The Ethics of Love Spells by Mike Nichols c 2013

The Ethics of Love Spells

   by Mike Nichols
by Mike Nichols

To gain the love of someone: On a night of the full moon, walk to a spot beneath your beloved’s bedroom window, and whisper his/her name three times to the nightwind. –Ozark love spell

It seems to be an immutable law of nature. You are interviewed by a local radio or TV station, or in some local newspaper. The topic of the interview is Witchcraft or Paganism, and you spend the better part of an hour brilliantly articulating your beliefs, your devotion to Goddess and nature, the difference between Witchcraft and Satanism, and generally enlightening the public at large. The next day, you are flooded with calls. Is it people complimenting you on such a splendid interview? No. People wanting to find out more about the religion of Wicca? Huh-uh. People who are even vaguely interested in what you had to say??? Nope. Who is it? It’s people asking you to do a love spell for them!

This used to drive me nuts. I’d take a deep breath and patiently explain (for the thousandth time) why I won’t even do love spells for myself, let alone anyone else. This generally resulted in my caller becoming either angry or defensive, but seldom more enlightened. ‘But don’t you DO magic?’, they ask. ‘Only occasionally,’ I answer. ‘And aren’t most magic spells love spells?’, they persist. That was the line I really hated, because I knew they were right! At least, if you look at the table of contents of most books on magic, you’ll find more love spells than any other kind. This seems as true for the medieval grimoire as for the modern drugstore paperback.

Why? Why so many books containing so many love spells? Why such an emphasis on a kind of magic that I, personally, have always considered very negative? And to make matters even more confusing, the books that do take the trouble of dividing spells between ‘positve’ and ‘negative’ magic invariably list love spells under the first heading. After all, they would argue, love is a good thing. There can never be too much of it. Therefore, any spell that brings about love must be a GOOD spell. Never mind that the spell puts a straightjacket on another’s free will, and then drops it in cement for good measure

And that is why I had always assumed love magic to be negative magic. Years ago, one of the first things I learned as a novice Witch was something called the Witch’s Rede, a kind of ‘golden rule’ in traditional Witchcraft. It states, ‘An it harm none, do what thou will.’ One uses this rede as a kind of ethical litmus test for a spell. If the spell brings harm to someone — anyone (including yourself!) — then don’t do it! Unfortunately, this rule contains a loophole big enough to fly a broom through. It’s commonly expressed, ‘Oh, this won’t HARM them; it’s really for their own good.’ When you hear someone say that, take cover, because something especially nasty is about to happen.

That’s why I had to develop my own version of the Witch’s Rede. Mine says that if a spell harms anyone, OR LIMITS THEIR FREEDOM OF THOUGHT OR ACTION IN ANY WAY, then consider it negative, and don’t do it. Pretty strict, you say? Perhaps. But there’s another law in Witchcraft called the Law of Threefold Return. This says that whatever power you send out, eventually comes back to you three times more powerful. So I take no chances. And love spells, of the typical make-Bobby-love-me type, definitely have an impact on another’s free will.

So why are they so common? It’s taken me years to make peace with this, but I think I finally understand. The plain truth is that most of us NEED love. Without it, our lives are empty and miserable. After our basic survival needs have been met, we must have affection and companionship for a full life. And if it will not come of its own accord, some of us may be tempted to FORCE it to come. And nothing can be as painful as loving someone who doesn’t love you back. Consequently, the most common, garden-variety spell in the world is the love spell.

Is there ever a way to do a love spell and yet stay within the parameters of the Witch’s Rede? Possibly. Some teachers have argued that if a spell doesn’t attempt to attract a SPECIFIC person into your life, but rather attempts to attract the RIGHT person, whomever that may be, then it is not negative magic. Even so, one should make sure that the spell finds people who are ‘right’ for each other — so that neither is harmed, and both are made happy.

Is there ever an excuse for the make-Bobby-love-me type of spell? Without endorsing this viewpoint, I must admit that the most cogent argument in its favor is the following: Whenever you fall in love with someone, you do everything in your power to impress them. You dress nicer, are more attentive, witty, and charming. And at the same time, you unconsciously set in motion some very powerful psychic forces. If you’ve ever walked into a room where someone has a crush on you, you know what I mean. You can FEEL it. Proponents of this school say that a love spell only takes the forces that are ALREADY there — MUST be there if you’re in love — and channels them more efficiently.

But the energy would be there just the same, whether or not you use a spell to focus it.

I won’t attempt to decide this one for you. People must arrive at their own set of ethics through their own considerations. However, I would call to your attention all the cautionary tales in folk magic about love spells gone awry. Also, if a love spell has been employed to join two people who are not naturally compatible, then one must keep pumping energy into the spell. And when one finally tires of this (and one will, because it is hard work!) then the spell will unravel amidst an emotional and psychic hurricane that will make the stormiest divorces seem calm by comparison. Not a pretty picture.

It should be noted that many spells that pass themselves off as love spells are, in reality, sex spells. Not that there’s anything surprising in that, since our most basic needs usually include sex. But I think we should be clear from the outset what kind of spell it is. And the same ethical standards used for love spells can often be applied to sex spells. Last year, the very quotable Isaac Bonewits, author of ‘Real Magic’, taught a sex magic class here at the Magick Lantern, and he tossed out the following rule of thumb: Decide what the mundane equivalent of your spell would be, and ask yourself if you could be arrested for it. For example, some spells are like sending a letter to your beloved in the mail, whereas other spells are tantamount to abduction. The former is perfectly legal and normal, whereas the latter is felonious.

One mitigating factor in your decisions may be the particular tradition of magic you follow. For example, I’ve often noticed that practitioners of Voudoun (Voodoo) and Santeria seem much more focused on the wants and needs of day-to-day living than on the abstruse ethical considerations we’ve been examining here. That’s not a value judgement — just an observation. For example, most followers of Wicca STILL don’t know how to react when a Santerian priest spills the blood of a chicken during a ritual — other than to feel pretty queasy. The ethics of one culture is not always the same as another.

And speaking of cultural traditions, another consideration is how a culture views love and sex. It has often been pointed out that in our predominant culture, love and sex are seen in very possessive terms, where the beloved is regarded as one’s personal property. If the spell uses this approach, treating a person as an object, jealously attempting to cut off all other relationships, then the ethics are seriously in doubt. However, if the spell takes a more open approach to love and sex, not attempting to limit a person’s other relationships in any way, then perhaps it is more defensible. Perhaps. Still, it might be wise to ask, Is this the kind of spell I’d want someone to cast on me?

Love spells. Whether to do them or not. If you are a practitioner of magic, I dare say you will one day be faced with the choice. If you haven’t yet, it is only a matter of time. And if the answer is yes, then which spells are ethical and which aren’t? Then you, and only you, will have to decide whether ‘All’s fair in love and war’, or whether there are other, higher, metaphysical considerations.

The Witches Magick for February 27th – Binding Someone Annoying Spell

The Witches Magick for February 27th

Binding Someone Annoying Spell

Take a piece of paper and write the name of the person that is to be bound on a “3×3” piece of paper, using a black ink pen or a pencil.

While you do this visualize the face of the person on your mind. When you have written the name cross it with an inverted pentacle (5 pointed star within a circle).
Fold the paper twice and take a rubber band and tie the paper with it. Raise it to your temple and chant three times the following…
“To be protected from you,
This magic charm i will do,
With this words i bind thee,
For you to let me be,
To be protected from your harm,
I now seal this charm”.
Now place the paper on your right shoe and slam your foot on the ground nine times (doesn’t have to be so loud that everyone hears it) As you slam it the ninth time say…

SO MOTE IT BE

Love and its Place in Magic

Love and its Place in Magic

Author: Chi

It’s commonly thought in the Wiccan world (and sometimes in the overall Pagan world, but not necessarily) that love spells are a definite NO. This is nearly the first rule that everyone is taught when he or she show and interest in spells or magic. Many of us stick our noses in the air at the idea and say ‘No, no, no, heavens, no. How could you be so immature to even THINK of such a thing? That bends free will!’ And from the moment we read it in a book or hear it from an elder, we assume it is so and that this message should be shared with any ‘newbie’ to neo-paganism, so we in turn being to spread the word.

And at the risk of being eaten alive, I’m going to challenge that message.

Here’s the thing, though – I have brought this topic up a lot. With my non-Pagan Mom, with Pagan communities, with very ‘Morally Strong’ Wiccan communities, with teens, Pagan shopkeepers and many others. And this is a very sensitive topic on all levels. This is because manipulating someone feelings with magic open everyone involved up to physical and spiritual damage. But what we need to realize is that there isn’t just one kind of spell. And there are countless kinds of love. So, in reality, “love Spell” constitutes a lot of things – and never should we assume someone honestly asking is only going to use the manipulative manner of love spells; nor should we challenge what they feel or how authentic their feelings are.

