The Ramblings and Wanderings

Archive for the ‘Book of Shadows’ Category

Howling wind
And blowing snow
Silver as ice
Jasmine, nightshade
Silver as moonlight
And elderflower glow
She rides a pale horse
She is a pale horse
Wise winter owl on wing
A great dark hound
Dark like earth
A white sow in the shade of trees
Black and white badger
Raven in flight
Dark like blood
Prowling cat
She holds the key
To mystery
Black as ice
Lady of secrets
Keeper of memories
Black as night
Queen of witches
Sharpened knife
Grey as an unknown fate
Bleached bone
Blacked womb
Hallowed life
Hardened stone
Grey like icy cold slate
Sacred tomb
Find her at the crossroads
Pale like mists
Heart and soul in hand
Pale like death
Be prepared to pay
The price that she demands

~ Juniper 2009

Clearing, Cleansing & Purifying Overuse

There is something I find very common to newbie ritual and Wicca based ritual and tool care. This is cleansing, purifying and charging everything before and after use. You all understand there is a difference bewtween clearing or purifying and blessing, right? Good!

Lets say that I am doing a ritual bath and I want to use the energies of some oak leaves for my bath … I can understand why you would want to wash any bugs off the leaves before you used them, but why cleanse them?

Why cleanse something of its energies, consecrate or charge it with your own energies and then try to use its energies? You just replaced those energies with your own. Once you cleanse and charge the oak leaves, they don’t have oak energies anymore, you got rid of those oak energies.

People constantly cleanse everything of everything and then wonder why they have nothing.

Cleansing and purifying something makes it a blank slate, it clears it of all energies. Unless you are careful to make sure in your words, focus and intent that you are only clearing certain energies, such as only the negative energies. But even then, there are plenty of times you do not want to need to do so. Take the oak leaves for example, what negative energies would some leaves I picked off of an oak tree have? None! Unless I failed to gain permission from the oak tree before I took pieces of it. And if I want oak energy, don’t I want all of the oak energy, not just the fluffy, white light stuff?

People, I’m going to let you in on a secret. There is no such thing a black or white, as pure evil or negative or pure good or positive. EVERYTHING is shades of grey, a mix of good and evil, dark and light. If you constantly remove the “negative” energies from something, you are only getting half the picture. Why is everyone so afraid of the dark anyways?

New pagans often wonder why their athame does nothing, when they clear all its energies before and after they use it every time. A ritual or magickal tool is a living thing; it isn’t going to function properly for you if you clear its energies all the time. Life needs energy to be alive.

Now, I know there is concern that your staff (only using a staff as an example) might pick up some really nasty vibes. But lets look at this with some common sense. You store your tools wrapped in silk, cotton, and plastic; material that protects it from outside energies. The only time it gets taken out of its wrapping is when you are placing it into a cleansed and concentrated area, then it goes right back in its wrappings. And you are the only person allowed to touch your tools, right? Where the heck is it going to pick up negative energies? Nowhere.

Plus, if your tool is already filled full energy, it won’t have any room for the “bad” stuff now will it?

By the way, you can consecrate or bless something without cleansing or purifying it first. Really.

Now lets say you do fill your staff up with some really nice energy. The energy will dissipate slowly over time or as you use it. Then it will need filling, charging back up again. But if you cleanse the thing every time, you’re just getting rid of the “good” stuff you worked so hard to fill it with last ritual.

All I’m saying is think long and hard before you go running off to purify anything. Does it really need it? The answer may just be NO.

Some Tips for Making Ritual Feel Real

Decorate your altar, shrine and ritual space with items that relate (in your mind) to the ritual purpose. Use colors, scent, images, and tools to their best effect.
If you are doing a very masculine working, do not put pink flowers on your altar. Put images and items that have a masculine feel and meaning to you.
If you are doing a hearth and home related ritual, put a dollhouse in the room, cut out images of fireplaces from a magazine and tack them on the wall.
Do not bother with placing items that will not be used or useful during the ritual, only use what is going to be really helpful. If there is a print on the wall that does not relate to your ritual, take it down, or hang a piece of fabric over it. Cut out the distractions as much as possible.
Do not worry about the proper correspondences as written in a book; think about what gives you the right impressions, thoughts and feelings. It is all about your mind connecting your surroundings with the ritual purpose.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Do not allow yourself to become distracted by silly little things, like almost tripping, almost spilling, slipping up a few words, and the clock ticking in the next room. Do not worry about making a fool of yourself, if your makeup is getting smeared, if your deodorant is holding up. These are all distractions. They do not matter.

