Tag: Shopping

Opening the Star (Storm Moon)

Opening the Star

(Storm Moon)
 
 
Use this spell to become one with the stars.
 
Take a hot bath, anoint yourself with your favorite scented oil, put on relaxing music, and lie on our bed with your arms and legs extended. Imagine yourself as a star glistening in the night sky. The light pours in and out of your legs, arms, and head in a clockwise motion. Sense the light moving in, then sense it moving outward. Your being becomes pure light as you shine with the light of the divine. Perfect love and perfect peace flow in and out of you, connecting you with the whole of Oneness.
 
Sense your being opening up like a flower whose petals are pure light. From the inside out, you glow with a brilliant white light that emanates from every part of your being. Feel yourself becoming the essence of fluorescence, filled with ardor of life.
 
As you drift off to sleep, take this sensation of being filled and emanating with an aura of perfect love and perfect peace within your inner being. Continue to sense the star inside of you opening like a flower and glowing with your inner beauty. Repeat the following affirmation three times:
 
“Tonight and every night
My star spirit is shining bright.”

Today’s Affirmation, Thought & Meditation for Feb. 8th

Days Of The Week Comments
Today’s Affirmation for Wednesday, Feb. 8th

 “Like an ocean wave, my emotions come and go, but the depth of my being remains unchanging eternal.”  

 

Today’s Thought for Wednesday, Feb. 8th

 “Give your thoughts a chance to settle down. Then feel your mind clear like a still forest pond.”

The Buddha

(c. 563 – c. 460 BCE) 

 

Today’s Meditation for Wednesday, Feb. 8th

 Rainbow Meditation 

Colours are waves of light energy that have direct physiological and psychological effects. We can use them in meditation to influence our feelings and perceptions. To perform this meditation, choose a hue that represents th qualities you would like to cultivate in that particular moment. Then cut a square or circle from a piece of paper or fabric in that shade and use the shape as a focus for your meditation. 

Alternatively, focus on a coloured object, allowing the colour rather than the form to dominate your consciousness, or visualize a colour, allowing it to fill your mind. 

Magickal Graphics

Scrying Board Divination (Storm Moon)

Scrying Board Divination

(Storm Moon)

Scrying boards, such as the popular Quija board, date back at least to the time of the fourth-century Roman emperor Valens. In its first year of full production by Parker Brothers. Quija boards outsold their other favorite game Monopoly.

To perform this ritual, you will need a large piece of construction paper, a magic marker, a small wine glass and at least one other person.

At midnight, draw a small circle the size of the top of the wine glass in the middle of the piece of paper. Draw a line up from the circle to the top of the paper, down from the circle to the bottom of the paper, from the right-side to the edge, and from the left-side to the edge. The paper is now divided into four sections with a circle in the middle. Label the section in the upper right “Yes” the section in the upper left “No,” lower left “Yes,” and lower right “No.”

Place the wine glass upside down in the middle of the paper, covering the circle. With two people on opposite sides or four people on all four sides, each person put one finger on what is now the top of the glass. One of you needs to ask a “yes or no” question out loud. Wait for the glass to move on its own, free from deliberate help. You will know this because its movements will be fluid rather than jerky.

When you perfect this divination board, you can improve upon it by writing a circle of letters on the paper. Do this by writing the letter “A” at the top of the page and then making a circle around the page with the other twenty-five letters. This configuration of the board gives you the option of moving beyond yes and no questions.

Crone’s Corner – Winter Afternoon Tea

Crone’s Corner – Winter Afternoon Tea
……
Ingredients:
1 tsp. dried chamomile
1 tsp. dried mint
1 tsp. dried lavender
honey
…
Combine the herbs in your warmed tea pot and add 2 cups boiling water. Steep for 5 minutes and strain. Add 1 tsp. of honey to each cup of tea. Notes: I put together this simple mellow tea one winter afternoon. I like it with the honey, but lemon would be fine too. This makes 2 cups of tea, but it can easily be doubled and tripled.
…
Courtesy of Brenda Hyde of OldFashionedLiving.com

Green Tip – 11 Tools to Detox Your Home

11 Tools to Detox Your Home

  • Annie B. Bond

Being a longtime chemically sensitive person means that I have a lot of tools up my sleeve for detoxing environmental problems. This list doesn’t include DIY fixes, such as using washing soda to peel petroleum-based wax off a floor, but it focuses mostly on products that you can buy that help reduce your exposure, day-to-day. Most of all, I recommend you use your head. Remember your common sense, pay attention to where chemicals are in your home, and think through some solutions.

