Sanctuary

Manu­script V.b.26, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC:

Especially if you're not in Europe, it doesn't make sense to learn about plants that either don't grow in your area or have a totally different role in the ecosystem in your area. Plant symbolism and "meaning" generally is connected to a real quality about the plant. It becomes nonsense if you remove it from the specific ecological context

Another weird thing about "witchy" herbalism is that it assigns plants really abstract meanings when those plants are medicinal plants with concrete effects

These two images from Pinterest say Yarrow represents Courage, and I can see how they got there because of the association between Yarrow and soldiers /warriors, but the reason for that association is that Yarrow leaves promote blood clotting so they are used to stop bleeding from wounds.

This is something I have given a try myself, a yarrow leaf is effective for stopping bleeding from a cut. It is a good trick to know if you are out gardening a lot.

I am fascinated by the very abstract view of plants here...it says certain plants represent something but doesn't indicate how they might be used or even what part of the plant might be used.

It's important to have an understanding of these plants grounded in realism I think, because plants with Witchy Associations are usually medicinal plants and medicinal plants usually can be toxic or dangerous because, well, they have an Effect on your body, that's why they're medicinal. The line between medicine and poison is very very thin.

If a plant is said to "purify," sometimes that means the plant gets rid of parasites or toxins, and it does that by making you shit your guts out, aka slightly poisoning you. If a plant supposedly "regulates hormones," its possible that means it was used to induce menstruation, which is how folks in pre-modern times talked about causing an abortion, and that means it poisons you just enough to make your body reject a pregnancy. Unfortunately it is easy to poison yourself just enough to make your body reject being alive.

If a plant is associated legitimately with divination, connecting to the spirit world, psychic powers, etc. that would often mean that it's hallucinogenic. This is another reason why it's important not to mix symbolic/metaphorical associations and real effects of plants. Jimsonweed/Sacred Datura WILL "connect you to the spirit world," in a very not-metaphorical way that gives people PTSD

I feel like most things are done with good intentions, but like blackout tuesday, so many people wanted to post a black square in solidarity with BLM but instead ended up silencing their platform by overflooding their tag with black squares. I don’t want something like that to happen with this energy on a worse scale. 

The eclipse is not powerful in a way like a supermoon, it’s a force of undoing. Think of it like the tower card. You should focus eclipse energy on the police force, or on trump’s administration to undo their structures of power. Please do not send that energy towards BLM. Instead try to use it to break down the barriers around them to allow them to advance. The Eclipse energy is not good for protection spells. It’s perfect for destruction though. 

I saw some posts and accounts that really bummed me out tonight. Some people are so proud to be transphobic and it’s disgusting. I’m terrified that I accidentally follow some TERFS without realizing it.