Natural Witchery (11 page)

Keep the energy ball images upbeat and happy. That way, everyone has a fun experience. Also, first impressions are usually the most accurate. So go with the flow, trust your intuition, and see what you discover.

First impressions are often the truest …

William Hazlitt

Trusting Those First Impressions

Recently, I had one student partnered up with her husband for this exercise. These two were acquaintances of mine; they were recently married, and she was very nervous. The husband had a dominant personality, and she was a sweet girl, but a little naïve. She became frustrated with the exercise very quickly. She looked over at me from where she sat on the floor facing her husband and started whining, “I can't do it!”

The husband began making soothing noises and hushed her immediately. He then told her that because he was so powerful with energy manipulation, this was the reason she couldn't pick up any information. (Which, as you already guessed, is a huge contradiction.) The whole class looked over at them in amazement, and a few people chuckled. If he was as powerful as he claimed, then it ought to have been a snap.

Surprised at his behavior and his condescending attitude toward her, I bristled. About a dozen rude comments ran through my head as I heroically fought against the urge to go and smack him upside the head.

So I settled for a different option. Being the gentle, patient soul that I am, I quickly stepped in and firmly grabbed her hands. I pulled her up off the floor and led her over to the opposite side of the room, well away from where her husband was sitting.

I explained that this time I would build the energy ball and she would receive it. It was up to her what she did with it after she “looked it over” and sensed it. She could hand it back, take it inside, or give it back to the earth. It was her choice, and no matter what, I wouldn't be offended.

Quickly, I built an energy ball between my hands. In my mind, I envisioned it as being a ball of fluffy white clouds, soft, free floating, and soothing. I handed it to her, and her face went soft. I turned away and quickly wrote down what I had envisioned, then turned back to her. After a moment, she began to frown. “I can't get it,” she complained.

“You are thinking too hard,” I said and then suggested, “What were your first impressions? What words or pictures came into your mind immediately?”

“Oh.” Her shoulders dropped and she relaxed and pulled the energy ball into her chest. She stood there a moment, humming softly, and then smiled beautifully. “It was soft, fluffy, and warm … like white cotton balls.”

I laughed and handed her the paper where I had written down what I had envisioned when I built the energy ball:
white, fluffy, and floating clouds.

“I did it!” She was thrilled.

“See?” I said to her. “You can do it. You just need to believe in your own power, and trust those first impressions.” She walked back to stand next to her husband, who immediately started to critique her first attempts. She looked up at him and sweetly told him to shut up. Which he did.

I hid a laugh with a cough.

Personality is the supreme realization of the innate
idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high
courage flung in the face of life, the absolute
affirmation of all that constitutes
the individual . . .

Carl Jung

You've Got Personality

Personal power is the key to your magickal experiences. Now that you have worked your way through this chapter, you have learned a little bit more about yourself and grown along the way. Sometimes to become a more powerful magickal person, we need to embrace who we are, become happy with our individuality, and learn to laugh at ourselves and to gain knowledge from life as we go along.

Effective personal power occurs when you tap into the elements, use your creativity, and then allow yourself to enjoy its benefits. Personal power that is balanced can strongly influence your life, and other people will be drawn to you and influenced within their own free wills by that positive force. Applying personal power to your daily life is an exercise in free will. You have the choice to create and to experience all the positive changes that you dream of.

Embrace your personal strengths, work to balance out any weaknesses, and watch for the positive changes that will manifest in your life. The tools for transformation are within your own two hands and within your heart. Celebrate your individuality, style, and personality. If you are willing to work hard and to believe in yourself, then nothing will be impossible for you.

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Chapter 4

Personal change, growth, development, identity
formation—these tasks that once were thought
to belong to childhood and adolescence alone

now are recognized as part of adult life as well.

Lillian Breslow Rubin

Personal Magickal Development

In the past chapters, we have discussed intuition, psychic ability, and personal power. This has been a preparation of sorts to bring us to where we are at this point of the book: working on your personal magickal development. I have yet to meet a Witch who wasn't interested in expanding their comprehension of the Craft. How many of you have searched and studied, but wondered what happened to that amazing rush that you felt when you first began to practice? Is it gone forever, or have you simply grown out of the excitement of new magickal discoveries?

