As the moon fattens toward fullness, gather the leaves of the wild strawberry and the red hips of the rose, for these are the old cottage-gifts to a fair face.
This cordial is drunk and also worn — a working that feeds beauty 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.
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.
Brew it fresh on each of the waxing nights until the moon is whole, and let your looking-glass keep the tally.