Magickal Monday- Dreamcatchers

Look who's on time today!! HA! For the first time in about a month. And I'm rather proud :D

Today I finished up a dreamcatcher for my cousin. He's been having some troubles at his new apartment and he asked if I could make him a dream catcher to help provide some ease. So I made him a manly version of my Goddess Dreamcatcher I made for a healing swap a few months ago. Here's the Goddess one:

It's has rose quartz, amethyst, and clear quartz in the web acting as the spider/bead. Combined together they help promote love, protection, and healing. Not too shabby for the first ones I've ever made. Now, my cousin is Christian and I didn't feel comfortable putting stones in his dreamcatcher because I know that they don't hold any meaning to him. So I stuck with the traditional bead types. Which works well since I took him to his first Powwow over the summer.

His is made with hawk or quail feathers (I never know the difference), a glass bead for the spider, and then I made clay beads to hold the feathers on. The picture is crap since it's night here (silly sun thinking it can take a vacation in the fall). But I think you get the idea. I was hoping to make it a bit more manly looking. I don't think it came out half bad. It was made with things completely from my stash. If I were to go out of the way and make a real legit dreamcatcher I would have used sinew for the web and made the circle out of leather lace. Instead I just used the leather lace to connect the feathers. I like the wrapped/twisted vine look for the circle. Makes it more earthy to me. Not to mention I'm not a fan of leather lace. And I used a really thin yarn/string mostly used for making lace and doilies for the web. And now we get to the magickal part of this. The story. I'm no Native American story teller, but from my research and what I have grown up knowing about dreamcatchers this is what I can tell you about them.

A dreamcatcher is given to a child upon birth in order to protect them. It is hung above the child's bed to allow the dreams and energies of life to flow through it like a filter. The good dreams and energies are allowed to pass through the web while the bad dreams and energies become tangled on the web and flow down to the feathers. The bad dream and energies are then taken away with the wind, casting them away. Any bad dream and energies that remain are then purified when sunlight hits them. Dreamcatchers can be used by adults for the same reasons. They help keep the good energies with in the room and help to rid the person of negative/bad energies. I think every person should have one! :) If you are giving the dreamcatcher to a child there are some nice stories about why they are shaped the way they are and how they came into existence. I've done some searching around and I think my favorite story is the one found here. I like it because it talks about how the four elements come into play as well. But you can find tons of stories through children's books and google. I ♥ dream catchers!

Well, that's all I have for now. See you tomorrow!

Magickal ....ummm.. Wednesday?

So, on Monday I thought about what I wanted to do. I started Magickal Mondays to ease myself into bringing Magick into my everyday life slowly... very slowly. I don't do too much of it really. Every now and then I do a spell, I observe the seasons, change out the altar, do a ritual when need be, but on the everyday basis I honestly don't do too many things. And I think it's rather important to have a little Magick in our lives every day, to help connect us. When I do something in that nature it makes me feel accomplished, as well as it helps me clear away the cobwebs in this head of mine and get me thinking .....well.... like a witch. Doing something Magickal brings a little extra umph into things. At least that's what I believe.

So Monday, I was thinking about what is something Magickal that I could do that didn't require too much effort but allowed me to connect in that Magickal way. The family I work for during the days is Filipino. They are Catholics, but if you pay attention around their house there are subtle things that reflect a lot of the heritage of the islands and the older ways of life. In the living room above the fire place is a tiny section set up for the "ancestors." There are pictures of a man and woman whom I assume to perhaps be parents or grandparents. There is always a vase with some flowers from their yard, and a small bowl which usually holds a a Brigid cross and various other things. I've been working there for about 4 1/2 years and always thought about doing one myself. But it becomes hard to see the pictures of your loved ones. Ya know? Well, I decided Monday that I would set me up a small altar to my loved ones. So I spent Tuesday clearing off a shelf on my wall and finding pictures. Last week I went to the park and did some nature walking and picket up some leaves, acorns, and tiny pine cones. I also visited my grandfathers grave last week with my mom, which may have also brought on this trail of thinking. His body rests under a large Pecan tree. I was inspired to pick up a few pecans and take them home with me. They now sit on the altar. So here is what I came up with.

