Samhain Spell

Ok, I’ve finally managed to put together my spell for Samhain!! If you have read any of my other posts on what I was intending to focus on this year (to stop doing too many things at once), you will know that it’s ironic that the reason I have taken so long is I got distracted trying to do other things :(

Anyways, I have now got a plan! Here is what I generally do for festivals combined with some of the specifics I’ll be doing for Samhain:

1) In the morning I will light some resin incense - I’m going for resign rock copal as this will help to cleanse my energies for the day. I will then repeat the following 5 times:
To start afresh
Is my wish
I’ll change my ways
And enrich my days!

2) At about 7pm, when it’s nice and dark, I’m going to be doing some scrying to fit in with the theme of the festival. However, I will be using this in order to see what guidance comes to me rather than making a connection directly with spirit. Before hand I like to meditate in order to open up my senses and will be focusing on bringing forth insight into my potential and aptitudes. For me, scrying tends to project quick flashes of thoughts into my head. You may experience something different. I keep a notebook handy to jot anything down immediately afterwards. It’s not a good idea to write anything at the time as you will disrupt the flow.

3) Celebrate! I’m having a meal with a few friends to just be able to relax and feel in high spirits. I’ll be lighting my black and orange candles, burning incense and will be arranging a few orange and red flowers which hopefully I’ll have been able to pick up earlier in the day without too many problems!

4) Getting close to midnight I will be doing my spell. I have gone for a blue colour scheme for my altar as it helps me to relax and be fluid in my thinking. These are the energies that I want to encourage with the spell. I’ll be burning guggul to help bring about change and will have some fallen leaves to symbolise the time has come for me to enter a new cycle of life - a more productive one hopefully! I also have a small bell placed on my altar as this will help me ‘ring the changes’ in. You’ll see where it fits in. And lastly, I have placed a medal that I won years ago at the centre, to remind me that success and focus is within my reach. Personally, I always like a small personal touch to help things along. So, start with:

The time has now come
To break with old habits
To proceed with what’s worthy
Or else call it quits!

*Ring the bell once*

I value my virtues
I value my time
I seek guidance and knowledge
To begin with this chime

*Ring the bell*

Here I have prepared a hand-written statement of intent that’s a little too personal to include here. But I have composed a short, 200 or so word piece on what I feel my weaknesses are in not letting go of projects that aren’t benefiting me and also how I try to do too many things at once so can hardly tell what is likely to be successful given the chance! I will read it out at this point. Then:

I take pride in my strengths
And pray that they’re fruitful
With clarity and purpose
I’m gainful, not wasteful!

*Ring the bell three times to signify the end*

5) After the spell? Cleaning! I find it incredibly lifting to start a little symbolic sweeping and cleaning at Samhain. Seeing as my focus is getting rid of mental clutter I’m going to particularly focus on a drawer of junk that I need to sort through.

Hope you have fun celebrating in your own way - I know I'm looking forward to it!!

Tips For Spells

I’m onto writing the spells for my Samhain celebration but thought I’d put some general tips for spells together for you so that you can see where I was coming from when I post some of the results of my labour!

So, without further ado, 5 tips for spells:

1) They don’t have to rhyme - but it’s nice when they do! The words are a powerful part of your spell but this is more to do with what they mean to you. The power and the magik lies within so always go for a method that you find works best, and this will only be discovered with experience. Personally, I always go for rhymes as I love the feel of the words as I say them; I think it helps to build momentum and energies and also it builds the right atmosphere. But please feel free to do it your own way.

2) Always prepare yourself so that you get into the right state of mind for performing your spell. You can incorporate some of this into the spell or ritual if you wish but otherwise spend some time meditating, listening to relaxing music or even finding clothes that always seem to charge you up with the right energy!

3) Consecrate your work space and tools. Restoring clean energies to your equipment and ridding the area you have designated to work in from negativity will mean your spell work is more efficient and you will feel more comfortable. A very simple but powerful way of doing this is smudging.

4) Don’t write your spell with an aim to getting immediate results as this will often only lead to disappointment. Try to write them so that you can see things happen over a month - eg. Don’t aim for Mr X to fall in love with you right now, go for a man with such and such a qualities to come to you within 3 months. Work with nature and the natural flow, don’t try to bend it.

