Inspiration Infusion: Spell in a Cup

Your morning pot of tea can be a daily ritual you use according to your needs. If, upon rising, you feel a bit blue, brew up some bergamot. As you sip the soothing libration, you will feel your spirits lift and you can greet the day stronger and infused with this simple and true magic. Along with healing and energizing properties, herbal teas can aid the mind. Try the following blends:

• Bergamot dissipates negativity and uplifts.

• Basil lends a sense of serenity.

• Rosemary supports physical well-being.

• Orange creates sheer joy.
  

By Jove! A Spell for Wealth (New Moon is Optimal)

On any Thursday or new moon, light your altar candle at midnight and burn frankincense and myrrh incense. Make an offering of a golden fruit, such as apples or peaches, to Jupiter, and anoint your third eye with a corresponding essential oil, such as myrrh, frankincense, apple, or peach.

Pray aloud:

This offering I make as my blessing to all. 
Greatest of gods, Lord Jove of the sky. 
From you, all heavenly gifts do fall. 
Most generous of all, you never deny. 
To you, I am grateful, and so mote it be! 

Put the candle in a safe, fireproof place, such as a fireplace, and let it burn all night. You will dream of your loved ones, including yourself, receiving a bounty of material and spiritual wealth.

Crystal Clear (New or Waning Moon is Optimal)

Over time, you will doubtless adorn your sacred altar space with many beautiful crystals. Whenever you acquire a new crystal, you need to cleanse it.

Gather these elemental energies:

• A candle for fire
• A cup of water
• Incense for air
• A bowl of salt

Pass your crystal through the scented smoke of the incense and say:

Inspired with the breath of air

Pass the crystal swiftly through the flame of the candle and say:

Burnished by fire 

Sprinkle the crystal with water and say:

Purified by water

Dip the crystal into the bowl of salt and say:

Empowered by the earth 

Hold the crystal before you with both hands and imagine an enveloping, warm white light purifying the tool. Now say:

Steeped in spirit and bright with light 

Place the cleansed crystal upon your altar and say:

By craft made and by craft charged and changed, 
This crystal I will use for the purpose of good in this world. 
In the realm of the gods and goddesses. 
I hereby consecrate this crystal. 
Blessings to all, blessed be.

Moon Mojo: Clear A Space and Make It Yours (Waning Moon is Optimal)

To purify your space with as much of your own personal energy as possible, a broom you have crafted by hand is best. You don’t have to wait until you are holding a circle or performing spellcraft; it can be after a squabble with a loved one, to rid yourself of a bout of the blues, or any upset you need to sweep right out of your home. Many a kitchen witch begins the day with this simple ritual of a clean sweep to freshen surroundings and to make room for good energy in your life. This is, of course, not a white glove-type cleaning; it is a symbolic act that is effective in maintaining your home as a personal sanctuary.

You can make your own purification broom from straw bound together and attached to a fallen tree branch, or you can add mojo to a store-bought broom. Wrap copper wire around the bottom of your broom handle and also use it to bind straw to a sturdy stick or branch for the DIY kind. Venus-ruled copper lends an aura of beauty and keeps negativity at bay. Attach crystals to the handle with glue to boost your broom’s power. Recommended crystal for space clearing and purification are as follows:

• Amber for good cheer
• Blue Lace Agate for tranquility and a peaceful home
• Coral for wellbeing
• Jet absorbs bad energy
• Onyx is a stone of protection
• Petrified Wood for security
• Tiger’s Eye will protect you from energy-draining situations or people
• Turquoise creates calm and relaxation

Energy Management: House Blessings (All Moon Phases)

This magical tool was born centuries ago from the practical magic of sweeping the ritual area clean before casting a spell. With focus and intention, you can dispel negative influences and bad spirits from the area and prepare a space for ritual work. In bygone days, pagan marriages and Beltane trysts took place with a leap over the broom, an old-fashioned tradition of hand fasting, the classic witch wedding. Over the centuries, this rich history combined to capture the imagination as the archetypal symbol of witches.

