Garden Witchery (22 page)

For example, I ripped out most of my side yard's sunny bed two years ago this spring, as it had been overtaken by evening primrose. Evening primrose is a lovely perennial that makes lots of pink blooms and tolerates poor soils. It is, however, extremely aggressive and can overtake a bed in a few years. In my case they were starting to choke out some of my other magickal perennials.

So, faced with an all-out perennial war, I checked the almanac and timed my transplanting down with a waning moon. We dug out all but my biggest perennials and set them in the shade. Then I had my oldest son go through the bed and around the big perennials with a rototiller. My neighbors thought I was crazy, ripping into the garden that way. But it needed it. We raked and pulled out all of the offending primrose. I then amended the soil with compost and humus. My husband, son, and I divided up the phlox, yarrow, and coneflowers and transplanted these and my other perennials back into the improved bed all in the same day. To finish, we watered them in well by hand. (I didn't want a sprinkler to beat them all down.) Later that evening, I went outside and checked on the newly transplanted plants. A few needed more water. So I gave them all a drink again and blessed the garden so our plants would thrive.

I was rewarded with a happy, healthy cottage garden that year. The following summer the coneflowers grew heartily and the purple garden phlox grew five feet tall. No kidding. I have pictures of my daughter standing next to the phlox. They are almost as tall as she is. During the months of June and July, as the phlox bloomed, the garden was fabulously scented. It was especially fragrant at night and it looked and felt like a faery tale out there. Amazing what a little hard work combined with magick can accomplish, isn't it?

I have caught hold of the earth,
to use a gardener's phrase,
and neither friends nor my enemies
will find it an easy matter
to transplant me again.

Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke

Digging In

Wow, we really have dug in good, haven't we? Let's see. . . we talked about turning back into the rhythms and tides of nature. We went over mystic plants and trees, and discovered that magickal herbs and plants are to be found everywhere and are easy for the average homeowner to grow. We used our time constructively while looking at astrological timing and gardening by the moon. We greeted the Goddess and reviewed deities that correspond to nature, the moon signs, and phases for gardening. We delved into antique flower folklore and talked about the joys and risks of working with nature spirits and the faeries. We covered ideas for garden witch crafts and creating a garden witch's BOS. We even went over suggestions for natural family sabbat celebrations. Finally, we plotted and planned out ideas for creating and consecrating outdoor magickal gardens and sacred spaces.

Well, what could possibly be left? Only the toughest part of your training: committing some basic herbal knowledge to memory. Transplanting your new herbal knowledge into your spellwork. And, finally, creating your own garden witch spells and rhymes.

Strange to the world, he wore a bashful look,
The fields his study, Nature was his book.

Robert Bloomsfield

Hitting the Books

It's time to hit the books. Visit the library and start reading up on the topics of perennials, general gardening, and herbs. It is very much worth your time. Watch the clearance tables at the larger bookstores. Occasionally you will find a great bargain on a gardening book or two. Talk to other gardeners, and see which books are their favorites. A few good reference books are vital for any research. A handful of the books that I would recommend for your herbal and magickal reference shelf are as follows:

Herbs
by Lesley Bremness (DK Books, 2000).

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs
by Scott Cunningham (Llewellyn, 1985).

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal and Gem Magic
by Scott Cunningham (Llewellyn, 1992).

Magical Herbalism: The Secret Craft of the Wise
by Scott Cunningham (Llewellyn, 1982).

The Women's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects
by Barbra Walker (Castle Books, 1988).

An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present
by Doreen Valiente (Phoenix Publishing, 1973). This is an excellent all-around reference book.

The Witches' Way
by Janet and Stewart Farrar (Phoenix Publishing, 1984). A definite, thoroughly British classic.

Moon Magick
by D. J. Conway (Llewellyn, 1995). If you are stumped for ideas or just want information and suggestions for specific deities, this is a fabulous book and one of my all-around favorites.

Take a good look at these books. Now, have you ever noticed that most modern Pagan/ Wiccan authors have books by Scott Cunningham, Doreen Valiente, and the Farrars in their bibliographies? Think there might be a reason for that? If you have a modern magickal book that has really helped you or is one of your favorites, check that book's bibliography. Then go track down those books. Dust off your library card and start researching. Think of it as a sort of quest, and it is. It's a quest for knowledge.

