Rhododendron Magick: 13 Beautiful Correspondences

Rhododendrons are a large family of evergreen, shade-loving, hardy, spring flowering shrubs; bursting into colour in May through to June. They have a range of colours - pure white to red, purple, and varying shades of pink.

Their name means “rose tree” and they are the national flower of Nepal. My hometown consists of the largest Buddhist community in the UK, due to our treasured Nepalese population; and with rhododendrons flowering abundantly along the roadsides of the area I grew up in, I feel a deep love for them. The leaves of certain varieties are used as incense in Buddhist monasteries and the exotic flowers are used as decoration and given as offerings.

In terms of magickal correspondences it’s good think about their characteristics. They are bright, cheery, tenacious and adaptable. They spread and thrive in the dark months, coming into passionate bloom when they get the first opportunity.

Magickal Correspondences for Rhododendron:
Adaptability
Opportunity
Optimism
Cheerfulness
Joy
Healing
Passion
Strength
Tenacity
Overcoming adversity
Individualism
Resilience
Beauty

‼️ Remember that magickal associations are forged through the connections we have with plants - your list may look quite different to mine. 

NEXT - Blackthorn Magick: 11 Helpful Correspondences
NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: Wolfsbane
NEXT - Pagan Holidays: Imbolc
NEXT - Strawberry Magick: 20 Fruity Correspondences

Fabulous Folklore: The Witches of Belvoir

Trigger Warning: female persecution, murder, capital punishment

Recently we visited Belvoir Castle, near Grantham, Lincolnshire. It is home to the Manners family, and the workplace of Joan Flower and her two daughters.

After Henry and Francis Manners ~ sons of the Earl of Rutland ~ died, Joan Flower and her daughters Margaret and Philippa were accused of witchcraft. It was believed they had cursed the family after recently being sacked from their jobs at the castle, with the boys’ deaths being a final act of revenge.

They were known locally as herbal healers, but after the family fell ill, it was deemed that the Flowers women were responsible. The boys’ deaths left the Earl without an heir.

Others were implicated. Anne Baker, Joan Willimot and Ellen Greene were named by the sisters, and all the women confessed to communing with familiar spirits; Flower’s cat “Rutterkin” and Willimot’s cat “Pretty”, amongst others.

Joan Flower would not confess, and in a bid to prove her innocence exclaimed that she would choke on food if she was guilty of the crimes she was accused of. She was brought some bread and butter and is reported to have died after taking her first bite.

Margaret and Philippa were summarily tried, and then hanged at Lincoln Castle in 1619.

It has been suggested that the Flowers women were framed by George Villiers, who wanted to marry the Earl of Rutland’s daughter, Katherine. By marrying Katherine and using the Flowers as a smokescreen, he could kill the brothers and inherit the Manners’ wealth, including Belvoir Castle. 

NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: Primrose 

NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: A Personal Spooky Story 

NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: Place Names

Simple Magick: More Ways to Connect with the Land

I’ve done a few posts recently about connecting with the land and how to utilise a connection you’ve made with the land in your magickal practice. We spoke about visiting a place often, observing what goes on there, saying thanks, and generally building on the connection, like you would a relationship with a person. I thought I would give you some more ideas for forging a connection:

Learn Names

Learn the names of local people, the people who lived in your house, any family living in that area. County museums are brilliant for finding out about the past.

Native Plants

Learn native plants - learn how to spot them, how to use them and what their folk names are.

Forage 

After learning local native plants start to use them. Create teas, jams, syrups and medicines.

Crafts

Research local crafts, whether that be seasonal decorations, gifts, or even charms and spells.

Customs and Traditions 

Learn about local customs and traditions, high days and holidays, and how they were celebrated. Weave them into your calendar.

Folklore

Research local folklore stories, myths and legends. These will help you form an understanding of local people; what they once thought, felt, feared, behaved, believed.

Gather 

Enjoy the land. Hold seasonal gatherings outside and invite friends and family. Get people to bring a seasonal dish for a potluck meal. Give thanks.

What other activities could you do to connect to a place?

NEXT - Simple Magick: Repeating Spell Work
NEXT - Simple Magick: How To Utilise A Connection With The Land
NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: The Land & People 

Fabulous Folklore: White Horses

White horses feature a lot in Midlands folklore. Spitting was considered to avert all evil, and to meet a white horse face-to-face without spitting (usually over the left shoulder) was considered very unlucky indeed. It has been suggested that negative associations with white horses were formed in this area because Saxon hordes laid to waste much of the Midlands; they rode under a banner with a white horse (white horses were sacred to Odin).

To dream of a white horse meant that death was coming. This superstition might have come from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as one of the riders sits upon a white horse. Another local superstition indicating death was to dream of riding in a cart “greased with bacon” which is very weird, and very precise!

White horses appear a lot in mythology. In Celtic mythology, Rhiannon rides a white horse and is linked to the Celtic fertility horse goddess, Epona. In Irish mythology “god of the dead”, Donn, is a phantom horseman riding a white horse. Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, was the son of Poseidon and Medusa. Poseidon was challenged to create a beautiful land mammal and created horses from the breaking waves of the ocean.

I regularly see a white horse when I travel to the Otherworld. He allows me to ride him and he is indescribably beautiful. White horses have always been very special to me.

NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: Bees

NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: Robin Redbreast

Simple Magick: Repeating Spell Work

I have been taking magick classes with Crow (@marget.inglis_witchcraft) and while we were revisiting binding and cord cutting, an interesting discussion came up.

Sometimes, people or situations that have had great power over you will return to you after taking magickal steps to stop them.

People won’t necessarily (consciously) know that you have taken measures to stop their harmful behaviour and/or distance yourself from them, but they may be drawn to you again.

People who thrive off the energy of others, their shitty behaviour, or what they are getting from a particular situation may notice that something is gone, something has changed. Consequently, they may clamber to get it back.

Let’s set the scene. After much deliberation to take action, you spend hours planning a deeply layered spell. You choose the right time and moment, make your preparations, and invest a great deal of energy into performing your magickal working, knowing that you have done everything you should. All seems to be well, the spell seems to have worked - and then this person pops up again, sometimes behaving worse than they did before.

This does not mean your magick has been useless - sometimes it’s quite the opposite! It can mean you have done a really good job, good enough for the person in question to notice that something is different.

What is the magickal answer?

Revisit your spell-work. Do it again. Repeat the process as before. You may have to repeat your magickal working several times.

That’s not to say that this is always the case. In many instances your magickal working will be successful first time around, it depends on the situation and how much the other person (and perhaps yourself!) are invested in the situation. 

NEXT - Simple Magick: How To Utilise A Special Connection With The Land
NEXT - Simple Magick: 12 Tips For New Witches
NEXT - Spell: Personal Spell For A Difficult Situation

Recipe: Wild Garlic Pesto

For those that missed my Instagram Reel earlier in the week, here’s the recipe I used for Wild Garlic Pesto: 

WILD GARLIC PESTO

Ingredients:
150g Wild garlic

Zest of half lemon 

Juice of half lemon 

2 x Garlic cloves 

150ml Rapeseed oil 

50g Parmesan cheese 

50g Pine nuts

Glass jar with lid

Method:
Rinse and pat dry the wild garlic.
Roughly chop the wild garlic.
Prepare the other ingredients - mince the garlic cloves, zest and juice the lemon, measure out the oil, grate the cheese.
Add the ingredients to the food processor, including the lemon juice and oil.
Spoon into the jar and label and date.
Stir the pesto through cooked pasta.

The pesto will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge. Please don’t pull out the bulbs - take one leaf from each plant. 

NEXT - Recipe: Apple Cake
NEXT - Wild Garlic Magick: 7 Bear-Related Correspondences
NEXT - Honouring Nature: The Forager's Code

NEXT - Fabulous Folklore: The Major Oak

Sticky Willy Magick: An Abundance of Folk Names

Sticky willy, also known as cleavers, is an edible herb found in Europe, North America, Asia, Greenland, and Australia. Its tiny, prickly hairs give it a sticky feeling when you touch it, one that is not left on the fingertips.

It has an abundance of folk names. I personally know it as “sticky willy” and “sticky Bob” ~ not to be confused with a herb robert, which is known as “stinking Bob.”

It is also called goosegrass, hayriffe, hedgeriff, catchweed, scratwees, hitchhikers, barweed, bobby buttons, whippy sticks, Velcro plant, clivers, bedstraw, hayruff, sticky weed, mutton chops, sticky bud, sticky back, sticky Jack, sticky grass, grip grass, robin-run-the-hedge, everlasting friendship, robin-run-in-the-grass, loveman, and goosebill.

It is a valuable herb that is helpful for treating inflammation, disease of the urinary organs, scurvy, psoriasis, and skin diseases. It has a soothing effect and induces a quiet, restful sleep.

Celtic folklore says that drinking a cleavers infusion for nine weeks would make you so beautiful that everyone would fall in love with you, and taking a bath infused with cleavers would make a woman successful in love. It has been used in the past to treat gonorrhoea, and as a hair tonic; it is said to help hair grow abundantly.

The plant is often infused in hot water and drunk as a tea, roughly 2-4 grams of the herb being infused to 60 to 120 milliliters of water is a good measurement, although I just grabbed a bunch and infused it. The infusion, hot or cold, is taken frequently, up to three times per day.

It is a powerful diuretic, so should be avoided when diabetes is present. Please check with a clinical herbalist before ingesting herbs of any kind.

Review: Wild Once by Vivianne Crowley

About the Author Dr. Vivianne Crowley is an internationally renowned Wiccan priestess, worldwide go-to authority on Wicca culture, a psychologist and bestselling author. Formerly Lecturer in Psychology of Religion at King’s College, University of London, she is now a professor in the Faculty of Pastoral Counselling, Cherry Hill Seminary, South Carolina. Her many books have been translated around the world. Learn more at www.viviannecrowley.com   

About Wild Once by Vivianne Crowley Wild Once is a spiritual deep-dive into the self. It is a book about quest; about finding and reconnecting with the wilder parts of ourselves to bring happiness, enrichment and spiritual satisfaction into our lives. It is about awakening the magic within, and unleashing the power that arises from standing in our authentic selves. It’s about coming “home” to our true natures.

A beautiful introduction sets us on this insightful journey. The author describes her path; Wicca remains Crowley’s primary spirituality, with some Buddhism and Kabbalah woven in, and psychology featuring heavily. I have already been drawn into the book by the wonderful way that Crowley weaves her words, but as a psychology student Witch from the largest Buddhist community in the UK, I understand that this is going to be a brilliant book, and I start this journey feeling a deep affinity with the author.

The author leads us into a discussion about magic, and the wonder that it is practised at all in the 21st Century. We explore subjects such as synchronicity, science, clairvoyance, the unexpected and premonitions with the author rationalising everything with the pin-point accuracy and sharpness of a psychologist’s mind; affirming magic and relating everything back to consciousness and the human psyche, which are prominent themes throughout. 

“Beneath all the constraints of civilisation, there is within us a more natural and untamed self - a wild, magical, ecological self that is close to our animal origins, but close too to our spiritual core. This wilder self takes us away from the superficiality of contemporary life, towards something older and deeper.” - Wild Once

We explore magic further, and how it is woven into our DNA. We come to understand how it shapes us as human beings, and how it can enhance our lives. We look at consumerism and the type of society we have built; and how this has an effect on our ability to connect with each other, the world, and with ourselves.

We come to understand that we have lost our wild connection, but also how easy it is to rediscover it. We are asked if we want our lives to be dedicated to producing and consuming, plus further pertinent questions that have the reader frantically analysing their existence. But this is what good books do, and I feel I can speak for everyone when I say that the reader will feel deep gratitude for being made to think about these topics.

Through the themes of Witchcraft, human psyche and consciousness, we journey through twenty-three incredible chapters where Crowley helps us discover all the ways we can connect to our wild selves. We explore connections with allies, worshipping deity, magical connection to the land, trees, archetypes, meditation, play, ritual, shadow work, journeying to the Otherworld, and the area where we live. We travel to Poland, Australia and France; we attend moonlit forest rituals, and learn what it is to be part of a coven. We meet the Horned God, learn the symbolism of the Phoenix, and discover many more fascinating things that relate to the wildness we all have within. The author’s writing is peppered with personal stories and accounts, some of them deeply intimate, and it is through her experiences we start to recognise exactly what we need to do to become a little wilder again.  

