A Magickal Ointment with Ancient Roots

Greetings My Witchy Readers,

I came across an ancient poem, called the Song of Songs found in the Tanakh the Hebrew Bible which, these verses are attributed to King Solomon and are romantic poems back and forth, from a woman to her lover and a lover to his woman. Not what one would typically expect to find in a religious text, but they are beautiful and sacred in their beauty and sensuality.

It is many, many verses and chapters long. A long, beautiful story of lovers meeting, courting, marrying and loving together their lives. But I read the following few verses and I saw within them, an ancient recipe for an ointment, as during this time, ointments, oils, salves were very popular and used for anointing people as sacred perfumes, to ritual tools and candles and was a way of connecting the human energy with the Divine.

These few verses are thus:

"Your limbs are an orchard of pomegranates
and of all luscious fruits,
Of Henna and of Nard,
Nard and Saffron
fragrant reed and cinnamon,
with all aromatics woods,
Myrrh and aloes --
All the choice perfumes
You are a garden spring
A well of fresh water
a rill of Lebanon"

This is just one of the many beautiful verses that make up Solomon's Song of Songs and as I read this verse I could see the ointment being made and being used as an anointing perfume to be applied before ritual or before any sacred activity.  So I started to research the various ingredients and to find substitutions if necessary.

The white flowered "henna" plant (lawsonia enermis ) does not grow in this part of the world, it is native to Iran and Pakistan, and as such is very difficult to find, or to substitute, but the rest we can work with. Nard was called Spikenard in biblical times and was highly prized for its heady aroma and today we can get the oil of Spikenard, or if not available to you, you can easily use Valerian.  Many people have used the extract of Valerian often in holistic preparations and teas but the essential oil is quite pleasant and pretty smelling. Even using a few drops of both Spikenard if available and Valerian would be appropriate.

Then Saffron, only a small amount is needed and can be found in all food markets and specialty spice shops, only about 6 strands are needed. The fragrant reed mentioned in the verse is debated by scholars to this day and was also referred to as sweet cane, and most have come to understand it to be calamus also known as sweet flag. Please take special note if you choose to use Calamus, it is highly toxic and should never be ingested and if used as an ingredient in your perfume oil, only a small drop for authenticity's sake perhaps, but I choose to use a few drops of sweet orange oil as it does the same thing fragrance wise and I do not have to worry about any side effects from toxicity.   You may also substitute it by using a small bit of amber resin or oil, which is found in the Middle East and throughout the Mediterranean.

The next part of this recipe we add a few drops of cinnamon oil.  We must use caution with cinnamon oil. Cinnamon or cassia oil, which is a common substitution for cinnamon oil, can be caustic to the skin and cause minor burns so a drop maybe two is all that is needed in any potion or balm it is included in. Plus cinnamon oil has such a strong scent little is more than enough.

The myrrh oil is easy, and for the aromatic woods and aloes we will use sandalwood oil and grate some powdered Palo Santos wood also known as Holy wood which has a beautiful, sweet scent. Sandalwood is native to the Middle East and Palo Santos, though from South America, has direct cousins from the Mediterranean, North Africa region that is quite similar in resinous structure to the aromatic woods that would have been included in a recipe such as we are making. 

An interesting side note, when working with ingredients thousands of years old as mentioned in this biblical verse, something like aloes also known as wood aloes or agar wood, is almost impossible to obtain today. If one can find it it would be so cost prohibited as to not be worth buying. What wood aloe is, is a rare, almost extinct tree called aquilaria which becomes infected by a mold caused by a beetle infestation. This dark brown, almost black infection in the wood smells so sweet and beautiful it became a wildly popular resinous base for ancient perfumes for centuries. Scientists have tried to re-create this phenomenon artificially but find it cannot be done. The tree must be naturally infected, so considering the trees are going extinct and the rarity of this beetle infecting the tree just right and causing this infection, and once the infection takes hold in the tree, the tree must die, so it cannot be sustained. Now you can start to appreciate why when ancient recipes both biblical and magickal call for wood aloes,  but we find they are no longer available to the scholar or the alchemist or the witch, so we substitute the best we can. 

