I follow the Northern Path of Shamanism and Magic, but there are elements in any magical ritual that will determine if it will be powerful and effective.
1. It must have a powerful beginning and ending. A ritual that begins on a weak note loses it's significance. Just as when you meet someone for the first time, the "first" impression is very important. If your beginning does not attract the attention from the participants, higher ones, be they gods, beings etc., with it's strength and sense of purpose very little will be accomplished.
This is the reason why so many rituals begin with drums, bells, whistles or trumpets. You get a strong beginning by doing "something" to get people's attention. By the same turn, a weak ending leaves everyone participating feeling unfulfilled and incomplete. You achieve a strong ending getting everyone's attention again and letting them know clearly that the ritual is over.
2. The ritual must have strong sensory input. You will only be impressed and influenced by a ritual that you are watching to the degree that it is interesting and beautiful. If it has music and scents it will have greater effect. Add to the that the other senses of touch and taste, the effect will be even more powerful.
3. It must have a familiar and predictable form. If you participate in a ritual and do not know what to do next or what to expect, you will be confused and anxious. This in turn will cause you to be distracted from the ritual causing you to have less of an influence and less of an impression. But if there is enough about it that is familiar, you will feel more comfortable and more affected by the ritual.
4. The meaning of every part of the ritual must be understood by the participants. Any part of the ritual that is not understood by all involved causes the ritual to loose it's effectiveness. Sure the person directing the ritual knows what is going on. But it is the strength of all involved in the ceremony that gives the ritual strength. So in shamanic rituals you will usually find everything explained before and during the ritual.
5. The ritual must be special. If a ritual does not look or feel any different from any other occasion it will loose it's effectiveness. The major reason why so many of our modern rituals seem empty is that so many of our leaders no longer treat those rituals as special. This is most evident in our holiday rituals. Hallows, or Halloween has been reduced to a costume party. Yule, or for many people perceived as Christmas, has become a shopping frenzy. New Years day is just a hangover and a football game. So make your ritual stand out and be noticed.
Brightest of Blessings on Your Ritual,
Lory
All good love spells court the favor of the ancient gods and goddesses. When this is combined with help from the nature spirits, you will find your work, and yourself, irresistible.
Here is a sample love spell so that you can become familiar with the idea. Later you can add to it, or combine them, adding your own personality, preferably in a simple rhyme to take the age old powers of love.
The approach is a natural one. Love seeks it's own fulfillment and you have only to help it a little bit to let it find it's fulfillment through you. As you work with the chant, you will feel a special affinity to one or two of the love deities of old.
I follow the Northern path; so I feel comfortable with Freya, the Norse love goddess. But whatever love goddess's you summon, you will feel the presence and power of your special ones a constant source of comfort and help.
Powerful Freya Love Spell:
Freya Love Goddess hear my cry,
Without true love, my soul shall die,
Goddess of the Vanir come to me,
And bring the one I ache to see.
Freya Queen of men's hearts hear,
This call I send you loud and clear.
Bring a Love that's good and bold,
I charge you mighty goddess of old.
My true love must now come to me,
And as my will so mode it be.
Good Luck, Good Love, and Good Magic!
Lory
Spring Equinox ( March 22) is the full manifestation of the return of the vital powers of nature. The name of this celebration was always Teutonic. In Germany the Goddess that reigns supreme at this holiday is known as Ostara. She is the virgin goddess of Spring in ancient Germany. It is for her that this festival is named.
At Ostara, the Teutons honored their goddess of Spring, Eostre - for whom the Christian holiday of Easter is named. It is simply one of the names that the evangelists could not obliterate. Easter falls near Ostara and celebrates another resurrected deity.
Perhaps one of the most lasting symbols of Ostara is the egg. Since ancient times, eggs, being the universal archetype of new life, were held in reverence as symbols of sacred objects and eternal life. They were decorated and placed on Spring altars. They were exchanged as cherished gifts.
Our present day myth that eggs are delivered by the Easter bunny, comes from the Goddess Eostre, who we honor at Ostara. Legend has it that the rabbit wanted to please this goddess so much that he laid sacred eggs in her honor, beautifully decorated them, then presented them to her.
Eostre was so pleased with the rabbit's gift that she wanted to share her happiness with all of mankind. As a result the rabbit traveled world wide giving out eggs, little decorated gifts of life.
Wearing new clothes at Easter also comes from an earlier Teutonic pagan tradition. Germanic people would work through the winter in secret sewing elegant clothes for this Sabbat celebration. It was considered bad luck to wear one's new Spring clothes before Ostara.
At Ostara the whole pagan community would gather for feasting, games and celebrate religious rituals showing off their new outfits.
The lamb is a symbol of Ostara. The lamb was sacred to all the virgin goddesses of Europe, north Africa, and the Middle East. This symbol was so ingrained that it carried over into the religious rituals of Christian Easter.
