Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Weight Loss Spells

  I found the following while searching for a simple weight loss spell to help me towars my goal and keep me on track. I'm going to change the wording to suit my own liking and maybe the crystal used, but kep the same basic outline. Happy Wednesday!

                    
 Weight Loss Spells

Melting Away the Pounds

This is a very easy spell to help you stay focused on your weight loss goals. All you need is a brown candle, large enough to burn each night for several days. A big pillar one works best.

Use something sharp to carve your current weight, and towards the bottom carve in the weight you'd like to be. Be reasonable in your goals and you'll have better success.
Each night before you go to bed, light the candle for 15 minutes, and as the wax melts down, you will find yourself losing weight as well.

Craving Crystal Spell Use a crystal charm to help remind you of your weight loss needs, for a magickal prompt when cravings hit. All you need is:
• A piece of clear quartz
• A green candle
• A green bag or pouch (optional)

You'll have to do this weight loss spell during a waning moon, so anytime about 2 weeks after the full moon. Outside is best, but do the spell near a window if you have to be indoors.
Light your candle, and look up at the moon while holding the crystal. Repeat the following while you watch the moon:
Goddess within
Goddess without
Guide me to my goal
Easy my hunger
Soothe my spirit
Strengthen my resolve
As I wish it, so mote it be

Concentrate on your goal of losing weight and eating healthier. Think about the foods you tend to crave, and how you need to be stronger around them. Send that energy into the crystal. Put out the candle when you are done, and carry the crystal with you. Use a green bag, or just tuck it in your pocket.
Now every time you are tempted to snack on something. take out the crystal and hold it in your hand. Ask yourself if you need this food, or are giving in to your craving. Draw energy from the stone to resist the food.
If you find it working well, you can recharge the stone by doing the same spell a month later.


    There's also a spell that involves tying a cord/yarn around the handle to your refrigerator but I'm going to try these two first. Both of these came from the website free-witchcraft-spells.com

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Divine Friday

    Divine Friday is a little late this week due to Hurricane Irene blowing through North Carolina and causing power outages, among other things. This week is Hella.

Hella
(Norse) 


 
   Often depicted as being half beautiful woman and half rotting corpse, Hella represents the inevitability of life and death. She is the daughter of Loki, the god of mischief and chaos, and the giantess Angrboda. She and her two brothers Fenris, the devouring wolf, and Jormungand, the world serpent, were banished by Odin and she was given dominion over the nine worlds of the dead. Here she decides the fate of all the people who have died from sickness and old age. This is not like the Christian hell but instead represents the transition the soul goes through after death. Odin and Hella mirror each other’s temperament, but oppose each other and maintain balance in the universe. Odin chooses the best dead warriors and Hella takes everyone else. Odin is associated with the sky; Hella with the earth.
                Her hall, Elvidnir is located in Helgardh; one region within the realm of Hel. Her gates are said to be guarded by Garnr the watch dogs, thus making dogs sacred to her. Many folktales survive of her trips to Midgard (Earth) in order to gather more souls for Helgardh. During the years of the plague, she was said to arrive in town with a broom and a rake, tools she used for bringing spirits to her realms. If some survived, she had used her rake; if an entire town was destroyed she had used her broom. Once receiving the dead, she was not apt to release them. She is often depicted with gaping jaws and an insatiable appetite for death, though whether this depiction is true or not, is debatable.
                Goddess of Death, Queen of the Underworld, Hella is a constant force in our lives. Ugly and beautiful, half black and half white, giantess and goddess she is the leaves that fall from the trees, life-changing and never ending. As she is the force behind the life alterations that shift our worldview and helps us move forward in our lives, call upon her at Samhain. Hella helps us as we change ourselves and our lives, and is there to applaud us when we finish.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Herb and Gem Research

  Just a small, extra post today.

   I am going to start a monthly herb and gemstone post starting in September. Mostly it's for my own personal research and book of shadows and a way to keep my on track with my magical studies. I am the type of person that tries to do too much at once and can sometimes be overwhelmed, which is why these posts are going to be monthly instead of weekly. I am taking a page from Hedgefaery Herbals and will be doing this on every full moon. (Another way to keep me magically on track!)
   So stay tuned and check in with me starting with September's full moon!

Power of Prayer

   I've been looking around for some basic prayers or chants to start out with during my daily devotions and discovered these on the Tairis website. (Told you, it's a great site!) There's a list of about five or six of them but the author suggests just doing the prayer for rest and rising to start out with.



