candle – Melusina The Green Witch

Gorgeous Gorse

Gorse bushes, or Furze, are often seen around Ostara and is another of Mother Nature’s bright and beautiful announcements that Spring is here.

It is a perennial evergreen shrub belonging to the pea family, which forms multi-branched, stunted shrubs, usually no taller than six feet high, but it is still considered to be a tree.

The flowers are deep yellow in colour and have a beautifully aromatic coconut scent and, although the main flowering period is from March to August, flowers can be found on the furze throughout the year.

It’s wickedly sharp thorns and its dense habit make it an excellent hedging plant, which can also be used as a barrier to protect young tree seedlings in coppices from grazing.

Due to it’s thorny nature, it is often viewed as having protective powers. In Wales, gorse bushes are even said to guard against Witches and can protect the home against The Fae, who cannot pass through the hedge.

The bark and flowers of the gorse can be used to produce a yellow dye. In Ireland, the flowers were also used to flavour and add colour to whiskey and they’ve been known to be used to make beer in Denmark. The flowers can also be used to make wine and tea.

Medicinal properties

There was a Bach Flower Remedy (Edward Bach was an English homeopath in the 1930s) called “Greenman Essence of Gorse”, which was said to help to ease frustration, restlessness and anxiety, and also helped to promote emotional security and feelings of joy.

Gorse flowers are high in proteins and can be eaten raw in salads or made into tea, cordial or syrup. They can also add extra flavour and colour to beer, wine or spirits and even ice cream!

The buds can also be pickled in vinegar and eaten like capers.

**CAUTION: Do not ingest to excess, as the plant contains slightly toxic alkaloids, which can have a cumulative impact.**

There are surprisingly few medicinal uses for gorse, although its flowers have historically been used in the treatment of jaundice, scarlet fever, diarrhoea and kidney stones.

Magickal properties

Gorse is known as the ‘herb of love’ and is associated with love, romance and weddings. It is also known to protect against evil, negativity and dark magick.

It can help to restore faith, hope and optimism and enable you to gather your strength. It also attracts gold, so it is very useful in money, wealth and abundance spells.

Gorse Spell

Carve the word “Gorse” into a gold or yellow candle, then face east and light the candle. Then meditate on the light, whilst asking for for protection, money, love or whatever it has to offer that you desire.

New Moon in Pisces Goals and Dreams Spell

The New Moon occurs when the sun, earth and moon come into alignment (align at approximately the same degree astrologically). The moon is positioned between the earth and sun and, therefore, the entire illuminated portion of the moon is on the back side of the moon, the half that we can’t see.

The New Moon tomorrow (Sunday 14th March 2021) is in Pisces.

When this happens it’s time to vanquish all self-doubt and reflect upon and put into action your dreams, desires and long term goals.

This is a ‘Get it Done’ spell, to help finalise and push forwards with your dreams, desires and wishes.

For this spell, you will need the following:

• A red candle (any candle will do, votive, tealight, birthday candle….whatever you have to hand);
• A green pen to signify growth, prosperity and personal goals; and
• A piece of paper.

On the evening of the New Moon, light the red candle on your Altar or Sacred Space and write on the paper with the green pen the following spell:

‘With this pen I do inscribe,
Desires and wishes as described,
Bring me, Luna, all that I think,
And secure my future with this ink’.

Then write your desire/wish below the spell, again with the green pen.

Once you’ve written everything, place the candle on top of the paper and focus on your intended goals for a few minutes.

Let the candle burn down and leave everything in place until the next morning, to let the energy from the New Moon in Pisces charge your spell and bring the desired results. Then, take the piece of paper and bury it somewhere on your property.

My Witchcraft Journey

I have been fascinated by witchcraft, forteana, the paranormal and cryptozoology (I had a subscription to the Fortean Times from about 11/12 years old onwards) for as long as I can remember (I am 44 now). There’s a bit of paranormal history in my family too, with both my mum and my grandma on my dad’s side having had encounters with Spirits on a couple of occasions. My mum was also once told by a psychic medium that she had latent psychic abilities that she should develop, but she never did as far as I’m aware. I was also one of those kids that had an imaginary friend. Mine was a pony called Poppet and he was with me for years!

Looking back, I think my journey into witchcraft started when I was about 12 or 13. I found some dream books and books on herbs in the loft at my parents house that were my mum’s. I started foraging for the herbs in the books, or finding them in our garden, and made teas, tinctures, soups and condiments, anything I could really. I once made my dad nettle soup, which was truly awful, but, bless him, he ate every drop and pretended to love it! I also persuaded my mum to buy me more herb and natural remedy books from the garden centre too.

I also had what I now realise as being an altar of sorts, from about 13/14 onwards (without actually realising what it was), which was a big shelf above my radiator, over which I painted a big Mandala on the wall with a Yin Yang symbol in the middle.

