I decided to resume my yoga practice. I dug out the text I used and noticed that the practice was designed around 12 spiritual muscles. I recognized the “muscles” correlated with the “issues, intentions, and powers” listed in Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kynes.
I decided to read each chapter of the yoga text, pick a yoga pose to add to my practice and seal the intention with a spell jar. Twelve chapters, 12 new poses, 12 jars. Wish me luck!
I already had the Peace Jar, so I picked the Seated Forward Bend for the pose, and did a few.
The next jar is going to be FOCUS and the Eagle Pose.
The correspondences I am using are:
the number 4;
the Chariot tarot card;
the color violet;
4 stones: amethyst, red jasper, clear quartz, and green tourmaline;
4 botanicals: vanilla, lemon balm, peppermint, and cedar;
the animals: hedgehog, and mouse;
and the insect: bee.
I stamped the bee image on the scroll and put a sigil for FOCUS on the back.
My chant is going to be: This is hocus pocus. I need to focus. Concentration I need, If I am to succeed. Come to my aid hedgehog, As I’m caught in a bog Of scattered ideas and notions, Leading to the lousiest potions.
You gotta laugh at that upturned nose on that hedgehog.
Okay, my question is this, will the deities be offended by my tongue in cheek humour or do they appreciate a laugh? Does all spellwork have to be serious?
awareness
acceptance
focus
flexibility
balance
confidence
peace
strength
compassion
energy
playfulness
and connectedness.
For Focus I am using the Concentration correspondences, for Flexibility I am using Adaptability. For playfulness I have not decided, maybe I will free wheel it.
The book is Yoga for your spiritual muscles by Rachel Schaeffer, Quest Books, 1998.
Not sure about all deities but mine, Loki, thinks this is fabulous, he loves a laugh, our craft and devotion should be filled with joy, and a few experiments.
I like to think of spellwork as a communication. And sometimes good communications are riddled with inside jokes…if those communicating are close.
I also find that there is room for humor in most every type of interaction, if not every interaction specifically. And even the non-Pagans have humor in their worship, so, why not Pagans?
In the Kynes book she lays out what correspondences go with each intention. So you go to the page with Concentration/Focus and pick out what you have in your magical cabinet and design your spell. Here is the page for Concentration/Focus.
When you do a love spell, you pick pink things and hearts. When you do a money spell you pick green and $. Sandra Kynes has done all the research for you.
The book sells for between 35 and 55 Canadian dollars depending on whether shipping is included. It is 528 pages, hefty, and is cross referenced and indexed.
If I want to use my hedgehog again, I can look it up and I find there are 6 more intentions linked to hedgehogs: defense, fertility, negativity, nurture, pleasure, and wisdom.
The book covers Issues, Intentions, and Powers; plants; minerals; animals; deities and other beings; astrological and time reckoning; and miscellaneous (elements, directions, colors, energy; chakras; numbers, and the Tarot.
Having said all that, if your intuition says to use coyotes instead of hedgehogs, go for it.
Mom had taken me to a Native Pow Wow in Muncie, IN. While there, she took photos. One pic came back from the developer with an interesting individual whom I wanted to meet. I was still young in my craft and unsure how to word things, so I asked to be physically introduced to the person in the picture. A breeze came through the open window, picked up the picture, and plastered it onto my arm! It wouldn’t come off! I laughed at the joke played by the Creator, and the pic finally fell to the floor.
About a week later, I had gone to the mall. A group of kids much younger than myself were jostling around, and the person in the picture bumped into me. I never got a name, but I did get my wish… and a couple of good laughs at my own expense.
I don’t think so at all! I think it’s quite clever and creative!
Nope - I’m in camp “Spellwork should be fun!” – things need to be serious sometimes, but only when they have to be. I mean, once when I was sick, I dressed a candle with Vicks Vapor Rub in a healing spell to help me open my sinuses the candle smelled good, it was clever, and it worked!
The Mystic
I found this quote I had incorporated into a scrapbook page many years ago.
It is by Andrew Harvey. Now I am going to substitute “The Goddess” for “God” in the quote.
The mystic uses laughter and a holy shamelessness as one of her most powerful weapons. People who’ve realized their divine identity know that they are entirely blessed by the Goddess in all their silliness and frivolity, and this releases them into the dance of humor, which heals and releases everyone around them.
