Is Sharing Spells/ Ritual effective?- Part Two

In an earlier blog post:http://cocyeabroomstick.blogspot.com/2010/10/is-sharing-spells-ritual-effective-part.html

I began outlining the differences between spells and rituals. I also pointed out that learning styles had a profound effect on determining the elements in the spell/ritual which would be most effective for ourselves. I stopped at that point as I didn’t want the blog post to be too long.

What I have seen, is that people share spells; using someone else’s spell well…..”word for word” without considering if the spell’s associations have any meaning to them.

Spells and rituals, must mean something to the individual…..its no good doing a spell for new beginnings using yellow and purple, when the colours or baby pink or blue always came to mind as your association to the idea of new beginnings.

The inner work must be done before the spell. Sometimes, it is helpful to make notes in preparation for the spell. I usually outline the following points in preparing:

1)      In one sentence, what is the spell’s/ritual’s intent or goal

2)      Is it phrased in a way to “harm none”

3)      What colours do you associate with this goal?

4)      What scents do you associate with this goal?

5)      What actions / shapes etc do you associate with the goal

The process of creating your own spell leads to an inner work that is missed by just borrowing a spell. I remember reading a bit from  Austin Osmand Spare where he pointed out that attempting to teach others his magickal techniques was futile, as the techniques were developed  by his mind, for his mind. 

The same idea is put forward in learning any creative subject. The process of finding the end (painting) is more important than the end (painting) itself. You need to discover for yourself, what makes your mind click, and the only one who can do that is you.

Do the ground work……..you get deeper into your spiritual style by doing so.

Is Sharing Spells/ Ritual effective?- Part One

DEFINITIONS

In the article “When a Spell Becomes a Ritual-Magical Definitions for Pagans and Wiccans,” Elizabeth Yetter, points out the differences between a Ritual and a Spell.

Spells

Modern day Wiccan spells are very much like the spells used centuries ago. There are the spoken words, usually a rhyme that states a desire, and there are usually a few props, such as candles and incense. According to Hill and Williams (1965), “[t]he power of the spell derives from the power of words and incantation” (p. 154). For example, a love spell may require the person searching for true love to light a red candle and chant a simple set of words. After the person performs the spell, she is finished. She will not need to cast the spell again.

Rituals

Rituals, on the other hand, do not rely on the power of incantation alone. Instead, rituals rely on repetition. In the Oxford American Dictionary (1980), ritual is defined as “a procedure regularly followed” (p. 585). By this definition, a simple spell can become a ritual when the same person repeats it for a continuous desired effect. A repetitive procedure can be a group ritual where a coven initiates a new person into their group. The same welcoming ritual will be performed each time a newcomer decides to join the coven. Another form of ritual is casting a circle. Casting a circle is performed each time a practitioner of Wicca performs an act of magic, and is meant to create a magical barrier of protection.

Read more at Suite101: When a Spell Becomes a Ritual: Magical Definitions for Pagans and Wiccans http://www.suite101.com/content/when-a-spell-becomes-a-ritual-a31916#ixzz11IN6AOiK

Another dictionary defines a ritual as:

Ritual- according to the Free Dictionary

a. The prescribed order of a religious ceremony.

b. The body of ceremonies or rites used in a place of worship.

2.

a. The prescribed form of conducting a formal secular ceremony: the ritual of an inauguration.

b. The body of ceremonies used by a fraternal organization.

3. A book of rites or ceremonial forms.

Right, we’ve got the definitions out of the way. Now lets get down to the reasons we seek to perform these spells or rituals.

WHY PERFORM THEM?

Rituals in themselves give us a sense of stability. Performing a ritual over and over again inculcates certain ideas and associations in our minds. We begin to feel comfortable that things are going right.

But why do we need to feel this way? Spiritual practice as a whole connects the individual to the wider existence. Whether we work in a group, or on our own, the intention is the same. We like feeling a part of something larger than ourselves. All spiritual paths create this connection. Where witchcraft is concerned, however, our free-will gives us permission to actively do something to change our situation. Once we decide the direction we wish to go, a spell is usually our first option to introduce the change. For some, ritualizing the change assists with the reinforcing of the idea, and keeps the person on track for a longer period of time. This usually happens with deeper inner work which requires a mental shift in the perception of the practioner, nessecary over a longer period of time. We all know that changing an in-built mind programme is not easy.

In order to create the change that we want, our symbols in our work must connect with our inner core. For us to know the symbols that connect deeply, we need to know ourselves. A good place to start is the symbols/associations that we are drawn to most. It is also extremely helpful to know how we learn. This will be dealt with in the next Blog post.

Does the Spell or Ritual correspond to your inner core?

LEARNING STYLES

Some basic learning styles are visual, auditory, tactile, and I would like to add olfactory and gustatory. This are of course linked to the five senses, and all senses are required to cement the experience of the spell/ritual. Workers in Magick are all tactile. We want to do the work ourselves, not sit passively by and have it done for us. J In my experience developing a practice for myself, I have come to learn that the most effective spells are those where there is a lot of use of colour and scents. I am a very visual person, drawn to colour (being an artist I guess) and smells have a profound effect on my mental state, and can trigger emotions. As for the auditory part, silence is best for me. I can focus best there. (Some people work best with music). I have not explored the gustatory method effectively, and have only done two spells chanelling energies into food I prepared, the idea being that by ingesting the food I was ingesting the energies which would give me the power to achieve my spell’s goal.

