Posts Tagged ‘prayer’

Right now the cosmos are gearing up for another Mercury Retrograde (starting on the 12th). Knowing that communications and such are going to go haywire, I feel that it is a good time to work on my own confidence and empowerment so that even when things go wonky I will be rooted firmly in myself to work through the toughest of challenges that Mercury may present to me.

Tuesday 3-6:

Burning this week on my altar is a Goddess Drop Candle from the Sacred Mists Shoppe.  It is a dark burgundy and perfect for empowerment.   I will burn my candle for two hours each day this week.  Rosy Pink and Marigold Orange Color Magick Sizzling Spell Papers will be used throughout the workings of this week.

Marigold Sizzling Spell Paper,write an affirmation.   You may use the one below I have written or write one of your own.

CONFIDENCE (on one side)
Light within, Shine throughout.
Blight within, I cast you out.
Strength and Calm, Filling my life,
Head held high, Blessed Be!

Today I have folded mine into a football shape and written my name on it.  After it is lit with my empowerment candle I reflect on strength and confidence.  I look within and find my core and anchor to it.  As my candle burns for the two hours today I will know that I am valued and can hold my head high.

Wednesday 3-7:

Rosy Pink Color Magick Sizzling Spell Paper.  On it I will write an affirmation (again you may use mine or write your own).

Beauty is a state of mind,
Love is a state of heart.
Beauty, a wonderful find,
Love within, never apart.
I love, I am loved.
I cherish, I am cherished.

This is all about love and self-love.  With my candle lit I will reflect on the simple act of love and loving.  I know that I cannot be loved unless I love and that includes loving myself.  Today I will be gentle for the mistakes I will make.

I will work in perfect love and trust thinking of others as each task is completed.

Thursday 3-8:

Today, I had planned on working with the magick of Friday, alas even the best laid plans are subject to be changed.  Instead I worked on this video and dedicate it to my friends Dierna and Jenn especially, who are going through a trying time.  We all have periods where we lose a loved one and in the spirit of Peace, comfort, strength and love, I offer this today in replacement of my original plans.

I have a Sugared Spring Candle burning on my altar today.  It’s an Ostara Ritual candle and the color and scent just seemed perfect to me to burn.  I used Rosey Pink for the Color Magick Sizzling Spell Paper today, combined with the Rose Quartz in my offering bowl.  I will be gifting the stones to each of them after today completes.

Everyday on the Sacred Mists Facebook Page, we are bringing our path to life with magick and affirmations!

Today’s Magick focuses heavily on Wisdom, Knowledge and Will to be open to receiving it.

See it here:

Thursday is all about wisdom and protection, classically you can see with the ruling planet Jupiter (which is great for money issues as th eruling planet of financial concerns), The magick of Jupiter will always make more of whatever you have so if you have nothing, this is not the best energy to work with. Colors for today are Purple and Royal Blue.

Today I want to grow what I have so I am going to work on wisdom through study. My altar candle is a rich purple (Witches Path from the Sacred Mists Shoppe). I’ve lit my candle on my altar and as it is nearing the end of life I am going to burn it all day. I have taken a little bit of the Power of Wiccae Oil and dabbed some on my third eye, solar plexus, and a little on both sides of my neck. Third eye to absorb the wisdom, Solar Plexus to invoke my power and will and on the neck so that I may speak wisely today.

On small piece of Color Magick Sizzling Paper (lavender) I have written, you can use any kind of paper infusing it with purple energy or using a purple pen!

Today I draw Wisdom
Today I gain knowledge
May my course stay true
May my words & thoughts be just
(reverse side)
Blessed Be!

Fold up the paper and light it with your altar candle or a purple spell candle if that is what you have lit on your altar then drop the paper into your cauldron or fire safe dish.

Today you will learn much along your path with the strength of your Will behind you.

Prayer and song are elements of religious culture which anthropologists assume were some of the key early features of the world’s first religions thousands of years ago. The spoken or sung verbalization of a wish, a cry for help, a thank you and other types of prayer formalizes the supplicant’s desire ~ pushing it out from them and into the wider cosmos. It is a beautiful expression which bridges the gap between human and divine.

With the advent of writing in ancient Mesopotamia, these prayers began to be written down ~ their power deriving now as much from the vocalization of the desire as from the act of being written. Early writing was considered sacred. The knowledge of being able to read and write was a powerful skill; one which was possessed by the rare few; in fact, initially only priests, royal administrators, their scribes, and occasionally the royals themselves were capable of writing and reading. It was used as much for organizing the newly expanding Empires of the world as it was for magickal purposes. Over time, it would filter down to the merchants and beyond, sifting down through the ages until the invention of the printing press in China in the sixth century AD and the later, more prominent Western discovery of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century, and the wider spread of literacy that ensued because of these discoveries. But in ancient Mesopotamia, the power of the written prayer was myriad, and was used to call upon the gods for a vast array of purposes.

The following prayer, or hymn, to the goddess Ishtar is from approximately 1600 BCE, during the first Dynasty of Babylon. It was written in cuneiform on behalf of the King Ammiditana, and survived the ages, to be deciphered by the archaeologists of the early twentieth century and ultimately read by you, dear reader, at the beginning of the twenty-first.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the modern world, there are innumerable devices to help remind us of our daily to-do lists and which keep every conceivable bit of data close to our fingertips on the keyboard. Memory, therefore, becomes rather overrated. Why remember something if a handy-dandy post-it note or your Blackberry can do it for you? Why remember faces and names if a Facebook album can organize them so much more easily? And why memorize facts if Google, Wikipedia, and Encyclopedia Britannica have us covered? With all of this convenience, it is no surprise that memory loss is on the rise as we appear to be losing our capacity to retain as much direct information as we previously could.

Once upon a time, mankind had to be multilingual, they had to be able to do complicated math in their head, and they had to remember their family lineage, their local geography, and their tales of myth and religion. And they did. It was a simple matter of remembering it or losing it. Because something once forgotten, was forgotten forever. The average man or woman could not read or write, they had few maps, no cameras, and therefore had fewer ways to record all the little tidbits of information we, in contemporary society, so often take for granted. Recipes, spells, songs, family history, engineering instructions ~in the modern world, all of these can be written down and referred back to; there is no need to know them by rote. But in the societies that came before us on the grand time line of earth, lives ~ both magickal and mundane ~ were ruled by what, and whom, they could remember. And in ancient societies it was often much more a matter of who was remembered than anything else.

Rome provides us with several classical examples of the power of memory and remembrance. Its broad spectrum of opposites (rich vs. poor; literate vs. illiterate; urban vs. country, Republic vs. Empire etc) allows for a vast array of valuable viewpoints a scholar can look back on and pull positive life lessons from. The Pax Romana (27 BCE-180 AD) in particular stands on a wonderful cusp of literacy where the written word was becoming accessible to more people and thus people of more classes and more ways of life were recording what they felt it was important to remember.

Rome, overall, adored the idea of remembrance. It was always looking backwards over its shoulder, usually at ancient Greece, to use the power of the past to magnify its energy in the present. But the Roman people were also looking forward, and both the poor and the rich were striving to be remembered by the future.

Roman Ancestors: Real & Imagined

From a modern viewpoint, Rome is the past. But the Romans were aware that there was a past beyond them: that people had come before them: that these people had lived, and laughed, and built civilizations; ones which, would ultimately lead to Rome itself. And this past was alive and a part of their everyday routines.

Ancestor worship was a very strong component of both urban and rural Roman religion. The power of one’s family was honored second only to the later cults of the emperors. Roman homes, which also doubled as Roman business offices, were built around the notion of ancestor worship and incorporated an idea of public and private adoration and remembrance of the ancestors. Upon entering a Roman house, one first encountered a short hallway which featured the death masks of the house’s ancestors. Although it sounds a bit macabre, it is not so far removed from our own sphere of familiarity. Check out your own walls and mantles: have any photos of your family up there? Same thing; we just have better technology to preserve images.

But note that earlier I said, the “house’s” ancestors and not the “family’s” ancestors. Those masks would stay with the house even if the family were to die off into obscurity or the house sold to another family. The idea of “family” or “ancestry” was not just an emotional concept, or a list of past relatives and their notable deeds, it was associated with place as well. Both the spirits and there memory were given a physical location. The ancestors of the house would stay with the house, not necessarily the family, becoming remembered spirits of a place and not just of a family. It gives whole new meaning to the idea of ‘if these walls could talk.’ The orator Cicero famously bought a ‘used’ house as such.

The house would also feature at least one altar to the household gods, who are often simply referred to as the Lares Familiares (which literally translated means house guardians/spirits, however they most likely would have had individual names only members of the household would have been aware of) and the Penates. Typically after passing through the aforementioned hallway, one would enter a central square or rectangular open air atrium, which featured a public altar (a lararium) for business associates and other guests of the open areas of the house to pay respect to their associate’s Lares at. Accessible through narrower hallways or beyond storerooms, smaller, more private lararium have been found, typically displaying signs of much heavier usage than the public altar on display. It is conceivable that family secrets were passed down and hidden family rituals were performed at these smaller more personal altars. The remembrance of the ancestors was, it seems, divided into public and private spheres.

Imagine the wider scenario in the modern world. Do you know who lived in your house or apartment before you? The Romans believed that the people that lived in a house imprinted on it, leaving the Lares behind. The terms Lares and Penates may, in fact, have an older, more local meaning for the Roman region and may be a watered down remembrance of the ancient local gods, the genius loci, that were worshiped in the area prior to the Latin tribes’ emigration to it. Given that your home might have some household gods lurking round it in Roman fashion, it might be helpful to show some respect to the Lares that have been left behind, or to perhaps attempt a spiritual cleanse to encourage the household spirits to accustom themselves to your presence and over to your aid.

The Political Power of Memory

Politics and class distinctions were also ruled by the idea of a remembered family history: the longer a lineage, the more status and power, often regardless of wealth. Whole genealogies were crafted, occasionally from thin air, in an effort to connect powerful personages to the past. The Emperor Augustus and his uncle, the infamous Julius Caesar, for instance, connected their lineage back to the mysterious and mythic Aeneas, going so far as to have their court poet, Virgil, craft the eponymous Aeneid in their family’s honor. Through the figure of Aeneas, they linked their family back to the Battle of Troy, the Trojan royal family, the goddess Aphrodite/Venus herself (as she was reputedly Aeneas’ birth mother), and the founders of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus, who were themselves purportedly the 13th generation of descendants down from Aeneas. Therefore the imperial family, in one fell swoop, used the memory of the past to link themselves to their city’s founders and to the divine.

The first was a sound political move, the second allowed them to take their power a step further. The connection with the divine was indeed, one of the Emperor Augustus’ primary talking points when he convinced the waning Senate to deify Julius Caesar as a god, starting a tradition of deifying the Emperor which would continue until the pagan Empire’s fall to Christianity. Although initially intended to be a cult revolving around the recently dead Emperor and other members of the imperial family, the cult quickly came to include the living Emperor as a god, similar to the Egyptian style of royal worship. Money took on a new significance in the cult of the Emperor. Having the Emperor’s head on the coin was not just a way to let the people all round the Empire to know what the Emperor looked liked or to indicate that the money was minted in his reign, it became a small, portable, spiritual token. The use of the past for political power is not an unfamiliar concept in politics and one still used in the modern age. The French Revolution looked back to the Roman Republic as a model, sparking off a Greco-Roman Renaissance. In 20th century Italy, Benito Mussolini summoned up the glory days of Ancient Rome by bulldozing the streets into some semblance of their ancient geography. And consider President Obama’s references back to President Lincoln. All instances of memory being used for political power.

