Tag: Shopping

Spell for Monday/Full Moon – Goddess Spell to Strengthen Your Intuition

By: Beth Johnson (Mystic)
Do this spell on a Monday, during a Full Moon. Gather together two Silver Altar Candles, a Gold Offertory/Purpose Candle, and a Dark Green Astral Candle, because the person is a Capricorn. The candles may be of any of these scents, or any
combination of these aromatherapy scents: Honeysuckle, Jasmine, Lotus, Rosemary, Sandalwood, Thyme, Vetiver. Inscribe an Ankh on the Purpose Candle. Dress the candles with any of these oils or any combination of them: Cinnamon Leaf, Clove
Bud, Cedarwood, Camphor, Lemon Grass, Myrrh, Sandalwood, Sweet Orange. After you have inscribed and dressed your candle, roll it in 7 of these herbs: Almond, Apple, Cedar, Cinnamon, Daisy, Marjoram, Mint, Sage, Thyme. Before lighting these candles, put 7 of these crystals in any combinations, around the candles (if you have enough to put 7 of each, that would be good to): Quartz, Beryl, Jet, Obsidian, Hematite, Gold, Silver, Agate, Amethyst, Bloodstone, Copper, Lead, Moonstone, seashells. These are stones that are a combination of the purpose of the spell and the astrological sign stones for Capricorn.Before you light the candles and begin your spell, cast your circle with visualization. Use a gold outer circle and a silver inner circle. Take a moment to get in touch with your Goddess and re-dedicate yourself to the purpose of this spell. Say this chant to the Goddess 7 times:”Goddess, Lady of Love and Light
Let my thoughts be clear and bright;
Bless my heart and soul this night.”

See the Goddess touching your Third Eye and opening
it. Feel your spirit guides and ancestors around
you, wishing you well, willing to teach you.
Dedicate yourself to using your new insights to
help yourself and others. Know that these psychic
abilities and insights will stay with you and
enrich your life. When the candles burn down,
thank the Goddess, your guides and ancestors, and
tell them goodnight.

About The Author: Beth Johnson, (Mystic) is a student of Sisters In Freya’s Moon, born August 10, 1944, Mystic is the oldest of four children. Her father was a minister (from a long line of Methodist ministers) and her mother taught piano and French. Mystic was born while her father was a chaplain in the Navy, serving on a ship with General MacArthur in the Philippines. His father had been a chaplain in the Army in WWI. Mystic was married for 25 years to a marine and has two children, Kristin and Erik, both married but no grandchildren yet. She is divorced and lives in Saltillo, Mississippi. She is a folk artist and sometimes teach that and fabric painting with dyes. She also teaches Reiki and sometimes basic Tarot. She loves to read, dance barefooted, write poems and spells, do candle magick, make candles, and date her boyfriend Frank.

Popping Pills and Magical Practice

Popping Pills and Magical Practice

Author: Deborah
Since writing my latest article for WitchVox on Magically Cleansing Your Home, I’ve been getting the same question over and over:

Do you think that taking medication affects your magical practice?

My short answer would be: No.

For those of you interested in a discussion, I will share my thoughts with you here. Firstly, I’d like to say that I really dislike it when people are made to feel like they need to engage in secrecy and shame. If that happens, something has really gone wrong in my opinion. The fact that apparently a lot of Pagans/Magical Practitioners feel that they can’t talk about taking prescription medication — and need to hide the reality that they do take medications from the community — makes me really sad. Taking care of your health and taking advantage of modern medicine shouldn’t be something you have to feel shame about in spiritual circles.

So let’s start kicking down some walls and lay it all out there. I have depression, anxiety, anemia and fibromyalgia. I currently take the following medications to make it so that I am a productive member of society: Prozac, Xanax, Remeron, Savella, Celebrex, Vitamin D, Multi-Vitamin and Birth Control. In the past, I have: gone to therapy and tried Kava and St. John’s Wort to help.

The therapy helped immensely, the Kava and St. John’s Wort significantly less so. In addition to my medication I use yoga, stress management techniques, japa/self guided meditation, massage, journaling and talking to loved ones to manage my conditions. I see my doctor regularly. She is very tight fisted with all the “fun” meds and I don’t think I could get a Vicodin out of her if it meant she could retire on an island of her own. But at the same time, she treats my conditions very aggressively.

