Month: November 2010

Spontaneous Spells

What about the magick of the moment? What about those times where you’re swept up by emotion and you perform a spontaneous spell right then and there?

Spontaneous spells can be lovely, deep, and very meaningful. There’s no rule anywhere insisting that every spell has to be thought and planned out to the last detail. If you’re standing on the seashore under a full moon and your heart swells, then by all means do what you feel inspired to do.

Just write it down when you get back home. Scribble down as best you can what you said and what you did. You can use a spell record sheet, or you can record it in a journal reserved for spellcrafting. A journal like this can also record meditations, questions, dreams and bits of research, and over time can become a beautiful and personal  record of your evolution as a spellcrafter. Knowledge is power and the more knowledge you acquire from studying your success and failures, the more power you have over your abilities and your life.

Esbat Incense

For use at all Full Moon rituals. Ensure that the incense is burning before the Sacred Space is created.

2 parts frankincense

2 parts sandalwood

1 part rose petals

a few drops of musk oil

Banishment of Unwanted Influences

These can be external influences or simply the day-to-day emotional baggage that we all carry around with us.

3 parts frankincense

2 parts sandalwood

1 part bay

(bay leaves often need to be torn or cut up before adding to your pestle) pinch of salt(this may cause your incense to sparkle on the charcoal)

Ground and Center

Ground and Center before all magickal work to avoid depleting personal energy levels. Begin by being still, gathering within and releasing through the fee (and palms if need be) into the ground all static, chaotic internal energies. Now feel the inner calmness, centered around the heart, and draw up through the feet strong Earth  energy (through the floor if indoor), feeling the power and energy rising up and intertwining with your own energies up through the legs, body, arms, neck, and head, out the top, circled around and up again until all portions of the body are in balance. Once this power is felt and is in balance, then Circle Casting, Ritual, Divination, and Spell Work may begin.

Grounding after all magickal work to avoid overload of personal energy levels; touch the Earth/floor with palms of the hands after magickal work and feel the excess energy drain out, leaving a balance of personal energy, augmented only by that amount of Earth necessary for healthy functioning of the body. Too much retained energy will result in headache, depression, or irritability. Too Little will result in fatigue, depression or faintness. You must find the inner balance and adjust according to how you feel.

Sabbat Soap

Sabbat Soap

The Sabbats are less a time of working and more a time of celebration, hence a different blend. Of course you could make different soaps for different Sabbats, altering the ingredients to match the key pints of the festival and the season, in which case you might wish to make a smaller quantity of soap and use it on a daily basis for the seven days prior to the Sabbat, in preparation for it.

1 tbsp rosemary leaves

1/2 tbsp jasmine flowers

6 drops sandalwood oil

 6 drops frankincense oil

3 drops cinnamon oil

 

Soaps

The basic ingredients for soap are in fact quite caustic, so it is not only easier but also more user-friendly to rework ready-made soap. The best kind to choose is a pure, unscented castille soap, although you can use this method with other kinds of unscented soaps.

First cut up (or grate) about 4 oz (1 cup) of the soap and place in a heatproof non-metallic container.

  • Add about 1/4 cup (2 fl oz) of hot water and 1 tbsp of almond or apricot oil.
  • Leave until cool enough to handle and then mix in with your hands. If the soap is floating on the water you will need to add more soap.
  • Leave for about ten minutes, mixing occasionally by which time the soap should be soft and mushy. If it is not, place the bowl into a saucepan of boiling water and heat gently.
  • When the soap, water and oil are completely blended, add any dry ingredients.
  • When the mixture  is cool, add any essential oils. It is important that the mixture be cool as essential oils evaporate quickly in heat. Note that essential oils should be added until they overcome the original odour of the soap, so how much will depend on the type of soap and oil you use.
  • Blend really thoroughly and divide the mixture into four to six pieces, depending on the size of the soaps you finally require.
  • Now squeeze these soaps, removing as much excess water as possible into the shape you require – balls, ovals or whatever – and tie in cheesecloth.
  • Hang in a warm dry place until completely hard.

The soaps can then be used or wrapped in cheesecloth and kept or given away. As an aside ordinary soap will always last longer if you take it out of its wrapper and keep it in a warm dry place to get completely hard before used.

All the recipes found here are based on the above quantity of soap. As people relate to different scents in different ways, these can be adjusted according to your own preferences. Additionally you can adapt any of the following to a plain unscented liquid soap, but do be aware that liquid soaps are usually detergent based and hence not really very good for the skin. Where it says oil in the recipes it is good to use essential oils except in the case of the coconut oil in the dry skin recipe. When using herbs or other dried ingredients make sure that ou remove the really hard woody bits to make the soap pleasant to use. If you do not like textured or gritty soap, then substitute drops of the appropriate oils.

It is worth noting that when using soap you should always lather it in your hands and then wash the rest of yourself with the lather it is not a good idea to rub any soap directly onto other areas of the skin as it can be too hands and crying.

Meditation of the Day – Releasing Fear

If we allow them their way, our fears can exert a powerful influence over our thoughts, feelings and actions. Perform this meditation to loosen their grip.

  1. Close your eyes and bring to mind one of your deepest fears – for example, the fear of being unlovable.

  2. Acknowledge the presence of your fear. just be aware of its existence and observe how it feels without wallowing in it.

  3. Now imagine your fear embodied as a caged bird. Notice the appearance of the bird — its shape, the colour of its feathers, the sound of its call and its movements.

  4. Visualize opening the cage and setting the bird free, releasing it from your consciousness. As you watch the bird fly away, experience a wave of acceptance washing over you.

Get Lost and Far Away!

Get Lost and Far Away

Lost and Away powder (recipe below) has various uses, in addition to banishment. It’s also used to establish personal and psychic boundaries, as well as to prevent someone else from encroaching on those boundaries.

  1. Write your target’s name thirteen times on a square of paper.

  2. Sprinkle Lost and Away Powder on this paper.

  3. Fold the paper up, always folding away from you.

  4. Seal it with sealing wax, preferably red.

  5. Bury this paper but mark the spot

  6. Leave it buried for thirteen days, watering daily with War water

  7. On the fourteenth day dig it uup and burn it .

 

Lost & Away Powder Recipe
Dirt from a crossroad
Mistletoe
Sulfur
Orris
Sage

 

Banish Evil Spell

Banish Evil Spell

Sometimes it’s not clear what or who needs to be banished. There’s just a prevailing sense of evil that needs to be expelled. This spell is most effective during the Dark Moon. An iron hammer is required, as is a flat rock and either a coffin nail or an old rusty nail.

  1. Hammer the nail against the rock. The goal is not to pierce the rock but merely to score it three times across the face. Visualize what you are dispelling while you hammer.

  2. Bury the stone far away.

  3. Carry the nail in a red mojo bag, together with some crossroads and/or graveyard dirt.

Holiday Lore

The time between sundown on Samhain to sundown today, the Day of the Dead, was considered a transition time,  or “thin place,” in Celtic lore. It was a time between the worlds where deep insights could pass more easily to those open to them. Through the portals could also pass beings of wisdom, of play, beings took on a feeling of otherness and evil, as our modern relationship between the realms has been muddled, today can be a day to tap into the magick and wonder of other worlds.