Don’t rush! Slow down and take your time. Rushing through a ritual will not give it that deep meaning; you will gain nothing from it. If your rituals are too long, cut the fat. Trim it down to only what is really important, so that you can spend the proper amount of time focusing on that.

Move! Dance, clap, stomp, sway, and wave your arms around. Just standing there shuffling your feet does not help to build energy, it also does not help you to feel the ritual. It may seem a tad silly, but if you are finding a lack of emotion, a lack of meaning in your ritual, try doing an interpretive dance, act out your ritual. Tap your foot in time to the words you are speaking.
Do your own personal sign language. If you are saying something about the moon, draw a circle or crescent in the air with your hand or ritual tool. If you are trying to connect with the feminine divine, touch your breasts (if you are a woman), draw the shape of a woman in the air, hold you arms as if stroking a pregnant belly or as if you are holding a baby. When contacting a god, touch your crouch (if you are a man), or draw a hammer, a phallus or horns or oak leaf in the air in front of you.
Stand up straight, lie down, sit up, lean to one side and then the other, hop on one foot, and use those hand signs and body postures found in Paganism 101 books.

Say it like you mean it. One of my best teachers was into drama and acting. She used to shout at us during ritual “Emote dammit! Say it like you mean it!” don’t just read off of some page in a monotone, say it with feeling, drama, and meaning.
When you are inviting entities into your ritual, speak with welcome in your voice, say it as if you were inviting a friend in to your home.
Do not rush through a prayer, chant or poem as quickly as possible. Take the time to carefully speak each line, with feeling. Repeat if necessary.
Pretend you are an actor on a stage where your audience is hard of hearing and far away. Emote and project. Speak from the heart and use your belly voice, as acting and singing instructors would say.
Singing and chanting rather than speaking can also help you to inject emotion into your words. So try it, even if you do not have a great voice.

Use your imagination. That’s what visualizing is all about. Using your imagination will help you to connect with your creative side, the right side of your brain, the part of you that does not worry about logic, but that relies on feelings and intuition.

Practice, practice, practice. Do not give up if things just don’t feel like they are working the first time. Try it again; try everything at least three times before moving on to something else. The first couple of times you perform a new ritual, you will feel rather awkward, that’s perfectly natural. You cannot truly find that spiritual connection until you have become somewhat comfortable with what you are doing.
Do not expect results right away, the very first time. This rarely happens for people.
Also it can be a good idea to practise at home, alone a couple of times before you go and join in a group ritual.

Feel it, really feel it. Don’t just go through the motions. If you feel that you are, stop! Take a few deep breaths and remind yourself what you are doing and why. Find your motivation. Say it out loud, think it, picture it in your mind, and really feel it. Draw it, paint it, and write poetry about it.
Do whatever you need to do before a ritual to make sure the purpose of the ritual is fresh in your mind and filling your heart. At each step along they way during a ritual, stop for a second and reaffirm what you are doing and why.
Keep the ritual purpose in the forefront of your mind and heart.
A good ritual, a really truly good ritual should bring you to the brink of tears, happy or sad. People have often made fun of me for getting choked up or actually crying during ritual. They don’t get it, not at all.
If you really want results, you need to bring your heart fully into it. If you want a ritual to have meaning, you must give it meaning. You must really feel it, you must put that feeling into it.

Laugh, cry, shout, sing, dance, smile, and do it like you mean it! If you do not mean it, you shouldn’t be doing it. If you do not mean it deep in your mind, heart and soul, you will never have that special spiritual experience you seek.

Good luck!

~ Juniper

A Beginners Laying the Hedge

An Excerpt from the Hearth Craft Class currently going on at Walking The Hedge’s Forum, feel free to join in, or follow along at your own pace.

This ritual can be preformed anywhere in your home or yard that has a hearth element to it. For the purposes of this lesson, the default will be the kitchen.

