Yule is Coming! Prep time is NOW!

Not my own photo! Provided by Unsplash through Squarespace.

The time of one of my favorite Sabbats is almost upon us! Yule and the December holiday season make me so grateful for snow, coffee, and my loved ones. While I love all of the Sabbats, Yule season is particularly meaningful to me especially when I incorporate what people of all faiths celebrate throughout the holiday season.

Secular Christmas is about gift giving and time with loved ones.

Christmas proper is about the birth of a savior.

Hannukkah is a celebration of light as well as miracles.

Yule is, for some people, a celebration of light returning. For others it's about taking stock of what your harvests for the year looked like. 

It stands to reason then that as we think about light and saviors and gifts and miracles this month, we should also be thinking about what we harvest regularly, how we use those resources, and what we're doing to ensure our continued success. Some simple spiritual things you can do over the next few weeks to focus on ALL of the themes I touched on and usher in your best holiday season yet include:

•  Meditation on what each of the aforementioned subjects means to you.

  • A focused meditation on light can bring you more brightness than you ever imagined.

  • A meditation zeroing in on gifts can tune you in to your law of attraction and boost your ability to manifest.

  • Deep breathing and prayer to any saviors you believe in can comfort you as you things get wet, dark, and cold.

  • Finally, really working through what your harvests looked like for the year can rededicate you to your work and enable you thrive in the new year.

• Decorating your sacred space (home, altar, car dashboard) with cross cultural winter symbols like snow, pine cones, and cranberries which all bring their own reminders and messages for the season. 

  • Snow represents cleansing or coming to peace with darkness, though for me personally it represents fun and cool air.

  • Pine cones correlate to pine trees which can represent longevity and the joy in solitude. Some believe they represent our hopes and fears for the new year too. Wishing spells where you roll up tiny scrolls with your wishes scrawled on them and place them in between the cone sheaths are common this time of year.

  • Cranberries can correspond with our love lives and help us amplify the good and loving vibes of the holiday season.

• Cranberry and peppermint teas will inspire you spiritually through the holiday season. (Peppermint works for almost any magick you’re trying to weave and can soothe our tummies if we overindulge on holiday food.)

• For those who are more metaphysically or witch inclined, a great gift to make for a friend or yourself is a prosperity ornament focused on sustainability. 

  • Take an empty glass ball ornament, and fill it with things that will represent and inspire sustenance. A friend gave me one a couple of years ago full of green ribbon, cinnamon, basil, and pine cone pieces. I made one with dried orange peel, pine leaves, and fake snow for a friend last year. Anything that is meaningful and represents ongoing prosperity energy to BOTH of you will work.

• Make your gift giving personal and significant this season. One year I asked everyone I knew to give me their favorite book from the past year. It was one of my favorite Christmases because I got to really peer into people’s hearts and brains + I got my reading queue packed for the following year! Don’t worry about spending a ton of money this year. Find one thing, however small, that you are sure your loved ones will love. Then find something that represents your hopes and dreams for them for 2019. Gift them both or whichever one you like best. Two small, meaningful gifts can be the hit of the season. I’ve seen it happen over and over again!

• Find a little known tradition that really appeals to you and incorporate that into your season with a loved one. My roommate and I celebrate this every year and it has brought us so much peace the night before a big day.

It’s not exactly hip to get excited when you start hearing All I Want for Christmas Is You in every department store for the season, but I do. I have found so many ways to make the Yule season cheerful and joyous starting with this: I absolutely opt out of the traditions that stress me out. I don’t overspend. I don’t run myself ragged. I don’t let the holiday season absorb my common sense.

I DO work closely with my gods, let myself get inspired, and take the extra opportunity to show my loved ones how much I love them.

As always, feel free to leave your favorite traditions or spiritual proceedings in the comments. In the meantime,

Blessed be y’all!

Reclaiming Hestia: For queerdos and weirdos everywhere who still crave home

                            Please ignore my very messy mess on my Hestia altar.

I grew up in a pretty unstable home, and for a long time that seemed to have had polar effects on my sister and I. She wanted to become a wife and mother as quickly as possible. Me? I moved 1,500 miles away and just accepted that in this economy you moved every year. I prefer saving for travel to recarpeting my floors. Queerness, I am sure, played a part of this ambivalence about having a steadfast home too. Every happy family on TV was a mom, dad, some kids they'd had since those kids were babies. None of them looked like me, and I knew family sit-com life would not be mine. This is nothing I was bitter about, but it also meant I had no reason to aspire to those things. I didn't have an aversion, per se, to home, it just didn't resonate. I didn't care.

That is, of course, until I did. My queerplatonic partner and I have been us for weeellll over a decade. Somehow in between all of our romantic break ups with respective partners, toxic roommates coming and going (plus some good ones), and all kinds of art happening within our walls we became family. This was a healing and affirming and beautiful realization but suddenly home meant something. Family wasn't some far off thing I would start building once I found the woman or non-binary person of my dreams, it was something I was already building. It was something I had probably always had.

Then just as this became important to me, we were homeless for a summer. Now, we were staying with very good friends and things could have been a lot worse, and for that, and for them, I am eternally grateful. As I was putting together and practicing some pretty intense witchcraft, desperate for a place to call my own though, it felt different than it ever had before. I didn't just want a space big enough to see clients. I wanted a space where my queerplatonic partner and I (and our family that is right now just cats but won't always be) could stretch out and grow. We want romantic partners. We want foster kids. I really want a rabbit. This latter fact is maybe a point of mild contention. I didn't want a space to sleep at night and keep my stuff. I wanted a home. Once I realized that, everything felt different, including the things in my spiritual practice. Suddenly not only was I, former Queen Vagabond, looking for a home, but I was finding my solace in Hestia.

When I first started studying and learning witchery, I was very attracted to the Greek pantheon, probably because it was the only one I really knew. I hadn't looked at it or touched it in years though, with the exception of Hecate who has remained the primary source of my prayers and devotion. Even when I was working with very Greek energy though, Hestia never hit my soul. Probably for the reasons outlined above: home didn't mean a lot for me, so why would a Goddess charged with keeping homes happy and prosperous and home-oriented? Yet when my life was falling apart just as I realized how important my family having a home was, Hestia came to me. Nothing explicit or overwhelming, and sometimes it was a Celtic or Welsh version of her. Yet there she was, with all her hearth-loving glory, listening to my prayers and flickering in my candlelight, promising that she would find us a home, a very queer one, for our very queer family.

My story ends happily, with my queerplatonic partner and I in a very wonderful three bedroom with two bathrooms and plenty of space. Hestia has her own altar here. She not only keeps us organized and grateful, but she ensures that she's keeping this space as weird and queer and artsy as we need it to be. For us this means:

• On her altar, I light two candles. One for general blessings and prosperity, and one for weirdness and queerness and magick. That one may or may not have Wednesday Addams on it.

• Doing regular love spells to bring us each queer lovers and eventual romantic partners.

• Cooking with intention; what will make us feel good and taste good?

• Being very intentional about who we let into the space. My boundaries have been violated in my own home more times than I'd ever have time to recount. We want to be kind, and generous, and wonderful to people who deserve it. The best way to do that is not to let those don't in.

• We keep it much, much cleaner than we used to. Some of this is because of the way my OCD and anxiety have manifested later in life, but I also do think it honors the construct of home a lot better to respect the space.

                                      My very happy familiars in my very happy home.

If YOU want to reclaim or honor Hestia (or any!) gods of the home, you don't have to think big. The bulk of my spiritual practice revolves around ancestral, environmentally inspired, or spirit work. My primary Goddess is still Hecate. I work with various entities and with specific spells. A home diety practice should be simple, albeit mostly daily. Here's how to get started.

• Build a small altar with a plant, an incense that smells homey to you, and a candle. Small tokens like charms of houses, hearths, hearts, etc. should be added. If you aren't good with plants, get a succulent or a small terrarium instead.

• Add to the altar anything that specifically speaks to whatever you want said Goddess or God to nurture in the space. For example, we keep some things meant to inspire and bring in romantic love and sex for each of us, some charms that symbolize friendship, and some things that represent spirits of our loved ones that have passed. We keep lots of artsy and witchy things too, such as a charm with drama masks and a pen to represent writing opportunities. I keep a small charm of a car to represent my free spirit and traveling soul. Being full of wanderlust and having a safe, warm home base to come back to are not mutually exclusive.

• Keep your windows free from things that block your view outside. (By which I mean remove stacks of books or furniture blocking the window. You can obviously have curtains.)

