Monthly Archives: April 2017
In a woodland clearing, spread a clean green cloth. On it place small cakes and flowers, especially primroses, in a circle. Imagine the magic around you and say:
O Fairy Queen,
Upon your white steed,
Within me plant
A magic seed.
From you may spring
Many new beginnings.
Great Queen,
Accept these offerings.
Leave the items and walk around the altar three times, then slowly walk the path back to your home. Listen for the sound of laughter and bells and know you are blessed.
~Nancy Bennett
Flora is the Roman spirit of flowering plants and, by extension, of fertility and the life-force. Her festival, the Floralia, once began April 27th and continued for six days of revelry, especially by women of all ages celebrating their own bodies and natural beauty. The festival was celebrated in the nude until the third century CE, when Roman authorities ordered that revelers be clothed. The festival held out in that form for one more century until all pagan festivals were banned. Vestiges survive in May Day celebrations.
Just as every blossom is unique, so is every body. Flora encourages one to cherish one’s own beauty without comparison to any other. This spell is particularly potent if timed to coincide with Flora’s old festival but may be cast at anytime.
Fill your bathtub with as many fresh flowers as possible, especially Flora’s favorite, beautiful, transient bean blossoms. Enter the bath and understand that you too are among Flora’s unique and perfect blossoms.
Source: Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells
The Floralia – the festival of Flora, Roman goddess of fruitfulness and flowers – is celebrated April 28 thru May 1st. Here’s a nice group ritual, it can be modified if you are a solitary practitioner.
- Color: Pink
- Element: Earth
- Daily Meal: Vegan. Beans. Salad with edible flowers in it. Flower jams.
- Offerings: Give flowers to people. Allow a rabbit and a goat to run free in the house.
Altar:
Upon a cloth of pink set a pitcher of water, pots of earth, flower seeds, incense of flowers, a bowl of beans, and many fresh flowers should be strewn around the room. The candles of Walpurgisnacht (if you have been observing it) should remain and be lit, and a sixth added to them, for Odhinn’s journey continues even as we celebrate Floralia.
Floralia Invocation
Hail Flora, Lady of Beauty!
We must have not only our bread,
And our work, and our discipline,
But we must also have beauty in our lives,
That we may never become mere worms,
Measuring out our dull grey lives,
Never thinking to look around
And see the great beauty
That the Gods have made for us.
Let us look upon their gifts
And see in that loveliness
A measure of their love for us.
Hail Flora, who lights up our eyes!
Chant:
Oh, She will bring the buds in the spring,
And laugh among the flowers.
In summer’s heat Her kisses are sweet,
She sings in leafy bowers.
She cuts the cane and gathers the grain
When fruits of fall surround Her,
Her bones grow old in winter’s cold,
She wraps Her cloak around her.
(All come forward and plant flower seeds in the pots of earth, which are afterwards carried outside and transferred to the garden. As they plant, they say, “I plant beauty in my life,” and say what sort of beauty they hope to see. The pots are watered, and the rest of the water is poured out as a libation for Flora. The rest of the day is spent adding beauty to the House.)
Found in: Pagan Book of Hours
Color: Lavender
Element: Water
Altar: Upon a lavender cloth set a tray of cakes shaped like clasping hands, and many cups full of hot tea.
Offerings: Promise to attempt to be more considerate of those you live with.
Daily Meal: Any food, but it must be served from one great plate for every table, and it should not be in separate portions.
Invocation:
May there be Peace in this house.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!“)
Peace can be a hard mistress.
The daily round of the ordinary,
The simple turn of day and night and day
The presence of the same souls
Can come to be like a shadow on the sun,
And yet Peace still demands
That we find a way to move past
That ordinariness
And all the thousand thorns and briars
And bring Peace into the house.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!“)
Take the hand of your sister, your brother,
The one who shares your roof, your table,
The ground you walk on,
Whose feet know the boards as well as your own,
And swear to find a way
To bring peace into the space between you.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!“)
Chant:
My brother, my heart, my sister, my soul;
My family, my life, come in from the cold;
My sister, my heart, my brother, my soul;
My family, my life, that makes this life whole.
(Instead of a ritual, this period of time should be used to mediate and address problems between members of the family, with emphasis on peacemaking and compromise and useful solutions. At the end of the meeting, all share cakes and tea.)
Found in: Pagan Book of Hours – Breviary
The medieval demonographer, Martin Delrio, in his Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex, gives this definition:
“An art or skill that, by means of a not supernatural force, produces certain strange and unusual phenomena whose rationale eludes common sense…”
What follows is an interesting (but very dry and scholarly) essay on magic by Harry Wedeck. I did have to pull out my dictionary a couple of times – he does love those big words – but it made me think, gave me a wider perspective, and because of this, I think it deserves a read. So here it is:
Magic is protean. It has multiple names, numberless forms. It is thaumaturgy (the working of miracles) and goety (invocation of spirits). It is witchcraft and it is religion. It is superstition and legend, tested by its potency, its primary effects on the individual, sometimes on the community, and not rarely on large ethnic groups. It enters into private domestic life, and pervades the tribal community. On occasion, it dominates, in its malignant impact, an entire nation, upheaving governments, creating devastation and civic chaos.
It pierces the very basic roots of existence, and sometimes forms itself into a religious cult, capable of overthrowing an established religious system. Impalpable sometimes, at all times secretive and cryptically esoteric, its powers rest in the grip of small dedicated hieratic groups; or in the control of an arch adept; or even, as in ancient Italy, as in the antique Chinese dynasties, in the supreme ruler himself, who is both first citizen and thaumaturgic (miracle working) priest.
Two aspects of witchcraft manifest themselves: White Magic, and the Black Art. Certain demonographers, and magicians as well, have assigned to White Magic an ethical motive: to benefit both the living and the dead. Black Magic, on the other hand, is completely malefic in its operations and its intent. It performs maleficently against its victims, against enemies, and contrary to the normal, commonly accepted view of the orderly sequence of cosmic rhythms in harmony with beneficent mankind.
Fundamentally, magic is the imposition of the human will on the phenomena of nature: and that imposition extends, in the actual practice of Black magic, into a conflict between two forces, one beneficent, and other malefic: constantly at war, over the entire cosmos. That was the primary concept of the ancient cult of the Manichean’s, of the equally mystic cult of Zoroaster.
Witchcraft in its necromantic (communication with the dead), thaumaturgic (working of miracles), and apotropaic (warding off evil) diversity, has invariably been a significant phenomenon of all cultures, at whatever level of development.
It has never been a mere academic diversion. On the country, it has been an integral element, coloring and molding religious, political, and social situations and attitudes. And its impact, in these three directions, has been impressively pronounced in a very realistic sense.
In early ages there was no demarcation between religion and magic. Religion was largely magic, for all religion was directed toward communication with diving agencies and toward a degree of cooperation of these deities for the advantage of man. The pagan rites, the mystic ceremonials of the priestly castes – Egyptian and Assyrian, Hittite and Babylonian – the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Dionysian performances, the cult of Mithra, the festal glorifications involving dedications and sacrifices, paeans (songs) and supplications and invocations – were associated with thaumaturgic arcana (mysteries).
The flow of folk thoughts and tendencies was all directed toward a projection of the self beyond the material, normally observable limitations of the human frame and the human spirit. Ancient witchcraft and wizardry in all their multiple permutations and impacts, like their modern counterparts, constituted virtually an ultimate faith.
Magic was (and still is) a stubborn credo that would not be refused. It was belief without reservation. Whether belief in beneficent principles or in actively malefic potency’s, is another matter. But it was credence that equated man with these agencies, unseen, yet real, that governed the cosmos. It was, in short, man’s attempt toward divinity.
And through the long and perplexed centuries, although magic assumed crudities and accretions of bestiality and demoniac contacts, it was basically the spiritual means, though perverted, made manifest toward this consummation. Magic was the epiphany of man’s ultimate faculty.
Hang up a bell with a pleasant ring in a window which remains open for a good part of each day, and through which the wind blows (preferably the West Wind).
As you do so, speak these words:
Little bell of love, I hang you to whisper
my need for love on the breezes and winds.
Little bell of love, speak of my need for love
to your brothers and sisters.
Little bell of love, I ask you to speak softly
and draw to me someone who listens.
Every time the bell rings, it is “whispering” of your need for love. (The brothers and sisters are other bells who will add their own power to the spell.)
Note: You can also use wind chimes with bells (as in the image), and simply change the words to “bells” instead of “bell.” And if you have wind chimes but no bells, the words can be changed to “chimes.”
