Tag: Joseph Campbell

Candle Colors and What They Mean

CANDLE COLORS AND WHAT THEY MEAN

White:
A balance of all colors; Spiritual enlightenment, cleansing, clairvoyance, healing, truth seeking; Rituals involving lunar energy. May be substituted for any color candle.

Yellow:
Activity, Creativity, unity; brings power of concentration and imagination to a ritual;  use in rituals where you wish to gain anothers confidence or persuade someone, or in rituals that require solar energy.

Gold:
Fosters understanding and attracts the powers of cosmic influences; beneficial in rituals intended to bring about fast luck or money, or in rituals needing solar energy.

Pink:
Promotes romance, friendship; standard color for rituals to draw affections; a color of femininity, honor, service, brings friendly, lively conversation to the dinner table.

Red:
Health, passion, love, fertility, strength, courage, will power; increases magnetism in rituals; draws Aries and Scorpio energy.

Silver:
Removes negativity and encourages stability; helps develop psychic abilities; attracts the influence of the Mother Goddess.

Purple:
Power, success, idealism, psychic manifestations; ideals for rituals to secure ambitions, independence, financial rewards, or to make contact with the spiritual other world;  increases Neptune energy.

Magenta:
Combination of red and violet that oscillates on a high frequency; energizes rituals where immediate action and high levels of power or spiritual healing are required.

Brown:
Earthly, balanced color; for rituals of material increase; eliminates indecisiveness; improves powers of concentration, study, telepathy; increases financial success; locates objects that have been lost.

Indigo:
Color of inertia; stops situations or people; use in rituals that require a deep meditational state; or in rituals that demand Saturn energy.

Royal Blue:
Promotes laughter and joviality; color or loyalty; use to attract Jupiter energy, or whenever an influence needs to be increased.

Light Blue:
Spiritual color; helpful in devotional or inspirational meditations; brings peace and tranquillity to the home; radiates Aquarius energy; employ where a situation must be synthesized.

Blue:
Primary spiritual color; for rituals to obtain wisdom, harmony, inner light, or peace; confers truth and guidance.

Emerald Green:
Important component in Venusian rituals; attracts love, social delights, and fertility.

Dark Green:
Color of ambition, greed, and jealousy; counteracts these influences in a ritual.

Green:
Promotes prosperity, fertility, success; stimulates rituals for good luck, money, harmony, and rejuvenation.

Gray:
Neutral color useful when pondering complex issues during meditation; in magic, this color often sparks confusion; it also negates or neutralizes a negative influence.

Black:
Opens up the deeper levels of the unconscious; use in rituals to induce a deep meditational state, or to banish evil or negativity as in uncrossing rituals; attracts Saturn energy.

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Beginner Witchcraft – What to read:

Beginner Witchcraft – What to read:

But reading is less important than observing. You will be tempted to try to become a witch by reading, because those of us w/ big brains and big educations always operate that way. Try to keep a balance between hours spent reading, and hours spent walking in the woods.

Other references:
–Joseph Campbell’s PBS series on mythology is now available on video. He’s a good storyteller and has a wonderful philosophy of how to incorporate myth into your life.

Objects/tools/toys:
Anything can be a tool for working magic and gaining understanding (a leaf, a stone, a pen, a plastic dinosaur)–it’s all in what you invest it with –be slow to acquire toys (blades, wands, etc.)–it’s better if they find you, then your finding them –more important than a lot of gidgets, is setting aside a special place in your home as an altar. Start with candles and incense, and invent simple rituals: lighting a candle while you read, burning incense while you meditate. –because it’s nonverbal in form, the Tarot is actually a better source for learning about the Craft, than any book. Seek out one of the less Christianized decks–I personally like the Barbara Walker and the Motherpeace.

Sacred space:
The first formal “magic” you should learn, is how to set aside sacred space. Pick a place in your home or your yard where you will practice this, and practice often, even if at first it makes you feel self-conscious.

I realize that a lot of this sounds terribly vague. I used to get frustrated when I read books about the Craft, and they didn’t have, like, RECIPES to perform. The hard part of it is, that you learn more from the Goddess, than you do from any human being. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do some simple spells, right from the very beginning: both Adler’s and Starhawk’s books have some straightforward descriptions of working magic.

Don’t get hung up on issues of reality, or the unknown, or the verifiable, or whatever. Just DO. It’s far more important to TRY things, than it is to READ about them.

Quotes On Spirituality That Will Change Your Life

By Deon Du Plessis

On a deep emotional level we are all aware of our spiritual nature and underneath the surface level of life there is a dimension that we all long to make contact with. There are many views and definitions of what spirituality really is, but what I would like to do here is to present 3 quotes on spirituality from 3 very influential people; people who have made vastly different contributions to life and our understanding of what it means to be a human being in this world.

 

The first quote on spirituality is from Joseph Campbell, a man who spent a lifetime writing and thinking about the mysteries of life. Here’s what he had to say:

 

“All you can learn is what your own inward life is and try to stay loyal to that.”

 

In our ego driven world we all tend to look around for approval and for how to act and behave. We tend to compare ourselves to others to determine where we are in life and also where we ought to be going.

 

Spirituality calls on you to look deep within to find your own unique place and path in life. You are unique in every way and on a spiritual level you have a journey tailored to suit only you. When you look within you will discover that authentic spiritual part called your Self through which your entire life is lived. Joseph Campbell tells us to find this part of ourselves and then to stay true to that instead of always looking outside of ourselves for answers.

 

True fulfillment in life will never come from living up to someone else’s expectations or living your life the way you believe you ought to. It will never come from the attainment of goals or achieving what’s considered to be success. The ultimate purpose of life is to find out what you are about on that deeper spiritual level and then to live it.

 

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

 

The first quote on spirituality from Joseph Campbell was about finding your own authentic path in life. In this quote from Mother Theresa, she tells us how to do it. When mother Theresa offers spiritual advice I for one am willing to listen.

 

She gives us a very profound spiritual lesson and that is to embrace silence. God is the friend of silence and when you quiet your mind, you get to reconnect with God on a personal level. In our crazy-busy world, time for silence is probably the last thing on most people’s list of priorities, yet this is where true authentic power in life comes from. When you empty your mind from all the mundane demands and you return to the centre deep within you are once again connected with that divine power that orchestrates the entire universe.

 

In a world dominated by new trends and technologies it seems like there is an even greater demand on our attention from every direction. We marvel at the latest inventions and the wonders of new technology, but still it’s all very temporary and only lasts until the next best thing comes along.

 

Even when you look beyond all the man-made wonders and venture into nature to observe a sunset, a shooting star or a thunderstorm, there is one thing that is universally mysterious about it. Even with our technology and scientific knowledge, there is still a huge chunk of it that we simply do not understand. This is what Albert Einstein had to say about it:

 

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

 

Behind all the surface wonders of the world lies a deeper mystery – as if there is a divine hand behind it all that silently orchestrates and organizes it. This is the true wonder of life. At the heart of spirituality is this wonderful and mysterious force that is the essence of life.

 

Spirituality is about really waking up to life and to develop a higher awareness – an awareness of that mysterious force behind all of life. If you are not absolutely fascinated with life then you simply don’t know enough. It’s ironic that our modern day scientists are becoming more and more spiritual because the more we find out about the true nature of life, the more they are realizing that there is an indescribably force behind it all.

 

These 3 quotes on spirituality are from 3 very different people, but their message is the same: beyond the mundane activities of life there is something bigger; a higher force that some call God. It is in your nature to know this Force. By discovering your own unique place in the world, by embracing silence and making contact with God you can awaken an awareness deep within yourself that will open your eyes to a whole new way of life.

Wicca Spirit Newsletter

Today’s Tarot Card for April 9th

Today’s Tarot Card for April 9th

 

The Fool 

Full Meaning: Key Words for the Fool Tarot Card Meaning
* Innocence
* Beginning
* Simplicity
* Fresh Start
* Blind Faith

The Fool Tarot card meaning deals with that youthful exhuberance we feel when starting out on a new adventure or taking a journey of faith. We feel anticipation, butterflies flutter in our stomach, and our skin prickles with excitement…our journey is underway – we’re unstoppable!

However, along with this passion comes impetuousness. The Fool makes no plans, or gives no thought to possible complications along the way. Happy to be doing something different, the Fool blindly sets out where all else may fear to tread.

When contemplating the Fool Tarot card meaning, I think of Joseph Campbell’s landslide statement: “Follow your bliss.” We can see this attitude in this card, which is wonderful. But, we must also note the lack of care about consequences – blind faith is the Fool’s only guide.

Key Symbols:
This section focuses in on a few select symbols that can help us further define the Fool Tarot card meaning.

The Dog: Dogs typically represent loyalty and faithfulness. In this case, the dog symbolizes our reward when we express true faith on our path. As we continue to step out in faith, and blindly follow our bliss we shall gain the loyalty and recognition from people, places and events in our lives. Other Tarot decks depict the dog loyaly tugging at the Fools robes, preventing his fall into the chasm below. Yet another confirmation that when the Fool continues on his mission of passion, protection is available, and the details miraculously fall into place.

Knap Sack: How long do you think the contents of the little knap are going to sustain our hearty fool? Exactly, here again, the Fool is taking little time to consider the practical matters of his journey. However, what if the knap sack contains something far greater than consumables. Look closely at the image. Some say it resembles testicles, and these represent the seed of the Fool’s philosophical offspring. In short, as the Fool sows, so too shall he reap. This depiction is a reminder of personal responsibility. We all carry the seed of consequence upon our own journey.

The Rose: Again, hitting home that balance of the two messages this card represents: Blind, beautiful faith is equal to the beauty of the rose and a caution to heed the voice of reason/ practicality are evidenced in its thorns. The rose is the driving force – the desired goal for which the Fool strives. The color indicates it is a worthy goal for which to strive – white, the color of purity assures us the adventure is worth every step.

Key Questions:
When contemplating the Fool Tarot card meaning, ask yourself the following questions:

Am I following my dreams?
Am I honoring my prime passion?
What would the Fool do in my situation?
What do I value most…my beliefs or my image?
Do I fear adventure or do I fear practicality?
If my life is my message…what kind of message am I sending?