My spiritual journey as a witch is nearly as old as I am. In fact, the first storied scribbles I gifted my mother earned me a nickname—her little Moriticia.
Since then, my craft and my aesthetic hasn’t veered very far from my whimsical, Gothic origins.
Moriticia is still my favorite Addams. Her confidence highlights her self-worth while simultaneously empowering those around her.
One subtle example of this is Morticia’s relationship with her garden, especially the carnivorous Cleopatra, her beloved African strangler. Morticia raised Cleopatra from a seed and treated her like one of her own children. Cleopatra’s diet consisted of raw red meat, delicately fed to her, bite by bite, by Morticia herself. Though quite affectionate with the family members, Cleopatra quickly turned that affection into a hungry assessment with anyone else. Visitors or intruders alike found Cleopatra’s tentacles coiled around them as she determined their worth as a meal, since according to Morticia, people give her heartburn.
In the Addams Family 1991 film, Morticia’s conservatory sees vines hanging down the walls. These vines may be children of Cleopatra, or another one of her beloved plants. Either way, the vines guard the conservatory and the family, capturing and encasing intruders like Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss.
Even her simple henbane, hemlock, and bouquets of rose stems are tended to with care and love by Morticia, and they provide her with ingredients for making teas, or adding to potions. She grows flowerless rose brushes because Gomez is allergic, and when she receives a bouquet of the flowers, she snips the heads off, keeping her favorite part of the flower—the thorns.
Morticia tending to Cleopatra and her macabre plant babies may be the first witch I remember performing garden witchcraft. This example inspired what I wanted to practice—practical and through everyday tasks, with a healthy flare of whimsy.
I formulated the mental image of my ideal Witch’s Garden, but garden witchery is a skill I’ve had to learn and build slowly.
There’s a running joke in my family, that we have black thumbs instead of green ones. Needless to say, my first attempts failed, and failed often.
I’m stubborn though. To keep my dream alive and morale up, I started my Witch’s Garden entries in my Books of Power. I figured, even if at first I couldn’t grow my ideal garden physically, I would grow it mentally.
One of the plants I want in my garden are Morning Glories. These flowers, which open at dawn and wither by the hottest part of the day, hold deep symbolism—renewal, new beginnings, transformation, protection, and fleeting moments.
Used in rituals or ceremonies, Morning Glories honor the cycles of nature as the blooms open and whither daily. They correlate with warding off negativity and forming a protective barrier with their vines and toxicity. Intentionally planting morning glories along the walls of a garden acts as a protection and defense spell, keeping out harmful energies and promoting a sense of safety and security.
Additionally, Morning Glory flowers are associated with psychic abilities and intuition. Their delicate petals and ethereal fragrance enhance psychic awareness and spiritual insight, making them ideal for meditation or divination practices.
While working myself up to be skilled enough to have my own Cleopatra-inspired carnivorous conservatory, picturing morning glory curling around wrought iron fencing adds motivation to keep me on my path as I work with a new plant every year around this time of year.
In the meantime, I know where I can harvest morning glory buds and vines locally in the wild around me to add to my spell work when necessary.
Even without morning glory vines climbing my garden walls, I use these flowers and vines in wokings and plan to do so in the future. I collect the blooms and dry them out so I can grind them into a powder to add to banishings, protective barrier lines, or psychic and dream pillows.
Alongside Morticia, the Owens from Practical Magic, Morwen from the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and the WItch from Into the Woods added seeds to my goal as a practical, whimsical witch—each underscored the magick found and grown in the conservatory and garden.
I’m well on my way, as I’ve grown and cultivated a number of plants housed in the bay window of my living room—my makeshift conservatory. They’re relatively hardy plants like aloe vera, basil, bamboo, lemon balm, scallions, pathos and spider plants. I added small leaf spider-wort last year, and this year, maybe I’ll finally find the right pot to grow my own Cleopatra.
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