Spellcaster'S Reference: Magickal Timing for the Wheel of the Year - Softcover

Eileen Holland

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578634520 ISBN 13: 9781578634521

Publisher: Weiser Books, 2009

Synopsis

Is there an auspicious time for blessing a newborn babe? Wondering what color candles to use for a winter handfasting? Are there times when it can be dangerous to work magick? What herbs are best to use when the Moon is in Cancer? Magick is intent, but any witch will tell you that intent requires forethought and preparation. And even the most seasoned ritualist needs a reference to determine the best timing and most powerful ingredients for their magical work. From Saturday to Scorpio to September, from Vervain to Mandrake to Amber, using the right magickal correspondences strengthens any spell, ceremony, or ritual. Here Eileen Holland has gathered together a wealth of magickal knowledge, complete with everything from hours, days, weeks, and astrological alignment to proper corresponding plants, animals, oils, herbs, and deities, and compiled them into the ultimate reference book for anyone seeking guidance in creating and timing their own enchantments. Includes a glossary of less familiar terms and deities, as well as a glossary of ingredients.

About this title

About the Author

Eileen Holland (1959-2019) was a solitary, eclectic witch, Wiccan High Priestess, poet, and author of The Wicca Handbook, A Witch's Book of Answers, and The Spellcaster's Reference.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Spellcaster's Reference

Magickal Timing for the Wheel of the Year

By Eileen Holland

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 2009 Eileen Holland
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-452-1

Contents

Introduction
Part I: Using This Book
Correspondences
Rituals and Spells
Inspiration & Magickal Things
Affirmations
Guidance
Glossary
Part II: The Year
Waxing Year, Waning Year
The Seasons
Months
The Astrological Year
Days of the Week
Hours
Part III: Other Cycles
Lunar Cycles
Daily Solar Cycles
Annual Solar Cycles
Part IV: Intent and the Wheels of the Year
Auspicious Timing
This directory of intentions provides a variety of auspicious times to 
choose from for each working
Glossary
Glossary of Materials
Selected Bibliography

CHAPTER 1

Using This Book

The obvious use for The Spellcaster's Reference is to determine auspicious timesto cast spells, perform rituals, or engage in other magickal operations. It can,however, also be used in many other ways. Perhaps the most important of these isto understand and use the Principle of Correspondences.

Correspondences

"As above, so below."

This basic metaphysical principle means that everything in the Universe isconnected, that the macrocosm influences the microcosm. All things and beingsshare atoms that are in constant motion. Nothing ever actually stands still.Nothing is truly separate or distinct. Everything is connected, but some thingsare more connected than others.

The Principle of Correspondences is also called the Law of Association.Correspondences are magickal shortcuts, direct links between things. Knowledgeof them is extremely useful, because they help to achieve results.

Correspondences are a particular interest of mine, and I have been researchingthem for a long time. I am fascinated by how they have been applied in so manycultures, faiths, and traditions throughout history. From Mesopotamia to China,from Nabatea to Ireland, and from India to the New World, we find magickalcorrespondences. There is often wide agreement, but with variations for localclimate, fauna, and flora. Sometimes there are cultural or religiousdifferences. Whatever the case, all correspondences are powerful, and you canmake use of them to increase the effectiveness of your workings.

Here, we will briefly discuss ways to incorporate correspondences.

Planets

In classical correspondences "planets" mean the seven heavenly bodies that ourancestors could observe with the naked eye: Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn,Venus, the Moon, and the Sun. The remote planets and even major asteroids alsoaffect everything with their vibrations, but here we will confine ourselves tothose heavenly bodies about which the most lore has been accumulated.

Knowing which planet has dominion over a time period or an intent affords theopportunity to utilize that planet's correspondences in a working (see Hours, p.102). It can help in deciding things such as which angels to evoke for a ritual,what flowers to use, or appropriate items to add to a spell bottle.

Elements

The elements recognized by most traditions are are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.As with the planets, knowing which elements have dominion over particularintentions or time periods affords the opportunity to utilize theircorrespondences in workings. Here are some basic examples:

Earth

Color: black, brown, green, ocher, russet

Tool: beeswax candle, pentacle

Charm: clay, honey, mud, musk, pottery, soil, yellow square

Stone: all

Animal: bison, buffalo, cattle, earthworm, goat, jaguar, mole, stag, tortoise,wolf, all burrowing creatures

