Horoscopes

I was reading a book about Feng Shui, and it was talking about qualities that people have based on their birthday. I have always looked at such categorizations with a grain of salt, it seemed a bit odd that everyone born in the same month or year would have such similar characteristics. My husband and I are born with a month of each other, on the same year, and in many systems we fall into the same grouping, and yet I see more differences than similarities in how we think and how we approach life.

However, I also know that almost always, when I read the descriptions of the groups that I fall into, I find myself agreeing with a lot of the descriptions. Sometimes I agree with descriptions of groups that I don't belong to, and sometimes I find very little that I can identify with unless I make some very big stretches.

I know that a lot of people dislike horoscopes, especially those that you might find on a website or in a newspaper. Often these horoscopes are very general, and sometimes aren't even really an attempt at fortune telling at all, but a piece of solid advice that almost anyone would benefit from following. Similarly, many systems that group people by element, birth month, birth year or any other type of category give such a broad range of descriptions that everyone finds themselves identifying with some of the characteristics.

Because of this, it is quite common for the entire thing to be considered a fraud, a joke or just completely useless. I think that the problem is not the horoscope, but the way we feel we need to interpret them.

I don't look at a horoscope as a guarantee. It is not a picture of my future, nor a mirror in which I can see my true inner self. Instead, I think about what the horoscope makes me think about myself. If it is telling me about my personal qualities, which ones do I agree with and why? I think that it is so very easy to take our selves for granted, to not really appreciate the things we are good at, the things that are meaningful to us or even the things that we might be lacking in.

And more than just what they make me think, how do those thoughts effect what I do? Many times, I'll get into a personal research project, start reading up about something and get near obsessed with it. I'll want to go out and do everything I read about, change myself to become the picture of me I saw in my mind when I read or thought about something new. This can be a great thing, but it can also be a bad thing. It is easy to go over the top, to focus on the sensational instead of the substance.

When it comes to horoscopes that intend to predict the future, what I find interesting is to see what I pay attention to as the time described by the horoscope comes to pass. Do I find myself focusing on things I might have otherwise overlooked because the horoscope said these things would find their way into my life? This can provide a lot of opportunities, both to emphasize the good and avoid the bad. If I am told that I will meet a new friend today, I am more likely to pay attention to strangers I may meet instead of paying attention to my shopping list or the other things I need to do in the afternoon. If I am told that I should beware while in cars, I will probably be more focused in my driving.

I think that horoscopes have the potential to be really great tools, if we learn how to use them. Dive beneath the surface and see what your horoscope really says about you, and reap the benefits that they have to offer.

Twelve African Love Spirits By Doc Hava/ Papa Oloyade

The most common spells asked for are those of love, but love is more then a simple spell it is a planted seed that has to grow.   Sex and Lust are easy spells they come with little work and sometimes huge sacrifice.   Love is a seed that takes time to grow, with the emotion of water, the passion of fire, the communication of the wind, and the earth to stabilize its roots.   When understanding love you must come in contact with the three brothers, the three queens, the three sages, and three dames de la nuit.   You must understand that love is not a spell, but it is an understanding, you must find yourself and find the spirit of the one you love; to connect is a celestial unity.

The first brother is Ellegba, the playful heart he is the heart of a young man with the soul of a traveler.   He is uneasily tamed but he will always return to the beginning; he may have a traveling heart but his heart is young and filled with adventure.   The second brother is Ogun he is the strong silent type, he has the heart of a fierce warrior and the emotions of a soft creature of the forest.  Ogun is a very trusting spirit, but always wants to be or feel in control of his surroundings.   When he feels that his surroundings are jeopardized he will usually lash out and become fierce.  The last of the brothers is Chango, he is the Strong man, the King , he is the fierce warrior and the fierce lover, but he also has a fire cracker like temper. . .he can be rash and temperamental.   

The three queens are very strong women, women who know what they want, and women who know how to get it.   Beautiful and majestic they stand, and with honor they demand the energy of their mate.  The First Queen is Oya, she is a fierce warrior and Queen of the winds and the storm her love is strong and embracing, she is the spirit who believes the way to ones spirit is through his stomach, keep the household warm filling and inviting.  Her heart is not one to be tried, because she will very easily over power her lover.  The second Queen is Oshun, the Queen of the pure waters, her heart is that of young love and healing the wounded lover.  Her love dances and cleanses the life of old love, scorn her and she will use her currents to suffocate you.   The third Queen is Yemaya Queen of the deep ocean, all waters of love flow into her and she is the mother of all life.  Her love is that of a strong protective lover and mother, she nurtures and cares for those who she loves.   To cross her is a trying task, since all energies are touched by her she has the ability to counter and then drag you into her depths.

The three sages are the men who think with the deep hearts, the souls that have experienced the love of the ages and gained wisdom from its lessons.  The first is Obatala the wise spirit of creation, is love like the warming blanket, he is the lover who cares and nurtures you knowing of the cold times.   He is the over protective energy, he knows that things can go wrong so he has the ability to over prepare.  His over preparedness can be a smothering experience and often overwhelm people, but as his love creates; if scorn his love will reverse all that he has made.  The second of the sages is the silent mystic Orunula he is the guardian of what is and what is to become, this lover sees you for your past and sees you for your future.  He sees the pure qualities in all he touches; he usually guards this knowledge with a tight lip, unless asked for the knowledge.  His spirit will be the dark silent type, but if treated with disrespect he will see it coming and move away quickly and call you out on your short comings.  The last of the sages is Babalu Aye, the love of a healer and the love of the scorned one.   He understands the one whose heart and body have been broken, his spirit embraces and bandages up wounds from the past.   His love is strong and his heart yearns to heal his beloved; betray his love and sickness and anger will fall upon you, do not betray his nurturing spirit for naivety. 

The three dames de la nuit, are the ladies of the night, they are free moving female spirits who walk to the beat of their own drum.   The first being Obba the queen of the sweet waters and river berries.  She is the warrior spirit, and the spirit that keeps the fresh water reserves like the spring and the lakes.  She strives with her energies to keep families together, and will sacrifice herself at the altar for the one she loves.  Her love nurtures and is a sustaining love, but if her sacrifice is rejected she will dry up her wealth of love and starve her lover of the nurturing waters that kept him filled.  The second of the ladies is Pomba Gira, the woman who needs no man.  She is a strong woman who is extremely passionate and sexual.   She loves to be loved and doted upon, she loves finer things and enjoys for the energy focused on her.  Pomba Gira’s energy is that a traveling soul and a gypsy in the night, she is the woman who will return to the man who can be the most giving and the most loving.  The last is Maman Brigette the lady who walks among the gravestone; she holds her love for those who have fallen into darkness.  She embraces those who are sad and lost.   She is a staunch woman who will smoke and drink and sing bawdy songs with her lovers.   Maman Brigette will stay  strong to her lovers and keep them comforted moving them from the darkness into salvation, treat Maman Brigette wrong and she will allow you to fall into the depth of darkness were light seems unseen.

When dealing with love these are the basic seeds, a human body can hold either a male or female spirit; ones specific gender is not the rubric for the African Spirit one may hold.   Understanding the divine energies that dwell in our love paths, is the basis to a successful relationship; these are the spirits that make or break ones heart and soul.  Use these energies to your benefit and gain the blessings of “Happily Ever After”.  Ase Doc Hava or Papa Oloyade on Facebook 

Unsolicited help

One of those things that I see quoted a lot on various magic oriented sites is that one should never cast on someone else without their permission. This is counted up there with other no-no's such as casting 'black' magic or harmful magic, casting for self-gain, or using love spells. I have thoughts on pretty much all of those, but thinking today about casting on other people without their permission.

I do believe we all have our own path, and it can be very hard for me to see what another's path might be. I have enough trouble sometimes seeing what is in my own best interest (not what I want but what is best for me), so of course I don't claim to be able to see what is best for others.