It is so easy to whimper and whine about a lack of advanced material, and so much harder to experiment and create your own. It will take time and effort and, besides, you need something to keep you busy on rainy days and during the long winter months anyway. (Don't even tell me that you don't know how.) Basic correspondence charts are everywhere. Refer to them until you get the rudiments of magick memorized.

The resourceful garden witch is one that carefully researches various magickal traditions and pantheons and knows their basic magickal and herbal correspondences. That way they can quickly and easily design and cast spells of their own creation. The finest quarter calls, herbal spells, and flower charms are truly the ones that you invent yourself.

To create a little flower is the labor of ages.

William Blake

Creating Your Own Style of Garden Witchery

To rhyme or not to rhyme, that is the question. If you have trouble making your herbal charms and spells rhyme (and you don't have a thirteen-year-old rhyming wizard living with you), go get yourself a rhyming dictionary. Keep your charms short, sweet, and uncomplicated. Don't worry about trying to sound like Byron or Yeats. I like to think of the formula for creating spells that rhyme in a very elementary way—that old den mother adage of KISMIF, which stands for
Keep It Simple, Make It Fun
.

At first, teaching myself to write herbal spells that rhymed made my stomach tie itself up into a knot. Who was I kidding? I'm not a poet. I made myself a nervous wreck trying to sound fluid and elegant. Then I realized I'm neither of those things. What I am is no-nonsense, slightly sarcastic, and funny. No matter how serious I try to be, the humor always sneaks back out. So I just made the charms and spells sound like me. That took the pressure off, and I began to enjoy the process. And, wonder of wonders, that turned the trick.

Use your imagination. I've completely lost count of how many times I have suggested that to you. Look for inspiration everywhere, especially in nature. You may find yourself moved to create new quarter calls or spells in the most unusual places . . .

While I was traipsing through the woods, vainly trying to keep up with my trout-fishing family this past summer, I was inspired to write a new set of quarter calls. At the time, I was finishing up the first draft of this book and realized that with all of my talk of herbal spells and charms, I had yet to include any circle castings. (How remiss of me.) I had the idea, rolling around in my head, to possibly write a circle casting that incorporated magickal flowers or herbs.

Now, as you know, a complete quarter call generally includes a salute to each individual direction, a call to the coordinating element, and an invocation of that element's specific qualities, such as west, water, love . . . following me so far?

As I tagged along behind the family, admiring the wildflowers along the stream bank, I stopped to appreciate a gorgeous wild hydrangea in bloom. I then noticed a tough little cypress tree growing close by. He was next to a huge oak and then surrounded by lots of young oak trees, all growing in a circle. That got me to thinking . . . what about a circle call working with the magick of trees instead?

As we hiked back to the cabin for lunch, I looked around at the various trees, growing wild in the park. After the meal, I sent the troops back out and I settled down alone with a note pad and wrote the following.

This quarter call does indeed draw on trees and their magickal attributes. You will notice that there are coordinating times of day as well as directions and magickal correspondences. To perform this circle casting, start in the east. As you call each quarter, you will keep moving to each new direction to your right. Then move to the center to seal the circle.

Circle of the Trees

In the east, maple leaves rustle in the morning breeze,

Element of air, I call for inspiration, join me now, please.

In the south, the midday sun shines upon the mighty oak tree,

I request the element of fire for strength and to illuminate me.

In the west, the willow sways by the silver springs at twilight,

Element of water, I call for love and the gift of second sight.

In the north grows the cypress, tree of the midnight hour,

Element of earth, grant me protection, wisdom, and power.

Four different trees of magick, four separate times of power.

This circle of trees is now cast by root, stem, leaf, and flower.

To open this circle, begin in the north. Release each element with your love and thanks. Try something like this:

Element of the earth, I thank you for your presence. Go in peace. Blessed be.

Then move to your left and release each element in turn—west, then the south, and finally the east. To finish up, I would open the circle by using that oldie but goodie Craft standard, “The circle is open, but unbroken. Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again.”

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

Shakespeare Hamlet