Month: January 2013

Natural Pet Care for Fleas, Ticks, Bath Time and More

Natural Pet Care for Fleas, Ticks, Bath Time and  More

Our human lives are full of choices. We often obsess over the ingredients in  the lotions we buy and search for the safest cleaning products for our home. Our  pets, on the other hand, live a largely choice-less existence. Whether you shine  your floors with chemical cleaner or use a non-toxic vinegar and lemon solution  is not a choice our cat makes. In fact, she doesn’t get a choice when flea  season rolls around and the collars and ointments come out, either. And her  favorite bubble bath solution is left unknown as well. In the end, the choices  that affect your pets’ health are up to you, and many pet owners make  health-damaging mistakes.

For example, flea collars often contain tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP) or propoxur,  which can jeopardize your pet’s immune  system and leave damaging lifelong effects. Flea collars that contain  these chemicals can damage the nervous system, negatively affect the brain and  even lead to cancer. These chemicals are especially damaging for children who  may be in regular contact with your dog or cat.

You can avoid toxic chemicals by taking the following natural and  preventive measures:

  • Give your pet regular baths.
  • Wash your pet’s bedding and clean the areas where your pet sleeps, such as  sofas or rugs. Clean these surfaces the same day as you wash your pet.
  • Use a flea comb in between baths.
  • Do not neglect your pet’s oral hygiene. Regular brushing is necessary not just for you, but them,  too.
  • If you have carpet, vacuum regularly and clean area rugs.
  • Boost your pet’s immune system with herbs.
  • Create a natural flea and tick rinse with rosemary, wormwood, southernwood,  lavender, pennyroyal or eucalyptus.

Taking the time to consider natural pet care choices is worth it for the  furry friends we love. Natural pet care is easier than you think and creates a  cleaner, greener environment for every member of your household.

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Daily Feng Shui News for Jan. 24 – ‘National Compliment Day’

Today’s ‘National Compliment Day’ recipe will have them eating right out of your hands, or, more appropriately, drinking a magically complimentary elixir from your kitchen. This next recipe comes from ancient Indian texts and tells how we can say or think the sweetest things, and how we can get someone else do the exact same. You need a small amount of saffron, almonds and milk. Mix sliced almonds and some of the saffron together and then boil that in milk. The lore surrounding this secret recipe says that whoever drinks this will then be blessed and think only sweet thoughts and say only sweet words. This legend continues that drinking this mixture will also allow anyone imbibing to expel their anger and forget their woes. Got milk? I hope so.

By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com

Today’s I Ching Hexgram for Jan. 24th is 50:The Cauldron

50: The Cauldron

Thursday, Jan 24th, 2013

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The cooking pot symbolizes nourishment and rejuvenation. Sooner or later, good comes to those who do good; joy comes to those who bring humor to others; opportunity comes to those who persist in their dreaming. Rejuvenation is a returning to innate desires — and a re-charging of batteries through the fulfillment of these wishes. This reading suggests nourishment and transformation for people of goodwill. Great good fortune and success are indicated for nourishing relationships.

Healthy, regular sustenance is important, as symbolized by the cooking pot, which provides nourishment to all. When a cycle of humanity reaches its peak, each person’s sustenance comes in the form of his or her deepest needs and highest aspirations.

Rejuvenation means that men and women of talent and insight are being properly nourished and valued. When a society or group is functioning properly, these people are supported, and encouraged to contribute to their best abilities. A fresh approach to old habits is indicated in a period of rejuvenation. Look for ways of putting new life in old forms. Only when great vitality is present can breakthroughs be achieved.

Today’s Tarot Card for January 24th is The Empress

The Empress

Thursday, Jan 24th, 2013

Traditionally entitled “Empress,” this major arcana or “trump” card portrays the energy of the Great Mother. She is Nature, around us but also within us, the ever-unfolding Source of life-giving power. She is often pictured as a pre-Christian Goddess, as the one whom the High Priestess is channeling down to earth for the rest of us.

In medieval Europe, the Empress card was painted to represent whatever Queen currently ruled the land, probably to satisfy the Inquisitors. But the scholars of the Renaissance and beyond had no doubt of her true identity, although she could not be fully revealed on Tarot cards as the “woman clothed with the sun” until after the French Revolution.

This supreme archetype of femininity also symbolizes fertility. It is She who provides us nourishment and security. She is also sometimes seen as delighting us with flowers and fruit. A potentially terrifying aspect of this archetype manifests itself whenever karmic mood swings wipe out our plans, like a storm that has come upon us. Whatever happens, the Empress is the Source of our Embodiment and of Natural Law. She might even be called “the Great Recycler.”