That and, if you can’t handle someone under 18 talk about love and magic without acting ‘holier than thou’, read no further.

The first thing that we assume when we hear love spell is that the spell involved with make someone of your choice fall in love with you. But what if this isn’t so?

The power of spells lies within ourselves. If your thoughts and your will cannot muster enough power for a spell, then neither will roses and red candles. If your intentions are pure and your will is strong, only then with ritual tools power your spell. So why is it, then, that if someone requests information on love spells, we shout them out of our Pagan chat rooms and leave them with harmful and manipulative thoughts in their mind? The thought is more powerful than the spell at such a point. We have countless thoughts every day. So why do we steer everyone away from love spells, but leave them with thoughts like “I want to make so-and-so fall in love with me.” Is that not the OPPOSITE of what we want to create? Think: there is a reason why so many people fall for Internet adds that say ‘create your own custom love spell using ancient chants and have it performed by one of our experienced practitioners for only $550.00!’

So, why should we assume that a love spell means a bunch of young adults that wish to make dozens of attractive strangers worship them? The answer you should have gotten is, we shouldn’t.

It’s commonly accepted that a love spell which calls a lover to you is better than making a specific person fall in love with you. But a similar argument can also be applied. “If it is meant to be, it will happen on its own”. I don’t like that argument, because it relies too heavily on leaving things as they are. If that argument were true, I would never need to exercise because if I were meant to be thin, I would be already; or I’m not meant to be smart, because a good college and career will come to me by themselves. Think about it, the universe is a complex web of cause and effect, and we can never truly know the effects our actions will have on others of the universe. In this case, there is no right or wrong. There is cause and effect. How you react to the effect is what makes us believe in ‘right or wrong’.

So, if the universe is so complex, how do we know that we are or are not supposed to draw something close to ourselves that we want? And what if it doesn’t require taking something from anyone else? Perhaps performing a five hour ritual for it may not be the answer… but if you wake up every day and tell yourself that you are loved, and that love comes to you naturally – that is equally as powerful as a spell when done with care and repetition, yet it allows less room for mistakes to be made; the positive effects of this kind of thought are apparent before we even attract any new relationships.

I personally don’t believe in doing spells that bring a romantic person to you. Not that I think it’s wrong, I just feel that if there is no one special in my life, there are countless reasons why. Perhaps I’m being picky, and need to learn not to be picky. Maybe I’m too busy, and whatever I’m busy with really does require more energy right now. But just because I don’t believe its right for me doesn’t mean I can tell other people it isn’t right for them either.

You would think the Neo-Pagan communities out there would have figured that out by now, but that is a lesson we are in reality quite far from learning. But to tell myself that I am loved, and that I am capable of attracting and spreading love, is something that benefits me on all levels. By doing this, I’m motivated to be myself and to be happy, healthy, wise, and helpful to others. If every person on earth woke up and said this to himself or herself in the morning, the world would be a better place.

And, probably what I consider to be the most important of all. What about a love spell that doesn’t concern the caster in the slightest with bringing him/her love, but giving it to others?

I like this kind of love spell, very, very much. It’s a shame that everyone seems to overlook it. Going back to the example with thoughts being like spells, magic is (when you think about it) like every other aspect of our lives: Cause and effect. Much of what we can do with the physical we can do with the magical. So, showing people you love affection is okay and even expected. So why shouldn’t we be doing this spiritually?

Why should we not make an honest attempt in prayer, meditation, or even in the circle, to let our loved ones know how much we care about them? Why shouldn’t we make it a mental ritual almost every day? There are hundreds of ways you can use magic to show someone you love them. Of course, this is not meant to replace any other ways of showing someone you care, but rather to enhance them. We have healing practices that allow us to heal another’s heart from afar, and we can charge countless objects such as stones and candles and use them for affirmations and prayer. Is it so bad?

And lastly, Love. The single most important component to a love spell – and sometimes any spell at all. No one has a monopoly on love. Lots of times, elders who have kids and grandkids act like they do. Lots of times, teens that held hands for the first time think they do. And any age group in between.

But this is not so.

Love may not be the same for each person. But that does not mean that people cannot appreciate love for what it is to them. The love between people in their 20s, 40s, and 60s, is still equally special even though they may not be the same. And how do we really know that when talking about a love spell, you can’t send love to someone other than a romantic partner? Why must we always equate love to sexual attraction?

There is love between friends, family, and perhaps a small amount between us and a stranger who gives us a helping hand in some way. Love is like any other feeling: You can feel it for different things, for different reasons, in different amounts, in different ways; you can express it differently and it can be expressed to you differently; sometimes it is stronger or more stable than others; but it is still real, worth experiencing, and worth celebrating.

Think about it. Spells are a petition to our higher selves, Divinity, our subconscious mind, the universe, and the spirits of those involved. It is a spiritual component of action… just as we have emotional changes, intellectual processes, and physical actions. And there is love, which; whether felt between mother and child, Divinity and Humans, a man and a woman, two females, two males, two teenagers, two adults, a pet and their owner, or any other combination of beings that can care for each other; is entirely worth celebrating.

So go celebrate. Make the world a better place.

WOTC Extra – Ten Questions You Should Be Able to Answer After a Year and A Day

1.) How would you define Witchcraft?

How would you define Wicca?

What would you say if asked? Are you able to discuss the history of the Craft and how Wicca relates to Magick?

2.) Upon what premise does the moral foundation of the Wicca rest?

Do you consider yourself a practitioner of the dark arts or the white- (or light) magickal arts? Why do you think this?

03.) Explain what is meant by divination.

Explain what is meant by the following terms:

aura reading,

palomancy,

crystalomancy,

magick mirror,

runecasting,

Iching?

Have you found a favorite method of divination?

What is this method?

Have you become skilled at this, and how skilled?

Do you consider yourself a Master of the Art?

Are you practicing this form of divination for yourself and others on a regular basis, and if not, why not?

04.) Are you thoroughly familiar with some form of the healing arts?

What do you know about the following:

color or sound therapy,

aromatherapy,

herbal healing?

Which of these have you studied enough to have become quite familiar with the healing art?

Are you a Master of the Art?

Do you intend to become a Master?

Have you begun your hand-written herbal or other log of your healing practice?

05.) Have you accumulated all your magickal tools?

How many of these tools have you made yourself?

What was given to you?

Why did this object become a part of your magickal collection?

Are these tools all consecrated?

Why are they consecrated?

Are you knowledgeable enough about the uses of all these tools to be able to explain their uses to another?

06.) If someone, a friend perhaps, comes to you for help in the following areas, can you help them?

The areas might be love, health, wealth, protection, uncrossing, legal aid, self-help or development.

Could you devise a spell to help him or her? Would you? Why? Why not?

Could you include all the proper correspondences, talismans, stones, crystals, candles?

Would you be able to cast the spell during the correct phase of the Moon, the most auspicious day of the week and hour of the day?

Have you kept accurate records of your magickal work in your Book of Shadows or hand-written Magickal Diary?

If not, why not?

07.) Are you able to explain the Sabbats and Esbats?

Can you perform an impromptu ritual for each?

Have you begun your personal hand-written Book of Shadows?

08.) Are you familiar enough with any of the Pentagram Rituals to explain them to others?

09.) Have you composed at least two complete Sabbat rituals and a full or new Moon ritual, incorporating all the proper correspondences;

astrological timing,

proper god and goddess forms for the particular ritual,

the correct candles,

scents, invocations, etc?

10.) Can you explain why Wicca is important to you -and why you wish to become a Witch and Wiccan?

Candle Spell Worksheet

CANDLE SPELL WORKSHEET

————————————————–
The following questions will help you to create a successful candle spell. By
answering them, you will aquatint yourself with the elements of magick. Print
this page and add it to your spellbook. It can also be used for other types of
spells as well. Enjoy!
————————————————–

Magickal Intention:

Candle Type:

How long will it burn?

Color:

Symbols:

Phase of the Moon:

Astrological Phase:

Deities:

Elementals:

Herbs:

Oils:

Stones:

Magickal Decoration:

Visualizations:

Where will the candle be placed for the duration of the spell?

Your Animal Spirit for January 28th is Green Woman

Your Animal Spirit for Today
January 28, 2014

Green Woman

Green Woman has magically floated into your life to remind you of the energy of fertility–fertility for a project, a garden, a love affair or conception. If there is fertile ground, it WILL bear fruit. Green Woman encourages you to practice your own brand of magic, and to appreciate the talents you have that will, in the near future, give birth to a magical creation.