• Keep your house as clean as you need it to be to feel homey and cozy. Everyone's tolerance for this is different but if your kitchen stresses you out, it's time to start cleaning it often enough that it doesn't get to that point.

• Prep or cook food sometimes! Even if you're like me and the cost analysis for a single pringle such as yourself says it's actually cheaper to eat a Hot Pocket and a cup of yogurt for lunch or even run across the street for a $3 sandwich, the kitchen is very important to most gods of home. You don't have to be a master chef, but taking a few meals a week to put care into what you're eating makes a huge difference where both self and spiritual care are concerned. The idea of family meals at home, even for queerlings like us, is also really important.

• Final addition/starting point for your home diety worship? Something to represent “keep us queer, keep us weird.” We have the aforementioned Wednesday Addams candle and a whole host of other bizarre goodies we keep on or near our workspace for Hestia.

This post won't resonate with everyone. Had I read it five years ago, it wouldn't have resonated with me. In five more years, it may not again, but this is where I am today: staring in the face of the Goddess of Hearth and Home who is trying to help me, love me, and keep me safe, and deciding to reclaim her.

Blessed be y'all.

My Water Altar! (Plus How to Build Your Own!)

Creating an Elemental Altar

I work very well with altars. I have one to Hecate and my ancestors. I have an ongoing prosperity spell that has become it's own altar. My living room windowsill collects more and more things to and from Hestia. Then the other night, I was re-reading the blog I penned shortly after my birthday and checking in with myself about how I was feeling on the whole “leaning into my emotions” thing when it hit me: I need a Water altar. I am a Pisces babe through and through, even when I suppress it. Which means that in times when I'm trying to heal and push myself to allow my own watery tendencies to heal me, I needed an altar to work with to push me on my way. I decided to build my Water Altar for two reasons:
 

1. To have a daily visual, spiritual reminder to honor my truest, most watery self every day.

2. To have an altar paying respect to the spiritual entities that come from or frequently work with water.

I'm so happy with how my altar is looking already that I thought I'd share how to curate appropriate objects and build your own elemental altar. Whether you need to build an altar to your own sign's element, to an element who's energy you're lacking, or if you need a specific element's help for a specific spell or ritual, this should help. Here's what I put on mine:

1. A tarot card! Obviously the first thing I rifled through to serve as the base of my water altar was the tarot deck I use for spellwork. I pulled out the Ace of Cups. The Ace of the corresponding suit is ideal; a Court card or any you strongly connect with would also work.

2. Objects organically and responsibly given from that element. Examples would be feathers or leaves for Air. Stones and twigs work great for Earth. Matches or charcoal would work splendidly for Fire. In the case of Water, I used Lake Superior Agate that I pulled in real life, nautilus shells friends have given me over the years, a starfish I received as part of a gift basket once, and some seashells I picked up on an L.A. Beach. I do have two hard and fast rules for this part of building any altar, but especially one to an element. Number One: I don't take from anywhere with a sign posted saying I can't. Number Two: I have to ask a Spiritual Entity for permission (and receive that permission), even if it feels like something is screaming for me to take it. Gifted objects also work great for this part though, so if you are someone who doesn't take from nature at all, that's a perfectly reasonable way to add such objects.

3. A touch of whimsy! I have a glass whale I've had forever that looks so cute sitting at the head of the water altar. I have a sea turtle that I'm sussing out if it belongs there are not. Relevant charms from a charm casting set or charm jewelry set also work. Toys, poems, song lyrics you wrote down—anything that adds a touch of whimsy and lightness will make those elemental energies very happy and eager to collaborate with you.

4. Anything else that speaks to you. My black moonstone was screaming to go on the altar, and my quartz pendulum seemed pretty happy too. This altar wants NO fire as of now, so I left off candles. This is a purely intuitive side of the work, and a crucial one because of that.

5. The actual element! A candle that you light daily for Fire, stones or a literal cup of dirt for Earth, incense or an ethically harvested bird skeleton for Air are great examples of this. I literally just made Moon Water in a mason jar and stuck it on my altar.

