MY WICCA (Part 5 of 5)

MY WICCA (Part 5 of 5)
By Durwydd MacTara

9. We know of the existence of the life-force which ensouls all living
things, that is, all that exists. We know that a spark of this Divine
Fire is within each and every thing that exists, and that it does not
die; only the form of it’s existence changes. We know that this spark
of the life-force returns to manifestation again and again in order to
fully realize and actualize it’s potential, evolving finally to the peak
and essence of existence which is pure being. In this process of
reincarnation each form returns in the same type of form, though it’s
ever-increasing actualization may lead to higher levels of existence of
that form. Man returns as man, cat as feline, mineral as mineral, each
class of form evolving as the individual forms of that class evolve.

10. This process of evolution through successive incarnations in
manifest form works through the utilizations of wisdom gained, the
essence of the life-experience. This essence of experience, or Wisdom,
is an attribute of the spark of life itself, one and inseparable.

11. We must care for the body, for it is the vehicle of the spark of
life, the form by which we attain. Thus we must heal the body of it’s
ills and keep it a tuned and perfected tool; so must we heal others
(both physically and psychologically) as far as it is within our power
to do so. However, we cannot interfere with the life of another, even
to heal, except at their request or with their express permission. The
reasoning behind this apparent limitation is that we are endowed with
Free Will, and what the Gods themselves hesitate to infringe upon, is
best left alone by us “mere” mortals.

13. Harmony with, and utilization of, the great natural forces of the
universe is called magick. By magick we speak, not of the super-
natural, but of the superbly natural, but whose laws and applications
are not as yet recognized by the scientific establishment. The Witch
must strive to recognize these forces, learn their laws, attune
her/himself to them, and make use of them. The Witch must also be aware
that power corrupts when used _only_ for the gains of the self, and
therefore must strive to serve humanity: Either through the service in
the Priesthood, or by example and effects of his/her life on others.
The choice must be made in accord with the true nature of the Witch.

Spellcrafting, Spellcasting and the Spellcaster

The majority of the spellbooks on the market today give you pages of spells for all sorts of purposes. Lists of ingredients, directions, and words to say, these aren’t your words, they are more like a recipe book you would find in your kitchen. A spell is more than a list of ingredients, directions, how to mix them, and a sure outcome. It isn’t that simple, believe me. What makes the difference from the spells you find in a store bought book and your own, is you, your will and your intention. All of these things have an important influence over spellcrafting and spellcasting. You have an enormous amount of control throughout the process that the books don’t mention.

There are random and unknown factors in spellcasting, just as if you were cooking your favorite recipe, you affect the outcome. The personal factor of spellcasting is unique, and this fact is what classifies spellcraft as an art.

In order for your situation to change, the common element over which you have the most control is yourself. Magick transforms the caster instead of the environment around the caster. Spellcraft isn’t just about bringing home a bigger paycheck or finding the love of your life; it’s about growth and evolution, making the career choices that lead to that bigger paycheck, accepting that the love of your life will have a few flaws and accept your flaws, too. Spellcrafting is about reassessing your life, searching deep within your soul, striking a balance. Then the spellcrafter within you will emerge.

Spellcrafting is the process of creating a spell. Spellcasting is the act of putting it into motion. Casting is, in fact, one of the final steps of spellcrafting, for the moment you begin to craft your spell is the moment you begin an active process.

Make no mistake: as a spellcaster, you are a part of the active process of change. You cannot interact with the energy of the world on a daily basis, at the depth required by spellcrafting, and not be changed. You will be transformed, learn to understand and accept the benefits of spellcasting, you will see your life beginning to reflect inner change. You will understand the power you have comes from within you, then finally the true spellcaster within you will emerge.

Saxon Wands

Saxon Wands

The Saxon Wands are very good for obtaining a direct, prompt answer to a question. In a way they are similiar to the Oriental I-Ching, though far less complicated.

Seven wands are needed. These are made from wood dowel. There should be three, each nine-inches in length; and four, each twelve-inches in length. One of the twelve-inch wands should be marked, or decorated in some way, as the WITAN wand. Actually, you can decorate all of the wands with runes and symbols, if you wish, but make sure the Witan wand stands out from the others.

Kneeling, lay the Witan wand on the ground before you; horizontally “across” you. Take the other six wands and hold them out over the Witan wand. Close your eyes, and holding them between you two hands, mix them together while concentrating on your question. Keeping the eyes closed, grip the wands in your right hand (left hand if left-handed); take hold of the tip of one wand with the fingers of the other hand; concentrate for a moment longer on your question, then open your right hand. All of the wands will fall to the ground except the one held now by the fingers of your left hand. Open your eyes.

i: If there should be more LONG wands that short
wands on the ground, then the answer to your
question is in the affirmative.
 
ii: If there are more SHORT wands than long wands
on the ground (excluding the Witan wand) then
the answer is in the negative.
 
iii: If any wand(s) touch the Witan wand, it means
the answer will be a very definite one, with strong
forces at work.
 
iv: If any wand(s) are off the ground (resting on
others), circumstances are such (forces still work-
ing) that no definite answer can yet be given-
regardless of (i) or (ii).
 
v: If all the wands point towards the Witan wand,
then you ( or the person for whom you are asking)
will have a definite role to play in the determina-
tion of the question.
 
vi: If none of the wands point towards the Witan
wand, then the matter will be determined without
your (the Querant’s) interference.
 
As with the crystal and the tarot cards, don’t let anyone else use your wands. They are your personal instruments. Keep them wrapped in a black cloth.
 
Buckland’s Complete Book Of Witchcraft
Raymond Buckland
ISBN 0-87542-050-8

The Beauty of Color Magick (Rediscovering a Lost Art)

The Beauty of Color Magick (Rediscovering a Lost Art)
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Author: Pagan Education Network

Color Magick is one of those simple types of magick that have enough avenues to keep Witches and pagans busy for a lifetime. This type of magick was one of the first things I was introduced to in the Craft and it opened doors for me like no other type of magick could. Why? To start with it is easy to understand, easy to work with, and it is something we have been practicing since we were children.

Can you remember back to the first time you realized the power color held? You were probably between four and six years old when an adult asked you, “What’s your favorite color?” As a child you were more than willing to tell them all about your favorite color, the toys you had that were that color, your favorite crayon colors, or even a stuffed animal that was the just the color you liked. When we are children, child color painted our worlds. Children marvel at all the colors in the world without even realizing it. Color was already stirring within your feelings that would last a lifetime.

As you grew up, your repertoire of colors grew but you still had that one special color that seemed to mean more than the others. By the teenage years there were colored pens, paper and school supplies in our favorite colors. Our rooms were painted to match our attitudes, favorite colors and most importantly we began to have an overwhelming sense of identity-attached color. Most of us even remember the beloved jewelry that told us which mood we were in based on the color the jewelry turned. Ah yes mood jewelry, what great fun. There were mood rings, bracelets and other wonderful jewelry pieces. They were all made of this wonderful material that reacted to the heat of our bodies. Its magick was so simple, so accepted that it became a fashion phenomenon that was accepted by everyone. Color continued to play a big role in our lives whether we acknowledged it or not.

Enter adulthood. At some point most of us rented apartments or bought homes. The first order of business in our new residence was to make it our own. How did we do this? You got it. Color! As human beings, we are surrounded by and we surround ourselves with what feels good to us. We use it to decorate everything in our lives from walls to comforters, clothing choices to accessories. We create with color when it comes to ourselves and our homes in every way.

The fun of decorating our home spaces begins with being able to choose from the thousands of colors of the rainbow. You can pick anything, what your walls look like, what your furniture look s like and what accents would be perfect for your room. All of these things are intrinsically tied to color and how those colors make you feel. You may have chosen a mossy green and brown for your living room, a cool blue that reminded you of sunny days in summer for your bedroom and a red or orange for the spice of your life, in your kitchen.

Without even realizing it we have been influenced by color throughout our lifetime. We have been surrounded our entire lives by color. We find it in nature, art, homes, hotels, clothing…you get the idea. We cannot escape it nor should we want to. Just imagine how terribly blah the world would be without it. Now to where all this realization lead us, magick of course!

I am willing to bet when you first began to research the metaphysical and the occult you realized, and maybe not for the first time that color possessed power. During your metaphysical studies you began to realize that many things in magick and the mundane were tied to color. Not only were they tied to color but that color had resonance and meaning within its magickal purpose. Suddenly there was a whole new door that opened to you. There were explanations for the reasons that certain colors made you feel a certain way. It made sense why you enjoyed some colors or disliked others. These reasons had to do with light energy and more specifically the frequency and vibrations that colors put off.

