Practical Magic: Glamoury and Tealight Hearths
Charms, Hexes, Weeknight Dinner Recipes, Glamoury and Unsolicited Opinions on Morals and Magic
[Manic Mondays] They Can Catch Us/ They Can Kill Us/ But They Can’t Break Our Spirits
It's been a long time since I've gotten swept up in ritual planning. A really long time. Usually by the time my turn comes around to Priestess for my Dianic Coven, I'm like, 'Iron Pentacle, it is!'. When I was on vacation, I finally got to read The Red Goddess which Gordon told me to read like a year and a half ago but. . . listen. You know me by now, right? I'm very easily distrac--
Anyway. As usual, Gordon was annoyingly right as he generally is (but I'm still holding onto reality television with my claws for the moment) and it's not like any other magic book I've read (which is a huge plus because I like maybe ten books total). It's just full of beauty and glamour. It's not a direct "how to" in terms of tips 'n tricks that some of you still stubbornly cling to, but it is a "how to" insofar as if you can't use it to open your heart, soul and junk to beauty and being present in physical experience, then . . .you're not there yet and that's okay too. I really liked that Peter expresses that there needs to be a place for the mythic past that never was.
During this time, I got super into The Red Tent and Mary Magdalene (who has rather persistently been circling me). I know, we're all supposed to free ourselves from the shackles of our (recent) ancestral religion and whatever, but frankly? 1. They don't have to live with MamaFran and she lives three blocks away from me. 2. For me, it has been way more freeing and deliciously blasphemous feeling to instead embrace the parts of Catholicism that resonate with me and nesting it into my magical nesting dolls of ritual practice. It's been a very ecstatic experience for me and it's been particularly satisfying as it vaguely offends both my radical occultist friends and my Catholic family.
Reasons Why I Personally Like Mary Magdalene:
After the meditation, I got down on my hands and knees and washed all of my sisters' feet with warm water, warmed oil and myrrh. We've done hand washing before, but this is intimate feeling on a completely different level. At the end, they all washed my feet together which was so beautiful, I still feel tears well up when I think about it.
We read from the Apocrypha. We burned the incense I made full of roses and myrrh on an altar swathed in red silk. We then entered the red tent alone. On the small altar was a selection of creams, oils and ointment for each sister to use on herself, along with a black scrying bowl with rose water and cherry blossoms. At the foot of the altar was a basket of eggs that I had painted scarlet with gold sigils. Each egg was tied with a piece of sari silk and a word to describe our root of power. We selected an egg, selecting our words for ourselves. We looked into a red jeweled mirror and used the oil I had made in Mary Magdalene's honor to seal into ourselves. We made offerings of myrrh, roses and perfumes. We feasted on a selection of dishes I made from places Mary Magdalene could have been. We laughed, we cried, we held each other and became more deeply rooted in our power.
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Thank you for this luscious post!! Wonderful ritual ideas!! I have also felt very drawn to Her story! If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend The Magdalen Trilogy by Elizabeth Cunningham. Its a wonderful take on Her story told from a Pagan perspective.