Witchy Moon*:･ﾟ✧

A little guide on using the moon in your favor while practicing witchcraft!

Candle Spell

Imbolc is just around the corner and to celebrate I came up with this DIY recycling candle spell that’s great for any occasion. I always have pieces of wax and bits of candles too small to use safely laying in around, and I thought, what a waste! Since Imbolc has traditions of bonfire and candles, I felt that making custom spell candles for the renewal of spring would be perfect. These can be modified for any occasion or spell you have; it doesn’t have to be just for Imbolc ;) 

You’ll need:

Wax or bits of candles

Wicks  

Heat safe containers (I recycled shallow metal tins)

Oven (or a way to melt the wax, double boilers also work, etc.)

A oven safe tray shallow enough to put a bit of water in

Water

Paper

Pen

 Optional:

Dried plants

Essential oils

Decorative tape and strings

The white candle is a cleansing-negativity-and-illness-banishing spell. It uses white wax, bay leaves (3 to represent the triple goddess), lavender, and cleansing essential oils (lavender, clary sage and cedar wood). The red one is a happiness-joy-and-courage spell, using red wax (there was white wax in there too but the red dye is STRONG so keep that in mind while making yours) and orange, grapefruit and ylang-ylang oils for exhilaration and warmth.

Instructions are under cut! Please be safe making these has it require using heat. I’m not responsible if your burn your fingers darlings ;).

Heat Your House With Your Compost

With a few extra steps, your compost pile can become more than just a great garden amendment—it can be a form of passive energy, too!

My latest article on Hobby Farms

Anyone with a compost heap knows it can get pretty hot right in the thick of fermentation. That thermal energy normally escapes the pile, but with a relatively low-tech installation, the passive energy generated by decomposing biomass can be used as a source of indoor heating.

The Germans call this sort of installation a biomeiler, which roughly translates to “bio-kiln” or “bio-reactor.” For ease of construction, a biomeiler is usually built with straw or wood chips instead of just any old compost. The typical design can provide passive heat for 18 to 24 months, and more advanced configurations can also harvest biogas.

I harvested some seeds from a Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima), also known as gladdon, Gladwin iris, roast-beef plant, and stinking gladwin in English.

The various smell-related monikers are due to that fact that:

[…] some people find the smell of its leaves unpleasant when crushed or bruised, an odour that has been described as “beefy.” [x]

Pisum sativum, a common garden pea, has played an important role in science. Gregor Mendel in 1860s used pea plants to study inheritance of characteristics such as the shapes of seeds and pods, colours or flowers and the height of the plants. The result of his experiments was a paper published in 1866 in which he for the first time described an inheritance of factors, which later became called ‘genes’, from one generation to the next.