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April 26 through May 2, 2021

Monday's Scorpio full Moon (also known as the Pink Moon) may throw us a bit off-center for a day or two, as its intensity can tend to bring hidden fears to the surface or make us doubt our current course. Combined with Pluto turning retrograde in Capricorn on Tuesday, the first part of this week falls under the idea of practicing caution and refraining from making any decisions one way or the other! Things ease up considerably under Wednesday and Thursday's Sagittarius Moon, where a light-hearted energy emanates from the heavens. Staying focused in the moment will help bring things to right size again and eradicate a feeling of being overwhelmed. It's back to work the remainder of the week as the Moon travels through responsible Capricorn from Friday through Sunday. Time to tackle the workload and chores that keep our worlds running smoothly as we transition from April into May. So all in all, even though things may start out on a rough note, we'll be able to reclaim our balance and equilibrium and have a pretty productive week!

Earth Magic: Take Action with a Charm Bag, by Dodge Graham McKay

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

I like to think of magical work that involves assembling, building, concocting or creating an item as a form of earth magic. You are the creator responsible for bringing an item into existence as a focal point for your will and desire. You are the manifester, giving form and function to the object you are making.

A charm bag is a quick and effective magical object that you can create for a specific purpose and discreetly carry with you or tuck into a strategic spot in your environment. Creating one gives you a sense of control over a situation and the gratification of taking action to do something about it. It is a hands-on, satisfying way to make a magical item that does not need to take a lot of time or money to create.

Gather the Parts
The magic starts when you begin to assemble the items you will use to make your charm bag. Do this with intent and carefully select the very best materials you can afford and source. Take time to consider your magical footprint on the Earth and make your charm bag as earth-friendly as possible. Try to use natural materials that will biodegrade. Plastic or synthetic materials may be tempting, but they can take hundreds of years to break down or release noxious chemicals if burned. As magical practitioners, we often call on the energy of the earth to perform our spells and rituals, so being conscious of the impact our magic has on the planet seems only fair and responsible.

Your charm bag does not need to be elaborate or complicated in order to be effective. I like to use four components to make mine:

• A small drawstring bag
• Herbs
• A small crystal
• A token to represent your intent

I like to keep the bag fairly small, no more than about 5 cm by 7 cm (2 inches by 3 inches), with a drawstring to close it. You can check your local arts and crafts supply shop or dollar store for these. I can usually find small muslin or cotton bags at these places, or you can sew your own using scraps of cloth.

Herbs should be dried, as fresh herbs can get moldy and soggy in the bag. Whenever possible I like to cut and dry my own herbs from my garden, or I head outside to harvest responsibly from the wild. But that is not always possible, and it is easy to overthink this one. The herbs you have in your kitchen can be equally effective.

The crystals should be small—something no larger than the end of your thumb or even a just a single bead is perfect. If you don't have a suggested crystal you can substitute a simple clear quartz. If shopping for crystals is not for you, head outside to find a pebble in a suitable color or a shape that resonates with you.

Assemble the Bag
Before you assemble your charm bag, take a moment to ground and center yourself. Make every movement intentional and state your intent out loud. Visualize a successful outcome as you work.

Money Charm Bag

• Bay leaf
• Mint leaf
• Small citrine crystal

The key to success with this one is to not be greedy. Visualize what you really need the money for. Write it on the bay leaf and place it in the bag. Add a liberal pinch of dried mint leaves and sprinkle into the bag, imagining each flake as the cash tumbling into your hands. Next, add the citrine. Citrine is a stone of manifestation, and is referred to as an abundance stone or merchant's stone as it attracts money and financial success. Many a witch shop owner have been known to keep a piece of citrine in their cash register. Pro tip: keep a small piece in your wallet!

Grounding Charm Bag

• Sage
• Dirt from home or other place of comfort and security
• Small hematite stone

Collect a spoonful of dirt from outside your home or any other location where you feel absolutely safe and secure. Thank the place for this gift as you collect it. Add the dirt to your bag and follow this with a generous pinch of garden sage. Any culinary sage you may have in your kitchen will work just fine. Take a moment to smell the sage and focus on the smell and texture of the leaves as you do this. After a moment, add the hematite. Hematite has a coolness and stability that connects us to our inner strength, enabling us to securely ground ourselves and feel calm and centred.

Confidence Charm Bag

• A penny or similar coin noted for luck
• Valerian root
• Small carnelian

Select a coin for your bag, preferably one you found (I have been known to root through sofa cushions or all of the pockets of jackets hanging by the door to find a coin). A found coin represents luck and unexpected abundance. Valerian root adds relief from stress and anxiety while cheerful carnelian stimulates motivation and creativity, enhancing confidence. Try sewing your own bag for this, using cloth that is your favourite colour or has sentimental value. Maybe you have a favorite old shirt that you can't wear anymore, or a sentimental textile that can be recycled for this purpose. These personal touches serve as a reminder of who you are and all of the great things of which you are capable.

Healing Charm Bag

• Chamomile and/or lavender
• A small photo or drawing of the person in need of healing
• Small rose quartz

Chamomile is extremely popular as a tea herb, beloved for its soothing qualities. Lavender has a strong, comforting, and evocative fragrance that aids with pain relief and promoting good sleep. Add these to your bag with a piece of rose quartz, a stone of unconditional love and healing, with a strong association to the heart and circulatory system. Take a moment with the photo or drawing and visualize the person as strong and healthy, then slip it into the bag. You may want to change out the herbs for other ones that target the specific illness from which you need relief—mint for stomach upset, turmeric for inflammation, etc.

Protection Charm Bag

• Thorns, thistles or prickly plant matter wildcrafted from your environment
• Black salt (a complete recipe with instructions for making your own black salt can be found in my book, Earth Magic)
• Black tourmaline

Go out for a walk in your environment and seek out plants that have thorns, thistles, bristles, or spikes. Be sure to take some rugged gardening gloves along with you and carefully harvest a small amount of the aggressive, sharp parts of the plant. Look for plants growing along borders and boundary lines and take a moment to appreciate how these fierce guardians grew in these places. Add the plant matter to your bag along with a spoonful of black salt. Drop in the black tourmaline, which will absorb negative energy and protect against psychic attack.

Use Your Bag
Once your bag is complete, you can use it as it, or you may want to ritually charge it by placing it on your altar or in sacred space and focusing your will on it. How you choose to do this is up to you.

Charm bags should be small enough to fit in your pocket, or you may want to wear it on a cord around your neck. You can also place these strategically in relevant spots in your space—a confidence charm bag in your desk at work, or a protection charm bag hanging above your front door, for example. With a little research you can make a charm bag for any purpose.

A charm bag can be held in your hand to help you ground yourself and refocus your magical intent when you need to activate it. If you are not able to physically hold it, try visualizing it: how does it feel or smell? What is its texture? How much does it weigh?

When the Work is Done
When a charm bag has served its purpose and the magic has run its course, you may want to ritually dispose of it. I have a hard time throwing a magical item into a garbage can, so I have a couple tried and true ways to deal with them:

• Bury the used charm bag somewhere where it will not be disturbed, and it can decompose back into the earth. For this reason it is very important to use only biodegradable materials.
• Collect used charm bags and any other spent magical items in a paper bag. Ensure that these are all things that can safely be burned. Items that release noxious fumes, such as plastic items, should be left out of this. Burn the bag outdoors in a bonfire as part of your Samhain celebrations. My coven has a tradition of doing this, and it is a cathartic part of the ceremony. Candle stubs, matchsticks, poppets, papers—all of the earthly reminders of magic and spell work performed over the past year gets sent into the fire.

I hope you give charm bags a try! To learn more about how to incorporate the element of earth into your magic, please check out my new book Earth Magic.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2021. All rights reserved.

My daughter often hears breathing near her that I can't hear. She says it only worries her because no one else seems to be aware of it. I did feel a presence once, only because I walked right into it. Our house is full of energy, and all of my kids have seen the same one or two spirits. However, I feel that this spirit only wants to be near Chelsea. I don't feel any negativity from it, only curiosity. Is it normal for spirits to single one person out? Should this concern me?

Thanks!

Tracy

Astrea:

Your daughter is a very special Gemini. While the spirits you all see in your home are the same, what she is hearing is not a ghost or disembodied soul. Chelsea is hearing the breathing of her psychic self and beginning to get in touch with her dual personality as a Gemini.

As wild and crazy as that may sound, I've known quite a few Geminis who have had the same kind of experience your daughter is having. The way you describe what is happening, even you sensing that energy too, all makes sense in that light.

Most people who are dual signs (Pisces, Aquarius, Gemini, sometimes Virgo) experience some sort of disembodied SOMETHING as youngsters. It isn't always breathing. I have one friend who saw eyes looking at her while she slept.

One friend says that even now, if he's about to make a stupid mistake in judgment, someone comes to him and shakes him from behind. Everyone is different in the way that they perceive their psychic other parts, but the dual signs have a leg up on getting messages from them.

Dual signs both physically and mentally separate themselves as young people. Many don't acknowledge how strong those feelings of detachment to another part of their own spirits are. They realize that something is going on with them, but it's a little confusing or scary at times, so it's good for them to have someone explain that they're not going crazy.

Fortunately, most people have a good sense of humor about this when it's happening. Some joke about how they've managed to suppress the evil twin inside of them. In some ways, dual signs are lucky to be able to do that, for being separated from their alter egos gives them a better sense of what's right and wrong, true and false.

Sometimes this can be an excuse they use for bad behavior, but on the whole, dual signs seem to have fewer personal hang-ups because after separation, they integrate the two sides of themselves into one whole person.

While only a few will talk about the experience with family and friends, they will if invited to do so. Most of the time, this happens in early adolescence when kids usually don't want to talk about anything personal, let alone something as weird as hearing disembodied breathing that no one else can hear.

Since your children don't seem to have a problem talking about what they sense, you must be a good mother. Talk to your daughter about what she's feeling and keep it up - it will bring you closer than you can imagine.

*****

Susyn:

It's not unusual for a spirit to single out a particular person, and (especially in the case of poltergeists) younger female children. You don't say how long this has been happening, but I would definitely keep an eye on her and watch for changes in mood or negative developments.

However, I think you can trust your instincts that so far, this spirit seems to be merely curious. There are endless accounts of people who can see, hear or talk to spirits that no one else seems to pick up on, so that's not unusual at all.

At the same time, you mention that your house is filled with energies and more than one spirit. This could suggest you are sitting atop of some type of vortex or portal, which would make it a place that entities tend to gather.

You may want to do some historical research on your property to learn more, for even if the spirits in your house seem friendly, if they can get in, so can entities of a less than benevolent nature.

I would recommend regular smudging of your house with a sage stick or sage incense, asking as you move from room to room that any spirits of a negative nature leave the premises at once. I would also make a practice of burning white or purple candles in your home to generate a high spiritual vibration.

Because it can be difficult to identify who, what, or how many spirits may be coming and going in your home, these rituals will help keep the entities there limited to those of only the highest, most positive nature.

I also sense that Chelsea may be a bit more empathic and psychically gifted than her siblings, which would explain why she is hearing the breathing and sensing a spirit no one else seems to pick up on. While you want to encourage her gifts, you also want to teach her how to protect herself as she grows in her powers.

Teaching her to visualize white light all around her is a great beginning. I would also give her and all the other members of your household some lapis lazuli, turquoise or malachite stones for additional protection.

You didn't mention how you felt when you encountered a spirit by walking right into it. Always remember to trust your instincts and rely on your gut feelings to determine if you need to take action or not.

If at any time you feel nervous, upset or troubled by these spirits, you'll want to clean house with the rituals mentioned above, and raise the vibration there.

For now though, it sounds like your awareness of the spirits is enough to keep them in check. If things change, you'll sense it right away.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.