Thinking about taking part? Reply to this entry - or send me a DM - and I’ll add you to the list of September Hags.
the golden-rod is yellow; the corn is turning brown; the trees in apple orchards with fruit are bending down. – helen hunt jackson, ‘september’
WHO: To join this challenge you must 1.) identify as a hag (trans, non-binary, and dude Hags welcome!), and 2.) be 30 years or older. (Tumblr Baba Yagas unite! <3) While not mandatory, all former participants have been some flavor of pagan or witch or Christian, so incorporating the challenge into your practice or devotional schedule isn’t just tolerated, it’s encouraged!
WHAT: September’s theme is “filling the handbasket”. This month your challenge is to hit the hedges, orchards, gardens, and farmers’ markets to fill your proverbial basket with autumn’s bounty. We’re keeping the theme deliberately broad - there’s no wrong or right harvest, and there’s no wrong or right way to utilize the contents of your basket. Let the season and local landscape inspire you!
WHERE: In the convenience of your home! Unless, of course, you want to be a bit extra. Whatever you decide to do, and wherever you decide to do it, be sure to tag your posts with #Hagging Out so fellow crones can follow along. (Over the past year we’ve essentially strong-armed everyone else out of the tag and claimed it as our middle-aged Hag fort, LMFAO.)
WHEN: September 28th-September 30th! Participating Hags are encouraged to complete their challenge and write their entry when it suits their schedule, then pick one of the three “open” days - September 28th, 29th, or 30th - to post it.
WHY: To consolidate our strengthening crone powers and exchange tips on the best way of covering stubborn greys. And because it’s occasionally nice to be social in the comfort of your own home without actually having people over.
HOW: Dinner, dessert, dumb supper, or devotional act - it’s up to you. Don’t get too hung up on the idea that your project needs to be meal-based - this is all about appreciating the season and working with what’s locally available (and maybe learning some new skills along the way)! As long as you’re using the content of your handbasket as a component in your working or project (e.g. incense, tinctures, a ritual or spell) you’re on the right path. Feel free to riff and push boundaries, that’s what this is all about!
Circle the date, crones, Hagging Out returns again this month with the theme of…drum roll…GRAIN!
This month your challenge is to work with cereal(s). [‘Grain’ is being used as an umbrella term to include edible grasses from around the world: wheat, barley, rye, spelt, corn, rice, millet, oats, sorghum, buckwheat (which, okay, is more of a seed but is used as a grain), and any other tasty grasses or pseudocereals.]
Don’t feel limited to cooking or baking, though - wheat weavings (aka corn dollies), corn husk dolls, and harvest rituals & traditions are all grain-focused activities/devotions that don’t require pre-heating an oven on a hot August day.
An official entry soon; just wanted to get the date and theme out there ASAP so we can get to work. Let’s get that grain, Hags!
* A reminder that Hagging Out is open to everyone 30-years-old or older. <3
Oh my, this one is a doosey. I’ll have to have think about it, whether I get an idea at all.
Though, I may go with the “harvest” theme in general…
First let me say I genuinely hope no one was expecting a postapaloosa from me this month, because well, it is not coming. I only managed so-so with the theme and only have pics of finished products, rather than a step by step and no actual full ritual, because I did not finish it yet :(
This month I have decided to perfect the art of making herb bundles for smoke cleansing. The problem I have faced before was never being able to get the bundles tight enough when the herbage is still fresh, causing the bundles to be very loose. On How-To pages etc., they usually tell you to just rewrap them once in a while, but as the herbs dry, they begin to crumble and it is just not right.
So I got an idea. After leaving them hung upside down for a day, to let them wilt a bit, I made the bundles and tightened them all around by using a paper towel and tied them on the outside. I left them to dry like this hanging for about a week, before unbundling them and rewrapping them with the final cord and tightening them some more.
I am very pleased with the results :)
I made four kinds of sticks, but since this months theme is purification, I’d like to talk a little bit more about two of the herbs I have chosen:
Mugwort and St.John’s wort.
I know St.John is not typically considered a cleansing herb, but hear me out.
In a couple of days, I am turning 32 and I thought putting together a purification ritual (which was originally supposed to be a part of this post) before then would be nice.
I’d use mugwort for a general cleansing, both of my person and of my apartment, from all the shit that has piled up in the last year (and on top of the pandemic, there was ALOT). Mugwort is a wonderful herb in my opinion, being not only a great ally in all things divinatory, feminine mystery-wise and so on, but above all a great cleanser of all residual human stuff that one may carry of their shoulders or have lurking around their space.
Saint John’s wort on the other hand, is a very Solar and Martial herb and the second part of my cleansing will go along the route of the Sun casting away shadows, bringing light into a somewhat darkened life, while at the same time fighting some personal stuff away and healing old wounds. On top of that, in the for of tea it’s a great mood stabilizer :)
Thinking about taking part? Reply to this entry - or send me a DM - and I’ll add you to the list of July Hags.
wash wash me clean mend my wounded seams cleanse my tarnished dreams – k.d. lang, ‘wash me clean’
WHO: To join this challenge you must 1.) identify as a hag (trans, non-binary, and dude Hags welcome!), and 2.) be 30 years or older. (Tumblr Baba Yagas unite! <3) While not mandatory, all former participants have been some flavor of pagan or witch or Christian, so incorporating the challenge into your practice or devotional schedule isn’t just tolerated, it’s encouraged!
WHAT: July’s theme is “purification”. This month your challenge is to use something fresh and in-season - or dried and preserved! - as the basis of a thorough purging. The ingredient/component can be something homegrown, foraged, or bought locally.
WHERE: In the convenience of your home! Unless, of course, you want to be a bit extra. Whatever you decide to do, and wherever you decide to do it, be sure to tag your posts with #Hagging Out so fellow crones can follow along. (Over the past year we’ve essentially strong-armed everyone else out of the tag and claimed it as our middle-aged Hag fort, LMFAO.)
WHEN: July 29th-July 31st! Participating Hags are encouraged to complete their challenge and write their entry when it suits their schedule, then pick one of the three “open” days - July 29th, 30th, or 31st - to post it.
WHY: To consolidate our strengthening crone powers and exchange tips on the best way of covering stubborn greys. And because it’s occasionally nice to be social in the comfort of your own home without actually having people over.
HOW: Focus doesn’t necessarily need to be on yourself; we’re casting the net wide to include home, ritual space, or even an object/tool. Never cleaned with a floor wash or performed an egg cleansing? Now’s the time to learn! Feel free to riff and push boundaries, that’s what this is all about!
Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits! (If you know, you know.) A day late; had to hunt down champagne and mead yeast and also I am sometimes completely overwhelmed by all the stuff I take on, but I got it done!
I grow lots of herbs and three that happened to be ready for harvest right around now are yarrow, lemon balm, and mugwort. These are also the three herbs that I use most and that I particularly enjoy working with.
I usually make a mead or two around this time of year to enjoy at Yule so I decided on lemon balm mead, and a mildly psychoactive mugwort mead for ritual use. I don’t like my mead too sweet, so I decided to try to make two types of dry champagne-like fermentations.
For the lemon balm mead, I used fresh herb, lemon, honey and champagne yeast. I went into it a little scattered and sort of winged the recipe based on other meads I’ve made. I usually harvest wild yeast from juniper berries or figs or whatever else I forage for, but in the interest of getting this to #hagging out on time, I chose Lalvin D47. Wild yeast is lovely, but not always strong enough to ferment all of the sugar out. I also threw in 3 black tea bags for a little extra tannin and a handful of chopped dates as yeast nutrient. Raisins work great too, or you can use the powdered stuff from your home-brew shop.
In my chaotic brain space, I pitched the yeast while the wort was still pretty warm, probably killing it. But I’ll let it sit overnight to check for activity, and if there is none, I’ll pitch it again.
By the time I got to the mugwort mead, I was fully caffeinated and better organized. Most mugwort mead and ale recipes warn that too much mugwort will make the brew very bitter, but I wonder if they’re confusing mugwort with wormwood, which is indeed very bitter. I was tempted to throw a bit of that in as well, but since I doubled the amount of mugwort suggested, I left it out.
I also added lemons, some dates, 3+ pounds of local raw honey, coriander seeds, some Cascade and Willamette hops from another brewing project for a bit of floral funkiness. I was more patient with this batch, pitched the yeast at the right temperature, and it’s happily bubbling away after only a couple of hours. In fact, it’s so happy that it will probably have some blow off. Maybe a bit too much yeast!
These will both sit in primary fermentation in a cool dark place for about two months, or until the activity stops. Then I’ll siphon them off into swing top bottles and hide them away until Yule, when I’ll share them with friends and the mugwort will used in ritual, if I can resist drinking them while they’re still unfinished.
#hagging out #msgraveyarddirt #ritualbrewing #mugwort #sacredbrewing
This is wonderful!
I actually started gathering ingredients for my own mead yesterday (I actually have everything, except for some fancy yeasts that are now in the mail), so I am so appreciative of all the inspirative ideas!
Both recipes are essentially the same - infuse water with fresh flowers, add sugar to preserve - although #1 had pre-prepared simple syrup poured over the blossoms and was steeped overnight, and #2 only had boiling water poured over to create a floral water which was then used to create a basic simple syrup.
Despite appearances they both distinctly taste like lilac, although I find myself aesthetically charmed by the smokey amethyst color of syrup #1.
I kinda feel I have not done enough preserving, since in my previous “Need to preserve it? Kyphi it” post, there is a distinct lack of mention of foraged materials. HOWEVER I do use foraged resins and I would like to share with you how to clean them after harvest, to store them for future use.
I do this every year this time of the summer at my moms cottage, where she has a row of beautiful pines and firs, that have been cut some decades ago, yet still bleed resin profusely.
When in the woods or anywhere, where there are trees, keep an eye on older wounds in the bark, trees that have been cut or pruned and look for spots where your desired (or happenstance) resin leaks.
While scraping the resin off, take care to not to damage the tree more than it is already.
