Rose Ariadne's Chitchcraft Blog

Dear Friends,

Mediation is a vital part to any spiritual practice. It has been part of my practice of Wicca for over 20 years. Meditation teaches the mind to focus, and can also allow you to tune into your body and spirit. Let’s face it, in today’s society we are constantly bombarded by images, opinions and stress. Meditation allows you to take a step back and spend some time just with yourself.

With regular practice, meditation introduces you to the initial stages of trance. Don’t start out meditating with the intention of practicing for hours on end. Five minutes is a great start that you can build on as you progress.
There are many different types of meditation. For each of them, you’ll want to pick a time and place where it is quiet and you won’t be disturbed, just like with your magickal practice. Start out by grounding yourself. It is recommended that you take a seated position, instead of trying to stand or lie down. If need be, support your back by resting against a wall or a piece of furniture.

The first type of meditation that I use regularly is the silent mantra for stress release. I’m sure you need more of this is your life, right? Stress release is so important to work into your life immediately. We are overstressed and overworked these days. The mind, body and spirit cannot work properly when overly stressed.

To start the silent mantra, choose a single word. This word will be your mantra. I’ve used “calm,” “love,” “peace,” and “power” in my practice. Once you’re seated, clear your mind and relax as best you can. Allow yourself at least two minutes of relaxing before you start trying to use the mantra. When you start, allow your word to repeat itself in your mind. Allow your breathing to start slowing down as your mind repeats the word over and over again. It will fall into a natural repetitive pattern. Continue as long as you can.

Alpha meditation is the method I use when I want to talk to my spirit guides. Before you start meditating, light a white candle that will be placed out of your view. Dim the lights and use some soft music. Make sure the music is at a low volume, you won’t actually be listening to the music. Instead, it provides white noise to block out any other sounds. Prepare your body and mind, and then envision in your mind’s eye a blank white wall. Envision the wall turning to red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and then indigo. Keep your vision at indigo for as long as possible. Reverse the order of the colors before ending your session.
I also use a relaxation exercise quite frequently that helps relax all of my muscles. I use this often before my regular rituals to prepare my body in addition to a ritual bath. Dim the lights and use relaxing music at a low volume. Settle yourself in a position where you are stretched out completely. For this exercise, you can lie on the floor. Starting with your feet, contract the muscles and hold for three seconds. Then release the muscles in your feet, and continue up the length of legs contracting your shins and releasing. Proceed with the rest of your muscles all the way up to your face. Repeat at least three times.

Remember, meditation doesn’t have to be scary or done in a specific way. Within the context of the practice of Wicca, its purpose is to relax your mind, body and soul for your magickal work. Meditation in the three forms I’ve described doesn’t take much time at all and the benefits are really wonderful.
Brightest Blessing,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

Fire is purification, power, light and destruction. But it can also be a powerful tool used in simple petition spells. I frequently use fire to carry my desire to the God and Goddess, and the method has never failed me.In my coven, we perform a fire petition spell every full moon. We believe that when the Goddess is at her fullest, in her mother stage, she is most giving and most receptive to our requests. The fire petition method is used for something that you are truly lacking and need to have in your life. It should be used with the utmost respect for the process, and for magick as well.

Before you set up your sacred space or prepare your altar, you’ll need to write down your petition. I recommend using no more than a two inch square of parchment, as this seems to burn quickly, yet leave enough room to write. I’ve found that using a pencil helps bind the petition to the paper. I’m not sure why, but it has seemed to work better that way for our circle. I suspect it is because a pencil is made of more natural elements than a pen. If you don’t have parchment, you can use a brown paper bag in a pinch. However, most occult shops sell parchment in packages for very reasonable rates. It is a good thing to have in your magickal arsenal.

Another reason for keeping the piece of parchment paper small, other than the quick burning properties, is so that you can clarify your petition down to its purest essence. Your request should be no more than four to five words. Before the ritual think about what you really need this month. What does your body, soul or mind cry out for? State that as succinctly as possible.

When I’ve tried to write petitions out in a longer form, I tend to ramble and lose sight of what I want granted to me. In my experience, these longer petitions do not really work as well. When your request is short and succinct, you’ll have a better time sending it to the God and Goddess. Remember; don’t try to fit in everything you need into this one petition. You can do this on a monthly basis, so remember to just include what you need at the moment.

To prepare your altar, gather your normal Full Moon ritual items and also a cauldron. Make sure the cauldron is set on something heatproof, like a trivet or silicon potholder. Also have some water nearby to dowse the flame when you need to. I use grain alcohol to power my fire, only a shot is needed. Pour the alcohol into your cauldron. I use my smaller cauldron for personal use (which is about two inches tall and three inches wide. For coven rituals, I’ve found that by four inch by six-inch cauldron works fine. Make sure to have a long handled lighter or match so you avoid any accidental burns when you light the flame.

After casting the circle, calling the corners and inviting the deities, light the alcohol in the cauldron. Then step forward and place your petition into the fire. There is no need to say your request out loud, but as you back up know that it will be answered. Once you’ve placed your petition in (or everyone is done if you are in a coven), begin the following chant:
Fire, fire, burning higher, making music like a choir
Bring to me my heart’s desire.
Repeat this 3 to 9 times depending on your preference. Close the circle as you normally would.
Fire is a powerful aid in your petitions’try it out the next Full Moon. Just make sure to do it safely!
Love And Light,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

My coven and I recently reached what I like to call the “ritual blahs”. After three rituals in a row where no one (including myself) seemed to be excited about out meeting, I decided to shake things up. As the coven entered my home, I pulled each one aside and handed them a script and a costume and then instructed them to change. Instead of simply honoring Demeter that night, we were going to act out her story.My coven members were all excited and I could feel the group being re-energized as we performed the little play. We still did some standard ritual things, like casting a circle. But the focus of our night was on Demeter’s story and we honored her by acting it out. For those who hadn’t been too familiar with Demeter, it helped clarify who we were honoring and why. And for those of us who knew her well, the play helped breathe new life into this old legend and connect us with the spirit of the Goddess.

