Shamanic Training Courses
I am very excited to be co-teaching with Tish Marble on the Foundation course which enables students to proceed to the next level of the Walkers Between Worlds Shamanic Training Programme with Caitlín Matthews and other teachers.
The training is profound, meticulous and rooted in the Sister Islands of Britain enabling students to journey, heal, quest and arbitrate along the ancient paths of wisdom, gathering spirit allies. - Highly Recommended.
The course will be in the beautiful grounds of the Sustainability centre, Hampshire, in the South of England on 2-3 November 2024 and 15-16 February 2025. Take both weekends to qualify for further training.
For further details please email Tish at : ravenswoodshamanics@gmail.com
Woodland Bard Camping Retreat
17th -19th May 2024 only 4 places left
Immerse in the meditation practices, crafts and forest skills of our Woodland Bard Retreat. This May we shall make bark containers from sweet chestnut trees, explore the stories which connect us to the land and learn about the lore and uses of trees and plants. Our retreats are inclusive, friendly, gentle, profound and welcoming. Lovely fire-cooked food and good company.
Woodland Bard Live is back- Sunday 21st April @ 6pm
Paid subscribers will receive a FREE link on the morning of the event (please contact me if not received)- no need to book below.
Explore the deep lore of the hawthorn tree through the incredible stories connected to the Sidhe mounds in Ireland. Join us LIVE to experience deep meditation, inspiring prose and gentle Shamanic drumming that will take you into the heart of the Hawthorn grove.
A Focus on Nettle
Latin : Urtica diocia Family: Urticaceae
History and/or use: Making of fabrics and dyes. Edible leaves full of iron, protein and beneficial minerals
Wildlife Value: Butterfly food plant.
Nettle, despite it being a noxious weed everyone is trying to destroy, is a ‘super’ plant that can be used for food, medicine and the making of cloth and cordage.
Nettle leaves are full of minerals and contain many vitamins especially A and C. They have a 2.3% iron content and 5.5% protein content by weight. Nettle puree can be made by simmering the leaves for 5 minutes adding butter and seasoning with onion as a tasty alternative to spinach. You can simply boil and steam the nettle leaves if preferred.
Now is the perfect time to make nettle crisps and they taste delicious. To make them just simply shallow fry the freshly picked nettle tops being careful not to burn them and then dab dry with an absorbent paper.
Consider becoming a paid subscriber and enjoy our Woodland Bard Course which includes our Live monthly sessions and in-depth articles on trees, plants and Irish mythology.
Flowering plants of the woods.
The misconception of our original wild places as dense impenetrable woodlands stretching across Britain is not borne out in our knowledge of ecology. All of the evidence points to a open, diverse, light-filled oasis of trees filled with the sounds of birds, the beauty of flowers, an incredible variety of invertebrates and a wonderful range of mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
It is a fact that most woodland flowers need light to flower and to therefore reproduce and thrive. Generally flowering plants of woodlands fall into three categories that are listed below.
1/ Shade evaders- The species most associated with woodlands flowering in the spring before the leaves come out. This means they evade the shade cast upon the woodland floor later in the year when the leaves fill in the gaps. Species include bluebells, primroses, ramsons, wood anemone and lesser celandine. Although these plants have learnt to evade the shade cast by the tree leaves, a densely packed woodland would still not support them. Species within this group will vary as ramsons will tolerate more shade than the bluebell for instance.
Wood anemone and Bluebells above are shade evaders
2/ Shade avoiders -by far the largest group of species are the shade avoiders which include species such as yellow pimpernell, geums, foxgloves, spurges, bugle, self-heal, archangel and St John's wort as well as many species of rushes. These species wait for a gap in the canopy caused by a fallen tree. They are also the plants which grow on the edges of the woods or along the track or pathways. They are the first species to erupt when an area has been cleared of trees by felling or coppicing. Their seeds can lay dormant for many years waiting for the right conditions to germinate. The wood spurge seeds can lay dormant and still be viable after 150 years. As with the shade evaders their ability to cope with shade will be variable and the wood spurge grows in shadier parts of the wood than say the foxglove.
