Harvest Home Fruit Magic

With another harvest holiday coming up, I thought this would be an auspicious time to share with you one of my favorite tricks from ye olde kitchen witch cupboard: a simple all-purpose fruit spell.

For this easy method of magic, one chooses a fruit of the appropriate symbolism, clearly visualize your goal or desire (see associations below, or use your own intuition). Then speak the words of your spell and eat the fruit.

I find that the ever-popular apple makes a great all-purpose fruit for this spell, so I like to keep some around. If you have chosen a large enough fruit, you could also carve runes or symbols of your goal into it. You could juice it into a potion, or bake it into a pie with symbols formed in the crust. You could even slice up a piece of fruit and share it in a group spell. If using an apple, you could slice it horizontally to reveal the star in the middle, eat around the center and make a wish on the star then bury it.

Below you will find the words I have crafted for a general fruit spell, and some associations I have for some common fruits. Of course, this spell could be used for other foods as well.

“Fruit of Earth, the Mother’s gift,
with you I seek a fateful shift.
With my goal placed well in mind,
your taste brings forth my will in kind.”

Fruit Associations for Magic
Apple: health, vigor, youthfulness, wholesomeness, and love.
Blackberry: abundance, prosperity, and protection.
Cherry: love, desire, passion, and playfulness.
Blueberry: protection, happiness.
Fig: sexuality and fertility.
Grapes: fertility, prosperity.
Lemon: cleansing and purifying.
Orange: friendship, courage, luck.
Paw-paw: protection, love, or revenge.
Peach: love, beauty.
Pear: love and desire.
Persimmon: joy and wisdom.
Pomegranate: desire, commitment, mystery, lifeblood.
Raspberry: love and protection.
Strawberry: youthful attitude, love and happiness.
Watermelon: joy, freedom, prosperity.

Autumn Equinox Magic Book

I made this little booklet as a short and simple introduction for children to some Autumn Equinox themes in Druid/Heathen tradition.

Print out, color, cut away the margins and fold into a book. For folding instructions see my article magic one-sheet-of-paper mini book.

Kids’ Activities for the Autumn Equinox

EXPLANATION & INFORMATION

Look for these illustrated books at your local library to teach your children about the Autumn Equinox and some general traditions associated with it in various cultures:

• “We Gather Together” by Wendy Pfeffer (for ages 4-8)

• “The Autumn Equinox” by Ellen Jackson (for ages 9-12)

STORIES

• “Harvest” by Kris Waldherr

• “By the Light of the Harvest Moon” by Harriet Ziefert (for ages 3 – 7)

• “Wild Child” by Lynn Plourde (for ages 3 – 8)

ACTIVITIES

• Help grown-ups with bringing in the harvest (or shopping for it at the farmer’s market) and with cooking the Harvest Feast.

• Have your own Autumn Equinox ritual.

• Heathens honor the Álfar (Elves) at Haustblót (Autumn Sacrifice). The Álfar are ancestral fathers and nature spirits. Make a little altar in your backyard with a flat stone and offer baked treats and other goodies.

CRAFTS

• Make a Harvest Doll.

• If the leaves have changed color where you live, make Autumn Leaf Crowns. And make  leaf stained glass by ironing leaves between 2 pieces of wax paper.

• Make a harvest necklace; soak a variety of large beans until they are soft enough to be pierced through with a needle, and string the beans onto dental floss.

• With help from a grown-up, make a bread cornucopia. Fill it with local fruits and veggies to be the centerpiece of your harvest supper.

• Find harvest scenes to color online: Harvest Interactive Harvest Color Book Pages for Kids.

Countdown to Autumn Equinox – Holiday Planner

August 23rd – 31st

• Decorate home for the holiday / make crafts to decorate home.

• Take seasonal (outdoor) pictures with family/friends.

• Bring home foliage from above outing for crafts/decoration.

September 1st – 8th

• Firm up ritual plans, if you haven’t already. Will you be attending a festival, local event, a family event, or doing something on your own? If you are planning the ritual, decide on location and script/liturgy.

• Line up Autumn Equinox activities for the kids.

• Make an Autumn Equinox playlist.

September 9th – 15th

• In addition to any ritual plans, you may want to plan on attending a local harvest event or hayride; check community calendars and plan accordingly.

• Make menu plans and grocery list.

• Shop for menu items.

September 16th – the equinox

• Prepare feast (or potluck dish).

• Have ritual, attend any other festivities, and celebrate!

More Autumn Equinox Activities for Kids

leaf stained glass
Lay down several layers of newspaper on a flat surface.  On a large sheet of wax paper, let you child arrange pressed leaves in a design or pattern.  Place another sheet of wax paper over this.  Iron the layers together with an iron set on low.  Trim the edges and hang in a window.

