June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calenders. It was named after Juno, the Roman mother goddess, wife of Jupiter, analogous to Greek Hera. Summer doesn’t start until the Solstice on the 21st, but it’s SOOOOOO hot here in Georgia. And worse yet, it doesn’t look like there’s any rain in sight. But the plants are doing well with watering, and there’s lots of wildlife out there.
We have a tree frog and a toad that are regular visitors on our front porch, and there’s a special kind of magick to hearing scores of amphibian friends sounding off as the full moon shines over the swamp. There are geese flying in and out at all hours of the day and night, and we heard something that could have been a fox or a coyote in the middle of the night. So far, we’ve found one garter snake in the driveway, and 2 Northern ringneck snakes near our shed. Here at the old house, we have a cat that’s been here for about 4 days and doesn’t show signs of leaving. We don’t want to adopt another cat, but it looks like that’s where this is going. He’s very verbal, and so we’ve named him Water Cronkite. Because he gives us the news.
I’ve also been seeing the same hawk regularly on our moving route, and that’s a good reminder to pay attention to the details.
The new house also came with some gardening also done. So far, we’ve seen black eyed Susans, some dark magenta wildflowers in the back, the hostas are getting ready to bloom, and a plant I wasn’t sure about turned out to be peach, ruffled lilies. I can’t wait to see what else is going to come up. The swamp is covered in water lilies, and I keep checking to see when they bloom. Not yet, but hopefully soon!
I did plant a salvia and a peach double impatiens that doesn’t seem like it’s going to make it. The jasmine I bought Mom for Mother’s Day is also blooming nicely! Everything is just so beautiful right now, despite the drought.
Lunations:
June 3- New Moon in Gemini 6:01am EDT
June 17- Full Moon in Sagittarius 4:30am EDT
Astronomy:
June 21- Neptune goes retrograde
June 28- Bootids meteor shower begins
Celtic Tree Month:
Hawthorn (May 13th- June 9th); Matters of the heart, love, empowering relationships, fertility, union of male and female (Beltane), intimacy, passion, triple goddess, purification, cleanses the heart of negativity, under protection of faerie realm, guards wells and springs, happiness.
Oak (June 10- July 7): Solar magick, health, success, prosperity, blessings, bravery, endurance, strength, deep emotions, love, nurturing our family, mediating conflict, healing wounds, sovereignty, rulership, power, strength and endurance, justice and nobility, honesty, male fertility.
Holidays (non-Pagan):
June 5: Eid al-Fitr (Muslim)
June 6: D Day
June 9: Pentecost (Christian)
June 9: Shavuot (Jewish)
June 10: Whit Monday (Christian)
June 16: Father’s Day
June 20: American Eagle Day
Holidays (Pagan):
June 3: Old European festival marking the transition of the triple goddess as the maiden becomes the mother
June 3-4: Skirophorion Noumenia- Greek festival honoring all of the Greek pantheon
June 5-6: Greek festival of Athena as defender and protector
June 6-7: Greek festival of Aphrodite and Hermes as divine feminine and masculine
June 7-15: Roman Vestalia, honoring Vesta, Goddess of hearth and home
June 21: Litha/Midsummer/Summer Solstice- celebrating the sun at the height of its cycle
June 21: Old Slavic Kupala- celebrates the marriage of the goddess Morana and god Jarilo, and the fertility they bring
Themes for the month: Celebrating the sun at its height, but also the warm balmy nights filled with fire flies, bees and honey, riots of flowers in the garden and the summer fruits and vegetables that are showing up, fae energy in the wild places. Everything extroverted, joyful, and celebratory. Litha!
General activities for the month: Cooking with summer vegetables, outdoors parties and cookouts with friends, finding cold water to submerse yourself in, weeding, getting your AC tuned up and freon refilled, dancing with the faeries. In an ideal world. For us? Moving, renovating, cleaning, repairing, bitching and snapping at each other because we’re so exhausted.
Herbs I’m using: We’ve been getting all sorts of fresh herbs every week from the CSA farm we joined, and I’ve been using them as they show up. I’ve been putting mint in our lemonade, and we just got fresh springs of rosemary and thyme that I’ll use in the greens we got. But mostly I’ve been working a lot with cedar to clear the new space and sage to bless it.
Stones I’m using: Salt in jars of purification that I’m leaving around the house. Selenite in those same jars, and apache tears to clear up any residual negativity, anger, or sadness that’s hanging around.
Goddess of the Month: Vesta is coming up for me a lot lately with the move. Even amidst all this chaos and exhaustion, I have a vision of our future in this new home, and I’m invoking Vesta’s fires of hearth and home to help me create a place of love and family.
3 card reading:
First, we see the 2 of Swords reversed. So there’s something we’ve been struggling with that’s finally come to an end. The stalemate is finished, and we can relax instead of constantly being on the alert, and constantly on edge. That’s great news if things worked out the way that you had hoped, not so great news if you feel like you lost the battle. Either way, put down your sword and rest.
Next, we see the Ace of Pentacles reversed. So the fresh financial start we were hoping for isn’t going to come through. The money will be going out instead of going in, or we may find ourselves in a position of not being as secure as we would have hoped. The message is to continue to work hard, and your breakthrough will come, maybe just not yet.
Finally, we have the Wheel of the Year (Wheel of Fortune) reversed. So we aren’t going to be dealing with the vagaries of fickle fate for a while. Things are settled, for better or worse. This tide that we find ourselves in will last for some time, and that’s OK. It will give us time to regroup and plan for changes in the future.
Our special guidance card is the Topsie Turvets. These guys are drawn to confusion, and we can see them as an indicator that we need to back away from a situation and take another look. Look at the issue from all the angles, and make sure we are seeing everyones’ points of view. There is growth in the confusion, and there are lessons to be learned if we just step back and reconsider.
So that’s not a 100% joy and light reading, but life isn’t 100% joy and light either. This is a good indication that there’s a situation we’ve been deeply invested in that will finally be coming to an end, and while we can’t manage other people, we can manage how we handle our side of things. There’s also a little calm in the reversed Wheel, that can be a really nice break if we just allow ourselves to relax.
From Blossoms
BY LI-YOUNG LEE
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
My personal tides: You guessed it! Moving, moving, moving. Also, some AC repair, some minor plumbing, waiting for appliances, living in 2 separate houses, not being able to find anything, questioning how much stuff I have vs how much I need, and trying to make friends with this stray kitty. I want to do something fun for Litha, but it’s kind of tough enjoying this time of year when you’re moving in 95 degree heat. I may celebrate with an air-conditioned movie night.
My personal goals: I’m trying to keep my head down and just get through this, but I do have some visions of the future. I can’t wait to just finish the move so that I can paint my office and get in there to start writing. I want this move that’s been weighing me down for well over a year to be done and sorted so that I can create again. So that I can try and spread magick again.
Blessed be!