Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 16

Here in the northern hemisphere, Samhain is almost upon us, but for our southern hemisphere friends, it is time for Beltane. To help you celebrate, we’ve rounded up our best rituals, spells, books, and more!

A May Eve Incantation: Beltane is one of the most important holidays in the Pagan year. Beltane celebrates life and growth, manifested this time of year by fruit and flower. To get in touch with the fertile flavor of the season, try this simple Beltane incantation.

 

 

Magickal May Wine for Beltane: Drink this May wine to welcome in the spring and renew your sense of youth and vigor.

 

 

Beltane Tarot Spread: May is a time of fertility and high spirits. By Beltane, the dark time of the year is a distant memory and the possibilities of life seem sweet. Use the May Queen spread to regain or confirm a sense of abundance and safety.

May Wishing Tree Magick for Beltane: Beltane is a celebration of vitality, fertility, strength, and growth reflecting a blending of many traditions. Here, Melanie Marquis provides ideas for May Trees and other ways to celebrate this sacred day.

Beltane Spells: Browse our spells to find your perfect Beltane ritual or incantation.

Books:

Beltane
Llewellyn’s 2021 Sabbats Almanac
Rituals of Celebration
Supermarket Sabbats
Sabbats
The Witch’s Wheel of the Year

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Kac Young PhD, ND, DCH, author of The Healing Art of Essential Oils, Llewellyn’s 2021 Essential Oils Calendar, Essential Oils for Beginners, and the new Crytal Power.

We all fall into a sad mood from time to time. That’s life! But what can we do about it? Whether the sadness is triggered by the loss of a loved one, a change at work, a shift in a relationship, a disagreement with a trusted friend, or simply waking up on the wrong side of the bed, the reason is unimportant. It doesn’t matter what brought it on; what is important is that there is a way to lift yourself out of that dark place and back into the light.

Whenever I’m having a “down” day I like to get out my rose essential oil and my rose quartz crystal. The first thing I do is put on some relaxing, meditative music. The mellow chants of Snatam Kaur are enchanting and soul-lifting for me. Next, I diffuse some essence of rose essential oil into the air space.

As the diffusion of the rose oil fills the air, I recline and place my rose quartz crystal over my heart chakra. Other times I like to sit in the Lotus or Padmasana yoga position to encourage deeper concentration.

As I listen to the music and the gentle voice singing, I sometimes sing along. Or, if I use an instrumental piece, I chant Om Mani Padme Hum or repeat a quiet mantra. The mantra I use varies with my mood. I have used a simple, “All is well,” or a more complex phrase like, “Sadness evaporates and becomes joy,” “I chose love at every bend in the road,” “Be kind, be generous, be happy,” or any quote I love, or a phrase that fits the situation and resonates with me that day.

I can spend just ten minutes doing this practice, listening to the music and inhaling the scent of roses. In a very short time, I feel invigorated, my spirit is lifted, and I am ready to get on with my day. The sadness has gently and naturally been transmuted into joy and I am prepared for a “rosy” day.

Our thanks to Kac for her guest post! For more from Kac Young, read her article, “Selecting Your First Crystal: 20 Things to Know.”

Third Eye Tarot Exercise

In Tarot Healer, Leeza Robertson leads us through an exploration of our chakras, with assistance from tarot. Through a series of exercises that build on one another, we learn to identify areas of weakness and discover ways to strengthen them. Here is an example of an exercise that gets us started with the crown chakra. Although part of a series of interconnected exercises, this one can stand alone.

Grab your deck and start looking for a card that you feel best represents the energy of the third eye, or the energy of the third eye chakra, you wish to have once your healing work is further along. Recommended cards for this chakra include the High Priestess, the Hanged Man, the Moon, or any of the Queens. Do your best to select this card visually before diving into the meaning of the card itself. Once you have your significator card, reverse it, and make it stand on its head. This is the true direction of sight, upside down. Once you have selected your card, take it to your journal and do some free or automatic writing with the card. Imagine the card is talking directly to you and giving you tips on how to open, use and heal your third eye chakra center. Ask your card questions, and imagine it is speaking the answers to you. When you feel you have written all there is to write, and can’t seem to go any further by yourself, pick up your favorite tarot books and see what information you can gather around your selected card. Just keep the information relevant to the third eye, intuition, dreams, inner sight, outer sight, and future casting.

Once you have exhausted your research on your selected card, consider writing an affirmation or intention statement around this card to ground it. You don’t have to do this, but I do recommend it, especially if the card you have selected represents something you are working towards or trying to create. This short affirmation or intention statement keeps you connected to your third eye chakra center, while you heal, clear and expand its power. Just take your time with the above exercises, and allow your third eye significator to unfold information to you much the same way your third eye will.  You will learn as you make your way through this chapter that sometimes your sight is clear, sometimes it is cloudy, and other times it locks you out completely. Energy doesn’t just bend to our will, instead we learn to bend and co-create with it. Let’s dive deeper into the complex chakra known as the third eye.

