If you were born in the air sign of Gemini, your Karmic pattern of destiny is to be turbulent, ever-changing, emotionally somewhat ambivalent and inconstant. Mercury is your ruling planet, and the symbol for your sign is the twins, which represent the two sides of your nature.
When you learn to unite these two warring sides of your mind and pull them into one cohesive unit, you will become mentally stable, emotionally secure and constant in your affections.
Gemini is the one sign in the Zodiac that Fate seems to have given the greatest latitude in the choice of destiny and career.
Being a Gemini makes you quick-witted, impulsive and inclined to be somewhat restless. Mercury is known as the planet of communication; you are able to transmit ideas with fluency and be persuasive. You are excellent in public work where you meet people and sell them ideas or goods. You are a super salesperson and diplomat. Gemini knows how to win people to their cause.
You are interested in meeting new people, seeing strange lands, and if you have the money early in life, you will probably spend a good deal of time traveling.
Gemini people are highly restless and ever searching for the elusive will-o-wisp of peace, happiness and love. Your sign makes you intellectual and interested in Art, music, literature, history, poetry and communications.
You will always be popular, winning many fine friends, and people will like you and admire your wit and charm.
But there is a side of your character which often can make you moody or depressed, lonely and withdrawn. When this happens you have to work hard coming out of your negative bio-rhythm cycle. You must realize that life really is worth living and that no problem is so great that it can rob you of your peace of mind and real joy.
Romance for Gemini:
Gemini is known to be a sign of inconstancy and fickleness. However when you live up to your good Karma, Gemini is a sign that can surely find romantic happiness in love and marriage.
You often attract people born in Taurus, Leo and Pisces. These signs may be good for friendship or a romantic episode, but they are Not good for marriage. Geminis should also avoid marriage with those born in Capricorn, Scorpio and Aries. Some Geminis marry Virgos who are also ruled by Mercury, with great success. But the signs of Libra and Aquarius should be considered first for any romantic alliance.
If some other sign seems compatible remember, "the stars impel, they do not compel." You can work hard to make your marriage a success even if you do marry a so-called incompatible sign.
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
Cranberries or Cranberry juice
Brown Candles
Use "this" spell when you feel your partner is dragging their feet towards a higher level of commitment. This is sure to kick your relationship up a notch to "Marriage," if that is your desire.
Brown and black are the colors of Saturn. Many astrologers believe you should not get married until Saturn's return. This occurs anywhere from the 28th to the 30th year of life, depending on the individuals chart. It is believed that maturity and responsibility are learned and achieved after the transiting Saturn is conjunct with the natal Saturn.
Red is traditionally the color for deep and abiding love. However, in the Amish tradition, the color brown is used in drawing or painting "marriage" hexes. Brown is used as the color to represent serious matters of love between two individuals.
It is also believed by astrologers that when Saturn transits through the seventh house (house of marriage and partnerships), it can make or break a relationship. Saturn rules the length of a life, as well as longevity of a relationship. Brown can certainly be used to cause quarrels or sever ties, but when offered as a devotional to Saturn, it can be used to empower and strengthen bonds.
Cranberries are used for magical protection and healing. They are also sacred to Saturn. The cranberry, because of it's bitterness, is believed to drive out any evil forces that would come against the petitioner.
Of course, due to it's bitterness, cranberry is sometimes used to sour relationships between couples. Both cranberry and the color brown can be manipulated for purposes of strength or destruction. Obviously our purpose here is to strengthen the relationship.
To keep a couple bound together, use one brown candle and inscribe the names of both parties on the candle. Surround the candle with a circle of dried cranberries and light. make sure the candle burns to completion without the circle of cranberries being broken.
Good Luck, Good Magic and Good Love
Lory
Dreams are our "door" to expanded awareness. This is the bringing forth of dream material from our unconscious to our waking conscious. Freud called it the "Door of Dreams," or the "Door without a Key."
Dreams besides containing objective elements, are our most direct line into the subjective processes of our Younger Self. Some dreams reflect a symbolic language. They may give insights into other people's motives, emotions or plans. Or they may even give information about external events.
Dream figures are not always an aspect of the individual. Sometimes they are the person or thing they seem to be. Although generally there is something in the individual that resonates to the external force.
Once we begin consciously working with magical symbols and mythology, our dreams reflect those images and should be interpreted in that light. An example would be: dreams of a "snake" to a Witch or Shaman would indicate renewal or regeneration. Where as some would interpret the snake as a sign of Christian malevolence or a Freudian phallic symbol.
The keeping of dream log, remembering them, sharing them, and re-entering them in trance or guided imagery are all ways of opening this door without a key.
By learning to take a pro-active roll in our dreams, to suggest the subjects we are dreaming, to change dreams as they happen, to confront attackers and defeat enemies, are ways of "going forth by night."
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
One way to change our existing dream of the outer world is to create a new dream to replace it. This is done in a step by step process to bring the dream into manifestation.
First, you must decide what it is that you want to "dream" into existence: be it better health, a new relationship, perhaps improvement of an old one, more money? a new car or home?
The more people who will be involved in the experience of your new dream; and would lend you moral support, the better. As getting others into this effort will help increase the energy, making it an even more effective manifestation process. But first you must decide what it is you want.
The process itself is divided into a short process, or "Magical Spell," and a long process. The short process is what you do all day, every day until the dream is real enough to manifest itself. This is what really creates the dream. The long process is like a meditative practice that serves to enforce the short process.
