Feeling Stressed? Try a Little Bathtub Magic

This is one of my favorite magic rituals: the bathtub and shower litany. It's the perfect antidote for anyone who feels stressed, tired, frustrated, angry, or sore. Basically, it's a magical ritual that alleviates any excess Fire energy.

Excess Fire energy can take the form of bodily inflammation and soreness, emotional frustration and anger, and repetitive mental thoughts that won't stop. If you feel any of these types of symptoms, especially at the end of a long tiring day, try some bathtub magic.

Bathtub Magic to Remove Excess Fire Energy
The bathtub and shower litany is a little magic ritual that helps you get rid of excess Fire energy in the bathtub. It works because, from a magical viewpoint, water carries Fire energy. When you are in the shower, the water flowing from the shower can pull any excess Fire energy from your body, mind, and Spirit, and flow it down the drain. For this ritual to work, you combine your intention with some visualization and the magic litany.

Here's how you do the bathtub and shower litany:

Shower Instructions
Set the showerhead so the water hits you at the base of the skull and the water runs as evenly as possible over the back and front of your body. Let the shower hit the back of the neck, where we tend to develop a lot of tension (in the shoulders), and run your hands down your body to bring the fire down to your feet. The water temperature should be cool (just below body temperature). If the water is too cold it will create tension, and if the water is too hot it won't carry much fire.

As the water is running over your body and down the drain, picture your body as a glowing heating coil. Radiate any flame band energies outward in any direction. The tension will follow natural body flows. Picture these energy bands mixing with the water and flowing down the drain while simultaneously repeating the following litany aloud. Say it out loud. Keep saying it until you feel that the flame is gone. Speak the litany with authority and power.

"All the tension, all the strain,
All the pain with excess flame,
Flow with water, down the drain!"

Bathtub Instructions
Fill the tub as full as possible with cool (just below body temperature) water, but not cold water! Lie back with your feet at the drain end and as much of your body as possible under the water. Using the glowing heating coil idea, radiate the excess Fire energy into the water, warming the water next to your skin. Stir the water each time this seems successful. After 3 or 4 "stirrings", open the tub drain and continue to lay back and radiate the Fire energy as the water level drops around you. Begin using the above litany as the water drains from the tub. Continue the process until all the water is gone from the tub.

Learn more simple magic rituals like this with the Daily Rituals Ebook.

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A Daily Magic Ritual for the Times

Monday morning blues. Lack of motivation. Confusion. Depression. Anger. The "Why me?" syndrome. Fear.

These are all topics that people are emailing us about. People are experiencing these states because they have lost their jobs, are affected by health issues, or are simply "waiting for the other shoe to drop." They all want to know what kind of magical rituals and spells can help them get back to feeling happy, positive, radiant, balanced, and peaceful.

In magic, there is no "cure-all" that will fix all problems for all people, but one the simplest magical rituals that anyone can do to feel more balanced during these turbulent times is the Beauty Way.

The Beauty Way Magic Ritual
This ritual is a non-denominational set of exercises from very ancient times, which has many magical purposes, including:

• Restore personal power
• Develop a practical working relationship with higher powers and beings or natural forces and laws
• Be safe and protected without the need to build walls or hide behind masks.
• Maintain spiritual integrity for individuals or groups during times of high external change and stress.

How to Do the Beauty Way Magic Exit Ritual
One of the most common forms of the Beauty Way is called the Exit Ritual. You do the Exit Ritual every time you leave an enclosed space, like your car or your house. Here's how you do the ritual.

1. Put your focus up into the sky and say aloud, "Sky Above" or "Sky Father." (Note: the reason we extend our focus first is that the exit ritual is a form of asking favor from powers and beings, so it is appropriate that we go to them rather than asking them to come to us. In ritual, when we have carefully prepared sacred space, we can then invite them in and then bid them farewell).

2. Keeping the awareness up above, extend your focus into the earth and say aloud, "And Earth Below" or "And Earth Mother."

3. Then, keeping awareness of both above and below, say aloud, "I Greet You."

4. Wait a moment and see what happens. Be alert for acknowledgement or response in one of these three ways:

• From within you, such as a realization, a change of attitude or belief, a new awareness.
• Changes in your environment, such as a sudden breeze, a change in the color of the sky, a bird or animal suddenly appearing, or a tree or shrub suddenly becoming vividly visible.
• A response from Sky and/or Earth: a special message for you, an answer to a question, or guidance and new directions.

5. What happens may happen in just that moment, or it may happen throughout the day. It may change the quality of our day, our awareness … whatever we notice.

6. You may also want to use hand gestures. Arms raised in a upward facing V for "Sky Father" and arms down in a downward facing V for "Earth Mother."

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Which Tarot Deck Should I Use?

I get asked this question all the time, which is not surprising since there are hundreds of versions of the Tarot in existence. My key criteria for choosing a Tarot deck is that it should form a complete working system of symbology.

Magically, when we use the Tarot, it represents a microcosm, a smaller version of the Universe. Therefore, everything in the Universe has to be able to be represented by the cards in the deck.

There are three major magical uses for the Tarot:

1. Straight divination
2. Spell work (these decks are especially designed for spell work)
3. Working the Tree of Life (for doing a great work)

Very few Tarot decks can fulfill all three of these requirements. There are only three modern Tarot decks that I know of: the Waite-Rider, Morgan-Greer and Thoth decks. The other decks are incomplete for these endeavors. For instance the Aquarian deck is a beautiful tool for divination if you are used to working with Zen or Hindu concepts, but it's virtually useless for spell work and has no relationship at all to the Tree of Life.

