🔹 Chamomile (helps combat insomnia, a common symptom of depression) 🔹 Green (contains an amino acid known as theanine which is known to fight depression) 🔹 St John’s Wort (contains compounds known as hypericin and hyperforin, which may affect activity of the brain’s serotonin system) 🔹 Lemon Balm (works as a mild sedative and can ease anxiety and depression) 🔹 Ginger Root (helps to increase important neurotransmitters than can regulate your mood) 🔹 Lavender (research shows that lavender can help combat depression, and has been said to rival antidepressants) 🔹 Peppermint (the menthol in peppermint leaves helps calm mood and aides sleep)
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CRYSTALS
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🔹 Smoky Quartz (helps elevate moods, overcome negative emotions, and relieves depression) 🔹 Rose Quartz (is a known healer and can help replace negative feelings with love and compassion) 🔹 Amethyst (combats stress and releases a relaxed energy) 🔹 Citrine (emits a sunny, optimistic energy which can aide in combating depression and anxiety) 🔹 Angel Aura Quartz (is known to help with mental illness, and it’s energy can help process emotional disturbances, grief, or trauma)
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INCENSE
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🔹 Lavender (reduces stress physically and mentally, and promotes deep sleep) 🔹 Jasmine (helps with alertness, evokes an uplifting energy, and is believed to ease symptoms of depression) 🔹 Ylang Ylang (has a calming affect that elevates mood and is known to help with physical and mental symptoms of anxiety and depression) 🔹 Lemongrass (promotes emotional balance, and uplifts emotional weight) 🔹 Sandalwood (encourages calmness, serenity, and feelings of well being)
🔹 Spend time in the sun, and in nature. Even if you only go and sit in your backyard, it will help, and make you feel a bit better 🔹 Drink water! LOTS OF WATER! Want an extra boost? Make a bunch of sun water and drink it on exceptionally low days to help with your energy and mood levels. 🔹 Ground yourself every night before bed to rid yourself of negative energies 🔹 Turn your sadness into creativity! Work on pages of your grimoire or book of shadows. Do some witchy DIY’s! Set up a new altar! Make some sigils! Being productive and creative are so helpful when you’re feeling melancholic. 🔹 Have some spoonie witch tips for low energy days! 🔹 Garden. Spending time in nature and creating something within the earth is not only rewarding, but gardening is actually a de-stressing activity and can soothe your mood. PLUS think of all the herbs you could grow to help with your craft! 🔹 Talk to someone. Other witches. Friends. A professional. A hotline. Anyone who is willing to listen. Put that energy out there and it will make a world of difference, I promise. 🔹 Let yourself have at least ONE self-care day a week. It doesn’t matter what it entails, as long as you’re taking that time for YOURSELF, magickal or not.
Yule is about celebrating the Sun’s long journey back towards the Earth. During the time leading up to Yule, it’s a good idea to do some deep cleaning and de-cluttering, followed by a cleansing ritual so you have a fresh space to celebrate.
Before Yule – A time for preparation
Knit or sew new clothes
Prepare for winter
Store food and herbs for winter use
Take in potted plants and harvest the last of your herbs
Arts & Crafts
Make stove top potpourri
Make witch balls and hang them around your home or on a tree
Use birch branches to craft a besom
Cleaning & Cleansing
As you do any cleaning, visualize removing all of the negative energy from your life
Clean your bathroom – scrub toilets, wipe down counters, clean out the bathtub
Clean your mirrors
Clean your windows
Finish all your cleaning with a good smoke cleanse using sage, sweetgrass, pine needles or mistletoe, along with your other favorite herbs. Start at the front door and move the incense around the doors and windows of every room, following the lines of the walls.
Get rid of all the extra clutter in your house
Replace your home’s air filter
Sprinkle carpets and rugs with baking soda and vacuum, making sure you move all your furniture to get underneath. Vacuum walls, baseboards, ceiling fans and all the other hard-to-reach places
Use a broom to sweep up dirt
Cooking
Bake and cook with family and friends, blessing the food with intent of prosperity and happiness
Brew cider infused with herbs and fruit that correspond with prosperity and happiness
Cook a feast of wintery foods
Decorating
Add comfy white pillows filled with herbs to your sofa for a sacred space to meditate
Decorate your tree and bless all of your ornaments
Hang golden suns around your house to welcome back the sun
Hang mistletoe for love and protection
Hang a sprig of holly in the house for good luck and safety
Leave out birdseed ornaments
Light lots of candles to symbolize bringing light back into your life
Spell-casting & Divination
Cast spells for peace, introspection, wishes and new beginnings.
Do a winter solstice tarot spread for yourself
Cast spells for light, purification, renewal and rebirth
Divination centered around messages and omens
Other Activities
Burn a Yule log in honor of the sun, and toss in a sprig of holly to burn away the troubles of the past year. note: use only a small amount of holly if burning indoors, as the fumes are toxic
Give gifts
Go carolling
Make holly water by soaking the leaves overnight in spring water under the full moon
Play in the snow and collect some to use in spells
Take a walk under the full moon and record any important thoughts or visions you receive
Tie up any loose ends in your life
Volunteer in your community or donate old belongings
Write about your reflections of the past year and what your goals are that you’d like to achieve by the end of the coming year. Bless the page with motivation and love.
Associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the terrestrial world. Our planet´s crust is made out of Oxygen (46.6%), Silicon (27.7%), Aluminum (8.1%), Iron 5%, Calcium (3.6%), Sodium (2.8%), Potassium (2.6%), and Magnesium (2.1 %).
This sigil is made combining the alchemical symbol of the element Earth, and Dalton´s symbols for Oxygen, Silicon, Aluminum, Iron, and Sodium.
Black Salt is used for cursing, protection, banishing, cleansing, breaking spells or hexes, and repelling negative energy. Black salt is made by combining either activated charcoal or ashes from burned herbs or incense with sea salt.
Using activated charcoal will actually make your salt a dark black color, whereas using ashes will turn it into a lighter grey color.
Depending on what you plan to use black salt for, you can add different types of ash or other ingredients that correspond with your intent.
Ashes from various herbs and incenses for black salt:
Just a reminder: Heathenry does have a term for smoke-cleansing.
Recaning. To recan. (Or reocan, in Old West Saxon.) This is cleansing via smoke, whether through incense or a bundle of herbs put together for a particular type of cleansing. Juniper and mugwort are both favorites for this.
In case you’re wondering how to pronounce it, it sounds like reekening. The word “reeks” is actually derived from it, signifying a potent smell.
For Old Norse fans, this seems to be related to the work reykr. In case you were wondering, Reykjavik in Iceland translates to “Smoky Bay”.
*dances around the entire pagan community waving this post like a fucking banner* THANK YOU.
Just a little addendum: Mugwort can be dangerous due to mildly psychoactive properties in the herb. Use with caution and avail yourself of the following list of free-use alternatives:
Basil (any kind, noting that Sweet Basil smells the best)
Sage (any type, but keep in mind that White Sage is becoming endangered)
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