Earring Elegance

 

You can wear one gold earring and one silver earring to rid yourself of the discomfort of a headache. Earrings were once worn to guard ears from potential disease and from hearing bad news. They were also believed to strengthen weak eyes, especially if set with emeralds. Earrings help to balance both hemispheres of the brain and can stabilize the throat chakra. The earlobes are sensory centers of the body and usually benefit from the stimulation of a gem or crystal. Jade and tiger’s-eye are great for reviving and refreshing. You will generally feel quite good with these two earring choices. Sapphires will bring you greater wisdom. However, lapis lazuli and opal can be overstimulating as earrings, so watch carefully and see how your body reacts to them. Some people feel light-headed with these two stones placed so high on the body. Malachite can be too spiritually stimulating when set in earrings; don’t wear them unless you want to be in a soulful or dreamy reverie. Go for garnet, as garnet earrings will enhance your popularity. Here is a tip that might soon cause a stampede to the jewelry shop: rose quartz is wonderful for the skin and can even slow aging!

Flourish with Fluorite: Overcome Brain Strain

 

Violet—or amethyst—colored fluorite is especially good for the bones, including the marrow. It jogs the third eye and, best of all, imparts good old common sense! Green fluorite is favored for its ability to ground and center excessive physical and mental energy. Clear fluorite awakens the crown chakra and allows you to let go of anything holding back spiritual development. Blue fluorite facilitates mental clarity, orderly thought, and the ability to be a master communicator. Yellow fluorite kindles the synapses and awakens memory. It will also make you smarter and boost your creativity a great deal.

Any fluorite reduces electromagnetic pollutants and cleanses the aura. Get a big chunk of fluorite at your favorite metaphysical five-and-dime, and put it right beside your computer to decrease stress. Those long hours of staring at the screen will cease to sap your energy. Look at your fluorite at least once an hour to reduce eye and brain strain, too.

Under the Waxing Moon: A Spell to Banish Bad Luck

Your altar is the heart center of your home, holding the energy of your sanctuary. Yet the world is constantly coming in and bringing harmful energy over your threshold—problems at the workplace, financial woes, or bad news about new virus mutations or the climate crisis. All this negativity wants to get in the way and stay. While you can’t do anything about stock market crashes, the rate of inflation, or a coworker’s divorce, do not allow this bad energy to cling to you. Instead, you can do something about it with a home-keeping spell. The best time to release any and all bad luck is on a Friday the 13th or during 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 woodland 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 positivity 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.

Creating Your Crystal Conjuring Shrine

Put your shrine together on a low table covered with a white scarf. Set rainbow candles in an arc and then add black and white candles. Prepare a heatproof bowl containing amber incense (good for creativity and healing), and place it in the center of the rainbow, surrounded by quartz. 

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 personally meaningful 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-quartz crystal ball on my altar. You can use just about anything—photos of loved ones, religious images, and so forth. An obelisk or pyramid on your altar can be used for writing out desires and wishes. 

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.

Wishing Time: Brazilian Candomble Ritual

            

The Brazilian Candomble religion is now intertwined with Yoruban spirituality introduced to the New World via the slave trade. Yoruban spirituality offers many answers to personal problems and is a popular system of aid for people in trouble. The Yoruban entities are ready to lend a hand with broken hearts, illnesses, divorce, work woes, insomnia, betrayal, infertility, politics, luck—anything that concerns the human heart.

In Brazil, Candomble has adherents in every walk of life, not just the poor and downtrodden. Candomble is a “fiery” faith: candles and beach bonfires are very much a part of it. You will find shrines with brightly burning candles in the finest homes in Rio. Street shrines are a delightful aspect of the Brazilian culture. An extremely popular and powerful image is that of Xango, the storm god of lightning and thunder. Rich and poor alike have problems, and the spirits are there to help all. The beautiful beaches that run along the entire coast of Brazil are popular places for rituals and offerings. It is not uncommon to find candles glowing by the sea. This must be very pleasing indeed to their beloved mermaid goddess, Yemoja.

These accommodating spirits are called orixas. Whether public, as in the middle of a street, or privately in one’s home, these offerings are all designed to attract and please the orixas when you need a favor. These offerings to the spirits are called despachos.

