Ellen

I hope that everyone had a lovely Samhain (Halloween) and that you and your ancestors were well fetted and fed.
The big news this Moonth is the re-release of my very first book  TREE MEDICINE TREE MAGIC. The new publisher is Pendraig, out of California. This is a beautifully color illustrated expanded version with many new tree recipes and drinks to make from trees. I have longed for this book to be back in print and here it finally is!

You can purchase a signed copy from me via this website http://www.elleneverthopman.com or find it in the usual places. The search engines can’t seem to find it quite yet so I am including the Amazon link.

MORE BOOK NEWS

• A dramatic reading from Priestess of the Forest
• I got a little bit of press from speaking at “Celebrate Samhain” in Nashua, NH
  

  

• A Rare Recorded Interview with JRR Tolkien
• Native American Sacred Sites in western Massachusetts (video)
  
• Meanwhile, a major pipeline in Canada has been cancelled. It can and should happen in the USA too!
• Beltaine blossoms tour – An herbal tour of Ireland!
• Are you descended from an accused  Scottish witch? A new digital archive is available.
  More…
  And More…
• Listen to me teach a class
  This recording will be available until January 14, 2018 in case anyone wants to hear what I sound like when teaching herbalism!
  The book I reference is “Secret Medicines from Your Garden”.

Below is the usual month’s roundup of archeology, nature, religion, politics and ethics news. *Reminder – you can order a book from this website www.elleneverthopman.com and get a signed copy with a personal note – a nice gift idea for Yule!* Enjoy!

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

• Reconstructed face of a 3000 year old European woman found in China (video)
  
• Listen to the Epic of Gilgamesh read in the original Akkadian
• A 4000 year old ear stud found in Lincoln, UK
• Looting threatens to erase Mongolian history
• Food and feasting at Stonehenge (video)
  
• A 2000 year old Roman ship found in the Black Sea
• Cypriot copper Bronze Age axes found in Sweden
• Bronze Age tablets found in Kurdistan
• An astrolabe from Vasco da Gamma’s fleet is found under water
  More…
• The history of Rome in 20 minutes
• The last Celtic coin from the largest hoard ever found is removed
• Europe’s oldest battlefield yields evidence
• An ancient theater found in Thouria
• How lead poisoning affected the Roman Empire
• Listen to a song from 500 AD
• A remnant of Caligula’s ship, once used as a coffee table, heads back to Italy
• Hundreds of stone structures found in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth
• The Centurion in the Roman Legion (video)
  
• Ancient Greek acoustics not what once thought
• Listen to an Orphic hymn to Dionysus (video)
  
• Temple of Ramses II found in Giza
• Viking funeral customs (video)
  
• Hurricane Ophelia unearths an Iron Age body
• An ancient Greek city on the Black Sea
• The face of a 4,500 year old Peruvian woman
• The reconstructed face of an ancient Peruvian ruler
• Roman theater found at Jerusalem’s western wall
• Feasting at Neolithic Stonehenge
  More about what they ate at Stonehenge
• How much beer did 16th century Irish drink while at work?
• American farmers domesticated wild rice 5000 years ago
• Egyptians and Vikings loved their cats
• Stonehenge free access path now open
• How silver became Scotland’s precious metal of choice
• The ancient Irish bee laws (Bechbretha)
• The oldest known paved road is in Iberia
• How Medieval people walked (video)
  
• Evidence for a 5th century Swedish massacre
• 10th century iron objects found hidden in an oven
• Ice Age art
• Caherconnel, an Irish ring fort (video)
  
• A massive Bronze Age site in the Middle East
• Who were the Picts? (video)
  
• Prehistoric sites in the Cheviot Hills (video)
  
• An Iron Age dun is being excavated in Scotland
• Memsie round cairn (video)
  
• Why did Greenland’s Vikings vanish?
• Possibly the grave of Saint Nicholas (progenitor of Santa Claus)
• 2000 year old Hellenistic children’s toys from graves in Parion
• A Hellenistic sanctuary found in Tyre
• New finds from an ancient Greek ship wreck
  More…
• 13,000 year old, pre-Ice Age human bones from Mexico
• Gargoyles as works of art
• New finds at Caithness Brochs
• The Epic of Gilgamesh in animation
• 12 Byzantine rulers (video)
  
• A Medieval Norse meeting site may have been found in the Highlands
• Ancient stone structures found in New England
• Training in the Roman Legions (video)
  
• A new section of Hadrian’s Wall found in Newcastle
• What kind or armor did Medieval women actually wear?
• Stonehenge and Trumpian news manipulation
• Did the Irish reach the New World before Columbus?
• The temple of Isis at Philae

HERB NEWS

• Sideritis or Ironwort, Mountain tea, Shepherd’s tea
  
• Forage for wild violets
• Violas
• How to grow and use Calendula
• How to dry and store rose hips
• Make fermented apple ginger beer
• Herbs for the male libido
• Herbs to dispel negative energies 
• Solomon’s Seal for joints, bones and more
• Magical Herbalism: High John, Low John and Southern John root
• How to figure out the best herbal remedies
• Shade tolerant herbs
• A 1000 year old herbal is now available on line
• Grow herbs and vegetables aquaponically
• Dandelion chickory root coffee
• Chickweed

HEALTH NEWS

• Monsanto papers reveal the company has covered up cancer concerns about RoundUp
• Humans are now excreting RoundUp in their urine
• How to de-toxify your body from RoundUp using herbs and vegetables and probiotics
• New findings on why Lyme spirochetes resist antibiotics
• Families who are true blue bloods
• Trump’s terrible executive order on health care makes it easier for con men to sell insurance
• Las Vegas shooter was prescribed Valium, which causes aggression in some
• Wildlife photographer of the year awards (and pictures)
• Victorian women and syphillis
• The health effects of chronic sleep deprivation
• A warning for Pug owners about Puguccino themed cafes (yes, that’s a thing)
• DNA surgery (gene editing) is a cure for diseases caused by mutations
• Did the Medieval love of squirrel fur and meat lead to the spread of leprosy?

