The Astroherbalism Apothecary: Crafting Herbal Charms for Your Ascendant

Just what is the Ascendant?

Unlike our Sun signs or our Moon signs with their familiar language and symbols, the Ascendant, also known as the Rising Sign, can feel abstract. As a position on the birth chart the Ascendant is the sign of zodiac that was rising or ascending from the horizon at the time of your birth. Just like the Sun and Moon, stars rise up from the horizon, too, including the constellations of representing the twelve signs of the western zodiac. While many of us might know our Sun and Moon signs, the Ascendant isn’t as commonly known (though our current renaissance of astrological culture is certainly shifting that), yet it’s often the sign that feels more like us when we do become acquainted. 

As with my last two posts in the astroherbalism apothecary series, I'll share recommended plant allies to connect with the energy of your Ascendant, but more importantly, I'll offer you a framework for creating your own unique herbal charms using ingredients readily available to you.

To do that, we'll explore how our Ascendant shapes our energy and the common ways that our Ascendant energy can get disrupted. I view astrology as a story-telling-listening tool and helpful way for folks get to know and name the healing needs of their body (and by "body" I mean physical form, emotional and mental experience, the psychic body, and so on).

Within traditional western herbalism, our Ascendant represents perception including how we perceive ourselves and want to be perceived by the world, including our physical appearance and the ways we our purposeful in our physical presentation (i.e. clothes, hairstyles, makeup, patterns of speech, gender affirming care, and so on). The concept of perception is one of the reasons that many folks identify easier with their Ascendant than their Sun sign when it comes to descriptions of personality.

Our Ascendant helps us to understand the choices we are drawn to making, the relationships we find ourselves again and again, and the patterns of connection we rely on the most and whether any of those aspects of our life need adjusting. For some of us, the inner world of our Moon and the outer world of our Ascendant are deeply aligned, where others have a sharp distinction between their inner life and outer presentation. Working with our Ascendant helps us to shift through the perceptions of others, and the ways we have shaped ourselves in order to hide away or be seen, and how we can choose to perceive ourselves in ways that feel empowering no matter the expectations of the world around us. Through our Ascendant we can adjust the lens by which we view our lives, channeling the energy of our Sun and the wisdom of our Moon in a way that helps us feel interconnected and part of life.

While our Sun helps us understand our inherent energy and our Moon helps us to understand how our energy is expressed (i.e. our inner truths and wisdoms), our Ascendant channels the energy of our Sun and the expression of our Moon into our engagement with the world (i.e. the stories we tell, the communities we connect with, and the identities we hold).

When it comes to supporting our Ascendent there are three primary paths that I focus on: enhancing our Rising Sign energy, reorienting our energy when we feel disconnected from our sense of self, and how we can bring ourselves comfort. To help you identify what path may be most useful for you at this time in your life, I've created brief descriptions of each path as well as key phrases that you may or may not connect with. I encourage you to read these phrases out loud and if something resonates, to consider pursuing that path of magickal healing. Once you've identified what type of path will be most useful for you at this time, you can choose a few suggested herbs and then follow the guide below to creating your custom Ascendant sign charm.

Crafting Your Ascendant Charms

I’ve suggested a variety of herb types and plant allies to create your own Ascendant sign charms. The simplest approach would be to use whole dried herbs, combining them together to create an herbal charm bag or spell bottle. You can also build an Ascendant sign altar, adding your chosen plant allies to it. If you have the flower essence version of whatever plants you resonate with, you can easily craft your own flower essence potion. For those of you with herbal experience, you can choose herbs to make your own Ascendant charm tea, tincture or topical herbal oil, taking into consideration appropriate individual needs and contraindications.

When available I’ve linked to the full plant profile of any of the plant ally suggestions below that are available for free on my community blog - they all contain additional magickal information you might find useful. You can find all of my plant profiles in The Plant Ally Library (which is available on a sliding scale as well as to all of my patrons for free).

image via @mooncolonytn60

Enhance Your Ascendant Energy

Herbs and essences that help us to step into the true power of our Ascendant, where we make the choices about how we present ourselves to the world that feel liberating, reducing the tension of having to hide behind a mask we no longer want, and honoring the pace we want to move at.

Key phrases that indicate you might benefit from an enhancing charm include:

• I don't feel like people know the real me.

• I feel like I'm in a slump when it comes to my appearance - I don't know what my style is.

• I'm tired of pretending I'm something I'm not.

• I'm ready to be braver in being who I am, but I don't know where to start.

• The masks I've relied on aren't working anymore.

Herbs for an Enhancing Ascendant Charm

An enhancing charm should bring out and energize what you already have within you, helping to make space for that part of you to emerge by clearing out stagnant energy. Plant allies that are traditionally associated with cleansing, such as Vervain (Verbena spp.), Juniper (Juniperus spp.), and Sage (Salvia officinalis), combined with plant allies that are restorative, such as Milky Oat (Avena sativa) and Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba). In general, seek out herbs that are associated with the folkloric magick of glamours, with energizing body systems, and with illuminating the aura, including plants with scents that you love, and any herb that makes you feel happy when you work with them. 

Here are a few plant allies for an enhancing Ascendant charm to consider:

• Linden (Tilia x europaea)

• Vervain (Verbena spp.)

• Juniper (Juniperus spp.)

• Sage (Salvia officinalis)

• Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

• Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)

• Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

• Pine (Pinus spp.)

There are a number of stone allies to consider when trying to enhance your Ascendant energy and, if you have them already available, you might include Amber, Citrine, Orange Calcite, Red Jasper, Lapis Lazuli or Turquoise in your charm. You might also consider choosing warm tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @barbydalbosco

Reorient Your Ascendant Energy

Herbs and essences that help us reset our compass to our true north (our Moon) and reconnect to ways of expressing ourselves that are more conducive to our inherent energy (our Sun), giving us perspective amongst all the cultural and social noise by seeking ourselves within (rather than through a screen or someone else's lens).

Key phrases that indicate you might benefit from a reorienting charm include:

• No one understands me.

• I feel like a stranger in my own life.

• I have a constant fear of missing out.

• I spend too much time letting myself be influenced rather than investigating my own desires.

• I feel like I need a fresh start.

Herbs for a Reorientation Ascendant Charm

A charm that helps us reorient our Ascendant energy should include plant allies that help us to think clearly and focus, while supporting our ability to change direction. Nootropic (i.e. brain tonics) plant allies like Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica), and Sage (Salvia officinalis) support cognitive health and mental clarity support our ability to cultivate inner wisdom while adaptogens like Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosus), Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum), and Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) help us reorient to our actual desires and needs. In general, seek out herbs that are associated with wisdom, intuitive connection, and confidence, helping you to feel sure in your choices and how you present yourself to the world. 

Here are a few plant allies for a reorienting Ascendant charm to consider:

• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)

• Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica)

• Sage (Salvia officinalis) 

• Damiana (Turnera diffusa)

• Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosus)

• Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum)

• Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

• Lavender (Lavandula spp.)

