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6 Ways to Embrace Your Glamour, by Deborah Castellano

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Glamour is everything that makes you interesting and exciting to yourself and others. Using glamour gives you exciting opportunities to accomplish your deepest desires both magically and mundanely. Not sure where to start? Don't worry! I've got you covered!

1. Let's whip out a glam honey pot to get things going. (If you want to be fancy about it, do it on a Friday.) Write down your intention on a piece of brown paper bag without your pen leaving the paper. Sprinkle it with cinnamon (to bring your intention faster!) and roll the paper towards you. Put it at the bottom of a small jar. Add in some dried rose petals (to make you more alluring the the Universe), jasmine petals (to open yourself up to the glamour of the world around you and in you) and cedar (to open yourself up to prosperity, because who doesn't need that). And, of course, a little glitter never hurt anyone. Pour honey into the jar, over your components and seal the jar. Put the jar in your sink. Use a chime candle in the color of your choice (I prefer beeswax chime candles, but whatever you can get is fine). Inscribe the candle with a pin with your intention. Put some rose oil on the candle, drawing it to you. Light the candle, say your intention out loud. Drip a little wax onto the top of the jar. Press the candle into the wax on top of the jar and let it burn out. Do this every night for 13 days and then every Friday.
2. Dress with intent. The makeover montage isn't new. (If you want to sound really scholarly about it, it's called kosmesis, which is also fun to say.) It's been around since ye olde Iliad days when Hera and her girl posse wanted to keep messing with the Trojan War so they make Hera look fiiiiiiiiiiione to Zeus, have her sex him up, and when he falls asleep they zap him with magic to keep him asleep so they could go about their warfare business without Zeus making frowny faces at them. So, if playing dress up Barbie/Hera worked for Trojan war business, believe me, it's going to do something for you on a Tuesday at the office. Think about what kind of impression you want to make for whatever you're doing (going to a PTA meeting to face down Sheila, going on a date with someone you might like-like, getting your spouse to agree to watch a million episodes of Real Housewives, trying to skate out of work at three on a Friday, impressing a new group of friends at a cocktail party, bowling with your college dorm mates and you need to borrow bio notes, whatever it is you do). Think about what you want to wear to accomplish whatever you're trying to accomplish—don't be afraid to have a little solo dress up party. Get a glass of wine. Put on some music. See if you really like what you are wearing and how you look in it. Do your hair, skin care, make up, fragrance, whatever is applicable to go with it.
3. Let's do a little quasi-alchemy. Why not you? Get some spirulina powder from your health food store or Amazon.com. Mix: ½ teaspoon spirulina, ½ lemon, 1 teaspoon honey, 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar with 2 cups spring water (or filtered water). Spirulina is antioxidant-rich, lemon is cleansing, honey is a natural energy source, and raw apple cider vinegar is healing. Together, this will make your skin look radiant. It's easier to be in touch with your glamour if you literally love the skin you're in. Put everything in a glass (with a little room for stirring). Put your intention in the glass. Stir it all together clockwise while focusing on your intention. In Omnia Paratus! (Ready for anything!)
4. Get a glamour secret weapon. What is something you wear all the time? A fragrance, a piece of jewelry, moisturizer, a lipstick, anything that touches your skin and you can wear every day. Enchant your item by holding it and putting your intention into it every day for ten minutes a day for eight days. After that, wear it daily until you see your intention manifesting and then wear it as needed.
5. Practice working with your glamour.
   When I was younger, I desperately wanted my glamour to work all the time. I didn't have a plan for what I would do if I could get it to work all the time (. . .unlike now), which was probably for the best because lordess only knows what I would have done with it at the time. Start by focusing on what you want to accomplish with your glamour for that day. That will help narrow the playing field, otherwise you're just throwing spaghetti at the Universe's wall. Practice working on getting your energy to flow in that direction. Practice making your energy work for you so that you are perfectly charming. This was a hard concept for me for many years. I wanted a very specific how-to-do-it. The thing is, everyone does magic differently. While many books focus on visualizations, what do you do if you're not a visual thinker? Flail for a lot of years, if you were me. So keep your eyes on your own paper here; don't worry about how other people use magic, focus on how you use magic. I personally like to think of a lightning bug. When I was younger, I felt like I couldn't get my butt to light up. Then when I figured out how to get my butt to light up, I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. So let's work on how to figure out how to make your . . . (metaphysical) butt light up. And how to turn it off. And how to turn it on or off on command. If my methods don't work for you, play around with it until you find one that does. Maybe you need to chant, maybe you need to visualize, maybe you need to hear a certain song in your head, maybe it's scent-based. The point is that there's no wrong way to do this. If you are most people, you will likely not be energetically constantly lit up like the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Ideally, you will be able to generate a pleasant level of copper wire fairy lights energetically on a near constant basis and then be able to jack it up to Times Square on an as-needed basis (as well as have the ability to lower it to a single tea light level of glamour when needed). Here's a suggested method in working with your glamour. Start by drawing up energy from your root to your throat. It should pass through your tummy and your heart and feel effervescent and sparkling. Practice getting that energy up to your throat quickly. Once you have a good handle on being able to do that, the next step is to take that energy and be sure it shoots out of your throat, your mouth, your eyes, and the top of your head so you are a fountain of sparkling glamour energy. Practice doing this with your intent in various social situations until you are comfortable with it. Sometimes, for many reasons, we may want to dim that energy a bit, especially once we get comfortable with it. Pull all of the glamour energy back down into your root, in a reverse of what you did to brighten it. Get comfortable with that until you are well versed in turning it on and turning it off.
6. Make an Offering. So, if you read my blog you know I talk about the concept of modern day #QueensInExile. The idea is that most of us who practice witchcraft are in exile in some way in our modern lives. Some of that carries over to our occult practice. Maybe you wouldn't talk to any of your ancestors Because of Reasons. Maybe you are in exile from your birth religion. Maybe you don't come from a practice that talked to saints all the time so trying to integrate that now feels weird. Maybe you just never connected with a specific pantheon. Why not consider an actual medieval queen as a chosen ancestor to work with? Feel free to pick your own from whatever part of the world you like, but Queen Elizabeth Woodville is a good choice if you don't know where to start. Getting into an offering practice would help boost your glamour because it never hurts to have someone looking out for you. Start a relationship the same way you would with a human. Give a gift/offering, tell her what you're trying to accomplish, ask for assistance. A few sincere compliments rarely go amiss, too. Suggested offerings for Queen Elizabeth Woodville: pink roses, mead, maids of honey cakes.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2017. All rights reserved.

