Blessed Yule!

Blessed Yule!

Yule, Yuletide or the winter solstice, happens usually around the 21st to the 25th (it depends for each year!) The winter solstice is a celebration of the longest night and shortest day of the year: after that, days will get longer again! It's a great time to celebrate home, family, friends, and reflect on ourselves. It also celebrates the eternal cycle of light and dark, life and death.

Crystals that are good to have for Yule are Ametrine, Orange Calcite, Ruby, Turquoise, Garnet, Bloodstone, Snowflake Obsidian and Onyx

For food, you can think of fruit (like oranges!), dried fruit, nuts, or even drink cider!

Colors that go well for Yule are, of course, red, green, white, silver and gold!

What to do for Yule

Decorate a Christmas/Yule tree. It's also a great activity if you are still in the broom closet

Bake a Yule log (the cake!), gingerbread cookies, plum pudding, or other recipes you usually make for the holidays. For example, fruit pies are always a big thing in my house during Christmas, so I also bake some for Yule!

Since Yule is a great time for reflection, make sure you take some time for that. Sit down and think about what happened in your life this year, meditate on it, try to see what was good and what was bad, and how to fix/change the latter. Do shadow work. Be grateful, make bullet points of your year's highlights. Using divination tools, like making a tarot spread about yourself/your situation, is also a great way to do that. Sometimes, it's even easier because the tool might bring up points you would've never thought of.

Have fun with family and friends! Yule is about the love and warmth around you, that also goes for the people you love.

Take a cleansing bath or shower! It's time to let go of things that you don't need anymore: and cleansing yourself helps to move on, to get rid of energies that no longer serve you. It will make some space for new things to come!

Go take a walk outside! Go appreciate the cold and how calm winter is.

Watch the sunrise and sunset. Afterall, it is the shortest day of the year, and it's nice to really see it.

With all that being said, I wish a blessed Yule to all! Take care of yourselves and have fun :)

Money Bowl

How to Create a Money Bowl

You will need:

Bowl

Rice - for abundance

Money Oil

Coins, cash, etc. (This can even be paper with dollar signs/money signs written in green or gold.)

Cinnamon sticks - for money

A green candle - for money, prosperity, abundance, wealth

Bay leaves

Basil (or other money related herbs and spices)

Pyrite - to attract money and prosperity

Clear Quartz - to amplify the spellwork

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Fill your bowl with rice up to a height you're comfortable with.

On a separate plate or napkin, layout the basil. (You can add any other spices or herbs that will help with your money bowl.) Dress the candle with your money oil. (This can be purchased pre-made from your local magick shop or you can make your own. If you don't have any, you can use whatever oil you have on hand.) Roll the candle in the herbs and make sure it's coated well.

Place the candle at the center of the bowl and start placing your stuff inside! I used rolled up cash (whatever amount you'd like), cinnamon sticks, basil with my petitions written on them, etc. Feel free to add more money-drawing items or remove what you feel isn't serving you.

Decorate your box with crystals and other items. I used a pyrite elephant and pyrite cluster since pyrite is associated with money and wealth, but I also used a clear quartz to amplify the shellwork and boost the money-drawing power.

I placed my bowl on top of my clear box with tips from the place I bartend at, but you can put your bowl wherever makes sense to you. The key is to "work" the bowl and continue to add/remove items, light the candle, add drops of oil, replace an old candle with a new one, etc. Since I have my bowl sitting on top of my money box, inserting money into the box is like I'm "feeding" the box/bowl with that energy.

I think the most important part to remember is that this bowl is personal and entirely up to you. Everyone's bowl will look different and people will "work" their bowls differently, which I think is really cool. There is no right or wrong way to make a money bowl, but it is a lot of trial and error. I'd love to hear what other people would use in their money bowl, so feel free to comment below to let me know!

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The correspondences listed above and noted in the description can be found in Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences.

✨🍂🪔 Blessed SAMHAIN 🪔🍂✨

May your honor those who passed this year and all the ancestors 

May the thinning of the veils allow for the wisdom of the ancestors to imbue you

May you be intimate with your darkness and find inspiration and resilience in it

May recollections of what has been fuel your attunement to and excitement for what is to be

May the turning of the year shower you with peace, clarity, strength, vision, and joy

May your Soul's wishes manifest as plentiful as seeds of a lush pomegranate

May the new cycle come bearing abundant fruits, gifts, and rewards for you

May you find wholeness and bliss in honoring all your relations, mother Earth, and Self

May you joyfully embrace the infinite cycles of life - birth, death, rebirth

May this Samhain cleanse your mind, heart, and being!

