Book of Witchery (7 page)

The Chariot

The Chariot is a wonderful card to work with when personal goals of any kind are the concern. This card often portrays a chariot driver who controls the direction of his path without the use of reins; in other words, he is guiding his course by the strength of his willpower alone. The Chariot card often appears in a tarot reading when a challenge of some kind must be faced. It is a powerful symbol of strength and determination. This card symbolizes a person who will succeed no matter what obstacles they face or how many unexpected curves they may encounter on life's road. Try adding this card to healthy weight loss spells. It will help you stay motivated and to keep on working toward your fitness goals.

An Evaluation/Promotion Tarot Spell

Got an evaluation coming up at work? There is nothing worse than having to go over a review form. You know you deserve a good raise, but how much will your manager or the company be willing to dole out? Or are you trying for a promotion? Sounds like it's time to hedge your bets, so to speak. Try your hand at this tarot spell.

Gather the following:

• A carnelian tumbled stone for success and to boost your career
  or a quartz crystal point for extra power
  
• 1 yellow or gold candle (white will do in a pinch—it's an all-purpose color)
  
• Our three featured tarot cards: the Ace of Wands, the Sun, and the Chariot
  
• An item in sympathy with the spell that you are casting
  

You can also add the health, wealth, and success philter to this spell if you wish. Just anoint the spell candle with the solar-powered oil you have created.

What exactly is an item of sympathy? It is any item that is sympathetic to what you are working for. Since this is a job-related spell, an item in sympathy could be your recent paycheck stub, ID badge, or your business card. So, with that thought in mind, adding this sympathetic item to your other correspondences only helps to unify the magick. It does this by uniting the energies and giving you something very specific to focus on.

Arrange your items in front of the candle. If you wish, anoint the spell candle with the philter. Now, light the spell candle and focus on the cards and your item of sympathy, and then repeat the spell below three times. Check out the last line of the spell and adjust this as necessary.

Just like the golden child who rides under the sun
I call for recognition of a job well done

This spell candle illuminates my way

Bringing success and wealth to all my days
Goddess, bless my ambitions, they are fair and true
While this higher career goal/promotion I do now pursue.

Close the spell by saying:

For the good of all, with harm to none

By the sun and stars, this spell is done.

Let the candle burn until it goes out on its own. Keep the carnelian in your pocket or purse, and the cards and your item of sympathy together and on your person for one week, until the following Sunday.

Daily Witch Craft

solar pocket talisman

Here is a Witch craft that ensures that you carry a pocket full of sunshine at all times. Use this talisman to remind yourself that the sun's power and energy is always with you. This will encourage your outlook on life to be sunny, and it can help keep any of your solar-themed spells going strong and yourself magickally motivated.

• Yellow- or orange-colored oven-bake clay such as Sculpey or Fimo
  
• A pinch of ground cinnamon
  
• A nail to inscribe the clay with
  
• A baking sheet
  
• Your oven
  

To begin, knead the orange or yellow clay to make it more flexible. As you do, add a pinch of the cinnamon (a solar herb) to the clay, and work it into the material. Next, flatten and shape out a small circle. Go for the size of a large coin-sized disc, about ¼ of an inch or 6 mm thick. Now take the nail and gently inscribe a sun on one side of the talisman. Flip over to the back and inscribe the names of Helios and Sunna on the other side.

You can make this talisman depiction of the sun as simple or as elaborate as your artistic ability allows. Place the disc on the baking sheet, and bake the clay following the manufacturer's directions—typically at 130 degrees; the length of time is approximately fifteen minutes, though it depends on how big your disc is. This is an estimate only, so read the directions on the oven-bake clay for further guidance.

When the talisman is done baking, allow it to cool. Then consecrate the talisman, and you'll be ready to go! Here is a charm that will bless your new solar talisman. You can certainly add a solar-colored spell candle or crystals to this spell if you wish. Take a look at the at-a-glance correspondences at the beginning of the chapter and see what you would like to add to the spell to make it more personal. Once the talisman is finished, hold it up to the sunlight and repeat the consecration charm:

In Helios and Sunna's name, this talisman I do bless

This pocket magick brings to me wealth, happiness, and success

I invoke the powers of the sun into this spell of mine

With harm to no one, this charm is done and sealed up with a rhyme.

Now clean up your craft supplies, tuck that talisman into your pocket, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Custom-Made Daily Magick

a recipe for success

Here is where you take everything that you have learned in this chapter and tie all of the Sunday correspondences together. If you are still confused, think of the daily correspondences this way: choosing complementary correspondences is not unlike selecting the ingredients for a batch of homemade chocolate-chip cookies. If you add a little chopped nuts to the cookie batter or an extra splash of vanilla, you get a more deluxe version of an otherwise basic cookie.
Now, if you were to throw something like carrots into the recipe for chocolate-chip cookie dough, that wouldn't even complement the other ingredients, would it? Nope. It would just be uncomplementary, weird, and make for a very unappetizing final product.

The reason for this cookie-spell analogy? Well, spells and charms are not unlike recipes. With a spell, you gather your ingredients, mix them together, and work the complementary ingredients for the desired outcome. So, learning how to correctly work with daily magickal correspondences is a clever way to jazz up an otherwise basic, or elementary, spell.

With that thought in mind, here are a few more Sunday spells for you to consider.

Sunday Sunrise Spell for Illumination

Here is a spell that invokes the aid of the triple goddess Brigid. This spell is meant to warm you up from the inside out. This will cause you to have a magickal sparkle and for your lovely personality to shine right through. If you don't feel particularly lovely at the moment, then maybe it's time for a change. This should help you to improve your outlook and cheer you up. Brigid is probably one of the more popular goddesses that modern Witches work with. I think it is because she is so welcoming, strong, and feminine, all at once.

For this spell, try working outside at sunrise. You can also beef this up by adding some natural correspondences, such as stones or flowers, to the spoken verse to help tie the energy together. You could include tiger's-eye, amber, and carnelian. Set these stones around your candles. Slip a few stems of a sun-associated flower into a vase. Try draping the workspace with a gold-colored cloth—celestial fabrics that feature bright yellow suns would be a smart choice. Or just set up in view of a sunny window and let the sunshine illuminate the workspace naturally.

Repeat the spell below three times:

Sunday starts off the week with its bright golden glow
This day brings fame, wealth, and causes friendships to grow
Light a gold and yellow candle to ensure success
I call on the goddess Brigid, my spell she will bless
Her light glows inside me, from within my soul will shine

Leadership, health, and growth will all appear in good time.

Close the spell by saying:

With all the power of three times three

As I will it, then so shall it be.

You can work this spell whenever you feel the need for a little extra personal power. As before, you may keep the stones in your pocket for a few days, or tuck the flowers from the spell into your hair or pin them onto your jacket like a tiny corsage. This will ensure that you carry a bit of Brigid's magick throughout your day.

Ritual for Sunday

fitness and health spell

There is more to life than just climbing the ladder of success. How about personal goals, like going on a diet or beginning an exercise program or promising to live a healthier lifestyle? How about promising to exercise on a regular basis? If you want to lose weight, then eat healthier: add more veggies and fruits, drink lots of water, and avoid sweets. Also, take a walk.

Sidewalks are free, baby! Lace up your tennis shoes and hit the pavement. You don't need to join a gym to start losing weight. I should know. I have lost over sixty pounds in the past fifteen months on my own—no crazy diets, no food programs, no gym membership. So, how did I do it? I started out by walking for a half-hour every single day. And I'll be honest: at first I thought I was going to die. Just a stroll around the neighborhood at first made my feet and knees ache so badly. But I refused to give up; I was in it for the long haul. After all, I didn't get to a size 22 overnight; I knew I wouldn't get back to a size 14 overnight, either.

Yes, I had bad days . . . at first, all those skinny little chicks in my neighborhood bouncing along at the local high-school track in their fancy, matching, expensive workout outfits were very discouraging. There I was, trucking along in old, faded shorts and various huge Pagan festival T-shirts, sweating and trying to breathe, while they jogged around the track, making it look effortless. There were days I would plot hideous demises for them as they easily bopped by me. And I kept myself going by laughing at myself—and of course at my various fantasies of catching up with them and then breaking them in half with one arm (I think exercise makes me a bit bloodthirsty). However, it did help me to stay motivated and to keep walking.

Eventually I began to walk for longer distances, then I started doing hikes along the river with my husband. I took belly-dancing classes, broke out my sons' old weight set and started lifting weights in my office at home, and eventually I even started to jog, which surprised the hell out of me.

It started with me challenging myself by asking myself if I could jog one lap and not pass out. Yes, I could. Then after a while, I wondered, could I jog two laps? And on it went, slowly over about six months, until today, believe it or not, I can actually jog a mile. How's that for magick? Honestly—as a kid, I could not run the 200-yard dash. So if I could start jogging when I turned forty-five, I know that you can handle walking.

Did you know that for every pound that you lose, it takes four pounds of pressure off your knees? Yes, that's very true. Losing weight—and keeping it off—also lowers your risks for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. This is your body and your future we are talking about. Why shouldn't you be as happy and as healthy as possible? I'm sick of hearing about how Pagans are typically “big” people. Baloney. I think that's just wrong. Now, just so we are clear, I'm not talking about getting down to a size double 0. No, indeed; I'm talking about losing some pounds, becoming more active, and getting in shape for health reasons. Set a realistic weight-loss goal, and go for it. My goal was to get back to a size 14, not a size 4. It's a healthy weight-loss goal for me, and I am so glad I stuck with it.

Becoming more fit—making your heart stronger and your body healthier—is a magickal goal that falls under the associations of the sun. So if you want to try it for yourself, get out there and just do it!

Sunday Fitness Ritual

• 1 plain, white seven-day jar candle
  
• Essential orange oil
  
• A small, thin screwdriver
  
• An item of sympathy
  
• An orange
  
• A knife to cut the orange into sections
  
• A small plate or saucer
  
• The Chariot tarot card