Portable Apothecary Giveaway

 

It has been quite awhile since I did my last giveaway, so I figured I would do another. This giveaway features a portable apothecary that would be great for those who need such a kit for when travelling, who have limited amount of space to work with, or who are just starting to gather herbs and the like for their collection.

Up for Grabs:

 

• Vintage cedar box {I left it "as is", so the winner could customize it to their liking, should the wish}.
• One antique English skeleton key from the early 1900's that has a pretty silver glaze.
• Two Rusty iron "coffin" nails.
• One Scottish hagstone.
• Four different shells.
• Two hand-dipped black herbal beeswax candles {suitable for Ancestor working, necromancy, divination or sorcery}.
• Pretty little moss green pottery mortar and pestle made by Joyce Butler.
• An Herbal Medicine-Making Primer & Wildcrafting Anarchist zine {not pictures}.
• Six empty corked bottles for your own additions.
• Seven of my incense blends in corked bottles {Mistress of Stags, Tech Duinn, Immrama, Three Sacred Fires, Herbwife, Fertile Fields, Dark Daughter}.
• Corked bottles {53 altogether} containing:

Bladderwrack

Blue Spruce Needles

Chamomile Flowers

Cinquefoil

Comfrey Root

Common Tansy

Creeping Charlie

Damiana

Dandelion Root

Elder Berries

Eyebright

Fern

Feverfew Flowers

Frankincense

Goldenrod Flowers

Graveyard Dirt

Hawthorn Berries

Heather Flowers

Hollyhock Leaves

Hops

Hyssop

Juniper Tips

Lady’s Mantle

Lavender Flowers

Lemon Balm

Lemon Verbena

Lilac Flowers

Meadowsweet

Motherwort

Mugwort

Mullein Leaf

Oak Bark

Patchouli

Plantain

Pennyroyal

Peppermint

Periwinkle Leaves

Red Sandalwood

Rose Pedals

Rosemary

Rowan Berries

Selfheal

Spearmint

Staghorn Sumac Berries

Sweet Woodruff

Sweetfern

Thyme

Vervain

Viper’s Bugloss

Willow Bark

Witch Hazel

Wormwood

Yarrow



How to Enter the Giveaway:

 

For those who are interested in entering, all you need to do is share a favourite magical and/or medicinal herb {try to include information on how to cultivate it, it's uses, properties, folklore, and such; you can refer to this post to get some ideas}. All entries must be submitted to the comment section of this post; you can either just type it out there or link to a video or blog entry that is posted elsewhere. Previously some folks were having issues posting in my comment section, so I will accept entries that are emailed to me {unfetteredwood at yahoo dot ca} and I will post them in the comment section, along with listing who the name of the person it is for.  The winner will be drawn at random right after the closing date. Below you will see the vitals:

1. Only one entry per person.
2. Entrants must be 18 years or older.
3. The giveaway is open for Canada & US only {due to the nature of the contents, I don't want to risk the kit being destroyed by customs. My apologies to international folks!}
4. Should the winner reside in an area where any of the herbs are illegal, I will replace those herbs with others that are legal for them in their area.
5. To enter you are not obligated to purchase anything from me or to subscribe to any of my social media haunts.
6. All entries must be submitted by Monday May 26th, 2014 at 3pm EST.
7. The winner will need to provide a mailing address to receive their pretties. The information provided will not be used for any other purpose than to receive their winnings. The information will not be given to anyone else, or sold to a third party.

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Good luck to all of you who enter!

 

Sláinte!

 

Laurel

Gaelic Folk Healing: Staunching Blood

This is my first entry on Gaelic Folk Healing, this one covers some of the traditional lore and practices to stop bleeding. This post is for the sake of exploration and is not intended to give medical advice!

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Blood Drop by Mattia Belletti

Is beannuighthe ainm an fhir a sgoilt croidhe an làoigh ghil ;

Is maith an nidh thainic as, fuil, fion, agus fioruisge.

An ainm a n-Athar, stop an fhuil ; Sancti, taraidh dà chobhair.

Spiritus Sancte, stop an fuil ta ag teacht go treun.

 

~ Ortha Coisgthe Fola

 

{Irish charm to staunch blood found in Gaelic Incantations, Charms and Blessings of the Hebrides by William MacKenzie}

 

There were healers who reported had the gift to stop bleeding, through the use of prayer or words of power. These gifts were sometimes thought to be passed through blood line or taught from one person to another. In some parts of Scotland, it was thought to be most effective when a male taught a female and a female taught a male these incantations. {Survival in Beliefs Among the Celts by George Henderson}.

 

In the Third Manx Scrapbook there is an instance of a Peel man named Gawne who was on a boat with a man bleeding to death and Gawne "saved his life without touching him, merely using a spoken formula." This gift was not only used on humans, but animals as well.

 

Also found in the Third Manx Scrapbook are accounts of a man named Jack Corlett of Ramsey who was thought to be especially gifted in staunching the bleeding of animals. Of this the author says:

 

"A friend of mine when about 11 years old watched a farrier cut a tumour out of the vaginal passage of a neighbour's cow near Leodas in Andreas. It was a serious operation, and the farrier refused to begin it until Jack Corlett came. As soon as the growth was cut out Corlett muttered his charm, and the bleeding ceased. This my friend saw, he says, with his own eyes."

 

There are few other accounts of people who supposed had this gift in the book which can be read here.

Some lore insists that to be able to stop bleeding on an individual, the healer must know the name of the person. An example of this is found in a story from Aultbea, Scotland where a blood-charmer named Ian Ban had trouble stopping the bleeding of a man injured at a wedding. It wasn't until another blood-charmer present spoke the victim's true name that the bleeding had stopped.

Not everyone was lucky enough to have someone around who supposedly had the power stop blood on command. Those people would turn to other means to staunch bleeding.

In Transactions of the Gaelic Society, Vol. 14 a cure to stop bleeding that was used in the Scottish Highlands was boiling a bowlful of blood into a powder, which was then given to the bleeding victim to swallow.

 

A cure reportedly used to stop bleeding in Ireland was cobwebs:

 

"This knowledge about cobwebs can be traced back to a medical manuscript that was transcribed from Latin into Irish by an Irish Liaig, T.Ó Cuinn in 1415. This manuscript is a compilation in Irish of various Latin works that were in general use by medical people in the middle- ages. The Tadhg Ó Cuinn manuscript has this to say about cobwebs:

 

Tele rania: i.e. the spider’s web; cold and dry; it has the retentive virtue; it stops the bleeding of wounds, and it heals as we have said.’ " {The Thread that Could Not Be Broken: Overview of Irish Traditional Medicine by Rosari Kingston}.

Lady Augusta Wilde cites in Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland a prayer that is used in conjunction with scarlet coloured yarn to stop bleeding. The yarn was tied tightly around the neck and wrists {definitely not recommended!!!} while this prayer was said:

"There came a man from Bethlehem to be baptized in the river Jordan ;
 but the water was so muddy that it stopped flowing.
So let the blood ! So let the blood !
 Let it stop flowing in the name of Jesus, and by the power of Christ !"
 

Frogs and toads were used to stop bleeding in Scotland; living toads were brought face-to-face with a person to stop a nose bleed, and the ashes of a frog were administered to stop more serious bleeds {Healing Threads by Mary Beith}.

 

A charm called a "toad-stone" is noted in Scottish Charms and Amulets by Geoffrey Black that apparently was used to stop bleeding. It was a small black oval-shaped stone that was placed on a wound and the following incantation was said:

 

"The water’s mud [?wud] and runs aflood,
And so does thy blood.
God bade it stand and so it did.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, stand blood!"

 

Many different herbs were also used to stop bleeding, and there are a few named Lus na fola/Lus na fala {"herb of blood/blood weed"} including Yarrow{Achillea millefolium}, Shepherd's Purse{Capsella bursa-pastoris}, and Saint John's Wort {Hypericum perforatum}. Often these herbs would be used in ointments to be applied to wounds to stop bleeding and to promote healing in general.

