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T h e M a g i c k C i r c l e
January 2012 Newsletter
Allspice
Allspice is the dried fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant. The fruit is picked when it is green and unripe and, traditionally, dried in the sun. When dry, the fruits are brown and resemble large brown peppercorns. The whole fruits have a longer shelf life than the powdered product and produce a more aromatic product when freshly ground before use. The leaves of the allspice plant are also used in island cooking. More specifically, it is very popular in Jamaican and Tuvaluan cooking. Fresh leaves are used where available: they are similar in texture to bay leaves and are thus infused during cooking and then removed before serving. Unlike bay leaves, they lose much flavour when dried and stored, so do not figure in commerce. The leaves and wood are often used for smoking meats where allspice is a local crop. Allspice can also be found in essential oil form.
Allspice is one of the most important ingredients of Caribbean cuisine. It is used in Caribbean jerk seasoning (the wood is used to smoke jerk in Jamaica, although the spice is a good substitute), in moles, and in pickling; it is also an ingredient in commercial sausage preparations and curry powders. Allspice is also indispensable in Middle Eastern cuisine, particularly in the Levant, where it is used to flavor a variety of stews and meat dishes. In Palestinian cuisine, for example, many main dishes call for allspice as the sole spice added for flavoring. In America, it is used mostly in desserts, but it is also responsible for giving Cincinnati-style chili its distinctive aroma and flavor. Allspice is commonly used in Great Britain, and appears in many dishes, including cakes. Even in many countries where allspice is not very popular in the household, as in Germany, it is used in large amounts by commercial sausage makers. It is a main flavor used in barbecue sauces. In the West Indies, an allspice liqueur called "pimento dram" is produced.
Allspice has also been used as a deodorant. Volatile oils found in the plant contain eugenol, a weak antimicrobial agent, Allspice is also reported to provide relief for indigestion and gas.
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Cultivation :
The allspice tree is classified as an evergreen shrub that reaches a height of between 10 and 18 meters (32 and 60 feet). Allspice can be a small scrubby tree, quite similar to the bay laurel in size and form. It can also be a tall, canopy tree, sometimes grown to provide shade for coffee trees that are planted underneath them. It can be grown outdoors in the tropics and subtropics with normal garden soil and watering. Smaller plants can be killed by frost, although larger plants are more tolerant. It adapts well to container culture and can be kept as a houseplant or in a greenhouse. The plant is dioecious, meaning plants are either male or female and hence male and female plants must be kept in proximity to allow fruits to develop .
To protect the pimenta trade, the plant was guarded against export from Jamaica. Many attempts at growing the pimenta from seeds were reported, but all failed. At one time, the plant was thought to grow nowhere except in Jamaica, where the plant was readily spread by birds. Experiments were then performed using the constituents of bird droppings; however, these were also totally unsuccessful. Eventually, it was realized that passage through the avian gut, either the acidity or the elevated temperature, was essential for germinating the seeds. Today, pimenta is spread by birds in Tonga and Hawaii, where it has become naturalized on Kauai and Maui.
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Allspice in magickal usages:
Allspice is used as a ingredient in spiritual products for Good Luck, Fast Luck and Money.
You can anoint a red candle for "luck in a hurry" with Fast Luck Oil, a yellow candle for success with Crowning Glory or Crown of Success Oil
or a green candle anointed with Money Drawing Oil and roll these candles (if free standing) in ground Allspice or you can place a good pinch of it in the top of your glass vigil candles for extra power to your candle spell.
It is alleged that Allspice brings good luck to business owners and gamblers as well.
Allspice is a key ingredient in mojo bags created to carry for money luck.
One way to bring customers to your place of business is to create a floor wash
daily with a spoonful each of ground allspice, ground cinnamon and grains of paradise with a cup of Epsom Salts in warm water and mop your floors from the front door to the back, then taking the rest of the water and tossing it out the front door onto the walkway or sidewalk to draw in customers.
Allspice is widely considered to be lucky and is used by many people for the purpose of bringing good fortune in business, money matters, and games of chance.
This aromatic spice is especially effective when cooked in water in a double boiler to fill a room with its scent. Doing so opens the brain centers to greater achievement and creates a happy, efficient work environment.
Other ways to use it include the following:
Add Allspice to any success formula to increase chances of beating out the competition.
Carry the whole berries in your pocket to improve your chances on interview or winning clients and making sales.
Sprinkle the powder across a place of business or dust the hands when you want to succeed.
For winnings in games of chance (cards, slots, keno, dice, the racetrack, the lottery, and bingo) carry Allspice berries in a small green flannel bag.
annoint with Jupiter oil every full moon to enhance and recharge your mojo bag.
To enhance your chances of winning, add one or more of the following lucky money herbs: Nutmeg, Chamomile, Bayberry, Cinnamon, devil shoestring, Irish Moss, John the Conqueror. Before handling your cash (ticket, cards, etc), recite the 23rd Psalm while concentrating on your desires.
If you have access to a living Allspice tree, crush a leaf between your fingers and rub a little behind your ears when preparing to go on a date or interview. It's guaranteed to make you more appealing.
Cauldron
The cauldron is a well-respected Wiccan tool. It is a vessel for transformation, and represents the very essence of fertility and femininity.
The cauldron is a common tool, though not all modern Wiccans have one. The cauldron has a great deal of history and tradition associated with it, and for Wiccans, it is the vessel where magickal transformations occur, such as brewing and cooking, along with much more mystical purposes. It is also sometimes used to light a fire at certain ceremonies.
Historical and Mythological Cauldrons
There are many cauldrons throughout world history, and they often take different shapes. Historically, the Gundestrup cauldron, found in Denmark, is a silver cauldron, dating back to approximately the first century, BCE. It may have had an initiatory or sacrificial role around that time.
A more modern example would be the cauldron in which the Olympic flame burns during the Olympic Games. This ancient practice was revived at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Mythological examples of cauldrons include the Holy Grail. Though technically a chalice, and not a cauldron, it still is a vessel for magickal transformation, and so can be placed in this category. Other mythical cauldrons are the Cauldron of Dagda, from which no company ever went from it unsatisfied, and the Cauldron of Dyrnwch the Giant, which was said to be able to tell brave men from cowards.
Wiccan Symbolism of the Cauldron
Wiccans see the cauldron as a powerful symbol of the Goddess. It is the manifestation of fertility and femininity. It is associated with the element of water and the west, and has connections with reincarnation and rebirth. In modern Wicca, it is the tales of Cerridwen's cauldron that have the greatest impact on how the cauldron is viewed.
Cauldrons can be used for scrying if filled with water, since they are already dark enough to stop the reflection of light. The cauldron can also be used for brewing many different Wiccan potions, usually herbal in nature, but most use a pot on a stove today, simply for the convenience.
The use of the cauldron has a long and varied history, from the magickal and ceremonial to the mundane. In Wiccan practice, it is a respected and well-used tool, embodying the very essence of femininity.
NAG-CHAMPA INCENSE
Nag Champa is an Indian fragrance, commonly found in incense, soap, perfume oil, essential oils, candles and personal toileteries originating there. It is commonly used in ashrams.
Indian incense containing Plumeria, known in the West as Frangipani, have Champa in their name. Champa incense contain a semi-liquid resin, "halmaddi," taken from the Ailanthus Malabarica tree, which gives them their characteristic grey color and damp texture: halmaddi is hygroscopic. The resin also contains a psychoactive beta-carboline. Nag Champa contains a large proportion of sandalwood. Nag Champa remains perhaps the world's most popular incense, historically with the ashram of the late Satya Sai Baba. Nag Champa has a strong individual smell that cannot be found in any other incense fragrances, generally starting with a potent smell that changes to a cool sweet smell as time passes.
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Incense
Incense is one of the more common magical tools. Many practitioners use incense for nearly every magical act, from simple meditations to elaborate rituals. It's not that its a very powerful or versatile tool, but it is a fairly useful one. Incense utilizes our sense of smell to help align both the practitioner and the area in which it is burned with a desired mood and energy. Some common uses for incense include:
-In spellwork and ritual incense is often burned to help raise energy, adjust the energy of the area, and/or aid the practitioner in achieving trance.
-In meditation incense is burned to help the practitioner achieve states of clarity, focus, and/or calm.
-Incense is often used as an aid to achieve astral projection and lucid dreaming.
-In cleansings and exorcisms incense is burned to purify or sanctify an area.
-Preferable incense can be burned to attract certain types of entities to an area, where as deplorable incense can be burned to repel certain types of entities from an area.
-When contacting a deity, incense which is associated with the deity is often burned both as an offering and show of respect for the deity and also to help the practitioner make a connection with the deity.
-Since incense is burned, a fire elemental can be summoned into it and held for spellwork.
-Incense can also help us connect into the ideas and energies it is associated with.
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List of some incense magickal purposes :
Amber - Represents both knowledge and history. Amber is good for meditations in which you're seeking to discover information. It's also very good for past life regressions and divinations into the past. Air associative.
Cedarwood - Cedar, like all wood incense, is fire associative. It's also generally seen as an incense denoting strength or power. It's proper to burn this incense in a fort or castle, within an army prior to battle, or in a newly built or dedicated temple to announce ones strength and to push this strength outward into the world. It's also a good incense for spells meant to increase virility in men.
