 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill and I am a fourth-generation witch. Today we're looking at my ever-popular Almanac series and this is all about the witchcraft that you can do on each day and throughout the month of July. Always with these videos, what I'd like to do is to give you a general overview of the witchcraft trends that run throughout the month of July and then we will turn to the individual days and look at the nitty gritty detail and what witchcraft you can do on which day. So with that said, let's start with our general overview. July is the last month of summer. I know this sounds contrary to popular belief but summer has always been defined in the old calendars as the month of growing and maturing whereas autumn are the months of ripening and fruit setting and so this is technically the last month of summer. The last month of summer was the time when people, our ancient ancestors, would look to sieve travel because this is the safe time to travel. Now with sea travel comes an awful lot of complications. You have to fight mermaids, you have to fight sea monsters, you have to get there so navigation's a problem, you have to fight the weather and so this is the time when you would make a beacons to the sea in order to calm those and give yourself a fortuitous journey. One of my favourite traditions to do throughout July though is of course to placate the mermaids. Mermaids, those creatures of legend who will lure you onto the rocks if you displease them but lead you into a safe harbour if you placate them and what people used to do in olden times was to simply make a garland of flowers and this was an offering to the sea. They might do other things as well such as pouring alcohol into the sea, mead was always very popular, mead being the fermented honey drink that is delicious by the way, make it I promise you you'll like it, it's like a dry sherry honey sweetness, lovely. I'm when I was a student I used to colour mine blue because I thought it was cool and still do. Well you might simply bless your boats and ask the mermaids to take care of them because we have an awful lot of sea traditions don't we? One of the most famous that I'm sure you all know about is the breaking of a bottle against the bow of a ship when it is christened for the sea and it's very important that the bottle must break and the liquid flow because otherwise it's going to signify bad luck. We have a lot of seafaring traditions and a lot of them use knot magic and this is where essentially knot magic developed from, from sailors. So some of my favourite knots are things like the Celtic Love Cross where a sailor would make this beautiful intricate knot to carry as a love token and to give to his sweetheart when he left. Other such knots are the monkey's fist. This knot is particularly wonderful, it was actually used to ward off evil spirits. I mean this is why people now use it as a doorstop because it is anti-negative forces so get one, stick it in your door. I'm not quite sure why that would work actually thinking about it. Maybe it's the intent that you just put into the knot when weaving it because it is quite a complex knot is it not? Oh look I'm a parrot. Maybe this month of July is why we not only look to the sea, we also have a very great affinity with wells and springs at this time. This making offerings to your spring or your well which is the vital life source of energy for every person and animal on this planet dates back so many years and we can see it today in the well-dressing ceremonies that are still carried out throughout Derbyshire and the northern counties of the UK. This is where they take panels and put clay onto them and then make intricate patterns with petals showing varying scenes and here are some examples that I'm talking about here. This well-dressing is simply a sort of overspill from the times when we would make offerings for libations and go and generally percate the spiritus loci the spirit of place at our local well because it was of course believed that most springs and many springs do have a guardian spirit. These were not necessarily good guardian spirits and they were considered some to be just there to snatch your children. We have many names to them they're old and ancient. Jenny Greenteeth is possibly the most famous. She is an old witch who died and now inhabits the rank and stagnant ditches of summer with her long fingers and her green hair which looks like pondweed and she's there waiting to snatch a child if it comes too close. She has glowing eyes and lives just below the surface of the water. There are other names for this spirit which is known as either Nelly Longarms or Peg Paola to name just a few. So watch out going to those stagnant ditches near the countryside on your way. You might be taken in by Peg Nelly or Jenny. The name July is obviously named by Julius Caesar who reformed the calendar and yes you guessed it called it the Julian calendar and named his favourite month the month of July after himself. You know a little pat on the back for me for reforming the calendar. Yeah I mean I do know fair play to hear you know if I was going to reform a calendar I'd definitely reform May to be called Ginny. The main occupation for the whole of July is the fact that it's hay making time and therefore there are very few festivals because this is back breaking work and our ancestors were generally hard at it cutting the hay and creating their hay ricks to feed that animal throughout the winter. Hence why we don't have many festivals the agricultural calendar doesn't allow for it we're too busy out in the fields working. So that is my general overview for July. Look to the water go out to sea make your long sea journeys great time for cruising otherwise make a beacons to the spiritus Loki of the wells and springs that lie around and watch out for those mermaids because they are abounding at the moment. Now let's move on to the day to day witchcraft and we're going to start with the third of July because this is the night of the full moon. The full moon for July is known as the worked moon which means herb because obviously herbs are at their peak at the moment the mead moon. Mead is an Anglo-Saxon term meaning meadow and of course that is known also as the hay moon. This moon on the third of July is one of the first of four super moons meaning it will look bigger and brighter than all the other moons. The third of July is also the date that the dog star Sirius is seen to rise in the early morning. The dog star Sirius is seen now to rise from the third of July to the 11th of August and this period is known as the dog days of summer a time of ill omen. The Romans believed that the rising of the dog star added to the heating of the summer and therefore this is a time when your wine turned sour, dogs turn mad and your folk sickened. Yeah summer melodies I think the best thing probably to do between the third of July and the 11th of August is just go to see. The fifth of July is known as old mid-summer day and due to the shenanigans of calendar reformation throughout the year now this day it is important that you do not go outside after dark. You must be aware of being abducted by Robin Goodfellow or Puck that prince of the fairies. Now the one way to get round this is of course to turn your coat and put it on back to front. The sixth of July is the day that the earth is at Athelian which means furthest away from the sun so in order to celebrate this as the sun being at its height essentially go to a stone circle and have a dance. I love dancing round stone circles one of my favourite activities to do in fact. Now the eighth of July is a day that's not good for frogs according to Reginald Scott who wrote the discovery of witchcraft in 1584. Today is the day that you should harvest frogs to make love potions and cures so if you have some frogs keep them well hidden from other witches. The ninth of July is the date that Venus shines very, very bright. Now Venus is the planet of love and beauty and it's shining so bright tonight that it may well cast shadows upon the earth so if you are looking for greater beauty one of the things that you should go and do is to dance in the light of Venus and let it bathe you with its light. Thirteenth of July is the day when it's sort of expected that most of the hay harvests will be pulled in by the farmers. If you marry when you have collected the hay harvests in but before you start the grain harvest owoe betide you and there is an old traditional couplet saying this they that wife between sickle and scythe shall never thrive meaning don't get married between these times because it's unlucky. The seventeenth is the night of the new moon rising in cancer and this is the new moon that rises underneath the serious dog star and so therefore it is considered the time that the druids would collect their herbs with their golden sickle and one of the herbs that took at its peak and was most precious to the druids at this time and to pretty much everyone the self-heal. Taken as a tea it's good for fevers, applied as a poultice it staunches bleeding and as a gargle it is great for sore throats. There have been studies showing that self-heal can delay the growth of viruses such as the hiv virus. It is also an antibacterial plant if you steep self-heal in distilled water and then add that into a bottle with equal amounts of vodka that makes a great room spray in a sick person's bedroom so it would clear out and kill any you know floating germs etc. You need to use self-heal in healing magic so you can make a sal from it to cure anything from skin diseases or use it when you're gargling if you've got sore throats or in your room spray just put your intent on it it creates a great base from which to work your healing. The new moon as I said previously is rising in cancer now new moons are considered to be great times to make new plans and look for new beginnings and each new moon has its own energy depending on the astrological sign that it's in. The sign of cancer is domestic harmony the family the home so should you wish to set any intentions for the coming month about keeping your family happy safe and together this is the time to do so. 22nd of July is not particularly witchy but I have to tell you this story because it makes me laugh Mary Magdalene who was a famous christian woman and is the patron saint of all prostitutes now what makes me laugh about this is on this day the church previously would punish anyone who had been prostitutes in their community by forcing them to stand in the church door wearing a white sheet and with bare legs and feet now this was just an opportunity for the prostitute to advertise her wares by standing wrapped provocatively in a beautiful white sheet and displaying her shapely legs so they stopped that but it does make me laugh 23rd of July is the date when you must protect your horses from the nightmare the hag who rides them and drains their energy at night and the way you do this is to place a hagstone around their neck you hang it from their neck and the hag is therefore unable to climb upon their backs and ride them through the night and this is where the term night mare, mare being a female horse comes from keep your horses safe tonight Don't forget my Patreon meeting is coming up in July last month we did telepathy and it was so cool literally we had so much fun doing it and everyone was really good at it out of all the meetings I think there was only two people who weren't able to get it for very witchy reasons may I say come and join and you can learn these tools too I promise you will enjoy it go to patreon.com forward slash at Ginny Metherill and they'll tell you everything there otherwise don't forget to like and subscribe because it really helps my channel and it means I can carry on making these videos for you and I will see you in a few days