The Modern Guide to Witchcraft (15 page)

These suggestions are just that: suggestions. You may decide to design a more elaborate or personal ritual for charging your magick tools. If you want to let your chalice bask in moonlight for twenty-eight nights or bury your pentagram beneath an oak tree for a week, by all means do it. Go with whatever feels right to you. The purpose, after all, is to make these tools yours, so the more personal the ritual the better.

How do you protect your expensive jewelry? Your heirloom silverware? Your favorite designer clothes? Devote the same care to storing your magick tools. If you have an altar, you may wish to display your tools on it. Many witches, however, prefer to store their tools safely out of sight, partly to prevent other people from handling them and partly to avoid uncomfortable questions. It’s traditional to wrap your magick tools in silk, which protects them from dust and dirt as well as ambient vibrations. Alternately, you may choose to put them in velvet pouches, wooden boxes, or other containers and stash them in a drawer, trunk, closet, or cabinet. Like any precious possession, you want to safeguard them from damage and keep them from falling into the wrong hands.

When caring for and working with your magick tools, here are a few precautions and protocols to remember:

• Don’t let anyone else use your tools or handle them, except perhaps a magickal partner with whom you work regularly.
  
• If someone else does touch a tool, smudge or wash it to remove that person’s energy.
  
• If you do tarot readings for other people, use a different deck than the one you use to read for yourself. Keep a third deck for spells. The same goes for rune sets.
  
• Clean and smudge all tools before you begin using them to perform magick. After that, you needn’t cleanse them unless someone else handles them. (Of course, if you drink or eat from a chalice or cauldron you’ll want to wash it before storing it.)
  
• Use your tools for working magick only, not for mundane purposes.
  

Treat your magick tools with care and respect, and they’ll serve you for a lifetime.

When you buy a car, you want to know something about its history. The same holds true for magick tools. If you purchase new items, you can check out the seller’s reputation, get info about the craftspeople who actually made the objects, and read users’ reports online. However, if you buy vintage items, well, tracking down their pedigrees can get a bit tricky. Antique chalices and swords may be exquisitely beautiful, reflecting a level of craftsmanship we no longer see today. But remember, magick tools used by someone else may hold that person’s energy for a long time. This is especially true if the objects contain gemstones. Cleansing, purifying, and consecrating practices can remove old energies you wish to delete, but it’s always a good idea to check out your tools’ histories if possible before you start using them.

Once I found a handsome old knife in an antique shop, and thought it would make a fabulous athame—until the salesperson told me that it had previously been used as a bris knife.
Not
the energy I wanted tainting my ritual dagger!

You can also fabricate your own magick tools if you have skills in woodworking or metalsmithing. In earlier times, people fashioned wands from sticks of wood, and you can too. Choose a branch that has fallen from the tree, perhaps in a storm or as part of the natural aging process. Or, request permission from the tree to cut a twig and, after cutting, make an offering to the tree as a thank you. Unless you’re a skilled glassblower, you’re unlikely to create your own chalice from scratch. You can, however, buy special paints in crafts stores to decorate the glass with meaningful images. Even if you purchase new items from a metaphysical store, you may still want to add your own personal touches to make your tools uniquely yours.

As we’ve already said, some witches like to display their primary tools on their altars, along with candles to provide illumination, statues or deity representations, other items required for a particular spell or ritual, and maybe food and drink. If you like to have your book of shadows on hand when you do a ritual, you need room for it on the altar as well, which can make things a bit crowded. Just know that you’re free to move things around as you require, which may mean setting up a secondary altar or, as we discussed in the
previous chapter
, four shrines within your sacred space. Do whatever you find comfortable and conven-ient. If you choose to leave your primary tools out on your altar, be sure to display all four for balance.

A grimoire is a witch’s journal of spells and rituals. Here’s where you keep a record of the magick you perform, the ingredients and tools you use in spells, and your results. It’s a bit like a cook’s personal collection of favorite recipes.

Originally, a grimoire referred to a book of spells and incantations used for calling forth spirits. Grimoires date back to the ancient Middle East, and later made their way through Europe during the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

Early grimoires were handwritten on parchment or paper, and perhaps bound in richly tooled leather or wood. Today, many witches still enjoy the process of recording spells and rituals by hand in beautifully bound journals. However, a grimoire or “book of shadows” keyboarded into your computer serves the same purpose. Most modern grimoires are written by individuals for their own use and generally they contain strictly personal records intended only for the author’s purposes. However, sometimes a grimoire (or sections of it) may be passed down or copied from a master book. In such cases, the title of the original book is usually kept secret.

One of the most influential grimoires,
The Gardnerian Book of Shadows
, is attributed to Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente. This highly regarded book is a compilation of rituals that the authors blended and incorporated with original and modern elements between 1949 and 1961.
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
, a fifteenth-century French manuscript translated by S.L. MacGregor Mathers in 1900, which includes spells for raising the dead and becoming invisible, had a major impact on contemporary ceremonial magick. Another amazing and rare grimoire,
The Magus
, composed by Francis Barrett in 1801, also covers astrology, alchemy, and Qabalistic knowledge, and remains an important source of information for magicians. You can see these texts online at
www.sacred-texts.com
,
but be advised, they’re not light reading.