If you already have them available, there are a number of stones you might work with to help reorient your Ascendant energy including Obsidian, Nuummite, Onyx, Garnet, Smoky Quartz, Red Jasper, and Bloodstone. You might also consider choosing earth tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @harrycunningham

Comfort Your Ascendant Energy

Herbs and essences that help us feel held and at ease within ourselves, healing the places that feel most exposed in our life, and gently guide us back into a state of homeostasis, after experiencing all of the challenges that come with being perceived by others. 

Key phrases that indicate you might benefit from a comforting charm include:

• I'm so tired of everyone else's opinions.

• I just want to exist without being hassled or harassed.

• I just want to be taken care of.

• I feel worn down by the world.

• I want to be loved for who I am, instead of who I'm expected to be.

Herbs for a Comforting Ascendant Charm

Our Ascendent is the part of ourselves seen the most by the world and that can create a complicated concoction of the benefits and challenges that come with being perceived all the time. Sometimes what our Ascendant energy needs more than anything is to be comforted -  whether it is after years of living under the shadow of other people's perceptions of you or from the energetic wear and tear of all the ways we're dragged down by the micro- and not-so-microaggressions against who we are. Nervines (i.e. nervous system tonics) are great for a comforting charm, helping to tend to the needs of a worn out, overwhelmed, and/or overstimulated nervous system. One of the best things that you can do for your Ascendant energy is to get to know and regularly use your favorite nervine. Some of my favorite nervines are Milky Oat (Avena sativa), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), and Wood Betony (Stachys officinalis). 

Here are a few plant allies for a comforting Ascendant charm to consider:

• Linden (Tilia x europaea)

• Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• Wood Betony (Stachys officinalis)

• Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)

• Chamomile (Matricaria recutita)

• Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

• Catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Stone allies that you might consider working with to help comfort your Ascendant energy if you already have them available are Rose Quartz, Moonstone, Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate, Kyanite, and Sodalite. You might also consider choosing soft color tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @danfarrell

Creating Your Ascendant Sign Charm

Decide on the form that your Ascendant charm will take (i.e. a spell bottle, a charm bag, an ascendant sign altar, flower essence potion, tea, etc.) and gather all of your ingredients and items. You should also find a clear stone (the clearer the better) or piece of glass, a bowl of water, a candle, incense or burning herbs of your choosing, and a wand or branch (included a flower or herb stem). While I don't personally know of a traditional elemental correspondence for the Ascendant, we will be drawing on all of the elements, with special attention to the element of Air, since it embodies many of the qualities of the Ascendent, with its focus on perception and connection.

You can choose if you perform this spell under sunlight, moonlight or starlight - let yourself be guided by your intuition and what feels most empowering. I like to place all my items on a tray and bring them to the ideal location where I'll be able to catch sun, moon or star light.

Go to the place that you'll be performing this ritual, ground and center (perhaps with a tree of life meditation), and settle into sacred space through your preferred method. Lay the bowl of water in the west, the candle in the south, the incense in the east, and the wand or branch in the north (or arrange them to the corresponding cardinal directions that makes the most sense to your cultural, spiritual, and/or personal traditions). Place your stone or piece of glass in the center.

Light the candle and the incense. Take up your stone and hold it to your solar plexus, connecting with it on an energetic level, letting it bathe in your energy. Then, hold the stone before you, and blow your breath gently on it, waking it up with your breath of life. 

Once you feel ready, pass the stone through the smoke of the incense, saying:

The breath of life connects us all
within, without
around and about

Weave the stone around the incense and then around you. Bring the stone back to your solar plexus, letting the energy of Air mingle with your own energy. When you feel ready, pass the stone through the flame of the candle, saying:

The flame of wisdom connects us all
within, without
around and about

Weave the stone around the candle and then around you. Bring the stone back to your solar plexus, letting the energy of Fire mingle with your own energy. When you feel ready, hold the stone over the bowl and anoint it with water, saying:

The water of dreams connects us all
within, without
around and about

Weave the stone around the bowl and then around you. Bring the stone back to your solar plexus, letting the energy of Water mingle with your own energy. When you feel ready, place the stone down, take up the wand and tapping the stone as you say:

The earth of renewal connects us all
within, without
around and about

Weave the stone around the wand and then around you. Bring the stone back to your solar plexus, letting the energy of Earth mingle with your own energy. When you feel ready, weave the stone around all of the elements, saying:

The elements of life connects us all
within, without
around and about

Weave the stone around you once more before bringing it back to your solar plexus, connecting with the interwoven energy of the elements flowing through, around, and between all. When you feel ready, hold the stone up to the sun, moon or star light. For the following spoken charm upon saying the first here, hold the stone against to your heart, letting the spell sink into your energy, letting every repetition of here grow stronger as you say it:

By the light of brightest {Sun, Moon or Star}
By earth, by air, within and without
I see and am seen with great love and care
By water, by fire, around and about
When I am lost, I'll be guided back here
By water, by fire, around and about
When I am lost, I'll be guided back here
By earth, by air, within and without
When I am lost, I'll be guided back here!
So mote it be!

If you are crafting an herbal charm, spell bag, flower essence, etc. do that now and then either add or place your stone with that charm. Let the candle burn down, the incense burn out, return the water to the earth, and wand to your altar (or if a flower or herb stem, return it to the earth).

You can also choose to carry your stone with you if you like, re-energizing it with this ritual and adding layers of intention as you go (i.e. visualizing improving your interpersonal communication skills when passing the stone through incense or releasing an old way of being perceived when channeling the energy of earth into your charm). 

✨

I hope you feel a little more empowered and inspired about connecting with the energy of your Ascendant and the ways that energy flows through your life.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the first two posts in this series on your Sun sign and your Moon sign. Having an understanding of these three elements of your birth chart will open up so many pathways of exploration and wisdom-growing within the world of traditional astrology.

If you're looking for more resources for your astroherbalism studies, come this way.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

The Astroherbalism Apothecary: Crafting Herbal Charms for Your Moon Sign

One of the reasons I love astroherbalism is the way that it combines the practical with the profound where we seek to support the intangible (i.e. inner world experiences and emotions) through hands-on creativity (i.e. simple herbal charms aligned with our healing desires).

Following the first part of this series where we explored the energies of our Sun sign, I want to turn our attention to crafting charms and potions that support the energy of your Moon sign. While knowing your Sun sign used to be the extent of most people's knowledge of western astrology, more and more folks can easily name their Moon sign, too, and being a very pro-lunar sort of witch, I love this celestial culture shift.

As with my last post in the astroherbalism apothecary series, I'll be sharing some recipes with you, but what I really want to share with you is a framework for creating your own unique herbal charms for your Moon so that you feel inspired to use what is readily available to you.

To do that, we'll explore how our Moon sign shapes our energy and the common ways that our lunar energy can get disrupted. As an herbalist, I work with astrology as a story-telling-listening tool and a way to help folks get to know and name the healing needs of their body (and by "body" I mean physical form, emotional and mental experience, the psychic body, and so on). Within traditional western herbalism, our Moon represents our consciousness, the way we perceive experiences, our feeling body, and our most honest stories. Some of us, for example, process our feelings quickly, while others take a longer time to figure out what our feelings are. Our ability to digest and process our experiences, to form stories from them, and let ourselves feel our feelings profoundly shapes our understanding of wellbeing in our life.

