“See what delights in sylvan scenes appear!
Descending Gods have found Elysium here.
In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray’d,
And chaste Diana haunts the forest shade.
Come lovely nymph, and bless the silent hours,
When swains from shearing seek their nightly bow’rs;
When weary reapers quit the sultry field,
And crown’d with corn, their thanks to Ceres yield.
This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,
But in my breast the serpent Love abides.
Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew,
But your Alexis knows no sweets but you.
Oh deign to visit our forsaken seats,
The mossy fountains, and the green retreats!
Where-e’er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade,
Where-e’er you tread, the blushing flow’rs shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.”
– Alexander Pope, Summer
JUNE – THE STRONG SUN MOON
June is the sixth month of the year. Its astrological sign is Gemini, the twins (May 21 – June 21), a mutable air sign ruled by Mercury It is named for Juno the principle Goddess of the Roman pantheon and wife of Jupiter. She is the patronage or marriage and the well-being of women. This is one reason June is the most popular months for weddings.
June is a month of plenty. Mother Earth is young and fresh the air is sweet with the age-old scent of freshly cut hay. Honeysuckle covers old fences and fills June afternoons with its perfume. In the fields, corn and wheat reach for the Sun. In the garden, bees dance among the roses and larkspur. In June anients prepare for the return of the Sun on the main holiday of the month, the Summer Solstice or Midsummer, the longest day of the year. The gentleness of spring has given way to the powerful heat of summer.
Various cultures pay homage to Sun Gods this time of year. In some places summer is just getting started and the hottest months are yet to come yet after the solstice we don’t even notice the days beginning to get slightly shorter. This is the time for enjoying the splendor of summer playful picnics and hikes through the woods, long nights beneath the stars, tending gardens and flower beds. Roadsides are a riot of color, and herbs such as St. John’s wort, vervain, and yarrow can be used in herbal amulets. This is the time of year to honor the faeries–leave offerings for them of ale, milk, fruit or bread before cutting flowers or herbs, and they may help your garden grow.
During the celebration of Summer Solstice or Midsummer, hoops were set ablaze, through which livestock and humans would pass as an act of purification. Herbs such as vervain rue were cut on Midsummer and hung over doors and barn stalls to provide protection. The wild white daisies that bloom now along country lanes and in meadows were considered magickal, for they represented the Sun. By mid-month, the heat of summer begins which gives June’s Full Moon its name the Strong Sun Moon. The beauty of summer’s first Full Moon is rivaled only by another glowing token of June, the twinkling firefly.
—Excerpt from Llewellyn’s Witches’ Spell-A-Day Almanac
Ember Grant
June’s Correspondences
Festival: Summer solstice (Litha). Symbols include the sun, fire, sunflowers, vegetables, and oak leaves.
Moon name: Strawberry Moon, because it’s the height of the strawberry-picking season. Other names include Planting Moon and Green Corn Moon.
Astrological signs: Gemini, May 21–June 20; Cancer, June 21–July 20.
Birthstones: Pearl and moonstone.
Nature spirits: Fire spirits and water nymphs.
Animals: Bees, butterflies, and squirrels.
Birds: Goldfinch and house martin.
Trees: Oak.
Flowers: Dog roses, ox-eyed daisies, wild orchid.
Herbs: Yarrow, fennel, and St. John’s wort.
Scents: Honeysuckle, rose, and lavender.
Colors: Red, orange, gold, and yellow.
Goddess: Cerridwin.
Powers: Strength and energy from the sun; blossoming confidence and beauty; dedication.
Other: The Queen’s birthday trooping of the colors, the longest day, Environment Day, and the beginning of exams.
––Hedgewitch Book of Days: Spells, Rituals, and Recipes for the Magical Year
Mandy Mitchell
Symbols for the Month of June
June’s Festivals
Summer solstice (Litha). Symbols include the sun, fire, sunflowers, vegetables, and oak leaves.
