A spell to find peace in this busy world… Life in the 21^stcentury is busy and stressful, whether it is your job, family commitments, living in a noisy neighbourhood or all 3, and never getting a minute’s peace in your day. I know because I have tried to get this newsletter going since late August but just don’t get 5 minutes peace for my head to think straight…so am beginning it again just days before it should be out…and hope the day is peaceful enough to finish it… So here is a little spell to try and bring some respite to your life… You will need: purple candle, 2 x tealights, Peace or Water incense, 1 x sheet Paper and a purple pen 1 x amethyst tumble. On a new or waxing moon, light the incense and find some quiet. Light the tealights either side of the purple candle and then the purple candle. Cleanse the amethyst in the incense and hold in your hand. In the candle light, focus on what you need to happen to make your life more peaceful and harmonious. What will bring peace into your life? With the purple pen, write a list of things that will promote peace in your life. Once complete, place the note under the purple candle, sit the stone on the paper next to the candle, and allow it to burn down (if it is too big, snuff it out and continue the next evening). Once fully burned down, attach the list to the back of a mirror on a wall somewhere in your home, and let the peace reflect into your life and home. Carry the stone as a calm reminder.

I am lucky in that I have the fireplace, which the family still insist on sitting on (cannot help themselves), so I thought it would be great to incorporate a Hearth in everyone’s home for the family!!

Here is what we are going to do:

Gather together a red pillar or similar candle (fire), 1 x terracotta or slate tile (hearth) and a small jar (family pot). Place the tile on a flat surface somewhere within your section. Take a small quartz point and have everyone in the home, if possible, write their initials within a single large heart inscribed on your candle. Carve symbols for wishes for the family i.e intertwined hearts for love, £ for abundance, scroll with an ‘A’for exam results, then hold the candle within your ‘magick mittens’, close your eyes and feel the power whilst visualising the family gathered together in your home chatting, having a laugh and everyone getting on with each other and also with their life. Let the power from your hands flow for as long as possible then place the candle on the tile.

Now add the small pot/cauldron/pretty jar to the tile next to the candle. This is to be your ‘family pot of love’.

So, once prepared, now for the spell itself;

Mix together florals such as rose petals, rosemary, chamomile, lavender, heather and any other dried plants, plus cedar or sage for purification, in the bottom of your pot, stirring with your wedding finger, and say;

‘A mix of magick into my little pot to keep misunderstandings at bay

So my loving family will return to my hearth even when living away’

then add small family momentos such as hospital baby name band, baby teeth, small photos, holiday memories etc, small crystals such as Lepidolite negative family issues, carnelian peace and harmony and chrysoprase for friendship and bliss to the pot and others of your choice, saying as you add them;

‘May my love for the family be honest and true and felt by all loved ones herein

And our gatherings filled with laughter and love, no anger to ever begin’

Now hold the pot, sprinkle the top of the mix with pink fairy dust and say…

‘Some last minute sparkle makes the magick complete,

So its Merry meet, merry part and again merry meet’

Kiss the pot and add to your ‘family hearth’ next to the candle. Light every time the family are together or when you are missing them to help keep them close.

Let’s get rid of the negative…with some knots and a stone…

Knot magick is as old as the hills. It has been used for ever, yet it can be really simple with simple materials.

This Sabbat is about death and new beginnings, and if you have something that is holding you back, I want you to use this to let it go and go into the New Year positively fresh and raring to grasp the new!

The only tool you need is a small Rhodonite and a piece of black cord, ribbon, waxed cotton or wool about 12” long – it must be a natural material.  Light incense and candles. Cleanse the Rhodonite in incense smoke and put aside. Quietly sit with your piece of black cord with an end of the cord in each hand. Now, think of the problem and get yourself emotional about the issue to be gotten rid of. Get angry. Get upset. Get so upset, you may even cry over the situation. When you are so emotionally charged, use that energy to tie a single knot in the cord and when you pull the knot, drop the cord like it is on fire, walk out of the room and slam the door!!

Next, go to your bathroom, close the door quietly and compose yourself. Run a bath or turn on the shower and add juniper berry to the water/shower gel and breathe its purifying aroma…cleanse yourself of all that emotion.

Once you are clean, calm and dressed, go back into the room. Pick up the cord, and calmly undo the knot. Take the cord outside and find somewhere to bury it, giving it back to the ground. Its job is done so cannot be re-used. Return indoors and pick up the rhodonite. This is your support, your cushion, your stick. It will help calm your fears and help you have the courage to overcome and make changes to your life. The motion has been set; you can now move forward with conviction and plan your new start ahead.

The Mystery of Mirror Magick…

On Halloween, an old custom is to walk backwards into a room whilst eating an apple and looking into a hand mirror in complete darkness, except for the light of one candle, and the face of your future partner should appear in the mirror … so it is said, on this night, for one night only!!

But what else can you do with a magickal mirror? I have just got a range of handbag compacts into the shop, adorned with magickal mystical pictures like wolves, unicorns and cats, purely with thoughts of magick in mind!

Mirrors are tools of reflection, sending negative energy back to source but round mirrors also represent the Moon and lunar magick– after all, the Moon is dark unless lit by light reflected from the Sun.

My first magickal image as a little girl was watching Snow White’s stepmother speak to her mirror. Snow White was the first film I ever saw in colour and on a big screen!! Magickal mirrors allow us to view what we otherwise could not see for ourselves, just like Step-mama did, whether here or another dimension. I just think it would be fab to be able to check your make-up and bring joy or a job at the same time, don’t you think??

So what to do with your cool compact…

Open the compact and fill with either white sage leaves or mugwort herb. Close the compact and leave it on your altar/sacred space overnight to cleanse. The next day, bury the herbs in the ground. Hold the compact in your hands, and programme the mirror for the Universal good of all. You can begin mirror magick but if you want extra oomph you can do the following extra when the time is right:

The compacts have 2 sides. Go outside on a sunny day. Open the compact face down and cover the magifying side with your fingers. Hold the normal mirror towards the Sun for max 9 seconds. Close the compact. On a full moon, cover the Sun side over with your fingers and take the magifying side out in the light of the Moon and hold upto the Moon for 9 seconds. Snap it closed. Your mirror is magickally and universally charged…literally.  Do NOT allow anyone else to look into it. It is yours…but sometimes these things happen and if they do, you must carry out the above charging again…so hide it well and keep it safe…

Now here are a few suggestions of what to do with your portable portal of magick:

1. If you are having any issues with strange goings-on in the home, go to the problem area on a sunny day and open the compact. Tilt it and capture the problem area in the double mirror, slowly and when you have gone over the whole area/room, snap the compact shut to capture the entity within. Now take the compact outside and open the mirror towards the sun so its bright light will immediately hit the mirrors. Expose the mirrors for 9 seconds max and shut. The sun’s light will have destroyed any negative energy. Return inside and smudge the area, the mirror and your auric field with sage/clearing incense to purify
2. If there is something you need, take out your magickal mirror and look into the correct side – sun side (normal mirror) in physical need such as money, job, house or moon side (magnified side) if love, peace, harmony or such. Hold until you can see your face within the mirror. Now, with a lip or eye liner pencil, draw a representational symbol onto the mirror within the reflection of your image (pentagram for protection, pound sign for money etc); let the symbol wash over you and into you. Keep repeating this over the next 24 hours, knowingthe result is soon to be with you. Remove the symbol with a soapy cloth but don’t let the mirror catch your reflection when doing so or you are now removing it from your life…
3. Feel like things are not quite right and maybe something bad has been sent to work against you? Here is a quick check and you do have to be fast! Take the magnifying mirror to water, whether the sea, river or even a sink of water. Dip the mirror into the water, remove and quickly look at your reflection. If all is well, all is well, but if that very first image you see is distorted, then something bad is working against you. Cleanse yourself immediately in a bath with juniper berry oil, smudge your home and wear protective jewellery at all times until things return to normal. Use the mirror to check progress daily until the bad stuff has dispersed.

Now use your imagination and see what else you can magickally do with your canny compact…Ooooo!!

A Dark Moon bonfire

On a dark moon so, we are going to combine the waning moon and a good old-fashioned Bonfire to be free of worries and fears.

Gather some dried weeds, dried lavender or yarrow and a little frankincense resin and, before dark, light your magickal fire outside, made with 13 sticks.

Once the fire is burning, by the light of the fire, write your worries, one by one, on separate pieces of paper in as fewer words as possible. If a person is making your life hell, just write their name, not the whole story…are you with me??

Now, close your eyes and visualise yourself sat inside a magickal sphere with your fire, protected by a blue light. Open your eyes, and throw the weeds on the fire. One by one, put each worry on the fire, stating what it is you have written.

Once all has been burned, throw on the lavender or yarrow and frankincense, saying

“Worries be gone, let happiness come, so mote it be”

and watch your fire burn down. Your worries won’t be gone by the morning but it has set things in motion so you can now stop fretting. Worrying does nothing except give you high blood pressure – only action can change things around you and the time for that is now…

Overcoming fears and worries…

Me… my philosophy is “Don’t worry about what you can’t change” but not everyone is like me! Must be the eternal optimist in being a Sagittarian but I seldom worry about things…maybe I am reaching that age where I figure “What will be, will be” but lots of my customers do, so if you are a worrier, here is a little (or bigger) spell to crush those fears!!

On a waning moon and you can either use a small red candle and a few tumbles or a larger fire outside with some larger pebbles from hillside/beach gathered before the event.