Both a grimoire and a book of shadows hold spells, but a grimoire is intended to instruct, whereas a book of shadows is more of a personal record of a spiritual journey. Your book of shadows will not only include spells and incantations, but your observations, insights, and experiences as well. It might also contain dreams, poems, invocations, revelations, inspiration, and lore. If you like, you can draw in it, press flowers between its pages, add photographs—whatever tells of your journey.

Some people argue that a book of shadows more closely resembles a diary or a journal. Purists insist that a grimoire should be entirely instructional, full of information and practical application—no personal musings or little doodles in the borders. Fortunately, no “official” criterion exists for creating a book of shadows, so feel free to write in it whatever suits your purposes. Take the knowledge that is the gift of your elders and ancestors and combine it with your own practices and beliefs to create a new, useful work that is rooted in your tradition but remains unique and original. It’s your journey, your story, and each book will be as individual as its author.

Traditionally, a witch keeps her book of shadows private—just as you’d keep your diary secret. You may, if you choose, share what you’ve written with people you trust, such as your teacher, a magickal partner, or an apprentice. The second part of this book is an open grimoire with spells for love, abundance, career success, health, and more. In the beginning, I recommend doing the spells as they’re written. Later, when you have more magickal knowledge under your belt, you may enjoy adding your own touches or concocting original spells from scratch.

It’s reasonably safe to say that every plant has been used at one time or another for magickal purposes, especially in spellcraft. A Greek myth explains that the daughters of Hecate (one of the patronesses of witchcraft) taught witches how to use plants for both healing and magick, and throughout history witches have practiced herbalism. According to green witchcraft, all plants contain spirits. To work effectively with plants, witches communicate with them at a spiritual level, not just a physical one.

To practice plant magick you must first reconnect with nature. You can’t honor something you don’t feel an intimate connection with, and you certainly can’t call on the energies of plant spirits without spending time with plants. If you live in the concrete jungle, this may present some challenges. But even in the heart of the city, you can find parks, botanical gardens, greenhouses, or garden centers where you can commune with plants.

Every plant is unique, with its own special energies and applications. Rowan, for instance, hung above a doorway protects your home from harm. Mugwort improves psychic awareness. Here are some ways you might choose to work with the magickal properties of plants:

• Watch plant behavior for omens and signs.
  
• Gather loosened leaves and petals for magick potions.
  
• Use plant matter in amulets and talismans.
  
• Add plant matter to incense and candles.
  
• Blend herbs for poultices and healing teas.
  
• Make fragrant potpourris to place in your closets and dresser drawers.
  
• Press pretty flowers in your book of shadows.
  
• Place live plants in various parts of your home or yard to encourage personal growth and well-being.
  

As any good cook will tell you, the key to great food lies in the ingredients and how the cook combines them. The same holds true for spells. If you think of a spell as a magick recipe, you begin to understand why the components (that is, the ingredients) are so important. If you don’t measure the components correctly, add them to the mix at the right time, and give them enough time to “bake” properly, the magick goes awry.

So what constitutes a good spell component? Anything that’s essential to the recipe—anything that builds the energy until it’s just right. All the ingredients must mesh on a metaphysical level. Of course, the witch herself is the key component of any spell, adding a word, a touch, or a wish.

“But there are some things I know for certain: always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can.”

—S
ALLY
O
WENS
,
P
RACTICAL
M
AGIC

In this chapter you’ll learn about the magickal powers of many types of plants and how to use them in spellcraft. The lists that follow are by no means comprehensive, but provide enough information so that you can eventually design your own spells. You don’t need to run out and buy everything on these lists; select a few staples that seem suited to the kinds of spells you want to cast—you can always add more later, just as a cook adds to her spice collection. As you become more proficient with spells, you’ll compile your own lists of what works and what doesn’t.

Since ancient times, mythology and legends have talked about magickal trees. Early Greek myths said that certain trees could predict the future. The Druids considered trees sacred, and liked to perform their rituals outdoors in groves of oak trees. The Celts believed that the sacred World Tree connected the upper, middle, and lower worlds. The Buddha gained enlightenment while sitting beneath a Bodhi tree.

Trees are the pillars of our world. They anchor our ground and seem to hold up the sky. They form the backbone of the green witch’s practice. Although witches and herbalists tend to focus on herbs, they also work with wood, often when they want to create stability or permanence. Traditionally, magicians crafted their wands and staffs from wood. Sticks and twigs form the basis of many protective amulets; rounds cut from the cross-section of branches can be carved with magick symbols and carried as talismans. Witches also combine sacred woods in ritual fires, particularly at Yule. (You’ll learn more about these practices later.)

