Have Your Animal Totems Been Going Nuts?

Is it just me or have the animal spirits really been going out of their way to reach us with their messages? I've always had a lot of contact with animal totems, especially the ones close to me, like Raven and Eagle, but it seems to me that these days they are really going nuts!

For instance, the other day I was out gathering wood and a brilliantly-colored Red Fox strolled right by the woodpile. He stopped, turned and looked at me for a minute, before casually strolling off. A few days later I watched in fascination as a Bald Eagle played with a Raven. These are not typical playmates.

Finally, this morning, a tiny, tiny spider crawled repeatedly all over my computer as I tried to write. At first, I put up with her meanderings, then I tried to gently remove from my computer and put her elsewhere on my desk. She kept coming back until I stopped to ponder her message.

Spider carries many messages, but her message for me had to do with creativity, as Spider represents the energy of creative force. Her message was for me to be creative in finding alternatives to a current impasse in my life ... and to never forget that I can ALWAYS start a new phase in my life, much as Spider weaves a new web frequently.

It All Makes Sense
This went along with the daily quote I received in my inbox from Abraham, one of my favorite spiritual teachers:

"In your action, you lose sight of the vision, you lose sight of your trust in the process, and you just bang around in your sense of futility ... Hold the vision and trust the process."

Suddenly, everything fit together! I realized that instead of being resourceful and creative like the Spider, I was spending a lot of time "banging around," as it were. I was making a lot of noise but not getting very far. I needed to be cunning like the Fox, and use magic like the Raven. And Eagle? Eagle was reminding me to take heart and be courageous in the face of spiritual tests. Wow, what a message from all of these animal totems.

What Are Your Animal Totems Saying To You?
Have you been seeing a lot of animal totems turning up in strange places in your life? If you live in a city, you may seem some quite odd creatures showing up in the cityscape. If an animal totem who normally does not roam the city streets takes the trouble to travel all the way into the city to send you a message, it is best to take heed. If you don't know what the message may be, you can:

1. Meditate on the message yourself
2. Consult a book, like "Animal Speak"
3. Check out the meaning of various animal totems online
4. Ask the Universe for more clarification (with the Navajo Beauty Way perhaps)
5. Learn to communicate directly with animals and totems with our Animal Communication Ebook.

Hope these resources give you a "leg up" when the animal totems start showing up everywhere. Magic is speeding up all around the globe and we need to be more aware, more conscious than ever. To that end, animal totems, angels, guides, and other spiritual beings are upping the ante on their messages to us. So listen up ... or be prepared for that universal two-by-four to come swinging at you, repeatedly!

But most of all, enjoy and be appreciative of those spirit guides. They love us, support us, and help us as much as we allow them to. Feel lucky, even if you do get hit by a spiritual two-by-four because a lot of people are not able to make use of this kind of guidance, and suffer all the more because of it.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8272102@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

How to Cast Stronger Magic Spells Voodoo Style

Voodoo magic often uses simulacra magic, or the magic of using objects with a "likeness" to something in the outer world, to create an effect in the outer world.

For instance, one magical practitioner took revenge on another by "keying" a figurine to that person, and then shipping the figurine around the world on a slow ship. Needless to say, the victim of the voodoo magic spell was nauseous and dizzy for about a month (the length of the voyage). This is an example of an effective voodoo style magic spell.

How to Cast Stronger Voodoo Spells
In the case of simulacra magic, as in the use of voodoo dolls, many magical practitioners fail achieve strong results. Then they think that voodoo magic doesn't work. Not so. However, there are reasons that simulacra magic does not work as well as it should. Normally, there are three reasons that simulacra magic doesn't produce as strong a result as it should.

