Magickal Herbalism:
The Green Craft of the Witch
Learn of the green world what can be thy place,
In scaled invention or true artistry …
ezra pound
The green craft of the Witch is a practical expression of spirituality. It centers on each individual magickal practitioner’s personal relationship—their own intuitive communication and interaction—with the natural world. After reading through all the previous chapters
in this book, I sincerely hope that you now feel inspired and are raring to go and interact with nature. As Witches, this interconnectedness is essential for us.
Only you can choose to participate and to be present in your own religion. To do this, you must stay connected to the earth. As the children of the Lord and Lady, it is our privilege and our duty to care for the earth and to tend it well. Consider that the next time you are debating whether or not you want to log off the Internet or get up to go outside.
As I first suggested to readers in Garden Witchery, take a walk around your neighborhood, get some exercise, and really look at the trees, flora, and fauna that live nearby. See how many varieties of plants you can identify. What types of trees are indigenous to your area? What types of flowers and shrubs thrive in your neighborhood? Pay attention to the symbols and signs that are all around you in nature. Acknowledging these messages will help to heal your heart, and it will bring forth the magickal healer within you. Lastly, be open to all the possibilities of the natural world and green magick; they are an incredible source of wisdom. Change is the purpose of all magick, no matter what the theme of the spellwork. Imagine how much transformation you will allow into your life when you rejoice in the ever-changing natural world and your magickal connection to all of it.
There are seven classic themes of magickal work: harmony, health, love, happiness, peace, abundance, and protection. Each of these classifications, or genres, of enchantment is complementary with herbal magick (as you’ve seen by the variety of herbal spells that were presented within this book). The next step in your green journey is to roll up your sleeves and to get your hands dirty. Experiment with herbal magick, learn your basic correspondences, and make up your mind to grow your own herbs in pots and containers or in the garden. If you truly want to be connected to the natural world, then you have to be willing to enter it. To be a green practitioner, you simply must go outside and connect with nature.
Consider this a “Mystery” of the Craft, if you like. You must spend time outside in the natural world. It’s not enough just to collect books on herbalism, you must practice the craft to become proficient. Where do you start? Well, you could plant a tree, start a community garden, grow a pot full of colorful and enchanting flowers, grow culinary herbs on a sunny deck or porch, or create a magickal garden of herbs, vegetables, and flowers in the yard. Just get out there! Try your hand at growing plants and tending to your garden. Yes, there is a lot of work preparing the soil, planting the herbs and flowers, watering, weeding, and pruning. However, it never fails to soothe the soul.
Each day spent in the garden will show you something new. Imagine all the insects, birds, and animals that live in the garden; they have enchantment as well. What do you suppose you would discover if you immersed yourself in the natural world? How much more potent do you imagine your magick would be if you used herbal ingredients that you have grown and tended to yourself? I can tell you from personal experience that those home-grown herbs and magickal flowers become extremely powerful tools in a Green Witch’s hands.
And if you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. After all, your energy, love, and personal power has seeped into the herb every time you touched the plant. When you care for them, water and feed them, a connection grows between you and the plant. The plants thrive in your care and also soak up sunshine and moon magick from each lunar phase. Eventually, as you go to harvest a few leaves and blossoms for your magick, the plant happily passes on all of that energy to you. As you are its caretaker, in a very real way you become a magickal partner with the plant. You have cared for the plant and tended it well, and now it happily tends to your spells and magick in return.
Herbal Magick
and Lunar Enchantments
Know the green good,
Under the prayer-wheeling moon in the rosy wood
Be shielded by chant and flower and gay may you
Lie in grace.
dylan thomas
Herbal magick works at its best when it is performed in harmony with the coordinating days of the week and the complementary lunar phases. As the days of the week were discussed in chapter 9, now would be a good time to go over lunar phases and their uses in herbal magick. I bet you were wondering when I was going to work my way around to combining lunar phases and herbal magick. No matter how many years you have been practicing, it never hurts to brush up on the basics. There are layers within the most elementary of topics. Combining moon magick with herbalism takes some practice, and the only way to become proficient at any craft is to get in there and practice until it becomes second nature to you.