NATURE AND CLIMATE NEWS

• Earliest bird capable of bounding flight
• Shrews shrink their brains to get through the winter
• Stephen Hawkings 1966 PHd thesis now available on line
• First interstellar object identified and coming our way
• 3/4 of flying insects in Germany have disappeared – ecological Armageddon looms
• The culture and social lives of cetaceans
• Lava tube/cave found on the Moon that could be a base for Lunar colonizers
• When neutron stars collide and where gold and platinum come from
• Yellowstone super volcano may erupt sooner than thought
• Good news. The native Irish honeybee is not extinct after all
• Trump administration to replace Clean Power Plan with ‘dirty power plan’
• Gravitational waves discovered at last (video)
  
• Is the theory of Dark Matter completely wrong?
• How extinct marine creatures lived and ate
• Wild born California Condors hatch a chick for the first time since 1985
• Why Tartigrades will inherit the Earth

RELIGION NEWS

• Psalm 53 sung in Aramaic for Pope Francis
• Sacred wells in Ireland
• Washington, D.C. the City of the Goddess (video)
  
• The origins of Halloween
• Pagan Gods (video)
  

CELTIC NEWS

• Samhain’s origins
  More…
• The White Mare at Samhain
• Cauldrons and flesh hooks at Samhain
• Halloween in Irish folklore
• Death customs in Killanne, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford
• The ancestral Otherworld
• The art of traditional storytelling

FAIRY NEWS

• The Fairies on Fridays

POLITICS AND ETHICS

• The 25th Amendment and how to remove a president from office
• Trump demands Facebook account info of anti-Trump activists
• Gun sales booming, Trump signs bill to nullify ban on mentally ill buying guns
• Why Australians think USA gun laws are nuts
• The Second Amendment was ratified to preserve slavery
• The end of the American empire
• Gun ignorant Liberals and their clumsy attempts at gun laws
• Most Americans want stricter gun controls (poll taken before the Las Vegas massacre)
• 93 Americans die by a gun every single day on average, most are suicides
• The research is clear – more guns = more gun deaths
  More…
• The drums of war are sounding in North Korea
• Trump is “unraveling” according to those who know him best
• Trump and nukes – why you should be terrified
• The one area where Trump has been wildly successful
• The Christian Right presidency
• America has six political parties – can you name them?
• Republicans just voted to give lawsuit immunity to banks
• Why we fight Nazis (amazing that this needs to be said in the USA)
• Harvard study on racism in America, discrimination
• We need to go back to the 91% tax rate for the rich

As most of my readers probably know, I have been a Celtic Reconstructionist Druid for the last 30 years. We are a species of Druid that take Celtic scholarship quite seriously (if you want to learn more please visit Tribe of the Oak ) . At this time of year, as Samhain (Halloween) approaches, we concern ourselves with thoughts of the dead ancestors who sacrificed and worked hard to make it possible for us to be alive here on this Earth today.
Druids like to think in “triads” or threes, because the steadiest cauldron rests on three legs. Its an Indo-European thing (think of Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu and all the old Celtic High Gods like Brighid and the Morrigan who are triple). For us the dead come in three varieties; those of our bloodline, those of our Spirit, and those whose blood and bone make the soil upon which we stand and which provides our sustenance.
I live in supposedly intellectual, Liberal, New England. Imagine my shock when a local town is refusing to allow Native American tribal experts and elders to even examine a tract of land for possible sacred sites and burials before clear cutting to put in a massive solar array. The same town has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to preserve White monuments and historic places. It boggles the mind.
Here is what a local Native American had to say about it;

” This is against MA law for Historical Commissions, which dictates that all heritage is to be identified, inventoried and preserved without prejudice as to origin.  Clearly, that law is being obstructed by the Shutesbury Planning Board, Historical Commission and Select Board.
Shutesbury is the Birmingham, Alabama, of discrimination against Native Americans.”

So I find myself in the middle of all this, contacting the ACLU and my state representatives.
This part of Massachusetts has become a black hole as far as knowledge about paleo-Indians is concerned and here is one reason why. To add to the wierdness, when I posted my feelings on a private Yahoo list the landowner sent the local sheriff to my house with a no trespassing order. I am no longer allowed to set foot on any of their properties and they are just about the largest landowner in the state. Meanwhile the general public uses their forests for hunting, fishing, snow mobiling, skiing, and hiking. I have never even set foot on the tract in question, apparently just speaking your mind is a threat in America these days.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• October 14, 2017 – April 2018
  Intro to Herbalism and Self Care~ A Six Month Intensive
  Two Saturdays a month, 1-5 PM near Amherst, MA, PLEASE MESSAGE ME WITH YOUR INTEREST.
  Western Materia Medica, Chinese 5 Element Theory, Flower Essence Counseling, Formula making, Hands on Herbalism, Ethnobotany, Herb walks, Case taking and more.
• Sunday, October 15^th
  Celebrate Samhain!
  A talk about using herbs to communicate with the Spirits
  10 am to 6 pm at the Courtyard Marriott
  2200 Southwood Drive, Nashua, NH 03063
• Help Create a Druid Film Featuring Iron Age Herbalists and Healers!
  Based on the Priestess of the Forest trilogy of Celtic novels, the film will be set in ancient Ireland. It features strong female characters, Iron Age Herbalists, warriors, Druids, and early Christian missionaries.
  We have a script, a director, a lead actor and actress, a composer, and a film editor. The next step is to film a scene to put on Yahoo, as a way of attracting a major producer. We need YOU to become a patron with on-going support, or just to make a one-time gift!
  Patrons receive bonuses and perks!
  How to Contribute

BOOK NEWS

• Priestess of the Forest named one of the best fantasy fiction books

NEWS YOU CAN USE

• Help for Puerto Rico and other areas
• An herbal tour of Ireland! May 2018

*Reminder – Yule is coming! You can order books and DVDs from this site. Get a copy signed by the author and a personal note! Please specify who you want the book signed to  *
Below you will find the usual past Moonth’s collection of archeology, nature, climate, religion, Fairy, Celtic, Political and Ethical news. Enjoy!