That's it! No need to overcomplicate it. Besides, I'm a firm believer in living altars, which means I'll still use that pendulum on the go sometimes and it goes with me that day. Other stones may wanted added, or the Black Moonstone may end up getting used a different way. Tokens and emblems I find at a beach or receive as a gift could end up getting added, or not. I let my altars grow or shrink and use what's there when I work with it. I'd love to see pictures of your own elemental altars—hit me up on social media to show off!

Blessed Be y'all!

Oatmeal, Lavender and Hyssop Bath--oh my!

Hello all! I'm doing a quick blog today to give you a recipe for a Spiritual Cleanse: this one's a bath! This is one of my favorite rituals that I've almost perfected over the past couple of years. I have a small tub, so adjust accordingly to the size of yours. This bath is perfect for: New Moon Rituals, special full moons (I did it on the last super Moon, for example, after a trying year so far), any Sabbat/holiday/special ritual devoted to cleansing, or anytime it just feels like you're carrying to much "stuff" around with you and it's time to shuck it off.

Obviously I found this photo online, though normally all photos are my own.

In a small wooden or porcelain bowl, I pour:

• 1/2 cup of oatmeal
• handful or two of lavender buds
• smaller handful of hyssop OR you can use hyssop oil
• 2-3 big drops of eucalyptus oil
• 1-2 drops of peppermint oil (the smell is often a little overpowering and I prefer to smell the lavender as theprimary note)
• a couple of crumbled, dry sage leaves (2-3 large or 5 medium)
  
  ***If you prefer, any skin safe oils can be applied directly into bath water***

After it's all in there I use a small spoon or spatula and mix it up until the smell, look, and texture is evenly spread and a little more cohesive. I have a small stash of small mesh bags that tie off that I poured it all into, but if you don't have such a bag, any handmade mesh, cheesecloth, or even pantyhose-style nylon satchel will work. (Bonus, you can do some knot spells as you tie off the handmade ones!) As I mix and pour I think about all the stuff I'm try to cleanse and scrub away with the bath. This is a pretty intense cleansing spell, so the further into that pain, frustrating, aura-murking stuff you can, the better you can let yourself go, the better. Then I light sage in the bathroom itself, run my bath, and toss my satchel into it while it fills up. I usually light a candle and do this in the dark, but that's completely unnecessary. I just have a thing about overhead lights. (I hate them.) In that time I try to clear my mind and focus on what my goals are afterwards. What does shedding this murkiness and ick look like? What happens tomorrow when I'm spiritually squeaky clean and invigorated. I put and aim those intentions into the bath, then I bathe! I usually just sit in the nice, scented hot water, occasionally squeezing the satchel for an extra "oomph" for awhile. I use a washcloth or loofah to actually bathe and scrub myself towards the end though, because I like physicality. I don't think it's actually necessary. Then I rinse, drain, and towel off!

I feel an IMMEDIATE difference usually, but I'll suck down some cold, filtered if possible, water and get a solid eight hours if I can too, because those things really help you feel it the NEXT day, and moving forward. This past one went EXTREMELY well. I feel almost reborn, which isn't the norm, but I always feel more clear-headed and like I've let go of all of those minor irritations that lead to big things.

Feel free to use as often as you feel necessary It's also a really nice, relaxing bath otherwise so you don't have to put all the extra woo and witchcraft in every time.

Until next time, Blessed be!

Basic Witchery for When Life Is SO Bad (or Busy) You Just Can't

I am beyond stressed right now. Beyond. I need an apartment confirmed last week and I am still searching. I have spent so much money on housing applications that I'm questioning how necessary eating is (very important, don't follow my path on this). I am exhausted. I run a theatre company, I write actually professionally, and I run a tarot business. On top of that I am chronically ill, and now I am spending hours a week house hunting.

Suffice it to say, my daily spiritual care has taken a bit of a backseat. BUT never fear, I'm here to talk about the things I DO remember to do every day (and you can too!) to stay as grounded, focused, and feeling like my witchy, whimsical, overly ambitious self.

