5 Simple Magicks for Home and Self

Blessed be, Wildlings! This edition of Den Craft is going to focus on simple and affordable magicks and blessings for your home, self, and personal space. These are all things that I do to recharge my cleansed and cleared spaces with beneficial, protective and nurturing energy, or to ensure I don't have to cleanse as often. From incantations to cleaning practices, there is a bit of the magickal and mundane to be had within, and one or more of which should easily adapt into just about any practice. If a bit of blessing sounds like something your craft and home needs at this time, keep on reading!

1. Moon Water and Vinegar Window Blessing

Moon water is a staple we all have in our homes, and white vinegar tends to also be something readily at hand. Moon water made during a New or Full Moon is especially powerful, but any old moon water will do!

Mix the moon water and white vinegar at about a half and half ratio. I additionally add some crystals (that are water and vinegar tolerant*) and herbs, such as lavender or cedar, to steep in the mixture, and allow the water charge on my altar for one to three days. A jar of window blessing water lasts me a pretty long time, especially if I use one of my larger jars!

Cleanse your home of negative energies as you normally would, and then thoroughly clean all the indoor facing windows in your home with the mixture during the daytime. I use a nice cotton rag and apply enough water to dampen, not soak it. You'll want to be able to make sure all the water is dried off the window as you work to avoid spots. I suppose you could amplify the work of the moon water by using a ritual cloth for this practice pretty easily. It's something I'll look into the future (and thanks for the mental nudge, higher self)!

While cleaning, envision positive, protective energy, that allows only beneficial energies through, channeling from your hands and through the water into the glass of the window, creating a shimmering, protective layer on the glass. I personally sing while doing this to help raise overall vibrations, but make it your own! Chant, listen to certain vibrational tones, or work in absolute silence. The craft is our own to make, after all.

I do this as I feel drawn, and try to make sure I upkeep it at least once quarterly during the festivals.

* A quick check on Google usually yields results about a crystal or stone's water tolerance, especially. Can't find any information? Take a Q-tip and absorb whichever of the liquids you are wanting to test, and squish most of the liquid out of it. Rub a small amount on the stone you are testing in a place you will be least upset to have negative reactions happen on (somewhere you can't usually see). If there is no visible reaction on the stone within ten minutes, and rubbing the stone where the liquid was applied seems to have no effect, it's probably safe to put in that liquid. If the stone is tolerant of one liquid but not the other, you can just charge the liquid the stone is okay with before blending them together.

2. Shower Ritual

Notice how soaps come in different scents and colors? Why not integrate that into my craft? I thought to myself once upon a time, and so I did! And it works pretty darn well, if I may say so myself.

Before I suds up in my showers anymore, I take the time to ground and center myself. From that place, I envision the water cleansing away all the negative energy, stress, and pains of the world from my being. I reclaim my energy from places it does not belong from the water cycle, and return energy that is not mine to who it belongs to, so that it can flow back home.

Now I use the soap. The soap has become symbolic to me, and is something I spend a good bit of money on and have a variety of. Natural goat's milk soaps are my absolute favorite! But I digress. My daily selections are based on a combination of two things: personal need, and the planetary ruler of the day. For me, I have also integrated some of the deities that I work with, and for whom the days are actually named, as well, but that would be much more dependent on whether or not you personally work with deity or not. These energies are Sun (Sunday), Moon (Monday), Mars (Tuesday), Mercury (Wednesday), Jupiter (Thursday), Venus (Friday), and Saturn (Saturday).

Each planet is associated with certain colors, herbs, and scents, and I correlate my choice of soap with each entity. As I wash with the soap, I envision the energies of that powerful planetary being blessing me with their essence, using the scent and color as a channel. I try to be as thorough as possible, touching all my chakra centers, to make sure that my aura is really saturated with this beneficial energy. Because water is a naturally amplifying element in regards to spiritual work, I think you will really like the results, even if you are relatively new to energy work!

After thanking and disconnecting from these sources, I seal my energy with a salt layer. The type of salt I work with is dependent of my personal needs at the time. I am currently working with pink Himalayan salt for its powerful love energies. Whatever salt I use, I take a palm full of salt and envision it filling up with strong, silvery energy that will help integrate and protect my divinely imbued energy. Starting at my feet and working up, I envision it clearing away any residual negative energy and wreathing me in a protective, silver ribbon.