The following list describes the magickal uses of trees, plus some associated lore. These trees grow in various areas of North America and elsewhere in the world. Depending on your purposes, you can use the bark, leaves, and/or inner wood:

• Apple: Apple trees grow in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Their widespread availability and fruitfulness link them with abundance, love, longevity, creativity, and fertility. Folklore associates the apple with the afterlife, fairies, and the otherworld. In Greek mythology, Paris awarded Aphrodite a golden apple because she was the most beautiful of the goddesses. If you cut an apple in half, you’ll notice its seeds form a pentagram inside—a sure sign of its magick power.
  
• Ash: Some European cultures consider ash to be the World Tree. Magickally, ash is associated with water, strength, intellect, willpower, protection, justice, balance and harmony, skill, travel, and wisdom. Plant ash trees in your yard to protect your home and family.
  
• Birch: The traditional witch’s broom is made of birch twigs. Magickally, birch has cleansing, protective, and purifying properties. Lore connects it with children, and cradles were often made of birch wood.
  
• Cedar: A precious wood that many cultures recognize as magickal and powerful, cedar has been known throughout the ages for its protective qualities as well as its ability to repel insects and pests. Aromatic cedar was often given as an offering. Magickally, cedar is associated with healing, spirituality, purification, protection, prosperity, and harmony. Build a cedar fence around your home to attract abundance.
  
• Elder: Elder is also known as witchwood. Supposedly, bad luck will befall anyone who does not ask the tree’s permission three times before harvesting any part of it—that’s good advice when you’re cutting any tree, not just elder. Folklore associates the elder with the crone aspect of the Goddess and with witches, thus elder wood is rarely used to make furniture or as firewood for fear of incurring their wrath. Herbalists prize elder for its many medicinal properties and use it as a laxative and diuretic, to treat irritated skin, sprains and bruises, and to loosen chest and sinus congestion. Magickally, elder wood is associated with protection (especially against being struck by lightning), prosperity, and healing.
  
• Hawthorn: Also known as May tree, mayflower, thorn, whitethorn, and haw, the hawthorn shrub often served as a boundary between properties.
  Haw
  is an old word for hedge. If a hawthorn grows together with an oak and ash tree, folklore says that the fairies dance among the trees. Like oak, the hawthorn’s hard wood produces great heat when burned. Magickal associations include fertility, harmony, happiness, the otherworld, and protection.
  
• Hazel: European folklore links the hazel tree with wisdom. Thor, Brigid, Apollo, and other deities and mythological figures were associated with the hazel. Witches use both the nuts and branches in spells for luck, fertility, protection, and wish granting.
  
• Honeysuckle: Also known as woodbine or hedge-tree, the honeysuckle is associated with liminal or transitional (in-between) states. The scent of honeysuckle flowers is strongest in the evening, the time between day and night. Magickal associations include psychic awareness, harmony, healing, prosperity, and happiness.
  
• Maple: Used for furniture and other woodcrafts, maple also gives us sweet maple sugar and syrup. Magickally, maple relates to love, prosperity, life and health, and general abundance.
  
• Oak: A favorite of the Druids, oak’s hardness and durability make it ideal for building homes, ships, and furniture. These qualities also link it magickally with strength, courage, longevity, protection, and good fortune. Traditionally, the Yule log is oak. Acorns, the fruit of the oak tree, are symbols of fertility. When found growing in oak trees, mistletoe was considered to be particularly potent by the Druids and important in their magickal work. Of course, today we think of mistletoe as something to kiss beneath—a nice application of its energies.
  
• Pine: Often pine is added to soaps and cleaning products. In magick, pine’s cleansing properties make it useful for purification, clearing the mind, healing, prosperity, and protection from evil. Amber, one of the most beloved “gems” for magickal jewelry, is fossilized pine sap.
  
• Poplar: Also known as aspen, poplar’s magickal associations include prosperity, communication, exorcism, and purification.
  
• Rowan: Rowan is also known as quicken, witchwood, and mountain ash (although technically not a true ash, it is so called due to the similarity of the leaves). A favorite of many witches, rowan’s magickal associations include protection from evil, improving psychic powers, divination, healing, creativity, success, and transformation.
  
• Willow: The white willow, also known as the weeping willow, has long flexible branches and often grows near water. Folklore connects the willow with the Goddess and feminine cycles. Magickal associations include love, tranquility, intuition, harmony, protection, growth and renewal, and healing. Willow has traditionally been a favorite wood for magick wands and dowsers’ rods.
  
• Witch hazel: Also known as snapping hazelnut because its seedpods spontaneously crack open, witch hazel has long been used in poultices for bruises and swelling, and for its astringent properties. Magickal associations include protection, healing, and peace.
  
• Yew: Yew is poisonous, which may be one reason it is associated with death. A European tree with hard, unyielding wood, it figures prominently in the lore of witchcraft and nature magick. Witches also connect it with spirits and the otherworld.