for sale in metaphysical “five and dimes,” it is a wonderful thing indeed to make your own wand.
Start with a tree branch that has fallen to the ground. Sand the rough edges—it is a wand, not a weapon. Then give it a good saging. Hot glue a large quartz crystal near the handle end and add any other crystals that feature properties you want in your complement of magic, such as amethyst for balance and intuition, amber for grounding, or moss agate for powers of persuasion and healing. I also suggest chalcedony for power with dark spirits, carnelian for success and fulfillment of all desires, bloodstone for abundance and prosperity, aventurine for creative visualization, calcite for warding off negativity, jasper for stability, hematite for strength and courage, jade for wisdom and for powerful dreams, fluorite for communicating with fairies and other unseen beings, and rose quartz for love. Citrine makes an excellent wand “pointer tip” and aligns the ego with your higher self—after all, isn’t that the whole point?
PEERLESS PENDULUMS
The pendulum is an indispensable tool for gleaning information from your inner self as it helps you draw on your own inner knowledge and psychism. The more you use a pendulum, the more intuitive you will become. Like a muscle, our psychic power thrives when it is exercised. Some of the best pendulums are the ones you can make yourself by tying a string or length of rawhide to a crystal—quartz crystal is a good choice for dependability and clarity. You should tie it so that the crystal points down. Each time you use it, you should ask the pendulum to “Show me yes” and then “Show me no;” once the pendulum has confirmed which movements mean yes and no, you can ask all manner of questions about people in your life, events, decisions big and little, even shopping. The crystal pendulum will swing back and forth, giving you answers. Each time you do pendulum work, make a journal entry of it in your Book of Shadows, as that will help you to track the pendulum’s effectiveness. With time, you will be able to see patterns of information emerging from your unconscious and from the universe. I can’t recommend this highly enough. You will learn so much about yourself and your place in the world from this as your own inherent wisdom is made manifest. Once you start doing pendulum work, you will come to count on it for help with shopping and all kinds of decision making.
Creating a Magical Altar
An altar is a place of peace and meditation where your spirit can soar. Adorned with your treasured objects and the tools of your practice, it is a place of extreme focus where you can make magic. Your altar is your most sacred space. It is your power source and the center of all your magical workings. To unleash your personal pagan power, you must first set the stage—the perfect environment to incubate your dreams and wishes, your hopes and desires. The very first step is to set up an altar, your touchstone for daily conjuring and contemplation. I recommend placing your altar facing north, long held to be the place of origin of primordial energy. North is also the direction of midnight, and an altar oriented in this fashion promises potent magic.
Besides preparing a place in your home and honoring the sacred on a daily basis, you should adorn your altar lovingly. It should be pleasing to the eye and ultimately reflective of your personal energy. Take a low table or an old chest and paint it a high-sheen enamel red with black details. Get as creative as you wish with the table or chest, and carve or inscribe and decorate your altar base with symbols that are significant to you—you can include ankhs, roses, skulls, spiders, bats, crosses, crows, or (my personal favorite) green and purple-tinged ivylike vines.
Once you have obtained and decorated your chest, place a favored fabric over your altar base. Optimally, you should have an array of altar cloths, flowers, candles, and stones in different colors, depending on the type of spell you intend to cast. The following “color energy” guide will help you to determine the colors of cloth you use to dress your altar.
•Red: life, lust
•Pink: love, romance
•Green: prosperity, friendship, healing
•Gray: protection
•White: purity, beginnings
•Blue: loyalty, creativity, vision
•Orange: higher knowledge, enlightenment
•Purple: spirituality
•Yellow: power, fame
•Black: absorption of negative energy, divination, banishing, protection, binding
•Silver: intuition, psychism, balance, spirituality, goddess energy
•Red: lust, fire, passion, strength, anger, power, courage
Place the fabric of your choice on your altar. Next, choose two candles and place them on the two farthest corners. If you like, place fresh flowers at the center of the space. Some Dark Moon magical flower choices are black calla lilies, ivies, or any dark purple flowering vine. You should also place a thurible, or magical incense burner, in front of the flowers (more on thuribles soon!) If you’ve not yet found a favorite incense, begin with the ancient essence of frankincense.
Your altar doesn’t have to be all about candles, flowers, and incense. To further personalize it, select objects that appeal to you symbolically—a goddess figure such as Isis, a photo you love of your favorite cemetery statue, or an iridescent abalone seashell you found one night on the beach. You can also place your birthstone on the altar, or a crystal or stone you treasure. Add anything that you feel adds good energy and represents your singular vibration. Purify the space by “smudging” or burning a bundle of sage over it. Anoint your third eye (the center of your forehead) with a scented essential oil such as the sacred resin amber or another that especially pleases you. Now, anoint the candles with the same essence. Light the candles and meditate in a prayerful way on all the positive and practical magic you will create at your altar.
Additional altar flowers include:
•Solomon’s Seal
•Moonflowers
•Stock, nicotiana
•Night-scented roses
•Delphinium
•Monkshood
•Black tulips
•Poppies
•Belladonna
White flowers are always the most highly scented and also glow under moonlight. Moonflowers are a good white flower choice, as they only bloom at night—perfect for nighttime Dark Moon rituals.
Herein is a list of Dark Moon varieties of flora for you to grow and procure. These plants emanate a power and magic all their own and make wonderful offerings for your altar, for deities, and for your home.
•Voodoo lily
•Vampire lily
•Black calla lily
•Andean silver-leaf sage
•Black mondo grass
•Corokia cotoneaster
•Black velvet nasturtium
•Black violas and pansies
•Papaver