Autumn Equinox

BY: ELLEN DUGAN

The beginning of the autumn season officially commences in September with the Autumn Equinox. As the sun enters the astrological sign of Libra, the hours of day and darkness are equal to one another, just like the balanced scales of Libra itself. From this point of the year, with each passing day, the daylight hours become noticeably shorter and the weather starts to cool. Autumn is a season of shadows and a time of wan light, but it is also a season of abundance, thanksgiving, and harvest.

Ancient people realized the importance of the sun to life on earth. In the time after the equinox, the sun appears to be growing weaker, losing its battle against the darkness. To help the sun regain its former strength, people held harvest festivals of light featuring torches and bonfires as an act of sympathetic magick to encourage the sun to…

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Using an Oracle or Tarot Deck to Establish Sacred Space

The Druid's Garden

Plant Spirit Oracle

As some of you may know from my posts on Facebook and Instagram, in early 2020, I’ll be releasing the Plant Spirit Oracle as my second self-published divination deck (if you want to support the project, see link in the right sidebar with the Oak image). I described the Plant Spirit Oracle project a bit in an earlier post. For today’s post, I wanted to share a ritual space strategy that I developed as part of the PSO project–how to use a tarot or oracle deck to establish a sacred space.

The idea in a nutshell is that rather than calling in th elements or powers in a more static way, you can use an oracle deck to draw upon them in a more dynamic way. Thus, each time you create sacred space, you will be asking the cards to help you select the right…

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Thornapple, Gender and Ritual Application | Coby Michael Ward

Good Witches Homestead

Cultivating the Devil’s Apple aka Thornapple

I spent part of this afternoon harvesting my Thornapple plants. One of them grew to be close to five feet high! The Thornapple I grew this year is a Datura stramonium var. tatula; similar to the common Datura stramonium only it is less shrubby and has lavender-purple flowers. I harvested leaves, seedpods, and stems. I have a few workshops coming up over Samhain season on different aspects of the Poison Path and like to have the actual plants on hand for anyone interested in working with them. Part of my bargain with said plants is to make them available to others and teach people how to use them. All parts of the plant are going to be put to various uses. The leaves are dried and used for spirit offerings, intense personal cleansing and as spell ingredients. The stems, when dried become hard…

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Earthen Nature Spirit Statues with Cob

The Druid's Garden

An earth spirit statue in my greenhouse, freshly made with sticks and an oak gall

A lifetime ago, myself and a dear friend dug some clay out of a hillside. We each took half of it. My half of the clay was used to form an earthen statue, a guardian statue, for that same friend who was struggling with terminal cancer while still in his early 20’s. It had a wooden tree knot head, stones for its belly, a stick staff, and an earthen body. My friend accepted it reverently, and it went with him everywhere, even till the end. As he struggled with his battle with cancer, it grew nicked and chipped. The wooden head fell off, just as my friend’s brain cancer grew more serious. When he passed on, the earthen statue passed on with him, returning to the earth. This statue was an impermanent being; fashioned of…

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Spiritual Initiations of Neptune and Neptune in the 12 House

September; Dancing With The Moon

Sapphire: The Corundum Conundrum

Good Witches Homestead

Blue Sapphire likely derives its name from the Sanskrit word sanipriya meaning “dear to the planet Saturn,” and is considered one of the few precious gemstones. By definition, a gemstone is a rare, beautiful and durable stone, and since Sapphire has a beautiful blue hue, a Mohs hardness of 9 out of 10 and no cleavage planes it is considered one of the most precious gemstones.

In addition to its physical traits, Sapphire has considered precious because of the belief that it makes one “favorable to God” according to the ancient Greek historian Damigeron and is said to protect against envy and regulate all bodily functions. A great stone for meditation, Blue Sapphire guides one in spiritual endeavors. Judy Hall states in The Crystal Bible that it “facilitates self-expression and speaking your truth.”

Did you know that Sapphire occurs in a rainbow of colors?

To provide some disambiguation Sapphire can occur in many colors and…

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All About Birthstones – GemSelect Newsletter September 2019 — Good Witches Homestead

What is a birthstone? A birthstone is a gemstone which has been designated to a specific month of the year, in some cases, there are multiple gemstones which can belong to one specific month; your birth month determines which gemstones apply to you. But a birthstone is more than that… it is a way for […]

via All About Birthstones – GemSelect Newsletter September 2019 — Good Witches Homestead

New Moon in Virgo Moonthly Energy Reading Harvest Moon Cycle

Spirit de la Lune New Moon in Virgo | Energy Reading Harvest Moon

This New Moon in Virgo brings us a fresh burst of energy to help us make clear cur decisions so we can achieve our goals and step into our full potential.

Since April we have endured retrogrades and eclipses that have brought up past wounds, lessons on forgiveness and reasons for us to let go and finally heal. It feels like we have been torn down, rebuilt and torn down again.

This New Moon in Virgo will help give us the needed push or missing piece to finally pull everything together in a lasting way.

We had a series of Eclipses, and Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, Mercury, Chiron, Saturn and now even Uranus retrogrades affecting us this year. Like a caterpillar before it enters it’s cocoon, we must shed and shed and shed again. A caterpillar doesn’t just shed it’s skin once before it becomes a butterfly… It spends most of its time shedding and rejuvenating itself.

All of this non stop astrological energy has tried to help us shed our old ways so that we too can step into a better future and a new us. It is safe to say, we have had a roller coaster of a year, but there has been purpose to the lessons.

This New Moon is welcoming in the Virgo season. Virgo seasons is about reassessing our lives, taking charge, and making the changes needed so that we can move where we want to go.

This New Moon joins the sun in Virgo on the 30th of August.

Virgo energy is one of organization, attention to detail, new beginnings and making room for a fresh start. If you have a lot of Virgo in your chart, you might be one to collect stationary or hoard notebooks.

Virgo loves to see an organized plan with all the little details mapped out. This is a great time to get serious about your intentions for the moonth ahead!

Virgo energy has a “back to school” feel to it, where we want to take charge of our lives, prioritize our time and be more efficient.

Allow this New Moon in Virgo to give you the push you need to reevaluate your life, then reorganize it in the way that is needed so you can move forward.

Read remaining article via: Spirit de la Lune ~ New Moon in Virgo Moonthly Energy Reading Harvest Moon Cycle