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

• Text of a Hippocratic medical formula found in Egypt
• Ephesus to be reconnected to the sea
• A Viking boat grave is found in Trondheim, Norway
• Modern humans emerged more than 300,000 years ago
• Taranis, a Celtic thunder God
• The dog in Celtic culture
• Scientific dating of prehistoric Orkney
• A possible Roman temple found in Gloucester, UK
• Ritual caves in Sweden
• The world’s oldest human made objects
• An 11,500 year old settlement in Turkey
• Greece plans to restore the ancient temple of Olympian Zeus
• A 1000 year old Viking sword found in Cork City
• The ritual deposition of weapons in Celtic burials
• A large store of mushrooms found that may have been part of a Druid healer’s pharmacopoea
• A site in Kerry found to be aligned to the Autumnal Equinox
• Remote Roman forts
• Early Irish Farming
• The oldest known beer recipe from Mesopotamia
• The long lost sanctuary of Artemis is rediscovered
• British stone circles were places to party during the Neolithic
• Levels of Druids (the Aes Dana)
• A Medieval grave contained a dolphin
• A Bronze Age hoard found in Cumbria
• Carbon dating Orkney finds
• How trousers went from banned to required in Rome
• The Scordisi/Balkan wars with the Romans
• A Roman mosaic found in England
• MA logging company wants to cut down a forest with Native American sacred sites, to put up solar panels
• A new interpretation of Beowulf
• The Praetorian Guard
• Croft Moraig (video)
  
• A Roman helmet found in Britain
• A South Dakota cave yields Ice Age fossils
• Family trees of Egyptian, Greek, Norse Gods
• The earliest Iron Age gold in Britain came from the continent
• A British museum buys the torc
• A Bronze Age shield found in the river Shannon
• The origins of zero are Sanskrit
• Evidence for human dismemberment at Carrowkeel tomb
• The Celtic practice of excarnation
• A Pagan feasting hall found in Israel
• A Celtic burial from Slovakia
• Ancient fibulae
• When fossil DNA isn’t available Glycans can be studied
• Bronze Age stone tools found in Wales
• Early Norwegian iron production
• Celtic settlements in the lower Danube region
• A Mycenaean tomb found in Greece
• Excavation of a Celtic site in Perth begins
• The real head of a Scythian warrior
• Food and meals of ancient Rome
• A 9^th century Irish manuscript
• The mystery of a lost Roman herb
• The end of the Bronze Age (video)
  
• Roman cavalry finds at Hadrian’s Wall
• Roman swords and toys found at Hadrian’s Wall
• A Viking warrior grave is found to be of a female war leader
• How the female Viking warrior was written out of history
  Related: scholars struggle to accept evidence that graves may be of Viking warrior women, not men
• The ancient Greek Kithara (video)
  
• Listen to the Sumerian Silver lyre (video)
  
• Listen to ancient an Babylonian song
• 4000 year old clay tablets found in Turkey
• Ancient settlements found in Yorkshire
• Female mobility was a key to cultural change in the Bronze Age and Neolithic
• Secrets of human evolution found in spit
• The Arch of Titus reconstructed in color
• Photoshop animation of what Queen Nefertiti looked like
• The Celtic round house
  How to build one
• Indigenous storytelling as a way to pass along ancient wisdom
• Ancient seals from the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem found
• An Iron Age village in Devon is being re-created
• Reindeer hunters find a Viking sword at high altitude
• New verses from the Epic of Gilgamesh discovered
• The Epic of Gilgamesh sung in the original Sumerian (video)
  
• English school girl finds a sword in a lake
• More on this story – the sword’s owner is found
• A mass grave in Germany points to a Neolithic massacre
• Have the bones of Pliny the Elder been found?
• Neanderthal stone tools and faunal remains
• How to bake ancient Roman bread
• Fossil footprints may change ideas about human evolution
• A Scottish cave littered with human remains from the Iron Age
• How Neanderthals made glue, 200,000 years ago

HERB NEWS

• Fermented zuccini pickles
• Dandelion root bitters
• Maitake/Hen of the Woods (video)
  
• Chicken of the Woods (video)
  
• Bacopa/Brahmi – an herb for insomnia
• Find an herb school in your area!
• Essential oil company fined for harvesting endangered woods
• Wild Autumn Soda
• The mystery of a lost Roman herb
• Elderberries are ripe!
• Chanterelle mushrooms
• Time to forage for Chicory root
• Its time to make your Fire Cider! (I do this with my students every year)
• What the future of farming looks like
• Harvesting beaked hazel nuts from the forest (video)
  
• Bio-molecules from ancient plants help in plant classification

HEALTH NEWS

• Is coconut oil really a “healthy” fat?
  Over 70% of Americans think of coconut oil as a “healthy food.” But this is a misconception. Coconut oil contains more saturated fat than most other dietary fats, including animal fats such as butter and lard. Coconut oil can also increase total and LDL cholesterol levels. For this reason, the American Heart Association now recommends that people with high cholesterol avoid using coconut oil to lower cholesterol or prevent heart disease. The best bet is to use polyunsaturated fats (e.g., safflower oil, sunflower oil, others) or monounsaturated fats (e.g., olive oil) in place of saturated fats. Replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 25%. From Natural Medicines
• Antibiotic resistance growing and too few new drugs in the pipeline (factory farming a major cause)
• The climate change solution nobody talks about any more
• A zero carb diet can prolong life expectancy (in mice anyway)
• Lack of sleep contributes to mental health problems
• Midwife rides an inflatable swan to get to baby delivery during flood
• A nerve implant restores some consciousness to a man in vegetative state for years
• Evidence that psychopaths have distinct musical preferences

SCIENCE AND CLIMATE AND NATURE NEWS

• When Canada’s Badlands were a lush dinosaur forest by the sea
• Carbon found in 3.95 billion year old rocks appears to be remnant of ancient life
• US and Russia to cooperate on a Lunar space station
• Elon Musk’s plans for a Moon base and Mars flights
• The USA and Syria are now the only nations refusing to sign the Paris climate agreement (doesn’t that make you proud?)
• The most accurate reconstruction of a dinosaur to date
• How an ostrich halted plans for a real life Jurassic Park
• Germany’s first wild bison in 250 years shot dead by authorities
• Helping Fiji’s shark God
• The underlying cause for the recent Mexico Earthquakes
• Cassini dies after a 20 year run
• Photographs taken on the Cassini mission
• Prize winning astronomy photographs
• On the road to extinction, grieving the losses
• Global ocean circulation appears to be collapsing due to warming planet
• Loggers cut down “the world’s oldest tree”?
  Not really but the real story is even better
• Pluto’s surface features get official names
• A massive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way
• Tracing who is responsible for global warming and sea level rise
• September 6/7 the Sun ejected its largest solar flare in 12 years
• NASA’s latest Jupiter pics (gorgeous)
• Wild dogs vote by sneezing

RELIGION NEWS

• Alabama Justice says First Amendment only applies to Christians
• No girls allowed – the debate over female clergy continues
• Falsely accused of Satanic horrors, couple finally free after several decades and being paid millions
• White Christians now in the minority in US – PEW survey
• Right wing Christians think they are the most persecuted minority in USA
• Military chaplain thinks all religions other than his version of Christianity are Satanic
• The Irish wake
• Gods and Spirits are not just archetypes
• Religious advertising video (just for fun)
• 1000 Irish gather to celebrate ancient religion and culture
• A Zen Master’s advice on how to cope with Trump
• Has Evangelical Christianity become Sociopathic?
• Are Evangelicals inventing a new Christianity that’s all about sex?
• A brief history of the Witch persecutions (but the 9 million number is bogus)
• Americans give religions over 82.5 billion dollars a year. Imagine the advantages if taxes were imposed

CELTIC NEWS

• “Elf stones” to protect the cattle
• Michaelmas in Irish folklore
• The Banshee
• Gaelic singer to fight cultural erosion with children’s books
• A traditional Manx harvest time dance
  More details here 

FAIRY NEWS

• The Fairy Tree
• The Fairy Bush
• The Fairy Tree that delayed a motorway
• The Full Moon and the Fairies

POLITICS AND ETHICS

• Read Obama’s statement on Trump’s decision to end DACA (so refreshing to see a well thought out statement that isn’t a crude, barely literate tweet)
• Trump orders DACA kids deported September 5. Here is what happened September 4, 1942
• The media is creating an anti-ANTIFA meme to balance out reporting on Nazi thugs
• Republicans who are confirmed to have received Russian money
• When Nazis rallied in New York City, in 1939, and the protestors who opposed them
• Abortion is legal under the Constitution. Yet Oklahoma just enacted a law requiring a woman to get a man’s permission before she can have one.
• Crops rot in California due to lack of immigrant workers
• Sander’s Medicare for All bill now has many Democratic co-sponsors
• In the wake of Irma, calls for a Marshall Plan for the Caribbean
• Bannon is met with angry protests in Hong Kong (apparently he and Nazis are more popular in the USA)
• The secret truth about DACA and the US underground economy
• Donald Trump is the first White president

We are in the midst of Lughnasad as I write this, the ancient Celtic three week festival that heralds the start of the harvest season. Where has the summer flown to? This year has been very wet here in New England, a complete turnaround from the drought we had last year. Gardens are lush and trees are so filled with water that they are starting to send out leaves from the middle of their trunks.
It has been a time of high anxiety as Americans waited to hear if millions of us would be kicked off our health care plans. Last night there was a glorious reprieve as a few Republicans finally opened their hearts enough to feel compassion for the plight of many. This gives me a bit of hope.
I have two other bits of pleasant news to report; Inner Traditions has accepted a new book from me, this time about New England Witches. The book covers Witchcraft persecutions from the Biblical era to Salem and some modern bits as well.
And my old classic TREE MEDICINE TREE MAGIC will be re-released in an expanded version with full color plates to make tree identification easier. The promised publication date is now September 15. It will have tree recipes and tree drinks included.
I give thanks for these and other blessings in my life. May your own harvests be fruitful!

SOME MORE BOOK NEWS

• Secret Medicines from your Garden got a new review in Magical Buffet
  “This book has been out for over a year. Over a year! I even read it as soon as it came out, and yet it has taken all this time to share my thoughts on it. “Secret Medicines from Your Garden: Plants for Healing, Spirituality & Magic” by Ellen Evert Hopman is still in print, so it’s still worth sharing.Reading “Secret Medicines from Your Garden” makes you feel like the author is personally leading you on a wilderness adventure. Hopman regales you with anecdotes from her spiritual journey and herbalism training. She doesn’t just tell you about herbs and their meanings and uses, she trains you to intuit a plants purpose. Not only do you learn about the physical natural world, but Hopman discusses plant spirits, herbal astrology, and more. Of course the book is filled with ways to use all that nature has to offer such as poultices, tinctures, and food.I would say “Secret Medicines from Your Garden” is a surprisingly engaging book, and I dare say it’s my favorite of all of Ellen Evert Hopman’s books. (And considering how many great books she’s written, that’s saying something)”
• UPDATE ON THE PRIESTESS OF THE FOREST FILM PROJECT!
  Meet Elyse Poppers, our beautiful lead actress!
  Please continue to promote the film wherever you can! We need patrons so we can film a clip – we are still seeking a major producer. Here is where you can donate, either a one-time gift or ongoing support.
  Read about the world of the film.
• Please make sure you are registered to vote in 2018. Here is the Democratic party platform.