If you're seeing this, it's a sign to claim your energy ✨️ hit like & claim your manifestations ☆

🥕Vegetable Correspondences🥕

Artichoke- Love, lust, personal growth, protection, safety, sexual desires, temptation Asparagus- Aphrodisiac, cleansing, fertility, healing, lust, sex, power, unfaithfulness Avocado- Beauty, love, lust Beans- Decision making, grounding, love, lust, prosperity, protection Beet- Beauty, blood, desire, fertility, healing, love, passion, relationships, sexual energy

Bellpepper:

Red- Love, strength

Yellow- Intelligence, energy, focus, creativity

Green- Money

Broccoli- Healing, health, leadership, physical strength, prosperity, protection, wealth Brussels Sprouts- Determination, endurance, health, protection, stability, strength Cabbage- Anti-nightmare, fertility, lunar presence, money, prosperity, protection, sleep Carrots- Desire, dispel illusions, fertility, healing, lust, sexuality, protection, visions Cauliflower- Emotions, feminine energy, growth, lunar energy, personal protection Celery- Calming, concentration, lust, mental clarity, passion, peace, psychic awareness, sexuality Corn- Abundance, blessings, fertility, luck, prosperity, protection, rituals,  spirituality Cucumber- Calming, chastity, fertility, healing, hinders lust, peace, relaxation, stress relief Eggplant- Hoodoo, money, prosperity, sexuality, wealth Horseradish- Anti-negativity, breaks hexes, energy, passion, protection, purification Kale- Healing, strength Leek- Anti-impurity, exorcisms, friendships, healing, love, protection, purification, strength Lettuce- Astral travel, divination, love, lunar magick, meditation, protection, sex, sleep

Mushrooms:

Button- Protection

Chanterelle- Love, romance, protection

Chicken of the Woods- New beginnings

Enoki- Psychic power

Morel- Protection, memory, clarity

Oyster- Prosperity, protection, psychic abilities

Portabella- Strength

Shiitake- Healing, love, divination

Olive- Fertility, healing, lust, peace, protection, spirituality Onion- Anti-negativity, dreams, endurance, health, lust, money, prosperity, protection, stability Pea- Love Potato- Energy, healing, hoodoo, luck, money, poppet, stability, wealth Pumpkin- Banishing, divination, love, lunar magick, prosperity, protection, rebirth, wishes Radish- Breaks curses, fire magick, lust, protection Spinach- Prosperity Squash- Spirituality Sweet Potato- Friendship, harmony, grounding, nurturing, sensuality Tomato- Anti-negativity,creativity, love, offerings, passion, prosperity,  protection, repel evil Turnip- Death, ending relationships, fertility, protection, sexual energy Zucchini- Faithfulness, fertility, lust, prosperity, protection, relationships, sex magick

Cat-Sìth | Scottish Folklore

If you have ever wondered why black cats are associated with Halloween, the cat-sìth/cait-sìth may be the reason.

They are described as giant black cats with a spot on their chests, an arched back, and long hair always standing upright and bristly.

“Elfin cats (cait shìth) are explained to be of a wild, not a domesticated, breed, to be as large as dogs, of a black colour, with a white spot on the breast, and to have arched backs and erect bristles” “Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland” by John Gregorson Campbell (1900)

On Samhain(the early version of Halloween), when the cat-sìth was said to roam around, many families would leave out a bowl of milk to keep in the cat-sìth‘s good favour. If you did that, you would be blessed, if you forgot, you would be cursed. 

As well as that, some people in the Scottish highlands were often fearful of the cat-sìth stealing the souls of the recently dead and carrying them away to the otherworld, so people would stand watch over their loved one until they could be buried. This was called Feil Fadalach or Late Wake. Essentially, this involved a large number of activities to distract the cat-sìth, such as games, dancing, contests, riddles, and even catnip spread over the house. All the fires in the room with the body would be put out, since cats like warmth (though this would also help keep the body from decomposing as quickly).

Eventually, a change of beliefs changed the cat-sìth from a fairy, into a witch. The myth that cats have nine lives is said to come from the fact that a witch could transform to a cat exactly 8 times. If she did it a 9th time, she would be a cat forever.

High-landers commonly explained the cat síth as a transformed witch, not a fairy.  A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology

The cat-sìth is not to be confused with Big Ears, the demonic god of the cats. He was said to be even bigger and more ferocious.

“But Big Ears was a monstrous demon cat who had only a slight connection with the Cait Sith.” “A Encyclopedia of Fairies” by Katharine Briggs (Published in 1976)

That is a story I won’t be covering, because I think it will be too troubling for people. Putting it bluntly, there was a belief that if you brutally tortured a certain number of cats to death in a certain way(known as the taghairm), Big Ears would appear, and grant you wishes in return for your soul.