Hello everybody. Are we feeling that Leo energy coming in hot? Everybody knows I love a Leo, my husband is a Leo and both of my girls are Leos, two of my brothers, my grandma, my sister-in-law, a couple nieces, a couple nephews, like… I am surrounded. But I’m a Libra, and we play very well with Leo energy. So although it is very assertive energy, it is bold, it can be pushy, it can be aggressive. But one thing Leo will not tolerate is half-assing anything. And I respect the hell out of that.
Leo is confident, Leo is commanding, authoritative, forceful. Leo believes in you, Leo is decisive and feisty and strong-willed and self-possessed. So if this is something that you tend to lack, if you have been feeling like a bit of a shrinking violet, a wallflower, if you’ve needed a little confidence then Leo season is here for you. Leo does not know the meaning of the word timid. Leo does not do shy or reserved or hesitant or apprehensive. So this is a great time to do the scary thing.
Whatever it is we’ve been avoiding, the difficult conversation, whatever the case may be, we will be well-supported by Leo to find our voice and advocate for ourselves. Leo is also a hell of an ally in matters of self-improvement. A new fitness program, or cutting back on caffeine or setting healthy boundaries, this kind of self-prioritization is going to be right up Leo’s alley. So it can’t hurt to put some intentions into motion around these kinds of issues while we’re here in Leo season.
And there’s one more thing I want to talk about before we get to the main event today, and that is Lughnasadh. This Celtic harvest festival takes place this Tuesday, August 1 and this will kick off harvest festival season. Because there are three pagan harvest festivals, Lughnasadh, the grain harvest, Mabon, the fruit harvest, and Samhain, which is the cattle harvest. I won’t retread too much ground because I’ve done episodes for Lughnasadh before (and I will link to them in the episode description), but I do want to talk a little about the history of this sabbat and the kinds of activities we can do with our families and friends.
This sabbat is often conflated with the pagan sabbat Lammas, and they’re basically the same for all intents and purposes but I like to give the Irish their due, and Lughnasadh has deep, rich, Irish roots and I appreciate that. So they’re interchangeable, but I’ll be using the term Lughnasadh.
Lughnasadh is named for the Irish god Lugh, who was associated with sorcery, history, poets, and carpenters. According to legend, Lugh began the festival as a funerary feast and athletic competition in honor of his mother, who was said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the Irish plains to allow for agriculture. Historic writings tell us that folks from all over Ireland would meet at what is now County Meath to participate in the festivities. Kings would agree to a truce, disagreements were paused for the duration of the games, and sporting contests such as horse racing were intermingled with markets, music, storytelling, feasts, the settling of legal disputes and matchmaking.
As Lughnasadh is the grain festival, traditionally it was marked by the baking of breads, cakes, and the making of corn dollies, and these are among the traditions that are still observed to this day. Decorating the altar in observance of this festival can be done with the addition of apples, birch or holly branches, or stalks of grain. Candles of yellow and gold are an excellent addition, as well as offerings of beer or ale and cakes or bread. Obsidian, sapphire and topaz are stones associated with the sabbat and therefore would be right at home on a Lughnasadh altar.
If your town doesn’t have a Lughnasadh festival, as mine certainly doesn’t, we can still observe the spirit of the sabbat by visiting farmer’s markets and enjoying the bounty of local harvests, or we may attend a beer festival or music festival. We can’t faithfully recreate all the traditions of the distant past, but we can certainly find echoes of them in our own local communities and we can figure out how to blend them into our celebrations. And as the summer harvest gives way to autumn, we can continue to find events and activities in our own towns, or at least relatively nearby, that we can choose to observe and participate in as a tribute to this underrecognized sabbat. It isn’t as widely celebrated as some of the other days on the wheel of the year, but it does mark the season so beautifully.
