Susan Ilka Tuttle - Green Witch Magick: Essential Plants and Crafty Spellwork for a Witchs Cupboard

Essential Plants and Crafty Spellwork for a Witchs Cupboard

SUSAN ILKA TUTTLE

Plants. They provide us with clean air to breathe. They give us nourishing food and natural medicine to sustain and strengthen our bodies, support our minds, and feed our souls. Plants gift us with the essentials we need to live and thrive. In return, we protect Mother Earth and Her limited resources. This is the way of the green witch.

Humankind has always innately known and understood the healing and magickal powers of plants. Over time though, weve allowed ourselves to move away from this inner knowingweve lost our appreciation for and connection to the natural world. Some even consciously choose to ignore and bury this sacred knowledge. Even so, this innate knowledge remains with us and is reawakening in a strong way among many people, especially as we see the harmful effects of our choices over centuries.

I am cautiously optimistic and also a realist, and I do believe this is truly an exciting time. So many more humans are becoming curious about and even embracing activities that have always come naturally to the green witchthings such as gardening, folk herbalism, responsible and respectful foraging and wildcrafting, and the spiritual practices of witchcraft. All of these invite us to return to our roots, reverse environmental damage, and reestablish balance and harmony.

Its encouraging to see these activities move from the fringe into the mainstream, creating opportunities for those who feel the callingthe green witches, naturalists, foragers, wildcrafters, herbalists, gardeners, and environmentalists. Many of them serve as luminaries to help reintroduce our society, especially the young, to a reciprocal relationship with Green Energy. Its a birthright for all.

Reconnecting with plants is one way to reestablish our connection with Mother Earth. It is the way of the green witch and ultimately the goal of this book. Within these pages, we explore the individual, Earth-honoring path of the green witch. Working in partnership with plants is an integral part of this path. We get to know (remember) thirteen sacred, essential plants for the witchs cupboardsafe, healing plant allies that we can co-create with for medicinal, culinary, and magickal purposes. After we get to know them, we apply this knowledge in a hands-on way to make natural remedies, recipes, and magickal creations.

The thirteen essential plants in this book were carefully selected to include wild plants that grow readily throughout the world where people have settled. I have also chosen plants that can be cultivated easily in our own gardens, grown in a sunny window, or purchased from the market. And well become familiar with a handful of plants that grow in the wild and are also cultivated. I wanted to make sure that all readers, both city and country dwellers, have easy and safe access to a majority of the plants in this book. Some selections are quite practical but no less beneficial and powerful.

My intention for this book is to provide you with a guide to green witchcraft and to working in concert with plants that can support our bodies, minds, and spirits. It is my wish that my offering will help you forge a deeper spiritual connection with the life-giving, miraculous plants that grow all around you. I hope that you will find a lifelong, adventurous journey of co-creating with plantssharing your knowledge about them, caring for them, and preserving them as our planets precious resources.

In this beautiful dance of reciprocity with Mother Earth, may we use our gifts to give more than we receive, to restore balance and harmony to the natural world of which we are a part, in exchange for the gift of the dance.

of this book introduces you to witchcraft basics, its roots, and the variety of paths that witches can take. We then turn to green witchcraft, of which working with plants is an important part.

The plant profiles in present thirteen sacred and essential herbs for the witchs cupboardsafe, healing plant allies that you can work with for medicinal, culinary, and magickal purposes. Each profile contains:

• Common name, scientific name, other folk names, and family name
• Astrology classification: the plants ruling planet (including the sun and moon) and associated zodiac sign or signs
• Element correspondence: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water
• Plant lore, history, myths, stories, and legend passed down from generation to generation
• Identification traits and plant parts used
• Medicinal and culinary uses
• Magickal correspondences: the plants vibrational powers in areas such as protection, healing, love, luck, or psychic powers

The profiles are intended to help you use herbs in your craft. Understanding their astrological, elemental, and magickal correspondences will give you insight into the energy and power of the plant. For example, plants associated with the moon are connected to peace, healing, sleep, and psychic dreams, and Air plants are connected with psychic powers, prophetic visions, intellect, and wisdom.

This book can be read cover to cover, or you can skip around according to your interest. Reading up on foraging and herbalism basics (. Its also helpful to reference the profiles of the plants as you explore the projects, to gain a full understanding of the plant or plants that you are working with.

After getting to know each plant, youll work with them intimately in through the hands-on projects for herbal remedies, culinary recipes, spellwork, rituals, and divination practices. Explore the list of suggested resources. Each of the thirteen plants in this book can be used in spellwork that corresponds with their particular magickal properties. They can also enhance your divination practices, through both their magickal and medicinal capabilities. As you do these projects, please always honor your personal relationships with and feelings about certain plants, in addition to the traditional magickal correspondences given in the book. For example, if a rose signifies a sense of home and belonging to you, something that is not considered a traditional magickal property of this plant, embrace that personal association.