#amulet bag

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Our Lady of the Ozarks and a little bag dedicated the Oak, Perun, and St. Elijah.

[rabbithub]

Finally finished my glow in the dark amulet bag is finished.

Here's also a video to show off the glow!

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Witches’ Nights’ Amulet Bag Complete!

I started work on this bag on during the Witches’ Nights (Czech and Slovak) in December—nights of deep midwinter magic stretching from St. Catherine’s Night through St. Lucy’s Night.

This bag honors revelations I had during the Witches’ Nights about my work with Armadillo, Deer Mother/Rozhanitsa, Vulture, Wren, the Cat Coterie, the Good God Bird/Pileated Woodpecker and the Cherry Tree. The bag is filled with relics given to me by them and/or honoring them. I was happy to have finished the majority of the work during the Witches’ Nights and Koleda.

The central medallion represents Morana/Smrtka and Saints Catherine, Barbara and Lucy.

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Summer Amulet Bags

It was my intention to fill these bags and seal them on the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, invoking St. Peter in locking in the solar energy and joy. But, I forgot that the midsummer night herbs would need a couple of weeks to dry first.

So I ended up doing the ritual last night, still invoking Saint Peter.

The embroidered design of the first bag is a nod to the acorn I asked from the Council Oak, in Dardanelle, Arkansas. While there are a lot of conflicting reports about whether the Cherokee signed over land there 🙁 on The Trail of Tears, it is supposed to be the biggest white oak in Arkansas and is thought to be between 400 and 500 years old.

In addition to the acorn I filled the bag with a pinch of each of my now dry Midsummer foraged herbs: heartleaf wood nettle, horsemint (beebalm), mountain mint (clustered), red clover, elderflower, narrowleaf plantain, yarrow, passionflower, and St. John’s wort. The bag is dedicated to Oak, Perun, and St. Elijah. I plan on returning to the Council Oak on St. Elijah’s feast day later this month to charge the bag completely.

The second bag celebrates the joyful month of May and the height of summer in June. It is two-sided, with Our Lady of the Ozarks depicted on one side and a mashup of bloodroot and the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the other.

We made two casual pilgrimages to nearby Marian sites in May, the traditional month for such events, and at both Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Altus and Our Lady of the Ozarks shrine near Winslow, I collected plants in wild places bordering the grounds. In Altus I gathered common mullein and thistle, and in the Ozarks, moth mullein, plantain, and wood sorrel. Some varieties of thistle are associated with Mother Mary, as is mullein (common names include Our Lady's Candle or Our Lady's Flannel), plantain serves as a symbol for the humble faithful who walk the often-difficult, well-trodden path toward salvation, and the wood sorrel I gathered for its trifoliate leaves.

If I’m to be completely honest, I actually asked wood sorrel for her leaves in a flowerbed on the shrine grounds, but she was obviously growing wild and not intentionally planted. According to widespread Christian and Irish folklore, Saint Patrick used the trifoliate leaf of the wood sorrel (the original "shamrock") to explain the concept of the Trinity—three distinct persons in one God. The single stem binds the three distinct heart-shaped leaves together. The leaflets of this yellow wood sorrel are distinctly heart-shaped. The unfolding and folding of these leaves (which open in the morning and close in the evening) serve as a daily reminder of the unfolding of God’s love and the Passion of Christ.

I did not include the dried thistle in the bag, though it was included in the ritual—thistle is traditionally a protective plant in Slavic folklore and I’m using it to guard my yarrow stalks that I use syncretically with the I Ching to speak to the ancestors.

The bloodroot was gathered in the Ozark-St. Francis forest on Walpurgisnacht. I only gathered the one root when I gathered a couple of leaves for my Walpurgisnacht protective bundle. Though the bloodroot is abundant where I gathered her, in other regions she is a vulnerable and even endangered species. Though it is not illegal to gather in Arkansas, in some states it is. I made her an offering, vowed to never ask for any other physical piece of her, and promised to honor her with a stitched bag.

As she was nearly dried near June (the month of the sacred heart), I incorporated the sacred heart iconography into the pattern—the flames erupting from the heart could just as easily be rays of the midsummer sun, so I honored the sun maiden as well with the bag and included a sprig of St. John’s wort gathered on his night.

Both bags are intended to harness the energy, joy, and abundance in summer and will be used to honor the beings they are dedicated to and assist in rituals in the dark half of the year when that extra energy is needed.

