5 tablespoons lavender flowers
A saucepan of clear water
Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and boil gently for two minutes. Strain the lavender buds from the water. Add the scented water to your laundry when you wash your bed linens.
Potions brews and elixirs are all essentially the same thing, with a few small differences. Potions are made from liquid ingredients or worked into a liquid base. Elixirs usually have crystals added to the liquid for extra power. Brews usually require some sort of heating process. (Soup and tea are both brews.)
Shells hold universal energies. They can be used for spell work in the same manner as crystals or herbs:
Abalone: The abalone shell is often featured on the Water Witch’s altar as a focal point. It can be used to hold smaller items, to burn things, or simply to add extra power to a spell
Clam: Clam shells are used for purification and love spells. They can be placed in charm bags
Conch: Conch shells work best in love spells
Coral: Coral works well in matters of health and healing
Cowries: Sacred to the Orisha Oya, the cowrie shell has a prestigious magickal pedigree. Due to its vulva-like appearance, this shell is frequently used upon altars as a representation of the Goddess. Cowries work well in matters involving money and prosperity
Oysters: Oyster shells work best in matters pertaining to luck. They are said to promote good fortune. They make wonderful additions to charm bags
In maritime lore, seawater was thought to cleanse a person thoroughly, absorbing any bad luck, due to the salt content of the water. Throwing salt into a fire for nine consecutive days was thought to break any chain of bad luck, while throwing salt at a person was sure to bring her grief.
The Water Witch puts great store in the powers of her holy waters. Natural waters on which she performs a blessing are usually the best for use as holy water, as they are pure. Clear quartz is often added to boost the power of the water even more. A blessing from a Water Witch removes all negative vibrations and recycles them within the water. In effect, she is using the power of water to cleanse the water. The Water Witch knows that all water is blessed from the start by the Goddess. All that is required of a Witch to bless water is a simple statement of intent, something along the line of, “I cast out all negativity and proclaim this water as pure and good. Blessed am I to have access to it, and blessed is it, for it is my mother’s tears and love.” She might choose to be more eloquent at times, but usually she goes with the flow and follows her instincts.
Water collection methods can be elaborate or simple. A jar placed outside during a thunderstorm, a special gourd dipper used to pull water from a crystal-clear brook, or simply cupping your hands under a natural spring-all of these methods are proper.
I Am a Witch of the Old World
Author: Lady Abigail
I am very much a Witch of the Old World. NO, Not because I am ‘Old’ but because I have trust the Old World ways of healing and magick. Herbs are truly a gift of the Goddess. Everyday of our lives we have the opportunely to hold these gifts in our hands. Those of us called Herb Witches have also learned how to touch the Goddess. How to hold Her blessings of both healing and power within each of Her green gifts.
From the time of my Great Grandmother herbs were used for both Magickal and Medical works. My Great Grandmother was the Wise Woman, the Wise One, the Sage Woman. She was a Witch. She was Cajun, half Quapaw Indian and half French.
I would learn in secret from my Great Grandmother how to watch the signs of Nature. She taught me what herbs were best for concocting potions, teas, tonics, powders and brews. Which herbs were just right for not only healing but the magick of healing as well as for spells and with heart and love, anything was possible from the powers of the Earth and within Nature.
I learned the ways of the Old World. In the same way as my Great Grandmother had learned from her Grandmother and her Grandmother had learned from all the generations before. I learned by watching, listening and helping my Great Grandmother.
My Great Grandmother was raised in a time where it was common practice for people to go to the Wise One, the Wise Woman or Shaman, for help in healing or for help in magick. Many would come for help with problems of money, love, and harvest, as well as healing.
People would come to get the magick within her spells, pouches or brews for everything from, money, to protection. They came for mixtures of healing herbs and leaves when sick. I watched as she would work with her wonderful gifts of magick in healing and the magick of nature.
There were usually no doctors around for miles and little money to pay one. I would learn from My Great Grandmother how to call the wind in a whisper.
How to see what wasn’t seen, not by the in-worlders. Those who would or could not see the magick all around them. I would hear her speak wonderful incantations and spells. I would watch her make potions and brews to heal the sick. I would see her do magick, the kind of magick that stirs the soul.