First Quarter
(from the new moon to the waxing half-moon)
In herbal magick, the waxing moon is represented by a flower that is in bud. This phase is classically associated with the Maiden Goddess. Look to the western sky to see this moon set in the early evenings. This lunar phase is a magickal time of beginnings, growth, and creativity. As the moon grows fuller each night, this is the lunar phase that is used to pull positive changes toward you.
The waxing first quarter moon is the occasion to celebrate freedom, growth, the learning process, youth, health, and to acknowledge your inner potential. Now is the time to pull positive changes, new friendships, and job opportunities into your life, for as the moon grows larger, your magickal goals will manifest.
Second Quarter
(from the waxing half-moon to the full moon)
In herbal enchantments, this lunar phase may be symbolized as a flower bud that is halfway open. This phase is associated with the Goddess as a huntress, pathfinder, spell spinner, and creator. This week-long phase is ripe with potential. During this lunar phase, herbal spells will come to fruition swiftly, especially if they are straightforward and heartfelt. All of the magickal topics listed in the first quarter are complementary to this lunar period as well. This magickal lunar interlude is all about possibilities. Also, keep in mind that the closer you can cast your spells to the actual date of the full moon, the more power and oomph your enchantments and charms will have.
Full Moon
(the full moon phase lasts for three days:
the night before the full moon, the night of, and the night after)
In herbal magick, this phase is signified by a flower in full and glorious bloom. The full moon is associated with the Mother aspect of the Goddess. Here, the Goddess is the loving and fertile mother. She is wise, beautiful, generous, and compassionate.
The full moon is an all-purpose lunar phase, and the sky is the limit. Here are a few magickal topics that are complementary to the full moon: spells to increase psychic powers, for health, wealth, abundance, protection of the home and job, fertility, pregnancy, family, home, marriage, and manifestation are best worked in this phase. Also, herbal spells and charms for passion, power, love, and life are complementary in this phase. The best magickal tip to remember is that the full moon is all about tapping into one of the biggest jolts of power that is available each month.
Third Quarter
(from the second night after the full moon to the waning half-moon)
In herbal magick, this may be symbolized as a blossom that is just starting to fade. Though that blossom is still lovely, now the energy of the plant turns inward. I associate this phase of the moon with the Goddess in her dark sorceress/bad-ass chick persona. When the moon begins to wane, it ushers in a powerful time of internal energy and an opportunity to quietly look within. This is also the best lunar phase to banish fears, to push away illness, and to smoothly dissolve relationships or friendships that you have outgrown.
Work magick in the third quarter to remove depression, disease, negativity, and any obstacles that you are facing. Now is also the time to carefully dissolve problems and to cast out troubles in the best way possible for all those concerned. Remember that as the moon wanes, so too will the situation or problem.
Fourth Quarter
(from the waning half-moon until the dark of the moon)
In herbal enchantments, this may be represented as a flower that has gone to seed. The flower appears to be declining, but in actuality it is setting seeds, ready to renew itself. As the moon becomes smaller in the evening sky, this time of the waning moon is associated with the Goddess as the wise and compassionate Crone. This is the lunar phase that is best employed to neutralize another person’s manipulative spells. It is also complementary for personal spellwork that releases old self-images and that works to drive out bad or unhealthy habits from your life. Cast your spells now to push away, to release, or to banish problems.
Magickally, now is the occasion to tackle serious issues such as extreme protection magick, bindings, banishings, and keeping away criminals, prowlers, or stalkers. Casting your spells in the final days of the moon’s cycle—when the moon is not visible at all—will increase the force behind your banishing and protective magick. This final phase of the moon is often linked to the darker aspects of the Crone Goddess, when she is a spiritual warrior.