*Reminder – you can order books from this website and get signed copies with a personal note from the author!  *
Below you will find the usual past Moonth’s gleanings of Archeology, Herb, Nature, Climate, Religion, Celtic and Ethics news. Enjoy!

UPCOMING SPEAKING EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS

• August 19
  Celtic Tree Medicine and Lore
  2:30 PM – 5 PM
  Sirius Community
  72 Baker Rd, Shutesbury, Massachusetts 01072
• August 25-27
  New England Women’s Herbal Conference
  Newfound Lake, New Hampshire
  WHC on Facebook
  WHC on Twitter
  WHC on Pinterest 
• October 14, 2017 – April 2018
  Intro to Herbalism and Self Care~ A Six Month Intensive
  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, Case taking and more.
  Please message Ellen for more details.
• Sunday, October 15^th
  Celebrate Samhain!
  A talk about using herbs to communicate with the Spirits
  10 am to 6 pm at the Courtyard Marriott
  2200 Southwood Drive, Nashua, NH 03063

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

• A Bronze Age container contains ancient wheat
  More…
• The Sumerian city of Ur in animations
• The High Temple of Ur (video)
  
• A Siberian dig reveals arctic infant burial with a Persian bowl
• A Pictish dig diary
• The stone circles of Wales
• Tools from Cornwall’s first farmers
• 25 important historical objects in Scotland
• Of Bog bodies and bog butter
• A Pictish long house discovered
  More…
• Greek mosaics found in Turkey
• 14,000 year old Bison depictions found in a cave in the Basque region of Spain
• Ivar the Boneless and the great Heathen army (video)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izzgypLN0_s
• Ancient Scottish rock art
• The ancient Hag of Knowth
• Did human women contribute to the Neanderthal genome?
• Australian dig finds aboriginals were there up to 80,000 years ago
• An ancient hill fort in Scotland re-imagined
• Otzi the Iceman’s ax had metal from far away
• Ptolemaic buildings unearthed in Alexandria, Egypt
• A 14,000 year old pre-Ice Age settlement found in Canada
• Game of Thrones Bayeux style tapestry created
• Origins of the Scythians determined
• A Roman sarcophagus is found in London
• Another Bronze Age female found who travelled far and wide
• Tomb of King Tut’s wife may have been found
• When the Romans attacked Anglesey
• A Roman domus is excavated in France
• The Neolithic heart of Britain was in Orkney
• An Anglo-Saxon feasting hall is found in Kent
• Recreation of a 2,500 year old Greek trading boat
• A Roman coin is found in Orkney
• An 8th century burial from Siberia
• Who were the Druids
• 10 things to know about the Celts
• The status of Celtic women
  More…
• A second Viking outpost found in Canada
• Cartimandua’s sex life revealed
• A Viking Volva’s grave
• The Inuit discovery of Scotland
• Norse code interpreted
• An ancient Pict’s face is reconstructed
• Roman era tablets with ink writing by soldiers from Vindolanda found
• Evolution of the Roman soldier
• Crannogs in Scotland
• 5000 year old “House of the Dead” found near Stonehenge
• Metal detector find Anglo-Saxon Jewelry
• Late Iron Age burial practices
• The founding of Dublin
• Stonehenge gets a reprieve
• Saint Columba’s cell on Iona identified
• Listen to Medieval dance music
• A late Roman era synagogue is found to have mosaics
• 900 year old jewelry found in a Crusader castle
• A section of Hippocrates medical recipe found in Egypt
• Another Viking grave excavated in Iceland
• Twilight tours at Skara Brae in Orkney
• Ancient sites were used in Moonlight, archeologists find
• A virtual reconstruction of the Roman altar of peace (video)
  
• Luxury items from ancient times
• Neanderthals and modern humans started mating early
• Hobby Lobby knowingly bought looted Iraqi artefacts. Please boycott them!
• Henges in Britain (article)
  The full video
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL383D32A611C2E70B&v=7MTQZFTa5xc
• A bronze statue of Hadrian was found by a metal detector
• Orkney archeology, The Cairns update (including an Iron Age cat!)
• Virtual unrolling of ancient texts burned by Vesuvius begins
• A 257 year old coloring book
• Chicago library needs help transcribing old magical texts
• A second Iona about to be unearthed in Scotland
• A Viking ring fort in Denmark
  More…
• The mysteries of “America’s Stonehenge”
• Were Pictish stones painted with color?
• 3000 year old textiles dyed with chemicals found
• Jehovahs Witnesses destroy 7000 year old temple in Mexico
• A Samurai sword scroll
• A Viking Hoard is found on the Isle of Man
• The skull cult at Gobekli Tepe
• The hidden square inside the Avebury Circle
• Ancient baby bird with fossil feathers found in amber

HERB NEWS

• All about Mugwort
• All about organic compost!
• Purslane! (Portulacca)
• How to cook with Purslane
• Foraging in Poland
• May Apples, dangerous and delicious
• A new way of looking at “invasives”
• Things to do with Garlic scapes, and their health benefits
• The forgotten history of Absinthe
• Chickweed as a skin healer
• Make chickweed salve
• The benefits of Blackberries
• Amish man convicted to 6 years in prison for selling “mislabeled” herbal remedies (it all started with chickweed salve)
• Elderflower sparkling cordial
• Wild Cherry monograph
• Fermented wild black cherry cordial
• Monsanto and Bayer maneuvering to take over the Cannabis industry

HEALTH NEWS

• Medicare for all – how it works, a report just delivered to Congress
• In the “richest nation on Earth” thousands of desperate patients seek health care in outdoor, makeshift hospital
• Tomatoes are found to be potent anti-cancer vegetables
• Exercise, blood pressure, depression linked to dementia risk
• Sperm counts among western men have dropped by half in recent years
• Sugar consumption linked to depression in men (not so for women)

