June 28, 2015 at 7:48 pm (Trees)
Tags: ash key pickle, foraging, paganism, quercus robur, tribal tree, warts n' all
Today I made Ash Key Pickle. I picked the ash keys from my tribal tree and will eat a bit of them at each festival, but especially at the Winter Solstice, which was the time when trees were traditionally wassailed.
I suspect it will strengthen the bond between us, but I don’t really know what will happen.
June 22, 2015 at 6:34 pm (Festivals)
Tags: midsummer, paganism, quercus robur, roses, tribal tree, warts n' all
Yesterday we celebrated Midsummer. I did a very short ritual in the garden, as I wasn’t feeling very well.
We walked up to our tribal tree and talked to it, then went home and planted two rose bushes. One is a white rambler, the other is a pink old-fashioned bush that smells divine.
June 15, 2015 at 8:41 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: altars, ancestors, paganism, quercus robur, warts n' all
I’ve always had a bit of a problem with altars. I think it’s because of my Protestant upbringing, which sees altars as being pagan.
I’ve had an altar for the past year for my ancestors and I talk to them every evening. The altar consists of a saucer which holds a tea-light and two pictures of my ancestors. I don’t yet have one for my deities.
I’ve been meaning to make my own candles for the altar for a long time now, but haven’t got around to it yet. They seem quite happy with a single white tea-light for now.
June 8, 2015 at 8:42 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: britain, city pagans, paganism, quercus robur, warts n' all
I have always been happiest in cities. This seems an odd thing to say, but there is so much life in them. There are blades of grass and butterfly bushes growing in the cracks in the cement; sparrows and of course the eponymous pigeons. We once went to the Tower of London and the best part of it for me was seeing a peregrine falcon which had caught a blackbird. It didn’t really know what to make of humans pointing cameras at it with huge lenses.
The people who say that there’s no nature in cities really aren’t trying. In Britain there are always one or two parks and there tends to be more diverse species of trees than in the countryside.
