Merry meet everyone, Today I will be talking to you all about working in your book of shadows. Now I have done two posts about starting one in the past and I thought it was a good time to refresh and redo this topic. Now when I was starting out my mother talked about how special it was keeping a book of shadows and she told me it was more like a diary than a work book. I never really understood what she meant and went many years jumping between what people call a grimore and a book of shadows. Now I have many books of shadows under my belt and I hold them all very close and dear to me personally because they all have information and journal entries that speaks to my journey as a witch. That for me is why I personally keep a book of shadows because its a special place for you to keep all your workings out and what happened within spell workings and information you found really helpful at that time. I have seen many other witches use their book of shadows as a grimore which works really well for them and personally I have done the same in the past. I also believe if you are starting out then this may help you more on your journey than just keeping journal entries because your book of shadows is a body of work that goes along with your magical studies. Thats how I have seen my book of shadows since the start and if you speak to other witches they may have different views on their book of shadows. I have gone through so many different books that you really don't have to spend loads of money on your own book of shadows. I know witches that use notebooks instead of leather bound books. For myself I started of with a slate book which was really hard to work in but it was a gift from my mother which I still own. I then went to a notebook style book to jot workings out in which again didn't work for my style. I finally after many moons found a leather bound book that I personally worked in for months and that spoke to me. The down side is I filled that book up and found myself lost again in hunting the perfect leather bound book for what I would call my book of shadows. The one I am using at the moment is the one pictured above. Now this isn't leather bound as it looks. Its a sketch book style notebook inside a leather bound cover so I can put a note book in once its filled up or another sketch book if I wished. This for me has worked well for the last couple of months because I have been working with watercolours in my book of shadows and becoming very creative within my workings. That being said I personally am a very creative person and what I do may not work for yourself. Don't stress out if you have jumped between so many different books that you feel lost many witches go through the same thing such as I did. Don't put so much stress on working on your book of shadows because its meant to be fun and relaxing to work in. If you put stress on working in your book of shadows you will just not work in them. You will put stress on the idea of one and it wouldn't become fun and more like a task that needs to be done. A book of shadows should never feel like a chore it should always be respected as a fun past time that you look upon with a smile and warmth when you complete one. Another point I want to make is the topics you put inside your book of shadows. If you are just starting out then I can list a couple topics here for you to start of with but if you have been a witch for many moons like myself then you find you revisit old subjects and its really enlightening for myself when I do. Theres so much information and knowledge to do with magic and the different topics that branch of that you will never learn everything the first time round. I will spend the rest of my life learning new aspects of magic because its never ending and when you learn that earlier on your path the better you will be. I had a fellow witch when I was starting out trying to learn everything so fast and she burnt out and gave up. Its not a race, its not a exam or a competition, this is a lifestyle that many of use were born for and no matter where your background is you can become a witch. You just need to understand that time is your friend and that you don't need to rush into anything. The topics I mentioned before that you could start your book of shadows off are: - History of witchcraft, - Types of witches - Types of magic, - Divination. Those four topics have many different branches you can follow and find so much information for them. Theses will help you build your magical base or foundation for your studies and no matter where you go theses subjects will follow you. You may as well start of on theses subjects than others. I hope you find this post helpful and useful to your mental health. I have heard so many witches say they are overwhelmed and I don't want you all to feel this pressure with your craft. This is a special path you are on and you should take your time and honour yourself and the magic you are learning. As always you can keep up to date with all things magical on my instagram and facebook under the name of @paganvibesonly. Come join the ever growing community and help each other in the progress. I hope to see you all in the next post and as always please stay safe in theses strange times. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x
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Merry meet everyone, So I have seen a lot of people have taken interest in the last couple of moon posts I have done so I thought I would come with you today with the different moon meanings for each month and what you could do each month to use theses monthly moons. The information I am using for this post is from my book of shadows. I can't remember where I got it from because its written down but please be mindful that its your connection to the moon that also matters. I will start going through each month and add bits that I personally do to, just to give you some ideas. January: This time is to help conserve energy by working on your personal problems that doesn't involve anyone else. It is also a great time to cast protection rites and reversing spells you no longer need. This month the energy flow can become quite sluggish and below the surface. For me personally I use this month to cast blessings to help me improve this year and what may help me more forward. I also find it really handy to do protection spells for my home too. February: This month is all about loving yourself and accepting responsibility for actions you have created in the past. Theses may be errors in judgement or just what you put out there in the universe. This is also a