Throughout our life we figure out what it is that makes us feel comfortable and at home within our world, allowing us space to process our lived experiences. It is our Moon sign which represents and helps to guide us on this journey of homecoming and exploration.

When it comes to supporting our Moon sign there are three primary paths that I focus on: recipes that help us integrate lunar energy, recipes that settle and center us, and recipes that help us strengthen our intuitive instincts. To help you identify what path may be most useful for you at this time in your life, I've created brief descriptions of each path as well as key phrases that you may or may not connect with. I encourage you to read these phrases out loud and if something resonates, to consider pursuing that path of magickal healing. Once you've identified what type of path will be most useful for you at this time, you can choose a few suggested herbs and then follow the guide below to creating your custom Moon sign charm. 

Crafting Your Lunar Charms

I’ve suggested a variety of herb types and plant allies to create your own Moon sign charms. The simplest approach would be to use whole dried herbs, combining them together to create an herbal charm bag or spell bottle. You can also build a Moon sign altar, adding your chosen plant allies to it. If you have the flower essence version of whatever plants you resonate with, you can easily craft your own flower essence potion. For those of you with herbal experience, you can choose herbs to make your own Moon charm tea, tincture or topical herbal oil, taking into consideration appropriate individual needs and contraindications.

When available I’ve linked to the full plant profile of any of the plant ally suggestions below that are available for free on my community blog - they all contain additional magickal information you might find useful. You can find all of my plant profiles in The Plant Ally Library (which is available on a sliding scale as well as to all of my patrons for free).

image via @diosming97

Integrate Your Lunar Energy

Herbs and essences that help us integrate the emotional part of our experiences, reduce stress, and generally assist us in honoring our intersecting identities and stories in all of our wondrous wholeness.

Key phrases that indicate you might benefit from an integrative charm include:

• I feel like I'm a constantly changing up who I am depending on who I'm with.

• I feel uncomfortable in my own skin.

• I have a story to live, things to tell, but I'm afraid to do it.

• People wouldn't like me if they really knew who I was.

• Everything feels tangled up inside.

Herbs for an Integrating Moon Charm

I think of integration charms like meeting places at the crossroads - different path are converging to a singular point. When all these paths come together representing our various identities, responsibilities, and experiences, an integrative charm helps to bring all of these different parts of ourselves into a harmonious whole. Plant allies traditionally associated with the safe journeys like Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) work well with plants that represent and support the integration of wisdom like Sage (Salvia officinalis). In general, seeking out herbs that are associated with pathways and waysides, boldly scented plants, and herbs with bright colors are all good options.

Here are a few plant allies for a integrative Moon charm to consider:

• Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

• Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

• Sage (Salvia officinalis)

• Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

• Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)

• Peppermint (Mentha piperita)

Stone allies can be a beautiful addition to an herbal charm if you already have them in your collection, including those that help us integrate disparate parts of ourselves such as Moonstone, Rose Quartz, and Sodalite. Choose your favorite colors that you feel represent who you are best for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @sharonmccutcheon

Center Your Lunar Energy

Herbs and essences that help us create a protective cocoon around our energy, find equilibrium after a period of stress or shock, and to deeply nourish our nervous system.

Key phrases that indicate you might benefit from a centering charm include:

• Everything and everyone is getting on my last nerve.

• I just seem to feel so much more than everyone else.

• I don't know what to do with all of my feelings.

• Life feels overwhelming.

• I struggle to connect with what I really want.

Herbs for a Centering Moon Charm

Focus on herbs that help to draw lunar energy towards you, drawing energy in and downwards, helping to root and ground our Moon selves. Roots can be very grounding and you can incorporate the roots of lunar plants into your charm such as the root of Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) or California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). In general, herbs that are considered soothing, cooling, and calming are all good options, including herbs with cooling colors like blues, purples, silvers, and gentle greens.

Here are a few Moon centering herbs to consider:

• Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

• California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• Rose (Rosa spp.)

• Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

• Lavender (Lavandula spp.)

• Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

If they are already in your collection, you might consider adding a stone ally to your charm, especially those that are grounding and centering including Black Kyanite, Obsidian, Smoky Quartz, and Bloodstone. Deep navy blues and forest green tones are also great for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your centering charm.

image via @wyxina

Strengthen Your Lunar Energy

Herbs and essences that not only increase the volume of our intuition so that we are able to hear it better, but our willpower and ability to follow through with our intuitive guidance.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of an intuition strengthening charm include:

• Something feels off about {situation or relationship} but I feel stuck.

• I know this feels wrong but I don't want to rock the boat.

• I don't know how I ended up in my current life.

• I don't feel like I fit into my life.

• Life seems to be passing me by, but I don't know what to do next.

Herbs for a Intuition Strengthening Moon Charm

When we're working from a place of strong lunar energy we are able to connect with and follow the guidance of our intuition. Intuition is often presented as a mystical gift reserved for a select psychic few, but in fact, it's a common skill of our species to quickly and unconsciously sort through past and present information and experiences to come to a place of instinctive reasoning about a situation. Our Moon represents that ability to perceive, filter, and organize our consciousness in a way that appears invisible to us - in other words, our intuitive abilities.

When we have been raised to distrust our intuition or have developed a pattern of ignoring our intuitive insights, it can take a lot out of us, increase our stress, and often leads us into patterns of living that feel out of sync with who we feel ourselves to be. A strengthening charm is going to be partially nourishing to our energy and partially energizing. We can incorporate herbs that are nourishing to our nervous system but also ones that feel magickal to us on a deeply felt level, as well as symbols, colors, and objects that pull at our sense of enchantment.

Here are a few Moon strengthening herbs to consider:

• Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

• Yarrow (Alchemilla millefolium)

• Elder (Sambucus nigra)

• Rose (Rosa spp.)

• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

• Juniper (Juniperus spp.)

There are also a variety of stone allies you might consider working with to help strengthen your intuitive gifts and lunar energy such as Moonstone, Clear Quartz, Amethyst, and Labrodorite. You might also consider choosing purple and blue tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @vixenly

Creating Your Moon Sign Charm

Decide on the form that your Moon charm will take (i.e. a spell bottle, a charm bag, a solar altar, flower essence potion, tea, etc.) and gather all of your ingredients and items. You should also have a bowl with water in it and a stone of your choosing as well as a candle and candle holder. Since water is the element of the Moon we’ll be integrating it as part of our charm.

If you are able to perform this charm on a night during a Moon phase that aligns with your needs (check out this series on rituals for the lunar phases for guidance), but if you're only able to perform this ritual during the day, no worries!

Ground and center (perhaps with a tree of life meditation) and settle into sacred space through your preferred method. Lay the items for your charm out before you, placing the stone in the bowl of water, and the candle positioned so that its flame will reflect in the water. 

