What’s going on out on the land?
Materia Magica for Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
What is a Materia Magica you ask? I guess it is bit of a cultural history of diverse not-so-physical uses of a plant. You’ve likely heard of a Materia Medica, you know, the notes describing the medicinal uses over time of a specific plant? This is like that, but less mundane. This one is all about Mullein.
More from Star Carr
Star Carr is a Mesolithic/middle stone age archeological site found in what is now North Yorkshire in England. The site was likely inhabited a few centuries after the end of the last major ice age of the Pleistocene, at the beginning of the warmer, post-glacial Holocene 11,500 yrs ago, around 9300-8500 BCE (about 800 years of occupation at the site), when Britain still attached to rest Europe by a landbridge (folks would have been able to walk from Star Carr to Denmark, or Northern Germany until about 6,200 BCE).
I wrote previously a short piece about the skull and antler pieces found at Star Carr and since have been so intrigued I wanted to learn more. So I am writing this post just to help organize what I know so far.
Imagining the Possibilities Headdresses of a European Shaman**
I am curious about, inspired by, these headdresses not only because they are beautiful mythic artifacts of prehistoric connection with the landbase, but also in light of the white appropriations of indigenous headdresses here in North America; Why not offer white-encultured, euro-descended folks something that may have more meaning and connection to their own lineages and ancestries? How can we come to know our own ancestral regalia?