On Point of View- Doug Hooper

“Two men look out,

From behind prison bars.

One sees mud,

The other sees stars.” — Doug Hooper

Honoring the Dead

From the dawn of your birth
To the sunset of your death
I honor you.

Chat

Catha edulis
Chat – tree growing to 50 ft (15 m). Chat has reddish twigs, oval leathery leaves, and small yellow or white flowers.
From the air, the upland hills of Ethiopia’s Harar Province look like an immense, carpeted staircase to the sky. Closer inspection reveals the textured carpet that covers the vast steps to be made up of undulating rows of small, leafy trees. In bloom, the trees’ little white flowers seem to dust the landscape like a light snowfall. But this is not the reason that the African evergreen has sometimes been called the flower of paradise. It has earned the idyllic name by virtue of the effect its leaves have on people.

Blackberry:

Also known as bramble. Powerful herb of protection and used in invocations to the goddess Brigit, who presides over healing, poetry, sacred wells, and smithcraft. Also used in wealth attracting spells. To work your way through a bramble of blackberries is damn near impossible – but it is rumored to dispel, and protect from, all disease and evil.

A Garden of Healing Herbs

There are four main stages of untaming the medicinal garden, and they can be practiced simultaneously, after being developed gradually over a period of years. The first stage is to grow herbs in beds of rows, circles, geometric or random patterns, in much the same way as vegetables are grown. The garden bed has a definite role in many landscapes. It is easy to plan and care for, easy to protect with fences, and easy to harvest from. These kinds of welldefined gardens are attractive and can be located close to the house for convenience and for the visual delight they offer. The particular design and layout of the herb bed can be as varied as the number of herbs being grown and the types of people growing them.

Changelings

The Gaelic peasantry believed that certain otherworldly creatures kidnapped some of their new-born babies particularly those of good appearance and exchanged them with an old, emaciated, decrepit and ugly fairy creature who was known as a changeling. The abducted children were not assumed dead but living in a timeless fairy place exiled from the mortal realm. Sometimes a lactating woman was also abducted to suckle these kidnapped mortals and sometimes to suckle fairy babies.

Egyptian Temples, part IV: The Temple Building by Mirjam

Model of the Universe
From at least the New Kingdom on the Egyptian cult temple building was a symbolic model of the universe. It was built along an east-west axis, following the sun´s course through the day and surrounded by a brick wall built in alternating concave and convex sections. These symbolized the Primeval waters out of which Creation had risen. A processional path led up to the pylon towers, which were a reminiscent of the early, predynastic reed shrine that once had stood at the back of just such a guarded enclosure as the mud brick wall. The great portal which was set in between the pylons lead into one or several open courtyards in line, thereafter followed one or several covered pillared halls until finally the darkened sanctum where the naos which held the cult statue of the deity was reached.

Amaethon

God of agriculture. Celtic (Welsh). A son of DON and brother of GWYDION, he is known from a limited number of Welsh texts and was engaged in a mythical battle against the ARAWN. Associated with ploughing and husbandry. The modern Welsh name for a farmer is amaethwr.

Devotion to the Elements

(from Silver Ravenwolf’s “To Ride a Silver Broomstick” p. 16-17)

This is an excellent devotion for outside, but can be done inside, if you have something to represent the four elements on a dresser top, your altar, etc. Get dressed properly for the weather (of course) and step outside.

*Aquamarine*

*From lightest sky-blue to the deep blue of the sea – aquamarines show all these shades of an exceptionally beautiful range of usually light blues. It is a truly fascinating stone. Women all over the world covet it because of its fine blue colour, which suits almost any complexion or eye-colour to perfection, and creative gemstone artists get their inspiration for new cuts more often from aquamarines than from other stones.