I'm Elminx, aka the Pesto Mystic - you can call me Minx. She/her or They/Them pronouns, please. I live in Southern New England and practice folk-based cottage-styled witchcraft. I've been studying witchcraft and astrology since 1996. This blog will primarily cover these two topics and how they interrelate with one another.
Don't let the flower crown fool you - I'm very into vulture culture.
I primarily work with items that I find in my natural environment - I keep a small witch garden and practice safe wild harvesting. I also actively tend to a local Catholic Cemetery. I walk both in the shadows and in the light.
Depending on your viewpoint, you can call my alignment: Taurus/Aries/Taurus, Sun and Venus dominant, Mercurial, Polya, Kinky, or Queer. Mix those in any way that you wish, or don't. I strongly support trans rights and believe that "witch" is a gender-neutral term.
I have a side blog for my cemetery photography which you can find here.
My Rules of Engagement:
Any words that I share here can be copied down and used freely so long it is for your personal use. If you wish to quote me in any other capacity, please contact me first for permission. My photography is marked with my watermark for a reason - it is not for your use. It is heavily magically warded against stealing (not directed specifically at the Tumblr community but I'm a photographer by trade and people on the internet are assholes) - do not save. I sell copies of my photography, including files that you can print for your personal use - if you wish to use my art, please message me and we can talk.
If you are an asshole, I am going to block you. Full stop.
Supporting Me
You can support me in multiple ways. I have a Ko-Fi account where you can tip me once, order an astrology commission, buy some art, or sign up to become a monthly supporter of this page.
You can purchase my art on various items (clothing, bags, stickers, etc.) through Redbubble.
Astrology Commissions
I write Natal Birth Reports, Synastry, monthly Transit Reports, and Planetary Magic Reports.
A Natal Birth Report looks at the time, date, and place where you were born and interprets the varying aspects of your base personality - your life blueprint. This will help you to understand yourself and my Energy Updates better.
Synastry reports compare two natal birth charts together to look at the strengths and weaknesses of their pairing. This does not have to mean romantically, some of the most powerful synastries are between parents and children.
A Transit Report compares your Natal Birth Chart to the upcoming monthly transits. All Transit Reports received after the 15th of the month will apply to the following month (after May 15 will get you a July report, not June) because they take time to write.
I offer discounts on Transit Reports if you purchase for 3 or 12 months at a time.
Planetary Magic Reports look at your natal birth chart and how it relates to the seven traditional planets that are generally used in magic. This allows you to work with your chart rather than fighting against it.
If you are looking for the monthly astrology report, you can search my page for the Month+Year (For instance May 2022). If you're feeling really inspired, you can go through my entire Astrology tag.
I've been thinking of making an updated, transparent version of my original Pride Protection Sigil for a while now, so I figured Pride Month was a perfect moment for it! I remade the shapes I could in photoshop, copied the thorny vines from the original, and then made a bunch of different community ones (see more under the cut).
I've designed this sigil as a protection for the entire rainbow community. You can print it out or redraw it yourself. Place a candle over it, use it as a base of a crystal grid, place it on your altar and meditate, make it the centre of a (digital) moodboard, whatever feels right for you.
The centre of the sigil is the Progress Pride flag, symbolizing our community (you can redraw the sigil and place a different flag inside, if you wish to focus on a specific part of the community). Around it is a black circle (protection, community) which is made by five stickfigures holding hands (people, community). Around them is a square (protection) and then a ring of intertwined briar branches with the thorns pointing outwards (again, protection). On the right side I also snuck the rune Thurisaz (briar, protection) into the ring of briar branches. The pentacle in the centre stands for magic as well as, surprise, protection. Customize this for whatever you need, the pentacle is optional, place more stickfigures, change the flag, whatever makes it work for you.
Ko-Fi Phishing Scam - Warning, Details, & What to Do if You Clicked the Link
Date of posting: June 3, 2026.
Heads up to my fellow Ko-Fi users!! There's a known phishing scam going around. The scammers are sending messages via commission messages. They're claiming that the account has been suspended and won't be able to receive payments until information is verified. They then provide a link to follow to "fix" the issue.