Even with good coping mechanisms, good medication and a good support structure, I still have days where I’m anxious and can’t sleep and I occasionally have days when I am depressed for no reason. Sometimes my fibromyalgia causes me so much fatigue and pain still that I can’t get out of bed.

Even with taking medication, I still feel the normal human range of emotions and generally only feel sad or stressed when I’m “supposed to”. I’ve worked since I was fourteen. I pay my taxes. I write; I ran a convention. I go out and have fun doing all the things early thirty-somethings like to do. I have loving relationships and I own a car and a condo. My medication makes it so that instead of being too depressed to be motivated, or paralyzed with inexplicable fear and anxiousness, or too bedridden with pain and fatigue, I can lead a fairly “normal” life.

Which is the reason I get confused about why shame needs to be implemented if people choose to take advantage of first world medical care in order to lead functional lives. Are there people who abuse prescriptions? Um, yeah. They’re addicts like the people who are alcoholics and drug abusers. Is that the majority of people who take meds? No.

There’s this idea that really bugs me that there are all these people who take medication they don’t really need and this medication magically takes away all of their problems so they don’t need to deal with them. Last I knew, you needed to take like a fistful of Xanax or are shooting H to get that effect. Which . . .see: addict.

Medication (and therapy) helps get you to the point where you’re not in a full-blown chemical freak-out so you can effectively solve your problems and live your life. If you can do that for yourself without meds, awesome! You have an incredible immune system and brain chemistry. If you can do that solely with homeopathic methods, great! There’s nothing wrong with homeopathy if it works for you.

If you feel taking meds makes you a lesser person somehow then that’s your business and you certainly have a right to your feelings. But I start to get really touchy when someone who thinks that taking meds makes him/her a lesser person insists that I should think that too. I get even more touchy when you start to try to tell me what to do with my body because I have a real problem with that. Agency over my body goes way beyond whether or not I decide to have an abortion; it’s also about having the right to make the decisions I make regarding my health care.

And this junk that some people in our community put on others — about how taking prescription medication is selling out, supporting corporate evil and bringing our community down and how you don’t “believe” in the pharmaceutical industry so neither should anyone else, along with the hype that positive energy/crystals/herbs/alternative therapies would work for everyone regardless of their brain chemistry and body systems and personal desires — is just that: junk.

Because honestly? Unless you’re completely off the grid (and then would not be reading this on the internet) , we all have to make compromises every day with big business. Do I like that? No. Am I willing to compromise my issues with big business in order to be a reasonably functioning human? Yes. Am I saying you have to make that compromise? No. Am I saying you need to leave me alone and make my own big girl decisions about that compromise and why I don’t use crystals for healing? Yes.

With all that out of the way, let’s get to the nuts and bolts of the question asked. While I haven’t been completely unmedicated in roughly ten years, there are occasions when I have a little time in between prescriptions due to various reasons (mostly due to the length of time it takes for my prescriptions to arrive to me via mail) . It is during these times when I am in a quasi-unmedicated state — and/or if my fibro-flare is that impressive that it punches past my meds — that I feel able to give my own take on whether or not my medications have affected my magical practice.

When I was unmedicated/quasi-unmedicated, it was significantly easier for me to be in touch intuitively. What that means to me is that Tarot reading was easier to “pull”, getting random psychic impulses and having an easier time seeing what’s going on with what I call The Tapestry. The Tapestry refers to everything that’s happened in the past, everything that’s happening right now, everything that will happen and everything that never happened. To me it looks like a huge tapestry constantly weaving and unweaving itself in bits and pieces. Typically I could see about like one billionth of the whole tapestry, and it was mostly my little corner of the world.

However. And this is a big however, my magic has significantly improved since medicating. My spells are much more effectively, I now have the focus to have a personal practice (which I didn’t previously) and my rituals are more effective and meaningful.

So while yes, my general fuzzy random psychic ability was better unmedicated, having the ability to cast better and have a better personal practice to me far outweighed my unmedicated abilities. My unmedicated abilities were more “traditional” psychic aspects.