Supportive Practices of the Craft

Supportive Practices of the Craft

Author: Iain Quicksilver

In addition to the practices of witchcraft usually discussed, such as divination and herb lore, there are practices, which support a witch’s overall efforts. The following seven sections describe practices I have found useful for tuning up my Craft practice and keeping it properly focused.

1: Cycles

Witches follow cycles in everything they do, out of respect for their overall balance of health. They don’t work all year, and then try to relax through a brief vacation; witches take little mini-vacations all the time. They sometimes appear to be laid back and lazy, but they respond well in a crisis, and they somehow get their tasks done.

A witch aims at discovering her own biorhythms, so as to work with, rather than against, her natural energy cycle. But in practice there are usually compromises to be made with work and other factors. Her actual daily schedule may be set somewhat askew to her biorhythms, but a witch will adapt to it and arrange for periods of rest between work to attend to quarters other than South / Will / Fire. There are knowledge and skills to acquire, and emotions and the circle and the practice of inner and/or outer stillness to attend to. And there is a little goofing off, daytime rest, which is essential; just watch the animals.

Starting with the Sun cycle and making allowances for work, etc., a witch reserves the earlier parts of the day for practical affairs. She will not work on taxes, for instance, into the evening hours, but will start earlier in the season and devote some weekend daytime hours to the chore. Evening is for going within, withdrawing to one’s own hearth and communing with ancestors and familiar spirits.

2: Directions

It isn’t on any list of witch tools, but a compass is important to the modern witch so she can orient her life and work to the four directions. Witchcraft is always done in a physical context. Pagans are highly aware of their immediate environment and traffic with spirits of the field, yard, stream, the most prominent local tree, as well as with household spirits. The key to contacting household spirits lies in feelings.

When you first move into a new house or apartment, it feels cold and uninviting, especially if it hasn’t been lived in for a while. Not much later, it fits you comfortably like a suit of old clothes; and if, in addition, it is alive with saged boundaries and household shrines, you feel liked by the house as well as liking it yourself. This is a boundary perception, which we are taught to ignore or treat as a subjective matter, but if instead we address the good feelings and express our appreciation for the atmosphere of our dwelling, we break that boundary and begin to recover ancient pagan perception.

In the same way, outdoor sprites can be contacted through greater sensitivity to one’s feelings without discounting them from habit.

Upon awakening in the morning, when a witch is ready to start the day, it is a good practice to take out the compass and address the four quarters. One begins in the North, opening oneself to calming energy. Then to the East, holding in mind briefly what needs to be known or learned today. Then to the South, deciding the first tasks. Then to the West, expanding awareness according to one’s ways. Then seal to the North, stilling the mind and body once again. The witch is now ready to face the day.

3: Expanding Awareness

One way of expanding awareness when silently addressing the West is to relax and wait for something in your peripheral awareness to stand out and beckon your attention. It might be the reflection of something in a window, or the shadow of a tree or the spaces in its foliage. Whatever it is, when it gets your attention, continue to view it peripherally. You are in touch with its mana, or magical energy, and can use it throughout the day when you call it to mind. The image in your memory should be peripheral, not central, i.e. the way it looked when it got your attention. This can also be done with things heard peripherally. These are some of my ways.

4: Conserving Magical Energy

There is a kind of energy or power that the modern world has forgotten, though the memory of it is preserved in folk tales and myths. Indigenous peoples are well aware of it and live their lives with reference to it. While the immediate environment abounds in it, and we take it in all the time, we do not notice it because we squander it in habitual ways, habits that have been with us from early childhood. The ancient Latins called it numen, and the Mongolians, hiimori. It is always personal, taking on the features of the person holding it.

It is only by conserving this energy that the witch becomes ready to do magic, both in the circle and life. We don’t realize that everything takes energy, even unconscious ignoring of things in our environment, such as shadows, eyeglass frames, or background sounds. When we expand our attention to include such things, we gain the energy that was used in keeping them in the background of our attention, the penumbra or half-shadow. This energy is always exponentially higher than the small amount required to expand the attention.

The energy takes four forms for witches, associated with the four ancient elements. The energy of Air makes us learn and understand new things that hadn’t occurred to us before. In everyday life, it also manifests in any new knowledge or understanding.

The energy of Fire boosts the will and lets us accomplish tasks in life that seemed too big to tackle. In order to bring changes into our physical lives, we have to both give up some things, at least temporarily, and adopt other things or actions that further the goal. In the Craft, habits or actions that squander magical energy have to be sacrificed, and then the freed energy finds new outlets on its own.

The energy of Water attracts us to the unknown, and gives us the daring to escape the current limitations of our lives. This is the energy of initiation, which expands and transforms our awareness and can give our lives a whole new basis.

The energy of Earth is cloaked in silence. Witches seek inner and outer stillness, quite as much as Zen monks or Hindu yogis do. This stillness is deep, and the deeper the witch descends into it, the more he or she is transformed and the greater the magical energy that results. It is pursued gradually and at first in little things, like learning to sit still and not scratch, or refraining from certain topics in conversation.

Not that the witch is inactive, quite the contrary; Earth, the North, is also the place of our physicality, and the witch exercises regularly, and takes care of business through Fire and the South. Stillness refers instead to the enormous amount of energy we waste in fidgeting and performing other small, unnecessary actions, both mental and physical: for instance, compulsively repeating past conversations in one’s mind or rehearsing conversations to come in some hypothetical future event (for all thoughts of the future are hypothetical) .

The witch sums up a past event and plans for the future, but these are finite acts that come to an end, instead of repeating over and over and wearing on the nerves. The energy to be had by restricting such habits cannot be anticipated in advance. Out of stillness comes new understanding, closing the circle of practice towards Air and the East.

Thus the witch pursues the four powers of the magus: to know, to will, to dare, to keep silence. But there is a fifth power that results from the balanced development of the four: to go. The witch is saving energy for his or her definitive journey, the flight to the True Sabbat, fellowship and celebration with the ancestors, spirits, and deities in the other world. Folklore depicts it as a joyous occasion, and colors it with the pleasures and longings of the time when the tales were spun. Some tried to cut corners and get there more quickly through the use of the witch’s flying ointment. The actual flight may or may not follow traditional lines.

One may not literally fly up the chimney and then meet the Wild Hunt in the sky and fly to a rath or burg and descend therein through a tunnel into the Otherworld. The journey may parallel many of these features, nonetheless; and there are preliminary journeys to be made that go partway there.

The flight to the True Sabbat is a milestone on the way to the witch’s ultimate journey to the Sun, when he or she acquires a body of light that can materialize at will, so that further incarnations here in middle Earth are no longer needed. This transformation seals the work of the Craft and completes the vows made at initiation; thenceforth one does other work, perhaps as a guardian elemental, paying back for the help received along the way on this side by paying forward.

5: The Familiar

Witches traditionally kept a cat, sometimes a horse, as a familiar. The witch’s astral journeys were made in company with the spirit of the familiar.

The best information I have found on this practice is in Timothy Knab’s A War of Witches, a factual account of an anthropologist’s investigation, some twenty plus years later, of a battle with brujos and brujas in the highlands of central Mexico. In the course of his investigation, he is inducted into Toltec brujeria by one of the survivors and makes a journey to Tlalocan, the Toltec Underworld.

Tlaloc, the Lord of the Underworld, keeps animal spirits called naguals in his corrals. He gives a nagual to each human at birth. The nagual could perhaps be thought of as the link, within each of us, to other animals, inherited though latent from the prehistoric past. But it is a real spirit and to be a brujo one must find one’s nagual. Afterwards, an experienced brujo, through many journeys to Tlalocan, may have acquired a number of naguals, keeping them in fetish objects like puma’s claws, or in a special gourd.

The human soul is called the tonal. It has two halves. One faces towards the Sun and stands guard over the body when the dark lower half, the shadow, goes on journeys down the world pillar to the underworlds. The shadow is so called, both because it lies below our daily awareness and faces towards the nether regions, and because it follows its nagual into the depths as the latter’s shadow.

If the nagual is a cat spirit, the shadow takes on the semblance of a cat spirit. This is done for protection from hungry denizens of the deep, who prize the heart blood of a tonal but will let a nagual go by.

The discipline Knab goes through in becoming a brujo is well worth the reading. But to return to our own practice, preparation for a liaison with a cat familiar’s spirit, besides the obvious step of getting a cat, would seem to involve re-molding one’s own psyche closer to that of a feline. We do this unconsciously when we sit in company with a cat and enjoy its utter relaxation. Cats are content to go from moment to moment doing whatever they are doing, even if it is only resting.

We, however, often have a habit of doubting whether we are making best use of our time, or regretting we are not elsewhere doing other things. Cats, apparently, have no such qualms. The daily practice of witchcraft in fact promotes a calm mind fully given to the moment. Apparently cultivation of inner stillness connects us with the animal, pre-rational mind, so that we can enjoy shuttling between two minds, as the occasion permits.

