The Witches Digest

The Charge of the Goddess

Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month,
and better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye
assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of
She, who is Queen of all witches. There shall ye assemble,
ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet have not won its
deepest secrets; to these will She teach things that are
yet unknown. And ye shall be free from slavery; and as a
sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your
rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love,
all in Her praise. For Hers is the ecstasy of the spirit,
and Hers also is joy on earth; for Her law is love unto all
beings. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards
it; let naught stop you or turn you aside. For Hers is the
secret door which opens upon the land of youth and Hers
is the cup of wine of life, and the cauldron of Cerridwen,
which is the Holy Grail of immortality. She is the
gracious goddess, who gives the gift of joy unto the heart
of man. Upon earth, She gave the knowledge of the spirit
eternal; and beyond death, She gives peace and freedom,
and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor does
She demand sacrifice, for behold, She is the mother of
all living, and Her love is poured out upon the earth.

She who is the beauty of the green earth, and the white
moon among the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and
the desire of the heart of man, calls unto thy soul. Arise,
and come unto Her. For She is the soul of nature, who
gives life to the universe. from Her all things proceed,
and unto Her all things must return; and before Her face,
beloved of gods and men, let thine innermost divine self
be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite. Let Her
worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all
acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals. And therefore
let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion,
honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you. And
thou who thinkest to seek Her, know thy seeking and
yearning shall avail thee not unless thou knowest the
mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou findest not
within thee, then thou wilt never find it without thee. For
behold, She has been with thee from the beginning; and
She is that which is attained at the end of desire.

The Charge of the God

Listen to the words of the Great Father, who of old was called Osiris,
Adonis, Zeus, Thor, Pan, Cernunnos, Herne, Lugh and by many other names.

My law is harmony with all things.

Mine is the secret that opens the gates of life and mine is the dish of salt of
the earth that is the body of Cernunnos that is the eternal circle of rebirth.

I give the knowledge of life everlasting, and beyond death
I give the promise of regeneration and renewal.

I am the sacrifice, the father of all things,
and my protection blankets the earth.

Hear the words of the dancing God, the music of whose laughter
stirs the winds, whose voice calls the seasons.

I who am the Lord of the Hunt and the Power of the Light,
sun among the clouds and the secret of the flame.

I call upon your bodies to arise and come unto me.

For I am the flesh of the earth and all its beings.

Thru me all things must die and with me are reborn.

Let my worship be in the body that sings,
for behold all acts of willing sacrifice are my rituals.

Let there be desire and fear, anger and weakness,
joy and peace, awe and longing within you.

For these too are part of the mysteries found within yourself,
within me, all beginnings have endings, and all endings have beginnings.

Today is Sunday

Traditionally, Sunday is the first day of the week. It is also known as the Lord’s Day from it original association with the Lord, that is, the Sun God, personified as Helios, Apollo, Ogmios, Mithras, and St. Elia. But in the Northern Tradition, the sun is seen as feminine, personified as the goddess known as Phoebe in East Anglia and Saule in eastern Europe. The sun rules the conscious element of the human being, the ego, the real self, and Sunday is the day on which this conscious power is at its most effective.

Deity: Sol

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Planet: Sun

Tree: Birch

Herb: Snakeroot

Stone: Ruby

Animal: Lion

Element: Fire

Color: Gold

Rune: Sigel

The Celtic Tree Month of Luis(Rowan) January 21 – February 17)

Runic Half Month of Peorth (womb, dice cup) ( January 13 – January 27)

Goddess of the Month of Hestia (December 26th – January 22nd)

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

On Sunday, We Honor the Goddess Hera

Hera

Greek Goddess of Marriage and Queen of Olympus

Hera is the Queen of the GODS and is the wife and sister of ZEUS in the Olympian pantheon. She is known for being the Goddess of Marriage & Birth. Despite being the Goddess of Marriage, she was known to be jealous and vengeful towards the many lovers and offspring of her husband Zeus.

She was also known to turn her anger towards mortals who crossed her as well – for example, Paris, who chose APHRODITE over Hera as the most beautiful goddess at the marriage of the sea-nymph Thetis to a mortal called Peleus.

In images and statues, Hera is portrayed as being majestic and solemn, crowned with the polos – a high cylindrical crown worn by many of the Great Goddesses.

Even before her marriage with Zeus, she ruled over the heavens and the Earth. This is one reason why she is referred to as ‘The Queen of Heaven’ – ruling over Mount Olympus where all the gods and goddesses live.

