Time to Celebrate Imbolc our First Spring Sabbat!

Good Afternoon,

The snow is flying around outside and some might wonder at the timing of our first spring Sabbat, Imbolc, but it is that time of year! Although many Pagans celebrate this Sabbat on February 2nd, take note that that is a Christianized date, when the early Christians started to overtake Pagan rituals and holy days and made them their own. They moved the date from the original February 1st, to the 2nd and called it Candlemass. 

I am a traditionalist in my practice and I prefer to celebrate the original dates. This is an exciting Sabbat as it is the Sabbat that brings the spring season into being. Already this week I have seen Canada geese flying back north and sap is starting to run in the trees.

One thing to do during this Sabbat is to replace all of your used ritual candles with new ones. This includes your watchtower candles, your altar candles and any candles that have been partially burned by this time. Start your Imbolc ritual with new, unused candles and also take the time to clean altar pieces and surfaces of dust or melted wax. Be careful not to clean and scrub everything too well, you don't want to clean the energies off that have built up with ritual use. Just make everything clean and tidy.

This Sabbat traditionally would see the animals of the fields and pastures giving birth to the new born. Cattle, sheep, goats and deer are giving birth to the spring babies that are metaphorically giving new birth and new beginnings to all. So an appropriate cakes and ale celebration can have fresh milk kept cool in fresh snow and cheese bites.  But that's up to you. Any cakes and ale choices are good. I prefer sparkling grape juice and real cake. But that's me!

So whatever your celebration looks like, celebrating this most important Sabbat is a must! Bring in the spring, help turn the wheel of the year and have a wonderful time!


Peace and Happiness







© 2010-2015 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.

 If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

Mercury Retrograde . . . Will It Get You? And What To Do When It Does!

 Good Afternoon,

Well Mercury turned retrograde two days ago on January 21st,  2015. What does that mean you ask? Well astronomers and astrologers notice that at certain times of the year, the planet Mercury, seems to slow down in it's orbit to appear stopped or in some cases appears as if it's moving backwards! Over the years this time has come to be called Mercury Retrograde.

Now, I'm not a strong astrologist, I know enough of certain astrological signs and symbols to get by but I'm not an astrologist by any means. I have however, over the years found there is something to this Mercury retrograde as it seems to affect everybody in some way or another. You see, when Mercury is in retrograde it is said that it affects such things as many things with communication, computers and time being the biggest areas affected. You might misinterpret someones words, have computer crashes more frequently or emails that go completely missing, just to name a few things that could go wrong.

Take just this morning for instance. I normally take Mercury retrograde for what it is and try not to let the flubs get to me. I try to go with the flow and keep things serene. Well Mercury retrograde 'got me' this morning. I set the alarm clock for 8:30 and promptly woke up when it went off. I made coffee and turned on the morning news to see the weather while I got ready for the day. After 30 minutes or so I saw the morning news show continuing rather than going off the air for the next morning show. I looked at the alarm clock, it said 9 am. Then I picked up my cell phone and it said 8 am!!! I had gotten up an hour earlier than I needed to! And I'm greedy about my sleep! Well, I took another sip of coffee and realized I had a choice. I could be all cranky about losing a precious hour of sleep or I could make it work for me.

I decided to go to the Community Y, where I try to work out a few times a week and I worked out on the elliptical machine not for my usual 30 minutes, but for 45 minutes! I never have time for that long a work out, but today I did!! It was a good workout too!

I also notice that my cell phone turns on alerts and other system prompts, without my doing so, during Mercury retrograde. For instance as soon as Mercury went retrograde my phone started to tell me out loud who was calling, each time a call came in. It's a little annoying, but even the phone company couldn't turn off the alert. This went on until Mercury went out of retrograde. I had forgotten about it until two days ago, when, you guessed it .  .  .  my phone started using voice alerts to start telling me again who was calling. Now I simply try to answer my phone quickly so everyone around me doesn't hear! Frankly no one needs to know that my pharmacy or doctor is calling!

So yes, Mercury retrograde didn't take any time in finding me this time. Oh and there is no logical explanation as to why the alarm clock was set incorrectly. It was set right the night before when I went to bed. Or that the cell phone alerts turn themselves on , but you see, it's these seemingly unexplainable things that happen during these periods ascribed to Mercury retrograde, that will affect you. Many people have  many more crazy stories about how it affects them. Just be aware that it's happening and don't get too upset or think you're losing your mind. You're not! Mercury is just having a bit of fun with us.

