The Spider

as we recognise and respect individuality. The only part of witchcraft we recognise as the same are the correspondences, which are everything in the universe.

As a hereditary practitioner of the Craft, I was often told that the universe is a giant spider’s web, and every strand is connected to another. When we use one part of that web, we are tugging on a strand, which in turn is pinging another, alerting the spider or the universe to what we want. Using correspondences, we are alerting the universe that we want something, and by connecting different correspondences, we are asking for attention. My family stemmed from Wales, Ireland, and Scotland and brought their knowledge of flowers and their power to each new generation. My father passed his knowledge onto me, having received that knowledge from his healer and midwife mother, Winifred, and his grandmother, Flora, who knew every plant and its purpose.

In this book, we shall look at one strand in that giant spider’s web: we are looking at flowers and flora generally. This leads me to how this book is written. As this book will be worldwide, I am unsure of what flowers grow in your

2 Introduction