Cotton Barrier Cloths–440 Thread Count
Make jackets to block chemicals from car seats, crib and other mattresses, and anything coverable that is offgassing fumes. Although hard it would be ideal to cover couches and stuffed chairs made before 2005, with barrier cloth, or anything else that could be impregnated with fire retardants and stain repellents. The chemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, called PBDEs, are endocrine disrupters, neurotoxins, and more, and are found most frequently in polyurethane foam cushions and electronics.

HEPA Vacuums and Microfiber Cloths
A study of house dust in regular homes across the U.S. found that all was contaminated with these six chemical classes: phthalates (plasticizer), pesticides, alkylphenols (hormone disrupting surfactants), brominated flame retardants, organotins (powerful fungicides, pesticides and bacteriacides, rigid-food packaging PVC, silicon curing), and perfluorinated compounds (Teflon and stain-resistant chemicals). One of your very best ways of detoxing your house is by using the best filtering vacuum cleaner available, the HEPA vacuum. In the 1940s, HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters were invented to filter out radioactive dust particulate contaminants in bomb shelters during the atomic bomb tests. These filters were designed to capture particles down to 0.3 microns in size at efficiency ratings of 99.97 percent.

Microfiber Cloths
The fibers in these cleaning cloths are densely packed and designed with “hooks” to pull up dirt. They will help remove a significant amount of dust and without the additional use of a cleaning agent.

Seal Out Toxics
If you have cabinets, subflooring, or general furniture made of particle board, seal in the formaldehyde with SafeCoat Safety Seal.

Door Mat
Leave your shoes at the door? This subject seems to inspire very strong feelings in people, both pro and con. No matter what your opinion about it is, at least go with a door mat. Studies prove that we track lead, pesticides, and a whole lot more, into our homes on our shoes. An effective door mat, if people scrape the bottom of their shoes well before entering, will help reduce the amount of chemicals being tracked inside.

Your Nose
How does something smell? Like chemicals? Like an unhealthy natural material? Allow your nose to teach you about your surroundings. One good test is to pay attention to the first thing you smell on your re-entry into your home. When you have entered and been there for a few hours it is likely you won’t be aware of the smell any longer. Often the first thing you smell will alert you to an allergen or unhealthy chemical.

Tests
Especially when buying a house, it is important to have a series of tests done, including for radon, your water, pesticides (long-lasting pesticides such as chlordane), arsenic, and lead. There is some controversy about the effectiveness of lead swab tests, so heads up to have professional assessment of the lead in your home, and educate yourself about sources of lead in the home.

Gauss meter
I suggest people join up with some friends and buy a communal gauss meter, a gadget that costs about $170 and reads electromagnetic fields (EMFs). I used a gauss meter for my house and learned some very reassuring things about where the high levels of EMFs were found in my home (and that they fall off very quickly, within three to six feet from the appliance).

Aluminum Foil
I can’t tell you how many times I have used aluminum foil to seal in something that was outgassing toxic fumes. It is particularly handy if you are just moving into a home and a wall smells of spackle, or there is a lot of formaldehyde-based materials in the kitchen. Taping aluminum foil securely to cover the areas is a great temporary solution.

Acid and Base Awareness
I have found that the majority of odors are either alkaline or acidic. For example, if you are sensitive to perfume and someone spilled some in a guestroom of your house, what to do? I’ve found that much perfume is alkaline, so I suggest neutralizing it by spraying the area with white distilled vinegar, let it set for a few hours, and in my experience, the smell goes away. Acidic odors, meanwhile, can be neutralized by using baking soda. For example, soak clothes in 1 cup of baking soda to a load of laundry water, agitate every few hours, and then wash after a day’s soak. Or, famously, put an open box of baking soda in the refrigerator.

Water Filters
Buy water filters suited to your water situation, but filter your water. If you are on municipal water make sure you find a filter that remove chlorine, if you have well water, make sure you find a filter that removes bacteria.

