10/28/2008 - Bring Peace into love

Doves can be lucky symbols for lovers. If you are having trouble in your relationship, and need a little extra luck, next time you see a dove look up at the dove and with both hands simotansiously blow the dove a kiss. Then touch your heart and try and feel the gentle beatings like the wings of the dover. As soon as possible after write your name intwined with the name of your loved one. Take the entwined names back to the spot where you saw the dove and place them in a fork in the fork of a tree.

When you get back home light a white candle and think of the bird within the flame, and think of you and your loved one. Let the candle burn for an hour.

From the next day a new peace should enter your loved one's heart in relation to you.

10/27/2008 - Wishbone for love

I am sure most of us are familair with the old wishbone game to make a wish. But if your wish concerns love do the following.

If you get the wishbone, also called "merry-thought" place it upon your nose like eyeglasses and close your eyes thinking of your sweetheart. Let it shake off, and then split the bone with another.

If you get the biggist peice your wish is well on the way to coming true and your love being everything you hope for. And the wisbone should be bond with blue and pink ribbon and put away for safekeeping.

The shorter piece you should request back from the one who drew it and give it to your love.

10/17/2008 - Violets for beauty and health

Beloved by the Gods for thier scent and fragile beauty, here is a regime to enact when you see the first bunch of violets in later winter or early spring to ensure your own healthful and fragrant appeal.

Breathe deeply in the scent of the vilolet flower (you cannot do this for long, becasue the armoa is so strong). Feel the scent cheering and waking your slumbering wintery spirit and body. Make a salad for supper and stew in some violet flowers and leaves, place some of the flowers in a drink of sparkling water as well.

At bedtime put a few flowers into your favorite moisturizer and let them steep for a time. Then caress your face with the cream and particularly the flowers. If you have some violet essential oil or perfume, sprinkle it also on the pillow to boost the effect.

In the morning your skin will be soft and smooth. Your physical well being also will be heigthend and your spirits elated.

10/14/2008 - Roses of Love

You will need: 2 pieces of paper about 3 x 1 inches, a tiny jar, some honey, a beautiful rose bush (traditionally a two-colored vairty)

Write your name on one of the two peices of paper and your partners on the other. Kissing them both tie them into a knot and put them together in the little jar then fill the jar with honey and put the lid on the jar. Now plant the rose bush, if possible you and your partner should do this together, but you may do it alone. Bury the jar with your names in with the rose bush. Say something like:

We are earthly creatures living here on earth

which is sweetend by the gifts of nature's bounty

and by the knowlege of each of us, of the other's exsistence

may we make our earhtly selves the most that we can

and joining together, sweeten and beautify our own and our friend's exsistences.

Water, cherish and love your rose. Cut blooms from it reguarly to place in your home, or if you have one, on a love altar. Every year restate your love and intent before the rose bush.

10/9/2008 - Charms for Love

Perform this spell when gentle rain is falling.

You will need: 2 charms, choosen to represent you and your partner (the charms can be any two objects that reperestns yourself and your loved one for you.) water taken from a running source, (such as a stream, creek, river) A jar or small container.

Best done on a New Moon

Anoint the charms that represent you and your lover with the water you have collected. This can be best done by placing the charms within a jar or other water vessel filled with the water. Say the following over the charms:

Marriage in heaven is surely made

Let our hopes and amity never fade

Thinks about the words and make a promise to yourself never to become complacent about the union you now desire. Undertake to keep it and cherish and feed it. Do not make this vow lightheartedly. Now the charms should be removed and the water thrown back into another running source on this rainy day or evening. Once again make a plea for the fullfillment of your desires, but do not renege once you have your wish on the pledge you made to aquire it.

9/23/2008 - Mabon

Mabon, sometimes also known as Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, or Second Harvest is the celebration of Autumn Equinox and is traditionally celebrated on September 21-23. Traditionally it marked the middle of the harvest. It is a time of giving thanks for the bounty you have reaped and can now enjoy. Incidentally Libra is the sign which starts this celebration. And the Scales of Balance have a direct link to the harvest, as this was the time of the year when farmers would bring in their goods to be weighed and sold. 

Mabon is a celebration for symbolic sacrifice, as it has a clear connection to the idea of death, but in the Pagan tradition death represents change. From this, new life will be allowed to spring forth. Mabon is the day when the god of light is defeated by his twin, the god of darkness In the Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd the Autumnal Equinox is the only day of the whole year when Llew (light) is vulnerable and it is possible to defeat him. Llew now stands on the balance (Libra/autumnal equinox), with one foot on the cauldron (Cancer/summer solstice) and his other foot on the goat (Capricorn/winter solstice). Thus he is betrayed by Blodeuwedd, the Virgin (Virgo) and transformed into an Eagle (Scorpio).

Having defeated Llew, Goronwy (darkness) now takes over Llew's functions, both as lover to Blodeuwedd, the Goddess, and as King of our own world. Although Goronwy, the Horned King, now sits on Llew's throne and begins his rule immediately, his formal coronation will not be for another six weeks, occurring at Samhain (Halloween) or the beginning of Winter, when he becomes the Winter Lord, the Dark King, Lord of Misrule. Goronwy's other function has more immediate results, however. He mates with the virgin goddess, and Blodeuwedd conceives, and will give birth -- nine months later (at the Summer Solstice) -- to Goronwy's son, who is really another incarnation of himself, the Dark Child.

Llew's sacrificial death at Harvest Home also identifies him with John Barleycorn, spirit of the fields. Thus, Llew represents not only the sun's power, but also the sun's life trapped and crystallized in the corn. Often this corn spirit was believed to reside most especially in the last sheaf or shock harvested, which was dressed in fine clothes, or woven into a wicker-like man-shaped form. This effigy was then cut and carried from the field, and usually burned, amidst much rejoicing. So one may see Blodeuwedd and Goronwy in a new guise, not as conspirators who murder their king, but as kindly farmers who harvest the crop which they had planted and so lovingly cared for. And yet, anyone who knows the old ballad of John Barleycorn knows that we have not heard the last of him.

They let him stand till midsummer's day,
Till he looked both pale and wan,
And little Sir John's grown a long, long beard
And so become a man...

Traditionally a large whicker figure, which was made to represent the spirit of vegetation which is sacrificed during this season is burned in celebration and in honor of the spirits. Some people suggest that it was from this tradition that the misconception of Druids committing human sacrifices was created (Though this is a topic for another day, I am inclined to believe that some people simply try to deny and distance themselves from the idea of sacrifice because of their own misconceptions of it, when it is known that near ever tradition and culture, historically practiced it) 

In the rhythm of the year, Harvest Home marks a time of rest after hard work. The crops are gathered in, and winter is still a month and a half away! Although the nights are getting cooler, the days are still warm, and there is something magical in the sunlight, for it seems silvery and indirect. As we pursue our gentle hobbies of making corn dollies (those tiny vegetation spirits) and wheat weaving, our attention is suddenly arrested by the sound of baying from the skies (the 'Hounds of Annwn' passing?), as lines of geese cut silhouettes across a harvest moon.

9/18/2008 - The New Moon Brings New Love

When you have just parted from a lover and are feeling downhearted, the moon will smile kindly on your love life, if she is asked properly.

Wait for the new moon, and on the first night go outdoors and hold up a ring near your eye untill the moon appears in its circle. Say:

New moon, true moon, I hail thee;

In your body milky white,

May I see this very night, the man (or woman) who will my partner be.

Now you may see an apparition or a face in the moon; or if a cloud scuds across the moon, your love will be on the way. But if in any case, walk back from the moon with your eye viewing it through the ring. Sleep that night upon the ring, and wear it for the next month from then. During that time you will find at least one new suitor.

9/17/2008 - Feather for Fortune

9/11/2008 - Thimble for luck

The thimble was once regaurded as a powerful sign of luck, which may be one of the reasons why porcerlain thimbles as souvenirs from places visisted. If someone gives you a thimble place it on every finger in turn and say:

All my fingers yeild good work

in my hands you sit for luck

Keep it safe and ask it for a "turn for luck" on days when life becomes a little too stressful.

9/9/2008 - Clothespin for Luck

If you happen to have an old-fasioned wooden clothespin, take it in your hands and "knock on wood" for your happiness. Take the clothespin to a quiet corner of your home or office and light a candle next to it. Put some mint or other fresh flowering herbs in the clothespin for luck. This is a powerful and will be generous to you with luck if you are generous to others with time.

8/7/2008 - The Red Rose and Briar

7/30/2008 - Lock In Honey

7/28/2008 - Mint to repell unwanted love

Research indicates that the scent of mint is a deterrent to animals in the garden, helps to molify wild dogs, and signals the brain to think intelligently rather than emotionally.

If you are looking to deter an unwanted lover, a prefume mixed with mint will prove an effective weapon to repell the advance of an unwelcome woer.

7/8/2008 - Three Candles Bright

7/7/2008 - Old Wives Tale

6/26/2008 - Strengthen Your Relationship

6/26/2008 - Peony of Luck and Happiness

6/25/2008 - The Funny Bone

Most of us are familiar with the discomfort of hitting your elbow. But in days past it was acutally considered a lucky gesture.

To try and take your mind from the pain, and to turn this unfornatuate event around to your advantage, for good luck next time you bang your elbow knock the other one lightly and say:

To this elbow I do no harm

for happiness is now in the crook of my arm

Gript both elbows in oppisite hands and smile or laugh out loud.

Before the day is done at least two things should occur that make you smile.

6/16/2008 - Healing a Wounded Heart

6/16/2008 - Midsummer's Eve Love Divination