refrigerated for about 3 months no problem. To use mix with 3 parts water in a spray bottle.

On the eve of Imbolc I got our altar set up and ready for our ritual the next day. Before going to bed I left some colcannon and whiskey outside as an offering and a piece of ribbon in for Brigid to bless.

I got up in the hours before dawn {best cure for too much whiskey the night before: strong coffee and a cold shower!} to get everything else ready for the day. I baked bairín breac to be used as offerings with a little left over for us to nom. I also scored some local homemade Amish butter for the same purpose, and of course the obligatory whiskey and honey too.

I have been promising a couple of our blog readers for some altar peektures for a while now, and looky, I am finally living up to that promise. ;)

{Deities' altar}

{Brigid's altar, which is temporary} {Ancestral altar}

I did the house blessing ritual that I usually do on the cross quarter days and I also made a new rowan and red thread charm. This one is just a very simple one of bunched leaves and berries and I hung it over the house door way.

Oh, I suppose I should mention that this bunch was found on the ground by a tree that is in one of the places I frequent for wildcrafting. It is traditionally bad form {and bad luck!} to cut a rowan outside of the "two days of Bealtaine", which I am in agreement with Seren of Tairis who thinks that this is between the new date of Bealtaine {May 1st} and the old {probably May 5th}. As she points out as well, there seems to be no lore against picking the berries outside of this time.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Recommended Reading: Becoming a Modern Peasant {Hedgesteading}

Over at the Alchemist's Garden blog there is a fantastic post called Becoming a Modern Peasant: Hedgesteading that I think many of our readers will enjoy.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Time for the Dark: Samhain & Hallowe'en

A photo of artwork done by Sulamith Wulfing

As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a wisper wispering.
I heard a wisper wispering,
Upon this fine fall day…

As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a laugh a’laughing.
I heard a laugh a’laughing,
Upon this fine fall day…

I heard this wisper and I wondered,
I heard this laugh and then I knew.
The time is getting near my friends,
The time that I hold dear my friends,
The veil is getting thin my friends,
And strange things will pass through.

~The Veil Is Getting Thin by Wolfdancer

It has just dawned on me that I still haven't done a comprehensive post on the lore of my favourite holiday, Samhain. I have already done some on holidays such as Bealtaine and Lughnasadh, so I suppose this is a good excuse to do a blog post. ;)

Snap Apple Night by Daniel Maclise, 1833

Samhain is generally accepted to translate from old Irish to mean "end of summer" or "summer's end". At one time there were only two seasons observed in Ireland, Summer and Winter, or the Light and Dark halves of the year. Bealtaine heralded the beginning of Summer/Light half and Samhain the beginning of Winter/Dark half. {You can read more about the origins of the name and the Celtic year here.}

The Dark half was ruled by forces associated with Unseen, Otherworld, and Death. It was a time for divination, honouring ancestral spirits {and of course the Gods}, and the final harvest. It was also the start of a new year.

Besides also being Hallowe'en, there is Nos Galan Gaeaf in Wales, Hop-tu-Naa in the Isle of Man, Allantide in Cornwall, Día de los Muertos in Mexico, and All Saints Day for Catholics.

La ronde des Farfadets de Les Farfadets by David Ryckaert III, 1600's

Because it was thought that the dead roamed freely on this side around Samhain, some folks would leave meals prepared for their deceased loved ones. I have already talked about this a bit in other posts such as here and here.

But it wasn't only loved ones afoot! There were also other Otherworldy folk that one might run into who weren't as benign. According to Land, Sea & Sky travellers would disguise themselves in the hopes that they would be overlooked or would avoid being out at night altogether.

The text also mentions how people would kiss goodbye any leftover crops not yet harvested by Samhain, as they were believed to be spoiled or they were left out as offerings to the Faeries.

Just like Bealtaine, bonfires played an important role at Samhain. However, it would seem that Bealtaine bonfires were lit at daybreak, while the ones for Samhain were lit at sundown {The Gaelic Otherworld by John Gregerson Campbell}. Bonfires were probably seen as a symbol of renewal and purification, and no doubt was thought to protect the living from being harmed by supernatural forces.

