What's Not in the Books

Many years ago as a baby Feri in training I was introduced to a guide, who has since become a trusty friend and ally, who first showed himself to me as a man in a pot. He gave me a name to call upon him and showed me a thing I did not understand until much later: alraun. I did some digging to try to understand the puzzle pieces he showed me, but they did not connect for a long while. It was not until I had gotten to know this guide and friend better and was initiated that the pieces connected. By that time I was already creating my own poppets and finding my own style and story. Vasalissa very much took the torch on that one, in many ways, she reminded me of my own Matron goddess: Hekate. In spite of the fact that Vasalissa had taken up the torch, my earth guide friend, whom you have heard me refer to as the Poppet Prince, still guided my hand. So today we talk a bit about alrauns.

The lore about them is pretty clear. They can be mischievous if not properly cared for. According to lore they require weekly attention such as baths, a proper place to sleep, anointings in precious oils, and just a talking to. How do you go about that??? I have found my own way in the dark, secret places of this on my own and discovered a few things on my own. My Poppet Prince has been showing me how he would prefer to be cared for and it is not exactly what lore has shown. While, yes, he enjoys a nice anointing in oils I consider precious but, when it is time to get to work, it's blood he requires. By now he has acquired a dark staining that gives him an mysterious appearance. He is clothed in my finest lace and blackest of ribbon. I tried a coffin like style of home for him but, it was not to his liking. He took up hearth and home in a cobalt blue jar with a silver lid that actually can be rung like a bell when struck. I was originally utilizing this jar as a wish jar and ritual bell but, I relented and gave it to him. He sits in a place of honor on my altar quite happy and snug and cozy there with the lid firmly atop while he's sleeping.

The talking to part is not what I expected when I first started my alraun care adventure. I expected that I would talk to him very much the same way we speak to our cats, dogs, sometimes fish ( and on occasion I do just that.) Oh no. That's not what it is for me. I learned very quickly that from the get go he speaks to me in dreams and in meditations when I go in to faery, we have a back and forth dialogue that includes words, images and sometimes sounds and smells. I guess I could have gotten the hint when I was first embarking on his creation but, I completely missed the point on that one and misinterpreted the dream. I think at that point the Poppet Prince was trying to warn me about my now ex husband and his extremely jealous behavior patterns instead of an intruding spirit. Oh well live and learn. The other puzzle piece that I have recently put into place actually came out of the mouth of my Faery Aunt while I was grieving the loss of my witch garden. She said that the spirit of the plant will come back to you when you re-establish new plants; the spirits don't just die and go away, they wait for a new host. It brings me comfort to know that now. Should, Gaia forbid, anything happen to the vessel I have cared for my Poppet Prince in, I can lovingly create him a new host body and call him forth again.

Alrauns have been talked about in lore as being created from the most coveted of witchdoms plants, most often as a mandrake root. Truth be known, I think an alraun is made from a root. Period. A root that you lovingly pull from the earth, replant in your personal plot and care for as a plant for a bit before you begin the formative shape. Yes the leaves will at first wither and curl. Yes it will come back if you have carefully handled the roots. In my experience, I actually had vibrant sow weed flowers bloom during this process as I was making offerings and connection to the plant. Yes, I put a sow weed sweetly in its own pot, brought it home and called it friend. I am a city witch and there things in the city that only urban plants know, like how to grow in the cracks of the sidewalk and push through asphalt to defy the shape and form society wishes to create of you.

If you are going to chose to work with alrauns, my suggestion is get to know the earth spirit called into it first. It is this spirit you will be working with. I also suggest only one alraun at a time until you come to a good understanding of how to connect and work with one. Since we know that books may be great sources of information and knowledge but, they are no substitute for hands on dirt under the fingernails practice. Just focus intently on your alraun, listen to all your hidden senses and instincts while following the pattern put forth by our ancestors. Understand that it is not exact and varies slightly from witch to witch ( and that's okay.) Most of all, enjoy the process. If there is no love and joy in what you are doing, you are doing it wrong. Do not be afraid to deviate from lore a bit because it is not in the books. There are lots of things that are not in the books and you may miss out on beautiful secrets. What's not in the books is within your own heart.

