Tag: Wiccan

The Majick of Earth

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Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a place where you are connected to the earth. What do you see? Is it trees, lush grasses, and colorful plants in dappled shadows? Are you surrounded by green? Do Perhaps a faun, dwarf, or an elf features in your imagined space.

Certainly, all those things are part of the element of Earth. Often, though, people forget that the element of Earth element also includes deserts, mountains, and prairies. We are so accustomed to the idea of verdant forests that we don’t even include the other settings in our imagination. In fact, when you examine all the writings on the element of Earth, it is rare to see anything that doesn’t evoke the idea of dense greenery, whether the information is about correspondences, creatures, or colors.

All the elements help us move toward some purpose, but Earth is primarily our focus when we are working on material intentions. We appeal to Earth when we are seeking healing, as well calling Earth when working spells related to prosperity, employment, fertility, family matters, the home, and abundance. As cottage witches, Awen’s Cauldron is closely aligned to the element of Earth because of its association with the home and family. Gardening is a type of majick closely aligned to Earth.

Earth is associated with the north and with winter, and it is the element for the astrological signs of Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. It is considered a feminine element. Like Water, it is represented by an upside-down equilateral triangle, with the addition of a horizontal line drawn across it. Earth goddesses include Gaia, Persephone, Mokosh, and Sif, any of whom may be called upon to bless rituals relating to Earth. Its tools include the pentacle, cords for knot majick, stones, and salt. Salt can serve more than one purpose: it can represent Earth but also be used to purify a space or form a protective circle for ritual. Many witches pour a line of salt around their houses and renew it regularly. Stones and crystals associated with Earth include emerald, jet, tourmaline, quartz, and peridot; plants and herbs associated with Earth include cypress, honeysuckle, ivy, grains, sage, vetiver, and patchouli. Animals associated with Earth are bulls, stags, wolves, and cats, while mythical creatures include dragons, gnomes, elves, and brownies. Colors associated with Earth are, not surprisingly, brown, black, and green.

We suspect an earth ritual in dry climate or desert might be very different from what we’ve described based on traditional writing. For example, the colors associated with Earth in a desert setting would be the light browns of sand and the grey green cactus or yucca. Lizards, tarantulas, or snakes would be more likely representatives of Earth, and fantasy creatures might include a jinn, a ziz, or a re’em. Calling on Hathor, Sekhmet, or Spider Grandmother would be a good fit for arid land.

In Nevada, a couple hours north of Las Vegas, there is a temple dedicated to Sekhmet. There, away from light pollution, you see the Milky Way and can watch the movement of the stars. There are probably not gnomes or dwarves peeking around the creosote bushes and cacti, but there is majick to be found in the desert. The earth is a wondrous place, and Earth is an element that comes in more forms than we expect at times. Perhaps we witches need to do a bit more imagining so we can create rituals that include every kind of terrain Earth offers.

How can you incorporate Earth into preparation for ritual? One way is to eat a meal slowly and appreciate all the tastes in the food you consume. Think about the land in which it grew, the nutrients in the soil that helped create it. Feel the different textures in your mouth. Another way is to ground yourself before ritual—stand barefooted on the ground. Feel yourself growing roots that connect you to Earth. Gather flowers and plants to touch and smell. Take time to feel the textures on your fingers and the smell that comes from them.

To celebrate Earth around you, plant a garden. It can be as simple as a few cooking herbs. Caring for those plants connects you to Earth. If you have space, create a labyrinth and walk in it frequently. Put up bird feeders and spend time watching the creatures who visit. Plant trees around the perimeter of your dwelling to make your space a sacred grove, and if you live somewhere dryer, take advantage of the information available to you to create a hardy, drought-resistant earthy space.

Earth majick includes using cords, and a knot spell is a great way to start with earth majick. To cast a knot spell, it’s very important to be specific about what you want as an outcome, without constraining the universe in its response to you. Including words such as “an even better result” is helpful. And, of course, those following a Wiccan path don’t cast spells that compel another person against their will.

You’ll need a length of cord long enough to tie 9 knots in it. Too thin or thick, like string or rope, makes it hard to tie the knots. Concentrate on the outcome you want as you tie the knots. Say this spell as you tie the knots.

By knot of one, the spell’s begun.
By knot of two, it cometh true.
By knot of three, thus shall it be.
By knot of four, tis strengthened more.
By knot of five, so may it thrive.
By knot of six, the spell we fix.
By knot of seven, success is given.
By knot of eight, the hand of fate.
By knot of nine, the thing be mine.

