Spell to Save the Rainforest

This spell is for Preservation of the Rainforests.



Cast a circle

Invoke elements by calling upon them in protective aspects (for example, you might invoke Watchfires or Beacons in the South).

Chant the names of the Earth Goddess, beginning with your personal favorites, then naming as many as you can think of.

Take a piece of green string. Begin to tie knots in it, while chanting:

"Tying the Cord,
Renewing the Earth;
We are Her Children,
bringing Rebirth."

(The knots may be simple or elaborate, but leave enough string to tie together at the end.) As you chant, see the world as a network of connected systems. Breathe the air that comes from the jungles of South America. Feel the living fire of an ocelot's power. Taste the rain on the leaves at the tops of the trees. Feel the delicate structure of the soil at the forest floor.)

Tie the cord together in a loop; hold it up, strung around your two hands, and begin chanting:

"We are the Flow and we are the Ebb;
We are the Weavers,
we are the Web."

As you chant, see yourself standing guard over the borders of the rainforest. See yourself with others, protecting rainforest as you would protect yourself, because that's what you're doing.

Bury the cord in a container of earth. Earth the power; thank the Deities and elements; open the circle. Later bury the cord in the forest if possible.

(If circumstances make the above impossible):
Sit quietly and see: the network of ecosystems that make up the world; the rainforests thriving; plants and animals breeding; the Earth, green and filled with life; yourself, standing guard. Breathe, and know that the air comes from the sea and the jungles of Brazil. Drink and know that the water has been around the world, and circulates through you as it does through the air, land, and sea. Stand up and stretch; the strength of your body is the Earth's strength.

[Author Unknown]

Which Tree are You?

I am the Poplar tree: the Uncertainty (Feb. 4 to 8, May 1 to 14, Aug 5 to 13) looks very decorative, no self-confident behavior, only courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, artistic nature, good organizer, tends to philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership serious.








Which tree does your birthday fall under?

Apple Tree, the Love (Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, June 25 to July 4) Of slight built, lots of charm, appeal and attraction, pleasant aura, flirtatious, adventurous,sensitive, always in love, wants to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner, very generous, scientific talents, lives for today, a carefree philosopher with imagination.

Fir Tree, the Mysterious (Jan. 2 to Jan. 11, July 5 to July 14) Extra ordinary taste, dignity, cultivated airs, loves anything beautiful, moody, stubborn, tends to egoism but cares for those close to it, rather modest,very ambitious, talented, industrious uncontent lover, many friends, many foes, very reliable.

Elm Tree, the Noble-Mindedness (Jan. 12 to Jan 24, July 15 to July 25) pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends to not forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, tends to a now-all-attitude and making decisions for others, noble- minded, generous, good sense of humor, practical.

Cypress, the Faithfulness (Jan. 25 to Feb. 3, July 26 to Aug.4) strong,muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give, happy content, optimistic, needs enough money and acknowledgment, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered, unruly, pedantic and careless.

Poplar, the Uncertainty (Feb. 4 to 8, May 1 to 14, Aug 5 to 13) looks very decorative, no self-confident behavior, only courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, artistic nature, good organizer, tends to philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership serious.

Cedar, the Confidence (Feb. 9 to Feb. 18, Aug. 14 to Aug. 23) of rare beauty, knows how to adapt, likes luxury, of good health not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, determined, impatient, wants to impress others, many talents, industrious, healthy optimism, waiting for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.

Pine Tree, the Particularity (Feb. 19 to Feb. 28, Aug. 24 to Sep. 2) loves agreeable company, very robust, knows how to make life comfortable, very active, natural, good companion, but seldom friend, falls easily in love but its passion burns out quickly, gives up easily, many disappointments till it finds its ideal, trustworthy, practical.

Weeping Willow, the Melancholy (March 1 to March 10, Sep. 3 to Sep.12) beautiful but full of melancholy, attractive, very empathic, loves anything beautiful and tasteful, loves to travel, dreamer, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with, demanding, good intuition, suffers in love but finds sometimes an anchoring partner.

Limetree, the Doubt (March 11 to March 20, Sep. 13 to Sep. 22) accepts what life dishes out in a composed way, hates fighting, stress and labor, tends to laziness and idleness, soft and relenting, makes sacrifices for friends, many talents but not tenacious enough to make them blossom, often wailing and complaining, very jealous, loyal.

