About Beltane

For the Celts, Beltane marked the beginning of the pastoral summer season when the herds of livestock were driven out to the summer pastures and mountain grazing lands. In modern Irish, Mí na Bealtaine ('month of Bealtaine') is the name for the month of May. The name of the month is often abbreviated to Bealtaine, with the festival day itself being known as Lá Bealtaine. The lighting of bonfires on Oidhche Bhealtaine ('the eve of Bealtaine') on mountains and hills of ritual and political significance was one of the main activities of the festival....

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Walpurgis Night

Walpurgis Night, the time is right,

The ancient powers awake.

So dance and sing, around the ring,

And Beltane magic make....

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Festival of Belenus

Belenus, whose name means "Bright One," was one of the most ancient of Celtic gods. The Celtic fire festival, held on the eve of the first of May, known as Beltane, (the fires of Bel) is probably derived from the name of this deity. Beltane fires were lit to encourage the sun's warmth. These fires also had restorative properties and cattle were herded between them before being loosed on the new spring pastures....

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Witches' Night Traditions and Celebrations

In Germany, Walpurgisnacht (or Hexennacht, meaning witches´ night), the night from April 30 (May eve), is the night when allegedly the witches hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg (the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany)  hold revels with their Gods, and await the arrival of Spring.

In some parts of northern coastal regions of Germany, the custom of lighting huge Beltane fires is still kept alive, to celebrate the coming of May, while most parts of Germany have a derived christianized custom around Easter called "Easter fires".

In rural parts of southern Germany it is part of popular youth culture to go out on Walburgisnacht to...

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The Magic of Gardens

Magical and healing herb gardens are sanctuaries of the soul. Indeed, any garden is a magical one to the Witch.

The earliest formal record of gardening dates back to a stone tablet from Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC. It describes how Enki, the Sumerian god of water, provided fresh water to the dry land and thereby produced fruit trees and fields from a desert like land. By 2250 BC, the famed Hanging gardens of Babylon were well established in the capital of Sumeria. These are considered to be the forerunners of gardens today....

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To Make A Decision

If you are faced with many choices, write each down on small slips of paper. Fold each twice and place them on a flat surface (such as a picnic table) which is standing free (not up against anything), in a place where a gentle easterly wind is blowing...

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A Loving Bell

Hang up a bell with a pleasant ring in a window which remains open for a good part of each day, and through which the wind blows (preferably the West Wind).

As you do so, speak these words:

Little bell of love, I hang you to whisper my need for love on the breezes and winds....

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Tie Up Your Troubles

On a sturdy, preferably dead, bush or shrub still planted in the ground, in a place where the winds blow clear and free, tie or push onto the tip of a branch or twig one leaf for every one of the ills that is bothering you. If you tie the leaf, do so loosely and use a natural fiber cord....

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Four Winds Wishing Spell

There are many spells designed to carry a secret wish into the universe when the productive powers of creation can bring its realization into being. Nearly all spells make use of the tremendously powerful process of creative visualization.

The following spell courts the favor of the 4 winds or the energies of the compass points. For this spell you will need to ascertain North then find South, East and West.

The 4 winds were given magical names by the ancient Greeks - Boreas, Eureus, Notus and Zephyrus - it is these forces together with those of the elemental spirits of air, water, fire and earth, that are called upon in the spell to carry your wish to the four points of the universe....

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Whispering Wind Spell

This is a spell to assist if someone is bothering you or if you have a strong, unfulfilled desire. To begin, make sure there is a slight breeze blowing. Light a yellow jar candle and take a few minutes to meditate on your desire or problem.

Open the window and whisper your problem or desire,...  I am so sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website, Book of Shadows, hosted at shirleytwofeathers.com, and can be found in its entirety here: Whispering Wind Spell

Boat Blessings

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival was held on the Full Moon in April. There was a procession of decorated boats up and down the rivers and lakes in the moonlight. Everyone participated, for they believed that this pleased the dragons who brought life-energies to the community. They would throw flowers into the water to carry their blessings and wishes....

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The Lunar Eclipse and Magick

The lunar eclipse is the symbol of the Crone, also called Hecate, Hel, Mother Hulda, the Snow Queen, Bone Mother, Demeter (when searching for Persephone and the earth's vegetation dies) and Sekhmet. It is significant that the eclipse does not related to the Crone as Lady of Wisdom, who is part of the Crone image with the waning crescent-moon part of the lunar cycle, but focuses on the Lady as Passage. Now is a fine time for Dark magic and ...

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Salt and Pepper Hex

Low level hexes cause low level misery. Sprinkle salt and pepper on your target's clothes, while thinking or chanting:

I put salt and pepper on you,

From now on you'll be sorry, miserable and itchy too!

