It is the first day of spring, truly a time for something new and great to happen. I’ve written the perfect ritual. I’ve used some things I’ve been thinking about, some stones and animal totems (which I’ll post about). I’d be happy to share it.
Part one: Casting the Circle
You can do this in any way you wish. I myself use ceremonial, or high, magick (which means I call a Goddess I have had experience with into each corner), and I set my altar in the west to honor my patron Goddess and Goddess of Attraction, and it is also my hearth. Casting a circle is personal, and I adapt it to my ritual purpose as well. You can do this however you wish. (If you don’t know how, many articles and books can help you.) Gather your items before starting, make sure you are clean (I shower and scrub with sea salt), calm and clear minded.
Light a red candle in the South.
“Guardians of the watchtower of the South, be with me in my rite. Goddess Pele, hail and welcome. Fill me with passion and fire.”
Light a yellow candle in the East.
“Guardians of the watchtower of the East, be with me in my rite. Goddess Brighid, hail and welcome. Fill me with the spark of inspiration.”
Light a green candle in the North.
“Guardians of the watchtower of the North, be with me in my rite. God Odin and Goddess Freya, hail and welcome. Keep me grounded and humble.”
Light a blue candle on the altar in the West.
“Guardians of the watchtower of the West, be with me in my rite. Goddess Aphrodite, hail and welcome. Fill me with the serenity and the magick of the depths of the oceans.”
Carve the circle with your athame, wand, hands or other tool. I used a pointed piece of rose quartz that had sat on my altar for a month. (Normally used for scrying, it told me it was the right time for this ritual.)
“I cast this circle to keep me free from all negativity, and anything that will work against me and my purpose.” (4x)
Smudge your circle. I use incense and a feather from my familiar animal.
“I cleanse this circle of all negativity, and anything that will work against me and my purpose.” (4x)
The circle is cast.
Cleanse your stones in a glass container, in pure water with a piece of Obsidian. (“I cleanse these stones from their previous purpose.”) Use a magickal number, like 3, 7 or 9.
Now for your ritual.
Take a thin piece of thread or floss, and begin tying the stones you have selected for the ritual, to represent different people (known or strangers). (Stones set in jewelry are perfect for this.)
“I weave this web, to bring together the people I need, so I may help them ___________ and they may help me ____________.” Recite this for each stone tied.
Place in a satchel and tie shut.
Close the circle.
With your tool first, the opposite direction.
“I close this circle. May the circle be closed, but unbroken.”
Snuff the incense.
Snuff the blue candle. Guardians of the watchtower of the West, Goddess Aphrodite, hail and farewell.
Snuff the green candle. Guardians of the watchtower of the North, God Odin and Goddess Freya, hail and farewell.
Snuff the yellow candle. Guardians of the watchtower of the East, Goddess Brighid, hail and farewell.
Snuff the red candle. Guardians of the watchtower of the South, Goddess Pele, hail and farewell.
Carry your satchel with you to work, in your pocket. Sleep with it under your pillow. Meditate with it.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Web Weaver Spell
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Lessons from Barbie
On Monday, Barbie turned 50. Groan you may, but I’m a big fan. Barbie spurs far more use of imagination and activity than today’s television-computer-cell phone world that kids live in. –Barbie is a blank canvas. She comes with no pre-scripting. To a young girl who dreams of growing up to do something great or be something special, she is that white sheet of paper upon which an artist projects her dreams. She's the ultimate career woman, since she comes with such possibility, and you make her your own.
My Barbie was the Indiana Jones of plastic dolls. She was rarely inside the Dream House. She drove a pink jeep, pink speedboat and even had a plastic safari hat. She went pearl diving and mountain climbing (up the cascading bedspread) – having to fight the great bear at the top. All before schmoozing at her evening gala, dancing in a performance, or playing her rock show (or getting married for the umpteenth time to the same noncommittal man). My Barbie was well worn and loved, with ratty hair and missing shoes.
While I didn’t grow up to do nearly any of those things, Barbie can teach us something. Twenty different girls or boys can start with the same thing, the same bent-arm half-smiling plastic doll girl, and end up with twenty different women. We’re a lot like that too. We all start with basically the same body, and we can choose how we want to dress ourselves, what we want to do and how we want to present ourselves.
1. The first step of magick is goal setting. Anyone will tell you that the first step is desire, not just desire but the overwhelming desire in every cell of you that wants what you want. It is conviction paired with willingness to work. This isn’t Cinderella wishing to her fairy godmother to become a princess. The reason many don’t believe in magick is that they expect it to be like that.
