autumn beloveds: DIY Moon Water Space Cleansing Spray

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

For the entire month of October, I will be posting daily to Luna Luna about all things magical, witchy, spooky, and spoopy. From books and tarot decks to films and random research or rituals I happen upon, I’ll be offering up a little taste of the shadow.

Today, I wanted to share something that I make to cleanse my space of negative or stagnant energies — and to protect it. Since I live in an apartment (and anyone who lives in a city or an apartment knows how many disparate energies and feelings are floating around) it is often easier for me to do this than to use smoke. I also just adore the ritual of it.

Before engaging in ritual or any sort of sacred act (like journaling or visualization) it’s a good idea to cleanse yourself  — and the space of any dull or stagnant or harmful energies. 

An easy-to-make apartment-friendly space-cleansing elixir

You’ll need:

• Large bowl or mason jar of water

• Organic herbs (especially those bought locally or those which are embraced by your ancestors or practice; I like to use rosemary — for its cleansing properties — or lavender — for its soothing and healing scent) or organic essential oils. Try to ethically source your goods if possible and be mindful of pets and roommates’ allergies.

• A water-safe crystal (optional) that I’ll use is rose quartz —to promote love in your space — or clear quartz (within the water) — to clear negative energies.

• A few pinches of salt (any salt will do; many use coarse or sea salt as it’s often on-hand, and some use black salt, which is said to absorb negative energies). Salt is oft-used in protective and cleansing acts across practices.

• A spray bottle with an atomizer. I like to use glass, but anything will do. You can also keep the water in a jar (I also do this often) and use your fingers to spray the water; some of us also like to be physical and use our hands. 

Let the water sit under the moonlight for a whole evening (if you live in an apartment, a windowsill or hidden area where it won’t be disturbed will do). You may place a crystal within the water to soak up the energy of the crystal. Cover the jar or bowl. When placing it under the moonlight, I always ask that the water be blessed and programmed to cleanse, protect, and purify my space. 

You can say this (or, better yet — of course — write your own incantation!): 

May this water be blessed by the light of the moon; that it becomes as the moon is — luminous, capable of the tides of change. May this water be used to cleanse, purify, and create harmony in my space.

PS: You can write this out and tape it to the bottle, too, or draw a sigil on the bottom of the bottle.

Oh, and direct moonlight is hard to come by; my window really only faces another building. If you can’t find the moonlight, just having access to the night sky is enough. In the morning (it’s okay if you get up after dawn breaks, though some folks get up before the first light), collect the water and pour it into a cleansed bottle.

You may drop a few drops of essential oils (careful with pets) or stick a few sprigs of herbs into the bottle. If you have a small enough crystal, you can drop it in as well. Use this spray when the energy, air, or ‘traffic’ becomes stuck, stagnant or tiresome. I recommend opening a window and using this spray elixir in each room and space you inhabit — especially before a ritual or journaling. You can even keep a smaller bottle near your door — with which to spray upon your being when coming in from outside.

Of course, any intentional act is only made better with beautiful, intentional words. If you were to recite an incantation every time you used the spray, what would you say?

You might start with: With this sacred water, this space becomes______, free from _______. 

---

Lisa Marie Basile (she/her) is a poet, essayist, editor, and chronic illness awareness advocate living in New York City. She's the founder and creative director of Luna Luna Magazine and its online community, and the creator of Ritual Poetica, a curiosity project dedicated to exploring the intersection of writing, creativity, healing, & sacredness. She regularly creates dialogue and writes about intentionality and ritual, accessibility, creativity, poetry, foster care, mental health, family trauma, healing, and chronic illness. She is the author of THE MAGICAL WRITING GRIMOIRE, LIGHT MAGIC FOR DARK TIMES, and a few poetry collections, including the recent NYMPHOLEPSY, which is excerpted in Best American Experimental Writing 2020.

Her essays and other work can be found in The New York Times, Narratively, Sabat Magazine, We Are Grimoire, Witch Craft Magazine, Refinery 29, Self, Healthline, Entropy, On Loan From The Cosmos, Chakrubs, Catapult, Bust, Bustle, and more. Her work has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes (most recently for her work in Narratively). Lisa Marie has led poetry, writing, and ritual workshops at HausWitch in Salem, MA, Manhattanville College, and Pace University, and she's led ritual and writing events, like Atlas Obscura's renowned Into The Veil. She is also a chronic illness advocate, keeping columns at several chronic illness patient websites. She earned a Masters's degree in Writing from The New School and studied literature and psychology as an undergraduate at Pace University. You can follow her at @lisamariebasile 

Poetry by Olaitan Humble

BY OLAITAN HUMBLE

Hope Against Hope

& then we watch as our new year prayers morph into

cries & wails of lost loved ones—the ones who

used to hold our tongues together with fine threads of their

sanity but what can a prayer do than to cause

coincidences to or not to happen? a bird's flight

draws my mother to the sky but it is dangerous out there

now she turns to her gadget to fuel her fear with pictures

painted by __________ here in a multiverse where

help is nigh where nature is not buried under whispers of

different languages where paradise is a few blocks away

from home where loving is a civil responsibility where the

night sky still casts a shadow

The Map of my Country as a Portrait of Woe on a Landscape

Here is where we build castles in the air // we start

by calling our forefathers bastards for keeping

us away from a world of distorted songs. We were

told that there is a paradise below our soil // an

unnoticed picture on the map of our country by the

other side of the wall they built before eloping

with their shadows into deep waters // somewhere

along the contour lines on our map there is an

unheard voice calling for the wrath of the gods.