1. The Voodoo Object Is Not Similar Enough to the Real Thing
As the name implies, simulacra magic means that the object used in the spell should be as "similar" as possible to the object of the spell. If, for instance, you are going to use a simulacrum in a map spell, to move a naughty neighbor out of your area, then your best bet is to choose a "voodoo doll" that is as similar to your neighbor in looks and personality as possible. If your neighbor is tall, gaunt, and hunched, then look for a figurine that is tall, gaunt, and hunched over. A short fat figurine won't work, nor will a ballerina figurine. It always amazes me how many people pick any old figurine to use for a voodoo spell. If you want to cast stronger voodoo spells, be very specific about the object used as the simulacrum.

2. The Material of the Voodoo Doll or Object Won't Hold a Key
"Keying" is the magical process by which you connect the object of a simulacra spell to the object it represents in the real world. For instance, in the case of the map spell, keying is the process by which you connect the figurine to your naughty neighbor. Assuming that you have chosen a figurine that closely matches your neighbor in looks and personality, you next must be sure that the figurine is made of a material that will hold the "key," or connection to the real world person.

Materials such as wood, metal, glass, and ceramic work well. Plastic, rubber, and modern composites tend not to hold a key. If you want to cast stronger voodoo spells, make sure your voodoo doll or object is made of the right materials. For most simple voodoo magic spells, you can key a figurine just by holding it in your dominant hand and flowing energy into the object as you think about the person. Once the object feels warm and tingly, it is keyed. Just be careful: once keyed, whatever you do to the object you do to the person and you are karmically responsible! Read about Rules of the Road on our website for more information about the universal laws that govern magical practice.

3. The Voodoo Doll or Object Was Not Cleansed
Cleansing a simulacrum is very important prior to use in spellwork, especially if the object is not new. Objects pick up vibrations and energy when they are handled, so you want to cleanse these from the object before using it in your spell. A basic four-element cleansing with a firebowl and chalice usually does the trick (learn how to do basic cleansing with out Firebowl and Chalice ebooks). Once an object is cleansed, it's ready for use in spellwork, and you avoid any "side bands" that might have been generated from previous handling of the object.

Simulacra or voodoo magic is a powerful form of magic. If you are not getting the intended results from your voodoo magic spells, check these three points to see if your spell is leaking energy. If so, as demonstrated in the three points above, remedying the situation isn't difficult. As Reverend George Dew of the Church of Seven Arrows always used to say:

"Take your time, think it through, and do it right!"

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magickshop/ / CC BY 2.0

Magical Flower Essences for Fear, Despair, and Uncertainty

Fear, despair, and uncertainty ... that certainly captures the nature of the times for many people. And into the breach comes ... flower essences! Flower essences are true magic, as well as wonderful gifts from the Earth.

Dating back to ancient Lemurian times, flower essences are vibrational wonders that can uplift the spirit, heal the body, and bring hope to a weary soul! If you feel fearful, uncertain, or depressed, here are some wonderful flower essences that can really help. They really are magical in the effects they can create.

Flower Essences for Relieving Fear
- Rock Rose-for dauntless courage. Gift: courage, strength of character.
- Chamomile-nervousness, anxiety. Gift: calming, relaxing.
- Mimulus-long time fears, extremes, dominated. Gift: fearless, confident.
- Cherry Plum-loss of control, vicious, to remain in control. Gift: calm, quiet, in control.
- Aspen-spooky, impending harm. Gift: connected, fearless.
- Red Chestnut-worry. Gift: positive, calm.

Flower Essences for Alleviating Despair or Depression
- Crab Apple-cleansing toxins, physical and emotional. Gift: cleansing toxins, emotional/ physical.
- Willow-resentment. Gift: optimistic, responsible, acceptance.
- Sweet Chestnut-despairing, burned out. Gift: faith, trust.
- Pine-rejection, abuse, guilt, never succeeding. Gift: responsible, humble.
- Oak-chronic exhaustion, overworked but keeps struggling. Gift: strong, dependable.
- Star of Bethlehem-any kind of trauma or loss of a loved one, gives comfort. Gift: comforts all traumas.

