Tag: Fruit

Sunday’s Witchery

Blue Moon Kisses

Sunday’s Witchery

Those ambitious, successful spells and charms will be heightened by working on the day of the week that has the planetary influence of the sun. So light those sunny candles, wear some luminous colors, and break out the gold jewelry! Bake up some cinnamon rolls or low-fat cinnamon muffins for an enchanting family breakfast. Take an orange with you to eat at lunch today. Try using a little magickal aromatherapy and burn some cinnamon-scented incense to encourage success and wealth today. Make the talisman to keep your solar magick with you. Sprinkle some dried marigold petals around your house-or across the threshold-to pull triumph and protection toward you and your family.

Get outside and tip up your face to the sun. Take a walk outside, and soak up some sunshine! Acknowledge the power of Sunna or Helios as they blaze across the sky and bring courage and motivation into your life. Sit outside at sunrise on a Sunday morning and bask in its warm, rosy-golden glow Acknowledge Brigid as the inner, creative spark of imagination and inspiration. She can help these gifts burn brightly within your own soul. Use your imagination and create your own brand of witchery and magick. Here comes the sun, and it’s your turn to shine!

—–Book of Witchery: Spells, Charms & Correspondences for Every Day of the Week
Ellen Dugan

Sunday’s Witchery

wiccan girl
Sunday’s Witchery

Those ambitious, successful spells and charms will be heightened by working on the day of the week that has the planetary influence of the sun. So light those sunny candles, wear some luminous colors, and break out the gold jewelry! Bake up some cinnamon rolls or low-fat cinnamon muffins for an enchanting family breakfast. Take an orange with you to eat at lunch today. Try using a little magickal aromatherapy and burn some cinnamon-scented incense to encourage success and wealth today. Make the talisman to keep your solar magick with you. Sprinkle some dried marigold petals around your house-or across the threshold-to pull triumph and protection toward you and your family.

Get outside and tip up your face to the sun. Take a walk outside, and soak up some sunshine! Acknowledge the power of Sunna or Helios as they blaze across the sky and bring courage and motivation into your life. Sit outside at sunrise on a Sunday morning and bask in its warm, rosy-golden glow Acknowledge Brigid as the inner, creative spark of imagination and inspiration. She can help these gifts burn brightly within your own soul. Use your imagination and create your own brand of witchery and magick. Here comes the sun, and it’s your turn to shine!

—–Book of Witchery: Spells, Charms & Correspondences for Every Day of the Week
Ellen Dugan

Daily Feng Shui News for Feb. 12th – ‘Plum Pudding Day’

On ‘Plum Pudding Day,’ I thought I would share legend and lore attached to the magical plum. The branches of plum trees have long been positioned above the doors and windows of European households to keep negativity, illness or evil at bay, while the Chinese revere the plum as one of the most fortune-filled foods of all. In Eastern cultures the plum is eaten and enjoyed as it is believed to be a fruit that bestows longevity and luck. It might be a plum idea to indulge in this same sort of pudding today.

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com

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CALL OF THE GOD

Witchy Comments & Graphics

CALL OF THE GODI am the radiant King of the Heavens, flooding the Earth with warmth and
encouraging the hidden seed of creation to burst forth into manifestation. I
lift my shining spear to light the lives of all beings and daily pour forth my
gold upon the Earth, putting to flight the powers of darkness.

I am the master of the beasts wild and free. I run with the swift stag and soar
as a sacred falcon against the shimmering sky. The ancient woods and wild places emanate my powers, and the birds of the air sing of my sanctity.

I am also the last harvest, offering up grain and fruits beneath the sickle of
time so that all may be nourished. For without planting there can be no harvest;
without winter, no spring.

Worship me as the thousand-named Sun of creation, the spirit of the horned stag
in the wild, the endless harvest. See in the yearly cycle of festivals my birth,
death and rebirth – and know that such is the destiny of all creation.

I am the spark of life, the radiant Sun, the giver of peace and rest, and I send
my rays of blessings to warm the hearts and strengthen the minds of all.

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The Daily OM for January 28th – Who Am I

Who Am I
The Heart of Unknowing

by Madisyn Taylor

The question of who we are is a seed that can bear much fruit if given the chance to unfold.