Hazelnut Tree, the Extraordinary (March 22 to March 31, Sep 24 to Oct.3) charming, undemanding, very understanding, knows how to make an impression, active fighter for social cause, popular, moody and capricious lover, honest and tolerant partner, precise sense of judgment.

Rowan, the Sensitivity (Apr. 1 to Apr. 10, Oct. 4 to Oct. 13) full of charm, cheerful, gifted, without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

Maple, Independence of Mind (Apr. 11 to Apr. 20, Oct. 14 to Oct. 23) no ordinary person, full imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-respect, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, many complexes, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

Walnut Tree, the Passion (Apr. 21 to Apr. 30, Oct. 24 to Nov. 11) unrelenting, strange and full of contrasts, often egoistic, aggressive, noble, broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous, unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult and uncommon partner, not always liked but oftenadmired, ingenious strategist, very jealous and passionate, no compromises.

Chestnut Tree, the Honesty (May 15 to May 24, Nov. 12 to Nov. 21) of unusual beauty, does not want to impress, well-developed sense of justice, vivacious, interested, a born diplomat, but irritate and sensitive in company, often due to a lack of self-confidence, acts sometimes superior, feels not understood loves only once, has difficulties in finding a partner.

Ash Tree, the Ambition (May 25 to June 3, Nov. 22 to Dec. 1) uncommonly attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent, talented, likes to play with its fate, can be egoistic, very reliable and trust- worthy, faithful and prudent lover, sometimes brains rule over heart, but takes partnership very serious.

Hornbeam, the good taste (June 4 to June 13, Dec. 2 to Dec. 11) of cool beauty, cares for its looks and condition, good taste, tends to egoism, makes life as comfortable as possible, leads reasonable, disciplined life, looks for kindness, an emotional partner and acknowledgment, dreams of unusual lovers, is seldom happy with her feelings, mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions, very consciencious.

Fig Tree, the Sensibility (June 14 to June 23, Dec. 12 to Dec. 21) very strong, a bit self-willed, independent, does not allow contradiction or arguments, loves life, its family, children and animals, a bit of a butterfly, good sense of humor, likes idleness and laziness, of practical talent and intelligence.


Oak, robust nature (March 21) couragous, strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible, does not love changes, keeps its feet on the ground, person of action.

Birch, the Inspiration (June 24) vivacious, attractive, elegant, friendly, unpretentious, modest, does not like anything in excess, abhors the vulgar, loves life in nature and in calm, not very passionate, full of imagination little ambition, creates a calm and content atmosphere.

Olive Tree, the Wisdom (Sept. 23) loves sun, warmth and kind feelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression and violence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well-developed sense of justice, sensitive, empathic, free of jealousy, loves to read and the company of sophisticated people.

Beech, the Creative (Dec. 22) has good taste, concerned about its looks, materialist, good organization of life and career, economical, good leader, takes no unnecessary risks, reasonable, splendid lifetime companion, keen on keeping fit (diets, sports, etc.)

Gardening Au Naturel

Gardening Au Naturel
by Ed Nelligan III

If you garden to relive stress, nude gardening could be your cure all.

Naked gardening, it is a practice that many, perhaps most, would deem inappropriate, shocking or just plain silly. But those who do prune and dig in the nude find it to be an extension of the stress relieving aspects so many of us harvest from our gardens.

"It's like explaining how an apple tastes to somebody who's never had one," say T. A. Wyner, one of the founders and a wintertime resident of Sunnier Palms Nudist Park in South Florida. "But the stress reducing benefits of gardening are exponentially increased when nude".

Like many people pressed for time, Wyner says she often postpones her leisure time gardening.

Evening Primrose

These soft-scented flowers have four satiny heart-shaped petals that come together forming two inch open cups with frilly long stamens. When they open in the evening, the blossoms are a soft clear white that gradually fades into pink as the flowers mature. Their luscious scent reminds us of a cross between honeysuckle and lemon custard. The flowers open every evening throughout summer until first frost.

Sweet-scented Nicotiana

These nicotianas have creamy-white tubular flowers borne in graceful sprays on softly draping branches. The 2 to 3 inch trumpet-shaped blossoms are closed in the daytime but in the late afternoon and evening they fill the air with a jasmine-like scent.


Moonflowers

These 6 inch trumpet flowers unfurl in slow motion every night just at sunset. Pure white with faint green tracings, the blossoms are very fragrant all evening. By noon, the flowers dwindle and close and are barely seen in the dense foliage.