Even the great Zeus feared his wife Hera. Her never-ending hatred of Heracles, the illegitimate son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene stemmed from his continuous adultery and, amongst other things, Hera raised a storm at sea in order to drive Heracles out of his course to kill him.

Zeus became so angry that he hung her in the clouds by a golden chain, and attached heavy anvils to her feet. Her son Hephaestus tried to release his mother from her humiliating position, for which Zeus threw him out of heaven, and his leg was broken by the fall.

Facts about Hera

Hera was Queen of the OLYMPIAN GODS.
She was the wife and sister of Zeus.
Hera was a jealous wife, and she fought with Zeus frequently over his extramarital affairs and illegitimate children. For this reason, Hera was known for punishing offending husbands.
She was the protector of women, presiding over marriages and births.
While Hera was worshipped in all parts of Greece, temples were erected in her honor at Argos and Salmos.
The peacock was sacred to her.
Hera had few, if any, redeeming qualities. She never forgot an injury.
The Titans Ocean and Tethys brought her up.
Hera is often described as “cow-faced,” although she was also called the chief among the immortals in beauty.
Though she may have been physically attractive, her vindictive personality makes her less so.
The Trojan War would have ended in peace, but Hera had a vested interest in its outcome and influenced Zeus to either switch sides or remain neutral.
Hera had no concept of justice when angry or jealous; she could not forgive the women with whom Zeus had sexual relations—even if they were innocent of wrongdoing.
Ilithyia, a daughter of Hera’s, assisted women in childbirth.
In the story of the Quest of the Golden Fleece, Hera was a gracious protector of the heroes.
Paris awarded Aphrodite the Golden Apple over Athena and Hera.
Hera punished one of Zeus’s love interests, Io, by putting her in the charge of Argus. Argus had a hundred eyes and kept vigilant watch over her so that Zeus could not come to her aid.
Hera turned Callisto into a bear because Zeus fell in love with her.
Hera arranged the death of Semele, another of Zeus’s mortal conquests, although she did not directly cause it.
Hera never forgave HERCULES for being Zeus’s son, but when Hercules died and was taken to heaven, he and Hera reconciled. While in heaven, Hercules married Hera’s daughter Hebe.
In some stories, it was at Hera’s orders that DIONYSUS was torn to pieces. He was brought back to life, and it is this resurrection that was celebrated in theatres.

Source

Greek Gods and Goddesses

Magickal Work for Sunday

 Health
 Abundance
 Leadership
 Strength
 Ambition
 Individuality
 Authority
 Hope
 Joy
 Happiness
 Creativity

Source

A Spell Crafter’s Compendium
Terri Paajanen

Sunday’s Associations

Taking its name from our closet star, the Sun, Sunday is the best day of the week to work magical involving fathers and other authority figures such as your boss. It is also a good day to work on questions regarding leadership, money, prosperity, and power.

Color: Yellow, gold

Planet: Sun

Deities: Brighid, Helios, Ra, Apollo

Crystals: Quartz, diamond, amber, carnelian

Herbs: Marigold, sunflower, cinnamon

Associations: Success, promotion, fame, wealth, prosperity

Source

Flying the Hedge

The Witches Magickal Sunday

Ruler: Sun

Colors: Gold or yellow

Power Hours: Sunrise and sunset.

Key Words: Love, happiness, health, wealth

It is easy to spot the ruler of this day by its name. Sunday is the day of the sun. Community work, volunteer services, exercise, outdoor sports, buying, selling, speculating, meeting people, anything involving groups, running fairs and raffles, growing crops and taking care of all health matters fall under the influence of the Sun. With all this activity and the brightness of the sun, it’s easy to see why the child that is born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

Michael is the primary angel of Sunday but each hour of this day also has it’s secondary angel. These angels are Michael (first hour), Anael (second hour), Raphael (third hour), Gabril (fourth hour), Cassiel (fifth hour), Sachiel (sixth hour), Samael (seventh hour), Michael (eighth hour), Anael (ninth hour), Raphael (tenth hour), Gabriel (eleventh hour), and Cassiel twelfth hour). Notice some of the angels do double duty this day.

On Sundays, (unless you are invoking a specific angelic energy) the hour of sunrise will be the most powerful time to work, especially if you want to infuse energy into your work. Sunset is the second best time and is favored when you need to calm down a situation. Check the local newspaper, astrological calendar, or almanac to determine your local sunrise.