Do not click that link!! It will steal your information and possibly your money. Block the sender and delete the message. If you're concerned that your account has actually been compromised because you clicked a link sent to you, send a ticket to the real Ko-Fi support team and change the passwords on Ko-Fi and all connected accounts.
(Also, it seems like Ko-Fi is getting a lot of traffic right now, probably because of this latest blast of phishing attempts. Stay calm. Your account is fine. Only send a ticket if you filled out a suspicious form; and if you did click or fill out something suspicious, make sure you change all of the passwords on your Ko-Fi and all attached accounts.)
Since I'm me, let's take a closer look at the message, how this phishing scam is meant to work, and how you can spot these yourself in the future:
The goal of a phishing scam is to convince you that something is wrong and needs your immediate attention. Scammers want you to click a link or call a phone number in order to further convince you to part with critical personal information, such as your banking details, account passwords, home address, and more. Sometimes, they'll even download malicious software onto your machine.
The thing about phishing scams is that they require you, the recipient, to take action in order to work. You've got to click that link or make that phone call for them to access your accounts. If you block, report, and delete their messages, they lose.
Most phishing scams consist of a few key elements:
An urgent, inflammatory first line or email title
An assertion of authority (support, staff, etc.)
A brief description of what allegedly needs fixing, usually having to do with account issues, payment processing, or similar
A reassurance that this can be fixed with simple steps
A link to follow or a phone number to call in order to fix the issue
A deadline
Here's a screenshot of the message I received this afternoon:
We're hitting most of the common traits of a phishing scam, minus the deadline declaration. Still, when I saw the email notification that I'd gotten this message, I felt a little panicked! I know enough about phishing scams to spot them, and I recognized this as bullshit pretty quick, but I still felt that initial jolt of fear. The scam hopes that I'll take action on that fear alone, because oh god that's my money. You know?
So, I took a breath. Told myself I'd done nothing wrong, and if it was real (which it certainly wasn't), then I could contact support and figure it out. I logged into my account to have a closer look, and... Nothing. Everything was fine. No suspension notice, no big red prompt. My payment methods are intact with no warnings attached.
Interesting, no? I took another, closer look at the message. I grabbed a screenshot of it to send to the support team since they're tracking the situation and to talk about it here.
This is a very clever phishing attempt. The message itself is well-crafted. It's a little awkward in places, but the grammar is good. My guess is it's an LLM at work, generating text to send out. The emojis are a deeply unprofessional touch that would absolutely never be included in a message about something as serious as a suspension notice. The intention is to lower your guard and make you feel as though the "support rep" messaging you is on your side. It's meant to instill trust and camaraderie.
The description of what's going on is short, sweet, and to the point. Note the urgent tone and lack of details about why this suspension has supposedly occurred. A real suspension message would typically require at least a brief explanation of the reason for suspension, often including citation of site policies or a mention of reports being filed against the account. Nothing like that here.
It goes on to threaten my money, stating that people can view my page but that any payments they make won't be processed. It raises more questions than it answers -- will people be able to make payments and their money will hang in limbo? Or will those payments not go through? Or will the site not even allow payments to be made? This is by design, meant to cause a further spiral of anxiety that will lead the recipient to following whatever instructions they've been given.
And, oh! How kind! The process to fix this is super short and easy, and they won't even need me to upload any documents. What an odd thing to say. I hadn't even considered that it would require uploading documents... such as ID, perhaps. If the process is simple and purportedly safe, there's no reason to not do it right now! This assurance is aimed to prevent the recipient from putting the task off for later. It's also meant to entice someone who's particularly panicked to not go looking for other information or solutions -- because the best one is right here, no documents upload necessary.
And finally, the link. Click here to fix everything right now, it says. But take a closer look at that link.
It starts with the "ko-fi" website name, apparently on a page called "edit profile"... at a .my address. And then, of course, a bunch of random letters. It's the .my address that should raise the biggest red flag here. Ko-Fi is a .com web address, and all of their associated pages are .com, too. While I haven't clicked this link (and will not be clicking it, thank you), it will certainly not be going to a reliable settings page.
