Moon Day - Last Day of this Lunar Cycle

Moon Day - the Day of Remembering and Feeling - Impression Day ..... Magickally, Monday encourages the lunar energies of inspiration, illusion, prophetic dreams, emotions, psychic abilities,
travel, women's mysteries and fertility.

Candle Colors for Moon Day - Colors for this lunar day may include silver, white, and pale blue or gray. Ellen Dugan in Book of Witchery suggests to keep your eyes open for celestial themed candles with moons and stars on them. Try your hand at a little candle-magick aromatherapy. Look for the following scented votive candles to coordinate with your lunar enchantments: gardenia-scented candles promote spirituality and love, jasmine-scented candles encourage peace, sleep and psychic dreams, sandalwood, a highly spiritual scent may be used to support meditation and helps to set an excellent magickal mood. All of these enchanting fragrances correspond to Moon Day and the moon's gentle magick.
During this last waning moon day of this cycle all psychic work will probably turn inward. This often forces a person to contemplation and it nudges them into turning psychic abilities and all that focus within. That is when you gain the opportunity for self-discovery. Work with your divinatory tools now to gain an appreciation for what events and people have led you to this point in your life. By looking to the past, we can acquire a good overview on what has brought us to the point we are standing at now. Then we may gain understanding, wisdom, and insight.

Sun Day - Balsamic Moon - Sun enters PIsces

Today the Balsamic Moon moves in the sign of Aquarius and the Sun enters Pisces. 

Sun Day - is the Day of Intent, Creation, and Renewal ......Sun Day brings bright solar energies into our lives and have the magickal correspondences of success, promotion, leadership, pride, light, generosity, warmth, fitness and personal growth. The charms and spells that would compliment this magickal day of the sun are ones for personal achievement of any kind. Health issues, increasing personal power or simply sticking to your diet and being proud of what you have accomplished all fall under the sun's golden influence.

Candle Colors for Sun Day - In her Book of Witchery Ellen Dugan says: "Candles colors for Sun Day include yellow and gold. In magick, the color yellow is used to aid communication, knowledge and creativity. The color gold arepresents royalty, the God, riches, wealth and frame. For centuries candles have been lit to welcome deity and to symbolize a connection to the magickal realm. In actuality, a burning candle is a physical symbol of your spell. Watch for gold metallic tapers and pillar candles around the winter holidays and you can usually pick them up on sale.  Yellow may be harder to find, so keep your eyes peeled. For my (Ellen Dugan) candle magick, I like to work with scented votives. They comes in all colors and lots of yummy fragrances. Try looking for citrus scents to bring health and cinnamon scents for success and prosperity. These bewitching scents will help link your solar magick with a little magickal aromatherapy." 

Sun in Pisces - The Mutable Pisces Sun asks us to feel the ambient pools of unabashed emotion and be moved to compassionate action. As the bears stirs in their dens this time of the year, Pisces calls us to use the growing spring light and clear nights to explore our dreams. 

Balsamic Moon in Capricorn - Saturn's Day

Saturn Day - the Day of Manifestation and Structure, Assessment and Responsibility - Foundation Day.... Saturn's Day is traditionally the day to work on protection, remove obstacles, bind troublesome or dangerous individuals and banish negativity. Saturn's Day is like a magickal 'let's clean house' day. Any magickal messes left lying around that need to be addressed, or any problems that need to be cleared up, are best dealt with on the day devoted to Saturn. Saturday is a day filled with opportunities to clean up and clear out.

Candles For Saturn's Day - Black is also the traditional candle color for protection magick as well as for spells cast on Saturn's Day. There is something extra intriguing and witchy about black candles. Sometimes these may be hard to locate throughout the year. Ellen Dugan says in her book Book of Witchery your best bet is to watch for black candles during the fall months (especially around Halloween) and stock up on them. If you check out a few specialty or trendy candle shops at the mall, you will be able to find black jar candle and votives. It always makes Dugan smile to see a classy jar candle labeled something like 'Midsummer Magic' or 'Midnight Spice'. Typically these are patchouli scented which is perfected to use in candle magick as patchouli is associated with Saturn and protection. Work with either of these dramatic and dark-featured colors for Saturn's Day candle spells designed to protect, neutralize gossip, and deflect harm.