great time to forgive yourself and making plans for the future. At this time of year the energy flow is still working towards the surface a bit like mother earth herself. I always find this month handy to do spell work on growth and healing. March: This month is all about new beginnings and breaking illusions. You can also use this month to see the truth in your life however much it may hurt you. Again the energy in this month is breaking into the open and that means its a good time for growing, prospering and exploring your magic. This month is all about the balance between light and dark. April: This month is all about working on your emotional balance and working on underlying issues you may have within yourself. The energy flow in this month is great for creating and producing a good time for change. You should be taking advantage of the opportunities that comes your way and building on your self-confidence issues. May: This month is a great time to focus on strengthening the connections with the spiritual protectors and other beings around you. This months energy flow is in full force making this a good time for working on your intuition, propagating and connecting with our great mother earth and the nature spirits whom are now awake. June: This month is all about making decisions and taking responsibility. It is also a great time for rewarding yourself for positive traits. This is also the month the earth tides are turning and making this a great time for protection, strengthening and prevention spells. I also use this month to spend time with mother earth herself. July: This month is a great month for dream working and divination. The energy flow is now slowing down and becoming more relaxed, this means its an ideal month for success and prosperity spells. August: This month is all about harvesting and gathering all the great crops. Its also about appreciating what the earth has given us to cover ourselves over the winter periods. The energy flow is slowing more now and that means this month is a great time for vitality, health and friendship workings. September: This month is all about organising and strengthening your mind, body and soul. Removing all the clutter in your life and helping you clear the path ahead of you. The energy flow for this month is now starting to rest which is great for workings on cleansing your home and self care. The dark and light sides of the earth are now balanced. This month is also special for myself because its my birthday month and I also do workings of good luck for the future ahead. October: This month is all about inner cleansing and letting go of baggage that you may have been carrying around with you all year. Its also about balance and inner harmony. This month is great for mediating on the balance of karma and working on your emotional control. November: This month is all about working on transformation. It is a great time to prepare for the coming winter season and time to strengthen communication with your deities. The energy for this month is taking root and preparing to flow once more for the winter seasons. December: This month is all about working on your spiritual path. Its also a month which the earth tides are turning and renewing oneself. This month is a great time to reach out to friends and family and helping others. This month is also about the death of one story and the renewal of another. Overall if you feel one month is better to do your spell workings than another follow your gut because its all about what you connect better with. This is just a simple guideline that can help you connect with the moons more. If you want to keep in touch away from this blog then follow me on instagram @paganvibesonly, I am always one click away for a chat and I post daily on aspects of my life I dont post here. Mostly witch related but some can be planner too haha. Anyway thats all for me today I hope you are all keeping yourselves safe and I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So I have been asked by many 'baby witches' what they should research to start them off. I have seen this to be a common question that most people ask when starting the path anyway. I even asked this when I first started out and I was luckily enough to have family members to guide me as such. That being said its such a massive area of research you could dive into and it can get really confusing at times. This is why I have created a list of aspects you should really research first because you need to have some understanding before going forward into other subjects in the group of magic. Firstly you should always research the history of witches and witchcraft as a whole. If you don't then why go on a path that you wont fully understand. You should always learn where it came from and why its still about today before going forward. Its common sense but then again people still ask why. For me personally you should understand what and where witchcraft came from and learn from the past. They were wise women and men who followed the path way before us and we learn their teachings that way. Its also just a great read for you the understand where magic comes from and why we are so connected to it. Another great subject for you to research is crystals. Yes I am a big lover of crystals and you shouldn't be surprised they are on here but they are really handy to have. Buy yourself a book about all the basic crystals and start from there. They are really handy for simple blessings, energy transfers even offerings to your gods. I use crystals for everything from cleansing rooms to healing myself or even when I have writers block. I just love them. There super handy to know about and they can transform your life if you use them right. Magical tools is another subject you should research. This is one you should understand early on, but you don't need to own all or any of theses items straight away. I spent years building my collection and I still don't own it all because I am looking for the perfect items. When your doing your book of shadows create some pages about the magical tools you could use within your craft but also ones you could use instead of. I did this and it was super fun to do and really made me think what I already owned that I could use it for. Colour properties is another great subject matter that you should learn early on in your craft. You should understand what colours represent while using candles or your earlier spell workings. Don't worry if you dont connect that feeling to the colour your using. You should always feel and follow your gut when using colour representing but you should