Non-Wiccan Ways to Celebrate: February

Cross-Quarter

A Cross-Quarter happens this month on or around the 2nd or 3rd in my time zone, with some fluctuation of a day or two depending on where in the world you are located and the year. A Cross-Quarter is the midpoint of the four seasons in temperate zones, happening between the Equinox and Solstice. The February Cross-Quarter can be considered Mid-Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Cross-Quarters are key times for celebrations throughout many cultures.

Plan Your Garden

I know it still probably feels far away, but Spring will be here next month. In our home, the February Cross-Quarter means it's time to plan our garden and order seeds.

Some seeds need to be started indoors in February, some in March. Where I live the frost date is far enough out I usually can wait to start most seeds in March. In years past when I've tried to get get a head start too early and started seeds too soon, the plants reach a point where they start to deteriorate in their indoor pots and environment before it's safe to place them outside, so lessons learned. Maybe if you have a whole grow-light situation and more room than I do, or you live somewhere with a longer growing season, you will be more successful than me starting earlier.

We plan our whole garden at this time, but also focus on what plants we want or need in the coming year for our magickal and Witchcraft practices. Not everything needs to be grown outdoors. For example, because we do so much Spirit and Ancestor work, we used to order a lot of Dittany of Crete from Greece every year. Then one year my husband got some seed and started growing it himself in our windowsill. We don't have the right climate here for Dittany to thrive outside but it does allow us to have some access to the living plant and get to know it better. We've even been able to harvest from it several times and that's always a delight.

If this is a new practice for you, you might start by asking yourself what herbs you want to access this year in your own Witchcraft practice. Pick some new herbs or plants you’ve never grown or worked with and try them. If growing them for magickal use, and you want to dive deep into forming a connection with the Spirit of the plant, I suggest starting with one to three new plants at a time until you’ve mastered growing and working with them.

You may need to factor in what your restrictions are regarding how much space you have to start seedlings indoors (if needed), garden space, sunlight, and time you have to realistically care for your plants.

Also important to know is whether your plant is an annual or perennial. Perennial plants regrow every spring, while annual plants live for only one growing season, then die off.

It’s OK to JUST GROW a new plant and connect with it as it is. You don’t have to harvest it the first year or use it in any other way.

Consider what plants they get along with and which ones they don't when choosing what to plant them near or next to, what pests or diseases they might be prone or susceptible to and safe ways to treat them if it happens.

If you DO plan to use your plant, think about how it will need to be harvested (and when), what method you will use to dry it or process it, how you will store it, will you harvest the seeds and grow it again next year, and ways you think it will be used either medicinally, magickally or otherwise. Research these things now and create a guide for yourself in a garden or plant journal.

Plan to grow only as much as you will have room for and time to care for it. You don’t have to harvest all of the plant, so feel free to grow as much as you like as long as you have the room and time. You can always gift some to your herb-minded friends and family if you have more than you need.

Magickal Garden Ideas

This month, create a plan for your Spring garden by thinking ahead about which magickal additions you'd like to grow, and it bears repeating... order seeds for them now.

In a Witch's Garden, you can plant things as-you-please, willy-nilly or together in groups based on their magickal properties or themes. Here's a few ideas in several categories, and is by no means a complete list.

In my examples below, I've tried to stick to plants that can be grown outdoors in my own USDA hardiness zone-6b, and even then, a couple are -ish. I always feel plant zones are suggestions, not hard and fast rules. There's a lot of wiggle room there so don't be afraid to experiment with plants labeled for zones a bit outside of yours.

Protection

Spirit Summoning / Ancestor Work

Lunar Plants (plants that bloom at night)

Solar Plants

Heliotropic flowers track the Sun's motion across the sky from east to west. Some also close at night and open when the Sun rises.

Baneful Plants (for baneful & hex works)

Love & Romance

Psychic Work

Prosperity & Wealth

Peace & Calm

Happiness & Joy

Cleansing & Purification

(These can also be bundled for smoke cleansing)

NOTE: I really dislike the way modern Witchcraft has been reduced to just vendor-machine magick. Everything has been turned into a quick list of correspondences, like herbs. I get it! It's easy-to-digest and makes everyone feel like they know the thing. My lists above are just starting points. Like most things, there is so SO much more to know about each herb than just the handful of correspondences most books and websites show you. Growing the herbs yourself is an opportunity to dive deep into understanding all the nuances of each plant you work with in your practice. I promise there is a whole world of information you'll discover for yourself when you approach your plants with an open mind and open heart!