Air Filters
Stay away from ozone filters (the EPA doesn’t recommend them) but consider an air filter, especially if a family member has allergies. Also make certain that you have a good air exchange in your home; consult with an expert about this issue if you are unsure.

Calendar of the Sun for Tuesday, February 7th

Calendar of the Sun

Ancestor Day

Color: Black and grey
Element: Earth
Altar: Spread a black cloth, and lay it with photographs, paintings, and other depictions of our ancestors. Add also symbols of their old tools, and statues of ancestral deities, a bowl of seeds for the future garden, pots of soil, a pitcher of water, and many candles of black and white and grey.
Offerings: Things they would have liked to eat, drink, smoke, or smell. Tend a cemetery and clean up the graves.
Daily Meal: Food from an earlier era, using authentic recipes.

Invocation to the Ancestors

Our ancestors got up at dawn,
Slaved in the dirt,
Sweated in the sun,
Chilled in the cold,
Numbed in the snow,
Scattering each seed with a prayer:
Pray that there be enough,
That no one starve this winter.
Pray that no bird nor beast
Steal the food I have struggled for.
And most of all,
Pray that each seed I save
Of this harvest
Shall next year
Bring forth a hundred more.
We live today
Because they worked
Because they sowed
Because they harvested
Because they prayed.

Chant:
Those who came before
We are your children
Those who came before
We honor your names

(Each person takes seeds from the bowl and plants them in the pots of soil, speaking the name of one of their ancestors as they do so, as in: “In honor of _______.” The pots are watered, and the candles put out one by one.)

Storm Moon Winter Mist

Storm Moon Winter Mist

Use this mist to encourage the blessings of the Goddess as you sleep and dream. Make this magickal mist at midnight.

You will need a misting bottle, one-half cup of spring or well water, six drops of lavender essential oil, and six drops of pure vanilla extract.

Hold the bottle and pour the water in. Add the drops of lavender. Count out the drops of lavender oil and vanilla as you add them to the mist by saying:

One, two, three,
Four, five, six,
All get added
To this magickal mix.

Put the cap on the misting bottle and shake it eighteen times while chanting:

Goddess of the Storm Moon,
Bless this winter mist.

To bring the blessings of the Storm Moon Goddess into your dreams, close your eyes and spray the mist on the top of your head several times, as well as on your body and bed linens before you go to sleep. As you breathe in the mist, say:

Goddess of the Storm Moon,
Please bless my dreams tonight.

In the morning, write everything you recall from your dreams in your journal.

Finding Your Power hand

Finding Your Power hand

Contributed by: lucy

 
 
Finding Your Power hand

” Usually working out which hand is your power hand (projective hand) is an easy task. If you are right-handed then it is your right hand and for left-handed people it is the left. However which is your power hand if you are ambidextrous? Or what if you are right-handed but don’t feel your right hand is your power hand.

The simplest exercise to discover your Power hand is generally the most accurate as well. It is so simple it will take you less than 10 seconds to complete!

Simply sit comfortably and fold your hands together on your lap so that your thumbs cross over each other. The hand that is attached to the thumb that sits naturally on top of your other thumb is your power hand, or your projective hand.

Projective Hand
Generally the right hand for right-handed people and the reverse for left-handed people.
The hand through which energy is sent from the body.
In ritual, personal power is visualized as streaming out through the palm or fingertips for various magickal goals. This is also the hand that would hold tools such as the athame and wand.

Receptive hand:
The left hand for right-handed people, the reverse for left-handed people. The hand through which energy is received into the body.Exercises to Try
1. Hold your hands about 10 centimeters apart, palms together and visualize energy (white light or another image you are comfortable with) flowing from your projective hand to your receptive hand. See if you can feel this energy which may possibly feel like tingling or pushing your hands apart.
If you can’t feel anything after a little while slowly begin to move your hands closer together.

2. Hold your hands together as if you are gripping a ball. Using your projective hand visualize energy forming a ball within your hands. I generally use golden light for this exercise. When you have, visualize a ball move it from hand to hand and even throw it up in the air and catch it as if it is a real ball. When you tire allow the ball to be reabsorbed by your receptive hand.

