Gathering Herbs: A Celestial Guide

Over the past few weeks I've been sharing these infographics on how to get the most of your magickal plant harvest. Here they are all together in one easy-to-reference guide!

Step 1: Gathering Herbs with the Moon

Plants' energies flow with Lunar phases, traveling upward during the waxing moon and downward during the waning moon. Harvesting at the right phase may help boost your herbs' properties.

Flowers, leaves, and seeds should be gathered during the waxing and full moon phases.

Roots, tubers, and legumes are more potent when collected during the waning and new moon phases.

Step 2: Gathering Herbs with the Planetary and Elemental Days of the Week

Gathering your herbs on a specific day of the week can help you harvest them at the peak of their power.

Step 3: Gathering Herbs with the Planetary Hours of the Day and Night

Gathering your herbs at a specific time of day or night can help ensure your herbs release their full energetic potential when used in your spellwork.

Daytime:

To find a given day's planetary hours, determine the number of minutes between sunrise and sunset, then divide by 12. This gives you the length in minutes of each planetary hour, starting at the moment of sunrise. Use the chart below to pair your desired herb with its hour.

Nighttime:

To find a given night's planetary hours, determine the number of minutes between sunset and sunrise, then divide by 12. This gives you the length in minutes of each planetary hour, starting at the moment of sunset. Use the chart below to pair your desired herb with its hour.

Step 4: Putting It All Together

Time to put our new knowledge to use! Let's say I want to harvest lavender flowers.

I should harvest during the waxing moon between August 1st-15th. Because its element is Air and its planet is Mercury, I should harvest on a Wednesday. I choose to gather during the day on August 7th.

Sunrise is at 6:27am in my location on that day and sunset is at 8:13pm, giving me 13 hours and 45 minutes of daylight on that day. Time for math!

13 hours x 60 minutes = 780
780 minutes + 45 minutes = 825
825 minutes / 60 minutes = 68.75

Each planetary hour of the day on Wednesday, August 7th, 2019, is about 69 minutes long.

Counting from sunrise, I use the Planetary Hours of the Day chart and see that I should do my harvesting between 8:45am and 9:54am, or between 4:48pm and 5:57pm.

Here are some handy links to help you find the moon phases as well as your sunset, sunrise, and hours:

• Moon phases: http://bit.ly/2Ob3thx
• Sunrise/sunset times: http://bit.ly/2O4UPB1
• Day or night length:http://bit.ly/2Ob3phN