Dark Moon Magic. Cerridwen Greenleaf

work, it should also be a book of inspiration for you, filled with your own thoughts, personal poetry, and observations. Your Book of Shadows should be a tome you wish to turn to again and again. It can be a deluxe handcrafted volume of artisan-made paper and ribbons or a simple three-ring binder. Just make sure it appeals to you, so you will use it often and well. I have seen gorgeous decoupage volumes, some with papier-mâché masks so the book itself becomes a familiar, and also simple ones that reflect the owner (which is the point, after all) with stickers from favorite bands.

      BLACK BROOM

      The broom is a symbol of the practical magic of sweeping the ritual area clean before and after casting a spell. With proper focus and intention, you can rid your sacred space of negative influences and bad spirits from the area, thus preparing the sacred space for work. In olden days, pagan marriages and Beltane trysts took place with a leap over the broom, an old traditional part of the handfasting or pagan wedding. The broom, as a signifier of womanly domesticity, took hold of the popular imagination as the archetypal symbol of witches. Even Harry Potter has a souped-up broom for sweeping through the skies above Hogwarts!

      Your broom is a fundamental tool for energy management, so it is wise to choose your broom very carefully. It’s best to obtain a handmade broom from a craft fair as opposed to a factory-made plastic one from Walmart. A broom made of wood and woven from straw will be imbued with the inherent energies of these natural materials. Also, your ritual broom should not be used for housework, which would mix up energies in your home and sacred space. The pagan tradition holds brooms in high regard, and some witches and ceremonial magicians have an impressive collection of brooms, each named to signify their roles as a familiar or kindred spirit. As a Dark Moon witch, you might be happiest with a black broom—you can even buy it at one of my favorite stores in Los Angeles, which is called Black Broom! Check it out at www.theblackbroom.com—it is a purveyor of many marvelous tools, books, and essences, especially the black alchemy line of potions, lotions, and perfumes.

      CANDLES AND LIGHT

      Candles are a simple yet profound tool that can make powerful magic. Today, candle magic is used daily by folks of all walks of life for peace of mind, respite, contemplation, and aromatherapeutic healing. Candlelight transforms a dark room and illuminates the air with energy. Suddenly, the potential for a mystical realm is evident as you start to feel the latent power. A spell, prayer, or ritual lit by a single candle has the potency of all the stars in the sky. Candles contain the following four elemental energies:

      •Air: oxygen feeds and fans the candle flame

      •Earth: the solid wax that forms the candle

      •Water: the melted wax is the fluid elemental state

      •Fire: the spark and blaze of the candle flame

      Charging Your Candles

      “Charging” a candle means to imbue it with magical intent. A candle that has been charged carries that intention through all four elements and up to the heavens and fills the very air of your sacred space with your magic. Spell work and ritual candles are chosen for their color correspondences, and then they are “dressed,” or anointed with the energy of an essential oil. Each color holds the intrinsic vibratory energy of different colors and their magical properties.

      Color Correspondences for Candle Magic

      •Black: banishing, absorbing, expulsion of the negative, healing serious disease, attracting money

      •Brown: home, animal wisdom, grounding, healing

      •Dark blue: change, flexibility, the unconscious, psychic powers, curing

      •Gray: neutrality, stalemate, cancellation, invisibility

      •Green: wealth, abundance, growth, luck, employment, gardening, early life, attractiveness, fertility

      •Light blue: patience, bliss, overcoming depression, tranquility

      •Orange: attraction, triumph over legal issues, changeability, stimulation, intelligence, clarity, logic, support, encouragement

      •Pink: love, faithfulness, friendship, goodness, positivity, affection

      •Purple: healing, aspiration, business success, stress relief, power

      •Red: vigor, protection, vitality, sexuality, passion, courage, power, love, good health

      •White: purification, peace, protection, truth, binding, sincerity, serenity, chastity, spirit

      •Yellow and gold: mental power and vision, study, self-assurance, prosperity, abundance, divination, psychism, powers of persuasion, wisdom, charisma, good sleep

      Before you charge your candles, meditate on your intention, then cleanse your candles by passing them through a purifying smoke of sage and incense. You can increase the charge of your candles by carving a symbol or “sigil” into the wax. After you have engraved the appropriate magical words into your candle, it’s time to “dress” your candle with a specific essential oil. Every essential oil is imbued with a power that comes from the plants and flowers of which it is made. Anoint yourself with the oil of your choice at the crown or third eye to increase mental clarity. By using the inherent powers of the essential oils, you are increasing the effectiveness of your rite and doubling the efficacy by anointing both your tool—in this case, the candle—and yourself. These same oils can also be used in protection spells for your threshold and windowsills, in potpourri, when anointing yourself, and in sacred bathing.

      Magical Correspondences of Essential Oils

      •Astral projection: benzoin, cinnamon, jasmine, sandalwood

      •Courage: black pepper, frankincense, geranium

      •Dispelling negative spirits: basil, clove, copal, frankincense, juniper, myrrh, peppermint, pine, rosemary, sandalwood, Solomon’s Seal, vetiver, yarrow

      •Divination: camphor, clove, orange

      •Enchantment: ginger, tangerine

      •Healing: bay, cedar wood, cinnamon, coriander, geranium, jasmine, lavender, lemon, lime, neroli, peppermint, rose, rosemary, vetiver, ylang ylang

      •Luck: nutmeg, orange, rose, vetiver

      •Peace: lavender

      •Prosperity: basil, cedar, cinnamon, clove, ginger, jasmine, nutmeg, orange, oak moss, patchouli, peppermint, pine, wood aloe

      •Protection: anise, basil, bay, black pepper, cedar, cinnamon, clove, copal, cypress, eucalyptus, frankincense, juniper, lavender, lime, myrrh, patchouli, peppermint, pine, rose, rose geranium, sandalwood, vetiver

      •Sexuality: cardamom, cinnamon, clove, lemongrass, olive, patchouli, peppermint, rosemary

      Sigil Magic Is in the Details

      Carving symbols onto your candles is a simple and profound way to deepen your magic. What symbols are meaningful to you? Certain crosses, vines, flowers, hieroglyphs, and many other images have deep magical associations, so you should feel free to delve in and experiment to find the symbols that work best for you in your spells. The term sigils derives from the word for seal. A sigil is a magical glyph or symbol that is used in ritual to deepen focus or intensify magical powers. Methods for devising sigils for spellwork include using the planetary glyphs of astrology, runes, Enochian tablets, letters, numbers, or even mystical cyphers such as hermetic crosses or kabalistic signs.

      WICKED GOOD WANDS

      A wand is a symbol of air; it is used to project energy in your rituals