3. As with a Grounding Exercise, sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor. First use your projective hand to sent healing energy into the Earth. Feel the flow of energy streaming from your hand.
After a few minutes use your other hand and ask to receive healing energy from the Earth.
Feel the Great Mother’s compassion and love and feel relaxed as the healing energy enters and flows around your body.
Remember to thank the Earth for this experience afterwards.

Guess What? It’s Monday Again! Have A Great One!

Monday Pictures, Images, Comments, Graphics
Today’s Affirmation for Monday, February 6th

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

 

Thought of the Day for Monday, February 6th

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

Anonymous

 

Meditation for Monday, February 6th

A Map of Life’s Road

Perform this meditation to help you negotiate your way through various options. First, sketch a map of the paths available to you, and the potential paths these may lead to in the future. Illustrate each path with relevant images or symbols. Meditate on the map through half-closed eyes. Notice whether particular images draw your attention, or new images occur to you, suggesting alternative courses of action. Allow your inner sense of direction to speak to you.

Alternatively create a collage of your future. Leaf through magazines, holding in mind the question “Where do I start to go?” Cut out appealing images, stick them to some cardboard and use the collage as a focus for meditation.

RITUAL TO FIND YOUR SPIRIT GUIDE

RITUAL TO FIND YOUR SPIRIT GUIDE

Items Needed
Altar Candle
Day Candle (Monday-white, Tuesday-red, Wednesday-purple, Thursday-blue,
Friday-green, Saturday-black, Sunday-yellow)
Offertory Candles – 3 Violet Candles
3 White Candles

Tools
Athame to inscribe candles
Crystal ball or clear glass of water

Incense
anise, cardamom, and coriander.

Oil
jasmine, lemon, rose and sandalwood

Timing
Best done during the Mercury hour of the day, although any hour should work.
Any moon phase is appropriate.

Preparation
Breathe deeply and build a ball of protective light around you. While soaking
in your ritual bath, meditate on the whole ritual: the steps you will take
and what you wish to say to your spirit guide when you make contact.

Ritual
Enter the circle in the Hour of Mercury. Light the incense. With the oil,
dress the Altar Candle and the Day candle while concentrating on the purpose
of the ritual. Light your Altar Candle and Day Candle and state your intent:

I am here to make contact with my Spirit Guide, and to acknowledge him or
her.

With your Athame, inscribe Violet Candle #1 with the word “Spirit.” Dress it
with oil. Light the Violet Candle #1, direct your energies into it and say:

Here do I light the first Lamp of Spirit.
May its light reach out across the barriers from this world to the next.
May it make contact with that World of Spirit into which we will eventually
enter.

Take your censer or incense wand and swing it around, sensing the whole area
around the altar while rhythmically repeating the word “Merge” and building
up energy to focus. Replace the censer and pick up Violet Candle #2.

Inscribe it with the word “Spirit” and dress it with oil. Put it back on the
altar, light it and say:

Here do I light the second Lamp of Spirit.
May its light also reach out across the barriers from this world to the next?
May it make contact with that World of Spirit and help spread the light,
illuminating the passageway between our worlds.

Again take the censer or incense wand and sense the entire area around while
chanting the word “Merge.” Build up your energy to focus. Take Violet Candle
#3, inscribe it with the word “Spirit,” dress it with oil, charge with your
energy, light it and say:

Here do I light the third Lamp of Spirit.
May the light from these three lamps blend and grow, dispelling all darkness
and lighting the way that my Spirit Guide may come to me and speak with me
here today.

Inscribe the three white candles with the word “Truth” and anoint each candle
with oil. Light the three candles in the order of 1, 2, 3, and say:

Here do I build Truth.

As these candles burn throughout this ritual, their power generating nothing
but truth in all that transpires between this world and the next. Through
these candles there is truth in all communications that come to me. Again
cense the altar area while chanting “Merge.” Replace the censer and continue
chanting. Sit comfortably while chanting, and gaze into the crystal ball, or
the clear glass of water. Continue chanting until you feel it is right to let
the chant taper off. Continue to quietly look into the crystal ball or glass,
not trying to picture anything. Keep your mind blank, so whatever comes will
appear and will come in it’s own free will. Gaze into the center of the
crystal, there is no need to try not to blink. Look into the crystal and
blink naturally. Try not to notice anything in your peripheral vision, just
the center of the crystal. Eventually a face or figure will appear. This may
take a long time, or it may appear almost immediately. If it doesn’t come at
all within approximately 20 minutes, abandon this attempt, extinguish the
candles in the order in which they were lit, leave the altar set up, and try
this ritual again in three days.