Be Creative:
Thinking Outside of the Window Box
Bloom where you are planted.
familiar saying
A good way to look at herbal magick is to picture it as a magickal toolbox. Inside of this box, you have your herbs and botanicals and your creativity. So now it is up to you to select the appropriate herb and combine that with your personal power and creativity and then bring forth a positive magickal change.
The best way to begin this process is to know your basics. Using a good basic (non-magickal) herb reference guide will be most beneficial. I prefer herb books with color photographs of the entire plant—root, stem, leaf, fruit, and flower. Also, start a gardener’s journal and keep notes on your herbs and your magickal gardens. You can plan out future container gardens or plot out a new garden bed in this notebook. Gather little snippets of herb information from gardening magazines and paste them in. Make it colorful, creative, and uniquely yours, because this is a tool that you will refer to often as you practice your magickal herbalism.
When it comes to physical tools such as a gathering knife or basket, select yours carefully and with intention. You will need a gathering basket, a sickle or garden shears, a mortar and pestle, glass jars for herb storage, labels, and an herb-drying rack. Some Witches do prefer to bundle their herbs together, hang them upside down, and allow them to air-dry. There is just something quintessentially witchy about the image of bundles of aromatic herbs drying from the ceiling!
Garden Witch Tip: To avoid the mess that hanging herbs can make and to protect the flowers from dust and the fading effects of sunlight, try this clever tip. Once the herbs are bundled together, take a simple brown paper lunch bag and cover the herbs with it, leaving the open end at the stem section of the bundle. Now fasten it loosely closed. This way, the herbs are protected from sunlight, air gets in, and if anything drops off the bundle during the drying process, it stays neatly within the bag. You may hang the bag-covered bundle in an out-of-the-way part of the house that has some air circulation such as the garage or basement. I don’t recommend drying bundled herbs in the closet—there is no air moving around, and this may promote mold. For more information on tools of the herb magick trade, please refer to my book Herb Magic for Beginners.
Herbal Spell and
Green Magick Worksheet
(use this as a template to help you with your spells)
O who can tell
The hidden power of herbs and might of magic spell?
edmund spenser, the faerie queene
When you compose your own herbal spells and green magick, you may find it helpful to use a spell worksheet, which I will personally admit to using all the time. This way, you are plotting out the course of your magick and getting organized beforehand, because nothing blows the mood faster than having to stop working on your spell to go and gather a few missing components or supplies.
Spell Worksheet
Goal: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Moon Phase: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day of the Week: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Astrological/ Magickal Symbols Used: _______________________________________________________________________________________________
Candle Color (if you add candle magick): ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Herbs Used: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Magickal Significance of the Herbs: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Crystals or Stones Used and Their Associations: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Charm or Verse: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Results: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Finding Your Path
in the Green World
I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon …
john milton
At this point in your studies, you may be wondering what is next, and honestly, that is completely up to you. This herbal was designed to take a deeper look at botanicals, herbs, and green magick. Looking back at the topics covered, we have accomplished that, but now comes the tough part. You have to put down the book and dive into the gardens and the green world. Come on, you can do it. Get off the Internet for a while, and play outside! Remember when you were a child and your mother rousted you out of the house and told you to go outside and play? Well, that’s a good thing. As Witches, we should be happiest when we are out and about in the natural world.
I don’t expect you to step out your front door and be greeted by the babbling of a brook and the soft murmur of the forest; I expect you to work with what you have. For example, I live and practice my craft in the suburbs of the Midwestern United States. My family and I live in a mid-century ranch-style house, and there is a busy neighborhood street at the end of my front yard. However, to soften that, there are perennials, shrubs, flowers, and trees all over our front, back, and side yards. We put up a privacy fence, landscaped our little hearts out, and lavishly planted perennials and blooming shrubs.
