Merry meet everyone, So its that time of year again where you start setting your altars up for Imbolc or candlemas and plan your celebrations for the sabbat. Now I am off work the day before Imbolc so I will be celebrating the sabbat a day before but may of you will be stuck on what to do and where to even start. Now this post will give you some ideas for how to celebrate and also to encourage you to do a bit of research yourselves because not everything I will share will connect with you and same with others. Its all down to what you feel is right and how you wish to celebrate this sabbat after all. So a little information about the sabbat. Imbolc honours the goddesses as a bride in waiting for the return of the sun god. Before the Nordic influence, it was also the sabbat in which the Celts saw the sun as being reborn again for the following year. In Ireland it was, and still is today a special day to honour the goddess Brid in her guise of bride. Today most people know the day as St Bridget's day because the Christians took it over like they have done with many of out beloved sabbats. The day is spent dressing up grain dollies to represent the dried sheaves from the previous harvest, as brides for the sun god. Theses will then be places in their homes to honour the sun god and his new bride. They are normally placed in cradles called bride's beds and is normally made up of nuts, symbols of fertility and of course hay. This sabbat symbolises the end of the darkness and the start to the light coming back into the world. With the sun god returning to us means spring should follow soot soon and then the earth can be reborn with green and harvests for the following year. We normally light candles to honour the symbol of the wheel of the year and I personally have candles in full lit on my altar saying good bye to the darkness and hello to our beloved sun god himself. I know people who also carve a male on yellow candles to represent the sun gods rebirth into the world. Now I will give you a couple of ideas to how you can celebrate this happy sabbat but you also have to do your own research into it because connecting to the sabbat is such a great feeling and doing your own research into how to celebrate may connect you to it even more. I know it did for me. So first off like I said before a friend of mine craves a male on to a yellow candle to represent the sun god himself, You can also add a circle of white candles to your altar each one is to represent a goal you wish to achieve this year. Candles is a big part of the celebrations so if you wish to do any candle magic on this day do so. The energy is strong and you should use it while you can. You may do a couple things to banish or to say good bye to the winter seasons, you may want to brun paper snowflakes but only do this if you have a fire proof bowl. You can also do new life spells and blessings which a lot of people do in spring because it holds the power of rebirth but also you can do it now and honour the sun god while doing this. As always dress up your altar if your working its still a way to connect and honour the sabbat and the sun god and his bride. Use a lot of red and white colours, red for the sun god and the fire or heat he will bring and white for the end of the snow and the cold seasons. I will be using a blue altar cloth because that for me represents the cold seasons passing and I will use yellow tapper candles to represent the sun god and the heat that he brings. Also dress your altar how you see fit, if you connect the sabbat to flowers or statues add them its all down to how you connect with the sabbat to dont forget. I do hope I gave you some ideas on how to celebrate and also do your research. I am slowly planning my Imbolc celebrations while doing this post so I have a lot to work on myself but dont forget to have fun and celebrate with joy in your hearts. I hope you all have a fun filled celebration and I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Also don't forget to follow me on instagram @PaganVibesOnly, I will be posting my altar set ups on their and you can always pop me a message if you need more help. :) Merry meet everyone, Today's post is all about the crystal Rhodonite. Rhodonite is a stone for compassion, its really handy to help balance your emotions and clears away emotional wounds and scares from the past. This crystal is also handy to help nurture love in your life, either for self-love or to bring love into your life. It stimulates, clears and activates the heart which is such a great crystal for this following season. Rhodonite is such a great crystal to help you ground energy, it creates a yin-yang balance and aids in achieving one's highest potential. Its great to have with you if you suffer from shock or panic, I personally carry this around with me for my panic attacks which has helped a lot. This crystal helps to heal and aid in cases of emotion self-destruction, co-dependency and abuse. I wish I had this crystal when I was going through everything I did with a family member because this crystal would of helped me so much back then. It encourages unselfish self-love and forgiveness, which is great to have in your main family room. This crystal helps to heal arguments with loved ones and helps to sooth problems that have arrived in your household. This crystal also promotes a remaining calm in upsetting situations which is why I have one in my family room because my family bicker like no tomorrow. If you have a problem with being confident then you may want to carry this crystal around with you because it helps to build your confidence and its such a great ones to have in your bag too, because it also attracts abundance. I hope this post has helped you a lot and I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So today I am doing another first impressions review on this 2020 witches companion book. Now I have brought the 2018 version of this book which I really enjoyed in some areas and others kinda dragged on a bit. I am hoping this years book is going to be better but then again there will be something inside this book for every witch