Have you considered that the answer may lie within and not without? And yes, that is a direct reference to the Charge of the Goddess. All that you have ever really needed to create magick in your life is already within your grasp. There is a reason that experienced Witches encourage other magickal practitioners to look inside themselves and to work on their own personal development. So much of magick depends on your strength of character and your own level of perception and sensitivity. The only way you can learn more about those aspects is to look within and do a little soul-searching. Being a natural Witch and working on your individual development can be an amazing journey. This gives you the opportunity to follow your own heart, listen to your intuitions, and flex your personal power; best of all, it provides the chance to learn and to grow.

The whole of science is nothing more than
a refinement of everyday thinking.

Albert Einstein

Everyday Witchery

Making the decision to expand your magick and to practice the art and science of your craft every day requires commitment and motivation. How do you stay motivated? One way is to celebrate your witchery every day. To start, try thinking as a natural Witch might—which is to observe, note, and celebrate the seasons as they change.

There is more to the Wheel of the Year than just celebrating the eight sabbats. Some individuals find the process of dragging out all their ritual tools and supplies so daunting that they don't even bother to celebrate the holidays anymore. They lose their connection because they are overwhelmed by the mechanics, and they are missing the whole point. Keep your celebrations simple and be spontaneous. It's not about which book you pull your rituals from or what accessories you own. It's about your connection to nature.

May I ask you a personal question? When was the last time you splashed around in a puddle, walked in the rain, or watched a robin build a nest? And don't give me the argument that you live in the city. Here is your perfect excuse to go to the park or check out the trees in the neighborhood. Come on, live on the edge and go for a walk outside.

I'd like to remind you to get all your senses involved, and to find and experience that connection to nature. Take a jog through the park on a pleasant day. Go ahead, build a sand castle on the beach, or walk through the surf at sunset and hunt for seashells. Watch a thunderstorm roll through your town. Stroll through a lush summer garden. Feel the seasonal energies that are swirling around you. Kick through some falling autumn leaves. Breathe deep and smell that cooling evening air! What scents do you associate with each season? Go for a walk around the block during a snowfall and throw a few snowballs, or watch the icicles drip. Fill up a bird feeder for those winter birds, and enjoy the show. Just find simple ways to enjoy nature, no matter where you live or what the season.

Sensing the Energies of the Seasons

Have you ever tuned in to your intuition and noticed what different psychic energies are available to you during each of the four quarters of the year? Or are you too busy cursing at the weather and finding the whole thing a general inconvenience to your daily schedule? Yes, it is certainly easier to rhapsodize over a gorgeous spring day or a lovely autumn evening. But the seasons and their cycles each bring their own magick.

For example, this past winter was a gloomy one. It was on the dry side, and we didn't get very much snow. We did, however, get more than our fair share of days when it was overcast, windy, and cold. Occasionally we would get a tease of spring, where milder temperatures prevailed. But the sporadic mild winter weather did make me appreciate the break in the temperatures. One late winter afternoon, I took advantage of the break and managed to sneak in some winter gardening. As the temperatures had hovered in the forties for a few days with a bit of rain, the ground was soft, and I was even able to get that last renegade bag of pink tulip bulbs planted.

It was muddy and chilly outside, and the gardens did not look especially pretty while I dug around. But the scent of the fresh-turned earth and the fragrance of last year's fallen leaves were bracing. That day, I simply ignored the mud and felt my spirits lift. As I pulled back fallen leaves to dig the holes for my tulip bulbs, I discovered the earliest of the bright green shoots of my daffodils just breaking the ground. As I carefully dug around my other sleeping perennials, I made sure to cover back up those tender spears as I planted my tulip bulbs.

My husband walked outside to find me gently reminding the daffodils that we still had a ways to go before spring and to not be fooled by a midwinter thaw. When he asked what I was doing, I pulled back the leaves to show him the hints of spring green. His reaction was the same as mine had been—a big smile.