• Carry your stones around. It sounds obvious, but I leave them on my altar most of the time...but I don't really have an altar right now, so they are in a box and my favorites/the most necessary ones get pocketed every day. I have a peacock ore I got in LA that I feel almost paternal towards, and a small jet palm stone. Both of those help me find and center myself when the anxiety seems overwhelming. And when that doesn't work, tourmilated quartz specifically works to turn overwhelm to joy, and unakite is sometimes thought to pull negativity right out of you. Those are MY favorites for trying or hectic times, but you may have some of your own. Find some time to sit with them in your hands, or just give them a QUICK charge of your energy in the morning.
• Essential oil! (or oil mixes) A lot of them can not be applied directly onto your skin without some problems, so ask your friendly metaphysical store clerk before assuming. Once you have one that is, keep a small vial near you for whatever purposes you need. I like Dragon's Blood for urgency, and have some Rosemary and Peppermint I mixed myself to cry out to Hestia right now. I also have prosperity and protection mixes that I like. I bring this up, because a lot of times we get them for aromatherapy diffusers or to dress candles or do other extensive work with, but if you have a skin-safe oil, you can just slap it on your pulse points and under your nose, say a (QUICK!) incantation, and be on your way.
• Incantations: for focus, for calm, and for anything else you need in the moment. My meditative practice is really more of a theory right now, but I still take a few seconds every few hours to fondle my amethyst and moonstone pendants, and restate my intentions for the day. It takes maybe 10 minutes total throughout the whole day.
• Light a candle while you're doing other stuff. Enough said. Sprinkle herbs on your windowsill. Pet an animal. Get your feet in the dirt or natural water for even one minute. Shower more consciously, with more attention to the water and your body.

These are a few of the things I trade off when daily meditations and nightly candle lightings can't happen, and no, it's not perfect and I still feel like I'm falling apart throughout much of my day--but I can calm my panic and meet most of my goals, magickal or otherwise, with keeping up my efforts but changing what they look like. Hope this is helpful to you too, and I'd love to hear how you stay witchy when life is wicked.

Blessed be!

Your Magical Forecast For the Week + Where to Find Me

Hey Friends! I'm trying out something new this week, which is kind of the name of the game on this blog. I love doing deck and book reviews, as well as just general musing and blogging, but I want to offer some further insight into what the week has in store astrologically/magickally/etc. This way if you don't know what to get a reading about OR just want to know how to make the most of your days, you'll have some extra input.

As a reminder, we start this week with our five planets still in retrograde: Mercury, (the doozy), Saturn (pretty common--most of us effected minimally), Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto--which is still a planet astrologically, even if science has abandoned it :P This means communication could be difficult or even miserable at this time, so certainly readings about interpersonal communications and/or how to communicate most effectively are a marvelous idea. Another great idea is spending some time figuring out how to use this energy to your benefit. It's a great time for introverts to answer some bigger picture questions, and depending on your how astrological chart it could be a positive time for soothing old feuds or finishing projects that you've been postponing.

The biggest thing though, is spring in general. Even with the planets being a little wonky, this is always a good time to clean out your closet/purse/friends list, and that in and of itself can be an act of self-care or magick. Additionally, "Spring Fever" hits many of us pretty hard, making it a prime time to connect with Mother Nature and exercise our bodies, which again, can be an act of self-care or magick in and of itself. It's also a prime time for carnal and sensual connections, so sex magick and relationship readings are aspected well.

The Moon starts the week in Cancer, so if you feel a little emotional or your inner knight-in-shining-armor starts screaming to save and take care of everyone, take a breathe and assess if these are genuine feelings rooted in something real or if it's likely just the moon. This does make these next couple of days great for those who are caretakers, starting relationships, or craving bonding moments with others. The Moon moves into Leo on Thursday, so get ready to attack some of those unfinished projects with vigor, and spend some extra self-care time on your appearance. Any haircuts, makeovers, or fitness goals are aspected well at this time. The END of the week sees the Moon in Virgo, assuring all that caretaking and throwing yourself into finishing projects is doubly well aspected for you over the weekend.

AND if you're all pumped and ready for readings in ANY line, you can find me:

At Eye of Horus Monday and Wednesday 3-9
By email on a 48 hour turnaround all week.
By appointment private appointment Thurs-Sunday.

Blessed Be,
Cassandra

Magick Doesn't Have To Be Candles and Chanting

Last Full Moon, not this one, I was preparing a bath for physical healing and gearing up my playlist for emotional healing, my intended spellwork a simple deep breath and succumbing to the water and music. As I let the steam rise and Cher belted out "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" it occurred to me that when people starting an alternative spiritual path tell me they don't know where to start, they're likely already doing so many amazing things that already are "magick", "spellwork", or even "prayer." So this is a completely non-comprehensive list for mystical newbies of all the ways you can "start practicing" by simply noting or more purposely intending the things you already do. It's mostly meant to get your brain jogging.

