Daily Spells: Courage Cord

Sometimes we feel low on courage and would need some extra protection to go along with us in our day-to-day lives. This is a simple spell that requires minimal ingredients and preparation, but can yield a powerful result. It uses correspondences to create a sympathetic bond to the goal you want to achieve: courage. So here goes:

Day: Tuesday (associated with the planet Mars, and with courage and protection among other things)
Moon phase: Waxing (growing)
Ingredients: A red cord

Your goal is to be more courageous and thus feel more protected. If it helps, you can write your goal on a piece of paper. The idea is to use the power of the growing moon to let your courage grow. As Tuesdays are associated with Mars you can also draw upon these energies. The color red is associated with courage and thus with Mars and Tuesdays, so here we find a triple connection.

This spell uses the classic knot magic. With each knot you tie you are knotting your goal into the cord, making it a physical representation of courage. You can then place it on your altar, bedside table or wear it as a bracelet, wrapped around your wrist.

During the day, ground and center yourself and then create your sacred space. Follow whatever ritual format you normally would do. As you start the spell, pick up the cord and hold it in your hands. Visualize your goal clearly. As you begin tying knots into the cord, feel your goal starting to manifest, your courage starting to grow. Tie the nine knots in the following order (starting with 1 and ending with 9) and recite the verse, always keeping your goal in focus, tying it into the cord:

1---6---4---7---3---8---5---9---2

With know of one, this spell's begun,

With knot of two, it comes true,

With knot of three, it comes to be,

With knot of four, power I store,

With knot of five, this spell's alive,

With knot of six, this spell is fixed,

With knot of seven, success is a given,

With knot of eight, I make it fate,

With knot of mine, this courage is mine!

So mote it be!

As you recite this and visualize your goal, feel yourself raising the energy for the spell. As you reach the end and proclaim "So mote it be!", feel that energy culminate and release it. Then finish your ritual in your usual manner and remember to ground and center. Place your cord on your bedside table or wear it as a bracelet. Whenever you feel like you need to be reminded of your inner courage, look at or touch the bracelet, it is now your focal object and you can redo the spell whenever you need to, recharging the cord. 

Practising your path in your mind

This post is meant as encouragement for the beginner practitioner of Wicca of any Pagan path, and for the one broomcloset witch who cannot practice the Craft openly.

I recently joined the Pagans and Witches Amino, and while browsing posts there I see some posts asking for help with practicing the Craft while living at home with parents that do not necessarily approve. So I wrote this piece.

~***~

I myself grew up in a Christian family, and although I would count them as almost secular compared to some others, they still had hard principles which led them to denounce my choice of Wicca. While still living under their roof, for four years I practiced the Craft as best I could, in secret under their noses.

I thought I would share what I learned during that time, and hopefully it will help you. It helped me to get back to my own practice after some turbulence in my life.


Do what you can, find alternatives
Are you allowed to have candles in the room? Are you allowed to burn incense? Is there a spot you can go to where you can practice undisturbed?

I was allowed candles (but no more than a maximum of two at a time), and incense (but in low moderation). I had a small bedside table where I would light a candle and incense and I would sit quietly in front of this. To my parents I said I was meditating. It worked for me and it might work for you. We all need some quiet in our lives sometimes. This was my way of performing ritual. I will discuss how below.

If you cannot practice at home in privacy, is there somewhere you could safely go where you know you will not be disturbed? I had a spot in a woodland park, slightly off-trail, where I would sometimes go, while sneaking candles, incense, bells and crystals with me in my pockets. I usually went for walks there, so staying a bit longer for ritual or spellwork did not matter.

What of tools then? You might not be allowed an athame, tarot cards or cauldrons, and random bells and wands might look suspicious to some parents. If you stay on this path, you will eventually get all of these. But in the meanwhile, find alternatives.

The athame is used to direct energy, the same goes for the wand. But you can just as well use your finger instead. Any tool you direct energy with is just an extension of yourself and your will.

If you need to find representations for the elements to symbolize them, find something that corresponds with them, that feels like them. For the longest time I used a rock or pinecone to represent earth, a feather to represent air, a red jasper for fire, and a seashell for water.

