Salvia comes from the Latin word “salvere”, to heal. 
Officinalis refers to having been used medicinally.

Gender: Masculine
Element: Air
Planet: Jupiter

Sage, salvia, is the largest genus of the mint family, Lamiaceae. 

Sage has numerous  powers. In addition to its healing properties, it is associated with wisdom, longevity and protection. It’s a delightful and healing tea, and the Thanksgiving turkey wouldn’t be the same without it. With the present concerns about the coronavirus, it seems a good time to focus  on sage’s clearing, cleansing, protective qualities. 

Instructions for creating your own smudging bundles from sage grown in your garden and here. The steps to the process are  in my  illustrated journal, above. After the sage was harvested and  wrapped it needed  to dry. That  process takes about 4 - 6 weeks.
 
​We smudge for a variety of reasons. One may be a general cleansing or  you may want to remove germs and bacteria.  You may want to clear  your space to become more open to creative ideas and beautiful thoughts. 

If you are smudging because someone had violated your  space or made your angry or uncomfortable,  it is imperative that you center  yourself and  come to a more positive frame of mind before you begin. It  you need support, find a friend or two to help you feel  positive and  loved.  You are clearing negative energy  and adding positive to replace it so keeping a positive frame of mind during  the ritual and following are vital. 

It  might be helpful  to find, or write a prayer or poem to express your intentions. When I was in Stone Harbor, my friend Lisa had a book with a beautiful prayer to  accompany  a smudging ritual.I hurriedly copied  it into my illustrated journal and will probably redo it on parchment, but for now, it gives you the words you need.  ​ I'm not  sure  who wrote it.   I looked on line and found several people acknowledged. Thank you to who ever wrote such  a lovely piece.  

​The next step is to gather your materials. If possible, use natural  materials. 

• Smudge Stick
• Candle, preferably lit with a wooden match
• Shell  to catch the embers, or you can  also  use a pottery dish

​Optional

• Feather  to direct the smoke - you can  also  use your hand
• Brass bell to wake  up the energy in each  room as you move  through the house

​

 
1. Light the candle and set your intention. You  may use  the prayer above or something you have written or found that expresses your personal perspective.  
2. Use the candle flame  to  light the sage. Once the sage has caught fire, blow it out and watch for glowing embers. When you see the smoke begin to roll off of the smudge stick, it is ready. 
3. Guide the smoke toward your heart, over  your head and around your body to  purify  yourself before you begin.
​4. Go the the lowest area you will be smudging. You will be working clockwise in each room. Use your feather, or your hand, to direct the smoke from the lowest part  of the room to the highest as you move in  a circle around  the room Be certain to direct smoke into the corners of the room.  Direct the smoke out the door or windows before you move on to the next room. 

5. KEEP THE SHELL CLOSE BY TO COLLECT BURNING EMBERS.  I tap the smudge stick on the shell when I begin in each room and usually another time or two as the leaves burn. 
​

6. After you have completed smudging each room extinguish the sage by rubbing it onto the shell or on sand or dirt. Check to see that there are no burning red embers.

DO NOT wet the sage. If you do, you won't be able to use the sage again. 

After the smoke clears and the negative energy has been released, fill the  space with love. You can say  prayers, meditate or journal about love, have dear friends over, read inspirational materials or do what ever feels best for you! 

​

Gender: Masculine
Element:  Fire
Planet: Sun

“Smelling  rosemary  prevents aging,” I explained to my class of 25 students, as I handed each of  them an eight to 10 inch sprigs from my garden. All were over 50 in the Renaissance Institute lifelong learning program.  “It will  also  keep  you alert  and help  you  remember the information you learn  in class.” It was my first session in a series, over a period of 6  weeks, of my Enhancing Your Life with  Herbs, and rosemary was the ideal herb to  introduce  the course. 
Rosemary’s well  documented and legendary gift of preventing aging is one  of the virtues I wish  I had found out years ago - maybe when I was eighteen. Since I’ve learned of this magical power, I breathe in deeply  when the plant is nearby.  
Many virtues have been  associated with rosemary throughout the centuries. He  is one of 500 herbs featured  in Eber’s Papyrus found in the  Valley of Tombs near Luxor. The 20 meter long scroll,  about the  size  of  a bowling alley, was written in 1500  B.C., though believed to have been copied from an earlier document. It documents its use as an herbal  remedy. Sprigs have been found in Egyptian tombs dated from 3,000 B.C. 
Its medicinal uses have been  documented  in Greece and Rome since 500  B.C.   The “herb of  crowns”  is also reputed  to  improve memory and mental powers. 
Priests burned it as incense and it has been used as a disinfectant and strewing herb. The pungent fragrances covers up unpleasant odors and purifies the air. It has been  credited with  protecting  people from  the plague and having a clean fragrance that is purifying in a sick person’s  room. Once valued for medicinal uses, it  is now mostly  used in cosmetics and cooking. 
Friendship and love have long  been associated with rosemary. It has been used in love spells and is credited with encouraging faithfulness, so it is often used in friendship and wedding  bouquets.  Both Thomas More  and Shakespeare have commemorated rosemary’s association with friendship and remembrance in well known quotes.  
Rosemary  is often found at with funerals. My rosemary sympathy cards and comfort journals for people who have lost loved ones encourage people to find easement in sacred memories.