This helped to create our own little magickal oasis right smack in the middle of the city. I assure you, not only does this green magick work, it works very well. Has it always been easy? No. We have dealt with our tragedies and triumphs, too. Sometimes nature is a bitch, and you learn to deal with whatever dramas she dishes out—for the only thing constant in nature is change, and sometimes you have to adapt to that change and discover along the way what new spiritual lessons there are to learn.
As I finish up this book, I’m looking back at everything my home, family, and gardens have experienced over the last calendar year. And in this past year, I have experienced change to both my home and my garden in very dramatic ways.
A Life Lesson from Mother Nature
In nature there are unexpected storms;
in life there are unpredictable changes.
chinese proverb
The summer of 2006 and the winter of 2007 were particularly tough on my home and gardens. It began with tornadoes in July 2006 that ripped our sixty-year-old trees apart. The storm winds tore off gutters, shingles, and sections of the garage roof. Eighty-mile-an-hour storm winds caused large tree limbs to snap and fall, punching holes in the roof and mashing established perennial beds full of magickal plants, herbs, and flowers.
So did I stand there and ring my hands and cry during the storm? No, I did not. Did I indulge in some squealing? I’ll admit to that. When the storm hit, it was unlike any other storm I’ve seen. A roll cloud came through, and the wind picked up in an instant. There wasn’t even time to think hmmm, this looks nasty. All of a sudden it was here.
My son Kyle and I were standing in the kitchen, as those windows face northwest, and we watched the storm come in. We knew there was a severe thunderstorm predicted, but in the Midwest that’s not unusual. Where I live, everyone just says, “Oh, another storm. Well, I’ll just go look outside and see how bad it is.”
Suddenly it hit, fast and furious. This was no typical summer thunderstorm. I wanted to get both of us away from the kitchen windows and take cover in the hallway, since we don’t have a basement. Of course, Kyle wouldn’t budge. He was looking out the kitchen windows and yelling “Awesome!” as the neighborhood trees started to snap.
I grabbed him and tried to drag him into the hallway. As he is a buff six foot two inches tall, that was not easy to do. When one of our big elm trees snapped and then hit the house, he stopped arguing and then instead grabbed me to get in the hallway. I squealed like a little girl—I had no idea how loud of a boom that a tree makes when it falls on your house. Even my son was shouting.
Items began to fall off the shelves, and the pictures were rattling on the walls. It was a wild couple of minutes. Then, as quickly as it began, it passed. The thunder continued, but the meanness of the storm was over. We carefully went back into the kitchen to peer out the windows, and all we could see were downed electrical wires and leaf-covered tree branches against the windows.
After a bit of time, we cautiously went to the back door and looked out to discover the extent of the damage. I grabbed my cell phone and called my other son, who lives on his own, to make sure he was okay and ask him to bring us some ice. I knew we would be without power for days. In the twenty-plus years we had lived here, this was the worse storm damage ever. Then I called my husband, who was on an outing with my daughter, and left him a message to call me and then to come back home. Once the storm passed, I called my insurance company, reported the damage, and called the electric company and reported the downed wires—they got ripped right out of the side of the house. Kyle and I took pictures for the insurance people and then called my parents and asked them to bring over their chain saw.
Within an hour, we had begun the cleanup process. It took about a month to wait our turn to have the gutters and the roof repaired. I had most of the trees trimmed up to save them, but one had to come down. The shady perennial bed was mashed beyond repair, so I cut back the broken foliage and took it in stride. It would always bloom again the following year.
Six months later, in January of 2007, we got hit with a major ice storm. This storm was described as “catastrophic.” The weight of the thick ice pulled down even more tree limbs, and those limbs tore down power lines all over the neighborhood. I did magick all night long to keep the family safe. No one slept. We heard the transformers on the utility poles blowing up all night long. They lit up the sky in weird colors of blue and green. Not to mention the sound of tree branches cracking, then the rush of ice as they fell and the occasional boom as they hit the house or somewhere close by. With no power, you could not see outside. It was a very long night punctuated by the sounds of explosions or trees falling down. Fire trucks and the police were everywhere, trying to put out fires and to make sure people were not hurt. Our neighborhood sounded like a war zone.