Back in ancient Rome, it was not just the Emperor that strived to be remembered and revered in the public collective after he was gone. The funerary artifacts of the upper and middle classes indicate an interest in persevering an individual memory of themselves, leaving behind what we presume are life-like portraits of themselves on their coffins. And there were too, the aforementioned death masks. The poets of the Pax Romana indicate the philosophical state of mind of the times in their work. Ovid sums up the idea of immortality through the written word rather well numerous times, but a particular favorite of mine is in his less political and more romantic work Only the Poets are Immortal which sums it up rather nicely, albeit full of hubris for his field:

“For myself, let Apollo bestow on me cups
Overflowing with the waters of Castaly;
Let the myrtle that dreads the cold adorn my brow
And let my verses ever be scanned by the eager lover.
While we live we serve as food for Envy;
When we are dead we rest within the aureole
Of the glory we have earned.
So, when the funeral fires have consumed me,
I shall live on,
And the better part of me will have triumphed over death.”

Rome Remembered: Active Memory on Rome’s Streets and in Today’s Libraries

But the collective Roman memory of the past wasn’t just based on family and imperial legends. There were, and are still, a few remaining slightly credible written sources which would have been available to the upper classes of Rome and the academics of the later empires. Oral histories, preserved by the writer Livy, recorded the kings, legends, and hazily remembered festivals of the early Roman Republic. Secrets and prophecies were also purportedly recorded in a grouping of texts called the Sibylline Oracles, a jumble of pseudo-mythical and prophetic texts which were initially protected in a sacred cave not far from Rome by the Sibyl: a magickal dedicant and sometime prophetess; until Augustus collected them in the library of his house on the Capitoline hill in Rome. Later scholars revised, edited, and added, and the remaining texts were then preserved, resulting ultimately in a Renaissance period compendium of the Oracles. But where both of these preserved bits of memories highlight the amazing nature of the Greek traditions and the Latin tribes of central Italy, few historical mentions are made of the prehistoric Etruscans whose ruins dotted the Roman countryside. For one reason or another, the Roman people chose to almost consciously ignore many aspects of these direct cultural predecessors or else make connection with them taboo. There are in fact several sources which indicate the Romans, like the medieval denizens of the region after them, regarded the Etruscan ruins as haunted or else the ancient equivalent of Boo Radley’s house; either possessed of dark spirits or lived in by those on the fringe of society.

And beyond this, the poetry and literature, particularly of the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, has preserved snippets of the more homespun and philosophical nature of remembrance conducted on an everyday level. We know that the Roman doctors had thousands of herbal cures, passed down through generations of trial and error. We know that Roman magicians, frowned upon by Roman law but still to be found in the marketplace and on seedy street corners, hawked spells and potions they claimed to have learned in far-away lands. Priests conducted traditional ceremonies, some public and some private, supposedly handed down through the generations. And recent excavations in Roman cities indicate that certain eateries and market food stalls lasted longer in the marketplace, possibly favored above others because of their standardized food recipes, presumably also passed down through the generations. However, although these are referenced in what sources we have, these everyday activities (bar farming which we have an incredibly dense and detailed grouping of texts on, most notably Cato’s De Agricultura) are not recorded in particular detail. A few spells, a few chants, and an occasional half-recipe have crept in. And although it is very possible that this discrepancy in the historical record is due to a lack of relevant texts having been preserved; it seems then, that of all the things the Romans wanted to remember, they wanted to remember each other. Be it for personal or political reasons, they wanted to remember those people, those individuals who had come before them and whose foundations they had built their empire on.

