Category Archives: Spells

Celtic Path, Magic, Rituals, Sabbats, Spells, Uncategorized, Witch, Witchcraft

Energy Working

I’ve come across so many questions around energy and working spells, readings, healing, and other magickal works that I feel it’s time to share some tips and tricks so you aren’t completely exhausted for days afterward.

During the old days a Priestess would be given 3 days of rest following a Sabbat ritual, healers often were able to take time to rest and be taken care of by their apprentices after a difficult healing, and what we coin as “Self Care” was part of the daily routine then. Not so today. So how do we avoid that exhaustion from the continuing Workings that modern Priestesses and Clergy are constantly performing?

Easy! Connect with an energy source that’s not your own personal well! When you set out for the day, whether a psychic fair with back to back readings, healing spells and rituals for those that work in Chaplaincy, or massage therapists, or just your average everyday Workings for yourself, friends, and family; connect with the energy of the Universe instead of relying on your own personal well of energy.

The Universe has plenty of energy for every magick worker out there, no matter the type of magicks they are performing, that energy is limitless and infinite. This is how some practitioners can be out and about doing all kinds of magicks all day long and still have the energy to have dinner, take care of family, and all of those other magickally mundane tasks we all have in our modern world. So connect to that instead of relying all on your own. No magickal practitioner is an island – shatter that illusion of separation, connect with the infinite, and find out exactly how powerful you truly can be!

Celtic Path, Magic, New Moon, Rituals, Spells, Uncategorized, Witch

Black Moon

Moon lore for a Black Moon ranges from the silly to the incredibly powerful magic that can be employed. A Black  moon in its simplest terms is the 2nd New Moon to fall within a calendar month.  This Friday is such an auspicious date. This ultimate Crone’s Moon, the Black Moon. This moon can be used for many types of magic: Deep Oracle Trancing Crowning of a new Crone or Sage Divination into the darkness where there is trouble to be resolved The strongest of bindings can be performed under the Black Moon The letting go of bad habits The beginning of a new stage of life Many things can be applied to the powerful energies of the Black Moon, My favorite part of Black Moon lore is that it leads to portals to the Otherworlds, The Upper, the Under, to the Sidhe, to the Ancestors, each one being a singular shift in consciousness that takes you deeper than you’ve imagined possible. This is the night to travel, to rejoice, to spend time with those who’ve gone before you, to explore with your Guardians, and to revel with the Cousins. This year, this is the night of my Croning…I procrastinated when I relocated to Reno, and have procrastinated since…but now is the time I claim the power that’s been gifted, use the experiences of life to help others, and to continue teaching the next generation to be one with the Universe, One with the worlds.  
Celtic Path, Esbats, Herbs, Magic, New Moon, Rituals, Sabbats, Spells, The Wheel, Waning Moon, Waxing Moon, Wiccan, Witch

Food for a Celt’s Soul

The importance of food in Celtic Ritual and Magic

In Celtic ritual practices there are several times that food is ingested as part of ritual. At the end of every full and new moon ritual we take part in cakes and ale. Every Equinox and Solstice we honor the ancestors with a feast. During Samhain we also have a Dumb Feast where we commune with our ancestors as we feast, not a work is spoken aloud.

The significance of Cakes and Ale as part of ritual is a sign of service – just as Orthodox and Catholic priests serve the Host so too does the Priestess bless both the Cake and the Receiver and again she will serve the circle, blessing both the ale (which could be ale, wine, mead, or fruit juice) and the receiver again. In return each member blesses the Priestess for her service to them as a group. This not only reconnects each member of the circle as friends, confidantes, and companions, sometimes even family of choice. The service itself also serves to remind the Priestess as the Priests that they are companions of the Divine called to serve the needs their community and not just their own wants and desires.

The significance of the Ancestor feasts are to remind us from whence we came, that we are made up not only of flesh and blood, but the hard work and sometimes love of the generations before us. We honor our ancestors who changed the world, made history, sacrificed daily, and struggled to live and maintain our beliefs in the face of persecution and death. We honor the Ancestors for the gifts we have in our lives today, and even now science has shown that trauma from previous generations’ leaves a mark in our genetic material as published in Discover Magazine  With that said, as we feast and share foods, we also share the stories of those we knew well, the legends of those who are well known, and the family myths and stories of generations past.

For Celts, the hearth, and the comfort, nourishment, and nurturing it represents is sacred, as is the food we eat, and liquids we drink. We came from the earth and in time will return to the earth to replenish the soil with nutrients again.

Bright Blessings be with you always,

Gwenyfur Draigtanllwyth
Founder and High Priestess
Gathering WIND
May 2016

 

Rituals, Spells, The Wheel, Uncategorized, Wiccan, Witch

Family Trials

My dreams have been full of travel of late. With the discovery that the Witch spirit is drawn where needed by those who are in need it’s been an interesting week of spirituality, exhaustion, and challenge.

I work full time in the software industry in a long hours high stress position, as well as VA chaplain, as well as teaching and conducting rituals at our local community temple, so I’m no slouch when it comes to keeping busy. The Spirit wills – or as a new acquaintance and fellow Witch would say – The Witch Blood knows!

I’ve had 2 losses in the past year that hit me hard – one I helped to cross over when I arrived – as he was lingering in some confusion near his coffin at the funeral home and watching us with fear and an almost desperation since he didn’t feel his work was done as yet.

The other, ran from her fate in the otherworld and is fast turning to poltergeist with the animosity, angst, and vitriol of the spirit that comes when you’re faced with the hypocrisy of your lifetime coming along to bite you in the ass.

Both of these people were christians in their lifetime, and while the former went peacefully across – not quite happy to leave his family to their respective fates, but accepting that he no longer belonged in this world at this time gave a sad smile and went into the arms of his Savior.

The latter – lived a life of false faith, her words and professions of faith being in direct opposition to her actions and deeds. She lived an embittered life, always blaming something other than herself for whatever situation she found herself in, always ascribing it to a twist of fortune, the backstabbing of another, and never gave so much as a penny to help another without attaching a string to call in that “favor” later if she thought she needed.

The latter lingered near her body – was angered by the Pastor’s words of “comfort” to the family, as I was by his rose colored description of this embittered, angry, and cruel woman I’d known all my life. She had already seen where her afterlife was leading according to her faith and her spirit already embittered and angry became malevolent.

She’s been haunting my mother ever since the rest of the family left a week after the funeral – last October. Time and again my mother has spoken of not sleeping – of grandmother calling her name long into the wee hours of the morning, of the toilet flushing by itself, of the sink turning itself on, of the coffee pot appearing on the counter again (mother doesn’t drink coffee) and many other oddities that are exacerbating her bipolar depression.

Mother is also a Christian and isn’t comfortable asking for me, as a Witch, to deal with the situation as I know I should, but in her dreams and her sleeping times, her need pulls the Spirit of Witch, and the Blood knows where it is needed, and off traveling in my sleep I go.

While I stand guard – mother sleeps soundly – while my spirit talks with the malevolent angry thing that was once my grandmother, it gives my mother peace enough to sleep – and she is improving. Though the past couple of weeks – I’m fast reaching exhaustion.

The malevolence has lessened and may in time accept the fate her faith has planned for her – or may in time simply fade as many of the once born do…but in the meantime – these nocturnal travels will continue – and the conversations will continue until I convince my grandmother to accept or fade.

I sometime wonder if I shouldn’t just banish this spirit and be done – even with the rancor and hatred I had from her in life – I cannot find it within myself to force her to the nothingness of the once born or to the fated “hell” of her faith. I am saddened she didn’t make her peace and faith real prior to her death, and continues to be so angry and bitter…I know that even now – by her faith – she would be welcomed in a much nicer place if she could let go of the baggage and just for a moment – purely believe – and in that pure moment of faith – she could finally find peace.