However, I have a lot of people in my life who don't know about my beliefs, and if they did, they might be wary about having spells cast in their name. Prayer they would be okay with, but spells *gasp no not that! I was thinking about this, especially with holidays near, that often the name of something will make someone cringe, but if it was described, they wouldn't know it was something other than what they already believe in or do.

Back to the casting, I've seen people yell at others for even something like sending healing energy to someone without asking first. This one really gets me. There have been plenty of times where it was impractical or even impossible to ask if someone would like healing energy sent their way. That's like saying you should get a signed waver before you perform CPR on someone who isn't breathing. I do understand that sometimes, it isn't meant to be, that not everyone will heal and be healthy again, and that when your time comes, fighting can only make it harder. I tend to think of my healing like offering someone a hand. I send it out, and it is there, if they want to take it, they can use it, if they don't, they don't.

I think in similar terms for blessings. It's very common, amongst people of pretty much every faith, to wish blessings and boons upon their friends and families over the holiday. About half of all the Christmas cards you see in the store offer some kind of wishes for the person receiving the card (the other have just offer some kind of bible verse). What I like about blessings, is that you can be very unspecific in what you bless people with. I don't have to offer health or wealth or a good job or any number of things I might work towards for myself. I can offer happiness or peace of mind or even just send a burst of energy and let the other person use it for whatever they will.

I also take no offense at my Christian (or other faith) friends and family praying for me. I think it is a lovely sentiment, and it is wonderful to me that they care enough about me to think about me when they pray. I find it a bit absurd that someone can feel it okay to light a candle and bless a friend but then get offended that someone said a prayer and lit a candle in a church for them.

In this holiday season, I want to share my blessings with the world! I want to send energy to whomever might need it. I see nothing wrong with this, and have no intention of stopping just because some might find fault. So brightest blessings to you all!!!

Interesting and a Bit Scary

My youngest daughter, Michelle, who lives in Colorado, had a very interesting thing happen the day before yesterday.  A woman who had recently moved next door to where she is living just recently starting talking to Michelle and striking up a friendship.  Well, on the day mentioned, she comes to Michelle and says I have to tell you something very important.  The woman goes on to tell Michelle that she sometimes gets visits from dead people and she doesn't tell people about it very often because most people just think that she's weird but she had received a very important message from a dead person who said he was Michelle's father.  Michelle, who was somewhat skeptical, listened to what the woman had to say.  Her father just passed away last October and so she was surprised that he had supposedly contacted this woman, but she also misses him so she wanted to know what he might have had to say.  The woman explained that she had had a horrific dream about Michelle getting seriously hurt and this was around the same time this spirit who said he was Michelle's father starting contacting her.  He told this neighbor that it was very important that she make Michelle understand that she was not to cross the bridge.  The woman asked Michelle is she knew what that meant and Michelle wasn't sure until the woman told her about her dream from which she described three people that Michelle knew who they were right away from the woman's description.  The three people she knew were the father of her three boys, his current girlfriend and his girlfriend's best friend. There was a fourth person in the dream, whose name had been given to the neighbor in the dream but Michelle said she didn't know him.  The neighbor insists that Michelle does know him and that those four people were responsible for the serious injuries that Michelle recieved in the dream.  The neighbor also told Michelle the place where she had seen Michelle seriously hurt, which is what freaked Michelle out because it explained what her father said about not going over the bridge.  The road where the neighbor said she saw Michelle was on the way to the father of Michelle's children's house and one of the routes to get there takes you over a bridge that crosses a deep canyon.  This would all sound a bit whacked except the father of Michelle's children is getting served papers this week telling him that Michelle is filing for sole custody of their children and he has threatened to kill her if she tried to take the boys away from him.  Okay, so what are you alls thoughts on this.  I told her some of the stuff that Patty had told me previously to do to try to bind the boy's father and she's letting her case worker and a sheriff know about the threat.  I've told her about using eggshells for protecting the boys and all the other stuff she can to to protect herself as Patty suggested.  Is there anything else that she can do or that I can do.  I'm already burning candles and say prayers.  If nothing else, please send prayers and thoughts her way and hopefully this will all turn out to have just been a person's bad dream.

Knot/String magic

Knot magic is something I really enjoy. It is simple, easy to do just about anywhere, and has a lot of wonderful applications. From calling/storing wind to binding, there are a lot of well known forms of knot magic (such as tying the knot). There are highly circulated knot magic charms for any purpose, one that I have had in my book for ages has a few variations, and this is my favorite (with lines from different sources, these are just the ones I prefer):

"By knot of one, the spell's begun,
By knot of two, it cometh true,
By knot of three, it comes to be,
By knot of four, it's strengthened more,
By knot of five, the spell shall thrive,
By knot of six, the spell is fixed,
By knot of seven, the answer given,
By knot of eight, I meld with fate,
By knot of nine, the spell I bind."

The nine knots are tied in a cord or string. I've seen several different orders for the knots, from simply starting at one end to tying them in this order: 1-6-4-7-3-8-5-9-2.

To capture wind, you tie knots in a cord when the wind is high, and then when you wish to call wind, you untie knots (less knots: gentler wind, more knots: more wind).

To let go of inner frustrations, take a length of string and start tying knots. Each time you tie a knot, visualize something that is making you mad or aggravating you as being tied up in the knot. When your string is a jumbled up mess of knots and you run out of things to tie knots for, bury or burn the string.

Many times when two things are to be 'bound' together, either in partnership, or to draw the attributes from one to another, they are tied together during the working. At the end of the working, the cords are removed but either kept somewhere (this allows you to undue the binding at a later date if you wish) or buried somewhere (to keep the binding going). To remove the cords, slide them off the things bound or cut the cord but don't untie the knots. To undue the binding, you can untie the knot.

A very simple enchantment is to take a charm representing what you wish to accomplish, and tied it onto a person or thing. You could tie a heart onto a child's backpack to keep them safe, a compass or star onto your shoe so you can always find your way or an umbrella on your jacket to keep you protected from unexpected storms.

The type of cord or string has a lot of possibilities as well. I keep old shoelaces (I hate throwing things out that aren't broken!) and bits of string or yarn left over from crafting projects. You can get small travel sized dental floss that is handy to keep in a purse or backpack. You can knot strings that hang off of clothing. You can even use your own hair (easier if you have longer hair).

Something I was thinking about recently when I went to do some knotwork was that, while I like rhyming charms like the one above, some of the wording is clunky, and other than the repeating idea of tying your intent into the knots, there isn't any real differentiation between the knots.

Instead, consider using numerology to reinforce different aspects of your goal. Or a number of steps you feel necessary to work up to your intended result. Or qualities you want in your end result (if you were working for a job, you might tie a knot for easy commute, a knot for flexible work schedule, a knot for daytime shift...etc).

Needing Help With Negative Energy Again

Well, I'm back to having problems with the negative energy in my house.  Let me lay out the problem so you all can get a feel for what I'm dealing with. Hopefully it will help you guys help me come up with a plan for dealing with this on a long term basis.
My roommates adult son lives with us.  He is a diabetic and disabled.  He's very manipulative and likes starting problems.  He has no where else to go because no one else will allow him to live with them because he has already burnt all his bridges with other family members.  Of course my roommate feels like she has no choice but to deal with him because he's her son with no where else to go.  He, of course, knows she feels this way and antagonates her every chance he gets. 
My oldest daughter recently moved back home after ending a bad relationship and my roommate's son has been making sexual comments to her and lurking around every where she is in the house to the point where she's trying find another place because he's creeping her out.
He's also gotten to where he's trying to manipulate my grandchildren that live with and doing things to cause them to get in trouble. For example, I let my grandson use my headphones over the weekend and when my grandson laid them down on the counter instead of the computer, my roommates son took them, knowing that I would be very upset that my grandson had lost them. The headphones conveniently turned back up yesterday after we had turned the house upside down and I had punished my grandson by grounding him from computer games because he lost my headphones.
This is the kind of stuff that has been going on for several months now. It started with him just antagonizing his mother, then being manipulative with the kids, now grossing out my daughter.  All of which are really upsetting me but I'm not allowed to say anything to him because it will just fall back on my roommate who doesn't want to deal with him. 
He is one of the most negative people I've ever met. His negative energy and manipulative and antagonism is really wearing on the rest of the people in the house.  I've tried meditating, burning sage and usuing positive energy but he negative energy has gotten so strong that it seems to be over powering anything I'm doing to counter it.
I'm at the point of trying just about anything that's not going to cause to much karmic damage to me. I want his energy blocked so that he can't hurt the rest of us.  Any suggestions?