Begin by holding your hands over the water and stone, charging up a space within and around you to assist your magick, saying:

Water holds
All land, all dreams
May I be held
Betwixt and between

Next, light the candle, whispering:

Dancing on the water
Light of the Moon
I whisper now
A healing rune
{strengthening, integrating, centering} charms
I gather round
By Moon and story
I am crowned

Visualize the light dancing on the water, the moon in the sky, and your own inner light illuminating the space within and around you, filling up the spaces within your lunar energy needs healing, and crowning you with your own lunar energy.

When ready, begin to craft your charm, naming aloud the purpose of each item that you are adding to it such as:

Mugwort for centering my dreams
Rose for strength and insight
Sage for intuition and wisdom

Once the charm has been made, pass the charm around the flame and over the water nine times, visualizing gathering up the Moon flame and energy of water into your charm. Anoint the charm and then your forehead with water in a crescent Moon shape, saying:

By plant, by flame,
by water, by stone
By lunar wisdom
I know to be my own
I am {strengthened, integrated, centered} by this spell
Nine times about
All is well!

Blessed be!

You can now use your charm as you please, carrying it with you or placing it in an auspicious place in your home. The charm can be re-charged by putting it under moonlight and/or repeating the Moon charm ritual as needed.

🌙

If you’re looking for more lunar inspiration, be sure to check out the Moon Studies section of my astroherbology archive, such as a guide for making herbal medicine by the Moon and a lunar return series to help you learn about your very own monthly Moon day.

Subscribers of my Magick Mail get free access to my not-so-secret grimoire of lunar recipes and rituals (there’s over 120 of them!). And for those of you ready to dive deep into your Moon-centered studies, you’re invited to The Lunar Apothecary.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the first post in this series on your Sun sign, and I’ll be back again with creating charms for your Ascendent.

May your inner Moon illuminate the path ahead!

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

The Astroherbalism Apothecary: Crafting Herbal Charms for Your Sun Sign

I've written about the gifts of our Sun sign and how we can connect with that energy of our birth chart through a simple tarot practice - and now it's time to explore working with our Sun sign plant allies in magickal practice.

Building upon the energy of exploring our birth chart, I wanted to explore some astroherbalism techniques to help you craft herbal charms and potions that support the energy of your Sun sign. As the Sun sign is a common starting point for many folks to western astrology, I'd thought it would be a good place to start, but I'll be continuing this series exploring the Moon sign and Ascendant, too.

While you'll find plant suggestions in this post, what I really want to share with you is the framework of how we would approach creating your own unique potions, elixirs or herbal charms for your Sun so that you feel inspired to use what is readily available to you. We'll start by naming the ways our Sun sign affects our energy and then look at the common ways that Sun energy might need support in our life because its been blocked or undernourished. I'll provide you with some suggestions to help you craft your own charms, and then leave you with a Sun sign ritual to support your magickal workings.

Let's get crafting in the astroherbalism apothecary!

As an herbalist, I work with astrology as a story-telling-listening tool and a way to help folks get to know and name the healing needs of their body (and by "body" I mean physical form, emotional and mental experience, the psychic body, and so on). Within traditional western herbalism, the Sun represents our inherent energy. There is no "good" or "bad" inherent energy, just the baseline energy that we're born with and our Sun sign helps us understand the ways that our energy flows throughout our life. Some of us, for example, have energy that is quick to show up and quick to disappear, while others have energy that is slow to arrive and meandering when it does get here. We bring this inherent energetic signature with us into all of our life experiences, including our experiences of wellness, discomfort, illness, and healing. 

Throughout our life we learn how to tend to the needs of our energy and develop skills to interact with the world that not only feels good to us (if at times challenging, but in a way that is helping us to stretch and grow more into who we are) but is sustainable. 

When it comes to supporting our Sun sign there are three primary paths that I work with: recipes that energize, recipes that soothe, and recipes that nourish. Below you'll find a brief description of each path of support as well as key phrases that help you identify your Sun sign energy needs. I encourage you to read these phrases aloud and if something resonates, to consider pursuing that path of magickal healing. Once you've identified what type of path will be most useful for you at this time, you can choose a few suggested herbs and then follow the guide below to creating your custom Sun sign charm with.

Crafting Your Solar Charms

I’ve suggested a variety of herb types and plant allies to create your own Sun sign charms. The simplest approach would be to use whole dried herbs, combining them together to create an herbal charm bag. You can also build a Sun sign altar, adding your chosen plant allies to it. If you have the flower essence version of whatever plants you choose you can easily craft your own flower essence potion. For those of you with herbal experience, you can even choose herbs to make your own Sun charm tea, tincture or topical herbal oil, taking into consideration appropriate individual needs and contraindications.

When available I’ve linked to the full plant profile of any of the plant ally suggestions below that are available for free on my community blog and they all contain additional magickal information. You can find all of my plant profiles in The Plant Ally Library (which is available to all of my patrons for free).

image via @mickeydziwulski

Energize Your Solar Energy

Herbs and essences that help to awaken, enliven, and generally stimulate Sun sign energy that may be sluggish, recovering from stress and/or illness, and in general need of waking up.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of an energizing charm include:

• I feel like I can't get going. 

• I feel stuck in one place. 

• What's the point?

• I don't feel inspired or creative.

• I just feel "blah" all the time.

Herbs for an Energizing Charm

For a charm that is helping to energize and wake up our Sun current, we want to work plant allies that are stimulating, inspiration-inducing, and energetically bright. From a magickal perspective, seeds and fruits are especially energizing, which is why I love incorporating plants into my Sun charms that are brightly colored and grow prolifically like Calendula (Calendula officinalis) not only in flower form, but in seed form as well. While you should check out the "Remedy Herbs" section of your astroherbology profile for your Sun sign, in general, brightly colored, especially in warm and sunny tones, plants that grow easily in a variety of conditions, as well as spicy or strong tasting plants, are great options.

Here are a few energizing Sun plant allies to consider connecting with:

• Calendula (Calendula officinalis)

• Ginger (Zingiber officinalis)

• Cayenne (Capsicum annuum)

• Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

• St. Joan’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

• Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp.)

• Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum)

• Peppermint (Mentha piperita)

If they are already in your collection, you might consider adding any of the following stone allies to your energizing Sun charm including Citrine, Clear Quartz, Carnelian, Red Jasper, and Tiger's Eye. You can also consider choosing bright and warm color tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @rayhennessy

Soothe Your Solar Energy

Herbs and essences that help to soften, relax, and create a sense of calm for Sun energy that is in excess leading to feelings of agitation, anxiousness, and general overwhelm.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of a soothing charm include:

• I'm so anxious!

• I don't fit in anywhere.

• I need a hug (or other comforting experience).

• I just feel on edge all the time.

• No one gets me.

Herbs for a Soothing Charm

Focus on herbs that help to diffuse excess Sun energy, helping to ground and center us. From a magickal perspective, roots and barks of plants (always sustainably harvested), have an inherently grounding energy which is why I love solar plants like Dandelion Root (Taraxacum officinale) for soothing solar charms. While you should check out the "Remedy Herbs" section of your astroherbology profile for your Sun sign, in general herbs that are cooling, including cooling colors such as blue or purple flowers, grounding, and relaxing are excellent options.

Here are a few Sun energy soothing plant allies to consider connecting with:

• Dandelion Root (Taraxacum officinale)

• Lavender (Lavandula spp.)

• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• Burdock (Arctium lappa)

• Borage (Borago officinalis)

• California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

• Rose (Rosa spp.)

• Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)

There are also a variety of stone allies you might consider working with to help soothe your Sun energy if you already have them available including Smoky Quartz, Black Tourmaline, Bloodstone, Obsidian, Amethyst, Citrine, and Flourite. You might also consider choosing cool color tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @kiendo

Nourish Your Solar Energy

Herbs and essences that tend to the fundamental needs of our Sun energy, helping us feel energetically fed and supported in our energetic needs - a Sun sign tonic.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of a nourishing charm include:

• I feel burnt out.

• Everything feels like too much.

• I'm exhausted.

• Who's going to take care of me?

• I could really use a break right now.

Herbs for a Nourishing Charm

Focus on herbs that feel comforting and inviting, helping us to come home to our solar self. From a magickal perspective, flowers and leaves carry nourishing energy and I'm particularly fond of plant allies like Rose (Rosa spp.) to help nourish solar energy.  While you should check out the "Guardian Herbs" section of your astroherbology profile for your Sun sign to help you explore nourishing herbs for your particular Sun energy, in general focusing on vitamin and mineral rich plants, herbs full of gentle but warm color, and herbs that you enjoy the scent, taste, and/or feel of can be good options.

Here are a few Sun energy nourishing plant allies to consider connecting with:

• Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

• Angelica (Angelica archangelica)

• Linden (Tilia europea)

• Sage (Salvia officinalis)

• Nettles (Urtica dioica)

• Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

• Chamomile (Matricaria recutita)

• Hawthorn Berry (Crataegus monogyna)

Stone allies that you might consider working with to help nourish your Sun energy, if you already have them in your collection, include Citrine, Rose Quartz, Rhodochrosite, Pink Tourmaline, and Magano Calcite. You might also consider choosing gentle and warm colors - such as rosy pinks, soft oranges, warm yellows - for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @daiga_ellaby

Creating Your Sun Sign Charm

Decide on the form that your Sun charm will take (i.e. a spell bottle, a charm bag, a solar altar, or something else entirely) and gather all of your ingredients and items needed as well as a candle and candle holder.

If you are able to perform this charm on a sunny day, even better, but it's not necessary for success as often we need to recharge our solar energy because sunny days have been far and few between. Ground and center (perhaps with a tree of life meditation) and settle into sacred space through your preferred method. Lay the items for your charm out before you, along with your candle.

Light the candle by saying:

By the light of the Sun
By the light of the fire
By the light of my heart's
Honest desire
I work my magick
I cast my spell
To {charge, soothe, nourish} my energy
That all may be well.

Visualize the light of the candle (and the Sun if you are outside) growing and expanding, meeting with your own solar energy. Let the light fill up the places of your solar aura that need healing, helping to fortify your Sun energy. When ready, begin to craft your charm, naming aloud the purpose of each item that you are adding to it such as:

Calendula for energy and strength
St. Joan's Wort for hope and joy
Lemon Balm for clarity and community

Once the charm has been made, pass the charm through the flame six times, visualizing the light of the flame and the Sun being gathered up into the charm. Then pass the charm between you and the the candle flame, reciting at least six times (or until the energy needed is raised) in a rhythmic fashion:

By light, I am {energized, soothed, nourished}
My Sun renewed
Round and about
Through and through

When you feel the energy has been raised, press the charm to your heart and exclaim: 

So mote it be!

You can now use your charm as you please, carrying it with you or placing it in an auspicious place in your home. The charm can be re-charged by putting it under sunlight and/or repeating the Sun charm ritual as needed.

✨

While I love connecting folks with healing modalities, plant allies, and magickal practices, I've come to realize that a lot of my work is learning how to be an effective resource library and to help folks connect with their healing community. I find that astrological language can be an excellent tool for that, especially for marginalized folks who've been injured within medical systems - physically, emotionally, spiritually - feel hesitant to access the care they need. 

It was my own magickal practice that led me to re-membering, after being raised under the deep shadow of capitalism that tries to sell us the lie of the isolated individual solely responsible for earning their "wellness," that healing is a community act, that we all deserve healing resources (including accessing the work of mental health professionals) by simply existing. If you have read through this post and feel some resonance with a statement that you weren't expecting or feelings that feel hard to sit with, I invite you to seek out some of the incredible community-centered healing resources available to you (you can find a short list at the end of this post to help get you started). Part of working with paths like modern astrology is recognizing where the story of our birth chart is pointing us towards - including the types of collaborative healing spaces and skills that would benefit us the most during any and every stage of life.

That's magick, friends, clarifying our intention, naming it, asking for what we desire, and letting love open the path back home to ourselves and our community.

If you are looking to learn more about your Sun sign come this way and you can check out my astroherbology archive for an abundance of resources for your studies and practice. 

May your inner Sun shine brightly!

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

A Year of Healing Stories: Celebrating the Zodiac Seasons

In 2022 I spent a year writing about the seasons of the zodiac, complete with rituals, recipes, and tarot spreads for each of the twelve signs. Working through the celestial seasons of the year and trying to codify practice and folklore into a useful format for readers like you, lead me to reflect on and nurture my own seasonal practice. Throughout the year I found myself trying out new and reconfigured rituals, ways of connecting with my tarot work, and letting myself experiment with my practice in all sorts of ways.

So I'd thought I'd share with you some of the ways that I observe the seasons of the zodiac as well as why this way of working with time and space can be useful in our healing work.

If you've been wanting to incorporate astrological knowledge into your healing and tarot practice but feel overwhelmed by the idea (Why does this feel like spiritual math and the answer is always look within, but not there within and only when Uranus is not quincunx to Saturn?! What the heck is a decan and am I supposed to be walking with it?), starting with a the seasons of the zodiac may be a gentle but informative path to pursue.

image via @dariobroe

A Year Full of Stories

How we observe and engage with time says a lot about our healing work. Time is not only defined by cultural differences (i.e. observing a solar or a lunar calendar to mark the turning of the year) but also by social norms (i.e. the nine to five workday or whether or not there is a socially acceptable period of rest in the middle of the day). There is so much religious thought and custom dedicated to defining not only the length of time for different matters (i.e. the world was literally created in seven days versus seven days being a metaphor) but how we should spend our time (i.e. we have one life to live and it should be focused on the eternity of the afterlife versus this is one of many lives and we'll be back again). Every season can bring different expectations of what we should be doing with “our” time, that it can sometimes feel challenging to know how it is we want to be at any given moment of the day or night, much less the year.

So what are astrological seasons (aka seasons of the zodiac or zodiac seasons) and how do they fit in with healing work and learning to connect with time in a different way? In short, the astrological seasons are when a planet transits from one sign of the zodiac into another. The length of time that a planet is within that sign is a "season." The astrological seasons that are often referenced on social media and in popular books on astrology are usually solar seasons or seasons of the Sun. The Sun changes signs or seasons every calendar month and since the Sun is one of the most influential energies in the birth chart, it's one that we tend to pay attention to, but every planet has seasons for different lengths of time. The start and end of the solar seasons change by a few days each year, but they all start and end roughly around the 19th to 23rd days of the month. The Sun starts its annual journey through the twelve signs of the zodiac when it enters the sign of Aries around the 19th to 23rd of March.

