~ THE TURNING OF THE WHEEL ~

Autumn Equinox 2009

Issue #5 is Here!

By the Hum of Ullr’s Bow: Winter Songs Compilation CD is
included with the magazine and is also available for purchase separately.

Bands on the compilation CD include:

• A Minority of One • Allerseelen • Andrew King • At the Head of the Woods • Beastianity
• Hamramr • Irij • Ironwood • Ruhr Hunter • Sangre Cavallum • Sieben • Steve von Till • Svarrogh
• Waldteufel • Wardruna

(You can read more about the artists here).

Hex needs your help! This is a community-supported not-for-profit publication. You can support us by clicking the image above and ordering magazines and prints, and by spreading the word to all like-minded folk!

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Hey Folks~

I apologize for the lateness of this newsletter. I have had extreme technological challenges this past couple of weeks!

This issue is our first in black and white (with color cover), and it is still amazingly beautiful! It also comes with a CD – a collection of winter songs from variousartists. The CD is also available separately.

And on top of it all…the price is reduced by a third, to only $10. As usual it is a limited run of 300, so get it now if you want it, they are selling fast!

I had an amazing time at the Stella Natura music fest, and I will post more about this event at a later date!

Finally, we are really keen to expand our distribution, so contact us if you’d like inquire about our wholesale prices.

Cheers,

~Arrowyn

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1489 woodcut of witches working up a broth

.: Winter Broth Goodness :.

The Autumnal Equinox marks Winter Finding at the Heathen hearth. As nature begins to adapt to theshorter and colder days to come, so do our Hearths. In the kitchen garden the summer food crops are putting on their last show and it’s time for fall’s cool seasonplants and seeds to go into the garden. School is back in session, merchants are starting to “sell” Halloween, and the cold and flu season has begun.

Heathen Grandmothers knew of a very old Kitchen Medicine they could make that worked like Magic for many illnesses, and that was broth. The word “broth” comes tous from the Old English (O.E.) word broþ, the Proto-Germanic (P.Gmc.) *bruthan, and from the verb root *bhreue-, “to heat, boil, bubble, liquid inwhich something has been boiled.” It is related to O.E. brew, which comes from P.Gmc. *breuwan, “to brew”, from the Proto-Indo-European base *

bhreue- “to bubble, boil, effervesce” … the original sense thus being to “make a drink by boiling.”¹

Broth is basically a bonus food. No special purchases need be made to create it, only the forethought to save the ingredients from the trash or compost bin is needed.It’s made from cooked marrow-filled bones and gelatinous cartilage. The result is a nutrient dense, easily digestible food that is high in proteins and minerals such ascalcium and phosphorus. Chicken broth has been dubbed the traditional penicillin of some ethnic cuisines for its value in treating colds and flu.

The 9th Century Bald’s Leech Book III² suggests using chicken broth as a treatment for congestion, jaundice, diarrhea, liver problems, and evenpoison. Recipe #43recommends giving broth “well buttered, as hot as he is able” to treat the drinking of poison. Recipe # 12 states that “for the yellow sickness [jaundice] whichcomes from oozing gall…give him to eat a seasoned chicken and boiled cabbage in a good broth; do thus often, better will soon come to him.”

Heathens today can also make use of this Kitchen Medicine and Magic by making their own chicken broth. It’s great for enhancing other recipes, or it can be drunk warma few times a day as a yummy and healthy tea. Yes, a tea, just like health-promoting herbal teas.

General Directions for Making Chicken Broth³

Start by collecting leftover chicken bones in the freezer – or use fresh bones – just be sure to brown or roast them first for the best flavor. Leftover skin and meatmay also be added but are not necessary. Chicken feet and wings can be purchased and are particularly good for broth. After collecting several pounds of bones, roastif needed, then crack them to access the marrow. For each pound of bones add 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. The vinegar will help leach the nutrientsfrom the bones.

Combine in a large pot and let stand from 30 to 60 minutes, then bring to a simmer and skim off the scum that floats to the top; simmer for 6 hours or up to 48 hours.