   Here are my variations that I will begin to use daily:

   Rising Prayer

   Bless to me
   each thing I see
Bless to me
each sound I hear
Bless to me
each scent I smell
Bless to me
each taste I take
Bless to me
each note to my song
each ray that guides my way
each thing I pursue
each lure that tempts my will
the zeal that seeks my soul
the three that seek my heart.

Resting Prayer

Bless this, my dwelling
and each who rests herein this night
Bless my dear ones
in every place they may sleep
In the night that is tonight
and every single night
In the day that is today
and every single day.

   There not too much different; I just changed a few words around to suit my liking. What are a few of yours?

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Celtic History and Culture - A General Overview

  This is still a work in progress, but I tried to collect some general information on the Celts and their history and culture to share with you. Enjoy!



Celtic History and Culture
                The name Celt originated with the ancient Greeks who called the barbarian peoples of central Europe, Keltoi. However, the word Celt does not indicate a race of people, but rather a language group. They were never an empire ruled by one government.

          400 BC is generally accepted as the approximate date for the invasion of migrating Celtic tribes. By the third century they had settled from the central plain of Turkey in the east through the Balkans, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy to France, Belgium, Spain, Britain and Ireland. They migrated from one region to the other partly as a result of wars and their expansion was quite successful early on due to their iron weapon technology and fierceness in battle. However, Celtic domination of Western Europe lasted only a few centuries. They were in retreat by the first century BC as their political and geographical power began to decline, primarily due to the ruthless military empire of Rome. Area by area they were pushed back, annihilated or assimilated; the only area escaping being Ireland and some of Britain. Following the Romans were the Slavic tribes driving them out of Eastern Europe, the Germanic conquerors, the Franks (who created France) and the Anglo Saxons coming out of England. Today, “Celts” refers to only six peoples who have survived into modern times: Irish, Manx, Scots (the Gaelic speaking branch) and the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons who represented the Brythonic speaking branch.

          The oldest archaeological evidence of the Celts comes from Hallstatt, Austria, near Salzburg. Excavated graves of chieftains there, dating from about 700 BC, exhibit an Iron Age culture (one of the first in Europe), which received in Greek trade such luxury items as bronze and pottery. The Celts were an advanced race for their era, making use of chain mail in battle and machines for reaping grain. They were also a clean people, using soap long before the Romans. They brought many new skills to the peoples they conquered. They knew how to smelt iron and forge it into useful implements. They decorated their helmets, shields, and arms with artistic metalwork and enameling. The Celts were also adept in such practical matters as curing hams, keeping bees, and making wooden barrels.
Their basic societal structure was organized loosely into tribes and divided people into three classes: the Royal Class, Warrior Aristocracy and the Common People. Slavery constituted a small percentage but was generally frowned upon. They were far from uneducated and placed high regard on a through education and life-long study historians also concluded they had a written language but made little use of it except on coins and memorials. Instead they placed a greater value on the ability to remember vast amounts of information correctly. Women were technically equal – they could own property, choose their own husbands and could also be war leaders, such as Boudicca. Virginity was not highly valued, and abortion or choice of a male was a woman’s right.
          Celtic language and mythology is predated by Greek and Latin only because it was written down early in the Christian period. Knowledge of Celtic mythology comes from two sources, those recorded in Ireland and Wales during the same time. Much of Celtic history comes from oral traditions, primarily through the efforts of bards and poets.
In general, Celtic gods were deities of particular skills such as Lugh and Dagda, while goddesses were associated with natural features such as Boann. This was not universal however, in such cases as Brigid and the Morrigan. In all their stories, a happy spirit pervades even the tragedies; there is an eternal spirit of optimism. Death is never a conqueror and we are reminded that the Celts were one of the first cultures to evolve such sophisticated thoughts of the immortality of the soul. The druids taught that death is only a changing of place and that life goes on with all its forms in the Otherworld.
Both deities and the heroes and heroines aren’t simply beautiful beings with empty heads. Their intellectual attributes are equal to their physical ones. They are totally human, subject to all the same virtues and vices and no sin is exempt from practice by them. Above all, while discovering their myths and stories, we should never forget the mischievous fun that runs through them; they are meant to be enjoyed as well as learned from.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

8 Things to do to Winterize Your Garden

   Happy Wednesday! We're half way through the week!

