J is for June – Pagan Blog Project 2014

Yes, I said “June” – the month – not “Juno” the Roman goddess.
June, in my neck of the woods is a time of waiting. But not the way that, say, most of Winter is a time of waiting. This time is dynamic. Everything is moving forward, and the “waiting” feels more like “Are we there yet?” in a moving car, than the stillness that comes with waiting out a deep freeze for six months.
I’ve written before about how it doesn’t feel like Midsummer around her right now, that it feels less like momentum building towards a goal that almost ready to be achieved, and more like a struggle to get out of bed in the mornings.
Maybe it’s the grey weather.
Maybe it’s the lay-off and the related financial anxieties[1].
Maybe it’s the shame[2].
But regardless of what’s doing it, I’m feeling pretty down and pretty stuck at the moment.
 
So. What do you do when the (glorious, full) Moon in June is less a big balloon and more heavily hidden by a bank of thick, grey clouds?
 
You do a little magic.
 
Dot your dryer-balls[3] with a little bit of essential oil (use multiples of three drops if you want to instill this as a pattern) – use sweet orange, basil, and allspice (cinnamon and cloves work here, too) to help drive away apathy, frustration, sadness, and fear, while upping your joy, luck, wealth, will power/energy, confidence, and household peace & harmony.
 
Make yourself some comfort food – think tea and toast, pasta with cream sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, serviceberry trifle, grilled potobello stacks with heaps of guacamole and salsa… whatever buoys your emotional boat – but make it from scratch, and incorporate The Herbs (and The Spices) to help give yourself a boost:
Add alfalfa sprouts to your salads to draw in prosperity and ward off hunger.
Ditto pecans (or make pecan pie!) to draw employment opportunities and quick cash your way.
Slowly braise a pork roast with diced apples, minced onions, shredded cabbage, and a sprinkling of nutmeg and yellow mustard and you’ll fill both your home and your body with good luck, peace of mind, confidence, happiness, success, prosperity, and sociability that have been stewed together into a powerful blend for hours.
Make a jelly from hawthorn berries flavoured with a hint of vanilla and allspice, and share it among your friends (bake it into thumb-print cookies, spread it on toast, or use it in lieu of sugar in pancakes or coffee cake) to increase happiness, joy, and connection between you.
 
Make yourself a body-scrub using 0.25 C coconut oil, 0.25 C olive oil, and 0.5+ C brown sugar to drawa blessings and fast luck (in general) into your life.
Then use it in a bath that you’ve scented with essential oils, or steeped with herbs, that will encourage specific blessing to come your way. (Vanilla, sweet orange, and clove for happy and fulfilling romances, for example. Or cedar, dill, and bay leaves for financial success).
 
Those should be enough to get you started. Right now, I’m off to roast our Bunny of the Month with bay leaves (good fortune), garlic (lifts depression), rhubarb (protection), mustard (courage), and onion (stability, prosperity), and try to pull that Moon in June fruition magic into the meal I’m making.
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
 
 
[1] I would lay money on this one as the most significant factor, if I had money lying around to lay on anything.
 
[2] Which, come to think of it, is at least slightly tied to the lay-off… I think we’ve found the problem, folks.
 
[3] These are easy to make: You just stuff the foot an old (CLEAN) cotton ankle sock with as much scrap fabric (again, ideally natural fibres – so socks full of holes are definitely on the list of possibilities) as you can cram into it – it should feel fairly hard, not mooshy – and then sew the foot-hole (and any other holes) shut. Done! Toss it into your dryer to help keep the static to a minimum.
 
[4] 1/4 C each: coconut oil and olive oil + 1/2 C brown sugar