A Spell for the Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon celebrates the final harvest of the year. It sometimes falls in September and sometimes in October. This year the Harvest Moon falls on September 6, followed by the Autumnal Equinox on September 21. This is a particularly powerful full moon since it’s so close to the equinox. This full moon is excellent for cleansing and charging your stones, and any magic done on this full moon will be more potent than normal, so choose your spells carefully.

This week’s spell will help you increase your own intuition and psychic power. The condition of the Third Eye Chakra and the Crown Chakra determine how much psychic power you can channel, so this week we’ll focus on a spell to open those chakras.

The Third Eye chakra controls our ability to use our intuition, to see the unseen, and to use our imagination. It governs our sixth sense and the celestial body. Generally based in the brow area, it also includes the brain and is the seat of your essence. A balanced Third Eye Chakra enhances our ability to perceive both the physical and ethereal world.

It is through the Third Eye that people see ghosts, auras and other phenomena unseen by our physical eyes. It is also through this chakra that we can receive messages from the past and the future. A balanced chakra enables us to receive those messages from the past or future, or even from the other side of the world.

Ways to Balance the Third Eye Chakra

• Meditate.
• Surround yourself with blues and purples to increase your sense of your Third Eye chakra, and help you bring it back into balance.
• Add purple and indigo colors to your wardrobe and your surroundings.
• Listen to music to enhance and balance the energies flowing through the Third Eye chakra.
• Choose gemstones associated with the third eye chakra such as amethyst, aventurine, and tourmaline. You can wear them, or even just place them around your home.

Spell to Increase Psychic Power

·                 2 purple candles

·                 2 blue candles

·                 1 white candle

·                 Frankincense or jasmine incense

·                 Sage and Rosemary

·                 Bowl

Create a serene space. I often use music to help with this, especially if I’ve had a long day. Place the two blue candles on opposite corners of your altar, and the same for the purple. Place the white candle in the middle. Place the Sage and Rosemary in the bowl. Decorate your altar with your stones and anything that represents psychic vision to you. I use my triquetra, but I have known people who use different types of Celtic knots, or an Eye of Horus, so the choice is yours.

Ground yourself and cast your circle. Invoke the elements and your deities of choice while you light your candles.  Light your white candle first, and use the white candle to light the others. Place the white candle back in the center of your altar. Focus on the white candle and feel your mind begin to open.

Repeat the following three times as you continue to focus on the white candle:

God and Goddess hear my plea

Open my eyes that I might see

Let my Psychic spirit light a new

Bring me vision, sharp and true

Continue to focus on the candle until the energy settles in and you feel ready to bid farewell to the elements and your deity and close your spell. 

Stones: Amethyst, Malachite, Aventurine, Moonstone

Oils: Jasmine, Sandalwood,

Grounding

 Pagan Realms Free Spell Friday

Eclipses are such powerful times that even nature reacts just as it would at night. If you’re lucky enough to be out away from people during the eclipse, stop and listen. Daytime animals, birds, and bugs return to their nests, and nocturnal animals start becoming active. There is quiet. This is for a darkness that will last a maximum of 2 minutes. Now that’s some wild magic!

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about the eclipse. We haven’t had a new moon this special in 38 years. While the new moon is generally an excellent time for spellcasting, the eclipse will magnify the energy of the moon exponentially, so unless you are sure of your skills and experience, I would recommend doing some grounding during the eclipse.

One thing we need to remember, however, is that our connection to nature is not what it once was in most cases, so something on the scale of a solar eclipse often makes people feel anxious, antsy, or even just a little off, which makes grounding necessary for many. However, you can accomplish a lot with grounding. It can help you set up your intentions for manifestation for the coming year.

A solar eclipse can only occur during the day, on a new moon, and the new moon is for letting go of what no longer serves us, to prepare for new beginnings. Grounding can help you do this. Grounding can also help you set your intentions for your new beginnings, at the eclipse, and for the coming New Year.

Your best bet before you do any kind of magic working is to smudge, and this grounding and intention setting is no different. A cleansing bath also helps purify and prepare.

Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Once you settle in, begin focusing on your breathing. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. When you have slowed your breathing and relaxed, picture your body as the trunk of a tree. Visualize roots going down from your feet and spine, into the ground. See them reaching deep into the earth.

Visualize all negativity and mind noise flowing down the trunk of the tree where the earth absorbs and neutralizes the dirty energy. Personally, I keep my hands down at first and visualize the rest of the negativity and stress in my body flowing down into the earth along with the muck is flowing away from you through the tree roots.

This will probably be different for everyone, but once the negative has drained, I usually have the urge to raise my hands, and they generally just keep rising until they reach out like branches. Then I gratefully let the positive energy fill me.

This is the perfect time to start focusing on your intentions for the coming year. If you write out what you seek to achieve beforehand, it will enhance your focus.