June’s Sign of the Zodiac
Gemini(May 21–June 21)
Cancer(June 21–July 20)
June’s Celtic Tree Astrology
Huath (Hawthorne) (May 13 – June 9)
Duir (Oak) (Une 10 – July 7)
June’s Runic Half Months
Odal (May 29 – June 13)
Dag (June 14 – June 28)
Feoh (June 29 – July 3)
June’s Birthstone
Pearl and Moonstone
June’s Birth Flower
Dog roses, Ox-eyed daisies, Wild orchid.
June’s Goddess
Cerridwin.
June’s Folklore
“A calm June puts the farmer in tune.”
“June damp and warm does the farmer no harm.”
“Summer doesn’t start till the elder is in flower.”
––Hedgewitch Book of Days: Spells, Rituals, and Recipes for the Magical Year
Mandy Mitchell
Pagan Calendar of Events for June
Month of Juno – Dedicated to Roman Goddess Juno, partner of Jove (God of Happiness), protector of marriage and family.
June 2 – Juno Regina’s Day (Roman)
– Sin’s Day (Norse)
– Shapatu of Ishtar (Babylonian)
– Seamen’s Day (Icelandish)
– St. Elmo’s Day
JUN. 5: Earth Mother Day—honoring Gaia/Tailtiu/Mother Earth. Calling forth good harvests.
JUN. 11: – Feast of Matuta (Roman)
– Matralia (Roman)
– Fortuna’s Day (Roman)
JUN. 13: Feast of Epona – The Celtic Horse Goddess honoring the Goddess of the Horse [Otherworld Guide].
– Athena’s Day (Greek)
– Minerva’s Day (Roman)
JUN. 14: – Vidar’s Day (Norse)
– Birthday of the Muses (Greek). Music, the arts & inspiration “born”
JUN. 16: – Night of the Teardrop (Egyptian)
JUN. 18: Roman Day of Anna – Goddess Danu to the Celts. Early Christian-Pagans made sure Anna entered the Kristian story, making her Yeshua’s grandmother, Mary’s mother.
JUN. 20: – Iron Skegge’s Day (Norse)
– Festival of Edfu (Egyptian)
– Kuan-Yin Day (day she became a Bodhisattva)
JUN. 21: LITHA SABBAT: Summer Solstice; celebrating Fullness of the Year, Midsummer’s Ever: offerings to the Other People.
– Day of Cerridwen and her Cauldron (English/Welsh)
– Day of Aine of Knockaine (Irish)
– Day of the Green Man (Northern Europe)
– The Great Mother (British)
– Alban Hefin (Druidic)
– Waa-Laa Ends (Native American)
– Litha (Wiccan)
– All Hera’s Day (Roman)
– Ishtar’s Day (Babylonian)
– Astarte’s Day (Canaanite)
– Aphrodite’s Day (Greek)
– Yemaya’s Day (Brazilian)
– Aine’s Day (Irish)
JUN. 23: Day of the Lady and Lord of the Sidhe—Otherworld aspects of the Divine.
– Day of the Fairy Goddesses – Aine, Ana, Anu, Danu
– Celtic Day of the Greenman – Herne, Cernunnos, Lugh
JUN. 24: TEMPLAR HOLY DAY. In the Roman calendar this day was thought to be Summer Solstice. The Church renamed this pagan holiday to St. John the Baptist Day. Templars revered it highly. On Jun 24, 1314 a mysterious band of knights joined Robert the Bruce of Scotland on the battlefield making his victory at Bannockburn possible. These knights could only have been the a troop of disbanded and now in-hiding Templars who had fled to western Scotland. St. John’s day was used by Freemasons in 1717 to found the first public (non-Scottish) Order of Freemasonry in London. Masonic teachings are said to descend from the esoteric Christianity of Templarism. St. John the Baptizer was beheaded because he wouldn’t give in and sacrifice his principles. This is a Templar ideal, as is the constancy and regularity — order out of chaos — of the solstices and equinoxes. So for both reasons, Christian and “pagan,” we observe this day.
– Feast of the Sun (Aztec)
– Midsummer Bride (Swedish)
– Inti Raymi (Incan)
– Lady Luck (European)
– Burning of the Lamps at Sais (Egyptian)
JUN. 25: Parvati Praise Day – Women’s Festival for Earth Mother
JUN. 27: Day of the Lares: Household Deities (/Roman) – honored and tended —cleanse/rededicate household – Altars/shrines.
JUN. 29: Shiva Day: Lord of the Dance invoked for blessings
JUN. 30: Sumerian Day of Aestas: Corn Goddess
For those unfamiliar with glamour as form of magick, there are two versions. Version one is what you probably are thinking about–a falsehood. You have magickally changed your hair, your eye color, perhaps even your entire form simply by using your will. I haven’t done this recently, and you probably haven’t either. Next
The more useful definition is what make you interesting and exciting to yourself and others. Think about something you are currrently working to achieve in your life using Witchcraft and mundane means–a career move, a love interest, travel, adventure. Now think how glamour could help you to achieve this goal. Do you need a door opened for you? Do you need someone to take an interest in this goal to assist you? Do you need to be in the right place at the right time? Your glamour magick can help you with that. After all, if you are fascinating and intoxicating, who could resist you? Not even the universe herself, right?
Glamour Candle Magick
Get out your glitter, your feathers, and your hot glue gun! It’s time to make some magick happen.
You will need:
Rose essential oil
1 vigil candle (found in the Latin section of your grocery store or better yet in our Magickal Boutique) in the color of your choice
Dried rose petals, crushed
Glitter in the color of your choice
Decorations for the outside of your candle, feathers, crystals, markers that work on glass, hot glue. decoupage glue, old magazines, tiny mirrors–wherever your visions takes you
Small piece of brown paper bag
Small bit of ribbon or yarn
Pen
Pot
Matches or a lighter
Wear something that speaks to your intention. Distill your intention for your work into one sentence, and create a small temporary altar for your intention wherever you generally do magick. Add your craft supplies for your working in front of it. Invoke your goddesses, ancestors, and spirit in front of your altar and make offerings of the thing they like.
Chant that sentence out loud while you put the candle in your pot on medium heat on your stove with a little water at the bottom. When the top begins to melt, shut off the heat. Add your rose essential oil first, then your rose petals, then your glitter. Pour energy for your intention into the candle by putting your hands a safe distance above the candle. When cool, take the candles
Decorate your candle in your sacred space while keeping your intention in the back of your mind. Put on music, that will help if you would like, or enjoy the silence. Center yourself. Write your sentence on your piece of paper bag without letting your pen leave the paper. If it does, get a new piece and start again. Lick your thumb and press it to the paper. Fold it seven times toward yourself. Tie your petition paper around your candle. Spark your intentions.
And so it is.
–Llewellyn’s Witches’ Calendar 2019
Article by Deborah Castellano
Witchy Ways to Celebrate June
Decorate your home and altar with fragrant blooms, and light candles to represent the sun.
Cnnect with the fairies by leaving an offering of milk, honey, or sweet bread under a bramble bush. Sit in the quiet of sunrise and sunset to see the Fae folk.
Spell for purification by creating a Midsummer fire and making a protective talisman of summer herbs. Cast illness aside by throwing a pouch of herbs into the cleansing flames.
Come together with others, either in person or online, to celebrate the longest day. Make a connection.
Get out and about, and find both an oak and a holly tree. Bow in respect to both at this time of their yearly battle.
–-Hedgewitch Book of Days: Spells, Rituals, and Recipes for the Magical Year
Mandy Mitchell
We are Witches
We walk the path of the Old Gods
From this moment forth
We will not walk alone
Together, we will worship
Together, we will practice our Craft
Together, we will learn and grow
We vow to work, from this day forward
In perfect love and perfect trust
According to the free will of all
And for the good of all
Creating only beauty
Singing in harmony
Our song upon the Earth
Love is the law and love is the bond
in the name of the Goddess and the God
So do we vow, and so mote it be.
––Circle, Coven, & Grove: A Year of Magickal Practice
Deborah Blake
Banner Exchange
If you would like to exchange banners, you can either drop us off a link in the comment section or email us at:
witches_of_the_craft@outlook.com
Thank You!
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