Who Created These Modern Tarot Decks?
All of above-mentioned Tarot decks were created by members of the Golden Dawn. Arthur Edward Waite created the Waite-Rider deck (Rider was the name of the publisher) and Pamela Smith, also of the Golden Dawn, did the artwork for the cards.

Lloyd Morgan and William Greer disagreed with Waite's approach, arguing that the Waite-Rider deck was too austere, too mental and too intellectual. They created the Morgan/Greer deck by adding fancy symbols, such as vines, to the top half of all the cards in the Waite-Rider deck.

Aleister Crowley created the third deck, the Thoth deck, which has some notable differences. For instance, there are no Kings in the Thoth deck because Crowley felt that men never reached maturity, but were always stuck at the level of the Prince, or adolescence.

Learn More About the Tarot
Although the teachings of the Tarot were originally given orally, in more modern times people have written down some guidelines as to the meaning of the cards. However, the true use of the Tarot is to allow the cards to represent something different and specific in each reading. There is a magical ritual to "key" your deck to your energies, so that the cards will do this. To learn how to key a Tarot deck and use it so it actually does act as a microcosm of the Universe, check out our Tarot Home Study Course.


Home Study Tarot Course
Tarot Resources and Supplies

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Clockin' Time on Earth

Cell phones, pagers, day planners, guru seminars, life purpose workshops, self help videos, aura cleansing CDs … all of these ostensibly help us live happier, more directed, more productive lives on Earth. They are supposed to help us find our life direction, plot our course, and keep going until we get "there."

And it's all good … until it isn't. If you find that your absolutely nuts because you knew your life purpose but forgot it, or you know your life direction and don't want to go there, or you've cleansed your aura until you're absolutely clear (and empty), or your just plain confused, take a breather!

Other Alternatives for Clockin' Time on Earth
We live in such a driven society that sometimes we can drive ourselves right into depression or panic. When you feel just a little crazy about your life purpose or lack of it, check out some of these thoughts on life purpose from various sources:

• We are here to sound a joyous note to Creator's ear (Hopi Indians).
• We're required to be on Earth for a certain amount of time. What we do with that time is up to us. We have no pre-destined purpose to fulfill (anonymous).
• Earth is a school and we've chosen our own curriculum (translation: life lessons). We have free will so we can change the curriculum any time we want-like now (Paxton Robey).

Hmmm … these sound like some relaxing alternatives to the "hurry and worry" approach to life purpose.

Do enjoy. Whatever your life purpose, it will go better when you enjoy life!

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Magic: Why Bad Effects Are Almost as Good as Good Effects

Why Bad is Sometimes Good

Sometimes the people who "have the worst luck" are in the best place to use magic to the greatest effect. It's odd, but people who always seem to have a black cloud hanging over their heads are more magically powerful than the people who have smooth-running lives with very few problems.

The reason people who appear to have "bad luck" are inherently more powerful magicians than people with average luck is because the bad luck people already know how to create an effect in the world.

Think about it. There are many ways to measure a person's magical ability, and one measure of magical power is how strong an effect the person creates in the world. People with bad luck often wreak a path of destruction wherever they go. They create a lot of effect. Their effect isn't, per se, "good," but it is strong.

Having said that, people who create a strong negative effect in the world also tend to have trouble using their magical abilities. In other words, if they had learned to channel their abilities they wouldn't be living under such a black cloud. But, when and if they ever do learn to channel their abilities to create effects they actually wanted, they are fairly unstoppable.

Good News About Bad Magical Effects

1. If you are a person chronically living under a black cloud, you have powerful magic. You just haven't learned how to use it.

2. If you are living a good life with no black cloud, it doesn't mean you can't develop your magical abilities, but you may not need them if life is good.

Powerful magical practitioners tend to be fairly extreme in some ways. You will rarely find a practicing magician, good at the craft, who has a milk toast personality.

The $64,000 Question
Now for the $64,000 question. If you are one of those black cloud people, how do you channel your power so that it produces useful rather than chaotic effects in your life? The answer is that you have to start small. If you are one of these people, you probably have a strong will and a strong personality. Going head-to-head against that personality won't do anything but you give a flatter head.

Instead, start using your abilities in areas where you don't have a lot of significance, where things don't matter so much. Start attracting little things into your life. For instance, every morning when you wake up, think of something insignificant you want to bring into your life. Pick anything that doesn't matter, ranging from jello to the color green to a poker chip. Spend a minute or two calling that item to you, whether you speak a little prayer out loud or you envision it showing up. Then, during your day, look for it to come to you. Wait for it. Expect it. When you get it, celebrate. If it doesn't show up, either you didn't recognize it or it didn't happen to come. No big deal. That's why you pick something that doesn't matter to you.

As your ability to bring small items into your life improves, your ability to channel your magical power will, too. As long as you stick with things that don't matter to you, you'll keep the energy light and joyful. If you find yourself "caring" too much about whether you succeed with this exercise, move on to a different exercise, like some baby steps.

Baby Steps
Cloud Magic: Just send an email to info@shamanschool.com with CLOUDS in the subject line and we’ll reply with instructions on how to move clouds. Yup, it’s baby steps for weather working and more!
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Basic magical healing techniques that are safe and effective for anyone.
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The four elements of air, fire, water and earth are the building blocks of our universe. Learning to work with these elements allows you to work with anything in the universe. Look for the Basic Magic Home Study Course in our store.

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