The Tools of Wicca: Incense

Merry meet and welcome!

We talked about salt in the last post. Now we will talk about air.

Incense

Incense

Incense represents air when burned, and is the last of the four elements represented on our altar. We burn incense in an incense burner, which we will also talk about in this post.

There are many types of incense which we will discuss in later posts. But three main forms include raw, cones, and stick incense. You have a choice of various burners, used for burning each different type of incense. Incense has these forms:

  1. Cones – You can use a specific type of burner specifically made for cones, or you can use a generic fireproof container. Fill it with sand or small stones. Such a fireproof container can be used with all types of incense.
  1. Sticks – Sticks have specific burners, usually with a hole at one end. You can slide the bare end of the stick into the hole, while the coated end remains visible. Tending to be long in shape, these burners catch the ash of the incense as the stick burns.
  1. Raw – Raw incense usually comes as a form of resin, but not always. Myrrh and Frankincense are well-known resin incense. You need charcoal to burn resin incense, and you can pick up some at your local metaphysical shop. The charcoal usually comes in a round tube shaped package. Each piece of charcoal looks like a round pad with a indent for the raw incense. Raw incense should be burned in a fireproof bowl or a cauldron. Be sure to fill the container with sand or small stones. Then place the charcoal on top of the sand and light the charcoal. Now wait until the whole charcoal piece smolders. Then carefully drop the incense on it.

Now back to air, which is a masculine element. We combine our incense with the other masculine element, fire, to create the smoke that represents air. This incense smoke is then used to charge and bless things and people. Each element on the altar proceeds to be  blessed and combined with the sibling element. Add feminine salt with feminine water. Apply masculine fire to masculine incense to create smoke. The process is you cleans with salt and water, and you charge with fire and incense. Both are utilized at the beginning of our rituals, to help clear the mundane space to make way for sacred space.

Now we’ve completed our discussion of the elements that we use on our altar. But we are not done. There are still other tools to discuss. Next will be the wand.

Blessed be,

Moonwater Silverclaw

New Fan Page

The Hidden Children of the Goddess

We have a new fan page on FaceBook! The Hidden Children of the Goddess is a place where Wiccans and Pagans can share lessons and experiences in the comfort of their peers and community. This page is based on the new upcoming book by Moonwater Silverclaw.

Come and join the community of the Hidden Children of the Goddess!

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The Tools of Wicca: Salt

Merry Meet!

We talked about fire in my last post, today we will be talking about salt.

Salt Bowl

Salt Bowl

We use salt to represent Earth on our altars. Salt is sodium crystals, and crystals represent Earth. Therefore, Wiccans see salt as feminine.

We balance our altars with salt as Earth energy. As mentioned in a previous post, we also mix salt with water to make our holy water. Salt is a natural cleanser and preserver.

Our ancestors applied salt to cure their meat and it functioned as the first preservative people employed. (And we still use it today.) Early people didn’t understand it at the time, but salt kills a lot of bacteria we come into contact with and so it prevented meat from spoiling.

So holy water purifies because it has salt in it. We sprinkle holy water to get rid of unwanted energies and entities. We mix three pinches of salt into our blessed water to make a salt-water solution. This blessed solution is then used to bless and cleanse other things and even people.

So this is how we use salt on our altar.

In the next post we will talk about air.

I wish you a blessed day.

Blessed be,

Moonwater Silverclaw

How Wicca Changed My Life – As a young girl

Wicca Wheel Mandala

Wicca Wheel Mandala

How Wicca Changed My Life

As a young girl I was shy. I’m not talking about just a little quiet shy, I’m talking about no friends and couldn’t talk to people shy. And not only that; but my self-worth wasn’t only in the toilet, it was nonexistent!

If I needed help I couldn’t ask for it. This left the door wide open for bullies. I was teased and tormented mercilessly. Day in and day out, the torment never stopped. The worst was at home. Home was supposed to be a safe place, mine wasn’t.

Three years older and much bigger, my brother beat me and even held me underwater in a swimming pool at a friend’s house. He finally let go when I stopped struggling.

My parents didn’t do a thing to stop the abuse from my brother, even when the abuse was blatantly in front of them. This was an even bigger hit to my self-worth. “If my own parents don’t think I’m worth saving,” I thought, “I must be not worth anything.”

As I grew up, these messages further gripped my reality. I was alone against a heartless world. I was beyond miserable.

Then I found the gods. The first book I read about the craft was a breath of fresh air to someone who had been suffocating for years. I found something that spoke the truth to me. As I continued to read the books it hit me: Goddess doesn’t make crap!

It was not that I wasn’t worth anything; the truth was the complete opposite of my thinking. I was unique and special to the gods just the way I was created. If the gods loved me because of the way I was, then I could love me, too! And I was worth standing up for!

At first people got mad when I stood up for myself. But after a while they did start to treat me with more respect. Not everyone changed, but that’s their loss. I am a beautiful, loving person. And no one deserved to be treated the way I had been. It is just wrong and not the way the gods want us to treat one another.

We are all loved of the gods. We are all unique and therefore special, no matter what anyone says, even yourself!