Hello my witchy friends! I’ve got a new sketchy herb and magic rock here for y’all, inspired by last night’s strawberry moon – STRAWBERRY QUARTZ AND STRAWBERRY!
Strawberry quartz is a new stone to me, one I just started working with when I began to research crystals that could be sacred to the goddess Voluptas. Though classic rose quartz is definitely also on the list, strawberry stood out to me because of it’s deeper earthier qualities. It’s a little more sensual, and connects us to both our instinctual and intuitive senses and our spiritual ones.
For last night’s strawberry moon I worked with this quartz as well as some actual strawberries (and some strawberry ice cream for after because why not?!) and tried to channel their earthy and watery energy to bring balance to my life. Balance in relationships, in the field of abundance and prosperity, and between the spiritual and material worlds in general.
Strawberry Quartz
- Type of Mineral: Quartz, haematite, goethite
- Astrological: Taurus; Venus, Ceres
- Element: Earth, water
- Chakra: Root, sacral, heart
- Energies: love, sensuality, easing excessive blushing and stammering*, calming emotions, feelings of home, security, stability in relationships, easing the pain of a difficult family life, breaking the cycle of self-doubt, spiritual protection, safety, soothing children, heart opening, confidence and self-esteem, recognition of talent and ideas, finding your life’s purpose, clearing spiritual blockages, making new friends, helping to acknowledge and clear previously unknown emotional blockages, astral travel – safety and connection, healing and amplification, feeling safe and confident in sexual situations, cleansing and healing the aura, awareness of your self-worth and value, grounding, creating strong connections, fertility and uterine health, women’s health, balancing the emotional, material, and spiritual.
Though it’s pink, strawberry quartz differs from it’s rosy cousin in a few ways, as you can see on the list above. The inclusions of haematite and goethite – both of which are darker and have a metallic sheen – make the pink so dark it’s almost red in spots, and add beautiful metallic sparkles. They also bring a very strong, deep, earthy vibe to the stone that make it great for grounding and working with the root chakra, and calling up feelings of safety, security, and stability.
Strawberry quartz is great in love magic to help call in a relationship that is stable and supportive, but it also helps you prioritize your own needs. It can help you assert your boundaries, and ask for what you truly need from others. It can give you the strength to connect deeply and intimately with another person without losing yourself in the process.
This is a special stone for families. It can help kids feel safe and connected to their roots when they”re away from home – at any age! We’re all someone’s kids! – and can help parents set healthy boundaries with their kids and other family members. It can offer strength throughout pregnancy and childbirth, support you emotionally through fertility issues, and can bring soothing and comforting vibes to people in labour. Women in particular often struggle to prioritize their needs within the family, and this stone is perfect to meditate with and wear for the push you need. When you express yourself through the strawberry quartz you speak honestly and from the heart, which is more likely to lead to a great resolution for everyone.
*ok so this is something that was listed in Cassandra Eason’s Complete Crystal handbook and I thought it was cute and included it in the above Instagram post. WELL. I actually wore this stone on a first date – my first date in 10 years. TEN YEARS. And you know what? It was the most comfortable conversation I’ve had with a man I didn’t already know. I still blushed a little, and definitely stammered once or twice, but I also didn’t worry about it! He even remarked on how cute it was! I had forgotten about that aspect of the stone until I was writing this post, so I had to share! 🙂
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STRAWBERRY
- Botanical name: Fragaria ananassa, fragaria vesca or virginiana (North American Wild Strawberry), fragaria chiloensis (Chilean Wild Strawberry)
- Element: Water, earth
- Astrological: Venus, jupiter; Taurus
- Chakra: heart, root
- Energies: love, sex, affection, lust, good luck, beauty, dedication and devotion, healing, fertility (literal), growth, success, women’s health, uterine health, dedication to growth, pleasure, magic, abundance, softness, getting noticed
How many strawberries do you think you’ve eaten in your life? Even if I only counted the ones I bought from the store the number would be in the millions! The strawberries we buy are fragaria ananassa, a plant that did not exist in nature! It’s a hybrid of virginiana from north america, and chiloensis from Chile that was first grown in France in the 1750s. This berry is bigger, juicier and sweeter, and the plant produces more berries than the wild varieties, which make it easier to grow in gardens or even pots. Strawberries are a very dedicated species – dedicated mainly to growth. If a strawberry plant merely makes contact with the ground, a new plant will begin to grow. Wild strawberries can grow in a formation I call “ground creepers” meaning they grow in the grass so low that you miss miss them if you’re not looking!
