It's now October! This is going to be a dark post because I feel like doing one right now. This is a time when nights grow longer and the air gets colder. Autumn leaves change colour, fall from their trees and pile up along the ground. While Autumn is fun, colourful and magical, it can also be creepy.
It's harvest time and food becomes very important. A number of herbs and roots can be used to summon spirits or protect from spirits. Some with knowledge of foraging and kitchen witchery know the very plants to look for. Most use the Autumn plants for medicine. For those like me that are always learning about herbs and plantlore, I'm informed that weeds are vibrant after Summer. Weeds in the garden can be eaten. The sacred Hawthorn grows red berries that can help heart conditions. Goldenrod is a fiery medicine ideal for soothing pains. Rose Hips are a bright scarlet coloured berries that are both medicinal and healthy for Vitamin C.
Root vegetables are found full grown and the soil is rich. It's often believed that nature spirits focus on fruit, vegetables and other edible plants. Besides the wild flowers that give food, another source of food supply are the crops. Fields full of growing crops attract all kinds of supernatural entities. Fairies, phouka, land wights and goblins either consume corn and other foodstuffs or they help farmers work the land. Some are friendly. Some are not.
Rice is a crop with spirit attachments. The spooky game called "One-Man Hide and Seek" involves using rice in the game to begin playing it. A doll needs to be stuffed with rice and sewn with blood-red thread together. In order to wake the spirits within the rice grains, the player has to announce a few words according to the rules. Often people find no joy in this while many claim to have experienced sinister and frightening creepy paranormal things.
Some people have seen curious plants come to life. One such case involves a a man called Jennings Frederick from West Virginia who saw a strange entity. It resembled a human shape green plantlike figure that was disturbing. The creature spoke in human tongue and then it touched him with its stems that looked like fingers. The man also described the creature's dwelling. This incident later became known as the "Vegetable Man". While it may seem odd, it isn't the only story about vegetables in the world. In Asia there is a tale of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, a type of cryptid and legend.
The Waqwaq or "Screaming Tree" is like the talking oracular trees. They were believed to grow infants along their branches. Other ancient texts described adult humans and animals that grew from the oracular trees. Many people of ancient times have recorded strange things about oracular trees crying, talking, reciting omens. They were:
Mohammed ben Bâbichâd told me from what he had heard from one
of those who went to Waq Waq: that there were large trees. sometimes
with elongated rounded leaves that bear fruit like squash, but bigger,
that have a human face: when the wind stirs the leaves, a voice comes
out, and the inside fills with air, like the pods of the milkweed. If
they are detached from the tree, the air escapes at once and they become
flat and flabby like a piece of skin
The source is The Book of Wonders of India.
There is the protective nature of plants such as garlic, onions, turnips, radishes, apples and mandrake, ginger and especially pumpkins. Today pumpkins are used to scare off spirits. In the past they used turnips f they didn't have any pumpkins. These ward off evil spirits, angry spirits and unwanted entities. So when you tuck into your meal, remember that you're consuming Earth's treasures that are magical gifts. The carrots, radishes, potatoes and broccoli may even talk to you!
Howls ^^
