Month: November 2015

Dream Magic 101

Dream magic is something I did a lot as a teen but less now. However, it can be incredibly useful if you keep in mind that it’s a dream.

Here’s some quick things to keep in mind when dealing with dreams or dream magic.

  • Dreams do not mean reality. Don’t confuse the two.
  • Dreams are an incredibly personal and individual thing. Each person has their own system of personal symbolism derived largely from environment, past experiences, education, and culture. So an encyclopedia isn’t going to help a whole lot beyond giving you a jumping point for your search.
  • Sometimes dreams are just dreams.

Differences between dreams and astral travel

This is one of those fields that gets… murky when we talk about separation. I define it as this: dreaming is internalized and in your own head. Astral projection or Out of Body Experiences (OBE) take place in this realm or plane of existence but happen externally, outside of your body. Astral travel is an astral project or OBE that goes elsewhere, to another realm of plane of existence.

That doesn’t mean the realm of dreams aren’t connected to this realm or the spiritual realms. I think they are connected and you can slid in and out of them fairly easily. So it’s really more of a matter of semantics and fine-point differences that we can’t readily agree on.

I think of things this way: Does the experience matter to you in some way? Even if you only get a laugh out of it, that experienced mattered for that moment. If so, then it doesn’t matter what that experience actually was so long as you derive something from it. So a vision or religious experience could be gained from sickness or drug-induced and it can still offer relevant experience and meaning for you.

Dream Magic

As a whole dream magic can be lots of fun and interesting. Often used for helping out in shadow work or introspection, it can also be a form of divination. However, you can get a lot of inspiration or answers from dreams. Even objects or symbols like sigils can come from dreams.

The most common kind of spell seen here are simple, often using herbs or stones to help encourage dreaming. This typically is followed by statements of intent or keeping the exact purpose behind your dream magic in your mind before you fall asleep.

Some people will even dream of rituals or spells continuing after they’ve gone to bed. It’s like a second part of the spell or ritual. Pretty useful and is a neat way of putting out more energy into the world.

Many people have trouble remembering dreams. Just because you don’t remember a dream doesn’t mean the dream magic didn’t work. It may come back to you or maybe it’s done but you weren’t suppose to remember.

Dreamwalking

Because, as mentioned above, it’s commonly believed that the realm of dreams is a shared space or can be accessed by others, you can actually walk into someone else’s dreams.

You can even alter or implant ideas in someone’s dreams, encouraging them upon waking to do something you want them to do like call you or skip work. They might even look for something for you, even if they wouldn’t have thought of it before. These sorts of things tend to appear as unshakable feelings in the target.

This might cross into moral gray areas so tread carefully.

Examples

For example, I often dream of full, detail-chocked novels with complicated characters and twisting plots. Sometimes they’re nonsensical and other times they are so complete that they simply need to be written down.

My Lavender Dreams flying ointment came to me in a dream. Upon waking I immediately wrote down the ingredients and within an hour created a new flying ointment.

I’m also in the process of writing up my own oracle. Each card comes from a dream or has a dream inspiration.

Originally written over on tumblr.

Item Summoning Spell or A spell to summon an object or lost item to you [tumblr repost]

This spell is great for both getting an object or item that you want but don’t have yet or to find a missing object. It’s one of the earlier spells I’ve written that I still use.

Think of the exact item you want. For example, if you want a book, remember the author’s name, the book title, and the cover art. Now say the following while throwing out energy and magic into the world.

“I summon you [item]

Come to my side

Over distances far and wide, 

find me and become mine.”

Pull the energy towards you, like dragging the item into your arms.

It’s a pretty simple spell but works beautifully.

Originally posted as an ask over on tumblr.

Happy Home Jar Spell (Spell Saturday #10)

With the winter holidays fast approaching, we’re pushed to have a lot of holiday cheer. For some people, that’s very easy and for others, the winter holidays are nightmarish. I wrote this spell to help out everyone in those situations.

arsp 01

The purpose of this spell is to bring happiness and joy into the household. Ideally, people won’t get up in arms about life choices made and old arguments. and maybe wounds may begin to heal.