The last part and a very important part is the base itself. Now, during biblical days, the base oils used were always olive oil, or what was written as pure oil, and this needed to be made by man and pressed and that was typically done from the olives. I have used vegetable shortening, as our olive oil is lovely but will not solidify and I like the solid form, which stays nicely in a small tin and can be brought with you and then rubbed or massaged into the skin. You can also use the olive oil if you would like, but it is a greasier version, but try what appeals to you.

So, if you are interested in making this beautiful, rich, ancient, seductive, sacred perfume ointment, this is the recipe I have come up with from translating the original verse to what we can obtain and work with today:

1/4 cup vegetable shortening
Spikenard Oil  7-10 drops
Valerian oil  3 drops
Saffron, appx 6 strands of the red saffron - ground up in a mortar & pestle
Sweet Orange oil  6 drops
Amber resin or oil  3 drops
Cinnamon oil 1 drop
Myrrh oil  3 drops
Sandalwood oil  6 drops
Powdered Palo Santos - this comes in wooden sticks. Take an emery board and rub over the stick allowing the fine powder to fall into the mixture.

Then get an oil diffuser and place a lit tea light underneath and place about 3 tablespoons (appx 1/4 c) of vegetable shortening in the diffuser. Then Take a Palo Santos stick of wood and an emery board and rub the wood against the emery board and powder the wood into the diffuser. Appx a 1/4 teaspoon would be about right. Then grind up the saffron in a mortar and pestle into as fine a powder as possible and place that in the shortening. Allowing the powdered wood and saffron to start to melt and blend into the oil.

Then add the oils AFTER the shortening has melted, that is very important. After the shortening has melted, add the oils and stir them clockwise into the mixture, using a silver or glass utensil, never plastic or other item. A wooden item will absorb a lot of your essential oils so a nice glass stirrer is best. Or a silver spoon.

As soon as you have mixed the oils into the mixture and everything has been mixed well, then pour the mixture into small ointment tins, available at a craft store.

Pour or even transfer the liquid ointment by way of small funnel and then let each tin of ointment sit and solidify which should only take about 20 minutes or so. As soon as they cool down. Do not use a heat source hotter than a tea light candle or the heat will cause the essential oils to burn away and the most important part of the entire recipe will "go up in smoke" so to speak!

You will see the "spices" the saffron and the powdered Palo Santos in the ointment and the richness of the scent will release when it comes in contact with warm skin, and will continue to be released as it is worn. Also by wearing this scent in a ointment rather than an oil it will last on the skin longer and won't evaporate as quickly. This scent should remain on the body or even in the hair, if you wish to use it as a hair dressing for the entire day.

This is my personal interpretation of this ancient Biblical poem's verse made into a perfume ointment, and I hope you enjoy it. Blessings and Peace, Ms. Faith

Live, Laugh and Always Love

© 2010-2018 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 receive the link to the most current weekly blog post send me an e mail with your email address. You will receive a new blog post weekly. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

Following Our Ancestors Path to Us

Greetings My Witchy Readers,

I find the longer I practice magick, witchcraft, an ancient Goddess based nature spirituality, the farther back I am drawn into the past. I find the bloodline of my ancestors, the lineage of the pagans of the path I follow, all go back into the ancient mists of time and the magicks are simple and sympathetic in nature as the ancients magickal practices were thought to be.

I had my DNA tested by one company that in addition to the basic info: which countries does your DNA hail from, it also followed my maternal haplogroup, which is a fancy word basically saying it traced my mothers bloodline back through her mother, and her mother, and her mother's mother's mother's back to 9,000 years to the same region in Eastern Europe. I found I was 99.5 % European and almost 50% Eastern European and when I saw it in black and white that the female line in my family, from my mother stretching back went back over 9,000 years .  .  .  to the same area, of Eastern Europe it made me stop and sit and go into deep thought.

