Juniper Leaves are the Sweetest of All

You'll find that some of these ideas wander a little outside your typical Imbolc rituals, as I've included many of my own experiences alongside your more traditional practices!

Baking sweets or bread! Oatcakes, honey cakes, scones, herb bread (bonus points for use of rosemary), and lamb are among my favorite Imbolc dishes. Anything herb, oat, dairy, or honey is typical.

Cleaning your home, coupled with cleansing of the rooms and objects of your choice.

Make yourself a nice cup of tea! Lavender and chamomile tea are staples. Bonus: sweeten it using honey and milk, both traditional ingredients of the season.

Learn about the Goddess Brigid! I'm a heathen, but I've always found it rewarding and fulfilling to learn about other mythologies and deities of other pantheons! You'll find the myth of Brigid is tightly intertwined with the celebration of Imbolc, and understanding one leads to a better understanding of the other.

Decorating with white, blue, red and gold! Lambs, the moon, corn dolls, fire, brooms, sunwheels, eggs, candles, and snowdrops are imagery associated with this celebration.

Work with the moon, or with a moon deity that you worship.

Making or decorating candles, and crafting Brigid's crosses.

Enjoy a glass of milk! Feel free to flavor it using honey, blackberry syrup or leaves, chamomile, or elderflower! (Important note: elder flowers, not berries or other parts of the elder plant, which are poisnonous when uncooked.) Bonus points if you enjoy an apple alongside it! I've taken to making apple quarters to eat when night has fallen on February 1st.

Make a list of elements of your life that you would like to see "grow"! What are your current ambitions? What projects do you want to see bear fruit?

Start a knitting project, or learn how to knit! Making a cloak, referred to as Brigid's mantle, is a common way to honor the Goddess Brigid.

Visit a local body of water, especially springs! They are the perfect spot to notice the end of winter, when their ice begins to melt. It's common practice to make pebble offerings to bodies of water, in order to thank the earth for its gift of sweet water.

Make an offering to the faerie folk (for example, milk and biscuits), or start learning how to work with them.

Acquire a new house plant, or even better: sow a seed for a new plant to grow in your home!

Work with the element of fire, for example, by practicing fire-based magic, by lighting candles in the house, or by lighting a bonfire/hearth fire.

Play calm music, especially harp music!

Appreciate the quiet and calm of nighttime, for example, by leaving your home in the dark once the sun sets, and lighting it up with nothing but candles as a symbol of the returning sun.

Reading or reciting poetry! Especially poetry pertaining to the night, winter, spring, nature and the like. Feeling inspired? Why not try writing some poetry yourself!

Then round that place there grew a hedge of thorns thicker every year, until at last the whole castle was hidden from view, and nothing of it could be seen but the vane on the roof. […] From time to time many Kings’ sons came and tried to force their way through the hedge; but it was impossible for them to do so, for the thorns held fast together like strong hands, and the young men were caught by them, and not being able to get free, there died a lamentable death.

- The Sleeping Beauty

Intent: To protect one’s home and property.

Ideal Timing: Full Moon, but can be made anytime.

Materials:

Glass Jar with Lid

Black Taper Candle

Planter Pot & Soil

Super Glue

Pins & Thorns

Duct Tape

Herbs: Dill, Basil, Salt, Vinegar, Lemon or Pickle Juice

Load the bottle with the pins, herbs, and just enough of your chosen liquid to fill it about ¾ full. It should be noted that some witches prefer to use urine for their home protection bottles, both for traditional and territorial reasons. This is certainly a viable choice if you are comfortable with it, but if not, then the options listed above will be quite effective.

Seal the top and secure with a strip of duct tape or electrical tape to prevent leaks. Once it is sealed well, begin to attach the flat ends of the thorns to the outside of the bottle using the superglue so that the points face outward. Be very careful not to stick yourself while handling the bottle!

Once all the thorns are in place, light the black candle and drip the wax over the top of the bottle. As the wax falls, hold the image of a thorny protective barrier in your mind and continue to turn the bottle, letting the wax spill down the sides to help hold the thorns in place. Keep dripping the wax until the cap is completely covered and all the thorns have been secured.

Pour some dirt into the planter pot, place the bottle inside, and pour in more dirt until the bottle is covered. Keep the pot somewhere on your property. You can even grow flowers in it, if you like, but it is not recommended that you use it for anything edible.

If you move to a new home, be sure to take the pot with you, or dig up the bottle and take it along; to remove the ward, break the wax seal and empty the contents of the bottle somewhere safe.

-From The Sisters Grimmoire: Spells & Charms For Your Happily Ever After, 2nd ed., © 2017 by Bree NicGarran.

Want more fairy tale spells? Check out the masterpost here and visit my shop for spell kits!

Podgórski Cemetery in Kraków, Poland on the evening of All Saints Day.

Read more about the origins of the custom in Poland here: Dziady / Zaduszki / Pominki.

