Intentions set at Lughnasadh

I realise this is a week late for those in the southern hemisphere, but it could be a good reminder for you given that it's only less than one week!  I'm also only just celebrating Lughnasadh with sisters today and wanted to share this with everyone.

The Goddess gives birth to the child conceived at Beltane: the dark God and the death of the Holly God hail the beginning of the sun's waning path. The harvest is collected for the winter, manifested as we share our personal harvest of the last year: our successes and proud achievements.

This is the first harvest of the year, which now is represented by a psychological and practical harvest of the past year’s achievements.  As the sun wanes and ‘sets’ towards Yule, we seek to ‘set’ patterns for the winter months.  The collection of our successes, achievements and recognition of our abilities is beautifully represented in this story of Lugh:

As a young man Lugh travels to Tara to join the court of king Nuada of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The doorkeeper will not let him in unless he has a skill with which to serve the king. He offers his services as a wright, a smith, a champion, a swordsman, a harpist, a hero, a poet and historian, a sorcerer, and a craftsman, but each time is rejected as the Tuatha Dé Danann already have someone with that skill. But when Lugh asks if they have anyone with all those skills simultaneously, the doorkeeper has to admit defeat, and Lugh joins the court and is appointed Chief Ollam of Ireland. He wins a flagstone-throwing contest against Ogma, the champion, and entertains the court with his harp. The Tuatha Dé Danann are at that time oppressed by the Fomorians, and Lugh is amazed how meekly they accept this. Nuada wonders if this young man could lead them to freedom. Lugh is given command over the Tuatha Dé Danann, and he begins making preparations for war.

From this story we can see the empowerment of seeing our strengths and the year’s achievements in front of us – to prepare for the rest of the year and perhaps in the sense of war ‘fight to keep our rights’ and to also focus on what this new moon represents for us as an esbat which focuses on independence, originality, progressive ideas, reformation, universal love, inventiveness, heightened perception, resourcefulness and individualism.  Just as Lugh approached the doorkeeper with individual skills, combine yours & the year’s past achievements to pass the doorkeeper that is in your mind which may hold you back.  The new moon is a time to restart and set new intentions, so with what skills and strengths you have – push them forward and celebrate those who have helped you to achieve these milestones.  This ritual looks at setting those skills and strengths of the last year in place to move forward.  This is the time to ignite your torch of inspiration for winter.

Waxing moon: time to make a vision board!

A beautiful idea that a friend of mine introduced to me recently was the vision board.  A vision board is  a great way to put your subconscious desires down onto a piece of card to hang above your altar or even at work (if you can get away with having a small one!).

A few months ago I was feeling really flat and a great friend of mine said that I needed to produce myself a vision board to set my goals and intentions and clearly see my heart's desire in front of me.  She grabbed a pile of magazines, pens and newspapers and we sat for ages talking, pasting and writing all over our vision boards without any conscious thought going into the process - like automatic writing.

Now that I've achieved all of the goals that I had down on my first vision board I'm now onto my second one following the new moon and into the waxing moon where intentions can be set alight and developed.

I can't recommend it enough.  I paste mine above my altar so that I can meditate on my goals and see where I have set myself for the future - which literally with pictures and powerful words to guide me.  These vision boards help to guide my workings in both low and high magick, so get started!

)O( Elspeth.

Spell for after a break up/ Long term friendship

I recently wrote this for a friend of mine and thought that I would share it with everyone.

In summary:

• Waning Moon & leading up to the new moon you will need to do a Cord Cutting.  If you have any painful diary entries that were generated purely for cathartic reasons, gather them now and write down the positives from this relationship which has just ended and consider how this person has changed you for the better
• Here is a great Cord Cutting Ritual.  
• New Moon: a time for introspection, deciding how you will move forward and gathering helpful and healthy concepts to build your strength
• Waxing Moon: A Self Love Spell every Friday night
• Full Moon: organise well in advance to have a night of celebration for your achievement with friends

Begins on the New Moon –   Leading up to the New Moon, allow this time to do your Cord Cutting Ritual on a Tuesday in order to clear your head for this ritual.  If you don’t do this, you will end up not having the head space for it and your heart will still have the cord which connects the two of you and will sap you of energy.  What you need now is to clear your head and remind yourself of all of your wonderful qualities.

Leading up to the Cord Cutting allow yourself to get out any more frustration, anger, sorrow – anything which is necessary to get out of your system.  I find that the best way to get this out of my system is to take it out on my house – clean the place up, pay bills, get rid of that crap you’ve been meaning to send to the Salvation Army for ages as a way of psychologically clearing and preparing for your Self Love Spell.  When I feel like I’m really in a knot I do exercise, and literally ‘pace’ by going on a huge walk or something else cardiovascular so that I grunt out the bad energy and end up with endorphins going ‘Weee!’ afterwards.   Avoid feeling anger directly towards the ex lover as whatever you send out you get back times three.  A friend of a friend was thinking bad thoughts about her recent ex all day, and he texted her saying ‘Been thinking about you a lot today, and I’ve seen a lot of dead butterflies around – what does that mean?’ Not only was she torturing him by making him think of her, she was also destroying life with her thoughts.  This is why cord cutting is so important: your longing and pain can, like a butterfly effect, become a monster of its own.

ON THE NEW MOON

The new moon is both an introspective time and a time of rebirth, embryonic growth and new beginnings.  Falling on a Saturday, this day of the week represents rebirth, (psychological) agriculture and harvest, protection, expelling negative energy of the week just gone and to meditate on reincarnation in the womb of the Great Mother.  This is a great time to either have an introspective & meditative day on your own amongst nature or to spend with family or friends talking about how you intend to move forward, what you’re looking forward to leaving behind which you could draw strength from.  Be brutally honest with yourself and try as best as you can to remove yourself in order to get an outer perspective.  Throw your emotions aside and look exactly at where you are right now.  This is a good day to gather acorns or oak leaves, which represent both new beginnings, strength and resilience.  Consider having a picnic with friends to gather these items.  Keep about 6 acorns and put them in your wallet, pocket, around the home and sneak one under your pillow for any restless nights or anything else you can find to represent strength and resilience.  If neither of the above are available to you, garlic cloves are great too.

Plan what you will do on the full moon  to celebrate your achievement.

WHAT TO GATHER NOW:

A dozen red roses

Some lavender flowers (the real thing)

5 oranges

A packet of poppy seeds (from the supermarket, only about $1.60)

FRIDAY NIGHT SELF LOVE SPELL LEADING UP TO THE FULL MOON

** Leading up to the first Friday start exercising, getting out and doing unusual things and maybe being amongst nature a bit more.

** Leading up to the second Friday consciously meditate more often

From the new moon to the full moon you’re gathering energy and strength and most importantly – self love.  This is a time to really concentrate on a healthy outlook and to focus on the qualities which make you so wonderful, which you are!  Every Friday night do a simple self love spell by taking a bath and putting:

-         rose petals for self love AND devotion to a healthy state of mind

-         lavender flowers for peace, harmony & protection (self preservation)

-         orange slices for positivity and happiness

**I’d strongly advise not to put essential oils into the bath because some give you thrush!  If you want to grab yourself some lavender oil to wear during the day do so, but water it down with almond or safflower oil first as it can’t directly touch the skin.  The only time you put it directly onto the skin is for minor burns and pimples, much like tea tree oil.  Watered down lavender oil can also be used as a natural insect repellent.

If you want, also create a drink of water with rose petals, lavender and orange slices so that you’re cleansed in and out.  You can eat the rose petals and orange slices.

When you’re in the bath, use the poppy seeds to give yourself a full body scrub (don’t press too hard!) it’s an amazing exfoliant, and in a psychological sense, helps you to scrub away any doubts, misgivings or sadness from the week leading up to this night.  Relax yourself completely and envision your heart chakra (just where the heart is) lighting up as a soft, healthy leafy green.  As you breath in and out, feel your breathing spinning the heart chakra like a wheel and let its glowing energy fill your body.  Allow yourself a good ten minutes or so to really enjoy this, and only concentrate on the spinning and sensation without any interfering thoughts.  Once you’re used to this, use this mantra:

I am my thoughts, my thoughts make the world.

I am lovely, beautiful and can still share love.

I am love.

Once you’re done, give your body a moisturise, tuck yourself into bed and write down any thoughts.  Only write down thoughts that move you ahead and make you appreciate the person that you are and what makes you a good person. 

Treasuring yourself isn’t egoic, you can’t love others unless you love yourself.  You are connecting with the whole universe and the more you send out the more you get back times three.  Self love spells are wonderful, and as I’ve noted before – do not do love spells to attract another lover!  The idea of a self love spell is to remind yourself of your best qualities to bring love and healthy energy to those around you, hence the threefold effect will benefit others and not just yourself.

Visualisation tips (from my entry on wiccantogether.com)

I thought I'd put this here because I put this advice on wiccantogether.com TWICE having lost the first entry and have had a fantastic time visualisation sequences and meeting interesting characters which I may paint one day.  To paint them though would feel sacriligeous in a sense, but they are only my personal interpretations also.

PRACTISING VISUALISATION - derived from Scott Cunningham's techniques

Close your eyes and imagine an object, for example an eggplant (aubergine!). Consider the detail: the pores, the colour, the texture, the beads of water rolling down its sides and hold that image as your eyes are closed. You might even get an idea of what it feels like. Hold that image strongly and then attempt to hold the image with your eyes open. Never at any point will you literally 'see' this object as though it's ltierally in front of you - it will be see-through and imaginary - because if it were really literally there like someone sitting across from you, you would have to go to the doctor if you didn't have a heart attack first! Practice this type of visualisation on a regular basis, inventing scenarios involving the object to help get that 'muscle' working. You could also do this on public transport: when someone gets off the train/tram (without having scared them by staring!) imagine that they are still there and refill that space.

THE RITUAL

CANDLE: SILVER - FOR CLAIRVOYANCE
OBJECTS: FEATHERS AND SNAIL SHELLS (FEATHERS FOR FLIGHT AND SHELLS FOR TRAVEL)
A MIRROR: FOR SELF REVELATION
NIGHT: MONDAY, SACRED TO HECATE WHO WILL GUIDE YOU INTO THE DEPTHS OF VISION
TEA: MUGWORT. I love this stuff. I end up in a calm, warm glow for prophetic visions - grand stuff!
SCENT: Jasmine

SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF THE ABOVE INGREDIENTS:

Mugwort tea, a silver candle and your confident yet relaxed self.
Asperge the sacred area and build the energy, preferably with a luscious mantra to help you concentrate on the 'dome' and light coming into your crown. Drink the mugwort tea during this mantra and before you do the 'ball of light'.

Set up your space, placing the feathers, snail shells and a clear quartz or moonstone on the altar.

- Another technique that Cunningham uses is moulding a ball of light. You can physically 'feel' this as well as sense the light that you are creating. After having cast the circle, imagine the circle's energy forming a dome above your head (otherwise known as the 'cone of power') where the crown of your head aligns with its centre. Feel the dome protect you, keeping you in a graceful, peaceful state whilst imagining the dome spinning its energy like soft white flames in deosil. The image of the dome is one of the first, and most helpful forms of visualisation because it strengthens your space and keeps a rhythm: you must continually visualise this. When you have a handle on this, imagine a beam of light coming from the heavens and through the crown of your head. The idea here is that you're not using too much of your own energy, and instead you are literally drawing energy from the universe which you will 'ground' later. Let this light flow from the crown of your head through to your hands. After some time, you should feel a warm 'buzz' in your palms - or others describe it as a spinning. Once you feel confidence with the visualisation of the dome and the sensation in your hands, face your hands towards each other to make a ball of light with the 'buzzing' energy. Shape it: pull it out, then push it in, moulding it softly. When the hands get closer and closer together, there will be a force between them much like two negatives of a magnet, forcing each other to stay at a certain distance until the ball of light is firmly formed.

- The first time I did it, my heartbeat beat distinctly and strongly through and around this ball of energy and it was incredible! Take this ball of energy, then place your hands over your eyes. From here all you need do is maintain your energy and faith, letting yourself go into guided fantasy where visualisations will lead to hidden clues and answers.

- Make sure at the end of the ritual to 'ground' the excess energy or you will tire yourself out! I forgot to do that the first time and I went to bed with the centre of my palms feeling as though they'd been slightly burnt.

Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair - a warning to not hex nor conjure love spells

 

I'd seen this on Witch Mountain weeks ago and have thought about the phrase 'Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair' for some time now, especially given that I'd come across a quote (I believe also from Witch Mountain) which said something like "Those who cannot hex cannot heal." Of course I can't take the latter seriously, it sounds like a whimsical passing statement but at the same time I don't encourage anyone to hex just as I don't encourage anyone to conjure love spells - they are at both ends of a person's will as love and hate are just as strong as the other. All of the love spells I have performed have turned out incredibly badly, almost into hexing myself. I went down each stage, from taking an image of someone I wanted, to the next time where I drew my ideal man without giving him any of the personality traits which would make him a great love... I ended up briefly with this person who loooked exactly like my drawing, even the badly drawn long torso and long jade pendant - and it was a disaster for my soul... he floated from woman to woman anyway! I warn anyone who practices magick: do not hex or cast a love spell as it's essentially Black Magick, commanding the will of the other to be overtaken by your power which you have no right in doing. I am adamant about this for a reason: to help others and to prevent the negative outcomes that they will have placed themselves in.

