Category Archives: Charms & Enchantments-Ritual Magic

Introducing the Sovereignty Spread!

February 26, 2013 by Miss Bri
Posted in Charms & Enchantments-Ritual Magic, Divination, Spirituality, tarot

Mid week article! You all know these only happen when I am really excited. I woke up around 4:00am central time on 2/25-the day of the Full Moon in Virgo-and this spread was in my mind-as if I had dreamed it up-which I do not remember doing…I played with it for awhile, and decided that it was perfect. I give it to you, dear readers, that you might play and prophet from it!

 

The Sovereignty Spread

The Sovereignty Spread is inspired by the Arthurian tale of Sir Gawain and Lady Ragnell and the variant on that tale told by Chaucer’s Wyfe of Bath. In short, within the story a riddle is posed to a Knight of the Roundtable (or in some cases King Arthur himself)-what is it that a woman desires most? He must provide the answer or forfeit his life. The Answer? Sovereignty.

Sovereignty derives from the Latin word super meaning “above.” To be sovereign is to have a bird’s eye view of the situation-to see one’s place clearly, to be blessed and in turn to be a blessing to others.

This spread is predicated on the truth that in assessing a situation we cannot accurately and 100% of the time detect how someone else is feeling-nor can we truly and fundamentally change another person (most of the time). But we DO have control over ourselves, our feelings, our thoughts, and we can change our own attitudes to improve a situation-thus gaining Sovereignty over our lives.

And…although the story specifically talks about women-Sovereignty and the self-knowledge and self-authority it implies, is something we ALL need.

I decided to demonstrate this spread by asking about the Milagro Roots Phone Fest-I was feeling stressed out about the event on the morning of the 25th so I asked:

What’s the deal with the phone fests? Are they a good idea? A bad idea? Worth it? Not worth it? Please explain!

The Spread:

We work with 9 cards-9 is a magical number and distills into 3-another magical number.

Begin by shuffling the cards with your question in mind.

Fan the cards out and cut the fan into three stacks.

Pull three cards from the bottom or top of each stack.

The first stack yields cards 1, 2, 3

The second stack yields cards 7, 8, 9

The final stack yields cards 4, 5, 6

Reading the Spread:

Card #1: How Am I Holding the Situation? This card gets down to your fundamental attitude about the situation-your thoughts, feelings, fears, desires-all of it.

For me the card is the Devil-and that is accurate. I had been sick all weekend, work was piling up on Monday, I had final touches to put on the phone fest and I was feeling very chained down to the whole thing-as if I had no freedom as if was enslaves to this idea and not at all sure that was where I wanted to be. Honestly just pulling this card really helped me-with an attitude represented by the Devil no wonder I was second guessing myself!

Card #2: What is the block? This card outlines what the major blocks or obstacles between you and success.

My card was Death (the Devil and Death as my first two cards, awesome.)  Reflecting I realized that the Death card was quite apt. One of the reasons that the phone fest was nagging on me was because it was nested in a whole host of other half finished projects. The Death card was telling me I was neglecting my duty to kill off one project-finish it completely-before moving on to the next. No multitasking-uni-tasking!

Card #3: What is the blessing in this situation-often this is really what is the blessing I am ignoring or not seeing in the situation?

My card was the 4 of Wands-and how apt! The Four of Wands celebrates union, collaboration, and community support. The Blessing are the clients and people who show up for a phone fest-the folks who want to listen and learn-all of you guys-you are the blessing.

Card #4: What is a hidden factor effecting this situation that I need to be aware of?

For me this card is signified by the Hanged Man. I could take a very lofty interpretation of this and say-well I have sacrificed parts of myself for knowledge before-I should reflect on those experiences and mine them for information on how to rock this project. OR I could be very practical and say-this is one of your hang ups Bri-you always take on too much and have a habit of not finishing one thing before moving onto another one-check yourself girl!

Card #5: What is the most likely outcome if I do nothing? The Sun-the phone fest will still rock, you will still help people, settle down and open up to your own radiance. Not too shabby.