What you need:

  • Jar or bottle of plastic or glass. Size, shape, and color up to you.
  • Water, pot to boil water in, and salt
  • Herbs or flora: Basil, blue hydrangea, sea holly (erynogo), lavender, angelica root, chamomile, bay laurel, flax seed, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, ginger, motherwort, garlic, citrus zest (orange, lemon, lime, etc peels), vervain, vanilla, vetiver, yarrow, or rosemary.
  • Sugar: golden sugar preferred but brown sugar or just regular white cane sugar, or sugar alternatives will certainly do.
  • Other: myrrh, dragon’s blood, benzoin, regular table salt, sea salt, pink salt, cascarilla (powdered eggshell), citrine, amethyst, chrysoprase, pink or blue tourmaline, turquoise, rose quartz, aquamarine, chalcedony, malachite, sodalite, or calcite.
  • Personal items from each target person or pet: hair, nails, etc. Alternatively, you can have a list of names instead. Dirt, ashes, or rocks from the family home or fireplace can also be used.

Note: You don’t have to have everything on the list above. Just pick out what you have or want to add in. Family items such as dirt from the family home might not be useful if you live in an apartment building or move a lot and personal items of the family could be omitted if you want a more general happy home spell.

arsp 03

  1. Select a jar or bottle. Ideally, the bottle should be glass but plastic will work as well.The size, color, and shape it up to you but consider any traveling the bottle might do or where it’s going to sit. Small plastic bottles would be useful if you travel for the holidays but a larger more decorative jar can be put out on the counter during cooking to keep things copacetic.
  2. Wash the jar in boiling hot salt water. This can be done by getting pot larger than your jar and filling it with water and adding a few pinches of salt in. Make sure the salt dissolves and put the jar in before letting the water boil. Once the water boils, turn off the water and let it cool before removing it from the water. If you’re worried about the jar melting, just wash it in very hot salt water.
  3. Let the jar cool and dry completely before attempting to use. Now would be a good time to consider painting or otherwise decorating the jar or jar lid if applicable.
  4. Now layer in the heavier items like salt, resin pieces, ashes, dirt, or even the stones. Personal items should be also mixed in here but shouldn’t be seen through the glass or plastic so put down a layer of something else first and keep those personal items towards the middle. When you add them say “This is the foundation of my family, strong. We are unified.“
  5. Next add in the botanical materials. You can mix this however you want. When you add them in say “This brings peace to our home. We are happy and unified.“
  6. Now add a thin layer of sugar to the top. You can put your stones or other items on top as decoration, if you like. When you set up this layer say “This brings us kindness. We are happy and joyful.”
  7. Now seal the jar up. You can do this with tape, paint, glue, or wax. Blue’s a good chosen color. However, you can simply just cork or screw the jar shut if that’s easier for you. Hold the jar in your hands and imagine or say aloud how you want the home to be like. People enjoying each other’s company, sharing a meal, going home safely, no arguments or crying, etc. Dream of the perfect family environment. Push your energy into the jar as you do this.
  8. You can now set the jar somewhere where it can be seen in a busy place in your household (a high shelf or tucked into a corner on the counter will work nicely. Or you can carry the jar as needed. Shake or add more energy to give the spell a boost as needed.

arsp 04

Tips:

  • This jar spells can be very easily adapted for your personal usage and can even be made travel size. All that you need to do is to select a jar or bottle that suits your needs and go from there.
  • If you’re using a jar that has labels on it, the boiling water trick will remove it. If the adhesive is still on, rubbing it with some baking soda will take it off. If you do this however, boil it a second time in clean salt water.
  • If you can’t avoid the personal items being seen in the jar, don’t worry about it too much. It’s more for decorative purposes and peace of mind than anything else. The spell won’t suffer from it.
  • Normally jar spells have wet items it in. I skipped this because I wanted the jar to be decorative for a long time. If you want to add liquids, I recommend the following: honey, sugar water, sunflower oil, Four Thieves Vinegar, or even salt water.
  • This is a long-term spell so it can sit out or be added to as needed. If the spell seems to be fading, you can swap out the ingredients for fresh material, give the jar a little shake, or push more energy and magic into the jar.
  • In order to get rid of the spell, pour out the ingredients into a dug hold on your family’s yard or garden. Alternatively, you can bury it at a park or even toss it in the trash.

That’s it! Happy casting!

The Sand Trap (Spell Saturday #9)

Welcome to Spell Saturday #9!