Your broom is an essential tool for energy management. Obtain a handmade broom from a craft fair or your favorite metaphysical five and dime. This should not be a machine-made plastic one from the supermarket, though I did get a long cinnamon-infused rush broom from Trader Joe’s that I use in my witch’s kitchen. A broom made of wood and woven of natural straw will be imbued with the inherent energies of those organic materials.

This is very important—do not use your ritual broom for housecleaning. Like me, you may well view every inch of your home as sacred space but you will need to keep your regular housekeeping implements separate from those you will use for your magical workings. Think of it as a separation of church and state, if you will. And, it pretty much is!

In general, it is not advisable to use tools such as your ritual knife to debone a chicken, for example, as this risks a confusing blending of the mundane and magical energies. If you treat your ritual tools with the utmost respect, they will serve you very well. Over time, they will become inculcated with magic through exclusive use in your ritual workings. The Wiccan tradition holds brooms in high regard, and some witches have an impressive collection of brooms, each one named to distinguish their roles as “familiars,” or kindred spirits. Kitchen witches often have the most extensive bevy of brooms of anyone.

Creating Your Sanctuary Shrine (New Moon Phase is Optimal)

On a low table or chest of your choosing, place a forest green cloth and a brown candle to represent family and home. Add lovely objects you have gathered, including from the garden and outdoors: ocean-carved driftwood, a gorgeous flower, a dried seed pod, a favorite crystal, whatever pleases your eye. It is of the utmost importance to add a bouquet of wildflowers native to your area you gathered close to where you live or bought locally. These posies will help integrate you and your home into your neighborhood and geographic region. Add a sweetly scented sachet of herbs from your kitchen garden or those you intend to plant: rosemary, lavender, thyme, mint, all of which imbue your space with positive energy. Burn associated essential oils, those which will create an aura of comfort around your kitchen, including vanilla, cinnamon, or sweet orange neroli in an oil lamp. Finally, anoint the brown candle while concentrating on the power of peace and bliss surrounding your home and all around your home altar.

Chant:

Peace and abundance are in abundance 
And here true bliss surrounds 
From now on, all disharmony is gone 
This is a place of powerful blessings 
For here lives sheer joy. 
And so it is — blessed be!

This consecrated space will ease your spirits at any time. Your altar connects you to the earth of which you are a part.

Setting Up Your Lunar Altar: Your Personal Power Center

Before there were temples and churches, the primary place for expressing reverence was the altar. The word “altar” comes from a Latin word which means “high place.” With a personal altar, you can reach the heights of your spirituality and ascend in wisdom. You construct an altar when you assemble symbolic items in a meaningful manner, focusing both your attention and intention. When you work with the combined energies of these items, you are performing ritual. Your rituals can arise from your needs, imagination, or the seasonal and traditional ceremonies that you find in this book and others. A book I draw much inspiration from has been Nancy Brady Cunningham’s A Book of Women’s Altars. I love her advice to bow or place your hands on the ground in front of your altar at the beginning of ritual work and at the closing, explaining, “Grounding symbolizes the end of the ritual and signals to the mind to return to an ordinary state of awareness as you re-enter daily life.” An altar is a physical point of focus for the ritual, containing items considered sacred and essential to ritual work and spiritual growth. An altar can be anything from a rock in the forest to an exquisitely carved antique table. Even portable or temporary altars can suffice such as a board suspended between two chairs for “rituals on the go.”

Dispelling Blocks: Full Moon Incantation

Is something getting in your way? Do you feel stalled out and overcome with procrastination? To overcome any blocks obstructing your creativity and productivity, you can dispel the negative energy by going for a walk in the nearest park. Find a round, flat rock, six to ten inches wide. This will become an altar supplied directly to you by Mother Nature, and it will have the purest energy. Begin by charging this stone on the full moon at your home altar. Light a white candle for purification, and then place your hand on the stone and chant three times:

Bad energy, take flight! 
Goddess of Night, shine bright. 
Moon of tonight, you give us delight. 
Fill this stone with your light, 
Imbue it with all your magic and might, 
Surround it with your protective sight. 
So mote it be.