As your studies took you deeper you began to have the knowledge to put to all of these sensations and inspirations to work for you. This new power came from understanding why you felt the way you did when in the presence of certain colors and why certain colors held power for you. The name of this art is color magick and it has a world of uses.

Color magick can be extremely useful when doing healing work and be a helpful tool in making magick happen. Every color has a certain resonance or frequency within the light spectrum. These colors are as individually unique as the Witches on the planet are. The key to color magick is finding what, when, how and where it works best for you.

So how does one go about exploring and using color magick effectively? One of the first concepts many pagans are introduced to in regard to color magick is the chakra system and the meditations that go with them. This teaches a couple of main themes to new students of the Craft. Self-healing techniques, balancing moods and basic color associations are just of few of the concepts. These are normally built upon later in occult training. Those trained in the occult arts also learn to heal and control their own body rhythms by introducing various colors to the chakra system.

The underlying science of what they are learning is to use the Vibrational frequency of color to affect change within themselves or their environment. Soon occult practitioners realize that they can do more than just imagine color in their chakras; they can influence each chakra and balance them by using the opposing colors that corresponded to them. A fun tool for learning this concept is your traditional color wheel bought at a local art store. Suddenly your standard color wheel will take on a whole new meaning.

By purchasing (or printing off the computer) a color wheel and writing on it which chakras the colors correspond to and what the color’s frequency does a student can have a visual aid to work with. This visual aid can help to teach them how to properly correspond and contrast to affect changes in their own system. This can be extremely useful in training oneself to associate color frequency with moods and correspondences.

Color magick doesn’t just end there; it can be used in everything from candle magick, to poppets, to the writing in your Book of Shadows. As Witches, the more advanced we become, the more creative we become with colors and their uses. We no longer arbitrarily pick up a piece of clothing, paper, or even ritual items without feeling the color resonating within our personal sphere. We are now fully awake and aware of how color is affecting our person on both a mundane and magickal level. Color has taken on a whole new meaning, coming to life before our Witchy little eyes.

If you have tried or considered all of these things but you feel like you are in a slump regarding color and its uses in magick, then let’s revisit it and swirl up some fun! Let’s consider working more closely with the elements. In magick we use the elements for nearly every magickal action we do. We call them to aid us in our circle, we ask them to empower our magickal activities and we use them to gain further insight into our own path-working. But sometimes we hit a virtual bump in the road. We experience an imbalance or a loss of connection to one or more elements.

So let’s look at how we can whip up a little bit of color to fix that too. When I feel a loss in connection to an element, or on occasion more than one, I set on a mission to correct it. Why? Well for me it allows me to come back into balance with the universe around me.

All you need to do is find the colors that resonate best for you with each element and then practice meditations or magick associated with those colors. You can meditate on the color, introduce that color into your clothing for a day or a week, write a spell in the elemental color ink on the same or similar color paper, burn candles that are intentionally imbued with that elements energy and even set your altar space or sacred space up with lots of things that are in the color and correspondence to the element you are working with. This is also a great way to gain a deeper understanding of the elemental powers and the mysteries contained within their realms. Yet again the color wheel becomes a wonderful tool for learning and growing.

Color theory even finds its way into spells and Craft work. You can muster up an extra amount of kick to charge your spells with by using the power of color. This makes them both more powerful and effective. Further if you are asking a particular element to aid you then it is a great way to honor their spirit. When we consider again the resonance of color then we have to look at the way it works.

To keep things simple red is slower and violet is faster and you can fill in the blanks in the rainbow in between. So the quicker you want your magick to work the higher the frequency of color you might want to use.

As previously discussed color also has a great mental affect on us. We naturally associate certain colors with certain ways of being, material things or even mundane activities. Though various colors mean different things to different cultures, I will focus on Western philosophy, as that is where I reside. Money is a good example of a mundane color association that can work effectively for magick.

When a Witch performs a money spell, they normally use a green candle and display green monies around it. Here they are using the subconscious power that green has upon our psyche and that colors influence on our waking state to make our spell more powerful and effective.

By now you should be noticing that nearly everything we do involves color and our associations to it on some level as part of their design. This leads me to yet another area of color and magick, mood. The mood of a ritual can dramatically change how we perceive the ritual we are involved in. Think back to a fun house or even a Halloween attraction. The colored lights of these area’s can make it spooky, eerie, scary or even downright frightening. Try it out for yourself. Consider using this type of color magick during your next ritual and see how it works for you. Simply using colored bulbs found at any store can dramatically change the mood or ritual setting.

Replacing some of the key lights in the room that you are using will allow for the room to take on a whole different feel and look. This look goes more than skin deep, remember you are not just changing the glow by changing the light bulb; we have also changed the resonating frequency of the room.

The energy in the room is now vibrating at a higher or lower frequency depending on what color you chose. This not only helps to change the energy in the room, it works on a subconscious level as well giving us the sense that we have just entered into a different space, way of being, or even time. Its effects can be as profound and far-reaching as the imagination will allow.

Finally colored bulbs are an inexpensive and quick way to help us change our mood or the mood of a room. We do this by going back to our earlier technique of changing the lighting. By changing the light bulb in a lamp you can help yourself to overcome or attract certain frequencies of energy into your life.

For example red can inspire creative energy or passion; it vibrates slower than other energies so it creeps into the psyche slowly. It can also give a room the air of mystery or even a deeply serious but powerful tone. Red is also usually seen as the life force, blood and the color of manifesting, bringing new ideas into reality.

By contrast violet light is at the other end of the spectrum, it is a fast, high frequency so it can be energizing or balancing depending on what you are feeling personally. It can attract a higher state of consciousness and make meditation easier. Pink is both healing and passionate, its energy is soft and calming. Pink has a gentler less forceful energy than red. Blue is great for calming a room, release, giving a cooling and refreshing feeling. Yellow by contrast is great for happiness, inspiration and wisdom. Green is great for grounding, serenity and comfort. These are the basics, though the color list goes on quite a bit further.

Today science and the medical field are catching up to what Witches have known for years. It is amazing when we consider that we are no longer the only ones who have discovered color’s many benefits and that there are others who use this knowledge to their benefit. It is true that it is becoming more and more common that predominant, well-respected hospitals across our country, as well as traditional medicinal fields are now getting in on what Witches have known and practiced for years.

A few years ago my mother, who was suffering from breast cancer, had to go in for surgery at a prominent hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. When her blood pressure would not come down before surgery a soft-spoken nurse smiled at her and said come with me. Within a few minutes they had her set up in a room specially designed for stress relief through color therapy. They instructed her to breathe slowly and deeply, to relax and focus on the colors as they came up.

I stood amazed. In the room was set up a little devise with a bulb and a wheel that changed like a projector from one colored cellophane to another every so many minutes. What was this doing in a hospital of all places? Suffice to say the Witch in me was tickled pink! After about 20 minutes they came back in to get her and checked her blood pressure. Like magic (pardon the pun) , her blood pressure had come down significantly and my mother even noticed a difference in how she felt. I commend this hospital for being one of the first to catch up to what those of the Old Craft have known for so long.

Looking at the holistic fields or what some refer to alternative health care, we again see the use of color as a predominant field of study. During healing the practitioner lays their hands upon a person’s auric field to help heal their physical or mental ailments. They visualize the colors needed and then they gently push that colored energy into their aura helping to repair and heal, thus resulting in affecting the physical and mental body. When acts of stone healing are performed with the use of stones, the stones used are not only appropriately colored but also ones that resonate with the correct frequency in order to help the individual involved.

We can also use these types of alternative medicine for healing ourselves. This is not a new theory as demonstrated by the hospital above. There are some great ways to help oneself to heal on many levels when working with color. One way is to visualize the color best suited to repair the area, then by focusing that energy on the specific area several times a day. By doing this we can encourage a scrape, surgical incision, or even a headache to heal or dissipate. This technique can even be used to help change your mood or mental state. Be prepared to be amazed at how quickly this simple activity works for you, speeding your way to healing completely.

As we have journeyed through the rainbow we have visited many, many ways in which we can use color in magick. As you can see the use of color is not only limitless but has far reaching affects in both the magickal and mundane world. Some of the concepts above may have been familiar to you and maybe some of them were a new take on an old idea but all of them are powerful tools for both Witch and holistic practitioner alike. By breathing new life into an old idea you can reintroduce some fun into your magickal and mundane life, alleviating the feeling that things have gotten a little stale.

Be creative and you might even find some new ways to incorporate the mystery and magick that all Witches love into your spiritual practice. You could even reintroduce some of the techniques above to your practice and watch your imagination run wild. I promise your magick will take on a whole new life and at the very least you will challenge yourself to revisit something that has long been a cherished, precious magickal skill.