This is only an example of how the witch models him or herself on a cat familiar. Whether or not one goes on journeys with the cat, cultivating a close relationship with one will draw the witch closer to his or her own inner, pre-rational mind, through which he or she can call up power from the Deep in circle.

6: The Patron Deity

It isn’t incumbent upon pagans to have a special relationship with a single deity, but it can be a rewarding experience. The pagan will continue to honor the other deities and spirits, of course, and may enter into a similar relationship with another later on. Suppililiumas, the king of the Hittites, was singularly devoted to his goddess, and as we know, his subject Abraham devoted his wandering life to his family god, the later Yahweh.

All gods stand ready to teach by sharing their consciousness, and by helping the devotee to practice the disciplines that lead to that awareness. Pagans will generally choose a patron deity (male or female) on the basis of temperamental preferences, though they may be influenced by a dream or vision. The relationship can be devotional or more like a friendship. In the latter case the deity is like an older mentor or senior partner. In late heathen times, Thor was popular with people seeking this latter relation.

In the Craft, the Lord and the Lady serve as patrons. The Lord is the year-god, who has waxing and waning aspects, and these replace each other at the solstices. Because the outgoing aspect dies and is reborn six months later, the Lord (sometimes called the Lad) is more of a demigod, and is not quite up to the Lady’s level. Witches and warlocks alike tend to relate to the Lord as a tutor or preceptor, and to the Lady devotionally.

The continental Celtic god Cernunnos is associated by modern witches with the year-god. He is known only from artifacts and only by the description given him by Greek traders in antiquity on the Ister or Danube river – the horned or antlered one (we do not know his Celtic name) . Cernunnos teaches witches the way to deal skillfully with both the outer and inner life.

The Oak King or waxing year aspect teaches, by example, how to deal with the outer world joyfully and fruitfully. The Holly King or waning aspect is the psycho pomp or soul-guide in Craft initiation, and also provides fellowship with ancestors at Samhain, October 31st.

On the Gundestrup cauldron, found in a peat bog in Denmark, Cernunnos is the central carved figure. He has two antlers, wears a torque or neck-ring signifying wealth, and holds another in his right hand, as bestower of wealth. His left hand grasps a ram-headed snake by the neck, an Underworld animal linked with healing and sacrifice.

It often happens that a pagan already pursues some discipline designed to conserve magical energy, and chooses an appropriate god or goddess, asking him or her to be the patron of that practice. If the god is willing, he or she will help, first of all, by reminding the devotee to practice whatever part of the askesis is appropriate for the present situation.

The devotee thanks his or her patron for these reminders, knowing from experience that practice would be slacker without them. As the partnership goes on, the world will start to take on the colors peculiar to that deity’s consciousness and personality, and will cause subtle changes in the personality of the devotee as well.

The patron deity also teaches in dreams and guides the devotee in waking life by means of signs and omens, often peculiar coincidences that seem mysteriously significant.

The Lady nurtures and feeds witches as well as all her children on the earth, and also teaches those who prefer to relate to a female divinity. The discipline taught by the Lady involves cleansing the emotions of their verbal accretions. The devotee learns to feel without thinking or analyzing or labeling the feeling. In this way, the witch or warlock draws closer to the animals, who have naked feelings unclothed in thoughts. The askesis of the Lady is especially suitable for couples.

7: Inventory

Supportive practices of witchcraft aim at optimizing the free flow of energy through the life of a witch.

A cluttered life is full of energy knots that trap old, stale energy called `miasma’ by the ancients. The first phase of a spell, purification, is designed to unravel one or more of these knots, so that an increase in the flow of magical energy renders the flow palpable. The energy must be felt to be directed, and as some of it is flowing all the time (however feebly) , the rate of flow must be increased for it to be felt. It can then be directed to a chosen purpose in the consecration phase, and, in the final phase, charged with all the force the witch can command through expanded awareness.

But if the witch’s life is full of energy knots, untying one or two of them by purification may not result in a very strong flow of energy. For a stronger flow, the witch must gradually remove clutter from his/her life so that energy knots are few and easily unraveled.

Clutter comes in many forms. There is mental and emotional clutter; the clutter of always being too busy because of over-commitment; the memory-clutter of too many unfinished projects; and the material clutter found in the home: over-stuffed closets, garages, basements, storage sheds, etc. This section is about material clutter.

By learning and applying the principles of feng shui, we can facilitate a free flow of the energy the Chinese call ch’i throughout the home; but before putting feng shui into practice, we must face and do something about the mountains of clutter tucked away in corners, closets, cupboards and other hiding places. We may think that if our accumulations are out of sight they will be out of mind as well, but the deeper, pre-rational mind we share with the animals keeps tabs on every least thimble.

When the writer Aldous Huxley’s house in California burned down, he remarked on how clean it felt to be free of so many possessions. This was a drastic example of what we can achieve in a smaller degree through the practice of inventory.

The deep mind keeps a file on every item we own, and these files must be closed and cleared away if the witch is to use the filing function for fulfilling oaths and following threads of self-discipline. Accordingly, at regular intervals a witch will go through some of his or her clutter, putting things together that belong together, and getting rid of items no longer needed. A good rule of thumb to follow is to keep what one can use (sentiment counts as a use) and put the rest where it is likely to do the most good. In this we see an illustration of the balance of the Craft, which aims at getting maximum enjoyment and effectiveness from possessions without getting bogged down in being possessed by them.

Putting things you don’t need where they will do the most good may mean giving things away; but be careful doing this, as you may lose friends if they feel you are dumping stuff on them. And above all, never tell anyone you are following the rule of inventory, as gifts should at least appear to be made from a feeling of friendship.

Closing accounts with past unfinished business, either by abandoning old projects or by completing them, leads to a greater integration with one’s past selves, and can clear a channel through memory, and far memory, for the witch to travel in the inner journey down to the Summerland.

______________________________________

1. For numen see Rose, H.J. in the bibliography.

2. For hiimori see Sangerel, both references, in the bibliography.

3. For the folklore of the Sabbat, see Jackson in the bibliography.

4. On the journey to the Sun, see Grimassi, p. 219, in the bibliography, also Nikhilananda, vol. II, p. 158.

5. See Knab in the bibliography.

6. See Gurney in the bibliography. More recently, a royal charter of King Suppliliumas has been found, authorizing a mercantile expedition to Byblos on the ancient Lebanese coast. Abraham may have been in it.

7. See Davidson (I) in the bibliography.

8. For the significance of Cernunnos in modern witchcraft, see Farrar in the bibliography.

9. See Davidson (II) in the bibliography.

____________________________________

Footnotes:
Bibliography:

Davidson, H.R. (I) , Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, London, Penguin Books, 1990.

__________ (II) , Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe, Syracuse, NY, Syracuse
University Press, 1988.

Farrar, Janet and Stewart, Eight Sabbats for Witches, Custer, WA, Phoenix Publishing, 1988.

Grimassi, Raven, Ways of the Strega, St. Paul, MN, Llwellyn Publications, 1995.

Gurney, O.R., The Hittites, London, Penguin Books, 1952.

Jackson, Nigel, Call of the Horned Piper,

Knab, Timothy J., A War of Witches, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1995.

Nikhilananda, Swami, translator, The Upanishads, in 4 vols. New York, Ramakrishna-
Vivekananda Center, 1975. Prasna Upanishad is in Vol. 2.

Rose, H.J., Religion in Greece and Rome, New York, Harper Torchbooks, 1959.

Sarangerel (I) , Chosen by the Spirits, Rochester, VT, Destiny Books, 2001.

_______ (II) , Riding Windhorses, Rochester, VT, Destiny Books, 2000.

You Don't Always Need Magick

You Don’t Always Need Magick

Author: Luna

Many modern people find their way to Wicca and many other Pagan paths through an interest in magick. My only assumption for why that is would be that there is some sort of inherent appeal in magick. Perhaps it’s the thrill of being able to bring about change in one’s life, or discovering and being able to do things originally deemed impossible. Of course, it might just be the media’s portrayal of various forms of magick, even if you’re aware that throwing fireballs around without exerting any energy is pretty much impossible. While it might not be what keeps us walking the paths we walk, it is certainly an important aspect in our lives for those who choose to work it.

That said, there is an important lesson for beginners to learn should they wish to pass beyond the “dabbler stage.” And no, I’m not going to go on a long-winded speech on the ethical side of magick. While ethics are no less important than they were before you started reading this, they’ve been addressed countless times already. I don’t believe I need to restate them here. Nope, today’s lesson, should you care to hear me out on this, is about deciding when magick is appropriate in various circumstances. To do so, I’d like to give two recent examples from my own life (and, by recent, I’m talking within two or three weeks of writing this) involving protection magick.

