January 9, 2018

January 9, 2018 By

Love rarely comes with an “off” switch.  You’ve been heartbroken before, right? It’s a difficult place to land. Especially when you know it is completely OVER – you have a list as long as your arm for why breaking up is the only solution – and yet you still ache for their touch. You mourn the loss of shared dreams, and lie awake obsessively second-guessing every detail of the demise. Maybe you are angry with yourself about how they anger you, and that pisses you off…into a downward spiral of self-loathing and blame. Consider this emotional bond-breaking spell your magickal divorce.

CC0 Creative Commons - Pixabay
CC0 Creative Commons – Pixabay

Harboring baneful thoughts and feelings is a waste of your power. It only harms YOU. It’s like drinking poison, and waiting for your enemy to die.  No matter why a relationship comes to close, “breaking up is hard to do.” This spell isn’t limited to marital divorces, it can be used to sever any type of relationship. Witches aren’t immune to heartbreak, but when we need an emotional divorce, magick can help get our heads and hearts singing in harmony once again.

Lemon Bond-Breaking Spell for a Magickal Divorce

Step 1: Mental – Know why they must be released

The first step to any magickal working begins with knowing what needs to change and why. If you are feeding an emotional bond that no longer serves the highest good of both parties, it is time to break it. As you prepare, write yourself a list of all the reasons that it is time to let go. At the top of the list: Free Will. Neither party can be coerced to be in relationship if they don’t want to be there. End of story.

However, in order to learn and heal, it helps to at least know the make and model of the love-truck that just ran you over. Try to keep your list constructive, understanding that every being has their own path to tread, lessons to both learn and to teach. We all take turns playing the roles of villain and hero in each other’s narratives. Get out of your heart and into your head for a minute: if they behaved badly toward you, perhaps there is some inner wound they are reacting to that has nothing to do with you. Forgiveness goes a long way toward healing your own heart.

The Hermetic Principle of Vibration (Law of Attraction) informs us that we all draw to ourselves the lessons we need to work through. This is a tough thing to accept, but let me plant this seed of thought: There is one common denominator in every failed relationship you’ve ever been in: you. What role have you been playing in other folk’s lives? How have your choices led you to this difficult moment? Learn from it.

Now that you KNOW, what is your WILL moving forward? Do something different this time. Release the old roles you’ve been playing, shed that identity and create a new one.

Step 2: Will – Do the Things

This spell is best enacted on a Tuesday (day of Mars), when the moon is waning.

Materials Needed:

  • Scissors
  • A sharp knife.; white-handled boline is the ideal magickal tool, should you have one.
  • An offering bowl.
  • Black, woven fabric, at least a yard of it. It will be ripped into approximately 24″ x 24″ square, leaving the raw edges. I angle towards natural fibers like cotton or linen. This could be fabric yardage or harvested from something else. For example, I had this old cotton tapestry with Ganesha, Hindu God and Remover of Obstacles, printed on it. That was appropriate for this spell, and we have a special relationship with Ganesha in my house, so this was my choice.
  • 1/2 cup or more of chunky Sea Salt
  • 1 fat lemon – both for purification and water associations.
  • 13 steel sewing pins – adding Mars, fiery energy of the Will.
  • 3″x3″ square Kraft paper, cut from a grocery store bag.
  • Pen with black ink. I use a pen that I consecrated for magickal use.
  • 2 Tablespoons of prepared “Acceptance” Water.
  • One copper penny – copper is the metal of Venus, to conduct and attract Divine Love.
  • A small glass vial or jar with a lid.
My Daring Cauldron and the Magick of Snow Water - Witch on Fire
Bottled Snow “Acceptance Water” in Cauldron of fresh Snow – Photo by Heron Michelle

Gathering “Acceptance” Water

You’ll need to go read my article Snow Water for Emotional Acceptance .There you will find an in-depth explanation about the two powers of water: daring vs. acceptance that we are tapping for this spell. Here is a snip:

The receptive power of acceptance is an acknowledgment of the present mold that defines me. I have to know who I am now (the good, the bad and the ugly) in order to diagnose my wounds, strengthen my weaknesses, and put my strengths to work for me. I have to know where I am, so that I can chart a course to where I want to be.

The projective power of daring is what breaks the mold to redefine us. Daring to overflow the cauldron’s edge can only happen after we discover where that edge lies…then we boldly go where we’ve never gone before. Once the cauldron spills, there is no containing this power…it flows wherever it chooses with free-will. Daring is the boldness to heal our wounds, improve our weaknesses, and overcome all obstacles.

If you happen to have snow available right now, go gather yourself some, and follow the direction in that post to prepare it. Should snow NOT be accessible to you at this moment, worry not! Acceptance water can be collected anywhere that natural waters pool up gently in some container. You can set your chalice or cauldron outside in a gentle rain. Or should you have access to a placid pond that’s not too funky, gather some there. The morning dew that collects on flowers is healing for a broken heart – roses especially. You’ll only need about 2 tablespoons worth for this working.

Lemon cut in half, salt, 13 steel pins, and a 3"x3" square of Kraft Paper that says "Release"
Lemon Bond-Breaking Spell Materials – Photo by Heron Michelle

Step 3: Emotional – Dare to Redefine the Boundaries with Magick.

Open your sacred space in your normal manner. Light any candles or incense you desire, evoke the Deities and Spiritual Allies that you’ve chosen to work with – . Open the Elemental gateways with special calls to the Powers of Water.

Powers of the West and of Water, I summon, stir and call you to my aid in the severing of these emotional bonds I hold with ______. Teach me your lessons of acceptance, that I may be healed, restoring wholeness within my own boundaries once more. Join me as I Dare to purge myself of all baneful influence – past, present and future – and redefine myself through the grace of Divine Love. Hail and Welcome!

Rending the Fabric

The rending and cutting in this spell are important acts of WILL and applying your FIRES. Do these acts with the fervor, power, and muscle over physical things, to represent the severing of your intangible feelings. Woven fabrics (not stretchy) tear easily in a straight line along their weave. Our intention is to tear a 24″ square piece for the spell.

Measure to 24″ along two sides of the fabric, and snip about a half inch in with your scissors at the mark. Gather up the fabric into your fist on both sides of one of the snips. Visualize a cord connecting your emotional and mental bodies: Now RIP THAT CORD ASUNDER! Give it a primal growl while you do so.

Turn the fabric to the snip at 24″ on other side, gather up the fabric in your fists, visualize the cord that connects between your physical bodies and body of the Will: RIP IT APART! Howl, growl and scream at it if you want.

Writing your Intention Paper

On your 3″ x 3″ square of kraft paper, write 9 lines of this phrase, chanting it aloud as your write: “I release (name of person) in peace.” Note that there are also 9 chambers in the sliced lemon in the image below. 3×3 is a powerful magickal number, and stating your intentions 9 times, fills 9 chambers, on both sides of the lemon.

Now, turn the paper 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Crossing the original lines, writing and chanting aloud 9 lines of: (Your Name) is complete. Use the affirmation of your choice – what specifically are  you wanting for yourself? Healing? Normally I wouldn’t speak in third person about myself, but I think if we are going to start using names, we need to do so in both sides of the spell, and claim the work for ourselves in our own name.

I always end spells with So Mote It Be! What can I say? I like the old school ceremonial feel of the phrase.

Fold the paper away from you in half, bottom edge lifted to meet top edge. Write across the rectangle, “For the Highest Good of all Involved, Harming None.” Or whatever caveats you typically add to your spells.

Turn it 90 degrees counter-clockwise again, then fold it away from you, lifting the bottom edge to align with top edge again, draw on the remaining square any symbols of protection and balance you use. I chose the pentacle.

three steps in writing and folding an intention paper
Writing your Intention Paper – this is just an example, y’all. I don’t even know a Joe Smith, and I’m not breaking up with anybody!

Cutting the Lemon – Separating your Waters

Cradle the Lemon to your heart. Lemon has magical associations with elemental water, and purification. Think on how you’ve welcomed that person into your heart-space – your “waters” have commingled together. The lemon represents your emotional body – your heart – and we need to separate your “waters,” from theirs. With your knife, cut the lemon in half around it’s fat waistline.

One in each hand, hold a lemon half over your offering bowl. Saying,

“I release (name) in peace. Leave my heart, now and forever. Flow toward your own horizon, far away. My heart is purified of all that does not serve my highest good. I am complete within myself. As I will, it is so; So Mote it be!”

Squeeze the lemons into the offering bowl – these juices represent the emotions you held for that person, now drained away. Pour in 1 tablespoon of the acceptance water so that they, too, may find acceptance and peace. Later on, move the juice/water to a small glass jar or vial for transport in the last step.

Folded Intention Paper placed between Lemon Halves - Photo by Heron Michelle
Folded Intention Paper placed between Lemon Halves – notice the 9 chambers of the lemon – Photo by Heron Michelle

Mending your heart with the Steel of your Will

Pour 1 tablespoon of prepared acceptance waters into one half of the lemon, saying:

“I am complete within Divine Love.” 

Place the folded intention paper in between the two halves. Place the copper penny in the other half, saying:

“Divine Love fills my heart. I am healed on all levels.”

Put the lemon halves back together, and using the 13 steel pins, “sew” the halves back together. With each pin, repeat the affirmation: “I am complete within Divine Love.”

Lemon Spell - Intention Paper Inside pinned together with 13 steel pins on a Bed of Salt
Lemon Halves Pinned together with 13 Steel Pins – Heron Michelle

At the center of the black cloth, pour half your salt, place the lemon on top, then pour over the rest of the salt. Gather up two opposing corners of the cloth and tie. Gather up the other corners and tie them into a compact bundle. The bundle my live on your altar until you are able to travel to a River.

For now, release your Spirit Allies, Deities and close the elemental gates to water with your gratitude.

Lemon Bond-Breaking Bundle Wrapped in Black Fabric and sitting on Altar Paten
Wrapped Lemon Bond-Breaking Bundle on Altar Paten – Photo by Heron Michelle

Step 4: Physical – Buried in the Banks of the River. Be Silent.

This may be the hard part, depending on where you live. Journey to the banks of a deeply flowing river. Take the bundle, the vial of lemon juice/water, and an offering of gratitude with you.

Standing with one foot in the river, and one foot on the banks, hold the bundle to your heart space. Call upon the Great God/dess and the flow of their Divine Love through all things. Call upon the Powers of Water as both Daring (the river itself) and Acceptance (the banks.) The river is that Divine Love, flowing in the direction of its Wyrd, its Divine destiny. The banks give that water structure, guidance and acceptance of that destiny.

 “…Teach me your lessons of acceptance, that I may be healed, restoring wholeness within my own boundaries once more. Aid me as I Dare to redefine myself through the grace of Divine Love….”

