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[vargaslovinghours]

It’s all fun and games until you get a bad ending

[mythandwords]

31 Days of Spiritual Journaling part two (1 of 2)

6. Make a beginners or field guide for an important element of your practice (stones, weather, herbs, gardening, tarot, camping…)

So, I actually did write a very lengthy blog post about one element of my witchy practice. I am going to copy most of it here because I think it’s pretty useful stuff for the average witch.

Banishment spells are terrific for getting rid of unwanted things, people, or general negativity in your life.

These spells can be done at any time, but if possible, you can do them at the waning or dark moon for added efficacy.

When performing banishing, you must be calm and centered. It does not good to carry your own negative energies into banishment. So, make sure you’re well grounded, calm, centered, and in a good place before performing banishments.

Once you’ve completed a banishing, you will have an empty energetic space left over. Refill the newly created space with positive energy. You can use uplifting music, or visualization, dance or yoga, even a positive sexual act will help refill the space where the negativity was with new, positive energy! This step is often overlooked but it’s best if you can refill the space with positive energy than allow it to remain open for new, negative energy to come in.

Resources:

Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (disclaimer – I’ve never done this one. It dates back to Alesiter Crowley and the Golden Dawn and isn’t really my style, but I’ve included it because it is a very well-known one. And if it’s your cup of tea, I say give it a try and let me know your results)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos026.htm

Fire Banishing:

This simple banishment is perfect if you’re short on time.

Materials needed:

slip of paper

pen

fireproof surface or bowl

lighter or matches

To Work the Spell:

Write down what you’re banishing on the paper – the name of a person, or spirit or the negative energy you wish to remove (negative self-talk, bad habits, etc.).

Focus on what’s written down, visualize it in your mind as clearly as you can.

Light the paper on fire and drop it in the bowl or on the fireproof surface. As the paper burns, visualize the negativity leaving your life. Then, focus your attention on what your life will look like after the banishing takes effect.

Once the fire is out, dispose of the ashes away from your home. Scatter them into the wind or on the ground or dump them in the trash outside your home.

Use common sense and don’t do this spell on flammable surfaces, in the wind, or anywhere you can’t control the fire or your surroundings.

Candle Banishing:

Another simple banishment, this one takes more time than the fire banishing above.

Materials needed:

black candle

candle holder

lighter or matches

black pepper

salt

a knife for carving

oil (your choice here, you can use essential oils or olive oil or whatever you have at hand)

Sprinkle the salt in a circle around you and your work space. Visualize the salt protecting you during the ritual.

Visualize the target of the banishing spell. Carve your intention into the candle. Again, this can be used for banishing negative energy, a person, or a spirit.

When you’ve finished, anoint the candle with the oil and sprinkle the pepper over it. Put the candle in the holder and light it, speak your intention aloud. You may say your intention once or you may chant while the candle burns.

Allow the candle to burn itself out. Never leave a burning candle unattended. This step may take several hours, depending on the size of the candle you chose to use.

You may carve a line into the candle at the half or third way point up the candle and confine your spell work only to that portion of the candle if need be. If choosing this option, only use this candle for banishing in the future.

Poppet Banishment:

Sympathetic magic can be incredibly useful. It’s versatile and can be used for almost any purpose you can imagine. The use of a poppet has a long history in many different religious practices.

You will need to make a poppet for this banishing spell. A poppet represents a person, so it should resemble one as best you can. Feel free to be as elaborate as you wish here.

You can make your poppet from fabric, clay, wood or just about any other material. I will give you one way to make a poppet from fabric here.

Materials needed:

piece of fabric ( for banishing black is good, or something with a print like swords or fire)

thread

needle

filling (cotton balls, poly fill, old pantyhose, socks, etc.)

oils, leaves, stones, herbs, etc. to put in the poppet (you can also use something personal of the person you are wishing to banish such as hair or a photo)

Cut out a body shape from two pieces of your fabric – ideally your poppet will have a head, two arms, and two legs, and a torso. You can make your outline before cutting. It only needs to be big enough to stuff later.

Place your two pieces of fabric with the right sides together. Place the pattern (if you made one) on top and cut it out. Leave a little room around the edges for seams when you sew the poppet together. You can use a sewing machine to stitch the poppet but hand-sewing will give you the time to really focus your efforts on the magic. As you sew, visualize the person you are creating. Tell the poppet who it represents, saying something as simple as, “I made you and you are John Doe,” will work. Leave a small, unsewn space for filling the poppet – enough space to stick a couple fingers into the poppet is all you need. Turn the poppet right-side out.

Now you are going to fill the poppet with the filling you chose. You may also add the additional spell components, if you choose to use them – oils or stones or whatever you gathered. The more you can individualize the poppet, the better. Make sure you get the filling into all the crevices of the poppet. Again, as you are stuffing the poppet, tell it who it is.

Once stuffed, sew the hole up. Now are you are ready to decorate and customize the outside of the poppet. You can dress your poppet like the intended, draw any tattoos or distinguishing features onto the poppet if you wish. Add hair from string or yarn or whatever you have at hand. Tell the poppet who it represents as you do this step as well. You can tell the poppet how much you dislike it, and how much better your life would be without the person.

Now that you have your poppet, you can perform a banishing spell on it.

