Flowers of Fortune Altar Enchantment

The more you tend your altar, the more of your personal magic is inculcated in that sacred space. In regard to the great magical undertaking of your well-being, it is vital that you imbue your altar with your essence and your energy. For this enchantment, start at noon on Sunday and repeat through Saturday. Gather together:

• Photo of you
• Small pedestal
• Favorite piece of birthstone jewelry
• Vase filled with fresh water
• 4 of any of the following flowers: yellow daisy, yellow rose, sunflower, or lily

Take a photo of yourself that you love, one that represents you looking both healthful and joyful. Add symbols that represent you: a favorite ring or other jewelry, ideally, with your birthstone, Take the photos and symbol and place it on a pedestal on your altar. In front of the pedestal, place a small vase with four Flowers of Fortune. These posies will bring you abundance which includes both wealth and health. The yellow signifies the vigor and sun-blessed energy that will increase your strength and vivacity every time you speak the following spell:

On this earth and under these stars, I call upon the Gods to bring great help and good fortune to me, ______ (your name).

Place the beloved piece of jewelry on

In this air and through these waters, speed fortune here in my name of _____.

Now touch the stone in the ring.

Through the fire and through the rain, bring me gladness, goodwill, and great health!

To me here and now.

Remove the jewelry, place it back on your altar, and repeat the next day at noon. Each day, you should awaken feeling cheerier and more content.

Set Your Money Intention

Photo by Anita Austvika on unsplash.com

Adorn your altar with fresh flowers and three candles in your favorite shade of green. Also, gather a pen and paper. Light the candles and sit in front of your altar while you meditate on what will make you achieve your full potential.

Do you need to change your money habits? Your approach to spending and finances? Do you need to open your creativity?  Do you need to revitalize with a vacation? Concentrate deeply, and choose three intentions for positive change in your life to write down and place under your three candles. Every night for seven days, repeat this spell:

    Today I arise. This day I embrace serenity and money wisdom.

    Tonight, I rest. This night I embrace an attitude of abundance and calm.

    Blessed be.

Create a Magical Power Center: Your Altar

Your altar is the nexus of your magical powers; it is also your medium through which you give gifts to the Roman god of abundance, Jupiter, also known as Jove. Jupiter is a rain and thunder deity who also controls fertility. He will rain abundance down upon you if you gain his favor through ritual observance. His “jovial” qualities include leadership, jollity, generosity, expansiveness, and a royal manner. Your middle finger is your Jupiter finger and you can increase your fortunes by leaving a ring on your altar overnight and then placing it upon the middle finger of either hand. Ideally, for the best result, it will be a green or gold stone such as peridot, tourmaline, or citrine. If you can find a statue or bust of Jove, you should place this symbol on the right side of the altar, accompanied by the image of an eagle, which is the ideal prosperity altar emblem, as the eagle is Jupiter’s bird totem. The eagles of Rome and America are this royal bird of the king of gods. Lapis lazuli, the beautiful blue stone beloved by the Egyptians, is also sacred to Jupiter. The alchemical symbol for this stone is the astrological sign of Jupiter in reverse, and the blue of the Lapis stone is associated with the blue of the sky god. You can increase your prosperity by remembering one of the most basic principles of prosperity: By giving, so shall you receive.

Creating Your Stone Shrine

To begin using your magical powers, you must first set the stage, the perfect environment in which to incubate your ideas. You’ll do this by building a stone shrine, your touchstone for daily conjuring and contemplation. By preparing your home and sparking your inner flame, you can clear away personal blocks and invite in the friendly spirits who will aid and abet your supernatural pursuits. It is of the utmost importance to have in your home a shrine or altar, a power center, where you can keep your stones and perform rituals and spells. This is your energy source where you can renew yourself and your spirits every day. The more you use your altar, the more it will build up energy, and the more effective your spells will be.