Stones: Certain stones are natural grounding stones, such as onyx, jasper, tourmaline, hematite, magnetic hematite, quartz, and amethyst. Cleanse and charge your crystals, then wear or carry them.

Oils: Sandalwood, Frankincense, Myrrh, 

Smudge: Sage is a good general smudge and great for grounding. A mixture of sage and sandalwood is also good, and patchouli will also work.

Bath: add herbs or use soaps such as sage or lavender if you wish to use a ritual preparation bath as part of your cleansing and grounding. 

Touch: the earth Take off your shoes, stand, sit, or lay touching the ground. Recharge your connection to nature and the earth.

Drum: Any kind of drum or percussion-type instrument or music is a great way to ground. Any kind of drum will do.

    

Quickies

This week, I want to share some of the items we use in our own spells.  Personally, I like to use our cat candles. I think they’re adorable, and they are long burning, so your spell has time to build upon itself.

I don’t know about you, but I figure everyone can use a bit more money and some good luck, so this week we have two wealth attracting spells, one for love, and one to banish bad luck.  

Wealth Attracting Spell 1

Using your boline, carve a green cat candle with your name, goals and identifying information. Anoint the candle with money drawing oil and burn.

Wealth Attracting Spell 2

Use green cat candles for attracting money. Anoint the green cat candle with Money Drawing or Wealthy Way Oil. Write the amount of money needed for a specific purpose on a square of parchment and place it beneath the green cat candle. Burn the candle 7 minutes the first evening, 11 minutes the 2nd evening, 7 minutes the third evening etc. until you receive the money you need. You can also carve your desires into the candle and sprinkle with glitter to add an extra boost, and if you need a specific amount, you can either carve it into the candle or write it on a piece of paper and place it under the candle.

Love 

You can adapt this for love by using the red cat candle and carving the name of your love interest into the candle, or onto a piece of paper and place it beneath the candle just as in the wealth spell.

To Banish Bad Luck

Burn a black cat candle in the prescribed manner to reverse one's bad luck and draw the good luck. To intensify the force of the candle, anoint it with any of the "lucky oils." Light the candle and burn it for 7 minutes the first evening, 11 minutes the second evening, 7 again on the third evening 11 on the fourth, 7 on the fifth, etc. Alternate the burning time each evening between the 7 and 11 minutes until the candle is done, or you can tell the bad luck is gone.

Lucky Oils

Allspice,  Orange,  Rose, Lodestone

Money Oils

Almond, Bergamot, Mint, 

Love Oils

Rose, Jasmine

Blessed Be,

Bellisana

Mabon Blessing Spell

Lughnasadh has passed, and now we move toward the autumnal equinox, often referred to as Mabon, and although that is a recent designation, it has become the prevailing term for the holiday.  The autumnal equinox has many names, Harvest Home, Mabon, the Feast of the Ingathering, Gleichentag, Meán Fómhair, or Alban Elfed (in some Druid traditions).  

Mabon marks the day when night and day are of equal lengths, and we start the passage into winter.  No matter the path you follow, or the title you choose, the equinox celebration is a Pagan ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the harvest, and a way to honor the God and Goddess in order to receive their blessings during the winter ahead.

Like the seasons, everything has a natural rhythm, so the equinox is also about finding our balance and blessing our homes for the coming year. It’s a time of letting go and reflection on the passing of cycle of life and the death and rebirth of the Horned God and the offerings of the earth after winter has passed.

Between now and Mabon, we’ll be sharing parts of our rituals and different spells that we have used and participated in over the years.  We’ll start with a blessing spell that I like to use to bless my house before having people over for ritual or feast.  It’s a simple cleansing and blessing spell that requires very little ritual, but it requires a little bit of preparation. You will need the following:

Green candle

Yellow Candle

Red or Brown Candle

Orange Candle

Lavender

Rose petals

Sage Smudge Stick

Offering Bowl

Grinder/Mortar & Pestle
Chalice

Grind the lavender and the rose petals together.

Choose where you would like to set up your candles, your chalice, and your offering bowl. I’ve used this blessing two different ways. One is to use your altar, and set the items up on it, decorating the altar for the season.  The other is to set the candles up to signify the four corners of your home in the way that feels right to you.

I use my altar for the offering bowl and chalice regardless of which way I do the candles, but if you have some place that represents the heart of your home, that will work as well. Place the ground lavender and rose petals in the offering bowl, and pour some wine/mead/water of your choice.  I use mead personally.

Light the smudge stick and smudge your entire home while chanting:

Cleanse this home and fill with light

To carry us through the winter night

Blessed be my home and all within,

As we wait for spring to begin again.

When you finish, light the lavender and rose petal mixture, and let it burn as an offering to the deity of your choice.  Once that is done, let the candles burn while you work around the house. I generally decorate for the season while the candles burn to further enhance the energy of the blessing. 

Afterward, take the ashes of the offering and the wine and use the wine to wash the ashes into the ground by your front porch as you thank your deity for blessing your home.