We all have times in our lives when we need help. Are you having difficulty with a coworker or your boss? Do you keep getting the flu all the time? Are you trying to quit smoking and can’t seem to kick the habit? Do you need more money? Are you looking for love? Ask the orixas!

The following is a list of orixas and their correspondences:

• Esu’s color is black. Esu has the power to bring messages, likes offerings of candy and toys, and is associated with the number three
• Ogum’s color is green, and helps with getting jobs. Ogum’s number is seven and he has a preference for cigars
• and rum. 
• Oia-Iansa favors white, the number five, and is a protector. Eggplant is her preferred offering.
• Orunmila is in charge of all divination, prefers yellow and sweets, and favors the number sixteen. Offer yams and coca nuts.
• Oxala like white, the number eight, and brings peace. White cotton and white coconuts are the gifts to offer.
• Oxum favors yellow and is the divinity for love and marriage. Present Oxum with sweet honey and sweet cakes.
• Sonponno is the ruler of health and is connected with the color tan and the number seventeen. Corn and beans should be at Sonponno’s shrine.
• Yemoja is the divinity who aids with fertility issues. Lucky number seven and bright blue are Yemoja’s domain, and offerings should be sugar cane and the syrup made from it.
• Xando is the power and passion divinity and his color is bright red. With both four and six as totem numbers, he should be gifted with fruit. Bananas and red apples are best. 

Designing Your Own Earth Rituals

Drawing on the power of the earth, you can perform ceremonies of immense strength and richness to further your personal and spiritual goals. You can begin new projects, deepen your dreams, and ground yourself in nature. You can plant a magical garden with seeds of change. You can sculpt or carve a wooden or stone goddess for your altar. You can cook a sacred meal to serve after ritual work. You can perform rituals outdoors, celebrating the beauty of our planet, a gift we all share and must preserve.

Other earth elemental rites you can design on your own could include ceremonies for fertility, bodily health and strength, prosperity, property, success, and manifestation.

Earth Deities

In addition to Gaia, there are other gods and goddesses who can represent the element of earth. On your home altar or shrine, they can represent earth in your ritual work.

• The Green Man: the forest god who represents the power and divinity of nature.
• Buddha: He achieved enlightenment under the sacred Bodhi Tree.
• Venus of Willendorf: Her appealing and ample shape represents fertility and the feminine.
• Artemis: The huntress or woman warrior who travels with a pack of devoted dogs.

Personal Vision Quest

Carve out at least twelve hours for this day-long journey to your inner self. Ideally, it should begin at first light of dawn and end past twilight. Traditional Native American vision quests lasted up to four days, but this one-day version is still an effective path to self-discovery. Another aspect of this vision quest is that it is safe and easily practiced by urban spiritual seekers who only have the weekends for mystical pursuits and who lack access to mountainous regions.

To ready yourself for your inner work, you should fast with juice, weak tea, and plenty of water. If you have access to a sauna, you can perform a purification to ready your spirit. Pack a bag with a sage smudge stick, matches, water, juice, a blanket, a cell phone, and anything you feel you need for safety of in case of an emergency, such as an energy or granola bar, apples, energy drinks, and so forth. Let someone know what you plan to do, and where you plan to do it, and ask them to meet you at a specified time to bring you home; the last thing you’ll want to do is trek to the bus or drive a car. While Native shamans traditionally sent people out into the wild, it is better to be safe. Select a garden or nearby park. Ideally, your place will be outdoors but if that is not possible, you can choose someplace different to contemplate. Do some research on the place you have selected so there are no surprises that can interfere with your plans.

Draw a circle in the dirt, sand, or grass with a fallen branch or with your feet. Bless the circle with sage smoke and choose rocks to mark the four directions. Now settle into being alone, utterly alone. Pray, meditate, and contemplate for as long as you can without interruption: no food, no books, no cell phone, and no distractions. Pay attention to nature around you and be prepared to receive a visit from your totem animal in the form of a vision. Think about who you are and where you are going, your origins, and your spirit. I recommend taking a journal and making notes, as you feel inspired. Chanting and singing is a good way to open your spirit. No two vision quests will be alike. I cannot predict what will happen to you, whether you will have epiphanies, breakthroughs, visions, or how insight will come to you. What I do know, however, is that you will undoubtedly know yourself better at the end of your vision quest.

