I love your candle. I think candle magick is my favorite type of magick!
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Challenge Entry
Dragon Magick - Blessed by Dragons
Below is a ritual dance I have performed every year on the Summer Solstice to honor the Dragon God and all dragons on the longest day of the year.
Dragon Dance for the Summer Solstice
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Based on personal experience, it is recommended to perform this ritual dance in a cool environment, or while wearing cool clothing, because depending on where you are, you can work up a sweat! Make sure that you have plenty of room. If you choose to light any candles, put them in a place where you wonāt knock them over.
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Diffuse essential oils such as dragonās blood or light some dragonās blood incense. If you prefer, you can draw dragon runes, or any type of sigil/symbol that you prefer in oil on your skin. Test the oil on a small patch of skin beforehand if you havenāt already for any skin reactions .
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Take three breaths and raise your arms. Call out to any dragons (or all dragons) you have worked with in your mind.
You could also say something along the lines of:
Come, Dragons! I humbly welcome you to my solstice dance.
Please join me in peace and friendship as I honor the Dragon God and all that he does for us.
Feel the air around. Visualize the dragons flying down towards you.
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Dance for as long as you want. There is no set routine. Let the dragons guide your moves. But if this is your first dance, you can pretend your arms are dragon wings and move them as if youāre flying. Inhale and exhale deeply as of youāre breathing fire. Get down on all fours and move like a dragon. Stretch your legs. Crane your necks. Feel all the kinks loosening in your muscles.
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When you are finished dancing, sit down until you feel well rested. If you regularly work dragon magick, journal about all the dragons have done for you since last solstice.
Have a blessed solstice! 
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Thank you love, itās a beautiful coven family, and I couldnāt imagine it without you 
And thank you for checking, I remember it now, it was the day before my other cake day, my birthday! 
I still had the altar set up from the solstice, which was when I got into witchcraft if I remember correctly 
I stayed up then too, and pledged myself to the Goddess, feeling her presence in the cool night air 
Iāve always enjoyed the moonlight hours, even if itās meant Iāve had to pay for them in daytime drowsinessā¦ 
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Thanks, Ostara! I figured yāall down in the South could use something like this.
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Challenge Entry 2: Culinary Magick - Crafty Chef
I figured since I was already going to make up a different Scorpio Zodiac Tea 
because a couple of the ingredients I couldnāt have in the posted recipe, I made my own! 
I kind of went about it a different way than just substituting ingredients & made it a bit more specific to my sign & benefits
So I looked at the original ingredients:
Then went from thereā¦ I looked up herbs associated with my sun 
sign - Scorpio 
then also herbs 
associated with Water 
I also have been having a serious Tower portion of the year, going on about 3 months now 
Really hoping after this week that itās coming to end though 
The tea blend that I came up with is:
- Sage
- Lavender
- Coriander
- Chamomile
- Rose
- Lemongrass
It wasnāt that bad, but I did go lighter on the Coriander & Lemongrass than the rest of them. 
I used about half as much of them as I used of the others.
@MeganB Iām hoping to be able to get back to doing it more regularly. I have done very little lately, although talking to my deities has been easier than doing other things. I have done other things to connect with them, but not like what my regular daily practices are when things arenāt equivalent to a tornado 
I have also enjoyed reading everyoneās entries too & seeing the different ways members have chosen which ones to do or how many they have to catch up on even! The number generator is a great idea but I can see where it would cause an issue when it comes up with sabbat or even eclipse-based themes. I just donāt think I have the time to answer everyoneās multiple entries specifically, but I have read through them all
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Challenge entry #2 - Natural Health & Healing
I needed love and healing tonight, and the Goddess sent me a little fly, laying on their back on my bedroom floor. I gently poked them with my finger, and they moved their tiny legs. I took some water on the tip of my finger and gave it to them, they held on to my finger and suckled it with their tiny trunk. They kept holding on to me, and I gave them a little bit more water and love, and cherished the beautiful connection. They started to recover and crawl over my hand and arm, and it made me happy. They even tried short flights, but dropped on the floor to be picked up again.
I was not sure what more I could do to help. I picked them up to sniff some fresh night air, and hoped they would take flight. They kept crawling on my hand though, which was sweet. They could stay with me for a little bit longer.
The heat of the sauna where the open window was seemed to wake them up a little more, and they took flight again. Right now theyāre somewhere under the benches, I had a look but I couldnāt find them. They have an open window right there if they want to fly out, or stay in the warmth for a little bit longer. I saw a spider in the washing room, but they were also having their own struggle, trying to negotiate the wet shower wall.
Update three hours later: I went to the bathroom and the fly was there to greet me! 
