gardenwitch26

[heatherwitch]

Charging/Activating Sigils

(Copied from my grimoire)

Place on paper, burn it

Draw on bread, toast it

Trace with crystals

Use your own energy (touch, breath, proximity)

Sew on clothing, wash them

Place in front of music speakers

Let it sit in a sunny place

Bury in the earth*

Use prayer

Dissolve in water/hold under running water

Set as phone lock screen, charge phone

Tape to window on full moon

Meditate

Hold near fire

Throw into wind*

Add a drop of blood*

Carve into candle, let it melt

Draw with honey at the bottom of a mug, activate with hot drink

Draw on flag, leave in wind

Trace in dust, blow it away

Use crystal grid

Draw with cooking oil, cook

Draw on foggy windows/mirrors

Trace using water, let it evaporate

Carve in soap, wash body

Utilize storm energy

Use light

Draw on beach, let the ocean take it

Use charging board

Draw on rock, throw it in a river*

Carve into wax, melt it (for wax melters)

Draw on self, take a shower

Use glow-in-the-dark paint

Place on shoes, utilize the energy of walking

Draw in the air with energy, push through it

Take a picture, charge device

Hold to your pulse point/s

Speak to it

And many, many things I did not list here.

*Make sure you are being safe and/or eco-friendly!

[magicalboye]

archive moodboard for @herotrice

[meiselr]

Poetry Inspiration Moodboards | ethereal

Heaven’s touch is when she kisses me.

[witch-of-the-dragon-deactivated]

The Domestic Garden Witch: Gardening Without Plants!

So maybe you’re a college witch with limited space and money, limited to the one window in your dorm. Or, maybe you’re a witch without extensive backyard space who wants to start up a magical garden. Perhaps you’re a kitchen witch who wants the freshest herbs right at her fingertips.

For many witches, having a garden seems to be a bit of a no-brainer. After all, plants and magic go hand-in-hand. Plus, when thinking of a witch, it’s hard not to think of a cottage in the woods with a little vegetable garden out front. Unfortunately for the majority of us, our cottage in the woods is a tiny flat, and our garden out front is a windowsill with limited space.

This is when it comes time to embrace your craftiness and bring your garden indoors! Not only does it place your garden in a convenient location, it also allows you to freshen the air, recycle what would otherwise harm the earth, and embrace your witchy green thumb!

Sand and Meditation

Something that often does not cross an individual’s mind when they hear the word “garden” is the thought of a garden without plants, especially where witches are concerned. After all, witches are sometimes known for the sheer amount of herbs and plants they collect (hell, my boyfriend sometimes criticizes the quantity of herbs I have - not my practice, mind you, just the fact that I have over thirty varieties of herbs in large quantities in my witchy drawers). But gardens take all sorts of shapes and sizes, including that of the zen garden, Japanese rock garden, or meditation garden.

Unlike planted gardens, these are minimalist creations designed to help induce meditative thought and relaxation through the use of flowing patterns and stone placement which often are likened to mountains or islands rising up from the sea. They are generally designed as large features which are raked into different patterns each day, but are easily adaptable for the small amount of room our domestic garden witch might have!

Creating Your Garden

As with any indoor garden, perhaps the first thing to look into is the type of container in which you’d like to keep it. In this case, a dish that is wider than it is tall is recommended. Choose either rounded shapes or rectangular shaped dishes that are shallow yet deep enough to hold sand.

Fill this dish with sand - white is traditional, though colored sands can be found in local craft stores or dollar stores - until it is about half full. Select visually appealing stones and set them on the sand.

With a utensil, trace ripples into the sand - flowing lines reminiscent of water are traditional.

If you feel that you want a bit of plant life, small air plants are definitely helpful. Remember to design your garden based on simplicity. Use natural themes and variations in your design to provide an aesthetic that you find appealing.