So let’s start with the first scenario. I’ve already been working at a summer camp for a couple weeks, the same camp that has been my summer job for the last five years. Now, while counselors aren’t allowed to keep food in the cabins (kids can’t have it either, and we don’t want to attract pests) , we are allowed to keep food in the offices and in our staff fridge in the kitchen. Now, I usually kept my stash in the office, most of it sealed up in a watertight, airtight box. Whatever I couldn’t fit in the box, I kept in a plastic bag near my stuff on the desk. However, one morning I came into the office, ostensibly to get stuff ready for class, and discovered an entire unopened package of Oreo cookies missing. Well, you can imagine how upset I was. I asked around the office and even reported it to the assistant dean of the camp, a very nice man I could trust with basically anything. He was as upset as I was, suggested to me that I label my stuff and inform him if anything else went missing, and told me that, if we found the person, they’d be fired on the spot (as someone had been stealing other people’s food as well) .

After labeling my stuff, I then went about the rest of my day (which included an all-camp dance party in the evening—I had so much fun) . When I went back to the office later that evening, the other package of Oreo cookies, which had been opened and labeled, had been cleaned of all but five cookies, even though I was pretty sure I hadn’t eaten that many. After mentioning again to the assistant dean (who promised he keep an eye out for the thief) , I decided enough was enough. Making sure to choose a time when no one else was around the office, I took two stones. One was a holey stone, which has natural protective properties, and the other was a natural piece of quartz I’d found around the camp. With these two stones, I put up a protection spell not only to protect my belongings but also to illuminate the identity of the thief (though not to harm him or scare him) . Once that was done, I hid the stones in a broken electronic toy shark, set that on top of my box and walked away.

Before I get to what happened after I cast the protection spell, let’s set up scenario number two. This happened much later on in the session, close to the end of the camp for the summer, and it happened back at my cabin. On the last night before all the kids went home, a few of my girls approached me and another counselor. They had overheard rumors of one of the boys’ cabins planning pranks on our cabin that night. Now, this wasn’t too much of a surprise to us. The cabin in question had gone a little crazy with pranks that last week, which went from stealing our shoes off the front porch and hiding them in three different places around the camp to breaking into our cabin in the middle of the night and drawing with toothpaste around the toilets (I was kind of annoyed with the fact that I hadn’t managed to hear them break into our cabin) . While the girls had gotten back at them in a less invasive or destructive way (leaving tampons painted with red nail polish on the doorstep) , they were still concerned that the guys were going to go all out that night. In fact, they described the guys’ mentality as “Hey! We’re going home tomorrow. They can’t punish us!” Yeah, you can imagine how concerned we were.

However, in spite of that concern for the girls, I wasn’t sure protection magick was the best answer to this situation. I mean, this wasn’t just my stuff we were talking about. This was my entire cabin, campers and counselors alike. While I’m sure they would’ve appreciated the sentiment (they seemed to like me a lot and knew I had their safety and best interests in mind) , it would’ve been too much of a hassle to get permission from all the girls and the counselors to work a little protection magick. Plus, I can’t see too many of them being okay with the fact that one of their counselors were a Witch. On top of that, it had been a long day, and I had just recently gotten sick. I had enough materials to work another spell (I had lots of holey stones that I’d collected from the rocky paths around the camp) , but, physically, mentally, and emotionally, I was not in a good enough state to be working magick. So what did I do? I instead acted on a suggestion the girls gave me: to sleep in our front hallway near the door to prevent access to unwanted intruders.

So how did everything work out in each scenario? Well, in the first scenario, two things happened. First, the assistant dean bought me a new package of Oreos to replace the ones that had been stolen (such a sweet guy, I can’t remember how many times I thanked him) , and no more of my food was stolen. Second (and more importantly) , one of the other counselors began acting strangely, and some of the other counselors began to talk about recent changes in him. I’d even seen him run out into a terrible storm during a tornado watch with no rain coat, then just stand out there letting out a Tarzan yell. That freaked me out. After hearing how clingy he’d been with one of the other counselors and hearing some of the things he’d done and said to her, I let the assistant dean know. After that, more people began to speak up about his behavior, and the dean and the assistant dean confronted him about it. While I’m not sure exactly what happened between them, I know that he had decided, with suggestion for the dean and assistant dean, to return home and seek help. From what I heard later, it turns out that he had not only been stressed about entering college that fall but had also gotten into marijuana, which, according to my mom, gives you the munchies after the high. And, seeing that he didn’t have his own food stash in the office and my stuff was closest to the door, my guess is he was the thief as well. At any rate, after he left, my stuff was left alone.

But his story doesn’t end sadly, and it brings up what resulted from the second scenario. After a late night spontaneous dance party suggested by the dean to get the kids too tired to play pranks, I set up my sleeping bag out in the front hallway, close enough to the front door that anyone trying to get to the girls’ rooms would have to, quite literally, go through me. Later on, another of our counselors joined me in the hallway, a good friend of mine whom I cared about deeply. We spent the time until we both fell asleep quietly chatting about what had happened over the previous week, how we had enjoyed this cabin much more than our previous cabin (not to say we didn’t love our previous cabin too, but spending two weeks with twenty-five girls between the ages of seven and fourteen can drive you crazy—my room in that cabin was actually dubbed the “madhouse” by the girls I shared it with) , and what we planned to do after we went home.

However, it was during this time that I found out about the counselor who had left. My friend had been probably the closest to that counselor while he was going through the worst of his issues at camp and was the only person I knew of who still maintained contact with him. She let me know that he was doing a lot better, had managed to get help from his parents and some doctors and was drug free. According to the texts she received from him, he was grateful that things unfolded the way they had and that he was getting the help he needed. And, quite honestly, I am too. For everything that he went through, I couldn’t have picked a better ending. I also couldn’t have picked a better ending for the night I spent sleeping in the hallway. No one tried any pranks, and, aside from being woken up at around 7 to make room for the girls leaving early on the bus and crashing on the couch, the only person to sneak past me was one of our cabins counselors who was trying her best not to wake the rest of us up (we joked about her being a ninja) .

So what was the point of these two stories? Well, remember how I started out by mentioning that not all situations call for some kind of magick? I could’ve used protection spells in both those scenarios, but I didn’t. I didn’t need to. They were two completely different situations that needed to be resolved in two different ways, yet both stories have happy endings.

Probably one of the biggest traps that novice Witches and Wiccans can and sometimes do fall into (speaking from personal experience, and I’m sure many of you can relate to this) is thinking that every situation can be resolved with some sort of spell. While magick definitely carries its own sort of charm (pun intended) and can certainly be effective in any situation, not every situation needs magick to be resolved happily. The protection spell I used in the first scenario was something I did because I felt I had exhausted all other options. I never intended for the outcome of it (and I only asked to illuminate the thief’s identity, not to mess with him or scare him off) , but the fact that the thief ended up getting help for some of his own issues brings a little more warmth to my heart. In the second scenario, I was in no shape to work any spells and I still had options at my disposal, one that was even asked for by some of my campers. And, as you guys read, everything still turned out okay (aside from being sore from sleeping on the floor, but I can live with that if it means my girls feel safe and secure) .

So, the lesson for today: there is nothing preventing you from using magick to help out in any situation, but you should carefully consider whether or not magick would be the best option. Take into consideration every factor you can think of and everyone involved, including others and you. People might not want the spell worked, and their wishes could affect the outcome. Look at your own condition. If you’re working magick when you’re sick, angry, depressed or in any way not feeling your best, chances are that will affect your magick. Magick is a wonderful aspect of life, but not every situation calls for magick. You’ll know when one does.

You Got No Spells Yesterday, So Today You Get 2. Here #1

Imagine using this beauty to cast your spells with. Only a few more hours left and it will be long to one of our lucky friends,

Spell To Receive Divine Messages

Goal: To clarify a message that the Divine might have for you.

Items You will Need:

White Candle (you can also use a candle for each element: yellow, green, blue, and red)

This is a simple spell and can be used whenever it is needed,

I ask you help, O Elements

In receiving the message

I feel is waiting for me.

Power of air

Send in clarity

So I might focus on this message

Power of earth

Ground me

So I can shut out the distraction of everyday life

Power of water

Wash away obstructions

That keep me from seeing clearly

Power of life

Open my heart

So I might freely receive this message

So mote it be.

The Witches Spell for Sept. 17th – Spell To Keep Evil Away

Spell To Keep Evil Away

Items You Need:

Black candle

Salt

Water

Sage
Black Cord

This spell can be done as a general insurance policy and the black cord can be put on your altar or in a bag hung up over the entrance to your home. If you truly feel under attack, you can use a long cord and wrap it around your waist (under your clothes) or use a short one and tie it around one wrist. To make it extra powerful, use three thin cords and braid them together as you perform the spell.