This ice storm decimated most of the large trees in the area and snapped off huge sections from the trees in our yard, which had fallen on top of the house and punched holes in our roof again. This time we lost power for five days—which is a long damn time to be without power in frigid temperatures.
We knew we were in trouble the following morning when the sun came up, and we saw the damage for ourselves. You could not go out and look, you could only safely peer out the windows. It was too dangerous to poke around in the yard as ice-covered limbs were still falling. Later in the morning, we heard a rumble and looked out the living-room windows to see troops of National Guard soldiers walking down our street in their camouflage. They cleared out downed trees and ice-covered limbs as they worked their way down the street.
It was surreal to see soldiers and a Humvee rolling down our block. But Goddess bless them, the guardsmen went to every house and checked on people and handed out flyers for warming shelters and other emergency information. I won’t even mention the CNN national news van or the local news. My mind basically snapped to survival mode once I saw the soldiers.
That afternoon, my husband climbed up on the ice-covered roof, much to my dismay, to cover the holes in the roof with waterproof tarps. He was up there with a battery-operated drill, a pocket full of large screws, a few two-by-fours, and ropes. We tied off the edges of the tarps to bricks and large branches on the ground to keep the tarp down so it would not flap in the wind. It’s amazing what you can do when you have to. We cleaned up the tree debris in the yard ourselves to save money, and my husband had covered up the roof so well that the insurance company gave us a break on our deductible. Having our neighborhood declared a disaster area by the governor didn’t hurt, either.
We had thought that the tornado damage was bad. By the time the ice melted and people began the cleanup, there were more branches down on the ground then left up in the trees. Besides the roof damage, our shed in the backyard was completely mashed, our privacy fence was damaged, and the patio furniture was in pieces. We ended up with so much damage to the house that the local paper interviewed us, and we ended up on the front page. It was a real adventure.
After making the repairs to the roof (they ripped half of the roof off to the rafters and rebuilt it) and cleaning up the damage to the yard each time, the landscape and layout of my garden took a striking turn. Gone were two of my largest trees, one lost to the tornado and yet another to that horrific winter ice storm. What was at one time a mysterious shade garden was now laid bare and exposed to bright sunshine.
On Imbolc day in 2007, three weeks after the ice storm, I walked out in the backyard to regard the area where the big old maple tree had been cut down the day before. Even though I knew it was going to make a huge difference in the yard’s landscape, I was still shocked to realize just how dramatic of a change it was. All of those shady perennials, which were at the moment safely sleeping away the winter underground, were going to have to be dug up and moved come spring. My well-ordered and established beds were a wreck, and I knew I had massive amounts of work to do, both to heal the land and to reclaim our gardens.
But with all the change laid out before me and the realization of months of hard work ahead, a little seed of hope began to sprout in me. What better chance to dig a little deeper and to personally explore the wonders of the magick of herbalism and of the garden? That spring, we tore down the flattened shed and rebuilt a better one in a different location in the backyard. This gave us the opportunity to expand one of the patios, and it made the garden look much more open. I transplanted all my shady perennials, which took about a week’s worth of hard work, and started over. We left the bed open where the maple tree had stood. We did amend the soil and plant a few annuals, but I watched it to see how much sunshine it would receive—it got a ton. So, since we had so much money tied up in landscaping and rebuilding the fence and the shed, I filled the space full of pots and containers and plotted the reestablishing of my enchanted garden for the following year.
