The Real Witches’ Garden: Spells, Herbs, Plants and Magical Spaces Outdoors
A guide to the outdoor world and nature-based spirituality for real witches everywhere. Kate West explains how to set up your own sacred space in the garden and how to grow herbs for use in spells and remedies. The Real Witches' Garden is a practical guide to witchcraft in the garden – whether you have 20 acres or a window box!Contents:• Nature based spirituality – Witchcraft by another name.• How the garden fits into your life and your Craft.• The garden as a sacred space for working ritual.• The elemental garden – earth, air, fire, water and spirit.• The garden as a medicine store – herbs and herbal remedies.• The smallest of gardens – window boxes, pots and containers.• Plant associations – a list of plants relating to various aspects of the Craft.• Planting and tending by the natural cycles – the lunar calendar and the wheel of the year.
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THE REAL WITCHES’ GARDEN
KATE WEST
Note to the reader The remedies and techniques in this book are not meant to be a substitute for professional medical care and treatment. They should not be used to treat a serious ailment without prior consultation with a qualified healthcare professional. Neither the publisher nor the author accepts any responsibility for how you choose to handle and use the herbs described in this book.
Element
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
and Element are trademarks of HarperCollinsPublishers Limited
Published by Element 2004
© Kate West, 2004
Kate West asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Text illustrations by Chris Down
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007163229
Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN 9780007397280 Version: 2016-01-06
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
This book is dedicated toMags who returned to the Goddessin February 2003. Her friendship and her presence in theCraft are sorely missed.
‘May we meet and know love once again.’
CONTENTS
ONE: A Nature-Based Belief System
TWO: A Space for Living and the Craft
THREE: The Garden as your Sacred Space
FOUR: The Garden for the Goddess and the God
SIX: The Garden of Spells and Magic
ELEVEN: Lunar Gardening and Plant Care
Appendix ONE: What Witchcraft Really is!
Appendix TWO: Terms and Definitions
Merry Meet!
If I were to ask you to describe a Witch’s garden you would probably envisage climbers growing up the walls of a thatched cottage, a profuse array of colourful and traditional country-cottage-type plants, and herbs to tend all kinds of ailments. But the reality is often nowhere near the dream. For just as Witches appear just like everyone else, so their gardens are as varied as those of other people. They could be large or small; they may be a scrap of concrete, a window box or just the kitchen windowsill. They are often overlooked by neighbours, close to busy roads and shared with children and pets. We describe Witchcraft as a nature-based spirituality, but most of us do not live in an ideal rural idyll with a scenic cottage and enough land, let alone time, to have an established garden full of healing herbs and ‘witchy’ plants. We have busy lives with many commitments and little time to tend and love our herbs and plants. Whilst our Craft seeks to be one with the elements and the land, our personal ‘land’ may be a small scrap of ill-lit soggy soil, a wilderness of rocks and concrete, and full of discarded toys or the evidence of a love of dogs and cats! As Witches we seek to live as a part of the world, not apart from it, and hence we must be realistic. However, we can make the most of what we have, and tend it with a love of the land and of the Goddess, rather than wishing and waiting for some kind of ideal.
Firstly, let me say that this is not a gardening book in the usual way. Here I am not talking about ‘how to garden’; making fertilizer, landscaping, installing water features, cement and decking, but rather how to make the most of your garden. How to use it as a part of your Craft, to make it a sacred place in its own right. A place where you can meet your Gods, where you can grow plants to help you work your magic. A place where you can pre-pay and repay the Goddess and the God, and the land, for what you take and are given. There will be ways of using your garden to enhance your Craft and ways of using your Craft to enhance your garden. Yes, there will be suggestions on what to plant, and how you might like to arrange them, but in the context of working from what you have, rather than creating a whole new outdoors!
Those of you who do have the luxury of being able to make a fresh start, in the fashion of so many modern gardening programmes, will be able to use the ideas here, but those of you with constraints on what you can do will still be able to take the ideas that do fit and discard the rest.