Write your worries down on paper…listing anything you want to overcome. Now, either:

1. Light your red candle in a holder and place the paper underneath, then using quartz or jasper tumbles, begin circling the candleholder with the stones, stating “Fear is conquered, fear is crushed, worries burned and fears are hushed”as you lay each stone around the candle…then let the candle burn down and then bury the wax and the paper outside…or
2. Light a small bonfire and encircle the fire with a row of large beach pebbles/stones, or if you have a ready-made pit like mine, add a further circle of stones onto the ones in place, stating as above as you lay them, then burn the paper with your fears listed in the bonfire, then let the bonfire burn and enjoy.

If the weather turns bad…

I love walking in the fresh mountain air, no longer wishing to ski since my accident, but the alone-time gives me lots of magickal thinking time and makes way for new ideas. On one walk along a river, a song suddenly burst into my head out of the quiet, but instead of “Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me”, it was “Beautiful Nature, frozen in time…” so decided I ought to try and find a frozen waterfall! I had to climb up a hill to get to the bottom of the cliff face over which is had frozen, but it was beautiful! The closer I got, the more amazing it looked, yet the sound of running water also got louder. As I reached the bottom of the mountain face, I realised melt water was running underneath it but was not visible to the eye. I sat in the moment and knew instantly what to do. I found a fallen stone from the same rock face, held it in my power hand, closed my eyes and made a wish. Then, the following words flowed…

“Beautiful Nature, frozen in time, take this wish and make it mine,

            May joy and prosperity in my life stay with me, this is my will, so mote it be”

I get so excited when this happens, and I threw the stone into the frozen river where I could see the water running underneath, but it stuck on a fine bridge between two small ice holes, which made me laugh. Nature was frozen in time but now so was my wish!! Only when the river melts will the wish be released into the rushing melt water of the Alps. I adored this idea, and made a couple more wishes. So, if we get a run of frosty weather, or you find yourself up a snowy mountain, you too can do this magick and make a wish for you and yours!

Snow and making use of it…

Snow is remarkable as nature takes liquid and turns it into a beautiful solid form which can be manipulated to make a snowman or snowballs for friendly fights. Out of my window, the village looks like a picture postcard. However, it can also be a curse…So, as I sat at 6am one morning staring at mountains of snow, knowing I, like lots of other self-employed people, would be losing money hand over fist just like last year, I decided that, there must be some way of utilising this form of nature to our benefit, especially in the abundance it is presenting itself to this country at the moment, and of course, all mountainous areas everywhere most of the time. So what spells can we do in the snow?? I turned to my mentor, Scott Cunningham, for an answer…as he reckons the things I do in the wet sand on the beach I can do in the snow…so here is a spell for snow in winter and adaptable to sand in summer…

Find a patch of natural undisturbed snow, about 2feet square, at least 3-4 inches deep (I wish that was all!); the deeper the better for this spell and it must be fresh snow, not turned to hard ice!!

Kneel or squat in the snow, close your eyes, and visualise what you would like to happen- what change you wish to materialise in your life, and see it happening. With your ungloved index finger, draw a symbol to represent your visualisation (heart for love, pound sign for money etc) and see it happening as you draw. Now, if it involves love, healing, spirituality, purification and all things ruled by the Moon, draw a circle around your symbol about 18” diameter: if it is around money, protection, courage, weight loss and other similar earth-based changes, then draw a square. (If you aren’t sure, then draw a circle within a square with your symbol inside both). Once your symbol is complete in the snow, brush your hands and walk away.  Simples…and Nature will do the rest as is melts…

Snow and the kids…

I love snow and there is nothing like snow to bring out the child in you. Here is a few ideas for making the most of the fluffy white stuff when it comes in abundance…

1. When you get snow, build yourself (with the kids, obviously) a snowman…and make him guardian of the gate!
2. Take the kids sledging or along a snow beach or just play at the park. Have a snowball fight or better still, aim for a target, but when forming the snowball, visualise a bad habit and form into the snow, then throw that habit as far as you can…the smash of the snowball will help rid the habit…as long as you mean it!
3. If you are having problems with a person, get one of these zip-seal bags (don’t know their name), write their name on a piece of paper and place in the bag, then go outside and pack the bag full of snow. Seal shut and place in the freezer. Leave in situ until the person learns to chill a bit!!
4. If you have fresh snow, go outside and, either using your index finger or a nice long stick, write symbols in the snow for love, abundance, or anything else you wish the snow to bring and surround each symbol with a circle. Snow is frozen water, so anything you would write in the sand for the sea to take away can be written in the snow and it will be actioned as the snow melts.
5. Check out the internet for making Ice lanterns and when the weather is really cold, have a go…they are simple but absolutely stunning, using water and balloons or old buckets.