 So I sat thinking, just imagining going back, from mother, to grandmother, to great grandmother, and to the next mother and to her mother and her mother and then seeing this line of women standing, just standing and this line stretching back so far I couldn't, even in my mind's eye, see the end and knowing that I am part of that continuous line is just awe inspiring to me.

There is no specific magick that is more right or wrong for any one person, you can do what you feel is right for you. When I think back that my mothers mothers stretch back over 9,000 years and the continuity, how every one gave birth, how every one needed to nurture their children, how everyone worried about their families and cared about their loved ones and the differences how each knew different men and melded into different families expanding their families, bringing in new blood.

Recent research shows we have Jewish lineage, Russian and my father's parents were born and raised in Austria and he did not even know this, having believed they came from Poland originally. When I see these cultures listed and I think of the cultures, possible religions, the traditions, that my family may have believed, practiced I think of how many people today so quickly state "organized religion" is ____________, fill in the blank, and it usually is derogatory, rude and disrespectful, because organized religion has in some chapters in history had some pretty awful pages. Especially in regards to those who were labelled witches. Many have totally disregarded organized religion today because it does not work for them, but that is not to say it does not work for everyone. It does and has worked for millions for centuries and still does. It is not for everyone, and not every religious path is meant for everyone.

I look at it like this. If you see a bicycle on the ground, lying on its side and you pick it up and try to ride it and keep falling over because you do not know how to ride a bike, is that bicycle bad or useless or no longer useful? No. If you hurt yourself, the many times you keep falling over, is it the bicycles fault? Of course not, it is an inanimate object. So, is it the bicycle that does not work, or is it you that is not able to work that bike, at that time? Yes, maybe a skateboard is more your speed, or maybe simply walking. Or a car or maybe another mode of vehicle?

No, there is not one path to God or heaven and No, there is not one chosen people. At least I do not believe so. I truly believe on the other side, there is no religion, there is no chosen or special people, and everyone .  .  .  everyone gets in. Every race, creed, culture, belief, even those who do not believe. Criminals, sinners, those that break every commandment, all are allowed in because there are no walls in Heaven. Ahhh, isn't that a lovely thought, especially in this day and age.

There does not have to be, because after we die, in my experience, and understanding, we "burn off" who were were in this lifetime, the physicality of this lifetime, the color of our skin, our culture, our religion if we have one, we even burn away our gender, our prejudices, our limiting beliefs, and all that holds us back in our physical realm today. This takes time on the other side and happens after the period of time we are "ghosts" or "spirit" and may be communicating with loved ones, but eventually an aspect of who we "are" moves on and transforms to become one again with the one soul that makes up everything. The Divine Cosmic energy that consists of All. All of Us.

Another issue I often run into is people who become disenchanted with their religion of choice because of the person they "chose" to be their spiritual or religious leader. Truly, no one, no person in the position of teaching or guiding others along their path ever sets themselves up to be a spiritual "leader". Not if they are sincere and not on a "power trip". Yet, people will blame those that are in the position of teaching or guiding when the students own down falls catch them up, because many people on their path, are unable or unwilling to take responsibility for their own failings and their own mistakes and blunders. So it is so very common to cast blame.  We all know this. You are meant to have challenges on your spiritual path, that is why it is a path, and not a destination like a room where there is a party going on. 

Now look at religion, any kind of religion. It is not religion that does not work, but if it does not work for you, it really is not fair to lambaste religion and blame it for the shortfalls you encounter. Indeed, it may not be the religion for you. Or maybe religion is not for you. Maybe the person teaching you is simply not the best fit for you, nothing to take personally, oh but they always take it personally!! That's perfectly fine, because remember one important thing. religion is a man created concept. .  .  .  yes.  .  .  man created it. All of it. But, the real thing to learn is it is up to you what to do with it.

