At this time of year, my thoughts quickly turn to the beauty of snow. Some folks seem utterly baffled by this, but I suppose I just can't seem to join them in lamenting the bother of driving, shoveling, and shivering in it. Instead, I focus on watching it drift by my window, swirl around me as I walk, and fly by in a torrent as I sled down the hill with my children. So, to me, snow is absolutely wonderful!
Making it snow is a type of weather magic that I have discovered to be rarely a topic of
objection amongst practitioners. Contention seems to revolve around rain--making it rain in one place and not another, stopping storms, increasing storms and rerouting weather patterns. Snow gets largely ignored in the discussion of magic until mid-December and then it is only within specific regions and only for those who, like myself, adore the stuff. Otherwise there is no talk at all about the rights and wrongs of using magic to make it snow. For the select few of us who are genuinely interested, we bring it down when and wherever we will.
Living all my life in Pennsylvania, I've grown up nearly obsessed with snow. It's a topic in every conversation from September to nearly March: when it might come, the first snow, the biggest snow, remembering past storms, Snow Days and more to come (oh dear!), hating it, loving it, teasing one another about it. It being such a major topic makes it a perfect candidate for magic spells. Not a lot seem to be in existence so years ago I chose to write my own.
Oddly enough, I only now discovered, in the course of wishing to write this to you, that I have actually made three such spells, each completely distinct from the others. Somehow this slipped from my memory completely. Just this past week I used the one that often comes to mind. I was driving home from work and saw a cold, gray road stretched out before me just asking to be re-imagined into a white and sparkling landscape. So I chanted and focused (yes, I cast while driving and I don't mind if others do or no not) until I'd had my fill. By the time it was getting dark, the snow had begun. When I woke up early the next
morning, everything was covered in heaps of fluffy snow. I pushed a shovel before me as I to clear a path to my car and then scooped off the accumulation on hood and windshield before I could get inside. The weather report had evidently called for up to one inch after midnight (though I was unaware that there was even one flake expected at the time) but we ended up with massive snowflakes before, during, and after amounting to about five to six inches. I was overjoyed, as were our children because the storm caused the first Snow Day of the season!
The first spell is from 2003. It was written to replicate a spell I'd done several years prior (circa 1998) but lost in a move. The original work was, as best as I can remember, very similar to this. It caused such a massive blizzard that it quite took me by surprise. The only problem was that it was not an instant thing; I'd cast it the night before Yule, hoping that I would awake to a transformation. Instead, about a week later (post-Yule and post-Christmas) we got a storm that dumped a tremendous amount of snow on our valley, bringing down trees and knocking out power.
Now, I don't claim that this is a blizzard maker--far from it--only that you should use a regular amount of effort but start early. My overzealous work did not produce instant snow any more than turning up the heat on an oven will make a cake bake faster.
The page you're seeing alongside this spell is a scan from my BoS of that time. For some reason, I left the wording the same as in the original (though waiting until the last minute didn't work out so well the first time!) but you can also see that I used it on New Year's as well. So use this spell when you have lots of time but then, perhaps, give it a shot for those events when you want snow actually falling as well.
Spell to Cause Snow
Go outside with your besom (or a new broom) as in the spell to bring rain. Stand upon a high point and raise your arms and broom to Divinity. Say:
I call the ears of my Lord and Lady.
Come to me now, come and please hear me!
I call upon the Snow Fairies--
Come to me now, come and please hear me!
(Yule Eve is upon us
Yule morn comes soon.
I ask of your kindness
A special boon.)
From the North,
I call the cold.
From the East,
The winds to blow.
From the South,
The snowflakes form.
From the West,
Send down the storm!
As each of the Quarters are mentioned, sweep the clouds from that direction, drawing them above you. Then circle the besom above your head deosil and chant:
Churn and blow,
Now falls the snow!
When the power has been raised this way, end with:
I make it so!
This second spell is from about 2005. The scan is from one of my big four-inch binders in which I keep magical information to be referenced quickly. A good number of my spells--and classic spells that I've used over and over again--can be found there. Unfortunately, I didn't add any further instructions for this one. However, I can remember the specifics of this one and added the further instructions to the spell below.
I've used this spell far more often than the previous one. It's the very same that came to mind as I drove home last week on a bare road. The two are clearly different, but I've had about as much success with both of them. I suggest going with the one that feels most natural to you.
Please note that the third of my snow spells can be found only in "The Book of Brass Mirrors," a manuscript spellbook of unusual magic that I plan to have published. I hope that, in time, I may share it with you all as I have done these!
To Bring Snow
Upon a foggy window pane or in the open air, draw with one finger the image of a simple snowflake. Make sure all vertical lines go from bottom to top and horizontal ones left to right. Make a single snowflake for each stanza of the chant, envisioning a thick fall of snow behind your drawing. You may say the chant as loud or quiet as you like, but it must be said aloud.
I draw one flake,
One flake of snow.
Father Winter--
Let it grow! Make it grow!
The sky be white,
The winds to blow.
Father Winter--
Make it so! Make it so!
It falls to the Earth,
Mountains high, valleys low.
Fill up the land!
Let it snow! Make it snow!
My one flake becomes millions
On and on it will go
Until winter's end.
Father Winter--Be It So!
Looking back on the spells I've made in the past is a sort of time capsule; I can discern my influences at that time and the kind of witch I thought most impressive. With the first spell I notice that it was during the time that my most used spellbook was Dorothy Morrison's "Everyday Magic." Not only does the set-up retain a nod to her writing style, but the instructions are derived from her spell to make rain.
In the second spell you can see that I've grown a little more frank in my arrangement and plain title, modeling it off of Valerie Worth's Crone books ("Crone's Book of Charms and Spells" and "Crone's Book of Words"). Perhaps that's why I left out instructions, because I couldn't make them rhyme like Ms. Worth's always did?
The third spell was written sometime around 2004 specifically for the book. I tested it that winter and the story of it is nearly legendary around here. A friend of ours recently recounted the entire thing as he saw it and I was amazed that he could remember nearly every minute of the day. That is, for me, one impressive endorsement!
It was an ordinary winter day, our young children playing in the house and a good friend
over to visit. He had grown up in California and this was to be his first "real" winter. It had snowed before but not very much and the dusting on the ground wasn't very impressive. The more we talked about the weather, the more I realized we needed more--a lot more! So I gathered my things and stepped outside to our fenced backyard. A few pathetic flurries, no more than dust specks, whipped around as I set up. Holding my manuscript in one hand and the spell components in the other, I began. Within three minutes I was back inside and cleaning up. I rejoined the rest of the household in the dining room to catch a glance out the window of massive snowflakes slowly drifting from the sky! Our friend leapt up and ran outside, our four-year-old daughter hot on his tracks and ready to show him the ropes of playing in the snow. It was magic in more ways than one.
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