The Summer Soltice, the Strawberry Moon, and the Turning of the Wheel

Note: This blog is currently a work in progress. more information will be available on each item, including pictures, later in the day.

The TWG Three are at it again! This month, we got together to work through bag deliveries and have some fun, and the packing party was a big success. There was food, some pool time, some adult beverages and delicious tea, and a whole lot of fun with the three of us and our mates.

Welcome to the fifth delivery from the Witch’s Garden. Under the Strawberry Moon, your subscription will contain items related to the summer solstice, summer fire, and the bounty of late-spring harvests. The weeds try hard to take over the beds this time of year – but the good news is many of them are edible and used in traditional medicine! In the spirit of working in harmony with the land we live with, we use everything we pull – either in the kitchen, the apothecary sanctuary, or in sharing with our beloved supporters in the Witch\’s Garden. Anything that doesn\’t fit those uses either feeds the animals or becomes compost or mulch.

Reminders:

• Please bring back your cloth bags with the name tag attached, so we know that you returned your bag. Each customer gets two bags for the year – one to pick up full of goodies, and one to return empty so that we can refill it for you next month. The cycle continues until the end of the year, when you can choose whether to keep both bags, one bag, or return them both for us to recycle next year. Right now we\’re using a lot of paper. We\’ll try to reset next month with more cloth bags, but we won\’t be replacing them again this year.
• We will also re-use any glass or packing materials you return. Please help us keep costs down by letting us reuse as much as possible.
• If you haven’t yet, please fill out this survey to let me know what you thought of the Flower Moon delivery!
• If you have any trouble with the form, the blog, or the website, please let us know so that we can iron out any kinks.

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Litha, The Summer Solstice

Our fourth stop on the Wheel of the Year, Litha celebrates Midsummer, summer’s heat and the first fruits of the spring garden. Moonfall Metaphysical has a lovely post on Litha if you\’d like to read more.

The Strawberry Moon

As the heat of summer intensifies and we approach the coming solstice, the garden – and its weeds – are at the height of becoming. New seeds have sprouted, returning perennials are near flower, and the garden and the fields are just glorious under the sleepy summer heat. Bees buzz languorously around the million flowering offerings in our landscape. Strawberries ripen slowly on the vine.

(Side note: we do have strawberries planted, and most years they\’re perennials here. We only had a small handful this year, but as the beds grow we\’re hoping to be able to provide at least a taste of a real, fresh-off-the-vine strawberry in coming years.)

The Celtic Tree Calendar

A tradition of some Celtic pagan paths, most likely arising in the 1800s but based on the historically ancient ogham writing system, relates a tree species to each lunar month. This month’s lunar correspondence is with the Hawthorne, which we don\’t have on the property. A good local stand-in for hawthorne is honey locust, and this is included in your bag. *Be Careful* as you reach into your bag for your goodies this month. The spines are just as long and sharp as Hawthorne and No Joke.

Your Items

So what’s in the box?

This month’s box includes three handmade items – Turmeric-Lemon Balm-Rosemary lotion bars, top left; a candle scribe for cutting sigils or messages into candles, bottom left; and the sun charm attached to the scribe. You also have a wealth of fresh potherbs and veggies, many of which can come together to make an amazing salad if you don\’t want to use them for magickal purposes – A lettuce blend of romaine and baby leaf lettuces, and kale, center; lambsquarters, and sorrel (center right). There\’s also a batch of magickal and medicinal herbs – yarrow, Venus\’s Looking Glass, lemon balm, and smartweed. A great deal of this bag is fresh. The mailers will receive alternate items.

Lotion Bars – These are made with coconut oil infused with turmeric; grapeseed oil infused with lemon balm, and rosemary essential oil. With the addition of shea butter and locally-sourced beeswax, these become a gentle and healing addition to your skincare routine. Use to anoint a candle or your candle scribe, or to \”purify\” your hands before beginning ritual workings. Or use as part of your morning routine to invigorate the senses and bring a bit of magickal ritual to your everyday routine. Mailers: your bars are simple squares instead of the goddess figures, since they should mail better. Please let me know if they actually arrive square-shaped.

Candle Scribe – Forged by hand in our low-tech shop forge, hand-hammered and twisted, our candle scribes are magickal items for your ritual space. These are upcycled nails, beginning life anew with purpose born of fire, hammer, and grinder. Every time you use it, let it remind you that no matter how old or young you are, no matter what your station or status in life, there is always a chance to begin anew, to find purpose and passion.