out there. As always I will share the blurb with you so you know what this book contains. "Fresh ideas for modern witches and pagans! Discover a collection of magical perspectives designed to help you live your craft in the contemporary world. With hands-on practices as well as provocative insights, this book is all about confronting challenges and moving forward on your spiritual path. Llewellyn's 2020 witches companion includes more than two dozen articles including: - Holistic sleep magic - Cannabis and meditation - Transforming trauma - Designing interfaith rituals - Ethical love spells - Magical stress tamers - Dealing with depression - Pagan prayer beads This year's edition includes spells, rituals, ideas, and advice articles from many of today's most innovative witches and pagans: Tess Whitehurt, Najah Lightfoor, Kerrie Connor, Elizabeth Barrette, Deborah Lipp, Melanie Marquis, Black Octavian Blair, Michael Furie, Emyme, Susan Pesznecker and Ember Grant. Also Includes a sizteen month calender and lunar information for spellwork and rituals." So there you have it, after reading the blurb you get some idea what this book contains and why I may be interested in it. I love reading about different view points on the craft and theses are all written by different witches and pagans which are listed above. The magical stress tamers seems really handy for me and the holistic sleep magic will come in handy. There is so much more inside this book that I haven't even tapped into yet which I am looking forward to reading. I will share bits with you all from this book in the future if theres anything I would think is helpful to you all. But check this book out for yourself and build upon your book collection. Have you already got this book? Let me know either in the comments bellow or on my instagram account @Paganvibesonly! As always I will see you all in the next post and I do hope you enjoyed todays little review. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly xx Merry meet everyone, So today's post is something I get asked all the time. Either from followers or people I speak to on my travels. This question is so popular because they believe you have to be born into a blood-line to become a witch. This also comes from tv and films that make this type of question even more popular. The short answer to this question is yes you can be a witch but why do you want to be one? I always ask why, its not just to belong to something bigger than yourself. Its because most people want to find the meaning of life in general and thats why most people go to faith. Now being a witch doesn't mean you have to follow the pagan faith. I personally do because I was brought up with the option to be either pagan or christian from family members and I personally found myself drawn to the pagan faith. That being said you don't need to be following a faith to be a pagan. For me being a witch is a way of life in many aspects. You honour the world we live in by looking after what mother earth has given us. She has given us a home to live, the air we breath, the water we drink, the fire to warm ourselves and the earth to plant and feed our selves. She controls everything from weather to seasons and the more you honour her the more you feel connected yourself. There is also the kitchen witchy, where you add herbs to help better your food diet but also herbs have really handy magical aspects that can help with natural remedies. I don't take pain killers very often because I feel like theres better ways to deal with pain out there. Also when I really need them they actually work. The magical side of being a witch is something not all witches take part in very often. Many people think witches cast spells and blessings for everything in their lives. Thats not true. I personally only do magic when needed because the energy you build while doing the spell casting or blessing takes a lot out of you if you don't do it right and even then I don't see the point asking the earth for things I really dont need. I do a lot of blessing workings where I honour the elements or mother earth or even the sabbats and thank them. Most of my friends who are on the same path as me do the same. They will do spell casting when needed but not just to do it. You need to find your own balance of being a witch in a modern world as well. I had this problem myself where I put them in two groups. My witch self and my normal self. It took me awhile that both was just me and I was pulling myself apart for no reason what so ever. I know have a planner to plan both my witchy aspects and my normal daily stuff too. This helps me to connect with my path daily but also helps me be me. Overall Being a witch is a way of life, you honour the world we live in, you drink herbal blends to help heal illness, you ask for help in forms of magic or blessings. You respect one and another because we all belong here no matter what the world states. You live a positive life where only good grows and keep negative energy out of your life because that brings problems. You are always learning new aspects of magic that you want to honour in your own way. You make friends who respect you and your ways as much as you respect them. Its all about balance and if you truly want to become a witch then more than likely your already one! Start your path learning our history, don't go all in but take it slow because if you go all in then you will burn out fast or feel overwhelmed. We have all been there and I don't want to see you going through it too. As always I am here to answer any question you wish to ask. You can ask them bellow in the comments or pm me on instagram. My account is @paganvibesonly and I am always checking my page for questions from you all and just to connect. I do hope you liked today's post and I will see you all in the next one. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, Today's post is all about the handy herb Hawthorn. I love using this magical herb thats in my collection because its handy for many different things. I normally use this for abundance spells because its such a powerful herb for that type of spell work. You could add hawthorn to sachets to carry around with you to help bring abundance into your daily life. Hawthorn is also a great herb to help increase the power of your spell work which is always handy. You can also place hawthorn at each door and window to prevent negative forces from entering your household. You can also include hawthorn in charm bags for protection of all kinds which is always handy to have. I hope you found this post is handy for your records and I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So today I will be doing a quick review on one of the books I got for christmas of my partner. I gave him a list of books i wished to have and he got me a couple of them because hes a sweetie. Anyway like always this is just a over view of the book because this one is one you read for the whole of the year. I liked the idea of this one because it helps you be connected even with a busy week. So this has been on my list since November last year because I wanted to get last years but was too late to grab it for the beginning of the year which theres no point getting in the middle of the year really. So I thought ill get this years one ready for the 1st of January. This is one I nudged for my partner to get me haha. From the blurb it says: "363 spells, rituals and blessing to enjoy all year long. Enrich your magical practice with 265 charms, meditations and enchantments designed to improve your daily life in numerous ways. Spell-casters of all levels can enhance their love lives, increase their finances, protect their families and homes, and much more. Created by popular practitioners like Tess Whitehurst, Devin Hunter, Michael Furie, Melissa Tipton, and Susan Pesznecker, theses spells make it easy to manifest your intentions and add a little magic to each day. Use the convenient cross-reference table to quickly find the spells you desire or follow along day by day and work the spells that will best benefit your life. This almanac's spells address the most important topics for a successful life: love, health, money, protection, home and garden, travel, and communication. It also included daily colour and incense recommendations, a glossary of magical terms, lore and traditions for each month, space for notes and moon signs and phases." So from what you have just read, the reason why I wanted this book was so I could read a spell each morning and connect with the path. I may not use them all but it helps me to understand the path a bit more and also its handy to have. As always I will most likely share some of theses with you through out the year because if you like the spells you could always get the next one. I just love how that each day has something different but also gives you information for that day. The moon, colour that day, incense and star sign. This book is based on the USA side of the world but is still really useful. I hope you check this book out yourself and I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly xx Merry meet everyone, So today is going to be slightly different post topic. I said before christmas that I wanted to do more off topic posts. So this is one for my blog that I have been wanting to do for awhile. So why did I create this blog. I get ask this question a lot and to be honest its quite a strange answer when I think about it. First of all I will state that this isn't my first blog that I have created and run. I did have a blog all about photography that I ran along side my photography course at uni. That was my first main focused blog. Saying that I have had many blog type pages for years. I used some as diary style and others just to rant. So back to the topic of hand, the reason why I created this blog. I wanted a space were I could speak freely and to connect with others that have the same view points as myself. I also wanted to have a page where not everything is based of Wicca on the witches topics. I found that a lot of websites are Wicca based which is hard for someone to find their own path to connect with when they just think Wicca has taken over the world sort of thing. Theres so many books based on the Wicca side but not on the other side of things. It's why I try my hardest to do topics that could be useful for whatever path you are on. Saying that I have a very hard time creating posts that don't touch the subject in some way. I try to do topics that are useful but also informative and that can be hard at times. Last year creating blog posts was second nature to me. I would do a full week covering other stores for work or being in my own store and work on blog ideas. This worked well but it also meant my whole focus wasn't on the post at hand. I was tired a lot and finding the will to find great topics was hard and stressful. This blog is my child, I love it and will continue to post topics that are helpful. Its why I have decided to change it up and go back to my basics when I created this blog. I wanted to have great content for you my followers and a way to speak my voice to the world. That on my view hasn't been going on for awhile which pains me. It's now why I am doing more posts like this, alongside my witchy topics because I want to connect to you more and also I would love to answer your questions. I will do monthly posts asking for questions for my blog on my instagram account. My goal this year is to connect with you all more and to create content that I am happy with. There will still be the herb and crystal posts which have done really well. They are handy to have and is jam packed with information. I may change the layout on some posts too, just to create a better flow. The next couple of posts will be a trail of layouts ect, just to see what works and what doesn't. If you have any questions at all, message me on my instagram account. @PaganVibesOnly. I would love to hear from you all and also try to create content you are looking for. I will see you all in the next post and I do hope you enjoy the changes I am putting in place. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So today is the first box of the year from Freya's Cauldron. Now this box is amazing like all her others but this time the packaging is different because they are now using eco friendly packaging and reusable items that you wont hurt the plant with. I did mention this in the last post but I thought it was something to mention again. As always I will start with the information sheets and work my through the box with you all. I will also share some information about each product that they include in their introduction sheet that you get in each months box. So the full A4 sheets included in this months box are: - Introduction sheet to the box itself. - A sheet of the herbs included in this months box. - A sheet of information about the crystal included. - A sheet about product information and how to use the items. - A sheet about imbolc and different ways to celebrate the new sabbat on its way. Now that has been done I can go into a little more detail about the product information sheet. They have now included the sheet to help new witches or subscribers to ideas on how to use the products included in the box. They normally get asked what they could do with each item through email or chat on their Facebook page so this is a really helpful sheet and I will be reading through it myself to see what they would recommend and see if I would do things differently. The first item out of the box is this beautiful smelling New beginnings candle dressing oil. I love how each month you get a new candle or anointing oil because they are so handy to have. The information states that this is a special blend created just for the box and its a strong blend which can be used for spell work when you are starting new projects, cleansing and clearing of blockages. Great for letting go of old habits too. This was included in this months box because it goes really well with the imbolc sabbat which is all on new beginnings. The next item is always the spell candles we get in each box. This months colours includes Black, Pink,Purple and green which are all Imbolc sabbat that is really helpful to the following sabbat celebrations and altar bits. They have also included what each colour can be used for but I wont share that because you should have your own colour correspondences. The next item is the herb pots that we get each month too. Now I love getting these because I learn new herbs that I may of not known and it also builds up my magical herb collection which is now at 58 last I checked anyway. This months herbs is Agrimony and wormwood. Now I haven't heard of Agrimony before so I will be looking into this herb and seeing what uses it brings and the wormwood herb I have heard about but its always good to refresh my knowledge on that one too. This will be added to my ever growing collection this afternoon. The next item is the green Aventurine tumble-stone which is this months crystal of choice for them. They said that its a very useful stone and can be used for many different things. I have already got a couple of theses crystals but like I always say the more the better, you can never have enough crystals! This months jewellery item is this beautiful cage pendant with the choice of a handful of crystals that you can add inside. This also came with a sheet of information about all the crystals included in the kit. I really like this idea and its such a great item to have with you. I may not be wearing this item but I will make use to this in other ways. Just because I can only wear sterling silver or I come out in a rash. This months spell kit is all about the up and coming full moon. This kit is very useful for letting go of unwanted clutter and clearing blockages or getting rid of bad habits for the new year ahead. This spell does come with the bay leaves and candles needed to do it but you can add your own items too if you wish. I just love theses kits! The next item is one I really love and thats the Imbolc plaque that goes along with the set I am building by collecting theses boxes. Its beautiful and I am going to be adding this to my altar once I set up my Imbolc altar. I will add a image of my Imbolc altar to my instagram account @PaganVibesOnly if you want to check it out. The last two items go well together and are amazing. I got this beautiful wooden incense holder that I could have 5 sticks burning at once if I wanted to haha. I also got these beautiful smelling incense sticks which may have to be added to my list of faves because its amazing! Overall this months box was amazing like always and with the new packaging Its looking like this year is going to be such a great year for theses boxes. I hope you have gotten yours now and if not why haven't you? I will see you all in the next post :) Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So today I am going to be sharing a spell that I have been told the past month and I thought it would be such a great one to share with you all. If you have been having money troubles, like myself this is one spell to write down in your book of shadows and to do. This may help relief your troubles and also bring in some answers as well. You cast this spell to set yourself up for a great prosperous new year. Normally cast between new year itself and end of January depending on how busy you are and also if you can cast it when you wish too. Mix together equal parts of copal, sage and eucalyptus incense and burn over a charcoal disc. Fumigate your home with the smoke and as you do so chant: "I am prosperity, I am wishes fulfilled and needs met. I am the crown of success! I banish all debt and financial devastation! It shall not pass into the new year! It shall have no place in my life!" Seal the energy at the end by saying: "So mote it be!" This should help you with your money troubles and I do hope you have a great new year. If you wish to check out the shop of my friend who did theses beautiful spell cards which this one is from the link is bellow. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CraftyPlanningShop?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=746774192 Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x |
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