Greetings My Witchy Reader,
It is interesting how I come about my topics to discuss with you, and it is usually when a concept or idea is visited to me a number of times in a short time, as today for instance. This morning I had a short lecture with my magickal studies class during a test review concerning naturally occurring items as opposed to man made items, or even items made from petroleum based products.
Now now do not jump ahead, unless you have read my work extensively you may be surprised at my perspective, but wait, we will get there. Then I come home and doing some research I came across a blog by a woman who is a self described crystal expert and she seems to have some scientific background, as in she has familiarity with the scientists laboratory and working with crystals and the acids used to clean them, which can be very dangerous and needs to be done by an experienced person, which as a scientist she seems to be. So I watched to see what I could learn. The chemical cleansing of the crystals was academic and interesting but again nothing the average person could or should ever do. We are better off to purchased already mined and cleansed crystals.
Then she went on to write an entire article how any man made crystal, stone or mineral was completely useless and without any energy if it was not completely from the crust of other earth. That even crystals that had been subjected to heated treatments like amethysts or sapphires no longer had their natural energies and so for were useless. Hmmmm, a bit harsh and I may add hasty in her condemnation. It is also an immature and inexperienced magickal opinion, in my opinion and I will explain why I feel this way.
Now, before I elaborate I will say, I completely respect another's right to not wish to work with materials or ingredients they are not comfortable with, and if you are not able to sense any energy, then admitting that is a good thing, but the work needs to be done within you, it is not the materials fault. No, it's not, not even if it is man made, nor even if it is made of petroleum products.
For example, petroleum products come from dinosaur goo, or crude oil. Then it is refined down to various substances and if I use it in an ointment I call the petroleum jelly dinosaur fat, and the mineral oil, also comes from dinosaurs, at one time long ago and that has an ancient magickal energy that I can sense and I respect. Also these ingredients have a special quality. They are inert. Which means you can use them, add other oils and herbal essences to them and they will stay pure and not go rancid, even after years. You can use them on your skin and they are non toxic. Even mineral oil has been refined down to a super pure level where it is sold as a baby laxative. Think about that for a moment! You feed this to babies as a medical treatment and it is safe and non toxic to babies!!
Using the base oil of almond, corn, or any other base oil you have to consider the magickal properties of the base oil, such as corn will bring money and abundance and fertility to a potion, but is that really what you want in your love potion???!!!! Maybe not? Plus it will go rancid within 6 months and that is a shame especially if it is a special oil, and just perfect for you.
Now let us discuss 'fake' vs 'real' . If you are a witch and practice a full fledged practice, it probably looks something like this: You have an altar, and on your altar one of the most special, sacred items is the altar pentacle. Usually a silver disk that is placed in the center of the altar that acts as a patent where various items are placed during the ceremony.
There really is no altar pentacle that is not man made, unless one were to cut an apple in half cross wise, and place a half in the center, but this is seldom done, if at all. Most Wiccans revere not only their altar pentacle, but any Goddess or God statues which would be man made and let us not forget the use, the heavy use of candles, and not only are candle man made and always have been, but paraffin is again a petroleum based product and before you even say beeswax, there is no religious precedent in our practice that requires beeswax candles. With the global crisis concerning the bees and their rapid decline due to the human mass use of deadly pesticides unless your religious practice decrees use of honey or beeswax by thousands of years of tradition, then it is not appropriate. There are a few religions this applies to and for them it is appropriate and there is enough for them, and by allowing spare use, then the bees can reproduce and split hives and overcome the decline.
We, as pagans, do not need to use the bees byproduct as a novelty when we can easily use other products nowadays. Our candles can be paraffin, or nowadays soy candles, there are candles made from olive oils and many other base materials. The energy of the candle comes from the energy of the flame, the lit candle flame. The color of the candle is also magickal, as color is a magickal system, of itself.
By simply saying a thing must be dug out of the earth to have energy and anything man made, discounts so many things we know have energy, because they are man made. Consider the energy of an engagement or wedding ring, or any significant piece of jewelry a lover gives another. It does not have to have a stone for it to have energy and to be special. A man created athame, consecrated in a magick circle, or a sword, or a wand made out of metal, a quilt hand stitched, a love letter or poem hand written from the heart. All of these may not be what is called "natural" but they brim over with energy that can be felt and is considered of the utmost importance.