On a low table, place a white scarf and candles from each of the colors of the spectrum: white, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, red, and black. Place them in the miraculous arching shape of a rainbow. Take amber incense and place it in a quartz crystal bowl at the center of the rainbow. Amber is good for creativity and healing and also contains crystalline grains of rock resin from Mother Nature. Keep a wand of sage or a smudging stick in a fireproof bowl or seashell on your altar and use it to clear the energy and sanctify the space every day.

Next, place symbols on the altar that reflect your personal power and spiritual aspirations. I keep fresh wildflowers in a vase beside a statue of a young goddess pouring water of wisdom, symbolizing Aquarius. I also have abalone shells, which represent my Piscean nature, aligned with a magnetite obelisk and a rock-crystal ball. Let your imagination run wild! Use religious icons and images or photos that have special meaning—whatever expresses your innermost spirit. If you have an obelisk or pyramid on your altar, you can use it for manifestation by placing your desires and wishes on paper beneath the crystal.

Keep the basic principles of feng shui in mind and put prosperity stones in your far-left money corner, and romance rocks in your far-right love corner.

The crystals you select should be a completely personal choice. Browse your favorite lapidary or New Age shop and see what you are drawn to and resonate most with. Here are some crystals you can choose for specific spell work and energy you want in your life and environment:

• For creativity: amazonite, aventurine, carnelian, chrysolite, chrysoprase, citrine, green tourmaline, malachite, yellow fluorite
• For intuition: amethyst, azurite, celestite, lapis lazuli, moonstone, selenite, smoky quartz, sodalite, star sapphire, yellow cacite
• For love: amethyst, aventurine, magnetite, rhodochrosite, rose quartz, twinned rock crystal
• For prosperity: bloodstone, carnelian, citrine, dendritic agate, diamond, garnet, hawk’s-eye, moss agate, peridot, ruby, tiger’s-eye, topaz, yellow sapphire
• For self-assurance: azurite, chalcedony, chrysocolla, green tourmaline, hematite, rutilated quartz, tiger’s-eye
• For serenity: amber, aventurine, blue jade, dioptase, Herkimer diamond, jasper, kunzite, moonstone, onyx, peridot, quartz, rhodonite
• For success: carnelian, obsidian, quartz, selenite, sodalite, topaz
• For vigor: agate, aventurine, bloodstone, calcite, chalcedony, citrine, dioptase, emerald, garnet, orange calcite, ruby, topaz
• For wisdom: emerald, fluorite, Herkimer diamond, moldavite, serpentine, yellow calcite

Do-It-Yourself Altar Candelabra

Candelabras are an excellent addition to your altar to hold your ritual candles as well as to set the mood. Both elegant and romantic, with molten wax flowing down the sides, they can be nothing less than splendid. While you can always buy a candelabra, it is much better to make them yourself and place your imprimatur and your own special kind of magic in them. The following are the steps I learned from the one and only Aurelio Voltaire, who is a writer, musician, animator, graphic novelist, comic, and all-around Renaissance man.

Supplies:

• Empty wine bottles
• Black spray paint (or a color of your choice)
• Spray adhesive
• Paper images or stickers
• Candles

Directions:

    1. Have fun by emptying some bottles of wine, preferably by drinking their contents! If you do not             imbibe, you can get bottles from friends or from a recycling center.

    2. Give the bottles a good spraying with the flat black paint and let them dry.

    3. You can stop here, but it is even better to refine your design with your own art, stickers you                     particularly love, or even decoupaged (or spray-glued) photos evocative of your mood and magic.              Voltaire recommends the “Bandelabra,” featuring photos, stickers, lyrics, or an image representing your      favorite band, such as Dead Can Dance’s beautiful images of hands and serpent coils from their CD            covers, or a particularly spooky-looking shot of Siouxsie Sioux, of The Cure’s Robert Smith, or maybe      even of the beautiful and very talented Voltaire! Personally, I like to use still shots from movies that I          feel reflect my personal pagan energy. Some examples for a dark pagan might be any and all Dracula          movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Crow, The Nightmare Before Christmas, or The Book of      Life. As long as these are for your own enjoyment and edification, you do not have to be concerned            about copyrights, but if you suddenly decide to start eBaying your handcrafted candelabras, you must        get legal clearance.

