Wednesday, January 30, 2013

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

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