THE ELEMENT OF AIR

Scientists and magicians may have different views concerning this element, but all agree that it's vital to human survival.

Without air, we would perish.

Air is the power of movement; of freshening and of intelligence. It's the invisible and yet quite real mixture of gases that we breathe in every day. In magical terms, Air is also the power of the mind: the force of intellect.

Go to a place with clean air and breathe deeply.Touch a feather. Inhale the fragrance of a heavily scented flower. Study an intricately patterned leaf. Experience the wonders of the manifestations of this element. Remember, too, that we possess Air energy within ourselves.

Here are some Air associations:

BASIC NATURE: Flying, moving, fresh, intelligent, suspending. Sound is a manifestation of this element.

TYPE OF ENERGY: Projective.

COLOR: Yellow (the yellow of the sun, the sky at dawn).

PLACES: Mountaintops, wind-swept plains, cloudy skies, high towers, airports, schools, libraries, offices, travel agencies, psychiatrist's offices.

RITUALS: Travel, instruction, study, freedom, knowledge, recovering lost items.

RITUAL FORMS: Tossing objects into the air, suspending tools in high places, fanning light objects, visualization, positive thinking.

HERBS: Fragrant, as many flowers; pungent, as in culinary herbs such as dill; airy, finely-veined, or wind-swept; generally leaves.

STONES: Light stones, such as pumice; transparent stones, such as mica.

METALS: Tin, copper.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT: Flute, all wind instruments.

CREATURES: Spider, most birds, winged insects.

SEASON: Spring (the time of freshness).

DIRECTION: East (the place of sunrise).

TIME: Dawn.

MAGICAL TOOL: Wand.

POINT IN LIFE: Infancy.

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius.

SENSES: Hearing, smell.

NATURAL SYMBOLS: A feather, incense smoke, fragrant flowers.

Source: Earth, Air, Fire & Water

✨ Daily rituals using the 4 elements ✨

🌪️ AIR 🌪️

→ Wear yellow colors to honor this element

→ Practice your spells at dawn to draw energy from air

→ Places associated with this element: airports, libraries, high-rise buildings, high mountains, schools, plains

→ Daily rituals:

–

💧 WATER 💧️

→ Wear blue colors to honor this element

→ Practice your spells at dusk to draw energy from water

→ Places associated with this element: bathrooms, rivers, lakes, sea, swimming pools, beaches, wells, fountains

→ Daily rituals:

–

🔥 FIRE 🔥️

→ Wear red colors to honor this element

→ Practice your spells at noon to draw energy from fire

→ Places associated with this element: bedrooms, kitchen, fireplaces, deserts, oven, saunas, volcanos, terraces, bars

→ Daily rituals:

–

🌱 EARTH 🌱

→ Wear brown or green colors to honor this element

→ Practice your spells at night to draw energy from earth

→ Places associated with this element: caves, fields, forests, gardens, farmers’ markets, parks, greenhouses

→ Daily rituals:

Flower Magic: III

Hydrangea:

Hex-breaking, gratitude, alliance, purification, communication, collaboration, thankfulness, deep-rooted cleansing, unification, and community. Poisonous.

Hyssop:

Warding, uncrossing, humility, cleansing, hospitality, dispelling, protection, purification, blessing, honor, wellbeing, spiritual health and energetic hygiene. Toxic for animals.

Iris:

Divination, harmony, intelligence, purification, romance, communication, pyrrhic power, abundance, courage, and knowledge. Poisonous.

Jasmine:

Divination, prosperity, relaxing, romance, abundance, calming, psychic power, spirituality, forecasting, harmonization and serenity.

Lavender:

Soothing, healing, protection, charging, contentment, loyalty, tranquility, love, restoration, romance, amplification, and happiness.

Lemon Verbena:

Magnificence, enchantment, majesty, cleansing, attraction, charming, glamours, purification, romance, splendor, warding, and protection. Toxic to animals.

Lilac:

Banishment, serenity, happiness, warding, passion, tranquility, cleansing, peaceful, protection, enthusiasm, and spirituality.

Lotus:

Transformation, fecundity, purification, divination, fertility, protection, enlightenment, harnessing, development, and psychic power.

Maidenhair:

Magnificence, compassion, allure, desirability, love, attraction, elegance, romance, glamour, attractiveness, and magnetism.

Mallow:

Reconciliation, protection, love, understanding, banishment, romance, forgiveness, sympathy, graciousness, warding, fortification, and cleansing.