You should have results within a month at most. When a figure does appear,
ask if he/she is your Spirit Guide. You will hear an answer, you may not hear
it out loud, or even see the figures lips move, but you will be aware of the
answer. This is how most conversations will proceed. You will ask your
questions mentally (or out loud) and the answer will be clear inside your
mind. Ask if you have more than one Spirit Guide. If yes, ask them to appear
also. You may ask anything you wish to know, but it is better to establish a
connection first where your Spirit Guide may appear to you at any time, or at
specific times, so that you can converse with any other spirits through
him/her. When you have finished speaking with your guide, thank him/her, then
sit for a moment with your eyes closed, meditating on all that you have
learned. Extinguish the candles in reverse order to clear the circle.

Starting the Ceremony (Natural Magick)

Starting the Ceremony

(Natural Magick)

 

Light any altar candles. If it is a very simple altar and you are putting directional candles on the actual altar, the southern altar candle will serve as the elemental candle as well, so don’t light this one yet.

If others are present, stand in the center of your visualized or maybe stone-constructed circle and face your guests. Otherwise stand in the center of your visualized circle. Make a short spontaneous call for blessing on all present or on yourself if carrying out the ritual alone. Hold your wand or a pointed quartz crystal in your hand, circling it clockwise as you speak.

In a simple outdoor spell this opening blessing will serve as casting the circle if you picture light beams emanating from your wand to make a light circle round you and your altar space which rises into the sky and sinks down into the ground.

Use your own favorite greeting blessing or adapt one from an old Celtic blessing. You can say something like this:

Circle this place/hillside/garden/woodland/seashore, Mother/Father. Keep harm without, keep peace within. Circle this place, Father/Mother. Bless all who gather here this day.

The ‘all’ will, if you are working alone, include the nature essences and elemental guardians of the four quarters of the circle.

Generally, you will now want to cast a full circle of magickal power round the group, or round yourself and the altar if working alone.

Cast the circle with your wand, crystal point or the index finger of your power hand (the hand you write with). Always do this clockwise, starting in the north or east. This draws earth and sky energy to you.

If you want a more elaborate circle (you need not and can go straight on to opening the four quarters) make a triple circle to empower the magickal one you created.

If you were making these three circles, this would be the point at which you would light the candle of the south and any incense. Pre-heat the charcoal for loose incense as it takes about en minutes: a stick is instant. If you are using a sacred salt and water mix into the ritual or the circle casting, empower the mix now. You can use your wand to stir the salt and water together. For a special ritual, you would set the salt and water dishes on your pentacle.

Make the triple circles with three clockwise circles, one over the other or extending inwards, the first with the sacred salt and water mix (or just salt), the second with incense and the third with the directional candle of the south. If not using the salt water mix, substitute magickal water droplets for the candle to make the third circle. If there are other present, three of you can walk round in a complete circle, one following the other, or make a single triple-empowered circle starting in the northeast.

Put the wand in the south of the altar (some use the east as they regard the wand as an air tool).

If you are inviting the guardians of the directions you should now visit the four quarters moving in a clockwise direction. Greet each one in turn and ask for their appropriate power and protection. Again, start in the north but many practitioners work from the east.

Otherwise you and anyone present can simply face that direction and raise both arms in greeting (palms flat and uppermost). Visualize the elemental forces as they are in nature entering the circle. You would still be greeting the guardians as you face the different directions, just not actually be visiting the four quarters.

You can do elemental greeting even with just a small traveling or outdoor altar by picking up each of the elemental substances in turn and inviting the guardian of the element into your altar and your spell. Reverse the actions at the end of the ritual and thank them.

If you aren’t opening the quarters, light any directional candles now and then add some incense to the charcoal if you didn’t use incense to cast the triple circle.

If using an incense stick light this now from the nearest candle (again if not used for the circle casting).

If you want to, you can now invite the ancestors or a particular one who acts as your guardian spirit by facing the west and calling them. Some people strike the ground with their staff at this point.

