August : Fire | Don't Be A Bully : Lammas
- The Garden Variety Witch
- Aug 4
- 8 min read
We layer this month's themes upon each another, much like components in a kitchen spell:
August's astronomical rhythms creating an energetic container.
Fire sharing its full transformative power.
Community awareness helping direct the raging passion constructively.
And, Lammas demonstrating the practical harvest from applying such constructs over time.
So, come with your heat, your hunger, and your half-baked questions. The taste of August awaits!
How can you mise en place for your month's intentions today, right now?
How can ITBC help?
Thank you for being here and for supporting a small woman-owned business!
August :
August radiates like a heavy, hot boulder beneath bare feet, stretching itself out long and fierce before the heat flows into the full-on harvest season.
As we walk with bare souls through a(nother) month named after empire, can we notice the ash of past colonizer tactics still clinging to our rituals?
Gifted these few final weeks before the world returns to school, seasonal jobs, Halloween, and further indoor activities, the lingering questions haunting us now are:
How will I soak up the remaining weeks of the 2025 summer season before beginning to shift into the next?
What am I hungry for now, that isn't quite ready for feasting on yet?
How can I ensure my 'it' has all the required Elements to grow into its juiciest, most delectable form, so I can savor it when the harvest season comes?
How will my 'it' nourish me?
How can I nourish others?
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August received its name after Augustus Caesar became deceased, the first Roman Emperor whose legacy still clings to modern society like singed herbs stuck in melted wax.
This month, challenge the status quo (Latin meaning existing state of affairs) by asking yourself:
What inner empires are ready to fall?
Where can sovereignty replace domination — in the body? Rituals? Relationships?
When and where can aggression be replaced with compassion?
Full Moon
On August 9th, 2025, we see the Full Moon leaping from the sign of Aquarius, this placement injecting a strong sense of 'freedom' into this phase of the month.
Where is your inner Fire trying to push boundaries and taste more liberation?
How can it do so with safety in mind, so you don't get burned while sampling the fare?
Who can you connect with to help make sure no one gets burned by their lonely ol' flame?
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Referred to as the Sturgeon Moon, the Green Corn Moon, or "the time of the salal berries" by the PNW Tulalip tribe, this is a moment to immerse in the deliciously-ripe and still-growing bounty that is Nature.
What surpluses are you beginning to see this time of year?
Can you sense the days growing shorter and the crops growing sweeter?
Are you readying to feast on the fruits of your past efforts and toils, or already eating?
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New Moon
Saturday, August 23rd is the New Moon in Virgo, offering us a grounded, freshly-cleaned slate.
When setting goals for this new phase, consider the following questions while in your favorite physical place to relax and reflect:
What intentions and practical first step can I set in motion to maximize the final weeks of peak growing season?
How can I honor this time of high heat before beginning the shift back toward the season of darkness and Earth?
How can I begin this today, with the very tiniest step I can imagine?
Fire : focused transformative heat
August blazes big and steady after the initial ignition of July.
How deeply can you feel the searing flames now?
Just on the surface of your skin? Till warmed, or fully burned?
All the way up through your groin and gut? Just tingles, or a raging Fire?
Deeply through the halls of your heart? Does the heat feel soft, or harsh?
To the sweet cream of your bone marrow? Just a small crackle, or like you're gonna burst?
Where does the passion live inside your body? Can you easily locate it by its strong and brave song, or does it seem to hide from you all day (month, year...) long?
Once located, place your hands there.
Really sit with it and allow the intensity to fill your body up to the brim.
Wherever located, how can you honor that passion, share it with someone you love, or support another Practitioner in pursuing the same?
If the sensation feels hidden right now, how can you coax it out of the shadows with self-compassion? Can you alchemize any shame into power with a Fire ritual?
Regardless of physical sensation, how can you call on or build more community around your passion(s)?
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Fire is felt strongly throughout many cards of the tarot journey; this month we illuminate the 8th (or sometimes 11th) card of the Major Arcana, Strength.
What visceral sensations bubble up for you in response to the word "strength"?
What memories or thought patterns come up to the surface?
Who taught you that internalized definition of the concept?
Does that embodiment of Strength still serve you, your loved ones, and greater community?
The Fire of Strength shows itself as compassion rather than force, referring to emotional and mental courage rather than physical prowess. Was compassion anywhere in your previous definition?
Aggression, impatience, and feelings of inadequacy are ways misplaced Strength can manifest in our day to day lives.
When was a time that you experienced the result of someone's misaligned Strength?
When have you misplaced it and mistreated someone else?
