A Practical Guide To Witchcraft And Magic Spells Part 14

White can form a focus for all kinds of healing since it is the synthesis of all other colours. It promotes health and healing, integration of mind, body and soul. White light is a natural pain-reliever, and can help to protect against cerebral disorders, increase breast milk in nursing mothers, speed the mending of broken bones and relieve calcium deficiency and toothache.

Clear crystals include diamonds, clear crystal quartz, zircon and pure white stones, especially those from the sea.

Red Red is for power, courage, energy and vitality.

Red restores energy levels and is good for raising blood pressure and improving circulation, promoting cellular growth and activity; red crystals are used in healing blood ailments, especially anaemia. Red light is linked to reproduction and fertility and relieves s.e.xual dysfunction especially impotence; it also helps with pains in feet, hands and bones. Red crystals include agate, jasper, pyrites and garnets.

Orange Orange is for confidence, a.s.similation of knowledge and experience, personal desire and needs, the boundaries between self and others.

Orange, like red, is a colour of energy and warmth, easing arthritis, rheumatism and increasing the pulse rate, relieving gall-bladder and kidney pains and stones, menstrual and muscle cramps and allergies, and lifting exhaustion. Orange is also used to strengthen the immune system.

Orange crystals include amber, agate, coral and carnelian.

Yellow Yellow is for happiness, the mind, intellect, communication and willpower.

Yellow stimulates the nervous system, improving memory and concentration, easing eczema and other skin problems; it also promotes a healthy metabolism and calms anxiety and stress-related ailments that may affect the digestive system adversely.

Yellow crystals include jasper, topaz, calcite and citrine.

Green Green is for the heart, emotions, peace and balance and all gentle re-growth.

Green lowers high blood pressure, acting as a restorative for the heart, lungs and respiratory system and fighting infections and viruses, especially influenza, bronchitis, fevers and colds. It also counters panic attacks, addictions and food-related illnesses. Green is a good healing colour because it stimulates tissue and cell growth and general body regeneration.

Green crystals include jade, malachite, olivine (peridot), emerald and cat's eye.

Turquoise Turquoise is for tranquillity, empathy, altruism and wisdom.

Turquoise strengthens the immune system, soothes inflammation and calms the nerves. It helps to relieve asthmatic and general respiratory difficulties and skin complaints such as eczema, swellings and thyroid problems.

Turquoise crystals include aquamarine, malachite, opal and turquoise.

Blue Blue is for ideals, the expansion both of perspective and physical horizons and authority, and for allowing what is not of value to be gradually replaced by higher purpose and direction.

Blue is called the healing colour because a blue aura is often seen around healers. It is a soothing and cooling natural antiseptic, relieving burns, cuts, bruises, insomnia, inflammation of the skin and mouth, sore throats and childhood rashes and teething pains; blue also lowers high temperatures and high blood pressure. All shades of blue, such as violet and indigo, reduce migraines and headaches.

Blue crystals include sodalite, lapis lazuli, sapphire, blue lace agate and turquoise.

Purple Purple is for inner vision, psychic awareness and spirituality, the colour of the evolving soul.

Purple is cleansing and uplifting, counteracting doubts and negativity.

Within the range of purples, specific shades are good for certain areas of the body, though in practice they are usually interchangeable.

Indigo helps to ease eye, ear, nose and skin problems and migraines, and soothes the nervous system. It aids healing of deep tissue and bones and is a natural sedative.

Lavender increases the power of all herbs, oils and flower and tree essences used in healing.

Violet is effective for treating allergies, asthma, sleep disorders and stress-related illnesses.

Purple crystals include amethyst, sugilite, sodalite, peac.o.c.k's eye (bornite) and purple kunzite.

Rose Rose (or pink) is for unconditional love, reconciliation and gentleness and for soothing loss.

Rose is the gentle healer, promoting restful sleep, pleasant dreams and optimism. Ear, eye and gland problems, head pains and psychosomatic illnesses fall under its auspices, as do disorders relating to children and babies, especially fretfulness and hyperactivity.

Rose crystals include pink kunzite, rose quartz, tourmaline and coral.

Magenta Magenta is for spirituality expressed in the everyday world, for originality of vision and for a path of service to others.