Tools of the Rock Garden

Typically when you think of a desktop zen garden, you might envision one of the little kits that you can get as a novelty gift at Barnes and Noble. In these kits, there is of course a couple of little rakes - one for smoothing out the sand and one for providing the patterns.

We’re witches on a budget, though, so let’s take a different approach - one similar to what’s pictured above. While it is completely reasonable to use a fork or a pen to make the patterns, you can take bamboo skewers or chopsticks and turn them into rakes using wire. Using these, you can smooth out the sand and rake patterns into it each day or as often as the whim takes you.

How Can I Witch This?

Unlike all of the gardens I’ve written about thus far, this is a garden whose only maintenance depends upon what you need from a meditative standpoint. Its design is not only decorative, but spiritually functional. If you’re a witch who is still fairly closeted and can’t have an altar, gardens such as these make for excellent substitutions, as they can form a sort of sacred space in which you can meditate and focus your intent.

If you’re a crystal witch, these sand gardens are a dream come true! Instead of placing stones, arrange your grids in the sand and use the rake or skewer to draw patterns in the sand to help focus the energy of the stones in your grid!

Draw sigils in the sand based on your intent and either wipe them away with the rake, or incorporate those sigils into the design of the ripples!

Sands come in various colors and grades. Play around with options for your sand! For cleansing, use a fine black sand. For empowerment, use a fiery orange or red. For healing, use white or light blue! The possibilities are near endless!

Of course, I can’t leave out my fellow kitchen witches! Salt is a key feature of the kitchen witch’s lifestyle. So much so, in fact, that in some circles it is believed that it is bad luck to run out of salt. For this reason, you can replace the sand with salt! This has a couple of benefits: first, it’s inexpensive. Second, it acts as a constant cleanser - much like a quartz cluster or a rod of selenite. When the salt has become to crusty to rake into appealing patterns, it has done its work! Dispose of the old salt and replace it with a new batch! (Do not pour the salt outside! This is harmful to the environment! Instead, find a safer way to dispose of the salt - I usually use the salt to clean out my mortar and pestle, then dissolve it in the sink to drain away).

If you use salt in place of sand, you can take the crystal grid concept a step further! Place the crystals in your “salt garden” and rake as you would if it were sand. This provides a way to cleanse your crystals in a way that is also visually appealing!

Consider different ways to make this plant-less garden a magical addition to the dorm or coffee table!

And may your harvests always be bountiful! Blessed Be! )O(

[lesbianslovewitches]

Good Plants For Beginners

These are a few plants that I’ve found to be more difficult to kill than others.

For those who want to start gardening but are afraid that they are going to kill everything. 

Snapdragons: These flowers don’t take up all that much space since they are thin and grow upwards. They are also perennials, so they come back year after year. These have the potential to spread if the area around them is fertile enough.

Pansies: Little, low to the ground flowers that are good fillers and ground cover. They’re pretty versatile and can be put pretty much anywhere that will hold a plant. I like to put them in herb gardens to bring some color because they come in so many different designs and colors.

Mint: Super easy to grow, grow into big bushes. They are a little high maintenance when it comes to pruning because if you let them go too long, they will take over everything and spread.

Chives: I don’t know if it’s just where I live, but I once planted a little chive plant because it was cute and now I have a whole field of chives. These babies can spread everywhere. They are good to use in a lot of dishes. I interchange them with green onion.

Tomatoes: I think everyone should have a tomato plant, it’s almost like a rite of passage lol. Tomato plants are pretty hardy creatures and can continue on into fall and winter if you take really good care of them. They just require a lot of water compared to other things.

Lamium: The bees where I’m at love these little flowers. These are also perennials so they come back through the years. They are cute, little bell-shaped flowers that grow close to the ground and have a lot of blooms. It’s so cute to see the bees shove their heads in the flowers!

Phlox: These flowers smell sooo good!. Like the lamium, they too are also small blooms and grow close to the ground.