Egg magic

I've used eggs magically for a couple of different things, from Sabbat rituals to magical chalk, and I was thinking about it again today, had a couple of ideas and went digging for more information.

Most of what I find when I look up egg magic (you have to add folklore to your search or all you get is magic tricks to make eggs float or disappear!), is about using the egg as an aid to removing the evil eye. It is a popular method in Mexican folk medicine, where the egg is moved over the body to absorb negative energy. The egg (raw) is then broken into a glass of water and the shapes it makes are read as divination.

I read about another method where a raw egg was kept by the bed for seven days to absorb negative energy. It was then taken to a source of running water and broken so that the egg was carried away from the home. Alternatively it could be disposed of by burying it in the earth. The smell was thought to represent the evil it absorbed!

Thai healers would use eggs to gather up 'lost' soul bits and then feed the egg to a patient to help them become more centered and grounded. A neat twist on this is to create your own 'medicine' egg, decorating and charging it with the qualities you wish to recover or gain and then eating it.

When I was saving eggshells to make chalk with, I used some in part of a home protection ritual, calling upon the nature of the shell as a protective force.

Another very common association with eggs is of course with fertility. Colored eggs were dropped into women's laps to promote pregnancy. An egg might be broken over a farm implement to promote fertility in the field that was worked on with the tool.

In some European countries, decorated eggs were placed on grave sites, as a symbol of new life coming from death.

To take a lighter twist, I read about Surprise Eggs, taking a plastic egg (like you find at any store for Easter), filling it with glitter, a small charm or trinket, or any number of fun things, and leaving it in some public place as a nice surprise for a stranger.

I've also been thinking lately that there are some interesting possibilities with the egg membrane. If you have ever rinsed out an eggshell for any reason, you will know there is a kind of elastic membrane between the egg and the shell (several layers of membrane actually). It reminds me of the caul, and I'm sure there are a million uses for it as such. I'll have to fiddle with drying some (I think that if you wash all the egg liquid off of it that it would dry fairly scentless).

As I mentioned earlier, I save eggshells (well washed, and then dried and then ground up) for chalk, although I think there are a lot of other uses for keeping eggshells on hand. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, you could even take the chalk mixture, and instead of rolling it into logs to make chalk sticks (for writing with) you could form it into other shapes and end up with little statues, or relief art work. I know you can make neat mosaics with eggshells.

You can also make a hole on either end of a raw egg and carefully blow out the inside (depending on how clean your holes are, you can save the egg for eating or for some other purpose). When cleaned, this becomes a great egg for decorating and keeping. In the Ozark area, a tree covered with these cleaned out eggs was actually used as a charm for keeping witches at bay. If you carefully widen one of the holes, you can fill your egg with herbs, small stones or charms and then seal up the ends, either as a permanent charm to be kept somewhere safe, or as a temporary one to be destroyed at an appropriate moment.

There are a lot of neat ways to dye eggs with natural ingredients, and some breathtaking ways of decorating them. But you can also dye the eggs magically instead of ascetically. Making an herb wash to soak your egg in might not impart much color, but it has so much potential for imparting different essences to your egg.

You can do egg divination by drawing a variety of symbols on different undyed eggs in white crayon or wax, and then choosing one at random, dying it and seeing what symbol you get (if you then eat the egg, you can take that energy into yourself even more).

Where We Are Is Where We Are Supposed To Be

My partner and I were having a conversation today about life and she was saying that if this or that was different then we would be doing different things in a different place but I am a firm believer that things are the way they are for a reason.

I've been a big fan of Deepak Chopra for almost seventeen years now. In his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, he says we should accept that things are the way they are supposed to be.  This theory falls under the Law of Least Effort. Deepak says, "This law is based on the fact that nature's intelligence functions with effortless ease and abandoned carefreeness. This is the principle of least action, of no resistance."

In applying this law to our lives, we should accept our circumstances for what they are because things are the way they are supposed to be because the universe is where it's supposed to be.  It's all a part of karmic choices and the paths that we have chosen that have led us down the paths we have followed.  We are led down these paths by the forces that rule the universe because where we are will lead to events that are supposed to happen as the play of life unfolds as the forces want them to unfold.

Whether you believe in fate, destiny, divine will, predestination or whatever other term fits your description of how you think the future is determined, the bottom line is that you are where you are now because it was predetermined by some force that this is where you are supposed to be.

Sometimes this is frustrating especially when things are not going the way you want them to.  But, when we find the silence within and really listen to the inner voice that leads us, we can find ways to change our paths to better places where we hope to be at some point in our lives. Too often we have too much noise in our heads and we make incorrect choices that lead us further from where we want to be and often further from where the forces ruling this world want us to be.

The Law of Least Effort is followed by the Law of Intention and Desire. Think about where you really want to be in your life and meditate on it. You will create a ripple effect that will eventually take you to where you want to be but you have to be patient, things will unfold the way they are supposed to. Remember to be careful what you wish for because you just might get it and if things are happening exactly the way you want them to there's a reason. Namaste.

Multi-sensory perception

I think that one place that many instructional texts lacks is in approaching matters from a single sense instead of multiples. The vast majority of methods and practices I've read about, heard about or encountered favor sight over the other senses, to the point of exclusion. It is described in fairly great detail about what we should look for or see, but not what we might hear, or smell, or touch.

I don't really consider myself a sight-primary person. I used to think that I had good night vision, but I have come to realize that it is more that I don't feel 'blind' at night, even though I might not be able to see anything, because I trust my other senses. When trying to place something unknown, or get a handle on something new, I am much more likely to take in the smell (and sometimes taste) of a thing than to get a good look at it.

I sometimes wonder, how many people who feel they aren't able to do something, feel this way because their preferred sense isn't that of sight. And when they don't see what they are told they should see, they feel they have failed, even when their other senses are giving them the information they sought.

And more than that, I think that even when we are receiving information from one of our senses, we tend to move on instead of opening ourselves to the rest of our senses and getting a more complete picture of things.

I have also found that sometimes I get information in an almost non-sensory manner. I call it intuitive sense....it's just plain old knowing. A lot of the time when I visualize things, I'm not actually seeing them (at least not in a visual sense kind of way). I'll get a complete conceptualization of a thing, but it will be very different from some of the visual images I get (which can be just like seeing a picture sitting on the table in front of me).

It can be really interesting to test yourself, and challenge yourself to do things without the benefit of one of your senses. I am sure many of us have done things (or attempted to) with our eyes closed, but you can also restrict your other senses. The world is quite different with a good pair of ear plugs in. How disoriented are we when we have a cold that plugs up our nose (and makes nothing really taste good!). Have you ever tried to grab something or write when your had was asleep (functioning without the sense of touch is really bizarre!). After an experience in this manner, I appreciate my senses even more than usual.

Silence and Solitude

I am a big believer in the power of music. Almost every time I sit down at the computer, I set it to play something. I have different selections for different moods, and pretty much always have something that works for me.

But I think that moments of silence are just as powerful and sometimes more important. There is so much in our daily lives that creates noise, and we are so busy it can be hard to take moments and just sit in silence and not do anything.

This past weekend, my son was away spending the weekend with his grandparents. During the summer it is a lot harder for me to have solid chunks of time that are just quiet, and I hadn't realized how much I had missed it until that first morning (and then evening when my husband went off to work and I truly had the house to myself...for the first time since summer vacation started).