"Midnight Candy" Night Phlox

"These tidy upright plants bear umbrella-like clusters of small, delicate phlox-like flowers. The insides of the petals are pure white and the outsides are a satiny maroon with a hint of white where petals overlap. During the day, the flowers are tightly closed, just showing a hint of color. As dusk comes on there is a magic moment when they open like a display of little firework stars, releasing a delicious almond/honey/vanilla-like fragrance that wafts throughout the garden."

Angel's Trumpet

Datura meteloides has six-inch white trumpet flowers that open at night and remain open well into the following day. This flower is a favorite subject of Georgia O'Keefe. Warning: poisonous.

Evening Stock

Many branched 1½ foot plants have gray-green leaves and 1 inch star shaped flowers of very pale violet. The blooms are closed tightly all day but open at dusk to pour out a fantastic spicy fragrance.

Nottingham Catchfly,
Night-flowering Catchfly, and
White Campion

These are all members of the genus Silene, which also has several day-blooming members. These plants have sticky stems, hence the name 'catchfly'. The odor of the Nottingham catchfly is described as sweet and reminiscent of hyacinths, and its flowers open on three successive nights before withering.

Bouncing Bet
(Also known as soapwort)

With either pink or white blossoms, this plant fill the night with sweet perfume. Also used to make detergent--hence the soapwort moniker.

Four o'Clocks

In late afternoon, Mirabilis jalapa's two inch trumpet-shaped flowers unfurl, releasing a rich jasmine-like perfume. These plants, with blooms in pink, rose, white, orange, and yellow, are very easy to grow and fast growing. They're also known as "Marvel of Peru".

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August Lily (fragrant Hosta)

The leaves are about 6 inches long and 4 inches wide, with 8 pairs of impressed veins. The white, waxy, trumpet-shaped flowers appear on 30 inch scapes and each is 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. The scent is of pure honey.

Vesper Iris

A native of Mongolia, the sweetly fragrant flowers are a dull greenish white spotted with brownish purple or reddish purple with white splotches. Like many iris blossoms, they become spirally twisted after flowering.There's also about 50 different cultivars of daylilies which bloom at night. Some of my favorites are called 'After the Fall' (tangerine and copper blend with yellow halo), 'Jewel of Hearts' (dark red flowers with a red-black center), 'Moon Frolic' (near white), 'Toltec Sundial' (fragrant sunshine yellow) and 'Witches Dance' (dark red with a green throat).

Night Fragrant Plants

Many plants will have flowers open during the day, but they don't release their scent until evening:

Perfumed Fairy Lily

Chlidanthus fragrans has a rich lily fragrance at night. Three or four yellow, funnel shaped flowers are carried on stems up to a foot high.

Night Gladiolus

Gladiolus tristus has creamy yellow blossoms that are intensely fragrant at night with a spicy-sweet perfume, and the unusual leaves look like a pinwheel cut in half.



Tuberose

Victorians loved this sweet and heady (almost overpowering) fragrance. The flowers are waxy white and 2 inches long.

Carolina Jessamine
(also known as evening trumpet flower)

The evergreen leaves surround sweetly fragrant, bell-shaped flowers of bright yellow that are particularly sweet as evening approaches. This grows wild in the South.

Sweet Rocket

Also known as Dame's Rocket, Dame's Violet, and Mother of the Evening, Hesperis matronalis is perfect for a night garden. Colors range from white to purple, and the smell, which is released in the evening, is incredibly delicious. They get about 3-4 feet high.

Spells and Soil

Garden Spells by Claire Nahmad
The Magic of Herbs, Trees, and Flowers
Introduction

A garden is a holy place. From the concept of the Garden of Eden as humanity's mystic point of origin to the idea of paradise as a garden which represents the realm of final homecoming to which we strive and aspire, gardens seem to be enshrined in our consciousness as the alpha and omega of spiritual experience.

It was in a garden that Christ underwent his sleepless night of agony before his sacrifice the following day, and in a garden too that Mary Magdalene met the arisen Christ, mistaking him at first for the gardener. In many religions, the idea of the garden is celebrated with reverence; and in the folklore of ancient Britain, magical associations are given to every tree, herb, bush and flower of the wayside and the garden. In its wider sense the garden embraces the countryside and according to the wisdom of the philosophers, alchemists, hermits and wise women of the past-the entire earth.