Foxglove and Bugle above are shade avoiders
3/ Shade resisters- There are a few plants which tolerate shade fairly well such as dog's mercury, herb paris, enchanter's nightshade, dewberry and wood woundwort. However, the true resisters are a specialist group of plants which tap into the mycorrhizal fungi within the trees root system. They include bird's nest orchid, toothwort, early purple orchid, fly helleborine, ghost orchid and Yellow bird's nest orchid.
Toothwort and early purple orchids are shade resisters.
Ancient woodland indicators.
Plants which are associated with ancient woodlands are called ancient woodland indicators. Some of these plants only grow in woods over 350 years old such as wild daffodil, columbine and oxslip as well as trees such as the small leaved lime and midland hawthorn.
However, some ancient woodland indicators may appear in newer woods and when doing a flora survey, it's often about how many indicators are present rather than just discovering one or two isolated species. It is also worth noting plants such as spindle only occur naturally in a hedgerow over 100 years old and pasque flowers only grow in a meadow that is over 100 years old.
Indicators will also vary from region to region or vary according to the soil. For instance, dog's mercury is an indicator in non-lime soil areas and bluebell is only an indicator in the North, the wood sorrel in the East Midlands and East Anglia.
Woodland knowledge is often about local knowledge rather than generic facts. Every woodland has its own history and specialist flora. Native trees and plants originally tended to grow in very specific geographical areas, in fact the location seems to play more of a key role than the soil type. Although we can see this with especially rare or endemic species this was once true of our main common tree species.
This is still relevant today as we locate the only true native beech in the South East of England and the only true native pines in Scotland. Specific whitebeams only grow on the Isle of Arran and the true service tree on cliffs of south Wales. Planting trees and importing species has confused the natural selection of plants and could be detrimental to our ecology as a whole. This can also be true of the flowering plants though sometimes the reason a species is only in a certain area is due to it being destroyed in other areas.
Examples of Ancient woodland indicator species:
Blue gromwell (Mendips ash woods), Cornish moneywort, lady orchids (Kent), wood calamint ( Isle of Wight), caper spurge (Bedford purlieus), downy woundwort (Oxfordshire), blue sow thistle (Scotland), Irish spurge( West Country), green hounds tongue, sword-leaved helleborine, ghost orchid, wood sedge, crested cow wheat, spiked rampion, bluebell (not in the south), herb paris, barren strawberry, primrose, figwort, wood vetch, cow wheat, bird's nest orchid, early purple orchid, wood anemone, columbine, nettle leaved bellflower, lily of the valley, small teasel, yellow archangel, wood horsetail, sweet woodruff, yellow pimpernel.
Shrub layer.
For the biodiversity of the woodland site a vibrant shrub layer is essential creating shelter and nectar for invertebrates, nesting for birds and fruit for many mammals and birds. The biodiversity of a wood is determined by conditions which allow a developed shrub and field layer which is only possible through the thinning and coppicing of established woods.
Native shrub list
( sourced via the Tree council compiled by Jon Stokes and John White)
1/ Elder- Sambucus nigra.
2/ Spindle - Euonymus europaeus
3/ Wayfaring tree - Viburnum lantana
4/ Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa
5/ Dogwood- Cornus Sanguinea
6/ Guelder rose - Viburnum opulus
7/ Purging buckthorn - Rhamnus cathartica
8/ Alder buckthorn – Frangula alnus
9/ Sea buckthorn - Hippophae rhamnoides
10/ Dwarf birch – Betula nana (speciality of the highlands).
Canopy Layer.
A mixed deciduous wood with a defined ground, field, shrub and canopy layer as already discussed is paramount for a good Biodiversity Action Plan and a healthy woodland ecology. A dense canopy will support less species and needs to be thinned. The canopy itself provides the cover for many mammals and birds to shelter and nest as discussed above.
The need for native trees to create the correct conditions is essential.
What is a native tree ?
The true native trees of Britain are those which were left on the British Isles when they were severed from the main land in 6200BC and therefore not introduced by artificial means.
Palynology or pollen analysis is the main method that enables us to study which woods were present in history. Preserved pollen can be found in peat soils, lake muds and in acid soils on drier land. Scientists can date the pollen found and therefore tell us what trees and plants existed in different periods of time.
This system can be limited as it is difficult to tell certain species apart such as different Oaks, Poplars, Maples and Willows. Pollen analysis on drier land is notoriously difficult to interpret. Preserved remains of certain invertebrates associated with specific trees can also determine which species were present at certain periods in history.
Snail shells are especially good pointers as to whether woodland has been cleared as some species tolerate more open ground than others. This is due to moisture and how much certain species need to thrive.
In early history Birch was the first tree to create woodland then it was replaced by (1) Oak and Hazel in the north and west and (2) Pine in Scotland. In the Highlands (3) Birch remained the dominant tree. (4)Hazel and Elm replaced birch in Ireland and in south west Wales, and (5) Lime replaced Birch in the south of England. This created the five main provenances mentioned above and seven local types of tree which were Lime, Hazel, Ash, Elm, Alder, Pine and Oak.
Eventually twelve main species of tree would have dominated the wooded landscape which were Ash, Maple, Hazel, Alder, Sessile Oak, Pendunculate Oak, Birch, Beech, Small Leaved Lime, Hornbeam, Wych Elm and Scots Pine. This process of evolving species colonising Britain is called natural succession ending with the most ideal species for a given area called the Climax Species.
Although above I mention 12 species that dominated our landscape, the species generally considered native amount to 35.
In addition to the total of 35 species are the rare or endemic ( found only in UK) Whitebeams to which there are 18 that we curently know of.
To add to this list is the True Service Tree as mentioned earlier which is probably native but only occurring as an isolated colony on the cliffs of South Wales. There are also another 14 species of Willow which are considered to be shrubs.
Finally there are trees which are still undecided which include the Elms which may have been introduced by the Romans and the Sycamore thought to have been introduced in the sixteenth century.
Official Native Tree List
1/ Alder- Alnus glutinosa
2/ Aspen- Populus tremula
3/ Black popular-Populus tremula
4/ Beech- Fagus sylvatica
5/ Wild cherry- Prunus avium
6/ Bird cherry- Prunus padus
7/ Ash- Fraxinus excelsior
8/ Box- Buxus sempervirens
9/ Common oak- Quercus robur
10/ Sessile oak -Q. petrea
11/ Crab apple- Malus domestica
12/ Silver birch- Betula pendula
13/ Downy birch- Betula pubescens
14/ Field maple- Acer campestre
15/ Hawthorn- Crateagus monogyna
16/ Midland hawthorn- C. laevigata
17/ Rowan- Sorbus aucuparia
18/ Whitebeam- Sorbus aria
19/ Wild Service tree - Sorbus torminalis
20/ Scots Pine- Pinus syvestris
21/ Small leaved lime- Tilia platyphyllos
22/ Large leaved lime- Tilia cordata
23/ Strawberry tree- Arbutus unedo
24/ Holly- Ilex aquifolium
25/ Hornbeam- Carpinus betulus
26/ Juniper- Juniperus communis
27/ Hazel- Corylus avellana
28/ Wych elm- Ulmus glabra
29/ Plymouth pear- Pyrus cordata
30/ Wild pear-Pyrus pyraster
31/ Yew- Taxus baccata
32/ Crack willow- Salix fragilis
33/ White willow- Salix alba
34/ Bay willow- Salix pentandra 35/ Goat willow- Salix caprea
An endemic species is a plant only native to a certain area. Outside this area they are usually a result of cultivation and are considered non-native unless they have spread naturally. Britain and Ireland have few endemic trees, most being micro-species of whitebeam which are in the Sorbus family, the exception is given below.
Plot’s Elm – English Midlands only.
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Consider becoming a paid subscriber and enjoy our Woodland Bard Course which includes our Live monthly sessions and in-depth articles on trees, plants and Irish mythology.
How wonderful you’re co-teaching Foundations with Tish!! This coursework is life-changing! ✨