I am pretty aware of how much noise people make, even when they aren't being loud. I think that people have a presence, and this manifests for me in tangible ways. I'm much more responsive to sound than I am to sight in some ways, and sounds tend to bother me quicker. It's like being around a low grade hum, and then all of a sudden it goes silent, and you are suddenly consciously aware of the lack of noise.

I really think that it is important that we take time to ourselves. And not just time to indulge in things that we enjoy doing (although that is important as well!), but just to BE. As little as a few moments, by yourself, in silence, doing nothing, can be extremely revitalizing.

Justification: another face of fear

Facing our fears is something we do as a part of growth. Every step we take forward, we are leaving something behind. It can be something that is both extremely trying and ultimately liberating.

In order to face our fears we have to know them and name them. Some things are easy to name, some we can only admit to in the privacy of our own minds. But some hide behind the mask of justification. We allow ourselves to make excuses so that we don't have to admit to our fears. We claim we are busy and don't have time because we are afraid of failing. We put off trying something new because we don't have the money.

Sometimes these limitations are true, there is a finite amount of time, and at any current moment some things may be out of our reach. But we have to learn to be brutally honest with ourselves. Because sometimes, we use these limitations to avoid doing something that we might fail at. We hide behind our reasons as to why we can't even start a project because we are afraid of what the outcome might be.

And sometimes, it isn't even failure that we are afraid of, but success, or even simply change. It is easy to continue as we always have. Change brings us into the unknown and that can be a very scary thing.

Part of our process of inner growth is forcing ourselves to be honest. We don't have to shout our fears to the world, but we do have to admit them to ourselves. We might not be able to surmount them today, but if we don't admit them, we will never get past them.

Reality Adjusting!!

If your own reality could use a little help, some of us do that professionally!


Enchantment Consortium

Come on over and take a look!   Email us at enchantmentconsortium@hotmail.com  about anything we do that you would like to know about!  We are here for you!

Spam!!!

I really feel like we have hit the big time!! Everytime I get on to tweak the blog, there is yet another MYSTERIOUS post in Cyrillic Russian to delete.  I was thinking that some interesting person was reading in English and then posting in Russian, just to be exotic, until I had the internet translate for me.  Even Garden variety Spam seems more exotic in another language!
If you are that person, and are really just posting in Cyrillic, and the translator is just screwed, I apologize.   If you are that random spammer, I admire your dedication, and you have at least AMUSED me. :)

Sometimes you just gotta feel...

One of the books I am reading was talking about trusting your intuition and learning to understand and interpret the signs our bodies send us in relation to maintaining health. And a point it brought up is that when dealing with dreams or memories, sometimes you don't have to understand what the symbols mean, but you need to open yourself up to what emotions it brings up in you, and through working through those emotions, you can address the core issue, even though the particular symbols you were shown might remain a mystery.

There are so many ways that we can interact with signs and symbols around us. Through divination, omen's, inner work, dreams...the ways are countless. And while I am a big fan of looking into the history and intellectual connections behind symbols, I think that sometimes I focus too much on this and not enough on the visceral reactions that the symbols bring up in me.

I am somewhat used to flashes of intuition...sometimes I just 'know' things, and I don't have a problem with accepting that information without any supporting knowledge. What I don't always do is listen to my gut. But as I was reading this concept, I got to thinking that it was a powerful message that I should heed. Thought and emotion are often so intertwined, it is easy to overlook one because we are listening to the other.

I think that it can be a vulnerable thing to open ourselves up to our emotions...without relying on the crutch of intellectual justification. To just let ourselves feel whatever we are going through, and really BE in the moment, and just let it was over us in whatever way it will is absolutely letting go of control. You will end up doing things you probably wouldn't normally do. You might yell, you might cry, you might completely embarrass yourself. But this kind of emotional experience is also very cathartic. It can let you move beyond something that is holding you back. It can let you face parts of yourself that you dislike or fear. It can release you from pain and bring you back into balance.

Dinner and A spell all rolled into one!!!!!

Tk’s Magickal Chili!

A yummy Pick me up spell so good you can eat!

Need a little extra push to get motivated? Feeling weighed down by life? Need to dust off your mojo? Just plain Hungry? Well then here is the recipe for a handy dandy little spell you can eat!

List O’ stuff ye be a needing

1 ½ pound lean ground beef

2 cups chopped onion (about two large onions or one giant sweet Vidalia onion)

1 cup chopped green pepper (one normal sized pepper should do it)

4 cloves worth of minced garlic (I so cheated and used the organic minced garlic in a jar ((about 2 tablespoons)

1 15-16 oz. can of Red Kidney beans drained or untrained (it’s up to you! Although if you do not drain add a little less water)

1 15-16 oz. can of Black beans drained or undrained (it’s up to you! Although if you do not drain add a little less water)

2 14.5 oz. cans of Chili Ready diced tomatoes un-drained

1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce or two 8 oz. cans

I cup of water

2 tablespoon of Chili powder

1 teaspoon dried basil or four to five fresh chopped leaves

½ teaspoon Black Pepper

Shredded cheese (I used finely shredded Mexican Blend)

Sour cream (If you want to I passed on the white stuff and it still turned out super yummy!)

What?

You want to know how chili is magickal?

How is this a spell?

Well keep reading I’m getting to that part, Gosh your soooooooo impatience.

Okay so everything in the above list has magickal properties to them, take beef for instance. Sacred to the Egyptian mother goddesses Hathor and Isis and it was thought to excite those who ate it, causing them to enter blissful states. Some people have even suggested that due to the inherently aggressive and excitable qualities of red meat, the Catholic Church started encouraging the eating of water elemental meats like fish to foster calm docility to counter act the fiery passion of red meat. Hmm makes you think huh?

Next on our list is the wonderful multi-purpose Onion! Onions were worshipped in ancient Egypt for their ability to absorb impurities; they even swore Oaths upon the mighty onion. (Every time you read the word Onion I want you to say it in your head like that old Cajun cook on TV from back in the day). OOOo fun fact about onions! Did you know that early American colonists hung onions over doorways to protect their families from infectious diseases, and onions are still used in exorcism rituals, also esoterically, onions stand for both physical and spiritual health and protection?

Now let’s spice some things up with some Pepper! Pepper is made from the crushed peppercorns of a tropical vine, while black pepper comes from immature peppercorns that are baked. It is used to break hexes and to promote fidelity in family members. Another neat thing you can use pepper for is motivation! Sprinkle some red pepper under a dead beat roomies bed and watch him either vacate the building or start to clean up his act! By the way within minutes of eating red peppers, the body releases gratifying, morphine like endorphins into the blood stream and all powdered peppers have a known effect of breaking up congestion in the lungs and sinuses, relieving allergies and increasing your metabolism!