You can do different things with the cord after casting the spell. Some witches wear the cord until the outcome of the spell arrives. You can also place it on your altar near an image of an earth goddess or one associated with luck, such as Lakshmi or Habondia. Once you believe you have received the outcome of the spell you’ve cast, untie the knots in reverse order and bury the cord in the earth.

The Earth supports us, nourishes us, heals us. Whether we stand in a forest, climb a mountain, wander the deserts, or walk the prairies, we need to look around an appreciate the many ways in which Earth appears to us. Sink your toes into the dirt! Blessed be.

Opening Image by Carl Spitzweg – http://www.kettererkunst.de/kunst/kd/details.php?obnr=100800185&anummer=334, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11059517

The Majick of Water

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Think, for a moment, of all the things you can do with water. We drink it, cook with it, bathe in it, nourish our plants with it. We sail on it. We fish from it. We swim in in. We sit beside it. We taste, see, and smell it. We hear it. We feel it.

Our lives begin in water in our mother’s wombs, and our bodies are about 60% water. Is it a mystery that a bath is soothing? Is it any wonder than we find the sound of running water calming? And what is more romantic than moonlight on the water?

In California, where Awen’s Cauldron is based, we feel the impact of water, or rather, its absence. This very hot summer has brought multiple days exceeding 100 degrees. The lack of humidity in our area increases thirst, and we long to immerse ourselves in the coolness of a pool, pond, river, or ocean. We cannot live without water, any more than we can live without any of the elements: fire to warm us and cook our food, air to breathe and blow cool breezes, earth to stand on and in which to grow our food. Of all the elements, though, we resonate with water—it is part of our name, referenced in the cauldron.

Water plays an important part in all faith traditions, most often symbolizing purification and cleansing. For Hindus, bathing in the sacred water of the Ganges is an important ritual. Christians use water to baptize people in that faith. Water appears in creation myths, as part of the formation of the world. And people travel annually to sacred water sites such as the Lourdes grotto in France or the Chalice Well in England.

There is even a popular belief that blessing water and speaking to it in a loving way can change its nature. When returned to other bodies of water, the expectation is that the water goes on to change the water it encounters. As intriguing, hopeful, and majickal as that idea might sound, it is not supported by scientific research.

There are, however, many ways in which water is majickal in and of itself. The fact that it can be gas, liquid, or solid is remarkable. Air, fire, and earth don’t have that ability. Water dripping on stone will erode it over time—the Grand Canyon was formed over the course of millennia by the course of the Colorado river. Water can power electricity and take us to new places. And when it rages, it is a terrifying element, sweeping away everything in its path.

In Wicca, water is associated with the moon and is considered feminine. That is one reason why it is represented by an upside-down equilateral triangle, which reflects both the shape of a chalice and the shape of the womb. It is the element that is most closely aligned to the goddess (for example, Belisima, Anuket, Brizo) and it is the element of those born under the signs of Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. Water rules our subconscious as well as our emotions. Its tools are the cauldron and the chalice. Water is associated with the west, autumn, and sunset. Silver, topaz, amethyst, citrine, aquamarine, opal, pearl, and sapphire crystals or gems should be used in water rituals. Animals associated with water include, as expected, turtles, dolphins, and seals, but also bears and snakes. Majickal creatures associated with water include undines, mermaids, and sea serpents. Using musical instruments such as cymbals or bells will invoke water during a ritual.

Majickal rituals are often preceded by sacred bathing that relaxes the ritualist and prepares her to be receptive to majickal influence. Herbs, oils, and water charged under the moon can be used in the bath, as well as the special bath salts we create for our Sabbat boxes. Moon-charged water can also be used for scrying; put it in a dark bowl and gaze through the water to practice your divination skills. Making tea or potions with moon-charged water is also a good idea. After using water for ritual purposes, it should be returned to the earth, no emptied into a sink.

How do you charge water? The simplest way is to leave a vessel of it out all night where the moon will shine on it for the longest time. Our practices involve using the same vessel each month and using that container only for moon-charged water. Rainwater, spring water, or purified water are the best sources of water for charging. You can also do solar water charging in the same way, leaving it out where the sun will hit the water for most of the day. Some Wiccans bless the water to free it from any negative energy and use salt to purify it.

Majick spells that work best with water are those that healing, dreams, sleep, intuition, love, and friendship. If you have been plagued with bad dreams, for example, this might help. Take a cup of moon-charged water and add a teaspoon of sea salt along with three drops each of jasmine, lavender, and violet essential oils (or add petals from each of the flowers; you can also substitute bergamot for violet oil). If you have moonstones, add them as well. Place the bowl of water near your bed, and before lying down to sleep, put your hands about the water and say (if you aren’t comfortable yet with writing your own spell):

Majickal water, I now ask
For you to fill this simple task
Bring me restful peace and sleep
Let my dreams not make me weep

Water is life, but more than that, water is majickal. All life came from water, and humans begin their lives there. Like water, we can carve our own paths. The creatures that live in it have their own beauty; even a hippopotamus is graceful in water. And the majickal creatures are even more striking—undines with bodies made of water, mermaids with their fish tails and long flowing hair, sea serpents that curve sinuously through the oceans.