Source

Gypsy Magic

Sunday’s Witchery

Those ambitious, successful spells and charms will be heightened by working on the day of the week that has the planetary influence of the sun. So light those sunny candles, wear some luminous colors, and break out the gold jewelry! Bake up some cinnamon rolls or low-fat cinnamon muffins for an enchanting family breakfast. Take an orange with you to eat at lunch today. Try using a little magickal aromatherapy and burn some cinnamon-scented incense to encourage success and wealth today. Make the talisman to keep your solar magick with you. Sprinkle some dried marigold petals around your house-or across the threshold-to pull triumph and protection toward you and your family.

Get outside and tip up your face to the sun. Take a walk outside, and soak up some sunshine! Acknowledge the power of Sunna or Helios as they blaze across the sky and bring courage and motivation into your life. Sit outside at sunrise on a Sunday morning and bask in its warm, rosy-golden glow Acknowledge Brigid as the inner, creative spark of imagination and inspiration. She can help these gifts burn brightly within your own soul. Use your imagination and create your own brand of witchery and magick. Here comes the sun, and it’s your turn to shine!

Source

—–Book of Witchery: Spells, Charms & Correspondences for Every Day of the Week
Ellen Dugan

The Witches Correspondences for Sunday

Magickal Intentions: Growth, Advancements, Enlightenment, Rational Thought, Exorcism, Healing, Prosperity, Hope, Exorcism, Money

Incense: Lemon, Frankincense

Planet: Sun

Sign: Leo

Angel: Michael

Colors: Gold, Yellow, Orange and White

Herbs/Plants: Marigold, Heliotrope, Sunflower, Buttercup, Cedar, Beech, Oak

Stones: Carnelian, Citrine, Tiger’s Eye, Amber, Clear Quartz and Red Agate

Oil: (Sun) Cedar, Frankincense, Neroli, Rosemary

The first day of the week is ruled by the Sun. It is an excellent time to work efforts involving business partnerships, work promotions, business ventures, and professional success.

Spells where friendships, mental or physical health, or bringing joy back into life are an issue work well on this day, too.

Sunday is Ruled by the Sun

Sunday corresponds to the sun, our closest star. This day is full of wonder and all sorts of magical potential for success, wealth, and fame. Sundays are for personal achievements of any kind such as working towards a promotion at your job, seeking fame and wealth, or being acknowledged for a job well done. All of these goals fall under the golden influence of the sun. Some suggestions for Sunday enchantments would include:

Sitting outside at sunrise and calling on the goddess Brigid for illumination and inspiration

Wearing gold jewelry or clothing that is gold or sunshine yellow to pull some color magic into your life

Arranging a few sunflowers in a vase and empowering these “flowers of the sun” for fame and ambition

Gathering up the common marigold flower and scattering it’s petals about to encourage prosperity

Baking up a batch of cinnamon rolls for the family and enchanting them for health and success

Snacking on a solar fruit, the orange, and enjoying the magical boost it brings to your life

The Energy of the Sun

The planetary energy of the Sun is stimulating and warm. It encourages growth and expansion as well as general good feelings all around. It may be used for magick related to the growth of anything; career, family, public influence, wealth, the garden, friendships, love, general abundance, employment opportunities, business. Because the Sun shines down on the whole world, and thus sees everything that happens, the Sun’s planetary energy is occasionally used to find objects as well as protecting us from deception or being “kept in the dark”. Looking at the Sun’s universality in a different way, this energy can be used to find a common thread (we’re all warmed by the same Sun) to encourage new friendships and partnerships and reconciliation where existing ones are threatened.

Many things that correspond to the planetary energy of the Sun also correspond to the elemental energy of Fire.
Healing

The sun is associated with the heart, circulatory system, the spinal cord and the thymus gland.

Solar Minerals

Metal Gold

Crystals/Stones

Yellow, red and particularly bright, shiny crystals and stones tend to correspond to the energy of the Sun. diamond, ruby, chrysolite, yellow topaz, citrine, red garnet, chrysoprase and amber- fossilized tree sap said to contain the energy of the Sun as metabolized by the tree. Corundum and yellow Tiger’s Eye show sparkling designs that remind one of the sun and of course, there is sunstone.

Crystals and metals that correspond to the planetary energy of the Sun can be worn, carried or placed on the body to encourage healing or to draw planetary energies ruled by the sun, such as abundance to the individual. They may also be used to create a gem elixir and ingested, assuming they do not contain toxic materials. Crystals can be placed in a location to draw the desired energies to your home, place of business or vehicle as desired, placed on the altar, held, or gazed upon to enhance energies being raised during spellwork or other focusing and manifesting exercises.

