Balsamic Moon phase - a move into Taurus

I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."


27th Day of the 6th Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Hecate
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Hauthe/Hawthorn
26th Day of the Celtic Tree Month ~ Hauthe/Hawthorn
Moon Phase: Balsamic Moon - 5:13PM EDST
Moon rises: 2:49AM EDST
Moon sets: 5:06PM EDST
Moon in Aries v/c 9:12AM EDST
Moon enters the Fixed Earth Sign
of Taurus at 11:41AM EDST
Ceridwen's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: "Your special place
of peace and refreshment.
Sun in Gemini
Sunrise: 5:49AM EDST
Sunset: 8:47PM EDST
Solar Question for the Day: "What broken
or fragmentary parts of your life need
mending?"
Beltaine (Calan Mai) Quarter
of the Year
June 8th, 2010

Balsamic Moon - The Moon is a slim Crescent, forty-five degrees behind the Sun. Moonrise comes in the pre-dawn hours, when most of us are sound asleep, in the theater of our most vivid dreams. Right brain processes are at their peak this phase, having gathered momentum since the Full Moon. Instinct and intuition are high. Rest is imperative. Even during waking house,  we work in Balsamic much as we do in dreamtime, when the semiconscious sorts and catalogues our experiences, feelings, receiving messages of guidance. Our physical energy is necessarily as low as our psychic energy is high. We're at a threshold, ending one cycle while anticipating a new one around the corner. We might want to get in motion, but our bodies are tired. Our clarity and focus wane, like the Balsamic Moon herself, rising thinner and fainter each morning until she eventually disappears altogether, lost in the Sun's glare. Then this is the Dark Moon. Much of the time we won't know whether we're finishing up or leaning toward the future, whether we're being truly psychic or dreaming - which is why this a better period for introspective than for action. Without the dormancy of winter, spring's (or the New Moon's) seeds cannot mature.
    Doing Balsamic goes against the cultural grain. We're afraid of loss. Anything but endless upward growth appears unfortunate. The downward arc of cycles is difficult. Yet fearing Balsamic means shunning the medicine that can make us well. This Moon phase brings a profound initiation into cyclic intelligence, like menstrual huts or Moon lodges of long ago, when women would bleed on the dark of the Moon and withdraw from the tribe's daily business. In the womb of the lodge they surrendered to visions, renewing their powers, returning to their tribe inspired, with a renewed capacity to inspire others. Of course in our day, menstruation is often called 'the curse'. And so it seems for the Balsamic phase. The Dark Moon makes possible our future creating.
(excerpts from Dana Gerhardt's "Moon Watching")

Moon in Taurus - The forceful forward movement of Aries becomes solid, calm, and patient during a Taurus transit. This is a good time to continue projects and finish them up. The calm effects of a Taurus moon transit compliments the Balsamic inward energies.  There are Major magickal energies for doing Bindings after the Moon moves into the sign of Taurus - and minor energies for reversals and banishings.

"For your misdeeds

you will be bound

This wish be buried in the ground

And think not that I toy with thee

cause I am serious as a Banshee."

[From: "Seasons of the Witch 2010

Datebook"]

Binding -   Binding is a technique that the ethical witch uses with caution. Naturally it has been greatly employed in amoral love spells since time immemorial to draw and attach one person to another, usually the spell-caster. This is classic bewitchment, in which the free will of the 'victim' is overruled by the desire of the practitioner. Many a tale could be told of unfortunate consequences of such an action, but, to be fair on the witch or magician concerned, words and actions in love trysts can be equally binding and thwarting to the recipient, and they say that all is fair in love and war. The Wiccan, of course, would disagree, but a non-Wiccan, magickally-minded person might argue that betrothal and wedlock are equally binding and often just a duplication. Be that as it may, a more common usage of the technique in magick is not so much to attract as to prevent interaction. The idea in this case would be to bind a person from causing harm - to oneself or others.

   As with all spells, there are many ways to bring one's will to pass - the symbolism of the ritual must simply correlate with the witch's intent. An obvious form of binding involves the use of cords, but a bind-rune or other monogram symbolizing the desire effect can also bring it about. Whittling away at a stick or object while strongly visualizing the person's harmful capacities diminishing can also bring bindings to pass. However, there are many people in the world with strong will power, and in order to magnify one's own to anything like the require capacity, other techniques should be used, with the bound symbol as the focal point. These include casting a Circle to concentrate energy and create a cross-dimensional environment; lighting candles and burning incense of appropriate correspondences (a small black taper candle, for example, burnt right down, could serve to symbolize the destruction of negative potential action); undergoing a small fast before the rite (to focus one's mind and increase emotional impetus); and a huge variety of other magickal techniques that you can create on your own. When working in tune with natural correspondences - the tides of the moon, astrological considerations, days of the week, angelic hours, and whatever else the witch deems appropriate - imagination may be harnessed to powerful effect.

   When binding a gossip from malicious speech, for example, every bolt of energy thrown at the person might be envisaged as landing on his or her mouth like sticky tape. The ethical witch will ensure the gossip's mouth is freed up for essential and nonharmful speech, and of course for purposes of eating, drinking, and breathing. When binding a person who is physically threatening or abusive (thought legal action is highly recommended in lieu - fists should be countered on their own plane), that person's ability to harm can be imagined as flailing arms cut off or tied behind his/her back at each onslaught of psychic energy.

   The use of dolls is obviously appropriate to binding spells. A classic scenario is the binding of one personalized doll to another in love magick, though, as previously mentioned, this is obviously unethical unless both people consent, which would be highly unlikely as most of us would choose to develop freely. An individual might be prevented from causing harm by being 'bound' in effigy form in a black satin cloth, with proviso that it keeps harmful energies in (and provocative energies out), but allows free flow to those that are not pernicious.

   The effective witch is imaginative, and knows what works best for her, and what seems the most appropriate symbolism in any given situation.

(Advice from "The Witch's Guide to Life" by Kala Trobe)