So when you can get away from focusing on what does not work for you, then and only then can you get started with what does work for you. Why not take the best of the different spiritual beliefs that touch you, that feed your soul? Does the sight and beauty of a Christmas tree bring you peace and happiness at the holiday times? Then have a Christmas tree. That alone does not make you Christian  If you wish to celebrate the Wheel of the Year Sabbats, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltaine, Litha, Lughnasadh, Mabon and Samhain and that feeds something inside then that is wonderful too. It does not necessarily make you a pagan. What if you light candles during the eight days of Hannukah and play the Dreidel game does that make you Jewish? Of course not. But it may give you a feel of kinship with ancestors who have gone before you. A connection that fills a place inside of you and gives comfort.

This is a very special time in our world's history. It is a time where you, and only you, primarily, can determine, what your religion is, what your spiritual path, should you wish to follow one, will be. If you are an adult, you make this decision on what is best for you. Regardless of what spiritual path, if any, you may have been brought up in, you, as an adult can choose.

You can celebrate any holiday, any religion, study any spiritual path, go to any church, temple, synagogue or mosque in this day and age. You may need to follow the rules and regulations of said religious establishment, but you have the choice. So rather than spending time focusing on what does not work for you, what has not worked for you and where you have been in the past, focusing  on where you wish to go and what you wish to experience and what you find works for you is the best energy.  Find the area of learning, whether it be a class, a teacher, an author, religious classes, on line study (beware of on line study as so much false information is perpetrated. Be sure to back up your on line learning with solid additional credible training.)

I started the idea of this blog post because I did a DNA test which was very interesting as I mentioned above, and it led, with long discussions with my mother, whom I am so lucky at my age, to still have my mother at the age of 78 and father at 83, with me.  Well, one day, I was visiting my mother. This was last year, and we were looking through old family photos and her baptism records, marriage certificates and remarking on the Polish names and out of the blue she looks at me and says, "You know, I never told you, but we have Jewish blood in our family".  I was surprised! I had never heard this but I had had suspicions because the family's last name was a strong Jewish name, the great grandfather's first name was Jacob (Joseph) but called Jacob in the family and that is Jewish for Joseph.

My mother told me that when she was born, in 1939 the start of WWII, by the time the war was over, it was many years before things were back to normal, were they ever? She said one day her mother, my grandmother told her (my mother is the oldest of 8 children) to never ever repeat this, that their grandfather was Jewish and to never, ever say anything or she would be punished. My Grandmother did not want her children treated differently, or poorly, or how she might have thought it would affect them. The community we all lived in was predominantly a Jewish farming community, but there was fear, a great fear. My mother remembers my grandmother hiding sugar, flour, and other staples in the linen closet under towels and sheets for fear that "they" would come and take these things.

These stories made me wonder, who was my grandmother afraid would come into her home and search? Who would come in and take her sugar, her flour? My grandmother had many children and like so many had to rely on ration tickets but she also had a farm and they had eggs, chickens, milk and butter to barter.

So many of us truly take the world we live in these days for granted, because we do not have the memories of having to hide our food, to have to be rationed to only so many of anything, even if we have the money to purchase more, not in a time of bulk food warehouses.

My research has also opened up that we have Russian, as well as Austrian heritage. We had believed we were 100% Polish but we are more a mixture of many eastern European cultures, a colorful, beautiful, cultural family of so much history. Sadly so much was hidden, and secreted away out of fear.  So that decades and generations later we, the younger generation have a lot less information and are now trying to put back what was a rich, cultural heritage.

I understand why people felt as they did and they did what they felt was important, and what they felt was necessary. So now every night, in addition to my red candle for love, I light a blue candle for the ancestors.