I was brought up as a child to understand such things were never spoke of, and considered foolish by many. I wouldn’t truly appreciate all these wonderful gifts of healing and magick until much later in my life.
Even now, my Great Grandmother still influences my life with wonder. I can when quietly listening, hear her sweet voice upon the wind in whispers. As if within magick.
It was so heartbreaking that as my Grandmother passed away, and for many years, so did the magick. All her great wisdom pasted down through the generations. Her wonderful gifts would be rejected as with the old ways.
There are many facets of Magick, Herb Magick being one of the blessed ones. I believe that a Witch’s Herb cabinet is one of our most essential tools. Herbs have been used in Magick and Healing since the beginning for time. Used in Home Remedies, Make-up, Poultices, Salves, Creams, Infusions, Brews, Teas, Potions, and Elixirs. Most herbs have both a Magickal and Medical use. You must have a great respect for herbs. Whether using them Medicinally in Healing or Magickally in Spells. You need to be careful and sure of what you are using. Always make sure the herb is exactly what you think it us.
In a quick look, Queen Ann’s Lace, Angelica and Hemlock look a lot alike, but the out come will be completely different. If you are looking for a particular herb for use in either Magickal Work or Healing, and you’re not completely sure if the one you have found is that herb. Just, Don’t Use It!
You will find that in most cases the herbs and plants you need can be easily be acquired from your local grocery, herb shop, or even a florist. For some of the less common and less known herbs you may find it easer getting them from an herb shop.
When there’s a certain Herb called for in a spell and you don’t have that particular herb, check what it is being used for. Is it for power, is it for psychic power, is it for dreams, is it for the Goddess or God…?
In most cases when a spell calls for Herbs for a particular purpose, there are other Herbs out there that have the same influential powers. This is wonderful because if you’re working on a spell for psychic powers and can’t find Sumbul or Stillengia you can always use Bay Leaves, Cinnamon or Grass. All of these herbs are for strengthening psychic powers. Normally grass is pretty easy to find though I wouldn‘t use it in a tea potion or brew that was going to be drunk. Grass has a truly rank taste.
Herbs have also been used throughout history for medical healing. From poultices for bruised and blacken eyes, to healing sickness and disease. Being one of Wise One’s who carried the knowledge of healing was considered to be a great gift and this gift was not shared with everyone.
Today you will find more and more people as well as doctors who are returning to The Old Ways and a more natural way of healing. You can’t go through a department store, grocery store, or even a mall without seeing a place that sells herbs and natural remedies.
It seems so ridicules that this Old World knowledge is looked upon as some New Age miracle. It may well be a miracle or magick, but one that was given to us at the beginning of time, through the blessing of Mother Earth.
But for some reason we of this ultramodern world seem to think if we didn’t come up with an idea on our own, than it must not be a good one. So we call everything New Age. All the wonders that are of the Old World, Old Religion and Old Knowledge have somehow became New Age. No matter what you call it, New Age or Old World Knowledge, it works.
Remember those fairy tales and stories you were told as a child? Where the old Witches used Bat’s Wings and Devil‘s Eye, within their magickal brews. Get ready, you will find yourself using them as well. That’s because in the Old World, witches used many folk names for plants and herbs. Bat Wings are dried English Holly leaves, think about it, they do kind of look like Bat Wings and Devil’s Eye is just another name for Periwinkle. It may sounds strange but if there were ingredients you wanted to keep secret and not share with anyone wouldn’t this be a fabulous way to do it.
Especially, if you kept a Book of Shadows, Book of Secrets or Cookbook as my Great Grandmother Called hers, where you wrote down your Spells and Healing potions. You would use Folk names, names the In-worlders didn’t understand. (In-worlders: those who cannot or will not see all the magick before them.) Knowing it’s a lot harder for someone to find Devil’s Eye than Periwinkle.
Making your herbs into medicine that you can use to help heal and ease another’s pain is truly rewarding. It was amazing for me as a child to watch as my Great Grandmother as she would put together just the right herbs for people who would come to her for help and healing.
They would tell her all the problems they were carrying and you could see her, as she would listen to their needs of healing and of heart. It didn’t matter if someone came to her with complaints of something so insignificant as warts or complaints of great pain. She would begin to mix and brew, stir and work the wonderful magick of healing.