At some point in our lives, or perhaps at many points in our lives, we ask the question, “Who am I?“ At times like these, we are looking beyond the obvious, beyond our names and the names of the cities and states we came from, into the layers beneath our surface identities. We may feel the need for a deeper sense of purpose in our lives, or we may be ready to accommodate a more complex understanding of the situation in which we find ourselves. Whatever the case, the question of who we are is a seed that can bear much fruit.

It can send us on an exploration of our ancestry, or the past lives of our soul. It can call us to take up journaling in order to discover that voice deep within us that seems to know the answers to a multitude of questions. It can draw our attention so deeply inward that we find the spark of spirit that connects us to every living thing in the universe. One Hindu tradition counsels its practitioners to ask the question over and over, using it as a mantra to lead them inevitably into the heart of the divine.

While there are people who seem to come into the world knowing who they are and why they are here, for the most part the human journey appears to be very much about asking this question and allowing its answers to guide us on our paths. So when we find ourselves in the heart of unknowing, we can have faith that we are in a very human place, as well as a very divine one. “Who am I?“ is a timeless mantra, a Zen koan ultimately designed to lead us home, into the part of our minds that finally lets go of questions and answers and finds instead the ability to simply be.

The Daily OM

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October Lore — Apples

October Lore

Apples

This is the time of the apple harvest: winesaps, greenings, macintosh, red and yellow delicious, and the antique varieties of sops of wine, sheep nose and smokehouse.  There are apples to fill fruit bowls for immediate eating, apples that keep well for Winter storage, and apples that make the best pie ever.  The back porch smells of hot applesauce laced with cinnamon, which is canned by the case.

Apples have always been magically important.  The Celts “wassailed” their apple trees to insure a bountifull harvest in the coming year. Traditionally wassail was made of hard cider that was heated with spices and had apples floating on top.  These apples, when heated enough, would burst their skins, and the white flesh would form a froth on top of the wassail.  There is much reason to believe that wassailing was performed at Samhain or Halloween as it was at Yule. Samhain is the time of the apple harvest, and there are many traditions in which apples are very important.  Samhain was the New Year of the Celtic calendar, and probably several traditions got shifted to Yuletide when the calendar was changed.  Wassailing the apple trees, no doubt, was one of these.

Candy apples are a traditional trick or treat gift at Halloween. Another tradition is bobbing for apples, or “dooking,” as it is called in Scotland. (Description of how to dook…)  This game may have developed directly from the apples that floated on the wassail of earlier Halloweens.

Another traditional Halloween game is apple on a string. (Description) This game may have evolved from people playing a similar game while the apples still hung on the tree, and this may have been done in imitation of certain animals.  But it is more likely that these games developed in the spirit of fun and play that is the essence of Pagan celebration.

Apples also have a history of being used for healing (“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”), especially for curing warts.  The most typical method is to slice an apple in half and rub both halves over the wart or affliction to be cured. The put the two halves back together and bury them in the Earth while reciting an enchantment to the effect that as the apple wastes away, so will the wart or other affliction.

When an apple is sliced in half horizontally it reveals hidden within its core a five-pointed star.  When an apple is being cut in half for magical purposes it should be cut this way in order to take full advantage of the secret magical sign.  And of course it should be cut with the boline (magically charged white- handled knife).

The apple harvest can be celebrated on the day that it is completed with a meal that features apples, apple fritters, apple pie, or applesauce.  Select one tree to represent all of the apple trees in the orchard, whether it is the oldest, tallest, or most productive.  Draw and consecrate a Circle around the tree and stand within it facing the tree.  holding a cup of spiced cider or apple wine, anoint the tree by drawing a pentacle with a finger dipped in the cup of liquid. Draw the pentacle at eye level on the tree trunk or just below where all the branches begin.  Recite something such as:

Here’s to thee, Apple tree Flowers at Beltane Fruit at Samhain Apple tree, Blessed be!

Then drink a toast to the tree and pour a libation at its roots, and eat the food of the feast within the Circle.

Daily Feng Shui News for Sept. 24 – 'Cherries Jubilee Day'

If you’re looking for one of the best fruits to help cleanse your body and release toxins, then you’re in for some just desserts. Seeing that today is ‘Cherries Jubilee Day’ prompted me to want to share some other medical agendas that cherries have proven terrific in treating. They are an all-natural diuretic and eating them also helps with the prevention of kidney or gallstones, as well as arthritis, anemia and osteoporosis, to name just a few. They promote healthy teeth and bones, so they’re the perfect fruit to feed children. Cherries are delicious too, and that’s yet another reason to be jubilant about eating this powerful antioxidant food.