A glass encased blue candle to represent the ancestors and their line that stretches back thousands of years, in one fashion a tree as we are familiar, the family tree with mother and father and the branches of each as they stem out in many different directions.  Yet, in another fashion, when we follow our maternal, or paternal line exclusively, as I did my maternal line it does not form a tree, but it goes back, from mother, to mother, to mother, to mother, a direct, unbroken, undiluted, pure line that in my case reaches back 9,000 years. 

There is a magick inherent in the lineage of your ancestors, of your people, your family. It matters not that you didn't know them. Even if you are adopted, your bloodline still stretches back. There is some very credible work written by scholar, witch and author Raven Grimassi regarding the magickal, mystical lineage of our ancestors and I strongly recommend you read his books. His most recent "Communing With The Ancestors" is really outstanding work, and it is preceded by the "Cauldron of Memory".

 Love Ancestral Altar 

My thoughts, impressions and magickal concepts  I discuss here,  do not come from Raven's books but are my own magickal experiences and observations, but I do recommend his written works for those who wish to delve deeper into this subject as he goes much, much further into this topic.

For myself and to share with you, magickally I have set up my love/ancestral altar pictured above. I shuffle and cut the tarot deck daily to see what the ancestors wish to tell me. This is one way I choose to use the tarot, for this altar. I light the love candle first always. The I light the blue ancestor candle. Sometimes, in the center I burn a small gold and silver candle for the God and Goddess, and will ask for specific blessings, such as healing for a family member, protection or for the God and Goddess to look over a loved one who may be in a dangerous situation say serving in the Armed Forces, anything specific I desire. So as an altar, I use it for the Love and energy the God/Goddess primarily and the centuries of ancestral energy from so many matriarchs and patriarchs who can aid me in sending love and healing, protection and comfort for those living today.

When I stand before this altar, I take the time to think and close my eyes I see back, the line of both mothers and fathers flowing back into time so far the ends can't be seen, and the hundreds, thousands? of people who culminate in who we are today.  So for Hannukah I will have some blue and white decorations,  and maybe have some brightly colored dreidels. I like the idea of a Menorah. simply because the lighting of candles is so very much a part of what I do in my spiritual practice, and for Yule I will light the candles on a Yule log,  and then we will have a lovely dinner at a friends home for Christmas.  It is important, for me, to remember that my spiritual practice is done for myself and only myself. I do not do anything in this realm for anyone else. It is between myself and my God/dess.

In conclusion, I recall my maternal grandmother, when she passed away a number of years ago. Someone had the most lovely of ideas, to have all of my grandmothers children (she had 8 that survived) all of their children, the great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, her legacy it was referred to.  They had all of us, my grandmother's legacy, gathered in the front of the small pretty Methodist church in the tiny town in rural southern New England, and it was so impressive as I heard someone had taken a quick head count and there was 101 people in the group. The line will continue, perhaps for another 9,000 years. How remarkable. I'd like to think while we all stood there honoring my grandmother, all 101 of her legacy, and everyone else in that small church that day, that the spirits of all of those women somehow were present and if so I believe they would have been proud.

Thank you for reading my musings today, Ms. Faith

Live, Laugh and Always Love

© 2010-2018 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 receive the link to the most current weekly blog post send me an e mail with your email address. You will receive a new blog post weekly. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

Magick For The First New Moon of The New Year

New Year, New Moon Greetings My Witchy Readers,

Ah, can you feel that sense of relief, the sense of the weight being lifted? The burdens of the past year being removed from your shoulders? The astrological shift has occurred and the heavy, difficult hard changes that came crashing down during the last part of last year for so many has finally lifted and the changes have done their work and darkness has been moved out and now all that remains is space for light and love.

Let us look back for just a moment. For so many who has come to me, from students, to clients and customers, to people I know personally, the past several months from about the beginning of August, due to many factors, many of them astrological and the planetary shifts and changes do affect humans, whether we follow astrology or not. Just look at how the moon affects people when it is full.