By: Kimberly Sherman-Cook, Minister
Pagan Education Network



Footnotes:
References:
Principles of Color Magick, Online course Pagan Education Network
Color Correspondences, George Knowles, controvercail.com
Solitary Wicca, Scott Cunningham
How to See and Read the Aura, Ted Andrews
How to heal with Color, Ted Andrews
Making Magick, McCoy
Elemental Magick, Wolfe

A Meditation on Magick

A Meditation on Magick

by Bestia Mortale

 

I’d like to examine three levels of magick, the world, the will and the spirit, from a particular perspective I shall describe.

Like most things, magick looks different from different sides. The word “magick” normally conjures up spells, unseen forces, strange worlds and mysterious beings. This is the “supernatural” point of view. This is the vantage from which we see sorcerers pursuing arcane knowledge to gain amazing power.

Take the skeptical version of this point of view, and magick signifies self-delusion, wish-fulfillment fantasy, unconscious deception and intentional fraud.

But then stroll around to another viewpoint, where you assume knowledge rather than ignorance. Assume for a moment that you can understand everything (not that anyone can). From this perspective, much of what we think of as magick vanishes, becoming just another technology, just another way to get what you want.

When you want something, you use your understanding of the world combined with your intelligence to identify a course of action that might achieve it. Then you use your will and determination to follow that course of action. As you go, you use intermediate results to modify your course of action. Are you a sorcerer or an engineer?

Both historians of science and historians of magick are well aware that until relatively recently, the two were more or less indistinguishable. In the last several centuries, the techniques of modern science and engineering have emerged as by far the most powerful and effective means of doing magick in the world. The spells of physics almost always work reliably, and when they don’t, physicists are delighted – there are always reputations to be made in perfecting them.

The magick of getting what we want in the world is fascinating and impressive but not necessarily deeply moving. Take doing the dishes, for example. Some people still eat with their hands from food that lies in their laps. Others have pursued centuries of dogged experimentation to produce specialized eating surfaces and utensils. Some people clean such surfaces and utensils in streambeds, while others have devoted amazing ingenuity to channeling and heating water and devising special chemicals that make cleaning these surfaces and utensils easier. Some people wash their own dishes, while others have devised complex social transactions that result in “servants” of various sorts doing the cleanup. There are even electric dishwashing machines, and if that’s not supernatural, nothing is.

At the same time, who cares? We eat. If we do it right, we are nourished, we don’t get sick, and we don’t have to devote too much of our energy to doing it. Fine china, beautiful silverware, exotic spices, gourmet recipes, all these are lovely if they don’t cost us too much.

From a perspective of understanding, the magick of getting what we want tends to merge disappointingly into what we like to call “technology,” our ancillary crafts, and its appeal seems less bright, if no less useful, from this point of view.

There is also magick of the will – the art of being able to decide cleanly. Each of us is full of ambivalence. We want a thousand contradictory things, consciously, semi-consciously, entirely unconsciously. Magick of the will aligns and balances all those conflicting desires so that you can choose consistently and effectively to achieve a given end.

Will is an elusive magick that varies radically from person to person. Like music, painting or writing, it can be taught, but like any art, it is based on talent and taste. It is practiced by every successful person in the world, although few would regard it as magick. The ability to choose consistently and well, at least within a narrow focus, is essential to success in almost every undertaking.

There are easy ways to achieve will. Some of the peskiest and most disruptive of our desires are ethical and emotional. Simply by suppressing these, you can become much more effectively decisive. Fortunately, few people want to pay that price. Indeed, it may be that no one has the resources to pay that price, except by foolish borrowing.

Will is like health. Many of us are blessed with it initially, but to keep it takes luck, attention and good habits. Many of the disciplines of what we narrowly refer to these days as “magick” can be helpful, but plenty of people who have never used the word are masters of will magick.

Finally, there is magick of the spirit, the magick of listening to the quiet voices. This is a magick that is easy to lose in modern life. Plenty of atheist engineers and salesmen may be better sorcerers or better at will magick than you or I, but few of them have found a way to meet their spiritual needs.

Following Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, many of us have come to see the roots of our spiritual yearnings sinking deep into our unconscious minds, down among primal cultural artifacts and almost universal archetypes. Whether they re-emerge on the other side of the unconscious into an astral reality is a philosophical question, not a practical one. After all, satisfying the deep yearnings of your unconscious mind is important whether or not you want to believe that the spiritual world is “real.” Lots of people know that it is, and lots of other people know it isn’t, but I don’t like the question.

I’m very clear that something really happens when I give myself over to magick of the spirit. It happens often, particularly if I make the effort to let it. It happens in loving sex just about every time. It happens at the oddest moments. It happens in meditation, speaking with a goddess or a god. But particularly, it happens when I connect to the spirits of place, of the earth.

Sitting on the ragged stones at the edge of the sea watching patterns in the water, crouched with my back to a rock high in the mountains, listening to the songs of the wind, standing among the old trees in a forest glade feeling rain on my face, I find myself lost in wonder. Minutes pass when I am far, far away. I come back changed. My yearning is answered and affirmed. These are moments of pure magick for me. I don’t know what happens, but I know it’s important. It doesn’t have to do with getting some specific thing I want or honing my will; it has to do with receiving some kind of deep sustenance.

This magick of spirit goes well beyond our wisdom.

Water Magick – Magickal Baths

Magickal Baths

Most Witches partake in magickal bathing. A magickal bath is considered important for cleansing the spirit, the same way regular bathing is for cleansing the body. Magickal baths work best by candlelight, with herbal, oil, and/or salt additions, corresponding to the need. You can also use magickal bathing to allow the water to work on you and impart some of its wisdom to you, through your immersion in it. In this manner, a magickal bath can be used for spell casting.

Afternoon Devotion

New Age Comments & Graphics 

Afternoon Devotion

 Dear Mother, my eternal companion, as I

gaze toward the midday sun, tears of joy

well up in my eyes. In everything I see–

the trees, the blue skies, the birds in the

air–I see your beauty and love. 

 

Thank you for calling me to the Wiccan

Way. Thank you for giving me my life.

Thank you for being my eternal mother.

I love you! 

Blessed Be


~Magickal Graphics~

Daily Motivator for April 14th – Real richness

Real richness

You are rich beyond all measure. Yet the only wealth you experience is the wealth you accept and acknowledge and make purposeful use of.

If you feel you are impoverished it is not because you are impoverished. It is because you refuse to see and to participate in your great fortune.

The way the world defines wealth is trivial and inconsequential compared to the immense richness of your life. Wake up to this priceless moment and to the true and boundless value in which you are immersed.

There is no limit to the number of possibilities. There is no end to the beauty.

As big as the biggest problems may seem, they are nothing when compared to the positive possibilities. Those possibilities connect you to every good thing you could ever imagine.

Focus your awareness on what is good, on what is right, and on the great fortune that is your existence. Live the real richness that is now.

— Ralph Marston

The Daily Motivator

Tools of Witchcraft

Tools of Witchcraft

Some tools like the boline, cauldron or mortar and pestle serve entirely functional uses, but in addition to practicality, witches’ tools are also magickal tools–tools that are perceived as radiating their own magick power. Different tools radiate different energies. Individual tools express specific spells and rituals, for instance candles radiate the power of fire.

Among the ways of determine what type of power a tool radiates is to consider what kind of materials are used in it creation. Thus a wooden magick wand places the power of trees into the hands of it wielder. Sometimes this is obvious, sometimes the radiant energy is more subtle. The concept of gazing into a crystal ball derived from gazing into the moon. A crystal ball essentially brings the moon inside and enable you to access lunar magick anytime not just during the Full Moon. The moon is identified with water and women. These associations have passed on to the crystal ball, which is perceived as radiating feminine, watery energy.

Female and male energies, yin and yang, are considered the most powerful radiant energies on Earth. Unifying these male and female forces provides the spark for creation, and what is a magick spell after all but an act of creation? Instead of a new baby, ideally new possibilities, solutions, hopes, and outcomes are born from each magick spell.

A high percentage of magickal tools radiate male or female powers. Many tools represent the unification of these forces. Earth’s most ancient religions venerated the sacred nature of the human genitalia, representing male and female generative power.

Sacred spiritual emblems evolved into tools of witchcraft. Many magickal tools now hide in the kitchen disguised as ordinary kitchen utensils including sieves, pots and cauldrons, cups and chalices, mortar and pestles, knives, dinner bells and most famously, the broom. To some extent this parallels the hidden history of women: once worshipped or at least respected as goddesses, priestesses, and community leaders, for centuries (and in some circles) women were perceived as the weaker, less intelligent, meek gender, fit for little other than preparing meals. Women’s old tools of power lurked in the kitchen with them. In recent years, however, witches and their tools have emerged from their broom closets to reveal their long suppressed powers.

In fact many tools serve dual uses: few ancient people had the variety or quantity of possessions that many take for granted today. The average kitchen witch of not that long ago made magick with whatever was at hand. She didn’t have a catalog of wares to choose from. Rare, precious items were treasured but, by definition, these were accessible to only a very few.

One cauldron served a family purposes: from creating nutritious soup of concocting healing brews to crafting magick potions. The mortar and pestle ground up herbs materials for whatever purpose was currently needed: healing, magick or cooking. In a holistic world, purposes may not have been considered distinct in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) where medicinals are sometimes given via food. Edible, medicinal ingredients are prescribed and may contain magickal protective elements as well.

Necromancy for Today

Necromancy for Today
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Author: Bluethorn

A truth of this divination can be found in many paths of the world, yet for myself I have discovered a way of bringing forth what lies in this realm from within. Although perhaps thought of when the implication of ‘within’ is stated as solely useable by the writer, in this case as in all cases of truth writing, this is not so and can be easily learned by anyone with patience and a true will for all things magick.

I state divination as magick because I feel that it is a power to be learned through true faith in its ideology, and because this power does not belong in the hands of the common mundane person.

Necromancy as a practice of spirit divination is something I will be explaining from my own personal account and of events that have taken place within one or more of my past incarnate lives.

As with all things magick in my life, I bring forth the spirit I seek from within myself, or I simply go to it, for I feel that although these methods perhaps do not follow what society tells us of necromancy, they are safe and practical.

First we must destroy within our minds this ridiculous idea that society has given us of what this divination is all about, there is no secret knowledge of an afterlife, no spirit knows more than you, no luck or special power can be called to serve you, and no spirit can be conjured up to do your bidding.

All beings of this world and beyond are contained within the same set of rules which apply to us as living entities and are with us at all times as we are all one with the world.

True necromancy is a divination of empowering the spirit of others into ourselves, of traveling in astral form through space and time to visit the carnate life of the spirit we take within. Indeed this power can be used in the same fashion to take our own spirit to this level, and reawaken the dormant past of our own previous lives, if we may wish so.

In most cases we find that the only things we can learn from within this magick are of lessons of pain, suffering and death, for all spiritual beings, which have died, have felt all of these things and more.

A great reason through for learning of these things is to prevent them from becoming our fate; for all beings of this world endure the most tragic of lessons in one or more of their lives, but to die and learn that lesson can bring forth a salvation of reliving that lesson ever again, in any of our reincarnations.

In the end; when all lessons of pain and suffering have been learned we are free to live a good life, far from any of these horrific things; yet to learn them is to experience them completely as they were learned by the spirit we take into us, that alone can be far too much for an unprepared person to conceive.

As an initiator of necromancy the preceding path is given solely as a construct for us to build upon, thankfully there are vast more pleasurable and positive aspects of life to be learned than there are of darker things. At the time when we have learnt of all that death can teach us, the spirit world no longer holds the barring darkness of pain out for us, and we can now be taught the rest, if we may so wish it.

A problem I see with taking this beyond where we are is that if a lesson of peace or love for instance is learned then we will not spend a lifetime enjoying and learning of it, as many of the goodly lessons take entire lifetimes (sometimes more) to learn.

If one was to say ‘what occurs when all lessons have been learned?’ a simple answer is that they truthfully have not, for in the end, the final lesson is to dissipate and be reborn as a new spirit, and simply to begin learning once again from scratch.

At this time I suppose that all sounds quite theoretical, yet you will see and begin to understand the reasoning I have for writing all of this soon enough if you can continue to read on under your own free will to the following sections.

Beyond the Theoretical 1 –

History tells us of many people who have delved within the realm of Necromancy, written of conjuration and selfish gain from such a thing, yet just like all history it is written solely with lies and hardly ever sparks any remote truth. A truth is that these people spoken of in most cases were very close to death, they believed this to be an ending extreme of magick, all looked inward on them selves as if it would be a bad or evil thing to work this divination.

In a world of manifesting reality such a thing became so for them, and perhaps a spirit did manifest and carry them away, yet it was not due to the divinatory aspects of what they did, it was due to their fear which manifested for them.

No great demon or throng of demonic spirit will appear if you can understand the reality and truth of nature, that being that these things do not exist unless we give them power to do so.

A great magick user could create such a reality if bent on doing so a lot easier than a thousand weak folk believing in a Hell, for this reason it is safe to practice such a thing if taken from the self if we follow the truth of it.

Not to say that magick of within is weaker, simply that when we learn it properly there no longer exists anything to protect ourselves from, as it is entirely from us, and not ‘borrowed’ from elsewhere.

In its entirely, the self is never ending and borderless with no limitation or barring rules to hold us back, it is the elements united, the path of the Stars, the day and the night, and all things great or small of all realms, for within us is a mirroring of all the great patterns and strengths of the world.

Drawing of power from within yields us the same result as without (or from some object or tool), except that since it is from within we have absolute control and understanding of it, and so in actuality our results are far more potent and can be indefinitely more powerful if we wish them to be.

I believe that a wondrous aspect of self magick is that we require no preparation, circle, candle, wand, or anything of that sort for there is no conduit beyond us, and no fear of failure, resulting in absolute dominance of our minds and magick with no doubt available whatsoever.

What doubt could arrive if we remove all tools and variables that could hinder anything from occurring? Without a doubt or deterrence we are free to live however we may wish, if this path draws us into learning then Necromancy is a tool which we can utilize for such self education.

Although self education may seem pointless in a world where a piece of paper is more substantial than an intellectual mind, when we see the true knowledge and begin to learn of it, there is no longer a cause to worry about such papers, as you become empowered with what it takes to succeed on your own terms.

No one educated by society is ever remembered as unique or as an innovator, it is when they tear away from society and grasp reality that they become great and empowered with what it really takes to shine in this world. Perhaps it may sound illogical to state that self knowledge can be learnt through a method of empowering the self with the spirit of others, but in actuality this path is self knowledge because the spirit world around us is one with us, unlike what people write in books with the idea of making money.

Arguably as the idea of learning or writing text books to actually teach goes, from those who write such things it may seem that their intent is to teach and they are rewarded with money, yet the reality of it is that these people would not write them if no one would read their work. No publisher would pay anyone to write anything that no one would read or buy, and so textbooks for classroom education would not be written.

With this idea in mind we can now see that all modern written learning instruments of our society exist solely to make money, and therefore self education is far more pure and enlightening path to follow. Self-education is a path of learning what we must know for ourselves, as we only learn what we care about and what is meaningful to us, as opposed to a bunch of useless facts to ‘plump up’ a book for publication, solely to meet page quotas.

Learn of this magick for yourself and you will be rewarded with the confidence and power to change the entire world around you for the better, and the prosperity of your life will easily become evident.

Beyond the Theoretical 2 –

True Necromancy begins as any form of divination, with a unification of the source you are working with, to drive a shade of that medium upon yourself. Although when many think of Necromancy they automatically think of graveyards, cemeteries and crypts, yet in reality death is all around us, most evidential in the Fall when crops die and trees go to sleep.

In the Spring or Summer it is difficult to utilize a Necromantic approach as the world is being reborn and living, yet it is not impossible to attain a shroud of death upon yourself. Essentially death is the reformation of the body to the Earth construct to which it began, by the removal of the Water, Fire, and eventually Air from the body, leaving only the Earth to rest, or to begin again.

It is essential to note that places of earthly magnificence are empowered by the initiating construct and prime to necromantic endeavor, since they contain little to none of the empowering elements.

Perhaps interesting to note that most spiritual seekers in the world find their answers in places most devoid of light (Fire), motion (Water) and of a sort of dank or stagnant Air formation, for in these places there is no great spiritual presence over any other except for that of the Earth.

In Necromancy there are many approaches that work successfully and I will explain a few of them briefly, including a few negative or positive aspects of each.

1. To become as the dead and take upon yourself this shroud is to remove much of the elements from yourself as possible. By not eating we remove energy and become weak (no Fire), by not drinking we move the Water, eventually we will find shortness of breath and lose the Air as well. A bad part of this is that it may be difficult to recover if we have not worked with elemental empowerment in the past, and by becoming so close to the Earthly construct we could die.

