Pretty, Pretty, Petition

photo by gnuckx

"Action is eloquence."--William Shakespeare

I will be off line for most of the day working on a couple of BIG projects (all will be revealed in due time) However, I leave you with a pretty image, a great quote and instructions on making your very own magical petition papers.

Magical petitions are one of the oldest forms of magical work--they are featured in the Holy Bible and the Tanakh. The idea of applying pen to paper to manifest magical intention has a simple elegance to it that makes many people feel like more is needed for a true ritual or spell to occur. While roots, herbs, oils, incenses, and brews are all delightful additions to ritual work, a well crafted petition can absolutely serve as the working's solid foundation. So how do you do it? Below I give you 3 forms of petitions commonly used in Conjure and Hoodoo. The first-a petition for dominance:

This is the petition that you use when you need someone to do it your way, see things from your perspective, pay attention to you, listen to you, or in some way, shape or form, be influenced by you:

--get a piece of paper the size of a post-it note and write your target's full name on it 3 times in pencil.
--turn the paper clockwise 90 degrees so that you now read the name up and down instead of left to right.
--write your name on top of the target's name in permanent ink. I recommend the color red for issues dealing with straight up power and/or love and romance, blue for healing or peace, brown for legal issues, purple for success and mastery and green for financial matters.
--embellish your petition with designs and symbols that are relevant to your case. If you want someone to shut up you might draw a mouth with an X on it. If you are making the petition for someone who owes you money you might draw dollar bills or money bags.
--anoint the petition with oil in a 5 spot pattern-4 corners and center.
--if the petition has been made to draw something or someone closer to you then fold it towards you, turn it 90 degrees clockwise and fold it again. If it has been crafted to get rid of someone then fold it away from yourself.

Next we have the type of petition that is commonly used in ritual work involving magical containers like honey jars:

--get a piece of paper the size of a post-it note and write your target's full name on it 3 times in pencil.
--turn the paper clockwise 90 degrees so that you now read the name up and down instead of left to right.
--write your name on top of the target's name in permanent ink. For honey jars the most common colors used are red, blue, purple, brown, and green.
--the tricky part: you must inscribe a circle around the names you have written WITHOUT raising your pen. So choose a prayer, command, or mantra that is short and sweet and easy to write. For a love drawing honey jar the command to: love me, come to me, want me-is perfectly acceptable.
--anoint your petition in a 5 spot pattern
--embellish your petition with images and symbols appropriate to the case.

And finally, a Break Apart or Separation petition:

--if you have a picture of the couple you want to break up then use that--if not get a single piece of paper the size of a post-it note and with a pencil make a line down the middle of the paper so that its divided into 2 columns. Write the full name of one half of the couple over their picture or in one column and write the other person's name over their picture or in their column. Whether you are using a picture or a plain piece of paper you should have 2 columns with a name in each written 3 times.
--cross each name with red ink and your petition that they break up and separate.
--anoint the paper or picture with break up oil
--tear the paper in half-symbolizing the rent in the fabric of their relationship

A note on personal concerns in petitions: when I use personal concerns I like to fold them within the petition. There are different schools of thought on this but I like the have my target being influenced at every possible level-that begins with my written prayers or commands. As I wrote earlier, petitions have been worked with forever-so there is no one way. These are three traditional ways I was taught and it is my hope that they will be of use to you!

Happy Birthday-and a gift for each of you!

photo by cursedthing

Its my birthday today and I want to take a little bit of time to reflect on birthdays, the rituals that surround them and what they might really be about. I have a friend who simply adores her birthday and is always excited when it comes along (me too, I love birthdays!) and then I have a friend who is like, "what's the big deal? Its not like I personally did anything of merit on this day-why am I getting gifts." Having had the pleasure of giving birth and being in labor for over 36 hours earlier this year, I hear what he is saying, and yet it cannot be denied that birthdays feel important in some way.