   I received an e-mail today from I-Village that included a piece on what to do to help your garden and plants survive through the fall and winter seasons. Link is below!





 

Monday, August 15, 2011

Etsy Shop News

   I've been working on a set of goddess dolls/poppets to sell online as well as at the upcoming PPD festival next month. I've got about 5 or 6 of them done and have finally decided on a name.

Deity Diva's(™)

   I'm excited since they are turning out how I wanted. Pictures and listings for the completed dolls will be up tomorrow.

   I will also be sharing a recipe I found in one of my cooking magazines I started receiving. Till then, good night!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Making Offering to the Gods

   Just sharing an article from the Tairis website, (I'm loving this site by the way; it holds a lot of information I've been looking for, but couldn't find anywhere else) explainging how to get started with making offerings to the gods as well as going over how they were made in the past such as offerings to the Sidhe, festival offerings and even going over human and animal sacrifice.

"Offerings can help us form relationships with the gods, the spirits and the ancestors that are honoured in Celtic Reconstructionist paths, and so are a good place for anyone wanting to start practising, rather than studying, the religion.

On the face of it, these offerings can be simple acts of leaving food and drink on an altar or shrine in the house, or on a stone, tree or well outside, for example, with a prayer or few words of thanks. However, on looking at it in more depth, a simple act can become something with a much more complex meaning.

First, then, let's look at why offerings are made, followed by how they were made in history, and how they can be made today."

Friday, August 12, 2011

Divine Friday

Arianrhod
(Welsh)


Pronounced “Ahr-ee-ahn-hrod”, the Goddess Arianrhod is the daughter of Don, a Welsh mother goddess and counterpart to Danu, and the God Beli. She also had two brothers, Gilfaethwy and Gwydion, who plays a large role in her story. Her realm is called Caer Sidi, which likely means “revolving castle” and is depicted as a great turning island surrounded by sea and located in the north. She also lived in Caer Arianrhod, the star cluster known as the Corona Borealis. She is a goddess of fertility, rebirth and the weaving of cosmic time and fate. December 2 is sacred to her as it is the Festival of Arianrhod,  a Welsh holy day.
                As reflected in the Maginogion, the Welsh book of mythology, Arianrhod follows her mother’s example as she lives by herself without a husband, but takes mates as she wishes. However when Gwydion calls her to the court of their uncle, Math ap Mathonwy (Don’s brother) he claims she is a virgin. It was said that Math would die if his feet were not placed in the lap of a virgin while he was not at war. Arianrhod’s other brother, Gilfaethwy, lusts after Math’s current foot holder, Goewin. Together the two brothers start a war with King Pryderi forcing Math to leave his court. While gone, Gilfaethwy rapes Goewin and is punished by Math upon his return. To alleviate her shame, Math marries Goewin but now must find a new foot holder.
                It is here that Gwydion suggests Arianrhod. To test her virginity, Math tells her to step over his bent magic wand. As she does, she immediately gives birth to two boys; Dylan, who immediately crawls to the sea and is not heard of again, and a second boy that Gwydion scoops up before anyone else sees. Years later, Gwydion returns to Caer Arianrhod and tells Arianrhod who the boy is. Still angry at her humiliation at Math’s court, she places a curse on him that he will never have a name unless she gives it to him. The next day, Gwydion tricks her into doing so by disguising himself and the boy as shoe crafters. While Arianrhod is being fitted, she sees the boy killing a wren with a single stone and remarks that the fair-haired one ("lleu") has a skillful hand ("llaw gyffes"). Gwydion reveals the disguise, and says she has just given her son a name – Lleu Llaw Gyffes. She then places a second curse upon him that he will never bear arms unless she herself gives them to him. A few years later Gwydion and Lleu return to Caer Arianrhod, this time disguised as bards. Gwydion is an accomplished storyteller and entertains her court. That night, while everyone sleeps, he conjures a fleet of warships. Arianrhod gives them weapons and armor to help her fight, thereby removing her second curse. When Gwydion reveals the trickery, Arianrhod places a final curse on Lleu: he would never have a wife from any race that is on this earth now. This curse is broken by Gwydion and Math who create a wife for Lleu out of flowers; the Goddess Blodeuwedd.
                Though her curses never materialized for long, Arianrhod’s struggle to have supreme control over her son and herself shows her strength and desire to be her own wman in control of her own destiny. Throughout time, women have struggled to find their own separate identities from besides those of “wife” and “mother”. Arianrhod calls to us, reminding us that just because we are women and have the ability to give birth, we are not defined by this act. She is a goddess who understands that other life goals may take precedence over the ability to conceive and give birth. Women who struggle with infertility, miscarriage or abortion will find comfort and understanding in the arms of Arianrhod, the goddess who chose her own life. She is a mother not defined by motherhood, and a daughter and sister not defined by family obligation. She is a woman unto herself.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Celtic Reconstructionism

