May 2021 Astrological Influences & Ritual Recommendations

Good Witches Homestead

We welcome May with the Gaelic celebration of Beltane, which marks the beginning of Mother Earth entering a new cycle of growth, fertility, and abundance. Although I do not practice or observe any Pagan or Wiccan/New Age holidays or rites, I do honor this blessed day by creating an abundant ritual altar of candles and flowers. May 3rd, 2021: Last Quarter Moon in Aquarius will bring a strong desire for solitude. Sensitives and those developing their third eye will feel overloaded with psychic messages. Anxiety often heightens during this time. Excellent time to physically and spiritually cleanse the home. The combination of Agrimony Powder and Wormwood Powder illuminates and cleanses all surroundings. This nearly smokeless method of cleansing will be very satisfying under the influences of this Last Quarter Moon. More information and instructions can be found on the Smokeless “Smudge” Kit page. If

Source: May 2021 Astrological Influences & Ritual Recommendations

View original post

Beltane Gardening Rituals: Garden Blessings, Standing Stones, and Energy Workings

The Druid's Garden

Here in the Laurel Highlands of Western PA, Beltane marks the start of “planting” season, where we move our indoor seeds out into the greenhouse to harden off, where many seeds like carrots and beans start to go into the ground directly, and where the land is budding and blooming with the joy that spring offers. And so in today’s post, I’m going to share some Beltane spring garden blessing ideas for you, as you can craft your own sacred “druid’s garden”.

One of our amazing sacred gardens here at the Druid’s Garden Homestead!

The concept of “blessing” is quite wide-ranging. In the broadest sense, a garden blessing is any working that offers positive energy and protection to a growing space for a season, ensuring your plants a bountiful harvest, long life, and joyful existence. Blessings can be extremely wide-ranging and pretty much anything you do can have some positive…

View original post 2,021 more words

Are You Awakening or Just Changing?

HOW TO TRUST + FOLLOW SPIRIT

Times of great challenge are also times of great reclaiming:

Reclaiming our feelings of resilience, personal power, faith, magic, and healing wisdom.

Reclaiming old ways while adopting new.

Reclaiming our sense of purpose, and conviction in what truly matters.

It is often in times of challenge or recovery that we turn more deeply to Spirit – for guidance, understanding, support.

One could argue that it’s a sign of spiritual evolution when one turns more deeply to Spirit in times of ease, thriving, without need for overcoming great challenge.

One could also argue that we are always facing some great challenge, in one form or another, as we turn each bend in the labyrinth of our lives.

To me, Spirit encompasses many things: God/dess, the consciousness of the stones, ethereal spirits, nature spirits, spirit guides, spirits of the departed, our own spirits or souls.

It’s through being able to deeply listen to my own spirit, my own voice + truth, and that of my Guidance that has gently yet powerfully steered me through some of the hardest challenges in my life.

But I know from my own experience, and that which I witness in others, that being able to truly listen to + follow our own voice and Spirit can be a challenge in and of itself.

How do you listen deeply? How do you hear Spirit? How do you trust what you’re hearing enough to follow?

My friends: I know it takes an enormous amount of courage to surrender and follow Spirit, to say yes to the truth of your soul.

Many of us are neither conditioned nor encouraged to listen to anything other than outside authority.

But when we do take the time to listen to ourselves, to follow the guidance of Spirit, we tend to be richly rewarded.

Read original article at: Krista Mitchell ~ How to Trust & Follow Spirit

Druid Tree Workings: Cutivating Recpiprocity

The Druid's Garden

Norway spruce resin, harvested with honor and reciprocity from the land

When I was still quite young, my grandfather used to take me and my cousins into the deep forest behind our house and teach us many things about nature. One of the fun things he taught us, for example, was that you could use spruce gum or white pine resin not only as a chewing gum (something that gave us endless enjoyment) but also to cover over a cut to help heal it or draw out a splinter or stinger. I remember once day we were walking in the woods and I fell on the ground and scraped my knee quite badly on a rock. He went to a nearby spruce tree and got some of the sticky resin, then carefully spread it on my knee and covered it with a tulip poplar leaf. The resin stuck the leaf…

View original post 1,783 more words

Sacred Trees in the Americas – Spruce (Picea glauca, Picea pungens, Picea spp.)

The Druid's Garden

The beautiful blue spruce looking across the landscape on a mountain in Western PA

When I lived in a walkable small town, what drew me every day was a line of beautiful blue spruce trees. Right around the corner from my house, they were on my daily walking commute to work. We used to say hello and do an energy exchange each day. One day that following summer, I watched as the city landscaping people came through and ruthlessly cut them back away from the power lines (they were not growing even close to the lines) and I held space for the trees. Over the next few months, those trees began to heal, and they produced copious amounts of amazing tree resin as a first line of defense. In the years that followed, eventually, the resin grew hard and the trees invited me to harvest small amounts that could be…

View original post 3,220 more words

New Moon in Aries | Entering The Flower Moon Cycle

Happy New Moon in Aries!

