Tag: Blessing

Garden Blessing

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The month of May is a wonderful time to perform a garden blessing. You can do it at planting time or just after planting. If it’s still too early in your region for planting, save this spell for later in the season or use it to bless seeds or seedlings before planting them outside. You can also use it for an indoor garden – houseplants need blessing too!

Ideally for this spell you need a tall container or lantern for your candle – you’ll be carrying it around outside and you don’t want it to be blown out during hte spell. But be careful not to burn yourself! The tops of some lanterns can get hot.

Since the spell requires you to allow the candle to burn out, you may wish to use a tea light since they only burn for a few hours. Or, if you prefer to use a larger candle, repeat the spell on successive days or nights, allowing the candle to burn for an hour or two each time until it’s spent. You could begin during the waxing moon and complete the spell on the full moon. Alternately, perform this spell on Beltane.

If you don’t have an outdoor garden, this spell can easily be adapted for any situation. If you have a balcony garden or even just a windowsill you can walk around containers or gesture around them.

If possible, perform this spell during a waxing or full moon phase. Prepare your candle by anointing it as desired, and place it inside the container.

Walk around the garden clockwise three times. The first time, chant these words and keep repeating if you have a large garden space: 

Earth, air, fire, and water nourish, 
help these plants grow strong and flourish.

The second time as you walk, say these words followed by the name of every plant in the garden.

By the power of this flame, I bless you as I call your name: (list the plants).

The third time, chant these words. Again, repeat the chant as many times as necessary: 

Bless this garden safe and sound - 
bless these plants, bless this ground.

After the third walk around the garden is complete place the lantern or candleholder in a safe area either in the garden or near it and allow the candle to burn out. Say these words as you place the candle:

By this candle’s power, bless every leaf and bud and flower.

Don’t eave the candle unattended; be sure to stay nearby so you can keep an eye on it.

Optional: carry a clear quartz crystal point or cluster (or other stone of your choice) with you as you walk, and place it in your garden during your third walk around it.

A Modern Hearth Blessing

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  • Candle
  • Your favorite incense
  • Offering
  • Small bowl

This blessing is just a starting point and can be used as is or modified to suit the kind of hearth you will be working with.

Place your items on your hearth and light the candle. Light the incense, waft the smoke over the area, and visualize any unwanted energy dispersing. Take a moment to open your awareness and see your entire house from a bird’s-eye view. In your mind, track its borders and see all the oroms in the home. Every home has a kind of spirit of its own, a spirit of that place. Try to connect with this spirit of place, sending out your intentions to protect the borders of this place and those who live within. You could also choose wo see wealth and love flowin ginto the space. 

I light my hearth's flame.  
I stand at the sacred center of my home and heart.  
May this flame be a flame of protection, 
A flame of love and warmth, 
A flame of (whatever you wish to draw into your space).  
I leave this offering to (hearth deity, home spirits, etc.), who watch over this space.  
Bring your blessing and gentle protection.

Leave your offering in the bowl. Let the candle burn for a little while before extinguishing it. Make sure to visit your hearth regularly, renewing your intentions and making offerings.

Wunjo

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Meaning: Joy, comfort, blessing. Purpose: Happiness, success, peace. [1]

Wunjo / woon-yo / or Joy, perfection, shared goals, harmony of like forces, best traits of all combined as a force, happiness. [2]

Resources

[1] Green Witchcraft by Ann Moura

[2] Practical Witch’s Almanac 2022 by Friday Gladheart

Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

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Blessing, love, Midsummer, fertility. Ruled by the planet Venus and the elements of earth or water. Sacred to fairies, Freya, love goddesses, and mother goddesses. [1]

In parts of Bavaria, it was traditional come springtime to tie little bags or baskets of wild strawberries to the cows’ horns to appease the fairies and elves, and to protect the cows. [2]

Some of the fairies’ preferred gathering places at Beltane are “fairy rings’ – circles of wild mushrooms; as well as circles of lawn daisies, patches of wild violets, patches of wild thyme, and, most of all, swathes of wild strawberries. [2]

Strawberry Mythology

Some Native American Indian tribes have long associated wild strawberries with spring and rebirth, as they are the first wild fruits to ripen. They used them mixed with cornmeal to make strawberry bread, which whtie settlers transformed to strawberry shortcake, a traditional Memorial Day weekend dessert.

