Welcome to this special, once in a lifetime newsletter. I have been writing these newsletters since 1999, and my last one said we were off in our Motorhome Meg for a week to prepare for Ostara… little did we know that my trip would be preparing us for the nightmare that was about to unfold!! After a couple weeks of chaos as people came in to stockpile Thyme, Echinacea, Tea Tree and Witches Gold for the new virus, little did I know that I would then spend the rest of my time for the next few weeks or months in an empty shop just making up the odd mail orders – just me, Maggie and the fire! My shop is usually bustling with customers, enjoying time in their personal space smelling oils, soaps & candles, browsing books & perusing the sparkles & pretties …and then, it all changed!
We returned from a week away as this all began to break and I was positive that I didn’t want my husband going into the City on a crammed train! That was stopped the night before he was due to return to his office and his routine of working full-time from home in our kitchen, began. A week a madness, and then came ‘Lockdown’ and here we stay. As unessential travel is banned, social distancing becomes the norm, and people are only allowed out for essential travel, work, food, medicine and exercise, how we just want to hug our kids and grandkids! Phone calls and ‘zooming’ Sunday lunch with the family become the norm, shortages of everyday foods appear such as milk, flour, pasta & chopped tomatoes as people stockpile and craziness ensues. You can no longer shop, just ordering online for the vulnerable and click and collect for most of us, unless you want to spend hours in a queue just to relieve the boredom of being stuck at home. Thank goodness for local village shops.
As we drift day by day, week into week, nobody knows when this ‘Lockdown’ will ease up and life will return to some normality once more! I am sat here, Vat and website to get on with, and a newsletter to produce to record all this for future reference! Without the normal business of my customers in and out, the shop is not somewhere I want to spend a lot of time! There is plenty of work to be done cleaning, tidying and restocking, but I have absolutely no motivation to do it, as it seems a pointless exercise right now!
However, interestingly, I think this will incite many positive benefits. Firstly, people now matter, not stuff. Rich or poor, black or white, male or female, there is no divide when it comes to this virus, and it has brought to the fore many things: we don’t need a fake tan or false nails, we need a fighting immune system. We don’t need the Celeb culture to worship, we need appreciation for our true heroes: our doctors, nurses, paramedics & care workers …these are our true stars when push comes to shove and disaster hits! We need our forces, fire brigade and police to be there when we need their help. We need post & parcels delivered and our bins emptied. We need food taken to those who cannot get out (like my mum) and neighbours to be neighbourly and look out for those around us who are vulnerable and isolating. We need local shops to serve our communities, not big shopping centres on industrial estates miles away. We need lorries taking supplies to the stores, stackers filling the shelves and the tellers getting us through the checkouts. Our local shops kept instore the things that matter for locals, so the elderly didn’t go without. Our village has a phone monitored 12hours per day so if you’re ill, stuck or self-isolating, the villagers will meet your needs, whether locals to get shopping, the pharmacy to bring your medicine to you, or our Minister to set up his deck chair and chat to you from the street or your garden, so you had someone call and chat to you to keep isolation and loneliness at bay. The milkman and fish van suddenly became busy once more, delivering fresh supplies direct to your doorstep, the baker supplied fresh bread, cakes and eggs daily and the local farms joined forces to supply bacon, steak pies, mince and sausages to the local food shops…and every shop would deliver what you needed to your doorstep - a real community looking after each other, as it should be, and hopefully be happening in every little community in the country, and will continue to be so when this is all over!
So, what have you missed about your personal life that actually mattered? Apart from hugging my little Bambino and chatting over coffee with the kids, the thing I have gone without that has had the most impact on me and my life is my hairdresser! If my hair is tidy, add a little slap and lippy, and I can face the world and take on the day… deny me my 5-weekly haircut, my hair becomes too thick, wild and wavy and it’s a disaster. It isn’t coloured or permed, just needs a 5-weekly trim to keep it shaped. Had to finally let hubby straighten the back with clippers after losing the plot and attacking it one morning with the scissors… the simple pleasures of life! My appointment is already booked for the 1st day my hairdresser can resume her work and I can face the world head-on again!
But what about Beltane…
Beltane is the fire Sabbat for new beginnings, fertility, growth and change, including getting rid of the old and unwanted. It is usually the party Sabbat but, this year, it will be different as people can’t get together to for fun and frivolity, so fires will be lit just by household and celebrations quieter than normal. If you want to see what you can do in your own particular lockdown situation, read the Beltane page on my website and adapt accordingly!
