 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill, I'm a fourth generation witch. Today it's my ever popular Almanac series which looks at all the rituals, rites and traditions that you can practice within your craft in February. So as with all these videos I'm going to start with a general overview of the trends that happen throughout February and then we'll move on to the nitty gritty daily witchcraft that you can do on what day and when. So with that said let's move straight on to the overview for February. I'm sure that you're all aware of February is very much about love. Let's beat no bones about it is romantic love and sexual attraction. We've got some Valentine's Day for us humans and the same day applies to the birds because that's the day they get married on. The wonderful Wheel of the Year Festival of Immelt on the 1st and 2nd of February which is all about sprawl and prana, more on that later though. We have the frog chorus beginning in this month. The beautiful dawn chorus starts up again. The violet which is the love flower starts to poke its head above the earth. Oh I love February. I know I say this about every month but really it just is great to see a little more life coming into the world. I saw my first snow drops yesterday and the excitement was extreme. Although February is the season of love it is also quite cold still. We are ruled by the star sign Aquarius which is in turn ruled by one of the ice giants Uranus. And Uranus that wonderful planet when we look at it it looks this beautiful blue-green doesn't it but actually this is a frozen giant and that affects our planet too but I can't help but like it because look at those beautiful rings around the outside those are ice rings and aren't they stunning. We only knew that Uranus had ice rings fairly recently I think it was only about 20 years ago. Not sure on that though so do correct me in the comments if you think I'm wrong. As I said snow drops appear in February they're a symbol of cleansing purity and hope. The Old Winter Queen of Scottish tradition would be going around still in February and banging and bashing her staff on the ground and wherever she bashed her staff you would have the frosts appearing yet through these frosts the hardy snow drop would poke its pretty head and this would make her scream with rage because it meant that her power was waning. February comes in the Latin word februar means to cleanse to clean to purify because this is the time for the spruing to clean. It's not just traditional it is necessary after the cold and damp our homes are filled with clutter so this is the time to start clearing it all out and throwing it away not just physically as well you need to psychically cleanse your house. Great ways to do this are of course using incense I love a bit of incense and I particularly find White Sage excellent always use stuff that's been grown in a polytunnel in Devon or wherever part of the world you live in not the stuff from California and this is wonderful at really getting rid of all the negative energy but do remember when you're cleansing your home with sage particularly get under the bed because this is where a lot of negative entity often coils when you're asleep you'll tend to cleanse yourself naturally and refresh your body and the negative energy sort of drops off you and pulls under your bed and you know this is where monsters come from there are monsters under the bed so get rid of them with some white sage and lastly but most importantly February is the month for raising the serpent now what this means is essentially to bring forth the sprowl or prana of the earth and of yourself as this is fertility and new beginnings raising the serpent has happened in so many different cultures Moses in the bible is shown as raising the serpent he puts a bronze serpent on his staff who raises it up and nails it to a tree to cleanse the Israelites of their curse now if that's not a traditional witchcraft I don't know what is the hopey people of North America also do the snake dance in order to bring the fertility and new beginnings to the earth so the Aztecs were known to raise a serpent and the traditional witch of the UK also has been known to raise the serpent when I was younger I might have done some raising the serpent myself I don't do it now because it's a bit cold raising the serpent in traditional witchcraft is simply you would go to a sacred site with your coven this sacred site was often an old well or an old cave places where snakes would hibernate because you want to wake the serpent with your staff and you do this sacred serpent dance and it is just symbolic that when the serpent is awake the sprowl of the earth is able to rise up not just into the plants and into the flora and fauna around you but into yourself a witch is known as traditionally but I don't necessarily think this is true but traditionally a witch is known to have her strongest energies in the spring and there might be something in it you might be more able maybe I don't know I've never tested it but your sprout or your prana your magic is at its strongest traditionally in the spring and this is why the local populace would bring the charms that you had given them throughout the year to be regenerated with the energy needed to keep those charms going in the springtime the Celts also have a very similar raising the serpent it is at this time when the breed snake emerges from earth mother to repopulate across the earth and a wheel of candles would be placed upon the head of the chief initiator of the ritual to symbolize the light that is coming they do say that the American Groundhog Day is part of this raising of the serpent but maybe it is maybe it isn't I don't know so that is my overview of February and a lovely overview it was too now let's get into the nitty gritty detail of the days and of course we have to start with the first of February which is the beginning of the wheel of the year festival of emil which is the brilliant festival celebrating the start of spring now I'm not going to say too much about emilk here because I've done such a good video of it which I will put up here for you so do go and click on that and watch it after you've watched this one of course and it tells you all about emilk the feast of emilk starts on the first of February at sunset and finishes on the second of February at sunset so it's sort of almost a two-day festival it is a feast of dairy and so one of the easiest ways to celebrate emilk is to just drink and eat some dairy products have a butterboard which I do mention in my emilk video and everyone was like what the hell is a butterboard very trendy on tiktok at the moment have a look there it is quite fascinatingly strange of course emilk was always celebrated with many dances and torches and other different but unholy rites this unholy rites led forth to much ill conduct and so in the ninth century the current pope at the time then replaced emilk with the purification of the blessed virgin mary on the second which is known as candle mess and if you're a mary in which today is the perfect day to light yourselves some candles to celebrate the blessed virgin mary who was the sort of mother goddess is she not and the festival of emilk and I see no dichotomy by doing the two together and if you want to add some real pagan traditional witchcraft into that do a libation onto the earth with milk which means simply pour milk or cheese or butter whatever you prefer onto the earth as an offering the fifth of february is the date of the full moon and the full