Earth Magic: Your Complete Guide to Natural Spells, Potions, Plants, Herbs, Witchcraft, and More
272
Earth Magic: Your Complete Guide to Natural Spells, Potions, Plants, Herbs, Witchcraft, and More
272Paperback
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Overview
Nature’s magic is everywhere. It’s in backyards, in the woods, ponds, and even kitchens. You just need to know how to see it. It’s finding the well-being drawn from the energies of the Earth and the universe. It’s the herbs and plants, symbols and talismans, candles, stones, gems, and crystals, and their special powers and meanings, spells, potions, and animal and spirit guides. Even as it gives us the food, water, and air we need to survive, the Earth offers gifts far beyond the obvious.
Earth Magic: Your Complete Guide to Natural Spells, Potions, Plants, Herbs, Witchcraft, and More, will guide you through the rites, practices, and traditions people use to connect themselves to the planet, spirits, and energies. Learn how the laws of the universe and the forces of science can allow you to achieve your desires and intentions by aligning unseen energy. Find the wisdom in the stars and planets above and the Earth below.
Earth Magic brings balance and harmony to modern life through the healing and uplifting powers nature. A fascinating read, this book shares practical advice and timeless insights. Green living, natural healing, alignment with the Earth and stars—it’s all here in this wondrous guide to a universe filled with marvels. Come and explore nature’s spell-binding world of wonder and embrace the magic!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781578596973 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Visible Ink Press |
| Publication date: | 06/01/2020 |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Sales rank: | 1,092,130 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Folk Magic
The term “folk magic” refers to the practices of common folk, and is interchangeable with natural magic, kitchen witchery, botanical magic, and practical magic. Folk magic was practiced by European pagans who were often persecuted for witchcraft, even though they were simply using plants, herbs, roots, and nature to heal and cure. We might even call them herbalists today. Their experiences and education came from getting hands-on with the plants that grew in their environment and over time, whether it was for medicinal or magical purposes.
In the villages they lived in, those who practiced folk magic were the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and overall healers for anyone with an ailment of the body, mind, or spirit. Folk magic is also a part of African-American hoodoo, the 19th century magical practice that combines some elements of African and Haitian voodoo or voudon with Americanized folk magic influenced by Native Americans, Europeans, and even Christianity, with many rituals involving images and statues of Jesus or the saints alongside curious and items specific to folk magic. Hoodoo folk magic spread into the American south where it took hold in rural areas mainly, such as the bayou country of Louisiana, and Appalachian mountain magic.
Eventually, hoodoo folk magic became known as “conjuring” and included working with spirits and entities to assist the living and the dead. One could conjure a spirit to assist a dead villager to the other side, as well as protect those alive in the village. If someone was sick, they visited the local conjurer to see what kind of root or herb mixture or tea or spell could heal their maladies. Some of the favorite flowers used in hoodoo healing include:
Folk magic in any form utilizes many of the same tools as witchcraft, Wicca, paganism, and earth-based traditions. Plants, herbs, spices, roots, stones, crystals, powders, infusions, tinctures – all were utilized in spells and conjuring work by those who were considered the wisest and most experienced (usually the village elders and women). Folk magic would also be requested for love, money, luck, success, banishing negative people and spirits, breaking a curse or hex, cleansing homes, winning legal battles, finding a new job, protection against violence and gossip, and even some darker desires, such as inspiring lust, getting someone to fall in love with you, getting revenge on someone, breaking up with someone, and dominating another person.
Divination and psychic development were also goals of the hoodoo practitioner, either for his or herself, or at the request of a client who came to ask for assistance from spirits on the other side. This type of folk magic employed cards (such as Tarot), tea leaves, seashells, or bones that were cast and read to seek guidance, direction, and at times, warnings of pending dangers.
How To Read Tea Leaves
When it comes to divination and earth-traditions, there is something to be set for dual uses. Herbal teas are used as medicinals for their special properties, and the tea leaves are a favorite form of seeking signs and messages as a divination tool. The art of tea leaf reading is called tasseography, tassology, and tasseomancy, and has been practiced in Asian cultures for thousands of years. Tea is a favorite drink of so many ancient and modern civilizations, so it is only natural that it long ago took on an important role as a divining method for predicting future events for someone asking for a reading, or for the reader his or herself.
Tea leaf readings work by accessing information in the subconscious mind, or the collective unconscious that Swiss psychologist and psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung wrote about extensively, that links all of humanity as in one great mind. This allows the reader access to the past, present and future not limited by linear time, and allows them to see things outside of the realm of their limited vision.
To read tea leaves, you first need to decide what type of tea you wish to use, and what kind of teacup or bowl you want to read in. It should be something symbolic and decorative.
You are looking for images, signs, symbols, and intuitions in the patterns of the leaves themselves, but also things that pop into your mind during the reading. Be patient and quietly record what you are seeing. Look for prominent or dominant shapes and patterns.
Next, you must interpret what you’ve seen. Like scrying, images and patterns may not make any sense at the time or to the conscious mind, yet their meaning becomes clear later. This is especially true if you are getting messages for someone else. They may understand the images and patterns. This is where your interpretation skills will be put to the test and sharpened with practice.
