The Astroherbalism Apothecary: Crafting Herbal Charms for Your Moon Sign

One of the reasons I love astroherbalism is the way that it combines the practical with the profound where we seek to support the intangible (i.e. inner world experiences and emotions) through hands-on creativity (i.e. simple herbal charms aligned with our healing desires).

Following the first part of this series where we explored the energies of our Sun sign, I want to turn our attention to crafting charms and potions that support the energy of your Moon sign. While knowing your Sun sign used to be the extent of most people's knowledge of western astrology, more and more folks can easily name their Moon sign, too, and being a very pro-lunar sort of witch, I love this celestial culture shift.

As with my last post in the astroherbalism apothecary series, I'll be sharing some recipes with you, but what I really want to share with you is a framework for creating your own unique herbal charms for your Moon so that you feel inspired to use what is readily available to you.

To do that, we'll explore how our Moon sign shapes our energy and the common ways that our lunar energy can get disrupted. As an herbalist, I work with astrology as a story-telling-listening tool and a way to help folks get to know and name the healing needs of their body (and by "body" I mean physical form, emotional and mental experience, the psychic body, and so on). Within traditional western herbalism, our Moon represents our consciousness, the way we perceive experiences, our feeling body, and our most honest stories. Some of us, for example, process our feelings quickly, while others take a longer time to figure out what our feelings are. Our ability to digest and process our experiences, to form stories from them, and let ourselves feel our feelings profoundly shapes our understanding of wellbeing in our life.

Throughout our life we figure out what it is that makes us feel comfortable and at home within our world, allowing us space to process our lived experiences. It is our Moon sign which represents and helps to guide us on this journey of homecoming and exploration.

When it comes to supporting our Moon sign there are three primary paths that I focus on: recipes that help us integrate lunar energy, recipes that settle and center us, and recipes that help us strengthen our intuitive instincts. To help you identify what path may be most useful for you at this time in your life, I've created brief descriptions of each path as well as key phrases that you may or may not connect with. I encourage you to read these phrases out loud and if something resonates, to consider pursuing that path of magickal healing. Once you've identified what type of path will be most useful for you at this time, you can choose a few suggested herbs and then follow the guide below to creating your custom Moon sign charm. 

Crafting Your Lunar Charms

I’ve suggested a variety of herb types and plant allies to create your own Moon sign charms. The simplest approach would be to use whole dried herbs, combining them together to create an herbal charm bag or spell bottle. You can also build a Moon sign altar, adding your chosen plant allies to it. If you have the flower essence version of whatever plants you resonate with, you can easily craft your own flower essence potion. For those of you with herbal experience, you can choose herbs to make your own Moon charm tea, tincture or topical herbal oil, taking into consideration appropriate individual needs and contraindications.

When available I’ve linked to the full plant profile of any of the plant ally suggestions below that are available for free on my community blog - they all contain additional magickal information you might find useful. You can find all of my plant profiles in The Plant Ally Library (which is available on a sliding scale as well as to all of my patrons for free).

image via @diosming97

Integrate Your Lunar Energy

Herbs and essences that help us integrate the emotional part of our experiences, reduce stress, and generally assist us in honoring our intersecting identities and stories in all of our wondrous wholeness.

Key phrases that indicate you might benefit from an integrative charm include:

• I feel like I'm a constantly changing up who I am depending on who I'm with.

• I feel uncomfortable in my own skin.

• I have a story to live, things to tell, but I'm afraid to do it.

• People wouldn't like me if they really knew who I was.

• Everything feels tangled up inside.

Herbs for an Integrating Moon Charm

I think of integration charms like meeting places at the crossroads - different path are converging to a singular point. When all these paths come together representing our various identities, responsibilities, and experiences, an integrative charm helps to bring all of these different parts of ourselves into a harmonious whole. Plant allies traditionally associated with the safe journeys like Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) work well with plants that represent and support the integration of wisdom like Sage (Salvia officinalis). In general, seeking out herbs that are associated with pathways and waysides, boldly scented plants, and herbs with bright colors are all good options.

Here are a few plant allies for a integrative Moon charm to consider:

• Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

• Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

• Sage (Salvia officinalis)

• Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

• Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)

• Peppermint (Mentha piperita)

Stone allies can be a beautiful addition to an herbal charm if you already have them in your collection, including those that help us integrate disparate parts of ourselves such as Moonstone, Rose Quartz, and Sodalite. Choose your favorite colors that you feel represent who you are best for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @sharonmccutcheon

Center Your Lunar Energy

Herbs and essences that help us create a protective cocoon around our energy, find equilibrium after a period of stress or shock, and to deeply nourish our nervous system.