For me, astrological seasons are a relatively neutral way to think about and define my experience of time. They help us to understand that there is time and space for all aspects of our lives to be experienced, taking out the idea of “using time wisely” within the narrow confines of productivity, success, and growth defined by institutional and cultural systems imposed upon us. I also enjoy the playful aspects of seeing time through the lens of myth and metaphor, instead of time being viewed as a transactional experience to be spent, saved, and used “wisely.”

When sitting in a consultation, I try to pay attention to how my client is speaking about time and space. Do they feel like they don't have enough time and space? Have they been sick forever and don't remember when they felt not sick? Do they feel like they're wasting time or are they overwhelmed by the increasingly large number of their age? Are they worried they are not using their time wisely or feel like they are losing time to activities such as social media or a job they don't like? There is so much interesting information to be heard in the stories people are telling themselves and others about time.

tarot deck shown is The Herbcrafter’s Tarot

As a witch and Pagan herbalist, part of my calling is not only helping to facilitate connections between plants and their people, but to help folks re-connect with the land and themselves as land. I do this in a number of ways including using seasonal remedies and including seasonal activities and observations as part of my wellness recommendations. While I talk of the wheel of the year and other tradition specific holy days with my Pagan clients, many of my clients come from varied social, religious, and cultural backgrounds, so I try and have a variety of myths and stories that I can use to help get them excited and interesting in how they engage with time. Here is where the seasons of the zodiac can really shine as a storytelling tool.

The language of astrology and specifically astrological seasons (i.e. Aries Season, Scorpio Season, Pisces Season, etc.) are one of those forms of storytelling that I draw upon. I find it useful to engage with the year as a series of stories, tied to the land, the planets, and the stars, as a way to find my unique rhythm and pace. These myths help me to release other people's notions of what I should or should not be doing with my time that doesn't work for me and my family. It's also another way to reshape difficult parts of the year as something you're part of and less of something that is happening to you. In the northern hemisphere, for example, Capricorn marks a time of deep winter and for some folks struggling with sadness during these darker and colder parts of the year, it can be interesting to work with the story of Capricorn. Capricorn is a sign that enjoys a certain level of stillness and structure, but it's not only in a linear productive sense (which can be over-focused on as desirable qualities under capitalism). Sometimes the myth of the goatfish is the creature that sits at your window on a still winter's night, saying, "In the quiet and the dark, we can build what we've been dreaming of before anyone can catch us."

For other folks, the myth of Capricorn they might be learning to connect with is learning about the power of slowing down and exploring deep - a muscle that not everyone is encouraged or granted the safety to explore in their younger years. For those familiar or interested in astrology, I like to point to the place where a season lands in their birth chart. "Look here!" I might say, "Capricorn is bringing energy to your Fourth House of home, which is not only the place that you live, but your experience of your body as home. Does that area of your life feel particularly tender or challenging during the winter months?" So many conversations and explorations can be started by looking at our own personal constellations of stars and planets. If a story like Capricorn feels useful to a client, I might draw on appropriate Capricorn herbs and remediation techniques to help support them further. Through our exchange of stories, I can also recommend further resources and healing modalities for clients to look into, such as somatic therapy and bodywork to help with the stagnant energy they might be struggling with in winter. 

Personally, when I began to be more mindful of the astrological seasons I found a lot of relief in being able to name, in ways that felt empowering to me, what it was about certain points of the year that felt challenging. It's the difference in being able to live my myth instead of trying to fit in with a story that has been told to me. 

If you're interested in exploring a seasons of the zodiac approach to the year, I suggest starting by making note of one or two months of the year that you find to be most comforting and enjoyable versus one or two months that you find to be the most challenging. Then, compare those months with the astrological seasons I've listed below and read more about the one or two signs and how their stories may help you understand your own.

Solar Seasons of the Year

Aries: End of March (Equinox) to end of April
Taurus: End of April to end of May
Gemini: End of May to end of June
Cancer: End of June (Solstice) to end of July
Leo: End of July to end of August
Virgo: End of August to end of September
Libra: End of September (Equinox) to end of October
Scorpio: End of October to end of November
Sagittarius: End of November to end of December
Capricorn: End of December (Solstice) to end of January
Aquarius: End of January to end of February
Pisces: End of February to end of March

Seasonal Rituals & Practices

Seeking Elemental Balance & Meeting Our Star Bodies

Each sign of the zodiac has a corresponding element of Earth, Air, Fire, or Water. Aries is a Fire sign and brings fiery energy into the season and whatever area of our life it is illuminating into your birth chart. If you're trying to bring more fiery energy into your life, for example, you might try engaging in fiery and energizing activities during Aries season such as energetic movement to fire magick as well as engaging in activities that feel exciting and adventurous. You might incorporate appropriate-for-you fiery herbs into your routine from spices and more stimulating herbs to digestive tonics. If you struggle with too much fiery energy and find Aries season to be overstimulating, you might try cooling and tempering activities such as gentle movement, forest bathing, activities that feel emotionally regulating, as well as relaxing herbs and liver tonics. 

Signs & Their Elements

Fire Signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Earth Signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Air Signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Water Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

A simple way to start with elemental work is to ask yourself the following series of questions, and not only think about the answer, but try to feel your answer, too.

• Do I feel like I have enough {element} in my life?

• If not, what can I do that is {fiery, watery, earthy, airy}?

• If I feel like I have too much of {element} how can I balance it with {opposite element}?

Every sign of the zodiac is associated with parts of the body and it can be an interesting somatic experience to explore the corresponding parts of your body for each season of the zodiac. You can learn more about the signs of the zodiac and our bodies over here.

Seasonal Tarot Readings

I enjoy beginning a new zodiac season with the corresponding tarot spread (you can find links to all of my astrological season tarot spreads in the Solar Seasons of the Year list above). For me, these readings aren't about predictions or trying to peer too far and back in time, but about reading the energy of the next cycle of the zodiac. It is also about connecting with the energy of the season on a personal and energetic level. The reading is contemplative and somatic: I write about my reading and I also feel it out without trying to put it into words.

Side Note: if you've been in a bit of a tarot funk, I recommend these (or similar) seasonal tarot spreads to help you move energy and inspire your intuition in a relatively low stakes sort of way.

These seasonal readings can also be using the same spread each month (i.e. the Celtic Cross for Aries season, Taurus season, Gemini season, and so on). If you're trying to work with solar energy in your life, doing a regular reading when the Sun changes signs can be a rewarding practice.

Alternatively, I've really enjoyed doing a zodiac season reading at the end of the season (i.e. when Aries season is coming to an end and Taurus season is about to begin). This is a spread to help you reflect on the energies of the past month as they manifested in your life and can sometimes be a more useful approach if you're new to the idea of zodiac seasons. 

