Showing posts with label witch. Show all posts

Hair Magic

 For as long as people have had hair, they have braided it. Likewise, cultures worldwide often use hair braiding or knotting in one aspect or another. 


From the Korean Daenggi Braids to the Fulani Braids, braided hair can be found in every corner of the world. My personal heritage is Irish/Scottish. 




 


Knot magick is as old as witchcraft itself. For our discussion today, I'll reference magical knots or braiding. But, of course, the most famous would be the Witch's Ladder.

A witch's ladder (also known as "rope and feathers," witches' ladder, witches ladder, or witch ladder) is a practice in folk magic or witchcraft made from knotted cords or hair that usually constitutes a spell. Charms are twisted or braided with specific magical intention into the lines. The number of knots and the nature of appeals varies with the intended effect (or spell). - Wikipedia

The graphic below shows an example of a spell that would accompany the knotting. 





A few verses available on the internet are listed below. However, writing and reciting your poems aloud while braiding your hair is straightforward. 



What are your thoughts about magical hair braiding or magical knots? Have you tried it? What different impacts have you seen with your magical workings? 

Here's a look at my magical braids.  What did you do? Share your images in the comments or send me a message. I'd love to hear how you're working magical knots into your day.


Feel free to share it here or reach out over the instant messenger to share your thoughts. 


Blessings

Rev. Renee Sosanna Olson




Daily Draw - Witch

 Daily Draw - The Witch

The Witch card comes with the message, "Be aware of your reputation, your influence, and your power to create, preserve, or destroy. Powerful women are often misunderstood."


The Witch radiates power and majestic beauty. She sits, surrounded by the natural world with the full moon reflecting of water below in quiet contemplation, as she works her magic to contact those energies on other realms. In her hands she holds a crystal ball used for divination, much like the sister oracles before her. She understands how the natural world works and how it can be influenced to bend to her will. Her magic, begins with the knowledge of self and the strength to harness it.
When the Witch shows up in our draw we are reminded that all things are possible with knowledge. We must research what we are looking to accomplish and then understand, not only the how but also the why. We are the authority on this topic and should proceed as such. We may be judged by those around us that do not understand or who are jealous. To these people our success will seem effortless. Our rewards, endless. Our reputation gives us the power to create our own future and bring our desires to life.

Is there someone around you that looks up to you? Are you their teacher or trainer? Are you the authority on a topic and often called on for your opinion or to guide others? Is your place in the group that of nurturer or caretaker? Are there people dependent on your actions for their learning or care?

You are the sum of your experiences. Your past creates your path to the future, your knowledge and intuition creates the effort. Your poise and reputation are the external signs that will either attract or repel. It is your safeguard, your ward. You are the authority here, present yourself as such and you will succeed.

This card comes from the Wild Goddess Oracle by Amy Zerner and Monte Farber. If you're looking for a single reading or creating an ongoing advisory relationship, I do have a few slots available. Learn more at neuse river witch dot com or my shop website confessions of a modern witch dot com.
Blessed Be
Sosanna

Daily Draw - Invite Help

 Card: Invite Help

Message: "Invite the Divine to pursue you. Seriously, just say, I'm finally ready, God. Pursue me."




The art on this card is amazing. Our deity sits in lotus position with their hands in the Varada Mudra and the Abhaya mudra. Varada Mudra signifies compassion, charity and sincerity. It is symbolic of giving and forgiveness and symbolizes protection, peace, and the dispelling of fear. The deity pictured is, I believe to be Tara. She is thought to have been born of empathy for the suffering world and is regularly invoked for protection, guidance, and deliverance from difficult situations. In this case we see the Green Tara. The more dynamic Goddess, Green Tara is the ‘Mother Earth’, and a fierce Goddess who overcomes obstacles, and saves us from physical and spiritual danger. Learn more about Tara here.


When we see this card in our pull, we're reminded that there are times when we should seek guidance outside ourselves. We should welcome the intellect and wisdom of the ancestral energy that resides around us. We have all of their voices within us and if we listen we can hear them. If we call them, they will come. We merely need to look for that message to see it.

What's happening in your life today that requires some introspection? What decisions are you struggling with? What choices do you need to make that are impactful and weighing on you? Today is the day to reach out to the universe and welcome the vast knowledge of those within to help guide your path. Put that energy out there, that you are ready to listen and use the information you receive.