Some of the magickal shady plants didn’t survive. A few of my foxgloves didn’t make it. My lady’s mantle, columbine, ferns, and sweet woodruff were all transplanted into what I figured would be shade but turned out to be sun. Oops. Well, come August, they and my hostas had taken a beating. So I watered, tried to keep them alive, and watched the sun and shade patterns. I kept notes all summer and fall and then considered my options. In a moment of dark humor, I said to my husband as we realized we had yet again more transplanting to do, “A lot of good perennials died this summer … I wonder how many didn’t have to.”
Garden Challenges and Starting Over
To make a great garden,
one must have a great idea or a great opportunity.
sir george sitwell
Now, as I sit in my office, it’s late January, a year later. Imbolc is coming in a week, and in my mind (and on paper) I have been working out where all those shady perennials will be moved to for the second time. As for that spot where the maple used to be, it is going to be planted full of sun-loving magickal herbs and perennials: monarda, coneflowers, butterfly bush, tall phlox, roses, yarrow, and lavender. So not only will it be a reclaimed and lovely spot again, it will also pull in butterflies and birds, and hopefully the faeries will return. With all the hoopla of rebuilding, transplanting, and salvaging what we could in the garden, we didn’t notice that tingle or tug that let us know they were there. But after a few group sabbat rituals were performed out in the garden area and patio this autumn, I knew we would get them to return. I learned quite a bit about the garden and green magick while we rebuilt the backyard. Now, if I go outside in the back, I can feel that sense of expectancy. Spring is on the way, and the garden is waiting to be rebuilt.
All I have to do is wait until spring, and then I’m diving in. I will replant, nurture, create, and bless a brand-new magickal garden. While it won’t be the mysteriously magickal and shady haven it once was, it will be bright, open, fragrant, and full of enchanting possibilities.
So yes, as a magickal herbalist, a Witch, and a Green Magician, you will face challenges, both in how and where you practice. However, it shows who you truly are when you can make it work despite what is going on around you—or when you can turn a garden misfortune into a gardening triumph.
Closing Thoughts
Nature has her own best mode of doing each thing,
and she has somewhere told it plainly, if we will keep our eyes and ears open. If not, she will not be slow in undeceiving us, when we prefer our own way to hers.
ralph waldo emerson
By exploring this particular path of magick and by listening to our own hearts, we gain a deep and meaningful sense of connection to nature and to the spirit world. This sense of reverence is but a tool and another magickal lesson to be learned. As we acknowledge the magickal forces and energies of nature while working with the green world, this puts us on a less-traveled route. However, it does offer the seeker a quiet sense of rightness and belonging. When we enter the wild places, looking for magick, we work hand-in-hand with nature.
So sit, pray, and practice your craft in your own sacred outdoor area, wherever it may be. Perhaps it will be in a sunny southwestern garden surrounded by succulents and bright herbs and wildflowers. Maybe that will be in your own backyard, surrounded by a witchy cottage-style garden of herbs, vegetables, and flowers. Perchance you are a clever urban Witch and have created a little oasis on the deck with hanging baskets and container gardens. Perhaps you go to the meadows, the woodlands, the mountains, or the beach to gain your sense of connection. No matter where you draw strength from the natural world, you must cultivate your relationship with nature and within your own magickal gardens.
Both green magick and herb magick are creative, physical activities. The longer you tend to and work in your enchanted gardens, the more you will notice that your use of the garden as a sacred space has indeed evolved, for the same divinity that is present in nature begins to transform you, too. Over the seasons and as you gain more experience, you will bloom into a more centered and spiritual magickal practitioner.
Individuals who honor the powers of nature, green magick, and the traditional ways of the wise woman and the cunning men gain a connection to the magickal world that is amazingly personal. Whether you are part of a large Pagan community or are all on your own, no matter if you work in a traditional coven, an open eclectic circle, or prefer to be a solitary, as a Green Practitioner (or Green Witch, if you prefer), you are truly never alone. Here, in the green world of the gardens, groves, wild places, hedgerows, forests, and woodlands, you are joined by the spirits of the wise ones throughout time.
The magick of the green world is waiting for you. Will you answer the call?