Moon paste trad witchcraf

I have found a lot of information through research and from my own analsis of what has been written about moon paste, such as Nigel Jackson's "Celestial Magic" mentioning moon paste in passing in relation to the wiccan ritual of drawing down the moon, or how one needs water from seven wells, What if the water from 7 wells is a reference to 7 being a number held by many as a magical number (like the 7 days of the week) and the one making a trek or using the number 7 and times by 3 , is the 21 day cycle (even though we know the moon cycle, new moon to new moon is 29.5 days, but maybe since only the most wealthy would have known about the stars so maybe it was just accepted a very long time ago that the moon cycle was 21 days?

Why is this called a moon paste? The recipe has no truly moon related ingredients (moths, night blooming flowers, anything other than plants picked at a certain time. What makes it a "moon paste" other than its name?

I found the herbs mentioned in bits around my research, all together they would be found the herbs tumeric, vermilion, betel leaves (are type of nuts), haldi, pinza.

So you would need Water from 7 wells , Herbs gathered at each phase of the moon, Clay taken from a special place, I found the wording here interesting because it says A special place not the special place. Implying you could use a place with a lot of energy, like when drawing down the moon maybe that energy could create a special place as described? Following this the ritual to put everything together would need to be done on the full moon where you mix everything together basically, With incantations be sung widdershins (counter-clockwise, as deosil is clockwise) in the most elaborate of rituals, were the specifics of such rituals I can't find any information on this. You would then bake the whole thing in a fire and pounded into dust and thus you have moon paste. I can post from my research the "passage/quote" of what moon paste is meant to do if anyone wants to know. Does anyone have any information about moon paste?

Thank you

SpiritWitch8

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Interesting. I have never encountered "moon paste" in Traditional Wicca; although that doesn't mean that some covens might not use it. And I've never needed or used it in all the times I have drawn down the moon.

I have only managed so far to find about five of the herbs in research that mentions a single ingredient, so there are research you'll find of say "oh X is used in making moon paste" and then it will vaguely describe the other herbs, I cross referenced with other sources that supported the description and the appearance matching of the herbs and came here to the conclusion that these are some of the five out of seven herbs. All of the reliable sources of very old text describes a ritual that is the exact same as drawing down the moon even to some researches using that same name for the ritual, hence my reasoning for believing that perhaps drawing down the moon would create "A special place" as described for the ritual. More so is the mention of 7 times 3 for when the herbs need to be harvested which lead to my idea of maybe they thought the moon cycle was 21 days? If anyone has any questions I can share what I've found as from what I've found about moon paste, this should be possible to create a modern "form?" of the ritual *not sure what the word is but you know what I mean.

Now you have me interested and I'll need to see what I can find as well. Could it be that it is used in Traditional Witchcraft rather than Traditional Wicca? Let's put our heads together and see what we can find.

That's my theory, in must have been used in traditional witchcraft rather then wicca, and perhaps because Gerald was a well traveled man, correct me if I'm wrong Lark, but didn't he combine a lot of practices and rewrote them to fit the mythology of the practice of wicca which he invented? Which lead me to believe maybe Gerald took Drawing down the moon from this moon paste but just rewrote it to fit the Goddess of the Full Moon concept we see in the Wiccan Ritual of Drawing Down the Moon? If that makes sense.

Hmm... This seems interesting indeed! A bit of internet sleuthing has found me references to several 'source' religions and histories... And varieties of ingredients being mentioned by different people with different assumptions and surmisings. I mean, just about anything is on the table it seems as long as it is vaguely moon-related. From Estrus and Semen to cow milk to coconut oil.

I am wondering at two possibilities; Either the specifics are lost to time and broken master-apprentice lineages, or there are no specific recipes and, like so many other things, it isn't any single thing but a category of things held under one umbrella.

I'm very likely wrong here, as admittedly so far my research has amounted to less time spent than I've even dedicated to writing this. But my instincts pull me towards the latter. Especially because moon paste seems credited with more uses in magic than windex has for cleaning a home. Both beneficial and baneful.