A personal favorite of mine is Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and above all, my favorite moment in this gorgeous visual feast is the absinthe-inspired section with verdant greens, light and shadow play, and yearning past-life romance. So, I suggest leaving the wine bottle in its native green state and going for green candles with a touch of green glitter and emerald stick-on stones to evoke the green fairy.

This is the easiest candelabrum of all—just place a candle inside the neck of the bottle, light it, and you have a very elegant and dreamy-looking light source.

Seeking and Finding Love Spell

On a small piece of paper, write the name of your would-be love in red ink and roll up the scroll. Anoint the paper with rose or amber essential oil. Tie the scroll with red threads, incanting one line of the following spell per knot:

    One to seek my love, one to find my love,

    one to bring my love, one to bind my love,

    forever bound together as one, so mote it be.

    This charm is done.

Keep the love scroll under a candleholder with red candles at the north corner of your altar until your will is done. Make sure of your desire; this spell is lasting.

Conjuring Creativity: An Altar for the Imagination

Your personal altar is the ideal environment to incubate your ideas and can be a touchstone for daily conjuring and contemplation. By preparing your home and sparking your inner flames, you can clear away personal blocks and invite in friendly spirits who will aid you in personal pursuits, no matter what your line of work is.

On a low table or chest, place an orange or gold scarf and the following elements: yellow, orange, and gold candles for stimulating intelligence and clarity; bergamot oil for energy; and vanilla incense for mental power.

In an amber or clear glass bowl on the altar, place cloves and sage leaves. Next, add items that symbolize your personal creativity—perhaps a poem you wrote, a figure you sculpted, or a photograph you took of the altar.

Place benzoin, an herb for all-around mental strength and clarity, in your incense burner; it will bring inspiration from the psychic realm. Add any gifts from nature that inspire you—luminous shells, chunks of quartz, or feathers. Arrange your altar in a way that pleases you and stimulates your senses. Now, anoint the candle with bergamot essential oil while you meditate to clear your mind of any distractions. This is an essential step in opening the mental and spiritual space necessary to create, whether your intention is to create a ritual of your own design or an art project. Once you feel focused, light a sage leaf and wave it gently around so the cleansing smoke permeates your altar space. Light the anointed candles and the incense with a candle. Now set and speak your intention:

    By my hand,

    And by the blessing of the spirits,

    The fire of my creativity

    Burns bright,

    Burns long,

    Burns eternal.

    Blessings to me and to all who create!

Crystal Cleansing

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. A new or waning moon is the optimal time to perform this cleansing. 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.

Crystal Shrines: Altar Crystals

The following is a comprehensive overview of different crystals and what their presence on your altar will mean.

CREATIVITY

Amazonite, aventurine, carnelian, chrysolite, chrysoprase, citrine, green tourmaline, malachite, yellow fluorite

INTUITION

Amethyst, azurite, celestite, lapis lazuli, moonstone, selenite, smoky quartz, sodalite, star sapphire, yellow calcite

LOVE

Amethyst, magnetite, rhodochrosite, rose quartz, twinned rock crystals

PROSPERITY

Bloodstone, carnelian, citrine, dendritic agate, diamond, garnet, hawk’s-eye, moss agate, peridot, ruby, tiger’s-eye, topaz, yellow sapphire

PROTECTION

Amber, Apache tear, chalcedony, citrine, green calcite, hematite, jade, jet, smoky quartz

SELF-ASSURANCE

Azurite, chalcedony, chrysocolla, green tourmaline, hematite, rutilated quartz, tiger’s-eye

SERENITY

Amber, aventurine, blue jade, dioptase, Herkimer diamond, jasper, kunzite, moonstone, onyx, peridot, quartz, rhodonite

