Lughnasadh for Solitary Practitioners

The Druid's Garden

In a typical year, at Lughnasadh, my grove would be gathering for our favorite celebration of the year. This is typically a weekend of rituals, feasting, fire, and merriment, all hosted here at our homestead in Western PA. With the pandemic raging around us, this kind of gathering cannot happen at present. As much as I enjoy our yearly Lughnasadh gathering, I’m taking time this year to focus on my solitary practice and enjoy Lughnasadh in a different way. Looking at the history and lore of Lughnasadh offers some wonderful solitary practices that honor the history of this holiday and have a fun time. For a historical look at Lughnasadh (and where some of the inspiration for this post was drawn), you can see Máire MacNeill (1962) The festival of Lughnasa: a study of the survival of the Celtic festival of the beginning of harvest published by Oxford University Press…

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BECOMING YOUR DREAM: A LEO MOON CRYSTAL RITUAL

Blessed new moon 🌚

This is an interesting one, because astrologically-speaking, this new moon went into Cancer a second time before going void of course and changing into Leo at 4:16pm ET today (where it will remain there until it goes void of course tomorrow at 8:27pm ET).

I got to the game late, only attuning to the moon through the crystal consciousness at about 4:50pm, so while everyone else is posting about the Cancer new moon, here I am writing about the Leo moon!

I’ve decided to go with it, because honestly, I think many of us (myself included) could do with a little Leo moon juice + some joyfully mad-passionate crystals right now…

MY LITTLE LEO MOON CRYSTAL RITUAL

When I tuned in to this new moon energy through the crystal consciousness, this question came through to me:

“What if you could be the biggest, boldest version of yourself?

This world is demanding the best of us – what does that mean to you?

The radiance of Leo is the enlightened leader. The creator. The warrior. The golden-crowned heart.

What does that inspire inside you?

What dreams or visions does that stir?”

Here’s something I have learned from my experience: Anything you can envision or desire, that feels in alignment with your heart and spirit, already exists as a spark in your soul.

This means that the energetic alignment, the blueprint that can manifest, co-create, or attract it into being only needs your energy to fuel it.Your energy is your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions, all focused in the direction of your vision.

What can halt us is believing in lack: not enough courage, or resources, or inspiration, or worth to see it through.

Here are the crystals, all very Leonine in nature, that are speaking up for you right now in favor of your dream:

Read original article at: Krista Mitchell ~ Becoming Your Dream: A Leo Moon Crystal Ritual

Entering the Corn Moon Cycle | New Moon in Cancer Moonthly Lunar Report

Spirit de la Lune Moonthly Lunar Report New Moon in Cancer Corn Moon Cycle

Happy New Moon in Cancer!

This new moon is known as a “Double New Moon” because it is the second new moon in a row in Cancer. This means that you might need to revisit or rethink your intentions from last month. Look at this new moon as a second chance when it comes to reaching for your goals. You might find some aspects of your intentions or goals from last month need reviewing or rethinking before they can really take off.

This new moon in Cancer also happens to be opposite Saturn, which can mean many will be faced with restriction or feeling overburdened. Remember that it’s just a phase and whatever challenges you might be facing right now will not last forever.

The moon turns new on July 20th in her home sign of Cancer. When the moon is in Cancer, you might feel called towards tending and nurturing your own home, family or cultivating a sense of home wherever you are.

Read original article at: Spirit de la Lune ~ Entering the Corn Moon Cycle|New Moon in Cancer

Sacred Tree Profile: Staghorn Sumac (Rhus Typhina)

The Druid's Garden

A lovely stand of staghorn sumac in bloom!

As we begin the march from summer into fall, the Staghorn Sumac are now in bloom. With their flaming flower heads reaching into the sky, the Staghorn sumac are striking upon our landscape. As fall comes, the Staghorn Sumac leaves turn fiery red before dropping and leaving their beautiful, antler-like, and hairy stems behind. All through the winter months, the Staghorn Sumac stems stand like antlers reaching into the heavens, until they bud and spring returns again. This post explores the medicine, magic, ecology, herbalism, craft, and bushcraft uses, and lore surrounding these amazing trees.

This post is a part of my Sacred Trees in the Americas series, which is my long-running series where I focus on trees that are dominant along the Eastern USA and Midwest USA, centering on Western PA, where I live. Previous trees in this series have included:

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Fix the Inner World

Land Healing: Distance Work and Levels of Connection

The Druid's Garden

The Laurel Highlands – Overlooking the mountains

Often, working as a land healer is very local work: you work with the plants, animals, bodies of water, insect life, and many other aspects of life that are nearby to you. Depending on where you live, this is often ample enough for any of us to do. But, you may also feel led to do work at distance on behalf of a place–perhaps a place you visited or one that is calling to you. Even though you live far away or cannot reach that place, you want to help. This is where distance land healing can come in.

