Trying To Figure Out How To Make These Vegan.. If Anyone Has Tips Let Me Know! Happy Solstice!

Trying to figure out how to make these vegan.. If anyone has tips let me know! Happy Solstice!

Lavender & Honey Cookie Recipe - Lovely Greens

Recipe for soft sugar cookies made with honey and lavender flowers

By North, South, East, and West, Bless the bed on which I rest; Protect me from unkindly eyes, With brightened spirits may I rise.

my bedtime charm/prayer/spell for living in my parents’ basement (via teapartyforthewitches)

I've been looking for a good bedtime rhyme this is perfect! Thank you whoever wrote this!

The Longest Day : Herbs of Midsummer

The day grows long and when the Sun enters the sign of Cancer the Crab, the festival of Midsummer or the Summer Solstice has arrived. The Summer Solstice is a dance of fire and water where we bathe in dew for beauty and burn bonfires for protection. The following herbs are some of my Midsummer favorites for both their magickal and medicinal qualities. 

St. Joan’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) ☉

An herb of the Sun, St. Joan’s Wort is a wonderful herb to incorporate into your Midsummer festivities. Traditionally, the flowers of St. Joan’s Wort (also known as St. John’s Wort) are collected on Midsummer day to be made into remedies. It is said to be best to harvest the flowers while naked. The Summer Solstice is a prime day for love magick and charms including the use of St. Joan’s Wort in charms and spells. Since the herb is very protective, use it in charms to protect against heartbreak and to develop a courageous heart.

A brave nerve restorative, St. Joan’s Wort steadies the spirit and calms a nerve-wracked system, making it very useful for conditions such as neuralgia, anxiety, and tension. St. Joan’s Wort combines well with other nervines such as Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) for nerve pain and relief of tension. 

Lavender (Lavandula officinalis) ☿

The cooling blue flowers of Lavender are a welcome relief to the Summer Solstice’s heat. The flowers are a traditional Midsummer strewing herb, bringing peace and serenity to the home when cast into the bonfire. An herb of Mercury, Lavender brings peace and compassion, calming without creating drowsiness but instead cultivating focus. A prime cooling remedy, Lavender works well to soothe the nervous system when experiencing agitation, nervousness, and insomnia and especially when overheated conditions such as anger and irritability are present. Lavender is a great herb for colic-y and cranky kids (and adults, too!). Add some tea to their bath water or better yet, give them Lavender hydrosol sprays to play with during their evening bath (I’ve done this combined with flower essences to excellent sleepy-time results).

Mugwort (Artemisia spp.) ☾

While Midsummer is certainly a celebration of the brightest day of the year and the warmth it brings, it has a lunar leaning, too. The holy day is marked by the Sun entering the sign of Cancer whose Guardian Planet is the Moon. So it is that Mugwort, known as the oldest of herbs in indigenous Northern European traditions and a Moon herb, finds its way into the Midsummer magick. The Summer Solstice is a time of divination and Mugwort opens the psychic pathways. Drink a brew of your local Mugwort tea to awaken your vision. When night is shortest and hours usually hidden are revealed to us, Mugwort’s magick works in revealing veiled mysteries. Cast Mugwort into Midsummer fires for energetic cleansing and healing. Mugwort has an affinity to womyn beyond the confines of gender. Mugwort is womyn as culture and has a special affinity for queer women and gender rebels of all sorts.

The herb has long been used as moxabustion in which the dried leaf is burned either close by or directly on acupuncture points to move energy and relieve pain. Place a few leaves beneath your pillow for prophetic dreams and burn in your bedroom to transform it into a dream incubation space. 

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) ♄

The mighty Mullein is also known as Hag’s Tapers as the thick stalks were dipped in fat or wax and burned as a primitive candle for late night witcheries. The bright yellow flowers glow with the power of the sun and the soft leaves are an excellent remedy for many a skin and musculoskeletal complaint (hence its Saturnian guardianship). Burn Mullein in your Midsummer bonfire for protection and gather the ashes to use in protection and healing charms throughout the year. 

Like many other Midsummer herbs, Mullein has a relationship to Midwinter as a primary remedy for clearing phlegm from the system. As a remedy, Mullein opens and clears the lungs. It combines well with Elder (Sambucus nigra) and Peppermint (Mentha piperita) for a lung-opening, immunomodulating blend. Topically, the mucilaginous Mullein is excellent for dry skin conditions but also as a healing compress or salve for boils, bruises, inflammation, hemorrhoids, eczema, sciatica, and joint pain. Mullein and garlic ear oil is a trusted remedy for ear infections helping to relieve pain and infection.

Elder (Sambucus nigra) ♀♇

If you are brave (or foolish) enough to sit under an Elder Tree on an important night of the year (namely, Midsummer and Samhain), you just might see the Good Folk march by in all of their finery. The spirit of the Elder is a gatekeeper between the realms of life and death - she is fiercely protective and very no-nonsense. Astrologically, Elder is a plant of Venus and Pluto for its beautifying and harmonizing qualities, its sweet scent and taste, and it dark underworld berries.  Midsummer is a time of celebrating not only spiritual but physical beauty. Find an flowering Elder tree on Midsummer morning and wash your face with the dew on the flowers to beautify your features within and without.

While the Flower is associated most with Midsummer - it’s heady scent saturating the air is a sign that summer has arrived - the Berries are a Midwinter medicine. Read about Elder’s medicinal qualities in my Tree of Medicine post. 

Wherever your Midsummer festivities finds you, I wish you an abundance of magick and wonder that our longest day can so often bring. 

Be sure to research about your local Midsummer blooms and learn about other traditional herbs of the Summer Solstice including Vervain (Verbena officinalis), Calendula (Calendula officinalis), Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). From an astroherbology perspective, Sun herbs are particularly potent at this time of year.

If you’re looking for some divinatory inspiration, check out my Bonfire Offerings : Summer Solstice Tarot Spread. For my southern hemisphere darlings, check out my post on Winter Solstice Herbs. Enjoy!

My spiritual goals revolve around salvation in life rather than salvation in death 🌙

This spread reveals aspects,seen and unseen, of ones concept of self.

1. How you see your self

2. How others see you

3. What you aren’t seeing

4. What you need to see

5. Advice

Summer Solstice Celebration!

Hello my lovelies!  Only one week left until the Summer Solstice and I am just beaming for the upcoming celebration! I decided to make another post like my Spring Equinox celebration one since you all seemed to like it so much. I do plan on having a bit more of a ‘proper’ ritual and celebration of the day since that Monday I have off from work, but here are some other low-key ways that I am going to celebrate the day. I’ve split it into two sections of day activities and night ones because the Summer Solstice can go all night long and I plan on doing a whole cycle’s worth of things. 

During the Day:

Greet the sun! I know it’s going to be an early sunrise, but if you’re there to greet the sun, you’ll be starting the day off on the right foot! You can either just lay in bed and watch the sun rise from your window or head outside and do a sun salutation, both will give you energy!

Wear your favourite summer clothes! Shorts, tanks tops, t-shirts, sun dresses- even flip flops if you can get away with it! The colours associated with Liltha are reds, oranges, yellows/golds, blues, greens and white! 

I’m going to be setting my citrine, clear quartz and peridot stones absorb the sunlight throughout the day- other gems that would love to be out on the Summer Solstice would be fluorite, sunstone, agate, carnelian, and any stone that is green or yellow in colour! But you best check to see if it’ll fade in colour before you set it out all day. If that might happen, then the moon light will work just as well. 

For lunch, enjoy a summer salad filled with summer berries like strawberries and blueberries, apples, leafy greens and a sweeter dressing! The berries are a great way of celebrating what the summer will bring for you. 

Get outside! I don’t care if it’s for five minutes at your lunch break or an hour long hike like I plan on doing, but get outside and live in nature! Breath in the fresh summer breeze, feel the sun on your skin, meditate and be with nature. 

There are so many ways to drink summer in- literally! Lemonade, iced tea, fruit juices, herbal teas like chamomile, rose or lavender will be such a great way to get just that little bit of summer in you. 

Today is also a great day to try and interact with the faeries and fae folk. Leave a small offering of milk and honey (or a honey cake!) outside in your garden, in a park, on the outside window ledge, and the fae will appreciate the gesture! Who knows- that could be the start of a relationship between you and them. 

At Night:

Have friends over or go out to dinner! If nothing else, the summer solstice is about celebrating with friends and family! It’s about being thankful for what you have and getting excited for the summer, so get together and discuss your upcoming summer plans! Who knows what might come out of it?

Listen to music- your favourite music, and sing your heart out! The god Apollo (the Greek god of Light, Sun, music and poetry) is one of the many gods who will be thriving off the activities of today and you can honour them by just enjoying music and art. 

Light candles- or your barbecue! Traditionally, this sabbat is celebrated with a balefire (outside campfire), but if you’re like me and lack an outside fire pit, then lighting up the bbq and cooking up some veggie or meat kebabs will be a good way of making a feast and substituting the ‘real thing’. No BBQ? No stress- light up some candles and watch it glow. Bonus points if they are coloured or scented to match the holiday. 

Make a craft for the summer- a flower crown, a bird house, a sun catcher. I know I plan on making a flower crown and perhaps painting that day, but so long as you create something, spell or not, it can honour the day’s celebrations.

Watch the sunset- like watching the sunrise, watching the longest day of the year come to a close will be an amazing way to celebrate the whole of the Summer Solstice. 

Are you of legal age? Have a drink of summer wines or berry ciders- just remember to give either the first or last sip to nature, the faeries will find it! 

Decorate your home for summer and for the summer solstice by incorporating some common symbols as decor- seashells, fresh flowers like sunflowers, daisies, carnations, and peonies, little statues of birds, deer, faeries, feathers from birds, and shining crystals. The summer decor, beach house look is always a popular one during June and July so you’ll bled right in.

So this is the rough outline of what I plan on doing during the Summer Solstice! I am going to do a spell that day I think, but I haven’t decided what just yet. I’m thinking a motivation spell or a creativity spell, so I can charge up my summer and all the writing I plan on doing. All I know is that it’s going to be a great day! I hope that I have inspired you to celebrate, regardless of how busy you may be that Monday. 

I hope you have an amazing week and a fantastic Summer Solstice! Love you all and sending all my good vibes out to you for this summer.

-Faye xx