It is, perhaps, a lesson we can learn from them. Honor your ancestors. Remember where you’ve come from. Send a prayer to your great great grandmother or favorite great uncle, ask for some guidance from the spirits of your house, be they family or be they adopted Lares. Reorganize your family photo collection, hang some updated photos on the wall. Set up a subtle altar in front of it and every time a guest comments on a picture you will know that whether they intended to or not, they’ve just paid homage to your household spirits, Roman style.

Sources:

Allison, P., 2001. Using the Material and Written Sources: Turn of the Millennium Approaches to Roman Domestic Space. American Journal of Archaeology, 105(2): 181-208.
Beard, M., North, J. & Price, S. (1998). Religions of Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bergmann, B., 2007. Housing and Households: The Roman World. In Alcock, S.E. and Osborne, R. (eds.) Classical Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 224-240.
Clarke, J.R., 1991. The Houses of Roman Italy 100 B.C.- A.D. 200: Ritual, Space, and Decoration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Davies, P.J.E., 2007. The Personal and the Political: The Roman World. In Alcock, S.E. and Osborne, R. (eds.) Classical Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 307-328.
Ellis, S.P., 2000. Roman Housing. London: Duckworth.
Ferguson, J. (1970). The Religions of the Roman Empire. London: Thames and Hudson.
Fowler, W. (1914). Roman Ideas of Deity. London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd.
Grahame, M., 1998. Material Culture and Roman Identity: The Spatial Layout of Pompeian Houses and the Problem of Ethnicity. In Laurence, R. and Berry, J.(eds.) Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire. London: Routledge, 156-176.
Hales, S., 2003. The Roman House and Social Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Knights, C., 1994. The Spatiality of the Roman Domestic Setting: an Interpretation of Symbolic Content. In Pearson, M.P. and Richards, C. (eds.) Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space. London: Routledge, 113-144.
MacMullen, R. (1981). Paganism in the Roman Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Turcan, R. (1992). The Cults of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Today we’re going to look at something a little different, something that I tend to classify as more of a “new age” practice within the confines of Wicca and Paganism.   As many of us who are eclectic in nature and are often evolving our practices as we find new things that seem to call to us, I hope that this craft and prayer/meditation practice will be useful for some of you, especially if you are going through a particularly difficult time in your life.

For centuries in various cultures the use of prayer boxes, often in the form of jewelry, has become an honored tradition.  The use of community prayer boxes is a well known tradition in the Catholic and Christian faith where people of a congregation are able to write out their need for prayer and add it to a box which either a few individuals or a whole prayer circle will work on for those in need.  We can create a variation of the prayer box to fit our needs, either as individuals or for covens or circles.  You can call it a prayer box, petition box, or as I’ve always called it, a Goddess box.  It depends on a few variations of how you craft it and your intentions when crafting it.  As I share this process with you, if you decide to work with this, make the changes that you feel you need to for your own beliefs and traditions.  I will be addressing this from the perspective of working specifically with the Goddess, so if you wish to work more with the God or just the Universal energy, you can make those changes.

A Goddess box is a physical box, one crafted with intent, designed to be a place to drop written prayer petitions.  Petition magick, as we’ve talked about previously, is a wonderful way to work simple spells of intention, and the Goddess box becomes an aid to petition magick, as you’ll see through the process.  So we’re going to start with talking about crafting a Goddess box.

You’ll need a few items to get your started:

• A plain wooden craft box.  These are available at arts and crafts stores all over or you can use an old cigar box, an old jewelry box, or anything of the sort.  We’re going to be completely changing it’s appearance so be sure that whatever it is you wont mind stripping it down, painting it, etc.
• Paints, markers, and related supplies.  We’ll talk about colors in a moment.
• Stickers, stamps and craft paper.
• A piece of parchment or other paper.  Pick something that you find visually appealing but something that you will be able to write on where the writing will stand out.
• A small sachet of offering herbs.  We’ll talk about this in a moment.
• An image of a Goddess.  If you’re working with a God, than an image of whatever God  you wish, or other spirit or entity that you wish to call on to work with you.  This can be an animal spirit guide that you pray and meditate with, or even an otherworld entity that you work with in this way.  The idea here is that whomever you dedicate this box to is someone that you have worked with before, either in prayer, meditation or magick, who you are completely comfortable in going to with requests for help and aid.
• A stone or crystal.  Again, we’ll talk about that in a moment.
• A small stack of slips of parchment or other paper and a pen.

First let’s talk about our intentions.  The purpose of this box is to create a place to hand over certain problems, cares and needs to either a specific Goddess, God or spirit ally that you are confident and comfortable in working with through prayer, meditation and petition work.  What you’ll be doing with your box is writing down your needs and placing the slip of paper within, along with speaking words of prayer and offering, to your chosen deity or spirit, asking them to help you find a way to resolve your problem.   What we’re doing here is asking for a door to be open, a way to be shown, and in a sense laying our problem in the lap of the Goddess and asking for her guidance in gaining a solution that may be eluding us.

Keep this in mind while crafting your box and also keep it in mind when deciding who, if anyone specific, you wish to dedicate your box to.  Consider this intention when picking out your colors and images for the box as well as when picking out the stones and herbs for the small offerings that we’ll be keeping within the box.

Creating an offering sachet – This is a simple step in the process of making the box and one you can either do first or last, it’s up to you.  Gather together either a white spell bag or a small swatch of white cloth and white string or ribbon for tying it close.  Pick two or three herbs that you can place inside that are used for offerings or that have the properties of thanksgiving.  A few suggestions include tobacco, blue corn, desert or white sage, copal, cedar, or lavender.  If you’re going to be working with a specific deity or entity that you know prefers something specific, then use that in your bag.

Fill the bag with the herbs and tie it closed.  Hold it in your hands for a few moments, directing white light and your intentions of blessings and thanksgiving into the bag.  When you feel that the bag is full with energy, you can set it aside.  It will be going into the box when it is completed so keep it in a safe place in the meantime, like your altar.

Picking stones -  Again, keeping in mind your intentions and the purpose of the box, we want to pick a stone to keep inside that is associated with something such as prayer, meditation or even directly problem solving.  The way that I personally work with the stone is that I place it on top of the petition slip when I place it inside the box.  You can do this if you feel so drawn to, or you can just leave the stone in the box as an aid to the work being done.  A few suggestions for stones to use include quartz (clear or rose), danburite, fluorite, amethyst, or lapis lazuli.  Take your time in picking a stone and really decide what energy you want the stone to add to the box.  For example with the lapis you can call on its properties of truth and awareness to aid you in seeing the truth in a situation and clearing seeing the solution, where as you can use the powers of transformation and intuition held in danburite to help your prayer needs.  

Once you have picked out a stone and acquired it, properly cleanse and charge it with your specific intention and then place it on your altar with your sachet until it is time to add it to your box.

Crafting the box – This is the part where you get to really be creative.  You do not need to be a great artist to do this; this is part of why we have stickers and printed images to help us.  If your box you’re working with is something that is going to be recycled from a previous incarnation, take the time to do any stripping of paint or finish that you may need to.  Some things you can paint right over, but if you have something that has a shiny or varnished finish, you’ll need to strip it first otherwise your paint will either not hold at all or will chip quite easily.

Take some time to pick out colors that either reflect on you or your ally you’ll be dedicating the box to.  You can use colors appropriate to specific deities, use the colors of the elements, or just use some off your personal power colors.  Paint the box in whatever way you personally desire.  There is no right or wrong way to do this, so be creative.  Paint the inside as well, either using a solid color or do something that you might find personally magickal and empowering, like painting sigils and symbols inside it to protect and empower your work.

Allow the pain to dry overnight before moving on to adding any stickers, paper or printed images.  Depending on the type of paint and the surface of the box you may wish to add extra glue to stickers since the adhesive may not hold.  Add a picture of your chosen deity or ally to the top of the box and embellish as you see fit.  A written dedication will be going on the inside of the box top, so you don’t need to add anything like that on the outside unless you wish to.

