Monthly Archives: February 2017
Many assume that the term “Holy Water” indicates church-based water only. This is an oversimplification of a complex concept. The Roman Catholic Church did not invent the concept of Holy Water but adopted it from earlier Pagan use. Various Pagan shrines possessed virtually identical Holy Water fonts. Holy Water is a crucial component of many magical, religious and spiritual traditions, although what constitutes Holy Water and how it’s made varies greatly.
Water collected from the Jordan River, and water blessed by the church is considered Holy.
According to British folk tradition, rain falling on Holy Thursday – Ascension Day – may be gathered and used as Holy Water. Any other day held sacred to the spell caster may be substituted: Summer Solstice, May Eve, New Year’s, Samhain, your birthday, a saint’s day, etc.
Holy Water may also be made via astrological correspondences. Some believe that waters synchronized with a lunar eclipse or a Full Moon are holy and charged with extra magickal power.
Balinese tradition uses a variety of Holy Waters. These may include the water found within unripe coconuts or young bamboo. Ocean water is sometimes used as well.
Modern Wicca has evolved the notion of Holy Water. Various formulas exist. At it’s simplest, Witch’s Holy water is spring water with salt added. Different covens may have personal recipes, including infused herbs (rosemary, thyme, and vervain are particularly popular), or crystals.
Pow-Wow also features various recipes but the mainstay is water with salt and vervain added. Christian Pow-Wow may choose church-blessed waters instead.
Balinese Holy Water, Church-blessed Holy Water and Wiccan Holy Water (among others) are consecrated via sacred ritual: the ritual activates the water. Other magical traditions consider that the sacred, magical power of Holy Water is such that no further ritual or consecration is needed and may in fact be interference. Obtaining Holy Water may thus be as simple a gathering rainwater or adding sea salt to spring water. Complex rituals may also be designed.
Holy Water is most commonly used for:
- Cleansing and purification, both for individual bathing and for space-cleansing (sprinkle in corners).
- Altar cleansing and blessing.
- Healing spells.
- Holy Water is also believed capable of magically transmitting physical relief especially for headaches and tension. Use in compresses and massage.
- Cleansing and empowering materials and tools by either anointing them, or soaking them in the Holy Water.
- Exorcism and banishing spells.
A variety of recipes and rituals for making Holy Water can be found here:
- Book of Shadows – Full Moon Holy Water
- Magickal Apothecary – Holy Water
The name is said to be derived either from the fact that its whitish, blue-green color gives it the appearance of smoke rising from the ground, or, according to Pliny, because the juice of the plant brings on such a flow of tears that the sight becomes dim as with smoke, and hence its reputed use in afflictions of the eye.
According to the ancient exorcists, when the plant is burned, its smoke has the power of expelling evil spirits, it having been used for this purpose in the famous geometrical gardens of St. Gall.
Earth Smoke is also known as Fumitory. There is a legend that the plant was produced, not from seed, but from vapors arising out of the earth.
While this herb is most often used in money drawing incense formulas, it is also carried (in it’s dry form) in the shoes by salesmen for luck in making quick sales. It can also be brewed in water and the liquid sprinkled around the business premises to bring in quick money.
Formulas using Earth Smoke can be found here:
Ruler: Mars, Saturn
Type: Plant
Magickal Form: Whole or ground beans, brewed
Magickal Uses: Energy, Success, Uncrossing
- Sprinkling ground coffee in the four corners of a room, or brewing coffee in the room will make the occupants work harder.
- Add a brewed pot of coffee to the bathwater for energy. It will give you extra stamina and push you to forge ahead and work longer hours. The coffee bath is more beneficial than drinking it because it will not cause undue stress and there is no risk of overdosing.
- Carry whole coffee beans in the pocket for success in love.
- Coffee grounds can be read in the cup the same way as tea leaves.
- Coffee bean husks are highly reputed for use in uncrossing and jinx removing baths.
Collected from various sources
- Other names: Dirt Dauber Nest, Organ Pipe Wasp Nest
- Magickal uses: Help in business, Control other people
Mud Daubers and Organ Pipe Wasps are inoffensive, gentle insects that carefully build tube nests of fine clay, which they carry a bit at a time from a nearby pond to a sheltered place protected from rain and snow. The tubes are constructed of contiguous compartments, and in each compartment the wasp places a paralyzed spider, on which it lays an egg. The egg hatches into a larva, eats the spider, pupates, and then metamorphoses into a mature wasp that bites its way out of the nest.
Each compartment is used only once, but the adult wasps return to their birth places with fresh clay, and add new compartments to the old nests. They like to build under protective overhangs, and year after year, if the nests are not disturbed, generations of wasps add to these structures, so that in time, their “organ pipes” can cover a wall.
Because Dauber wasps avoid touching people and never sting unless accidentally crushed, country folks tolerate them on porches and barns under the eaves, and take pleasure in watching them at their work.
Dirt Dauber nests are broken off the wall and powdered for use, either to control people or to help in business.
Success in Business – The Dirt Dauber gets its mud off the ground but builds its nest up high, symbolizing success. Therefore, if you take Dauber Dirt, powder it with Grains of Paradise (which also symbolizes a high place) and sprinkle it up high around your new place of business, you will have success there, and the business will grow.
The magickal association between Dirt Dauber Wasps and spells for stay-at-home husbands is based on observation. These wasps are one of very few Hymenoptera in which the male stays at the nest and guards it while the female is off hunting spiders, and also because mating occurs at the nest, where it can easily be observed by human beings.