Key phrases that indicate you might benefit from a centering charm include:

• Everything and everyone is getting on my last nerve.

• I just seem to feel so much more than everyone else.

• I don't know what to do with all of my feelings.

• Life feels overwhelming.

• I struggle to connect with what I really want.

Herbs for a Centering Moon Charm

Focus on herbs that help to draw lunar energy towards you, drawing energy in and downwards, helping to root and ground our Moon selves. Roots can be very grounding and you can incorporate the roots of lunar plants into your charm such as the root of Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) or California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). In general, herbs that are considered soothing, cooling, and calming are all good options, including herbs with cooling colors like blues, purples, silvers, and gentle greens.

Here are a few Moon centering herbs to consider:

• Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

• California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• Rose (Rosa spp.)

• Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

• Lavender (Lavandula spp.)

• Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

If they are already in your collection, you might consider adding a stone ally to your charm, especially those that are grounding and centering including Black Kyanite, Obsidian, Smoky Quartz, and Bloodstone. Deep navy blues and forest green tones are also great for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your centering charm.

image via @wyxina

Strengthen Your Lunar Energy

Herbs and essences that not only increase the volume of our intuition so that we are able to hear it better, but our willpower and ability to follow through with our intuitive guidance.

Key phrases that indicate you might be in need of an intuition strengthening charm include:

• Something feels off about {situation or relationship} but I feel stuck.

• I know this feels wrong but I don't want to rock the boat.

• I don't know how I ended up in my current life.

• I don't feel like I fit into my life.

• Life seems to be passing me by, but I don't know what to do next.

Herbs for a Intuition Strengthening Moon Charm

When we're working from a place of strong lunar energy we are able to connect with and follow the guidance of our intuition. Intuition is often presented as a mystical gift reserved for a select psychic few, but in fact, it's a common skill of our species to quickly and unconsciously sort through past and present information and experiences to come to a place of instinctive reasoning about a situation. Our Moon represents that ability to perceive, filter, and organize our consciousness in a way that appears invisible to us - in other words, our intuitive abilities.

When we have been raised to distrust our intuition or have developed a pattern of ignoring our intuitive insights, it can take a lot out of us, increase our stress, and often leads us into patterns of living that feel out of sync with who we feel ourselves to be. A strengthening charm is going to be partially nourishing to our energy and partially energizing. We can incorporate herbs that are nourishing to our nervous system but also ones that feel magickal to us on a deeply felt level, as well as symbols, colors, and objects that pull at our sense of enchantment.

Here are a few Moon strengthening herbs to consider:

• Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

• Yarrow (Alchemilla millefolium)

• Elder (Sambucus nigra)

• Rose (Rosa spp.)

• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

• Juniper (Juniperus spp.)

There are also a variety of stone allies you might consider working with to help strengthen your intuitive gifts and lunar energy such as Moonstone, Clear Quartz, Amethyst, and Labrodorite. You might also consider choosing purple and blue tones for any candles, fabric, bottles or other items that you incorporate into your charm.

image via @vixenly

Creating Your Moon Sign Charm

Decide on the form that your Moon charm will take (i.e. a spell bottle, a charm bag, a solar altar, flower essence potion, tea, etc.) and gather all of your ingredients and items. You should also have a bowl with water in it and a stone of your choosing as well as a candle and candle holder. Since water is the element of the Moon we’ll be integrating it as part of our charm.

If you are able to perform this charm on a night during a Moon phase that aligns with your needs (check out this series on rituals for the lunar phases for guidance), but if you're only able to perform this ritual during the day, no worries!

Ground and center (perhaps with a tree of life meditation) and settle into sacred space through your preferred method. Lay the items for your charm out before you, placing the stone in the bowl of water, and the candle positioned so that its flame will reflect in the water. 

Begin by holding your hands over the water and stone, charging up a space within and around you to assist your magick, saying:

Water holds
All land, all dreams
May I be held
Betwixt and between

Next, light the candle, whispering:

Dancing on the water
Light of the Moon
I whisper now
A healing rune
{strengthening, integrating, centering} charms
I gather round
By Moon and story
I am crowned

Visualize the light dancing on the water, the moon in the sky, and your own inner light illuminating the space within and around you, filling up the spaces within your lunar energy needs healing, and crowning you with your own lunar energy.