Dana Scully Hair

http://jojokersina.deviantart.com/art/Dana-Scully-5-Blended-11202217

I woke this morning to a strangeness. An internal voice I recognize as spirit reminded me that right before I got married to my ex. I had cut my hair. Short. I suddenly went from having hair that fell the length of my back to looking like Dana Scully. Upon hearing that message, I was reminded of a study that was done during the Vietnam conflict. The special forces during this time recruited talented scouts with abilities to track at the level of supernatural, recruited some of them, and cut their hair. Failure after failure occurred after the scout's hair was cut and the special forces want to know why. When asked, the recruits sited that they could not sense the enemy any longer. Test were done with a new set of recruits who were allowed to keep their hair and successes in the field remained the same with these men as they were pre-recruitment. There is much ado about this study and many who just want to blow it off as a woo story. Here's mine:

When I met my ex, he had long beautiful hair that would make any woman green with envy. I was fine with it, I had my own long hair. I worked a couple of jobs at the time to make ends meet; I was a single mother. One of those jobs was reading cards in a metaphysical shop. I found my ex at the time to be funny and sensitive and even a bit shy. I could sense there was something underneath the shyness, but didn't poke too hard. I thought it rude to invade someone's mind space and decided that if he wanted it revealed he would reveal it. Eventually he did and I was shocked at the story that unfolded and I decided that, in spite of my misgivings, it was too preposterous to be a lie and ignored the alarm going off in my head as me being paranoid after my experience with the relationship before.

Eventually, he asked me to marry him and I obviously said yes. One morning before we were to be married, I woke up with my long braided hair wrapped around my throat and the end tucked under my husband-to-be's shoulder falling off the bed. I just about strangled myself with my own hair and decided: that's it, it gets whacked! I came home looking like Dana Scully. My husband-to-be was shocked, he thought I was only going to take off a little bit. I didn't notice at first that my intuition had slipped away from me a little. I had been so busy at the time with pre-wedding last minute things that I didn't have time to read the cards as I usually did and by the time I got back into the reading habit, any association with the hair whacking and intuitiveness had been lost. I noticed that there things in the cards I couldn't see any more. I thought maybe it was due to the new mother zombie mode and let it go.

As my hair began to grow out over the months and years that followed the things that I previously missed in the cards came back. I attributed that phenomenon with my meditation rituals and the return to practice with my cards re-establishing my energetic exercises to work with my native intuition. All the time my hair had been growing back silently, my intuition came back with it. Still, no correlation between the two sprang to mind. As the years passed, I began to sense there was something deeply wrong with our relationship, but I could not put my finger on it. Much later I visited friends who warned me I had hidden enemies. Indeed I did and they had years of head start on my and it explained the feeling of fear and dread I had been fighting off for years thinking it was paranoia. ( my ex did a great job of keeping me spun around so I wouldn't realize it was him and his crew)

While I had decided after my hair whacking the first time, I was not EVER going to do it again, my husband at the time cut and grew his hair back several times and the thing that I noticed each time is that when the hair was cut short, he was cold and distant and his temper more volatile. He and my eldest son ( his stepson) would argue more frequently and more heatedly. He grew insensitive and selfish even. That corresponds with these statements made in the study I read years later:

"Cutting of hair is a contributing factor to unawareness of environmental distress in local ecosystems. It is also a contributing factor to insensitivity in relationships of all kinds. It contributes to sexual frustration. " 

I have always been an experience is king kind of girl so when I re-read the study this morning and thought about all the times my husband had long hair, then short hair. It made more sense to me. I do not propose that all of my husband's unacceptable behavior is attributed to his hair length, not at all, but it may have been one of those things that elevated the levels of cruelty when he started keeping his hair short. I know my short hair diminished my intuitive levels. I had to work harder to keep the feelers out, but I have to admit that it made me sharper having short hair because I did have to work harder. I just never made the connection that I may have severed away my psychic radar system. Guess I'm not doing that again. I think, maybe there is definitely something to this study on hair length and it being an important part of our intuitive awareness radar. There are other spiritual communities that

http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/the-relation-between-long-hair.html

have similar beliefs about long hair. I have experiences that agree with both study and spiritual communities and I have more trust in my experiences these days over what any study or debunker has to say.