CLIMATE, SCIENCE AND NATURE NEWS

• Astronomy photos of the year
• Cat evolution vs dog evolution
• Slug slime inspires a new surgical glue
• Half our bodies’ atoms come from galaxies far away
• Britain to ban diesel engines, emissions by 2040
• Turtles hatch on Key West for first time in 30 years
• Cosmology and particle physics face similar challenges
• Do robots need ethical black boxes?
• Methane, Anthrax expelled from giant craters in Siberia as permafrost melts
  More on the melting permafrost
• Massive iceberg calving event captured on film (video)
  
• The most effective ways to mitigate climate change are not even being discussed
• A giant ice berg has broken off in Antarctica
• The reasons breast feeding a baby is hard
• Dr. Who and the key to deep time
• Jupiter’s red storm captured on film
• Harvard scientists begin storing videos in the DNA of cells
• Chinese scientists teleport photons 300 miles
• Ravens have paranoid, abstract thoughts, study finds
• Frequent quakes happening at Yellowstone
• When will the Earth be too hot for humans? Sooner than you think. (This is a very important read)
• The Great Barrier Reef is dying and humans struggle to adjust
• Are you smarter than a cat?
  More…
• Feathered dinosaurs on display in the UK
• How Antarctica gave birth to a new kind of diplomacy
• A new proof of string theory?
• Mission to Mercury prepares to launch
  More…
• Mars is covered in toxic soil
• Trump on space
• New Florida Law lets any resident challenge what is taught in science class
• Male cockatoos use drum solos to impress the ladies

RELIGION NEWS

• Actual Lughnasad customs from Celtic tradition (Lughnasad lasts from the last week of July to the second week of August)
• Protests sparked after Satanic memorial is approved
• Greeks are worshipping the Old Gods again
• Serbian Witches
• Slavic Pagans
• Evangelicals want a Christian “cross” emoji. Facebook is not buying it.
• Creator of Noah’s Ark theme park (tax payer funded) says it failed because Atheists prayed against him
• Jehovahs Witnesses destroy 7000 year old temple in Mexico

CELTIC NEWS

• Holy wells in Cork
• Kindling the fire for Brighid
• Origins of the Claddagh ring
• Plants of the Burren
• Brigit, keeper of the cattle
• The hunger and thirst of July in Ireland
• The luck of the house (podcast)

POLITICS AND ETHICS

• Bernie Sanders is still the most popular politician in America, McConnell the least popular
• Bill to create panel that could remove Trump from office quietly picks up Democratic support
• Deficit under Trump expected to go 1 trillion dollars higher, thanks to tax cuts for the rich
• Jimmy Carter: “Trump tapped a waiting reservoir of inherent racism”
• Angela Merkel declares war on Trump and his ideology
• Trump voters shocked to find out he intends to shred the social safety net
  More…
• Congress is quietly removing war power from Trump
• Trump’s economic plan could throw us into another Recession
• Is Trump laying the groundwork for massive voter purging?
• Is Trump a sexist pig? Or just a pig.
• Kirsten Gillibrand comes out in favor of single payer healthcare
• Carl Bernstein – we are living through a malignant presidency
• Understanding Republican cruelty Krugman in the NY Times
• 50 states refuse to give Trump all or part of our voter data
• Clapper: no evidence anyone except Russia hacked the American election
• US State Department issues Visas to 150 Russian spies
• Bernie Sanders is the clear front runner for 2020
• Special counsel Mueller still quietly hiring lawyers for Russia investigation
• Why Trump voters vote against their own interests (this is a very in depth read and well worth it)
• Support for Trumpcare continues to decline
• The UN votes to ban all nuclear weapons!
• Russian government sought to aid Trump campaign, evidence shows
• Majority of GOP voters now think Colleges are bad for America
• Why is VP Pence enabling a dangerous president?
• Voter suppression in WI; 200,000 dropped from rolls, Trump won by 23,000
• Why Republicans are incapable of governing
• Court says Trump administration acted illegally in pushing through Dakota Pipeline
• Democrats cobbling together a “People’s Platform”
• Medicare for all looks like the final solution to the US healthcare mess
• 75% of Americans want diplomacy, not war with N. Korea
• 98 year old activist refuses to pay fine for protesting Kinder Morgan pipeline
• Trump orders service members to support his political agenda
• Trump gives political speech to boy scouts, gets them to boo Obama
  More…
• The 14 most inappropriate moments of Trump’s speech to the boy scouts
• Why the US election integrity commission is a sham
• Please make sure you are registered to vote in 2018. Here is the Democratic party platform

• Ideas to get rid of Gypsy Moths
• More on gypsy moths

STILL FUND RAISING FOR A DRUID FILM!

We are hard at work fund raising for a film to be based on the Priestess of the Forest trilogy of Druid novels. We need everyone’s help so we can fly the actors to the east coast from LA, film a short and hopefully get the project out to a major producer. Folks can help by becoming a patron or by making a one-time donation.

• The world of the film

We have a dynamic slate of talent attached thus far:

• Elyse Poppers as Ethne
• Robert Brettenaugh as King Crimthann
• Director, Ben Tobin
• Composer Nicola Royston
• Generous editing help from Juno Orion

UPCOMING HERB CLASS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE!

