Supermarket Magic: Creating Spells, Brews, Potions and Powders From Everyday Ingredients Read Free Page B

following is a comprehensive list of colors and their
    traditional magical meanings that can be used to select
    candles and other items that carry the type of energy you
    seek.
    Colors and their uses
    Black: drawing in energy, dissolving illness or negativity, protection, multipurpose
    White: sending out energy, purification, protection, air Red: fire, strength, passion, courage, luck, protection Orange: communication, energy, change in accordance with will
    Yellow: intellect, divination, learning, persuasion, air, clear bright yellow can substitute for gold
    Green: growth, fertility, abundance, luck, love (color of Venus), plants, earth
    Blue: water, healing, happiness, peace
    Indigo: psychic ability
    Violet: spirituality, meditation, higher power
    Brown: earth, animals

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    Gray: neutrality, stalemate, clear light gray can substitute for silver
    Silver: Goddess energy, dreams, moon magic, intuition Gold: God energy, strength, sun magic, success,
    prosperity
    Copper: love (again, tied to Venus), beauty
    Pink: love, friendship, emotional healing
    Once you have all the ingredients gathered together,
    the next step in the process is spiritual preparation. A dis-ciplined mind is a key to being spiritually prepared. An
    easy way (no, really!) to condition the mind for magic is
    through the art of meditation.
    Meditation
    Meditation is a focusing of the mind and creating within
    it a relaxed state of awareness. When you learn to prop-
    erly meditate, you actually alter your brain function; lowering the brainwave frequency into what has been termed
    “alpha” brainwave level. It is this relaxed level of con-
    sciousness that is needed when working magic. During
    a proper meditation designed to create a magical men-
    tal state, a person is able to shift consciousness at will and then utilize the “alpha” level to harness, program, and project magical energy in spell-work.
    You needn’t worry that the alpha level is unnatural
    or permanent. We all enter this state whenever we feel
    26 Chapter 2
    sleepy or our attention remains relaxed for at least three minutes. It is very common to slip into alpha level while
    watching television, for example. As soon as you shift
    focus, your brain returns to the “beta” level; the higher
    rate of waking consciousness. It would be pretty hard
    to cast a spell while watching television, not to mention
    while sleeping. This is why meditation is so necessary. We can use this process to shift our mind into a magical state and still keep our focused awareness. This is vital to our successful use of spell-craft.
    Now that you know the reason behind the use of
    meditation in spell work, the question then becomes,
    “How should you actually meditate for magic?” First, you find the time to meditate. Now, I am not saying that you
    need to find an hour a day to meditate or any other such
    nonsense, I’m merely saying that you should meditate at
    least once a day if only for five minutes or so. The more
    often you meditate and for longer periods of time would
    condition the mind faster, but any amount of condition-
    ing is a positive step in the right direction. You needn’t feel inferior by anyone saying that you need to meditate for X
    amount of time or in such and such a fashion in order to
    do it “correctly”. There is no single way to properly meditate for magic. Many paths lead to the calm center.
    Here’s a quick sample meditation for you to use in
    order to move your mind into an “alpha” brainwave easily.
    You can record yourself reading the meditation aloud and
    play it back as a guide if desired.

    Magical Basics 27
    The Autumn Tree Meditation
    Sit in a comfortable position preferably in a chair with
    your back straight and eyes closed. Take three slow deep
    breaths; in through your nose and out through your
    mouth. Next, form a mental picture of a small tree (about
    four feet tall) with only three large branches. On the first branch, see three large leaves, on