This card is part of the Divine Abundance Oracle Deck by Tosha Silver, Art by Fena Gonzalez. If you're looking for a single reading or creating an ongoing advisory relationship, I do have a few slots available. Learn more at neuse river witch dot com or confessions of a modern witch dot com.
Blessings
Sosanna
#pagan #reading #witch #askaswitch #witchesoffacebook #witchesofinstagram #oracle #neuseriverwitch #riverwitch #InviteHelp

Daily Draw - Sanctity

 Card: Sanctity

Message: "Through offering, even the most mundane problem can become a sacrament."



Our card today reminds us that not everything needs to be a grandiose event when we're working towards the right path. We see Hanuman, the monkey god seated in the lotus position, his hands in the Bhairava Mudra with with Rama and Sita watching from above. Hanuman is described as the "son of Pawan", the Hindu god for wind, Hanuman is known for his extraordinary daring feats, strength and loyalty. He is love, compassion, devotion, strength and intelligence. The Bhairava Mudra is also called
Shiva or Shakit mudra, it is said to bring strength and power to the forefront.
A sacrament is a familiar word used across cultures. For some it means a gift or offering. Others it is a sacrificed or dedication to a deity. Sacraments are rites in which Hindus reaffirm their connection to the Divine. The Sanskrit word ​samskāra ​ means “groove in the mind,” or colloquially, “upbringing,” and indicates rituals and ceremonies intended to leave deep spiritual impressions on the individual's conscience.



So what is our card telling us. We're reminded here that even things that we see as day to day tasks can become something of an offering. I am reminded of Zen Master Hahn who believed that the simple act of washing dishes or having tea is an opportunity to connect to the energy of all. So take this message of the Sanctity card today and welcome the mindful mundane daily activities that can help guide us to enlightenment. The simple, the meaningful offerings of the one will open the door to nirvana.
How does this connect to you today? Maybe taking a moment to sit with the breath and listen to the world around you is the answer you seek.
This card is part of the Divine Abundance Oracle Deck by Tosha Silver, Art by Fena Gonzalez. If you're looking for a single reading or creating an ongoing advisory relationship, I do have a few slots available. Learn more at neuse river witch dot com or confessions of a modern witch dot com.

Blessings
Sosanna

Daily Draw - Trust

 Card: Trust

Message: "Allow me, Divine, to give You my deepest longings, trusting You to know exactly how to handle them."



Imagery of Butterflies continues on this new pull for today. If you recall butterflies represent change, transformation and hope. The artist has a velvety blue background with leaves and branches spread across the card. Near the center two hands cup one of the three butterflies presented on this card. The outstretched palms a symbol of welcome, peace and trust for a millennia. This is the Pushpaputa mudra can be practiced while meditating. Some of the benefits of the mudra include:
Promotes compassion toward others
Opens up the mind to be receptive of blessings of the universe
Promotes inner spaciousness
Helps to overcome fear
Relieves negative feelings and promotes positive attitude
Pushpaputa is a Sanskrit term which means "handful of flowers" and refers to the offering of flowers to God in this mudra.





This is the very definition of trust. As you move forward in your day today, try to find times to pull in or work with this energy today. Trust can be in many forms and can be visualized in different ways. Trust in caring for a loved one, be it human, feathered or fur. Between the physical and the divine with offerings to the gods/goddesses for their guidance and trust that you will find the message you need to move forward.
Take some time today and sit down and visualize your hope and dreams. Create an offering space, be it physical or a post on social media that allow you to focus your energies on creating that future that you desire. As you move forward today, remember that you are the creator of your future, you sing your song, you write your story. Take the pen and author the best life you can have.
This card is part of the Divine Abundance Oracle Deck by Tosha Silver, Art by Fena Gonzalez. If you're looking for a single reading or creating an ongoing advisory relationship, I do have a few slots available. Learn more at neuse river witch dot com or confessions of a modern witch dot com.
Blessings
Sosanna

Magical Amplification - Getting the Results You Want

As a devoted magical practitioner, I want to be sure my magic is successful. I want to learn all I can, do all I can and be all I can be in order to make my magic the strongest magic I am capable of creating. Working with specific deities or a combination of deities or using certain crystals or tools are all great ways to get a little umph in your magic. I’m going to spend some time on each of these throughout this article.  I’ll add a few exercises at the end to help you work on your own magical amplification.



“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” - Benjamin Franklin


The step to getting the best out of your spell work is planning. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the ritual that you plan to conduct. Working through the wording, even walking through the process will help make everything run a bit smoother.  If you plan to call the quarters, for example, go ahead and take the time to work on that part of the ritual. Take the time to place your candles, matches or lighter in the right place for easy access. Be sure to prepare yourself as well as your space for the event. Take a ritual bath, do a mediation session prior to getting started.  All of these things will help you prepare to welcome in the magical energy and ensure that your session will be a success.






Aces in their Places


When it comes to magic, all deities are not created equal. What I mean by this is that we really need to work with our aces in their places. The right god(des) for the right job.  Understand the deities that you work with. Look into their backgrounds, find out what they like. After all, if you come to me and ask for a favor, you won’t get my affection with onions.  I hate them. Know what offerings please those you are working with. Find out which ones work together better. For example, recently I was doing some spell work for a job promotion and planned to do some spell work with Jupiter. I wanted to pull in the abundance, fortune and expansion associated with this Roman deity but did not have a regular relationship with him. Hecate is referenced in some of the older writings as being a conduit or someone to be used to deliver a request to other deities. I used my relationship with her to help me call upon Jupiter to aid in my spell. Other examples include working with Hecate and Eros in love magic, or Hecate and Apollo for healing. Find the right deity to get your magic moving in the right direction.


Quid pro quo


When asking for a favor we don’t show up empty handed. Quid pro quo, (Latin: What for What) is when we basically say, I will do this, if you do that. These are the types of deals we make with our magical sources when we leave offerings to our deities. When used in spell work, we may look to leave things they like. On my altar to Hecate, I’ll include pomegranate and leeks. Some more traditional items might be olive oil, honey and bread. Research your deity and know the things that they like. Make offerings of those things regularly to keep them happy. This will make your requests much easier to digest and the deity more likely to grant them. 




Lucky Charms


Finally, when working with magical energy, finding the best items, charms or do dads to help give that energy a boost is a must. There are several ways to boost that energy and I’m going to give a list of them below. Each is going to have a short description and I recommend doing more research on each.


Pyramids - The power of the pyramid has been known and harnessed since antiquity. From the ancient Egyptians to Nikola Tesla, the power stored in these magical shapes has been legendary. Pyramids have been used for sharpening metal blades, preserving food and focusing electromagnetic energy.  To harness this energy in my space, I created what I call “Witch Tacks”.  These are pyramid shaped resin creations that are either filled with a specific set of herbs for the purpose or intention that I want to convey or dyed with the colors of the element I want to bring into my magical right. The filled pyramids can also include gemstones, images or other elements to bring your intentions to fruition.


Quartz Crystals - Clear quartz crystals are known as amplifying crystals. These are the crystals you use in your crystal grids to help focus and amply your energy fields. It has the power to enhance the energy of what you place around it.  If I were looking to create a crystal set for a client who had stage fright; I might select amethyst to help with anxiety, citrine as the composer stone and a clear quartz crystal to boost the effects of the other two stones. If I wanted to create a set for love, perhaps I would use rose quartz, lapis lazuli and again, add that clear quartz crystal to amplify their power. Taking this same approach, I have a set of crystals on my altar that I use for different types of spell magic, each combination I always end with my clear quartz crystal. To me, this ends my intent with an exclamation mark!


Cone of Power - Those students of Wicca will be familiar with the Cone of Power. This is the idea that when we come together as a group of witches and visualize this cone, we can focus our power together to create a specified outcome. The most notable instance is by Gerald Gardner and New Forest Coven as a way to amplify the magical energy of his coven against the invading Nazi forces. Using this requires the entire group to have a single goal in mind. It requires practice, dedication and a strongly connected coven to be successful.


I hope you have enjoyed this brief journey into Magical Amplification. I hope that some of the information is new to you and you find ways to bring this into your daily magical rituals. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions related to this and I’ll be happy to provide any support I can. 


Namaste

Sosanna



Rev. Renee Sosanna Olson - RSM, PMI-ACP

Ordained Spiritual Counselor

Certified Holistic Wellness Coach

International Yogi Certification

Certified Crystal Master & Aroma Therapy Practitioner



Exercises


  1. Begin your ritual with a bath or meditation session. Use your journal to document any changes you feel in how the energy flows in the session.

