The Parsley Patch

The harvest season is now upon us as we greet the moon as she rises higher in the sky than she has all summer. Our respite from the lazy days of summer are now over as we work diligently to harvest the bounty of the season. Now is a particularly good time to harvest herbs to dry for both magical and mundane use. It’s also a great time to can and preserve fruits and vegetables from your garden.

As summer winds down it is also the perfect time to celebrate with family and friends and your pets as it’s a good time for animal magic as well. Take time to also focus on your health and vitality and rousing your energy to complete the harvest and prepare for all of the activities that autumn will bring.

ACTIVITIES
· Harvest herbs for drying to use in magic, crafting and cooking
· Can, freeze and preserve your fruits and vegetables
· Begin to pull fading annuals and tidy up tired perennials
· Do something kind for your pets or neighborhood animals
· Meditate on your totem animals and invite them to share their wisdom

FULL MOON INCENSE (burn on incense charcoal or cast into the fire)
1 scoop sandalwood powder – protection, healing, spirituality
1 large granule amber – renewal, alertness, cleansing, protection, purification
2 granules frankincense – protection, spirituality
2 bay leaves – protection, purification, psychic powers, healing, strength
big pinch of chamomile flowers – purification, money, love, sleep
1 drop sweet orange – prosperity, love, divination, luck, money

Kindling the Celtic Spirit: Ancient Traditions to Illumine Your Life Through the Seasons
by Mara Freeman

Druid high priestess and master storyteller Mara Freeman takes you on a unique journey through the legends of Celtic lands with unrivaled poise and magic. Her book gives you different legends as they relate to each month of the year along with suggestions for how to attune yourself through story, craft and mediation. This is a highly recommended read for anyone who may be interested in Celtic lore.

“This is a garden of make believe, a magical garden of make believe, where flowers chuckle and birds play tricks and the magic tree grows lollipop sticks…” (Theme from ‘The Magic Garden’)

Although the flowers don’t chuckle and there isn’t a magic tree that grows lollipops, there still is magic to experience behind the garden gate. Come and venture through to experience our world… a world of magic and enchantment for the senses.

The Garden Gate This antique wrought iron gate was given to us by a good friend several years ago for the Halloween graveyard. Although it was broken, we thought to repurpose it for the entrance to the garden and found a “blacksmith” who made it happen. We designed the gate post and fence to be simple and they were beautifully crafted from illustrations faxed to a fencing company that supplied the materials.

The Front Path In the spring the path is overhung by an ancient mock orange that perfumes the air and in summer the path is lined with Wave petunias, artemesia and lamuim. In the shade of the porch hydrangeas stand out while black-eyed susans, phlox, zinnias and snapdragons steal the show in the fence-line border. In folklore they say you can tell the good witches from the bad witches by the color of geraniums in their pots. Red ones are the give-a-way for the good witches! Hmm… what color do you suppose is in the cauldron-shaped pot on the front step?

Fairies Amidst the Cockscomb So that the garden fairies would feel welcomed and at home, we built a cozy mound of rocks, dirt and mulch for them. A fairy does lazily lounge amongst the hostas, ‘Pewter Moon’ coral bells, ‘White Dragon’ persicaria and giant cockscomb.With its velvety red crests that can span 10″ across, cockscomb is said to repair a broken heart. It can be dried and used in craft projects, as we did for this Martha Stewart inspired Valentine heart wreath.

Showy Dahlias Flanking the front door is the dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff.’ The intense red blooms stand out against the dark foilage. The hummingbirds always make a pit stop here!
		Foxglove Lore In the 18th Century a doctor gave some foxglove to a lady to paint a picture of. They married and she shared her knowledge of herbs with him, leading to using this poisonous biennial as the heart medication digitalis. Fairies also picked the blooms for the fox’s paws, allowing him to silently raid the hen house. Others say foxglove is a modernization of the old term, “folk’s glove” for the little good folk of the land who would pick the blooms to wear as gloves.

As summer begins to wane we come upon the first of three harvest festivals. In Celtic lands the festival of Lughnasadh was held around the 1st of August. The festival takes its name from the Celtic deity, Lugh – a sun god of many talents. He was aptly called The Many Skilled. The celebration began originally to honor his mother who died toiling to clear land for cultivation. Not one to want people to mourn her, she decreed that games should be held in her honor.

The funeral games also fell at the time of year when the grain harvest came in. In celebration of the ritual winnowing of the grain, baking of bread, markets, fairs and celebrating the bounty of the land became the late summer customs in agricultural communities. As Christianity rose, the festival drew the name Lammas, or loaf mass, for its central theme of grain harvesting and the baking of bread to guide people away from the old pagan customs. Another custom common to the ancients were trial marriages that lasted a year and day and would begin at Lughnasadh. After the period is up, if the two are not compatible, they each were free to go their separate ways, or if compatible they could be bonded by a handfasting, thusly making August a popular month for weddings in modern times.

Today, we take a very laid back approach to this cross-quarter day in the lazy days of summer just before autumnal garden chores begin. Now is a time to give thanks for the blessings and gifts you have received throughout the year and for the bounty your garden has given you. Take time to be in nature and contemplate. Give back to the Earth by recycling or planting trees. Host a meal featuring grain products and the produce from your garden. Decorate your table with grains, sunflowers and baskets of fruit.

ASSOCIATIONS
· Animals: griffins, basilisks, roosters, calves, centaurs, phoenix
· Colors: red, orange, yellow, gold, bronze
· Element: fire
· Food: grain based foods,summer squash, berries, elderberry wine, blackberries, meadowsweet tea, corn pie, blueberry panckaes
· Plants: acacia, all grains, blackberry, calendula, cornstalks frankincense, grape, heather, mistletoe, oak, rose, sandalwood, sunflower
· Power: fruitfulness, reaping, prosperity, reverence, purification, transformation
· Symbols: god figures, phallic symbols, threshing tools, spear, cauldron, sickle, bonfires

DECORATIONS
· Bouquets of sunflowers
· Bundles of grain, wheat sheaves, corn dollies
· Images of the harvest

ACTIVITIES
· Bake bread
· Plan a family meal using the harvest of your garden; corn pie, tomato salad, apple pie, blackberry lemonade
· Give back to the Earth by recycling
· Shake off bad habbits bad casting a symbol of them into a fire
· Meditate on the bounties and gifts the year has presented you

LUGHNASADH INCENSE
(burn on incense charcoal or cast into the fire)
2 parts frankincense – protection, spirituality
2 parts sandalwood -protection, healing, spirituality
1 part pine needles – purifying and cleansing, protection, healing, money
1/2 part bay – protection, purification, psychic powers, healing, strength
1/2 part cinnamon – success, healing, psychic powers.
1/2 part coriander – protection, peace
1/2 part meadowsweet – romance, marriage
1/2 part rosemary – purifying, cleansing, protection, healing, mental power, knowledge
1/2 part rose petals – love, healing, life spirits and open the heart, divination, luck
A few drops oak moss oil – drawing of money
A few drops patchouli oil – money, prosperity, fertility, lust