Alternatively alternatively, you can do a reading at the beginning and end of the zodiac season. I would do this when a month has been particularly intense or if I'm trying to better understand a particular sign of the zodiac better (i.e. what the heck is a Taurus and why is it in my ninth house?).

book shown is the stargazing notebook by the unemployed philosopher’s guild

Birth Chart Meditation

After I've done my reading, I'll pull out my birth chart and look at what is happening in the area of my chart that the current zodiac season is illuminating. Aries in the Third House, for example, might mean taking note of what is happening in your life in regards to your curiosity, your ability to communicate ideas and concepts about yourselves and your world, as well as paths of learning that we may be on or want to be on, and relationships with siblings (including chosen family siblings). If you have planets in this area of your chart you might explore what they signify when they're in the sign of Aries. Finally, consider how the energy of Aries has informed your understanding and experience of Third House issues (i.e. you might learn best in an active environment or are someone who needs to move in order to think). If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you can download my free guide to The Moon in the Houses in the subscriber’s only resource page, which can be used more broadly for understanding the general emotional energy of each House.

Again, I'm not trying to practice any sort of predictive astrology, but to familiarize myself with what energy might be stirred up, what concepts might be illuminated, and what shadows revealed while the Sun traverses this part of my birth chart and life. If you're just starting to learn about your birth chart, a practice of seasonal observation like this can be a great way of exploring the energies of the stars and planets at the time of your birth. 

Plant Allies

I try to work with the seasons in my herbal practice as much as possible, working with plants as they spring up on the Land around me. So it's easy to work with Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) to temper the energy of Aries during Aries season (which arrives in late March in the northern hemisphere) as Lemon Balm is one of the first plants to return after winter.

When working with plant allies for the zodiac season, especially if you're new to the practice, I would start with the herbs you already work with and learn about their astrological correspondences. It can be a fascinating practice to notice the type of astrological energies you're inherently drawn to in your choice of plants to work with each season. See the "Additional Practices" section below for some more ideas for working with plants.

Tarot deck shown is Thea’s Tarot by Ruth West

Additional Practices

Depending on the season, the time and energy I have, and honoring the human urge to arrange things in such a way that feels pleasing and spiritually harmonious, I might build an altar for each season. An astrological tarot altar might include traditional and personal images of the current Sun sign, symbolic connections to your birth chart, and anything else to represent the ways that you're working with the energy of the season, including symbols for what you're trying to call in or release from your life. An altar to help you connect with the energies of Virgo Season, for example, might include images of healing spaces, bowls of grain, and an item or two representing an area of your life that you’re calling in healing energy.

I love altar building and in addition to being a beautiful thing to do, I think that altars serve as excellent tactile representations of abstract information and can be a great practice for folks who are learning about astrology for the first time or expanding their knowledge into a specific aspect of the art.

You can also wear your altar and incorporate the energy of the season into your clothing and adornments. A specific piece of jewelry might represent the energy of Virgo to you, for example, and you might wear it everyday for the season.

I've also enjoyed making herb bundles and/or flower and gem essence blends based on my zodiac season tarot reading and my own emotional needs for working with specific energies of the zodiac. Solar seasons of the zodiac are roughly 30 days which is generally considered a good length of time to work with a flower essence. You can even choose to work with Bach's recommended essences for each sign (i.e. The Twelve Healers, Bach’s original guide to his essences and the zodiac is available for free via the Bach Centre), but I encourage you to work with what you already have as this can prove useful energetic insights with essences you're already in relationship with.

᠅

What would your year feel like if time were a river of starry-hearted stories?

I hope that this post has brought some inspiration to your practice. If you want to explore more about the individual energies of each sign of the zodiac, come this way. You can also check out my entire seasons of the zodiac series.

If you’re looking for inspiration for a lunar practice, I’ve written about that, too.

May your year be a story ever-unfolding, helping you connect with the land and your community, as you find your way through your myths.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

3 Simple Rituals for Your Lunar Return

After the sun finally gives up
the sky to the moon
and my children are dreaming

I sit in an empty, unlit room
soaking in the silky sounds
of silence. My body breathes again.

In this darkness, I am found.

~ Erin Kundrie ~

🌙

While I cannot always tell you what day it is - either the name of the day or its date - I am often able to say how full or dark the Moon is.¹ This hasn't always been so. Connecting with a lunar-focused way of experiencing time while being raised within a solar-focused culture took time and effort, a reclamation of ancestral wisdom, and new understanding of time and space beyond strident, unending linear progress. My initial inspiration to reconnect to the Moon as an important and ancient way of knowing time and space came from the books I was reading as a young witch that spoke of the magick that could be done by moonlight and the lost Goddesses that could be found there. Sign me up, my little witch heart sang! Decades later I've come to know lunar time as an essential part of my ability to feel whole and holy - measuring my life by the Moon allows me to ebb and flow, to know that all things are changing and reforming, that growth requires the renewal of decay, that tides must come and go from the shore

Lunar time asks us to critically examine the impossible goal of eternal stasis and immortality set out by capitalism and kyriarchy, while instead connecting with the liberatory experience of ever-change, of inhale and exhalation, of deep relaxation after deep tension.

Celebrating my monthly lunar returns has been a more recent addition to my practice, but one that I've come to treasure. As I continue to write about lunar returns, I wanted to write about some of the very simple rituals you might choose to do to connect with the energetic ebb and flow of your lunar return (and if you haven't yet, read my introduction to lunar returns to understand what they're all about and why you might pay attention to them). I want to focus on rituals that aren't about too much self-analysis, focus on self-improvement or anything that moves us too far into our thinking mind and out of our feeling body.

image via @boothryan_

Our Moon sign represents a lot of interesting aspects of our life, but one of the most important ways our inner Moon helps us to understand ourselves is by illuminating the ways that we feel most comfortable and nourished in our lives. Of course, there is a usefulness to journal prompts and deep self-reflection to help you get to a place of knowing your needs around comfort and feeling emotionally supported, and these are tools I love, but sometimes we just need to tap into something more instinctual and intuitive rather than over-relying on the intellectual. Getting to a place of feeling intuitive and trusting your instincts is not an instantaneous process - not everyone, for example, was supported in their intuitive truths or had to develop instincts that may or may no longer serve us (i.e. an instinct driven by hypervigilance). So it can be really helpful to commit to a regular monthly practice where you engage in some simple ritual to help support your growth of healthy instincts and trust in your intuition, especially when timed to the empowering energy of your lunar return.

For me, a lunar return is not about manifesting the ability to be more productive. It's learning how to recognize your own needs versus the expectations of productivity culture. In a capitalist society like the United States, the expectations of productivity are limitless which conflicts with the finite resources of individuals, communities, and the planet we share. I think it's important to be cognizant and wary of the ways that we might slip productivity culture into our magickal, spiritual, and healing work. Endless striving for self-improvement can lead to self-care that feels increasingly laborious, joyless, performative, and isolating. This can ultimately muddy our intuition and make it difficult to develop instincts which support real resilience (i.e. resilience that sees rest as powerful and essential).²

Here's my encouragement for developing a lunar return ritual practice: strive for something which feels pleasurable, easy to do, and which feels like a benefit in your life. I know, those are broad descriptors of a practice and could mean many things to many people, but that's the point - what works for you is going to be unique to you. Make your practice enticing to you. Sometimes where the benefit of a practice shows up in your life isn't always the present moment, but the practice is benefitting future or past you. Present me doesn't always want to do my daily meditation practice but I never regret having shown up for my meditation practice once it's over. That's what I seek in any regular practice of mine - a practice that cultivates pleasure that surpasses time and space. Yes, showing up for my meditation or lunar return practice is beneficial to my present self, even if it might take effort in the moment, but it's also a gift to my future self that I'm grateful to receive.

