Book of Witchery (24 page)

Gather small groups of your chosen herbs together and wire them into little bundles. Now lay a bundle on top of the wreath base, and start wrapping the wire around the wreath; go over the stems of the herbs as you do this. After you have the first bundle wired on, twist the wire together and snip off the ends, tucking any remaining wire down into the grapevine. Continue on to your left with the process, overlapping the stems from the first herb bundle with the flowers of the next. Work your way around the wreath until it is completely covered. If necessary, add a touch of hot glue to the herbs to make them stick to the grapevine wherever it is needed. Once you have the entire wreath covered, tie up a decorative bow and secure it with the floral wire, then attach it to the wreath. When you attach the bow, say these lines:

Witchy ribbon of green, now be for me
A charm for a life that's strong and healthy.

Use a twelve-inch length of ribbon for a hanger, if you choose. Once you are finished with the wreath, hold it in both of your hands and charge it full of healing energy. Repeat the charm below three times:

By Jove! This wreath will radiate a healing light

To ward and protect me and mine both day and night

By the power of herbs, this Thursday Witch craft is spun

Bringing healing energy to all and harm to none.

Now hang up your wreath and enjoy it. Clean up your supplies and straighten up your work area.

Custom-Made Daily Magick

Well, let's see . . . abundance, prosperity, and good health has been our focus for this day. Now how about a little more information and ideas for working practical magick with one of our fascinating featured deities of the day?

Juno was the Queen of Heaven. As the matriarch of the gods, she guarded over women in every aspect of their lives. Juno was thought to have renewed her virginity every year. Similar to other goddess stories, Juno was a triple goddess—a virgin who belonged to no one; a mother and woman in the prime of her life, sexual and mature; and also a crone, powerful, wise, and sometimes vengeful (as she made her husband's many mistresses' lives either fairly unhappy or short).

There are references to an early all-female triad of goddesses known as the Capitoline Triad. This triad consisted of Juventas, Juno, and Minerva. To the Greeks, they would have been known as Hebe, Hera, and Hecate. Ultimately the triad became Juno, Minerva, and the male Jupiter. Jupiter, another of Thursday's gods, was Juno's consort.

As mentioned earlier, Juno, in her aspect as Juno Moneta, was the patron and protector of the Roman mint. The coins produced at her temples were blessed by Juno and imbued with her powers of abundance and prosperity. In another of her aspects as Juno Augusta, Juno was the goddess of an abundant harvest.

In addition, another of Juno's magickal correspondences is the semiprecious stone malachite. Malachite is a beautiful green-banded stone that was also called the “peacock stone” in Italy. The peacock was a sacred animal of Juno's, and the magickal energies of malachite encourage health and prosperity. So, guess where we are going with all of this information? That's right, a spell for prosperity and abundance.

Ritual for Thursday

juno's prosperity elemental ritual

This spell calls for some natural magick supplies. Try working with affordable tumbled malachite stones. As for the wheat stalks, look at the dried flowers and fillers in the arts and crafts shops. Ditto for the feather, or peruse a fly-tying store; you can usually pick up a package of feathers for a few bucks. As to the green seven-day candle, if you look around, you can find green jar candles. I actually found some at the grocery store for a dollar apiece. They were in the ethnic food aisle and were called novena candles. I simply peeled the saint sticker off of it, and
abracadabra!
An instant seven-day candle for my witchery.

As mentioned before, all of these magickal supplies listed below correspond with the goddess Juno in two of her prosperity-drawing aspects, Juno Augusta (the harvest mother) and Juno Moneta (patron of the Roman mint).

• 1 malachite stone (to represent the earth element)
  
• A few peacock feathers (to represent the element of air)
  
• 3 small stalks dried wheat
  
• 1 green seven-day jar candle for prosperity
  
• 3 drops honeysuckle, peppermint, or clove oil (all of these oils encourage prosperity)
  
• A clean dropper (to add the oil to the candle)
  
• A long, thin screwdriver (to put holes in the candle)
  
• A dollar bill or coin
  
• Matches or a lighter
  
• A safe, flat surface on which to set up the spell
  

Carefully and slowly push the screwdriver straight down into the wax. Now pull it straight back up. Add two more holes for the essential oil. Now set the screwdriver aside; using the dropper, squirt a few drops of honeysuckle oil down into those channels that you just created.