Solar Plants and herbs

Plants that resemble the sun in shape or color, that open during the day and close at night, that follow the sun’s movements during the day, and those plants that are traditionally associated with the winter solstice as well as those that provide winter nourishment when fresh plants are unavailable, such as grains and nuts. Physically, edible Sun plants tend to encourage a feeling of warm satisfaction and medicinal plants affect the heart. sunflower, calendula, marigold, daylily, orange, citron, saffron, pine, mistletoe, rosemary, buttercup, heliotrope, bay laurel, daisy, walnut, acorn, maize, wheat, hops, cloves, cinnamon

Herbs can be incorporated into magick by placing them on the altar in the form of fresh flowers or dried potpourri or incorporated into incense to enhance energies raised during spellwork and ritual of a solar nature. They can also be carried or worn in a pouch or placed in an area to attract these energies. An herbal floor wash will infuse an area with the desired energies, or this may be accomplished via fumigation. Edible plants can be consumed as part of a meal or as part of an elixir or other herbal preparation. Those herbs that are skin-safe can be added to massage oils or fragrance sprays and ritual baths. Whole herbs or essential oils may be used.

*Incense* cinnamon, clove, pine, citrus, Benzoin, Pine, Frankincense, Labdanum, Olibanum

Sun fragrances are generous and, to me, home sweet home types of smells, with the exception of a few, which have “special occasion” feels to me. The sorts of smells that fill a temple, or the house on a day when lots of company is coming. Over at http://www.alchemy-works.com/planets_sun.html this family of scents is described as “glorious” and it suits.

Days and Holidays

The Winter Solstice is the day most strongly associated with Solar Energy, though it peaks at the Summer Solstice, it declines thereafter.

Sunday is the Sun’s day.

Zodiac Leo is ruled by the sun.

Other Solar Correspondences

Animals Lion, Sparrowhawk, Griffin, hawk

While animal parts are used for magick in many traditions, they can be difficult or impossible to obtain and some animals are endangered, though you may find using feathers and fur of local animals to be feasible, using important bits of animals that aren’t already raised and slaughtered for food isn’t within the reach or moral compass of most modern witches. Using live animals subjects animals to discomfort and fear and is also not recommended. However, images of animals have a long history of use in magic and images of animals are quite easy to obtain as 2D pictures and 3D sculptures. If you are artistic, the very act of creating these images can help you more closely attune to their energy.

Colors

Orange, amber, gold, yellow, red

Many magic-users bring color into their working through their choice of colored candles, altar cloth and other items placed on the altar. If you wish to bring solar energy into your daily life, you may choose corresponding colors for your clothing or even chose paint, curtains and carpet colors to draw solar energy into your space.

Magick Prosperity, wealth, wealth, growth, confidence, clarity, commonality, abundance, truth, harmony, partnerships.

Source

Witchipedia

Sunday & The Perfect Corresponding Spell

Finally, it’s Sunday, the official day of rest. Not only do Christians acknowledge this day, but I’m sure many Pagans appreciate this day, as well. Everyone needs rest and lot of people need a good day to worship their creator (whomever or whatever that may be), however they deem fit to do so. With the Sun being the central theme of many ancient rituals, Sunday just seems to fit, in name and theory. Not only is it a good day to worship, it seems good to do more relaxed spells, such as, sleep, dream and rebirth.

Sleep Spell – Nap Lavender Spell

Items you will need for this spell: 1 small sachet or bag 1 pinch of lavender 1 handful of roses 1 pinch of allspice 1 pinch of nutmeg 1 white candle 1 lighter or match

Fill a small sachet or bag with the above ingredients. After the bag is filled, tie off the end and shake all the ingredients around. Then, lay the bag on a table next to the white candle. Light the candle and think about having a nice, peaceful rest. Think about how long you want to sleep and how wonderful it feels just to be able to sleep. Take about five, deep breaths and relax. Pick up the candle and pour some wax over the end of the sachet or bag. After that, blow out the candle and put the sachet or bag under your pillow. At night, before you go to bed, get the sachet or bag from under your pillow and smell it. Breathe in the scents and allow your body to relax. Hold it in your hands for as long as you need to. Before you know it, you will be falling asleep.

A Witch’s Week of Spells and Activities
Helga C. Loueen

Visions of Love Spell

Items needed: One dram of pure rose oil; one bowl of water; one pink birthday candle.

Place the bowl of water on the night stand next to your bed. Sprinkle seven drops of rose oil into the bowl. Turn all the lights off in the room. LIght the pink candle. Hold the candle over the bowl so the wax will fall onto the water, and chant the following seven times:

Rose and water,
Flame ad fire,
Reveal this night,
The one I desire.

As soon as the candle has burned out, close your eyes and go to sleep. When you awake in the morning, the name of the one you will marry will be spelled out in the wax dripping left in the bowl.