'A' in Granny Bonnets' Alphabet of Witches

Aurelia Ainsworthy

Have you been lucky enough to see Auriel? She is very shy and gentle: a protective witch. She roams in the quiet of forest and field with her rare and enchanting Golden Oriels.

Both she and her exotic feathered friends favour secluded Poplar groves where hidden together in the dapple of leaves, they can make uplifting magic undisturbed.

Auriel Ainsworthy

Rarely you may glimpse Aurelia walking waist-deep in meadow buttercups and sometimes she hovers wherever children hold the shining golden cups beneath each others' chins.

'Do you like butter?' they will ask.

If there is a golden reflection, the answer of course, is 'yes!'

*Buttercup appears to have some medical uses but results are uncertain and we are advised not to treat our ailments with them in case of blistering of the skin.

**According to the Druids. Poplars symbolized old age because some varieties have white hairs on or beneath the leaves which appear silver in the light. Though these trees stand at the edge of the afterlife, they are also associated with hope and the promise of revival.

Aurelia is the first witch available in Granny Bonnet's Alphabet of Witches Poster series. You can get one here!

Halloween or All Hallows Eve...

Granny Bonnet and the witch head she made for Halloween.

So, the shops are full of cheap Halloween goodies and the children are planning their outfits for Trick or Treat, that recent import from America. It is all a very long way from where the tradition began, being more concerned with witches and pumpkins than actual history; seen as a bit of innocent fun to lighten those creeping dark days of winter. Afterwards, we can step inside our cosy homes with electric lights, heating, well-stocked larders and other entertainments, and forget the original meaning of the festival that is almost as old as time.

Imagine then that you are a lowly Celtic peasant who by the end of Summer has cropped anything that can be harvested from mean little fields and hedgerows. There is no surplus to feed any large animals throughout the bleak coming months, so you hoard anything sustaining, slaughter surplus beasts and preserve of both what you can. A 'bonefire' is lit on the last day of October to mark this important transition from Summer to Winter. There is feasting and drinking but also an acute awareness that this is the closing of the productive year, marking a time between plenty and famine, and when the veil between life and death is at its thinnest.

Whilst our forebears were happy to celebrate their dead, they also imagined that evil roamed the land in the form of wicked witches, fairies, elves, goblins and the unsettled recently deceased, so lanterns were carved from turnips or pumpkins to scare them off. So terrified were they of recognition by those spirits that they smeared their faces with ash and otherwise disguised themselves. So, masked or 'guised', they were free to join the celebrations, revealing themselves only to any friendly ghost they recognised.

Samhain, (Summer's End) was the name of the Celtic festival our ancestors celebrated, while the new Christian religion that largely supplanted it renamed it All Hallows Eve, the night before All Hallows Day, (also called All Saints Day) on November 1st, which venerated all men and women canonised by the Catholic Church.

The following day, November 2nd in Christianity is All Souls Day and is an extension of the observance of All Saints' Day, remembering departed men and women of faith who were suffering in purgatory until cleansed of their sins before entering heaven.

So many cultures across the world share these sentiments and celebrate in different ways. It seems to me that honouring those who went before is no bad thing if undertaken in a spirit of love, gratitude and understanding.

Happy Halloween from Granny and Hubby entering into the spirit of things!

Granny is rather fond of witches and has designed her own set of posters for you to collect.

There is an alphabetical selection and one or two more available at https://www.kittywitchcurios.co.uk

The Wise Old Crone by Granny Bonnet

Aquiligias

So, it's that special time of year again when Granny's Bonnet flowers all across the northern hemisphere but particularly, as far as I'm concerned, in my own back garden.

You may recall from my introductory pages, I chose to call myself Granny Bonnet and to wear an aquilegia flower for my year-round headgear for a bit of fun and laughter and to signify 'using my noddle' as my old Dad would say!

The genus ranunculaceae aquiligias are related to buttercups. Also called columbine, there are at least sixty species and probably hundreds of variations in size, shape and colour. In my garden they tend to be quite subtle shades of pale pink, purple-blue and wine and of two distinct 'bonnet' types, one flamboyant and the other close-petalled and modest rather like an old-fashioned poke bonnet without the fancy trimmings!

The root of the name columbine, columba is Latin, meaning dove, and some believe that the flower symbolises five doves in a circle. But the true Latin name is Aquilegia which means eagle, so named because the pointed spurs of the flower resemble the talons of an eagle.

The ancient Greeks and Romans attributed this plant to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. For prim Victorians it meant 'resolved to win.' Celts though believed the flower to be a portal into the world of dreams and visions, 'headology' of a very different kind and maybe connected to its use as a medicinal herb?

Whatever its past associations, Granny loves to see the bonnets self-seed and popping up all over the place for a couple of months in early Spring, when their nectar-rich petals make for a very happy Granny and lot of happy bees!

So there you are. I shall continue to wear Aphrodite's flower on my head and hope 75 years of various experiences have endowed me with its associated biblical wisdoms of intellect, namely reverence, strength, advice, knowledge and fear. I prefer though to lump them under my own heading (pardon the pun). 'Headology' for me has a much more subtle emotional and creative feel - maybe those canny Celts were closer to the mark eh?

P.S. I have to confess, to some the flower resembles a fool's cap, so am I mad to wear one...?