Next, hold the green jar candle in your hands and transfer a little of your personal power and desire for prosperity into the candle. Then place the candle on your work area on top of the currency. Arrange the stone, wheat stalks, and feathers to your liking. Make your work area pretty, and enjoy the process. While you are doing so, you may chant the following (the chanting will help you raise some energy too):

By the power of three times three
Bring prosperity now to me!

When you feel that you are ready, light the candle and repeat the following verse three times:

Juno Moneta, Roman goddess of prosperity
Lend your power to this elemental spell that I weave
Juno Augusta, mother of the harvest, hear my plea
These three golden stalks of wheat are a gift to you from me
A peacock feather for air, and a malachite for earth
Lady, bless me with success, abundance, and rebirth
For the good of all, with harm to none
In Juno's name, this spell has begun!

Allow the candle to burn until it goes out on its own. It will probably take five to seven days for the jar candle to burn out. When I burn seven-day candles, I tuck them inside of my large cast-iron cauldron, then I place the spell components around the outside of the jar. That way, the candle can continue to safely burn, and even if it gets knocked over, everything stays contained inside of the fireproof cauldron.

Once the jar candle is finished, pocket the malachite stone and the bill or coin. Keep the money with you, tucked in your wallet or in your pocket. Tie up the feathers somewhere prominent where you will see them every day, like the rearview mirror of your car, your dresser mirror, or a chest of drawers' handle. Every time you see the feather, tell Juno thank you. Take the dried wheat and crumble the pieces apart. Sprinkle the seeds outside as an offering for Juno. Abundance and prosperity will find their way to you soon.

Please note:
As I suggested to you in an earlier chapter, if you cannot leave the ritual candle safely burning, then snuff it out when you leave and relight it as soon as you are home. It may take a few days longer, but the magick will still turn out, especially since you are taking the time and energy to tend the ritual candle so carefully. As you relight the candle, say:

As this ritual candle relights, so does my magick once more ignite.

Enjoy your ritual work, and may prosperity come to you in the best possible way!

If you have enjoyed working this final ritual, then take another closer look at the other natural correspondences that were listed in this chapter. What else do you suppose you could create for a little personalized magick? Are you feeling inspired? Flip back to the spell worksheet on page 301 and get busy crafting a spell or charm just for yourself.

Try wearing some honeysuckle-scented perfume to encourage prosperity. Bewitch someone by wearing deep royal blue or brighten up a dreary day by wearing lucky, prosperity-drawing green. Brew up a pot of mint tea to help increase your cash flow. Try adding a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon to an unscented candle to encourage some fast cash. Bake up a loaf of wheat bread for the family, and celebrate abundance and be thankful for all that you have.

Conjure up a witchy craft and create a philter or two for your magickal needs. Work with the deities and the magickal plants featured in this chapter and experiment. How did the energies of the plants of Jupiter enhance your magick? What did you learn by working with Juno, Jove, or Zeus? The truth is that by adding these new techniques and information into your spellcasting repertoire, you will indeed advance your skills, thereby moving up in the ranks to become a more adept magickal practitioner.

Just by believing in yourself and working toward creating abundance, health, and prosperity, you have already begun to transform your outlook on life. Put your game face on; think positively. Work with Thor for perseverance and courage, and apply those qualities to your own prosperity spells and healing witchery. Break out the tarot cards; take a careful look at those images of the three featured cards in this chapter. How could you incorporate that symbolism into other spells of your own design?

Use your imagination, check Thursday's correspondence list, and see what other bewitching things you can conjure up for prosperity magick all by yourself. Call on the gods and goddess of Thursday and bring some positive change, abundance, health, and prosperity into your life!

[contents]

Friday

At-a-Glance Correspondences

Daily Magickal Applications

Friday is named after the Norse goddesses of love, Freya and Frigga. There seems to be some debate as to whom the day is actually named after, so I thought I would share a little information so you can decide for yourself.

In Latin, this day is known as
Dies Veneris
, “Venus's day.” In Greek, it's
Hermera Aphrodites
, which translates to the “day of Aphrodite.” In Old English, this day is called
Frigedaeg
, or “Freya's day.” This day has the Germanic title of
Frije-dagaz
, which, once again, could be Freya's day or Frigga's day.

