The bóveda (literally “vault” in Spanish) is a sacred space for honoring your ancestors and spirit guides—a kind of spiritual hotline to the Other Side. Think of it as a metaphysical charging station where your spirits get their clarity, power, and pep while you get their guidance, protection, and possibly a few side-eyes if you forget to refresh the water. In essence, the bóveda is a bridge between the land of the living and the dead, a portal where you can pray, meditate, divine, and occasionally just spill your existential tea to someone who won’t interrupt. While the basics of setting up a bóveda are fairly consistent, every practitioner adds their own flair. Some follow strict traditional setups; others let their spirits guide them to something more unique. Spoiler alert: you’ll eventually fall into the second group once you get the hang of it. But first, let’s walk through the essentials....

The month of December brings us Capricorn season, which begins on Winter Solstice (December 21) and continues until the Sun moves into Aquarius on January 19th.

Capricorn is an earth sign that is concerned with taking charge, being ambitious, striving for success, and focusing on things that matter. In other words, it’s not the time to be passive and let the world pass you by; it’s time to seize your moment and make things happen.  Since Capricorn is a cardinal sign, the past no longer matters. It is what you can do today that should be your focus. 

Patchouli: the official scent of every metaphysical shop you’ve ever walked into and the reason your friend Jeremy’s place smells like a Phish concert. It’s an herb that divides people—some say it’s earthy and grounding, others say it smells like wet dirt and regret.

Picture this: you’ve just crawled through the ashes like a reborn Phoenix, and now—boom!—the archer (aka Sagittarius) shows up, flexes, and aims his arrow toward the stars. The vibe shift is real. Scorpio season had us all sweating bullets, facing our phobias, dysfunctions, and those oh-so-cringe things we’ve been avoiding. But Sagittarius? It’s all about looking ahead—no rear-view mirrors allowed.

Agrimony: not actually the name of a Greek philosopher, Agrimony spends its time as the unsung hero of magical defense. If you’re out there trying to reverse curses or block negativity, Agrimony’s your ride-or-die. Often used in sleep aids, it’s the herbal equivalent of a weighted blanket—except instead of cozy comfort, it’s more like a magical brick wall full of NOPE. Smells kinda grassy, like a meadow on a breezy day, if that meadow were secretly plotting to be the ultimate buzz kill.

Reptiles have always been associated with the sign of Scorpio.  The symbolism of the snake shedding its skin reflects Scorpio's powers of transformation and its natural association with death and disintegration. And there is no better figure to represent the sign of the scorpion than the mythic Medusa.

September is coming and that means … Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Kidding. It means we’re entering the harvest season, and that is a great opportunity for personal growth and introspection. Our ancestors celebrated this time with rituals of gratitude and preparation. We can harness the energy of autumn to charge up our meditation and reflection practices.

Libra is the sign of relationships, and on the practical level, it is. And although pop astrology focuses on love relationships, the sign of the scales governs all relationships, even relationships with our enemies. 

But what is the undercurrent of the sign of the scales? 

As the sun's warmth begins to wane and the whispers of autumn tickle our senses, we find ourselves at the crossroads between Leo's fiery exuberance and Virgo's earthy practicality. This transition calls for a spiritual reset, a cleansing of the energies we've accumulated during our sun-soaked adventures. Let's embrace Virgo's organizing prowess and tend to our neglected magical practices with some candle-based cleansing spells.