February 21st, 2017

For any and all interested parties, an anonymous magickal group has developed a spell, to be performed monthly, with the intent of binding Donald Trump and those who abet him and his policies. It is available here, but I will also transcribe it below in the event that the link does not work.

~~~~~

A Spell to Bind Donald Trump and All Those Who Abet Him

To be performed at midnight on every waning crescent moon until he is removed from office. This binding spell is open source, and may be modified to fit your preferred spiritual practice or magical system — the critical elements are the simultaneity of the working (midnight, EST—DC, Mar-a-Lago, and Trump Tower NYC time) and the mass energy of participants.

Components:

• Unflattering photo of Trump (small)
• Tower tarot card (from any deck)
• Tiny stub of an orange candle or baby carrot
• Pin or small nail (to inscribe the candle/carrot)
• White candle (any size), representing the element of Fire
• Small bowl of water, representing elemental Water
• Small bowl of salt, representing elemental Earth
• Feather (any), representing the element of Air
• Matches or lighter
• Ashtray or dish of sand

Optional Components:

• Piece of pyrite (fool’s gold)
• Sulfur
• Black thread (for traditional binding variant)

Preparation:

• Write “Donald J. Trump” on the orange candle stub with a pin or nail
• Arrange other items in a pleasing circle in front of you
• Lean the Tower card against something so that it’s standing up (vertically)
• Say a prayer for protection and invoke blessing from your preferred spirit or deity. Reading the 23rd Psalm aloud is common in Hoodoo/Conjure/Rootwork traditions. Experienced magicians may perform an appropriate banishing ritual.

Ritual:

(Light white candle)

Hear me, oh spirits
Of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air
Heavenly hosts
Demons of the infernal realms
And spirits of the ancestors

(Light inscribed orange candle stub)
I call upon you
To bind
Donald J. Trump
So that he may fail utterly
That he may do no harm
To any human soul
Nor any tree
Animal
Rock
Stream
or Sea

Bind him so that he shall not break our polity
Usurp our liberty
Or fill our minds with hate, confusion, fear, or despair
And bind, too,
All those who enable his wickedness
And those whose mouths speak his poisonous lies

I beseech thee, spirits, bind all of them
As with chains of iron
Bind their malicious tongues
Strike down their towers of vanity

(Invert Tower tarot card)

I beseech thee in my name
(Say your full name)
In the name of all who walk
Crawl, swim, or fly
Of all the trees, the forests,
Streams, deserts,
Rivers and seas
In the name of Justice
And Liberty
And Love
And Equality
And Peace

Bind them in chains
Bind their tongues
Bind their works
Bind their wickedness

(Light the small photo of Trump from the flame of the orange candle stub and hold carefully above the ashtray)

(Speak the following loudly and with increasing passion as the photo burns to ashes)

So mote it be!
So mote it be!
So mote it be!

(Blow out orange candle, visualizing Trump blowing apart into dust or ash*)

(Pinch or snuff out the white candle, ending the ritual)

Grounding and Disposal:

Afterward, ground yourself by having a good, hearty laugh, jumping up and down, clapping your hands, stomping your feet, and having a bite to eat. Grounding is very important—don’t neglect it. And remember—he hates people laughing at him.

Finally, bury the orange candle stub or discard it at a crossroads or in running water.

~~~~~

The website lists some ideas for variations; I will probably re-write the references to heavenly hosts and demons, as those are not entities I am currently working with. This is definitely a spell I will be employing, however. The next waning crescent moon is this Friday - a good night for a ritual! 

November 14th, 2016

Blessings for Esbat and the Super Moon! I couldn't actually see it tonight for some reason, but the moon was gorgeous last night.

That picture was taken by Destiny; my camera phone was not cooperating at all. Still, it was big and honey-yellow. 

I did a ritual tonight for love, healing, and hope. If you have the time and inclination, I would encourage you out there to do one as well. Goodness knows we could all use it. 

November 1st, 2016

First, a few photos from Samhain...

Me, dressed as a Girl Scout of Night Vale.

Some spooky food in the dining hall.

I never got around to doing an actual Samhain ritual, but that's okay, because I was doing an interview about Paganism! After SIPA's ritual on Saturday, one of the reporters who was there to cover the event approached me saying she was interested in doing a follow-up story tracking me and my daily experiences with my path. As such, she came over last night and we talked for a long while about a lot of different things (although to be quite honest, even in all that time, we really only hit on the basics). She also then came back over tonight, because I told her I would be changing my altar setup now that Samhain is over.

Speaking of which, here it is as of now. I don't have any of my things for Yule at school right now, and it's a little early for that, anyway, so I went ahead and switched over to just a general working altar. The cloth is actually a scarf of my roommate's - isn't it pretty?

October 30th, 2016

Yesterday was a wonderful, busy day. After volunteering at Habitat for Humanity in the morning, I got changed and ready to go to SIPA's Samhain ritual. Tara met me outside my dorm around 2:45, and we drove over to Crab Orchard Campground for the event.

The ritual had originally been going to be at Devil's Kitchen Lake like Mabon, but apparently that area is now undergoing construction, so the parks department gave us the Crab Orchard spot instead. Quite honestly, it was probably a better site, anyway - for one thing, the peninsula was huge, and we had the whole thing to ourselves. There was no designated shelter, which, granted, would have been less fun had it been raining like last year, but fortunately, the weather was perfect. The sky was clear, and it was 80 degrees in the afternoon.

I explored the site a bit, and found this strawberry plant growing a baby strawberry! It seemed a little late in the season, but as warm as it was, I suppose the plants didn't mind.

