Hello everyone!
you can call me Violet!
im a crazy plant lady - every room with a window is a garden, and every inch of bare soil has potential so plants are literally everywhere, and i have three beautiful cats that follow me in my dreams.
My roots with magic started with sympathetic magic - the age old poppet. i prefer wax to cloth - i like shaping with my hands. Poppetry served me well for many years, and i worked with hoodoo and brujeria. i still hold them in high regard.
Currently, Im a Hekatean, and it all started with the simple beauty of wanting a garden. anthropology inspired me with a question regarding sacred/magical plants - does the cultural context create the magic/sacredness? what happens if i create a context? so i did.
i keep Hecates Deipnon monthly and celebrate her holy days, and the garden has inevitably become hers, and with planting i focus on magical and sacred plants - which i try to tend according to folkloric customs (gather periwinkle only on certain days of the moon after cleansing, leave offerings for the elder - i dont use a dog for mandrake but i sing and talk to them when ive had to move them). i spend a great deal reading about plant folklore, medicinal and magical uses, and while i do harvest plant matter for magic, i find power in being near the living plants and have been working on connecting with the plant spirit that way, without need to take from it. still, when the leaves bow, ill thank them and take.
some of my favorite current magical green children - Mandrake (european not American and the only one of the weird sisters i currently tend),Angelica, Hellebore, Hyssop, Elder, Mullein, Calendula, Foxglove, Vervain, Periwinkle, Yerba Mansa, oleander, bay laurel (both california bay and greek bay - nobilis), comfrey, hollyhock, borage, larkspur, and rue.
I intend to add mugwort, enchanters nightshade, wormwood, valerian (officinalis, not centhaurus), rowan, betony, sweetgum (to harvest storax), asphodel, belladonna, henbane and datura next year, but im sure ill end up with more than that haha!
i use my plants for practical as well as magical - i make healing salves, skin and hair formulas, breaking down resins and gums for their healing uses, and am currently experimenting with tinctures. i dry my own herbs, store them, and use them in my practice.
My garden can heal, and my garden can kill. While i dont have queen annes lace by water hemlock, i wouldnt want anyone ever picking herbs from my yard unless they know 100% how to identify them.
Current goals:
Refine plant harvesting practices - take more consideration for season, planetary association, day, etc.
Find out what spirit angelica archangelica was sacred to pre-christianity.
Continued study under the guidance of hecate
someday - id love to tend a shrine/temple in honor of her to serve the community and grant more access to those who need her - with a much bigger garden (and sacred groves )
I know i ended up here to learn some (or many) things, so i will be open to why i found my way here.