Tangible Witchcraft: Making Ink

Making your own inks for magick spell writing or taking notes is a great idea. Using a special pen and ink for your magickal workings is one way of putting you in a different place- one ready to work magick and communne with the divine. I use a special pen and ink when doing oracular work.

One way to make a special ink is with oak tree galls (click for images). What are "oak galls"? They are balls on the trunk or branches of an oak that are created by the larvae of wasps and are found on oak trees. 

Galls are irregular plant growths which are stimulated by the reaction between plant hormones and powerful growth regulating chemicals produced by some insects or mites. Galls may occur on leaves, bark, flowers, buds, acorns, or roots. Leaf and twig galls are most noticeable. The inhabitant gains its nutrients from the inner gall tissue. Galls also provide some protection from natural enemies and insecticide sprays. 

But for our purposes, they are used in healing, in Witchcraft charms, and to make ink. This ink lasts forever and has been used to make some of humankind's greatest works: Bach's Concertos, Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings to name but a few.

Here's how to make the ink: 

1. Collect a handful of galls, choose ones with holes in them (so you know that the insect has made its escape). 
2. Grate them as fine as possible. 
3. Put the galls in half a pint of water & add in some rusty nails. 
4. In an old pan boil gently for 15 - 20 min. (This is the smelly step!) You can also choose to have it steep for days without boiling. It creates a purple-black or brown-black ink.
5. Cool, then strain through a coffee filter & store in a jar. 

This ink keeps indefinitely (if you find mold growing on the top- no worries- just strain it and rebottle it).

For more great ideas on Witchcraft DIY, check out my pinterest board.

Etsy (Groan)

Right on the heels on posting an herbalist manifesto, came the news: Etsy has changed its terms of service, so that no ethical herbalist can sell their wares there anymore. They have changed what can be listed in product descriptions in such a way that an herbalist cannot describe what a remedy is used for at all without violating their terms.

In coming to this policy, they are siding with big pharma and the FDA who would rather people only have access to their expensive (and often unattainable) "medicines" often with huge side effects.

I am no foe of Western allopathic medicine. It has its place. if I am in a car wreck, I want to go to an emergency room, please. But for most maladies that affect humankind, an herbalist is the way to go. We are gentler, have centuries of data about the se and effectiveness of our wares, and do not muck around with your body or the planet the way big pharma does.

My wares will still be available online- I have my own storefront (currently here) and I also sell at Poppy Swap. But Etsy is out. It is a shame, because I love many of the crafters and artisans I have met and discovered through Etsy. But for herbalists, it is not longer a good fit. I posted on my Facebook Page,

"Etsy cares more about their bottom line than it does about herbalists. Their new policy means I can longer sell any herbs there, unless I do not explain their use.

No ethical herbalist in their right mind would sell something that is not completely understood to a client. By asking us to not tell customers what an herb is used for (your term is "making a medical claim") on our listings, you are asking us to go underground, lie, and/or make lies of omission. 

Shame on you, Etsy. You are standing on the side of big pharma and the wrong side of history on this one."

For those of you looking for a good herbalist and good herbal wares, check out Poppy Swap:

My store name is Boline, of course!

And for those that wish to patronize me more, you can use Poppy Swap or my direct store. I appreciate your business and continued patronage of small crafters like me. Many blessings!

Why I am an Herbalist (A Manifesto of Sorts)

"An herbalist" is one of the ways that I identify myself. But just what do I mean when I use that term, and why is it important to me?

To me, an herbalist obviously cares about healing others. But it is the way that they do the healing that defines them as a person. An herbalist tends to value tradition and hand-to-hand, mouth-to-ear learning more than academics, who tend to place higher value on the written word.

An herbalist cares about human health, obviously- but they also care about the health of our entire planet as well. They will not heal at the expense of the planet and its other inhabitants, in the way that big pharma does. Commercial allopathic medicines and mass produced remedies (even herbal ones) by big companies rip raw resources out of their habitats, destroying them. They farm their ingredients in a monoculture way that strips the soil of nutrients and destroys habitats. They produce in a factory environment that pollutes the atmosphere and water supply. And then they create an end product that is often toxic or causes harm. Herbalists like me grow their own herbs, providing habitat as well as food for insects. (Or they acquire it from ethical sources that grow like me.)

Herbal medicine is simply more potent (as well as gentle to the system) for many more living beings than commercially made remedies and medicines. Further, there are many herbal remedies that are working better than their pharmaceutical counterparts, because they use the whole plant, not just an isolated component of it. And don't get me started on how commercial antibiotics are over-prescribed and are strengthening the bacteria's resistance to those medicines. We have major strains of mersa, clostridium difficile (c diff), strep, and other infections that used to respond to anti-biotics but now don't. We simply don't have this problem with herbal anti-biotics. They still work, and don't destroy your body's immune system while killing the bad stuff, either.

Herbalism is magick making. A good herbalist is an animist- who knows that plants are living things with a form of sentience and hold energetic properties that can heal or harm. Being able to speak to plants, commune with them, and sacrifice them to create medicine for greater healing in the world is a magickal act. Coupling their properties with my Will and infusing my remedies with healing and intent is an act of magick. Being a part of the red life who takes the green life for its survival and knowing and welcoming the fact that one day the green will eat me in turn links me to the Wheel in a way that most urban dwellers do not know in their marrow. Re-tying myself to the wheel daily is religion and magick.

Lastly, being an herbalist means that I believe that all people have a right to to health care and wellness- and that capitalism and profit do not enter into that access. I price my remedies to simply cover my costs and labor. Profit does not enter into it.