A simple spell is to light a fire beneath the poppet with a candle. The intent is not to burn the poppet up but to single the bottom of the poppet. Tell the poppet that the person it represents is hurrying out of your life. Once done, take the poppet somewhere away from your home and bury it.

7. Engage with the theme of love. What does that mean to you?

Wow love. Romantic love. Familial love. Friendship. Love comes in all shapes and sizes and there is no wrong or right way to feel, find, and enjoy love. Yes, before you give me grief, I know there are toxic people. I know love can be used as abuse. I know all the negative there is in the world. But, this is my forum, my answers to prompts, and my positivity (that hopefully inspires you or makes you feel better). And my desire is to spread good into the world so I’ll be focusing on that. If you want a forum for the other side, I’m happy to oblige that too. Just reach out and we’ll get negative together.

For now, let me take you on a journey about the meaning of love as it relates to my spirituality.

If you look up the definition of love you will find that it talks a lot about attraction, attachment, devotion, and affection. You might even find a reference to loyal and benevolent love as of God’s fatherly concern for humanity.

And those are all good and right ways to define love. Except. Except for that one about loyal and benevolent fatherly concern for humanity. Is it though? Do we assume our gods to be like humans and treat us with fatherly concern? Sure. That’s one way to put a focus on it. And I’ve got no doubt that the gods do love humanity. Because without humanity, what are the gods? Our belief gives them structure in which to work with us. Without our belief they are thunder and lightning, sun and moon, the mundane and the everyday. It is only with the addition of our own belief, our own spirituality, that the gods take shape at all. That does not mean to say they do not exist without our belief, only that they cease to be ‘gods,’ to us and become ‘life.’

It is our love that gods need. Just as it is the acceptance and guidance of the gods that humans need. Love. In both directions. Symbiosis in the most literal, powerful way. We need one another to be spiritually complete. And that’s an amazing way to be. Existence with the divine because the divine need us too. Neat.

8. Take notes on a book, article, video, or guide about something you’d like to do soon.

Gods, this is an easy one. I’ve a bucket list as long as my arm of things I want to do before I die. One of the ones that has popped back to the top of the list lately is to take my family to Iceland. I am a traveler who has been staying put a bit too much of late…just waiting for my kid to be old enough to enjoy some of the places in the world that I adore. And this year, Iceland is top of the list.

I don’t even have to take up a lot of your reading time here on this one. I will just point you to the website I use for my “notes” on the trip: https://www.icelandtours.is/en/

Iceland is amazing. I realize not everyone has the funds to travel, or to travel extensively. But. If you ever find yourself in the position where you can scrape together the money to go…Iceland is just beautiful and the Iceland Tours website has a lot of great options out there for you to do.

9. Did you have experience being pagan/witchy in school? Advice for kids who grow up in a pagan/witchy home?

I was weird in school. I’m sure that comes as a shock to…probably no one who reads my blog, really. I’m still weird in life. Ha. I wasn’t pagan. I was kind of witchy but it was low-key witchy and remained separate from almost everyone at school, save the one or two other kids who were also low-key witchy. So, I was kind of in the broom closet about my witchy side back then. Advice for being kids growing up in a pagan/witchy household…I can give some of that. I’ve got a kid so I feel entitled to speak on it. Hubs is mainstream Christian. I’m (looks at self) whatever this is…hey, I just call it like I see it…anyway. My son rides a line where his father’s religion is out there and socially acceptable…and mom is…weird. I make no secret of what I do, but I also don’t really push my agenda on my kid, if you can get behind that. He is allowed to, and encouraged to, ask questions of both of us about what we believe…and shockingly, he's allowed to formulate his own thoughts on what spirituality and religion mean to him. He is a member of a mainstream church…which we don’t attend. Hubs is lassie-faire about religion and disagrees with some of the teachings of his own religion, so he’s OK with his son asking/questioning/learning about this stuff in a holistic, natural way. My advice to kids in similar situations is to do what my son does…ask, learn, grow at your own pace and in your own way. It’s up to your parents to raise you to be a moral, upstanding member of society who can pull your own weight one day. But that doesn’t mean your parents get to decide what your spirituality will look like for you. They can point you in a direction and hope for the best (whatever that looks like) and they ought to answer questions to help you learn as best they can. I hope you all get the opportunity to do that. Ask. Learn. Grow. That’s my advice for what it’s worth.

10. What are your core values? Challenge yourself to list them and explain your choices. (Need help? Get started by looking at formalized lists like the 9 noble virtues, et.)

Gotta go with the Hávamál for this one to start….then I will digress because not all of the Hávamál isterribly nice to women…but it’s a jumping off point toward a greater understanding of values and morals and ‘right.’

Working my way through the stanzas:

Look before you leap. The Hávamál recommends you look around before you advance through the doorway because you can’t know for sure what enemies are there without checking. So, look before you leap.

2 through 4. Be a good host. Offer hospitality. Food. Clothing. This is an easy one. And, for me, extends beyond the borders of my own home. Making offerings of hospitality should be done whenever and wherever I may find myself. My hospitality might just be standing in solidarity with someone else, or it might be traditional food or drink or a place to rest your weary bones.

5 and 6. Think before you speak. Don’t be so sure of yourself that you end up looking stupid through your assumed knowledge. Really. Good life advice.