Midsummer Eve

I have always loved Midsummer (the Summer Solstice). This year I was especially looking forward to it because this was the first summer in many years where my Mom and I would take our Midsummer Eve Faerie Walk in a place so overwhelming with natural beauty.

In my backyard I know there are many wood sprites in among the trees. The yard is bordered by Hemlock and there is a towering Oak by the back fence. I love my overgrown trees and when I do spells on the back patio I feel that the trees bear witness to the magick I weave. There are eyes watching from the woods and I welcome them!

For the Faerie Walk we used to go through our old neighborhood in the middle of the night and bring a flower offering to a giant tree in the park that abutted our development. It was serene and beautiful with a lake and other trees. It was a spot that I visited often on my walks. I buried many things by that tree for it to watch over.

This Midsummer I had to find a new sacred spot and a new tree to be Guardian to my magick leavings. Along the way I was hopeful that we might see some fae folk as there were a number of gardens in other yards (where the flower fae gather on Midsummer.).

We wear white on Midsummer Eve and weave flowers into chaplets and bracelets and bring an offering of flowers and milk and honey for the faeries. We went late here so not to worry the neighbors when they saw two women in white with flowers in their hair wandering around after midnight.

There are few street lights out here in the country and we had to make sure we were doused with mosquito repellant. We each brought 7 day candles in jars to light the way. It was darker than I expected it to be and yet that made the candles glow that much more otherworldly. We began our walk and right away I noticed there seemed to be a few fireflies following us - our first faeries! Fireflies are not usually out that late yet here they were joining us on our walk.

The first garden we came to was a neighbors that had beautiful tropical flowers and night blooming jasmine. The fireflies were drawn to it and we left them there as we continued on our way.

Gardens look so different in the candlelight. They are a dusky blue gray and look like something out of a gothic faerie tale. We passed by more colorless manicured lawns with the occasional abandoned children's toys littering the driveways. Finally we made our turn toward the forest preserve where I knew we would find the kind of trees we needed for the offering.

The thicket was right outside of the fence, just a few hundred feet away. We climbed over the fence (no mean feat in a white cotton gown!) and passed lightly along the dark path into the woods.

Immediately we were surrounded by the deep sounds of the forest, the sounds that said - there are no humans here. I knew the right tree would call to us and we went in deeper on the path, our gowns dragging along the black baked earth.

There were more faeries here we could hear them rustling in the leaves of the trees but they weren't flower faeries; they were wild and didn't trust us.

I almost walked right into the roots of the giant Oak that had been calling to me since we entered the woods. My mother agreed that this majestic tree would be a perfect place to leave the offering and to find again in the daylight to get to know better.

We said our prayers to the Goddess, left our flowers and I poured the dish of milk and honey and left it for the fae. As we turned away I could see flickering lights out of the corner of my eye. We did not address the fae directly, just let them enjoy the flowers and our offering. We heard high pitched laughter and the tinkling of tiny bells. Or maybe it was just the wind in the tops of the trees?

We walked home and enjoyed a cup of tea amid a dozen candles on the patio. The air was heady with the rich scent from the candles and incense. I knew that the casting I was doing would be blessed by the fae. And as if to affirm this our firefly friends flitted from the side yard right past us!

HINTS ON HOW TO MEET FAERIES

Faeries like gifts! They adore milk, sugar and honey. In my experience a dish of milk and honey works best. This works well for all faeries. Other gifts they like are tiny blossoms, little gems, tiny toys (dollhouse sized) and pretty little ribbons. Never use anything iron or leave anything made from iron - Faeries detest it. They always appreciate silver.

There are many kinds of faeries, probably some living in your house right now! A garden is one of the best ways to attract faeries. Make sure it has plenty of flowers.

Faeries love dusk. That is the best time to see them but wood sprites and deep forest faeries like the middle of the night. They especially like to avoid humans.

Faeries take on many different guises most notably butterflies, dragonflies, fireflies, moths and small birds. They can also turn into geckos and iguanas. Be mindful of such creatures as they may be a faerie in disguise.

All children under the age of five can see faeries. If you want to be sure to find real faeries take a small child with you to go faerie-hunting.

Most faeries are a bit naughty. They will pull your hair if they get the opportunity or bite you. That is why you never approach them without gifts. You can speak to them, they understand their local languages. Say something nice and tell them you have gifts for them and they will treat you with respect.

Will the REAL witch please stand up?

To me it is almost humorous, but you would not believe how many people email me and ask me if I am REAL. Of course I know I am REAL in the sense that I am sitting here typing these words on a keyboard or that two nights ago I was standing in my circle casting spells or even this morning when I poured myself a cup of herbal tea from herbs I had grown myself. Of course I am REAL!

