Magic In The Moon

 My grandmother lived by the full moon. My grandfather planted his crops and breed his animals by the full moon. I would like to establish that the moon, especial the full moon has an affect on the world we live in. The Druids and Celts believed that it had great powers. As did many other cultures over time. In ancient times, the phases of the moon were used to help denote the passage of time, the weeks and months as they went by.



Isaiah 66:23  "And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me," says the LORD.

Female reproductive cycles respond to the lunar cycle.Medical staffs report that women who have already had children are significantly more likely to give birth on the day of the full moon .A research team at Leeds university found a significant increase in visits to medical practices for consultations after the full moon.Doctors report an increase in epileptic seizures and bleeding ulcers at the time of the full moon. The association between the Lunar phases and mental illness is legendary.The word lunatic comes from the Latin word Luna for Moon.
In Britain, the 1824 Lunacy Act stated that people were liable to go mad when the Moon was full. Research found a dramatic rise in admissions to psychiatric hospitals in New York on days of the full Moon. Arson attacks increase by 100% at the time of the full moon. However, arson also rises when there is a drop in the atmospheric pressure, which may also be connected with the phases of the moon. A higher number of mental patients become highly disturbed around the time of full moon. According to a US studies, murders - many apparently motiveless - trebled around the time of the full moon. Alcohol consumption rises at the start and end of the lunar cycle. More drunk drivers, more crashes and more hangovers occur at this critical time. It's hard to know if the astrological connection between the Moon and liquids or the Moon and emotions is the root cause. At the time of the full moon, hospital accident and emergency units see about 10% more patients. 80% of casualty nurses and 64% of doctors believe the moon adversely affects patient behavior.
Crimes of violence increase at the full moon.The moons pull on the earth effects, tidal patterns and weather.The gravitational force of the moon pulls on the water in the oceans, causing the ocean tides. The moon controls earths tides, the mating, hunting and life cycle of millions of species. and human psychological behavior. 
I think that is enough to establish that the moon does have power over things. 

Here are a few moon facts (lore) for you. Old Farmers Almanac

Weather lore says a lunar halo is the precursor of impending unsettled weather, especially during the winter months.

In the wane of the Moon, a cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon.

If the crescent Moon holds its points upward, able to contain water, it predicts a dry spell.

If the new Moon stands on its points, expect precipitation to spill out.

A winter full Moon is a time for long cold snaps.

A full Moon in April brings frost.

Sailors agree that the full Moon "eats clouds."

Two full Moons in a month increase the chances of flood.

A pale full Moon indicates rain, while a red one brings wind.

A Christmas full Moon predicts a poor harvest.

The days following a new Moon or a full Moon are typically stormy.

Moonrise occurring in the evening brings fair weather, says one proverb, harking back to the belief that the waning Moon (full and last quarter, which rise in the evening) is dry.

The New Moon and first quarter, or waxing phases, are considered fertile and wet.

The new and first-quarter phases, known as the light of the Moon, are considered good for planting above-ground crops, putting down sod, grafting trees, and transplanting.

From full Moon through the last quarter, or the dark of the Moon, is the best time for killing weeds, thinning, pruning, mowing, cutting timber, and planting below-ground crops.

The time just before the full Moon is considered particularly wet, and is best for planting during drought conditions.

Rail fences cut during the dry, waning Moon will stay straighter.

Wooden shingles and shakes will lie flatter if cut during the dark of the Moon.

Fence posts should be set in the dark of the Moon to resist rotting. Ozark lore says that fence posts should always be set as the tree grew. To set the root end upward makes a short-lived fence.

Castrate and dehorn animals when the Moon is waning for less bleeding.

Slaughter when the Moon is waxing for juicier meat.

Crabbing, shrimping, and clamming are best when the Moon is full.

Best days for fishing are between the new and full Moon. See our best fishing dates for the year.

Dig your horseradish in the full Moon for the best flavor.

Set eggs to hatch on the Moon's increase, but not if a south wind blows.

