A few weeks ago I got this really great book by Judika Illes titled Encyclopeadia of 5000 spells. It is a great reference book and a fun read. This made me think about the reference books I typically use when ever spell crafting. One of my all time favorites is Tarot Spells by Janina Renee. This book literally changed the way I do spell work. I find that tarot cards are a great way to draw in universal energies and archtypes and help focus the mind for visualization. Also I don't think I've worked a spell in the past 10 years when I didn't reference Scott Cunningham's Encyclopeadia of Magical Herbs..
All that said, I never do spells straight out of someone elses book even when the book is fun and well researched. It is my experience that magical use items (things like oils, candles, color symbolism, incense, tarot cards, herbs, flowers, etc.) are like magical yeast. You use yeast to make bread rise and to create a transformation. Each recipe is unique and your bread won't be *exactly* like anyone else's. How you use the magical yeast depends on what you are trying to make and the conditions surrounding the issue. As any baker can tell you, the environmental conditions might mean that you have to alter the recipe. This is why all magic should be carefully evaluated in context and carefully "crafted", before acting.
They don't call it witchCRAFT for nothin'. This is also why the saying "Be careful what you ask for" is something even "muggles" understand.
Showing posts with label Tarot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tarot. Show all posts
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Saturday, September 26, 2009
A candle burning to light the way
Today a friend, and someone born to be Strega, experienced the greatest of all initiations. To honor her I gathered all the Owls that I had in my house together in one place. Owls were special to her. I cast a circle and read the rite of passage. And cried and smiled remembering her. So did 2 other Strega in straight line up the Mississippi River toward Canada, where our friend was born. Whether we were trying to or not, we coordinated the timing of the rite.
I didn't have all the woods (Juniper, Sandalwood, Cedar) but I did have all the woods necessary in incense form so I burned the 3 incense types. I also had pennyroyal in the garden and used fresh cut from my backyard on the shrine and the smell was intense.
After casting the circle, I moved over to the small shrine and read the rite out loud, and cried. I was moved to actually say something out loud about Lore even though it was only me in the room.
I then moved back to the circle altar and did a TAROT spread, which included the Sun, The Wheel of Fortune & The World and the Ace of Wands & Swords.
I added some Strega Oil/Extract to the Spirit Bowl and refilled it with Everclear and watched the Spirit Flame for awhile. When it got to the point where it should just wick out, the flames began jumping and crackling. This was of course the Strega Oil burning. But it felt like Lore saying goodbye. She liked her magics. It took almost as long for these remnants to burn out as it had the for the whole bowl of Spirit Flame. And when the flame was gone it truly felt like closure.
"We gather now in honor of our Sister who has crossed over and begun the sacred journey to the Realms of Luna. We wish you well on your journey, and send with you the emanations of our love, and our friendship. We know that the sorrow that we feel is of our own making. There has been no loss among us, for we shall meet each other again in a future life to come. And we shall remember, and know each other, and love again. We shall speak your name and remember you at Shadowfest. If it be that we shall see you, or speak with you, then let it be of your own desire. For it is not our wish that our desires should bind you to this life.
May the Great Lord and Lady receive you into their care, and may they comfort you and prepare you to be born anew.
May the realms of Luna give you all that you desire, and may you find peace and pleasure, and reunion with those who have gone before. Farewell dear sister, farewell dear friend. Blessed be."
I didn't have all the woods (Juniper, Sandalwood, Cedar) but I did have all the woods necessary in incense form so I burned the 3 incense types. I also had pennyroyal in the garden and used fresh cut from my backyard on the shrine and the smell was intense.
After casting the circle, I moved over to the small shrine and read the rite out loud, and cried. I was moved to actually say something out loud about Lore even though it was only me in the room.
I then moved back to the circle altar and did a TAROT spread, which included the Sun, The Wheel of Fortune & The World and the Ace of Wands & Swords.
I added some Strega Oil/Extract to the Spirit Bowl and refilled it with Everclear and watched the Spirit Flame for awhile. When it got to the point where it should just wick out, the flames began jumping and crackling. This was of course the Strega Oil burning. But it felt like Lore saying goodbye. She liked her magics. It took almost as long for these remnants to burn out as it had the for the whole bowl of Spirit Flame. And when the flame was gone it truly felt like closure.
"We gather now in honor of our Sister who has crossed over and begun the sacred journey to the Realms of Luna. We wish you well on your journey, and send with you the emanations of our love, and our friendship. We know that the sorrow that we feel is of our own making. There has been no loss among us, for we shall meet each other again in a future life to come. And we shall remember, and know each other, and love again. We shall speak your name and remember you at Shadowfest. If it be that we shall see you, or speak with you, then let it be of your own desire. For it is not our wish that our desires should bind you to this life.
May the Great Lord and Lady receive you into their care, and may they comfort you and prepare you to be born anew.
May the realms of Luna give you all that you desire, and may you find peace and pleasure, and reunion with those who have gone before. Farewell dear sister, farewell dear friend. Blessed be."
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Black Madonnas, Starbird & our prophecies
I've been reading Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion and Politics in Italy and it is interesting and I am not finished but I reached a point where the author was talking about black and the goddess and ancient civilizations and the soil and I well I had to stop because it irritated me that after 5 chapters that not once had the author mentioned anything about one of the significant theories regarding Black Madonnas - the possibility that these Madonnas are associated with a historical remembrance of Mary Magdalen's escaped to Europe with her female child. Ms Birnbaum has apparently started with an assumption and began weaving Italian tendencies (which I believe do stem from a connection to our ancient more balanced God/Goddess past) but it in a bit of a wild and reaching way. I'm not saying that she is all wrong. But I don't think her basic starting premise of ancient earth goddesses from Africa, India, etc are the primary reason behind all Black Madonnas.
Reading Black Madonnas by Lucia Chaivalo Birnbaum made me think about another book I'd seen and now have just completely finished reading, one by Margaret Starbird. "Woman with the Alabaster Jar". I think this woman has captured the truth. If you read or saw the DaVinci Code you know what she's talking about. BUT she is a Christian and where she ended up isn't where she started. She had to fight her way to the truth. She has a section on Tarot Cards (and an expanded book on Tarot that I have not read) that is the absolutely bar none BEST explanation for how Tarot came about. There are links to the pagan past in the existence of the Black Madonnas, but the pagan past is not the primary reason for black madonnas.
In 1989 I went to France and visited a lot of paleolithic sites including Lascaux and Les Eyzies, my primary reason for going. But while there I also visited Rocamadour and was drawn while there to light a candle at the Black Madonna shrine asking specifically to be reunited with the man who is now my husband. This was before I "found" Stregheria. After reading Margaret Starbird's book it seems I couldn't have asked for a better intercessor than the Black Madonna, who is not the Virgin Mary but Mary Magdalen, Jesus' lost bride. What I like about this book is that the author didn't start with a premise and fit the facts around it (like Birnbaum), she actually started looking for ways to reject a premise only to have many things weave together in a such a way that she had to end up where she did.
I've also read a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman who was incredibly ahead of her time. Eleanor was from that part of France that had a strong link to the feminine and females with more power than anyone else anywhere in Europe at the time. Starbird's book provides a historical background for why things where like they were in this part of France and the history all fits together quite nicely.
I'm going to go back and finish Birnbaum's book, but I don't think that I will put it on my recommended reading list. Starbird, on the other hand, even with her essentially Christian bent, is VERY aligned with our prophecies. If Christians start thinking like she does we may have to place an addendum on Aradia's Words Concerning Christianity.
Reading Black Madonnas by Lucia Chaivalo Birnbaum made me think about another book I'd seen and now have just completely finished reading, one by Margaret Starbird. "Woman with the Alabaster Jar". I think this woman has captured the truth. If you read or saw the DaVinci Code you know what she's talking about. BUT she is a Christian and where she ended up isn't where she started. She had to fight her way to the truth. She has a section on Tarot Cards (and an expanded book on Tarot that I have not read) that is the absolutely bar none BEST explanation for how Tarot came about. There are links to the pagan past in the existence of the Black Madonnas, but the pagan past is not the primary reason for black madonnas.
In 1989 I went to France and visited a lot of paleolithic sites including Lascaux and Les Eyzies, my primary reason for going. But while there I also visited Rocamadour and was drawn while there to light a candle at the Black Madonna shrine asking specifically to be reunited with the man who is now my husband. This was before I "found" Stregheria. After reading Margaret Starbird's book it seems I couldn't have asked for a better intercessor than the Black Madonna, who is not the Virgin Mary but Mary Magdalen, Jesus' lost bride. What I like about this book is that the author didn't start with a premise and fit the facts around it (like Birnbaum), she actually started looking for ways to reject a premise only to have many things weave together in a such a way that she had to end up where she did.
