Magic Amplified: Prayer for Pagan Partnership

Perhaps what you need most is a partner to support, encourage, and collaborate with in your magical workings. On a waxing moon Friday night, this spell will bring your partner to you.

Gather together

    * 1 lemon

    * 1 orange

    * 2 rosemary sprigs

    * 1 orange candle

    * a fireproof clay or glass dish

Group the fruit and rosemary around the orange candle. Light the candle and intone:

    On this night

    I do invite

    new energy to bring delight

    Under this lunar light. So mote it be.

Now, using the candle flame, light the tip of the rosemary sprigs and set them in the fireproof dish. Rosemary has a very powerful cleansing smoke. It was used as an incense by ancient priests and priestesses in Greek and Roman times and by prophets and seers. It cleanses the aura and paves the way for major magic. Soon your partner in spellwork will appear.

Waning Moon Contentment Ritual

 

You can create a week of blissful and composed calm with the following spell.

Gather together

• a purple candle
• hibiscus or violet essential oil
• a bouquet of purple flowers (violets, for example)

Timing: On a Monday, as the moon grows smaller in the sky, try this spell.

On a waning moon Monday evening, anoint your purple candle with the essential oil. Place the candle on your altar beside a vase of fresh violets or other purple flowers. Sit in front of your altar as twilight begins, and when the sun is completely gone, light the candle and chant:

    Any care and despair begone.

    Here with the mountain, the river, the tree, the grass and the moon.

    I receive my strength from Nature and she is my center.

    Tomorrow and the next, all gladness will enter.

    Harm to none, only good.

How to Match Your Spells to Moon Phases

• The new moon is an auspicious time for a fresh start.
• The crescent moon, which appears seven days before and after the new moon, is the time for productivity and creating positive energy.
• While waxing, the moon grows steadily larger and is good for spellwork toward completing goals and building toward an outcome.
• The full moon is a great teacher with a special message for each month.
• The waning moon is the time to wind down any personal challenges and see them to an end.

Mystical Crystal DIY: Message in a Bottle

In use since Elizabethan times, magic bottles, or spell bottles, can function as guardians. Called witch bottles in the 1600s in England, they were originally used to hold objects for magical uses. They have largely fallen out of use, but you can customize magic bottles for yourself with crystal stoppers for a variety of reasons. You can put one in your garden for healthy plants, on the mantel to protect your home, next to your bed for love and happiness, and in the kitchen for good health. These magic bottles are mostly used for protection, but you can also place into them symbols of your dreams and desires, such as a flower for peace, rosemary for remembrance, and cinnamon for the spice of life.

Magic bottles are very easy to make, as you can easily glue the crystals of your choice onto the lid or cork top or place them inside. Here are a few to try:

For luck with money, place three pennies and some pyrite or jade into a bottle and put it on your desk and home or your workplace. Shake the magic jar whenever you think about your finances, and your fortune will improve in three days.

For love, place a rosebud or rose petal, rose essential oil, and rose quartz into a bottle and keep it at your bedside. Each night, burn a pink candle anointed with the oil from your love-magic bottle. On the seventh day, your prospects for romance will brighten!

For a peaceful and secure home, take a teaspoon of soil from outside your house (or the closest park) and place it into a bottle with some smoky topaz or brown jasper. Place the bottle into the pot of a plant near the entrance of your home. Every time you water the plant, think about the sanctity of your home. As your plant grows, so will the tranquility of your residence.

Create Stained-Glass Decorated Candles

To enhance the magic of your ritual candles, you can create your own, filling them with your energy and intentions! You can adorn them with big sequins, curio crosses, symbols such as the Egyptian ankh, faux pearls, or anything lovely and suitably glittery that can be added to the sides of the candles to create a “stained glass” appearance. Another technique is to mix in your magical objects, stirring them into the melted wax inside a mold. An even easier way to do this is to take a soft beeswax pillar candle and “stud” the sides and the candle top with tiny crystal pieces that cost just pennies per pound. You can save them after melting the candles down and reuse them again and again. Nowadays, candle-making classes abound, and you can get leftover or “recycled” wax to use, melt, and pour into glass votives for your own uniquely magical candle creations. 

Chimes of Change Charm

If you have a dear friend, as I do, whom you occasionally drive crazy, you may sometimes receive the silent treatment. Try this charm to break the tension by literally breaking the silence.

Buy a wind chime, or, even better, make one from odd earrings, old keys, brass bells, and any other potentially musical objects you can find. Bless the chime by smudging it with sage smoke.

While you speak this spell, jangle your chime energetically:

Silence no more;

we’ll be as before.

We’ll laugh, talk and sing;

good times, this chime shall bring.

So mote it be.

Keep repeating and ringing until you practically hear the echo of your friend’s voice. Wait a full twenty-four hours before you call her. Chances are, though, she’ll call you first.

Divorce Ritual: Graceful Goodbyes

Performing a ritual to acknowledge the end of a relationship is an important part of the healing process. Whether it is a breakup of a love affair or the dissolution of the legal bonds of marriage, approaching this change with ritual will help and heal. I have also known those who performed this same rite with the ending of a friendship. This ceremony is intended to resolve issues, tie up loose ends, and move on. It is very important psychologically, psychically, and emotionally to recognize that a divorce is a very big deal. This ritual is best done privately, although you may want the support of a carefully chosen friend. I have outlined some carefully considered questions for you to ask yourself when trying to figure out if a divorce ritual is what you want to do. As with all rituals, I strongly suggest that this one be given a lot of thought. With this divorce ritual, I recommend going to an even deeper level of introspection, as you will be bidding farewell to an important part of your life that, doubtless, brought you as much joy as it did sorrow. Many emotions are going to rise up and you can, gently and with love, put these feelings to rest and assign them a place in your life: the past.

Questions for Yourself

Thinking about and writing down concerns, worries, and questions you may have about your divorce and new solo life will help you begin this new passage of life.

• Do I want to have any ties in the future to my former spouse? Or do I wish to cut off all ties completely?
• If any kind of relationship continues with the individual whom I wish to divorce (and if there are issues involving the custody of children, these issues will remain), what are the safe and peaceful ways to remain connected?
• What are the aspects of the relationship I wish to be divorced from (i.e. fighting about money, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, and stress)?
• What are the positive memories I want to keep? r What fears do I have?

Today, divorce seems to be no more important than signing a piece of paper and sending it off in the mail. I have many friends who have said, “Is this all there is?” This ritual is an answer to that question.

Go to a place in nature where you went together—a lakeshore, a special beach, a path in the woods, or a park. Take a photocopy of your divorce papers and a copy of a photo of you both, and place them together in an envelope. Write on the envelope:

On this date ____________, I divorce myself of [write the aspect you are divorcing, not the name of the person].

Say aloud:

Now I am free to pursue my happiness, a new love, and new people in my life. Good memories I will treasure and independence is my pleasure. I say goodbye to this part of my life and release all pain and sorrow.
I welcome the new and the good into my life I am clear.
I am free.
I am me.

Take the envelope and bury it where it will decompose undisturbed—no need to burn or throw it in the water. Allow it to return to the elements, as is Nature’s way. There is no doubt that you will feel sad and by all means, allow yourself to cry and mourn. Each tear releases toxins from your system. As you return to your home, you will feel lighter. Your conscience is clear and your future is bright!

Yummy Spa Scrubs: Luxe Locks DIY Shampoo

For medium to oily hair only

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon baking soda

Take a large bowl and pour the water in. Fold in the baking soda and stir well until it has dissolved. Now, pour it over your wet hair while in the bath or shower. Massage the mixture into your hair, paying special attention to the scalp. If you tend to have oily hair, concentrate your efforts around the hairline and at the crown of the head. If you have long hair, you can double up on the amounts. Rinse thoroughly.

How to Tell a Ruby is Real

If you place a real ruby in a glass jar, red light will emanate from the jar. If pearls are put together with a real ruby on a silver platter, the silver will appear black, the pearls will take on a red sheen, and the ruby will glow with a brilliant fire. If you place a genuine ruby on an unopened lotus bud, the lotus will bloom almost immediately. 