SUCCESS

Carnelian, obsidian, quartz, selenite, sodalite, topaz

VIGOR

Agate, aventurine, bloodstone, calcite, chalcedony, citrine, dioptase, emerald, garnet, orange calcite, ruby, topaz

WISDOM

Emerald, fluorite, Herkimer diamond, moldavite, serpentine, yellow calcite

Altar Candles: Creating Your Power Center

An altar is a place of power—your personal power—where you can make magic. By building a stone shrine, altar, or power center in your home, you can create a sacred place for daily conjuring, rituals, and

thinking. This will set the stage for you to focus your ideas and make them grow. Having a shrine in your home allows you to rid yourself of personal obstacles and invite friendly spirits into your space. Your
shrine will spark your inner flame and bring daily renewal. The more use an altar gets, the more energy it builds, making your spells even more effective. It should be an expression of your deepest self, filled with artifacts that hold personal resonance. Allow your altar to be a work in progress that changes with the seasons and reflects your inner cycles. I recommend starting with a flat surface, one at least two feet across each way for the four directions of the compass. Perhaps you have a favorite antique table, at once simple and ornate. I have set up my altar to face north, long believed to be the origin of primordial energy and associated with manifestation. North is also the direction of the hour of midnight, the “witching hour,” and an altar set up facing north at midnight promises potent magic.

Energy Work: Managing Energy and Creating Sacred Space

Liz Ashling is a shamanic leader in Larkspur, California, who has worked with hundreds of people in her practice to help them live in balance and “awaken oneness.” She has inspired the following meditation. This uniquely holistic approach to energy management provides the opportunity for deep inner work, since within sacred space you experience meaningful exploration to transform your life.

I suggest that you create a special space for yourself, a safe space for healing, such as an altar or healing sanctuary. You want to focus on what you wish to heal. You may wish to write out an intention list with your desires. While you hold your healing intention in your mind, begin to notice what would support your intention. It may be a picture of a healed person, a symbol, or a picture of a spiritual master such as St. Francis, the Blessed Mother, Kuan Yin, or the Buddha. Choose whomever you feel most connected with. Honor Mother Earth by placing a bowl of water on the altar as well as a white candle to banish bad energy. Use something to represent the element of fire and something to represent the earth: fresh flowers, crystals, and pictures of a sculpture of your animal allies and totems. If you have a permanent sacred place with an altar, simply add items with healing powers that match your healing intentions. The ritual of creating an altar provides support to your process.

Here is where you can apply your personal design and creativity. Tap into your intuition and let it be your guide in this sacred shrine. Altars may include a variety of items, such as minerals like rose quartz, amethyst, quartz crystal, turquoise, or any other minerals that promote healing and add supportive energy during your process. Some people use sage, evergreen, or cedar to prepare themselves and their space, asking to clear away earthly demands and confusion as they smudge. The result is the enhancement of listening to yourself, which leads to a deeper inner wisdom. Some people choose to use holy water or wear a gold cross as they do their healing process, while other place a glass bowl of blessed salt water on their altar to keep the space clear. Any of these can help to create sacred space and prepare you for your process. You may wish to play classical or soothing music in the background while you process. I prefer silence of my drum and rattles.

You should do the following exercises in silence, without interruption, and in a safe place. Once you have created your space, sit quietly without being disturbed for an hour or so. Turn off your phone and get comfortable. I suggest that you sit rather than lie down because you will be less likely to fall asleep. Now close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to quiet yourself. Note: I suggest that you read these exercises into a tape player, so you can simple close your eyes and listen to the process. 

Inspiration Altar: Unleash Your Creative Powers

Your personal altar is the ideal environment to incubate your ideas and can be a touchstone for daily conjuring and contemplation. By preparing your home and sparking your inner flames, you can clear away personal blocks and invite in friendly spirits who will aid you in personal pursuits, no matter what your line of work is.