I could tell they were the same one, legs spread wide. And they flew beautifully too, no sign of their previous drowsiness. The spider was sleeping in their web, at the bottom of the tiled wall. Life is beautiful
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CHALLENGE ENTRY
Of Candles and Flame
I spent a good bit of the week brushing up on Candle Magic. Itās was already something that I wanted to delve in deeper but I discovered that there are already things I have forgotten again and Candle Magic appears to be one at least in part.
Yay, I get to learn all over again. This better be the last time I have to say that.
I read through the basics, took inventory of my candles and immediately set to work.
I started with my white candle meditation which is really a melting pot combo of meditation, trance and playing around with controlling the flame or whatever it is that I do trying to make sense of it.
Next I did a sweetening spell which is basically a altered to the situation version of Honey Touch, I donāt remember adjusting it but there it was sitting in my book
A few days ago I did a good luck candle spell. Since then it started raining bad luck. Weāre at 3 and my grandmother used to say bad things happen in 3s so hopefully thatās it
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Ooo, I hope you had an much fun as I did with my first one. I started from the bottom up for my first few more Iām like āOoo, I need to do that one Ooo and that one and that oneā¦ā 
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challenge entry
3 challenges
Firstly, ive t all challenges in 1, hoping maybe easier to see all challenges participating in obe place. Though my apologies i realise that will make my post kinda long lol
Ok it has been a very divination based week for this one but was so much fun exploring different topics through this medium. I do still have to do more reflections on messages as i did a quick look at time i did it but as this post will be quite long, if get time might do a part 2 on interpretations.
**Challenge 1: **
Merrily magickal
we are in winter soltice ( sothern hemisphere)
So i did a yule/winter soltice spread. I did note here that 3 out 4 are reversed, though id need to do seperate post to expand meanings but i did start pages for each spread to write nites down on.
challenge 2
Shadow survivor: :
Ok so i found this spread interesting and decidex since connect alot to the enchanted map oracle i used that for this one. i liked how this is like meeting shadow self and getting to know them sort of thing. Again i wont go too much into inyerpretation here but i did note the last card actually was saying that maybe this wasnt the person for tgis or something like that but the question being how can i better unserstand myself through you? I initially got stumped as either saying understanding myself better wint cone from that particular part of shadow. I did wonder if it meant maybe that they were showibg me someone that wasnt going to be helpful in tgis process but i felt maybe might be a bit of streych. Might need to reread description again of card but that did stUmp me. And some cards i noted were hard hitting a lil. But i guess in a good way whixh is what shadow work is about.
challenge 3
Seers apprentice :
Ok with this one i totally was exploring ways of using divination using games. I picked different themes or methods such as just selecting a certain number of cards, topic reads, spreads and interpreting layouts within game setting but rather than using as the game i used as a divination spread.
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Sherlock holmes
This was just 12 cards and i used the key and types of cards n totally felt like chaos interpretation and relying on intuition to do this. tptally experimented and almost didnt use this one, but ended up getting a reading from this, which was so cool.
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Memes game
Ive done this game type read sort of in past, but decided to use again and explore different ways to do this. first method was a topic read. I selected the topic cards might want to use n shuffled, tgen shuffled meme cards and did two card read, no questions just general spread bout topic that might need to know. then as so manu image cards i put into 6 piles, and for each meme roled dice and picked up that pile to shuffle and select a card.
First method : topic read
Second method : spread read
I used a week ahead spread for this and again used dice for the picture cards
- Harry potter code names
So many ways to do this. I did this as a work specific read for week ahead. Had to use dice again. I think i did new roll for each row.
The game is played with this sort of layout as seen below and first shuffled the layout cards. red is order of phoenic and black is death eaters. so feeling the pop culture magic vibe lol. I used the red as positive , grey as neutral and black as negative.
Now you can use pictures onlu, words only or combo but i chose to do all one then all another.
Method 1: pictures
Method 1: pictures with order of phoenix members ( extended version of method 1)
Added a shuffle of order of phoenix cards for further meaning on the red tiles.
Method 2 : words
I nnoted that some catds thought be positive were on negative tile and some negative on positive tile. So i figured out i could read that as it pointing to the negative aspect of a topic like for example christmas being on negative tile. In harru potter which obviouslt set in northern hemisphere christmas is winter solstice which we in south have just had last week. I figured maybe it could be talking about how it gets very wer and cold during this time. Maybe even talking about how winter soltice is darjest time of year. so christmas falling in that position means somethibg different to if feklk on a different tile. Again this eas veruy much experimental but so far loved exploring diving the future theme through games and trying to figure out how might make it work esp when i see things that click or meanings/messafes i feel i need to hear.
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Itās time for a friendly reminder:
This challenge will soon close
If you would like to participate and havenāt done so already, please post about your challenge experience(s) by the deadline:
ā Tuesday, June 27 at 7:00 AM EDT (Eastern US Time)
A round of applause for everyone who has shared an entry (or two, or three!) so far!