Again, the goal of a phishing scam is to steal your information by convincing you to click suspicious links. This scam in particular seems intent on getting you to "update your information" -- that might include your banking information, PayPal login credentials, Ko-Fi account credentials, and more.
You should never have to leave the website in order to verify or update this information. This isn't just true for Ko-Fi; it's true for pretty much every single website out there.
The other big giveaway that this is a phishing scam is that message at the very bottom, stating that this DM was sent because I have commission messages turned on. Commission messages allow people to contact me by clicking a little message icon on my commission listings. This way, they can chat with me about my services before buying if they have questions or want to negotiate details.
Ko-Fi support would absolutely not need to use commission messages to reach me. Beyond that, clicking the "Support" name should take me to an account page -- but it doesn't. It redirects me to my settings page, which is what happens when someone without an account messages. The company Ko-Fi has an account.
Beyond that, Ko-Fi support operates via ZenDesk. They wouldn't send a direct message about anything, let alone a suspension notice. I would have received an email with official Ko-Fi branding.
Which... in a way, I did. When someone sends a message on Ko-Fi, it generates an email to let the account owner know they've got one waiting for response. That means that I received an email that looked like this:
By sending a direct message through the Ko-Fi system, this phishing scam was able to make it look like the message was official. This is the real reason this phishing scam is so clever. An appropriately frightened and unwary person would see this and maybe not even log into their Ko-Fi account. They might just click the link from the email and follow whatever instructions they're given.
Put all this together, and I knew with absolute certainty that this was a scam -- one that will absolutely fool a lot of people.
Steps You Can Take to be 100% Certain a Message is Phishing
Even with all this knowledge and reassurance, it can be hard to know for sure that a message is a phishing attempt. Because, like, what if? You know? What if it's actually real?
First: Take a breath. Anytime you receive a notice about any account of yours encountering issues, take a second to calm yourself. If it's real, you'll want to follow proper channels to fix it. If it's fake, you don't want to be so panicked that you fall for a scam. Either way, give yourself a moment to breathe and calm down.
Second: Check your account. Close the email or the message. Don't click any links provided. Go to the actual website or app. Log in to your account and check for any prompts, pop-ups, or warnings in your account settings. If you can't log in at all, contact the support team of the site using their preferred channel(s).
Third: Check your payment processor(s) and bank account. Make sure there aren't any prompts, pop-ups, or warnings there, too. Make sure you can still log in okay and that there aren't any suspicious transactions that have gone through or that are pending. If there are, contact support ASAP; they might be able to prevent or reverse the charge, and they might be able to block any more from that source.
Fourth: Do a quick search online. See if anyone else is already talking about it. I found several Reddit threads talking about this scam, and it seems like it's evolved slightly since it first started appearing months ago.
Fifth: Check the website's support/help resources. A lot of websites have FAQs and other resources to help users with issues they might encounter. When any scam becomes widespread, the platform will typically put out official messages talking about it. They might also have blog posts or articles dedicated to the situation. If a problem is active and ongoing, they might even put up an alert banner to both warn users who don't know about it and assure users who have gotten the message(s) to not worry. Here's the one that's splashed across the top of Ko-Fi's support page right now:
Sixth: Message support. If you can't find any information, or if you interacted with the scam and are worried about being compromised in some way, send a message to the website's support team. Use their official channels to submit a ticket, send an email, or chat with a rep. If you're pretty sure you've encountered a phishing scam and you can't find anything about it, include screenshots of the message(s) so that support can properly investigate.
Seventh: Take extra security measures. If you're still worried after all of these steps and especially if you clicked a suspicious link, change your passwords. It's important to do this for every account attached to the one that's been compromised. (In this case on Ko-Fi, if you didn't click the link from the scammer, you shouldn't need to update any passwords or anything else.)
Every time someone thinks I’m like… inherently different from other Christians I’m like “No sweetie. I’m just blindingly white and you see Christianity as an inherently white religion. Black and Brown Christians have been doing what I have been doing for DECADES if not CENTURIES.”
Liberation theology started from BROWN and INDIGENOUS PEOPLE!
I read seven books in May, totaling 2,926 pages. I feel like this is pretty good given that one of them was Rhythm of War, which was 1,200 pages and took me most of two weeks to read. You might also notice that Dawnshard was an audiobook; I listened to it in the car while my partner and I went on some birthday adventures.