 

To stop nose-bleeds Mary Beith mentions two folk cures used in the Scottish Highlands: a Broom{Cytisus scoparius} bundle was tied around a patient's neck or a seaweed called Linarich {Ulva lactuca ? } was placed on the forehead and temples. She also raises Stinging Nettle {Urtica dioica} poultices being used for minor bleeding, as well and Puffballs {Bovista nigrescens} and fresh Plantain {Plantago major} to staunch small amounts of blood flow.

 

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If any readers happen to know of other Gaelic folk cures and lore for staunching blood, please feel free to share them!

Sláinte!

Laurel


New Vintage Pretties in the Shop

After some spring cleaning and purging, I now have some more vintage pretties in the Etsy shop.

Austrian Folk Art Apron

Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Sign Coasters

Dove & Floral Wreath Cookie Tin

Cast Iron Owl Trivet

Retro Folk Art Peacock Tin

Ornate Cast Iron Trivet

New & Old Growth

 

Spring is here!

Friendly Horses

Yesterday I went with a friend and her daughter to a farm with a lovely herd of friendly horses; some of the horses are rescued from the slaughter and PMU industries. Here are photos of just a handful of the friendly herd:

 

This guy was a real ham!

 

 

 

This is the mare that I rode.



photo credit T. Ryder.

 

And some of the others in the herd.

 

photo credit T. Ryder

 

photo credit T. Ryder

 

 

 

Waxing of Light, Waning of Darkness

 

Glass úar errach aigide,
úacht ina gaíth gignither,
glaidsit lachain linnuisci,
luind cendach corr crúadéigme.
Cluinit cúana a ndíthrebaib,
fri h·éirge moch matanraid,
dúscit eónu a hinnsénaib,
móor bfiad riasu bfirteititt,
a fid, a féor glass.

~ Glass úar errach

 

Translation:

 

Spring with a chill bite is borne,
the breeze cast in whispers cool;
the cry of ducks' held on high,
and the hard tune of the crane's call.
The cadence of hounds is heard
as haled are morning's marches,
moving to life all the land;
it's light a glittering guide
where glens and grass spring.

~ Translation by Hymir's Kettle

 

{I believe that the poem was originally from The Book of Leinster--formerly Lebar na Núachongbála}

  

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As a gardener in a region with long winters {this one particularly long!}, I always look forward to spring, when I can finally dig dirt instead of snow.

 

Last year I started observing Latha na Caillich, which as a Gaelic Polytheist and as someone who lives where I do seems like a sensible time to celebrate the coming of spring. It is a day where I make offerings to both An Cailleach and Brigid; for me personally An Cailleach is very present during the dark part of the year and the winter and to me  Brigid oversees renewal and regeneration.

 

During Latha na Caillich there are some sources that state that this is when An Cailleach loses a yearly fight to the coming of spring, where she either turns to stone, falls asleep until the winter, or becomes young again. Some of these sources associate the triumphant spring with Brigid, although as Annie of the Tairis site points out, it is unclear where the An Cailleach/Brigid connection originally comes from {here and here}.

 

So my decision to honour both Goddesses during this time are just due to making sense to me, more so than based on any firmly rooted tradition.

 

While I have been eagerly awaiting spring to show its face, I have been keeping myself busy starting seeds for the garden and making charms for new beginnings and rebirth. Hopefully soon spring will be here and I hope that you are all having a wonderful beginning to this new season.

 

I leave you with a song version of the poem I posted above.
 

 

 

Sláinte!

 

Laurel

A Policy Update

Unfortunately one of my customers has notified me that their purchase was seized by customs in their country. Due to this, I have updated the policy of the UW Etsy shop.

 

Many of the items that I have for sale are plant-based, and many places have restrictions on what they will allow shipped in to their jurisdictions. It is up to customers to know the laws and regulations for what is restricted or banned in their areas. This means that I will not be offering refunds for items seized by customs.
 

Many governments have clearly defined lists of what is banned or restricted in their areas. Products that I carry that might be of risk include seeds, incense, and other plant-based products.

 

Thanks for reading and to my past, current and future customers!

Sláinte!

Laurel