Rebecca Bayer

08/05/2025

STOP PUTTING GOD LAST THEN ASKING WHY LIFE AIN’T WORKING… HE’S NOT A BACKUP PLAN, HE’S THE FOUNDATION!

06/05/2025

The Wood Nettle. (Laportea canadensis).
Our native nettle. I love this green cooked more than most things. It grows in abundance in the shady moist coves of Lindera, the land we live on, and the surrounding area. I pinch off the tops and find that their sting is so gentle I don't need gloves.
They make a beautiful fiber from their stalks and are a traditional fiber plant of Ojibwa, Chippewa, Menominee, Meskwaki and many more First Nations communities.

They are easy to grow in moist shady woodland areas and I have had moments around Beltane each year when I find myself in some cove surrounded by thick patches of them. I find if you just punch the tops above a node you can harvest them much like the European wood nettle. They are used medicinally as a decoction of the roots historically for urinary issues, similarly to the European nettle, and also as a fever medicine from the whole plant by the Houma nation in what is now called Louisiana.

The Wood nettle is a love of mine, sauteed with wild onion and butter alongside my venison and Pheasant back mushrooms.
I hope to see all people's who desire access to this tender Spring nourishment and beloved fiber plant granted. They will remind you of their presence with their sting along riversides as if to say, tread softly!

06/05/2025

So excited to send this special price to a dear one. I just added a few new pieces to my site. Making jewelry has always been a very very small hobby but I love it!
Consecrating these pieces to my patron diety, Venus, has become a beautiful practice. Ritual wear, while not required, is a special treat.

06/05/2025

Trout lily, older Sassafras bark, Hexastylis flower and yellow root flowers. Bless this Springtide in Appalachia.

06/05/2025

Dwarf ginseng, panax trifolius, is a sweet, beautiful little native plant found here tucked in the roots of an elder Tulip poplar (liriodendron tulipifera). The small white flowers and little leaves make it hard to notice at first, and this is my first time in my 15 years in WNC seeing them flower. What an absolute gift.
Though not focused on by the commercial ginseng harvesters, it is still threatened with habitat loss and small scale over harvest.

DhBO people ( Cherokee) have an extensive history of working with the very special plant for shortness of breath, pains in the breast, hives, gout, liver issues and much, much more. It is a culturally significant plant. Please enjoy with your eyes.

Ginseng in all its forms is seen as a cure-all, and in Appalachian folk magic, it's often included in witch balls: or herbs, flour, hair, rolled up that are used to cross and uncross It illustrates the concept of "as above so below": that which heals so abundantly physically also acts powerfully metaphysically. We see this often in folk magic around the world.

This one grows where I was born in Western Pennsylvania and farther North more commonly, and I hope I get to see them again in other places. I'm grateful for any small moments of wonder as the continued barrage of horrifying news goes on and on. These little flowers are worth fighting for. You are worth fighting for

14/04/2025

04/04/2025

I'm trying to find the things that bring me small joys as I am out sick today. Out the window, all I see is flowers. Dandelions are festooning every bit of open space they can as the redbud and violets all awaken for Spring. Dandelions are native to temperate Eurasia, but are now found all over the world. Their tenacity and their ability to grow in waste spaces is legendary.

They are a bitter, tonic herb that are high in vitamin A and have a long history as a Spring topic herb in Appalachian folk medicine.
Despite being a nemesis of the American lawn, they are rich in lore. In Appalachian folklore, the dandelion is largely a divining tool.

If you blow the down of a dandelion, you can find out how many children you will have, for every seed left on the dandelion stem stands for a child.
In order to find out when your mother will need you, take a dandelion flower that has gone to seed. Blow on the seeds and the number of times you have to blow to get all the seeds off indicates the number of hours before she will need you.

Blow seeds until none remain, counting each puff as a letter of the alphabet; the letter which ends the blowing is the initial of the person the blower marries or the number of years until one is married.
I make wishes on them, and right now I have many. What do you do when you hold the dandelion?

04/04/2025

Bat Nut Charms
Handmade by Rebecca Beyer with hand spun wool, vintage beads and deep intention.
Only 3 AVAILABLE
Bat nuts, aka devil nut charms, devil pods or trapa natans, are the fruit of the water caltrop plant native to warm temperate areas of Eurasia and Africa. Their nicknames come from their resemblance to a devil or a goat.

These nuts have become an important part of French, German, African and American folk magic as talismans of protection and to ward off evil.
In China, they are used as good luck charms because bats are considered a good luck animal.

You can hang these charms above a doorway facing outwards, much in the manner of ancient Tibetan door demons, to protect your home.
They can also be place in a car for protection while traveling.
To further increase the power of these charms you can anoint them with Fiery Wall of Protection, Cast off Evil, and/or Run Devil Run Oil, or with Safe Travel and/or Fiery Wall of Protection oil if in your car.

03/04/2025

Hypericum spp. St. Johnswort in Grief

I got to work today with an amazing group of people with whom I shared a short class on the ethnobotany of grief. Many of us who study plants are familiar with the nervines, however historically plants were not only used internally for grief and melancholy. They were used as amulets to wear or hang to help one dispell or move through grief, as smoke, and in many other ways.

If we look at grief as almost a spirit, something that can be exorcised I feel like we get closer to how many cultures around the world viewed grief and the way it can appear to take one over and make one act different than when we are regulated.
Many people in the class today brought up beautiful ways to think about and look at grief, especially when comparing it with the plants that have historically come to be associated with it.

Let's look at St. John'swort as an example.
Gathered on Friday in the horn of Jupiter, this plant would be used as an amulet against melancholy throughout Western Europe. Called the Devil Chaser or in Latin, Fuga Daemonum-Devil's Flight, Scare Devil, this herb not only was used to dispell evil energies it also was used for sadness, grief and melancholy internally. One thing I've noticed while studying occult herbalism is that where plants chase away evil metaphysically they also often have strong medicinal actions, tastes or scents. It is as if their power in the other world is so potent it cannot help but reveal itself in this one. To me it is a living testament to the old alchemical adage, "as above so below."

In my opinion, grief requires a holistic approach if one wants to fully engage in working with it. I find using historical plant amulets that my ancestors may have used alongside internal plant medicines, therapy, medications, movement, and all of the other available methods of tending grief, helps me to feel connected and a part of the lineage that forged me. There is much to sink into grief about, and I hope the plants can help comfort you in their myriad ways. I know they comfort me.

03/04/2025

New Moon Lore in Appalachian Folk Magic.

The moon is the luminous watcher that features prominently in folklore around the world. The celestial spheres have frightened and fascinated humans since we first felt the urge to look upwards into the sky. Appalachia is no exception.

The folklore we have in Appalachia is a unique mix of beliefs brought over by colonists like the English, Scottish and Irish, German and others, as well as the peoples who were already here: DhBO (Cherokee peoples), Tsoyaha (Yuchi peoples), and many other Southeastern First nations, as well as diverse cultures from Africa who were enslaved and forcibly brought to Appalachia: such peoples from Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the Windward Coast.

Astrological lore in Appalachia seems to have an especially large fingerprint from what is today called Germany (that name is only as of 1871). As we approach the Pisces New Moon on the 27th of February, I am pondering the New Moon lore one can find in Appalachia, If you see the new moon over your right shoulder, you will be healthy during that month.

It is also best to stop habits on the New Moon or in the sign of Pisces: so this Pisces New Moon is especially potent for rites and rituals of habit breaking in the Appalachian folk context.
Whatever you are doing when you see the new moon, that is what you will do all the month.
The following month will be very busy if a new moon is seen with the hands empty.
This lore was gathered in North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. Have you ever been told any of these things?

03/04/2025

A walk in the woods, in my most beloved forest with my love means so much to me. When things feel so heavy they can't be lifted, and I'm filled with fear.There is the hemlock and the white pine and the turkey tail fungus. I will fight for you all. less

01/04/2025

Witch hazel is not a hazel, but they are certainly a witch. Few plants dare to bloom when the world is in transition, yet they do. Their spindly, golden petals unfurl even as the air shifts, reminding us that magic exists in the unexpected.

Spring brings its own strange magic, awakening roots, restless winds, and the return of green. Usually, this time of year feels like a renewal, a soft beginning. But renewal is not always gentle. It can be messy, uncertain, even bittersweet.

I don’t have wisdom to offer, only the love of the Old Ways and the knowledge that seasons turn whether we are ready or not. Witch hazel once led me to water, and today, it leads me to hope.

In many folk traditions, plants that bloom out of season, that move against the expected, are considered touched by something deeper. As the land stirs and the rivers run high with Spring’s thaw, I find myself whispering new beginnings to the wind, to the trees, to the water.

For those still seeking what comes next, may the land guide you. For those holding loss in one hand and hope in the other, may you find your footing.

Blessings to those who walk with the land, with the old ways, and with one another.