Plants are our healers and I find they comfort me whenever I feel low or at odds with the human world for they grow everywhere and anywhere bringing joy to the world, usually in great abundance. Many of our beloved plants are struggling right now from the heat and the lack of water, it seems to be an accepted normal that species become extinct and habitats are destroyed, however ever since I was a child I have found it unacceptable as I’m sure many of you also do.

Please support our ‘Devoted to Plants Campaign’ for every subscription will help me plant more and more seeds.

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Watchful speedwell

​Heath speedwell ( Veronica officinalis) Field speedwell ( V.persica)
Germander speedwell (V.chamaedrys) Wood speedwell ( V.montana).

Common Name: Germander Speedwell Latin : Veronica chamaedrys Family: Veronicaceae History and/or use: Treatment for bronchitis, coughs and catarrh.
Wildlife Value: Good nectar plant.

Clear blue are the skies;
My petals are blue;
As beautiful, too,
As bluest of eyes.

The heavens are high:
By the field-path I grow
Where wayfarers go,
And “Good speed,” say I;

“See, here is a prize
Of wonderful worth:
A weed of the earth,
As blue as the skies!”

This familiar plant of waysides and grass verges produces bright blue flowers from April to June. This wonderful plant is known as one of the wayfarer herbs guiding the lone traveller along country lanes cheering their journey and offering good luck. However this dainty bright weed has a tenacious habit and bears a warning of protection. Its flowers are watchful likened to eyes but what are they watching?

‘Fresh beauty opens one’s eyes wherever it is really seen, but the very abundance and completeness of the common beauty that besets our steps prevents its being absorbed and appreciated. It is a good thing, to creep like worms into dark holes and caverns underground, not only to learn something of what is going on in those out-of-the-way places, but to see better what the sun sees on our return to common everyday beauty.’

​John Muir

In traditions all over the globe we are asked to respect nature and this plant is said to be protected by birds and offers good luck but if we sever our connection to nature and no longer see its beauty in the dark places as well as the light where creation begins we fall into forgetfulness of the earth and all its beauty. These traditional warnings therefore are reminders to honour nature at all times and to not fall out of sync with her sweet caress.

Many poems and stories refer to the wonderful blue eye-like flowers of this plant. It is a weed of cultivation as well as an ancient herb and popular tea. As a tea it can help relief bronchitis, whooping cough and catarrh. Although the heath speedwell’s Latin name ‘officinalis’ denotes it as the official plant used by the apothecary, other species such as listed above can also be used.

It is the germander speedwell which is most commonly referred to as bird’s eye mainly due to its distinctive white eye against its bright blue petals. Traditionally as already mentioned it is said that birds protect it, so pick with care!

I have heard that in Ireland sprays of speedwell were pinned to traveller’s clothing to protect them from accidents and the phrase ‘speed-you-well’ was used to bless their parting. This plant seems to invoke tenderness as its Latin name Veronica may be named after the saint who wiped Christ’s face as he carried the cross. It is a key nectar plant well known for as producing nectar for the solitary bees who like the lone traveller follow it along the wayfarer’s paths.

Soothing of Ground Ivy

Common Name: Ground ivy Latin : Glechoma hederacea
Family: Lamiaceae ( mint family)
History and/or use: Brewing ale and herbal tea to ease stomach pains.
Wildlife Value: Many wild bees depend on this plant.

This common plant brightens up woodland glades and grasslands with its many mauve flowers.
It is probably most well known for its use as an alternative to hops in the brewing of ales.

Up until the 1500s it was used in brewing to clear the fermenting liquid and add a sharp flavour. This beverage was known as gill-ale and unlike most ales was reputed to clear the head effectively often within 24 hours. Jonathon Swift (1767) is quoted as remarking on this drink.

If you have any medical conditions please check with a medical herbalist first before taking any plant and only harvest it if you are 100% sure what it is!

Like many of our common plants ground ivy is overlooked and yet has a long impressive history of use.
Traditionally ground ivy is infused with nettle to make what is known as ‘gill tea’. Every spring children from Warwickshire drank this bitter tea for nine days for good health.
This tea not only can help soothe the stomach including griping pains, coughs and chest disorders it also will help clear mucous membranes and as an inhalant help colds, coughs and respiratory complaints. The dried leaves can be used as a snuff and the herb can clear up skin complaints, bind wounds and draw out splinters.

Triumph of Nettle

The nettle has triumphant qualities often used in times of crisis for food, medicine and fibres. Now is a good time to connect with the nettle and now more than ever to draw upon its triumphant qualities.

Latin : Urtica diocia Family: Urticaceae
History and/or use: Making of fabrics and dyes. Edible leaves full of iron, protein and beneficial minerals
Wildlife Value: Butterfly food plant.

​Nettle, despite it being a noxious weed everyone is trying to destroy, is a ‘super’ plant that can be used for food, medicine and the making of cloth and cordage.

Nettle Cordage

​Cordage making begins in the summer once the plant is more mature usually from June/July onwards. Remove the leaves, bash the stem and then open it up to remove the pith. The outer fibres can be plaited or twisted to make strong string or rope. I have found it as enduring as any plant fibre and stronger than deer sinew when made into cordage.

The first picture on the left above shows the stages of the creation of the nettle cordage from the freshly picked plants to the stems once the leaves and hairs are removed through to a reel of cordage. This first step can be done using gloves although it is said:

‘Tender handed touch a nettle and it will sting you for your pain, grasp it like a man of mettle and it soft as silk remains.’

The above statement is true but you must be confident and firm. It is also important in the first step that you do remove all the hairs so that the cordage doesn’t continue to sting you after its creation.

The second picture shows three types of cordage, from left to right the first cordage is made from the bark of Clematis vitalba often known as old man’s beard. The second reel is made of the bark of the lime tree which was prized by our ancestors for making cordage which they called ‘Bass’. When we discover woods with the word ‘Bass’ in its name this is referring to the use of the lime tree’s phloem (inner bark) layer to create cordage. This material would have been used to hold medieval scaffold poles together but unlikely to have competed well against the 1500 year old cannabis industry which produced high quality material. The third reel is the nettle cordage.

The picture above is my canvas tarpaulin being held up by hazel poles with nettle and lime bark cordage as guy lines to hold it all in place. I have found nettle to be the strongest of the cordage that I have made. I tend to cover it in beeswax to help waterproof it, traditionally pitch would have been used especially on hemp ropes.​

The nettle fibres can also be used to weave cloth; a bronze age Dane was discovered wrapped in nettle fibres.
Even as late as the Twentieth century the nettle was still being used to make table cloths and bed linen in Scotland.

Nettles as food

Nettle leaves are full of minerals and contain many vitamins especially A and C. They have a 2.3% iron content and 5.5% protein content by weight. Nettle puree can be made by simmering the leaves for 5 minutes adding butter and seasoning with onion as a tasty alternative to spinach. You can simply boil and steam the nettle leaves if preferred.

To make nettle crisps just simply shallow fry the freshly picked nettle tops being careful not to burn them and then dab dry with an absorbent paper.

Pictures- Left to Right- nettle crisps- freshly harvested nettles- nettle soup​

Nettles as Medicine

As a medicine nettle can be collected just before it flowers to relieve high blood pressure, cystitis, anaemia (due to mineral rich leaves) and can act as a diuretic. Use the leaves fresh or dry as an infusion as discussed earlier in the course. The root can treat diarrhoea and dysentery and be made into a tincture for eczema.

In World War Two the plant was gathered to supply chlorophyll for medicines and dye for camouflage nets.

Nettles for Wildlife

Nettles are also very important for wildlife as they support beautiful butterflies such as the comma, red admiral, peacock, painted lady and the small tortoiseshell.

The caterpillars of these species depend on nettles often for a whole month in the summer as a food source so do require large patches of them. The painted lady will use nettles but mainly will lay her eggs on thistles and the small tortoiseshell will also lay eggs on the small nettle (Urtica urens) which is especially common in Eastern England including Brighton where I live. The comma will lay single eggs fluttering from one patch to another whilst the peacock my lay up to 400 eggs in a single patch. The red admiral caterpillars are easy to find as they are grouped in silk tents.
So do keep a patch of nettles and look beyond its spiky appearance to its wealth of uses.

Qualities of Nettle

Nettle grows in clumps, its distinctive yellow roots form mats which cling to the soil and are difficult to remove, it has hairs all over its stems and leaves which release an acid that stings the skin and yet it is full of life-giving properties.

Nettle once again proves that nature does not fit into neat label of good or bad and the biting, stinging poisonous world of nature always without question feeds into the eternal beauty of a balanced web. The minute humans stop trying to control and pigeon-hole concepts is the moment we are open to all the aspects of nature.

The plant to me feels brittle and empty, determined and tenacious and this quality creates strong rope, effective medicine and food not only for humans but for many invertebrates. Imagine all those caterpillars we spoke of growing on the nutrient rich food of the nettle. Nettle contains the key minerals which are strong building blocks to maintain our good health such as iron and calcium as well as being rich in protein. This enables it to help many conditions as well as help maintain good bone health and reduce inflammations of the joints such as in arthritis.

Movement of Cleavers

Left to right - Cleavers- Crosswort - Lady’s bedstraw

Common Name : Cleavers Latin : Galium aparine Family: Rubiaceae
History/Use: Good spring tonic and nutritious vegetable boiled or eaten raw when young.
Wildlife Value : Food plant for insects

​An abundant straggling plant clambering through the undergrowth and climbing through the hedgerows. Its seeds cling to animal fur to aid distribution. Its luxuriant keen growth in spring brings a cleansing, moving refreshing energy of determination and direction. The family it belongs to are known as the bedstraws for their lush green foliage traditionally provided bedding ( see Lady’s bedstraw below). The bedstraws have four-angled stems and their leaves are arranged in whorls.

Goose Grass or Cleavers is a common plant that can be eaten as a green vegetable. Its seeds can be roasted to make a hot beverage. Medicinally the plant is an astringent and diuretic. It is used to help heal inward and outward wounds as well as being used to cleanse them. Internally it is used to treat psoriasis and eczema and support the lymphatic system. The plant is best used fresh as it loses its medicinal qualities in the drying process.

Please note the plant can be a skin irritant.
If you have any medical conditions please check with a medical herbalist first before taking any plant and only harvest it if you are 100% sure what it is!

The plant clings or cleaves to fur/materials to aid its distribution, giving it the name of cleavers. Shepherds have used it to strain hair out of sheep’s milk, and it has been fed to goslings, giving rise to the name Goose Grass.

There are many related species including hedge, heath and lady’s bedstraw which are all part of the bedstraw family ( Rubiaceae) so called as they are plants traditionally used for bedding.