Good rubies are smooth, lustrous, extremely hard, brilliant and transparent. Lesser rubies are bubbled or dirty, which reduces the effectiveness of the gem; dull, which causes problems with male relatives, especially brothers; fragile, which portends if there is any black hue in the blue. If so, do not buy this stone; it will have no lightning; cracked, which brings bad luck; or brittle, which causes difficulty in bearing male children.

Tips ’n’ Tricks: Malachite Bone Soother

One healer recommends this malachite bone cure: Using tape or a soft cord, create a band with a small piece of malachite. Tape or wrap the band to the injured or bruised area and leave it overnight. The benefits should start within one day as the inflammation is greatly eased by the miraculous coppery green crystal. I have a bad ankle from a really bad sprain and a subsequent really bad break, and my malachite ankle band is invaluable when the ache-inducing rain is coming on.

Zircon—Legacy of Hyacinth

Blue zircon is a thread of the fabric of Greek mythology. In the tale of the Greek youth Hyacinth, a blue hyacinth flower grew in the place where he died. In a less charming but equally fascinating fable, zircon was used for exorcism. The methodology was simple—a cross was cut into a loaf of freshly baked wheat bread. Then, a zircon was used to trace along the cross shape before the bread was eaten to drive away the evil spirits.

Gem-Magic Get-Together

Forget the Tupperware party and have a gem-magic party with your girlfriends instead. Make popcorn, eat pizza, drink champagne, and, most importantly, make magic together. What could be more fun? All you have to do is pick a night and assign everyone two ingredients to bring—one snack and one batch of crystal beads. You provide the thread, tools, glue, and good vibes.

Think about beginning the night by making brooches. A brooch worn over the heart is a symbol of loyalty and love among friends. You’ll need to get some flat- circle brooch pins at a craft store. Give each person at the party a brooch and ask her to choose a partner. Using glue, each gal will encrust the front of her brooch with as many crystals as possible in a color and an array that best represents the personality of her partner. Then, the partners exchange brooches. Your gaggle of girlfriends will be forever bonded by their love brooches, not to mention the glue!

Here are a few other festive and fun projects you can whip up together: birthstone bracelets, bewitching barrettes, pendulum pendants, true-love tiaras, blessing bracelets, bodacious bobby pins, and nights-of-enchantment necklaces. The possibilities are endless; let your imagination (and your friends) run wild!

Rings of Power

You can follow the exact steps above to make yourself finger rings that can bring more grace and less grief into your life. Think about the different areas of your life and then create an entire collection of rings to sprinkle a little magic into those areas.

Study the descriptionary in Part Two of this book, and you can explore and discover dozens of marvelous stones from which to choose. Do you want to be more creative? Try tiger’s-eye. Need to find a job? Plume agate is your stone. Looking to add some pizzazz to your love life? Alexandrite will bring lots of zest. Feeling blue? Citrine or jet can banish dark days. Stressed out? Rhyolite races to the rescue!

Charging Your Jewelry with Magic

Charging a gem or crystal imbues it with your intent. Upon charging your jewelry, you can use it in spell work or anytime you want to surround yourself with the magic you put into the gemstones. While picturing your truest wish and hope, and what you ultimately want to achieve through this process, anoint a candle with an essential oil that most expresses your energy. Perhaps it is rose or, as in my case, amber. Begin by lighting the candle and gazing into the flame. Then, place the piece of jewelry in front of the candle and say aloud, “Into this jewelry, I imbue my essence and the power of this blessed earth. This gem of great hue is charged until my magic is through. So mote it be!”

You can further empower the jewel by scratching your desire into the wax of the candle. Then, each time you burn the candle, place the gem before it and think upon your quest.

To enchant all of your jewelry, you need to create and altar for this express purpose. You can prepare the way for letting crystal and gem magic into your life, and focusing your desires and dreams, with a gem-magic altar. If you already have an altar in place, incorporate some of the following elements. The more you use your altar, the more powerful your spells will be.

Your gem-magic altar can be a low table, the top of a chest, or even a shelf. First, you must purify the space with the smoke of a sage bundle. This is called smudging and is essential in clearing energy to make way for magic. You can use wild sage or purchase it at any herb store or metaphysical five-and-dime.