The halfway point between winter and spring, Imbolc, was only days away, and here was a physical reminder for both of us that the Wheel of the Year was indeed turning. And the two of us stayed there for a while, hunkered down next to the winter-dormant perennial beds, making sure the fallen autumn leaves were patted snugly back down to protect those shoots.

It was an excellent reminder for me that while that particular time of the year may not be especially pretty in the garden, there is still magick happening and plenty of natural energies to sense. Just remembering what it felt like to get in a bit of unexpected winter gardening cheered me right up. Plus knowing that the daffodils were waiting—not too patiently—to pop up and to welcome back the spring in another six weeks didn't hurt either.

The trees and plants were still dormant, but change was coming. You could feel it in the air and sense it when you placed your hands on that water-logged garden soil. There had been a sleepy sort of vibe to nature at that time. But I was reminded on that midwinter afternoon that underneath those fallen leaves and brown grass, nature was just beginning to stir—and that was a creative type of energy that I could certainly put to good use in my magick.

The sweet-souled Poet of the Seasons stood listening, and listening long, in rapturous mood . . .

William Wordsworth

Psychic Energies of the Seasons

Here are the themes I have always found to work well with the four seasons. Experiment with these for yourself, and see what you can discover. In the winter months, we traditionally want to stay indoors and snuggle up, and our intuition leads us into looking within and personal introspection. In the springtime, we feel the need to shake ourselves off and to do something creative. We are motivated and full of new, fresh energy, hope, and ideas for the year. During the summer months, the tempo slows a bit, and we are influenced by the heat of the day and those sultry evenings. In the autumn months, the inner focus shifts to a personal harvest—what we have learned all year and how we will put this all to practice.

Discovering these intuitive energies and psychic cycles for yourself is an excellent way to expand your magickal abilities. It also gives you an opportunity to design and live your own personal magickal tradition. If you want to understand the nature of magick, you have to be attuned to her seasons, for the most intuitive Witches know that in order to work harmoniously with the earth's energies, they need to be in step with the planetary rhythms and seasons of the earth. What follows are a few ideas to help you develop that intuitive connection.

Seasonal Spells

This time I thought we would mix things up a bit—instead of the usual spell candle setup, I decided it would be more interesting to work with the aroma lamps that are often used in aromatherapy. These small ceramic dishes are inexpensive and easily found in candle shops or arts and crafts stores. I picked one up for about five dollars. I have a friend who is an aromatherapist, and she uses these little lamps often. She asked me why I never wrote spells that included these handy little lamps, and the more I thought about it, the better I liked the idea.

After all, as she pointed out, the four elements are all represented neatly. The lamp itself is typically made of ceramic material (representing earth). The small tealight that is placed inside represents fire when it is lit. There is water that sits in the dish above, and the fragrant essential oils that you drop into the water are for the element of air.

As the water heats up from the candle below, the scent is released into the room, and scent is one of our most powerful senses. It evokes strong memories and affects the magickal mood. Certain scents can affect your psychic centers and your awareness on a subtle level. They do this as the magickally charged aroma filters into the body, and this, in turn, creates a change in your conscious and psychic mind.

Supplies

• An aroma lamp
  
• Plain, unscented tealight candles (most tealight candles burn for approximately four hours)
  
• Essential oils (use the suggested seasonal scent or choose your own)
  
• A lighter or matches
  
• A safe, flat surface to set up on
  
• Other items as desired to personalize the spell
  

A Note for Personalizing

You may wish to personalize these seasonal spells; that is completely up to you. But if the idea gets your Witch's imagination running, here are just a few quick ideas you can try: scatter metallic star confetti on the work surface and around the lamp. Add a snip or two of fresh pine, or arrange seashells, stones, flower petals or even colorful autumn leaves on the work surface. (Be sure to keep flammable items well away from the tealight and the lamp, of course. That ceramic dish does heat up!) If you live in the tropics, Deep South, or desert Southwest, obviously you might wish to incorporate natural items and plants that are local to you during the various seasons. So improvise and adapt. Don't be bashful about putting your own spin on these seasonal spells! Also, you may refer to the Book of Witchery located in the back of this book for even more magickal essential oils to work with.