If at any time you feel endangered or unwell, end your vision quest. The pursuit of spiritual enlightenment should not come at the cost of your safety. 

The Vision Quest

While the term “vision quest” comes from Native American teachings, it is really the passage of the personal journey. No matter what your spiritual orientation is, for true personal development, it is essential to do the inner work. You must explore yourself deeply and discover what is important to you, sense where you need to go, and set your spiritual goals. At the end of the day and at the end of your life, it will not matter how many houses or cars you have; what really matters is what kind of person you were and how you treated others. Was the work of your life soul work? Did you express yourself creatively? Did you take care of your family? Did you help others?

Look inside; face these questions. Can you answer them satisfactorily? By doing so you will be able to determine and change the future course of events. A vision quest is an essential step in a life well lived, a life full of soul work, a life hard but ultimately joyful.

This ritual, performed in keeping with the Native American tradition, is a rite of passage requiring courage and fortitude. At the end, you will most certainly know who you are! Going into the wilderness by yourself with no food, water, or other creature comforts to do nothing but pray certainly forces you to face your inner self. The purpose of the vision quest is to receive a vision. Not everyone succeeds. Some people are too frightened, hungry, and cold to continue. Others experience an altered reality or deep visions due to sensory deprivation and the extreme physicality of the vision quest. 

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. 

Flourish with Fluorite: Overcome Brain Strain

Violet—or amethyst—colored fluorite is especially good for the bones, including the marrow. It jogs the third eye and, best of all, imparts good old common sense! Green fluorite is favored for its ability to ground and center excessive physical and mental energy. Clear fluorite awakens the crown chakra and allows you to let go of anything holding back spiritual development. Blue fluorite facilitates mental clarity, orderly thought, and the ability to be a master communicator. Yellow fluorite kindles the synapses and awakens memory. It will also make you smarter and boost your creativity a great deal.

Any fluorite reduces electromagnetic pollutants and cleanses the aura. Get a big chunk of fluorite at your favorite metaphysical five-and-dime, and put it right beside your computer to decrease stress. Those long hours of staring at the screen will cease to sap your energy. Look at your fluorite at least once an hour to reduce eye and brain strain, too.

How to Rock It at Work!

I am sure you will find this to be true: certain crystals can be true touchstones in your life and bring multitudinous benefits, both emotional and spiritual. Find a spot in your workspace or office where you can incorporate gemstones into your each and every day. My desk is where my crystals are placed, so I can see them often. This can be your special corner of the world where you can renew and connect with your spiritual center. Picking up and holding your touchstones can be one of the most soul-nourishing small acts of self-care you can do.

Here are different crystals to rock at work and what they will do for you:

• Inspiration: amazonite, aventurine, carnelian, chrysolite, chrysoprase, citrine, green tourmaline, malachite, yellow fluorite
• Love: amethyst, magnetite, rhodochrosite, rose quartz, twinned rock crystals
• Abundance: bloodstone, carnelian, citrine, dendritic agate, diamond, garnet, hawk’s-eye, moss agate, peridot, ruby, tiger’s-eye, topaz, yellow sapphire
• Intuition: amethyst, azurite, celestite, lapis lazuli, moonstone, selenite, smoky quartz, sodalite, star sapphire, yellow calcite
• Protection: amber, apache tear, chalcedony, citrine, green calcite, jade, jet, smoky quartz
• Self-belief: 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
• Confidence: carnelian, obsidian, quartz, selenite, sodalite, topaz
• Positive Energy: agate, aventurine, bloodstone, calcite, chalcedony, citrine, dioptase, emerald, garnet, orange calcite, ruby, topaz
• Deep Wisdom: emerald, fluorite, Herkimer diamond, moldavite, serpentine, yellow calcite

Tourmaline

Tourmaline is purity and positivity. It is a powerful crystal of great immediacy, quickly redirecting the energy of the mind and body. Tourmaline fights fearfulness and eliminates long-held wounds from the past, leaving you renewed and with far greater clarity. Whatever is weighing you down will soon be gone; your emotional baggage will be unpacked and lightened. Tourmaline is regarded as one of the best all-around healers. It is one of the most effective stones to use in overcoming a crisis or trauma and the accompanying pain. It relieves and releases sorrow and replaces it with joy. Tourmaline is also grounding, giving perspective regarding the very meaning of life.

