Good book

“Crone’s Book of Charms and Spells” by Valerie Worth

It’s written in a mystical magical style and has a deep tone throughout.  Easy charms and talismans to make.  A good book.  Overall I give it a B+.

 

No more bad dreams

Nighttime rituals are important for kids and adults.  They prepare the mind for sleep and ease the transition from wakefulness to rest.

My kids say a nightly prayer.  It helps them slow down and avoid bad dreams.  It’s really simple and changes every night.  They ask for and give thanks for three specific things that they can go to sleep thinking about.  Things that make them feel safe, heard and close to the goddess or deity of choice.

Goddess Good and Goddess Great thank you for: (1)(2)(3)
Goddess Good and Goddess Great bless me with: (1)(2)(3)
So mote it be!
You can, of course, change this to a specific God or Goddess or protective spirit, angel, guide, Boon fairy companion, ancestor, or whomever you so desire.

You can spray a nightlight with three sprays of purifying salt water.  While spraying repeat a protective chant of your own own making.  Something like:

Little light
now cleansed and pure
protect me through the night.

A clipping of my hair under the pillow or sewn to teddy can be helpful too. Kids can take a piece of Mom to bed with them.  It’s comforting and very protective.

A sachet of lavender and violet with a pinch of poppy seeds under the pillow.  Lavender to calm and sooth, Violet to protect and poppy seeds for dreams.  The hope, with this sachet, is to produce calm, soothing, protective dreams.

Some lavender and/or violet incense.  Not for my son, specifically, becasue of asthma… but it would work great for someone else.

Guided dream walks… like mini meditations during the day.  To have positive associations with the quiet of bedtime.

Often times bad dreams are the result of unfinished business during the day.  They are scary or frightening because the sub conscious is upset.  Trying to solve what’s got you or your child upset is the most direct course of action.  Bad dreams are only a symptom of the problem.  Hope this is helpful.  Sweet dreams!

Seven Pointed Star

I like fairies.  I like elves.  I even draw my own. But… the seven pointed star doesn’t belong to them.

A long long time ago in a land far away (lol) before the Jewish leaders had got together and organized their religion many pagan books of faith were in circulation, but not for long.  The early leaders of the Jewish faith had a council meeting and decided which books were good books and which were bad.  Sound familiar?  Then later the Catholics did it too, and even later the Protestants did the same thing with King James.  OK so rewind to pre-Jewish organization.

Some books were about the seven pagan deity’s now commonly called arch angels.  Calling these pagan gods angels won more converts.  Combining all seven angels stamp into one seal could be easily copied by the lay person as a seven pointed star.  (See image)  The arch angel book(s) were tossed due to the adherence of monotheism and the confusion that could potentially be caused by the ‘worship’ and reverence of these seven other ‘almost gods’.  The separation of one god from all others came slowly as does every mass belief change in history. But evidence of the angels remains in the Kabbalah  and books of Enoch.

The seven pointed star was to equally honor these other seven (supremely beautiful androgynous higher beings) who’s job it was to promote balance, understanding and love in humanity. They were said to do this by protecting the poor, innocent and weak and by ‘raining punishment’ down on those unjust, too powerful or corrupt.  Therefore the seven pointed star was a symbol of protection.

But what was “the breath of god” before god?  Arch angles Michael is  also called, “the prince of light” and “the viceroy of heaven.”  Both of which are titles for the evening star.  The king of Heaven is of course the sun.  So what’s the sun’s name?  Oh, yes, how could I forget, Ra.  Right.

It’s interesting to note that many theology scholars, occult masters and anthropological guesswork point to Enoch having been a student of Hermetics himself.  Yes, as in Hermes aka Mercury or Toth.  Ah!  So there is the connection to Ra.  I knew it was around here somewhere!

Regardless of who “owns” the seven pointed star it is a long, LONG, standing symbol of protection and adoration.  Use freely, but know what you’re using!

Stress Buster Candle Spell

Made by me…

Because this is a spell you cast on yourself use a colored candle that represents you:  mellow green(if your an earth), pink(if your a fire), cream(if you’re and air) or sea foam blue(if your a water).  Carve a peaceful image… like a peace sign or circle or moon or any other symbol that you find peaceful and soothing.  Bathe the candle with some lavender oil.

