hearts in the garden

These are the last hours of the moon's waning phase. A time for heart and soul reflection. Also, the best time for weeding and trimming. Later this afternoon, at the new moon, seeds and transplants should be placed in their garden homes. You'll feel them leap out of your hands.

A gift from Britain included these amazing heart stones and sea glass and pottery shards collected from an East Yorkshire beach and a tidal river foreshore. They find themselves placed as a mosaic on a garden altar one mile above sea level in the middle of North America. They must feel like they're on a mountain top. Heartfelt thanks, Lyn, I love them.

The hawthorns, Crataegus sp.,  are blooming. In keeping with this dark moon, I've cut a branch and put it by the garden altar for now, to be placed near the front door later. Hawthorn helps us with physical, emotional and psychic boundaries and is an instrument of change.

Medicinally, hawthorn contains both heart and digestive intelligence and brings about balance in those areas. I use it quite a bit, mostly the berries. For a strong medicine, I tincture both the flowers and the berries separately and then combine them, making it a summer long process. To me, this is very powerful -- to contain the energy of the hawthorn from blossom to fruit over one growing season. The easiest way to enjoy and benefit from hawthorn is to infuse it in vinegar. A jar is filled with hawthorn berries and topped with apple cider vinegar, capped and infused for 4-6 weeks, 1 T. taken in a glass of water. Or use in the kitchen.

Now, I'm headed back out to burn some copal in the garden. I love its fragrance combined with everything else. It's like a choir.