It is a shame that we have allowed so much of this knowledge of healing to be lost in the rush to have instant fixes for what ales us. You can go to just about any doctor and walk out with a fist full of prescriptions, for anything and everything. Many times the instant fixes and quickie trips through the doctors’ offices leave us felling more like cattle than like people with souls and spirits.
I sometimes wonder where the heart of caring and understanding has gone. So many of those in the medical professions just simply don’t have or don’t take the time for the heart that is truly needed in healing.
Don’t get me wrong there is a time and place for all kinds of healing, including doctors and pills. But I think we have become so dependent on the instant fixes that we have forgotten the ability of true healing.
True healing comes from within the body, mind and spirit. If you leave one of these uncared for this will allow the illness to return. In true healing it doesn’t matter if you are healing a disease or a hangnail be sure you look for all the answers. The answers that are found in the Heart.
There is a power we find within ourselves when crushing and blending, brewing and stewing up remedies and spells. Herbs are used in healing everything from the day-to-day aches and pains of life to the magickal answers of lost loves. Magick is not about only the spells or the healings, it is about who we are and the Old World gifts given to all the Wise Ones from a time when magick and wonders were forever possible within your heart with truth, and love.
Blessed Be….
Lady Abigail
Footnotes:
* Some excerpts were taken from “Witch of the Old World Book of Herbs”
by Lady Abigail
When Walking The Path, Wear Shoes
Author: Charmed Boy
I have often asked myself, “Are there others like me?” I am what I like to call a “non- magical” Pagan. I don’t do spell work or ritual. I am just a humble servant of the Goddess. I have tried to cast spells and perform rituals but it never seems to work. I have come to the realization that there are many different types of Pagans out there. There are those of use who cast circles and spells and perform rituals. There are also those like myself who are contented to just be of service.
I began my journey in my sophomore year of high school. I had always known there was something or someone watching over me, I just hadn’t figured what that was yet. I began studying various religions such as Buddhism and Quabalah, which I am still interested in after all these years.
One day I was at the library with my father when I came across the New Age section. I looked at some of the titles and when I found a book on Wicca, I picked it up and started reading.
A friend from high school was also into Wicca. We started wearing black clothing and pentacles. My high school had its various groups. The jocks, the preps, the goths. We were the Witches. Or so we thought. We would meet at a friend’s house and try and cast spells. There is a line from one of my favorite “witchy” movies Practical Magic that applies here: “You can’t practice Witchcraft while looking down your nose at it.” That is, in a sense, what we were doing. We were teenagers. We didn’t know any better.
Later, I discovered Gaia. I was reading a book about various Greek Gods and Goddesses and when I came to the part about Gaia something inside me clicked. For those who don’t know (and I am sure there aren’t very many) , Gaia is the Greek Goddess of Earth. She is the creator of everything that exists in nature. The birds and the winds and the oceans. That is why she is called “Mother Earth”. I felt like I had found what I had been looking for.
I had been hearing a gentle voice in my head comforting me when things went wrong. No, I wasn’t turning into Norman Bates! I had no desire to run a motel or dress in woman’s clothes and chase anyone around with sharp butcher knives. I knew this loving, caring voice could be none other than the Goddess speaking to me.
After High School, I moved from Illinois to Arkansas with my parents. I was bummed because I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if there were any Pagans and Wiccans. I was entering part of the “Bible Belt”. To my amazement, I came across WitchVox.com. I noticed that an event called Pagan Pride Day was going on in Little Rock. I asked my dad if we could go. My father has been supportive of my choice of religion since I first talked with him about it.
On the day we went, I popped a Loreena McKennitt cd in the car’s cd player to get us in the mood. I had never been to an event like PPD and I didn’t know what to expect. The event was being held at a place called Burns Park. We didn’t know where to go, so we stopped at the visitors’ center to ask. The man behind the desk looked up at me when I asked him where the event was and said, “Are you one of them Witch people?” I laughed and said I was. He was smiling when he asked me so I knew he meant no harm.
We followed the directions until we came to a group of tents. We parked and walked across to the entrance. At this point, I was buzzing with excitement. There was the scent of patchouli in the air. We paid the entrance fee and looked around us. There were tents arranged in a circle. We walked around and looked at all the things people were selling. One woman was doing henna tattoos. My dad bought me my first pentacle. We came to a tent where two women were selling homemade perfume and body spray. This was where the patchouli scent was coming from.