Marigold:

Justice, divination, warding, insightfulness, remembrance, protection, psychic strength, security, forecasting, integrity, and legal matters. Poisonous.

Morning Glory:

Cheerfulness, soothing, motivation, exuberance, serenity, optimism, peacefulness, inspiration, tranquility, hope, and radiant positivity. Poisonous.

Orchid:

Romance, magnificence, benevolence, grandeur, veneration, majesty, love, attractiveness, affluence, lavishness, extravagance, and attraction.

Pansy:

Divination, magnetism, compassion, admiration, romance, elegance, attraction, psychic power, grandeur, splendor, love, and attractiveness. Seeds are Toxic.

Peony:

Banishment, purification, fortune, cheerfulness, warding, abundance, cleansing, protection, happiness, prosperity, and affluence. Poisonous.

Other Links:

The spring witchcraft basics

Building a spring equinox altar

Correspondences for Aries season

Grimoire journaling prompts for spring (divine feminine-oriented)

Mystery box botanical set for spring 2022 (as a gift to yourself bc why not)

Reawakwning ritual

The basics of botanicals

How to make your backyard safe for wildlife

Earth-oriented songs and chants  Listen I just adore them

Solitary witch Beltane activities

Astrology predictions for the upcoming season

Garden Witchcraft book by Ellen Dugan (on amazon)

Dream seed craft for the current full moon

Håkon Grønning.

Arcano XV

Faeryland cards from the 1920s. Art by Alice Marshall.

“The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.” – Henry Miller

“Water lilies is an extension of my life. Without the water, the lilies cannot live, as I am without art.” - Claude Monet

Crystal Knot Magic

Knotting a crystal net is very easy if you are able to use your fingers for this kind of crafting.

They are often called crystal "wraps" and many tutorials can be found on Youtube.

There are many, many ways to make a crystal net. The style you use determines the final appearance. More importantly for us, the style you use determines how many knots there will be, and their size.

We can draw on four common elements of magic: Crystal/mineral correspondences, color correspondences, numerology, and knot magic.

The stone (or other object) is like the battery which holds and radiates power. The object you net should correspond to your core intent.

The color of cord or thread you use can modify or hone your intent. For example, if using clear quartz, the color correspondence might be doing most of the work.

Then again, this spell will work with cotton twine and a river stone, so just do whatever suits you.

The total number of cords you use dictates how many knots total will exist in your spell. Crystal nets are made by tying two strands of cord together. If you use four cords, you will have eight working ends, and therefore you will tie four knots per row. If you have five cords, you will have ten working ends, and you will need to tie five knots per row. I align my numerology to the number of knots, not strands, because the knots themselves are holding the magic.

The knots are used to tie intent and bind power. I create most of my charms in a style that has one big starter knot at the top and one big finishing knot at the bottom. There are tons of ways to utilize knots in this project. The first knot can hold the only intent, while the rest bind powers to support it. Or the intent can be split into its composite parts and each part gets its own knot. Or every single knot can have something unique, or they can all be identical... lots of options.

Conceptually, the inner object is the focal point or battery of the spell. The knots can be understood as tools that the object uses to carry out your will, instructions to guide the object in its work, vessels that carry additional power (like tidepools on a beach), or tangles that capture and bind up unwanted forces.

To perform this sort of magic:

1. Learn how to make the nets first from an arts and crafts perspective :) you can cut the cording off to re-use the same stone later. It is really frustrating to try and do a craft in a ritual headspace if you have to learn the craft simultaneously!

2. Gather up your cording and object to be netted. Do any ritual techniques you prefer to prepare them.

3. Decide how you want your intent to be tied in. Do you want to use the same phrase for each knot? Do you want to chant your intent continuously while you do many knots? Etc.

4. Make the crystal net in your ritual headspace/magic zone. Pour your intent into each knot in whatever methods you choose.

5. I recommend making the final knot of your project into the seal which completes and finishes the amulet ("so mote it be," "as my will it has been done," etc).

6. If you did not raise and direct energy during the spell, ensure the amulet is charged afterwords. Like all amulets and talismans, it requires feeding and repowering as time goes on.

The Angel With The Flaming Sword - Edwin Howland Blashfield

Hestia’s House Blessing

This is a spell I made that is great for when you move into a new place or just to repeat every once in a while to keep the good energy flowing in your household. It calls upon the Greek Goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia.