On this shelf I kept interesting stones, fossils and minerals I’d found, shells and feathers, bits of plants and dried flowers. I also burned incense, had candles and drank herbal teas, sometimes with added herbs from the garden or spices from my mums spice rack. Here I’d make wishes on candles to do well in a test, or to get that boy I liked to notice me, which were in essence my first spells. I’d also write things down on paper and burn them, which I now know is a way of manifesting your desires.

I used shufflemancy with my CDs, and my own version of bibliomancy with my books, to make decisions, long before I found out these were forms of divination. I would also have little fires at the bottom of the garden and just sit out there, watching the moon and stars whilst drinking my tea.

We didn’t have the internet at home when I was younger and the local librarian was loathed to lend me Stephen King books, let alone anything to do with witchcraft or the occult, so I had no choice but to make things up as I went along. Even at university there was limited access to the internet! It’s so much easier nowadays for people to do research, watch videos and join online groups and communities to learn about witchcraft. I wish there’d have been something like that when I was younger.

It’s only really been since my mid 30’s that I realised the things I’ve been intuitively doing since I was a young teen could be classed as witchcraft. I just didn’t realise, because these things just came naturally to me. As I’ve got older, the pull towards properly learning and researching has become stronger and our house has become more cluttered with stones, feathers, shells and dried flowers I’ve found, in addition to crystals.

Over the years I’ve read so much more into it and got so invested in the idea and history of witchcraft, that to NOT develop it was becoming impossible to resist!! So here I am! I’ve only recently started to refer to myself as a Witch, or even been comfortable in telling people about it.

However, I found a few communities for Witchcraft online and became an active member, writing blogs and articles on things I’d researched, or spells/rituals I’d developed/undertaken and hosted/co-hosted chats on crystals, nature, kitchen witchery and candle magick etc. I also found out, through helping and advising the younger or more inexperienced members of these communities, that I knew a lot more about witchcraft than I realised.

For me, the next logical step was setting up this website, and associated social media, as a way of recording what I know and have done and to help others starting out in their journeys into witchcraft

Travel Altar

Following on from my post yesterday about my Altar, I wanted to show you a way you can still have an Altar, but for it to be a bit more discreet. So this will be perfect if you’re in the Broom Closet, don’t have the room, travel frequently, not allowed by your parents or, like me, enjoy taking your practice out into nature.

I found this cute oblong metal tin (I think it’s supposed to be a pencil case) in IKEA a while back, which is decorated to look like a little snake!!

On the inside, I personalised it with some stickers on the bottom part of the tin (from the top down):

• Triple Moon Fertility Goddess to represent my lifelong struggle with infertility;

• A beautiful and colourfull beetle to represent my love for nature; and

• A Mandala to represent my spiritual journey.

Inside the lid, I have three metal flower of life Metatron’s cube stickers, to represent the journey of energy throughout the universe, and of balance within the universe, to aid with meditation. (I am a bit annoyed I put them on a bit wonky, as they’re so thin, I can’t get them off again without ruining them). The contents of my travel altar are as follows:

• Mini besom to symbolically cleanse and purify wherever I decide to do any work;

• A lighter for my candles and incense;

• Mini green, yellow, white, orange, red and black rolled beeswax candles, for any spells, rituals or to signify the fire element when casting my circle;

• A metal disc incense holder;

• The tiniest bottle of Himalayan pink salt to represent the earth element when setting up a protective working space;

• Small glass jar of Samhain Blue Moon water to signify the water element when circle casting;

• ‘Meditation’ scent incense cones to represent the element of air;

• Clear quartz teardrop, to use as a substitute for any other crystal I may need;

• Rosemary essential oil, as Rosemary can be a substitute for any other herb/essential oil I may need;

• Pine cone to signify health and prosperity, healing and protection; and

• Chamomile tea bags, because they’re just lovely.

I just love how cute and organised it is (and that it all fits!) and I can’t wait for the warmer months to use it outside!

Lavender and Lemon Candle

Even though I love my job, it can be stressful and I can get anxious about certain aspects of it from time to time. My clients are usually the Environment Agency and local Councils, so I often have meetings with pretty important people, or have to meet with Consultees, such as Natural England, or the Marine Management Organisation, to discuss the environmental aspects of our schemes. They can make or break a project and it can be really stressful!

Therefore, I decided that the first candle I was going to make, with the coconut soy wax and box of coloured pigment dye I got for my birthday, would be one for calming and boosting my mood. As I’m still working from home (and still will be doing for a good time longer!) and all my meetings are online, I can light the candle next to me whilst I’m in these meetings.

Lavender essential oil is great for having a calming effect and for boosting a low mood. It can also decrease anxiety and calm the nerves. Lemon essential oil can also reduce anxiety, helps make you feel more relaxed and is very effective at relieving stress.

Here are some photos of my process. By the way, the glass receptacle I’m using is a recycled candle jar that a melted all the wax out of, along with another, to make a ‘new’ candle with new wicks, so it’s safe for the high temperatures.

Here is a photo of the finished candle! I think next time I’ll use more dye/pigment, as it set a lighter colour than a wanted, as I hoped it’d be a bit more of a vibrant purple colour.