Happy Midwinter! This box will probably get to you a little after the actual Solstice, but I’m hoping the items inside will shed a little light on the longest nights of your year.

For seven months now I’ve been trying to launch a pagan subscription box. My goal is to send a curated collection of gift items 8 times a year – for the Quarter Days (Equinoxes and Solstices) and the peaks of the Fire Festivals (the midpoints in between the Quarter Days).

The items here are mainly what I’ve put together for the Winter Solstice box, but I’ve also used the opportunity to send you some practical supplies I’ve been hoarding for you since July.

I’m looking for people to give me feedback on my subscription box idea for a whole year before I actually launch the product. I would be honored if you’d be willing to be one of my testers! All you’d need to do is let me keep sending you free ceremonial supplies and little self-care treats for a year, and occasionally let me know what you think of the items and their presentation. Let me know if you’d rather opt in or opt out!

Just for fun, with every box I ship, I make a contribution to an environmental cause. This month I’m supporting Coral Gardeners by adopting one coral per purchase. I grew up snorkeling in the coral reefs of Southeast Asia so this cause is dear to my heart. I think I can find a way to loop you in on updates on our corals’ progress, let me know if you’re interested.

Gift guide below!

Adriatic Muscatel Sage candle by Flamingo Estate

Fragrance is the most primordial sense and it zaps through the noise right through to your lizard brain. The simple act of smelling something nice can be a shockingly effective way to swim through the waves of emotional overwhelm and spiraling thoughts and quickly reach the dry land of reality.

Richard Christiansen of Flamingo Estate wrote a whole book about how connecting with nature through gardening helped him recover from overwhelming mental and emotional struggles. During the rock bottom era of his mental health, he said the most grounding and regulating activity he could find was going outside and picking a handful of sage and burying his face in it. That experience inspired this candle.

I love Flamingo Estate for their ethics just as much as I enthuse over their products. Their sourcing team is able to find some really cool businesses to support, and I feel good about buying their products knowing that my money will be paid forward to other cool people doing great stuff in small scale restorative agriculture.

That said, I also think the Flamingo boys have excellent taste that enables them to design great little luxury objects for the home. I love this candle because of its clean, single-note sage fragrance. It doesn’t smell like sage essential oil – it smells like the plant itself.

Sage is sacred in many cultures. The particular varietal of sage used to make this candle is sacred to Zeus. I don’t want to pressure you into starting a relational astrology practice – I’m just mentioning Zeus because you’ve mentioned curiosity about getting to know the planetary deities. Zeus/Jupiter is probably the friendliest out of their whole social group, so if you want to start an astrology based worship practice, he’s a good first person to talk to, and you can use the candle as a conduit to call him.

That said, I don’t necessarily recommend *offering* the candle to Zeus before getting to know him. Here’s why. Deities can’t *not* give you something back in exchange for offerings. If they have to choose a reward to give you before they have a chance to get familiar with your needs, things can get rocky. A candle like this, made by hand with energetically potent ingredients, would have to be rewarded with a huge gift that could land in your life like a meteor. So don’t *give* him the candle, just use it like a telephone line.

Sandalwood incense by Hasami Porcelain x Nihon Kodo

Sandalwood is the incense many Buddhist monks use to stay in their body during long sessions of meditation and trance work. I always recommend lighting it in the bedroom before going to sleep if you want to make sure you can come back easily from the dream world. It’s a good safeguard against traps and danger, particularly on the liminal nights.

This particular sandalwood incense is made entirely by hand with a special grade of sandalwood – the actual wood, not the essential oil of the flowers. It has a gentler smoke than the more commonly found Indian incense style, which uses the sticky-smelling floral essential oil. That said, the smell of the Japanese sandalwood is still really intense. If it’s a bit much for you, you can break the sticks and burn only a little bit at a time. It will work just as effectively even if you burn less.

Bamboo leaf incense holder by Nousaku

I wasn’t sure if you had an incense holder designed to accommodate Japanese incense sticks, so I picked one that reminds me of you. I chose this shape and color combination because you are my Moon-ruled Druid Friend.

The shape is designed to mimic a bamboo leaf. Bamboo is one of the most important symbols in many Asian cultures; it’s revered for its resilience and strength. You’ve shown a lot of those qualities this year!

Roma heirloom tomato room spray by Flamingo Estate

I wanted to offer you a splash of summer to help you get through the longest nights of the winter. To me, this fragrance is the best antidote to seasonal depression. It reminds me of walking through gardens during those sunny summer days that are hot enough to make the aromatic terpenes rise from the leaves of the plants. Spraying it in a room could be great tone setting for visualization meditations!

The tomato (in the myths referred to as the “golden apple,” because the first tomatoes were yellow, not red) is a symbol of Venus. She’s another great first venture into relational astrology if you decide you want to travel that way. You can offer the fragrance to Venus when you spray it.

Cast iron candle spike by Takazawa Candle

You will need this Japanese candle holder for many of the seasonal candles I’ll be sending you throughout the year.

Earth Colors rice wax candles by Daiyo

This is a set of 10 differently colored handmade rice wax offering candles handmade by artisans in Japan. (It’s worth watching the “how it’s made” video on the Daiyo website.)

These candles need to sit on the given candle spike to burn properly: the hole in the bottom of each candle, the hollow paper wick, and the spike work together to create air flow that gives the candles a beautiful tall flame.

These candles are happiest when there is *no air movement* in the room. I try not to burn them when my heat or AC are running often, and if I have no choice, I place them somewhere that won’t be affected by the air flow. They’re hard to burn outdoors in even the slightest breeze. But if you can set the scene so everything is peaceful, they are a beautiful candle experience.

Each candle burns for around 20 minutes – they *will* burn through much more quickly if air flow is making them drip.

Make a ritual out of burning these candles. Choose the color based on the meaning of your ceremony – the colors match pretty well with nature archetypes that make easy symbols (sea, sky, sun, storm, etc). As you remove the candle from the box, examine it closely; notice the handmade details. Then focus on your intention as you light it.

Things that are handmade in extraordinary detail like this contain *a lot* of energy. These candles make great one time offerings because unlike the Sage votive candle, they’re designed to burn all in one sitting.

Single Tohaku sumac wax candle by Takazawa Candle

This is definitely a ceremonial candle. I always burn these candles during my ceremonies for the Longest Night and New Year’s Eve.

The candle is named after the renowned Japanese painter Tohaku Hasegawa. Its design is an homage to his “Pine Trees” screen painted in the late 16th century. When it’s lit, its long flame finishes the truncated evergreen tree silhouette of the candle.

These Tohaku candles are made of sumac wax. As far as I know, only 8 artisans remain who know how to work with sumax wax. Rare objects made made by experts’ hands out of potent ingredients contain a lot of energy, and that energy can only be released if the wax vaporizes into the air. So when you’re burning this candle, keep a close watch on it to make sure it’s not dripping due to air flow or slanted positioning.

This candle burns for about an hour and a half. You can light it as the culmination of a ceremony, but you could also light the candle to set the tone, and then spend the hour and a half of its burn time conducting ceremony or introspection work. An hour and a half is a great amount of time to do some goal exploration and intention setting – a perfect vibe for the Solstice and the coming New Year.

These candles aren’t technically specific to the long nights of winter – evergreen trees are happy all year round. You don’t have to use it during the longest nights. I like to, but only because it’s become a tradition over years of practice. If you want, save this candle for a significant moment later down the line.

Rose quartz mini facial roller by Mei Apothecary

As a person with muscle tension everywhere in my body, I think everyone on Earth could benefit from the occasional facial massage. Either you already know how much tension you hold in your face or your mind is about to be blown.

I love this tiny tool for its precision – it’s great for targeting the little muscles around the eyes, nostrils, lips, and ears. Just trust me and try it. I like doing it absent mindedly while reading or doom scrolling.

You know how all the stories say you can use anything as a wand? See if you can extend your sensory awareness into the tool. Use the tool’s awareness to locate where your tension needs work. Don’t think too much about how to do it, just give it a go.

Friendship bracelet kit by Mercury Provisions, featuring Sero by Gist Yarns

Textile crafts are one of the most intrinsically human pastimes ever – one of the first things humans ever did for fun *in all of history.* Playing with yarn is something we’re *supposed* to do. I’m sure you’re the last person I need to philosophize to about this.

Friendship bracelets are a great little craft to spend time on in the long nights of winter because they foster social connection! It’s fun to make things for ourselves, but for me a big part of the fun of friendship bracelets is giving them away.

I’m sure someone like you has made these before. If you need a little recap on how it’s done, I trust you to find one online that suits your learning style. It didn’t make sense to me to link something here not knowing which way you prefer to learn.

My real reason for making a friendship bracelet kit is that I wanted to outfit you with the best possible materials to play with, drawing from my personal hoard of yarn for inspiration. I feel strongly that as adults we deserve good quality grown up materials for our arts and crafts. I tried to pick out an expressive selection of colors for you to play with. There’s enough for you to waste some of it in a trial and error process, and then still be able to start over with the same design when you figure it out.

The yarn I’ve given you is made of raw silk grown in China and processed here in the USA. I feel good about supporting Chinese makers during the trade war. I love the saturation of color it’s able to achieve. The red almost glows in the dark.

Cantucci seconds by Mercury Provisions

We recently discussed our shared preference for less sweet flavors. I find American baking to be aggressively sweet and heavy, and I have a strong preference for the European style of snack baking, which I feel includes a veritable fuckton more nutrients and doesn’t blast your taste buds with blinding acid from the high sugar content. Lol.

