Brass sun tool.

I didn't really understand what it was I was missing when I decided to start working with a large brass tray in my magic. The desire for this type of magic came during a time when I became sharply aware of how my SAD affects me. Our landlord had decided that everyone would be getting solar blocking screens on their windows. I had to get a note from my dr. to have the manager remove them. I remember seeing a picture of an altar somewhere on the web that displayed a working within a brass tray and fell in love with how it made me feel. I realized that it was the same warm, radiant solar energy as soon as I stepped outside into the heat of the day. I remember staying int he Midwest during the winter and how I craved to get in the car and sit in the sun to get that radiant warmth feel.Those memories and thoughts forced me to re-look over the properties of brass. Ok: fire and the sun. . . well sheesh there you have it. I was getting a tray!

I didn't spend a lot of money on my tray. I paid $7 at a thrift shop. There were even several brass trays to choose from. Everything just fit all together from the moment I decided to get a brass tray to the moment I brought it home and cleared it. For a while, I had to convince Nike that it was not her sleeping bowl. She actually leaves it alone now that I have had it seasoned and put it to full use.

Over the last couple of year wheels of working with my brass tray, there are things that I have noticed.  I have used it to help project out workings, I have used it as a healing platform. I have laid out almost all of my spells and craftings upon it. Somewhere during this process, I developed a tool that is as much the Sun as my mirror is the moon. Literally, I have put the power of the sun upon my altar.

Part of the ritual I perform while setting a new altar, is to recharge the brass tray. I take it out in the bright of the day and hold it to face the sun until the tray is hot and humming. There is this moment during this process that never ceases to fascinate me. It is the moment the metal starts warming in my hands as I am holding the tray aloft, standing in its shadow. I can feel the cool of the shadow protecting my face, but all the sun's rays seem to start dancing around the out line of my body. I feel like a mirage appears during that moment. It grows in pitch and I break it before I think I may go numb from standing still for so long. Each time I did this I could feel my stamina come back. I had been on a cycle of being under the weather off and on since we moved into the new house. I mostly attribute it to change of life stress, but I do know that the brass tray magic has contributed to my healing processes either through  energetic properties or how those properties cause me to think and act in my own interest.

While casting and blessing at my altar, there is another thing I grew to appreciate. I love setting my hands upon the brass edges of my tray and pour energy into the working laid upon it. In my mind's eye, I could see the energy snake through it, following the designs until the entire tray was engulfed and saturated with power. Then at the right moment, shoot it off like a rocket in the correct direction. It enabled me to improve upon my long term workings. I discovered that even if I was not doing a working for healing, prosperity, or protection, the tray was well worth using for just it's projective tendencies.

I will not begin to dictate how a brass sun tool as such should be honored and blessed. I will only relate to you that through ritual blessings on solar holidays and enlivening before working with the power of the noon day sun *or any other property/timing of the sun you wish to harness. ie. twilight.* has its rewards, most of which I will allow for you to discover yourself.   ;)

I am only a couple of years into my work with this tool. I do not claim that I know everything there is to know about this sort of work. I am looking forward to discovering more about this tool and how it interacts with my own self discoveries. What I do know, is that bringing the power of the sun within my temple space has made large, positive differences in my life. I think I am seeking a balance between the powers of the moon, which I have spent so of my magic career under, and the power of the sun. It is only in the last 5 years that I had started to work more with male divinities as a Feri student. It seems only proper that they have asked for a greater influence in my magic, or maybe they just wanted me to have a beneficial tool. Who knows how the gods really think. I don't.

I think I'll just say thank you for the great tool.

A multi layered adjustment

It has been made very clear to me that things are not in balance with me in my life right now. I have spent the last few months with some sort of cootie or another and even as I type this, walking pneumonia seems to be the term docs are using for it. Oh yea! So, as the moon wanes I am working on digging into myself to help figure out and uncover the how's what's and why's of things and come up with something to restore that balance.

I think that all of this began with the move from the apartment to the house. I have been a non stop run, run, run and some of the things that I used to have time for have either gotten slashed in availability or has fallen off the radar completely. (BAD) I need to adjust things to a better balance and I think I need some other worldly help in tweeking it just right.

 I have dragged out my BOS and dug up some information that I gleaned from my tarot magic. I will be using Oleum of Isolde and my Thoth deck for this as I find that Hecate prefers it's sharpness and dark tones. I pulled out the Adjustment card, because that is precisely what I need to do. This card will become the center of my working.

Here are some things that I have found to work best as accents to using this card. I pass this on to you to use at your discretion as at one point in time or another we all find our selves a bit off kilter. I won't pass the specifics of my personal  ritual simply because it has significance to me because I wrote it. I suggest that you sit down with your self and discover your own idea of how your working should look. It will not only get the magic flowing, it will be most powerful for you.

Justice/ Adjustment: Balance
Incense: sage, copal, cedar
Oils: rosemary, clove, frankincense, rosewood, Oleum of Isolde
Stones: emerald, quartz, turquoise, black tourmaline, hematite
Candle colors: grey, white, sea green, blue


I include ritual in my personal healing for several reasons. I know healing to be something that is more than seeing a doc and taking medicine. True healing is something that happens between body and soul and it cannot be a complete process if you neglect to address all aspects of the illness including the aspects that is more often ignored: the energetic resonances of it. So it's time for this faery shaman to sit down with herself and work on herself even if it means that some things have got to be changed out and readjusted. I have sneaking hunches. It's time to verify them or find out what the real deal is.

School day magic.

As most of you have heard, my children have their first day of classes today. After all the buzz about the first day of school and all the preparations that go into it, magic is certainly not left out of the picture.  A few years ago, I decided to start making my children charms to aide them on their academic path. I have seen improvement in both of their performances because of this. Last year my children started carrying pocket charms ( which I occasionally find in the washer) so I decided instead of adding to the things in their pockets I would take advantage of what they were already carry about with them.

I rounded up their charms and laid them out on my altar. They had to have known what I was up to because both children surrendered their charms with out question. Miss B. even sounded excited to be carrying around something that had been blessed and charged by Mom.

This year I called upon Tristan to aid them with their studies. This last February I met both him and Isolde and found them to be much more than the legends describe. I quite like the both of them and they have been very generous with their guidance in my own crafts. Tristan himself was an excellent student and a skilled man on and off the battle field and as we know the school yard can, on occasion, be a battlefield. He was in my eyes a perfect choice to guide my children through their school day and studies. I dug out his oil, lit the candles, got the incense offering smoldering, called in the Goddess Brigit and called to Tristan to hear my request.

As I sat to listen for an answer, I felt a strong hand over mine as I charged the charms and knew that Tristan had taken up my cause! I know that my children will have a great guide in Tristan while I am not able to watch over them myself. I am so glad that I grabbed the rope and agreed to work with him and his beloved Isolde! ( the Nain is still a bit scary, but I am working on that. She's a wily old creature with plans of her own.)