Wicca Gardening

[Scrappy Amazon]

WOW!!! That was great! Mind if I add all that to my data base of plants?

[Siren]

Was just saying today that I bet that the new month brings festivities for our resident Wiccan. So, how about it, mystic? You around?

[Scrappy Amazon]

Yes! Please share your spring festivities!

[prmystic]

Ah the festivities. The mysteries, the secret doings of the wiccans.....

Well, I've been out to the park more, since I adopted the puppy, but that's not really what you're after, is it?

But it's true, that's the best place to start, just out of doors. My bulbs came up, there's buds on the trees, my sweetie and I have walked around our small lot, making plans for our green future.

I pulled some of the castings out of the worm bed and replaced it with new bedding. I love those worms. They eat my garbage...

But as to ceremonies, well, at women's circle the high priestess had us plant some bulbs in a bowl of gravel. Just add water, daily. The first scented blooms of the year were on my window shelf in my living room. Just after that it was the equinox. We colored eggs, just barely using boiled beets. They were marked with the signs of the things we hope for in the season to come. Then they were put on the altar in honor of the Goddess. Holding a burning censer and thumping our staffs on the ground and generally horrifying our neighbors, my wild man and I marked out the boundaries of this little bit of land that is ours to protect and nurture, first thing in the morning on that sacred day. Welcome Life! Welcome to the return of the Goddess of the green things!

Tomorrow is Pagan Writer's Guild. As it falls between Eostre and Beltaine we could write about either. I chose to write out an idea as a short story that has been begging me to make it into a novel. It involves the rites of spring observed by the Sumerians. On the day of the new moon, presumably just past the vernal equinox they held a great festival in honor of the sacred marriage between the Goddess Inanna (as represented by the High Priestess) and the King who represented her lover Damuzi.

The king bids the people enter the great hall
The people bring food offerings and bowls
They burn juniper resin, perform laving rites
And pile up sweet smelling incense
The king embraces his beloved bride,
Dumuzi embraces Inanna
Inanna, seated on the royal throne shines like daylight
The king, like the sun shines radiantly by her side
He arranges abundance, lushness and plenty before her
He assembles the people of Sumer
The musicians play for the queen:
They play the loud instrument which drowns out the southern storm
They play the sweet algar instrument the ornament of the palance
They play the stringed intsrument which brings joy to all people
They play songs for Inanna to rejoice the heart.
(From Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth; stories and hymns from Sumer; Wolkstein & Kramer)

All of this is even more touching to me now that we are waging war over the ground where these people once celebrated. It is springtime even in Iraq, which once was Sumer. There is much to wish for for the people there in the seaons to come.

The moon is full on Thursday, have you looked outside this evening? She's magnificent already. The most sacred thing is to appreciate the moment.

Blessings,

mystic

[Phalon]

The full moon in April is called the Pink Moon; I wonder why is that. Big and beautiful now, but it is just a moonish color.

[prmystic]

Still looking for the system that calls this moon Pink moon.

However! I did find this page with a lot of interesting Native American moon names and a REALLLLLLLLY inaccurate rendering of the Celtic moon system AND the "neoPagan" system (*which* neopagan group, system or practice? Hmmmmm)....which might cast some doubt on the authenticity of the rest of the information. Oh well.

home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonnames.htm

Colonial American
January: Winter Moon July: Summer Moon
February: Trapper's Moon August: Dog Day's Moon
March: Fish Moon September: Harvest Moon
April: Planter's Moon October: Hunter's Moon
May: Milk Moon November: Beaver Moon
June: Rose Moon December: Christmas Moon

Chinese
January: Holiday Moon July: Hungry Ghost Moon
February: Budding Moon August: Harvest Moon
March: Sleepy Moon September: Chrysanthemum Moon
April: Peony Moon October: Kindly Moon
May: Dragon Moon November: White Moon
June: Lotus Moon December: Bitter Moon

American Indian (Cherokee)
January: Cold Moon July: Ripe Corn Moon
February: Bony Moon August: Fruit Moon
March: Windy Moon September: Nut Moon
April: Flower Moon October: Harvest Moon
May: Planting Moon November: Trading Moon
June: Green Corn Moon December: Snow Moon

American Indian (Choctaw)
January: Cooking Moon July: Crane Moon
February: Little Famine Moon August: Women's Moon
March: Big Famine Moon September: Mulberry Moon
April: Wildcat Moon October: Blackberry Moon
May: Panther Moon November: Sassafras Moon
June: Windy Moon December: Peach Moon