Magenta is good for all matters concerning the mid-life crisis, menopause and anything that blocks physical or spiritual fertility.

Magenta crystals include sugilite, rhodonite and rhodoschrite.

Brown Brown is for nurturing powers, for acceptance of frailty in oneself and others, and earthing power. Brown heals stress, restores physical energy and gives the strength to go on under difficulty. It aids the healing of the feet, legs, hands, skeleton and large intestine. It also heals the Earth and its animals.

Brown crystals include rutilated quartz, tiger's eye, fossilised wood, desert rose and leopardskin jasper.

Grey Grey is the colour of compromise, adaptability and the ability to merge into the background, and keep one's own counsel.

Grey is good for healing the immune system and for calming stress and fears, giving peaceful dreams and helping the subconscious mind to work though conflicts. It is also good for bones.

Grey crystals include smoky quartz, apache tears and grey-banded agate.

Black Black is for transitions, regeneration, acceptance of life as it is, the positive confrontation of mortality and an awareness that we are all ultimately alone.

Black heals the feet, legs and bones, and helps to heal trauma and leave behind old stresses and anxieties. It encourages rest, cures insomnia and a.s.sists in working through loss. It is used only rarely in healing, followed by the infusion of light as, unless used carefully, it can bring out dormant depression. Breathing out black and darkness and breathing in light and colour is very restorative.

Black crystals include jet, apache tears, smoky quartz and onyx.

Silver Silver is for meaningful dreams, visions, a desire for fulfilment beyond the material world and hidden potential.

Silver alleviates hormonal problems in men and women, regularises and heals the female menstrual and reproduction system and a.s.sists in all matters of fertility. It eases water retention and nightmares.

Silver crystals include moonstones, whose colour deepens as the Moon waxes, haemat.i.te, mother of pearl, snow and milky quartz and rutilated quartz.

Gold Gold is for perfection, immortality and peak experiences, visions and the achievement of major life goals, especially those that change the world.

Gold is especially potent for overcoming addictions, obsessions and compulsions and relieving depression. Gold is the most powerful healing colour of all, a.s.sociated with long life and immortality, and will give a surge of healing energy in any chronic or debilitating illnesses.

Gold crystals include amber, golden tiger's eye, topaz and citrine.

A Colour Healing Ritual With Candles Candles of specific colours can help in the healing process. If you are not certain of the root of a problem, you can use a white or pure beeswax candle, plus, if you wish, one for the perceived area of pain. For your monthly major healing sessions, this ritual can be used after the names have been read, working with pink or white candles to include everyone in the book who is sick or sad. It is especially good for chronic conditions or when healing may take some time. This is a gentler method than creating a cone of colour. Early evening just after dusk is a good time to work.

* Choose a candle of the appropriate colour. Extinguish all other lights.

* If the person to be healed is present, they can work with you in building up the energies. Sit on cus.h.i.+ons on either side of the candle, allowing room for movement.

* Place a dish of small dish of dried rosemary or lavender for general healing next to the candle. If the healing is for yourself or for someone who is absent, light the candle. If you are working as a group, sit in a circle, each person holding their own coloured candle (you can make rainbow with different colours round the circle if you wish), with a large white candle in the centre. Each person will also need a small dish of herbs.

* Gaze into the flame and if there are others present, ask them to do the same, gently drawing in the coloured light and exhaling darkness or pain.

* Breathe in and take in the light, as you do so saying in your mind: Welcome, light.

* Hold the breath while you mentally count 'One and two and three', then send out the healing energies, saying silently: Farewell, pain [or sorrow, darkness, etc.].

* Continue to breathe and visualise the colour entering and radiating and the darkness or pain fading away. If you are working in a group, one person can sit near the central candle and speak the words or drum the rhythm of the breathing. You may hear clairaudiently (in your mind) the collective voices rising and falling. After a time, you will see with your mind's eye that the same colour breath is being inhaled and exhaled by each person, and at this stage the healing energies are balanced.

* Gently circle your arms over your head and sway from side to side, either sitting, kneeling or standing, while scattering gently your healing herbs like a gentle shower of rain (your hair will s.h.i.+ne wonderfully when you next wash it). At the same time, chant softly: Go forth, increase and multiply, cosmic light intensify, healing Earth and Sea and Sky.