So why do they feel important? What's the big deal about getting one year older? Other than the obvious-cake and ice cream-yum! I started thinking about this and recollected my feelings prior to Jasper's arrival. The entire time I was pregnant and especially when giving birth it was apparent to me that I was on someone else's time schedule and that another person's will (namely Jasper) was involved in this situation. I wasn't going to into labor until Jasper was ready--the kid even overcame pitocin, and I was not going to give birth until he was ready to drop (at the last possible moment). This experience led me to conclude something I had always suspected but now feel that I got to witness first hand--we choose to be here. On this earth, in this time, right now. Its a choice, incarnation, maybe its a choice influenced by law or by Divine Will, but there is still choice involved in the process.

So that is what I celebrate when I celebrate my birthday. I celebrate the joys and pain and heartbreak and ecstasy of another year on the planet, of 365 days full of sun, moon, stars, and all the big and little dramas that make up a life, specifically my life. Choosing to be flesh and blood, choosing to participate in the highs and lows of humanity takes spirit and courage in my book. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I also believe (of course I do) that we are part of a greater whole. There is more to our lives and our purpose here than we may suspect--especially at our most difficult and most delight-full times.

Its a tradition for me to do something nice for the people that rock my world on my birthday--my little way of giving back, of saying thanks for being a light in my life. All of my clients, anyone who is reading this blog, is someone who falls into that category and so my birthday gift to you is a lovely discount on the most time and spiritually intensive intuitive session that I offer-an Ancestor Reading. It feels right and appropriate to me to offer this up on my birthday-for along with choice I believe that we do carry the messages, hopes, dreams, fears, and potentials of those who have gone before us. I feel honored to stand in witness and partnership with every individual who comes to be for an Ancestor Reading-it can be a life-altering experience. So! My gift to each of you is 10% off Ancestor Readings for the month of October. These sessions never go on sale so get it while its hot! And feel free to celebrate a little bit today--its my day and I say-rock on!

Signs, Signals, Omens, and Portents

photo by D. Sharon Pruitt

In certain almost supernatural states of the soul, the profundity of life reveals itself entirely in the spectacle, however ordinary it may be, before one's eyes. It becomes its symbol.--Charles Baudelaire

I am knee-deep in designing an e-course on reading and interpreting symbols, signs, omens, and portents. If you have a burning question about any of the above send 'em on over.

Mamma Hen at it again+new freebie!

Couple of quick announcements before you all check out for the weekend: If you have funk in your space then clean it up already! The first step to clearing out the bad vibes and ushering in good juju is to physically and spiritually clean the space in which you live and love.  Momma Hen has made some truly awesome floor wash! The 16 oz bottles are chock full of organic cleansers and spiritually cleansing and blessing herbs from momma hen's very own garden. You can buy the floor wash here or at our Etsy store. And, there is a new freebie page up at Milagro Roots-a handy reference guide for some commonly seen symbols and what they represent.

Making Magic Happen-The Magician in the Tarot

The following article is reposted here from my monthly newsletter! Want to learn more awesome stuff and get some freebies while you are at it? Check out the newsletter and sign up!

When I was a cheerleader we did a yell that reminds me of the Magician card-it went like this: "Action, action, we want action! A-C-T-I-O-N!!!" This was accompanied by a lot of spirit fingers and spasmatic arm motions that I think we are all better off forgetting. But the yell was used when our team was flagging in energy and strength and needed to do something magical and miraculous to get the game back on our terms and this idea is not too far from the Magician.

When we look at the card we notice a somewhat androgynous looking male figure dressed in red and white. The lemniscate or infinity symbol is floating above his head, his right arm is raised to the sky, his right hand holds a double ended wand and his left hand points down to the earth. Above his head is a swag of roses, around his feet and legs we find more roses and white lilies. An altar is in front of him with 4 items precisely arranged: cup, gold coin or pentacle, dagger, and wand. In ceremonial magical traditions and some Wiccan traditions the knife and cup may be referred to as an athame and chalice respectively. And of course I am referring to the card as we find it in the Rider Waite Smith deck. The background of the Magician is bright yellow-the exact same shade we find as the backdrop for the Fool card and this indicates to us that in some way the Magician is an extension or an outgrowth of the Fool. But of course, there are also differences. For starters, the Magician is much more organized and orderly than the Fool--there are no ripped clothes or barking dogs in this card! There is intention, energy, and ritual purpose in the place of the fool's abandon, wild faith, and courage/foolhardiness. The Magician has channeled the Fool's raw enthusiasm (deriving from the Greek words en Theos meaning "filled with God) and is going to DO something with it.