On a low table or chest, place an orange or gold scarf and the following elements: yellow, orange, and gold candles for stimulating intelligence and clarity; bergamot oil for energy; and vanilla incense for mental power.

In an amber or clear glass bowl on the altar, place cloves and sage leaves or bundles. Next, add items that symbolize your personal creativity—perhaps a poem you wrote, a figure you sculpted, or a photograph you took of the altar.

Place benzoin, an herb for all-around mental strength and clarity, in your incense burner; it will bring inspiration from the psychic realm. Add any gifts from nature that inspire you— luminous shells, chunks of quartz, or feathers. Arrange your altar in a way that pleases you and stimulates your senses. Now, anoint the candle with bergamot essential oil while you meditate to clear your mind of any distractions. This is an essential step in opening the mental and spiritual space necessary to create, whether your intention is to create a ritual of your own design or an art project. Once you feel focused, light a sage leaf and wave it gently around so the cleansing smoke permeates your altar space. Light the anointed
candles and the incense with a candle. Now set and speak your intention:

By my hand,
And by the blessing of the spirits,
The fire of my creativity
Burns bright,
Burns long,
Burns eternal.
Blessings to me and all who create!

Pot of Gold: An Abundance Altar Blessing

Cauldron magic is more about the act of brewing something new than it is about purification by water. To attract money, fill a big pot with fresh water and place it on your altar during the waxing moon. Pour into it an offering of a cup of milk mixed with honey. Toss handfuls of chamomile, woodruff, moss, and vervain into the cauldron. With your hands raised, say aloud:

I call upon you, gods and goddesses of old, to fill my purse with gold. In return, I offer your honey’s gold and mother’s milk. 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 imbue your space with the energy of abundance. When the magic has been fulfilled (or before the milk and herbs begin to spoil, pour it outside your home into the ground and bow in appreciation of the kindness of the gods and goddesses.

Healing Altar: Crafting Well-Being

 Creating a healing altar will safeguard your physical health and that of your loved ones. Your altar is your sacred workspace. It is charged with your personal power. Set up your healing altar facing north, the direction associated with the energy of manifestation. North is also the direction of the hour of midnight, the “witching hour,” and an altar set up facing north at midnight promises potent magic.

To ensure healthful beginnings, find a pure white square of fabric to drape over your altar to make a tabula rasa, or altar equivalent to a blank slate. Take two green candles and place them in green glass holders or votive glasses and position them in the two farthest corners of the altar. Place your incense burner in the center between the two candles and light the incense. Sandalwood, cinnamon, camphor, and frankincense are all powerful purification incenses that are perfect for the creation of a healing altar. Burn one or all of these purification essences to consecrate the space. Adorn your altar with objects that symbolize healing energy to you. You may perhaps choose a candleholder carved from a chunk of amethyst crystal, which contains healing properties; an abalone shell with the iridescent magic of the oceans; a sweet-smelling bundle of sage; a small citrus plant bursting with the restorative power of vitamins; or a bowl of curative salts from the sea.

These symbolic items, and any others that you select, will energize your altar with the magic that lives inside you. It is also important that the altar be pleasing to your eye and makes you feel good when you look at it so that you want to spend time there each and every day. After you have been performing rituals there for a while, a positive healing energy field will radiate from your altar.

Seasonal Altars

There are many reasons to create personal altars, and four of those reasons are the seasons of the year. You altar helps you to maintain balance in your life and deepens your spiritual connection to the world around you. A seasonal altar is your tool for ceremonies to honor Mother Nature and connect with the deeper wisdom of the earth. A seasonal altar enshrines the natural world and blends the energies of flowers, stones, shells, leaves, and any and all gifts of the season. I think of my seasonal altar as the middle ground between earth and sky, the meeting point of the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Creating a seasonal altar is a life-affirming act. It is my way of honoring our ecology and our planet.