* When the energies feel right, add to the last chant a final long melodious 'Heal!' and extinguish the candle(s), letting the light and sound fade into the silence.

* Press your hands and feet gently to the ground and let the energies flow back into the Earth, saying softly: We thank you, Mother Earth, for healing blessings soon to be received.

Healing With Water And Coloured Gla.s.s Spring water placed in gla.s.s bottles of the appropriate colour will absorb the colour energies and can be used in rituals of all kinds, magical as well as healing. They can be further empowered by adding crystals of the same colour as the bottle to the water. If possible, work out of doors.

You can use this method for endowing living energies into any symbol of healing, such as an amulet, popper, sachet or even a photograph of the person to be healed. Use bottles with stoppers or corks (these can be obtained from most household shops or from antique stalls). Build up your collection so that you have a bottle of the correct colour for every need. Although the water retains its clear colour, some people are able to detect a faint glow of the colour.

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As before, the water can be drunk or added to a bath, in order to benefit from the energies. You can also add water to an animal bowl or a place in which wild birds come to drink, use it for plants that are failing to thrive or pour some in a polluted water source or on barren land.

You will remember, for example, that water from a pink or indigo bottle will bring harmony and gentle healing calm. But more specifically, a drink in a teenager's lunch box made with pink water will heal any hurts and fears a sensitive youngster experiences in the outside world. Clear water to which a quartz crystal has been added is an instant energiser, transmitting the life force in concentrated form.

You can use the colour-infused water in rituals to send healing to a species, people or place far away by sprinkling a circle of water around a picture or symbol.

You can empower a larger quant.i.ty than you immediately need, and pour it into small bottles of different colours, preserved in your fridge for future healing work when they are needed. By combining the magical and healing colour a.s.sociations of the different colours, you can adapt your empowered waters for almost any need.

Water made in a soft blue bottle empowered with a blue lace agate softens harsh words: use it for making coffee if difficult relatives come to call. A darker blue, perhaps empowered in a deep blue bottle with a sodalite crystal, is calming and so the infused colour would help to alleviate panic experienced when flying. Just moisten a small cloth with it, take the cloth on to the aircraft and dab it on your temples and pulse points on take-off and landing or at other times when you feel panic rising.

Healing the body is only one small part of health and so you should experiment and note any uses you find for your infused waters. Take some colour-charged water to work or to a difficult social event in a mineral water bottle. In my on-going struggle with my weight, I have found that orange water in which a carnelian has been soaked is wonderful for restoring balance and self-esteem and so preventing food binges.

A Healing Ritual With Coloured Gla.s.s This method of healing is one of the oldest in traditional folk magick, using the equivalent of the ceremonial elemental substances that I wrote of in Chapter 6. Folk magick was originally based on substances that have comprised the diet of ordinary people for thousands of years. They are all infused symbolically as well as actually with the life force.

* Empower your water, if you wish, and pour it into the chosen coloured bottle. Close your bottle and surround it with a circle of fruits, unprocessed food, flowers or crystals of the colour to be used. Leave s.p.a.ce between the bottle and the edge of the circle.

* Inside the circle, to the North of the bottle, place a large golden, white or orange vegetable, preferably grown under or close to the ground. This represents the fruits of the Earth, born of the Earth Mother.

* In the East of the circle, place some seeds or nuts that represent the source of new life and potential.

* In the South, set a small dish of honey, which is considered as sacred as salt in many traditions and is especially a.s.sociated with healing.

* Finally, in the West, place a seed roll or bread, representing the cutting down of the corn, so completing the cycle.

* Take a twig or a wand from a healing tree, such as ash, or a long frond of greenery and walk round the circle deosil. Infuse each of the magical foods in turn with circles of the wand deosil, saying: Fruits of the Earth, born from the womb of the land, give life and healing, health and joy from your ever-replenis.h.i.+ng store.

* Touch the vegetable with the wand and then lift the wand in a high arc before lowering it to touch the bottle of water in the centre.