The name apparently comes from the Sinhalese word turamali, the former name for “gems” in Sri Lanka. Tourmaline is found all over the world and comes in many colors, each one with distinctive properties.

* Blue tourmaline, known as indicolite, is highly sought after. This stone relates to the upper torso and is healing for the brain, the pulmonary system, and the immune system. As with many blue crystals, tourmaline is superb for spiritual growth. It is a visionary stone and opens the third eye, giving way to psychism. This crystal enables you to see how you can serve humanity with higher mind awareness.

* Green tourmaline, properly called chrome, is said to be the most powerful of all the tourmalines, and a great many healers believe it is the most powerful of all crystals! Green tourmaline is healing to the eyes and heart and helps with weight loss. Anyone who suffers from chronic fatigue should try tourmaline. This stone also abets the study of herbalism. This crystal is a problem solver. This is a complete balancer, touching upon each chakra as well as rejuvenating the brain, the nervous system, and the immune system. Green tourmaline is a creativity crystal and lends enormous energy and impetus so you can strive for your best work and art. Green tourmaline turns thoughts into actions, facilitating follow-through and helping you overcome any obstacle in your path. This is a confidence crystal, giving you greater compassion, inspiration, prosperity, and tolerance for others.

* Purple tourmaline is a stone of devotion. Lending the highest spiritual aspirations, this crystal works by connecting the root and heart chakras. It greatly enables the ability to love unconditionally and creatively. Purple tourmaline is a heart healer.

* Black tourmaline wards off negative energy and does not absorb it as most other black crystals do. If you sense that bad energy is being directed at you specifically and malevolently, black tourmaline will repel this psychic attack. Psychic vampires are also a problem, though they might be unconscious of it, but this crystal will keep them away and prevent them from draining you of energy. Black tourmaline is a guardian stone; keep it with you during times of stress. When held in the hand, black tourmaline relieves the symptoms of allergies within ten minutes. I would go so far as to suggest you keep it with you in your home, on your altar, and at your place of work, as it will make your personal space safe. This crystal shields against disease and strengthens the body. If nightmares or insomnia are any kind of issue, turn to tourmaline.

* Pink to Red tourmaline, called rubellite, is very soothing. This pretty crystal is an excellent one to use in a relationship that needs adjustment because it heals hurt and lends mutual understanding. Pink tourmaline can aid in overcoming inhibition in lovemaking; it provides trust in your own body and very gently allows you to let love in and to be able to receive love being shown to you. This is a stone of acceptance and release, paving the way to new experiences in love and in life. Pink tourmaline brings the most important kind of love of all—for yourself.

* Watermelon tourmaline is an exceptional combination of green and pink and is a stone of harmony and balance. This crystal is one to call upon when dealing with conflict. It gives you the ability to love yourself and others, to understand, and to heal. It is a peacemaker’s stone, more essential in this world than ever before.

* Clear tourmaline is the blending of all the other tourmalines. This clear crystal touches upon and opens the crown chakra, creating synergy between the etheric body and the physical body by aligning the meridian lines. It is a boost to the immune system and has been used for healing nervous disorders.

Pyrolusite

This stone has an attractive and dramatic name, from the Greek words pyr (fire) and lousis (washing). The ancients must have thought pyrolusite looked as if it had been washed by fire. Pyrolusite is the thin, fan-shaped black-and-white oxide of manganese usually found at the bottom of a bog or on the ocean floor. It can also grow in the cracks between rocks, in which case it forms lovely, fern-like dendrite crusts.

Pyrolusite is amazing for transformation. It helps get rid of buried emotions and anything that might be interfering with spiritual growth. Pyrolusite will get to the root of a problem and dislodge it. This rock defends the etheric body, or aura, from negative energy and bad energy. Pyrolusite is also good for the metabolism and is helpful for treating bronchitis. Pyrolusite is a stabilizing stone that is excellent for relationships and stimulates the sensual side of life. It is a stone favored by shamans.

