Tag: Seed
Calendar of the Moon for November 15
Calendar of the Moon
15 Ngetal/Maimakterion
Day of the Yew Tree
Color: Ivory or bone-white
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a bone-white cloth set a vase of yew branches, a single ivory candle, a pot of soil, seeds of a sometimes-poisonous medicinal plant, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Care for a cemetery.
Daily Meal: Vegan
Invocation to the Green Man of the Yew Tree
Hail, Green Man of the Autumn!
As the leaves fall and turn to brown,
As their breaking bodies crack beneath our feet,
As the earth itself browns and fades
And every stalk and tree gives way
To withering, the evergreens alone
Hold up their heads, and watch over
A kingdom which begins in death.
This is your kingdom, sacred yew,
Whose wood made bows to shoot
Flying death into the hearts of enemies.
Wreath of sacrificial bulls, beloved of ghosts,
Barrel-maker’s joy, coffin of the vine,
Churchyard tree whose roots spread
One to each corpse’s mouth,
Whose scarlet berries bring still more death,
Spell of knowledge, King’s Wheel,
Boundary of autumn and winter,
Saturn’s tree, slow to grow and slow to die,
Eagle who shrieks and dives to kill,
Whose all-seeing eyes follow shadows,
We hail you, sacred yew tree,
Green Man of the Autumn,
On this the day of your deathwatch.
Chant: (To be sung to the slow beat of a drum)
Like leaves we fall Like leaves we fly Upon the winds
(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)
Calendar of the Sun for November 10th
Calendar of the Sun
Ancestor Day
Color:
Black and grey
Element: Earth
Altar: Spread a black cloth, and lay it with photographs, paintings, and other depictions of our ancestors. Add also symbols of their old tools, and statues of ancestral deities, a bowl of seeds for the future garden, pots of soil, a pitcher of water, and many candles of black and white and grey.
Offerings: Things they would have liked to eat, drink, smoke, or smell. Tend a cemetery and clean up the graves.
Daily Meal: Food from an earlier era, using authentic recipes.
Invocation to the Ancestors
Our ancestors got up at dawn,
Slaved in the dirt,
Sweated in the sun,
Chilled in the cold,
Numbed in the snow,
Scattering each seed with a prayer:
Pray that there be enough,
That no one starve this winter.
Pray that no bird nor beast
Steal the food I have struggled for.
And most of all,
Pray that each seed I save
Of this harvest
Shall next year
Bring forth a hundred more.
We live today
Because they worked
Because they sowed
Because they harvested
Because they prayed.
Chant:
Those who came before
We are your children
Those who came before
We honor your names
(Each person takes seeds from the bowl and plants them in the pots of soil, speaking the name of one of their ancestors as they do so, as in: “In honor of _______.” The pots are watered, and the candles put out one by one.)
Dangerous Plants
DANGEROUS PLANTS NEVER EAT OR INGEST ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
Avoid experimenting with ANY the following plants.
Some of them possess highly potent medical properties and should only be used by the truly experienced witch or herbalists. Many are poisonous in part or in whole and cause serious illness or death if not used properly.
Aconite
Bittersweet
Black nightshade
Blue flag
Burning bush
Calabar bean
Calico bush
Camphor
Castor oil plant (seeds)
Celandine
Christmas rose (root)
Cowbane
Daffodils
Deadly nightshade
Dog’s mercury
Elkweed
Ergot
Flag lily
Foxglove
Gelsemium
Hemlock
Hellebore
Henbane
Holly (seeds)
Honeysuckle (vine and fruits)
Horse balm
Impatiens pallida
Indian arrowroot
Inkberry
Jack-in-the-pulpit (root)
Jerusalem cherry
Jimsonweed
Laburnum (seeds)
Laurel (seeds)
Mandrake
Mayapple (roots, leaves, seeds)
Monkshood (fine as a rub – The smallest amount is deadly if used internally)
Mistletoe (seeds)
Poinsettia Poison
Dogwood
Flag
Hemlock
Ivy
Oak
Sumac
Poke root
Rosebay
Springier tree (seeds)
Spurge
Swallow wort
Thorn apple
Tobacco (Believe it! This IS a deadly poison if concentrated and eaten)
Wahoo
Wake-robin
Water dropwort
White hemlock
White bryony
Winter rose
Wood anemone (seeds)
Yellow jasmine
Yew (seeds and berries)
Calendar of the Moon for November 1
Calendar of the Moon
1 Ngetal/Maimakterion
Day of the Reed
Color: Blue-green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a blue-green cloth set a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a pot of soil, seeds of some rare but useful plant, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds.
Daily Meal: Vegan
Invocation to the Green Man of the Reed
Hail, Green Man of the Autumn!
In this time of whistling winds
And growing cold, when we see
The year wind down towards
Inevitable winter, the reeds
Sing their mournful song
Along river and marsh,
And the eternal ocean’s shore.
Reed who thatched our ancestors
Homes, who gave them roofs
Over their head and shelter
From the wild elements
That your month promises,
Remind us that the best way
To assuage sorrow and mourning
Is by finding some way to work
With hands and body
Toward the coming of a new day,
Even if that day be only for the eyes
Of others not yet born.
Let us put roofs over the heads
Of all who need them, borne
Out of our own mourning
For what should already have been.
We hail you, sacred reed,
Green Man of the Autumn,
On this your day of falling.
(Use any keening, wordless, mournful polyphonic chant. Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)
Calendar of the Moon for July 15
Calendar of the Moon
15 Duir/Skirophorion
Day of the Heather
Color: Dark gold
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a dark gold cloth set a vase of heather, a single golden candle, a pot of soil, seeds, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Tend bees.