Flower Essences for Easing Uncertainty
- Scleranthus-neurological confusion. Gift: balanced.
- Cerato-mentally flighty, difficulty focusing. Gift: certain, strong.
- Gorse-hopelessness, giving up. Gift: faith, hope, positive.
- Wild Oat-bored, feeling un-useful. Gift: talents, feeling useful, definite character.
- Gentian-set backs, disappointment. Gift: restores hope, long illness rehabilitation.
- Hornbeam-weariness. Gift: certain, lots of energy.

How to Take Flower Essences
You can take single flower essences or you can mix them together. The effects are powerful either way. To make your own formula, mix spring water with alcohol (like brandy) in an ounce dropper bottle, then add 4 drops of each chosen flower essence, which you can purchase in most health food stores.

You can either take the mixture from the dropper bottle 3 to 4 times a day, or, for longer effects, add 4 drops of the mixture to a bottle of spring water and sip the water all day long. Adding flower essences to bathwater is also effective, not to mention pleasant.

The length of time you take flower essences is a very individual decision. You can take them for as long as they provide relief, or until you feel a shift inside yourself. At that point, you may wish to stop taking the essence, and take some time to integrate those changes. Alternatively, you can switch to a new flower essence formula if you feel that a change is called for.

To learn more about flower remedies, how to use them, and how to make them, check out the ebook "Energy Healing for Self and Others" in our online store. The ebook details not only flower essences, but a number of magical and natural healing techniques including the use of herbs, aromatherapy, meditations with sound, and the use of color. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo credit: Free Digital Photos

Why Bad Magic Happens to Good People

People who are new to the art and science of practicing magic are often surprised when they start doing magic rituals and discover that their lives get worse, not better, at least temporarily.

Tires go flat on their car, they get into fights with their spouse, or an unexpectedly large expense pops up. Then they wonder, "I'm a good person. Is this a warning from the universe that I shouldn't practice magic?"

Nope, it's not. I've seen it happen over and over again, and I have a name for it: the inconvenience factor.

Magic and the Inconvenience Factor
Anyone who starts practicing magic will undoubtedly run into the inconvenience factor ... it's a universal law. In fact, it's the universe's way of protecting esoteric material, and of testing whether someone's desire to learn this material is truly genuine or just a momentary wish in passing.

Whenever we start a new Basic Magic course or in-depth teleconference course, we warn students that the inconvenience factor is bound to occur. This factor tends to keep students from being able to attend class on a regular basis, at least at first. When the class is a teleconference course, the inconvenience factor turns up in a number of ways. One student may try to call into the teleconference only to get an "all circuits busy" signal. Another student may plan on using his cell phone only to find that the battery has suddenly died. A third student may have printed out his homework materials in readiness for class, and then discover that he can't find them anywhere.

Serious students, having been warned about the inconvenience factor, simply strive until they overcome the "all circuits busy signal" or dead cell phone battery. They may show up in class flustered and aggravated, but they do show up through sheer perseverance. This is the kind of effort the universe seeks to divide those who truly want to learn magic from those who just want to win the lottery tomorrow.

True desire is what separates a person capable of becoming a powerful magician from a dilettante. True desire is also what allows a person access to magical materials. The dilettantes always fall by the wayside, sidetracked by inconvenient life events, long before we get to the "really good stuff" in class.

Is the Inconvenience Factor a Form of Religious Warning or Vengenace?
This is a question that arises from time to time from students who have been raised with a strongly religious background that discourages the practice of magic. When these students are confronted by minor fender-benders or other inconvenient life events, they wonder whether these events are warnings from a jealous god to stay away from magical practice. That is, of course, one interpretation, and those who feel this interpretation to be true should stay away from magical practice.

However, we have worked with hundreds of students with this type of background who have successfully made it past the inconvenience factor with no further consequences. Life is as you believe it to be, and thus if you believe in a jealous god who discourages magical practice, the events of your life will bear out this belief. On the other hand, if you believe the universe is big enough to accommodate both magic and religion, then you will find that you can practice magic in harmony with the practice of your religion.