You can also group your plants by where you feel they fit within any system you might use. For example, elements if you use them in your practice. Not knocking Cunningham, but I don't follow the traditional Wiccan ideas about herbs corresponding to certain elements, genders, astrological signs, etc. I just go with what feels right to me and how I will use it based on my own personal symbolism and correspondences. Fiery herbs might be ones good for protection, creativity, baneful work and passion. Watery herbs might be good for emotional support, healing, love & relationships, dreams and Lunar work. Airy plants may be excellent for communication, clarity of mind, divination, journeying and astral travel. Earthy herbs might include ones good for grounding, money & prosperity, protection, growth and employment.

Add more magick to your garden planning by planting your magickally-themed groupings in the shapes of power symbols or sigils. Sun-and Moon themed plants could easily be sun or crescent shaped. You can always design your own sigils based on your intentions for using the plants in that group.

There's also other corresponding symbols in alchemy, the elements and astrology to borrow from.

Don't discount numbers, letters, and basic shapes like circles, triangles, diamonds, pentagrams, squares and hearts.

Power symbols could include:

When it's time to plant your seedlings outdoors, reference your planning notebook or journal to arrange them in the symbolic shape you've settled on.

Alternately you can add a plant stake with your symbol to each corresponding plant, or if you prefer container gardening it can be added directly to the plant pot.

Here's some free downloads I designed to help you get started planning your garden:

Bioregional Herb of the Month

WHITE SAGE

This month's bioregional herb is Sage. Even though California White Sage is not grown overseas or imported, it's still problematic for all the reasons I've mentioned the million other times I've talked or written about this topic over the years. I won't repeat it all here again because frankly by now you really should know why California White Sage is wrong to purchase commercially. I'm past the point of tip toeing around how some folks get offended by this.

On the surface, California White Sage meets many of our bioregional guidelines and seems like it would be a good fit. It grows locally, at least in some parts of California, but it's can't be wild harvested without negatively impacting local populations. The wholesale poaching of California White Sage gained worldwide popularity, thanks in large part to New Age practitioners and even Hollywood stars. Tons and tons of this sacred plant have been stolen (poached) from tribal lands, public lands and even some plots of privately-owned land, decimating ecologies and Native cultures in Southern California and Baja California.

I fully admit to selling White Sage in my shop, too. I was part of the problem and didn't realize it. I thought if I purchased it directly from verified Native sellers, I was somehow helping instead of harming. But I was wrong. Being a seller of White Sage meant I was a part of normalizing the use of it and that contributes to more folks buying it, regardless of where it comes from, which contributes to more poaching to keep up with the demand. In this epidemic of people chasing a Witch aesthetic, it's even more important we model better decision-making and disrupt these harmful practices.

For all the rest of us not part of the Indigenous tribes of California whose traditions rely on White Sage, the good news is this plant can easily be replaced with literally any other Sage. Luckily it grows everywhere. It's highly likely you have a local sage plant that grows wild where you live. If not, you can always grow one of the many varieties in your garden. It's also OK to grow your own White Sage. It's notoriously difficult to cultivate but can be done in some climates. The point is to reduce your dependence on purchasing it commercially as your go-to for all-things smoke-cleansing.

Where I live we have an abundance of Sagebrush. I regularly harvest it in the wild and create my own bundles as needed. In addition to Sagebrush, you may find either wild or available to grow in your garden other varieties of Sage, including Mountain Sage, Blue Sage, Woodland Sage, Common Sage (Culinary Sage), Meadow Sage, and a host of others. There are a lot of plants that use 'sage' in the name but to replace your White Sage I would suggest looking at the ones that are in the Genus Salvia to get those 'sage' notes you are familiar with.

If you already have a bundle or two of White Sage, don't throw it out! Use it up and then make the switch as soon as you're able. You can help be part of the solution by both choosing to not purchase White Sage anymore, and also by being a vocal advocate in your friend and Witch groups. Help educate people on this issue, do your research and promote Native voices writing and speaking on White Sage, and especially those directly impacted by the commercialization of this plant.