 Moon magic is associated with the moon. There is a belief common to many cultures that working rituals at the time of different phases of the moon can bring about physical or psychological change or transformation. These rituals have historically occurred on or around the full moon and to a lesser extent the new moon. Such practices are common amongst adherents of neopagan and witchcraft systems such as Wicca. Witches in Greek and Roman literature, particularly those from Thessaly, were regularly accused of "drawing down the moon" by use of a magic spell. The trick serves to demonstrate their powers (Virgil Eclogues 8.69), to perform a love spell (Suetonius Tiberius 1.8.21) or to extract a magical juice from the moon (Apuleius Metamorphoses 1.3.1). These beliefs would seem to be consistent with many other cultures traditions, for instance; casting of the i ching is often done during the full moon's apex. Wikipedia

The Whispering Tree Of LIfe

Rowan’ is derived from the Norse word rune, which means charm or secret.The rowan is also prominent in Norse mythology as the tree from which the first woman was made, (the first man being made from the ash tree). It was said to have saved the life of the god Thor by bending over a fast flowing river in the Underworld in which Thor was being swept away, and helping him back to the shore. Rowan was furthermore the prescribed wood on which runes were inscribed to make rune staves. It was the most sacred tree to Scotland. Old Celtic it's name was Kair. In the Ogham it is called Luis, and in Irish it is Caorthann. It belongs to the rose family. (Rosaceae) It was also called the mountain ash and the witches tree. 
Doing tree magic was a sign of witchcraft to the 17th Century Scots. Margaret Barclay was brought to trial for witchcraft in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1618. The damning evidence found in her possession was a Rowan charm – a Rowan twig tied with red thread for protection. (Pepper)
Greek mythology tells of how Hebe the goddess of youth, dispensed rejuvenating ambrosia to the gods from her magical chalice. When, through carelessness, she lost this cup to demons, the gods sent an eagle to recover the cup. The feathers and drops of blood which the eagle shed in the ensuing fight with the demons fell to earth, where each of them turned into a rowan tree. There for the rowan gets the shape of its leaves from the eagle's feathers and the appearance of its berries from the drops of blood. In Wales, Rowans was planted in churchyards so that they might to watch over the dead. The Rowan, a tree of protection and insights. Irish Druids held Rowan trees sacred and called them "The Tree of Life". 
The Rowan tree’s magical protective power is believed to come from its red berries.Berries from the Rowan tree have a small Pentagram on them at the base of the berry.The Rowan is the tree of quickening, symbolizing the re-birthing of the year when the Earth begins to warm.The Rowan is associated with divination, astral travel, protection, psychic energies, personal power, and healing.Rowan will help to clear and open your mind. It will help you to attune to nature, broaden your perspectives to allow you to develop a deeper understanding.

Protection:                                 

Plant a Rowan near a new house to protect
it from lightning and evil influences.
Rowan wood is the traditional wood used 
for dowsing and divining rods.
Carry a Rowan wand or walking stick with you 
for protection on a journey and to bring spiritual 
enlightenment along your path.
A Rowan pressed into a secret book will conceal 
it from the eyes of the curious.

Element: Fire
Symbolism: Protection ,Healing 
Stone: Tourmaline
Animals: Serpent, Dragon
Color: Red
Gemstone: Chrysolite, Peridot

Peridot was known in old times as chrysolite.  The Egyptians called it the gem of the sun.The green color of the gem is in itself associated with healing. Green is the color of verdant vitality. Peridot's direction leads toward the heavens, the path of the sun, which gives the light allowing everything on earth to thrive. It's "light" brings a renewed sense of the self and one's purpose in life. It is thought to bring peace. Its powers include health, protection, and sleep. The advantages of peridot are to calm anger while also soothing nerves and dispelling negative emotions.

Tourmaline stones are able to generate electrical charges or currents. Tourmaline also wards off any danger and brings you mental balance. 
It's healing crystal of the physical heart, channeling its electrical energies into the center of one's being and creating a flow of wholesome energy to all parts of the body.It can be used in meditation to commune with Nature spirits. It helps with  overcoming emotional problems associated with a father figure or other male forces in one's life. It can be used for scrying,Tourmaline strengthens the sense of smell, and in that respect, can also enhance the perception of pheromones which produces an aphrodisiac effect. Sometimes called "stone of wisdom".The properties of black tourmaline includes uses to repel negativity and powerfully protect the wearer against nightmares, psychic attacks, malicious magic and all forms of negative energies. Blasting away tension, stress and blockages, Black Tourmaline aids grounding and supports emotional stability.


Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. It is a color found in many national flags. Light red represents joy, passion, sensitivity, and love. Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.

