Candles and Daffodils

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope yours has gone smoothly so far. Mum came to stay for a week on New Years day and left her nasty cold behind. Both my other half and I caught her cold - knocked me for six! I spent four days in bed, coughing, spluttering, sneezing and wheezing. Not nice. We've both kicked the cold now and I'm raring to get 2012 started.

In my last post I told you how I had felt magically blocked for a while - that I had lost my witchy feeling. Guess what?! I have it back! *does a little dance* Thank you everyone who commented on that post, I felt so much better after reading what you had said, knowing that I wasn't alone. I hope that you guys have your witchyness back too!

Want to know what sparked it of? Candles! My aunt gave me two packs of beeswax sheets and wicks to make my own rolled candles and I had a go the other day. It was great fun! Took me a couple of attempts to get the hang of starting them off but I think I did quite well. Here's a photograph of the first one. Excuse the table - it's scratched to hell. I really need some new candle holders as all I really have (except for the one pictured which I don't like) is tealight and votive holders. Anyway, I made 20 candles in total and loved every minute of it :D I still have some wax left too to make some more. I just wish rolled beeswax candles wouldn't burn so quickly!

I now have a wonderful collection of candles, including the ones I've made and ones that my other half bought me a while back. I've got loads of different coloured mini spell candles too which is always handy!

Who has had enough of winter then? It's not my favourite season to be honest - I much prefer Autumn and Spring. Spring is just around the corner now though! I know it's a bit early but when doing the weekly food shop I couldn't resist getting a bunch of daffodils >.< Daffs, as I like to call them, really signify the beginning of spring to me - for me spring starts when I see my first bunch of daffs growing. I'll be having a look in my books later, do a little bit of research online and will write a post all about daffodils soon.

Here's my bunch, in a ribbon wrapped Kilner jar, I can't wait until they open up -

Well, I hope that you're all well, had a wonderful Yule and New Year and that you are looking foward to spring just as much as me. If I don't speak to you all before hand, have a wonderful Imbolc!

From Day to Night and Night to Day

I like to greet the morning and the night, in the morning I wish for a happy and productive day, in the evening I ask for peaceful sleep and protection of myself and those I love. At the moment I simply say a prayer but after reading a post by Lyn, titled Double Candle Magick, on her blog Adventures in Life, Love and Magick I had an idea to say thanks to the Goddess for the previous night/God for the previous day and then greet either the day or night within the same spell/prayer.


You will need -
One black candle (or whichever colour represents the night to you, possibly silver)
One white candle (or which ever colour represents the day to you, possibly gold)
Taper
Potato peeler
Lighter or matches
Suitable candle holder

Create a straight edge on each candle using the peeler where you will be sticking them together. Hold the two candles together, light the taper candle and drip wax along the seams of the black and white candle. Once dry the two candles will be stuck together, add more wax if needs be. Place in the candle holder. Lyn suggested using a small glass jar filled with sand which I will be doing, I always wash out empty jars and take off the labels as they always come in handy!

Place the candles where the moonlight and sunshine will reach them (careful with putting them in a window, I have ended up with puddles of wax during hot days by doing this) and on each morning and evening light the candles and say thanks for what you recieved the night or day before and ask for what you wish for the coming day or night.

I'm absolutely useless at writing prayers etc so I tend to make up what I'm saying as I go, each morning and evening being slightly different but I will share one of my personal favourite prayers, this one is to be said before going to sleep.

"Lady of the Moon
Lord of the Sun
Protect me and mine
Now day is done"

 - Living Wicca by Scott Cunningham

I will update this post with photographs of the candles when I can, I would post some now but my camera is playing up at the moment, but if you visit Lyns blog (the link is at the start of this post) you will see some photographs of the two candles stuck together.

If you would like to share any prayers that you use to greet the day and night post a comment!

Update! Managed to get one photograph before my camera battery died, I ended up using a tealight holder filled with salt to hold the candles, I will post a photograph of the candles lit tomorrow.

Spell Candle Pouch

After buying some lovely beeswax candles I realised I had no where to store them where they wouldn't get damaged. The main thing I didn't want to happen was the different coloured wax rubbing against each other so I decided to make some small pouches out of felt - they are quick, cheap, simple and serve their purpose. Of course you can use them to store other things too! The most difficult thing about them is the stitch I used (Blanket Stitch) but even that's quite simple to do.

You will need:
Scissors
Tape Measure
Thread
Needle
Felt
Button











Method:

Cut a piece of felt that is 3 times the height of the candles. Lie the felt flat, fold the bottom of the felt up to create the front piece, this piece should be slightly longer than the height of the candles. Sew both sides of the front piece to the back piece, using a blanket stitch. (Having one piece of felt instead of two means that you only stitch down the sides)

Fold the top of the felt down over the front piece to create the "lid". Cut a slit in the lid half the size of the button you're using, ensure that the hole meets up with where you will be placing the button. Sew the button onto the front piece.

Ta Da! You should have something that looks like the green one below, which I made last night (I sewed the bottom of mine as I got a bit carried away with the stitching...)

Apologies that my instructions aren't very good, I'm much better at showing than explaining... I wont even attempt to tell you how to do a blanket stitch, click here for a video tutorial someone made on YouTube.