There are countless things you might use to represent the elements, and if your are crafty you could even make them yourself. Finding different things to use as elemental representations is a good exercise for your mind as well. Which leads me on to the next thing.


The power of the mind
When it comes to performing magic and spells, your most powerful tool is your mind. Magic is to create change in conformity with will, ie. it becomes so because I will it to be so.

As I mentioned earlier, when I started out I would sit in my room, maybe with a candle and some incense, and "meditate". What I actually did was practice ritual and spells. This is possible because of the power of the mind.

The tools we use and the words we say carry symbology that triggers our psyche. This helps our minds support the frameworks of ritual and spellcasting. Or put differently: Tools (as symbols) help us concentrate on the work we are doing.

In itself, the tool does not have any power, besides the one our mind gives it (attunement). This means that even if you had an athame, if you do not know the symbolism behind it, and feel no connection to it, then it will not work for you as a tool because it does not trigger your mind.

In your mind, you can have all the tools you want, or none, that is up to you. When doing ritual or spellwork in your mind, you use visualization to see and feel what you do. You might use physical gestures, but I would usually sit still with my eyes closed. I would even be silent, just saying any words in my mind alone.


Vizualization - the key to successful ritual
I've talked about theory, now let's get down to actually doing it.

If you go in for performing ritual or spellwork in your mind, find somewhere quiet where you can sit, stand or lie down undisturbed. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself in your ritual space. Now you will use your imagination to visualize yourself doing that spell or ritual, following any instructions you have. This will be easiest if you have them memorized.

If you are casting a circle, you can visualize yourself walking around, casting the circle, or you might choose to visualize how the circle just starts forming around you into that perfect bubble. Visualize the tools that you need on your altar, how you prepare spell ingredients and how the spell comes together.

As you raise energy, feel it with your body. You might want to tighten all the muscles in your body as much as possible, and hold on until you are ready to release the energy. When you do, relax your muscles and let go of the energy, but keep the visualization of your ritual or spell going.

End the ritual and take down the circle just as you started it. Then allow your mind to come back to the physical space you are in and reconnect with this world.


"But it's too difficult"
Imagination is something all of us do. As children we are experts on it: imagining we are adventurers, or princesses, or Batman, etc. As we grow older and learn more we tend to use fantasy in imagination less and less, it is a skill we loose.

Visualizing whole rituals can feel very difficult at first because you have to concentrate very hard and keep that concentration going. With practice, however, you will become good at visualizing. And if your first years of practicing magic or Wicca or any other path consists of doing it through visualization, you will become very good at performing powerful ritual and spells later on.

Because, you might light candles, wave your wand, put together spell ingredients, and read incantations, but nothing will come of it if you do not also put the power of your mind behind it. So practice with patience. Maybe just practice casting a circle in your mind at first, or visualize yourself in your ritual space. It can be the room you are in, or a completely different room. Your choice.

However you practice, you will become good at it after a while. When I had done this for a few years, I was able to do it whenever I needed it, wherever I was: on the bus, in class, even once at dinner.

~***~

So let nothing stop you, just start practicing ritual and spellwork, in your mind. Take baby steps while starting and, as Scott Cunningham put it in Living Wicca: Just do it!


Blessed Be!
~Stella

PS: this post has no images, you'll just have to visualize the pictures of all the tools, and of me standing in line for school lunch, eyes closed, doing ritual. ;)

Money Jar Spell

Autumn has begun and with it I sense magic in the air, a buzzling feeling of a new season. I have recently started studying again, which means I have rather less money to live on than when I worked as a teacher. Thus, in order to attract prosperity into my life I went looking for spells of that kind.

Now, as always, one should never expect to just have money fall into one's hands just because of a money spell. It could happen, yes, but if you do not work toward your goal, you will most likely not see the results. The money spell I am about to write down might work for you or it might not, and I am in no way responsible for the results you have with it (if you perform it, go gamble and loose all your money, realize that you are the one responsible for that loss).

That said, let's get down to business.

