Thursday, December 31, 2009

Once in a Blue Moon...

The Blue Moon isn’t as rare as you might think. It actually occurs approximately every two and a half years. The rarity is that the Blue Moon occurs on New Years eve only every nineteen years.

The typical Birch Moon, which can occur between December 24th and January 20th, is the best time for casting spells and wishes for new beginnings and what you hope to achieve in the coming year.

The Blue Moon is perfect for those requiring long-term results because it holds double the power. Any spells cast in its glow may not come to full fruition until the next one – two and a half years away.

A deep blue ribbon works best for binding spells made at this time.

Blessings
Rain

Saturday, December 19, 2009

The YULE Casket

YULE is a time for celebration. With these supplies on hand, we can truly Celebrate the lengthening days and the blessings we have to look forward to.

Candles & Colors:
Candles: Red, Green, Silver, Gold
If you're doing any type of a YULE log candelabra, you will need 2 green and one red

Colors: stash some lengths of ribbon in these colors as well.

NOW is the time to purchase the Silver and Gold candles. They will go on clearance after Christmas in the retail stores and unless you go on-line through a supplier, you're going to be hard pressed to find them. The only exception will be at a Hallmark or someplace that carries anniversary candles. In which case, they're probably going to say 25th or 50th Wedding anniversary on them.

Scents & Herbs:
Bayberry - Wealth and Happiness. (As a Candle, this is incredibly hard to find so stock up when you do)
Mistletoe, Balsam, Fir, Holly, Catnip, Pine Cones/needles, Sandalwood, Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, Chamomile, Frankincense, Myrrh

Incense in any of these scents will work well. Whether you use the loose and a charcoal block, the sticks or cones, it's a personal preference. However, you can keep the naturals in their dried form in small amounts in your box. If you use dried, I recommend offering them back to Mother Earth at the end of the year and restocking with freshly dried. Also, some of the items will be best used straight from nature at the time. So those items that are readily available to you do not necessarily have to be stored at all.


Charms & Stones:
Stones: Clear quarts, Ruby, Garnet, Green Tourmaline, Citrine, Jet, Diamond, Alexandrite, Kumzie

Do you have anything else you use for YULE?

Ritual and Celebration Caskets

Imagine walking over to your magick cabinet, opening the door and pulling out exactly what you need at a moments notice. You are not shuffling among the items on the shelves or in the drawers to find the items you 'just know are here somewhere'. Instead, you take out the shoe box labeled YULE, close the door and continue with your task at hand. How are you able to do this? Because all the essentials you need are in that little box. Granted, there may be some things you'll use that cross the ritual spectrum such as your wand, candle holders, bowl, etc. But inside this little chest you've put together are all the things SPECIAL to your YULE celebration.

I have broken the contents of the Ritual Caskets into three main categories:
Candles & Colors, Scents & Herbs, and Charms & Stones. Detailing the items into categories will also help you on your shopping trips. Placing like items together means you can shop for at least two of the items needed at the same source or location.

If you have a link to a source for any of these items and know of their reputation, please comment. They'll thank you for the promotion they'll receive in the book!

Blessed YULE

I really let the family stuff take me over the last couple of weeks. I've been so focused on trying to clear up end of the year stuff. I finally booked a hotel room for a couple days so I could hide and get into a personal place where all things would come together. So far it's working.

When I've not been scurrying around like a field mouse stocking for winter, I've been reading verociously about YULE and the supplies needed for celebration.

Have you created a YULE log yet? I was hoping to create a tabletop version but decided to err on the side of safety and wait until hubby is home to plane the bottom for me on his table saw. The chain saw or hand saw and I would have gotten along fine, but I didn't want to start the season off minus a finger. So the YULE long will come next season. For now, I'll enjoy the moment with pillar candles.

This book isn't going to be about rituals. There are plenty of those out there written by talented followers of the Craft. I'll even spotlight some of them as we go along and their books will be listed in the bibliography of The Organzied Witch.

Rather, The Organzied Witch is about the essentials we need for rituals and hopefully to prepare ahead of time (unlike this year hehe). As we go along, watch the Shortcuts for Ritual Caskets and you'll be able to pull up those posts.

Many Blessings
Rain

Monday, December 14, 2009

The Christmas Tarot

I just received the most beautiful set of Tarot. This is not your every day tarot deck. For those of you who love Victorian designs, this set is perfect for you or as a Yule gift.

Author of Tarot for Writers, Tarot specialist Corrine Kenner sent me an email this afternoon with the following note...

I am excited to announce my latest project: a Christmas tarot deck, inspired by the magic of a Victorian Christmas. It's electronic so you can download it in less than a minute. It also comes with a 45-page guidebook that you can read online. For more information visit www.ChristmasTarot.com
Merry Christmas

I checked out the website and fell in love. Of course, that led to purchasing. Normally, this deck will cost $9.99 but during the 2009 holiday season you can download it for only $2.09! Wow!

Not only can you use the deck on-line, but you can use any photo-printing medium of your choice to print a hard copy 4x6 deck. The site even includes printing tips to get a great quality deck to work with.

Please remember to post to Corrine what you think of the deck. I'd love to hear your comments here, too.

Blessings
Rain