Now invite the fey beings into the circle (turning to all four directions as you call them). It is a good idea and practice to do this every time you do an outdoor spell.

Finally, if you want to make your ritual real special, face south, open your arms wide and ask if any deities (you can name them) would bless your ritual.

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: Stage Five Moving to a Conclusion

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: Stage Five Moving to a Conclusion

 

Staging 5: Moving to a conclusion – grounding or internalizing the power

If you would like to incorporate cakes and ale into a spell or ritual, this would be the point at which you would first take the cakes on the dish. When you are working alone, this is a lovely part of a spell or ritual to help to connect you with the love all round you.

Raise the cakes on their plate (one for you and one for the birds if working alone) skywards away from the altar.

Then lower them to waist height in front of you, saying:

“May the abundance of the Mother and the bountifulness of the Father bless and nourish, sustain and protect me/you/us all my/your/our days.”

 

You can, if more than one person is present, choose one to hold the dish and another to bless the cakes by making either a pentagram or a cross over the dish as the words are spoken. You can, of course, do this alone with your power hand.

Put the plate in the center of the altar.

Now take the chalice or goblet in your receptive hand and your wand in your power hand and gently lower the tip of the wand so it almost touches the surface of the wine or juice. Say:

“As male to female, god to goddess, so in this wine/juice is joined power and love, strength and compassion, striving and acceptance.”

 

Return it to the center of the altar.

If more than one person is present, one can bless the cakes and another can bless the wine. The same people are usually chosen to carry out the blessings, but you may prefer to share the duties. Often the wand is held by a female and the cup by a male for the crossing of energies, but two women or men can carry out the ceremony.

You should then take the cakes, scatter a few crumbs on the ground (or in a dish indoors) and say:

“I return the gift to the earth mother in thanks for blessings received. Blessings be.”

 

After the ceremony feed the rest of this cake to the birds.

At this point if there were two people involved, you can offer each other a cake and then pass them round to anyone else present. Each person can say:

“Blessed be.”

 

Or add a blessing before eating.

You should then return the plate to the altar and take the wine, pouring a little on the ground and thanking mother earth again for her blessings. (Pour this offering into a dish if indoors and you can put the crumbs and liquid outside after the ceremony.)

Now drink or offer the drink to the other person who blessed the chalice. He or she will take a sip and offer it to you and to the other person who carried out the blessings, saying:

“Blessings be.”

 

If others are present, pass the cup round so each can take a sip, saying:

“Blessings be.”

 

And perhaps adding a blessing before passing it on.

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: An Alternative Stage 4

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: An Alternative Stage 4

 

 

If you are carrying out a healing spell or one for gentle love or letting go of sorrow, setting off psychic fireworks may seem a bit over the top.

Instead you may choose to infuse a healing herb mix with the power to relieve pain or exhaustion or infuse a dish of crystals so that they can afterwards be burned for peace in four directions. Gently directed power can be used to steer away in a psychic way someone who is making you unhappy.

“In a group celebration you may likewise not want to have everybody jumping up and down (it could certainly scare a baby at a blessing ceremony and a few elderly relatives at a hand fasting). You need instead to use the accumulated power and direct it into sanctity, whether that be the vows of a couple or of godparents. Or you might each make reflective wishes for the year ahead after the shouting of Happy New Year and banging of saucepan lids and blowing of whistles at a turning-of-the-year rite.”

Through the technique is straightforward it is like learning to do a hill start in a car – getting the clutch and accelerator in perfect balance so you can stay ready but motionless for as long as necessary.

When the power in your spell has built up to almost a climax instead of releasing it, hold it for a moment, keeping your movements and your voice steady and then begin to recite the words more slowly and more softly until your words fade through a whisper to silence and make your movements slower and gentler until your feet become still. The incense sticks, your hands or wand will likewise become still.

Point downward with smudge, incense sticks, wand or your hands toward the symbol at a 45-degree angle (slightly away if necessary so no ash falls on the symbol, herbs or crystals).

Push very gently, psychically holding your hands or sticks motionless, using words to make the power and light flow into the symbol. You may detect a rainbow aura or green light round the symbol.

When you feel the power ebbing, stand motionless and silent for a moment and then replace the wand, smudge or incense sticks in their place or holders or put your hands in front of you pointing downwards so any residual power can flow into the symbol or be used to heal the earth.