Spring

You can create a wonderful outdoor altar for spring by planning two seasons ahead and planting tulip or hyacinth bulbs in a circle. When the flowers begin to bud, place an image or statue in the center. It could be a bust of the Greek youth, Hyacinth, immortalized in myth and in the gorgeous flower itself. Throughout the spring, you can stand inside your circle and pray or chant for the rebirth of the world all around you.

Summer

During this season of sun and heat, th fullness of life and growth can be celebrated with colors of yellow, green, and red. As you travel on vacation, bring back shells and stones and create an altar devoted to this season of joy.

Fall

The leaves are now falling and the harvest is here, calling for a gratitude altar that reflects the bounty and continuance of live. An arrangement of pumpkins, acorns, multicolored branches, and a handsome bouquet of leaves will honor the natural changes that characterize autumn.

Winter

White and blue represent snow and sky. Star-shaped candles and a bare branch on your altar symbolize this time to go within, explore the inner reaches of self, and draw forth the deepest wisdom for the coming spring. In The Blessed Bee, a Pagan family magazine, Selene Silverwind writes on the subject of setting up a candle-free children’s altar. She emphasizes the importance of changing the altar for every season and holy day, specifically for Samhain, our modern- day Halloween, and Yule, the precursor to our Christmas. In so doing, Silverwind points out that you are “teaching children to connect with faith at a deep level,” helping them participate in their religion in a physical way instead of trying to stand quietly at a ritual. You are also teaching them the meaning of the seasons and how they affect us.

Creating a Personal Altar

 

Before there were temples and churches, the primary place of reverence was the altar. The word altar comes from a Latin word that means “high place.” With a personal altar, you can reach the heights of your spirituality and grow higher in wisdom. You construct an altar when you assemble symbolic items in a meaningful manner and focus 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 in others. In her marvelous collection, A Book of Women’s Altars, Nancy Brady Cunningham recommends “bowing” or placing your hands on the ground in front of your altar as you end the ritual. “Grounding symbolizes the end of the ritual and signals the mind to return to an ordinary state of awareness as you re- enter your daily life."

An altar is a physical point of focus for the ritual, containing items considered sacred and essential to ritual work and spirituality. An altar can be anything from a rock in the forest to an exquisite antique table. Even portable of temporary altars can suffice—a board suspended between two chairs, for example, can become sacred space if it’s consecrated. You can also create more than one altar if you have the room or have multiple, specific needs, such as attracting work, creativity, love, or healing. You can also have altars dedicated to various deities, if you desire to go deep into the energies of those gods or goddesses. You can also create shrines to honor a deity. A shrine is a place devoted to a divinity that becomes hallowed by that association. A shrine can be any size that suits your circumstance, such as a corner in a room, an entire building, or even a small shelf or windowsill that receives the light of the moon and sun. You can also use a large space or create a home temple space that accommodates highly complicated and intricate rituals for regular use with a large group.

Tradition usually places the feminine Goddess space on the left-hand side of the altar and the masculine God space on the right. Once you are comfortable and experienced with ritual work, you can begin to customize the altar. 

Experimenting on Your Own

There are so many kinds of rituals, from everyday actions to special incantations for high holy days such as Beltane (May Day) and Samhain (All Hallows Eve). You have sampled just a few spells and rituals here and have learned how you can wield gem magic in your life. After you have been practicing these crystal conjurations for a while, you can experiment with new variations, and they will most likely come naturally to you. Try the stones you are attracted to for your altar, and if you feel an affinity for a certain crystal, explore it in the resource section of this book and then discover for yourself how you can use that stone to suit your needs. Just think about the positive change you want in your life and create your personal spell book.

Witchy Wellness Healing Altar

Your altar is your sacred work space, a place imbued with your personal pagan power. I recommend starting with a flat surface, at least two feet across each way for the four directions of the compass. Perhaps you have a favorite antique table, at once simple and ornate. I have set up my altar to face north, long believed to be the origin of primordial energy. North is the direction of midnight, and an altar oriented in this fashion promises potent magic.

