Garden Witch's Herbal (29 page)

Colors:
royal blue, green, purple

Metal:
tin

Stones:
sapphire, amethyst, turquoise

Essential Oils:
clove, honeysuckle, meadowsweet, nutmeg, sage

Herbs, Trees, and Plants:
anise, borage, butterfly weed, chestnut, cinquefoil, clove, dandelion, honeysuckle (woodbine), hyssop, linden tree, maple tree, meadowsweet, nutmeg, oak tree, sarsaparilla, sage

Herbal Spell for Thursday

By Thursday's energies of prosperity and health,

In the best possible way, may this spell bring me wealth.

Herbs of Jupiter, add your abundant energies to mine,

Bring to me a positive change that will last come rain or shine.

The Planet Venus

Magickal Uses:
love, romance, sexuality, fertility, friendship, beauty magick

Sigil:

Day of the Week:
Friday

Deities:
Venus, Aphrodite, Eros, Freya, Frigga

Colors:
aqua, pink

Metal:
copper

Stones:
rose quartz, coral, emerald

Essential Oils:
apple, chamomile, freesia, gardenia, geranium, lilac, rose, thyme, vanilla

Herbs, Trees, and Plants:
alder tree, American oxeye daisy, apple tree, aster, birch tree, blackberry, catnip, cherry, columbine, common garden crocus, dog rose, elderberry, elder tree, English daisy, feverfew, foxglove, geranium, goldenrod, hollyhock, Indian paintbrush, iris, lady's mantle, liatris/gayfeather, lilac, magnolia, mugwort, orchid, pea, periwinkle, plum tree, prairie rose, primrose, raspberry, rose, sage brush, spiderwort, strawberry, tansy, thyme, valerian, vanilla, vervain, violet, wild crab, vanilla, yarrow

Herbal Spell for Friday

By Friday's power of love and sexuality,

May my herbal spells bring joy to my loved ones and me.

Herbs of Venus, add your romantic powers to my charm,

Bring beauty and pleasure without causing anyone harm.

The Planet Saturn

Magickal Uses:
banish negativity, break manipulative spells, remove obstacles, protection

Sigil:

Associated Day of the Week:
Saturday

Deities:
Saturn, Hecate

Colors:
black, deep purple

Metal:
lead

Stones:
obsidian, Apache tear, hematite, jet

Essential Oils:
cypress, myrrh, patchouli

Herbs, Trees, and Plants:
alder buckthorn,
Atropa belladonna
, black hellebore, black/garden nightshade, blackthorn tree, comfrey, cypress tree, deadly nightshade, elm tree, hedge bindweed, hellebore, hemlock, ivy, lobelia, mimosa, morning glory, mullein, pansy, poplar tree, quince, skullcap, snowdrop, Solomon's seal, yellow lady's slipper, yew tree

Herbal Spell for Saturday

By Saturday's energy, I banish my troubles away,

This herbal spell will bring security for many a day.

Herbs of Saturn, add your strong energy to mine,

I am protected, safe, and secure for all time.

With Saturday and Saturn, we close up the traditional seven and the classic daily magickal correspondences. If you really want to get a feel for the daily planetary energies and how each one differs from the other, I have a witchy homework assignment for you. Pick a day to start, then gather your herbal supplies and work the featured daily herbal spell. For the next week, I want you to work each day's specific herbal spell. (There is one for every day of the week, so you can start any time you wish.)

Take the time to tune in and to get a feel for each day's specific planetary energy and magickal theme; you'll be glad that you did. Besides that, once you have worked your way through an entire week, think of all the positive changes you'll have brewing, not to mention all of the hands-on experience you'll be gaining. For with experience, we gain knowledge, and in time, knowledge becomes wisdom.

Magickal Associations of
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto

We all come from our own little planets.
That's why we're all different. That's what makes life interesting.

robert e. sherwood

To the ancients, the known planets at the time were the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Interestingly, ancient people believed that the planets all revolved around the earth. In the simplest of terms, the seven “planets,” or luminaries, and their movements all represented the will of the gods and their direct power over human affairs.

As I researched further into which plants, herbs, flowers, and trees were associated with the different planets, I found myself hip-deep in astrology, which I admit is a topic that I do not fully comprehend—it's too damn much like math! (Yes, I've tried taking classes. I have even had friends send me simple astrology books.) But I doggedly persevered.

