Color Magick

This is a continuation of the  tribute to Isaac Bonewits which was published in an earlier edition of Magickal Media.  Isaac was one of the first authors to correlate systems of magick with color.  Several other neo-Pagan and Wiccan authors have published various versions of color correspondence, including Starhawk and Raymond Buckland.  This list is a compilation of several versions of color magick.  We also used a pamphlet that is included with candles from Light Stones, www.lightstones.com

Blue:  Peace, tranquility, relaxation, water, law and justice, meditation, service, 5th Chakra, feeling blue, depression, balance, cooling, “true blue”.

Green: Healing, prosperity / money, growth, plant life, earth, woodlands, 4th Chakra, envy, stagnation, grounding, abundance.

Yellow: Thought, intelligence, scholarship, learning, communication, breath, air, frivolity, lack of substance, sunshine, memory, clairvoyance, 3rdChakra

Orange: Strength, attraction, success, vibrancy, warmth, glowing, hyperactivity, vitality, alert, 2ndChakra, joy

Red: Love, passion, courage, 1st Chakra, sexuality, fire, warning / caution, ambition, stop, activity, enduring attachment, awakening

Purple: Royalty, law, justice, spirituality, wisdom, intuition, 6th Chakra, overindulgence, richness, heady feeling

Brown: Animals, Earth, grounding, Goddess, muddled perception, stability, physical world, muddy, encompassing

Black: Absorbs negative energy, finality, clarity, permanence, darkness, solemnity, death, ending, grounded

White: Purity, clarity, protection, healing, the otherworld, dreams, 7th Chakra, spirit, ether, in some cultures death, in some cultures marriage, inception

Silver: Genuine value, “silver lining” of happiness within difficult situation, Moon

Gold: Worth, value, richness, adornment, beauty, Sun, glitte

 

 

Moon Lore and Magick

The phases of the moon:

Dark: Not visible at all, fully blocked by the shadow of the Earth. The three nights that the moon is not visible at all is called the Dark of the moon. Magickal rites center on mysteries, banishings, divination. This is an optimal time for banishing unwanted situations or negative energies.

New: Thin sliver or crescent, nearly blocked by the shadow of the Earth. Rises and sets with the sun. May be seen in early morning or late at night. In January through March in the Northern Hemisphere, the crescent moon appears as a smile. The rest of the year it appears as an archer’s bow, open end facing left. ) Magickal rites include beginning projects, the inception of events, cleansing and purifying.

Waxing Moon: Half moon shaped like a D or ), left half blocked by the shadow of the Earth. The points aim away from the sunset. Rises at noon, sets at midnight; most visible in the evening sky. Magickal rites include working on projects, invoking, continuing events that have already been started.

Full: Round, not blocked by the Earth’s shadow. Rises at sundown, sets at sunrise. Magickal rites include bringing events to fruition, completion of projects. Full moon rites may honor the Goddess. A time to make requests and give thanks for granted boons. Divination is easiest to perform under a full moon. Considered the most powerful time for spell workings and rituals.

The night before the moon is completely full is called the daughter moon, the night of the moon being totally full is called the mother moon, and the night following is called the crone or elder moon.

Waning Moon: Half moon shaped like a ( or C, right half blocked by the shadow of the Earth Rises at midnight, sets at noon; most visible in the morning sky. Magickal rites include banishing undesirable conditions, ending projects or events.

The average age of the Lunar month is 29.53 days. The word “month” derives from the word moon. The moon is also called Luna, Chandra or Mona. The day of the week representing or corresponding to the moon is Monday.

Other correspondences with the moon include white, silver, the sephiroth of Yesod on the Cabalistic tree of life, and the Moon card of the Tarot deck which is number 18.

Astrological sign is Cancer. The moon is associated with Water and watery elements or signs of the Zodiac.

