Ellen Dugan - Garden Witchs Herbal: Green Magick, Herbalism & Spirituality

About the Author

Ellen Dugan, also known as the Garden Witch, is a psychic-clairvoyant who lives in Missouri with her husband and three children. A practicing Witch for over twenty-four years, Ellen also has many years of nursery and garden center experience, including landscape and garden design. She received her Master Gardener status through the University of Missouri and her local county extension office. Look for other articles by Ellen in Llewellyns annual Magical Almanac , Wicca Almanac , and Herbal Almanac . Visit her website at: www.ellendugan.com

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Garden Witchs Herbal: Green Magick, Herbalism & Spirituality 2009 by Ellen Dugan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the authors copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition 2012

E-book ISBN: 9780738722191

Book design and editing by Rebecca Zins

Cover design by Ellen Dahl

Cover image and interior illustrations Jennifer L. Meyer

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Acknowledgments

For my friendsyou know who you are. To my coven-mates, who cheered me on. Thanks for listening and for all your support. Love yamean it! A special thank-you goes to Mickie, Christy, and also to Jen, who gave up an entire Sunday afternoon to help me get the index together. We started out with soft drinks and switched to margaritas after an hour of listing items in alphabetical orderat least there were no quizzes this time, but we did have fun.

With appreciation to Becky Zins, my editor. For acquisitions editor Elysia Gallo, who challenges me to improve and grow as a writer. Also a word of thanks to Nanette Stearns for her technical assistance and kindness, and to Lynne Menturweck for her superb art direction.

Finally, to my husband, Ken, and to our three children, Kraig, Kyle, and Erin, with love.

Contents

List of

: New Lessons from the Oldest of Magick

Conjuring a Garden with Heart

Green Witchery in the City

Magickal Plants of the Southwest

Wildflowers and Witchery

Magick in the Hedgerows

Magick and Folklore of Trees

Gothic Herbs and Forbidden Plants

Herbs and Plants of the Sabbats

Herbs of the Stars, 217

Magickal Herbalism:
The Green Craft of the Witch

Illustrations

Introduction

New Lessons from the
Oldest of Magick

But there are higher secrets of culture,
which are not for the apprentices but for proficients.
These are lessons only for the brave.

ralph waldo emerson

What is it about plants, trees, flowers, and the idea of green magick that continues to fascinate and bewitch us? Perhaps it is their timeless appeal or their captivating qualities. Magickal herbalism is a perennially popular magickal topic. Folks just cant seem to get enough of

that old green magick. Every spring when gardening season begins, Witches, Pagans, and common folk alike flock to the local greenhouses and garden centers, looking for the perfect additions to their magickal gardens. Perhaps they are searching for something new to try, or they are on the lookout for a prized variety of botanical that has eluded them for years. It is the thrill of the hunt and the spirit of the quest that inspires us all. I honestly believe that a deeper, more advanced study of green magick and magickal herbalism is a brilliant way to discover what new lessons the oldest magick can teach us.

I define green magick as a practical, nature-based system of the Craft that focuses on a reverence for the natural world, the individuals environment, and the plants and herbs that are indigenous to the practitioners own area. Herbal and natural magick are essential to green magick.

No matter how long you have practiced your craft, be it months, years, or decades, there is a real need to deepen the connection to the earthto dig further, to expand your magickal skills, and to learn more. With this in mind, Garden Witchs Herbal came to be. In this, my tenth book, I thought it was time to return to where my journey as an author began, for here is where my heart truly lies. Lets take a return trip to the Witchs garden to revisit herbal enchantments and green magick and search further into the mysterious, magickal world of plants.

By further exploring this green path of magick and by listening to our own hearts, we gain a deep and meaningful sense of connection to nature and have the opportunity to advance and expand our level of spirituality. This sense of reverence is but a tool and another enchanting lesson to be learned.

Green Magick and Spirituality

Nature is the symbol of spirit.

ralph waldo emerson

Green spirituality holds that all of life is a magickal experience. A green practitioner is well known for their connection with their living and working environment, by their ethics, and by their affinity to the powers of the natural world. This is an intensely personal path of magick, as it takes into consideration the actual physical climate and location of where you live along with your relationship with the energy that is available within your own individual environment.

Witchcraft traditionally uses the energies that are naturally within the elements of earth, air, fire, and water and combines them together with the practitioners personal power to create positive change and to accomplish a magickal goal. In green magick and green spirituality, the Witch becomes a link between the energies and magick of the natural world and the world of humanity. A Witch carries information back and forth between these two worlds, becoming a sort of bridge. This connection allows love and knowledge to flow back and forth between the magickal world and the mundane, bringing hope, peace, healing, and positive energy to each world.

This is, in fact, an ancient magickal practice. According to folklore, Witches were referred to as hedge jumpers. This term highlights their knowledge of the green world and their ability to jump the hedge, or boundaries, between the two worlds. Hedge Witches, as they are more commonly called, were thought to be able to travel back and forth between the physical world and the spirit world at will. However, it wasnt that they were leaping back and forth between the different planes so much as they stood and practiced their craft with one foot firmly planted in each world, creating that spiritual bridge. They then became walkers between the worlds, and today this description is still a common one to illustrate the path of the Green Witch.