I picked up a bottle and smelled it. It smelled like mint and patchouli. One of the women saw me holding the bottle and struck up a conversation with me. Little did I know she would become one of my best friends. She told me her name was Fran and she was the High Priestess of a coven. She held rituals and celebrated the holidays from the circle she had built in the back yard of her trailer. She invited me to attend the next holiday, which was Samhain. We e-mailed each other and on Samhain I went to her house with another friend. When I got there and saw the Circle she had built I was blown away. It was beautiful. The moment I took off my shoes and stepped inside the circle I felt its power and was at peace.
My friend was not Pagan and opted to observe. I had a lot of fun that night. I tasted mead for the first time. It is very good but very strong. Fran and I kept in touch through e-mail and by phone. I was able to attend the next PPD. When I got there Fran was talking with a friend of hers. She ran a tent with friends. When I went up to her to say hello, she didn’t recognize me at first. When I told her who I was she hugged me. We spent most of the day together. She made my father feel welcome. There was entertainment and belly dancing. After it was over and everyone began packing, I was walking to the car with my father when Fran called to me. She gave me a homemade besom her friend had made. A besom is a broom used to clear any negative energy from a room. I will never forget the gift she gave me as long as I live.
The last time I saw Fran was at the last PPD I went to. She was hosting a seminar on Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and history. After that, Fran and I lost touch. One day I decided to e-mail her just to see how she was. We hadn’t spoken for a while, but not because of any hostility between us; we were just busy. I received an e-mail from her husband informing me Fran had passed away. I was heartbroken.
I miss Fran a lot. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her. She was a wonderful, courageous woman who loved to laugh and enjoyed the occasional dirty joke. I thank the Goddess every day for the privilege of having known her. One thing I took away from attending the rituals at Fran’s was the realization that spells casting and ritual isn’t for me. I am content with just serving the Goddess to the best of my abilities.
What do I hope you take from this article? Be content in your own skin. So you don’t cast spells. So you don’t do ritual. You are serving the God and or Goddess by praying and making offerings. They are spiritual Parents and They love us whether we choose to perform an elaborate ritual… or just to say a prayer and make an offering.
Also, cherish the time you have with your friends. You never know when they might not be there anymore.
“Cast your eyes to the ocean. Cast your soul to the sea. When the dark night seems endless, please remember me.” — Loreena McKennitt
Once Upon A Time: Make Your Own Good Luck
Author: etain.butterfly
After watching two episodes of the new series Once Upon A Time I remembered the old nursery rhymes I used to read to my children when they were young.
There was Rumpelstiltskin a tiny little man who spun straw into gold for the miller’s daughter, but for a price. The first time he spun the straw into gold she gave him her necklace; the second time it was her ring and the third time she had nothing to give him. Rumpelstiltskin made her promise to give him her first child if she became Queen. The tale continues…the King was young and handsome and saw the miller’s daughter leaving the castle and fell in love with her. They soon married and she became pregnant. Rumpelstiltskin returned to collect on the promise of her first born child. The Queen cried so hard that Rumpelstiltskin had pity and gave her three days to find out his name and if she did she could keep her child. The Queen was determined to change her luck. She sent out messengers all over the land to find different names. One messenger returned with a rhyme he heard a strange little man singing:
Tonight I brew, tomorrow I bake,
And then the child away I’ll take.
For little knows the Royal Dame
That Rumpelstiltskin is my name. [1]
The Queen was so delighted and immediately summoned Rumpelstiltskin to let him know she knew his name. “A witch has told you that – a witch has told you that!” shrieked the little man as he fled into the woods in a rage never to be seen again.
Beauty and the Beast is another fairy tale that taught us that beauty is only skin deep and that what is in you heart is most important. As Beauty got to know the Beast he appeared less ugly in her eyes. As the story goes, the Prince had a spell put on him by the magician because he was proud, thoughtless, vain and selfish. He was to remain that way until a beautiful girl consented to marry him of her own free will.
The Prince did not give up. He was determined to change his luck and break the spell. He succeeded and Beauty and the Prince got married and lived happily ever after.