If you’re unable to burn a candle for hours (like me) use tea lights.  Paint the candle with acrylic artist pigment, let dry. For this spell the silver cup is a perfect example of the tranquil moon so you don’t need to paint it.  For other candle magic you can paint the in and outside of the little silver cup the appropriate color.  Before returning the candle to the cup drip nine (3×3) drops of the lavender oil into the cup.  Instead of carving a tea light I draw the image on a sticky note and place the candle on top.

Prepare for the spell as you normally would.  Ground and center.  Say this chant as you light your candle.

“Candle burn all the fear.
Smote the stressful riot.
Peace and Harmony be here
calm, love, soothe and quiet.”

Visualize the stress leaving you on the exhale and burning in the fire before floating away with the candle smoke.  Be careful not to blow out the candle!   Repeat as desired.

When you feel calmed let the candle burn itself out and keep the sticky note as a touchstone.  In your wallet, on the computer, stuck to the steering wheel… wherever!

Hope this comes in handy… I know it’s helped me.

The “Our Father” Gets a Makeover.

Saw this in a friends book and had to copy it down.  I don’t know who came up with it originally but I do so like it!  I like it as a tongue in cheek thing and some parts as true prayer.  Influenced heavily by the masters of take over and tweak!  hee hee hee!!

Our Mother, who is with us hallowed is thy presence.  Our realm is here, we sense the near, on earth, which is living heaven.  Teach us this day to bake our bread.  And accept us in our humanness as we accept each other in spite of our limitations.  Lead us not into domination but empower us to freedom.  For ours is the air, the fire, the water, the earth forever and ever.  So Mote it Be!

One wand: One gift

So this is the second wand I’ve made.  Very similar to the first one as it is for my sister!  She’ll be replacing the copper held stone with a diamond and may do some more personalization.  The corospondences are the same with the addition of Copper and the feather.  She’ll be adding a diamond as well!

Copper will focus the direction of her energies during use and is of the earth element.

The Diamond she’ll add will increase her power, strength, and brilliance.  It is also of the earth element.

The feather connects her to the element of air.

So her wand has strong earth ties with influences of water (from the willow) and air.

She specified the measurements so overall the wooden wand measures, nine inches.  The tail is nine and a half inches.  The thumb stone is three and three quarters inches from the end.  The center of copper, where she’ll place the diamond, is one and a half inches from the end.  It’ll land in the center of her palm when she grips the wand.  From tip to the top of the thumb stone is five inches.

Witch’s Brew Coffee

Yum!

*8 cups water

*1 tsp Vanilla (Always use real vanilla, not imitation.  The goodies are replaced by chemicals in the fake stuff.)

*4 Tbs. favorite coffee grounds

* 1/2 tsp Cinnamon (more or less)

*pinch of nutmeg

Mix the water and vanilla.  Pour into your auto drip coffee maker.  In the basket filter mix the grounds, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Sweeten as desired. Mmm-mm-m!

See more art by this artist at his site www.martinhsu.com!

Associations:

Water: emotions, love, dreams, cleansing, intuition, shamanic journeys, sexual health, inner knowledge, healing: water.

Vanilla: relax, relieve, de-stress,  comfort, warmth, open to new ideas, love; water.

Coffee:  invigorate, stimulate, creative thinking, problem solving, youth;  fire.

Cinnamon:  increases immunity, preserves life, aids in the metabolizing of sugar, cleansing, psychic awareness,  draws love, good fortune: fire.

Nutmeg:  sexual energy, fertility, money, fortune, luck, prosperity, spirituality, fidelity; fire.

My First Wand

Here’s my wand!

It’s made of willow wood that the tree had shed.  At the tip is a small collection of  peridot crystals set into a gold holder and wrapped in dark green embroidery floss and hot glued in place.  The green floss goes further down the wand in a corset type cross hatch tying and ends 7.5 inches from the tip.  The hand grip is wrapped in this lovely purple, floss bound, yard that echos the cross style of the green.  Below the hand grip gold and silver wires were wrapped in the same direction and tucked into the end.  Where the hand grip and the wire wrapping meet I tied three strands of red floss and let them hang loose.  The six red floss trailings are 15.5 inches long and have nine golden bells tied on at varying lengths.  All told the wand is 18.5 inches long.  From pointer finger to tip, when I’m holding on to the hand grip, it measures precisely 11 inches.

Wand associations and meanings:

Willow – intuition, witchcraft, dreaming, enchantment, binding, protection, divination, inspiration, healing, fertility, love, grief and death, and anything to do with the element Water.  Also associated with Hecate, whose feast day is my birthday!