An important aspect of energetic land healing (that is, working in a ritual way to help bring positive energy, blessing, and healing to land, bodies of water, animals, plants, insects, and more) is distance work. Often, land we want to heal (such as those…

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The Energies of July 2020

Good Witches Homestead

The beginning of July has brought with it some decidedly turbulent weather and an unseasonable end to the peaceful, warm summer weather that we had been enjoying during June. Watching the wind tear through the garden recently reminded us once again of how fragile our environment really is and how important it is not to underestimate the power of nature.

Those very same turbulent weather patterns are also offering us a flavor of the nature of the energy flow over the next part of the year. With this in mind, we might all be wise to keep a daily check on our grounding and make sure that our energetic foundations are secure so that we are able to withstand any storms that might pass through over the next few months.

The general energy flow for July is likely to feel quite intense with some particularly active, turbulent energy creating the…

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Beyond Divination: Four Spiritual Uses for the Tarot

Beautiful artwork. Thanks for sharing.

The Druid's Garden

When people think of the Tarot, they often think of its primary use as a divination tool. Tarot is an incredibly versatile tool, and now you can get hundreds of decks on practically any theme, choose from dozens of books to help you learn, and access a wide variety of free online resources. Learning to read them as a divination method is as straightforward as picking up a book, drawing cards, and reading entries–and yet mastering them can take a lifetime.

I wanted to share a few additional ways that I’ve used the Tarot over the years to enhance my spiritual practice. The Tarot has many uses beyond divination, and learning some of these can deepen your work with the Tarot even further. These methods can be tied directly to divination uses, help you learn the Tarot in a new way, or be used on their own. All images are…

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3 magical ways to nurture yourself during a retrograde & Eclipse Season

3 ways to nurture yourself during a retrograde & Eclipse Season

This is our final eclipse of this eclipse season and this one might actually be visible for many on the northern hemisphere!

This is a penumbral lunar eclipse which happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned, but not perfectly. This means that the Earth blocks some of the sun’s light from reaching the moon and covers all or part of the moon with it’s shadow.

The lunar eclipse will be visible for many of us this time if the sky is clear. For others it might be eclipsing while the moon is rising or setting.

Here is a link with the timing and a map of the eclipse.

When it comes to an eclipse… even if you can’t see the event you will definitely feel it, especially when our intuition and emotions are in tune with the moon!

Remember that eclipses shake the current energy up so that we can see what isn’t working, and release it or heal it so we are free to expand and move forward. This gives you the power to integrate the lessons that have been coming up over the last month or two.

This full moon eclipse is also in Capricorn. Capricorn is very goal oriented and helps us stick to our plan and intentions with it’s gentle nurturing hand. With careful planning and diligent daily effort, this week can help you make the changes you’ve been wanting to make for a long time now.

Read original article at: Spirit de la Lune ~ 3 Magical Way To Nurture Yourself A Retrograd & Eclipse Season

ASCENDING SOUL: CRYSTAL TALISMAN MAGIC FOR THE FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE IN CAPRICORN

We have yet another full moon lunar eclipse, this one in Capricorn, happening at 12:44am Sunday July 5th.

The download I received continues to guide us through the healing cycle and archetypal patterns initiated by the recent new moon solar eclipse.

I opened to channel and this is what first came through:

“Cycles and patterns, cycles and patterns.

The world goes round and round.

Moon in an earth sign, sun in a water sign,

The earth eclipses the water.

From fire and water, to earth and water,

Building, creating steady ground.

This is the earth forming anew under our feet.”

The moon will be in Capricorn, an earth sign ruled by the planet Saturn, relating to building and structure and toil and triumph. Saturn is the structurer, Father Time, the sacred masculine.

The sun is in Cancer, a water sign ruled by the moon, relating to the home, family nurturing, the emotions, intuition, imagination, and the sacred feminine.

Capricorn builds the world. Cancer builds a world of its own, within.

The sacred feminine is the energy, the flow.

The sacred masculine forms the metaphysical structure or vessel.

It is a time of creating.

This will be a very magical eclipse, one that can initiate us into a new way of being – individually, and collectively.

Don’t miss out if this calls to you and speaks to your soul, because it means your time of becoming is now.

Read original article at: Krista Mitchell ~ Ascending Soul; Crystal Talisman Magic for the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn