Spanish Moss

There's an old, old legend, that's whispered by Southern folks,
About the lacy Spanish moss that garlands the great oaks--
A lovely princess and her love, upon their wedding day,
Were struck down by a savage foe amidst a bitter fray;
United in death they were buried, so the legends go--
'Neath an oak's strong, friendly arms, protected from their foe;
There, as was the custom, they cut the bride's long hair with love,
And hung its shining blackness on the spreading oak above;
Untouched, undisturbed, it hung there, for all the world to see
And with the years the locks turned grey, and spread from tree to tree

Ah, Spanish Moss. This eerily beautiful hanging fixture of southern culture is full of mystery and a deeply imbedded part of the south’s rich history and an important part of any southern witch’s arsenal.

Down here in Savannah you can’t go anywhere without seeing majestic oaks or towering cypresses  laden with what appears to be  gray frosting.  Called by many names such as, Old Man’s Beard, Devil’s Beard, Old Man Moss, White Beard and Spanish Beard; Or every once in a while Florida Crape or Wool Crape. Tillandsia usneoides is not actually a moss! Niether is this “moss” a parasite. It is instead an epiphyte which absorbs nutrients and water from the air and rainfall. While it rarely kills the trees, it lowers their growth rate by reducing the amount of light to a tree's own leaves. Still it’s pretty …and… useful, so we will forgive it that sometimes death to the host tree thing. This time………Anyways. Spanish Moss can be found not only gracing southern trees.  This stringy gray plant can be found anywhere it’s warm. From the Caribbean to the Hawaii islands, to all the way to the land down under Australia! Spanish moss seems to get  around!

Spanish Moss and Magick!

How to use this versatile plant in magickal workings.

Or

Or what in the name of the Lord and Lady do I do with this stuff?

Before you can start working with Spanish moss you have to actually get your hands on some. Which in some cases will be easier said than done.  

What?

 Do you think You can just go outside and you’ll find some just lying on the ground?

Or growing on a nearby tree? Just waiting for you to come take some?

(Umm Excuse me, Ms. Tk?)

Me- (What?)

(Spanish Moss does in fact grow on trees. And you can find in laying on the ground)

Me- (What? I mean of course it grows on trees. I was just testing you. * Grumble grumble*)

 You can find Spanish Moss in a number of places, Such as outside on a tree, at your local craft store, or through the power of the internet. Where you can find it for sale from as little as $1.00 to around $40.00 or so.

((A word of caution . If you live somewhere where you can just walk outside and grab up a handful you need to be careful of the deadly red bugs (Also called chiggers)! Well ….they’re really not deadly, but they will make you itch your brains out.  If you chose to go the foraging route, have no fear! Just wear some gloves and bake your moss on a pan in the oven at 250 for two hours or more. And this will be sure to banish any moss dwelling critters. ))

Now that you have your moss, you may be asking what kind of witchey goodness can you come up for it. In Hoodoo and the like practices, Spanish moss is used to fill poppet dolls, used in gris gris bags, and all kinds of not nice charms.  However, I’m a huge fan of sympathy magick.  Here are a few ways I personally use the wonderful plant.  

One way I use Spanish moss is to use it absorb things.  Spanish Moss can absorb water up to ten times its dry weight! Keeping that in mind, I use Spanish moss in my witch bottles, and in any binding spells that I do.  I’ve also used it in some crochet spell work that I’ve done.  My grandmother used to sew a bit of moss into my school backpacks as a child, for protection and “to soak up any mean things anyone had to say or bad thought that they’d cared to have” .  Got to love old southern women adages.  

Here is a simple little spell to help negate negative influences.

You’ll need the following:

A small bit of Spanish moss (baked in the oven at 250 for 2 hours if found outside)

Small container with a lid. (the little glass bottles or wooden boxes at Michael’s or hobby lobby work great!)

Dried or fresh rosemary or sage (or any other purifying herb you have on hand)

Paper

Something to write with

Scissors

Directions:

Take your paper and write either the feeling  or situation your having trouble overcoming or getting away from. This could be the name of the person you’re getting negativity from or a word that you’ve chosen that represents the situation.

Next take some of your chosen herb and place some in your container.

Next Take the scissors and cut as much of the blank paper away as you can.

Roll or fold your remaining paper with your word written on it small enough to fit in your container.

Then take your folded/rolled paper and rap it with the moss. Imagine as you do so that the moss is sucking up all the negative energy that comes from what the word represents.

Next place your bundle of moss and paper inside of your container.

Sprinkle some more herb on top of the bundle and close the lid.

You can either place the closed container somewhere on a shelf and leave it there or bury it somewhere on your property. Either way your situation will now get better as the moss absorbs all the nastiness.

Legends about Spanish Moss

A freind of mine over at http://thenewpagancouple.wordpress.com/ had this share about Spanish Moss, 

There is an old tale that we used to tell back home. Long ago, when the Spanish first came to the Americas, one of the conquistadors became infatuated with a young Native girl. At first he would just admire her from afar or maybe try to teach her some Spanish but soon he wanted more. Now the girl found the conquistador repulsive because he was large, light skinned and had this great long grey beard. One day the man came to the girl and tried to take her by force, so she ran and the man followed suite. The girl ran and ran until at last she came to a huge oak tree that she had climbed often and she took refuge in it branches. The man tried to follow her up the tree but the tree had other plans. Soon the branches were slapping him in the face, breaking under his weight and grabbing at his beard. The man gave up and went to jump from down from the tree and as he did his beard caught on a branch, tore off and was left hanging there.
To this day his beard grows in the trees to show how the trees help those in need.

Here is another great local legend about Spanish Moss!

Over in Savannah, Georgia, there lived a Wicked Man. Everybody feared him – he’d get neighbors fighting against one another (oh, he loved that!), he’d tie tin cans to the tails of cats, put poisonous things in children’s food. He even beat his wife and dog.

Nobody liked him – except the Devil, of course. ‘Cause you know how the Devil likes evil people. So that Wicked Man was right surprised when he was walking down the street one day, and he felt a presence behind him. He turned and looked, and there he saw the long arm of the Devil himself reaching out for him. The Wicked Man said, “Whoa! Mister Devil, you’re not comin’ for me, are ya’?”

The Devil said, “Well, I reckon I am! You’ve been here a long time!”

The Wicked Man said, “Oh, Mister Devil, I got so much meanness left in me. Could you let me stay here just a little bit longer? C’mon, please?”

Well, the Devil was a little bit reluctant to take him back down anyway. So he said, “Alright, I’ll let you stay here a little bit longer.”

Then the Wicked Man said, “Oh, Mister Devil – just one more thing. I know it’s askin’ a lot of ya’, but next time, could you not sneak up on me like that? Could you give me a sign first? Something I could see? Something I could hear?”

The Devil said, “Alright, no problem – it’s a deal.” And he went back down.

Then that Wicked Man got a big ol’ grin on his face. You see, he wasn’t only just as mean as the Devil – he was as smart as the Devil, too. He knew he was getting older, and was going both blind and deaf! So anything that the Devil sent for him to see or hear – why, that Wicked Man wasn’t going to be able to do it!

And that’s just what happened. Time passed, and the fella just kept doin’ his evil ways. The Devil came back up for him many times – flashin’ his name out in lightning, thundering it out in the clouds. But that Wicked Man couldn’t see it or hear it – so he couldn’t die!

Finally, the Devil just gave up, since there was nothing he could do. After all, a deal’s a deal. So the Wicked Man just kept on wandering around spreading his nasty ways. He headed up north up to Charleston, South Carolina, then up through Wilmington, North Carolina, and as far north as Virginia Beach, Virginia. Then he went on back down to New Orleans, Louisiana, and over to Jacksonville, Florida, and then back over to Savannah. He couldn’t eat anything – berries would shrivel up when he walked by, animals would run away, and the water would turn black before he could drink it. Nobody would talk to him – he was all by himself.

And he kept getting skinnier and skinner – in fact, the only thing that grew on him was his hair. It got long and gray and wiry, and would catch on every tree and bush that he passed, and the wind would blow it around.

One day, he just disappeared, and the only thing left behind was his hair. It just kept growing everywhere he’d been. Southerners call it “Spanish moss,” but that ain’t what it really is. It’s the hair of the meanest man who ever lived. Y’all come down and try to pick some of it. He’s left a nice surprise for you – a chigger or two just itchin’ to get under your skin. To let you know where that mean ol’ man has been!

So there you have Spanish Moss. I’d write a lot more about the awesome uses this plant has but I’m pretty sure your tired of reading at this point.

Fingerprints on my Soul

I always like the part in a friendship when you know some of your friend’s stories, and could even tell them.  That and things you have done together make up a shared world.  I want my friends to change me, remake parts of me.  I want to be different, having known them.  I like to collect up and think abut all the fingerprint marks people have left on my brain. 

I was just thinking the other day about music.  I listen to my music nearly as constantly as I can get away with.  Used to be more difficult, with walkmen, and batteries and then CD players, but with the advent of mp3 players, I never need listen to something like “Big Green Tractor” ever again.  My music protects me from Wal-Mart, ( I get sensory overload fro Wal-Mart, and then shop stupid, both to get out faster, and because my buying resistance is low) and intensely country music playing situations ( I love in Kentucky, it’s a locational hazard in public places here).  My music keeps me motivated and cheerful, or relaxed, with just the choice between playlists.  I have playlists for everything.  I play my mp3 player through a patch cord, or through one of the fake tape devices in almost all the vehicles I am in regularly. 

       The choice of music I have to improve the atmosphere, I can also trace back to those friend fingerprints.  The more songs you infect me with, the secretly more I will like you, I can’t help it, you have made it so by overwriting parts of my brain.  I am now going to take up space to sing the praises of my friends, and the music choices they have gifted me with.  In college, I collected up Clannad, Kate Bush, and Jethro Tull from Jo, by way of Kat, and John.  Jo and John would even make you cool paper tape cases Jo from pretty paper, and John would cleverly hand draw the band logo.  MMmmmm that’s love!!  I got Dead Can Dance (some of my FAVORITE religious music) Killing Joke, and the More than Complete Imaginos from Mark.  I never really liked the Doors until James brainwashed me with it from endlessly playing it over at his apartment.  From Julie, I got the completely addictive Niyaz, playing loud in my headphone now as I type.  Ken left Budos band….

If I haven’t mentioned you and what you left me, its probably just because of my slippery memory, and not meant as a slight, or to hedge your bet, feel free to suggest music you think I might like in the comments.  I can’t ever have too much music, or too brain fingerprints from friends!

Elemental Grounding

Grounding is something that I consider to be one of the core practices that is often overlooked.  True, many books and beginner study programs include grounding, and suggest it be used after (and sometimes before) rituals.  But I feel that the importance of grounding is understated.

I also dislike how there is one generally accepted method used to teach grounding:  reaching roots down into the earth and drawing up the energy and letting the excess flow down into the earth.  I struggled with grounding for a long time because of this imagery.  It's not the connection to the earth, I physically ground a lot when feeling a bit flighty or overwhelmed, I just lay down or touch my hands to the ground (or really sink my feet down solid).  It took me years to realize this was my own way of grounding (what can I say...I can be slow on the uptake sometimes). 