Daily Meal: Vegan, with honey.
Invocation to the Green Man of the Heather
Hail, Green Man of the Summer!
Heather of the rolling fields,
Much beloved by the loyal
Disciples of that golden queen
Whose job makes sweetness,
Your flowers wave like the ocean
Making meadow into sea.
Cybele’s joy, she whose throne
Was surrounded by her not-males,
Who ruled the summer months
With lioness’s passion,
Red blossoms that cause heat
And white ones that brush it aside,
You teach us about attraction
And the joys of pursuit.
We hail you, sacred heather,
Green Man of the Summer,
On this the day of your true gold.
Chant:
Field into sea
Sea into honey
Honey into life
Life into earth
Earth into field….
(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)
Calendar of the Moon for July 14
Calendar of the Moon
14 Tinne/Hekatombaion
Day of the Spindle Tree
Color: Pale yellow
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a pale yellow cloth set a vase of spindle-tree twigs, a single pale yellow candle, a pot of soil, seeds of some medicinal or useful herb, a bowl of water, and a bell.
Offerings: Plant seeds. Do some handcraft.
Daily Meal: Vegan
Invocation to the Green Man of the Spindle Tree
Hail, Green Man of the Summer!
Spindle tree of the craftsman’s pride,
You who have been carved and sectioned
Into spools, wands, and many other things,
You who pride yourself on being useful,
Guide our hands as we turn
Things of nature into things of use.
Show us the beauty in pure function
And in pure service,
In the comfort that comes
Of being a worthy tool
And a well-worked object.
Remind us of the satisfaction
In the creation of some new thing
That will please the hands
Of many generations to come.
We hail you, sacred spindle tree,
Green Man of the Summer,
On this your day of labor.
Song: Fashioned in the Clay by Elmer Beal
(Each comes forward and plants a seed in the pot of soil, saying, “Hail Green Man of the Earth!” Water is poured onto the pot, and then the rest is poured out as a libation. Ring bell and dismiss.)
Calendar of the Sun for Monday, June 18
Media Ver
Color: Green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a green cloth set growing herbs and flowers in pots, a pitcher of rainwater, small dishes of late-sowed seeds such as lettuce (as many as there are people), a flower wreath, and a single green candle.
Offerings: Seeds to be planted in the garden.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian
Media Ver Invocation
Earth, you have awakened to our touch!
The winds have stirred you,
The rain has nourished you,
The sun has opened your eyes.
Your million mouths open
On the unfolded leaves of every tree.
We glory in your abundance,
In the dance of your youth,
And we dance for your brilliant life
And your new season.
Yet now is the time when the real work begins.
If we would keep what we have sown,
We must not stop here,
But we must labor for the sustenance
Of our creation, as it has always been.
For the first growth is a miracle from the Gods,
But the second growth is the miracle unseen,
From the labor of our hands,
Which is also sacred.
Chant:
Green growing
Green Man knowing
Path of striving
Way of opening
(Each takes a pot of seeds and goes to the garden, and hoes or otherwise prepares a space for planting, and then plants their seeds, chanting while doing so. The pitcher of rainwater is carried out and ritually poured onto the seeds. Weeding should also be done at this time, and the care for plants that have already broken the surface.)
Calendar of the Sun for June 15
Media Ver
Color: Green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a green cloth set growing herbs and flowers in pots, a pitcher of rainwater, small dishes of late-sowed seeds such as lettuce (as many as there are people), a flower wreath, and a single green candle.
Offerings: Seeds to be planted in the garden.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian
Media Ver Invocation
Earth, you have awakened to our touch!
The winds have stirred you,
The rain has nourished you,
The sun has opened your eyes.
Your million mouths open
On the unfolded leaves of every tree.
We glory in your abundance,
In the dance of your youth,
And we dance for your brilliant life
And your new season.
Yet now is the time when the real work begins.
If we would keep what we have sown,
We must not stop here,
But we must labor for the sustenance
Of our creation, as it has always been.
For the first growth is a miracle from the Gods,
But the second growth is the miracle unseen,
From the labor of our hands,
Which is also sacred.
Chant:
Green growing
Green Man knowing
Path of striving
Way of opening
(Each takes a pot of seeds and goes to the garden, and hoes or otherwise prepares a space for planting, and then plants their seeds, chanting while doing so. The pitcher of rainwater is carried out and ritually poured onto the seeds. Weeding should also be done at this time, and the care for plants that have already broken the surface.)
Calendar of the Sun for June 14
Media Ver
Color: Green
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a green cloth set growing herbs and flowers in pots, a pitcher of rainwater, small dishes of late-sowed seeds such as lettuce (as many as there are people), a flower wreath, and a single green candle.
Offerings: Seeds to be planted in the garden.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian
Media Ver Invocation
Earth, you have awakened to our touch!
The winds have stirred you,
The rain has nourished you,
The sun has opened your eyes.
Your million mouths open
On the unfolded leaves of every tree.
We glory in your abundance,
In the dance of your youth,
And we dance for your brilliant life
And your new season.
Yet now is the time when the real work begins.
If we would keep what we have sown,
We must not stop here,
But we must labor for the sustenance
Of our creation, as it has always been.
For the first growth is a miracle from the Gods,
But the second growth is the miracle unseen,
From the labor of our hands,
Which is also sacred.
Chant:
Green growing
Green Man knowing
Path of striving
Way of opening
(Each takes a pot of seeds and goes to the garden, and hoes or otherwise prepares a space for planting, and then plants their seeds, chanting while doing so. The pitcher of rainwater is carried out and ritually poured onto the seeds. Weeding should also be done at this time, and the care for plants that have already broken the surface.)
The Witchcraft Chronicles 
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