Because I knew Rhythm of War was going to be a major read this month, I tried to pepper the rest of the month with books that weren't necessarily epic fantasy. The Raven Scholar was a crossover from April, but otherwise, I tried to make the only fantasy of the month Cosmere books.
As a result, my feelings about the books were pretty mixed. I enjoyed Shark Heart a lot, as well as Yellowface; but was underwhelmed by This Thing Between Us and downright disliked Stonefish. (I also really liked The Raven Scholar.)
Next month, I am tackling the final book in Stormlight Archives*, Wind and Truth, which is even longer, so I expect it to take up much of the month. What I'll get up to otherwise is anybody's guess.
*For now, obviously. The fact that you make me say that makes me strongly dislike BrandoSando fans, even though I am one
I’m reading The Poet Empress by Shen Tao. After that, any other non-Stormlight books I get up to are going to be queer in honor of Pride Month. I have spoken.
Apparently, my partner's boss was looking to get rid of an IKEA FABRIKÖR cabinet, so my dreams of having a greenhouse cabinet are about to become a reality.
This is something that my partner and I were just talking about the other day. I think it's similar to "manifestation," honestly, but we've both found that we can state openly to the universe, "I am looking for this thing," and sometimes, it just appears for us.
(Maybe it's a function of the fact that I have taken to doing abundance magic instead of money magic - what's more abundant than getting a free IKEA cabinet?)
I traded some Hoya carnosa "Krimson Princess" cuttings for a gorgeous small begonia plant last week, and my partner was marveling over how poisonous it looks. I was excitedly telling them that was what I liked about it - I love the really weird begonias. Unfortunately, many of them require higher humidity than I can guarantee in my home.
Maybe someday I'll get a plant cabinet especially for begonias, I said wistfully.
Then, on Sunday, we went into HomeGoods, and I was marveling over how much I love minty green furniture.
Yesterday, my partner found a mint green IKEA cabinet in deep storage at his workplace.
Apparently, my partner's boss was looking to get rid of an IKEA FABRIKÖR cabinet, so my dreams of having a greenhouse cabinet are about to become a reality.
This is something that my partner and I were just talking about the other day. I think it's similar to "manifestation," honestly, but we've both found that we can state openly to the universe, "I am looking for this thing," and sometimes, it just appears for us.
(Maybe it's a function of the fact that I have taken to doing abundance magic instead of money magic - what's more abundant than getting a free IKEA cabinet?)
I traded some Hoya carnosa "Krimson Princess" cuttings for a gorgeous small begonia plant last week, and my partner was marveling over how poisonous it looks. I was excitedly telling them that was what I liked about it - I love the really weird begonias. Unfortunately, many of them require higher humidity than I can guarantee in my home.
Maybe someday I'll get a plant cabinet especially for begonias, I said wistfully.
Then, on Sunday, we went into HomeGoods, and I was marveling over how much I love minty green furniture.
Yesterday, my partner found a mint green IKEA cabinet in deep storage at his workplace.
Apparently, my partner's boss was looking to get rid of an IKEA FABRIKÖR cabinet, so my dreams of having a greenhouse cabinet are about to become a reality.
June is a "7" Universal Month [6 (June) + 1 (2026) = 7] in a "1" Universal Year. "7" Months tend to be energetic and sometimes somewhat chaotic; they often break up the stability of the "6" month that came before it. This aligns well with the astrological energy of the month: we are entering our second Mercury retrograde of the year, and we have a lot of planetary/asteroid movement this month. We are starting to recognize the pattern that will set us up for the more challenging astrology that will guide us through the second half of the year.
The Set Up
We begin the month with the Sun, Mercury, and Uranus in Gemini; Venus and Jupiter in Cancer, Mars in Taurus, Saturn and Neptune in Aries, and retrograde Pluto in Aquarius. There is a lot of planetary movement this month: the Sun and Mercury enter Cancer, Venus and Jupiter enter Leo, and Mars enters Gemini. Additionally, Chiron - our Wounded Healer - enters Taurus. Mercury will also retrograde at 26° Cancer.
