In honor of the dog, I figured on sharing a bit of Asian folk magic. This particular spell is an adaption of one originating from Japan, which is known for its “paper magic.” There, the paper becomes the media for magic and prayer and has been a rather popular industry in Japan, where paper talismans are often sold at Shinto shrines and senbazuru are believed to grant wishes. This spell keeps in mind the dog’s natural willingness to aid and assist its master when called.

“Go Fetch!” Paper Dog Spell

Materials

Origami paper
Pin or needle
Sake or other offering

Procedure:

1. Fold your origami paper into the likeness of a dog, keeping in mind what you want it to “fetch” all the while.
2. Stick a needle through the upper part of its back left leg (or thereabouts).
3. Talk to your “dog.” Tell it your desire. Explain that the needle will remain until that desire is fulfilled.
4. Keep your “dog” somewhere safe.
5. Once the desire has achieved, treat the “dog” a suitable offering (traditionally, sake).

Tips:

• You can really use any type of paper you want. Origami paper is preferable only because it’s easier to fold than, say, card stock. I didn’t have any origami paper around the house, so I just used some good ol’ fashioned printer paper cut into a square.
• Be creative with your paper. The color of the paper can correlate with your intention (e.g. green for wealth). If you have an inclination towards sigils or runes, decorate your paper with the appropriate symbols. Do whatever suits your practice.
• You can find hundreds of websites with instructions on how to fold origami dogs. Try to pick a design that matches your ability; you don’t want to get frustrated over a complicated folding procedure.
• When folding your origami dog, be aware of your intention. Take advantage of the fact that your hands are in constant contact with the paper (your magic “media”) and impart your energy into your creation. You want your “dog” to know you and be willing to come to your aid.
• While it’s traditional to stick the “dog” with a needle, you may not be comfortable with the idea of paper-animal cruelty. Feel free to omit this step altogether or find an alternative – whatever suits your beliefs and traditions. The point is give the “dog” a very strong incentive.
• While sake is traditional, offer anything you believe to be appropriate. Whatever you do, don’t skip this step. It’s said that if you do, whatever your “dog” fetched will be quickly lost again.

Have fun,
Ellery Faye

ELLERY’S SPELL TABLE
(Clockwise, starting from the upper left-hand corner…)

Candle Tansu: I suppose it would be more accurate to say it’s a miniature kaiden-tansu with candles on it. I happen to do a lot of candle-related spells, often for other people. The drawers contain various odds and ends related to spell-working.

Decorative “Witch Ladder”: It’s modeled after the Wellington Witch Ladder that was discovered in 1878 in Wellington, Somerset (Southwest England). It serves no other purpose than to look neat and use up the surplus amounts of feathers and ribbon left after a scrapbooking project.

Besom: A miniature besom made by a lovely lady for the purpose of being used to sweep that negativity off my space. She also saturated it in cinnamon oil, which suits me just fine. It is this witch’s opinion that all good magic spaces should smell like cinnamon. For no other reason than the fact that I like cinnamon.

Owl Statue: My “power animal,” as it were. The story behind the whole owl-angle is kind of interesting in its own right (and has thusly given me inspiration for a later entry).

St. Gabriel Statue: Gabriel the Archangel. This too is deserving of its own entry but for now, let’s just say that I ordered this lovely bronze statuette. Not only is it beautiful, I could probably use it as a weapon against a home intruder; it weighs enough.

Cinnamon Broom: Refer back to the following fact: I love the smell of cinnamon. This broom is strictly decorative and makes my downstairs smell like cinnamon rolls, magic, and positive thinking. But mostly cinnamon.

Mortar, Pestle, and Herbs: Wooden mortar and pestle, and dried herbs: rosemary, thyme, and sage. I call them my “happy herbs” because they’re generally the sort that encourage a clean, positive space. Also, the fact that these herbs smell like my mom’s Thanksgiving stuffing makes it that much better.

Tarot Cards and Candle Chests: I keep one or two tarot decks here, out of reach of my toddler. (The rest are secured in the bedroom.) The candle chest has a very small supply of spell candles. I keep the bulk of my spell candles (and the supplies to make them) in a refurbished dish hutch in my kitchen.