The ability to get the perfect condo through my targeted magic work far outweighed the benefit of being able to say, “Gordon! I think something is going to happen to you on Wedne- Thursd- No, definitely Wednesday. No idea what though. Cheers!” So for me, being more functional in my daily life and being more effective in my targeted magical practice far outweighed being unmedicated.

Spell for Today – Spell to Turn Your Life Around

 

Spell to Turn Your Life Around

 

Cast this spell at dawn.

Items Needed:

One white candle *for purity & strength* in the middle.

One pink candle *for spiritual help* at the right.

One blue candle *for cleansing of the self* at the left.

As you light them starting from the middle, then right, then the left say..

This is the turning point in my life.

I am erasing the past. The future is mine to choose.

Right this moment I am making my tomorrows.

I forgive myself for all past mistakes.

I start over with a clean slate.

I choose for myself only that which I desire to experience.

I choose….(You name it: health, wealth, companionship, happiness, etc.)

As I have said, SO MOTE IT BE!!!

Life As The Witch – Recognizing Our Goddess, HEKATE (Hecate)


Hekate: A Modern Implications

These days, Hekate is often still seen as the Goddess of Witchcraft and Dark Magick, a Dark Crone, because of her connection to the line between life and death. Her chthonic roots are attributed to her aspects as a Death Goddess, but in truth she is not solely death aspected. Her nature is one of transformation, and though change can be terrifying and damaging, it can also be beatific. To think of Her only as a chthonic, Underworld Goddess is to ignore part of her nature.

These days we too often see things in terms of diametric, opposites (light/dark, masculine, feminine, God/Goddess, as if the vast universe is written in binary, nothing more than ones and zeros. While these dichotomies play a role in the nature of the universe, they are also simplified depictions. Deity cannot be contained in the use of dichotomy, because deity transcends those terms.

Hekate is neither light nor dark; she is the very scale of graduation, present at the exact point at which one type of gray becomes another, between every gradient and at either end of the spectrum. Each change is her territory, and there are billions of transformations every day.

Hekate’s connection to magic is another aspect of her nature. Through magic we take what is only potential and pull it into reality, imprinting the mundane world with what could be. And this is one of the biggest changes of all, the transformation for which Hekate has always been particularly revered. Magick is transformation, and it’s from this that Hekate’s association with it is.

In invoking Heckate we can learn to accept changes in our lives, both positive and negative, and we can also create change in our own worlds. She aids the completion and manifestation of spells and when called for divinatory purposes she can help to reveal the truth more readily. She can part the Veil, to allow clearer vision or communion with the dead. Hekate is a protector of children, especially when they walk hard paths, but also in the journey into adulthood.

Hekate guards the crossroads, both those that line our physical reality and those that mark our passage through life, through our spirituality, and through the journey that is existence.

Reference:

Excerpt from:”The Transformative Nature of Hekate”

by Marion Sipe

Llewellyn’s 2012 Magical Living Companion

Witches Spell for Sunday, March 2 – Spell for Stress and Depression

Witches Spell for Sunday, March 2 – Spell for Stress and Depression

Items needed:
White candle (non-dripless variety)
Kunzite or blue agate
Black marker with wide felt tip
Lemon Balm
Lemon oil (the kind used for furniture polish is fine)
Cloth pouch

Begin by completely coloring the candle black with the marker to symbolize the
depression that presently encases you. Light the candle and say:

Flame cut through depression deep,
Melt it down and make it weep.
Grant me power to re-emerge,
From its grip, I leap and surge.

Watch the candle burn until white wax appears at the flame.
Rub a bit of lemon oil into the flame and say:

Kunzite/agate, stone of mellow hue,
Dissolve this depression, I beg of you.
Take its power and transform its strength
Into positive energy I can use at length.

Lightly rub the stone against your temples and your heart, then place it in front of the candle and sprinkle it with lemon balm. Let the candle burn completely.
Place the stone and herb in the cloth pouch and carry it with you.

When your spirits need a lift, re-anoint the stone and repeat its empowerment chant.