Leave the incense to burn through and whisper:

“May you be blessed.”

 

In a ritual this would be a good time for everyone to make personal offerings or quietly pass the symbol round and make low soft promises of practical ways you all personally will help to bring peace or work for the good of others. At a midwinter ceremony you would quietly, after the cry “The sun is born again,” light your candles one by one round the circle and make your own perhaps silent resolutions for bringing light back into your life and the world.

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: Stage Four

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: Stage Four

 

Stage 4: Release of Power

This stage will blur and merge naturally into the previous one if you trust yourself.

When the moment is right, raise the incense sticks and hold the upright and above you, calling for the release. Then plunge the incense sticks simultaneously into a bowl of sand. Do the same if you’re using the smudge with a final spiraling above your head (pretend you are using a lasso).

If you are just using your hands or a wand, raise your arms high either side of your head, then swing them down, one behind you and one in front of you to waist height in a slashing movement.

Picture yourself releasing the pressure within the cone and lighting the touch paper on the entire firework display. Picture that one of stars cascading into the night.

End the song with a final shout, the dance with a final clap and a leap. Then call out “The power is free.” The wish is mine’ or “The spell is done,” whatever feels right to express the culmination of the spell.

See spiraling rainbows of light shooting upwards lie rockets or hundreds of white doves, colored balloons or butterflies being released as the same moment into the air.

If working as a group, one person should be responsible for calling “Now’ or the drummer could give a huge band. In practice the synchronized energies will bring the climax into synchronicity. But it really doesn’t matter if some psychic fireworks go off a few seconds after the other, it just prolongs the joyous tensions.

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: Stage Two

The Five Stages of Spellcasting: Stage Two

 

You are now ready to begin endowing the symbol and spoken intention of the spell with power. Here you will use words, actions and visualization to build up this power within the physical symbol.

One of the most common methods of empowering the symbol is to pass it round or through the four elements in turn, so that power builds up within it.

Some practitioners start in the east with the incense. It does not matter as long as you are consistent. It depends whether you want to add your stability (north) at the beginning or end. Some prefer to start with stability and to end with the flowing waters of the west.

Begin with the salt in the north and make three clockwise circles of salt round the symbol, moving the circles outwards.

State again the purpose of the spell and then create an earth power chant, which should be spoken three times, visualizing at the same time what seem to be relevant earth powers. Visualize the power of the element in its natural form and then see that power entering you and meeting your own inner elemental power (like two rivers meeting). You can plan your chants in advance or just let them come spontaneously: they don’t have to rhyme. You can speak the chant as you make the circle, or afterwards for each of the four elements.

Next surround the symbol on the dish with three clockwise circles of incense smoke. Create an incense chant as you make the smoke circles over the salt ones. Afterwards you can also write the purpose of the spell in smoke over the symbol if you wish.

Repeat the process for fire with the candle or, if easier, circle the symbol on its dish clockwise over the candle of the south three times. Create a fire chant and again recite it three times.

Finally you are going to fill the symbol with the power of water in the same way. Make sure the water droplets are over the circles of salt and incense smoke (approximately). Again create a simple water power chant to be recited three times as you make the three water circles.

Calendar of the Moon for February 5th

Calendar of the Moon
5 Luis

Sarasvati’s Day

Colors: Purple and Blue
Element: Air
Altar: Upon cloth of purple and blue place seven blue candles, incense of Indian scents, many peacock feathers, and instruments of the arts.
Offerings: Make something creative and artistic, or assist an artist in doing so.
Daily Meal: Indian food.

Sarasvati Invocation

Hail Sarasvati, Lady of the Arts!
Hail Sarasvati, faithful to her husband!
Every eye of your peacock tail,
O Lady of the starry heaven,
Sees a different part of beauty –
Beauty that sings, that dances,
Or writes, or puts the hands
To making music or the touch
Of things that draw the eye.
Yet of all these eyes not one
Takes in the whole tapestry
Of the full radiance of life
Save your two alone,
Who see all things not as they are
But as they might be
Come finally to fulfillment.