• Advanced case taking and Formula Making July 29/30

WORKSHOPS

• July 29-30
  Advanced Formula Making and Case Taking, Lee, NH
• August 5-6
  Celtic Tree Magic and Medicine, Freedom, NH
• August 25-27
  New England Women’s Herbal Conference
  Newfound Lake, New Hampshire
  WHC on Facebook
  WHC on Twitter
  WHC on Pinterest
• October 14, 2017 – April 2018
  Intro to Herbalism and Self Care~ A Six Month Intensive
  Western Massachusetts School of Herbal Studies
  Near Amherst, MA
• Sunday, October 15th
  Celebrate Samhain!
  A talk about using herbs to communicate with the Spirits
  10 am to 6 pm at the Courtyard Marriott
  2200 Southwood Drive, Nashua, NH 03063

BOOK NEWS

• An interview (video)
  
• A recent podcast

NEWS YOU CAN USE

• Until August 1 seniors can still buy a lifetime pass to US national parks for $10.00. After that it will go up to $80.00
• Baba Yaga Houses – innovative solutions for housing our elders
• I listened in horror as the Trump administration announced it will pull out of the Paris climate agreement. This means that the White House is basically in the grips of a cult, an unthinking ideology that is prepared to sacrifice every living thing on Earth, human, animal or plant, just to satisfy their political base (a minority of American voters) and the fossil fuel industry.There is no rational basis for this. There are more jobs in renewable energy than in dirty fuels. (see articles below)You can still send a message to the senate committee on environment and public works.Please check here to see if your own senators are on the committee and if so, please contact them,You can call the Republican chair of the committee John Barrasso at 202-224-6441 and the Democratic chair Tom Carper at 202-224-2441. Also please call your senators in any case, or send them an e:mail about this. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Druid, Atheist, or Pagan, there is no spirituality or ethics that endorses mass destruction of life.
• Today’s energy jobs are in solar, not coal
• Solar energy now employs more people than oil, coal and gas combined
• Green energy jobs now surpass jobs in the fossil fuel industry
  More…

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS

And speaking of life and death issues, please call your senators, even if they are Democrats, and the DNC/RNC about the cruel and stupid Trumpcare health care bill. When you call your senators demand SINGLE PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE just like every other civilized developed nation on Earth has. It’s the most cost effective way to cover every single American. Even Warren Buffett says so!
Below you will find the usual assortment of Archeology, Herb, Climate, Nature, Religion, and Ethics news. Please enjoy the offerings!
*Reminder* if you order books from me via this website you will get a signed copy with a personal note! 

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

• Archaeologists find a hidden square within Avebury stone circle
  More…
• Bryn Celli Ddu, near Llanddaniel Fab on Anglesey
• A third century discovery in the Roman metro
• The native tribes of Britain at the time of the Roman conquest
• Roman shoes found near Hadrian’s Wall
• Hittite warriors of the Bronze Age
• The tree of Indo-European languages
• Paleolithic Indo-Europeans
• Yes, grains were being eaten in the Paleolithic era
• Ancient Scottish rock art
• A data base of UK and Ireland hill forts
• Listen to Proto-Indo-European read aloud
• A feathered dinosaur wing found in a piece of amber
• Some very early Egyptian hieroglyphs are found
• A 5th century BC Celtic burial site
• A ritual bath in Herod’s palace Machaerus is reconstructed
• The face of an ancient Egyptian dignitary is reconstructed
• Celtic burial practices
• Norsemen in the Hebrides
• The reconstructed face of a Dubliner from the Tudor era
• Indo-European pot dealers
• Vandalism at the Scottish Clava Cairns
• 10 new UNESCO World Heritage sites
• 10 things to know about ancient Egypt
• An ancient Egyptian prosthetic device
• Henry VIII’s horned helmet
• A Roman villa found in Libya
• A Viking grave found in Iceland
• A third Viking boat burial is discovered in Iceland
• History of the “British Isles” in animation
• Laser cleaning reveals 1,600 year old frescoes in Roman catacombs
• Oldest grape found in Denmark shows Viking had trade with Southern Europe earlier than thought
• A Viking mid-summer celebration
• An Anglo-Saxon burial mound is identified in Britain
• Geology and biology line up on break up of Pangaea
• New teeth discovered in the world’s first named dinosaur specimen
• Oldest homo sapiens skull yet just found
• A 4000 year old temple found in China
• A Celtic Beer God
• Dea Latis, Celtic Goddess of Beer
• A rare 16 foot dinosaur tail is found in Mexico
• Ancient Greek curse tablets
• Ethnic cleansing and the Romans
• Scotland’s Rock Art Project
• Who killed Oetzi the Iceman?
• Gods and writing in Mesopotamia
• A Viking meeting place found in Sherwood Forest, UK
• Make Minoan Mead
• Heads of Goddesses found in an ancient refuse dump
• An Iron Age broch in Orkney is being excavated
• Anglo-Saxon childbirth and female fertility
• New genetic tools are helping scientists map human migrations
• US museum returns ancient Egyptian Stele missing since WWII
• The nine tribes of ancient Scotland
• Confirmed: the earliest primates were tree top dwellers
• When farmers at the edges of the Roman empire converted to the Hun lifestyle
• Restored catacombs in Rome feature Pagan and Christian art
• Our ancient African ancestors may have been moving from spring to spring as they migrated
• Bell-Beaker folk – a podcast
• Archaic Greek survives in the modern world (video)
• Rice was domesticated in China 10,000 year ago
• The Minoan Palace of Knossos in 3-D
• Did children build the ancient city of Amarna, Egypt?
• Update on the Lavau Celtic Prince burial
• Evidence of Pagan devotion – an offering of soup for the Gods
• A crusader era hand grenade found in Israel
• Ancestors of the Book of Kells
• A Greek warrior tomb
• Biblical era archeology in paintings
• A Roman bath house discovered in Britain
• Scythian art goes on exhibit in British Museum
• A Bronze Age skeleton in Scotland
• The Hochdorf Celtic Chieftain’s grave
• Ancient armor made from deer antlers
• An eighth century Anglo-Saxon copper bird
• Hebridean Norsemen
• Indo-European pot dealers

HERB NEWS

• Wild lobelia
• Make your own herbal Bug Stuff
• How to eat Sea Arrow Grass (video)
  
• Lungwort for the respiratory tract
• Things to do with elderberries
• All about Aloe
• Fermented wild garlic
• Pine needle vinegar
• Nettle Cordial
• Nettle Lemonade
• Using mushrooms to shrink cancerous tumors
• Make Mugwort Jelly
• All about Marshmallow
• Elderflower and strawberry cordial
• What is a forest garden?
• Benefits of the edible forest garden
• Rhubarb upside-down cake
• Plum and lemon upside-down cake with lavender whipped cream
• Herbal Astrology
• Re-integrating traditional foods into the diet