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Elderflower Amulet Bag

Last night I finished the elderflower amulet bag that will hold the elderflower that I gathered out on the Illinois Bayou on Whit Monday this year.

I discussed the symbolism of my color choices in this post and my pattern selection in this post.

It seemed appropriate that elder mother should be symbolized by the mother’s star, one of my favorite motifs:

The pattern is from an antique Moravian pattern book.

Vzorky Vyšívání Lidu Slovanského Na Moravě. 1-3 Band : sojková, berta / sojka, bertha : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Arch

Vzorky vyšívání lidu slovanského na Moravě (Stickerei-Muster des slavischen Volkes in Mähren). 1.-3. Band. = Vzorky vyšívání lidu slovanskéh

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Continued work on the bloodroot and sacred heart mashup

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Mezi Matičkama Amulet Bag

In a conversation with @henbane-and-honeysuckle I was inspired by her to do an amulet bag to contain herbs, berries and nuts gathered during the time period from the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her nativity, or Mezi Matičkama (Czech). During this time period I honor Mother Mary as Our Lady of the Root, a cousin to the Polish Our Lady of Herbs—a practice that is common to both the Slavic and Germanic peoples of Central Europe. For me there is a syncretism between Mary and Morana (who I work with as a deity of all seasons, not just winter).

For the front of the bag I combined two patterns that I found on Pinterest to form a Marian cross, but in colors inspired by this Polish postcard celebrating Our Lady of Herbs.

The Marian cross is a symbol combining a cross with the letter "M," which stands for Mary. It symbolizes Mary's presence at the foot of the cross during Jesus' crucifixion and her vital role in salvation. The symbol is rooted in the Gospel of John (19:25-27), which describes Mary standing at the foot of the cross.

For the back of the bag I adapted a symbol from Between Magic, Faith, and Superstition: Magic in the Texts of the Moravian Countryside of the 18th and 19th Centuries (edited by Martin Drozda). I was excited to use a symbol that had been used in one of my ancestral homelands, from the time period when my ancestors still resided there.

The symbol in the book incorporates the letters AGLA, a Kabbalistic name of God composed of initials from a Hebrew phrase meaning 'You are mighty forever, Lord.’

I changed the lettering to:

ΜΡ: from Μήτηρ (Meter), the Greek word for "mother".

ΘΥ: (THY) comes from Θεοῦ (Theou), the genitive case of "God".

The arrow is to be pointed at what one wishes to be protected from, for instance a storm, and Mary, Mother of God invoked.

I attached both embroideries to a backing which I had dyed using a Japanese technique called tataki-zomé which presses flowers directly into the fabric rather than using a dye bath. However, I used a method from eco printing first and steamed the flowers and fabric first, softening both. The dye produced purple with flecks of yellow, rather than the usual blue that I had intended (to represent Mary), but the color goes well with the colors in the Marian cross.

The plant adds some positive symbolism to the bag. The asiatic dayflower blooms for only a single day before fading. This ephemeral quality can serve as a potent reminder of the brevity of human life and the call to live each day in faith.

Like many wildflowers, the asiatic dayflower is often found in humble, overlooked places, such as roadsides or ditches. For this piece the dayflower will represent Mary’s humility.

The bag is filled with bits of 9 dried plants that I worked with during this time period. While I didn’t find a significance in the number during Mezi Matičkama in my research, it is important in Czech folk tradition when gathering Kupala plants, braiding Christmas bread, and serving courses at Christmas Eve dinner. Also, my partner-in-crime @henbane-and-honeysuckle who was celebrating the Germanic version of this time period, Frauendreissiger (Womens’ Thirties) had told me of the importance of the number nine in her practice. So solidarity!

The plant bits in the bag include: sheep sorrel, wood sorrel, sumac, American beautyberry, muscadine, shiso, sassafras, purple coneflower and a butternut.

At some point I may do a post about the folkloric and magical symbolism of these plants, but for now, I feel this post is long enough!

I did a little ritual asking Our Lady of the Root and Děduška (our house guardian) for their blessings and protection.

Thank you @henbane-and-honeysuckle for inspiring and encouraging me during my first Mezi Matičkama! Check out her posts here and here, and maybe she will share her lovely amulet bag as well, which I have been privileged to see.

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Streak joined the menagerie

and the cherry tree . . .