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Let’s Talk Witch – Pt. 2 Engaging All Five Senses in Spellwork (Smell)

Let’s Talk Witch – Pt. 2 Engaging All Five Senses in Spellwork (Smell)

Taste and smell are closely linked, but they do have different aspects. Smell is very portable, something you can wear to continually remind yourself of your spellwork. Spells for courage, confidence, and other emotion-linked outcomes can be kept close, and when something is worn on your skin, it becomes a part of you. A vial of oil used as the focus for a calming spell can be a great way to get through a long flight, and the scents we use in our home can be integrated into protection and cleansing spells for when the place needs a quick touch-up.

However, you can also use scents to evoke memory and, through that memory, the results you wish to attain. Drawing on memories of a loved ones, for example, can strengthen spells for that person, aid in contacting a loved one who has passed on, or help you access emotions tied to those memories. Emotions can be particularly hard to define in spellwork, but the way a result make us feel can be an important aspect of the working. In this way, finding the right scent to produce that emotion can make your goal more solid, bringing it just a little further into reality.

Tomorrow, we examine “Taste” as it is used in spellworking.

Excerpt from
Engaging All Five Senses in Spellwork
By Marion Sipe
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A Little Secret That Only Witches Can Know About. Can I Trust You?

Every secret organization or religion has a secret or two. Of course, you won’t never hear about them because they are secrets. Makes senses. Most of these organizations and religions have secrets to keep the public out and in the dark, to exclude them. On the other hand, our religion is not like that we have had to keep it secret just to keep it alive. If it was for our ancestors keeping our entire religion secret, we wouldn’t have a religion.

The secret I am getting ready to share with you is not that big of deal. It was used in the Burning Times to determine if the person you were meeting was a witch. You can see during this period of time why it was very important to know who you were meeting.

Here is the ritual. Enjoy!

This is a magic witches hand shake spell. This spell is cast to find out if someone you know may or may not be a witch. After casting this magic spell, you will then shake the hand of the person you are inquiring about, and your answer will be revealed in the handshake. It can also be used to slightly put a thought or idea inside the mind of a person without coming right out and suggesting it. We offer many more free magic spells here for you to use and to try.

Extend your right index finger and lightly touch the wrist of the person exactly where the pulse is felt. By touching the pulse it throws the acquaintance completely off his balance for just an instant , but in that instant plant an initial
thought, ( example : I am the one you want for the job) this
really works and is cool, try it.

*You can also determine if the other person is a witch by the way they grasp your hand. If their right index finger is extended and touching your pulse area, more than likely they are a with.*

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Sunday Is Ruled By The Sun

Sunday Is Ruled By The Sun

Archangel: Michael

Candle colour: Gold

Incenses: Frankincense or orange

Crystals: Amber of clear quartz

Use Sundays for spells for new beginnings, for worldly success, to achieve ambitions and to reverse bad luck, especially  and for health.

Where possible, use an open space in sunlight for sun spells, such as a sunny beach or shimmering plain.

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Calendar of the Moon for February 27th

Calendar of the Moon

Ash Tree Month

Color: Pale Blue
Elements: Water and air
Altar: On a cloth of pale blue set a great bowl of salt water in which are set many shells and stones, a shell full of salt, incense, and the figures of sea-birds and fishes.
Offerings: Wash something clean, or air it out.
Daily Meal: Either fish or seafood, or poultry.

Nion/Anthesterion Invocation

Call: Now is the time of wind and water.
Response: Now is the time of sea and sky.
Call: Now is the time of the Gods of weather.
Response: Now is the time of the great waves.
Call: Now is the time of terrible flooding.
Response: Now is the time of needed rain.
Call: Now is the time of battering gales.
Response: Now is the time of winds of change.
Call: Now is the time of fear of change.
Response: Now, and always, change will win.
Call: The wild winds disturb our dreams.
Response: The wild winds awake our minds.
Call: The heavy rains flood our hearts.
Response: The heavy rains water our future.
Call: The sea will sweep us away.
Response: The sea will bear us up.
Call: The sea is cold and unending.
Response: The sea is the source of life.
Call: We are ships on the lost expanse of the ocean.
Response: We are winds that call to one another.
Call: We will brave the wind and water.
Response: We will bring together mind and heart.
Call: We will come home safely after wandering.
Response: We will anchor safely after our journeys.
Call: We will come through wind and water!
Response: We will come through wind and water!
(Repeat last two lines twice more.)

