Is a Black Cat Really Bad Luck?

Whether a black cat is bad luck or not depends on each individual's experience, beliefs and superstitions he or she subscribes to. Superstitions only have as much force as you give them plus as much force as other people have given them over the years. The less you believe, the less force that superstition has on the planet. The force of something like a superstition can actually be weighed and measured, like any kind of knowledge. Up to you whether you choose to add or subtract from it. Daily rituals can help you add or subtract that kind of force in your life.

How Daily Rituals Work in Your Life
Doing daily rituals creates a doorway that allows your desires to manifest in your life with the help of the Universe. Engaging in daily rituals also creates a channel for us to connect with the higher in our lives which includes our own inner guidance, totem spirits, angels and other powers and beings. Most people are so busy during the day that they have a hard time hearing the quiet voices of higher guidance. Our guides speak to us all the time and are willing and eager to help us manifest what we want in life. We just don't hear them over all the noise of things like cell phones, TV, gossip, and traffic. This is where doing daily rituals comes in. It helps us set aside sacred time to connect with the higher and listen to what our guides are saying. Having these forces at work in our lives allows us to pull away from mechanical reactions and old beliefs put on us by others so we can follow our own paths and find what is true for us.

In doing daily rituals, consistency is a key element. By doing a ritual consistently at the same time every time you increase the level and quality of the connection with the higher. There are rituals that you only need to do when the need arises such as those for pain relief or when you need to manifest a certain thing in your life. Then there are other rituals that you want to do every day. These are the ones that will establish connection and relationships with the Universe and higher powers and beings and your own inner guidance. With these type of daily rituals another key element is to keep them simple. If the ritual is too complex the chances of it getting done around our busy schedules lessens.

If you already have a daily ritual practice then we'd love to hear what you do. Leave your story in the comments. If you don't, then check out our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook. With this ebook you will receive directions on a variety of rituals such as for pain relief, contact rituals, getting information you need and lots more. It will also help you learn the key ingredients to creating daily rituals yourself.

So is a black cat bad luck? That's up to you to decide. With the help of daily rituals you can hear your own inner guidance and block out the old beliefs others have fed you and find the truth for yourself. Start a magical connection with the higher and give all those poor black cats given a bad rap a break by breaking through the forces that produce superstitions.

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Magical Inspiration, Fun, and Knowledge All in One Place!

Looking for a little magical inspiration for your latest spell? Need a little magical help from the community? Want to ask a question about a specific magical technique? The Esoteric School is the one to ask, and our Facebook page is the place to go. Here we offer fun, magical expertise, sharing, caring, and much more. Visit, post, ask, share, and have a magically rollicking time! You are definitely invited!

If you haven't joined in on our magical Facebook community lately here's some of what you've missed.

Moving Energy for Pain Relief
Sometimes physical pain and discomfort is the result of stuck or stagnant energy in the body. Our energy can get stuck because of a sedentary lifestyle, old injuries, stress, resentments...the list goes on. In short, we can have stuck energy as a result of everyday events and situations, which results in physical pain. The real question is, what can we do about it?

One of the best and easiest ways to clear energy blockages and get your energy moving freely again is to do this simple healing magic ritual taught in many metaphysical traditions. Here's how:

1. Get in a comfortable position and close your eyes.

2. Relax and breathe for a few moments.

3. Begin by noticing feelings or sensations in your left hand. Some people experience a feeling of warmth or tingling. The sensation may be different for you. It doesn't matter so long as you are aware of sensation in your left hand.

4. Gently move that sensation up your left arm, across your back, down your right arm, and onto your right hand.

5. Now reverse the movement and move the sensation along the same path from your right hand back to your left hand.

6. Now put the sensation on your left foot, and move it up your left leg, across your waist, down your right leg and onto your right foot.

7. Now reverse the movement and move the sensation along the same path from your right leg back to your left leg.

8. Finally, put the sensation at the base of your spine and move that sensation slowly up your spine to the top of your head.

9. Keeping that sensation there, say aloud, "I am."

10. Release your attention from the sensation at the top of your head. Relax and breathe deeply for a few minutes. Open your eyes.

Question Circle Ritual
One of the rituals you'll discover in our Daily Rituals to Attract What You Want in Life ebook is the Question Circle. This ritual helps you address the beings of the four directions for help and guidance. You receive different types of information from the various directions. This is because the beings in the different directions all specialize in certain areas. For example, the East will give you information about communication, planning and ideas. South will give you guidance on steps of action to take, willpower energy and desire. From the West you will get feelings and spirit guidance and the North will give you more practical steps to take.