I especially like this blessing because it travels with me!

3. Door Charms

A door charm should be personal to the witch and their needs, if you ask me, and so I am going to be as general as possible in regards to my suggestions. Making the charm from things already preexisting in or around the home add a lot of magick to the item, in my personal opinion, because of their association with the spirit of the home itself. I personally try, as a result of that belief, to make my charms from as many things that I already own or can find in the nearby yard or neighborhood as possible.

There should be a charm over any primary entrance way to a home, especially, but they can also be hung over alternate or less used doors for extra protection. The charm should be hung in such a way that it is secure and not likely to fall on it's own. This is so, if it does fall (in the instance of some sort of energetic disturbance) the happenstance is an obvious call to action against whatever has just come inside your house with ill intentions.

The items included in the charm, as such, should be attuned to allowing beneficial energy in, and warding negative energies. If made properly and replaced or recharged as needed, the charm should repel all to most entities. Some common things I include in my door charms are:

• Bells or noisy items to chime in alert of harmful people

• Branches of pine or oak

• Crystals and stones, especially selenite, to empower the charm

• Hagstones

• Herbs that create positive energy or clear negative energy

• Natural cord

• Pine cones, witch balls, or burrs

The charm can be additionally charged on an altar or with natural light to improve its efficacy before it is hung. It should be regularly recharged and maintained. A dusty charm or one covered with weary herbs is like a beacon to stagnant energy. If it it's energy seems weak, and especially if it is looking drab or literally falling apart, it's time to bit of maintenance and recharging on your charm, or maybe to even make an all new one.

4. Black Salt Threshold Barrier

To make black salt, you will need some ashes from herbs or incense with cleansing properties, and salt. I collect my incense ashes off of my altar regularly and stow them away for making black salt. Regular table salt will work for making perfectly powerful black salt, but sea salt or other organic salts have much more potent energy, and will make for much stronger black salts.

Some morality around black salt: salt kills life. Do not put black salt on soil, and do not use so much black salt for your threshold barrier that it poses a risk to the soil around your threshold. Literally nothing will grow in salt saturated soil so long as the salt is there. Be respectful of Gaia and responsible. While they have slightly different properties, some alternates to using salt for work calling for black salts are:

• Chalk

• Egg shells

• Powdered quartz

• Powdered selenite

Blend the salt and ash using a mortal and pestle. If you do not have a mortar and pestle, I recommend getting a hard ceramic bowl and a spoon to crush the salt some (and you will very soon be wanting a mortar and pestle, lol). Occasionally, I add herbs of some sort, as well, if I feel inclined to further empower the salt with energy.

Inside the container I will be storing the black salt, I put a piece of amethyst and obsidian that I have charged and attuned on my altar to carry the energies to ward negative energies and harmful spirits. You can use and attune whichever stones you feel inclined as you need for this process.

I allow the black salt and stones to rest together in a dark and calm space for 30 days or more. I then place a thin line across the threshold of my door. I replace this line as I feel drawn, which is not very often - as such, my jars of threshold black salt last a pretty long time.

5. Adornments and Jewelry

It's pretty easy to attune and channel towards certain energies using jewelry and what we put on every day. By becoming more mindful of the impact of these energies, and using them to our advantage, we can really fuel and empower ourselves.

My personal go to is jewelry. I have a good amount of natural stone pieces, and I have done my part to research and understand what each is naturally inclined to want to work with me on. I also take the time to make sure that each is sure of what I would like from it, and that they are well charged and properly taken care of - this includes mundane things like jewelry polish and how I store them, to occasionally letting them spend time in the sun or moon, on my altar, or resting with some other crystal friends.

I pair my personal need with the energies of the celestial bodies, much like I do my soaps. In addition to picking my jewelry for the day in an intentional way, I also pick my clothes out that way! By working with the natural energy of the universe as it is, and adding my own personal touch by empowering myself as needed, I have experienced a personal increase in everything from creativity to confidence.

Like a lot of intention work, this could just have a lot more to do with having a means to focus our thoughts towards things we are grateful for and would like for ourselves. No matter how it works, it works!