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

Archangel Protection Rite: Angelica Hex Breaker (Waxing or Full Moon)

Whenever you are going through a hard  time or have fears for your family, try this ritual. Angelica, also called the “Heavenly Guardian  Flower,” is said to first  bloom on Archangel Michael’s name day. This positive plant is part of the carrot family and is a tall, hollow-stemmed plant with umbrella-shaped clusters of pale white flowers, tinged with green. Candying the stalks in sugar was an old-fashioned favorite, and  was also traditionally used to cure colds and relieve coughs. Nowadays, seeds are used to make chartreuse, a digestive and uniquely tasty liqueur. This guardian flower is a protector,  as one might expect for a plant  associated with archangels, and is used to reverse curses, break hexes and fend off negative energies. Drying and curing the root is a  traditional talisman, and it can be carried in your pocket or in an amulet to bring a long life. Many a wise woman has used angelica leaves in baths and spellwork to rid a household of dark spirits. If the bad energy is  intense, burn  the angelica  leaves with  frankincense to exorcise them from your space. While you are protecting yourself and your home from negativity during this angelica smudging session, you will also experience  heightened psychism. Pay close attention to your dreams after this; important messages will come through.

Peace and Healing Potpourri (Waxing or Full Moon)

Sometimes, we all need a quick fix and this is exactly what this herbal mélange can do for you. Draw some fresh water and simmer this mixture on your stove whenever you feel the need to infuse your space with protection or do an energetic turnaround from negative to  positive.  A  bad  day  at  work,  family  squabble,  an  unfortunate incident  in  your  neighborhood:  instead  of  just  muddling  along,  

you  can  do  something  about  it  and  your  creation  of  the  positive will  help  you  and  your  loved  one  as  well  as  your  neighbors.  This powerful potpourri will also safeguard from outside influences that can be disruptive. Set your intention and gather these herbs from your stores:

• 7 cinnamon sticks

• ¼ cup rosemary

• 4 Bay laurel leaves

• 1/8 cup sage

• 1 teaspoons juniper berries

Mix the herbs together by hand. While you are sifting, close your eyes and visualize your home protected by a boundary of glowing white light. Imagine the light running throughout you to the herbs in your hand,  charging them with the energy of safety, sanctity and protection. Add the herbs to slowly simmering water and breathe in the newly charged air. 

Ritual Herbs: Using Mother Nature's Magic

Refer to this list whenever you are setting up your altar and setting your intention for ritual work.

• Benzoin can be used for purification, prosperity, work success, mental acuity, and memory.
• Camphor can be used for healing, divining the future, curbing excess, especially romantic obsessions, and a surfeit of sexuality.
• Cinnamon refreshes and directs spirituality. It is also handy for healing, money, love, lust, personal power, and success with work and creative projects.
• Clove is good for bringing money to you, for protection, for your love life and for helping evade and deter negative energies.
• Copal is good for love and purification.
• Frankincense is another spiritual essence that purifies and protects.
• Lavender is a plant for happiness, peace, true love, long life and chastity. It is an excellent purifier that helps with sleep. 
• Myrrh has been considered since ancient times to be deeply sacred. It aids personal spirituality, heals and protects, and can help ward off negative spirits and energies.
• Nutmeg is a lucky herb that promotes good health and prosperity and encourages fidelity.
• Patchouli stimulates and grounds while engendering both sensuality and encourages fidelity.
• Peppermint is an herb of purification, healing, and love. It supports relaxation and sleep as it helps to increase psychic powers.
• Rosemary is good for purification, protection, healing, relaxation and intelligence. It attracts love and sensuality, helps with memory, and can keep you youthful.
• Sage brings wisdom, purification, protection, health and a long life. It can help make your wishes come true.
• Sandalwood is a mystical, healing, protecting essence that helps attract the objects of your hopes and desires and disperses negative energies and spirits.
• Star anise is a lucky herb that aids divination and psychism.
• Tonka bean brings courage and draws love and money.
• Vanilla brings love and enriches your mental capacity.
• Wood aloe is good for dressing or anointing talismans and amulets you want to use for protection.

amulets you want to use for protection.

Lucky 13 Waxing Moon Spell

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

Gather materials: Get a big black candle and a black crystal, a piece of white paper, a black pen with black ink and a cancellation stamp (available at any stationary store). Go into your backyard or or a nearby park or woodlands area 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 or your home of; this is your release request. Place the candle and the crystal on the rock, and light the candle near an open window. As the negativity is released outside while the candle burns, intone:

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

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

Energy Management: House Blessings (All Moon Phases)

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

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

This is very important - do not use your ritual broom from housekeeping. Like me, you may view every inch of your home as sacred space, but you will need to keep your regular housekeeping implements from those you use for magical workings!

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

Lunar Lore - 12 Months of Full Moons

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

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

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

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

April: Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon; spring's sweet pink moon celebrates health and full life force

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

June: Hor Moon, Rose Moon; the Strawberry Moon heralds the summer solstice and sustaining power of the sun

July: Buck Moon, Hay Moon; this Thunder Moon shower's with rain and cleansing storms

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

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

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

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

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