In addition to every-other-Sage as a White Sage substitute, I also want to advocate for Cedar, Juniper, Rosemary, Mugwort and Pine as equally awesome replacements. Each have their own unique properties and Spirit, so take time to get to know them and work with them so you have good intuition about what to reach for when you need it.

Explore Your Public Library

In my practice, part of being a Witch means, to me at least, that I look for ways to maximize the natural resources around me. Usually I talk about doing this by using what you have on hand for your spells and rituals, or accessing wild plants, and so on. It also means utilizing other resources available in my community, like the public library. These free resources are paid for with our tax dollars, and most of us never go there to use them! My Ancestors are probably red in the face from screaming at me every time I buy a new book when I could just go to the library.

Libraries are also liminal spaces full of potential magick. They’re repositories of knowledge, wisdom and information. With the tall windows, flights of stairs, and bricked archways, it’s easy to pretend the library is a vast mystical study in an arcane secret society’s lair.

This month venture out into the great wild world of your public library! There's more than just books to read. Look for other ways you can participate in this community resource. I once was asked to participate in our local Humans of the Magic Valley, where people can come and learn about new people they have never met. In this case I was available in my role as a Witch. Total strangers could 'check me out' like a book, which just meant they could sit with me for an allotted time to ask me questions and learn more about what it means to be me. It was a fabulous experience and a great way to help dispel myths and misconceptions about Witches.

Libraries are fun places to do magick and spells on the DL, too. Think about spells that call on wisdom and knowledge, and perform them inside a library where you are surrounded by that powerful energy. You can also use the proximity to archives to work with Ancestors or local Spirits, past events and even Spirits of Place. Consider historically how many people have passed through that space, on that land, and the imprints of themselves being left behind in every book they touched, read and deeply thought about. The old newspapers, maps, almanacs, atlases and encyclopedias are a treasure trove for time travel and astral works. Libraries are also excellent places for magicks related to social justice, equality & fairness, and the power of the common folk. Libraries serve as safe havens for everyone, and protection and safety spells can be performed here. Other intentions you can draw on here include peace and calm, quiet and solitude, community, judgement-free-zone, growth and personal development, literacy, and accessing records.

Some ways you can interact with this local resource:

Get Creative

During 'slow' months like February is a good chance to feed your creative interests. Over the last few weeks I've been teaching myself new skills for a project I want to do in a few months for a trip planned with some of my family. I'm watching Youtube videos, practicing new techniques and making projects as I learn and grow in this new creative path. I'm also painting more, felting more, weaving more, sewing more, and just generally crafting more. I have the down time to get caught up on projects that have been sitting for months half-complete or barely started. I'm digging into my 'stashes'- fabric, candles, paper, herbs, beads, charms- all of it. I'm breaking open packaging for supplies I bought long ago with the BEST of intentions to use it immediately but never did. I mean, if you know, you know.

This month I challenge you to start (and hopefully finish!) a new creative project. Whatever that means for you. It can be Witchy, or not. Learn a new skill or dust off an old one that you haven't used in awhile. Creativity is one of those things that fades into the background when we don't use it regularly. It can feel impossible to wake it up again when it's gone seemingly dormant, but I promise you it's still there!

Creativity is an essential part of my magickal practice. It helps me stay bendy and open-minded. I can improvise better when I'm tapped into my creative flow, and find I'm more resourceful in general. My brain problem solves better and I have better clarity of mind overall when I've spent time being creative in one way or another. Emotionally I'm more centered and I have more energy and mental bandwidth. This all helps me during spellwork, ritual and in all aspects of my magickal practices. It also keeps Ancestors, Hearth and Home Spirits, elementals and other entities around me happier and better connected to me. Creative energy flowing through your home is a great way to raise the energy of your space, making it more difficult for unwanted, stagnant and low-vibing energy to move-in and get comfortable. This is especially useful during the dark cold months of Winter.

