Summer’s Herbal Magick: Making Traditional & Modern Folk Charms
Summer is a time of flowers hung on the wall to dry, stones and shells from summer adventures tucked into jars for safekeeping, and the bright green harvest of herbs preserved stored away in cupboards for use in spells later on in the year. While every season brings foraging delights for the magickal apothecary, summer's finds are especially full of color and light. Summers in the valley I live with can be long and hot, requiring an intimate relationship with shade and shadow during the height of the day, with the respite of the night’s delta breezes making time for the morning's harvest to be shaped into an evening's charm.
In the second part of my Seasonal Magick series we'll be exploring three folk spell traditions to aid us in our magick that incorporate some of my favorite plant allies of summer. From a witch's ladder that helps to the illuminate the path ahead to an empowering witch's bundle and a witch's bottle for love, these three herbal charms are easy to make, tap into our legacy as magickal practitioners, and help us to connect with the energy of the season. To find the full introduction to this series and why I love simple folk magick so much, including additional insight into each of the three traditional charms we'll be exploring, come this way.
So let's explore how we can create witch's ladders, bundles, and bottles as one of the ways to connect with the seasonal rhythms of the year and our beloved plant allies.
The Witch's Ladder
Traditionally made of woolen cord, rope, woven thread or hair and knotted with items like feathers, holed stones, sticks and bits of metal, witch's ladders are a beautiful form of magick that combine charm-making with knot magick and weaving spells. The witch's ladder has remained popular among modern practitioners, supported in part by the Priestess Doreen Valiente's Spell of the Cord, an inspired modern variation of older forms of spoken knot magick. Energetically, they can act like a net, gathering up energy to hold in place and to either be drawn upon (in the case of beneficial energy) or released elsewhere (in the case of baneful energy).
A Witch's Ladder To Illuminate the Path Ahead
The long days of summer can feel endless, almost oversaturated with light. It's a season of taking the long view of what needs doing, what paths need tending to, and the harvests that we're hoping for. As someone who often finds summer to be a restless season, I try to channel that energy into useful magicks, periods of rest, and practical work around the apothecary. It's in summer that I cast a wide net, letting myself feel out what it is that might lie ahead, and draw the bits I desire the most towards me. The witch's ladder in summer helps us to catch sunlight so that we can draw on it in the darker months and moments in our life when we need help illuminating the path ahead.
Our plant ally for illumination is the bright Calendula (Calendula officinalis) whose flowers resemble boisterous golden suns. I love carrying Calendula's summer magick into the deep dark of autumn and beyond. As a plant ally, Calendula carries an unhindered and daring sense of joy helping us to embrace pathways of self-expression, of calling, and of kinship that resonate on a deep soul level. As part of your ladder-making ritual you might name each Calendula flower that you knot with your cord as a part of your life that you are seeking illumination for. Or you might name each blossom for a general area of life - such as a flower for relationships, another for magick, another for work, another for protecting your peace, and so on. Working with Calendula as a magickal plant ally is like working with an energetic best friend who believes whole-heartedly in you - let that energy infuse your spellwork.
A Calendula Charm
Bright the blossom
Bright the heart
The path ahead
No longer dark
Light abundant
Light appeals
Bright the heart
That hope reveals
Other plants to help capture the brightness of summer that you might consider are Roses (Rosa spp.) and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) but consider what you already have available, the plants that are growing around you (or ones saved up that need using), and enjoy the process of using what you have at hand. Brightly colored plants and beads, sparkly objects, symbols of sun and fire, are all great additions to your summer witch's ladder.
Creating Your Ladder
To create a witch's ladder use cord, thread or yarn to braid or not your chosen objects into a long hanging cord. How long you make your witch's ladder is up to you, but I find that they work better when shorter when being hung outside and can be a bit longer when keeping it inside. I like to start by laying out all objects I'll be tying into my witch's ladder before me on my altar, blessing them with the four elements of fire (candle light), air (incense), water (water infused with flower essences or salt), and earth (sprinkling herbs over the items or laying the items on a stone surface). I like to use some variation of a cord charm when knotting my items, like Valiente's or the one written above, changing the language for my needs.
Once all items are added, the witch's ladder can be hung up by an altar, window or door. For a spring witch's ladder I like to make ones that'll either hang just outside my door or beside a window, so that the ladder is able to dance in spring's winds.
You can add extra magick to your summer witch's ladder, by placing it in a sunny spot at the height of noon for a few minutes to charge up - better yet is it is surrounded by a circle of quartz crystals. Over the next year, I like to use pass my witch's ladder over my deck of tarot cards or other divinatory tool before doing a reading when I feel like I need an extra boost of illuminating clarity.
The Witch's Bundle
The simplest of our three traditional folk magick charms, a witch's bundle is a collection of exclusively or mostly plants with other items (such as old skeleton keys, a nice stick, a hunk of rock) tied up together and hung up above a door (or bed or other auspicious place). Witch's bundles, like all of the magickal crafts listed here, can be endlessly personalized to match your need, your aesthetic preferences, and reflect your relationships. If you're studying a particular plant ally you might include them in your witch's bundle (if the herb has already been dried and processed, you can add some into a little pouch and tie it to your bundle). If you are working with a deity that is fond of one particular color, choose that color of cloth or string to tie up your bundle. If you're a cool goth witch, add the skulls and gothic crosses to your bundle of dried Rose (Rosa spp.). Let yourself enjoy the process of finding your creative magickal expression - it helps you understand better what it you're using magick for in the first place.