Card #6: What will be revealed in the near future that might help me? This can also be a who question-as in what person (or spirit or ally) will show up to assist?

The card I received is the Page of Coins-this could mean a specific person, like my amazing VA, or it could mean something more abstract-like a really sweet email from a student or client telling me how much they love the phone fests and how awesome they-thereby encouraging me to keep moving forward-in an earth manner that finishes one thing before starting something else!

Card #7: What specific attitude do I need to change & how should I do it? 

For me this is symbolized by the 4 of Swords-as a Air sun sign the first thing the earthy structure of the number four says to me is…ground it baby. Ground these ideas-give them structure and presence. This card resonates directly with the Death card I pulled as my obstacle-it features a coffin for heaven’s sake! The attitude to change is the flighty, ungrounded, anxiety that comes from doing too much at once. The antidote is to finish one thing off completely and put it in its proper resting place (in this case a PDF file program) before turning your attention to the next thing. Words to live by.

Card #8: If things go as well as they can what is the Best outcome I can expect to achieve from this situation? The Magician-more magic, alchemy, union and the creation of something greater than ourselves. Pretty damn good-committing to the phone fests is looking better and better.

Card #9: What Ritual act is required to achieve the Exalted Outcome?-What do I need to do, say, think, pray, believe, in order to achieve the exalted outcome?

Here I got the 10 of Cups-this is a card that for me is about home, family, spending time with my kiddo, and spending time blessing the land around my home, also a time of connecting with my beloved-basically the message here was-don’t work so damn hard-you are chaining yourself to the Devil, yo! Go outside, play, have fun, listen to good music, plant some stuff, build an altar to honor the full moon–chill-ax.  Love it when that is my ritual prescription!

Feel free to use this for yourself or clients-if you do I only ask that you give proper attribution to it by citing me and this blog post!

Blessed Imbolg and Happy Candlemas

February 4, 2013 by Miss Bri
Posted in Charms & Enchantments-Ritual Magic, Divine Figures, Spirituality, Things that are true

For those who don’t know-February 1st/2nd rings in the cross quarter holiday of Imbolg, also celebrated as Candlemas. We are now at the half way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Unlike other cross quarter days there is a Goddess who is specifically associated with Imbolg and She is Brighid, or Saint Brighid if you are Catholic or Orthodox Christian. We had to wait until February 3rd to properly honor the season and beloved Brighid-but we finally had a small ritual this morning, full of omen spying and observing our local surroundings. For followers of my tumblr account these are repeats-but they are still just as pretty!

Mutabalis Rosebush

This is the Mutabalis Rosebush in my garden-I pruned it way back in early Autumn and the growth on it has been enormous since then. We did some nourishing energy work around this rosebush this morning in honor of Brigid in her role as a healer.

Rosemary

 

The rosemary has been in bloom for several weeks now-through most of January-and is almost always buzzing with a few dozen bees!

carrots

 

Multicolored carrots planted at the beginning of January are starting to reach up higher towards the warm light. In a few more weeks they should be ready for harvesting.

 

strawberry

 

Two weeks ago when we had our first really nice and mild weekend since Christmas, we put in a strawberry patch that is already bearing some beautiful fruits!

offerings for Brighid

Part of our Imbolg ritual every year is to smudge each other and make offerings to Brighid-which after receiving blessing from Her we are free to enjoy! In South Central Texas Imbolg really feels like the beginning of Spring. We may have another cold snap or two and it might even dip below freezing one more time, but the tender green shoots I associate with springtime are already starting their journey up from beneath the warm earth. The Mourning and White Wing doves are cooing in the trees, the occasional hawk flies over head, and the Mockingbirds have been positively zesty in their desire for a mate. It the time when desire stirs everything upon the land here–and of course it is all sacred to Her.