On the top I have some of the older, smaller pictures. Coincidentally, they are also the ones who have been gone the longest. Starting from the left I have my grandfather, great grand mother, uncle (dad's brother), and uncle (moms brother) all surrounding an orange pillar candle sitting on some acorn tree leaves. And yes my "shelf" happens to be a wooden CD rack from the craft store painted gold. They are so cheap and useful. I couldn't get a good picture to say a life. The pictures are just folded or cut down and then I took card stock and cut the little windows for them to show through.

On the bottom I have a small dish in which the offerings are put on. I stuck leaves around the corners and everywhere I could manage. The fabric is just some scrap tapestry fabric I found in my stash. not sure where I got it or where it came from but it works. It's very fall colored even though you can't see it in the pictures. On the left is my Nanny (grandmother) who just passed a few months ago. That was take last Christmas. :( And beside that is my best friend, her mother, and brother. I lost them all my junior year of high school. Coincidentally, these are the bigger pictures and they are the most recent ones to depart. I think this shrine/altar will be a good thing. I believe it will help with the healing and accepting part of letting go. I'm going to keep this up year round. I think I will decorate it with bits of nature from the seasons. Well, that's all for now. See you tomorrow!

Magickal Monday - Herbal Candles

So, last week on Magickal Monday I talked about writing letters to the dead. I kind of wanted to keep the theme going. So today I made herbal candles, Jessica Version. I'm gonna be honest. I had heard about herbal candles in a witch magazine, can't remember the one off the top of my head, but it had talked about a shop in NYC that sold them. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go search out the shop while I was in NYC in April, but I made a promise I would find a way to make them myself. Well, after searching for ages, I have come up with absolutely NOTHING! I cannot find any tutorials or any kind of random information on them. Well last night, I got to thinking about the candles again. I thought it would be rather cool to have one of two for Samhain that had herbs for the sabbat and for spirit communication in it to help with the letters and with ritual. So I woke this morning and decided I was gonna make me some candles!! And I did. I did some research on what I wanted to use for the herbs and I set to work.

Look at my magickal cabinet, it's so well stocked and organized. I owe a good portion of it's ingredients to K.Michele who rocked my witchy socks in a Lammas swap. :D :D The rest is from my garden this year and s few odds and ends from the local magick shop. So I gathered my goodies, and went to work. I used Frankincense (protection and divination) and Myrrh (spirituality and the sacred) resin. I pounded those into a nice clumpy powder first. As I added an ingredient to the mortar I stated out loud it's purpose: Sage (protection), Patchouli(amplify the senses), Yarrow(divination, clairvoyance, and banishing negative energies), Calendula(prophetic dreams and workings), Cedar(workings with the dead, success, and workings with magick), Rosemary(remembrance), and Hops (divination). I stirred these together in my mortar and then added them to the melted wax on the stove (I had that melting while I was putting together the ingredients).

I added a few pinches of Dandelion (powerful protection and pure intentions) last to seal the "spell," I guess that's what you could call it. I stirred it all together in the wax and then put them into the candle molds. I happen to be fresh out of candle molds (or in other words I don't own any), so I took two cookie cutters and surrounded them TIGHTLY with aluminum foil and them filled those. I tied the wicks to a little skewer and let them sit. When they were cool I popped them out and BAM herbal spell candles! Cross your fingers that they work! Oh, and pay no mind to the broken one. It was supposed to be a heart and it took it breaking for me to finger out that I needed to slide a knife in between the wax and cookie cutter to pop it out. Oh well. I'll just remelt it and try it again.

I'm thinking the rather unattractive color is from using light yellow candles. I melted one and a half yellow tapers to yield two cookie cutter candles. I think white might have made it a bit more pretty, but I used yellow for spirit. In the sun though it looks a nice nature green almost. lol. Meh. Beggars can't be choosers right?

Magickal Monday..... er....2 days late

So, on my list of things to say:

1) Sorry I missed Monday, I got sucked into the world of crafting in order to finish a swap package. I was literally crafting all day save the few hours I went to work.

2)Yes, I missed Tuesday too, but I'll make up for that today when you read about my AMAZING ADVENTURE in the next post

3) mmmmm, magick

Ok, so the last one doesn't count too much. I was originally going to be writing 3 days a week for Halloween/Samhain. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But that was before I took the challenge over at The Whimsical Cottage and decided to write something Halloweeny every day to get in the spirit. So I welcome you to Magical Monday.... mmmm, alliteration.... tasty. :P

I thought I would share something that I have read or have come to use in spells or ritual for Samhain on these days. Like most witches Samhain is a big time of year for me. It is also one of the saddest. For my best friend and I Halloween was the most Epic day of the year for us growing up. We dressed up every year, well into our high school years. We celebrated it as big as we celebrated every Friday the 13th. We even made a horror movie of our own one year (it was terrible lol). In my junior year of high school I lost my best friend and the holidays just have never been the same. After a few year of taking it all in, I made the decision to keep our love and tradition strong, even if it was just me. So every year for Samhain I still dress up, hand out candy, and last year I even decorated our yard (I was told we were the scariest house on the block thanks to the bloody hand prints!). And for ritual every year I light a candle for all of the people in my life that I have lost and have flown to the other side of the veil. During ritual I have a portion that is set aside just for honoring them. I usually have their photos set up on my altar and I light a candle for them and if available I put little tokens there for them as well. From there I usually do a little tarot or some other kind of spirit communication in hopes of hearing from them. After ritual I leave the candles burning and the when their gone I wake up the next morning and light another one for each of them. Sometimes I will write letters and leave them on the altar and then the next morning I will burn them in hopes that they find their way to them across the veil. So today I will talk about writing letters to the dead.

This is a simple spell that can be done anytime of the year. All you need is a bit of paper and a pen. It can be a special paper and pen or it can be something from your school bag. Just know the more preparation and thought you put into it every ingredient of every spell or ritual the more special it will be and the more energy you are putting into it. Personally, I usually use just plain paper that I sit on my altar the day of and I usually place it there and say something like,

"God and Goddess, These papers are soon to be vessels. They will carry my love and thoughts to spirits whom I miss greatly. Please help me bless these papers in hopes that they will serve their purpose."

Or something of that manor. I do a lot of improv at the altar. I focus some energy into them and then I usually leave the papers there until that night or until I am ready to put my love and thoughts into words. Whenever the moment strikes throughout the day and you feel ready, then just do it. Sometimes I get picky with my pens, depending on the person I'm writing to. For my best friend it's always pink, that was her favorite color. When you're finished writing you can always choose to anoint the papers and your words with a spirit oil or water used for communication with spirits or you can seal your letter with an herb for that purpose and leave it in there to be burnt with the letter when it is time ( I think this year I will add a flower in the one to my grandmother who just passed a few months ago, she would enjoy that). I usually just roll the paper up like parchment and tie it with a ribbon (Yep, I even get choosy with the color ribbon. Every little thing adds an extra touch of you and your connection to them) and I'll sit it in front of the picture of the person it is going to. You can also decide to leave the paper open in hopes of your loved one popping by during the day and reading it. I like to read mine out loud during the honoring before sealing it the final time.

In the morning, or the next day, I set aside time and I either take my cauldron to a place where it's well ventilated and set up a tiny altar there or if I'm the only one home I just leave it on the altar and unplug the smoke detectors ;) I take the first letter and hold it. I focus on the words written within it and I picture the person whom I am sending it to. If the feeling arises I may say something like,

"This letter acts as a vessel and it carries with it my heart,

Please help it to reach (person's name here) through our two worlds apart."

Or something of that nature. Once again I improv :) Then I hold it over the cauldron and light it. I watch it burn and stay focusing my energy on it until it is completely gone. Then I repeat until all the letters are sent. When it is cool enough I take my cauldron outside and let the ash join the Earth.

There are a lot of way to take this and personalize it to you and your loved ones, as well as many ways to go about it. Always do what feels right for you. Does anyone else write letters already? How do you go about it? Thanks for reading and I'll be back with Tuesday soon!