01/22/2026
Mullein torches made with beeswax, lavender, yarrow, pine and mullein. Traditionally used to ward off evil spirits. Lee and I made them for a ritual with on New Year’s Day. I’ve been wanting to make them for a while. I noticed mullein popping up around the outskirts of my garden and felt a huge protective energy. They felt like spirits marking the connection point between forest, river, and the collaborative space between all that has lived here for time in memorial and me, and the garden I was tending. This prescience pulled my focused and I began researching the plant. Mullein heals the connective tissue in the body called fascia. The delicate tissue that connects bone to muscle to nerves to organs. I could feel an instant satisfaction pulsing through me when realizing the plants folklore held resonance with its “proven scientific facts”. Another reminder of how much wisdom stories hold, how much intuition, curiosity, and feelings hold. How the protective feeling cast around my garden was pivotal teaching about the plant itself. When I make nature crafts, or prepare plants for ritual, tea, or interaction I like to think about what my hands are bringing together, what kinds of intention I am weaving into the merger of materials. Bees/ beeswax always reminds me of the value of a common goal, of working together, of organizing. Lavender offers almost instant grounding when smelled and yarrow is often a tool of softening, reducing inflammation. The pine used was taken from my Xmas tree, a tree we chopped from our woods. The pine reminds me of gratitude for place and all of the trees that feel like kin. I love the intention of these elements moving forwards, a plea to organize, for protection, and to do so while grounded and tending to each-other and oneself.
The other day while walking through the woods I kept repeating to the earth, “I believe in your innate wisdom and the ability for regeneration”.