I wish I could remember what the title of the book I found the study in originally. It was a book about secret government studies done. Later I re-read the study on line and remembered reading it in that book. I would prefer to be able to site the information accurately to you from a good source but all I can find right now are varying blogs and what not. (ugh) If I run across the book in the library, I'll be sure to come back here and cite it here in an annotated footnote sort of thing. 

Working with Alrauns

Alraun:

Images shaped from the roots of mandrake (see Mandragoras) or from ash or briony. The term was popular in Germany, where it was also used to indicate a witch or a magician. An alraun had to be treated with great care because of its magical properties. It was wrapped or dressed in a white robe with a golden girdle, bathed every Friday, and kept in a box, otherwise it was believed to shriek for attention. Alrauns were used in magic rituals and were also believed to bring good luck. But possession of them carried the risk of witchcraft prosecution, and in 1630 three women were executed in Hamburg on this charge.

The alraun was difficult to get rid of because there was a superstition that it could only be sold at a higher price than bought, and there are legends that owners who tried to throw an alraun away found it returned to their room.

According to German folklore, an alraun assisted easy childbirth, and water in which it had been infused prevented swellings in animals. Because of the large demand for alrauns, they were often carved from the roots of briony when genuine mandrakes were difficult to find. They were exported from Germany to various countries and sold in England during the reign of Henry VIII.

Sources:

Thompson, C. J. S. The Mystic Mandrake. London: Rider, 1934.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/alraun#ixzz1JKS6y1n9

This posting was brought about for two reasons. One: there has been discussion about Alrauns and their making. Second a word to the wise about making/hosting them. ( I say hosting because I don't think anyone really owns them. . . they're sort of like cats that way.)

Years ago while I was still in training and meeting and greeting my guides while working in my earth segment, I met the spirit of whom is to now inhabit my alraun. I have been working with him and getting to know and trust him for about three years now. He has a very specific image when he shows up and over the years I have created a great working relationship with this spirit.

I first met him on a trance journey to meet my earth guide. I saw him as a man in a pot, later it came to my understanding that he was a root! I was being asked to make an alraun of him and at first my answer to him was: wait. . . and for good reason. You want to make sure that you and the spirit that you are working with are compatible before you bring it in as a manifest, sentient magical being in your life. Waiting was the only thing that made sense to me as we got to know each other. While waiting I did as much homework as possible on how to work with them, how to create one, what it should be created out of and what other odd phenomenon I can expect to occur in my already strange life as a result of this magic.

I am just now, over three years later, getting around to making a host root for the spirit I know. I have thought about traditional mandrake, I have thought about using pomegranate, I even thought about violets. In the end I chose dandelion. I love the resilient spirit of that weed! You can spray it, cut it, stomp it and sometimes even try to pull it up from its roots. . . but it you don't get them all it grows back. I liked the idea that we witches are sort of like that weed. The craft has survived much maligning and abuse. . . even a few attempts at extermination, yet here we are! The other reason I chose dandelion is because of it healing properties. It is one of those unwanted weeds that is considered a pest by most. . . until you really take a look at what it is and what it does.

Dandelion Taraxacum officinale Other Names  Common Dandelion, Lion's Tooth, Priest's Crown, Pu Gong Ying, Swine's Snout, Dent de Lion Herb Pictures by Karen Bergeron Copyright 2001 - 2009. Permission required to use any herb pictures from this site.