American Indian (Dakotah Sioux)
January: Moon of the Terrible
February: Moon of the Raccoon, Moon When Trees Pop
March: Moon When Eyes Are Sore from Bright Snow
April: Moon When Geese Return in Scattered Formation
May: Moon When Leaves Are Green, Moon To Plant
June: Moon When June Berries Are Ripe
July: Moon of the Middle Summer
August: Moon When All Things Ripen
September: Moon When The Calves Grow Hair
October: Moon When Quilling and Beading is Done
November: Moon When Horns Are Broken Off
December: Twelfth Moon

Celtic
January: Quite Moon July: Moon of Claiming
February: Moon of Ice August: Dispute Moon
March: Moon of Winds September: Singing Moon
April: Growing Moon October: Harvest Moon
May: Bright Moon November: Dark Moon
June: Moon of Horses December: Cold Moon

English Medieval
January: Wolf Moon July: Mead Moon
February: Storm Moon August: Corn Moon
March: Chaste Moon September: Barley Moon
April: Seed Moon October: Blood Moon
May: Hare Moon November: Snow Moon
June: Dyan Moon December: Oak Moon

Neo Pagan
January: Ice Moon July: Rose Moon
February: Snow Moon August: Lightening Moon
March: Death Moon September: Harvest Moon
April: Awakening Moon October: Blood Moon
May: Grass Moon November: Tree Moon
June: Planting Moon December: Long Night Moon

New Guinea
Name: Rainbow Fish Moon Name: Black Trevally Moon
Name: Parriotfish Moon Name: Open Sea Moon
Name: Palolo Worm Moon Name: Tiger Shark Moon
Name: Flying Fish Moon Name: Rain & Wind Moon


Copyright © 2000 By Keith Cooley

Blessings,

mystic

[prmystic]

According to : www.space.com/spacewatch/060113_moon_names.html

April 13, 12:40 p.m. EDT: The Full Pink Moon. The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names were the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and -- among coastal tribes -- the Full Fish Moon, when the shad came upstream to spawn. This is also the Paschal Full Moon; the first full Moon of the spring season. The first Sunday following the Paschal Moon is Easter Sunday, which indeed will be observed three days later on Sunday, April 16.

There you go.

mystic

[prmystic]

Now let's return to the Celtic and NeoPagan moon traditions.

It surprised me to learn that there is much scholarly controversy surrounding the Celtic Tree Moon Calendar as laid out originally by Robert Graves in his book The White Goddess. It's a tradition that I learned early and part of a number of NeoPagan "secret" mystical traditions....many of them not terribly secret at all. I even went to a workshop on this last summer and had a great time.

Here's the Tree Moon Calendar: www.faeriefaith.net/treecal.html
Lunar Trees (Consonants):
Tree # English Name Gaelic Name Letter Glyph
1 Birch Beth B I am a stag of seven tines, or I am an ox of seven fights
2 Rowan Luis L I am a wide flood on a plain
3 Ash Nion N I am a wind on the deep waters
4 Alder Fearn F I am a shining tear of the sun
5 Willow Saille S I am a hawk on a cliff
6 Hawthorn Huath H I am fair among flowers
7 Oak Duir D I am a god who sets the head afire with smoke
8 Holly Tinne T I am a battle-waging spear
9 Hazel Coll C I am a salmon in the pool
10 Vine Muir M I am a hill of poetry
11 Ivy Gort G I am a ruthless boar
12 Reed Ngetal Ng I am a threatening noise of the sea
13 Elder Ruis R I am a wave of the sea
Winter Solstice Who but I knows the secrets of the unhewn dolmen?


It is a lovely and compelling system. More on the controversy as I research it.

blessings and discovery,

mystic

[prmystic]

Well, here's the crux of the controversy: Peter Berresford Ellis is a "popular" historian as opposed to an "academic" historian, as it is writ in a review on amazon.com. He asserts that Robert Graves latched ignorantly onto a wrong assumption and ran with it. His article on the Celtic tree alphabet is fairly well researched with plenty of citations to intrigued the amatuer academians, like me. Here's where you can find his article.

cura.free.fr/xv/13ellis2.html

For those of you who want a little short cut, here's what he says about Robert Graves and the ubiquitous Celtic Tree Moon Calendar:

"The Celtic 'tree zodiac' fabrications, the direct result of Robert Graves' invention of a tree calendar', have become an almost insurmountable barrier to any serious study of the forms of astrology that were practised by pre-Christian Celtic society. For fifty years, from the time Graves' published his book The White Goddess (1946), a veritable industry has been built up among his acolytes, which preach artificial astrological ideas based on Graves' spurious arguments. Some have even published books on what they fondly term 'Celtic Astrology', manufacturing a completely artificial 'astrological system'.....