No, in this witch's opinion, to cavalierly discount something as having no energy because of this or that, to me demonstrates that perhaps that person is simply not capable of sensing energy. And of you are not capable of sensing the energy in something you think has no energy, are you really sensing the energy in something that you think should? And is your sensing accurate?
Allow me to go one step further into the more magickal if you will. The world of energy sensing called psychometry. I am not sure as to the origins of this, but it strikes me as something the Romani Gypsy's would have been adept at. You use your hands for this and you use a piece of jewelry that belongs to someone you do not know. Ask a friend to get something a watch, or a piece of jewelry worn by someone in their family that you can hold for a few minutes.
You practice, by first washing your hands well. Dry them well. Then sit and become comfortable. My students would go into the brain wave state of alpha and a meditative ritual trance that they practice as part of their training at Enchantments. Then rub your hands together, hold the piece, it does not have to be cleaned. It is better that it not be polished or cleaned beforehand. You are trying to sense the energies from the person it belongs or belonged to. Even if the person had passed on. If it is a person who has passed on, you may find you have natural medium tendencies.
Then quiet yourself and simply start to talk. Out loud and say what pops into your mind. What you see, what you hear, what you smell, anything, no matter how outlandish or disconnected or strange. Remember it is the memories and energies of another person you do not know, so it wouldn't necessarily make sense. I have seen this done and have done it myself and there is no way one can know the information you pick up if it were not from the object. Unless you may be reading the person, that is always possible.
I found out curiously, that where I have a degree of success using psychometry on pieces of jewelry and small personal items, I seem to have much more sensitivity and accuracy on buildings and of all things ancient foundations! Once I was asked to touch an old stone wall in upstate Vermont, that the owner (my mom) had no idea what the wall's history was, they had recently purchased the property.
I didn't think I would have much luck but I didn't think it would hurt to try, so I walked down the field and sat on the wall and touched it with my palms. I allowed myself to get quiet and then sat and allowed the sounds and smells to flow by. I didn't see as much as I felt, and smelled and heard. I could hear the jangling of horses bridles, and the snorting and stomping of horses feet, the creaking of carriage wheels and I could smell hay and leather, foods cooking, fires in fireplaces burning. I could sense lots of movement and sense weariness and a sense of needing to move on. I knew this place had been a tavern and a place like a stagecoach stop. It was near an old dirt road and in such an out of the way obscure place in Vermont it seems unlikely but this is what I sensed.
It was about a year maybe two later that my mother had a visitor come around who used to live in her house or in the neighborhood and wanted to meet the new people who bought the house and they had a nice visit. She knew the history of the land and told my mother that indeed the old foundation now hidden by the grass in the lower field had been an old tavern over 150 years before!! It is always so nice to get validation and it made my mom happy to know this.
Learning to sense energy is important because you never know when you will sense energy and how it will feel, and everything on this earth has an energy. Everything.
Ancient scholars, thousands of years ago, felt that all things on earth, all things natural or man made have all come from the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, combined with spirit. A combination of some or all of these things. And they are right. You see, since the beginning there has been nothing but what has been on this earth. Everything has come from Her, Mother Earth. Simply because there is no where else for anything to have come from. Panspermia aside, but that's a discussion for another time!
So if you find yourself, in this New Age of the magickal, metaphysical, holistic and energy work in a place where you are honored and blessed to be teaching others, give them all of the information and be careful to not disrespect an area simply because it may not work for you but it may work for another.
As any who read my work know the only exception I make to this is the rule that as long as it breaks no law, such as practicing medicine without a license. So I do not advocate giving any medical advice even herbal if one is not licensed by your state to give medical advice. Please check with your state licensing board to find out how you may become licensed if you wish to sell herbs, ointments, or give any sort of healing services. We at Enchantments do not do any of this, as we stay firmly in the magickal world dancing around our cauldrons and are happy to do so!!
Can you sense the energy today?
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.
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