Dandelion Herbal use and Medicinal Properties The whole plant is used as a medicinal herb internally and externally. External Uses The fresh juice of Dandelion is applied externally to fight bacteria and help heal wounds. The plant has an antibacterial action, inhibiting the growth of Staphococcus aureus, pneumococci, meningococci, Bacillus dysenteriae, B. typhi, C. diphtheriae, proteus. The latex contained in the plant sap can be used to remove corns and warts. Internal Uses Dandelion is also used for the treatment of the gall bladder, kidney and urinary disorders, gallstones, jaundice, cirrhosis, hypoglycemia, dyspepsia with constipation, edema associated with high blood pressure and heart weakness, chronic joint and skin complaints, gout, eczema and acne. As a tonic, Dandelion strengthens the kidneys. An infusion of the root encourages the steady elimination of toxins from the body. Dandelion is a powerful diuretic but does not deplete the body of potassium. Research is revealing that the many constituents of Dandelion including Taraxacin, Taraxacoside, Inulin, Phenolic acids, Sesquiterpene lactones, Triterpenes, Coumarins, Catortenoids and Minerals, mainly Potassium and calcium, are very valuable in curing a number of disorders and illnesses. Dandelion is traditionally used as a tonic and blood purifier, for constipation, inflammatory skin conditions, joint pain, eczema and liver dysfunction, including liver conditions such as hepatitis and jaundice. Other Uses When placed in a paper bag with unripe fruit, the flowers and leaves of Dandelion release ethylene gas ripening the fruit quickly. A liquid plant food is made from the root and leaves. A dark red dye is obtained from Dandelion root. A cosmetic skin lotion made from the appendages at the base of the leaf blades distilled in water, is used to clear the skin and is effective in fading freckles.

http://www.altnature.com/gallery/Dandelion.htm

Darned cool!

When harvesting your root you should always listen very closely. In my case, I went to the park and you have to be very discriminating because ALL of those dandelions are sick of being mowed over! ( I live in the city, therefore I feel, my alraun should also so be of the city) Here is where I get to the warning. I hardly ever give out warnings, so listen  close.

During the harvesting of the first dandelion I chose, I accidentally broke the feet off the root in the digging process. Not wanting to waste it, I brought it home too. The second root I brought up was perfect in all ways. . . no breaking, the shape was there etc. . . I figured I would let my spirit guide choose which one he wanted to inhabit. Choices are nice. I planted them in a nice little pot on my patio, fed and watered them and spoke his name.

In my dreams last night, I dreamed that there was another spirit that wanted to take claim of one of the dandelions. He basically hijacked me and held me hostage in my dreams. I required the aid of my guide and got it. At one point in time, I saw a similar shape within this spirit that had hijacked me as the dandelion root whose feet I had accidentally broken off. Needless to say, that dandelion root will not be made into an alraun! I went out this morning and pulled it up and tossed it out. I will not be working with any spirit that attempts to hold power over me! I won't even be using it as an herb! The other dandelion however, is flowering prettily and my guide has begun to seat himself there. I have placed blue marbles in the pot with him as a ward from any other spirits that may feel the need to interject themselves.

My feelings on this other spirit, are not that he was being mean or malicious. I think he was desperate to get out of the grass. I think that one more mowing was just not something he wanted to endure and when he saw me come around with my witchy stick and sigil powder he get over zealous. Fortunately for me, I already had a spirit guide whom I was working with on this project for years to help me out with this process. The fae sort of have this code of conduct that is not like ours. They don't think like us and there for things that we find unreasonable are a mystery to them and vice versa. This is why it is important to have formed a good, solid relationship with the spirit before you make an alraun. You have to have an understanding of each other. . . ground rules if you will.

When working in this realm, even the most experienced of us run into glitches and unexpected issues. Making and working with alrauns is not something for the beginner and inexperience practitioner. Please do your homework and build up your strength before even trying. Most importantly, know and work with the spirit who intends to become one for a good long time. Create a good and caring working relationship with them before hand. Alrauns require special attention and care. If you do not have the time or patience to take care of them, then don't even start the process.

Nobody said the craft was safe and if they did. . . they are big fat liars!