Medicinally many species of bedstraw are used for staunching wounds especially woodruff, hedge, heath and lady’s bedstraw. The last two species are known for being styptics and therefore are good for treating nosebleeds.

Lady’s bedstraw (Galium verum) is so named because the Virgin Mary is said to have given birth to Jesus upon it as all the other fodder was eaten by the donkeys. This story may be rooted in the folk tradition that the plant is said to help women to have a safe and easy childbirth. Lady’s bedstraw is also known to treat urinary diseases, epilepsy and gout and to help tired feet when placed in the bath. Its yellow flowers were used to curdle milk given rise to the folk names of ‘cheese rennet’ and ‘cheese running’.

Both the leaves and stem of this plant create a yellow dye and the roots create a red dye.

Crosswort ( Cruciata laevipes) is another bedstraw especially reputed for healing wounds. It grows in open woodlands and has yellow-green hairy leaves and numerous tiny yellow flowers. I usually dry the whole plant, steep it in oil for at least two weeks on a sunny windowsill, drain and add beeswax to produce an ointment.

Everyone who subscribes will Support our ‘Devoted to Plants Initiative’ and help to promote and grow our wonderful plant friends.

We explore the meaning of this time of year as well as positive masculinity, holding a neutral space for people and witnessing the land.

I tell the tale of Lugh Samildanach aa a new type of hero, a hero that was needed then, a hero that is needed now. A hero who listens to everyone and anyone, and never strikes unless it's a just cause and never from anger or from revenge, but for the benefit of the whole.

Please listen here:

Podcast

Above : Sitting on Brighid’s Mound at sunset in Beckery or ‘Little Ireland.’

My pilgrimage started in a industrial estate with a metalworkers yard, disused old cars and vans with broken glass sprinkled on the floor. The old red brick buildings spoke of an earlier tannery from which now a traveller site and eco- initiative has been born.

Although seemingly a mess it triggered a nostalgia for a time when there was more autonomy and we were empowered to be more self-sufficient and self-reliant not for ecological reasons but due to a life-style where we fixed our own cars, grew our own vegetables and maintained our own homes out of necessity.

The concrete path gave way to a gravel one and then to grass where flocks of green finches alighted from the hedgerow and a single fox and buzzard hunted in the nearby fields.

I arrived in Beckery, ‘Little Ireland’ for it is said that Irish monks settled here and that St Brighid herself came here to set up a chapel. King Arthur also is said to have come to this area where he had a vision of Mother Mary and the infant Jesus.

‘The earth is our place of liberation and a giant step indeed when someone sets foot on it, or more daringly when someone comes home to it.’ John Moriarty

Every plot of land has a history and legend associated with it so all that is needed is to set foot on your own local patch of earth and listen to the earth and her ancestry.

I walked on to Wearyall hill where it is said Joseph of Arimathea planted the sacred thorn and went on to create the first Christian hermitage of Britain in the sacred land of Avalon. Upon the hill a roe deer seemed to have been adopted by the highland cattle grazing peacefully on the dry grass.

Then on I went up to the Tor, the high point for Lughnasadh for this is a time to look out across the land and hear her call. The dry barren fields a stark reminder that we all must put our energy into creating a green world where all lives in harmony.

A week without a phone, device or computer where I could sit under a tree or by a sacred well for hours has refreshed my determination to connect, help and listen to the voice of nature, there is nothing more important.

Listen to the Lughnasadh podcast and help to bring forth a positive vision of humanity where we all come together to help our sacred land.

Please explore the work of Marisa Goudy of The Myth Workers’ Hearth, it is truly inspirational.

Podcast

Thank you for all your support in this publication.

As we witness homophobic attacks increasing once again in our world, it seems we must turn to the wisdom of our deep mythologies which speak to the issues of the present time to which they are told in.

Read more

Read more

‘Modern humanity needs to find ways, ritual ways of living and expressing its affinity with nature.’

John Moriarty

Woodland Bard Storytelling at Stone Henge over 15 years ago.

Megalithic Landscapes

What is Stonehenge? It is the roofless past,
Man’s ruinous myth, his uninterred adorning of the unknown.
Sunrise cold and red,
His quest of stars that arch his doomed exploring.
And what is time, but shadows that were cast by these
Storm sculptured stones while centuries fled?
The stones remain.
Their stillness can outlast the skies of history
Hurrying overhead.

William Blake.

In the British Isles we have some remarkable ancient stone circles dating back thousands of years which are our original temples and power houses built in our distant past.

The scale of these monuments is immense, the ancient people using an entire landscape to celebrate and connect with their spirituality which is intrinsically linked to a way of life and the thresholds we encounter such as birth, marriage and death.
They seem to be connected to the elements, seasons, landscape and even the planets.

Earth spirituality is about acknowledging our sense of place, knowing exactly where we are in the geography of the land and even the universe. This knowledge starts with the four elements which make up all life and then the directions of north, south, east, west and the centre which is the fifth element of spirit.

Discover much more by subscribing to our in-depth Woodland Bard Courses with expert knowledge on trees, plants, environmental science and the mythologies of the natural world:

Next Woodland Bard this Sunday 26th July at 6pm: Uniting the People- A Mother’s Sacrifice. - all are welcome (Subscribers will receive the link automatically) or BOOK HERE £8 per session inc. recordings and written article.

Visit my YouTube channel to explore the stories and meditations that connect you to nature and help you to find peace within. Please subscribe and like to help spread the word.

Shamanic Training Courses- I cannot recommend these courses highly enough to realign you with your connection to the sacred landscape and your own ancestry
This two-part course begins the Level A training in the Shamanic traditions of the Sister Isles.

The course will be in the beautiful grounds of the Sustainability centre, Hampshire, in the South of England on 14th/15th November 2026 and 20th/21st February 2027. Take both weekends to qualify for further training.

The cost for both weekends is around £490 (only £245 per weekend) plus accommodation. The accommodation can be basic to more luxurious.

I have found it deeply nurturing and life changing, I am so glad that I did it.

For further details please email Tish at : ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com

The Sacred Landscape

As with all ancestral spirituality the sacred landscape is often rooted in practical as well as spiritual reasoning. The area around the immense stone circles of Avebury and Stone Henge is perfect farming land with soil that was easily worked with a stone plough and rich fertile plains which would have helped nomadic hunter gatherers to settle as farmers. Surrounding the land they cleared was at one time a mosaic of rich ancient woodlands, a valuable resource.

Once the early communities settled, trade routes were to be established and we find that if we trace a line from the far east of England to the furthest point in Cornwall, the area of Avebury is the central point of Southern England.
From here the prehistoric Ridgeway stretching from East Anglia to the Dorset coast meets the Old Bath Road from London to the West.
These trade routes in early times, before 6000BCE, would probably have stretched into Europe via a land bridge.

This meant the area where Stone Henge and Avebury were built was already a site of trade and commerce bringing together tribes from all over England and possibly even Europe.

The natural progression of this coming together of tribes may have therefore been to develop it into a place of worship where one could celebrate and honour the spirituality of the land. These temples therefore may have been built on such a large scale to make them worthy strongholds for tribes to celebrate and mark festivals from all over England and beyond.

We are exploring a time when people understood they depended on the entire universe, the cosmos in order to live. They knew that without the sun, moon, earth and all of Nature they would not be here. They may have seen and felt the energies of the land, living and breathing every moment and completely in tune with every animal, bird, rock, tree and plant in a way the modern human may struggle to understand.

As the community came together an immense satisfaction may have developed, linking the people together in a common purpose with an awe and satisfaction of what they had achieved. In its entirety an awesome place of worship.

These sites were developed over many lifetimes which demonstrates how early people did not just focus on the small amount of time that they existed in a physical body but far beyond that.
They placed themselves in the eternal world of the soul, harnessing the power of their ancestors and also the future of the new generations.
Evidence suggests they may have begun marking out sites with wooden pillars before placing the mammoth stones. The earliest structures around the area of Avebury were connected to the burying of the dead such as the Sanctuary and the West Kennet long barrow, which is the largest and best-preserved long barrow in Britain.

Once these areas were built they then constructed areas to celebrate the sun, moon and the seasons.

Silbury Hill for instance (also near Avebury) was first built at the harvest festival of Lammas. This huge structure is 130ft high, the size of the smaller pyramids in Egypt and indeed when finished was a 7 stepped pyramid glistening white before being buried and grassed over. This structure has kept its original shape and size for over 4500 years!

There have been many theories about why it was built including it being an ancient tomb of King Sel full of gold though nothing was ever found. The most popular theory is the Silbury Goddess, the mound being her pregnant womb. This fits with the celebration of the harvest festival which is a celebration of the Goddess, the fecundity of the land and its harvest.

The sheer scale of the sites of Stone Henge and Avebury and the surrounding countryside demonstrates how our ancestors were manipulating an entire landscape almost like they were Gods themselves, showing the importance of worship and the marking of thresholds, a sacred landscape stretching for miles with barrows on the horizon and beyond.

Moving these huge stones over miles of countryside would have been quite a feat but also the huge earthworks, banks and ditches were all dug out using antler picks and rakes, ox tongue blades, wooden shovels and baskets and still survive the test of time.
The earthwork at Avebury encloses over 28 acres of land and originally the height from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank would have been 50ft.

These builders were highly skilled in science and engineering living in an ordered society.

Harnessing Energy.

The earth and rock is older than us and any living thing, the power and size of them speaks of longevity and strength. The energies of the very earth itself were and still are channelled into the temples of old.

Imagine the processions of people as they walked the stone avenues leading to the henges with sacred features all around them on the skyline. Walking from the ancient site of Durrington Walls to Stone Henge at the Festival of the Dead or walking the stone avenues to the centre of Avebury and onto Silbury Hill for the harvest festival.
Arriving at the setting or rising of the sun and moon with lavish feasts and great celebration, in tune with earth and sky, sun and moon, with the energies of the time and experiencing a deep profound relationship with all of nature and the earth.

The Tor, Glastonbury in Somerset.

‘Glastonbury is a gateway to the Unseen. It has been a holy place and pilgrim-way from time immemorial, and to this day it sends its ancient call into the heart of the race it guards, and still we answer to the inner voice. She is all beauty, our English Jerusalem. The paths that lead to her are ways of loveliness and pilgrimages of the soul.’

Avalon of the Heart, Dion Fortune

As we travel further West from Wiltshire into Somerset another seven stepped pyramid rises from what once was marshland traversed by a wooden trackways created by the Neolithic people in 3500BCE.