5) This possibly belongs more in tips for spells for absolute beginners so forgive me if you’re more advanced than this but I found that keeping something familiar to me nearby was extremely helpful. So it may be a favourite piece of jewellery or a photo, but go for something that you find brings you comfort and makes you feel safe. Spells can feel a bit ‘weird’ to start with and this can help it to feel more part of you.

There you go, some very basic tips for spells. Hope they help give you some ideas!

Blessings
Fran xxx

How To Plan Your Witch's Festivals

I wanted to post something today on the processes of creating your own ritual/spell for an occasion or festival. This can seem bit overwhelming at first and I can remember how much I worried initially about getting it right. However, it really couldn’t be more fun!! Here are some important points to get you started:

1) Read up on the festival to look at the traditions. Is it a Pagan Fire Festival for example? Then you will want to include candles, fire spells or even a bonfire in your spell/ritual.

2) What has been happening in your life over the last few months? Have things been going well? If so, give something back and centre your spell on something general such as peace and goodwill, prepare a gift for someone or even plant something in your garden. It’s nice to top up the energies once in a while!

3) Have things not been going so well? Then you may need a little extra help from the universal elements and there’s nothing wrong with that! But don’t try to cram everything into one spell. Work out where you need the help most (ie. love) and make that your focal point.

4) After 2 and 3, decide how you incorporate your general direction back into the main themes of the festival. I find it’s worth it to do this every so often in my planning to make sure I don’t veer to far from the traditions.

5) Most Pagan festivals will of course be based on the seasons already but think about the colours you can include, ingredients for your spells that are relevant to the time of year (leaves, acorns, petals etc.) or how to use the light of darkness of the evenings.

6) It is a large part of many Wiccan traditions to focus celebrations around honouring a God or Goddess so for example, at Samhain you can focus on the horned God or at Imbolc, the Goddess Brigid.

7) It is also ok to break things down time wise if you don’t feel you’re going to be able to do something for the whole evening. I very often decide to split up my day with a 5 minute incantation in the morning, taking a walk at lunch to collect ingredients and then a simple spell with a specially laid out altar in the evening. It doesn’t always have to be a big affair!

8) Last but not least, every festival has a feast at the heart of it. If you are able to, invite friends or family over and just have a great time!

So, what’s stopping you - go get started!

Samhain - Time to Reflect and Get Focused!

Ok, starting to formulate a plan now for my Samhain celebrations! I mentioned before that I wanted to focus particularly on reflection this year and this is actually more traditionally a part of the festival than you may think. In the Wheel of Life, this is the time of the year when the Horned God/Sun God dies - to be reborn at Yule. So it’s a time of rest and recuperation. Not too much of a stretch of the imagination to link this with nature’s time of hibernation!

So I am determined to make this a time to really focus on my weaknesses, to challenge them and to incorporate self improvement into my spell casting. I’ve found over the last few months that I’ve really lacked focus and have tried to do way too many things at once. The consequence of course is that I’ve not completed things and I’ve wound up stressed. So clear minded thinking and prioritising are my aims!

Of course, Samhain is also the time when the veil between the living and the dead are at their thinnest and therefore scrying is often used for this occasion. If you’re not familiar with this method, the crystal ball is actually a form of scrying - you use a reflective surface in order to see images, messages or connect with spirits. Mirrors and water are also used and in fact, a scrying bowl is my preferred mode. I usually opt for simplicity :)

I’m going to be doing this earlier on in the evening, likely around 7pm as it’s already dark but I will have plenty of time to think on the guidance and messages that I pick up on and bring them into my work later in the evening if I need to.

Of course, it’s important that you work on something that is personal to you, but I am going to be putting together a few points on how to take your ideas and structure them into a spell, ritual or rite for an occasion so hope this will be helpful to you!!