To do this ritual you will need to gather a Sun Yellow Candle that can easily be carried from place to place, wooden or paper matches to light the candle, a pen, and notebook or paper. After you gather your materials, here's how to do the Question Circle ritual:

1. Locate the directions north, south, east and west. Use a compass if you need to in order to assure you have the directions correct.

2. Create a circle of space about 5-10 feet in diameter.

3. Sit in the South side of your circle facing to the North with your Sun candle in front of you.

4. Light your candle with the wooden or paper matches, hold your hands above and around the flame of the candle and charge the candle by saying:

"Child of wonder, child of flame, nourish my spirit and protect my aim."

5. Now take your candle, pen and paper with you and go sit in the center of your circle facing to the East.

6. Write down your question which for example might be "what blind spots do I have in regards to finances" or "what is blocking the flow of money from coming to me" or "what's the best way to get a job".

7. Take the next 3-5 minutes to let the question just sit in your mind. Don't try to answer it, just sit with it.

8. Next, take your sun candle, paper and pencil with you and move to the East perimeter of your circle. Set your candle down in front of you and ask the question you wrote down out loud to the East. Be prepared for a flurry of information to come at you usually faster than you can write it all down.

9. Start writing everything you get until no more information is coming. Thank the direction of the East and move in a clockwise direction to the next direction which would be the South.

10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 in each direction, moving clockwise to each direction when finished with the previous one. In other words you will start with East as we have outlined, then proceed to repeat the process with South, then West, then North.

11. After you finish the process with North, go back and sit in the center of the circle facing the East and send thanks out all the way around the circle and blow out your candle.

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Sudden Health Crisis? Need a Magic Wand Tool?

We are being a little tongue in cheek, but magic can help with both--magic can help with a healing crisis and we can also teach you how to create a magic wand tool to use for healing.

How Magic Works 
Real magic isn't quite like you see in most of the fantasy shows on TV and in the movies, although you can accomplish many of things portrayed there. It usually just isn't done exactly the way the fictional characters do it. The first thing to know about how real magic works is that it follows the operating laws of the Universe. These laws govern everything and they exist whether you know them or not and whether you believe in them or not. The second thing is that everything in the Universe is made up of some combination of the four elements air, fire, water and earth. If you want to create anything in this Universe, you have to know the right mix of elemental ingredients. You have to know how much air, fire, water and earth need to be mixed into your creation and in what order they need to be mixed. On a more practical level that translates into what kind of thoughts (air), actions (fire), emotions (water) and resources (earth) need to go into your creation. The four elements are at the basis of magic which is why we start our beginning students off with an in-depth study of them.

Healing With Magic 
Magic gives you a shortcut to what you want. For example, if you are angry a lot of the time and you want to change this, you could spend months or years in therapy and that could work. But with magic you would understand that anger is the element Fire in a red-orange color. You would also know that decreasing the fire element in your energetic makeup to balance your red-orange energy on a regular basis will help you not be angry all the time and in a much shorter time-frame. Same thing is true with a physical illness. There are many different magical techniques that work for healing. You will find a wide variety of these in our Energy Healing for Self and Others ebook. Healing with energy allows you to bring energy states which have become disharmonious back into natural balance. Sometimes this is done with magical tools like the magic wand tool and sometimes with the energetic vibrations of various types of plants. There are also techniques done with bare hands, through spellwork, sound, color, using simulacra and many more.

Magic Wand Tool
Why do we put "magic wand tool" in the title? Because a magic wand is a tool and just one of the things it can be used for is magical healing. Specifically, it is the tool that flows the element Air. A proper air magic wand is made of wood. It should be made from an Air-oriented wood so that it is able to handle Air energies. Light-weight and light-colored wood such as white pine, birch, peeled willow, or aspen are examples of good Air-oriented woods. Balsa wood on the other hand is light in weight, but is too soft to use for a wand. The wood needs to be hard enough to last and to handle the energies that will flow through it. Do not use glass, which has too much Water energy, or crystals which are an infinite-spectrum material making them hard to control, for making your wand.

