Long Night Moon

• The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon - December during this month, the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

Correspondences:

Colors: Black and white, silver
Gemstones: Hematite
Trees: Birch, Hazel
Gods: Inanna, Freyja

Herbs: Thistle, nuts and seeds, marjoram
Element: Air

This is a good time to work on magick related to protection, both physical and spiritual. Use this time to develop your inner self, and advance spiritually, becoming closer to the higher aspects of your deities.

Spiritual Cleaning

Recently I started to thoroughly clean my house and I tried some spiritual house cleansing. One thing I did was fill a bowl with White Vinegar and added sliced apples to the vinegar. This ritual clears away negativity within the home.

I have to honestly say that when my house is clear and cleaned-my mind is free and clear. To feel peace within the home is the utmost importance to me. It is a place to hang your hat, put your feet up, and simply pamper yourself to the highest form.

Lighting incense can help with your home, in fact, frankincense can improve the energy in your home. Opening windows will allow all toxins to *Fly* out the window especially if you don't use Eco Friendly Products.

Declutter your space as cluttering scatters the brain. Your home is your sanctuary and a place to feel spiritually safe and free!

Visualization Sunday

Herb Ball

Jennifer inspired me with her herb jar and I decided to add my own twist and design an Herb Ball! I took a glass ball and filled it with Cinnamon, Thyme, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Parsley, Coriander, Frankincense Resin, and Valerian Root. I added an Olive color silk ribbon and tied a Moon charm to the center to honor the Goddess. Unfortunatly, the camera I have is not the best and it doesn't show the charm clear enough.

Each one of these herbs have similarities in their meanings that include purification, protection, and cleansing. I added a Holly Leaf that represents protection of the home. In fact, if you burn a holly leaf and incense together this combination protects the home and draws good luck.

I hung the Herb Glass Ball on my kitchen cabinet where it is to be seen everyday. This is the very first time doing something like this and I enjoyed this so very much.

Herbs and their correspondences:

Cinnamon: Purification, Protection, Money and Love
Thyme: Cleansing and Clearing
Basil: Love, Protection and Wealth
Whole Oregano: Troublsome in-laws away
Rosemary: Protecting, Purifying-gives a woman domination in the home
Coriander: Protection and Peace
Frankinscence Resin: Protection, Spirituality, Cleansing negative energies
Valerian Root: Sleep, Protection, Purifying

The Witch's Broom

Who isn't fascinated with the Witch's Broom? This wonderful story explains the Witch's Broom in full detail. According to this site it states, " Brooms are a symbol of female domesticity. Centuries ago, a woman would push her broom up the chimney or prop it outside the door to show to callers and neighbors that she was out of the house. From there, it was an easy step to believe that witches, who purportedly could fly, would use their most common tool and soar up the chimney on it."

Another site states, "The myth of Witches riding a broom most likely started from spectators seeing the ritual during the spring equinox where Witches would dance in fields carrying brooms and leaping into the air to show the crops how high to grow."

Jumping over a broom on one's wedding day originated from the African American Culture.

"Among southern Africans, who were largely not a part of the Atlantic slave trade, it represented the wife's commitment or willingness to clean the courtyard of the new home she had joined. In England, jumping over the broom (or sometimes walking over a broom), became nominally synonymous (i.e. "Married over the besom") with irregular or non-church unions."

There are obviously many myths and legends about the broom one being that the broom sweeps away negativity in one's home.

But about the flying: My analogy:

To fly on one's broomstick: Can it be a symbol of strength and lightness of one's soul? Can the flying myth be about a person who has the weight taken off their shoulders, the burden taken from their soul, and the contenment one has about who they are and proud of the person they've become? To be honest with one self and to be joyful and free, to be free.

To feel light and free..to fly!

Gaia

The one area I am still trying to embrace are the Goddesses. The three that I would like to get to know better are Gaia (Mother Goddess/Earthmother), Tara (Buddhism), and Hestia (Hearth Goddess).

According to Gaia Goddess.com it states, "Gaia (or Gaea) is the personification of the Earth, the primal mother of all who first emerged at the dawn of creation. She gave birth to Uranus, the sky, and Pontus, the sea, and all mortal creatures sprung from her earthly womb."

Her realms of influence are fertility, Summer, flowers, plants, love, healing, the arts, and the sea and rules the elements Earth and Water. The Moon is a symbol of Goddesses which represents female mysteries.

For more information refer to Gaia.

Hestia-Goddess of Hearth

In Greek mythology, virginal Hestia is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household, but had no public cult.

"Hestia preserves the sanctity of the private home, keeping it a refuge and a place of spiritual renewal." Hestia is an example of how holy the hearth and hearthfire were considered, and how sacred the home as temple was for a family.

Her name means "home and hearth": the household and its inhabitants. Her presence is symbolized by a flame burning on the hearth or altar.

Hestia does not figure in any mythic narrative: she did not roam; she had no adventures; she simply was. The Homeric hymn To Hestia is consequently brief, simply an invocation of five lines, a prelude:

"Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise: draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song."