The Witches Spell for January 24th – Full Moon Scrying Ritual

Gothic Comments

Full Moon Scrying Ritual

The upcoming summer months are the perfect time for Full Moon Scrying and I’d like to pass on an old, time honored scrying ritual originally written by D.J. Conway that I have used many times during the long summer nights:

Items Needed:  1 bright, shiny silver coin  1 small, black cauldron or scrying bowl filled with water

Perform this ritual outside where the rays of the Moon can fall directly onto the water in the cauldron. If you cannot go outside, stay in a darkened room near a window that the Moon shines through. Place the coin in the water and take the cauldron in both hands. Gaze up at the Moon and say:

“Lovely Lady of the night,  Mysteries old and futures bright,  Give me a glimpse of that to be  And as I will so mote it be.”

Look down at the coin shimmering in the cauldrons water. With your eyes half closed, adjust your vision as if you were looking into and through the coin. Don’t try to analuze anything you might see or that might come into your mind. Just accept it. Some people, rathar than seeing actual pictures within the cauldron, will have mental impressions, feelings or pictures. When you have finished, bow to the Moon and say thank you. Pour the water out on the ground. You’re done!

Life As The Witch – Recognizing Our Goddess, HEKATE (Hecate)

Gothic Comments


Hekate: A Modern Implications

These days, Hekate is often still seen as the Goddess of Witchcraft and Dark Magick, a Dark Crone, because of her connection to the line between life and death. Her chthonic roots are attributed to her aspects as a Death Goddess, but in truth she is not solely death aspected. Her nature is one of transformation, and though change can be terrifying and damaging, it can also be beatific. To think of Her only as a chthonic, Underworld Goddess is to ignore part of her nature.

These days we too often see things in terms of diametric, opposites (light/dark, masculine, feminine, God/Goddess, as if the vast universe is written in binary, nothing more than ones and zeros. While these dichotomies play a role in the nature of the universe, they are also simplified depictions. Deity cannot be contained in the use of dichotomy, because deity transcends those terms.

Hekate is neither light nor dark; she is the very scale of graduation, present at the exact point at which one type of gray becomes another, between every gradient and at either end of the spectrum. Each change is her territory, and there are billions of transformations every day.

Hekate’s connection to magic is another aspect of her nature. Through magic we take what is only potential and pull it into reality, imprinting the mundane world with what could be. And this is one of the biggest changes of all, the transformation for which Hekate has always been particularly revered. Magick is transformation, and it’s from this that Hekate’s association with it is.

In invoking Heckate we can learn to accept changes in our lives, both positive and negative, and we can also create change in our own worlds. She aids the completion and manifestation of spells and when called for divinatory purposes she can help to reveal the truth more readily. She can part the Veil, to allow clearer vision or communion with the dead. Hekate is a protector of children, especially when they walk hard paths, but also in the journey into adulthood.

Hekate guards the crossroads, both those that line our physical reality and those that mark our passage through life, through our spirituality, and through the journey that is existence.

Reference:

Excerpt from:”The Transformative Nature of Hekate”

by Marion Sipe

Llewellyn’s 2012 Magical Living Companion

Spell to Create Calmness and Aid Concentration

Spell to Create Calmness and Aid Concentration

 

 

You need:

White candle Jasmine or Pine incense Sprig of sage

This is best performed at night, but it can be done any time of day.

Light the white candle and the incense stick. Close your eyes and hold the sage close to your nose, and breathe in its calming scent. Keep holding it as say:

Calming powers of sage and pine, Add order to this life of mine, (name) By the four corners, elements, God and Goddess too, If this gift seems fit to you, Then please grant calmness unto him/me. So mote it be, So mote it be.

Repeat as necessary. It works within a day or two.

Book of Shadows Blessing Spell

Book of Shadows Blessing Spell

Preparation:

At the time of the Full Moon, take your Book of Shadows (one that  hasn’t been written in yet) and some incense (pennyroyal, anise or rue) outside.

Ritual:

Under the light of the Full Moon, draw a pentagram on the first page and under this  write the following information: date, time, place, your magical name (and sigil if you have one),  the moon’s phase and any other info you feel is important. Hold the book up to the Moon and say:

Here as the Full Moon shines upon me, Bless this Book I’ve made tonight. I humbly ask this of thee, Underneath your most sacred light.