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Pepper as a Magickal Ingredient

Ruler: Mars
Type: Spice
Magickal Form: ground, whole

Heat producing and fiery chili pepper makes a great lust ingredient. Add to coconut and chocolate to turn up the flames of desire. Place a circle of red peppercorns around a photograph of your lover to keep others away from him or her. ...

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Peppercorns and Binding Agreements

What follows is a dry and lengthy discussion about peppercorns as legal tender. I included it here at Gypsy Magic because it interested me and because I think the concept can be used in magick as well.

Consider this - you want to do magick, and you'd like to invoke the aid of a deity, an elemental spirit, or some magickal entity but you are unsure as to how to "seal the deal." In a court of law, a "legal" contract, in order to be binding,  requires that both sides provide consideration, and I think that in magick this could be true as well...

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Prosperity Dragon Smoke Bath Salts

• 1 cup salt
• 5 drops cherry oil
• 2 drops anise oil

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Fragrant Dragon's Blood Ink

Materials Needed:

• Dragon's Blood resin (powdered if possible)
• colorless alcohol (such as vodka)
• tightly sealable jar
• one cinnamon stick (chipped) or 15 cloves or one vanilla bean (chipped) or 9 coffee beans (crushed).

Pour the resin and spices into the jar. Pour in just enough alcohol to cover the resin/spices mixture plus...

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Dragon Summoning

A Dragon needs a home; create a lair or cave or peak filled with treasure. The nature of the treasure determines the nature of the Dragon. Determine whether the dragon you wish to summon has a solitary nature; if not, add images of other dragons and attractive human figures to keep the Dragon company.

To summon the Dragon, light red candles and provide offerings of candy and sweets. The invocation can be...

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Dragon's Tears Floorwash

Make a strong infusion by pouring boiling water over dragon's tears (dragon's blood resin). Add this to a bucket of floor wash rinse water with vinegar and scrub away.

More recipes for waters and washes can be found at my new website, The Magickal Apothecary.

Dragons and Dragon's Blood

Today, April 23, is St George's day. The patron saint of England, St. George is credited with having slain a fearsome dragon to save the life of a virgin. However, the Dragon means different things to different peoples. In some medieval traditions it is linked with the devil or Satan, hence the carvings and windows depicting St George, or sometimes St Michael, slaying one....

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It's Earth Day

Earth Day is a name used for two similar global observances. While some people celebrate Earth Day around the time of the Vernal Equinox, others observe the occasion on April 22 each year....

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The Magnificent Bull

My bull is white like the silver fish in the river,
White like the shimmering crane bird on the river bank,
White like fresh milk!
His roar is like the thunder to the Turkish cannon on the steep shore....

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Bull Superstitions and Folklore

Symbolically, the bull stands for nourishment through its slaughter or sacrifice. Insight into the past. The ability to stand your ground.

Dreaming of bulls could mean: Fertility of thoughts, ideas, possessions, makes the mundane and earthy more fertile, new ideas need to be expressed, teaches stability w/o stubbornness, assert feminine energies for balance. May demonstrate the necessity for a balance diet. Are you being forthright in your intentions? Are you willing to stand your ground in life matters? Bull can give us skills needed for expressions of strength. 

If you dream of cows or bulls chasing you, it means someone is very jealous and wants to hurt you. Alternatively it could me that you are "full of bull" (or they are).

As a lucky omen, it is said that if you hide in a bull's pen, you will have immunity from lightning. Also, if you see nine cows in a shed with a gray bull next to the door, and all of them lie on the same side, you are in luck, because you will be granted one wish.

Weather lore says that when a bull roars and stamps its feet, rain will grace the fields. Also, bulls' horns are a good symbol in meditation for motivation. Carvings of bulls are blessings, good for gardens and other protected places.

Tramping over a bull's balls, according to superstition, brings good luck.I am not sure if this legend applies to bull's balls in general, or is only applicable in Milan, Italy, where there is a mosaic of a bull on the floor in the Gallery Vittorio Emanuele II. It sports the coats of arms of the four capitals of the Kingdom of Italy. The tradition goes that placing your right heel on the bull’s balls and then spinning around inside the Turin emblem, brings good luck. 

When it comes to old time remedies, nothing beats a bull's testes as an aphrodisiac. Drinking bulls blood will revitalize the drinker’s blood as well as giving him the strength and power of the animal. According to an ancient roman text:  “For every hardness, melt bulls’ grease with tar, and lay on; it will make lithe and nesh all the sores and the hard flesh.” In the days of Pope Adrian VI, a plague was stopped by sacrificing a bull to the devil.

