Looks absolutely beautiful! Congratulations! You must be both thrilled to bits and very proud ( as you should be😊) I will need two copies though, one for my daughter and one for me! 😂
This is great info thanks! After I started learning to forage I developed a hobbiest interest in botany (plant identification and taxonomy is neat). But most online botany resources go from 0 to a 100 really fast. Good to know where to start!
Love this! More botany videos please! Nothing boring about plants. If people knew how interesting they are they might pay more attention to them :) I'm a week into my foundation year, leading on to a degree in Woodland Ecology. So this is perfect timing. My level 2 in forestry and arboriculture last year, only used field guides. The Collins ones are great. I have the trees, fungi, and pests and diseases ones. I'll definitely be investing in the botanical keys this year to step up a level. I literally rocked up to Uni with 120 books. Which are now crammed into my student accommodation. Everyone thought it was overkill until they discovered that all the botany books are kept at another campus and have to be specially ordered and sent over with a week or two's notice. Meanwhile i have everything i need within arms reach. 😆
i usually start to notice grasses in late summer, because they´re so tall, but also when the flowers release me from their enchantment :) this summer i noticed that if it´s a long and warm summer some of the southern flowers (like lupins) come in bloom for a second time! the real northern flowers are like fuck no, we know what´s coming :) i've noticed the same with trees before, like willows start to get those white soft things during long and warm autumns. it´s almost as if the winter time is not needed, for plants, they´re ready to go again.. me too, i don´t need rest, let´s go! (oh no sun, maybe not then, it´s not even right to pick up rocks anymore, because they´re so cold, and also wet from the rain, you can´t even get the colours right, did you know that black stones become grey when they dry out, it´s true) i got so into rocks this summer that i started to develop my own sayings.. oh that´s as hard to find as an unbroken red stone :)
Yessssss!!! More of this please Ari. Wonderful video. Haha I could talk plants all day too! Yorkshire Fog is a lovely grass, sadly a weed here in Australia, but nonetheless it is a pretty one. Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra) would probably be my favourite grass :) I think the pictorial flora guides are a good stepping stone for people, then as their curiosity grows, they may naturally gravitate towards the keys. Keys can be a bit daunting if you haven't established some botanical vocabulary first.
This is just what I’m after, it’s what I’m interested in and I believe it’s an important factor in witchcraft - I’m a city person and not a country person, I see myself as being poorer for it. Loved ( absolutely this loved ) this post, more please. I also love nerds, their passionate people, and often fun people - just saying. Thank You so much for this video - I’ll say it again - more please. Much love and many, many Blessings,❤,😊.
I really think most witches would benefit from studying plants further. I really enjoyed this! It seems like a great entry point and I would love it if you made more videos like this in the future! I think you bring a great perspective into the community.
Greenery is my favourite bit in Witchcraft!!! I just started playing a d&d character that's a herbalist and in every conversation they have they are you when you talk about grass and I was so excited to hear it and tell raven omg I'm playing Ari!!! 😅 Edit: I SCREAMED when you pulled out the mugwort and I thought it was mugwort before you said it and then you said it and AAAÀAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAÀ **joyful scream**
Your intuition is spot on! I feel the study of plants is an important element of our well-being, across the board....AND a ton of fun to study. Took a few semesters of horticulture/botany back in my early education. I find my heart was there all along. I wish I would have gone deeper in my studies when I was your age. Very very rewarding. EXCELLENT TOPIC. 🤓📚
oh that yarrow thing with stopping the bleeding would make so much sense! in my original language (Polish) its name is "krwawnik" which loosely would translate into something like "the bleeding herb" so I guess there's some common herb lore in Europe haha
honestly, it's not even that (for me). it's people saying "you can't be a witch if you don't practice ____ every day!". I'm neurodivergent. I'm constantly tired and overwhelmed. I've been going back and forth on my path tbh, and every time when I watch someone's video and they say I CAN'T be a witch because I don't have this massive and elaborate practice that I HAVE TO do every day, I get very very discouraged and I don't even feel like trying anymore. I've got more of a hedge witch/eclectic approach, I'm interested in different paths and I love to learn about them. I don't worship any gods or goddesses, and atm I don't feel like I want to even try. I live in the UK (I'm Polish tho), I only rent a room so a lot of what I want to do needs to "stay" in my room as well. Ugh, sometimes it's really annoying lol anyways, thank you for your video <3 keep going <3