Many of the Vernal Equinox myths from the Nordic and Germanic lands concern trips by deities into the netherworld, and their struggle to return from the land of Death to the land of living. When they do return to the land of the living, they have a new life, both figuratively and literally. Odin would be one of these resurrected deities. You can easily see how this theme used the grafting saintly feast days onto any pagan festival they wanted to eradicate.
The Ostara celebration was nonexistent in Celtic lands until the Vikings, invading these lands, celebrated it, and it became another cherished festival. The Celts renamed it "Ladys Day." It was a time of the Goddess's return after her Winter sleep.
Happy Ostara and Spring Equinox!
Lory
The Karmic Destiny of your sign is ruled by the ninth house of the solar chart, with powers of the higher mind, religion, philosophy, metaphysics, and travel. You are ruled by the planet Jupiter, which gives you a tendency to work well with the public.
The symbol of your fire sign is the Archer, half man and half animal, shooting arrows into the sky. You may be earthbound physically, tied to a boring job and routine, but your thoughts are heaven bent. You are always searching for spiritual knowledge that will help you break earth's gravity.
You love freedom and enjoy beauty and nature. Sagittarius is companionable and friendly, even highly romantic; but you do not like to fenced in by marriage, by work or any conditions that seem limiting. You need to be free to follow your own pursuits in life.
You can marry someone compatible with yourself and find happiness in love and marriage. But be sure to ally yourself with a person who understands your desire for privacy and freedom.
Sagittarius is trusting and loyal. You expect the same qualities in your soul mate.
Your Karmic pattern on the Mystical Wheel of Fate, is generally more fortunate than unfortunate. Jupiter often blesses you life with prosperity, health, romantic fulfillment and joy. But sometimes the dark shadows of Karma will bring their problems. It is wise for you be prepared for them when they come.
Being born on the ninth spoke of the Tibetan Wheel of Fate, you stand for the things the ninth house represents. You are of a serious frame of mind, you enjoy studying philosophy and religion, you like to travel and you are highly idealistic.
Sagittarius has great honesty, integrity and trust. These qualities can lead to Karmic suffering. You must constantly be on guard against being deceived in business, being cheated out of money or being betrayed. Develop a bit more caution in dealings with others.
Romance for Sagittarius:
It is in love and marriage that your sign faces it's greatest challenges. But if you choose the right signs in the Zodiac, there is no reason why you cannot have your romantic cake and eat it too.
Two signs that are considered first choices for Sagittarius are Aries and Leo, both strong signs with the same desire as you to run the whole show. All will be well if you insist on having the same rights they demand; you can marry either and be happy.
Your opposite sign Gemini attracts many Sagittarians. But there is some danger in marrying this sign as there could be emotional problems and misunderstandings.
Other signs that could get along with yours are Virgo and Capricorn. Both are earth signs and have a great deal of stability.
Scorpio, Cancer and Pisces, the three water signs, are good for friendship and perhaps romance and business relationships, but would be too confining for marriage. As they are inclined to be somewhat possessive and jealous.
Creating Karmic Destiny:
Sagittarius should give full reins to your wonderful creative imagination. Develop your powers of visualization and mental projection, so you can project mental images of yourself doing great things. You can build a great fortune, or be one of the worlds greatest talents, and you will be using your natural Sagittarius desire to rise to the to the Stars!
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
We often hear that the number thirteen is unlucky. It is even said that there should never be thirteen people seated at the table together.
In order to understand why thirteen has always been considered an unlucky number, we must begin by talking about the number twelve. A day is divided into two halves of twelve hours each. A year is divided into twelve months and there are twelve signs of the Zodiac.
Twelve is the number of completion, of wholeness: in a day, a year, and in Astrology. Thirteen is twelve plus one, and this one that is added on is extraneous to the whole. It is, as it were, a foreign body, and if it is not pure, if it's vibrations are not attuned to those of the whole, it poses a threat to the whole.
This is why thirteen is considered a difficult number which can bring trials and even death in it's train. Even the thirteenth trump of the Tarot deck is "death."
However, one can also say that the one that is added on to the twelve, represents the beginning of a new cycle, a new whole. In Initiatic Science, death is never seen as an absolute conclusion but as a beginning of new life.
Therefore, Thirteen, is not an unlucky or malefic number, but it rejects all impurity and disharmony. It is also an extremely active number.
On the physical plane, thirteen is associated with the cross (1+3=4) and, consequently, with suffering. The cross is the two-dimensional development of a cube, and the geometrical representation of a cube symbolizes a prison.
But if the number thirteen has a adverse effect on people, this is not due to the number itself, but to the way in which each one receives its influence and the influences that surround it.
This is just as true of water, air, light and, even, of food. Each individual receives them in his own way, depending on their health, basic structure, degree of evolution and spiritual development.
People in general think of numbers as being very remote from human beings. But in fact rivers, trees and mountains are simply numbers, numbers that have been materialized. If you look a little closer at the question, you will find that nothing exists but numbers. Everything is "number". Nature, the whole universe is built on numbers.
As for the number thirteen, it may bring good fortune to some and misfortune to others. Is that the fault of the number itself? No, it depends on who you are and whether you know how to use it or not.