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com

Calendar of the Moon for September 23

Calendar of the Moon

Grapevine Month

Colors: Blue and Purple
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue and purple set a great pitcher of wine with many cups, four purple candles, and many wreaths of grapevine and baskets of grapes.
Offerings:
Daily Meal: Vegetarian, with wine or grape juice to drink, and of course grapes.

Muin Invocation

Call: Hail the Month of the Grapevine!
Response: Hail the Month of the Vine-Gods!
Call: Hail the month when sour turns to sweet!
Response: Hail the month when labor comes ripe!
Call: Hail the month when our hands come together,
Response: Hail the month when the cup is passed!
Call: This is the time of bonding,
Response: When the fruits of the harvest lay within our grasp.
Call: This is the call of Joy and Merriment,
Response: This is the time of coming together.
Call: For though we may have forgotten laughter beneath our burdens,
Response: Laughter comes for us at last.
Call: And yet we begin to see the year passing to its end,
Response: And our laughter is the light passing into the dark.
Call: May we go to into the dark like the Children of Dionysos,
Response: Embracing the cycle with open arms!
Call: Like the grapevine, we are givers of ecstasy.
Response: Like the grapevine, we are givers of dream.
Call: Like vines, we yield up our fruit.
Response: Like vines, we yield up for the good of all.
Call: Like vines, we twine towards the Light.
Response: Like vines, we twine towards the Spirit.
Call: We hold the line, we keep the Mysteries true,
Response: We hold the line, we keep the Mysteries true,
Call: I am the vine; the branches, you and you.
Response: I am the vine; the branches, you and you.

Chant:
Taste Joy in the Day
Take Joy in the Night
Touch Joy in your face turned
To the fading light
Ay ay ay ay-yi-hey.

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for September 18th

Calendar of the Sun

18 Halegmonath

Vanaheim Day

Colors: Green and Gold
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon cloth of green and gold set sheaves of grain, many woven corn dollies and straw ornaments, three green candles, a chalice of beer, harvest fruits, and a knife.
Offerings: Fruits of the harvest.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian

Vanaheim Invocation

Hail to the Green World of the Vanir!
Hail to the Realm of Growth, of Earth
Sacred and fed with blood, springing forth
Abundance and plenty to feed many worlds!
Hail to the spring flowers that bloom,
Hail to the summer fruits that globe on tree and vine,
Hail to the golden grain ripening in the fields,
Hail to the winter of peaceful slumber
And preparation for the next perfect spring!
Hail to the devouring earth that is Nerthus,
Lady of the blood-soaked soil!
Hail to the teeming seas that wash the shore,
Sailed by fine Njord of the salt winds,
Domain of Aegir and Ran of the great waves
And their nine sharp-nailed daughters!
Hail to the spring fields where flowers
Bloom in Freyja’s bare footsteps!
Hail to the grain that is cut with the sickle
As Frey’s blood nourishes the soil!
Hail to the Gods of Abundance, of green,
Of lust and death, of the mysteries of the cycle,
And may they bless us with joy and understanding
In equal measure.

(All cry out, “Hail Vanaheim!” The beer is poured out as a libation, and the grain and fruits are set outside as an offering.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for August 21

Calendar of the Sun

21 Weodmonath

Consualia: First Harvest of Rome

Color: Brown
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a brown a cloth display the preserved fruits of the harvest thus far. There should be a pot of fruit that has been cooked to charring as a traditional offering, a wreath of flowers, and a chalice of wine. Outside, the underground stone altar of Consus is dug open and revealed.
Offering: Burned fruits.
Daily Meal: Food out of the garden.

Consualia Invocation

Hail, Consus, Lord of the Storehouse!
As our ancestors stored things deep underground,
So we have opened the earth
To give you what is your due.
For it is not enough to grow what must be grown.
Our sustenance must also be cultivated,
Plucked from vine and stem,
Cleaned and prepared,
And if necessary preserved.
You are the keeper of next year’s seeds
Which we must save as if our lives
Depended on those tiny cradles of life.
You are the keeper of next year’s grain,
And may we all come to love and understand
The cycle of seed and fruit on which
Our table, and our bellies, depend.
Hail Consus, keeper of the seeds,
May your blessing carry through
To next year’s garden, and each year forever.