(All should now join in creating some work of art together, or in reading poetry, or in making instrumental music, or all of these things. )

ALLEVIATE ILLNESS

ALLEVIATE ILLNESS

Take a coin you have found on the ground and put a pinch of salt on it. Then
transfer the salt into a small amount of boiling water and let it dissolve. When the water has cooled, use the coin to flick the saline solution onto the palms of the patient’s hands and on the soles of his/her feet.

Preparations To Do Spellcrafting

Preparations To Do Spellcrafting

(Natural Magick) 

You need to get yourself and the area or altar ready for the spell.

Clear the space you intend to use either psychically or physically. This could involve lighting cleansing incense like pine or lemongrass or having a quick smudge round the room or outdoor area where you will be working. For a more formal ceremony, sweep and asperge the area.

Use a compass to ascertain the four directions or calculate these from known places.

Set up any psychic protection that is required around the area you will be working in. You can concentrate this protection around the edges of what will be your magick circle, whether this is positioned in your mind or symbolized by the candles of the four main archangels or angels of nature. In these positions they could act as the guardians of the four quarters instead of the nature devas.

However, if you have more time available, you may prefer to set up a protective square to act as psychic boundary within which to cast your circle. You could also position your archangels at the edges of your garden or working area, or empower four large marker trees, bushes or stones. You should thank them and bid them farewell once the circle has been uncast.

If you are creating an external physical circle made, for example of branches, stones or shells this is a good time to set it up, with the help of anyone who is sharing the occasion. The standard diameter for this circle is 9 foot, although this can be altered if you are working in a confined space alone or if a number of people are attending and you want to move around.

Set up the basic altar and put everything in its place(for a more formal spell you can dedicate the altar now or at the beginning of the rite).

Basically, a bowl of salt goes in the north, incense goes in the east, a candle in the south and a water bowl in the west.

If you are making a sacred salt and water mix, you will be tipping the salt into the water so remember either to save a little in the bowl for the earth empowerment or have some spare salt in a second small dish at the side of the altar that you can use.

If you are incorporating a cakes and ale part into a longer ceremony or spell (a formal dedication of honey cakes and wine, beer or juice to give thanks to the earth mother and sky father for sustenance and all good things in our lives) set the cakes ready on a plate to the north of the altar. The drink will be put in a goblet or chalice (ceramic, glass or metal) to the west of the altar. Since this won’t be part of everyday spell casting.

As this is natural magick you should aim for organic products, barley wine or beer or organic juice and organic cakes with honey. You may well not have the time to make your own.

If you are having a garden ceremony, you can have a bath beforehand in water to which you have added rose or lavender oil, and put on something comfortable. If you are holding your ceremony on a windy beach, thick sweaters and jeans may be the order of the day. However, you can still cleanse yourself psychically. Anoint your hairline, center of your brow, throat and both wrists with one of your special waters to open your higher chakras or energy centers. Or use an essential oil in lotus, lavender or rose. Mix and match and cut out any stages that don’t fit a particular occasion. For example. You’ll only have the cakes and ale on special occasions and sometimes you’ll want just a simple circle cast while following only the basic spell casting steps.

Calendar of the Sun for February 4th

Calendar of the Sun
4 Solmonath

Amaterasu’s Day

Colors: Red, orange, yellow, gold
Element: Fire
Altar: Set with a handwoven cloth in solar colors into which is woven a great sun, and place upon is fire-colored dragons and a figure of Amaterasu the Sun Goddess, and many candles.
Offerings: Rice crackers, cooked rice dyed with saffron, paper origami figures.
Daily Meal: Japanese food, preferably with at least one dish in bright colors.

Invocation to Amaterasu

Summer’s Joy
Queen of the Sky
Giver of Life
To our entire world
Weaver of sunbeams
Into golden robes of finery
Which you drape over us
Each time we emerge
Into your sacred light.
Laugh, Queen of Day!
Laugh and let your delicate
Fingers play across our eyes
That we may blink, and sting
The tears from them,
And open them again to see
Your golden world break
Over the eastern horizon.

Chant: Omikami Omikami Arigato Omikami

(Each person takes a candle and a procession is led from the room, which divides into several groups. Each group goes to a different room in the building and shines the light of their candle into all dark places, corners, closets, under beds and in drawers, bringing light and the gaze of Amaterasu into all places. Then the candles are returned to Her altar to burn down, and are not snuffed until sunset.)