Floral Fortification: Vesta’s Hearth Offering

The sign of Cancer is very much oriented toward love of home and family as well as security. Mixed dried flowers, otherwise known as potpourri, are now a popular household staple. It was a medieval custom to have them in the house, revived by the Victorians. Use different combinations for desired magical results; they help create sacred sanctuary space.

Gather together

• 1 cup (20g) of dried rose petals
• 1 cup (20g) of dried marigold
• 1 cup (20g) of dried lily petals
• a basket or bowl for the flower blend
• clove essential oil
• cinnamon essential oil

Timing: Either sun or moon in Cancer is a perfect time for this offering to the goddess of happy homes.

Put all the dried posies in the basket or bowl and sprinkle them with the essential oils. Place the mixture on the south point of your altar for the duration of a moon cycle. The sweet and spicy scent of the potpourri will spread a positive and protective energy to your home and your magical workings. A wreath of these same flowers with garlic cloves added will protect you from harm and illness. If you are a working witch, a small, sweet-smelling bowl of potpourri on your desk will provide constant comfort. If you have a fireplace, keep some on the mantle as an offering to the domestic goddess Vesta, she who keeps the home fire burning. When the scent has faded, burn it in your cast iron cauldron or a fireplace as an offering to her. Speak this invocation when making the offering:

    Vesta, goddess of home and hearth,

    Stand guard over this place I love.

    Keep safe the ones I love.

    This night, we breathe in peace.

    These flowers are my offering to you.

    So mote it be.

Sowing Seeds for Forthcoming Bounties: A Waxing Moon Incantation

When the first narrow crescent of the waxing moon appears in the twilight sky, place a green candle on your altar beside a white lily or freesia. White flowers have the most intense aromas. Anoint the candle with tuberose or rose oil. Take a handful of seeds, such as sunflower, walnuts, or pistachios, still in their shells, and place them in front of the candle.

Close your eyes and recite aloud:

    Under this darkling moon,

    in Eden fair, I walk through flowers

    in the garden of my desires.

    I light the flame of my mind,

    I plant the seeds of things to come.

Meditate on what you wish to bring into manifestation while inhaling the scents of the oil and flowers.

Let Your Love Blossom: Your Magic Garden

A great relationship can be cultivated, literally. By planting and carefully tending flowers that have special properties—like night-blooming jasmine for heightened sensuality, or lilies for lasting commitment—you can nurture your relationship. During a new moon in the Venus-ruled signs of Taurus or Libra, plant an assortment of flowers that will surround you with the beauty and energy of sweet devotion.

Before you place your hothouse posies or seeds into pots or flowerbeds, bless the ground with a prayer of health for your plants, yourself, and your relationships.

Light a black candle to absorb and dispel bad energy and place it in the middle of a circle you have drawn with a stick. Dip your hand into a clay bowl of water and sprinkle drops behind you and before you. Sing out:

    Great spirit, I offer you this petition.

    Please cleanse this land—you are the greatest magician.

    With my hands, I will plant and sow.

    Here, a healing garden will now grow.

    Blessings to you and to the Guardians of the Earth.

Serenity of the Setting Sun: A Spell for Mondays

To clear energy and prepare for a week of calm clarity, find a blossom of your favorite white flower—iris, lily, rose—one that is truly beautiful to your eye. Monday’s setting sun is the time for this spell, enacted immediately after the sun goes below the horizon. Anoint a white candle with clary sage oil and place it on your altar. Take your single white blossom and add that to your altar in a bowl of freshly drawn water. Place sage leaves on a glass dish in front of the lit candle and speak aloud:

    This fire is pure; this flower is holy, this water is clear.

    These elements purify me.

    I walk in light with nothing in my way.

    My energy is pure, my spirit is holy, my being is clear.

    White light burns bright in me and all the words I say.

    So mote it be. And so it is.

Burn the sage in the fire of the candle, then put in the glass dish where it can turn into ash, smudging your space with consecrating smoke as it burns. Stand in front of your altar and breathe in slowly and deeply six times. On the last, strongest exhalation, blow the candle out.

