Garden Witchery (23 page)

Writing Your Own Herbal Spells and Charms

How do you begin writing your own herbal spells, you may wonder? Remember all of those correspondence charts found in the other chapters of this book? There were charts for astrological associations, color magick, crystals, goddess correlations, floral languages, and magickal plants. Refer to those. They should be able to get you rolling.

When I first began to create my own garden witchery spells, I usually wrote everything out on paper. That way, I could work all the bugs out and it helped me to identify and then use colors, crystals, flowers, plants, and herbs that worked in sympathy with one another. Here is a spell worksheet template for you to refer to and then work from.

Garden Witch Spell Worksheet

Goal:

Day:

Moon phase:

Moon sign:

Deity invoked:

Herbs used and their magickal application:

Flowers used and their magickal significance:

Candle color (if you would incorporate candle magick):

Crystals or stones:

Charm or verse:

Setup (equipment, such as candle holders, a vase, a cauldron, or fireproof bowl):

Results (how long it took for this spell to work, and any results that you noticed):

Let's give you a hands-on type of example of how to pull this all together. Imagine that you're sitting at home, sick with a nasty sinus infection. (This requires no effort for me at the moment as I have one myself—and to top it off, I have also completely lost my voice.) After calling the doctor and getting them to send out some antibiotics two days ago, I am slowly recovering. However, it's back to work for me tomorrow, and I still feel pretty wobbly. So I decide to take matters into my own hands and work a little healing magick for myself.

Okay then, what flowers or herbs do I have available to me at the moment? It is late November and, as I look out the window, I notice that a rose bush of mine is still blooming. It is a red and white rose called Love. That will work out fine, as red and white are both goddess colors. Rose petals are used magickally to “speed things up,” so I can work with that to speed my recovery. White is an all-purpose color in magick, and the color red is often incorporated into healing rituals.

I toss on my coat, slip on my shoes, and head outside with a pair of pruners. What else is available to me out here? There was a bit of ice in the rain that fell yesterday. The garden is chilly, sparkling, and it looks downright magickal. Little drops of ice are dangling from the branches and plants. I am amazed that this rosebud looks so healthy. As I walk quickly around the gardens, I pluck some catnip, a leaf or two of the green ferny-looking yarrow foliage, and a bit of rue.

Back inside, I tuck all but the catnip into a vase and sit down to assemble the components for the rest of my herbal spell. I gave the catnip to the kitties—they smelled it on me a soon as I walked in the back door.

My notes might look something like this . . .

Goal:
To recover from this sinus infection.

Day:
Thursday, a Jupiter day. Jupiter days can be used for health and good luck. (See
chapter 6
.)

Moon Phase:
Waxing, it becomes a full moon tomorrow. To augment the recovery process. Full moon energies for extra power.

Moon Sign:
Taurus, an earth day. That's handy, we are doing earthy magick, after all.

Deity Invoked:
The Mother Goddess.

Herbs Used and Their Magickal Applications:
Rue helps you recover from an illness. Yarrow is a witch's herb, it's all purpose.

Flowers Used and Their Magickal Signficance:
A red and white petaled rose to speed things up and to promote peace and love. (Check
chapter 1
.)

Candle Color:
White. All purpose. (I happen to have plenty of plain tealights on hand.)

Crystal or Stones:
Bloodstone and malachite for their healing energies. (See
chapter 8
.)

Charm or Stones:

Icy garden rose of red and white, assist me now in my plight.

Sacred herbs of healing power, lend your magick in this hour.

Grant me recovery and good health, for it's back to work I go,

With a little help from a rose, healing rue, and the witch's yarrow.

Setup:
I already placed the rose and herbal foliage into a bud vase. I will place the vase next to my small cauldron. Inside of my cauldron is the tealight and the two stones for healing. I am placing these on top of the cast-iron, wood-burning stove in the living room. It is a safe place to let the candle burn inside of a small cauldron, as the cats stay off of there and my teenagers will know to leave it alone.

Cast a circle. Use a favorite quarter call, or use the “Circle of Trees.”

Call the Goddess for her assistance:

Great Mother, I call on you. Help me to recover quickly from this illness.

Light the candle, say the verse three times.

Take a deep breath, close eyes, and imagine sinking roots into the ground the way a tree does. Visualize all fatigue, worry, or illness draining away and into the earth, where it will be absorbed harmlessly away. Now imagine healing energy coming back from the earth. It starts through the soles of the feet and then goes streaming up through all of the body. Raise up the arms and wiggle fingers. (I like to imagine that my fingers are like the leaves on the tree.) Feel stronger and happier. Lower arms. Take a deep breath and blow it out. Open eyes. Note: This is my version of what is called “grounding and centering.”

Open the circle.

Allow the candle to burn out. Keep the flowers in the most-used room of the house (in my case, the living room).

See, that wasn't hard. It only took, from start to finish, about a half hour of my time. That includes writing the charm, gathering the supplies, and performing the spell. No muss. No fuss. I am a practical witch, after all. This is why you should know your basics, so when the time comes for magick, you simply step up and do the job.