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Dispelling

Magick users, Pagan and Wiccan

Beginner to Intermediate

Unfortunately, there comes a time when users of magickal energy must learn to do rituals for dispelling, which means removing harmful or baneful spells, or for banishing negative energies. Someone may have deliberately used words of power or magickal actions to cause us problems. This is sometimes called a curse or hex. They might have knowingly raised energy with the intent of doing harm. Or it might have been an inadvertent, unconscious action. A co-worker or neighbor might feel jealous of our position or our material wealth. Someone who is undergoing relationship troubles may be angry that their love life is encountering difficulties, while our life seems easy by comparison. A person with an axe to grind might even want to purposefully harm us. This is a sorrowful state, but occasionally, it happens.

Other people’s negative energy can affect our job, our transportation, our position of authority within our community, or even our home and family. Yet before we conclude that someone is deliberately performing magick to cause us harm, we must first look at other problem areas. Are we doing our best? Is our job performance satisfactory? Are our once docile children going into puberty and becoming independent? Is our relationship suffering from neglect? Is our home or our vehicle undergoing normal wear and tear, and can it be repaired on a mundane level? If the same awful thing keeps happening repeatedly, you should analyze what might really be occurring. If you keep getting fired for tardiness, that isn’t the result of baleful magick… that is on you. However, if an event happens repeatedly that is beyond your control… several car wrecks, constant illness with no discernable cause, a long string of sorrowful events… there just might have been some deliberate spell workings with the intent to cause you misery. Or it may simply be the result of the unintentional anger or jealousy of a person you interact with in everyday life.

Do divination to attempt to determine the source of baleful energy. Is it something that you caused by your own actions? Is it a “stuff happens” situation? Or did some person deliberately inflict a curse on you? Use your intuition. Listen to your inner voice. Consult your guides, the spirits, or your deities. You might want to go to a neutral party for divination, readings and advice. Talk with trusted friends or family members. Even if they do not believe in magick, they might have some insight about who is upset with you, and who might be throwing harmful energy your way.

Some magick users insist that the source of negative magick must be known. Think about who in your life may be causing you problems. Has a relative changed their attitude toward you? Was a co-worker passed over for promotion? Are you arguing with anyone? In most cases, it isn’t always necessary to know who the culprit is; you can banish negative energies, dispell, and shield yourself to prevent further mishaps, without knowing who caused the trouble.

Even if you realize who has cast a harmful spell, it is imperative that you do not retaliate. Sending negative energy back to the source can sometimes “bounce”, gaining force, so that it comes back to you stronger and more harmful than before. The “threefold law” is not a law like “do not jaywalk”, the threefold law is a law like gravity. It is a magickal occurrence. Sending destructive power anywhere runs the risk that you will be the recipient of three times (or nine times, or a hundred times) the “bad” energy… even if you weren’t the original sender. It can also harm the culprit’s family, friends, loved ones, including innocent children, who had nothing to do with casting negative magick. No matter how angry you get, please do not curse anyone else. Be careful that in a ritual, you do not say anything like “I wish so-and-so would drop dead”. Your words have power, and in a sacred space, your words can become magickally charged.

If you know who has cast a harmful spell, you may first try speaking to them privately, or writing to them online. Ask them what is wrong, if you have done anything that has caused them pain. Determine if you have inadvertently hurt their feelings or given them trouble. Discuss matters with them candidly. This may be enough to end the conflict, and thus end the bad feelings that may have inadvertently caused negative magick. Some issues can be resolved by negotiation. And some cannot. If you are absolutely certain that someone has performed a baneful spell on purpose – you have a witness, or the person has bragged to their friends – and you confront them with no result, then you might have to take more drastic measures.

Again, do not retaliate. Do not send bad energy or hurtful magick back to the source. Do not curse, and do not maim. Negative energy can be removed in any number of ways, and the magickian who has bespelled you can be blocked from doing further damage. Curses can be broken. All of this can be done without causing further harm.

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The Witch's Bottle
A Spell of Protection

by Monte Plaisance

            In England during the 1950's a construction company hired to renovate several old houses made a curious discovery.  Buried beneath the foundations of many of these houses they found several large thin-necked ceramic jars with the face of a bearded man embossed on them.  The face was attributed to that of Cardinal Bellarmine, the Catholic Cardinal who administered the controversial admonition to Galileo not to defend or hold the Copernican theory of the solar system.  Thus the jars became known as the “Bellarmine Jugs.”   When the ceramic jugs were opened to view the contents, a strange concoction of noxious substances were found to be stored within.  Among the contents were human hair, nail clippings, iron nails and needles, shards of broken glass, salt and human urine.

            To the workers who discovered these jugs, the entire thing was mysterious and baffling.  However to those individuals schooled in the arts of witchcraft, the bottles were immediately recognized as a very old protection spell known as The Witch's Bottle.  The face, thought to be Cardinal Bellarmine, was actually a depiction of the ancient Celtic god, Cernunnos and the contents of the jars were all symbols of protections placed within the jar to protect whoever made it.

 

Making a Witch's Bottle
Items you will need:
A six ounce jar with lid (of course it should be empty and cleaned)
A red cloth cut into the shape of a heart
Some of your own hair clippings
Some of your own nail clippings
13 Iron nails
13 black headed pins
1 cup of sea salt

1.  Place all of the items on your altar and take a few moments to meditate on the task at hand.  You are performing a rite of protection for your spiritual safety.

2.  Take up the hair and the nail clippings and place them into the jar saying:
“Here do I present myself.”

3.  Take up the thirteen iron nails and place them into the jar saying:
“Here are my swords of protection.”

4.  Take up the salt and place it into the jar saying:
“Here is salt to purify me and keep me clean and safe.”

5.  Take up the red heart-shaped cloth.  Hold it high and say:
“Here is the heart of any who wish me harm.”

6.  Stick all thirteen black-headed pins into the cloth heart and say:
“Let any who wish me harm or any who wish me ill; feel the pain of their own heart's hate.
Rebounded by this witch's will.”

7.  Place the pin-studded heart into the jar.

8.  Next, fill the jar with your own urine.  I know this sounds a bit gross, but urine is a very powerful magical fluid.  In addition, the ammonia present in the urine has the magical quality of neutralizing a wide variety of energies.  Psychologically, urination on something is an expression  of how worthless you think it is.  This is, in effect, what you are doing here.  You are stating,  symbolically, that you know any spell or negative energies sent to bring you harm would be a   useless gesture – and this is the frame of thought you should take while performing this act.

9.  When the jar is filled, or at least halfway so, screw the lid on and paint a protective symbol in red on  the top.  Wrap the entire thing in a black cloth tied up with red ribbon or cord and on the night   of the new moon bury it somewhere near your home.  As you are burying the jar, say the        following:
Blessed Mother of the Darkened Moon;
I pray that you grant to me this boon.
A bottle of protection do I bury here,
To protect me from those both far and near.
May any curse or magic spell;
Placed upon me be dispelled.
Rebounded on the sender be;
As I will, so shall it be.”

10.  Now cover the jar with dirt and seal the dig by tracing an upright triangle in the soil.  Stand up, turn and walk away without looking back.

 

            The jar will now act as a magical shield.  Any negativity directed towards you will be drawn into the jar and negated, absorbed and/or grounded.  Once the bottle is buried it should never be dug up again.  To do so would be to release all of the negativity that it has absorbed.  If another person digs up the bottle, it will no effect on them, as the bottle is designed to absorb negativity aimed directly at you.  This energy is tied to you and you alone.

            If at some point in time you plan to move from the dwelling where your witch's bottle is buried, there is no need to concern yourself with leaving this one behind.  As was stated earlier, once the bottle is buried, keep it buried.  This bottle will continue to work its magic regardless of if you live where it is buried or not.  However, some witches like to have their protections close to home, so if you do move, just make a new jar for the new home. 

            There are those who profess that after a long span of time, a witch's bottle will have reached its capacity to hold energy and a new one will need to be made.  I have found this theory to be erroneous because the bottle is buried in the earth so that the earth can ground the energies of the negativity directed towards you.  One bottle should last a lifetime.

            Now if the witch's bottle should happen to break or be opened for some reason, that is an entirely different situation.  Should this happen, an experienced witch would notice it right away.  There would be a distinctive change in the energies around you that would key you in to what has happened.  Some of the tell-tale signs of a large influx of negative energy are lethargy, headaches, clumsiness, feelings of depression and unexplained illnesses and accidents.  Avoid paranoia when analyzing things happening in your life and remember that sometimes things just happen.  If these symptoms come on suddenly and do not go away in a short span of time, you might want to consider making another witch's bottle.

Monte Plaisance has been educating communities about witchcraft for over 20 years, with his own interest arising from a near-death experience as a small child.

He is an initiate in several occult societies and currently resides in Denham Springs, Louisiana where he and his Priestess Gypsy oversee a three acre temenos (sacred precinct) devoted to Hellenic religious studies and practices. Monte is the author of "Reclaim the Power of the Witch", and co-author of "A Treasury of Hellenic Prayers and A New Traveler on an Ancient Path". He can be found onlline at http://echoesfromthetemple.wordpress.com/

How to Raise Energy

by Ravyn Moonchylde

The ability to raise one’s personal energy is an important part of performing magick.  Not only does much of the fuel for a spell or ritual come from within, but the process of raising energy helps to focus the mind wonderfully on the task at hand.  However, raising energy can sometimes be difficult for the novice, as busy modern life has made us a society of multi-taskers, able to focus on many things at once, but never one thing to the exclusion of all others.  Therefore, one must take the time to train one’s mind to properly focus.

For this exercise, you will need:

• A good night’s sleep
• A small meal or healthy snack
• A focus
• Loose, comfortable clothing
• A quiet sanctuary

You can’t concentrate if you’re tired or hungry, especially when you are first learning to call up and control energy.  Therefore, make sure you are well-rested before you begin.  A small, high-carbohydrate snack like fruit is also recommended, in order to give your personal energy a small kick-start; eating a large meal before you begin may make you feel sleepy or mentally sluggish instead.  Your focus can be anything special to you, as long as it is something dedicated specifically to this purpose, like a ring or a point of quartz.  This item will attune itself to your energy as you use it, so treat it with care and it will serve you well. 

Likewise, your sanctuary should also be a special place, free of distractions, that you set aside for meditation and attuning yourself.  As you practice, eventually you will be able to create this feeling of sacred space anywhere, but even then it is good to have a specific sanctuary set aside, either in a part of your home, or someplace outside where you feel attuned to the Earth’s energy.  Attire for these exercises can be anything that fits loosely and doesn’t itch or feel uncomfortable in any way; bare feet are recommended but not a requirement.

To call up energy, enter your sanctuary and sit comfortably, with your spine straight.  If you cannot sit comfortably on the ground, feel free to bring a small cushion or stool to sit on.  Gaze into your focus and center your mind on it.  If you find other thoughts intruding, acknowledge them and let them go.  When your mind is calm and focused, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Visualize a ball of pure white light forming in the center of your abdomen.  Allow this ball to build in strength, and watch it grow brighter, filling your core with warmth.  This ball is your personal energy.  If you are tired, hungry, or distracted, this ball will be weak and wavery; feel free to take a break and remedy any of these situations before moving on.  When your mind and body are well-prepared, this ball should glow bright white.  Once you have this ball of energy formed, you can move on to the next step.

Visualize a channel of energy delving downwards into the ground, deep into the core of the Earth.  The Earth possesses its own energy that can be tapped if approached with care and respect.  Extend your channel into this reservoir and feel the Earth’s energy flow upward along this channel.  Allow this energy to fill you, warm and vibrant, starting by charging the ball of energy at your abdomen and extending outward into your legs, your toes, your heart, your arms, your fingers, your head, and finally your mind.  Hold this image in your mind as long as you want, and keep it in the back of your mind as you perform your ritual work.  This energy can be used to create and power your wards and personal shields, to fuel your spells, to charge talismans and potions with magickal energy, and to refill your personal stores of energy. 

The most important step of this process, however, is returning the surplus energy to the Earth when you have finished.  Otherwise, you may feel supercharged, fidgety, and distracted for the rest of the day!  When you are done using the energy you have borrowed, send down another energy channel and allow whatever you have not used to flow back into the Earth with your thanks.  You should be left feeling relaxed and refreshed, but not drained or sleepy.
The raising and controlling of energy is a fundamental component of spellwork.  Once you master this technique, you will be able to manifest real changes in the world, and in your life.  Just remember that before you can control what is outside you, you must first control what is inside you.
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Ravyn Moonchylde is an eclectic Witch that has been studying the Craft for two years.  She lives in St. Louis, and has been previously published in Magickal Media.

Simple Spells

By Autumn Imbrium

This spell is short and sweet.

If you’ve been sick and are just beginning to feel better, use this spell to speed the healing:

What was wrong is now gone. New health I see, so mote it be!

 

Spells: Simple Spells

By Autumn Imbrium

There are lots of notions and rules about spells.

They must be long, involved, and exactly concise to work precisely right. Hey, that almost sounds like a spell! I’m a poet and don’t know it!

They can be short and to the point. They have to rhyme. There should be a certain flow to the spell. You need to address absolutely every contingency or else it may backfire on you. You have to bind them to the person or thing you on which you are casting them. They can work immediately… or they have to have time to work. They go up and then come down. You need lots of emotional energy to make them work the best. You must enunciate every word precisely and use a certain meter within your speech pattern. You must do the spell, the exact same way as your coven great-grandfather did it. Well, the list can go on and on.

I believe it all. It all works. It just depends on what works best for you. I use a combination of several of the methods mentioned above. But I found that many times, simple is best for me.

I’m going to share a spell that has worked really well for me. In the spell I’m not asking for much, just clarification and truth. There are several versions of this spell, but I’m just going to share one version.

But before I do, please, please, please remember that the change you create will impact more than just the person or object on which you cast the spell.

An example is when you throw pebbles into a pond of water. You are standing on the shore and throw a pebble or stone out into the middle of a pond. The stone flies through the air and then lands with a ker-plunk into the water. If your aim is good, the stone hit exactly where you wanted it to drop into the water. Target acquired… Yes! Mission accomplished!

But if you continue to watch, the immediate result is a large splash with small waves are created by the impact of the stone into the water. These waves reach out in ever-widening circles and they impact anything else in their path. If you’ve never thought about magick in this way, take a minute and throw a stone into a pond, or toss a spoon into the dishwater… or the bar of soap into the bathwater. The impact of the object can be devastating depending upon the force used to throw it. The ripples travel all or most of the way to the edge of the pond, sink, or bath tub.

If you throw more than one object into the water, the impacts cause waves that crash into each other and disrupt the even outflow of the energy from the impact of the items thrown into the water. And, if there is something else in the water that is just sitting there, it’s going to be impacted, too.

Okay, this seems pretty simple doesn’t it? But magick has the same effects. If you cast a spell on something or someone, the impact can be great and immediate depending on the skill and emotional force of the person casting the spell. The reaction of the spell on the thing or person can impact more than just the target for which you have aimed. And, if the spell is aimed at more than one target, i.e., more than one stone hitting the water, the energy become unstable and the reactions are unmanageable and unexpected. If the target is a person, then the reactions of the person will certainly impact the other people in that person’s life… maybe they will be impacted in a negative way.

Whew all that being said, it’s probably a good idea to think of all the ways the reaction to a successful spell can impact you and other folks. Because the waves, or reactions, spread out in all directions and there’s more than just one wave, or reaction. They are headed everywhere… and they are coming back to impact you.

Let’s bring the Law of Return into this equation.

Now the waves may not hit you for a long period of time. You may think you’ve escaped, but the intent and energy you have put into your spell is still bound to you because, well, you did the spell. You created the energy and the result and so you are now tied into the result of the spell, too. What you send out you will receive back at least three times. That’s the law of return. Kinda like the Gods saying… What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, too.

So spells, simple or complex, still need to be well-considered, and judged to be worth the probability that the results of the spell are going to impact you, too.

On to the spell!

This spell is good when people are telling lies about you. Please be aware, that if you are lying about other folks, it will work to show that you are a liar; too… so use this spell carefully.

“Words be known – Truth be shown.”

What?... That’s it?!!!

Yeah, that’s it.

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