When ready, begin to craft your charm, naming aloud the purpose of each item that you are adding to it such as:

Mugwort for centering my dreams
Rose for strength and insight
Sage for intuition and wisdom

Once the charm has been made, pass the charm around the flame and over the water nine times, visualizing gathering up the Moon flame and energy of water into your charm. Anoint the charm and then your forehead with water in a crescent Moon shape, saying:

By plant, by flame,
by water, by stone
By lunar wisdom
I know to be my own
I am {strengthened, integrated, centered} by this spell
Nine times about
All is well!

Blessed be!

You can now use your charm as you please, carrying it with you or placing it in an auspicious place in your home. The charm can be re-charged by putting it under moonlight and/or repeating the Moon charm ritual as needed.

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If you’re looking for more lunar inspiration, be sure to check out the Moon Studies section of my astroherbology archive, such as a guide for making herbal medicine by the Moon and a lunar return series to help you learn about your very own monthly Moon day.

Subscribers of my Magick Mail get free access to my not-so-secret grimoire of lunar recipes and rituals (there’s over 120 of them!). And for those of you ready to dive deep into your Moon-centered studies, you’re invited to The Lunar Apothecary.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the first post in this series on your Sun sign, and I’ll be back again with creating charms for your Ascendent.

May your inner Moon illuminate the path ahead!

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

What is a Plant Ally?

If you've spent any time learning about herbalism, especially traditional western herbalism, you've probably heard the term "plant ally" on more than one occasion.

But what does plant ally mean?

Having written about plant allies for many years, it seemed that it might be a good time to offer my own perspective on the definition of plant ally, shaped by my herbal education and direct experience with plants and the people who seek them out. So let’s take a moment to explore what a plant ally is, why it is a useful concept in herbalism, and how it applies to our healing work.

For me, I define my herbal practice as being intersectional, earth-centered, and plant-led which informs the way that I connect with plants as allies. There are many forms and traditions of herbalism with in the world with different ways of defining our relationship to plants and value systems of a healer. How you choose to practice and be in relationship to the plants, people, and creatures you serve hopefully reflects the sacred values you hold as a healer.

What follows is my current understanding of practicing in a plant-led way and with plant allies. I hope that it inspires your own thinking and inquiries on the subject - hopefully with tea in hand and amongst your plant kin. 

image via @lanegore

What is a Plant Ally?

A plant ally is a plant, tree, herb, fungus, algae or other member of the green world that we are in a sacred reciprocal relationship with and that helps us to cultivate an experience of wellbeing in our life. In the sequence of evolution, plants are our elders, having already been present and witnessing our development when we first emerged on this planet as a species. Many have co-evolved alongside us, providing food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. As a species, we have spread their seeds through our millennia of nomadic and semi-nomadic life as well as our more recently settled and agricultural ways of being. 

Plant allies can appear to us during times of both acute and chronic healing need, and while some may be familiar from our childhood or earlier life, others completely new to us. Often there is an ancestral or cultural connection to the plant, but not always, since plants, in their vastness of generosity, will often show up with their teachings to folks no matter their heritage or background. 

Sometimes plant allies appear to us in dreams, other times in the food we are cooking, or a childhood memory. Sometimes they appear as gifts whether by human friends or dropped onto our path by an animal. Plant allies are often eager to show up for us - it is we who must practice showing up to them. 

image via @outimaarjana

The purpose of a plant ally is specific to the needs of your relationship with them. Many times plant allies provide relief to something we are suffering about, such as chronic pain, heartbreak or the long recovery from a difficult illness. Usually plant allies come because we have called them, whether consciously or not, and we've been fortunate enough to open up to their help. Some relationships with plant allies last for many years if not one's entire life, but sometimes an ally is here for a season or specific situation and then moves on. Being in relationship with a plant ally often results in growing deeper into your own understanding of your self and your interconnectedness with the cycles of life, death, and renewal. 

When I enter into a relationship with a plant ally (or sometimes wake up to realize that I've been in one for a bit without even realizing it - this happens more often than you think), I try to spend time with the plant in-person, from the uncultivated to cultivated spaces it grows. In general, I try to get to know my plant friend in as many ways and forms as possible (The Thirty Day Plant Ally Project is full of suggestions for connecting with a plant ally if you're looking for inspiration).

