Pouch of Plenty: Crystal Charm Bags

A charm bag is a little bag or pouch filled with objects charged with magic for a specific intent. You can charge them by placing them on your altar for 24 hours or with spell work.

Gather together:

• Small muslin or cloth bags/pouch (that could fit in the palm of your hand)
• 3 pebble-sized crystals of green jade or peridot or turquoise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Bolline
• Dried basil leaves, one teaspoonful
• Green candle
• Thyme or cinnamon incense
• A length of green cord or string, a foot in length

Set the string aside and place everything else on your altar. Stand at your altar and light a green candle and thyme or cinnamon incense. Pick up the pouch and smudge it in the sweet smoke of the incense while saying the following spell:

    My life is blessed and this I know.

    Into this bag, prosperity will flow.

    I see the future is bright wherever I go,

    My life is blessed; this much I know.
    
    With harm to none; so mote it be.

Using your bolline, cut the cinnamon stick into three pieces. Cut the green cord into 3 pieces. Place the basil, pebbles, and cinnamon into the pouch. Now take the green cord, one length at a time, and tie at the end of the bag securely, wrapping it around six times and with a bow. Keep it with you in your pocket and into your life, money will flow.

Moon Sister Smoke

To strengthen the bond between you and your gal pals, share this rite of friendship and fun on a Friday night.

Gather together

    * a bottle of red wine

    * goblets for all

    * pink and purple candles,1 for each person

    * rose and vanilla incense,1 stick per person

    * a large tray to hold everything

    * incense burners

Sit on the couch around a table or in a circle on the floor among cozy pillows. Place the wine bottle, goblets, candles, and incense on the tray in the center of your group. Each participant lights a candle and a stick of incense. Wave the incense around and put in a burner on the tray. Now pour the wine into the goblets and pray aloud so your guests can hear you:

    Daughters under the sun,

    Sisters under the moon,

    Tonight we bind our hearts and minds.

    So mote it be.

Speak the spell twice, hand each participant a goblet of wine and then toast each other. Let the merriment begin! You can change the wording of this spell for gender.

A Ritual to Banish Your Illness

A friend of mine gets a cough every January like clockwork and has not quite figured out what causes it. In addition to some good commonsense health practices and extra attention to hydrating, herbal tea remedies, and healthy food with lots of rest, we created a banishing ritual that we performed outdoors. In current times, it could be performed remotely to good effect. Gather together:

• One gray candle
• Frankincense incense and burner
• Large fireproof dish
• Clary sage essential oil
• A three-foot length of thin jute or cotton rope
• A sharp knife
• Black tablecloth
• A bowl of water

Create a kind of simple outdoor altar on a table outside and cover it with the tablecloth. Now place the water, incense, candle, knife, and the rope on the altar.

The person who needs to release the illness or difficulty should raise their right hand and say aloud:

    Here and now may this place

    be consecrated before the spirits of earth,

    air, fire, and water,

    for we gather here

    to perform a peaceful parting.

    We hereby banish ________ [fill in the name of the illness or

    whatever needs to be banished]

Say the name of the person for whom the spell is being worked and light the candle and incense.

Now, take the rope and carefully cut it in half. Place the rope pieces on the incense and the incense charcoals in the fireproof dish and let the rope burn completely. Repeat the prayer and end with:

    May all be well, may I be well.

    Blessings to all and blessed be.

Put the candle and the incense out in the water bowl. Take the ashes from the rope and scatter them on a patch of earth nearby. Pour the water on the ashes, and you have now banished what you need to eliminate from your life.

Altar for Healing and Wellness

Find a pure white square of fabric to drape over your table, just touching the floor. Take two candles in matching holders and place them on the two farthest corners. Place your incense burner exactly in the middle. If you don’t have a favorite incense yet, start with the ancient essence of frankincense. Select objects that appeal to you symbolically to place on your altar. I have a candlestick of purest amethyst crystal, my birthstone. When I gaze on the candle flame refracted through the beautiful purple gemstone, I feel the fire within me. This inculcates your altar with the magic that lives inside you, that lives inside all of us, and magnifies the ceremonial strength of your workspace. You should decorate your altar until it is utterly and completely pleasing to your eye. After you’ve been working spells for a bit, an energy field will radiate from your altar.

Fireplace altars today hearken back to this earliest custom. Home and hearth have primal appeal to the comfort of both body and soul. If you have a fireplace, it can become the very heart of your home. The fireplace is also one of the safest places for the ritual work of fire keeping. Sanctify your fireplace with a sprinkling of salt, and then set it up as an altar to the four seasons. Like the Vestal Virgins of old, you can keep a fire burning in a votive glass holder in the back of your fireplace and have an eternal flame. The fireplace can be your simplest altar and a reflection of the work of nature. If you don’t have a real fire in your fireplace, you can place in it beautiful sacred objects—pretty rocks, feathers, seashells, glistening crystals, beautiful leaves, and anything representing the holiest aspects of the world around you. Let nature be your guide.

Clearing Energetic Clutter

In order to do any healing work, you must clear the clutter that can create blocks. Banish the old, bad energy from your house by following this spell. Make a tea from herb lavender or vervain. Once it cools, dip your finger in the tea and sprinkle it throughout your home while reciting:

Clean and clear, nothing negative near 
Only healing and positive energies here. 
So mote it be.

Repeat three times, and if you feel the need to clear out any remaining cloud of psychic clutter, add diluted lavender tea water to your cleanser when you wash floors or surfaces. The scent of calm and clarity will lift the spirits of all who enter your space. The purpose of incense is to release energy into the ritual space, not to create billows of smoke that can cause respiratory problems in the circle. If you or someone else finds incense smoke irritating or worrisome, consider using another symbol of air instead, such as potpourri, fresh flowers, feathers or a fan.

There exist an abundance of incense burners nowadays, so use your discretion and choose one that pleases you—perhaps a smoking dragon or a goddess to hold the fiery embers of your incense would add to the energy of your altar.

Incenses themselves contain inherent energies that you can use to further your intention and promote your purpose. I depend on Wylundt’s Book of Incense, which I consider to be the ultimate reference for excellent information about essences and properties of incense. It contains an enormous amount of information in regard to loose, cone, stick and cylinder incense. It also tells you how to work with herbs, which part of a plant to use, and how to gather, dry, and store the plants. The following is one of my recipes for an incense to use to cast a circle.

Circle Incense:
• 2 parts myrrh
• 4 parts frankincense
• 2 parts benzoin
• 1 part sandalwood
• 1 part cinnamon
• 1 part rose petals
• 1 part vervain
• 1 part rosemary
• 1 part bay leaf
• 1/2 cup orange peel

This incense will significantly aid the formation of the sphere of energy that is the ritual circle. A fine grind of all the ingredients is the key to good incense, so you should add a mortar and pestle to your list of tools if you intend to make a lot of incense. A blender or food processor is a more modern approach that may save on time and elbow grease, especially if you are making a large batch of incense for a group.

Clearing Incense:
• 1 part sandalwood
• 3 parts myrrh
• 3 parts copal
• 3 parts frankincense

This is an optimal mixture of essences to purify your home or sacred working space. Negative energies are vanquished and the path is cleared for ritual. Open windows and doors when you are burning this clearing incense so the “bad energy” can be released outside. It is also advisable to use this clearing incense if there have been any arguments or other energetic disruptions in your home. You can recreate a sanctuary with this incense.

Dream Incense:
• 2 parts rose petals
• 2 parts cedar
• 1 part camphor
• 1 part lavender
• 6 drops tuberose oil
• 6 drops jasmine oil

This mixture will bring on psychic dreams. If you set up a bedroom altar, place this incense in your censer and allow the scented smoke to imbue your sleeping space with its unique energy before you drift off. Prophetic dreams may come to you and, even better, you will remember them!