Best time for spell:

Monday during a new or waxing moon. This spell is best done after cleansing the area first.

You will need:

Directions:

1. Fill the spray bottle with clean water (you can use moon water for extra power or just regular tap water is fine) and drop the amethyst in. If you amethyst is too big, you can just hold it or attach it to the spray bottle somehow.

2. Add several drops of lavender essential oil to the water until it has a light scent.

3. Walk around your house in a circle that’s clockwise to the front of the house as best you can. Start on the main floor and work your way up. While doing this, spray some of the lavender water occasionally while saying the following:

Bless this dwelling

Make it our own

And through the power of Hestia

Make this house a home

4. Once you are done, sit somewhere that your family often gathers such as the kitchen or living room and light the tea light candle. Relax wherever the candle is and let it burn out on it’s own. 

Freyja: Norse goddess of beauty, femininity, and death

Also known as: Valfreya; Freya; She Who Shines over the Sea

“Freya, most beautiful of the Norse spirits, has dominion over love, sex, fertility, magic, witchcraft, death, pleasure, and glory. Freya literally means “Lady” and may be a title, not a name. (Her twin brother is Freyr, or “Lord.”) She is simultaneously a spirit of fertility and death, beauty and war.

Freya, daughter of Njord and Herta (Nerthus), Sea and Earth, is among the Vanir hostages who joined the Aesir to maintain spiritual peace. Freya, however, quickly became a dominant force over her new realm. When she first arrived in Asgard, she taught the Aesir how to craft charms and potions. She inducted Odin into the world of magic. 

Freya is invoked for love, romance, and fertility, but she is a goddess of death, too. Under the name Valfreya, she leads the Valkyries to the battlefield where she lays claim to half the dead who are brought to dwell in her beautiful palace, Folkvang, where love songs play continuously.

Freya was no obscure goddess but beloved and worshipped over a vast European territory including Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, the Germanic lands, Holland, and Anglo-Saxon Britain. She remains among the most beloved and widely venerated Pagan goddesses today. No spirit annoyed the Christian authorities more than Freya. Ironically, the result was that Freya survives more vividly than virtually any other female European spirit. Constant condemnation kept Freya from fading into obscurity. 

Freya was denounced as a Queen of the Witches. Women who venerated her were automatically branded “witches”. And, of course, Freya’s rites and traditions did encourage magical practice, mediumship, shamanism, and female autonomy with Freya herself as the role model, behavior the new regime considered abhorrent and sinful.”

- Freya weeps tears of amber. - Honey contains her essence. - Freya knows the power of the runes; they can be used to communicate with her

Manifestations: Usually as a golden, beautiful, charismatic woman, but she is a shapeshifter and can take any form

Attributes: Magical falcon feather cloak enabling her to fly; Brisingamen, the glowing necklace forged by dwarves; a golden chariot pulled by two cats

Metal: Gold

Planet: Moon

Day: Friday is named after Freya; “Freya’s Day”

Number: 13 (the number of months in a lunar year)

Sacred date: Any Friday the 13th

Flowers: Primroses, mugwort, holly, flax, hemp

Animals: cats, raptor birds, ladybugs, cuckoos, swallows

Offerings: honey, mead, flowers; sing love songs for her or compose poetry; Freya will accept all offerings, but she has fine taste and will gladly accept lavish offerings of jewelry and perfume. Freya’s devotees held dinners in her honor, offering her ale, apples, barley, and pork. It is traditional to feed stray or feral cats as an offering to Freya. Adopting some cats may get you into good graces, too, provided you treat them well. 

[Source: “The Encyclopedia of Spirits” by Judika Illes]

[All images from Unsplash]

~Offerings~

Today, on the First of March, I have given Freyja my first offering. This is the first time I have given an offering period. I have a bracelet and necklace that I have said remind me of her, so when I wear them I will think of her, but since having my most recent dream (which you can read here if you haven’t done so already) it is clear that she is asking for gifts in order for her to give them in return. 

It dawned on me that I have several empty jars I’ve been waiting to use, and I saw the image of honey dripping and flowing, leaving golden dew drops, and it reminded me of the story of Freyja’s tears. So I filled a small vial with honey and set it at the top of my altar cloth proclaiming, “Freyja, this is my gift for you.”

If I feel that this offering is accepted, then I may start doing offerings more often, and I will continue to document my experiences and journey on here as well as in my Magic Book. Feel free to share your experiences with your own deities and your relationship through offerings. My ask box and DM’s are always open~