2. We could remove the elements from our surroundings and create within our rooms an aura of stagnant death that could then open up a greater presence of spiritual awareness. Doing so may include things like closing the blinds to your room, not touching anything for a long time or visiting it at all, closing all air vents and removing the production of any circulation in the air, creating a sense of how it would be like to visit a crypt type environment. A drawback of this is that it might take weeks to prepare, and leave lasting effects within your home such as odors or terrible air conditions.

3. You could visit a crypt at a cemetery, or a place that has been undisturbed for many months or years to work your Necromantic practice. A major set back I see of this is that divination goes hand in hand with meditation or trance work of this level, and may render you motionless for hours straight. The deeper you go the easier it becomes to get engrossed in its power and lose connection with your physical self for great periods of time. When experienced with this work however it becomes easier to regain your stature and return to your physical manifestation if the needs arise, however to begin with this is highly difficult.

4. A practice, which I utilize, is the containment of an aura of Earth within me through the elemental world, in this we awaken our senses to feel and see the aura around us, and replace our current aura wit hone of the Earth. I have written much of this in other guides however and do not feel it to be a necessity to go far beyond the scope of this topic. If you wish to draw upon the power of the elemental auras then I would insist that you explore those sections on the rest of my website.

Beyond the Theoretical 3 –

The bonding of the self towards a necromantic approach can be seen in each of these, some can be combined with others, as can easily be seen by reading them over. Basically the idea is to become at a point where the spirit world of the dead (or construct of the Earth), can enter our bodies through an astral or elemental channel. If we succeed in the attainment of this connection we will become as the spirit is, free from the physical and elevated beyond the ethereal plane, in a form of trance we will have attained the connection we require.

After this connection has been established it will be quite easy to travel or call upon elements of the spirit world for we will be quite similar to how it manifests upon the astral plane we are now part of. Although theoretics yield us the fundamentals we require there is an aspect of divine magick, which we must utilize, for it is not simply enough to walk within a place of spiritual awareness and become part of it, and so I will write of the steps I take.

The following however is my personal account of such a thing and as a personal path of self empowerment, it works for me because I have brought it forth from within myself and so it may perhaps not work for many others, yet the fundamentals are there to learn of.

The Drawing of Power –

From within the Earth a power of the spirit lingers, drawn by the will to contend with the people of magick to unite its ways with those of the living. As one with us all it is in a sense already with us, yet to draw on its power for an awakening to its nature we must empower ourselves with its manifestation. In the ways to which we would draw the power of the element of Earth within us, we will follow the path to this end as well, for as it is a unification with the Earth in a basic sense anyway.

The drawing of Earth power comes up and into us from our base just as the Earth to plant life occurs, beginning at our feet it travels up to our base and spread through us from there. At the time the power reaches our mind, it also reaches our hands and fingers, and so the unity of the mind to a conduit of physical transference is now reached.

If this is done in a place of death as prepared above, the spirit of the Earth will come within, instead of the element of Earth, and thus empowering us with the spirit. Assurance that it is a spirit of the dead comes by chanting something along the lines of:

“Bring forth a spirit whose death I haven’t known,
Empower me with a life to which I have yet been shown”

Of course this is a simple chant, yet it works all well for me, run it through your mind and voice as you begin, until you can no longer think of these words, as they are part of you.

These are my words and yet they may work for everyone, I’m not entirely sure, they rhyme solely because I find them easier to remember the deeper into this work I get, and just as this is, all things of this world will blur and eventually disappear the deeper you get into your trance.

There is of course more preparation, which must come into play to ensure true results beyond simply selecting a place, and calling some words, for most people’s minds are far too skeptical for this to work without some kind of persuasion.

We will create that persuasion through further drawing the shroud of death around us, in the end though this ‘buffer of persuasion” will no longer be required as we will never doubt it again.

Persuading the Mind 1 –

To persuade anything in our society into the minds of the skeptical we must create a manifestation of its attributes in a physical manner so that an understanding can occur. Many years ago this was not so, as people believed in many more things than today, nevertheless thought we can create a shroud of persuasion which will alter our perceptions into seeing and believing a truth of magick. Altered perception comes when we have enveloped all five primary senses to states where they can see, hear, smell, touch and taste a thing; in this case the spiritual manifestation of death.

1. Sight is perhaps the easiest of senses to persuade and the most awakening for its power to convince us of a thing almost in its self draws what we need. I think it is humorous to note that society has blinded us so much to what reality actually is that all we have to do is remove that blindness and restore our natural sight, yet for now we will use what we already believe as truth to persuade our sense of sight.

To allow a room to go untouched for a long period of time usually draws a blanket of cover over the air to produce a sort of ‘fog’ by casting odd shadows and interrupting our sense of sight from crystal clarity is a good step in the proper direction. Such a thing produces a sense of reality, which our eyes cannot focus on, especially if we are tired or have overstrained our eyes, which is a thing we will work towards accomplishing.

Although many say that hallucination often yields things that are not true to be seen, for that is the definition of hallucination anyway, though if we attune ourselves to a state where such illusions would occur enough, they become reality.

Stating such a thing may be odd, yet once you experience it through your own eyes the shadow and lights will no longer play tricks on them and you will see past the foggy air and find your focus on the spirit world.

2. It may, to begin with, be difficult to hear what we must focus on to alter our perceptions of reality in a positive degree, yet if we learn to close off the worldly distractions of our hearing we will find a sense of peace. To open this sense in the proper degree we must concentrate on listening to the natural in the mundane world, for although it is difficult to understand, it does exist in such a way that if we listen, it will speak to us.

When we close our hearing to distraction we find that we can hear our heart beating and hear the air touching us, these things come naturally and are tools we can use to focus on. I believe that hearing and touch go hand in hand with one another, as most sound simply touches our inner ear to certain ways, and the product of such a thing is that we hear it.

If we concentrate in the proper ways we can elevate our sense of touch to magnify our hearing, in essence whatever we may touch, we will also hear. Beyond simply hearing what we touch, we can elevate the power of this unity to a state where we hear noth8ing with our ears, only with our touch, and through that we can further block the sound interference by going further and into a trance like state.

Within the deduction of touch and sound we find that the less we feel physically, the less we become within the physical world and the easier it becomes to leave our bodies towards the beyond. We are left now with how this is a persuasion, well to find the unity of touch and hearing is to bring forth what holds us back from our goal in two more of the five senses of persuasion, together with the reality we bring from our hallucinatory condition we will now be able to hear the spirit world calling to us, and since we can hear it, if we bring back our sense of touch in the same degree, we can touch or feel it as well.

3. I’ve always found a quite close relation between smell and taste, and so I will explain the persuasion of these together as well. In actuality I suppose that all five senses are closely related in many ways, yet to separate them as I have done here creates an easier sense of the persuasion we can use, opposed to trying them all at once. To persuade these two senses in the proper direction is as simple as entering a room of stagnant air with low circulation, it sort of catches us and lingers on our skin in a quite odd way.

Going beyond this if we go a day or two without washing our mouths then something eerie and stagnant is bound to elevate our senses automatically with no persuasion, if you so wish it. I’ve heard and read that the closer a person becomes to actual death, the better for this work, even to a point of wearing a dead person’s clothes, and laying down in their casket for a sleep (although even I wouldn’t go this far). I suppose a way of persuasion is what it takes in any degree, yet a stable mind, focused on the magick and path ahead is far more potent a path than many other dramatic forms of persuasion.

Persuading the Mind 2 –

Beyond these small amounts of tips and whatnot lies the actual atmosphere around you, if for instance you feel more empowered by this work on a night of great rain, thunder, and lightning; then use that night as well. All of these things however, center on the same ideas of awakening within yourself what society has taught for all of your days as being wrong and foolish to pursue.

The real problem I see with society is that it does not wish you to become your own person and actually succeed in the world if you are not of a certain minority group. Society cares nothing at all for the middleclass, white male who obeys ‘law’, pays his taxes, and who lives his life going to work or school everyday hoping to one day get a break.

Although these people are invisible to the society of today by not oppressing themselves like minority groups solely for attention in one way or another, they still exist, and in the end no matter what a person believes or doesn’t believe, the fact is that these humans are born and die; when they die they all lose their life empowering elements, and decompose in the same way back to the Earth.

The body does such a thing as this, and as far as all religions go, they do not touch on that aspect of the worldly truth, the spirit may go on; but seeing as the body is always to the Earth, there is always a way to bring back some part of it, as the connection will exist for all eternity.

With this truth known, and the persuasion of magick achieved we are free to begin actual magick from the self, meaning that we are the guiding power of our magick, and the only tool we require is our own body. Within this work however there lies a certain fear perhaps of dying or being lost in the spirit world, we will create a buffer which ties our spirits to our bodies, and a warning system which will deny anything beyond what we want from happening, we can do this because we will be in total control of our fate. The buffer which will tie our spirit to our body comes by bringing with you objects which elevate your senses of taste, smell and hearing to levels which your body will sense as recognition and be glad to awaken to, of course these objects will lay around you yet the deeper you become immersed in this magick, the weaker your senses become to the physical world when traveling beyond ourselves.