Various Artists: We Bring You A King With A Head Of Gold

“The raw green of spring is burnished through midsummer into the baked golden crust of August, the headlong vigour of new growth slowing, ripening into a sagging, fecund fullness. Crows wheel low over a cornfield, inkblots spilt on the wide blue sky, their ragged cries cracking the drowsy haze of high summer. Cornstalks rustle and whisper secretively, heads nodding sagely in the light breeze, spread resplendent over the land like the bushy sun-bleached beard of Barleycorn himself, basking in the afternoon heat…”

01. Barron Brady - Earthen Key 03:42 02. Laienda - Little Drummer Boy/ Anvil 05:52 03. The Rowan Amber Mill - Blood And Bones (Ciderdelica Mix) 04:49 04. Tony Wakeford - The Devil 03:57 05. Kate Harrison - England 03:58 06. Drohne - The Hooden Horse / An-Dro 03:37 07. Corncrow - The Cutty Wren 03:08 08. Sproatly Smith - I Shall Leave You There 06:09 09. Tinkerscuss - Black Sarah 04:47 10. Cernunnos Rising - Hear It With My Heart 03:29 11. Mama - The Fool Of Spring 02:10 12. Magicfolk - Green Man 03:17 13. Wyrdstone - Lost At Ty Canol 04:14 14. Emil Brynge - Devon Dream 04:53 15. Kim Thompsett - Lords And Ladies 03:40 16. Dragon Spirit - Always Be Ours 03:57 17. Philip Butler And Natasha Tranter - Jack The Mommet 04:47 18. Touch The Earth - Ancient Landscapes 03:17 19. Relig Oran - Ye Mariners All 04:37 20. Autumn Grieve - Within Hollows 04:56 21. Ian McKone - Searching For Lambs 03:10 22. John Parker - Manningham Blues 03:55 23. Rattlebag - The Tyburn Sisters 02:52 24. The Fates - The Song Of The Fates 03:30 25. The Hare And The Moon - The Three Ravens 02:44 26. The Kittiwakes - Lynx 04:10 27. Venereum Arvum - Robin Sick And Weary 06:24 28. Telling The Bees - Fithfath 03:18 29. The Wind Knows 05:33 30. Demdyke - Mother Carey’s Chicks 06:17 31. Beneath The Oak - Oh Earthly Man 04:12 32. Sedayne : Sundog - A Wee Brown Cow 06:24 33. Ruby Throat - Swan And The Minotaur (Troubled Man) 03:14 34. Jennifer Crook - Ribbons Of Green / The Dream Waltz (Live) 06:43

see also: #harvest home wild hunt, #music

From Mary B. Kelly’s “Goddess Embroideries of Easter Europe”:

Berehinia and Birds

In numberless rituals and tales, Berehinia is know by her association with birds.  As sky creatures, birds in ancient cultures were  symbols of the divine soul.  The goddess, too, was supposed to live in the sky, or to come from the sky; some of the earliest examples of goddesses are coupled with the bird motifs.

The myth of the fire bird is a very ancient Russian tale, and this bird, in embroideries is often shown in company with the goddess.   The most frequent version is a crowned fire bird wit huge erect wings and tail, spread like a peacocks’s.  In spring embroideries the bird appears holding in its beak a golden ring symbol of the sun or carrying the sun to the earth.  Another spring embroidery shows girls with birds in their hands.  This records the ritual of early spring when girls made birds of bread and carried them to the mountains or hills.  The sun was supposed to eat the bread offerings and have the strength to reappear ( @graveyarddirt – another cross continental ritual??)

There is evidence that birds themselves were sacrificed to the goddess in the tenth entury.  Later versions of the custom substituted bread birds for the sacrifice.  There can be little doubt however, that birds were the most common familiar of the goddess as she is so often show with birds either perching near her or in her hands.  In many versions birds are substituted for her hands; the orant position with upraised birds is one of the characteristic poses of the goddess.

Because the soul was supposed to fly to heaven, birds represented the soul of the dead person.  Ritual towels, embroidered with birds symbolizing the ancestors were hung from an upstairs window to attract to the soul to return home.  These towels are sometimes embroidered with the symbols of the grave marker as well (I may have to incorporate this in my Samhain rituals.)

Birds were also especially important in marriage rituals.  The swan and mate, or the cock and hen were paired with the married couple and on their wedding day the newly married ate swan or cock.  The bird symbolized happy marriage and fertility; sometimes the embroidered bird bears a small child in its stomach.  During the marriage rituals the bride-groom often received the gift of a cock which was eaten as part of the festivities.  The cock brought light and happiness to the household.  On ritual wedding towels, the groom hold up the cock, symbol of his masculinity.

Cups were made in the shape of birds and were given to couples on their marriage day.  These archaic vessels can still be seen in Russia today.  It is said that whoever breaks the bird cup breaks up the marriage.  Most of the cups were therefore made from wood to render this event unlikely,.

On ritual wedding towels, one can often see the so-called “Temple of Love" in which the married couple are shown beneath a canopy.  Invariably the man holds up a large bird.  In some versions of this motif the couple is joined by the figure of the goddess in the center, who touches each spouse with her hands in blessing.