However, while I was bravely investigating the planetary herbs, I found myself pulled off my comfortable herbal path by some new, fascinating planetary information that I honestly can say I did not know about our solar system. Hmmm … I firmly believe that nothing happens without a reason, so I used this as an opportunity to expand my horizons a bit—to boldly go where no Garden Witch has gone before (well, at least not this particular gardening Witch)!

Now, as practical Witches, it is safe to assume that most of us work with the daily energies of the seven days of the week and their classic planetary associations most of the time. They are familiar to us, and some Witches can rattle off the daily basic correspondence charts in the blink of an eye. I wonder how many of you did your week-long herbal assignment? If you did, then you are one of those folks who knows their daily correspondences cold. Congratulations!

But what about the other three planets in our solar system? Seems to me they deserve a little attention and herbal magick, too. The last three of our planets—Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—do not have as much historical information in regards to herbal correspondences. Why? The simple answer is that these last three planets were not discovered until more modern times. Therefore, there is not as much folklore and legend built up around them and their use in contemporary magick.

I honestly found this information about these last three planets to be fascinating and valuable from a practical magick standpoint, because don't we all enjoy learning something new, no matter how long we have been practicing our craft?

The Planet Uranus

Uranus was discovered in 1781 and was named after the Greek god of the sky. This brilliant blue planet is the third largest planet in our solar system and is seventh from the sun. Uranus is classified as a “gas planet” and has a tilted axis. There are eleven known rings around Uranus, very faint, and the brightest is known as the epsilon ring. Astronomers have recently discovered that the planet Uranus has a bright blue outer ring—only the second found in the solar system. (The other planet that sports a bright blue outer ring is Saturn.) Like the blue ring of Saturn, this newly discovered ring probably owes its existence to an accompanying small moon; in Uranus's case, this moon is named Mab. To date, Uranus has at least twenty-seven known moons. The two largest moons of Uranus are named Titania and Oberon, and they were discovered in 1787.

The magickal correspondences for Uranus are as follows:

Magickal Uses:
change, unexpected situations, originality, genius, invention

Sigil:

Complementary Day of the Week:
Wednesday (as Mercury resonates with Uranus)

Deity Association:
Uranus, the Greek god of the sky

Color:
bright blue

Metal:
titanium

Stone:
quartz crystal

Essential Oils:
clove, ambergris

Herbs and Plants Ruled by Uranus Include:
Clove, mistletoe, foxglove, rosemary, and valerian. To add a bit more of Uranus's blue magick into your life, you could work flower fascinations easily with this planetary influence by adding true blue flowers from your garden; for example, the blue blossoms of the ‘Nikko Blue' hydrangea. Try the old-fashioned love in a mist (
Nigella damascena
); this dainty annual has fabulous blue, feathery blossoms. The gorgeous and stately delphinium comes in many shades of blue, from deep to pastel. The unusual Himalayan poppy is a true blue. Oh, and don't forget the annual blue lobelia and the friendly faced pansies in pale sky blue. In addition, we have the grape hyacinth, campanula, and the bluebell. Also, you may want to consider working with garden perennials that have bluish-colored foliage, such as hostas and ornamental grasses. Here are a few varieties of bewitchingly blue hostas to try: ‘Elegans', ‘Blue Moon', ‘Love Pat', and ‘Halcyon'. For ornamental grasses, consider ‘Blue Fescue' and ‘Blue Lymegrass'.

Herbal Spell for Uranus

By Uranus's power, I bring positive change into my life,

This herbal spell invokes genius and does protect me from all strife.

Herbs of this blue, ringed planet, add your energy to mine,

Situations that come my way will always work out fine.

The Planet Neptune

Neptune was discovered in 1846. Another gas giant, Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun and the fourth largest by diameter. (Neptune is smaller in diameter but larger in mass than the planet Uranus.) Neptune is bluish green in color and, like Jupiter, has a “great dark spot.” This spot has been baffling science for years, as it constantly changes its shape and appearance. From time to time, the spot is not seen at all. Just to keep things interesting, Neptune also has four faint rings. Neptune has thirteen known moons, including Triton. Triton is curious, as this moon travels retrograde, or backward, in its orbit around Neptune.