Taking a Chill Pill

Posted on February 3, 2012 by DJ

Stress … everyone feels it to one extent or another.  Science knows that stress affects not only mental health but bodily health as well.  Long term stress can weaken your immune system, making you vulnerable to infections, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and a host of other problems.  Although they haven’t figured out exactly why, people experiencing chronic stress are more prone to viral infections.

Lately I’ve been feeling more stressed than usual, thanks to a family member. I thought I was dealing with it quite well until I picked up a cold. I don’t normally get the usual viruses that travel ’round so despite my routine for handling the stress of daily living, this was my wakeup call – things were getting out of hand.

There’s nothing I can do about this person in my family but I can do something about their influence on me.  The first thing I did was change the shielding on our house. My normal shields are to protect us from bad things – robbers, people with other bad intentions, things like that.  I didn’t think I had to protect us from a family member. So, I changed the spell so that any negative vibes and the person harboring them simply bypasses us.

The second thing I did was remember my word for 2010 – “Faith”. (See my blog post entitled “My Word!”) I have to have faith that everything will work itself out for the best and not dwell on things or try to force some issues.

The next thing I’m doing is using scent more often. There are scents that are calming to some neuroreceptors in the brain. Call me crazy but I’m not a fan of Lavender (which is the most widely used). Ylang Ylang really floats my boat, though.  I always feel calmer when I smell that so I’ve got candles & oil warmers throughout the house that have that essential oil in them.

The last thing I’m doing is have a cup of Lemon Balm tea each afternoon. Melissa officinalis is an antidepressant and a nervine (having a relaxing effect on the nervous system – in this case, the nerves associated with the circulatory system).  Not only is it tasty but it helps relax me from the stresses of the day. Interestingly enough, it’s also used in magical healing spells directed at folks with mental or nervous disorders.

If you’re feeling the effects of stress, try

1. Scent  find something that makes you limp as a dishrag when you smell it. Get some candles with that scent in them, use an oil warmer, a reed diffuser or a nebulizer to get that smell throughout your house.  (If you can, use it in your workplace, too.)

2. Nervine Tea Lemon Balm works for me but others you might try are Scullcap, Valerian (will probably put you to sleep), Wood Betony, St. John’s Wort, Chamomile, Vervain or Lavender.  A cup or two a day should do it.

3. Do a Healing Spell on yourself and your house if you practice magic.

Since I started all this, my cold is gone and instead of dragging myself work, I feel like I’ve got enough energy to tackle all the things piled up on my desk. My chill pill is working.

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The Darker Side of Fairy Tales

Posted on February 1, 2012 by DJ

I stole the blog title from a thread title on a forum. I’m shameless that way.

That particular thread tied in nicely with some research I’d recently read on baneful herbs. (I really am working on book number three in between tax returns.)

First, you have to remember that the Brothers Grimm didn’t write their tales, they collected them. These stories had been scaring kids for years before the Grimms published their first book in 1812. (Please read the Grimm versions, not the Disney ones. They’re not all happy & skippy, I promise.)

Remember SnowDrop (aka Snow White)? Her evil stepmother disguised herself as a farmer’s wife and delivered a poisoned apple. Snow White took a bite of the apple, fell into a stupor & was kept in a glass coffin by the dwarfs, who thought her dead. Snow wasn’t revived until a prince kissed her.

That apple could very well have been inspired by what was known around Europe as the “Sleeping Apple”. It was “made with Opium, Mandrake, juice of Hemlock, seeds of Henbane; and adding a little musk to gain an easier reception from the smeller; these being made up into a ball, as big as a mans hand can hold, and often smelt to, gently close the eyes, and bind them with a deep sleep.” (Giambattista della Porta, Natural Magick, 1558.)

Such deep sleep could easily have happened handling those ingredients through transdermal intoxication. Imagine what would have happened taking a small bite of it!

And then there’s Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty). She falls into a deep sleep after pricking her finger on a spindle.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and going back to ancient Rome), poisoner was a profession! One of their weapons was the anello della morte (literally, “ring of the death”) or poison ring. These rings had a spike of some kind on them with a groove that held the poison. Clasp someone’s hand or simply manage to scratch the intended victim and the poison was delivered. In the 16th & 17th centuries, it was generally arsenic but Datura, Hemlock, Henbane, Mandrake and Opium were also favored. It’s not too difficult to make the leap from a ring with poisoned spikes to a pointy spindle and the deep sleep engendered by a properly prepared herbal potion.

(I’ve always wondered why Snow and Beauty didn’t die of dehydration or starvation before being awakened. Oh. My bad. It’s magic.)

So, there you have it. A couple of fairy tales possibly inspired by nasty herbs and even nastier people. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 

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Sharing Magic

Posted on January 13, 2012 by DJ

A Facebook post by a friend got me to thinking …

She was asking if we (her friends) think magic should continue to be kept secret or if all the sharing of spells, rituals, etc., on the Internet and in books is a good thing. To my way of thinking, it both is and isn’t. It is because those who don’t have access to a teacher can learn on their own. It isn’t because this path isn’t for everyone; and performing a spell that almost but doesn’t quite fit your need; or when you’re not really sure of what you’re doing can have disastrous results.

I replied that I never share specifics. Not that I think magic is or should be “secret” but that part of the mystery is finding one’s own path. I don’t mind making suggestions and often do, but my way of working may not work for anyone else. Let me elaborate in more than 140 or 500 characters:

If you belong to a tradition, certain methods have been handed down, shared and work for those within that tradition and generally when working as a group. I know a couple of hereditary witches who were taught the basics by their elders and then left to figure out on their own what works best for them. They only used prescribed methods when working as a group. (I doubt those that pray to a deity use the exact same prayer as everyone else when they’re alone. When in a group, yes, to keep everyone focused on the same outcome. Do you see a difference? I don’t.)

I’m solitary so I don’t have to worry about focusing a group but if I were to work with others, a set ritual would be preferable to ensure we’re all on the same page. That said, the ritual would have to be very eclectic since I don’t subscribe to any particular tradition.

What herbs go into a particular spell? So-and-so says to use X, Y, and perhaps Z or G. Now, if one of those herbs happened to be Patchouli, you can bet your bippy I’m not going to use it. I really dislike the smell of Patchouli (weird, I know). If something causes you to frown, wrinkle your nose and nearly vomit, you’re not going to have a lot of focus – the main requirement of any spell. (Unless, of course, that sort of physical reaction is necessary to the work. Wouldn’t ever be for me.) Or what if you don’t have Y on hand and can’t wait for UPS to arrive? Thankfully, there are a bunch of herbal substitutes, depending on the need, so I don’t have to use the exact things so-and-so says I need to.

Verbiage? I prefer to write my own. I personalize every spell to the need at hand, so something written by someone else for a not-quite-exactly-the-same situation ain’t gonna work.  Because they’re all so specific, I don’t bother writing anything down for posterity so I wouldn’t be able to share, anyway.

I’ll admit that when I was younger, having an experienced teacher (if not in person then in a book) to guide me would have been a good thing. However, experimentation taught me what worked and what didn’t … and how to clean up and/or avoid both physical and metaphysical messes. Walking a path smoothly-paved by others would have led to stagnation, not growth on my part. And personal growth is a part of the magic.

So what do you think? Should magic come even further out of the broom closet or should some things still stay hidden?

 

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