Opal

This gem can light the inner fire of your spirituality. One of the seven sacred stones of the Cherokee people, opal is a favorite of many for its fiery and glinting opacity. The milky white stone seems to have an ever changing rainbow of colors inside; this is due to a high percentage of water in its makeup. This gem has one of the best spectral displays of any stone, and the opalescence is the result of many layers of precipitated silica balls in a jelly-like watery mass.

There are three different kinds of opals: precious opal, with the telltale flashes of fire; fire opal, in the reddish yellow color; and common opal, with the rather unfortunate-sounding name of potch. Black opal is the rarest and most desirable of the precious opals, and the highest grade comes from one place in Australia, Lightening Ridge.

Although opals are semiprecious gems, their name comes from the Latin word opalus, meaning “precious stone.” They are among the more sensitive gemstones. They need TLC and can be irrevocably damaged by exposure to heat and chemicals. In addition, they can lose their large water content if they are cracked or damaged. Opals need to be approached with very nearly the same level of caution in terms of using them for energy and healing work, as the can easily diffuse personal energies.

Opals can help if you want to get the special attention of a certain someone or if you have to give a speech or presentation. Opal is one of the rare stones that has both male and female energies within; it contains the energy of the sun and the moon. The fiery flashes generate flashes of intuition and of inspiration. Opals can facilitate wonderful dreams and positive change. They can bring submerged feelings and trapped emotions to the surface and can help uptight individuals get in touch with their emotions and loosen up.

Muscovite

Muscovite, mined in Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic and found first in Russia, from whence it takes its name (after the city of Moscow), is fairly common. It often comes in sheets of mica that can be clear and translucent or a pearly white, gray, pale pink, yellow, rose red, or violet. At one time, sheets of muscovite were used in the kitchen over windows. While it is most frequently an ordinary rock, it can occur as a gem; of particular note is the rare Brazilian twin variety that forms five-pointed stars and is referred to as star muscovite. There is also an emerald green specimen called fuchsite.

Muscovite is a problem-solving crystal. It also has a rare and wonderful quality in that it facilitates astral travel and astral projection. This is a visionary stone and can put you in contact with the angelic realm so you can call on your guardian angels to come to your aid. Muscovite helps us all to take a deep look inside and see how we are missing out on important messages and are unaware of certain behaviors and projections we are putting out unconsciously. Though this can be tough work, this kind of self-examination is essential for true soul growth. Muscovite also gives the inner grit to make changes based on this new information about the self.

Moonstone

This milky, bluish white feldspar gemstone cut from albite is beloved of the world over for its pleasant and somewhat mysterious smooth surface. Moonstone is quite obviously connected to the moon and is as soothing to the psyche as it is pleasing for the eye. The gem is associated with sensitivity, psychic ability, loyalty, sleep and dreams, emotional balance, and femininity. Moonstone is related to all the feminine organs and also the cleansing organs, especially the skin. This stone has a very rare ability to help with eating disorders, particularly overeating. it can calm the stomach and adjust the vibrations so you are directed to eat the proper amount in the future. Moonstone opens the heart chakra and, very importantly, helps overcome any anger or hard emotions toward the self. Pagans have seen this as a Goddess crystal for millennia and see it as a source for nurturing, wisdom, and intuition. A moonstone is a powerfully protective and loving talisman for pregnant women. In India, moonstone is sacred and very lucky, but is even more valued in the subcontinent because it helps make you more spiritual. Moonstone is at its very best on your behalf if worn in a ring with a silver setting.

Tips ’n’ Tricks: A Rainbow of Uses For Fluorite

Violet—or amethyst—colored fluorite is especially good for the bones, including the marrow. It jogs the third eye and, best of all, imparts good old common sense! Green fluorite is favored for its ability to ground and center excessive physical and mental energy. Clear fluorite awakens the crown chakra and lets go of anything holding back spiritual development. Blue fluorite facilitates mental clarity, orderly thought, and the ability to be a master communicator. Yellow fluorite kindles the synapses and awakens memory. It will also make you smarter and boost your creativity a great deal. 

Any fluorite reduces electromagnetic pollutants and cleanses the aura. Get a big chunk of fluorite at your favorite metaphysical five-and-dime and put it right beside your computer to decrease stress. Those long hours of staring at the screen will cease to sap your energy. Look at your fluorite at least once an hour to reduce eye and brain strain, too!