Salt of the Earth -

Salt is pure in its whiteness, long linked to life and health. In neo-Pagan Witchcraft, salt is used as an agent of purification, to ward off negative influences. Salt represents the element earth and is a staple in magic and worship.

Salt is vital to the maintenance of life and, in the eyes of former generations, apparently magical in its properties of food preservation and evaporation, salt has been highly valued for centuries.

Salt is reputed to have considerable power as a protective against evil influences. According to time-honoured superstition, salt had considerable potency as a defence against evil spirits and was loathed by them because of its association with holiness. If salt was spilled this was considered almost blasphemous and likely to attract the attention of negative energies. Tossing a pinch of the spilled salt over the left shoulder, however, was reputed to drive away the malevolent energies.

An utter of a curse against a person - one defence was to hurl after them a handful of salt, which would negate the effects of any ill-wishing.

Bathing a newborn children in salty water was recommended as a sure way to protect them from negative entities.

Believe -

Some kinds of beings (Spirits) can not be seen with your sharp eyes...nor can they be stalked or hunted by common wo/man.

To witness them one must first see beyond our physical world into the Otherworld where they dwell.

See not only with your eyes, but with your spirit as well.

*Jinn: Arabian spirits who ruled the earth for a thousand years before Adam. They can make themselves either visible or invisible and often assume the form of an animal.

Seek and You Shall Find -

PRAY TO THE MOON
WHEN SHE IS ROUND,
LUCK WITH YOU
THEN ABOUND.
WHAT YOU SEEK FOR
SHALL BE FOUND
ON THE SEA OR SOLID GROUND.
( An old Pagan rhyme orgin unknown)

The moon makes thirteen trips around Earth during the course of a year. A witch's ritual occurring on the full moon is known as Esbat. It is a prime time for the most Spiritual World Access.

During the Wolf Moon on January 18, 2011 lunar energies were reaching a peak. This was the appropriate lunar phase for communication with Spirit and divination. My friend and I bundled in warm clothing on this quiet night walked slowly down the hill as the winter snow was falling, the winds were peaceful, the temperature dipping way below zero under the full moon as we talked about our lives.

We stopped halfway up to the top of the hill. I removed from my coat pocket the digital camera I brought. Beside me, my friend took the photographs. During the photography session I spoke to Spirit as I offered tobacco smoke.

All was calm as I said, "I so wish to commune with Spirit, my adviser for special wisdom. Spirit Guide, hear my call, on this most magical night. If it is your will release to me that which you want me to know."

When all was said and done I checked each picture frame for insight into my life.

A supernatural act occurred. I was informed of an event that may occur in my life. I focused on the image of a baby a symbol for fortunate through the help of friends. I determined the good omen to be either a real baby is on the way, or the birth of a new business or home.

Some will agree and some will disagree. Decide for yourself what it is or what it isn't in the picture and the symbolic meaning.

(c)2011AngieSkelhorn

We pray and honour Nature Spirits, Spirit Guides, the Sun and the Moon to ask for blessings for important endeavors. Ancestral Spirits keep a close watch on their descendants. Spirits make contact with human beings to help work out their destinies.

Our spirit helpers are normally invisible. They are with us to protect and guide. We are given positive and negative choices (opportunities) in life to experience. Free-will decides our outcome.

Most people who know me are aware I offer tobacco smoke to Spirits so they can manipulate the substance to appear or give symbols to open the subconscious. Symbols are psychological tools of discovery. Each holds hidden meanings to open the subconscious. The tool is used for exploration to trigger the mind to release hidden thoughts to discover a solution or answer sought.

On New Year's Eve I went for a walk, offered tobacco smoke and took a few pictures. I see a calf's head in the first picture. Living on a farm and walking in the hay field I am not surprised to see a calf's head. In the second a buck with large antlers and below that a man with a beard.

Merry Samhain

Summer is almost at the point where the season is merely a memory. During the Autumn months the temperatures are trying to cool while the wind sweeps the leaves trying to change color as it moves the treetops. Autumn is the balance between summer's light and winter's dark. The season approaching is one that draws us inward and makes us reflective.

