Trees 101: The Birch

I'm in love with trees. I can think of nothing better than spending time sitting beneath a favorite tree, meditating, reading or simply soaking up the tree's energy. Or meeting a new tree while out walking and doing the same. It's amazing how varied different trees' energies are. If you aren't sure about this energy thing, try this: ask the tree quietly if you can draw some of its energy for yourself and if it would mind sharing it with you. If the tree says yes, stand or sit up straight with your back to the tree, making as much contact as you can along the length of your spine. Relax and concentrate. You should within moments begin to feel a tingling sensation at your contact points, such as your shoulder blades. This can also be done with your hands pressed against the trunk too. Be sure to thank the tree when you are done and if possible, leave an offering to show your gratitude, perhaps a handful of birdseed at its base.

Trees have been considered sacred for millennia and one of the many reasons for this is that trees are one of the few things on this planet that dwell in all three realms simultaneously: its roots are in the netherworld, it's trunk is in our earthly realm and the top of its branches touch the heavens. They carry an immense amount of power to heal. My favorite tree is the Birch and so I'll give them the honor of being first.

The birch is a feminine tree, ruled by the planet Venus and the element of water. Birch trees represent the Goddess. They are one of the nine sacred woods used for Sabbat fires and are considered to have both protective qualities and symbolize renewal. Birch wood is an incredibly hard and strong wood and thus is used for furniture, boats and can even be used for food as the sap is used to make birch beer. The traditional besom is made of birch twigs bound together.

The twigs of birch trees have been used for exorcising spirits by tapping them on possessed people to drive the evil out. It is purifying and cleansing.

Birch is the tree of the dead and through renewal, rebirth and new life.

Grounding Charm

Are you feeling in need of some grounding energy? Maybe you get nervous when driving, perhaps your job is very stressful (or the people you work with, or even your customers or clients are difficult), or perhaps you're just feeling stressed in general, then this is a great little grounding charm to make for yourself, carried in a conjure or mojo bag that can be tucked into your purse, or even worn under your clothing as a necklace to keep it close to your heart.

What you'll need:
A piece of smoky quartz
Salt
Copper
Fabric to make a small bag
Cord or string

What you'll need to do with these things:
First the quartz will need to be cleansed. Saltwater is good but you must be sure it won't damage the stone, and burying it in the earth for one lunar cycle is also good, but if you're like me and you're freaking out and need to fix things fast, then a few hours setting out under the bright sun will also work. It doesn't have to be a big piece of quartz, but be sure to clean it from all those hands that have handled it prior to you at the new age store, the gem warehouse, the bead shop or wherever you purchased it from. The only exception to this would be if you were lucky enough to have found a small chunk of smoky quartz out in nature.

As for the copper, a penny will work just fine but you must be sure that the penny has an earlier date on it than 1982, the year in which the penny went from being 95% copper and 5% zinc to 97.5% zinc and only 2.5% copper, thus making the penny merely copper-plated zinc. Also: watch out for 1943 pennies as they were zinc-coated steel during war time.

Any pure salt is fine, but sea salt is always best, though not by any means essential. I took a small square piece of handmade cotton rag paper with greenery embedded in it and poured a teaspoon or so of salt into the middle and carefully folded the square around it. This I sealed with a few drops of red wax.

Your fabric, ideally should be green as green is the color of healing, but you should use any cloth that speaks to you, be it the color or its pattern that draws you to it. I personally used a very rowdy patterned fabric of many appropriate colors: green for healing, red for courage, pink for a sense of calm, gold for the God, silver for the Goddess, brown for the grounding color of earth. Leave it to me to not be able to settle on one color. I did however, line my little bag with green felt as that would be the color closest to my charmed elements. You'll want to make a bag whose finished size in somewhere in the area of 3" tall by 2.5" wide and which has a channel at the top with a small opening that you can run your cord through for a drawstring to keep the magickal elements safe inside. A good length of cord is 32" in length, which sounds like a lot, but truly isn't once it's been run through the casing and then knotted at the two loose ends. It makes a cord that, should you wish to wear your bag tucked into your clothing as a necklace of sorts, is just over 13" in length.

Be sure to keep your intentions clearly in mind while preparing the three elements and the bag and after you have finished it, take a moment to hold it in your hands and meditate on your intentions once more. Even better still is to bless it in circle and empower it to keep you grounded, safe and calm.

Why this little bag works:
Smoky quartz is a mood elevator that allows the one who possesses it to overcome negative emotions. It is worn as a grounding stone.

Copper has healing properties and also balances the body's projective and receptive energies, thereby releasing any blockages.

Salt is purifying, grounding, cleansing and can be used not only for protection, but also to help focus one's attentions and energies.

