Ex Penna

"A fellow spellcaster--how wonderful!  I'd love to hear about what you do."

"Oh, ya know, I've done some spells and stuff, and one time I went to this open circle..."

"Yeah?  That's great.  What did you think of the circle?"

"It was okay.  My friend Alice and I went in college so I don't remember a lot.  But I'm doing a lot of my own stuff these days, so it's no big deal."

"Your own stuff?  Like what--writing, art, a coven?"

"Um, like, I make up spells sometimes.  I don't really like books and groups and stuff."

"Oh."

This example is far from unique and represents a sad gap in our community.  I try, I really do, but if I'm going to keep up with any witch they're going to need one thing above all else: ambition.  A shot of this to the occultist's vein and you have a dynamo, no matter what they end up doing with it.

Without Ambition, What is Life?

Knowing What you Want is Next Door to Getting It

If Your Goals in Life are Meager, Quit Magic Now.  It's Not for You.

All Your Ambitions Have Magical Importance

And You Know Who is Afraid of This?  Everyone Else.

Back in the "good old days" of my early twenties, when my husband and I were first married and living poor but happy, we ran with a very different crowd than we do now.  In fact, most of them were characters straight out of a comic book.

The tall, bookish guy in a trench coat with long hair and a wicked grin who had at least one hand over his face in every photograph.

The piggish grease-monkey whose limited vocabulary was full of made up words.

The all-day drunk with a good heart but terrible life choices.

And then there was the stocky scrapper who was fiercely proud of a European heritage that I'm pretty sure no one actually believed was real and had probably never done anything legal if he could help it.

He was probably the most common visitor to our house in those days and definitely a memorable part of many adventures.  This is only important to know because he figured prominently in my strongest memory of the formula I'm about to give you,  Happiness Powder.

As an open and proud spellcaster, I often had bundles of herbs drying in the kitchen, spell candles burning on an obvious altar in the living room, and various other magical items sitting in plain view around the house.  The night I made my first jar of Happiness Powder, I left it on the coffee table before putting it away.  When our guest came in and sat, he excitedly poured out a line and sniffed it because coke was the only "happiness powder" in his vocabulary.

Needless to say, I don't recommend this!  But, he was okay after that, though maybe not as happy as he had hoped.  Like I said, strange times and strange people.

The proper way to use Cunningham's powder is to sprinkle it around your environment, on people who could use cheering up, as an added ingredient in mojo bags, or use it to dust spell candles.

7 Weird and Wonderful Medieval Facts 


It's such a shame what little credit most people give our predecessors, especially the further removed they are from the current era.  This is painfully true of the age of so much of our occult traditions, the Medieval Period.

Though we still had a long ways to go in terms of social and political issues, there was a lot more than we realize that was inspiring and inspired in the middle ages.  Enjoy this quick list for starters.

I've talked about this a lot--here and elsewhere--and you know what I think:  magic should, nay must, have an element of beauty to be at its best.  The two are interwoven and exist best when their influence is anything but subtle.  Think about every time you've been moved by

Trudging through ritual, reading from a printer-paper copy of a hastily-written ritual you found online and thought it "seemed pretty good" is not only pointless, it's also powerless.

Put some fuel in that mess!  I can see at least 5 places in that scenario where a little life could be injected to make you crave being in that circle.  As it stands, it appears that my hypothetical caster doesn't even want to be there.

Rituals are a Parade with No Spectators

Like a holiday, you must go all-in every time.  You can't leave part of your mind by the phone, part still in bed, part at your desk at work.  You have to Be Here Now.  That's the whole idea of a circle being a separate place from all time, from all other places; what exists within is nowhere else.  

Decorate Your Space with Equal Care

Let your guests warm up to the event right from the start with tasteful adornment on your door, the ritual space, and

everything in between.  

This can be done by creating a color scheme of 2 predominant colors that are associated with your ritual's purpose.  Remove what you can from sight that doesn't fit the theme and replace it with draping tablecloths, colored lighting, plants like cut flowers or live boughs and branches, artwork, pottery, etc. that model your goals in color or style.  

Try to bring some style into it by displaying different textures and patterns that boldly feature your colors.  Check discount fabric bins at craft stores to get some cheap inspiration for throw pillows (or quickly made covers for existing pillows), wall drapery, or slip covers.

You can even make this an intense piece of symbolism: choose deeper, richer shades of the colors or more esoteric occult themes as you approach the sacred space. 

This may sound elaborate but it doesn't require switching up your whole house just for one evening.  Just pick out  what you want your guests to notice and put it on display.  Then that's all they'll remember.

