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.

Out of Time, Out of Space, A World of My Own

Often I have heard Elders say, "He is beyond his time," or "He is not of his time." Keep in mind, that I am not only referring to myself, but to other great thinkers of our time. I don't think people really understand how out of touch I am with the present moment. I am not the average person. I don't watch the news. I don't buy the latest gadgets, phones, and cars. The last time I watched the news was the election, and before that was nearly a year prior. I had my old phone for almost 6 years until it died on me. My car I put in a ditch one fateful winter night, and was a model from 2010. My car I have now is from 1994 and runs very well.

Instead of buying the latest and greatest, I utilize the old and forgotten. (It generally serves it's purpose better than anything new.) This mentality has drifted into my life in several ways. Firstly, classical music is my life. If I were to listen to anything I would choose Air on G over my favorite country song. Of course music selections are usually dependent upon my mood. Secondly, I yearn for a time completely different than the trappings of modern day society. I would rather have my words captured in a journal, than on the internet. Clearly, I am adapting. The lazy repose on the veranda on summer day with a mint julep would please me greatly. I will leave my reader to get lost in the romanticized fantasies of simpler life. That's what they end up becoming anyways, dreams and fantasies.

I am not of this time and I am not before my time. As a matter of fact, I don't feel I belong in any one space in time. I look at the world as objectively as possible, and I am criticized for being judgmental, unyielding, and cynical. When I offer collaborative solutions, based on fact and assessment, I am met with resistance, because feelings were not involved. Where do I belong and how do I get there? People say, that I need to find a 'like minded crowd.' To my chagrin, these thinkers are becoming the minority, with the rise of self entitlement and political correctness.

Perhaps, I shall just create my own world. In my world, the 'man cave' would be a library with men drinking brandy, smoking pipes, and discussing intellectual subjects. Useful work, would once again be prized and cherished. I would celebrate it like Ford Madox Brown in his painting, "Work" in 1852. The finer things, like proper speech, culture, and etiquette would be venerated. In my world, I would feel at peace. People would just let others live peaceably, and one would support the other. My world would be a place of classical refinement, knowledge, and civility. Perhaps I am stuck in a past, of which I am not aware?

What To Do When You Have Lost Your Mojo!

Many times in life we helpless, lost, and even a stranger to ourselves. In the magickal community we may feel this more so then the 'average' person. We spend a lot of our time helping others as well as building and maintaining our practice as witches or magicians. We have all been there when we feel Universe or even our own magick has failed us. We have all been the victim of some sort of spiritual attack or at the mercy of some malevolent energy. These events if allowed to play themselves out are enough to destroy our spirit and make succumb to darker energies.



How do we know we are subject to these things? Well, witchcraft rule 101, if you dabble in the magickal arts you get a target painted on you right away. This sounds very Hollywood, but the fact of the matter is that witchcraft and magick all makes us susceptible. How can that be in a path full of light and love? You are entering a world of total balance, that's all that needs to be explained. Without the darkness there is no light. Magick and witchcraft represent something not only to magickal and nonmagickal folks, but also to spiritual entities light and dark. It represents and is power. This is the power of the mind, a strong mind, which begets a strong and powerful spirit. The empowerment to control ones own life, identity and power. Dark people and their energy 'salivate' at the prospect of taking out someone so filled with light. Manipulating the mind of a witch to think they have lost their mojo, are cursed, or otherwise ruined is the ultimate manipulation. It is the total destruction of their mind, their spirit, and finally their power.



Now, not everyone is cursed or has bad energy influencing them. Some bad luck is simply due to poor decision making. However all this can come as a package. Even if all of this hasn't happened what do you do when you feel you are losing your spunk, out of energy, lost in spirit, or lost to yourself? I have chosen 4 surefire ways to help you get your mojo back and a little food for thought!

• Get a psychic reading or energy healing.

A reading or energy healing is a good way to get to the root cause of the problem. It will give you some great insight into the energy patterns and even the future. There are many readers and healers out there. Choose one that in your price range and you makes you feel comfortable. If you are reading for yourself, take caution and remember to separate yourself completely from the situation and the energy. Be open to what the cards are telling you, not what you're expecting or hoping for them to say. 

Energy healing with Reiki is very helpful and cleansing. I get reiki done often especially when I am feeling disconnected. Your reiki master may be able to give you insight on which chakras to focus your attention on. They may also give you good techniques for clearing the aura and the charkras as well. You are energy and it is operating in the energy around you...all that wear and tear needs to be healed at some point. 

• Rive; Clean up your altar, sacred space, environments, and energy.

Clean up your space! Remove stale energy. Roll up your sleeves and get into the nooks and crannies of your house, office, car, bedroom, and closets. Clean them up physically and follow up with one or a combination of sage, dragons blood, and lemon grass incense. When I do this I like to do a deep cleaning of the house. Then I close all the windows and doors and let the place get full of smoke. When your about to choke on the smoke that's when I open the door. I tell you it looks like a Cheech and Chong movie when I do this. Let me tell you though everything is so much better. 

Witches dust off the altars, clean the statues and throw out the old incense sticks. All this stuff collects and causes more negative energy.

• Rededicate yourself to your practice and your goals life.

Go through your goals and projects and evaluate their effectiveness. Figure out what is working and what isn't not serving a purpose. Perhaps there is something or someone that needs to be put on the back burner. This is difficult process for some people because you have to be honest with yourself. During this time you can also rededicate yourself to your spiritual practices and your deities. This will remind of you where you have come from and where you want to end up in the long run. Finally it will refresh you and give you a 'new lease on life.' It will make you feel like you do every new years with a clean slate. See you don't need New Year's Eve to feel this way! :)

• Construct or refresh your protective wards, shields, and talismans.

Always, always, always be ready and able to refresh your protective shields, wards, and amulets. Maybe it's time to make a new one or develop a new visualization of protection. I like to think of an animal that makes me feel protected and safe. I work on visualizing that animal daily. Then I start practicing the name of the animal and conjuring that visualization in my head. Once I know I can conjure that picture with just a word I am ready. I can use that to project protection even in the middle of an argument and no one is the wiser. I recommend to my students to refresh shields weekly and talismans bi-monthly as needed or sooner if they break. If the talisman breaks it has done it's job of protecting you.

• Food for thought: Remember the Craft, witchcraft, Wicca, it's not something your going to get overnight. It is a practice and one that develops based on the amount of time you put into it. Yes, being a witch is a chore, but a fun one! Lastly, keep in mind that when you are needing protecting the magickal walls and barriers are not put in place for you to hide behind. They are there to protect you so you have a moment to strategically plan your next move. Witches are warriors! 

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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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