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Charms & Enchantments: Spiced Figs for Fertility and Abundance

October 17, 2012 by Miss Bri
Posted in Charms & Enchantments-Ritual Magic, Ritual of the Week, Spirituality, Working the Roots

This recipe came from my great aunt Mary Margaret-she passed over ten years ago and was the first person outside of my immediate family that taught me how to perform simple divinations with chicken bones. She also had this fantastic recipe-which reads like a magical ritual as I think you will see. I spend the month of October preparing for Samhain & Dia de los Muertos/All Saint’s Day all of which are celebrated in my family-this was one of the first recipes to honor the ancestors I whipped up this year:

Ingredients:

3 quarts whole, un-peeled, figs (Figs are traditionally associated with fertility, abundance, and the female reproductive organs. In some Hindu traditions the World Tree or axis mundi is actually a fig tree. In Conjure figs, specifically the leaves, are also used for friendship. In various Mediterranean traditions figs are eaten by women who wish to conceive a child.)

6 cups sugar-(to sweeten someone to you or keep a relationship sweet).

1 cup apple cider vinegar-(to sweeten, cleanse, and preserve).

2 quarts boiling water

Small cheesecloth bag of whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, and whole allspice-(cinnamon is a powerful agent for love and money drawing work and also to speed situations/people along, cloves are for friendship and kind feeling, allspice ushers in abundance).

Directions:

Cover figs with boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes.

make syrup of water, sugar, vinegar, and bag of spices

Drain figs then boil in syrup for 10 minutes for 3 mornings in a row

The third morning pack in sterilized jars and seal

I love the fact that she gives the directions to boil the figs in the syrup for three mornings in a row for ten minutes each time. Obviously you could boil them at ten minute intervals through 1 or 2 days and clearly you could boil them at a time other than the morning but this was her recipe and I honor it in its entirety.

 

 

sheaves of wheat van Gogh

Charms & Enchantments A Lammas Divination technique & What it Really Takes to Get What You Want

August 1, 2012 by Miss Bri
Posted in Charms & Enchantments-Ritual Magic, Sacred How-To, Spirituality

Blessed Lammas!

It is August first and today those who follow the Celtic Wheel of the Year celebrate the first of three harvest festivals. This celebration focuses mainly on the cereal crops that have been ripening in the full sun throughout the summer. Wheat, corn, and all matter of grains now await the sickle. They have flourished, ripening in summer’s sun and are now ready to be cut, winnowed, and prepared for storage and bread baking.

Harvests are traditionally times of great celebration-hard work has come to its full fruition and the fruits of one’s labors are now ready to be enjoyed. When people relied on their own small crop production to feed them throughout the year harvest time was also a time when the community could take a collective exhalation and relax-another season passed, another field that flourished-vagaries in weather and pestilence have not yet won the day.

As I was working on this post I wanted to be bright and shiny but the truth is that harvest time is also a time of death-its one of life’s little ironies I guess, but just as the fruit is at its fullest and ripest-now is the time when we cut it from the stalk, the branch, the root-in effect killing it.

For me this time of year carries its own weight and shadows because my beloved grandfather died right around this time a year ago-though we initially lost him to a debilitating stroke on Samhain in 2005.

My fiery Leo grandfather is the one who taught me the names of plants and how to sing to crystals, how to be very still and very quiet so that a wild creature might come to my hand-in trust and curiosity. He taught me a core lesson of nature and the harvest:

Bounty from Death.

And when we look at ancient harvest traditions from around the world we find sacrifice is often a core theme. Whether its the symbolic straw man being burned in the fields (of which our modern day Burning Man and Zozobra festivals are part) or the very real sacrifice of the dying God to make the earth fecund and fertile once again as well as to give thanks for the bounty currently reaped-the harvest is a time for blood. And if you have ever seen a field harvest you know that it can be a bloody affair.

Death for Bounty. 

True Confession time: I really do believe that you can get exactly what you want-but I also believe that getting what you want does come with a price-a sacrifice of some kind must be made. If you are ready to dive deep and give whatever is required to manifest your dreams and turn them into realities then the following divination will help.