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 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 of 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.

Stone Cold Magic: Your Crystal Conjuring Shrine

By building a stone shrine, altar, or power center in your home, you can create a place for daily conjuring, rituals, and thinking. This will set the stage for you to focus your ideas and make them grow. Having a shrine in your home allows you to rid yourself of personal obstacles and invite friendly spirits. Your shrine will spark your inner flame and bring daily renewal. The more use an altar gets, the more energy it builds, making your spells even more effective.

Create your shrine on a low table covered in a white scarf. Set rainbow candles in an arc and then add black and white candles. Place a heatproof bowl containing amber incense (good for creativity and healing), and place it in the center of the rainbow, surrounded by quartz. You should also keep a stick of sage or a seashell on your altar for cleansing the space every day.

Prosperity stones should be placed to the far left on the altar, in the money corner. Romance crystals should sit to the far right on the altar.

The rest of your altar should consist of meaningful, personal symbols. They should reflect your spiritual aspirations. I keep fresh wildflowers in a vase, a statue of a goddess, abalone shells, a magnetite obelisk, and a rock-crystal ball on my altar. An obelisk or pyramid on your altar can be used for writing out desires and wishes. You can use just about anything—photos of loved ones, religious images, and so forth.

With your altar, you can create a bridge between your outer and inner worlds. It can even be a place where you commune with the deepest and most hidden parts of yourself. An altar is where you can honor the rhythms of the season and the rhythms of your own life. An altar is a touchstone, a place to see the sacred and incorporate it into your life each and every day. It can be your special corner of the world where you can rest and connect with your spiritual center. Creating and augmenting your altar every day is one of the most soul-nourishing acts you can do.

Following is a comprehensive overview of different crystals and what their presence on your altar will mean:

Altar Crystal: amazonite, aventurine, carnelian, chrysolite, chrysoprase, citrine, green tourmaline, malachite, yellow fluorite

What They Mean: Creativity

Altar Crystal: amethyst, azurite, celestite, lapis lazuli, moonstone, selenite, smoky quartz, sodalite, star sapphire, yellow calcite

What They Mean: Intuition

Altar Crystal: amethyst, magnetite, rhodochrosite, rose quartz, twinned rock crystals

What They Mean: Love

Altar Crystal: bloodstone, carnelian, citrine, dendritic agate, diamond, garnet, hawk’s-eye, moss agate, peridot, ruby, tiger’s-eye, topaz, yellow sapphire

What They Mean: Prosperity

Altar Crystal: amber, apache tear, chalcedony, citrine, green calcite, jade, jet, smoky quartz

What They Mean: Protection

Altar Crystal: azurite, chalcedony, chrysocolla, green tourmaline, hematite, rutilated quartz, tiger’s-eye

What They Mean: Self-Assurance

Altar Crystal: amber, aventurine, blue jade, dioptase, Herkimer diamond, jasper, kunzite, moonstone, onyx, peridot, quartz, rhodonite

What They Mean: Serenity

Altar Crystal: carnelian, obsidian, quartz, selenite, sodalite, topaz

What They Mean: Success

Altar Crystal: agate, aventurine, bloodstone, calcite, chalcedony, citrine, dioptase, emerald, garnet, orange calcite, ruby, topaz

What They Mean: Vigor

Altar Crystal: emerald, fluorite, Herkimer diamond, moldavite, serpentine, yellow calcite

What They Mean: Wisdom

Happy Home Spell (Waning Moon Phase is Optimal)

To anoint your home and turn it into a protective shield for you and your loved ones, rub any of the following essential oils on your doorjambs: cinnamon, clove, dragon’s blood, myrrh. Walk through the door into your home and close it securely. Take the remaining essential oils and rub a bit on every other door and window. Light anointed white candles and place them in the windows and chant the words of the spell:

My home is my temple. 
Here I love and love, 
Safe and secure 
Both below and above. 
And so it is by magic sealed.