This time I’m taking a spell from Scott Cunningham’s Earth, Air, Fire, & Water. People are very opinionated on Cunningham’s work. I find that so long as you remember that Cunningham was writing for an audience that was, at the time, conflating Wicca and witchcraft and that the material is largely 20+ years old, you’re just find. I do have issues with some of his herbalism and general statements but honestly, you’re going to find issues with anything if you look hard enough.

“The Sand Trap” is a lengthy ritual starting on page 46 and continuing to page 48 of Earth, Air, Fire, & Water. I’m going to paraphrase some due to lengthiness and unnecessary wordiness.

The Sand Trap

This [is] a simple ritual designed to “trap” negative energies before they enter your home.

  • Small glass jar, cleaned and dried. Must be glass for this spell. (1)
  • Equal quantities of two different colors of sand (2) (Enough to fill half the jar of each if possible)
  • Spoon (3)
  • Two small bowls to hold sand (4)

Visualize the sand “protective, projective energy.” and “emitting sparks of bright white light that ensnares negativity and draw it inward.” (5)

Now pour a spoonful or the first sand into the jar saying this:

Trap of sand

Trap the ill.

Trap the bane and

Evil will.

Now pour a spoonful of the second color/type of sand in saying the above charm again. Keep laying the sand in alternative bands until you’re out of sand or the jar’s filled.

Once filled, visualize the sand protecting you once again and say the above charm  once more. And you’re done.

Crown’s note:

(1) I find jam jars are great for this but so are small canning jars. Due to the nature of the spell, this is the kind of thing you don’t have to bury in the yard so it’s excellent for apartment and dorm dwellers to keep in a window. It also serves as decoration so it’s literally perfect for stealth protection for those in the woods (6).

(1) Colored sand would be really good for this. You can buy some at craft stores or even aquarium stores. Cunningham says for them to not be artificially colored but I don’t see why that should be? Cunningham does come from a crowd where artificial=bad to some extent and I can’t see a reason why colored sand wouldn’t work so I say use what appeals to you. Picking colored sand can also help add color association to the spell. You can also use as many types or colors of sand as you want or have. I’m not really seeing an explicit reason why two types of sand are necessary here.

(3) The spoons here I think make the process longer. I’d just pour the sand at will and eyeball the amounts. If you want even amounts of sand for aesthetic or whatever purposes, a spoon or scoop probably would be easier. It would take longer though.

(4) I’m not sure I understand the point of the bowls here. I’d just use whatever you’re using to hold the sand originally if that’s easier for you.

(5) There is a very wordy description on how charging the sand and enchanting it in the book. Use whatever method works for you here. You don’t need to do exactly what he describes. Honestly, use whatever visualization or wording you need to use to get the sane to absorb negativity coming your way.

(4) “in/out of the woods” is a term put forward by a member of the witchcraft community on tumblr. It’s intended to take the place of “in/out of the broom closet” which may be offensive to other members of minority groups. Plus, it’s absolutely adorable.

Happy casting!

Good Luck Knot Spell (tumblr repost) (Spell Saturday #8)

A super fast knot spell for good luck.

  1. Find yourself some red, white, yellow/gold, blue, and green string (or ribbon, yarn, embroidery thread, whatever).
  2. Cut them into about 10 inch pieces. Ideally, the string should wrap around your wrist or ankle plus 2-3 inches, depending on the thickness of your knotting material. So 10 inches might be too much. Try to overestimate rather than underestimate.
  3. Hold the threads together and make a knot with all of them saying/thinking/etc. “With this knot the spell’s begun”
  4. Make a knot in the red string. “This knot is for luck.”
  5. Make a knot in the yellow/gold string. “This knot is for wealth and prosperity.”
  6. Make a knot in the blue string “This knot is for protection”
  7. Make a knot in the green string. “This knot is for growth.”
  8. Make a knot in the white string. “This knot is for preservation.”
  9. Knot all the threads together. “And this knot is to bring it all together and bring this lucky boon to me.”
  10. Then tie the cord around your wrist or ankle. Or you can carry it with you.

Ideally, you should be envisioning your intent while doing the spell but I’ve done this spell drunk at a bar with zero envisioning and only white packing twine and it worked great.

Happy casting!

Originally posted over on tumblr here.