 

Materials:

Your favorite tarot deck. For this I used the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore which I am LOVING right now.

Pull the Hanged Man from the deck and also pull out a card that represents where you ultimately want to be-your ultimate dream and vision. I used the Empress to represent my ultimate dream and vision because I am a mommy, involved in several different creative projects that I want to manifest like crazy, and I am a wife who is totally committed to her beloved so this card resonates strongly for me.

 

Process:

1.) After you have pulled the Hanged Man from the deck set it up in the center of your reading space, place the second card you picked-the one symbolizing your goal or dream directly underneath the Hanged Man.

Now you will have two open positions-numer one and number three, its time to fill them!

 

2.) Shuffle your deck with the following question in mind:

What does my present situation say about the sacrifice I need to make and the dream I wish to realize.

The card that you pull will go in the first position.

 

3.) Shuffle again and ask the following question:

What sacrifice must I make in order to realize my deepest dream right now?

The card you pull in response to this question goes into the third position.

 

It will look something like this & you can listen to my interpretation of this reading right here.

 

 

 

Remember:

Sacrifice means to make sacred-when you think of sacrifice merely as loss it is hard to grapple with. When you recognize sacrifice as a part of yourself going into a part of something else-dying to make way for living-and to remind us that we are all connected-it becomes a privilege, even in its pain. When you recognize that sacrifice allows room for better and brighter dreams to thrive then you are one step closer to manifesting!

Are you uncomfortable with the notion of sacrifice? Its an essential aspect of getting your mind/body/heart & spirit into alignment and creating more wealth, health, and happiness in your life.

If you are ready to confront your fears and live up to your full potential then its time to register for the Miracle Tree Sessions!

 

 

 

 


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Ritual Jewelry-bead, thread, blessings

November 22, 2011 by Miss Bri
Posted in Charms & Enchantments-Ritual Magic

I got back from Santa Fe and I was ready to start beading! Before I worked full time as Miss Bri I had a number of other jobs, one of which was working as a jewelry maker and sales girl at one of the most well-known rock and mineral shops in the Southwest. I learned A LOT about the various properties of gems, minerals, and semi-precious stones, and I also learned crystal healing and crystal scrying. But what I enjoyed the most was learning to bead and making extra money through the necklaces, bracelets, and anklets that I crafted!

About a year ago I posted some very simple evil eye bracelets on the site-they were gone almost immediately and many of y’all have been asking me when I will get them something like them back into stock. So I decided to craft my own bracelets instead of depending on some mass producer of evil eye trinkets to hook me up. I mean, if I can’t hand craft items myself as a boutique business then what’s the point?

The Power of Three beaded bracelet for protection and blessings

First up is the Power of Three bracelet. It is made from three glass ward against the evil eye beads, opalescent glass, and pewter stars. This is a powerful little bracelet and here is how I made it:

I selected materials that would be pretty and cute and also pack a punch. The glass evil eye beads are about warding off the evil eye of course. The opalescent glass beads look innocent but have actually been charged to reflect any evil or negativity back to its original source. Pewter is believed to be protective and the star shape will hopefully remind the wearer of the STAR card in the Tarot and the need for consistent spiritual cleansing.

I anointed the beading thread with a blend of protection and safety oils, and prayed over it and the beads. I prayed the entire time I was making the bracelet and then once it was complete I sealed the spell with a knot. The Power of Three is a pretty little accessory that looks good and feels great! Its 7.5 inches–good for a small or medium female sized wrist. If the size does not work and you need something bigger or smaller let me know because I can custom make these.

Hathor's Kiss--make money from your magic!

Then I created another bracelet, although this one is made of out of precious Lapis Lazuli and Rainbow Moonstone beads. This bracelet is a bit different-it focuses on psychic/magical ability and prosperity. Moonstone is quite well known as a psychic vision enhancer, lapis lazuli-prized by both the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians-ramps up your magical ability-and this Lapis is shot through with iron pyrite-adding an element of prosperity to the mix as well. I call this creation Hathor’s Kiss after the Great Goddess of the Egyptians. The thread was oiled with a custom blend of psychic and magic enhancing and prosperity oils. Length is 9 inches-good for a medium to large female wrist or a small male wrist.

