Every object, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, holds an element of power. But objects, even if merely everyday objects can accumulate power as well. I often think about my grandmother’s spoon. My grandmother was blind by the time she was about twenty and yet everyday she cooked. Her spoon hung in a specific place next to her stove and she used it everyday. One side of that spoon is flat from daily stirring because of the way she held it. That spoon is utterly infused with the spirit of her life. And although she left long ago I can hold that spoon and see her life, listen to her words, and continue to learn from her wisdom. That is a power object.

I have now-old plumes and things I used in rituals long ago concluded. They were certainly powerful to begin with but now these plumes contain detailed memories of all the rituals of which they found themselves a part. I can re-live those rituals in detail every time I hold them. I can hear the songs and the prayers, smell the fire, and the perfume of the smudging herbs. That is a power object.

Don’t be fooled into buying what is sold as a power object. It is not. Wait for one to come your way, wait until you have earned one. The seemingly insignificant pebble you might have picked up along the way and finds itself in your pocket all the time has more power than anything you could buy. That simple, little stone has become the repositiory of your life, your thoughts, your dreams, your spirit. That is a power object.

I want to thank all of you for so many comments and such an out-pouring of encouragement. I know your time is valuable and I deeply appreciate the time you have spent here and the comments you have made. So far in The Compendium for Spirit Handling blog Lady’s Mantle/Alchemilla, Monkshood/Aconitum, Sweet Vernal/Adonis, and Maple/Acer have sparked some interest. Please note that these entries are actually alphabetical by the botanical Latin name.

The Companion Planting blog has received some as well in Corn…, Atichokes…, Lettuce…. and Eggplant… Others are peppered throughout Essays, Reviews, here on the News page an on the Books page.  To find the comments you must click on the post title. A new page comes up and the comments and responses are found at the bottom of the page.

Thank you so very much and please keep them coming. I promise there many more posts coming from me.

There has been much discussion about animal totems and animal medicine for a long time now. Some people believe that they can pick their animal totem; others believe their animal totem picks them. The Old Timers that I knew said that ain’t necessarily so. They taught me that animal medicine had a great deal to do with ones inherent predisposition. If your nature was such and such an animal with a similar nature was your medicine. I have a piece that can be found in Essays called Animal Allies. It is brief and only includes the animals drawn on for Ancestral Air’s clan system. Nevertheless, read it over and while doing so read the entries in the context of your own nature, not what you find cool or special. You might just see yourself there and chances are that particular creature or one related to it is your animal totem.

I have just posted three more reviews by Nancy Wait, Temple of Cybele, and Pagan Book Reviews.  They are terrific and I am grateful. Please check them out in Reviews.

After many years of research I settled on my own list of what I believe are the 21 sacred trees (some are actually shrubs) of the British Isles. I based my choices not only on their spiritual, magical and ritual properties but also on their extraordinary scope of practical uses such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine and tools.

Our misconception that the characteristics that define a plant as sacred is its ability to alter the senses has absolutely no foundation in history or the cultures that pioneered the discovery of them. Within these cultures not only are all plants regarded as equally sacred there exists a deep spiritual appreciation for those species that secure life such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine and tools. Practical species are most often the foundation of spirituality and ritual, not hallucinogens. And what are referred to as Sacred First Foods and Famine Foods are regarded as panaceas, plants that can accomplish and resolve anything.

Decades of study concerning both esoteric and practical usages led me to the understanding I now hold with what is often and erroneously referred to as the 21 Sacred Trees of the British Isles. I remain so convinced of this that I used the 21 species listed below as clans in Ancestral Airs. Ancestral Airs devotes many pages to both the practical and ceremonial uses of hundreds of plants. The Compendium for Spirit Handling, published as a blog on this website, deals exclusively with the ritual properties of about 420 species including the list of trees here.

