I'll Be Upfront About This. I Miss Your Old Hair.

(artist credit: Joan Lemay)

Daily Oracle Reading for 6-6-16! <3 Atlantis: Atlantis symbolizes a rapid, quick energy that drives you to pursue your true calling in life, the thing that makes you happiest. She is symbolic of the healing aspect of water. She urges you to tap into that wonderful healing energy to heal yourself so that you may be able to do what you were sent here to do. She encourages you to connect with the divine feminine. Her energy will inspire you to be fearless and pursue your dreams! She works closely with crystals and sea creatures. Connecting with creatures and sea life can help you tap into this beautiful and feminine healing energy. Telepathy: The two beautiful twin mermaids symbolize a telepathic bond between two individuals. A telepathic bond enables people to send messages and energy to one another without using modern technology (even though tech is awesome). As we progress with the wonderful advances of digital and technological communication, sadly we tend to forget about or lose our natural gifts of telepathy and intuition. These mermaids are reminding you to connect with your emotional center, and trust your intuition. Send telepathic messages to a loved one far away, or connect with the energies around you. Be present. Re connect with your emotional self, and your delightful methods of non-verbal communication. Vulnerability: These merfolk represent tearing down your emotional walls, and letting yourself be vulnerable. In order to heal, we need to tear down our emotional blocks and walls so we can be open to healing. That requires being vulnerable, as difficult as that is. If we keep large walls up, and refuse to let healing in and others who are trustworthy and have our best interest at heart, we block our healing. These merfolk urge you to open up and allow yourself to be vulnerable. A guide, a therapist, or a trusted teacher, friend, or relative are a good place to start. This little spread is all about healing our emotional selves and becoming attune to our emotions in order to be able to find our true calling. If we do not heal, we do not have the strength or motivation to help ourselves and others and do what makes us truly happy. Oracle of the Mermaids by Lucy Cavendish (Blue Angel Publishing) Card descriptions are based off of the deck guidebook, but in my own interpretation and my own words.

🔮🌿LAVENDER TEA BREAD🌿🔮

INGREDIENTS Lavender Cake: ¾ cup milk 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lavender 6 tablespoons butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt

Lavender Glaze: ½ cup milk 1 tablespoon dried lavender buds 1 cup confectioner’s sugar

PREPARATION Cake: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Combine the milk and lavender in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat to a simmer, then remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg until the mixture is light and fluffy. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the milk and lavender until just blended. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a wooden pick inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Lavender Glaze: Place the milk in a saucepan over medium heat. When it starts to boil, take the pan off the heat and add the dried lavender buds. Let the mixture steep for 5-8 minutes, then strain the milk Whisk it into the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until you get a smooth and opaque glaze. Pour or spoon over the cooled loaf.

http://ift.tt/1XI0MzW

Herbal Amulets

From Magical Herbalism by Scott Cunningham

To See Ghosts: Carry lavender and inhale its scent.

To allay fears: Carry a mixture of nettle and yarrow.

To Detect Witches: Carry a sachet of Rue, maidenhair, agrimony, broom-straw, and ground ivy.

To Be Courageous: Wear a fresh borage flower, or carry mullein.

To Avoid Military Service: Wear the 4-leaved clover if you wish to avoid duty.

To Ensure Safety and Protection on A Journey: Comfrey worn or carried will safeguard you.

To Prevent Storms and Wreckage While At Sea: Put a clove of garlic in your purse or in your pocket. In the South Pacific or in Hawaii wear a garland of ti leaves.

To Guard against Rape: Wear the heather to avoid all acts of passion.

To Keep One from Dreaming: Hang a sprig of lemon verbena around the neck.

To Conceive: Wear the mistletoe, the cyclamen, or the bistort.

To Prevent Weariness while Walking: Put mugwort in the shoe.

To Keep Venomous Beasts and Wild Animals Afar: Wear avens or mullien.

To Keep Others from Deceiving You: Wear the pimpernel or snapdragon.

To Keep Disease Afar: Wear a sprig of rue around the neck.

To Enable A Soldier To Escape His Enemies: Wear the vervain and you shall accomplish this.

To Avoid Being Sent To The Gallows: Wear or carry a carnation.

To Ensure Victory: Wear woodruff to win.

To Ensure That Friendly Words Are Spoken To You: Wear the heliotrope.

To Enter the Underworld: Carry an apple, or the branch of an apple tree that bears buds, flowers, and fully ripened fruit.

To Regain Lost Manhood: Carry an acorn or mandrake root.

To Remain Youthful: Carry an acorn.

To Prevent Drunkenness: Wear a chaplet of saffron, crocus, parsley, or rue to prolong your enjoyment.

To See Fairies: Gather wild thyme and carry it with you, or put it on the eyelids (with your eyes closed) and sleep on a fairy hill.

To Be A Successful Fisherman: Carry a bit of the hawthorn.

To See A Unicorn: As this beast usually lives among the ash trees, carry a bit of the wood or leaves and you may see one. Or lie down among ashes and place one of its leaves on your chest and wait for one to make itself known.

so you wanna pendule...um?

(aka the biwitched guide to using a pendulum)

What is a pendulum? most of the pictures you’ll see on tumblr show pointy crystals on a chain. but any weighted object with a string can turn into a pendulum! my broke self uses a metal ring on a string! 

Pendulums can be used for divination, and/or connecting with spirits, entities, deities etc. 

How does it work? (this is pretty much just my theory but hey) a pendulum works by tapping into your energy, and consequently the energy of the world around us! when you ask a question, it will give you an answer based on which way the energy is headed at that specific moment (which means it’s not always right, our world is so changeable) 

When you’re doing readings for yourself, I find at least, it taps into your subconscious, it can be very enlightening! 

