March 16, 2014 Full Moon

Last of the season’s three full moons

MARCH 16, 2014

March 16, 2014 –This March full moon is the third of 2014. It’s the Northern Hemisphere’s final full moon of winter and the Southern Hemisphere’s final full moon of summer.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we often call this full moon the Sap Moon, Crow Moon, Worm Moon or Lenten Moon. For the Southern Hemisphere, this March full moon is the Harvest Moon – the closest full moon to the autumn equinox.

The upcoming equinox will take place on March 20, 2014. It’s the spring equinox for the Northern Hemisphere and the autumn equinox south of the equator.

No matter where you live worldwide, Earth’s shadow won’t diminish the light of the March 2014 full moon!

What is the Harvest moon?

The harvest moon is named for the full moon nearest to Mabon, bright enough to allow farmers to work late into the night bringing in the final harvest of the year. This moon is celebrated across many cultures using different names: Other names for this moon are the Wine Moon, the Elk Call Moon and the Singing Moon.

Why do Wiccans Celebrate the Harvest moon?

For Wiccans, it is an especially powerful time for our spell work. The full moon itself represents the Goddess at her most fertile, luminous self. It is the perfect time for creating change. After the contemplative holiday of Mabon, you have reached deep into yourself and sorted through your own strengths and weaknesses. You know where you want to see change and now is the time to prepare for that. Creating moon magic is always strongest at midnight. You would want to time your spell to start at this time. No matter how long you plan your ritual for, the starting point is the most important one. You can simply honour your deity(s) with a small ritual or create something more elaborate but for the most effect, start at midnight.

How to the Harvest moon?

From simple to elaborate, celebrating the harvest moon is part of clearing the clutter in both your mind and personal life. Since thoughts are turning to the comforts of home as the cold weather arrives, think of ways to bring your ritual into the area where your comforts come from in your home.

Honour Demeter, Goddess of the bountiful harvest with gifts from your garden like a pumpkin, include something green since harvesting means herbs as well as food. In keeping with the idea of balance, you can also honour a God at Harvest moon.

As the wheel turns

Celebrating Mabon and Harvest moon is an important part of celebrating the wheel of the year. It is a natural transition towards the winter season and new year.

 

Take the time to make a small altar and focus your energy on creating the changes that make your life more balanced.

MATRONALIA ~ FESTIVAL OF WOMAN ~ 1st MARCH

Matronalia ~ Festival of Woman

In ancient Roman religion, the Matronalia (or Matronales Feriae) was a festival celebrating Juno Lucina, the goddess of childbirth ("Juno who brings children into the light"), and of motherhood (mater is "mother" in Latin) and women in general. In the original Roman calendar traditionally thought to have been established by Romulus, it was the first day of  March (Martius), the month of Mars, it was also the Feriae Martis.

The date of the festival was associated with the dedication of a temple to Juno Lucina on the Esquiline Hill circa 268 BCE, and possibly also a commemoration of the peace between the Romans and the Sabines.

On the day, women would participate in rituals at the temple, although the details have not been preserved other than the observation that they wore their hair loose, and were not allowed to wear belts or to knot their clothing in any place.

At home, women received gifts from their husbands and daughters. 

THE HISTORY OF THE BESOM / BROOM

THE HISTORY OF THE BESOM / BROOM

THE BROOM

The broom stick was an important fixture in ancient homes. Most homes were made of wood, straw and dirt floors. The only way to keep a home clean was to sweep out the old.

One of the earliest forms of the broom is known as the Besom Broom. They were made of twigs tied to a handle. The bristles can be made of various materials such as straw, herbs, or twigs. The shaft is round to represent the branch of a tree. This associates the broom with the Tree of Life which was an important symbol in ancient pagan Europe.

These brooms were often found just inside a dwelling hanging with bristles up to ward off evil spirits, negative energies and to protect the home and all who dwell within it. It could also be found hanging over a door with the bristles facing in the direction of opening of the door.

The brooms relation to sweeping away negative energies and use for protection makes it a wonderful tool for magical practices and rituals.

THE WITCHES BROOM

The traditional Witch's Broom is made of an ash handle and bristles from birch twigs. The twigs are tied onto the handle with thin pieces of willow wood. There have been a few written accounts of early Witch's decorating their brooms with flowers of the season tied on with some type of decorative string or later using coloured ribbon. A practice that is continued today by modern Witches.

Early Celtic pagans associated the broom with Faeries, possibly because of its relation to the wood and a common belief in forest sprites. Some stories tell of a Witch entering a forest and asking the Faeries to lead her way to the perfect tree where she can collect a staff for a broom. The idea is to enlist the help of the magical folk and ensure the enchantment of the broom once it has been fashioned.

The Witch's broom is one of the few tools that are seen as a balance of Divine forces. It is both part of masculine energies (the phallic handle) and female energies (the bristles). Because of this, the broom was and still is commonly used in Hand fasting rituals (marriage ceremonies). It is also used as a gate or door before a ritual space. A witch draws a magical circle, enters the circle and then places the broom over the doorway to keep out unwanted energies or people as an example.