Once you have smudged the space, cover your altar with your favorite fabric; I recommend the color white. Place a candle in each corner. I prefer candles of many colors to represent the rainbow array of gems. Place gems and crystals of your choice around the candles. Rose quartz is a heart stone, and fluorite is a calming crystal, so these are good choices for grounding yourself, particularly if your altar is in your bedroom, as many are! Add to the altar fresh flowers, an incense you simply love to smell, and any objects that have special meaning to you. Some folks place lovely shells or feathers they have found in their paths or on the beach, and others use imagery that is special—a goddess statue or a star shape. The most important point is that your altar be pleasing to your eye and your sensibilities. You should feel that it represents the deepest aspects of you as a person.

Ideally, you will bless your altar on a new moon. Light the candles and incense, and say aloud:

“Here burns happiness about me,
Peace and harmony are in abundance, 
Here my happiness abounds.
Gems and jewels—these bones of the earth
Bring love, prosperity, health and mirth.
Be it ever thus that joy is the light
That here burns bright.
Blessed be!”

You have now consecrated your altar. It will ease your spirit anytime and become your power source. Your altar connects you to the earth of which you and all gems and crystals are a part. Your altar will connect you to the crystal magic that has now entered your life. Whenever you want to add a dash of magic or a supernatural sparkle to a stone or piece of jewelry, you can place it on your altar for seven days. On the seventh day, wear the jewelry and bewitch everyone you encounter! Remember that your level of clarity and concentration will be reflected in the jewel’s power. Now, enjoy your sacred stones.

Defining Crystal Categories

First, let’s explain the different categories: precious and semiprecious gems, crystals, and stones. We’ll start with the widest category, stones, which actually encompasses all the other categories. Stones can hold much magic and bring the best to you. I’m always looking in my path for a pretty stone or one of an unusual shape or coloration. In fact, I have a mobile altar in my car that is frequently augmented by a charming chunk of rock. I always notice that my friends and passengers are unable to resist picking them up and rubbing the smooth surfaces admiringly. Maybe one day, I’ll find a diamond in the rough in my path!

Stones have been of interest for many centuries. Primitive peoples probably picked up stones out of curiosity. Through trial and error, they discovered which rocks withstood the test of time and were more durable for use in tools. Doubtless, they also noticed that some stones could be polished to a lovely sheen.

Stones are primarily minerals that can be defined as natural, generally inorganic substances with a chemical composition and an internal atomic structure. So, a diamond, the most precious of all in the eyes of many rock hounds, is a stone and also a crystal with a very simple structure of one element—carbon. Quartz, a very commonly available and rarely expensive stone, is usually referred to as rock crystal and is composed of two elements—silicon and oxygen. Crystals are defined as such because of their internal diffracting patterns—that is, by the way they hold and reflect light. Rocks can be defined as natural, solid compounds of mineral grains, or glass, or a combination of both.

What is the difference between precious and semiprecious gems? The simple distinction between these two categories is that only the most rare and costly gems are classified as precious. Emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds fall into this foremost category. Those remaining gems, such as opal, amethyst, and bloodstone, are semiprecious. Gems are a special class of very valuable minerals rated according to their hardness, color, and luster. Gems are held so dear because of their quality; they are usually clearer, rarer, and exquisitely beautiful.

All of these “rules” date back thousands of years in some cases. There is great tradition surrounding the lore and love of gems, stones, and crystals. They are simply glorious. Think about it—not only are they lovely to look at and to adorn yourself with, but they also have properties that bring love, health, happiness, abundance, and peace of mind.

Mystical Crystal DIY: Parking Pendant

Hang a red jasper crystal attached to a string on your rearview mirror in your car and your parking problems will soon be over. When you need a spot, touch the jasper and say, “Squat, Squat, find me a spot!” Remember to always give thanks to the parking gods and goddesses to remain in their favor.

