Styrax tonkinensis
Benzoin, a member of the Styraceae family, is collected as a resin exuded from the trunk after the bark is cut, and is in solid brown to white brittle pieces. More processing is required to bring the benzoin to liquid form. Benzoin comes from trees native to Thailand and Sumatra, and is an ingredient of incense. Commonly known as ‘friar’s balsam’. Care should be taken to obtain a good quality oil.
Fagus sylvatica
Beech is a native British tree growing to over 30m with a smooth grey bark. In woodland they often have no low branches though solitary trees will grow to a complete and balanced form with branches offering leaves for all available light. Leaf buds are long and slender on opposite spurs. Flowers form soon after the leaves appear with male and female on the same tree. The females mature a few days before the males to ensure cross pollination from a neighboring tree. They are seen as a reddish crown of bristly ‘mast’ which hardens to protect the nut. The male flowers hang beneath the branch on slender stalks like clustering earrings. They swing in the wind and so release pollen. The copper beech and weeping beech are both ornamental derivatives of F. sylvatica and they are not the true form.
This is a candle burning ritual using Dragon Magick. Either tapers or votives
can be used for candle-burning rituals. For safety, choose a metal or non-
flammable holder and set it in a safe place. To increase the potency time the
burning to correct lunar or solar phases depending on the type of ritual you
wish to perform. For increasing and obtaining desires, burn during daylight or
the waxing moon (from after the New Moon to the Full Moon), with the Full Moon
being the strongest. For banishing or cursing, burn during evening hours or the
waning moon (from after the Full Moon until the New Moon) , with the New Moon
being the strongest.
Continue reading “Dragon Fire Ritual”
Today’s lecture has two purposes. First, we will deal with the legends, meta-legends, and conventions that form the basis for most Neopagan ritual. Then we will discuss the purposes behind a witchcraft initiation, and walk through the one that the graduates of this class will perform.
Today’s lecture has two purposes. First, we will deal with the legends, meta-legends, and conventions that form the basis for most Neopagan ritual. Then we will discuss the purposes behind a witchcraft initiation, and walk through the one that the graduates of this class will perform.
Theology and thealogy (the alpha-ending, Thea, being the Greek feminine ending) are outlined to show how Neopagans relate to their own and other people’s choices of gods. The hook on which this will all be hung is that most of the Gods represent facets of human experience personified.
Althea Whitebirch
We have all moved through periods of crisis in our lives; things ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the death of someone close to us to final exams. Events which are extremely stressful-which threaten our lives, home, future or security-would seem t call for strong measures of assistance. There have been many times that I have felt that the course of events required swift and strong intervention of a deity. Blood sacrifice is, to my mind, one of the more powerful magics one could perform, and so seemed particularly suitable for this. But it’s rather ethically sticky.
Witch's Well 