Chant:
We will come through wind and water
We will come through sea and sky

[Pagan Book of Hours]

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Calendar of the Sun for February 27th

Calendar of the Sun

27 Solmonath

Day of the Elders

Colors: Grey, silver, and purple
Element: Earth
Altar: On cloth of purple, grey, and silver place three lit grey candles scented with cypress, a branch of yew, a silver chalice of fruit juice, and a silver tray of frosted white cakes.
Offerings: Food or other aid given to organizations that give aid to elders. Offer to spend time helping or keeping companionship with an elder.
Daily Meal: Allow the three eldest members of the community to choose the meal.

Invocation to the Elder Spirit

Hail, Old One,
Crone and Wise Man,
Silver of hair
And adamant of spirit,
Aged like fine wine
Through years of experience;
You who watch the young ones grow
And remember their path
And tell them the pitfalls ahead,
You who have made a friend
Of changing Time,
You whom Saturn has blessed
With a double circle,
You who keep the mysteries
And the secret knowledge,
You who mentor and teach,
Show us how to walk gracefully
Into the sunset of life.

(The chant for this day should be a wordless harmony. First the cakes are passed around, served in order of age, eldest first; then the juice is likewise shared. Then each member of the community, starting with the youngest, goes before each member who is past their second Saturn return, or if there are none the eldest among them, kneels, and asks for their blessing. After the next eldest has asked for the blessing of the eldest, the ritual is ended.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

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Calendar of the Sun for Friday, February 21

Calendar of the Sun

Feralia: Day of Purification

Color: White
Element: Air
Altar: On a white cloth put a lit candle, incense, a cup of water, and a bowl of salt.
Offering: Although this day is not a day of total silence, it is a solemn day and talking should be done only when necessary and in quiet tones. Bodies should be thoroughly cleaned during the bathing hour, and then the altar area should be cleaned and purified with all four elements. Each person, upon entering the altar space at the beginning of Sponde should remove their clothing and be naked, and each body should be purified with the four elements and marked with water and salt, at which point they may enrobe again. Chores of the day should concentrate on cleaning and repair.
Daily Meal: Vegan and extremely simple and plain.

Feralia Invocation

Breathe the air into your body
And breathe out again,
And as you breathe out,
Let all grime and corruption
Depart on that breath
(All breathe together for twelve breaths.)
Feel the blood coursing through your body
And imagine it clean
Of anything but what should be there.
Feel the energy coursing through your body
And wash it clean
Of anything that does not belong.
Feel the Earth beneath you,
Remember that She can absorb all
Remember that all rot is her provenance
Draw her energy up into you
And give it back again.

(After this grounding, all breathe together again in a yogic breathing pattern for the next half an hour, after which all will go with water and salt and incense and fire to all rooms in the house and cleanse them. Great care should be taken for the rest of the day not to disturb the energy of the freshly cleaned house.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

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Friday Is Ruled by Venus

Friday Is Ruled by Venus

Archangel: Anael

Candle colour: Green or pink

Incenses: Rose or geranium

Crystals: Jade or rose quartz

Use Fridays for spells for love, fidelity, healing, for anything to do with beauty, the arts and crafts and for all spells concerning the environment.

Where possible, work in any enclosed beautiful place outdoors, for example a botanical garden, a field, park or your own garden – even in a circle of plants indoors.

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Dealing with psychic attack

                          Dealing with psychic attack
Zhahai Stewart

What to do if you think you are being attacked.

1 – Question if it is really either imagination, or coming from within
yourself.  Something may be trying to get your attention, but it may not be
external, and by focussing on an external “enemy” you may be missing the
point.

2 – Check to see if you are yourself inadvertently sending something out;
maybe someone is just reflecting some energy back!  Nothing is gained if you
get into adversarial mode in that case.  Many people have been taught that
reflecting is the proper response.

3 – Put up a grounding shield.  Ground it out, send it to the Mother who
can recycle the energy.  Grounding is usually taught to every student. If you
don’t feel you can be a “conduit” safely, ground it by reflecting  it
downward to the Earth; that is a big target and easy to hit.  By  grounding
it out, you are protecting yourself, yet not being caught up in it.