But it was the inevitable tree/root imagery (and the corresponding sun/spirit light from the sky that is often included in grounding instructions).  I'll admit it, I'm not a tree person.  I just don't self-identify, and so these types of instructions were very hard for me to follow.  What I also disliked about a lot of the basic grounding explanations is that they often don't explain grounding (or centering) much at all.  They tell you what you should do, and when you should do it, and sometimes if you are very lucky there will be a little one-liner about how grounding and centering helps to re-balance your energy and rid yourself of excess.

For me, grounding isn't so much about soaking up external energies like a sponge, nor about dumping any energetic sludge that may have been accumulated over the day.  It is about opening up, allowing yourself to be as you are meant to be, no more and no less.  I think this is why it is a vital practice, not only before and after rituals, but also as a part of your regular life. 

Every day, we experience natural fluctuations in our energy.  We each have unique flows where sometimes we are high energy and sometimes low.  You may be a morning person or a night person, and find you have high energy at those times.  Myself, I am not a morning person, so first thing upon waking I am definitely not my best.  Unfortunately for me, I am a night person (and right now I don't have the luxury of staying up like I would prefer), so when the time comes for bed I am often still quite buzzed and not tired at all. 

Grounding helps me to take control of my personal energy and balance out these highs and lows as I need to.  When I am having a hard time getting started, I can open myself up and release that sluggish energy that is keeping me down.  When I am overly stimulated, I can let go and relax.  Just as our natural rhythms tend to give us energy highs and lows, our energy needs fluctuate as well, so a grounded state might be different at different times based on what you need.  By grounding regularly, you will learn to recognize what you need and what is right for you at any given time.

When it comes to rituals, I think that any time we take an active hand in directing our energy (or energy we have called to our purpose), we should take extra care to make sure we are starting from and ending in a balanced position.  If we aren't fully grounded when we start, we can find our ritual being led astray by lingering concerns.  If we don't ground after we are done, we carry the residual from our ritual which can seriously interfere with our regular activities.  This isn't to say that you can never internalize energy from a ritual to use after the physical ritual is done, but it should be done in a mindful manner.

I also think that there tends to be a focus on earth when it comes to grounding.  Earth is excellent for grounding out excess tension or nervous energy.  It stills the body and is easy to do at any time.  But you can also ground yourself in other elements. 

Opening to air through breathing or by allowing yourself to be surrounded by wind (great to do during a storm) can be invigorating and cleansing.  I find air lends itself very well to singing or spoken release as well. 

Water, accessed through bathing, swimming, standing in the rain or even just washing our hands is a great emotional cleanser.  No one can see you crying in the rain.  If you have ever stood out and gotten completely drenched in a storm, not trying to avoid the rain but embracing it, you find that even weighed down with wet clothes, there is a lightness to you that wasn't there before.

 Fire can be a bit harder to approach, and requires more safety consciousness.  Flame has always been a comfort to me, I loved lighting a fire in the fireplace as a child or even just lighting candles for dinner.  I feel that now, the flame has a presence that extends far beyond it's physical form.  Turning off all the lights and burning candles makes the whole room a place of fire for me.  I have always been drawn to play with candle flames (being very careful to not burn myself).  Fire is where I turn when I need to really go after something aggressively, whether it is a persistent energy that I am finding really hard to let go of or a large project I need to really energize to tackle. 

All too often, I think grounding gets overlooked as a minor and simple thing you do after a ritual (sometimes grounding is reduced to a suggestion to eat and drink something, which are also ways to ground, but without intention I feel they fall short, more of a first-aid type of grounding).  Like anything, grounding is what you put into it, and if you take the time to make a practice of it, there are many ways to not only approach but benefit from it.

Everyday

I recently got back from a trip:  6 weeks away from home.  Away from my books, my tools, my computer (*gasp!) and my everyday life.  While I don't consider myself one to take my life for granted, I think it is very easy to not see what is in front of us. 

There are days where I think that I don't get much accomplished during a day.  I admit, I like to play games and read fiction and watch tv (and probably a host of other things I can't think of right now that are 'just for fun').  Being a stay at home mom, I have very little I need to do everyday, so it is pretty easy to fall into just piddling around. 

Sometimes I have practice envy.  I read about Ceremonialists who build whole rooms, with painted walls and floors, ornate altars and fancy tools....and rituals that require instruction booklets.  Or shamans who take week long vision quests.

But being away from my normal life really brought into focus all the little things that are part of my day that I don't always think about.  Daily meditation is something I have done since grade school.  Sure, I would like to expand upon it, but it is a part of my night time routine and gets done every night. 

Since I started learning chants this year, that has become a part of my day too.  I have always been a singer, and pretty much anytime I am doing anything there is a tune or words running through my mind.  Now I find myself chanting as I wash dishes or cook.

I definitely consider myself a scholar of sorts.  I am fascinated by knowledge and learning.  There are always topics that I want to learn more about.  Being away from my computer (and thus the internet) is a very trying experience for me.  Even without access to research capabilities I find myself jotting notes down of things to look up when I am able.

I think there is great value in sometimes taking a step outside of our regular life (either by choice or necessity).  You discover how much you have when you are without it.  Getting back into my everyday rhythms, I always appreciate what I have that much more.

Where Is Everyone?!

I can't believe no one has posted on here for a month. Oh, but wait, what am I saying? I haven't been on here for over a month. I guess people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.  My life has been ridiculously insane for the past six months, courtesy of my two daughters and my roommate/partner who are all jealous each other.  My daughters hate the time I give my partner and my partner hates that I have to give time to my children.  It's vicious cycle with me caught in the middle. The end result was a trip to the hospital because I thought I was having a heart attack but it turned out to just be severe stomach acid.  At any rate, the stress was at the bottom of the problems. So, I've learned to take things in stride a little better and tune out everyone when they start bitching about each other or things I'm doing they don't like.  I just follow my path, do what my heart says is right and to hell with everything and everyone else.  Thinking you might have had a heart attack will definitely change your attitude about a lot things.

Some thoughts on the Tripple Goddess

It seems like you can't read much of anything about the Goddess concept without coming across the maiden/mother/crone trinity. I always had several issues with this though. Firstly, not every woman will be or can identify with the Mother aspect as traditionally explained (mother=children). Plus I really dislike the idea that you pass through each phase to the next. And lastly, I think this is a very one sided elitist concept that is often (it seems) used to set women apart from men as something 'more' (since women create and bear life within their own bodies).

Firstly, I am a woman, and I am a biological mother. I have a son whom I love dearly...and yet I rarely identify myself as a mother. It's not that I deny my motherhood, but more I just don't define myself as a mother first and foremost. It is a part of who I am but it is not the be all and end all of who I am.

When I think of the mother concept, I think of that nurturing comfort. Especially during the pregnancy, you are everything to the child you bear inside you. Their life is literally in your hands. But beyond the birth, I think when most of us think of our own Mother, we get ideas of home (of being safe and protected and cared for) and of someone who helped us grow and become the people who we are today. Even if we didn't have the best mother personally, there is so much out there about this aspect of motherhood, I think that it is ingrained in us as the ideal mother: the one who sacrifices of herself so her child can flourish.

But I don't think motherhood is restricted to physical offspring. I think we can embrace the essence of motherhood in other creative parts of our life. When we get an idea, and ruminate on it, and then eventually bring it into being, we have taken on the role of mother. Part of what I see in the aspect of motherhood is this concept of planning and working towards something that won't happen immediately. We have our eyes on the future, and are looking forward.

In contrast, if we look at the maiden aspect, we are looking at a younger woman. Much can be said about looking at the world through a child's eyes, and this is what I feel represents the maiden. It is before you start worrying about the future, when anything can capture your attention and become your whole world. It has a timeless quality in that you fully loose yourself in the moment. Fun is something that is vital and worthwhile, and you are more likely to shirk your responsibilities for what you want to do than you are to deny yourself.

In the crone, we start to look back. We have lived so much and experienced so much, and we see the next generation (even if they aren't our blood relatives) struggling with things we have learned to overcome. We have both the time and the patience to sit and think, and by examining our past we can learn so much more about ourselves and the world because we can see the bigger picture and make better connections. We want to share our thoughts with those we care about, although we may find they aren't ready to receive all of our insight yet.

I think that we all, both men and women, both with and without physical offspring, both young and old, have bits of all three in us. Our personal journey will, most likely take us to places where our focus is more firmly rooted in one or another, but we are never without the others.

Knowing that you have them all inside you allows you to deliberately call upon what is needed at any given moment. There are times where the freedom and abandon of the maiden is necessary for our souls. It is a time of renewal, of bringing back that youthful energy, and celebrating the experience of living. The mother aspect helps us to keep steady, to keep our eyes on our goals and to endure the work that it takes to bring them into the world. And when we see what we have created, we get the quiet satisfaction that we helped bring it into being, even after they take on a life of their own. And the crone teaches us that we can take time to think about who we are and where we have been. That reflecting on our past gives us insight we can take to the future. If we don't learn to recognize both the good and the bad choices we have made, we can't make better choices in the times to come.

Circle flexibility

I am a circle caster. For most rituals I like to cast a circle of one variety or another. I have several pre-made ways of casting a circle, some of which were someone else's creation that I just fell in love with and some of which are of my own creation. I am just as likely to wing it and use whatever words, gestures, body postures of imagery moves me at the moment.

I've read some very interesting articles on the placement of elements in the circle. I tend towards the air-east, fire-south, water-west, earth-north alignment, although I'm not opposed to trying other things. I have found some of the explanations for other elemental assignations quite compelling, but for me this one works. The same goes for tools, I associate the wand with air and the blade with fire, though I have known quite a few who switch them.

I almost always cast in a sphere, which may or may not fit in the confines of the room I am casting in. I have had lovely discussions with other practitioners about the shape of a 'circle', and am not opposed to magical squares, triangles or other shapes. Intellectually, there is something very compelling about casting a protective pentacle.

I typically orient my circles to the north, and if I am going to set an altar within the circle, this is where I try to place it. If I am not going to set an altar, I still often face north for the meat of a ritual. In the case of a more permanent altar, I like it to be in the north, but sometimes rooms just don't work out well. Right now my altar is in the east of my room. From what I have read, north and east seem to be the most common orientations for circles and altars.

I was reading about rune magic, and came across a statement about how early Germanic custom was to orient east for earthly matters and north for otherworldly matters. And it got me thinking about my tendency to keep my orientation fixed even though often many of the other parts of my circle casting is very flexible.

I think I have the tendency to go with what I first learned, which was to orient north if possible, although east was an acceptable alternative. The basic explanations were fairly logical. North was earth, which was the grounding aspect, east is where I start to cast my circle. Both make solid arguments for being heart of a working. But there is no reason not to orient in other directions, and actually depending on the nature of the working it might gain from an altered construction.

I try to not become too ritualistic in my ritual. That is to say, I believe that rituals should be motivated by meaning and not process. When the actions become rote, they loose a part of their substance. I am constantly trying to find ways to challenge myself, to push myself to think of new ways of approaching the things I already do, of adding new layers to old practices. I think that the more we grow, the deeper we can touch things, and the more meaning we can gain from the simplest of tasks.

I like the idea of turning a ritual about, of facing an emotional charged or water centric ritual so that it faces west. Starting or ending the circle cast in the west would also, in my opinion, subtly alter the focus of the casting. Depending on the intent you have for your circle, you can also tailor the circle to accent instead of mirror your primary purpose. If you are casting to banish an unconscious habit, you might orient to the south but cast your circle from the east, to build up your mental will (so that your conscious mind would overpower the unconscious) or cast from the west to ward off the emotional trigger that was causing the habit.