Pour the vial of lemon juice “emotions” into the river. Release all lingering thoughts, feelings, and connections to the past relationship. Say your final goodbyes with gratitude. “You are released.” I tend to say, “Namasté Away” in moments like these, because I’m a bit of a smart-ass. <cackle>

Now, go dig a deep hole on the bank of the river, so that it is within the sturdy earth or rocks that guide the water, but safe from eroding into the waters themselves for a while. The banks will aid you with acceptance of this new condition. Bury the bundle in the hole, covering it over, and beautifying the spot by making a little natural shrine of stacked stones or an arrangement of flowers collected from around the area. Leave your offering of gratitude for the spiritual aid of your allies. Pouring out liquor, lighting incense, or offering flowers are all good ideas.

As the bundle decomposes over time, becoming earth once more and flowing with the river, so your heart will also heal slowly and surely, finding stability and renewal.

Clap your hands three time to break the flow. “So mote it be!” Turn and walk away. Do not look back or visit again. Do not speak of it.

Remember that you are a perfect child of the God/dess.“If that which you seek you find not within, you will never find it without.” (Charge of the Goddess)

Blessed be,

~Heron

Worry not, dear readers…this spell is only brought to you as a public service, and not some passive-aggressive announcement of any broken-heartedness on my part. We’re still lovey-dovey over here in Heron’s rook.

It does not do to speak of such things until they are long finished, but I can report that I do have distant, first-hand experience with a spell of this nature that was effective for me during a dark time. That working inspired this writing, though it took a different tack. A hoodoo root doctor I knew at the time suggested the lemon sewn with 13 pins; however, this is a heavily-adapted creation informed by my Witchcraft practice, and put into new words. It’s an example of how to utilize the “Acceptance Snow Water” I wrote about previously.

August 29, 2017

August 29, 2017 By

Last year, my region was hit with significant flood damage. I live on the Tar River near the coast, so we know the fury of Hurricanes, and what it is like to see your home, town and neighborhoods drowning in their aftermath. Far.too.much. However, what is happening right now in Houston and the Gulf Coast region of Texas, is orders of magnitude more serious than anything I’ve ever experienced. Which is saying something, since I long ago lived in Houston during the 2001 flood that was Gods awful. I have many friends there still and I’ve been worried sick about what is happening right now.

Hurricane Harvey is powerful, but so are we. Let’s harness our collective magickal might and do what we can to aid our countrymen along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Worrying over things doesn’t help anybody; action does. Action backed by Magick can change the world. Witches FLY! Priests and Priestesses ARISE! Join me now in the working of this spell.

A Spell Against Flood Damage in Texas

I first worked this spell here last year to protect my own neighbors, and have now gussied it up for a reworking for Houston and the Gulf Coast region, wherever aid is needed. Adapt it as necessary to suit your tradition, with the materials you have on hand.

Protection from Flooding Spell working Altar ~Heron
Protection from Flood Damage: Spell working Altar ~Heron

A Witch’s Prayer For Aid Against Flood Damage

Great Ones! Gods, Guides, Angels!  Hark unto my call.
Great Mother, Great Father nurture and protect The Gulf Coast and Houston, Texas, in their time of need.
Be with them now, we pray. (Lights White Candles)

Ancestors of Spirit! (claps hands three times) Mighty Dead of The Craft, draw near!
Awaken within us the old powers, tried and true;
Shelter our Gulf-coast neighbors from all harm and aid them in their time of need.
Be with them now, we pray. (Lights Black Candle)

Ancestors of the Blood! (pounds chest in heart-beat pattern three times)
Our beloved dead, Mothers and Fathers of their lines, back through the reach of time,
Return once more to hearth and home, protect their children and pets,
make strong their foundation stones and shelter them from all harm.
Awaken within them your tenacity to survive; that will aid them in their time of need.
Be with them now, we pray. (Pours out offering of liquor)

Ancestors of the Land! (Stamps foot on ground three times.)
Those who’ve cultivated and protected our Gulf Coast lands in your time,
those who’ve lived there, worked there, died to defend our country and been laid to rest there,
Return once more to farm and city, harbor and armory.
Protect their livelihoods, their crops, their livestock, their buildings.
Keep safe our sacred places, our cemeteries and temples.
Awaken within our country the brotherly love so that we may rise together as one people, to overcome the challenges that lay ahead;
aid us all in our time of need.
Be with us now, we pray.

Spell Against Flood Damage in Texas
Map of Gulf Coast region of Texas with Rune Algiz for Protection Graphic by Heron Michelle

Assemble Spell Materials

  • Lay a printed map of the Gulf Coast and Houston, Texas region on your altar paten/pentacle. One I created from Google Maps above can be printed on regular printer paper.
  • The Rune Algiz for protection and defense is drawn over map in Red – I choose red to call in the firey protection of Mars energy.
  • On top of the Map, place a monopoly house piece (or any other figure that represents “home” and infrastructure that you may have. Toy figures work well.)
  • Surround the house with hematite, rose quartz, blue lace agate, and something made of iron. I had an iron nail.
  • Ring everything with red rose petals, or any flower that resonates love, peace, brotherhood, the Goddess’ protection.

Empowering with the Four Classical Elements

(Lights Incense)
Powers of Air, of intellect and wise governance. Be with us now!
Blow free all confusion; lend your powers of critical thinking and aid all our officials, aid workers and citizens in beneficial decision making as they ride out this storm and flood.
Keep them safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(blows incense gently over items on pentacle.)

I visualize a clearing and calming of wind, rain and atmosphere itself. I see the atmosphere around Texas and the Gulf Coast glowing yellow.

Map of Region, Rune of shielding, stones, iron nail and rose petals on my altar pentacle.
Map of Region, Rune of shielding, a house figurine, stones, iron nail and rose petals on my altar pentacle.

(Lights Red Fire Candle)
Powers of Fire, of action and protection. Be with us now!
Ignite within them the motivation to work selflessly and genuinely to help their neighbors, the strength to persevere through difficult times, and the power to rebuild in ways that improve their community in the future.
With your power they rise into resolute, well-organized, and beneficial action.
Awaken within us all a sacred mission of generosity that will serve our country’s highest good.
We surrender to your fires all hubris, all unhealthy ego-attachment to unnecessary material possessions, to political division, and to greed.
Keep them safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(Touches iron nail to the flame, then uses nail to draw an invoking pentagram over top of the spell materials.)

I visualize the people of Texas and the Gulf Coast, especially the police, national guard, officials and aid workers, rising into action to the aid of their neighbors like a well-armored and well-provisioned army, setting out to battle in perfect formation. I see the people of Texas glowing red.

(Touches purified waters)
Powers of Water, of intuition and acceptance! Be with us now!
Awaken their instincts, grace and compassion. Help their emotions ebb and flow with these waters with a calm acceptance that all things change.
Bring succor to those who are grieving their losses.
Your flood waters now accept their boundaries, flowing gently, evaporating quickly, finding the least damaging path to the sea.
Powers of Water, protect their water systems from pollution and disease.
Protect their municipal treatment systems so they may do their work.
Keep them safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(Sprinkles waters upon the ring of rose petals.)

I visualize the flood waters themselves, crystal clear, clean, flowing gently and easily, receding back to their normal boundariess, accepting the safe barriers that are intended to hold them. I see the waters Texas glowing blue.

(Touches Sea Salt)
Powers of Earth, of stability and fortification! Be with us now!
Keep our neighbors along the Gulf Coast of Texas deeply rooted into their own power, and nourished so that they make do the work before them.
Empower the dams, levies and retention walls to hold fast and steady.
Be the sturdy banks that guide the water in the least destructive way possible to a peaceful resolution.
Aid their farmers, and protect their fields, so that they may have the food needed to sustain them.
Be the energetic wall that defends their homes and businesses from destruction.
Keep them safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(Sprinkles salt in a ring around the rose petals)

I visualize a strengthening of foundation stones, footers, piers and retaining walls; the metals and minerals of the earth itself know their purpose, to be strong and guide the waters. I see crystalline grids forming around all vulnerable areas and systems. I see the very land glowing green.

14671328_1163376317064430_6039409809761272970_n

Great Ones! Gods, Guides, and Angels! All those who keep us safe and illuminate the path before us.
Powers of East, South, West and North! All those from Above and Below who answer our call, in gratitude we set you to your work!
Great Mother, grant them your grace. As the moon waxes into fullness, I anchor their protection to Her growing power.
Then as she wanes, may the effect of these flood waters wane quickly with her.
Great Father, grant us your strength. As the sun wanes into autumn, guide us through these dark times. Help us find our mettle, rising into our power.
Strengthen our Nation through this adversity, so that we may find the most qualified leadership to guide us into a compassionate and prosperous future.
For the Highest Good of all involved, harming none.
In gratitude, our intentions are made manifest.
As is our will, it is so. SO MOTE IT BE!

I clap my hands three times, and leave the working to burn for a while. Then I return, as I am able, to relight and repeat, giving thanks for each small miracle that unfolds. I will continue this working daily until the Harvest moon is full: September 6th at 3:03 am.

May our country grow in strength and unity through these difficult times. Thank you for joining me in this working, all my lovely witches of the world. Your work is important! Please leave me a comment to let me know you’ve joined me. We can also meet in discussion about options and adaptations on my Witch on Fire: Heron Rising Services Facebook Page, which I encourage you to like and follow.

Now, if you have a few bucks to spare, consider donating to this Harvey Disaster Relief Fund set up by the City of Houston itself. Every little bit counts.

~Heron Michelle

Also, I’ve recently purchased the domain WitchonFire.net that redirects more easily here to Patheos Pagan.

August 2, 2017

August 2, 2017 By
A few years ago, I was overtaken by an overwhelming drive to type up and post the following Love Message for Women on my old wordpress blog. This was in the harvest times of that first fateful year I’d spent in service to Aphrodite, whom I asked to teach me about “Perfect Love and Trust.”

The lessons she offered me started out like a brutal mugging at thorn-point, but I learned things–really important things about how to be in healthy, loving relationship with others – by first having the lessons on what NOT to do. From these, she delivered the Four Rules of Witchcraft for Personal Sovereignty, that are mentioned below. At the time, I was still trying to figure out what practical advice could be framed in those terms.

