A basket overflowing with lavender harvest on an outside table. A foundational part of my Craft practice has always been turning the mundane into the magical, especially where my home is concerned. Call it hearth witchery, or call it cottage craft, it doesn’t matter, it’s all magic and helps you be your truest self and live your best life.
Before I began studying astrology, every August for as long as I could remember, I would focus on revamping my ‘spaces.’ My friends and kin now expect a flurry of organizing, cleaning, cleansing, maintaining, and most importantly, purging. Once I began to learn and understand more about our cosmic weather, the urge to do that made much more sense. Virgo season (when the Sun is in Virgo) is the perfect time to do a reset, especially where practical, detail-oriented, and improvement focuses are concerned.
Virgo Season starts Aug. 22 – this Saturday.
Sept. 10 brings the Virgo New Moon & Uranus stations Retrograde.
Now that I’m armed with the knowledge that Virgo season is the perfect time to release organizational and clean-up energy into life, now I have annual rituals that happen during this season, and most notably with the Virgo new moon. I’m excited to share them with you here.
Closet Overhaul
How many things do you own that you do not use? How could you make room for new abundance and practical energy? You can start with your clothing closet.
This is a slow-magic spell I do annually now, which stretches from Virgo season to Virgo season. It doesn’t all happen in a month’s time, but throughout the year, so you can do the satisfying part under the Virgo new moon. Given that Uranus is going retrograde also on the day of the New Moon, that energy will easily lend itself to tasks like re-assessing the structures and systems we have. You dress everyday, so taking a look at that with a critical eye for the next year is going to be especially magical.
An example of the lavendar sachets I use for closet and drawer magic.I like these annual spells and rituals because they allow you to deeply dive into the discernment necessary for the task, as well as providing you ample space and opportunities to get yourself in right relationship with – as in this case – your closets. However, I have found that such discernment and right relationship will spill over into other areas of your life. Just pick a spot and start.
I start with the hanging clothes in my closet first. I take a hanging cedar plank and mark it with a consecrated lavender sachet, which was grown, harvested, and prepared intentionally right here #OnTheCovenstead. This magical sachet does double duty as an air/energy cleanser in the closet and marks a dividing line. The hanging cedar plank (see image) and sachet shows you what you actually wear each year. After laundering worn clothing following this new moon in Virgo, you will put on one side of the hanging sachet. This side is known as your “active rotation” side. The other side is the rest of the inventory.
You do this for an entire year. Wear something, launder, put it on the active rotation side. My active rotation side is on the right side, but depending on your space, you may want it on the left. For me it’s an easy way to remember, however, “right = right relationship – fits right, looks right, feels right.” Everything on the left is “left over.”
Once you go through the whole year of putting the clothes you actively use to one side. Then you can spend the following year’s Virgo new moon, sorting the leftover side. Then I get a container for donation, one to keep, and another for textile recycling. We’re not putting anything into the trash, Witches. That t-shirt from the company you worked for 12 years ago is still a resource. But if it’s got a bleach stain on it, don’t donate it to the charity shop. Recycle it. My local area has something called “ThreadCycle.” Do an internet search for your area under the terms “textile recycling center.” You likely have one very near you.
A closet sachet hanging from a cedar plank divider next to hanging clothing. The storage tub with “keep” on it, you will then put on the left side of your closet (for me it’s on the floor or on the shelf above my hanging area, depending on how large the box ends up being). Come Pisces season (~six months forward in the future), if you don’t access anything in that storage box, you can safely sell and/or donate its contents.
Within two years’ time your closet will reflect more of what serves you and brings you joy and you may find that you don’t need to do this spell/ritual for a few years to come. I enjoy the exploration and it points out exactly what I need and don’t need for my wardrobe/space in the most obvious of ways.
Again, use your discernment and discretion. If it’s too hard to get rid of your 40-year old motorcycle jacket or the infamous take-no-shit Auntie’s fur stole, you do not need to part with these. Or maybe you have your ‘funeral’ dress or ‘interview suit’ that maybe you didn’t wear from Virgo-season to Virgo-season, but when you need that, you need it. For these items, make yourself the very back section of your “inactive” side the space for these things.
You can apply this kind of wisdom to any space. If doing your whole closet is overwhelming, start with your sock drawer. Or just your stack of denim jeans. Pick one small thing and apply this intention, discernment, and work towards right relationship.
I’m getting ready to do this once again this Virgo season and it always spurs an energy lift here in the house and for my own sense of well-being. I know where everything is and I know everything is wanted. That’s magic, Witches.
If y’all are interested in more details about any of this, please let me know. Like do you all know how to consecrate an item for use in magical spells or? In the meantime, thanks for reading and…
Do Good; Be Magic
~R