All the elements can be used in majick, but we have a favorite in water.

Opening image: “A Mermaid,” by John William Waterhouse – Art UK, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7715772

Majickal Moon, Majickal You

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By Jessie Eastland – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81142233

Why is the moon so majickal? I think the primary reason is that we see it grow and ebb in the sky above us. While we can track the movement of the sun from rising to setting, its changes are more subtle. If you’re very observant, you’ll notice that the place it rises and sets shifts over the course of the year, and of course, the days shorten and lengthen. But the moon! She changes daily in position, rising, setting, fullness. Since humans looked up to the sky the moon has been a fascination to them.

According to Erin Dragonsong, the moon represents mystery and chaos, flow and evolution, birth and death, emotions and soul, and wisdom and majick. Until we explored her, we speculated about what the moon was made of. It was a mystery. Humans observed her changes in the sky, along with her apparent death and rebirth. If you listen closely to love songs, you’ll hear the moon referenced quite a bit more than the sun. A moon is romantic. We see partially. We see with our souls.

And then, there is majick, the kind of focus and intention setting we do according to the phase of the moon. There are many books and articles written on this topic. Our hope here is to provide an overview and help you get started.

First, then, we want to understand the kind of spell each phase of the moon calls for. The cycle begins at the New Moon, because this is a time to set goals, think about your dreams, and make plans for how to achieve them. It’s important to think about what you want rather than what you don’t want. Spells work very poorly when they’re cast as what you don’t want to happen. For example, if you’re going on a trip, you don’t want to write a spell that says, “I don’t want to get sick” or “I don’t want to get stranded somewhere.” You write a spell for good health and safe travel. Focus on the positive, not the negative.

The New Moon lasts about 3 nights, when the night sky is dark and no trace of her is to be found. During this time, be sure to write down your goals and how you expect to achieve them. Keeping records is a very good way to track what really happens instead of relying on memory. You may even want to draw or do a collage of your dream, so that you are seeing it as well as feeling it. You can also write a spell and cast it during a ritual. If you do write a spell, be sure it is specific, because what you get may not be what you intended if you are not precise. Use the New Moon to focus on what you want to achieve.

The Waxing Crescent moon follows the New Moon. If you are casting new spells, focus on positive outcomes such as friendship, health, love, or success. While focusing on your New Moon goals, remember that things are growing. Things are moving. You are moving toward your goals.

A good way to practice your majick during this time is to read your goals and plans aloud to focus them in your mind. Look at any visual representations you’ve made of them or visualize in your mind what achieving your goal would look like. Is this majick? It’s certainly one form. Other forms include using potions, charms, rituals, dancing, singing, and divination to work your will. If you’re a beginner, we suggest starting with visualization and writing of goals and plans, and continued focus on them throughout the moon cycle.

We come to the First Quarter, the half-moon. In some ways it’s the most mysterious of all, neither this nor that. The dark half tells us whether the moon is waxing or waning (dark left is waxing, dark right is waning), but at first glance it can be hard to tell. Its “neither here nor there” aspect may create doubt in you considering the things you’re working toward. It’s important to keep focused during the first quarter, to remain confident. Revisit your goals and visualization again. Say them aloud.

The Waxing Gibbous Moon promises us that the Full Moon isn’t far behind. New spells should still be focused on positive outcomes. And this is a good time to review goals and plans and adjust as you might need to. Don’t simply give up if something isn’t working exactly as planned. It’s too easy to sabotage your own success with doubt when you’re close to achieving it. The Gibbous Moon is swollen with potential. It’s a woman in her 8th month, yearning to give birth to something miraculous. You are swelling, expanding, and intensifying. Ride that increase to its conclusion.

And now the Full Moon arrives! For three days she shines upon you and your dreams. For the first of the three days, she is 99% full. The second day is 100% full, and the third is back to 99%. Although the third day could be considered a waning period, the moon is so full that we respond to her as in that phase.

This is a time to ask for almost anything. Divination, spells, and rituals are especially powerful now. It’s also a good time to charge your tools, potions, candles, etc. with the moon’s energy. Create moon water by leaving a full vessel under the moonlight. If your dreams, goals, and plans are going to manifest, you will get some hints about that around the time of the full moon. This is a good time to release negativity and any hurts that have accumulated. It will help you be clearer in setting your intentions at the New Moon. It’s also a time to express gratitude. In some moon circles, expressing gratitude is used to open or end the ritual. Writing it down makes it even stronger. Words are majickal. They create ideas that last.

