Hi All Looking forward some advice about herb growing please. This is something new to me, so apologise if these questions seem basic. What 4/5 herbs are good for a beginner? I was thinking basil, mint, camomile - for both cooking and making teas. Any other suggestions for what immunity boosting and middle age? Any advice on best conditions?

This generation of kids are different, allegedly, people are noting the lack of respect for authority figures, how behaviour has changed in schools and outside. This generation is unlike any before it. This generation has grown up in the shadow of a global pandemic, watching the very people who made the rules break them. They were told to stay home, miss milestones, miss friends, miss normality while those in power faced no real consequences for not following their own guidance. They’ve watched scandal after scandal unfold across the world, now Epstein and their famous idols, from actors to singers, to public figures, all falling like a house of cards one after the other. They’ve seen headlines about powerful people accused of horrific things. They’ve seen investigations, files released, names whispered and again, very little accountability. They are growing up in a world where trust in leadership feels fragile at best. And then we act surprised when they question authority. When they challenge systems, When they struggle with respect for institutions that haven’t modelled integrity. Is it really shocking that this generation feels different? They are more exposed. More aware. More politically and socially conscious than we ever were at their age. All that information in theor hands at the touch of a button instantly. They are not as sheltered as prior generations as a result. Not as insular in their communities. They have seen behind the curtain at an earlier age. If behaviour has changed, maybe it’s because belief has changed, Belief in fairness, Belief in justice. Belief that the adults in charge will actually lead by example. We are not raising a “worse” generation. We are raising a generation that has witnessed hypocrisy in real time. Maybe instead of asking what’s wrong with the children, we should be asking what they’ve witnessed laid out infront of them… Because children don’t grow in a vacuum. They grow in the world already shaped for them, and now that feels like it means nothing.

They weren't nuns. They weren't wives. They built their own communities where women could own property, earn money, and leave whenever they wanted—in medieval Europe, when women had almost no rights at all. Medieval Europe offered women exactly two acceptable paths: marriage or the convent. Become a wife, submit to your husband's authority, bear his children, manage his household. Or become a nun, take lifelong vows, surrender your autonomy to the Church, live cloistered behind monastery walls. Those were the only choices. Until some women created a third option. They were called Beguines. Beginning in the 12th century, women across Europe—particularly in the Low Countries, France, and Germany—started forming communities that defied every category the medieval world had created for them. They weren't wives bound to husbands. They weren't nuns locked behind convent walls. They were something entirely new: women living together, supporting themselves, choosing their own spiritual paths. The Beguines lived in communities called beguinages—clusters of small houses or apartments surrounding a shared courtyard, often with a chapel at the center. These weren't convents. They were neighborhoods built by women, for women. Here's what made them revolutionary: A Beguine didn't take permanent vows. She could leave whenever she wanted—to marry, to return to family, or simply to choose a different life. Her commitment was temporary, renewable, hers to control. She could own property. In an era when married women legally owned nothing, a Beguine controlled her own possessions, her own earnings, her own future. She supported herself through her own labor. Beguines worked as weavers, lace-makers, nurses, teachers, brewers, herbalists. They weren't dependent on fathers, husbands, or the Church's charity. They earned their living with their own hands. She lived in community but maintained independence. Each woman had her own dwelling within the beguinage. She prayed with her sisters but controlled her own daily life.

Welcome to Hagwitch Herbals and the Dark Moon Rising. Before you dive into the community I wanted to introduce myself and the ethos here, it's core purpose. Dark moon rising is a development group (in-person) I began to facilitate decades ago. However meeting the demands of the time I am moving everything online in a bid to open the community up so we can support more people on their individual unique healing and spiritual journey through life. This group originated in liverpool because people were looking for more, searching for more and desperate for truth. As a group we have delved together and grown together over many years, also as individuals with hectic family lives. I have been facilitating pagan spiritual development groups and rites of passage for decades. I am currently studying a bsc in clinical herbalism and have recently rejoined the QWA (quantum wellness academy) team again. I am a fully qualified reiki master and holistic therapist, with ptlls and dtlls qualifications. Quite a few of my family members are pagan so I was very lucky growing up to have that awareness of certain topics readily available. Real wholistic healing doesn’t happen overnight its a journey of growth and development. 'It's only when you realise you have given your power away that you can reclaim it' hawkshadow 2004 (c) This is a space to do just that alongside others who are reclaiming their power, growing and learning together, empowering their health, wellbeing and spiritual grounding. I started my journey into spirituality, holistic therapies, energy healing and recognising vibration at a very young age. My grandad was a great believer in nature, breathing correctly, energy and believed in the power of the mind. Going so far as to have surgery under self hypnosis. The man was beyond ahead of his time and I was incredibly blessed he shared his knowledge and support with me. At 26 I was stuck in a bed for 3 years, bedbound, with 3 young children. It was a slow journey of nutrigenomics, herbalism, ddp yoga and deep shadow work. I am still on that healing journey with continual self improvement and growth. I was diagnosed with asthma, type 2 diabetes, behcets disease, ehlers danos syndrome, pots, mast cell disease, fibro, hidradenitis supporativa and tietary adrenal insufficiency (both my adrenals and pituitary gland where killed off due to prescription oral ateroid medications). As I said I am still on my journey, however, after several years of walking my talk and implementing what I have learned along the way I have my EDS well managed and the Addisons under control, my hidradenitis has gone from stage 3 back to stage 1 but everything else including the T2D has gone into remission or reversed. I intend for them to stay in remission and to continue my healing journey. It has been a long journey to get to this stage that is for sure, a lot of those years spent deep in scientific research seeking answers and guidance. In 2014 I was offered the liverpool pathway by the NHS my body was failing drastically, system by system, I am so thankful I declined and finally listened to relatives advice on natural remedies that I incorporated into my day to day wellness regime. In the interest of honesty i am still steroid dependent as my pituitary and adrenal glands produce no hormones, so I have to take hydrocortisone steroid tablets daily to replace this action. Without the steroids I would go into a coma and die. I have managed to reduce them down gradually over the last few years however, but this has to be a very slow journey as a result and can't be rushed. It's a fine dance between stimulating my glands and taking enough steroids to stay alive. Which is why in this group we stick to the science, and there is official scientific research out their proving the medicinal effects plants have for our physical, mental and emotional health.