Eleventh Lunation: Waning Moon Cycle
Days 16–28
Pleasant, Unpleasant, Neutral
Magical Purpose: Learning how magic is driven by the impermanence of feelings.
What you’ll need:
• Power of Impermanence Oil and Incense
Experiences come and go, yet we don’t live like they do. We’re biologically predisposed to prefer pleasure and avoid pain. And because of this, we frequently seek to prolong pleasure and eliminate pain whenever possible, especially in Westernized countries, where we have more opportunities to do so.
But simply because biology moves us in one direction, it does not mean that the direction in which we go is in our best interest, at just about any level. For example, someone may feel pleasant sensations while smoking or drinking alcohol to excess. It may make the person feel good in the moment to eat unhealthy foods. It may feel good to never do any exercise. But the effects of these behaviors driven by the body’s natural craving for pleasure can be devastating.
How we deal with feelings, emotions, and even our interactions with other people follows these same pleasure-craving rules. Emotionally, we sense that happy and pleasant feelings are those that we should be having, while unhappy feelings are a sign that there is something wrong. These beliefs are culturally endorsed as well. In fact, there are numerous New Age paths that capitalize on our culturally reinforced fear of so-called negative emotions. These paths dedicate themselves to helping individuals subjugate (and supposedly eliminate) their undesirable emotional content, and they promise that the result will be an endless stream of bliss, joy, and the fulfillment of one’s every desire.
But it cannot be so, not without taking a significant toll emotionally, physically, and spiritually. That’s because emotions come and go in the mind and body like ocean waves. And to believe that we can control or eliminate ocean waves is ludicrous. There is no other choice for being fully human but to see the waves as they’re coming and acknowledge their presence.
Our feelings frequently drive our behaviors, and our behaviors ultimately define our destiny. Unfortunately, we have little control over the choices we make when we have little to no conscious awareness of what drives these choices. The less aware we are of the content of what’s going on emotionally under our surface awareness, the less likely it is that we will be able to act in powerful ways in our lives.
This is important to us as Witches because having limited awareness also limits our magical effectiveness. In fact, most magical folk know that there is a direct relationship between awareness and the limits we experience magically and psychically. That’s because magic is about transformation. Before we can transform anything, we have to know what we are starting with.
Today, there are several steps to our practice. Begin and end the day by lighting the Power of Impermanence Incense. As you do so, sit with your eyes closed and scan your body and mind. Find out if what you are experiencing is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Try not to judge your experience (or worse, judge yourself if you discover that you’re judging).
As you go through the day, simply make mental notes of what you are experiencing. Is it pleasant? Is it unpleasant? Or is it neutral? Set a meditation timer to ring once an hour or so throughout the day. When it rings, anoint yourself with the Power of Impermanence Oil, then close your eyes and scan your inner experience. Is it pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral?
Simply knowing this can affect the decisions you make in subtle ways and help you maintain the magical axiom of the power of impermanence.
Dealing with Negative Feelings
Magical Purpose: Learning to reduce the impact of “negative” emotions.
What you’ll need:
• Power of Impermanence Oil
One of the obstacles toward spiritual growth that people can commonly experience comes during the mental-noting activity. During this, there may be a recognition of so-called negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, loneliness, envy, hatred, and more. The initial recognition of these feelings and the thoughts associated with them can be distressing and frustrating for some of us along the journey of spiritual development. Many times, because of our cultural bias toward feeling happy all of the time, we sense that negativity is a sign that our spiritual development may be going in the wrong direction.
One is well advised to accept these feelings as natural and expectable. A great deal of human brain anatomy is devoted to sensing danger. That’s because for most of our history we needed to be alert to real environmental dangers: bears, snakes, poisonous spiders, wolves, and more. The development of the brain was primarily a survival function of the body. One of its primary jobs was to make sure that the body could last long enough to reproduce. So we are more tuned in, naturally, to the emotions that layer themselves upon the foundation of fear, such as sadness, emptiness, anger, and more.
Many of us spend our lives never really paying much attention to our inner emotional life—that is, until some notable emotion arises, such as extreme anger, excitement, or sadness. To make matters worse, we face social pressure to perform, buck up, fight on, and be happy. As a consequence, our very natural feelings, which are as natural as a sunset or the first snow of winter, can seem wrong and to require fixing.
Instead of letting human nature worry you, try the following. For the next couple of days, continue with the mental-noting exercise from days 16–17. However, as you encounter less desirable emotional states, engage with them more fully.