The Meaning of Flowers Part V

V, W

Valerian: An accommodating disposition

Valerian, Greek: Rupture

Venus’ Car: Fly with me

Venus’ Looking Glass: Flattery

Venus Trap: Deceit

Verbena, Scarlet: Sensibility

Verbena, White: Pure and guileless

Vernal Grass: Poor, but happy

Veronica: Fidelity

Vervain: Enchantment

Vine: Intoxication

Violet, Blue: Faithfulness

Violet, Dame: Watchfulness

Violet, Sweet: Modesty

Violet, Yellow: Rural happiness

Virginia Creeper: Ever changing

Virgin’s Bower: Filial love

Volkmannia: May you be happy

Walnut: Intellect, stratagem

Wallflower: Fidelity in adversity

Water Lily: Purity of heart

Wax Plant: Susceptibility

Weigela: Accept a faithful heart

Wheat Stalk: Riches

Whin: Anger

White Lily: Purity and modesty

White Mullein: Good nature

White Oak: Independent

Whortleberry: Treason

Willow, Creeping: Love forsaken

Willow, Water: Freedom

Willow, Weeping: Mourning

Willow, Herb: Pretension

Willow, French: Bravery, humanity

Wisteria: I cling to thee

Witch Hazel: A spell

Woodbine: Fraternal love

X, Y, Z

Xanthium: Rudeness, pertinacity

Xeranthemum: Cheerfulness under adversity

Yew: Sorrow

Zephyr Flower: Expectation

Zinnia: Thoughts of absent friends

The Meaning of Flowers Part IV

P, Q, R

Palm: Victory

Pansy: Thoughts

Parsley: Festivity

Pasque Flower: You have no claims

Patience Dock: Patience

Passion Flower: Religious superstition

Pea, Everlasting: An appointed meeting, lasting pleasure

Pea, Sweet: Departure, lasting pleasures

Peach: Your qualities like your charms are unequalled

Peach Blossom: I am your captive

Quaking Grass: Agitation

Quamoclit: Busybody

Queen’s Rocket: You are the Queen of Coquettes; passion

Quince: Temptation

Ragged Robin: Wit

Ranunculus: You are radiant with charms

Ranunculus, Garden: You are rich in all relations

Ranunculus, Wild: Ingratitude

Raspberry: Remorse

Rye Grass, Darnel: Vice

Red Catchfly: Youthful love

Reed: Complaisance, music

Reed, Split: Indiscretion

Rhododendron, Rosebay: Danger, beware

Rhubarb: Advice

Rocket: Rivalry

S

Saffron: Beware of success

Saffron, Crocus: Mirth

Saffron, Meadow: My happiest days are past

Sage: Domestic virtue

Sage, Garden: Esteem

Sainfoin: Agitation

Saint John’s Wort: Animosity

Salvia, Blue: I think of you

Salvia, Red: Forever thine

Saxifrage, Mossy: Affection

Scabicus: Unfortunate love

Scarlet Lychnis: Sunbeaming eyes

Schinus: Religious enthusiasm

Scilla, Blue: Forgive and forget

Scilla, Sibirica: Pleasure without alloy

Scilla, White: Sweet innocence

Scotch Fir: Elevation

Sensitive Plant: Sensibility

Shamrock: Light-heartedness

Snakesfoot: Horror

Snowball: Bound

Snowdragon: Presumption

Snowdrop: Hope

Sorrel: Affection

Sorrel, Wild: Wit, ill-timed

Sorrel, Wood: Joy

Stephanotis: You can boast too much

Stock, Ten Week: Promptness

Stonecrop: Tranquility

Straw, Broken: Rupture of a contract

Straw, Whole: Union

Strawberry Blossom: Foresight

Strawberry Tree: Esteem, not love

Sumac, Venice: Splendor

Sunflower, Dwarf: Adoration

Sunflower, Tall: Haughtiness

T

Tamarisk: Crime

Tansy, Wild: I declare war against you

Teasel: Misanthropy

Tendrils of Climbing Plants: Ties

Thistle, Common: Austerity

Thistle, Scotch: Retaliation

Thornapple: Deceitful charms

Thorns, Branch of: Severity

Thrift: Sympathy

Throatwort: Neglected beauty

Thyme: Activity

Tiger Flower: For once may pride befriend me

Traveler’s Joy: Safety

Tree of Life: Old age