While being used for clearing an area for ritual work was the earliest use for a broom, it became an important tool for Witch's during The Burning Times of Europe. During this era Witches would use a broom to hide one of their most important tools, the wand. It is also a tradition that brooms have been used by some as receptacles to harbour a particular spirit temporarily. This could be done to remove an unwanted spirit from one area and then release it far away in another place. Or it could be used to utilize the energy of a spirit for a specific spell when the broom is used as a wand.

A few ancient brooms have been discovered to have hidden compartments in the handle. These small hidden places held combinations of herbs, oils, feathers and a variety of other things thought to be part of a ritualistic spell. The hidden concoctions added to the energy of the intent that the broom was to be used for.

January Crystal ~ Garnet

Garnet Gemstone meaning

The Garnet is known as the stone for a successful business. If your business is not as good as it should be, just put 3 or more garnets on your desk. It is believed that if a garnet is put under a pillow it will cure depression. Garnets can be used to make a person popular and have self-esteem when worn as jewellery. It helps protect one on trips. Garnets bring constancy to friendships. Garnets are also known for stimulating success in business.

Types of Garnet

Garnets are a related group of minerals. Members of this group include:

Almandine (red to violet red) 

Spessartite (yellow, rose, or orange to reddish-brown)

Pyrope (deep red)

Grossular (white, yellow, yellow-green, brownish-red, orange or black) 

Andradite (colourless, yellow-green, or brown to black)

The most prized garnet is an Emerald green variety called Demantoid and is a member of the andradite group.

Healing properties of Garnet

Garnet comes in many colours, but now we will speak only about red Garnet. The Garnet is associated with the thyroid and spleen. It helps cleanse and purify both when held over the area. The Garnet is usually held in the hand or placed on top of the head when searching or meditating on past lives. Information that is beneficial and helpful will usually be released for the searcher.

The Garnet is a stone of purity and truth as well as a symbol of love and compassion. The information released in a search may be painful, but it will always be what the searcher needs. The Garnet will help everyone's security level and spiritual awareness. It can help increase the sex drive.

Sources of Garnet

Currently, the world's largest supply of garnets is the continent of Africa. Other sources of garnet include India, Soviet Union, Brazil and the United States.

Birthstone:	January
Zodiac:	Aquarius
Planet:	Mars
Energies:	Luck, Money, Love, Healing
Chakra:	First Chakra - Base of spine
Anniversary Stone:	2, 18

How to Make Lavender Wands

How to Make Lavender Wands

Equipment:

7-15  lavender buds/flowers, with long stems.

You need an odd number of stems for the weaving to work.

2m (0.5cm) ribbon

Scissors

A toothpick

A spoon... you'll see why in a moment

Step 1:

Lay the lavender stems side by side, with the flowers staggered in two rows. Staggering the flowers like this makes a long slender wand, whereas lining all the flowers up on the same level makes a short fat, fat, wand.

Step 2:

Tie ribbon tightly around the stems at the base of the flowers. Leave at least a 25cm loose end - you'll need it to make a finishing knot later on. Leave the other end of the ribbon attached to the rubber band.

Step 3:

Gently squash the stems with the edge of a spoon, just next to the ribbon. This makes them easier to bend without snapping in the next step.

Step 4:

Bend the stems to form a "cage" around the flowers. Run the loose end of the ribbon along side the flowers, to poke out of the bottom of the cage. See it next to my fingers? Let the end of the ribbon poke out between the bars at the top of the cage.

Step 5:

Weave the end of the ribbon under and over the lavender stems, like this.

Step 6:

If bits of flower stick out between the stems and ribbon, poke them back into place with a toothpick.

Step 7:

Keep weaving until you reach the place where the flowers end. Then go back to the start, and pull the ribbon tight. Take up any slack ribbon and work it all the way through, to make the weaving nice and snug. The lavender will shrink as it dries, so weaving tightly is important.

Step 8:

Wrap the end of the ribbon around the base a few times, then tie it to the loose-end that you left poking through the bottom of the cage in step 4.

Finished!

Wiccan Dance/ The Mummers' Dance - Loreena-Mckennitt

When in the springtime of the year

When the trees are crowned with leaves

When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew

Are dressed in ribbons fair

When the owls call the breathless moon

In the blue veil of the night

The shadows of the trees appear

Amidst the lantern lights

OMNIA - PAGAN FOLK LORE

Omnia is a self-described "neoceltic pagan folk" band based in the Netherlands and whose members over the years have had Irish, Dutch, Cornish, Belgian and Persian backgrounds. Their music takes on the form of various cultural routes, from places around the world such as Ireland, England, Cornwall and Persia.
They sing in English, Irish, Breton, Finnish, German, Dutch, Swedish, Latin and Hindi and play Celtic harp, mouth harp, hurdy gurdy, bodhrán, guitar, bouzouki, didgeridoo, flutes of all kinds, bagpipes, various drums and percussion instruments.