As you encounter a negative feeling, take time to sense in your body where you are holding tension. Wherever that may be, focus your attention there, in the body part, and feel yourself sink into that part of your body. Breathe deeply, and feel as though you are breathing through that part of your body that holds the tension. Stay with the feeling, watching it closely, not trying to do anything with it besides watching it.
Eventually, simply by focusing the light of awareness where it was “dark” before, the emotional state will untie and resolve itself.
In addition to this focusing technique, you can make use of the Power of Impermanence Oil. Take a dab of it and draw an earth-banishing pentagram at the place on your body where you’re holding the unresolved feeling and tension. Allow this magical banishing to serve as a point of focus for you.
Planetary Condensers: The Sun
Magical Purpose: Making magical tinctures containing planetary energies.
What you’ll need:
• Everclear (a high-proof, neutral ethyl alcohol) or vodka (the highest proof possible)
• A small, clean amber bottle with a tight-fitting lid
• Fresh Sun herbs (as listed later in this section)
Planetary condensers are tinctures made during the hour ruled by a specific planet using the planet’s herbs. They are indispensable for Witches’ magical workings, and we will use them in the days ahead. Planetary tinctures are said to have specific magnetic qualities. They are important boosters for any magical working, and when applied to the chakras, they can align you with specific planetary energies and influences.
Because tinctures take time to distill properly (usually anywhere from 8–28 days), it is very important that you keep to the schedule during the next days, so that you will be able to use the planetary condensers in combination with our later work with planetary squares.
To begin, in the hour of the Sun, gather together at least three of the fresh Sun herbs (as listed below). While fresh herbs are typically used for making tinctures, you may also use dried herbs effectively.
A Word to the Wise: Since you will find many references to Nicholas Culpeper in the planetary tables of correspondences, I feel it important to mention who he was and note his important written works in the fields of herbalism and astrology that many of today’s magical students consider to be classics. Culpeper lived in England in the early to mid-1600s. A skilled botanist, physician, and astrologer, Culpeper came to use his knowledge of both astrology and herbalism to treat his patients. He penned several books, including The English Physician and the Complete Herbal (which are available now as a complete set in one volume). He also wrote Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick, which focused on the practice of medical astrology.
Sun Herbs
Culpeper: Angelica, ash tree, balsam of Gilead, bugloss, butterbur, centaury, chamomile, eyebright, heliotrope, lovage, marigold, mistletoe, peony, pimpernel, rosa solis, rosemary, rue, saffron, St. John’s wort, St. Peter’s wort, tormentil, vipers, walnut
Agrippa: Agarwood, amber, ash, balm, balsam, bay, calamus, cedar, celandine, cinnamon, cloves, coleus aromaticus, dittany of Crete, frankincense, gentian, ginger, ivy, marigold, mastic, mint, moon carrot, musk, palms, peony, pepper, saffron, sweet marjoram, vervain, white turmeric, yellow honey
Fill a small glass container (that also comes with a tight-fitting lid) halfway with herbs. Fill the rest of the container with alcohol, leaving a little air space at the top. Stir with a clean spoon, then seal the container. Store this in a cool, dark, dry place.
Each day, preferably during the hour of the Sun, shake the bottle vigorously. Keep the bottle in this location until it is needed for the planetary squares magical workings later on. Typically, the condenser is left in the bottle for at least one month, but it can be steeped sufficiently in as little as eight days, especially if you are using fresh herbs to make the condenser.
After 8–28 days, again, during the hour of the Sun, strain the liquid through cheesecloth and use the herbs for compost. Continue to store the condenser in the cool, dry, dark place to maintain the magical properties.
A Word to the Wise: Never ingest a planetary condenser. Not only is the alcohol content too high and potentially poisonous, but the herbal combination you choose may be poisonous as well.
Planetary Condensers: The Moon
Magical Purpose: Making magical tinctures containing planetary energies.
What you’ll need:
• Everclear (a high-proof, neutral ethyl alcohol) or vodka (the highest proof possible)
• A small, clean amber bottle with a tight-fitting lid
• Fresh Moon herbs (as listed here)
To begin, in the hour of the Moon, gather together at least three of the fresh (or dried) Moon herbs.
Moon Herbs
Culpeper: Adder’s tongue, burnet saxifrage, chickweed, coleworts, columbine, fluellin, ivy, lettuce, life-everlasting, loosestrife, moonwort, poppy, privet, purslain, sea colewort, wallflowers, water lily, watercress, white roses, white saxifrage, willow, yellow water flag (iris)
Agrippa: Gum mastic, hyssop, monk’s pepper, olive tree, palm tree, rosemary
Fill a small glass container (that also comes with a tight-fitting lid) halfway with herbs. Fill the rest of the container with alcohol, leaving a little air space at the top. Stir with a clean spoon, then seal the container. Store this in a cool, dark, dry place.
