I'm pagan. have been for over 30 years. thing about paganism is that there's so many ways to do it, and, mostly speaking, there's not really a *wrong* way to do it.
or so I thought.
tonight, however, a "wildcrafting witch" local to me proved me wrong.
so, like, if you claim to be a "wildcrafter" - first up, that's not an aesthetic, it's a SKILL - then maybe don't post a video showing off the new "perfect stick" you found, with a voice over of some show exclaiming how perfect this thing is as you handle it and turn it around and show off all it's gnarly angles...
if that "stick" is, in fact, a dried piece of woody poison ivy vine.
related... urishol remains in and ACTIVE in even dried poison ivy wood for YEARS. there really is no way to remove it short of either chemically stripping the piece down to pure cellulose, or leaving it out in the elements for a decade, and even then, cross your fingers, because it might not *all* have finally leached out yet.
if you don't already know what woody poison ivy is, it's uh.... not what you're picturing in your head. I promise you. Some folks call it poison oak, but it really is just poison ivy that found the perfect place and went nuts. And, unfortunately, it can grow into some really awesome and/or *useful* shapes... (in the woods behind the house where I grew up, there was one really cool vine that grew SO long that it was taller than the tree it grew up. It trailed all the way to the ground, and then started climbing a SECOND tree nearby. Over the years, the vine ended up pulling itself up the second tree to the point that the center "loop" was hanging about three feet off the ground... at the perfect height for a clueless kid to use as a natural swing and climbing rope for years and years and years. which is why, I suspect, that all I have to do these days is *look* at a fucking live plant and I break out into a rash so bad I nearly need hospitalized every time.)
For those of you who aren't really familiar... this is poison ivy:
but, uhhh.... so is this:
and this
and sometimes those vines can become dislodged from the tree they are parasitizing and climbing, and hang from the canopy like a naturally grown rope.
Or, y'know, fall off and die and lie on the ground like a particularly awesome, gnarly, twisted into cool shapes stick that you think might be GREAT for decorating with.
yeah, ummmm.... don't. especially if you claim to be a "wildcrafter" who should fucking know better. and if you find that awesome gnarly piece out in the woods, and absolutely MUST do a video about it, maybe instead of picking it up and handling it and showing off the "perfect stick" you found to make shit with, you could instead explain that, yeah, this is an awesome looking stick, but it is *dangerous* and should not be fucked with by *most* people, and *why* it should not be fucked with by most people.
and if you happen to be one of those lucky fuckers who is NOT sensitive to Urishol at all and can handle it with impunity? Please be aware, you are in the MINORITY, and whatever you use that "perfect stick" to make needs to be somewhere where NO ONE ELSE can come into contact with it, because you never know when someone you invite in will NOT share that insensitivity with you.
also, for the love of all the gods, high, low, wandering, and incarnate, never EVER *BURN* poison ivy wood. you could literally KILL someone that way.