Because the area was so large, we had a lot of options for where we held ritual. Tara originally wanted to use this spot, right on the lake, which had a cool, star-shaped tree stump in the ground. However, it was quite windy, and there was some concern about whether or not things would blow over, so she decided instead to use an area further back in the trees, but which still had a view of the lake.

As always, there was a potluck. I brought soda, since there hadn't been enough drinks at the last ritual, and enjoyed pizza, vegetables, pasta, cupcakes, and cookies. There was also a home-grown watermelon which I had some of later - very tasty - and apple cider.

Look at these cool Samhain cupcakes! They were filled with raspberry sauce, too, mmmm....

I hadn't been expecting to get to use my construction skills at all at the ritual, but as it would turn out, there were some pieces to construct for the Circle setup. Sean designed these elemental doorways, built out of 2x2s and fabric, which we put together using his battery-powered staple gun. This was Air, in the East.

A close-up of the elemental altar beyond the Air doorway; people had the opportunity to banish from their lives anything relating to the element Air by writing it down and then tying the paper to the wreath like a dreamcatcher.

The Fire doorway; problems relating to the element Fire were written down and the papers burned in the cauldron.

The Water doorway; problems relating to the element Water were written down and drowned in the water inside the vase.

The Earth doorway; problems relating to the element Earth were buried in the tray of potting soil.

There was also a central bonfire for burning any problems related to Spirit, or to issues not clearly covered by one of the other elements.

These were the items I brought for the ancestor altar; we've had some deaths in the family this year, so I had quite a bit more to bring than I did last Samhain.

We held the ritual after the sun went down. It was windy enough that it was impossible to keep the candles lit, but I saw a shooting star right after everyone had finished honoring their ancestors, and it was a really good, contemplative ceremony. There were also some reporters from a local newspaper who came to talk and photograph, so I may be in the newspaper sometime this week!

September 25th, 2016

I just got back from camping out after SIPA's Mabon ritual - it was a very nice evening!

The site for this ritual was over at Devil's Kitchen Lake, on a little peninsula. It was sunny, and very hot - almost 90⁰!

Near the tip of the peninsula was a little shelter with picnic tables, where we eventually set up food for our potluck.

There was also a big stone fire pit, so some of the guys got wood together to build up a ritual fire later in the evening.

This is more of the lake - it was a very pretty view!

Somebody brought bubble wands, so a couple of us stood around for a while blowing bubbles.

I was borrowing the group leader's tent after she kindly agreed to lend it to me, and I ended up pitching it to the side of the trail with a nice view of the water.

There ended up being quite a good amount of food for the potluck, between cakes and mashed potatoes and pasta and fruit. I brought peanuts in the shells, because they're fun to crack open and also make good offerings.

One couple brought this large cow's skull to rest among some of the harvest offerings people brought.

There were also two little dogs, who quickly became good friends!

Starting the fire...

Sunset...

Some toads, who all things considered were pretty good-natured about being handled.

The ritual Circle, outlined with tiki torches and with the fire pit in the center.

The focus of the ritual was balance, recognizing the things which we meant to accomplish this past year and did not, and releasing that energy. It was simple and to the point, which worked well for the intended goal in my opinion. I volunteered to do Quarter calls for West; it was my first time taking on a role like that for a public ritual, so I was a little nervous, but I think it went well.

The stars last night were beautiful - there were so many, and it was such a clear night that there was really good visibility.

And then this image is from this morning, standing on the fishing pier and looking out over the lake.

View from the pier back towards the campsite.

The Samhain ritual will be held at this same spot, so I'm looking forward to that.

Bonus Beltane Pictures

These ended up on Facebook today, and I figured I'd share a few more pictures from SIPA's Beltane ritual, seeing as I was dancing around the maypole and couldn't simultaneously get pictures of people dancing.

SIPA Beltane 2016

SIPA hosted their Beltane ritual this afternoon, which I was fortunately able to attend! I missed it last year because of a build day for an architecture group I'm in, and this year I was concerned it would overlap with set strike, but fortunately the times worked out. It was also supposed to storm today, but the weather turned out to be beautiful! All in all, we couldn't have had a nicer set-up for a ritual.

Today's ritual was at a shelter in Giant City, which has a lovely creek running past it. The shelter was smaller than the ones we've been at before, but since it was so nice out, it didn't matter.

Me before ritual, all dressed up with robes, a cape, Quartz necklace, and the flower crown I bought at Fairy Fest last summer.

The maypole; SIPA uses theirs three years consecutively and then burns it at Samhain. This is this maypole's second year.

Elemental banners around the Circle.

There were several dogs at today's ritual, including this little lady, Serenity.

Blowing bubbles and grilling bratwurst.

Dogs!

West side of the creek

East side of the creek, with Zeppelin the dog.

One of many red ochre rocks in the stream bed. I looked for fossils, but didn't spot any.

Waterfall into the creek.

SIPA's banner, which was incredibly difficult to hang. The gentleman on the left had to give me a leg up to tie the grommet to a nail in the wood, and then he climbed on the other guy's back to staple up the other corner.

Tying this year's ribbons to the maypole.

Our drummer getting in a good stretch so he's ready to go.

So many ribbons! Mine was a dark blue, to match my outfit.

Erecting the maypole (not my photo, I didn't have my phone during ritual).

Everyone getting ready to dance (also not my photo; that's me in the foreground). We wove in thoughts and intentions of things we wanted to grow this year. It was super fast-paced and a little chaotic, but...

...it turned out great! Our maypole, all braided up!

We had a potluck afterwards with a ton of food, and I was completely stuffed. I got back to campus around 4:00, which left me plenty of time to get ready for set strike at 4:30. I am very tired now, but it was a good day!