Just remember not to hang on to the bag forever for as with all things magickal, the energy that you put into this charm will eventually dissipate. I'm a big believer in recycling and feel that with a thorough washing to cleanse the bag, it can and should be used again for another appropriate charm. Likewise the piece of quartz. The salt however, when the charm is taken apart, should be poured back into the earth where she can recycle its energies and use it for her own good (be sure to not pour it where it can harm a plant or where an animal can ingest it). Best to bury it slightly in a safe place.

May you know calm and peace in your time of stress. Blessed be.

Arts and Craft

As an artist I try to bring my art to my craft whenever I can. It doesn't always have to be something big and showy, in fact it usually never is. I'm not the kind of witch who goes heavy on the pomp in anything I do. My circle casting is kept pretty simple with the emphasis on the energy I'm generating, not the endless gestures, the waving pentagrams into the air as I call the quarters or the need to dress in ritual garb of flowing robes and special jewelry. Actually, I don't own any special Wiccan clothing and while it may be fine for others, I personally would feel pretty silly ambling about in a druid-like costume. I also don't own an athame or even a chalice. My fingers and hands are sufficient to direct any energy I need to move and a simple stoneware cup works just fine if I am making any offerings on a Sabbat. No fancy altar cloths, no elaborate decorations, just me and the Divine and whatever my purpose for the circle is: a recognized day, a need for circle for the channeling of energy for spellwork, or sometimes even just to quietly commune with the Goddess and God in a peaceful meditation. But I digress.

No, my art comes into play with the smaller things that make my journey as a witch fulfilling. The decorating of seasonal altars in my home, the hand-painted labels I place on my herb jars, the elemental art that goes into creating my own incense for burning in circle or within my home just because I feel like smelling something beautiful and uplifting. I have sewn white cloths that I use to wrap the few tools I do use, and also hand-embroidered the symbols that adorn them. I have in the past dipped my own candles, which is a truly beautiful way to get close to an element, though I find it very time-consuming these days and buy my candles in shops. Candling is an art in itself and one I admire very much. Nothing is more lovely than a hand-made candle lit on an altar empowered with your intentions and heart and coming from one's own hand and imagination.

I grow as many of the herbs I use as I can in a field garden that my husband and I have planted in our back field. And I have in turn turned the garden into an outdoor altar of sorts with a place for leaving offerings or for moon-gazing on a warm summer night. Planning and planting the garden, while time-consuming and quite frankly often very tedious (I'm an instant gratification sort of person, so anything that requires patience and an extended amount of time to bring to fruition is usually fairly difficult for me, though always a good lesson), still strengthened my connection with the earth, and the choice of plants for their specific purposes and colors was for me like painting a living garden.

I have for years thought it would be great to design and paint my own set of tarot cards. If I ever find myself with months or even years of free time on my hands, this is something I would fill that idle time with. I can only imagine the power and energy a self-made deck of cards would bring. That would be a very exciting tool with which to work.

I love the "getting down and dirty" with my craft, the creating, the making, the building, the growing. It makes my journey and growth as a witch deeply personal and very beautiful.

Time for a Change

Time manipulation is an amazing thing and not at all difficult to manifest. We have all had days where we have been overwhelmed with work and each time we look at the clock we grow more frantic with the realization that we simply do not have enough time to complete all our tasks or to get to where we are going in a timely manner. The trick to this skill is to not let time get away from you. By consciously and calmly repeating to yourself the mantra, "I have all the time in the world" or "I have all the time I need to complete this (and name whatever it is you need to accomplish)" time will expand and you will have as much time as you need.

The trick is manifesting your will. You need to stay absolutely calm and focused and really and truly mean it when you say you have all the time in the world. It's the getting flustered, the rushing, the nerves and only that, that makes this an impossibility. Next time you're under the gun time-wise, take a moment to think about what I have said. Take a deep cleansing breath and tell yourself that this is just fine, that you have all the time in the world. Know in your heart and in your mind that there is no hurry, everything is perfect and as it should be and I promise that you will have more than enough time to accomplish your task. Stay in the moment and watch the magic happen.

Altering one's perception of the passage of time is a very powerful and effective tool.

Tarot

I'm a lazy tarot reader. It would be one thing if I did readings for others on a regular basis, but I don't. I don't charge money for a reading as it isn't my goal to make people pay me to tell them what their cards say. Not that there's anything wrong with doing readings for a living provided you're really paying attention to what the cards are saying. I've been to quite a few people who I could guarantee had no knowledge of the tarot and this was painfully obvious when they told me the usual schtick: you're coming into money, you're going on a trip, anything positive they thought I wanted to hear for my dollar. In fact, in all the years that I have been reading tarot, which is now approaching 28 years, I don't think I've ever once seen these things in my own spreads. While the cards can be pretty issue specific, they aren't that specific. I do read for friends when they ask me, which I very much enjoy doing. But when it comes to myself, most of the time it just seems like too much bother to get out the cards, shuffle them and throw down a spread. It doesn't get more lazy than that.