2. To start spellcrafting for yourself, you need to see yourself as a canvas, a work-in-progress painting, that is missing something. Then you need to decide what that something is.
3. Then you need to commit to achieving it.
Magick is paired with planning and work. They’re the mundane details no one talks about that always appear in successful spells. If you perform magick for your career, then you pair it with sending out resumes and working for your business deals and constantly seeking success. If you perform magick for love, you perform a spell opening yourself to love and seeking it and actively going out to find love and loving people.
Ask yourself, what do you want for yourself?
I understand the argument against Barbie, that she suggests an unrealistic and unhealthy standard of beauty.
I recall being in a fitting room and I heard a conversation from a woman and her little girl in the spot next to me. By the sound of the girl’s voice, she was maybe four.
Mom: “How does mommy look?”
Girl: “You look beautiful.”
Mom: “Ugh. You don’t think mommy needs to lose some weight?”
Girl: “I need to lose weight.”
Mom: (humoring her) “Oh, you think you do? How much weight do you think you need to lose?”
Girl: “Like, a pound.”
Maybe, call me crazy, but maybe girls get their body image from hearing everyone bash their own selves. This conversation says two things to me: 1. her mom obviously says this kind of crap all the time (about herself, not her daughter, I’m sure) and 2. the girl clearly has no concept of what a pound is or what losing weight means, only that her mom gripes about it all the time and doesn’t think she’s beautiful.
Can’t we take the child’s approach and just see a woman as beautiful, and not judge it down to the nth degree? Revel in what the Goddess gives? Don’t get me wrong, if you want to make yourself better, I’m all for that, and you do that for you, and to HONOR the Goddess and you decorate the temple she has in you. Doesn't that seem far more productive and positive than having so much anger at someone else outside of yourself, or yourself?
Can’t we just embrace play and have adventures and not read into what pure joy really means? Isn’t that what play, be it a Barbie doll or anything else, really is?
Tomorrow is the last day of work before the weekend. It is also Freyja’s Day. I’m going to spend it feeling creative, feeling beautiful, and feeling damn adventurous. Viva la Barbie.
My Barbie was the Indiana Jones of plastic dolls. She was rarely inside the Dream House. She drove a pink jeep, pink speedboat and even had a plastic safari hat. She went pearl diving and mountain climbing (up the cascading bedspread) – having to fight the great bear at the top. All before schmoozing at her evening gala, dancing in a performance, or playing her rock show (or getting married for the umpteenth time to the same noncommittal man). My Barbie was well worn and loved, with ratty hair and missing shoes.
While I didn’t grow up to do nearly any of those things, Barbie can teach us something. Twenty different girls or boys can start with the same thing, the same bent-arm half-smiling plastic doll girl, and end up with twenty different women. We’re a lot like that too. We all start with basically the same body, and we can choose how we want to dress ourselves, what we want to do and how we want to present ourselves.
1. The first step of magick is goal setting. Anyone will tell you that the first step is desire, not just desire but the overwhelming desire in every cell of you that wants what you want. It is conviction paired with willingness to work. This isn’t Cinderella wishing to her fairy godmother to become a princess. The reason many don’t believe in magick is that they expect it to be like that.
2. To start spellcrafting for yourself, you need to see yourself as a canvas, a work-in-progress painting, that is missing something. Then you need to decide what that something is.
3. Then you need to commit to achieving it.
Magick is paired with planning and work. They’re the mundane details no one talks about that always appear in successful spells. If you perform magick for your career, then you pair it with sending out resumes and working for your business deals and constantly seeking success. If you perform magick for love, you perform a spell opening yourself to love and seeking it and actively going out to find love and loving people.
Ask yourself, what do you want for yourself?
I understand the argument against Barbie, that she suggests an unrealistic and unhealthy standard of beauty.
I recall being in a fitting room and I heard a conversation from a woman and her little girl in the spot next to me. By the sound of the girl’s voice, she was maybe four.
Mom: “How does mommy look?”
Girl: “You look beautiful.”
Mom: “Ugh. You don’t think mommy needs to lose some weight?”
Girl: “I need to lose weight.”
Mom: (humoring her) “Oh, you think you do? How much weight do you think you need to lose?”
Girl: “Like, a pound.”