  2. Add Offerings to your selected deity in the days prior to your ritual. Take some time to walk into your altar space and place your items with intent and focus. Use this time to think about your connection to the deity (or energy) and how that will impact your upcoming rituals.

  3. Read about the Cone of Power. Explore how this impacted the invading forces of the Nazi troops and how it was used in other situations such as Vietnam, against the Spanish Armada and Napoleon.

  4. Connect with pyramid energy. Read about how the ancient Egyptians used this energy and what is being explored with it today. Add a pyramid to your ritual space and document how using other amplifiers such as crystals or stones impact your magical experience.




Resources


Handmade - Contact Renee Sosanna Olson for purchasing information

Witch Tacks - Resin

Spell Pendants - Stone and Wire

Gemstone Pyramids - Resin

Pendants - Stone

Green Witch Magick - A Review

 Today I'm reviewing Green Witch Magick - Essential Plants and Crafty Spellwork for a Witch's Cupboard by Susan Ilka Tuttle.

  • Book Link
  • Author Link
  • On-sale Date: November 16, 2021

I'll start with a review of the physical book.  This book is a great size. I love that it can fit in a purse or a handbag and be ready to pull out when I'm waiting for an appointment or on the train. There are lots of full color photos in this book including full page photos of botanicals and illustrations of plants and salves and tinctures. For the amount of information that is in this book, I found the index to be a bit lean. I think that there is always room for more reference and helping the reader find exactly what they're looking for is essential in this type of book. The font is a good size and the weight of the book is nice.

The author begins by telling us sage advice on the use of herbs. I highly recommend reading this before getting started in using herbs. There are a great number of herbs that are perfectly safe in moderation. We need to take note when we're using a new herb and make sure we are very familiar with the herbs we use regularly. Mint for example can cause irrigation of mucus membranes and skin while lavender can cause constipation and increased appetite. Learn about your herbs and be sure to work with them in a safe manner.

Part I of this book is all about becoming a witch. The author guides us on stereotypes and stories about witches as well as what it really means to be a witch. She talks about Witchcraft and how paganism and the practice of Wicca differ.  When I came upon the section titled, Celebrating Diversity in the Witch community, I expected to read about LGBT or People of Color instead it was about natural born witches vs. solitary witches. She does however discuss cultural appropriation in a previous section and mentions the use of the terms "spirit animal" or "animal totem" specifically. Part 1 wraps up with a bit of history on the Green Witchcraft and gives an overview of the sabbats and other magical practices including, animism, crystal work and working with natural altars.

Part II of this book gives us 13 essential plants for our cupboard. I won't delve into each of these in this review. I do want to give the general overview of what to expect. The author gives us a sort of dating profile for each plant. There is a section on name and family as well as its correspondences. Lavender for example is in the Lamiaceae family and corresponds to Mercury, Gemini and Virgo.  It represents the element of Air and is said to transport you with its aroma to another time and place. We then are given its medicinal, culinary and magickal uses as well as a list of projects that are included in the book to incorporate the use of the plant into our spell work.


Part III of the book teaches us about herbal remedies and provides recipes for creating these remedies as well as steps for our magical workings. Included is a section on gardening, foraging and herbalism. From mint infused oils, to lip balm, the recipes in this book are simple to follow and easy to understand. The author takes the time to explain the different cooking techniques as well as the differences in carrier oils that are essential to understanding and creating a usable final product. 

The chapter on herbs in divination was my favorite. She reviews different divination practices and then provides recipes on oils and sprays to help impower your magical practice. Color magic, cleansing bouquets and simmering potpourri are included, which I found very useful. Filling a room with fragrances can be a wonderful way to represent the element of Air or even to act as an offering to the deities you work with. 


Over all a great introduction to working within the realm of green witchery. I found it to be a well researched and presented book with a good deal of information. I think that this book would be useful for the beginner and seasoned which alike. I do not have a background in hedge witch or kitchen witchery but I found the recipes easy to follow and the sections on each of the plants very easy to follow. I would recommend this book for a house warming or graduation gift. I think that it would be a great addition to your magical library.

I hope you found this review helpful. Be sure to check out these authors and please feel free to provide any feedback or ask your requests in the blog comments or directly to me via the chat button at the bottom of the page or via email.

Namaste

Sosanna