A Love Message for Women
Roses – Heron Michelle

Aphrodite’s Superpower: “Rose-Colored Glasses

If I’d known this is what would happen with my request for help, I might not have made that particular dedication. I call this power she granted me her “Rose Colored Glasses.” Mind you, I have decent clairvoyant abilities anyway, but that is usually when I’m in a trance state and purposefully seeking out information. But that year, She opened my waking eyes so I could **physically see** like a running video filter, the broken hearts of everyone around me, *see* the clambering for truly “perfect” or unconditional Love and Trust that everyone so desperately seeks (whether they recognize it that way or not.) Everywhere I turned, I saw people behaving badly, with running commentary of what wounds drove their shitty, abusive behavior – mostly it was because someone had previously abused THEM.  It is hard to stay mad at people once you know WHY they are lashing out like a wounded animal. That is no excuse for bad behavior, but it is an explanation that helped me find the compassion and solutions I needed to heal the wounds, rather than salt them through retaliation. It was the saddest, most distressing view of the world, and I’m grateful that I can control when and how I use that ability now. (Meaning, I don’t go there, and grateful for the ability to say, NO THANKS.) At the time that I wrote this – in a furious pounding out of a tirade, as I remember the moment – it was in response to a string of female tarot reading clients who were heterosexual, bringing me their troubles with their men. By that same token, I get plenty of male clients who are being abused by their women. I’m sorry to say that it is a common reason that anyone seeks out a reader like myself.  That particular year, It was as though Aphrodite was sending them in droves to find me, and discuss their heart-break, and the cards and Divine Guidance spelled out the same advise over and over again…

Anyway, for some reason today I am once more prompted to re-post them here at Witch on Fire. May the message find its way to those who need it the most.

A Love Message for Women - Witch on Fire
CC0-Public Domain – Pixabay

A Love Message for Women

Originally posted Sept. 1, 2015

The wounded women of the world often bitch about how there are no good men left out there, or that all men are the same: philandering, heartless, mindless animals. For a while there, I was one of them. Those are the wounds talking. We are projecting our fears of betrayal in a broad stroke over 50% of humanity and that is assholery at it’s finest. Besides, if animals are what we expect to find, then that is all we will find, regardless of who is standing before us. The blinders of our wounds will unfairly reinforce our suspicions. Humans will rise or fall to meet our expectations. Don’t burn the Witch.

Furthermore, there are just as many men suffering from the wounds inflicted by the careless women who abused the intimacy of their relationships, deeply scarring the men in their lives. There are men out there who have been given no good reason to trust the women in their lives, and it breaks my heart. Women are equally guilty of being the “bad guy.”  Responsibility to be the sort of person you think everyone should be begins and ends with you, and there are no good excuses for harmful actions against our well-meaning brothers.  Men have feelings, too. Men need healthy trust in their relationships, too. Don’t be the Asshole.

The bottom line: Hurting people hurt more people.

What is the common denominator in every failed relationship you’ve ever had?

YOU.

The good news is that you have the power to change YOU, and the power to choose which relationships you feed. We are personally responsible for ending the cycle of woundings by attending to our own healing, breaking the chain of abuse, and being strong within the sphere of our own influence.

We can set healthy boundaries. Perhaps the other people in your life have never witnessed what the maintaining of healthy boundaries even looks like. Perhaps, since they have no frame of reference, they misinterpret these strong, boundary-maintaining actions as your being a “bitch.” I challenge you to find the least-bitchy way to still rise in strength as a sovereign being, and show ’em what beneficial womanhood looks like. All of us witches have the solemn duty to model that healthy strength for others to learn from. Don’t be the Weak Link.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD, my sisters. You are in charge of you. At the end of the day, no one else can be blamed for the choices you make, the relationships you are in, the way you speak to others, your actions, and your thoughts.  The only control you have is over your own choices, and with whom you invest your time and energy. You must be present to win.
Flip that message to also mean that if your partner refuses to honor your boundaries, even after you’ve given them a chance to rise to the occasion, then you release them and retreat to a safe distance.

I call this Namasté Away: The Spirit in me, honorably releases the Spirit in you, to pursue your own happiness at a distance that I will define…until such time that you cease to wear your own ass as ear-muffs, and start acting right.  Until then, be gone!

The message my Goddess Aphrodite wishes to impart to us all:

“The heart prepared to receive love is the one already opened from the giving of love.”

In Perfect Love and Trust,

~Heron

June 12, 2017

June 12, 2017 By

This ritual creates a spell pouch whose purpose is to awaken your connection to the vast source of power that is the Universe already flowing within you. You then carry the pouch as you continue your explorations in Magick. From the outside, it may look like a few simple affirmations with wishes made on bits of stone and leaf, but the end result is the acceptance of your own phenomenal powers.

Magickal Altar
Photo by Heron

The important distinction to be made by this ritual, is that “magick with a K” is more than just a set of superstitious actions that can be read out of a book by any joe-schmo. It is more than a slumber party foray into the forbidden among teens. It is more even than the most auspicious of ceremonies held in a sacred temple by adepts of the highest order.

The end-game of the pursuit of magick, is to discover that it is a continuous state of being–the most simple and natural state of being. You play the music of the Uni-verse (One Song) and realize that every consciousness within it is a fellow musician playing their part.

Eventually, the trappings and “stuff” of spellcraft become optional, even calling it “Witchcraft” seems… frivolous… and one is so finely tuned to that harmonic, that the “illusion of separateness” just makes you snicker to yourself.  The music is everything…it is ALL sacred, it is ALL “God.” There is no mundane, no profane…some requiem and dissonance, some vivace and resonance, but they are all just movements that sing the largest story.

Your flesh, your actions, your words, your passions become the instruments of this magick. Your thoughts and Will are both the player and the conductor of this symphony…and they become autonomic, like breathing, or the beating of your heart. Above and below, within and without, implicate to explicate, magick ceases to be that fancy thing you dust off on special occasions, and becomes the IS-ness. It just IS your natural state of being.

To Be a Magus and work magick is like becoming the conductor in the great symphony of the Universe.
CC0 Public Domain ~ Pixabay

The magus usually does not simply stroll into the ISness…there are many gates of awareness and ability to unlock before arriving at this place of easy magick. Just like musical training, you start with your scales, and fingerings, breath control and reading the symbolic languages. There is a vocabulary to learn and must practice, practice, practice…

You study the masters and their compositions. You play the great works until their secrets become your muscle memory. First you learn the rules, so that you know how to break the rules and become the composer of your own ground-breaking symphonies. Your life becomes the music that effects change in the world around you. That which previously seemed so concrete, so supernatural, and outside of your affect, becomes the orchestra that responds instinctively to each flick of your baton.

“I am the Magick” Spell Working

So where do you begin? This is an esbat ritual I hold with my students at the midpoint of their Year and a Day of training with me, and as the opening rite to our study of folk magick. It is inspired by a visualization called “the consciousness in all things” in Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions by Joyce and River Higginbotham. (Llewellyn, 2002) This is one of the required texts that we read prior to any instruction in spell-craft. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this book and read it cover to cover; I think it is just that important.

Timing and Allies

Timing of this spell is most effective when a Thursday, the day of Jupiter, falls in a waxing moon phase, close to its peak. We are working our way through the seven areas of consciousness as represented by the seven chakras, but also my Pentacle Approach to the five bodies as aligned with the elements. However, you will notice there are 9 ingredients inside this pouch, 3 x 3. I usually work in threes and nines with spell work of this nature. I also try to include allies from the realms of plant and animal, metal and mineral, as suits the intention.

I usually introduce the element of Fire through striking a match. For me, the match is what brings the other individual ingredients “to life” as this new entity. Like Dr. Frankenstein assembling parts of his creation, when he throws that switch of electricity, that is when his creation comes to life with its own Sovereignty. I thank Orion Foxwood for first introducing me to this Southern Conjure technique.

Altar

Set your altar in whatever way is customary for your spell workings. For my go-to altar layout and consecration ritual, click here. At the very least, have a candle lit that is dedicated to the Greatness of Spirit. Awaken and light the consecration elements of salted water and burning incense.

Spell for the Magus: I am the Magick A spell pouch and ritual to connect the magis to the power of the universe by Heron Michelle
I am the Magick Spell Pouch Ingredients

Materials needed:

Be mindful to select small enough materials such that they will all fit in the bag you choose. It doesn’t take much – the stones can be raw or tumbled, and you can always substitute as you need to, by choosing different allies within that layer of consciousness, chakra, element, etc. For more information, see witchipedia.

  • A small, lightweight leather pouch or bag to hold all your ingredients, with a draw-string top, that can be easily worn with you daily.
  • Clear Quartz Point – Crown, Spiritual Body, Ether, mineral
  • Amethyst – Third eye and Crown, Mental Body, Air, mineral
  • Lapis Lazuli – Third-eye, Mental Body, Psychic Body, Air, mineral
  • Blue Lace Agate – Throat, Air, mineral
  • Green Aventurine – Heart, Emotional Body, Water, mineral
  • Bay Laurel Leaf – Solar Plexis, Body of Will, Fire, plant
  • Copper Penny – Sacral, Physical Body, Earth, Divine Love, Metal
  • Red Jasper – Root, Physical Body, Earth, mineral
  • Wooden Match Stick – Spirit, Fire, Plant

Ground, Center, Connect

Connect to the energies above and below. Here is an excerpt from my consecration ritual.

  • Face the altar, stand in Goddess position with hands raised up to the sky, remember that you are like a tree who’s branches reach up through the atmosphere, touching air and the fires of the sun, and tap into Father Sky and the heavens above.
  • Draw down that power, crossing your arms over your chest in Osiris God position, feeling how that power flows through you reaching all the way through the soles of your feet.
  • Remember that like the tree, your roots reach deep below into the earth and water, to Mother Earth and all the underworld below.
  • Kneel, touch the ground. Draw up the earth energy to cross arms over your chest again in Osiris God position.
  • Feel the flows from above and below meeting and anchoring at your heart chakra–you are a vessel of The Two Who Move as One in Divine Love, an open channel of their creation flows through you.
  • Stand, power flowing through your heart and down through your hands.

Erect your Temple

Create sacred space, casting a circle and inviting to be present your guides, ancestors, and Spirit/Deity in that special way that you do. Open the elemental gates and invite air, fire, water and earth to aid in your engagement with the Universal powers via the material realm.

Visualization

Do the “consciousness in all things” visualization by Joyce and River Higginbotham, p. 150

Statement of Intent:

I come to these sacred cross-roads to work magick in accordance with my Highest Divine Will, harming none. I align my consciousnesses with the interconnection of the Universe and set my feet upon the path of magickal study. I claim this sovereign power within me! (This may be written as a petition spell on a small piece of paper, rolled and also added to the pouch.)

Pluck a strand of your own hair and add it to the bag. This taglocks the working to you.

Ritual body:

At each step, hold up the material and connect to it. Repeat the affirmations in sets of three. Build a cadence and power in the voice. Sing them if that feels right. When the connection feels good and made, end with “I Am the Magick!” stated with authority, then drop the item into the pouch.

Connect to the Clear Quartz and say:
“My Spirit is connected to the magick of the Universe. (X3) I am the magick.”

Connect to the Amethyst and say:
“My mind is receptive to the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”

Connect to the Lapis Lazuli and say:
“My intuition is open to the magick of the Universe. (X3) I am the magick”

Connect to the Blue lace Agate and say:
“My voice resonates with the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”

Connect to the Green Aventurine and say:
“My emotions flow with the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”

Connect to the Bay Leaf and say:
“My Will is aligned with the magick of the Universe. (X3) I am the magick.”