Seven Sacred Stones Bracelet

Take any silver chain-link bracelet and add “charm” to it! Bracelets act as protection jewelry, and, well, they look simply divine on our delicate wrists, do they not? Of late, the trend has been to layer bracelets, but, with gem magic, there’s a danger that jeweled pieces worn together could cancel each other out because they have conflicting energies. So, I’m going to recommend that you wear this bracelet alone, without other magical wrist wear.

To make this piece, you’ll need seven stones on small pendent settings, a silver chain-link bracelet, seven jump rings, and pliers. Plain silver chain-link bracelets are easy to obtain at any jewelry department or store, from Target to Tiffany. Jump rings are open rings onto which you can slide a pendant and then close up with small chain- nose pliers. They are readily available at any craft or jewelry store.

Before you choose your seven stones, decide what energy enhancement you desire. If you want lots of energy and zest, choose red jasper or pink clamshell. If you want to be uplifted, try jade. To become wiser, pick sapphire. To stay safe while traveling, pick dendritic agate. To remain calm and overcome stress, choose blue lace agate. For more mental clarity, choose malachite. For a self-esteem boost, try rhodonite.

Once you have pursued all the gem and crystal descriptions in this book, you can and should experiment with all manner of combinations. However, I highly recommend the Seven Sacred Stones Bracelet with the following very beneficial stones and energies:

• Citrine for a better ability to communicate

• Lace agate for happiness with your job

• Lapis lazuli for mental brilliance

• Moonstone for self-love and self-expression

• Red coral for good health and physical strength

• Rose quartz or opal to make you appealing to others 

• Turquoise for calmness and protection from the earth

Friends of mine have reported wonderful results with this banishing and boosting bracelet. Where else can you find jewelry that will make you feel good about yourself, protect you from harm, and help you to look even prettier? You have to make it! You can find these pendant-set stones in any jewelry or new age store. The metaphysical stores have the best selection, however.

Cords of Connection

Cord magic is one of the oldest kinds of enchantments and employs a simple and powerful charm in that it can be used for any purpose in accordance with your intention. After you have set your intention, you tie a knot at each end and the cord is like a battery that holds the power of your intention as long as the knots at both end remind intact. Your magic cord is a rope that binds magic to you and is ideally made from strands of red wool or ribbon. It should be nine feet long and cut with your bolline, it is braided and tied into a loop at one end to represent feminine energy and left loose or frayed at the opposing end to signify the complementary male energy. Crystal beads woven onto the strands of the rope can compound its magical quality. I recommend that you use clear quartz crystal beads, which are energy amplifiers, but you can use special stones for various effects: rose quartz for self-love, citrine for grounding, jade for stability , blue lapis for inspiration, malachite for protection, moonstone for quiet calm, and amethyst for intuition and psychic ability.

I have an adorned cord in my bedroom on my self-care shrine that helped relieve a bout of insomnia some months ago. As I added rose quarts and amethyst beads to the red cord, I held the intention of deep rest, positive dreams, and harmony in my life. Upon knotting both ends, I have enjoyed exactly that and so can you.

Crystal Wish Box

Keep a magic wishing box on your desk. Every so often, look at it and make a wish for your heart’s desire. It’s easy to make: Take a bowl or small box and fill it halfway with sand. Place these suggested wish stones in any arrangement you find pleasing.

• Agate for a new home

• Amethyst for spirituality

• Carnelian or lapis lazuli for a job 

• Coral for wanting children

• Fool’s gold for money

• Rose quartz for love

   

Crystal Counsel

If you have ever experienced a problem in your life that no one else could help you with, a scrying mirror or crystal can offer counsel. Any time you feel the need for insight and answers, scrying can lend illumination. Are you stymied at work? Are you restless and don’t know why? Do you suspect someone isn’t being honest with you? Try scrying! Here are some scrying crystals to use for intuition power:

• Amethyst opens your own psychic abilities.

• Azurite with malachite can help with studying and brainstorming ideas.

• Bloodstone guards you against anyone trying to deceive you.

• Celestite gives you the very special help of angel-powered insight and advice.

• Chrysocolla helps you to see and resolve relationship difficulties.

• Lapis lazuli leads the way if you are looking for a new job.

• Selenite can be used under moonlight for pleasant visions of your future.