Each day, preferably during the hour of the Moon, shake the bottle vigorously. Keep the bottle in this location until it is needed for the planetary squares magical workings later on. Typically, the condenser is left in the bottle for at least one month, but it can be steeped sufficiently in as little as eight days, especially if you are using fresh herbs to make the condenser.
After 8–28 days, again, during the hour of the Moon, strain the liquid through cheesecloth and use the herbs for compost. Continue to store the condenser in the cool, dry, dark place to maintain the magical properties.
Planetary Condensers: Venus
Magical Purpose: Making magical tinctures containing planetary energies.
What you’ll need:
• Everclear (a high-proof, neutral ethyl alcohol) or vodka (the highest proof possible)
• A small, clean amber bottle with a tight-fitting lid
• Fresh Venus herbs (as listed here)
To begin, in the hour of Venus, gather together at least three of the fresh (or dried) Venus herbs.
Venus Herbs
Culpeper: Apple (wood and fruit), arugula, birch, bishop’s weed, black alder, blite, bruisewort, bugle, burdock, catmint, cherry, chickweed, clary sage, coltsfoot, cowslips, daisies, devil’s-bit scabious, elder, featherfew, figwort, filipendula, foxglove, goldenrod, ground ivy, lady’s bedstraw, lady’s mantle, marshmallow, mints, motherwort, mugwort, peach, pear, pennyroyal, plum, primrose, ragwort, self-heal, sorrel, vervain, violets, vulvaria, white nettle, wild tansy, wood sage, wood sanicle, yarrow
Agrippa: Ambergris, coriander, figs, ladanum (a soft blackish-brown resin from various rock roses), maidenhair, musk, myrtle tree, pears, pomegranates, sandalwood, thyme, Tudor rose, valerian, vervain, violet
Fill a small glass container (that also comes with a tight-fitting lid) halfway with herbs. Fill the rest of the container with alcohol, leaving a little air space at the top. Stir with a clean spoon, then seal the container. Store this in a cool, dark, dry place.
Each day, preferably during the hour of Venus, shake the bottle vigorously. Keep the bottle in this location until it is needed for the planetary squares magical workings later on. Typically, the condenser is left in the bottle for at least one month, but it can be steeped sufficiently in as little as eight days, especially if you are using fresh herbs to make the condenser.
After 8–28 days, again, during the hour of Venus, strain the liquid through cheesecloth and use the herbs for compost. Continue to store the condenser in the cool, dry, dark place to maintain the magical properties.
Planetary Condensers: Mars
Magical Purpose: Making magical tinctures containing planetary energies.
What you’ll need:
• Everclear (a high-proof, neutral ethyl alcohol) or vodka (the highest proof possible)
• A small, clean amber bottle with a tight-fitting lid
• Fresh Mars herbs (as listed here)
To begin, in the hour of Mars, gather together at least three of the fresh (or dried) Mars herbs.
Mars Herbs
Culpeper: Barberry, bloodwort, bramble bush, briony, brooklime, broom, broomrape, butcher’s broom, cotton thistle, cranesbill, crowfoot, cuckoo-pint, dyer’s weed, flax weed, garlic, hawthorn, hazelwort, hedge mustard, holy thistle, hops, horseradish, masterwort, mettles, mustard, onion, orange gorse, pepperwort, radish, rhubarb, sweet basil, thistles, tobacco, wormwood
Agrippa: Armoniack (the aromatic gum resin of a Southwest Asian herb dorema ammoniacum), cartabana, cranesbill, escallonias, euphorbia, garlic, hellebore, laurel, leeks, nettles, onions, pepper, radish, scammony, wolfsbane
Fill a small glass container (that also comes with a tight-fitting lid) halfway with herbs. Fill the rest of the container with alcohol, leaving a little air space at the top. Stir with a clean spoon, then seal the container. Store this in a cool, dark, dry place.
Each day, preferably during the hour of Mars, shake the bottle vigorously. Keep the bottle in this location until it is needed for the planetary squares magical workings later on. Typically, the condenser is left in the bottle for at least one month, but it can be steeped sufficiently in as little as eight days, especially if you are using fresh herbs to make the condenser.
After 8–28 days, again, during the hour of Mars, strain the liquid through cheesecloth and use the herbs for compost. Continue to store the condenser in the cool, dry, dark place to maintain the magical properties.