Unfortunately this is part of the game in a world that is filled with charlatans and con-artists. I have to work extra hard to PROVE my REAL-NESS.

It is very difficult for charlatans to prove that they are real. They conceal their true identities on whois; they use stock photos of people and pretend they are the spellcasters; they make up back-stories or steal them from legitimate psychics or spellcasters (big note here: PSYCHICS DO NOT CAST SPELLS! Only witches cast spells!) and these are just the most glaring examples.

There is a different kind of spellcaster who is also not a REAL witch. I am sure you have seen these sites where it actually is a real person and they are selling their spells for $20 and they promise the world and more for this price. They may even mean well but it is unlikely that they are really casting spells. Trust me - to cast a spell for $20 is like losing money - that is if you actually cast the spell.

Casting spells is exhausting work. It takes a great deal of time and it drains energy from you so much that it often takes me a couple of days after casting to recover. To do this for only $20 would be like torturing yourself for nothing. And how effective will this spell be if the only worth to the caster themself is only $20? Consider this seriously before you go to a junior-grade witch who does not even value their own services.

So who is REAL?

There are several I know for certain for I have communicated with them directly, know them in person or have worked with them. Most of them do not offer spell services however, they just sell products for witches and shamans. But they are out there these REAL witches.

Here are some tips to tell if your witch (or spellcaster is REAL):

• Check the domain to see who it is registered to. Domains registered to an actual human being and not hidden by a proxy could mean there is a REAL person behind this. People who have nothing to hide do not mind using their true information when registering a domain name.
• Don't waste your time going to so-called "review" forums or boards - these are actually owned by the con-artists themselves though they often let people post some real details to give it legitimacy. There are better ways to determine if your spellcaster is on the level.
• If your spellcaster uses a witch-name find out what their real name is. For instance, I was not born with the name Amita Dragonspell. And it is very easy to discover my REAL name because I do not hide it.
• Once you find their real name then google them. It will tell you a lot if they are a REAL person.

I have other entries that tell you more about how to find a legitimate witch. I don't give you this information because I want you to choose me (though you can't go wrong since I am a REAL witch!) rather that I do not want you to be ripped off.

Now to be fair even a REAL witch has spells that fail. That is just part of the magickal universe. It is important to realize and understand that there are no guarantees in the natural world. Any one who offers you a guarantee for the spellcasting services or tells you that their success rate is 97 percent or some absurd percentage should be avoided. Magick is not a commidity that can be tracked into a percentage of success nor is it a product that can be guaranteed like a toaster.

I always use this adage to explain to my clients the nature of magick: magick is simply science that has not been proven. So as a witch I am similar to a Medical Doctor in my experience and services that I offer only my science is as yet unproven.

Like a Doctor you pay me for my expertise. Doctors go to school for many years to become Doctors. As a witch I have basically been in "school" learning mysteries and being educated in the use of herbs, oils, crystals, forms of divination, high magick and pagan belief systems for the past 20 years.

When you go to a Doctor you are hopeful that she has something in her expertise and background; a knowledge, that will help you to heal. She cannot guarantee your healing however. Nor can she allow you to pay her only if she can actually heal or cure you. That is just not the way it works.

A REAL witch will do her (or his) best for you. Like a caring Doctor we will do whatever we can within our expertise to help you. I have taken an oath as a witch but also as a Buddhist and these oaths are as important to me as every breath I take.

Investigate your witch and you will FIND the REAL ones stand out.

The Summer of Magickal Thinking

To me summer is the most magickal time of the year. People seem to move about as if they are in a dream. There is much communing with nature; going to the beach, having cook-outs, going on picnics, the kids playing outside until the fireflies are out. This is such a time to celebrate earthly pleasures. It is difficult to feel unhappy when there is so much beauty and magick around.

I try to stay positive even in the face of adversity and negativity. I focus on my Buddhist teachings and my relationship with the Goddess and ask for her help when I need it. My patron Goddess is Green Tara and when I need her I speak this mantra:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha
pronounced: Aohm Tah-ray Too-tah-ray Tour-ray Swah-ha

Tara (whose name means "star" or "she who ferries across") is the female Bodhisattva of compassion. In Tibetan, Tara is known as "Dölma" (Sgrol-ma), or "She Who Saves." In particular she represents compassion in action, since she’s in the process of stepping from her lotus throne in order to help sentient beings.



Lately I've needed her quite a bit and have found myself saying her mantra during the day just to take comfort in the sacred sound that calls her. Often I also pray to her at the end of the day when I write in my journal. No matter what happens on the material plane I know that the blessing of the Goddess is with me.

Tara would love the summer and would welcome the magickal thinking that is inherent when we get close to nature.