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Jack Adam Weber, author of the new Climate Cure.

In the section of Climate Cure titled, “Navigating the Doom and Denial of Climate Crisis,” I discuss the polarization that occurs in perceiving climate change. It’s a similar polarization that occurs in relation to Covid-19.

This section hinges on a realization, a possibility that we tend to polarize to extremes not because the evidence merits, but because we are uncomfortable with the anxiety of not-knowing. So we jump to doom (“we’re completely screwed”) or denial (“climate crisis is a hoax, no need to worry about it”) and then defend our all-knowing with confirmation bias and logical fallacies (putting on blinders). We can also apply this reasoning to mask-wearing and many other dynamics of Covid-19.

It takes emotional and cognitive resilience to hang out in shades of grey orientations, and more so the greater the threat. Hand in hand with this polarization is black OR white thinking, a true curse of our day (that also contributes to racism, in my opinion).

Notice in your daily life and in your social media news feeds how prevalent black or white thinking is (especially in memes: it’s not “this” but “that,” when in truth, it’s usually some of both). Notice it in yourself, too! Underneath polarized thinking, notice if you sense a lurking urge to mitigate the anxiety of not-knowing that drives your position.

Extreme positions encourage and exacerbate this thinking; it is anti-science and incites violence due to its warring stance of opposites coupled with unregulated emotion, especially without emotional intelligence to mitigate the fuel for this binary path. Fear is the primary emotion that drives polarized thinking because it triggers our flight or flight reaction, which propels us to extreme conclusions, unless we learn to be skillful with fear (a whole chapter in Climate Cure is devoted to working with fear and another to working with anxiety).

Practicing tolerating the anxiety of not-knowing certain aspects of climate change and Covid, while being more certain of others (especially in light of good science), is both good, critical thinking and resisting the knee-jerk to polarize.

THIS IS RESILIENCE IN ACTION.

The gist as it applies to climate is this: we are in crisis, but we may not be total goners. We cannot avert climate chaos, yet we can make it less severe. Notice the shades of grey here, the non-polarizing and tension of opposites.

The gist (or at least one example) as it applies to Covid is that we can be relatively certain that mask-wearing is helpful. Regardless, the inconvenience of wearing a mask is minimal compared to the risk of going without.

I like to view practicing inconvenience as a resilience practice: adjusting my mindset to tolerate minor inconvenience in the midst of outer crisis, which is itself a tension of opposites. Could it be that the extreme push-back against masks is, among several other reasons, an inability to hold a tension of opposites?

I maintain that practicing this tension of opposites, holding shades of grey positioning, black AND white thinking, and being flexible to change in light of evidence and epiphany, is a pillar of resilience for every aspect of our lives.

Non-Polarizing and Yin-Yang

This tension of opposites is captured in the Yin-Yang symbol, with each position along its circumference representing a unique blend of black AND white—a shade of grey. Even when we are in total darkness (Yin) at 6 PM position, Yin-Yang wisdom reminds that “within Yin is Yang,” depicted by the sun in the dark swish below. This means that when things look bleakest (Yin), there is light (Yang) waiting in hiding (i.e. spring buds from frozen winter).

Yin-Yang is therefore an image for transmutation, for real hope, and what keeps us fluid and transforming from rigid, unmerited extremes. Note: some extremes are valid as long as we are genuinely still open to seeing otherwise by way of what the great scientist Carl Sagan termed “extraordinary evidence.”

I keep the Yin-Yang symbol etched into the networks of my heart-mind as a reminder to not polarize unless supported unequivocally with evidence, and even then, there is still chaos (Yin) in order (Yang). What this means for Covid and for climate crisis is that the more we can mitigate overwhelm, the more skillfully and effectively we will be able to show up. (I discuss more of these dynamics in this video presentation I did for the Ecopsychology Network of Canada.

Viewing the world in shades of grey requires that we work skillfully and patiently with our emotions, to prevent emotional reasoning (coming to logical conclusions based on the intensity of emotion). This doesn’t mean our feelings are wrong or bad; quite the contrary. It means that we must reflect on, sit with, work with, and apply reason to our reactions in order to act wisely.

Our thanks to Jack for his guest post! For more from Jack Adam Weber, read his article, “8 Creative Ways to Cope and Thrive Through Coronavirus and Beyond.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Lilith Dorsey, author of the new Water Magic.

Deep down, I’m a dirt-loving witch, and I like to use herbs, flowers, and other botanicals in all of my magic. This is definitely true for Water Magic, which is the title of my upcoming book from Llewellyn. The following plants can be used fresh or dried on your altar or shrine as a water-inspired offering, they can be used to make an infusion that can then be used as a magical bath or wash for your floors, or they can be combined and burned on charcoal to create a water-inspired incense.

Coconut: Technically this isn’t a fruit or a nut, but instead a drupe. Whatever you call them, coconuts contain their own water, and can be used in your incense, bath, or directly on your water altar as an elemental offering.
Eucalyptus: This watery herb is said to grant health, focus, and psychic ability.
Gardenia: This delicate white bloom is one of my favorite flowers. Gardenia is used in magickal workings for love, devotion, and spiritual connection.
Iris: There are over 300 different species of this beautiful flower. Irises are ruled by the moon, and are therefore useful for divination and other psychic work. They are said to bring love, romance, faith, courage, and wisdom. Very often the root, called Orris root, is used for spells and potions.
Jasmine: This plant is so divine even its name roughly translates to, “Gifts from God.” It can be used in your magic for love, psychic power, friendship, happiness, and healing.

Our thanks to Lilith for her guest post! For more from Lilith Dorsey, read her article “How to Create Water Shrines and Altars.”

Today we hosted the first event in our new Llewellyn Virtual Author Forum Series!

The Llewellyn Virtual Author Forum is a bi-monthly series of free online roundtable events that feature your favorite Llewellyn authors discussing topics important to you and answering your questions.

Our first in the series, on Ancestor Work and Veneration, featured Badass Ancestors author Patti Wigington, Magickal Mediumship author Danielle Dionne, The Witch’s Book of Spirits author Devin Hunter, and What Is Remembered Lives author Phoenix LeFae.

Did you miss the live event? No worries! Stream it here.

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Madame Pamita, author of the new Book of Candle Magic.

One of the easiest ways to add a boost of power to your candle spells is by consciously choosing colors that are in alignment with your spell’s intention.

There are several ways that you can incorporate color into your candle magic:

Color of the candle wax
Color of the candle holder or tray
Color of glitter sprinkled on the candle
Color of paper and ink written on a petition paper with your candle spell
Color of flowers placed around your candle
Color of altar cloth where your candle spell is burning

There is great power in coordinating all of these in one color; for example a passionate red love spell with a red candle, red candle holder, red glitter on the candle, and red roses around it as it sits on a red altar. Just imagining that candle spell makes my heart race a little.

But you can also make a highly personalized candle spell by using multiple colors for various aspects of your spell. You might want to make a spell for a new job with a green candle for growth, dress it in gold glitter for more money, and place it on a purple tray for power.

Once you know the colors and their magical associations, it’s easy to incorporate colors in your candle spell work to amplify your intention.

Black: Banishing, transformation, uncrossing, endings, domination, protection, reversing, cursing.

Blue: Reconciliation, harmony, peace, kindness, healing, ideas, intelligence, communication.

Brown: Justice, balance, grounding, court cases, legal matters, reliability, support, stability, nature.

Gray: Neutrality, neutralizing, invisibility, secrets, occult and arcane wisdom, undoing prior spells.

Green: Prosperity, abundance, wealth, generosity, career, growth, fertility, healing, nature spirits.

Lavender: Healing, calming, tranquility, spirituality, meditation, compassion, empathy, selflessness.

Metallic Gold: Prosperity, fame, luxury, generosity, optimism, victory, sun magic, confidence, vigor.

Metallic Silver: Dreams, intuition, psychic work, courtesy, honor, moon magic, divination, glamour spells.

Orange:

New opportunities, change of plans, opening the way, warmth, creativity, courage, optimism.

Pink: Romantic love, friendship, soul mates, emotional healing, heart connection, affection.

Purple: Empowerment, commanding, mastery, power, ambition, achievement, psychic ability.

Red: Passionate love, energy, action, attraction, sexuality, magnetism, will, force, anger, lust.

White: Cleansing, clarity, blessing, healing, innocence, truth, connection to the spiritual world.

Yellow: Optimism, prosperity, happiness, good luck, attraction, success, confidence, fame.

This list is just a start. You may have your own associations with each of the colors. I encourage you to start with this guide but make your color meanings personal. If you think yellow is the color for communication, add that to your list. If you don’t believe that orange is for opportunities, cross that off the list.

Build relationships with the colors just as a tarot reader builds a relationship with each of the cards. Color can be a powerful addition to all your candle spells and can make your magic pop!

Our thanks to Pamita for her guest post! For more from Madame Pamita, read her article “13 Candle Spell Hacks That Anyone Can Use.”

Join us for the first in our new Llewellyn Virtual Author Forum Series!

October 9, 2020—2pmCT

Join us for our first Llewellyn Virtual Author Forum! This bi-monthly series of free online roundtable events will feature your favorite Llewellyn authors discussing topics important to you and answering your questions.

Our first in the series, on Ancestor Work and Veneration, will feature Badass Ancestors author Patti Wigington, Magickal Mediumship author Danielle Dionne, The Witch’s Book of Spirits author Devin Hunter, and What Is Remembered Lives author Phoenix LeFae. Discover rituals, practices, and more, and ask them your questions!

We’ll be streaming live on Crowdcast and via our Facebook page—save your spot today!

We look forward to seeing you virtually!

Learn Something New

The Page of Pentacles from the Wizards Tarot

The first six months of quarantine have been very difficult for me (this is written in August; and I’m sure I’m not alone). One of the things that really helped me was learning something new. A friend asked me if I’d like to study Marseille Tarot with him. I did and it was like a lifeline during my darkest months. For two months, we used Zoom to study and do practice readings with each other. We are both seasoned RWS tarot readers with decades of experience but we both had only a nodding relationship with Marseille. That was, we think, key to its effectiveness in engaging us so fully.

If you find yourself restless and anxious, try learning something completely new. It is really diverting and might lead to some really great new practices. But even if it doesn’t, knowledge is never wasted. Learning Marseille taught me that it is probably not for me, but it also helped think about the RWS system in new ways.

Here is one of the resources we used during our study sessions and the deck I used:

Reading and Understanding the Marseille Tarot by Anna Maria Morsucci

Tarot de Marseille by Jodorowsky

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Dr. Debbie Palmer, author of the new Mindful Beauty.

Summer—with its abundant fruits and vegetables—may be officially over, but fall’s bounty is just as plentiful…and just as delicious. What’s more: the wide variety of deep rich colors that we can find in fall’s produce is indicative of the health-promoting antioxidants they contain.

In fact, the deeper or richer the color of a fruit or vegetable, the more antioxidants it contains. It’s the antioxidants—compounds that help prevent or stop damage from oxidants (damaging free radicals found in everything from the sun’s rays to the pollution around us)—that give fruits and vegetables their vibrant hues.

So head over to the nearest farmer’s market—or to your nearest produce aisle—to pick up some of these fall faves!

Apples: Whether you love red or green apples, these perennial fall favorites are loaded with antioxidants like flavonoids and quercetin. Be sure to eat the skin, though, as that’s where the antioxidants are concentrated. (This is a good reason to reach for organic apples, as pesticides reside mainly in the skin of a fruit or vegetable.) They’re also chock-full of vitamin C and fiber—particularly pectin, a soluble fiber that’s been shown to help lower cholesterol.
Citrus Fruits: Grapefruits, oranges, tangerines, and clementines are all abundant, starting in fall. And they’re all great sources of the antioxidant vitamin C. Plus, the deeper the color of the citrus fruit, the more antioxidants called flavanones it contains.
Grapes: Red, green, purple, and even black grapes are chock-full of powerful health-promoting antioxidants—one of which is called resveratrol. This is the reason red wine, in moderation, has been found in many studies to be good for your health (particularly the health of your heart).
Kale: This deep leafy green—which tastes delicious raw or cooked—is packed with antioxidants carotenoids (like lutein and beta-carotene) and flavonoids (like kaempferol and quercetin). And it’s also super-high in all sorts of other key vitamins and minerals like vitamins A, C, and K and the antioxidant mineral manganese. (Keep in mind that this veggie is part of the family of veggies called cruciferous vegetables; other fall cruciferous vegetables that are good for you include broccoli and cauliflower.)
Squash: This yummy vegetable is incredibly versatile: you can bake, roast, or sauté it—and even roast the seeds. And the rich yellow-orange color of butternut squash, acorn squash, buttercup squash, delicata squash, pumpkin, and so many more is a sure sign they’re full of the antioxidants carotenoids, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Fall squash also has plenty of the antioxidant vitamin C and the antioxidant mineral manganese. They’re also rich in fiber and plenty of other vitamins and minerals, too. (Squash seeds are high in fiber and healthy fats.)

Keep in mind that any brightly colored fruit and vegetable is rich in antioxidants, too: tomatoes; pears; red, yellow, green, and orange peppers; and so much more!

Discover more healthy eating tips and ways to stay happy, healthy, and glowing in Mindful Beauty.

Here’s to a happy, healthy fall!

Our thanks to Debbie for her guest post! For more from Dr. Debbie Palmer, read her article, “5 Ways to Manifest Outer Health, Inner Peace, and Beauty.”