Bennett - Healing magic: a green witch guidebook to conscious living

Copyright 2004, 2014 by Robin Rose Bennett. Foreword 2004 by Susun S. Weed. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature. North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

The herbal information in this book is offered for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions. Please note that some herbs are designated for external use only and some are not to be used internally during pregnancy. When in doubt, please consult a qualified healthcare practitioner and your own inner wisdom. The author and publisher accept no responsibility for any adverse consequences resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any information in this book.

All names used in the stories in this book are real unless otherwise noted. All songs, poems, circle-casting invocations, meditations, and spells were written by the author except where otherwise noted. Every effort has been made to give proper credit wherever it was due.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bennett, Robin Rose.
Healing magic : a green witch guidebook to conscious living / Robin Rose Bennett; foreword by Susun S. Weed.
pages cm
Includes index.
Summary: Filled with stories, songs, rituals, recipes, meditations, and trance journeys that outline more than 100 ways to practice the art of magical healing, this guidebook to conscious living makes it easy to follow the path to physical and spiritual health Provided by publisher.
1. Witchcraft. 2. Spiritual healing. 3. Medicine, Magic, mystic, and spagiric. I. Title.
BF1572.S65B46 2014
133.43dc23

2014021826

v3.1

Peace and justice ,

Truth and joy ,

Are the birthright

Of every girl and boy .

Wake up ,

Speak out ,

And, yes, even sing ,

Of the love that is in every living thing

And then throughout the world, let freedom ring .

To Mama Earth

And all your children ,

All my relations ,

A give-away to you .

A RE YOU CURIOUS ABOUT MAGIC ? Intrigued by herbal lore? Do you feel a connection to the earth? To the moon? Do you have prophetic dreams? See stories in a crystal or cards? Do you want to be more in charge of your own health care? And emotional needs? Do you want to celebrate life? To learn the womens mystery stories? Are you wondering about the Wise Woman Tradition? Eager to learn more about Medicine Wheels? Interested in chakras and energy healing? Intrigued by magical ceremonies? Then you have come to the right place. You have opened a book that will enchant you and teach you and guide you and nourish you deeply and fully.

My friend, Wise Woman and sister Green Witch Robin Rose, has gifted us all with a book that is partly a how- to manual for the aspiring Green Witch, partly a do-it-yourself shamanic journey, partly a book of lights and shadows, partly a compendium of herbal lore, partly a telling of storiesand wholly loving, compassionate, inclusive, and fun. She helps us wake up our senses and get intimate with the plant and animal life that thrive wherever we are, in city or country.

For this she may perhaps best be known: That after her apprenticeship with me she returned to Manhattan, where she lived for another ten years, nourishing herself with herbal infusions, a weed a day from the parks of the City, and magical ceremonies alone and with others. Of course, she alleviated some chronic problems in the process. Thats Healing Magic.

Healing Magic isnt exotic or far away or costly or rare. Healing Magic is the art of allowing the magic in, no matter where you find yourself. It is the following of the cycles of the sun and the moon and the earth with intention and wisdom. It is the daily experience of using natural objects, of herbs as foods, of simple ceremony. It is the reawakening of the senses we had as children, a return to the ground of human beingness, a reconnection with the earth, a gladness that touches the heart.

Of course, this is easier said than doneand thus this book: A training manual, shall we say, for those who wish to evoke Healing Magic every day. A training manual for those who would walk in beauty on the Mother Earthwith color, with song, with herbal medicine and magic, with breath, with attention, with magic, with mystery. Read these stories. Do these exercises. Your life will changefor the better.

Healing Magic is the magic of the Wise Woman Way. It is the magic of the soup pot. It is the magic of the teacup. It is the magic of a candle. It is the magic of a story. It is the invisible magic. The mysterious movement of life. Breath and heartbeat, birth and death. The womens mystery stories that reveal the powers of menstruation, the secrets of fertility, and the wisdom of menopause. The ever-changing moon who changes in us, the Wise Women. Healing Magic is centered in the heart, beating with the heartbeat of the earth.

Healing Magic is the magic of the barefoot doctor. Chinese barefoot doctors traveled the countryside barefoot, helping and healing using simple herbs, not difficult-to-do practices or hard-to-get remedies. Similarly, Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living offers us simple, safe ways of using common herbs for emotional and physical health and healing. It urges us to appreciate weeds instead of pills, a gentle touch instead of an injection, intuition instead of X-rays. (And if we must take pills or receive injections or submit to X-rays, then Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living tells us how to connect with the Healing Magic in those things, too.)

Healing Magic is like the magic of Tantric yoga. It invites us to honor and delight in our sacred senses, to trust our intuition, to value beauty and grace, to become thoroughly intimate with nature in all her aspects. It offers us specific ways to feel the flowing love of the Universe in every cell of our being. It encourages us to open ourselves to the wonder and play of the world. It reminds us that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living is a garden of delights. Wander here as you will, picking fruit, smelling the flowers, delighting in the bees and butterflies, tasting the delicious greens, and savoring the fresh air and bubbling spring water. It is a journey you will want to make again and again, as each trip will bring new stories, new sights, new sensations to you. And each visit between its covers will help you reweave yourself more deeply into the healing cloak of the Ancients, will help you sit ever more firmly in the lap of the Wise Women who were your ancestors.