also have some guide line while starting off. Familiars and deities are some really good subjects you should start looking into. You don't have to have either one straight away it took me years to have either one and even then I still have a good understanding about each subject matter and still love learning more about the deities side. This year I have actually focused my time researching Celtic deities because theres so many to learn about. Follow your path and see where they take you. Herbs is another handy subject you should learn about earlier on your path because we witches love herbs. I have over 60 herbs in my collection and I am still learning about them to this day but I have a very good understanding about each herb and what I can and can not use them for. You should always know what herb your using and the safety side of using them before even trying to do anything with them. I am a green witch and love using them but I will never use a herb I don't fully understand. Some other subjects you could research is mediating, being Eco friendly within your home or even covens. Theses are all subjects I have been asked about but not as often as the others. I will be doing a blog post in the future about what kind of things you can put in your book of shadows so keep a look out for that. But for now that is everything done for today's post, I do hope this helped you start off your research focuses and I am hoping to do a post about books that may help you for theses subjects later on this year. If you have any questions then send them my way on instagram @paganvibesonly I am always just a click away and I am happy to help you on your path. For now that is everything and I will see you all in the next post. Stay safe everyone. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So I am here today to speak to you all about my Litha sabbat plan. Now you should all know by now that I have theses inserts in my witches planner that gives you a page to plan what you want to do for the sabbat. Now I have planned this a month ahead as I am getting ahead for this blog just in case I am back at work. That being said a lot of what I have planned has been put in place to cover being in lock-down or not. So my plan for the day is to spend time within mother nature. So I will either go for a walk or a bike ride and i'll take my book of shadows with me and just sit somewhere and be one with nature. I love that idea and to be fair I have been spending more time within nature now that I am not in work at the moment. Or as I am writing this anyway. I also have planned to have my altar changed for this sabbat. The last sabbat my altar didn't change much because lock-down had really effected me and I didn't feel like celebrating anything back then. I have also planned for my altar to have quite a few crystals on it this time. I have been buying a lot more crystals as of lately and I just love having all of them on my altar. I will also have my blue altar cloth on there unless I can get myself a green one but last time I checked where I buy my altar cloths from is closed. I also plan to create a fruity pudding that goes along side my slimming world diet just to mix both together. I haven't decided what I am making yet it depends on what I can get my hands on but I will be sharing this on instagram @paganvibesonly if this does ahead. I will also be doing my Litha sabbat blessing which I do every year at either sunrise or early morning depending on when I wake up. I won't go into detail about that as its very personal for myself but there are many different blessings out there if you want some ideas for your own celebration. The next two sections on the insert as always is my altar ideas and the notes. Now my altar ideas always change when making my altar up I go with the flow and see what works and what doesn't. My plan is always like a guideline that way and also gives me what I want on my altar but not all of it. The notes is other aspects I should consider for the celebration such as incense scents and colours of candles ect. This gives me some good ideas for when I am working on my altar and my blessings. I feel like this really helps me get into the sabbat more and even if I am back at work by this point then I will celebrate Litha on one of my days off. I don't like missing celebrating sabbats and its one thing that while in lock-down has been effected by that. I hope you all have a blessed Litha and that you are all being safe. I hope you have enjoyed today's post and that it has given you some ideas, and I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So today I thought I would do a post about the different goddesses of the moon. There are so many different faces the moon wears or depending on the story you hear the deity that represents the planet. I have created a small list of all the goddesses that I found out about and some information to go with each one. I thought it would be handy for you all to know which ones are connected to the moon if you wish to look into theses any further. But before I go into the list of different goddesses I will first go on a bit about the moon herself. She is considered to be the triple goddess because of her three phases, new full and waning or dark. The triple goddess represents the three stages of a females life, the maiden, the mother and the crone. This is why you see theses a lot through out witchcraft. The moon can also be known as the great mother or magna dei. There are also considered to be god connected to the moon like Thoth the egyptian god of the moon and another is sin, the Sumerian god. I have found nine goddesses that are connected to the moon and represent the moons goals. I will go through them now, if there is any you wish to connect with them then you should do your own research into the one that draws you close. Artemis is a Greek goddess that carries a quiver filled with arrows and a bow. She is always accompanied by the lionesses, dear and birds and she represents childbirth. Selene is also a Greek goddess wearing wings and a head band. She is normally seen riding in a chariot drawn by white horses and is connected to magic. Diana is a Roman goddess carrying a bow and arrow. She is normally seen with a hound and stag and she represents fertility and nature. Hecate is also another Greek goddess who has three heads. She is usually standing back to back with a horse, hound and lioness. She represents magic, sorcery, death and the underworld it self. Sophia is a Phrgian goddess who represents the holy spirit, she is known for divine knowledge and wisdom. Arianrhod is a Celtic