Welcome to the September issue of the Bone Garden monthly newsletter! We're keeping it shorter than usual this month in anticipation of an exciting pre-Samhain issue coming your way in just a couple of weeks. Moving forward, we are shifting our newsletter cadence so they'll now arrive earlier in the month. The October issue will have all the usual goodies -- rituals, spells, tarot spreads, and a Spotify playlist -- but it'll hit your inbox mid-month with plenty of time to revel in all the good spooky season content before the big day (Halloween, duh)!

In the meanwhile, enjoy our abridged September issue below. As always, you can scroll straight to the end for shop updates and upcoming events, or read on for a deeper dive into Libra season balance and the usual herbal reflections!

Libra Season | September 22 - October 22

Libra season kicked off a few days ago with the Autumnal Equinox, which we touched on in last month's newsletter! But let's dig a little deeper into really embracing the relationship between Libra season and the equinox in terms of what the equinox literally represents: equal night and day, or "balance", if you will.

Libra's symbol is the scales and the sign is ruled by Venus, the ancient Roman Goddess of Love. So how are we able to honor ourselves with love and compassion through balance during this next phase? Examples below!

• making time for both work and play (because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy)
• honoring the waning season by finding time to REST
• Six of Pentacles energy: are you receiving what you are putting out and vice versa?
• outdoor and indoor time before it gets too chilly!

Balance in The Tarot

Let's take a look at some interpretations of the Justice card in different decks!

Brady Tarot The Justice card in the Brady Tarot deck features a turkey vulture. The artist of this deck, Emi Brady, calls vultures “the gate-keepers between life and death.” They consume the dead and diseased, to then birth new life. Energy is constantly transforming within and around us, whether we see/feel it or not.

Goddess of Love Tarot In Gabriela Herstik & Julia Popescu's deck, Goddess of Love, Justice is replaced by Balance, and features the goddess Persephone. She embodies the ultimate balance as the Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld. How can you honor both/all aspects of yourself?

The Forager's Daughter Justice: "The Food Chain", depicted in Jessica Lei Howard's The Forager's Daughter Tarot. A simple concept that highlights natural order, balance, and inevitable consequences. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton's Third Law of Motion, or The Butterfly Theory... a reminder that although sometimes things seem random, there is a reason. And inevitably, we all end up back in the Earth, to help continue the never-ending cycles of life.

xo, Erika

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 with Ayni Herb Farm​

We had a special guest in my herbal CSA Zoom meeting this month: Cyrée Jarelle Johnson of Balm in Gilead. Before diving into the medicine-making planned for the call, he led us in a reflection on what it means to ask permission from the plants before working with them. In previous months, I had taken the time to observe the plants, and I understood the necessity of asking permission when harvesting plants, but the idea of asking permission explicitly to make medicine with the plants when they were already here in my kitchen hadn't occurred to me. In our Zoom call, we all took a few minutes to independently sit with the freshly harvested goldenrod we'd received, building a relationship, understanding its energy, and listening for permission to work with it in the way we planned. My goldenrod hadn't been stored properly -- I'd had a rushed weekend and thrown it in a bag in the fridge -- so it had begun to wilt. As I sat with it, appreciating it's soft flowers and earthy scent, I felt compelled to apologize for not taking care of it the way I would have liked. I asked it for forgiveness and for permission to salvage as many of its fresh leaves and flowers as I could to turn them into medicine for seasonal allergies and achy muscles. It was a subtle energetic shift, but I could feel a definite sense of yielding, of being given the permission I sought. As I began garbling the herbs, I moved slowly and remained alert to which leaves were willing to separate and which would rather stay on the stem and return to the earth (shoutout to our building's new compost bins). One of the things I love most about herbal medicine is that it is chemistry, it is real science with actual, quantifiable results, but it is also spiritual and energetic. As I move forward, I'm curious to see how taking the time to seek permission impacts the effectiveness of the medicine we make, and I look forward to honing the skill that is listening to plants.

xo, Hannah

Upcoming Events

Lunar Faire 10/24 DARK CARNIVAL Vendor signups aren't out yet so we can't make it official, but Lunar Faire is coming back to East Freehold Showgrounds in October! We will most likely be there -- but y'all should go either way! Get your tickets here!

Lunar Faire 11/1 HALLOWEEKEND Again, vendor signups aren't out yet so we can't make it official, but the final Lunar Faire of the season is from 3pm-10pm the day after Halloween and we have every intention of being there to get spooky with y'all! Get your tickets here!

And as always... You can find all of our regular products and order custom spell kits and pocket altars at our Etsy shop! Or want to book a virtual tarot reading without those pesky Etsy fees? Just DM us on Instagram at @bonegardenapothecary!