During meieval times, the strawberry signified perfection and righteousness and strawberry fruits also symbolized esteem, love, purity, passion, health, and perfection, and were a popular embroidery motif. In heraldry, depictions of strawberry leaves were sometimes used to denote rank.

Strawberries are one of Venus’s symbols, due to their red heart shape. Frigga, the Norse marriage goddess, was believe to smuggle dad children to heaven by hiding them in strawberry patches. Both Freya, the Norse goddess of love, and the Christian Virgin Mary have been associated with strawberries.

Dutch early surrealist artist Hieronymus Bosch painted one of his most famous works, the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, in the fifteenth century. It is now housed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain, and, if you are unfamiliar with Bosch’s work, it is wonderfully strange. The center panel, which represents a lustful earthly paradise, features many oversized strawberries. At the bottom right are two human-sized straberries, one bursting open to emit round blue balls, and the other being used as an exercise ball by a naked woman. One of the men is offering the woman a strawberry as big as a melon. Another giant strawberry, with fairy wings, rides on the back of a naked man, a spiny tail emergy from a slit on its side. [2]

Resources

[1] The Hearth Witch’s Compendium by Anna Franklin

[2] Llewellyn’s 2022 Sabbats Almanac: Samhain 2021 to Mabon 2022

Olive (Olea europaea)

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New beginnings, peace, continuity, the expulsion of evil and negativity, consecration, purification, blessing. Ruled by the sun and the element of fire. Sacred to Amun Ra, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Auxesia Hera, Damia, Demeter, Ganymede, Hercules, Hermes, Indra, Isis, Juno, Jupiter, Nut, Poseidon, sun gods, and Zeus. [1]

Resources

[1] The Hearth Witch’s Compendium by Anna Franklin

Fivefold & Sevenfold Blessing

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Fivefold Blessing Variation

From this blessing comes the familiar expression among Witches, “Blessed be.” This is often used as a greeting or as a farewell. The blessing can be accompanied with a huge and kiss, and/or anointing with oil. This is the Fivefold Blessing: 

Blessed be thy feet, that bring thee on this path.  
Blessed be thy knees, that kneel to the Lord and Lady.  
Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be.  
Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty and in strength.  
Blessed be thy lips, that speak (utter) the sacred names.  [1]

Sevenfold Blessing

The Sevenfold Blessing begins by asking for a blessing from the Goddess, and adds a blessing for the eyes to see her path and for the nose to breathe in her essence. It drops the blessing for hte knees, and changes the womb to the loins. Depending on the tradition, the blessings move from feet to lips or lips to feet. 

Blessed be my feet, that take me on my path.  
Blessed be my knees, that support me before the Divine.  
Blessed be my abdomen, that gives me inner strength.  
Blessed be my breast, that holds my heart true to them.  
Blessed be my lips, that speak the secret names.  
Blessed be my eyes, that see the beauty of their love.  
Blessed be my mind, that seeks their knowledge and wisdom.   [1]

Resources

[1] Green Witchcraft by Ann Moura

Elder (Sambucus nigra)

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Caution: Seeds are poisonous. Wards negative thoughts when used as wind chimes, blessings, power, energy, strength, cleansing, offering, wood NOT to be burned as it is sacred to Hecate, see fairies in these trees at Litha, flowers may be used as an altar offering and as an incense for blessing and consecration, berries may be made into Esbat wine, the flowers may be added to a candle spell addressed to Hecate during the new moon, associated with Monday. [Green Witchcraft]

The dried blossom makes a good fixative for herbal incenses. It can be particularly added to Beltane and Midsummer incense, and is sacred to dryads, fairies, and Venus. The leaves should be gathered on Midsummer morning to add to healing incense. The bark and berries may be collected in the early autumn for crone aspects of the Goddess, including Holda, Hulda, the Elder Mother, and Hel. Ruled by the planet Venus and the element of air. [The Hearth Witch’s Compendium]

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)

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Burn for purification, wards negativity, protection, love, health, grown to attract elves, blessing, consecration, courage, happiness, peace. [Green Witchcraft]

Mind and the memory, concentration, meditation, healing, love, marriage, births, funerals, memorial services, protection, dispelling negativity and evil, attraction fairies, spells designed to retain youth. Ruled by the sun, the element of fire, and the zodiac sign of Aries. [The Hearth Witch’s Compendium]