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The Basics of Tools and Rituals
prepared for a special reason while amulets serve a general purpose.
Lastly, talismans are endowed with supernatural power. Like amulets,
talismans can be worn as jewellery, carried in bags and used in rituals to
encourage magic making to work. Their long history dates back
thousands of years. The Egyptians used charms in their magic making
and also in their funerary rites designed to guide the spirits safely across
the threshold of death. According to long-held beliefs, talismans are said
to lose their powers after a year and a day, but some people who believe
in the powers of charms claim that a talisman is active for as many as
nine years. Whichever, when the power with which a talisman has been
charged has left it, it is buried in the earth or cast into the sea as a tribute
to Mother Earth.
A wand is to spell making as an egg is to an omelette, that is to say
absolutely essential. It is used to draw magical symbols on the ground or
in the air, to direct energy and call upon the power of The Lady. It can be
made of crystal or cut, lovingly, from a tree. Some spell casters decorate
their wands with signs of the rune, others insert a crystal into the point.
The Elements and Other Powers
According to the Ancient Greeks, the universe is made of four elements,
earth, air, fire and water, and the non-material world by ether or spirit.
These elements play a vital part in casting spells today. They are
summoned to attend magic making rituals. They are usually called in
along with the quarters when a circle is drawn. They can be summoned
to stand outside and guard the circle or as witnesses to ritual and spells
to be cast. It is not always necessary to summon all the elements: a spell
caster weaving magic concerned with issues of sex, love or transfor-
mation may only summon fire. If matters emotional and concerning
adaptability were concerned, water would be summoned. Earth is called
upon for its stability and potential for encouraging growth and birth, air
for magic concerning commination or ideas.
After a spell weaving ceremony is over, the elements are thanked for
giving their blessing and adding their power to the magic that has been
made.
Spirit is the most esoteric, perceived, as it is, as an energy that is the
driving force behind creation.
Air is associated with communication, education, the
intellect, wind and sound. It values anything new
and untried and is always keen to learn. Yellow is
the colour ascribed to air which, for the purpose of magic
making, resides in the east. The zodiac signs associated with air are
Aquarius, Libra and Gemini. Air is exciting.
Detail from The Universe
and Man, 16th-century
engraving
Fire fills us with passion that burns inside all of us, more fiercely in some
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