   I wanted to share a website that I heard/read of in a Facebook group I am a part of, Celtic Paganism. I've only skimmed so far (I'm going back to read more thoroughly once I'm done with this post) but it looks to be a website on Celtic Reconstructionism and what I was surprised at is, alot of it looks like information I've already researched and believe to be the path I should be on. I just didn't think it to be called something different! Follow the link below for more information and smile - tomorrow is Friday!



Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Great Giveaway!

      There is a great giveaway going on over at Tales from the Old Wooden Art Table. There are multiple ways to enter, up to three per person! Head over there quick, before time runs out!










Monday, August 8, 2011

How To: Witch's Ladder

   I'm thinking of making some of these to sell along with my other products. I've seen them used as just the ladder to aid in meditation and spells, or they can also be used for prayer or even handfasting cords.

   Traditionally they are made in red, black and white, but there is no rule saying you must use these colors. You will need 3 pieces of ribbon, yarn, fabric, etc. all cut in an equal length. (usually a yard is a good place to start) You will also need 9 similar items that vary in color, such as beads, feathers, buttons, etc.

   Begin by tying the ends into a knot and start braiding them together. Tie in your beads or feathers as you go, securing each with a sturdy knot. You can count or chant as you do so. Below is an example of a traditional chant, but you can say whatever feels right to you.

By knot of one, the spell's begun.
By knot of two, the magic comes true.
By knot of three, so it shall be.
By knot of four, this power is stored.
By knot of five, my will shall drive.
By knot of six, the spell I fix.
By knot of seven, the future I leaven.
By knot of eight, my will be fate.
By knot of nine, what is done is mine.



      As you tie the knots focus on your intent and goal. When you've completed the ladder you can either knot the end and hang it up or tie the ends together to form a circle.

From author Ana Moura's website. Using feathers.

  Have a great week!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Soul, Liberty, Faith

   Mrs. B over at Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom shared this link this morning on her Facebook page and I just had to share it here with the rest of you.

   It's a beautifully written blog entry by Mrs. Sister Lisa about her experience with a group of local pagans and their Lughnasadh celebrations. She captures some of the events in pictures but it's her words that are the most inspiring and touching. And all of this was inspired by the bashing and attacking that occured during the Circle of Moms top 25 Faith Blog contest.

   I won't give away anything else. Follow the link below to read all about it! Enjoy!

Soul Liberty Faith

Monday, August 1, 2011

Lammas Blessings!

   It's here and hopefully fall isn't too far behind! I love the cooler weather - bundling up in sweaters and big jackets, watching the leaves change colors and waiting excitedly for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. How will you all be celebrating Lughnasadh this year?


Happy Lammas!


   Celebrated on August 1, marking the beginning of the harvest season and the decline of Summer into Winter, Lughnasadh or Lammas takes its name from the Irish god Lugh.
   Lugh, one of the chief gods of the Tuatha De Danaan, dedicated the festical to honor his foster mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who died while preparing the fields for planting. Other traditions say Lammas is celebrated to honor Lugh himself.
   Festivites and rituals typically centered around the assurance of a bountiful harvest season and the celebration of the harvest cycle. This was also an occaion for handfasting. For a year and a day couples would live together in trial marriage to see if it worked out. If not the couple returned the next year to officially separate.
   Ideas for decorations include:

  • Sickles and scythes, as well as other symbols of harvesting

  • Grapes and vines

  • Dried grains -- sheafs of wheat, bowls of oats, etc.

  • Corn dolls -- you can make these easily using dried husks

  • Early fall vegetables, such as squashes and pumpkins

  • Late summer fruits, like apples, plums and peaches


  • Lammas Prayer
    For the promise of harvest
    contained within a seed
    we thank you.
    For the oak tree
    within an acorn
    The bread
    within a grain
    The apple
    within a pip
    The mystery of nature
    gift wrapped
    for us to sow
    we thank you.

    (From Faith and Worship - Prayers and Resources, but I believe it can be adapted for use in a Lammas ritual.)


       Have a great day!