I’m sure most households are starting to struggle a little…whether neighbours are doing your head in with noise, the kids are getting on your nerves, partners locked together 24/7 are starting to get a little ‘tetchy’ with each other, or your mental health is taking a knock so you are eating or drinking a little more than normal, try to find ways to cope and keep busy…easier said than done with fists clenched and temper raging! Have a read of ‘Calming your Home’, ‘Clearing your home’ or ‘Magickal Housekeeping’ in my Book of Shadows to see if there are small things you can do that can maybe help your situation, and every time you have a rant, smudge it out!! Burn incense, oils or scented candles every day to encourage a calm, peaceful household. Sit in incense smoke & visualise a happy castle holding nothing but peace & protection. We have some way to go before we’re done, so find peace any way you can!
Magickal mix of Hope for Beltane…
There is an old saying that says ‘Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today’…so let’s prepare!
To attract healing, money, happiness and protection to our lives, there are crystals and oils that do all of the above, so to face the future head on, carry Chrysoprase, Jade, Peridot or Malachite or a selection of them and use oils of Pine, Juniper, Niaouli or Eucalyptus. Maybe make a spray or oil blend and a little crystal to the bottle to synergistically boost the power, or make a pouch using the money attracting herbs mentioned previously with the oils and crystals! Get creative to give your life a boost forward in any way you can and prepare for what is to come. We are all gonna need help and it is up to us to provide help for ourselves and those closest. Make one pouch or prepare a few and gift to friends and family…because, as we know, every little helps!!
Malachite – stone of transformation and change…
I should know by now that if this stone begins to sell fast, there may be trouble ahead! Malachite first sold out at the millennium, when nobody knew if computers would survive the change from 1999 to 2000 (if you remember!) Then it went quiet until the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012, got mad again for the Indy ref in 2014, steady through Brexit in 2016, then quiet, but last year, suddenly sold out & had trouble getting more due to UK demand. With stock replaced, the sales were constant along with requests for jewellery too. Malachite is a striking emerald green from its copper content, is banded, opaque and extremely soft, so is hand-polished. It is very useful when change is thrust upon us and we need to cope, adapt and break through any barriers to move on. It helps heal after the change, supporting feelings of loss or depression by oozing calm and optimism. It’ll assist you to choose healthy friendships and relationships based on love and respect, & leave unhealthy ones behind, lessons learned! When life begins to get back some normality, it will offer travellers protection if overwhelmed by people en masse where there has been space! In the pocket, it will draw money into business and get those tills ringing, and every business that has been forced to close or temporarily shut down will need help to get moving to succeed once more. We have had no control over this unprecedented situation and have been forced to do things unheard of. Life will eventually take on its new normality, so let malachite lend you the strength to be who you want to be in this new world and forge your life forward, to face whatever gonna happens over the next few years!!
Help for your finances out of your cupboards…
Light incense you have, whether granular, stick or cone. On a square piece of paper, with green ink, crayon or felt tip, draw a large pentagram and in the centre, write £ sign (& an amount if necessary). Anoint the points of the pentagram with Earth oil, patchouli oil or any money-attracting oil you have in e.g. nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, basil or vetiver. (Point of note: did you know that basil leaves were soaked in water and the scented liquid sprinkled around shop premises to encourage customers to spend…just saying!!) Now place a green candle in a stand over the £ sign. If you don’t have a green one, anoint a white candle with your ‘money’ oil and use instead. We are using the power of 3 so firstly, surround the candle with a circle of pennies (9 or 12). Surround that with a circle of money attracting herbs, whether patchouli, crushed cinnamon, grated nutmeg, or even chamomile or tea from tea bags (or a mix to make up enough). Finally mix together grinded salt and pepper (you should have that in one form or another) and surround the other two with your 3rd circle. Now light your candle and say:
Candle of fire, note of cash sign,
Herbs of abundance, make prosperity mine,
Copper for speed, salt from the Sea,
Pepper for heat, using circles of 3.
As the flame burns, Set in motion for me
Abundance forthwith, then so mote it be!
Let the candle burn down and, when cool, collect the copper, herbs, condiments and wax into a green sachet or cut a square of green cloth, and hang over your door or business premises! Now let the Universe provide…
Moon Times…
Full Moon: Thur 7 May @ 11.46 hrs New Moon: Fri 22 May @ 18.39 hrs
Full Moon: Fri 5 Jun @ 20.26 hrs New Moon: Sun 21 June @ 07.40 hrs
Don’t forget, I am instore 3 days a week sending out orders and making up collections if you need anything and am posting jewellery and stones on Fb to help update the website. Stay well, stay safe and see you on the other side.
The Green Witch
You must be logged in to post a comment.
