Walking the Pagan Path: Stepping Stones

For centuries, in group rituals and solo spells, witches have walked specific paths in the form of symbolic shapes that hold potent spiritual meaning. All you need for this ritual is a stone that brings you special inspiration.

Maybe it is your birthstone; perhaps it is your jade talisman or calming quartz or intuition-boosting amethyst or labradorite. Put the stone in your pocket and you are ready. You may find one walking pattern to be especially enriching for you. I recommend walking the figure eight, the “eternity” symbol from the magician card in the tarot deck. Otherwise, choose from among the universal shapes below. I suggest always walking sunwise, or clockwise. It can be a distance of your choice, in your living room, a bigger shape in your own backyard or whatever feels right to you, intuitionally. For the more complicated patterns you can draw them on paper and place it where you can see it to use as a guide:

    * Oval: The shape that designates the spirit and divine being.

    * Circle: The shape of the sun and moon, designates the whole, the complete, that which never ends and     encompasses all.

    * Cross: The form of a human figure with arms outstretched from the center. The importance of this             symbol predated Christianity by millennia.

    * Hexagram: In the Jewish tradition, the beloved. It is two triangles intersecting, the meeting of heaven     and earth.

    * Five-pointed Star: This resembles the human form with arms and legs outspread—Leonardo Da             Vinci’s favorite.

Prepare for your pagan pilgrimage, your walking meditation, when the moon is in Sagittarius, Aquarius, or your natal moon sign. These prayer walks represent a journey to our own center and back again out into the world, some of the inner work we witches need to do now and again. Keep your eyes closed for the first step, then open your eyes and pray aloud:

    Guide my steps; help me to walk in wisdom.

    What I seek on this day, I shall find as I go

    With an open heart and mind.

    Today, I receive the blessings of the sun.

Terrific Talismans: Personal Totems for Success

If you are preparing a major presentation to the team at work, showing your paintings to a curator, practicing for your dance performance, or pitching your book idea to a publisher, you can wear a talisman of your own making to ensure a positive outcome. Many performers, athletes, and musicians have lucky pieces of clothing or some token that gives them the courage to put themselves forth in the best possible manner. I have a Big Sur jade pendant on a length of leather that I wear on auspicious occasions such as these. Jade is about abundance and it is so smooth to the touch that it doubles as a soothing worry stone for me. I highly recommend you carry a jade talisman as it can be a major magical tool that can bring good fortune to you for many years.

To maximize the power of your jade talisman, consider the following tried-and-tested suggestions. Keep in mind that this will work even better if you place the item on your altar to imbue it with the right energy.

    * For a speech, presentation, performance, or show, wear a red garment.

    * If you are preparing for a potentially lucrative deal, you must wear green.

    * If you are trying to empower someone to see and share your creative vision, blue is the right hue for         you.

Silver Ring of Power Spell

A pure silver ring worn on the right pinky finger can bring both physical and psychic power. To enhance the magical power, have the ring engraved with your birth sign or astrological glyph and the sacred pentagram.

To instill the ring with protective power, clasp it over your heart and call out:

    Ring of power, shield and encircle me. Blessed be.

Lucky Wishing Charms

Many of us don’t realize that the classic charm bracelet is decorated with magical symbols representing the wearer’s wishes.

    * For prosperity, such as before a job interview, when asking for a raise, or if you find yourself in                   arrears, wear a coin.

    * For love, try a heart.

    * For creativity on a project, a pen or artist’s palette.

Directing Your Destiny

By now, you may know exactly what kind of wood you want for your wand. Now, you can select the ideal crystal to power your tool of magic. Below is a guide to the magical powers inherent in different crystals so you can choose which ones to use in your spells and rituals. Abundance rites will be enhanced with bloodstone or citrine while calcite and chalcedony offer protection. See which stones work best for you.

Supernatural Stones

    * Amethyst for balance and intuition

    * Aventurine for creative visualization

    * Bloodstone for abundance

    * Calcite for warding off ill fortune

    * Chalcedony for power over dark spirits

    * Citrine for motivation and success

    * Fluorite for contacting fairies

    * Garnet for protection from negativity

    * Hematite for strength and courage

    * Jade brings powerful dreams

    * Moss agate for powers of persuasion

    * Quartz crystal for divining your dreams

    * Rhodochrosite for seeing life’s true purpose

    * Watermelon tourmaline for seeing the future

New Moon Charm for Banishing Heartbreak

Any new moon is the perfect time to create a new opportunity. Clear away relationship “baggage” with this banishing spell. If you have been hurt emotionally, this will clear it, fast.

Gather together

    * a clear glass bowl filled with 2 cups (480ml) of water

    * a silver spoon

    * a salt shaker

    * palo santo incense

    * 2 white candles and 2 black candles

Place the clear glass bowl of water on your altar. Set a silver spoon beside the glass bowl along with a salt shaker. Light the cleansing palo santo incense, the two white candles, and the two black candles. Pour salt on the spoon, sprinkle the salt into the water and stir with the spoon clockwise. Recite aloud:

    Hurt and pain are banished this night;
    Fill this heart and home with light.
    With harm to none and blessings to all.
    So mote it be.

After a few moments of contemplating the candle flames, recite the spell again. Using the silver spoon as a snuffer, extinguish the candles. Toss the bowl of water out on the street in front of your house, near a drainage grate. All your love troubles should drain away by the end of this lunar cycle.

Cleansing Winds Heart-healing Rite

Helping a jilted friend get over a bad relationship is good medicine, which can be therapeutic for you, as well. Recently, a brilliant male co-worker of mine was “dumped” unceremoniously by a woman he had been seeing for two years. As I witnessed him sink quickly into a deep depression, I felt compelled to help by using this heart-healing rite. I knew my friend walked to work each day, so, following the spell, I scattered the petals of one flower near his office front door so he would step on them and release their curative powers. I left the other rose on his desk. His spirits improved that very day. The healing of his “heart had begun and each day, he had more spring in his step.

Gather together

    * 2 long-stemmed white roses

Take the petals from one rose, and bless them, chanting:

    Eastern wind, wild and free,

    Help _____ [friend’s name] to see,

    A better love will come from thee.

Scatter the petals somewhere that your friend goes often, for example outside their house or place of work. Give the other rose to your friend.

Spell for Letting Go

Most of us have had problems giving up on a relationship at one time or another.

Gather together

    * a piece of black string, enough to tie around your waist

    * bolline

    * a photo or memento representing your ex

Timing: Ideally this should be done during the waning moon when things can be put to rest, but it works anytime you need it. Listen to your heart and you’ll know exactly when it is required.

Tie the black string around your waist during the waning moon. Tie something symbolic from the old relationship to the end of the string —a photo or the name written on a scroll of paper, for example. Speak this spell aloud:

    Bygones be and lovers part,

    I’m asking you to leave my heart.

    Go in peace, harm to none.

    My new life is now begun.

Go outside and, using your sacred bolline, cut off the string and toss it away along with the memento where it will no longer inhabit your living space. You should feel freer and lighter immediately and will attract many new potential paramours now that you are not weighed down by lost love.