The Air Tide Flows

This season, between Beltane and Midsummer, is called the Time of Change--possibly because Beltane is one of the two hinges of the year that herald dramatic changes in energy and conditions.

The crops are sown, and now the fragile seedlings must take root and grow. The fields must be weeded and watered, relatively light work if diligently done. But now, the outcome of the past season's sowing depends on the vagaries of chance; the weather, the whims of marauding birds, forest creatures, otherworld spirits.

The veils between the worlds that opened at Beltane still remain thin. Connections are loose. All things are possible. The Lady and Lord, wholly absorbed with each other, leave their children to shift for themselves.

The time is more auspicious for divining than for sorcery. The lot-casting methods--the runes, Tarot, geomancy, the I Ching--will be the most effective ones.

The Fire Tide Ebbs

The ebbing Fire Tide, from the Spring Equinox to Beltane, brings the Time of Planting.

It is a busy time, requiring community effort, planning, and hope.

The Lady at this season is the the mature Maiden, guiding the work of the hands and the laying of strategies and plans.The Young God, still unmated and untamed, rules the Green Wood. His energy rushes through the homestead now and again, without warning, bringing both joyful laughter and lapses of judgement.

It is a powerful time for magic, ever more so as May Eve draws nearer. Work to awaken creative powers, and to lay the groundwork for life changes.

Fire Tide

At Candlemas the Fire Tide flows, and this season until the Spring Equinox is called the Time of Change. In this time the God born at Yule grows to manhood, and that mystery of change informs all others. It is a time of great creative power, when all projects of art and making, will and change, are carried forth on their most auspicious tide.

It's a pretty sure bet that humans have been casting spells for as long as humans have existed. It is just the comparatively recent religions, including modern science, that have chosen to take a dim view of it.

Working magic was regarded first as the impious use of evil powers, and later as a deluded resort to imaginary powers. In fact, it is neither. 

Magic stems from very real and morally neutral powers inherent in the human soul. We cast spells for the same reasons we use tools and language, create art and social institutions. 

We are a species peculiarly prone to symbolic thought, and we are driven to exert change on the the world around us, for good or for ill. Magic is just one of many ways that those traits manifest themselves.

Storm Moon

The Storm Moon falls in the month of Capricorn, in December or January.

Honor the powers of wind and sky.

It is the time of Thor's Rune:

 The storm that clears, the wound that heals, the pain of childbirth.

 

Spellcasting

What is a spell? Some Witches hasten to put people's minds at rest by assuring them that it's the same thing other people do when they pray. But it's not really the same, although sometimes Witches pray and call it a spell, and some people in other relations even cast spells and call it prayer.

A prayer is a petition for divine help and support. A Witch's spell uses the equipment of her own personality and will to make things go her way.

The difference is goes along with a different understanding of the nature of the Divine. If your God is somewhere above or outside of you, then of course there is no way to approach him except to petition him. If the Gods are within us, among other places, then of course you resort to the holy powers within.

The Earth Tide Ebbs

As the Earth Tide ebbs at the Solstice, the world softens and the Witch’s powers of influence increase.

The time is auspicious for spells of prosperity,  and for manifesting anything on the material plane. The most effective spells worked at this time will have some material bases--talismans, poppets, charged stones.