(All go out to the garden, where the open hole reveals the carved stone of Consus’s altar. The burned fruits are laid in as an offering, and the wine poured in on top. Then the altar is covered again with earth, and the wreath of flowers is laid over it.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for August 16th

Calendar of the Moon

 

16 Coll/Metageitnion
Day of the Apple Tree

Color: Apple-green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon an apple-green cloth set a vase of apple branches, a bowl of apples, a single green candle, a pot of soil, seeds, a bowl of water, a jug of cider, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Feed people outside the home.
Daily Meal: Vegan, with apples, applesauce, and cider.

Invocation to the Green Man of the Apple Tree

Hail, Green Man of the Autumn!
Apple tree of immortality
Whose branches hide the white hind,
Whose fruit nourishes all,
Whose juice gives gladness
To those who work your Earth,
Whose seeds show the pentad
Of the eternal Goddess,
Tool of Eris which shows
How the mighty may fall
Beneath your spreading branches,
Equal to the lowest in their folly
And fate; this is your gift,
Love-fruit, merry one,
Brightest star in the harvest
With the universal star at your core.
Teach us that this joy
Belongs to everyone,
As does your gift of health,
So may we all be hale!
We hail you, sacred apple tree,
Green Man of the Autumn,
On this your day of greatest nourishment.

Song: Here’s To Thee, Old Apple Tree

(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Pass the cider and apples around for everyone to share, and pour out the last as another libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for August 15

Calendar of the Moon

15 Coll/Metageitnion

Pomona’s Day

Colors: Red, yellow, green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon cloth of any or all of these colors, lay baskets of apples (preferably the old Roman variety “Lady”)and other tree fruit, a jug of cider, and a pruning knife.
Offerings: Water fruit trees.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian, with any food made with apples.

Invocation to Pomona

Lady of the Apple Tree
Whose red-cheeked visage greets the dawn,
Lady of the Pear Tree
Whose sweetness salves the questing tongue,
Lady of the Peach Tree
Whose blush transforms the morning sky,
Lady of the Plum Tree
Whose scent entices, smooth and smiling,
Lady of the Cherry Tree
Whose scarlet lips are drenched in raindrops.
Lady of the blossoming branch
Who entices bees to dance with you,
Lady of the secret orchard
Where Vertumnus gained his entry,
Where he came in secret, clothed in
Vestments of the ancient Crone,
God of growth, god of seasons,
God of turning, he took you there
As you offered up your nectar
And all the trees above you burst their buds.
Lady of the ancient ones, the Trees
Who give forth their children one by one
That we may know not just mere survival
But sweetness as well, help us to remember
The beauty and abundance of your gifts.

Chant:
Pomona Pomona
Pomum Pirum Prunus
Pax Pactum Promissio

Pagan Book Of Hours

W is for A Wishing Pod Spell

W

 

A WISHING POD SPELL

You will need to gather:

A seed pod from any tree

1 piece of paper, pictures or drawings to represent your wish

To make your dreams come true, take your seed pod or eggshell and on you piece of
paper write down what your wish or dream is. Decorate it with the pictures of your wish.
Make sure to put your intention behind what you want by making it as real as possible.
Place the paper in the pod and bury it in a young pot plant or a new tree.

Now let the Gods and Goddesses take over.

A Wishing Pod Spell

A WISHING POD

You will need to gather:
A seed pod from any tree
1 piece of paper, pictures or drawings to represent your wish.
To make your dreams come true, take your seed pod or eggshell and on you piece of
paper write down what your wish or dream is. Decorate it with the pictures of your wish.
Make sure to put your intention behind what you want by making it as real as possible.
Place the paper in the pod and bury it in a young pot plant or a new tree.
Now let the Gods and Goddesses take over.

Daily Feng Shui Tip for Nov. 30th – ‘Stay at Home Because You’re Well Day’

It’s ‘Stay at Home Because You’re Well Day’ and I support that same intention! If you want to stay well all throughout the year then follow that old advice and eat an apple every day. Recent research has shown that students who ate two apples a day were less stressed, had fewer headaches and were more emotionally stable than those who did not. Apple eaters were also shown to experience fewer colds, have clearer skin and be unaffected by arthritis. According to ages-old legend, even the smell of fresh apples was believed to bestow longevity and restore flagging physical strength. So don’t forget to eat an apple or two every day. Go ahead, keep that darn doctor away and have a happy and healthy holiday!

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com