Herbal Hegemone

16/11/2025

My latest paper has been published

Visit the post for more.

14/11/2025

My beautiful friend has almost shed her leaves 💛🤍🤎

11/11/2025

Next Rootstock workshop at YSJ will be on the 10th December at 2pm and will be exploring the folklore of Yarrow and Yew🌿.

08/11/2025

It’s so difficult to capture the absolute beauty of my birch tree in the autumn. The leaves are forming a carpet of pale yellow diamonds outside my house 💛

01/11/2025

Photo from last night’s (Samhain) herbal tea and folklore session at Pool Bridge Farm. This beautiful weeping willow took centre stage and we hope she enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed hers 🔥🪾

31/10/2025

My Samhain blog about the Liminal Yew 💀

https://www.herbalhegemone.co.uk/post/the-liminal-yew

26/10/2025

The dusk growing before a Herbal Tea Mindfulness Workshop. When we finished, 90 minutes later, the stars were out ✨

12/10/2025

Thank you to everyone who came to my ecospiritual session at the beautiful Howsham Mill

We met a beautiful old hawthorn tree and were blessed with some gypsywort which initial research shows was used to make dye and also protects against witches (it ended up in my hands so the latter can’t possibly be true). 🌿🍂🪾

08/10/2025

Red Ruby Lanterns or Yew berries ❤️

05/10/2025

Places still available for next Sunday

Living Landscape Mindfulness Session

Foster a deeper connection with the landscape and plants around you at this interactive ecospiritual mindfulness session

20/09/2025

The Autumn Acorn

https://www.herbalhegemone.co.uk/post/the-autumn-acorn

I was reminded recently of the utter perfection that is the oak acorn sitting in its little cup. The oak tree is particularly revered at this time of the autumn equinox, as its acorns provide wild animals with a crucial source of sustenance for the coming winter. A quick trawl through my books also revealed some interesting stories about the folklore of acorns and just a few are mentioned here below for this autumn equinox blog.

A well established magical virtue of the acorn is that of protection, unsurprisingly as it comes from the tree that is the epitome of strength, majesty and power. It is said that airmen would carry an acorn when flying and steeplejacks when ascending chimneys and towers as a good luck charm against the ravages of storms, particularly lighting strikes. Even having the image of an acorn in one’s house, was potent enough to guard against storm damage.

To carry an acorn was also believed to preserve youth and, in Devon, could be used to predict the outcome of a love affair. This could be done by placing two acorns in a bowl of water, and, if they floated and drew together, foretold a love affair that would eventually turn into a marriage. Another tale says that a husband could guard against his wife cheating whilst he was away from the home by secretly placing two acorn halves under her pillow. However, this charm could be broken if the halves were discovered and eaten by both the wife and her secret lover.

An acorn necklace worn during magical rituals was said to enable contact with higher deities and ruling gods. The deities associated with the Oak are numerous, and includes Blodeuwedd, the Welsh goddess of both the light and dark, spring flowers and hidden owls. Her energies of resilience, acceptance and carving your own path can be invoked through the wearing of such an acorn necklace as can the energies of Diana/Artemis, the Roman/Greek goddess of nature, hunters, wildlife, childbirth, crossroads, and the Moon.

I will leave you with an equinox prayer to the Lady of the Autumn (in my path, this is Demeter)

The wheel has almost turned
To Winters Stillness
Death cannot linger forever
And offers solitude and peace
Dark Lady of the Autumn
Of the fire-tipped trees
Bless this time of descent
Fill us with wisdom and learning
Prepare us for sleep

16/09/2025

Living Landscape Mindfulness Session

Foster a deeper connection with the landscape and plants around you at this interactive ecospiritual mindfulness session