Both Freya and Frigga were Norse goddesses of love and were the Teutonic equivalent of the Greco-Roman Venus/Aphrodite. However, Freya was one of the Vanir—the gods of fertility who supervised the land and sea—and she was the leader of the Valkyries. Frigga, Odin's wife, was the goddess of the heavens and of married love. She was one of the Aesir—the gods associated with battle, magick, and the sky. Freya and Frigga could be looked upon as different aspects of the same goddess. They both were called on to assist in childbirth and then in the naming of the new baby. Frigga represented the faithful wife and loving mother, while Freya, who really captured the hearts and imagination of the Norse people, was the passionate mistress and lover.

Fridays classically are days for love, fertility, romance, and beauty magick, as well as working for happiness, harmony in the home, and friendship. So let's take a look at some of the mythology involved with this loving, voluptuous, passionate, and luxurious day of the week, and see where it leads us.

Deities

Eros

Eros is the Greek god of love and desire. With a power as compelling as that of love and desire, it's really not a shocker that Eros played an important role in Greek myth and legend. Put aside your thoughts of a cute, naked baby boy playfully nailing folks with his bow and arrows. Eros
was
pictured as a winged god, but these would be strong and massive wings, not cute and dainty cherub wings. Eros is, instead, a handsome, sexy, virile man. I suppose in modern terms women would refer to him as a hottie! No one was supposed to be immune, unaffected, or able to defend themselves against his powers of enchantment. This is a compelling and irresistible god.

Eros is married to Psyche, and their story reads a bit like
Beauty and the Beast
, as in the early days of their relationship, Psyche never saw Eros—he only visited her and loved her by night. The story goes that Eros was so beautiful and compelling that he despaired of ever finding a maiden who would love him just for himself. So he set up Psyche in a palatial home in the mountains with invisible servants and made her promise that she would never try to see his face.

Besotted with her kind and mysterious lover, Psyche agreed and lived out her days in luxury. Her feelings grew, and she was content for a while. However, after a time, she grew lonely, as she saw no one during the day and missed her family. She asked for and was allowed to see her two older sisters, and they came to visit her. When her sisters visited, they were so jealous of Psyche's home and lifestyle that they told their impressionable sister that her wonderful lover was probably a monster. Why else would he hide?

After they left, doubt began to creep into Psyche's mind, so Psyche decided to find out for herself. The very next night, after their interlude, while her lover was sleeping, she quietly lit a candle and turned to take a look for herself. What she found was the gorgeous and winged god of erotic love, Eros, in her bed. Startled, her hands began to shake, and she spilled some hot wax onto his shoulder. Eros awakened and was upset that she betrayed him. He scolded her for not trusting him, and Psyche cried that she did love him but that her jealous sisters had tricked her and made her unsure.

After the fight, Eros was devastated and flew away feeling betrayed, leaving Psyche and going to his mother for some comfort. Aphrodite tended his burn and became angry at the mortal girl. (Aphrodite was not the goddess to piss off; for a goddess of love, she had a terrible dark side.) Eventually Psyche stopped crying and decided to prove to the gods that she was worthy of Eros and that she did love him. So she beseeched Aphrodite for her help, and in answer Aphrodite devised some brutally hard tests so that Psyche could attempt to prove her love and her worth. Psyche managed to pass all of them, almost killing herself in the process; however, Eros had been watching the whole time, and he swooped in and saved her at the last moment. They declared their love for one another, Eros presented her to the other gods, and Psyche was made immortal. They flew off into the sunset together. Psyche and Eros were happy together and had a daughter named Volupta (which means “pleasure”).

According to some creation myths, Eros was thought to be one of first deities born into this world, along with Gaia (Mother Earth) and Tartarus (the Underworld). Over the centuries, Eros was a popular guy with the artistic set. He not only inspired desire in the common man but in the gods, goddesses, and heroes and heroines as well. Eros was believed to be held within the hearts of all the gods and men alike, so he is a perfect choice for Friday's witchery.

When I first sat down to write this section, I could not decide who I should focus on. After all, all of these goddesses are associated with Friday's theme of love, fertility, beauty, and desire. So, since they all seemed to be clamoring for attention, I decided not to pick and choose, and to just talk about all of them. It seemed like the smartest choice to me; remember your mythology? Freya was the leader of the Valkyries, Frigga is no pushover, and anybody who snubbed Aphrodite/Venus was usually just begging for trouble.