One can feel a tad exposed and vulnerable the first few times they attempt to contact the spirit world. So for this class, we will be placing a magickal protective barrier around our workspace. We will be Laying the Hedge.

A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and tree species, planted and trained in such a way as to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area. For this exercise, we will be creating a hedgerow around the ritual area both as a protective barrier and also to help us stand at the axis of the worlds.
Hedge laying is the term used by farmers and gardener for the creation of a traditional hedge, it is a complex and careful art, with many different styles, that requires much foresight, planning and patience.
The idea of sacred space or a circle is not a new idea and can be found throughout Ceremonial Magick as well as Wicca, witchcraft, and many magickal traditions. By raising or laying the Hedge, you can establish a sacred space or enclosure.
For some images of a hedgerow to inspire you, check out these links:

http://www.walkingthehedge.org/Images/24-hedgerow.jpg

http://www.derby.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/AF5D791C-96FA-4A10-8E6F-21C233426284/0/Dscn3904_450.jpg

http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Habitat/hedgerow.jpg

http://www.cornwall365.co.uk/cornwall_image/1,Hedgerow,PICT7538.JPG

http://www.uga.edu/fruit/image/trellis%20hedgerow.jpg

Once you have your tools gathered, your book and spoon ready; plan to have a little time in the kitchen to yourself. This may be after everyone has gone to bed or while they are at work etc. Try to get an hour of privacy in the kitchen if you can. If you have found your hearthstone, you may want to have it here, just to see if it “fits”.

This is best done after dark, but can be done at anytime of day. If you are doing this during the day, you may want to draw the curtains before you begin. You will also want to turn off as many lights in the house as possible before you begin.

Clean off the stovetop and place on it a candle in holder along with a smudgestick or incense and holder. You may also want to place your book and spoon and any items you use as ritual kitchen tools. Make sure the candle is centered on the stovetop; you may wish to place it upon your hearthstone.

Light the incense or smudgestick and get it burning nicely. You may want to take a moment to smudge yourself and to ground and center as well.

Now light the candle, saying “I invite the Sacred Flame of the Hearth into my home” as you do so.

Standing in the center of the room, facing north, close your eyes for a moment and picture in your minds eye a thick, deep, lush, green hedgerow. You might want to visualize some of your favorite trees and plants growing in the hedgerow. Perhaps some favorite birds and small wildlife live within this hedgerow. Perhaps you totem animals peek at you from between branches. Take your time and really make the image yours. Try your best to visualize the hedgerow running 360 degrees around you.

Now, slowly reach out with your heart, mind and spirit deep down to the Earth, connect with it as best you can. Put down roots like the trees in your hedgerow, deeper and deeper in the black earth, tracing the roots of your hedgerow. There, deep down, is a wellspring of energy, of the Earth’s life force, dip your own roots into this force. Allow the power of the Earth to move up through your roots and into your body. Breathe slowly and deeply and let this happen for a time. Wait until you are filled to the brim, or until you feel a rushing on energy from the land flowing into you and there is a need to DO something with it.

When you are ready, step forward and reaching out with your hand, your spoon or any preferred ritual tool, allow the energy built within you to pour out to the edge of your ritual space. Slowly let it flow out from you, become a conduit for the energy of the Earth, let it run up from far below you, into you, through you, and out your hand.

Now visualize your hedgerow growing up around you, being fed by the power you are sending. The trees spring up from the ground, blossoms bloom in brilliant color, birds sing, thorns grow sharp deep within the hedgerow. Let your and the Earth’s energy feed the hedgerow, making it “alive”. Take inspiration from time-lapse images of plants growing over time, fast-forwarded into mere seconds.

Once you feel your hedgerow is growing, once you can see in your minds eye clearly, begin to move around the room, making the hedgerow grow up to completely enclose the room. Use your instinct to choose your direction of travel, though desoil is most commonly used for protective work.

You may want to use and repeat words such as these as you lay your hedgerow:

“Blooms and birds let good spirits in
Thorns and bees sting the bad and drive them away
I lay this Hedge with this pledge
A witch’s work to be done
Here where the worlds do meet
Herbs and shrubs protect me and my kin
Vines and snakes keep ill-wishers at bay”

Go around three times, more if you feel the need, until your protective Hedge surrounds you.