Good Luck and Good Magic,
Lory
Norse myth tells us that the god Odin has two ravens perched on his shoulders. Their names are Huginn (meaning thought) and Muninn (meaning memory). These ravens, are more than Odin's pets, they are his informants and messengers. He sends them out everyday into the world, upon their return they relate to Odin everything that they have seen and heard.
But what do we really know about "ravens" in general? I thought it would be interesting to explore this subject. Ravens, are in a family of birds called corvids, and are powerfully associated with witchcraft and magic.
Ravens are in the same family of birds as crows. But ravens hunt more than crows, who are mainly scavengers. When mythology distinguishes between the two, ravens are usually associated with transformative magic while crows are identified with healing. Both are teachers and sponsors of magic and shamanism.
Ravens are characterized by their shiny black color and their raucous, loud voices. Daytime birds they noisily greet the sun. As a result they are identified with solar power and may be understood to venerate the Sun themselves.
Ravens, are in many worldwide myths, and are generally considered to be "trickster" heroes. This includes Celtic, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Native American, Scandinavian, Vietnamese, but most especially in the indigenous traditions of Siberia and North America's Pacific Northwest.
Ravens are assertive and unafraid of people; and willing to play a joke on a person, as well as a dog, cat or on each other. Shiny things attract them and they have been known to steal them.
The associations of Ravens with witchcraft and shamanism pre-date Christianity. After Christianity took hold the perceptions of Ravens changed. Rather than positive associations with wise-women, shaman, and seers Ravens were now associated with diabolism and sin.
In the eyes of the Christian Church this probably had a lot to do with their color, black, their sharp harsh voices, intelligence and assertive nature. Shades of the wicked queen's ravens in Walt Disney's version of,"Snow White"?
Because Ravens are black birds and daily herald the light, the church identified them with Satan in his guise as Lucifer, the fallen angel and light bringer.
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
The typical Pisces Karmic destiny is one of change, variation and sudden shifts of fortune from good to bad. You may be on the top of the world one day, then slip into a a reverse and find yourself scraping the bottom.
The ancients knew of this Karmic burden carried by Pisces, but it is the twelfth house of the Zodiac, called the house of misfortune and self undoing. But take heart, your highly sensitive nature is intuitive and highly developed spiritually.
The symbol of your sign is two fishes-one swimming upstream and one swiming downstream. You can reduce your Karmic debts by making up your mind that you will constantly aim yourself towards the heights of idealism, beauty and good. In this way you will direct your concentration on swimming upstream.
Your ruling planet is Neptune, the sign of mystery that rules nebulous, strange phenomena and the dream world of unreality. You are changeable, vacillating, uncertain and often misdirected by people who are close to you.
Yet this sign is one of the most intuitive, psychic and spiritual of all the signs in the Zodiac. When you choose the upward path, overcome your tendency to daydream and escape responsibility.
You often sacrifice for others. Members of your family and your friends know they can depend on you; because of your kindness and inability to say "No", they often use you and abuse you. This can often bring difficulties as you do not want to believe that people can be evil or that they can harm you. When you do discover that you have been betrayed, you suffer deep hurt and become extremely disillusioned.
Pisces people are fascinated by the mystical things in life. You usually investigate astrology, metaphysics, Yoga teachings, meditation, psychic phenomena, spiritual healing and related subjects. You are a mystic in the true sense of the word.
Because of this tendency towards escapism, you may find yourself unable to cope with practical reality; problems regarding finances, romance, marriage and work often swamp you.
Your Karmic destiny is to build an inner spiritual strength and to rise above the physical and material forces of life. You will be guided to your right destiny if each day you withdraw into quiet meditation and ask for guidance from your higher psychic mind centers.
You tend to be touched by compassion for the suffering of humanity and you constantly strive to relieve the pain of others. The sign of Pisces has a great deal of personal magnetism to those born under this mysterious power.
Romance for Pisces
Your sign is very magnetic; you have a great ability to attract those who love you and want to be romantically involved. This is a great asset but sometimes can be troublesome.
Never rush into marriage until you have known the person for at least a year. Use this trial period to test the other person's character in various situations. You are highly sensitive to the moods of others so try to avoid people who are moody or depressed.
The signs of Capricorn and Taurus are too stubborn and hardheaded for you. They might shock you with their regimentation and outright actions.
The air signs Libra, Gemini and Aquarius might be too changeable and independent for your sign.
You are romantically attracted to those born in the water signs. Scorpio is an excellent sign for you, being loyal, romantic and passionate. But avoid a Scorpio who is not highly developed. They can sting you with their sarcasm.
The water sign of Cancer is good for Pisces. These people are highly sensitive, emotional and idealistic. But do not choose a Cancer who is overly moody and depressed.
With the earth sign of Virgo, your opposite, there will be attraction and detraction.
The signs of Leo, Aries and Sagittarius, all fire signs, should be avoided by Pisceans. They tend to be too strong and dominant for you sensitive, highly emotional nature.
The emotional water sign of Pisces is the sign of patience and tolerance for all people.
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
