Spiritual alchemy uses the principles of alchemy to achieve harmony and fulfillment in life. Alchemy incorporates shapes, symbols,...

The ancient town of Kültepe (Kultepe, Kanesh, Kaneš), where the earliest writing originates, rises to a prosperous trade city and kārum ...

Baltic amber is among the most prized trade items for millennia. The European amber trade starts in Sicily, with exports to other...

In natural health, magic and alchemy the fragrant herb rosemary ( Salvia rosmarinus ) is associated with memory, immortality and...

In the late Neolithic Age (10,200 - 4500 BCE), Europe is a wild unsettled place. Great bears , aurochs and big cats roam the forests....

Rough horsetail ( Equisetum hyemale ) is the oldest known plant in the world, and also makes beautiful music. Dating back to 150 million...

House spirits such as Kobolds , domestic elves , gnomes and the earth hen are popular figures in Germanic myth and folklore. They have...

Tannenbaum is often equated with Christmas tree. Fir is best for the holidays. Its branches have flat soft foliage, it's easy to hang...

Creating a Frau Holle festival altar is fun. Frau Holle is perhaps the most beloved of German deities, with a number of different...

The Festival of Frau Holle decks the halls from her Feast Day 25 Dec to the 5-6th of January. An ancient German goddess, Frau Holle...

Benefits of mulberry (Morus) include personal health, wood, silk, color for yarn and food. Romantic myth surrounds fruitful mulberry...

The Little Elder Tree Mother is an 1845 Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. It's also known as The Elderbush. The Elder Tree...

Amanita muscaria , fly agaric or fly amanita is the most widely recognized of the psychoactive plants and fungi. The use, folklore and...

If drinking elderberry wine or tea, one might see pixies. Early Germans are animists. Spirits or spirit energies inhabit all living...

Holly, yew and mistletoe, the most cheerful and celebrated of seasonal plants, are also the most poisonous. These three toxic beauties...

Hags in folklore are old women associated with magic. They can be witches, demons, queens, crones or nature spirits, kindly or hateful....

Cultivation of apples goes back to the Middle Stone Age in central Asia. The wild ancestor of today's apples still grows in the region....

Fruit trees are integral to Germanic culture and lore. In times when most farms and rural homesteads depend on the land for nourishment,...

Fairy rings are circles or semi-circles of wild mushrooms. They can appear overnight like magic and are part of the mystical world of...

Death Cap Mushrooms (Amanita phalloides) are deadly poisons of assassination and accident. Native to Europe, death caps are naturalized...