MMMM Garlic! Known and used at least as far back as 3000 BC. In the old days, it was sacred to the goddess Hecate and left at crossroads as a sacrifice to her. The pungent cloves were also used for protection against evil and to break curses and hexes, and psychic cooks are known to rub garlic into their pots and pans to remove negative influences that might contaminate the food. When eaten, garlic stimulates the immune system to protect the body, although it is said to induce lustful behavior in some people. Garlic is a proven antibiotic, cholesterol reducer, blood pressure reducer, and general heart remedy. Plus did we mention super yummy? Past the mints please…..
Beans, beans there good for your heart …. And they were also thought to contain the souls of the dead in ancient Egypt and Greece, Not where you thought I was going with that did you? He he For those ancient Egyptians and Greeks it was taboo to eat or crush this musical fruit. No one wants to eat their grandma’s soul. According to another Greek legend, Pythagoras met his death when he refused to escape his assassins by cutting through a bean field. Because they contain the wisdom of ancestors, beans promote correct decision making and are used in the divination of future events.
Tomatoes were called Love Apples when they were first introduced into Europe from the New World and were used to solicit romantic attention. Nothing says love like a nice firm ripe tomato! I’m sure there is an innuendo in there somewhere. Europeans placed them on windowsills to repel negative energies. It seems that nobody thought of cooking with tomatoes until the nineteenth century, and today, the once lowly tomato is the basic ingredient of many sauces, soups, and salads worldwide. It also adds a yummy component to our dish!
Water is a primary component in cooking, as well in most alchemical transformations. Good chefs insure the high quality of the water they use, (But I’m cheap so I just use tap water).Here is a neat trick to charge it! Water or tea allowed to sit in the sun for 4-6 hours is considered psychically discharged or "balanced." This element and essential cooking ingredient is also considered the ultimate life source and universal solvent.
Next up in our line up is the leafy Basil, Which was once consider sacred to the Greeks, who being the very sexist males that they were did not even allow the little old women folk to pick it. But don’t let that stop you, this yummy herb soothes away anger and hard feelings by encouraging feelings of love and is thought to simultaneously simulate the Heart and Sacral Chakras, thereby harmonizing stressful emotions while releasing sexual energies. Basil adds an outdoorsy, mint-like flavor to dishes, and is best used raw. It also strengthens the immune system and is known to kill germs.
Chili Peppers are the fruits of tropical shrubs and carry creative energy. Chili peppers turn from green to yellow to red as they ripen, and both hot and sweet varieties promote vitality and growth. For full esoteric benefits, chilies should be eaten fresh, pickled, or slightly roasted, never steamed. But powder works in a pinch…..get it a pinch……..okay moving on.
Cheese is one of the oldest foods on the planet! Pots for separating curds from whey have been found dating back to 6000 BC. Cheese was sacred to the Greek god Apollo and symbolizes things coming to fruition. In cooking, cheese is used to raise the vibrational level of meals, adding a positive or joyous energy.

So now that I’ve explained the magickal properties to our ingredient list it’s now time to explain the actual workings of the spell. So in case you haven’t gathered yet all the ingredients have cleansing and up lifting properties along with a few to get your blood boiling in other ways. Ahem…Hey it was surprise side effect, Not complaining in the least bit ;) Any ways, So back to business,
Step one:
In a pot at least 4 quarts large ( I used the same pot that I use for noodles) Take your thawed ground beef, onions, bell peppers and garlic and throw them all in their together, Now here’s where the magick part comes in. As you add each ingredient envision each of them glowing with a soft light. Each item pulsing with its own light, letting the energy embedded activate so to speak. Turn your oven burner (you know the stovetop thingy) on high, and cook stirring constantly, browning the meat until onions and bell peppers are soft. (you’ll noticed that they get all limp and relaxed looking). Drain all the fatty grease off the mixture. While doing this imagine all your worries and stress dripping off you as the icky grease goes down the drain or container you set aside for your grease. DO NOT RINSE!


Step Two:
Next take everything else besides the cheese and sour cream and add to the pot. While envisioning each items magickal properties releasing as they heat upheats up. The glow getting stronger as the chili gets hotter. Now place a lid on that bad boy so all the magickal goodness stays inside and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
Step Three:
Now this is the most important part. Ready? Here you go! Top with cheese and/or sour cream and proceed to get your grub on!!!!

Yummy!

Links

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Symbols: A cow isn't a cow..except when it is

I absolutely love symbols and symbolic texts. I think that symbol language speaks to a part of us much deeper than words. Any given symbol can have a dozen meanings making them powerful tools both for understanding and making connections and for creating magic.

Symbols can be tricky though. For every symbol, for every color, animal, letter, herb or stone out there, there are dozens of lists explaining what they mean. The weakness of these lists is that often they don't explain why things are connected. It is the why's that make connections strong. But more than that, we each have our own wealth of personal history and memories which can create very personal connections that no one can tell us about except ourselves.

I've done a lot of reading, thinking, meditating and research on several different symbol systems. Many of us are familiar with tarot, and each card has a lot of symbols on it. I've also been working with the runes, and that was a particular challenge as the symbols are simple but the meaning behind is complex.

One thing that becomes quickly apparent, when looking into the why's behind a symbol, is that it is very beneficial to look at the symbol through the eyes of the people who created it (as well as the eyes of people who used it throughout history). If the symbol is one of a cow, that would have a vastly different meaning to someone a hundred or two hundred years ago. When we interpret symbols, we look beyond the surface for the connections behind something. When we see the symbol of the cow, we don't assume that a cow will be coming into our life, but perhaps prosperity, perhaps an end to food shortage, perhaps a way to get work done around our house.

But sometimes...a cow is just a cow! I think that this is something that sometimes gets overlooked. It IS definitely important to look behind, to look for what things mean. But it is also important to not forget that sometimes symbols are very straightforward. Sometimes when we see something, it is exactly what it looks like.

Deepak Chopra's Seven Spirtual Laws of Success

My life has beginning to feel like it is spiralling out of control for the past several weeks.  Often when my life feels like this, I dig out my Seven Spiritual Laws of Success book by Deepak Chopra and try to get myself re-aligned. 
My copy of this book is quite worn from much use.  I found the original copy I had of it quite by accident 17 years ago in a small bookstore in Ridgway, Colorado.  My life was terribly out of control at that point in my life, although you would not have thought so viewing it from the outside.  To everyone else, I was just a housewife and mother raising two little girls while my husband ran his drywall company.  Inside I was lonely, frustrated and terrified by the emptiness I felt. 
The kids were at school and I was strolling aimlessly through this bookstore looking for something but I wasn't sure what, then the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success jumped out at me.  I had never heard of Deepak Chopra and I had no knowledge of India beliefs, Hinduism, or any other religions except the basic information the majority of people have.
After I read this book and started applying the principles in my life I began having peace.  I also began changing my attitude, something my husband did not like.  The book mysteriously disappeared one day.  I immediately went out and bought another copy but kept it hidden.
Now, many years later, divorced and in another relationship, and living a completely different life, I still find many times of emptiness and uncertainty of direction that lead me back to this book and it's simple direction.

Out of sight, out of mind

Whether or not we are able to keep our magical practice out in the open or not, sometimes we may not want to have things where we will see them every day. One practice that is pretty common in Chaos workings is to charge a symbol and then forget it, placing it someplace unseen and essentially walking away. This is also seen in some types of protection spells, where the bottle or bundle is buried and left alone.

The mind is a powerful thing, but it also tends to wander. I am a 'what if' person. Since childhood, I've played the what if game: what would I do if (insert random occurrence or disaster here)? While normally I quite embrace this (and it is a wonderful technique for facing things like job interviews, because you go into it already ready for the wacky questions they might ask you!), it isn't the best thing for reinforcing a spell because your mind is bringing up all the negative things that could happen or even idly wondering if your spell is working, which can weaken the energy you put into it at the creation.

One thing I like to do with symbols or other written pieces of workings that need to be placed about the house is put them behind things like pictures. Most picture frames can be opened up and something slipped inside so that even if you need to move the picture, it's not visible. You can pick spells to go behind pictures so they work together, a spell for harmony behind your family portrait, one for peaceful days behind a lovely landscape. I also love the potential of mirrors, being that they are natural portals, so they make a great place to reflect your energy out into the room by hanging something behind them.

I have a protection spell in a small compact that has one side set with a mirror and the other was for a picture. When closed my sigil will reflect in the mirror. This one is never opened (as you aren't supposed to look at the sigil directly). You could do something similar in a locket. (A locket also provides an easy way to incorporate spellwork tailored to each day, you just tuck in your slip of paper with your daily wishes written on it, and you can even tuck in other things depending on the locket)

I read of a neat way to add an extra layer of protection to your windows, by drawing symbols on them with blessed or herbed water. This reminds me of writing in the fog on a mirror, which I believe has a lot of magical potential as well.

As I was writing about the paint strips the other week, I was thinking about these small strips of colored paper and other things you could do with them. Some were just about the width of a door frame. If you paired up two pieces, the same width as your door, and drew or wrote your working across the both of them (so when they touch it is complete), you could then fix one half to the door and the other to the frame, so that it was 'whole' when the door was shut.

