It’s Lammas: a time when we celebrate what we call the “first harvest” or “first fruits.” It’s that time in the archetypal agricultural cycle when all the hard work of spring and early summer begins to pay off, as that which we have planted and tended begins to mature and flourish, providing tangible and much-needed sources of nourishment.
And, just as the first fruits, vegetables, and grains arrive in abundance, the prosperous, comfortable, life-giving properties of the sun appear to have burnished and nourished the land with those colors that mean wealth and manifestation to so many: green and gold. Indeed, in many parts of the Western Hemisphere, while the grasses and weeds are sun-baked to a gorgeous shade of gold, the trees are at their greenest and most full.
Speaking of trees, when magical rituals call for physical items—such as crystals, feathers, herbs, candles, or anything else—or when we craft amulets, talismans, or charms that we no longer desire to keep around in the physical form, authors and teachers often counsel us to bury the extra ingredients or materials “at the base of a tree.” You might say this is because it is a way of respecting the magical energy within the item(s) by returning them to the earth. You might also say that it’s a way of assisting the magic we’ve crafted in merging with the web of life and being assimilated and dispersed upward and outward into the world, like the water and nutrients in the soil.
Many modern witches have problems with this, however. For example, city witches like me may not be able to find a tree where they can safely and discreetly bury a charm. And witches everywhere are becoming more aware of the environmental repercussions of burying a charm containing anything non-biodegradable or otherwise potentially harmful to native flora and fauna. Not to mention, sometimes you don’t really need to display or carry around a charm anymore, but you aren’t ready to get rid of it either.
For all of these reasons, I created this “base of a tree” box, featuring the image of a tree as well as the golden colors that are so synonymous with magnetizing blessings and manifesting the conditions we desire. In this box, I keep the charms of magic past. Not only does this box represent the earth and hold the symbolic energy of the base of a tree in my subconscious and magical awareness, but it also serves as an enchanted hope chest of sorts, conveniently keeping all my small crafty keepsakes and mystical memorabilia in one place.
“Base of a Tree” Box
With many trees at their fullest expression, and the golden colors of the sun and landscape being so prevalent, this is a great time of year for this summery craft. Also, the alignment of this holiday with the physical fruits of our labor makes it a good time to create a box that holds the enduring physical representations of our magical work.
Time to complete: 4 to 7 hours (mostly drying time)
Cost: $12.00 to $17.00
Supplies
Unfinished wood box with clasp lid (about the size of a shoebox)
Gold craft paint (and up to two additional shades of gold craft paint (such as coppery gold or greenish gold)
Acrylic varnish (optional)
Paintbrush
Tree-shaped cutout (such as you would find in the scrapbooking section of a craft store), sticker, appliqué, or patch
Rhinestones in summery colors such as red, orange, yellow, green, and amber
Flat, dried legumes (such as split peas and lentils) in various colors
Elmer’s glue
Optional: small representations of each element, such as a medium-sized sticky jewel in green (earth), yellow (air), blue (water), and red (fire)
Begin by clearing and activating your unfinished wooden box by bathing it in bright sunlight. As you do so, be aware that you’re re-awakening the natural aliveness and magical power of the wood. (After all, it may have been sitting in a dark warehouse and then a fluorescent-lit craft store for quite some time.)
Once back inside, open the box and paint the entire inside, including the inside of the lid, gold. (Gold is the color of the light and wisdom of the earth, and it holds the energy of magnetic manifestation.) Allow to thoroughly dry.
Now, paint the outside of the box, allowing it to dry as necessary before painting each additional side. You can use the same color gold, or you can do what I did and use varying golden shades, such as coppery gold and greenish gold.
When the outside paint is dry, paint the back of the tree image with glue, and affix it to the center of the top of the lid.
Arrange the rhinestones and legumes around the tree in an attractive mandala pattern, affixing them with glue. (You can do this in any way you like, but I created a generous circle of lentils around the tree, and then affixed rhinestones and split peas more arbitrarily within this circle. This left me with a pattern that felt like a good, natural balance between random and ordered.) Allow to dry.
If you feel it’s necessary, you can paint acrylic varnish over your mandala, or over the entire top of the lid, and allow to dry.
You can also affix rhinestones and/or legumes along the rim of the lid, and generally decorate with them in any way you choose.
Optional: Affix four small representations of each element to each of the four sides of the box. For example, you might place earth on the back side, fire on the side near the opening, water on the left, and air on the right.
You can bless and consecrate your box in a number of ways. For example, on Lammas or on a full moon, you might take your box to a gorgeous tree and set it down at the base for ten minutes to an hour, allowing it to soak up the tree’s energy and to align with it more deeply in your magical awareness. Or you might simply hold it in both hands, relax and center your mind, and say something like:
Box of magic, box of gold
Box that blesses all that you hold,
I see you thus and christen thee:
The base of a sprawling, majestic green tree.
Find a special place for your sacred box, place magical remnants and mementos in it as desired, and enjoy a little touch of Lammas all throughout the year.