I've also read a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman who was incredibly ahead of her time. Eleanor was from that part of France that had a strong link to the feminine and females with more power than anyone else anywhere in Europe at the time. Starbird's book provides a historical background for why things where like they were in this part of France and the history all fits together quite nicely.
I'm going to go back and finish Birnbaum's book, but I don't think that I will put it on my recommended reading list. Starbird, on the other hand, even with her essentially Christian bent, is VERY aligned with our prophecies. If Christians start thinking like she does we may have to place an addendum on Aradia's Words Concerning Christianity.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Psychics and learning to listen
Apparently the recession is good for psychics.
The article was published in the Boston Globe March 1st, but didn't make it to the Times Picayune until March 29th.
Not everyone is a believer.
But if you are reading this blog you probably have some personal experience with the psychic. You may have even worked with Tarot Cards yourself or had a reading.
One of the things I had to learn as I began to walk the path of a Witch and a Strega, was to listen to more than just the vibrations my ears can pick up. Since I started this blog it looks like I've posted at least twice on picking up a psychic message; Once last Fall and once this Spring.
Learning how to listen is not easy. As moderns we are trained to look for answers from outside of ourselves. If we want to know what the weather will be like today we turn on the weather channel. It's pretty rare these days for folks to wonder about the weather and then open the door step out and feel the actual the weather. We are inundated with information from the radio and the TV and the newspaper and the Internet. But this is only data folks. This is not knowledge. Not "knowing".
One of the things that Tarot Cards do for us is help us to stop and focus on what is right in front of us. Part of this is the actual the cards themselves and their symbology, but this can also be a way to learn to listen. Listen to the question. Look at the Cards and listen for the answer. Pulling out the cards, shuffling them, turning them over and reading them creates a mini-ritual that can set you up to Be Still and Listen. Tarot can be a training tool but only if we don't work the process too hard. In the end it is the listening that will matter most.
You can only learn how to listen AFTER you have learned how to be still. Meditation is a simple ritualized way to learn how to be still. But Ritual, Veglione & Treguenda, also provide you with a tried and true way to Be Still and Listen. It can be hard in the modern world to set aside time to actually do all the smells and bells associated with a ritual. But it has been my experience that doing the actual ritual at the appointed times helps mightily with learning how to be still and listen. The rituals open the pathways for the psychic messages to come through even when you aren't in circle. For Streghe, the Lasa/Lare Shrine is another way to regularly be still and listen.
It is Spring and the world is waking up. Step outside. Be Still and Listen. Be your own psychic.
The article was published in the Boston Globe March 1st, but didn't make it to the Times Picayune until March 29th.
Not everyone is a believer.
But if you are reading this blog you probably have some personal experience with the psychic. You may have even worked with Tarot Cards yourself or had a reading.
One of the things I had to learn as I began to walk the path of a Witch and a Strega, was to listen to more than just the vibrations my ears can pick up. Since I started this blog it looks like I've posted at least twice on picking up a psychic message; Once last Fall and once this Spring.
Learning how to listen is not easy. As moderns we are trained to look for answers from outside of ourselves. If we want to know what the weather will be like today we turn on the weather channel. It's pretty rare these days for folks to wonder about the weather and then open the door step out and feel the actual the weather. We are inundated with information from the radio and the TV and the newspaper and the Internet. But this is only data folks. This is not knowledge. Not "knowing".
One of the things that Tarot Cards do for us is help us to stop and focus on what is right in front of us. Part of this is the actual the cards themselves and their symbology, but this can also be a way to learn to listen. Listen to the question. Look at the Cards and listen for the answer. Pulling out the cards, shuffling them, turning them over and reading them creates a mini-ritual that can set you up to Be Still and Listen. Tarot can be a training tool but only if we don't work the process too hard. In the end it is the listening that will matter most.
You can only learn how to listen AFTER you have learned how to be still. Meditation is a simple ritualized way to learn how to be still. But Ritual, Veglione & Treguenda, also provide you with a tried and true way to Be Still and Listen. It can be hard in the modern world to set aside time to actually do all the smells and bells associated with a ritual. But it has been my experience that doing the actual ritual at the appointed times helps mightily with learning how to be still and listen. The rituals open the pathways for the psychic messages to come through even when you aren't in circle. For Streghe, the Lasa/Lare Shrine is another way to regularly be still and listen.
It is Spring and the world is waking up. Step outside. Be Still and Listen. Be your own psychic.
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