To Witches October 31st is more than trick or treating.

Know as Samhain (sow-een) to the ancient Celts, is the day on which the Celtic New Year and Winter begins. Samhain is the end of one year and the beginning of the next. A time for change, and a time to look to the future. It is the perfect moment to be in touch with Spirit Guides and vision of the way you want you life. The veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest point of the year making communication easier.

To prepare for the ritual bathe in salt to purify the mind, body, heart and soul. Dressed, slip in your pocket a picture of the person you will request to speak with or your Spirit Guide. Indoors or out the summoning of spirit is carried out in dawn or dusk in the glow of flickering lights of candles.

A secluded place is necessary, free from interruption, and then the magical circle is drawn out. The reason for this is to avoidance of contamination from unfriendly spirits.

Pause before you say what's on your mind. Focus on the lit candle wick and slowly breathe in and out to connect with the ebb and flow of the universe.

The universe is comprised of an invisible energy which is synchronized and flows without static. Interlaced threads move from side to side, intersect, sends out ripples and generate a current. Energy swirls around and around in its own inevitable rhythm of waves or vibrations on a vast range of different frequencies. The magical energy is, above and below heaven and earth, and inhabits all living and non-living things. The endless energies can be tapped into.

Acknowledge what you have already been given. You have many blessings to be thankful for. If you woke this morning with a healthy body you are blessed. Some people didn't while others didn't wake at all.

Say aloud:

I am thankful for the wonderful things in my life. I am grateful for all those mundane bounties that can be taken for granted which makes my life more stable - a home, heat, hydro, resources to pay bills and food in the fridge. I appreciate my family and friends cooperation to make my life more peaceful; for mutual consideration and respect.

I pray that peace be with my fellow citizens of my community, my country and the world at large.

Call out to your Spirit Guide bidding to appear.

Spirit Guide who intervenes in my life with guidance and sympathy please come hither.

I am never afraid of what I know - participate in the process of learning and teaching, to fulfil my potential through constructive productivity and whatever state I am in, to be content.

In the previous year there were many ups and downs that I dealt with. Trouble is part of life. Failure builds character. I acknowledge what has been done; and what remains to be done.

This year I will strive to ----

Take time to visualize yourself being the person you want to be, living the life you desire.

Say aloud:

Spirit Guide I request your assistance along the way in the coming year. Say farewell and then close the circle. Blessed Be.

For a variety of reasons, people who have died visit the earthly plane. I don't believe they cut ties or release their attachments to the people they love and care for. If you believe communication with the dead or spirit, it is possible.

This Too Shall Pass...

Higher Powers change events all the time to put right what goes wrong. There is guidance in all things. We go through phases - forgive, forget, let go.

New opportunities come to put things back in proper order. When everything seems to go wrong, miraculously, everything starts to change for the better.

Magical Practice

Indian rituals, ceremonies, and religious observances, tobacco is the unifying thread of communication between humans and the spiritual powers. The spirits are said to be extremely fond of tobacco and that the only way they could get it was from the Indians, either by smoke from a pipe or by offerings of dry tobacco.

Tobacco was placed at graves as an offering to the departed spirit. Requests to elders to relate oral traditions or other special knowledge were accompanied with a gift.

"Tobacco is in the east on the medicine wheel and has the quality of communication with Spirit. Tobacco smoke is visible breath that takes prayers to the Great Spirit. Tobacco also has the quality of connecting people with each other and bringing peace.

Tobacco offered directly or as smoke allows for communication with the spirit. As a Mesquakie told a student seeking to understand Native American culture: 'We use it (tobacco) in ceremonies; we put it in the fire, and then we can talk to the spirits.

Secondary methods involve those making the offering to bring the tobacco smoke into themselves and then blow it towards the spiritual recipient. The sharing of the smoke between the one making the offering and the spirit receiving it creates communion between the two. The sacred smoke may also be spread over oneself or over objects and persons as a blessing."


*Quote taken from Article Herbs by Marsha Smith Heron