The Witch's Bundle To Call On Your Power
Within Summer we experience the intensity of the Sun's growing power and as magickal practitioners we can tap into the mythological current of the Sun as a symbol of vitality, endurance, and longevity for our spellwork. As we learn to (re)connect with our own inner power and fortitude, we can draw on the summer's long days and the sun's increasing power to strengthen our own. For summer I like to create witch's bundles that feel like greenhouses full of heat and growth and possibility that help me draw on my power through every season.
I love Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) as a magickal herb at any time of year, but especially during the long days of summer where I use the herb as a natural dye for cloth and yarn, harvest sprigs to use in easy-to-share picnic and potluck dishes, and dry to use in tea and spellwork throughout the year. Rosemary is considered a panacea - the type of herb that is good for a wide range of conditions. It's warming in nature and has long been used as an herb of memory and mental cognition as well as a general restorative after a period of illness. Energetically, Rosemary encourages a state of open awareness and a cultivation of embodiment, drawing us into a state of empowered consciousness. In other words, Rosemary helps to clear out the foggy ungroundedness that can keep us from feeling connected to our power.
A Rosemary Charm
From sky to sun
From sun to sea
From sea to earth
From earth to me
What was forgotten
Now comes to be
Power deep and flowing free!
Other empowering herbs to consider are Lavender (Lavandula spp.) and Common Sage (Salvia officinalis) - though any plant ally you feel a connection with can be an empowering substitution or addition. Additional items that represent empowering beliefs, allies, and/or communities can also be added (such as a pentacle that represents your connection to your magick or a favorite affirmation bound up along with the herbs).
Creating Your Bundle
Bless all your objects as described in the above section "Creating Your Ladder." Once you've collected all of your items (such as a few sprigs of Rosemary), use a colored thread or ribbon of choice to tie up your bundle. I like to tie the top part and leave the rest loose, but you can tie up everything from top to bottom. The advantage of the latter technique is that you can tie larger objects inside the bundle, even hiding them from view if that's your preference. Once tied up, hang the bundle above an altar, door, or window.
The Witch's Bottle
Traditionally, witch's bottles or jars were buried or hidden away from view in the back of cupboards, sometimes even between walls, beneath floors, or high up in the attics. They embody the magickal practice of doing the work and then letting it be, allowing the magick to continue to unfold in its own time. Sometimes jars are made for a short period of need (such as a honey jar for attracting a job) and then the contents are offered back to the earth, while others are more permanent and meant to be mostly forgotten. Other times, jars and their contents can be renewed on a regular basis (such as at the Full Moons or the sabbats). Energetically, witch's bottles tend to act like generators, helping to generate an outcome or a specific type of energy.
A Witch's Bottle For Love
Summer's youthful energy and exuberant weather can make it feel like a chance encounter that leads to adventure is just around the corner. Summer, a period of easier travel before the modern era made travel easily possible at any time of the year, myths abound of travelers falling asleep beneath grand trees after a long day of traveling to find themselves suddenly falling through a doorway to the otherworld. The spirit of possibility is alive and well, the good folk full of mischief, and many humans spending days beyond the confines of work culture, altering their perception of time and space. There is magick afoot!
While spring’s energy carries with it a wild quality of luck, summer's energy is verdant with love. Not just romantic love, but love of all kinds - whatever it is love that expands the heart with a few special people or a love that strengthens the bonds of community. For me, Rose (Rosa spp.) embodies summer's loving energy while still keeping space for the mystery of all the ways that love moves through our lives while reminding us of the importance of healthy boundaries and plenty of respect with their sharp thorns. Rose is an ancient plant ancestor and working with them is to draw upon the long legacy of working magick as a species - carried by the love of our most benevolent ancient ones.
A Rose Charm
The heart blossoms
love draws near
a buzz, a hum
love draws near
As I open my heart
love is here
Other herbs to consider are Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Damiana (Turnera diffusa), Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), and any sweet smelling herbs. Consider adding reds and pinks to your bottle (or the color you love the most) as well as personal symbols and tokens of love from heart shaped stones to love letters to symbols of holy ones and sacred ancestors that embody love to you.
Creating Your Bottle
Bless all your objects as described in the above section "Creating Your Ladder." Make sure you have a tight sealing bottle or jar so to prevent items from leaking out if you are using any fluids or from pests getting in. Add your herbs and charms in one-by-one, naming their purpose as you go, and then you can seal your jar with wax or tie it up with ribbon to seal in or bind up the magick. Once completed choose where your bottle is going to live, whether in the house, mode of transportation, place of school or work or buried (especially good for banishing magick, though make sure all items are biodegradable).
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For more herbal inspiration for your summer, how about creating your own summer wellness apothecary? Or a might-do list for the Summer Solstice? I also explore more of summer’s plant allies, healing paths, and magickal ways over here.
I hope you’ve found inspiration for your own summer magickal practices and feel a little more connected to the witch folk who’ve gone before us, leaving charms of folklore in their wake.
This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎
