The Wild Trees

Last night I finished reading The Wild Trees. I loved it! The writing did leave a little to be desired, but the information about the redwoods, sequoias and other giant trees, was fascinating! (and the story wasn't too bad ;-) I had no idea there was such a huge diversity of life in the redwood canopies. I found it amazing that up until the 1960s to 1980s most botanists and scientists didn't even know what was up there and didn't think the canopies were worth exploring. The just assumed it was all branches and limbs. Then people started actually climbing up the redwoods and finding all sorts of life up there that no one knew about. All of it was like uncharted territory. And there is so much more still to learn! Wow, just...wow. The capacity of the redwood canopies to draw in and store huge amounts of water and soil to support so much life is just amazing. Lichens and mosses galore, ferns, berries, shrubs, even other trees! Salamanders, voles, owls, worms, even tiny aquatic creatures called copepods that usually live in the sea and that no one knows how they got there. There are literally gardens growing in the canopies hundreds of feet in the air. How cool is that!? The fact that these trees are so old and so amazingly huge just makes it that much cooler. It makes me want to climb trees :-D

Even scientists get the munchies....

I've been thumbing through a book recently called Plant Intoxicants which basically just goes through a wide list of natural intoxicants (from coffee to opium and chocolate to fly agaric) and describes their composition, growth habits and effects on humans (and animals). It was first published in 1855 by a German baron, Ernst Von Bibra. It has been an interesting read, and quite humorous at times. The other night I decided to read the chapter on hashish. It was fun reading about the different preparations used and the ways in which different peoples ingested their cannabis. It was also quite intriguing reading about the ideas of some of the scientists/researchers of the time and how they considered race and climate to be determining factors in how the drug affected a person. At one point, the author estimates that almost three hundred million people worldwide consume hashish (in 1855 that is). Anyways, I really just wanted to share a short little section from this chapter that I found amusing. Von Bibra was discussing the experiment he undertook on himself (he decided to try it), the different effects he felt and his overall experience...

"While watching the figures assume shape in my white cloth and my study extend itself in perspective, while listening to the corporeal notes of music and experiencing an enhanced love for my child, I ate an extremely large portion of cold cuts."

Cold cuts aren't exactly my idea of good munchie food, but I guess anything works. Ha.

Books on Paganism

Just a list of books I'm interested in reading or at least thumbing through that have to do with Paganism, Wicca and spirituality. I have created this list from the resources sections of Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler and Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions by Joyce and River Higginbotham.

Real Magic by Issac Bonewits
Working Inside Out: Tools for Change by Margo Adair
Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron
A Witches Bible by Janet and Stewart Farrar
The Sea Priestess by Dion Fortune
Witchcraft Today (pdf) by Gerald B. Gardner
The Meaning of Witchcraft by Gerald B. Gardner
Witchcraft, the Sixth Sense by Justine Glass
Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow
Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions by Naomi Goldenberg
The White Goddess by Robert Graves
Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin
Mother Wit: A Feminist Guide to Psychic Development by Diane Mariechild
The New Polytheism by David Miller
The Witch Cult in Western Europe by Margaret A. Murray
The Nag Hammadi Library
The Spiral Dance by Starhawk
An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present by Doreen Valiente
Positive Magic: Ancient Metaphysical Techniques for Modern Lives by Marion Weinstein
The Grandmother of Time: A Woman's Book of Celebrations, Spells, and Sacred Objects for Every Month of the Year by Zsuzsanna Budapest
Celebrate the Earth: A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition by Laurie Cabot
Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life by Pauline Campanelli
To Ride a Silver Broomstick by Silver Ravenwolf
The Pagan Book of Living and Dying by Starhawk
Dancing with the Wheel by Sun Bear, Wabun Wind, and Crysalis Mulligan
When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone
The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft by Rosemary Guiley
Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm
The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
Modern Sex Magick: Secrets of Erotic Spirituality by Donald Michael Kraig
Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham