Egg Charms:

Eggs are an ancient symbol of fertility, new life, and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth of the Universe. As such, they make terrific charms for fertility, pregnancy, new endeavors, and similar types of magick. These types of charms are fairly easy, and very versatile.

Start with raw eggs. My favorite tool to pierce the shell is a small nail ~ for some reason, I've never had good luck piercing the shells with needles.

Pierce the narrow end of the shell with a tiny hole. At the wider end of the egg, use the nail to pierce a wider hole. This is the trickiest part of the operation, but I've been lucky and only lost a few eggs. Just handle the eggs gently, and once you make the hole in the wider end, use the tip of the nail to gently enlarge the hole.

Then, for those of you who have never done this before, simply place your lips over the smaller hole and blow. (No, you don't want to know what it looks like! LOL)

When the egg is blown out, place a finger over the smaller hole, and fill the egg about halfway with warm water. Shake well and rinse; do this several times to make sure the egg is completely cleaned out. Put in a safe place to dry.

When these blown-out eggs are dry, they can then be filled with various herbs and such, and decorated as charms. The decorations can be as simple, or as elaborate as you wish.

Here are some possible color, symbol and herb combinations for a few different magickal purposes:

• Fertility - Pregnancy: spring green or bright yellow; basil, poppy, cucumber, acorns, myrtle, all nuts, apple, pomegranate, mistletoe, myrtle; roosters and hens, spiral, the runic B, raindrops
• Protection: red, white or purple; ash, basil, dill, fennel, hyssop, mistletoe, rosemary, rue, vervain; pentagram, equal-armed cross
• Healing: green or blue (purple is good for severe illnesses); rosemary, red carnation petals, sage, saffron, lavender, myrrh; pentagram, oak leaves

When preparing the herbs to put inside these charms, they must be ground very fine. Remember, these are very tiny holes you will be putting them into.

Once the herbs are ground and charged, you are ready to pour them in. If you plan on hanging the eggs, you must first thread a cord or string through the egg. I would tie the knot at the smaller hole, leaving the larger hole to pour the herbs through.

If you don't plan on hanging them, you could use any number of things to seal the hole, and provide additional magick. "Seals" that come to mind include acorns, small stones, pieces of wood and shells.

Fill the egg as much as possible with your herbal mixture of choice, and then seal the other hole. (Note, if you plan on hanging the eggs, this second seal is not vital; simply be careful where you hang it.)

My personal preference would be to decorate the egg first, and then fill it with herbs, but you do whichever works best for you.

Once the charm is completed and fully charged, you can either hang it up, or place it somewhere where the egg might remain intact. I would also plan on renewing these charms periodically.

By Amberflame