How can you make the summer more magickal, even if you are not a witch or Goddess-worshipper?

Take off your shoes and let your bare feet feel the grass and earth. Be careful of fire ants though! We have those here in Florida!

On one of those languid afternoons when you are out by the pool, stay until sunset.

Have a midnight picnic on the patio with tons of candles and play no music - just listen to the cicadas.

Go for a drive at night with the windows down.

Drive by the beach in the moonlight and listen to the waves.

Take a moonlight bath on the Full Moon. This does require being naked so make sure the neighbors are asleep! Bask in the moonlight - howl if you feel like it. This is good to do with an intimate partner, trust me! Being naked in the moonlight is quite primordial.

Remember that everything will be all right. No matter what happens, no matter how difficult the mundane world is, you are all right, you will be all right and you are loved. That is the most magickal thinking of all.

Once in a Blue Moon

The Blue Moon approaches and it is deeply significant to your friendly neighborhood Suburban House-Witch. The last Blue Moon was two and half years ago and at that time I cast a very powerful Blue Moon only wish spell. I was simply stunned by the results that my clients and family had. We were so thrilled by it but were also a little disappointed in knowing that it would be nearly THREE YEARS before the spell would be cast again! Talk about waiting for the magick!

Well here we are on the cusp of that Blue Moon (which is actually two different astronomical occurences - a second Full Moon in a month as well as the 13th Full Moon in a cycle.) which is the second Full Moon in a month. I have many clients who are taking advantage of this super-charged wish spell.

http://www.magickrituals.com/bluemoonspell.html

However for those who have considered it and then decided not to participate I urge you to do so. This is one spell that I am even taking advantage of and I usually reserve all my spellcasting power for clients. I just cannot pass this up and really neither can you! This spell and perhaps maybe a dozen other time specific spells that I know of are the kind that no one should miss. It is like the fates are aligned for good fortune.

You get one wish. So you need to make it a good one. And it can't be one of those multi-leveled wishes that rambles off into a thousand directions wishing for love, money, a Lexus, etc. It has to be a pure wish - right from the heart. It may take some practice to write the perfect wish. But once you get it - you will know it and then you are that much closer to your wish being granted.

The Lusty Month of May

I was watching CAMELOT several nights ago, thinking about how incredibly young Richard Harris was (and so handsome!) in 1967 (before I was even born) when Vanessa Redgrave playing Guenevere turned out one of the big song and dance numbers, "Lusty Month of May".

To non-pagans, they would probably think it just had to do with it being Spring and there being an amourous spark in the air. Yet for pagans everywhere May is the month of Beltane; May is the month to celebrate lust, love and fertility, to dance around the maypole with flowers in our hair and stoke the Beltane bonfires on the night of Beltane Eve. For witches, the lusty month of May is a very real thing!

Truthfully it is more difficult to enjoy Beltane the way it should be enjoyed (with a partner of course) when one is practicing as a solitary, which is what I am doing at this point in my life. Though I do always have my pagan-centric family around; some of them are not often here on the high holidays.

The Wheel of the Year gives us eight sabbats all together, four major and four minor and it seems like every other month there is some kind of celebration. In my family we agreed to celebrate Midsummer, Yule and Beltane only as major holidays and to take the rest as ritual days instead.

Since it was only two of us this Beltane we kept it low-key. We had a lovely night ritual in the backyard with some candles that a friend of mine had created for us. Then we just sat quietly in the glow of the nearly Full Moon and talked about what this past year had brought us.

Tea heals everything and so we celebrated the Goddess each with a cup of tea. I could feel her love from the heavens above; feel her agreement with our choice to enjoy our quietude.

The next day was my Full Moon casting which lasts usually for three nights. It is as streamlined as humanly possible but still drains me of a great deal of energy. I am usually in recovery mode for days following and so this weekend I am laying low; only doing some readings and taking it easy.

I must recharge myself for this May is very special - it is the May of the Blue Moon which only occurs every two and half years. For me this outshines even Beltane for I know the power and joy that this particular moon brings. I am eager to see what incredible gifts this Blue Moon will bestow.

I hope you will join me!

Not just a witch

So much of what I do as a witch has nothing to do with being a witch.

In my dealing with clients I have to be more than a witch. I have to be a friend, a confidante, a guru, a therapist, a counselor, a teacher, mediator and coach. It can be a bit like the tilt-a-whirl; deciding which role I am taking on with a particular client and a different role with another client.

With spells and rituals it is easy. I have the spell, usually I have cast it already a hundred times. I could cast (and do) some of them completely from memory. I can get into an alpha state in a flash. I connect to my astral body and commence my spirit work without a second thought. But dealing with people - accommodating their specific needs and being what they need when they need it - that is much more difficult.

