 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill and I am a fourth generation witch. Today we're doing my ever popular Almanac series looking at what witchcraft you can do on which day and why during the month of April. As always with these videos what I like to do is to give you a general overview of the witchcraft trends that run throughout the month of April which you can incorporate as part of your daily practice and then we're going to look into the day-to-day nitty-gritty detail of what witchcraft and when and why on what day. And so with that said let's start with my general April overview. April surely is one of the prettiest months. The flowers are starting to bloom, the sun starts to shine. I mean it's been utterly hideous here and the birds return and this is one of the sort of big events in April. It is the month of birds. It is not just the time when the birds have returned to this land. It is also the time when they're laying their eggs and this I always think is rather charming because whilst the females they lay their eggs at dawn in the nest and the male birds are singing their hearts out protecting the females whilst they lay their precious cargo and singing saying this is my territory, it's mine, it's mine. Throughout the land at this time of the morning which is why the birdsong really starts to ramp up a bit here it's those men protecting their territory and their wife sweetly. This is what April is known for. It is egg season. We are decorating eggs, we're eating eggs, we're having Easter eggs. The bunny is bringing us eggs. In fact eggs are abounding at the moment and it's such a joyous time. The Anglo-Saxons used to bury their great dead with eggs because they recognise that the egg was a symbol of rebirth, fertility and renewal and that's exactly what eggs are. Any witchcraft that you do with any eggs is all about fertility, rebirth, renewal and you can enhance your magical practice so much by using eggs at this time. Of course Easter eggs have been going for generations upon generations in fact as long as we've had Easter and by that I don't mean the a Christian festival of Easter. I mean our original festival of Easter from our goddess Easter who was a goddess of fertility in the spring and had pet hairs which is possibly where the Easter bunny comes from. Who knows? We don't nobody does but in my mind the correlation is too strong to ignore. April is not just known for the variety of birds that sing their hearts out in this month. It's also known for the variety of flowers which start appearing. April being a month of fertility and love is therefore deeply associated with violets and not simply because violets are currently carpeting our floors. Violets have a huge familiarity with not just the fertility and love that we express through them, also with the dead. Young children were buried with violets and violets were planted over their graves because violets have an innate youthfulness about them. The beautiful violets scent that we all know and love. I've got some Devon violets perfume which the children are like oh it's so gross so old-fashioned it smells like a granny but I love it, I love it. However the scent of violets is said to ward off evil and so if you string violets in a pose and leave them hanging from your doorknob especially on difficult days of the year such as the 30th of April when all thoughts of things are abounding a violet pose will protect your home from negative entities or energies. April is all about the weather isn't not you know there's the April showers which come down and spoil our outdoor plans however these April showers are oppressing a good summer so we're looking forward to them aren't we because we want the sun in the summer. April is also the time when the world does start to open up we're outside we are making the most of that spring sunshine and those longer days which thank goodness because I'm sure I get sad in the winter months you know the seasonally affected disorder I'm sure I get that. It's also the time when the trees are beginning to bud April has a lot of forecast about it so if you have an oak and an ash tree side by side if your oak tree is budding before your ash tree then we are in for a splash of rain but if your ash tree is budding before your oak tree then we're in for a soak. The other thing to look out for is babies the season of light is in its infancy as well as everything else and isn't it charming having ducklings. So that is my general overview we're going to look at the beautiousness of nature coming and opening up because April is named from the roman word appareare which means to open and this is what we're seeing now so with that said let's get on to the nitty gritty in day-to-day detail and as always with these we're going to start with the first of April the first of April is a busy day so buckle in we're going to start with what you should do when you first wake up which is to say white rabbits. I did mention this in the march video but this is a particularly auspicious day to say your white rabbits the first thing that comes out of your mouth it will harness the nature of it being the Easter festival which is named for the goddess Easter and she had a hair as her companion or could turn into a hair or was a hair-headed goddess all of the above most likely so saying white rabbits and give you great luck for the month ahead. The first of April is also April Fool's Day so traditionally on April Fool's Day you would send people out on a fool's errand such as to go out and buy a pot of striped paint or a pint of chicken's milk or to buy a book by the mother of Eve but you have to do this to make a fool of someone by midday otherwise you are the fool. My sister when she was in her early teens a bit away for a few days and rang my mother up on the first of April and said mother I just want you to know I'm pregnant and she put the phone down you know after saying you know I'll let you think about it and you know blah blah blah and put the phone down. My mother in utter utter complete frenzy brings me up and goes darling darling this is pregnant your sister's pregnant I don't you know and so we then sit and discuss about what you know what to do and I'm like you don't worry you know it's fine you know I'll help it'll be all right you know it will all be fine it'll work out in the end anyway my sister sent frantically trying to get through to my mother because she's put on the phone to me for hours at this point you know because of course it's an April fool's it does make me laugh even now and finally this is a day for weather forecasting for if it thunders on all fools day then it is a good year for crops of corn and hay so we'll have a nice summer so let's look out for thunder I quite like a thunderstorm it's quite exciting isn't it the second of April is mentioned in Reginald Scott's The Discovery of Witchcraft a book about witchcraft from 1584 and he mentions that if you wish to have long blonde hair which is beautiful then you should cut a lock of your hair and hang it up on this day before your idle and then the next day you'll have long and blonde hair the sixth of April is the day when the cold leaves over the water and you should not have any more central heating this is the day traditionally that it goes off I mean I'm not turning off my central heating on the sixth I couldn't think of anything more ghastly that means I'll be cold but anyway traditionally you should but I'm not definitely not the eighth of April is the night of the new moon astrologers believe that every new moon takes on the characteristics of the sign that that new moon appears in this new moon is in Aries Aries is all about fun creativity and lax hence why we get the April fools I presume so this is a great month for you to plan out and enact all the most creative and fun things that you can think of now excitingly the eighth is also the day when we have a total solar eclipse the path of the solar eclipse starts in Mexico and travels up through the eastern states of America and ends up in Canada solar eclipses are supposed to presage a deeply disturbing time so fingers crossed nothing terrible is going to happen in those few countries morning after a solar eclipse means that the dew that was formed is going to apparently give you the plague I don't know what plague just don't go out on the morning afterwards of a solar eclipse and touch any dew the 14th of April is the day when you first apparently hear the return of the cuckoo cuckoos come in April they sing their song in May by the end of June that changes their tune and July they fly away so this is traditionally when very excited sergeant majors would write to the times in the UK and say oh yes the first day of spring because I heard the cuckoo all cuckoos hold a lot of superstitions and so when you first hear the cuckoo calling it's very important to be outside and not in your bed if you hear a cuckoo calling whilst you're lying in bed then it means that somebody in your family is going to not make it this year but if you hear it whilst your feet are planted outside on the ground then you will have great luck and if you've got coins in your pocket start jingling them and you'll become very rich cuckoos were the messengers of the gods and they're so busy flying around carrying their messages between the gods and the human race that they did not have time to raise their own chicks hence why they laid their eggs in other birds nests the 21st of April is the day the sun enters the house of Taurus and as always I'm going to read you what the Taurus man and the Taurus woman are like this comes from the calendar of Shepherds which is an almanac of 1604 so this is what the Taurus man and the Taurus woman are he that is born under Taurus shall be strong hardy and full of strife in his youth he will despise every person and be eye-full yeah he shall go pilgrimage and live among strangers i think this says that he's just going to go and settle in a foreign country isn't it he shall be rich by women and yet she'll experience many pains by women oh poor thing's going to have his heart broke he shall be grieved by sickness at 23 and in peril of water so don't go sailing at 33 and he shall live until he's 85 that's quite a long time now my father was a Taurus and none of that happened to him i think anyway the woman shall be affected labouring so childbirth's going to be hardcore for you very sorry about that and she shall be a great liar she shall have many husbands though which sounds jolly and many children which is also sounds jolly she'll be at her best at 16 years old no she beaks early but then sickly and if she escapes such sickness she shall live until she's 75 they're quite long lived these Taurus people aren't they is this true what do you think are you Taurus let me know in the comments below 23rd of April is St George's day the patron saint of the UK now St George i'm sure you all know slayed a dragon and in fact you should be aware of dragons on this day Uffington which is where apparently St George slayed the dragon celebrates this day quite heavily you know because they've got dragons hill there where there is a bare patch of earth which is where the dragon's blood was spilt when St George slayed it and therefore nothing grows there you know makes it completely barren it is of course very apt that he slayed it on the 23rd of April because dragons in ancient mythology represented the cold harsh darkness of the winter months and slaying a dragon on the 23rd is meaning that there is of course no harsh winter months left for you i always rather like St George as a patron saint he said to be buried in George Elm Lane in a village in Warwickshire and he was apparently buried with an elm stake through his heart i'm not quite sure why they did that maybe they thought he was going to rise again anyway this elm stake then grew into a great elm tree which finally burnt down in i think the 1950s but this is said to be his burial place the 23rd of April is also the night of the full moon this is known by the native americans as the budding moon the green shoots moon and by the anglo-saxons as the egg moon because of course this is when eggs are at their most abundant this full moon falls in Scorpio which brings intense and transformative energy to your workings and so this is a time for glamour and romance and finally this is the first day that bluebells will appear on the 23rd beware though do not fall asleep in a bluebell wood because you will be taken by the fey the 24th of April is Saint Mark's Eve now this is a divination day and should you dare if you go to your local church and stand in the porch between 11 p.m and 1 a.m you will see the wraiths of all those people in the parish who are going to die enter into the church if they come out again it means that they will just have very serious dangerous illness from but from which they will recover as the wraiths enter the church if you look at the state they're in you'll be able to tell how they died for example a person who was executed for murder would go with a noose around their neck and a person who died by drowning would enter as if he was trying to swim to the surface yeah the other thing that might enter is any of the couples in the parish who are going to get married they will enter into the church and then they'll come out again but beware because if you see your own wraith enter in you're obviously not going to last the 12 months so you know i'm not sure if i can recommend that or not it's probably true the 24th is also a great day for divination tarot cards work brilliantly or runes if you prefer or even have a go at reading tea leaves the 25th of April it's cowslip day these ones used to be incredibly common over the english countryside which is why we have a day to celebrate them however now due to modern farming practices of their end decline however should you be feeling incredibly tired why not take a bath and put a couple of cow slips into it and this will banish your tiredness otherwise use ointment which has got cow slips in it because it's incredibly good for your complexion it will get rid of acne scarring and all sorts of other skin ailments the 26th of April is the day the tradition states that the ark you know Noah and his ark came to rest after the floods on the top of Mount Ararat this is the day that God placed his rainbow in the sky and so this is the start of rainbow season so to speak if you see a rainbow today take note because they are fortunate on this day you can find a pot of gold at one end of them generally leprechaun gold mostly but gold all the same if they are shining in the morning then it means it's going to be stormy if they're shining in the evening it's a shepherd's delight and finally never point at a rainbow for this betokan's bad luck just make sure you know where it's ending and then go and dig up your pot of gold or use a pendulum or a metal detector one of them might work and finally we come to the 30th of April this is one of the scariest days of the calendar it is traditionally the devil's birthday it is the start of the belting festival which starts at dusk on the 30th and it is the night when the spirits are walking and abroad it is one of three nights of the year where the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest and you can communicate and talk with spirits the other two being mid-summer and halloween this is also traditionally the night where you want to keep the witches away because the witches renew their vows to the old one on this night it is a day when you can see spirits and so they can appear to you in a more solid form I mean I generally see spirits in a sort of hazy way as a sort of heat haze on a road you know where the air wobbles slightly that's how I see spirits but on this night it is the night where traditionally you should be able to see a clearer form of them it is also one of the night when the fairies are out fairies were looked upon as malignant creatures of not necessarily kind anyway in previous days I don't believe in this myself I've never met a fairy there's anything other than a fairy you know they're just fairies sometimes they can be a bit annoying by hiding your car keys or whatever you're searching for but apart from that they're not they're not malignant at all at the same time you don't want to be looking outside because well the witches the fairies the goblins the you know nasty malignant spirits that are out there trying to annoy you and it's the devil's birthday so he is abroad so stay in maybe if you wish to learn about how to be a witch why not join me on patreon and become a coven member it is simply an online learning facility so should you wish to know how to be telepathic or speak with spirits or see colours in the astral plane come to a meeting and I will teach you please don't forget otherwise to like and subscribe because it's how I am able to make these videos for you and I will see you next week with something even better