\’15-minute Ritual\’ Candles – These beeswax candles are made by hand with our tiniest candle mold. They take 5-10 minutes to burn down. With preparation and closing, that\’s a 15-minute ritual. Not every ritual has to be a deep and long excursion into the our spiritual depths. Let these bring magick into your daily routine. The colors are randomly chosen for each bundle – let the synchronicity of the candles in your bundle suggest to you places that may be in need of some care, magickal and/or mundane attention in your life:

• Green – abundance, plenty, fertility, green and growing things in your heart and life
• Red – passion, creativity, energy, assertiveness, courage
• Purple – meditation, connection to higher powers/higher self, communication, connection, psychic development
• White – cleansing, reflecting, truth, purification, summoning… can also be used in place of any color.

Lettuce Blend – Bounty from our personal garden, shared with our magickal community. Leaf lettuce and romaine are magickal early spring greens, rich in water and nutrients born of the earth, that provide us with life and a sense of abundance when we eat them. Awesome on 20 has a gorgeous post on the magickal properties of lettuce. Let is mix the magickal and mundane for you, bringing water energies and the blessings of the earth to your plate. The fresh greens couldn\’t be replicated for the mailers.

Kale – Among Camille Styles\’s \”15 Magical Recipes to Ward Off Illness\”, Kale has a sensible home. Packed with nutrients and carrying water aplenty, kale is tied up in Halloween superstitions and healthy routines across the globe. Add yours to the lettuce blend for a pleasant summer salad – make it a part ritual if you choose. The fresh greens couldn\’t be replicated for the mailers.

Lemon Balm – You can find a lovely history of lemon balm in magick and healing here. Used across the ages to keep both public and private spaces smelling fresh and clean, lemon balm is of course beloved for its calming effects, its antiseptic properties, and its invigorating scent. Dry or make an infused oil to preserve for later use, or add a bit to your salad blend for its uplifting effects. Mailers received lemon-balm infused grapeseed oil.

Sorrel – Wood sorrel or oxalis has a pleasantly sour taste and is an excellent wildcrafted addition to a salad. Enjoy this summer bounty as food or dry it for herbal/magickal uses: Potentially useful in the treatment of infections and cancerous conditions as a food or medicinal herb, oxalis is a potential gentle abortifacient and so should not be eaten by anyone who is pregnant. Aligned with Venus and the earth, Sorrel or oxalis also has magickal correspondences with healing, home, hearth, and family (Gardens Ablaze). Add to your salad mix to give a magickal and nutritive boost for yourself, family or friends. The fresh greens couldn\’t be replicated for the mailers.

Lambsquarters – An underappreciated \”weed\” herb, lambsquarters is a delicious addition to a salad and packed with nutrients. For food, prepare as you would spinach or add raw to your salad mix. It\’s the leaf and not the stem that is a delicious edible, but save the stem for magical or healing uses. Apply to burns as a poultice, internally to ward off scurvy thanks to its nutrient content, or as a wash for muscle aches and pains. It *may* have use as an effective contraceptive (all as here). Some First Nations groups twisted or fashioned the plant into the likeness of a snake and used it as a remedy for snakebite. The fresh greens couldn\’t be replicated for the mailers.

Smartweed – Low smartweed, also known as \”arsesmart\” or \”smartass\”, is a delightful pepper substitute. This is a spice, not a potherb and a little goes a long way. Even the blossoms look like peppercorns. Dice finely and use as you would pepper. Taste *a bit* on the tongue to know how much to use. This can make the tongue burn, and one can only image the stories of squatting accidentally in a patch of arsesmart that led to the colorful naming. Smartweed is a *fast-acting* herb and as such is used in fast luck spells per \”Madame Pamita\”. Use as a culinary herb, to draw money, or to hasten the results of any spell. The fresh greens couldn\’t be replicated for the mailer.

Day Lily – A beautiful and potentially edible flower, day lily produces allergic reaction when eaten in many and so is best enjoyed as a cut flower in arrangements or in magickal workings. Some lilies are toxic. There are lovely recipes by Juliet Blankenspoor for the adventurous or those who have day lily available on their property, but I recommend using these for their beauty and magickal correspondences. Lily has associations with maidenhood and virginity, but also with death. The flower moves magickally throughout our life cycles, present at the advent of our sexual awakening and at our physical death.

