Freewill Friday. The day we name a choice out loud and let it count. Mine this week was small and deliberate: I harvested my mullein- the tall stalk the old books call Hag's Candle, Hag's Taper, Witch's Torch, dried and dipped in tallow and burned as Hekate's own torch since Roman times. I cut it in the dark of the waning moon, four days out from Deipnon, on purpose. And I made a second choice right beside it — the Phase III video, The Underworld Floor, is postponed a week. Not lost. I chose sleep instead of editing. Sometimes the conscious act is slowing down before you go deeper. Chthonia keeps. So do I. Next week. That's the whole practice of this day: the descent doesn't only happen to you. You choose how you enter it. You choose what you gather to burn for light later. More on the mullien candles next Thicket Thursday. 🔦 Torchlight For Today: "If one beareth with him one twig of this wort, he will not be terrified with any awe, nor will a wild beast hurt him, or any evil coming near." — Anglo-Saxon Herbal of Apuleius, on mullein (trans. Cockayne) 👇 Your turn. Name one conscious choice you're making as we cross into the dark moon, big or small, a thing you're gathering or a thing you're setting down. Tag it #Freewill. Most likes and comments by Sunday wins a free Triple Crossroads Spread with me. 🖤 En Erebos, Phos. In darkness, light. Blessings, Tirza 🌿🗝️🌙 📚 Further reading: Blood and Spicebush, "The Hag's Taper: Mullein" — https://www.bloodandspicebush.com/blog/the-hags-taper-mullein | T.O. Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England (the Apuleius Herbal source #Freewill #HekateanHealing #MulleinMagic

This is my list of ideal careers, tell me yours: Drug dealer (A student once told me they deal in lexical halucinogenics, better known as books and stories. I like that a lot.) Hitman for the Yakuza (despite being a non-violent six foot tall fat man with long blonde hair). Ok, so possibly a Viking instead. Digital Nomad. Some sort of writerly hermit hobo bum who travels the world. Not a travel writer, a writer who travels. Even if I have to sleep in a ditch sometimes. AI Whisperer. AI is a nightmare but it is here and it is interesting. We're all out of work but nobody truly realises it yet. I genuinely don't care. Don't believe me? See the above list. But I'm still going to fart around with AI and try to make it do fun things like art.

Hi! I’m wondering where the idea of Hekate’s torches representing mercy and severity came from? I can’t quite find a good reference for it online.

Eruca sativa. Rocket. Arugula. This is hands-down my favorite salad, and it's got a filthier reputation than anything else in my garden! The scandal: The Romans were convinced arugula was an aphrodisiac. Virgil wrote the line that follows it through history: "et Venerem revocans eruca morantem," "and the rocket, which revives drowsy Venus" (that is, reawakens flagging desire). Pliny the Elder echoed it in his Natural History, noting arugula as both a stimulant and a mild anesthetic. And here's the part I love: because of that reputation, growing rocket was reportedly forbidden in medieval monasteries. The monks couldn't have it in the garden. It was too much fire for a house of restraint. 😆 So when you toss it raw with lemon and olive oil, you're not making a side dish. You're making a small fire spell. 💃 The medicine: Arugula earns its place beyond the mythology. It's genuinely good for you — packed with vitamin K, folate, vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, and iron, all in a handful of leaves. That peppery bite comes from the same natural compounds that make its cabbage-and-mustard cousins so healthy. It's also gentler on the body than spinach because it’s lower in the acids that can block your body from absorbing minerals. It's an easy green to eat a lot of. And its old reputation isn't pure folklore: a 2013 study found arugula extract raised testosterone and boosted fertility in mice. Early, small, animal-only research — but a real wink from science at what the Romans swore by. (As always: this is food and folklore, not medical advice.) The magic: Correspondences line up exactly with the myth. Arugula is a plant of Venus and fire: passion, courage, vitality, the spark that gets you moving. Where garlic protects and chamomile soothes, rocket ignites. It's the herb for when you need to stop hesitating and act. To reawaken desire, yes, but also drive, nerve, appetite for life. Eat it when you need your fire back. Add it to a working for courage or passion. Grow it where you want liveliness in the garden and the plate.

So question for the group. I bought the book Hekate by Nikita Gill. It’s a novelization and retelling of Hekate’s story. I was thinking of reading it aloud to Hekate in the evenings to see what She thinks of it and maybe to bond more with Her. But maybe that’s a dumb idea? Idk. It just occurred to me that maybe She’d like to know what’s being written about Her.