Before any of these rituals you have all sorts of ways that you can prepare for them, but only if you feel like you have the time, energy, and inspiration to do so. Don't let the fear of not doing something "right" or "all the way" - whatever either of those things might mean - prevent you from showing up to the rituals that you want to practice. Can it be beautiful to set up an altar for your lunar return and take a shower or bath before a ritual? Yes! But if you don't have the extra energy or time to do those things, the path to your ritual is still one of beauty, and you don't need to do anything else before a ritual but show up. I rely a lot on breathwork before rituals to help me ground and center and begin to shift my consciousness from the busyness of everyday life to the time and space between where rituals take place. There will be time for elaborate rituals and preparations but do what you have the capacity to do now - it's all practice, all sacred. With that in mind here is a might-do list for before a ritual.

A Might-Do List to Prepare for a Ritual

Cleanse & bless your body

Cleanse & bless your space

Dress (or undress) in a way that inspires you

Build or re-energize your altar

Drink some tea

Practice some simple breathwork

image via @_k_arrin

The Lunar Return Rituals

In a previous post on the magick of your lunar return, I shared three tea recipes that I find useful for connecting with different aspects of your lunar return. They focused on the three themes of reflection, rebalancing, and reconnecting which I've used as a guide to create simple rituals to help you connect with whatever energy you're most curious about in your life at the time of your lunar return. If you feel called to, you can incorporate the corresponding teas with the rituals below and/or work with one or more of the plants throughout your lunar return cycle, but that's only if it feels like a pleasure to do.

Reflection: Sound Healing

Humans are noisy creatures, using sound and the felt vibration of that sound to communicate ideas, evoke different emotions, and create spaces of healing. I incorporate sound and sound therapy techniques into my own personal and community healing practice, and while I enjoy using the tools of sound therapy, one of our most powerful and uniquely attuned sound therapy tools is our own voice. Singing about and beneath the Moonlight is an ancient way of being human which is one of the reasons I think its a beautiful practice to incorporate into your lunar return rituals.

The healing qualities of sound are manifold, but when it comes to the lunar magick of reflection, sound acts like dropping a pebble into a still pound: the energy ripples out, new things come to the surface, and the shape of your current life is felt through the small waves coming to shore. I like to use a simple technique like humming or toning sacred words or syllables (i.e. such as galdr, ogham, bijas, and so on) but sometimes there is a simple song or chant from my spiritual tradition that I'm drawn to. It's not about being pitch perfect or sounding "good" but using sound as a way to explore your current energetic state and needs. I am guided by my own sense of what feels good to me and I encourage you to be guided by your own sense of feel good noise.

What is powerful about an audible or vibration based sound practice in reflection work is that often we feel a need to reflect because something doesn't feel seen, heard, and/or held in our lives. Through sound we begin to hear and/or feel our way home. 

I like to incorporate tea into this sound ritual, placing a bowl or teapot full of brewing herbs on my altar as I sing, drinking this sound infused tea as the ritual comes to an end. After any sort of ritual I try to pay special attention to dreams and sudden insights that come my way and this is especially true with sound work and the way it can stir up hidden depths.

Rebalancing: Breathwork

One of the simplest ways I find energetic balance in my life is through breathwork. Breathwork is a free and accessible form of healing, helping to address the underlying stress that can cause so much suffering in our lives. While I've created a short course on breathwork geared towards magickal folk, I've made sure that one of my favorite breathwork practices known as the tree of life is available for free.

While I practice some form of breathwork everyday, I like to set aside extra time and space to let myself sink into my breathwork practices on days like my lunar return. Sometimes I practice a slow tree of life meditation and other times I just begin to breathe deeply and let myself be guided by my breath to where I need to go.

I love incorporating tea into my breathwork practice, especially when I'm feeling distracted and discombobulated. I'll begin by holding my cup full of tea under my nose, letting the steam help to open my airways and carry precious volatile oils into my airways, and giving my mind something easy to focus on with the scent of the brew. 

A breathwork session can lead into other practices, such as divination, guided meditation, art, writing, and more, or it can just be a breathwork session. Being present to simple practices instead of always being in preparation for the next thing is a powerful way of grounding, centering, and rebalancing. 

image via @shisilya

Reconnecting: Movement

Using movement as a practice of reconnecting to what it is you have hidden away or lost sight of can help us find a sense of self as holy, as Land, and as beyond worthy.

How you move as an act of reconnection and calling yourself home is going to be dependent on you, your physical needs, and your own unique desires. The guideline I follow is that I can move in whatever way I want as long as it causes no harm to me or those around me - other than that I allow myself to move however I want. I try to be led by how my body wants to move instead of trying to move it and more often than not I don't incorporate any music - but that's just my preference, you figure out what works for you.

I think movement rituals are especially important when you've tried to think yourself back home and now you just need to feel it. We're not seeking wisdom through movement or specific guidance or answers (though sometimes one or more of those things become known through movement work), but we're seeking to move as an act of saying "I'm here, come home, I love you, let's take up space together."

Is ending a movement ritual with tea a very sweet and lovely thing to do? Yes, yes it is. I actually enjoy using movement as a practice of reconnecting to myself and my needs before situations where I know that I'll be outside of my comfort zone, and when I'm able to bring tea from the ritual along with me it feels like I'm carrying own confidence and comfort elixir.

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Reclaiming time during your lunar return for gentle intuitive magick remains a rebellious act. 

Through these simple ritual ideas I hope you're feeling inspired to explore how it is you might show up to your own lunar return if that is something you're called to do. And if you're feeling like you can't possibly add another thing to your life, don't worry, the Moon is already showing up for you.

If you're looking for more lunar-inspired wisdom, you've come to the right corner of the internet. Find my original post on finding your lunar return or you can explore my series on the healing rituals of the lunar phases. I can even help you discover your Moon sign and Lunar Mansion and understand your birth chart better. For those looking for a deeper dive, The Lunar Apothecary is my space for helping folks discover who they are as healers through Moon-centered herbalism and magick.

Blessings on your lunar journey and may you have many a magickal lunar return!

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤ Thanks, friends. ❤

Footnotes

(1) Though, before any of you think that this is some sort of holy moon priestess humblebrag, I can't always tell you what's happening with the Moon either, as sometimes the measuring of time and space in any terms is beyond my grasp and I'm just trying to make myself a cup of tea which does not require me to know much of anything beyond where the herbs are and successfully turning on the kettle.

(2) It's also not very fun, all this endless striving, and the Moon has long been a symbol of rebellion against conformity to any oppressive norms including social media driven "wellness" culture.