 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill and I am a fourth generation witch! I know, really! Today is my ever popular Almanac series looking at what witchcraft you can do on each day during the month of August. As always with these videos what I like to do is to look at the general trends that follow the month of August in your witchcraft. And then once we've discovered these we can look at the nitty gritty day to day detail of what witchcraft you can do and when. With that said let's look at the general overview. August is a wonderful month isn't it? It's summer at its height also we think but actually in the Wiccan Pagan calendar it is the very start of autumn. Now with these starts of seasons it's always a good idea to look to the heavens and in fact August is full of heavenly activity. Heavenly activity really does influence our lives down on this mortal earth. Not only do we have two full moons in August but both are super moons. Great for lighting the way for parties. August is the start of the harvest season and the energy of the world has changed slightly. It has slowed down. We're now in a fattening and ripening mode as opposed to the quickening growth of summer. This change in season is noted by not just us mere mortals but also the good neighbours, the others, the fey, the fair folk, whatever you like to call them. It's one of the times when this small folk are at their most active. Now the old ways farmers amongst us know that the fair folk will help with the harvest in all their forms. They'll ensure that the fruit ripens, that the corn grows golden and that the berries grow fat. And so this is a time for fey offerings in thanks for the abundance that they have helped produce. This is why the Lammas Festival which happens in August is all about bread and leaving a little bit of bread out on the doorstep or on your table or splitting your loaf into four and leaving it in four parts of your house, the four corners in thanks and offering to the fey to ensure that they don't break the covenant, the covenant of cultures that we have with them and cause mischief. If you're out in the evenings you may hear the song of the grasshopper in the UK at the moment. This is the August song and it is thought to be the song that the fairies also enjoy the most. Grasshoppers are mating at this time of year which is quite late actually for an insect. Obviously they mate during the spring so they can push out those babies, get them strong to last the winter. But grasshoppers lay their eggs so that they can overwinter in this protected form. But it is also one of the songs that the fey love to dance to. So if you hear the grasshoppers singing their evening song, watch out because there could well be the fair folk about. This is also seen if you come across a patch of white heather. White heather is a sport, I mean a spontaneous mutation of the standard purple stuff and it is believed to be very spiritual. Romanes used to cut white heather and sell it at lamas fers and brides in August would carry a sprig of white heather in their bouquet because it was considered extremely lucky. However if you find a patch of white heather for goodness sake do not step on it because it is believed to be the burial place for the fair folk. And so therefore though you may pick it, do not tread upon their graves. The autumn festival is known as Lunasa or Lamas. Lunasa is after the god Lu, the bright shining god Lu. He brought agriculture to humans and showed them how to grow their crops and to till their soil. He is the person who is slain so that the crops can regrow again in the spring. And it is this slang of the god Lu that we think bought about the sacrifice that was made at this time, particularly human. So there is a darkness underlying the August abundance. I have here a fossilised sea urchin and this is known as a fairy loaf. It is great good fortune to keep a fairy loaf on your lamas table because this will bring abundance to your household and it pleases the fair folk the most. It is extremely lucky and it is known that if you have a fairy loaf within your household you will never want for food. And lastly August is the month of brewing. Now brewing of course involves the marvellous hops and should you care to decorate your home with hops and they do look charming after all. You must ensure that you bring them in the front door, not the side door, not the kitchen door, not the back door, the front because this brings the good luck into your home. If you are taking out some old hops they must leave by the back door obviously. So that is the end of my general overview for the month of August. Now let's look at the nitty gritty day-to-day witchcraft that you may get up for and buckling because it's a busy month August Let's start with the first of August and as all good wickens and pagans out there know, the first of August marks the start of the Lamas or Lunasur festival. This is the festival of harvest and although I'm not going to go too much into this here I have got a dedicated Lunasur video out at the moment for this year and I'll put it up here for you so should you wish to view it I will say a couple of things about this festival. On the first of August the great dragon Leiline is activated across England. Now this is known as the Michael's Line so Michael's is the Christianised saint who was a sun god really but you know Christianised. But this line starts when the sun rises up in the east coast of England and as the world turns it rises straight down this Leiline and ends at St Michael's Mount. It fizzes through many different energy sites along the way and so should you live anywhere along this line in the UK do go out and have a look at it on the mourn of August the 1st because great energy can be accrued from it. There are rumours and in fact more than rumours of people walking through Leiline energy and if they had stayed there they felt that they would have been moved. It is a traffic highway remember so let me know if you have that experience write it in the comments below I'd love to hear. The first of August being the first day of the first cut of grain so marking the first grain harvest. There is a lot of slightly darker history to it on this day in 1100 the King William Rufus who was a notoriously evil man was mysteriously shot with an arrow whilst hunting in the new forest and killed. It was well thought of at the time that he was killed as a sacrifice to the old gods. For this marks the start of Lunasa. So watch out don't go hunting in the new forest if you're an evil monarch of the UK. The first of August is also the day the first full moon of the month appears. It is also a supermoon and the second full moon the blue moon of the month is also a supermoon so it's you know very as I said heavenly orientated for August. Now this supermoon is going to appear about 30% bigger they say than a normal moon and it will look closer and possibly have a hazy glow about it. Now this is great good fortune this supermoon as a which we all know that the best thing to do is to do rituals that require that intense and open energy. So charging your tools for example works very well under a moon as well as money and abundance rituals. This is let me have the good stuff time. There are plenty of names for this particular full moon the grain moon the barley moon the lynx moon which might have something to do rather than lynxes but lynx being an old England Saxon term for light. Who knows but if you're the Cree of the Canadian plains then you know it as the moon where the young ducks begin to fly which I think is rather charming. The 5th of August is the beginning of the oyster season. You know all those quotes we should never eat shellfish unless there is an R in the month is sort of okay I think they're best with an R in the month but the oyster season does actually start on the 5th of August. It was an East London tradition and it was a lovely folklore tradition that if you ate oysters on this particular day you shall never want for money during the year. So go out there and have a pint of oysters or a beef and oyster pie. I can't stand oysters they're much too slimy for me. I love mussels and I can't eat them anyway because I'd probably die of an allergic reaction but you know in the days when I could I was never great with oysters. Maybe that's why I've never been terribly rich. Oh dear. The 11th of August is the time of Lammas fair ends. This is apparently when the harvest has got in and so therefore the fair of Lammas or Lunasa had ended. It could actually be any other time but it normally lasted 11 days and so on this day the spirit is unknown to walk. It is a great day for divination and scrying and so therefore I suggest that you try and communicate with your spirit loved ones on this day. However it's not just spirits that walk at this time it is also varying other bad jujus out there and so in order to ward off or protect your home from anything that might enter it it was considered very propitious to go out and make a wooden cross from Rowan. Now it was important never to speak so the practitioner go out cut the wood from the tree asking its permission of course at tying it with red thread the traditional square cross of witchcraft and bring it back and hang them above the doors and windows of their home to protect them but they must not speak to another soul that they meet because this will break the charm. That's rather a sweet one that one isn't it and probably works rather well. Rowan is known as a very protective wood one of the sacred woods of the Druids in fact. The 12th of August is the height of the Perseids meteor shower. Now should you be watching the shower which peaks between about midnight and three in the morning you will see some spectacular shooting stars and what do you do when you see a shooting star. Well of course you make a wish and as I always say wish magic is incredibly personal you must only wish for yourself not another person. The 16th of August is the night of the new moon and the new moon this month is in Leo. The new moon in Leo brings its own particular traits. Astrologers believe that new moons are the perfect time to set your intentions for the coming month. Leo is all about courage, playfulness, celebration and so this is a great time to set plans for parties, celebrations and future fun activities. The 27th of August is when Saturn is an opposition. What this means is that it's right up there and in this particular day Saturn is showing her rings to us and it is beautiful. You can see them if you have a good pair of binoculars or a telescope but this is when Saturn is bowing with the earth in their celestial dance. Saturn brings about beauty, abundance, fertility and an increase in creativity. I hope anyway. This will have an impact on your witchcraft so should you wish to do rituals to bring you that then now is the day to do it. Or possibly even the 31st of August which is our next date which is all about the super moon and blue moon. The 31st of August is the date of the blue moon, the second full moon of the month and this is also the largest super moon of the year so it really will appear beautiful and bright hopefully if we've got good viewing conditions. This super moon brings an uplift in lunar energy into our witchcraft and so it's fantastic for divination and scrying. Try scrying with a bowl of water which is reflecting the moon's light within it and you should get some excellent results. There is plenty of traditional folklore for this moon. The first one being my favourite, pick flowers underneath this blue super moon and you will have abundance for the rest of the year. Don't go to sleep with this moonlight on your face because this will bring bad luck for the next 30 days. Make sure you close your curtains. I'm not sure why. I actually don't necessarily believe that one because I think going to sleep with the moonlight on my face is one of my great pleasures in life. It is unlucky to stare at the moon through glass apparently. Not quite sure why, maybe it's because you don't get its full lunar energy onto you. So if you should be wishing on this full moon, don't wish through a window. Do it when you're looking at the moon straight up. And finally, and my favourite one, to get rid of a wart, blow on it underneath the light of this blue moon and that will ensure that the wart disappears and I really hope so because you can't see it but I've got the tiniest wart on my hand here I've been trying to get rid of it but I don't like that wart stuff because it just burns great big holes in your hands. So I'm going to try that and I'll let you know unless I can get someone to buy it off me because that's always a good thing to do. Or I might simply try one of these other methods. And so that is my witchcraft in August. Let me know in the comments below what you are going to do. In the meantime, I have got a new blog at GinnyMethrol.co.uk Do go and have a look at it if you're missing Ginny. If I haven't put up a video for a while, it's because I'm working on my blog. So go and have a read. It's got lots of information in there for you. My coven meeting is going from strength to strength and this month, I can't remember what we're doing. Are we doing... I think this month we're going to do how to trace magic. I think. I'm not sure. If you're interested in this, come and join the coven meeting at patreon.com forward slash GinnyMethrol for all the details. Otherwise, please don't forget to like and subscribe because it really helps my channel, enables me to keep working and doing these videos for you. And I will see you in a very short time.