You know, I really liked that spell. I think I'll call it the “Icy Rose Healing Spell.” Now go and take the outline of this icy rose spell and the garden witch worksheet, and get to work. Apply this outline to the other herbal charms and spells in this book and those future garden witch spells of your own creation.

Start a new section in your garden witch Book of Shadows and title it “My Herbal Spells.” Now come up with a few herbal spells and flower charms of your own. Don't let those blank pages scare you. Just think of all of the innovative garden magick that you can conjure up all by yourself. You can do it. I know you can.

Congratulations, You're a Garden Witch

We should stop for a moment and consider just what has brought us to this momentous occasion. Work, hard work; herbal study; experimentation; and the willingness to memorize basic spells and rituals, including those necessary astrological correspondence tables. You will try your hand at writing your own garden witch spells and will have consecrated or blessed your own sacred garden space.

We have tuned back in to nature and aligned ourselves to the wheel of the year by acknowledging and celebrating the changing seasons in all their glory. We have pondered the mysticism of trees, plants, and herbs, and awakened to the power of the elements. We've rediscovered the quiet sense of achievement that only a gardener can fully understand of breaking a sweat while working in the garden under a midday sun. We have enjoyed the mystery of the garden at night and the wonder of feeling the moonlight filter down on us through the leaves of the trees.

You have been rewarded with dirty knees and feet; red, ripe garden tomatoes and peppers; grubby hands, broken fingernails, and your first vase of magickal flowers from your own garden. How many sets of gardening gloves did you go through before you started disregarding them all together? You probably will have your gardening tools consecrated before too long. (I wonder what quarter the ceremonial garden hoe belongs to?) You decide. This book has enough information to keep you busy in the magickal garden for a good long while.

[contents]

Though I do not believe that a plant will

spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed planted there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

Henry David Thoreau

Final Thoughts

Just when you thought it was safe . . . another garden magick metaphor. Well, we certainly planted an awful lot of seeds, didn't we, with both new and old ways to look at nature and magick. Now that you have all these new and exciting ideas germinating in your mind, I can't wait to see what you will do with them. I
am
prepared to expect wonders from you. So get out there and get your hands in the soil. Plant those magickal herbs, trees, and flowers in the yard or in pots and containers. Make friends with new deities. Create your own garden witch spells and enchanting recipes!

The magickal path of the garden witch is an instinctive choice for those of us who sense the wonder and divinity of the natural world around us. Walk your chosen path wisely. Open your heart, tread gently, and see what you find.

By the shadow of the moon and light of the sun,

Happy gardening, blessed be, an' it harm none.

[contents]

Millions of women . . . discover

gardening. Other people imagine that it is because
they have nothing better to do. In fact,
there is always something else to do,
as every woman who gardens knows.

Germaine Greer

Gardening Journal

Seasonal Quotations

January and February

The first fall of snow is not only an event;
it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite
different, and if that is not enchantment
then where is it to be found?

J.B. Priestley

Winter is on my head, but
eternal spring is in my heart.

Victor Hugo

One kind word can warm
three winter months.

Japanese Proverb

Snowbird Charm (Garden Charm for the Winter Months)

Work a charm for prosperity and peace this winter. At sunrise, draw a magickal symbol in the snow of your own choosing. Then make an offering to the birds of winter by filling up the bird feeder or sprinkling a bit of birdseed on the ground as you say this charm.

Snow that falls and icy winds that blow,

Come make this wintry spell of mine go!

Bring prosperity and peace, all year long,

Hear my call, as the birds welcome the dawn.

If we had no winter, the spring
would not be so pleasant . . .

Anne Bradstreet

March and April

Birds that cannot even sing–
Dare to come again in Spring!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Spring comes: the flowers learn
their colored shapes.

Maria Konopricka

*
Spring is here! Clip some sunny daffodils from the garden and bring them inside to brighten your home.

Spring To-Do List

*
Rake off all of last year's fallen leaves. The hostas should start to break the ground any time now. Get those leaves off, so they can grow to the sun. Start watching for your earliest perennials, such as bleeding heart, columbine, and lily of the valley, to make their appearance.

*
Plant pansies now, they like the cold and their bright faces are sure to lift your spirits.

*
Fertilize your house plants and turn them to promote even growth.

*
Get your vegetable seeds and plant selections ready. Check and see when your local last frost date is.

Spring Seed Blessing Charm

Perform this on the night of a new moon.

Goddess bless these seeds, I hold the future in my hands,

Help them to grow and to bring beauty across the land.

May and June

Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

Victor Hugo

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day—like writing a poem, or saying a prayer.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh


Gather the yellow blossoms of the yarrow while it's looking its best. Coordinate the harvest with the appropriate phase of the moon, as was discussed in chapter 6. Hang the yarrow upside-down inside of a brown paper bag for a few weeks and allow it to air-dry. Then store the dried flowers in a nonporous, airtight container or old canning jar. Now you have an all-purpose magickal herb for your garden witchery and herbal spells for the rest of the year.

July and August

Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a
fragrance as before a storm.
When a storm approaches thee,
be as fragrant as a sweet-smelling flower.

Jean Paul Richter

A garden always looks towards the future.

Rita Buchanan