Blessings
Francesca xxx

Free Witchcraft Spells Article

Hi, still working away on my Samhain celebrations (yay!) and will post my progress on this tomorrow. But in the meantime, I was thinking of posting something on choosing a free spell, for if you are scanning the net for one, and remembered I wrote an article on this a while back. Pre-written spells can be the perfect solution if you're not yet confident enough to write your own or need something quick. So here's a few tips on how to go about getting the right free witchcraft spell for you! Some of it may not be relevant for Samhain but I think there's some salient points still. Hope it's useful xx

Are You Familiar With the Power of the Mind?

I am currently working on my Samhain celebration ritual and am, I’m afraid to say not for the first time, getting carried away with the idea of getting a cat. I don’t know why I always get more of an urge this time of year but I guess it’s something to do with all of the stereotypical images of the black familiar you see everywhere!

It turns out, my idle thoughts may have brought me more than I bargained for. Seeing as I figured I was unlikely to be organised enough, or have enough free time, to go and buy one I commented that I was going to have to just befriend one while out. Since then, I have been inundated! Cats have followed me home, a favourite of mine amongst them has been hanging around my front door - I‘ve got more feline friends than you can shake a stick at!

Another reminder for me to be careful what you wish for :)

My Samhain Article

Hi, just a quickie to say here is my Samhain/Halloween article as promised!

Samhain (Halloween) Diary 2

I’ve been giving some more thought to my Samhain celebrations and I have decided to use a particular element of the festival that I have not used before - thoughtful reflection.

For the Celts, Samhain is the New Year and this oftens brings with it a focus on new beginnings. But outside of this tradition, the period between Samhain and Yule is known a ‘time out of time‘. In the Wiccan Wheel of Life, the God dies at Samhain and is reborn at Yule so these months represent recuperation or stillness.

To be honest it’s been a bit of a crazy year for me and the last 3 months have been particularly eventful so I have decided that now is just the right time to have a think about what has past and how I would like to move forwards in my life.

In order to start creating the right energies and buzz for this I am splitting some of my decorations for the next few weeks. I am going to go with the more traditional orange and black colours - orange candles for health and prosperity and black candles for depth. But I will be making my altar predominantly blue to encourage contemplation and to help me find the inner wisdom I need to see my way ahead. This will also be accompanied by some divination :)

Ok, enough talking about what I’m going to do, I’m off to go and actually do it! I’ll be working on some spells over the next few days so will post some suggestions soon.

Take care and blessings
Fran xx

Samhain = Halloween!

Oops, forgot to say - for all of you absolute beginners out there - that the festival of Samhain is what is more popularly known as Halloween! A witch's special night no less ;)

I will be putting up an article with all the basics soon so check back over the next few days.

And if you are an absolute beginner by the way, it just remains to say Merry Meet and Blessings to you!

Fran xx

Day 1 of my Samhain Diary

Hello! I meant to post last week to start off a proper lead up to Samhain but didn’t get the chance - but better late than never eh?! On the 1st of October I generally like to change over my altar to mark the beginning a the new season but to be honest it’s as much to do with Samhain as autumn if I‘m honest! I get pretty excited :)

I have now got everything orange, gold and a little green so I feel that the mood has changed in my spells and general work - and as ever I love it.

But you may be wondering if there is anything you need to be doing to prepare yourself for Samhain over the next coming weeks and the answer is YES. This is the perfect time to start collecting leaves and twigs for spells and rituals, get in your candles and start to think of what you will do with your altar on the day. Of course anything collected nearer the time is just as good but I personally think that building excitement is as big a part of the fun and the energies of the night as anything.

I’m going to be working on my preparations from now on and thought I would share them with you to give you some ideas of what to try so be prepared for some diary style ramblings from me.

Giving Something Back

I was having a discussion with a friend the other day and we were talking about the fact that giving something back to the cosmos is far too often forgotten by spell casters. The excitement of having a successful spell tends to distract you from the forces that were working behind it all for you. I would like to send out a little reminder that if you draw from the universe it is courteous to put something back. It may be a kind word to a stranger, calling someone you know needs their spirits lifted or just putting a little more in the charity box than normal.

Much like the bank, if you keep taking from the cosmos but not making the odd deposit you never know when it’s going to run dry! And I think we all know that feeling ;)