Cactus: I find cactus to grow the easiest out of succulents and the like both inside and outside. I recommend putting them in a size appropriate pot so when the frost comes you can bring it inside and keep it growing.

A parting tip: some plants will grow better in different places than others. If you live in a desert climate, some of the more fragile plants may not thrive as much as others, but if you live in a tropical area, some plants may get overwhelmed and can drown. Plant what you can handle and take care, which will help save both time and money.

[moonlightacademy]

Gardens of the Witches

Already starting to plan this years garden so I thought I should do a post on Witch Gardens

Moonlight Garden

A garden that blooms in the moonlight, a great place to perform night time rituals, meditations, or to just take a midnight stroll. A garden that is full of magick even after the sun sets. 

Plants to add in your moonlight garden:

Moonflower: (Ipomoea alba) A nocturnal relative of the morning glory. Has fragrant flowers that open at dusk and close by dawn.    

Evening Primrose: (Oenothera biennis) Has beautiful, scented flowers that bloom only at dusk. 

Night Flox: (Zaluzianskya capensis) A sweetly fragranced flower that only unfurls its pinwheeled shaped flowers after dusk. 

Four O’Clock: (Mirabilis jalapa) Its scented flowers bloom at around 4:00pm (hence its name) and do not close up until morning. 

Queen of the Night: (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) A species of cactus whose flowers only open at night. Attracts moths and bats!!!

Night Blooming Jessamine: (Cestrum nocturnum) Strong, sweet scented star shaped flowers that only bloom at night. Attracts moths and bats!!! All parts are toxic, do not ingest!

Angel’s Trumpet: (Brugmansia) Produces a strong scent on warm summer evenings. All parts are toxic, do not ingest!

Evening Stock: (Matthiola longipetala) Produces lots of small blossoms that produce a perfume described as a mix of vanilla, rose, spice, and cloves only after the sun sets.

Ever-Flowering Gladiolus: (Gladiolus tristis) Release a strong almond fragrance after dusk.  

Lilac: (Syringa vulgaris) Although has a perfume during the day, it is said to be a lot stronger after dark. 

Flowering Tobacco: (Nicotiana) Open in the late afternoon and have a fragrance that smells of jasmine. All parts are toxic if ingested!

Summer Snapdragon: (Angelonia angustifolia) Preferably in white, to reflect the moonlight. Has a scent apple-scented foliage. 

Silvermound: (Artemisia schmidtiana) Has thick foliage that will shimmer under the moonlight.

Jack Frost: (Brunnera macrophylla) Hdeart shaped leaves of silver and green, perfect to add more highlights of silver to your moon lit garden. 

Any plant that blooms after dark or has white, lavender, pale pink, pale yellow on it is a perfect addition to your moonlight garden. 

Things to add:

Stepping stones that have the phases of the moon.

Fairy lights

A place to sit

Candles

A small fountain to sing along with the insects and birds of the night

String charms and bells on tree branches for a soft jingling every time a gentle breeze passes. 

Herb Garden

For witches who need a more practical garden for uses of healing, tea crafting, drying, and growing plants used in their practices.

Plants to add to your herb garden:

Anise: Helps to ward of the evil eye, find happiness, and stimulates psychic abilities. 

Basil: Use for anything pertaining with love, exorcism, wealth, sympathy, and protection. Dispels confusion, fears & weakness. Drives off hostile spirits.

Bergamont: Corresponds with money and prosperity. Provides with protection from evil and illness, improves memory, stops interference, and promotes restful sleep.

Borage: Corresponds with courage and psychic powers. 

Cat Nip: Is sacred to the Goddess Bast. Brings forth beauty, happiness, good luck, and good spirits.

Chamomile: Corresponds with love, healing, and sleep. Is known to reduce stress.

Chervil: Brings a sense of the higher self, placing you in touch with your divine, immortal spirit.

Coriander: Corresponds with love, health, immortality, and protection.