HEALTH NEWS

• Warren Buffett makes the case for single payer health care in the USA
• When Pagans need long term care
• Exercise is beneficial for depression
• Health care has been cut before – here is what happened
• Police haul off disabled protestors after McConnell releases the new Republican “Health Care” bill
• How to raise smarter kids
• Does homeopathy explain Trump’s scorched Earth policy (taking the US out of the Paris climate agreement)?
• New hope in the struggle against antibiotic resistance
• Non-invasive electric deep brain stimulation has been achieved
• Being overweight (not just obese) leads to increased disease
• Obese women more likely to have babies with birth defects
• Older men have smarter offspring, study finds

CLIMATE AND NATURE NEWS

• Playing music for elephants (video)
• Food supplies at risk globally due to climate change
• Climate scientists bracing for loss of research funding
• How birds and animals use herbal remedies
• Iran faces near record heat wave
• Western US faces record heat
• The current state of shark species
• The evolution of cat domesticity (and domination of the internet)
• The Kepler telescope finds 10 Earth like planets
• Our native American honey bee
• The Bur Oak
• Towards a more secure internet
• A vision for life on Mars
• Are these alien megastructures?
• Global investment in green energy surges ahead
• A wall of moss that cleans the air as well as 275 trees
• Electric vehicles may soon have instantly rechargeable batteries
• 6 best houseplants for the bathroom
• Of ammonites and snake stones
• Australian spiders in pictures
• Germany seeks to ban fossil fueled cars by 2030 
• India hopes to have only electric cars by 2030
• Withdrawal from Paris climate agreement makes US military’s work much harder
• EU moves ahead without USA in the Paris agreement, ignoring the White House
• All about Vampire bats
• When volcanoes caused mass extinctions
• Just how old are the animals?
• Black holes swallow stars whole
• Lead in the atmosphere is caused by human activity; the evidence from ice cores
• New data: gravity waves, dark matter and black holes
• Vermont Fish and Game photographs a cougar (yes, they are here in MA too!)
• How the brain reads faces
• The neuroscience of falling in love
• Proof that females prefer sex with males who are good listeners
• A new book explores why women are still viewed as “inferior” to men
• Evidence that plants can hear and find flowing water
• Amazon rainforests may be more resilient to climate change, deforestation, than thought
• Antarctica penguins could disappear due to climate change
• As planet warms, sea ice increases in Antarctica
• New evidence for potential life on Mars
• An extra layer of tectonic plates is discovered in the Pacific
• Why whales are so big
• Our 40,000 year old relationship with bees
• Migrating trilobites
• First close up images of Jupiter
  More…
• Hottest giant planet ever found
• A 99 million year old fossilized mushroom
• Americans are being bombarded with climate fake news
• Climate tipping point?
• Plans afoot to rescue a critically endangered porpoise species
• T. Rex may not have had feathers after all
• How many dinosaurs did have feathers?
• The secret history of Monsanto

RELIGION NEWS

• World religious leaders call for unity, making friends from other religions
• Summer Solstice at Tara
• Summer Solstice at Lough Gur (video)
• Pope Francis reminds Republican Trump supporters that they must welcome immigrants and refugees
• A Russian shaman plays and sings (video)
• Senior Druid loses court battle over “pay to pray” at Stonehenge

CELTIC NEWS

• The meaning of myth, monsters and New Grange (video)
• Pagan ritual in Medieval literature
• Dubliners protest proposed development at the Hellfire Club
• The story of Manannan Mac Lir, Sea God
• Pre-Christian Irish Holy Wells

FAIRY NEWS

• Iceland politician moves a stone that is home to Elves
• A tale from County Wicklow

POLITICS AND ETHICS

• NY Times makes a list of Trump’s lies
• Howard Dean: Trump may have been installed by Russian hackers/falsified votes
• Merkel says Europe, Britain can no longer count on US alliance, thanks to Trump
  More…
• Trump’s weird first trip abroad included Satanic orbs and a frowning Pope
• Comey knew Hillary Clinton e:mail scandal was fake news from Russians
• The problem isn’t food stamps, its poverty and frozen wages
• Monbiot on why we should be frightened of Donald Trump
• Ireland bans onshore fracking
• By withdrawing from the Paris agreement Trump makes America sicker, poorer, less secure
• Pentagon comments on Trump’s withdrawal from Paris
• Fact-checking Trump’s reasons for leaving the Paris agreement
• Military leaders urged Trump to regard climate change as a security threat
• Trump’s radical departure from post was US foreign policy could give rise to a not so liberal world order
• Why is Trump doing Putin’s dirty work?
• There are far worse things out there than Kathy Griffin’s severed head
• Fake news opera (a little humor, we need it) (video)
• Visa free travel in Europe for Americans has ended, thanks to Trump
• Obama speaks on Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement
• Eric Trump; “Democrats are not even people” and have no morals
• Trump and son busted for stealing charity money meant for kids with cancer
• The Trump Tweets are becoming dangerous. Its time for him to resign.
• Judges side with Pine Ridge Lakota over uranium mining dispute
• Trump’s state visit to the UK cancelled until British perception of him “improves” (when pigs fly)
• Judge rules Trump’s order to continue the Standing Rock DAPL Dakota Pipeline illegal
• Trump dropped illegal white phosphorus on civilians, June 10, 2017
  More…
• Jeff Sessions wants to prosecute medical pot shops and Cannabis users (I guess he thinks opioids are a better idea)
• Soviet fake news is nothing new
• Trump reverses himself on campaign promise – “Dreamers” get to stay in US – for now
• Prison labor is the new American slavery
• Finland is testing universal basic income
• Journalists get harsh sentences just for doing their job at Trump inauguration
• US crops are rotting in the fields due to lack of immigrant laborers
• House Republicans just voted to eliminate the only federal agency making sure voting machines can’t be hacked