I’ve also heard when you’re doing readings for yourself, it moves from micro-pulses in your fingers so if someone has a source on that, cool. 

If you are using a pendulum to contact another entity, that entity’s energy will be influencing the pendulum’s swing. 

How do I use one?

1. Before I do any divination or energy work - I get into the zone by opening my chakras, you can just meditate if you prefer !

2. Hold the end up the pendulum’s string or chain in between your thumb and forefinger

3. If this is your first time using your pendulum, you will have to program it:

ask a series of simple yes or no questions to which you know the answer (e.g. are my eyes brown, do i like cats, am i eighty years old) 

pay attention to what the pendulum does for yes questions and no questions

try the same thing with true/false statements

now you have a sense of how your pendulum answers questions (e.g. my pendulum swings away from me for a no, and side to side for a yes. some people’s pendulums swing clockwise/counter clockwise!)

4. You’re ready to pendule! (making that the official verb)

If you want, you can use a pendulum board! It is a small board with letters and/or numbers. You may be able to spell out a word! (works best with pointy pendants.)

Troubleshooting:

pendulum is not moving?

sometimes movements are really subtle, don’t discount any slight movement!

you may have to wait longer, it could be mulling over an answer

there could be an energy blockage, try cleansing your pendulum (or yourself!)

your pendulum might not want to answer, best to move on to a different question, or a take a divination break!

inaccurate answers?

practice makes perfect, i’ve been doing this for 6 years! and i was pretty crap when i started

word your question differently or try wording it as a statement your pendulum can agree or disagree with

sometimes, you’re just wrong - it’s okay

hands shaky/worried you’re moving it yourself?

steady your arm on a table, chair, and just let the fingers holding your pendulum hang off the edge!

if you’re confident in your energy skillz you can try hanging it from an object, put your hands underneath or either side and focus your energy on it! 

trust yourself and your intuition friend

If nothing is working

“program” your pendulum again (some days I have to do this between every question

try a different pendulum! if it’s a crystal - maybe you aren’t connecting well! Maybe even make your own (like my circle on a string) you may connect better with it!

today just might not be the day, don’t fight it - your pendulum is your friend

and remember major life decisions are best made with careful thought, planning, and research, not pendulums!!!!

What’s Wrong with my Circle?, or, Circle Casting Clinic 101

You’ve probably heard of how to cast a circle, and of many methods to do so, a dozen times in the course of studying magic or Witchcraft. But have you ever felt your circle waver, your boundary un-drawn, or your sacred space distinctly not sacred? Here are some common problems with drawing and casting a circle of (most) any type, and some possible solutions.

Cleansing and Prepping: Is the space around you ready for a circle to be cast? Many casters find it helpful to sweep the area with a besom, or broom, beforehand. If you’re not the broom type, you can cleanse an area by walking the circle’s area clockwise sprinkling saltwater. (Don’t use salt outside - or your grass will be sorely upset).

Cleansing and Prepping Yourself: If you’re stressed out, you’re in no shape to cast anything! A ritual bath is the best way to ready yourself for magic, but in a pinch, asperging yourself with incense smoke (best blends for purification include sage, pine, rosemary, and cypress) will do just fine. If smoke is out of the question, a good grounding and centering, imaging the negative energies drawing out through your feet and drawing in the earth’s solid energies, will do the trick. You could also try a ritual tea to get your mind and body in the right mood (try something with rose or calendula), and to flush out previous energies.

Consecrating Yourself within the Circle: Feel like you drew the circle just fine, but you’re not exactly connected within it? Consider consecrating yourself within the circle, if you haven’t done so already. An easy and common means to do this is to dip your finger into the oil you are using for the circle, or, sans oil, the sacred water or regular water, and drawing a sigil representative of your circle on your forehead after your circle is drawn, in order to vow your connection to the circle (if it helps, say “I am now consecrated within this Circle.” as you do so). An all-purpose sigil would be a simple circle, but a cosmic lemniscate, or solar and lunar sigils, may be appropriate, depending on the circle.

Ritual Consciousness: Your circle seems to be drawn right, you feel pretty okay, but why aren’t things “lifting” to that magickal place? If you’re finding it hard to bring your circle to the otherworldly realm, take a second to breathe deeply. This is a broad question with lots of potential solutions: Strewing herbs associated with the moon phase and hour around the circle, matching your incense to the time or deity called, ensuring your lights are turned off, and making sure music doesn’t reach over a threshold where it can steal your attention. There are so many fixes - the main thing is to try and see what works by practicality! A surefire way for me has been to ensure the appropriate scent, whether it be through oils or incenses.

“Is My Circle Working?” and Circle Doubt: This one is an easy fix. Using an athame or other tool (if you drew a circle using natural power, use two fingers set together in an athame point) and cut a doorway in your circle. Step outside your circle, and back in, seeing if you can sense a difference in energy (and what that difference is). If it helps, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in and out of the circle, feeling the ways of each. If your circle lacks staying power, close your circle and try again, seeing where you went wrong. But remember - the power is in you. There’s no “Wrong” way to cast a circle, but you can trip yourself up sometimes!

Hope that covers some of it - I know there’s endless ways. If I’m missing any major or common problems, let me know and I’d be glad to cover it!

Blessed Be,

Ash

Happy Summer Solstice!

This work from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology,  Celestial scenery, or, The Wonders of the planetary system displayed (1845) was written by Thomas Dick, a Scottish minister and science educator. 

Northern hemispherians, enjoy the longest day of the year!

Witchy things to do during this New Moon in Gemini (tonight through the next 24-48 hours) 💁🕯🔮⛥👭🌚♊