A Spell a day ~ New Job - Successful Business Spell

Apple & Cider Spell

As It is that time of year, harvesting your produce and putting it to good use can be a pretty daunting task. Why not use your apple harvest to create something special. 

Before I go to the spell, here are a few ideas for your apple harvest. 

Apple juice, by simply juicing with a juicer.

Apple cider, there are two versions of this, alcoholic or non alcoholic.

For the non alcoholic version, collect upto 4 - 5 times more the amount of apple cider you would like to make.Wash, remove bruises and core the apples. Once this is done place them into a blender and blend until it gets to about the consistency of apple sauce. 

The next step is to place the pureed apples into a muslin cloth and strain out the liquid. You can now refrigerate your liquid. Or freeze to keep for a longer period of time. 

Alcoholic Apple Cider. Here you will also need cider yeast or wine yeast.  You will need to make starter yeast the day before you add it to your apple cider. To do this add half a cup of fresh apple cider to one pack of cider yeast, seal the jar and give it a good shake to mix thoroughly. now leave this overnight in your refrigerator. The next day check your jar for bubbling, this shows the starter is now ready, release the pressure in the jar slowly so you don't get a volcanic eruption!!  This really didn't happen to me honest! lol :) 

Now place your fresh cider into a pan and with and over medium heat keep at a slow simmer . Simmer for at least 45 mins. The reason for this is to kill off and bad bacteria, and wild yeasts that could alter the flavour of your cider. Add honey or sugar to taste

Now get your fermentation bucket make sure its clean and sterilised, pour your Apple Cider into the container, allow to cool to room temperature and then add your prepared starter. Give it a good stir with a sterilised spoon and seal the container and set the airlock. 

Place your container in a dark place for a couple of days. Check to see if the airlock is forming bubbles, this means the carbon dioxide is being released, this should continue to bubble for the next two weeks. When the bubbling stops your cider is ready, bottle into sterilised bottles and store. As with wine it improves with age, the longer you leave it the better it tastes.

Apple cider vinegar. This is another favourite of mine, and so simple to do! All you need is your apple offcuts, or if you have fresh apples you can use those. Place your offcuts into a bucket, now cover with water till it gets to the point where you can submerge them. (there is no wrong or right amount of how many apples or water to use here) then add one cup of sugar to the mix place a plate over the top to keep the apples submerged under the water cover and forget about it for the next two weeks. 

Once the two weeks are lapsed strain the liquid from the apples, you can now smell the apple vinegar in the liquid. Sterilise some glass jars and pour your now vinegar liquid into them. Cut a piece of muslin cloth to cover the mouth of the jar and screw the lid on top. This allows the vinegar to continue to breathe. 

Now if you want to get quite crafty and make some gifts for Yuletide gifts, you can add herbs and spices to your vinegar to infuse the flavours, my favourite is rosemary and mint. Remember to label and date your jars! Enjoy

There are many more things that you can do with apples, they are so versatile. Get experimenting with different recipes, and don't forget to come back and let me know!

Now for the Apple and Cider Spell for a new job - successful business:

Ingredients: 
5 Orange candles
An apple twig
A small knife
An apple 
A bowl
A symbol of your work
Cider

On a Friday night, place the lit candles in a large circle. Use orange candles as orange is the colour of optimism and determination. Put all the other ingredients in the centre of the circle. 

Take the apple twig and draw an inner circle on the floor, working in a clockwise direction. You must remain within this magic circle to perform your spell. With the knife, cut the apple into 22 pieces, the number 22 incorporates all the other numbers. 

Drop each piece of apple into a bowl, wishing for luck in your venture as you do so. Place the symbol you have chosen to represent your work on top and sprinkle with a little cider. Stir the pot in a clockwise direction. 

As you put in the effort, so your life will bear fruit. Close your eyes and wish for success before drinking a toast of cider

Blessed Be

~Opal Storm )O(

Please note, for any spell castings please contact me direct at opalstorm@witchywoowoo.com. I work on donation, so please respect my time as I use my energies and ingredients for each spell cast. Thank you 

How to make your own Mabon Soap

Mabon Soap Creations

I really do love this time of year. With the changing of the seasons, the autumnal colours, the smell in the air from the earth when it rains, what is there not to love!

Change in seasons always inspires me to get creative, with my beliefs and to what I have to hand with natures gifts. So here we have another creation of mine to follow suit... MABON SOAP.

This is a hot process soap, and you would need to take appropriate caution as with anything that handles lye. 

The utensils you will be needing are:

A crockpot/slowcooker

Stick blender

Spatula

Metal spoons

Glass bowls

Scales

gloves

protective goggles

newspaper

2 candy thermometers (this is only needed if you don't let everything cool to room temp to mix) 

silicone moulds or wooden soap box moulds, whichever you prefer. 

Ingredients:

3oz Apricot Kernal oil

2oz Castor Oil

7oz Coconut oil

15 Olive oil

3 Sunflower oil

Total weight of oils 30oz

13oz Hibiscus flower tea infusion (I always make slightly more than is required, as when you strain the flowers out of the liquid there always is less than what you started with) 

4oz of Lye

1 tbsp of myrrh and sandalwood essential oils

To start: 

Cover your table with newspaper to protect it from any spillages that may occur

Put your gloves and goggles on. And start measuring out all your ingredients.

