Where There is Love, There is Life

Based on some actual experiences

- When a stranger comes to your apartment door on May day morning asking to borrow some butter or milk, don’t lend any…all your luck will go with it. Never give any stranger a light for their cigarette on May day either - giving out fire is giving away your luck as well. 

- When you are walking at night and you hear music, no matter how beautiful, or voices inviting you to join them don’t acknowledge that you can hear them and turn back towards home.

- When you are out walking at night and you hear the sound of horses or hounds or riders find shelter indoors or in your car quickly. The Wild Hunt (we call them Ghost Riders in America) is mercurial and if it’s the Slua Sí passing by they will do you harm if they can.

- Never run from the Fair Folk, if you see Fairy hounds or anything uncanny that frightens you. Running is what prey does and you do not want to be prey. Don’t acknowledge seeing them, if possible, but leave as quickly as you can. 

- If you are being pixy-led, if you have lost your way in familiar territory, turn your socks or coat outside in or laugh and joke about how much fun you are having. this will free you from the enchantment. 

Whistling up a Wind

Recently I’ve had a few people asking me for more information on how to whistle up a wind. So here you go!

Whistling up a wind is the most common forms of weather magic and has been practiced for hundreds of years. Depending on the pitch and tone of the whistle (which I’ll talk about below) a witch can create a gentle breeze or a sharp gust of wind. Traditionally, if the skill of whistling up a wind does not come naturally to you the option of making a ‘wind whistle’ out of willow or alder wood is available. You could also use a simple glass bottle - all you need is to be able to make a whistling sound.  

To whistle up a wind, you would first take a deep breath (close your eyes if you need to), centre yourself and focus the energy you breathed in. Let it mingle with your own energy/magic whatever you want to call it and then literally breathe out the energy into a whistle.

The tone/pitch/length of the whistle you make decides the type of wind you will get. For example a low pitched whistle which sounds like ‘breath over a glass bottle’ will form a light breeze and a short sharp piercing whistle will form a huge gust of wind.

I included the video (sorry about the poor video quality) so you could hear the pitch of the whistle I create to blow in some rain. 

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it immediately. It really is just a matter of practice and finding the right note/pitch and length of the whistle to make for each type of wind. Don’t be afraid to experiment!

Crow Friendship Sigil

The neighborhood crows befriend me

According to the smithsonianmag.com, the world’s oldest bristlecone pine was a nearly 5,000 year old tree later named Prometheus. In 1964, a man named Donald Rusk Currey decided to use an increment borer to determine its age (a process that cuts a small hole into the center of the tree trunk, and is not intended to kill the tree). Unfortunately, the borer got stuck. He and a park ranger cut the tree down to remove the equipment, and when they counted the tree rings, they realized their mistake. Oops. This incident lead to better protection of the remaining bristlecone pines.

There’s some wiggle room about what can be called “the world’s oldest living tree.” The world’s oldest living single tree is the tree that the OP is referring to. Its name is Methuselah,and it is also around 5,000 years old. Since its location is unknown, nobody knows what it looks like. But it might be this tree here:

But technically, it isn’t the oldest living tree. Let me explain.

It turns out that root systems of trees can send up genetically identical saplings (aka clones) via their root systems. Like so:

Which means the original trunk can die, but since the root system is attached to other trees which give it nutrients, it lives on. The root system can theoretically do this indefinitely. So the tree trunks could be fairly young, but the roots could be large and very, very, very old. So the oldest “tree” isn’t a small grove, it’s a logic-defying forest.

I’d like you to meet Pando.

This male quaking aspen covers 106 acres and is ancient. I’m talking an estimate of 80,000 years. The trees you can see are just “shoots” he sent up, and their average age is 130 years old. He is his own forest. If trees could talk, I’d love to hear what he had to say.

He might be dying, due to insects and drought (hmm, wonder what could have happened to cause that). A section of Pando is being studied in an attempt to find a solution. But in the meantime, we can enjoy him for his beauty.

 she’s like a beautiful norse god come to life and she controls the cows