From Earth Power
You will need:
- A tarot deck and the following cards:
Justice – The World – Nine of Cups - Six candles of the following colors:
Gray – Orange – Indigo – Purple – Black – Gold
First, you must recite the opening chant:
“I move outside the limits of time to work my spell
The dragons help me weave the universal energy
The things that now exist become what I desire
The tides of Magick answer unto me”
Arrange the cards in order, left to right: Justice, The World, and then Nine of Cups. Arrange the candles below the cards in this order: gray, orange, indigo, purple, black, and gold. Light the candles and after clearing your mind, say:
“Gray mists to hide what I must do.
Orange light to change my luck and give me power.
Indigo strength to stop gossip and lies.
Purple power to break bad luck and drive away evil.
Great black walls to protect me from my enemies.
Sun-gold beams to give me fortune and success.
I stand surrounded by these powerful lights.
I ask the dragon’s help to succeed in my case.”
Concentrate a few moments on the cards and your objective. After this say the closing chant:
“My thanks to the dragons, great and small, who came to answer my call,
We wove the Magick, wild and free, And as I will, so shall it be.”
Place the candles in a safe place so they will not catch anything on fire, such as in a sink or even in the bath tub, and allow them to burn themselves out.
From: The Spell Cabinet
Cairns or piles of stones are collectors and reservoirs of power. Creating a Cairn of Power in a specific power spot, such as a crossroads, graveyard, or hilltop can give added depth to magick performed with, on, or near them. Here’s how:
Select 10 or 20 stones of approximately the same size. Larger is better – just be sure that you can safely handle them. When collecting the stones, always ask permission, and take the stone only if permission is granted. Be respectful of the place, and be sure to leave appropriate offerings, and blessings.
Before building the Cairn, get grounded and centered. If you are working with others, avoid small talk and distractions. Silence is best.
Allow the stones to speak to you, and guide you in the building of the Cairn. As you place the first stone, say aloud and with conviction:
“I place here a stone of power.”
Repeat this with the rest of your stones, gradually forming a sturdy pile of stones. The pile can have a square or triangular base, and the shape it forms will be dictated by the rocks you chose. Take your time, listen to the land, the wind, the voices in the trees. You are building a Cairn of Power – take it seriously. If you are quiet enough, and serious enough, a name will come to you.
As you place the last stone on top of the pile, say:
“This is a Cairn of Power”
Listen and wait for the naming of the Cairn.
When the name comes to you say:
“This is ____________.” (name the Cairn)
Pour a libation of water or wine, and light a small candle to activate the energies. If you have magick to perform, do it now. When you are complete, leave an offering of cornmeal, salt, flowers, herbs or whatever feels appropriate.
Each time you return, you can bring another stone, crystals, amulets, shells, statues, or other items to add to the Cairn. Over time, and as you continue to revisit the Cairn, your connection to the power will build, and eventually you will have only to think of it to receive a surge of energy.
Note: This post was written by Shirley Twofeathers, you may repost and share it only if you give me credit and a link back to this website. Blessed be.
It may be said that ritual is the very heart of magic. For it is through ritual that we achieve our magical results. Ritual is a magical procedure or ceremony we perform in order to change the environment. Usually we think of ritual as bearing on active magick, although certainly, it can also affect passive magick.
Most often the change achieved is subjective (it may be subtle) and in the physical world. Outsiders may put them down to coincidence, but the effects are very real. Magical goals for a ritual should not be taken lightly.
The successful practice of magick depends upon strong belief. The simplest ritual of them all must be belief itself. If you can believe in your desired results strongly enough, that act is a magical ritual which will achieve your results. Even a very complex ritual is no more effective than strong belief.
By: Phil Hansford
Creative visualization is a powerful magickal tool. Here’s a nice technique for using creative visualization when working magick.
When you want to magically achieve something, first picture it clearly in your mind. The more definite and specific your idea of what it is the better. Picture yourself having it or doing it. Visualize it as vividly and as intensely as you can and hold it in your thoughts for a few moments. Concentrate on it intensely (it may help to hold your breath). Feel the energy of desire welling up inside you.
Then suddenly feel the image or desire released from your mind. Feel the energy filtering through the image and intensifying it, as if the image is a ‘stencil’. Imagine the energy exploding out from you into the macrocosm in all directions at once, and feel the universe ’tilt’ as it reacts to the force. (At the same time it may help to release your breath suddenly). Feel the energy draining from you.
Finally, believe that your purpose has been accomplished; that it HAS HAPPENED, perhaps saying something such as “so mote it be”, or “it is done”. And then, forget about it. You must let go of it in order for it to come to fruition.
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