The wood you will need for your wand is a limb that is about ¼ to 3/8 inch diameter from a live tree or recently fallen from a live tree. Don't forget to ask the tree for permission before taking its limb and do not use dowels or other types of processed wood sticks. When searching for the perfect limb, get one that is no thicker than your thumb and no smaller than your pinky. It also needs to be long enough to reach from about the bend in your elbow to the base of your middle finger and no longer than to the tip of your middle finger. The limb should be fairly straight without a lot of bends, curves or notches in it. Searching for the perfect limb can be a magical experience in itself. As you walk through a wooded area of trees take the time to be with nature and listen for a limb that 'calls' to you.

Making Your Own Wand 
After you find the perfect limb to make your own wand, you need to make the surface of it smooth. Peel off the bark and if needed, do some light sanding with a fine sandpaper to make it smooth with a satiny finish. Before doing the sanding, notice which end is the growing end of the limb and which end was nearest to the tree trunk. This is important because the growing end will be the tip of your wand and the end closest to the tree trunk will be the base of your wand. Using a knife, carve a notch in the base end of the wand and whittle a rounded off pointed tip at the tip end. Make sure the notch you carve in the base is open and large enough to allow Air energies to be easily drawn in. The notch will look like a V-shape in the end of the wand. The point should be a point, but rounded off so that it is not very sharp. If you have followed these directions, then you now have your own magic wand tool.

The Wand, as with other magical tools, is basically an extension of the magic practitioner's own energies. It allows us to handle more energies when doing air magic than we can with our hands alone. In other words, it extends or magnifies our "reach". This is one reason you want to make sure you "key" your wand before using it. To make it an extension of ourselves, it needs to be personalized to our own energies. Keying also aligns the molecules in our magical tools so that the energies flow only in certain directions and it clears out any junky or impure energies that may already exist in the materials of the tool. You can learn more about using the Wand in our Wand: Air Tool ebook.

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How To Live Your Hero's Life

Do you have a personal hero you really look up to? Would you like to be more like that person in your own life? You can. At the very least, you can begin to develop the abilities and attributes that you love in your hero in your own life.

When we see someone whom we'd like to emulate, what we're seeing is that person's archetype. We all wear archetypes around all the time. Most of us have separate archetypes for work, home life, family time, and play time. Archetypes are energy programs that have specific behaviors, attitudes, ways of talking, and abilities.

If you'd like to emulate your hero's archetype, the good news is that it's not that difficult. Two of the easiest ways to bring that archetype into your life are to either appear or act like that archetype.

Look at your hero and note a couple of key characteristics about his or her appearance. Is there something about you hero's hair, mode of dress, makeup, or expressions that really jumps out at you? Bring those appearance characteristics into your own life. For instance, if you're hero always wears large chunky jewelry, try that on for size. Or if your hero is often casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, try that on. Practice their facial expressions in the mirror to get the feeling of them.

You can also bring your hero's actions or choices into your life. In any given situation, ask yourself, "What would my hero do or say in this situation?" Begin to speak and act like your hero. You might have to do some research to find out more about your hero before you can answer this question thoroughly.

Once you "key in" to your hero's actions or appearance, you will also bring all of your hero's other abilities and attributes into your life. In effect, you're "wearing" your hero around in your own life. It sounds a little wacky at first, but you'll see that it can be very effective.

One last thing...make sure you have a way to get back to yourself. Use a specific word, expression, appearance or action that is unique to your everyday persona as a way to "key in" to your own everyday personality. For instance, if you use the expression "Cool beans!" a lot, you can use this as a way to return to yourself. You want to wear your hero around at chosen times, but you still want to be able to be yourself as well!

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Explore the Possibility That Magic IS Real

Are you a believer that real magic exists, do you believe there is no such thing as magic, or are you somewhere in between? Maybe you aren't sure if real magic exists, but would like to believe. If your mind is open at all to the possibility, take a look at our Is Magic Real article and try out some simple magic rituals for yourself and see what you think then. Put away your preconceived notions from what you've seen in fantasy shows and books and make up your own mind based on your own experience. Here are 3 simple magic rituals to try out that will help you get your day off to a good start or end your day with serenity and let you wind down for a peaceful night's rest. Give one or all of them a try and judge the results you get.

1. Sun Candle
Get your day off to a good start with a morning boost of energy by using the Sun Candle ritual. All you need for this simple ritual is a pure bright yellow candle and wooden or paper matches. Then:

1. Sit in the South facing North and have the candle in front of you.

2. Light the candle with your matches.

3. Once the flame of the candle is steady, hold your hands around the flame, but far enough away that you don't get burned, and focus your attention of wanting more energy on it.