The Tor is a natural hill stretching up 518 feet above sea level with seven terraces cut into it and red and white springs flowing beneath it. An earth works called Ponter’s ball once separated Glastonbury from the mainland and legends have built up around it giving it the title of the Isle of Glass and Avalon, a fortunate blessed isle of the dead where Gods rise and fall and a powerful sisterhood led by Morgan le Fay reside marking it as sacred Isle to the Great Mother.

Chalice Well springs, Glastonbury in Somerset.

The legends continue as Christianity spreads to these isles, it is no coincidence that it is known as the earliest Christian settlement and was a centre of learning in Anglo-Saxon times. It is only a short distance from the Hill fort of Cadbury Castle which has been excavated with mounting evidence that it was a stronghold for a key War Lord holding back the Saxons possibly known in the stories as King Arthur.

‘The stories of Arthur are the acts of Albion, applied to a Prince of the fifth century.’

William Blake

Legends of great giants embodied in old oak trees and Gwynn ap Nudd guarding the Tor as an entrance to the Underworld exist alongside Christian Saints with a Lady chapel as a shining beacon at a time when the praise of the Great Mother was being forgotten.

The Lady chapel in the Abbey and the Mary Magdalene Chapel, Glastonbury in Somerset.

In the South downs where I live there are rich chalk meadows of purple orchids, scabious and round-headed rampion where flitting butterflies as colourful as the flowers feed above them. There are seven key rivers the Cuckmere, Ouse, Adur, Arun, Rother, Meon, and Itchen.

The undulating hills are sites for Neolithic causeways, Bronze age burial mounds and Iron age forts, down in the rivers are watercress beds and coltsfoot plants where the white clawed crayfish feeds and beavers build dams.

Getting to know our sacred landscape and our ancient sites can help us to build a deep connection within and replenish us for the ongoing daily spiritual work that we can then take into our everyday life.

‘Therefore I am still a lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold from this green earth.
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide,
The guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being.’

William Wordsworth

Thank you for supporting this publication. Your support enables us to promote and grow plants and spread the word about the importance of nature connection:

Wildflower Course part 1

Sit back and give yourself the gift of immersing in the beauty of Nature.

My heart is so full at this time of year with such plant beauty all around me, I find that plants hold, support and fill me with joy, I only wish everyone could experience this wherever they are.

Always fond of flowers, attracted by their external beauty and purity. Now my eyes were opened to their inner beauty, all alike revealing glorious traces of the thoughts of God, and leading on and on into the infinite cosmos....
my eyes never closed on the plant glory I had seen.

​John Muir

Plants are everywhere whether you live in a city or vast wilderness, they freely create such incredible beauty.

In this wildflower course I am bringing together all my articles on plants and writing many more to help you immerse fully in nature wherever you are. Each stage will be filled with detailed plant profiles which will include the poetry, herbal uses, wildlife value and folklore of each species.

If you join the Woodland Bard you will have access to this course in an easy sequential format as well as access to our Woodland Bard Course which includes detailed articles on trees and woodland ecology and a deep analysis of Irish Mythology.

Everyone who subscribes will Support our ‘Devoted to Plants Initiative’ and help to promote and grow our wonderful plant friends.

Help us make a difference:

If you prefer you can join or donate to the plants through the website which will give you access for three months to the course- JOIN HERE

Wildflower Course part 1 - Getting started

A simple common plant has the ability to awaken a joy within us, a joy untainted by life’s challenges that remains with us throughout our lives, there is no limit to the gifts of nature we just simply need to stop and soak it up. As the poem below on wildflowers states all that is needed is a free moment to appear, nothing more:

O the prickly sow thistle that grew in the hollow of the Near Field.
I used it as a high jump coming home in the evening –
A hurdle race over the puce blossoms of the sow thistles.
Am I late?
Am I tired?
Is my heart sealed
From the ravening passion that will eat it out
Till there is not one pure moment left?

O the greater fleabane that grew at the back of the potato-pit.
I often trampled through it looking for rabbit burrows!
The burnet saxifrage was there in profusion
And the autumn gentian –
I knew them all by eyesight long before I knew their names.
We were in love before we were introduced.

Let me not moralize or have remorse, for these names
Purify a corner of my mind;
I jump over them and rub them with my hands,
And a free moment appears brand new and spacious
Where I may live beyond the reach of desire.

On Reading a Book on Common Wild Flowers by Patrick Kavanagh

Please explore Meeting Plant Friends article for more information on identification.

Let us begin:

Connection of Dandelion

Common Name: Dandelion Latin : Taraxacum officinale Family: Asteraceae (compositae)
History and/or use: Roast roots for a beverage and use leaves for salad. Effective blood purifier.
Wildlife Value: Key nectar source.

The classic folk tale of the Dandelion is of the Leprechaun who hides its gold under the plant. The question therefore is what is the gold in the soil, where do the dandelion roots stretch down to? Dandelion is the quality of connection, it provides one of the early main sources of nectar for our winged delights, its golden flower attracts the nectar seeking insect people. John Muir describes our insects as beautiful winged people waltzing together in pure play and hilarious enjoyment. The gold under the plant is the very essence of life, the soil, minerals and the insects and fungi from which all life stems from. No matter how hard our lives may seem the dandelion implores us to find the gold in the earth and treasure it more than ever!

‘Here’s the dandelion rhyme: see my leaves with tooth-like edges, blow my clocks to tell the time, see me flaunting by the hedges, in the meadow, in the lane, pull me up- I grow again.
Asking neither leave nor pardon, sillies, what are you about with your spades and hoes of iron?
You can never drive me out- me, the dauntless dandelion!’

Cicely Mary Barker 1925

If you have any medical conditions please check with a medical herbalist first before taking any plant and only harvest it if you are 100% sure what it is!

The word dandelion is a corruption of the French ‘dent de lion’ which means ‘lions tooth’ referring to the shape of the leaf. Dandelion is yet another common plant which is underrated. In medieval times it was grown as a vegetable and cooked like spinach or it was added to salads. It is rich in vitamins A and C and is a superior diuretic as it replaces the potassium lost in the process.

​The leaves are also a strong equivalent to frusemide and can be used for hypertension when dried.
The root can also be used as a vegetable sautéed in vegetable oil and is a powerful liver tonic and coffee substitute. Use the root dried or fresh.
To make coffee dig up your fresh roots, wash and dry them, then bake in the oven for about ten minutes on a low heat. Provided they are not burnt they taste delicious, just add hot water and according to preference some fresh milk.
If you wish to do it over an open fire chop the root up small and flash fry them with no oil.

Medicine of Self Heal

Botanical Features

Common Name: Selfheal Latin : Prunella vulgaris Family: Lamiaceae
History and/or use: Excellent astringent for wounds and for internal bleeding.
Wildlife Value: Ground cover and nectar provider.
Habitat: Grassy, often bare place inc. lawns and woods.

‘When little Elves have cut themselves,
Or Mouse has hurt her tail,
Or Froggie’s arm has come to harm,
This herb will never fail.
The Faeries’ skill can cure each ill
And soothe the sorest pain;
She’ll bathe and bind, and soon she’ll find, that they are well again.’

Mary Cicely Barker

Selfheal has many folk names including Carpenter’s herb, hook-heal and sickly wort, each describing its use or how others have experienced the plant in different regions. The above names speak of the carpenter, farmer and patient’s relationship with the plant.

Selfheal survives well in grasslands, waste spaces and more open woodlands. A close cut lawn in summer can look beautiful with the purple flowers of selfheal to enliven the otherwise monocultural sward. There is a rarer species known as the cut-leaved self heal ( Prunella laciniata) which has cut leaves and white flowers.

Both the Latin and common name of this plant point to its continued use as a herb. Prunella or Brunella is the German name for a sore throat. Dioscorides knew of the plant’s use for sore throats and treated inflammations of the throat and tonsils with this plant.

The common name of selfheal as well as the folk names of hook- heal, sickly-wort and carpenter’s herb all imply an obvious link to medicinal usage. In the doctrines of signatures (the concept that every plant has a signature that tells us its use), the flower of this plant is said to resemble a hook and as in the past many common wounds were from billhooks and sickles this implied its use to stanch bleeding.

Selfheal does staunch bleeding effectively and is also used for internal bleeding as a syrup or as a tea.
It is also used for respiratory complaints, piles and in Ireland to treat heart trouble. It is less known as a cure for colds.

Tenacity of Yarrow

Common Name: Yarrow Latin : Achillea millefolium Family: Asteraceae
History and/or use: Yarrow is full of nutrients and minerals and can help sleep, pain and bleeding
Wildlife Value: Invertebrate food plant.

‘Among the harebells and the grass, the grass all feathery with seed, I dream, and see all the people pass:
​They pay me little heed.
And yet the children (so I think) in spite of other flowers more dear, would miss my clusters white and pink, if I should disappear.’

Cicely Mary Barker 1925

This common plant seen in the verges and other grassy habitats is an effective herb for many wounds containing a natural antiseptic called cineol. It can also help to hasten the clotting time of blood which has given rise to its folk name ‘nosebleed’. The herb can be used fresh or dried and put direct onto a wound or made into an ointment.

Yarrow induces sweating, can help you sleep, eases pain and reduces bleeding. Yarrow is full of nutrients and minerals and when mixed with vervain I have found it to be ideal for fevers and nerve pain. It helps aid digestion and is a good general tonic for the system.

If you have any medical conditions please check with a medical herbalist first before taking any plant and only harvest it if you are 100% sure what it is!

Its Latin name Achillea reminds us that Achilles used it to cure wounds inflicted by iron weapons as did the Anglo-Saxons warriors. In Ireland the plant is said to drive away evil and therefore sickness.
It is also considered a Woman’s herb increasing attractiveness and protecting them from men.

‘I will pick green yarrow that my figure may be fuller, that my voice may be sweeter, that my lips will be like the juice of the strawberry.... I shall wound every man, but no man shall wound me.’

The above Gaelic chant implies it is a herb under the protection of the Goddess.
​The plant itself speaks of tenacity as it is able to lie low when the grass is cut building up its strength from a strong tap root and yet is capable of growing high when left to its own devices. Its many clusters of flowers and numerous leaves continue its tale of tenacity, a plant worth respecting and a beautiful addition to the grass sward.

Wild peas of the Downs

Kidney Vetch Tufted Vetch Bird's foot trefoil

Common Name: Tufted Vetch Latin : Vicia cracca Family: Fabaceae
History and/or use: edible leaves cooked as a vegetable and seeds if processed - not recommended.
Wildlife Value: Nectar source for invertebrates

Out on the Downs I visit rich meadows filled with fragrant and pyramidal orchids surrounded by a lush verdure, sprinkled with the yellow and purple gems of the the pea family ‘Fabaceae’.
The flowers of these plants are undeniably distinctive especially if memories of sweet peas grown in the garden or the eating of field peas in farmer’s fields spring to mind.
However the peas I speak of provide valuable food not in their fruit but in their delightful flowers made of a standard, two wings and a keel. The bee lands on the keel ( bottom petal) the wings ( petals each side) open out and the bee takes a fill of pure nectar. Colour and scent are the attraction and pure nectar the reward, this phenomenon could not be dreamt up in the greatest novel, it is a tiny yet vast world where beauty reigns supreme.

Therefore go to a meadow and spot the purple and yellow pea flowers of vetches and trefoils, look up the names of tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa), kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) birds-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus),black medick (Medicago lupulina) and ribbed melilot (Melilotus officinalis) and take out a good field guide or go on a local walk with an expert in your area. You may wish to leave the guide book at home and leave the naming to others as you soak in the beauty.

Agrimony

​Common Name: Agrimony Latin : Agrimonia eupatoria Family: Rosaceae
History and/or use: Stimulating tea for sore throats and digestion
Wildlife Value: Nectar source for invertebrates

In June this plant’s upright bright yellow flowers brighten up field margins, road verges and hedgerows.
The name Agrimony may be from the Greek word meaning ‘wild flower of the field’ or ‘spot on the eye’.
The Latin ‘eupatoria’ may be connecting the plant to King Mithradates Eupator who resisted the roman conquest of Asia minor in the first century BC.

Agrimony is a delightful plant that is a common sight on the chalk downland near where I live.
Its flowers attract many insects seeking its nectar including bees. Its fruits will hook onto animal fur to aid distribution.

I could not describe the plant better than Cicely Mary Barker in the following verse:

'Spikes of yellow flowers, all along the lane;
When the petals vanish, burrs of red remain.
First the spike of flowers, then the spike of burrs;
Carry them like soldiers, smartly, little sirs!'

A plant that is well worth harvesting, it lifts the spirits making an invigorating tea for many complaints from aching joints to sore throats. It is a good general summer tonic.

Please do not harvest without expert advice or help from a qualified herbalist.

Agrimony is also an old remedy for poor sight, loss of memory, snake bite and liver complaints. It can also help with coughs, skin eruptions, cystitis and is soothing for the vocal chords when taken as a stimulating tea.

Fragrant agrimony is a larger more branched species with fragrant leaves which you will tend to find on more acid soils on woodland margins.

Agrimony in folklore is known as fairy's wand or fairy's rod and it certainly casts a spell of beauty around us on a summer day.

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‘I've given my soul to the Southdown grass, 
And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass. 
Oh Firle an' Ditchling an' sails at sea, 
I reckon you keep my soul for me! '

 Rudyard Kipling 

There is so much beauty in the world, everyday people are working hard to help our planet and its people from ecologists and environmentalists to nurses and doctors to teachers and mental health practitioners to gardeners, builders and cleaners- there is so much to celebrate and enjoy in this wonderful world.

Earth Mother Blessing Workshop - create blessings for the sacred earth in this joyful retreat exploring our connection to the land.

26th-27th September 2026. Emerson College, Forest Row. Cost: £210 Book Early to guarantee a place.

Join us in the beautiful East Sussex countryside to create a blessing for our Mother Earth, to spread through the land. Immerse in the joy of nature through crafting, journeying, singing, and general merriment, all to make a difference to the earth herself! And to take that blessing away with you and spread it about!

‘Jonathon and Tish are the warmest, most soulful guides you could wish for if you’re curious about embarking on this journey into remembering the traditions and practices of these Isles.’

‘It hasn’t been since I did my dramatherapy training many years ago that I’ve experienced the holding you both created for us all - thank you so much!’

For further details please email Tish at : ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com

This weeks story is of Tailtu, Queen of the Firbolgs and her ancient druids the earthy dwellers of sub-terrain dwellings in the heart of the wood with an alliance to the Earth Mother. They know the importance of the soil and are connected to the Earth, Sea and Sky. If you enjoy please like and subscribe and spread the word, thank you.

At the moment the green world is absolutely stupendous as the rich, vibrant verdure comes to fruition.

I experienced this as I walked up Butser hill and my heart opened for all around me were old valleys where mist congealed creating the look of ethereal lakes where one would expect mer-people to rest. On the other side were the harbours and estuaries of the South coast reaching down to the Port’s mouth, a naval city where I was born.

By joining the Woodland Bard you will help promote and grow wildflowers as well as receive our Poetry of Wildflowers course with in-depth articles on the lore and uses of plants.

Butser hill is highest point in the area of Hampshire and beneath that hill is a recreation of an Iron age settlement called Butser Ancient Farm where I learnt to wattle and daub whilst still at school and helped the thatcher and sheep farmer as my work experience. I have run many events myself there for over twenty years.

I live and work in the Southdowns National Park which stretches 100 miles along the south coast in one of the busiest parts of the country. A quarter of the park is owned by private landowners and eighty percent of the park is farmland. The landscape has been shaped by farmers and foresters since ancient times and has had thriving communities since at least the time of the Romano- British (43AD). Originally it would have been a landscape of unending woodlands and now mainly consists of close- cropped turf and dry valleys. It is a highly altered landscape, a far cry from an untouched place of wilderness! 

However, it is the most important chalk landscape in England, it supports many of Europe’s chalk rivers which are of global importance and boasts the finest Yew woodland in all of Europe as well as beautiful chalk grasslands filled with orchids and flowers which are home to rare butterflies and moths. 
 
Chalk geology which formed in tropical shallow seas in the cretaceous period between 75 and 90 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth is rare worldwide. The chalk is made of millions of tiny skeletons of plankton and the flint from the skeletons of sponges and algae (diatoms) that contain silicon. In fact, diatoms are the only organism in the world that have silicon in their cell walls. 
 
The chalk acts like a giant sponge storing vasts amount of water by creating an aquifer which is a huge underground reservoir. Springs feed into rivers and streams which support brown trout and native crayfish. These rare specialist waters are characterised by water cress beds, water crowfoot and other unique floras. Specialist invertebrates are attracted to the chalky water and the unusual gravels. 
 
The South Downs has seven main river valleys which are the Arun, Adur, Ouse Cuckmere, Meon, Rother and Itchen creating valuable habitats and beautiful landscapes, there are only 35 large chalk rivers in the whole of the UK and far less throughout Europe. 

The river Meon is 34km long (21miles) in length which is fed almost entirely by springs, it is a natural chalk river which is both rare and important, internationally recognised as a priority habitat under the European Habitat Directive and the UK Biodiversity Action. It starts in East Meon and empties at Titchfield harbour.

Historically it fed water meadows and supported over thirty mills in eleventh century. It supports many birds and plants and recently has become home to egrets and even beavers that have been introduced at lower Farm near to its source.

The whole river is designated as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and the Nature Reserve at Titchfield Haven is a Site of Special Scientific Interest which supports many wetland birds including osprey.

The wilder areas of the Downs when they are left create rare groves of yew and juniper surrounded by species- rich chalk downland flowers which begs the question whether we should continue to farm so much of this exquisite National Park? 
 
If we employ sensitive farming it can actually help rather than hinder the landscape creating more biodiversity. Beatrix Potter (1866- 1943) was fierce campaigner on local conservation issues working closely with the National Trust in the Lake district acquiring land and farming sustainably.  
 
The South downs as already discussed is a rare geological chalk habitat with internationally rare chalk streams and rivers currently supporting a huge biodiverse flora on the close-cropped grass. The species rich downs depends on sensitive farming. If we left the area to regenerate it would produce secondary woodland meaning rare flowers and invertebrates would become extinct.  
 
If we converted the farming of the downs to arable crops as they had to in World War Two, this would also destroy the valuable habitats. In just 40 years from 1940 to 1980 ninety seven percent of lowland meadows were eradicated. Planting conifers for forestry also destroyed these precious downs.  
 
Today, if you were to walk through these planted woodlands or arable farming areas out on the downs you would notice how they have destroyed biodiversity and how they make a clear statement of how land needs to be managed for conservation. 
 
If we visit Old Winchester Hill which was inhabited as far back as the Bronze age and is still maintained by traditional sheep grazing, we find stunning views, hundreds of wildflower species and huge numbers of butterflies.
The Herdwick sheep which graze this area are the same species that Beatrix Potter used as a keen farmer and conservationist in the Lake district. 

'Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.'

Beatrix Potter

Plant Friends of the Downs

Left to right - Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon - milkwort- birds foot trefoil.

I was greeted first by the longer more fertile grass sward with the common sights of  burdock, hogweed and willowherbs with a splash of yellow toadflax and the taller mignonette. The distinctive Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon spreads its petals on a sunny morning ready to close them at midday. The trefoils creep through the undergrowth and the yellow vetchling and the greater birds foot trefoil compete with the invasive species which indicate there is more here than the average grass sward.

Left to right- Cat’s ear - Fragrant Orchid - Yellow rattle

Then the magic happens, the natural habitat of the unimproved grasslands of the Downs erupts before me with breathtaking beauty. The low clipped grass reveals a mosaic of hawkweeds, hawkbits, orchids and yellow rattles.
Red kites soar above me seemly replacing the buzzards of the lower areas, skylarks rise in song as if they were presenting the climax of an aria in a famous opera and pipits dart around as if they are propelled by joy, the pulsing heartbeat of nature seems to call out to the exploring naturalist.

Left to right - Round - headed rampion- Wild carrot- Dwarf thistle with gatekeeper butterfly

Wild carrots stand tall and proud with their feathery 3-pinnate leaves beneath their umbrella-like heads distinctive of the carrot family, their forked bracts fringing the umbels that tell them apart from other umbellifer species. Hugging the earth are countless dwarf thistles which draw the butterflies and other pollinators to them such as the gatekeeper butterfly pictured above. The intense beauty of scabious and the dark blue flowers of round-headed rampion stand out as beacons of hope. Ladies bedstraw straggles the shorter grass whilst the golden yellow flowers of melilot reach to the higher grass.

Left to right- Harebell- Birds foot trefoil - Eyebright

Red bartsia and yarrow spring up occasionally and the knapweeds brighten the grass mixed with the lower bright yellow flowers of autumn hawkbit and catsear. Too many plants to mention though it would be amiss for me not to write of the bell-shaped blue flowers nodding on thin stalks of the harebell carpeted by the bright yellow trefoil flowers. My enraptured keen eye spots the tiny flowers of eyebright peeping from the grass and the even smaller wild thyme beneath even the dwarf thistle. 

After exploring the Southdown grass I am topped up and ready to go home, contemplating how plants truly give so much.

Thank you for supporting our ‘Devoted to Plants’ Campaign and our dear plant friends through your subscription.

‘By integrating all that is within us we to come to terms with all that is around us.’

‘There is a miracling point. People who meditate and pray, come unexpectedly into it. In the end they live from it, and then they don’t even need to perform miracles, miracles simply happen in their presence.’

John Moriarty

When you pray and meditate there is a point where you no longer try to do things, they just happen. This is the miracling point that John Moriarty refers to in his works.

This point cannot be reached unless we unplug from a modern world and enter silence, solitude and stillness within. This is a wondrous thing as we no longer need to look for contentment in the outer world. This means we are more in harmony with nature as we no longer need to chase the feeling in doing and no longer need fight to remove that which we do not like.

This is the point where if action is needed we may take it as we are know longer are coming from fear or anger.

The late John Moriarty in the last few years has been a reliable guide for my work. He is extremely humble and yet the confidence of his believe in his work is undeniable.

I thoroughly recommend this film on him called dreamtime revisited, an absolute gem. I have read his books Nostus, Dreamtime and Invoking Ireland countless times, trying to take in and contemplate each passage. For me he is one of our rare Western Spiritual teachers who gives the experience of what his talking about through his talks and writings enabling the seeker to receive a state of meditation or grace from his works. I have been in floods of tears when listening to his CDs which both elucidate and give you the experience of his work, you can still purchase them here. To learn more about his work and listen to his talks visit the John Moriarty Institute for ecology and spirituality.- it will be a very good use of time.

You could do no better than to study his works over a lifetime and use his quotes as psalms, as conversations with your inner worlds. He is the only person for me who takes the bite out of Christianity and places it in context to a deep learning in harmony with all the other mythologies from around the world.

I have just turned fifty years old and have been gifted a statue of what I refer to as the ‘Great Mother’, to me she is Brighid or Mary and is black like the charcoal in the fire for she consumes all of life to be reborn again. It is in the womb, in the darkness where we all come from and all return.

She is a guardian of a sacred place and once positioned there remains, gifting protection and miracles to those in align with her. Everyday I pray and make offerings to her for she is the keeper of the hearth and guardian now of our home.

To inaugurate her I spent the day praying, meditating, washing and feeding her to recognise her as an outward form of the spirit of the Great Mother in my home.

Here is my poem to the Great Mother which I wrote in 2021 after reading Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom by Caitlín Matthews which I devoured several times as it plumbs the depths of the Goddess in such inspirational detail:

Great Mother,
Heart of the Forest, Queen of the soil.
Have I not been in your womb many times before, in the warm life-giving essence of the loamy earth?
Did you not initiate me and push me out and up into the blinding light of life?
But how I forget, how I cry out that I never do enough!
How is it that I have allowed the pulsing warmth of love in your muliebrous touch to deteriorate in torturous ways; unimaginable?
Am I as man allowed to taste your mysteries?
Am I as man who has abused every cell of your wise and wonderful form allowed to rest in you?
And yet the agony of searching in sorrow for that bed woven by the Ancient Mother feels too much to bear.
Your mocking, terrible form humiliates my male arrogance as I realise my sorrow is but dust compared to my neglect of you.
And yet when I enter your chamber, glimpse the untainted bliss of union, my whole being is on fire with a love that frees my soul.
I am pulled down into the black abyss to be remade.

Great Mother, Heart of the Forest, Queen of the Soil. Black, veiled, exiled, Great Mother, forgive me.

Ancient Mother Passion by J.Huet 2021

In the recording below I recite the passion and tell the story of the coming of Macha, if you enjoy it please check out my channel, like and subscribe.

Exploring the Shamanic roots of my own ancestry and the beautiful land I belong to has opened me up to tremendous support that has enabled me to also help others.
I feel so happy and privileged to now offer the training to others with Dr Tish Marrable, we currently run the foundation course once a year over two weekends starting in November, to ensure a place please get in touch for this fantastic training: ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com

Now that I am in my fifth decade I wish to honour the Forest stage of life, a time when my focus is not on the outer world of achievement but the inner life of acceptance, this is a very natural path for myself as I have always had an affinity with spirituality.

Today’s Western society does not always support this stage as it used to and often we are pushed into a whirlwind of trying to keep up with the latest technology and fads. As an older man it is important I step into being a role model and mentor for the younger person who needs to be shown boundaries, maturity and a different perspective from their peers.

When I was a teenager I suffered from acute anxiety and my focus especially between the ages of fourteen to sixteen was simply getting through each day. Now I look back I can see my past traumas and the realisation of being gay overwhelmed my psyche and due to living in a time when people where less aware of such things I was confused and hid my trauma.

This is why we need good strong mental health support in our society where people are safe to express their concerns in a neutral space.

This applies to all young people regardless of culture, creed, race and sexuality. Anyone from any background can be pushed to their limits as the things that hold them seem to fall away which is why the label ‘privileged’ has no place when approaching mental health issues.

My own anxiety pushed me to explore a spiritual quest which led to the desire in me to enter a tradition, if I had been fully aware of monastic life as a young man I most certainly would have been tempted by it, though my first love and engagement with the world has always been with nature. In my twenties I did live in an ashram for six months and performed devotional worship which I continued for many years after I left. A morning ritual of prayer and chant has remained with me ever since.

My morning practice is more precious to me than anything else in my life as my nerves system calms and I connect to a state beyond my human suffering. I often choose to do a similar practice in the evenings especially if I am home alone.

To learn and experience meditation you may wish to join me for Nature-Led meditations and my day retreat Unwind in the Woods.

My practice is an ever-changing evolving process that allows a freedom of questing and questioning such as what is encouraged in the traditions of a spiritual pilgrim.

My daily practice I have shared in previous articles, please click here to view the daily ritual. You are welcome to follow a similar practice and/or to adapt it as it is important that the practice is personal to you.

May you experience the deep peace within you.

For an in-depth sequential study and practice of a spirituality based on connecting to the natural world you may wish to join the Woodland Bard below:

Thank you all for coming along and creating a supportive community. Much peace to you all.

Summary for Lesson 9 : Reclaiming our Primal condition

1/ Study the story of the Coming of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the conception of Bres

2/ Exploring how we can live Megalithically inviting nature into our lives.

3/ Supporting article on Megalithic Landscapes to help us connect to sacred sites and landscapes.

Next Woodland Bard Sunday 26th July at 6pm: Uniting the Land- A Mother’s Sacrifice. - all are welcome (Subscribers will receive the link automatically) or BOOK HERE £8 per session inc. recordings and written article.

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‘In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fibre and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.

John Muir

Nature immersion I have found enables me to be a healthy person as my cares drop away at the beautiful sounds of song birds, the crackling of a fire, the simplicity of gazing at the sky or a wildflower in the grass and waiting patiently for an animal to come out of hiding.

As I settled down one evening and the moon came up a tawny owl who must have been extremely close to me called out and in response several others joined the twilight choir. A pheasant simply stood on the grass before me whilst a rabbit grazed uncaringly. In a heartbeat any one of these animals could be taken by a predator or become painfully ill and yet it seemed to me whilst they were safe and well they were at peace and making the most of the simply being with all the sensations of living.

John Muir after losing his eyesight at 29 years old for six weeks resolved his inner conflict for he had many interests but all he could think about when he couldn’t see was being in nature and he realised he wanted to be close to nature’s heartbeat, living in the wild, uncompromised and in tact away from the human machine:

I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men.

John Muir.

These are strong words and it might be we need to connect with the human technological world at times to reach out to others but when we have the opportunity it is equally important to disconnect and live in the real world where:

‘Water is pure pleasure, so is breathing the living air, and every movement of limbs is pleasure, while the whole body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the camp-fire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all one's flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure glow not explainable.’

John Muir

John Muir
Earth - Planet - Universe

Founder of the Conservation Movement

‘Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away like autumn leaves.’ - John Muir.

John Muir sits by his crackling fire, his joints ache, he can no longer climb mountains or walk thousands of miles nourished by a little bread and tea in the vast wilderness, but his joy is none the less as the memories of nature fill his being.

He reaches for his pen, the very thing that he used to take on huge cooperation’s and government bodies to help save our beautiful planet and despite his rasping cough he writes:

‘No pain here, no dull empty hours, no fear of the past, no fear of the future. So compactly filled with [Nature’s] beauty, no petty personal hope or experience has room to be. Drinking this champagne water is pure pleasure, so is breathing the living air, and every movement of the limbs is pleasure, while the whole body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it, entering not by eyes alone but equally through all one’s flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure glow not explainable.’ - John Muir

John Muir contemplates all he has done in his life for although born in Scotland he is known as the ‘Greatest Californian’, it was said that his explorations and years alone in the mountain wilderness made him the undisputed ‘genius loci’ of Yosemite and he writes of when he sensed his professor friend enter the valley unexpectedly and knew exactly when and where to meet him.

He was ahead of his time thinking globally and without limits as even then he was breaking down the barriers of race and culture to become a citizen of this glorious planet Earth:

‘We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love. [Creation] does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round bored wells here and there in favoured races and places, but flows in grand undivided currents, shoreless and boundless over creeds and forms and all kinds of civilizations and peoples and beasts, saturating all and fountainizing all.’ - John Muir

John Muir spent many years in Yosemite (NP today 748,000 acres) pictured below:

Many places are named after him including Muir glacier and Mount Muir in Alaska, Muir woods and Muir Beech near San Francisco. Routes that run through the spine of the high Sierra have been named after him such as John Muir Wilderness and the John Muir trail. Hundreds of nature reserves, elementary schools, colleges, university departments and even hospitals are named after him. And yet he was virtually unknown in Scotland in the 1960s which changed when Bill and Maymie Kimes, who were Californian bibliographers, visited his birthplace in Dunbar in 1967. As a result of this visit a plaque was put on his home and birthplace followed by a modest exhibition of books and photographs in Dunbar by Scotland’s first County planning officer Frank Tindall. However, there was still not a single book about him in any library in Scotland up until 1978!

Now we have the John Muir Trust in Scotland founded in 1983 which owns and manages over 60,500 acres of wilderness areas including Ben Nevis and Torrin on the Isle of Skye. There is a country park and trail now named after him in Scotland.

In the US his work continues through the Sierra club that he co-founded in 1893. The club now has 3.5 million members addressing environmental issues. He is referred to as the ‘Father of the Conservation Movement’ and has left an incredible legacy.

He has helped create 54 National Parks in the US which comprise 80 million acres including Wrangell-St Elais National Park in Alaska which is 13 million acres. John Muir surveyed and recommended for protection much of the land protected by the US Forest service which protects and manages over 191 million acres as well as the Fish and Wildlife services which manages 91 million acres of wild ecosystems.