There is a letter waiting at a post office written

by a sender that never was // those who were born

dead & buried into the night sky smiling.

& all the nights letters like this are read // woe

in form of killer bees pinch our wrist & then

we say the same words our fathers did on the day

they lost the fight to the motherland & died // & now

we wake up to listen to the irregular rhythm of the cries we

chant as anthem // we listen as they blow with the cold

winds illustrated on our map within a landscape.

Olaitan Humble is a Nigerian poet and pacifist who likes to collect quotations and astrophotos. He won the People's Choice Award at EW Poetry Prize Awards 2020, March edition of Loudthotz Poetry Open Reading 2020 and JustDeen Poetry Contest. Poetry Editor at Invincible Quill Magazine, his works are featured and/or are forthcoming in Dreich, Crêpe & Penn, Wine Cellar Press, The B'K, Words & Whispers, Giallo, AGNG Mag, CỌ́N-SCÌÒ, Periwinkle, Doubleback Review, The African Writers Review, Ngiga Review, Cultural Weekly, EroGospel, Konya ShamsRumi, POEMIFY, the QuillS, The Wanderlust Literary Journal, First Gong Anthology and Boys Are Not Stones Anthology II, among others. He is a Features Editor at Urban Central and tweets @olaitanhumble.

A Poem by Peg Aloi

BY PEG ALOI

The Apples

The apples my father brought were large

perfect, juicy, crunchy and sweet

red, delicious

in purple cardboard egg carton boxes

that he bought for clients

his generosity a beacon

amidst our constant struggles to make ends meet.

The apples my mother made pies with were grasshopper green

big and round, super tart, Northern Spy

baked to mushy sweetness

spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg

filling the afternoon with a warm fragrance of love and care

that rose above

the damp lingering sadness and fear of the morning.

The apples we picked in the local orchard

by the horse farm that smelled faintly of manure

and strongly of fresh-cut hay

were burnished by sunshine

red and green and yellow

Macintosh, Golden Delicious, Jonathan, Cortland

tumbled into bushel baskets

riding home in the back of the station wagon

like treasure, like gold

shining autumn days

when we learned what farms were

where food came from

what happiness was made of.

The apples my witchcraft told me of

were shining like round red planets

cosmic throbbing pomes

the color of blood and roses

their plump poisonous seeds bursting

with fairy tales, myths, secrets, curses and wishes

their crisp, fragrant, juicy flesh

tasting of this moment, and of immortality.

Peg Aloi is a freelance writer, film & TV critic, professional gardener, traditional singer, practicing witch, and lover of apples and orchards. Her book The Witching Hour: How Witchcraft Enchanted Popular Culture, will come out in 2021.

autumnal beloveds day 6: Esoteric Poesis

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

A gift from a good friend, this anthology of esoteric poetry — Datura: Explorations in Esoteric Poesis, published by Scarlet Imprint and edited by Ruby Sara — this collection sits beside my bed, waiting to be picked up on nights of ritual, contemplation, and big full moon energy.

It’s not a new collection; it was published in 2010, its intro written, “on the cusp of Imbolc/Candlemas, the season of poetry and fire, when the Pagani lean their hearts toward Bridhid, that goddess and patron saint of poetry….” (Fitting, I think, as I share this in early Autumn, the nights getting colder — more of us turning toward art and the sacred as we close the proverbial and literal door to the outside world).

Including 26 poets’ work (and many essays) from writers across occult communities, this really is a conjuring of that which stirs within us — that cosmic inspiration, that invisible Spirit o creation, and that holy drive to channel that which comes from some realm we cannot see.

This is a book of literary prayer and magic — a holy text in my temple of wordcraft — for poetry conjures the liminality of spirit and spell, and the high, rich emotion of devotion and sacredness.

Here are some snippets of the work included. I recommend you find the book and order it.

autumnal beloveds day 3: magical ASMR videos collection

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

For the entire month of October, I will be posting daily to Luna Luna about all things magical, witchy, spooky, and spoopy. From books and tarot decks to films and random research or rituals I happen upon, I’ll be offering up a little taste of the shadow.

Today, I’ll be offering up a few of my all-time favorite autumnal, witchy, magical ASMR videos. With their intense dedication to set design, spooky goodness, and soft, gentle vibes, I love to play these in the background while cleaning, applying makeup or a face mask, or redecorating my room/altar space/bookshelf.