Anyway, cantucci are what a lot of Americans think of as biscotti. In Italy biscotti is just a generic word for any type of cookies. This specific type of biscotti is called cantucci. I like to call things what they are called in their country of origin.

Unfortunately, just because of the crumbly nature of these cookies, I end up with more seconds than beautiful aesthetic whole cookies. I actually like the seconds better because they get more color and that gives them more flavor, so in my opinion you actually have the best cookies out of anyone getting a box this winter.

The first cantucci are made with a base of hazelnuts, a red wheat based soft semolina I bought at the farmer’s market, and a mystery blend of mixed discard grains from the same mill that makes the semolina. I’ve sweetened them mainly with maple sugar, which is more flavorful and less sweet than cane sugar. I think there’s also a touch of vanilla bean paste in there that I forgot to mention on the ingredients sticker.

The second cantucci are made with a base of almond flour, pistachios, and cornmeal cut with regular all-purpose flour to tone down the aggressive texture. I sweetened this one mostly with rose petal infused wildflower honey from Flamingo Estate.

I hope you’ll enjoy these treats for their flavor more than their sweetness – and I’ll work on my savory snack recipes for future boxes.

Ingredients lists are on the back of the bag – I won’t repeat them here.

Bensdorp 22/24 Hot Cocoa by Mercury Provisions

Bensdorp 22/24 is unquestionably *the* world’s best cocoa powder. It’s processed in Belgium using the Dutch method, which adds alkali to balance the acidity of the raw cacao. The result is a high-fat, low-fiber cocoa powder that is packed with both flavor and nutrition.

I’m not a food scientist, but one thing I know is that the flavor in food mostly comes from the fat. So it’s important that the process Bensdorp uses for their cocoa powder retains a lot of fat from the cacao fruit. That’s what makes it so flavorful compared to lesser cocoa powders.

You can see just from looking at this mix that the cocoa powder to sugar ratio is way different than most American cocoa powder mixes. I would say it tastes more like a Spanish style hot chocolate, really not that sweet. I think the reduced sweetness allows the cocoa’s fruity flavors to shine.

If you want to make an American style hot cocoa, use about a tablespoon of mix with about 12 oz of milk or dairy substitute. For closer to a Spanish style, use a heaping tablespoon with 4-6 oz of milk. For a Filipino style that’s somewhere in between, prepare on the stovetop, follow the American style proportions, but also grate in some dark chocolate.

The cocoa powder does tend to stick to itself and lump up upon contact with liquid. Really take your time smushing out all the lumps you can find.

Ingredients: Organic unbleached cane sugar, Bensdorp 22/24 cocoa powder, Maldon salt.

The ingredients are listed in order of weight – sugar is just a LOT heavier than cocoa powder. There really isn’t that much sugar in this mix.

Charm 02 Nerve Tonic herbal tisane by Mercury Provisions

This herbal blend is designed to function as emotional regulation support. Its active ingredient is Skullcap, a natural anxiolytic. As an herbal tonic, it’s also packed with a ton of diverse nutrients to give you a generic boost like a multivitamin.

The other herbal blend I’ve given you has more of a mind quieting effect. This one does more to quiet the physical symptoms of emotional distress, not the thoughts. It slows down the fight or flight response.

Charm 03 Lucidity Aid herbal tisane by Mercury Provisions

The active ingredient in this herbal blend is Mugwort, a traditional lucidity aid. Mugwort has the effect of cutting out mental noise, leaving you in literal mental silence. This can be helpful if you’re suffering from ruminating thoughts, and maybe less helpful if you have a job that requires you to do a lot of on the spot creative thinking. I suggest trying it for the first time on a day off.

Mugwort also has the effect of making you lucid dream – and also making you feel calm during those dreams. This is an interesting enough effect that many people want to drink it just for that. Try not to drink mugwort for dreaming too many nights in a row, because your body may not find the sleep quite as restful, even if you enjoy it.

Mugwort tastes bad, and the rest of the ingredients are mostly there to mask its flavor.

Bhutanese chili paste by Flamingo Estate

This winter Flamingo Estate put out a box of assorted small items made in collaboration with some really cool Bhutanese companies, and I bought an extra box to distribute amongst friends because I wanted to pay money towards supporting their collaborators.

This chili paste is served as a condiment with pretty much every meal imaginable in Bhutan. It’s made mostly with Szechuan peppercorn, which gives a different flavor profile and sensory experience than other spicy foods. I think with a subtle hand it could add a ton of depth and nuance to your experimental cooking!

Tea infuser by an unknown maker

You’re the type of person I would fully expect to already have a device you like using to infuse your tea and herbs into hot water, but I couldn’t send out a subscription box with herbal tea in it and *not* include an infusing device. I picked this one because it looks like it will keep the tiny bits in, and it also looks easy to clean.