Summer is well into full-swing this first week of August. In this part of Illinois, August is usually very hot and miserable. Even so, the first slight signs of Autumn can be detected. The sun is setting earlier and sometimes a cool breeze filters through the window at night. First harvests have been happening in actuality for a while The gardens and fields have been planted, fertilized and in way too many cases fumigated with pesticides to keep out the weeds and pests. Wheat has been harvested for over a month and those fields are currently planted in soybeans to get a second harvest before winter hits. Corn is in full tassel which means that the grain is now being formed. In the gardens, tomatoes, peppers, green beans and other summer crops are in full production. Soon, I will be planting a fall garden to get a new supply of greens and other vegetables that prefer the cool nights. Now is the time to go venturing into the uncultivated acres to gather milk thistle seed and goldenrod for the herb cabinet.
This is also the time of year that the weeds in the garden and along the fencerows are coming into full maturity. It becomes obvious that I have not been diligent about keeping the weeds out of the places where I would prefer they do not grow. Well, isn't that the real definition of a weed? A weed is simply a plant growing where you do not want it. I have an overabundance of foxtail grass, lambs quarters and ragweed where the abundance is supposed to be blackberries, tomatoes and melons.
As I’ve written in many articles, gardening is a form of ritual, a work of gratitude and veneration for the gods. It also has some practical sides to it, such as helping feed my family, and providing a source of peace and joy in my life, and it’s a good workout. Feeding my family is an important function of the gardens, so I have many rituals and other methods of using magick to help them. One of those methods is by using amulets. A lot of people believe that a magick amulet is simply something that one wears for protection or something purpose, but that isn’t close to the entire story of amulets or their uses.
There seems to be much confusion or conflicting ideas about both amulets and talismans, how they’re similar and different, and what forms they take. A comprehensive examination of amulets and talismans is beyond the scope of this article, but let me just submit to you that amulets do not have to be worn, or indeed take the form of something that even could be worn. Approaching this method of magick from that perspective certainly opens up a lot of creative possibilities; one of which is what I call the Garden Crop Amulet. This magick amulet takes the form of a sigil created using the A.O. Spare method, but reproducing the sigil, as with any amulet or talisman that may have one, is only part of the task.
Susan
In the Goddess Book of Days, by Diane Stein, The Crossing Press, pg 17 it says: The 31st Imbolc Eve. . . The ending of the dark, dedicated to Underwo...
Steven Posch
...who, as he was burning at the stake, turned his face toward the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, beneath which (as we now know) was buried the fam...
Anthony Gresham
In "The Second Messiah" by Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas the authors argue that the figure on the shroud is actually Jacques de Molay the last Gra...
Lovely concept, thanks for sharing!
Today I was touched by Corn. Not corn, but Corn.