How can you offer more compassion to yourself from those moments, now, and going forward?
How can you remember often, "Don't Be A Bully." and more frequently put it into practice (yes, this includes bullying yourself!)
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To honor a form of peak Fire, let's take a moment for an Aggression-Toss Exercise.
You will need a pillow and an arms-width of space in a place that you can make a bit of noise.
1) Stand with your feet shoulders width apart with a good bend in both knees, gripping the sides of the pillow with both hands with your arms down and relaxed.
2) Inhale deeply through your nose (with your mouth closed) while raising both arms above your head.
3) Hold it for a moment at the peak.
4) Exhale swiftly and fully as you slam the pillow onto the floor in a fluid motion while bending your knees further as your butt extends out behind you, and your arms come down with your hands stopping at knee-height.
5) Exaggerating this squat motion and matching it to your next fluid inhale, pick up the pillow from the floor and come to the middle rest position.
6) Repeat this Aggression-Toss movement ten times, or as needed to feel a sense of grounded relief.
Don't Be A Bully : fire tempered for supportive surroundings
The Aggression-Toss Exercise just reviewed is a safe outlet for expressing frustrations, anger, and other physical angst, and can be a great option for anyone committed to creating safer spaces and living through demonstration our social theme of the month; Don't Be A Bully.
With school start-up dates creeping up on the horizon, August is the perfect time for remembering that intentionally applied Fire can temper supportive surroundings.
What other activities or rituals do you practice to support your inner Fire being bright and balanced?
What kinds of bullying stories do you carry around?
How many as the aggressor?
How many as the target?
What were the outcomes then?
What can you do today to stand in even more of your power?
How can you give more power back to other Practitioners of Life around you?
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The reality of bullying is that it often targets students who are perceived as different in some way.
This includes students from different racial or ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, and others who may be marginalized in their school communities.
When have you been singled-out for having or not having a certain characteristic or quality?
When have you targeted a single person or group of people for a trait they possess or don't possess?
What is your internal dialogue toward yourself? Does it lean towards compassion or cruelty?
So then, what's a straight-forward and effective remedy for bullying?
Simply put, this is the kind of self-love that "invites us to love our bodies in a way that transforms how we understand and accept the bodies of others." -pg. 9, The Body Is Not An Apology: the power of radical self-love by Sonya Renee Taylor, 1st edition.
How can you initiate the practice of radical self-love today, right now?
Start simple.
Hug your body exactly as it is in this moment.
You are here.
You are capable.
You ARE magic.
And, Magic In Action begins with compassion, so feel free to spread it everywhere.
Lammas : a celebration of edible abundance
To end with a beginning, Friday, August 1st comes time of the first harvest festival on the pagan Wheel of the Year, Lammas.
This celebration offers an opportunity to honor, feast, and share in the fresh abundance that's found all around us in a multitude of visual and edible forms.
Being half-way between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, we can feel the initial shift from the peak moments of Summer growth toward the gathering and preserving rituals of Autumn.
What are you beginning to harvest from your past efforts, even if no one else sees it?
How does it feel to your eyes, heart, gut, and hands?
What further preparation does your harvest need before you can begin to devour it?
Once it's ready, how does the feast of your own becoming feel across your tongue?
And, going all the way down?
Do you feel truly nourished, or actually putout?
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A traditional practice around Lammas is to bake bread with the first harvest of wheat.
If you are called to spend some time donning your kitchen witchin' hat and wave your wand at baking, try crafting and sharing some:
yeast-free pizza crust, or
sweet banana bread (using that long-forgotten freezer fruit surely we all have a stockpile of!)
If you craft any edible kitchen spells inspired by this Publication, we'd love to see it! So tag us in your post @ITBC_MagicInAction on WeAre8, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, and Pinterest!
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As the full heat of August settles, may you rise in self-reverence.
May you choose Fire as fuel to practice compassion, not to wield as a weapon.
And may your Magic In Action be rooted in kindness as we move through current and coming transformations.
Thank you for being here and reading this Palimpsest until its end, your support of a small woman-owned business does not go unnoticed and is such an important step toward changing our known status quo!
Please Contact us with your feedback, questions, collaboration inquiries, or anything else you'd like to share with us... you are magic, and together our Magic In Action will change the world.
♥
This blog is created with respect for all spiritual paths and personal identities.
Our mention of deities, rituals or practices, and celebrations are offered as inspiration not prescription. We honor your sovereignty in adapting what resonates and leaving what doesn't.
Magic exists in infinite forms; you ARE magic, and your expression of
Magic In Action will help transform the status quo.
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