When you are done, set the box aside and again give it at least overnight to ensure all glues and adhesives have dried.

Writing your dedication – On a piece of parchment paper, in your own handwriting, you are going to create a dedication that will be placed on the inside cover of the box.  This can be a prayer, chant or blessing that you will recite each time you place something in the box.    The following is a modification of what I have inside my Goddess box.  You will want to modify this to fit your specific box.  Write out your drafts and get your wording as you want it on notebook paper first and when you have settled on what you wish to say, write it on a piece of parchment cut to fit the inside lid of your box.

I dedicate this, my Goddess box, to the Lady of love, mercy and healing.  Whatever I place inside this box I place at the feet of the Goddess.  I ask the Goddess to nurture my needs and take care of me in my time of struggle.  Within this box I place my hopes and fears, my dreams and anxieties.  When I close the lid I know that they are now in the hands of the Goddess and she will guide me and show me what to do next.  With this box I put trust in my inner knowing and in the Goddess.  With this box, I foster a connection to the Goddess within and without.

So mote it be!

Once the paper is dry, do any additional decorative steps you wish with it (e.g. aging the edges) and then firmly glue into the lid of the box.

Dedicate your box – For this next step you may wish to wait for the full moon or you can do it any time you wish.  Gather together your box, slips of parchment and pen (these items will be kept inside the box at all times for easy and quick access), your crystal and your sachet.  Bring them into sacred space and lay them out on your altar or work space.  If there is a specific deity that you will dedicate the box to, evoke them into your space letting them know you are dedicating this special magickal prayer object to them and you wish for their blessings up it.  You may wish to smudge the box with sage or cleanse it with all the elements and present it to the four directions as well to ask for their blessings as well.

Once you have presented the box to the deity/ally it may be dedicated to, or to the archetypal God/Goddess aspect, add your sachet, presenting it as well with words of intention, and then add the stone, again with words of intention.  Add in your paper slips and pen.

Where to keep your box – You can keep your box anywhere that you wish, but try for a place where it will be out of reach of children and pets and where it will also be out of reach or sight from prying hands and eyes.  This can be a great items for those of you that may need to keep your items somewhat hidden because of issues with family or roommates and it can easily blend in with other trinkets, decorations or jewelry boxes depending on how you have chosen to adorn it.  You can always just keep it on a corner of your altar if you wish.

Working with your box - If you have a specific need right now, take a slip of paper and write it out.  Hold it in your hands, sending your intentions, desires, hopes and worries into the paper.  Recite your dedication/prayer for help to your ally.  Place the paper in the box and then pick up your sachet.  Hold it for a moment and draw on some of the energy of offering and thanks from it and then direct that energy to your ally, then return the sachet to the box.  Close the box and leave it in it’s special place.

Once a solution to your need has been found, or things have worked themselves out, say a thank you to your ally and either send energy from your offering sachet again or leave another appropriate offering on your altar or at the box.  Take your slip of paper from the box and, using a fire-proof container or cauldron, again say thank you, solidifying that your ally helped you and that you are thankful, and light the paper.  Toss it into the container, allow it to burn down to ash, and then toss to the winds knowing that your problem is solved, resolved and gone from you.

Maintenance of the box – This box will become a living magickal tool for you if you use it regularly.  You will want to recleanse and recharge the crystal periodically and you’ll also want to replace the herbs from time to time as well.  When you do this, allow this to also be a time to change these items as well.  If you want to try a different stone, do it then or use different herbs in your sachet.  Listen to your intuition or even ask your God/Goddess/spirit ally what they would like.

This is a wonderful and simple tool to work with and one that you can really personalize to express your love of your specific patron deities or your closest of magickal allies.  Make it more than just a place to put your problems, but an expression of your dedication to your path and the change that you desire to see in your life when you work with it.

Here are a few pictures of my own box from when it was originally crafted several years ago.