I am eager to help; I've been like that since I was young. Everyone always came to me with their problems and asked me for advice.I was the Dear Abby of my fifth grade class. I never told secrets which was one reason I could be trusted with sensitive information. It wasn't because I was naturally conscientious - it was because I never had anyone to tell! That's why it is smart to tell the weird kid. Besides who would believe them?

As I got older, I was less weird and more interesting to my friends and they continued to put me in a place of counsel. I liked getting into their lives and really knowing them. I wasn't as keen however to reveal myself or go to anyone else for advice. I'm still like that today. I'm a seeker of my own solutions and I keep my thoughts about my own life to myself. I cannot imagine boring anyone (but my mother - she loves it or my best friend Stephanie) with details about my "issues" or problems.

I listen instead. It is part of the service. I will use magick to help you, absolutely, but magick is not all I have in my bag of tricks. And often magick is not all that is needed.

Spring Equinox Brings Healing

For the first time in almost two weeks, I am among the living. I have been laid to waste with pneumonia and today was the first day in 12 days that I could leave the house.

I don't get sick. Healers and caregivers usually don't; we tend to have strong constitutions. The last time I was this ill, I was in my twenties, so it has been over a decade. It caught me off-guard; it slowed me down to a crawl. The caregiver needed to have someone care for her. Thankfully I did have that - my mother and good friends who called me to cheer me up even when I couldn't speak due to hoarseness. Thank you Goddess for helping me slow down a bit. I needed that.

I was able to cast some spells on the New Moon which actually helped to bring my energy way up. No wonder there! I've been casting right along this week, catching up on everything and will be mailing out results finally. I am fortunate enough to have wonderful and understanding clients. There were a couple that I think thought I was making it up or had an excuse or something; but only a couple of them out of so many tells me I have compassionate and kind-hearted clients.

I do not use traditional medicine unless I have absolutely no choice and I had none this time. Still I drank gallons of herbal brews and tisanes with honey and drank juice and took Flower Essences to help. My Doctor was impressed. He said usually patients who come down with pneumonia have it at least 2 and half weeks or more.

Today is a special day - the Spring Equinox - also known as Ostara. This is the pagan version of Easter. It usually falls on the 21st or 22nd of March.

The Equinox is also the perfect time for a witch to take stock of her magick. I am a witch who believes strongly in the concept of Spring Cleaning - meaning out with the old and tired and open up with the new and flourishing. I take stock of spells, oil mixes, herbal freshness, candle supplies as well as mix up new batches of magickal oils and powders. The Spring is all about renewal.

Here is more on Ostara:


It is loosely based on several holidays which were celebrated around the Vernal Equinox, and not having a strong relation to any known historical Paganreligious observation. The name goes back to Jakob Grimm, who, in his Deutsche Mythologie, speculated about an ancient German goddess Ostara, after whom the Easter festival (German: Ostern) could have been named. Grimm's main source is a book by the Venerable Bede. Bede had put forward the thesis that the Anglo-Saxon name for April: Eosturmonath was named after a goddess Eostre.

Ostara is one of the eight major Wiccan holidays or sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. Ostara is celebrated on the Vernal Equinox, in the Northern hemisphere around March 21 and in the Southern hemisphere around September 23, depending upon the specific timing of the equinox. Among the Wiccan sabbats, it is preceded by Imbolc and followed by Beltane.

"The Festival of Ostara at the spring equinox marks the end of winter and the beginning of the season of rebirth (spring), and is celebrated by a feast in honor of Frigg and Freya.

In the book Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet and Stewart Farrar, the festival Ostara is characterized by the rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort-son, who spent the winter months in death. Other variations include the young God regaining strength in his youth after being born at Yule, and the Goddess returning to her Maiden aspect.

The Christian religion adopted these emblems for Easter which is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. The theme of the conception of the Goddess was adapted as the Feast of the Annunciation, occurring on the alternative fixed calendar date of March 25 Old Lady Day, the earlier date of the equinox. Lady Day may also refer to other goddesses (such as Venus and Aphrodite), many of whom have festivals celebrated at this time.

Traditional Foods: Leafy green vegetables, Dairy foods, nuts such as Pumpkin, Sunflower and Pine. Flower dishes and Sprouts.

Herbs and Flowers: Daffodil, Jonquils, Woodruff, Violet, Gorse, Olive, Peony, Iris, Narcissus and all spring flowers.

Incense: Jasmine, Rose, Strawberry, floral of any type.

Sacred Gemstone: Jasper

Activities: Planting seeds or starting a Magickal Herb Garden. Taking a long walk in nature with no intent other than reflecting on the Magick of nature and our Great Mother and her bounty.