Platycerium bifurcatum

It is a beautiful fear, the gathering of witches.

Photo by Diana Parkhouse on Unsplash

While I am, by and large, a Solitary Witch there are times when calling forth a coven is necessary. These are times of crisis. Times when we are threatened as a whole. A little bit of history, we were in no way organized during The Burning Times. Times when witch hunters pricked us and threw us into rivers. Hanged us by our malnourished necks until we were dead. Took us by surprise, the weaker of us, anyway. And so, so many who never were one of us to begin with. It was a convenient way of getting rid of a pesky neighbor so you could grab their land. A way to end feuds, get rid of the needy. A shameful time for humanity. Near the end of it, the few of us who were left, those with enough power to fight back, were able to wrest control of the situation and we have, of course, never let that happen again. We have a better network now and we can mentor the weaker witches through this network. Still… we don’t love gathering, contrary to popular belief. Sabbaths, as humans think of them, are no one’s idea of a good time. Feasting and revelry? That’s why most of tried to escape humanity in the first place. We want peace and quiet, but the creatures won’t leave us be. They want dates and movies and parties and shopping and coffee. Vapid nonsense. When is there time for experiments? For reading learned tomes? For cultivating bonds with the rabid monsters that lurk in dark corners? For personal growth?

This might be a digress.

There is one plant I find far better than any other for both encouraging my peers to gather and for keeping them civil and organized while gathered.

This is Platycerium bifurcatum.

It is a beautiful fear, the gathering of witches. So much power, so few stable minds. The magic potential is a throbbing river, choked with its own wildness, and it must be tamed, channeled, and divided into manageable streams of focus if it is to do anything useful. P. bifurcatum will tame the wildest bitches and set them in their proper places. This is the plant you need to organize a bunch of mad women into their roles.

This is all sounding rather corporate… unfortunately practical magic is sometimes called for.

For best results mix a tincture of 1 Cup packed antler fronds to ten witches.