I now open up a few windows for this next step, as the lye solution creates fumes that can irritate your eyes nose and throat. Once this is done measure out 10oz of the hibiscus tea infusion and compost or discard the rest. Then take your lye and pour it SLOWLY into the tea whilst stirring. If you don't do this step carefully you may have a volcanic eruption lol. 

Once the lye is fully dissolved, put it to one side near a well ventialted area away from pets and children and allow to cool between 95 - 105 degrees F

While this is cooling measure out all your oils into your crock pot and set to low to melt them. Once these have melted, switch your crock pot off and allow to cool to 95 - 100 degrees F 

When both your Lye liquid and oils are between 95 - 100 degrees F you can mix the two.

Again here you need to proceed with caution, pour CAREFULLY & SLOWLY your lye liquid into your oils which should still be in the crock pot, and stir with your metal spoon to mix. Do this for a couple of mins. 

Now take your stick blender and immerse fully into the oil and lye mixture and mix again, this should take another few mins for the mixture to thicken to 'trace'. Trace basically means your oils and lye water have been thoroughly mixed. It should look like pudding texture. 

Next switch your crock pot back on to the 'low' setting and cook the mixture for a further 60 mins. Keep coming back to check and stir on regular intervals. At this point it should start to look like thick honey and look 'gel' like.. this is perfectly normal. 

Once 'cooked' switch off your crock-pot and add your essential oils, and mix thoroughly. for Mabon purposes I use myrrh and sandalwood, you can use other essential oils that are associated with Mabon, I just like these :) 

Once your essential oils of choice have been thoroughly incorporated into your mixture you can pour it out into your molds of choice. At this point you can add your dried flowers for decorative purposes. I use hibiscus and rose petals. Cover with cling film (this is to prevent any soda ash forming on your soap), and then wrap up with as many old towels needed to keep the heat in for the saponification process to occur. Put to one side and leave to set for 24 hours. 

After the 24hrs has lapsed check your soap, if its not too soft you can un-mold it now if not leave for another day. 

Unmold your soap and cut to desired thickness..

You can now use your soap, or wrap to give as gifts!!

Now If you don't have time or the inclination to make it yourself please visit my shop and purchase yours here

Happy Mabon Witches!!!!

~Opal Storm )O( 

Mabon

Mabon

How are you going to be celebrating this years Mabon? I have been busy leading up to this point, either drying, pickling, cooking and freezing all my herbs medicinal, culinary, and magickal not to mention my vegetables... put it this way we will be eating plum jam till next mabon 2015! 

The changing of the season is upon us, and the Autumn Equinox is here. As we come to mid flow of our harvesting, the fruits of our labors have been picked, and plucked, harvested and stored for the the coming months of winter. As the saying goes 'You reap what you sow'... literally. 

Mabon is the mid-harvest festival where time is taken to honor the changing of the seasons. Celebrations, take place to give thanks for the harvest, and for the gifts the earth has provided to us. It is the Witches Thanksgiving, as the earth is being put to rest when the colder weather starts to set in. This point of the year is also a time to reflect on the past events, finishing up any projects, to plan ahead for the future and for change. 

It is the day of the year where day equals night, where nature gives an equal balance. From an astronomical view point the date may vary slightly from year to year. This year the actual date and time of the Autumnal Equinox is at 20.44 on the 22nd of Sept 2014.  

I do love this time of year, with the changing of the colours, its just so beautiful. The smell of the earth in the air when it rains is now very sweet, as a telling sign that the ground has given all its vitality to our fruits and is ready to go into hibernation, until next year. 

Mabon is a great time for casting spells for balance, harmony and protection. 

Here a few herbs that you could use, for rituals, washes, spellcasting etc:

Mabon Magickal Herbs

Rue, yarrow, rosemary, marigold, sage, walnut 
leaves and husks, mistletoe, hibiscus, saffron, chamomile,
almond leaves, passionflower, frankincense, 
rose hips, bittersweet, sunflower, wheat, oak 
leaves, dried apple or apple seeds.

Incense

Pine, sage, sweetgrass or myrhh. You can also mix 
marigold, passionflower, and fern, using 
frankincense or myrhh as a resin for Mabon incense




Mabon Magickal Stones

During Mabon, stones ruled by the Sun will help 
bring the Sun's energy to you.clear quartz, 
amber, peridot, diamond, gold, citrine, yellow 
topaz, cat's-eye, adventurine.






You can even make your own mabon oil, here is a simple recipe:





4 drops Rosemary
4 drops Frankincense
2 drops Apple
1 drop Chamomile
Use Almond oil as a base






If you don't have the ingredients to hand let me do the work for you just order yours here today and have it ready for your altar in the next few days.






My family recipe is different to the above and has been magickaly charged for your convenience :) 

Another way to incorporate Mabon is with a ritual bath, I have designed a Hot process soap for this purpose. Please order yours today by visiting my shop here, and request a custom order with the word 'Mabon Soap' in the title