'Fair is foul and foul is fair' comes close to the dualities in life which Wicca encapsulates: light vs. dark, negative vs. positive, man and woman which create the balance of life itself. These witches state that fair play is as powerful and justified as foul play and are in themselves an inherent part of witchcraft... and yes I realise they're fictional characters - I don't completely live on the web!

Those who feel the need to hex justify in doing so when the other person has done something so bad that they need to be taught a lesson, but why wouldn't karma take care of that for you? If we believe that whatever we sends out comes back times three, why would we need to control the punishment of others?

I am sincere in my warnings... and will only say it once! And watch the clip too, it is fantastic.

)0( Elspeth

Imbolc, what to do what to do?

It comes in 8 days now - on Saturday the 1st of August is Imbolc, signifying the end of Winter. The southern hemisphere is soon going to start getting warmer... although I don't look forward to the scorching Melbourne days!

IMBOLC

Clean your room and your house, light !

Place a yellow altar cloth upon the altar and bless Brigid -

The Celtic goddess Brigid is the traditional patroness of healing (represented by twin serpents), poetry (the ancient Celtic tradition of see-poets and Bardic lore were the primal retainers of culture and learning), and smithcraft (her sisters carry the alchemical sword and blacksmithing tongs). All of these elements are all practical and inspired wisdom and creativity.

Consistent with Celtic lore, Brigid's women are honoured and highly respected. Brigid is not compromised by allegiance to one lover or husband, so is free to utilise her healing powers for the good of all.

from www.goddess.com.au

In one of her many aspects, Brighid is known as the bride. She is a symbol of fertility and good fortune, and is seen as yet one more step in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

from www.paganwiccan.about.com

Place snowdrop flowers on the alter, or another variety of white flower to signify the return of Spring.
I MAY also make this (also from paganwiccan.about.com):

Braided bread is found in many forms, in many cultures. This one is a simple one, and is perfect for serving at your Imbolc feast. The braid symbolizes Brighid in her aspect as the bride, representative of her fertility and position as a hearth goddess. Serve this tasty braided bread with warm butter for dipping.

Prep Time: 1 hours

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 loaves frozen bread dough, thawed (this is in the frozen foods section at the grocery store)
• 1 egg
• Water
• Sesame seeds

Preparation:

Allow the bread loaves to defrost at room temperature. Before it begins to rise, cut each loaf in half with a large pizza cutter or a knife. Roll each half out until it's about 18" long, and about an inch thick. You'll end up with six of these long strips.

Take three of the strips, and braid them together, trying not to stretch them out too much. When you've reached the end of the braid, tuck the ends underneath themselves. Repeat the process with the other three strips, making a second braid.

Place the braids either on a baking stone, or on a pan that has been sprinkled with cornmeal.

Beat the egg in a small bowl, and add 2 Tbsp. water. Lightly brush the egg and water mixture over the braids, and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Let them rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Bake at 375 (or 190 celsius) for 30 minutes, or until a light golden brown color. Remove from baking sheet, and allow to cool for 15 minutes or more before serving.

** Note: if you want to really jazz this up, use different types of bread, such as white and wheat. The end result is visually very appealing, with the different colors braided together.

I'm also going to be leaving my favourite green scarf on the doorstep for Brigid to bless:

In Celtic Pagan stories, Brighid's mantle carries with it blessings and powers of healing. Many people believe that if you place a piece of cloth out upon your hearth at Imbolc, Brighid will bless it in the night. Use the same cloth as your mantle each year, and it will gain strength and power each time Brighid passes by. The mantle can be used to comfort and heal a sick person, and to provide protection for women in labor. A newborn baby can be wrapped in the mantle to help them sleep through the night without fussing.

To make a Brighid's mantle of your own, find a piece of green cloth long enough to comfortably wrap around your shoulders. Leave it on your doorstep on the night of Imbolc, and Brighid will bless it for you. In the morning, wrap yourself in her healing energy.

from paganwiccan.about.com

I'm going to make an oil blend rather than gather these forms of incense... hard to say - OR I will be burning an oil combination of simply cinnamon, orange and rose...... it could get too complicated otherwise!:

• 2 parts cedar
• 2 parts frankincense
• 1 part pine resin
• 1 part cinnamon
• 1 part orange peel
• 1/2 part rose petals

HAPPY IMBOLC!