Here is the short process for dream manifestation:
Remember your dream frequently while breathing deeply and building up positive emotions about it.
Speak positive words and affirmations about your dream all the time, mentally and out loud. The exact words are not important but keep it in the present tense (I am, and It is).
Vividly imagine with every sense all the pleasures, benefits, and changes that the new dream will bring as if it is happening right now. Do it often through out the day.
Do something physical to reinforce the dream like making a special gesture or touching a symbol of the dream ( a lucky coin, or charm that symbolizes the outcome, or a picture that represents the realization). Touch don't just look.
Stay away from negative thoughts memories and reactions from yourself and other people about your new dream. If negative thoughts or comments from other people creep in immediately cancel them out with positive pictures and verbal affirmations about your dream as soon as you are aware of it. Say the positive opposite out loud or silently.
A phrase used by many shamans and magicians is EWOP, (an acronym for: Everything's Working Out Perfectly, a reminder to turn things over to our Higher Self).
The Long Process:
The long process is when you can spend more time clarifying, strengthening and reinforcing your new dream. You go through the same process of energizing, affirming and imagining and "Acting as if it is true" in a comfortable place, perhaps with your eyes closed for as long as you like. It is a good idea to end with a positive physical gesture of completion (such as a clenched fist, hand over your heart).
Good Luck, Good Love and Good Magic!
Lory
Name: Sowulo, Sigil (Anglo Saxon), Sol (Old Norse)
Letter Correspondence: S
Planet: Sun
God: Thor
The rune Sowulo is equated to the Sun. The Sun is the bringer of life and sustains us. It is the nurturing force of the North. This was especially true in the cold, Northern European lands. Here they valued the Sun and it's warmth and light simply because they saw so little of it.
Perhaps this is why the Sun is seen as being essentially feminine in German mythology. Sunna is the the Norse goddess of the Sun. The Sun banishes and gently and persistently destroys the forces of restriction and constraint -especially in it's form of "ice."
In the Greek and modern Celtic schools and Wicca it is seen as masculine and the Moon as feminine. But the notion that the Sun is feminine is in fact very ancient, most likely stemming from an ancient matriarchal traditions. The female principal which predates the development of the futhark, was perceived as life giving.
Sowulo (the Sun) is the rune or sign according to which initiatory journeys are oriented. It is by the light of the "Sol" that spiritual navigators steer their courses.
Magically Sowulo is the most beneficial as a guiding beacon to higher consciousness. It can also protect the magician. It is the power by which the magician can break through the "Ring Pass Knot" to higher being.
The ancient Vikings found it to give success in navigating rough seas. It promises success.
In divination the S-stave offers hope and guidance. It also counsels you to set goals and stick to them.
One negative aspect of this rune is that you may become deluded into thinking you have been successful, or that you have set your goals, when in fact you have not had contact with your higher self. There is caution to consult first with your higher Will and intent. Or like it's shape, similar to a lightening flash, it can strike suddenly, destroying everything in it's wake, usually in order to prepare for something better.
Brightest of Sowolo's Blessings,
Lory
According to Germanic tradition the individual being is really a "Body-Soul," or psychosomatic complex. The body and it's appearance are different aspects of this, as are breath (athem), the inspiration (wode), the mind, the memory (personal as well as collective), the heart, the will and certain magical faculties which individuals may or may not have acquired.
Individuals may have more that some of these magical faculties, such as hamingja, which is a repository of personal luck or fortune. Acquiring these magical bodies or the strengthening of them is one of the main tasks of Northern Magic. All exercise the Will and of consciousness increases this power.
Because the psyche or soul and the cosmos or world are both symbolically seen as trees in Northern Magic, we can speak of a Germanic teaching of "Pschocosmology". This teaches the way of the linkages between the soul and the world. If the inner world of the soul is explored and understood, the gateways are opened to a greater understanding of the larger world.
The fact that both of these structures are symbolized by trees makes it all the more meaningful that the runes were almost exclusively carved into wood in their earliest usage, so much so that the word for a stick of wood, "stave", came to mean the same thing as "Rune."
The runestaves are literally and symbolically the bridge between the inner tree of the soul and the outer tree of the world. Both of which are modeled on the Yggdrasill pattern.
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
When you decide that you want to practice meditation, you will probably conjure up an unpleasant image of sitting uncomfortably in the lotus position, your back aching and your mind racing on all the things you should be doing besides "meditating."
This image of meditation is not only unappealing but wrong. But it explains a lot about why many people do not meditate. However, there are compelling physiological, psychological and spiritual reasons why we should practice a daily form of meditation. It is the glue that holds the mind, body and Spirit together.
There are many ways of meditating. Meditation can be explained as an intentional concentration on one thing, which can be either secular or spiritual.
Perhaps you have become so absorbed in gardening, reading or even balancing your checkbook that your breathing slowed and you became as single-pointed as a lioness stalking her dinner! In this state creativity flowers, intuition leads to a deeper wisdom and the natural healing system of the body is engaged. And our best physical and mental potential manifests itself and we feel satisfied from a psychological point of view.
Spiritual meditation on the other hand, will help you become aware of the presence of the Divine in Nature, in yourself and in other people. The love and joy inherent in Spirit - that is the very core of Spirit - will begin to inundate your life.
Today, retreat to a quiet place where you can sit or even lie down in a comfortable position, so that you can relax your body. Do not fall asleep though. Now close your eyes and let your breathing come slow and steady. Get in touch with your silence "within." Consider how you might be able to take twenty minutes a day to meditate.
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