By remembering and yearning for such tastes, smells, and sounds; our body will pull us back to our physical self. The denial of unwanted actions from occurring will come naturally to us when we have achieved a state where we leave our bodies, for in the same way this magick occurred we will go backwards from where we stand and the borders of where we go will always be evident, simply by stepping beyond our border permits us to step back in the same way.

A hardship of this is that it is addictive, and the further we go, the further we will want to go beyond that, and the longer it will take us to return; at some point if we are not smart enough to follow the correct path back, we may become lost; and our bodies may shut down after months or years if we take it to that degree.

Awakening the Spirit –

When we have succeeded at persuading our minds to believe what truth we seek, and have brought the shroud of death upon us we are ready for the next step. It is difficult to explain for certain of how this works as many times I’ve tried to teach of magick I’ve been met with blank, drooling faces, yet I will write of this and hope it is understood, by a logical person who thinks on their own I’m sure it will be no problem.

Drawing the spirit of others within is in essence a path we utilize to draw our own spirit to surface and be taught and empowered with the spirits around it. Though the previous writing of this guide tells of leaving the body, these things are as one; for to leave the body is to enter the spirit world, which is as well to be united and to learn from other spirits of the realm.

To draw upon the power to do so from ourselves we must first find the power in the physical world and become along the same wavelength as it; them we can draw it up from below us, in through our feet and into our minds.

An important thing to note before we begin is that we must bring some forms of healthy life with us to our magick, for upon the return from deaths surface, we must draw that power and life back into us or we will not succeed in returning.

To raise our arms above us as the mimicking perhaps of a great tree is the formation we will use to draw this power through us; just as the roots absorb the spirit of the Earth below, so shall we, yet in this case it will not be a nourishing spirit but one of decay and death for that is how the Earth spirit exists in our atmosphere and state of mind which we have created.

We will feel the spirit of death pulling our spirit from us the further it gets within, we will become weaker physically and be forced to either sit or lay down the further we go, if we do not sit or lay of our own will then we will be thrown to the floor.

The further still that we go, the further from our bodies will our spirit become, to a point of seeing it from just outside the body, to a ways away, and eventually we will no longer see or feel anything.

We will still be aware of our surroundings though as in the spirit world our senses work through our mind, and not our bodies; having no physical form permits no touch to be felt as would occur in the physical world, yet everything else will feel identical. The things will feel identical even to the point of walking upright on a solid ground (although this is simply how our minds perceive the spirit world).

The spirits we may come across in the spirit realm will be of a style towards which we would see ourselves, walking, interacting and speaking, just in the same fashion we would interact with one another. Having died perhaps in different ways, to speak with such spirits could create many quite unstable results.

Although it may seem as if we are merely speaking to them, the reality is that the spirit world manifests solely for us in our minds, and our perceptions have given us a resemblance of our physical world. In speaking or interacting to any point is to draw the spirit from our manifestation of the realm and into ourselves, upon doing so we find our experiences first hand of the lessons or knowledge that we seek.

In many ways we will not be aware of this interaction beyond speaking within the spirit world, yet upon our return to the physical we will be flooded with images, thoughts, feelings, and dreams of what the spirit we spoke with was teaching us. Within the spirit world we will have to face ourselves to separate from our spirit guide, to return to ourselves this can occur simply as saying “thank you” and walking away, when the release is accomplished and the spirit walks away in our manifest reality, it is leaving us in the physical world and our senses of elevation will be most evident to return to our bodies.

If this does not occur then simply waiting will tire our bodies eventually and pull us back with a guiding path to return with, if we disobey this path back and do not follow our senses of return then we may become lost, and join the realm with our own lessons to teach.

A Return –

Bringing forth the path of return from the spirit world is to essentially drive our spirit from the spirit realm back to our bodies. This can be tricky if not done properly for if we stay away too long in our awkward state, we may suffer brain or body damage and be forced to live with that unless we can heal ourselves.

A way to protect ourselves from having this occur is by keeping many living things of power close to us so when we leave our bodies, the living and positive energies will be available to heal us if we are gone and are unaware of what is occurring. Plants and caged animals serve this purpose well of staying near to us, as will certain large amounts of water in unmoving conditions, candles on surfaces where they will burn out before they set ablaze, and perhaps a window with sunlight or moonlight showing.

Things of living nature are essentially what we want for the spirit world is far from nature, and so nature will ease our return to our bodies as well as provide the nourishment we need to survive without our spirit. After the return to our bodies has taken place it is most essential to drink much water, to warm ourselves and to breathe fresh air, in essence to re-empower ourselves with the elements we have drawn out.

These techniques can of course be modified to suit anyone of any degree, and so just as this writing comes from myself, so will it from you if successfully achieved. If it has not worked then you are simply too attached to what society deems true, and when that falsehood leaves you, your results will be far more positive.

LOVE SPELLS (1)

LOVE SPELLS

You will need 1 red candle and some crystals to lay on your alter. It is best if you have something to
symbolize the person you want to attract such as a picture to lay under your candle. Turn off all lights
so that the only light is from the flame of the candle. Then repeat three times:
” I call on the forces higher than I, to awaken the dreams that I hold inside through this connection that
knows my need I ask for love’s enchantment with all speed….. may this work for me in the most correct
way attracting the love I need today…. I call on thee in perfect love and trust working with me sending
what’s just harming none and helping all is how it shall be this I make true 3 times 3 times 3″
After repeating three times blow out all candles and imagine the one you love.

BINDING SPELL TO KEEP A SECRET

BINDING SPELL TO KEEP A SECRET

This should be used to prevent someone from giving away a secret. It is a form of sympathetic
Magick. A clay or wax figure may be used, or a clothe poppet (voodoo doll). In the ritual it is named
for the person whom it represents. Then, with appropriate word, the witch takes a needle threaded
with a twenty-one inch length of red silk, and sews up the mouth of the figure. She finishes off by
winding the thread all around the body of the figure. The concentration is on the fact that the person
is unable to speak on the forbidden subject – whatever the secret may be that is being safeguarded.
At the end of the ritual the poppet is stored away in a safe place, wrapped in a piece of white cloth.
So long as the thread remains in place, the person represented is bound.

Magick Powder Potions

Magick Powder Potions

Magick powder potions are easy to make as most of them require no cooking. Make these by finely grinding up the ingredients listed in the powder potion recipes. Use your mortar and pestle and also your fingers to crush the ingredients. The whole time you are grinding the ingredient focus on your magical goal as it is essential to empower the ingredients. Always grind clockwise.

You can also purchase ingredients that are already ground up. If you do so, be sure to get in touch with the ingredients by running them through your fingers as you concentrate on empowering them. See and sense the magick powder potion working exactly the way your intended.

To use the magick powder potion, simply sprinkle it to release its power. As you are sprinkling it, be sure to focus on your magical goal. You can sprinkle magic powder potions in a clockwise circle around you, beginning and ending in the North or you cans sprinkle the powder in certain magical shapes, for example, a love powder can be sprinkled in a heart shape. You can also sprinkle magick potion powders on your altar, around altar candles, and on crystals and gemstones. Again, it is your intent and focus as you empower the potion ingredients and sprinkle them that really gets the magick flowing.

Nine Easy Steps for Making A Magick Potion

Nine Easy Steps for Making A Magick Potion

 
 
1. Gather together all the ingredients you will need to make the potion. Light a candle if you like, matching its color and dedication to your potion’s purpose. Be sure to place your candle(s) near your working surface as a focusing tool, but not in the way.
 
2. Draw a magick circle around your working area. For example, if you are working in the kitchen, draw a magick circle around the entire room.
 
3. Call in the elemental powers to your circle. A shorthand method for doing this is by saying something like:
 
“I ask that the generous powers of earth, air, fire, and water come into this circle. Come I pray you!”
 
4. Call in spirit, the Divine, into your circle by saying something like:
 
“May the Divine Ones enter into this circle and bless this potion with their Divine power.”
 
5. Next, empower the potion ingredients.
 
6. Make the potion.
 
7. Empower the potion once more with a magickal incantation, and then use it immediately as suggested.
 
8. Thank the elements and spirit.
 
9. Pull up the magick circle and put everything away.

What Is Magick

What Is Magick

 

I suppose I could ramble on for quite some time about what Magick of Wicca, Witches and Witchcraft is or is not. Instead, I will offer this brief writing I found somewhere. Unfortunately I cannot remember where I came across it or who the author was, but I thought it was clear, concise and to the point. It very simply dispels everything that some religions, old superstitions and of course Hollywood have tried to make people believe magick is.