Today, August 9, 2019, the moon is Waxing Gibbous phase. Use the mounting energy of the growing moon to cast spells that will increase your creativity, your intuition, your success, your courage, your love. The full moon will be here August 14-16. Be prepared to greet her and make majick in her light. Next Tuesday, we’ll talk about the energy of the waning moon and the majick that you can work during those phases. Until then, blessed be!

Lughnasadh: The First Harvest

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Imagine walking down a street in your neighborhood on an early August evening. For some reason, you’ve never been on this road before. Up ahead, you hear music and laughter. Walking on, you come to a dwelling that can only be called a cottage. The brick chimney is a little crooked, the slate shingles seem to undulate across the roof, and a blue door is open to admit visitors. Intrigued, you walk up an old brick path, lined by sunflowers, admiring those as well as the brilliant red geraniums that stand like sentinels beside the door. Wind chimes move in a gentle breeze to create soft whispers of music. As you approach, someone comes skipping out, saying “Welcome! Join us in a dance for Lughnasadh!” Intrigued, you decide to enter and discover more.

You travel through a cozy home marked by light and light breezes to a large yard where others have gathered. Soft green grass beckons you to remove your shoes as the others have done. It feels lovely on your feet, stalks emerging from between your toes. Musicians play a dancing tune, and a table groans under the weight of a feast, decorated by wheat stalks, corn, and fruits. Candles burn around the space, reflecting their orange, green, and brown wax. An altar is set up with different depictions of goddesses and gods, and small offerings of food and drink. And it looks as though there are things representing different kinds of work on the altar—a pad of paper with a pen, a stethoscope, a small shovel, a replica of a musical instrument, and so on. Another person greets you with a smile saying “Happy Lughnasadh!” After replying “And to you,” you find a chair and surrender yourself to this sacred moment.

Lughnasadh, or in some traditions, Tailtiúnasa or Lammas, is celebrated near sunset on August 1 or 2.  Those who call it Lughnasadh (loosely translated, the assembly of Lugh) are celebrating the Celtic god Lugh. Some say it commemorates Lugh’s wedding. Others say that the celebration represents a funeral rite Lugh held for his stepmother Tailtiú, who died of exhaustion after clearing Ireland’s fields so they could be planted. Dianic witches honor it with the name Tailtiúnasa in memory of the stepmother. “Lammas” is said to be a corruption of “loaf mass,” a church tradition associated with this summer time  in which farmers would bake bread, take it to the church to be blessed, then divide into four pieces to be placed in the corners of a barn to guard against pests.

Whatever you call it, on this holiday we celebrate the first harvest of wheat, corn, and other grains. Lugh was also said to be a many-skilled god, and so it is also a day to take note of your skills and applaud them. This is a cheerful, happy holiday, where people dance and sing even in the face of shorter days as the sun moves toward Autumn Equinox.

Falling approximately halfway between the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox, this holiday is one of the cross-quarter holidays in the Pagan Wheel of the Year. The quarter holidays are associated with changes in the amount of daylight, and are Summer Solstice (Litha), Autumn Equinox (Mabon), Winter Solstice (Yule), and Spring Equinox (Ostara). The cross-quarter holidays fall at the approximate middle between the quarters. The other cross-quarter holidays are Samhain (October 31), Imbolc (February 2), and Beltane (May 1). At Awen’s Cauldron, we use the traditional words to describe pagan holidays as they are more readily recognizable.

Celebrate this holiday by gathering wheat sheaves, corn, and sunflowers to decorate your altar. A small bolline knife (shaped like a scythe) reminds you of the harvest season. Put figurines of your favorite sun deities on it. You can always draw from other traditions if you aren’t comfortable with the Celtic ones: Demeter (the Greek goddess of agriculture), Anuket (the Egyptian goddess of the Nile) are appropriate, as well as any representation of a goddess or god associated with the sun or skills. Take some time to bake bread or muffins from scratch to honor the harvest, and then place your baked goods on the altar. Make a corn dolly to represent the day (you can find a video on how to do that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C1t3UyBFEg). Use candles in gold, green and brown to represent the sun and earth. And be sure to put something on your altar that represents your skill. This is a time to brag a little about what you have harvested in yourself.

Summer is waning, but the sun still shines, the fields are ripe with their crops, and the bread made from fresh grains is delicious. Eat, drink, and be happy. Blessed be!