Gently slow and stop the flow of energy from the Earth, but try to maintain that contact.

Any altar used could be the focal point of the working area and represent the World Tree or axis mundi, which is the center of all things and touches all realms. In this case, the place where we open a gate to connect the many worlds is the hearth flame.

Stand before the stove and just watch the flame and smoke for a few minutes, letting your body and mind relax and slow down.

Watch the smoke and flame play against the stove and on the walls of the kitchen. Think of how long before the modern oven, a home almost always was filled with flickering firelight and smoke from the hearth.

Spend a minute working through a visualization of an ancient hearth; something that feels right to your ancestry is best. Take inspiration from the ritual in Lesson One.

Return your thoughts to the flickering flame before you; say the words:
“Sacred flame of the ancient hearth, you brought warmth, comfort, food and light to my ancestors and their ancestors. For this, I thank you.”

Now reach forward so that your hands are over or near the flame. Say the words:

“Hearth fire, heart fire, home fire
You connect me to those who have gone before
and those who will come after
You connect the past and the future with the present
You connect the Underworld
and the Upperworld
with this one here in the Middle”

Now slowly part your hands wider and wider until your arms are outstretched. Try to imagine a portal, gate, rabbit hole etc opening up around and above the flame

“Here I create a gap in the Hedge,
a thinning in the Veil
A place that is no place
A moment that is timeless
A gate between
A threshold at the edge of everything.”

I find that standing with arms open and calling something along the lines of “Let the worlds meet, let this space be filled with the mists of time and space” or anything along those line, in a heartfelt manner to be effective.

Now you will invite the ancestors for a quick visit. With arms still open, now in a welcoming almost hugging gesture, fill your heart with warmth and love. For your ancestors should be welcomed like a favoured grandparent or some elder.

“Ancestors of mine,
I welcome thee
I invite thee
Come here in peace and love
To share knowledge
To receive this offering”

Now bring your liquid offering closer to you and using your spoon, gently stir the contents, filling the drink with your own energy as you do so. If you wish to say a few words of blessing here you may.

Now hold up the drink with both hands and offer it to your ancestors. These words should not be scripted but come from the heart. If you do not know what to say, do not be afraid to speak as though you are offering a carefully prepared beverage to a favorite aunt or uncle who you haven’t seen in a long time. Speak with love, warmth and respect.

The offering should be set out for overnight and then disposed of in the morning; the ancestors will take the spirit of the drink and leave the rest.

Spend a short time thinking about any fond memories you may have centered on the family and on your heritage. Think about what sort of knowledge you would like to learn from witches past, long dead relatives and such.

Now speaking from the heart, in complete honesty, tell your ancestors about your hopes and dreams and goals for the future as a spiritual person and witch. As wife and mother, as father and brother.

Humbly ask them for guidance, ask them to be a part of your practice, to share some of the wisdom they have. Tell them the kind of guidance you seek, of any problems you are having in your spiritual path right now. Do not show pride nor brag or boast, be open and honest. These spirits do love you; they came here with love. They want to help you. Do understand you have to be worthy of that aid. Ask for signs, hints, dreams, etc. Promise to work with them.

Once you feel you have nothing left to say. Bid farewell to the ancestors. Wish them many thanks and ask them to

“Go in peace and love and harmony
always welcome when you bring good tidings
and wisdom to my hearth.”

Now stepping back to your hearth flame, slowly close your hands around the place you created your gap, imagining it closing … closing … gone.

“Here I close the gap in the Hedge
I return this space to the present
I bid farewell to the Underworld
Farewell to the Upperworld
Farewell to the spirits
I bid welcome to the Middleworld and the mundane”

Using your spoon or knife or hand, you will now trim your Hedge back. Starting south and going around and around, make the Hedgerow sink back into the earth, a kind of reverse growth, let leaves fall and birds fly away. You may want to visualize a kind of autumn and winter happening in your Hedge. Let the energy you spent to create the Hedgerow return to the Earth.

“Blooms and birds now go to sleep
Thorns and bees rest for the day
I release this Hedge with this pledge
A witch’s work is now done
Here where the worlds did meet
Herbs and shrubs go underground
Vines and snakes can slither away”

Once you are ready, stand before the stove and holding your hands on either side of the candle say:
“Hearth fire, though you may be put out, you will always be a part of my home, a flame present in the heart of house, home and family” With respect, put out the candle. Turn on the lights and put out the incense.