Mostly, I try to listen with my whole self to the messages of my plant ally, opening up to them as we navigate ways of feeling well together. If I can, I like to carry some of the plant ally with me, tucked into a small bundle that I can wear on my body which serves to connect me with the very old human practice of wearing plants on the body.

image via @yuliia_pat

If you are working with a client and they have a particular plant ally they have a relationship with, it can be healing to work with that plant ally as part of your herbal recommendations for them, from incorporating it into remedies to directly asking the plant for aid. It can also be incredibly healing to help connect folks with their plant allies in a conscious and meaningful way as there is so much opportunity for ancestral healing and cultural reconnection through plant allyship.

Finding a plant ally to work with can be as simple as choosing an herb that calls to you and starting there. Sometimes it can be helpful to think about the plants that led you to your interest in herbalism in the first place. Other times a plant from your childhood might be the one to speak to you. Let your curiosity guide you and trust the process of knowing yourself better through relationships with your plant allies.

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If you’re looking for more plant ally inspiration, have I got the archive for you. You can also find my complete collection of plant profiles in The Plant Ally Library if you like dozens of plant profiles with more added each year.

I hope you feel inspired to participate in the tradition of plant allyship that herbalists have been engaged in for generations. May your curious heart lead you home to kinship with our green world.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Sweet Spring, Bright Summer: Herbal Remedies for the Waking Season

I was lucky during the formative years of my herbal education to have many of my teachers emphasize the importance of time when it came to plant medicine. While there are plenty of situations where herbs work speedily (alleviating a fever within a few hours, opening up the airways within minutes, and so on), much of the healing power of plants takes place over many months, if not longer. While I was taught to alleviate as much suffering as soon as possible by addressing symptoms, more importantly, I was to focus on the underlying issues that had brought about the state of disease, and inform those I was serving that part of the healing of herbalism is giving time for plants to do their work.

As an earth-centered herbalist and Pagan, one of the ways that I help those I serve understand the ways that plants work in our lives, is to point to the wheel of the year and the changing seasons. We do not suddenly leave spring and arrive in summer, but the land is always in a state of transition, moving from one season to the next. So it is within our bodies (and I use the term "bodies" to represent our physical, emotional, mental, and energetic selves), that we are always in a state of transition and movement. One of the hardest places to be on a healing journey is to feel stuck in one place getting nowhere - yet, even in these moments we are already in motion and entering into a new season of our lives. 

Centering our practices as herbalists and plant folk around the cycles of seasons helps to protect us against the false marketing of herbs as "miraculous cures" and the desire for instantaneous healing exacerbated by social media - an influence that can sway any of us, especially when we are desperate to feel better. While the slow and steady nature of healing plants can feel disheartening at first, when we approach healing as something which is transformative, it can be easier to perceive the summer heat we're craving even during the long drizzle of spring. A transformative and seasonal approach to healing doesn't promise specific results or miraculous cures, but helps us to find hope and expansive connection through knowing that we are always in a state of transformative change. 

So as spring transforms into summer, I've collected a few of my favorite recipes for the waking season to help us make a little room for and connect with the sometimes hard-to-detect, other times bright and shining, transformations occurring all around and within us. 

image via @anniespratt

Spring to Summer Remedies

The following recipes are formulated as teas but can easily be made into herbal extracts, baths, or other forms of herbal remedies. I’ve crafted them with the transition from (roughly) Gemini to Cancer season in the northern hemisphere and from (roughly) Sagittarius to Capricorn season in the southern hemisphere in mind, but they can easily be adapted or used throughout the year.

image via @hasanalmasi

For When You Need Help Slowing Down

On the land I live with, spring moves fast and then summer is suddenly here - the time between wearing sweaters to wearing sandals can be dizzying. But even if you live someplace where the time between spring and summer seems to draw on and on, there can exist a social pressure to be extra "productive" in spring in order to get "summer ready" (yikes, no). Summer, with its days of long light and increased heat, can be a beautiful time to slow down and plant allies like the nervous system trophorestorative Milky Oat (Avena sativa) help us to do just that. Together with Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), an herb that helps us to find and connect with our own inner rhythms, and Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), a plant ally that helps to slow down racing thoughts and soothe anxiety, the following blend helps us to pause, rest, and recenter ourselves as spring tumbles into summer.