Oak (Querus)

Holly (Ilex)

Birch (Betula)

Pine (Pinus)

Crabapple (Malus)

Hawthorn (Crataegus)

Willow (Salix)

Dogwood (Cornus)

Bearberry (Arctostaphylus)

Ash (Fraxinus)

Poplar (Populus)

Blackthorn (Prunus)

Currant (Ribes)

Linden (Tilia)

Elm (Ulmus)

Maple (Acer)

Alder (Alnus)

Hazelnut (Corylus)

Yew (Taxus)

Juniper (Juniperus)

Elder (Sambucus)

New in the news. The mystery with the inability to respond to your wonderful comments has been solved. And apparently there were some glitches with the e-book downloading and to date that has been remedied as well.

 A few things I have seen on line lately has compelled me to bring something else up.

“Shamanism: What The Heck Is It Anyway” is a piece first published by The Witches’ Voice and can now be found in Essays on my website here. It illustrates that the class distinction and snobbery prevalent in the Neo-Shamanic community has no foundation in history or among shamanic cultures today. Every single individual born is psychic, prophetic, and has a profound ability to heal themselves and others. Authentic medicine people know this. If someone or some group is treating you in a way that makes you feel badly about yourself or what you are trying to learn, know that their behavior is highly inappropriate. Find another group; good people are out there and they know what it means to live in good way.

News for me is whatever happens to be floating around in my awareness at any given moment. I am thinking about the elders I have known and the tribal cultures in which they were born.  The perception among tribal people is exquisite in its simplicity. Their world is older, more complete than ours but it is not a complex world or one shrouded in mystery.  And yet it is one singularly magnificent in its spirit of devotion.

In the decades I spent among tribal elders I never questioned their wisdom. Western culture would have preferred that I had and act as an inquisitor into the nuances of every detail. I simply couldn’t because I understood in my bones that within ancient cultures elders had the last word.  And like it or not their words stood as absolute, as law, and were final.

I invested my heart and soul into tribal elder systems as the community that spoke most deeply to me. And in doing so I had to learn to bite my tongue and accept whatever those elders dished out. It was often frustrating.  Their words sometimes angered me or hurt my feelings but I endured it because I wanted to know and embrace “the old way”. It required that I set aside whatever contemporary cultural had taught me when it conflicted with more ancient thinking.  In time it changed me. Those old ones taught me to think and perceive as they did, to live in good way. And I remain in their debt forever. Their generosity of spirit gave me the life for which I had longed.

As far as what news might seem more conventional, today I posted a piece on Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla) in the Compendium for Spirit Handling and one on soil in the Companion Planting blog.  I have also completed an essay entitled “What’s In A Name” that I will submit to The Witches’ Voice for publication. They have been extremely generous in their support of my work and I hope they accept it. It deals with the significance of names and the tribal perception of the importance of names, often given by elders (there’s those elders again). Eventually this article will end up in Essays here.

I am something of a reclusive fuddy-duddy. That isn’t “news” to most of you. What might be news is my fabulous new website created by Green Willow Designs. And step by step it becomes more interactive, and hopefully for you, increasingly more user friendly.

To date I have two blogs well on their way. At the prompting of my incredible Facebook friends, friends who have vastly expanded my knowledge of the world, I created a blog entitled Companion Planting-Bio Diverse Container Gardens. My awareness was drawn to the economic issues wed to greater and greater concern for our beloved Earth. Thanks to my friends I realized that there were many people developing a profound desire to grow their own food and contribute to the health of our planet while doing so. Consequently, I was compelled to write this blog.

Companion plants are plants that enhance the garden environment exponentially. And increased bio diversity triggers robust health within any system. The Companion Planting blog combines the practicality of growing common vegetables, regardless of the space or lack of that you have, with the sophistication of bio diverse wild tangles.

The Compendium for Spirit Handling is the botanical companion to Ancestral Airs. It deals exclusively with the ritual properties of about 420 species of plants as perceived by shamanic hunter-gatherers. There is a great deal of information about the medicinal uses of these plants in Ancestral Airs but I wanted to write a book that also illustrated that at one time we understood illness as a manifestation of spirit. And the practitioners that doctored these illnesses were spirit handlers.

And finally in a few weeks my newest book will be launched as a blog. It is a sequel of sorts to Ancestral Airs. I will reveal the title to you very soon.

I am deeply grateful for the enduring support and encouragement you have extended to me. I will do my best not let you down.