 We've all heard the stories of the full moon making people more "crazy" in one way or another. Simply put the moon affects the water on the earth, it affects the oceans and causes the tides to ebb and flow, without the moon we would have no waves. Well, humans are over 70 percent water so why would it not affect us? Of course it would and it does. So .  .   . if the moon can affect us, other planets and astrological phenomenon can and does, I believe also has an affect on us. Knowing such only helps us understand it is not us losing our minds, but helps us get a grip and work with whatever may be going on.

Having said that a lot happened since August 1, 2017 astrologically, that affected people.  We had of course, new and full moons, but we also had eclipses, and Mercury retrograde combined with all of the above and then a Super Moon in December affecting that water I mentioned making us soooo emotional, and interestingly the planets Venus and Jupiter came closest in our night skies in November of 2017, which is astronomical but looking at it in a astrological way it could affect us, considering Venus is the Goddess of Love and passion and romance and joy, happiness, fun and all things sexy!! Oooh la la, and Jupiter the God of wealth, health, the physical but in the aspect of stability, work, work, work, and where these two aspects are so close in a relationship it could cause some issues where one wants to play and have romantic fun while the other is always saying "sorry love, have to work, I'm soooo busy, busy, busy!!" which could have caused all sorts of issues during that time.

I am just throwing out these scenarios, as other scenarios taking these concepts into consideration could have come up for you in your life. But issues did abound indeed. Then to finish off the year, as if it was not difficult enough, we ended the year with Mercury in retrograde yet again. The shadow phase of Mercury retrograde ended on December 31st, so even I took some time to shake off the shadow and rest, renew and get strength back and review and then look forward to the new year.

A short period of time to reflect is always healthy and helpful. Then set it all aside. Take from the past the lessons you needed to learn and then .  .  .  take the rest out to the trash, and get rid of it. Whether you lost opportunities, a job, friendships or acquaintances, whatever you feel you may have lost, look back and take from them the lessons learned, the experiences and the knowledge of what you went through, no matter how difficult or painful. Those are yours. That knowledge is priceless and can never be taken from you. You are now smarter, sharper, have a keener sense of (in my case Bull s#*t) perhaps your boundaries have been more clearly defined, your sense of integrity and truth more finely established, and remember the most important thing, YOU are stronger, you made it through and that which is left in the past? HA! It's gone and simply trash! Useless and not worth a moment of your precious time.

So, onward to the upcoming year and YES this year 2018 will be an amazing year, because you will make it so. YOU create your reality and you will create all the wonderful, exciting, amazing things you will soon experience.  For instance, I'll share about my life. I started singing lessons last year and after well over a year, I am starting to sound respectable in recordings where I don't cringe! haha I am proud of my performances in recitals, and I plan on doing some stand up comedy!! I have never ever thought of stand up comedy, but then again I never thought of jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet back when I was 38 years old either, until someone suggested we all go as a group, "It will be fun they said!" The only reason I did it, was I was so terrified of heights, I couldn't live with the thought that one day I would be 80 years old and look back and know I was too scared to have done it and to live with that regret. So I did it.

That is the attitude to have this year. Is there something you want to do? Do it. Is there something that scares the hell out of you? Then absolutely do it! At least just once. To say you conquered it, not the other way around. So looking at the new moon that is coming in two days, and right now we are in the 7 day phase with which we can successfully cast new moon magick, we can do a number of easy things to start our year off right to send the right energy to start off our year.

The new moon is on January 18, 2018. From three days before, the day of, to three days after you can do new moon magick. New moon magick in the tradition I work and teach is to bring in new, fresh, starting energies. Whereas in my tradition full moon magick is to eliminate and banish, to get rid of the old, unwanted energies we have become done with, that no longer serve us.

So to look at bringing in, anytime in the next 6 days, you can do any or all of the following. A full cast circle is not necessary to cast. Many of these fall under "folk magick" beliefs like a groom picking up and carrying his new bride over the threshold of their new home to make for a long, happy marriage. It is called sympathetic magick but it does have an energy that is sent out to return to the sender.

