A Walk Through a Sacred Garden

The Druid's Garden

View of some of our gardens at Lughnasadh! Here you can see our main garden (on the left, annuals) and the meditation garden (on the right; smaller perennials). We also have other perennial patches we are cultivating on other parts of the property. And of course, our wonderful greenhouse in the center! Behind the greenhouse is a compost tumbler. In front of the greenhouse, you can see our duck enclosure (more about that later). Towards the back in the center, you can see our guinea/chicken enclosure and goose enclosure. The compost area is off to the back left.

Today, we are taking a walk through the sacred gardens at the Druid’s Garden Homestead. There are so many lessons to learn with a simple walk in a beautiful garden. Today’s Lughnasadh garden walk reminds us of the power of nature to heal wounds, strengthen our spirits, and help us through challenging…

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The Daughter of King Under Wave

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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