At home, prepare a water bath using a pot that will forever more be resin coated (!!). Warm the resin until it is fluid and then pass it through a strainer, cloth or some such, that again will be resinous until the end of times. You can however reuse your resin stained tools for the next harvest! It is ideal to pour the resin from the pot, through the strainer and directly onto a sheet of baking paper, where you will leave it to cool and harden for a day or two, before breaking it up and storing it.
You can also save the saturated bits of wood, needles and other natural pieces left in the strainer to burn as a part of an incense.
This year, I decided to try and tincture my remaining bits, for a wonderful amber liquid that smells like a forest ♥
My biggest project this month was making several batches of Kyphi-type incense. One was a traditional recipe based on historical sources for my sister (not a part of this post), one to sell and another one to preserve the contents of my herbal cabinet by processing them and not letting them sit around loosing potency.
^Final results, please notice my Slavic roots showing!
Generally, to define a Kyphi-type incense, we can say that this type of incense features a wet part consisting of wine, raisins, dates/figs, honey and a dry part, which are mixed and dried to form pellets.
In general, to form the wet part of the incense dough, you need cca 4 raisins per tablespoon of dry material and one cup of dried dates/figs per 50 raisins, a tablespoon of honey and enough wine to cover it all and have left over to add, after the raisins and dates soak it up. Optionally, you can add some essential oils to the mix as well.
You chop the raisins and dates finely, or if you are lazy like me, put both in the final jar, add wine and chop it using a hand blender.
Leave the wet mixture (raisins, dates/figs, honey, wine and essential oil) to sit for 1-2 weeks, stir daily and add any blessings and incantations you may like.
^From right to left: Wet ingredients jar, dry ingredients jar, misc tictures
Use these two weeks to finely grind your chosen dry ingredients. This incense type works best with a lot of resins and woods.
You can decide the final number of dry ingredients based on the intended purpose of the incense (planetary numbers etc.), or by what you have available in the necessary amounts.
My dry materials consisted of among others:
Frankincense
Elemi
Myrrh
Damara
Lavender
Propolis
Pollen
Mace
Mastix
Copal
Pine
When your wet materials have steeped enough, it is time to boil them down.
Over a low heat, just enough to warm the mixture without boiling it, simmer it while stirring often for a couple of hours, until it forms a gooey batter. Ventilate you kitchen well!
Place your dry materials into a large bowl and once a little cooled, add the wet portion in slowly, while working it in. Don’t add everything at once, you are aiming to knead a firm dough that no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl and you may have more wet ingredients than needed.
When you are done, break the dough into small pellets and place in on a drying rack. If you are fortunate like me to have an electric herb dryer, the process of drying the incense at 35°C takes about a week. If you are drying it in room temperature, it may take up to 3-4 weeks. Either way, the place where the drying will happen will smell absolutely lovely.
The goal is to dry the pellets so they are firm to the touch.
Afterwards, after removing the dried incense from the dryer, I like to coat it with ground Benzoin resin to work as a preservative, since the incense still contains organic materials and may also contain water. I also added Dragon’s blood to the coating for an added kick of scent and color.
Store in an airtight jar and voilá, your own Kyphi-type incense:
So, I have been thinking about what to post in a week for the Hagging out challenge, which I was kindly accepted into by @graveyarddirt ♥
As it is, I have been unknowingly Hagging out for the whole of June anyway, foraging, tincturing, oiling and otherwise preserving.
In the past month, I have (among others, that I have not photographed) processed:
Elder flowers andsaffron:
Started a rose tincture yesterday:
But today and this week, I am working on something special, that may warrant a longer post for Hagging out challenge days:
A Kyphi-type incense of herbs, resins and more blended in a wet base of raisins, dates, honey and wine to form small pellets, dried over several weeks and preserved in benzoin and dragons blood powder.
Can you hear the chorus of ‘oh wow!’ all the way from Scotland?
NGL, I tend to pick themes that I’m already focusing on, otherwise I’d never be able to pull off hosting the monthly challenges!
Our Junes are looking pretty similar, although I’ve blown through a bag of granulated sugar thanks to my notorious sweet tooth. (Hadn’t planned on working with lilac, but our bush proved too tempting this year.)
No pressure huh :D
But thank you, that is so lovely of you. I am extremely curious to see your lilac thing progress, since I tried lilac this year to, but as a tincture, because I am usually a more wet-preserver :D
Shame I remembered at the end of the blooming season, would have loved to strain and add new lilac a few times.
So, I have been thinking about what to post in a week for the Hagging out challenge, which I was kindly accepted into by @graveyarddirt ♥
As it is, I have been unknowingly Hagging out for the whole of June anyway, foraging, tincturing, oiling and otherwise preserving.
In the past month, I have (among others, that I have not photographed) processed:
Elder flowers andsaffron:
Started a rose tincture yesterday:
But today and this week, I am working on something special, that may warrant a longer post for Hagging out challenge days:
A Kyphi-type incense of herbs, resins and more blended in a wet base of raisins, dates, honey and wine to form small pellets, dried over several weeks and preserved in benzoin and dragons blood powder.