Trefoil: Revenge

Tremella: Resistance

Trillium Pictum: Modest beauty

Truffle: Surprise

Tulip, Red: Declaration of love

Tulip, Variegated: Beautiful eyes

Tulip, Yellow: Hopeless love

Turnip: Charity

Tussilago, Sweet-scented: Justice shall be done you

The Meaning of Flowers Part III

K, L

Kennedya: Mental beauty

King-Cups: Desire of riches

Laburnum: Forsaken, pensive beauty

Lady’s Slipper: Capricious beauty

Lagerstromia, Indian: Eloquence

Lantana: Rigor

Larch: Audacity, boldness

Larkspur: Lightness, levity

Larkspur, Pink: Fickleness

Larkspur, Purple: Haughtiness

Laurel: Glory

Laurel, Common, in flower: Perfidy

Laurel, Ground: Perseverance

Laurel, Mountain: Ambition

Laurestina: A token

Lavender: Distrust

Leaves, Dead: Melancholy

Lemon: Zest

Lemon Blossoms: Fidelity in love

Lent Lilly: Sweet disposition

Lettuce: Cold-heartedness

Lichen: Dejection, solitude

Lilac, Field: Humility

Lilac, Purple: First emotions of love

Lilac, White: Youthful innocence

Lily, Day: Coquetry

Lily, Yellow: Falsehood, gaiety

Lily of the Valley: Return of happiness

Linden or Lime Tree: Conjugal love

Lint: I feel my obligation

Liquorice, Wild: I declare against you

Live Oak: Liberty

Liverwort: Confidence

Lobelia: Malevolence

Locust Tree: Elegance

Locust Tree, Green: Affection beyond the grave

London Pride: Frivolity

Lote Tree: Concord

Lotus: Eloquence

Lotus Flower: Estranged love

Lotus Leaf: Recantation

Love-in-a-Mist: Perplexity

Love-Lies-Bleeding: Hopeless, not heartless

Lucerne: Life

Lupin: Voraciousness

M, N, O

Madder: Calumny

Magnolia: Love of nature

Magnolia, Laurel-leaved: Dignity

Magnolia, Swamp: Perseverance

Mallow: Mildness

Mallow, Marsh: Beneficence

Mallow, Syrian: Consumed by love

Mallow, Venetian: Delicate beauty

Manchineel Tree: Falsehood

Mandrake: Horror

Maple: Reserve

Marigold: Grief, despair

Marigold, African: Vulgar minds

Marigold, French: Jealousy

Marigold, Prophetic: Prediction

Marjoram: Blushes

Marvel of Peru: Timidity

Meadow Lychnis: Wit

Meadow Saffron: My best days are past

Meadowsweet: Uselessness

Mercury: Goodness

Mesembryanthemum: Idleness

Mezereon: Desire to please

Michaelmas Daisy: Afterthought

Mignonette: Your qualities surpass your charms

Milfoil: War

Milkvetch: Your presence softens my pains

Milkwort: Hermitage

Mimosa, Sensitive Plant: Sensitiveness

Mint: Virtue

Mistletoe: I surmount difficulties

Narcissus: Egotism

Narcissus, Double: Female ambition

Nasturtium: Patriotism

Nemophila: I forgive you

Nettle, Common Stinging: You are cruel

Nettle, Burning: Slander

Night-blooming Cereus: Transient beauty

Night Convolvulus: Night

Nightshade: Falsehood

Oak Leaves: Bravery

Oak Tree: Hospitality

Oats: The witching soul of music

Oleander: Beware

Olive: Peace

Orange Blossoms: Bridal festivities, your purity equals your loveliness

Orange Flowers: Chastity

Orange Tree: Generosity

Orchid: A belle

Osier: Frankness

Osmunda: Dreams

Ox Eye: Patience

The Meaning of Flowers Part II

Several flower dictionaries were written and published in the Victorian era in an effort to preserve the lore handed down through the ages on the meaning of flowers and the properties associated with them. This is known as “floriography,” and many a hedgewitch contributed to this body of wisdom for flower magic and herbal healing. Should you wish to favor a friend, family member, or even a new flame with a bouquet, this floral index will guide your choices.