Here’s three rhyming games for younger kids:
Autumn
Autumn winds begin to blow (blow)
Colored leaves fall fast and slow (make fast and slow motions with hands)
Twirling, whirling around in mirth(twirl around)
‘Til at last, they touch our Mother Earth (touch ground)

This is the Way We
This is the way we rake the leaves rake the leaves, rake the leaves
This is the way we rake the leaves in the middle of Autumn.
This is the way we jump on the leaves, jump on the leaves, jump on the leaves
This is the way we jump on the leaves in the middle of Autumn.
This is the way we throw the leaves Throw the leaves, throw the leaves
This is the way we throw the leaves in the middle of Autumn.
This is the way we rake the leaves rake the leaves, rake the leaves
This is the way we rake the leaves in the middle of autumn.

Leaves
Little leaves fall gently down
Red and yellow, orange and brown. (flutter hands like leaves falling)
Whirling, whirling around and around. (turn around)
Quietly, without a sound. (put finger to lips)
Falling softly to the ground (begin to fall slowly)
Down and down and down and down. (lie on ground)

~~~

apple crafts
The first weekend of October is apple festival time in Lincoln, Arkansas!  Though apples are usually in season for us here by Autumn Equinox, apple crafts are great for either an Autumn Equinox or Samhain activity.
Apple prints- cut open an apple horizontally to reveal the star pattern made by the seeds.  This can be dipped in paint and used as an art stamp.  Dried apple garlands/wreaths- slice apples ¼ inch wide, soak in 1 cup of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon salt for 2 hours.  Dry on a cookie rack in a 200 degree oven for 2 or three hours.  Let cool.  Poke a hole in the edge of each to string onto ribbon to make a garland, or glue onto a cardboard circle to make a wreath.  You could even try making apple dolls with the instructions at appledolls.org.

Cornhusk Shuttlecock Games
To play this game, you will need a pokean- a shuttlecock made of corn husks and feathers.  Gather together a few corn husks, some twine, and three large feathers.  Lay two large husks on a flat surface in the shape of a sun cross.  Fold a third husk into a square and place it in the center of the cross.  Fold the ends of the husks up over the center and tie with the twine.  Stick the ends of the feathers into the top of the pokean.  One simple way to play is to see who can toss the pokean into the air the most times in a row with the palm of the hand.  More games and an illustration on the pokean can be found on the nativetech website.

Here are some nice picture books about the Autumn Equinox and harvest celebrations around the world.  (I found them at my local library.)
We Gather Together by Wendy Pfeffer
The Autumn Equinox by Ellen Jackson

Another fun little thing is this autumn kaleidoscope.

See my previous Autumn Equinox activites page for more.

Autumn Equinox Crafts for Kids

bean necklaces
Soak beans of various colors in water overnight.  In the morning, they will be soft enough to be pierced through with a needle and string to make necklaces and bracelets.
 

papier-mâché cornucopias
To make this project, first you will need to make some paper ropes.  Here’s how:
1. Lay a full size sheet of newspaper flat and drizzle with thick flour and water paste or glue.  Use a scrap of cardboard to  spread the paste over the entire sheet.
2. Lay another full size sheet of newspaper on top of the paste, 1 inch lower than the sheet below it.
3. Starting from the bottom, roll the 2 sheets together into a tube.
4. Twist the paper tube into a rope.
Now, to make the cornucopia, place a small bowl upside down on your work surface. Wrap one of your paper ropes around the bowl rim with the bowl upside down on the work surface. Cut off any excess length and paste ends together.  Let dry.  (You may need to tape it in place until it dries.)
Next paste one end of another paper rope to ring around bowl, leaving other end free. Attach 7 more ropes around ring in the same way, spacing them evenly.
Bring free ends together over bowl. Pull then off center to form a curved horn shape and paste in place. It will look a little bit like a tomato cage in structure.  Let dry, then remove bowl.
Make more paper ropes to weave into the cornucopia.
Paste end of a new rope to one of the cross ribs near top of basket. Weave other end of this new rope in and out of ribs, repeating with new lengths of rope until all spaces are filled in, using paste or glue where needed.
Let dry, then paint/decorate how you wish.  Fill cornucopia with real or papier-mâché fruits and vegetables.

 

marker point samplers
This is a simple and fun art project I found in Family Fun Magazine last year.  All you need are markers in various colors, a pencil, and graph paper.  First, use a pencil to lightly mark out letters and designs on the grid paper.  This example says “give thanks” but if you want to be more elaborate you can spell out “happy harvest” or anything you like.  When you are happy with your design, use markers to X in your design then go back and erase pencil marks.