I am not summer’s biggest fan, the highs here where we live are about 110 degrees on average, that’s about 43 degrees for my Celsius witches, and by mid-July, it is hateful. I try to stay in the moment and appreciate every season for its strengths but yall my patience is tested by this heat. So, I hold tightly to these sabbats as they represent to me a promise that autumn is imminent.
And that’s good enough to get me through the weekend, where the temps are forecast to top out at 112. But you know what they say, at least it’s a dry heat. Now I do have one little bit of housekeeping before we move on and that is online Tarot readings and spell work. I mentioned this before some time ago but I want to mention it again, if you go to the website middleagedwitch.com and click on Live Services, you can book a 30 minute online tarot reading with me. I’ve opened up my availability through autumn, so if that’s something that sounds like a good time, click on over. I’d love to do a reading with you.
I also offer live online spell consultations for custom spellwork. Depending on the work you require, it may take me a few days to put it together and then perform the work for you, but you’ll receive regular updates from me while I’m putting the work in motion, and then when the work is complete, I’ll send you a video of it. So again, you’ll just go to middleagedwitch.com and click on the link Live Services and that’s all there is to it. I have loved doing tarot readings
Alright, today we are going to talk about house magick, and this was another fantastic listener suggestion from the website. And while house magick isn’t, like, a whole discipline unto itself, there is a lot of meat on those bones. House magick is important. Our homes are so much more than the four walls and a roof that keep the weather off of us. Our homes have their own energies, their own personalities, their own histories, and all of these factors have a lot to do with our wellbeing. So everything we can do to get into a kind of harmony, a kind of symbiosis, with our homes is going to give us a lot more peace.
A lot of us have either lived in or known someone who has lived in a home that has a bad energy. A home that never really feels like a home. And there can be a lot of different factors in play, if this is a house in an unsafe part of town, or the neighbors are assholes, or some kind of external issue. But I’m talking about a house where the vibe is just off. The house feels unwelcoming, you feel like this house does not want you here. Sometimes you’ll be sitting in a house and you just feel like, drained and depressed and unhappy, but then once you leave you start feeling like yourself again, you know?
These are the kinds of feelings that we do not want to have in our homes, and this is especially true if we have kids and pets in the home. It’s hard enough regulating our own moods when we’re in a house that doesn’t want us, but children and animals can’t even rationalize it to the extent that we can. And when we’re living in a home that feels this way, we’re more argumentative, we’re more prone to nightmares and restless sleep, which just exacerbates the negativity and the anger that we’re already feeling.
I know we had an email not too long ago from a witch who was dealing with some significant property damage and a large portion of the home had to be taken down to the studs so that it could be repaired and rebuilt and this witch was having a lot of negative feelings in her home and about her home and she was asking for advice about how to address these feelings and these energies and in that instance, I recommended having a deep and heartfelt conversation with the home. Apologizing for the damage and explaining the repairs and thanking the home for continuing to be a shelter for her family. And I would give this advice to anyone in a similar situation.
But I’m talking about a home that feels icky from day one. Now, we all know that doing a good old fashioned smoke cleanse in a new home, house, apartment, dorm room, guest room, hotel room wherever we plan to rest our heads, is like, Witchcraft 101. This is basic shit. But not unimportant shit. But one thing we can’t forget to do once we’ve done the smoke cleansing is to invite good energy into the home. Invite love, peace, patience, cooperation into the home. Thank the home for welcoming us and our loved ones. Thank the home for providing shelter and protection from the elements and from people who would do us harm.
And something else that can help, especially if we’re really feeling like this house is going to be difficult to win over, is to offer tributes. Offerings to the home, much the same way we would make offerings to deities on our altars. And it should not surprise us that one of the easiest ways to get on our home’s good side is to take care of it the best we can. Keep a clean house (within reason; it’s a bit harder to do if we’ve got kids and pets, but the effort is what matters). Make repairs as we can afford to. Taking pride in our homes is a really great way to make our homes love us.