....Among Celtic scholars, the evidence has been clear since the time of Charles Graves' pioneering work, that the 'tree alphabet' is a nonsense. Here is one of those situations where a lack of knowledge of the language Robert Graves was dealing with was fatal to his argument. Had he known some Irish, or, indeed, known about his own grandfather's work in the field, which any scholar would have been able to point out to him had he taken the trouble to ask, he would have realised the confusion. He blundered blithely on....

He was unaware or, worse, ignored, the fact that there is clear and ample written evidence of how the Irish from the 7th century really viewed the cosmos, made their astronomical observations and undertook astrological interpretation."


Personally, I will continue to explore my Irish heritage, following the work of the scholars and historians. But really, the most important thing in Pagan life is to really live it. I suggest, and may myself, going out tonight and looking at the moon, walk around today and tomorrow and make personal notes about what is blooming, what the earth is like right here, right now. The Pagan tradition is to be in touch with this earth at this moment.

Blessings,
mystic

[Mini Mia]

I've come across a new gardening technique where you don't even break up the ground in order to grow a garden. It's called [url=www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-35%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=%22Lasagna+Gardening%22]"Lasagna Gardening"[/url][/font].

I discovered this new technique when I found and bought the following books:

Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza

Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces by Patricia Lanza

I see that Patricia Lanza has another book out, called:

Lasagna Gardening with Herbs

I see she has a website as well:

Lasagna Gardening.com

[/font]

[Siren]

Hello mystic! Thank you for those interesting posts. You never disappoint. I thought of you as we spied the glorious moon rising tonight. I told my sis of your posts, and she was delighted to hear that you've been "horrifying" the neighbors again!

And you, Jox. Just what does this "lasagne gardening" grow? Veggie lasagne?

[Scrappy Amazon]

Ok...so it's too dang hot here to do anything outside. Anyone got any advice on inside planting?

[Phalon]

Herbs. Without Peaches, and dang, I wonder when they broke up. Sigh. Probably to young to remember that singing sensation, aren't you? Heck, I even don't remember them and had to live through it.


Herbs are easy to grow inside, Scrappy. Any sunny window will do. Rosemary, thyme, basil, sage, even lavender I've grown in pots on the window sill.

[Siren]

A lot of Okies grow herbs inside. For some reason, the cops frown on it.



I hadn't thought of growing lavender, Gams. I bet that smells heavenly.

[Siren]

Gams, I rescued a plant from the clearance rack, and it has thrived in this summer heat, blooming and growing and making me very happy. Problem is, I didn't know what it was. When my sis' BF spotted it, he began counting the points on the leaves, as it looked a lot like a pot plant! Turns out it's nothing nearly that exciting. It's a cleome. Mine has hot pink buds that quickly turn almost white when they open.

[Phalon]

Siren, I very familiar with Cleome, though I've never planted it in my own garden. It's one of those plants I like because I like the way it sounds rolling off the tongue; it's a pretty name.

It's an annual here; I'm not sure if it'd be the same in your climate. No matter though - if you want it in your garden next year, just don't pull it up in the fall. Let the seeds dry on the plant, and you'll have all you want of those pink spidery looking flowers next summer; it reseeds freely.

[Siren]

Gams, I have mulch covering the bed under my cleome and other plants. Will those plants reseed themselves despite the mulch? Or should I gather the seed, push the mulch aside, and then sprinkle the seed?

And you thought you could come here and rest after work! Maybe you should charge a fee for answers, like Lucy did when helping Charlie Brown at her "Peanuts" psychology stand.

[Phalon]

Keeping in mind, Siren, that you get what you pay for, my advice is free.

Cleome will reseed without scraping away the mulch; it does in our heavily mulched beds at work....that are irrigated nightly. Being the lazy gardener I am, I never push back the mulch when I want things like my coneflower and columbine to seed; I just wait for the seed-heads to dry, then sprinkle them over the mulch. But sometimes I don't get a lot of germination either. If you're meticulous, and would be disappointed if the cleome didn't sprout next year, I would reccomend pushing back the mulch.

[Siren]

Thanks for the advice, Gams.

Columbine...I need to plant some of those. Such a pretty, unusual flower.