Connect to the Copper Penny and say:
“My passion is ignited with the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick”

Connect to the Red Jasper and say:
“My senses are awakened to the magick of the universe. (X3) I am the magick.”

CC0 Public Domain - Pixabay
CC0 Public Domain – Pixabay

Carefully hold your pouch open with your thumb and pointer finger in a ring around its top, but do not grasp the bag with your remaining fingers, or you could get burned in this tricky next part…

Connect to the wooden match, and say:
“My life is empowered by the magick of the universe. (X3)”

Lighting it by your Spirit Candle, as it flares into light, say with authority: “I AM THE MAGICK!”

Quickly jam the match entirely into the bag, and pinch the top of the bag shut to snuff it out. (This is part of why I prefer leather spell bags…less flammable.) Leave the matchstick in the bag.

Draw the strings closed, holding the mouth of the bag near your own lips, blowing your breath into the bag, chant: “I am the magick” Repeating many times as a power-raising mantra, until you feel it is completely done, and all the powers are soaked into the pouch. I do this with volume of my voice…whisper, to loudly, back to whisper again.

Knot the bag’s draw string closed with nine knots, each time chanting:
“As I so Will, So mote it be.”

Tuck the pouch near your heart… Putting it on a long cord so that it is worn around the neck is my preferred way to carry such things.

Conclude with any offerings, the simple feast, divination and prayers for guidance.

Release your temple and spiritual allies as you normally do, clean up and know it is done. Release all expectation of the outcome, while remaining open to infinite possibility. Now, get to crackin’! You have much yet to learn, do and enjoy.

May your magickal practice bring you fulfillment on all levels, for the highest good of all involved, harming none. Blessèd be!
~Heron

October 13, 2016

October 13, 2016 By

[This post offers my story of life and witchcraft through Hurricane Matthew in October of 2016 here in Greenville, North Carolina.]

Hurricane Matthew blew through Eastern North Carolina on Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning and dumped what would be a catastrophic amount of water onto already saturated ground and swollen rivers. We’ve had so much rain. It’s been a constant sticky, soppy swamp for months.

As Matthew hit us, we were already exhausted from worry over our loved ones in Florida, but had plenty of time to be well prepared. The circle met to do magickal protection work for two of our sisters with houses near Jacksonville Beach. Matthew slowed, and skirted the coast, wobbling east, but driving serious amounts of water in storm surge. Our sister’s were spared any damage, but we were next. River and coastal communities all braced for impact.

Deluge from Hurricane Matthew in Greenville, NC Saturday October 8, 2016
Deluge from Hurricane Matthew in Greenville, NC Saturday October 8, 2016

As Saturday night fell, the wind moaned like banshees. The “guardian tree,” a huge old tulip poplar tree in my back yard that stands protection over our sacred circle, twisted and whipped but stood strong. That storm water was fast, relentless and had no where to go; flash flooding overwhelmed everything and some roads washed clean away. All over the region, cars were found nose down in newly formed trenches.

The power was out by 8:00, but a witch always has plenty of candles on hand. We went to bed and I lie there for hours chanting protection mantras and feeding Reiki and protective energies into the wards I’d erected around my properties.

Then as Matthew passed out to sea, the rains ceased, and the sun rose on a cool, autumn Sunday morning with a whipping breeze, and plenty of yard clean-up to be done. I lost a few shutters and a few branches. Though the winds were not so fierce here as they were in other places, there were still many fallen trees; this death toll is also important to me. One neighbor said a tree cleaved into their home and “crushed their refrigerator like a soda can.”  Most of the folks I know merely had light debris fall in the yard, and the power was out from a few hours to a few days. My power was back on by 4:00 am.

Still, wind was hardly our biggest problem.

Wind felled a tree to crush a friend's house in Greenville, NC.
Wind felled a tree to crush a friend’s house in Greenville, NC.

We were sleeping in because all seemed to be fine, until the doorbell wakes us from our beds. Looting teenagers were seen riding off with three of my family’s bikes.  I’d stuffed every loose thing in my yard into the carport so it wouldn’t blow away, and never once did I worry about having my bones picked cleaned by my fellow citizens, so I must have neglected to lock the bikes to the rack. The police officer who lives across the street was out on storm patrol, but his wife saw the crime unfold, called in the cavalry, and chased them down, recovering two of the bikes and arresting the perpetrators. I began my day by filing police reports, and I doubt I’ll ever see my bike again, but the flying monkeys of Karma are hard at work. I’ve heard that police arrested several people trying to loot the evacuated homes in flooded areas.

Still, looting isn’t our biggest problem.

Tar River Water Fr in Greenville, NC
Tar River Water Front in Greenville, NC

Widespread flooding is our biggest problem.

We live on the Tar River, which carries all this rainwater from central NC back to the sea. The further downstream you get, the higher the river rises. Waters collect in a slow-motion catastrophe that will drown all the towns that lie down stream.   The Tar flows through our Uptown region a mere 4 blocks from my shop, and the many neighborhoods that line her banks.

After Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the river rose to a historic 29′ and the city was an island of hurt for weeks without power, and compromised water systems. After that, much of the river front property, and anything built in the low-lying areas was demolished and turned into parks and greenways, where most of the time, folks can  jog and walk their dogs. Still, there are many vulnerable buildings and municipal systems still in that flood zone. Our airport is currently under water.

IMG_3290
Greensprings Park under flood waters

The cresting point of the river has been estimated to be 26.1 feet by Friday. The mayor announced that citizens were gathering for prayer at one of our closed bridges that stands sentinel over the Town Commons area pictured above. We are in the South, the ‘Bible Belt,’ and that sort of overtly religious thing is pretty normal around here. Mayor Allen Thomas asked that “people of faith” take a moment at noon on Wednesday, wherever they were, and pause for a moment of prayer. “Faith can move mountains. Today, we want it to move water.”

I’m a person of “faith,” technically, even if we may be praying in different ways. I agree that all things are possible when enough people set their minds and energies to the task. At noon, I was at my altar with some impromptu spell crafting.

Join us wherever you are, in the protection of all lands that Hurricane Matthew’s legacy is now flooding. Join me in this prayer and spell-working against flood damage (all instructions included) until the full moon crests on Sunday, October 16, 2016 at 12:23 am EST. Adapt it for your own region, or with whatever materials you have on hand, and help us create some change, Gods willing and the river don’t rise!

I’d love to hear how you adapted this spell for you own needs, and how things are working out for you. Powers of Witchcraft, ACTIVATE!

Protection from Flooding Spell working Altar ~Heron
Protection from Flood Damage: Spell working Altar ~Heron

A Witch’s Prayer and a Spell Against Flood Damage

Great Ones! Gods, Guides, Angels!  Hark unto my call.
Great Mother, Great Father nurture and protect us in our time of need.
Be with us now, we pray. (Lights White Candles)

Ancestors of Spirit! (claps hands three times) Mighty Dead of The Craft, drawn close these Samhain-tides.
Awaken within us the old powers, tried and true; Shelter us from all harm and aid us in this time of need.
Be with us now, we pray. (Lights Black Candle)

Ancestors of the Blood! (pounds chest in heart-beat pattern three times) My own beloved dead, Mothers and Fathers of my line, back through the reach of time,
Return once more to hearth and home, protect our children and pets, make strong these foundation stones and shelter us from all harm.
Awaken within us your tenacity to survive; that will aid us in this time of need.
Be with us now, we pray. (Pours out offering of liquor)

Ancestors of the Land! (Stamps foot on ground three times.) Those who’ve cultivated and protected these lands in your time, those who’ve lived here, worked here, died to defend us and been laid to rest here,
Return once more to farm and city, harbor and armory. Protect our livelihoods, our crops, our livestock, our buildings. Keep safe our sacred places, our cemeteries and temples.
Awaken within us brotherly love and our Eastern North Carolina identity; aid us all in our time of need.
Be with us now, we pray.

(Lays map of region on pentacle, Rune Algiz for protection and defense is drawn over map; surrounds a monopoly house piece with hematite, rose quartz, blue lace agate, and an iron coffin nail, rings with red rose petals.)

Map of Region, Rune of shielding, stones, iron nail and rose petals on my altar pentacle.
Map of Region, Rune of shielding, a house figurine, stones, iron nail and rose petals on my altar pentacle.

(Lights Incense)
Powers of Air, of intellect and wise governance. Be with us now!
Blow free all confusion; lend your powers of critical thinking and aid all our officials, aid workers and citizens in beneficial decision making as we ride out this flood.
Keep us safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(blows incense gently over items on pentacle.)

I visualize a clearing and calming of the wind and atmosphere itself. I see the atmosphere of our state glowing yellow.

(Lights Red Fire Candle)
Powers of Fire, of action and protection. Be with us now!
Ignite within us the motivation to work hard to help our neighbors, the strength to persevere through difficult times, and the power to rebuild in ways that improve our preparation in the future.
With your power we rise into resolute, well-organized, and beneficial action. Awaken within us all that sacred mission that will serve our highest good at this time.
We surrender to your fires all hubris, all unhealthy ego-attachment to the unnecessary material possessions.
Keep us safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(Touches iron nail to the flame, then uses nail to draw an invoking pentagram over top of the spell materials.)

I visualize the people of our state, especially the police, national guard, officials and aid workers rising into action to the aid of their neighbors like a well-armored and well-provisioned army, setting out to battle in perfect formation. I see the people of our state glowing red.

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(Touches purified waters)
Powers of Water, of intuition and acceptance, Be with us now!
Awaken our instincts, grace and compassion. Help our emotions ebb and flow with these waters with a calm acceptance that all things change. Bring succor to those who are grieving their losses.
Your flood waters now accept their boundaries, flowing gently, evaporating quickly, finding the least damaging path to the sea.
Powers of Water, protect our water systems from pollution and disease. Protect our municipal treatment systems so they may do their work.
Keep us safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(Sprinkles waters upon the ring of rose petals.)

I visualize the flood waters themselves, crystal clear, clean, flowing gently and easily, receding back to their normal river beds, accepting the boundaries of the dams and retention walls that hold them. I see the waters of our state glowing blue.

(Touches Sea Salt)
Powers of Earth, of stability and fortification, Be with us now!
Keep us rooted and nourished so that we make do the work before us. Empower the dams, levies and dikes to hold fast and steady. Be the sturdy banks that guide the water in the least destructive way possible to a peaceful resolution.
Aid our farmers and protect the bounties of their fields so that we may have the food needed to sustain us.
Be the energetic wall that defends our homes and businesses from destruction.
Keep us safe from harm.
In gratitude, we call you into this working.
(Sprinkles salt in a ring around the rose petals)

I visualize a strengthening of foundation stones, footers, piers and retaining walls; the metals and minerals of the earth itself know their purpose, to be strong and guide the waters. I see crystalline grids forming around all vulnerable areas and systems. I see the very land of our state glowing green.

Great Ones! Gods, Guides, and Angels! All those who keep us safe and illuminate the path before us.
Powers of East, South, West and North! All those from Above and Below who answer our call, in gratitude we set you to your work!
Great Mother, grant us your grace. As the moon waxes into fullness, I anchor our protection to her growing power.
Then as she wanes, may the effect of those flood waters wane quickly with her.
Great Father, grant us your strength. As the sun wanes into autumn, guide us through these dark times. Help us find our mettle, rising into our power, for the Highest Good, harming none.
In gratitude, our intentions are made manifest.
As is our will, it is so. SO MOTE IT BE!

I clap my hands three times, and leave the working to burn for a while. Then I return, as I am able, to relight and repeat, giving thanks for each small miracle that unfolds. I will continue this working daily until the moon is full. Blood Moon will peak on Sunday, October 16, 2016, 12:23 am.

August 2, 2016

August 2, 2016 By

During this harvest season, I would like to share with you a “Money Pot” spell, that brings wealth and abundance into our lives.

While Southern Conjure is a form of folk magick that I have the most yet to discover, I’ve found over the years that these traditional spells are some of the most creative, and yet down-to-earth spells, you can enact. I appreciate this form of folk magick that is so inherently tied to this “neck of the woods” where I’m from. For me, they work like a charm!

The idea of a “Money Pot” was first introduced to me by Orion Foxwood (1), when he taught workshops here at our local Samhain festival in 2012. Later, I was privileged to work with him further at an intensive training weekend, where he took us into deeper detail about the culture of Appalachian Conjure and Root Work techniques. Now, I make good use of these techniques in just about every magickal working I do.

Heron's "Money Pot" spell--a work in progress over 4 years. Photo by Heron Michelle
Heron’s “Money Pot” spell–a work in progress over 4 years. Photo by Heron Michelle

My money pot has now been a part of my altar for 4 years, and through meandering trial, error, and research it has grown to become a reflection of my unique path and relationship with the Powers. A money pot, like a mojo hand, or any other talisman one nurtures over time, becomes radically personal, and should not be touched or tampered with by anyone other than it’s owner.

I encourage you to “field test” this experiment for yourselves. Start with the basic recipe, but get to know each player for yourself. Feel it, develop a relationship with each spark of consciousness within, and know exactly which powers you are awakening and calling to your aid. Then trust your guts as you evolve the working over time for your own needs. I’m an eclectic, so I have no problem blending what I know from across traditions, so long as I approach both the Spirit within, and the culture, with knowledge and respect. You do what feels right for you.

Money Pot Spell

Materials to gather:

An empty tin can (Jupiter.) Tin brings luck, success, divination and justice. (Tin cans are normally used for non-acidic vegetables.)
OR a copper vessel (Venus) Copper brings luck, love, money and healing, and is the metal of Venus. Antique stores are good places to find cups, pots or little bowls; anything copper that will hold about 12 ounces of material and will not leak, will do. Since copper is a natural conductor of energy, I’ve found the addition of copper to any spell to boost the potency, and “sweeten” the working. As I believe that all physical resources are a form of Divine Love, copper aids any intention that would sustain my life and help me thrive.

Hyssop Oil – Hyssop brings protection and purification.

Sage Smudge bundle or other purifying incense of your choice.

Sea Salt – grounding and purifying.

Small piece of paper with your name or personal sigil on one side, and the seal of Jupiter on the other. Brown

Seal of Jupiter
Seal of Jupiter

craft paper from which they make paper-grocery bags is a traditional choice. I like to trace the bottom of the can on the paper, and cut it out in a perfect circle to fit the bottom.

Tag-lock–In spells of this kind, that are claimed to work for me alone, I add a tag-lock. This is a bit of your own body that contains your DNA. A strand of hair, a nail clipping, even your own spit, rubbed from the inner cheek on your finger, and anointed over the sigil paper will do.

9 different types of dried beans/legumes–Nine is a number often used in hoodoo spells for timing and numbers of ingredients. I was taught that in mojo hands, for example, there should always be 9 materials added, that odd numbers were lucky, and multiples of 3 the most powerful. 3×3 is a potent number in many traditions.

The beans themselves are seeds. They contain the information and power to grow and expand into vastly more sustenance than merely eating the one bean would bring. We are “planting” these many beans in our pot for their potential to grow into much more. At my grocery store I found: pinto, great northern, black eyed peas, black beans, lima beans, small red beans, chick peas (garbanzo beans,) red kidney beans, and lentils.

1 Natural Lodestone–Lodestone is magnetite that was naturally magnetized, and can attract iron. It is believed to have been in proximity to lightning bolt strikes. (wiki) Magickally, lodestones are used to draw more wealth to its keeper.  Lodestone was used in the first compasses, so they also bring the power of guidance and direction to any working.

1 High John the Conqueror Root—This is the most valued of the “Three Johns,” or roots, in hoodoo practice. High John is a hard root of the Ipomoea jalapa plant, in the morning glory family.  It is used whole in magick to remove obstacles, draw wealth, luck at games of chance, increased potency, power and personal sovereignty.

Wooden Stick Matches—adding the spark of fire to ignite and empower the pot.

Florida Water Cologne–for feeding the pot once a month or more. Here is a great article on its many uses by Lilith Dorsey. My understanding is that Florida water cologne is created with an alcohol base and essential oils of bergamot, neroli, lavender, clove, cinnamon, rose, and orange flower water (but I’m still looking for a verifiable recipe somewhere.)

Huntin’ money–This needs to be actual currency, like pennies you found on the ground, or unusual money like foreign coins, $2 bills, etc. When you find money on the ground, if it is heads up say, “Huntin’ money, you found me!” pick it up, bring it home and add to your money pot. If it is tails up, you need to “lay tracks” toward you, flipping the coin toward you three times until it is eventually heads up. As you flip, say “Huntin’ money, huntin’ money, huntin’ money, you found me!” Then pick it up.

I always heard the superstition that picking up money that isn’t yours that is “tails up” is considered unlucky. “Laying tracks” would turn that around, should that actually be a thing. (I’m not superstitious, so I leave that to your discretion.)

Money Pot Ingredients, with a few extra-special things I've added to my own. Photo by Heron Michelle
Money Pot Ingredients, with a few extra-special things I’ve added to my own. Photo by Heron Michelle

Timing:

In planetary magick, Thursday is the day of Jupiter, Thor and Zeus and is the day for rites that call for expansion and growth, wealth and money, abundance in the material aspects, power and rulership. Enact this spell on a Thursday (Jupiter) while the moon is waxing. To be even more exact, I would choose the day of Jupiter and the hour of Venus.

To begin the spell, gather all needed materials at your altar and create your sacred space; call on the powers you work with to be present. Jupiter and Venus, by any of their names or aspects, would be a smart choice of ally.

Prepare the Pot:

•    Sprinkle the vessel with water and swirl around. Call on the powers of water to purify and empower the work. (Dry it out again)
•    Fill the vessel with the smoke of burning sage or any other purifying incense.  Call on the powers of Air to purify and empower the work.
•    Sprinkle a little sea salt into the vessel and swirl around. Call on the powers of Earth to purify and empower the work.
•    Anoint the interior of the vessel with Hyssop oil in a clockwise fashion. Call on the powers of Fire to purify and empower the work. Hyssop oil is like liquid fire that will seal the vessel from all outside influence.
•    Claim this vessel as your own; set the intention for the spell. Tap the metal three times (a quick knock of 2 fast, 1 slow) Say, “awake, awake, awaken to your power.” Blow into the pot. Set the paper with your name/sigil and seal of Jupiter in the bottom. Add the Tag-lock.
•    “This is my money pot; through this vessel I grow and retain wealth, abundance and prosperity on all levels; resources are attained; my needs are met and I thrive; by Jupiter my resources are generously gained; by Venus my resources may be generously shared, for the highest good of all involved, harming none.”

A full pot! Photo by Heron Michelle
A full pot! Photo by Heron Michelle

Fill the pot:

When adding each ingredient, tap three times (twice fast, once slow.) Blow over the item, and say “Awake, Awake, Awaken and remember your power of______. “

Fill the vessel about 3/4 of the way full with the nine different types of dried beans/legumes.  Tap them, blow over them, and say: “Awake, Awake, Awaken and remember your power of growth and sustenance. “

Add the lodestone: Tap it, blow over it, and say: “Awake, Awake, Awaken and remember your power of magnetism, attraction and guidance.“

Add the High John the Conqueror Root: Tap it, blow over it, and say: “Awake, Awake, Awaken and remember your power of luck, money and potency.“

Add the found “Huntin” money. Tap it, blow over it, and say: “Awake, Awake, Awaken and remember your power, go huntin’ for more money for me.“

Always bring home the found or unusual money and add it to the pot, and it will attract even more, larger sums of unexpected, or “windfall” money that you earn.

Charge the pot:

After all the ingredients are assembled, I like to use this charm I learned from Orion Foxwood: I tap on the side of the Money pot, and breathe slowly over it, filling it with power, awakening it to life, filling it with power:

“Thrice I knock on the dark one’s door
all things are as they were before
by earth and water, wind and flame
bring magick in the old one’s name.”

Then I strike the wooden match, and quickly as the flame is igniting, and the smell of sulfur is present, I jam it down into the pot, extinguishing it. The fire lends it’s spark of life to the working. I know it is kinda silly, but I always imagine this part like the movie Frankenstein when the Doctor is bringing his creation of assembled parts to life by electrifying it. <giggle>

Another empowerment chant I learned from Orion: “I wind, I bind, this spell be mine…” I repeat while channeling power from all three realms, through my hands into the pot. To spike the power into the pot and seal it, I end with, “As I will, SO MOTE IT BE!”

Feed the Pot

The pot is now “alive” and working for you. It has a Spirit that needs to be fed. Add a few drops of Florida Water Cologne over the High John root, and speak to it at least once a month; share your dreams, hopes, desires, and needs for this wealth that the pot will collect for you. As you begin to receive, come back to the pot, feed it, and offer your thanks to the Powers that aid you.

Over the years, I’ve brought home all manner of fetishes and things that mean “abundance” to me. When I went back through it today I found a green aventurine stone, pyrite, a cowrie shell, Chinese good luck coins, and all manner of currency from around the world.

I’ve also taken the time to decorate the outside of my can with some quilting fabric with US bills printed on it, a metallic silver stretchy string to hold it all together, and a brass pentacle that once fell off of a wind chime. On a whim, I attached it to the outside.  For me, the pentacle represents material wealth and good health. While not traditional to Southern Conjure, I like it.

You, too, must get out there and work hard for your resources; it takes some hustle to make way for opportunities and new income streams to start flowing. Work WITH the Universe, like the sovereign being of power and great potential that you were created to become!

