Sage Wisdom: Increase Your Psychic Potential and Maintain Good Energy

Every healer and wise woman should grow a pot of sage or a big patch in your garden. Sage is a must to have on hand for clearing energy. It also increases psychic potential. Most kitchen witches are highly imaginative and very inventive folk. Whether your passion is growing an artful garden, throwing pots, cookery or music, you can stay in better touch with your personal muse. Call her to you anytime, day or night, by your own design. This is especially important if you are feeling uninspired or struggling with a bout of writer’s block

Head out to your garden or the sunny spot on the deck where your hardiest sage grows. Take three large and extra long sticks of your favorite incense and bind strands of sage around the incense with purple thread. Tie it off and you have a sage wand. Before any creative endeavor, you can light this wand and wave it around your workspace, filling the area with inspiration. Close your eyes and meditate upon the work you will begin. You have cleared your space, invited the muse and your work will be superb, worthy of notice from the gods and goddesses.

An Essential Guide to Essential Oils for Common Ailments

Use these oils in bath water, diffusers, dabbed onto pulse points, or sprays to infuse your home with the healing vitality of these plant essences:

Allergies: Melissa, chamomile

Headaches: lavender, geranium peppermint, linden.

Immune boosters: hyssop thyme, rose, jasmine.

Insomnia: clary sage, hops, lavender

Colds and flu: pine, thyme, eucalyptus, lavender

Tummy troubles: peppermint, chamomile, basil

Cramps, yarrow, sunflower, linden

Arthritis: marjoram, rosemary, eucalyptus, pine

Fatigue: rose, clary sage, neroli, bergamot

Simple Salt Magic: Clear Out the Bad Juju

The one thing every household has in the kitchen is salt, plain white grains or the larger kosher crystals. This most common of cupboard condiments is also an essential in magic, dating back thousands of years and used by Egyptians, Chaldeans, Babylonians and early European tribes for purification, protection and cleansing. Salt is often utilized in Hoodoo, sprinkled on doorsteps and pathways to keep bad spirits away (as well as bad people!) and added into witch bottles to clear energy. During the early Roman Empire era, soldiers were paid in salt, it was so valuable. Long have these grains been used to preserve and improve the taste of foods. Perhaps the highest working of salt is as a healer; it is essential in the diet for good health and external uses in baths and rubs can be enormously relaxing. Salt removes negative energy and can vanquish a headache in short order with this magical application.

Fill a tea kettle and set it to boil. Pour hot water into a mug and add a full tablespoon of salt. Once it has cooled to a warm temperature, place the mug to both temples and hold it there for a long moment. Now, dip your forefinger of your left hand into the salt water and rub your temple and your forehead gently in circular movements. Sit or lay flat in silence for a time, with your eyes closed.. Place the cup on your  altar for a period of 24 hours so it can draw out any negative energy in your home; On the next day, throw the salt water from the cup onto your front step or sidewalk to keep the bad “juju” away. As you walk down your front path, you’ll notice you feel very clear-headed and peaceful

Pendulums Are Divine: Power Your Decisions With Magic!

Tell Me Yes or Tell Me No: Pendulum Divination

If you are having a hard time donating or getting rid of some of your belongings or simply can’t decide and find yourself surrounded by piles of confusion, pick up a pendulum You do know what to do on an unconscious level so the pendulum is a tool for gleaning information from your deepest self. Some of the best pendulums are the ones you can make yourself by tying a piece of string or rawhide to a pebble, crystal or coin. You should tie it so that the weight points down.  Each time you use it, ask the pendulum, “Show me yes or show me no.” The pendulum will swing up and down, giving you answers. I recommend keeping a journal of your work with the pendulum. Not only will this give you a record of yes-and-no responses, but it will also help you track their effectiveness.  Soon, you’ll be able to see patterns of information emerging from your unconscious and the universe. I can’t recommend this highly enough. You will learn so much about yourself and your place in the world from this. I know people who absolutely depend on their pendulums for help with shopping and all manner of decision making. Most New Age shops now sell pendulums on delicate chains. Do try this easiest form of divination. It is fun and full of surprises!

