Lost Plant Vault
Forgotten botanical traditions.
How plants solved everyday problems before modern products. Forgotten foods, materials and traditions. Historical education only.
Posts in category “Ontario Witch”
Witch's Milk and Rag Dolls
Human babies can produce “Witch’s Milk” shortly after their birth. It odd, but true, and not something to be alarmed about.
While a baby develops in the womb he/she is exposed to a lot of estrogen. Estrogen causes the Mother's breasts to swell and get ready to produce milk for the baby. The baby, being directly attached to its Mother, also has estrogen in its body. Sometimes this causes the baby's breasts to swell and after birth they can leak what looks like milk. Its just short term, gone in a couple of weeks as the estrogen leaves the baby.
Of course, in the Middle Ages, people did not understand how or why this happened. It seemed to them witches must cause this. Intending to use the milk as a particular treat for their familiars, demons, or anything else that looked a little suspicious. Some parents created baby sized rag dolls to sleep in the crib with the baby, hoping to trick the Witches.
Which makes me wonder... were these the first rag dolls? It seems possible.
Still the Eclectic Witch Archetype
Quiz - Discover your Witch Archetype I've been eclectic for a long time, no real surprise with the results. Others may like to take a look.
Eclectic Witch
You are the grand curator of magic, weaving diverse traditions into an ever-evolving personal tapestry.
Your strength is synthesis—adapting what resonates and releasing what doesn’t. You have a broad field of study and comprehension.
Options to explore
Kindred Paths: Solitary Practitioner • Integrative Mystic • Syncretic Priest/ess
Suggested Deity & Archetype Allies: Hermes • Iris • Saraswati• Plant Spirits/Silma • Household spirits • Genii Loci
Suggested Areas of Study: All areas of study • Local folklore • Spirit-of-place offerings • Pre-Wiccan craft history • Comparative myth • Personal-gnosis journaling • Cultural exchange ethics
When I think of witches, I seem to see all over England, all over Europe…
When I think of witches, I seem to see all over England, all over Europe, women living and growing old, as common as blackberries, and as unregarded, I see them, wives and sisters of respectable men, chapel members, and blacksmiths, and small farmers, and Puritans. . . . Well, there they were, there they are, child-rearing, house-keeping, hanging washed dishcloths on currant bushes; and for diversion each other’s silly conversation, and listening to men talking together in the way that men talk and women listen. . . . Nothing for them except subjection and plaiting their hair. . . . That’s why we become witches: to show our scorn of pretending life’s a safe business, to satisfy our passion for adventure. . . . It’s to escape all that—to have a life of one’s own, not an existence doled out to you by others.
Why I Became a Witch - Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978) wrote Lolly Willowes, her debut novel, shortly before meeting her life partner, the poet Valentine Ackland (née Mary Kathleen Macrory). They would live together for thirty-eight years, and catch the attention of MI5 for their communist activities. When Virginia Woolf once asked Warner, at a party in Bloomsbury, how she knew so much about witches, the author of Lolly Willowes replied matter-of-factly: “Because I am one".
Rede Magick
Originally written (by me) for The Crying Clown Zine (c. 1998)
Tis the season for ghosts to haunt, vampires to suck (blood that is), werewolves to howl,and witches to fly. Or is it? Most people have put Santa and the Easter Bunny away with the broken decorations and the egg you didn't find till the next year. Yet the idea of a witch in black from head to toe, with a black cat, casting her spells with the twitch of an eyebrow is still around. I don't cast spells, I don't like to wear black but I do admit to a fondness for cats.
Oh the wonder and the power of being a witch able to whip out a spell to make your life simpler, easier and so much better... Put that idea away with dear old Santa. Wiccans do not take the powers they study that lightly. To weave your magick you have to carefully consider the many strings attached before you even begin creating neat little rhymes to conjure with.
The Wiccan Rede: If it harms none, do what you will. The Rede is the heart of Wicca, it is the theme song, the top icon on your screen and the apple of many a witchy eye. However, there are as many definitions for 'harms none' as there are Wiccan Paths. Harm none includes yourself, your neighbor who yells when you cross his lawn, the guy/ girl you desparately wish would give you more than a second glance, your pet lizard, the ant you stepped on last week and the planet you step on every day. It includes everything you can touch, see, feel, hear, smell and think. Did I leave anything out? It includes that too.
Harm none is a huge responsibility. At some point magick will infringe on free will. It is up to you to decide if it is harmful. Some Wiccans will use love spells. I see this as manipulation and that rubs my version of harms none the wrong way. Manipulation does not respect the free will and rights of another person and is harm to that person. Of course, the easiest harm none definition would be black magick. White magick: works in harmony with the life forces of the universe and harms no one. Its goals are spiritual such as self knowledge, and for the good of all such as healing. Black magick is: causing change (in reality or in consciousness) for the purpose of causing either physical or non-physical harm to yourself or others, and is done consciously or unconsciously.
Every action causes a reaction, a pull on the strings attached. This is the basis of the 'threefold law'. Simply put, everything you do (negative or positive) will come back to you times three. This is all wrapped up in karma and other strings upon strings upon strings upon strings. Keep things simple with your own version of 'harms none'. Judge carefully what strings you are pulling and tangling in the magick you choose to weave.
Black is almost considered a witch uniform but no where in any 'rule book' does it say Witches, Wiccans or any Pagans must wear black or be forever black balled, black listed or have their names blackened. (I just couldn't resist). True black is a mystical colour but the wearer won't suddenly have magickal powers or secret knowledge. Power and knowledge can be gained through study and work. As for the cat thing... I'm training him to be my familiar, of course!
Happy Halloween/ Merry Samhain!