Delight the Senses

Every time you switch to a new step in the process, open up the senses to it in a new way.  Cue the casting with incense.  Accompany incantations with drums, bells, and tambourine.  Dance to raise power.  Open all your senses in the working, including the sixth!

Practice!

I can't stress this enough.  Practicing a ritual beforehand is such a routinely overlooked part of panning that I feel it's my duty to say it twice.  Practice!  Read your parts aloud.  Walk through the space just like you will for the actual event.  Be emphatic, be dramatic.  Memorize everything you can.

Which leads to...

Get--and Stay--in Character

There's an element of actor to every good occultist.  Use your power voice when speaking in ritual.  Change modes of movement, posture inflection in your voice, volume, et al. when you change direction in the rite.  As the power raises, show the excitement building by embodying it.  

One of the most telling comments made by newcomers to ritual work is that the leader suddenly became another person.  For well-executed magic you must be willing to drive it home with everything you've got!

Do the Little Extras

Live musicians, a troupe of dancers, theatrics, special effects, lighting, items for participants to keep--what are you able to find or create to make this something special?  

Finish Strong!

The worst thing you can do is to let your rite just slowly roll to a stop.  Don't allow people to wander off without certainty that the work is done for the evening.  Bring the event to its peak, explode that power in a display that's either loud, bright, or otherwise momentarily chaotic, then shut it down hard!   It sounds rough, but that's how your guests will know it's done.  Think of your big finish as a "curtain drop and lights out."  Once they're done catching their breath, they'll be on their feet applauding!

Critter Bits


This is a hot-button topic, but definitely a traditional part of what we do as magic makers.  To that effect, I hope this article will inspire thought and conversation.

As you may know by now, I am not against the use of animal parts in my own magic as long as the animal's death was accidental.  Roadkill is my main source of fur and bones, and I go to great lengths to respectfully collect and clean them for my spells.  As a vegetarian, this is a tricky topic for me to successfully find solid footing, but I'm willing to to accept that witchcraft--like most other areas of life--doesn't always offer up easy answers.

This may sound odd coming from someone who owns a shop selling ten-plus candle colors, but it's true.  Of course, this doesn't take away the usefulness, beauty, or pleasure of using a variety of candles.  It only means that, like so many other spellcasting techniques, it's not a necessity.  If you find yourself low on funds, personal space, or both, excess candles are the perfect place to cut back.

Let's take a moment to dig into the 3 traditional colors of witchcraft!

Black, Red, and White as Staple Colors

Let's go back to a favorite period in history for practitioners seeking magical inspiration: the Middle Ages.  For a moment, forget that the candles themselves wouldn't have been available to the average person.  Think instead about the range of anything in those times.  Would you have spent 20 minutes debating between clothing brands?  How about picky eaters?  Do you think there were many of them around?

In short, you took what was at hand, you bought what you could, made what you could, and went without for all the rest.  So much of what we cosider "old world" in our symbolism and tools (iron knives, cauldrons, broomsticks) were just everyday items at that time.  Maybe a little of that kind of thinking would prevent some of the bloated magical stashes witches are so prone to brag about.  Keep the basics basic and splurge on the big things.

Also note that each of these colors, though simple, have a variety of meanings.  Ancient Egypt associated black with the fertile soil after the floods.  To them it was a deeply fortunate, protective, prosperous color.  Red is universally seen as the color of life and death, being connected to that most essential component of life: blood.  White is the page with no words, the light with no form.  It's open and unattached.  What kinds of magic can we do just by beginning at these associations?

The answer, it turns out, is everything.

Black

Deep, mysterious, and full

White 

Untouched, Constant, and Stoic

Note, too, that these associations are my own and may not reflect how you were taught.  The way to understand them for your own magical practice is just as simple: contemplation, experimentation, and time.

As you well know I am enamored with spoken charms and this is one of my very favorites.

To find power in a spell, first there must be beauty.  To find beauty, you need only be struck by the subject's uniqueness, its ability to radiate a deep well of self-awareness, shining like the refraction of moonlight on the walls of a watery cave.  That sparkle is beauty and the inspiration that stems from its power.

This charm, originating in the Finnish epic Kalevala, has an incredible amount of just such glow.  Though simple in language and lacking in direct imagery, it is a joy to speak, to feel on the lips, to read, to share.  How could such excitement fail to spread when it is used magically?  Remember this the next time you're driving a foggy road or, perhaps, beset with a more creative, metaphorical fog of mind or spirit.

Remember and recite.

To Banish Mists