Not your standard ritual in the least, yet it was effective and fun. And we’ve incorporated the practice of playacting into our ritual schedule since then.

Having a non-standard ritual is a great way to break up the monotony that can develop when a coven focuses on one type of ritual for too long. Ritual is not just a time to honor the deities; it is a time for celebration, fellowship and excitement! Are your rituals getting bland? Are you stuck in the rote monotony of the standard ritual? I encourage you to break out of the mold and experiment with your rituals.

If you’ve never tried a play before, introduce one to your coven. The legends of the Gods and Goddesses were taught in this manner for centuries. Get out a good mythology book and pick a deity that you want to honor with a play. Assign roles to everyone. Don’t worry if you work in a single gender coven, the ancient Greek actors played both genders in their plays. Have fun with your play, gather costumes and props. Relax into your character and laugh with your coven members. If we wanted a deity that required solemn honor, we would all be Catholic, right? The God and Goddess enjoy our mirth and happiness.

Another simple way to get out of a ritual rut is to hold your coven in a different location. This tip works for solitaries as well. Over time, our sacred space begins to be friendly, and sometimes too friendly. We get comfortable and start to ignore the special qualities it has. Moving ritual to a different location for just one night can shake things up and bit and energize the group. Try doing ritual at someone else’s house, or make arrangements to hold a circle in the forest or out on a beach. Being in a different environment will awaken everyone’s senses and will even make your standard ritual place exciting upon return.

Sometimes the best ritual change comes from silence. Using a guided meditation in place of the ritual chants is a good way to build energy and breathe new life into your coven. The leader of the coven, or another trusted member, can lead the group through a meditation. We’ve done guided mediations through the elements, we’ve visited different parts of the world and we’ve met on the astral together. No one missed the normal chants and poems on those nights, and we all left circle feeling refreshed and very connected.

While there is a standard way to do rituals, this doesn’t mean that you can’t stir the pot, so to speak, once in a while. The key to having a successful coven is to spice things up from time to time to keep the group interested and ready to experience magick together.

I hope you’ve been inspired to turn your standard ritual into something fresh, fun and exciting!
Brightest Blessing,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”

Dear Friends,

The thing that bothers me most in my magickal working is not having all of the supplies on hand that I need to. I often tease my husband that I am going to open up an occult shop just so I can have easy access to all of the herbs, candles, oils, incense and other items that I need in any given moment. More often than not, though, I end up improvising with what I have…. and I still get the results that I want.Magickal improvisation is a way to get around the lists of items that most spells require. If you’ve been collecting spells and rituals, or if you’ve collected some magick books, you’ll not doubt have noticed the sometimes lengthy list of herbs, oils, incense that is required for spellworking. Some people will tell you that you absolutely must not deviate from this list. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret’those lists are really more of guidelines than hard, “written in stone” requirements.

To understand why, you need to understand the process of writing a spell (or have written one yourself). Let me give you an example that I dealt with recently. I wanted to create a prosperity spell to be used by my coven to bless the coming season for everyone. I scheduled the ritual for a Sunday, because that is a day associated with prosperity. Since I want to create the energy of prosperity I also choose colors associated with it (such as green and gold candles). I write down in my spell to use a green candle dressed with Cinnamon Oil, and light some prosperity incense (a special blend that I make).

It came down to Saturday night before the ritual, and I realized that not only did I not have cinnamon oil, but also I was fresh out of my prosperity incense for the next day. There was no time to visit the store for supplies, and the coven was expecting a prosperity spell. Did I a panic? Well to tell the truth, a little. I was disappointed that I hadn’t checked my supplies earlier in the week, or at least check them before I wrote the ritual.

Since I know my correspondences well, I know that cinnamon oil is not the only oil that can be used to dress a prosperity candle. I did have Patchouli oil, which is also associated with prosperity. My prosperity incense is made from a blend of frankincense, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon balm, orange peel and lemon peel. I was out of frankincense and cinnamon. So I used the other ingredients and added mint, pine and dill which are also prosperity herbs. For good measure, I added some jade and garnet stones to the altar which bring even more prosperity energy.

You see, even the ancients who wrote spells that have been passed down today did the same thing when writing rituals. Learning correspondences allows you to know what items belong with what energy. It wasn’t vital in my spell that I used cinnamon oil, it was only vital that I dressed my candle with some type of prosperity oil, and there were several I could choose from. I wrote down cinnamon oil because I personally like the scent (which is obvious by the fact that I run out of it often).

When you view spellcasting and ritual work through these eyes, you understand that you magick will still work if you substitute a white candle because you don’t have a sage green one, or if you place rose quartz on the altar instead of lapis lazuli.

So if you aren’t familiar with herb, color, incense and gemstone correspondences, I recommend that you add this to your study. It will be a valuable asset to your magickal practice and allow you to ‘relax’ a bit when it comes to having the “right” tools on hand.
Love And Light,

Rose Ariadne, Your Warm And Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”