Collected from various sources

Taurus Begins

Themes: Work; Patience; Strength; Courage
Symbol: Bull
Presiding Goddess: Tauropolos

To Do Today: The Cretans were well known for having bull-leaping festivals that honored this goddess, probably as a fertility rite and test of one's bravery. Oddly enough, this is how we come by the saying "seize the bull by the horns!" ...

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Taurus Oil

Add the following essential oils to 1/8 cup of a base oil. Visualize as you mix and smell.  For best results, don't use synthetics.

• 4 drops Oakmoss Bouquet ...

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Turquoise Protection Amulet

The ancients regarded turquoise as a powerful magickal aid to ward off misfortune, illness, and the evil eye. You can use turquoise to make your own amulet for protection.

To begin, during the waxing Moon take a piece of blue turquoise or an item of blue turquoise jewelry and hold it in your hand for a moment. In your mind's eye, picture a blue light surrounding you. Hold the stone to your heart, and breathe on it to charge it with your power...

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Dictionary of the Language of Flowers

This is a reverse dictionary of the language of  flowers. I decided to compile it because most of what I find about flower meanings and communicating with flowers are listed with the flower first and the meaning after, which is like looking for a needle in a haystack if you have something specific to say.

If you are curious about specific flowers, see The language of flowers (a similar dictionary that lists the flowers in alphabetical order with their meanings). If you are interested in combinations of flowers, you might want to read this post on Combining Flowers for Specific Intentions.

Note: These language correspondences can be used when creating a spell, planting a magickal garden, to set an intention, or to send a message. You may notice some of the flowers (and plants) have meanings that seem contradictory or inconsistent. This is because language tends to change over time. Also, you may find that magickal correspondences to some of these flowers are in direct conflict - that is because the meanings were not derived from magickal sources. When in doubt, go with the meaning that resonates with your personal experience, and be clear with your intention. Pictures may be substituted for the actual flower or plant.

Here's the dictionary:

• A message (for thee) - Common Garden Iris;
• A token - Laurestine; Ox-Eye Daisy;
• Absence - Wormwood;
• Absence (I mourn your absence) - Zinnias;
• Absence (love in absence) - Myrtle;
• Absent (in memory of an absent friend) - Mixed Zinnias;
• Absent (thinking of an absent friend) - Mixed Zinnias;
• Absent (thoughts of absent friends) - Zinnias;
• Abuse (do not abuse me) - Saffron (Crocus);
• Abuse not - Crocus;
• Accommodating (accommodating disposition) - Valerian;
• Ache (my heart aches for you) - Red Carnation;
• Action (energy in action) - Chamomile;
• Activity - Thyme...

... I am so sorry but this post has been moved to my new website, Magickal Ingredients, and can be found in its entirety here: Dictionary of the Language of Flowers.

Cat Healing Chant

To petition Bast (the goddess of cats)  for healing of cats, chant the following before her picture/statue while holding an actual picture or mental image of the sick animal:

Lift the hand of disease.

Restore health!

Cast out all illness....

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Cat Protection Ritual

For protection and blessings by the goddess Bast, of yourself and your cat pets, set up an altar with cat pictures and/or statues. These pictures and statues can be of any kind of cat, domestic or wild. Place a picture of yourself, your family, and some of your cats there also. Have two green candles on the altar. This ritual can be performed by itself or as part of a cast circle ritual....

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Day of Bast

Colors: Pink, yellow, clay-color 
Element: Fire 
Altar: Upon a cloth the color of clay, set ten lit candles of pink and yellow, and the figures of many cats. In the center should sit a figure of Bast, and a sistrum. The one who has been chosen to do the work of the ritual should pick up the sistrum before the invocation, with an obeisance to Bast, and it should be shaken after every sentence. 
Offerings: Give aid to an animal shelter. Give food to household cats.
Daily Meal: Fish.

Invocation to Bast 

O great Mistress of Cats, 

Lady of pleasure in ancient times...

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The Festival Of Bast

According to many pagan calendars, April 15 was the annual festival of Bast. This was Egypt's most popular festival. A precursor of modern mardi Gras, it was renowned for parties, revelry, and drunkenness. Herodotus, the Greek traveler and historian writing in the fifth century BCE, claimed that more wine was consumed in Egypt during this festival than during the entire rest of the year...

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Celtic Cat Lore

Many Celtic legends pictured the Cat as a ferocious and evil creature. However, that may have been because Cats were untamed during the time of the Druids. It was a potent totem animal of several clans and Caithness, named after the Clan of the Catti, is one example.

...I am so sorry, but this post has been combined with another and moved to my new website, Magickal Ingredients, it can be found here: The Cat As A Magickal Ingredient

Sign of the Willow

Willow people are full of the mysteries of life which makes them difficult to get to know. Their psychic antennae are always switched on. They have extraordinary memories. They are extremely eloquent in explaining the mysteries of life. They act intuitively in almost all situations and are very resourceful.

• Birthdates: April 15 thru May 12.
• Tree: Willow
• Gemstone: Moonstone
• Flower : Primrose
• Animal: Serpent
• Planet: Moon
• Deity: Hekate
• Sabbat/Holiday: Beltane
• Color: Known only to be "bright"
• Additional Symbol: Colored eggs...

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Maiden Healing Ritual

Perform this at the new moon. Decorate the altar with fresh flowers, sprouts, spring water, and images of maiden goddesses. Light some white, pink, and blue candles and some incense of your choice. Prepare a ritual bath with lavender, saffron, and laurel. Say...

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To Increase Intuitive Powers

A spell to increase intuitive powers, to be said when the moon is dark:

"Void of blackness, darkest night,

Ruled by Crone of power and might....

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New Moon Show Me My Love Spell

Look at a New moon and say:

New Moon, New Moon, do tell me

Who my own true lover is to be.

The color of his (her) hair,

The clothes that he (she) will wear,

And on what day he (she) shall appear.

... more moon divinations can be found here: Divination

Yarrow Love Divination

Pick some yarrow at the time of the New Moon. Put it under your pillow and say before going to sleep:

Good night fair yarrow,

Thrise good night to thee.

I hope before tomorrow's dawn

My true love I shall see.

... more moon divinations can be found here: Divination

Dark Moon Divination

To have a question answered, or to ask about your life in general, perform this ritual on the Dark Moon night. You will need the following:

• Black Candle
• Incense 
• Tarot Cards and./or Rune Stones
• Wand (or something to serve as a wand)

Take a ritual cleansing bath and dress in a dark robe or go naked. Cast your circle as usual, or at least bless salt and sprinkle it around your working area. Light a black candle on each side of the altar...

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New Moon Marriage Divination

When the Moon is New, braid your hair or some kind of string while saying:

I braid this knot, this knot I braid,

To know the think I know not yet,

That while I sleep I plain may see...

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New Moon Chant

New Moon New Moon,

Star in the stream,

Pray tell my fortune

In my dream.

Pale Moon doth rain

Red Moon doth blow

White Moon doth neither rain nor snow

... more moon divinations can be found here: Divination

Gold Buddha Bath Salts

• 1 cup salt
• 8 drops lotus oil
• 2 drops cinnamon oil
• 8 drops sandalwood oil
• 3 drops myrrh oil
• 2 drops allspice oil...

... I am so sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Magickal Apothecary, and can be found in its entirety here: Golden Buddha Bath Salts

A Rain Divination

When rain is falling lightly outside do the following:

I'm sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website, shirleytwofeathers.com. You can see it in it's entirety here: A Rain Divination

To Break a Bad Habit

Here is a simple spell using the cleansing, purifying power of rain:

With water colors or chalk, draw or write the bad habit on a piece of paper. Immediately take it out into the rain....

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The Crossbones Amulet

The crossbones amulet is excellent for removing negative energy, and breaking a hex or any negativity that is or has been sent your way.

The amulet itself is made from two small bones taken from chicken wings. The chicken bones actually absorb and hold negativity. The bones are tied together with black thread in the shape of a solar cross (an equal armed cross).

The procedure is as follows:

Using your basic altar layout, bring with you the following:: two bones, black thread, a white candle, a bottle of ...

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Uncrossing Oil

Mix two parts of sandalwood, patchouli leaves and myrrh, with one part of five-finger grass. Add two tablespoons of this mixture to two ounces of oil. Put a pinch of blessed salt and eight drops ...

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Power Oil

Said to help increase your own power. Anoint on the forehead, throat, breast bone, and above the navel. Useful in any ritual when designed to increase your own power in any situation. Anoint on charms for psychic and spiritual development.

Mix together equal parts of grated lemon peel or ...

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Gris-Gris Faible Incense

This incense formula may be used in your rituals to destroy an enemy's power to harm you. Can also be used as an "Uncrossing Incense".

• 1 oz powdered sandalwood
• 1/2 oz powdered bay leaves
• 1/2 oz powdered dill seed
• 1 tsp asafoetida
• 1/4 tsp saltpeter...

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To Regain Lost Energy

This is so simple that I'm not even sure if it qualifies as being a "spell." It does, however, work like magick. When your energy is dragging, sit with your back pressed against a tree trunk and ...

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Simple Spell to Divine The Future

Lie beneath leafy trees and relax ...

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