What not to do.

1 – Figure out who is sending it and counter attack.  You might be wrong,
and may be starting a feud.  You might be right, but they may not realize
that they are “sending” so you may start a feud or cause unnecessary harm.
Even if you are right, you are escalating a feud, of which we have too many.
This is commonly discussed as a bad idea.

2 – Put up a reflective shield which will return the energy to the sender.
This is commonly discussed as a good idea, but we disagree.  We think this is
unwise.

For one thing, it is not necessary; if you can make an accurate return
reflection, you can certainly reflect it to Earth instead (where it can be
recycled).  There is no reason you should not be able to ground out more
energy than you can accurately reflect to the sender, if viewed properly.

For another, your accuracy in returning it may be less than perfect.  You
might hit close but not close enough; if you can’t reflect it to earth, you
are going to have trouble reflecting it to an unknown person.

Sometimes this is discussed as if once you return it, the sender will just
stop; because they will awaken to what they are doing, or because the
returning energy will be too much to handle. The thing which is seldom
mentioned is that if the sender (assuming there is one) was consciously
attacking, they will likely already be prepared with their own mirrors, etc.
Great, if we put near perfect mirrors at each end and pump in energy, maybe
we can get a psychic laser effect; guess who is just on the other side of the
mirrors to catch the intensified leak thru?

If they weren’t aware of sending, they will probably just assume they are
being attacked and take countermeasures.  If they follow the 3 steps above,
fine, nothing is damaged.  But many of them will immediately think they  have
to put up a defensive mirror, or maybe worse (see below; they may decide to
teach you a lesson for attacking them).  Few people naturally respond to
perceived attacks positively (especially if they are in such a bad mood
already as to be sending without even realizing it).

Another serious concern is getting drawn into a unacknowledged feud by       your
own weaknesses.  It is often agreed that one should reflect back exactly
what is received, without adding anything of one’s own.  But the same people
who advocate that may use terms implying “returning it with enthusiasm”.
There appears to be an easily tapped source of self-righteousness in most
people feeling attacked, and it is _very hard_ not to get drawn into
imagining, at some level, the satisfying effects of the energy going back to
the attacker; that draws one into a “counter-attack” even without realizing
it.  Grounding it does not.

Watch for yourself when people are discussing “returning to sender”; see if
there isn’t very often a hidden desire for revenge or retribution lurking
there grasping for their “control panel” – and deflecting their normal
attempts at staying centered by claiming to do no more than is “justified”.
Justified is not the question; self knowledge and balance are.

There is another thread which shows up often in discussions like these; the
need to “teach the sender a lesson”.  In some cases, I have even heard this
justified as “protecting the community”.  This way lies many… ….PRINT D did
the goddess give you an “agent of threefold return” marshall’s badge, that
exempts you from any consequences “because you are just an agent”?  That
hubris is gonna teach some hard lessons, but the self appointed marshall may
be the major recipient.  It would be a little bit healthier to just shed the
self-righteousness and call it an ego driven feud.  “Teaching them a lesson”
gets filed under the pitfalls of righteousness, the ways that one’s own
weaknesses seduce one.

Also consider, what if despite your initial impression, the negative energy
is really coming from inside, from part of you?  Are you going to be better
off “reflecting it back” (maybe with additional conscious or  unconscious
oomph) or grounding it?  “Gee, I returned it but good, and now  they have
stepped it up; the sender really needs a lesson!”.  That may be more true
than you know, bucko.

Notice that nowhere do we say that one has no “right” to put up a
reflective shield; of course one does, and is fully justified.  Also,
possibly, unwise. There is a distinction between what one has a “right” to do
in “self defense”, and what is wise to get drawn into.  Reflecting it is
neither necessary, nor likely to produce positive results, but if _that
itself_ is the lesson to  be learned, what can I say?  Each chooses their own
path, and that is as it should be.  At least if one has considered the above,
one should know what they are stepping into.

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Your Charm for Wednesday, February 19th – Solomons Seal

Your Charm for Today

Solomons Seal

Today’s Meaning:    

This aspect needs to be lightened up a bit, things are getting to serious. Some humor or even a bit of flirting could lighten the tone greatly.

General Description:   

The use of this, one of the most ancient charms, dates back to the commencement of our present civilization, and was in use previous to the Jewish dispensation. The symbol has been used in almost every religion, and was considered all powerful, efficient, and the perfect sign of the absolute. The triangle with the apex upwards symbolized all that was good and the inverted triangle all that was evil, and the two combined in the device portrays the triumph of good over evil. The seven discs represent the seven then known planets. This charm was worn to protect the wearer from every description of mischief and danger, and was a preserver from all evil.

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Today’s Tarot Card for Feb. 19th is The Hermit

The Hermit

Wednesday, Feb 19th, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The challenge of what has traditionally been known as the Hermit card is to be able to recognize a teacher in a humble disguise. This font of mysterious knowledge will not make it easy for the student to acquire his wisdom, as it takes time and long contemplation to fathom what he knows. He often speaks wordlessly, or in ancient and barbaric tongues, communicating with the elements, animals and Nature herself.

While the hourglass was an identifying feature on the earliest Hermit cards, more modern ones have shifted the metaphor, showing more or less light released from his lantern. In either case, the Hermit card reminds us of the value of time away from the hubbub of civic life, to relax the ego in communion with Nature.

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Let’s Talk Witch – Making Magick Potions

Let’s Talk Witch – Making Magick Potions

The art of making potions goes back to the earliest civilizations and in terms of history, as one of the oldest crafts known to humankind. Brewing beer, making wine, and infusing potions are traditions that have been perfected through time. Many of the techniques making a great beer, wine or potion are the same. The mixture is often called a wort. The wort is then put through a process, which in the case of potions, gives it magickal properties.

The different ways of making potions stem from ancient medicinal and alchemical recipes, formulas that you can put together from basic ingredients in the privacy of your own kitchen. Historically magick love potions also called

philters, were often made of unappealing ingredients. You had to be extremely thristy or unaware of the contents to sip one. Today, this isn’t the case as most potion ingredients are tasty and appealing.

Potion brews can be anything from an herb tea to a fruit smoothie. One of the main things to remember when making any potion is to make it taste good if a person is going to drink it. If you are using a potion primarily for its scent, for example in a powder form, then make sure it smells good. Try to avoid unfortunate situations like the infamous wizard Aleister Crowley found himself in when he developed a perfume potion for sex magick called “It.” Great idea Aleister, but nothing came of “It,” because the stuff reputedly had a horrid smell!

Before you make your potion, be sure that you have all the ingredients and tools you will need at your fingertips. Following is a list of potion-making tools you will need:

*A ceramic, earthenware, glass, or wood bowl

*A pot, preferably one that is NOT made of metal, for brewing the potion

*A wooden spoon for stirring the potion

*Cheesecloth for straining the potion

*A mortar and pestle for grinding potion ingredients

*A container for the potion

Clean, preferably sterilize, all of your tools, especially the potion container. You can clean containers by carefully pouring boiling water into them, or you can put the container in the dishwasher, running it through the entire cycle and turning on the heat/dry cycle. This also does a good job of sterilizing contatiners. If you don’t have time to properly clean the chalice, cup, glass or other containers the potion is going in, then just make sure that it is as clean as possible. Any residue may taint the potion.

The kind of water you use is important when preparing a magick potion. Spring, well, rain, and distilled waters are better than tap water, which often contains chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride. Well water with no harmful contaminants can be used; rain water can be used as long as there aren’t any pollutants in it; and distilled water can be used for potions, but it is inert. Unless the recipe calls for it, I seldom use sea water or mineral water due to their mineral content.

Witches and wizards make potions by mixing one, two, a few or many ingredients together into one. Sometimes the ingredients are used just as they are. Other times they are ground up, shredded, pureed or crushed with your fingers or with the mortar and pestle. The herbs that go into your potion can be either fresh or dried. If you use fresh herbs, it take three times more of them than dried herbs. For example, if a potion recipe calls for one teaspoon of dried sage leaves and you want to use fresh sage, it would take three teaspoons of fresh sage to make the potion.