F, G

Fennel: Worthy of all praise

Fern, Flowering: Fascination

Fern: Sincerity

Ficoides, Ice Plant: Your looks freeze me

Fig: Argument

Fig, Marigold: Idleness

Fig Tree: Prolific

Flax: Fate, domestic industry, I feel your kindness

Flax-leaved Golden Locks: Tardiness

Fleur-de-lis: Flame

Fleur-de-Luce: Confidence in heaven

Flower-of-an-Hour: Delicate beauty

Fly Orchis: Error

Fly Trap: Deceit

Fools Parsley: Silliness

Forget-Me-Not: True love

Foxglove: Insincerity

Foxtail Grass: Sporting

French Honeysuckle: Rustic beauty

French Marigold: Jealousy

Frog Ophrys: Disgust

Fritillary, Checquered: Persecution

Fullers Teasel: Misanthropy, importunity

Fumitory: Spleen

Fuschia, Scarlet: Taste

Furze or Gorse: Enduring affection

Garden Anemone: Forsaken

Garden Chervil: Sincerity

Garden Marigold: Uneasiness

Garden Ranunculus: You are rich in attractions

Garden Sage: Esteem

Garland of Roses: Reward of virtue

Gentian: You are unjust

Germander Speedwell: Facility

Geranium, Dark: Melancholy

Geranium, Ivy: Bridal favor

Geranium, Nutmeg: An expected meeting

Geranium, Oak-leaved: True friendship

Geranium, Pencil-leaved: Ingenuity

Geranium, Rose or Pink: Preference

Geranium, Scarlet: Comforting

Geranium, Silver-leaved: Recall

Geranium, Wild: Steadfast piety

Gillyflower: Lasting beauty

Gladiolus: Strength of character

Glory Flower: Glorious beauty

Gloxinia: A proud spirit

Goats Rue: Reason

H, I, J

Hand Flower Tree: Warming

Harebell: Submission, grief

Hawkweed: Quick-sightedness

Hawthorne: Hope

Hazel: Reconciliation

Heartsease or Pansy: You occupy my thoughts

Heath: Solitude

Helenium: Tears

Heliotrope: Devotion

Hellebore: Scandal, calumny

Hemlock: You will be my death

Hemp: Fate

Henbane: Imperfection

Hepatica: Confidence

Hibiscus: Delicate beauty

Holly: Foresight

Holly Herb: Enchantment

Hollyhock: Fecundity

Honesty: Honesty, sincerity

Honey Flower: Love sweet and secret

Honeysuckle: Bonds of love, sweetness of disposition

Honeysuckle, Coral: The color of my fate

Honeysuckle, French: Rustic beauty

Hop: Injustice

Hornbeam: Ornament

Hortensia: You are cold

Houseleek: Vivacity, domestic economy

Houstonia: Content

Hoya: Sculpture

Humble Plant: Despotism

Hyacinth: Sport, game, play

Hyacinth, Blue: Constancy

Hyacinth, Purple: Sorrow

Hyacinth, White: Unobtrusiveness, loveliness

Hydrangea: A boaster, heartlessness

Hyssop: Cleanliness

Iceland Moss: Health

Ice Plant: Your looks freeze me

Imperial Montaque: Power

Indian Cress: Warlike trophy

Indian Pink, Double: Always lovely

Indian Plum: Privation

Iris: Message

Iris, German: Flame

Ivy: Friendship, fidelity

Ivy, Sprig of with tendrils: Assiduous to please

Jacobs Ladder: Come down

Japan Rose: Beauty is your only attraction

Jasmine, Cape: Transport of joy

Jasmine, Carolina: Separation

Jasmine, Indian: Attachment

Jasmine, Spanish: Sensuality

Jasmine, Yellow: Grace and elegance

Jasmine, White: Amiability

Jonquil: I desire a return of affection

Judas Tree: Unbelief, betrayal

Justicia: The perfection of female loveliness

Gardening Is the Key to Happiness (and It’s Easy!)

Here are the vegetables anyone can grow, from beginners to pros with their own greenhouses:

Lettuce, peas, onions, beets, potatoes, beans, and radishes.

Lettuce leaves for your salads are the easiest edible crop to grow. A few varieties will be ready to harvest in weeks! Choose a seed mix that will give you a variety of leaves for different tastes, colors, and textures. For best results, sow in stages so you don’t get loads all at once. Sow a couple of lanes every few weeks throughout the summer to ensure a continuous supply.

Once you are a pro with lettuce, grow spinach and rocket (a.k.a. arugula) for your salad bowl.

Peas are a trouble-free crop that can handle cooler weather, so you can skip the step of starting the seedlings indoors. Simply sow the seeds in the ground from March onwards and watch them thrive. The plants will need support—put in stakes or chicken wire attached to posts and occasionally wind the stems around the supports as they grow. Harvest your fresh peas from June to August—the more you pick; the more will grow.

Onions are problem free and easy to propagate. After your seedlings sprout, thin seedlings to an inch apart, and then thin again in four weeks to six inches apart. Onions are a staple for cooking, so you and your family will be grateful once you have established an onion patch in your kitchen garden.