Dill: Corresponds with money, protection, luck and lust. 

Lemon Balm: Corresponds with love, success, healing, and psychic/spiritual development. 

Marjoram: Used to cleanse, purify, and to dispel negative energy.  

Mint: Promotes energy, communication and vitality.

Oregano: Corresponds with joy, strength, vitality, and added energy 

Parsley: Calms and protects the home.

Rosemary: Protects, cleanses, purifies, and aids memory. 

Sage: Used for self purification and dealing with grief and loss.

Thyme: Attracts loyalty, affection, and the good opinion of others.

Things to add:

A place to dry herbs

A place to compost any herb scraps

Rocks

A place to leave offerings before you harvest

Bee Garden

Make yourself a sanctuary to watch bees frolic and thrive

Plants to add to your bee garden:

Bee balm

Lavender

Crocus

Snow Drop

Wildflowers/Any native species

Catmint

Borage

Anise hyssop

Heliotrope

Sunflower

Oregano

Yarrow

Coneflower

Black eyed susan

Asters

Goldenrod

Foxglove

Marigold

Pansies

Sweet peas

Nasturtiums

Things to add:

Bee houses

Bee waterers/bee baths

Bee feeders

A place for offerings to the bees

Some other ideas for your garden:

Hummingbird garden

Medicinal garden

A garden whose plants and decorations represent/correspond with your practice.

Butterfly Garden

Faerie Garden 

The options are endless! I hope this gives you some ideas for this years garden.

Happy planting!

==Moonlight Academy==

[witch-of-the-dragon-deactivated]

Domestic Garden Witch: When Eggshells Grow

So maybe you’re a college witch with limited space and money, limited to the one window in your dorm. Or, maybe you’re a witch without extensive backyard space who wants to start up a magical garden. Perhaps you’re a kitchen witch who wants the freshest herbs right at her fingertips.

For many witches, having a garden seems to be a bit of a no-brainer. After all, plants and magic go hand-in-hand. Plus, when thinking of a witch, it’s hard not to think of a cottage in the woods with a little vegetable garden out front. Unfortunately for the majority of us, our cottage in the woods is a tiny flat, and our garden out front is a windowsill with limited space.

This is when it comes time to embrace your craftiness and bring your garden indoors! Not only does it place your garden in a convenient location, it also allows you to freshen the air, recycle what would otherwise harm the earth, and embrace your witchy green thumb!

Eggshells for the Garden Witch

The kitchen witch has eggshells piling up on the counter, dried and ready to be ground up for use in protection powders. The garden witch looks at these shells and thinks, “Oh! Fertilizer!”

But if you’re limited in space and have to keep your garden limited to your windowsill, you may find yourself looking at those eggshells and saying “Oh! New pottery!” Not only is creating an eggshell planter a very green practice, but it’s also creative and makes transplanting much easier if you end up having a larger garden later on!

The Container…

Simple enough, you just need mostly intact eggshells. In the picture above, the eggshells are kept in the carton, but I’ve seen eggshells set up decoratively, such as with this picture:

The core of this post is clearly the eggshells, but you can arrange them in whatever way saves space or is aesthetically pleasing!

Carefully fill the emptied eggshell with potting soil. Make an indent in the soil with your finger, and carefully add your seedling before adding a final layer of soil and watering. If you plan on keeping the plants in the eggshells instead of transplanting, you could also carefully poke holes in the bottom of the eggshells so that your plants don’t get over-watered.

How Can I Witch This?

Eggshells alone are extremely protective, and providing your plants with that energy is beneficial. Around Ostara, use died eggshells! Not only will the shells have protective energy, but you’ll be able to use color correspondences and whatever symbols you used for the rite.

Draw symbols or runes of growth, protection, and strength on the shells in order to encourage your plant’s growth!

Bonus points is if you grow protective herbs in the eggshells!

May your harvests always be fruitful! Blessed Be! )O(