Category: Ritual tools

Finding Balance at the Spring Equinox: A Sun Ritual Using the Three Druid Elements

Dana's avatarThe Druid's Garden

The Spring Equinox, Alban Eiler, is the time when the light and the dark in the world are in balance. The timing of the Equinox is fortuitous–this time of balance–after such turmoil in the world. Here in the last two weeks here in the US, we’ve been on a whirlwind of change where nearly every person’s life has been radically disrupted and changed due to the global pandemic. Given the circumstances of where we are, today, I’d like to offer a balancing ritual for Spring Equinox that you can do personally to help bring balance into your life.  (I’m posting this a few days early from my usual weekly post so that you have it in time for the Equinox!)

Preliminaries

A representation of the 3 druid elements A representation of the 3 druid elements

This ritual uses the three druid elements: Gywar, Calas, and Nyfre, drawn from the druid revival for the ritual. These three terms…

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March Equinox Reading 2020

Counter Narative's avatarCounter Narrative Astrology

March is one huge deal of a month and truly the mark of some significant endings and beginnings taking place. The Equinox falls on the 19th as the Sun enters Aries and comes into a conjunction with Chiron, squaring the Nodes. This comet so named after the Greek centaur is a both a symbol of suffering and strength, where healing abilities coexist with a wound that must be endured, and perhaps, eventually dissolved.

Chiron in Aries indicates a kind of collective identity crisis is taking place and that as awareness of the issues at hand and what is behind them begins to grow, so does a collective sense of anger and uprising. And maybe that’s what needs to happen, in order to set some very twisted things straight on this planet. A conflict lies between self-preservation and greed, and this not only entails the masses but the power elite…

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March Full Moon 2020: Catch the ‘Worm Moon’ and the first supermoon of the year on Monday | Space

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarGood Witches Homestead

March full moon

How the “Worm Moon” got its name

According to the Ontario Native Literacy Project, the Ojibwe (or Anishinaabe) peoples called the full moon of March Ziissbaakdoke Giizas, or the Sugar Moon, as March is when the maple sap begins to run. The Cree called it the Mikisiwipisim, or the Eagle Moon.

The Haida of the Pacific Northwest calls the March full moon Xitgaás Kungáay, or “Noisy Goose Moon,” according to the Tlingit Moon and Tide Teaching Resource published by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. A number of migratory species are endemic to the region.

In the Southern Hemisphere, March falls during late summer and early autumn, and the Māori of New Zealand described the lunar month in March to April (as measured between the successive new moons, with the full moon halfway between) as Paengha-whāwhā, which means “all straw is now stacked at the borders of the plantations,” according…

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Seed Moon Intention Planting Ceremony

SeedMoon.jpeg

We are just a week and a half away from the spring Solstice! Spring begins on the 19th of March this year (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.)

This is the earliest first day of spring we have seen for 124 years!

Already, there are signs of spring! Greenery is popping up, plants are coming back to life and birds are beginning to chirp again. The ground is softening once again so that the planting season can begin!

This week, on the 10th of march, Mercury is going direct! This Mercury retrograde has caused a lot of past lessons to come back up. For many, there are coming around again so as to not be avoided again. These last few weeks might have been uncomfortable on many levels, but we are shedding old energies so that we can grow and rise into our most authentic selves!

Full Supermoon Seed Moon in Virgo Planting Intention Ceremony

 

This Full Supermoon is in the earthy sign of Virgo!

You might feel a pull towards spring cleaning or organizing your home this week. It’s a great time for spring cleaning!

The energy of Virgo will help you figure out exactly what needs to be cleared away so that you can allow what serves you to grow in its place.

This is also a great week to spend out in the garden pulling out the dead plants and preparing the new growth that will soon come in.

Land Blessing Ceremony using the Seven Element (AODA) Framework

Dana's avatarThe Druid's Garden

Loving the Land Loving the Land (Earth Element card from the Plant Spirit Oracle!)