Generosity = Abundance

Remember, be careful what you ask for because the Universe has a wicked sense of humor.  I suggest that you always add a caveat statement, like “May this working be for the highest good of all involved, harming none.” Because the last thing you want to have happen is to have a tragic accident that hurts you, or someone you love, but brings the wealth of an injury settlement.

As a final note, speaking as a priestess of Aphrodite, consider that you are a Divine Being made of the love of the Gods; therefore, you are worthy of a comfortable life, of thriving and happiness. The goal of any reasonable magickal practitioner should be balance on all levels of existence, including the material. A balance between giving and receiving is paramount, because a heart and a hand gripped tightly in greed, cannot possibly be prepared to open and receive the gifts of an abundant life. That right there is a prime lesson of Lammas and sacrifice.

I love these words from the Wiccan Rede. “Live and let live, fairly take and fairly give.” The key to thriving is generosity of both Spirit and resources. As you grow in abundance, be sure to give back in generous offering in some way that is important to you, so that the world around you also thrives. The more you give on all levels, the more you will receive on all levels.

May this spell bless you this harvest season,
~Heron

(1) To learn more, I recommend reading The Candle and the Crossroads by Orion Foxwood.

January 25, 2019

January 25, 2019 By

Imbolc (im’-molk), is the Witch’s grand sabbat of High Winter. I celebrate the peak of the winter season when the sun reaches 15 degrees Aquarius, which falls sometime during the first week of February. To discover the date that occurs this year, check out archaeoastronomy.com.  In the Sojourner Tradition of Modern Witchcraft, this holiday is when we re-dedicate ourselves to the Great Work of Magick both personally and as a coven.

Altar Pentacle Wreath dressed for Imbolc, with dedication candle to the Element of Water – photo by Heron Michelle

Imbolc Season is for Cleansing Away the Old, and Preparing for the New

The waxing tide that kicks off at Yule and leads up to Imbolc is the season of preparation for the next Great Work.  As we get into the airy sign of Aquarius, we perform home cleansings to clear the air. We clean and sharpen the old magickal tools, and we consecrate any new tools that we’ll for our new endeavors.

These oil and incense recipes can be blended to aid in the Home cleansing ritual linked below, and then for using during your solitary or coven Imbolc rites. link to home cleansing ritual, of click image below.

Imbolc Anointing Oil

  • 1/2 oz. bottle.
  • 6 drops Lavender Essential oil
  • 3 drops Lemongrass Essential oil
  • fill to top of bottle with sweet almond oil
  • chips of any stones of Aquarius you have on hand.

Imbolc Incense

  • 1 T. Powdered White Pine, Air, Aquarius
  • 1 T. Powdered Benzoin Resin, Aquarius
  • 1 T. Lavender, Air, Venus, Goddess
  • 1 t. Meadowsweet, Air
  • 1 t. Bay Laurel: Purification, healing, protection, Aquarius
  • 1 t. Willow bark: moon, Venus, healing, Aquarius
  • I add stone chips to incense blends as well, to keep them charged. See above for suggestions.

Preparing for Imbolc: Home Cleansing Ritual

Imbolc Celebrates the Goddess Brigid through Traditional Crafts

“As witches prepare for the Grand Sabbat of Imbolc, it is customary to weave a Brigid’s cross out of reeds or grasses, as a talisman of blessing, and an amulet against disease in the household. This bit of folk-magick comes to us from the Celts, and the traditions associated with Brigid (1), who is venerated by pagans as a Goddess and by Catholics as the Patron Saint of Ireland.”

I keep my Brigid’s Cross hanging on the back of my front door all year long! link to instruction, or click image below.

Preparing for Imbolc: Weaving a Brigid’s Cross

Imbolc and Lammas form a Polarity Balance

“Imbolc and Lammas hang in this balance on opposite sides of the Wheel of the Year. I think it is just as important to honor the squishy, innocent  “naive pledge everything for love” side of the polarity during the Imbolc season, as it is to honor the stark, heartbreaking, “maturely sacrifice everything for love” at Lammas. From this tension, the genre of macabre Gothic romance was born. No matter how you celebrate, or not, I don’t recommend mocking or discounting the Love Goddesses, because they can kick some booty, too. Sometimes they love us with a kiss, other times a spanking. mmmhmmm <winks>” Link to the solitary self-love ritual, or click image below.

A Valentine’s Love Spell For Imbolc

At Imbolc we Dedicate to The Great Work of Magick

“Our coven engages in the Great Work of Magick – which is a dedication to personal enlightenment, as a means of progressing society through Divine Love. As witches grow in wisdom, and experience, we see that inner light radiating outward as a ripple effect through the interconnected fabric of existence.  So, Imbolc is when we all dedicate to both a personal intention, and also to a Coven-wide intention that will aid in the advancement of our society.” link to learn more, or click image below.

Imbolc Ritual: Dedicating to the Great Work of Magick

Imbolc Celebrates the Purity of Love: Chocolate = Love

“I’ve often make these two cake recipes together as a Yin and Yang complement to each other. They are like the bride and the groom cake, but opposite the traditional way of thinking about it the flavors. The depth of the milk chocolate cake being like the earthy dark, underworld goddesses and magick and mystery. The lightness of the white chocolate and raspberry cake being like the bright, sunny Sky Gods of the heavens.” Link to recipes, or click the image below.

Witchin’ in the Kitchen: Yin and Yang Chocolate Cake Recipes

However you celebrate Imbolc this year, may these high tides of Winter bring you the peace, hope and readiness to enjoy this Turning of the Wheel most effectively.

Imbolc Blessings,

~Heron

May 27, 2019

May 27, 2019 By

Witches celebrate the Sabbat of Litha just as we enter the zodiac sign of Cancer, or around June 20-22. This longest day of the year is known as the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Because this day initiates the summer season, it is considered a Lesser or Quarter Sabbat. For the exact astrological date of Litha this year, check out this awesome site: https://www.archaeoastronomy.com/.

From my favorite Litha Ritual that I posted below, this is the spiritual intent of the auspicious day to me.

The Wheel of the year turns on. We are gathered on this sacred eve to celebrate the summer solstice.  The earth is a riot of vitality. Just as the fruits grow on the vine, the womb of the mother goddess quickens with child.  The seeds of The Great Work we planted at Imbolc, continue to grow. The sun reaches his zenith, shining brightly through his strongest, longest day.   

But today is an out-of-balanced light that casts harsh shadows.  The Oak king falls to the Holly King. As the sun slips over the horizon, so do we also turn towards the darkening half of the year.  We celebrate our personal zeniths–as well as our shadows. Read on

Following, you’ll find an index of articles I’ve written, with ideas for rituals and spells, with potions and pot-luck recipes perfect for Litha, plus a few tales of summers past for your entertainment. Just click the images to open the articles.

Litha, Great Work Wheel by Heron Michelle

Rituals for Litha

Litha Ritual for One: Solar Potion Recipe for Fortune, Success and Prosperity

This Litha ritual for the solitary witch creates a solar potion. A potion is a liquid preparation of herbs, fruits and spirits that is blended for a specific magickal purpose. Through it’s creation, we provide a conduit through which the attributes of several spiritual allies may be physically imbibed – meaning, you can drink this delicious brew, and let it nourish you and the Great Work of Magick, on all levels. Link to Article.

Litha Ritual for One: Solar Potion Recipe for Fortune, Success and Prosperity

Solitary Rites: Spell for the Magus: I am the Magick

While not technically a Litha Ritual, this personal spell-work is ideally performed while timed to the strength of the Sun. This ritual creates a spell pouch whose purpose is to awaken your connection to the vast source of power that is the Universe already flowing within you. You then carry the pouch as you continue your explorations in Magick. From the outside, it may look like a few simple affirmations with wishes made on bits of stone and leaf, but the end result is the acceptance of your own phenomenal powers. Link to Article.

Spell for the Magus: I am the Magick

Rites for Groups and Covens: Litha Ritual of Highlight and Shadow

As we begin preparations for our sabbat celebrations, I offer for your consideration this Litha ritual with techniques to engage all the celebrants as contributors, regardless of their previous witching experience. The focus is on balancing the highlights of our lives, with praise for our successes and the building of healthy ego. Then turning to see the long shadows cast from this high sun into the future, and releasing the unhealthy ego-attachments to those successes, that may hinder us from even greater achievements. Link to article.

A Litha Ritual of Highlight and Shadow

Recipes for Summer Pot-lucks

Litha Rainbow Salad

I so crave fresh flavors and brightly colored veggies from the farmer’s market once summer dawns. This dish emerged from one of my mad-kitchen-witchery experiments and is a variation on a theme that began with traditional tabbouleh flavors, and so is still nicely paired with other middle-eastern dishes like hummus and pita bread, and slow-roasted lamb…mmm…lamb…my favorite! Link to Article

Witchin’ in the Kitchen: Litha Rainbow Salad

Summer Spinach Quiche

This recipe for a spinach quiche is pretty easy to make, and great for summer picnics and potlucks because they can be made in advance and transport easily. They are just as delicious at room temperature, and even better the second day, after a night in the refrigerator.  I like this dish in the summer for any meal of the day! Link to Article

Witchin’ in the Kitchen: Summer Spinach Quiche Recipe

Yin and Yang Chocolate Cake Recipes

I enjoy making healthy, wholesome food. Really I do….most of the time. There is a time for granola and then there is a time when we let them eat cake. These two chocolate cake recipes are nourishing in different ways…they feed the soul with richness and indulgence because life is meant to be enjoyed. Link to Article

Witchin’ in the Kitchen: Yin and Yang Chocolate Cake Recipes

Tales of Solstices Past

Under the Love Spell of Ocracoke Island

Ocracoke island is the most magickal, spiritually vibrant nexus of beachy delight I’ve ever found…well, in my neck of the woods, anyway. The island vibe is other-worldly, wrapped in shoreline on all sides, held in the balance of land, sea and sky. Magick happens every time I return, and in the story I relate about this visit, it was especially powerful.

As it happens, this is my most favorite thing I’ve ever written. Which is likely why it is also the least read thing I’ve ever written. Do me a favor and go check this one out at least, as there is some cool witchy lore and a love spell uncovered here…and herons.

Under the Love Spell of Ocracoke Island

Summer Solstice on Top of the World

I spent my Summer Solstice day in 2018 on an adventure on top of the world in Colorado. The sabbat held many inspirational sights, and insightful lessons; it began with a dream come true, and ended with a contract that sends my witching life along a new trajectory.

Summer Solstice on Top of the World

However you celebrate our longest day of the year, I do hope it finds you happy, healthy and enjoying life!

