Midsummer Blessing Kit.

Yellow is the sun's color, sinner — the color of the thought you haven't said yet, the list you're going to write at the new moon, the flame you light at noon on the longest day of the year. I keep a box of yellow tapers in the kitchen drawer. Unscented. Plain. Beeswax if you can get them. Light one every time you need to think through something important. They know what they're for.

CRYSTAL

Citrine Tumbled Stones (Natur…

Various · ~$12

Citrine is the sun in a rock, sinner — yellow, warm, the color of the light in the kitchen at 7am on a day you didn't think you'd make it to. Folk practice puts it on the desk, in the register drawer, anywhere money moves. Unlike every other crystal on this table, you never have to cleanse it — it doesn't hold what it shouldn't. Keep one in your pocket on the bad weeks. Saint Joseph for the work.

Lavender is for the anxious mind and the summer altar, sweet thing. Burn a small bundle when the air is heavy or burn it at the solstice — same herb, different intention. Tied, dried, the smell of a June window in New Jersey when the humidity finally breaks for one good afternoon. Saint Therese grew it. Sinderella lights it and calls it done.

CRYSTAL

Hag Stone (Naturally Holed Be…

Various · ~$15

A hag stone is a beach stone with a hole worn straight through it by the ocean. Folk tradition says you look through the hole and see what's actually true. Sicilian women hang them by the door. *Sinderella* hangs one by the door. You can buy them on Amazon, my creature, but if you ever find one yourself on the Jersey Shore — keep it. Nobody else gets that stone.

CRYSTAL

Selenite Wand (Long Stick, ~6…

Various · ~$10

Selenite is the cleansing stone, sweet thing — long white stick that looks like crystallized milk, soft as a fingernail, a bath mat for energy. Wave it around the room after a fight. Run your other crystals along it to clear them. Don't get it wet. *That's the only rule.* Sinderella keeps one on the windowsill above the kitchen sink.

ALTAR

Abalone Shell (Large, Natural…

Various · ~$15

The abalone shell is the universal altar bowl, sweet thing — catches ash, holds water, cradles salt, props up a candle, takes incense. Iridescent inside, oceanic outside. Sinderella has one on the folding table and another by the front door of the back room. They cost about fifteen dollars on Amazon. They feel ancient.