Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 5

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Stefani Michelle, author of the new Chakras & Shadow Work.

Why do chakras and shadow work go together? I can’t think of a better way to search for the hidden parts of ourselves than to dive deep into each energy system. The information about our chakras, our meridians, our energy systems is not new. What is new is the connection to the hidden self. While I was going through my latest and most intense healing journey, I made the decision for myself to work through my chakra system. Having a 30-year reiki practice it was easy for me to start with what I already knew. As I added more modalities to my healing, the connection between clearing the chakras and healing the shadow side became more and more clear until it was undeniable.

Everything within us and around us is energy. We are all energy, and when our energy stops flowing we become sick emotionally and even physically. There are many external and internal factors that can create stuck or blocked energy, and our reasons for our blocked energy are different, but we all share these basic energy centers. It’s important to discover the blocks and to clear them out, but it’s even more important to release the reasons for our blocked energy centers. You are not your experiences.

Each energy system has been affected by the events and stories in your life that you have held onto. You are not letting your energy flow freely when you hold onto things. You can think of this as a body in freeze mode. When your energy is frozen it creates either density or dissociation. Both of these hold you up from your own magic.

Everything in life is received through our “bat signals,” or the frequencies we send out through our energy systems. No matter how many mantras or affirmations we say, we can not receive magic if our energy is not flowing in that direction. We cannot become the magnet for great things when we are stuck in density or dissociation. These blocks, however, are reversible. With work we can discover what our signals are really giving off. We have to get out of our mind and into our body.

In the summer of 2023, I was on a road trip with my husband. At that time I had wanted to work on my sacral chakra; I specifically wanted to rid myself of the anger and rage that I had felt for so long. I knew where I had gained these feelings, and I was ready to release the attachment to that story. I went to bed one night during the trip and put my hands on my sacral energy system. I pictured the sources of this rage, and I said to myself, “I release you.” The next day, my husband and I had our first fight ever. It lasted all day. It took twists and turns, and with each exchange I made a decision that was out of my ordinary response. I had not put it all together until the sun had gone down again. What I had done the previous night with my intent and energy created opportunities for me to “let it go.” During our fight, my husband and I had gotten to a point in our communication where things were resolved. We had expressed our frustration and our needs, and, more importantly, we both listened to each other. It was the end of the night when I started to feel joy. In that moment of joy I realized that the day was magical. I had been given exactly what I asked for. I had been given the opportunity to change my reality and release my rage response. I had changed one aspect of my sacral energy—and we have never fought like that since.

We can change our reality! We can change our bat signals! We can change how the world shows up for us and how we show up for the world. If we listen to our body and quiet our mind, we can stay in the present moment. If we gather new information and get out of our comfort zone, we can change our perceptions—opening us up to new experiences and new realities. We can learn to listen to frequency instead of our mind, and this can have profound consequences on our lives. Lean into the moment, not the projection of what comes next. Feel your energy and watch your life create magic.

Our thanks to Stefani for her guest post! For more from Stefani Michelle, read her article “The Power of Chakras to Do Shadow Work.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Pamela Chen and Samantha Blossom, authors of the new The Mandarin Tree.

As modern Asian American mystics, we love to work with the heavenly creatures, or what you may know as mystical beings in other cultures, for abundance magic. Connecting to the three celestial beings that we are introducing to you today can help you easily access the frequency and magic that you need to achieve your goals. Each mystical guide is there to help you call in the power, magic, and actions that will move you forward. Check out The Mandarin Tree: Manifest Joy, Luck, and Magic with Two Asian American Mystics if you want to go into deeper rituals with these mystical beings, deities of our lineages, or other divine guides. In the meantime, start your magical journey with these three guides.

The Dragon: The Dragons are a large magnificent force field that can quickly quantum leap you into new situations and new timelines. When you’re asking for fast instantaneous changes in your world, ask for the power of the Dragon to be with you. Usually Dragons come in pairs of gold and white dragons or you may see a school of dragons coming to support you and sending instant luck and energy your way. They can quickly protect you, clear away blocks and guide the right people to you. Meditate, ask for them to be present, feel them, and see if they share any visuals with you or guidance. You may be asked to change the way you feel about a certain thing. Be ready for fast miracles when working with the Dragon.

The Phoenix: You can call upon the Phoenix if you feel stagnant or stuck. Light a new candle and meditate on the flames to connect with your Phoenix. When you see your flames dancing then close your eyes and picture a beautiful Phoenix soaring towards you wrapping you up in a crimson fire energy. In this magical flame, speak what you want to release so that you can resurrect in a new life and a new self. As you feel the last of your blocks being burned away, you can open your eyes and awaken as the highest-level magical version of you now.

The Money Frog: Having a Money Frog statue in your home is very popular in Feng Shui and can allow lots of wealth to hop into your home and your bank account. Face your Money Frog to the door in the daytime to call in money. During the night, turn them around to face inside to keep your wealth. Keep in mind to never place your Money Frog in your bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen. Leap to abundance and hop into magic by working with this mystical being.

There are many other guides you can work with for manifestation and pathworking. In The Mandarin Tree, you will be introduced and guided to working with other divine guides, such as Tiger, Laughing Buddha, Kuan Yin, Golden Ancestors, and more. Invoking the energies of these ancient archetypes will promote powerful transformations in your life and bring more joy and abundance. Cheers to living your best life!

Our thanks to Pamela and Samantha for their guest post! For more from Pamela Chen and Samantha Blossom, read their article “7 Things to Initiate When Working With a Deity, Guide, or Mystical Being .”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Alice Markham-Cantor, author of the new Once & Future Witch Hunt.

My 9x-great-grandmother, Martha Carrier, was hanged in the Salem witch trials. She wasn’t a witch. She wasn’t an herbalist or a spiritualist. She was a forty-year-old Puritan, a mother of five, known for her temper and her sharp tongue. The afflicted girls who first accused her had never met her; they’d only heard of her reputation, which included a child born suspiciously early in the marriage and a smallpox outbreak that killed all her male relatives.

When I was a kid, nobody knew we had a witch in the family. It wasn’t until an uncle did some genealogy research when I was teenager that any of us found out about Martha. I started researching Salem and got hooked. I had a thousand questions about this woman, this woman without whom I wouldn’t be alive, and that research became The Once & Future Witch Hunt: A Descendant’s Reckoning from Salem to the Present. Writing the book was my attempt to answer the fundamental questions of Salem’s witch hunt: how could this have happened? What’s to keep this from happening again?

But there’s another question, one that lives outside the book. Martha Carrier is my 9x-great-grandmother, and no one in my family—her family—knew about her. At some point, her family stopped telling her story.

This is not, on its face, unusual. Every family has its secrets, and most of us will never know them. There’s only so far we can go back, and that’s leaving aside the ravages of displacement, war, slavery. The past can be lost to us in so many ways. But I’ve always wondered who stopped telling Martha Carrier’s story and why. Was it leftover Puritan shame, an attempt to escape the taint of a witch in the family? Was it grief? Was it nothing but time?

Sometimes we lose women along the way. My work has been to excavate Martha Carrier and her inheritance. Sometimes we lose women, but sometimes, despite the odds, we can get them back, if only half-glimpsed. Sometimes we can resurrect them, if only in words.

Our thanks to Alice for her guest post! For more from Alice Markham-Cantor, read her article “The 9 Most Common Misconceptions About the Salem Witch Trials.”

Congratulations to these Llewellyn titles as 2024 COVR Awards finalists!

Your Guide to Self-Discovery , by Georgina Cannon et al (Anthologies) Tea Magic , by Jenay Marontate (Divination Books) Ancestral Whispers , by Ben Stimpson (Folk Magic Books) Llewellyn’s Complete Book of North American Folk Magic , by Cory Thomas Hutcheson (Folk Magic Books) Chakras & the Vagus Nerve , by CJ Llewelyn (Health & Wellness Books) The Outer Temple of Witchcraft , by Christopher Penczak (Iconic Books) Talking to Spirits , by Sterling Moon (Paranormal Books) The Book of Druidry , by Kristoffer Hughes (Shamanism & Paganism) Relighting the Cauldron , by Rev. Wendy van Allen (Shamanism & Paganism) Tarot in Love , by Elliot Adam (Tarot Books) The Living Tarot , by T. Susan Chang (Tarot Books) Path of the Moonlit Hedge , by Nathan M. Hall (Witchcraft & Magick Books) Tea Magic , by Jenay Marontate (Witchcraft & Magick Books) Dream Witchery , by Elhoim Leafar (World Spirituality) The Goddess Discovered , by Shelley A. Kaehr, PhD (World Spirituality) The Yuletide Tarot , by Kristoffer Hughes and Erin O’Leary Brown (Tarot Decks) Tarot of the Witch’s Garden , by Sasha Graham and Natasa Ilincic (Tarot Decks)

 

Founded in 1996, the Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) is an organization formed by a unique group of businesses that deal in “Visionary Resources,” and who work with and support each other as independent retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and publishers of visionary books, music, and merchandise.

Winners are selected by a process of both judging and reader voting, and will be announced during the COVR Visionary Awards Event in June.

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Tudorbeth, author of The Hedgewitch’s Little Library, including the latest release in the series, The Hedgewitch’s Little Book of Crystal Spells.

When people catch the crystal bug, they think they need every single one for every purpose, but really we only need a handful. These multifaceted stones and crystals can do everything for us just like herbs—we really don’t need many, just four or five and they do the job nicely. I often call them the Master Crystals, and all you need is three.

Here is a shopping list for three stones never to be without:

1. Quartz
What can I say? Basically, stop shopping right here, as a good quartz crystal can do wonders and can cover everything. It comes in array of colours, from browny smoky quartz through to a pinky rose quartz, though each resonate on a specific level they all have a generic power (which is to heal and heal anything). Quartz is so wonderous that I feature it in the first pages of my book, The Hedgewitch’s Little Book of Crystal Spells, where I go into more detail about this amazing stone.

2. Amethyst
Give me a good amethyst any day! This beautiful crystal can work wonders on the mind, body, and soul. It is often used to combat the addictive behaviour/behaviors with alcohol, drugs, gambling, and even shopping. It can be used to ground and calm if you are feeling anxious and depressed, as it is a great mood stabiliser. It can bring about peace at work if there has been a dispute or confrontation—pop a piece on your desk or carry it in your bag to counteract any toxic vibes aimed towards you.

3. Citrine
Wow! Where to begin with this one?! It can be used, just like the previous two, for absolutely everything. It can be powerful with stomach complaints through to successful business deals and money making ventures. It can enhance creativity and empower you with good leadership qualities and confidence. Citrine is great for empowering your solar plexus and giving a boost to absolutely anything you put your mind, body, and soul to.

So, there you have it: my Master Crystals, the three crystals that I wouldn’t be without. All are readily available at any good crystal shop or new age shop.

Blessed be!

Tudorbeth

Our thanks to Tudorbeth for her guest post! For more from Tudorbeth, read her article “Rainbow Crystal Healing.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Enfys J. Book, author of Queer Qabala and co-author of the new Sagittarius Witch.

Sagittarians, with our ruling planet of Jupiter, are known for being lucky. Whatever your sun sign, however, this spell will help align circumstances in your favor in a situation, giving it a little nudge of luck from the universe with the help of our planetary friend Jupiter. To add extra oomph to this spell, do it on a Thursday, preferably during Jupiter hour. (You can find out when planetary hours are here or on a planetary hours app on your phone or tablet.)

You will need:

A penny or other coin (preferably from the year you were born, or a year when you had particularly good fortune)Two pieces of plain paperMarkers or pens in green, blue, and one other color

Before doing the spell, design a sigil to represent a situation you’d like turned in your favor. If sigil-making isn’t part of your regular practice, simply write a word that summarizes the situation, remove the vowels, remove any duplicate letters, then arrange the remaining letters together so they are touching or overlapping, forming a shape you like. Try several different iterations until you find one that works for you. (For a fascinating book on sigil-making, check out Laura Tempest Zakroff’s Sigil Witchery.)

On a fresh piece of paper, draw a four-leaf clover in green, large enough to write and draw other things inside of it. As you draw, focus on the word and concept of luck.

Inside the four-leaf clover, draw a large Jupiter symbol in blue: ♃ As you draw, focus on the word Jupiter and the concepts of expansiveness and good fortune.

Inside the Jupiter symbol, draw the sigil you created for your situation in a color that makes sense to you. As you draw, focus on the situation and how you’d like it to go.

Now, take the coin and place it in the middle of your drawing. Stare at the coin and visualize the coin absorbing the sigil you created, the Jupiter symbol, and finally the four-leaf clover. Hold your dominant hand over the coin and focus your intention on the luck you’d like to receive. Visualize the best possible outcome for the situation and push that energy into the coin. When you feel the energy is secure inside the coin, snap your fingers three times to seal it.

Keep the piece of paper in a safe place, or burn it.

Carry the coin with you as a charm. When you feel you’ve received the luck you needed, cleanse the coin with sacred smoke, briefly soaking it in saltwater, or another energetic cleansing method, and spend it as you normally would.

Remember that you also have to both believe the charm will work and do mundane work to create luck: If you don’t send out resumes, it’s unlikely you’ll get a job offer. If you don’t make an effort studying, it’s unlikely you’ll get a good grade. Try to do everything in your power in the mundane world to align a situation in your favor, and this spell will help nudge things over the finish line.

You can find more spells and rituals like this one in Sagittarius Witch, which I co-authored with Ivo Dominguez, Jr. and several other amazing Sagittarian contributors. It’s part of Llewellyn’s Witch’s Sun Sign series, which has a book for every sun sign. Go find yours and learn how you can be the best possible witch you can be!

Our thanks to Enfys for their guest post! For more from Enfys J. Book, read their article “Me and My Big Sagittarius Mouth: How to Prevent Those Fiery Outbursts.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Devin Hunter, author of a number of books, including Modern Witch, Crystal Magic for the Modern Witch, and the new Houseplant HortOCCULTure.

Monstera are a genus of about fifty plants that are endemic to South America and have become hugely popular in the houseplant world for their unique foliage. Unlike other members of the aroid family, Monstera are known for their unique fenestrations (holes) and prolific growing behavior. Of those fifty known species, there are five I’d like to bring a spotlight to that are both easy to find in most plant markets and potent in magical energy.

Monstera deliciosa: Also called “Swiss-Cheese Plant” or “Monkey’s Mask,” this species is known for growing broad leaves of extreme size with fenestrations both on the outside of the leaf shape and inside. As a magical ally, this species is great for protection and for helping us to push through our barriers and blockages. Growing it near your main altar can help to conceal your workings from others.

There are multiple variegated versions of this plant available at market today. All of which, but particularly the albo, aurea, lime, constellation, and mint varieties, are linked to wealth and prosperity and can be worked with in magic to help elevates one’s social status.

Monstera esqueleto: This is a beautifully fenestrated spade-like leaf that resembles a horse’s skull when viewed from the side and is more on the hard to find/rare side. Leaves can grow to quite a large size, though not usually as large as the deliciosa, and this species is known to be a prolific drinker, preferring wet environments to dry ones. In magic, this ally helps us to connect with the dead and growing it near the ancestor altar can help better establish lines of communication with the other side.

Monstera adansonii: This species looks a lot like a miniature version of the esquelto and is one of the easiest houseplants to find in marketplaces. Compared to the other two, its leaves remain compact; however, the plant can produce several leaves a week during the growing season. This species makes for an incredible ally in business and money magic and should be grown in the money sector of the home or near the financial altar to find new avenues of success.

Monstera standleyana: This is a bit different from its sisters in that it doesn’t develop the same fenestrations and its leaves remain close to the stem. This species is often found in the marketplaces in its variegated form, which is sometime referred to as “Dragon Tail Monstera.” These plants make fantastic allies for magic related to uncovering the truth and revealing opportunity.

Monstera obliqua: This is the rarest form of monstera available today, but it is easily found in online marketplaces. This species has over a dozen variations, each with their own leaf shape, but overall, the obliqua gets its name for its thin leaf that is loaded with fenestrations. The most notable example of this can be seen in the Monstera obliqua Peru variety. The obliqua requires high humidity and makes a great terrarium plant. It is particularly great ally in magic related to hiding in plain sight and for disguising your psychic signature.

Our thanks to Devin for his guest post! For more from Devin Hunter, read his article, “Five Magical Workings for Better Houseplants.”

Our Llewellyn Virtual Author Forums are a bi-monthly series of free online roundtable events featuring your favorite Llewellyn authors discussing topics important to you and answering your questions.

Our latest in the series, on Tarot and Magic, featured Tarot Every Witch Way author Lilith Dorsey; Ethony Dawn, author of Tarot Grimoire; Sasha Graham, author of a number of tarot decks and books, including The Magic of Tarot; and Alaric Albertsson, author of Fortune in Your Hands.

Did you miss the live presentation? Watch it on-demand now!

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Tamara L. Siuda, PhD, author of the new Weather Magic.

Members of the alphabet community (from acronyms representing different sexualities and gender identities in the LGBTQIA+ community) often have to parse relationships with religion in ways people outside our community never encounter. Considerable scholarship and personal writing about the religious experiences of LGBTQIA+ people appears more frequently as our community becomes less hidden and more accepted in public life.

While there is sometimes controversy about how to describe religions or deities using today’s gender or sexuality terms, especially for religions that predate such terms, discussing why X might be a “gay god” or Y might be a goddess of LGBTQIA+ people is healthy for contemporary people of any gender or sexual identity.

Talking about how contemporary people relate to the divine does not define how other people related to them in other times. It does no harm to a deity or understanding of a deity’s original religion or culture to interpret or re-interpret that deity in new contexts. Understanding these relationships helps create better relationships, and also encourages the religions that form the frameworks for these relationships to flourish.

Among the Netjeru (ancient Egypt’s term for its divine beings), some can be defined using LGBTQIA+ terminology as other-gendered, having alternate identities, or otherwise “queer,” with the caveat that this term has changed in meaning even over my own lifetime. Whichever terms speak to you—and there’s room in the community for all of them—following is a short summary of Netjeru who can be approached around these topics and/or who embody identities we can define as LGBTQIA+.

Syzygies: this word is used to describe a deity who is male and female, or both at the same time. Almost all creator Netjeru are syzygies, including Amun/Amunet, Aten/Atenet, Atum/Atumet, Heh/Hauhet, Kek/Kauket, Nun/Naunet, Ra/Rait, and Sobek/Sobeket. At least two other creators, Neith and Ptah, are bigendered in the sense that they encompass masculine and feminine genders and are referred to as “mother of the fathers and father of the mothers.” There are also syzygies who aren’t creators: Anubis/Anput, Bes/Beset and Horus/Horit; and less frequently encountered syzygies like Bast/Basti-tjai “male Bast,” Seshat/Sesha (where Sesha may be the god usually named Thoth), and Shai/Shait.

Anput, translated “female Anubis,” is often defined as Anubis’s daughter but can also be Anubis as a goddess. Some devotees describe Anput, who is also named Qebehut, as “trans Anubis,” and invoke her for issues related to the trans community.

Antinous, the human lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, was deified after drowning in the Nile. Today, Antinous is called “the gay god” by groups who worship him as a deity and/or the apotheosis of gay men, after he was introduced into modern homosexual subculture as a gay icon by Oscar Wilde and others.

Hapy, the deified Nile, is depicted as an intersex being. Heh/Hauhet also can appear as a single intersex being instead of a syzygy (and in some periods, Heh and Hapy are syncretized).

Horus and Set are described in some myths as having a sexual relationship; in others, this is defined as rape (which is not sexuality, but violence). However, even if we set aside those myths, Set is described as bisexual or pansexual, with multiple partners having multiple genders.

Every Netjer is accepting of anyone who approaches them; it’s never required for any LGBTQIA+ person to worship only deities that match their identities. But it is comforting to know that the alphabet is observed in a divine family and not just the human family. It’s also refreshing to encounter a pantheon that does not pass judgment on gender or sexual identity and demonstrates that acceptance by encompassing all the diversity of creation in its own ranks.

Our thanks to Tamara for her guest post! For more from Tamara L. Siuda, PhD, read her article “There’s An Ancient Egyptian Deity for That!.”

Vote now for your favorite Llewellyn titles for 2024 COVR Awards!

Your Guide to Self-Discovery , by Georgina Cannon et al (Anthologies) Wildflower Folk Coloring Book , by Christine Karron (Coloring Books) Tea Magic , by Jenay Marontate (Divination Books) Ancestral Whispers , by Ben Stimpson (Folk Magic Books) Conjuring the Calabash , by Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani (Folk Magic Books) Llewellyn’s Complete Book of North American Folk Magic , by Cory Thomas Hutcheson (Folk Magic Books) Change Your Mind , by RJ Spina (Health & Wellness Books) Chakras & the Vagus Nerve , by CJ Llewelyn (Health & Wellness Books) The Outer Temple of Witchcraft , by Christopher Penczak (Iconic Books) Inner Child Journal , by Teresa Salerno & Christine Karron (Journals) Talking to Spirits , by Sterling Moon (Paranormal Books) The Book of Druidry , by Kristoffer Hughes (Shamanism & Paganism) Relighting the Cauldron , by Rev. Wendy van Allen (Shamanism & Paganism) Tarot in Love , by Elliot Adam (Tarot Books) The Living Tarot , by T. Susan Chang (Tarot Books) Path of the Moonlit Hedge , by Nathan M. Hall (Witchcraft & Magick Books) Tea Magic , by Jenay Marontate (Witchcraft & Magick Books) The Witch Belongs to the World , by Fio Gede Parma (Witchcraft & Magick) Dream Witchery , by Elhoim Leafar (World Spirituality) The Goddess Discovered , by Shelley A. Kaehr, PhD (World Spirituality) Astrology Oracle , by Jennifer Freed and Laila Savolainen (Inspirational Card Decks) Dia de Los Muertos Oracle , by Kelly Sullivan Walden & Emily K. Grieves de Reyes Contla (Inspirational Card Decks) Medicine Heart Oracle , by Alana Fairchild and Sophie Wilkins (Oracle Cards) The Empath’s Oracle , by Raven Digitalis & Konstantin Bax (Oracle Cards) The Goddess Within Oracle , by Christabel Jessica, Cecilia G. F., Dannielle Jones (Oracle Decks) The Solitary Witch Oracle , by Lucy Cavendish & Lady Viktoria (Oracle Decks) The Yuletide Tarot , by Kristoffer Hughes and Erin O’Leary Brown (Tarot Decks) Unveiling the Golden Age , by Izzy Ivy (Tarot Decks) Tarot of the Witch’s Garden , by Sasha Graham and Natasa Ilincic (Tarot Decks) Whispers of Aloha , by Angela Hartfield and Christina De Hoff (Wisdom Card Decks)

 

Founded in 1996, the Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) is an organization formed by a unique group of businesses that deal in “Visionary Resources,” and who work with and support each other as independent retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and publishers of visionary books, music, and merchandise.

Winners are selected by a process of both judging and reader voting. Sovote away, and select your favorite titles! Finalists will be announced May 6, and winners announced during the COVR Visionary Awards Event in June.