1. Monday- Color Silver- Waning Moon- Labor Day- Doreen Valiente died, 1999- Greek New Year- St. Fiacre patron of Gardeners, VD sufferers, Taxi Drivers.
2. Tuesday- Color Grey- Waning Moon- Ramadan begins- St. Giles. Patron of crippled, beggars, lepers, nursing mothers.
3. Wednesday- Color Brown- Waning Moon- St. Basilissa patroness of nursing mothers and fevers and St. Gregory patron of music and plague
4. Thursday- Color Turquoise- Waning Moon- St Rita Viterbo patroness of florists and flower growers
5. Friday- Color Pink- Waning Moon- Aslinn Dhan Dragonhawk becomes a witch of the Christian Tradition 1996
6. Saturday- Color Blue- Waning moon- Gaia Theory developed by Oberon Zell 1970- St. Magnus of Fussen- patron of crops
7. Sunday- Color Amber- Waxing Moon- Theosophical Society founded 1875
8. Monday- Color Ivory- Waxing Moon- Blessed Virgin Mary of Charity patroness of Cuba
9. Tuesday- Color Maroon- Waxing Moon- St Peter Claver patron of African Americans and Columbia
10. Wednesday- Color Topaz- Waxing Moon- St. Nicholas of Tolentino patron of dying, those in purgatory, fire, sickness, animals, and babies and mothers
11. Thursday- Color White- Waxing Moon- Patriot’s Day- Birthday of Raven SilverWolf, witch and author- Blessed Virgin Mary of Coromoto patroness of Venezuela
12. Friday- Color Rose- Waxing Moon- St. John Chrysostom patron of preaching, eloquence and Constantinople
13. Saturday- Color Grey- Waxing Moon- Phillip IV of France writes the warrant for the Knights Templar 1306- St. Venerius patron of Lighthouse Keepers
14. Sunday- Color Orange- Waxing Moon- Birthday of Henry Cornelius Agrippa 1486
15. Monday- Color Lavender- Full Moon/Harvest Moon- St. Catherine of Genoa patroness of nurses
16. Tuesday- Color Black- Full Moon- Death of Giles Corey in Salem MA. 1692- St. Cyprian patron of Algeria and North Africa and St. Ludmilla patroness of Czechoslovakia
17. Wednesday- Color Yellow- Full Moon- Bewitched debuts 1964- St. Robert Bellamire patron of catechists and catechumens
18. Thursday- Color Purple- Waning Moon- St. Joseph of Cupertino patron of students, flying and astronauts
19. Friday- Color White- Waning Moon
20. Saturday- Color Indigo- Waning Moon- St Eustace patron of hunters and those in difficult situations
21. Sunday- Color Yellow- Waning Moon- Death of Eleanor Bone, matriarch of British witchcraft 2001- St Matthew patron of accountants, tax collectors, customs agents and security guards
22. Monday- Color Grey- Waning Moon- Mabon- St. Maurice patron of soldiers and Austria, Sardinia, dyers and weavers
23. Tuesday- Color White- Waning Moon
24. Wednesday- Color Brown- Waning Moon- Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy patroness of armies and soldiers
25. Thursday- Color Green- Waning Moon- US senate tries to deny tax exempt status to Wiccan temples- St Joseph Calasanctus patron of Catholic Schools
26. Friday- Color Purple- Waning Moon- Sts Cosmos and Damien patrons of doctors, pharmacists, barbers and the blind
27. Saturday- Color Blue- Waning Moon- Vincent De Paul patron of charities, hospitals and prisons
28. Sunday- Color Gold- Waning Moon- St Wenceslaus patron of Czechoslovakia and brewers
29. Monday- Color Silver- Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael patrons of Police officers, Soldiers, and exorcists/ communications and diplomacy/ travel, young people and the blind
30. Tuesday- Color Red- Waning Moon- St. Jerome patron of those who study scripture
Saint of the Month
St. Fiacre
Born in 670 AD- Feast Day is September 1
It is said that St. Fiacre was born in Ireland and could grow anything under God’s heaven. In legends around him, he is said to have plowed his fields with the mere sweep of his walking stick. This is why he is the patron of gardeners. He is also thought of as the patron saint of those suffering from VD. This may have been because he was not only a gardener but an herbalist and curer. He is also the patron of taxi drivers. This appellation may have been accidental as it has been said that taxi drivers made the best tips when they parked in front of the St. Fiacre Hotel in Paris and there after he was invoked when a cabbie needed to make more money.
Herb of the Month
Cloves
Caryophyllus aromaticus
Cloves are used for healing, memory, protection and courage. It was used in antiquity as one of the herbs and spices for the preservation of the dead. You can make a clove pomander with a nice fresh orange and a box of whole cloves and a long barbeque skewer. Using the skewer, poke holes in the tough peel of the orange and in the hole place a clove. Do this over the entire orange,, then with a large darning needle, draw a piece of yarn through the top of the orange to make a hanger. Hang it in a room where you are working or studying or where you have had illness or arguing. Lasts about a month. Great for Yule and Samhain decorations.
Spell of the Month
To Pay Karmic Debt
After you have been through a rough patch
1 Pink and 1 white candle
Opium oil
Fave Incense
Sage
Water
Check (or a piece of paper)
Simmer Cauldron
Anoint and light candle and incense. Put a bit of water and sage and opium oil in the simmer cauldron and heat. Fill out your check:
Date: Date of Ritual
Pay to the Order of: Karmic Debt
Amount: All
Amount: Live, Learn, Love, and Grow
Memo: Truth and Peace
Signature
Burn Check and add ashes to cauldron. Stir cauldron while intoning:
Karmic Debt is a wonderful thing
Through this process, my soul takes wings
This check is now due
I can start anew
To live learn love and grow
Till truth and peace is all I know
So mote it be.
Sprinkle potion around the room
Signs of the Month
Virgo (23 August- 22 September)
Perfectionist, religious, pays attention to detail, enjoys helping others, dependable. Can also be moody and a bit of a loner.
Libra (23 September- 23 October)
Seeks balance and reconciliation of differences, is a consummate peace maker and strives for calm. Loves beautiful things.
Tarot of the Month
Ten of Pentangles
Ten pentangles are floating on a background showing a lovely city gate with people going in and out it.
You are experiencing success in life with feelings of confidence. Family matters on the upswing and a gift or money or inheritance is on its way.
Essays for September
Fatal Flaws: Could our selfish natures hamper our magikal work?
By Moonviolet
All of us are human and all of us are flawed. We all have weaknesses. Mine is anger and insensitivity with a dash of selfishness thrown in. One of the things that I have learned from the Craft is that because we live under the dual rules of the Witches Rede and the Golden Rule, our interior selves both the good and the bad, effect our ability to work within the Craft.
While it is impossible to be perfect, it is our duty to identify and understand our flaws and work hard to rid ourselves of them. Sometimes efforts are successful and sometimes our efforts are not successful. The goal is not to let our flaws defeat and define us. Magik and magikal practices can help us.
Witches who do not dedicate time to prayer and meditation are prone to magikal dryness. So too the witch who stops studying are more likely to experience magikal downtime. Growth is the key to magikal well being.
Moonviolet is a Christian Witch and Lawyer in Pennsylvania. She also writes poetry in the Japanese Haiku form and sews magikal pouches and paints Greek Orthodox Icons as a hobby. This short but sweet essay was a part of an email to Aslinn Dhan Dragonhawk and used with her permission.
Who is Margaret Murray and Does She Matter to the Witch Community?
By Cassandra Dreamweaver
I must thank a couple of people before I begin. First, I would like to thank Aslinn with whom I had a great discussion about Witch hunts in particular and witchcraft in the Christian Tradition generally. Second, I would like to thank sacred-texts.com for having Margaret Murray’s text “The Witch Cult in Europe” on line and available to the serious occult student.
The first thing I would like to say about Margaret Murray is that she worked with what she had. When she began writing about the occult, there was simply nothing for her to work with. It is not like toady where one goes into Borders or Barnes and Noble and simply begins perusing the New Age/Occult or religion sections. Indeed there is so much written one must spend copious amounts of time checking one book against another to which are worth your 20 quid and which aren’t.
Murray primarily had to depend upon the extracts of witch trials to understand what witches may or may not do. The most glaring problem I see with this is that she is getting information from people who were being tortures and humiliated and these confessions were usually just what Inquisitors wanted to hear. Second, she doesn’t address much in the way of Celtic religion which has influenced so much thought on Wicca and NeoDruidism. This is simply because there is very little known about the Old Religion even during Christian times, the Romans who conquered much of Europe had mostly obliterated what was know about the Old Religion practiced by the Celts. What we see instead is Roman and Greek paganism. There are exceptions in Ireland and Wales and Scotland who held on to their Celtic religion to the time of Christian Missions through Celtic Lands. Many of these Celtic stories are melded with Christian symbolism and become our stories of Arthur, Gawain and the Green Knight and the tales of the Mabigon.
Her primary observation is that the confessions are extremely uniform therefore in her mind there is truth to them. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that the Inquisitors would lead the accused in their confessions, for example: “Isn’t it true that you and the man Jean were seen in the presence of the Black Man and was seen writing in his book (fornicating, kissing his “hidden face”, sacrificing a baby)” Of course they would scream yes as their arms were torn from their sockets. Another reason is that priests and preachers taught the ways of the witch in the pulpit. Which the members of the church as a captive audience, they would be exposed to the signs of the devil and the practices of the witch so often that even the illiterate among them would be lay experts in the ways of the devil.
But, in order to discuss her work in some form, I shall discuss some of the major topics from her work.
The Horned God- Murray is told in various court testimonies that witches met the god of the witches in the form of a man creature with dark or black skin, dressed in fashionable clothes. He would have on him cloven hooves and horns and sometimes a tail. This description comes straight from the descriptions of the god Pan the little goat legged demigod with small nub horns and flute and rather a lusty disposition. After being given the Christian treatment, the little wood fellow would become a full blown Satan.
Stories of Black Masses are simple perversions of Christian practice. If you wanted to shock the devil out of your congregation about 20 minutes before they take communion, tell them there are witches who worship the devil who celebrate “black masses”, as opposed to the white mass they would be celebrating very soon, where the consume hosts made of vile stuff and wine of even viler stuff. The priest would of course be delighted to see every soul in his congregation come up and take communion to not only protect themselves from evil but to show their faithfulness to God. The fact it, the eating and drinking of libation is millennia old.
The stories of initiations like the devils baptism, where the person is pissed on and the confirmation/pledge ceremony where the initiate signs the document and kisses the devil’s rear end, is simply further twisting of Christian practices.
If Murray is guilty of anything it is simply trying to investigate something without information. What she does for us, however is compiles these records and shows us how stereo types are formed and how they were used to murder people. Don’t simply disregard Margaret Murray out of hand. She may have gotten it wrong but it was because of her that writers like Gerald Gardner wrote their books. Every witch should take time to read her books and try to understand why and how she write them and how she effected others who would later write books about the Craft and contribute to those long shelves in the occult/New Age section at your local booksellers.
Blessed Be
Cassandra Dreamweaver is a second generation Christian Witch in Bristol, England. She is a botanist and herbalist and a freelance writer.
Mabon
From Aslinn Dhan’s Book of Shadows
Mabon is the second feast of gratitude. It is also a time of self examination. This is not only for your blessings but for your failings in life as they are lessons we learn to be better people and better Christians and better witches. Since we follow not only the Golden Rule but the Witches’ Rede we must consider our lives and how we impact each other.
Have we done all that we can to protect, honor and respect each other? Have we served God and the Craft? Do we harbor hatred and pettiness against others? Have we reached all of our goals? Have we honored ourselves with rest, good healthy food, and work and play in equal parts?
Mabon is that time to find balance, seek guidance, forgive others and ourselves and to ask for forgiveness, resolve conflicts, and dedicate ourselves to improving our lives for others as well as for ourselves. Remember, Harm None applies to all of us, even ourselves. Do not burden your soul with negativity.