Metal: coal, lead, mercury

Fungus: mushroom

Incense: amber, benzoin, musk, patchouli, sage, sandalwood

Plant: all, but especially grain, roots, banyan tree, all root vegetables

Goddess: Bona Dea, Ceres (Mother of Corn), Cerridwen, Coatlicue, Danu, Demeter(Queen of the Fruitful Earth), Gaia, Hebat, Isis (Lady of the Land, Queen of theSolid Earth, Goddess of Green Things), Ki, Nerthus, Ninhursag (Lady of the StoneGround), Nokomis, Onatha, Ops, Parvati (Lady of the Mountain), Persephone,Pomona, Rhea, Sita, Terra Mater (Mother Earth), Tonantzin (Bringer of Maize)

God: Adonis, Arawn, Attis, Bacchus, Cernunnos (Lord of the Forest), the Dagda,Damuzi, Dionysus, Geb, Green Man, Horned God, Marduk (Lord of Growth), Osiris(The Great Green, Grain of the Gods), Pan (Lord of the Woods), Saturn

Evocation: dryads, gnomes, nature spirits, plant devas, Uriel

Air

Color: blue, pale blue, sky blue, clear, white, pastels

Tool: athame, censer, sword, whistle

Charm: bellows, blue circle, fan, feather, flute, perfume

Stone: aventurine, lapis lazuli, clear quartz crystal

Animal: dragon, sphinx, all flying birds and insects

Metal: aluminum, mercury

Fungus: fly agaric, puffball

Incense: all

Plant: almond, angelica, anise, baby's breath, cedar, citronella, all citrus,dandelion, freesia, white geranium, goldenrod, honeysuckle, jasmine, lavender,lemongrass, lilac, pansy, parsley, pennyroyal, snowdrop, thyme, wormwood,yarrow, all plants and trees with spores, aerial roots, fluffy seed heads,winged seed pods, or which provide incense

Goddess: Aditi (Cosmic Space), Aine, Allat, Aradia, Arianrhod, Cardea, Cybele,Freya, Frigg, Hathor (Lady of Heaven), Hera, Iris, Isis (Mistress of the Sky),Juno, Lilith, Mary, Nut, Sekhmet, Semiramis

God: Adad, Amon (The Invisible One), Anu (Expanse of Heaven), Baal (Rider of theClouds), Boreas, Enlil (Lord of Air), Great Spirit, Horus, Hurukan, Indra (Godof the Blue Vault), Jupiter, Kephera, Krishna (Infinite One), Marduk (Wakener ofWinds), Mercury, Odin, Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent, Nine Wind), Shiva, Thor,Thoth

Evocation: angels, elves, fairies, Pegasus, Raphael

Fire

Color: gold, orange, hot pink, red, white

Tool: athame, candle, censer, sword

Charm: bonfire, civet, star, red triangle

Stone: coal, flint, hematite, red jasper, lava, obsidian

Animal: dragon, horse, lion, phoenix, salamander, snake

Metal: brass, gold, iron, steel

Incense: brimstone, copal, dragon's blood, frankincense, rose, rosemary

Plant: cactus, carnation, chili pepper, cinnamon, clove, dittany of Crete, eyeof Satan, garlic, ginger, High John, horseradish, jalapeño pepper, marigold,mustard, nettle, nutmeg, onion, pepper, radish, rowan, sunflower, tobacco

Goddess: Aetna, Ashtoreth, Ayida Wedo, Bast, Brigid (The Bright One, Lady of theForge), Chantico (Lady of the Hearth), Coatlicue, Fuji, Graine, Hestia, Kali,Oya, Pelé, Vesta (The Shining One)

God: Agni (Divine Fire), Baal, Belenus (The Brilliant One), Dazhbog, Hephaestus,Lugh (The Shining One), Mithras, Ogun (Lord of Metals), Prometheus, Shango, TsaoChun (Lord of the Hearth), Vulcan

Evocation: djinna, Michael, Raphael, seraphs, Uriel

Water

Color: aqua, black, blue, clear, green, sea green, ultramarine, white

Tool: bowl, cauldron, chalice

Charm: ambergris, ice, rain, tears, inverted triangle

Stone: blue lace agate, aquamarine, coral, mother-of-pearl, water opal, pearl,clear quartz crystal, river rock, sea salt

Animal: crab, crocodile, dolphin, fish, frog, porpoise, seabirds, diving andwading birds, all marine life

Metal: copper, mercury, silver

Fungus: all

Incense: camphor, coconut, myrrh, strawberry, vanilla

Plant: bat nut, cabbage, calamus, camellia, cantaloupe, cattail, cucumber,driftwood, eryngo, eucalyptus, fern, frangipani, gardenia, kelp, lettuce, lotus,papyrus, rice, rushes, watercress, watermelon, water lily, willow, aromatic rushroots, all gourds, reeds, aquatic plants, succulent plants, and those that grownear water

