Welcome to the Garden! Operated by a married duo of eclectic witches, Bone Garden Tarot & Apothecary offers intuitive tarot readings and witchy goodies to help the spiritually curious dive deeper into their own power and practice. Join our newsletter for a monthly ritual, shop updates, and other musings from the past month!
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✨Bone Garden Monthly Newsletter - June 2026✨
Published 12 days ago • 7 min read
WELCOME WITCHES! Whether you've been with us from the beginning or just signed up last night, we are so happy you're here. Before we get to the good stuff, we want to take a second to fill you in on the exciting changes happening here at Bone Garden. As of today, we have officially launched our Patreon! Here's what that means for you:
All existing members of our mailing list will continue receiving the full newsletter for free for the next year. It will automatically show up in your mailbox once a month, zero action required, which amounts to a free $3/month membership at the Magician tier. If you'd like to join one of the higher-paid tiers detailed below, you can use the code OGBG26 to receive 90% off your first month! Please don't share this code; it's exclusively for our founding members and scamming a small business is super gross and lame.
The newsletter, community, content, and witchy supplies from the Magician, High Priestess, and Empress tiers, PLUS:
a one-time gift of a fully custom pocket altar, painted and pieced together based on your personal interests and practice
one 30-minutetarot reading every 3 months, beginning after your first three months of membership, including a PDF with a picture of your cards and a summary of the reading for you to refer back to
one custom spell kit every 3 months, consisting of a candle, herb jar, spell, and instructions formulated just for you based on the content of your quarterly tarot reading
and a one-time gift of branded merch!
tl;dr To continue receiving the full monthly newsletter, you don't have to do a damn thing but if you want other fun stuff like community and exclusive products you should check out our Patreon and enjoy 90% off the first month with code OGBG26! We are extremely excited to continue building this witchy community with you all! Now on to the good stuff.
Summer Solstice | June 21, 2026
Happy Summer Solstice, all! This Sunday, we get to celebrate the longest day of the year. You may also hear the upcoming holiday referred to as Midsummer or Litha, but the solstices and equinoxes have been around long before any of these names were brought to life. What's more, Midsummer and the summer solstice are not quite interchangeable -- Midsummer is an ancient agrarian holiday celebrated throughout Northern and Eastern Europe in late June, not necessarily on the same date as the Solstice. It's most popular today in the Nordic countries, particularly Sweden, where it is celebrated nationally on the same level as Christmas, with drinking, singing, and dancing around a maypole. Traditionally, Midsummer is associated with fertility, love, and the fae realm, and is considered an auspicious time when the veil is unusually thin. Litha, on the other hand, is yet another invention of Wicca's Aidan Kelly, at least in its modern iteration. While Beltane and Lammas, which fall on either side of Litha in the Wheel of the Year, are known to have
been ancient Celtic fire festivals marking the cross-quarter days, Litha itself is a bit more nebulous. It’s ultimately a modern Pagan holiday, an amalgamation of various cross-cultural solstice festivities given the Anglo-Saxon name “Litha” to vibe aesthetically with the rest of the Wheel. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a thousand more times: just because it isn’t ancient doesn’t mean it isn’t worth celebrating! There is absolutely nothing wrong with using Litha as a framework to celebrate something as timeless and magickal as the summer solstice. However you celebrate, be sure to set aside some time to enjoy the outdoors. The interesting dichotomy of the Summer Solstice is that although it seems that summer is just starting to ramp up in energy, in actuality, the days begin to grow shorter after we hit this peak. This day marks the beginning of our march towards winter, so seize the day, get outside, and let the sun’s heat inspire you!
Ritual Magick
What you'll need:
candles: yellow & gold to represent the sun, green to represent the fertile earth, and/or reds & oranges to represent the heat in the air
tarot cards: The Sun, The Chariot
the collection from your nature walk
parchment paper or newspaper
a small notebook and pen
Other altar dressing suggestions (totally optional):
crystals: sunstone, citrine, carnelian
herbs/plants: St. John's Wort, lemon balm, chamomile, daisies, sunflowers
offerings: honey mead or sweet wine, lemon cookies/cake, lemonade
(note: if you ever don't have the exact candle color you want on hand, you can use any neutral candle and just visualize the colors)
Start this ritual by getting into nature in whatever way is accessible to you. If you can, go for a walk outside, taking in the natural beauty around you, whether it's a lush forest or a persistent weed growing tall through cracks in concrete. Safely close your eyes and take a moment to feel the sun beating down on your back. Lift your chest to the sky, thanking the sun for its life-giving warmth and allowing its power to flow through your entire body. As you continue your walk, wait for a flower or leaf to catch your eye. With it in your hand, ask the plant's permission to take the flower or leaf home with you; if you feel that you've been granted permission, gently pluck the flower or leaf and take a moment to thank the Earth for its gift. Take your time making your way home.