And there's an end in sight. Mercury retrograde usually lasts for a couple of weeks. In some instances it can last for over a month! Yikes! Here are the dates of mercury retrograde for this year, 2015. Just to keep you aware:

• January 21st - February 11th

• May 18th - June 11th

• September 17th - October 9th          

Hopefully you will slide through this difficult time with little affect, but here are some quick tips for dealing with Mercury retrograde:

• Back up files on your computer
• Print out sales invoices for items ordered and keep a hard copy
• Don't assume. Be clear in your wording with others and ask for clarification if at all unsure of a person's words. Many arguments can be avoided by being clear and apologizing if words are misunderstood.
• Double check alarm clocks and other watches and clocks with something like a cell phone that it automatically set      
• When something goes awry, try to correct it or make the best out of the situation      

 Good luck!!


Peace and Happiness







© 2010-2015 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.

 If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

Do Witches Pray?

 Good Afternoon,

I am always asked questions about what it is like to live as a witch. This is a question I was asked recently. Do witches pray? The answer is yes. Some witches, that have issues with Christianity, may not call it prayer, they may use instead words like blessings or sending out energies. But in truth we do pray. A witches prayer can be more of a tangible prayer and is often called a spell.

That's right, casting a spell is simply sending out a prayer to a higher power and asking for needed change to manifest. We might use candles, herbs, potions, crystals any number of natural materials to help cast our spell or prayer. But there are times when simply asking the Goddess for help in a situation can prove quite successful. A spell, like a prayer is not evil, nor manipulative or wrong. Historical legend and lore has often turned the concept of a spell into something dark and harmful. It simply is none of these things.

I want you to look at the picture of the hands in prayer pose I posted above, and allow me to explain the reason this pose is so popular in prayer. It is believed that an electrical current, the nervous system current found in the human body, completes a circuit when the hands are placed in this position. Imagine the current flowing from one hand through the arm, shoulders down the other arm and through the other hand, a completed circuit going around and around. This is a powerful position to place the body into and can aid in your spell or prayer.  You have energy in your body and you also take in universal energy through your crown chakra, located at the top of your head. By imagining the energy flowing into your body through the top of your head and intermingling with your natural personal energy you make the power flow stronger and it helps with your spell or prayer, giving it ummph, if you will.

So, to answer the question, yes, witches do pray. Any questions you may have, please write them in the comments section below and I'll do my best to answer them for you.


Peace and Happiness



© 2010-2015 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited. 

If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

My Spirit Totem Animal this Month has been the Black Vulture

 Good Afternoon,

There may be times in your day to day life when you come across an animal usually in the wild that gives you a moment to pause. An animal or bird that is. When you see an animal, especially more than once in a given time period, it usually means that animal has a message for you.

For me, at this time, it is the black vulture. I first saw a black vulture a week or so ago. I mean for the first time in my life. I was driving down the road to the post office and as I passed a small wooded area I saw a large black bird, the size of a wild turkey, feeding off of some carrion in the road. I knew it was a vulture, I just knew it. I looked it up later when I got home and realized I was correct. As I returned from the post office a few minutes later and then saw five vultures all coming out of the woods to feed on the dead animal in the road.

Then again today, I was passing another wooded area, in a different part of town, and was driving slow and I saw some large black shapes in the trees. I slowed down even further and saw about six or more black vultures sitting in the trees.  They were large and looked very ominous, silently sitting, watching .  .  .  waiting.

Having seen these black vultures for the first time ever in the last few weeks, made me aware that they were acting as a spirit totem animal for me and that they wished to let me know something. I looked up the magical property of black vulture and found a lot of information.

Vulture deals with life and death and new beginnings. It represents vital energy, year round. I believe vulture is telling me that my energy, that has waned over the past few years is on the upswing and that I will be getting my energy back. I have been feeling very good and healthy this past year and I think vulture is confirming this is going to continue.

Vulture also deals with connection to the Mother Goddess, whom I work with on a regular basis. For many years I would cast spells to make changes in my life always thanking the Goddess for helping me with them. Now I am at a place in my life where I cast less spells, I have arranged my life as I like it, and I simply commune with Goddess as one would an old friend.  I think vulture coming into my life at this time also speaks to this. 

The vulture has many magickal properties and can speak to you of many things. Here's a short list:

• Sense of allegiance
• Very ernest
• Perfectly patient (I'd been working on this one also!)
• Highly tolerant
• Looking to renew everything
• Making everybody equal
• Cleaning the environment
• Acute perception
• Highly protective
• Immune to heat
• Out of the ordinary
• Overtly resourceful

These are just some of the areas vulture may have messages for you, if it shows up in  your life. I am excited to walk along for a while with vulture and finding out the areas I can explore with it's help and guidance.

Pay attention to the animals and birds that pop up in your day to day life and do a little research to see what messages they may hold in store for you!

Peace and Happiness and Happy New Year!!!


© 2010-2015 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited. 

If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.