Cleaning out the house of any old, unwanted items, clothing, clutter, things that you don't use or need. Putting them in the trash, recycle or goodwill brings new fresh energy into the home,

Once the home has been cleaned and de-cluttered, smudging the home and any people living in the home is a wonderful way to cleanse any stagnant, old energy clinging to the home, especially a new home. You must use desert sage. Common garden sage grown in New England, that has a broad, fuzzy grey leaf will not work. That is used in Native American ceremonies and is sold in many stores but will not cleanse the area of the old stagnant energies. Desert sage is grown in the Southwest of the United States, and stores that are reputable like Enchantments carry it and will be honest about its use with you.

On the New Moon have a big feast. Eat whatever you would like to, the menu is up to you. But to have a big, fulfilling, satisfying meal, with delicious good food that makes you feel full and good. This is sympathetic magick also, which represents if you are full at the beginning of the year, you will stay full throughout the year and never go hungry.

Be sure at this meal you have a good drink, sparkling juice, cider, spring water, plenty of refreshing drink so you never thirst throughout the year.

Wear clothes that make you feel special on this day, this day you will set the tone for how you feel and look for the upcoming year.  No worries for some people I know who are going into the hospital on this day, because even though you will be wearing a hospital johnny the health care you are surrounding yourself with will spread through the year and good health will be yours!!

Do you know your car needs an oil change or a little bit of work? Take care of it, don't wait. Clean the litter and mess out of your car. I just did this and cleaned out the trash bin in the garage that has been getting full over the past several months. I just love seeing the full trash bags knowing all of that unwanted trash is going away.

Sweep the front of your home, or business. The sidewalk or the steps, or even the curb if the street is that close. BUT it is important NOT to sweep out into the street or towards the street, but sweep side to side, as you do not want to sweep good things away from your home or business.

Having a witch, a Priestess or a spiritual clergy person come in to bless your home is always a good thing to do in the beginning of the year. Many will do this for a donation to their church or temple. You can also do this yourself, but it depends on how you feel about it. Some people are comfortable doing this themselves and others prefer a professional to come in and do it. Go with what you feel best with.

Using a liquid called Florida water, a liquid we sell at Enchantments, and many witch shops carry it, is excellent to use to cleanse surfaces, desk tops and hard items at work where often people cannot smudge. It does the same thing. It is often added to floor wash water, to help eliminate negative energies that walk in on our shoes. Florida water is very complex and difficult to make, taking many ingredients and over a month to make properly, so purchasing a bottle is much more cost effective than trying to make your own. It can also be put in a spray bottle and used that way, and can be used as a body spray. But it does have an alcohol base like a cologne for those who are not sensitive to alcohol.

Placing  a green candle in the north quarter of your home, a yellow in the east, a red in the south and a blue in the west surrounding your home, will create a circle of the elements surrounding your home. These candles can be inside, or if it is not too windy or if you have a candle container that will protect the flame you can place them outside.

To complete the circle without all of the ceremony that a Wiccan would do,  you can connect the candles by pouring salt from each of the candles making a continuous circle of protection. Leave the salt where it is for 3 days. Then it can be vacuumed up and the protection circle will remain, as the energy of the salt will stay in essence.  The same can be done outside the home and if so, simply leave the salt. it will disappear back into the ground. It does not need to be put in a heavy circle. It does not need to be seen, you know it is there.

These are a few of the things you can do to start your new year off right and as you think about things, and start to practice some of these concepts I am sure other ideas will come to you. When they do, if they make sense to you, then do them. As long as they are eliminating the old, the "trash" whether actual or metaphorical and bringing in the new and the wonderful to fulfill your life. Now that is real magick!!

Live, Laugh and Always Love

Ms. Faith

© 2010-2018 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 receive the link to the most current weekly blog post send me an e mail with your email address. You will receive a new blog post weekly. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.