• 3 parts Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• 1 part Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

• ½ part Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

image via @anniespratt

For When You Need to Cool Off

Late spring and early summer can bring with it weather that oscillates between sweater weather and hot snaps, so it's good to have a few cooling herbs to work with. Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa) is one of my favorite hot season herbs, helping to calm, cool, and relax us. I love combining Hibiscus with Peppermint (Mentha piperita) which relaxes us when we need to calm down and energizes us when we need to wake up. The adaptogenic qualities of Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis) are great any time of year, but during the summer the plant helps to protect the skin from the inside out from the season's increased heat as well as helping to balance our overall energy. The following drink can be served hot, but I especially like it iced and sweetened (maybe even made into a swamp tea). 

• 4 parts Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa)

• 1 part Peppermint (Mentha piperita)

• ¼ part Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis)

image via @anniespratt

For When Your Heart Needs Nourishing

The expansive energy of the land blossoming from spring into summer, stirs the energy of our own heart centers. Working with heart herbs like Hawthorn Berry (Crataegus monogyna), which acts as rejuvenative cardiovascular tonic, and the heart-opening Rose (Rosa spp.) help us to get in touch with our own power of possibility. Both herbs are also excellent allies for those in the midst of heartbreak, helping to nourish not just the physical heart muscle, but the energetic heart muscle as well. Lovely Elder flower (Sambucus nigra) adds natural sweetness in addition to its restorative nervine qualities. 

• 4 parts Hawthorn Berry (Crataegus monogyna)

• 1 part Rose (Rosa spp.)

• ½ part Elder Flower (Sambucus nigra)

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Three simple recipes to help us move from spring to summer with inspiration and heart-centered excitement. You can find more seasonal inspiration for your practice by checking out spring wellness apothecary and summer wellness apothecary posts. You can also explore my series on herbal and magickal suggestions for every season. If you’re looking for more between-the-seasons guides:

• Slow Winter, Soft Spring: Herbal Remedies for the Quiet Season

May these days in-between seasons bring you a sense of wonder at the ways we are always in a state of becoming, full of possibility, filling up with hope like light increasing across the land.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

My Favorite Evening Tarot Practice

Most of my (mostly) daily tarot practice takes place in the morning, fit in somewhere between waking up and making my tea.

But sometimes the fading light of evening draws me back to my cards, to shuffle through the day's energy, and make sense of what has come and gone. Often, when I’m called to an evening tarot session it means that I need some extra support in getting settled into my resting body, so that I can get some sleep.

What follows is a simple evening tarot spread to help us ground and center so that we can proceed with our evening and night feeling rested. Of course, while I've written this spread with the evening in mind, it can be used anytime your energy is feeling stirred up and you're having trouble settling down. Beyond tarot, it can be use in a journaling practice, your evening or morning pages, and even as prompts to consider during your evening meditation practice.

May you be inspired to shape the following spread into something that works best for you and your needs.

Settling the Spirit
My Favorite Evening Tarot Spread

Card 1. To set aside

You can be as broad or specific when you are casting your spread. If you want to focus on an area of your life that you're having trouble feeling restless about, you could ask, for example, "What worry about my school project can I set aside just for tonight?" Sometimes we can pinpoint where are restlessness is stemming from and so you can keep this prompt open-ended.

Card 2. To acknowledge

This card points us towards something that is useful to acknowledge - often, but not limited to, an emotional experience. If you pull the Five of Wands, for example, it might be important to recognize that today held a lot of conflict and to notice where you're feeling that conflict in your body. Often just acknowledging where you're feeling something can start to move and release that energy, helping you feel more settled. If you pull a really positive card here it's important to recognize that great stuff that happened and how that feels in your body, too! Let that joy settle in your bones!

Card 3. To practice

I like pulling a card that reminds me to connect to a healing practice. If my energy is feeling unsettled and I'm wanting to pull cards about it, there is likely a lot going on in my life and I might have lost sight of the simple ways I can help feel grounded and centered. Sometimes I pull only from the Major Arcana for this card (and reference my oracle of care), but other times I pull from the whole deck. More often than not, I'm not meant to jump up and do the practice the card pulled here indicates, but to be mindful about incorporating this practice over the next few days. I find that one of the ways we can start to settle our energy is to know that we have some healing practices to look forward to. 

Card 4. To encompass

The final card helps call in the energy needed to help us settle right now. The prompt "to encompass" is inspired by Scottish blessings found in the Carmina Gadelica where holy ones are called upon to cover us with a mantle or blanket of protection. It's language that I use in my own nightly practices and the energy is very grounding, and not only feels protective, but very comforting. So this card helps us to connect with that grounding, protective, comforting energy needed to help our body to settle and rest.