He toured the world at 65 and at 73 he did a 40.000-mile trek to South America and Africa, he camped with President Roosevelt which led to further protection for our wilderness areas.

John Muir’s determined activism and his informative as well as inspirational writings on trees helped preserve the Sequoia National Park in California which is over 200,000 acres supporting the old growth forests notably the Sequoia trees which include five of the largest trees of the world including the largest tree on earth by volume. John Muir said the following about trees amongst many other quotes:

‘Were trees mere mechanical sculptures what noble objects they would be! How much more throbbing, thrilling, overflowing, full of life in every fibre and cell, grand glowing silver rods- the very Gods of the plant kingdom, living their sublime century in sight of heaven, watched and loved and admired from generation to generation.’ - John Muir

His infectious enthusiasm invites us to never give up:

‘The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it … So we must count on watching and striving for these trees and should always be glad to find anything so surely good and noble to strive for.’- John Muir

His foresight and understanding of the ecological movement were matured even before the word ‘ecology’* was widely known, long before the modern campaigns of climate change and habitat protection he warned:

*Ernst Haeckel a German zoologist coined the phrase ‘ecology’ in 1866.

‘The great wilds of our country, once held to be boundless and inexhaustible, are being rapidly invaded, and everything destructible in them is being destroyed… none of the defences of nature can long withstand the onset of this immeasurable industry.’ - John Muir

‘Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away…’ - John Muir

The Story Begins…

I was blind, the wonderful delights of nature were no longer in my vision, I could sense them and hear them but could no longer see them. I laid in bed, the birds forever singing as my blindness created a dark world bereft of the sights that filled me with such joy.

Week after week I laid in my bed in utter darkness, a single accident, one mistake, a moment in time that led to a slip of the hand and a file going straight into my eye. I contemplated how our lives can just change in a single heartbeat and we can lose everything that we had before.

Leaving home in 1860 at 22 years old.

At this time, I worked in a factory that made wheels for wagons. I was always fascinated by machines and inventions. When I first left home I arrived at Madison fair unknown and without a ticket and they instantly let me in and directed me to the fine arts area. I became famous overnight for my incredible creations.

I made a bed which set me on my feet every morning at the hour determined on, and in dark winter mornings, just as the bed set me on the floor it lit a lamp! I invented a town clock with four dials with the time figures so large they could be read by all our immediate neighbours as well as ourselves in the fields. A thermometer three feet long fastened on the side of the house, so sensitive it could read the body heat of people four or five feet away.

John Muir’s Childhood in Scotland 1838 -1849

‘When I was a boy in Scotland I was fond of everything that was wild, and all my life I’ve been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures’

Before all of this I grew up in Scotland in the 1840s and I loved to explore nature with my brother David, running wild and free exploring the rocky coastline, fields and woods. We would clamber on slippery rock pools hunting for crabs and admiring all the different life forms jumping from one pool to another.

Life was tough in Scotland in the 1840s we had to get up early to go to school with a small bowl of porridge then dash home at lunchtime for a small piece of mutton and a barley scone which tasted disgusting. For our evening meal we had a half a slice of plain white bread and another barley scone watered down with a drink we called ‘content’ which was warm water with a little milk and sugar.

Despite our strict upbringing which included learning all of the bible by heart, sometimes our adventurous spirit would take over and we would climb castle ruins and roof-tops. One day I got stuck on the roof and started to fall and if David hadn’t caught me I would be no more. This was the beginning of my ability to climb mountains often alone with an axe, washing line and my faithful tweed jacket.

My boyhood in America in 1849 at 11 years old.

I have such a zest for life and when I was told we were going to immigrate to Wisconsin in America which involved a sea voyage of six months I was so excited. I explored wildlife from the ship spotting sharks, seagulls and even starfish. I would look up into the unending night sky and blue sea and realise:

‘When we try to pick anything out by itself we find it hitched to everything else in the universe’ - John Muir

‘Land ahoy’ we shouted as we landed on the shores of America. Father had got carried away and literally had taken everything to America including huge heavy cast iron pots and a wood burning stove. We tried to move it on a wagon with horses but the farmer said he would never do that again as it was impossible to travel with the stuff. Eventually we found a farmer with two strong oxen which I admired for their steady strength. We cried ‘gee’ for right and ‘haw’ for left to direct the oxen. It was a bumpy ride across swamps and trackless hills to Wisconsin by Ox- cart but these incredible animals never once faltered.

‘This sudden plash into pure wildness--baptism in Nature’s warm heart--how utterly happy it made us! Nature streaming into us, wooingly teaching her wonderful glowing lessons. Here without knowing it we still were at school; every wild lesson a love lesson, not whipped but charmed into us.’ - John Muir

I fell in love with my new home which overlooked flowery meadows and a glimmering large lake. For a time I played and explored for there was no more study or school. I immersed myself in nature and imitated the animals as to how to hunt or swim. Nature fascinated and astonished me.

John Muir as a farm labourer in 1850 at 12 years old.

I worked hard as a plough boy from the age of 12 and I led other men in farm duties by the time I was fifteen. I dug a 100 foot well removing soil and rock deep underground armed with only a hammer and chisel. As I was working I disturbed a pocket of poisonous gas and fell unconscious. People shouted for me and I just managed to get into the bucket to be hauled up. I still went back to work the next day, the same happened when I was terribly poorly with mumps. I was still put to work in the fields. I also got to know the Native Americans who were highly skilled at hunting and foraging.

After a hard day’s work I was filled with ideas of inventions and now wanted to study as I loved reading. I would go to bed straight after my supper and wake at 1am to read for 5 hours before dawn and then start the day’s work.

I also wanted to put what I learnt into action so I used the night time also to invent and create.

Entering university in 1861 - 1862 at 23-24 years old.

When I had the opportunity to go to university I was so excited. I had little money so I lived on a diet of bread and milk and worked in the fields during the holidays to earn the money I needed to study. I felt so lucky that the Professor let me in despite the fact I had no schooling since the age of 11. I studied many subjects but more than anything I loved botany.

The professor told me about plants :

‘Man has nothing to do with classification. Nature has attended to that, giving essential unity with boundless variety, so that the botanist has only to examine the plants to learn the harmony of their relations.’ - John Muir

This fine lesson charmed me and sent me into the woods and meadows in wild enthusiasm:

‘I was always fond of flowers, attracted by their external beauty and purity. Now my eyes were opened to their inner beauty, all alike revealing glorious traces of the thoughts of [creation], and leading on and on into the infinite cosmos.’ - John Muir

I applied my hard working ethics to my botany studies, collecting plants by day and putting them in water to classify them at night, rarely having more than 4 hours sleep.

However, my head still swam with inventions and I also loved the buzz of factories so after university I worked hard making wheels and this is how I arrived in the darkness after an accident from working.

One morning six weeks after being blinded I could see a strange light and I undid the bandages from my eyes and realised I could see again. I was so excited, exhilarated, and filled with the bliss of new life. There was no doubt, all I wanted to do was immerse myself in nature and catalogue all the plants of the world.

A thousand mile walk in 1867 at 29 years old.

I set forth on the 1st September 1867, joyful and free on a thousand mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico immersed in nature I knew that:

‘My altars are the mountains, oceans, earth and sky….’ - John Muir

I set off with a small bag with only a comb, hairbrush, towel, soap, a change of under- clothing, a copy of Burn’s poems, Milton’s Paradise Lost, a copy of the New Testament and a plant press. I regularly sent my pressed flowers to my brother David.

I had many adventures as I walked from Indiana to Kentucky into Tennessee where I saw my first mountains and was mugged at gun point though they soon realised there was nothing of value to take. Then onto Georgia where I lived in natural shelters and cooked on a fire. To protect myself from bandits I sometimes slept in graveyards as people were afraid of them and one night when I was about to settle on my moss bed I found something slivering where I was about to lie and grabbed it quickly and threw it for it may have been a deadly snake. In Florida I became very ill from Malaria and found myself only able to creep about getting plants and trying to build up my strength. My plan was to go to the tropical jungles of South America but now that was not possible I needed the clean, pure air of the mountains to heal:

‘The mountains are calling and I must go. Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal.’ - John Muir.

Arrival in California in 1868 at 30 years old.

“I am well again. I came to life in the cool winds and crystal waters of the mountains...”

Then I sailed to California, I remember it as if yesterday, I arrived in the spring of 1868 in the great central valley with its majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains and specialist beautiful wildflowers - I had fallen deeply in love!

‘No wild landscape that I have seen holds anything truly dead or dull, or any trace of rubbish or waste; everything is perfectly clean and pure and full of divine lessons.’

John Muir

I set off to the Yosemite Valley that I had longed to see, the winds blew freshness into me and the storms gave me energy, my cares falling away like autumn leaves and I felt well again. Storms seem to terrify other people, but I felt energised by them and climbed ever higher to their source and walked through floods.

‘None of Nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild. Beauty beyond thought everywhere, beneath, above, made and being made forever.’- John Muir

This was where I needed to be, I needed to find a way to study the plants without distractions and was offered a job as a shepherd. I resisted at first but was told there would be lots of time to explore nature as I would only be assisting.

I was at home climbing mountains and living in the wilderness amongst the giant trees and spent many years living in this way. I would do many daring feats falling down a mountain in minutes which had taken me days to climb and surviving in freezing conditions in just my tweed jacket.

After many years in the mountains I settled down with my wife Louie and became a fruit farmer as well as a father of two children named Wanda and Helen. After ten years I longed to see the mountains and experience the wilderness again and my wife agreed for us to sell part of our ranch to fund my walk in the Sierra-Nevada mountains. Here I discovered that the valleys were carved out by glaciers and to explore this further I journeyed to Alaska.

In Alaska I had the most terrifying and dangerous experience yet as I was trapped on a chasm so wide and deep I could not jump across and the bank behind me was so high I couldn’t go back, my only companion was my dog Stickeen. We both negotiated a thin bridge of ice which was part melting and sagging. Once across we had to climb a sheer cliff of ice and the only way my dog could manage the climb was for me to cut steps into the ice. Stickeen in the freezing deadly conditions struggled up the steps terrified and we both continued the deadly climb across a maze of jumbled ice and deathly crevasses.

I proved my theory that ancient glaciers carved out the Yosemite Valley and the Sierras like giant ice cutters. More importantly I needed to protect the precious wilderness that I had explored and started to give public talks to rouse support. I co-founded the Sierra club and started the process of creating National Parks to protect our essential wild areas.

‘Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.’ - John Muir

My talks and writings built momentum and I became well-known for my exploits which led to a camping trip with President Roosevelt which helped to create more National parks and preserve 148 million acres of wild spaces.