As a seller and business owner, I find it especially challenging to do creative things anymore without considering whether it will sell in my shop. I struggle so hard these days with doing creative projects just for me. I've been slowly creating intention around this so I can let go of that pressure to always create-for-profit and embrace the joy of creating for pleasure.

Now I'm actively putting this into action and I tell you, I love it so hard!! I'm also enjoying not taking pictures of everything I make right now. It's freeing and is letting me really commit to the process, something that doesn't always happen when I know it's meant for others. This also supports me in my current personal work to let go of perfection and embrace the imperfect.

Social media has really sucked the soul from my creativity these last several years, and I encourage anyone else who struggles with this to consider making what you love and not sharing it online at first. I know that's not possible for everything or everyone, but when you can, try to hold some things back that are just for you. I used to share everything I made online and sometimes I felt like I was giving away some of my Power each time, if that makes sense. So, let it go back sometimes to just being about what you like, what you love, what feels good for you, without worrying how many likes or comments it will garner or whether others will approve. Be proud of the work because you created it, not because others gave you that validation. This is a type of strength and empowerment I am reacquainting myself with and I'm all the way here for it. 10 /10 DO recommend.

Bottle the Energy

Whether or not you agree with or participate in the commercialized holiday of Valentine's Day, this month offers a unique opportunity to channel love energy for spells and works related to relationships, love, romance and passion. As always, respect consent, and remember that magick is not a valid solution to force someone to be with you who doesn't want to be.

While a good percentage of people all around the planet are gushing over love, Witches can tap into that stream of power to fuel their magick. If you don't have anything special to use it on, just bottle it for later!

Bottling energy and magick is something I've done since I first started this path. It was a natural thing for me to want to bottle everything- storms, wind, memories, strong emotions, you name it. I think many-a-Witch is drawn to this life because we like jars so damn much, and when you are up to your eyeballs in jars you find things to put in them. Even things no one else can see.

Take my New Year's jar, for example:

Inside are hundreds of pieces of confetti, most cut out by hand by both me and my husband on New Year's Eve. Anchored to each of these pieces is the energy of New Year's celebrations gathered from all over the world. I captured the hoots, the hollers, the fireworks and everything else being shared and projected outward by everyone participating in New Year's. Now it's full of all that raw energy. I can add some of these as 'sprinkles' to any spell where that particular flavor of energy is desired. The moment I open the jar I'm instantly transported back to the fireworks, whooping, happiness, street parties, music & concerts, countdowns, hope and celebrations of the night. I can also just sit with it and let it infuse me, inspire me, motivate me, and then close it back up. I'm not worried about using it all up, either, because it gets replenished when I repeat it again the following New Year's. As long as there are pieces of confetti inside they each hold the full impact of the jar.

I won't go into detail about how I collect and infuse all that energy and use jars like this here, but I'm sure with some imagination you can figure out a system that works for you.

I keep another jar close to my desk, one created for Creativity. In it are strands of dyed fabric in bright, fun colors and patterns. They hold pure, powerful creative energy. Just like my New Year's confetti jar, I can use the strands in spells, but mostly I like to just open the jar and let the waves of bright, potent creativity wash over me whenever I need a boost.

I also have a jar for happiness and it's infused with Euphoria. After many years this jar never fails to flood me with this emotion the second I open it. It's better than any drug I could take.

One day I'll do a class on this with a lot more details and how I go about bottling everything from memories to emotions, but for now just remember this holiday in February is another opportunity to tap into strong emotions being carried along in the collective stream. Go out there and snatch some up to use them or bottle for later!

Challenge Your Beliefs

Winter is such an excellent time for reflection. Use this time for the work of challenging your ideas, views, beliefs and anything else you may feel strongly about.

My practice is motivated in part by a desire to avoid becoming religious or indoctrinated. Lots of 'Spiritual' ideas sound good on the surface, but fall apart on closer scrutiny. Toxic Positivity is a big one. Magickal Thinking is another. So many well-intentioned people quickly leap into agreement on Spiritual messaging because it sounds nice and because it seems like a popular message among their peer-groups. When these popular ideas are challenged, it becomes easier to see how they are toxic, damaging, short on logic, or support Purity Culture, Christian Culture, Patriarchy, Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexism, and so on.

I think we can get caught up relying on knee-jerk reactions and end up making those our default beliefs or views if we never take time to intentionally challenge them. We can forget that doing the work means we need to stay a bit flexible and hold ourselves accountable so we don't end up ranting about hot mess we don't actually care about or believe in. Sometimes it's hot mess we used to believe but don't anymore, and we just stay on auto-pilot, never updating our programming.

We owe it to ourselves to dig deeper and really examine what we think and feel about the things we accept as truth. Sometimes the truth changes. Sometimes we change. Sometimes circumstances change which alters our perception. What we believed a year ago does not have to be the default of what we believe this year.

As a secular Witch, I find it necessary to regularly analyze, question & challenge what I hold to be true for myself. What's true for you is not always true for me, but it's important we distinguish our personal truth from facts based on objective evidence. It's not a perfect system and I find flaws in my own logic and reason all the time. However, doing this regularly helps me stay more objective overall, and helps me identify where my biases and blindspots are.

When I suggest challenging your beliefs, I don't mean question whether science is real or vaccines work or the earth is round. These are objectively real and true things. I mean the things that are subjective, like whether using a red candle is better than a blue candle for love magick, or whether deities are real or just archetypes in our mind, or if Karma really exists. They don't all have to be big doozies, they can be absolutely anything you feel a certain type of way about.

This month take a walk through your beliefs, practices, and such. Pay attention to the things that are fuzzy or aren't settled yet, and what you feel strongly about. Write down the parts you think are important to examine.

Possible questions and prompts to challenge yourself with along the way:

Feel free to use your own questions or prompts, too!

You can also read articles or books that disagree with your views as a way to challenge yourself and be well informed about why you believe what you do, and also why you don't believe what you don't. Here's one article many will find challenging for them.

This is an exercise to get you really diving in to your own beliefs and feelings. It's not meant to be used to justify your practices or views to others. However, if we can't justify them even to ourselves in a reasonably sound way, that could be an indicator we need to challenge it until we feel we could hold our ground in a debate if needed. Again, it doesn't mean you will debate or should debate, it's just a helpful framework to do this in (imo).

Challenging yourself in these ways does not mean you are obligated to change anything! That can certainly be a side-effect, though. Sometimes it shines a light on an area we're ready to grow in and helps give us a kick in the pants so we don't muck around in stagnation forever.

Challenging yourself can let you figure out which of your beliefs are flexible, and which ones are fixed. It's OK to have some fixed beliefs and ideas! For example, I believe convicted child molesters
  are never, ever, ever redeemable and have no business being welcomed or permitted in public spaces within the Spiritual community. It could have been a thousand years ago, it doesn't matter to me. I don't care who agrees or disagrees with me. I don't care if it's popular or not. I don't care if there are exceptions and gray areas - I'm not the judge or jury who heard all the details. It's a hill I'm ready to die on. I feel strongly about it and it's highly unlikely I'll ever change my mind. I'll go to my grave ready to fight somebody over this. Even though I feel so strongly about this, I still put this viewpoint through the challenge exercises just in case there's ever room for me to evolve my stance. I always try to stay open to new facts and information, and different perspectives can influence me if they resonate, so I want to allow those in, not feel threatened by them and reject them outright, and see if anything is worth changing. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.

For me, sometimes I think I feel strongly about something, enough so to make a video or post about it for my page. Then part-way through my rant I realize I don't have all the facts or enough information to be this worked up about it (I'm having a knee-jerk reaction) and I decide not to proceed.

Sometimes I realize I actually don't care enough about it after all or that adding my voice to the mix clutters things more rather than provides any clarity.

Sometimes I realize my logic is faulty and I am able to take a step back and think about it more. Then I can come back to it later but more informed and present a well-thought out opinion or position.

Sometimes I like to challenge my beliefs and ideas by pretending in my head that I'm arguing in court, in a formal debate, or in front of an audience as I question myself with what I imagine the opposition might say, and identify holes in my reasoning.

Exercises like these also really help me find when a feeling or idea isn't in alignment with other beliefs I have.

You get the gist.

I hope you'll take some of these suggestions and try challenging yourself this month. Keep a journal so you can see your progress and remind yourself to come back to things later when you need more time with it.

Wishing you all a magickal February!

Love,

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