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If you're looking for more healing practices to help you have a peaceful evening and restful night, you might enjoy this tea recipe and get to know a sleeping and dreaming plant ally. I also enjoy this bit of lunar wisdom to help point us in the direction of where we might rest deepest. For those of you looking for my complete collection of community tarot spreads, come this way.

I hope this simple tarot spread inspires your own evening practices and helps you to feel settled and steady on your path to deep, restorative rest.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

A Might-do List for the Quarter Moons

Observing lunar time is one way of inviting a practice of ebb and flow into your healing work.

For those of us our raised in cultures and under institutional systems where our time and how we should “spend” it is often defined for us and not by us. So when we step purposely into healing work, at some point we find ourselves reassessing our time and all the ways that time can be measured and experienced. For me, the Moon offers an energetic pattern and mythological model that I find helpful when it comes to reconnecting to the sacredness of time (instead of its commodification), which is one of the reasons I’ve been writing a whole series on what you might (or might-not) do for the different phases of the Moon.

Having already offered might-do lists for the Full Moon and the New Moon, I wanted to turn our focus towards the Quarter Moons - the halfway points between energetics heights and depths of the lunar cycle.

The Quarter Moons, also known as Half Moons, are periods of balance tipping towards a period of expansion or increase with the growing or Waxing Quarter Moon or a time of retraction or decrease with the shrinking or Waning Quarter Moon.

The Waxing Quarter Moon, also known as the First Quarter Moon, marks a point of balance between what has been and what shall be. Momentum, disentanglement, vitality, and harmonization are key energies of the Waxing Quarter Moon.

The Waning Quarter Moon, also known as the Last Quarter Moon, offers us a time to shed, fall back, and sort out which seeds we're interested in planting, if not just quite yet. Change, reassessment, release, balance, and decluttering are all key energies of the Waning Quarter Moon.

With all that to explore, let's see what we might do (or might-not do, no pressure, it’s your time to experience) for our Quarter Moon celebrations.

image via @jannerboy62

Connect with the Elementals

I'm not entirely sure when or why I began associating the Quarter Moon with four element work and specifically working the spirits known as elementals, but it is a practice that has stuck with me through the years. The elementals or undines, salamanders, gnomes, and sylphs are part of European magickal and alchemical lore codified during the Renaissance, in part by German physician and alchemist Paracelsus, but with older folkloric roots. Of course, the idea of elemental beings is not isolated to European lore and you'll find stories of these types of creatures throughout the world - it can be a rewarding practice to seek out these elemental energy within your cultural and spiritual traditions if you’re not familiar with them already.

As a time of balance leaning either into expansion or retraction, the Quarter Moons can be an auspicious time to either call in more or release excess element-based energy by working with the elementals. If, for example, you've been trying to draw in more watery energy to you, such as for intuitive work, you might choose a Waxing Quarter Moon in a water sign such as Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces to help call in intuitive, watery energy through the mediating help of the undines. Alternatively, if you're dealing with too much fire energy in your life, you can work with the salamanders on a Waning Quarter Moon in a fire sign (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) where you offer them your excess fire energy, which they will be happy to accept. 

Practice Magnetizing Magick

The energy of the Waxing Quarter Moon is one of pulling towards and filling up. We can connect to this current of magick through magnetizing our practice to draw towards us of what we are seeking during any given lunar cycle. We might be in the midst of a long-term act of change, needing to draw courage to help us manifest who we are becoming. Other times we might need a quick bit of magnetic magick, drawing towards us opportunities and resources that we need as soon as possible. Within our communities, the Waxing Quarter Moon is a time for groups to act out big visions of what is possible, helping us all to bring in and anchor hope, and magnetizing our visions to draw in what is needed for the work.