Lillies repel. Banishing ghosts, breaking unwanted love spells, brushing off unwanted visitors, avoiding criminal activities – these are all the province of the lily. A beautiful flower to have in your home, the lily provides powerful protection from evil or unwanted attention. These fresh flowers couldn\’t be replicated for the mailers.

Yarrow – A medicinal herb with a long history of cultivation and interconnection with humanity, yarrow is known for its power in healing wounds, relaxing muscles (including menstrual pain) and even in the flavoring of ale (as written in the Gardener\’s Path). In China, stalks of the plant were used to cast the I-Ching divination tool. Apply as a poultice to wounds to stop bleeding and promote healing, or use internally as a tea for colds, flu, and minor digestive complaints. A fresh yarrow alternative is being prepped for mailer recipients and will come to you next month.

Lactuca – A little bit of lactuca can be added to your salad and eaten, not the entire amount provided to you. Lactuca, or wild lettuce, is a weedy herb with a long history of use as a medicinal – particularly in relation to kidney diseases, PMS and menstrual problems, or as a sedative. Lactuca can be made into an alternative form of opium, or lactucarium, as here. There is some evidence for lactuca opium as a safe treatment of insomnia during pregnancy. Dried lactuca is provided in the mailers.

Honey Locust – The honey locust is a powerful magickal ally. Like Hawthorne, Honey Locust is blessed with long spikes, though to be the evolutionary remainder of a time when huge herbivores roamed the earth. Spikes that  could keep off a brontosaurus can certainly give pause to you or I. Powerful tools that can be used like an awl, the spikes of a honey locust also have baneful magickal correspondences. As protective or banishing magick, these spines have a long history. Carving sigils or names into a candle with a honey locust spike can enhance the power of the magickal working. Used for curses or hexes relating to the head and the heart, especially if imbued with blood from the spell worker\’s pricked finger in the process, Honey Locust, like Hawthorne, protects the worker and pricks the object with powerful intent, especially in relation to poppet work. Honey locust spines are provided in a thick burlap bag for the mailers – take care in opening.

Using Your Items

The items in your box are yours to do with as you please. I don’t put together “spell kits” or provide rituals for you – you have your own path to walk, and I have mine. Instead I try to provide you with items to use in your own practice, sharing some of my own plans and ideas as inspiration. Legalese, because it’s an important thing sometimes: By using these items, you acknowledge that YOU are responsible for any and all outcomes, including any allergic reactions, and not me or The Witch’s Garden. Know thyself, witch.

A few suggestions for using your items:

Create a self-care or ritual experience. Set flowers and candles around a bath, brew a gentle mint and honeysuckle flower tea, and settle in, with your worry doll beside the tub. Name her if you like. Once you’re feeling clean and settled, find those worries that are most problematic to you and tell her about them. Out loud, and completely, if you can. When you’re finished with your bath, bring your flowers, worry doll, and the remains of your tea to your altar. Feel free to add herbs from this bag to your doll to meet your intention. Leave her on your altar until bedtime. Tuck her in under your pillow, settle in with a gentle night time routine (tea, journaling, a book/audiobook, a meditation). Give your worries completely to your doll, and drift off to sleep.

Set up a summer altar with your Strawberry Moon items. Decorate with flowers, strew the altar with fresh healing, nourishing herbs, and leave your lotion bar and candle scribe in positions of honor as representatives of your chosen god (scribe) and goddess (bar).

Conduct a ritual for yourself or your loved one(s). Use the candle scribe to mark a small sigil, either on our \’15-minute ritual\’ candles or on a larger candle of your own. If you like, pack the sigil with a mix of fresh herbs that align with your working, or use a marker to color the sigil to increase contrast. Neither are necessary, but can add layers of meaning to your work, helping to focus intent. Place the candle on a fire-safe surface and burn down until it burns out. For a larger candle, you can choose to do this over a set number of days, pinching out the candle in between.

This can be done as a quick, simple celebration with the candle a representation of thanksgiving, or can have a greater intent. To create a fuller ritual, especially if doing this on the Sabbat, include a small meal shared with the gods – a salad of lettuce, kale, lambsquarters, and sorrel with water, wine, or my spiderwort soda recipe would be an excellent choice for summer fare.

Happy Litha, beloveds. May summer bring you ease and time to bask in the warmth of the sun. Blessed Be.