I continued to live life to the fullest, touring the world at 65 years old, crossing vast oceans to explore great rivers and vast forests. At 73 years old I finally trekked 40,000 miles across South America and Africa for :

‘I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness’ - John Muir

My life has been one great adventure; I had a dream and hitched my wagon to that star of my dreams. As long as I live, I’ll follow my instincts and get as near to the heart of the world as I can. I shall visit the wild places and listen to what they say, hear the music of the wind, the voice of the waters, watch the perfect flight of a bird and revel in nature’s beauty.

‘I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.’ - John muir

When arriving back in Dunbar as an older man, people rushed to greet me and children followed me. I had lived my dream doing what was important to me, reminding us all that we can do our bit whether it’s caring for the vast wilderness or simply picking up litter in your local area.

John Muir died at 76 years of age on 24th December 1914 of pneumonia after a life dedicated to preserving nature, when he lost his eyesight his main concern was that he would never see a wildflower again, when his eyesight returned he immersed himself in nature for the rest of his life. His legacy has protected millions of acres of land to this day and for that we must be eternally grateful.

Additional facts:

John Muir’s Birthplace museum is in Dunbar, East Lothian.

Writings: John Muir used his quill pen for his battle for conservation writing journals, letters, articles for newspapers and magazines as well as twelve books.

John Muir Country Park covers an area of seven of 1,763 acres, stretching along 8 miles of coastline from Pfeffer Sands to Dunbar Castle.

Wild Space visitor centre is located in the centre of Pitochry, in the heart of Highland Perthshire.

The John Muir Trust is a leading voice for the UK’s wild places. They are dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of the UK’s wild places, for the benefit of all. Founded in 1983, they care for some of the finest wild places in the UK and own 65 000 acres including Ben Nevis, Helvellyn and Sandwood Bay.

Thank you for supporting this publication.

Reclaiming the Primal Condition - Living Megalithically - all are welcome next Sunday 14th June at 6pm. (Subscribers will receive the link automatically) or BOOK HERE £8 per session inc. recordings and written article.

Concessions are always given to those who cannot afford to come- get in touch!

Meditation resets the mind to again experience a natural state of contentment.

Below is an Invocation to the primal condition of the land:

‘… ours is a land of three immaculate dimensions Banbha, Fódhla and Éire. However ravaged, spoiled and polluted it may be Éire in itself is still immaculate. It is true of no matter what country. It is true of the world at large.’

John Moriarty

Welcome to the Woodland Bard.

Every year we offer a Shamanic training which is based on the traditions of the Sister Isles which are Britain and Ireland. To connect deeply to the ancestry of one’s land and open ourselves up to the tremendous support that exists in nature is a true blessing. I have been training on this programme for the last ten years with Caitlín Matthews , John Matthews and other teachers and the in-depth, meticulous training offered is life-changing and enabled me to truly step into the spiritual traditions that resonant with me.

For this I am truly grateful and now honoured to offer that training to others with co-teacher Dr. Tish Marrable.

SHAMANIC FOUNDATION COURSE: OPEN TO ALL with Dr. Tish Marrable & Jonathon Huet

I am very excited to be part of ‘The Walkers Between Worlds Shamanic Training Programme’ with Caitlín Matthews , John Matthews and other teachers which is an in-depth training that connects you to the deep spiritual traditions of the land you belong to.

This two-part course begins the Level A training in the shamanic traditions of the Sister Isles.

The course will be in the beautiful grounds of the Sustainability centre, Hampshire, in the South of England on 14th/15th November 2026 and 20th/21st February 2027. Take both weekends to qualify for further training.

The cost for both weekends is around £490 (only £245 per weekend) plus accommodation. The accommodation can be basic to more luxurious.

I have found it deeply nurturing and life changing, I am so glad that I did it.

For further details please email Tish at : ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com

You can stay in the Eco- Lodge, B&B or camp on this 55-acre site in the South Downs National Park at reasonably prices.

Next level Shamanic training also at The Sustainability Centre :

THRESHOLDS OF POWER & HEALING South Coast – August 21, 22, 23 2026. with Dr. Tish Marrable & Jonathon Huet at The Sustainability Centre, Droxford Rd, East Meon, Hants GU32 1HR - for those who have completed the Foundation Course or have had similar training.

This three day course teaches a full range of shamanic healing ways including plant-spirit healing, extraction of intrusions, embodiment of personal allies and includes the shamanic ceremony of The Mare Mother’s Dream-Dance. This course is an essential next component for shamanic practitioner training and is opened to all who have completed the Foundation Course in Celtic and Ancestral Shamanism. Those with similar levels of training from other sources are also welcome to apply.

Held at The Sustainability Centre Green Room. This is a non-residential course though there is accommodation and camping available at on site.

FEE: Non-res but price includes lunches, tea, coffees etc. £370.

BOOKING: Non-returnable deposit of £190 to Tish, please contact her at ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com

If you can join us in person for our NATURE LED MEDITATION evenings which are truly magical as the birds sing and we meditate deeply in the Woodland Hall this Wednesday 3rd June at 6pm.

The woodland hall is open to the elements as if you are sitting on a woodland floor but with the comfort of chairs and blankets.

Learn More

‘I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness.’

John Muir

Thank you for subscribing to the Woodland Bard, I am on a mission to share as much as I can about nature and how it has helped me. I wish to make all my material as practical and accessible as possible with the hope you can use it on a regular basis to connect to the precious Natural World.

As a subscriber to the Woodland Bard you already have access to an in-depth study of the mythology of the Natural World, including detailed profiles on trees and plants and nature connection meditations borne from over 30 years of storytelling and working in the field of ecology.

You are also welcome to join our community which meets once a month online. Your subscription will help our mission to bring nature to everyone’s doorstep. Gift subscriptions are given to those who need financial support as I wish to reach as many people as possible and be fully inclusive.

Next LIVE Woodland Bard Sunday 14th June at 6pm. (Subscribers will receive the link automatically) or BOOK HERE £8 per session inc. recordings and written article.

Introducing a study of tree lore - here is a taster of our community gatherings.

Now it is time to listen to the earth starting with the trees for they live longer than other life forms and have much wisdom to depart. To connect to the trees we could do no better than to listen to the beautiful devotional poetry of Suibne Gelt.

It may be that the story above holds the instruction needed to work with the trees. One of the first things I memorised as a young man were the kennings for the Ogham alphabet which for me where like psalms, as they were sacred gateways to connect with the inner world of trees as psalms are seen as gateways to God.

Tree Meditations - Explore Tree Wisdom.

I recommend a study of trees based on the Ogham alphabet please see my previous article Who are we in the hazel wood? This process I started in 1992 and have never looked back. If possible find each tree in the natural world and asking permission from the tree take a piece of wood, leaf or bark to come back with you and meditate with it.

To explore the lore of each tree visit the articles: Tree lore Special part 1 includes rowan, hazel, apple, oak and yew. Tree lore Special part 2 includes birch, alder, willow, ash and hawthorn. Tree lore Special part 3 this final part includes holly, blackthorn, elder, pine and aspen. Shrubs and Climbers of the Ogham Alphabet includes honey suckle, bramble, travellers’ joy, ivy, broom, gorse and heather.

Setting up a tree folklore practice introductory recording.

In the meditation below we enter the woods within us and listen to the wisdom of trees.

Please help us to spread the word and help to bring nature to everyone’s doorstep.

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Give a gift subscription

Welcome to the Woodland Bard

My intention for the Woodland Bard is to create material that can really help people at this time to connect with nature and to find that still, peaceful, joyous, space within away from the excruciating busyness of human activity wherever they are.

In order to move into that space you need to create time away from devices and immerse yourself in solitude, silence and stillness.

My intention in offering these meditations here on Substack is there is no need to engage with the onslaught of adverts and feeds online which are designed to keep our minds busy and consuming.

Many peaceful blessings, Jonathon.

Please scroll down for your free meditation recordings.

Join us in person for our NATURE LED MEDITATION evenings

Dates: 3rd June, 1st July, Samhain special 28th October 2026

“A really wonderful evening connecting with nature and learning more about our own indigenous traditions too. The guided meditations were fabulous! I’d highly recommend this workshop for anyone looking for a couple of hours escape - I arrived exhausted and left energised and rejuvenated!”

ABOUT THE COURSE

A series of guided meditation workshops, each with an individual flavour. Jonathon will guide you gently through meditations and natural connection practices designed to restore your connection with nature and to bring healing to yourself and the land to which we all belong.

LEARN MORE

Next LIVE Woodland Bard Sunday 14th June at 6pm. (Subscribers will receive the link automatically) or BOOK HERE £8 per session inc. recordings and written article.

Creating Sanctuary Within (to listen to the stories connected to the meditations please click here).

Introductory meditation to connect with the trees.

For the story and background information to the tree lore click HERE

Meditation 1 -Enter the Wild Wood.

Meditation 2 - Coicha Anam, the soul shrine and connect to the animals.

Meditation 3- Connecting to the plants.

Meditation 4- Creating Sacred Space

Thank you for supporting this publication.

Please email me with any suggestions as to how I can make the material more accessible and most importantly effective in helping you in your day to day life.

Bright blessings, Jonathon.

Save the date : Next LIVE Woodland Bard Sunday 14th June at 6pm. The theme and the story will explore- The Promise of Hope- Placing our hope into the things that help us.

Lesson 8 : Listening to the trees.

Above : My wild camp in the woods.

Summary for Lesson 8 : Listening to the trees.

1/ Study the story of Buile Suibhne (The Frenzy of Suibhne).

2/ Discover the wisdom of trees.

3/ Explore Fionn’s window and the Ogham alphabet in the supporting article : Who are we in the hazel wood?

4/ Explore the Ogham alphabet in context to the Irish tradition.

5/ Supporting articles include: Tree lore Special part 1 includes rowan, hazel, apple, oak and yew. Tree lore Special part 2 includes birch, alder, willow, ash and hawthorn. Tree lore Special part 3 this final part includes holly, blackthorn, elder, pine and aspen. Shrubs and Climbers of the Ogham Alphabet includes honey suckle, bramble, travellers’ joy, ivy, broom, gorse and heather.

Read more

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Inspiring People who face the challenges head on!

‘We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love. [Creation] does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round bored wells here and there in favoured races and places, but flows in grand undivided currents, shoreless and boundless over creeds and forms and all kinds of civilisations and peoples and beasts, saturating all and fountainizing all.’ - John Muir

Both in history and now there are inspirational people, incredible environmentalists that see themselves as Global citizens, who know that the whole world is valuable and essential for life on this planet.

Remember the people spoken of below transcend boundaries and move society into a place unaffected by the politics of a given time.

