The Strawberry-Leaf Cordial is a beauty potion spell that is both drunk and worn — a gentle Venusian working that steeps wild strawberry leaf and red rosehip into a fragrant infusion to feed radiance from the root outward. What grows with the waxing moon grows in you: the bright eye, the clear brow, the blush that no rouge can honestly counterfeit.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: pink and green, the Venusian pair, with soft rose
- Herbs: rose and myrtle, sacred to Aphrodite, and lavender — echoed here by the strawberry leaf and rosehip of the cordial
- Crystal: rose quartz and jade
- Day: Friday
- Planet: Venus
- Element: Water
- Moon: the waxing moon, to attract and increase
For the fuller table of magical associations, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- An earthen bowl for steeping
- Fresh springwater
- A handful of wild strawberry leaf and a spoon of crushed rosehip
- A clear crystal — or rose quartz or jade, if you keep them
- A cup to drink from and a clean cloth for pressing
- A flowering plant to receive the last of the cordial
The Best Time to Cast
Brew this cordial on the waxing moon, and if you can, on a Friday — the day ruled by Venus, planet of love and beauty. The swelling moon draws toward it whatever you set your intention upon, so as the disc fills toward fullness it lends its rising tide to the fairness you are calling into yourself. Repeat on each waxing night until the moon is whole for the strongest effect.
The Working
- On a waxing evening, bring springwater almost to a simmer and pour it, steaming, into an earthen bowl.
- Add a handful of strawberry leaf and a spoon of crushed rosehip, and lay a clear crystal against the bowl’s warm flank.
- Cover the bowl and let it steep until the water cools to blood-warm and turns the colour of a low dawn.
- Strain the cordial into a cup, and with the same liquid wet a cloth to press gently over your eyes and cheeks.
- Drink three slow mouthfuls, each time picturing the moon growing rounder behind your breastbone.
- Speak the incantation over what remains and pour it out at the roots of a flowering plant.
The Incantation
Waxing moon and reddening hip,
bring the colour to my lip;
strawberry leaf and rising tide,
wake the fair I keep inside.
As you fill, so let me fill,
bright of eye and brighter still.
Variations & Substitutions
- No rosehip to hand? Substitute a spoon of dried rose petals, or a few fresh ones — both carry the same Venusian, Aphrodite-blessed virtue.
- Wild strawberry leaf comes easiest fresh in summer; dried raspberry leaf makes a fair winter stand-in, keeping the soft astringency that tones the skin.
- Swap the clear crystal for rose quartz for tenderness, or jade as a green Venusian stone, to deepen the beauty current — charge it beneath the same waxing moon beforehand.
A Word on Intent
Work this cordial by the Wiccan Rede — “an it harm none, do what ye will.” Beauty magic is truest when it turns inward: cast to brighten your own eye and steady your own confidence, never to compel another’s admiration or to diminish anyone else. Let the working affirm the fairness you already carry rather than chase a face that is not your own, and it will harm none — least of all you.
Related Beauty Spells
Find more workings like this in the Grimoire, and keep your own tally of what the waxing moon brings you in your Book of Shadows.