Pride Moon
Be Loud, Be Proud, Stay Protected!
This year, to challenge myself to write more regularly, I send out dispatches around each new moon to comment on the personal and collective themes I feel pulled to share for each lunation.
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Happy Pride! Happy Gemini New moon! Happy Summer! I dearly hope you are soaking in the joy of the season. We are here! We’re surviving! It is our earthly inheritance to experience and embody joy, even and despite the horror, grief, and woe.
Last year around this time, I wrote an almanac entry about using rose to alchemize crunchy, hard feelings and experiences. I feel a strong urge to share the process for making that elixir again: you will find the recipe below, along with a little Pride Poem. Take time this moon to revel in your Truth, revel in the joy of being uniquely and completely yourself, unencumbered by the projections and insistences of others. You have every right to be proud of who you are and who you are becoming. It’s scary, hard, and cruel out here, but your presence makes the Earth smile. Come back to remembering that you are and always have been a gift to All.
A poem for Pride Month:
I learned young that Pride came before the Fall.
That the audacity to enjoy an apple caused all pain and anguish in the world.
Pride meant audacity to question the stories handed to you. Pride meant joy in sensuous awareness was wrong.
To be proud Shame Itself. What did you have to be proud of, worm, snake, abomination, she-who-brings pain?
Take back your Pride.
Take back the tart apple, the sweet lily, the flaming rose.
Take back every color you were ever told not to wear.
Take back every word, every narrative that defined you as something other than yourself, churn them up and use them as manure for the Beautiful Garden you are planting yourself in.
Spit out the venom!
Sip sweet tea in the endless afternoons that are yours when you remember that having pride in who you are and who you are becoming is Love, not hate.
It takes effort to remember. It requires kindness to believe you can begin again, and again.
I am proud of you. I’m so fucking proud of you!
Because you stayed. Because you’re here-
gardening, compositing, rooting deep into the sweet dark Earth who loves you, is proud of you, knows you are doing everything you can to Come Home to who you truly are.
Stay proud, and stay protected this moon. In the face of fear, be luscious. Making and using hydrosols is a favorite luscious-protection method of mine. Hydrosols, also known as hydrolats or aromatic waters, are the condensed water co-produced during the distillation of plant material. Hydrosols contain water-soluble compounds, cellular water, and a very small portion of essential oil from the plant that was distilled. (definition from Rowan and Sage, a fantastic herbalist-buy from her!)
I use hydrosols to reset and cleanse my aura and maintain my energetic hygiene and overall well-being. They also smell AMAZING, which helps me regulate my mood. This season, I call upon Rose’s help once more.
Keep me soft. Keep me protected. May your thorns be mine, may we face the world together, head held high. May we have pride in who we are, and conviction in who we are becoming.
This season, my dear reader, I offer you a rose ritual to renew your faith in your own abilities and faculties, reclaim your autonomy, and rejuvenate your energy as you move through the days ahead. This is ritual of cutting, singing, and distilling the roses to produce something that softens, expands, protects, emboldens you. This is Venusian magic, Venusian power. The warrior queen of heaven culls what must be harvested and lays down roots and shoots in the darkness for blooms to burst anew.
Please remember all important safety precautions when alchemizing, and may all your thorns soften to blooms as you come back to yourself through this and all your chosen practices & rituals.
Making Rose Hydrosol-A Ritual for Renewal
Materials:
petals from about a dozen roses. best if home-grown or grown by those you love
distilled water, just enough to cover the roses (I used about 4 cups)
large pot with a lid (glass lid is best) & a stove to cook on
small ramakin or mason jar to go inside the pot to collect your rose water
1 bag of ice (I used the whole regular bag from my local gas station)
splash of 80 proof liquor like gin or vodka although rubbing alcohol will work
a ladle, spoon or siphon
funnel, to transfer liquid
tongs, to remove jar from pot
strainer and’/or cheesecloth
sealable storage vessel for holding your hydrosol. I like to use a small spray bottle
several hours. This is a great thing to do while listening to audio books or in between weekend chores.
Method:
First, pick your roses. If you are making this hydrosol as part of a longer ritual of decay and growth, tell the rose bush your intentions as you harvest. Sing to them, if it feels right. Offer gratitude to the roses for their gift of life. You may also want to add other plants to suit your intention, such as culinary sage, lavender, or hyssop.
Next, wash them and break them down into their petals. Discard the centers back to the Earth or compost. Wash the petals, then transfer to a large pot.
Make a small central space for your small glass jar or ramakin to fit into the pot. The petals should be surrounding but not covering your jar, and your jar’s bottom should rest firmly on the bottom of the pot with no petals directly underneath it.
Add the distilled water on top of the roses, just enough to cover them. Start the heat, keeping the flame/heat medium until you see condensation start to form, then lower the heat to a medium-low simmer for the duration of the distillation time.
Now, take your pot lid (glass, if you’ve got it) and turn it upside down, with the knob handle above the small jar in the center of your pot.
Finally, fill the lid with ice. The idea is that as the hot steam rises it will make contact with the cold pot, condense into droplets that will run down slope of the upside down lid into your small jar, where we collect the distilled rose water.
The ice will melt and need to be siphoned or scooped off every 15 minutes or so. Basters are awesome for this task, if you have one. Keep replacing the ice as necessary for at least 2 hours on low heat.
Long, low, and slow is the name of the game with this process. I went about 3 hours, as long as it took me to get through the bag of ice.
When your ice is gone, remove heat and let the pot sit and cool for at least an hour. Do not disturb the lid during this time, since there will still be steam condensing and falling into your inner small jar.
Once the pot is cool to the touch, carefully take off your lid to reveal your inner jar. Remove it carefully using tongs. This is your distilled hydrosol! This is the magic! Use a funnel to transfer it to a small spray bottle, and put a small splash of 80 proof liquor in along with it for preservative (just a small amount is necessary, don’t over power it, a few drops is all you need).
Optional: At this point, I like to strain the remaining water and rose petals through a sieve and cheesecloth and transfer the remaining “rose tea” into a large mason jar to be used later in iced tea or syrup making. This is not as fragrant nor potent as the distillate, which is why I use it quickly in consumables in the kitchen and don’t retain it for cosmetic or energetic spray. It’s a lovely and refreshing tea and perfect as a simple syrup base.
Thank you, patient reader, for receiving this ritual and poem. If you’d like to connect, please visit me here. If you’d like to connect about a commission or buying artwork, please fill out the form here. May your living days be light and colorful with pleasure as solstice approaches! May you be well and protected and fiercely proud of who you are!