Cauldron, Spell Candles, and Crystals: My mini-cauldron is the perfect vessel to burn herbs and incense in. Next to that is my hand-made “central candle” – the candle from which all other candles are lit. And finally, a small soapstone bowl full of various crystals and a little pig made out of jade. Ah, and behind that little tray is where I generally set up any seven-day candles.

Herbs and Incense: I do a lot of herbal spell work in addition to making natural herbal remedies. Most of my incense is herbal and hand mixed, and there’s a few baggies of dragon’s blood resin in there. Oh, and I also have vials of essential oils.

Other Items: I have a few other minor things: a bell; a mini-chalice; glass bottles of holy water, (more) oils, (more) herbs, and other miscellaneous ingredients. Also, as much as I’d like to say that I have a crystal ball (seen near the mortar and pestle)… I don’t. One of my hobbies is contact juggling (click here for an example); that’s the acrylic ball I use.

That’s it for now. I love my little space (in the living room). I will say this, however: I don’t consider my spell altar-table (the actual table itself is an antique Southern Chinese altar table, by the way) as being “sacred.” Which is a good thing, because my husband has tossed trash on it. I’ve left dirty drinking glasses and junk mail on it, myself. (And yes, I do dust and clean and organize the area before doing any spell-work or herbal work.) Additional side note: the picture is in black and white because my camera decided to pitch a fit.

One last thing: I love looking at and/or hearing about other people’s spell tables/altars/devotional spaces. Share if you have one!

Ciao,
Ellery Faye

As touched on in a previous post, I made brief mention of my near-constant bouts of illness. Well, it eventually occurred to me that colds shouldn’t last, say, four months. Or that bronchitis shouldn’t last nine months out of every year. The laundry list of “common” illnesses and goes on and on. Just last week, I decided to talk to someone about it.

You know it’s going to be good news when the doctor walks in, nervously glances at your files and says, “I’m going to keep this as light-hearted as possible…”

I won’t go into explicit detail but turns out that when you pile everything together, it falls under the “you now have a significantly shorter life expectancy than the average person” category. Ouch.

The supposed “good news” is that I’m still relatively young (late 20′s), and the doctor hopes that I can use this fact in my favor. He admits that “in a perfect world,” he’d have me come in every day, all day and give me his undivided attention. But it’s not a perfect world so I come in three days a week, twice those days.

I won’t lie. The treatments hurt, and I don’t look forward to them. But everyone in the clinic is trying to be optimistic about things, not to mention extremely kind about it. “Are you okay? Do you feel okay? Do you need a water bottle? Are you sure? Are you sure?”

The hardest part so far has been the change of diet. I was a little concerned at first, especially since my prescribed diet is very limiting. I’ve had to give up all refined sugars, grains, most fruits, most dairy products, most animal meats, and… well, you get the point. Lots of restrictions.

So, I’ve been a little busy. And a little tired. But it seems that I’m starting to get into the swing of this new schedule and will be able to blog again. So watch out for new posts.

Love,
Ellery Faye

I also know for certain that one of his prized possessions is a dilapidated Bible given to him by an Army chaplain that he befriended while in Iraq. (Not just any Bible, mind you. It was the one the chaplain had used during seminary college over 20 years ago, personal annotations included.)  In fact, I recently noticed that all his “good friends” are chaplains – every single one. He once briefly mentioned that he would have very insightful talks about different aspects of Christianity with these chaplains, but beyond that, I never really heard him talk about God or Jesus or seen him pray (although he claims that he does).

Throughout our six-year marriage, religious beliefs were more-or-less never mentioned. We had a few conversations, mostly me explaining that “Christian” is an umbrella term and yes, Catholics were under said umbrella and yes, being a Methodist also made him a Protestant. Beyond that, there was very little discussion – oh, except the occasional mention of “Neopagan freaks” and the “load of bullshit” they practiced.

Take a guess at who choose not to tell their husband about being a witch.

I decided that maybe it wasn’t the best time to go raining on his parade all at once. I should subtle, I thought. Apparently my being “subtle” meant erecting a permanent altar/spell-table in the middle of the living room one day. (Not my most brilliant of ideas, admittedly.) Unfortunately, the only mention that he made of it was “…got enough candles?” Alright… so Plan A was a complete failure.