Thanks for all of this!!! I am a "baby witch" (hate the term but haven't found a good alternative that isn't demeaning or infantilizing). In any case, I think of magic as coweaving with the universe/cosmic consciousness/godex, source, spirit, etc. Finding patterns and threads in the universe and working with these threads intentionally. I am AuDHD and highly attuned to patterns and feel that my neurodivergence informs my witchcraft and my capacity to sense and work with magic/the web of life. Not to say I am special, I think everyone has this capacity...you just have to pay attention. :)
I definitely resonate with your sentiment about the work happening out in the field so to speak, and forgive the pun but often literally 😆 - and yes I feel the same. I have similar practices of connecting in to land tree and plant spirits; dancing and singing etc... and often I catch myself blushing as I'm singing, and I hear people approach or see someone walking nearby 😳 I feel bad for feeling embarrassed but yeh lol natural human reaction I guess. It's such healing and beautiful work though, and yes can't recommend it more to those who are able to access outdoor natural spaces. Thank you for sharing Ari. Your practice is wonderful 💗 Autumn blessings Xx
Another way to honor land spirits is to clean up any trash or litter that has been left by other humans. Or you could remove non native invasive plants and replace them with native plants, especially host plants for butterflies and moths.
you can tell from our folklore that even the "elemental gods" were originally local (every spirit had a different name, often according to the location, names like mountain-old-woman, swamp-woman, old-root-man). the only time you see them used in a broader context is the creation stories, which of course were also local / tribal originally (earth mother is often considered one of the three creators, also grandmother of the bear, probably because bears sleep underground, it´s all very logical). they did believe that all the fires came from the same "mother fire", which they did do, take the new fire from the old place´s fire (and a piece of earth too, but that too works only in a tribal context, you would not want the same fire as the enemy). universal literally did not exist.. for me it´s the fakest part of the world religions (where they went off track, or didn´t go off track, just copied from others). the real separation is between land spirits that were ancestral and those that were biological or geological (good luck to anyone trying to define that, because often it´s both, it´s a place and then what was worshipped there, also layers, like different layers of earth had different spirits, also often there was an animal form, and also a mediator, like a tree or fire / smoke). i´m a simple man so i just like the elements themselves, like sand and clay.. i love the texture, clay might be good for moulding things! (also you can rub it on girls, just messy)
This came at the perfect time! I've been connecting with the land more and really seeing the results! I see animals more often, i can feel a warmness. Like a greeting when I'm around.
Thank you so much for the inspiration of leaving water as an offering. All the well intentioned offerings people leave that are essentially pollutants in nature have been really bugging me. Even natural things, like organic apples or native seeds, risk attracting rats in the close-to-urban area I live. Water is perfect. I’ll push the boat out and bring moon water in my little bottle from chalice well.
Good to see, and hear, you. This was particularly interesting to me as I’m trying to connect more with nature spirits and spirits of place - like specific places in the land. So, I thank you for sharing your knowledge. Many Blessings,❤.
This is so beautiful and so nice to see. I also work with the local land spirits. They guided me to forest restoration. It's more like a partnership ❤🌲🌳🌿🐝🦋🐌
How much of these practices were around before the witch hunters? Meaning: did European woman have familiars or is it an appropriation of those that accused them of being in league with the devil. I get that some animals were common to farms and homes (cats), but was the act of having a familiar part of their practice? Same with flight? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
A bit late to the party but i thought i would still comment my ideas...so the Devon protection an idea could be to use air dry clay then while working with the clay you incorporate the herbs, resins etc that are linked with mars and then add a small amount of iron filings (can easily be bought online) once all combined roll out into a shape and leave to dry and then with a metalic paint add the symbol. It can then just be used anywhere around the home. Also when you say about carving symbols into walls etc isnt always something that can be done for example in rented properties, if you decide to redecorate you can paint the symbol on first then paint over itessentially sealing it into your home. Or can trace the symbol onto walls using your finger or paintbrush dipped in water?