This is our first New Moon of the spring season. The Aries energy offers us a chance to make a brave new start. To some, this might feel like a second chance.

This new moon is also in the middle of a Mars trine with Jupiter which brings in opportunities for abundance, good fortune, and positive energy.

We witness the Flower Moon during this cycle, and throughout the month of April we will feel more of the grounding Taurus energy take over. Though, the energy amps up a bit as we experience our first retrograde since February! This may cause many of us to undergo what feels like a transformation or rebirth.

Each new moon, using our planners and decks we put together the Moonthly Lunar Report to help us navigate the new moon cycle ahead.

A new moon in Aries ignites our imaginations and inspires us to be bold and daring with our intentions, giving us the energy needed to act on our goals.

Set an intention that challenges you to rise up and to grow and watch how much you truly do grow and expand this moon cycle! The new moon week is all about new beginnings and really visualizing new possibilities and opportunities that are available.

On the 13th the Sun sextiles Mars, who is the ruler of Aries, so this transit can really help illuminate your dreams and intentions and bring them into focus! This gives you a boost in your confidence, self esteem and courage.

This new moon is also in the middle of a Mars trine with Jupiter which brings positive energy, abundance and good fortune with it. This can also help you break free from the rut you may have been feeling while helping you make clear intentions you know you can follow through on.

Read complete article at: Spirit de la Lune ~ New Moon in Aries | Entering The Flower Moon Cycle

Druid Tree Workings: Finding and Working with Grandmother Trees

The Druid's Garden

The Ancient Maple – Grandmother Tree. This grandmother lives in a middle of a rock pile. the three branching trunks signify she may have been cut at one time and regrew. Grandmothers can be stubborn!

A grandmother is a really special person. I remember going to my grandmother’s house when I was a little girl–it was literally my favorite place to go. My grandmother and I would go to the thrift store and buy used clothing, then spend the morning sewing doll clothes and repurposing those old clothes for amazing new clothes for me–skirts that swirled out wide and colorfully printed tops. We’d go out into the garden and pick herbs, and she’d cook up an incredible pot of mushroom soup. She was full of generosity and love and always fostered my creativity and joy. My other grandmother was quite different–she was a bit of a firecracker, sassy and short-tempered…

View original post 1,714 more words

Druid Tree Workings: Principles for Establishing Deep Relationships with the Trees, Part I

The Druid's Garden

Trees provide an abundant amount of resources…shelter, food, fire, friendship–but they also as this blog has shown, can work various forms of magic through their energetics, through their lore, through their divinatory meanings. They are some of the most kind, giving, and accessible beings on the landscape, and certainly a place to not only begin a nature spiritual practice but deepen it over time. As I’ve written on this blog, working with the trees must be a matter of exchange–honoring them, treating them as elders, listening to their stories and songs–and if you want to work tree magic, this magic requires us to be in a sacred relationship with the trees. I’ll be doing a short series on how to establish, maintain, and grow relationships with plants and trees.

Powerful Chestnut Tree bearing nuts!

In this first post of this new series, we are going to focus on the concept…

View original post 2,115 more words

An Enchantment Spell for this Full Planting Moon

This Full Planting Moon is the first of 4 super moons in a row this year. This is also the first full moon of the astrological new year.

The energy has been intense leading up to this full moon. Establishing order, healing of old wounds and trying to maintain and establish harmony might be some major themes for you right now.

There are some powerful lessons with this moon. It is opposite Venus, trine Saturn and opposite Chiron. The Moon will also make a perfect triangle configuration to both Saturn and Mars, known as a Grand Trine.

This Full Moon is opposite Venus which can increase your need for love and affection, helping us connect to others on deeper levels. Be careful that with this vulnerability you don’t give into things like jealousy or obsession or codependency.

The Moon is trine Saturn, which gives us the patience, inner strength and wisdom to handle any of the obstacles that might come with the intense energies of this full moon.

Chiron, the wounded healer is conjunct the Sun and Venus, and opposite the moon right now too, so there are some unhealed wounds that might be making themselves known to you right now. These might come in the form of new experiences that hold similar energy to a past event.

You might feel like your healing is going backwards, but trust that it is cyclical. Trust in the seeds you’ve planted in the past. Trust in your inevitable period of blooming.

The full moon is also known as the Planting Moon. The Seed has sprouted. Life is flowing and growing wild.

The Planting Moon brings you back to Earth. Prepare your garden so your dreams can grow. Spiritually and quite literally.

For this earthy full moon, we are reconnecting with Gaia- the plant allies, crystal companions and our ritual from last month by completing our witches garden.

If you haven’t planted any seeds yet, no worries! There is still plenty of time. If you did already plant your seeds, they might be big enough to be moved to a bigger planter.

But before we transplant plant our seeds, we are going to create a dedicated planter to hold them and help them grow.

Read full article at: Spirit de la Lune ~ An Enchantment Spell for this Full Planting Moon