moon is in leo leo is incredibly energetic and it is a full moon full of hope and energy it is known as the snow moon the ice moon the storm moon all of which show that february is still a bit cold and this full moon is high and bright but full of the energy of leo not only that it's full of the energy of the earth the full moons are said to be at their strongest energetically in the spring and the romanese insist that it is now is the time to re-energize your crystal ball in the full moon of february you would place your crystal ball by a lake so the ball is reflected in the lake by the light of the moon and therefore it would re-energize itself properly however we might not have a crystal ball i keep bidding on them in ebay because i do love a crystal ball and i really want to vintage one but they go for hundreds if not thousands of pounds and i haven't quite got thousands of pounds just to spend on a crystal ball at the moment however i will do i can go to get one soon and then i'm going to proudly show you how to do crystal ball scrying however if like me you haven't got a crystal ball the fifth is still a great day to re-energize your crystals simply place them on a window sill in the light of the full moon and leave them there overnight to re-energize the fifth of february full moon is also the best time of the year to hear the uk frog or toad forest so we've got a pond at the bottom of our garden quite a big one which is filled with frogs and toads and i'm planning because i've never heard it to go down there on the fifth and listen out to see if i can hear them calling their mates they're rather sweet they grab them in a really tight embrace and don't let each other go until they have spawned it's a rather sweet ceremony should you ever see it the ninth of february is the last day of the chinese new year lunar festival which is the year of the rabbit last scene in 2011 so if you're born then you are a rabbit rabbits are terribly earnest but they also love the moon and so if you are a year of the rabbit person then do go out and make sure that you use this year to practice your mooncraft throughout it the 12th to the 14th of february are known as borrowed days meaning that they borrow the cold weather from january and if they do then it's going to be fair for the rest of the year however if it's fair on these days it's borrowing the days from the summer and therefore it's going to be freezing cold for the rest of the year i really hope it's going to be really cold on those two days because i draw the two cold days in february and a really lovely hot summer because i am a summer witch i say this i'm a winter witch a spring witch an autumn witch i'm bloody every witch whenever the seasons come around i'm just like oh wow the seasons are so amazing aren't they if you have a cat in february do pay attention to what the cat is doing there is a traditional saying that goes if a cat lies in the sun in february she will creep behind the stove in march meaning if it's warm in february it'll be bloody cold in march so watch out and watch your cats the 14th of february is of course a valentine's day and we all know this as the day for lovers however it is also the day that the birds get married isn't that sweet it is said that they choose and marry their partners on these days and from this day onwards it is when they start to build their homes together now for all those people who don't have a partner on valentine's day there is a lot that you can carry out a lot of rights and rituals that you can carry out to make you dream of your partner or make you have a partner come to you so the roman egyptians believes that if you place a bay leaf under your pillow on the 14th february you will dream of your future lover and they will come quite soon it is said likewise a posi of violence if picked on valentine's day and placed in a jar by your bedside table will help you bring soft and refreshing sleep and dreams of your future partner on to valentine's day there's lots of superstitions about birds and in fact if you see birds flying overhead they mean the following if you see a sparrow flying overhead you're going to marry a poor person but you will be very happy if a robin flies over your head on valentine's day you're going to marry a sailor if you see a gold flinch flying overhead you will marry a rich man there's lots of superstitions and so i'm going to put them here for you so that you can have a look and see which bird you'd like to have flying over your head on valentine's day the 20th of february is the night of the new moon astrologers believe that new moons are a time of quiet contemplation before the time of growth and change each new moon has its own energy depending on what sign it appears in and this new moon is in the sign of Pisces the new moon in Pisces is said to rule our intuition innovation and psychic capabilities so now is a great time to study and enhance your spirit mediumship and improve them in Cornwall which is deeply pagan still i keep saying this but it is the 20th is also nickanon night nickanon night is a night of mischief old nick is an old name for the devil and therefore nickanon night is when children follow the devil and get up to mischief they play nicky-nicky nine doors which is a form of cherry knocking i used to call it where you know knock on the door and then run away so watch out in Cornwall because this is the night that old nick astrides the land and in fact there is a lot of tales about this in Cornwall about the devil's footprints going across the Cornish countryside in the snow yeah look it up on youtube you'll like it the 21st of february is Shrove Tuesday meaning that this is pancake day where the british nation goes all out makes pancakes and has lots of races with them why we do the racing nobody knows but we do and fun isn't it then we have ash wednesday on the 22nd that great christian festival marking the start of lent now i only mention it because the days around ash wednesday are all given names we have colloc monday shrove tuesday ash wednesday thritter thursday where you cook apple thritters and most worrying of all is kissing friday it was said that on this day that if you went about and kissed the girls you could do so without retribution it just sounds a bit to me like um boys are slightly physically attacking girls um so don't do that no kissing friday this year and the last week in february although i have no a special individual day witchcraft for this i do want to tell you about a violet charm violets those beautiful purple flowers that smell so sweet and glorious and they'll be poking their heads up at this time pick yourself a bunch of violets and wash them in spring water and make an infusion of them to drink in tea once you've drunk the tea take the violets and mix them with goat's milk and allow the violets and the goat's milk to infuse together partly after an hour or so take this and pat it into your skin and let it sit there and this is incredibly old-fashioned charm to bring about a great beauty so if you want to feel more beautiful that's how to do it in february if you have any february traditions do let me know leave me a comment i'd love reading your comments and i'll be very interested to hear what you have to say otherwise my patreon cavern meeting is coming up um in a couple of weeks or so says plenty of time to join the coven so have a look on patreon it'll all be there for you in the meantime please don't forget to like and subscribe because it really helps my channel and i will see you in a couple of days