From such a macrocosm, we come to the microcosmic gardens of our own making, a custom that began with the dawn of our civilization when "gardens of Adonis" were set out in containers on rooftops in ancient Greece and bloomed in profusions of roses. Even then, gardens were regarded as a sanctuary, some peaceful, sweet-flowering green arbour where people could retire to think and to give ear to the wisdom and inspiration inherent in nature. The Greek philosopher Epicurus taught his pupils in a garden, and poets, painters and musicians throughout the ages have found their muses therein.

In ages past, intellectual accomplishments and the opportunity for self-expression through the arts were largely denied to women. The craft of garden making, however, was not. The garden was often their special domain and became the embodiment of their inspiration-both practical and poetic. In addition to the "silver bells, cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row" or the flower garden, there was nourishment from the kitchen garden, and healing and restorative plants grown in the medicinal garden.

The ideas of magic and enchantment, of the effect of the moon and stars on the tides of growth and decline in nature, and of fairies, elves and gnomes who were mysteriously associated with the subtle creative forces of the earth, were never far removed from the domestic garden where all this mystery could be seen taking place.

Strange magical beings were encountered: tiny flower fairies, little old men and women who seemed to have the garden under their care, tall and beautiful elf men and women who lived in trees and who could created music as fairy pipers-angelic spirits of the garden who seemed to endow the air with grace and beauty and colour-and fabulous beasts which might appear within its precincts to warn, protect or bring a supernatural message. All have been reported as living constituents of the folklore of the garden, encountered by simple country people not given to flights of the imagination.


As our understanding of the world increases, we will hopefully come to realize more fully that there is real wisdom and knowledge to be gained from the treasures of our folklore. Already we are aware that life is composed of many subtle vibrations and emanations, of which we have had little or no previous scientific knowledge, which have been preserved in the vision of wise women and esoteric lore.

It is in the light of this awareness that Garden Spells is offered. It is a Victorian wise woman's guide to the marvels, mystery and magic associated with the garden, from its trees, flowers and herbs, through its animals, birds, and insects and its spirits and fairy folk, to the rocks and stones that can be found in its soil. Here are the charms, spells, invocations, and runes of wise women's lore, accompanied by instructions for blessing the garden, foretelling the weather and developing a rapport with flowers, trees, fairies, and animals. There are instructions for creating an herb garden in the Elizabethan mode, and tips for ridding the garden of pests and attracting butterflies.

There is true fascination in discovering the magic of these charms and rituals. For those who dislike the harsh chemical effects of modern methods Garden Spells offers a new philosophy based on love and respect for all life.

Its inspiration comes from centuries of homespun wisdom and traditional lore which reveals how every garden can be given a special atmosphere if its owner's heart is put into creating and tending it.

2 Spells for the Garden

Protect Your Garden Spell
Incense of the day: Evergreen

During the month of May in colonial America, farmers would bless
their land and pray for a good harvest. Revive this tradition by
performing this spell to protect your garden.

On a May eve,
As the Sun forgets the
light of day,
Fill an earthen vessel
made of clay
With soil from your
sacred ground,
Then add a pinch of
cinnamon,
Spicy and brown,
And a bit of clove to
purify.
Let this be witnessed by
Mother Earth and
Father Sky,
Stir it all with a nail
aged with rust,
Blend these elements
until they're reduced
to dust.

Sprinkle this about each
bed and border,
As you announce your
magical order:
No beast nor fowl from
sky or land
Shall bring harm to this
garden,
Which I protect by my
own hand.
To secure your garden's
protection and fate,
Bury the rusty nail near
your garden gate.

~by James Kambos







Potting Soil Recipes

Here are several formulas for soil mixes from a book: The New Seed Starters Handbook.

Home-Style Potting Soil
1 part finished compost
1 part loose garden or commercial potting soil
1 part sharp sand, perlite, or vermiculite - or a mixture of all 3

Thalassa Cruso's Potting Soil
1 part commercial potting soil or leaf mold
1 part sphagnum or peat moss
1 part perlite or sharp sand

Rich Potting Soil
1 part leaf mold
2 parts loose garden or commercial potting soil
1 part compost or rotted, sifted manure

Amended Potting Soil
4 parts loose garden or commercial potting soil
2 parts sphagnum or peat moss
2 parts leaf mold or compost
2 parts vermiculite
6 teaspoons dolomitic limestone (the limestone helps to neutralize the acids in the leaf mold and peat moss)

~by Nancy Bubel Rodale