Dahlia's Story, and an Invitation to Share Your Story

This was sent to me by Dahlia-  
Where do our attachments to certain divine entities come from? When each of us move on this path we start somewhere and different Gods and Goddesses find us, call us, or make themselves infinitely present. It may be as simple as earth mother and father sky, or it can be as specific as a pantheon or grouping that hits in the gut, stirs the belly, and lays roots. Here is the story of where I started. Every persons is completely different and beautiful, and I would love to read them all! Please feel free to comment and tell your story. . . 
A little girl was walking hand in hand with her mother through an average suburban neighborhood. The streets were quiet and the night was clear and cool. A breeze blew through the trees in it's musical way allowing the leaves to dance and create their own song. The shadows from the street lights were long and caressed the sidewalk with their form. "Mommy I see the moon and he sees me". I said as I looked up walking hazardly with her keeping a strong grip on my hand. She gently squeezed and said "that man in the moon is a silly husbands tale, the real story is much more magickal." As we rambled down the street ,lights shadowing our path with sleeping houses she told me, " The moon is ours, she is connected to women,. Our bodies are mystically linked in her knowledge and our cycles are hers.”
It was one of those moments that reach in a grasp your breath, one that makes you remember your alive and that there is more to your world around you. That little girl knew there was a God that protected her, that she could talk to when she needed. When she was sad or angry, wanting and searching, hurt or felt pure joy, she laid in bed in front of her window talking to that moon. In that moment God and the moon made sense. They merged and she felt the shimmer of it run down her skin. God wasn’t always the man with all the answers but the moon was the mother the could pass on her comfort and knowledge. When she talked to the moon, asked her for help, she wasn’t looking to the embodiment of a Christian God, but talking to the Great Mother, to protect and give strength, teach and to learn from..
My mother, at the time would have considered herself a Christian, a Presbyterian, a modern feminist, wanting to teach her child to be a capable self-sufficient woman. But that little girl who loves dresses and makeup, who could care less about her gi joe and picked up Barbie and She-ra, who couldn’t wait to wear a bra and shave, left the traditional American feminism behind and found comfort and home in the woman in the moon.
She could be strong and important while wearing a dress. She could cook a meal, fight and epic battle, love deeply, and help to find harmony in the world around her. She was woman and she was whole.

Phantom of the Theatre

Ever since I was young, I was involved in theatre in some fashion, mostly acting but technician work as well. Every theatre I worked in had some sort of specter, wraith, ghost or phantom. These spirits are usually guardians of the theatre, but also trickster spirits who are like Macavity from T. S. Elliot’s Book of Practical Cats : “Macavity, Macavity, there's no on like Macavity,He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,And when you reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there!”You would hear a crash in the lighting booth or your props would end up missing from their spot and you would find them on stage, but when you went to investigate the scene there would be nothing there. You may say it was a coincidence, or Murphy’s Law, but all actors will tell you it is the ghost of the theatre. The Elizabeth Playhouse in Elizabeth, NJ had the Victorian Girl, and The Sunday School Teacher, Murray State University’s Theatre Department, in Murray, KY has Vincent, The Star City Playhouse in Roanoke, Va had the presence of a little girl, and in my theatre in Glasgow we had a spirit in the Bunche Center named Mable. People would see the spirits on the stage fixing curtains, arranging the make-up room, and walking into closed tech shops. Theatres even place out ghost lights and stage managers wish the ghost good night before they lock up the theatre. Also most actors will tell you when they ask how you learned your lines they will say “I don’t know?” Most actors will say they “got into character”, I believe it maybe a little more. Once you step on stage you are no longer are yourself, you become a person in another place. It is a light form of possession, when you remove the make-up you remove the spirit of the character. I wondered why Theatres gathered so much spirit energy; Dorian and I were discussing this at a Consortium meeting in the back of a theatre actually. Dorian and I concluded that theatre is areas of intense emotion were unintentional invocation and evocation. By doing this it creates a bright beacon of light that pierces the veil and allows supernatural spirits to enter.I have never run into a malevolent spirit like in Phantom of the Opera, these are more friendly spirits who have found a home of energy and excitement. I personally thank all the spirits that have come to me in my years at the Theatre; and hope to watch you perform and trick on the stage.

Hello Happy Readers and Conversationalists!!

We appreciate, nay, Greatly Desire, your thoughts, comments on our posts, or even stop by and leave us a link  where we can read your side of the conversation and your thoughts!  Lovely post this weekend by Kylara, and how to clean mortar and pestle from resin grinding.  I love when people especially post the magick down to the practical.  I was curious about that very thing, Kylara was posting as my mortar and pestle is grubby and neglected. Mine is ceramic and was unused overstock from a Chemistry lab from an undisclosed location.

 I am going to post my opinion-thought here.  In my world, machines are my friends and helpful servants.  I have a dedicated coffee grinder that does that sort of work for me while I envision, chant and empower.  I also don't hand sew, but that is just me.  I got my "machines for magick" theory from Dorothy Morrison's book "Everyday Magick". 

   I also use Google and the internet as a divination tool.  You decide how many pages of links and how many down from the top of the link page will be your answer, type your question into the search box, and let the macrocosm internet tell you what you need to know, like bibliomancy.

Up next is a post sent me by Papa Oloyade.

Mortar and Pestle

Recently, several Consortium members and I were working on a project to make chalk for magical usage. In addition to grinding salt, herbs and eggshells, I used my mortar and pestle to grind some resin, which left it in a bit of a mess.

I have a marble mortar and pestle that I got years ago, from a kitchen supply store. I've seen them for sale at specialty occult stores, but mine serves me just fine (and was a good sight less expensive). It is a pretty decent size, being about four inches diameter, so still easily held in a hand for grinding, but big enough to give me room to work with a decent sized batch.

I'm very much a kitchen witch when it comes to my mortar. It gets used for everything that needs grinding, from spices for dinner to magical supplies. Normally, I just grind a bit of salt in it, and that cleans it right up. This time, even after several batches of salt, I had some resin still clinging to it.

After a bit of reading online, I tried using rubbing alcohol to clean that last bit of resin out. I poured enough in the bowl to cover the bottom grinding part, and set the pestle in it to soak as well. A few minutes later I swished it around, rubbed it a bit with my fingers, and rinsed it well in hot water, and it worked brilliantly!

Janesresearchnotebook New post!

New post up in my personal musings blog, which I am rather proud of, so I'd like to invite you over there
.http://janesresearchnotebook.blogspot.com/

Will also be another new post up here, Monday, by Papa Oloyade for sure, possibly more by others of our FABULOUS blog writers, as the weekend spirit moves them.. As always, we appreciate your interest in us, and greatly desire your comments and opinions!
Thanks again!
Patty :)

Nickel and Dime magic: colored paper

I am a big fan of symbols and language based magic. I collect nifty looking alphabets, and love exploring new symbols and sigils and even making my own. I also think that color is an easy way to add another layer to things.

You can go to most stores and buy paper in different colors. In stationary stores, you can find paper of all shapes, sizes, textures and even paper made with flowers or other nifty things worked into it. You can make your own as well, which can be a fun (if messy) project.

But if you just want small pieces of brightly colored paper, why not use pain sample strips? You can get them at pretty much anywhere that sells paint (so your local all purpose store or hardware store). There are almost always tons of color options. They are mostly printed on card stock of some kind, so it is a nice stiff paper if you want to use it for something that could stand on it's own (by folding it like a card in half or looping it into a cylinder).

If you cut it into an appropriate shape, they can be used as decorative candle bases. Consider making a larger cylinder and cutting shapes into it and you have a shadow maker (like the old tea light votives that you don't see any more made out of paper bags). Cut smaller shapes of different colors and make a magical collage that can be hung on your wall for prosperity or blessing!

**Note** I also love mixing colored paper and colored pens. Especially useful when you want to incorporate multiple energies into a single working!