The Nitty Gritty
There's a lot going on in June, but it's still mostly set up for the months to come. Sure, Mercury retrogrades, but it does so on the second-to-last day of the month, so that's more of a July thing. Jupiter changes signs (something it does once a year), which is inherently a big deal, but we'll really start feeling it during Leo season and then again during Scorpio season later in Autumn. This is the month to set yourself up for the rest of 2026, which will be full of complicated and challenging transits.
The Lights: Our Sun and Our Moon
There isn't a whole lot going on with our Sun this month. As it moves through Gemini, it sextiles Saturn on 6/2, which may feel slightly challenging or slightly focusing, depending on your personal temperament. It enters Cancer on 6/21, the Summer Solstice, and trines the North Node in Pisces on 6/24. This is the official last time that Sun will interact with the nodes in Pisces and Virgo.
Our new moon falls on 6/14 at 10:54 PM (EDT/UTC-4:00) at 24° Gemini. This lunation widely conjuncts Mercury (the ruler of Gemini), marking it as a distinctly mercurial day. This is the perfect time to set intentions or do magic within Mercury's general domains (communication, technology, travel), though it is worth keeping in mind that Mercury is already in their pre-retrograde shadow and will retrograde in the near future. This isn't meant to scare you off, but rather to give you a better understanding of how to work your magic during this time. Plan to take the scenic route and enjoy the journey.
Our full moon goes exact on 6/29 at 7:57 PM at 08° Capricorn. This follows the pattern of the full moon before it, as it widely squares Saturn in Aries, creating a cardinal t-square in the sky. We want to move, we want to be able to take action and work towards are goals, but Saturn says no. This doesn't look as much like a Hard Stop as it could be, rather a much-needed detour - we should note that Mercury retrogrades a couple of hours early at 1:36 PM. We note here that this Capricorn Moon is ruled by Saturn, so it is well equipped to handle the slower energy Saturn demands. This is a great day to overcome obstacles, but it may take some elbow grease.
Mercury
Mercury enters Cancer on 6/1, where they will remain all the way through July and most of August due to their retrograde cycle. This is why Mercury retrogrades can feel so challenging. When Mercury is in prograde motion, it can move through a single sign in as little as two weeks. In our fast-paced, modern world, we rely heavily on Mercury's changeability to sate our waning attention spans. Short-form content is Mercury at its "worst": addictive, vapid, and full of misinformation. When Mercury remains in the same sign for more than a month, we are forced to confront all the things that we'd rather run away from. Time can often seem to distort and warp, creating a liminal space.
None of this is bad or wrong. Mercury retrogrades get such a bad wrap in pop astrology, and it's certainly warranted because, if you try to go about your life like Mercury is still direct while it is retrograde, you can get pretty caught up. The secret, as with all astrological transits, is to learn to work with the energy of the planets rather than against them.
That can feel really difficult in a world that demands we do so much and accomplish all the time, and rest when we are dead. In this way, we can view Mercury's retrograde cycles as distinctly anti-Capitalistic: they are about being where you are, slowing down, and exploring the world as it is so that you can make adjustments as needed.
June is just the beginning of this cycle. Mercury enters Cancer on 6/1 and then enters their pre-retrograde shadow at 16° Cancer on 6/12. This is the first pass of the degrees of our retrograde, where we may or may not notice Mercury slowing down in advance of its station on 6/29. Few notice the pre-retrograde shadow, most notice the retrograde proper, and many notice the post-retrograde shadow.
This retrograde will most affect those with personal planets between 16°-26° of the cardinal signs firstly (Cancer/Libra/Capricorn/Aries), water signs secondly (Cancer/Scorpio/Pisces), and possibly the earth signs as well (Taurus/Virgo/Capricorn). Additionally, anybody with Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or Mercury in Gemini or Virgo, or anybody born during a Mercury retrograde, are generally always somewhat affected by Mercury retrogrades.
I will write more specifically about this retrograde as we approach its pre-retrograde shadow.
Jupiter
Jupiter, our planet of luck and expansion, spends one last month in Cancer - the sign of its exaltation - before entering Leo on 6/30. This is the Big News Bears - one of the major planetary shifts of the year. But we aren't there yet. This is one last chance to work with Jupiter in its very best placement; Jupiter will not enter Cancer again for another 12 years.