Many times in my dreams I can't see myself or anything else but I know that I am there. For example, last night I dreamed that I could only feel air. I had a sense of awareness, but nothing more. Is this an out of body experience? Also, there are certain times in my dreams when I see myself in some other body, as another person. I find all of this very confusing. Can you help?
Anamica

Astrea:

For centuries, shamans and mystics of various cultures have sought out of body experiences. You are experiencing the same kind of thing without deliberate effort or control - yet. With practice, you can learn to create the right state of mind for inducing a conscious OBE.

Out-of-body experiences typically involve sensations of floating or perceiving the body from outside of it. The sensation of air that you describe is pretty common in the realm of the OBE. An OBE can occur during sleep or while falling asleep, and often it is associated with near death experiences. Some anti-depressants have also been found to mechanically induce OBEs.

Astral projection and out of body experiences are not exactly the same things. Out of body experiences usually occur spontaneously, without any planning or expectations on our part. Often, as in your case, they go beyond any expectations we may have of being in such a state. During an OBE, we travel to other dimensions where a sense of physicality isn't as natural as it is in awake or dreaming states.

Most times, having an OBE is exciting, mystifying, and a bit frightening because it comes over us without much warning. While it's dream-like, it isn't the same as having a regular dream. During an OBE, we have the overwhelming sense that whatever we're experiencing is REALLY HAPPENING; we're sure we aren't dreaming or in an altered state of consciousness, though in many ways, we are, of course!

During astral projection, many of us are able to visit face to face with our Guides and Angels. If you've been longing to reach a point in your spiritual growth that includes astral projection, you're certainly on the right track now; the OBE's you're having can lead to some amazing Soul Growth.

Recognizing what is happening to you can carry you a long way toward gaining control of what's going on. As usual, with anything spiritual, it takes time according to your own learning curve to be able to use new skills in purposeful ways.

As long as you stay out of the altered states induced by drug or alcohol use (including cigarettes), you can learn to mentally create the right state of consciousness for astral projection once you get a handle on these spontaneous OBEs. The biggest hurdle is to overcome any FEAR involved, but then, that is true for lots of mystical practices.

*****

Susyn:

Dreams often deliver their messages in mysterious ways as the subconscious strives to gain access to the conscious mind. There are different types of dreams, and each has a specific purpose.

Dreaming of flying (being surrounded by air) or being in the body of another person does suggest an astral projection experience. Another common aspect of these types of dreams is when we experience a sense of falling and, upon landing, wake up with a jolt.

Astral projection can be difficult to control. If you're interested in developing the art of astral projection, you can open the door to conscious flight by practicing guided meditation before bedtime.

Upon retiring for the night, you may want to visualize a place, person or time in history that you would like to visit. Astral projection can also be accomplished while you are in an awake state, and this will offer you more control over your out-of-body travels.

We can also have dreams in which we appear to inhabit the body of another person, or do not see ourselves as present in the dream. Many dream theorists claim that all the people who appear in our dreams symbolize aspects of ourselves. For example, if you found yourself dreaming of a certain movie star or famous person, this theory suggests that you are relating to or trying to embrace some of the characteristics of those people.

When I conduct dream interpretations, I consider all possibilities from all angles. I have clients who find themselves visiting people they knew long ago, but they see them in their present state or location. Upon further investigation, the higher purpose of these dreams is almost always to simply reconnect with that person in a direct way. It doesn't matter if they admire aspects of that person or carry unresolved issues involving them; something is calling them to reconnect.

To discover if these dreams are forms of astral projection, premonitions, or designed to help you process old feelings and issues, you'd be wise to start a journal and record all of your dreams in it. Then you'll be able to identify various patterns from which to draw the significance of these experiences.

As you do this, your dreams will become richer and clearer, and you'll start to develop a greater ability not only to decipher them, but to direct them in a positive, purposeful manner.

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.