Rosemary is often used  in wreaths, bouquets and arrangements at Christmas time.
This legend describes how the rosemary flowers got their gorgeous color. 

The Legend of Rosemary
When  Joseph, Mary, and  the baby Jesus fled through the Egyptian desert from  King Herod’s soldiers, they found shelter in a rosemary grove. Mary draped her blue cloak over one of the white flowered bushes before she retired for the night. The next morning when Joseph removed her cloak, the white flowers on the bush had turned to the same  shade  of blue as Mary’s cloak. 

The Hoverter Sholl Box  Huckleberry
(Gaylussacia brachycera)
​

 Can you name a plant that covers 8 acres of land, is 1300 years old,
will protect you and bring you luck as  you enter the new year?

Gender: Feminine
Element:  Water
Planet: Venus

My quest to find an herb worthy of being featured as the first  in a series for 2021 unfolded magically! My daughter Mycenea self quarantined for 14 days,  as did  I,  so we could be  together for Christmas. We spent a lot of time outdoors, and one of our favorite jaunts was to visit the Hoverter and Sholl Box Huckleberry in Perry County, Pennsylvania.  

The box huckleberry is a member of the acidic soil loving Ericaceae family, which include azaleas, rhododendron, trailing arbutus, cranberries and blueberries, among others. Unlike the giant Sequoias and the Bristlecone pines, known for their their age, the box huckleberry is only about a half a foot tall. It covers the forest floor and can easily  be overlooked. 

The box huckleberry and blueberry are often confused, but there are differences. The blueberry grows  in clusters, and the box huckleberry, as well as the huckleberry, has more singular berries, with occasional small clusters. Though the skin of all of the berries are blue, the blueberry is white or light green inside, and the huckleberry and box huckleberries  have a deep red violet or purple inner flesh  with  a tendency to stain. 

There are several folk names for the Huckleberries, including Blaeberry, Whortleberry, Bilberry and Hurtleberry. Bilberry is a folk name for the Blueberry. It gets confusing. Fortunately, scientists use Latin names to provide clarification. We are referring to the box  huckleberry (Gaylussacia brachycera) in this case. 

There were two box huckleberry plants in the area we visited. One, at Losh Run, is thought to be over 13,000 years old! Bristlecone pines, at 5,000 years old, were considered to be the oldest living organisms  on earth, yet the box elder is significantly older. The age is determined by the rate of growth, approximately 6 inches a year, and was calculated by the size of the plants.

The Losh Run Box Huckleberry, which at one time covered an area of about  100 acres, nearly 10 times larger than the Hoveter Sholl, was damaged by a forest fire in 1963, then partially destroyed during the 1970s due to road construction of  U.S. 22/322. The remainder is in an area difficult to access.  

The younger plant is estimated to be 1,200 to 1,300 years old, and fortunately has been  in a protected area as a National Natural Landmark since 1929.  The 8 plus acre box huckleberry, named because its leaves resemble boxwood, is situated within a 10 acres area in Tuscarora State Forest with a quarter mile path around the plant. Twenty-seven stations along the loop give an educational overview. 

The  Hoveter Sholl  plant was discovered in 1845 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, a professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle. He was a naturalist and later became the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution, advancing to become the second Secretary of the institution. 

The box huckleberries were almost forgotten until 1948 when Dr. Fredrick Coville, a graduate of Cornell University working for the Department of Agriculture, determined the plants, one covering over 8 acres, and the  other  nearly  100 acres, were each individual massive plants! The  relict species, miraculously surviving the  ice age, is considered self-sterile, and reproduces through a system of root stalks.  

This remarkable plant has not always been well revered. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry  Finn is probably the most well know of the  huckleberries, and in an  interview in an interview  in 1895, Twain said he used the name to  indicate Finn was a boy “of lower distraction”  than Mark Twain. 

A more positive huckleberry reference was featured in the song Moon River in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It is beautifully explained by Jessica Dang, Single Girl Dinner. “For years I had no idea what it meant: "My huckleberry friend." It hung in my mind. I searched Paul Varjak's relationship with Holly Golightly for the answer. Theirs was a mutual adoration laced with innocent flirtation; there was a certain playfulness that freed them from being neither friends nor lovers."

On New Year’s Eve,  the residents of  New Bloomfield, PA traditionally  assemble to  pay homage to their oldest resident. They lower a huge huckleberry from the  courthouse  clock tower at midnight  to pay tribute to this humble herb. This  year’s pandemic will prevent the assemblage, but they will hopefully  meet on New  Year’s  Eve next year  to  honor this enormous, ancient plant. 
​

As  you enter 2021, I  wish you  the blessings of  huckleberry! May  you  gather magic and find luck and  protection in “berried treasures”,  I’m  hoping there will be unexpected   blessings and virtues all around you. And may  each of  you  find a  ‘Huckleberry friend”! 

 “Everyone should have a huckleberry friend at one point or another. 
It is an experience that showers your life with magic for as long as it lasts,
whether it be for a couple of weeks or a couple of years.”
​
 ~  Jessica Dang, Single Girl Dinner, #SingleGirlDinner
​