May I suggest 6/9, when our Lesser Benefic (Venus) meets our Greater Benefic (Jupiter) in conjunction at 25° Cancer. This is the luckiest day of the year, and magically, it can be used to draw nearly anything beneficial into your life.
As for Jupiter in Leo, which is mostly a July-and-onward thing, this is a really big deal due to two major upcoming seasons: Leo and Scorpio season. It's worth noting here that the South Node will also enter Leo (from the back end because the lunar nodes move in a retrograde motion) in July, and these two will be moving ever closer to their inevitable conjunction in November. This is when our past luck pays out, for good or ill. Before we get there, Jupiter is going to conjunct the Sun during Leo season, which will be our second most lucky day of the year.
These are days to look forward to, and to plan ahead for, if that's your cup of tea.
Venus and Mars
Our two relationship planets aren't doing much this month, aside from Venus's conjunction with Jupiter, which I mentioned above. Venus remains in Cancer through 6/13, and then enters Leo. Mars remains in Taurus through 6/28, and then enters Gemini. It's worth noting that from 6/13 through 6/28, the two planets will be widely square to each other by sign. With fixity in play, people are likely to be bull-headed and ornery, which may cause some mild relational conflicts. Mars is more maligned (in the sign of its exile) than Venus, so we need to all watch out for our actions during this time because hot-headed Venus in Leo is not giving Mars in Taurus any slack.
This is just general vibes. Those with a strong Taurus or Leo presence in their charts (or in their others' charts) will be the most likely to experience this. But it could just create tension in the Gen Pop overall. People may be quick to anger and unwilling to back down. There may be some general territorial conflicts, as Mars is at its most bullish and unreasonable in Taurus.
Chiron
Chiron, our Wounded Healer, changes signs from Aries into Taurus on 6/19. This won't be felt by everybody, but it's a major win for those of us with a strong Aries presence in our charts and less so for those with a major Taurus presence in their charts. Chiron hurts; there's no way around it. Some people like it that way. Most of us don't, though. There's no avoiding Chironian pain; it is the pain of living itself. Not that it helps much when you are in the middle of it.
This is a long-term aspect; Chiron won't enter Gemini until 2033. Overall, it will focus our collective pain on Taurus, Venusian, and 2nd House things.
Looking Forward
July will be dominated by Mercury's retrograde, our Sun squaring off with Saturn in Aries, and the first steps of Jupiter in Leo. Our lunar nodes will also change signs. This will be our last month before shit gets real, as Leo season includes our first eclipses on the Aquarius/Leo axis.
The Details
6/1 - Mercury enters Cancer
6/2 - Sun in Gemini sextile Saturn in Aries
6/3 - Mercury in Cancer square Neptune in Aries
6/9 - Venus conjunct Jupiter 25° Cancer
6/10 - Mercury in Cancer square Saturn in Aries
6/12 - Mercury enters pre-retrograde shadow 16° Cancer
6/13 - Venus enters Leo, Venus in Cancer square Chiron in Aries
6/14 - New Moon 24° Gemini
6/17 - Venus in Leo opposed retrograde Pluto in Aquarius
6/19 - Chiron enters Taurus
6/21 - Sun enters Cancer
6/24 - Sun in Cancer trine North Node in Pisces 02°
6/25 - Venus in Leo trine Saturn in Aries 13°
6/28 - Sun in Cancer square Neptune in Aries 01°, Mars enters Gemini
6/29 - Full Moon 08° Capricorn, Mercury retrogrades 26° Cancer
6/30 - Jupiter enters Leo
Do you like my work? You can tip me over on Ko-Fi.
thank u. i hate it a little less but the horrible little man in my head is still screaming “BOG BODY BOG BODY BOG BODY”, but i appreciate the education,
oh here is a fun lil perspective on cranberry harvesting i never heard about anywhere else. the guy who owns the restaurant right down the road from the farm, who fries our chickens sometimes, is from Boston, with the strongest Boston accent ever, and in a former life before he started slinging reasonably priced barbeque and occasional organic chicken, he was a cranberry farmer.