And then one day…

I went to his office to have lunch with him, as I do every week or two. While we’re hanging out in his office (and while I’m heckling his men), he tends to read the news online. I forget what the article was about (Update: it was about the “Occupy Wall Street” protest), but he shared it with me which ultimately lead up to the mention of Wicca (which he believes is synonymous to all Pagans, witches, faith healers, and hippies). And that led to a comment about how they were idiots for believing hey could “magic shit” and for worshiping “air spirits or whatever…”

My knee-jerk response: “That’s because you think of magic in the context of Harry Potter. And they don’t worship elementals, per se. It’s more akin to veneration and invocation…”

That, as you can guess, earned me a look.

“You don’t believe that crap, do you?”  Well, there it was – the ultimate question. For a panicked second, I considered lieing… but did I really want to lie to my husband of all people? On the other hand, he has a really bad habit of making fun of things he doesn’t understand and I wasn’t sure if I could accept that kind of ridicule. To top it off, he was very familiar with Christianity’s belief that all witchcraft (and Pagans) are considered tools of the devil. He’s made several mentions of Exodus 22:18 before – “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live…” (I’m not going to get into the debate as to whether that’s mistranslated or not.)

Ultimately, I figured it was best to lay out the truth: “It’s not ‘crap.’ You just don’t understand it. But to answer your question: yes, I do. I’m a practicing witch.”

Silence. A very long silence. Suddenly, one of his men knocked on the door and he got up to deal with that issue. I ate my sandwich in silence. When we were alone again, he sat down and gave me a look. I didn’t bother meeting him eye-to-eye. “If that’s what you believe,” he began, “then that’s what you believe.” I blinked, wondering if I’d heard him right. “I might make fun of it a little,” he continued, “but if that’s how the universe works for you, then I’ll respect it.”

I gawked. “You’d be a Christian married to a witch, you know. Dogma says that’s a one-way ticket to hell.”

He shot me one of his goofy smiles and said, very simply, “Good! If that’s how it works, we’ll be together. That’s all that matters.”

Ellery Faye

Concerning Home Life
Really, all I have to mention is my cold-infested family and you’ll probably be able to work the rest out. I am happy to report that I wasn’t victim to this round of illness – my husband and son had that unfortunate honor. We completely blame the day care, considering those sort of places are generally a pathological nightmare.

But yes. The man-cold. Times two.

Also, we ended up surrendering a rescue dog that we adopted three months ago. The organization failed to notice the dog’s laundry list of phobia and her reactions. Basically, we were given a 70 lbs. dog who was afraid of everything. After months of trying to rehabilitate her (with absolutely no improvement), we just had to give her back.

While the circumstances were upsetting, the fact is our home is now far more calmer and safer for everyone. Thankfully, the rescue organization is no-kill and they have every intention of finding her the proper help and then a proper home.

Concerning Other Things
Well, it’s been decided that it’s about time for me to head back to college. I’ve been spending the last week or so researching different colleges in the area. Luckily, a few of them have centers at the base that my husband works in. I’m pretty excited about going back – especially since I’ll be going to college with other folks my age (and older). I’ll be pursuing a degree in History, eventually working my way up to a PhD. Then y’all can call me “Doc.”

Concerning the Blog
I’ve been writing and researching for several articles while tending to my husband’s “I have a stuffed nose, the world is ending…” complaints. Just hang tight for a few days.

Tofa,
Ellery Faye

Amending Popular “Witch” Stereotypes

Not all witches are religious. Witchcraft is a tool and nothing more. Currently, the most popular religion that utilizes a type of witchcraft as part of their methodology is Wicca, popularized by Gerald Gardner circa the 1960′s. However, witchcraft itself has preexisted Wicca by a couple thousand centuries. The religion of a witch (if she or he even has one) varies, as does the practice of incorporating it into their craft. Many keep the two exclusive of each other, preferring not to mix business with faith.

Not all witches have a Book of Shadows. A Book of Shadows is really a Wicca-based practice. For many Wiccans, the Book of Shadows is a sacred, usually secretive book of spells, rituals, miscellaneous references, and journal entries.  Beyond Wicca, keeping a collection of references is common. Whether or not these texts are considered sacred depends on the individual. Some may follow the Book of Shadows concept while others consider their writings as mystical and divine as a Betty Crocker cookbook.