Ideally, you’ll want to perform this spell three times on three consecutive full moons before you begin drawing upon its energy. Like your altar, your stone will be a reservoir you can turn to any time you feel stuck or uninspired. This rock will emanate with a quiet power you can draw from whenever you need.

Conjuring Conviviality – a Moon Day Ritual

How you start your week sets the tone for each day to come. It makes a lot of sense to do whatever you can to up the joy quotient for yourself and your loved ones. Jasmine tea is a delightful concoction and can create an aura of bliss and conviviality. It is available at any grocer or purveyor of organic goods but homegrown is even better. Brew a cup of jasmine tea and let it cool. Add two parts lemonade and drink the mixture with a good friend. Jasmine is a vine and represents the intertwining of people. You will be more bonded to anyone with whom you share this sweet ritual. If you grow a night-blooming jasmine vine outside your bedroom window, a heavenly scent will also waft in that creates and enhances an atmosphere of love in your home.

This is also a tonic that you can indulge in alone. I recommend brewing up a batch every Monday, or “Moon Day,” to ensure that each week is filled with joyfulness. As the jasmine tea steeps, pray:

On this Moon Day in this new week, 
I call upon the spirits to guide joy to my door. 
By this moon on this day, I call upon Ishtar and Celene, ladies fair 
To show me the best way to live. 
For this, I am grateful. 
Blessed be the brew; blessed be me.

Lunar Lore – 12 Months of Full Moons

Many of our full moon names come from medieval books of hours and also from the Native American tradition. Here is a list of rare names from the two traditions you may want to use in your lunar rituals.

January: Old Moon, Chaste Moon; this fierce Wolf Moon is the time to recognize your strength of spirit

February: Hunger Moon; the cool Snow Moon is for personal vision and intention-setting

March: Crust Moon, Sugar Moon; the gentle Sap Moon heralds the end of winter and nature’s rebirth

April: Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon; spring’s sweet Pink Moon celebrates health and full life force

May: Milk Moon, Corn Planting Moon, Dyad Moon; the Flower Moon provides inspiration with the bloom of beauty

June: Hor Moon, Rose Moon; the Strawberry Moon heralds Summer Solstice and sustaining power of the sun

July: Buck Moon, Hay Moon; this Thunder Moon showers us with rain and cleansing storms

August: Barley Moon, Wyrt Moon, Sturgeon Moon; summer gifts us with the Red Moon, the time for passion and lust for life

September: Green Corn Moon, Wine Moon; fall’s Harvest Moon is the time to be grateful and reap what we have sown

October: Dying Grass Moon, Travel Moon, Blood Moon, Moon of Changing Seasons; the Hunter’s moon is when we plan and store for winter ahead

November: Frost Moon, Snow Moon; Beaver Moon is the time to call upon our true wild nature

December: Cold Moon, Oak Moon; this is the lightest night of the shortest day and is the time to gather the tribe around the fire and share stories of the good life together

Spring Full Moon - Invocation of the Flower Moon

This dazzling spring Flower Moon is an optimal opportunity to strive for the new, to initiate a phase of transformation that will last long after the Full Moon has waxed into darkness. This invocation honors the season, planting seeds of positive change in your life to bloom for years to come. Start by gathering red and green apples, candles of the same colors, and seed corn from a gardening store, along with three stalks of lavender and three long strands of night-blooming jasmine. Leave these offerings on your altar all day.

When the Full Moon of May reaches the highest point in the night sky, light one red and one green candle on your kitchen altar. Wind the jasmine and lavender into a crown for the top of your head, breathing in the lovely scent the flowers produce. Holding an apple in each hand, speak this spell while circling the altar clockwise three times.

Moon of Flowers; light the way to change tonight, 
Through the power of Earth and Air, Water and Fire. 
As I bite this fruit of knowledge, I am thus inspired. 
All possibilities are before me. And so it is.

Eat from both apples until you are fully satisfied, and then bury twelve corn seeds and the cores in the rightmost corner of your garden. With the spring rains and summer sun, your intentions will flower into being. By the fall full moon, you will harvest the bounty of change from this spell, with great gratitude.

Blowing in the Wind – A Charm (Waning Moon is Optimal)

When the moon is waning, this is your opportunity to release anything that no longer serves in your life. We all need to embrace the winds of change in life, clearing away the old and making room for the new. This charm helps overcome upset and can help release anger and grudges. And isn’t this an important first step to happiness? What you’ll need: a blustery day, access to the outdoors, basil and sage.

Well, it’s not mandatory that you have a hill for this, but you do need an open area outside for happiness spells like this. It does need to be windy.

Take your herbs to your spot of choice with your back to the wind. Take the basil and sage and throw them up in the air as you visualize your problems blowing far, far away. Repeat this charm aloud:

No more fear and doubt and pain 
Nothing to lose and only joy to gain. 

Now, turn around and face into the wind.

Speak aloud:

May the winds of change be kind to me 
And bring about happiness and glee. 
Stress-free and happy I will be 

Close your eyes and feel the breeze on your skin and blowing through your hair. Stand still for a few more moments, focused on the release of your problems and the acceptance of peace and the calm that lies ahead in your future.

Blessed Balm Spell (Waning Moon is Optimal)

Simmer this mixture whenever you feel the need to infuse your home and heart with the energies of protection. A waning moon is the time to banish old negative energy. This will safeguard you and your loved ones from outside influences that could be negative or disruptive. Set your intention and gather together the following herbs:

• ¼ cup rosemary 
• 1 teaspoon dill weed 
• 4 bay laurel leaves cup cedar 
• 1 tablespoon basil 
• 1 teaspoon juniper berries 
• 1/8 cup sage

Mix your herbs together by hand. While you are doing this, close your eyes and visualize your home as a sacred place protected by a boundary of glowing white light. Add the herbs to a pan filled with simmering water. When the aromatic steam rises, intone:

By my own hand, I have made this balm; 

This divine essence contains my calm. 

By my own will, I make this charm; 

This precious potpourri protects all from harm. 

With harm to none and health to all, 

Blessed be!

Floral Healing Remedies

Flower essences mixed with 30 millimeters distilled water can also be used as the following remedies:
• Addiction: skullcap, agrimony
• Anger: nettle, blue flag, chamomile
• Anxiety: garlic, rosemary, aspen, periwinkle, lemon balm, white chestnut, gentian
• Bereavement: honeysuckle
• Depression: borage, sunflower, larch, chamomile, geranium, yerba santa, black cohosh, lavender, mustard
• Exhaustion: aloe, yarrow, olive, sweet chestnut
• Fear: poppy, mallow, ginger, peony, water lily, basil, datura
• Heartbreak: heartsease, hawthorn, borage
• Lethargy: aloe, thyme, peppermint
• Stress: dill, echinacea, thyme, mistletoe, lemon balm
• Spiritual blocks: oak, ginseng, lady’s slipper

Safe Haven Potpourri

Potpourri was a medieval product revived by the Victorians, who used the symbolic meanings and powers of flowers. Grow flowers in your kitchen garden or buy cut flowers. Dry them; then place them in a pretty container. Choose flowers that connect with your astrological sun sign, moon sign and personal energy. Try a mix of your favorites along with some of the beloved posies of Victorian and medieval times:

Daisy opens in the morning and closes when the sun goes down; this beloved flower is associated with purity, loyalty, innocence, patience and simplicity.

Pansies are also called Heartsease and represent merriment!

Iris stands for wisdom, faith, friendship and hope eternal.

Under a Waxing Moon

When the first narrow crescent of the waxing moon appears in the twilight sky, place a green candle beside a white lily or freesia. White flowers have the most intense aromas. Anoint the candle with tuberose or rose oil. Take a handful of seeds, such as sunflower, walnuts, or pistachios, still in their shells, and place them in front of the candle.