Put a Wreath On It: Magic Starts at the Front Door

Oftentimes, your kitchen is the heart of the home. Something about cooking and sharing food brings people together. An herbal wreath hanging on the kitchen door can be a source of love and luck. You’ll need the following for your creation:

• Freshly cut herbs of your choice
• A wire wreath frame, available from most craft stores
• Either string or florist's wire, ribbon, and a hot glue gun

This is truly one of the simplest craft projects you can ever make - simply use the wreath frame as a base, and use string or the florist's wire to anchor the fresh herbs into place. Finish it off with a colorful ribbon, or other magical decorative touches you may want to add.

Healing Wreath: These are the ideal herbs for a wreath that brings curative properties including lavender, barley, comfrey, rosemary peppermint, borage, olive, eucalyptus, apple blossom. Brown and green ribbon add a touch of healing color.

Protection Wreath: Hang this guardian wreath on your front door using heather, holly, dill, foxglove, garlic, sandalwood, snapdragon, mustard, foxglove, mistletoe, mugword. White and blue ribbons add security and serenity.

Abundance Wreath: Greet prosperity at the door with herbs associated with money magic which include clover, chamomile, sunflower apple, cinnamon, myrtle, basil, and bay leaf. Weave in gold and green ribbon to add to your luck.

Love Wreath: Don’t wait until Valentine’s Day to  try this; love should be 24/7, 365.   Invite love into your home than by hanging a wreath full of love herbs on your door?. Any combination of these will work beautifully and I recommend using herbs that personally resonate for you among these options: allspice, clove,  catnip, fig, bleeding heart, periwinkle, tulip, peppermint, violet, daffodil, lavender and  marjoram to l Adorn with pink and red ribbons to let the universe know you're ready to welcome love into your life.

Sweeping Change: Using Your Magical Broom

As a magical tool, the broom was born of the practical magic of sweeping the ritual area clean before and after 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 traditional element of handfasting, or pagan wedding. While this happens more rarely now, the broom has grabbed the popular imagination as the archetypal symbol of witches.

Your broom is an essential tool for energy management. Obtain a handmade broom from a craft fair, not a machine-made plastic affair from the supermarket. A broom made of wood and woven from straw will be imbued with the inherent energies of those natural materials. Also, do not use your ritual broom for housework, as this would mix up energies in your home and sacred space. Many of you may well consider your home to be sacred space in its entirety. Keep your regular household implements separated from your ritual tools nonetheless.. If you treat your ritual tools with the utmost respect, they will serve you well. Over time they will become deeply imbued with magical energy through exclusive use in your workings. The Wiccan tradition holds brooms in high regard, and some witches have an impressive collection of brooms, each named to distinguish between their roles as “familiars,” or kindred spirits.

Sweeping Change Spell

Say this chant aloud as you harness the power of your magical broom:

Sweep out all the bad, sweep out all ill,
Where I do the Lady’s will.
Besom, besom, Lady’s Broom
Sweep out darkness, sweep out doom.

Taking the Waters—a Releasing Ritual

Sarasvati is a Hindu goddess of the arts, and originally a river goddess. She is invoked by individuals seeking to improve the flow of their creativity and self-transformation.

A bath blessing that will both relax and purify you is a rare and wonderful thing. To prepare yourself, place 1 quart of rough sea salt or Epson salts in a large bowl. Add the juice from 6 freshly squeezed lemons, 1/2 cup of sesame oil, and a few drops of rose and jasmine oils. Stir until the mixture is completely moistened. You can add more sesame oil if necessary, but do not add more lemon because it will make the mixture overly astringent and potentially irritating to your skin.

When your tub is one-third full, add one-quarter of the salt mixture under the faucet. Breathe in deeply ten times, inhaling and exhaling fully before you do this recitation. You may start to feel a tingling at the crown of your head. The water should still be running when you proclaim:

Sarasvati, O Harmonious One,

Goddess and mistress, I ask your guidance.

Remove from me any impurities

Of heart, spirit, and mind. I open myself to you.

My wish is to once again become whole,

Free of pain, sadness, and all that is better in me.

When the tub is full, it is time to step inside and breathe deeply ten more times. Repeat the prayer to Sarasvati, and use the rest of the salt to gently massage your body. Rest and rejuvenate as long as you like, allowing yourself to feel refreshed and renewed by the ministrations of this Hindu goddess of harmony and artistry from whom eloquence, inspiration, and blessings flow.