These fairy tales always had an evil villain that made life almost unbearable and emphasized the determination of the recipient to figure out a way to beat the odds. Isn’t that what real life is all about? Well, maybe not the ‘evil villain casting spells’ part but the concept of triumph over adversity is the same. Life is filled with all kinds of plunges and how we choose to handle these obstacles is the key to survival.
As Witches, we have many tools that can help us on this journey we call life. However when things get really tough we sometimes forget to use them. One of my most beloved techniques is ‘grounding and centering’. It’s an easy ritual to use. You can take it anywhere and using this ‘tool’ can show results almost immediately.
In times of stress or anxiety, grounding is a way to release excess energy and allow you to calm down and think things through. At times when you need energy, grounding enables you to draw energy up from the Earth, offering a wellspring of power that can flow through you without exhausting your own resources.
Another tool that we as Witches have at our fingertips to help detangle life’s hard knocks is meditation. Just like grounding and centering, it’s simple and inexpensive and it doesn’t require any special equipment. You can practice meditation wherever you are. Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance. When you meditate, you clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress. The emotional benefits of meditation include: gaining a new perspective on stressful situation, building skills to manage your stress, increasing self-awareness, focusing on the present and reducing negative emotions.
By clearing away the informational overload, you reclaim the ability to think clearly, allowing you to formulate plans that will help you get through the tough times. It is all about survival. There can always be a new beginning.
The concepts behind “Once Upon A Time” gave me the inspiration to create this poem:
Fairy Tales (by Terry Moore / Etain.Butterfly ©)
Jack and the bean stalk, Cracker Jack box,
Life isn’t a fairy tale; it does have some hard knocks.
Mary had a little lamb and little Bo Peep,
Sometimes things plunge and sometimes things peek.
There is Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and lots of happy endings,
So keep in mind when life gets tough there is always new beginnings.
Like hay diddle – diddle, the cat and the fiddle and the cow jumped over the moon,
Remember to keep a smile on your face, for your luck will change real soon.
For all things we cannot control, just remember those old rhymes,
Never give up, make your own good luck and create your own good times.
My Witchy philosophy is to use all the tools that are available to me to help me to create a life that sustains my mind, body, and spirit for a “happy ever after” in this lifetime. For real, life is not a bowl of cherries and I have experienced some really hard knocks. The key is that I did not give up. I got back up determined to create my own good luck. I did not rely on someone else to fix the bumps in my road of life – I used the tools I had within myself to resurface my own road.
Once I figured out that I have the ability to ‘act on’ instead of ‘react to’ those obstacles that everyday life throws my way, I learned it is easy to make my own good luck. I am a Witch and I am truly blessed. I am living the “happy ever after” in this lifetime.
Blessed Be.
Footnotes:
1. Rumpelstiltskin; Shirley Temple’s Storybook – Random House 1958
This spell is performed beside flowing water. Anything from a small stream to a mighty river will do.
Ground and center as in other spells. Cast a circle by imagining a glowing circle of light surrounding you. Take a black stone and cup it in your hands. Raise it to your forehead, concentrating all of your anger and projecting it into the stone. Throw it as hard as you can into a body water, saying:
With this stone
Anger be gone.
Water bind it,
No one find it.
Ground or earth the power you drew upon at the beginning of the spell and open the circle.
*The Dianic Craft includes two distinct branches:
*1. One branch, founded in Texas by Morgan McFarland and Mark Roberts, gives primacy to the Goddess in its thealogy, but honors the Horned God as Her Beloved Consort. Covens are mixed, including both womyn and men. This branch is sometimes called ‘Old Dianic’, and there are still covens of this tradition, especially in Texas. Other covens, similar in thealogy but not directly descended from the McFarland/ Roberts line, are sprinkled around the country.
*2. The other branch, sometimes called Feminist Dianic Witchcraft, focus exclusively on the Goddess and consists of womyn-only covens and groups. These tend to be loosely structured and non-hierarchical, using consensus- decision- making and simple, creative, experimental ritual. They are politically feminist groups, usually very supportive, personal and emotionally intimate. There is a strong lesbian presence in the movement, though most covens are open to womyn of all orientations. The major network is Re-Formed Congregation of the Goddess, which publishes “Of a Like Mind” newspaper and sponsors conferences on Dianic Craft. [* Amber K]
The Witchcraft Chronicles 
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