Potatoes and beets are a high return for your labor. To me, the best way to grow both is the world’s laziest way to garden; I remember reading about it when I was ten in a book by Thalassa Crusoe, a pioneering organic gardener. I was fascinated that you could grow root vegetables without even needing to turn any soil. You can grow potatoes, yams, and so on under straw! Simply cut up mature potatoes that have “eyes” or the fleshy tubers sprouting out of the flesh of the potato, making sure each piece has an eye. This will give a new potato. After you “plant” or place the seed potatoes chunks on the ground, put loose straw over the pieces and between all the rows at least four to six inches deep. When the seed pieces start growing, your potato sprouts will emerge through the straw cover. How easy was that? Crusoe also said you could do the same under wet, shredded newspaper, but straw is more organic.

Radishes have enjoyed a new popularity thanks to Korean and Japanese cuisine. They add a fun pop of spicy, tangy flavor to soups, stews, tempura, salads, and all on their own. They can grow equally well in the ground in spring or in a pot. Radishes like a lot of sun and well-drained soil. They are also a crop you can grow in several crops per season. If you keep the soil moist, you’ll have big beautiful radishes to brighten any dish.

Green beans are the opposite of the low-maintenance beets and potatoes as they will need staking or poles for support. However, an easier path to a great crop of green beans can be to grow them in a five-gallon container. After they have gotten four or five feet long, place a pole or stake carefully in the pot and allow the bean vines to wind around. Soon you’ll have a pot of beans even grandma might recognize as a favorite vegetable for any occasion.

Your Local Free Farmer’s Market

If you are lucky enough to live nearby an untended meadow, you have a garden at your beck and call. Rocket, sorrel, nettles, dandelions, and purslane are there for the taking, along with the beautiful tall flowering weed Queen Anne’s lace, the roots of which are tiny wild carrots. Foraging is good exercise as well as an exercise in economy, as these tasty weeds are free for the picking. All these greens are good for you, and purslane is a genuine superfood, one very high in omega-3 fatty acids. Foraging these wild wonderful weeds is a part of the centuries-old village tradition.

Sagittarius: Vervain Gives Vivacity

Sagittarians often feel like Energizer bunnies. While sharing your ideals with others fuels your spirit of joie de vivre, your ardent enthusiasm can sometimes have you setting overly optimistic goals. If you need support in balancing impassioned pursuits with a pragmatic perspective, try vervain flower essence.

Gratitude to Mother Nature

Stones, crystals, and gems are regarded as the purest forms of the earth’s generosity. Whenever you get a new crystal, receive a piece of jewelry with a stone or gem, or decorate your home or garden with rocks and pebbles, show gratitude for these gifts from nature. Simply say, “Thank you, Mother Nature, for this gift.” Your gratitude will be rewarded tenfold, and you will enjoy a shower of crystals and gems in your life from our benefactress Mother Earth, who enjoys getting credit for her good works!

Archangel Protection Rite: Angelica Hex Breaker (Waxing or Full Moon)

Whenever you are going through a hard time or have fears for your family, try this ritual. Angelica, also called the “Heavenly Guardian Flower,” is said to first bloom on Archangel Michael’s name day. This positive plant is part of the carrot family and is a tall, hollow-stemmed plant with umbrella-shaped clusters of pale white flowers, tinged with green. Candying the stalks in sugar was an old-fashioned favorite, and was also traditionally used to cure colds and relieve coughs. Nowadays, seeds are used to make chartreuse, a digestive and uniquely tasty liqueur. This guardian flower is a protector, as one might expect for a plant associated with archangels, and is used to reverse curses, break hexes and fend off negative energies. Drying and curing the root is a traditional talisman, and it can be carried in your pocket or in an amulet to bring a long life. Many a wise woman has used angelica leaves in baths and spellwork to rid a household of dark spirits. If the bad energy is intense, burn the angelica leaves with frankincense to exorcise them from your space. While you are protecting yourself and your home from negativity during this angelica smudging session, you will also experience heightened psychism. Pay close attention to your dreams after this; important messages will come through.

Floral Healing Remedies

Flower essences mixed with 30 millimeters distilled water can also be used as the following remedies:
• Addiction: skullcap, agrimony
• Anger: nettle, blue flag, chamomile
• Anxiety: garlic, rosemary, aspen, periwinkle, lemon balm, white chestnut, gentian
• Bereavement: honeysuckle
• Depression: borage, sunflower, larch, chamomile, geranium, yerba santa, black cohosh, lavender, mustard
• Exhaustion: aloe, yarrow, olive, sweet chestnut
• Fear: poppy, mallow, ginger, peony, water lily, basil, datura
• Heartbreak: heartsease, hawthorn, borage
• Lethargy: aloe, thyme, peppermint
• Stress: dill, echinacea, thyme, mistletoe, lemon balm
• Spiritual blocks: oak, ginseng, lady’s slipper