Magick is finding your connection to the Earth and all that is natural, alive and moving in the universe! It binds all that exists together.

Magick is living in balance with the flow of life, and knowing that you are a vital force within that flow. Magick is everywhere! In the trees, rain, stars, and in the sea. It is the spark that quickens a seed to rise up from the soil.

Magick is laughter, joy, wonder and truth the of the world around us!

It is the subtle enchantment that reminds us not to waste a single moment of this gift that we call life! Magick is not greed, or power, or pretense…It is real. It exists. And it works.

Magick is the mystery that lies in the secret soul of the world. It is the essence of creation. What we imagine, we have the power to create!

MAGICK IS WITHIN YOU…

With it you can create your dreams, heal your world, love your life and find the peace that lives in every human heart.

Author Unknown

How Bad Kitty and Her Family Do Magickal Spring Cleaning

How Bad Kitty and Her Family Do Magickal Spring Cleaning

by L. Lisa Harris

The sun shone in every window making the entire house buzz with energy, newly alive and vibrant. The “warm” spring breeze floated through the open windows and doors, cleansing, purifying, and transforming the mini blinds into a worthy opponent for our self-proclaimed house guardian, Sabrina — also known as “Bad Kitty” — who was intently doing battle with “the enemy.” I felt new life and energy in the air and was ready to take on the world myself. Even the plants looked happy. It was time for Spring Cleaning.

“What are you doing with all the windows open? Are you crazy? It’s 50 degrees outside, It’s freezing in here!” cried my loving, yet obviously distressed spouse when he returned home from running errands.

He was still put out by the fact that we had taken a vacation day off–while the kid was in school–to enjoy a day of skiing, and there had not been enough snow to make it worth the drive. He had resigned himself to Chinese take-out, a video, and cuddling on the couch, only to come home and find his crazy wife dancing around the house like an idiot on an obvious “chai high” to boot.

Noticing that I had included incense, salt, herbs and essential oils with my cleaning arsenal, he said, “You’re doing witch stuff, aren’t you?”

I thought that was a keen observation coming from a man who thinks it’s amusing that he sleeps in the same room with an altar containing, among other things, a seven-inch “dagger.” He resigned himself to grabbing a comforter and curling up on the couch while I started my routine. He would have yet another interesting tale to tell the guys at work about his eccentric, dangerous life filled with daggers and the threat of hypothermia.

I have many seasonal routines, but none as important–or noisy–as spring-cleaning. It has always been important for me to clean magickally as well as physically. As usual, I started out this time with open windows so that all the mold, dust, cooking odors and yucky energy from seasonal depression, colds and other nasty stuff that builds up over the winter can escape.

After another cup of chai, I proceeded to dance around the house beating my drum, made a second trip with my tambourine to stir up all the old, stagnant energy, and to recharge any latent good energy that might have taken the winter off. I have recently added an element of ceremonial magick borrowed from a friend’s tradition, by doing a very cool banishing pentagram. This particular banishing ends with a dramatic “fencers lunge,” athamé at the ready, and the words: “Trouble not the servants of the gods!” I say this forcefully, like I really mean it.

The cat and hubby stopped what they were doing, took a moment to consider those words and then went about their business.

Consecrating and purifying the house with the elements is also part of the ritual. I walked around the house with each element in turn, incense for Air, a candle for Fire, my chalice for Water, and kosher salt for earth, sprinkling or waving it around as needed.

“Why don’t you ever use the chalice I got you for Yule?” came a voice from under the comforter.

“Because, it’s in my porta-witch-kit for public ritual honey.” I answered back.

Satisfied that his gift was appreciated, he returned his attention to his movie.

A simple chant for each element seems to help the process along, something like “I consecrate this house with the element of Air…” This time, I was in the mood to chant for all of them: “Fire, Water, Earth and Air, we call you to this place. Fire, Water, Earth and Air, to help create a sacred space.” This chant stirred up quite a bit of energy, as evidenced by Bad Kitty abandoning her battle with the dreaded mini blinds, then chasing me around the house swatting at me, adding the ringing of her little collar bell to the task at hand.

Next I turned my attention to the houseplants and the nature spirits that inhabit them. I brought each plant down from the shelf, removed dead or damaged leaves and cleaned the remaining leaves. Any plant that needed repotting was taken care of, and they were all fed, watered, and talked to.

My 11 ½-year-old daughter got home from school in time to see the kitchen counters and floor covered in leaves, potting soil and other debris.

“I hope you don’t expect me to clean that up!” she said with a disgusted and indignant look on her face.

“No, but I do expect you to clean your room. It’s spring cleaning day.”

She rolled her eyes as only an adolescent girl can, resigning herself to the fact that when I’m on a roll, there’s no point in trying to argue. She headed off to the wilds of her room, but just before her final, dramatic exit, she tossed her head and said accusingly, “You guys had Chinese food without me.”

The kitty was not brave enough to follow.

Next, it was the standard tasks: mopping, dusting, laundry and vacuuming that most folks consider a “normal” spring-cleaning, with a few modifications. I have an herb mixture, using the “nine time nine protects thee and mine” formula–any nine protection herbs will do–that I use for protection spells. I sprinkled it on the carpet as a sort of “Pagan Carpet Fresh,” prior to vacuuming.

I add cedar and rosemary oil, as well as salt, to all my cleaning solutions to magickally charge them. This is also added to the laundry when I wash all the bed linens and towels.

When cleaning the bathroom, I visualize any negative energy going down the drains when rinsing the sinks and tubs. I save the real “yucky stuff” to power flush down the toilet.

By this time, hubby was happily dusting the bookshelves and doing a little dance of his own. It’s amazing what a cup of chai and some magick will do to lift one’s spirits.

The next thing I knew, the girl emerged from the “Room of No Return” with a triumphant look on her face.

“Mom! Did you know that I have a floor?” She was positively beaming.

After the cleaning was done, I walked through the house reciting the initial house blessing chant I used when we first bought and moved into the place. I thanked the nature spirits that live in the house, and the green man who guards our front door.

Later that night, we all snuggled on the couch in front of the fire feeling well fed after an enormous spaghetti dinner, quite pleased with our efforts. Bad Kitty lay purring in our laps and the whole house had a new, vital energy about it. The entire family agreed that the cleaning ritual was a worthwhile project and made us all feel better. They “got” the magickal spring-cleaning ritual.

Now if I can just get them to understand why I run around the yard barefoot, in my bathrobe in the first big snowfall of the season yelling, “Woo hoo! Snow day, snow day, no work or school day” to thank the gods, or why I paint my toenails red every year at Imbolc, we’ll be on our way to true family understanding.

Powering Up the Circle

Powering Up the Circle

by George D. Jackson

One of the problems I have become aware of in our community is the low level of power we raise in the circles we cast. I have noticed this mainly through listening to and reading a litany of complaints from various practitioners in several magickal paradigms. At first I thought perhaps this problem was just in these people’s perception, but after inquiries among some long-time magickal practitioners in the region, I have found that these people are not alone in this observation. I also found a number of our fellows out there seeking solutions.

Several reasons exist why we may be having difficulty in raising high levels of power within our circles. Sometimes, low power levels in public rituals are deliberate so as to shield neophytes from psychic overload. I have some reservations concerning this, as I was originally drawn to my magickal paradigm by feeling the power present in a series of semipublic circles.

Another significant reason for lack of power is that some of us come from the major religious paradigms where group activities were performed in a follow-the-leader type of approach and the magickal dynamics were never explained. The leader of these activities probably had some concept concerning the methods being used to unite consciousness, but he sure wasn’t going to call them magickal. Also, any power that was raised was directed to the benefit of the religious organization involved. The congregation, powerwise, was left in a dead zone and just accepted that as normal. Because people learn from experience and many magick users go from major religions to being solitary practitioners, attendance of public magickal rituals with low power levels was not remarked on.

Another reason why there are difficulties in raising power in the group environment is connected to the personal psychological defense screens that most of us have installed in our individual subconscious minds over the course of our lives. These are necessary for us to go on with our day-to-day lives without being overwhelmed by outside forces. However, many of us don’t know how to lower these screens when the need comes about. The following is an exercise that can give the individual magick user the ability to drop her or his screens at Will when the circumstances warrant it.

