Everyday Magic: Colors

It has been a while since I have felt like writing. I guess I feel like I really had nothing worthwhile to say. I’m under a lot of stress financially, so that usually sends me into a world of anxiety resulting in writing blocks and acne all over my chin… Anyways, I’m snowed in and my fiance walked to work, so I decided to do a bit of house cleaning. I started with my bedroom (where I keep all of my metaphysical tools) and found my Book of Shadows. I haven’t written in it for over a month due to a bit of spiritual stagnation (it happens to everyone, at least every once in a while) but I opened it open anyways. It smelled like sandalwood and it made me smile 🙂 I flipped through it, felt a little better, and abandoned my cleaning… So now I am writing to you.

The first page that I opened to was a list of magical/spiritual correspondences, starting with colors. When I first began magical practices (I was a little baby Witch D back then) I would incorporate colors into my daily life for a bit of a magical energy boost. Being mindful of it made me feel more connected to the craft. So, I figured I would share with you the colors, what they traditionally mean, and how to use them every day.

*The meaning of colors can be unique to every individual. As an example, traditionally blue is used to represent business. However, if you don’t care for blue, but you feel as if red represents business, by all means! Use it! It is what the color means to you!
**Also note, I’m not entirely sure where all of the information in my Book of Shadows has come from. I’ve been working on collecting information for it for a total of eight years, adding and taking away as the years have passed. My information won’t be exactly the same as what you will read on other sites or in other books, but it works for me.

• Black- used for banishing, protection, scrying, and wisdom
• Blue- art, communication, harmony, healing
• Blue (dark)- change, dreams, meditation
• Blue (light)- peace, protection, understanding
• Brown- balance, concentration, grounding
• Copper- money, passion, professional
• Gold- abundance, finances
• Green- growth, fertility, prosperity
• Grey- neutrality
• Indigo- astral ravel, overcoming depression
• Lavender- dignity, intuition, shielding, peace, love, calmness
• Orange- action, overcoming, encouraging
• Pink- friendship, domestic, emotion
• Purple- influence, spirit, psychic, Goddess
• Red- action, courage, strength, passion
• White- blessings, purity, all-encompassing
• Yellow- creativity, travel, to inspire, intellect, God
• Silver- Goddess, moon

Okay, so now you have a list of the properties a color contains, so how to you add it to your everyday life?

Candles
Chances are, you have candles all about your house. I know I do. You can get candles of all colors at Wal-Mart of Michael’s…  I actually just got several black candles from Michael’s for 30 cents each! Boom! Anyways, as an example, say that you have a lot of work to be done around the house, but you keep getting distracted. You can take a black candle and charge it with positive energy, then light it announcing “I banish all distractions that keep me from completing my work.” Every time you see that candle, you will be reminded that there is work to be done and you will complete it. Another example, say you are writing a paper and you are experiencing extreme writer’s block. You could light an Orange candle to help you overcome said writers block and a Yellow candle to help inspire you. You get the idea.

Wall Color
When painting your home, the color of certain rooms can play a part in how you are feeling. While you paint, think about the feelings you wish to have when being in that particular room, essentially charging the walls with your energy. In my last home my house was painted like so:
Bedroom- very light grey with a wall of blue. Grey is neutral and calm, blue helps promote harmony and healing. It helped me relax in my bed and became a place of meditation for me.
Bathroom- Mostly yellow. I am a creative person and the bath is where I will sit to think about what my next project (be it a craft, recipe, story or painting) will be. Yellow helps to inspire and encourages creativity.
Kitchen- beige with one wall of deep red. Cooking is a passion for me. I feel prettiest when I cook. My fiance and I spend our time in the kitchen together as a romantic date. Red represents strength and passion to me, so I feel like having at least one wall of red helped to facilitate the feelings I look for.
Living room- Mostly grey. If I kept the room neutral, then I could play with how I was wanting to feel with changing the decor in my house. If I wanted to feel spritely, I could decorate with yellow and green for growth and creativity. If I wanted to feel active, I could add red and orange.

Decor
When I moved, I knew that I would not be staying in the apartment we got for more than two years, so we decided not to paint the walls. If you are in the same boat, you can always place energy around your home with decor. If you want to promote psychic awareness, paint a picture using primarily shades of purple and place it over your altar. If you want to promote balance in your home, decorate with earth tones focusing of all shades of brown and green. You get the point.

Clothing, Jewelry, Makeup
You can charge your clothing with energy as well. If you have a big test coming up, where the same yellow (yellow for intellect) shirt every time you study. On test day, where that same shirt and charge it with positive feelings to feel confident in your test. Get creative with it! Red on a first day for courage and passion, Brown on a day where you need to feel grounded… You can also charge certain jewelry of makeup. Say you are going on a job interview you could wear blue eyeshadow for business and communication (a tasteful, mild blue… don’t show up looking like a stripper) and copper jewelry for professional feelings and money. I have even braided different colored ribbons into my hair for different purposes.

Just a few things that I like to do that I find helpful. Colors can be powerful and they are incredibly easy to add into your every day magical practices 🙂

I think I am done writing for now. I have a lot to do around this house.

Blessings,
-D

Honoring Familiars

I have had some people tell me “you can’t have more than one familiar,” or that “your familiar is not your pet.” Conflicting opinions, I suppose.

I think a familiar is an animal who finds you and speaks to your heart. They are the creatures that help you find peace and walk with you every step of the way during your good times and bad. And I just happen to have four familiars. I’ll tell you about my familiars, then I’ll tell you what I do to honor them. (feel free to skip the bios and go right to the spell at the bottom)

Jenny: My oldest baby at eight years. She is a black lab/pit mix who had my heart the moment I first saw her. I was going through a lot of grief at the time; I was recovering from an eating disorder and was severely depressed. Then, one day, I was walking into a Target with my mother when I heard those fateful words: “Do you want a puppy?” She was beautiful. And I needed her. She was the only puppy left and I absolutely needed her in my life. Mom told me no. So I followed her around Target, crying, for over an hour. At the check out line, she told me, “Fine. If the damn dog is still there, we can get her. But she won’t be.” She was still there. And she became the first love of my life. She has taught me patience and undying love. She has taught me that the bad days are temporary and that the good days are closer than they appear… and the importance of sleeping in every now and again. Damn, that dog loves to sleeps.

Saphira: The dog I never wanted, but needed so badly. She is my second oldest at six years. I was a fairly busy person when she came into our life. I was struggling to make time for Jenny as it was, working 2 jobs and going to school full-time… I was lucky I had time to shower. But then my brother come bounding through the door with a red and white freckled, blue-eyed puppy in his arms. “Dad said we can keep her!” Great. Just great. Now I have one more mouth to feed and his responsibility to her wouldn’t last more than two days before she became my problem. And I was right. It wasn’t long before we realized that she was completely deaf. Despite her handicap, she was the happiest, friendliest pup I’ve ever seen and I was completely in love with her. She didn’t ask for much, just some water in her bowl and a toss of a rope toy every now and again. She has taught me that despite our short comings, we need to keep moving forward and only look for the best. She has also taught me not to pity oneself; she surely doesn’t and she is doing just fine.

The Duo, Pippin and Arwen: I wanted a kitten. After I moved in with my fiance, he promised me that we could get a kitten, but only one. There was this guy I worked with and he was showing me a picture of a kitten with one eye that he was needing a home. I was very excited to tell him that we would take him and give it a loving home. But when the day came to pick him up, my coworker was waiting in his car with a cat I had never seen before. “Change of plans, either you take her or I take her to a shelter,” and handed me the cat that I would soon call Arwen. She was so tiny, clearly underfed and scared. My fiance was completely smitten with her automatically. My coworker then went on to say that he doesn’t think his brother has few her in a few days, so we would be hungry when we got her home. I was furious with him, no animal should be guessing when their next meal would be. As I was in the middle of chewing him out for the mistreatment of this poor cat, some girl pulled up with a kitten in her car, ready to pass it over to the man I was yelling at. Apparently, the kitten was a going to be a gift to his girlfriend. And apparently, my yelling convinced her that the kitten needed a better home. With out asking, she placed the kitten, who would soon be known as Pippin, in my hands and drove away. I guess we were leaving with two babies, neither of which we were expecting, but apparently we were what they were needing. Arwen became beautiful. She filled out and he calico coat became shiny. She was so neglected that it took her almost a year to become social with anyone other than me, but now she loves my fiance and the dogs. She taught me about second chances. We ended up calling her Arwen after the Elf in LOTR because they are both beautiful beyond words and incredibly graceful. Pippin, on the other hand, grew up in the lap of luxury. He came into our home surrounded by toys, wet food and warm blankets all around. He is a curious little guy who quickly became obsessed with his morning breakfast (and always wanted seconds). He became Pippin… get it? Second breakfast? Everytime I meditate, pray, practice rituals, etc, he runs up to me and waits patiently until I am done. He is my spiritual buddy.

I feel like their little bio became much longer than what I intended it to be, but I love them all so much. It is only appropriate to honor them accordingly, so there are a few things that I do for them, but this one is my favorite…

Protection Amulet For Pets:

What you need:

• *an amulet/pet
• salt
• hair/ pet
• large bowl
• herbs you feel represent love and protection ( I use lavender and apple slices)
• Any candles you use during ritual/spell work. For me, it is 4 candles for the corners and 2 for my deities.

*At any craft’s store in the jewelry isle, you can find little clip on amulets that would fit nicely on a collar for you pet. I bought two small “eye of Horus” charms for the cats and two larger “Buddha” charms for the dogs.

• I would perform this on either a full moon (for all around higher power) or on a waxing moon (where we are gaining power, so bringing things into you life is easier).
• Go outside in the power of the moon and cast your circle. Invite the elements and deities into your sacred space.
• In a large bowl, add the salt and the familiar hairs and well as all of the amulets.
• After, place whatever herbs you are using in the bowl, stating what they are for (ie: “I give this lavender for ongoing peace and love”)
• Once everything is in the bowl, place both of your hands on top of it and charge it with whatever positive and loving energy you can muster. I focus on white and pink lights and see the faces of all of my babies.
• I close my eyes and say:
  God and Goddess Divine
  I invite you here in this sacred time
  Please bless the creatures I love so dear
  Please protect them and feel that you’re near
  With a grateful heart
  So mote it be
• Close your circle and thank your deities and elements, but leave the amulets to charge in the power of the moon.

I redo this small little ritual every full moon. Just a little way to add some love to your familiar’s life. Of course, you can always change-up the wording, you could lose the salt, change the herbs, do it during the day… this is just what I do.

Much love to you all
-D