If we wouldn’t keep a messy altar, we shouldn’t keep a messy home. I am not mess-shaming anyone. It is an uphill battle with three kids and two dogs and I will never ever ever give anyone shit to their face or behind their back for a messy house. We are all out here just doing our best. But when it gets to the point that the mess is not just a mess, and I know we have all gotten to that point, then we need to take care of our physical space.
But there’s more we can do to help make our homes a refuge and to set ourselves up for happiness and this is easy spellwork. Simple, inexpensive, effective, ass-easy witchcraft. Flowers, trees, potted plants, hedges, anything green and growing, either planted outside of the home or inside of the home can and will act as a first defense of protection for your home. Talk to your plants when you’re watering them, when you’re doing yardwork, when you’re fertilizing, when you’re repotting your plants because they’ve outgrown their containers, this is good green witchcraft.
Your home will thank you, your own mental health will thank you. Your home wants to be your castle, even if it’s the most humble little studio apartment you ever did see, it wants your pride and your attention and your affection. So give it some plants, fill it with life. And tell your plants that this is their home too so that every soul that resides there, house, person and plant, feels a sense of ownership. I know this is skirting the edge of like, out there, woo-woo shit. Maybe I’ve already crossed that edge, I honestly can’t tell anymore, but I mean it.
Cultivate a relationship with these living beings and develop a rapport with them and when you’re doing your best for them, they will do their best for you. In fact, a houseplant that suddenly begins to die, like you’ve been doing everything right but all of a sudden your plant is struggling for no good reason, this is a really good means of early detection that someone is giving you the evil eye. Someone is shooting psychic daggers your way. I am dead serious, if you find that one of your plant friends is dying a quick and unexpected death, this is like a canary in a coal mine for psychic attack. So keep that in mind.
Surround yourself with color. However you are able, if you can paint the walls, paint them. If you can’t, get some bright wall art, some colorful sheets, some throw pillows that will give a splash of color. Be as cheap as you need to be. Thrift stores and yard sales are a thing, but if you look around your home, your living space, and you don’t feel inspired. You don’t feel energized and excited and comfortable there, that isn’t your home’s fault. It didn’t decorate itself. Create a space you love to live in, and your home will feel that love and reflect it back to you.
Feed the birds and the bees around your home. Allow your home to make some friends. It’s not going anywhere, unless you’re living the van life, your home is gonna stay where it’s planted, so put out some bird feeders and keep them stocked and clean. This invites good, healthy, natural positive energy. You want to feel joy in your home, look out the window and see a purple finch or a sterling jay munching sunflower seeds. And hang up some windchimes while you’re at it.
I wasn’t kidding when I said that this stuff is dummy simple. What gives it meaning is our intent. If our purpose for filling our homes with life and love and positivity is to create a home that when people walk in, they are overwhelmed with comfort, this is going to touch everyone who crosses our threshold. But no one more than me. I get to reap the benefits of creating a home that’s magickal. That speaks to me, that hears me, that holds my family safely, that welcomes my guides, that deflects negative and unwanted entities.
I know we did not get too terribly deep into protection magick, but I’ve done protection magick, we’ve talked about it, I’ll link those episodes, but setting wards and boundaries is just the first step. Creating a magickal home that makes your loved ones want to come spend the holidays with you, that makes all your kids’ friends want to hang out at your house, that repels unwanted people and energies, takes a lot more effort. We have to be purposeful about the kind of environment we want to create.
So look around your home. Think about what you love about it, and tell your home. And also, think about what would make you love it more, and then make it happen however you can. Work within your means to give your home the life it deserves. Watch how things improve around you. Touch your walls, thank your windows, bless your doors, give back to the structure that gives you shelter. This is house magick. This is hedgewitchery. This is how we create a home. We are gonna talk again next week. Thank you so much for joining me, my name is Eli Ro, and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch Podcast.
Additional Resources:
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https://middleagedwitch.com/protection-magick/
https://middleagedwitch.com/lughnasadh-lammas/
Great post and happy lughnasadh!
Happy Lughnasadha!