My labor costs pay me enough- I am not a Witch for profit. Further, to assist everyone with access to healing, I barter and give away remedies when needed. We have so many poor and uninsured people in this country. It is disgraceful that so many suffer without care. In my little corner of the world, I am doing my part to heal family, friends, and my community.

Heartsick

A vigil in Wisconsin (Chicago Tribune)

Today, as I drove my partner to work, I heard the news. Another mass shooting using semi automatic weapons, this time targeting worshippers in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. This, of course, follows the news of the Aurora, CO shooting in a movie theater, and the gun death of a friend's son recently.

In the wake of what happened in Aurora, I have gotten into futile debates with my partner's relatives (who happen to be Fox-News-watching, gun-toting people) about guns a lot lately. They believe if everyone were allowed to conceal carry their gun, violence would diminish. They believe semi-automatic weapons should be legal. This of course, defies logic, but no one who watches Fox News watches it for logic or statistics.* News flash: Wisconsin has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country and had passed a law in 2011 allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon. This kind of law allowed a 40 year old white man to travel to the temple undetected and start firing on worshippers and kill some of them before anything could be done.

If concealed carry was legal in Aurora, it would not have saved the people that died, it may have even made the death toll worse in that dark theater, vision further obscured by a gas canister, released by the gunman. The people that argue that point befuddle me. If people are going to commit acts of terrorism, access to weapons of mass killing only helps them. It harms everyone else. Concealed carry laws and access to semi automatic weapons only allow people like George Zimmerman and James Holmes to kill innocent people.

Vigil, photo from Chicago Tribune.

I say this: If you are going to carry a gun, I believe it should be on the outside of your clothes, where everyone can see it. You should have to broadcast that you see violence as a solution to your problems and that you are a potential lethal threat to others. You should have to put one of those car magnet signs on the outside of your car that you are packing heat at that moment.  No one should be able to legally ambush another person.

My heart goes out to the victims of gun violence today: my new friend, whom I ran into at the bookstore yesterday. Her eyes were red from crying as she watched her youngest kids (my son's new friends) play with the train sets before they headed to a movie. "I am just trying to get out and do normal things." she told me. Her grief is palpable and the hole in her heart is visible from the outside. After I met her kids a couple weeks ago, I sought her out and visited her. We became friends and I am hosting them all for dinner this week. After a month of making funeral arrangements and working on gun control efforts around the state, she is left with an open schedule and lots of unprocessed grief. She needs people to be kind to her now more than ever.

Victims being escorted out of the temple, Chicago Tribune.

My heart mourns for the Sikh community in Wisconsin and nationwide, whom are probably wondering why they were targeted (and perhaps speculating, as I am, that they were once again mistaken for Muslims and this was a hate motivated crime**. Some witnesses said he had a 9/11 tattoo, marking the September 11, 2001 attacks by Islamic militants). My pryers today are with the families of the Sikhs who died and the ones traumatized by this attack.

My heart mourns for the victims of the Aurora, CO shooting as well. This senseless violence needs to stop. I am sick to death of gun nuts (and if you own more than a couple guns, I define you this way) telling us MORE guns are the answer to gun violence. I am heartsick today.

The only way to stop these attacks is stop allowing access to weapons that are only designed to kill people. (I say that for civilians, police (who ill more innocent people daily than the crazed mass murderers mentioned above), the military, and everyone. Semi-automatic weapons are a coward's weapon. It allows a safe distance from which to mow people down without regard to their life and their divine spark. It amplifies the disconnection that one must feel to make them capable of murder. It allows a murderer to not see the anguish they inflict as they kill.

                               Forgive the ranting today. I needed to vent.

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*You watch that right-wing drivel because it tells you what you want to hear. It confirms your prejudices and places blame for you in a convenient, bigoted place. Why is it that everyone I know who uses Fox News and right-wing radio as their main news sources are incapable of anything more than mimicking the soundbites that they provide? When I engage in debate I seek sources, analyze facts, and have something more to offer than a catchphrase to defend my position. Sheeple make me angry when they choose to remain ignorant.

** Thank you, Jeff Dunham, you racist piece of shit for helping confuse uneducated America that terrorists wear turbans. Your "comedy" is little more than bigotry with puppets. You are a national disgrace. (

Sikhs wear turbans, Muslim men do not need to wear a head covering). And there have been more acts of terrorism committed by white men in this country than any other race. Religion, when it is true, connects people. No religion that preaches hate is a religion in truth. It is extremism and fundamentalism, regardless of the religious clothing that it wears that is at issue here.

Lammas/Lughnasadh

Yesterday/today is on of the wheel of the year sabbats, Lammas. Depending on what kind of witch you are, it has several meanings. For many, it is an agricultural/fertility holiday- drawing on the first harvest or it is a time when the grain is cut. People make wheat weavings and corn dollies at this time.

It is a time when the sacred king begins his sacrifice for the good of the people, too. So in this house, we bake bread (Loaf-mas!) that looks like a person, and "sacrifice" it for *our* common good by eating it. It is a hands-on activity that can be explained to children easily. As he gets older, there will be more pomp and circumstance and ritualized actions, but the point is to tie us to the Wheel, to practice re-tying us to the cycle of the seasons and the Mysteries.

Today, I am creating a special sourdough starter that I plan on keeping for sabbats and passing onto my son when he finally leaves home- a starter steeped in tradition and The Craft. What are you doing to teach your children about Lammas?