Close your eyes and recite aloud:

Under this darkling moons, 
In Eden fair, I walk through flowers 
In the garden of my desires, 
I light the flame of my mind, 
I plant the seeds of things to come. 

Lucky 13 Waxing Moon Spell

Your altar is the heart center of your home, your sanctuary. Yet the world is constantly coming in and bringing mundane energy over your threshold—problems at the workplace, financial woes, bad news from your neighborhood or the world at large. All this negativity wants to get in the way and stay. While you can’t do anything about the stock market crash in China or a coworker’s divorce, do not allow this bad energy to cling to you. Instead, you can do something about it with a homekeeping spell. The best times to release any and all bad luck is on a Friday the 13th or on any waxing moon. As you know, Friday the 13th is considered a lucky day on the witch’s calendar.

Get a big black candle and a black crystal, a piece of white paper, a black pen with black ink and a cancellation stamp, readily available at any stationery store. Go into your backyard or a nearby park or woodlands and find a flat rock that has a slightly concave surface. 

Using the pen, write down on the white paper that which you want to rid yourself and your home of; this is your release request. Place the candle and the black crystal on the rock, and light the candle near an open window. As the negativity is released outside while the candle burns, intone:

Waxing moon, most wise Cybele, 
From me this burden please dispel 
Upon this night so clear and bright 
I release ___ to the moon tonight. 

Go outside and place the rock altar on the ground and visualize a clear and peaceful home filled with only the positive as the candle burns for thirteen minutes. Stamp the paper with the cancel stamp. Snuff the candle, fold the paper away from your body, and place it under the rock. Speak your thanks to the moon for assisting you. If you have a truly serious issue at hand, repeat the process for thirteen nights and all will be vanquished.

Waning Moon Money Magic

To attract money, fill a big pot with fresh water and place it on your altar during the waxing moon. Pour a cup of milk with a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of ground clove into the pot as an offering. Toss handfuls of dried chamomile and mint into the cauldron. Say aloud:

I call upon you, gods and goddesses of old, to fill my purse with gold. I offer you mother’s milk and honey sweet. 

With harm to none and blessings to thee, I honor you for bringing me health and prosperity.

Place the offering bowl on your altar and leave the aromatic mixture there to instill your kitchen with the energy of abundance. After four hours and forty-four minutes, go outside your home and pour the offering into your kitchen garden or into the roots of a shrub. Then bow in appreciation of the kindness of the gods and goddesses.

White Light of Love: A Waning Moon

To light the flower of love in your heart, time this charm for the waning of a New Moon. Place a green candle beside a white lily, rose or freesia. Make sure it is a posy of personal preference. White flowers have the greatest perfume and either of these beauties will impart your home with a pleasing aura. I like to float a gardenia in a clear bowl of fresh water, truly the essence of the divine. Light the candle and hold the flower close to your heart. Pray,

Steer me to the highest light; 
guide me to beauty and truth. 
Much have I to give. 
Much have I to live. 
Bright blessings to one and all.

The Dark Side of the Moon – Eclipse Enchantments

When the moon passes into the Earth’s shadow, this is a lunar eclipse. These are rare occasions that make for a truly enchanted evening. I recommend you think ahead to what you want to accomplish in this phase, since an eclipse only lasts several hours. Think about what you want brought out of the shadow and into the light – do you need to dust off old dreams and reactivate them? Do you have old hurts and wounds you need to let go of and purge from your life? Do you feel there is a secret being kept from you? This one night is perfect for the purposes of saying goodbye to the old and ushering in the new. Simply plan your magical workings to coordinate with the passing shadow. When the moon is in full eclipse, treat those few moments as if the moon was in its Dark phase. It is also an excellent time to honor the goddess of the moon in a group or solo ritual. Think through carefully your heart’s desire and what will serve you for many months to come.