E is for Evil Eye

Evil Eye – The Evil Eye is one of the oldest and most widespread curses, and simultaneous superstition to some, around the world.  You can find instances of the Evil Eye and protection from almost everywhere.  What is the origin and history of the Evil Eye and what are some of the charms and spells used to guard one against it?  What can happen if someone puts the Evil Eye on you?

We have an Evil Eye hanging from the rear-view mirror of our car. It was given to us by our dear friend Melanie who bought the glass eye from Dilly's, placed it on a leather thong and gave it to Damon for protection on the road. 
Since we received it we've had 2 cars and have been careful to cleanse and transition it between the first and the second. Other than some vandalizing (and we knew immediately who had done it) we've had no issues with the car. The first care was a POS (piece of something-not-so-good) and I'm really shocked that it didn't fall apart on us when driving. Our new one is a Scion xB (the toaster looking cars) and its our baby. 

I strangely feel safer with our evil eye hanging from the rear view. I don't mean that we drive crazy and rely only on it, but we've missed dozens of would-be crashes and I do think that that piece of protective blue glass may have had a hand (or an eye) in it. 

But what is an Evil Eye?

I knew it was supposed to be protective and I've read bits and pieces about them in such books as Dracula and what not but I didn't know all that much about it until I took Anthropology 101 with Dr. King. 

I was meeting Dr. King in her office to discuss making Anthropology my major (didn't happen but...) and she had various types of evil eyes all over her office. I pointed them out and said we had been given one for our car. 

Dr. King then explained why the evil eyes are blue.

Supposedly evil eyes are made by people in countries like India and South America where people usually have brown eyes. When western explorers and the like began to invade and explore they were called many names but one of them is Blue-eyed Devils. 

Evil eyes are made from blue glass or paint to resemble blue eyes, meaning they reflect back any evil the Blue-eyed Devils sent out to the people. 

I was intruiged by this so I began to do some more research...

There are more types of Evil Eyes than just the blue disks like the one we have in the car. 

There's simply looking at a person with ill-intent in your heart, which is a sort of laying the evil eye on someone. There's also looking at someone who owns something with jealousy (which is why the blue evil eyes are placed on babies, cars, houses, anything someone might covet).

Other ways to break these evil eyes and prevent them from doing harm is cleansing, placing salt or mojo bags on or around effected objects or people, and counter-curses. 

All in all, I'm very grateful to Melanie for giving us our evil eye and I will be using it in our car for a long long time. 

Pagan Living

I found Pagan Living and was pleasantly surprised by the free magazine's organization and the number of articles available that I sincerely enjoyed. I'm a subscriber now and wanted to recommend it to you all as well.

It was available monthly but the owner, Tenae, decided to push it to a quarterly magazine in order to provide more quality while giving herself time to work on other projects such as her blog. I think this is a great idea.

The current issue includes information about Ostara and Beltane including some great recipes and gift ideas. I loved the article about Lavender, it's my favorite herb and perfect for magickal and mundane use.

Samhain Treasury Lists on Etsy

I've made a few Samhain Treasure Lists on my Etsy and thought I would share these favorite Halloween blessings with you, my readers.

Samhain Blessings - mostly pre-made spells and ritual kits.

Under the Samhain Moon - jewelry and other pretties

More coming soon I'm sure ^_^

Kindle(ing) the love of a good book

I have a new (well new to me) Kindle!
I've been wanting one since they came out and now I have one!

So far I have just under 50 books (most of them classic novels) and all free. I'll be taking a few boxes of old fiction novels to the used book store and selling what I can and using that money to buy e-books of the same titles.
We tend to move pretty frequently for one reason or another and Damon isn't too keen on lugging around boxes of heavy books. I wont, however, be selling my rare or antique books or my metaphysical books for reasons I feel are obvious.

I have been looking at the free books available on amazon and have found quite a few on witchcraft including anthropological looks on witchcraft, texts on the witch burnings in Europe and America, and even the Pagan Book of ABCs. ^_^

Any of you have e-readers? Recommend any good e-books (preferably free or cheap)?

Crafty Witch and Halloween Specials

So I grabbed up a friend of mine yesterday and went to Michael's, the Dollar Tree and WalMart to get supplies to make Witch's Bottles - Damon came along and between the three of us the adult ADD moments were rampant.

One item necessary for the bottles is the bottle itself and I looked and looked in the jewelry, glass and art department for small glass bottles with a cork - nothing. I figures I was just overlooking them so I went to ask a store associate and learned that they were in the Scrapbook department...O.o
I asked why, and its due to the brand of the bottles all being in the same area, which I assume makes sense.

Since I was in the scrapbook department, I looked around a little at scrapbook supplies for my Scrap BOS. In the Halloween collection I saw the perfect paper for BOS pages (all witchy and black and fun) but the book of it was a little out of my price range so I vowed to return the first of November for the lovely paper and went on.

This strange little vow made me think of frugality in witchcraft. We are a group of people who use what we can, what we need, what we can get our hands on for the purpose of changing and bending. I like this concept. The idea of the witch being a creature of necessity and creativity.
That, I think, is also where the Witch's Bottle comes from - a bottle filled with random objects such as bits of broken mirror, bent or broken needles, scraps of cloth, whatever else was lying around the house that could be used in protective magick.
I seriously doubt any person back in ye olden days purposely broke a needle when they weren't sure if they could afford the next one, nor did they waste such a valuable commodity as a mirror or a bit of glass unless it was broke beyond use.

I collected all the things we needed for the bottles and headed back to my friend's house where her hubs made warming rice and turkey soup (with dried habanero that we gave them a few weeks back, Yay for the barter system!) and taught her a little about witch's bottles. We also discussed crafting our own candle holders and had fun sorting out some craft supplies.

Damon, on the other hand, has his own craft project coming along - he bought some fabric at Wally world and is making me some comfy hippie pants. The fabric is black filigree with some purple cotton for the etching and the pockets (so I'll be a gothy-hippie, my favorite) ^_^ and he and the other hubs spent the evening having a beer and  discussing sewing and knitting and I noted the irony of this more than a few times.

Divination Tools Etsy List

Divination is an aspect of the Craft that I am very drawn to and I love all the different ways witches have to scry and divine past, present, future, answers to questions, inner conflict, etc.
My favorite means of divination are via cards (Tarot and oracle), a bowl of water, or my black Rainbow Obsidian sphere. I also scry using fire either by candle light or at the hearth.

I would like to learn to read tea leaves at some point - a combination of two of my favorite things Tea drinking and Divination!

Playing around on Etsy I decided to make a treasury list of some very nice divination tools I've come across.

Here

Do you scry or divine? What is you're favorite way to scry? What have you used and what has worked or not worked for you?

Stick to it!

All the great teachers encourage learning of new skills but they also encourage dedication ot what you do best.

The Golden Dawn members said find a type of divination that is easiest and best done by your hand and use it. This means that if your skills in Tarot are considered a mastery by many and you find a sort of friendship and comfort in your tarot deck, then stick to it rather than struggle and fight to learn how to read tea leaves and crystal balls.

I have learned thsi lesson fairly well after studying tarot, beating my head against the wall called Numerology, and tortured myself and a poor pendulum for hours I have returned to my original ways: scrying via dark mirror or sphere.

Recently, fate and spirits have given me a little bit of an abrupt love-tap as I stepped into Three of Cups, a local Botanica. Looking at the herbs and curios, I found myself standing before a jewel case holding crystal balls and wands. My eyes and full attention were drwn to a dark orb about the sixe of my fist that looked to be ring upon ring of black, green, gray, and smoky midnight blue.

If you have ever felt the tug of something that resonates with your very core, you will understand how I felt as my heart core vibrated madly and my every thought cried out, "Thats Mine!"

Sadly, the sphere was a little expensive, being made of Ranbow Obsidian with few marks. I let it be, thinking of my pocketbook.
A week or so later, I returned to Three of Cups and was again in front of the jewel case, looking down at the rainbow obsidian which continued to call to me.

A dear friend of mine gave me a jarring boost to buy the stone. He said that if I didnt buy it, then there would be a chance that someone else would buy it and might use it without the dear respect it deserves...someone who I did not feel much liking towards.

So I bought the stone and overcame some hesitations I had towards scrying. Now I realize that I have a natural affinity towards this form of divination and have been a fool to turn from it as I have for more worldly accepted forms, for forms that people happily pay to have done.

Please take heed and do what your soul calls for and do not shun it.