Set & cleanse your space, placing all of your materials on or near your altar. Do whatever makes sense for you to ground and focus your energy -- maybe cast a circle of protection, call the corners, or meditate. Once your body and mind have settled, focus your attention on the Sun card. Without judgment, journal in your notebook -- you might consider how the sun felt on your walk, recall a time in your life when you felt empowered, or set a specific goal for the months ahead. Shifting your focus to the Chariot, journal once more, giving attention now to the journey rather than the goal or the feeling -- consider how it feels to have a steady inner flame pushing you towards a goal, to feel the heat of empowerment from the sun carrying you forward.
When you're done journaling, light the candle(s) and recite the spell below, calling on the sun to step into your power, live boldly, and claim what's yours. With the final words still hanging in the air, take the leaf or flower from your nature walk and carefully press it into your journal between two sheets of parchment paper or newspaper. When you're done, close any circle you may have opened and allow the candle to burn for as long as you'd like (and can safely oversee the flame). Over the next several days, check on your pressed flower until it is fully dry. You can leave it on your altar as is, or turn it into a bookmark by sealing it in packing tape. As the days grow shorter, refer back to your flower any time you need a reminder of the sun's nurturing power.
Longest day and shortest night
We bask in the sun's golden light
A kiss of heat against my skin
A sign the journey's about to begin
As I step forth into the day
The path I walk is mine to lay
I call back my power - My light shall not dim
The strength of the Sun, above and within
A fiery chariot shall be my ride
With spirit and self as noble guides
And after this day though the Sun will wane
I shall have forever my inner flame
By the power of Sol as it rises and sets
I dance to my own song, a brave minuet
An it harm none, so mote it be
Blessings below and above
I will to me
Herbal Journal
Disclaimer: I only started studying and working with herbs in earnest last year. My goal for this section of the newsletter is not to teach you herbalism but to share what I'm discovering along the way so we can explore plant medicine together! If you're looking for stronger resources to enhance your herbal knowledge, I recommend doing your own research to find a teacher or herb school that speaks to you -- the teachers I've been learning from lately are Katja and Ryn with Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism; Ayelet Hashachar with Doll Herbalism; Brunem Warshaw with Well Deep Remedies; and Khadija Khansia hwith Ayni Herb Farm
Most of this month was spent working on the Patreon so our herbal journal will be shorter than usual, but since it's June, I just wanted to take a brief moment to talk about the herb of the hour: St. John's Wort, or hypericum perforatum! There's a lot to love about hypericum perforatum from both a medicinal and spiritual perspective -- many turn to it as an herbal anti-depressant or anti-anxiety remedy*, and it's been sought out for protection in multiple cultures. It blooms in late June, lending to its common name, St. John's Wort, which refers to St. John's Feast Day (which coincides with Midsummer, see above!). I've also heard the name Solstice Wort used in an effort to decenter Christianity, which I love, but my personal favorite name is shedim shits, the Yiddish name, which translates to "demon protection." I can just imagine my third-great-grandmother, Etta, back in the shtetl, using the same yellow-flowered plant I know and love to ward off demons!
*PSA do not take St. John's Wort without consulting a doctor if you are on any medications, including/especially SSRIs, as it can cause dangerous drug interactions!!
Upcoming Events
LUNAR FAIRE
6/20
HAPPY PRIDE!
Come support your favorite queer-owned small business at Lunar Faire Pride in Sussex County this Saturday, 6/20!
Yup, just plugging the Patreon one more time in case you scrolled all the way to the bottom! Did you know we have a Patreon now? With access to community discussions, Zoom rituals, discounted tarot, and exclusive products? Cus we do! Go look!
And as always...
You can find all of our regular products and order custom spell kits and pocket altars at our
Welcome to the Garden! Operated by a married duo of eclectic witches, Bone Garden Tarot & Apothecary offers intuitive tarot readings and witchy goodies to help the spiritually curious dive deeper into their own power and practice. Join our newsletter for a monthly ritual, shop updates, and other musings from the past month!
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