Botanical Bliss: Garden Your Way to Happiness

For healing, plant sage word sorrel, carnation, onion, garlic, peppermint and rosemary.

For dispelling negative energy, plant heather, hawthorn, holly, hyacinth, hyssop, ivy, juniper, periwinkle and nasturtiums.

Farming and working with plants is guided by the moon, and should take place during the waxing moon in the signs of Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces, Capricorn and Taurus.

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

Love Your Mother: Spells to Heal Nature

Unlike our forebears, modern witches have to help heal Mother Earth. We are charged with crafting spells to restore and nurture the planet, which in turn nurtures us. In spring, on the Vernal Equinox, March 21, sprinkle clover leaves, ground mistletoe, and cinnamon on the ground while walking widdershins, or counterclockwise. Face north with right arm raised, and say aloud:

I call upon the great powers in the north 
Bless and protect this land,
Bless and protect our beloved Mother Earth! 
Harm to None. So mote it be.

Botanical Bliss: Garden Your Way to Happiness (Waxing Moon is Optimal)

For healing, plant sage word sorrel, carnation, onion, garlic, peppermint and rosemary.

For dispelling negative energy, plant heather, hawthorn, holly, hyacinth, hyssop, ivy, juniper, periwinkle and nasturtiums.

Farming and working with plants is guided by the moon, and should take place during the waxing moon in the signs of Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces, Capricorn and Taurus.

Rejuvenation Invocation: The Water of Life

I advise any witchy gardener to have a rain barrel to make the most of stormy weather; you can water your pots of herbs and garden during sunnier days and dry spells. On the first day of the rainfall, place a blue glass bowl outside as a water-catcher. Bring it inside and place on your altar beside a lit candle. Speak:

Water of life, gift from the sky,We bathe in newfound energy, making spirits fly!

Dip your fingers in the water and touch your forehead. Meditate upon the healing work you and your garden can do, thanks to the nurturing rainfall. Pour the water into the ground of your garden, speaking the spell one last time.

Green Thumb Thursday Spell

On a Thursday, as the moon waxes, light green and purple candles anointed with pure lotus or sandalwood oil. Place a small ivy or fern on your altar, along with a glass of fresh water containing a pearl or piece of jade. Burn a stick of sandalwood incense in a pot of soil placed at the altar’s north quadrant and meditate on your hopes and dreams.

When the incense has burned down, place the plant in the larger container, then bow and pray:

As this living thing expands, so shall the power of this magic space grow. 
Oh, Goddess, I dedicate my magic to you. Harm to none and only good 
work from this holy place.
Blessed be.

Bury the jewel in the soil and use the water from the glass to water the plant. Keep your plant “familiar” with you. You will grow in health and power together. I also encourage you to continually revitalize your altar by adorning it with sacred objects—an iridescent feather, an egg-shaped pebble from the side of the road, a rosy pomegranate, or any other sacred object you find will make a perfect altar gift.

Sylvan Spell: Planting Magic

This is a lovely spell to do if you are given a small tree as a gift, to wish for strength and good health for you and your love. Before you plant the sapling, tie a bow in some colored ribbon, and plant the bow with a small heart symbol in the soil under the roots of the tree. After you have planted the tree, water it well—especially with one or two tears of love, if possible! Make a wish that both you and your love will grow strong and enduring as the tree takes root and begins to flourish. When the tree bears its first leaf, press it in a book associated with the one you love. As long as you tend your tree with love, you will both enjoy blooming health and vitality.

Inner Serenity Spell

For inner peace, take a walk in the woods, a stroll on the beach, or just relax in your backyard. Bring a stick, seven leaves from an ash or oak tree, several stones, and matches. With the stick, draw a circle on the ground and mark four directions: north, east, south and west.

Place the stones at the center of the circle. Concentrate upon your connection to the earth and how to honor that in your life. Say:

Good luck rises for me in the East;

My music rises in the South;

My wishes rise in the West;

From the North, my dreams will come true.