I used to have a friend with a very magical backyard that was covered in teeny-tiny wild strawberries that only grew about as high as the grass. The berries themselves were the size of one of my fingernails but oh boy was it great to just sit back there and munch on tiny strawberries. They certainly tasted more wild than the ones I get at the grocery store, or even out of my grandparents’ garden while they shout at me to leave some for everyone else.
Strawberries are, of course, associated with love and sex, and considered an aphrodisiac food – meaning they can actually induce lust or arousal in others. Not a shock since they come from the same plant family as the rose. In medieval times it was believed that two people who shared a strawberry were sure to fall into love, or bed, by the end of the night. This is where the tradition of chocolate-covered strawberries for a romantic snack came from. Making your own and pouring loving and sexy intention into the process can create a very powerful, and tasty, spell.
For people trying to conceive or build a family, strawberry is an ancient talisman. Eating the fruit and carrying the leaves was seen as lucky and even a way to help ease the pain of pregnancy so you can take pleasure in the experience. The leaves can also be brewed into tea which, like raspberry leaves, is full of vitamin c, folic acid, and iron that is all good for uterine and reproductive health.
The way strawberries grow makes them an amazing fruit for luck, growth, and abundance. If you need to branch out and make connections – strawberry. If you want to expand your business – strawberry. Want to grow a family? Strawberry. Want to work on your spiritual or emotional growth? Strawberry!
Quite a few goddesses are associated with strawberry in antiquity, but one that stood out to me is Freya. The only norse deity I’ve ever related to – the goddess of love and sex, magic charms, and cats. Ugh she’s the coolest. Freya wasn’t the embodiment of love and desire like Aphrodite or Venus, freya was beautiful and strong and helped others find and feel love by teaching love charms and spells to anyone who needed them. She was flirty and confident, courageous and a little intimidating. She was a witch through-and-through and indeed strawberry is an especially potent love magic ingredient for others who posess a mind for magic, like our girl Freya.
The element of water and the planet venus are strawberries classical rulers, but as I was working with the fruit I kept seeing and feeling this earthy energy. I truly believe that, like the quartz that bares it’s name, strawberry is a very grounding and earthy plant. It’s magical powers stretch beyond our emotions and feelings and into our bodies. It opens the heart to love while it opens the physical body up to the experience of sexual and sensual pleasure. In my practice, strawberries will always feel co-ruled by water and earth, and I can’t ignore the expansive power of jupiter in its ability to stretch and grow.
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I chose strawberry as a fruit of voluptas because of it’s romantic and sexual associations, but after spending time with the fruit and the plant, I definitely see that it goes much deeper. Strawberries are a food of pure pleasure. They’re great for your health, sure, but throughout time they’ve mainly just been enjoyed. Enjoyment of them was also seen as somewhat obscene for a time! Either it was too sexual, or it wasn’t masculine enough for men to partake (kids and women only!). Strawberries and the pleasure they brought were seen as inherently feminine to such a degree that they threatened masculinity! This idea of pleasure being damaging or obscene in some way is everything Voluptas is NOT about, and continuing the modern tradition of enjoying a big sexy juicy strawberry feels like the least I can do for the goddess, haha.
The sam goes for strawberry quartz, this combined energy of pleasure, softness, and love with strength, resilience, and grounding is exactly how I perceive Voluptas.
So how can you work with them in your magic? Well, you could start by DIGGING IN and just loving them. I know strawberry flavour is everywhere in north america, but it’s nothing like a real, fresh strawberry. The flesh is great for your skin and teeth, and can be used in any number of beauty rituals. Fresh strawberry pulp and plain greek yoghurt make one of my favourite ever face masks. You can also dehydrate or dry out the fruit for use in charm bags, or even crush it into a powder and use it in any number of ways – baths, salts, made into paint, added to smoothies and food. The leaves can be dried and carried as good luck talisman, brewed into tea for fertility and strength, burned in incense blends, or used to decorate candles. If you can find the essential oil and it’s a beautiful scent to include in like… every perfume or bath oil I can think of haha.
I left out 3 strawberries as an offering to Voluptas on my altar last night while I burned a pink and green candle to help bring some balance into both my emotional and material areas of life.
Though the strawberry moon is no longer full, with today being ruled by the planet Venus it’s a great time to work a little grounding, sexy, juicy, voluptuous magic!
Want to learn more about making magic with plants and crystals? Check out my book Green Witchcraft – now available in multiple languages including Spanish and Romanian!