[Phalon]

Yes, it is an unsual looking flower, which at times, had some quite unusual names based on its appearance: Granny’s Nightcap, Blue Starry, Meeting House, (referring to the “heads in a circle” the spurs resembled), and Rock Bells.

A bit of folklore...

The name "columbine" comes from a Latin word, meaning "dove" because the flower looks like doves' heads. Its botanical name, Aquilegia, also is derived from a Latin word, aquila - which means 'eagle'. The spurs on the flower resemble the talons of an eagle.

In the language of flowers, the shape of the flower comes into play also: it is the symbol of folly, based on the similarity of the shape to that of a court jesters hat. It was considered bad luck to give in a bouquet to a lover.

But some Native American tribes used it as a love charm: men pulverized the seeds as used it as a perfume for clothing to attract the woman of his desire. For this and medicinal purposes the seeds were a commodity for commerce between some tribes.

[Siren]

I'd love to walk through the nursery with you acting as my guide, Gams. Really interesting stuff, that. Only, I'd need the folks' behemoth Suburban to haul home everything I'd buy!

Think about how much study folks gave flowers, back in the day, to give them descriptive names like those. It's like the surprising names and scenarios they came up with for the constellations.

[prmystic]

Hey,
miss you guys! Hope everyone had a great Lammas/Lunasagh. I didn't do anything around the house, just with my women's group. It was nice.

Happy summer!

mystic

[Siren]

Hi mystic! Good seeing you, as always. I hope you're finding someplace cool. Can't wait till it's time for your fall festivities. Wishing my life away, as Mama would say...

[Phalon]

Mystic - a belated hello, or a greeting waiting for you - depends on how long until your next *poof* in here.

Ironic, you *poofed* when you did; I thought writing my last post in here how far the topic has strayed since the thread started, and all the resident Wiccans have left.

I know nothing nearly nothing about wiccan - gardening or otherwise - but have that plant fetish going on, so this seems like the thread where my plant ramblings fit - sort of. My friend told me the other day that I should write a newspaper column about gardening. "Hoeing Around with Phalon" was his suggested title. He was just kidding - on both counts.

[Siren]

Gams, a gardening column would combine 2 passions of yours - writing and gardening. You'd have a reader in me.

Finally had my first customers at my new birdbath - a group of young female crackles. A male came along, trying to court them with a treat he carried in his bill. But they were too busy enjoying the water. Later, a pair of pigeons came and drank, and a robin drank from a puddle left after I watered my lawn. So fun, watching them.

My flowers are really suffering in the heat - 107 today. Even the cleome, that has done so well this summer, and is still budding, is showing the strain. And August is barely here.

[Phalon]

Yay for you and your first customers, Siren. I read you've been peeping for the peeps. I love watching the birds too. My birdbath - a tiny unobtrusive thing, practically hidden now by the over-growth that has become my garden - is frequented by mainly blue-jays and robins....and the squirrels. I think they are the reason the other smaller birds that come by the feeder just a few feet away don't use the bath.

The squirrels in my yard are a pain. They get into everything; digging up plants, chewing them to nubs, and ripping them to shreds. They've destroyed more bird-feeders than I can count. Hubs found the solution though: he greased the pole the feeder hangs from with axle grease. He's pleased with the results. It's lasted a week, (eye roll). I'm sure they'll find a way to shimmy up it before long.

I watched a robin chase a squirrel down the sidewalk the other day, dive bombing it along the way. Score one for the robins.

Watching the goldfinches out our kitchen window is my current fascination. BP and I planted sunflower seeds out there early summer, and now the heads are ripe and heavy. The flowers droop, their faces toward the ground, and the goldfinches sit on them, pecking the seeds from beneath. They then pile them on top and use it for a tray.

Such busy little birds.

[Scrappy Amazon]

Hey guys....got any ideas for any viney type things that don't take much water and don't attract bees?

[Phalon]

These viney things, Scrappy....more information? Such as viney things growing up something like a trellis, or viney trailing down things, or viney ground-cover type things.

Little water? Does this mean only what Mother Nature provides, or will you occasionally meet those begging calls of thirst?

And what zone are you? Climate, I think, would be the big thing; anything I would recommend that would do well in those conditions here: grapevine, (of which the wild variety grow on the dunes in pure sand), or tough as nails bittersweet which grows in gravel, I think would shrivel and die within a few weeks in your climate.

[Scrappy Amazon]

No idea what zone I am...and we are looking for somthing viney that goes up a trellis...we have some cat claw at the shelter but it seems to need too much water and it's very invasive.

[Phalon]

The Twilight Zone, perhaps?