The Witches' Almanac 2024-2025 Standard Edition, Issue 43 by Andrew Theitic

Author:Andrew Theitic
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781881098966
Publisher: The Witches' Almanac

The berries of the juniper are sacred and powerful, too. In some regions, people used to pick the berries, dry them, then put them onto coals to smoulder. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew the juniper as being sacred to the Furies so they burned berries this way at funerals, too, believing the smoke kept away demons. In the later Christian centuries, farming areas couldn't access Catholic-favored resins like frankincense, so juniper was the homegrown equivalent of demon-banishing incense. To this day, some more traditional Witches in the UK and Europe are taught to use juniper berries for protection: burnt on charcoals, strung on a thread or even infused in alcohol and drunk—that's good old fashioned gin! Gin is an alcohol which is always flavored with juniper, which is the ingredient which gives it its distinctive flavor. It is a Witchy fact that gin-making started out as medical-magical potion process.

We hope that Witches will embrace juniper smoke as a replacement for sage smudging. It's easy, ecological and respectful to the Native nations. But if drying and burning is too much, the modern Witch can connect with the juniper spirit in an even easier way—by drinking a glass of gin. Spirit Juniper will infuse itself through your body and bless and protect you. We can all raise a glass to that.

–CHRISTINA OAKLEY HARRINGTON

Christina Oakley Harrington is the founder and proprietor of Treadwell's Bookshop in London. A practitioner of British Witchcraft, she is also author of The Treadwell's Book of Plant Magic. To read the Witches' Almanc review of this important book go to https://thewitchesalmanac.com/pages/the-treadwells-book-of-plant-magic

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