Gosh, everyoneās posts have been a delight- you are all so creative! I get so excited for Catch-Up Challenges because Iām always so curious about which challenges everyone will pick. Reading through all the diverse magick feels like meandering through a magickal market or witchy convention- so many amazing projects, spells, recipes, chants, and more on display, about so many different parts of the Craft! It is really wonderful to see
A big thank you to everyone who has joined in so far! 
If you havenāt already shared an entry but would like to join in, this is your friendly reminder that you still have a bit of time left to do so!
Blessed Be! 
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Wow! 
the ones since I last posted an entry have also been great! Awesome job everyone! I have 1 more to do, Iām hoping to be able to do that sometime today. Hopefully when my daughter starts her sailing 
this afternoon Otherwiseā¦ trying to contain teenage girl energy can be a challenge sometimes. 
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I thought the last Catch-up was perfect in timing butā¦this 150 Witchy Challenges is bringing me back to reality. I have been in the Hospital ER for 4 days in the hallway 
without sleep and no internet to keep up with everyone here at Spells 8. I had started a Challenge that I did not finish so this will be the Challenge I will finish, By the Hand, From the Heart - Handwritten Magick
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Are you ok? 
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Challenge Entry #1: Moon Witch
One thing Iāve been wanting to strengthen my ties to is the moon. Iāve learned the phases and the quick overview of what each phase is good for, but I still donāt feel a strong link between myself and the moon. So Iām working through a moon journal with a variety of prompts that are geared towards the phases. It also talks about the name for each month, but not with enough detail so I dug in a bit more to find this:
That has a ton of details of the full moon name, what else itās known as and even some details on where the name originated.
So my plan is to use this journal and the full moons to journal through the phases (and months) to hopefully feel more of a bond between my practice and the moon. If anything, I know itāll help me better understand the phases and make my practice more intentional each month.
And Iāve been preparing to do the Full Buck Moon Ritual come Monday:
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So sorry to hear you were in a crowded ER like that, @Medea. Sending you good vibes to feel better soon!
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Challenge Entry #2: Weather Witchery
I used this challenge to learn more about what you could do with rain water as weāve (finally!) been getting some much needed rain. I found this page which was dedicated to what you can do with rain water:
It includes a lot of simple ideas like taking a rain shower to harness the energy of the rainwater or even adding it to your bath. While I liked the ideas, I wanted to learn more the power behind it and other magickal ways I could use it. So I did a bit more research and found this:
I really liked this site as it gave all kinds of information on rainwater, including spells and ideas on how to use it. Like for instance, it talked about how lightning water is associated with fire and to use that type of water for restoration or reenergizing spells. And how windstorm rainwater represents momentum, release and reflection. I wouldnāt have thought much about different types of water otherwise.
Iām excited to capture some rain water this week and use it in a spell or two and practice some weather witchery!
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Challenge Entry #3: Sacred Trees and Wood
I was really excited about this one because Iām naturally drawn to wood everything. We use it in our business for most of our items because of that and I love that every piece is unique which makes it even more fun to work with.
I also use sounds of the forest (camping, trees, wind, etc) to meditate to or relax to. Thereās something super calming to me about the forest. We live in the middle of a national forest so behind our home is wooded and itās one of my favorite spots to relax and meditate in. The ASMR Weekly channel on YouTube has quite a few forest-related videos that I like as well 
But I wanted to push myself to learn a bit more about trees and loved learning about the Celtic tree calendar. I had no idea this was a thing and found the idea of using a tree calendar to mark time passing fascinating!
We also recently watched Fantastic Fungi on Netflix which talked about how trees communicate with each other which I thought was really interesting. They use something called a mycorrhizal network to communicate and use it to survive. You can learn more about it here:
I try to remember this each time I walk in the woods. Thereās so much going on above ground, but even more beneath your feet! Trees are really amazing and I loved using this challenge to increase my knowledge about them.
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Thank you so much for your good vibesā¦I sure do need them. I had a skin infection that dam near try to kill me. Luckly, good IV antibiotics did the trick since I have had MERSA 2 times I need to be very careful of infections.
Blessed Be Always,
Medea 
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Challenge Entry #3 - Astrology: Reading the Skies
Iām taking an approach to this one that really tickles my Gemini Moon Iāve read through my Cafe Astrology natal chart report, highlighting things with green, yellow and red based on how much I feel they resonate with me currently. Most of it, something like 80% is green. Next Iām going to gather everything Iāve highlighted, group them into a set of attributes, and create a table out of them, to see what contributes to what and how much. Iām very curious to see that, both in my own chart and to learn more about astrology in general.
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