Blessed Balm Spell (Waning Moon is Optimal)

Simmer  this  mixture  whenever  you  feel  the  need  to  infuse  your home and heart with the energies of protection. A waning moon is  the time  to  banish  old  negative  energy.  This  will  safeguard  you  and your  loved  ones  from  outside  influences  that  could be negative or disruptive. Set your intention and gather together the following herbs:

¼ cup rosemary 

1 teaspoon dill weed

4 bay laurel leaves

cup cedar

1 tablespoon basil

1 teaspoon juniper berries

1/8 cup sage

Mix your herbs together by hand. While you are doing this, close your eyes and visualize your home as a sacred place protected by a boundary of glowing white light. Add the herbs to a pan filled with simmering water. When the aromatic steam rises, intone:

By my own hand, I have made this balm;

This divine essence contains my calm.

By my own will, I make this charm;

This precious potpourri protects all from harm.

With harm to none and health to all, 

Blessed be!

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.

Ritual Herbs: Using Mother Nature's Magic

Refer to this list whenever you are setting up your altar and setting your intention for ritual work.

• Benzoin can be used for purification, prosperity, work success, mental acuity, and memory.
• Camphor can be used for healing, divining the future, curbing excess, especially romantic obsessions, and a surfeit of sexuality.
• Cinnamon refreshes and directs spirituality. It is also handy for healing, money, love, lust, personal power, and success with work and creative projects.
• Clove is good for bringing money to you, for protection, for your love life and for helping evade and deter negative energies.
• Copal is good for love and purification.
• Frankincense is another spiritual essence that purifies and protects.
• Lavender is a plant for happiness, peace, true love, long life and chastity. It is an excellent purifier that helps with sleep. 
• Myrrh has been considered since ancient times to be deeply sacred. It aids personal spirituality, heals and protects, and can help ward off negative spirits and energies.
• Nutmeg is a lucky herb that promotes good health and prosperity and encourages fidelity.
• Patchouli stimulates and grounds while engendering both sensuality and encourages fidelity.
• Peppermint is an herb of purification, healing, and love. It supports relaxation and sleep as it helps to increase psychic powers.
• Rosemary is good for purification, protection, healing, relaxation and intelligence. It attracts love and sensuality, helps with memory, and can keep you youthful.
• Sage brings wisdom, purification, protection, health and a long life. It can help make your wishes come true.
• Sandalwood is a mystical, healing, protecting essence that helps attract the objects of your hopes and desires and disperses negative energies and spirits.
• Star anise is a lucky herb that aids divination and psychism.
• Tonka bean brings courage and draws love and money.
• Vanilla brings love and enriches your mental capacity.
• Wood aloe is good for dressing or anointing talismans and amulets you want to use for protection.

amulets you want to use for protection.

Seeding the Future - New Moon Ritual

What are your intentions for the coming months? What you can imagine, you can bring into being. This ritual will aid you in getting what you want and need for yourself and loved ones. Nothing says "new beginnings" like planting a seed, so use the power of a growing plant to bring success to your own new moon projects.

Assemble the following:

• A flowerpot filled halfway with soil
• Enough soil to fill the rest of the pot
• Seeds (nasturtiums are oh-so-easy to grow)
• Egg shells 
• A small piece of paper

Get everything together and write your intentions on the paper in as few words as possible and roll into a scroll. Place the scroll into the pot, and crush some eggshells on top of that. Fill the rest of the pot with soil. Repeat the following: 

I plant this seed when the moon is new, 

Manifest my intentions, I ask it true. So mote it be. 

Keep repeating this as you plant your seeds, and give them a little water. After the ritual, keep the pot somewhere sunny, and you should start seeing some success in your plans when your plant begins to sprout. Keep it healthy and thriving to keep the magic going. You can repeat this ritual every time you feel the need and the moon is new. You can also be very specific in your intentions: new love, an interview for a new job, finding a new home you love. I find that the more specific you are in setting your intentions, the more powerful the spell.