Do some tea readings for practice on yourself or a close friend until you feel like you’re getting the hang of it. Make note of your intuitions and things that don’t make sense at the time. Look also for positioning of the leaves, groupings, thickness, color, and whether the leaves are in the liquid or on the side of the cup or bowl. It all means something, and it is up to you to ultimately interpret what.
Some major tea symbols people report are:
Often the shapes will be just blobs and glops, so don’t be afraid to swirl the mix again if you are not getting any “hits.” Write down everything that comes to mind, no matter how crazy it might sound, because it might make total sense down the road.
Tea leaf reading is an ancient art that cannot be mastered overnight, so take your time and get familiar with the process. You can also try your hand at reading coffee grounds or wine sediments if you are not a tea drinker.
Women often make better tea leaf readers because of their sharper and more accessible intuition, but anyone can become a pro with practice.
A simple tea magick trick – pour a cup of your favorite tea while concentrating on your intended desire. If you want to invoke something like health, love, or success, stir the tea clockwise. If you want to get rid of or banish something like illness, stress, or toxic energy, stir the tea counterclockwise.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Chinese herbal medicine dates back over 2.500 years and has been the subject of hundreds of research studies that show its effectiveness for healing. The Chinese knew the power of herbs and plants and included them their healing modalities and therapies. Their focus was not just on a particular disease or ailment, or even a particular part of the body, but on the whole body. This holistic viewpoint has assured Chinese medicine a place in modern health as more people embrace the natural and proven Eastern practices.
Traditional Chinese healers knew that herbs and plants had the ability to strengthen the immune system and prevent inflammation and disease, even fight the damage done to the body from free radicals that cause cancer. This information has been passed down throughout generations with an incredible respect for keeping the processes and tools as pure as possible. Too often, traditions are added to and changed as they are passed on, and modern Chinese herbalists no doubt have learned a lot of new information their ancestors were not aware of, but the basics of understanding stay the same. Chinese herbal therapy utilizes teas, extracts, dried powders, and tinctures to bring the body back into a balanced, harmonic state. Whether it be a flu, cold, menstrual pains, fatigue, hormonal imbalances, PMS, diabetes, cancer, chemo brain, headache, liver disease, depression, allergies, infertility, or a host of other possible issues, there was an herb, or herbal blend, perfect for curing it. Chinese herbalism is probably the most extensive of any healing tradition on the planet.
Chinese herbalists in modern times even worked closely with physicians to help their patient get the utmost care. Herbs most used include reishi and cordyceps, medicinal mushrooms: gooseberries for reducing inflammation; green tea and green tea extract for protecting the brain and reducing inflammation (also aids in weight loss); goji berries, gingko biloba, and astragalus root for their many healing properties, and more. Their knowledge of antioxidant adaptogen herbs such as mushrooms to prevent liver disease have been studied and recommended for years. They had centuries of practice and trial and error to learn the holistic, natural healing modalities still in use today. At the heart of their healing therapies, the Chinese believed in balancing the energy known as Chi or Qi, that permeated the body and affected the mind and spirit. This energy is behind well-being and without addressing it, medicine served to only mask and stop symptoms while ignoring the source of disease itself. Restoring the Chi or Qi meant restoring the body, mind, and spirit to optimum functioning.
In the United States, Chinese herbal medicine is widely accepted, although most insurance plans might not cover it. Traditional doctors might use it as a complimentary approach to their more formal one, and there are practitioners aplenty if you prefer a more Eastern approach to healing that is practiced all over the world. If you do find an authentic Chinese herbalist, they will visit with you and go over your symptoms and concerns, then design a modality to suit your needs, which may be herbal therapy along with acupuncture, acupressure, a form of exercise for strengthening the mind and body like tai chi or Qi gong, deep tissue massage to improve blood flow and release toxins, or a change in diet and exercise to compliment herbal therapy. Adopting a healthy lifestyle is of paramount importance because just treating something with an herbal tea or elixir might take care of the problem once, but not for good. A body filled with toxic junk food, chemicals, and pesticides is not a healthy body or the proper foundation for long-term well-being.
Chinese healing modalities always require seeking a preventative lifestyle of nutrition, exercise, getting good sleep, meditation and lowering stress, and the use of supplements if prescribed. Without keeping the whole body healthy, symptoms return. At the source of all disease is a lack of homeostasis and harmony of the bodily systems and organs working together.
With the advent of the Internet, there are classes and courses in Chinese Herbal medicine that make it even more accessible to anyone who wants to take control of their health without resorting to the cut/slash/burn of traditional Western medicine. While it takes years to truly develop the level of knowledge experienced Chinese herbalists work with, there are plenty of tips, suggestions, and recipes for using the same herbs that have cured thousands, if not millions, over the centuries.
Table of Contents
Author’s NoteAcknowledgments
Photo Sources
Introduction
Earth Traditions
Universal Laws to Live By
Spellcasting
Crystals, Stones, and Gems
Potions, Infusions, and Brews
Casting the Spell
Moon Magic
The Power of Plants and Herbs
Rituals, Traditions, and Celebrations
Rites of Passage
Glossary
Further Reading
Website Sources
Index