His farm was on the leading edge of kinda using organic/sustainable pest control methods, and one of the things that they did to keep insect damage down was that they encouraged wolf spiders to live in the cranberry field, to eat the bugs.
This was all fine and good until they flooded the bog. Now, you don’t just like flood the bog and then go around it in a boat or whatever. No, you use hip waders to get in there and put the big floaty things where they go and get all the berries and such.
Well when you’re in the bog in hip waders, that makes you the tallest thing. Wolf spiders can swim a bit, but they don’t like it, so they’re, quite understandably, looking to climb out of the water onto a tall thing.
So yeah the first interview question he always asked potential cranberry bog harvester hires was “are you cool with spiders?”
“You’d be amazed,” he said to us, shaking his head a little, “how many guys would just straight lie. Like, you think I’m asking you that question to be cute? Nah man you’re gonna have like a hundred wolf spiders trying to climb your eyebrows, you gotta be chill, those wolf spiders are fellow employees. You really gotta be chill with spiders if you’re gonna work a cranberry harvest.”
If you don't mind me asking, what are ways you protect yourself energetically from astrological events?
I'm a highly sensitive person, and sometimes I feel strongly affected - this upcoming blue moon has left me wrung out like a dishrag and emotionally exhausted. Do you have any tips to prevent this from happening?
I have never tried to protect from astrological events specifically, so I can only speculate. There is a way of alleviating the specific energy of the planets called remediation, but I don't think that's what you mean here.
I'm a pretty sensitive person myself, and I find lava rock (porous basalt) to be a great ally in this regard. It is a natural water filter, and I personally associate much of the world's "noise" with water/emotion. And certainly, lunar events are associated with the element of water.
I like to wear lava rock next to my skin and enchant it to filter out the noise, to leave me just "me", if that makes sense.
Your experience, of course, may vary. I'm a Taurus Sun/Aries Moon and am very drawn to working with volcanic rocks (my partner jokes that I practice volcanomancy).
I don't have a Where I live for this month, because - despite all my travel - I have lived mostly in my garden spaces.
This is the seventh year of tending this tiny garden plot, and my partner and I have developed a special type of symbiosis with this land. We have to come to understand each other and tolerate each other's idiosyncrasies. We work together to achieve as many colors as possible.
Every time I startle a bird (or equally likely, a bird startles me), or the crickets chirp all night, or the squirrels leave black walnut halves all over, or the parasitic wasps show up, I know we are making something real.
I am proud of what we have done, and we will tend this land for as long as we are able. We will make it a spot of wonder for animals, birds, insects, and people.
Each year, we make new friends and greet old ones again.
We walk the line between what the garden came with and the native perennials we have planted. We watch what draws the most bees, and what kinds.
This is my design. My practice. My art. My purpose.
I don't need other people to understand anymore.
Most days, I feel that if I helped keep nature intact, I have done my job.
Our first farm share pickup of the year starts next week, so now about 60% of my total diet will be grown in my funny little town. I have radish and tomato ripening on my back porch.
I feel human again. I feel real. I feel like I always imagined the cows felt after leaving Serenity and remembered how to be cows.
Yes, Taurus references even here.
I've dug into the dirt of everything in my life this month. I turned over my mother's raised beds, I've weeded my own garden endlessly, I've built a vertical herb garden, and repotted a quarter of my total houseplant collection. I've moved all of my plants to their summer homes.
We're not growing much new this year. We know now what works in our spaces and what doesn't. I'm experimenting with chamomile and a new type of amarynth we haven't grown before. I added an eyelash Begonia to my indoor plant collection.
It all feels very peaceful.
I've been covered in dirt nearly every day for the last week and a half, and I am not the slightest bit mad about it.
This peace will unravel. It always does. The garden will overtake us and grow wild and free, and we will let it. We'll laugh about the grass we can never fully weed out, and there will be aphids, and life will be life.
You cannot have a perfect May garden without having a late August garden.
It's raining today, and I am so grateful for the earth, who waters all my plants for me. Maybe later it won't rain for months, and we'll follow the water ban, and everything that can't withstand a drought will die back.