My first impression is that the specific components and even incantations are to be determined by the individual purpose. Seven herbs related to your goal, picked one during each moon phase that best corresponds to the herb chosen and relating both to your goal. For example picking a specific herb during a waxing phase might mean a desire to bring forward some trait or aspect that plant represents. While picking the same herb on the waning side might repell it/send it away.

I wonder how literally we should be reading some parts as well. 'Water from seven wells' might be figurative, or possibly even an euphemism for something else. Same for the clay. Clay from a special place could be any sacred or sanctified place... while clay from 'the' special place could be an allusion to the estrus references I found. ..In a weird, roundabout way.

A consistent source and many others all described moon paste as " Moon paste, perhaps the most mysterious of all magic mediums, is also one of the oldest. The making of it was known and practised in ancient Thessaly; magicians in Morocco and in Brittany knew of it, and except for the language being different, the ideas and forms were the same as were used in Scotland so lately at the end of the seventeenth century. Water from seven wells, herbs gathered at certain phases of the moon, clay taken from a special place, and dried in the fire, and afterwards pounded into fine dust, all played their part in the making of the paste. It required, however, the magic of the full moon, and this could only be got by incantations, sung widdershins, and a most elaborate ritual. This paste could unite sundered lovers; it could cure illness; and if its owner so willed it, it was capable of bringing disaster upon one's enemies; in fact, it was capable of working magic; both black and white."

So very much so, Spirit76, it can be used for very many purposes.

Could you list some of the resources where you found mention of moon paste, particularly in the historical usage.

As soon as I am able to , yes. Apologies for the delay, I'm currently in college.

There was a document online that has since been made subscription only ( on scribe, it's an app to the online library about various topics) I've been researching this for a few months now and didn't think to copy the source so I can't really post that as it requires payment now to access) But I do know a reference to moon foam in The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells which is the same way described with the only difference being the name, I also found references to Isabel Gouldie having supposedly used it to help jean Gordon. Granted yes, Isabel may just be another "confessor due to torture" But there appears to be a sort of "Christian version" to this ritual, likely given that a lot of pagan stuff was rewritten to support the mythology of Christianity , take Ritual Baths for example, and many others. It's difficult to find the exact sources as I looked through a lot, some were useful and asisted cross referencing , like how moon paste used as term was prevalent in both Scotland and England. But I can't find the original sources, as I looked through a lot, but in this area this ritual in it's application would have considered "great Paganism", as when you look at the regions offered ( Thessally, ect. ..) they were highly influenced by the R.catholic belief system. So much so that the church seemed to have their own spin of this ritual. The reference of how the female was forbiddin to draw water, was because she was "unclean" and would have to wait 40 days after birth to even touch the container used to draw the water, again the R.C.churchs influence, ascribing to the Jewish laws ect. So the ritual it self could just be lost to time as a lot of cross referencing and theorizing based on the information gathered is required to understand what this ritual might have been. There's kind of a lot of "bits and pieces" over the internet like "Clay was a favoured material for dolls because it is easily available and cheap. Isobel Gowdie, a famous Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft in 1662, claimed to say a chant over the ingredients mixed with a clay medium she called moon paste. A Highland recipe for moon paste says it is made from dried, crumbled clay and water from seven wells and is then kneaded under a full moon in a churchyard while herbs are added. Poppets could be used to bless or curse depending on the desire." from http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2017/09/nameless-arte-martin-duffy-british.html being one place that describes about the clay, however this was not one of my resources as its a blog and not very "historial" but it does have the line that made me think about the clay bein used could be charged possibly by drawing down the moon ritual since clay would have been easy to get anyway, which then made me think what if "A specical place" could be anywhere where you draw down the moon since clay was easy to get and even if the region the spell was performed was different (Scottland vs America) as an example, the moon phases would have been the same (A full moon in the us is the same power of a full moon in scottland) , let me know if that doesn't make sense I can see if I can explain it better.