Everyday Enchantments

My Harvest altar This is one of the 8 festivals (Sabbats) of the Wiccan Wheel of the Year, more commonly known as Lughnasadh or Lammas. In my personal path, I've chosen to call this the Festival of the Harvest instead as my path is not wholly Wiccan. It is a festival of the first harvest, not of fruit or vegetables but of grains; Mabon (or the Autumn Equinox) is considered the '2nd harvest', the harvest of fruit, vegetables and meat. As it is the festival of grain, bread is usually the main festival food offering! Lore I suggest also checking into more traditional lore of the Sabbats in books on Wicca, the below is the 'lore' from my personal path. Everything in Nature is now ripening from bud and blossom to fruit. Everywhere you look are fruits of the fertility sown earlier in the year. The golden fields of ripe grain are swaying in warm sunlight! Some soft fruits are also ripe, such as raspberries and blackberries. Make bread and sacrifice some of ...

I started off the week with a short (I work full time) moment at my garden altar this morning, burning some Purification incense and having a mindful moment. It only took 5 minutes, but I feel much more refreshed and ready for the new week after clearing out all those spiritual/energetic cobwebs! RECIPE: Purification Incense Chamomile Lavender Peppermint Bay leaf Benzoin Mix equal parts of herbs in a jar, crumble in one bay leaf, and then add some grains of benzoin resin. Benzoin resin smells very potent; don't get too heavy-handed or your blend will be too strong. This mix must be burned on charcoal discs!

Phew. No, honestly. Phew... I am soooo looking forward to the New Moon and the ending of the Mercury retrograde. Emma Mumford talks about how not to 'manifest' the negativity of the retrograde but it's so hard because the energy really affects me, and the people I work with. I find myself wearing black tourmaline and trying to bat away crazy sh*t all the time... Anyway today marks an easing of much of this cosmic crap, as the moon enters into its 3rd Quarter, and moves into Taurus. The 3rd Quarter moon is the moon for re-evaluating and releasing; I take this time to start working on what I want to put into my New Moon intentions. I also sometimes have a little mini-declutter of a small area of my home, or maybe my emails. Somehow it seems to just be a good time for me to do that! When the daily moon is in Taurus, it is a time to relax and practice some self care, plodding about the house, eating and just chillaxing. It's not a particularly good time to do ur...

Admit it, you think of the Wicked Witch of the West ... It's been a while again! I decided I wanted to get back into blogging about my witchy life again, after feeling a bit disconnected from it all being super-busy being a new mum in the last year. I'm also getting back into blogging about beauty and lifestyle over on my other blog ; I just want to get back into more creative and spiritual stuff (and not just changing cloth nappies and trying to stop my little witchling running around and hurting herself on stuff). I will be posting one post a week to start off with, but I toying with the idea to set up an Instagram account for daily witcheries... As much for me, as for you :) See ya all soon!

Love using your smart phone? I do, because it comes with some really good tools for the modern witch! I've been using various apps (decks) from Fool's Dog Software for about 2 years or more. I love how I can take my favourite deck anywhere I want on my smart phone and my tablet :) My current favourite is the below - Crystal Visions Tarot. COPYRIGHT by Fool's Dog Software I also have the 'Book of Shadows Tarot vol.1', 'Shadowscapes Tarot' and the 'Victorian Fairy Tarot'. I started using these on my Galaxy S3/S5, but discovered that these really come into their own on the tablet! The images are high resolution and the programming is very functional. I especially love the fact you can have a 'card of the day' widget - I use it daily to just get more into the cards by reading the description of each new card every day. The app has a great journal, various ways of doing a reading, and they also come with the full instructional book that t...

Mabon, or the Autumn Equinox, is the second harvest festival in the Wiccan Wheel of the Year after Lughnasadh. I usually set up seasonal altars and this is no different! I have added a scented votive sampler now and some very nice horse chestnuts which as now starting to fall :) I tend to use votive samplers as 'seasonal candles'. I found a nice autumnal one from Yankee Candle this year called "Amber Moon" for my Mabon altar. It's described on the website as "warm golden amber in the evening breeze with the added intrigue pf patchouli and sandalwood". It reminds me of a nice brisk walk in a wood filled with fallen, golden leaves on a sunny autumn day with a chill in the air! :) It is stronger than I normally like for a scented candle so I burn it sparingly. I used cards from Brian Froud's The Faerie's Oracle to symbolise the changing season. I grew Quaking Grass this year so I took it in to dry for Mabon. It's a beautiful annual grass ...

I just wanted to show you a very simple Fullmoon Altar I've set up tonight. The June full moon is sometimes called the Rose Moon, as the dog rose flowers at this time, but for me, it is definitely Jasmine Moon! I love Mock Orange, and around the June full moon and Midsummer, the Mock Orange flowers and the scent carries on the night breeze. When I was a young witch some 20 yrs ago, these were my most magical full moons as my mother grew a gigantic Mock Orange in the front yard meaning I could have these fragrant boughs in my vase on the balcony for my celebration! I have a scented candle on my altar this year to recreate this feeling - Yankee Candle Midnight Jasmine. I also like to pull out some moonstone, selenite and a crystal ball, and this year I wanted to use a card and spell from the enchanting 'Witchlings Book of Spells'!