During the Winter Solstice/Christmas Season we often place too much emphasis on celebrating and sharing this joyous holiday. It is often helpful amongst all the stress to atune to a quiet, internal spirituality. To begin to do so, prepare a ritual bath with oils of rosemary, pine and orange. Add a touch of patchouli for grounding. Light gold and green candles and immerse yourself in the watery solitude to refresh your weary holiday spirit. Meditate on the Winter Goddess and her lesson of stillness. Find the cool and clean space she offers, free of clutter and activity. It is the season for centering and grounding and for defining who we really are. After the bath, take your journal and write down your goals by candlelight. Contemplate the coming re-birth and identify which direction you wish to channel your energies and focus your intentions.
-This bath was adapted by one written by Karri Allrich
Natural air fresheners help to elevate our mood and can be used in place of incense in ritual. Use spring or distilled water as your liquid base. For all air fresheners, fill a four-ounce spray bottle, then add essential oils. Tighten cap. Shake well. The longer the mixture ages, the stronger the scent becomes. For ritual use, age your freshener for at least seven days before using, shaking bottle every day. Store in a dark place.
Mix all ingredients in glass jar that has a tight lid. Cap tightly and shake thoroughly. Set aside for at least twenty-four hours to allow the oils to blend. Sprinkle over carpet. Leave for fifteen minutes. Vacuum.
Mix all ingredients in glass jar that has a tight lid. Cap tightly and shake thoroughly. Set aside for at least twenty-four hours to allow the oils to blend. Sprinkle over carpet. Leave for fifteen minutes. Vacuum.
Blend ingredients and store in airtight container. Makes a marvelous magickal furniture polish. Rub on with a soft, clean cloth. Then polish with a separate soft, clean cloth.
Potpourri is an excellent form of spell for peace: it is quiet and always present, just as we often wish peace to be.
Timing: Monday; Friday; moon in the second quarter; midday; hour of the Moon; hour of Venus; or your personal power time
Supplies:
Choose between three and nine herbs and flowers with the corresponding magickal properties of peace. Suggestions: lavender, rose, myrtle, chamomile, jasmine, violet
Empower each of the herbs and flowers for peace and tranquility.
Place them in the bowl and mix the herbs gently with your fingers, visualizing your goal.
To fix the scent and help preserve the potpourri, stir in a teaspoon of orris root powder. You may add a few drops of oil to enhance the scent, but do so carefully and blend well. If your potpourri is too damp, it will grow mold and mildew, and that not the king of green energy you’re looking for at all!
Place the potpourri in a pretty jar or bowl and set it in a place where it will work its magick. Potpourri eventually loses its power due to a combination of releasing its energy and absorbing the ambient negative energy that encounters it. When the energy of the potpourri has faded or the goal you set for spell has been achieved, bury the mixture outdoors or add it to your compost heap.
Believe it or not, potpourri functioned and still does function as a slow-release spell. Combining dried flowers and herbs for potpourri is an age-old practice.
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.
This is excellent for use before any ritual or indeed any time when you need to mark the division between one part of your day and another, for example the transition from your work self to your home self.
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.
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.
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