Last week, I provided an overview of the AODA’s seven-element system.  I have worked with this system as my primary magical and energetic practice for almost 15 years and have found it to be an extraordinarily flexible and engaging approach to working with the land, the spirits of nature, and providing blessing and healing to the land. Thus, today’s ritual is a land blessing ceremony, with both solitary practitioner and group variants.

Many traditional land blessing ceremonies include using some form of energy (in our case, the seven elements) to bless and protect a space. This ceremony draws upon the energy of the seven directions for blessing and healing.  This ceremony is ideally done walking the perimeter of a piece of land you want to protect.  If you aren’t able to walk a perimeter of the space due to…

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The Energies of March 2020

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarGood Witches Homestead

The cosmic line up for March promises an energetically full month with a positive focus on continuous transformation and the testing of old structures that will not be fit for purpose going forward.

This process might feel intense at times so keep in mind that the intention behind the energy flow is one of ‘making things better’. Even so, it could still feel challenging to be faced with making new choices that appear to threaten carefully constructed comfort zones, so stay positive and remember to be kind to yourself as you negotiate the energies this month.

Full Moon in Virgo

We have powerfully expansive full Moon in Virgo opposite the Sun in Pisces on March 9th.

The energies around this time will provide a sense of optimism and illumination that will be very supportive of transformational change. Piscean energies facilitate inspiration from the spiritual dimensions, while Virgo has the ability…

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March Birthstone: Not just Aquamarine you have another choice!

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarGood Witches Homestead

Aquamarine, the March birthstone, is a bluish-green stone that gets its name from aqua marinus, the Latin for “seawater”.

This is in reference to the tranquil blue color of the gemstone, which has made it a favorite gem among celebrities, royalty and everyone in between.

The natural deep blue-tinted aquamarines are the rarest and most highly prized.

Chemically, aquamarine is a type of beryl, the same mineral group as morganite and emerald, and is characterized by expansive six-sided crystals that can grow to be as long as a foot. This makes aquamarine an ideal gemstone for producing large carat pieces that, when faceted or polished, make exceptional statements.

Another significant aspect of aquamarine that makes it so valuable is that it is often eye clean (visually flawless), given that there are rarely inclusions that can be seen with the naked eye, and it has fewer fractures than emerald. Moreover…

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The AODA’s Seven Element System: Above, Below, Within, Earth, Air, Fire, Water

Dana's avatarThe Druid's Garden

The AODA's Sphere of Protection in a Tree The AODA’s Sphere of Protection in a Tree demonstrating the seven-element framework

Perhaps the first thing to think about in any system of spiritual or magical practice is the way in which a practice offers a framework to understand reality. These frameworks vary widely based on the spiritual tradition: some use a complex system of deities to map concepts to reality.  Deities often have domains and represent certain aspects of reality (e.g the Horned God Cernunnos of Celtic Mythology can represent fertility, abundance, the land itself, and so forth). Other systems may have songs, stories, and dances to help explain the world.  Other systems may recognize different kinds of energies and map them (such as the Jewish Kabbalah or Yggdrasil, the world tree, in Norse tradition, In AODA, our primary framework is a seven-element framework. The seven-element system is a highly adaptable and non-dogmatic framework that you can use…

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Gatekeeper, the God Portunus

Land Healing: Ritual for Putting the Land to Sleep

Dana's avatarThe Druid's Garden

As I shared a few weeks ago in my land healing framework post, the forest that I grew up in is having a big chunk cut out of it to make way for a septic line, a 40-60′ cut that will go for acres and acres.  It’s coming directly through the refugia garden that my parents and I have worked for years to tend and cultivate, where the ramps, wild ginseng, bloodroot, hardwood nut trees, and so many others grow.  My very favorite hawthorn tree, a tree that grew up with me and now stands tall will likely be removed by the line. The situation is extremely heartbreaking to me and my family–we have done everything we can to fight and try to get them to use the roadways or non-wooded areas to put in the line, but the condemnation papers have arrived, even the lawyers says it can’t be…

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