Down Though Time

I want to take a minute and talk about the Druids. A lot of my family history branches back, and disappears to the time and place of the Druids. And from most of whats been written about them they seem to be barbaric in the way they lived. Articles tell us of them being people that did human sacrifice. If this made them barbaric than so were a lot of people in the bible.
I don't need to sit and go though all of these. There is just one that comes to mind when I think of human sacrifice, John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Was this not the greatest human sacrifice in all of time? 
There is archaeological evidence from western Europe that has been widely used to back up the idea that human sacrifice was performed by the Iron Age Celts.  Mass graves found in a ritual context dating from this period have been unearthed in Gaul. However, another archaeologist Martin Brown, believed that the corpses might be those of honoured warriors buried in the sanctuary rather than sacrifices. The Romans and Greeks were the ones that accused the druids of this practice. But Romans and Greeks were known to project what they saw as barbarian traits onto foreign peoples including not only druids but Jews and Christians as well, thereby confirming their own "cultural superiority" in their own minds. I guess I prefer not to think of them as barbaric but we all need to consider that all of this was long before Christianity spread Europe and the Mediterranean shores. I do know that a lot of their beliefs are handed down today. 
The Druids loved and cherished everything in nature. They loved  trees, watched for signs in nature and animals and saw trees as living beings they gave them healing. They held ceremonies in enchanted groves. And lived by the Ogham that was a tree alphabet.

The word ogham (pronounced OH-am) has been used to refer to:
An alphabet of twenty-five characters used for stone and wood inscriptions in Celtic Ireland and Britain.
A group of twenty sacred trees that give names to the letters of the ogham alphabet.
A calendar of thirteen months named for some of the trees.
A purported system of hand-signing used by Druids that relates to the alphabet.
Most ogham inscriptions come from Ireland and Scotland.

 I'm not sure how or who encoded all of this. I am sure when my grandmother would speak of the oak and talk about the power and healing in a full moon, she had no ideal that someone had it translated. There for I know it was something she was handing down not something she had read. I've only telling you this to give you some ideal of where the things I've learned may have been handed down from. I have also found that the word "Wheel" was a large part of my path to adulthood. It wasn't until later in life I realized that my family roots consisted of two wheels. The druid and the native American medicine wheel. Both representing the universe and it's elements of healing. 

Meadowsweet

My grandmother called this " Wine Sweet" It's called by many names such as  Queen of the Meadow, Pride of the Meadow, Meadow-Wort, Meadow Queen, Lady of the Meadow, Dollof, Meadsweet, and Bridewort.
It's stems are 3-6' tall, erect and furrowed, reddish to sometimes purple. The leaves are dark-green on the upper side and whitish and downy underneath. Having a few large serrate leaflets and small intermediate ones. It has a pleasant taste and flavor. She used it in rooms and in the out house to make them smell good. It seemed to suck the bad smells up.  Dried, the flowers can be used in potpourri She also used it to sweeten wine and in her jelly. 
   Meadowsweet leaves and flowers contain salicylates, compounds that are converted by the body to aspirin.  It was from meadowsweet that aspirin was born. Though willow has a longer history of being used to control pain due to its high content of salicylate, and was used by Hippocrates ‘the father of medicine’ in the 5th century, it was actually research on meadowsweet that led to the discovery of aspirin in the 19th century. This drug is now synthesized in the lab but we can still utilize these plants as natures gentle pain reliever. It can be used for indigestion, excess stomach acid, heartburn gastritis stomach ulcers, diarrhea, inflammation of the digestive tract ,headaches ,reduces fevers ,promotes sweating muscular aches, arthritic, rheumatic aches. One cup a day.
To use meadowsweet it is easy to pick the fresh flowers if you have them growing (be sure you know exactly what they look like don't take any chances on getting a hold of poisonous plants ). Or buy the dried flowers from your health-shop . Making an infusion is easy.Just add 1 teaspoon of dried herb per mug of boiling water and infuse for a minimum of 5 minutes leaving the lid on.
Do not exceed recommended dosage and use caution if you have an allergy to aspirin, based on the salicylate content. Excessive consumption may cause constipation.
Avoid use during pregnancy and breast feeding.Avoid use if you have any bleeding disorders or diabetes 

The Farm

The farm I grew up on is long sense gone. Now a memory to only me. The house was two story and had a tin roof. I use to love listening to the rain on it. The farm was large. My grandfather had fields of corn and sugar cane. The vegetable were planted in large amounts to sale and can for winter. There were pigs, chickens, and cows for milk, butter and meat. Fruit trees of all kinds. Grandmother canned peaches, apples, plums, and pears. There was strawberries and black berries for jams and jellies. There were three wells that watered the farm. The one closest to the house was for drinking. The one at the barn was for watering animals and the one the set right dead in the middle of  nearly two acres of herbs. Beside it was a huge oak tree. A fire pit for heating a cauldron for making soap and heating clothes. And a small building with drying racks for her herbs. This is where all this needs to begin. You have to know your herbs inside and out. If your have any second thoughts as to what it is, how to use it, how much to use then it's best to back off and find out. If you are pregnant or breast feeding or have any serious heath problems..............ASK YOUR DOCTOR 

Witches

We come now to the most fantastic accusation of all: The witch is accused not only of murdering and poisoning, sex crimes and conspiracy — but of 
helping and healing. As a leading English witch-hunter put it: 

“For this must always be remembered, as a conclusion, that by witches we understand not only those which kill and torment, but all Diviners,Charmers, Jugglers, all Wizards, commonly called wise men and wise women... and in the same number we reckon all good Witches, which do no hurt but good, which do not spoil and destroy, but save and deliver... It were a thousand times better for the land if all Witches, but especially the blessing
Witch, might suffer death.”

Witch-healers were often the only general medical practitioners for a people who had no doctors and no hospitals and who were bitterly afflicted with poverty and disease. In particular, the association of the witch and the midwife was strong: “No one does more harm to the Catholic Church than midwives,” wrote witch-hunters Kramer and Sprenger. The Church itself had little to offer the suffering peasantry: 
“On Sundays, after Mass, the sick came in scores, crying for help, — and
words were all they got: “You have sinned, and God is afflicting you. Thank
him; you will suffer so much the less torment in the life to come. Endure,
suffer, die. Has not the Church its prayers for the dead?” ”
Jules Michelet

This is a few lines taken from a book called : Witches, Midwives, &Nurses by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English

The first time I read this I was appalled at the fact it made me so angry and sad at the same time. “You have sinned, and God is afflicting you." I know not what kind of God they know, but the one I've come to know would not afflict me. If I chose the wrong paths in my life than I may bring affliction onto my self. But I have done that, not God. Most of the suffering in those times came from being poor. Unlike today's afflictions of drugs, alcohol and other abuses of the body. If you were poor you did not eat well and you drank water that was bad.The two most common were malaria (that was transferred by mosquitoes) and scurvy from low vitamin C levels. People would die from Small pox, Scarlett Fever, Common Cold,or just the flu... Thousands of children died from these. I'm sure that God wasn't afflicting them for their sins. And I'll bet less would have died if there were a few more "witches" around. These woman were mothers and care giver that held the secrets that were significance of healing. Past down though centuries. Don't get me wrong I am in no way cutting modern medicine. Today is a whole different issue from in times past. But I do believe that there is a day coming when the knowledge that was past over in that time will be needed again. I may not see it but my grand daughters might. 

The Crone

For all the years I have been on this path, you would have to call me a crone. From a very long line of crones. My grandmothers, grandmother was run out of Virginia for being able the break the fevers of people who had them and were dying. She was a Scottish healer. Later her maturnal grandmother was ask to move away from where they lived for healing a woman that no one wanted around and had left for dead. She was Cherokee medicine woman. Go way back in time. My father had a great (s) aunt that was accused of witch craft in Salem Massachusetts. Go on back, in 1657 my great(s) grandmother was burned for being a witch in Scotland.
   I do not care for the word "witch" tho I have had people refer to me as one. I think that people should stop and consider (with an open mind) what those who call themselves 'Witch" really are. They are not devil minded or do they want to harm others. Most of the ones I have encountered are kind and giving. And the true ones as close to nature as they can get. Isn't that where all of God can be found. In creation of all things. The sun, moon and all that is above and below? I like the word "Crone" much better. The term crone is 'to reference and to reclaim the name of the wise woman of ancient times. 
     In this day and time a psychic can be a psychic and aid in missing persons cases. All my grand children were delivered by mid-wives. Any medication you take has to come from herbs. And the health food stores are full of herbs in bottles for anything you need them for. If only my ancestors could have lives now.They would have been renown instead of burned, ridiculed and run off for what they had to hand down to save others.  I grow old and at times I feel ancient. Most woman in my family do not live many years past my age. So it time I handed the things I know down to my three grand daughters and to a very special friend. My eyes aren't like they were in my younger years and my hands not so good anymore. So, I've decided to share this way.

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

  Albert Einstein