Goddess: Anahita (Great Goddess of Waters), Atargatis, Benzaiten, Boann,Chalchihuitlcue, Coventina, Danu, Ganga, Ilmatar, Inanna, Luonnotar (The WaterMother), Nantosuelta, Nehalennia (The Seafarer), Oshun, Ran, Sarasvati (FlowingWater), Sulis, Tefnut, Tiamat, Yemaya (Holy Queen Sea)

God: Aegir, Apsu, Dagon, Dylan, Ea (Lord of the House of Water), Enki (God ofthe Sweet Waters), Hapy, Mannan, Neptune, Njoerd, Poseidon, Tlaloc, Yamm (PrinceSea)

Evocation: Gabriel, Ganymede, merfolk, Michael, nereids, Raphael, water nymphs

Directions

Direction may determine which way you face during a ritual, or while casting aspell. Alternatively, they can help decide things like how to stir a potion, orwhere to place candles during a working.

Colors

You may incorporate color into a working with your choice of things like fabricfor a charm bag, a robe for a ritual, candles for a spell, or an altar cloth fora season.

Numbers

You can incorporate numbers by answering the question "How many?" Examplesinclude how many times you repeat an incantation during a working, how manyingredients you add to a magickal recipe, how many of a deity's titles you useduring an invocation, how many candles you place on an altar, how manyparticipants speak during a ritual, or how many knots you tie in a mojo bag.

Metals

You may incorporate metal by your choice of tool for a working—an iron cauldronor a copper wand. You may instead reflect it in altar furnishings like a brassbrazier or silver candlesticks. Many different types of objects can be used—copper pennies that you add to a charm bag, or jewelry like a gold necklace orplatinum ring that you wear during a ritual.

Stones

You can incorporate a stone by wearing it during a working, such as an ambernecklace or a pearl brooch. You may instead place the stone on the altar, usinga large crystal, an amethyst sphere, or a dish of turquoise pieces. Small stonescan be used in many ways, for instance to encircle candles while spells arecast, or to weave into witch's ladders.

Animals

Real animals, as well as mythical creatures like basilisks and unicorns, areincluded in this category. The best results are obtained from workings that donot harm animals. Items that have been acquired without causing harm have nonegative vibrations that can make your magick go awry. For this reason, imagesof animals are widely employed instead of actual creatures.

You can wear things like ceramic scarabs and carved stone fetishes on necklaces,for example, or add similar items to medicine pouches. Alternatively, you canplace images of creatures—such as wood carvings or clay sculptures—on altarsduring workings. You can use representations of animals to decorate clothing—forexample, a phoenix kimono or a dragon T-shirt that you wear during a working.Magickal tools can also represent animals, like a serpentine wand, or bearimages of animals, like a knife with a lion on its handles.

You can also incorporate items provided by animals, such as feathers, into yourworkings. This means only using things that animals have shed naturally, likefur or snakeskin, or cast off after death, like seashells. You can place shark'steeth or cat hairs into spell bottles, for instance.

Plants

Here are a few examples of the myriad ways that plants can be used magickally.Dried flowers and herbs can be added to wax when candles are made, or ground andadded to magickal powders. Fresh flowers can be used to decorate altars andritual spaces, or woven into chaplets or garlands to wear during workings. Seedsand dried herbs can be added to mojo bags. Wood that is appropriate to a workingcould be used to kindle a ritual fire for it.

Creativity and imagination are your only limits, except to use common sense. Donot work with plants to which you are allergic. Toxic plants such as henbane orpoison hemlock are better avoided. If a plant is illegal where you live, find amagickal substitute for it and use that instead. In this book, poisonous ordangerous substances will be marked with the icon. The best magickal resultsare generally obtained when a working incorporates only those plants whichcorrespond to its intent, or to its timing.

Fungi

Fungi can be used in the same way as plants. You can add dried mushrooms, forexample, to spell bottles and charm bags. You can safely avoid poisonous fungiby only using fungi that are sold as food.

Incense

Burning an appropriate incense can greatly empower a working. You can burn avanilla joss stick, toss frankincense tears onto a brazier, smolder dragon'sblood resin on a charcoal disk, or burn a cone of sandalwood incense or a driedbranch of rosemary. The method is not important. What matters is that theincense correspond to the intent or the timing of the ritual, spell, or othermagickal working.

Charms

A charm is an object that is incorporated into a working. It can be honey or anegg you eat, milk or wine you drink, ambergris incense you burn, almond oil ormusk cologne you use for anointing, a piece of driftwood you add to a fire, atool you use, or something you wear. A charm may also take the form of an imageor an item you place on an altar, at the center of a ritual circle, orelsewhere. I provide a great variety of charms in this book.