~Heron Michelle

January 13, 2019

January 13, 2019 By

I have the occasional direct conversation with The Powers that Be, that I call “Burning Bush Moments.” Conversing with Deities is pretty common among witchy folks, so it’s not that big a deal. Except for when it is, and those make for some spectacular stories. My most dramatic story happened back in 2014. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I was ignoring my witching work. My head was so far up my own ass that when Aphrodite answered my call, I clearly missed it. So She had to ratchet up the theatrics to get my attention. That *particular* burning bush moment *did* involve more than the normal amount of fire.

Gather ’round, witches! Let me tell you the story of that time Aphrodite blew up my altar!

Ritual Altar with Aphrodite and Love Spell
Imbolc Dedication Altar to “Divine Love” 2014, photo by Heron Michelle

Be Careful What You Ask For

So, each year at Imbolc, I dedicate to the exploration of a skill or thealogical (2) concept as part of my Great Work of Magick. In 2014, I asked the Goddesses of Love to help me better understand “Perfect Love.”

I chose this because on the exact day of Yule that year, the man I was dating at the time proposed that we hand-fast the next Beltane. From Yule until Imbolc, I asked what my next Great Work should entail, and “Divine Love” was delivered over and over again. What does “Perfect love and trust” really mean? If the married couple is a microcosm embodiment of the Divine Lovers, how do we proceed in our human union as a reflection of that inner divinity?

I’ve written on this “Love in the Balance” message previously, where I said:

That was also the year that this long-time, archetype-loving panentheist (1) took a chance, and in full ceremony stood at the Imbolc altar and invited any of the Goddesses of Love, Grace and Beauty to aid me. There were bells and smells, things were burned, offerings offered…I invoked Her by many names…and was smugly pleased with myself.  I honestly hoped I was in for a year of Valentine’s days, cosmic hugs, and the sensuous delights of Her rose garden.

On the next full moon after Imbolc, on the Friday of Valentine’s day, my betrothed and I worked a Love Spell to bring our lives together. Then, as the moon turned to waning again, we worked to remove all obstacles, should our marriage be for the highest good of all involved, harming none.

Within three weeks of that spell the handfasting was canceled. By Beltane, he’d asked me to set him completely free. It was the easiest, most respectful break up I’ve ever had. It was just OVER.

IMG_7408
Full Moon Love Spell on Valentines Day, with waning moon removal of obstacles. – Heron Michelle

That Time Aphrodite Blew Up Her Altar

My head knew it was for the best, but my heart was still left reeling over the sudden loss. Throughout May and June I ignored all things witchcraft while binge-watching the show detective-show Castle and drinking too much wine. I doubt I even stepped foot in my altar room.

Everything having to do with the Love Spell you see in that Imbolc Altar picture above was hidden underneath, behind the heavy cabinet doors that click locked with a thud. An altar is one’s outward representation of their inner spiritual life. Just like my spirit, my altar was neglected, dusty, and dark. The last offerings left there were dried and decaying…we were both in pitiful shape.

Until one week in July, when The Powers, had to go to drastic measures to get my attention. Mind you, I couldn’t say what subtle cues may have been going on around me, because I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to notice. However, I did still have to feed my children, so at least I was making dinner. The Gods work with what they’ve got, I guess:

Monday: On my ceramic top stove, I boil up a pot of macaroni and cheese for dinner. No mishaps, nothing unusual. But when I go back to clean up the kitchen later, I find there is a big crack running through the burner eye. Just what I need.

Tuesday: On a different burner eye, I boil up a pot of spaghetti, and throw on a jar of sauce. No mishaps, nothing unusual. But hours later, I find ANOTHER large crack running through THAT burner. My luck sucks; the universe hates me.

Wednesday: Assuming that the stove electronics are malfunctioning, I fire up the wall-oven (which is on the opposite side of the wall from my altar) and start prepping some homemade pizzas. My kids are 10 and 12, and are doing their homework in different rooms.

About 5 minutes into the preheat…

Doors opened on my altar cabinet

!!BOOOM>CRASH>KABLAM>SHATTER!!

We all come running toward the explosive noise, and meet in the middle with hackles raised. I turn on the lights in the dark altar room expecting to see one of my bookshelves toppled over and a cat scrambling, but there are no cats in there, either.

The altar cabinet doors are open, and the rug in front of it is covered by it’s contents. Sand, salt, and the broken shards of many glass and crystal candle holders, offering dishes, and love-spell remains are scattered over the rug. It looked like the cabinet opened its mouth and projectile vomited across the room.

We are in shock, of course. Nothing about this computes, but because my beliefs at that time didn’t really include the radical power and agency of the Goddess, I rationalized it away. It must have been my naughty cats somehow.

“Mom mode” kicks in. I send the children out of the room so no one cuts their feet on the glass. I don’t touch anything. I just return to the kitchen in a fluster so I can get those pizzas in the oven. But my adrenaline is flowing, and I’m processing through what I’ve just seen. While mechanically laying out pepperoni and mushrooms, I’m churning myself deeper into a trance state for the first time in months.

Into the oven the pizzas go. I’m zoned in, and the thought suddenly pops up that I need to feed the kids some fruit. Without pause, I snap up my knife and a fresh, beautiful, Gala apple from the fruit bowl. In a mindless, swift action, I slice through it transversely. I never slice apples I mean to eat around the middle. This is something I only do in a Mabon rite, because it reveals the pentacle pattern of seeds at its heart. It falls open in my hands. The inner flesh of this “perfect” apple is rotten entirely, skin to skin. As though the Evil Queen in Snow White, just handed me a curse.

A lightning bolt shocks through me, blasting my consciousness outward. In the same way that every “burning bush moment” ever felt, my entire being is ringing and tingling, both compressed and floating. Time stops; the outside world falls to black. Only that which I’m meant to see is highlighted. HER voice tones loudly throughout my mind, loud as a gong, clear as crystal: THINGS ARE NOT AS THEY SEEM.

Apple that was cut transversely around the middle for a Mabon rite, revealing the pentacle of seeds within.

Things are Not as They Seem

I snap back to the present, and suck in a rush of breath as though released from a vice. I flip the apple halves over in my hands; no blemishes, no bruises, no holes, just gorgeous waxy red apples. Yet, absolutely brown and yucky within. That ain’t right! I drop them and rush back to the altar room.

Now, you’ll remember that I’ve spent my summer watching a detective show, so this time I approached the room like a crime scene. Both of the cabinet doors are open wide, as if blown outward from the inside. These doors have metal hardware that you have to pull on very hard in order to open them. No cat could get in there without opposable thumbs and significant strength. There are shards of glass thrown in a “spray pattern” at least 6 feet into the room. So even if a cat tried to climb into an open cabinet and accidentally knocked the contents onto the floor, it is unlikely that they could throw the pieces that far into the room.

But more importantly, after I got a flashlight and looked into the back of the cabinet, I found that there was broken glass all the way to back wall. Not everything was damaged, some contents sat there unscathed. However, it looked like a foot wide swath of the top shelf was cleared out…as though something in the back forced it’s way out, and blasting anything in it’s way.

I look down to the floor immediately below this cleared shelf, and sitting perfectly unharmed, pretty as you please, is the consecrated “fire candle” in its glass cup. The very same one that I’d used during my Imbolc dedication when I’d called on the Goddesses of Love, Beauty and Grace, to teach me about Perfect Love. Moreover, I now remember that the “fire” candle I’d used that day was the half-burned remains of one of Dorothy Morrison’s “Red Stilettos” candles that is famous for conjuring up “wild hot jungle sex.”

I’d worked that new-love spell long ago, and it led to meeting the guy I’d just broken up with. That spell worked so fast that I’d never finished burning it, and had saved it for a rainy day. Another lightning bolt hit me.

I look at the mess and see that it is a blast in the shape of a cone, and the point of that cone is this consecrated Passion/Fire candle. The “Draw the Lover that is correct for me” Spell candle, that I later used to focus my Divine Will while I called on the Goddess of Love, had just blasted it’s way out of my altar cabinet.

“Red Stilettos” candle by Dorothy Morrison in her Wicked Witch Mojo line, after I’d reconsecrated as a conduit of fire energy.

Fire, Is that you?

I pick the candle up very carefully. I turn my attention inward and lean into that place where The Voice came from, and timidly say Hello? I hear you. You have my attention. Is this a message about elemental Fire in some way?

That’s when my daughter’s scream slices through the house: BELLA’S TAIL IS ON FIRE!…. I turn and run towards her room…as the hallway stretches too long…and the smell of burning cat hair hits me…

By the time I got to her, the crises was over. My daughter had a candle lit on her desk as she was doing her homework. Our fluffiest cat jumped up and caught her tail on fire. When she screamed, Bella ran for her perch in the window beside the curtains. Brave daughter didn’t even pause to think, she just grabbed her tail at the base and shucked it upward, extinguishing the flames with her bare hand. Though Bella’s glorious plume of fluff was blackened and singed, miraculously neither of them were hurt in any way. We all stand there panting and staring at each other in awe.

Hellloooo FIRE! I’ll take that as a YES!

Aphrodite statue on altar with lit love spell candles
The unlit candle on the right is the “Red Stilettos” candle I repurposed as a “Fire” Candle on my Aphrodite Altar.

Moral of the Story:

From that moment of recognition onward, the theatrics stopped. Once I got back to The Work of my witchcraft, it was back to business as usual, though it would be a very hard few months of revelations to come. With more active divination, I figured out that it was the Goddess Aphrodite specifically who answered my call. I can honestly say that entering into relationship with Her that summer was the true beginning of being a priestess. The following April 4th – Aphrodite’s feast day – I took official vows to her service.

At the time, I wrote: “Despite all of my intentions, when Aphrodite answered my call and made herself known to me, I was shocked by how visceral and *real* She was. Her entrance was as subtle as a Lady Gaga concert, and in one fell swoop I was suddenly far more polytheistic than previously indicated! SHAZAM!”

Though I didn’t recognize it at the time, after Imbolc, She was working diligently to teach me the lessons of Unconditional Divine Love – by first revealing the ways in which conditional love was hurting me. Once I identified each lesson, it would stop and another one would begin. I likened it to being dragged through the thorns of Her rose garden. From that very intense working relationship emerged Aphrodite’s Thealogy of Perfection and the Four Rules of Witchcraft for Personal Sovereignty. These now form the foundation stones of my life.

I also learned that it is either unwise – or exactly the right choice – to re-purpose Wicked Witch Mojo candles made by Dorothy Morrison. <cackle> However, the happy ending here is that after Lammas passed, I re-lit this Passion/Fire candle once again and opened myself back up to the possibility of loving relationship. Within two days, the man of my dreams asked me out – that was over four years ago, and today we are engaged to be married.

Witchcraft can be a wild ride, but once you’ve set your Great Work of Magick into motion, pay attention and go with the flow. It’s like a roller coaster: once the lap bar is down and the coaster rolls off the platform, there is no changing your mind, nor stopping the ride. Until it reaches its natural conclusion, that is. Wherever the tracks take you, they can be trusted to be in alignment with Highest Divine Will, even if it doesn’t make complete sense at the moment. A little faith in the process can carry you to amazing places.

