Bewitching Beauty: Spells for A More Beautiful You

Cleanser of Venus (from Everyday Magic by Dorothy Morrison)

Cleanse and purify for this working:

-rose quartz (a smaller tumbled piece would work best this spell)
-six rose petals
-bottle of witchhazel (you can find it next to the rubbing alcohol in your local pharmaceutical section)

Look into the mirror and focus on what you want to improve, a scar you may, or a blemish you want gone. Visualize them disappearing as you rub the rose quartz over these places and chant:

“Stone of beauty, stone of love
Erase imperfection as I rub
Bring to me the face I see
As I will, so mote it be.”

Place the rose quartz in the bottle, then take the rose petals in your dominant and say:

“Venus, One of Beauty rare
I offer you these petals fair
Bless them with your loveliness
And bring the beauty I request.”

Rub the petals over any imperfections you wish to change, then drop them in the bottle as well. Cap the mixture tightly, and shake six times daily for one week. You can then use it as a toner for daily cleansing of the skin. Simply apply with a cotton ball or similar cleansing pad and say

“Imperfections go away, beauty of Venus come forth today.”

For other simple charms, try empowering an opal for a more beautiful you, and orchids on the altar are a splendid charm whose blooms stay fresh for weeks after cutting. Witch hazel has been known to be a very powerful facial cleanser, without irritating the skin. You’ll find it in the leading brands these days, however, it doesn’t smell very pretty, it is still extremely effective.

Earth Charmed: Selenite

Named for the moon goddess Selene, selenite is a form of gypsum with a hardness of about two, which is the same as your fingernail. A very fragile stone indeed, you must very careful in handling it, but I can promise you, it is well worth the effort.

 

Selenite comes in many different forms, the most common colors of its tumbled stone being the salmon pink and translucent white pictures above. Natural forming towers of it can be purchased very cheap, but tend to flake off when handled, so be sure to store them somewhere well out of the way where they won’t get bumped up against often. A glass case would probably be best, but I have a large tower on top of a bookcase in my living room that is happy just where it is.

 

Selenite can also be found in the form of a beautiful desert rose, as pictured above. It is still very fragile, so again, handle with care, and be very cautious about buying it in jewlery form.

Selenite is an extremely powerful protection stone, more so than quartz to me, but Selene is also one of my major deities of worship, so that may just be me. They also magnify the energies of other stones, just like quartz does. It is said that selenite can be used to ascend to higher planes of consciousness, as well as grant the seeker messages from the Powers if one lays in a crystal grid made of these stones. I don’t own enough selenite to do this with, but I often use my wire-wrapped selenite pendant as a pendulum in divination, and it has been extremely effective for me. Selenite is also used to prevent stagnation, to push one to keep moving forward in life and take risks necessary for ones development. It clears negative energy and is a wonderful stone for the altar and the body, constantly keeping energy moving and promoting a healthy mind and a happy home.

Earth Charmed: Malachite

In a scatter-brained woman’s attempt to get myself on some sort of writing schedule (what is this planning of which you speak?) I am going to write every weekend a sort of stone profile, witches edition. A stone a week that you can carry, charm, what have you, complete with lovely pictures and magickal properties.

This week is my personal favorite, malachite!

You can purchase your malachite of your very own here

In the land of science, malachite is a copper carbonate. It’s chemistry is Cu2CO3(OH)2 with a  hardness ranging  from 3-1/2 to 4. Crystals are rare. Most gem specimens display distinctive concentric colorbanding; (alternating dark green and light green bands.)

The alternating bands in malachite make it an exquisite piece to behold. Its not hard to see why this became a sacred stone of many native american tribes.

An absolutely stunning piece to behold, malachite is an excellent stone for anyone who falls under an earth stone. It can be a wonderful grounding piece, offering a sense of both inner calm that stops rampant negative thinking, and brings with a sharp determination. It is a fantastic piece for inspiring creativity, as well as a good charm for spells of luck and prosperity.

Keep a piece in your cash register or place of business to inspire cash flow, or keep a piece out on the alter and burn cedar incense to draw prosperity and luck into your life. I find it to be excellent in keeping me focused and creative after a long day of work, and so I tend to carry mine with meconstantly.A word of caution: malachite is a stone of great power, especially enhancement and boosting of. It will intensify whatever energy you’re putting out to the ‘verse, so if you’re feeling a little negative or grouchy, best to stick to something softer, like a jade or quartz, or something uplifting, like a sunstone or calcite.

Summer Spells: Beach combing for the hearth and home

The ocean is a powerful thing, a symbol of change, the give and the take. It’s long held for its ability to calm with just the sound of the crashing waves. So why not bring it into your craft too? Just like when you go on a nature walk for useful herbs and stones, you can do the very same thing at the beach whenever you hit the waves!

Sea glass makes an excellent worry stone, the smooth surfaces feel great along your fingertips when you’re really nervous or anxious. You can keep them aside for charms, or wire wrap them into jewelry. Quartz can often be found at the beach, I myself found a veritable ton of it at Misquamicut beach in Rhode Island. Be careful if you’re using it in a spell to make sure it isn’t actually sea glass, though honestly, they’re pretty easy to tell apart.

Sea shells were an obvious thing to add to my collection, however, I tried to be picky about it, as I plan to get crafty with them down the line. I have a few ginormous ones that I used to revamp my altar into a more water-themed setup. One holds my salt, another holds my necklace charms, and the last holds my charmed rings and bracelets. At its center is a really pretty shell-shaped dish from LadyUnlaced that contains all my stones which I carry with me everyday. I was on the look out for shells with naturally occuring holes in them to turn into windchimes for the porch, and some beautiful shells to turn into necklaces and earrings.

You can also find some weirder things if you’re feeling daring enough for it. I now have a large collection of crab heads, which have this beautiful red mottling that is really exquisite. Upon bringing them home I realized they matched the cherry quartz on the God point of my altar perfectly, so now there is a tower of crab heads in this corner. They look so freaking awesome.

If you’re at a rather nice beach, you might want to consider the stuff beneath your toes too. No, not the water, though I’ve seen shops selling it out to people, trust me when  I say thats a bottle you dont want to open in a week. However, I find out of my favorite additions to my altar is a tiny bowl of sand, from a bottle of the stuff I grabbed at a beach in St. Augustine, Florida. Its so soft and relaxing, I love to run my fingers through it after a long day, its just so perfectly relaxing and soothing. Trying making a bowl of sand with some shells and putting it at the center of room you feel needs to cool down a bit more than it has been lately, and if nothing else, it just looks really damn pretty!