Brew Recipes & Create Charms of Balance

Holding space between light and dark, the Quarter Moons are an auspicious time to make herbal recipes that help to bring us into a state of nourished homeostasis. Charms for balance, whether balancing energy, boundaries or whatever requires a steady balance in your life, can be made at either of the Quarter Moons. You might even draw the balancing energy of the Quarter Moons into the rest of your life through creating your own oracle of care to help remind you what it is that helps you feel centered.

image via @linalitvina

Rituals of Release

Whether walking a Moon Path (see below) or not, the Waning Quarter Moon is a time to release, let go, and sort out what seeds, ideas or dreams want to keep a hold of, and what we want to pass on for someone else to flourish with. Rituals to release regret, shame, sorrow, old identities and ideas, old pain and trauma, are all auspicious during the Waning Quarter Moon (and can be tied into any therapeutic support you've been receiving, such as supporting breakthroughs in therapy with ritual). If you need some divinatory support to better understand what needs releasing so that you can embrace your magickal gifts, come this way.

Get Rooted

Whether with the inward drawing energy of the Waning Quarter Moon or the expanding outward energy of the Waxing Quarter Moon, the Quarter Moon period is a wonderful time to practice grounding and centering magick. Living in times of hyperconnectivity and profound social noise, it can be increasingly challenging to slow down and get centered. Working with the phases of the Moon and the ebb and flow of lunar energy is a way to feel supported in our effort, connecting to an energy greater than our own to help us feel balanced. If you're feeling stretched too thin and pulled in too many directions, consider working with the energy of the Waning Quarter Moon. If you're feeling like you're struggling to stay strong and steady within yourself, consider working with the energy of the Waxing Quarter Moon.

Strengthen Your Resolve

By the growing light of the Waxing Quarter Moon we can practice rituals to help us strengthen our resolve, focus our willpower, and call in the allies needed to help us find whatever it is that we're seeking - from new job opportunities to like-minded friends to the courage to make a much needed change in our life. As the Moon waxes, so does your resolve, culminating in the vibrant energy of the Full Moon. As the Moon wanes, let it carry away doubt and fear, the New Moon carrying you forward with growing momentum.

Find Your Balance with Breathwork

One of the most effective ways that I know to find balance is through breathwork. Breathwork is free to practice and doesn't require any fancy equipment, and can be used at any time and in any place. With the balanced ebb and flow of energy present at the Quarter Moons, breathwork can be a powerful way to connect with your own sense of balance. You can find resources for your breathwork practice over here.

image via @oandersonrian

Tend to Your Tenderness

One of the ways that we can take care of those tender parts of ourselves is by taking time to pull our energy back from all the places it has gone wandering. Shedding layers of expectation, we can hold, with gentleness and care, those tender parts of ourselves that don't always get the space to just be soft. One of the mythological images of the Waning Quarter Moon that you'll find in modern Goddess spirituality spaces (though it is based on fragments of much older traditions), is the Waning Moon as the Goddess pulling her veil or blanket around her shoulders and head, retreating from the bright attention and needs of the world, to dwell a bit in the quiet dark. I love connecting to this mythological current of energy, drawing a protective mantle around my own energy, so that I can feel safe enough to spend time in my tenderness, instead of constantly trying to keep up with impossible demands of "toughing it out" under social and institutional systems not built for human scale. Plant allies like Milky Oat (Avena sativa) and Linden (Tilia x europaea) can be useful guides to work with if you're seeking extra support for your tender self.

Cast a Moon Path

Starting on the day of the Quarter Moon, there are about 8 to 9 days to either the New Moon, in the case of starting on the Waning Quarter Moon, or to the Full Moon if you're starting on the Waxing Quarter Moon. These days (or nights) of practice are an opportunity for Moon Path rituals, where you time your ritual to the increase or decrease of the Moon's light. If you're wanting to bring something into your life, something which requires effort and attention, a Moon Path ritual starting on the night of the Waxing Quarter Moon and culminating on the Full Moon can be a powerful act of magick. For something that you're wanting to release from your life, walking a multi-night lunar path into the dark to emerge again at the New Moon can be deeply healing.

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Do you have a lunar practice for the Quarter Moons? For more Quarter Moon practices, you can explore my simple rituals and healing practices for the Waxing Quarter Moon and the Waning Quarter Moon. You can also find the rest of my might-do lists for the lunar esbats below:

• A Might-do List for the Dark Moon

• A Might-do List for the New Moon

• A Might-do List for the Full Moon

If you’re looking for my full collection of post about the Moon (there’s a lot!), check out the Moon Studies section of my Astroherbology archive. If you’re looking for my might-do series on the sabbats, here you go.

And for those looking for a deep dive into the world of lunar healing work, come this way.

Friends, I hope that you found something useful for your own monthly practices, and that you find your unique balance and rhythm that helps you feel at home in your life.

This post was made possible through patron support.
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