In addition, the Blue Mud Dauber specializes in killing Black Widow Spiders, which makes it a magickal ally to wives whose husbands may fall prey to the charms of a young widow woman.
If your husband runs around – not necessarily with another woman, but if he goes out with his friends, when he should be at home – you can mix Dauber Dirt from nine nest compartments that still have the larvae inside, grind them up, and add a pinch of this to his coffee every day. He will be compelled to stay at home, like the larvae in the nests.
For a woman to control her husband – Carefully remove a whole Dirt Dauber Nest, with the larvae still inside, from the wall without breaking it and place it in a teacup full of water. Let it soak for fifteen minutes, then drink the water off straight away. Repeat as necessary. This is said to cause your husband to come under your control.
A number of different spells using Mud Dauber Dirt as an ingredient can be found in the Book of Shadows.
Source: Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
- Ruler: Fertility Goddesses, Moon
- Type: Food
Eggs, obviously are representative of fertility. They also make great psychic cleansers, as they absorb negative energy. Crushed and pulverized eggshells can be used as chalk to draw magickal seals. Eggshells are also added to incense blends to remove jinxes.
Here are some common uses for eggs in magick:
- Eat a whole salted hard-boiled egg on the new moon for rejuvenation and rebirth.
- To cleanse a house of bad energy place nine whole raw eggs around the home. After nine days, remove the eggs and dispose of them.
- For uncrossing, roll an uncooked hen’s egg over the body to collect negative energy and bad vibes. Discard by throwing into a crossroads or at a tree.
Eggs from a black hen are used in many Hoodoo and Root Magic Spells. For this reason, the musician Blind Willie McTell relates in an old blues song that his mother told him, “Don’t drink no black cow’s milk; don’t eat no black hen’s egg.”
Spells and magick using eggs can be found here: Book of Shadows – Eggs
Ruler: Moon, Hathor, Venus, Mercury, Ellegua
Type: Food
Magickal Uses: Prosperity, Nurturing, Protection, Success
Here we have a short list of the magickal uses for various types of milk:
- Cow’s milk is one of the best magickal ingredients for spells to summon nurturing, prosperity, and protection.
- Goat’s milk brings power and success.
- Use soy milk for job success.
- Coconut milk is great for protection and spiritual cleansing.
- Black cow’s milk is milk from an all black cow.
Black Cow’s Milk Cures:
- A person who has been struck by lightning or suffers from smoke inhalation can be revived from near death by drinking a quart of Black Cow’s Milk.
- Black Cow’s Milk is used as a body wash to cure shingles.
You can bathe in all types of milk for ritual purposes. The best time for milk baths is on Mondays or new or full moons.
Imbolc is the festival of the lactating sheep. It is derived from the Gaelic word “oimelc” which means “ewes milk”. It’s a great time for crafting spells using milk.
Each month the moon waxes and wanes through its cycle, touching each star sign for a few days. As it changes rapidly, so can the emotional states of those people who have strong lunar alliances in their natal charts, hence the moons name, lunar, came from the word lunatic!
Waning:
When the moon is waning, it’s on the cycle of diminishing; therefore, it’s a good time to end anything that isn’t working, which allows something new to enter your life. It’s also a prime time for clearing and cleaning.
Waxing:
When the moon is waxing, it’s on the cycle of becoming fuller, and thought to be a more prosperous time. This is the time for gathering up, for bringing in, for growing and adding to.
Full moon:
The strongest period for the full moon is the period either side of the full moon, 1-3 days. However, the period just before the full moon, keep in mind that the moon is still in its waxing cycle still becoming fuller, and directly after the full moon it then begins its waning diminishing cycle.
New moon:
The new moon period is known to be a magic wish time, with its strongest time 1 to 3 days after the new moon and also just before the full moon. The time just before the full moon begins to diminish is a very powerful time to cast your dreams, goals and wishes to the universe for creation. This is one of the intense energy times to do spells, rituals, prayers and re-in force your positive thoughts.
Eclipse:
An Eclipse signifies an intense time of energy, which can spark the beginning or end of relationships and situations, and can have an effect before and for months after the eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs on the new moon and a lunar eclipse occurs on the full moon.
Read more: NY Daily News Horoscopes
Although you cannot bend someone’s will to your own desires through magic, you can perform a spell to attract new love or to jazz up your current relationship with fresh couple-bonding chemistry. This is a short (and by no means complete) list of essential oils for Love and Passion.
- Deep heartfelt connections: Rose oil
- Passionate Evenings: Ylang-Ylang, Nutmeg, Patchouli, Vanilla
- Sensuality: Sandalwood, Orange, Basil
- Libido Boosters: Ginger, Cinnamon, Golden Rod
- Aphrodisiac: Clary Sage, Jasmine, Neroli, Patchouli, Rosewood
- Nature Spirits: house faeries, both of the home itself and of house plants
- Herbs: balm of Gilead, hyssop, myrrh, sage, spikenard
- Colors: light blue, violet
- Flowers: primrose
- Scents: wisteria, heliotrope
- Stones: amethyst, jasper, rock crystal
- Trees: rowan, laurel, cedar
- Animals: otter, unicorn
- Birds: eagle, chickadee
- Deities: Brigit, Juno, Kuan Yin, Diana, Demeter, Persephone, Aphrodite
Power Flow:
Energy working toward the surface; A good time for spell work on purification, growth, healing. Loving the self. Accepting responsibility for past errors, forgiving yourself, and making future plans.
From: Moon Magic
Art by Jane Haworth