We've been talking a lot here about the basics of ritual, tools used in ritual, and the thinking/faith behind magick, spellcasting, and ritual.  I have suggested this thread to several members I know, and they have enjoyed it, but also said because they do not practice magick, they felt a little lost trying to follow all the info, which many times lists terms and practices they don't understand. 

So for those visitors to this thread I thought it might be fun to post a segment from my forthcoming novel THE WITCHES OF DIXIE: Book One of the Witchery Series, to be published by Trytium Publishing in the next few months.  In this scene, a Wiccan Witch (Nadine) is helping her artist friend (Mirabella) through a financial crisis by performing a "Banishing Poverty Spell" in her studio.  All the spells, rituals, and chants in my novels are real and come from my personal BOS (Book of Shadows).  So for anyone interested, this is how a very Eclectic Wiccan Witch does it. 

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     Saturday morning, and Nadine knocks on the studio door.  She carries three small pots of basil in a cardboard box.  "According to Hindu mythology, Lakshmi inhabits basil, charging it with money attracting power," she says, "and as the plants grow, so will your success and prosperity." 

     She places the box in front of a sunny window and turns around, hands on her hips. 

     I know that look and wonder what she’s planning.   

     “I think we should cast a Banishing Poverty Spell today,” Nadine says.  “What do you think?” 

     I smile.  “Great idea.  Let’s do it!”

     She walks to the middle of the studio and moves my easel and a few stools out of the way, explaining Saturdays are best for performing banishing spells, especially if it is the time of a Waning Moon.  “In ten minutes we’ll enter the hour of Saturn, the Banishing Hour.”   

     She moves one of the stools to the middle of the room.  “This will be our altar,” she says.  “Stand next to it while I prepare the tools for the spell.” 

     She lifts a piece of parchment paper from her tote bag and writes the word POVERTY across it, placing the paper on the stool.  Then she moves a candle next to it.  “The hour of Saturn has arrived,” she says, glancing at her watch.  “Do the grounding meditation I taught you.”

     I close my eyes, visualizing the energy in my body flowing down through my feet into the ground, where the Earth cleanses and empowers it and then shoots it back up into my feet.  It rises through the top of my head and then back down again into the Earth, a waterfall of energy.  I repeat this visualization three times, and when I open my eyes I feel refreshed and ready for magick.  

     Nadine positions burning candles at the four compass points of the circle, symbolizing the Watchtowers of the four directions.  The candle on the altar stool remains unlit.  “Ready?”   

     I nod.   

     She lifts her wand with her right hand, walking slowly in a clockwise direction, sprinkling salt in a circle with her left hand around the altar, saying, “I cast this circle around the ground to protect us while our magick abounds.”  The salt circle complete, she raises her wand to each direction, calling for the Guardians of the East, South, West, and North to protect and assistance in the working of our spell.  Then she asks Lakshmi for her blessing.

     Nadine turns to me.  “We’re going to say this spell together as we walk around the altar, okay?”  

     She begins to walk in a widdershins direction around the stool, and I follow her.  Together we say, “ Poverty, I banish you in the name of the Lady and the Lord.  Poverty, I command you to leave this studio now and never come back!”   

     We circle the altar stool thirteen times, repeating the spell each time, Nadine’s wand points toward the paper, charging it with the cone of power we’ve raised.  Her wand shimmers in the sun, a beautiful creation handcrafted for her by a woodcarver friend, rose quartz crystals wired at each end, painted fairies dancing up and down the length of it.   

     Nadine stops and lifts the parchment.  She lights the candle on the altar.  Holding the paper over it, she says, ”As the cleansing flame of fire burns this paper to ash, so poverty leaves Mirabella’s life forever and at last.”   

     After she opens the circle, we walk to the studio sink and wash the ashes down the drain, visualizing poverty flowing from my life for good.   

     “Let’s celebrate our magick,” Nadine says, her eyes sparkling, and we head to the kitchen for a tasty snack.

     (c) Laura Stamps