Processes call infusions and decoctions are also employed. An infusion, the most common method of internal herbal preparation, is usually in the form of a tea. It can also take the form of magick water. The infusion method works best when the potion you are making requires soft plant parts, such as leaves, flowers or green steams.

When using the infusion method of preparing potions, there are a couple of things you can do to make your potion more effective. One thing is to brew aromatic ingredients such as garlic and clove, in a pot with a lid that fits

on tight. The reason for this is to keep from losing the natural oils of the aromatic ingredients to evaporation. These natural oils are important for the effectiveness of the potion.

Some ingredients are sensitive to heat, so you can make a cold infusion by soaking the herbs in water for anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. A sealed earthenware pot is best for cold infusions. When preparing potions using the infusion method, only make enough for immediate use as infusions rapidly lose their potency.

The method for making a decoction potion is similar to the infusion. You begin by grinding your ingredients into a powder that you can then make your potions. Ingredients that are hard, such as bark and stems, require more heat to release their magickal properties. The use of more heat to release the natural oils of an ingredient is primary difference between the infusion and decoction methods of potion making.

The decoction method would be the one most associated with the traditional use of magick cauldrons. In this way, dried herbal ingredients are ground into powder and are cut into small piedes, and then added to the potion. The potion is made in a pot, and the ingredients are simmered and boiled in order to release their magickal properties. Again in the case of aromatic ingredients, you should use a lid on the pot to slow the evaporation process. The amount of time that you heat the mixture depends on the potion recipe. Usually decoction are strained to eliminate the hard bark and stems before using them.

At times, potions use both methods in their recipe. In this case prepare the two separately as a decoction and infusion, and then mix the ingredients together after the decoction has cooled. By doing so, the infusion ingredients are not ruined by the heat that the decoction process requires. Always stir clockwise.

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February 18 – Daily Feast

February 18 – Daily Feast

We need to get our priorities in a row. A lazy person never has priorities and never plans anything. He lets circumstances make all his decisions – and believes fate has the final say. Even though he has had a thousand nudges to do a certain thing, he ignores them because it is only himself dreaming again. If we cannot hold onto a plan long enough to do anything about it, then we should write it. Write it so plain that when we read it, we run – we run toward putting into practice what we set out on paper. It is essential to decide the ultimate outcome of our lives. If we do nothing, then that is a decision. Our lot in life is what we make it, using every delay, every pain, every injustice as fuel to fire our determination.

~ Let the young men of this nation remember that idleness leads to poverty. Industry is honorable and leads to contentment. ~

CHIEF JOHN ROSS

‘A Cherokee Feast of Days’, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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A Little Humor for Your Day – You might be a redneck if…

You might be a redneck if…

Your dad walks you to school because you are both in the same grade.

You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the House of Tattoos.

You have flowers planted in a bathroom fixture in your front yard.

Ya can’t get married to yer sweetheart ’cause there’s a law against it.

You dated one of your parents’ current spouses in high school.

You think loading the dishwasher means getting your wife drunk.

Your toilet paper has page numbers on it.

You can change the oil in your truck without ducking your head.

When you run out of gas, you put gin in the gas tank.

Your screen door has no screen.

Aha Jokes

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Today’s Tarot Card for Feb. 18th – Strength

Strength

Tuesday, Feb 18th, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What has traditionally been known as the Strength card represents Nature which, however wild in its primal form, is tamed by our subtler, finer (feminine, interior) self. The will and passion of our instinctive nature does not need to be broken, but refined and brought to consciousness — so that all levels of Creation, inner and outer, may come into harmony.

The feminine soul-force contains a persuasive power that can nurture and induce cooperation from others, stilling disruptive energies by harmonizing differences in the spirit of collective good will.

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Current Moon Phase for February 18th – Waning Gibbous

Gibbous Moon

(waning /76% of illumination)

This is a tremendous time of transmutation. All of the prior elements are coming together for a final burst of creative output. You have seen a clear view of your own needs and the posture of significant others. Now the accumulation of that input is leading to a deep, core change within you. In this phase, you will naturally be inclined to seek higher guidance so that you can emerge from this transformation successfully. The Gibbous Moon favors sharing what you have learned (and are learning) with others.

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