Call your friends together before the surgery. The ritual can be at your home or any place that feels safe and secure. I highly recommend raising healing energy at the home of the person who is to undergo the surgery, as it will create an aura of restoration. Ask each person to bring something to comfort, reassure, and cure the celebrant: soup, fixings, a soothing eye pillow, sleep balm, a hand-knitted scarf for warmth, body lotion, herbal teas, books, or lavender-infused slippers are all wonderful gifts. Form a circle of care around the celebrant and light candles. Unscented soy candles are probably best for health reasons (and if a gift is scented, it is wise to check with the healing recipient whether that’s okay in advance of the gathering). As you go around the circle, ask each person to give his or her gift of caring to the celebrant and say what it represents. As examples:
I give you this herbal tea mix so you can sip tea and draw from it
Color has a profound effect on our psychological and physical health. Consider carefully the colors that surround you; each of us have special colors that encourage sound body and mind. For example, if you have a weight issue and lack ambition or energy, you may need more orange in your life. Wear orange clothes and eat foods associated with orange, such as red plums and wax beans. Here are some basic color connections:
Violet is associated with sentiment, melancholy, and religious devotion and can be enhanced by eating chocolate, thyme, and scallops.
If you are dreaming of true abundance, with the understanding that health is more important than wealth, you want to feel your best. You can bring this about with this potent potion:
3 drops vanilla oil
3 drops lavender
3 drops orange blossom essence
4 ounces pure distilled water
Pour all these into a colored glass spray bottle and shake well three times. Fifteen minutes before you retire, spray lightly on your linens, towel, and pillow case. Keep a dream journal on your nightstand so you can record details of the dreams of abundant health that will soon manifest.
Take a few sprigs of basil before you cook and put them in a green bowl on your kitchen altar. Boil water as for tea and pour over the herb in the bowl. Now chant this medieval-inspired charm:
With bounteous hand and healthful balm,
Blessed basil, most verdurous herb Bring me health and heart and calm.
Abundance I shall see by every deed and verb.
And so it is.
Breathe in the steam from the basil bowl and fill your lungs with the smell of prosperity. Repeat the spell once more; leave the basil bowl on your altar for 24 hours. Not only will your thinking be greatly clarified, but you will begin to see signs of your wealth increasing in one week. With basil flourishing in your herb pots, you have a ready source bursting with positive money energy.
For a dreary day and a dark mood, use the strength of the olden unguent to release both mind and body. This desert plant produces a protective oil, which works as both a sunscreen and a moisturizer. Combine the following oils with either four ounces of unscented body lotion, or two ounces of olive oil or sweet almond oil:
2 drops chamomile oil
2 drops neroli
8 drops aloe
6 drops rose oil
Shake the oils together and place in a corked pottery jar. Sit quietly in a room lit only by one blue candle, and rub the balm gently into your skin after a bath. Pray aloud:
This is a lovely spell to do if you are given a small tree as a gift, to wish for strength and good health for you and your love. Before you plant the sapling, tie a bow in some colored ribbon, and plant the bow with a small heart symbol in the soil under the roots of the tree. After you have planted the tree, water it well—especially with one or two tears of love, if possible! Make a wish that both you and your love will grow strong and enduring as the tree takes root and begins to flourish. When the tree bears its first leaf, press it in a book associated with the one you love. As long as you tend your tree with love, you will both enjoy blooming health and vitality.
Floral waters and flower essentials express emotional benefits differently and each has special healing application, As we can tell from the mass popularity of Bach’s Rescue Remedy, they work wonderfully to abet emotional health, mental outlook and positivity. The specific of these curatives can be pretty direct For example, the flower Impatiens helps those who struggle with impatience. Magical, right? Below you'll find one flower essence for each of the 12 signs. Read yours and learn what can work for you:
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