• I already mentioned music--if there are songs in any genre that get you in a clear headspace, amp you up for your next project, or make you feel confident, or sexy, or grateful, sit and actually listen and take them in when you need to conjure that.
• Food! I am 99% sure that most of you reading eat at least a couple of times a day. Try planning a few meals a week super intentionally. I'm not talking about super advanced kitchen witchery which can feel intimidating, but try thinking about what food makes you feel healthy, confident, or connected to others and plan your meals around that.
• Dress more intentionally. Most people do dress somewhat intentionally for the day, but you can go something extra and mystical to your morning routine just by taking a couple of minutes to think about what you're putting on. If you're trying to attract wealth, are you allowing yourself to wear your "nicer" clothes with any regularity? Because you probably should be. If you're trying to attract love, are you wearing clothes that make you feel sexy and confident? If you're trying to heal your body are you wearing clothes that are comfortable, airy, and allow for movement? You can amp this practice up if you know color coordinates, too. Red not only helps with love and sex, but may make you feel confident and passionate about your presentation at work, for example.
• Home decor! Feng Shui gets a bad rap, in part because no one in the Western world really knows what they're doing. However, the ideas are solid and it stands to reason that the colors, shapes, and memories attached to the objects in your home make you feel a certain way when you see them. So much of my own Paganism is rooted in stone work but you don't have to keep crystals around--any tokens that make you feel confident, healing, and inspire you to manifest the things you want out of life should be visibly placed in your living space.

Those are just a couple of ways you can dip your toes into the endless pools of mysticism (and a few examples of how). Feel free to add your own below!

Blessed be, y'all.

Witch on the Go! Packing Tips

I've been a practicing Pagan for a number of years, and I've been struck with a bad case of wanderlust basically my entire life. It's not practical for my wallet or the things that keep it from being empty to pick up and take luxurious excursions when the mood strikes me, so I do a lot of day trips or overnights to get some fresh-to-me air and perspective. I do have a daily spiritual practice that involves prayer, meditation, and tarot if not out-and-out spellcraft, and as such I have my minimalist packing down to a tee.

The biggest tip I can give is to think about the most bare basics of what you do every day, and pack that plus one or two "Extras". I use an astrology-inspired scarf to wrap it all up together, but anything to keep it safe and together--a box, a bag, etc. is fine. Truth be told, I can practice my religion with nothing, but I know a lot of witches can not, and I do love using other stuff. For example, this is what I'm packing to visit the wild city of Blooming Prairie, MN tomorrow and Saturday. By wild city, I mean friends from college live there.

Pictured above are:

• A very, very condensed version of my gems collection. They include two blue lace agates--one I found in my apartment and one I found in Lake Superior on a different day trip meant to boost confidence and communication skills, a small snowflake obsidian point for grounding and protection, an amethyst to keep my third eye and creative skills sharp, and a clear quartz for general energy work while there.
• A tea light candle. I can use this for almost everything--meditation, to amplify the quartz' work, a quick candle spell. 
• Small vials of Prosperity oil, which I can anoint the candle with or just wear to attract abundance even while I'm out playing, and Vanilla perfume--thought to attract both love and money.
• A cinnamon whisk. This was a stroke of luck find at Trader Joe's. It's a very small heather broom coated in cinnamon oil. It smells unreal amazing, and was $1. I use it for clearing my space and to draw positive, protective, and attraction energies into it.

Additionally, I take my journal, which serves as my Book of Shadows and idea log as well, and my Witches' datebook everywhere with me. I always have at least one tarot deck on me, but have this tiny, adorably twee deck specifically for quick trips since it fits anywhere, and still pumps out super accurate, weirdly concise readings.

That's about it--a few rocks, an oil or two, a tea light, and a small, natural multi-use implement of your choosing, and you could really get by for several days doing even heavy spiritual work. Some people will pack cone incense as well, but some hosts don't like it, so I usually forgo it. Just bring something to channel your thoughts (my deck), and something to process or record them (journal/book of shadows) and you should be good to go!

If anyone reading has tips or tricks for traveling magick, feel free to add to the conversation below. Blessed be!