A Druid’s Web Log – September 2019 – fall is in the air!

September has arrived with cooler days and Maple trees that are already starting to show their colors. As summer fades there are still abundant wild flowers in the fields; Goldenrods and Asters are in their glory, and huge swaths of Boneset are blooming along swamps and waterways.

I just tinctured Boneset flowers and leaves for use in feverish winter ailments.

A few weeks ago I picked wild elderberries and made a tincture for flu (I always add echinacea root as well). And the last batch of herbal salve made with fresh leaves, nuts and flowers is warming on the stove. Acorns are dropping in large numbers this year and I will soon be teaching students how to process them into flour.

These yearly fall herbal activities do much to keep me on track, even as the news of the world breaks my heart.

Just now, Congress is on “vacation” and once again no federal action is being taken to keep us safe from gun murder. Meanwhile, yesterday there was yet another mass shooting in Texas. In an act of sadly predictable lunacy, the day after the second mass shooting in Texas within a month, they enacted laws to loosen restrictions on guns. In the latest carnage, random passers by and cars were targeted. The old saw that “more guns will keep us safe” is exposed in all its idiocy. Were the drivers of the vehicles that were hit supposed to pull over, take out a gun, find the shooter and kill him?

Despite the fact that most Americans want strong gun laws , the politicians and the president owe their allegiance to the NRA gun manufacturer’s lobby and obviously value NRA money over our lives .

The only thing we can do now to stop them is vote them out, which inevitably means more gun massacres as we wait for the next election.

You can send a message to your Senators via this link, if you think it might change something (sorry to be so pessimistic but I am a realist).

And of course, the planet is on fire as I type; the Amazon, Siberia, the Arctic, Africa, and other areas are ablaze with human set infernos. The burning forests are releasing even more deadly green house gasses into the atmosphere and as many as five hundred tribes are at risk of losing their homelands in the Amazon .

I am writing from a mountaintop in western Massachusetts, and I don’t know what is happening in other local areas, but here in my neck of the woods there are massive protests against logging going on with daily arrests. We the public want our public forests to remain intact, and not be handed over to for profit logging operations. We know that we need old growth forests to sequester carbon and to preserve habitat for wildlife. We also need forests for peace of mind for humans, and for food and medicine in the future.

The commercial loggers like to claim that “selective logging” benefits the forest and its creatures. But they ignore the many species; birds, bats, possums, raccoons, bees, squirrels, wood ducks, owls and other creatures that need old and decaying trees with holes in them, to hide in during storms and within which to build nests and lairs.

Here are Massachusetts forests bills that we should all support and a petition for a moratorium on logging on all Massachusetts public land to protect public land until better laws are passed.

BOOK NEWS

Midwest Book Review – Critique: A truly extraordinary and unique addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Metaphysical Studies collections in general, and Celtic Spirituality supplemental studies reading lists in particular, “The Sacred Herbs of Samhain: Plants To Contact The Spirits Of The Dead” is especially and unreservedly recommended. It should be noted for personal reading lists that “The Sacred Herbs of Samhain” is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).

An excerpt of the new book in an English blog

A review of The Sacred Herbs of Samhain” posted at Herbology East and West’s Lotus, Lady, & Verse

I am in the process of editing “The Sacred Herbs of Beltaine” (April 2020 release date) and just starting to work on “The Sacred Herbs of Yule”.

WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS

Western Mass Pagan Pride Day
Saturday September 7, 11 AM to 6 PM
Florence, Mass., Community Center
Ellen will speak about the Herbs of Samhain
Celebrate Samhain!
Sunday, October 20, 2019 at 10 AM – 6 PM
Double Tree by Hilton Nashua, 2 Somerset Pkwy, Nashua, NH
Admission is $10 with donation of a non-perishable food item (or $12 without) and grants access to all the day’s events, entertainment, and vendor rooms. Food donations will be made to the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter.
Ellen Evert Hopman will speak about herbs to honor the dead.
Study Herbalism with Ellen Evert Hopman, Herbalist AHG
A Six Month Intensive in Western Mass
October 19 – April 2020
Intro to Herbalism and Self Care
Two Saturdays a month, 1-5 PM near Amherst, MA
Western Materia Medica, Chinese 5 Element Theory, Flower Essence Counseling, Formula making, Hands on Herbalism, Ethnobotany, Herb walks, Homeopathic First Aid, Live case taking and more.

Folks are signing up now for this. A deposit ($100 to cover the copying fee) will hold your space. Please send to EE Hopman POB 219, Amherst, MA 01004. Include your name, address, email and phone.