As a kid I’d fall into the world of books — and I still do. Every color, every character, ever drawbridge and castle would speak directly to me, keeping me up at night deep in my thoughts. My little secret escapes.

ASMR is sort of like that to me now; as an adult, these videos are a retreat, a secret world, a place where you have the permission to indulge in fantasy (so oft repressed by the adulting life) and aesthetic beauty. Sometimes we don’t have the mental capacity for a book; rather, we need to be swept away by sound magic By feeling something.

ASMR — by its very nature — was designed to get us into our bodies. The “tingles” that come from these videos come in the form of softening — simple relaxation feelings — or whisper-induced hair-standing-on-end as if you and your friends were whispering secrets in one another’s ears.

ASMR is also about permitting yourself to feel nurtured, and to have a quiet, gentle, safe one-on-one intimate experience. In the age of COVID, I think we could all use that — free from over-saturation, fear, and hamster wheel chaos of our world. ASMR is, in a way, a ritual.

And so, here are my favorites — full of witches, goblins, magic herbal potions, and autumnal coziness:

Autumn Beloveds Day 2: The Art of the Occult by S. Elizabeth

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

For the entire month of October, I will be posting daily to Luna Luna about all things magical, witchy, spooky, and spoopy. From books and tarot decks to films and random research or rituals I happen upon, I’ll be offering up a little taste of the shadow.

Today, it’s the Art of the Occult: A Visual Sourcebook for the Modern Mystic by the mega-talented S. Elizabeth.

I’d love to share a few things before I get into the book; I’ve admired S. Elizabeth for a while now for plenty of reasons; her Instagram itself is a curatorial delight of idea, curiosity, esoterica, and art — a veritable treasure-trove of pleasures and ghastly bits and beautiful things that remind you that being alive is an act of deliciousness.

But it’s her writing that truly gets me. S. Elizabeth’s digital diary (a literary garden of glory) Unquiet Things is a space I’ve found myself sifting through over many, many a night in bed with tea. From scent magic to autumnal soups to lullabies and darkness, she writes with such depth and fullness about everything; because of this, there is no doubt that any book she puts together will be a well of wonder and research and shadowy goodness. Oh, and you can also find her magical words at Haute Macabre, Death & The Maiden, and more. She’s also the co-creator of The Occult Activity Book Vol 1 and 2.

The Art of the Occult is a visual journey through time’s spiritual, magical, and otherworldly art and experiences.

From the description:

“From theosophy and kabbalah, to the zodiac and alchemy; spiritualism and ceremonial magic, to the elements and sacred geometry – The Art of the Occult introduces major occult themes and showcases the artists who have been influenced and led by them. Discover the symbolic and mythical images of the Pre-Raphaelites; the automatic drawing of Hilma af Klint and Madge Gill; Leonora Carrington's surrealist interpretation of myth, alchemy and kabbalah; and much more.”

SIGH. Even better? It features little-known artists and marginalized artists — people whose names and works aren’t often cited or seen.

I’m waiting with bated breath for this book to arrive upon my doorstep. What a treasure.

Autumn Beloveds Day 1: The Uncommon Tarot

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

For the entire month of October, I will be posting daily to Luna Luna about all things magical, witchy, spooky, and spoopy. From books and tarot decks to films and random research or rituals I happen upon, I’ll be offering up a little taste of the shadow.

First up: The Uncommon Tarot by Shaheen Miro and Theresa Reed (who wrote Tarot for Troubled Times together), which is out today.

This incredibly reimagined tarot experience — and that’s what it is, really — offers 78 cards worth of Miro’s incredible artwork alongside Theresa Reed’s brilliant authorship.

The artwork is Miro’s interpretations of the classic cards done in delicious, zesty, spiritual collage-style with all sorts of symbols, mysticality, and hidden meanings bursting forth or waiting to be discovered. The deck is new to me, so it’s going to be a bit of time (forever, really, like any deck) before I really decipher what sort of essence or spirit this deck brings to my life. But right now, it feels incredibly fresh and energetic; it reminds me that we all have stories — and that they’re all beautiful and complex and divinely-touched) and that we ourselves are breathing archetypes functioning within this world, inspiring others around us, and adding to the mosaic of this life. It also tells me that we all can learn from one another’s beautiful stories, cultures, and energies.

That’s not the feeling I always get from other decks; in fact, this is really the first deck that makes the seeker, the storyteller, and the poet in me come out to play in full force. Not only are the images so completely unique and lush, but they also evoke all the elements of the human condition. You’ve got to hold it and be in its presence to feel that.

Theresa Reed, whose work with tarot (and everything she does) is super rooted in the shadow and human development, shines through here. I feel safe, understood, and like my journey is well-anchored with her at the helm. Her words are a balm, a salve, and a gift.

This is a true gift for the contemporary tarot reader or enthusiast.

You can pick up the glory here.