Aphrodite/Venus

Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, sexuality, and beauty. To the Romans, she was known as Venus. There is more to Aphrodite than meets the eye; did you know that she was a mother
and
a grandmother? Aphrodite was mother to several children by many different partners. Her most longstanding lover was Ares, the god of war. She produced three children by him. She also had a child with Dionysus and a child with Hermes. She also hooked up with mortals from time to time, and had a child or two with them as well. In some mythologies, she was also the mother of Eros (which is probably how the whole “cute baby” mixup started).

Aphrodite was, by all accounts, a celebrated goddess of her time. Her cult was popular throughout most of the Greek world. Interestingly enough, Aphrodite was not of Greek origin. Her followers came to Greece from Cyprus, where she was known as Kypris, or the Lady of Cyprus. Aphrodite was described in her day as being both an awful and lovely goddess, at whose feet grass sprang up and grew. She is a goddess of the sea and of gardens. The rose, all blue flowers, seashells, dolphins, and pearls are just a few of her many magickal correspondences.

Freya

According to Norse mythology, Freya was a deity of fertility, love, and magick. Considered the most beautiful of the Norse goddesses, she is the patron of agriculture and a goddess of battles, beauty, and sexual love. This is a goddess with depth.

Freya was the consort of Odur, or Od, another Norse deity who was a traveling god. While he was off rambling about, Freya mourned for him, and her tears fell into the sea and turned into golden amber. She rode in a chariot pulled by two huge gray cats, and her golden necklace, Brisengamen, was obtained by sleeping with four gold-working dwarves. She offered the dwarves anything they wanted if they would give her the necklace. What did the dwarves settle on? That each of them would get to spend the night with Freya, of course. Four nights later, the necklace was hers.

Brisengamen symbolized power, beauty, knowledge, and fertility—a gift from each element. Which makes me wonder: four dwarves, four elements, and four gifts, or magickal powers, of the necklace . . .

Freya is also associated with prophecy, rune lore, witchcraft, and magick. The lynx and the domestic cat are sacred to her. She also possessed the shamanistic ability to shapeshift. Legend tells that she could transform herself into a falcon with a magickal cloak made of falcon feathers. Freya is truly a multifaceted goddess. Besides the previous traits, she is, in addition, a goddess of war and death. She is the leader of the Valkyries, claiming half of all of the slain warriors for her great hall. In plant magick, Freya is associated with the primrose, the rose, and the strawberry. Freya enjoys music and flowers and is very fond of nature spirits, elves, and the faeries.

Frigga

Frigga is called the “All-Mother” as Odin is referred to as the “All-Father.” Frigga is married to Odin and is the mother of Hermod and Baldur. She is associated with spinning and the weaving of cloth. Some of her symbols are the distaff and the spindle. Frigga has an entourage of a dozen goddesses, including her sister, Fulla, who serve Frigga as her handmaidens and counselors. While Frigga is associated with childbirth and is a patron of married women, she is also thought of as a strong, wise hearth-and-home type of domestic goddess. It should be pointed out that Frigga is also a goddess of wisdom—because as anyone who runs a home and family will tell you, it takes a lot of effort and wisdom to keep things running happily, capably, and smoothly on the homefront. Frigga is a hearthkeeper and the guardian of the hearth and the kin. She is a mother goddess in the best sense of the word. Frigga is strong and steady, and she quietly boosts what some Witches refer to as sovereignty—that is, your divine sense of self. Frigga is associated with the perennial blooming herb lady's bedstraw.

Friday's Witchery

Love magick is a perennial popular topic. However, there is more to this topic than meets the eye. There are many enchanting layers here for us to explore on this day of the week. What about creating a loving home, or producing a loving and nurturing family? What about keeping your intimate relationships vital and on track? How about promoting happy, healthy, and enduring friendships? See, there is more to be considered than just the “You shall be mine…” type of fictional love spell. Don't forget that many of the deities associated with Fridays are also parents. So, yes, while this is the day to work on romance, sex, and love spells, there is additional magick to be considered here, which makes Fridays a more well-rounded and bigger opportunity for witchery than many folks ever truly realize. The truest, strongest magick always comes from the heart.