Using Tarot to Listen to your Psychic Voice-by Dahlia Raine

"Do you want to learn to read tarot cards, but find yourself getting bogged down reading and memorizing books?  Are you feeling frustrated with the way one book is in complete opposition to the next?  Are you having a hard time connecting meanings from one card to the next in a reading, or even getting stuck when you get to certain card positions in particular spread?  If so I can tell you that you aren't alone.  I know when I started to try to read cards I thought I needed to learn every mystical aspect, all of the symbols and ancient meanings.  I poured over books taking notes, I would study one card and research everything I could on it and then reverse it and go through the information again.  Then I would try to read myself, I would try and read friends, I would even try to read strangers, but no matter what I did I felt like I couldn't make all of the information connect.  The readings wouldn't flow and I would inevitable pick that book back up and read those divinatory meanings.  
Then one day I met the right person at the right time and she told me I didn't need those books, I just need to trust and let go.  She reminded me that everyone one is psychic some maybe more connected, or listen to it, or even gave their skill a workout to strengthen it, some may call it a hunch, a gut feeling, intuition, vibes . . . but it doesn't matter that sixth sense is a part of each of us and just like all of our other senses it can be strengthened, studied, and practiced.  So I put down those books, I packed them away to look back at later, they had been read so I had understanding of the basics, but it was time to put down my crutch and build my own muscles.  
I challenge anyone out there trying to read cards, that has poured over books and fought with memorizing meanings to put away your books for a little while.  Instead take out your favorite deck, the one that you can look at the cards and get feelings from or that makes your mind move in a direction.  Start to look at the cards you may only want to look at one or two a day, and see yourself in that card and create your story from that picture.  Who are you, what is going on around you, how are you involved, what lead up to this, how are you moving forward or staying stagnant or even moving backward?
Let this be a time of psychic play, don't worry about right and wrong, just play.  After you create your story write down themes, take a look if you have symbolism you have taken from the imagery of your card.  For instance in your story of the card lets say you took an independent stand for something you believe in and in the card you see a cat and realize you've always thought of them as independent creatures.  Or in your story of the card you were taking a lazy day to relax and give yourself a break and when looking at the card after you see a person in a garden and realize gardening for you is relaxing.  Look at your card whatever deck it may be and notice the images, notice the colors, notice plants, and animals, and stones, notice the sky, if there seems to be movement. . .  Look at the number what do you associate with it?  What suit is it (if your deck has suits) and what do you associate with it.  These symbols were used because they spoke to people, but what an ancient symbol meant to someone of that time may not resonate with your own associations, and your psychic self can't flow when you don't allow it's meanings to come through and try to force someone else's.  Someone else might look at that cat and think of its moody temperament, or see that person in the garden and think of hard work and sacrifice.  I think symbols often carry ancestral meaning but that doesn't mean that each individual connects with every symbol in that way.  
When you feel like playing with your cards begins to flowing a little easier start practicing reading.  Figure on a way you can make it fun and not a test of if your right or wrong.  Pull a couple of cards in the morning and look at them what kind of feel does the day have ahead?  Look at the cards together does a story start to come out of the combination of them or do they feel like separate instances?  Is there a particular symbol, number, color, etc that pops out more then others?  What do you associate with it.  Take some notes on it and put it away.  Go through your normal day and before you go to bed look at what you wrote.  Did it fit with things that happened in your day?  Did you possibly avoid something that was in the cards because you saw it before hand and didn't like the direction?  Make sure to give yourself a pat on the back whenever you find that you have picked up on something, and don't worry if something doesn't seem to fit.  Remember that we are creatures that have freewill, the decisions we make and the way we deal with the world aren't set in stone so often times when some interpretation appears wrong it might be that it hasn't happened yet or that you changed a course of action and then therefore severed away from the path that you saw earlier.  You could have just listened to your psychic voice say "not that way".  
Next, start reading for other people.  Find friends and family that can take it as fun and that don't make you feel like you are being judged.  Remember to play!  The first reading I gave after I put away the books I told the person that I had never done it this way before and that I just wanted to try it out.  I took the pressure off.  I didn't worry that I was going to tell them something wrong or that I was going to sit there blocked and not know what to say, I just told them the story from the images I saw.  I let go of ego.  The reading felt more intense to me and flowed better then it ever did with the books.  And you know what, the person I read for said that it made sense.  Over time of doing this it will flow more easily, that psychic voice wants to come out but sometimes we block it for various reasons.  Sometimes the first step can be the hardest, and there can be times like working on any skill where you feel you move forward by leaps and bounds and times where you feel stagnant waiting for that skill to improve.  
The cards are just a conduit to allow your own psychic voice to come out they aren't the voice itself.  In that respect don't get frustrated if your psychic voice doesn't sing with tarot cards.  Maybe you need a different deck, or maybe your voice needs other mediums of divination like Runes, Ogham, Scrying, Augury, Pendulums, Crystals, or maybe yours doesn't like the tools and just wants you to quiet the mental chatter and listen.  So give your inner judge a lunch break, let the mental chatter take a little vacation, and tell the ego to pipe down for a little while and listen what is your intuition is saying to you.
 
Authors note:  I have been reading cards for over twenty years.  I started like most people wanting the mystical cards to tell me the future, but through my journey I found my psychic voice.  I still find the more I practice and the more I let go of ego and fear the more I can hear that voice.  If you enjoyed this entry and would like to discuss more aspects of the tarot or giving your sixth sense a workout to increase your psychic ability please comment on what area you are interested in looking at.  Some areas I have been thinking about writing on are: To reverse the cards or to not reverse the cards, tarot spreads how to create one that works for you, Psychic play, numbers and their symbolism, Creating a symbol diary, and are you an empath?  If any of those areas or something else in the are of psychic awareness interests you please let me know.  Thanks for reading!"
 

New Post up on Wednesday!!!!

A post on Tarot by our own Dahlia Raine!! Be excited-we are!!

How to Keep Excess Personal Energy from Frying Electronics

REposted from BG Witches Meetup

Question for people who do more with energy, reading it, projecting it. I have since childhood, always had trouble with personal electronics, and watches. My history, as I'm sure some of yours also, include dead watches, Dead Walkmen, (I think the count in college for me was somewhere near 10, could buy cheap ones, or expensive ones, it didn't matter) Dead Mp3 players (i'm on #3 now) Dead phones....Any thoughts?

TK.-You need something like a copper band or some other conductive metal or stone to soak up all that extra energy, which is what is frying your techie stuff, I had the same problem with watches and smartphones until I started wearing hematite bracelets and a copper band. Phone still goes a bit wonky after a couple of hours though, damn touch screens. you could always knit it a case and work in some quartz crystals and other soaker up stones into the design.    I'd use some sort of actual "hair" type yarn though, because fur protects critters against the elements and you want to protect your net book from the elements, and just work that baby up with intent.Gotta love yarn spell crafting, haha yarncrafting...should be its own type of magick.  Also why don't you do something with all that extra oomph that you have? Its like a dog it needs to do something constructive or it starts chewing up everything in sight and digging up the yard. Feed to your shields! Or charge something for sort of work!  Jet works too but I tend to over power it and then it shatters to little bits.

Shai Fuston-I wear a hematite ring, you can get them at great escape records. Try doing some tai chi, or some energy manipulation exercises.

T M-When you use your laptop, try putting hematite and copper between it and you to absorb the excess energy..I saw something about this in one of my books and will research and get back with you!

M B-must be why it was so important that I get my hematite necklaces made and wear them all the time.  -I've created "bubbles" or "pockets" within to store extra energy. some for me, some for others. That way, when someone needs some, or I start feeling low, I have reserves.... I started doing this when a storm was blowing in one day and I felt a LOT of good energy from it.......felt like I was going to need extra later in the week for something, and started storing it. It's been great!! Especially when, like most things, "when it rains, it pours" (it seems like a lot of friends need energy all at the same time).  similar to creating my bubble shield......... I imagine bubbles forming around the energy, or creating balls of energy--then forming "shields" or bubbles around them. filling balloons up with energy (yes, 3 different ways of saying the same thing--trying to explain it different ways). anyways, I take these bubbles and push them down inside--basically, put them in pockets to pull out when I need them. It's something new that was a partial thought, and until I typed that earlier, didn't even realize I had taken it to the level it is now.