The Rules of the Road: Rules of Magical Practice
Magic, like all arts and sciences, has its own set of rules. We follow the Rules of the Road, as put forth by Reverend George Dew of the Church of Seven Arrows. We find, by our experience and observation, that these rules are true, immutable, and quite freeing. Check them out here and see if you agree:

Click here for Rules of the Road.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scimanal/ / CC BY 2.0

Are the End Times Coming? I Have No Survival Gear!

As we approach 2012 people are getting increasingly nervous about the so-called "end times," with many people saying that the current economic downturn is simply a pre-cursor to "the end of it all" (whatever that means!).

Are the end times coming in the catastrophic ways predicted by Nostradamus and other predictors? Will California fall into the ocean? Will our population be decimated by a deadly virus? Will the poles change position, bringing on all kinds of natural disasters?

I hope not. I forgot to pack a survival kit!

What's Really Going to Happen in 2012?
First of all, whether 2012 is even the correct date for a major world-shifting event is up for question, depending on who does the prediction. The Mayan calendar, the calculations of the Hopi legends, and Nostradamus don't all agree on the date. But suffice to say that we are moving from the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age ... and some things will definitely change in the world.

So then the question becomes, "What is going to happen during this change and how do we prepare?"

Based on my conversations with Grandmother, the spirit of Earth, who is also known by many other names, and my own observations, I'm pretty sure that I won't need a survival pack of the physical kind. Granola bars, meal packs, and water are not going to be my main concerns.

Grandmother has made it perfectly clear that during this world change, unlike any other, physical changes will be at a minimum, and mass extinctions will not take place. The poles will not trade places. In other words, the planet itself is not going to "take the hit."

Who is Going to "Take the Hit" During This World Change?
Good question. I wondered that myself, so I asked Grandmother. Her reply? "You." How comforting! She wasn't talking about me specifically, but the beings (spirits) that inhabit the earth. In other words, instead of transformation taking place in the physical world, the changes are going to take place within us. We are going to take the hit - personally, so to speak.

California probably won't fall into the ocean, but our hearts may sink into our stomachs quite a lot during the next few years. The economic changes occurring already have a lot of people feeling anxious ... and that's just the beginning. The way I understand it based on my conversation with Grandmother, in the coming days we will each be faced with situations that make us feel uncomfortable, angry, frustrated, sad, or otherwise negative.

In other words, events will occur, with nauseating regularity and increasing frequency, which will offer us the chance to feel negative about the way things are, or choose a different route toward a more positive outcome. The events will range in size and effect from small and annoying to "OMG, I can't handle this!"

An Example You Can Relate To
Here's a perfect recent example: my accountant rang me up on the eve of taxes being due and told me I owed the government more than was in my bank account. I got mad, frustrated, and upset, since this came on the heels of a number of similar events.

Then I got smart. I whipped out my tax notebook and compared it to the return my accountant had prepared. I found a series of major errors. Wow. The end result? I owed nothing in taxes ... and had in fact overpaid when I sent money with my extension. Things worked out great.

So what could have been a disastrous event ended up being quite positive, but only when I shifted my attention away from reaction and into actions that restored my personal power.

The Real Sacrifice of the End Times
The short conclusion to this long-winded tale is this:

In the coming world change we won't be sacrificing the planet. To survive, we will have to sacrifice the useless parts of our personality, like pride, envy, vengeance, anger, and fear.

It sounds easy in theory, but it is way harder when the Universe keeps throwing monkey wrenches in your plans. It will sometimes seem like you can't do the simplest task without running into a bunch of complications. Don't get mad. And no, you're not crazy. You are just a vital part of the world transformation as we move into the Aquarian Age.

Do the best you can with what you have, stay as positive as possible ...and the Universe really will reward you for being a positive force in the coming world transformation. One way I like to stay connected is to do the Navajo Beauty Way ritual. It keeps me smiling, sane, and sweet. Give it a try.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgangstaudt/ / CC BY 2.0