Not all witches are in a coven. This is based on religious, sometimes social, preferences and (once again) not a necessary part of witchcraft in general. Covens have several benefits, including the ability to practice and/or worship with like-minded individuals. It can also serve as a ‘safe-haven’ of sorts in a time where witchcraft is openly demonized by ignorance. However, others believe the presence of so many individuals only serves to dampen their own brand of witchcraft, making it ineffectual and awkward.

Not all witches dress like fairies. Yes, there are some people who wear fairy wings (more than once or twice a year) and have a profound love for glitter, tulle, and hemp jewelry. This is not ‘witch’ behavior anymore than wearing all black is. What you are seeing is someone who a part of a subculture (e.g. goths, nudists, trekkies, etc.). The greater bulk of witches are as mainstream as the next person, making them impossible to distinguish from their non-witch kin. 

Not all witches hate Christians. For the most part, we don’t give a flying flip. We know some folks are really loud about their convictions (on both sides) and seem to relish this ongoing war of wills. Most of us also know that those people are generally a poor representation of their respective sides and often have their own selfish agendas. The average witch functions on common courtesy and respect. We also expect that such be returned in kind, differences notwithstanding – one human being to another. 

Not all witches have “magickal names.” The concept behind this is that these names are taken as a symbol of “magickal” initiation and revelation and as a means to better connect with their coven and/or deities. This sort of thing is (once again) mostly Wicca-based. Some witches find this practice both ridiculous and pretentious – even those among the Wiccan community. Most witches regardless of tradition will agree that “magickal names” are not necessary to the craft itself.

Not all witches are obsessed with death. Most witches actually have a very healthy view of death, believing it to be only another life-cycle phase – not something that should feared or idolized. While witchcraft has the ability to connect with spirits of the departed, seasoned witches are aware that doing so is often dangerous. Those that do specialize in such magic are generally expected to follow strict guidelines that include an awareness of boundaries and respect. Those who do otherwise will not earn many friends, witches included.

Not all witches have black cats. Black cats have a superstition in the Americas as being unlucky and associated with evil. Subsequently, the witch and black cat imagery has been promoted by Hollywood and modern media. Truth is this: not all witches even like cats, let alone own one. And those who do own cats usually do so because they like cats – not because of the associations made from them. We love our cats (and other pets) for the same reasons that any other pet owner loves his or her pet: they’re our companions and friends.

Not all witches are social outcasts. We’re not all socially inept hermits. We’re not all fat, ugly and single. We’re not all bums or unemployed. Most of us have jobs, have families. We worry about our health, pay our bills, and check the news. We shop at the same stores as everyone else, eat the same food, and drive the same types of cars. We can be found as lawyers, doctors, artists, models, car mechanics, teachers, chemists, and nuclear scientists.  Just because we don’t have “witch” stamped on our foreheads doesn’t mean we aren’t there.

Ellery Faye

Today is a new day, but I figured on staying with the original ‘first post, let’s talk about me’ topic. However, this is the ’2.0 version’ – lovingly condensed for your convenience:

How I Came To Be

I completely (and lovingly) blame my parents. When my mother left Korea in the 70′s, her culture (which also had a lot of Chinese influence) came with her; this included things like Zen Buddhism, ancestor veneration, divination, martial arts, and Feng Shui. On the other hand, my father was half Irish and half German, and he brought in an appreciation for nature, history, and religion – specifically Catholicism. Love, marriage, and a baby-carriage produced moi.

My childhood was a healthy mix of culture and religious upbringing. But ultimately Catholicism didn’t work out for me; there was a life-long difference of opinions involved and things naturally progressed into apathy. College, my own marriage, and years of spiritual anorexia followed, as did an 18-month deployment. Eventually, I began to take stock of how things were progressing.

That started a personal crusade. I began to research. I didn’t have any particular plan in regards of what to research; I just started reading up on anything remotely interesting – ancient history, musical theory, medical advances, food science, etc. Eventually, I gave birth to my son and later happened upon both nature-based religions and witchcraft. I found that the two made excellent sense and mirrored my own philosophies and sense of theology. And so the rest is (as they say) history.

Yes, there’s a lot more involved. Yes, I’m glazing over some interesting details and an instance of existential awareness. And yes, it’s extremely hollow and uninspiring because of its oversimplification. But I’m okay with that. The important thing is that I finished another dreaded ‘first post’ entry, and I can now move on with the rest of my blogging (not really) career.

Namaste,
Ellery Faye