R S- Whether it's an mp3 player or light bulbs that say they'll last years popping the first time I walk by when I'm really pissed off - I've found NOTHING that keeps this stuff from happening. I've tried crochet 'socks' for electronics, copper, silver, black sachets, etc...I do my best to stay away from my expensive stuff when I'm moody, buy cheap light bulbs and haven't worn a watch in years...lol. I know, not very optimistic, but I guess I've done the whole - accept the things I cannot change thing.

Maggie- When I feel alot of energy or spirit energy.....for me it feels almost like a short of breath, anxiety feeling. Heavy chest. And the "caffeine" type effect last for sometimes 24 hours!

E W- doing grounding exercises Helps a LOT.    It's become a habit of mine to regularly touch metal objects, it's almost to the point of OCD that I do it without noticing.

S B- metal bracelet will help, touching some thing in metall before you touch your electronics. some times washing your hands ,soap and luke warm water , to remove stuck on, or some else energy will help too.

Ebo Boats

The essence of neotribalism is the fusion and incorporation of other esoteric ideas and concepts with traditional practices. Instead of revivalists and Reconstructionists, it is taking the esoteric ideas and concepts of ancient traditions and using the globalization and modern technologies given to us by the 21st century. To simplify it the Yoruban Diasporas of Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Santeria during their evolutionary period kept the concepts of the base Yoruban tradition, but evolved the techniques to suit their needs; creating a dynamic and evolving ancestral faith based culture
One day at a Consortium meeting, Kylara and I were contemplating the use of the Afro-Caribbean belief of ebo (ritual sacrifice) and the 17th century Shinto tradition of Origami. While performing ebo to Ochun, Orisha of the River, I was watching my sweet fruit offerings float down the river; and I thought of Kylara’s work with origami. I so love Kylara’s origami pieces they sit on all my altars and shrines to the Orisha. So Kylara and I thought about creating ebo prayer boats, which are stylized origami boats for Oshun and Yemaya (Orisha of the Ocean) that would carry a small bag of offerings along with a small coiled prayer sheet. These boats would be able to carry your ebo off further into the magical waters, and offer the magical essence of both Shinto and Yoruban cultures. 
I felt that these boats could offer a symbolic journey for your prayer’s to the divine, as the boats would takes them away from the mundane to the divine. Being a neotribalist, I was also very concerned with items chosen for the boats, the prayer bags, and the coils. I wanted to be as eco-conscious as I can due to the fact that the earth is our mother and temple and not to damage or desecrate her beauty. So all paper and ornamentation on the boats would be of natural products that would not hurt the eco system; the small offering bags would be made from cotton material, which would easily breakdown; the prayer coils and ornamentations would also be from natural lead free metals. We wanted these boats to make the greatest impact spiritually, but the least impact ecologically.
Both the Shinto and the Yoruban Diaspora faiths have created ritual boats for specific spiritual needs. The fusion of the two ancestral faiths brings a new colorful life to Santeria and Vodun practices. It opens up a gateway of new types of ancestral sacrifice, and has the opportunity to open up new pathways to the Orishas, rejuvenating the Ase or life force in all of us, and returning new blessings upon us from the divine.

Why witch am I?

By no means am I a skilled "witch". But I have a friend that knows just how weird I am and how well connected to people I can be. He wants to do a spell to relieve his broken heart. To banish the one he used to love & make her feel all the pain he has felt because of her. NOW.....when it comes to spells...again I'm not a pro....but I research & then come up with my own plan taking bits I like here, and parts I like there....till I have something that feels "right". I did explain the risks & laws as i know then involved in spells & karma. I have tried also to pawn this friend off on more experienced and "pro" witches, warlocks & the like....but he just keeps asking ME! Lol. So help him I will. It just seems funny to me that "I" am giving Witchy advice!!! **giggle**. I hope I don't screw him up!!! :-P

New Posts to look forward to!

Check back on Tuesday for a New Post from Papa Oloyade about offerings!

Ecology-magick-recycling items-Goodwill , Part Two

You all probably know, from the Green Living movement, and your own alertness, the general advantages to buying second hand- less packaging to clog up landfills, less resources used for making a new thing, more of your own resources conserved (some of my trouble is then that since it is cheaper, I just buy more things, especially books, always books..).  Some of my own thoughts also center on the fact that I think this can be/is the way a friendly, gracious, abundant Universe (insert the God or Gods of your choice here), answers some of our needs and wants, even some of the ‘frivolous’ ones. 

     Part of my personal abundance practice centers on thrift store shopping.  I do gratitude work at night, along with prayers, and energy for people who have requested it (usually also with candle lighting).  I got it from “the Secret”, and find it pleasant and soothing to do.  I thank the Universe for everything I’m grateful for, people, things, situations, and then move on to things that were especially good on a particular day.  I like to do it in the manner of only praising what was good, and kind of ignoring the not so good parts ( kind of like if a beloved aunt had bought you a beautiful sweater;  you would gush on about the style, and the beautiful colors, Not how it was a bit scratchy).  I believe this is a way of telling the Universe what you especially like in the work it has done for you, essentially requesting more things in the same theme as the things you praise. When I gather up things to go to Goodwill, I also think what was good about the thing.  When I get to Goodwill, I envision it as an exchange of energy, and silently think of things I am hoping to find (cause you can’t go to a thrift store without going in, that’s just crazy).  I keep a vague running list.  I believe it makes things you are interested in show up more often, by actually just asking for them, instead of hoping for the best, and then getting frustrated from not finding them, and giving up the plan (Thrift shopping can be VERY successful, but you have to play the Long Game, and plan ahead of a need).  So, I give an offering to the Universe, and it gives me one back.  Like in other forms of friendship exchange, the exchange is not always equal at each particular time, but is more than equal overall.  I find the return time on most of my requests is the same as for other forms of magick, between a week to a month, on average.

     I get a lot of my knick-knacks, candleholders, altar tools, and magickal tools the second-hand way also.  Anything that can be physically cleaned can, in my opinion, be spiritually cleaned. It can be made shiny-clean, good as new, using common magickal household products, stating my intention aloud to clean the item, and sending its past away. I mix salt with the laundry for the laundrable and also visualize spiritual dirt being washed clean and spun down the drain.  I wash other physical things in the sink, with vinegar or salt, Dr. Bronners, and/or lavender oil.  Paper goods, such as cards, I gently wipe with a small amount of vinegar, (be Careful, this can go awry), and then sprinkle them with salt, or sit them in a window sill with sunlight, or put crystals on them, or wave them through incense or sage (sandalwood is my personal multi-use favorite).  Other things that people do are set things in moonlight, bury them in earth, run energy through them, pray over them.

      I can buy things for full price, from box stores, and have bags, hangars, tags, wrappers, plastic, that it is now my ethical responsibility to do something with.  My new things come with a bigger price than just the price.  I can buy things 2^nd hand, and all I have is the item itself, if I tell the seller to keep the bag.  The only thing I have to do is clean it.  With the money I save buying 2^nd hand, I can buy things made by artisans, or donate money to causes I believe in, or probably, because it’s me, I can buy more books.  Clothes could be slightly out of fashion, but that’s never been really much of a threat for me.  That’s really only the downside I can see. 

     Older things that survive into 2^nd hand hood are guaranteed to be a little sturdier.  They won’t look brand-new, which I consider a bonus.  Clothes are charmingly broken in all ready, so no scratchy collars, stiff jeans, and rough parts inside shoes. If you buy behind the cutting edge of technology, the tools still work, but the price drops EXPONENTIALLY. 

     So there you have it.  This is My theory on Magick, the Universe and Everything.  So go forth, give stuff away, ask for what you want, buy stuff 2^nd Hand, and be not afraid!