Become a natural witch with me

I have heard the call of herbs since I was a child. I remember playing with the clover and dandelions that grew near our house. I spread them on the fence that surrounded the house, painted meadows, the sky, flowers and wrote secret messages with them. I have always felt that magic is something natural, that it is a current that has guided me for years to study and use herbs, to pay attention to the language of animals and to be enchanted each year by the changing seasons, their colors and gifts. I'm a natural witch - no doubt about it.

CECILIA LATTARI • THE NATURAL WITCH'S HERBARIUM

When I took this almost childlike fairy tale book in my hands and read the first paragraph, I recognized myself in it. I'm not talking about the fact that I occasionally entertain or annoy family and friends with stories about my animals' personalities, or that magic has always been something natural to me. I'm talking about the fact that plants have been my best playground since childhood. Did you too play with flowers when you were a child? I painted with them on fences and sidewalks when there were no chalks at hand. Or the flowers became my dolls in the sandcastle, and the poppy turned upside down was a beautiful princess in a red dress imprisoned in a tower, and a thistle was a knight with a plume on his helmet who would free her. The huge vine was a kingdom, the forest was God's cathedral, and the flower garden under the old pear tree was a place of endless stories. Plants, flowers and trees fascinated me, and year after year I told myself that I would learn more about them than just collecting and growing the traditional herbs such as motherwort, mint, honeydew, sage or elderberry.

For as long as I can remember, my mother has collected herbs and mushrooms and taught us about the ones she knew, but recently my grandmother casually told me that her grandmother was a well-known herbalist, and my soul soared. I started to study books about herbs one by one and mark when they can be collected, where I can find them and how I can use them. You can already find a huge number of books about healing, herbs and their use, but they do not always provide practical advice, which you then have to look for in many other sources. Therefore, follow the trail of herbs with me and become a natural witch. Together we will learn what nature serves us.

How to become a modern herbalist?

My graandma hates people who look at their mobile phones and I explain to her that it doesn't have to mean that a person is playing a game or texting for a senselessly long time with someone who can sit opposite him in the compartment. Now I can read a book or even write a book on my mobile phone. I can use it to record photos, sound, video, process this material and even publish it not only on social networks, but also on more complex websites. It's a work tool that can help you even when researching herbs in your neighborhood.

When I see a plant that I hadn't noticed before during my walks with Wolf during the year, I take a picture of it and search for the photo on Google. It is usually able to find for me what kind of plant it is, and I further check according to the descriptions on various pages, whether the description fits and whether it can only be a similar and, God forbid, dangerous species. Subsequently, I will find out if the plant has a use in phytotherapy (treatment with plants) or if it is only an "ornamental" plant. I have already discovered several plants with healing effects in this way and they were not mentioned in any of my wise books. The last ones were, for example, meadowsweet, marian thistle or viburnum.

In the following posts, we will talk about herbs that you can collect and also how to process them.