The tools of his trade are arrayed in front of him indicating that he has all of the resources he requires to do the work he needs to do right at his fingertips. His arms and hands are the most stylized aspect of the card and also the most symbolic--one points up with a double ended wand to heaven--as if summoning or pulling down divine and heavenly energy. The second hand points down towards the earth, as if pulling up the earthly energy of manifestation. These two apparent opposites meet within the core of the magician's body, instilling him with the power to create real change. The center of the lemniscate rests directly above the Magician's head and reminds us of the Word logos descending upon the head of Christ in the form of a sacred dove so that the Word could be made Flesh. The Magician stands at the center of the infinity symbol, able to see what has come before, what comes after, and where his specific place is within the mystery and magic of life. The wise Magician accepts his position and does his work for the greater good of all and for the Truth. The unwise Magician refuses to accept his place, jostles for power, prestige, and control.

Then we have the color play in the card. Our mage is cloaked in red and white and this theme is echoed in the roses and lilies around his feet and legs. The color red is strongly associated the the feminine since ancient times and white is just as strongly associated with men. Roses are associated with the ladies and lilies are associated with men-specifically again Jesus Christ. The colors and the masculine and feminine attributes that they symbolize call our attention to 2 other pairs of opposites we find in the card-heaven and earth, transcendence and immanence. This indicates that the Magician is able to take aspects, energies, and elements that are in some ways naturally in opposition to one another and blend them, creating unity from division. And that in turn brings us to another important feature of the card, the number. In all traditional decks the Magician is assigned the first position, card number one. Unity and unification are the themes behind this numeral. The number one  points to a sense of something higher, eternal, and unified going beyond the apparent duality we see in the world and symbolized by the infinity symbol above the Magician's head.

To recap: The Magician deals with magic and the magical process of transformation. He stands in a unique position where he can view what has come before, what comes after and where his place within this cycle stands. The inner character of the Magician determines how he works with and uses this knowledge--is it for his own personal gain or to be of service to others. He is unique in his ability to unify apparent opposites and he is resourceful and intent upon his work. Connected to both the heavens and the earthly realm, the Magician stands as a Christ figure-suspended between the 2 and serving both.

In divination the Magician card can indicate any combination or all of the following:
--someone involved in the querant's situation may be working in a magical or ritual context to either help or harm the querant
--the querant may do well to seek out the aid of a professional who does perform magical+ritual work
--the querant has magical ability themselves that could be developed
--the querant needs to be aware of someone who is creating an illusion or using their ability to sell illusions to put the querant in a difficult situation (for instance, a con artist could be represented by the Magician card in some readings)
--the querant or someone that the querant is asking about may be leaning too far in one direction and needs to harness the opposite forces in their lives in order to get the picture, book, deal, (fill in the blank with your project here) manifested and solidly real.
Remember in divination that the Magician is ALWAYS an alchemist. His work is to take one thing and through the power of nature and the power of his intellect and will transform it into something else. In some cases this is an improvement, in other cases it is not, but transformation is key.

Money+Prosperity+Abundance-Make some space in your place!

OK-so often one of the first things that I ask people when we get on the subject of making money, keeping cash, and letting the good times roll--is--what is on your prosperity altar? And often the reply is some version of "huh?" I work and teach is several different magic and ritual traditions-and creating space in your place for prosperity and abundance is advised in all of them! Because if you can't be bothered to dedicate a tiny bit of space to keeping the abundant good things in life flowing then you have already shut so many doors to your potential growth. So…for those of you who want a step by step, play by play of how to do this, sit back, get a cup of tea, and enjoy the ride!

Choose your space-it can be a room, a corner of a room, a window ledge. When we do prosperity and abundance ritual work we are usually hoping and praying to increase our abundance, our earning potential, the size of our wallets so I like to place these types of altars in the East. In some traditions East is associated with the season Spring-when all plants are beginning to sprout and grow and become, you guessed it, abundant! In other traditions East is associated with the strengthening of the sun (which of course rises in the East)-as the sun rises and gains in strength so may our fortunes. If you don't have a place in the east where you can dedicate space then choose the North-that direction is associated with the element of Earth and also auspicious for money making.

Dedicate your space--I am not talking about performing some fancy ritual-I am talking about dedicating your space in order to set it apart. Since you are working on the ideas of abundance/cash/money/security/and wealth you want to set this space apart with items that resonate to those themes. Material or items that are green are an obvious choice. I like to use living plants in my personal abundance altar. Gold coins, cash money, toads and frogs (which are associated with financial flow in China, parts of South American, and in certain Native American tribes) might appeal to you. If you are not overwhelmed with a million ideas its ok-put down a piece of green or gold material, place a candle in the center, and consider your options. Altar building is an art.

Gather your materials--Are you going to pray, burn candles, recite a specific mantra, or work with a lodestone or prosperity box? What is your ritual? If you are not sure what types of rituals are appropriate or speak to you start with something simple-maybe an incense stick burning as you consider a new way to bring wealth+abundance into your life. You can also get some ideas about your attitudes regarding wealth and abundance during an intuitive counseling session-so if you are really stuck on this, consider that. Traditionally these are some of the items you might find on a prosperity altar:
--green or gold candles
--incense
--cash and coins
--oils to draw money and abundance
--herbs and roots to draw money and abundance
--matches
--figures of Deities/icons/ancestors that support you in your desire for an abundant life
--journals/books/magazines that assist you with planning and creating abundance

Summon your allies--In pretty much every religious tradition there are Saints, Gods, Goddesses, or Holy Figures that are associated with drawing wealth on every possible level (material, intellectual, spiritual, etc). Consider your tradition and the tradition(s) that resonate with you. Is there a figure that you believe might assist you in your endeavors to create more prosperity in your life? What about icons from history or popular culture? Anyone that just screams WEALTH! to you? And finally, consider your background and ancestors. With a little digging you are sure to uncover some truly remarkable individual who had financial savvy.

Bless your projects--What are you working on? What project or idea or craft are you dedicated to that just thrills you? What amount of money would you like to be making? What forms of abundance do you most need in your life right now? An altar is not just a conversation piece or a pretty decoration. An altar is where you bring your hopes, dreams, fears, successes, and failures. It is where we go to seek blessings and to acknowledge and bless ourselves. Show up to your altar-work at it and use it on a daily basis-consistent and meaningful ritual practice will begin to create magnificent and positive prosperity for you almost immediately-try it!

Divination in a secular age

The other day I was noodling on the net and came across a blog post by a well-respected colleague. This individual was commenting on the difference between a predictive approach to divination versus a more philosophical approach. In concrete terms any reader or intuitive counselor will recognize this in the 2 different types of clients that we experience--there is one type of client who wants a nuts to bolts description of what will happen next in their lives as opposed to the client who wants an overarching reading that will most likely give them insight into their spiritual gifts and/or purpose. The former is the predictive case and the latter the philosophical (or probably in more correct terminology, the metaphysical). I have read similar articles in the past stating the same dichotomy and experienced how from this dichotomy springs another idea which is gaining currency--that working with an oracular system (whether its tarot, runes, tea leaves or what have you) for the purposes of prediction is "low" or less-than while working with the same system for meditative or contemplative purposes is "high" and the mark of an enlightened soul. So. This is wrong. But let's talk about why its wrong.

There are 2 issues at hand--the first is that the split between a predictive approach to divination and a metaphysical approach to divination rests on a false dichotomy. The greater spiritual questions are essential to correct prediction and correct prediction touches upon the greater spiritual questions. The false dichotomy comes out of the enlightenment period of history and the subsequent age of secularism that the enlightenment ushered in. Divination is one of the oldest arts and professions. One need look no further than the ancient texts that both encourage and prohibit certain forms of divination to understand that it has been around, in one form or another for a long, long, time. And of course it has! One of the most fundamental questions that we humans ask is…what's next? What will happen if…What will happen if I don't…voila the need for divination and diviners is born!

Because divination is such an ancient art we know it was practiced when our sense of the world and our place in the world was a different animal than it is now. Please note: I do not actually think much changes about our experiences-but I do think that our perception and explanation of why we experience what we do has changed, and not necessarily for the better always. To continue, I often explain to my students and clients that when we work with my preferred system of divination-the tarot--we need to place ourselves in what I refer to, somewhat incorrectly, as a "middle-age" mind set. Tarot cards have been documented as arriving in Europe in the early 1400's--although I and many other readers suspect the cards were worked with much earlier but unless my client is a history scholar (of which I do have a few!) they mostly know what I am talking about. I am using the example of tarot here because it is the system of divination that I work with, but the same thing applies to any system of divination that has ancient roots as well as the general art of divination itself. When I ask a client to enter the medieval mind set I am asking them to envision a world where the day is bracketed by rituals celebrating what is divine, unseen, and mysterious. We can say a lot of negative things about this period of history-the social and economic structures, the role of women and minorities, etc, etc, BUT one thing that the pre-Enlightenment folks had over us moderns hands down is a deep sense of the sacred. This sense was communal and participated in by the greater community. Belief in things that cannot be seen and touched-only felt or intuited did not mark you out as insane or weird or woo-woo-it was something that you most likely shared with your friends and neighbors. The sense of the sacred-of God, of the Divine was a part of daily life. A sense of wonder at the mystery of nature and the world was ingrained in individuals. So it is with any system of divination. For you see, divination is a system, as well as an art, and like all art and systems it does rest on certain presuppositions. For instance, if you are a fatalist it doesn't really make sense for you to have your cards read as the whole point of divination is to learn what is most likely to happen--and then if need be, take actions to encourage or stop certain events from taking place to the best of your ability. And among these presuppositions is the belief that our daily lives, thoughts, actions, and behaviors are touched and influenced in every possible way by our sense of the sacred, the world and our place in it, the questions that really matter--in short, our philosophy. Wonder-at ourselves, at the grandness of the word, the greatness of the Divine, the mystery of it all--undergirded our sense of philosophy until the Enlightenment. Now, don't get me wrong--we needed the Enlightenment to happen. It brought us physics, the scientific method, vaccines, and all kinds of goodies that make modern life possible. BUT one thing that gave way in the onslaught of this new approach to wisdom was that sense of wonder. No more would nature hide her secrets from us-brave and strong men were going to come, ravish her, and empty her skirts of any remaining mysteries.  (Thats not a fancy analogy by the way-that is Sir Francis Bacon, the father of the Enlightenment who says it more elegantly: "My only earthly wish is... to stretch the deplorably narrow limits of man's dominion over the universe to their promised bounds... nature will be bound into service, hounded in her wanderings and put on the rack and tortured for her secrets.")

Yes--its the knowledge that in some way led to the machine that I am typing this on right now-yet there was a price, and it was steep. We can see it in many areas but the area I am interested in is divination. As we lost our sense of wonder and the sacred we also started to buy into the false dichotomy I mentioned earlier and a schism grew between the art of prediction and an individual's philosophy. And so we have today the situation of clients and readers who think of these aspects as separate in the best case and at odds with one another in the worst case. In theory philosophy is for the academy and divination is for woo-woo mystics or wannabes. In practice, as any reader knows, its much more complicated and people from ALL walks of life seek divination now just as they always have. And any truly useful+insightful divination is going to place prediction and philosophy in relationship to one another--because what you think about yourself and the world around you influences the direction your life goes in today as it always has. Or to put it more plainly--whether or not you and your boyfriend are going to take it to the next level has everything to do with "big questions" like how you think about yourself, commitment, relationships, faithfulness, honesty, and hard work. If we want answers we gotta delve into your philosophy--its the way that we get clarity! I was talking to my husband about this idea this morning and he reminded me that the same principle can be seen in the Chinese character of the Tao (which of course translates to Way or in some translations "way-making" to capture the progressive sense of the idea). Originally this character was understood to be an eye with legs--because you have to both see (understand) where you are headed and have the practical ability to go there. That is what we strive for in divination-as client or reader-you shouldn't settle for less.