The Sacred Herbs of Yule and Christmas
The Sacred Herbs of Yule and Christmas

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-09-12

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 1644117819

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An around-the-world tour of ancient Christmas celebrations, Pagan Solstice customs, and magical seasonal plants • Explores in depth the medicinal and magical properties of the many herbs, barks, and berries associated with the Christmas and Yuletide season • Looks at the origins of the Christmas tree and Santa Claus, as well as female gift bringers, holiday Spirits, and Yuletide animals • Shares crafts such as how to make a Yule Log, practices such as Winter Solstice divinations, and recipes for traditional foods and drinks For millennia cultures have taken time out to honor the darkest days of the year with lights, foods, and festivities. In ancient Egypt, people decorated their homes with greenery at the festival of the rebirth of the God Horus. The ancient Romans shared gifts, especially candles, at the midwinter festival of Saturnalia. In Scandinavian and Germanic cultures, the Yule Log was burned in the hearth, fruit orchards were wassailed, and sheaves of wheat were displayed to carry luck into the New Year. In Celtic cultures, mummers and guisers went door to door, and European mistletoe (Viscum album) was gathered by Druids as a medicinal and magical aid. Ellen Evert Hopman shares folklore, recipes, rituals, and crafts to enliven your Yuletide observance. She explores the origins of the Christmas tree and Santa Claus as well as holiday Spirits and Yuletide animals. She explains how to perform Winter Solstice divinations and make traditional foods and drinks such as Elizabethan gingerbread cookies and Wassail. And she looks in depth at the medicinal and magical properties of the many herbs, barks, and berries associated with the Christmas and Yuletide season such as Frankincense and Myrrh, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Hibiscus, Bayberry, and many more. This guide offers practical and magical ways to celebrate and honor the darkest days of the year.

The Sacred Herbs of Spring
The Sacred Herbs of Spring

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2020-04-07

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1644110660

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A practical guide to the celebration of Beltaine and the sacred herbs of spring • Explores the identification, harvest, and safe practical and ritual use of more than 90 plants and trees • Details rituals for honoring the traditional Gods and Goddesses of spring, such as the Goddess Chloris, the Goddess Flora, and the Daghda • Reveals which herbs to use for luck, magic, protection, purification, abundance, fertility, and love as well as the herbs of the Faeries and Elves and herbs for journeying to the Otherworld and for contacting the High Gods and Goddesses The festival of Beltaine, May Day, is a celebration of the return of spring and the promise of summer, a time for love magic and spells for increasing the fertility of the land and the plants that grow upon it. Like Samhain in autumn, Beltaine is also a time when the veil between the physical and spiritual world is at its most transparent and the ancestors and denizens of the Otherworld easily interact with the world of humans. Presenting a practical guide to the celebration of Beltaine, Ellen Evert Hopman examines the plants, customs, foods, drinks, and rituals of May Day across many cultures. Discussing the gods and goddesses of spring, Hopman details the rituals for honoring them as well as traditional poems, prayers, incantations, folk rhymes, and sayings related to this time of year. She explores well dressing, the custom of honoring the source of sacred water by decorating a well. She also looks at Beltaine’s association with Walpurgisnacht and Hexennacht, which fall the preceding evening. In the extensive section on the sacred plants of Beltaine, the author explores more than 90 herbs and trees, offering spells, rituals, and recipes alongside their medicinal healing uses. She reveals sacred woods suitable for the Beltaine fires and Beltaine flowers for rituals and spells. She explores herbs for luck, magic, purification, abundance, and love; herbs for protection, such as bindweed, elder, and St. John’s wort; herbs of the Faeries and Elves, such as burdock and dandelion; and herbs for journeying to the Otherworld and contacting the high gods and goddesses. She also details the identification, harvest, and preparation of seasonal edible herbs, greens, mushrooms, and flowers. Woven throughout with mystical tales of folk, Faery, and sacred herbs, this guide offers each of us practical and magical ways to connect with Nature, the plant kingdom, and the Spirits that surround us in the season of spring.

A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year
A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1994-11-01

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1620554380

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For the ancient Druids, the healing and magical properties of herbs were inseparable from the larger cycles of the seasons, the movements of the planets, and the progression of a human life. A Druid’s Herbal shows the reader how to use herbs when creating rituals to celebrate festivals and significant life passages such as births, house blessings, weddings, funerals, and naming ceremonies. Drawing on extensive research and a deep personal experience with Pagan traditions, Ellen Evert Hopman explores the history and folklore surrounding the eight major Celtic festivals: Samhain, Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltaine, Summer Solstice, Lugnasad, and Fall Equinox. Included in each discussion are complete instructions on the medicinal and magical uses of the herbs associated with each celebration. Using these Celtic traditions as examples, the author suggests ways to incorporate the symbolic and magical power of herbs into personal rituals that honor all phases of life from childbirth to last rites. Also included are chapters on how to prepare herbal tinctures, salves, and poultices; herbs used by the Druids; herbal alchemy and the planets; and the relationships between herbs and sacred places. Filled with practical information and imaginative suggestions for using herbs for healing, ceremony, and magic, this book is an indispensable and comprehensive guide to age-old herbal practices.

Celtic Druidry
Celtic Druidry

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-05-07

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1644118610

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

• Explains how to make and use the essential tools of a Celtic Druid and how to create Druid rituals for seasonal rites, blessings, and other sacred observances • Details Druidic magical techniques and divination practices, as well as plant spells for performing magic with herbs • Explores the Gods and Goddesses of the Celtic pantheon, Druidic cosmology, and the Druidic festivals that occur throughout the year In this authentic handbook for the Celtic Druid path, Ellen Evert Hopman shares lessons, rituals, and magical techniques drawn from the ancient wisdom teachings of the Celts as well as a modern Druid Order created by the leading minds of 20th-century Celtic Reconstructionism. Hopman begins by exploring what we know about the original ancient Druids, citing Druid-contemporary sources such as Caesar and Diodorus Siculus as well as transcriptions of Druid oral teachings. She explains the basic tools and clothing of a Celtic Druid, including instructions for making the essential tools of the craft, such a Crane Bag, the Serpent Staff, and the Apple Branch, the tool used to open a Druid rite. She explores meditation techniques based on ancient texts and discusses the Gods and Goddesses of the Celtic pantheon, Druidic cosmology, and the Druidic festivals that occur throughout the turning of the year. She shares hymns to the Moon and the Sun as well as invocations for connecting with specific deities and elements. She also outlines the basics of Druidic liturgy, enabling you to create Druid rituals for seasonal rites, baby blessings, house blessings, hand-fastings, funerals, and other sacred observances. Detailing Druidic magical techniques, Hopman shares charms and incantations for abundance, protection, and healing as well as plant spells for performing magic with herbs. She discusses many forms of Druidic divination, including interpreting omens and divining with the ancient Irish alphabet, Ogham. Exploring the special connection between humans and Nature, a core component of Druidic practice, the author explains how to bond with Nature and the sacred land as well as examining the connection between Druids and trees. Revealing how to become a modern Druid, this concise yet detailed guide presents everything you need to know to start your journey on the Druidic path.

The Heart and Its Healing Plants
The Heart and Its Healing Plants

Author: Wolf-Dieter Storl

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-02-06

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 1644118394

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An ethnobotanical look at ancient heart beliefs, heart-strengthening herbs, and folk remedies for cardiovascular diseases • Discusses traditional understandings of the heart from early European cultures and indigenous peoples of the Americas, Asia, and Africa • Examines the heart as the home of the soul and an organ of perception and looks at traditional beliefs on what makes the heart sick • Presents a materia medica of plants used for millennia to treat heart-related conditions as well as plants in use by modern herbalists and cardiologists Among our ancestors as well as indigenous people still maintaining traditional diets there is little record of heart diseases in the modern sense. In the traditional worldview, the heart was considered the home of the soul and the source of love and vitality. As such, heart sickness was not seen as a result of poor nutrition, too much stress, or lack of exercise, but reflected an imbalance of the heart’s emotional and spiritual energies. Plants and folk remedies used as traditional heart medicine worked on the mental and spiritual level to help make the heart happy again. In this book, renowned ethnobotanist Wolf D. Storl, Ph.D., examines traditional understandings of the heart from early European cultures and indigenous peoples of the Americas, Asia, and Africa as well as a wealth of plants used in both ancient and contemporary times to treat heart conditions and ailments. He explores the heart as an organ of perception as well as its ability to remember, citing studies about the phenomenon of complete personality changes following a transplant. He examines what makes the heart sick, including different healing paradigms used to address the causes. He also looks at how time is perceived by the heart and how the modern epidemic of heart disease can be linked to our culture’s pervasive disconnection from nature’s rhythms. Presenting a materia medica of heart-strengthening herbs and folk remedies for cardiovascular diseases, the author offers in-depth descriptions of plants used for millennia to treat heart-related conditions as well as plants in use by modern herbalists and cardiologists. Sharing a holistic view of the heart—and heart disease—based on traditional perspectives, ethnomedical research, and herbal wisdom, this book reveals new ways to heal the heart by recognizing its integrated role in our physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Walking the World in Wonder
Walking the World in Wonder

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co

Published: 2000-10

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9780892818785

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Describes the natural healing benefits of a variety of herbs divided into sections by the seasons in which they grow.

Scottish Herbs and Fairy Lore
Scottish Herbs and Fairy Lore

Author: Ellen Hopman

Publisher:

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9781936922017

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many of the herbal and magical practices of the Scots are echoed in traditional Norwegian folk medicine and magic. This is a valuable resource book not only for the serious folklorist, but also for a wider audience interested in a deeper look at rural Scottish practices. Ms. Hopman has done an amazing amount of research, and her Scottish herbalism section is far more detailed than I've seen elsewhere. A "must have" for the northern European folklorist's library. Jane T. Sibley, Ph.D., author of "The Hammer of the Smith" and "The Divine Thunderbolt: Missile of the Gods." Through her books, Ellen Evert Hopman lifts the veil between worlds of the present and the past. She guides the reader on a fascinating journey to our ancient Celtic history, simultaneously restoring lost knowledge and entertaining the reader. Be prepared to be educated and delighted. Wendy Farley, Clan McKleod The first things is WOW! Ellen Hopman has given us a volume that belongs in Harry Potter's library. This wonderful collection of enchantments, faery lore and herbal potions, is presented by a practicing herbalist and (I suspect) magician. It is a useful manual of magic, an unusual tourist guide to Scotland, certainly a delightful read, and at the very least, a comprehensive and thoroughly footnoted collection of folk lore for humorless librarians and scholars. Matthew Wood MS (Scottish School of Herbal Medicine) Registered Herbalist (American Herbalists Guild) Every now and again, a book emerges from the waves of occult and magical authorship that delves into the deep and ancestral waters of old magic! This book is one of those rare occasions. From the lore of herbs to the blessing of stones; from avioding the elf-blast to healing through Faerie blessing - Ellen guides the reader through ancient groves of oral lore to discover a power and spirit that connects the reader to the oldest of magics, the earth and her elements. I am confident that the Scottish Ancestral Wise Ones, are renewed through this book and the old ways live once again! Orion Foxwood, Traditional Witch Elder, Conjurer in Southern Root-Doctoring and Faery Seer (www.orionfoxwood.com), author of "The Faery Teachings" (R.J. Stewart Books) and "The Tree of Enchantment" (Weiser Books).