Basic guidelines for each of the learning styles would be:

Visual – Knowledge of colour associations, symbols and understanding of emotions caused by images. Crowley’s Liber 777 is still the best reference for this.  http://hermetic.com/crowley/libers/liber058.pdf

Colour Therapy knowledge helps greatly. And techniques can include drawing the goal, crafting the image through collages etc while planning out the colours and symbols which would be used.

Auditory – Key to this is the understanding of the emotions that musical keys evoke in ourselves. Just like there are visual universal symbols, there are universal emotional reactions to the vibrations of the notes. More information on this can be found at: http://www.oldenwilde.org/oldenwilde/members/diu/quadriv.html

And also at http://www.gradfree.com/kevin/some_theory_on_musical_keys.htm

Olfactory- This obviously is where the incense comes in. Knowing the associations for each scent is also key. But also remember that if the scent is offensive to you its best to find an alternative. Liber 777 can also help as well as http://www.alchemy-works.com/planetary_corresp.html

Gustatory- Deals with the effect that taste has on our emotions. This is addressed in Magickal Cooking. The most comprehensive look at this aspect I have seen has been in the WITCHSCHOOL’s course on Magical cooking. But to culminate a spell with “cakes and ale” associated with your goal has to be exciting to anyone! Of course a knowledge of herbs and their associations help as well.

Herbs for health: http://www.moonsmusings.com/pagan/kitchen.html

General herbal associations: http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/sylverspage/herbs.html

Additional resources: http://www.ecauldron.net/bookherbals.php




The next part of this topic will explore how we can understand our touch stones and open discussion on creating our own rituals.

            

Dark Moon Banishing Spell

Several issues came up which had me in a mental magickal analysis recently. A conbination of unwarrented fears, and headaches, and gossipy stories by former co-workers led me to take a quiet moment to do some inner work.

Having gone through a period of unexplainable "dumbness"...I mean three weeks of feeling utterly stupid...brain fog, lack of clarity, and just....well, unable to rouse my connection with the Goddess for reading, and creating.....awfull.
Some gossips in the office let out that two former co-workers had assumed that because I was a witch, I had cast a hex on them. Taking steps to protect themselves they went to a local "obeah man" to "wuk a zeppy" on me to protect themselves.

Well......of all the stupid.....anyway......I have far better things to do with magcik than to use it against someone. I would rather, in any competitive station, do the spell to boost my performance-psych up my mind- to be able to achieve my goals. I don't like interfering with the free will of any being, physical or otherwise. Thats my personal decision. Read into it what you wish.

So.......for cautions sake I decided to wait for the Dark moon to do a banishing spell, which would cover all bases.
9th June 2010 - Moon was in Taurus....so I decided to throw in another anxiety I had about poverty...for good measure.
NOTE: Always phrase you spells in the present. Always make the wording read that it is already so.
Other points: You can burn a black candle to banish negative energies, but burn a white candle after to fill the void. Or do what I do and use a white candle anyway.

So I lit a white candle, and a stick of incense and chanted the spell while circling my hand over the candle flame in a widdershins direction.

Chant:


"Poverty is no longer here
Anxiety now disappears
My mind no longer holds a fear
Dark Moon hears my prayer"


While doing this I also had visualizations of each are of negativity leaving my mind as balls of glowing darkness....they flew off into the night, and I mentally sent a shot of energy to blow them up and diffuse them. A child like creative mind to deal with these silly things really works I have found.

A week later, there is a firey energy within me, work duties are clear as a bell, planning skills are so strong.....my energy is positive.
Must remember to repeat a banishing spell to clear any discord during the dark moon. Just incase any other person jumps to conclusions about me.

Frankincense - 1 Pound Bag

Best Incense for banishing spells.

Cocyea Broom (Cocoyea)

And that's what a Cocyea Broom looks like.
Its made from the fronds (leaves ) of the Coconut Tree. The individual leaves are stripped leaving just the spine and all the cocyea are tied together in a thick bunch to make a broom. You can hold it in your hand or you can make it more like a besom by adding a long broom handle to the center of the bunch just before you tie.

Cocyea broom lore really centers around its use in cleansing, especially sweeping out the less desirable energies that might be lurking around. It is regular;y used in the Caribbean for regular cleaning, especially for sweeping out carpets when you don't have a vacuum handy, or for sweeping your yard clean.

There are "jokes" and whispers about it being a good spirit cleanser, and depictions of "beating" a possessed individual with one come to mine in some circles.

Having been "beaten" myself by the many " it have to be so, and only so is correct" ideas that pervade this country, I thought it apt to name the blog thus. It really assists in cleansing my mind of the limiting thinking that usually follows anyone who rigidly follows anything. I cannot follow anyone or anything for long. And I hope no one reading this blog takes anything word for word.

Cleansing yourself and ridding your person of things, thoughts and ideas that you no longer need is always important. Hanging on to baggage only weighs you down. And weight prevents you from flying.

Every ritual or spell that you do requires you to cleanse your work area. You can create your own enjoyable Cleansing Ritual, which would be the first step to all your spells and rituals. Make your own broom, besom, cocyea broom. Tie it with a ribbon or fabric which depicts your usual workings (see colour associations), and create your own Cleansing Chant.

Widdershins I cleanse my space
For to work my magick
Any beasties left about
for them it would be tragic!


(my favourite...said while sweeping widdershins about the work area. I like to work like a mad cackling witch who has gone nuts. Mwhahahaha)
You can also light inscense and chant the same chant.

Blow away the beasties dear
Cleanse my space of dread
the uninvited in my space
Will get a blown up head!

You get the general idea.....don't make lightly with unwanted spirits, make sure they stay out of your mental space always, and your magick space as well.