2017 Are You On Board With Yourself?

Well another year has come and gone, another moon phase has ended and begun again. It's a wonderful to be able to experience time! I am not typically one to make New Year's Resolutions, I never have for many years. A good friend, Tasha Harris, the owner of Thee Angels Network and Tasha's Touch gave me a great piece of advice about 7 years ago. She said, "Why do you have to wait till New Year's to resolve to do something? Every day should be a New Year." After I heard that I made it a point to see goals this way.

There is one tradition I have kept alive over the years, a yearly mantra. Usually within the first week of January, Spirit gives me a mantra that I carry with me all year. I typically write it down or I meditate on it. This mantra is usually short and something easy for reflection. This years mantra is "Get on board or get out of my way." As I begin to reflect on this, it's not just a message to me. Yes, it is Spirit saying 'get on board with Me'. It is also a message to people in my life as well. Constantly we let other people dictate what others should do in their life. What matters in the end is what you or I want. No one else is living your life, but you. This is a lesson that I forgot, therefore, it is no surprise to me that this is my 2017 mantra.

Finally, this practice of keeping a mantra goes back to a Bible verse I have always held dear. It is also a cornerstone of my meditation practices. Many people know that I work very closely with Mother Mary. My spiritual practice is mixed with a lot of Catholic beliefs. In the gospel according to Luke, he writes, "But Mary kept all these things, and treasured them in her heart." No matter the situation, wisdom, knowledge, or experience we must gather them all up, treasure them, and continuously ponder them. That doesn't mean we should dwell on them, especially if they are unhappy experiences. We ought to take them as an experience and ponder them. What may be learned in the moment may not be relevant until much later.

Tired of Mercury Retrograde? Well It's Tired of You! Ritual Included!

I don't know about my comrades out there, but I am sick of people complaining and blaming Mercury Retrograde for their fall backs! If I was the God Mercury I would be a little annoyed by now.  Unfortunately humans need to be able to blame somebody or something for a problem in their life. Mercury retrogrades nearly 3 times a year, what else is new?! Haven't you learned how to hand it yet? Well in case you haven't let me help give you a little guidance. Here are my top 3 tid bits about Mercury. A picture says a thousand words lol!

1. Expect that communication and technology issues.

• I am not saying put all this stock into believing that these things are going to happen. I am saying prepare for the chance of them happening. Maybe it means updating your virus protection on your computer and other devices. Have a back up plan with technology goes haywire. 
• In the area of person to person communication (the old fashioned face to face talking) stop and think about what you want to say. Slow it down and make sure your message is clear and understandable. Follow up and gain feedback in a creative way to find out if your message was received as you intended to send it. 
• A quick note about emails and electronic communication. After you have sent a digital message follow up. Personally follow up and talk to that person to confirm your appointments, messages, and dates. I generally allow 24 hours to pass before I personally call if I haven't received a response. 

2. Have a sense of humor and don't take things personally.

• Everyone is feeling the energy of Mercury. In the spiritual community a lot of times they are building up this energy themselves. The spiritual person who is aware of the energy and just moves on has a far easier time with Mercury Retrograde. Human behavior will be jacked up and it might be a little humorous. 
• Laugh and have fun. This is not the energy to start new plans anyway, so take a little time to do some reflection. At the end of this blog will be a great Mercury Retrograde Ritual to assist you with this time. 

3. Journal get rid of toxic stuff!

• I don't like to toxic stuff 'junk'. I like to call it stuff, because it teaches us and shows us our 'inner hoarder' if you will. Clean it out! I suggest writing it down in a journal. Yes I know that takes a little work, but so what?! 
• Journal entries are personal and private. They don't need to have any rhyme or reason to them. They can be any feeling that pops into your head at that given moment. There are no rules, which mercury likes to have when he is retrograde. While the rest of the world still has to have a structure, rules, and framework, journals do not. 

Mirror Mirror On the Wall Ritual

Supplies

• Sacred Space/Altar (If you have one). Just make sure your not disturbed. 
• Journal (optional, but recommended)
• Small mirror.
• Two white pillar candles (or other colors of your choice, I prefer white because it's pure).
• Soft music (without words).
• Water (Big Big Glass you should have to pee after this).
• Comfy chair/table. or just sit on the floor. 

Set up the two white candles on both sides of the mirror. Start your music. Just set your water and journal off to the side. Light the candles and take some deep breaths. In for 4 counts. Hold for 7 counts, and exhale for 8 counts. (make sure your sitting lol). Calm down. Let the world drift away. This is a time just for you to reflect. We are not reflecting on your day, the bills, homework, friends, world events, none of that. Reflect on you.



Open your eyes and look into the mirror. Mirrors are obviously reflective and deflective. Mirrors are used to return negative energy to the sender, protection magick, and exposure of the truth. Today we are using the mirror to expose yourself to own inner truth. Look deep into your own. Fall in love with your eyes, they are the mirrors of your soul. Ask your self aloud or silently, "What is my truth right now?"



Skeptical people out there might say "I am talking to myself and look like an idiot." Well your right you are talking to yourself, and you decided on that label not me. How wonderful to use that example. Perhaps your lesson is to open your mind to other thoughts of thinking. When we clear our mind and open to a moment of calm we actually are able to think better, reduce stress, and have higher self esteem. (Any Nurse will tell you that since Nursing is holistic approach to medicine and healing; incorporating mind body and spirit).



You can do this for as long as you want. You can ask your self other questions. I do encourage you to ask yourself this,  "what is one thing I can change about me right now, that will better me, and is ONLY for me?" Take a deep breath, sometime when we 'turn the mirror on ourselves' it gets tough. Take the first response that comes into your mind. It may be one word, or a significant event that needs evaluation. Point is take that first thought, roll with it, and write about it. After you have done that take that big glass of water and drink all down in one gulp. Water is very healing. It sustains life and is essential to removing toxins in the body. When it's time to urinate just feel relief! Relief from everything you wrote about or used for reflection. It will be the best pee of your life!

Lord Auriael.  

What happened?! Didn't My Spell Work?!

"Ugh why didn't my spell work?!" How many witches out there have had this reaction?! My guess is every last one of you. I bet you even went back over your ritual notes, rewritten the spell, and did it again. I know I have. Unfortunately, many new witches tend to have this belief that their spells will work overnight, this simply isn't how the process works. The following are some quick 'go to' questions when evaluating the effectiveness of your spells.

1. Did you plan properly?

• Some times spells fail simply because we didn't plan the right correspondences and the timing just wasn't right. A common example is use of color. Suppose you are going to sit down and do a love spell. You get all the red romantic bits and bobs on the altar and you go to work. You set your intention and the result is a more sexual partner then a romantic loving one. Did you check your color correspondences of your candles? Traditionally, red is the color more attributed to lust, passion, ecstasy, and action. If you were looking to attract a partner for a more sustainable and romantic relationship a better option might be to choose the color pink. 
• Did you choose the right day, phase of the moon, or magickal hour? Each of these areas are attributed to a particular energy for the witch to use. Perhaps it would have been better to choose an hour dedicated to Venus on a Friday (Sacred to Venus). 
• Timing and proper planning are very important when it comes to crafting spells. Generally, I give myself a week of preparation time. This week prior is used to gather all the supplies, make any oils, incenses, poppets ect. This is also the time I use to write my ritual and make changes as needed. 
• The planning process is very important for what we call 'ritual consciousness.' This state of awareness is called 'the zone.' The zone where your focus lies, where conscious mind gets quiet, and subconscious gets to work on the task at hand. The ritual tools, incense, candles, and poetry we use all excite this zone the same is said for pre-planning. Finally, Preplanning is the very spark of the ritual. This is where the spell actually starts. The ritual is the culminating event. Think of ritual itself. We start out small, cast circle, call the energies, raise personal energy to a climax and release it. The preparations is just an extended portion of the process.

2. How was your visualization?

• Sometimes our visualization can be too complex, too little, or not there at all. During your preparation time, write down your intent and try to attach ONE image to that intent. This visual should be something you can hold in your mind and call upon easily. 
• If you are having difficulty visualizing make an image board something small you can place on the altar. You may consider a specific style of incense or oil. 
• Change your visualization to simply the RESULT not HOW the task will be achieved. Let that marinate a bit. 

3. How specific was your intention?

• The devil is truly in the details. If you are too specific you may end up hitting a dead end. If you are too general you may only get a general result. You as the witch need to find your happy medium between the two extremes. For example: You may ask for prosperity. Well, that's a wonderful intention, however I have found that prosperity is generic and too general. Universe tends to spread out the prosperity. This would not be very effective if you are looking for that extra $100 to put on the bills due at the end of the month. Perhaps change your intention to: "I desire $100 to put towards the rent by the end of this month." 

4. What did you expect to happen?

• Sometimes witches who cast spells expect a certain result. Well of course, or whatever would be the point of doing spells and rituals? The problem is they end up looking for that result exactly as they envisioned it. I have commonly referred to this as living in your spell work. I find this tends to be a common affliction with some earth and air signs. They expect a certain thing and try to control it, which really takes all the magick out of the magick. This miss the ACTUAL manifestation of the spell. Do the spell, document what you need to after the ritual, and move on with your life. Does that mean you don't tend to that intention? Absolutely not! You can continue to 'feed the spell.' Maybe it means placing an offering and dedicating it to that intention. Perhaps you can say a daily affirmation around that intention that repeat through out the day or weeks after the ritual. Whatever it is get creative. 
• Typically spells slowly manifest over time to a big culminating manifestation, sometimes in 3's. This is the energies way of telling you it's working. Just let it be! As you develop your practice you will become more aligned with the energies.

5. Energy ALWAYS takes the easiest route. 

• There can be a million and one ways and reasons why your spells either didn't work or simply were not as effective as you anticipated. That's why the Craft is called a practice. Just like a doctor or a nurse has a practice, it's a skill. Skills are not developed overnight. Energy will always take the easiest route. Sometimes we cock up our spell by being too elaborate or having too many moving parts. Sometimes is better to just keep it simple. 

6. Act in accord with your intention.

• Here's the thing, if your walking around being all mopey, not believing in yourself, or the working, you just wasted your time. Have a little faith. 
• Get rid of junk. Let me tell you the quickest way to get a prosperity/money spell to work is if you clean house or get rid of old clothes. You can't have new things when you are holding on to clutter, spiritually, energetically or physically. 
• You have to BE what you are trying to make manifest. I am not saying your going to do all the work, nor is universe/energy going to do the work for you. By acting in accord you will work TOGETHER to make the intention manifest. How do you know if you are acting in accord? Ask yourself and do an HONEST, not critically demeaning, SELF EVALUATION. 

Point is folks there are probably millions of reasons why spells work or don't. We could be here all day discussing this. These are some of the top reasons that I can think of that will help make your spell casting a little easier! 

Lord Auriael

3rd Degree High Priest of the Craft/Witch

The Prince of Swords

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The Witch's Name Game! Ritual included

The Witches Name Game!  Ritual included!

Witches are the masters of the alter ego, among other things. What's in a name? For witches it is everything. We know that if we give a name to something it potentially takes form, gains power, and has a life of it's own. I recently received a question about the witches name or a magickal name. The client also asked to go about finding out that name. My response is have fun looking!

There are many ways to go about finding your witch name or magickal name. You can use numerology by calculating various names and seeing if matches your birth number. To do this you need a numerology chart and your birthday. In the chart each letter is assigned a number. You add them up and if you get a double number like 10 the two numbers are isolated and counted, to give you a single digit. After you have done that you can add the numbers of your birthday together. Again you will get a double digit. Isolate the numbers and add them together. The difference with your birthday is that you are calculating what some refer to as a destiny number or birth number. If the number from your birth number and name number match it's probably a pretty good fit! 

What about if I really like a name and they don't match? Well if your anal OCD self can handle it, take it! If things in your life have to be orderly and matching (Capricorn's....) then adjust, add, or take away letters to make it so. See calculation examples below. 

R Y A N

9 7 1 5    9+7+1+5 =22   ----> 2+2=4 My name number is 4

Auriael 

1 + 3 + 9 + 9 + 1 + 5 + 3 = 31 ----> 3+1 = 4

Calculating your birth number is as simple as doing the same process as above, except using your full numeric birthday! Isolating the digits into single digits and adding them together to get a single digit! I am not putting my birthday on here, but you guys get the jist. Btw if you didn't figure it out, my birth number is a 4... lol

Now you will notice that they match. Keep in mind that my name has a story behind it. Also the name number matches my birth number. 

You may do a ritual like the one that follows.

Gather together a blue candle, a representation of each of the elements, and a set of binoculars. They don't have to be real, but should be tangible. 

Assemble all the items on the altar before you and ground and center. If you cast circle normally this is a good time to do that, or you don't have to it's up to you. In this ritual you are not raising energy for magick. You are simply on a quest. 

After you have done that you will mark off little dashes in the candle to symbolize 7 days and you will light the candle. Keep in mind to allow the candle to burn to only that mark you put in the candle. It would be best to have a larger taper for this ritual. 

Focus on the candle and clear your mind. 

Speak these words of power: 

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,

Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas;

Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,

Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,

Sed auditu solo tuto creditur.

Virtutes nominant me in septem diebus.

Sit and think about the ritual and the task you are doing. If any names pop into your mind simply write them down. You are not choosing one until the seventh day. Experiment with different names and see what you come up with. Be ready for a trippy seven days! Through each of the seven days keep everything on the altar in tact and in a place that doesn't have a lot of traffic and has privacy. Be sure to do the ritual same time for each day. It's best to do this starting at the New Moon. 

Why is this all so important? Your ritual name is you alter ego at ritual. It's special and makes you unique to the gods and the community of witches. The most important thing to remember is that this is the ultimate tool in regards to ritual consciousness. Once you put this hat on your in the zone and it's time to do work. So you see how powerful a name is? This is why witches don't name bad shit. 

The last point I want to make is that your name doesn't have to be private, though many people do. Since I run a business in this market, I use my witch name simply cause I love it and it goes with the theme. Finally, I know that when I am referred to Lord Auriael I am at work. Happy questing!

If you would like to set up time to talk about your craft or get a Tarot Reading, please visit my website! If you would like to email me your questions you are welcome to do that as well! 

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