Moving Bridget to West Virginia

Long time no see, gentle readers.

And what a time it's been.  I have finished my master's in counseling, my graduate certificate in autism education, my required courses for certification in behavior analysis, and 2600 hours of (annoying) supervision.  I am now moved to and living in West Virginia, where I am a provisionally licensed counselor under supervision, a Board Certified assistant Behavior Analyst, and an intern with West Virginia's early intervention program, Birth To Three.  I work in every state in the county, providing services to families impacted by autism, trauma, or often, both.   I'm in coal fields one day, high mountains another, and up hollows, down creeks and over rivers.

I love it.

I'm also about to be married to a wonderful, bisexual man, and professional partner.  My soon to be husband actually taught some of the autism therapists who would work with my kids!  Synchronicity!  And I have a new step-daughter, five dogs, my daughter's snake and lizard, and a huge, dilapidated fixer-upper Victorian with a wrap around porch, yellow at that.  Yes, and a partridge in a pear tree.  After mucho neglect in the puja department, I am spending June, finally, getting my Bridget garden moved to the state of mountains.

Today I put in tiny little St. Brid's Combs into my front garden.  Also known as betony or Bishop's Wort, (perhaps honoring the fact that Bridget served as Bishop in the Celtic Church), it is a sign that my puja life is here in my new home.  I've got some mugwort potted up to move down the mountains here to the central Alleghenies, and I've added lots of lilies - white for both Bridget and Mary.  Angelica, ragwort and Queen of the Meadow, those lovely and wonderful six foot tall plants, may have to wait until next year, but I'm also adding lots of St. John's wort, just for the lovely little flowers of it.  I have two circles of three with the betony, one in front and one in back, and plan to move three more.  Three three's for a lovely triple goddess set of nine.

Now with homeschooling the kids (I fought long and hard through a bitter custody battle to keep my kids out of schools), working all over the state, and still working on my license and certifications (my BCBA exam is in August!  Prayers to Lugh!), my puja time got lost.  I also now find myself living and working with a wonderful atheist man who questions all religion as bunkum, and finds himself marrying omnireligious me.  It has led to hurt feelings on both sides, and I have struggled to figure out how to honor my work in behaviorism and my own religious commitments.  And add my 16 year old a-theist son, and puja has been hard to do.

But I am working on it.

So today is plant the Bridget puja garden day, with sunshine, mixed with great thunder clouds.  Here in the mountains weather continues its crazy course, and I have many reports to write and things to do.  But I am putting puja into this new world.

Hello West Virginia.  Puja to Bridget has arrived.

A garden to Bridget

Ok! Enough with thinking, how about some action?

It is springtime and I need to be gardening! I have already transplanted roses and groundcovers, day lilies and herbs, and I just built four new raised beds plus a huge witchy flower border along my lower driveway. I have spent the last month busily filling my new beds or mixing compost or hauling leaves about the yard (and, this being central Appalachia, hauling rocks as well!) I am never happier than when I am with my kids or my flowers!

With all this new bedding space, I wanted to add plants for Bridget. I already have masses of roses and lilies - those superb Marian plants, but I wanted to expand to some Bridget offerings as well. A little research, and I am on my way. . .

Some plants to Bridget:

St. Brid's Comb

This was an obvious choice! Also known as betony, betonica officinalis or stachys officinalis, Bishopwort and Bishop's Elder, it is a longtime herb for the healer's garden. Some authors trace it back to the Greeks (and Antonius Musa, physick to Emperor Augustus, wrote a treatise on it). In the Medicina Britannica (1666) the author wrote: 'I have known the most obstinate headaches cured by daily breakfasting for a month or six weeks on a decoction of Betony made with new milk and strained.' In the middle ages, betony was gathered without iron as a dried herb for dozens of complaints. Fairy folk take note of the tradition to not touch betony with iron!

Mugwort

Mugwort is common wormwood, or St. John's plant (not St. John's wort - a different and wonderful plant). Wormwood is one of the artemesias, sacred to Diana/Artemis, and a long standby in my own garden. All artemesias are useful for protection and to identify your home as a witchy one. Wormwood is also a strong smelling plant, used all over the world for healing and to guard against bad spirits. (Also great to keep moths out of your spinning wool). Some writers consider wormwood to be the flower of the Isle of Man, and others associate it with Bridget because it's strong scent induced prophecy!


Angelica

Angelica is an obvious choice, with its divine associations! Because of its name, angelica archangelica, it is listed in magical herbals as a protective plant. Used medicinally, it has been a tonic and strengthener. Sugar the flowers to decorate cakes, a traditional midsummer treat. Seeds are used to flavor gin. An all purpose herb, then!

Ragwort

Another sacred herb in Ireland and the Isle of Man, Ragwort has other wonderful names:
St. James' Wort, staggerweed, Mare's fart, and Dog Standard and Cushag (its Manx name, hence the poem:

Now, the Cushag, we know,
Must never grow,
Where the farmer's work is done.
But along the rills,
In the heart of the hills,
The Cushag may shine like the sun.
Where the golden flowers,
Have fairy powers,
To gladden our hearts with their grace.
And in Vannin Veg Veen,
In the valleys green,
The Cushags have still a place.

Ragwort is poison to cattle and horses, and a constant source of weeding for farmers in the UK and Ireland).

Despite this, however, ragwort is also well known for bee stings and eye problems. It is a famous green dye for wool.

Cowslip

Growing wild in my yard, but hard to transplant to my beds, Cowslip is also known as Lady's keys, Our lady's keys, Mayflower (when it blooms), Fairy Cups, Key Flower and Key of heaven. The common primula, then, is a wonderful magical herb. Still used in medicines, primula is an expectorant and diuretic, but more commonly its known for the famous cowslip wine of Victorian writers. It also goes in teas and vinegar, and my great grandmother used it in salads as a potherb.

Queen of the Meadow

Long one of my favourite plants: Eutrochium, Queen of the Meadow is a huge, pink, wayside wildflower also known locally in New England as Joe Pye Weed, in the south as Purple Boneset and Kidney Root. I love its pink, towering plumes in August! With its name, and its size, it is a must in my garden.

Lady's Mantle

Also known as bear's foot and stellaria, Lady's Mantle is long associated with the Virgin Mary. The leaves of Lady's Mantle, placed under one's pillow, should bring a good night's sleep without bad dreams. As a tea, it is good for "women's problems" from cramps to heavy bleeding.



More common herbs:

I've also included traditional culinary herbs in my beds and border: sage and thyme, mints and lavenders, dill and fennel. (Some writers connect fennel to Bridget as well!) I put tarragon and chives in for my son, who loves them both, and sweet woodruff, my longtime favorite little mulchy groundcover, grows apace throughout my entire yard! Down the road, creeping thyme will go in the holes in the cement blocks used for my raised beds (here in the mountains, soil is strongly acid, which is great for those roses, but the cement gives me a little alkaline for things like thyme. )I added bags and bags of sand and pebbles, to counter the heavy clay that is Appalachia. And I have four new rose beds planned for June, when I hope we see some sunshine.

I will post picture updates as my garden grows! In the meantime, try gardening for magic, prayer and puja.

What do you want to grow?