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 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……