Anna Franklin - The Hearth Witchs Year

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

The Hearth Witchs Year: Rituals, Recipes & Remedies Through the Seasons 2021 by Anna Franklin.

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First e-book edition 2020

E-book ISBN: 9780738765174

Book design by Rebecca Zins

Cover design by Shira Atakpu

Interior floral woodcut 1167 Decorative Cuts (New York: Dover Publications, 2007)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Franklin, Anna, author.

Title: The hearth witchs year : rituals, recipes & remedies through the seasons / Anna Franklin.

Description: First edition. | Woodbury, Minnesota : Llewellyn Publications, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: The Hearth Witchs Year examines how the natural tides of the year shape the hearth witchs spiritual life, looking at how nature influenced spiritual practice in the ancient Pagan world and how it should influence us today, because when we are separated from nature, we are separated from our spiritual source. It includes seasonal rituals, practices, and recipes for every month of the yearProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020038124 (print) | LCCN 2020038125 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738764979 (paperback) | ISBN 9780738765174 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Witchcraft. | YearReligious aspectsPaganism.

Classification: LCC BF1566 .F6955 2020 (print) | LCC BF1566 (ebook) | DDC

203/.3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038124

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038125

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

The Wolf Month

The Purification Month

The Green Shoots Month

The Month of Opening

The Merry Month

The Month of Glory

The Golden Month

The Harvest Month

The Month of Completion

The Ember Month

The Dead Month

The Month of Rebirth

: Weights and Measures

Introduction

My year as a Hearth Witch is a cyclethe balmy days of spring, when life returns and I begin work on the garden and go out to collect natures first wild gifts. The full days of summer, when I am busy weeding and hoeing, collecting and preparing herbs and remedies to see me through the year. Then comes the abundant bounty of autumn, when the hedgerows are full of wild fruit and nuts, when all the work on the vegetable plot pays off and I get busy preserving it, freezing and canning, making jams and wines. Finally come the frozen days of winter, when I cleave to my hearth fire and turn my attention to indoor activities. Then the year begins anew and the whole cycle starts again, never the same twice but a continuing cycle nonetheless. The magical and spiritual rituals I celebrate throughout the year reflect this cycle.

The natural cycle of the year is the basis of the eight sabbats observed in modern Paganismthe first stirrings of spring at Imbolc, the gaining of the light after Ostara, the flowering of the earth at Beltane, the zenith of the sun at Midsummer, the first fruits at Lughnasa, the completion of the harvest at autumn equinox as the light begins to decline, the death tide of Samhain with the coming of winter, and the rekindling of the year at Yule, as the Sun is reborn.

However, for our ancestors, the cycle of the year was much more personal since most of them worked on the land and depended on it for survival. They were acutely aware of the tides of energy flowing into, then out of the worldenergy both spiritual and physicaland instead of trying to dominate these tides, worked with them, marking them with a myriad of feasts and festivals, myths and folklore. All these together give us half-blind modern Pagans with all our distractions, cushioned by central heating and a constant supply of food from the shops, places to start to make our own profound connections. I look to the clues that nature gives me to tell me when to plant my garden or harvest my crops and, moreover, when to celebrate a spiritual feast.