Maybe, call me crazy, but maybe girls get their body image from hearing everyone bash their own selves. This conversation says two things to me: 1. her mom obviously says this kind of crap all the time (about herself, not her daughter, I’m sure) and 2. the girl clearly has no concept of what a pound is or what losing weight means, only that her mom gripes about it all the time and doesn’t think she’s beautiful.
Can’t we take the child’s approach and just see a woman as beautiful, and not judge it down to the nth degree? Revel in what the Goddess gives? Don’t get me wrong, if you want to make yourself better, I’m all for that, and you do that for you, and to HONOR the Goddess and you decorate the temple she has in you. Doesn't that seem far more productive and positive than having so much anger at someone else outside of yourself, or yourself?
Can’t we just embrace play and have adventures and not read into what pure joy really means? Isn’t that what play, be it a Barbie doll or anything else, really is?
Tomorrow is the last day of work before the weekend. It is also Freyja’s Day. I’m going to spend it feeling creative, feeling beautiful, and feeling damn adventurous. Viva la Barbie.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Finding Your Roots
I knew last night when I first got in my car that it would be a good night. I was waiting for a green arrow to u turn (the silly streets here are set up that way) and I fumbled through the radio stations. Crummy run of the mill dance music, soul music seriously lacking soul, overly indulgent love songs…then I hit a station and BTO came out of my speakers. I instinctually turned it up and started singing along.
Old, classic rock reminds me of my father, who, for the entirety of my life, has been an old, classic rock musician. I was thinking to myself as I drove, that these were my roots. Sure, there are the ancient ancestries witches often revel in, but we can’t forget our family, where we came from, and our humble beginnings. My beginnings happen to include a strong base and shredding guitar solo interludes.
I met Angelia at our spot (after we debated going somewhere else and decided not to mess with our favorite recipe). We chatted on the porch before heading inside for a listen to the band, which was playing, wouldn’t you know, rock songs from the late 70s and 80s. The place was just packed with people from all stages of life, and you could see in their faces the various memories they were re-living and just wondering what they were. Before the occasional bar skank plowed into you from behind, utterly trashed, squealing “I LOVE this song!” and re-living her memory a little too publicly. We headed off the main floor after the first break, for a quieter spot in the back. Next to me, I met Don and Sancho.
I was enjoying myself and singing every word to Panama (I don’t even like that sgong) “I have a question,” Don asked me, seriously. “How old are you?” I played along, but had a feeling I knew where this was going. (Where does it ever go?) Then he said, “I’m 10 years older than you and I know these songs. How do you know them?” I just smiled and told the truth, these were my roots.
It was fun talking to the two, even after Angelia left, still hung over from her night before. Turns out they both worked in the field I will be working in. He said when I get established he would take me to some happy hour networking events. Sometimes playing along really does help, I do suppose!
Old, classic rock reminds me of my father, who, for the entirety of my life, has been an old, classic rock musician. I was thinking to myself as I drove, that these were my roots. Sure, there are the ancient ancestries witches often revel in, but we can’t forget our family, where we came from, and our humble beginnings. My beginnings happen to include a strong base and shredding guitar solo interludes.
I met Angelia at our spot (after we debated going somewhere else and decided not to mess with our favorite recipe). We chatted on the porch before heading inside for a listen to the band, which was playing, wouldn’t you know, rock songs from the late 70s and 80s. The place was just packed with people from all stages of life, and you could see in their faces the various memories they were re-living and just wondering what they were. Before the occasional bar skank plowed into you from behind, utterly trashed, squealing “I LOVE this song!” and re-living her memory a little too publicly. We headed off the main floor after the first break, for a quieter spot in the back. Next to me, I met Don and Sancho.
I was enjoying myself and singing every word to Panama (I don’t even like that sgong) “I have a question,” Don asked me, seriously. “How old are you?” I played along, but had a feeling I knew where this was going. (Where does it ever go?) Then he said, “I’m 10 years older than you and I know these songs. How do you know them?” I just smiled and told the truth, these were my roots.
It was fun talking to the two, even after Angelia left, still hung over from her night before. Turns out they both worked in the field I will be working in. He said when I get established he would take me to some happy hour networking events. Sometimes playing along really does help, I do suppose!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Working Witch
I finally found a JOB! After a long, exhausting search, seeming hopeless at many points, I will be starting with a luxury real estate firm next week. I was feeling like I would have taken anything. Counter intuitively, that actually made it worse. What I needed was a shot of confidence. To stop thinking of myself as a desperate victim, decide I deserved it, to figure out what I could offer them that no one else could and sell it! I'm young, trend-savvy and at times too plugged in...and that turned out to be just what I have to give to an entrepreneurial, progressive employer.