Deities

Invocation is an appeal to a higher power. Gods and/or goddesses can be invokedto empower magick. This is especially true when they are specific to a working,or to the auspicious time for it. This book can be used to determine whom it isappropriate to invoke at any given time. When a deity has a relevant title, itis provided in parentheses after his or her name. An example of this is Juno(Light of Heaven), a title for that Roman goddess in her solar aspect.

Invocation may be voiced or psychic, formal or informal—whatever seems correctto you. Remember that it is always polite to show respect and thank deitiesafter you have called upon them.

Evocations

You can also appeal to lesser beings than deities for help in magick andrituals. These include angels, demigods, fairies, heroes, nymphs, and othermythological figures. These beings are evoked rather than invoked. Simply sayingtheir names aloud and sincerely requesting their assistance is usuallysufficient. With this book, you can identify appropriate entities to evoke forworkings at specific times.

Rituals and Spells

You can use the information provided here to create spells and rituals, as wellas schedule them. Several examples follow. Use them to help create your ownmagickal workings.

A Ritual for Justice

Let us suppose that you and the members of your metaphysical circle areconcerned about justice being done in an impending murder trial. You discuss itand decide to hold a ritual to influence the trial's outcome. Checking Part 4 ofthis book, Intent and Magickal Timing, you discover these correspondences under"Justice":

Monday/Thursday / Saturday/first hour after sunrise on Sunday, Thursday, orSaturday/first hour after sunset on Sunday, Tuesday, or Wednesday/WaningMoon/Dark Moon/Full Moon in October/October / Libra/Pisces

To bring someone to justice: Saturday/first hour after sunrise on Saturday/firsthour after sunset on Tuesday

You are all outraged by the murder, believe that the accused is guilty of it,and want him convicted. The calendar tells you that the Full Moon, one weekhence, will fall on a Saturday. It seems clear that holding your ritual at dawnon that Saturday is very auspicious, so that is when you schedule it.

You consult this book's correspondences for Saturday and plan the rite. Everyoneagrees to dress in black, wear diamond jewelry, and hold black feathers. Youwill use seven dark blue pillar candles to delineate the ritual area, eachsurrounded by a ring of poppy seeds. You will burn frankincense and invoke theNorns.

A Spell to Banish Negativity

Imagine that meditation has helped you to identify a negative pattern that youkeep repeating in your life. You are determined to banish this. A friend hasgiven you a Banishing Spell that you think will be good, but you must choose atime to cast it. You check Part 4, and note these correspondences for Banishing:

Sunset/Saturday / first hour after sunrise on Tuesday or Saturday/first hourafter sunset on Tuesday or Friday/Waning Year/ Waning Moon/ Waning CrescentMoon/ Dark Moon/ Full Moon in February, September, October, November, orDecember/ Disseminating Moon/Winter / January

It's July, so you are in the Waning Year. The Waning Moon will begin in a fewdays, so you decide to wait for that. Sunset feels auspicious to you. It is alsoconvenient, so you decide to cast the spell at sunset on your next day off.

As directed by the spell, you gather items that represent the negative patternand put them on your altar. The spell does not mention other props, so you referto this book's correspondences for sunset. With their aid, you decide to burnpurple candles and jasmine incense while you cast the spell. You also decide toinvoke Dusk Zorya and request her help with the banishing.

A Personal Ritual for Strength

Suppose that physical weakness has been a problem for you. You face someupcoming challenges and need to be strong enough to meet them, so you decide tocreate a personal ritual. You check Part 4, and find these correspondences forStrength:

Sunday/Tuesday / first hour after sunrise on Sunday or Tuesday/first hour aftersunset on Wednesday or Friday/Summer / June/ Aries/Taurus / Leo

physical strength: Sunday/Tuesday/ first hour after sunrise on Tuesday/ firsthour after sunset on Friday/ Sagittarius

Physical strength is your primary concern. You decide to hold your rite on aTuesday, and consult an almanac to choose a time that is under the House ofSagittarius. You refer to this book's section on the Zodiac for Sagittariuscorrespondences, and design your ritual. Four purple candles will mark thequarters. The altar will have a censer of dragon's blood and a large vase ofpeacock feathers on it. You will wear a purple robe and an amethyst ring. Whileholding a bow or an arrow, you will invoke Artemis and Apollo, and ask them tosend you strength with the speed of an arrow's flight.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Spellcaster's Reference by Eileen Holland. Copyright © 2009 Eileen Holland. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Weiser Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1578634520
• ISBN 13: 9781578634521
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256