Thursday, May 23, 2013

Charmed, I'm sure.

Blessings Darlings!

A recent question, not asked to me exactly, but posted online: "This is going to sound silly, but I love to have all my pieces with me, particularly the ones that function as jewelry, so my question is how do you pick which to wear? My stones help me regulate my emotions and I can't forsee [sic] what I'll need thoughtout [sic] the day. Any tips?"

Amulets probably go back almost as far as jewelry does.  Maybe farther, but my observations of children's brain development tells me that 'pretty' comes before 'symbolic' in their use of items, so that may be true of general human development as well.  And most humans being hoarders, the idea of 'the more the merrier' probably goes way back, too.  So humans have had to find ways to handle carrying around lots of amulets at once.

So humans made special necklaces and bracelets and sachets.

The idea of bracelets being used to hold special items is still common today.  They are called 'charm bracelets' - remember them?  Now the charms tend to be symbols of life events, like a charm representing each child born, or getting married.  But charging and then adding a wire-wrapped crystal or stone or tooth or whatever for a magical purpose is a natural way for a magic-user to move a charm bracelet back to, well, a bracelet of CHARMS. Of course, a this can be worn either as a wrist bracelet or an ankle bracelet and serve the same purpose. 

Creating your own necklace as a multi-purpose amulet is also a great option.  From delicate looking ones, using beads from a craft store (different sizes/colors of beads charge for different purposes) to the more old-school rustic ones, using, say, animal teeth with holes drilled into them for protection, along with (again) wire-wrapped stones and crystals (hard to drill holes in them yourself!) or plant seeds you've carefully made holes in and lacquered, or whatever materials, each type charged for its purpose.  Strung on nylon, leather, cotton, or your own hair. 

Even using charm bracelets and necklaces, you will still have times when you may want to use a sachet.  Sachets (which Byron Ballard, writer of "Staubs and Ditchwater" on Appalachian Rootworking assures me is to be pronounced 'sa-chet' here in the Appalachians, not "Sa-shay") are little cloth bags that you fill with 'stuff'.  The 'Stuff' can be herbs, roots, bits of stones/clay/crystals, whatever.  Sachets tend to be one-purpose items, the way I use them, and somewhat time-limited.  After the one, two, or four-week period I keep it with me, I will usually bury the entire bag, to return it to the earth. 

Do y'all need me to go into how to magically charge things?  My online group reading is making me think that a lot of folks haven't been taught that yet.  Please - let me know.

Frondly, Fern


5 comments:

  1. I know how to :) Been doing amulets for going on 20 years. Making an amuulet or charm out of an existing piece of jewlery is a really good idea, and something I recommend. It also makes it less obvious, if you feel like you don't want to show that you have one.

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  2. yeah, I have a tip. learn to control your emotions without depending on something else.

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    1. I totally agree on the emotions part, Pure One. And I'd expand that to grounding without props, etc. But that doesn't negate the use of visual cues such as a those on a charm bracelet, nor the comfort provided by visual reminders of protection.

      Which, come to think of it, probably explains the magical (instead of the dowery-related) popularity of wedding rings.

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    2. oh I am not negating their use. just a dependency on them, to control things one can learn to control on their own. Just seems to me the querent exhibits a tendency to dependency (hey, that rhymes!)
      the point I am getting at I guess instead of using something said to exert control over ones emotions( external) why not a mnemonic/cue that prompts one to exert control over one's own emotions. In other words not 'this stone will keep my emotions in check"(thus I need do nothing but carry it) but rather "this stone will remind me to keep my emotions in check(thus I need to do something myself)

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