Go outside on a clear full moon night, and ask the moon to materialise your needs and wants for the forthcoming year for you. I always do this, using the power of three. So, make up a little rhyme and speak it three times to the moon and leave it to her to materialise your dreams and wishes for you. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. You have to put it up there for it to be set in motion.

We all need extra money at some point, so on each full moon, take a bowl of water out into the moonlight and capture the reflection of the moon in the water. Hold for 3 or 9 minutes, and then dip your hands into the water. Allow the water to dry on your hands and pour the water back to the earth. You are bringing the fertility of the moon into your hands.

I perform this every full moon and it has kept me afloat for years. Mind you, I always thank her every full moon as well for all she has brought during the last month. Never forget to say thank-you.

Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned and things happen outwith your control that are just simply unfair. This is the point we can call in Justice to assist.

You will need;

a purple candle,

a piece of paper and a pen,

a sapphire

plus the Justice card from your tarot pack.

Now, here’s what you do:

Write your problem on the piece of paper and the result you would like to achieve, that seems the fairest in the situation.

Place this under the candle holder. Behind the candle, place the justice card and the sapphire.

Now light the candle and burn on a daily basis for at least an hour until justice has been attained.

I hope it helps.

Candle Magick

Take a candle of the colour to signify your wish and draw a symbol to represent it i.e. green candle for a job and draw a £ on it…get my drift?

Taking the candle in your hands, close your eyes and visualise your request being achieved (i.e. receiving a successful job application), tensing all your body until you can put no more energy into that candle. Release the energy and place the candle on a plate on your altar. Now surround the candle within a circle of spices such as cinnamon, clove and star anise and burn daily. Repeat until your wish has been granted.

Moon Magick

Another wishing spell can be performed at the new moon. It appears as a thin slither at sunset in the direction of the setting sun for just 30 minutes about the 3rd day of the new moon. If you catch a glimpse of her, firstly turn over silver in your pocket for a month of prosperity, then make a wish and bow to her 9 times. It is done

Tarot Magick for wishes too…

As a Tarot reader, I have always had a special deck (or two) for readings, but I have always said that cards can be used for all sorts of magick, not just divination. Here is such an example:

A lovely card to get in any reading is the 9 of cups, known as the ‘wish card’ within the pack. Remove the card and stand it on your mantelpiece or altar between a gold and a silver candle, with luck incense  burning (find on Ostara page).

Once you have determined exactly what you want to wish for, light the candles and, whilst looking directly at the card, in as precise fashion as you can, tell the card your true wish as exact and precise as you can. Let the candles burn down completely in one go (so make sure you have enough time), then place the wish card under your pillow. You might also receive further guidance or insight through your dreams that night. Place the card on the altar and leave for a while. Repeat every month or so if it is a ‘big ask’.

First, find your own personal magickal Hawthorne tree; easy for me to say as I can access them by the dozen but those of you in cities may have to visit a park! Find a tree that is nearby so you can do this when the time is right!

On Beltane or when the moon is full, visit the tree and take with you various small strips of cloth in colours to match your needs and wishes plus a gift.

In the quiet of the night, attune yourself to the trees’ vibrations. You are asking the tree to grant your wishes so you must give it your time. When ready, and the spirit of the tree is aware of your presence, hold a corresponding piece of cloth and ask of the tree your wish. Visualise what it is you are after and speak a little poem. So, if you need money, then take a green piece of cloth and ask:

“Spirit of the Hawthorne tree, grant to me prosperity, this is my will so mote it be.”

When ready, pierce the cloth onto one of the thorns. Are you with me?

If it is love you are after, then you would use pink cloth and chant,

“Charm of rose and hawthorn tree, bring my true love unto me, this is my will, so mote it be”

Just make up as simple or as fancy a poem as needed.If you don’t want to use the ‘so mote it be’, then you don’t have to, but I always do, so I included it.

You can make as many wishes as you like, each one requiring a separate piece of cloth and a separate thorn. If something is very urgent, you can repeat the request several times.

When you have made all your requests to the tree, leave a gift such as wine to its roots and when a wish materialises, return to the tree with another offering.

If you come into my shop, look above the door and you will see my prosperity pouch, which has been there since I began the shop (and I am still here haha).

To make your own prosperity pouch, simply take a 6” square of green cloth and a small aventurine crystal, go outside on a sunny day (that way to get the power of the sun too) and dig up a handful of soil. Place it in the centre of your cloth and add the aventurine to the centre. Tie up to incorporate the earth, saying something like:

“Cloth of green, scoop of earth, to new opportunities please give birth.

Bring success and prosperity to me; this is my will, so mote it be.”

Hang above the front door for a home or business full of success and prosperity – remember, this is more long term than a quick fix, so don’t expect to be millionaires in a week!! However, my business is still going…