Cinnamon – Cinnamon is by far the most useful incense and also one of the easiest to find. To start, cinnamon is fire associative, which makes it a good choice when dealing with fire elementals and also useful for communing with fire associative deities (like Mars). It's also associated with passion, lust, and sexual desire, which makes it good for lust spells, aphrodisiac spells, and a good choice to burn during sex. But the thing that really sets it apart is cinnamon is really good at raising energy. If you're trying to raise energy, cinnamon is the incense you want to burn. If you want to do a very powerful spell or ritual, it's good to burn cinnamon to help get the energy you'll need to pull it off. Because more energy isn't going to hurt a spell, cinnamon is a good standard incense for any spellwork or ritual. About the only time you wouldn't want to use cinnamon is when either the fire attribute or the lust attribute would be undesirable in a given spell (such as when evoking a water elemental or when casting certain types of love spells).
Frankincense - Frankincense promotes calm and peace. It's commonly used to relieve stress and anxiety. However it is also useful in ending conflicts and arguments, reestablishing a friendship that has ended due to conflicts (as opposed to neglect), bringing peace and resolution to enemies, and bringing peace and resolution to warring factions. It also alleviates the tension of a tense situation. In all instances, the purpose of frankincense is to end any conflict or tension and bring about a state of peace and calm. Because of its nature frankincense is often used as both a general incense for religious rituals and as an aid for meditation. Frankincense is also believed to have many healing properties, and these are related to relieving conflicts and stresses within ones body which lead to illness.
Ginger – Ginger is fire associative. It's good for spells which incite desire or lust.
Jasmine - Jasmine is both night and love associative. Although Jasmine is associated with love, it is not associated with sex or sex appeal, although it is associated with beauty. This is where Jasmine starts to differentiate itself from Rose. In love spells, where Rose tends to utilize the entire spectrum of romance, Jasmine is more concerned with the mental and emotional connections, and although Jasmine can bring forth someone who is beautiful, this beauty is often an inner-beauty, a beauty of character, in other words someone who you would find beautiful. This also makes Jasmine a very good incense for spells which are meant to promote friendship.
Lavender - Lavender promotes beauty. It's a good incense for glamours and lures, and also a good incense for magick intended to actually make one more attractive. It also works well for love spells, spells meant to attract a mate, and it is a good incense to burn during romantic situations. Water associative.
Lotus - Generally associated with mental clarity, increased focus, and heightened intelligence. Because of these properties Lotus is often seen as ideal for meditation. Air associative.
Musk – Musk is Earth associative. It's a good incense for restoring balance and order, realigning ones energies, sealing portals, creating barriers and protections, and removing the influences of negative magick. It's also a good incense to burn to Saturn. Musk is also associated with chthonic deities and the underworld. It's more concerned with underworld energies and accessing the underworld than bringing forth the dead. It's a good incense to burn for certain underworld entities.
Myrrh - More than anything Myrrh is sun associative. It is often also seen as having a heavenly attribute or being of the gods. It was traditionally used as a funerary incense, but this is derived from its use to elevate one to the heavens or to curry favor with the gods, or to promote a renewal into ones next life as the sun renews itself each day, not because of a chthonic association. Because of its divine attribution, myrrh is often seen as an incense of purification and exorcism, although this has been embellished quite a bit by its prominence in Christian ritual. More than anything Myrrh acts as an amplifier for whatever spell is being performed because of its sun association. It should be noted that due to its divine association, Myrrh is a poor choice for amplifying magic which is done against the will of the gods. Myrrh is a good incense to burn to sun associative gods such as Helios, Apollo, or Ra.
Nag Champa - Nag Champa is a sacred incense (it's a blend which consists partly of Sandalwood). Nag Champa can be burned for many of the same reasons as Sandalwood. It can be used to sanctify or purify an area. It's also a good general purpose incense for spiritual matters. This includes acts like meditation and seeking spiritual enlightenment or evolution.
Opium - Opium is dream associative. Opium is a good incense to burn for any spell involving dreaming or sleep in any way, including spells meant to induce lucid dreaming or prophetic dreams. It's also a good incense to burn to dream and sleep associative deities such as Morpheus.
Patchouli - The strong smell of patchouli makes it ideal for masking the smell of pot, which is its primary usage. It's considered happy or joy associative, and it tends to attract fae creatures.
Rose – Rose is associative with love, sex, and desire. It's a good incense to burn to deities that are associated with love, like Venus and Aphrodite. It's also a good incense for love spells, spells concerned with inciting desire like lures and glamours, and spells that are meant to bring forth your desires.
Sandalwood - Sandalwood is fire and water associative along with being seen as the divine wood. Because of this Sandalwood is a good incense to burn for any deity, and it's also a good incense to use to purify or sanctify an area.
Vanilla - Vanilla is air associative, and it's a good general incense to burn to represent the element of air. Specifically vanilla associates with mental thought, intelligence, and all abilities conferred by these things. The incense is a good choice to burn for deities that are typically looked upon as being concerned with intelligence, like Hermes or Thoth.