Use as needed, but this spell is best casted under a New Moon in a formally cast circle. Place all the spell ingredients on an altar or table in front of you, light the candle, and do the actions one by one as you recite the spell.

(Sprinkle Salt on the Cord)

Avert, avert, avert, I say

With power of earth, block evil’s sway.

(Sprinkle Water on Cord)

Avert, avert, avert, I say

Water clear, wash evil away.

(Hold Cord Carefully Over Candle Flame)

Avert, avert, avert, I say

Fire’s heat it must obey.

(Light sage, and waft the smoke over the cord)

Avert, avert, avert, I say

Air protects me as I pray.

(If Planning To Wear Cord, Put It On Now, Otherwise Hold It in Your Hand)

Avert, avert, avert, I say

Safe I am and safe I’ll stay

So Mote It Be

Protection Bath Spell Kit $8.95

These Protection Bath Spell Kits are help aid you in protection yourself or your living space from negative influences and energies. These bath spell kits are highly effective when the instructions are followed properly.

Protection Bath Spell Kit Specifications:

bath salts

2 candles

1 candle holder

instructions on their use

Only $8.95

plus shipping & handling $5.95

Total: $14.90

For your convenience you can use the PayPal button on this page.

Wicca v Witchcraft

Wicca v Witchcraft

Author: Irishdize

What are some of the differences between a Witch and a Wiccan?

Wiccans believe in and worship deities, usually a male and female God or a God and Goddess. Most Witches either worship only the Goddess or see the Goddess as a personification of nature, as I do. Wicca is one religion with laws, such as the Wiccan rede and the law of three. The rede says ‘an it harm none, do what ye will’. While I think it’s a wonderful law that covers just about everything you could ever wonder about, I don’t and cannot follow it. I simply instead do the best I can, given my circumstances. I don’t believe in ‘the law of three’ either which is whatever I send out ‘will come back to me times three’. I certainly believe in the law of Return, but it doesn’t work in quite the same way. Whatever I send out does return, but right away and is usually the exact same lesson reversed back at me. As you might surmise, I am not Wiccan.

Another key difference is that Wiccans will generally take gods and goddesses from mythology and call upon them for certain help, such as calling Aphrodite when they are doing a love spell. I simply do not need to use mythological deities to make my magic work; Magic is using natural energies that exist within me and around me in Nature to bring about change. In fact, one can believe that God doesn’t exist and still work Magic. Wiccans have a Wheel of the Year that they celebrate. There are eight holidays — starting on Oct 31st ‘Samhain’ or the Witches New Years. Their holiday structure has four high holy days and four low days as well as 13 Moons, some full and some new, when Magic is usually worked or divination is usually done.

I have random ritual days wherein I will spend the entire day or night in ritual, reading, contemplating, spirit dancing, or just connecting to the trees, rocks, the grass, whatever I feel like doing. Sometimes I will watch spiritually uplifting movies or listen to Native American music. Sometimes, I will just sleep or do readings by dice and Tarot. It’s all unplanned and very spontaneous whereas in Wicca, it’s usually planned down to the letter. Spells are written out before they are performed, as are rituals and of course, as I said, they know what day is a ritual day and what not. Most Wiccans I have encountered believe that their strongest magic can only happen on Full and New Moons. I disagree completely. Magic comes from within; it doesn’t matter what day or night one performs it and it doesn’t matter how well written your spell is or what tools you have (if you even have any tools) .

Most Wiccans have many tools and an Athame to direct energy or cast the circle. This is done for many reasons I am told: to create sacred space, to have a protective barrier against negative energies, lurking spirits or unexpected Visitors (human or animal) or to keep the magic within the circle until they are ready to send it out to do its purpose.

Witches like myself generally see no reason for a circle. Nature is holy; The Universe is Divine. There is no place in Nature that is not sacred already to us, so if the circle is being drawn for that reason, it isn’t needed. The energies that are around us at all times are both positive and negative, and while you can definitely put a mental shield up to protect yourself against such energies that cause you stress or harm, an imaginary circle isn’t needed. but by all means if you feel a need for it, who am I to say you shouldn’t do it?

Lurking spirits aren’t relevant to me as I don’t believe in spirits or ghosts and let me tell you something honestly, I have NEVER cast a circle in ritual while doing magic and never had my spells backfire or had any negative response. Sure, I’ve had spells that didn’t work because I didn’t put the right amount of effort into them but that had nothing to do with not casting an invisible circle or because I didn’t make the backyard sacred enough. As far as unexpected visitors or animals, my cat is just as sacred as the tree is so I am not worried about his energies affecting my work.

Many other tools that a Wiccan might have are cauldrons, mortar and pestle, wands, specific colored candles, incense, specific books by well respected authors, etc. I use only the following: Incense, Oils, Sage, Candles and Dice. I use Tarot Cards on occasion for personal insight, not to read the future. I do believe that you have to use specific colors to achieve certain goals but at the same time I KNOW that this isn’t true, I have used a yellow candle, for example, to bring money into my life and it worked because ultimately the candle is just a tool, Magic comes from within me and around me but I NEED what I NEED at the moment and candle colors represents some inner need, so I embrace that at the moment.

Books are of my own choosing. I read what I am drawn to read. A lot of the times, the books on my shelves are devotionals from different religions or books on Wicca (because that’s all I can find) . I have heard from several Wiccans that we should not read books written by certain authors. Let me tell you, read whatever feels right to you, whatever you are drawn to. Don’t worry about what another person thinks about you or your path. Maybe you need to read something in that book to teach you a lesson?

Of course, we Shadak Witches also have 108 Books of Shadak that we draw inspiration and wisdom from. These books have been handwritten or typed out by modern-day Witches with computers and are leather bound. These books are filled with the thoughts, ideas and opinions of our family members as well as instructions, rules and rule changes, counsel decisions and more and are to be read alongside any other books of our choosing.

Most Wiccans I have met believe in the Summerlands or life after death, ghosts, and angels. I’ve even heard some Wiccans speak of demons, which are from the Christian religion. I suspect these are Wiccans who were raised around Christianity.

I believe that when a person dies, their energy is reabsorbed back into Nature, back into the Goddess. I don’t believe in a traditional afterlife, so no Summerlands, no angels, no ghosts, no demons. I don’t believe in Jesus either -shocking, huh?

My altar is very simple, as well. I have two altars at the moment because I am living in my own apartment and then, part time, with my boyfriend. Both altars are just flat wooden tables. Both have candles on them, incense, oils, sage, some dice, Tarot Cards, books, flowers in a vase. Nothing elaborate; no statues, no athames, no pictures of the lord and lady, no pentacles…though I do wear a pentacle necklace and a pentacle ring, Both to me represent that I am Pagan, that I believe in the 4 elements and spirit and the six senses.

Most Wiccans have a year-and a-day of study. They can start out a bright-eyed bushy-tailed young teen ager and a year later become a High Priestess who doesn’t even know how to read tarot cards!

In Witchcraft, there either is no degree system at all — because progress is marked personally by how much we have learned or how much we have experienced — or there is a personal degree system such as the one that I follow which takes many YEARS to get through until you can become a High Priest. There are six levels within each degree in the system I follow and you earn a level by reading certain books and doing what you are supposed to do in the books. You do a simplistic ritual to see if you have earned a level. The die is instrumental in determining this.

Wiccans care very much about the rede and law of three. They don’t hurt people willy-nilly. But in The Tradition of Witchcraft I was raised in, we must wait for certain changes to happen. We must wait for the doors to open. This means that if I want to go to college, I must read The Books, cast the dice and wait for that door to open, Wiccans may just apply and attend school, not thinking about whether or not this is their intended path, whether or not they have taken a slot that someone else was supposed to have, etc. After all, what rule is there to follow other than the rede?

As far as sex, the body, life on Earth, we have similar views. Sex is sacred to most Wiccans and Witches and whatever someone does, as long as there isn’t harm, is all right. I’m gay and that’s perfectly accepted in both paths. The body is Holy.

Many Wiccans I have encountered tell me that Wicca is the religion and Witchcraft is just Magic. Magic is Magic, folks. You can be a Witch and NEVER practice Magic. There are many Traditions out there called Witchcraft and these people consider this to be their religion or spiritual path, as I do! If someone asked me what my religion was, I would say I am a Unitarian Universalist and a Solitary Eclectic Witch. I might also say that I am a Shadak Witch because Shadakism is the name of the tradition that I was raised in, It would depend on how much time I wanted to invest in explaining myself to the person I was talking with.

Magic is such a small part of being a Witch. I think I have been a Witch for 29 years and have done only about 50 spells in that entire time. Most of what I do is worship Nature, cook, garden, read, contemplate, dance, chant, cleanse, clean, watch TV, listen to music, have sex, walk in the woods, swim and cast dice, which are all parts of being a Witch. You should embrace your spiritual life as well as your ‘mundane’ life.

‘Blessed Be’ is usually a Wiccan saying, much like Merry Meet or Merry Part. Most Witches won’t say this when you meet them. It’s one good way to tell if the person you are speaking with is a Witch or a Wiccan… but some Witches will use the term if they are speaking with someone else who uses it. For example, my sister is Wiccan and will often end our conversations with “Blessed Be!” and out of respect I will also say it.

So, out of respect for the Wiccans who chose to read this, I say, “Blessed Be”!

Your Charm for Tuesday, August 13th is Abracadabra

Your Charm for Today

Today’s Meaning:

The most powerful of all talisman indicating you or someone close to you will recover from an infection.

General Description:

One of the most famous of all talismans, and used as a magical formula by the Gnostics in Rome for invoking the aid of beneficient spirits against disease, misfortune and death. Sammonieus, the celebrated Gnostic physician; instructed that the letters of this magical triangle which he used for curing agues and fevers, were to be written on paper, folded into the shape of a cross, worn for nine days suspended from the neck, and, before sunrise, cast behind the patient into a stream running eastward. It was also a most popular charm in the middle ages. During the Great Plague, 1665, great numbers of these amulets were worn as supposed safeguards against infection.

The Witches Spell for July 17th – Spell for Personal Change

Spell for Personal Change

This spell utilizes the transformative powers of fire for personal change.

What you need: Candle, Fire Proof Container, Paper, Pencil.

What to do: Relax. Light the candle. Sit down and write down ALL the things you want to change about yourself. Make sure they are things you truly wish to change. When you are done catch the paper on fire and when it first lights say to the paper:

“I BANISH THIS!”

Place the paper in fire proof container and gaze into the burning flames. Say:

“Transformation I call to me,
Blessed Fire answer my plea.
Banish the old and bring in the new,
Clear the way for what’s healthy and true.”

Keep saying it until the flames die down to nothing. Make a concerted effort to change your ways/habits/thoughts and fire will help you achieve success.

Bothersome Neighbors Go Away Spell

There’s often one family in every neighborhood that simply causes trouble for others, no matter how people try to get along with them. Perhaps they have loud parties almost every night or children who torment neighborhood pets or bully other children. When you’ve honestly tried everything else, here’s a spell to help them find a better place to live: a place away from you where they will be happier with their neighborhood.

Find a green candle, one large enough to burn 30 minutes a day for at least a week. Make up a short chant something like this:

Bothersome neighbors go away, find a much better place to stay. A place where you will be happy, I will be happy, and all around you will be happy. An affordable place, a nice place, A much better place to stay So long as it is far from me and mine. Bothersome neighbors go away.

It’d be better to make up your own, especially if you can personalize it to the people in question. Just make it positive and upbeat. The idea here is that you are helping these folks find something better than they have now and helping yourself to peace and quiet at the same time.

You’ll also need paper and colored pencils/pens/crayons/whatever.

Each night light your candle (cast a circle first if you want one), imagining the flame as a spark in their mind which will lead them to a new home. Then sit down an stare into the flame for 5-10 minutes concentrating on your desire that they find a new, better place to live where they will be happy and annoy no one.

Then take up your pen and paper and draw while chanting your chant. Stick figure art is okay if that is the best you can do. The first night draw your neighbor’s (current) house with them doing the annoying types of things they do. Make it complete even if it’s simple art. Put in the trees, windows, and the like. When you are done, wait for the end of the 30 minutes, concentrating on the candle flame and your goal. Fold the paper up and tear it to small shreds. Put out your candle (and close your circle if you created one. Save the torn scraps of paper.

On each night for the rest of the week, repeat the ritual, but the art will change. On the second day, draw them excited and happy in front of their current house — because they’ve found a better one. For the rest of the week, draw them carrying various stuff out of their current house (as if they were moving). The key thing here is only show there current house. You don’t want to limit possibilities by drawing a new house for them.

After you’ve done this a week, put all of the scraps of paper and some of the tail end of the candle in an envelope and bury it or hide it on the property line between their place and yours. If you’ve used large sheets of paper, you only need to include a portion from each if you need to keep the envelope small.

Note that a spell like this can take a while to take effect. Most people do not pack up and move overnight.

Just a brief thought……

See I butter you up with a beautiful graphic, now here it comes, lol! I don’t know what they have done to WordPress but I am having to go back and do everything 5 or 6 times (in html codes). So hopefully I can get my thought through without going to that extreme again.

I just want to make this short as possible. In the comment section in the back, we constantly have people wanting love spells or a spell to get their “ex’s” back or something like that. I always tell them no. Then a few days later, I get a note telling me they have found a “real” spellcaster and they are doing the spell for them. And get this for only $75.00, yes $75.00 for a love spell. What a bargain! Perhaps if we didn’t have one ounce of moral fiber to our being we could all get rich that way, huh?

It is true, you will find Love Spells on this site. Why? People ask for them. We provide what our friends and followers want. But we are continuously expressing these words, “do not use a love spell that will interfere with another person’s freewill. NEVER!” If you are having someone casting you a love spell that will return an ex-lover to you or attract a certain person to you, YOU ARE MESSING WITH THEIR FREEWILL! It is a Law of Magick, you never interfere with another person freewill, never, ever. If you do, Karma will bite you in the ass. Oh, yes it will. What do you think is going to happen when this person finds out they were called to you because of a spell? I think if it was me, I would have a few words for you, then leave. You are not meant to find love that way. It doesn’t work that way. I am sorry if you are lonely and think the right person in your life will never come along. But casting a spell is not the way to get a lover, get a cat. Then I guarantee you a lover will show up then you will be wondering what to do with the cat, lol!

All kidding aside, our Laws forbid us to mess with another individual’s freewill. Perhaps you think paying someone to do it for you won’t have an effect on you. Wrong again! Karma will still get you. You are still breaking our Laws. Besides a spellcaster that takes your money and does you such a good job, they are breaking our Laws also. We are never to charge for our services to mankind. The main reason we are given our Power is to help and assist mankind. Not to manipulate his/her freewill or charge others for our services.

There are ways to call love into your life, if that is what you wish. But it is not by me casting a spell for you. For starters, my intent would never be as strong as yours. You are the one desiring love not me. Second, I am not having Karma bite me. I am going to give my advice whether you want it or not (and you know who you are). You can do a love spell on your own. But never manipulate a person’s freewill. Got you puzzled now, don’t I? At the end of the spell open it up to the Universe. Say, “If it be the Universe’s will, then so be it!” Not, John Doe, I love you and you will come to me. Leave it open to a higher power, accept the Fate the Universe deals you. Perhaps at this time in your life, your path is complicated and you don’t have time for love. Maybe you don’t realize it but the Universe does. Either have patience or use the words, I have given you. But never, ever interfere with a person’s freewill. And never pay another person to cast a spell for you. Both of these are against our Laws.

I know there are things in my life, I do not like at times. I have the Power to change them if I wanted to. But somewhere down the line I would be manipulating with something, I know that. So whether or not I like it, I accept the hand I have been dealt and deal with it. I know the Goddess and the Universe knows what is best for me. I know if I live my life according to our Laws, everything will be work out. Have patience, things will work out for you too. Just don’t be manipulating any freewill or paying a spellcaster to cast spells for you. It all reflects back on you and your Karma and I guarantee you one thing, Karma will get you one way or another.

Think out your actions long and hard, then act.

More Good Day Comments

The Witches Spell for January 13th – Petition Spell To Banish Faults

Witchy Comments

Petition Spell To Banish Faults

Use this spell to eliminate weaknesses from your life.

Timing: Moon’s third quarter; Moon’s fourth quarter; Saturday, hour of Saturn; Sunset; Midnight: Autumn; Winter; of your personal power time.

Supplies Needed:

2 pieces vegetable parchment (one small, one large)

1 pen

Cauldron or heatproof dish

White candle

Matches

The Spell:

1. Empower the supplies for success.

2. On the larger piece of vegetable parchment, write down five faults that you would like to banish from your life. Choose one from this list and write it on the smaller piece of parchment.

3. Light the candle.

4. Fold the small paper up and touch the corner of the paper to the candle’s flame until it ignites. Drop the paper in the cauldron or heatproof dish.

5. Watch the paper redden, whiten then blacken, and visualize your fault losing substance and vanishing from your life. With intent and awareness, cross that fault off the list on the larger piece of parchment.

6. When the ashes of the paper have cooled, bury them outdoors off your property.

7. Choose the next appropriate time to banish another fault from your list an proceed as above. Repeat weekly or over the next series of Moon cycles until your list is done. After the final repetition of the spell, burn the larger list as well.

Living Life As The Witch – Finding Your Personal Goddess

Witchy Comments=

Finding Your Personal Goddess

One of the things that most of us have in common–whether we call ourselves Pagans, Witches or Wiccans–is a belief in the female divine. Many of us also acknowledge the existence of a male divine, albeit one that bears little resemblance to the God we may have grown up with, but it is Goddess worship which sets us apart from other religions and brings us together in this one.

But which Goddess? There are so many names by which we call her, it can be hard to decide which of the Lady’s incarnations is best suited to our own practice and personality. Yet for many of us, the search for our personal Goddess is part of the path we walk as Pagans. How can we know which Goddess to call on in our prayers?

The first question to ask, really, is does she need a specific name at all? Some Pagans are happy to simply refer to their female deity as “Goddess” in the abstract, without attaching any particular name or tradition to her. (I often do that myself, although I have one Goddess who I worship primarily, and often call on others for specific tasks or holidays.)

There are a few benefits to this approach: it is simple and easy, you can be sure that your prayer will get to Goddess in one form or another, and you don’t have to worry that you are addressing the wrong deity for your magickal work.

There is certainly nothing wrong with calling on a general all-purpose Goddess. After all, most people who talk to “God” don’t call him by any particular name. If you are just starting out, or haven’t figured out a specific Goddess who seems right to you, then it is absolutely appropriate to address your prayers and spells to “Great Goddess,” “Mother of Us All,” “Lady of the Moon,” or any other generic term for the feminine one.

Reference:

Excerpt from “Finding Your Personal Goddess”

By Deborah Blake

Llewellyn’s 2012 Magical Almanac

Pagan Lite: Being A Non-Magical Witch in A Magical World

Pagan Lite: Being A Non-Magical Witch in A Magical World

Author: Charmed Boy

This article is one I had hoped to put off writing for a while. It is a continuation of sorts to the first article I wrote entitled When Walking The Path…Wear Shoes.I am what I call a “non-magical” Witch. I don’t cast spells or perform elaborate rituals. That may be fine for most of my Pagan brothers and sisters but it’s not really my thing.

I first realized magic and spells weren’t my thing when I attended the last Samhain celebration hosted by my friend Fran. As many who have read my first article know, Fran was the High Priestess of a group here in Arkansas called Net-per-netjer which means “beautiful house of the Gods.” Fran was an amazing woman. She meant business when she donned the crown of Isis and acted as High Priestess and conducted rituals. She also cared about the people who attended the celebrations.

I remember one occasion; it was after ritual. Fran had made a delicious feast of ham and colcannon. My father and I had both attended but my father preferred to observe from outside of the circle. He’s not Pagan but he is very supportive of my choice of faith. Fran made sure everyone ate. I was sitting in the front room watching a movie when I heard Fran’s voice from the kitchen.

“Chuck! Where is your father?”

I shrugged. “I think he’s in the car.”

My father is the type of person who doesn’t like to get into other people’s way when they are doing things like ritual. Fran frowned.

“Tell your father to come in and eat something.”

I went out and got him. Fran made sure he ate before we left. That’s just the kind of person Fran was. Always concerned with the welfare of others. After that, Fran and I didn’t see each other. Not because there was an animosity between us but because we both had things going on in our lives. We e-mailed and spoke on the phone quite a lot.

One day last year I sent an e-mail to Fran just to say hi and see how she was. I got a reply from her husband informing me that Fran had passed away. I miss Fran very much. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her and the good times we shared. Attending those rituals made me realize that, that sort of thing wasn’t what I wanted.

I took some time for meditation and reflection to decide if being a Witch and Pagan was really for me. I walked in the woods near my house and listened to the birds and the wind as it blew through the trees. During these walks I posed questions to myself. Do I really need to practice magic and perform rituals to consider myself a Witch and Pagan? Do I really need all the trappings that go along with it, such as candles and incense and athames? Where am I meant to be? I asked the Goddess and Fran for guidance. I asked them to speak to me and give me a sign if this is the path I am meant to be on.

One day I went out for one of my walks when WHAM!! The answer hit me like a ton of bricks: You don’t need to practice magic or perform rituals to honor the Goddess and or God.

I have spoken to other Pagans and Wiccans who have told me that if you don’t practice magic and do rituals you ‘can’t really call yourself a Witch and Pagan’. I believe differently. The definition of “Witch” as I understand it means “wise one” and “knowledge seeker” and that Pagan means “country dweller” I believe we are all Witches and Pagans, regardless if we cast spells and perform rituals… or choose not to.

I have come to realize things about my faith and myself. I am both a Witch and Pagan and am very proud of that fact. I wear my Pentacle with pride. Whenever a Pagan holiday or Full Moon comes around, I pray, make an offering of thanks to the Goddess… and that is pretty much it. No muss, no fuss. For many other Pagans and Wiccans, the lighting of candles and incense, the chanting and casting of a circle adds to the enjoyment of ritual, and that is awesome. I believe everyone should be able to do his or her own thing, whatever that may be. Goddess knows, I don’t have the right to judge someone by what they do or don’t do.

Occasionally I’ll read an article on Witchvox.com about performing ritual and working magic. Want to know what is magical to me? Standing outside on a cool night when the moon is full in the night sky and glows like a big orange night light. Talking to my best friend on the phone and hearing the sound of her laugh. Seeing the sparkle in my godson’s eyes when he is excited about something. Stepping outside in the wintertime and smelling the sharp, fresh, cold scent of the air and seeing the freshly falling snow on the ground. Seeing the leaves in the Fall change color from green to red and orange and yellow. Smelling the scent of burning leaves and wood. Eating handfuls of candy corn. Sipping hot apple cider on a cold October day while going on a hayride with my dad. Feeling the power and ancientness of All Hallow’s Eve. These are my rituals. This is my magic. This is the way I honor the Goddess.

Do I believe those who do cast spells and perform rituals are wrong? Of course not. Fran did, and seeing the joy and power it brought into her life was an amazing thing to witness. When I am asked what my choice of religion is and I tell them “I am a Witch”, the child within me claps his hands and squeals with glee. I laugh whenever someone asks me if I fly around on a broom. I smile and say “No but I wish I could. It would make getting from one place to another a lot more exciting!”

In all seriousness, I am very proud to call myself a Witch. Walking the path I have been walking for the past 12 years has made me the person I am today. I am a little wiser and a lot more compassionate and forgiving. I am humbled and honored daily by the compassion and endless love the Goddess has shown me. We are all her children, regardless of how we choose to honor her. I cherish the Pagan and Wiccan friends I have made, especially Fran. She will live on in my heart and in my memory forever.

In closing, to all my Witchy brothers and sister out there I say this to you: Be comfortable in your own skin. Don’t let others tell you your way of worshipping the Goddess and God is wrong. Wear your Pentacle with pride! These are indeed magical times!

Blessed Be!

“Harm None”

Burning Times Comments & Graphics

Because Witches have been persecuted for so many centuries. Wiccans and Witches believe in religious freedom first! We do not look at this Path as the only way to achieve spirituality, but as one Path among many to be the same end. We are willing to share experience and knowledge with those who seek wisdom and perspective. Wiccans and Witches practice tolerance and acceptance toward all other religions as long as those faiths do not persecute others or violate the tenant of “Harm None.”

~Magickal Graphics~

CANDLES AND SYMPATHETIC MAGIC

When candles are molded into shapes, it is called sympathetic magic.

To assist in finding a familiar, burn a candle in the shape of the animal you desire

Fertility spells can be cast with a phallus-shaped or womb-shaped candle. Healing uses human-shaped candles or skull candles. White ones are for healing, black ones for reversing spells and warding off negativity. Different animal-shaped candles can be used for a specific purpose. Some examples are: dog – loyalty, cat – cleanliness, wolf – wisdom, bear – motherhood, rabbit – fertility.

Another type of candle magic uses pins. Stick a pin in as close to the top as you can without breaking the wax. As you insert it, say:
“When this candle burns to the pin,
The process of (name the desire) will begin.”
Insert a secont pin close to the first and say:
“When this candles burns to this pin
The process of (name the desire) will come to a successful completion and end.”
-This idea came from Silver RavenWolf

You can use birthday candles or very small candles for a spell that needs to be done quickly. You can also put drops of colored oil or food coloring into small tealite candles which also burn quickly.

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The Witches Magick for February 27th

Your Animal Spirit for Today January 28, 2014

Green Woman

Spell To Receive Divine Messages

Spell To Keep Evil Away

Protection Bath Spell Kit $8.95

Your Charm for Today

Spell for Personal Change

Bothersome Neighbors Go Away Spell

Petition Spell To Banish Faults

Finding Your Personal Goddess

Your Animal Spirit for Today
January 28, 2014