* Now move to the East and circle the wand deosil over the seeds, saying: Seeds of potential, from the loins of the Father, give growth and power, possibility and regeneration from your limitless treasury.

* Touch the seeds with the wand and raising it in a high arc as before, project the energy into the bottle.

* Go now to the South and circle the wand deosil over the honey, saying: Melissa, Mother Bee, bring abundance, warmth, sweetness and nourishment from your ever-replenis.h.i.+ng hives.

Touch the dish and transfer the energies as before to the water. * Finally, go to the West and circle the wand over the bread, saying: Corn Father, willing offering of the life-sustaining bread, bring an ease to sorrow and suffering and the peace and fulfilment of healing harvest home.

* Touch the bread with the wand and transfer the energies as before to the water.

* Finally, pa.s.s the bottle of water over the vegetable, seeds, honey and bread, saying: Fruit and seed, nectar and corn, enrich, empower and endow this water with your healing powers and the life force that flows though our lives and through all creation.

Eat the empowered food to boost your own energies and to spread calm or healing.

10 - Ritual Magick

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Ritual magick is no different from any other activity that you may carry out in a systematic way. Yes, it is true, it is more formal than folk magick: you are using special tools and following a series of preordained steps based on traditional practice. But this does not mean that it has to be so complicated as to be beyond the capabilities of any normal person. You do not need special powers; and the preparation is just the same as you would do if you were redecorating a room, servicing your car or preparing your annual accounts.

When you decide to do any of these tasks, you set out the necessary equipment in advance, so you are not constantly das.h.i.+ng off to find what you need. You check that it is all in working order and you probably consult a reliable reference book, computer software or calculator to clarify the necessary stages and finer points of the method. And that is exactly what preparing for ritual magick is like.

First, you need to collect any relevant information; for example, you must find out which tools, herbs, candle colours, etc. you may require. Then you must check that your magical tools are charged with power. You must check whether the hour and the day are well chosen to benefit from the energies and are most aligned to the focus. If you are working with a group, you must decide in advance who is to carry the salt and other elemental substances round the circle, who will perform particular parts of the ritual, such as welcoming the Spirit Guardians.

This preparation is important, although, as I have previously said, many of the words and actions in the best rituals remain spontaneous within the basic framework. You do not even need to belong to a coven to create beautiful rituals. Indeed, practising alone, you will find that as you increase in confidence, the natural rhythm of the ritual cycle will amplify your own innate powers and you will feel angelic or devic forces joining with you as you walk around the circle and hear their voices mingling with your chants.

You should not allow yourself to be overawed, as I have been in the past and still occasionally am, by books and pract.i.tioners who vaunt their knowledge of obscure magical phrases, measure their circles down to the last millimetre and insist that only their form of working is authentic.

What matters is the actual connection you make in your ritual with the storehouse of natural and higher energies - and that can be done with a kitchen candle if the need is great and the intention pure. Ultimately, the power is within you, and as you become skilled with magick, you may find that the external form becomes less important.

However, formal magick does have its place, for a special need or for raising spiritual awareness, or for focusing magical energies through the acc.u.mulated power of tools charged and regularly used for positive purpose. Some people believe also that in ritual you tap into the energies of all those before you who have created circles of power and protection, and within them have raised and called upon the elemental qualities to bring desires and needs from the thought to the material plane.

The Aims Of Formal Rituals Rituals and spells at all levels cause a positive change or effect, whether for oneself, a loved one or the whole ecosystem, as they bring healing, peace, reconciliation or whatever is needed in the spell-caster's life. But over and above all these is the purpose of raising one's own levels of awareness so that perhaps for a few moments you feel connected to a higher power, perhaps even the source of divinity, and this is best expressed though the more ceremonial forms of work. The awareness you attain may be experienced as a sense of deep peace, of being filled with golden light, of floating through clouds or a certainty of being loved and protected, perhaps even as a glimpse of a Divinity.

Formal rituals do not have to be focused on a particular aim, however. Sometimes, you may wish to carry out a ritual without having any specific purpose in mind. In this case, you can simply cast a circle and raise the energies gently through a natural focus of herbs, flowers or fruit, allowing wisdom to be channelled through you and then giving thanks for blessings received as you close the circle.

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