Nicotiana in the Witch’s Garden

I first became fascinated, horrified and enthralled by Tobacco as an ally on the poison path when I read the small monograph in Viridarium Umbris by Schulke. As I read the section I felt something calling to me like the whispering of spirits. I wanted so much to grow this darkly but popular nightshade, but I …

The Old Hag -Grandmother Earth, and the comfort of the wild

There is something holy in the early gloam of morning, when everyone else is still asleep, just before the sun rises. I light the candle and watch it softly flickering against the edges of the bones and wings which rest at my altar. The cats drink the water in the tincup which I leave as …

The Doorway- on books and enchantment

"All your life Fern, it's been there all your life, only you don't know it. Though you shall know it on the day you Ask; because when you look back, you'll see it was listening, listening from the very edge of your life...""Though you'll pay. Oh yes, you will pay. I've paid in my time. …

Settling in

It has been a month since I moved from my garden cottage to an apartment building close by. My altar has been set up, the balcony and kitchen garden have been established, and I am beginning to plan for the Spring ahead with both poison and balm. It has taken time to adapt to the …

The Bundle

"The soul of the sorcerer should be kept lithe and youthful in elasticity by constant pleasurable effort. If you find that some parts of you have become jaded, that your perceptions of miraculous or wonderful events have been dulled by contact with the charlatans and the deceptions of the world, or because you have seen …

Bittersweet Nightshade

Solanum dulcamara berry Small, bitter, green, yellow and red berries cling to the vine all Summer- shiny and alluring, almost good enough to eat, but they are poison. Enough could kill a curious child. But still, they are not as deadly as Belladonna, the true murderess of the family. All the same it is best …

A Bitter Brew from The Yaga

I've been sat down, bitter wormwood tea in hand, in the Yaga's hut many times before, but this time was a bit different. She had a canny look in her eye and a sly grin, her sharp teeth gleaming like ice-covered thorns. "Just remember, in all things there is a price to pay". I felt …

Three Weeks in the Underworld

The devotional "Host of Many: Hades and His Retinue" has been released on Kindle with many interesting and beautiful contributions. I created three illustrations and a poem for this devotional during May last year, each reflecting at the time my own feelings surrounding death and depression. While I was waiting to share these as part …

The Little Things

Sometimes we get so swept away by the majestic, exotic and the wild that we forget the spirits on our doorsteps. Perhaps it is because they are so common that we tend to ignore them as we do everything else in our day to day, the way most people just drift through life never noticing …

The Yaga’s Garden of Death

I planted Hellebore on Salem's grave. It was meant to be Belladonna, but the soil was calling for something and the Belladonna was not ready, and Hellebore was. And so my other love, the other poison went in. She is protective too and a bit less malicious than Belladonna, so perhaps it is right. The …