Each bracelet is further personalized upon purchase-I perform a 7 day ritual over all jewelry before sending it out to clients so that it is ready for immediate wear and usage! The Power of Three bracelet may be purchased here and Hathor’s Kiss may be purchased here.

 

writing-at-sunset-by-gnuckx

Pretty, Pretty, Petition

October 17, 2011 by Miss Bri
Posted in Charms & Enchantments-Ritual Magic, Sacred How-To

“Action is eloquence.“–William Shakespeare

I will be off line for most of the day working on a couple of BIG projects (all will be revealed in due time) However, I leave you with a pretty image, a great quote and instructions on making your very own magical petition papers.

Magical petitions are one of the oldest forms of magical work–they are featured in the Holy Bible and the Tanakh. The idea of applying pen to paper to manifest magical intention has a simple elegance to it that makes many people feel like more is needed for a true ritual or spell to occur. While roots, herbs, oils, incenses, and brews are all delightful additions to ritual work, a well crafted petition can absolutely serve as the working’s solid foundation. So how do you do it? Below I give you 3 forms of petitions commonly used in Conjure and Hoodoo. The first-a petition for dominance:

This is the petition that you use when you need someone to do it your way, see things from your perspective, pay attention to you, listen to you, or in some way, shape or form, be influenced by you:

–get a piece of paper the size of a post-it note and write your target’s full name on it 3 times in pencil.
–turn the paper clockwise 90 degrees so that you now read the name up and down instead of left to right.
–write your name on top of the target’s name in permanent ink. I recommend the color red for issues dealing with straight up power and/or love and romance, blue for healing or peace, brown for legal issues, purple for success and mastery and green for financial matters.
–embellish your petition with designs and symbols that are relevant to your case. If you want someone to shut up you might draw a mouth with an X on it. If you are making the petition for someone who owes you money you might draw dollar bills or money bags.
–anoint the petition with oil in a 5 spot pattern-4 corners and center.
–if the petition has been made to draw something or someone closer to you then fold it towards you, turn it 90 degrees clockwise and fold it again. If it has been crafted to get rid of someone then fold it away from yourself.

Next we have the type of petition that is commonly used in ritual work involving magical containers like honey jars:

–get a piece of paper the size of a post-it note and write your target’s full name on it 3 times in pencil.
–turn the paper clockwise 90 degrees so that you now read the name up and down instead of left to right.
–write your name on top of the target’s name in permanent ink. For honey jars the most common colors used are red, blue, purple, brown, and green.
–the tricky part: you must inscribe a circle around the names you have written WITHOUT raising your pen. So choose a prayer, command, or mantra that is short and sweet and easy to write. For a love drawing honey jar the command to: love me, come to me, want me-is perfectly acceptable.
–anoint your petition in a 5 spot pattern
–embellish your petition with images and symbols appropriate to the case.

And finally, a Break Apart or Separation petition:

–if you have a picture of the couple you want to break up then use that–if not get a single piece of paper the size of a post-it note and with a pencil make a line down the middle of the paper so that its divided into 2 columns. Write the full name of one half of the couple over their picture or in one column and write the other person’s name over their picture or in their column. Whether you are using a picture or a plain piece of paper you should have 2 columns with a name in each written 3 times.
–cross each name with red ink and your petition that they break up and separate.
–anoint the paper or picture with break up oil
–tear the paper in half-symbolizing the rent in the fabric of their relationship

A note on personal concerns in petitions: when I use personal concerns I like to fold them within the petition. There are different schools of thought on this but I like the have my target being influenced at every possible level-that begins with my written prayers or commands. As I wrote earlier, petitions have been worked with forever-so there is no one way. These are three traditional ways I was taught and it is my hope that they will be of use to you!