Good luck!

~Heron

I have reason to blame kitties for altar room shenanigans.
  1. Panentheism is a thealogical term that defines Deity as being both inherent within the stuff of nature, as well as having a transcendent consciousness that manifests in a variety of forms. There is a synergistic effect where Deity is greater than the sum of all the parts of nature.
  2. “Thealogy (a neologism derived from Ancient Greek θεά meaning “Goddess” and λόγος, -logy, meaning “study of”) is generally understood as a discourse that reflects upon the meaning of Goddess (thea) in contrast to God (theo). As such, it is the study and reflection upon the feminine divine from a feminist perspective.” Wikipedia
December 9, 2023

December 9, 2023 By
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While writing my second book in the Pentacle Path series, this one on Lunar Witchcraft, I’ve fallen down a few research rabbit holes. Like any good adventure, I thought I knew where I was headed when I started out. Thanks to the twists and turns of the journey I’ve ended up in territory I didn’t even know existed before fate landed me this contract. Those revelations inspired an entirely new approach to my magickal relationship with Lady Luna. Allow me to share my recent fascination in lunar magick: celebrating Full Moons in six zodiacal pairings to balance each axis of human consciousness.

Six Zodiacal Pairings

The Zodiac signs are often pictured like a wheel rotating around the earth. When modern witches came along and hobbled together a full year of solar and lunar rituals timed by the zodiac, we naturally called that system the “Wheel of the Year.” I envision that wheel much like an old-fashioned spinning wheel with spokes. You know the kind from fairy tales, like the cursed one that pricked Sleeping Beauty’s finger, or that Rumpelstiltskin used to spin straw into gold thread. Mostly they spin random fibers into an organized spool of strong yarn fit for weaving. Both spinning wheel and the zodiac Wheel of the Year are useful tools for organizing bits of chaos into a useful structure.

Picture the zodiac like that spinning wheel that is divided into twelve equal parts. All the parts are connected through the middle by six spokes. Obviously, the spokes pair signs by what is directly across the wheel from each other. Each set of connected zodiac signs work together as a range in consciousness. Each sign lends both virtues and vices to that axis of consciousness.

This bit of astrological structure really sparked my Lunar Witchcraft practice! At every full moon, we get a magickal chance to balance the two ends of the polarity those signs anchor. It’s just a matter of geometry. The reason why we see the whole face of the full moon is because it is 180 degrees opposite the sun. The sun→ earth→moon make a straight line along that spoke, with the sun in one sign of a pairing, and the moon in the other sign of the pairing. Full moon spells can work our balance from whatever end of the spectrum we’re in. Each sign holds virtues that help us, and potential vices that need to be helped, and oppositions bring out those vices to be worked on.

The tension caused in the opposition between each extreme is what propels our evolution into more effective people. Improving ourselves is supposed to be the purpose of the Great Work of Magick! Full moon magick can help balance us along the axis of consciousness those signs create on earth. Got an issue with asserting your own Identity? There’s a moon for that! I think of baby earth being cradled between Mama moon and Papa sun’s arms while they bestow those particular blessings upon their children.

You get two chances to work each axis of magick every year: Light half of the year, then repeat during the dark half of the year.  During the light half of the year, the Sun shines from the first sign in the pairing, while the Moon receives that light in the second sign, tunes that moonlight to the virtues of the opposing sign, and then reflects it back to earth.

Then on the flip-side, during the dark half of the year, we get a second chance to work those same themes, but because the sun and moon have now traded signs, we can work the magick from the opposite direction. It’s an alchemical method of transmuting vice into virtue. The virtue from one side is the antidote for the poison on the other side.

When planning those full moon spells, I think of these two positions of sun and moon much like a tarot card reading. The sun’s sign represents my conscious awareness of the current themes in my life from that end of the polarity. The full moon’s sign can now reveal my unconscious shadows that need working on. Then, during the dark half of the year, their positions will all reverse to balance the opposite side. I can take a look at the same issues, but from a different perspective.

Six Axes of Consciousness across the Zodiacal Wheel of the Year – By Heron Michelle

Six Axes of Human Consciousness

The graphic above shows the twelve zodiac signs paired across the wheel of the year into the six thematic polarities. Each polarity describes an axis of human consciousness. The “spokes” that connect the signs are a range between two areas of our life, along what Carl Jung called the process of individuation. They are:

The Axis of Identity between Aries and Libra
The Axis of Possession between Taurus and Scorpio
The Axis of Information (I call that one Perception) between Gemini and Sagittarius
The Axis of Security between Cancer and Capricorn
The Axis of Ego between Leo and Aquarius
The Axis of Service between Virgo and Pisces.

Journey of the Soul: The Path of Self-Knowledge

The signs in order tell a story of creation, the journey from the oneness of Spirit into the separateness of matter as wee babies, and then our path of return back again as we seek reunion with that oneness of Spirit we remember deep in our souls. This journey of the soul begins with fiery Aries and then evolves through each sign and modality. There are three groupings of four signs each, in sets with one of each element. They always transition between sets between the water and fire signs.

Primal, Lower-self Elemental Set: Aries ♈︎, Taurus ♉︎, Gemini ♊︎, Cancer ♋︎

Personal, Middle-self Elemental Set: Leo ♌︎, Virgo ♍︎, Libra ♎︎, Scorpio ♏︎

Universal, Higher-self Elemental Set: Sagittarius ♐︎, Capricorn ♑︎, Aquarius ♒︎, Pisces ♓︎

I appreciate the following quote for its succinct description of what each sign teaches the human being as they grow in self-knowledge. It is by Bulgarian psychoanalyst and astrologer Salvina Kotzeva from their article entitled “The Polarity of Human Consciousness in the Six Astrological Axes, Part 2.”

The path of self-knowledge and individuation begins with Aries or the spark of divinity, through which the individual human consciousness is born and a separate self is formed. With Taurus, it already acquires an individual body, sensations, and qualities to reach Gemini and develop the ability to verbalize his thoughts, exchange ideas with the people around, and ultimately study the world by trial and error. With the fourth sign – Cancer, it is associated with its deep emotional nature, the transience of feelings and natural cycles in life. Reaching Leo, the individual human consciousness begins to freely express itself and its talents, which distinguish it from others, in order to develop them to perfection in the sign of Virgo and reach the most final phase of separation from the Whole. Then, in the sign of Libra, the second half of life begins – a return to the state of Oneness, where the Self first connects with the idea of ​​the Other, by building partnerships and achieving harmony in them. In Scorpio, these relationships deepen through the emotional exchange and merging of the two individuals, leading to inner transformation and the opening of a new page. The ninth sign of Sagittarius brings the transition from internal realization to external activity and from personal to community. The individual consciousness is already opening to the world and learning about how colorful it can be, helping it to reach universal human truths and its spiritual essence. Capricorn applies all this knowledge in the direction of developing his vocation to society. He begins to sacrifice himself for the community in order to establish in Aquarius common goals and ideals to pursue for the good of the group. In the last zodiac sign – Pisces, the individual consciousness reaches the final phase of return to the Whole, where it loses its outline and takes on the difficult task of being both Everything and Nothing, aiming to reach beyond the bipolar model of perception of consciousness.

Tides of Receiving and Projecting

As I took research notes, I made the following table to illustrate those six zodiac pairings, and the axes of consciousness they anchor, with information sourced from Ivo Dominguez Jr.’s book Practical Astrology for Witches and Pagans and that article series mentioned above by Salvina Kotzeva, Parts 1 and Part 2”

Table: Six Zodiac Signs as Six Axes of Consciousness – by Heron Michelle

Notice how opposite signs will always share the same modality (cardinal, fixed, or mutable). They are also paired by either the receptive elements of water and earth, or by the projective elements of air and fire. So there is a larger tide of ebb and flow, receiving one lunation, then projecting the next lunation. They are always in different phases of Self-development, which range from the primal awareness of the individual body to higher awareness of our spiritual unity.

Example: Axis of Identity: Self → Others

Wind Moon in Libra and Blood Moon in Aries

Here’s an example of this magick by lunar pairing. In spring while the sun is in Aries, we’ll have a Wind Full moon to celebrate in Libra. That magick of opposition anchors the Axis of Identity. In consciousness, this connects Aries (fire) and the primal, body needs for the SELF, across to the moon in Libra’s (Air) personal, mental needs for connections and relationships with other people.

The Sun and our conscious awareness of our problems is in Aries, whose virtue is that they are great at sticking up for themselves, and challenging anyone they have to fight to ensure that their personal needs are met. By Gods their identity will be respected! However, a VICE of Aries is that they might assert their own ego too much, and demand their own way to the exclusion of everyone else. Perhaps that drives them into isolation, whether that is self-imposed, or because others got fed up and deserted them.

Aries/Libra Lunar Pairing Candle Wrap – Art by Heron Michelle

However, a VIRTUE of Libra is their easy partnering with others, their pursuit of beauty, balance and fair-minded equality in their relationships. So, at the Wind Full Moon, when doing some needed shadow work in the area of our identity, we can magickally distill an antidote for that Aries poison using the Libra Moon’s powers.

The Aries shadow lesson might be to accept differing perspectives from the folks around them in peace – learning NOT to fight to get their way over every little issue, and realize that compromise doesn’t mean their own identity is any less important. We just have to take turns getting our own way, without threatening the individual identities within our relationships. How would you design that spell?

On the flip side of the year, during Autumn’s Blood Full Moon, we can revisit the magick along this Axis of Identity, but from the opposite direction. A VICE of Libra is to potentially lose sight one’s own individual identity and needs within their relationships. Maybe they’ve gone too far in peacemaking and balance-tending all the time, and the needs of the Self aren’t being properly met. The Libra shadow lesson can distill an antidote from that spicy Aries fire during that Blood Moon and whip up some mojo to stand up for themselves! What magick can they do to assert their personal perspective or needs within their relationships? What magick might they work to strengthen their own individual identity?

Lunar Pairing Magick Candles

Along this line of thinking, I’ve developed a series of Lunar Magick Candles with my original artwork to channel these astrological powers into these spells. I’ve already loaded and charged them with herbs, stones, oils and blessings appropriate for the signs and planetary rulers! The videos of their making are posted to my YouTube channel. Here’s the link to see how I made the Aries/Libra candles. These are still available for purchase from my website here. We ship within the USA.

This is the kind of Lunar Witchcraft program I’m currently working on for Vol.2 of the Pentacle Path series, so I welcome your ideas in the comments! Today is the second anniversary of Vol. 1 Elemental Witchcraft’s release! If you still need a copy, I’d love to sell you one through our website here.

Cover of Elemental Witchcraft by Heron Michelle
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