goddess wearing silver robes and holding a silver wheel. She is known for divination. Ceidwen is another Celtic goddess who is known as the dark moon goddess with a cauldron and white sow. She is well known for herbs and grains, divination, spells and death. Isis is the Egyptian goddess wearing a crescent headdress supporting a full moon, she is known for magic, fertility and regeneration. Cybele is another Phrgian goddess known as the dark moon goddess wearing a crescent moon headdress with pomegranates and bees. She is also seen carrying finger bones. She is known for nature, wild beasts and dark magic. I hope you found this blog post useful and that you find time yourself to research each one of theses goddesses. I personally am drawn to the Celtic goddesses in this list and will be spending more time researching them. As always you can connect with me on instagram @paganvibesonly, I post daily about my witchy life and blog related bits too. I will see you all in the next post. Stay safe and Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, Today I am going to be doing a fun post about some of the superstitions I found while researching about the moon. This will only be a small post but its something to brighten your day. I dont really believe in superstitions myself but some of theses are really worth a think about. I have made a note about theses in my book of shadows because I feel like it may come in handy in the future even if I dont feel it will help much now. I would love to hear what you all think about theses though. The first superstition is in order to encourage your finances to grow, the new moon marks an auspicious time to turn coins in your pocket while bowing to the crescent in the night sky. So for me I would do a finance spell around this time but whatever floats your boat. The second one is don't leave your washing out at night, if moonlight shines upon it, it shines upon clothes for a funeral. Now I dont leave clothing out side at night anyway because who would but this one I have heard from my nan who does believe in this. The third one is if you touch a silver coin when you see the moon, it will bring you good luck. I love the idea of this one and will be carrying a silver coin with me now just to try about this superstition. The fourth one is, it is considered very unlucky to marry during the month of may or during any of the waning/dark quarters. Conversely, it is considered lucky to marry in June and during any waxing or full moon phases, but do not let the light of the moon shine upon your nuptial bed, or you will court bad luck.Now this one I may have to follow may be just to give me as much luck as I can haha. The fifth is a baby born at the time of a full moon is a child of fortune. See I am now going to google all my loved ones birthdays and see if any of them had been born on the full moon. The last one is, it is lucky to hold a newborn child up to the light of a new moon, and give thanks as well as prayers for a long life. I really love this idea and will consider this one when the time comes. What do you all think about theses superstitions, do you know any about the moon that I haven't heard yet, let me know though instagram @paganvibesonly. I am always posting there blog and witchy related things. I hope you did enjoy this post and I will see you all in the next post. Stay safe and Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, Today's post is all about the wheel of the year thats connected to the moon. The information I have piled into this post is all from my lunar research that I had done at the beginning of this year. I thought it would be helpful to share it all with you. As you may know our current wheel of the year is calculated by the position of the earth in relation to the sun, this means measuring the length of the solar day rather than by the far less predictable monthly cycle of the moon. There are some cultures that still calculate time with the moon cycle though such as Hebrew and Muslims. Buddhists also use full and new moons to keep track of important times of the year, they believe Buddha was born and achieved enlightenment and died during the period of the full moon. They still use the moon calendar to this day because of this. The biggest festival they celebrate that happens every year is the Losar which means new year and that starts on the full moon in February. You calculate the lunar year by months rather than days and each month incorporates the new, full, waning and dark aspect of the moon. The lunar month actually has 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 28 seconds in each month. There are many solar festivals that were originally lunar festivals, which is why they appear in the lunar wheel of the year. Easter is still to this day calculated according to when a particular full moon falls in the year. The Celtic celebrations of Imbolc and Beltane were also dedicated to the moon. There are days dedicated to the moon goddesses too. Diana's Festivals are called the Ides of May, and falls at the same time of the may full moon. This celebration women would clean and tidy their grotto, streams and water holes and then wash the water over themselves as an act of cleansing and to enhance personal fertility. Diana can also be venerated at the harvest moon. The goddess Hecate is the dark aspect of the moon, she has her annual festival day on the 13th of august. This in ancient times would be called for her blessing on fair weather, so that the harvest could be brought home safely for the colder seasons. There are so many honoured stories for the moon in different cultures. The Celtics marked their festivals for the rising of the moon on the evening before the day of that said event, and often lit ceremonial fires to honour the moon and the festivals itself. As a pagan we celebrate the lunar cycle in the form of full moon esbats. There are ceremonies involved in celebrating the full moon and sharing a feast after any requests of dedications have been made to the moon or whom ever you follow. In many ancient cultures you could find that torches were lit to lead the rays of the moon down to the earth, this ensured the moon continued influence upon crops, childbirth and the weather itself. I hope you found today's post really interesting and I will see you all in the next post. Until then why don't you follow me on instagram @paganvibesonly for daily posts and updates about the blog. I hope you are all staying safe. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, Today I am going to be sharing with you all about what I have learned about the moon. I started doing my research into the moon back in January when I was feeling more connected to the moon in a long time. I am doing this post from notes I did when I was doing my research because I feel we should understand the moon more as witches but also because it has such a big power over our lives anyway. Because the moon is always changing its faces to us and showing us how magical the planet is we should have a bigger understanding on that wonderful planet. We all know that the moon changes its faces to us because of the sun and depending on when the sun is in that month depends on the face the moon shows us, but its always locked in this circle of change. Never missing a step but also controlling the seasons, the tides and sometimes my mood swings. The moon is believed to be a she which really connected with me because she never misses a beat, shes immortal never changing, always standing strong in the face of everything. Because the moon controls the weather many believe that its her way of mood swings because she can give or take whenever she feels like it. She can water and look after our crops or give us storms to ruin them. She is beautiful and dangerous all in one being and thats why many believe she is a women. Through out history many have given the moon a goddess to represent the beautiful planet and each goddess has a double-sided personalty. Kind to some and fierce to others. Beautiful and adored with the power to create great destruction but also having the power to create great things. There are many stories about how the world begun and the moon with the sun has always been included in theses stories. Aztec mythology use to call the moon Xochiquetzal, companion to the sun and protector of the lovers. The moon was also linked to the family and to childbirth. The Mayans took the moon as a deity that was called Lxchel and was feared by the mood swings she had, stating she was the bringer of floods and storms. They pictured her wearing a skirt decorated with bones and her crown was a serpent. Again though despite their description of the moon she was also known as the protector of women and children. In Sumerian mythology the moon deity was male though called Nanna or Sin depending on who spoke of him. He was worshipped in the ancient city of Ur. They believed he was reasonable for fertility of the land, for food production and the protection of herds of animals. The representation of the male and female bond between the moon, the waning being female and the waxing being male was undertaken between the bond between the king Ur, embodying the god sin and the goddess in the person of a priestess. By performing this ceremony, they were enacting the continuance and cooperation of the two opposite sex's. There are many different stories about the moon in the north American native tribes. They believed the spider was the weaver of the web of creation, producing the physical life on earth. That the spider is universally linked to the life giving qualities of the moon. There is also another story about a snail because of its moisture trail and its seeming ability to vanish and reappear is also linked to the moon. There is some saying that the thought of the snail could travel into the underworld and re-emerge unharmed. There is also a Mexican moon god that is shown with a shell of a snail. This Mexican moon god was called Tecciztecatl. There are so many different stories around the world about the moon which are really interesting and I would love to hear if you know any other stories that I haven't seen or heard of yet. I love the fact the moon is this all powerful being and that we humans have so many different ways to describe this beautiful planet. Anyway thats all for today I may do some more moon related posts because I just love the subject. As always you can keep in touch and update by following me on instagram @paganvibesonly. I post daily about weird and wonderful things I do in my daily life and also always trying to connect with you all. I will see you all in the next post. Keep safe and Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, So today is another moon phase post but this one is slightly different. So this post will be magical focuses you can do in between two moon phases. So the waning moon to full moon or the waxing moon to full moon or even you can create magic on either moon phase. This is coming from my personal book of shadows so if you don't agree with any of theses you can remove or add your own as I am always encouraging you to follow your instincts more than just what you see online. List of focuses for Waning moon to full moon: - Abundance List of focuses for waxing moon to full moon: - Divination - Fertility - Goals for attainment - Happiness - Inspiration - Love magic - Obtaining things and goals - Power - Wisdom to increase - Wishes So one list is bigger than the other one but thats because I personally use more moon phases than others because of work ect. Like I said before you can always add or remove what ever you feel the need to do. This is just a rough guide for you to start of with and I am hoping this comes in handy for you in the future. I am planning on doing some more moon magic focused posts in the future so keep your eyes out for them and as always you could follow me on instagram @paganvibesonly to keep updated on all things witchy and blog. I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Merry meet everyone, Today we have another post about the moon phases for magic but this moon phase is all about the waxing moon. I will be sharing a list of magical focuses that you can do on this moon phase to help enhance your focus and the magic you create. As always this list is from my personal book of shadows so if theres something you don't agree with them leave it out or add your own. List for waxing moon: - Career advancement - Energy raising - Friendship - Garden planting spells - Good luck - Growth of any kind - Healing to improve - Money to increase - Protection - Sexual desires to increase - Strength - Travel - Weather to bring forth As always you can add and include any other magical focus if you feel the need as I have only created this list to help beginners get a footing into the world of magic and to help them know where to do things. As always you can follow me on instagram @paganvibesonly to keep up dated on all things witchy and blog. I am always just one click away to answer any questions so get in touch. I will see you all in the next post. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x |
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