The Book’s Strengths The aim of the book is to unearth the wild parts of ourselves and throw off the shackles of society, rediscovering our natural selves and becoming realigned with the interconnectedness of the universe. The author aims to inspire the reader into living an authentic life that belongs to them, and without a doubt, Crowley achieves this. Readers of this book will consistently find themselves questioning the way they do things in their magical and mundane lives, and making a serious pledge for change.

An intimate portrayal of the author’s life and experiences; the reader will appreciate the vivid images of Crowley’s Witchcraft practices and adventures, as she relays how these experiences have shaped and enhanced her own quest to discover herself. Readers will surely recognise themselves in descriptions of the author starting out on her Witchcraft path, and feel comforted to hear that we are all amazing creations, regardless of our human flaws.

The spiritual psychology running throughout neatly ties together the connection between the relationships forged within Witchcraft with human consciousness. We learn that we shouldn’t reject rationality and science, but should instead embrace them with discernment, as we dig a little deeper into our personalities. The author refers to multiple experts, scholars, scientists, philosophers and works throughout, which makes for further reading and learning; which is much appreciated. Whilst it is a deeply academic and philosophical book, Crowley manages to cover each topic in a way that is approachable and enjoyable. 

What You Can Learn... The author takes a scholarly approach but it is not stuffy; there is something here for everyone. It is for witches who want to delve a little further into their practice, for witches that want to reconnect with nature, for experienced witches that have strayed from their paths, and for beginner witches who want to learn more about connecting with allies and deities. There is psychology, history, science and anthropology; meaning this is not just a book for magical practitioners, but also those who are not magically minded. It is a book about carving out a life that is memorable and worthwhile; it is about dancing to the beat of your own drum. The lessons in this book are not for Pagans; they are for everyone. They are life affirming and comforting.

This book is an absolute triumph. The reader is left wondering where they should take their life next, and what changes they can make. I want to look for the wild within. I want to overhaul my life and embrace more of the things that make my heart sing. I want to take up drumming, to engage in ritual more, to journey to the Otherworld more, to get outside more, to just “be” more. It is making me want to say “yes” to the opportunities that come my way, and worry much less about living a life for others. Hugely inspiring, this book is so much more than one person’s thoughts and experiences; it is a key to deepening those of others.

Littered with insights about our place in the universe, this book helps us realise that the passing of time is precious, and it is up to us to discover the things in life that fulfil us. We have a unique spiritual journey to make, and all we need to do is to uncover the wild within. NEXT - Review: Witchology Magazine (Spring 2022)

Review: Witchology Magazine (Spring 2022)

I’m coming down from the excitement of Beltane celebrations with my feet up and a copy of the spring edition of Witchology Magazine (@witchologymag). Thanks so much to Editor-in-Chief Louisa (@thewitchesstone) for sending it over.

On the front cover is the amazing Madame Pamita (@madamepamita), author of Baba Yaga’s Book of Witchcraft, who writes on on Ukrainian Witchcraft and Slavic practices. We find out more about her practice, and about the thousands of dollars she has raised for the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund (find out more by visiting her page).

There is a fabulous article called “Harnessing the Elements to Cope with Crisis” by Mandi Em (@healingforhotmesses) who specialises in no-nonsense self-care, and a beautiful article on Ostara by community favourite, Ra (@love_is_the_law).

If art is your thing, check out Witchology’s featured artist Roma-May Daly (@romamaydesign) who shares some of her incredible work, and if tea warms your cockles (we might have just celebrated Beltane but it’s freezing here in the U.K.) check out the Tea Rituals for Spring on p.10 by Vanessa Goodwin (@kohlitea).

Check out the latest copy of Witchology Magazine and all its wonderful contributors.

NEXT - Review: The Wheel by Jennifer Lane