Tree Medicine, Tree Magic
Tree Medicine, Tree Magic

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Phoenix Publishing (WA)

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is an in-depth study of the herbal and magical properties of our most common trees. It's a book of considerable caring and expertise - a book to affirm our deeper values more openly and in daily life, with practical herbal remedies and recipes for healthy body, mind and spirit. Tree Medicine, Tree Magic presents both an homage to the deepest mysteries, and a down-to-earth how-to-do-it herbal.

Being a Pagan
Being a Pagan

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2001-11-01

Total Pages: 584

ISBN-13: 1594775907

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

More than 60 pagan leaders and teachers describe in their own words what they believe and what they practice. • Addresses how Pagans view parenting, organized religion, and politics. • Introduces the wide range of possibilities within the neo-Pagan movement. • By Ellen Evert Hopman, author of A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year; Walking the World in Wonder: A Children's Herbal; and Tree Medicine, Tree Magic. Who are the pagans and what do they stand for? Why would some of the members of the best educated, most materially comfortable generation of Americans look back to mystical traditions many millennia old? During the last few decades, millions of people have embraced ancient philosophies that honor Earth and the spiritual power of each individual. Ways of worship from sources as diverse as the pre-Christian Celts, ancient Egypt, and Native American traditions are currently helping their followers find meaning in life while living in the Information Age. In this book Pagan leaders and teachers describe in their own words what they believe and what they practice. From Margot Adler, an NPR reporter and author of Drawing Down the Moon, to Isaac Bonewits, ArchDruid and founder of a modern neo-Druidic organization, those interviewed in this book express the rich diversity of modern Paganism. Hopman's insightful questions draw on her own experiences as a Pagan and Druid as well as on her extensive research. With coauthor Lawrence Bond, she examines how Pagans address such issues as parenting, organized religion, and politics. The resulting dialogues illuminate the modern Pagan revival.

Secret Medicines from Your Garden
Secret Medicines from Your Garden

Author: Ellen Evert Hopman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-02-18

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 1620555581

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A guided exploration of herbal lore and healing plants found in yards, forests, meadows, and hedgerows • Draws on traditional knowledge and remedies from around the world, including Native American, Celtic, and Egyptian traditions • Provides simple recipes to safely make herbal remedies from local plants and honey for first aid, immune support, and treatment of common ailments • Details the “triangle” formula-making system of William LeSassier • Explains how to work with plant spirits, herbal astrology, and Animal Spirit Medicine Weaving together ancient wisdom, mystical folklore, and modern plant research, master herbalist Ellen Evert Hopman explores the many uses of flowers, trees, common weeds, and ornamental plants for food, medicine, spiritual growth, and magical rituals. She reveals the herbal lore surrounding each plant, drawing on traditional knowledge and remedies from around the world, including Native American, Celtic, and Egyptian traditions. She includes recipes throughout so you can make medicines from wild and domesticated plants easily found in yards, forests, meadows, and hedgerows, and she discusses what to plant to ensure you have leaves, berries, and flowers all year. The author reveals how to quickly intuit an unknown plant’s properties using the signatures of plants--universal indications and contraindications based on the form, color, and location of a plant. She includes an in-depth section on honey and Bee Medicine, allowing you to appreciate the labors of these plant-dependent insects. Exploring the magical role of herbs in ancient ritual, Hopman provides recipes for Egyptian temple incense and their sacred medicine known as “Kyphi” or “Kaphet,” used to purify the body, banish insomnia, and promote vivid dreaming. She explores shamanic Plant Spirit and Animal Spirit Medicine as well as herbal astrology. She also explains the “triangle” formula-making system of her herbal mentor William LeSassier to help you develop custom herbal remedies tailored to a person’s unique strengths and weaknesses. Showing how to easily incorporate wild plants into your life to receive their healing benefits throughout the seasons, Hopman reveals the power of the bounty that Mother Nature has provided right at our doorstep.