Crock pots work well for this. Consider calling on the “best of physicians”, the Goddess Eir, to impart healing energy into the broth through your “healing hands” asyou make it. When you think it’s ready, strain out all solids from the broth, and be sure no small bone shards remain. Refrigerate broth for several hours and removesome or all of the congealed fat that collects on top if you desire. Freeze in small containers or ice trays. Salt can be added to taste before consuming.

Vegetable matter can also be added towards the last 30 minutes or so. Traditional vegetables include celery, carrots, garlic, and parsley; or use any leftover tops andpeelings you’ve collected in the freezer. Bald’s recipe above recommends adding cabbage.

For a thorough discussion about the nutritional qualities of chicken and beef broth check out the third reference below or read Nourishing Traditions.⁴ Take a pro-active stance when it comes to your hearth’s health and help keep the Wild Ride we know is coming from impacting your home.

~ Hedgewife Teresa Luedke

1. Etymology Online, www.etymonline.com.

2. Stephen Pollington, Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plant Lore, and Healing (Norfolk: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2003).

3. Allison Siebecker, “Traditional Bone Broth in Modern Health and Disease”, Townsend Letter: The Examiner of Alternative Medicine, www.townsendletter.com/FebMarch2005/broth0205.htm.

4. Sally Fallon & Mary G. Enig, Nourishing Traditions, 2nd revised ed. (Washington D.C.: New Trends Publishing, 2001).

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• EHWAZ •

Old English Rune Poem

Horse is, before warriors, the joy of noble folk,
A horse hoof-proud, when the warriors around it,
Wealthy on steeds, exchange speech;
And it is, to the wanderer, ever a benefit.

~ Rune poem translations by Sweyn Plowright
http://www.mackaos.com.au/Rune-Net/Primer/

A year ago to the day I started writing these short runic articles for the Hex

newsletter, and this time is the first time that I’ve had a repeat. You see, I pick the rune for each article blindly, letting it truly be a reading. Here, then, Ehwazrears its equine head again.

This year it seems like the seasons do not quite make sense. Summer runs on toolong, and the stable cycle of climate is changing. Sun and Moon, riders on the skein of the sky, narrowly elude the wolves that slaver for their shining blood. We mustexchange words more than ever, as the world changes in unpredictable patterns.

The horse is a symbol of power, life, and transformation. A symbol of war, death,and travel into other worlds. Its flesh was sacred to the old Europeans, and it formed an important bulwark for the old cultures: its strength and speed becameessential to survival and prosperity.

Yet the rune poem conjures an image of wealthy warriors exchanging speech, andperhaps here lies an overlooked but important aspect of the value of the horse: its power to quicken communication. Horse brings words from over the crest of theunknown, and with words come the consolation of community.

To know we are not alone, especially in uncertain times, is a precious gift.

There is no challenge so great that facing it alone cannot magnify it still further. There is no joy so great that sharing it cannot deepen its richness. I supposethat is part of what Hex is all about – a way of letting (hopefully inspiring) word alight from steed to steed, from rider to rider.

For this rune to surface at this time suggests to me that we could all gain fromreminding ourselves that we are less alone than we might think; that our own personal concerns often only come into perspective when shared; and that no one is soself-sufficient that they do not stand to be strengthened from freely giving their attention, at times, to others.

The horse could well be taken as a symbol of change, but it is change guided byhuman agency, not change dictated by the whirling shape of the worldly web in which we tangle ourselves. Whatever happens, we can always have at least some say overhow we respond to the Norns’ unwinding weave.

Let’s take this opportunity, this reminder, to seize on the growth we desire andbegin ploughing new seed into the ground. There our nascent need might hibernate through the winter against the promise of new spring – and this farm work, this lifework, is yet another way that the horse can lend joy and benefit to noble folk.

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Until Winternights/Samhain, may you and your household be blessed and kept. Hail!

~ HEX Magazine

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