#devils walking stick

[dvoeverie-stitches]

My threshold bundle grows with every holy day!

[b3grim3d]

screaming stick

[txwitchery]

Devil’s Walking Stick / Ocotillo

Fouquieria splendens

Not a cactus, but rather a collection of thickly spiked woody stems, the devil’s walking stick is nevertheless a symbol of the West Texas desert lands. It is often made into secure living fences when the drought-bleached stalks are place in a line in the ground. In wetter conditions, the plant is covered with small tough leaves and blooms with brilliant red flowers at the ends of each stem.

The Hualapai used the roots to brew a soothing bath for swollen feet and used the branches to construct huts. The Cahuilla soaked the fresh flowers in water to make a ‘summer drink’, ground the parched seeds into a flour used to make porridge or cakes, ate the fresh blossoms, and burned the stalks as firewood. The Mahuna used the plant as a blood purifier. The Papago squeezed the rich nectar from the flowers and hardened it to yield a candy, and used the sharp thorns to pierce the ears. Yavapai children also sucked the nectar from the blossoms like honeysuckle. 

The flowering stems may be boiled to make a tea for sore throat, bladder infections, and disease of the prostate. A tea made from the fresh bark may loosen up pulmonary congestion. Crushed flowers and roots may be added to a hot bath to soothe aching muscles and fatigue. Tinctures or poultices of the flowers and roots may also be used on bleeding wounds. Tinctures of the fresh bark may be taken with warm water (ten to thirty drops per dose) to relieve lymphatic congestion and get over minor illness. 

The bark is the most potent part of this plant, and is easily harvested. The stems are cut into manageable sections and pounded gently with a hammer to loosen the bark, which may then be peeled away. The inner bark is peeled away with a sharp knife and all the bark may be chopped roughly and placed in a jar, with concentrated ethyl alcohol (I like using Everclear but its sale is restricted in some states!) poured over. Seal the jar and macerate two to three weeks, shaking daily. 

Devil’s walking stick may have strong magical indications-- it physically gets the fluids of the body moving efficiently, and does the same with the energies of the body. It can open up your mind and get your creativity flowing, and its beautiful red flowers may help lift a depression, soothe grief, and kill writer’s block. It brings focus, direction, and purpose to the lost and searching.

I see this plant as sacred to the Muses and Aesculapius alike, associated with the Sun, the astrological sign Libra, and the element of Earth, as it grounds and stabilizes. 

[dvoeverie-stitches]

My wild and crazy Walpurgisnacht!

[dvoeverie-stitches]

St. Phillip’s Night/Pálení Čarodějnic/Walpurgisnacht Protective Plants

I’ll do a proper write-up tomorrow, but dumping some photos now. We decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to Haw Creek Falls in the Ozarks where I had run into another forager earlier this month gathering nettle. This time I was properly outfitted with gloves!

In addition to the stinging nettle I gathered devil’s walking stick, so I had two prickly plants (traditional in Czech Republic folklore on St. Phillip’s Night) as well as a few others.

We are home now and I have my plants arranged. Other than dinner we have nothing major planned. I did get the stuff to make s’mores over my candle fire!🔥

[txwitchery]

Letting Go Spell

Take thirty drops of devil’s walking stick bark tincture in a lukewarm glass of water. Over it, say this blessing:

adiuva me, o ocotillo, permittere dolorem dubitationemque, adiuva me abiactare peccata mea; da me fluentum sanguinis de corde et retro, sicut destinatum est. aedifica saepes circum corde meo, adiuva me vivere in quiete.

(Help me, O Ocotillo, to cast away my pain and doubts, help me to throw off my sins; give me the flow of blood from my heart and back again, as it is intended. Build fences around my heart, help me to live in peace.)

Drink down the tincture and feel it loosening up all the blockages in your body. Breathe deeply into your abdomen, in and out without breaks in between each breath. If you like, carrying an amulet of the dried wood of devil’s walking stick (with the spines cut off! they are sharp!) may help as a reminder not to let anything stand in your way. This spell may be repeated, with or without the prayer, whenever you feel a blockage growing within you. 

You may also wish to place the living plant around the four corners of your home, or if that is not possible, hang a bag or set a jar of the cut-off thorns to keep positive energy flowing within your space.

[timewasjustadream]

Is it weird that my favorite plant at my parents house is a volunteer Devil's Walking Stick that sprouted about ten years ago? Dad for scale.

[zoology-time]

Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa