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“Spring is here

steal pleasure whilst you can.”

- Gareth Writer-Davies, Aphrodite

Last year I wrote about the first frosts as something to enjoy in November. http://witchesandpagans.com/sagewoman-blogs/nimue-s-wheel/celebrating-the-first-frosts.html

This is without a doubt the month I find hardest to be positive about. Samhain with all its spooky joys is now behind us. The winter stretches ahead. The cold has its teeth in and will likely keep chewing for months to come. The ground becomes slippery and treacherous, the days short and dark. Everything is harder. And I’m one of the lucky ones; I have a home, I can afford to heat it and I can afford to eat.

Creating beautiful craft items with flower petals, seeds and herbs is relatively easy, here are a few suggestions for you to try...

Flower Fascinations

Fascination means ‘to bewitch and hold spellbound’, they are flower spells and charms.

The August 2017 eclipse season is upon us. Astrologer's view eclipses as doors closing (sometimes with a slam) and new windows of opportunity. During a solar and lunar eclipse season we encounter a period of shadow. Something is hidden. Then something is revealed. Weather can turn capricious. This summer I have had a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, this  month I suspect we will hear multiple thumps on the ground of our being. 

Which may fill you with fear. And I say, in the Northern Irish vernacular, "Catch yerself on!" Which is a less elegant, but more bracing, way of rephrasing Hemingway's "Courage is grace under pressure."

Blossoms

The blossom or flowers from any tree or plant can be popped into a vase to dress up your altar or dried or pressed to use in magical workings, incense blends and crafts.  Dried petals and flowers can also be pressed onto candles quite effectively or steeped in oil to create anointing oils and perfumes.

Early spring brings the blossom – blackthorn, cherry, and other fruit trees. Suddenly, hedges and gardens erupt with scent and blossom, and it’s a sure sign that winter is behind and sunnier days are coming.

One of the great joys of seeing wild fruit trees in bloom is the promise of wild fruit later in the year. What you can see in the photos, are wild plum flowers. The photos in this blog are mine – I’ve recently become acquainted with a camera, so these are very much ‘learner shots’ but enough to give the idea... The flowers are on a wild plum tree that grows beside a cycle path. The cycle path in question used to be a railway line so I wonder if the plum trees (there are three) started life as stones thrown from a train.

Consider the common marigold.

New World native, bearer of mythic names, flower of the dead.

In the 18^th century, Swedish botanist Karl Linne named the genus Tagetes, for Tagus, the Divine Child of Etruscan mythology, who sprang from a plowed furrow one day and gave law to the Etruscan people.

The common English name means “Mary's gold.” Mary, of course, is the de facto goddess of Christianity, but since Robert Graves' day certain witches have known their goddess as Mari as well.

Well, these flowers are her living gold.