The Arizona Witch

I hope you all are having a wonderful Litha today! I love celebrating the longest day of the year, even if it’s too damn hot to spend any time outside today. Litha, or Midsummer, can be celebrated as a solar festival and/or a fire festival. In modern times, we associate Litha with the themes of abundance, growth, fertility, love, empowerment, and light. Although Litha is not a harvest festival, it still has deep connections to the earth as the sun is needed to grow our crops.

I like to use the energy of this day to cast self-love spells, as that is an area of my life that I struggle with. Whereas my best friend, also a witch, likes to use the energy of the day in her baking. In other parts of the world, bonfires are lit and danced around to celebrate the abundance of light and heat of the day. I love this tradition, and would gladly participate if it weren’t going to be 110 degrees (Fahrenheit) today. When we finally migrate north upon retirement, I will absolutely participate! Instead, I put a tealight candle inside of my mini-cauldron to mimic a bonfire.

Pictured above are my altar decorations for Litha, although I am missing the fresh flowers I typically include. Here are the items I included:

Crystals:

• Carnelian: Courage, healing, peace, protection, sexual energy
• Citrine: Abundance, balance, protection, psychic awareness
• Emerald: Love, memory, protection, psychic powers
• Jade: Healing, longevity, love, prosperity, protection, wisdom
• Peridot: Prosperity, protection
• Tiger-eye: Courage, energy, luck, prosperity

Colors:

• Gold: Energy, power, prosperity, solar deities, strength, success, the God, the sun, wisdom
• Green: Abundance, calming, fertility, growth, new beginnings, prosperity
• Orange: Adaptability, communication, courage, creativity, energy, optimism, success
• Red: Anger, courage, creativity, desire, energy, fire, lust, passion, sexual love, strength, willpower
• White: Cleansing, divination, healing, innocence, peace, protection, purification, truth
• Yellow: Communication, creativity, dream work, happiness, intelligence, learning, protection, psychic ability, the sun, willpower

Herbs:

• Cinnamon (sticks & chips): Energy, love, power, prosperity, psychic ability
• Mugwort: Clairvoyance, divination, dreams, psychic ability
• Rosemary: Love, memory, protection, purification, wisdom,
• St John’s Wort: Happiness, healing, protection, strength
• Vervain: Healing, magick, power, protection, purification
• Yarrow: Healing, love, marriage protection, psychic ability

Flowers:

• Chamomile:   Calming, communication, determination, harmony, intuition, prosperity, purification
• Daisy: Love, luck, omens
• Heather: Awareness, generosity, growth, protection
• Lavender: Healing, love, peace, purification, sleep
• Marigold: Healing, peace, protection
• Meadowsweet: Harmony, love, peace
• Rose: Attraction, love, peace, protection, sex