Every once in a while I'll go through a brief spell of reading a card a day, to see what that day holds for me, but again, that requires the effort of the process and when I am first hitting the floor in the morning, the last thing I usually remember to do is pop out a deck and pick a card, any card. I'm more focused on the trillion and one things I have to do that day and how there isn't ever enough time to get everything done that needs to be done, let alone sit down and spend some time quietly contemplating the card(s). Reading tarot takes concentration, it takes relaxation and a bit of meditation and first thing in the morning that's impossible for me, especially given the fact that I am not even remotely a morning person. I'm lucky to even be ambulatory and recognize my own name before lunchtime.

I do however do a yearly spread on New Year's Day. Many witches who do divination of some sort like to do it on Samhain, a traditional day for that sort of thing, but I started out many years ago doing this on New Year's day and thus it's remained. The witch's New Year is not only a beautiful time for this but an especially potent time for this, but when that calendar ticks over into a fresh new year, it just seems to me that that's the perfect time to see what the coming months have in store for me, not in October. I have kept a journal of these spreads through the years, too. It's not only nice to see what has transpired during this year, but in years past as well. It's a lovely way to mark the changes within me and the passage of my life from year to year. My hopes, my fears, my personal journey all laid out courtesy of the cards that fell on that particular winter afternoon. I was once telling someone how accurate this is, that most of what I read for myself on January 1 actually does come to fruition throughout the year and I was asked how many times I checked during the year to see whether my reading was spot-on or not. I hadn't actually thought about this before and I would guess to a skeptic the idea that I could be reading my own journal periodically throughout the year and subconsciously manipulating the events of my daily life to coincide with what the cards told me on New Year's is a possibility. But I don't do that. In fact, I seldom even read my journal until the following New Year's day when I sit and do my reading for the new year. I admit I will occasionally, if things in my life are especially trying or difficult, take a look at what I predicted and see if this was something that the cards had foretold, but otherwise I never think to check.

Still I wish I had the time, the discipline and the dedication to do regular readings for myself and for those closest to me. It's a beautiful art that I'm thankful to know. And even after nearly three decades, I never cease to be amazed at how intimate and accurate this divination can be in knowledgeable hands.

A Simple Herbal Protection Charm for the Home

Tonight I'll be hanging protective herbs in my house. It's a simple way to keep your house protected and safe from negativity of any sort: irritating and annoying people, bad vibes that occasionally work their energy through any house with more than one person living in it, negative outside influences, evil energy. There are quite a few herbs whose properties are perfect for this use, but it's best to limit the number used. Three is traditional, but I prefer to use four to represent the quarters, the four elements: earth, water, air and fire.

BASIL (witches herb): evil cannot manifest where basil rests. It is used in exorcisms and purification rituals, and when placed within windows or over doors brings protection.

DILL (dill weed): when hung above a door, no one with a negative attitude can enter your home.

FENNEL (sweet fennel): fennel brings protection when placed in the home. When hung in windows or over doors, it wards off evil spirits.

ROSEMARY (compass weed): this herb emits powerful cleansing and purifying vibrations, especially when burned as an incense. Hung in the home it serves to protect those within from thieves, negativity and guards good health.

Gently wash the herbs in cool, clean water and pat them dry. Using your consecrated and purified utility knife, trim the herbs and cut their stalks to a manageable length. I don't use a traditional white-handled knife, but a knife that belonged to my father who was a chef, who passed away when I was 16 years old. Using it in a sacred way, feeling his grip in the old wooden handle, knowing that he used this knife for what was his love and what stirred his soul adds an element to my craft that no knife bought from a shop could ever bring to it. Meditate on your intentions for the herbs while you clean and prepare them. See their protective qualities clearly working for you, your house and family.

Using red string or very thin ribbon, tie a tight knot around the stems and say, "I bind these herbs to protect this house and all within it." Make twelve more tiny tight knots and repeat the mantra with each knot. When you have finished say "May these herbs I have bound this night serve to protect this home and all who dwell within it from evil and negative influences. May they work their magic."

Hang the herbs up over and just inside the front door. I put up two bundles, one over the front door and a second over the back door as I tend to like things symmetrical. It's the anal part of me that can't help it. Don't forget to replace the herbs every three months or so to maintain their powers as with time this will weaken.

I do this on a Saturday night as Saturday is ruled by the planet Saturn who rules those issues concerning boundaries, restrictions and even buildings so it's the perfect day to perform protection spell magic for your home. And it should be done during the waxing moon to enhance the protective shield of the herbs and to draw the safe and healthy vibrations to you.

It's a lovely little spell and one that smells nice each time you pass through the doorway to boot.