There are numerous money spells to be found in books and on the net. As I was casually browsing Instagram I came across this image that had been reposted by an other user:

Money spell jar by @herbal.moon.goddess on Instagram

It drew my attention and I felt inspired. So I copied it into my own spellbook, researched some correspondences and tweaked the spell to my liking. When doing magic, I feel it is important to listen to your intuition and do things that speak to you, that feel right. It is not about having to have the precise ingredients called for, or doing it at a time inconvenient to you. Choose ingredients for a spell that work for you and feel right for your working, and do the spell at a time that feels right. My instructions come with recommendation and suggestions, but you choose your own way of doing it.

The spell in it's original form calls for different ingredients with money correspondence to be put in a glass jar, then to be charged with your intentions and placed on your altar or carried with you to remind you of your goal.

Ingredients:

• Container: a glass jar is suggested, but you could also use a wooden box or small pouch, especially if you will carry it around with you.
• Representation of money: Like attracts like. You could use coins or bills to represent money, but if this is not possible, write a money symbol on a piece of paper and use that.
• Herbs: There are numerous hers that can be used. Mint has long been associated with wealth and prosperity. Others could be (but are not limited to) cinnamon, allspice, cloves, chamomile, jasmine, nutmeg and vervain.
• Essentioal oils: Patchouli and orange bergamot are the original suggestions, with options for chamomile, mint, cinnamon and basil
• Crystals: Citrine, green aventurine, moss agate, tourmaline.

These are mere suggestions. Research books or the web to find other ingredients with correspondences to money. It you do not have a certain ingredient readily available, consider if it is strictly necessary for you to go out and buy it. In my mind, the point of a money and prosperity spell is not to spend money in order to work it, but to work with what you have to achieve your goals. It is not only about making money, but about saving it as well. With that said, here are some other things you might think of when working your money jar spell:

• The colors green and gold (orange for success) are often used in money spells (that is the reason for choosing eg. citrine och green aventurine). Green is a color of growth while gold quite literally suggests wealth. Orange is a color for success. You could incorporate these colors by burning a candle of that color during the spell, and then again if you renew the spell or meditate on it. 
• Moon phase: spells to draw money and prosperity toward you should ideally be performed during a waxing moon. If you have to do the spell during a waning moon, you might instead opt to let go of ill spending habits. 
• Day of the week: Thursday is the day ruled by Jupiter and thus represents money and prosperity. You might opt to perform your spell on a Thursday of the waxing moon. 

There are several other correspondences you could incorporate, but I will repeat what I said earlier: Magic should be intuitive. If you hesitate because you fear you do not have the right ingredients, or might perform the ritual on the wrong day, then that doubt will influence your work. Correspondences are meant to help you bring power to your work easier. The more connections you feel that your spell has to the goal you are working toward, the easier it will be for you to perform your spell. So choose what you feel works for you and let's do some magic!

I copied the spell into my spell book, wrote down some additional information about different correspondences.
The chant I used popped into my mind during the spellcasting.

Like I said I tweaked the spell to suit my needs and chose ingredients based on what I had and what felt right. I ended up using an old glass jar (found at a flea market last year), a citrine and green agate, some pine nuts (because in the moment I opened my pantry my eyes fell on them and I thought "Yes! Those are the ones I will use") and some dried blackcurrant berries that I harvested and dried myself last year. I also included a gold colored coin, lit some patchouli and amber incense (I had mint oil in a diffuser in the room just before the ritual) and burned a green candle.

Once you have your ingredients, cleanse them in any way you wish (I used white sage), and create your sacred space. You do not need to do ritual if you do not want to, but I like to do it. I also like having a circle in place to store all power and not let other things that I have not invited in to influence my work. This is my basic ritual plan for spellwork, bare bones:

1. Cleanse the ritual space, tools and yourself
2. Ground and center
3. Begin the ritual by casting a circle
4. Call the quarters and deity 
5. Preform the spell: Add the ingredients to the jar, stating with each ingredient your goal
6. Raise energy for your spell. I did this by chanting:

Money and prosperity,

will be bountiful to me.

And once I had raised the energy and charged it into the jar I closed the top saying:

As I will, so mote it be!

     7. Thank deity and release the quarters

     8. Release the circle and extinguish any candles

You are now done. I allowed my green candle to burn  until I went to bed, and I will keep burning it and recharging the jar on Thursdays, renewing my consciousness about my goal.

Good luck in your spellwork!

Blessed be!

~Stella