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(5/30/04 1:03 pm)
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A Smattering of Solistice Spells
A Smattering of Solistice Spells
by Melanie Fire Salamander
article
As a pagan, you may well light a bonfire Midsummer night and jump it, for
Litha is a fire festival. Likewise, you may stay up to greet the Midsummer
dawn.
If you do, keep a pair of garden shears handy. Midsummer's Eve at midnight,
Midsummer's Day at dawn and Midsummer noon are prime times to collect plants
sacred to the sun or special to the fey. In fact, any magickal herb plucked
at Midsummer is said to prove doubly effective and keep better. Divining
rods cut on Midsummer's Eve are said to be more infallible, too. You can
charge your charms, depending on their purpose, at midnight, noon or in
dawn's first light.
Charms traditional at Litha include those for courage, dream divination,
fertility, invisibility, love, luck, protection, wealth, the restoration of
sight and the ability to see the fey. Midsummer is a fey time, both by
tradition and observation. The scent of the air is thick, green and juicy;
it's lost its spring astringency and is simply lush. The whole world is
stretching its limbs and frolicking. The fey are big on that.
Especially for charms of love, gardening and magickal abilities, the fey are
a great help in herb collecting. In exchange, they like gifts of milk and
honey, cookies, sweet liqueurs, or any sweet food, drink or liquor. They
also like baubles, particularly pretty or shiny. Or cold hard cash -- but in
coin, not paper, and it's best if shiny.
To stay in good with the fey and the herbs you collect from, leave enough of
the plant or other plants of the type that the herb survives in the spot
collected from. Remember too to always ask the plant before taking a
cutting, and to wait for an answer. A quid pro quo usually works: a shiny
dime, some fertilizer, or a bit of your hair or clothing -- whatever you
think the plant most wants.
Courage: Tuscans use erba della paura (stachys) collected on Midsummer's Day
as a wash against fear. Steep the herb in hot but not boiling water, then
rinse the limbs with long strokes moving outward from the torso. You might
substitute wood betony, a relative more common in North America.
Dream divination: Litha is a good time for foretelling things in dreams.
Specifically, to induce dreams of love and ensure them coming true, lay a
bunch of flowers under your pillow on Midsummer Eve. That's what the girls
of old Scandinavia did.
For effective dream divination, remember to keep a notebook beside your bed.
At bedtime, relax, ground and center, then clearly define your question.
Meditate on that question until it's firm in your mind, and assure yourself
you will remember your dream on waking. Then go to sleep.
As soon as you wake, record your dream. One trick is to set an alarm clock
so you're wakened artificially, which can help dream recollection. Dreams
dreamed on Midsummer's Eve are said to be more likely to come true.
Fertility for your garden: For a lush garden, mix ashes from the Midsummer
bonfire with any seeds yet to plant. (You still have time to plant cosmos
and a handful of fall-blooming flowers.) Likewise, for fertility sprinkle
bonfire ashes on any flowers or vegetables you have growing.
Fey charms: To see the fey, pick flowers from a patch of wild thyme where
the little folk live and place the flowers on your eyes. A four-leafed
clover not only grants you a wish but also, carried in your pocket or a
charm, gives you the power to see fairies dancing in rings. A good place to
look is by oaks, said in Germany to be a favorite place for fey dances. To
penetrate fey glamour, make and wear an ointment including fourleaved
clovers.
St. John's wort, also known as ragwort, has a strong connection to the fey
and transportation. You might add it to charms to travel quickly. The Irish
call the plant the fairy's horse, and the fey are said to ride it through
the air. But beware: The Manx say if you step on a ragwort plant on
Midsummer's Eve after sunset, a fairy horse springs out of the earth and
carries you off till sunrise, leaving you wherever you happen to be when the
sun comes up.
Invisibility: Collect fern seed on Midsummer Eve for use in charms of
invisibility. To become invisible, wear or swallow the seed (that is, the
spores) you have collected. Such spores also put you under the protection of
spirits.
The fern is said to bloom at midnight on Midsummer Eve, either a sapphire
blue or golden yellow depending on your source.
Love: Plant two orpine starts (Sedum telephium) together on Midsummer Eve,
one to represent yourself, one to represent your lover. If one withers, the
person represented will die. But if both flourish and grow leaning together,
you and your lover will marry.
Luck and human fertility: As at Beltaine, leap the Midsummer bonfire for
fertility and luck.
Protection: Herbs traditional to Litha (also know as St. John's Day) in
England include St. John's wort, hawkweed, orpine, vervain, mullein,
wormwood and mistletoe. Plucked either at Midsummer's Eve on midnight or
noon Midsummer Day and hung in the house, they protect it from fire and
lightning. Worn in a charm on your body, they protect you from disease,
disaster and the workings of your enemies.
Sight: Dew gathered Midsummer Eve is said to restore sight.
Wealth: The fern also has a connection with wealth. Sprinkle fern seed in
your savings to keep them from decreasing. The alleged golden-yellow fern
flower, plucked on Midsummer Eve at midnight, can be used as a dowsing tool
to lead to golden treasure. Alternatively (the Russian version), you throw
the flower in the air, and it lands on buried treasure. Or, if you're
Bohemian, you pluck the flower and on the same Midsummer Night climb a
mountain with blossom in hand. On the mountain, you'll find gold or have it
revealed in a vision.
If you wait patiently till midnight on Midsummer Eve and see no such golden
fern flower, perhaps invisibility will have to do.
Copyright © 2004 by the article's author
WIDDERSHINS ARCHIVES
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