Traditional Irish Jack-O'-Lantern

An iconic symbol of this holiday is of course the Jack-O'-Lantern. You can hear about it's supposed beginnings here, in a video I posted last year. Carving veggies into lanterns is a tradition that has quite a long history in Ireland and Scotland, but it wasn't made into a Hallowe'en tradition until the practice was taken up in America in the late 19th century. And while most folks make theirs out of pumpkins, veggie lanterns over the pond were usually turnips or swedes. You can learn how to carve a traditional turnip Jack-O'-Lantern here.

Another popular activity associated with this time of year is dressing up in costumes. As previously mentioned, folks would sometimes disguise themselves as a protective measure against malignant spirits.

In his book Hallowe'en, Nicholas Rogers remarks how in both Scotland and Ireland, there is a fairly strong tradition of guising at this time of year. Anywhere from an Irish traveller turning their coat inside out to avoid being nabbed by Faeries {The Year in Ireland by Kevin Danaher} to young Scottish men blackening their faces or wearing masks going out and about to cause mischief or entertain other folks in exchange for money, food, and drink. This is something you see at other times of year, especially around Yule/Christmas with Mummers. I suppose this was the beginnings off our modern trick or treating.

1920's Hallowe'en card

There are folks who feel that now is the best time for divination, making charms, and other magical practices. Many of these practices traditionally involve food {especially fruit and nuts}.

If you are wanting to leave a message for those who have passed, Robin Artisson suggests the following on the Tracks in the Witchwood blog:

Split an apple in two, and write a letter to that dead one you wish to communicate with on a small round of parchment, using Saturnian ink mingled with a dab of blood- then put it between the apple-halves and spear the halves “back into whole” with long, sharpened thin stakes of some Saturnian wood. Bury these messages in a ground that also has graves dug in it- or bury them under the roots of the Elder, the Apple, the Thorn, the Yew, or the Cypress. Thus, the deed is done. And this isn’t just a Hallows letter-writing; do it year-round, if you will.

Bobbing for apples, while seemingly just a game was also used as a form of divination. Over at the Tairis website it says that while dookin' for aipples in Scotland there was a penny added to the water and the finder would have luck in the coming year and that the apple caught was often used in other divination.

The website also talks about other forms of divination involving food as well, including nuts:

{in Ireland} Two hazel nuts, walnuts, chestnuts or grains of wheat were taken and named after the two potential lovers, and were then placed in the ashes or on the grate to see how they would behave. Spitting and jumping showed the couple were not meant to be together, whereas nuts or grains that burned happily together indicated an altogether happier fate.

And that both in Ireland and Scotland people would put various charms in food such as pies or potato-based dishes.

A way for a girl in Lewis to bring her chosen lover to her was to use a dumb cake:

Girls were each apportioned a small piece of dough, mixed with any but spring water. They kneaded it with their left thumbs, in silence. Before midnight they pricked initials on them with a new pin, and put them by the fire to bake. The girls withdrew to the farther end of the room, still in silence. At midnight each lover was expected to enter and lay his hand on the cake marked with his initials. {The Book of Hallowe'en by Ruth Edna Kelley}

In various places a young woman could find out who her future husband was by looking in a mirror on Hallowe'en, where she was supposed to see him.

If you are looking to erect an altar or shrine, some items you might want to consider putting on it besides that nifty turnip Jack-o'-Lantern I hope that you all are going to make { ;) } are photos or belongings of deceased loved ones; representation of animals such as owls, deer, crows, ravens, hounds, and horses; food and plants such as apples, pumpkins, pomegranates, nuts, dried roses, dried leaves, poppies; also items to place offerings on {i.e. bowl, cup, incense burner} are of course suitable.

Here are a few luverly photos from other people for inspiration:

by Sinjy and Sadie

by Annie in Beziers

by Crimthann Fid-Nemed

by kightp

by Raul D

by Katie Cowden

by autumndragyn

by FreeCat

by Great Beyond

by Carlitos

by LoopZilla

by Avia Venefica

Also, here are a few previously posted videos that might be of interest in regards to altars, as well as other things for Samhain/Hallowe'en.

Necromancy:

Plants for the Dying & Deceased:

Sláinte!

Laurel