Relaxation

Well my lambs,

This week my final paper for my sociology class is due, and it is stress city here in North Carolina. The school semester is winding down, which means that it is crunch time! I know so many other people are coping with stress. Below I am going to give you a spell to combat it!

You will need:

A clean, quiet, dimly lit place
A handful of white floating tea lights
A large bowl of blessed water
A lavender pillar candle
Some soothing meditation music


Set up your work area as you normally would when casting. Place the white tea lights in the bowl of water. Using a knife carve the word relax into your pillar candle. Turn on your meditation music and slowly and mindfully light all of the candles, lighting the lavender pillar candle last. Take your time to focus on your breathing. When your mind is clear and you are grounded, call upon the Goddess in whatever way seems appropriate to you. When you are ready, say: "Lady, Mother of the gentle Earth, divine orchestrator of renewal and birth, I ask you to help me release all stress. Please free me from this worrisome mess. Worrying a brighter tomorrow does not make. Help me be calm for my own sake. Fill my mind with peace and ease, blow worries away on cleansing breeze.(here, blow out the candle, providing a cleansing breeze for your worries) Minding the rule of three, and it harm none, so mote it be."

I hope that you all have a productive and stress free Monday! Take time to enjoy a good cup of tea or coffee. If it is as cold where you are, as it is here (and rainy too) may warm thoughts find their way into your heart. Brightest Blessings!

Til later,

S

Imbolc, as promised

Merry Imbolc!
I really got behind on posting and I know that I said that I would post rituals and traditions to make your Imbolc meaningful and fun, but since it is now Imbolc...I don't really want to hang out on the Internet all day so I am going to be brief. Here are some things you can do today that will add meaning to your Imbolc festivities!

Prepare your altar as you usually would and ask the Goddess and God to bless your seeds for the upcoming planting season

Light candles in honor of the growing Sun God and the return to warmer days

Bundle up and take a walk in nature meditating on the first inklings of new life and spring!

Clean your home both spiritually and physically- throwing away old junk, as well as stale and negative energies leaving room for positivity and new growth!

Praise the Goddess and God in all the beauty of today, as you do everyday.

I know this was really brief, and not as detailed as usual, but I'm a witch on a mission and I have Imbolc things to do!

Brightest Blessings!

~S

Magic of Music

Good morning!

I'm currently sitting in my mother's first grade classroom working on my own assignments for college, drowning out the enthusiastic learning of her students with Greg Laswell's How the Day Sounds. Which lead me to think about music and how wonderfully it enriches our lives. How it helps us through the morning grind and gives a little magic to our day.

Music is the earliest known method of communication and remains an integral part of society today. From dropping beats, to beautiful ballads, our deepest emotions and passions are sparked with the magic of music. Music gives us a form of catharsis, a way to release the energies that we build up in our lives granting release and calm. It  builds up soldiers to do battle, gives strength to sports teams, grants wings to dancers, and provides freedom to the human songbirds among us. Music heals, it enlightens, it strengthens, and encourages. It is the oldest voice, our true voice, and a looking glass into our souls.

Music is often used in rituals because it helps those who are casting spells and communicating on the spiritual level to ground themselves and find themselves in that calm place between the physical world and the world beyond.

But it is so much more than that. Music has its own power, its own energy which lends itself so wonderfully to increase our own strength and our own will when doing ritual work or casting spells. It blocks out the negative and the distracting, and pulses with the power that surrounds us.

What kind of music lends itself best to ritual work and spell casting? Well, generally you don't really want to try to connect with the universe on a spiritual level while grooving to Shakira's latest single...I really really vibe her music, but we're more likely to focus on the lyrics than our work, our inner space and our outer space.  Generally soothing meditative music such as chants or even wordless music works best. It soothes and builds at just the right times.

If you don't already incorporate music into your own ritual work, I encourage you to give it a try! If you do, what music do you find makes your rituals into a sense sensation?

Brightest Blessings!
~S

Uhm...Everything that popped into my head at once

My Sabbats are going to be a tiny bit scattered as I hadn’t started this blog til after Yule and I plan on covering each Sabbat as it makes an appearance throughout the year. In order to avoid confusion, I would like to post a link to this blog which lists each of the Sabbats in order and gives a description of each. Those of you that are familiar with the Wheel of the Year need not bother with it; however, many new witches will find this helpful! Many of you are probably part of covens or are working toward your initiation. You will have many celebrations of the Sabbats to look forward to as well as people to guide you in proper practice. The rest of you are probably solitaries, like me * impish grin*.

I would like to point out that there is nothing wrong with being a solitary BUT it definitely makes the learning curve slightly more daunting without anyone to guide your steps. I had an absolutely fabulous mentor named Neil (not his Pagan name of course). With that in mind, I hope that the pages of this blog help guide your steps much as Neil guided mine.

I would like to start with some advice on what to avoid. Not all Pagan websites are created equal. In fact, a good portion of them are complete rubbish. Many new witches are eager to look for spells to try, and do so online. While there are some good resources for this, there are many that sell hoaxes. On top of this, even the sites that advertise free spells contain half spells. This can be very dangerous. Most witches include a catch-all in spells that they craft to ensure that the energy put forth does not produce effects that are undesirable. Such a catch all can be as simple as “an it harm none, so mote it be” which is what I, myself, use. It really depends on the witch.  Furthermore, these spells do not take into account moon phases, seasons, and many other things besides. Often these websites include spells to “transform into a vampire” or “flying spells” even spells to destroy one’s enemies. First, magic cannot go against nature. It is, after all nature. You cannot simply spell yourself into being a vampire with the simple and rather absurd spells found on the internet. Either you are, or you aren’t. As a witch, I can’t see why you would want to inflict such a curse upon yourself anyway. Spells for physical flight are also highly unlikely to work. I won’t say that they are impossible, but the simple spells produced here will not achieve that affect. Lastly I want to focus on spells that inflict harm, such as “spells against your enemies” or “revenge” spells as they are often labeled online. Even if these spells were complete spells, a true witch would never use them.  Why? Because three times what you send out returns to you. Most of these spells are pretty nasty and mean. Would you want three times whatever that would be? I certainly wouldn’t.

As a witch it is in your best interest to learn how to craft spells of your very own. And this may take some practice before you get used to it. Spells are a lot like cooking (which isn’t to imply that everything happens over a boiling cauldron…though I don’t want to rule that out), there are ingredients and intent and sometimes, if you aren’t paying attention, you may not get the results you had desired. That is why it is often best to start crafting small. The ingredients to which I am referring include: moon phase, time of day or night, season, herbs, the correct tools, candles, crystals, and a number of other things. That isn’t to say that you will need EVERYTHING known to witch, but knowing what tools to use and how to use them is the biggest part of crafting your own spells. The other part is figuring out how to put it all together in an order that makes sense, and articulating your will or intent (aka the chant). In the Book of Shadows section I will include a post on various magical tools, basic herbs and their uses, moon phases, basic crystals and their uses as well as crystal care, candles and color.  All of these things have their own energy which can lend themselves to your purpose.  Check the Book of Shadows section tomorrow for these descriptions, as well as for the promised Imbolc ritual ideas!

Always

~S