Peridot – emotional balance, protection from negative energy, spiritualism, promise of spring, undying love, admiration and fertility.

Green – earth, growth, fertility, regeneration, rebirth, resurrection and immortality.

Purple – magic, royalty, remembrance, depth and power.

Red -vitality, fire, love, passion and because it’s my favorite color.

Bells -for protection (see here).

Gold – the life giving powers of the sun.

Silver – measured consistency and stirring powers of the moon.

No such luck

Went to the first Pagan Pride Day gathering in my area.  About a dozen groups were represented and each had a number of coveners or non coven members in attendance.

Unfortunately none of my products sold.  Everybody who saw my stuff loved it but they were broke and trying to sell there own stuff.  Oh well so it goes.  At least I have ebay and craigslist!

Got a killer sunburn and the kids got some pink.  Also got some great recipes to share and a couple of quotes and a couple of chants too.  I’ll post them separately so they’ll be easier to find later!

Runes for Divination

My dear daughter cannot use tarot cards for divination… ever… even through someone else’s hands.  It’s been one big, “not fair” response after another.  The questions are almost always answered the same.  We pull the XV: change, death and rebirth card or some variation thereof.  We pull the, “what are you doing??” and “don’t ask!!!” cards in all the decks we’ve tried so far.  Dear sweet child is very upset to be rejected so we’ve been searching for an alternative means of divination.

tea leaf readings... hmmm... not for dear daughter

First we tried to read tea leaves.  That turned out messy and too variable.  She was frustrated that turning the cup produced multiple images, each representing different outcomes.

Then we tried a magic mirror but the reflection turned out to be too much of a distraction! lol

Meditation was, “too boring Mom, I just want to Do Something!”  So, after much contemplation, I remembered and odd little song and decided to give runes a try.

When dearest daughter was around three years old she had imaginary friends;  guides, guardian angels or whatever you would have them be.  They taught her a chant a chant.  Something like:

Through waves so high

and storms so strong

at Thor’s side I sail on.

It was sing-songy when I caught her hum-singing as she came outdoors one spring afternoon.  When she repeated it to me I was shocked.  I hadn’t any Norse associations or studies.  She’d never been exposed to the Norse mythos.  I asked her where she heard it and she told me her friend had just told it to her when she was playing in the house.  We were at home alone.

So a try at runes seemed only natural and guess what!  It’s working great.  My second clue to her success with runes came when we started to make her own little cardboard set.  I cut the cardboard and she typed “rune” into Google.  She pulled back both the anglo saxon and elder set.  One look at the elder runes and she lit up!

Her pronunciation was spot on even though it’s ancient Norse.  I argued that she wasn’t reading the names of the runes correctly until we found a pronunciation guide at Oswald the Runemakers site.  She was right!

We took notes, one runic letter per sticky note.  She listed the names in her own phonetic speech, and three or four descriptive words.  I cut up cardboard pieces into one inch by two inch blocks and she drew a symbol on each one.  Presto chango:  RUNES!  She worked with them all evening last night and had a more than a few committed to memory before bed. She did ask a few questions of the runes and was pleased with the results.  I think we may have found her divination tool of choice!

The runic alphabet called, Futhark.

Her system is simple and self devised.  Turn all the runes upside down on a surface and shuffle them like dominoes.  Tell the runes the approach you’ll be using i.e. past/present/future, yes/no, storyline or speak to me.  Then ask your question and draw accordingly.

Yes/no is the easiest.  Just draw one rune and the see if it is positive or negative.  For past/present/future draw three and place them next to each other left to right.  The first rune is representative of the past, second- present and third- future.  Storyline involves 13 runes placed in one long row.  It starts with the beginning of the situation of interest.  Travels through the runes left to right so you can see the connections you may have missed.  The tenth rune is the present.  The eleventh rune is a suggested action.  The twelfth rune shows immediate results if the action is taken.  Finally the thirteenth rune shows a more distant outcome if the steps are taken.    Speak to me is when you have no specific question but are seeking guidance. Just flip one rune and read it.

Hopefully the Runes will stick.  Finding the pronunciation guide was a lifesaver for me and I think it may come in handy again.  The site also provides a visual of both elder and anglo/saxon runes plus information about each ones.  If you’re interested in Runes and just getting started this site will be a great help!