You now may want a meal, a rest; a bath whatever works best for you to ground yourself after a ritual

Once done, please write a journal, however brief, on your experience with this ritual.

If you are doing this ritual with a partner, you may wish to take turns doing the ritual actions, or do them together.
Afterward, you may want to spend sometime talking about the ritual together, depending on your relationship, you may want to hold hands, snuggle etc while you do so, as this class is very much about the home and the home = love.

The Evolution of a Book of Shadows

I began walking my spiritual Path at the age of 14. From about the ages of 14 to 18, my BoS was 70% photocopied from books and other people’s BoS (the internet was still fairly new at the time) and about 15% printed material found online, 10% beautiful drawings and illustrations and 5% hand written notes, poetry and original stuff by me. But then, I WAS a teenager, and one who grew up in a world where handwriting things had gone out of style. The cover for my BoS was very plain, as I was in the broom closet at the time.

From roughly ages 19 to 23, my BoS began to develop in a much more personal and intellectual manner, not unlike my own development as a young adult. Out went much of the photocopies, though some were hand copied and put back in. By 23 my BoS was 10 % photocopies, 50% printouts from online (ah the heyday of Paganism breaking out into the internet), 10% illustrations, and 30% painstakingly hand written notes, prayers, research, poems, thoughts and ideas. My BoS now took up more than one 3-ring binder, so an Herbal and Grimoire were born. All three were leather bound, the leather hand burned (with a wood burner) with fancy spiral designs on them.

At 25 my main ritual BoS had an accident, much of it stained or destroyed by the spilling of a large cup of earl grey tea. And shortly after, my Herbal took a tumble while hiking and wound up partially submerged in a swamp.
Today, My BoS takes up five, 2-inch, 3-ring binders. The kind that are nylon and zip up, keeping the contents safe. I also have much of its content in plastic sheets!

There is my Ritual and spiritual BoS, my Herbal, my Grimoire (which has the least amount of pages in it), my Misc (for any oddball bits and pieces) and my Old Stuff. Old Stuff is full of papers that are partially damaged, not used that often anymore, or anything I feel is wasting space in the more “working” Books.

As of writing this my BoS is about 50% hand written, which is pretty good for someone who was taught to type, not write growing up, and 45 % printed from a computer. However, most of that material is still original work and notes (etc) BY ME, it is just typed. The stuff I really want memorized or that it very meaningful gets slowly and painfully handwritten, the rest is comfortably typed. I still do have some pages that are copied from other sources, but I know as years go by, more and more of that will find its way into Old Stuff. What illustrations survived are still there, in fact, my Herbal has many drawings of plants, and even some photos. And the covers of my waterproof binders are painted with mandala like designs.

What this rather long and possibly not very interesting essay is trying to say is:

Understand that things are different now, that kids are taught to type, not write. If it bothers you older generations so much that we type and need a calculator to do math, change the school curriculum and/or change how you teach the Craft. Spend some time at home with your kids and Craft students working on their handwriting, researching, and spelling skills, because they do not teach that at school any more.

Understand that in this age of instant gratification, the Internet, and search engine research, the youngsters are going to start out with a BoS that is mostly full of fluff and filler.

Understand that while someone may do something one way at 20, they will probably not be doing it that way at 30. Give us some time to mature and walk our path a little bit first. Let us make some mistakes and learn from them. Let us peek into your BoS and realize how much better something like your Book is. Give us time to grow up. Give the gods a chance to toss our Book into a swamp and make us start all over again.

A Fall Rite Poem

Crisp and cool is the deeping night

Yet still soft and sweet is the morning dew

Blood red berries drip from old green yew

Chilly winds blowing in a sky still bright

 

Red and yellow and bronze and brown

Fields and forests are no longer greening

The land prepares for it’s great sleeping

Sleepy trees wait for last leaf to fall down

 

The good earth bursts with fruit and life

Shining apples, heavy vines and golden corn

The last birds sing farewell to a frosty morn

With ritual and rite, shovel, sickle and knife

 

I play my part in the great wheel of life

 

~ Juniper 2001