It took a lot of spellcasting. I had gotten in touch with Stacey Demarco (of Witch in the Boardroom fame) on a friendly level, and tore through her book. In there I found a couple spells that really did the trick. (I would post them, however, they're not mine to reprint.) What she also wrote about, though, were the ancient laws that bring us prosperity ("like attracting like," for instance: being what you want to become until you become it. Fake it until you make it.) She also wrote about sending your intention out and then participating. Stopping thinking that magic is going to come from outside of you, and starting to tap into the magic inside of you and making magic happen. In reality, it's fantastic advice for anyone, witch or not!
With all the excitement though, this new job has it's downside. It's temporary "trial" employment to begin with. At first this made me nervous. I wonder if I can cut it, especially since I've done similar marketing but never in this field...but at the same time, I feel that same confidence swell in me again. I know I will try my hardest to succeed at this, I know I am capable if I don't relent at puting my nose to the grindstone.
I went out and celebrated with my girlfriends, Angelia and Gisele. We went to one of our favorite pubs where a favorite band of mine plays. It's just an 80s cover band, but the nostalgia is always a fun time. I was enjoying myself watching the band when the man in front of me asked if I wanted to dance. I noticed that although no one was out there, once we went, several other men and women alike joined us. One girl near me was grooving in her chair, even though she was surrounded by friends, a little nod to her and she jumped up as well. I got her dancing with my gentleman friend and had to leave them there with eachother. Angelia and Gis never danced, but I knew they were having fun.
Angelia sent me a note the next day. I guess a fellow had come up to her and Gis to ask where I was. Why he didn't say anything for the few hours I was there, I don't know. (Gisele is weather hardened - and I mean that metaphorically - with a smokey voice and a huge chip on her shoulder about men. Still, Angie said she really tried to work this guy, leaving her standing there ignored.) I wondered how many people are standing pitched at the edge, toes on the line, ready to jump but never do. It's not a shot of courage they need so much as a shot of confidence. You need to believe in yourself when no one else does, and if you don't, then fake it til you make it. Other people aren't concerned with you. They just aren't. You need to drive yourself, decide if you're either going to matter to people or forget about them. Here's hoping you can be the one they wonder about when you're gone!
It took a lot of spellcasting. I had gotten in touch with Stacey Demarco (of Witch in the Boardroom fame) on a friendly level, and tore through her book. In there I found a couple spells that really did the trick. (I would post them, however, they're not mine to reprint.) What she also wrote about, though, were the ancient laws that bring us prosperity ("like attracting like," for instance: being what you want to become until you become it. Fake it until you make it.) She also wrote about sending your intention out and then participating. Stopping thinking that magic is going to come from outside of you, and starting to tap into the magic inside of you and making magic happen. In reality, it's fantastic advice for anyone, witch or not!
With all the excitement though, this new job has it's downside. It's temporary "trial" employment to begin with. At first this made me nervous. I wonder if I can cut it, especially since I've done similar marketing but never in this field...but at the same time, I feel that same confidence swell in me again. I know I will try my hardest to succeed at this, I know I am capable if I don't relent at puting my nose to the grindstone.
I went out and celebrated with my girlfriends, Angelia and Gisele. We went to one of our favorite pubs where a favorite band of mine plays. It's just an 80s cover band, but the nostalgia is always a fun time. I was enjoying myself watching the band when the man in front of me asked if I wanted to dance. I noticed that although no one was out there, once we went, several other men and women alike joined us. One girl near me was grooving in her chair, even though she was surrounded by friends, a little nod to her and she jumped up as well. I got her dancing with my gentleman friend and had to leave them there with eachother. Angelia and Gis never danced, but I knew they were having fun.
Angelia sent me a note the next day. I guess a fellow had come up to her and Gis to ask where I was. Why he didn't say anything for the few hours I was there, I don't know. (Gisele is weather hardened - and I mean that metaphorically - with a smokey voice and a huge chip on her shoulder about men. Still, Angie said she really tried to work this guy, leaving her standing there ignored.) I wondered how many people are standing pitched at the edge, toes on the line, ready to jump but never do. It's not a shot of courage they need so much as a shot of confidence. You need to believe in yourself when no one else does, and if you don't, then fake it til you make it. Other people aren't concerned with you. They just aren't. You need to drive yourself, decide if you're either going to matter to people or forget about them. Here's hoping you can be the one they wonder about when you're gone!
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