A Priestess's Litany for a New Day -
This can be done indoors or outside. Know your directions or have a compass with you to help you find them. You can candles and incense burning if you wish or you can just chant this litany as you face each direction. .....

I come to the East. I ask the wind to clear away preconceptions and muddy reasoning. At this moment of sunrise, the beginning of a new day, I come to thee seeking the wisdom I may need.
I come to the South. I ask the fire and the full light of noon to give me courage and energy. Burn from me all my angers and smallness of mind. I come to thee seeking right action and protection in whatever I am called to do.
I come to the West. I ask the still waters to hold me sensitive to the material needs of my world. Let the moving waters wash from me the busyness of mundane concerns. I come to thee seeking the quiet sensitivity of thy flow in twilight.
I come to the North. I ask the earth and stones for wisdom, stability and endurance. Absorb from me all stolid heaviness. I come to thee seeking growth and the quiet of thy might.
I come to the Center. Let me never forget that all things had their source in spirit and to spirit shall all return. I come to thee seeking balance.
I come to the silver light of Moon, the golden light of Sun. May I, this day and this night, find my path and walk it with grace, serenity, hope.
And so I begin my day.
[From Deepening Witchcraft by Grey Cat]

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

While in no way a Wiccan festival, Valentine's Day has become so much a part of our modern calendar that it seems unreasonable to omit here.

  While this day is named after one of two Christian Martyrs of the same name, there have been fertility festivals around this time for much longer.
    The 15th of February is the Roman festival of Faunus, also know to the ancient Greeks as Lupercalia or the festival of Pan. Both woodland deities, Faunus and Pan are closely linked at this time to Priapus who originated in Asia, definitely a fertility God. Images of the God were decorated and displayed through the streets and the Priests would whip members of the crowd, especially women, to bring on fertility.
    In addition to the Gods and festivals of fertility there are a great number of Gods and Goddesses who are linked to love, like Eros, Venus and Hathor, and these are perhaps more appropriate deities to honor if you are seeking love and romance. Light a pink candle to your chosen deities and ask them to bring you a true love. Resist the temptation to work magick to make someone to love you: not only is it unethical but it also invariably results in problems and disappointment.
    While today it is customary for us to send greeting card, whether romantic or humorous, to those we love, this only originated in the Victorian era. Before this it was a country custom, which still exists in some parts, for unattached girls and boys to draw names from which to choose their partner for this day.
[From Kate West's The Real Witches' Year]

St. Valentine's Day: The First of the Resurrected Lupercalia Festivals (Roman) -
    Lupercalia was the festival of the natural 'heat' - the sexual readiness that permeated nature, especially the wolves. Lupa is the wolf; she was a sacred animal symbolizing Mother Nature's breeding aspect. This was the original St. Valentine's Day, when the original minds of people turned to celebrations of their sexuality and attraction.
   St. Valentine's Day customs originated in Rome, when willing young maidens wrote their names on slips of papyrus, put them in a box, shook them up, and let young men pull out the names of their valentines. The young people then spent the day together as companions, and Goddess knows what great adventure came of it all - romance, marriage or just a day to remember. The names were equally matched by both sexes so nobody had to go home alone after the drawings.
    Records in England go back to 1479 of girls writing letters to their valentines, when the custom of drawing names was no longer in use and youth simply sent letters to each other with their feelings expressed inside. In the 1880s lace, heart-painted satin, ornaments, birds, baskets, ribbons and cupids were added to the letters, and rhymes and perfume followed. Today it is a thinly fertility holiday of love and sex. Yes, the fertility rites never die, they just acquire more props!
[From: The Grandmother of Time by Zsuzsanna Budapest]

Love Divination

Love Divination

Love divination traditionally takes place at many times of the year, including St. Agnes' Eve, Midsummer's Eve, Halloween, Christmas Eve and of course St. Valentine's Eve.