They rise above the petty constraints of race, culture and politics and blaze a trail of action that lasts lifetimes.

John Muir quoted above saved millions of acres in his lifetime as he pioneered the National Park initiatives, David Attenborough who has just turned 100 years old has inspired millions of people to take care of the planet and helped create initiatives which have had a huge impact on single-use plastics and climate change. Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots programme is a leading a global movement in conservation by equipping an entire generation of young people to become activated and empowered conservation minded citizens in their daily lives.

Every day I teach environmental studies to many age ranges from primary up to adult which is why the ludicrous claims from supposed informed people is painful to read, however everyday that is counteracted by the incredibly intelligent well informed people doing a good job in helping this world.

The mainstream media, even the better ones seemed to have stopped reporting news and instead give us a barrage of negative dumbed down, uninformed opinions which unfortunately reflects in the leadership of our countries, however with a slight adjustment to our focus and what we read we discover how incredible human nature truly is.

Jane Goodall never seemed to lose her focus and hearing of her death recently was a huge blow to the environmental movement though I’m sure she would like us to focus on making her legacy to be more potent than ever.

Dr. Jane Goodall went into the forest to study the remarkable lives of chimpanzees and she came out of the forest to save them. When she discovered that the survival of their species was threatened by habitat destruction and illegal trafficking, she developed a breakthrough approach to species conservation that improves the lives of people, animals and the environment by honouring their connectedness to each other.

Her unwavering commitment to peace is incredible as she uses language which has no room for doubt only complete conviction in our direct actions:

‘We can have a world of peace. We can move toward a world where we live in harmony with nature. Where we live in harmony with each other. No matter what nation we come from. No matter what our religion. No matter what our culture. This is where we’re moving towards’. - Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall gives four reasons for hope:

-The amazing human intellect

-The resilience of nature

-The power of young people

-The indomitable human spirit

After watching the inspirational birthday celebrations of David Attenborough I was lifted out of a depressed state of a week of divisive politics and remembered the inspiring, unrelenting work of our environmentalists committed to helping this planet realising that I have no time to dwell on the problems of the world as all my energy is needed to help in any way I can.

‘People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.’

Sir David Attenborough

If you are feeling depressed or anxious about the world remember:

‘Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.’ - John Muir

As adults let us be good role models and show the younger people we do care, that we can cope and we will protect, love and show them a better way, wishing you all much kindness, joy and I hope inspiration.

Jonathon Huet

So many young people are dedicated to making this a better world. All conspiring to inspire us and to give us hope that it is not too late to turn things around, if we all do our part. Jane Goodall

Story is the memory of every landform including the rocks, minerals, trees, plants and animals. It is accessible through the deep listening of the earth and through an unwavering connection to our ancestors which is not borne from race or blood but from a bond that exists between ourselves and the natural world.

Explore a mythology of the Natural World through an in-depth study of trees, plants and the sacred landscape borne from over 30 years of storytelling and working in the field of ecology.

We all need something bigger than our problems to shelter and hold us in difficult times and something to help give us purpose, clarity and insight at all times.

Woodland Bard Courses

Claim the first lesson of the course for free below to help you decide if you would would like to enter the Wild Wood and explore the wonders of the natural and inner worlds.

Click here for your free lesson: Lesson 1 - The Wild Wood

Next online meet will be ‘Listening to the Trees’ - explore tree lore : LIVE Sunday 17th May at 6pm.(Subscribers will receive the link automatically) or BOOK HERE £8 per session inc. recordings and written article.

FORAGING, FIRE AND FOLKLORE

£35
​18:00 - 20:00
Tutor: Jonathan Huet

Dates: 24th June, 2nd September

​”Awe inspiring! I don’t know of anyone else who can hold my attention for so long... What a superb evening. Thank you Jonathon Huet.”

​ABOUT THE COURSE

Primitive fire lighting with the Woodland Bard

A series of seasonal events, each one a special experience of wild food foraging, Celtic fire and folklore. Bushcraft and Celtic folklore specialist, Jonathon Huet, will take you on a guided walk to forage for wild food and impart his knowledge on different native trees in each season.

LEARN MORE

NATURE LED MEDITATION evening

£25
​Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Tutor: Jonathon Huet

Dates: 3rd June, Ist July, Samhain special 28th October

"A really wonderful evening connecting with nature and learning more about our own indigenous traditions too. The guided meditations were fabulous! I'd highly recommend this workshop for anyone looking for a couple of hours escape - I arrived exhausted and left energised and rejuvenated!"

ABOUT THE COURSE

A series of guided meditation workshops, each with an individual flavour. Jonathon will guide you gently through meditations and natural connection practices designed to restore your connection with nature and to bring healing to yourself and the land to which we all belong.

LEARN MORE

UNWIND IN THE WOODS retreat
​A DAY OF WHITTLING AND MEDITATION

£95
​10:00 - 15:30 Saturday 19th September
Tutor: Jonathan Huet
Hot drinks and campfire cooked lunch included

‘The day had such a warm and inclusive atmosphere. I felt nurtured and supported and very, very chilled by the end of it. I was so grateful to have a room booked at the lodge because it was a perfect end to a lovely day.’

ABOUT THE COURSE

Combining meditation and an introduction to basic whittling techniques, this workshop will give you the time and space to get away from a hectic everyday life and connect with nature.

In the morning you will immerse yourself in learning the skill of whittling and carve your own spatula to take home with you. Following a warming campfire cooked lunch, you will visit one of our yurts for a meditation session incorporating woodland folklore.

LEARN MORE

SHAMANIC FOUNDATION COURSE with Dr. Tish Marrable & Jonathon Huet.

Connecting you to the deep spiritual traditions of the land you belong to.

I am very excited to be part of ‘The Walkers Between Worlds Shamanic Training Programme’ with Caitlín Matthews , John Matthews and other teachers which is a meticulous, professional, in-depth training which is designed to enable participants to connect with the land of their own ancestry, exploring the stories and living traditions of the British Isles and Ireland.

This two-part course begins the Level A training in the shamanic traditions of the Sister Isles.

The course will be in the beautiful grounds of the Sustainability centre, Hampshire, in the South of England on 14th/15th November 2026 and 20th/21st February 2027. Take both weekends to qualify for further training.

The cost for both weekends is around £490 (only £245 per weekend) plus accommodation. The accommodation can be basic to more luxurious.

I have found it deeply nurturing and life changing, I am so glad that I did it.

For further details please email Tish at : ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com

You can stay in the Eco- Lodge, B&B or camp on this 55-acre site in the South Downs National Park at reasonably prices.

Next level Shamanic training also at The Sustainability Centre :

THRESHOLDS OF POWER & HEALING South Coast – August 21, 22, 23 2026. with Dr. Tish Marrable & Jonathon Huet at The Sustainability Centre, Droxford Rd, East Meon, Hants GU32 1HR - for those who have completed the Foundation Course or have had similar training.

This three day course teaches a full range of shamanic healing ways including plant-spirit healing, extraction of intrusions, embodiment of personal allies and includes the shamanic ceremony of The Mare Mother’s Dream-Dance. This course is an essential next component for shamanic practitioner training and is opened to all who have completed the Foundation Course in Celtic and Ancestral Shamanism. Those with similar levels of training from other sources are also welcome to apply.

Held at The Sustainability Centre Green Room. This is a non-residential course though there is accommodation and camping available at on site.

FEE: Non-res but price includes lunches, tea, coffees etc. £370.

BOOKING: Non-returnable deposit of £190 to Tish, please contact her at ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com

Everything awakening alert and joyful; the birds begin to stir and innumerable insect people. Deer quietly withdraw into leafy hiding-places; the dew vanishes, flowers spread their petals, every pulse beats high, every life cell rejoices, the very rocks seem to thrill with life.

John Muir

Wow, what joy there is in nature, the increase of light has dramatically changed the mood of the countryside with birds singing and calling for mates, ponds beginning to flourish with various nymphs and frogspawn appearing as well as the first shoots of plants bursting through the now warming soil. Primrose banks warm the heart and the first celandine flowers burst out like sunshine. Buzzards, kites and ravens are now dominating the skies while tits echo through the woodland. The constant drumming of woodpeckers and the chaffinch boldly displaying its plumage. Treecreepers feed on tree bark whilst robins feast on worms. Skylarks are now rising up to a thousand feet in the air above what shall be colourful meadows later in the year. The woodland floor is erupting with young invertebrates from centipedes and millipedes to beetles and wonderful crickets blending into the fallen leaf litter.

Arriving in the Somerset levels this month was such a joy, the gentle crackling of the dead reeds swaying in the breeze and the soft caress of lapping water against the backdrop of the booming bittern. The marsh harrier rises from the reeds, dark and formidable.

Above bittern and marsh harrier in the reeds.

And long, my dear valleys, long, long may ye flourish,
Though rush-beds and thistles, make most of your pride;
May showers never fail the green’s daisies to nourish,
Nor suns dry the fountain that rills by its side.
Your flat swampy valleys unwholesome may be;
Still, refuse of nature, without her adornings
Ye are as dear as this heart in my bosom to me.

John Clare (1793- 1864)

Mallards on the banks and the lush green marshland landscape.

Spring Woods

My heart overflows as I enter the old woods at this time of year as there is so much radiant abundance around every corner. The bluebells where in full flower in early April this year.

Butterflies begin to emerge and hover over the increasing foliage. Brimstone butterflies I noticed first followed by peacock, meadow brown and red admiral. The wild garlic is beginning to flower and herb Robert, red and white dead nettles erupt amongst vibrant displays of cowslips, violets and ground ivy.

Birdsong is in full force in the woods as song thrush, stonechat, linnet, dunnock and blackcap sing delightfully.

The keen eye spots the limy green maple flowers, dark purple ash flowers on bare branches and the bell like beech catkins dusted with yellow pollen.

The young fresh leaves of hawthorn, beech and oak remind us of the newness of life as swathes of forget-me-nots flower in the open and towering hedge mustard dominate the shady areas.

Take in the beauty of nature uncorrupted by a human world and know its okay to immerse in its goodness and appreciate it free from all devices.

Thank you once again for gathering as a community and attending the Woodland Bard Session whether in person or later with the material below. Your contribution enables this work to reach out to the wonder of nature which helps us all take steps to live in harmony once again with the Earth, Sea and Sky.

Save this Date: Our next session will be 17th May and will bring into focus the Lore of the Trees.

‘The furies and monsters and hags of doom cried aloud so that their voices were heard in the rocks and waterfalls and in the hollows of the earth. It was like the fearful agonising cry on the last dreadful day when the human race will part from this world.’

The First Battle of Moytura translated by J.Fraser

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