This exercise includes a method used in the Huna (Hawaiian magick) paradigm. It involves using a pendulum to talk to your “basic self,” otherwise known as your subconscious mind. The Huna approach considers an individual as a gestalt entity consisting of three selves existing in the physical body. The middle self is the conscious analytical mind, tasked with aiding the evolution of the basic self as well as its own; the high and basic selves are both contained in the collective unconscious. The high self is the most evolved and is the source of individual power; the basic self is primal and is the source of emotion, as well as storing all memory, processing environmental items into energy and running the autonomic nervous system. It is also the conduit between the high and middle self, and as such it needs to be educated.

The materials needed for this exercise are a pendulum and a piece of paper with a circle drawn on it and a cross within the circle. The first thing one needs to do is set up the parameters of the operation. Suspending the pendulum over the center of the circle by finger and thumb, you tell your basic self that forward and back is “yes” and side to side is “no.” Around the circle is “I don’t know.” Now ask your subconscious to show you yes, no and I don’t know.

Once this agreement is set in place, you are ready to proceed. Holding the pendulum over the circle, you tell your basic self to lower its barriers and allow outside energy to flow through you. You then ask your subconscious if it understands this command and will comply. When it answers “yes,” reward it by telling it how much you approve of this decision.

This exercise is designed to be performed by two or more people who have learned to drop their barriers. The people involved join hands and command their basic selves to drop their barriers and allow the energy flow. Power flows into the right hand and out of the left. It should be cycled at least three times or until one can feel the tingle or surge passing through them. Practitioners can then direct the accumulated power into the center of the group and use it to perform operations agreed on before the gestalt (the whole that is greater than the sum of the parts) was formed. Alternatively, the power can be directed outward to form a cone of power. Once the group’s goals are accomplished, be sure to ground the power and raise the pre-existing personal barriers. This kind of work is a temporary magickal bonding. If it is not dissolved at the end of the ritual, you are going to leave with more than you planned on.

Like most worthwhile things, this exercise takes a period of practice. Once it becomes commonly used, it becomes second nature. One thing it does is allow the user to rate the levels of energy in any circle the user participates in. When among close associates, it allows for a lot of fine-tuning. I use this in my “Path of the Adept” magick course, and my students are strong!

Strengthen Your Magick by Learning Your Personal Color Key

Strengthen Your Magick by Learning Your Personal Color Key

by Melanie Fire Salamander

As I write, the deep green-blue of earliest dawn fades to clear royal blue, which lifts to a hovering grey that turns peach-yellow. Goddess Aurora, the herald of the sun, washes the east with color as every day begins.

For the sighted, color defines the first visual experiences of life. Before we see shapes, we see dappled colors moving before our infant eyes. From these shifting colors, the forms and the meanings of our lives come into focus.

Yet often, pagans take the color meanings for our magick from tables of correspondences. The rich traditional associations for color can certainly help drive your workings. But to work my own color magick, I have found it useful to discover the color meanings that already lie in my own deep symbol-speaking subconscious — the personal meanings that my deep self has accumulated for each color over my lifetime, and perhaps before. My teachers and my own work have shown me that the deep self is one of the main drivers of magick, and I find that my deep color resonances affect what my magick brings me. You too will probably discover that what your deep self associates with each color has resonances that affect your magick.

To discover your own personal meanings for colors, try the simple meditation following.

Color Meditation

1. Choose the colors you want to meditate on. For my work, I chose five: orange, green, red, yellow and blue.

2. Find a pure, unpatterned example of each color. I worked with sheets of colored construction paper, but use whatever you have handy, for example magazine pictures or plastic color gels. For best results, choose unmixed colors, without too much black or white muddying or clouding the tone. I chose colors that were all of similar intensity.

3. Cut a medium-sized, rectangular swatch of each color, say about five inches tall and three inches wide.

4. Set up your space for meditation. Find a comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed; take the phone off the hook and if necessary shut out your pets. Make sure an even light falls where you will place each color swatch, so you get the best visual image of each.

5. Set the first color swatch at easy eye-level for meditation, and set the others so that they’re ready to trade for the first swatch.

6. Ground, center and get into light trance.

7. Meditate on each color swatch in turn for five to ten minutes, enough time that you feel that you’ve worked through all the meanings your deep self has to bring forward for you. Write down your results, if you so desire.

My Results

One reason I’m glad I performed this meditation is that I didn’t always get what I expected from each color, as you’ll see.

Orange, I found, raised my energy immediately. It made me feel tense and nervous; the feeling was intense and unpleasant. That didn’t throw me, but I was a little surprised at how quickly I felt the energy change and how negative it was, because when just looking at the color I liked it.

Green also changed my energy level immediately and strongly — I felt a strong, pleasurable sexual sensation in my groin, most intense about the level of my ovaries. The color warmed me up physically, and I felt an almost smug pleasure. I had an image of the woods and thought of the god Pan. I felt horny, but not for anyone specifically — just that energy, without an object. I’ve found that green correspondingly works for me in love and sex magick. (Note that, for best karmic results, it’s best not to work love or sex magick to change another person’s will, but rather work to let the universe bring you your best partner or partners, whomever that may be.) Orange and green were probably the biggest energy changers of all for me.

Red wasn’t as intense for me as green or orange. I felt a slight headache, and a change of emotion rather than a strong change in physical energy. The emotion I felt was one of yearning or longing, not so much mine as of an ancient tragedy. I had an image of smoke over a battlefield, and I thought of the goddess the Morrigan. That was interesting to me, because I’ve always consciously associated red with love: Valentine hearts.

Yellow was moderately intense, more so than red, not as much as green or orange. I liked yellow. It raised my energy in a positive way, made me feel cheerful and made me smile. I thought of grassy lanes in sunlight.

Blue I found trancing; it had a reverberatory effect. It didn’t change my energy as the other colors had, because blue had for me the same deep thrumming energy as meditation itself. Blue did intensify and deepen my meditation, and I felt it strongly in my heart chakra. Its strength was on a par with yellow.

Your Own Work

You don’t have to work with the same colors I did, of course. Try meditating on the colors that you like best or that repel you, and find out why you react that way. If you like, you can use meditation to clear a color of negative meanings — simply bring that color up in your mind’s eye and run neutral cleansing energy through it until its energy changes. When visualizing color, I have found it best to work with transparent colors; if you find muddiness or cloudiness in a color you’re working with, try running cleansing energy through it. Check in with colors over time — you may find that their meanings change for you.

Once you know your personal color meanings, try using those in your magick. Find out which colors mean willpower or cheerfulness for you, and wear those to draw those feelings to you, or incorporate them in spell-work. If orange helps you concentrate, use it for your computer desktop and in spells about mental tasks. If blue or purple calms you and makes you trancy, paint your meditation room with it. If a clear pink means sex to you, dress your love rituals and your boudoir accordingly. Knowing your own personal color associations will make color an even more useful tool in your magickal toolbox.

The Witches’ Pyramid

The Witches’ Pyramid 

The Witches’ Pyramid is a set of four principles that are very important to successful to magick:

To Know, To Will, To Dare, and To Remain Silent.

To Know

Research the spells you cast. Learn about the magickal correspondences and use them in your spells. The more of these you work into your spell/ritual, the more focused your energy will become.

 

To Will

Practicing meditation will teach you to focus your mind which will in turn energize your magick more effectively. You will have confidence in your spell/ritual for it to work. You must believe that you have done real magick and that the real magick worked. Your spell feeds off of your intentions and intent.

 

To Dare

Any thoughts you have lingering will compromise your magick. Feel your magick as you’re doing the spell. Focus on it completely.

 

To Remain Silent

The energy you spend thinking about something else will not go toward your spell work. It’s more effective to just think about the spell, focus on it and let your spell do its work. Do not talk about your spell work to anyone, never. If you discuss your spell crafting, it will weaken it. So it is of the utmost importance that you “Remain Silent” always.

Good Thursday Morning to you, my dear friends!

Witchy Comments & Graphics 

Today’s Affirmation for Thursday, March 8th

 When I look into the future, I see a vista of challenge and resolution. I venture forth with strength, hope and faith. 

 

Today’s Thought for Thursday, March 8th

 Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

Anonymous  

 

Today’s Meditation for Thursday, March 8th 

Welcoming the Dawn

 In many spiritual traditions dawn – when the world is at its most peaceful – is regarded as an ideal time for meditation.  Just before dawn go outside and find a place to sit and watch the sunrise.  As the sun emerges above the horizon, fill your awareness with the brightening hues of the sky and rejoice in the beauty of the new day. Feel the golden rays of the sun warm your face and allow hope to fill your heart and refresh your spirit. You have started the day well.

 If the weather is poor or you are unable to get a clear view of the sunrise, visualize the dawn instead.

  
~Magickal Graphics~