   While historically these are usually carried out by girls, there is no reason why they would not work just as well for a boy. Here are just a few.....

   A blue thread should be thrown over the left shoulder and out of the window. Its shape will indicate the initial of the loved one.
    Two girls should sit in silence from midnight to 1AM. Each should pull as many hairs from her head as she is years old and place them in a clean white cloth with some Moonwort fern. At the stroke of 1, each should burn these hairs, one at a time in the flame of a white candle. Then, still not speaking, they should retire to bed where they will dream of their true love.
    To bring your true love to you, you should sit on the doorstep shelling peas until you find a pod with nine peas in it. This should be placed on the threshold of the kitchen door and the next man to cross over it will be your sweetheart.
    The new bride should a piece of wedding cake to each of her unmarried friends, which, if they put it under their pillow on the night after the wedding, will give them dreams of their future partner.
    Go out at dawn on St. Valentine's Day and seek the trail of a snail. The first you see will have the shape of your future lover's initial.

"Remember, relationships are easy; it's

having good ones which is hard."



Water Scrying

The waning moon enters Scorpio - this is a good time in a lunar cycle to practice your scrying abilities.....

Scrying in Water - a practice of receiving messages or information by focusing attention on a reflective surface and seeing what kinds of images come up. I find a good way to practice this is to look into a black clay bowl filled with water - you attempt to see what images come up to the surface of the water. Probably all you will see the first few time you start practicing is water. This can be a difficult form of divination. But like so many other types of magickal practices that you want to be good at, it takes practice and focus. Part of being a witch is knowing when to trust what your experiences and your intuition. This doesn't happen overnight. It only comes with practice, practice and more practice Most novices are not able to scry right away and some, maybe a lot, won't ever be able to do it well. But that is okay because we all have abilities we are a natural at and others that we never do well. So let's say you think you see something in the water - but how do we know if we really are seeing messages or are they something we make up in our head? Or if we are daydreaming? That is where practicing over and over comes in - you can learn to tell what's real from what isn't. And sometimes you still can't be sure.
But this something you go through when you start meditating - so you ask what is the point of meditating? This practice is to clear your mind, to change your mental status, to open yourself up to noticing what's going on around you and how these things are affecting you. And so in the same way you are doing this when scrying - you open yourself up to receiving information you normally wouldn't receive because you're so busy thinking about other things and doing other things. So many times this is always there - we're just aren't always tuned into it.
So learning this witchy skill doesn't happen overnight. It only comes with practice, practice and more practice. No one can scry right away but keep working at it and especially at time like these next couple of days - Scorpio energies will help your mind to focus on opening itself up to messages.

Create Your Astral Temple

Create Your Astral Temple

An Astral Temple is a form of Sacred Space which
is created on the Astral (or psychic) plane.

   It has a number of advantages over the conventional Sacred Space. It can be located in any environment you choose, and will be available to you whenever and wherever you wish. It does not require the use of special tools and equipment and, created properly, will always be away from prying eyes and touching fingers. Some Covens will create one which provides them with a meeting place for magical working when they are physically distant from one another. Some Solitaries use one so that they have a private and safe place for meditation, pathworking and the like.
   An Astral Temple is created through meditation and visualization, so you will need to make sure you will be completely undisturbed during your working. Before you begin, decide what sort of setting you would like; indoor, outdoor, etc. Now settle yourself down comfortably, close your eyes and do a few breathing exercises to relax. Visualize yourself travelling to your chosen environment, taking with you something valuable by way of an offering. Call upon each of the Elements, the Goddess and the God=, in your usual way, and ask each for their Blessing on your Sacred Space. Visualize yourself casting the Circle and making all secure. Now kneeling in the center of your Sacred Space, visualize the Goddess and the God at your Altar, rise, greet them and make your offering. If they place an offering on your Altar, then your Astral Temple is ready for use. Otherwise, repeat the exercise another time.

"The more you worship your Goddess, the greater in power She grows."
[From: The Real Witches' Year by Kate West]