4. Say the following verse in a powerful voice to "charge" the candle:
"Child of Wonder,
Child of Flame,
Nourish My Spirit,
And Protect My Aim!"

You can now sit quietly with the candle burning (observing fire safety of course) or just leave it burning in the room while you get ready to go out for the day. If you have to move to another room, take it with you. If you are especially low energy, you can hold your hands around the candle and "pull" Sun Yellow energy from the candle. Don't pull from the flame, just the candle. Sun Yellow is a fire energy color that nourishes spirit and can be energizing. After leaving the candle burning for around 30 minutes, blow the flame out. Take a few minutes to see how you feel, if there is a difference in your energy level, if you feel more harmonious or lighter.


2. Placemat Exercise
Running around in the morning trying to get everyone dressed, fed and out the door? Mornings can be hectic in many families, but take the time to do this simple ritual from Abraham-Hicks (http://www.abraham-hicks.com) and you may be surprised how the Universe can help you start your day off in a magical way instead of feeling overwhelmed. Here's how you do the Placemat Exercise.

1. Start with a clean sheet of paper.

2. Draw a line down the middle of the paper.

3. To the left of the line write "Things I Want to Be, Do or Have Today".

4. To the right of the line write "Things I Want the Universe to Bring Me Today".

5. Then start writing on the left side of the paper all the things you really want to be, do or have. This is not a to-do list for the day, so don't write things you have to do or should do or that you don't want to do. Only write down things that inspire you, that you are anticipating with joy, or that are pleasing to you.

6. After you've taken a few minutes to write on the left, switch to writing on the right side of the page. Write what you want the Universe to do for you today or to bring you. This could be things you feel you have no control over, things you don't want to do but are required to for some reason, or things you don't even want to think about. You might ask for the Universe to bring you inspiration or willingness to face and do these things, or ask the Universe to take care of those things for you or you might just ask for being joyful or peaceful for whatever situations you have to face today.

7. After you have finished the lists on both the left and the right side of the paper, take 17 seconds to focus on each item on the list with a feeling of pure positive emotion. Envision those things you want being a reality and already yours, focus on the vision of those things you weren't so wild about already completed and out of the way. Just beam with positive energy and emotion for those 17 seconds and you'll find the rest of your day will be more carefree and less stressful.

3. Night Time Blessing Ritual
This ritual can be done with a partner, a family, your pet or just by yourself. Done consistently each night it can help you unwind from the day and be able to get a good night's sleep. Here are directions for doing it with others and you can just adapt it if doing it by yourself or with a pet.

1. You will need a goblet or Chalice that has a stem, spring or well water, a color source of water blue (medium blue color, not light blue and not navy blue) and non-iodized salt.

2. Sit in the South facing the North with the Chalice in front of you.

3. Fill the Chalice half way full with the water.

4. Take some of the salt and sprinkle a bit into the water in the Chalice.

5. Look at your water blue color source and blow that color from your mouth into the Chalice.

6. Swirl the Chalice to move the water in a clockwise direction.

7. Say the following verse repeating Step 5 and 6 after each line of the verse.
 "Water and Earth where you are cast,
Let no spell nor adverse purpose last,
Not in accord with me.
Bless these people and bless their space, (if doing alone change to "Bless this person and bless my space."
Far from here send baneful trace.
Thus my will, so it be."

8. Pick up the Chalice in your left hand, turn towards the person you are blessing.

9. Dip your index finger on your right hand in the water and use that finger to draw lines of about 1 to 1 ½ inches long on the person's forehead in this manner:

• Vertical Line down center of forehead
• Horizontal line drawn left to right through center of first line
• Draw clockwise circle starting on right end of horizontal line and touching ends of all lines

10. As you draw the circle, say, "For the peace of your mind".

11. Repeat Steps 9 and 10 drawing on the chest over the heart and say, "For the joy of your heart".

12. Now have the person you are blessing take a sip of the water and you say, "And for the health of your body".

13. Now that you have done the blessing for your partner, have them repeat all these steps for you. If you have more people as in the whole family, you can pass the Chalice around a circle and have each person bless the one next to them, or have one person go around and do the blessing on everyone and then someone do it for them.

There you have it. Three simple, magical rituals that anyone can do right away with no special training. Just dive right in, try one or all three. Do them consistently for 40 days to really give this a chance and keep your mind open to new possibilities. Then sit back, observe, and see what magical things come to make a difference in your life. That will give you the experience and the data to make your own decision about how real magic is.

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