witch's moon

[Hestia]

Today's new moon phase begins the Willow Moon or Witch's Moon. Just curious to see if anyone has any specific rituals/spellwork for this moon? In Titania Hardie's book, Enchanted, she calls this the Moon of Enchantment, so spellwork focuses on becoming enchanted for love, friendship, success. Today I payed a visit to a lovely willow tree along the river just down the street from my house. My son and I collected a few fallen branches so we will be working on making his first wand the next few days. :elf:

[Sephiroth]

is it the 2nd new moon or the 2nd full moon of the month if its the second newmoon or the black moon me and some brothers and sisters will draw some of the energy of the moon....

[Silver Venus]

Thanks for sharing, I love the term ~ Witches Moon ~ Hestia, I hope your sons new wand is very inspiring for both him and you :D
As I am just starting out in a Norse traditon circle (have been following wicca on my own as a solitary, for the last few years..) we held a celebration last night in the woods ~ Its was amazing!! We lit red candles in a circle and I lit the scared flame on an altar we made of surrounding wood. It took a while to get the fire started but once blazing we each read our passages to celebrate Sigurd and I felt all the power of our circle and our unity! Beautiful!
Freya smiled on us as she opened the sky full of stars and shooting stars! WOW! Tonight I am planning to start a Moon garden with herbs and crystals :D
This is a brief description of what I got up to last night ~taken from the Odinic Rite site
http://www.odinic-rite.org/blotexpl.html

Sigurd (Festival of the Homeland)

This is named after the great hero of our mythology Sigurd, who is most commonly known as a Dragon Slayer. It is the central myth from which the Christians concocted the figure of St. George. This teaches us to remember that we have to confront life's evils - not ignore them or try to pretend they don't exist. This is a principle which should be followed on both the personal level and on the wider level of loyalty to our folk. We must be prepared to defend our community. We must be prepared to stand against that which is harmful, and conquer also our own faults.

:sunny:

[reanna]

Could you please post some more info on that Moon Garden? :)


That sounds absolutely beautiful. I am very interested.


TIA

reanna

[Silver Venus]

Hi Reanna,
Great that your interested ~ Youve still got time for the New Moon tonight!!
I planted mine last night and felt very inspired :D energised and peacefull.
Im no expert with herbs or Moon Gardens ~ I have grown my own herbs before indoors but never attempted growing them outdoors like I did last night. All I can tell you is what has been passed onto me from a friend ~ You can grow your moon garden indoors or out ~ whats the weather like where you are?
It's a really nice idea (as its a new begining) and best to start your Moon garden on a New Moon. All you need is your choice of herbs, a container/pot to plant them in, compost and plant food, stones and any spare crystals ~ Amythest is brilliant ~ that you have lying around, or go out and buy a few raw crystals to place in the soil by your herbs for extra moon and crystal power!
Then just simply make up your own ritual that is personal to you ~ maybe you already pray to a goddess of the Moon? If not choose one that you feel linked with and dedicate this garden to her or all the goddess of the moon or the great god and goddess. Then think about a chant or a prayer that you will say ~ visual your wishes, light silver candles for the moon, red for love, strength and passion, green for the earth and prospriety ~ any colours you feel appropriate for your wish of the your Moon garden will bring about. Then once you have everything set out in your mind begin the ritual ~ & plant all your herbs then add your crystals in the soil, pointing out to the moon so that you can see them and the moon charge them, charging you herbs making them grow faster!! Meditate and visual the moon and all its phases (new to full back to new again) on your new garden ~ and you can always come back and sit and meditate on other nights :D

Hope I helped and inspired you futher :D

[Hestia]

MM Silver Venus!

I love your post on the moon garden. Thanks for sharing:) Here are a few more suggestions for a flower moon garden if you have a lot of shade. Choose hostas, white astilbe, ferns, violets, hydrangea, foxglove (this is poisonous so you might want to skip it if you still have young kids running around), ladies mantle, and pastel and white impatiens. Magical uses are: luck, riches and health from the ferns; hex breaking from the hydrangea; foxglove protects the home and garden; violets are sacrd to fairies; ladies mantle for love spells.
I am a novice gardener as far as outdoor gardening so I'm keeping my chioces simple. I found a small round pedestal container to start mine which I'm palcing beneath a huge plum tree in the back. I'm hoping to create a little meditaion/ritual area if all goes well:)

I have an amethyst sitting with the moonflower seeds. Still crossing my fingers for sprouts!

[Hestia]

BTW, does anyone know what magical properties are associated with plum trees? Mine seems to be taking over so I thought I should really get to know it better:D

[MammaStar]

Thanks for the idea about the Moon Garden. Though I missed my chance this month, I am going to start one the on the next new moon! I have just a little spot in my back yard, so this year I am trying out gardening in containers. I'm finind strawberry pots work great. Thank you so much for sharing.

[sherry]

This sounds like a lot of fun and the energy and protection will be an added plus!! I will give it a try when the next one comes around !! are there any books that describe more plantings and their meanings?
And the crystals in the pots never thought of that but it does make since to me!!

Again Thank You so Much!!!!

[Silver Venus]

Originally posted by Hestia
Here are a few more suggestions for a flower moon garden if you have a lot of shade. Choose hostas, white astilbe, ferns, violets, hydrangea, foxglove (this is poisonous so you might want to skip it if you still have young kids running around), ladies mantle, and pastel and white impatiens. Magical uses are: luck, riches and health from the ferns; hex breaking from the hydrangea; foxglove protects the home and garden; violets are sacrd to fairies; ladies mantle for love spells.
I am a novice gardener as far as outdoor gardening so I'm keeping my chioces simple. I found a small round pedestal container to start mine which I'm palcing beneath a huge plum tree in the back. I'm hoping to create a little meditaion/ritual area if all goes well:)

I have an amethyst sitting with the moonflower seeds. Still crossing my fingers for sprouts!

Wow Hestia that sounds really lovely ~ hows it coming along now? Any little sprouts yet? Ill keep my green fingers crossed for you too :)

Thanks so much for all the info on Moon flowers ~ I will deffinately add Ferns, Foxglove, Ladies Mantle and Violets to my list!
I too am a keen novice, just starting out with my new green fingers and too planting in containers and pots (frost proof ofcourse!) to experiment and because I only have a back yard. All my different pots and plants are looking lovely and with the weather getting hotter here (in England ~ please stay sunshine!) I spending more and more time with my babies creating a beautiful moon yard! :D

Im not sure what magical things plum trees stand for but at a guess Id say love :)

LdyStarlite & Sherry ~ I am so glad that we have inspired you both! I dont know about any particular books ~ maybe just go to your local garden centre and look at there collection of books for herbs and pot flowers.
:sunny:

[Hestia]

I just finished a post about my sprouts! They seem to have really sturdy stems so I hope I can keep them going. I planted pale lavender impatience and white astilbe in my moon garden urn which is under the plum tree (I found out that plum trees are good for healing). I have just enough room in the urn for maybe a fern and foxglove and I'll try to add those soon. I also have a small moon goddess tucked away in there. And since I had so much fun doing that one I'm going to try another one for a sunny spot with mugwort, sage, rosemary and yarrow, the traditional witch's herbs.

I'm crossing my fingers for sunny skies for you. My husband's family is from England and we always here about the rainy weather there (which I would love) :)

[Silver Venus]

Hi again Hestia! Your moon urn sound so inspiring and lovely! I will deffinately be popping down to the garden centre this weekend and purchase some of the flowers you mentioned!

Which goddess is your moon goddess? I pray to Iris, Diana and Persphone when I meditate on the moon.

Have you read the Sea Priestess by Dion Fortune ~ If you havent I would really recomend you do ~ It hasnt got anything to do with herbs or flowers but has allot about Moon magic, Moon goddesses and Mother earth coiled in its a terrific love story! Its a brilliant book! I just finsihed it last week and Im now nearly done with the sequel Moon Magic!

I love the sound of your sun urn too! Maybe you can devote this to the god so you have your moon urn for the goddess and your sun for the god!

Its gone all cloudy here today but in May we normally get a heat wave ~ and then thats our summer!! I love the rain tooo (glad your hubbies family is out here :))but however much I like it it doesnt beat the feeling of hot, warm sun on one body ~ I love both the rain and suns effects and smells! But the grass is always greener on the other side :D so I have to be typically british and complain about the rain! :sunny:

[Hestia]

Hi SilverVenus, the book you recommended sounds fascinating. I remember hearing about it before but never had a chance to look into it. I've recently developed an interest in sea witchery so this might be the right time to check out that book...*sigh*...how I wish I could live near the ocean. Thanks for the suggestion :) BTW, I went to check on my moon garden yesterday and discovered that the urn was completely flooded! I guess I placed it too close to the sprinklers so I tried to drain it and now I'll just have to wait and see if they're not ruined :( I might have to replant them and start all over again. Lesson learned: never place a flower pot too close to a sprinkler head!

[Silver Venus]

Hiya Hestia!
Sorry to hear about your Moon urn ~ Ive just posted you a card in the Tarot thread and will be sending good drying thoughts to you for the drainage of your soil!
Hope its still a brilliant weekend for you as your card says!! :D
Id keep on checking on them and maybe if youve got the time go back to where you bought them and ask the guys/girls there ~ they will know what to do hopefully! These things need urgent action ~ so its Herb Rescue Operation 1!
Hope its not put you off your Sun urn? You have really insprired me this week, so Im still cant wait to gte over and buy lots of flowers tomorrow! The sun has come out again and hopefully will stay for the weekend :sunny:

Really glad your interested in the book and sea magic!! It is a brilliant book, hope you get it soon and start reading ~ there is a brilliant Full Moon ritual in it and a brilliant recipe for a gazing/divination fire ~ The fire of Azreal!dont be put of by the first several chapters it takes a while to get going.. and once it does you won't want to put it down I promise! :D
*sigh* my only big wish is to live by the sea!! Or a massive lake!!
Ive been around America a bit and love your country so much!! Lake Tahoo is so beautiful and brilliant snow and I love your coast ~ California and San Fran!
Do you live near the sea?
We plan to drive to the coast ~ Scarborough, thats about 45 minutes away from York for the Full Moon ritual and work it on a seculded beach bay! (Its all rocky though!) but as we not moon bathing just yet I think the rocks will be a power bonus!
:D
Good luck with your flood and Moon urn hun :sunny:

[Hestia]

Thanks for the reading. You've inspired me to dig out my tarot deck and maybe get back to working with it again. I hope this weekend is as joyful as my card says. We are trying to sell my husband's old car so maybe this is the weekend it will happen. My moon urn is still soggy but the plants seem okay. I moved them to a different spot where there's more sun so they can dry out a bit.

I don't live near the ocean but my house is a five minute walk to the river which has really beautiful trees along the banks. There is one willow tree in particular that my son and I visit and where we've gathered fallen branches/vines for my magic work. Yes, Lake Tahoe is very pretty. I'm about 1 1/2 hours away. We just moved to this area last October and before that we lived near the San Francisco area. We had a chance to visit my hubby's family at Oxford last year but had a change of plans. Everyone tells me how beautiful it is there and how much I would love it. I'm afraid I'd never leave if I ever do get over there, lol! Have a great weekend !
:sunny: :sunny: :sunny: